Krussik returns to Ischar, having received a message from his apprentice. Navi, Fror, Millenia, and the boys visit Ballast Station in search of a possible Jedi recruit. The boys gamble while the ladies find Botani Ulte, who plays quizmaster and then asks Navi to duel. After the duel Botani agrees to accompany the team back to Tatooine.
Elsewhere, Zahn, EmQuai, and Dral get Shino's location from Caira and go looking in the Excel. What they find is Shino, Gehenna, and the Starblight Sojourners' capital ship; the bounty hunters are eager for Dral but happy to collect Zahn and EmQuai as well. What they do is run like hell and microjump away, to Shino's relief.
Botani gets his Jedi on and joins the Order. The kids act precocious. Zahn, Dral, and EmQuai assemble a new ship and vanish into the night. Shino heads to Malastare and throws cash at Eeevaraku so she can contact Zahn. The usual.
Miz Morathon decides to wed Rax Nathelyte at the New Year, and a huge party is held. Navi spots a possible mysterious gatecrasher. Lord Zahn of the House of Meityllan definitely crashes the party with Dral, EmQuai, and all his Meityllan friends. Did we mention the Meityllans are working with Daedon? Well, they are. And wackiness will once again ensue.
Caira warns everybody not to start trouble. Shino, now on Zahn's staff and diplomatically immune to Jedi custody, arrives late and tries to warn Zahn about Gehenna's tracking device, located on the Pillar of Autumn which Millenia parked in ship lot C or whatever. Gehenna snipes Shino in the head, much extreme cliff-diving is had, Sojourner troopers in powered armor descend from the sky, limbs go missing, elevator cables are cut, high-powered rifles are fired, another screwy Xard (yes, that's redundant) shows up, Navi falls off a catwalk, Millenia's bad luck with doors continues, a ship plows into the palace, thermal detonators go boom, half the party ends up 3 hull points away from a potential case of the deads, missiles go flying, TIE fighters launch, Karlo nearly suffers a devastating blow to his masculinity, and presumably Caira learns that some instructions just aren't worth wasting her breath on. Ever.
Oh, and somewhere in the confusion Morathon gets married. Which is very anticlimatic so nobody pays much attention to this bit.
Anyway the party is now well and truly split, with Navi, Botani, Fror, and Millenia (who nearly lost a limb) with the Consortium, which votes to boot the Meityllans. Zahn (minus one hand), EmQuai (minus one forearm), Dral, and Shino are part of the Daedon-Meityllan alliance, and headed to Bespin. Daedon greets the party, thanks Shino for punking him in the head, and "invites" everyone to watch the debut of a super-mega-death-o-matic invention.