Shadows of the Empire

by Steve Perry

  The message droid, a compact, rounded box with an antigrav unit that allowed it to hover and move a couple of meters off the ground, was apparently undamaged by the delivery vessel’s hard impact on the desert. The box, half the size of Artoo, floated in front of Luke and Dash now in Ben’s house.

  It didn’t look damaged, but something must have rattled loose inside it. “I have a message for Princess Leia Organa,” it said for the fifth time.

  “How many times do I have to tell you she isn’t here?” Luke said. “Artoo, can you talk to this thing?”

  Artoo moved closer to the droid, whistled and beeped rapidly, and ended by flashing lights from its holoprojector at the thing.

  There was a pause as some system adjusted itself inside the droid.

  “I am empowered to deliver the message to an authorized representative of Princess Leia Organa, in her absence,” it said.

  “Now we’re getting somewhere,” Luke said. “Tell me. I’m her, uh, authorized representative.”

  He grinned at Dash, who shook his head.

  “Password?” the droid asked.

  Password? What would Leia use as a password?

  “Uh, Luke Skywalker.”

  “That password is incorrect.”

  Dash laughed.

  “Uh, Han Solo?”

  “That password is incorrect.”

  “We could be here a real long time while you rattle off all the names you know, Luke.”

  “Shut up, will you? I’m thinking.”

  “Ah, well, wouldn’t want to interfere with that, would we?”

  Luke did think about it. It had to be something simple, he figured, something Leia wouldn’t forget. What was the first thing that came to mind when he thought about her?

  Forget that.

  “Uh, Alderaan?”

  “Password correct.”

  A sliding plate on the droid moved and exposed a holoprojector. After a second a holoproj blinked on.

  A short, long-haired, and bearded Bothan stood there, dressed in a forest-green overtunic, pants, and boots, a long military-style blaster strapped to his waist and right leg.

  “Greetings, Princess Leia. Koth Melan here, speaking to you from my homeworld of Bothawui. Our spy network has uncovered information vital to the Alliance, and the nature of these data are of such significance as to justify sending this messenger droid. You must come to Bothawui immediately. I cannot overemphasize the importance of this information, or the urgency. Time is of the essence. I will be at the Intergalactic Trade Mission for five days. The Alliance must act in that time or the information may be lost.”

  The projection shut down.

  “Well, well,” Dash said. “Somebody is in a big hurry. We could just make it to Bothawui before his deadline if I pushed my ship hard. Even that X-wing crate of yours might do it, though I wouldn’t bet on it.”

  “We need to get this information to Leia,” Luke said.

  “Not a chance, kid. We can’t use the holonet ’cause we don’t know where she is exactly. We can’t just call and ask, now can we? ‘Excuse me, can you tell me where one of the Empire’s most wanted enemies is, please?’ ”

  “All right, I get it.”

  “Yeah, well, time we got to Rodia, found her, and she got back to Bothawui, it’d be a standard week at the least.”

  Luke stared at the message droid. What were they going to do? This sounded big, really big.

  “Well,” he said. “I guess we’ll have to go in her place, then.”

  “Why? The message was for her.”

  “I’m her designated representative. I got the password right. Whatever this Koth Melan has got, he can tell it to me.”

  “Doesn’t sound too bright to me. A Bothan spymaster is just going to roll over and give it up, just like that? And his name doesn’t sound right, either. ‘Melan’? That’s not Bothan.”

  “Nobody asked you. You’re supposed to be a bodyguard, right? You don’t care about the Alliance.”

  “Not unless they want to hire me, you got that right.”

  “Fine. I’m going. You do whatever you want.”

  Dash grinned. “Well. You’re worth more to me alive than dead; I’d better protect my fee. I’ll take one of the swoops into town and get my ship. Meet you in orbit.”

  Luke nodded. He didn’t much like Dash, but the guy was good with a gun, and he could fly. That counted for a lot. “Let’s go get the X-wing, Artoo. We’re going for a ride.”

  Artoo didn’t seem to think it was a particularly good idea, either.

  Too bad, Luke thought. A Jedi Knight wouldn’t just sit around when there was vital Alliance business in the works, would he? No. He wouldn’t.

  17

  “I’m thowwy,” Avaro said. “Black Thun dothn’t hop when I thay tho.”

  Leia shook her head in disgust. She and Chewie were in Avaro’s office, and once again he put them off. Lando was happy as a stilepig in warm mud; he was winning most of the card games he played. Even Chewie was enjoying the casino, but if something didn’t break pretty soon, Leia was going to start pulling her hair out. Sitting around and doing nothing was not her style.

  “Okay,” she said, “Tell you what. If somebody doesn’t show up here in the next week, we’ll try elsewhere.”

  Avaro shrugged. “Thuit yowahthelf.”

  Little chance of that, Leia thought. It would suit her to be moving, to be doing something, to find out who was after Luke and why. It seemed awfully clumsy of Vader to have engineered that attempt by the crew chief so that it could be traced back to the Dark Lord of the Sith so easily. She didn’t have any other ideas as to who might be gunning for Luke, but sometimes when a thing looked too easy, it was.

  Other times, it wasn’t.

  She stood and left Avaro’s office. She didn’t have a lot of choice here. She’d wait, but she wouldn’t like it.

  Guri was about to leave for Rodia when Xizor stopped her. “Before you go there, I have another errand for you. There is a secret document in my personal files under the heading ‘Route.’ You know what it is.”

  “Yes.”

  “Download it and see that it gets into the hands of our Bothan double agent on Bothawui. Make certain he knows that we are responsible for its delivery.”

  Guri said nothing, but he could feel her reluctance. He said, “You disapprove.”

  “It does not seem to be in your best interests to do this,” she said.

  “Ah, but it is. Having Black Sun put this tidbit into the Rebels’ hands gratis will make them much more apt to trust us. In the unlikely event the Empire should lose this war, the Alliance will remember us as friends and not enemies.”

  Guri nodded. She understood, whether she agreed or not. “Highness.”

  She left.

  Xizor considered Guri’s worry as he went over the plan again. The new information was in addition to intelligence he had already caused to be discovered by the Bothans. There was some slight risk, but not much, given that which was to be gained. The Empire was strong, and he did not really think that the Alliance would triumph, but it was a stupid man who never considered remote possibilities. Stranger things had happened. People were struck by lightning; meteorites hit them out of a clear sky; the beating of a moth’s wings on the north coast could be the breeze that helped spin a tornado on the south coast. A prudent player took no unnecessary risks, but there were times when a calculated leap had to be made over a deep abyss. This was one of those times, and as usual, it was a double-edged blade. Swung with care, it would cut both ways.

  Just as it was supposed to cut.

  Reaching Bothawui wasn’t so hard, though it got a little tricky when they dropped back into realspace. An Imperial patrol buzzed the planet. Luke and Dash had to do some fancy flying to avoid them.

  There didn’t seem to be any quarantine, and they made it to the surface of the world. Caught a pubtrans flitter from the port into the city.

  Luke had never been on Bothawui, and he was inter
ested in how clean and well maintained it was compared to his homeworld. It was a sunny spring day locally. There was a token force of Imperial stormtroopers hanging around in small groups, but it seemed as if the Bothans had control of the port itself. The streets were wide, many of the tall buildings were glittery with some kind of natural stone. Most of the people he saw were, of course, Bothans, but there were a fair number of other aliens out and about. Very cosmopolitan, given the war and all. He said as much to Dash.

  “Yeah, well, a lot of spying goes on,” Dash said. “And Bothawui is one of the more active hubs for operatives from around the galaxy. The Empire has its own spies here; so does the Alliance, and they’ve all pretty much decided to let the place be neutral territory.”

  They made it to the Intergalactic Trade Mission, paid the fare, and got out.

  Getting inside to see Koth Melan was a little harder.

  The Bothan guard wanted to see a pass, and they didn’t have one. Luke wasn’t particularly interested in telling the guard who he was, given that he was a wanted man.

  Maybe he should try to use the Force on the Bothan? He’d done Ben’s trick a couple of times, and it had worked for him. Plus he could impress Dash a little.

  But before Luke could gather the Force to sway the guard, Dash pulled the Bothan aside, spoke a few words, and pressed something into his hand.

  The guard smiled and waved them into the building.

  “What’d you say to him?” Luke asked.

  “Not much. But that hundred-credit coin I gave him said, ‘Hey, these are good guys—what say you just let them in?’ ”

  “You bribed him?”

  “You don’t get out much, do you? That’s how things work out here in the real galaxy. Money is the lube that makes all things move. We’re inside, so we’re happy. The guard can buy his spouse or his femfriend a nice gift, so he’s happy. Nobody got hurt. If we get caught, the guard never saw us before. It’s the cost of doing business.”

  Luke shook his head. But maybe Dash had a point. Was giving the credits any worse than clouding his mind with the Force? Yeah, it was for a good cause and it would have been justified, but wasn’t a few credits also justified?

  He’d have to think about that a little more.

  Dash, meanwhile, walked up to an information droid parked in the lobby of the building. “Where might we find Koth Melan?” he asked it.

  The droid had a deep, sonorous voice. “Level sixteen, number seven,” it said.

  “Thanks.”

  They moved toward the turbolifts.

  Another droid, this one a protocol model much like Threepio, staffed the desk in the anteroom of the office to which Luke and Dash had been directed. The droid’s metal skin was polished to a gleaming gold.

  “Good morning. How may I assist you?” he asked them.

  “Princess Leia is supposed to see Koth Melan,” Luke said.

  “You are Princess Leia?”

  Luke frowned, “No, no, I’m not Princess Leia. I’m her … representative. Luke Skywalker. We don’t exactly have an appointment. But he wants to see her, so he’ll want to see us.”

  The droid said, “I don’t believe that is a logical assumption.”

  “Look, just tell him we’re here, okay?”

  “I’m afraid I cannot admit you without an appointment. Master Melan is a very busy Bothan. Nor can I bother him with every little thing. Perhaps I can arrange for you to see him in, oh, perhaps a standard week? Your names?”

  Luke frowned. How could they convince this droid to let them in? Couldn’t bribe him, the Force wouldn’t work—

  Dash grinned and pulled his blaster. Pointed it at the droid. “Okay, Goldie. My name is Man with a Blaster About to Cook You. Either you open the door or your busy Bothan is going to have to get himself a new receptionist.”

  “Oh, dear,” the droid said.

  “And no security alarms, either,” Dash said. “I’m watching you real carefully. Up, and do the door manually.”

  The protocol droid said, “Very well, Man with a Blaster About to Cook You.”

  Luke and Dash exchanged wry looks. Droids could be too literal at times.

  The droid tapped a code into the keypad next to the inner door. It slid open.

  “Inside,” Dash ordered.

  The droid preceded them into a large office. Sitting behind a desk in front of a clear wall of transparisteel was the Bothan who’d sent the message to Leia.

  Well, at least Luke thought it was the same one. They all looked pretty much alike to him.

  “Master Melan, I’m sorry to interrupt, but—”

  “It’s all right, R-Zero-Four. Go back to your desk. I’ll see these gentlemen.”

  “Hardly gentle, sir,” the droid called R0-4 said. “They said to me they were Princess Leia. They threatened me with bodily harm!”

  “Never mind, R-Zero-Four.” To Dash, the Bothan said, “Put away the hardware, Rendar. You don’t need it.”

  Dash blinked, surprised, but holstered his weapon.

  The droid left, closing the door behind him.

  Luke stepped forward. “Excuse the way we came in, but we had to see you.”

  Melan smiled. “I know. You’re Luke Skywalker, and you are Dash Rendar. I’ve been expecting you. Please, take a seat.”

  Luke and Dash exchanged quick glances.

  “Perhaps I should explain,” Melan said. “I discovered that Princess Organa was no longer on Tatooine a short time ago, too late to recall the messenger droid I sent. Because you are here, I assume you knew the password she and I agreed upon.”

  He looked at Luke. “I know your reputation and your work for the Alliance.”

  He glanced over at Dash. “I also know your reputation, M. Rendar, though I’m surprised to see you working for the Alliance.”

  Dash shrugged. “I’m not. I’m working for the princess.”

  “Ah, well. No matter. You’re here and now we can get to the business at hand.”

  “You took kind of a risk letting us barge in here with a blaster that way,” Dash said. “We could have been Imperial assassins in disguise.”

  Melan treated them to another smile. “Not really. I’ve known you were here since you landed at the port. You were scanned first at the doorway to the building by the guard you ‘bribed,’ then on the turbolift, and positively identified. If you had been assassins in disguise, you would have arrived on a level with a dozen armed guards pointing their weapons at you when the lift doors opened.”

  Luke and Dash glanced at each other.

  “I have many enemies,” Melan continued. “I have learned to be cautious.”

  Luke moved to one of the chairs and sat. Dash did the same.

  “What is so important that you sent a message droid to Leia?” Luke asked.

  “The Empire has embarked on a new military project,” Melan began. “We do not yet know what or where the project is, but we do know it is vast—the Emperor has diverted huge amounts of money, material, and men for this secret enterprise.”

  “How did you come by this information?” Luke asked.

  “The Bothan spynet is second to none,” Melan said. There seemed to be a touch of pride in his voice. “As you thought you did with the guard on the street, we bribed a high-ranking Imperial officer. With what he gave us, we tried to infiltrate a slicer droid into the main computer complex on Coruscant to locate and copy the plans for this secret venture. Unfortunately, this portion of the plan failed.

  “What we have learned as a result of this failure is that the plans are kept closely guarded in special computers with no outside lines. There is thus no way to obtain this information from a distance by comlink, no access to these systems save by direct hands-on contact.

  “From what little else we’ve learned of it, this project does not bode well for the Alliance.”

  Luke nodded. “So, what are we supposed to do about it?”

  “Our operatives have collected intelligence that indicates one of the s
ecured computers is being sent from Coruscant to Bothawui. We believe the Alliance would be served by obtaining this computer and cracking it open, to see what the Empire is up to.”

  Luke nodded again. “That sounds reasonable.”

  Dash said, “Excuse me, but why are you so hot to help out the Alliance? I thought the Bothan spynet’s job was to gather and sell information, not get involved with strategy and tactics.”

  Melan looked grim. “Twenty years ago the Empire had my father executed for espionage.”

  “That’s one of the risks of this business, isn’t it?”

  “Yes, and one I take. But all Bothans are not spies, M. Rendar. My father was a teacher. He was guilty of nothing save trying to educate his students about the Empire. You will have noticed my name doesn’t end in the normal ‘y’lya’ honorific. Until the Empire is defeated, I can have no true honor.”

  Dash nodded. “That explains that.”

  Luke thought about his aunt and uncle, turned into smoldering corpses at the farm on Tatooine. He understood how Melan felt.

  “I would think that you might have a grudge against the Empire yourself,” Melan continued, staring at Dash. “After what the Emperor did to you and your family.”

  Dash gritted his teeth; Luke saw his jaw muscles flex. “That’s none of your business,” he said.

  Luke didn’t say anything, though the question leaped to the top tier of his mind: What did they do to you, Dash?

  Instead, Luke said, “If the Empire is going to all this trouble, we’d best find out why. How do we get our hands on this computer?”

  Melan nodded. “Our operatives have learned that the Empire intends to send the plans incognito, on an unescorted ship posing as a simple freighter carrying fertilizer. They reason that such a ship will not draw the attention of the Alliance the way a heavily armed convoy would.”

  “A freighter full of fertilizer?” Dash said. “That is devious. Who’d hijack that?”

  “Our operatives inform us that they will be able to obtain the route of the disguised ship shortly. When they do, it will be but a matter of a day or two before the vessel arrives. There are Bothans who have Alliance sympathies willing to help secure the freighter, but they are relatively unskilled at such sorties. It would help if they had a commander with some experience in space battles to lead them.”