Recovery

by Troy Denning

Star Wars, New Jedi Order series

Outside the medcenter viewport, a ragged crescent of white twinkles

known as the Drall's Hat drooped across the violet sky, its lower rip

slashing through the Ronto to touch a red star named the Eye of the

Pirate. The constellations above Corellia had not changed since Han

Solo was a child, when he had spent his nights contemplating the

galactic depths and dreaming of life as a starship captain. He had

believed then that stars never changed, that they always kept the same

company and migrated each year across the same slice of sky Now he knew

better. Like everything in the galaxy, stars were born, grew old, and

died. They swelled inio red giants or withered into white dwarfs,

exploded into novas and supernovas, vanished into black holes.

All too often, they changed hands.

It had been nearly three weeks since the fall of the Duro's system,

and Han still found it hard to believe that the Yuuzhan Vong had a

stronghold in the Core. From there, the invaders could strike at Commenor,

Balmorra, Kuat, and — first in line — Corellia. Even Coruscant was no

longer safe, lying as it did at the opposite end of the  Trade Spine.

Harder to accept than Duro's loss — though easier to believe —

was the enthusiasm with which the cowards of the galaxy had

embraced the enemy's offer of peace in exchange for Jedi. Already a

lynch mob on Ando had killed Dorsk 82 and on Cujicor the Peace

Brigade had captured Swilja Fenn. Han's own son Jacen was the

most hunted Jedi in the galaxy, and Ms wife and other children,

Anakin and Jaina, were sought almost as eagerly. If it were up to

him, the Jedi would leave the collaborators to their fate and go

find a safe refuge somewhere in the Unknown Regions. Rut the

decision was not his, and Luke Skywalker was not listening.

A raspy murmur sounded from the lift station, shattering the

electronic silence of the monitoring post outside Leia's door. Han

opaqued the transparisteel viewport, then stepped around the bed

where his wife lay in a therapeutic coma, her eyelids rimmed by

purple circles and her flesh as pallid as wampa fur. Though he had

been assured Leia would survive, his heart still ached whenever he

looked at her He had almost lost her during the fall of Duro, and a

stubborn series of necrotic infections continued to threaten her

mangled legs- Hven more in doubt was their future together She

had greeted him warmly enough after they found each other again,

but Chewbacca's death had changed too much for their marriage to

continue as before- Han felt brittle now, older and less sure of Ms

place in the galaxy. And ill the few hours she had been coherent

enough to talk, Leia had seemed hesitant, more tentative and reluc

tant to speak her mind around him.

At the door, Han peered out of the darkened room to find four

human orderlies outside flanking the MD droid at the monitoring

post Though they had a cowered repulsor gurney and fresh white

scrubs, they were not wearing the masks and sterile gloves standard

lor visitors to the isolation ward.

"...don't look like orderlies to me, the MD droid was

sayig. "Your fingernails are absolute bacterial beds."

"We've been cleaning disposal chutes," said the group's leader,

a slash-eyed woman with black hair and the jagged snarl of a

hungry rancor. "But don't worry, we came through decon."

As she spoke, one of the men with her was sliding across the

counter behind the droid. Han drew back into the room and

retrieved his blaster from a satchel beneath Leia's bed. Though he

had been dreading thils moment for three weeks, now that it had

come, he felt almost relieved. The enemy had not arrived when he

was sleeping or out of the room, and there were only four.

Han returned to the door to find the MD droid standing with

darkened photoreceptors, his vocabulator slumped against his

chest. The orderly behind the counter was scowling down at the

data  display.

"Don't see her on the register, Roxi," he said to the woman.

"Of course not," Roxi growled "Slug, do you think a Jedi

would use her own name? Look for a human female with amphlstaff

wounds."

Slug, a moonfaced man with a bald head and a week's worth

of stubble on his face, scrolled down the screen and began to read

symptoms off the display "Parictal swelling...thoracic lacerations...

double severed sartorius..." He stopped and looked up.

"You understand this stuff?"

Roxi glared at the man as though the question were a challenge,

then asked, "What was that second one?"

Slug glanced back at the display, "Thoracic lacerations?"

"That could be it." Roxi glanced at her other  companions and,

seeing that they had no beiKr Idea what thoratic meant than she

did, continued, "Well, lacerations sounds right. What room?"

Slug gave her the number, and the four impostors started down

the opposite corridor. Han allowed them a few moments to clear

the area, then slipped nito the monitoring post and used the con

trols to seal his wife's room with a quarantine code. The thought of

leaving her alone made his stomach queasy, but he had to handle

this problem quietly and by himself. Though a Jedi-friendly doctor

had admitted Leia under a false name and Han had sent the famous

Solo children home with Luke and Mara, the alias would not with

stand a CorSec incident investigation. And with a new Yuuzhan

Vong base rising at the edge of the sector, no one associated with

the Jedi would dare trust Corellia's always erratic government for

protection. Had Leia's condition not forced them to divert soon

after escaping Duro, this was the last place Han would have stopped.

He peered around the corner of the monitoring post and, in

the night-shift twilight, saw the impostors disappearing into a bacta

tank parlor about hallway down the corridor, Taking a datapad

from the recharger on the counter and a breath mask, hygienic cap,

gloves, and lab coat from the supply locker, he did his best to disguise

himself as someone official and followed

The intruders were gathered around tank number three in the

parlor's far corner, studying a slender human with a trio of freshly

stitched lacerations angling down across her chest. Like Leia's

wounds, the cuts were atypically inflamed and almost black at the

edges, a sign that some toxin was proving a challenge for the bacta.

The only other occupied tank contained a Selonian female whose

severed tall stump was covered by a graft of unfurred hide.

"The contract said she'd shaved her head," Roxi complained,

staring at the long hair of the patient in tank three, "Even

in bacta, I don't think it would grow back this fast."

"Maybe not, but they are amphistaff cuts," Slug said. He was

standing next to a deactivated attendant droid, reading from a data

display. "And no one's saying how she got them."

Roxi lifted her brow and thought for a moment, then said,

"We'd better bring her along- Start the tank draining- We'll

pick her up after we've checked the other rooms."

Han drew back and tucked the blaster under his lab coat, then

made sure his breath mask was secure and waited. When he heard

the impostors coming, he turned the corner with the datapad

before him. He ran headlong into the burliest of the impostors

and was nearly knocked off his feet.

"Uh, sorry," Han said, looking up "Entirely my..." He let

the sentence dangle off, then gasped, "You're not wearing a

breather!"

The burly impostor frowned- "What breather?"

"Your safety mask." Han tapped the breath mask on his face,

then looked from one impostor to the other. "None of you are.

Didn't you cheek the hazard indicator?"

"Hazard indicator?" Roxi asked, pushing her way to the front.

"I didn't see any indicator."

"In the decontamination lock," Han said. "Red means no ently.

Orange means full biosuit. Yellow means breath masks and

gloves  - The light was yellow. We've had leuma outbreak."

"Leuma?" Slug asked.

"You'll be all right," Han said, sinking just the right note of

insincere reassurance. He waved Roxi toward the monitoring post.

"But we've got to get you some breath masks. Then you'll need

inoculations..."

Roxi made no move to leave the bacta parlor- "I've never heard

of any disease called leuma."

"Airborne virus Han said. "A new one...or maybe it's a spore.

We really don't know yet, but there's talk of it being a

Yuuzhan Vong weapon."

That was enough to bring Slug, and the burly impostor out into

the corridor.

"Hold up, you two!" Roxi snapped.

The pair stopped, then Slug frowned and said, "But we need

those breath masks."

"And soon," Han pressed, turning his attention to Slug "You

can still be saved, but the chances are going down with every breath

you take."

Three of the impostors...the three men...clamped their mouths

shut. Roxi only glared at Han.

"You know this how?" She stepped into the door and stood

nose-to-chill with him. "Because you're a doctor?"

Han's stomach sank. "That's right." He had to resist an urge to

check his appearance. "Senior xenoepidemiologist, to be exact."

He pretended to scrutinize her white scrubs- "And you are?"

"Wondering why the senior xenoepidemiologist would make

his rounds in patient slippers." Roxi glanced at his feet. "Without

socks."

She flexed her fingers, and a hold-out blaster dropped out of a

sleeve holster. Han cursed and brought the datapad down on her

wrist. Her weapon clattered to the floor, and he kicked it away,

then retreated, fumbling for his own blaster. Roxi withdrew into

the parlor, shrieking orders and pushing her companions at the

door. Only Slug went. He ignored Han and ran up the conidor.

"Slug!" Roxi screamed.

"M-masks!" Slug called- "Gotta get..."

Han found his blaster and planted a stun bolt between Slug's

shoulder blades. The impostor thumped to the floor. Weapon flashes

sprayed from the bacta parlor. Han dived behind a low half wall in

the small waiting area opposite. His attackers continued to fire,

and the thin plasteel started to smoke and disintegrate. He thumbed

his own power to high, then stuck the blaster through a nell hole

and returned fire.

The bolt storm quieted. Han dropped to his belly and peered

around the corner. The impostors were nowhere to be seen, but

their repulsor gurney remained at the back of the parlor. The

woman in tank three had opened her eyes and was looking around.

Considering that she was caught in the middle of a tirefight, her

expression seemed surprising calm. Maybe she was too sedated to

comprehend what was happening. Han hoped so. If she didn't use

the microphone ill her breathing mask to call for help, there was

still a charier,a slim chance - that he could take care of this without

CorSec connecting the incident to Leia's room.

The woman's gaze shifted, then Roxi's voice cried, "Go!"

Tlie male impostors leaped into view and began to lay suppression

fire. Han burned a hole through one man's chest. Roxi pulled

something long from beneath the gurney sheet, and when Han

switched targets, she took cover behind tank three. He stopped

firing. The woman in the bacia seemed to smile her thanks.

"On two, Dex," Roxi called. "One..."

Roxi stepped into view, and "two" was lost to the shrieking

cacophony of the repeating blaster in her hands- Han concentrated

fire on her- A faint hiss sounded somewhere deep in the parlor, and

Dex's blaster fell quiet.

Roxi's bolts stitched their way across the floor toward Han's

head. He drew back and popped up in the comer, blaster trained

on the parlor entrance- She poured fire into the corridor, but

stayed out of sight until she appeared at the door and began to

chew through his flimsy cover.

Han fired back, but to little effect.- Their was no sign of Dex,

and that worried him, too- Seeing that his angle was hopeless, he

stopped firing and looked to the back of the parlor.

"Now!" he yelled.

Nothing happened, except that Roxi glanced away long

enough for Han to hurl himself across the waiting room. She

adjusted her aim and began to bum more holes through the half

wall- Han returned fire. Now that his angle was better, at least he

was making her cringe.

Then the repulsor gurney glided into view, moving sidewav

no one pushing. Han's jaw must have dropped, Roxi sneered,

shook her head, and, not one to be fooled twice, nearly burned his

head off.

The gurney caught her in the hip. Her weapon stitched craters

across the ceiling, and she stumbled into the doorway. Han blasted

her chest and shoulder, spinning her around so that she fell over

the gurney. The repeatig blaster clattered to the floor inside the

bacta parlor, where Dex could get at it. Cursing his luck, Han

poured fire through the door and charged.

Dex lay dead between tanks one and two, the last wisps of

smoke rising from a round hole in his chest. It was too small and

perfect to be a blaster wound, at least an ordinary one. Han glanced

around the room, searching for the source of his mysterious help.

The woman in tank three was watching him.

"You?" he asked.

The gurney moved again. It might have been settling on its

repulsor, but Han didn't think so.

Out by the monitoring station, the decontamination lock

hissed open, and the scound of booted leet began to rumble down

the corridor. Han ignored the clamor and gestured at the impostor

on the floor.

"Him, too?"

The woman's eyes fluttered closed, opened again, then fell shut

and remained that way.

"Okay...must have been a ricochet." Han was not sure he believed that,

but it was what he intended to tell the CorSec investigators "I owe

you, whoever you are."

Then the security squad was lushing down the corridor, yelling

at Han to drop his weapon and hit the floor. He placed his blaster

on the gurney and turned to find a pair of ruddy-cheeked boys

poking Imperial-era blaster rifles in his face.

"Hey, take it easy." Han reluctantly raised his hands. "I can

explain."

Chapter 2

Temples aching, world spinning, stomach... churning. Leia returned.

Someone yelling. Han, of course.

Head pounding.

Quiet!

Han continued to yell, and someone snapped back. Leia

opened her eyes and found herself staring into a sun. Which one,

she did not know, but it was blinding and blue, and it moved from

one eye to the other.

A gentle voices...a man's...said she was coming to. To what?

There were silhouettes around her. A man standing at her side,

the blue disk of a headlamp affixed to his brow. A woman behind a

tray of medical instruments. Han and someone in a bulky jumpsuit

still arguing over by the viewport. Another man by the closet in the

comer of the room, turned half away, pawing through a shape Leia

recognized as her travel satchel.

"Oo thurr..."   n Even to Leia, the words were weak and incoherent. "Thopp."

"It's okay, Leia," said the man with the headlamp "I'm Dr.

Nimbi. You'll feel better soon."

"I thel he." Leia tried to point, but her arm felt as heavy as a

durasteel beam "Thopp thath theet."

The headlamp went out, regaling a gray-eyed face with laugh

lines and a familiar smile. "Better?"

Leia could see now that the man wore a doctor's lab coat with

JASPER NIMBI embroidered on the lapel. His assistant, a plump

woman old enough to be the doctor's mother, was dressed in a

well-woni nursed uniform The man poking through her satchel

had the patches of a Corellian Security agent on his jumpsuit,

as did the officer with whom Han was arguing.

"...released him?" Han was demanding "He's a killer!"

"The only deaths here are the ones you caused, Solo," the

officer replied. "And his identification has been confirmed as

authentic. If we need to question Gad Sluggins again, we'll know

where to find him."

"So would I," Han retorted "In the nearest Peace Brigade

safehouse."

"Political affiliations are no longer a crime on Corellia, Solo."

In the corner  the agent at the closet removed a datapad from

Leia's satchel glanced around at the others in the room, then

slipped it into his jumpsuit pocket Leia tried again to point. This

time, the effort ended in a metallic clatter as her arm, strapped in

place and connected to a tangle of intravenous drip lines, rattled

the bed's safety rail- She settled for lifting her head to glare in the

thief s direction.

"Shtop." The word was almost recognizable. "Thief!"

Han immediately stopped arguing with the CorSec officer and

came to her side. With hollow checks and bags under his eyes, he

looked exhausted.

"You're awake," he said, perhaps overstating the case "How

do you feel?"

"Terrible," Leia said. Everything ached, and it felt like she had

a hot power-feed around her legs. "That agent is stealing."

She extended a finger toward the culprit, but the man's officer

had stepped to the foot of the bed, and it looked like she was

pointing at him Han and the others exchanged glances and ap

peared concerned.

"Pharmaceutical illusion," Dr. Nimbi said "Her perceptions

will clear within the hour."

"I am not having delusions." Leia continued to shake her finger

toward the unseen closet. "The other one Going through my

The officer pivoted around to look, exposing the now closed

closet and an innocent.looking subordinate

Han squeezed her shoulder. "Forget it, Leia. We've got more

important things to worry about than someone digging through

your underwear."

"She doesn't need to hear that now, Han," the doctor said. He

turned back to Leia with a comforting smile. "How do the legs

feel? Any better?"

Leia ignored the question and demanded, "What things,

Han seemed baffled. He glanced at Dr- Nimbi, then said,

"Nothing, I can't handle- Don't worry."

"When you tell me not to worry, that's when I worry," Leia

said. Han had always been one of those men who navigated life

more by instinct than by chart...it was one of the things she most

loved about him...but his instincts since Chewbacca's death had

been carrying him into some very dangerous areas. Or perhaps the

territory only seemed dangerous, lying, as it did always farther from

Leia. "What's wrong?"

Han still seemed wrorried, but at least he had the sense to

ignore Dr. Nimbus admonishing shake of the head ^Well," he

began, "you do remember where we are?"

Leia. glanced at the emblems on the CorSec officer lunpsuit.

"How could I forget?"

And then it hit her. The Corellians were calling them by their

correct names There were two CorSec agents standing in her hos-

pital room, and Dr. Nimbi...a ]edi sympathizer with  enough expe-

rience in such matters not to slip...was calling Leia. by her real

name. Their cover had been blown.

Something started to beep on the equipment behind the bed

Dr. Nimbi held a scanner over Leia's heart. "Leia, you need to

calm yourself. Stress only reduces the chance of your body over

coming the infection."

The beeping continued, and the nurse took a spray hypo off

her tray. "Shall I prepare a..."

"That won't be necessary." Leia. reached out with the Force

and nudged the hypo—clumsily, but enough to make her point.

"Clear?"

The astonished nurse  dropped the hypo on the tray and huffed

something about pushy Jedi witches, then raised her nose and

started for the door...where she was met by a rising din of excited

voices. The. MD droid was threatening to notify security and pro

testing that the media were not permitted in the isolation ward, but

the intruders were paying no attention- A sudden glow poured

through the door as a holocrew's lights illuminated the corridor

outside and the flustered nurse came stumbling back into the room.

"Great," Han muttered. "Thrackan."

A bearded man who...except for his gray hair...looked more

like Han than Han did came bursting into the room, leaving a small

swarm of assistants and hole journalists in the corridor outside.

The man, Han's cousin Thrackan Sal-Solo, glanced around briefly, saw

that he was standing between Leia and the door, then moved for

ward so the holocams would have a view other face. She slid down

and tried to hide behind Dr. Nimbi, who recognised what she was

doing and quietly positioned himself in from of her.

Sal-Solo scowled at the doctor, then looked Han and Leia

over and nodded to? the CorSec officer. "That's them. Well done,

Captain."

"Thank you, Governor-General."

"Governor-General?" Han repeated, trying not to scoff and, to

Leia's ear at least, failing. "You've come up in the galaxy, cousin."

"The Five Brothes regard those who protect them," Sal-Solo said.

"Yes...it seems reekcats always land on their feet," Leia. said.

Less than a decade earlier, Sal-Solo had held her family hostage

in a failed attempt to establish an independent Gorellian sector.

More recently, he had inadvertcntly destroyed an entire Hapan

battle fleet by using an ancient alien artifact called Centerpohit Station

to attack a hostile force of Yuuzhan Vong. Given that Leia had

been responsible for bringing the Hapans into the war, she was

probably the only person in the galaxy who despised Han's cousin

more than Han did And it did not help matters that Sal-Solo had

been hailed as a hero for his foolish actions and, eventually, elected

governor-general of the entire Corellian sector

"What's next?" Leia. continued to glare at Sal-Solo. Han

winced and drew his finger across his throat, but she ignored him-

"Lose the war and become the New Republic Chief of State?"

Sal-Solo half turned toward the holocam outside the door.

"My allegiance is to the Corellian system alone." His voice was stiff

and self-conscious. "And you'd be smart to curb that lightsaber

tongue of yours, Princess Leia. An insult to the man is an insult to

the office."

"Really?" Leia propped herself up on her free elbow until the

holocam lights warmed her face "In this case, I should think it is

the man himself who is the insult."

Sal-Solo glared at her in disbelief, then stormed over to the

door and stuck his head into the corridor. "Clear the hall! Can't

you see this is an isolation ward?"

The holocam illuminated his face briefly before he palmed the

activadon panel and the door closed- He stood facing the wall until

the corridor was finally empty, then turned to Leia. with eyes as dark

as black holes

"You must have a death wish," he said.

"You're the one who wanted to play this out in the media,"

Leia said. "Don't blame me if you can't handle it. Wouldn't it

have been easier to keep things quiet and ignore us?"

"Nothing would have suited me more—except maybe sending

you off with a squad of Yuuzhan Vong infiltrators," Sal-Solo said.

"Unfortunately, the  choice wasn't mine I didn't know either of

you was here until I saw on a newsvid that Han Solo had just killed

three Corellian citizens."

"Sorry about that," Han said, not appearing sony at all.

Sal-Solo gave him a dark look, then looked back to Leia.

"There won't be any charges, provided you."

"Charges?" Han exclaimed. Even Leia could not tell whether

he was angry or surprised, they been apart so long...and gone

through so much alone...that she felt like she did not know him

now "For killing a bunch of Peace Brigaders?"

"They weren't in the Peace Brigade-," Sal-Solo said- "CorSec

Intelligence says they were local."

"That doesn't mean they weren't Peace Brigade," Han said.

"But they weren't," Sal-Solo said. "Roxi Barl is an independent

contractor. She didn't like orders, which rules out the Peace Brigade

or anyone associated with the Yuuzhan Vong. Or so Intelligence tells me."

"Then who was she working for?" Han demanded.

Thrackan shmgged. "That's a good question Fortunately, it's

also one that, as of an hour from now, will no longer concern me."

Han scowled. "No?"

"Because you'll be gone by then," Thrackan said.

"Gone?" Han shook his head. "We're not going anywhere

until Leia can walk."

Leia frowned. Their faces had been on newsvids all over the

system, and he was talking about staying until she could walk What

kind of rocket juice had he been drinking while they were apart?

"Han," Leila. said gently. "We talked this over. You know I may...

I ever..."

Han whirled on her "Until you walk, Leia."

Leia recoiled, and Han hovered over the bed, staring into her

eyes, not blinking, not breathing, not wavering, as though he could

change what had happened on Duro...maybe even what had hap

pened before that...through sheer force of will.

"Han, we can't," she said at last "By now, bounty hunters and

Peace Brigaders from all over the system mil be converging on

the medcenter. And even if Thrackan wanted to protect us, he

couldn't. It would give the Yuuzhan Vong too much reason to

come see if Centerpoint is still operational."

"And he's just sending us on our way?" Han scoffed- "Straight

into a Yuuzhan Vong patrol, that's where he's sending us."

"He can't, Han," Leia said "He can't take the chance we'd

break under torture and tell them Centerpoint isn't working."

Han considered this, then glanced at his cousin.

"If it makes you feel better, I could always have you killed,"

Sal-Solo offered amicably. "That works for me."

"And  how do you think Anakin would like that?" Leila. retorted-

Their son Anakin was the only one who had ever been able to fully

activate Centerpoint Station, and his absence was one reason the

ancient superweapon wasn't working now "He doesn^t care for

you much as it is, Thrackan. I doubt he'd be very helpful if you

arranged death of his parents"

Sal-Solo's eyes narrowed, but he nodded. "As Iong, as we're

agreed, then- You'll leave within the hour."

"Han," Dr. Nimbi said helpfully, "she can handle the journey II

you stop at bacta parlors along the way." He hesitated a moment,

then added, "Leia will be fine. It's your, uh, friend I'm worried

about."

Han seemed confused. "Friend?"

"In tank three," Dr. Nimbi said. "I don't think you should

leave her behind, not with all those bounty hunters and Peace

Brigaders on the way."

"Oh...right. Our friend." Han glanced at Leia, and something

roguish came to his eye, something sly and fun and conspiratorial

that had not been there since before Chewbacca's death. He looked

back to Sal-Solo and sighed. "Look, I don't mean to be difficulty

but we can't go without Jaina."

"Jaina? Jaina's here?"

Leia thought she had been the one to blurt the question, but

realised that was not so when all eyes turned to Sal-Solo. At least

she. understood why Han had been acting so strangely. She had a

vague memory of a deep-space rendezvous with the Jade Shadow

of kissing her brother and each of her children good-bye and idling

them she. would see them again on Coruscant. Something must

have happened. Perhaps Han had needed Jaina to help him fly

the Falcon, or perhaps Mara and Luke had run into trouble and

been forced to divert. Maybe all of her children were on Corellia.

She hoped not. She hoped Jacen and Anakin were safe on Coruscant...

but it would good to see them, too. So good.

"...Anakin?" Sal-Solo was asking- "Is he here, too?"

"Just Jaina," Han said firmly. "Anakin and Jacen are on

Coruscant."

"Of course, you would say that." Sal-Solo was thinking aloud.

If he could force Anakin to reactivate Centerpoint, he would have

no worries from the Yuuzhan Vong or the New Republic. He could

use it to isolate the whole Corellian system and run the place as

his personal empire. "But I can find out. I have my ways."

"Yeah...you could comm them on Coruscant," Han said. "Feel

free to reverse the Holonet charges...I know -- how strapped things

are here in Corellia."

"Wait...what was that about tank three?" Leia demanded, not

paying much attention to the exchange berween Han and Sal-Solo.

"Jaina in a bacta tank? What happened?"

"You remember." Again, Han gave her a strange glare. "That

hit on Duro turned out to be worse than we thought."

The stress alarm behind the bed started to beep again.

"Will you please disconnect that tiling?" Leia demanded. What

ever had happened...whatever Han was trying to tell her...she did

not want a machine giving them away. "And get me a repulsor

chair. I want to see my daughter."

"Yes." Sal-Solo was scowling, and studying Han, obviously

wondering why Leia seemed so surprised. "Why don't we all go?"

Dr. Nimbi arranged for a repulsor chair, then unstrapped Leia's

arm from the safety rail, hung the necessary IV lines on the bag

hook attached to the chair, and helped her out of bed.

Leia's legs were no sooner lowered than they began to ache

with a pain a hundred times worse than childbirth- It was unlike

anything, she had ever experienced, a bursting, throbbing, burning

kind of anguish that made her wish the Yuuzhan Vong had finished

the job and cut them all the way off- She caught Sal-Solo staring

and looked down to see two hude Hutt-like things sticking out

where her legs should have been.

"If you're going to gape," Leia said, "I wish you wouldn't

smile."

Sal-Solo covered his mouth, which was not actually smiling,

and turned away. Accompanied by the CorSec agents, Sal-Solo, and

even the nurse, Dr- Nimbi led them past the droid's monitoring

post down the opposite corridor- Leia's heart began to pound

immediately.The door of the bacta parlor was ringed by black

blossoms of soot. Opposite the ruins of the waiting room were

set off by the jagged remains of a small half wall. They had

been determined, these bounty hunters, and it made Leia shudder

to think how close they must have come to capturing her only daughter.

As they reached the bacta parlor, Leia noticed an anvil-headed

Arcona sitting in one of the few undamaged chairs- He met her

gaze long, enougli to nod, then went back to staring at his feet. She

steered her chair into the bacta parlor behind Han, the nurse, and

the others.

They stopped in front of tank three, where a badly wounded

woman of at least thiny years of age was floating inside. She was

several centimeters taller than Leia and well muscled, and though

there was something, vaguely familiar about her face, she bore no

resemblance at all to cither Han or Leia. Most telling of all, her

head was surrounded by a cloud of silky hair; like Leia, Jaina had

left hers in a decontamination lock on Duro.

Leia craned her neck, checking the other tanks for an occupant

that could be her daughter. There was none, only a Selonian with

an amputated tail.

"This is Jaina?" Sal-Solo asked, clearly as doubtful as Leia her

self. "She's a little old to be your daughter, Han."

"She's been flying for Rogue Squadron," Han said. "You'd be

surprised how space combat ages a girl."

And Leia finally understood...or some reason she did not yet

know, Han and Dr. Nimbi were trying to get tills woman off

Corellia. Jaina was not there at all, none other children were. Leia

should haw been relieved, but instead she felt let down and desper

ately alone.

"...that right, Leia?" Han was asking.

"Yes, of course," Leia answered, with no idea whatsoever what

she was agreeing to. "That's true."

Han nodded assertively "You see?"

"Does space combat also change eye color?" the nurse asked,

studying the data display attached to the mystery woman's tank "I

seem to recall that Jaina's eyes are brown, like her mother's. This

patient's arc listed as green."

"Cosmetic tinting," Leia explained. Even her heart was not in

it, she knew what Han needed from her. "To make her harder to

identify."

Sal-Solo looked doubtful. "What are you trying to pull, cousin?

This woman can't be your daughter."

"I could confirm her identity with a simple genetic test, "Dr.

Nimbi suggested. "We could have the results in, oh, two days."

Sal-Solo glowered at the doctor, then turned to the nurse.

"Check the admission data Who's the responsible party?"

Han had not changed so much in his time away that Leia could

no longer sec through his sabacc face. He awaited the nurse's

response with a feigned air of disinterest, but his eyes were fixed

behind her, where a reflection on the surface of tank two showed

the data scrolling up the display. When the screen finally stopped

rolling, its reflection showed several blank data fields. Han's gaze

shifted quickly back to the nurse.

"She was admitted anonymously." He stated it as though he

knew it for a fact. "No name, no contact informadon."

The nurse's jaw fell, but she nodded. "Not even notes about

the receiving circumstances."

Han turned to Sal-Solo with a smirk. "That's all the proof you

need, Governor-General." He pressed a finger to the bacta tank

and the green eyes of the woman inside flittered open. "She leaves

with us...or I inform every media station in  system that you're

holding our daughter against our will."

Sal-Solo glared at him. "I could prove that you're lying."

"True," Han said "But could you prove it to the Yuuzhan

Vong?"

Sal-Sok's face grew even stormier, and he turned to the

doctor "Can she be moved...now?"

"We can lend them a temporary bacta tank," Dr. Nimbi said.

"As long as they change the fluid each time they stop for Leia, this

patient should be fine as well."

Sal-Solo studied the tank, no doubt trying as feverishly as Leia

to puzzle out what the woman inside had to do with the Solos—

and of what interest she might be to whoever had sent Roxi Barl.

Finally, a full minute after Leia had given up on the riddle, he made

a sour face and turned to Dr. Nimbi.

"I think I do see a certain family resemblance," Sal-Solo said.

"But yo'll sell the tank to them, not lend. I don't want anyone

coming, to return it."

Chapter 3

The security hatch finally irised open, revealing the cavernous

interior of the public berthing facility where the Solos had hidden

the Millenium Falcon in plain sight. On any other planet, they would

have rented a private bay in some very discreet luxury dock. But

on security-obsessed Corellia, such measures inevitably drew more

attention than they avoided. Leia and Han spent a moment studying

the activity on the docking bay's floor, then exited the cramped

access lock.

The hatch whispered shut behind them, and finally they were

someplace where they could talk- Putting her growing fatigue out

of mind, Leia caught Han's arm and pulled him around to face her.

"Han, wha's going on?" A muffled clamor sounded inside the

access lock as their CorSec escorts entered with their "daughter"

and her portable bacta tank "Who is that woman, and why did

Nimbi want us to remove her from a medcenter she seems very

much in need of?"

"Because she may be in as much danger as you are." Han

squatted on his haunches in front of Leia, placing himself at eye

level—and turning his back to any spymikes that might be aimed at

them from the facility's depths, "She did some things to help me

during the firefight. I think she's a Jedi."

"A Jedl?" Leia did not ask for details or reasons. The CorSec

agents would be in the access lock only a few moments, just long

enough for the security computers to scan their faces and confirm

their identities. "We. may not be doing her any favors. Whoever

sent Barl is still on our trail."

Han glanced over his shoulder "Where?"

"Behind us, in the access lock," Leia said "You remember

when I said that CorSec agent was stealing?"

Han's brow furrowed. "Yeah?"

"I wasn't hallucinating. My datapad is gone."

Now he looked angry. "That Ranat!"

"Han, don't say anything about it. The money was well spent."

The device had only been a cheap replacement for the one she'd

lost on Duro, and there was nothing on it but a few half-finished...

probably incoherent...letters to family and friends. "He also took

two datachits and the recording rod."

"That's money well spent?"

"It is when you realise he didn't touch my credit ease," Leia

said. "Or the credit chips you left on the dresser."

"He's a spy," Han said.

Leia nodded. "Not a very good one, but I think so. Probably

working for the same people who sent Roxi Barl."

The hatch behind Leia began to hiss. Han glanced over her

shoulder, then asked in a low voice, "What about the others?"

"Only the one," Leia whispered. She was fairly certain of what

she said, the agent had been working as hard to hide his thefts from

his officer as from them.

The hatch stopped hissing, and two CorSec security men

emerged with the mystery woman and her portable bacta tank. The

guards were the spy and the same officer who had been in Leia's

room when she was awakened. She. let her chin drop, less feigning

exhaustion than allowing it to show. Despite the stim -shots and

painkillers Dr. Nimbi had pressed on her, the effort of sitting

upright was taking its toll.

The hatch closed, and the. officer said, "Go on, Solo. The rest

of the detail will stay behind to hold the media back."

"Thank you," Leia said, and she meant it. Without a wall of

CorSec agents to keep the holocrews at bay, she felt fairly certain

the journalists would have followed them aboard the Falcon. "I

thought we were going to have stowaways."

"No need to worry about that," the spy said. "We'll do a search."

Han muttered something that sounded suspiciously like "over

your dead body," then led the way around the perimeter of the

floor—no experienced spacer ever cut across a public docking

bay—toward a shadowy disk resting, between the blockier forms of

two ancient transports. Though Leia had never been a fan of the

Falcon's new matte-black finish, she had to admit that it did as

much to reduce the famous ship's public profile as it did to hide the

hull blemishes acquired over so many decades of rough use. Now,

even when someone did happen to notice the vessel sitting in the

murk, it would hardly draw a second glance.

She wondered if that was what Han had intended when he-chose

the new color, or if it had just been a way of expressing his

grief over Chewbacca's loss. She might never know; they were no

longer close enough that she could guess, and she was not comfort

able asking. How sad was that, after defeating the Empire and

having three children together?

As they approached the Falcon an anvil-headed silhouette with

glittering yellow eyes emerged from between the landing struts,

thin arms held casually out to the sides to show that his three-fingered

hands were empty.

"Captain Solo," he rasped. "Glad to make your acquaintance."

"Not so fast, Twinkle-eyes Han said. "Just step away from

the ship and go. We're not giving interviews."

"Interview's?"

The figure laughed coarsely and stepped into the light, reveal

ing the salt-addicted Arcona who had exchanged glances with Leia

in the hospital. He had a flat reptilian face with skin the color of

durasteel and a cockeyed mouth that made him look half salted,

over his threadbare tunic, he now wore a shabby flight tabard lined

with dozens of fastclose cargo pockets.

"I'm no holojournalist," the Arcona said. "All I'm looking for

is a ride off this mudball."

Leaving the portable bacta tank hovering on its repulsor gurney,

the CorSec agents drew their blasters and moved up. "Do as

Solo says," the officer ordered. "And give me your identichip."

The Arcona reached for a pocket as though to obey, then flut

tered his fingers in the agents' direcdon. "I'm not Corellian,"

he said. "I don't need an identichip."

"He's not Corellian," the subordinate said.

"He doesn't need an identichip," the officer added.

Leia's jaw was already hanging open, but Han was not so easily

impressed.

"Cute trick. Now move along—and take your buddies." He

jerked his thumb at the two CorSec agents. "We're not taking

riders."

The Arcona showed a row of crooked fangs in what was

probably a smile. "I'm willing to earn my keep, Captain." He

glanced in Leia's direction, then his tabard fluttered open to show

her the lightsaber hanging on his belt, and she felt sonething warm

slither over her in the Force. "I'm a first-class YT-1300 copilot.

Have one of my own, if I can ever get back to the blasted tiling."

"Han." Leia grabbed her husband's arm. "I think..."

Han pulled away. "In a minute." He continued to glare at the

Arcona. "I don't care if you fly Star Destroyers, you're not getting

on my ship."

"Han!" Leia snapped. "Yes, he is."

Han started to argue, then seemed to see something in Leia's

eyes that made him think better of it. "He is?"

Thankful she could still reach him, Leia nodded. "I think you

should give him a chance," she said. "I'm certainly not going to be

much of a copilot."

The fact of the matter was that C-3PO, still hiding, aboard the

Falcon, could help with most of the copilot's chores, but Han

seemed to realize Leia was trying to tell him something else. He

turned to the Arcona. and studied him from top to bottom,

contemplating his ashen complexion, threadbare clothes, and

listing features.

"Well, you look like a pilot," Han said "What's the sequence

fur an emergency ion drive engagement?"

"Warm circuits, actuate, power up," the Arcona. answered

Han raised his brow. "Emergency shutdown"

"Power down, then disengage."

"And where's the vertex stabilizer found?"

The Arcona's flat head folded slightly inward at the center, then

he raised his three-fingered hand and said, "You already know

where the vortex stabilizer..."

Han slapped the hand down- "Don't try that stuff with me

Who do you think you're dealing with?"

The Arcona. shrugged, then complained, "How should I know

where the vortex stabilizer is? That's not a crew - serviceable

part."

Han actually smiled, then slapped the Arcona. on the shcrnlder.

"You'll do."

"Thanks, Captain." The Arcnila did not seem all that relieved

He pushed between the CorSec agents toward the portable bacta

tank "I'll take it from here, fellas."

The officer stepped aside, but the subordinate stood fast "Our

orders are to load the patient ourselves."

That was before we had help," Leia said. "And your orders

were to see as off. No one said anything about snooping around on

the Falcon."

She cast a pointed glare at the pocket containing her datapad.

The subordinated face turned bright red, and he stepped aside so

quickly he nearly fell.

"Hmmm." The Arcona smiled and, out of the corner of his

tilted mouth, whispered, "Interesting technique."

He retrieved the repulsor gurney, then the agents returned

Han's blaster, and the group boarded together. C-3PO was waiting

for them atop the ramp.

"Oh, thank the maker you're back!" he said, arms pumping

madly. "I can't tell you how many times I was forced to lower the

retractable, blaster..."

"Not now, Threepio," Han said, brushing past and starting for

the cockpit. "Secure yourself for launch."

"But Captain Solo, you and Princes.s Leia have been all over the.

newsvids. They're saying you killed three people, and quite a few of

the commentators seem to think there should be some sort of legal

inquiry..."

"See-Threepio, we know," Leia said, guiding her chair into the

access ring. "This is..."

She turned to the Arcona.

"A friend of your doctor's." He plucked an eavesdropping device

off the portable bacta tank and crushed it under his boot,

then added, "There are more."

Leia nodded and turned back to C-3PO. "Help our guest

secure the gurney for launch."

Seeing that her chair would prevent the bulky bacta tank from

entering the access ring, Leia mowed ahead. She was feeling terribly

tired and weak, and her first instinct was to turn toward the main

deck and stay out of the way. But she had been alone too much

over the last year, and the thought of sitting by herself while Han

and his new copilot solved their problems was more than she could

hear. She needed to be with her husband...even if she was no

longer quite sure he wanted her.

The repulsor chair was fairly compact, and once she had low

ered the telescoping pole on which the IV bags hung, there was no

trouble guiding it up the outrigger corridor. Rut the cockpit itself

already had four seats, so she had to settle for magnoclamping her

chair in place just outside the door. To his credit, Han did not ask.

what she was doing there. He was so busy toggling, switches and

checking dials that Leia was not even sure he knew.

The Arcona squeezed past and, taking the copilot's seat, slipped

into the start-up routine so .smoothly that it was obvious he

had been telling the truth about flying his own YT-1300. There

were a few glitches as he encountered sunc of the Falcon's

modifications, but Leia could tell by Han's patience how

impressed he was. She tried not to be jealous.

They were within thirty seconds of launch when the inevitable

glitch finally came.

"The ramp light's still on." Han pointed at a panel on the

Arcona's side of the cockpit. "That should have been checked off a

minute ago."

"I thought I had."

The Arcona hit the reset. The light blinked off, then instantly

relit...

Han cursed, then activated the intercom. "Threepio, I think

the ramp's stuck again. Give it a check."

No acknowledgment came.

"Threepio?"

Han cursed. Leia began to unclamp her chair.

"No, I'll go." The Arcona unbuckled his harness and rose.

"You shouldn't be back there alone. This could be trouble."

"Thanks." Han unbuckled his crash webbing and loosened his

blaster, then turned to Leia and said, "I'm glad you're up here''

Leia smiled. "Me, too."

They waited in silence for nearly am minute before the ramp light

finally went out and the Arcona returned.

"It was just stuck," he said. "I banged the control panel, and it

came up the rest of the way."

"Always works for me," Han said, starting the repulsor drives.

"What about Threepio?" Leia asked. She had an uneasy feeling -

not danger sense, but of something that was not quite right. "Why

didn't he answer?"

"I think he crossed some freds connecting the bacta tank to the

medical bank." The Arcona slipped smoothly back into his seat.

"His circuit breaker was tripped. I reset it."

"That's a new one." Han shook his head, then opened a channel to

the spaceport traffic center. "Control, this is Shadow Bird

requesting launch clearance."

Shadow Bird was the name under which they had berthed the

Falcon.

"Negative, Shadow Bird" came the reply. "Stand by."

Han closed the channel. "What now?"

He activated the external security monitors, and they all waited

in tense silence, expecting to see a CorSec boarding party or mob

of bounty hunters come rushing, out of the access locks.

A few moments later, Control's voice crackled over the speaker.

"Corellian Security informs us there is no such vessel as Shadow

Bird." The message came over an open channel- "However, the

'Millenium Falcon' is cleared for immediate departure."

"Acknowledged." Han wasted no time engaging the repulsor

drives and leaving the docking bay; someone had fust made certain

diat every ship within a hundred thousand kilometers would know

which vessel they we're. "And check that CorSec agent's pockets. I

saw him stealing a datapad. Falcon out."

Chapter 4

The park-checkered city of Coronet had barely reeded beneath the

Falcon's tail when Han swung south over the sea and slammed the ion

throttles full forward, beginning a long arcing climb that would carry

them over the pole to the opposite side of the planet The comm speaker

quickly erupted into vitriolic curses as Corellian Control protested

both the unlawful trajectory and the over-city shock wave, but Han

ignored the impoundment threats and disengaged the nacelle melt-safeties.

After the send-off CorSec had given them, flying, a standard launch

pattern would be about as safe as jumping into a Sarlacc's pit.

The Arcona's golden eyes remained fixed on the temperature readouts.

"I thought you had experience at this sort of tiling."

Because of the difficulty his compound eyes had making out dis

tinct shapes, he was wearing a small optical scanner that read the

display data and fed it into an earpiece in auditory form "Every

rookie smuggler in the galaxy know you can't outrun a ship in

orbit. They'll cut you off every time."

"You doi't say?" Han tried to look surprised "Because of the

gravity drag?"

"And air friction and accumulated velocity and things like

that." The Arcona glanced ower his shoulder at Leia. "This is Han

Solo, isn't it? The Han Solo?"

Han glanced over his shoulder and saw Leia shrug.

"You know, I've been wondering myself." Her eyes drooped

and Han thought she might be falling asleep, then she added, "But

when I checked, that's what his identichip read."

"One of them, anyway," Han said, glad to hear an echo...no

matter how faint...of Leia's sharp wit.

They reached the other side of the planet. Han pulled back on

the yoke, nosing, the Falcon straight up. The nacelle temperatures

shot off the gauges as the ion drives struggled to maintain velocity,

and the Arcona's slanted mouth Id I open.

"Y-you're at a hundred and t-t-twenty percent spec," he

stammered.

"You don't say," Han replied. "Bring up the. tactical display

and let's sec how things look."

The Arcona kept his scanner fixed on the temperature gauges.

"One twenty-seven."

"Military alloys," Leia explained "We can go to one forty, or

so Han tells me."

"Maybe more, if I wanted to push," Han bragged.

"Don't," the Arcona said. "I'm impressed enough."

The Arcona brought up the tactical display, revealing a drop-

shaped swarm of blips streaming around the planet in pursuit. He

plotted intercept vectors A web of flashing lines appeared on-screen,

all intersecting well behind the dotted outline showing the

Falcon's projected position.

"I guess rookie smugglers don't know everything Han said

with a smirk. "Plot a course for Commenor."

He waited a few seconds to be certain none of the Falcon's

pursuers had any tricks up its own drive nacelles, then diverted

power for the rear shields and kept an eye out for surprises.

Though he had plenty of questions for his new copilot, he stayed

quiet and watched him work Han had certainly seen more gifted

navigators, hut the Arcona's approach was sound, and The used

redundant routines to avoid mistake.

After a few moments, he transfered the coordinates to Han's

display. "Want to double-check?"

"No need," Han said. "I trust you."

"Yeah?" The high comer of the Arcona's mouth rose a littie

more. "Same here."

The Arcona validated the coordinates, and Han initiated the

hyperdrive. There was the usual inexplicable hesitation...Han had

been trying for the last year to run down the cause—and his

alarmed copilot looked over. Han raised a finger to signal patience,

then the stars stretched into lines.

They spent a few moments checking systems before settling in

for the ride to Commenor, then Han had time to consider his tem

porary copilot. He had not missed the lightsaber hanging inside the

Arcona's ragged flight tabard, nor the significance of the mind

game he had played on CorSec agents. Still, while there were now

enough Jedi in the galaxy that Han no longer knew them all by

name, he would have heard about an Arcona Jedi...especially a

salt-addicted Arcona.

"So," Han asked "Who are you?"

"Izal Waz." The Arcona turned and, smiling crookedly, extended

his three-fingered hand "Thanks for taking me aboard."

"Waz? Izal Waz?" Han shook the hand- "Your name sounds

familiar."

Izal's gaze flickered downward, and he released Han's hand.

"Anything's possible, but we haven't met."

"But I do know the name," Han said. "What about you, Leia?"

He turned to look and found her chin slumped against her

chest Though her eyes were closed, her brow was creased and her

hands were twitching, and it made Han's   heart ache to see her suffer

so even in her sleep.

"Looks like I better put our patient to bed." Han unbuckled

his crash webbing. "^We'll talk more in a few minutes."

"Good," Izal Waz said. "l've always been curious about your

years in the Corporate Sector."

That was hardly the discussion Han had in mind, but he left the

pilot's chair and took Leia back to the first-aid bay. She did not stir,

even when he lifted her into the bunk and connected her to the

medical data banks. He knew she needed her rest, but The wished

she would open her eyes just for a minute and give him a smile,

some indication that she would recover...that they would. He had

needed to mourn Chewbacca's death, he knew that, and maybe he

had even needed to crisscross the galaxy helping Droma search for

his clan. But only now was Han beginning to see how he had sur

rendered to his grief., or to understand that there had been a cost.

"Get well, Princess." He kissed Leia on the brow. "Don't give

up on me yet."

The monitors showed no indication that she heard.

Han buckled the last safety strap across her chest and magnoclamped

the repulsor chair to the deck beside her bunk, then went

aft to check on the other patient aboard the Falcon. Her gurney

was clamped to the floor of the crew quarters, a pair of data

ubmbillcals connecting the portable bacta tank to an auxiliary medical

socket. C-3PO stood in a comer, his photoreceptors darkened and

his metallic head canted slightly forward in his shutdown posture.

The covers on the three bunks were rumpled.

Han did a quick check to make certain the bacta tank was still

functioning, then reached behind C-SPO's head and reset his pri

mary circuit breaker.

The droid's head rose. "...can't leave her in the middle

of..." The sentence trailed off as his photoreceptors blinked to

life. "Captain Solo! What happened."

"Good question." Han glanced around, "I thought Izal turned

you back on.."

"If you are referring, to that salt-happy Arcona whom Mistress

Leia asked you to bring aboard, absolutely not!" He gestured at the

portable bacta tank. "I was instructing him where to secure the

gurney when... well, someone must have tripped my breaker."

"You didn't cross the medical bank data feeds?"

"Captain Solo, you know I don't relish memory wipes,"

C-3PO said- "And I assure you, I know the proper way to access a

data feed. I wasn't even near it."

"That's what I was afraid of."

Han stepped over to a bunk and found what looked like a large

black to enail on the covers. There were similar flakes on the other

bunks, and, on the third, a pair of disassembled transmitters—the

really small kind, such as a CorSec agent might hide on a portable

bacta tank. Han placed his hand in the center of the rumpled

covers. The bed was still warm.

"Go to the first-aid bay and stay with Leia." Han folded the

flakes and transmitters into his hand, then started for the door.

"Don't let anyone near her."

"Of course, Captain Solo." C-3PO clanged into the ring corridor

behind him. "But how am I to stop them?"

"Comm me."

Han was already crossing the main hold toward the cockpit

access tunnel. He was not at all surprised to discover that CorSec or

the spy or maybe both had planted eavesdropping devices on the

bacta tank...he had intended to check for them himselt...but

someone had disassembled the transmitters. That in itself did not

mean Izal Waz had sneaked stowaways aboard, or even if he had,

that they were Peace Brigade collaborators or bounty hunters or

agents hired by whoever had sent Roxi Barl. But it did raise a few

questions.

Doing his best to appear nonchalant, Han stepped onto the

flight deck and paused to glance at the navicomputer. According to

the display, they remained on course to Commennor, so any hidden

diversions the Arcona might have sneaked past Han had not yet

occurred

Han slipped into the pilot's chair. "Everything okay up here?"

"What could go wrong in ten minutes?" Izal continued to stare

out the viewport, his color-hungry Arconan eyes mesmerized by

the gray void of hyperspace. "You seem distressed."

"Distressed?"  Han checked their position, reached up, and

distressed engaged hyperdrlve. Then, as the sudden dazzle of

starlight disoriented Izal, he drew his blaster and swiveled

around to face the Arcona. "I'm not distressed. I'm mad...

Furious, even."

Izal did not even seem all that surprised He merely blinked the

blindness from Ins eyes and gestured at the blaster. "That's not nec

essary. I can explain."

"You'd better hope so." Han opened his other hand and laid  the

black flakes and disassembled transmitters on a console between their

seats "When it comes to protecting my wife, I have a short temper."

Izal grinned and did not look at the items "So I noticed in the

isolation ward."

"You were the one in the bacta parlor?"

Izal nodded eagerly- "I helped."

When Han did not lower the blaster, a furrow appeared in

Izal's brow, and he flicked Ins hand almost casually. Had Han been

just any freighter captain concerned he was about to be hijacked by

a rogue Jedi and his stowaway partners, the trick might haw

worked. As it was, Han had fought at Luke Skywalker's side often

enough to anticipate such maneuvers, and his free hand was already

clamped over the barrel, holding the weapon in his grasp.

"If it's going to come down to using it or losing it," Han

warned, "I'll use it."

The blaster settled back into Han's hand.

"You're as short on gradtude as you are on temper," the

Arcona complained. "Or maybe you just don't know how to trust."

"I'll trust you when I know who you are." Han set the blaster

to stun, less to spare Izal than to avoid burning a hole through a

crucial circuit board. "You own a lightsaber and you know a few

Force tricky but so did Darth Vader. As far as I'm concerned, you

still look more like a bounty hunter than a Jedi Knight."

Izal sank into the copilot's seat like he had been punched.

"It's the salt habit, isn't it?" The asked. "You think no real Jedi

would let himself come to this."

"If you're looking for sympathy, you're on the wrong ship,"

Han said. The truth was he felt a certain empathy for the troubled

Arcona, but now was not the time to share shortcomings. "You

must know I'm no stranger to the Jedi. If you were Jedi, I'd know

"You do." lzal's gaze slipped away from Han's, and his face

darkened to charcoal. "There's a reason you recognized my name, I

had some trouble at the academy. One bite of Kenth's nerfloaf."

"Of course," Han said, recalling the incident. A three-month

supply of salt had vanished in the space of a few days, and then so

had the student who choked it all down. "But you were only there

a few months."

Han cast a meaningful glance at Izal's belt.

Izal nodded. "Hardly long enough to build my lightsaber," he

said. "Eventually...I found a Master who taught me to accept my

weakness...and who helped me find my strength."

Han raised his brow.

"And rm sure you don't know her," lzal said.

"Your story is smelling more like a Gamorrean kitchen every

minute," Han warned. He gestured at the flakes and disassembled

transmitters. "And you still haven't explained these."

"Oh...those." Izal slanted smile might have been one of

relief or anxiety.- "That's easy."

"So explain."

"First, I wasn't keeping this a secret," Izal said "I was going to

tell you when things settled down."

"Quit stalling," Han ordered.

Izal swallowed hard, which was quite a sight given the Arcona's

long neck. "All right." He picked up one of the black flakes. "This

The proximity alarm broke into a shriek. Han glanced at his

tactical display and found a wall of blips taking form behind the Falcon.

"Nice trick," Han said. He hit the reset, but the alarm resumed

its screeching half a seconds later. The tactical display returned with

even more blips. "Now cut it out. You're testing my patient

nature."

"You think this is a Force trick?" Izla's eyes were fixed on the

tactical display, and there was enough panic in his voice that Han

almost believed him. "I'm not that good."

"So they're real?" Han was starting to wony. There were no

transponder codes beneath the blips, and vessels without transponder

codes tended to be pirates—or worse. "What are they doing here?"

"I don't know." Izal began the ion engine warm-start proce

dure. "I must have missed a homing beacon."

"Or planted one," Han said- Homing beacons could not be

used to track a ship through hyperspace, only to locate it once it

returned to realspace. For a flotilla to arrive so quickly, it had to

have been lying somewhere outside the Corellian system, ready to

depart as soon as it learned the Falcon's position. "This seems way

too handy."

"Or desperate." Izal brought the ion drives on-line, "I'm not

the one trying to snatch your wife."

"I'd like to believe you." Han fired a stun bolt into the

Arcona's ribs. "But I just can't take the chance."

Leaving Izal to slump over side of his chair, Han holstered

his blaster and hit the throttles. The amhusher's rate of closure

began to slow. Some of the leaders started to fire, but Hail did not

even raise the Falcon's power-hungry energy shields. The ship's

sensor array computer had identified the newcomers as a motley

mix of Y-wings and old T-65 X-wings, and neither of those could

fire effectively at such long range.

C-3PO's voice came over the intercom- "Captain Solo?"

"Have the stowaways got Leia?" Han asked- There was a time

when his thoughts wouldn't have leapt instantly to the worst

scenario, but a lot had changed in the galaxy since then...

and in him.

"If they've got Leia, you tell them...?"

"Mistress Leia is well arid quite alone," C-3PO said. "Aside

from me, of course."

"Keep it that way." Han activated the navicomputer and began

to punch coordinates; though the course to Commenor remained

the same, transit times would have to he recalculated  from the new

entry point. "And don't bother me unless that changes."

"Of course,  Captain Solo. "A distant streak of red flashed above

the cockpit canopy as a cannon bolt reached maximum range and

faded away. "But..."

"Threepio, not now!"

The starfighters, especially the X-wings, were still closing. Han

plotted a course projection and saw what he had known intuitively:

they would reach effective firing range only a few seconds before

the Falcon entered hyperspace.

Han slammed his palm against the yoke. "Sith spit!"

He changed the tactical display to a larger scale. Sitting dead

ahead, well beyond the range of anything less sensitive than the

Falcon's reconnaissance-grade sensor suite, was a fast-freight of 250

meters. Not large, but large enough to carry a tractor beam that

would prevent the Falcon from jumping to hyperspace.

Han cursed again and canceled the calculations. He brought

the Falcon around hard, and the starfighters angled to cut him off.

Daggers of light began to slice the darkness to his right. Han

brought the energy shields up, then felt a shudder as both sets of

the Falcon's powerful quad laser cannons began to fire.

"Leia?" he he gasped. "Threepio?"

"We're still here, Captain Solo,." the droid replied. "In the

first-aid bay as you instructed."

Han glanced over the fire-control computer to see Izal had

left the quad lasers on automatic. He hadn't. "Then who's on the

guns?"

"Captain Solo, that's what I was..."

A rhythmic hissig sounded from the seat behind the pilot's,

and then all Han could hear was his own scream. Paying no

attention as the first pirate shots blossomed against the

energy shields, he leapt up and reached for his blaster.

A clawed hand pushed him down. "Sit," rasped a deep voice.

"This one shall replace Jedi Waz."

The claw removed itself, and Han glanced over to see a huge

scaled figure in a brown Jedi robe. The newcomer lilted Izal Waz

out of the copilot's seat with one hand, then tossed him to the rear

of the flight deck arid slipped into his place. A thick tail flopped

over the arm of the chair, and beneath the robe's cowl, Han

glimpsed a reptilian face with slit-pupiled eyes and upward-jutting

fangs. An adult Barabel.

A sheet of crimson light flashed along the Falcon's starboard

side. Han's attention remained fixed on the Barabel. With scales as

black as space and a tail that forced him to perch on the edge of the

seat, his jagged features made him look as dangerous as his robe did

mysterious Han only hoped the Jedi apparel was evidence of a

more patient nature than most Barabels pocessed.

The Barabel pointed a claw at Han's hand, still resting on his

holstered weapon. "This one will let you blast him later, For now,

perhapz you fly the ship."

"Whatever you want." Aware that even without the Force, the

Barabel could have taken the blaster...and probably the arm

holding it...anytime he wanted, Han grabbed the yoke with both

hands. "Where we going?"

"You are the pilot, Han Solo." He waved a claw at the tactical

display, which showed a flight of X-wings streaking in to cut them

off. "Thought this one thinkz we should turn burnerz and run."

"Can't." Han pointed to the fast-freight's symbol, now giving

chase in the upper left corner of the tactical display. "She'll snag us

with a tractor beam. Old pirate trap."

The Falcon's cannons lashed out in rapid-fire sequence. The

lead starfighter dissolved into static, mirrored in the darkness out

side by a distant orange bloom- Han whistled, awed as much by the

timing of the: attack as by its accuracy. The other three X-wings

swung, into a front oblique attack. Again, the Falcon's laser cannons

flashed. Again, an X-wing bum into a ball of superheated gas.

When the fireball died this time, it was replaced by a pair of

white dots. They were a little larger than stars and a whole lot

brighter.

The white dots swelled to white disks.

"Concussion missiles?"  the Barabel asked.

"Not that lucky." Han didn't even bother to check the tactical

display for propellant trails. He had seen plenty of those expand

ing white dots—though usually from the bridge of a Super Star

Destroyer. "Proton torpedoes."

The white disks swelled into white circlcs.

Han nosed the Falcon down into a wild corkscrewing evasive

pattern. Somehow, the mysterious gunners remained accurate, crip

pling two starfighters as the main body of the pirate fleet reached

effective range. The first proton torpedo arced past so close that the

canopy went white.

The Barabel sissed.. "Someone wantz you dead. Really wantz

you dead."

Han blinked his vision clear and saw a Y-wing zip past the

cockpit, a crazy line of laserfire chasing it along. Another X-wing

came in firing, and he had to turn head-on to force it to pull up.

Wlien he could finally check the tactical display, he found a dozen

starfighters circling the Falcon, with another dozen hanging back to

cut olf escape. The good news was that the second proton torpedo

had already passed by, its propellant trail tracing a long arc away

from the Falcon's tail.

"They don't want us dead," Han said. The torpedoes had been

fired with disabled homing beacons. "They're forcing our hand."

A pair of battered X-wings streaked into view, the Falcon's

cannon bolts warming their shields. They collided in front of the

cockpit, and a pair of rhythmic hisses, the first sounds Han had

heard from the turrets, sounded over the intercom. Then pirates

were all over the Falcon, coming in close and battering its shields

Irom every angle. Depletion warnings and overload signals beeped

and buzzed.

The Barabel studied the instrument panel in helpless confusion.

"Where is the load balancer?"

"I'll handle the shields." Han jerked a thumb at the navicomputer.

"Can you use that?"

The Barabel bristled his scales "We are good pilots."

"Okay...I didn't mean anything by it." Han said. "Plot a

course to Commenor."

He pulled the Falcon out of its evasive pattern and turned

toward the fast-freight. The cockpit shuddered and the lights

dimmed as the starfighters landed a devastating volley, and a

damage-control buzzer announced a hull breach ill the number

two cargo hold. Two more X-wings vanished from the tactical dis

play. Han sealed the breached hold. Then, finally, the pirates began

to stand off, keeping the pressure on but now concentrating on

avoiding the deadly streams of light pouring from the Falcon's

cannon turrets.

Han shifted more power to the rear shields and looked over to

check on the Barabel's progress. The calculations were almost fin

ished, but the final coordinates lay closer to Corellia than Commenor.

Han pretended not to notice, but cursed inside and searched his memory

for some hint as to who Izal Waz and his Barabel friends could be working

for. Not the Yuuzhan Vong, at least not directly; the Yuuzhan Vong hated

Jedi. And certainly not for whoever had hired the pirates; they had killed

too many. Maybe a hidden cabal of Dark Jedi, hoping to use Leia to somehow

turn the war to their advantage.

Han shifted the tactical scale so it would display only what a

standard sensor suite might reveal, and the fast-freight vanished off

the screen. Trying to make it appear that he was fine-tuning the

data filters, Han quietly opened his own input to the navicomputer

and began calculations for the trip to Commenor.

The Barabel looked over. "They will know from our initial

course we are going to Commenor." He completed his calculations

and sent them to Han's display for verification. "This rendezvous is

safer."

"Safer for you."

"For you," the Barabel insisted. "They are not after us."

The fast-freight appeared on the tactical display. Han pushed

the Falcon into what he hoped would look like an evasive climb.

The starfighters closed, hammering his shields, trying to drive him

back toward the freighter. Han held his turn, trying to convince the

enemy pilots he really had been surprised. The turret gunner made

it look good by dispersing their fire to slow pursuit.

Something popped in the life-support control panel, and an

acrid stench filled the air. The Barabel pulled off the cover and

smothered a burning circuit board circuit with his bare palm,

then looked over wide-eyed.

"You are trying to get us killed?"

"This needs to look good," Han said.

The Falcon bucked as the fast-freight, still too distant to see

with the naked eye, locked on with its tractor beam. Han spun them

perpendicular to the direction of pull—then cut back the throttles

to avoid escaping. He did not have to ease off much, the tractor

beam was a powerful one.

The Falcon's cannon turrets spun to attack their captor.

"No!" Han ordered on the intercom. "Keep the fighters away."

There was a short silence, then a voice rasped, "Tesar?"

The Barabel...Tesar...studied Han, then said nothing and

started to tend damage alarms.

"Listen," Han began, "I'm the..."

The turrets spun back toward the starfighters. Another pirate

vanished from the tactical display, and the rest began to stand off

again. They continued to pour fire at the Falcon, though they

seemed more interested in keeping the deadly laser cannons occu

pied than approaching close enough to cause damage. The Falcon

continued to slip toward the fast-freight.

Han returned to his calculations. Tesar watched for a moment,

then tapped a claw on his own coordinates.

"This is better," he said. "Trust me."

Han did not even look up- "Where have I heard that before?"

"Your enemies are well  organized. Even lf we escape this..."

"I have a plan," Han assured him.

"They will have someone waiting on Commenor."

"Better the enemy I know than one I don't," Han retorted.

The Falcon slipped faster toward the freighter. Han added

power, but the slide continued to accelerate.

"We are not your enemy, Han Solo," Tesar said.

"Quiet." Han was still struggling to finish the calculations.

"And kill those alarms. I'm working here."

Tesar made no move to obey. "Why do you not trust us? We.

are Jedi Knightz."

"I said quiet!"

Thinkuig he just might be quick enough if he caught the

Barabel by surprise, he reached for his blaster...then Tesar ex-

tended a hand, and Han was nearly jerked from his chair as weapon

and holster tore free of his belt.

The Barabel caught the blaster and tucked it inside his robe.

"This one said you could blast him later."

Rubbing his thigh where the holster thong had snapped, Han

said, "Look, Luke Skywalker is my brother-in-law. I know the Jedi,

and you're not one of them."

The scales rose on Tesar's face, and his pupils narrowed to

angry slits. He studied Han, his nostrils flaring and his long tongue

flicking Ills lips, then he turned his face away.

"We are still young, but we are Jedi." His reflection in the

canopy was twisted into a snarling mask. "If you know the Jedi,

then you must know Master Eelysa."

"Of course," Han said. Eelysa had been one of Luke's earliest

pupils, a girl born on Coruscant soon after the Emperor's death.

Taken to the academy on Yavin 4 as a child, she had matured into

one of Luke's most trusted Jedi Knights and now spent most other

time on complicated, years-long, missions. "But I haven't seen her

in...well, since she was a teenager younger than Jaina."

"Yes, you have." When Tesar looked back, his face was more

composed. "Eelysa is the one we are guarding. She is the Master of

our Master."

"The Master of your Master?"

"She taught my mother on Barab I," Tesar said. "When we

learned she had been injured, we were sent to Corellia to guard

Han felt instantly sick and foolish. Now that Tesar had men

tioned Eelysa's name, the womian from the bacta tank did look

familiar. And spying on Corellia was exactly the kind of high-risk,

long-term mission in which she specialized. If anyone was going to

train Jedi Knights he had never heard of, it would be Eelysa.

"Look, I'm sorry. 1 didn't mean anything by what I said."

The Barabel looked confused. "Then why did you say it?"

Before Han could explain, another Barabel voice rasped over

the intercom, "Captain, can we shoot the frigate yet?"

"Frigate?"

The tactical display now showed the starfighters standing com

pletely off, and the generic fast-freight tag had been changed to

KDY frigate, Lancer-class.

"Uh, hold your fire for a minute, fellas."

"Fellas?" a voice rasped. "We are amused, Captain Solo."

This brought a long round of sissing, which Han did his best to

ignore as he interrogated the sensor computer for more details.

"They are not fellas," Tesar confided quietly. "They are sisters.

We are all hatchmates."

"Hatchmates?" Han echoed, his attention fixed on the details

scrolling down his display. "Like wives?"

"Wives!" Tesar broke into an uncotrollable fit of hissing and

slapped his chair arm so hard he nearly broke it. "Now is no time.

for off-color jokes. Captain."

From what the mass meters and infrared analyzers were show

ing, the frigate was one of the stripped-down versions that had

been converted to planetary customs use. It would have an ad

vanced sensor suite, overpowered tractor beam, and huge hangar

bay—but only six cannon towers and civilian-class shields. And

while most pirates would have loved to get their hands on such a

ship, it was hardly likely. They would have had to steal it from a

planetary goverment.

Han opened a comm channel. "Anonymous customs frigate, this is the

Millenium Falcon." The ship came into a view, a tiny sliver of light

glowing against the starry backdrop of empty space.

"Explain your actions."

There was a moments pause, then a haughty Kuati voice said,

"Our actions speak for themselves. Prepare for capture and board

ing, and you will be treated fairly."

Han started to make a rude reply, then thought better of it.

"Do we have another choice?"

"Not if you wish to live. Frigate out."

The channel had hardy closed before Tesar growled, "You

would surrender your mate?"

"It was a lie, Tesar. You've been spending too much time with

Selonians."

Han lowered the energy shields and powered down. the ion

drives, then swung the Falcon's nose around as though surren

dering to the inevitable- The frigate began to grew rapidly larger, in

the space of few breaths swelling from the size of a sliver to that of

a finger.

"Okay, uh, ladies, when we get to the hangar bay—"

"We understand what to do, Captain," came the reply.

"You know where..."

"The projector and the backup," rasped the other sister. "And

both at once, or the generators will reverse and send us tumbling

out of control. We have studied our schematicz"

Han checked the systems display and saw that the sisters had

already turned the Falcon's cannon turrets away a gesture of sub

mission. Thinking his plan just might work, he turned to finish his

calculations. The new Commenor coordinates were already glow

ing on the display, along with those for the rendezvous Tesar had

recommended instead.

"Both setz are accurate," the Barabel assured him. "The choice

is yourz."

"Thanks."

The frigate was as long as his forearm now, and so brightly lit

Han could see the cannon turrets mounted along its spine and

belly. He transferred the Commenor coordinates to the navicomputer.

Tesar's pupils narrowed, but he managed to keep his tongue

from flicking...too much.

"Look, I trust you," Han said. "But we'd just lead them

straight to your rendezvous. There's a homing beacon somewhere

on this bird, and we can't look for it until we land someplace."

Tesar turned away, as though he was convinced Han was mak

ing excuses. "The beacon will be in something you brought aboard.

We removed the one the docking officer planted in the strutz."

Han raised his brow "You've been watching the Falcon?"

"Yes, since Jedi Waz realized who you were." As he spoke,

Tesar continued to look out the side of the canopy- "We, uh,

discussed whether to tell you, but our Master's instructionz were to

remain hidden. She is not going to be pleased, especially when we

miss the rendezvous."

"Sorry to cause you trouble," Han said. As large as a hovercar,

the frigate filed the forward viewport. All six weapons turrets were

turned in the Falcon's direction, the barrels of their deadly laser

cannons slowly depressing as their target drew near. "But I need to

get Leia to a bacta tank. Eelysa, too; we only have a little while

before that portable tank starts to pollute itself."

Tesar turned from the canopy. "That is not an excuse?"

"Now, Captain?" interrupted one of the sisters. "Can we shoot

There was nothing ahead but frigate, its massive hangar bay

yawning open in the middle of the micropitted hull. A conical

tractor beam projector hung down from the ceiling in obvious

sight, but its ready backup was still tucked against the ceiling and

barely visible.

"You can make both shots?" Han asked. "At once?"

"Of course," the other sister said. "We are Jedi."

Han checked the frigate's weapons turrets—the two that he

could still see—and found the cannon barrels still trained on the

Falcon, not quite at maximum depression.

"Not yet." He placed one hand on the throttles. "I'll let you

know."

"The bacta tankz?" There was a rising note of urgency in

Tesar's voice. "They are the only reason, Han Solo?"

Han thought for a moment. Though it would have been more

in a Barabel's nature to demand—and demand only once...before

simply taking control of the ship, Tesar had never even mentioned

the possibility, not even as an argument proving his own

trustwor-thiness. That was very Jedi.

Han nodded. "Yeah, the bacta tanks are the only reason."

"Good." Tesar was almost whispering now. "Then this one will

tell you something else his Master would not wish. There will be

bacta tankz at the rendezvous...and a safe place to use them."

The frigate's laser cannons reached their maximum depression,

then disappeared out of sight behind the curve of the ship's hull.

"Now, Captain?" a sister asked.

Han ignored her and asked Tesar, "How safe?"

"As safe as a nest in a ferrocrete den."

They reached the entrance to the hangar bay. The lights out

side the cockpit rippled as the: frigate's shields were lowered to

admit the Falcon. Han hit the directional thrusters, and the ship

began to ircnhk as it struggled to pivot in the tractor beam's

grasp. The cockpit passed into the bay.

"Now, ladies!"

The sisters were already bringing their turrets around. Given

the vibrating ship, the precision timing, and the swift targeting, the

shot would have been impossible for any typical pair of gunners.

The two Barabels were not typical. In the same second, two volleys

of laser bolts sneaked out...and scorched holes through the

opposite side of the bay.

Then the Falcon was pulled completely inside the frigate, and

Han saw two little Vigilance starflghters...one hiding in each of the

near corners...swinging then weapons in his direction. He brought

the shields up, then another volley lashed out from his own laser

cannons and hit the tractor beam projectors.

The bay walls spun past in a blur- Sheets of red flame washed

over the cockpit canopy. Han thought the sisters had missed their

timing, that the Falcon was tumbling out of control. A familiar

whumpf reverberated through the cockpit, and blazing streaks of

light lanced out from the cannon turrets to blossom against the

walls in disks of fire. Han tipped the yoke against the spin and

slowed the revolutions, then saw laser bolts stabbing starry darkness

ahead and jammed the throttles.

He knew they had escaped by the suddenly webbing webbing

the darkness around them. Not bothering to check the tactical

display, he knew the Y-wings and X-wings were coming.Han

pushed the nose down and, corkscrewing wildly, transferred shield

power alt.

"Okay,Tesar, give me our heading."

The Ranhd read off a set of familiar-sounding coordinates

"Not those." Han cleared the navicomputer and called up the

second set. "The new ones. A ferrocrete den sounds good right

The Barabel smiled, baring, a set of teeth that could have

stripped a rancor to the bone. "You will not regret this, Captain."

The Falcon began to shake beneath the volley of the frigate's

belly cannons.

"1 won't have time if you don't hurry."

Tesar gave him the new coordinates, and Han swung the

Falcon onto the bearing- He was just about to make the jump to

lightspeed when Leia's voice came over the intercom.

"Han? Han I..."

"I'm sorry, Captain Solo," C-3PO interrupted. "But she's just

awakened and insists she must speak with you this instant."

"Han?" Leia's voice was raspy and weak, and she sounded con

fused. "Han, I'm so thirsty. Could you bring me some water?"

Chapter 5

Though contaminants had long since fouled the monitoring electrodes

and the bacta had turned so murky and green Eelysa could hardly he seen,

Leia knew the Jedi Master had awakened. She could feel Eelysa inside the

cramped tank, a strong presence in the Force, isolated from those around

her, aware of her danger and curious about it, yet patient and calm and

utterly at peace with her helplessness. Leia filled her heart with

reassurance and reached out through the Force, and she felt the Barabels...

Tesar Sebatyne and the Hara sisters, Bela and Krasov—do the same.

Eelysa held the contact for what might have been seconds or

minutes, filling the Force with a sense of gratitude and love, then

continued to embrace them as she sank into a Jedi healing trance.

Leia and the Barabels remained with her until her thoughts and

emotions grew as quiet as a pond on a windless day, then, one by

one, gently withdrew.

When they were done, Leia was surprised to find that she her

self felt stronger and more at peace than she had in a long time. It

was by far the most intimate Force touch she had ever experienced,

not because the Barabels were stronger than other Jedi, but because

they shared themselves so freely and innocently. She saw now why

Eelysa had taken it upon herself to train their Master—Tesar's

mother, Saba Sebatyne—even when doing so had endangered her

and her mission on Barab I.

"Leia?" Han asked- "You all right?"

"Fine, Han." She did not look at him as she answered, though

only because he was changing her bandages and the last thing she

wanted to see...even to glimpse...was the blackened, oozing mass

that was her legs. "But Eelysa . . . we have to do something."

"Haven't I been saying that?" Han grumbled.

They had arrived at the rendezvous point almost a full day ear

lier, then began a monotonous waiting game that had Han ready to

push their passengers out an air lock.- Though Izal Waz and the

Barabels were at a loss to explain the delay, they kept assuring Han

they would know if the meeting were canceled.- It did not help

matters that when Han asked how they would know, Izal always

looked to the Barabels, and the Barabels just shrugged and said

they would know.

Leia looked to Bela...or maybe it was Krasov...and said, "We

need to comm your Master." Though it was hard to envision

ordering a Barabel to do anything, she .spoke in the voice of com

mand that she had used to such good effect during her tenure as

the New Republic Chief of State. "Give us the transceiver address."

The two sisters looked from each other to Tesar, then they

simply seemed to come to an agreement.

"As you wish," Krasov...or maybe Bela...said. "But if you use

it, the rendezvous will be canceled.- Master Saba has learned to be

careful about Peace Brigade eavesdroppez.''

Tesar,who was both larger and darker than the females shrugged.

"But do what you think is best. She is already going to

be displeased with us."

"A lot of that going around," Han said darkly.

Tesar's shoulders sagged. "This one apologises for his advice.

You may blast him anytime."

"Don't tempt."

Leia laid a silencing hand on her husband's shoulder- "I'm sure

Tesar is as worried about Eelysa as we are- She is his mother's

Master."

The hardness that came to Han's eyes was as surprising as it was

subtle, but he nodded curtly and, without looking up, used synth-

flesh to secure the edge of a bactabandage. The adhesive wasn't

supposed to hurt, but it felt like fire against Leia's inflamed skin.

Han lowered her foot onto the footrest, then gathered up the

discarded bandages and stood. "Forget trying to reach Tesar's

mother."

"Master Saba," Krasov corrected.

Han ignored her and continued, "If it stops her from coming,

that only makes our situation worse." He turned to Tesar- "How

do you know your mother—Master Saba—is still coming?"

"Because we have not felt otherwise," Bela answered.

Han turned to Leia "What does that mean, felt otherwise?"

"Your mate understandz," Tesar replied, looking to Leia.

"Through the Force."

"Then she must be very near," Leia said, unsure whether to be

confused or impressed. "I know of only a few Jedi who can feel

what others are doing, and even then they must be near one

another."

Krasov shook her head. "Not like hatchmates."

"We feel nothing has happened to her,"' Bela added

"I see." Leia's head was be.girming to spin from the way the

conversational thread roamed from one Barabel to another. "So

you're saying you haven't felt her die?"

"And that's how you know the rendezvous is still on?" Han

demanded. "Because Master Saba isn't dead yet?"

Tesar smiled broadly. "Exactly! If Master Saba isn't dead yet,

.slie will be here."

Han's face grew stormy...alarm ingly so, at least to Leia.

"That's it." He stared at the floor for a moment, then turned to

Leia. "We're going to Talfaglio."

"Talfaglio?" Leia waited for one of the Barabels to object-

When none did, she asked, "Are you serious?"

"As a hungry Hutt," Han replied. "We can't risk waiting

around here for bacta that might be coming someday."

He threw the soiled bandages down the disposal chute and

started to leave Leia's repulsor chair barely turned fast enough to

keep him in view.

"Han, wait!" Leia made a point of staying where she was; once

she started moving, she would find herself following him clear into

the cockpit. "Let's think this through."

Han turned in the door. "What's to think through?" There was

that hard look again—hardly unknown, but oddly out of place-

"We need bacta."

"We do," Leia admitted. "But how long will it take to reach

Talfaglio?"

"Ten and a half hours," Han said confidently. "I had Izal plot

the course."

Leia glanced toward the portable tank "We don't have ten

hours, Eelysa will be dead in half that time."

"And you in twenty."

"We don't know that."

"Well, I'm not taking chances." Han turned and vanished

through the door

Leia hastened after him, but her chair was no match for his

angry stride. He was already disappearing around the curve of the

corridor as she floated out of the crew quarters, and by then she

finally understood the hard look in his eye.

"Han!"

Han stopped, but did not turn.

"We can't go." Leia wondered if she still knew this man at all, if

he could have been so hardened by Chewbacca's death and the

treachery of the Duros that he had truly become the selfish cynic he

had fancied himself when they met. "We have to wait . . . and

hope."

"We have to get you to a bacta tank." Han turned, his eyes

filled with tears he refused to shed- "If we don't, you may not walk

again."

"Then at least I won't be walking on corpses." Leia started her

chair down the corridor. "Han, haw you forgotten who I am?" Do

you think I want to walk at the cost of someone else's life? Would

you want me to?"

Han shook his head weakly. Then tears began to escape his

eyes, and he hurried up the corridor. Leia did not follow. She still

understood him well enough to know when to leave him alone.- He

could face no more loss, and Leia was coming to comprehend—or

was it fear? That when he looked at her in the repulsor chair, he

saw another loss, something else taken by the Yuuzhan Vong.

And, Leia was astonished to realise, she saw the same thing in

him. After Chewbacca's death, he had shut himself off from his

family and disappeared into the galaxy to grieve alone. She had

believed he just needed room, and she had given it to him. But now

she realized he had left for another reason as well, to shield her and

the children from a fury he could not control. Would he haw gone,

she wondered, if she had tried harder to reach him, just kept

pushing and weathered the storm when he finally unleashed his

anger? Would he still feel like such a stranger now?

Deciding only a fool makes the same mistake twice, Leia started

up the corridor. This time, she would not let him suffer in privaie.

"Ship incoming," Izal Waz announced.

A vast sense of relief came over Leia, and not only because she

knew the bacta had arriwed. She steered her chair quickly into the

main hold and was overtaken by the three Barabels, the two Hara

sisters rushing for the cannon turrets and Tesar the the cockpit. She

paused at the engineering station to send C-3PO to watch over

Eelysa, then went to her new post behind the flight deck bulkhead.

Han and Izal were already sitting in their chairs. Tesar loomed

behind their seats, blocking Leia's view of almost everything.

"Tlie transponder's on," Han said. "That's a good sign."

"The Star Roamer," Izal Waz reported. "Damorian medium

freighter, armed. Registered to CorDuro Shipping."

"Out here?" Han asked- The rendezvous was taking place at the

edge uf the Corellian sector, in a never-to-be-surveyed system con

sisting of little more than a few asteroids, a dust ring, and the core of

a collapsed star "What's CorDuro doing ill a place like this?"

"They are the ones we have been waiting for, " Tesar explained.

"That is where we are getting our bacta tankz."

"From CorDuro?" Leia asked, disappointed. At the least, CorDuro

Shipping was guilty of appropriathig supplies intended for

refugees. "Master Saba has an arrangement with them?"

"Yes, but CorDuro docs not know it yet." Tesar turned to face

her, and a pinhead of crimson brightness—the collapsed star as seen

from inside its dust ring—appeared outside the cockpit. "They will

learn soon."

"Are you guys spacesick?" Han demanded.- He looked from

Tesar to Izal Waz. "You can't buy bacta tanks from CorDuro!

They're collaborators. They might even be a front for the Peace

Brigade."

Izal Waz shared a grin with Tesar, then asked, "Does anyone

have proof of that?"

"Jacen sent a report to New Republic Intelligence," Leia said.

"But it outlined a circumstantial case- There isn't anything solid."

Tesar sissed, then said, "There will be soon."

As Leia pulled ower the Barabel's remark, the CorDuro

freighter slowed and entered an unconcealed orbit in the dust ring.

A few minutes later, the proximity alarm sounded- Han silenced it

and frowned at his display, but lzal merely activated the Falcon's

data recorders.

"I'm getting nothing but mass readings." Han buckled his

crash webbing "That new ship's Yuuzhan Vong!"

Tesar sissed again, then looked back at Leia. "Not long now,

this one thinkz."

He moved aside to give her a better view of the displays. Leia

smiled her thanks and started to palm her hold-out blaster—this

could still be a trap—then decided against it and left the weapon in

her sleeve. The Barabel's insistence on total comm silence had pre

vented her from confirming even a small pan of their story with

Luke, but the feelings they had shared in the crew quarters had

contained no hint of decepdon.

Han and Izal Waz quickly identified the Yuuzhan Vong vessel

as a corvette -analog picket ship, then they all waked while the Star

Roamer maneuvered into docking range

"The Yuuzhan Vong want to know about bacta," Tesar

explained. "Before  Master Eelysa was injured, she told Master Saba

about this rendzvous."

"And Master Saba decided you need a set of your own bacta

tanks," Han finished.

Tesar bared his fangs in a smile- "It seemed fair."

"What if something goes wrong?" The worry in Han's voice

was so foreign to the Han Solo that Leia remembered that she

thought for a moment someone else was speaking. "Eelysa's the

one who will pay the price."

"And Leia, too, you're thinking," Izal Waz said.

"The thought had crossed my mind," Han admitted

Tesar covered Han's shoulder with a black-scaled claw "Han

Solo, you worry too much. What could go wrong?"

Leia had to smile "At least Jacen will feel better," she said,

trying to take Han's mind off all the things that could go wrong.

"His report was going nowhere without solid... ?"

Leia let the sentence trail off, for her thoughts were whirling

through her mind like hawk-bats above a thermal exhaust vent.

Why would someone contract an assassin to kill her? Why bribe a

CorSec guard to steal her datapad? Why send an entire combat

flotilla to prevent her from retuniing home?

"Proof!" she gasped. "Someone thinks I have proof."

"Proof?" Han turned in the pilot's seat. "Of CorSec's collaboration?"

Leia nodded. "That's what they're afraid of."

"It makes sense," Han said. "Hard to be sure, though."

"What else have I been doing over the last year?"' Leia asked.

"And no one was trying to kill me before Jacen's report—at least no

one on our side."

"CorDuro's not exactly on our side cither, dear."

Han opened a tactical feed to the navicomputer display so Leia

could waich events unfold from her seat behind the bulkhead. A

minute or so after the corvette and freighter had merged into a

single blip, Izal Waz opened a subspace channel and announced the

coordinates of the rendezvous.

"I thought we had to maintain comm silence," Han said

"Close enough," Tesar said.

A few seconds later, a nervous voice came from the Star

Roamer. "Who was that?" When no one answered, it said again,

"Unidentified transmitter, respond and explain yourself."

They did not, of course. A minute later, the electronics began

to hiss and spit as the freighter went to active sensors and probed in

their direction. Leia felt confident the Falcon would remain hidden.

The asteroid they sat upon was only a lew times larger than the ship

itself, but Han had set them down beside a ten-meter pressure

ridge where standard sensors would find it impossible to distinguish

the ship's silhouette.

The hissing faded away, and another minute passed. The tactical

display went briefly blank as the asteroid's rotation hid the two

ships from view, then it turned to static as the sensors pointed

toward the tiny sun. When the static cleared, the Roamer and the

Yuuzhan Vong corvette were separate blips again.

Tesar hissed in frustration. "They will get..."

He was interrupted by the shriek of proximity alarms. A new

handful of blips appeared on tin: display, streaking in from five

sides, already firing laser bolts and even a couple of long-range

proton torpedoes. The Yuuzhan Vong turned to meet the assault,

as Yuuzhan Vong ships nearly always did. The Roamer ran in the

only direction left to it, toward the Falcon.

Han and Izal began a warm start-up, while Leia occupied her

self trying to guess whether they would intercept the freighter

before it jumped to hyperspace. Identifiers began to appear beneath

the blips on the tactical display, revealing a motley assortment of

old T-65 X-wings, even older Y-wings,  and a pair of Skipray

blast-boats. Some of the newcomers transponder codes were already

blinking to show damage and the Yuuzhan Vong had not even

fired.

"That's the saddest pirate band I've seen in some time," Leia

said. "Who did Master Saba hire for this assignments?"

"No one. That is our squadron, the Wild Knightz." Tesar

smiled proudly. "I  fly a very fine Y-wing."

Any need to apologize was forestalled by a proximity alarm.

Another vessel, this one a fast-freight tagged the Jolly Man, emerged

from hyperspace to block the Roamer's line of escape. The Cor-Duro ship

continued on course and began to fire, lacing the darkness outside with

tiny needles of light. A trio of ancient Z-95 Headhunters dropped out of

the Jolly Man's belly and moved to meet it. The Roamer started to turn

away...then suddenly changed its mind and ran toward the tiny sun.

"He's going down the gravity well! On a white dwarf!"  Han

engaged the ion drives...still a little cold...and launched the Falcon.

"He must be crazy."

"No." Tesar said. "He is frightened"

The reason grew apparent an instant later, when a blip in hot

pursuit emerged from behind an asteroid. A tag naming the vessel

the Sureshot appeared, along with a legend identifying it as a CEC

YT-1300 stock light freighter...the same ship as the Falcon.

"She's not as fast as the Falcon," Izal Waz said proudly.

"But...well, she still flies."

The Roamer quickly started to pull away from the Sureshot, but

its abrupt change of direction had given the Jolly Man's Head

hunters time to catch up. They took a few passes, taking out the

energy shields and forcing the captain to waste time maneuvering

or have a hole burned through his bridge. Finally, the Sureshot

activated its tractor beam and caught hold of the target.

The Roamer stopped maneuvering and continued to accelerate,

firing at the Sureshot and dragging the smaller freighter alter it. The

Headhunters took care of the cannon fire in two passes, but they

could not target the drive nacelles without getting caught in the

tractor beam.- Tlie Sureshot turned ninety degrees in an attempt to

change vector, but the course did not vary noticeably. Its engines

could not match the combination of the larger freighter's power

and the white dwarf's gravity.

"Smart," Leia said- "He's giving the Sureshot a choice—release

or be dragged into the sun."

"Tesar," Han said, "how long before they reach the point of no

return?"

Tesar had already done the calculations. "Ten minutes," he

said. "We will reach tractor range in five."

Han opened a comm channel. "Hold tight, Sureshot. Help's on

the way."

Just don't be all day about it," came the reply.

Leia spent the next few minutes scarcely breathing as the

Falcon closed. The Headhunters continued to harry the Roamer,

though it was just harassment and everyone knew it- On Leia's

recommendation, they opened a channel to the captain and promised

to broker a lenient sentence. In return for cooperating with New

Republic Intelligence. The captain responded by promising not to

drag the Sureshot into the sun. In return for shutting off the tractor

beam, then closed the channel, Izal Waz suggested offering the

crew freedom in exchange for the bacta tanks, but Leia overruled

that idea. If the captain knew what they were really after, there was

a good chance he would destroy the tanks out of vindictiveness.

So they waited and watched on the tactical display as the other

two flights of Wild Knights used the Yuuzhan Vong picket ship for

target practice. Though the vessel was hurling an amazing amount

of plasma and magma into space, the ancient starfighters always

seamed to be where the enemy attacks weren't, or to angle their

shields at just the right time, or to take the Yuuzhan Vong gunners

by surprise. The corvette analog disintegrated bit by bit, slowly at

first, then more rapidly, and finally it simply flew apart and became

indistinguishable from the dust ring.

Han whistled- "Where were they when the Yuuzhan Vong attacked Ithor?

The New Republic could use a few more pilots like those."

"This one does not think Master Luke would have approved,"

Tesar said. "We are given to understand he does not want the Jedi

to hunt as soldierz."

"You're all Jedi?" Leia asked..

"All of the pilotz , yes."

The blocky silhouette of a Damorian freighter eclipsed the tiny

sun ahead, its gloving ion drives sliding across the cockpit canopy

as Han brought the Falcon in behind it.- The smaller disk of a

YT-1300 appeared below them and a little off to one side, its back

painted ill a patiernless kaleidoscope of the primary colors so

favored by the Arcona. The Headhunters were barely visible, a trio

of tiny black crosses chasing, the bolts of their laser cannons up the

Roamer's half-kilometer hull.

Han spoke over the intercom. "Ladies, we're counting on you

to take out the drive nacelles. Izal, why don't you handle the

tractor beam?"

"On my way."

The Arcona unbuckled his harness and rose- The mere sight of

the massive hull ahead was enough to convince Leia they could not

change its vector in time.

"Han," she said, "this isn't the way to do it."

Han half turned in his seat. "I'm listening."

"Won't there be an escape hatch above the bridge?"

"Yeah...locked from the inside," Han said.

"Doesn't matter," Leia said. "We have Jedi. "

Han frowned. "The CorDurol crew will be waiting."

"So?" Tesar asked- ."We have ]edi."

For some reason even Izal Waz did not seem to uriderstand;

this sent Tesar into a fit of sissing. Leia waved the back of

her fingers at Han.

"We have five minutes," she said- "I can handle the cofferdam."

"Four and a half minutes," Izal Waz corrected, stepping to the

back of the flight deck.

"Two will do." Tesar began to siss again. ."We have Jedi."

"Right." Han drew his blaster and passed it to Leia. "I just

hope we still have Jedi when this is done."

Leia led the way to the port docking ring, where Bela and

Krasov were already waiting in their brown Jedi robes- They were a

terrifying contrast to Izal Waz, who if the imth was told, looked

rather comical in his ragged flight tabard.

Han set the Falcon on edge and brought it into position over

the docking ring. The Roamer attempted to slide out from under

them, but Han was too good a pilot to let such a cumbersome ship

outmaneuver him. Leia put the cofferdam over the docking ring on

the third try, then activated the magnetic clamp and pressurized the

passage.

"Three minutes," Han warned. "If you can't..."

Tesar opened the hatch...and promptly hissed as a blaster bolt

caught him in the shoulder From her chair, Leia glimpsed a

charging crew member in a CorDuro uniform and squeezed off

two shots, then the two Hara sisters were leaping through door

with lit lightsabers. The human gurgled and thumped to the floor.

A pair of blaster rifles opened up from the opposite hatch. The

tunnel filled with flashes and hums and zings for about two seconds,

then the sounds began to recede as the Barabels carried the

battle into the Roamer.

Izal Waz followed, stepping over two bodies in the  cofferdam

and kicking another out of the way as he boarded the freighter.

Tezar was slower to react, pulling the. cloth away from his shoulder

to reveal the smoking hole and scorched scales beneath.

Leia moved her chair forward. "Tesar, how bad?"

"Bad," he growled. "My best robe." He stuck a claw through

the hole. "This really burnz me."

Then, sissing with hilarity, he leapt through the hatch and

followed his companions into the Star Roamer.

Leia stared after him in dumbfounded silence. When the hatch

at the other end of the cofferdam closed, she sealed the Falcon's

hatch and withdrew, the cofferdam, then checked her chronometer.

Two minutes.

She activated the intercom. "Han, we're clear- Maybe we can

buy a little time if we use the..."

"Don't need to Han replied. "The Roamer has cut her throttles

and is turning outbound."

"They're surrendering?" Leia asked- "Good. Maybe now we

can find out who wants me dead."

"Uh, maybe not," Han said. "They're not exactly surrendering."

"Not exactly surrendering?" Leia double-checked the hatch

seal, then started for the main hold- "What are you talking about?"

"Sensors are showing two escape pod deployments."

"Here?"

Leia reached the main hold and went straight to the engi

neering station, where she saw the image of two escape pods arcing

away from the Star Roamer. At escape pod speeds, it would have

taken them over three years to reach the nearest habitable environment.

But that was not going to be a problem. From the way it

looked to Leia, both pods were already well down the white dwarf's

gravity well.

Izal Waz's breathless voice came over the speaker. "Star

Roamer secure," he said. "With enough bacta to fill a lake."

"Izal," Leia asked, patching through the intercom- "What

about the crew?" Leia said.

"You mean survivors?"

"Yes, survivors," Leia said.

There was a moment of silence, then Izal Waz's voice fell to a

whisper. "Well, what would you do if you  saw three angry Barabels

coming your way?"

Chapter 6

Impossible as it was to ignore the stunning cascade of liquid metal

outside the transparisteel walls of the Cinnabar.

Moon Retreat, Han tried. He sat in the natatorium of the aban

doned spa the Wild Knights were using as a base, trying to concentrate

on the two datapads before him, listening to Leia's leg braces

whir mid clunk as she walked circuits around the empty pool.

C-3PO was standing behind the covered bar, using a portable

HoloNet hookup to access databases across the galaxy and add yet

more entries to the catalog Han was studying. It was maddening

work. if only because CorDuro had so many employees, and so

many of them had at one time or another been affiliated with illicit

organisations.- Han wondered what his own dossier would have

looked like in this light, or even Leia's. Smugglers, insurrectionists,

Hutt-killers...

The name of a woman who had once served as a clerk in

Thrackan Sal-Solo's Human League appeared on a display. Han

transferred it to the scrutiny list on the second datapad, then used a

electronic stylus to bring up the next entry. Somewhere on this list

he would find someone who knew Roxi Barl, and that would give

him a thread he could follow to the person who wanted his vife

dead. Or so he hoped. In the week since their capture of the Star

Roamer, it was the best plan they had devised, and time was run

ning out to develop a new one. The Wild Knights had spotted a

mysterious task force sniffing around a nearby system; like the

flotilia that had jumped the Falcon outside Corellia, this one oper

ated with deactivated transponders and included Lancer-class cus

toms frigates.

Leia's clunking, grew louder. Han looked up to see her

approaching, arms swinging wide to balance the cybernetic exercise

braces that kept her legs from collapsing.

"That's all." She stopped in front of her repulsor chair and

turned her back toward it, arms extended for Han to take when he

lowered her into the seat. "These braces still aren't adjusted. I can't

even cock my ankle."

"Give it some time." Han did not rise. Leia had only completed

six of the twenty-five laps that Cilghal...the Jedi's most

accomplished healer...had prescribed, and today was the first day

she had gone beyond four laps. "You just need to get used to

them."

"Thanks for your opinion, Dr. Solo," Leia said dryly. She con

tinued to stand with her arms out. "Now, would you please help

me into my chair and take these things off?"

Han slapped the stylus on the table. "Sure."

Though thrice-daily bacta treatments had finally chased the

infection from Leia's legs, it seemed to Han another infection had

been festering a place bacta could not reach. There was a sadness

in her that had been growing, since Corellia. Any effort to

encourage her invariably met a sharp-tongued riposte, any bid to

urge her on only resulted in a sullen retreat. This was not the. Leia

he had married all those yeara ago, before... well, before he had

gone crazy and shut her out. She had Leia's face and voice and

body and even her wit, but she held herself apart now; it was as

though the Yuuzhan Vong had taken Leia away from him without

even killing her, and now he wanted her back.

"Han?" Leia was suspended hallway above the seat of the

repulsor chair, her arms still clasped in his grasp. "Are you going to

keep me hanging here?"

"No." Han hauled her to her feet, then took her arm and

pulled her two steps toward the pool. "Let's do a couple of circuits

together. If something's out of alignment, maybe I'll see it."

"If, Han?" Leia pulled her arm free. "Wouldn't I be the one

who could tell?"

Han sighed. "Look, maybe they^re uncomfortable, but there

are only so many adjustments, I've tried them all."

Leia narrowed her eyes. "So I don't know what I'm talking

about."

"I'm saying give them more time." Han took her arm again.

"Come on, just a couple more circuits."

"Are you listening?" Leia refused to move her feet, and Han

had to stop pulling or drag her over. "It hurts. I can't do any more

today."

C-3PO looked up at the sound of Leia's sharp voice and started

to say something, then wisely decided his assistance was not

needed.

"You mean won't," Han said.

"All right, won't." Leia clunked the two steps back to her chair.

"What's the difference?" Either way, you're helping me into that

chair and out of these braces. If you can't do that—"

"That I can do," Han said, surrendering to his exasperation. "I

can put you in and out of this chair for the rest of your life, if that's

what you want. What I can't is make those braces comfortable,

so you'll just have to take the pain and keep going. When that task

force of killers finally finds us—and they will find us—it might be

nice if you could actually run for cover."

"That's fine advice, coming from you," Leia said.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You can figure it out," Leia said. "After Chewbacca died. you

certainly ran. And you kept running farther and farther..."

Leia stopped and looked away, and Han finally understood that

they weren't arguing about cybernietic braces, or how many circuits

Leia made of the pool, or even how much she really wanted to walk

again.

Leia shook her head. "This won't get us anywhere. Let's just

drop it."

"No, go ahead," Han replied, "It's time you said it."

Leia continued to look away. "I didn't mean anything..."

"Yes, you did." Han spoke with a humility hard-earned over

the last year. "The truth is, I might have a made a few mistakes in

the way I handled things."

Now Leia looked at him, her eyes as round as sensor dishes. "I

suppose you might have," she said cautiously. "But you needed to

grieve."

"Yeah, and maybe I even needed to go help Droma finf his

clan. What I didn't need to do was concussion-bomb our family."

Hail was quiet for a moment, then...forcing himself not to look

away...he said, "Leia, I'm sony."

Leia's eyes brightened with tears. She held his gaze for a

moment, then clunked forward. Han reached for her hands, but

she surprised him by wrapping her arms around his waist and

pressing her cheek against his chest.

"Me, too," she said. "I'm sorry, too. All these years, I've

devoted myself to the New Republic and asked you and the chil

dren to sacrifice so much."

"Hey, this is my apology." Han took her by shoulders. "And

what you did for the New Republic Is important."

"It is but I had a part in letting this happen," Leia said.

"Without you around, it became very clear that I haven't exactly

been the glue that holds this family together."

"Your hands were pretty full try my to hold the galaxy

together." Han did not like where this was going; blaming herself

for their family problems was nut going to make Leia work harder

in her braces. "I couldn't have picked a worse time to leave you on

your own."

"Haven't my hands always been full? That's the point. All these

years, I think I've been trying to rebuild what I lost when Alderaan

was destroyed." Leia placed her finger over his heart. "I couldn't

see that I already had it—here with you and the children."

Han was speechless. These days, even his apologies ricocheted.

"If we hadn't found each other on Duro when we did," Leia

continued, "I would have died alone...a stranger to my own

family."

Han wanted to say that wasn't true, or she couldn't know what

might have happened, or that the Force had brought them back to

each other. But all that sounded somehow hollow and not what

Leia needed to hear. He needed to give her a jolt, to make her see

that they had come through it, if only she would open her heart

and eyes and see it.

"You know who you remind me of?" he asked. "Borsk Fey'lya,

claiming all the credit for himself."

Leia's jaw dropped. "Borsk Fey'lya! How dare..." She must

have seen the mischief in Han's face, because she let the sentence

trail off and scowled. A hint of the old spark returned to her eve,

and she gave him a sideways look. "Borsk! Not really?"

Han half smiled. "Really. You're taking way too much of this

on yourself. You'd have had to chase me across half the galaxy—

and drag me out of a thousand tapcaft."

Leia pondered this, then said, "You know, I am being too hard

on myself." She seemed to shed two years of worry lines in as many

seconds, then added, "As you say, you're the one who shut me out.

What was 1 supposed to do, slap a set of stun cuffs on you and

borrow an interrogator droid from NRI?"

"Of course not," Han said, beginning to wonder who was

toying with whom. "But like you said, we both played our parts—"

"No, when you're right you're right-.I'm not going to argue."

Leia's smile...not quite a victory smirk...turned as hard as

durasteel. "But you're never doing that again, Han. The next time you

need help, you won't escape."

Han felt like the spa's supplemental gravity inducers had reset

themselves He had flutters in his stomach and bells in his ears, and

he even felt a little weak in the knees- This was the Leia he remembered.

She took his shin collar and, unable to rise on her toes,

began to pull him down so she could kiss him.

"Not so fast." Han disengaged himself and retreated to the

edge of the empty pool. "If you want to do that, you come over

here."

Leia raised her brow "You're going to make me work for

this?" She looked him up and down, then finally clanked after him.

"It had better be good.''

Han gave. her his finest smirk. "Oh, it'll be good." He waited

until she was almost to him, then began to retreat along the pool's

edse toward C-3PO. "Just the way you remember."

"The way I remember?" Leia echoed- "Taking a lot for

granted, aren't you?"

They were interrupted by an excited cry from C-3PO. "I've

found something!" He transferred an entry to one of the daiapads

Han was using, then said, "CorDuro's vice president of fleets is

related to Roxi Barl by marriage, and he has a substantial equity

interest in the Kuat Drive Yards corporation."

Han rushed toward the table—then heard Leia struggling to

keep up and went back to walk with her.

"How substantial?" Leia asked.

"Almost a thousandth of a percent," C-3PO reported. "Current

value well over a hundred million credits."

Han whistled and picked up the datapad, turning it so both he

and Leia could see. They made it almost to the end of the first

screen before the problem grew apparent. The vice president of

fleets had died several months earlier under mysterious circumstances,

shortly alter he petitioned to divorce Roxi's sister.

"Oh dear," C-3PO said "I don't see how it could be him

"I don't think it ever could have been," Leia said "We have an

entire task force hunting us This guy didn't have the resources to

buy that kind of influence. We need somebody with government

pull on a world that uses those Lancer-class customs frigates...a lot

of pull. You don't send an anonymous task force after the Millenium

Falcon  on a flotilla commander's say-so."

"Or maybe you need somebody in the government," Han said.

He sat down and began an associates search. "Threepio, get every-

thing you can on Viqi Shesh. I think we've been coming at this

from the wrong end."

"Senator Viqi Shesh?" Leia didn't sound all that surprised, just

cautious. "What makes you think of her?"

"Lancer-class frigates and A-9 Vigilances," Han said "They're

manufactured on Kuat, and that first frigate captain had a Kuati

accent."

"Interesting," Leia said. "And we know she has ties to Cor-Duro.

But that doesn't mean she's the one."

"Maybe it doesn't," Han said. "But I know what would."

He began to compose a message to Luke.

Leia stood behind him and laid a hand on his shoulder- "No,

don't ask if Viqi has been making inquiries about my whereabouts.

Ask if anyone has."

Han finished the message, coded it, and transferred it to

C-3PO for transmission. They received a reply three days later,

informing them that there was an inquiry, but it didn't come from

Shesh. Her chief of staff had been trying to track down Leia's

whereabouts since the fall of Duro, haranguing New Republic

Intelligence and SELCORE both on the pretense of being con

cerned for her safety- He had even shown up at their apartment...

where he had learned absolutely nothing from the two Noghri

bodyguards who had arrived to replace the pair killed on Duro. It

was not quite a smoking blaster, but close enough that both Solos

felt sure they had identified  the person behind the assaults

Given the evidence they had already recorded showing CorDuro's

treason, Han and C-3PO spent the next few days trying in

vain to establish a solid link between Viqi Shesh and the corporation.

The most they could prove, at least from the data banks acces

sible over the HoloNet, was that she had had the bad judgement to

assign all SELCORE shipping to a collaborationist corporation.

Leia contributed what she could...mostly ideas...but spent her

time either in bacta tanks or clanging around the empty pool in her

cybernetic exercise braces. By the end of the week, she could do

fifty circuits, but her legs ached constantly, and she was no closer to

making them obey. When she sent a message to Cilghal reporting

uncontrollable tremors, a reply came back telling Leia to find a

nervesplicer as quickly as possible. The interruption in her bacta

therapy had likely caused the nerves to regrow incorrectly, and

every day she delayed in having the damage repaired increased the

likelihood she would never walk properly again.

Leia and Han were in their quarters researching worlds with

good nervesplicers—so far just Balmorra, Kuat, and Coruscant

itself when the door chime rang. It took C-3PO a full half a stan

dard minute to circle the gurgling fountain in the center of the

room and open the door.

"Mistress Eelysa, what a pleasant surprise!" he said.

Leia turned her repulsor chair to see Eelysa's slender figure

emerging from the opulent foyer, her dark hair hanging loosely

over the shoulders of her jumpsuit. In her hand, she held one of the

saber-toothed rodents that seemed to have taken over the spa since

its abandonment...at least judging by the number of the creatures

the Solos kept finding outside their suite. Though both Leia and

Han had seen Eelysa many times since she emerged from the bacta

tank, this was the first time she had visited them in their quarters,

and her green eyes roamed over the milkstone walls, magnificent

archways, and soaring cupola above the fountain.

"And I thought my room was nice," Eelysa said.

"Apparently, Izal felt we would be more at home in the bridal

suite," Leia explained- She gestured at the carcass in Relysa's hand.

"See-Threepio will dispose of that. We keep finding them in the

hall."

C-3PO reached for the rodent, but Eelysa pulled it away and

tried...unsuccessfully...to keep from smiling, as she used the Force

to close the door.

"Actually, that's one of the reasons I came." She went into the

kitchen and, talking over her shoulder, called, "The Barabels are

starring to complain about your ingratitude."

Han frowned. "Our ingratitude?"

Eelysa emerged from the kitchen drying her hands. "The car

casses are honor-gilts from Tesar and the Hara sisters," she ex

plained. "But don't thank them, or they'll think you want more."

She pulled a holocube from her pocket. "This message came in

over the HoloNet. Saba asked me to give it to you before I go."

"You're part of the advance team?" Leia asked. The misterious

task force had begun to sniff around the adjacent system, so the

Wild Knights would be changing bases as soon as she and Han

departed. "Are you ready for that?"

Eelysa thumped her chest. "As good as new, but I'm not going

to the new base. I'm on my way back to Corellia."

Han looked concerned—he looked that way a lot these days.

"Will you be safe?"

"As safe there as anyplace," Eelysa answered. "And somebody

needs to keep an eye on the Centerpoint Party- If they find sub

way to get the station going a gain, there's no telling what Thrackan

will blow up."

"Himself, if we're lucky," Hail said. He stood and reached out

to shake her hand. "Watch yourself."

Eelysa ignored the hand and embraced him. "Thanks again. I

don't know that Izal and the Barabels would have gotten me out of

there without you."

"Without me, I don't know that they would've needed to,"

Han said, sitting back down. "But it was good seeing you again."

Eelysa bent down to hug Leia as well. "I'll be thinking of you

Get better."

"I already am," Leia said "Be careful. Don't take foolish risks."

"Me?" Eelysa jerked a thumb at Han. "You're the one flying

with Han Solo."

Leia waited until C-3PO had shown Eelysa out, then activated

the holocube. It played a brief vidnews item describing a new

movment in the Senate pushing for an Appeasement Vote to

outlaw the Jedi and accept the truce terms put forward by Warmaster

Tsavong Lah. Though the sponsors were identified as a

coalition of Senators from uncaptured Core Worlds, Luke's image

appeared after the report to say that the leader was Viqi Shesh. She

had already struck a deal with Borsk Fey'lia to call a vote the fol

lowing week, so Luke was asking them to send him any information

they could about her dealings with   CorDuro. He also warned

them that Shesh's chief of staff had quietly arranged to be notified

the. instant NRI learned their location.

Luke was still signing off when Leia threw the cube into the

wall. "That woman is poison. Killing me isn't enough...now she

has to go after all the Jedi!"

Han looked from Leia to the shattered cube. "She's murder on

holocubes, that's for sure...not that we've got anything worth

putting on one."

"She's corrupt- We know it," Leia said. "The only question is

how corrupt ."

"Does it matter?" Han asked. "We can't prove it.- Short of

assassination, there's no way we're going to stop her from calling

the Appeasement Vote."

"Assassinadon?" Leia leaned across the arm of her chair and

kissed him. They had been doing a lot of that lately. "Han, you're a

genius."

Han looked worried. "Maybe ... do you really think we could

pull it off?"

"Not physical assassination," Leia said. "Political assassination.

We're going to attack her character."

Now Han merely looked confused. "Leia, she's from Kuat,

Nobody expects her to have any character."

"Which is why this will work," Leia said. "And it's time we

carried the hunt to Viqi Sheah for a change. It's the only way we're

going to win this thing."

"I'm all for winning," Han agreed "But with what we're got

so far, I don't see it happening anytime soon."

"Then, my dear, you need to broaden your definition of winning."

Leia patted his cheek, then turned to C-3PO, who was

already approaching the shattered cube with a sweeper, and said,

"Bring me a daiapad. And get me the transceiver address for Sena

tor Kvarm Jia. I need him to convene a corruption panel."

"Without good evidence?" A knavish smile came to Han's lips.

"I didn't think you played dirty."

"I'll make an exception," Leia said. "This woman's trying to

outlaw my children."

Chapter 7

The black drop of a battered CEC YT-1300 light freighter swung into

view outside the viewport, the efflux from its dilapidated ion drives

flickering uncertainly against the dazzle of Coruscant's night side.

Though hardly the steady blue blast of his own ship's overpowered

sublight engines, Han doubted the wavering, would give them away.

The  Falcon's temperamental nature was too well known—and the

possibility that she had taken battle damage on the journey home

too high...for the contrast to draw more than a passing curiosity

about what was wrong this time.

The cannon turrets were another story, fabricated on the Cinnabar

Moon from a pair of abandoned escape pods, they were not

going to fool anyone who took a good look...especially if that

person expected the support posts serving, as cannon barrels to

swivel around and start firing.

Han looked toward the front of the folly Man's spacious crew

deck, where Izal Waz sat at a communications station using a slave

unit to fly the Sureshot onto Coruscant. "You're sure you want to

do this?"

"You suddenly think of a better way to spring their trap?" the

Arcona asked.

Han shook his head- "There isn't one."

"Then stop asking." Izal kept his attention focused on the sys

tems display ahead of him, relying on computer keys and a pressure

pad to control his battered ship. "She's a piece of Jawa bait

anyway."

The faint scent of ammonia permeated the air, and one of the

milky bubbles that served Areona as tears appeared in the corner of

lzal's eye. Leia, magnoclamped to the deck next to Han's seat,

cocked a brow and thumbed her fingers as though activating a

credit chip. Han shook his head no. A wreck like the Sureshot

wasn't worth much, but there were some things no amount of

money could replace.

"Thanks, Izal," Han said. "If you ever need anything from us,

let us know."

"You're doing it," Izal said- "Just stop this Shesh woman and

her  Appeasement Vote."

A pair of Rendili light cruisers...on-station in Coruscant's

innermost patrol perimeter...drifted past the viewport, then the

Jolly Man entered a controlled-access area and had to slow as

inbound vessels were herded into narrow approach bands. Above

and below these bands, dozens of New Republic frigates were

lacing the darkness with rocket fire as they set a shell of orbiting

space mines.

As the traffic flow coagulated, Han and the three Barabels—

crouched on the edges of their seats rasping in awe at Coruscant's

scintillating brightness....kept a close watch. If Shesh's assassins

were going to take the bait, this would be the logical place to stage

an accident, but the Sureshot...flying under the Falcon alias Shadow

Bird...passed through the mine shell unmolested. A few minutes

later, crescents of sunlight started to reflect off the bottoms of

orbital gun platforms. The traffic began to disperse as vessels fanned

out toward their docking facilities.

The Sureshot and Jolly Man descended into descended into low orbit. The

Sureshot began to drift across Han's viewport as it tumed toward

the Eastport Docking facility, where the Solos kept a berth under

an assumed name.

Finally, a collision alarm sounded from Izal Waz's slave

controls.

"Izal?" Han asked- He kept his gaze fixed out the viewport,

but could see nothing moving toward the Sureshot. "I don't see

anytliing."

"Something small." Izal punched a button to activate the

Sureshot's distress alarm, and the electronic tones of an all-channels

emergency beacon drifted down from the bridge speakers "I think

it came from..."

The Sureshot became an orange ball, hurling oddly shaped silhuettes

and still-glowing drive nacelles in all directions, Even ilie

Brabels gasped, and the comm channels erupted into inquiries and

exclamations. Han turned toward lzal Waz and found the Arcona

puslied back from his station, wiping the bubbles from his eyes.

"A rescue ship," Izal said. "It came underneath and ejected

something."

A wedge of broken sensor dish glanced off the particle shields

outside Han's viewport, drawing an involuntary recoil—and a

chorus of sissing from the Barabels.

"Very funny," Han said. "I'll bet you guys wouldn't flinch in a

meteor storm."

More debris began bouncing off the Jolly Man's shields, and

the freighter started to slow. The captain patched a comm channel

through the intercom.

".. mine spill," an official voice was saying. "Cut speed to

dead stop, and we'll tractor you out- Repeat, dead stop."

"In  a Sarlacc's eye," Leia scoffed- She turned to Han- "Could

they have seen through our decoy?"

Han shook his head. "The mine would've hit us," he said.

"They're just trying to figure the Joolly Man. They might have been

watching for a while, or maybe they picked up some of Izal's signal

traffic."

"What do you think?" the Jolly Man's captain asked over the

intercom. "Should I call in our backup?"

"No, we don't want Viqi to know her assassins failed." Leia

looked over at Han, then added, "We can still pull this off."

Han raised his brow, then rose and, waving Leia toward the

back of the ship, told the captain," "Just keep your launching bay in

the Jolly's sensor shadow."

The Barabels' slit pupils widened to diamonds, and Izal Waz

gasped, "You two are getting out here?"

In the Jolly Man's makeshift docking bay, the freighters nor

mal complement of primitive stariighters had been replaced by two

doyen twin-pod cloud cars. Long ago converted for civilian tours

on the Cinnabar Moon, they were a cargo far less likely to draw

unwanted attention from Coruscant customs. Han opened the

canopy of the vehicle he would fly- The backseat had already been

removed, so Tesar used the Force to deposit Leia—chair and all—

in the passenger compartment facing aft.

C-3PO came clunking into the hold. "Captain Solo, Mistress

Leia, wait! You're forgetting me!"

"Sorry,Threepio," Leia said. "You'll have to stay with Izal and

the Barabels until they can send you home."

"Stay?" C-3PO regarded the Barabels for a moment, then

asked, "Are you quite sure there's  no room?

"You're a little large for the trunk," Han said.

He floated the cloud car out into the launching bay and shut

down all non-life-support systems to lower their sensor profile.

Then, with Izal and the Barabels waving good-bye through the

observation port, he and Leia matched nervously as the outer hatch

opened.

The cloud car lurched sharply as one of the Jedi used the Force

to launch it from the bay. There was just enough time to be over

whelmed by the immensity of space compared to the tiny cockpit...

and to wonder how much more vast the darkness must have

seemed to Jaina when she went EV at Kalarba...before one of the

Barabels reached out again. The cloud car began to tumble like an

ordinary piece of space flotsam.

"Oh...nice touch," Leia said. "I think I'm going to be sick."

Fighting to keep his gave fixed on the Jolly Man...and his own

stomach down...Han alternated between trying not to watch

Coruscant's sparkling surface slide by and trying not to notice the stars

swirlig past in ever-widening spirals. Tails of ion efflux appeared

and disappeared at random. Once, the tiny halo of an approaching

vessel swelled into the backlit silhouette of a New Republic frigate.

It vanished beneath the floor of the spinning cloud car and reap

peared an instant later, less than a kilometer overhead and veering

sharply away.

At last, the Jolly Man's blocky silhouette disappeared over

Corruscant's horizon. Han waited a few more minutes, then fired the

attitude thrusters to stabilize their tumble. Shaken by their close

call with the frigate...and all too aware that being bounced off a

panicle shield would demolish their little cralt...he activated the

transponder next, and then the navigation systems.

It was at about that time Leia asked, "Why do I doubt those.

rescue launces are coming to help?"

Not waiting for the traffic display to come on-line, Han pushed

their nose down and fired the cloud car's little ion drive. They

streaked out of orbit like a meteor and began to buck and burn in

the thickening  atmosphere. Finally, he had time to glance at the jig

gling screen. A pair of rescue launch symbols sat almost atop their

own. Farther away, the Jolly Man was turning away from Coruscant,

a quartet of Cinnabar Moon cloud cars rushing back to its

launching bay Behind them tumbled the blinking codes of nearly a

dozen damaged rescue launches.  The rescue ship itself was nowhere

to be seen.

Han opened a private channel to the Jolly Man. "You guys okay

back there?"

"Of course," sissed a Barabel—Han thought it was Bela. "But

one of those spilled mines changed course and struck the rescue

ship," and the debris field has been very hard on her launchez. Only

two escaped."

"No need to worry about those," Leia said- "We have them in

sight. Have a safe journey home."

"We will," Izal Waz said. "We're clear of danger now. May

the... well," you know."

"We do, and the same to you," Leia said. "Thank you again,

and send C-3PO back when you get a change''

Han continued to accelerate until the hull temperature warning

light came on...then went faster. The first towers appeared far

below, their spires jutting througli the clouds like spikes through a

bed. The rescue launchez began to drift back. Han thought they

might be losing nerve—until they brought their tractor beams on-

line. He began to juke and jink like a fighter pilot.

The voice of a startled approach-control officer came over the

comm speaker. "Cinnabar Moon cloud car five-three, what is the

nature of your damage?^

"Damage?" Han said.

"From the mine spill," Leia whispered over the seat. "He thinks

we were hit."

"Uh, no damage," Han commed. "We're fine."

"Then slow down!"

Han checked the traffic display. "Negative, Control."

There was a puzzled silence, then a disbelieving supervisor

growled, "Negative?"

"This is an emergency," Han said- "My wife is," uh, having a

baby."

"Whaaaaaat?" managed to modulate her startled outburst

into something resembling a scream. "It's coming!"

"We can confirm that." The voice was so gravelly it might have

been human or Aqualish. "We been escortin'em."

"Very well, cloud car," the supervisor said. "We'll clear a direct

lane to Lamoramora Medcenter. Please follow the beacon on your

traffic display...and slow down. You have the time to arrive in

one piece."

"Like you'd know!" Leia snapped, playing her role. "Ronto

brain!"

A deep chuckle came over the channel. A winking safety beacon

flashed past as they reached the towertops and dived into the

clouds- Han shifted to instrument-flying and found himself plummeting

through a canyon of display lines. A blue bar illuminated

the route to Lamoramora but the hoverlane was too narrow for

maneuvering. Han swung into a broader skylane and circled an

ancient cylindrical tower he could see only on his screen.

"Not going to lose them that way," Leia reported. "If can sec

them, they can see us."

"You can see them in this?" Han did not dare glance up up from

his instruments, but he suspected he could not have seen five

meters beyond the cloud car's nose. "How close are they?"

"Close." Leia's voice assumed the cerie calm that meant things

were really bad- "Close enough to..."

Lines of blaster bolts started to flash past.

Control's angry voice squawked over the comm channel. Han

slapped the unit off, then dropped out of the clouds through a

crowded hoverlane, ripped the cloud car on its side, and ducked

around a comer into oncoming traffic. Hovercars went everywhere.

Han picked his way up to an emergency access level.

"Are the launches still back..."

The crackle of melting canopy told him they were.

"You all right?"

"Define all right."  Leia had to yell to make herself heard over

the rush of air. "I'm staring down the barrels of two blaster rifles,

and I've got nothing but spit to fight back with."

Han dived for the dark underlevels, buying enough time to pull

his blaster- He pushed it over the seat into Leia's hands, then the

launches were on them again. Another bolt hit the canopy. The

plasteel shattered. The wind filled Han's eyes with tears, and his

blaster began to screech.

"Han, do something." That calm voice again.

"Can't see!"

Han squinted and thought he saw a bridge below. No, a roof!

He leveled off and shot along a few meters above its surface, weavins,

through exhaust stacks and intake vents, then the roof dropped

away and the cloud car was over a black abyss again.

Something pinged in the rear of the vehicle.

"Smoke!"

"Good" he said. "Maybe it'll blind 'em."

Han widened his eyes and saw a pair of dark bars ahead. Two

bridges, stacked. He'd have to shoot through a hoverlane, but not

a congested one. Wherever they were, this pan of the city was not

exactly prosperous.

The cloud car chuggled. Han thought at first a tractor beam

had snagged them, but the whine of the little ion engine began to

fall in pitch, not rise. The dark bars ahead started to assume shape

and depth.- Half a kilometer away, maybe, with about the same dis

tance separating them vertically.

"Leia, activate your chair's repulsors," Han said. "And be ready

to shut off the magnoclamp."

She saw what he was thinking. "Han, if you think I'm leaving

this car without...

"You're not going anywhere without me."

The cloud car chugged and lost speed, and a blaster bolt

shattered the main display. No need for that anyway. There were

figures on the lower bridge, watching the battle race toward

them. Han angled for the far support girder, and the figures ran for

cover. The bridge swelled. Another blaster bolt melted the small

comm unit.

They passed under the bridge, and Han stopped weaving. The

cloud car chugged again...this time caught in a rescue launches

tractor beam. Han pulled back on the stick, and the cloud car went

into a steep climb, passing beneath the far support girder so closely

he had to duck...and yell for Leia to do the same.

The launch could not cut its tractor beam in time. It hit the

girder and disintegrated, freeing the cloud car to continue skyward.

Leia poured blasierfire down into the smoke.

Han spun the car around and saw a two-person rescue launch

shoot out of the fumes beneath them, a line of blaster holes burned

along, the roof of its casualty compartment. The pilot took it into

an inside loop, and two snarling Aqualish glared out the ceiling of

their blaster-scorched canopy. Leia and the passenger exchanged

fire, hut at that range even rifle bolts dissipated harmlessly.

The rescue launch leveled off and approached inverted. Han

kept waiting for it to roll upright, but the pilot was too good to

maneuver into a blind spot. The passenger continued to fire.

Instead of wasting precious thrust maneuvering, Han spun the top

of the cloud car away from the launch and continued to climb. The

upper bridge wasn't far, maybe a hundred metens.

Blaster bolts hammered the bottom of the hull. One burned

through, then another.

"Han?" Leia asked- "You do know I can't fire back?"

"I know."

The enemy blasterfire stopped, then the rescue launch roared

past just meters above and abruptly dived to avoid the high bridge.

Han eased off the throttle. " Ready to get off this tub?"

"Never been readier to get off anything," Leia said- "Since

Jabba's sail barge, anyway."

The cloud car chugged...rose level. with the bridge...

chugged again...

Han swung the nose over the edge and levled off.

The cloud car chugged in relief and shot onto the bridge.

"Now!"

Han unbuckled his crash webbing and twisted around to clasp

Leia's arm, then allowed her to pull him free as the repulsor chair

rose out of the passenger compartment. The cloud car slid out from

beneath them and continued out over the hoverlane. They had

barely touched down—Leia settling gently onto her chains repul-

sors and Han falling gracelessly to his side...before the rescue

launch came up and stitched a fresh line of blaster holes in the

cloud car's bottom. The battered vehicle dropped its nose and

began a smoky descent, the launch close behind, pouring blaster

bolts into its ion drives."

Han rose and, seeing that Leia was all right, looked along the

bridge in both directions." If there was anyone around, they were

staying out of sight.

"So," he asked, "any idea where we're at?"

Leia shook her head. "Not really, but I think Lamoramora is

over by the Trilobyte Park."

"Great! The wrong side of the world," Han said. "It'll take us

all day to get back."

A distant explosion rumbled up from the depths of the hoverlane.

Han glanced briefly toward the sound, then took Leia's hand

and started toward the nearest building.

Leia jerked him back. "Not so fast, flyboy," she said, smiling.

"You're the one who got us lost in the first place. I'll find the way

home."

Chapter 8

The Senate Inquiry Room door slid aside to reveal a solid wall of

newsvid light, By the squall of hushed voices, Leia could sense that

the chamber was packed beyond capacity. But it was not until her eyes

grew accustomed to the novalike glare that she began to see the faces

behind the whispers. The room was crammed horn-to-eyestalk with the

media of a thousand different worlds, all murmuring quietly into their

microphones as they reported that Leia Organa Solo, for some reason

still dressed in a travel-worn flight suit, had arrived at the

Corruption Panel's meeting exactly on time.

Han leaned close to Leia's ear. "Looks like we win already," he

whispered. "Even if the charges won't stick, Viqi will be too busy

ducking holocrews to line up support for the vote."

Leia started to remind him to be careful of the microphones,

then caught herself and simply nodded. Even if he had never cared

for it, Han was as experienced at this game as she was.

"What I want to know is how you're going to get to the

accuser's table," Jaina whispered. All Leia's children were there,

along with Luke, several more Jedi, and Leia's new Noghri body-

guards. "We'll have to float you!"

"We'll clear the aisle, Mom," Anakin said, nodding to Jacen.

Leia caught him by the arm.

"Now isn't the time for the Jedi to seem arrogant," she said.

"I'll walk."

"Walk?" Han asked. "How?"

"With a little help from my family." Leia looked to Jaina—Jaina

who had been so angry with her and felt so abandoned by her on

Duro... and asked, "Would you mind?"

The smile that came to Jaina's face was almost as lopsided as

Han's. "Trust me?"

Leia felt her daughter reach out in the Force, then felt herself

rise into a standing position. Her legs started to move, by Jaina's

will instead of her own, but in a reasonable imitation of walking.

The room erupted into a fresh round of murmurs as the vidcasters

commented on what they were broadcasting." Luke and the

others took protective positions around Leia, and they started

forward.

If Shesh had assassins lurking in the crowd, they had the

good sense to realize an attempt now would be hopeless. Leia

reached the front of the room and took her scat at the accuser's

table, with Han at her side and her children and the others behind

her. As was proper for a formal proceeding of this nature, she did

not ackoweledge Kvarm Jia or any other other friends behind the

high consoles.

Given the importance of punctuality in such matters, Leia was

somewhat surprised to note that Viqi Shesh was not at the respon

dents table. There was only her chief of staff, a beady-eyed little

man who could not help glancing at the accuser's table as though

seeing a ghost- Leia caught his gaze and nodded, her lips just

hinting at a hard smile. He paled, but returned the gesture and

refused to look away.

Han leaned over and whispered, "Where's Viqi?"

"Where do you think?"; Leia asked." Their plan had backfired;

Shesh had been so confident of their deaths she had not even both

ered to attend the Corruption Panel's meeting. "She's rounding up

support for the Appeasement Vote."

Han's face fell.

At exactly the appropriate moment, the head of the panel, a

Bith female named E'noro, thumbed the signal chime to call the

meeting to order- Widiout preamble, she turned to the respon

dent's table and addressed Shesh's beady-eyed chief of staff.

"Staff Chief Pomt, I see that Senator Shesh is not present

today. Is this panel to take it she has fled the planet?"

This drew a nervous laugh from the gallery...which was

promptly silenced by a thumb on the signal chime. Pomt waited a

moment for the disturbance to die away, then stood.

"Of course not. Senator Shesh has no wish to show any disrespect

to the panel. But as you know, a crucial vote on the Jedi question

is coming to the floor next week, and she refuses to let a

cynical ploy by the very subjects of that vote to interfere with her

preparation. If it pleases the panel, she requests that the inquiry be

postponed until after the Peace Vote." Pomt cast a sidelong glance

in Leia's direction. "At which time, Senator Shesh will be happy to

answer any and all complaints still lodged against her—no matter

how groundless they may be."

"I see." E'noro turned to Leia- "The timing of the complaint

does seem convenient, Princess Leia. Would the Jedi have an

objection to such a postponement?"

"The Jedi would not," Leia said. "But I would. Forgive me for

not standing, but I'm sure the panel has heard of my injuries. Let

me start by saying that I am here on my own behalf, to complain

against a corrupt Senator who has already tried to have me killed in

an attempt to conceal her wrongdoings."

Pomt was on his feet instantly, his voice carrying, over the

tumult of the crowd only by dint of the ampdroid hovering near his

mouth. "These accusations are outrageous slander!"

"I have proof of my charges." Leia could feel Luke's astonish

ment, and that of all the other Jedi. The strategy they had agreed

upon had been far more conservative, designed to neutralise Shesh

by occupying her time and resource...but it was clear they had to

move more boldly "I am ready to present my proof, and I maintain

that any delay greatly enhances the danger not only to my own life,

but to the New Republic as well."

E'noro thumbed the signal chime until the chamber quieted.

"Another outburst, and I will bar spectators." The room quickly

went silent, and she turned to Leia. "Princess Leia, what is the sub

stance of your claim?"

Leia summarized what she and Han had discovered about CorDuro

Shipping's treason then accused Shesh of taking bribes and

outlined the attempts on their lives.

"Madam, I really must object..."

E'noro silenced Pomt with a finger wag, then asked Leia, "And

the nature of your evidence?"

"Data recordings and witnesses," Leia said. She could provide

enough of each to justify her statement, though the only guilt she

could actually prove was CorDuro's. "The record will speak for

itself."

"Records can be distorted," Pomt said. "Especially when the

subject of an inquiry is not present to defend herself."

"That is Senator Shesh's doing, not Princess Leia's E'noro

replied harshly.

Leia continued,"I should also mention that Staff Chief Pomt is

not innocent in this, Madam My presence in the panel room today

came as something of a shock to him. Both he and Senator Shesh

had reason to believe that my husband and I had been killed in an

assassination attempt. In fact, the staff chief is the one who pro

vided my location to the original assassins."

"That's a lie!"

"I have withnesses." Leia glanced over her shoulder at her

Noghri bodyguards. "You don't remember going to my apartment

to ask my whereabouts?"

Pomt's face fell.

"Well, Staff Chief?" E'noro asked.

"It had nothing to do with assassins," Pomt said. "We were,

um, concerned about her safety."

"Yes, I do believe that has been established. Staff Chief Pomt

you may consider yourself relieved of office pending investigation."

E'noro motioned a pair of guards toward him- "These gentlebeings

will escort you from the panel room."

The chamber almost erupted into a tumult...until E'noro

thumbed the signal chime. She turned to Leia.

"As for the charges against Senator Shesh..."

E'noro activated a comlink, and, save for the sound of her

voice, the panel room fell silent- Leia and everyone else listened

patiently as E'noro threatened her way through several layers of

assistants, then was finally connected to Shesh.

"I don't care who you were with, Senator Shesh," E'noro said

into the comlink. "You were expected in my panel room... Now,

why should that surprise you? We confirmed the schedule three

days ago... I see. No, I hadn't heard anything about that, but I

assure you she's fine. She's sitting right here—and saying some

rather unpleasant things about you, I might add... Of course we

can reschedule... A month from now?"

Leia started to object, but E'noro raised her finger and con

tinued to speak into the comlink.

"Consider it done... You're welcome, Senator. But I do want

to mention that the panel will be taking a vote today..." She

paused to glance in both directions down the console; when she

received only nods, she said, "And your Senatorial membership will

be suspended until the matter is cleared."

The crackle that came from the comlink was loud enough to

hear in the back of the room. E'noro held the device at arm's length,

then shook her head in dismay and thumbed the signal chime.

"It seems," she said," this meeting is adjourned."

A week later Leia was lying in her bed in the nervesplicing

ward of the Orowood Medcenter with both legs elevated on pil

lows. Han was standing next to her, Anakin and the twins were

perched on the edges of the only chairs in the room, and Luke,

Mara, and half a dozen other Jedi were gathered around the head

other bed. They were all staring at the vidscreen hanging high on

the opposite wall.

"How long can it take to count the vote?" Han demanded.

"It's compputerized."

"Actually, Captain Solo the organic element slows things

considerably," C-3PO said. Hehad lasted only one day on the Jolly

Man before Izal Waz had dropped him off on Balmorra and per

sonally paid to ship him back to Coruscant. "The computations

themselves are done in milliseconds."

Han reached behind the droid's head and tripped the main cir

cuit breaker.

"Thank you," Leia said.

For the first time in weeks, her legs did not ache or throb or

burn, but she was barely aware of that fact. She was too interested

in watching Borsk Fey'lia's face on the vidscreen, looking for a

beard tug or brow twitch that would tell her which way the

Appeasement Vote was going.

Leia's doctor, a distracted-looking human with a permanent

squint and perpetually mussed hair, came into the room. If he

noticed the Noghrl bodyguards flanking him, or was impressed by

the sight of so many famous Jedi in one place, he hid it well- He

simply began to prod, poke, and tickle Leia's legs, issuing quiet

instructions to move this or wiggle that.

The nervesplicer said something about normal sensation and

improving motor control. But Fey'lya raised his brow just then, and

Leia missed whatever it was the doctor said next.

"Did you see that?" Han asked. "He's surprised."

"That can't be good," Jaina said.

"It's hard to know." Leia reached out and found Han's hand.

"Nobody has been able to tell what Borsk thinks will happen."

The doctor stepped into Leia's line of sight. "Princess Leia, I

have some news."

"In a minute."

Leia cast an appealiiig glance at her daughter, who quietly used

the Force to slide the doctor out of the way.

Fey'lya was looking directly into the cam now, his fangs bared

in a politican's meaningless smile.

"It is my duty to announce that the Peace Vote...or the

Appeasement Vote, as it has become known in some circles...has

failed by a two-to-one ratio."

"Not even close!" Anakin cried- "How about that?"

The room...and much of the corridor outside...erupted into a

chorus of cheering.

The nervesplicer stepped to Leia's side, his face twisted into a

frown. "Princess, are you listening? The repair was fully suceessful.

You can start walking later today. Your legs are going to be fine."

"I know, Doctor." Leia pulled the nerve splicers face down to

hers and kissed his cheek—she had no idea why ,other than because

she was so happy—then said, "Thank you."

"Uh, my pleasure."

The nervesplicer rubbed his check, then scowled and retreated.

As he departed Leia sensed that not everyone in the room was

completely at ease. She turned to see her brother staring out the

transparisteel viewport, his brow furrowed and his jaw clenched,

seeming  older and wearier than she ever remembered seeing him.

Leia nudged her sister-in-law "Is Luke seeing something?"

Though Mara would not necessarily share in Luke's Force-

vision.

if that was what was happening-the two of them were close

enough that she could tell if it was anything to be concerned

about.

"We can clear everyone out," Han volunteered.

Mara shook her head. "He's been doing this a lot, lately." She

took Luke's hand. "I'm pretty sure he just falls into thinking and

forgets where he is."

"Yeah." Han flashed a concerned look in Leia's direction.

"Happeris to me all the time."

"Han, it's nothing to worry about." Luke flashed a smile, then

turned to Leia and the others. "Jedi Masters don't crack up-they

just get eccentric."

"That's a comfort," Han said.

Luke laughed, then said, "Seriously, I was thinking about

where the Jedi go from here. We know this situation has to get

worse before; it gets better."

Leia nodded. "With Pomt gone, there's no way to make those

charges stick," she said.The chief of staff had been found dead with

a recorded statement blaming himself for all of the troubles in

Shesh's office. "Nobody believes she's innocent, but proving it's

another matter."

"There's Viqi-and too many like her," Luke agreed. "The

Appeasement Vote failed by a two-to-one margin..."

"But that means a third of the Senate voted against us," Mara

finished. "The next time, a corruption panel isn't going to save us."

"That's right," Luke said. "The Jedi are going to need a quiet

way to move around the galaxy, a great river that can cany them

wherever they need to go."

Leia saw where this was going. "And you're thinking Han and

I would be a good team to set up this great river?"

"You do have the skills," Luke said. "A smuggler and a

diplomat."

Han did not even hesitate. He simply took one glance at their

children, got a hard look in his eye, then set his jaw and turned to

Leia. "What do you think, partner?" Want to wander around the

galaxy together?"

"Sure." Leia pulled him onto ths bed and twined her fingers

into his.  "But I'm navigating."