Vreem could hear the two whispering as he walked out of the landing bay. He couldn't make out what they were saying though. Then a female voice hissed a single word, now, followed by the scuffle of soft soled boots on the walkway above him. As they were coming down on either side of Vreem, the former Jedi was already spinning about. Catching each across the back of their legs, he flipped them about, so that they fell onto their backs. Grabbing the blaster rifles they held, Vreem kicked their arms, breaking them. The man and woman scurried away from him as Maro ran out and took his arm in his hand. "Shit!" The older man shouted excitedly. "Back down, they're friends!" "Could've fooled me!" Vreem growled as he threw the weapons to the ground. "They were checking you out, that's all," An older man said as he stepped from the shadows, staring at Papa. "We were not told that the Wench had a new crewmember. Especially one this dangerous." "He's a passenger. We're taking him to Corellia. Our way of thanking him for helping Lizbeth." "Ah!" The newcomer cut in. "So he's the one Cronda told me about. The boy who killed that Vernou assassin. Killing one of those bastards is not easy, kid." "No, actually, this one was very easy." "Are you saying you killed another?" Maro Rael asked in disbelief. "Yes," Vreem nodded to the two. "It was about a year and a half ago. We ran into one on Ord Mantell while hunting for several members of the Mandalorian clan Forn. Evidently someone wanted to kill Master Colo in a bad way." "What?" The man said angrily as he spun on the older man. "Master Colo? You brought a Jedi here, Maro?" "Former Jedi," Vreem said calmly. "And he doesn't know where here is," Papa Rael said as he put his hand on the boy's shoulder. "Zandya flew here. Our secret is still safe." "Wait, this is the Smuggler's Haven," Vreem said with a smile. "Yes. And you Jedi have been searching for it for a decade. But you'll never find it. Only the most trusted people get to learn where we are." "Boy," Papa Rael slapped Vreem on the back lightly. "Meet Douglas Frey, Lizbeth's big brother." "And as her big brother," The young man nodded. "Let me thank you for helping my baby sister," "Doug, get ready for this," Rael grinned at the bald man. "Meet Vreem Zarell. He's the son of none other than Mk3 and Sapphire." "You're their son?" Douglas asked in an excited voice. "That explains what you just did. Mk3 was a hell of a fighter." "I guess," Vreem said with a shrug. "Well I tell you what," Frey told Vreem, laughing. "You are proof that your father also had a great sense of humor!" "Why do you say that?" He asked, confused. "The name Vreem Zarell. That was the CorSec officer that arrested your father. Put him away for two years." "Why would he name me after him?" "Because of Vreem Zarell, he met Sapphire Zarell, his sister," Douglas smiled as he thrust a finger into the boy's chest. "Your mother." "So you knew my parents?" Vreem asked the man. "Yes, they worked for Resha Torvul," Frey said, tapping himself on his chest. "Just like I do. Same for the Raels, and Zakaria Cronda. I know Zak will be looking forward to meeting you. He was once your parent's gunner. "Here we go," Frey said as he dug a box out of the spacer's trunk he kept in his office, handing it to his wife. "Your parents left this on their ship when they disappeared. Which I guess is now your ship. I've kept it parked here in one of my private bays. I owe everything I am to them." "What kind of people were they?" "Just your typical fearless Corellians," Maro said with a grin. "Your father especially. He fought in the Stark Hyperspace War. The Corellian government gave him his Bloodstripe 1st class for the crazy shit he did. Same for your grandfather." "What did they do?" Vreem asked, eager to learn about his family. "Your grandfather was a fighter pilot for one of the mercenary companies that fought for Ranulph Tarkin," Frey said. "But your father commanded some of the best troops to fight in the war. Was about your age. But your father fought for Stark, not the Republic." "Your mother, on the other hand," Maro said as he removed his coat and tossed it on the back of one of the chairs. "Came from one of the wealthiest families on Corellia. Studied at the University of Corell, then Coruscant." "And old man Zarell hated your father with a bloody passion for taking his little girl away," Lizbeth said as she stood in the doorway. "Why didn't you tell me you knew my parents so well?" Zarell asked her. "We figured that we'd wait till we got here so there could be others who could tell you stories," Mama said as Zandya and Rella pushed their way past her. Zandya crossed the floor and pushed the boy onto the couch. She then smiled as she sat beside him, while Rella put her arms around her uncle's neck and kissed him on the cheek. "And Zak landed about twenty minutes ago, so he should be here any second." "Hah!" Bethany, Douglas' much younger, and very pregnant wife shouted as she rummaged through the box. Pulling her hand out, she held several memory cards for a holoprojector. "Found them! Now let's get this show started, shall we?" After inserting a card, a scene popped up before them of a handsome man talking excitedly to a short, beautiful woman. Behind them was a Poriin in a jump suit, trying hard to get a word in. "They're my parents?" Vreem asked after pausing the player. "You got it," A black skinned near Human said as he peered over Lizbeth's shoulder at Vreem. "And that's Rosow, their mechanic." "Boy, I would introduce you to Zakariah Cronda," Douglas said as Cronda crossed the room. "But you two have already met it seems. He's the best gunner to be found, and one hell of a pilot, as well." "Not as good as you, though," Cronda said as he sat next to Vreem. "I checked out your record with the Jedi. Very impressive flying. You are clearly following in the footsteps of your grandfather." "Are you a good pilot?" Bethany asked Vreem from where she sat on a desk. The young man just shrugged. "Such modesty," Cronda said with a smile. "Don't be fooled. He's one kill away from being a triple ace. He also has more than two hundred droid fighter kills to his name." "Droid fighters are easy to kill," Vreem said, pointing at the newcomer. "They are very predictable. It's harder to go up against the living." "It's that way in everything, boy," Douglas Frey said as he started the player back up. "Now let's get back to your parents." The group sat and watched the holos for the next two hours. "Aaaaah, can anyone tell me why my father and Rosow appears to be trying to explain something to my mother in all these holos?" Vreem asked the others when the last recording finished playing. "It's seems like they were always in trouble with her." "Your father had a very bad habit of getting involved in the affairs of others," Maro said with a chuckle. "Him, Zak, and Rosow always found themselves helping people in need. And sometimes it made them late for a run." "And your mother was always getting on our case about it," Zakariah told him. "What happened to my parents?" Vreem asked nervously. "Ask Frey," Maro said as he stared at his brother-in-law. "He's the only one your father said anything to before disappearing with your mother and Rosow." Douglas fidgited for a few seconds before answering. "It had to do with you, Maro," Maro placed his hand to the side of his head and glanced at his wife, "Yes, Mk3 said he'd found out who did that to you." "Did what?" Zarell asked, wondering once again what it was that Maro hid under the bandanas he always wore. "Just a little brain surgery," Maro said as he pulled off the bandana and tossed it onto the couch. To Vreem's shock, the man had what appeared to be some kind of interface socket above his left temple. "Show them Vreem," Zandya said quietly. "Show us what?" Maro asked. "This," Vreem said as he stood and slowly turned about. Then taking his fingers, he parted the hair on the back of his head. "You have one as well?" Maro asked as he gazed at a similar interface. "Who did this to you?" Rella asked as she stared at the back of the young man's head. "My parents." "There's no way your parents would do that to you!" Mama said angrily. "You don't understand," Vreem said quickly. "I was born with this." "How could you be born with it?" Maro asked "That speaks of a level of genetic engineering unheard of in the Republic." "My father's family is not from the Republic," Zarell told him. "I've done a bit of research on my father as well as his father. My father, as you know, was born on Corellia. But his father was adopted by a Corellian. His birthworld is listed as Mars. The thing is, when I searched the Jedi archives, the only world with that name is a gas giant with no habitable moons. And the day the war started I was in the Helvish Union and I met another of my kind." "What do you mean, your kind?" Bethany asked. "This man said we call ourselves Enhanced Humans," Vreem said. "And I was very happy to learn that I wasn't just some kind of experiment. That there are more of us." "You're talking about Asa Onyhee," Zakariah cut in. "Yes, sir," Vreem said with a smile. "I call him Big Brother, and it turns out he grew up on Mars." "They might be from the Unknown Regions or Wild Space," Cronda cut in, staring off into nothing. "And genetic engineering would explain why the three of you are such good pilots. Because Mk 3 was an incredible pilot. His reflexes where superhuman." "And he was very strong, too," Douglas muttered. "Yeah," Zarell said with a smile. "At the Temple, Masters Windu and Yoda wanted to see how strong I was. At the age of ten, I was able to lift two hundred kilos." "Are you kidding?" Bethany demanded. "No, I'm not," He replied. "My senses are far more powerful than your's. I also have an eidetic memory." "Yeah, well so did your father," Bethany said as she laughed. "They said that memory helped these guys out when it came to dealing with customers who had a hazy memory of their agreements." "Do you know who did that to you?" Vreem asked Maro as the man placed the bandana back on his head. "The guy who did the actual work?" The older man asked. "Yeah. He said his name was Van Matthews. But I don't know who it was that he was doing the work for. All I know was it was a Munn and a Human, that's it. I saw the Munn's face, though his Human subordinate kept his hidden. I do know that I want nothing more than to kill the fat bastard Matthews. But I would run from the other two. They were Force users." "How do you know that?" Zarell asked as he took a step in Maro's direction. "I saw the Human's lightsaber strapped to his right forearm as he pointed at one of my fellow experiments." "How many of you were there?" Lizbeth asked her husband. In the sixteen years she'd lived with him, he'd never talked about what had been done to him. "There were twenty of us," He said with a sigh. "But only two of us still had our sanity intact. The rest became violently insane. Matthews ended up having to kill them." "Who was the other surviver, Daddy?" Rella asked. "A girl by the name of Sharon Cass," He said. "We actually knew each other before we were kidnapped. We studied computer science at the University of Coruscant." "I bet that's why you were chosen," Vreem told Maro. "Were you good with computers?" "The two of us were the best students the school had," He said. "You'd figured they would have picked a less prominent target than myself, though." "What do you mean?" Lizbeth asked curiously, excited to finally be learning about Maro's past. "My father was the Senator representing the Ardoli sector." "My daddy is the son of a Senator?" Rella cut in with a laugh. "Wait!" Zarell said quickly. "I remember reading about that case. The two of you were kidnapped on your way to class. Your father caused a huge uproar when he hired mercenaries to find you. It seems some of them were less than gentle when questioning the school's staff. Then, after two years you returned home." "And then I disappeared again after three attempts to retake me. I did not want to endanger my family." "That's when you went to work for Resha?" Cronda said from the couch. "I figured I was safer in this line of work," Maro said with a shrug. "And I'm pretty damned good at it, too." "Let's go," Douglas said as he steered Rella towards the door. "This talk of Force users and illegal medical experiments makes me uncomfortable. How about we take Vreem to his ship." "What kind of ship is it?" Zarell asked quickly. "It's a YT-1300," Rella said over her shoulder as she went out the door. "I love those!" Vreem said as he followed the others. "The Jedi have one they use for missions. I actually got to fly it a few times. They're very maneuverable for something the size of a light freighter." "Well wait until you fly her," Mama said. "Your father, Rosow, and Zac made some very nice modifications to her. Her hyperdrive is rated at .7. It'll get you anywhere in the galaxy very quickly." "Well, I'm planning on flying it," Vreem said, confidently. "What's her name?" "What do you think?" Lizbeth said as she followed Vreem out the door. "He named it after the most important thing in his life, your mother. She's called the Sapphire." Vreem stared at the Sapphire. Lifting his hand, he activated the ramp with the control bar Douglas had handed to him at the landing bay blast doors. The ramp lowered and he took a step forward. Climbing the first step, he reached up and touched the cool metal of her hull. Then Vreem opened his eyes. "Are you okay?" Zandya asked as she knelt beside him as he lay on the duracrete. "Yeah," He muttered as he glanced about at their worried faces. "What happened?" Rella asked as the others raced into the bay. "You touched the Sapphire's hull and collapsed." "I saw my parents," He told the others as he sat up. "They floated in transparasteel tubes. But it's like they were frozen in time. My father had his eyes closed, like he was sleeping. But my mother was angry." "She was angry?" Lizbeth asked as she smiled. "Sounds like an average day for her. "No," Vreem said as he stood. "I mean she was angry! She looked like she was ready to kill someone." "What about Rosow?" Maro asked as Vreem stood. "Was he there?" "No, it was just my parents," He said. "And the funny thing was, the room where they were kept looked like it was just a storage room. There were containers piled around the room." "Were you seeing the present?" Rella asked. "No, I got the feeling it was decades in the future," Vreem said as he glanced about. "But the thing is, my parents looked exactly the same as they did in the holos we watched. And...." "And what?" Zandya asked. "And I was a Jedi again," He said as he turned to Zandya. "I had a lightsaber, as did the Human I was with."