"No," Jaden admitted. "But… "

Relin ignored him, continued. "And Saes, the captain of Harbinger, should he figure out what has happened, may try to do exactly that: take it to the Sith. Or he may hoard it for himself. But he is very dangerous in either case. I need to destroy either the Lignan or the ship. And if he leaves this system, we may never get another chance. I do not have much time. Harbinger's hyperdrive is damaged. The whole ship is reeling from the misjump. This is the moment."

Khedryn thought he could see Jaden bend under some weight known only to him. The Jedi very much wanted to go down to the moon's surface. When his expression fell, Khedryn knew that Jaden, too, had just surrendered.

"You are right," Jaden said. "The ore is the greater concern. I am being influenced by… personal concerns. The moon can wait. I will accompany you aboard Harbinger."

Relin stared into his teacup. "No. Unless you can suppress your Force presence altogether, you are unwelcome. Saes will detect you easily."

"You could screen me."

"Your presence is too strong, Jaden," Relin said. "Masking it from Saes would be difficult and an inefficient use of my power."

Listening to their exchange, Khedryn perceived two men trying to give the other an excuse to do what he wished, all while purporting to want its opposite.

"Heed your own words," Relin said to Jaden. "The Force called you to the moon, and that is where you should go. Look to your feelings."

"I don't trust my feelings."

The admission seemed to take Relin aback. "You cannot accompany me, Jaden. This is for me to do."

"My Force presence is not strong," Marr said, his words surprising everyone. "I could accompany you."

For a long moment, no one said anything.

Khedryn was too stunned to speak. Finally, he said, "Why would you do that?"

Marr sighed over his caf, shrugged, tilted his head, finally found words. "I told Jaden how I once calculated the probability that my life would go this way or that. Do you remember me telling you the same thing?"

Khedryn nodded.

"Do you know why I did that? It was not just the math. I wanted to confirm that my life would mean something, that I would do something important. But then… other things got in the way."

"Marr… " Khedryn said.

"I do not regret a moment. You are my great friend. But is salvage all I want to have left behind me? This is a chance to do something meaningful. I concur with Jaden that something other than chance brought us to this moment. It is more likely that you'd win at sabacc than all of this to happen by chance."

Khedryn smiled despite himself. "That's sayin' something."

Marr continued, "Our lives have led us up to this place at this moment. How can I run away from that?"

Marr did not say it, but Khedryn understood Marr to be asking him the same question, and he had no good answer. For him, running away was simple habit. He'd been running away from roots and responsibility since he'd become an adult. It had worked pretty well for him.

Marr looked to Relin. "I will go, if you will have me."

Jaden started to speak, stopped.

Relin stared across the table at Marr. "You've only just met me, and you do not know what I have in mind."

"Whatever it is, it will require a ship. You'll need a pilot who knows the ship, not to mention one with two hands."

Relin tilted his head to acknowledge the point. "The Lignan will affect you more strongly up close. You've felt some… unease since Harbinger appeared?"

Marr nodded. "A headache, mostly."

"The feelings will be more acute when you are near its source."

"For you, too," Jaden said to Relin.

Marr's brow was smooth, his eyes untroubled. "Even so."

"You're certain?" Relin asked.

"Too certain, I'd say," Khedryn said.

"Yes," said Marr, eyeing first Relin, then Khedryn. "I am certain."

"Very well," Relin said.

Khedryn shook his head, finished off his caf. "We are all crazy on this boat. I need another caf. Anyone else?"

Everyone nodded.

"Drinks all around, then," Khedryn said, and started to rise.

"I will get it, Captain," said Marr. The Cerean rose, placing his hand on Khedryn's shoulder as he passed, the small gesture a reminder of the years they had been friends.

"Let's talk specifics," Khedryn said to the Jedi. "What are your plans?"

Relin gestured for Jaden to go first.

"I fly down to the moon. Find what I am supposed to find."

"Alone?"

Jaden nodded.

"No," Khedryn said. "I am not leaving my ship down on that moon if you… find something unexpected. I can shuttle you down in Flotsam. We'll be able to dodge the cruiser's sensors and get you into the atmosphere. From there you can locate the source of the beacon. But I expect more when we're done. The Order owes me. Another five thousand on top of what we already agreed. Yes?"

"Agreed."

"You hear that, Marr?"

"Heard it, Captain."

Haggling over fees made Khedryn feel more like himself, more in control of events. He looked to Relin.

"And what about you? How do you plan to get aboard that cruiser?"

"I need Marr to fly me in."

"In where?"

"Into the ship."

Khedryn scoffed, then frowned when he saw that Relin was serious. "That isn't happening."

Relin's jaw tightened, and loosened, masticating his thoughts. "My Padawan died trying to bring that ship down. I am going back aboard and destroying what needs destroying. There's only one way for me to do that. We fly this ship right down its throat."

"Fly my ship, you mean."

"Yes, your ship." Relin's tone turned earnest. "Listen to me. Harbinger's weapons systems are down. They have to be. Otherwise they would have blown your ship from space already. Saes had to deploy fighters to attack you rather than his batteries. So Marr flies your ship out of the rings and into the landing bay before they can stop us."

"You look a lot less sick when you're talking about risking lives," Khedryn said. "The ship has active deflectors. How do you propose getting through those?" He felt a pang of guilt even asking the question.

Relin's expression fell. "The shields? I… don't know."

Khedryn did know but could not bring himself to mouth the words.

"There has to be a way," Relin said.

Khedryn stared at Marr, who was pouring caf, willing him to hold his silence, but the Cerean ignored him. "We could use the power crystal to open a temporary hole in the shields."

Khedryn blew out an irritated sigh.

Jaden looked startled. "You have a power crystal?"

Khedryn glared at Marr, at Jaden, at Relin. "We've used it twice, to board uncrewed derelicts when the autopilot kept the shields operational."

"Where did you get it?" Jaden asked.

"There's a whole lot of things floating in the black, Jedi. I told you that. Just need to know where to look."

Jaden looked around, as if he expected a power crystal to burst out of a closet. "Where is it?"

"In my pocket," Khedryn snapped, then recovered himself. "Mounted on the beam projector behind Junker's dish."

"It is a power sink," Marr said. "We'll have to divert most of our power to operate it. But it should work."

"The problem appears solved," Relin said. "Thank you, Marr."

"Yes, thank you, Marr," Khedryn said.

Relin went on as if he had not heard Khedryn's sarcasm. "Saes will not expect it. He thinks we're destroyed. The Blades flying patrol will be too far out and none of the fighters on the ship will scramble in time to intercept us."

"That is madness," Khedryn said. "Marr, did you hear this?"

"I heard it, Captain." Marr returned to the table, distributed the caf.

Khedryn raised his eyebrows. "And?"

"What other choice is there?"

"We go back to Fhost, forget this whole thing," Khedryn said, but everyone responded as if he had not spoken at all. Events had passed him by.