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Excerpt fromRebel Risingby Beth Revis
Jyn sat beside Saw in the cockpit of his ship.
Credit: Disney Lucasfilm Press
She stared straight out the window, watching as they soared through the clouds of Lahmu.
Saw glanced where she was looking and nodded grimly.
A Star Destroyer hung in the blackness of space, the sun illuminating the underbelly of the ship.
Theyd sent a Star Destroyer for her father.
Papa is on that ship,Jyn realized, her eyes widening.
He was somewhere, somewherethere, just out of reach but so close.
Saw was busy at the controls.
Within seconds, they were well past the Destroyer, and in minutes, theyd lurched into hyperspace.
Hey, kid, Saw said, swiveling his chair so he could see Jyn fully.
She stared at his face, wondering at her memories of him being funny and kind.
His dark skin made the puckered scars near his le eye stand out.
Except for his eyes.
Saws expression grew hard.
You knew why my parents went into hiding, Jyn said.
But I had no idea theyd send a Star Destroyer after him.
Jyn had to admit she was a little surprised, too.
She knew some of what he did.
Mama and Papa had said never to tell anyone about Papas research, but she could trust Saw.
He studied crystals, Jyn said, pulling the necklace her mother had given her om under her shirt.
She slipped it over her head and handed it to Saw when he held out his hand.
It was, Jyn knew, a kyber crystal.
Not a very good one, not worth a lot of money.
Papa had worked with very good kyber crystals when he worked with the Empire.
I know about the crystals, Saw said, handing the necklace back to Jyn.
But your father must have been working on something else, something more concrete.
The Empire doesnt just come down like that for crystals.
Thats all he worked on, she insisted.
That you know of, Saw said darkly.
Did he say anything when the Empire came?
Anything at all maybe he told you something that could be a clue.
Jyn closed her eyes.
And then he had gone with the man who killed Mama.
No, Jyn told Saw.
Saw turned to the window and stared at the blue-gray light of hyperspace.
Theres something more here, he said, mostly to himself.
Since Coruscant, Galen has been working on something big, I know it.
We have to figure out what it was.
Jyn felt tears burn in her eyes.
Her father had been working on a broken harvester droid the night before the Empire came.
Not some big secret.
But she knew Saw was right.
Mama and Papa talked about it, late at night when they thought Jyn was asleep.
Research and crystals and fears.
She wished shed paid better attention.
She wished she could at least understandwhyall this was happening.
She forced herself to remember the way things used to be.
On Coruscant, when her father had openly worked for the Empire.
She had been littler then, and easily distracted, but even she knew that her parents werent happy.
When theyd moved to Lahmu, things seemed better.
Mama taught her every day, math and science and literature and history.
He didnt work until he collapsed, mumbling to himself, ignoring her.
But there had still been that undercurrent of fear.
They invented scenarios of bad things that could happen and told Jyn what to do.
Papa liked to pretend it was a game, but Jyn knew better.
There wasnt a scenario for if Mama died,Jyn thought.
They had a lot of plans, but none of them ended with Jyn alone.
They would hide, run, survive.
Mama had never thought about what would happen if she died and Jyn hurtled away from home through hyperspace.
But when she looked at Saw, she knew that wasnt true.
He was her parents plan if the worst happened.
Saw was her last hope.
His eyes were red-lined, and he sighed heavily as he ran a hand over his smooth head.
