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suppose they sent us someplace easy to find?”
    Lando scowled. “Oh …” He glanced up at a display, tapped some keys—no doubt trying to call up a tactical report—then slammed his fist against the edge of the brass console. “Are they jamming us?”
    “That’s difficult to know with the ship’s sensor systems offline for degaussing,” RN8 replied.
    “Offline?”
Lando shrieked. “Who authorized
that
?”
    “
You
did, ninety-seven seconds ago,” RN8 replied. “Would you like me to play it back?”
    “No! Countermand it and bring all systems back up.” Lando turned to Jaina and asked, “Any feel for how long we have until the shooting starts?”
    Jaina closed her eyes and opened herself to the Force. A shiver of danger sense raced down her spine, and then she felt a mass of belligerent presences approaching from the direction of the Maw. She turned to RN8.
    “How long until the sensor systems reboot?”
    “Approximately three minutes and fifty-seven seconds,” the droid reported. “I’m afraid Captain Calrissian also ordered a complete data consolidation.”
    Jaina winced and turned back to Lando. “In that case, I’d say we have less than three minutes and fifty-two seconds. There’s someone hostile coming up behind us.” She started toward the hatchway at the back of the cavernous bridge, her boots ringing on the old durasteel deck. “Why don’t you see if you can put a stop to those false orders?”
    “Sure, I’ll just tell my crew to stop listening to me.” Lando’s voice was sarcastic. “Being droids, they’ll know what I mean.”
    “You might try activating their standard verification routines,” Jaina suggested.
    “I
might
, if droid crews this old
had
standard verification routines.” Lando turned and scowled at Jaina as she continued across the deck. “And you’re going
where
?”
    “You know where,” Jaina said.
    “To your StealthX?” Lando replied. “The one with only three engines? The one that lost its targeting array?”
    “Yeah, that one,” Jaina confirmed. “We need a set of eyes out there—and someone to fly cover.”
    “No way,” Lando said. “If I let you go out to fight Sith in that thing, your dad will be feeding pieces of me to Amelia’s nexu for the next ten years.”
    Jaina stopped and turned toward him, propping one hand on her hip. “Lando, did you just say ‘
let
?’ Did you really say ‘no
way’
to me?”
    Lando rolled his eyes, unintimidated. “You know I didn’t mean it like that. But have you gone spacesick? With only three engines, that starfighter is going to be about as maneuverable as an escape pod!”
    “Maybe, but it still beats sitting around like a blind bantha in this thing. Thanks for worrying, though.” She shot Lando a sour smile. “It’s so sweet when you old guys do that.”
    “Old?” Lando cried. After a moment, he seemed to recognize the mocking tone in Jaina’s voice, and his chin dropped. “I deserved that, didn’t I?”
    “You
think
?” Jaina laughed to show there were no hard feelings, then added, “And you know what Tendra would do to
me
if I came back without Chance’s father. So let’s
both
be careful.”
    “Okay, deal.” Lando waved her toward the hatchway. “Go. Blow things up. Have fun.”
    “Thanks.” Jaina’s tone grew more serious, and sheadded, “And I mean for
everything
, Lando. You didn’t have to be here, and I’m grateful for the risks you’re taking to help us. It means a lot to me—and to the whole Order.”
    Lando’s Force-aura grew cold, and he looked away in sudden discomfort. “Jaina, is there something you’re not telling me?”
    “About this situation?” Jaina asked, frowning at his strange reaction. “I don’t think so. Why?”
    Lando exhaled in relief. “Jaina, my dear, perhaps no one has mentioned this to you before …” His voice grew more solemn. “But when a Jedi starts talking about how much you mean to her, the future begins to