Star Wars: The New Rebellion (29 page)

“Leia,” Gno said.

Meido’s entire face had gone white, except for crimson lines near his eyes and mouth. “I’m sorry, President.”

“I will not accept your apology. How dare you—”

“He dares because he is doing the right thing.” C-Gosf stood beside Leia and put a delicate arm around her shoulders. “Better he discusses this here, in the Inner Council, than among the other senators. Better that we do what we can to silence these rumors than allow them to spread all over Coruscant. For if we do, General Solo will always be under suspicion, even if we later learn of his innocence.”

All of her supporters were siding with Meido. “I’m sorry, President,” he said again.

“Han had nothing to do with this,” she snapped.

“Leia,” Gno said, “I think you need to absent yourself from this discussion. None of us can be objective about the ones we love, no matter how hard we try.”

Her heart was pounding. “You believe Meido. You believe him.”

“I believe we need to investigate this, Leia.” Gno looked away from her. “I’m sorry. But the charge is too serious to let slip.”

She looked around the room, at her closest remaining allies in the government. Familiar faces, and three unfamiliar faces, elected after the bombing. Meido, R’yet, and Wwebyls watched her warily. Her friends had sympathetic expressions on their faces. Even those who normally opposed her were looking at her with pity.

“Is this all it takes?” she asked. “An accusation, and a good man is found guilty of a crime he didn’t commit? This is not proof, and even if it were, you all know Han. You know he’s not capable of this.”

“Leia, please, don’t make this difficult,” Gno said.

“What do you want me to do, Senator?” she asked, using his formal title. “Resign?”

“No,” he said. “Absent yourself from any proceedings concerning Han.”

“And if I don’t?”

Gno looked away from her. C-Gosf squeezed Leia close and then let go. “Think about it, Leia. We’ll meet in the morning. By then this news won’t be quite as shocking.”

“The news isn’t shocking,” Leia said as she stood. “What’s shocking to me is your willingness to believe it.”

“Forgive me, President,” Meido said. “But whoever planted that bomb had to have access to the Chamber. Very few people had such access. The person who set the bomb will be one we trust. I can guarantee that, just from the circumstances. And I think when you’re calm you’ll realize that too.”

Leia stood slowly, drawing upon all her regal training to stare down Meido. “When I was eighteen years old, I stood beside Grand Moff Tarkin as he gave one order from the depth of space and wiped out Alderaan, my home planet, with a single blast from the Death Star. Until that moment, I had believed the destruction of a planet in an instant was impossible. So don’t tell me what has to be true, Meido. I am Force-sensitive. If my husband were to betray me or the Republic, I would know. And so would my brother, who is a Jedi Master. We still don’t know what happened in the Hall that day. And until we do, we can’t be certain if a friend betrayed us, or if someone tested a new weapon. But if I were you, I would stop making baseless accusations now. Such accusations will only divide us. And now, more than ever, we need to be unified.”

She met everyone’s gaze individually. Borsk Fey’lya was leaning back in his chair, his eyes bright. Bel Iblis wasn’t looking at her. ChoFï was studying his hands.
C-Gosf’s whiskers were trembling, and she wouldn’t meet Leia’s gaze. Gno was the only one of her friends who smiled at her, in an attempt to reassure her.

They would not do any more than they already had. She could count on them to hear the evidence, nothing more.

Leia nodded once. “This meeting is adjourned until tomorrow morning. By then,” she said, “I expect answers. Not accusations. Concrete information. Am I clear?”

Leia didn’t give them a chance to respond. She turned and walked out of the room, holding herself as proudly as she could. But once she was alone, she let the shaking overtake her.

It had begun. The unity she valued above everything except her family was shattering.

Just as she had known it would.

As the
Lady Luck
landed on Skip 1, Lando visually scanned the docking bay for the
Millennium Falcon
. The Falcon had features that were obvious even next to the same model Corellian stock light freighter. Lando saw none of those.

Blast Solo. It would be like him to be gone by the time Lando decided to do the heroic thing. Still, Lando wouldn’t be able to track him any other way.

He hoped Han was all right.

The
Lady Luck
bounced her way onto the surface. Landing without slave circuitry and only relying on outdated tractor equipment was more of a risk than he had thought it would be. He cursed and resisted the urge to run a check on his ship.

When the ship stabilized, he went to the cargo door and opened it from the inside.

Sinewy Ana Blue stood outside, one hand on one slender
hip. She looked good in her shorts and tightly tied shirt, a little older, but no wiser. He grinned. He had always been unable to resist Blue.

“That cargo list was one of the most embarrassing I’ve ever seen,” she said. “It’s clear you haven’t been doing much with yourself since you left here.”

“I don’t have time for chitchat, Blue,” he said. “I need to fix this baby and get off this mud ball before Nandreeson discovers I’m here.”

“It’s probably too late,” Blue said. “Nandreeson keeps track of all the traffic around the Run. You’d better hope he’s busy with something else.”

“Yeah, well, I didn’t have much of a choice,” Lando said. “Most of the circuitry quit. I need some repairs.”

Blue shook her head. “You won’t get any with that cargo list. Nothing worth trading. What have you got in your hold?”

“Nothing. I’ve been out of the business a long time.”

She grinned. “That’s right. You went legit. Just like Solo. So be straight with me, Lando. You here to be with your old buddy?”

“I’m here because the
Luck
’s down.” He had to play this cool. “Why’re you asking about Han?”

“Because he and that furball of a partner of his showed up a few days back. Figured you wouldn’t be long behind.”

“And since Solo rejected her, she’s hoping for your blood.” Kid DXo’ln leaned his balding head around the door. “How ya been, Calrissian?”

“Up and down.”

“Yeah, heard about that gas mining on Bespin. Turning legit has its rewards, huh?”

“I lost that little property to the Empire,” Lando said. He ducked under the partially open door, and stopped. Two dozen smugglers were at the base, blasters trained
on him. He raised an eyebrow. “You folks sure know how to make an old friend feel welcome.”

“You’re not a friend, Calrissian,” Zeen Afit said. He was standing near the Kid at the base of the ramp. “You’re here to spy on us.”

“For whom?”

“Whoever pays the most,” the Kid said.

“Don’t accuse him of things when you have no proof,” Blue said.

“I just want to get the
Luck
fixed,” Lando said, even though his excuse was beginning to sound lame, even to him.

“Yeah?” Zeen said. “You know how it works around here. You don’t have enough cargo to trade for bantha dung, let alone a repair.”

“I know that,” Lando said. “But I have a lot of credits to offer.”

“So why didn’t you do that up front?” someone yelled from the side.

“Because, in my day, offering money to the Run was the best way to show you didn’t belong.”

Blue walked up the ramp and slid her arm through his. “It’s still that way, Lando,” she said. “Don’t let them scare you off.”

“I’m not,” he said, “But I do want to know if I can get repairs.”

“It’ll cost you,” Zeen said. “Ten thousand credits.”

“Ten thousand?” Lando pulled Blue closer. “You don’t even know what’s wrong yet.”

“Don’t have to,” Zeen said. “Figure you want to keep that ship away from Nandreeson’s people. The ten thousand is just for protection.”

Lando snorted. “As if you can protect me from Nandreeson. How many of his drones have blasters on me right now?”

“None,” the Kid said. “Nandreeson’s got Skip 6. We don’t let him near Skip 1.”

“Right,” Lando said. “And you guys all work for free now,”

“Lando, things have changed,” the Kid said.

“Not that much. Don’t insult my intelligence just because I’ve been away, and I won’t insult yours. I’ve got a legitimate problem with my ship or I wouldn’t be on the Run. So you find me the best mechanic around here, and I’ll guard the
Luck
myself.”

“How much you willing to pay?”

“As much as it takes to do this fast,” Lando said. Then he frowned at Blue. She seemed convinced, even if no one else did. “What were you saying about Solo?”

“You know he’s here, Lando.”

“I don’t see the
Falcon
.”

“I didn’t know you were looking for it.”

“How else did he get here?”

“Lando, don’t play dumb.”

“I’m not playing dumb,” he said. “You want to check my ship yourself? I haven’t spoken to Han in a long time. I’ve been trying to set up a legitimate mining operation on Kessel.” He pulled away from her and adjusted his cape. “But if Han is here, I would love to see him. Chewie knows as much about the
Lady Luck
as he does the
Falcon
. He could help me repair her, and then I won’t bother anyone.”

Blue studied him a moment, her magnificent eyes taking in all of him. Then she smiled, slowly, seductively. “You’ve always been a mystery to me, Lando. I like that in a man.”

“You like anything in a man,” Zeen said from below. “Don’t believe any of that about Han. Lando’s here for him. Something’s going down.”

Lando shook his head. “I know I’m not going to convince
you, Zeen, but at least Blue believes me. Just lead me to Han and I’ll leave all of you alone.”

Zeen blocked the edge of the ramp, his blaster pointed at Lando’s heart. “You’re not going anywhere, Calrissian. You’re wanted by Nandreeson, and you haven’t been to the Run in almost twenty years. That makes you an outsider. We don’t like outsiders much.”

Lando’s mouth went dry. “I don’t like having a blaster pointed at me either, Zeen. You want to put that aside?”

“No can do, Calrissian.”

“Put down the blaster, Zeen,” Blue said. “He’s my responsibility.”

“Fine,” Zeen said. “You stay with him on his precious ship, then. And we’ll all wait for Solo to return. Then Calrissian can leave us in peace.”

“What are you so afraid of me for, Zeen?” Lando asked.

“We don’t need Nandreeson’s people here,” Zeen said.

“Too late.” The voice that had spoken before, the one Lando hadn’t been able to place, spoke again. A Rek stepped out from the crowd. His slender, whiplike body blended in with the crowd, but his orange eyes blazed like a freighter’s running lights. In his rope-thin hands, he held a blaster, trained on Lando. “You’re coming with us, Calrissian. Nandreeson will be happy to see you.”

Another Rek stepped out from against the wall. Then another, and another, until thirty Reks surrounded the group of smugglers, “Very happy,” one of the Reks said. “About two million credits’ worth.”

“Wow,” Blue said. “If I’d known you were worth that much, I’d’ve turned you in myself.”

The sum startled Lando, too. “It was only fifty thousand last I heard.”

“Come with us peacefully,” the first Rek said, “and I will leave your ship alone.”

“What good will that do me?” Lando asked. “I can’t use it if I’m dead.” He reached for his own blaster, but a rubbery appendage wrapped itself around his wrist. He looked down. Another Rek had twisted its arm around his skin. Its slitted mouth opened in a Rek’s version of a smile. This Rek was female; her purple eyes gave away her gender.

“I wouldn’t try it, big boy,” she said. “You’re still worth a million credits to Nandreeson dead.”

“All right,” Lando said to Blue. She was his only hope now. “No more pretense. I’ve got to find Han. He’s in big trouble.”

“I’ll say,” the female Rek said. “He’s going to meet us on Skip 6. I’m sure your reunion will be a happy one.”

Blue backed away, holding her hands up. “Sorry, Lando,” she said. “I never get involved in Nandreeson’s business.”

“Some friend you are,” Lando said.

“I never said I was a friend,” Blue said. “Just an interested party. You never should have come here, Lando.”

“Don’t I know it,” he said.