The nondescript building sat at the far edge of the ranch, and from the outside just looked like a storage area. But that was just fine with the ones who’d built it. They preferred it to be written off, just another outbuilding on a ranch that had many different structures on it. It wasn’t large, but the outside dimensions were deceptive, as the inside of the building went underground as well. They’d decided to build it here primarily because it was almost exactly equidistant from each of the couple’s houses. It also bears noting that the inside contained a nursery and playroom, at odds with its main function. This was the home of Advantages, a military consultant agency that was comprised of the Chantalle sisters and their spouses.

The building was unique in design and incorporated many handy features in its structure. The outside walls were a bland, boring beige that blended into the landscape, but were constructed to be noise dampening and impenetrable by both ground radar and all but the most sophisticated listening devices. The communications inside had been specially designed for their company, and were more advanced than the Republic military used, and most like the Empire’s troops as well.

The main function of Advantages was to take an impossible objective, devise a way into or on it, and then detail the weaponry and tactics that would be necessary. They absolutely did not carry out any of these plans, but in the six months this fledgling company had been in existence, they’d successfully crafted some of the biggest military operations that the Republic army had ever undertaken, all with five very creative and dedicated individuals.

A multi-person speeder approached the building, activated its multipurpose door in the end, and parked inside the structure. Miriah Riggs-Chantalle stepped gracefully down to the floor and reached back to unfasten the harness on the child seat carrying her son, Devin. Her arms screamed with the effort of pulling him to her, sore from the previous day’s exercise and testing of some rappelling equipment that had come in. She swung the baby around, laughing as he smiled at her, and put him on her hip, carrying him into her office. She sat him on the floor and watched as he picked up a toy hammer and began to gum it, his first tooth imminent. She hung up her bag, and went to her computer terminal. Good, she thought, no new intel to sort through. She’d been thinking that she’d take Devin to see the new calves on the ranch if she wasn’t needed here. Corso would be happy to see them, she knew.

She spotted her brother in law, Aric, across the hall and picked up the baby to go see him. “Good morning, Spitfire,” he teased her, reaching out his arms for his nephew. “Maura should be here this afternoon, but really, after that last successful op, we need to lay low for a bit. We made enough to run this place for a few years with that one, and we don’t want our anonymity broken.” Miriah agreed. It was calving season on the ranch and Corso had been in the barns day and night the past two weeks. He needed a break from both of the jobs he held.

“So, since we’re kinda coasting here, how bout we cook up some ronto on the grill tonight?” she asked him. They always had fun together, and now that Devin could actually play with the twins somewhat, they all enjoyed these cookouts.

“That sounds like an excellent idea, darlin’, “ Corso said, striding in from the other entrance. He grabbed his wife and kissed her, his son already reaching for him. “Hey, Dev, got that tooth yet?” Devin just grinned, and proceeded to put his hands in his mouth, to the laughter of the adults.

Of the five adults involved with Advantages day-to-day, Aric was undoubtedly the leader of the group. His specialty was as a sniper and military strategist and he loved the challenge of multiple areas of opportunity. His wife and Miriah’s sister, Maura, had resigned as the leader of a special ops squadron, and primarily functioned as the group’s urban strategist and counterpoint to Aric’s military strategy. Her reputation as Havoc’s leader had paved the way for their first jobs, but the success they’d generated had quickly built a reputation for the group. Miriah was the tactician, always thinking up new ways to get stuff done. Corso was the undisputed weapons expert and Tanno Vik, from Maura and Aric’s old crew, the demolitions expert. Corso and Miriah also owned their ranch, where the office was located.

“The last of the calves arrived this morning, so we now have thirty two more ronto than we did last month,” Corso told them, his son sleepily snuggling his shoulder. Aric repeated his idea of laying low for a couple of weeks and Corso grinned. “You just want to sneak off with Maura,” he teased.

“Damn straight,” Aric laughed. They’d always enjoyed each other’s company, but now the whole family had grown closer. Aric clapped Corso on the back as he walked to the door, “see you guys late afternoon?” Miriah nodded, taking her sleeping son from his dad and walking toward her parked speeder.

“How did you get here, sweetie? Riding with us home?” she looked at her husband, who caught her mouth with his again, humming with pleasure.

“Riding with you guys, I left a speeder at barn 3 earlier.” They buckled Devin in and took off for their house, about three minutes away. There were definite pluses to working so close to home, Miriah thought. They’d taken advantage of slow afternoons to picnic or swim, or just be together in their porch swing. On the way to the house, Miriah called her oldest sister, who’d just had a baby daughter last week.

“Mags, how are things?” Miriah grinned at her, noting her very organized sister in a very disorganized state.

“Mir, how did you ever do this? Michi doesn’t sleep but about an hour, then she’s up again crying. I’m tired, that’s how things are.” Mags sat heavily.

“Bring her over, we’ll be at home, and I’ll take over for a bit.” She smiled at the relieved look on Mag’s face. “We’ll figure it out.” She signed off, and looked at Corso, “You need a nap too, love, it’s been a busy couple of weeks for you.” He nodded, and took her hand, kissing her fingers.

“Is that a proposition or are you telling me I look tired?” he grinned at her. She smiled back, he knew very well she was always willing to sleep with him. She was right though, he’d been napping in the barn more than his bed lately. He’d missed her every second, and they’d started to use their old relays to keep up with each other. It was only her voice that kept him going some days. At least they were done with major ranch work for a bit now, just checking the newborns would be easy after all the births.

He parked the speeder and lifted his son out of his child seat without waking him and took him inside before grabbing some beers and cookies to take out to the swing, where he knew Miriah would be. She indeed was already in the swing, their favorite spot outside the house.

“I feel like I’ve missed so much in the past couple of weeks,” he told her. “After Michelina was born, feels like I haven’t seen Mags and Felix.”

“Michi is a handful, evidently. I actually think Mags would have had an easier time if Michi was force sensitive instead of force blind. And Mags is so tired she’s not centering herself. I don’t think the feeding is going well, and I ordered some special bottles to try instead.” She settled back against him, her body fitting perfectly. She was still thinner than before she’d had Devin, but she was fit. He was telling her about one of the calves who’d followed him around the barn when they saw Mags and Felix coming up the long path from the main road.

Miriah walked off the porch to greet them and take the fussy baby. She saw immediately one problem, her niece was wrapped up, but too loosely. She took the baby girl, laid her in her lap and tightly wrapped her, burrito fashion. When she lifted the infant to her shoulder, she heard a loud burp, and the baby girl went almost immediately to sleep.

Mags just stood there, her mouth open. “Oh crap, why didn’t I think of that?”

“Because you’re too tired. To the guest room, woman, and do not return until you’ve napped.” Mags turned to Felix, expecting him to back her up, but he knew Miriah was right. He shrugged at his wife, and she went inside, more tired than she’d wanted them to know.

Felix sat across from them, grabbing a cookie from the pile. “Thanks Mir, they’ve both been miserable the last few hours. We’re all worn out.” He yawned and stretched, then grinned at them both. “So, when are you guys going again,” he asked, pointing at his daughter. Miriah just laughed. Corso blushed, but told his brother in law they were in the practice stages.

“Practice stages,” snorted Miriah, “he’d have to at least be home some to practice.” She nudged Corso with her elbow. Michi slept on, and so did Mags, and Felix was glad to have them rest. He and Corso went to see the new calves while Miriah fed Devin, who’d woken up. He was holding his own bottle now, and grinning around it at his mom, who was making silly faces when Maura and Aric and the twins arrived.

When Michi woke, and Mags was still sleeping, Miriah tried the new bottles she’d ordered. They worked very well, and for the first time since she’d been born a week ago, Michi was full. Felix hugged Miriah hard, his eyes almost damp. Evidently, this had been a struggle for the infant, and the poor thing was just hungry. They agreed not to tell Mags that her daughter had been hungry for a week, and instead just tell her that these bottles worked great.

They enjoyed dinner together and were sitting afterward when Aric told them he’d planned to lay low for a couple of weeks, but he’d gotten a recorded, secure message just before they’d come to the ranch about a job. He had read the message and it seemed like a desk job, but he put it to a vote to see if they’d accept. They did, and of course they accepted the job. Maura and Miriah would look it over together in the morning and start the planning part.

The next morning, when Miriah arrived and saw that Maura hadn’t yet, she grabbed a cold drink from the break area and went to her desk, where she saw the data chip Aric had left there. Absently she grabbed the chip and slid it into her terminal. She expected to see a request, or at least a note, with a specific objective or goal, but all she saw was static. She frowned at the screen, then moved over to Maura’s terminal, thinking hers might need a swift kick later. Same thing. So why would Aric leave her a blank data chip?

Maura crashed through the outer door, her hands full with the twins, all damp from the rain that had started. Colin and Calleigh had just slid down their mom’s legs when Maura noted that Miriah was looking at her with a puzzled face, just before she broke into a smile for her niece and nephew.

“Hey guys,” Miriah told them as Calleigh ran to her aunt for a hug. Colin headed straight for the playroom, his building blocks holding more interest than the women for him. Calleigh lifted her arms, and Miriah absently picked her up, “Hey, Maura, did Aric tell you anything about this next mission? The data chip he left for me was blank.”

“No, he didn’t really talk much last night, “ Maura grinned. “He did say he had only seen the recording once, was there a note?”

“Nothing,” Miriah replied. “Oh well, I guess we’ll ask him what’s up when he shows up. When will that be, or is he catching up on sleep?” She regarded her sister with raised eyebrows. Maura blushed and moved to the break area.

“He’ll be here in a few minutes, wanting caffa. We were only running late because of the rain.” Maura busied herself making the caffa, smiling as she thought about last night and how hard it was to get up after sleeping only a few hours. “Besides, you’re one to talk, since Corso was actually home and not stuck in a barn last night.”

“He’s with Devin this morning, said they’d come down after Dev’s morning nap. I imagine they’re both asleep on the couch right now,” Miriah told her. “It was good to have him home last night though. I hate calving season.”

She went back down the hall to her computer, rebooting twice, getting nothing but static. Suddenly she jumped up and grabbed the chip off Maura’s desk and ran down the hall with it to the boxes they put explosives in to test detonate. She tossed the data chip in one of the boxes, shut it tight and backed away from it, eyes wide. “Oh, Maura, this is bad. Very bad. I think that innocent little data chip was some sort of logging program.”

Maura looked at her sister with a little fear in her eyes. “I’ll see where Aric is, did you leave it in any of the machines for long?” She started toward the door, only to see her husband come through it. “Aric, something’s up here.”

The Cathar glanced at both of them, noting their expressions, and crossed to Maura, grabbing her hand. “Okay, what’s going on?”

“That chip? The one you left on my desk? I put it in my terminal and now all the data on my end has been erased, or transferred. I thought we’d put in safeguards for this!” Miriah was worried now, she worked on most of their projects and had bits and pieces of them all in her computer’s memory. “I’ll call Corso, maybe he can trace what happened. I do have backup for it all, but I’m worried that now maybe someone else does too.” She moved to the holo while Aric thought about what had happened, absently rubbing Maura’s hand with his thumb.

“Where is the chip now?” he asked his wife, and she pointed to the detonation box. Aric hooted with laughter. “What, did you think it might self destruct or something? That it might bite?” He was still chuckling when Miriah came back to tell them Corso was on his way. While his main function was weapons, he was quite good with microelectronics and computers too.

Corso walked into the building about five mintues after her call ,and Miriah breathed a sigh of relief. He’d left their son with Akaavi, so he was very safe. He took the detonation box to his workbench, and after carefully extracting the data chip and placing it under magnification, he whistled long and low. “Mir, you were exactly right. This is a recording chip.” He straightened up, removing the special goggles he was wearing to look at the inner workings of the tiny device. “But it looks like everything it recorded is still here, and I see no transmitter to it, just recording. See this here?” He indicated a small indented area near the end of the device. “That’s a camera, it hadn’t been activated so there’s nothing in the flash memory, but it’s there.” He looked up at the others, “If what was on this chip had been transmitted, all of our secrets would be out there.” He gestured to the sky.

Aric blew out a breath. “So where did something like this come from? I mean, I got it special delivery about the time we got the encrypted message, but where would someone else get it?”

Corso grinned, “Now that, I can tell you. Here’s the name of the manufacturer. They only sell on Nar Shaddaa, and something like this would probably have come from the Evocii shop on the lower Promenade.” He looked at Miriah, “Want to go shopping, kitten? ‘Dancer is ready anytime.”

“Why don’t Maura and I go shopping, and you see if you can get my terminal put back into working order.” She didn’t have to turn to know Corso was nixing that idea. He’d be worried sick about them off on the smuggler’s moon alone. She turned to him, kissing his nose. “I know, I know. Just seeing if you were paying attention.”

“I always pay attention to you, love, probably more than even you are aware of,” he grinned. He turned to Aric. “If I can get Miriah to let you take the Stardancer to Nar Shaddaa, we’ll keep the twins with us.” He turned back to his wife, “Sound okay to you? I’m afraid you’ll be too recognizable there, beautiful.”

Aric was nodding, it was a sound plan to see if they could track whomever had purchased this little gem. Corso put his goggles back on, locating the serial number and sending it to Aric’s datapad. Maura was still thinking about all of this, and sat in the chair across from the workbench.

“I want to know who sent the message in the first place. What can you tell us about that, Aric?” Maura knew he had only seen it once, and then the recording stuck and wouldn’t replay. That would have seemed unusual except in this business, where everything was a secret that couldn’t be shared.

“It was an ecrypted holo, with the video blocked. The caller only said that there would be a data chip delivered with sensitive info about someone highly placed in the next senate elections process that needed vetting. I thought it would be a data chase only, one that would be done in a day or so, we’ve done them a couple of times.” Miriah nodded, she’d personally done two but knew that Maura had done others. “I never thought twice about it, really”

Corso had been working with Miriah’s computer and had just rebooted it. When it came up restored, she grabbed his face and kissed him. “Thank you! I had some really cute holos of Devin on that machine!”

“I had to restore it to a point prior to this morning, but you should still be good. I’ve got a diagnostic program running on the building’s server to make sure we didn’t get some malicious program along with the data chip’s recording of our stuff. I’m going underground to look at the server farm, “ he told her. She nodded, already immersed in the data popping up on her screen.

Aric saw him going underground and joined him with an extra cup of caffa in his hand, which he handed to Corso as he neared. The both walked down the stairs, noting the automatic lighting coming on as they descended. Both were quiet, not really knowing how to respond to this threat, minimal as it seemed. Corso visibly inspected the wiring from the servers but saw nothing amiss. Same with the server farm, all was running as it should be. No issues with unwanted programs either. So what would someone do with a data chip, granted with sensitive info on it, but no way to retrieve it? Corso was puzzled but figured they’d know more when they figured out who’d sent it.

Aric caught up with Maura in the playroom, as she was talking to the kids about being gone for a couple of days. Calleigh was perfectly fine staying with her “An ‘Riah”, Colin knew she kept lots of cookies, so they were on board with the plan. Maura turned to Aric, “I’ll go grab some things from the house and meet you at the ranch house.”

He kissed her, and when she was walking away, he grabbed her arm and pulled her to him for another kiss.

“Time alone in space? Think of the possibilities,” he growled in her ear.

She grinned at him, “I have, baby, believe me.” He let her leave, patting her rear as she walked away. As she passed by Miriah’s office, she heard her sister call out to her.

“The replicator is fine, but nothing special. If you want real food, you’ll need to take some with you. The bar is stocked, and the linen’s clean. There’s no weapons on board at the moment, Corso took all the blasters to the house for cleaning.” Miriah smiled at her sister, “There’s champagne in the galley cooler, and real chocolate there too.”

“Now, knowing how you react to champagne, why would you keep it chilled on board the ship?” Maura knew her sister could out drink most, but champagne totally trashed her.

“Only to drink in private, where stripping and dancing won’t get me arrested,” she grinned wickedly at her sister, remembering the last time she’d done exactly that for Corso. They laughed together, and Maura left to get her things together. Miriah took the twins up to the ranch house, where they played with Devin for a couple of hours before all three were down for naps. Corso joined her there, having checked all the computer systems and declaring them free of any problems. He’d locked the data chip in the vault, and set the alarm on the security system Aric had insisted on. He was sitting in their swing when she joined him, waiting to hear the engines of her ship as they propelled the freighter up in the darkening sky. She trusted her former home to her brother in law and sister, but having had it stolen once, she always had a little jolt when she saw it take off without her.

Aric and Maura were thankful for the spaciousness of the freighter, but without a crew or even just Corso and Miriah along, it seemed huge. It was also quiet, which they didn’t get much of at home with the twins. They entered orbit of Dantooine and set the navcomp for Nar Shaddaa. They’d fly overnight, and land about midmorning. Once they were in hyperspace, they spent the flight in the captain’s quarters, alone in space, and loving it.

Miriah fed the kids, laughing at their antics when they discovered they were having pasta. Calleigh was a daintly eater normally, but she loved pasta and it was all over her. Colin ate like he’d never eat again, which Miriah was beginning to see was a boy thing, and licked his hands when he was done. Devin wasn’t up to pasta just yet, even though his first tooth was shining in his mouth, but he enjoyed the cereal his mom fed him just the same. Once all three were bathed and Devin was having his last bottle of the day, they sat on the couch and read a book. Dev was asleep before the last drop of his bottle was gone, and Colin was slumped over on the throw pillows. Calleigh was yawning. Miriah put all the kids to bed and returned to the kitchen to grab a bite to eat, just as Corso came in from the deck.

“What? You waited out there til it was all clear?” She smiled at him, knowing he’d gone back to check the last calves that were born and then rode over to make sure the office was secure. He grinned at her, pulling out a chair for her to sit, and proceeded to make dinner for them. He’d thawed the fish earlier, and marinated vegetables grown on the other end of the ranch. In minutes, the fish was grilled and they were sitting together.

“You are quite handy to have around, love. This is delicious,” she told him. He loved to cook and lived to make her happy, so he was pleased with himself. She finished her food and took her plate to the sink, and then walked to him, hugging him from behind as he finished his dinner. When he’d finished, they went outside to sit in their swing, laughing and talking, kissing each other until they figured the kids were sleeping well. Miriah led her husband to their room at that point, figuring that making up for the past two weeks would be a good start.

When the ship exited hyperspace the next morning, Aric was awake but Maura was recovering her senses still, stretched out in the comfy bed of the captain’s quarters. With a bed like this, she thought, I’d live aboard too. They landed shortly after Maura had gotten herself up and dressed, and they set off for the lower Promenade. They were approaching the shop when Aric abruptly turned around and led Maura in the opposite direction. They walked at a leisurely pace, but Maura knew he’d seen something. When they’d gotten to the other end of the Promenade, Ari c led her to an outdoor café, where they sat.

“Okay, hon, what or who did you see?” Maura was puzzled, she hadn’t seen anyone unusual.

“Balkar. Remember him? SIS. He was watching the shop from the upper Promenade.” He and Aric had clashed a little, but it was before they’d started a relationship and Jonas was a notorious flirt. “Let’s go see what he knows, he likes you.” Aric said it with a smirk, which earned him a shove.

They approached the agent casually, letting him acknowledge them first in case he was in cover. They talked with him briefly, but got no feeling that he was on a case there. They moved on after only a few minutes

.

“Well, if he’s investigating the shop too, at least he knows we’re here. Maybe in time we can put our notes together and see what he’s got.” When they reached the end of the Promenade though, they could see that the shop was closed, and looked deserted.

“So, now what?” Maura said, looking around the relatively empty side streets. This part of Nar Shaddaa was usually pretty crowded, so there must be something going on here. She’d just turned to Aric again when the shop they’d been looking at, that was supposedly closed and deserted, violently exploded, throwing them to the next street.

Aric picked his head up off the pavement and saw that Maura was just ahead of him, scrambling to her feet and reaching behind her for his hand. She pulled him up and they stumbled forward, just trying to get out of the crowd rushing toward them. Aric couldn’t hear anything, the blast had temporarily deafened him, and he just trusted Maura’s instincts to get them out of the immediate blast zone. He didn’t feel any injuries other than the impact with the ground, but he could see Maura with gashes in the back of her shirt and figured he had some as well. At least we were looking away when it happened, he thought.

Maura surged forward, cutting through the crowds trying to see what had happened. When they reached the hangar, she pressed a button on a remote she’d picked up before they left, and the preflight engines hummed to life. Thank the stars Miriah keeps this thing in pristine working order, she thought. She pulled Aric up the lowered ramp and into the ship, making her way to the bridge. In only a few minutes, they’d lifted off and were headed for orbit. It was only then that she turned to check Aric for wounds.

Aric had put himself in the right chair and watched his wife as she expertly maneuvered the freighter out of the atmosphere and into orbit. Not as fast as Miriah, but still got it done, he mused. He sat there as his wife looked at his back, lifting his shirt over his head and showing him the numerous places glass and debris had penetrated the fabric. She’d realized he couldn’t hear her as they’d run for the ship but that was beginning to resolve now. The worried look on her face, however, was not.

“We’re okay, and I really don’t think the blast was meant for us. The more I think about it, the more I wonder if SIS and Balkar planted it.” He was trying to modulate his voice and not shout. It must have been fairly normal, because she nodded, then turned to put kolto on some of the deeper cuts in his back. He leaned forward against the console, and felt the kolto go to work.

Maura was holding on to her emotions, not letting herself think too much about the fact they could have left the twins orphans. She worked on getting Aric’s wounds tended to, then turned to the navcomp to plot their return to Dantooine, noting that her husband was sitting there with his eyes closed. She turned to go change her own ruined shirt when he grabbed her wrist and pulled her to him, where he embraced her waist, his head on her chest.

“I’m glad you’re alright, honey,” he murmured, or at least he thought that’s about how he sounded. “Thank the stars you had the cool head to get us out of there, I was addled for a bit.” She stroked his head for a minute, and when she moved toward the captain’s quarters, he went with her, unwilling to let go of her arm.

She had only a couple of scratches from the blast, since Aric was between her and the store when it happened, but the smell of detonite was strong on both of them. When she reached the quarters, instead of just changing her shirt, she pulled Aric with her to the shower. She was grateful these big freighters still used water showers, and helped Aric undress to join her.

When they’d returned to the lounge area, Maura hit the holo frequency for Miriah’s house. The call was answered by Corso, with Colin on his back .

“Hey guys, how are you liking the ship?” Corso would be very careful not to say anything that might be intercepted over the house holo.

“Love it, it’s so much fun to fly,” Maura told him, Aric still having a little trouble hearing. “We are on our way back now though, just wanted to let you know. Nar Shaddaa isn’t quite the same as we remembered.” She tried to tell him things hadn’t gone as planned.

“I see,” he said, nodding slowly, aware that there had been a problem. “I’ll have to do a news search, see what’s going on there. We haven’t been in about a year now.” Meaning, he’d look to see if what Maura had alluded to was in the holonews yet. They disconnected the call, and Corso took Colin to the kitchen for cookies. Calleigh was sitting with Miriah and Devin, the baby boy’s bottle time just before afternoon naps for them all. Corso sat Colin down and gave Calleigh a cookie, getting a loving smile in return.

“Maura called, they’re on the way back so they should be here in the morning. The must have run into something though, she seemed a little shaken.”

Miriah looked at him, concern on her face. “We’ll turn the holo on when these guys are sleeping, see what’s happening in the world.” She bit her lower lip, thinking about what might have gone wrong. Devin finished his bottle and gave her a milky smile, which had her grinning at his silliness. She cuddled him for a few minutes, feeling him relax in sleep and put him in his room. Corso had taken the twins to the room they used when they were here, and she could hear him reading to them. It wasn’t long before he’d joined her and they turned on the holonet, searching for a news feed. When they found it, they watched for about an hour before there was a thirty second reference to an explosion on the lower Promenade on Nar Shadaa, which was attributed to a rival shop owner and Hutt. That was it, and they knew there would be no other details forthcoming. Since the ship holo could receive encrypted messages but not send them, they decided to wait until Maura and Aric were home before talking again.

They passed the rest of the day playing with the kids, the twins loved the ronto calves. After dinner, Miriah and Corso again searched for more details on the explosion, but found nothing they didn’t already know. The office had been quiet, no incoming comms, which would be worrisome if they’d had project going, but in their current state not unusual. They were woken up by the ship landing in their hangar, and they met Maura and Aric as they came up the hill toward the house.

“Hey guys, glad to see you’re not hurt,” Miriah said as she hugged Maura. “Ship behaved okay?”

“Oh, she was fine, it was just the explosion that put a damper on things,” Aric told her, his hearing restored. “Nothing left of that shop though, sorry Corso, had a feeling it might have been a favorite of yours.” Corso nodded, thinking of all the little gadgets he’d gotten there in the past few years.

“At least no one was there when it blew,” he said now.

“Except Jonas Balkar, who was watching it from the upper level,” Maura said grimly. She still wasn’t sure the SIS was involved, but there had to be a reason other than the caffa that Balkar had been there. He’d seemed normal enough for him, but she hadn’t worked with him for quite a while. Miriah had been thinking too, of who she might know who could shed some light on the data chip and explosion. She waited until they were at the house, then asked the group.

“What do you think about asking Cantarus?” she asked, knowing he’d been on the inside of many of CorSec and SIS missions in the past. Corso didn’t like him, but then he wasn’t fond of other guys showing interest in his wife, even platonically. Aric considered, then shook his head.

“I think he’s too far removed to have much intel on it, and if he accesses files not pertinent to his job he could be compromised,” Aric said. He’d already seen what measures would be taken to minimize knowledge of this mission, and didn’t want to be directly responsible for something happening to another Republic official. He sighed, a solution not immediately coming to mind.

“Let’s just let it sit for a few days, see what else shakes out,” Corso said, echoing Aric’s thoughts. “We haven’t had any other communication come in, holo or otherwise, so if we just lay low, like Aric’s original plan, we’ll either be contacted again or not.” Either way is fine with me, Corso thought. “I’ve added four layers of security to the computer and server systems, and set up automated alerts to keywords coming through. We can even monitor the alerts from either house.” He’d been busy while they’d been flying, Aric noted. He clapped his brother in law on the shoulder.

“Let’s go wake up the twins, if they’re not already raiding the cookie jar,” he smiled at Maura. When they got inside, the twins were just entering the kitchen, rubbing sleep from their eyes.

“Colin go potty, Mama,” the tiny girl told Maura. Calleigh had potty trained herself, and had appointed herself Colin’s monitor and she’d always been the spokesperson for the twins. Maura praised them both, so glad to see them. They all assembled for breakfast, Corso and Aric cooking, Maura dressing the twins, Miriah feeding Devin. The cacophony of sound was beautiful to Miriah’s ears, though. This is what a great kitchen does, she thought, brings people together. Devin was drinking and smiling at his mom, and she was kissing his toes, making him giggle.

“Heard from Mags yesterday, they’ve all settled down now that Michi likes the new bottles. Mags looked rested and happy.” Miriah told Maura.

“Good, they all needed it,” Maura replied. They’d both been concerned about Mags, but knew she’d call if she needed help. At least, they hoped she would.

The kids played, the adults chatted, and after everyone was fed, they parted, planning to meet the next morning at the office. Maura was still a little sore from the blast, and wanted to make sure Aric’s wounds were healing. When she pulled the back of his shirt up, Calleigh saw and Maura heard her sharp intake of breath behind her. When she turned, she saw the little girl’s face, her eyes wide and her mouth in a little “O”

.

“Daddy hurt? Oh no, Daddy!” She launched herself at Aric, sobbing. He held her, patting her back.

“I’m fine, sweet girl, look, just some scratches that Mommy is fixing right up. It’s okay, baby, I’m okay.” When he looked at Maura, she dropped her head to hide the tears in her eyes, knowing it might not have been okay. Damn it, she thought, this is why we left Havoc squad in the first place. She abruptly pulled Aric’s shirt down and left, taking the med supplies back to their cabinet. She was still there, angrily stacking and rearranging things, when Aric hugged her from behind, and she lost control of the tears that had been threatening since the explosion. He turned her to face him, and held her there when she tried to go around him.

“I know, we weren’t supposed to be doing things that put us in the line of fire with this company, but yesterday? We were just fact finding, happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. “ She weakly punched his chest, frustrated at the lack of control in the situation. He knew her well, knew how she was thinking, and it gave him an advantage. “Calleigh is sleeping, Colin is almost asleep. C’mon, let’s go sit. He pulled her over to the living area, and down with him on the couch. He cradled her almost the same way as he did Calleigh, and when they stretched out he was still holding her, stroking her hair, and he felt the change in her breathing when she slept.

Miriah had gone onto the freighter to see if she could locate any clothing that might have explosive residue on it. She found the shredded shirt that Aric had worn and caught her breath. Damn, she thought, that could have been really bad. She placed the shirt in a special bag and went down the ramp with it, intending to take it to Tanno Vik for analysis.

“Great minds, “ Corso smiled as she came into view. “I thought about that this morning when I smelled kolto residue on Aric.”

“You and that nose of yours,” she told him, laughing.

“I’d rather smell peaches than anything else, “ he told her, putting his arm around her shoulders and smelling her hair. “Ahhhh makes me want to take a bite of you.” She arched her eyebrow at him, and bumped him with her hip.

“Promises, promises, “she laughed as they made their way back to the house. They went inside, hearing Devin waking up from his nap. When Corso had the baby settled with a toy, sitting in the floor between them, he spoke his idea out loud for the first time.

“What if the data chip wasn’t a malicious attempt to gather data. What if it was a plea for help?” Miriah looked at him over Dev’s head, puzzled.

“What would make you think of that?”

“Well, no attempt to transmit the data, the camera wasn’t activated, and the only source we might get info from, since the manufacturer is on the outer rim, was destroyed. I just wonder if the intent was to get us to look further.” They were both quiet as they thought it over. Finally Miriah nodded.

“You may be right. I’ll start looking at potential users of that kind of chip tomorrow, sugar. Nice thinking,” she smiled at him, “you deserve a cookie.”

“That’s all? A cookie?” he gave her a feral smile. “I’d rather have the cook.”

Corso was the first one in the office the next morning, and even he wasn’t sure why. He’d woken up wrapped around Miriah, and since Devin wasn’t awake yet, he was going to get up quietly and let her sleep. She had different ideas when she felt him move away from her, though, and he could never walk away from his beautiful wife when she was sleepy eyed and wanting him. He entered the building whistling and very pleased with himself, smiling as he recalled her promise for later. He disabled the security, which he was glad to note had not been touched since he’d checked it late yesterday, and reset the alarm.

His idea, about the data chip being a plea for help rather than an attempt on the group’s files, still seemed like a valid avenue, so he started researching the data chip itself. What he found didn’t give him much more info, but he did discover that the chip was being used in some medical facilities to monitor and upload data on patients in long term stasis. Hmm, he thought, long term stasis. That doesn’t seem to fit with someone sending for help. He turned the issue over and over in his mind, but was no closer to figuring it out when Aric came in through the large door that led to the parking area.

“Morning, Aric,” Corso greeted him, and handed him some hot caffa when he got a grunt in return. “Long night?”

“Maura’s still wound up about the explosion. It didn’t help that Calleigh saw my cuts and went ballistic.” He sighed, “I still am not sure what that was all about.” Corso explained his theory, and what he’d found so far. “Huh, it’s not a bad angle. Maybe one of us will stumble on something more, but I’m ready to just let it go and see if anything else happens with it.” He checked the holo messages and looked for any new communication, but just like they’d wanted, all was quiet.

Corso told him he’d taken the shirt Aric had worn to Tanno, to try to see if there was any signature in the explosion. Many bombers used a signature, a special compound or combination of compounds, and if there was one detected in the aftermath on Aric’s shirt, Tanno would not only find it but likely know who built the device or devices involved. It would be at least one piece of the puzzle. Aric nodded at Corso, who’d turned his attention to the window on the door. Aric looked past him to see a large thunderstorm rolling toward them, not unusual for this time of year.

“Think I’m going back to the house,” Corso told him. “That looks like an all-day affair.” Aric agreed, telling Corso he’d call later or Maura would. They left at the same time, locking up the building just as the first lightning appeared.

Maura had just gotten the twins fed and turned to the door when Aric walked in, the rain already pouring down. She hugged him tight and whispered her apology for taking out her fear on him. He gently rubbed her back, knowing it had been hard for her to think of what might had happened to them both. He left her in the kitchen with a kiss and went to see what the kids were into.

Corso walked in to see Miriah in her silky robe, Devin playing on the floor. “Hey buddy, whatcha got there?” He knelt to speak to the grinning boy, who was sitting up well and beginning to learn to crawl. He rose and caught Miriah in a long kiss.

“Not in front of the b-a-b-y, “ she admonished him. He laughed, and kissed her again.

“The boy needs to get used to seeing me kiss you, darlin’, that’s not ever gonna change,” He fingered the sleeve of the shimmersilk robe. “Other things, we keep to ourselves.” He picked up the infant then, and watched his face light up. “Let’s go find some good toys, Dev.” He kissed Miriah again and took Devin to the playroom.

Maura had gone upstairs, still sore from hitting the street in Nar Shadaa. She rubbed her left shoulder where she’d fallen on it, and absently walked to the shower, thinking about the chip. Aric said he’d seen Corso at the office, but nothing else. She let the hot water pound her shoulder, getting comfort from the heat. She leaned on the wall, eyes closed, thinking. Something was bothering her subconscious, she felt like she she’d seen something important, but couldn’t get her brain to lock onto it. She let it go then, and just let her mind wander, enjoying the peace.

She’d just gotten out of the shower and wrapped herself in a towel when she saw Aric come into their room from the mirror. She met him at the door, where he pulled her to him.

“How lucky am I,” he growled next to her ear, “to have you in my life? Only problem is that you’re overdressed.” She giggled as he pulled the towel from between them, and enjoyed the look her husband gave her.

After they’d enjoyed each other fully, she looked at him, sprawled across her. She’d never loved anyone but him, but she had no regrets at all. She knew their time would be limited when thunder shook the house, and sure enough, little footsteps were on the way up the stairs. She jumped up and grabbed her robe as Aric ducked in the refresher. Colin ran to his mother, Calleigh not far behind him. She gathered them both in her arms and took them to their room, where she found some blocks for Colin and Calleigh’s doll, which she normally slept with. They were playing and happy when she went to dress.

“Corso had an idea about that chip. He thought maybe it was someone wanting us to look further into the chip itself than whomever sent it.” Maura looked thoughtful at that, it made sense.

“I’m sure he did some searching,” she told Aric, “but if he’d seen anything you’d have told me, so I’m guessing we’re back at the start with it.” She sighed, she hated to leave things undone, but didn’t have a lot of choices here.

Late that afternoon, Maura called Miriah, who answered the holo laughing, her eyes shining and her hair down and wild looking. “Okay what did I interrupt, or do I want to know?”

Miriah rolled her eyes at her sister, “I’m just playing with Dev, he’s laughed so much today. What’s up at your house?”

“Pretty much the same, since the twins are cooped up inside. Aric told me about Corso’s idea. I think he might be onto something, but no idea where to look. I know he did a preliminary search, maybe I’ll dig a little further.” Miriah agreed, and told her sister she’d let Corso know. He’d gone out to make sure the new calves were handling the rain, and so far he’d had to bottle feed two of them whose moms had been spooked by the thunder. If the livestock didn’t make Corso so happy, she would have gotten rid of them long ago. Their call was interrupted by Mags, who they joined to their holo. Mags was looking better, Miriah thought.

“Hey sisters, want to gather here tonight? I’m cooking stew.” Mags tried not to grin, seeing them both struggle to not be rude. “I’m kidding, Felix is making stew, but I did chop veggies.” They all laughed, knowing that Mags was not a cook. “Come anyway, we want to see everyone but don’t want to bring Michi out in the rain.” They agreed, they’d meet at Mag’s house for dinner.

Felix greeted Miriah at the door, holding his arm out for his nephew. Devin went to him, he’d always liked Felix. Corso followed, shaking the rain off his jacket before coming inside.

“This is our first rainy season here, it’s aptly named,” Felix commented, “and hey! Devin! Congrats on the new tooth!” The little boy grinned, pleased at hearing his name. “You’ll be ready for steaks any day now, but if they come from Dad’s rontos you really don’t need teeth.” Felix turned to Corso, “That really is the most tender ronto I’ve ever eaten, Cor, great job you do with them.”

Corso thanked him, he really did enjoy the ranch. “I’m glad they’re turning out well, we did some adjustment with the grains, seems to be working. “ He turned to open the door for Maura who had both kids, Aric parking the speeder. Corso took Colin from her, and Calleigh threw herself at her aunt Miriah. Maura shook her jacket outside as well, and waited on Aric.

When they all had held Michi, who was a much more pleasant baby these days, and fed the little ones, they sat down to eat. Mags looked rested and well, and everyone was amazed at the stew. Soon the talk turned to work, naturally. Felix and Mags had been on the planet for several months now, but would be going back to diplomatic missions soon, taking Michi with them. Aric looked at Corso, who nodded at him, and told them about the chip they’d received and the explosion.

“I only mention it,” Aric told them, “because I wanted to see if you had any experience with this or seen one of these in your many travels.” Magdalane was in much demand, having put her lightsaber away for mostly negotiations, Felix her bodyguard. They’d been to most of the charted planets and a couple that only had number designations.

“I don’t recall seeing anything like that,” Felix told them, since he dealt with the assistants and underlings and would have used terminals and such on these planets. “Wait a minute,” he said excitedly, “Maybe I did. I recall on Voss we had to use their chips because our own wouldn’t fit in their terminals.” He jumped up and walked quickly to their home office, Aric and Corso watching him. He returned with what looked like an identical chip to the one sitting in their vault. “When we put these in our machines, they went nuts, shut down and refused to reboot.” He held the chip out to Aric, who took it and looked it over, then passed it to Corso. “I only have that one because it was left in one of the portables when I picked it up.”

Corso looked at the chip, seeing the indentation for the camera was empty. “This sure looks like it’s one of the same variety. Mind if I take it apart to look inside?”

“Of course not, I’m just glad now that I didn’t throw it away.” Felix was smiling now. “Wow, I feel useful!”

They laughed, he’d often told them he felt like a big guard dog sometimes when Mags was busy talking to what he referred to as “higher ups”. Miriah crossed to him and kissed his cheek, saying, “You’re extremely useful, Felix, you had the chip and you made stew. I’d keep you.” He blushed, thanking her.

Corso handed the chip back to Aric, who put it in a side pocket to take to the office tomorrow. They almost went to put it in the vault, with the other one, but decided it would be fine in a pocket, since no one knew it was even missing. They agreed to meet first thing to look at it further.

Corso and Miriah were waiting when Aric and Maura walked into the office. Corso had already taken the first chip out of the vault and set up his workbench with several different tools and lights. He took the second chip to another cleared spot and proceeded to carefully remove the outer cover. He worked quietly, so his yell of pain was doubly loud. When he removed the outer cover of the second chip, a chemical agent, probably some kind of acid, was released and had eaten through the lightweight nonconductive glove he wore before he could get out of the glove and get to the wash station. He stood there with his hand under the soothing solution, Miriah grabbing kolto and bandages in case they were needed.

“Don’t worry with that stuff, love, I only got a small area burn.” They could smell the plasteel case melting under the unrelenting assault of the acid. Corso shook his head, how did he not see the small liquid bubble? He thought back, step by step, what he’d done only a few minutes ago. Nope, he concluded, there’d been no evidence of a self- destruct mechanism until air hit the inside of the chip.

They convened at the break room table, Corso sporting a very small strip of kolto gauze, at Miriah’s insistence. Aric spoke first, still wishing he’d never opened the envelope that contained the first chip.

“So, we have two chips that are unusable, two of us have already been injured. I vote that we throw away any other chips that look like those that might come here, and leave this puzzle alone before someone else gets hurt by them.”

“I second that vote,” Miriah said, giving a little shiver. “I don’t want to have to worry about you guys all the time like we used to.”

Corso and Maura agreed, and they gathered the remains of the chips up and put them in a detonation box along with some cordite, letting the whole thing burn. That would have been the end of it, had Tanno Vik not come in about then.

“I got a signature, and I know who put the bombs together that blew the shop.” He looked at them all, then lowered his head. “I did”

Tanno looked around at the faces in front of him, and unconsciously moved away from Miriah. He’d seen her in action before and knew she needed little else but herself to make him wish he were dead. He shook his head at them, took a deep breath, and spoke.

“I recognized the chemicals first, but the order in which they were layered is my signature. I haven’t put together any major chemical explosives since before I was recruited to Havoc squad, so I must have made these before then.” He rubbed his hands over his face. “Sorry, boss,” he said, looking at Maura.

Maura patted his shoulder, “You can’t have known there was anything still left out there, Vik. Makes me wonder, though, if it was a message of some sort. You know, ‘haha your own friend tried to blow you up’ kind of message.” She moved to the hallway, more room to pace there. “Of course, the explosives would have been, what, at least three years old now, so not exactly stable, if I’m understanding they were strictly chemical bombs. No shrapnel or timers?” She looked at Tanno Vik for confirmation, who nodded at her. “Okay, then these old explosives, where would they have been stored?”

“No way to know, Boss, “ he told her, “I uh, sometimes I, well sometimes when I was on a losing streak before, I’d make some party favors for a Hutt, but he’s been dead for a couple of years now, so I really can’t say where they’ve been or who had them.”

Aric blew out a breath. This whole ordeal just didn’t make any sense to him, but he did think that Maura was onto something with her line of thought. “I’m wondering if someone has figured out that we’ve been in on the planning of the last few big Republic ops and is trying to level the playing field.”

“It’s not paranoia if someone really is out to get you,” Miriah snorted. “If that’s the case, they had our holo frequency, and our classified delivery address. So it’ll be someone on the inside, someone who has access to classified info, either the army or Senate. Pretty short list to check out, really. It’s not like we’ve taken a holonet ad out.” She turned and walked toward her office, a smile playing over her face when she passed Tanno Vik and patted his arm, noting his slight flinch. “Tanno, what is it about me that makes you so nervous?”

“I, uh, remember a certain prisoner whose anatomy you rearranged for him. I kinda like mine just where it is.” The rather large Weequay had the grace to blush at the petite woman, but he still put his hands in his lap, covering the area she might go for.

Corso had to smile at Miriah’s peal of laughter, he remembered well how angry she was that he’d been hurt due to a mistake, and the one who’d put him in that position in the first place. That’s when Aric started calling her Spitfire, he mused, it fits her. He followed her to her desk, intending to keep close to her until this was settled. He watched as she pulled up a list of clients and sorted it into the two groups she’d mentioned. She sent it to all of their datapads, and closed out her program, applying her security lock.

“The person responsible has to either be on this list or work for someone on this list,” she told the others as she and Corso rejoined them in the break room. “So if we’re pursuing this, we divide it out and talk to these people.” She looked at Aric, who’d already been thinking along those lines.

“Mir, would you do a psych profile on the weasel? Maura, can you look at these lists and and see who might tie together? Geographically or otherwise.” He turned to Corso, “Not much we can do until we get further data, but can you leave the ranch if necessary, to come with me?”

Corso nodded, the ranch didn’t need him to keep going day to day. He did, however, have reservations about leaving Miriah and Devin here alone, especially since now he knew that someone else could locate them. He looked at Aric, who nodded at him, knowing he’d be thinking about that, and motioned the younger man over to him when the sisters went to their terminals.

“I know, I don’t want them here alone either. Maybe they’d consent, just for us, to all be in one place, and we can get Tanno and Felix to keep eyes out.” Corso thought about this for a minute, and agreed, as long as they weren’t gone for an extended period, that would be acceptable. “Besides, we all have alarm systems and the defenses here, if there’s a situation that anyone is uncomfortable with, we have the holdout shelter below.”

When they’d designed the building, the holdout shelter was primarily designated against the sometimes violent storms that came with spring. It was underground and had provisions for ten people to stay thirty days if necessary. It was the perfect spot for hiding the families if they were threatened, but since it was underground there was limited space. They had antennae there for comms to the outside, though, which helped.

Miriah walked to Maura’s desk, a generic profile in her hand. “What do you suppose they’re doing over there?” She indicated the two men, heads together talking in the break area.

“Probably trying to figure out how to save the womenfolk if they have to be off planet on this. However will we survive?” she muttered sarcastically. Miriah nodded.

“They can’t help it, they’re men, therefore ignorant of what women can do. I kinda pity them.” Miriah looked at Corso, whose face was a worried frown. “Now, Tanno, I like. He has the necessary respect.”

“He’s only worried about finding a body part he loves in a different place,” Maura scoffed. “If he’d never seen you take that prisoner on in Garza’s office, he be the same as them.” Maura’s squad had inadvertently fired on Miriah’s crew while they were delivering supplies, and they’d had a confrontation in General Garza’s outer office with the prisoner, who’d given the info to Havoc squad that they were delivering arms. Maura’s crew fired on Miriah’s ship, not realizing who it was, and Corso was injured as a result. Miriah had, needless to say, lost her temper, and it had made an impression.

“Well, I‘d say I could demonstrate that particular ability again, but I like Corso’s parts where they are as much as he does.” She tapped on the datapad, appearing to be working, but she kept looking at the men as they discussed whatever brilliant plan they’d come up with. Maura glanced up, and then at her terminal.

“Here they come, to save the day.”

The sisters parted, Miriah going back to her desk to finish the profile. Corso followed her, standing behind her chair to massage her neck. She always had tight muscles there, and he knew exactly where to put his hands to relax her.

“You know I worry about leaving you here, not just for you but for the kids. You, I know, can take care of yourself, but it’s different if you happen to be holding Dev when someone comes after you, or Maura has the twins in her arms.” She immediately felt bad for assuming he and Aric were discounting them. She knew he’d always put her and Devin first in his mind, and she loved that he worried about them. After growing up with only her sisters to care for her, she cherished his thoughtfulness and devotion to their little family.

“It would, I agree. We’ll be very careful here, sugar. Right now, we don’t even know that you’ll have to be gone, so let’s just work it one step at a time.” He heard his datapad chime. “There’s your copy of the profile, along with a list of the staff each name on Maura’s list holds.” She smiled at him, standing to steal a kiss. “And with that, I’m going to the house to check on Devin.” He pulled her back to him, kissing her more thoroughly.

“Love you, Miriah, so much,” he told her softly. She smiled at him, feeling the depth of the emotion he was voicing.

“Love you, too, Corso. Thank you for worrying about us.” She held his hand until she’d put too much distance between them, then stopped to wink at him. “You know where I’ll be, sugar, if you want me.” Corso stood there for several minutes after she’d left, debating whether to follow her, but his sense of duty combined with his determination to get this done won out, and he settled at his own desk to work through the list Miriah had sent him.

Aric was working on his list, and finally got a stylus and smartboard out to graph his thoughts. He put each name down then put the staff of each office around the Republic officer. He started to draw lines to connect those he knew were associates, and looked up a number of the other people. None of his lines intersected, so he erased it and started over. Corso was having no better luck with his list of Senate members they’d worked for. Several hours passed and they were no closer to identifying anyone likely to be the responsible party, or “weasel” as Aric named him. The rain had started again, making everyone feel more tired.

Aric called to Corso, “We’re going, Cor, see you soon.” Corso looked up and waved, thinking he’d just finish this one bit then he’d go, too. Maura told him not to keep Miriah waiting too long, laughed, and disappeared after her husband. The office was very quiet after the door shut, and Corso hurried through the last name he’d been working on. When he was done, he walked around the office, gathering notes and datapads to put in the vault. He knew it was a little extreme, but he’d rather be cautious with their knowledge. When he saw Aric’s smartboard, one name stood out to him. He looked at the board, and then at his own notes again, and had a gut feeling that this person might just be of interest. He hadn’t heard from or about him since he and Mir had been working a series of jobs for the Balmorran resistance. He’d been a flirt and Corso had wanted to punch him more than once. Numen Brock. He called Aric, to tell him what he thought, and Aric remembered the Twi’lek. They agreed to look at him further in the morning.

Corso secured their work and the office, and made his way home, stopping at the calves’ barn on the way. They all looked comfortable, dry and growing. He smiled, this would be another profitable year for the ranch. Their ronto were highly prized, both for their food value and their breeding stock. He closed the barn door and made his way to the speeder, seeing the lights of his house on the slight rise.

When he stopped to take his jacket and muddy boots off just inside the back door, he heard Miriah singing a lullaby, and looked at the time. It was late to be Devin’s afternoon nap, so he peeked around the open doorway to check it out. Miriah was rocking the little boy, who was sniffing and fussing, the aftermath of crying clear. Miriah saw him and winked, and held up three fingers, meaning he’d be asleep soon.

Miriah stepped out and partially closed the door, motioning Corso to follow her. She went to the kitchen, and turned to hug him.

“Devin isn’t feeling good, and it made him so mad that his nose was stuffy. He hates having his face wiped, but I think he’s just got a little cold. No fever or anything.” As part of her job, Miriah had some fair medical training, and knew her son was just irritable. “He went down once, then woke a few mintues after, sneezing. I’ve got some meds in him now, though, he should feel better soon.” She nuzzled his neck. “Do you hear that?” she said, looking at him.

“What?” he said, puzzled.

“That sound. It’s the couch, calling us to come and be comfortable,” she told him, smiling. Now that he looked at her, she might be getting a cold too, she looked tired. He’d wait, he decided, to bring up the Twi’lek to her until tomorrow. He led her to the couch, stretching out behind her, and felt her shiver. He pulled her into his body, knowing he’d keep her warm and she relaxed. As she napped, he tried to remember what he’d known about Brock then, but the rain and the soft music, not to mention the warm female snuggled to him, made him drowsy too. Later, he thought.

Maura woke, coughing, early the next morning. Great, she thought, nothing like a cold to get everyone in the house sick. She shuffled to the refresher, looked at her throat and decided at hot shower might help her stuffy head. She’d been in there for a few minutes when she saw Aric’s shadow on the door.

“Don’t, honey, I think I’m sick,” she told him as he got in with her.

“After last night, I think I’ve already been exposed,” he told her, kissing her cheek. “I heard you coughing, wanted to make sure you were okay.” He rubbed her shoulders, feeling the slight tremble in her muscles. “You need to stay in today, rest. I’ll take the dynamic duo with me to the office. Sound okay to you?”

“It does, and thanks, sweetie,” she replied, closing her eyes and leaning on the wall of the shower. She stayed a few minutes after Aric got out, finally able to breathe easier. She got dressed in soft, warm clothes and went downstairs to see to breakfast. When she got to the bottom, she realized her family was gone. Aric had left a note, “We’ll find breakfast at the office, no need to expose the twins to the virus. Love you!”

Maura shrugged and grabbed a cup of caffa that her C2 unit had made and slowly walked to the couch, a day of being lazy stretching in front of her. It’s been so long, she thought, since I didn’t have the kids to look after, I don’t know what to do with myself. She drank the caffa, which made her throat feel better, and found a novel on the holonet she’d wanted to read. Two chapters in, she was asleep, bundled in a soft blanket. The C2 unit saw that she was indeed ill, and started making soup for her.

Miriah woke, feeling relatively normal. She’d gotten up with Devin twice, once because he was fussy, once to just check on him. Corso had woken up when she had, so she knew he was tired. A lifelong insomniac, she was used to getting by on little sleep, but Corso didn’t tolerate it well. She left both her men in bed, grabbed a cold drink from the refrigerator, and stood at the dining table, looking out through the floor to ceiling windows at the gray day. Her thoughts turned to the puzzle at the office, and she wondered again who might be behind all this. Surely, the biggest haters would be on the other side of the fence, she thought. And Imps wouldn’t hide behind such things, they’d be standing out in front of the office, daring us to come out and face them. Gaining no insight, she decided to do a yoga workout, and Corso found her there, in her favorite contortion. He was afraid to speak, afraid he’d make her fall since she was standing on one leg with her eyes closed, but she sensed him and smiled.

“Morning, sugar. How’re you feeling?” she asked him, her eyes still closed.

“Better now that I see you’re not sick,” he told her, “Devin is breathing better this morning, I just looked in on him. She unfolded her hold and started a gentle stretching, cooling down from her exercise. “Maura has a cold, too, Aric just sent me a message. He has the twins at the office, giving her some rest.”

“Aww poor Maura, she must be feeling crummy to stay at home.” Miriah knew her sister was not one to sit when she could be moving, so for her to rest and recover she must really feel bad. “I’ll check on her after she’s had a chance to rest.” She led him to the kitchen, where she’d made breakfast already. They ate in a companionable silence, her tiny bare foot resting on his, just to maintain contact with him. When they were done, Corso finally broached the subject of Numen Brock.

“Hey, remember that Twi’lek we worked with some on Balmorra? The one that kept flirting with you until I thought I’d have to shoot him?” He looked at her out of the corner of his eye.

“I think so, he did something with the Balmorran resisitance, righit?” She continued to pull things out of the freezer for dinner. “What about him?”

“His name happens to be on both lists we pulled up.” He refilled his caffa. “Numen Brock.”

She looked up at him, “Worth a look, I’d say. Not sure what motive he’d have, but you never know. Mags has a crew member who is an elected official on Balmorra, if I remember right. He might have more info than anyone, being well placed there.”

“Good thinking, I’ll call Felix in a bit, when they’ve had a chance to wake up.” He heard his son stirring, and got up. “I’ll get Dev, sweetie.”

Miriah got up to get a bottle ready for her son, thinking about their days on Balmorra. It was probably the first time she’d called Corso on his jealous comments. As it were, they’d been talking to Brock, who had predictably been making suggestions to her that Miriah had discounted but used to her advantage. Corso had objected to him and his comments, and Brock had correctly surmised they were a couple. When they were walking away, Corso had pulled her to a corner and kissed her passionately, which was very unusual for him in public. He’d told her after, “I hate it when they flirt with you.” She’d only looked at him a long minute, then kissed him back. When she’d gotten her breath, she told him, “I’m talking to them, but thinking of you.” They’d stood there, then kissed once more. When they’d exited the base, she’d exaggerated her usual strut, and heard him groan behind her. She smiled now, remembering that night in the cantina.

Devin was lying listlessly on his dad’s shoulder until he saw his mom. He lunged for her, and rubbed his face on her shoulder. “Poor little guy,” Corso told him, patting his back. He saw Miriah’s face and chuckled, “All guys want their moms when they feel bad.” She put her hand on his shoulder then, knowing he was thinking of his own mom. The sick infant snuffled through his morning bottle and, coughing and crying, snuggled into his mom’s neck.

“Guess I’m here today, love. I’m sure Aric is trying to keep the twins from getting sick. I can work from here on the profile though. Let me know what you find out about Brock.” He nodded, and left before his resolve to get to the office broke. Aric was there and sighed in appreciation of the cookies and muffins Miriah had sent to placate the twins.

“Spitfire sure knows her stuff in the kitchen, Cor. Thanks, these will go a long way toward keeping Colin occupied.” He turned to his terminal. “I’ve been tracking the Balmorran guy, and I can see where he’d get access to our info. See, here he worked with the army detachment, that had to be it.” Calleigh came up the hall then and squealed when she saw her Uncle Corso, running to him to be picked up. Corso lifted the little girl and she kissed his cheek.

Aric moved to his smartboard, listing the possible ways Brock might have gotten their info, but still having no motive for his actions. Corso told him about the Balmorran politician on Mag’s crew, and they decided to drive over and talk to them.

They loaded the twins and took the speeder to Mags and Felix’s house. The overcast day and the motion of the speeder made the kids sleepy, and when they got to the house, Mags put them in a bedroom to nap. She held Michi, who was just getting ready to sleep, while Felix told them about Zenith. She looked up his contact info and gave it to Aric, watching the men interact with each other, all three different but somehow the same.

The twins woke up after an hour, and Corso and Aric took them back to the office, where Aric dropped Corso off but then took the twins home. They’d left word for Zenith to get in touch with one of them, and really had nothing more they could do until he did. Corso got his speeder and checked in with all the barns before heading home. Rizzo, the ranch foreman, had some fresh fish for Miriah. The older gentleman had a soft spot for his wife, Corso thought, she reminds him of his daughter who lives on another planet. Corso took them, thanking him, and put them in the small cargo area. When he’d seen all the new calves, he took the fish to Miriah, putting them in the cooler.

“Ooooh fish! Rizzo knows I love them!” she said when she saw them. “Next time you go to the barns, take him some cookies.” She kissed Corso then, and asked him what they’d learned from Mags. He recounted the visit, still holding her. Dev was feeling better, giving his dad a smile, and showing him his second tooth. They both jumped when the holo chimed. Corso crossed to answer, seeing Aric.

“Zenith just called, says he knows our guy and that he’s been a little on the fence about the Republic being on Balmorra. Led a protest not long ago at the government building, but didn’t have a lot of support. He’s been known to take up causes until he gets bored, then they go away. Zenith said he’d do some discrete asking around, see what he digs up. How’s Devin feeling?”

“He’s better, thanks, and Maura?”

“She’s sleeping but doesn’t look as sick as she did this morning. The twins are being quiet so mommy can rest, at least this minute.” He looked around, “looks like that minute’s over. Talk soon.”

Corso chuckled as the call cut off, knowing the twins were just bored with being inside. He looked out the window, seeing the still overcast skies. Miriah was cooking, Dev was playing, and just being in the house with them made him happy. When they’d eaten dinner and C2 was cleaning up, Miriah took Devin to play in the bath, where he splashed and grinned. After the baby was asleep, the holo chimed again.

Aric looked worn down, “Zenith said he’d had confirmation from someone he trusted that Brock had been on Coruscant for the past three weeks, working with the Senate delegation from Balmorra. He feels that Brock may have some undue influence with one of the female delegates, which would fit with his usual methods. What have we done for Balmorra since we formed?”

Miriah thought about it for a few minutes, “I did a tactical analysis for the general there on hitting a small Imperial group left south of Bugtown, but that’s all I can recall. I’ll make a list for you, though, and send it to your datapad.”

Corso looked thoughtful. “What are the odds that this is a distraction? That we’re getting wrapped up in this and ignoring something else?” He looked at the current list of ongoing ops they were involved with, not on a large scale but day to day reports and observations.

Aric replied, “Not good. We’ve been on top and at least two steps ahead on all our current projects, Miriah has been churning out tactical analysis like a machine and Maura has the strategy airtight.” Corso nodded, he’d figured as much but hadn’t thought to look up the actual numbers when he’d been in the office. They decided to see who was sick in the morning and plan from there, and disconnected.

The next morning, Miriah had been assigned a new tactical analysis that had come in overnight, for the Republic army. This one was for a weapons factory on Balmorra, one that she’d personally had a hand in taking for the Republic but evidently had now fallen again to the Empire. She sighed, when would the resistance there finally realize they had to be less trusting of the Empire and their intentions? She set to work, letting Aric know what she was working on. Dev was at the house with Akaavi, so she wasn’t distracted by anything, and in about three hours she’d completed the analysis. She hesitated before sending it to the requester, noting a difference in the holonet address than the one she usually sent to. She called Corso over to look at it, and he agreed that it looked like the report had been requested through the proper channels but was set to be rerouted to a different place. Miriah manually changed the destination address and then copied all the pertinent info to a different file and sent it to Aric, then joined the two men in the break area.

“Now what would be the purpose in ….oh stars, I must be losing my edge. It was right in front of my face and I didn’t see it. That arms factory? The current situational analysis on Balmorra shows that factory to be making arms for the Republic army.” She got up to pace, looking pale. “I just showed someone how to take that factory, and now I’m not even sure who.” She sat down hard, holding her head with both hands.

“Relax, honey. I stopped it, or rather the server stopped it. I put a safeguard in to stop any outgoing reports for verification that they were authentic and I hadn’t put my code in yet.” She looked gratefully at Corso, thankful he was so watchful over their data.

“Nice heads up, Cor, I hadn’t thought of that,” Aric told him. “I should have seen it, too, you told me what you were working on but I didn’t question it either. It brings up another question, though. Who wants to take our weapons factory? Add it to the other questions, namely, who wanted data so badly they’d send a bogus mission and data chip our way, and who knew how to send it so that we’d get it?”

“It all adds up to one thing, “ Corso said reluctantly, “we’re going to have to find Numen Brock.”

Aric had lots of friends on Coruscant, mostly military ones. He put the word out to a few that Numen Brock owed him money, and every trooper on the planet was on the lookout for a blue Twi’lek with that name, or really any Twi’lek who claimed to be from Balmorra, since names were irrelevant for most of them. More than one way to catch a weasel, he thought. While they waited for any news on that front, they received another request for their services from General Garza’s office, that, once verified, took up their available resources for almost two weeks. Maura and Aric worked out the best order of targets and overall plan, Miriah came up with the best way to enter and take objectives, Corso outlined the weaponry they were likely to be up against, and what he thought would work best for the soldiers to use and why. Tanno put his knowledge of explosives to work, mapping out charges to the perimeter and then worked with Miriah on blasting open doors and turrets.

All in all, a very well planned, and if executed correctly, successful mission. In that whole time, there was no new developments on the Numen Brock front. A quick check with Zenith told them he’d not returned to Balmorra, but he’d not been seen on Coruscant either. One of Maura’s friends happened to be working security for the Balmorran delegation, and she’d not seen him. So it was a surprise, to say the least, when someone from Dantooine customs called the office number, wanting to report a stowaway on a livestock transport that had given them this number to verify who he was.

Aric and Corso went to the customs office, and found a very nasty, very hungry and tired Numen Brock. He’d been beaten at some point, and had traveled for almost a week in the hold of the transport. Corso voted to just shoot him, but Aric wanted to know what he knew first. Brock wasn’t in any shape to argue. They ended up getting him a room at the cantina in town, since he was too filthy to get in the speeder. While he cleaned up and his clothes were washed, Aric stayed in the room to monitor his access to communications, while Corso stood outside the door. The two wore encrypted relays to be able to talk if necessary.

After getting some food into him, Brock was ready to talk. Apparently he’d been set up, he said. He’d been sleeping with one of the Balmorran official’s daughters, and the official had tried to get him killed.

“I swear, I had nothing to do with anything being sent here. I knew you guys existed, obviously, since I had the customs office call, but my only part in this was to find out how to contact you. That was it. I didn’t even know about the shop on Nar Shadaa, other than what I saw on the holonet. You gotta believe me,” he told them

“No, we don’t have to believe you,” Corso snorted at him. “I still vote we just shoot him.” He pulled Torchy out of the holster he always wore, and Brock started sputtering about his rights as a Balmorran citizen. “Slick, we’re a pretty good ways from Balmorra,” Corso calmly told him.

“Don’t shoot him just yet, Cor. Brock, who did you get our contact info from?” Aric was still concerned about a leak somewhere, or just someone not safeguarding their info as they should be. “And who did you give it to?”

Brock sighed. “I got it from the girl, who went into her father’s terminal to access classified files for me. And I gave it to the Hutt that supported my last campaign for Senate, to clear my debt with him.” He looked at his feet. “Wasn’t the right thing to do, but I had to.” He looked at Aric, then at Corso. “Hey! Whatever happened to the lovely Captain you used to work with? Miriah, wasn’t it?”

“Oh no, that’s it, you don’t even get to say her name!” Corso leveled Torchy at him, the whine of it charging up deafening in the sudden silence. His trigger finger was already tensing when Aric put his hand over Corso’s. He said nothing to the younger man, but didn’t move his hand until Corso put Torchy down, and back in the holster. Corso spun and stomped from the room.

Aric turned to Brock. “You owe me. He’d have killed you right here, you know.” He chuckled at the shaking Twi’lek. “Now, you were never here. You don’t know me or Corso, or for your own health, his wife, the Captain. If I were you, I’d get off Dantooine as soon as possible. I can’t watch Corso all the time.” He laughed as he walked away from Brock, all the way to the speeder, where Corso was waiting for him.

“Nice touch, with the blaster,” Aric told him as he got in the speeder. “He was about to wet himself for a minute there.” Corso drove away from town, wanting to put as much distance between him and Brock as he could.

“Wasn’t a touch, Aric, I’d have killed the bastard if he’d said anything about Mir.” Corso glanced at Aric out of the corner of his eye, and saw that he was smiling.

“At any rate, he’s sufficiently afraid that you’ll hunt him down if he stays here. I know which Hutt he’s talking about though, saw it when we ran those lists a few weeks ago. He’d have access to the manufacturer who makes those chips too, on the Outer Rim. Might have known the one that Tanno made the bombs for. It all fits together, now we just have to figure out what a Hutt wants with a military consultant.” They traveled in silence, both of them thinking on that same question, Corso trying to get over his anger at seeing Brock again, and the scum having the guts to say something about his wife. Aric knew he was chewing on this, and finally spoke.

“Cor, he didn’t say anything bad. Just wondered where she was. He evidently didn’t know you guys were married or anything. He said she was lovely, which she is. Anyone who has eyes knows that.” Corso glanced at him, then back at the path.

“I know, I’ve just always hated slick guys who use women, and when he was flirting with Mir back in the day, I wanted to kill him then, too.” He sighed. “She doesn’t even see it, you know. Doesn’t think she’s anything special. That’s why she never takes the flirts seriously. She thinks they all just want something, not her. It was so hard to convince her that she was what I wanted, not her ship or her credits, not even her influence. Deep down, she feels unworthy of things like love or attention. She’s gotten better, but man, when I first was with her? She actually thought she was ugly.” He shook his head, still unbelieving that she’d think that.

“Ugly? Far from it,” Aric said, getting him a slightly warning look from Corso. “Easy, Cor, Mir is lovely, all the Chantalle girls are, but Maura is mine, and I know how lucky I am.” Corso dropped Aric at his house, since it was now early evening, and proceeded to his own. When he entered the kitchen, he saw the subject of his thoughts feeding their son and laughing. He went over to kiss her and Devin cooed at him.

“Hey, little man! Wow, that food looks good all over your face like that.” Devin giggled, he was happy that his dad was here and talking to him.

“Isn’t he a hoot with that? He takes a bite and if there’s anything left in his hand, he smears it on his face. Osmosis, I guess.” Corso looked at her closely, her smiling face with just a smudge of pasta sauce on her chin, those silver eyes sparkling, her thick black hair piled haphazardly on her head with tendrils coming down to frame her face. How could she not know how beautiful she is, he wondered. He tenderly cupped her face with both hands and kissed her again, this time trying to tell her with his actions how he was feeling. When he let her up for air, she was flushed and dazed.

“I’m not sure if you had a really good day or a really bad day, sugar, but whichever it was, do it again,” she said, still a little breathless. He wasn’t one to waste an invitation like that, so he complied. When they broke apart a second time, they heard Devin cooing, but it sounded like, maybe ….

“Mama,” the little boy said, clearly, looking at his mother. “Mama.” Miriah stood looking at him, tears threatening, her hand over her mouth.

“Who am I, Dev?” she asked him, pointing to herself.

Devin looked straight at her, pointed, and said “Mama.” That did it, she was crying and laughing, jumping around the little boy in his feeding chair. He’d been saying Dada for a couple of weeks now, and she was sure he’d been working on Mama since then. She threw herself against Corso, who wrapped his arms around her, sharing her joy.

“Smart man, Dev, you always want the pretty ones on your side,” Corso told the little boy, who was a little confused by his mom’s tears but loved his dad’s voice, and replied, “Dada.” They all laughed.

“If you’ll go bathe the little genius, I’ll get our dinner ready,” she told Corso, leaving his arms reluctantly. She stopped to turn to him, a little smile playing over her face. “I’ve missed you today,” she said in a soft voice.

She’d made a hand stuffed pasta for them, with the cheeses and sauce and meat blending together deliciously. “Tell me what happened today, love. Maura and I speculated all day what was going on.” She looked at him expectantly, waiting for him to speak, but the food was too good and the mood too cheerful. He didn’t want to talk about Brock right now.

“Let’s do that after we get Devin to bed, okay? I just want to enjoy you right now.” She nodded, smiling at him and hoping there wasn’t too much to tell. They finished, leaving the dishes to C2, and Miriah got the baby’s last bottle of the day ready. Corso was holding Devin, but knew that when it came to night-night time and that bottle, Mom was the only option in Dev’s mind. He handed the sleepy infant to her and went to sit on the couch, surfing the holonet for news items while she rocked and fed the little boy.

When she joined him on the couch, he related the day, leaving out the part where he’d drawn a blaster on Brock. She gasped in surprise at who had been at customs, and the condition he’d been in. When she heard he’d paid off a Hutt with the info, her eyes narrowed. “I never did trust him. He was just too well connected to ignore back then.”

“I got the impression that he wasn’t exactly in the same status anymore on Balmorra. Evidently he’s caused too much trouble for opposing sides, and now no one trusts him anymore.” She nodded, and took his hand. “I’m really more interested in something you said, kitten. You missed me today?” She smiled as she straddled him, running her hands under his shirt.

“I did miss you today. Want to see how much?” She laughed as he stood, and carried her to their room.

Maura and Aric lay in bed, Aric telling her about what had gone on with the customs and Brock. Her eyes went wide when he told her about Corso drawing his blaster, and she let what Calleigh would have called a “bat word” out of her mouth. “I can’t believe he’d do that, he’s normally so steady and reasonable.”

“I don’t know if he’d have actually shot Brock, but he sure looked like he would have, and that’s what counted. It sure made Brock talk, and I think he’ll be leaving Dantooine now. I made sure he knew I wouldn’t be watching Corso all the time.” He laughed as he recalled the look on the other man’s face. “I think now that we have a solid lead to follow, we can make some progress with this.” He pulled Maura to him. “I was reminded today of how beautiful you are. Want me to show you?”

“Always,” she told him.

Miriah was still smiling when she went into the office the next morning. Maura saw her and had to grin back, her sister was obviously very happy. With the twins at home with a sitter they sometimes used, she was relaxed and not having to worry about what they might be into. She followed Miriah into her office space and teased, “Must have been a really good night, you’re still smiling and Corso hasn’t made it in yet.”

Miriah laughed. “Devin said ‘Mama’ last night! I’ve been smiling ever since,” she told her sister, and related the whole tale.

Maura smiled, “I thought you might have still been grinning over picturing Corso holding a blaster on Brock.” She turned to leave but Miriah caught her arm.

“He did WHAT? He conveniently left that out when he told me about yesterday.”

“Miriah, please don’t get upset, Aric said he was totally justified and it actually helped, it bluffed him into spilling his guts about the info and how he’d gotten it. Aric is in there running down the Hutt he supposedly gave the intel to.”

“Maura, Corso never bluffs with a blaster. If he had a blaster in his hand, he was fully prepared to use it. What the void did Brock say or do that pushed him to that point?”

“Evidently, he said you were lovely and asked where you were now.” Maura sighed, wishing she’d just kept her mouth shut.

“Huh,” was all Miriah said. “Well, Corso did hate him when we were working on Balmorra. Aric having any luck with the Hutt?”

“Seems like he’d have come out and said something if he were, so I’m guessing not.” Maura turned to her datapad. “We’ve got some followups to do , but nothing new to plan. I might go home early, see what the twins are into. Want to get everyone together this evening? I’ll do all the side dishes if you can convince Corso to grill.”

“Yeah, that shouldn’t be hard. I’ll call Mags, see if she feels up to it.” That plan was set, then. They’d have everyone together at the ranch later. Miriah sent a message to C2 to go to the market for fresh veggies and fruits, then worked on her follow up tacticals. She was hard at work, head bent over her terminal, when Corso and Devin came in. She didn’t see them at first, but she heard that sweet little boy’s voice yell, “Mama!” and broke into a huge smile.

Aric joined them, congratulating Devin on his second word. The happy little boy reached for his uncle, who took him, laughing. “Now, we have to work on Uncle Aric,” he told them. “No luck yet on the Hutt, but from what I am hearing, he’s not been a part of Hutta Operations for long, and isn’t based on Nar Shadaa.” He walked down the hall, Devin on his hip.

Miriah turned to her husband then. “I hear you almost put a blaster bolt in a certain Balmorran yesterday.” She didn’t miss his wince, and saw that he was ashamed of it now.

“I shouldn’t have done it, I’m sorry. I just hate that he thought he could pass himself off as being familiar with you.” He hung his head, “Forgive me?” She bumped him with her hip, getting him to look up at her from where he was leaning on the desk.

“If you’ll grill tonight for everyone. I sent C2 to get some stuff, and Mags and Felix are coming too.” She smiled at him, seeing his relief that she wasn’t upset. Maura waved, she was going home and Miriah thought about doing the same, but knew she needed to work just a little longer. She told Corso she still had a little bit to finish and sent him home with Devin, who was getting fussy so close to nap time. She’d be home for lunch, she told him with a kiss.

Aric was in his office when she figured out the last of the tactics for a push on Corellia, and she shut her terminal down, locked it with her security code, and put her datapad in the vault. She walked past his office, seeing him in a call, and waved as she went out. The day was sunny but not hot, perfect really, and she pulled her hair out of its ponytail, letting it whip in the wind on the speeder ride home.

Devin was asleep when she walked in, and she knew where Corso would be. She grabbed a cold drink, put together a couple of sandwiches for them, and headed for the swing. She could see his long legs stretched out from the window, and pushed the door open with her body. He was up to help her with all she was carrying and to catch the door so it wouldn’t wake the baby. They sat together to eat, not saying much, and when they were done, stretched out on the swing, slowly pushing it.

“So,” she said, “do you think Brock gave you accurate info?” She was in her usual position, her back resting on his chest, and she didn’t see his face as he considered this.

“I hope so. If I ever see his face again I might not hesitate with the blaster.” He took a swig of his beer.

“Do you really believe, even years ago, that he anything but a business relationship with me? I guess I don’t get why it’s still an issue with you.”

“Miriah, love, it’s not that he had any relationship with you, it’s the general way he treats women. He slept with the girl who stole the info on our company, just to get the info to pay a debt. Guys like that, they give us all a bad rep. I have no doubt that if he thought it would give him an advantage, he’d use the fact that he ‘knows’ you. We’ll have a daughter one day, and there will be guys like him in the world. One less, if he doesn’t watch his step.” He’d clearly thought about this, at length. She let it go, resting there with his heartbeat in her ear. His next statement came out of the blue. “I want you to start wearing a blaster again, at least until this is done.”

She sat up straight and stared at him, thinking. “I haven’t for a while, but it might be a good idea. Grace is ready.” She resumed her position against his chest, more thoughtful than before. “May as well get my leathers out too.” He squeezed her, and let out a soft chuckle.

“I have fond memories of those,” he told her, grinning. Inside, the holo chimed, and Miriah got up to answer. When she did, she noted that it was an encrypted holo, no video, but the call disconnected before anything was exchanged. She stood there for a few seconds, thinking whoever it was would try again, but after a couple of minutes there was no further attempt to connect. When she heard Devin wake up, she left the holo to go get him, and told Corso what had happened. She was sitting in the swing with her two men when it happened again. This time, Corso went to the holo, but had the same result. He shrugged, thinking that maybe there was something atmospheric interfering with their communications. He called the office and Aric answered.n“Hey man, just checking out our holo, had a couple of calls that wouldn’t connect. Anything there?”

Aric nodded. “Yeah, had three attempts at an encrypted call that never fully connected. Maura had one at home, too. Must be on the other end, though, I could place encrypted to Coruscant.” He looked puzzled, and concerned. “I’ll start a trace, if you’ll walk me through it.”

“I’ll come there instead.”

“I’ll be here. See you in a few.” Corso walked back to the swing, taking Devin in his arms and pulling Miriah up and close to him.

“Going back to the office to help Aric trace these calls,” he told her, and kissed her, then kissed her again before kissing his son’s head and handing him back to his mom. “Shouldn’t take too long.” He hopped on the speeder he’d left there earlier and took off across the grassy plain.

When Corso arrived at the office, Aric was checking the wiring to the main holo there, and looked up at his partner. “Teach me a little about this, Cor, I never did much of this in the army.” Corso explained how it worked and how to run the trace. They were surprised to learn that the trace showed the call came from General Garza’s office. When they called the holo that they’d traced it to, it worked perfectly. The general’s assistant answered.

“General Garza’s offce,” the young man answered. He looked bored.

“Hello, Aric Jorgan here, with Advantages,” he said, and the assistant’s bored face showed interest. “We’ve received several attempts at encrypted calls from this holo frequency. Are you having trouble on that end?”

“It’s possible, “ the young man stated, “the power grid here at the Senate Plaza has been having issues today. I did see the general trying to use this earlier. Let me check with her.” He left the desk area and went into the inner office. When he returned, he brought the general with him.

“Jorgan, good to see you. Sorry, we’re having some technical issues here today. I was just wanting to let you know we’ll be implementing the last mission we assigned your company in the next week, and will keep you updated. Garza out.” The holo disconnected abruptly, pretty much Garza’s usual method.

Corso had stood in the background, but noticed some unusual activity while the holo was in use. There was an attempt to download something, but their security prevented it. He’d manually disabled the transfer and was working on trying to decode what it was when Aric noticed him hard at work.

“Whatcha got, Cor?”

“Wish I knew, something was trying to download in the holo on that call, I stopped it and am trying to decode it now. Aha! Here we go,” he said, pulling the chipset out of the base of the holo. He took it to his workstation, and when he plugged it into the terminal there, Aric joined him. “There it is, Aric. The general’s comms are compromised. That power grid issue? Probably a cover for whoever put this on their holo. This program would have enabled our comms to be diverted, and hers too. We need to let her know there’s something going on.”

Aric nodded, going to his computer. “I have her personal holomail. I’ll send a message now.” He typed furiously for a few minutes, then looked up. “You know what this means? Somebody has a vested interest in what we’re doing for the army, and this all has to be connected somehow.” Corso nodded, he’d already put that much together, he just wasn’t sure how.

“More importantly, if I understand this correctly, someone was actually in her outer office and physically uploaded this program directly through the encryption there, right?” Aric asked him, and he nodded. Aric absently rubbed the back of his neck. “What about our home holos?”

Corso thought a minute. “As long as we’re careful about what we say, we should be ok. This program targets encryption software, and we don’t have any on the home units.” They both sat there, unsettled about this turn in the mystery.

Aric stood, “Well, there’s nothing else we can do. We’ve notified her and…ah here’s her acknowledgment, so she’s aware. Says she’ll get back to us as soon as she figures out what’s going on. So, let’s go. We’ll be over in a couple of hours, I’ll update you then if I know anything more.”

Corso nodded, and headed for home. He’d figured it was just a matter of time before someone tried to compromise their operations, given what they did, but he never figured it would come through Garza’s office. It made no sense to him, but he’d tell Miriah, she might be able to put some perspective on it. He arrived home and found her in the kitchen. When he’d related what was going on, she looked at him with a small smile. “The Senate elections are in about five months. I’m thinking there may some motive there to figure out what military ops are going on, use them as fuel for a campaign.” Corso looked at her, surprised. He hadn’t thought of that. He kissed her hair, since her hands were busy chopping.

“I knew you might have some ideas on what was going on,” he told her, crouching to pick up a toy Devin had tossed over the side of his chair. His son was happily singing and chewing on another toy, sitting in his feeding chair. When Miriah took the toys and put some finger foods on the tray instead, he smiled at her and, his little brow furrowed in concentration, picked up a vegetable piece and tentatively placed it in his mouth. His resulting smile made his parents smile.

When they all gathered for dinner, and the grill was doing its work, the sisters found themselves in the kitchen with the kids, feeding them before they got too sleepy. Miriah and Maura told Magdalane what they’d learned so far about the strangeness that had gone on, and Mags told them she was going back to work in three weeks.

“You know we have a spot for you, Mags. Are you sure you want to continue to put in the long hours with Michi on the ship without you?” Mags sighed, knowing she’d need to make a decision soon.

“I feel like I have to at least try,” she told them. “The crew has been great about being reassigned and doing other projects, but I feel responsible for them and hate to just cut them loose.” The sisters agreed, they knew it was hard to change things sometimes.

The men outside had filled Felix in on their current puzzle, too, and wanted him to be watchful around their house. He was usually anyway, but Aric wanted him to be extra careful about his security alarms and such.

They sat down after the kids were in various places sleeping, enjoying the conversation and just being together, no work talk allowed.

Aric was up early, and decided to get a head start on that Hutt trace. He snuggled Maura to him until she opened those honey colored eyes, and whispered to her that he was going in early. She nodded, kissing his nose, and fell back to sleep. In only a few minutes he was heading out, the speeder making the only sounds in the grey early dawn. He approached the office, noting that he’d never gotten the outside lighting done the way he’d wanted, and made a mental note to fix that. He didn’t drive into the multipurpose door, he elected instead to park out front, and readied his magnetic key. He never got a chance to use it, though. As he approached the door, his senses picked up someone, something crouched in the doorway, trying to get the lock spliced.

As he stepped off the speeder bike the shadowed figure stood and slashed at him with a vibroblade. Aric got in a punch that made his attacker stumble backward and drop the blade, then a kick to his body. The attacker doubled over, but Aric didn’t see the blaster until it discharged into his hip. Limping, he threw himself at the black figure, wrestling the blaster away and picking up the blade, which he used to try and disable the attacker. The hooded figure spun and pushed the blade into Aric, who was now in desperate trouble. The man started to run, but Aric stopped him with three blaster bolts to the head, just before he passed out.

Miriah found him there, about an hour after the attack, barely breathing and unconscious, blood everywhere. She overcame her initial shock to get a call to Corso, telling him to come quickly. They had a compact medbay underground here, but there was no way she could get the Cathar into a kolto tank alone. She sat with him, holding him, talking quietly to him, but he was in shock. While she waited the few minutes until Corso got there, she called Mags.

“Mags, come quickly if you can to the office. Aric’s hurt, bad, I just found him. He’s in shock. I’ll get him inside and in a tank as quickly as I can but….”

“I’m on the way, do what you can.”

She saw Corso zooming over the grass then, and together they got the injured man inside the office building and down the elevator to the medbay. Corso set about filling the kolto tank while Miriah started working on the deep abdominal wound, where most of the blood had come from. She was shaking her head, muttering to herself, trying to pack kolto gauze into the gaping wound. She had blood replacement infusing to him, and when she prodded too deep, she heard him groan. Responsive to deep pain stimulus, she thought, so his nervous system is intact. She looked up at Corso, who nodded to her and crossed to the gurney. Together they stripped his clothes, already stiff with blood, and lifted him into the tank. Corso held him up while Miriah fitted the mask on his face, making sure the seal was tight, and they lowered him into the healing fluid.

When he was stable and immersed, Miriah felt herself falling, caught only by Corso, who’d been watching her pallor grow. He put her in a nearby chair to go answer the door for Magdalane. They rushed down the stairs, not wanting to wait for the elevator. When Mags saw the extent of the wounds, she blanched, then recovered her center and stepped up to the tank. Her aura grew and grew, and while she was working nothing moved, not even her sister. It was when Mags had been in the healing trance for about an hour that they heard Maura enter upstairs.

Miriah looked at Corso, her eyes wide and her mouth open. Maura! Corso ran up the stairs, and Miriah could hear him speaking to her and then her scream of “NO!” He brought a sobbing Maura down, holding her against him. She didn’t try to talk, just sobbed against Corso’s chest, Miriah holding her hand. Mags never let up, and after almost three hours of healing trance, her aura started to slowly recede.

“Nice work, Mir,” her sister smiled at her, speaking softly. “I really had to look to see where you’d used the kolto on him at first. Maura, he’ll be fine. Let’s leave him in the tank for a few more hours though, just to help with the scarring. I saw another person outside, I’m assuming he’s dead, but I didn’t stop to check.”

Maura found her voice then. “Mags, Miriah, Corso, you guys..” she sobbed again, then pulled herself back, “Mir, if you hadn’t found him, he’d be gone.” Magdalane agreed, noting the huge blood loss Aric had experienced.

“Damn it, Aric, why did you come in early?” Maura sat, exhausted from the emotions, while Corso and Miriah picked up the packaging and assorted trash from Miriah’s work on the injured man. Miriah looked down at her own clothes, almost as bloody as the ones she’d cut off Aric, and stripped, rummaging in a gear bag before heading to the small shower off the medbay. Corso found her there, swearing as the warm water flowed over her.

“Miriah, love, are you going to be okay? I need to go tell the local constable about the body outside.” He stood there, wondering if she heard him, when she told him to go ahead, she was fine. Fine, right, he thought. None of us are fine right now. He put his hand over the shower door and she squeezed it. When he got upstairs and took a step outside, he stopped at the blood pool they’d pulled Aric from and saw the vibroblade off to the side. They’d taken a blaster out of the Cathar’s hand, which accounted for the fatal injuries to the unknown man lying a few meters away. Corso stayed out there until the constable drove up, telling him what he knew.

“Sounds like self defense to me, Mr. Riggs. Just tell Mr. Jorgan to get in touch in the next few days, don’t expect any problem here though.” The constable told Corso he sure enjoyed the ronto the department had been given as part of their donations to the town, and drove off, leaving a couple of droids to haul the dead man back to their facility.

Maura was sitting beside the tank holding her husband, a blank look on her face, her eyes still swollen and red. Her sisters were beside her, but all was silent. Maura looked up when Corso entered, as small smile on her face. “Thank you, all of you, for saving him.” She felt the tears slide down her face again, and she turned away.

Miriah spoke then, “Maura, you need to go tell the kids that their dad has been hurt. You know Calleigh won’t handle it well when we get him home hurt and she didn’t know.” Maura nodded, but didn’t move. After a few minutes, Corso stood.

“I’ll go talk to them, but I’ll come back here to help get him in the speeder to take him home this evening.” Maura stood and hugged him, and Miriah walked him out. When they were at his speeder, she hugged him fiercely, the wind whipping her hair around in a close approximation of her emotions.

“Be careful, love, please,” she begged him, and he knew she was fighting tears herself. He kissed her, told her to be sure and reengage the security system, and was off. He wasn’t looking forward to talking to the twins, but he knew if he could stay calm, they’d do better with it. He rehearsed what he’d say during the two minute ride, but when he saw them playing outside, his rehearsal was forgotten.

Calleigh ran to him, always wanting a hug, but Colin had to be called over. When he had them together, he simply told them their Daddy had tried to stop a bad man from breaking into the office and had gotten hurt. Calleigh cried, as he knew she would, and Colin wanted to know if his dad had beaten the bad man. When he left, Calleigh was getting ready to be a nurse, and Colin was sitting on the top of the step outside with a toy blaster. It hurt his heart to see them upset, but he was glad he’d done it.

Miriah had sent Magdalane home to be with her baby, knowing she was tired from the healing. Maura hadn’t moved from beside the kolto tank when Miriah heard Coros upstairs. She rose to meet him on the stairs. She led him up back up to the break area, to put together something for Maura to eat.

“Devin is fine, Akaavi is with him. She did a sweep around the house when he was napping, she said she saw nothing out of the ordinary.” She sighed, putting cookies and a sandwich on a plate to take downstairs. “I think it’s time to hire a security detail for the office.”

He nodded, they’d talked about this several times, given the sensitive nature of their work. He placed the call while she tried to get Maura to eat, and before too much longer they pulled Aric out of the kolto tank. Corso watched while Miriah calculated the dosage of the stim she then injected into Aric’s arm, and helped keep him still when he regained consciousness.

Aric blinked rapidly, clearing his head of the sedative Miriah had given him, and looked around wildly until he saw Maura at his side. She had unshed tears in her eyes and it made him ache to know he’d worried her. Once Miriah was satisfied he was alert, she and Corso walked away to give them a little privacy.

Aric slowly pulled Maura’s head onto his chest and let her cry, stroking her hair, until she realized the pressure was causing him pain. She looked into his green eyes, seeing her familiar mate, and gently kissed him. “I’m okay, you know, hon. I killed the guy, had to, he took three bolts in the head.”

She nodded, affirming his words. “You did. You almost died too. If anybody but Miriah had found you, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.” Maura sniffed, “Magdalane came through too.”

Aric looked at her then, surprised. “I thought that was a dream. I saw Mags, talked to her about what had happened and that I was afraid I was going to die out there. She reassured me that I would live and that you were waiting for me. Was that a soul link?” Maura nodded, knowing that would be the only way he was still alive. “Wow,” was all he could think of to say. He tried to sit up, but since his major wound was abdominal and still healing, he was too stiff and lay back. Maura put her hand on his shoulder and he grabbed it, holding it there.

Miriah and Corso joined them then, and Miriah told them Corso had called for security guards. Maura nodded, but Aric started to protest. Miriah shut him up with a look.

“I saw your guts today, Aric, and when I say that, I literally mean I saw your guts outside of your body. You don’t get a vote.” She turned, and went back up the stairs. Corso watched her, saw her withdrawing into herself, getting ready for a fight, he thought.

Aric saw it, too. “She’s pissed off. A little at me, a lot at whoever was behind this. I’m sorry, Corso, please don’t let Spitfire go off on her own with this.”

“You know I won’t, and she won’t leave Devin. I’ll talk to her tonight, when she’s had a little time to process.” He heard her walking around upstairs, and heard the door. Felix and Mags were there to check on Aric. He went upstairs to greet them.

“Thanks, Mags for this morning, and glad to see you, Felix. We’ll get him to the elevator shortly, then home. Can you follow and help me get him upstairs?”

“Of course, glad to. He’s awake?” Felix asked.

Miriah nodded, and turned to walk away, saying nothing. Mags followed her, feeling her anger and fear. “Mir, you can’t just take off and handle this, you have people to help you. Don’t do this, to yourself or to your family. Devin really needs you.”

Miriah turned and snapped, “And that’s why I’m not airborne right now, in flight to Hutta. I had my hands inside my brother in law this morning and now I have to just sit on them!” She hurled a caffa mug at the wall, gaining some satisfaction from hearing it shatter, then collapsed at her desk. Mags looked up as Corso walked to her, and Mags knew she was leaving her sister in hands that knew how to handle this mood.

He did know, he thought, this was coming. He could see it in how she carefully schooled her face to show no emotion, her walk that assured her that her blaster was on her hip. He couldn’t blame her, he was angry too, but when she got mad she wanted to shoot something or someone. Some people got louder the madder they got, but not Miriah. She was most angry when she said nothing. She was saying nothing now, sitting with her head down, her hand clenched in fists in her lap. She jumped when he touched her shoulder, and looked up at him with that perfectly set face.

“I know you’re beyond mad. I get it. But we have to keep our cool here, not tip our hand to whoever thinks they know how we’ll react.” She nodded, but he could tell she wasn’t convinced. He sighed, “Let’s get Aric home and settled, then get home ourselves.” She ignored the hand he offered her and stood, walking with that hip swinging gait, Grace bouncing on her thigh.

They got Aric home and up the stairs relatively easily, the Cathar’s metabolism healing quickly. Calleigh was predictably clingy, but saw that her beloved daddy was still the same daddy, and calmed. Miriah offered to have the twins over, but Aric really wanted them near him. Corso could understand that. Miriah still wasn’t saying much, and he thought that seeing Calleigh in distress would break the mood she was in, but it didn’t.

They made it home, her face never moving from that set blandness. She walked in the house and immediately did a thorough walkaround inside, looking for loose windows or other access points. He just let her go, knowing to argue would be pointless. She took Devin, fed him, smiled at his silly grins and coos, and never let the mask drop. When they’d gotten through the evening and Devin was having his last bottle, Corso looked in at them. Dev finished his bottle and Miriah put him on her shoulder, waiting on the required burp. He saw his son gently put his hand on his mother’s face, and say, very softly, “Mama.” That was the icebreaker. She smiled and the tears fell, as Devin snuggled into her neck and patted her shoulder.

Maura was up, still, in the middle of the night. Aric, his painkillers kicking in, snored softly beside her. She just couldn’t stop thinking about the day, picturing her strong, handsome husband lying in a pool of his own blood. Every time she closed her eyes, she could picture it. She turned on her side, then back, trying to just rest, but she knew it was pointless, so she sat up, and saw Calleigh looking at her from the doorway.

“Mama ‘sleep?” she said softly. Maura held out her arms and Calleigh ran to her, hugging her tightly. “Love you, Mama.” Maura kissed her daughter and sat her in her lap, rubbing her back. And then Maura knew. This is why we do what we do, so our kids can grow up in a safer world, maybe even one without war. When Calleigh fell asleep, Maura shifted her to the outside edge of the bed. Calleigh was a kicker and Aric didn’t need that. She slipped down to lay closer to him, his body heat comforting her. He grunted, and rolled on his side to pull her close to him. “Aric,” she whispered, “you’ll hurt something.”

“Just want to feel you, that you’re here,” he whispered back, tucking her head under his chin.

*

Corso lay holding Miriah, who was finally asleep. After her tears, she’d napped, but soon woke him, her passionate kisses telling him exactly what she wanted. When he would have been gentle and slow, she wanted fire and roughness, riding a razor’s edge of need and fear. He met her need with his own, glad her screams hadn’t woken the baby, because he wasn’t sure he could have put Devin’s needs before his own at that point. That last time, he thought, when she was wearing down, her words of love to him would forever be branded on his heart. He wasn’t afraid anymore that she would take off on a vengeance hunt of her own. She was relaxed, as much as she ever got, stretched on top of him, her hair cascading down over his chest.

*

In the morning, Aric was feeling almost normal. He opened his eyes to his wife in his arms and his daughter looking at him with Miriah’s eyes over her mom’s shoulder. He grinned at the little girl, who put her finger on her lips. “Mama sleep,” she whispered, and she slid over the edge of the bed to go potty and get her brother up. Aric shifted Maura over and gingerly got up to see to them. He wouldn’t go in today, but he was determined to find whoever was responsible for all of this. He went down the stairs slowly, but he did it. The stiffness and soreness were all that remained, and the thin, angry looking line that traced the path of the vibroblade.

He made breakfast for the kids, letting Maura sleep. He thought yesterday had been harder on her than him. When she charged into the kitchen, the twins were eating eggs and he looked at her with an innocent smile. Her words, however, made him break out in laughter. “Aric Jorgan, if you think you’re going to the office today, you are sadly mistaken!” He rose and went to her, her face torn between relief that he was moving well and anger that he was ignoring the scare he’d given her. When he hugged her and felt her arms go around him, he knew they’d be okay.

Corso walked into the office, Devin on one hip. He’d parked the speeder inside, no use in being foolish, he thought. Miriah had assured him she’d be there shortly, she’d wanted to soak away some sore spots, she’d said with a wicked smile. He called Maura, wanting to check on Aric and how he’d made it through the night. Aric himself answered the call.

“Hey man, thought you’d be kicked back in bed, taking advantage of a day off,” Corso joked with him. Devin waved at his uncle and tried to touch the hologram, which made them both laugh. “Seriously, how’re you feeling?”

“I’m good, a little sore but nothing I can’t get over. Has Miriah settled down?”

“She has, but Aric? Don’t tease her about it, okay? It was a rough night.”

“I won’t, I promise. I owe her my life, and you, too. I’m going to resume the Hutt chase from here, and send anything I find out to you guys. Can you forward my datapad info to me? “

“Sure, but don’t push things.” Aric agreed with him, and he closed the call. He put Devin on the floor and walked to the vault, getting the datapad and forwarding the files to Aric’s home terminal. When he returned to his desk, he sat and worked on an updated request, checking on Devin every few minutes. When the holo chimed, he jumped, picked up the baby, and walked to answer the call. It was encrypted, and when he connected, he saw General Garza before him.

“Hello, Corso. We’re now secure here, but check your end to make sure.” When Corso had looked at the programming for a few seconds, he returned to her view and nodded, telling her to continue. “We heard about Jorgan being attacked, and I wanted to personally check on him.”

“He’s doing well, fortunately Miriah found him and Magdalane was on planet. What we don’t know, though, is who the attacker was and why he was here.”

“We think the ‘why’ is the op we were going to start next week. The ‘who’ is a small time bounty hunter, we’re running down his associates now. I’m thankful he wasn’t very proficient with a vibrosword.” Corso agreed, and told the general he’d pass along her news. He’d just ended the call when Miriah came in through the multi-purpose side.

“Why is Tanno outside looking like he’s ready to hit the front lines?” she asked, reaching for her son.

“He’s testing some new armor designs, as well as keeping an eye on the security to see if they’re doing their jobs.” The Weequay was devastated that he’d been off site working on this armor test when everything had gone down yesterday, and vowed to never let his guard down again. He went back to his workstation, preferring it when he was at the office over a desk, Miriah following. He’d just sat when he heard her “OH!” behind him. She was touching his neck, red with embarrassment, when he turned to look at her.

“I’m so sorry, sugar, I left marks on you. I didn’t mean to.” He blushed a little but more from thinking about how he’d gotten the bite mark than the fact it was visible.

“It’s nothing, really, “ he told her, grinning. “You can mark me anytime you want, love.” They were sharing smiles and sultry looks when Maura came in. Miriah went to her sister, hugging her with one arm, Devin in the other.

“Hey, you two. Aric sent me for some stuff to work on at home. He’s already restless, but he’s doing well.” She took her nephew, grinning at his smile, and snuggled him to her. “This is the cuddliest baby I’ve ever known. He just loves to snuggle, doesn’t he? He must get that from you, Cor. Miriah was definitely not cuddly as a baby.”

Corso laughed, “He just does that with pretty women, he’s a baby genius. Right, Dev?” His son looked at him with happy eyes, lying on his aunt’s shoulder. They laughed and gathered the stuff Aric had asked for. When Maura was done, Miriah took Devin home to nap, Corso telling her to nap, too. He was bent over his terminal, looking at a photo of Aric’s attacker, when the victim himself walked in.

“Hey man, how did you get away from Maura? I’m sure she said you’d be at home today.”

Aric walked to his desk, “I would be if I’d had everything, just needed this smartboard to work with and got Maura to drive me. She’s outside with Vik, who, by the way, looks bizarre in that armor.” He chuckled, “Has to be hot as hell, too.”

“Might be perfect for Hoth or Ilum though,” Corso observed. He recounted his call with Garza, and Aric nodded.

“I’ve located the Hutt that Brock owed on Quesh, part of the Three Families. We did some missions there but it’s been quite a while ago. I’ve asked Broga, the one we primarily had contact with, to tell me more about this Hutt, whose name is Keelta, by the way. I’ll forward the holonet mail when I get it.” He turned to look at Corso, who’d returned to his workstation and had his back to the Cathar.

Aric asked, “Where’s Miriah? She took Devin home already? I wanted to thank her.”

“She did,“ he replied, not looking up. “I told her to take a nap, too. Not sure she’ll come back up here today.” Aric snickered softly, and turned to the door, wanting badly to tease Corso about the bite mark. Well, he thought, if Miriah had to work out all that mad she was carrying around yesterday, at least they had fun with it.

Corso was locking his things up a few hours later, having finished the goal he’d set of reviewing all the plans currently in progress to make sure the weaponry was up to date, when another call came in. He walked over to the holo and absently hit the switch. The first thing he saw was a massive Hutt with a tiny hat on his head, which would have been funny if he hadn’t been screaming something at him. He hit the translation button about the same time the Hutt stopped yelling, and Corso realized he’d been yelling at a subordinate. Keelta, the Hutt, began to speak.

“My name is Keelta and I have no idea why you are trying to get in touch with me. Who are you?”

“Corso Riggs, of Advantages. The company you sent a bounty hunter to break into. He’s dead now, by the way.” Corso reached down and hit the record button.

“I have no knowledge of a bounty hunter. Is there a bounty on your head? No? Why would I have use of your company?”

“I don’t know myself. We’re a consulting firm. Are you perhaps running for office? Or planning a coup of Hutta?”

Keelta shook with laughter, unable to speak for a few seconds. “I have no plans other than to throw a party of my friends this evening. I only loan money, nothing more.“ He got closer to the terminal. “You have heard otherwise?”

“I know you loaned money to Numen Brock, and that he paid you with information that he got on our company. “ Corso looked intently at the Hutt’s face, trying to tell if he was hiding something.

“Yes, I did, and I won’t again. I did get the files he uploaded, they were quite valuable to a mercenary group. I have not given them the files yet, would you like to bid on them before I offer them to the Consortium?”

“No need. Everything your friend stole has been changed, so your files are useless to them.”

“Hmpf. Do not tell them they are useless until the credits are transferred, yes? You can be sure I won’t. I still had no reason to send a bounty hunter. I already had the information. True?” Corso nodded, seeing the logic. “I like you, Corso Riggs of Advantages. I will ask around, discreet of course, to see where the hunter might have gotten paid. I can call this frequency, yes?” Corso nodded again, and the call was cut off. He got the recording off the holo and sent it to Aric and kept a copy to show Miriah, then made his way home. Why did Hutts always wear such small hats, he wondered. He shook his head, it had been a strange few days.

When he got home, he gathered Miriah and Devin and set out for Aric’s house. He wanted to go over the holo recording, and Mir had cooked for them all instead of napping this afternoon. They unloaded the food and the baby, and made their way inside. Calleigh squealed and ran to Miriah, who sat down with her niece and son, to listen to Calleigh chattering away. Corso went into the kitchen with the crate of food, which Maura gratefully pulled out and got ready to serve. Aric made his way into the kitchen, clapped Corso on the shoulder, and exclaimed over all the work Miriah had done. When Miriah finally came into the house with Calleigh and Devin, Aric made his way over to her, took Devin and handed him to Maura, and then enveloped his sister in law in a hug, his eyes bright.

“Thank you,” he whispered to her, “Thank you for bringing me back to my family.” Miriah’s own eyes filled, but she fought back the tears. She simply nodded, unable to speak. His fingers brushed the blaster on her hip. “Good idea, Spitfire.” He released her and took a deep breath before turning to Corso. “I got the holorecording. Strange. Why do Hutts wear such small hats?” He had such a quizzical look on his face that Corso just started laughing, and couldn’t stop. When everyone joined in, he just laughed harder.

Keelta the Hutt’s word was good. He’d sent the info he (or really, his employees) had gathered and bid them farewell. It wasn’t good news. The Hutt had said the bounty hunter was being paid by an Imperial, a Moff Rowan, who had interests on Corellia as well as a handful of Outer Rim worlds. Which, given Advantages current number of mission projects on Corellia, made a lot more sense than any other intel they’d found. Aric paced around the office, thinking about how to keep their families secure and still continue to be assets to the Republic. Corso joined him, and they talked about what the next step might be. They finally decided to let Garza handle it, since her resources far outnumbered theirs in terms of soldiers. Aric sent their entire file to her, but not to her military holonet. He was still concerned about leaks and sent it instead to her personal account. When it was done, he sat back in his chair and looked at Corso across his desk.

“Okay, that’s done. We’re caught up on the missions we’re paid to do. Want to drive me into town? I still have to talk to the constable and I’d like to make sure Brock is gone.” Corso bristled at that name, he figured he always would. They let the sisters know where they were headed, and started the hour’s drive, Aric still moving stiffly but at least moving.

Maura took the twins to Miriah’s house, feeling like they needed some catching up time. The kids were all playing, Devin pulling himself up on things after crawling only a week or so, which had Maura laughing. “You’ll be running all the time once he starts walking, Mir. But he’s just so cute.” She made faces at Devin, which had him giggling, in turn making the women laugh. They were sitting out on the deck, the twins playing with the toys out there. They were enjoying the sun and the kids, when Akaavi came running up to the house.

“Get the children inside, quickly! There’s a shuttle landing out in the field, no markings.” Maura herded the twins and grabbed Devin up.

“You go with her, I’ve got the kids,” she told Miriah, tossing her a relay from the counter in the kitchen. “Here, let me know what’s going on.” Miriah hesitated, kissed Devin, and took off with Akaavi at her heels. They grabbed speeders and took off to the south.

When they were within a quarter mile of the supposed landing site, they stopped the speeders and stashed them in the tree line, electing to walk from there. Miriah patted her hip, reassuring herself that Grace, her blaster, was there and ready. They made their way stealthily forward, noting the spooked ronto that met and passed them. They had just come over a small rise when Miriah spotted the shuttle, just sitting there steaming. It looked damaged but not disabled. Akaavi stopped beside her, pointing to the port door. The short ramp slowly lowered and the women got their blasters ready, hitting their stealth generators at the same time. The shuttle pilot was slowly coming into view, and Miriah was tensed, ready to shoot. They watched then as a large wookie came around the end of the shuttle. Miriah sighed in relief.

“Bowdaar!” she called, as she rushed forward, forgetting she was still stealthed. She clicked the generator off as she reached him. “What on earth are you doing landing way out here?”

“The shuttle was having trouble; I figured if I couldn’t land it properly, at least if it crashed out here no one would be hurt.” He grabbed his captain in a hug. “I heard there was someone causing trouble here and it wasn’t you.” He greeted Akaavi, who’d joined them once she was sure of the wookie’s identity. Miriah keyed her relay, telling Maura who was aboard the shuttle, and they started back toward the house.

“So, you’re here to offer your services as bodyguard?” Miriah teased him, but the wookie was very serious.

“I am here to make sure that whoever is coming after you will have to come through me first,” he grunted. When they entered the house, Devin’s eyes went wide at the huge furry being. Akaavi had stopped at the guest house to ready a room for her friend. Maura greeted him warmly; glad to see that he was doing well. Miriah told him where Corso and Aric had gone, and he nodded.

“I will check outside the house and close buildings to see if I spot any problems, but between Akaavi and myself, we can keep an eye on your family.” She was grateful, and sent Bow to rest from his flight. She turned to Maura and had to smile.

“At least we’re not bored, not being who we were before we had kids.” Maura nodded, holding Devin.

“I could do with a little more boredom, sis. Aric seems to be healing well, but this last few days have been exhausting. Calleigh has ended up in our bed every night, and I found Colin on the top step asleep this morning, a toy blaster in each hand.” She sighed. “Tanno has been beating himself up, too.”

Miriah nodded. “I’ve been having nightmares about finding him. Several times a night, but I haven’t told Corso, he’d worry.” She put Devin in his chair and gave him a cookie, getting more out for the twins. They sat with them at the worktable.

“So Aric is doing okay then? All this isn’t keeping him up at night?” Miriah figured he was still pretty sore, but then Cathar had rapid healing rates. She grabbed a cloth to wipe Devin’s hands and face and prepared his bottle.

Maura snorted, “The biggest worry he has right now is that when he’s healed enough for s-e-x, which, by the way, he thinks is now, that Mags will know what he’s doing.”

“She will,” Miriah told her, grinning at her sister. “She’s told me she blocks me out.” They both laughed hard at that, the thought of their Jedi sister being in their heads at intimate moments. “She sure better get that blocking thing increased, I’m thinking.” That set them off again, and they continued to laugh when Miriah wondered out loud, “Wonder what she does in the middle of the night?” Their laughter was cut short with the holo chime.

Miriah answered, still grining, and almost broke out again with laughter when she saw her oldest sister’s image. “Mags! We were just talking about you!” Both sisters laughed as Mags smiled at them.

“I could feel a good bit of joy from over there. Aric is doing well?” she asked Maura, waving at the kids. She was assured he was, but neither of them had the courage to ask about her blocking abilities.

Corso pulled up to the constable’s office and walked in with Aric. They weren’t there long, the constable assured them there was no problem on his end, and they made their way over to the cantina that they’d put Brock in to clean up. He had gone, the bartender told them, and they’d had no trouble out of him. They also didn’t know where he was headed, but Aric had an old army buddy over at the spaceport, they’d check with him before they left. They decided to eat lunch at the cantina first, though. Corso laughed as he picked up the menu, which proudly stated that they only served ronto from the Riggs Ranch, his place. “Kinda like having lunch at home, but the company’s not as pretty,” he told Aric. Aric agreed, ordering a light lunch, not wanting to stress any healing points. They ate, and when they finished, Aric pulled his holo out of a pocket to call Maura.

“Hey, honey. How are things there?”

“Good, everyone’s fine. And Miriah’s wookie friend came in today, wanting to help watch over us all.”

“That’s great! Bowdaar’s a good fighter, and between him and Akaavi, they’ll keep a good eye out. All is good here, we should be headed home in about an hour, okay?”

Maura took the twins home to nap, where Tanno was standing watch. While they slept, she went to speak to him. “Tanno, you gotta let this go. You can’t single-handedly watch everything out here and work, too.” The large man was shaking his head.

“No, no I can’t, but since Aric got hurt I can’t not be here either.” He sighed. “It would have been easier to take if he’d been hurt on an op somewhere in Havoc Squad, but to be almost killed within minutes of his home, and unarmed? I just can’t get it out of my mind.” He fumbled with his gear, not looking at her. “If anything happened to my favorite little people, I wouldn’t be able to take it. I have to be here.”

Maura understood his compulsion, and patted his arm before going back in to check on the twins. She was just picking up toys when she heard shouts from outside, then a blaster rifle. She ran to the rear of the house and looked out, not seeing anything. It was only when she went back to the front of the house that she saw Tanno dragging a blue Twi’lek around, already shackled in stun cuffs.

“Found this guy sneaking through the trees on the path. Says he knows you guys,” Tanno grunted, tossing his prisoner up on the porch. “You know him, boss?”

“Well, I’ve never met him but I think I know who he is. Mr. Brock, is it?” The Balmorran nodded, trembling at the Weequay’s feet. “ I believe you were asked to leave Dantooine, several days ago, correct?”

Again, the prisoner nodded. He tried to sit up, only to be struck back down by the butt of the blaster rifle Tanno was holding. Maura looked him over, scanned him for electronics and told Tanno to call Aric and see if he was still in the town and could get the constable out. She took the rifle and trained on the Twi’lek. “One move, mister, that’s all it’ll take.” His face was beginning to swell where Tanno’s fist had connected with it, and one of his lekku was bent at an odd angle, but he didn’t even twitch. Vik returned and hauled him up.

“Boss 2 said take him to the office lockup, and stay there for the constable. And not to let Corso in, at least not yet.”

The prisoner finally spoke. “I wasn’t trying to do anything but get help. I’m going to be killed, either by the Senator whose daughter is now pointing at me as the father of her child, or by Corso when he gets here.” The man sobbed, pitiful in his seemingly doomed situation. Maura sighed, and thought of her own children and wondered how she could explain not helping his person.

“What, exactly, do you need help with?” she asked him. “What is it that you want us to do here?”

“I just want to get back to Balmorra. I can’t access my accounts without alerting the Senator, but if I can get back there, I have friends who will hide me until I can figure out the next step. Please. Corso will kill me, and I haven’t even tried to find his captain.”

“Good thing, too, she and their son are well guarded. Her Mandalorian would have gutted you on sight.” She watched as he paled further, and grinned. “Take him, Tanno. We’ll try to keep Corso on a leash until we figure out what we’re going to do with him.” She turned and went inside, thankful the twins were still napping.

Aric turned to Corso, who’d heard Vik’s call. Aric figured he’d be racing to get back, to shove a blaster in Brock’s face again. Instead he seemed almost calm, thinking. Finally, when he said nothing for a few mintues, Aric asked him outright what he was thinking.

“Well,” Corso drawled, “I figure the waiting is tearing him up as much as me being there, and I told Miriah I’d try to keep a cool head about Brock.” Aric nodded thoughtfully.

“Let’s get started back,” he told Corso, “and see what he’s got to say.” They arrived at the office just as the constable was escorting Brock out. They stopped and Brock visibly flinched when he saw Corso.

“I don’t want any trouble, I was looking for work and trying to get back home. That’s all.” Brock talked to them, looking at his feet.

The constable asked them if they were pressing charges, and they declined. As he was being put in the speeder car, Tanno Vik slipped a cred stick into his pocket, unseen by the other men, with enough to get the guy back to Balmorra. When Brock looked up at Tanno, he gave him a slight nod, but said nothing. When he was gone, Corso blew out a breath.

“Maybe that’s over now,” he said, turning to go home. “See you two tomorrow.” No one saw the package at the front of the office, just sitting at the door.

The next morning, when they were all at the office updating ongoing missions, Maura decided to take a break and walk outside for a few minutes. When she opened the door, she found the small package resting against the doorframe. She hesitated, but picked it up, backing slowly back into the office with it held between two fingers.

“Uh, guys? We have another present here,” she said softly. They all got up from what they were doing, made sure the children were occupied, and placed the small box under a blast hood and opened it with a nano droid. When it didn’t immediately explode or disintegrate, they moved closer to look. Inside was a data chip, much like the others they’d received, but this one had a note attached. The note said Others not formatted correctly. Please watch this one.

Corso blew out a breath, and, with gloves on, took the chip and put it into an isolated terminal, in case there was something on it that would infect their network. The screen showed nothing but static, but after a few seconds, shaky video, showing someone running appeared. Whoever was taking the video was running too, and it was hard to follow. The camera was swinging wildly, showing mostly children running, smoke everywhere, and several of the children were sick and had to stop and vomit. The last frame showed a Sith, laughing, then it froze. They reviewed it several times, and when they shut it off, Miriah had to sit. Maura was already sitting, pale and shaking. Corso swallowed hard a few times, and hurried down the hallway to hold Devin, gathering the twins to him as well. Aric paced, then sat and held his head in both hands. No one had said a word, the horror they’d seen just too much, too raw to talk about.

“Corso was right, it is a call for help,” Miriah said after she’d regained the use of her voice. “But where?”

“I’m thinking a neutral world, or one that the Empire is looking to acquire by torturing children so their parents will go along.” Aric hit his desk with his fist, for lack of a Sith face to hit. He felt sick, unsettled, and so very sad. He’d seen too much of this sort of thing when he was with Havoc squad. He wanted to go to the kids, but he was so upset still it would frighten them, he mused. When he’d had a few more minutes to calm his insides, he walked down to where the playroom was. Corso was sitting in the floor, Devin in his lap, Calleigh standing behind him, her arms around his neck, and he and Colin were playing with blocks. He looked up when Aric approached. Calleigh ran to her daddy, and Colin caught him in a huge smile. Aric slowly lowered himself to sit beside Corso, still a little stiff.

“Corso, we’ll find out what happened. We will,” Aric told him, looking at the children playing.

“Yeah, we will. How?” Corso didn’t feel confident that they had enough info to figure it out, and it was making him physically ill. And while he would put a blaster bolt into any adult for a good reason, children, to him, were to be treasured and loved, and the video clip had deeply disturbed him. He just held Devin close, and noticed the little boy was getting sleepy. He rose and walked to Miriah, kissing her, and pulled her to their speeder. He took them home, put Dev in his bed to nap, and took Miriah to their swing. He held her, trying to calm his thoughts and ground himself in their lives, trying to shut out the disturbing images. He finally asked her, “How does something like that happen? And what can we do to make sure it never happens again?”

Miriah sighed, “I don’t know, sugar, to both questions. I have been thinking that maybe Mags can shed some light on the Sith part, I really know nothing about them other than to shoot before they can get close enough to use their lightsabers.” She could feel him nod behind her.

“Let’s call her then, and get Aric and Maura over here. In a minute,” he said. He pulled her closer to him and turned her face to his, needing the comfort of her kiss, her presence to steady his senses. They’d slipped from comfort to need when a sharp bark made them jump.

“Bow! Glad to see you, man.” Corso stood to greet him, giving Miriah a chance to fix her clothes. The man and wookie shook hands, and Corso invited him to sit with them, but he refused. He explained that he was on patrol, and that he and Akaavi had set up four hour rotations, so they’d always be fresh and rested. Corso thanked him, and they took a few minutes to catch up on each other’s lives.

Miriah had slipped inside, and went to the holo to patch both of her sisters in. Maura and Aric had taken the twins home and she found them there. Mags had her daughter in her arms when she answered. Miriah told them her thoughts and suggested they all meet at the ranch that afternoon. Their solemnness told Mags that something awful had happened somewhere and she was glad to help.

They all sat inside, the light rain outside eliminating the deck as their meeting spot. The kids, except Michi, were having a great time with the playroom, and after Michi had fallen asleep, they talked. Aric and Corso filled them in on what had gone on since the first chip had arrived, and described the video clip, declining to show its disturbing images to the new mother. Aric asked Mags, “Tell us why a Sith would kill children.”

Mags, ever the teacher, started with the Sith code and what she was taught back at the temple on Tython. She told them how Sith children who are born force blind are killed by the parents, so that their bloodline will only be force sensitive. Knowing that Sith feed and gain strength from fear, it’s thought that the pure terror a child would have in the situation described would be powerful for a Sith, but children would also be thought an unworthy kill, so she surmised the Sith would have done this as a message or punishment. Maura had tears running down her face by the end of Mags’ explanation, and ran from the group when she was done. Miriah found her in the kitchen, and just hugged her, both women sniffing.

Corso and Aric had some questions about the areas where the video might have been taken, and since Mags and Felix had done diplomatic missions on a lot of the contested planets, they had some idea where this horror had occurred. They listed the possibilities, and Aric started preliminary holonews searches while Corso typed in the list of planets for analysis by one of the several programs he’d written to use in their business.

Once they’d done those beginning tasks, they moved to the kitchen to find Miriah and Maura still hugging and sniffing. They broke apart, and each moved to their husbands for comfort. When Miriah could breathe again, she started putting together a simple dinner for them all, Maura and Corso joining in. Gradually, the pall began to lift, Corso joking with Aric, both of them telling Felix the joys of parenthood. They all had much better moods by the time they sat down to eat, the kids already sleeping.

“So Aric, how is the healing going? It looks like you’re moving pretty easily. Still having any pain?” Mags always liked to follow up, since force healing could only do so much.

“I’m great, and thanks again, Mags. A little catch every so often around the scar, but that’s just a time issue. I am totally good to go,” he said, giving Maura a nudge under the table, which made her giggle. Miriah caught it and had to smile, too. Corso gave her a curious look, and she squeezed his hand, currently resting on her thigh, telling him she’d fill him in later. When the sisters gathered their kids to leave, Corso hugged them all, urging them to stay safe on the way home and also with their home security. Miriah stood beside him, watching them drive off.

It was only a few hours later that the nightmares started, and this time, it wasn’t only Miriah. She was awake and trying to catch her breath, having dreamed about finding Aric and a very still Corso beside him, when Corso sat straight up in bed, shaking, his eyes still seeing those sick and dying children. They held each other, neither finding sleep for a long time.

Aric wandered the house, and was downstairs when he heard Maura scream. He almost stumbled and fell racing up the stairs, and when he found her she was sitting on the edge of the bed, crying. He knelt in front of her, holding her as she cried. When she was only sniffing, he asked her, “Bad nightmare, honey?” She nodded, still unable to speak. He eased her down and lay down beside her. “It’s been a very emotional week, sweetheart. Just know I love you, and I’m here.” She tightened her arms around him, finally falling asleep. He didn’t, though, until just before dawn, his mind working overtime on all the questions that remained unanswered.

They met up at the office, no one rested or cheerful. They checked on the searches they’d initiated the evening before and were following up on the details, reading through all the results, when Mags and Felix showed up at the office door. “I think I may know where this was,” she said as soon as she was inside. “I remember one of the officials on a planet in the Si’klaata Cluster talking about an invasion of a moon nearby, one that involved children. Not that an Imp invasion was all that unusual, but that they brought Sith with them, looking for a half human child that the mother had taken and escaped with. Evidently the mother was a slave of a Sith lord and had a child, and this child was force blind. Rather than have the infant killed, he allowed the slave to keep the child, and when she saw a way, she escaped. I’ll get in touch with the diplomat, see if he can tell me anything more.”

Aric walked up to Magdalane and hugged her. “I think I can speak for everyone when I say that we’ll all sleep better tonight, with some direction to move toward.” Mags blushed, but beamed. “But who sent the info? The mom? Relatives? If that’s true, she must have some Republic friends, who know how to find us.” What should have calmed them now had them puzzled again. They were sitting quietly when the holo chimed, making them look warily at each other. Aric finally went to answer.

The image wavered, seemed to connect, then wavered again. Finally, an Imperial officer stood before the group, speaking in hushed tones and a clipped accent, his uniform rumpled and worn.

“I need the services your group provides,” he hissed. “I sent you a chip, several times. Did you get it?” Aric nodded, not sure what to say to this man who appeared in desperate straits. “Find the child, my child, before that monster gets him, and I will make sure you are paid.” He looked around him, frantic in his movements, “Start your search on Tython, the Sith knows he’s force sensitive now, and she may have taken him there.” The call ended abruptly, leaving the group totally confused.

Aric sat down heavily. “So, the Sith lord thinks his slave had his child and that the child was force blind. But the child isn’t his, and is force sensitive. And now the mom has this child and is on the run. The Imp soldier wants us to find the child and the mom. “ He shook his head, thinking this all just got weirder and weirder.

“The solider can’t tell the Sith lord that he’s not the father without revealing himself, which would mean death. The slave girl couldn’t tell the lord, same result. The child is force sensitive, which would mean the Sith lord could save his reputation by producing an heir, except he’s not. “ Maura shook her head, “This is a mess.”

“We can still find the mother and child, and offer them safety with the Republic, if she’s not on Tython already. Let’s call Mom and see if she can do some legwork for us,” suggested Miriah. It was a good suggestion, and they tried to call her, but she was out. They left a message for her, asking her to get in touch, and they sat to wait. When it was clear that Sarai wouldn’t be calling right back, Corso voted to take the kids for naps, and the adults too, after they’d all shared their nightmares. Felix and Mags turned down invitations to both houses, preferring to go to their home, only a few minutes from the office.

Miriah put Devin down in his bed and walked down the hall, shedding her holster and letting her hair down as she walked. She entered their bedroom, expecting to see Corso waiting for her. He was, just not in the way Miriah thought. She giggled, then covered her mouth, seeing him there. He was sitting on the bed, one boot on, the other foot still on the floor, slumped over asleep. She gently pushed him back onto the bed and took his other boot off, lifting his leg on the bed, and he never woke. Only when she snuggled into his side did he even move, and that was only to pull her closer. They napped, nightmare free.

Sarai Chantalle entered the home she’d lived in for a long time now, dead tired and ready for a meal and a long soak in very hot water. She’d started a pot of tea and was considering dinner choices when she realized the holo was blinking with a message. She moved slowly over to the machine, wondering if her grandchildren were all okay, and hit the button. Miriah stood in holographic form, asking her mother to please call her when she got a moment about a mission they were all working on. She sat in the chair, her back aching, and hit the preprogrammed number for her youngest daughter’s home. Her son in law appeared before her, a big smile on his face and her grandson on his hip.

“Hello,“ he said, turning to Devin, “can you wave, Dev?” The smiling child did so, to the delight of his grandmother.

“He’s a fine looking young man, Corso. You must be quite proud of him, I know I am. What can I help you all with?”

“We have a rather odd request. Can you tell us if a woman brought a force sensitive child to Tython for training?”

“Son, that happens every single day. How old is the child? What species? “ Sarai took out her datapad to make notes.

Corso sighed, “We don’t really know. We really need to be more specific but this isn’t a secure feed.” He thought for a minute. “You know, I think Devin needs to see his grandmother more. Why don’t we make a quick trip there?”

Sarai was delighted, the brilliance of her aura intensifying with her pleasure. She realized that Miriah wasn’t there, and asked Corso if he thought she’d go along with it. “Of course. She’s just still napping. She actually suggested it earlier.”

“Is she sick? Or injured?” Sarai asked, her concern apparent. Corso explained that she’d been having nightmares again, and Sarai accepted that as explanation enough. They disconnected the call, Corso assuring Sarai that she would see them by this time tomorrow. He went to check on Miriah, who was just stretching.

“Mama!” squealed Devin, ready for a snack. She grinned at them both, taking the baby in her arms and kissing her husband. Corso told her they needed to go to Tython and she nodded, she’d figured they would and knew that the Stardancer was ready to go. Corso went to call Aric while Devin got some fresh fruit to snack on.

“Aric, we’re going to Tython. Why don’t we all go? I’m sure it would make Sarai’s year.” Aric turned to Maura, repeated Corso’s invitation, and turned back.

“You’re on, when do we leave?”

“Why don’t we leave after dinner and sleep through the hyperspace part?” Aric agreed, and they both went to tell their spouses the plan.

They were all aboard the ship, Miriah ready to take off, when she looked at her husband in the right seat. “I can’t believe I’m voluntarily going to see my mother,” she told him. He grinned at her and took her hand for a moment.

“It’ll be fine, love, I promise.” They lifted off, and Miriah remembered how much she loved to fly. This was Devin’s first time aboard and he was fascinated by the stars once they reached the outer atmosphere. The twins loved being in space, they’d done this since they were three months old and this ship was much bigger than the one Maura had. They explored and played until all were tired, and the adults put them to bed. Miriah wasn’t tired, she’d slept so long in the afternoon, and so she was awake, sitting in the captain’s chair, when she heard Devin cry. She went to get him and he calmed quickly, snuggled up with his mom.

“I spent a lot of my life on this ship, Dev. Went a lot of places, met a lot of people. You started your life here, too, little guy. Your dad and I had a good life here, but have a good life on the ranch too.” She shifted him so that he was resting his head on her shoulder, feeling him relax into sleep, one of his little hands full of her hair.

“Can’t blame him, darlin’,” Corso said softly, his voice graveled with sleep. “I love touching your hair, too. Wanted to from the first time I saw you.” She looked over her shoulder and smiled at him, his dreads down and his eyes still sleepy. “Here, let me get you free so you can put him back in bed. “ He gently squeezed the little boy’s hand and he let go, flexing his fingers. Miriah stood to go put Devin in his bed, but Corso caught her arm and turned her to him. “This ship does have a ton of good memories, doesn’t it? We got married right here.” He kissed her, careful not to wake the baby, and walked with her to put him in his bed. He led her to their bed then, where they talked softly about their lives on the ship until sleep found them both.

The navcomp chime woke them, and Miriah felt the hyperdrive engines throttle back. They maneuvered into the orbital station without incident and when they were docked, Miriah went to the door of Aric and Maura’s quarters.

“Hey in there, we’re here,” she yelled. “Don’t make me override the lock.” She heard laughter in response, and had to smile. It was good to be with them, she thought. She made her way to Devin, who was waiting for breakfast. Corso was cooking pancakes, which brought back more memories. She was still smiling when she sat down at the galley bar, Colin and Calleigh beside her.

Sarai met the shuttle, and hugged all her grandchildren. When they were all settled at her house, the children playing and Sarai holding Michi, Aric outlined the details of what they were working on. Sarai grew thoughtful, “We haven’t had anyone from outside our usual channels bring a child here, not in almost a year.” She rose, and paced, bouncing Michi gently against her chest. “This is terrible. Horrible. Unthinkable. If she turns up here, she’ll be protected. No Sith would dare step foot on Tython. How long has she been running?”

Corso shook his head, “We’re not sure, it’s been about two months since we got the first chip, so that incident took place at least that long ago. We’re not even sure of their origin planet, so we can’t calculate what route she might have taken.” Sarai nodded and continued to pace.

“Do we know who the Imperial officer is?”

“Nope, but I do have some facial recognition software working on it,” Corso told her. He heard Devin start to fuss and went to get him.

“I’m sorry I can’t help more, but if you find them, send them here. They’ll be safe here,” Sarai told them.

“I just had a thought,” Maura said, “ I wonder if there’s a connection between Moff Rowan and the officer?” Miriah looked at her sister, eyebrows raised.

“Excellent question, Maura. Do we have any way to see the Moff’s personnel records?” She looked at Corso hopefully.

“I don’t, but I know who might. Remember Jettison? Let me contact him.” He handed Devin to Miriah, and pulled his datapad out to type a message.

Miriah took Devin to the kitchen, getting his bottle ready. The little boy was rubbing his eyes, his head on his mom’s shoulder. Sarai had given Michi to Mags, and followed Miriah.

“Can I, Miriah? I’d love to feed him.” Sarai patted the little boy’s back.

“Mom, he won’t have it. He won’t even let Corso feed him when he’s sleepy. “ She sat in the kitchen, where it was a little quieter, and Sarai sat with her. Devin was drinking, his eyes already heavy.

“He’s a beautiful child, and such a sweetie,” Sarai said, stroking the black hair that was identical to his mother’s. “Corso said you’re having nightmares again. Anything I can do?”

“Nothing, but thank you. Getting this mystery solved will probably be the cure.” She smiled at her mom, they’d worked hard to get past old hurts and to a point they could have a conversation. Sarai stood, kissed her grandson’s head, and, leaned forward and kissed Miriah’s forehead as well. No one was more surprised than Miriah, who looked in wonder at her mother as she went to join the group.

Aric spoke as soon as Miriah entered. She was still holding a sleeping Devin. “Moff Rowan is who contacted us yesterday. It all makes sense now.”

Miriah paused, “Who would have thought that? It does make a strange kind of sense, though.” Corso took his sleeping son, who he knew was heavy for Miriah when he was awake but sleeping was almost too much. “So the Moff hired the bounty hunter, why? And why try to harm Aric, other than maybe surprise.”

“Maybe the Moff didn’t hire the bounty hunter. The Hutt we got that from might have been wrong. I’m thinking that if that hunter had been hired by the Sith, the Hutt surely wouldn’t have risked his considerable neck to tell us about it,” Maura said, her hands on her hips.

Sarai looked confused. “I need a datapad to write this down, I can’t keep it straight. Age isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.” She excused herself, but then turned to the group. “I’d love to have you all for dinner, if that’s acceptable. “

Corso smiled at her, “Only if you’ll let me help you cook. It relaxes me.” She smiled her agreement, remembering another time they’d enjoyed cooking together. He followed her to the kitchen.

Aric looked at the others, “We need to be careful what we tell Sarai, I don’t want her in any danger. Cor picked that up and will keep her in there. Now, we need a plan, one that keeps us at maximum distance. Anyone?”

Miriah spoke, “She has to end up here, eventually. The fact that she appears human, will allow her to blend very well in Republic space, once she gains it. We can start at the planet that Mags told us about and look at travel routes that would be logical for her to take, and if we start here and work backwards, we should meet her.”

Aric grinned at her. “There’s the tactician. Good thinking, Spitfire. Now, how do we go about this with the children on board the ship? Not that they wouldn’t be safe, but is that something we want to risk? What are our options?”

Maura looked at Miriah, her eyes narrowed. “Did Mom look tired? Like maybe she needs a little vacation? Maybe on a nice ship?” Miriah sighed, but knew her sister was onto something. Sarai would love to spend a few days with the grandkids, and she’d be no slouch if it came to keeping them safe. Reluctantly, she nodded. “Don’t worry, Mir, we’ll give her the room we had last night and move to the crew bunks.” Aric looked at her with a frown. “Don’t worry, hon, we’ll make it work.” She winked at him.

They discussed the plan over a delicious dinner that Sarai had thought up and Corso had tweaked. The kids ate and were put to sleep, and the adults enjoyed the food and the company. When they finished, Sarai went to pack a bag and they all went to the Stardancer. Once the kids were put back to bed, they gathered in the lounge for a drink. Aric and Maura were settled in the crew area, and Miriah was so tired by now that she didn’t partake.

“We’ll start with Coruscant tomorrow,” Aric said, “since it’s relatively close and we know people there to ask. I’m thinking Nar Shaddaa after that.” The others nodded and murmured agreement, and Miriah told them she’d start moving at the seven o’clock chime in the morning. They said their goodnights, and Corso led Miriah to their quarters.

He knew she was tired, and made her stretch out while he gently rubbed her back. In less than five minutes, she was sleeping. He raised his arms in triumph, glad she could get some rest, and hoped he’d sleep without nightmares, too.