Star Wars: The New Rebellion (64 page)

Artoo moaned softly.

“Oh, dear,” Threepio said. “I suppose that means it already has.”

Leia couldn’t feel Luke anymore. It was as if his personality completely disappeared, even though she could still see him, outlined against the tower in the growing twilight. Behind him, the Thernbee appeared, its huge face turning quizzically toward Kueller. His presence was gone too.

But she sensed someone else close, someone precious. She turned. Han was at the mouth of the alley, his blaster out, his face hidden in shadow. Chewbacca was behind him. She wanted to run to Han, but she couldn’t. Not yet.

Something was happening to Luke.

At first she had thought he was going to die, as Obi-Wan did, but he didn’t. Kueller didn’t hit him. Instead, Kueller backed away and pulled out a small device. It was scanning his face.

She had a bad feeling about this.

“Luke!” she shouted, but Luke seemed to be ignoring her. He was trying to hold his lightsaber.

He was missing his chance. Kueller was going to do something awful and then get away.

The light stopped scanning Kueller’s face.

Leia raised her hand, and called Han’s blaster to her. It left his hands and zoomed toward her.

The Thernbee saw her, and its tail started to wag. It changed direction and came toward her.

The blaster clipped in the air. She was losing her mental grip on it. She pulled it to her faster. It hit her hand as a blanket dropped across her mind. She stumbled backward, then pulled the blaster aloft.

Kueller was still holding the device up. She saw his fingers move against the light the device gave off.

Even without feeling him through the Force, she knew what he was going to do. He had told her when he arrived. It didn’t matter that some of the droids had been turned off.

So many hadn’t.

Those waves of cold …

The concussion of the instant bomb …

The laughter of her children …

Leia raised the blaster, closed one eye, and lined the weapon up with Kueller. He didn’t see her. He couldn’t even feel her.

But Luke could.

“Leia!” he shouted.

Kueller turned, and Leia didn’t hesitate. The shot went directly for his head.

He raised a hand to ward it off, but the hand did no good. The blaster shot knocked him backward.

“Leia!” Luke shouted again.

The Thernbee was coming toward her, a giant furry ghost in the darkness.

Kueller sat up, and Leia shot him one more time. He fell back, the device falling out of his hand. She crossed the tile, the heavy feeling growing stronger with each movement.

“Leia!” Luke was beside her now. He took the blaster from her. She could feel his concern. Had she shot Kueller out of hatred and anger? Probably. Would she be going to the dark side now?

She didn’t know.

She couldn’t feel the Force at all anymore.

Maybe it didn’t count if she couldn’t feel the Force.

She stopped over Kueller’s body. He looked smaller now, his arms raised above his head. Luke reached for her, but she moved out of his way, and bent over Kueller. She slipped her fingers under his mask and ripped it away.

He was a boy, his features only beginning to show the signs of wear that Palpatine’s had at the end. His dark eyes were open and lifeless, his mouth slack, but his features still had the roundness of youth, a sort of chubby charm that should have radiated joy instead of hatred.

No wonder he had used the mask. A face like that would have terrified no one.

“He was just a child,” she whispered.

Luke crouched beside her. He took the mask from her hand. “No, Leia. He lost his childhood before he came to Yavin 4. He knew what he was doing, what he had become.”

He set the mask on Kueller’s destroyed chest, stood, and helped Leia up. The Thernbee was right beside them, its tongue out.

“There’s that blasted thing!” Han said from behind them. “I’d have been able to help if it hadn’t eaten my ysalamiri.”

“So that’s what that feeling is.” Luke brought a hand to his face and laughed shakily. “You helped, Han, old buddy. Let’s just hope the Thernbee here starts to digest the ysalamiri quickly.”

“I wouldn’t count on it,” Han said. “It swallowed the cages too.”

“The Thernbee has eaten stranger things in the recent past,” Luke said.

Leia didn’t care about the Thernbee. She took one last look at the man who had threatened her entire family.

Then she turned around. Han was behind her, watching her.

“I love you, Princess,” he said softly.

She launched herself into his arms, and pulled him close. “I know,” she whispered. “I know.”

A
rtoo’s handiwork had shut off all the droids in the facility, except for those without the detonator chip. Only the astromech units and Threepio apparently were without. The astromech units chased Brakiss to his ship, and watched as he took off to parts unknown.

The computer held no clues as to Master Cole’s whereabouts, so Threepio and Artoo had to search the nearby compounds. They found him in a droid torture chamber that made the one in Jabba’s palace look like a luxurious oil-massage parlor. Master Cole was strapped to a bench, and was partially unconscious.

Artoo determined that Master Cole was in no condition to fly the freighter. So Threepio sent messages to everyone he could think of, requesting a transport.

He managed to raise Lando Calrissian, who chuckled and said that the
Lady Luck
was turning into a passenger liner. He promised to arrive shortly and pick them up.

Threepio waited beside Master Cole. Artoo had insisted on freeing the tortured droids, and he sent them to a repair area, hoping that they could help each other. Artoo was puttering around the room, deactivating all its
horrible equipment. He had already removed the torture devices on the Eve-Ninedeninetwo.

Then Master Cole’s hand moved. Threepio leaned over him, and was rewarded when Master Cole’s eyelids fluttered. His eyes opened, he saw Threepio, and—he screamed.

Artoo beeped in response, hurrying toward Threepio’s side.

Threepio backed away from Master Cole. “I’m so sorry, sir. It’s just me. See-Threepio, at your service.”

Master Cole’s scream died, and he brought a hand to his face. Artoo beeped at him sympathetically.

“We’re still in this place.”

“Only for a moment, sir,” Threepio said. “Artoo has gotten us transport.”

“Brakiss?” Master Cole said.

“He left, sir. The astromech droids attacked him, and he ran away. After I—”

Artoo bleebled.

“—Ah, after
we
defeated the Red Terror.”

“The Red—?”

“Oh, it’s a long story, sir, but quite intriguing. You see, after I left you—”

“Later, Threepio.” Master Cole pulled himself up on his elbows, and peered at Artoo. “Did you solve what you needed to?”

Artoo whistled his affirmative.

“Oh, more than solved it, sir. He deactivated all the detonators. It seems that Brakiss designed them all to be handled from one remote, although why he would do that seems quite unusual to me. Artoo assures me that it is custom among droid manufacturers. It allows for defective models to be deactivated, even in difficult-to-reach areas where—”

“Can no one shut him up?” Master Cole said as he rolled off the table. He moaned slightly.

“I don’t think you should be getting up, sir.”

“I don’t think I want to stay here any longer. Where is the freighter?”

“Where we left it, sir. But you are in no condition to fly it. Master Calrissian shall be here shortly. He’ll take us back to Coruscant.”

Threepio moved to help Master Cole stand, but Master Cole flinched.

“Did they hurt you badly, sir?”

Master Cole gave him a withering glance. “It didn’t exactly tickle.”

Threepio nodded. “Well, sir, it might do you good to remember two things: Artoo and I did rescue you, and if you’ll forgive my impertinence, sir, no two droids are alike. I know many sentients forget that, but we are individuals and can remain so without a memory wipe.”

Master Cole smiled. “I know that, Threepio. You startled me when I came to. And as for the rest, well, it hurts to be touched at the moment. I’m sure that will fade.” He gazed down at Artoo, who hovered near him. “I’ve learned from both of you never to underestimate a droid. I’ve been as bad as the rest of the galaxy in taking you all for granted. I’ll never do that again.”

Artoo beeped happily.

“What did he say?” Master Cole asked.

“That it sounds as if you’ll be all right now.” Threepio’s hand clanged as it rested on Artoo’s head. “It seems, thanks to Artoo’s quick thinking and my negotiation skills, that we’ll all be fine now.”

Master Cole grinned. “I think you’re right, Threepio. I think you’re right.”

Mon Mothma walked Leia to the redesigned Imperial ballroom. Leia was wearing a copy of her white dress, but she had forgone the braids wrapped around her ears.
Instead, she wore her hair down. Han had smiled at her before she left the suite, and had made her promise to return from the Senate early. The children were due back the following day. He wanted to make the most of his time alone with her.

So did she.

“I still don’t understand how you got them to call off the recall election,” Leia said.

Mon Mothma smiled. “I didn’t, Leia. You did. You and Wedge and Han and Luke. If you hadn’t successfully defeated Kueller, you would have come back here to a political storm unlike any you’ve ever seen. But when it became clear that Han wasn’t involved in the bombing, and instead you all had been the ones who caught the culprit, Meido and his followers could do nothing else but support you.”

Leia clasped her hands behind her back. “But you had to have done something. You already had Meido off the Inner Council by the time I came back.”

Mon Mothma shrugged. “I’ve had more years of experience dealing with divergent voices than you have, Leia. You’ll need to learn how to work with a group that is no longer homogeneous. The Senate won’t always agree on policy anymore. You’ll have to build coalitions.”

“With Imperials?” Leia asked, shuddering.

“Former Imperials who really had nothing to do with the Empire. You can’t always blame people for their pasts. You should know that better than anyone, President Organa
Solo
.”

Mon Mothma had a point. Han’s past was shady at best, and yet he was getting a hero’s commendation for his work with the wounded on Smuggler’s Run. So was Lando. Lando had already asked Leia how much financial compensation went along with the commendation, and had frowned when she said that gratitude came without monetary reward.

And then she had promised to pay, out of her own pocket if she had to, for the refurbishing of the
Lady Luck
. It was the least she could do. Lando had saved hundreds of lives.

“Any word from Chewbacca?” Mon Mothma asked.

Leia nodded. “He and the
Alderaan
are due at any point. It took him a while to find the wild pride of Thernbees. Apparently, when their number had been so badly hunted by the Je’har, they had moved away from their normal stomping grounds. But Chewie was able to deliver our Thernbee back to them.”