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to look
very
scary.”
    “Oh … sorry.” Jaina’s cheeks warmed with embarrassment. “I didn’t mean anything like
that
. Really. I was just trying to—”
    “It’s okay.” Lando’s voice was still a little shaky. “And if you
did
mean something—”
    “I
didn’t
,” Jaina interrupted.
    “I know,” Lando said, raising a hand to stop her. “But if things start to go bad out there, just get back to Coruscant and report. I can take care of myself. Understand?”
    “Sure, Lando, I understand.” Jaina started toward the hatchway, silently adding,
But no way am I leaving you behind
.
    “Good. Try to stick close. We won’t be hanging around long.” A low whir sounded from Lando’s chair as he turned it to face RN8. “Ornate, prepare an emergency jump to our last coordinates.”
    “I’m afraid that’s impossible, Captain Calrissian,” the droid replied. “You gave standing orders to empty the navicomputer’s memory after each jump.”
    “What?”
Lando’s anger was edging toward panic now. “How many other orders—no, forget it. Just countermand my previous commands.”
    “
All
of them?”
    “Yes!” Lando snapped. “No, wait …”
    Jaina reached the hatchway and, not waiting to hear the rest of Lando’s order, raced down the rivet-studded corridor beyond. She still had no idea what the Sith were planning, but she
was
going to stop them—and not only because the Jedi Council needed to know everything she and Lando could tell them about the Lost Tribe of Sith. Over the years, Lando had been as loyal a friend to the Jedi Order as he had to her parents, time after time risking his life, fortune, and freedom to help them resolve whatever crisis happened to be threatening the peace of the galaxy at the moment. He always claimed he was just repaying a favor, or protecting an investment, or maintaining a good business environment, but Jaina new better. He was looking out for his friends, doing everything he could to help them survive—no matter what mess they had gotten themselves into.
    Jaina reached the forward hangar bay. As the hatch opened in front of her, she was surprised to find a bank of floodlights already illuminating her battered StealthX. At first, she assumed Lando had ordered the hangar droid to ready the
Rockhound
’s fighter complement for launch.
    Then she saw what was missing from her starfighter.
    There were no weapon barrels extending from the wingtips. In fact—on the side facing her, at least—the cannons themselves were gone. She was so shocked that she found herself waiting for the rest of the hangar lights to activate, having forgotten for the moment that the
Rockhound
did not have automatic illumination. The whir of a pneumatic wrench sounded from the far side of the StealthX, and beneath the starfighter’s belly, she noticed a cluster of telescoping droid legs straddling the actuator housing of a Taim & Bak KX12 laser cannon.
    “What the …”
    Jaina snapped the lightsaber off her belt, then crossed twenty meters of tarnished deck in three quick Force-bounds and sprang onto the fuselage of her StealthX. She could hardly believe what she saw. At the far end of the wing stood a spider-shaped BY2B maintenance droid, her thick cargo pedipalps clamped around the starfighter’s last laser-cannon while her delicate tool arms released the mounting clips.
    “ByTwoBee!” Jaina yelled. “What
are
you doing?”
    The pneumatic wrench whined to a stop, and three of the droid’s photoreceptors swiveled toward Jaina’s face.
    “I’m sorry, Jedi Solo. I thought you would know.” Like all droids aboard the
Rockhound
, BY2B’s voice was female and sultry. “I’m removing this laser cannon.”
    “I can see that,” Jaina replied. “Why?”
    “So I can take it to the maintenance shop,” BY2B replied. “Captain Calrissian requested it. Since your starfighter is unflyable anyway, he thought it would be a good time to rebuild the weapon systems.”
    Jaina’s heart