Joss Adren, a mechanic and contractor on the Starlight Beacon, finishes packing up his clothing in preparation for his and his wife Pikka's departure from the recently completed space station. However, Pikka is distracted, despite having been insistent about being ready on time earlier, paying close attention to her datapad. She reveals to Joss that she's found an error in the station's power systems, one that she feels they should take a look at, despite the fact that their work on the station is over.
Heading to investigate, Joss and Pikka run into station administrator Shai Tennem giving Admiral Pevel Kronara and a party of Jedi a tour of the station. The Adrens are concerned that they'll be roped into joining the tour, despite the power issue being time-sensitive, when Master Nib Assek, on the word of her Padawan Burryaga Agaburry, suggests that the couple be left to their work, allowing them to hurry on. They find the problem inside Conduit 398-GX14, near the entrance to Starlight Beacon's Jedi temple: a miswired resistor hub that could wipe out power to the whole station if not fixed. Joss, the mechanic, moves to implement a fix for the problem with a spanner, but his hand is too large to fit inside it, meaning Pikka has to fix it, despite not being experienced in that kind of work. Her husband reassures her otherwise, and they manage to fix the problem together.
After having departed the station, passengers aboard the Galactic Republic cruiser Third Horizon, Pikka writes up an incident report on the wiring issue for Administrator Tennem, sending it off, while Joss befriends a Twi'lek working on the vessel's complement of Longbeam cruisers. Suddenly, Admiral Kronara makes an announcement over the intercom: the Third Horizon is diverting because of a distress signal picked up from the Hetzal system, and any passengers with piloting or rescue experience should make themselves known to the crew immediately. The Adrens have no idea what could have happened, since the Republic has been at peace for a long time, but moved to volunteer.
After the Battle of Kur, the Adrens returned to Starlight Beacon. They are brought before a council of high ranking Galactic Republic officials for a debriefing. The council consisted of Chancellor Lina Soh, Jedi Master Avar Kriss, Admiral Pevel Kronara, Senator Izzet Noor and other government officials. Joss apologized for not being at his sharpest, due to celebrating at the Starlight Beacon's dedication ceremony. Kris asks the Adrens if they could explain how they were instrumental in helping defeat the Nihil during the battle. Pikka tries to say that they were simply trying to stay alive but the council doesn't accept the explanation. Admiral Kronara brings up a hologram of the battle, causing Pikka to relive the stress and trauma of the battle. He explains that when the Nihil started performing micro hyperspace jumps, the Adrens in the Aurora III were able to react and effectively fight the marauders when other Republic ships could not. Joss suggests that maybe they were exceptional or used The Force but those theories are dismissed. Soh asks them what the secret of their performance was and if it could be duplicated in future encounters with the Nihil. Joss finally explains that Pikka sliced the security systems on the Longbeam's operational code prior to taking it into battle. He tells the council that the couple are tinkers and don't like to operate systems unless they know them thoroughly. They are reprimanded by a Republic Defense Coalition member who warns them that hacking military systems comes with a hefty legal penalty, but Joss defends his actions stating it was either that or dying in combat. Continuing his explanation, Joss tells the council how he had his wife disable the code that linked all the thrusters of the ship together. By doing so, it allowed the pilot to control each thruster independently and made the ship much more maneuverable. Another RDC official stated that by doing that it made the ship vulnerable to stresses and possibly coming apart during flight. Pikka expressed confidence in her husband's piloting skills. Satisfied with their explanation, the couple was dismissed and returned to their quarters. They planned to get some food and then arrange transport back to Coruscant. Before they could leave, Admiral Kronara visited them. He told them that the council was not convinced the threat of the Nihil was gone and that the government was putting together a task force to hunt down any remaining Nihil and gain more information on their operations. He wanted the Adrens to join as they showed considerable skills during the Great Hyperspace Disaster and subsequent actions against the Nihil. Pikka refused, stating that they had planned on a two week vacation on Amfar. She did agree to join the task force after the vacation which the admiral accepted.
- Star Wars Insider: The High Republic: Starlight Stories
- "Launchpad" — Star Wars Insider 222
- Star Wars: The High Republic Character Encyclopedia