Ambush at Corellia

by Roger MacBride Allen

  And Lando found that he didn’t want to try the next star system over and see what rich women were on offer. No. He had found someone here. Now. Tonight. Someone who might, just might, be right for him. She was rich, yes, and that didn’t hurt. He was even honest enough with himself to wonder what he would be thinking if she’d just told him she was poor. But rich and poor wasn’t all of it, any more than his being from off-planet was all of it for her. They could talk to each other. They understood each other, in some way that was quite new to Lando. She was someone with whom he would always have to be honest. He knew that, instinctively. That wasn’t love, of course—but it was something he had never felt before, and he was not going to let it dry up and blow away just because some fat-headed bureaucrat had decided to invent some new rules.

  Suddenly Lando had an idea. “Listen,” he said. “I just thought of something. It might be a way around it if they do shut down the holocom net. A clumsy way, an awkward way—but a way.”

  “What?” she asked.

  “It’s an old gag I learned back in my smuggling days.”

  “Smuggling?” she asked.

  “That’s another story, for later,” he said. “But there’s a very old communications system, that doesn’t use hyperspace at all. It uses modulation of low-frequency electromagnetic radiation, in the radio band of the spectrum. Radionics, they call it. It’s constrained by the speed of light, and it’s limited in range, too, unless you beam it or use a lot of power. But no one uses it, so cops and border patrols never bother to listen for it. I have a matched set of senders and receivers tucked away in the hold of the Lady Luck.”

  “But at light speed, if you were in another star system, it would take years for a message to get to you that way—if you got it at all.”

  “So who says I’m going to be in another star system?” Lando said with a smile. “I have to go to the trade summit. I’ve promised some people. But then I’ll come back here to this system, real quietly and sneakily, the way only an old smuggler would know how to do.” He hesitated for a moment, hoping for inspiration. And he spotted his answer, up in the sky. “And I’ll park myself there” he said, pointing up at a fat crescent hanging high in the sky.

  “On our moon?” Tendra asked. “On Sarcophagus? It’s nothing but one big burial ground. No one ever goes there, except to inter their relatives.”

  “Then no one will ever look for me there. But you get your radio out, and point the antenna at Sarcophagus, and I’ll be sitting there, waiting to get the message. We’ll have time to work out some way to see each other again. Some way for me to slip back down to the planet, or something.”

  “It sounds crazy,” Tendra said, “but I can’t see anything wrong with the idea.”

  “Oh, I can,” Lando said. “There’s plenty of things that could go wrong. But it would be even wronger if I let you get away without trying to get to know you.”

  Tendra laughed, and smiled, and threw her arms around him.

  And for once, Lando Calrissian meant every word of his elaborate compliment from the bottom of his heart.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  News Travels Slowly

  What if they gave a trade summit,” Han muttered, “and nobody came?” That wasn’t exactly fair, but he had seen longer reception lines. He was in his best formal clothes, standing in the lineup with Leia and Governor-General Micamberlecto and several other local big shots. So far, they hadn’t had all that many hands to shake. The unsettled situation had clearly frightened off a lot of would-be delegates to the talks. And Han was willing to bet that some of the alleged delegates were really NRI agents. The trade delegations were just too good a cover to pass up.

  “Quiet, Han,” Leia said, keeping the smile on her face looking warm and sincere as she chided her husband under her breath. Han had to admit she looked stunning in the flowing, off-the-shoulder royal-blue gown she had chosen. It set off her coloring and her eyes and hair beautifully. “All of these people took big chances coming here for this meeting,” she went on, still smiling. “This summit is important to them—and to your planet, in case you forgot. So behave yourself and make everyone feel at home.”

  “Home, right,” Han said. “As if their home was a cocktail party. Now, there’s my idea of endless torture. Hello, how are you?” he said to the next delegate, interrupting himself to greet a rather regal-looking Selonian female who towered over him by six or seven centimeters.

  “I am fine, Captain Solo. It is a pleasure to meet you.”

  “And a pleasure to meet you, too,” Han said. He waited until the Selonian was out of earshot and added, “Whoever you are. Head over to the bar, why don’t you, the booze is free. Yup, there she goes. Hello there,” he said to the goggle-eyed Mon Calamari who had materialized in front of him, and accepted the proffered flipper hand. “Welcome to our little party.” The Mon Calamari nodded, gurgled something in a dialect that Han could not understand, and gave him an enthusiastic slap on the back that nearly bowled him over. By the time he had recovered, the Mon Calamari was gone. “Another great moment in the annals of communication,” Han said. “Who are these people?”

  “Traders,” Leia said, “as you know full well. Hello, so glad you could come,” she said to the next person in line.

  “It is a deep honor to meet you both,” said the Drall, bowing so low he nearly toppled over. Apparently a few delegates hadn’t waited to pass through the reception line before heading for the bar.

  “Don’t make it too deep,” Han said after he helped the Drall to recover his balance and sent him on his way. “I just can’t keep this smile pasted on my face much longer.”

  “Well, how about being completely astonished instead?” Leia asked. “Could you handle that?”

  “I suppose,” Han said.

  “Then look to see who’s fourth in line at the moment.”

  Han looked up, and was sufficiently amazed that he failed to make any snide comments for the next three delegates. In fact, he was not aware of talking to them at all. Mara. Mara Jade. Ex–Emperor’s Hand. Ex-smuggler. The woman who had sworn to kill Luke, and then had a change of heart. There she was, in a long black gown that seemed to make her seem even taller, even more slender—and even more threatening. The years had been good to her. She had lost none of her poise, none of her beauty—and she looked as dangerous as ever. He and his family had been on better terms with her in recent times, but there was something in her demeanor tonight that set off alarm bells in his head. It would be best to tread carefully around her.

  “Good evening, Captain Jade,” Leia said to her, offering her hand.

  Mara accepted it, nodding slightly. “Good evening to you, Madame Chief of State. And to you, Captain Solo. I have a message for you.” Mara directed her attention to Leia. “For you both, and for the Governor-General.”

  “A message?” Leia asked.

  “A message cube, to be more exact,” she said. “I couldn’t open it—and I don’t mind admitting that I tried. I would suggest that you and the Governor-General find a nice, safe room where we can all meet at once.”

  Leia thought quickly. “My apartments,” she said. “On the fifteenth floor. They’re swept for bugs and listening devices every day. Meet us there in twenty minutes. Han, give her a thumb pass for the turbolift.”

  “Huh? Oh yeah, right,” Han said. The turbolift was running in secure mode. You had to put a passcard in a slot and hold your thumb over a print reader before it would let you in. You could provide guests with access by giving them a passcard that scanned their thumbprint and keyed it to your card. Leia would have carried a few of her own, but there weren’t any pockets in her long blue gown. He pulled a guest’s thumb pass, a small white rectangle of plastic, out of his pocket. He pressed down on one of the two scan areas. The second scan area lit up. “Press your right thumb down there,” he said to Mara, and she did so. The glow faded from the second scan area. Han gave her the pass. “This will get you in and out of the lift, and into our ap
artments,” he said. “Wait for us there. We’ll be up as soon as the reception line is over.”

  Mara Jade took the passcard and smiled coldly at Han. “I’ll be there,” she said as she walked away, “and don’t worry, I won’t steal the silver.”

  “Maybe not,” Han muttered to Leia, “but remind me to count the spoons later just the same.”

  * * *

  The three children were, in theory, fast asleep. In practice, of course, the fact that all the grown-ups were downstairs meant that it was their big chance to stay up late. However, bitter experience had taught them it was safest to stay in their bedroom, with the door shut and lights low. Grownups had a nasty habit of coming back unexpectedly.

  Even so, none of them were quite prepared to hear the click of the lock or the sound of the door opening. They instantly abandoned their board game and all three of them dove under the covers. It was only after he was in bed, eyes shut, and pretending to be asleep as hard as he could, that Jacen realized they had left a light on. One look at that, and Mom and Dad would know at once they had been up after bedtime. He toyed with the idea of using his ability in the Force, but he knew that his fine control was not that good. He would be just as likely to smash the lamp to bits as hit the switch properly. He decided to risk it. He slipped out of bed, crossed the room to the lamp, and flicked it off. He was just about to dive back to his bed when he noticed something. He listened carefully, to make sure he hadn’t made a mistake, then tiptoed over to Jaina’s bed.

  “Psst, Jaina,” he said.

  “Quiet!” she hissed. “Do you want to get us caught?”

  “Listen!” he said. “That’s not Mom and Dad. It’s just one person walking around, and that’s not Mom’s footsteps or Dad’s. There’s someone in the apartment.”

  Jaina sat bolt upright in bed and listened for herself. “You’re right,” she said. “Come on.” And with that, she was out of bed and over to the door. Jacen wanted to ask her what she thought she was doing, or what she expected to be able to do against a burglar that could get past all the security in Corona House, but it was too late. He knew he would have to follow after her. Otherwise, he would have to spend the rest of his life being told what a coward he was. He went after his sister, out into the upstairs hallway, and was not in the least surprised to see Anakin hopping out of bed and following after him.

  The family had been put in a two-level apartment, with the bedrooms upstairs and the living room and dining room down below.

  The living-room ceiling went as high as the ceiling of the upper floor, like someone had taken all the rooms that should have been over the living room and turned them into extra ceiling space. The stairs leading from the lower floor came up along the west wall of the high-ceilinged living room, and ended in a landing that ran the width of the north wall. A railing ran along the edge of the landing to keep people from falling off into the living room below. An entryway at the end of the landing opposite the stairs led off into a narrow hallway, where the doors to the bedrooms were. It had taken the children about eighteen seconds after moving into the apartment to realize just how good a place for spying the entryway to the landing was. You could stay in the shadows there, and see practically everything that went on in the living room.

  The three children huddled there in the shadows, and looked down into the living room. And what they saw did not look much like a burglary-in-progress. For one thing, burglars rarely turned the lights on.

  A tall, pretty lady with red-gold hair, wearing a long black dress, was pacing back and forth. She had a worried expression on her face, and she kept glancing at the door. It was obvious that she was waiting for someone. And that someone had to be Mom and Dad.

  Jacen thought for a moment, then plucked on Jaina’s sleeve, and gestured for her and Anakin to follow him back to the bedroom. As soon as they were all back inside, he swung the door shut, but did not let it close all the way, for fear of making a noise. “Listen,” he said in as low a whisper as he could manage. “Something is going on. It has to be. That lady is there to talk to Mom and Dad. As soon as they come back, the first thing they’re going to do is check on us to make sure we’re asleep so it’s safe to talk.”

  “I recognize that lady,” Jaina said. “It’s Mara Jade.” Jacen’s eyes widened. She was right. How could he have missed that?

  But Jaina was still talking. “We have to be in bed, and doing the best job we ever have of pretending to be asleep, when Mom and Dad come back. After they check on us, we can sneak back out to the landing.”

  Anakin and Jacen nodded, and all of them hurried back to their beds and pulled the covers over themselves.

  This was going to be interesting.

  * * *

  Leia ushered Han and Micamberlecto into the apartment, and then followed them in, closing the door behind her. “I’ll just be a moment,” she said. “I want to check on the children.” She crossed to the stairs and hurried up to the children’s room. She swung open the door and looked in on three softly breathing small bodies. Anakin’s arm had slumped out again. She knelt by his bed, tucked his arm back, and gave him a kiss on the forehead. He muttered something and rolled over on his side. Leia glanced at the twins. Clearly they were fine. Satisfied, she turned and went out of the room, closing the door behind her.

  Leia returned downstairs. “All asleep,” she announced. “Now then, Mara, what is the message?”

  Mara was carrying a small satchel, and she opened it up. She looked around the room and nodded toward the far end of it. “Over there,” she said. “On the couches.”

  The room had been designed for holding small, informal meetings. In the center of the living room were three couches, formed in a U-shape, all facing a low table in the center. The open end of the U-shape faced the south wall, so that anyone sitting on the center couch would have his or her back to the upstairs landing—and anyone standing at the south end of the room would be clearly visible to as many people as you could crowd into the place. There was a flat panel display on the south wall. At the moment it was showing a reproduction of some painting of a stirring moment in Corellian history, but it could be set to display more or less any two- or three-dimensional image.

  Han, Leia, and the Governor-General found places on the couches, and Mara pulled the message cube out of her handbag and set it on the low table. She stood over the open end of the U-shape, and gestured to the other three with a sweep of her hand. “There it is,” she said.

  None of the others made a move to touch it. All of them knew it might have been set to activate at the touch of their fingerprints, or body chemistry, or whatever. All three of them leaned in and examined it carefully.

  “Any markings on the bottom of it?” Han asked.

  “Believe me,” Mara said, “I’ve looked at that thing up, down, and sideways. Nothing on the bottom. The only markings are the ones you see on the top.”

  “Which look suspiciously like an Imperial code I used to crack now and again for very profitable reasons,” said Han. “ ‘To be opened in the presence of Leia Organa Solo,’ ” he read, “ ‘self-styled Chief of State of the so-called New Republic, Han Solo, and the de facto Governor-General of the Corellian Sector. Code Rogue Angel Seven.’ Well, they’re not going to get high marks for politeness, that’s for sure. What’s the Rogue Angel Seven business?”

  “Oh, nothing very much,” Leia said. “Just the key phrase for my private diplomatic cipher. Someone wants us to know they can read my mail.”

  Micamberlecto let out a low whistle, a sound that somehow seemed wholly incongruous coming from him. He unfolded his long, multijointed legs and leaned in closer to the cube to get a better look. “Someone knows, someone knows very much about us,” he said.

  “The thing I don’t understand,” said Mara, “is why they used me for the courier, whoever they are. They’d have to know that my relations with you people haven’t always been of the warmest.”

  “I can answer that,” Leia said. “You were second
choice. Luke. Luke was intended to be the courier for this message.” She pointed at the cube, still being careful not to touch it, and pointed at the lettering peeking out from under the label. “I don’t read it myself, but that looks like the written form of Jawa.”

  “Jawa?” Mara asked.

  “The language of a race from Luke’s homeworld, Tatooine. He could read it pretty easily, but most other people couldn’t make anything of it without a great deal of effort—the same way you could read the Imperial code. I’ll bet that’s the same message as the code, intended for Luke’s eyes.”

  “So why didn’t Luke carry it?”

  Leia shrugged. “I don’t know,” she said.

  “I do,” Han said. “Remember he was going to go meet with Lando about some business deal just before we left. Lando told me that he was planning to go off on a trip before he came to the trade summit here. My guess is that Luke decided to go along for the ride, maybe on the spur of the moment.”

  “And so he wasn’t there to get the message cube,” Mara said. “So when they couldn’t find him, they threw together a backup plan and came looking for me. It makes sense.”

  “Well, now that we all feel better about that, how about reading the message?” Han suggested.

  “Right,” said Leia. “Han, start the sight-and-sound, will you? I want to have a recording of this, in case this is one of those one-playback-only units.”

  Han flipped open a small panel on the corner of the table and pressed in a button. “All set,” he said.

  “Okay, then,” Leia said. “Here goes.” She reached out gingerly with one hand and picked up the cube. It immediately let out a low beeping noise, and there was a loud click. The lid of the cube popped up a millimeter or two. “Cued to my fingerprints, all right,” Leia said. She opened the lid and looked inside. “Well, that’s a bit anticlimactic. I thought there was going to be a holographic image popping out of the top. But there’s nothing but a data chip.” She took the small black chip out of the cube. “Han, are the player controls there, too?”