Her small boots barely reached past the edge of the seat, her helmeted head fell five centimeters short of the headrest, and her gray eyes were as big and round as casino chips. But she was also a child princess on her first real mission, an heiress in training for one of the toughest jobs in the galaxy—and that was the thing that tore at Han’s heart. He and Leia had talked it over with Tenel Ka, and the Queen Mother had made it clear that any Hapan Chume’da needed to learn the ways of the galaxy early and well. But it just seemed so blasted unfair. How was Allana supposed to have a childhood? When did she get to be just a little girl? Thinking back on the three children he had given to the galaxy already—the two sons he had lost and the daughter he still might—Han knew the biggest mistake he had made lay in letting them grow up too fast, in letting their destinies start pulling them away while they were still too young to vote. And now here he was, under Tenel Ka’s orders to do it all again.
