By the time Jaina got back home for some on-site rehearsal aboard Lando's ship, she thought she could recite each and every point of the plan forwards and backwards, which was why she was getting really annoyed when she thought not everyone was taking things as seriously. That even included Lowbacca, who at one point had to be separated from their YVH 1-1A war droid by Lando before he gave up on that possible scuffle for the moment.

"We've transferred the extra two YVHs and your equipment pod, and Tendra is down on the bridge plotting our route with the crew," Lando told them when he'd gotten Lowie to back off. He didn't seem too happy.

"We're ready," said Tahiri with the same sort of confidence Jaina was sure she'd had at that age, too. And did that age ever feel like forever ago. "One-One-A has seen to that."

"One-One-A is a droid," Lando reminded her. "He can make you drill and practice, but he can't prepare you- not for something like this."

It probably should have been a good sign that Ulaha, their Bith tactician, seemed just as confident as the fourteen-year-old. "I'm not sure I understand. Our rehearsals have been flawless. Certainly, we must be ready to improvise- every good ensemble is- but current projections give us a... seventy-two percent chance of success."

Jaina bit her lip against reminding her that seventy-two percent wasn't a lot. She was trying not to think too hard about the odds, but people kept insisting on bringing them up.

Besides, Lando could do it better than she could. "What I'm talking about can't be measured," he said, looking at all of them. "Things are going to go wrong. No matter how many times we rehearse, no matter how well we plan, this isn't going to happen the way we expect. You'll need to react fast."

"No different from any battle," said Ganner.

"This isn't a battle, Rhysode. Get that into your head," Lando said, glaring. Since Ganner would be acting as decoy leader for the mission, it seemed important that he get this. "You're not going as warriors, you're going as spies. You'll have to do things that don't sit well inside. You can't balk. You can't even hesitate."

"We won't," said Alema. The Twi'lek's assurance wasn't like that of Tahiri; she really honestly meant this. "I won't."

Lando nodded. "You've been there, I know. Watch Alema," he told the others. "She'll do what's necessary, and so should you."

It was absolutely no surprise that Jacen wasn't good with that. "What are you saying? That any means justify the ends?"

"He means we have only two concerns," Alema answered. "The first is to complete our mission. The second is to return alive."

"That way lies the dark side. If we have no concern for the methods we use to win our goals, we are no greater than the Emperor... of the Yuuzhan Vong."

"Perhaps so. But if the path before us is dark, we dare not shy away- not for our own sakes, but for the sake of those who will fail if we fail."

This was just as bad as when Jacen and Anakin would get into it. And while Jaina could see the point in Alema's words, it was a little too much on the Kyp side of things for her to even think about taking it to that degree. Of course, everyone else, like Jaina, had an opinion, and they had to voice it. "And for Numa and Lusa and Eelysa and everyone else the voxyn have taken already," Raynar added.

"Of course. For their sakes most of all," Alema agreed with a smile.

Zekk was shaking his head. He'd turned once, when he was sixteen and untrained, and since coming back he'd been extremely cautious when it came to the dark side. He had reason to be scared of it now. "No. Vengeance leads to the dark side. I won't be part of something like that."

At that point everyone started talking at once, probably just because someone had put that on the table. Raynar and Alema were arguing that they should go as far as it took, Zekk and Jacen arguing the opposite, everyone else falling somewhere in between. Only the Barabel hatchmates, Tesar, Bela and Krasov, remained silent. And yes, Jaina definitely fell in the middle of the two extremes. You did what you had to to get the job done, but there had to be a limit, and you couldn't always know that limit until you reached it. It didn't really occur to her that she was contributing to the same sort of infighting she kept complaining about.

The fighting stopped when Anakin finally yelled, "Shut up! That's an order!" It worked probably in part to amplifying his voice with the Force so he could be sure everyone heard him. Glaring at Raynar and Alema, he said, "Nobody is turning to the dark side on this mission. Is that clear?"

"I didn't mean to suggest we should," said Alema quietly. "Only that we can't shy-"

"Is that clear?"

Reluctantly, she said, "Of course, Anakin."

Raynar just nodded. "Fine. Who'd want to anyway?"

With that settled, Anakin turned his attention to Zekk and Jacen. "But Lando's right," he said. "We may have to do some things we don't feel good about, and do them quickly. If you can't live with that, maybe you should catch a ride home on the freighter."

"What kind of things?" Jacen asked. "If we talk about our limits now-"

"Jacen! Can you do this?"

Jacen looked around for support, which he got, especially from Zekk and Tenel Ka, but Jaina wasn't part of it. She wasn't about to choose between her brothers, and she really wouldn't do it in public. It was like watching Luke and Kyp debating and watching the divide happen, and if they wanted this to work, they couldn't be divided.

Anakin looked much older than seventeen when he turned to his brother and said, "Jacen, maybe-"

He was going to ask Jacen to leave the mission. Jaina knew that much, and if that happened, there was no coming back from it. And that was going to damage a lot personally. She didn't understand why they couldn't just work together like they used to-

"Anakin, I've had a brainstorm!" Jaina said, cutting him off before he could finish his sentence. "You know how we've been worried about the breaking?"

"Yeah?" he said slowly. "What's that have to do with what we're talking about?"

"You remember how we used that telepathic Force union during that first Yuuzhan Vong attack on Dubrillion? What if Jacen could help us all do that? We could use the link to bolster each other mentally and emotionally," she explained. It wasn't manipulative, it was teambuilding.

"That is a good plan," Tenel Ka agreed. "Every interrogator knows that mental isolation is key to breaking a victim's resistance." It was probably best not to think too hard about why a Hapan warrior princess had to know that.

Anakin still didn't seem convinced, but he didn't shoot the idea down. "How can we do that?"

Jaina knew if he was hearing her out, she could talk him into it. "I've been talking to Tesar and his hatchmates about the Wild Knights' combat tactics," she said, looking over at the reptilian Barabels. This was what she did in her down time, yes. "I think we could adapt a couple to our situation."

"Yes, this one thinkz we could," said Tesar. "Perhapz we could even use the bond to create a big meld-fight."

"An interesting possibility," Anakin said.

Good, she had his attention. "But we'd need Jacen," Jaina said. "He's the only one with enough empathic power to bind us all together."

There was a pause, and Anakin looked straight at Jacen. "You have to do what I say when I say it," he said. "If something feels wrong, it's on my head, not yours. If you can't live with that, I'm sorry, but you can't come."

Jaina bit her lip, but Jacen didn't even hesitate. "I trust your judgment, Anakin," he said, and nodded. "I really do."

[NFB for distance, NFI, yadda yadda. Dialogue taken straight from Star By Star by Troy Denning.]