Author's Note: This is the final part of this story, but there will be others. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed it. :-)

Two days later Myn was sprawled on the couch in his parents' living room. It was very late, or more accurately very early since dawn was closer than midnight. He wasn't tired, however. It was a strange thing that his biorhythm had latched itself onto Standard Galactic Time with amazing ease and speed, if not a little annoying, and he wondered how long it would take to synchronize his inner chrono to Corellian Standard Time again. He shifted a bit to take the pressure off his hip and continued to stare into the swirling flames in the fireplace. He knew he ought to try and sleep, to start reharmonizing himself to day and night on his native planet, but his mind was too restless to do that.

The sound of soft footfalls on the carpet alerted him to Kirney's return. After he'd left for Coruscant she'd taken on a flight job herself, a quick dash to Commenor to drop off a few miners who'd missed their booked flight. Myn cast a glance at her over his shoulder and saw her balancing a tray with a glass of juice, a plate with the remnants of dinner and a tumbler containing an amber liquid. Rounding the couch she put the tray on the table and held out the tumbler to him.

"Here," she said. "You look like you could use one."

"Thanks." He took a sip and enjoyed the burning sensation in his throat.

Kirney picked up knife and fork and eyed the casserole Myn's mother had made for dinner like a hungry Nexu would a nerf. "Damn, that looks good."

"Where's Kolot?"

The fork stopped half-way to her mouth. "He wanted to find something to eat and then go home. So I gave him fifty credits and jumped into the speeder."

Myn gave a sigh of mock sadness. "Bye-bye fifty credits."

Munching her late dinner Kirney grinned. "'o I 'ook 'ike I 'are? Hmmm, dats 'ood! 'ish I 'ould 'ook 'ike dat."

Myn chuckled at her enthusiasm. "My, someone's hungry."

She swallowed and then waved her fork at him. "Been living on ration bars for the last two days. And Commenor must be in deep kriff because their ration bars are even worse than the usual ones."

"Ouch!" He winced in sympathy. "Hard to imagine that this stuff can be even worse."

"Well, they somehow managed to make them worse," she returned matter-of-factly. "But I'm more curious to hear how things went on Coruscant."

He took another sip, then he put the tumbler down on the low table. "Not as planned but a lot better than I feared."

Kirney let out a not-so-delicate snort. "I figured things must have gone somewhat smoothly when there were no NRI-hired thugs waiting for me at the spaceport." Her sarcastic smirk was wiped from her face by the mingled seriousness and sadness in Myn's return stare. She suddenly felt uncomfortable. "Hey, I was joking," she said and punched his arm lightly.

"I do not find that thought funny at all," he informed her. "Not one bit."

"Sorry," she muttered contritely, even though her conscience was reminding her that she was the one who'd end up in the dock for treason if NRI ever caught her. If she was lucky and NRI didn't resort to instant justice, that is.

"Anyway," Myn went on as he tried to steer the conversation back to safer territory, "as it happened Face wasn't there. From what I was told I suspect he's doing spook stuff. Undercover op, toppling an evil ruler or something like that."

One of Kirney's eyebrows rose at his sarcasm. "So you went to Wedge?"

"Not quite." He gave a little headshake, a corner of his mouth turned upwards in a tiny smirk. "I was gratiously spared that fate. I was lucky to meet Iella and that was the best coincidence that could have happened to me."

"Iella?" she asked with a pointed look.

Myn stared at her in confusion. "That's ... Oh, right. You couldn't have met her." He smiled apologetically. "Iella Wessiri. She's with NRI and supervising the Wraiths. Corellian and former CorSec investigator, Corran Horn's partner in fact. Very competent, very intelligent, highly moral and unshakingly loyal to those whom she deems worthy of her loyality. She's very much like Wedge so it's not a surprise that these two are very good friends."

"Oh."

"Yes." He grinned slyly, an expression he rarely sported. "It's painfully obvious to everyone that they like each other more than friends usually do. Although I'm not sure they realize how obvious it is."

A small satisfied smirk appeared on Kirney's face. "So ... they're an item?"

Myn sighed and shook his head somewhat mournfully. "Not quite. Remember how I said that Iella is very much like Wedge? It's that morality of theirs that gets in their way."

"Huh? I can't follow you here."

"Iella lost her husband a while back," Myn explained, his face once again utterly serious. "In fact she had been forced to kill him herself as he'd been brainwashed by Iceheart and turned into a spy."

Kirney winced in sympathy. "That's sad."

"Yes, well. And with Wedge being such a well-behaved gentleman he's waiting for her to give him a sign ... while she's waiting for him to make a move."

"Oh my." She shook her head and smiled indulgently. "But as interesting the entanglements of General Antilles' love life are, they're not exactly related to the question I asked you, are they?"

"You're no fun," he declared and stuck out his tongue. "Anyway, I was doing the bored delivery pilot routine and Iella was playing along until we came to her office. She asked what the kark was going on and why I was playacting as if I were on an undercover operation. So I told her the basics, asked her to arrange for a meeting with Councilor Beruss and waited for two days for the meeting to happen. Then I handed over the datachip, told Beruss what she needed to know, asked them to keep my presence a secret and erase all traces of my visit from the computer systems and left Coruscant."

"Sounds like it went smoothly," Kirney remarked but narrowed her eyes at him. Her senses told her that there was a but coming her way. A capital But.

"But I don't feel like that," Myn said sullenly. He shook his head and grabbed the tumbler to down the last of his brandy. "It's moronic. I didn't feel threatened when I came back to Corellia even though the Imps here would trip over themselves to make an example of me if they knew I was back. But now I do feel threatened and it's by the government I worked for. How dumb is that?"

Kirney turned her head sideways and scrutinized him thoroughly. "You don't trust this Iella person?"

"I do trust her," he clarified. "Iella is honest to a fault. If she said she'd erase any records of my visit from the systems then she'll do it as thoroughly as she can." He leaned back and closed his eyes for a second. "It's Doman Beruss I don't trust."

"Who would? She's a politician."

"Precisely my point. I can't shake the feeling that she'll file my name somewhere under 'potentially useful' and look it up at some point in the future when she needs someone to do her dirty work."

"My goodness, Myn," Kirney muttered and stared at him with unveiled astonishment. "You've got a serious case of persecution mania, you know that?"

"Maybe." He shrugged. "But I don't think we should ignore my instincts and not prepare for the worst case."

Kirney had caught the tell-tale word he'd used. "We?"

"Yes, we." He took a deep breath as he worked up the nerve to ask the question he wanted to ask but didn't have the guts to ask straight away. "I know I have no right to ask you this, but ..."

Kirney held up a hand to silence him. "Stop beating around the Ch'ala tree. Out with it."

"You know how to prepare a disappearing act. If push comes to shove I want us to have an escape route. That means new identities, new story, a new life somewhere else."

Kirney stared at him totally flabbergasted, opened her mouth but all that emerged was a surprised squeak.

He was watching her nervously, chewing on his lower lip, waiting for a more definite reaction.

Finally Kirney managed to calm her racing pulse somewhat, but the astonishment still had her in its grip. "You want to ..." she stammered, not finishing the sentence as a new thought took root in her mind. "But Myn, your parents ..."

This time he interrupted her. Quite forcefully, in fact. "They know the risks. And I'd not be able to look into a mirror again if I let you disappear a second time." He shook his head. "Not gonna happen. And if you did I'd just scour the galaxy for you and I wouldn't leave an asteroid unscanned. So don't even think about it."

"You'd give up everything? Your past, your friends, life as you know it? Just like that?" She knew the answer already, at least her heart did, but she needed to be sure he really understood what vanishing this thoroughly required of him.

"Yes."

It was just one word, but spoken with such conviction and confidence that the last remnants of doubt fled her mind and gave way to a relief she didn't bother to hide. "Okay," she said with a shaky smile. "I will do as you ask."

"Good." He grinned like a little boy who'd just been promised a long-desired toy. "But now no more of this depressing stuff. No more politics, no more talk about intelligence services, a lack of trustworthyness or something, okay?"

"Okay." Kirney curved into his side and trailed a finger along his arm. "So what would you rather talk about?" she asked mock innocently and bit back a smile.

Myn felt his body react but he forced himself to concentrate. "Something else I wanted to ask you."

"And what would that be?"

He caught her hand to stop the distracting motion before he forgot what he wanted to ask. Seeing her twist her face into a pout he kissed her as an apology but drew back when her other hand tried to snatch his collar to draw him closer. "I'm serious, Kirney."

She gave a small sigh of exasperation. "Okay."

"I've been thinking," he began and squeezed her hand. "About my life and what I want to do with it. I had nothing else to do while sitting in the shabby hotel cube." He shrugged.

Force, he was really nervous. "Go on," she urged.

He pushed a hand through his hair, unknowingly confirming her thoughts. "The modification of the attic will not keep me occupied forever. Another six or seven months and most of the work will be done. And then what?" He was sporting that look of seriousness mingled with nervousness she'd begun to associate with him asking questions of extreme importance. "I will need a job at some point."

She was stunned. "You ... You want to work for me?"

"No." He choked off a laugh. "Not for you, with you. As your partner."

Kirney's stomach crashed to the ground and bounced. "P ... p ... partner?" she stammered, too surprised to have a coherent train of thoughts. Of course she'd wondered what he wanted to do with his life but never had it occured to her that he might want to start a business with her. So much for that advance planning you're so proud of, her conscience jeered at her.

Myn watched her closely, noting the wide-eyed expression of shock, and read it all wrong. His shoulders sagged in defeat, his head tilted forward. He didn't want to look her in the eyes at this moment. "Oh forget it," he mumbled trying to hide his disappointment. "It was a dumb idea."

The hurt he emanated jerked her out of the stupor. "What? Oh, wait ... I didn't mean to ..." Kirney pressed her palms together and took a deep breath. It didn't help her racing pulse one bit. "Let's do that again, shall we? You're saying that you want to join my business as a partner. Did I hear that right?"

He nodded. "Correct. But only if you want to. I understand if it's not ..."

Kirney held up her hand to silence him. "Stop running yourself down, will you?" She gave him a mock scowl. "I'm just surprised. That is all."

"Why that?"

She tilted her head and scrutinized him for a moment. "I'd have thought you'd be more at home in the military world. Weapons instructor or something like that."

He raised an eyebrow. "Remember I need to keep a low profile because of my service with the New Republic. Only domestic security or the Corellian Planetary Defense Forces need weapons instructors with my particular skills. And working for either branch wouldn't exactly keep me off the scanners."

"True," she admitted, her forehead creasing in concentration. "But a joint business isn't the easiest sort of thing to pull off. You need a vacuum-tight business plan and a lot of money to get it going." She gave a minuscule shrug. "It's like flying straight head-on into a squadron of TIEs. It's not something you do without having a tactic in mind."

"I agree."

His calm demeanor was like a dash of water. Suddenly she knew he'd been preparing for this very conversation for quite some time. "And you have a plan." It wasn't a question.

He nodded. "I do. It's not set in stone and in parts it's still quite rough, but I've learned that the best plans leave enough room for adaptation and improvisation."

"So spill it," she ordered quietly. "I'm curious to hear your ideas."

"Yes, Ma'am," he returned smartly and smiled. "I haven't thought too much about the company policy in detail because I wanted to discuss that with you. Right now you're doing whatever's coming your way, be it passengers who need a quick lift or wares that require timely delivery. That's fine, but I think a company of ours should try to find some kind of market niche to occupy." He held up both hands, palms facing her when Kirney opened her mouth to object. "Not immediately, mind you. I'm quite aware that this will take years. I'm just saying that we should look at what the market needs but isn't there, yet."

"And what about the beginning? Have you thought about that, too?"

"I have." He looked down for a moment, a gesture Kirney read as embarrassment, before he sought her gaze again. "My parents made an investment for me when I was born. I gained access to this fund when I turned eighteen, but I never touched any of it. I think, however, it would do fine as my share of the assets of a joint business of ours."

Kirney narrowed her eyes. There was something about his voice that roused her fight-or-flight instincts. "How much?"

"Including twenty-eight years of interests and state subsidies we're talking about a little less than thirty thousand credits," he answered quietly. "As of Monday last week."

Her eyes went wide from surprise. "Myn! That's ..."

"... not enough to form a limited liability corporation, I know," he interrupted her. "The law says we'd need a minimum deposit of fifty thousand credits for such a type of enterprise. But it also says that any company assets such as property, machines or shareholdings brought in by one of the partners do count towards this limit. I estimate the current value of your ship to be around seventy-five to eighty-five thousand credits, including the installed upgrades, so we would be well above the minimum."

"Oh-kay," she answered slowly as she failed to see the relevance what he'd said so far. "But that doesn't answer my question on what you'd do as my partner. Remember I already have Tonin for the red tape and Kolot as chief pilot and mechanic."

Myn gave her a rueful grin. "Actually that little trip to Coruscant gave me the idea. I think right now the best role for me to play, the most useful addition to your company's portfolio would be a high-security high-speed courier service." He spread his hands and began to count ideas off his fingers. "Companies may need to send important documents across the galaxy, business people may need quick transportation from one place to another, some folks may want to transfer solid credits to a bank somewhere else ... That list is virtually endless."

It made sense, she had to admit that. But there was the tiniest of problems. "But we'd need a fast courier like the Hermes you got from Horn for that trip to Coruscant. I don't imagine they come cheap."

"Actually, they are," Myn disagreed gently. "I checked the market for spacecraft while I was holed up in that hotel cube. We'd need a type with some passenger capacity, three or so, and in fact a Hermes would do just fine. KDY has released a successor type a few months back and so prices are going down already. We should be able to get a good one for roundabout forty thousand credits."

She arched an eyebrow. "Meaning we're still some ten grand short of that sum."

"Oh, don't worry." His grin turned sly. "I'll take out a loan. The courier would be my share of the company's assets. And then I can declare the repayments and interests as business expenses in my tax return and get favorable conditions with the tax authorities."

Kirney started laughing. He really seemed to have an answer to everything today. "What a sneaky little mind you have," she declared in between fits of laughter. "I think you'll do fine in the world of business seeing how fast you devise methods to milk credits from unlikely sources."

Myn's grin wavered as he became serious again. "So, what do you think? Do we have a deal?"

Kirney toyed with the idea of letting him stew for a little while, but that thought lasted just a millisecond. If she was honest with herself she liked his idea very much. Responsibility would be shared among them, her portfolio would be enhanced, they would be more flexible with more than just one ship and maybe, one day, she'd be able to settle down and work more like a controller. "Okay," she finally answered and held out her hand. "We have a deal. Partner."

Myn's grin would have lit up the interior of a black hole as he grasped her outstretched hand. Whatever comment he wanted to make was cut off when Kirney yanked him forward and fastened her mouth over his. They could hammer out the details later. Much later ...

The End (for now)