"I know you will do everything you can." "Our good friend Didi is, Astri," Yoda told her. "Take good care of him, we will."

"You are very kind." Astri turned and walked toward the window. She stared out blankly. "She has lost hope," Tahl murmured.

"Bad news, it was," Yoda said. "Hard to absorb."

"I'd better get back," Winna said tersely, and hurried off.

"Go to Astri, you should," Yoda told Obi-Wan. "Her friend you are.

Console her, you must. Hope must not die while Didi lives."

But Astri wasn't really his friend. He'd just met her. And he wasn't very good at consolation. If only Qui-Gon were here!

Yoda and Tahl left, and Obi-Wan went to stand awkwardly by Astri's side.

"He's going to die," she said. "And I will be alone."

"We cannot lose hope," Obi-Wan said. "The Jedi are capable of extraordinary things. We will find the antitoxin or Jenna Zan Arbor."

"I am certain that you will," Astri said. "But will Didi still be alive? He looks so small, Obi-Wan. His spirit filled him. Now he's so weak.

.."

"He is not weak," Obi-Wan said. "He had one of the strongest spirits I've ever seen. It is still there, his strength."

"I thought I had troubles once," Astri said slowly. "Running a business wasn't easy. But now I know despair for the first time. Even if Didi survives, we have lost everything. The cafc has been closed by our landlord. We owe him credits we cannot pay. Even as I sit by Didi's bedside, begging him to live, I wonder what he will return to. And it's my fault. I spent all our savings on improvements for the cafc. We have nothing."

Obi-Wan did not have to wonder what Qui-Gon would say. "You have each other."