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that she doesn’t know what you are about to do. “
    Juno squatted down in front of the hologram, feeling a faint revival of hope within her.
    “Artoo-Detoo here will do what he can for your droid, ” the
    Princess went on. “You’ll need help convincing the Mon Calamari and the Quarren to join our cause, even with Ackbar on your side. I’ve arranged for one agent of the Organa household to meet you and PROXY at Dac’s Moon and coordinate the rendezvous, but that’s all the help I can spare you, I’m afraid. From here on, it’s up to you. ” She smiled. “I’d wish you good luck, Juno, but I’m hoping you won’t need it. “
    With that, the recording fizzled out, looped back to the beginning, and starred to play itself again.
    “That’s enough, ” Juno told the R2 unit.
    She settled back onto her haunches to think.
    Leia wanted her to bring the Mon Calamari to the Alliance table without Mon Mothma learning of it. Did Garm Bel Iblis know? Probably not, since he was elsewhere in the galaxy and even private transmissions could be overheard. But Commodore Viedas had to be part of the scheme. It was he who decided how officers in his attack group were disciplined-in Juno’s case by relieving her of her command-and he who had delivered the droid to her. He was definitely a conspirator in the plan to give Juno not just the means to complete this mission, but the opportunity.
    Yet without the Salvation behind her, she wondered, what could she possibly achieve in the fight against the Empire?
    She snorted at her own cowardice. What couldn’t she achieve, without that great lumbering mass of responsibility hanging over her head? Kota had been a master of this kind of work, employing small teams of handpicked militia in fast strikes to achieve well-defined outcomes. If he could do it, so could she.
    “Hello, Juno, ” said a familiar voice from the table. “I can’t tell you how relieved I am to see you again. “
    She braced herself to look at PROXY, but the sight still came as a shock.
    Sitting on the table was a perfect replica of him. Of Starkiller. Of the man she had loved, who was now stone-dead-but recreated down to the last detail by the droid that had served him.
    “Artoo-Detoo, was it?”
    The droid beeped happily.
    “See what you can do to fix his faulty holographic circuits, ” she ordered. “His primary programming is gone, too, but I can live with that if you can fix the other. It’s been getting worse, ever since we found him on Corellia. “
    “Thank you, ” said the perfect image of Starkiller as the R2 unit moved in. He was wearing the same Jedi uniform the real one had worn during the attack on the Death Star. “I am aware that I cause you distress. It would please me to serve you again, as my master wished. “
    “Stop, ” she said, raising a hand and turning away. “Just stop. “
    “Yes, Captain Eclipse. “
    She held her breath until the little droid went to work, and the crackling of an electric arc banished all possibility of conversation.

CHAPTER 3
    Present day…
    Cato Neimoidia’s orbital lanes buzzed with nervous activity. A strong Imperial presence vied with a steady flow of freighters to and fro, many of them escorted by TIE fighter or mercenary squadrons. Even from orbit, Starkiller could see evidence of recent military activity, particularly a deep black scorch mark near one of the planet’s famous hanging cities. Some kind of heavy munitions had been in play, although probably not nuclear. There was no sign of evacuation of the nearby populace.
    Starkiller had never had cause to come to this world before, not during his brief period of recruitment for the nascent rebellion, nor during his first apprenticeship to Darth Vader, when his role had been as much assassin as apprentice. Indeed, surviving and defeating those who challenged his former Master had been as important a part of his former self’s training as anything on the Executor. Those challengers had been