With Han and Leia softening towards Jag and Jaina, that meant things like family dinners were becoming a thing again. And since Jag was trying to put a good foot forward from here on out, he'd gotten reservations at the fancy Pangalactus restaurant. Reservations that were currently a problem, apparently.

"I'm sorry," Jag said. "Our reservation was to be held in the strictest confidence. I'd appreciate it if you could set up another room. Any other room."

"Of course," said the Rodian host, who seemed more than happy to help. "There may be a considerable wait—"

"Pardon me, sir," interrupted a protocol droid. "There is one other room free at the moment. The party that reserved it are wonderful customers who might be willing to switch this evening, and we could have it set up as requested in just a few minutes."

"We'd be most grateful," Jag said. "Please extend my thanks, and add their bill to mine."

"Of course, sir."

That did it, and a minute or two later Jag, Jaina, Han, Leia, Allana, the droids, and Jag's security agents made their way to their new room. "Very smooth of you," Jaina said. "The teenage pilot you were back in the Yuuzhan Vong War didn't have all those social graces."

He tucked her arm through his. "You might have been surprised. High-ranking Chiss military families learn a lot more than warfare."

She decided not to remind him that he'd nearly caused an international incident by ignoring a diplomat to meet her, but okay.

Jag and the Solos sat while security agents checked the room for safety, and this was entirely normal to all of them by now. "What do they serve?" Allana asked. "I hope it's not all Corellian food like Han cooks. That's too spicy."

"Give it a few more years. It'll grow on you," Han told her.

"They have all sorts of things here, Amelia," Jag smiled. "Corellian, traditional meat cuts and fixings, Mon Cal-style seafood dishes, some fine-dining adaptations of military ration packs for old soldiers like me, Hapan-"

"Hapan?" Allana brightened.

"Best outside the Consortium." No one had ever explicitly told Jag who 'Amelia' was, but he knew.

"House holocam feeds disabled," a Chiss security agent said. "No observing devices present."

"Pathogens nil," said the other. "So many exotic spices in the air I had to broaden the range of acceptable toxicity."

Jag sighed.

"Get used to it," Leia said, not without sympathy.

Dinner itself went fine. Jaina couldn't sense any tension, and everyone talked and got along, with Allana asking Jag a lot of questions about technical things because she was not your typical eight-year-old, and it was just a good night.

That is, until the wall behind Jaina exploded. A female security agent standing behind her took most of the blast, hurling forward and landing solidly on top of the table. Allana screamed, and in the momentum to get out of the way, Jaina scooped her up towards the door. Jag, who'd been sitting on Jaina's other side, was up and had his blaster drawn, and Han and Leia were getting out of the way of the table, which had partially collapsed. A black-clad figure emerged through the hole in the wall left by the explosion, and Han and Jag had fired a series of blaster bolts into him quickly, leaving him jerking from the shots until he stopped and collapsed.

The wall smashed in two more times, each from a dark, skeleton-like carapace with glowing red optic eyes and weapons systems emerging from arms and torsos. It was a Yuuzhan Vong Hunter droid, a YVH, and something Jaina had had more than enough experience with back then. The YVHs turned their weapons on Han and Leia, and so Jaina made the decision to press Allana to the floor and ignite her lightsaber. Han and Jag were firing on the droids from the cover of the table, the droids were firing on them, with Leia deflecting some of the bolts with her lightsaber.

Jaina meanwhile leapt forward, swinging her lightsaber. She knew these droids well enough to know that taking their heads off wouldn't help, so she struck through the torso and cut it in half, sticking her lightsaber up through the upper half to fry its systems. The other droid was still firing at the others, but a hatch on its torso opened and swiveled towards her.

Before she could act, the YVH flew backwards, and Jaina from the corner of her eye Jaina saw Leia gesturing, pushing the droid back through the hole with the Force. The security agents immediately rushed towards it, opening fire until it exploded on the other side of the wall, though everyone had to cover themselves from shrapnel and debris.

And there was silence. Maybe it was because the explosions had rendered Jaina slightly deafened for the moment.

After a moment she heard cursing from Han, and looked to see that Leia had gotten to Allana, who'd stayed exactly where Jaina had left her. Then there was chaos, with security agents pouring into the room and Artoo and Threepio making noise. Jaina saw her father go to her mother's side, then lean close to whisper into her ear. Thinking it might be important to know what they were saying, she used the Force to augment her hearing.

"Now we know why Daala was stalling," Han said. He reached down and scooped Allana in his arms. "And it really burns my jets."

*****

Once things had calmed down, Jag's diplomatic airspeeder dropped the Solos and droids off at their safehouse, leaving him and Jaina alone. She curled up next to him, and Jag was quiet for a moment before saying, "When Han told me that Daala knew of tonight's dinner, I should have canceled right then. Or rescheduled for a secure environment."

"You couldn't have guessed," Jaina told him. "Your security had everything checked out. The attacker had foreknowledge, false identification, intelligence sources…"

Jag nodded. "It was someone highly placed. Either in Daala's government, or among the Moffs."

"Or both."

Jag looked over at her. "You think they're working together?"

"I think they could be," she said. "Maybe Daala has arranged better terms with Lecersen or one of the others."

"Perhaps," he conceded. "But I'm the one who wants the Empire brought fully into the Alliance, not the moffs."

"True, but who's to say that's what Daala wants? Or maybe you weren't even a real target. Did you notice how surprised your attacker seemed when the Why-Vees crashed through the wall?" Jaina asked.

He shook his head. "When they burst in, I was looking at them, not him. He was already dead, he just didn't know it. Surprised?"

"Yes. It was weird."

"This isn't a criticism, just a question. Your Jedi abilities- did you feel anything before it started, any intimation of danger?" Jag wondered.

"One living attacker, who'd already settled all doubts in his mind, who'd achieved a meditation-like state of calm…it's not unusual not to detect such a person, especially in a busy public setting, where emotions can run high," Jaina explained. "I did feel his surprise, though. And that tells me a lot."

"Yes, but what, exactly? I'm not sure we know," he sighed, and then turned back to her again. "Well, you do know what we have to do now, don't you?"

Jaina frowned. "No. What?"

"We have to eat. I'm still starved."

[NFB, NFI, OOC okay! Taken from Backlash by Aaron Allston.]