Maybe if the Panacea had a translator droid aboard—but no, just a few therapy droids, with their wide-eyed faces and serene way of moving, and some pill droids floating around. It was a medical ship, after all.

Burryaga walked up to three people chatting quietly among themselves—a Mimbanese couple and a human female. They seemed washed out, reduced. Even the scarlet skin and huge, blue, pupil-less eyes of the Mimbanese seemed pale. He understood that. They had all spent what must have seemed like an eternity tumbling through space in that cargo compartment, certain they were going to die at any moment. Burryaga held up a hand in greeting.

“Hello,” he said in Shyriiwook, expecting and receiving a very familiar set of blank looks in response.

“Master Jedi,” the Mimbanese male replied, in Basic. “It’s an honor to meet you. We’re all so grateful for everything you did.”

“Of course, sir,” Burryaga replied. “No need to thank us. All life is precious, and we are all the Republic.”

More blank looks. He suppressed a sigh.

“Hey, Burry,” he heard a voice say, and looked over.

It was Joss Adren with his wife, Pikka. Both had drinks in their hands and seemed utterly relaxed. He didn’t know how they did it. Maybe it was the drinks. The two pilots walked up to the little group.

“You guys might not know this,” Joss said, “but this is Burryaga. He’s the reason you’re all alive.”

“Uh, dear, perhaps there’s a better way to phrase that?” Pikka said. She wasn’t tiny, for a human, but next to her husband, she appeared so. Joss Adren looked like a tree trunk with a head on top.

“But it’s true,” Joss said. “We were getting ready to blast you guys into vapor—I mean, we didn’t know you were aboard. We thought you were just another fragment, and wanted to make sure you didn’t smash into anything. But then Burryaga here got on the comm and started yelling up a storm—he sensed you in there, and stopped us from firing just in time.”

He grinned.

“But it was close. I mean close. One more second, and—”

Pikka hit him in the arm, hard.

“Ouch,” Joss said.

“Come on, darling,” she said, leading him away.

The three survivors were staring at Burryaga. He felt hot and wanted to start panting, but knew some people saw that as a threatening move, but he was a Wookiee, and of course his teeth were sharp, and—

“Is that true, what he said?” the Mimbanese woman said. “Was it really that close a thing?”

He nodded, and their faces went very thoughtful, and Burryaga felt very embarrassed. They were treating him like he was some sort of…