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told me you’d escaped.”
    â€œShe mentioned she’d met you.” Jacen, in the doorway, turned his owlish expression to Jaina. “Sis, do you need rescuing?”
    â€œGet out of here,” Jaina said.
    â€œRight.” He turned back to Jagged Fel. “Nice seeing you again, Jag.”
    â€œGive my regards to the folks,” Jag said, and sketched a salute near his scarred forehead. The door slid shut behind Jacen. Jag looked at Jaina and removed from his lap some of the objects that had fallen from her shelf.
    â€œMay I stand up?” he said. “Or would you just knock me down again?”
    â€œTry it and see.”
    Jag elected to remain seated. Jaina folded her arms and leaned against the wall as far from Jag as the small cabin would permit.
    â€œLast I heard you were clearing Vong off the Hydian Way,” she said.
    He nodded. “That’s where I met your parents. It’s important work. If the routes from the Rim to what’s left of the Core are broken, the New Republic would be broken into—well—into even smaller fragments than it is now.”
    â€œThanks for the lecture. I never would have guessed any of that in a million years.” She frowned down at him. “So you left this important work in order to sneak into my cabin and conduct your experiment?”
    â€œNo, that was by way of a bonus.” Jag swept a hand over his dark short-cropped hair. “We’re here for routine maintenance. Since my squadron flies Chiss clawcraft that aren’t in the New Republic inventory, it’s difficult to find maintenance facilities geared to our requirements. Fortunately Admiral Kre’fey’s Star Destroyers have all the equipment necessary to maintain Sienar Fleet Systems TIE fighter command pods, and their machine shops should be able to create anything we need for our Chiss wing pylons.” He smiled up at her. “A lucky coincidence, don’t you think?”
    Jaina felt herself softening. “I’ve got six rookie pilots,” she said. “And there’s an operation coming up.”
    He gave her an inquiring look. “You weren’t planning on taking them out on an exercise at this very moment, were you?”
    â€œI—“ She hesitated. “No. You’ve got me there. But there’s a ton of administrative work, and—“
    â€œJaina,” he said. “Please allow me to observe, one officer to another, that it is not necessary to do all the work yourself. You absolutely must learn to delegate. You have two capable, veteran lieutenants in Lowbacca and Tesar Sebatyne, and not only will it aid
you
if you share the work with them, it will aid
their
development as officers.”
    Jaina permitted herself a thin smile. “So it’s to the benefit of my officers and pilots to spend the evening in my cabin alone with you?”
    He nodded. “Precisely.”
    â€œDo you play sabacc?”
    Jag was surprised. “Yes. Of course.”
    â€œLet’s have a game, then. There’s a very nice sabacc table in the wardroom.”
    He looked at her mutely. She broadened her smile and said, “I played your little game, here in the darkened cabin. Now you can play mine.”
    Jag sighed heavily, then rose and stood by the door. As she walked past him to open the door, he clasped his hands behind his back.
    â€œI should point out,” he said, “that if you chose to kiss me at this moment, I would be absolutely powerless to prevent you.”
    She regarded him from close range, then pressed her lips to his, allowed them to linger warmly for the space of three heartbeats. After which she opened the door and led him to the wardroom, where she skinned him at the sabacc table, leaving him with barely enough credits to buy a glass of juri juice.
    Her father, Jaina thought, would have been proud.
    Jag contemplated the ruin of his fortunes with a slight frown. “It seems