Jax Pavan and Xizor strike a conditional intelligence bargain that points Jax toward Kantaros Station and exposes his real pursuit of Darth Vader. The exchange gives Jax the location and operational details he needs, but its price is an open-ended future favor to Xizor, bounded by Jax’s refusal to harm the resistance or assist the Empire.

A Reluctant Return

Xizor appears surprised to see Jax, despite Tlinetha’s apparent confidence that he would come. Jax remarks that he had understood Xizor to be expecting him; Xizor replies that he had taken Jax’s earlier refusal at face value and asks what changed. Jax explains that he cannot walk away from the matter and has run out of time to cultivate other approaches. He is therefore willing to grant Xizor’s promissory note, but only with a condition: any task Xizor later demands must not require Jax to harm the resistance or help the Empire.

Xizor accepts that boundary, saying he has no particular love or loathing for either side. He makes the exchange reciprocal, however, insisting on the truth. He has recognized that Jax’s story to Tyno Fabris was a subterfuge: Jax is a Jedi, not a pirate, and does not want to give Darth Vader something he needs or wants. Xizor asks why Jax is really pursuing him. Jax’s answer is brief: “He has something I want.” The bargain thus begins not with full disclosure, but with Xizor exposing the cover story and Jax conceding the central fact of his pursuit.

The Intelligence on Kantaros Station

After Xizor warns Jax that dealing with him may lead onto a dangerous path, Jax sets the warning aside and asks for the intelligence. Xizor reports that Darth Vader’s message was directed toward the Both system, although neither Vader nor his forces have landed on any planet there. Instead, Xizor has learned of extraordinary activity around Kantaros Station.

Jax recognizes it as an old military outpost. Xizor clarifies that it was an ex-Republic depot and medical facility, still inhabited by civilians but now being used by the Empire as a holding place for high-level prisoners of war. Jax’s dry response—that the Empire supposedly is not at war and is one big, happy family—underscores the gap between the Empire’s public pretence and its imprisonment of political or military captives. Xizor adds that the “family heir apparent” appears to be in residence, tying the station’s activity directly to Darth Vader’s interests without claiming that Vader himself has landed there.

Terms, Payment, and Unresolved Risk

Xizor pushes a data wafer across his desk. It contains full intelligence on Kantaros Station, including its complement, armaments, and schematics. He also offers further assistance in the form of ships or weapons, but Jax says his existing resources are sufficient. The exchange therefore gives Jax actionable information without adding the material support Xizor proposes.

The favor remains the bargain’s unsettled cost. When Jax asks whether all this is in exchange for a favor from a Jedi, Xizor promises to make it a very large one. The scene establishes no specific future task and does not show Jax carrying it out; instead, it leaves the debt deliberately open. Jax has secured a route toward the information he seeks while limiting, but not eliminating, Xizor’s future claim on him. The contrast between Jax’s precise moral condition and Xizor’s unrestricted promise of a substantial favor gives the transaction its tension: the intelligence is concrete, while the obligation it creates is not.