"Sci," Mike's voice was low after so long in bacta-enforced disuse, "we need to talk."
Vickie stared in surprise at her friend. Bacta had worked its usual wonders, yet something was not right. He seemed, in some intangible way, even more drained than he had been before they sealed him into the tank back in Paris. She tried using the Force to investigate but met with the same resistance she'd been feeling from him all along. Ever since-
If he still didn't trust her, what more could she do? Failing to catch his eye as he focused on the image of their galaxies-distant leader, Vickie sighed and turned to follow the rest of Team Paris out of the ops room.
As soon as the door had closed behind her, she felt a hand light on her elbow and looked around to find herself cornered by Josh and Becki. "Vickie," said her fellow Jedi, "we need to talk."
Vickie had sent Raymond's half-locket along with the rest of her luggage on to the home she shared with Rich, just outside the Palace grounds, so it was there that the three agents went for their talk. Becki and Josh, seeming ten times more at ease here on Vickie's turf than they had ever since their return to the Palace, waited cheerfully for her to find the necklace. Even before she finished rummaging through her things in search of it, Vickie was as certain as Josh had been: Baby Thirteen's locket was a perfect match- symmetrical match-for Raymond's.
"Does it have a holo?" she asked her companions as she sorted through compartments for the tiny necklace.
"What?" Becki, perched comfortably in a chair across the room with the baby in her lap, looked up from watching Vickie's hunt.
"Like the holo of Cheriss with Wedge and Tycho that Raymond's had. If these are as alike as they seem, maybe the baby's has a holo too."
Even before she finished speaking, Josh had found what she spoke of, and let out an impressed whistle to call the two women's attention to it: Held at just the right angle, the tiny charm projected a lifelike, though miniscule, image of a very young Cheriss, this time standing with Wes and Hobbie, cheesy grins decking every face.
"It's a match, all right," Becki smiled.
"And here's Raymond's," said Vickie, holding up her find in triumph. "They certainly do look alike." She glanced from one to the other, each with its holo dancing surreally in the air above it. "I wonder. . . ."
Josh and Becki looked at her inquisitively, and Vickie gestured between the two holos. "Look at Cheriss in each of them. She's standing just the same. Like these are two halves of the same picture, split down the middle right where she was. Only without cutting her off on either one."
"You're right," Becki said in excitement, standing up to come in for a closer look. "And if you overlapped the images . . ."
"Yes, if we did-" Vickie did just that, moving her half of the locket ever closer to the half Josh held, until the edges of the two holos started to merge, overlapping in the person of Cheriss. The youthful image of the agent blurred and wavered at the joining. And then, just as it settled into one image, Cheriss's dark blue eyes the focal point of the whole holo-
With a quiet click the two halves of one locket were joined. Cheriss and the four Rogues disappeared. The three Terrans gasped.
A new holo had appeared in Cheriss's place. This one was more words than images, and the words scrolled by inexorably, fervently, like soldiers marching in a parade. Josh and Vickie and Becki watched as the sum of some nine months of Cheriss's search for the shield marched past their eyes. All her notes, all her clues, all her successes-and even her failures, which were clues in themselves.
When the parade had ended, they stood a moment longer in amazement before meeting each other's eyes with smiles like children on Christmas morn.
Now they knew.