by James Luceno
Saw turned to Mama and handed her a flat metallic card like the ones Papa used in his work. “In the meantime, take this comm card. It will allow you to contact me if you ever need my assistance.”
Jyn thought about her old bedroom on Coruscant. “I miss Mac-Vee, Mama.”
Mama stretched out her hand to move the hair from her face. “I miss him, too, sweetheart. Maybe we can get a new Mac-Vee.”
Jyn nodded, still thinking about the old Mac-Vee.
Mama looked at Papa without smiling. “I guess we’re just not cut out to be nomads, after all,” she said.
Papa nodded. He also wasn’t smiling. “Funny to hear you say that. But we’re a team. We’ll get through this.”
“No regrets?” Mama asked.
Papa said: “None.”
Jyn watched them and listened. She didn’t know what the Empire was or who the Empire was, but Mama and Papa and Saw didn’t like it. In some way the Empire had made them leave behind all her toys and Mama’s and Papa’s clothes and other things. And Mac-Vee, too, who would have nothing to do without them there. But she felt warm and safe in Papa’s arms, and Saw was a new friend.
Mama and Papa were good and so was Saw. And so was she. Good like Brin was in The Octave Stairway. If they tried hard enough, maybe they could find the home they were looking for.
Saw went back to the cockpit, and Mama and Papa and she stood at the window.
Soon after, the lights in space shifted slightly, then turned to long lines, and Saw’s ship jumped and disappeared into swirling gray hyperspace.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thanks to polymath Ronie Lavon for the crash course in lasers, crystals, and synthetic diamonds, and to Tim Lapage of Safari Experts for some last-minute inspiration. Thanks also to the members of the Lucasfilm Story Group for bringing me aboard; and to Elizabeth Schaefer and Greg Kubie, of Del Rey books, and Mike Siglain, Jennifer Heddle, and Frank Parisi, of Lucasfilm, for their help and support along the way.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
JAMES LUCENO is the New York Times bestselling author of the Star Wars novels Tarkin, Darth Plagueis, Millennium Falcon, Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader, Cloak of Deception, and Labyrinth of Evil, as well as the New Jedi Order novels Agents of Chaos I: Hero’s Trial and Agents of Chaos II: Jedi Eclipse, The Unifying Force, and the eBook Darth Maul: Saboteur.
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