by Greg Keyes
interceptor's exhaust. She stuttered laser fire, following her opponents'
attempts to shake her, until finally their shields failed. She cut the drive
off as neatly as a gardener pruning a tree, then came around to disable
their weapons.
By this time, the jade Shadow only had two pursuers left,
and one of them was in bad shape. She wished she could have seen what
tricks Mara had pulled out of her sleeve to achieve that. The Shadow's
shields were starting to get a little shaky, but between the two of them,
Jaina was certain the remaining interceptors didn't have a chance.
A moment later, a cloud of blips appeared on her long-range sensors.
Twelve starfighters, maybe more. And the Jade Shadow was flying right into
them.
NINE
C-3PO yelped as he lost his handhold, but at the same instant something
fastened onto his wrist.
"Artoo! Thank the maker!"
The ship made another violent turn, and C-3PO felt his insides try to
escape into space through the soles of his metal feet. R2-D2 lurched
forward, but only so far. C-3PO noticed with relief that his companion had
secured himself with a cable of some sort.
"Clever Artoo! Don't let go of me!"
Jacen swung around in the laser turret, tracing lines of deadly light
through the vacuum, walking them across the nearest coralskipper. Points of
absolute darkness swallowed most of the beams before they could strike home,
but a fluorescent puff of vaporized coral told him at least one had gotten
through. The skip sloughed off starboard, but there were plenty more to take
its place. Jacen grimly continued his deadly conversation with them, and
they answered with volcanic gobs of plasma.
"Shields are failing," Han's voice crackled over the comm. "Jacen,
how's it going down there?"
"Still here, Dad," he replied, swinging his seat to follow a skip so
near he could have thrown a rock and hit it.
"We're out of the mass shadow in one minute," Leia said.
Something in the ship shrieked, and the inertial compensators failed.
The g's they were pulling tried to smash Jacen into the ceiling. He managed
to get his hands up in time to keep his skull from being crushed, but the
force of impact stunned him momentarily. The dampeners went
back on-line, and artificial gravity dropped him back roughly into his
seat.
"That's it for the shields," his father husked.
Groggily, Jacen grabbed the trigger grips as a series of shudders ran
through the Falcon.
"Go! Now!" Leia cried.
For an instant nothing happened. Then the stars were gone, and Jacen
sagged in his couch.
"It was terrible, just terrible," C-3PO went on. "If it weren't for
Artoo I would be just space flotsa-m. Master Jacen, I told you I wasn't
suited for that sort of thing."
"You did just fine, Threepio. You saved us. Thanks."
"Oh. Well, I suppose . . . you're quite welcome."
"Right. So run some diagnostics on yourself. Relax."
"Do you think we've really escaped them?"
Han stepped into the cabin and answered that. "We left on a pretty
messy vector. Even I'm not exactly sure where we're,headed. We'll drop out
soon and get our bearings, but I'm' willing to bet we're not being followed.
One thing is sure-we'll need repairs."
"The outer bulkheads?" Jacen asked.
"Like you figured. The coupling tore, but I was able to fix it before
our patches gave way. Kinda spoils the look, though. It's gonna have to go."
Leia entered and lowered herself onto one of the couches. Jacen noticed
she was favoring her right leg more than she had the day before. Her Noghri
bodyguards stood silently nearby.
"What did they hit us with?" she asked.
"Something we haven't seen yet," Jacen said. "It may just be a side
effect of their interdiction device."
"Or a powerful electromagnetic pulse. It shut our systems down, but
didn't really do a lot of damage to them."
"It shut us down, too," Leia pointed out.
"Yeah. It did at that," Han allowed.
"So now what?" Leia asked.
"Now? Well, now we know the inner Corellian Run is hotter than
novashine."
"For now. Maybe they shift those things around. How many interdictors
can they have?"
"Well, I don't know," Han said, shrugging his shoulders. "They grow the
things, remember?"
"There's that famous Solo charm," Leia remarked. "I wondered where it
had gone."
Han opened his mouth to retort, but Jacen stepped in. "That interdictor
had been there for a while. Remember the other ships we saw?"
Leia nodded. "True. I'd forgotten that."
"This is nuts," Han opined. "This whole thing. Luke's 'great river.' "
. Leia frowned. "Look, we've had some setbacks, but-"
"Setbacks?" Han's brows tried to jump off his head. "Did you just say
'setbacks'?" We had to shoot our way out of the meeting on Ryloth because
your 'contacts' turned out to be Peace Brigade-"
"Oh, like your 'good friends' on Birnmisaari? The ones who wanted to
decorate their speeder with our heads?"
"As a matter of fact," Han blustered, "things were going just great on
Birnmisaari until you . . ."
They continued bickering, and Jacen listened with mixed emotions. On
the one hand, it reminded him of old times, at least insofar as he could
remember. They had always been like this, right up until the day Chewbacca
died. Then- then they almost stopped talking at all. That silence had been
one of the worst things Jacen had ever experienced. Now, they sounded like
their old selves, but there was something brittle about it sometimes. As if
some of the good nature at the base of it had evaporated. As though if the
wrong thing got said, something might break.
Still, it was better than the silence.
As Han had guessed, it took a while to get their bearings and calculate
a series of jumps that would take them on to their destination, the cluster
of black holes known collectively as the Maw. He picked his way carefully
through the enormous gravity wells, his old recklessness submerged
beneath several layers of responsibility that a younger Han Solo could
never have comprehended.
A younger Han Solo had never really believed in death- or rather, had
never believed it could touch him. The loss of Chewbacca had changed that
forever. Whenever he thought of losing Leia or one of his children, it put
liquid nitrogen in his veins.
As he went carefully through the maze of deadly tides, Han was at least
confident that there were few beings in the galaxy who could follow him. If
an uninformed Yuuzhan Vong ship was tailing them, the invaders were as good
as destroyed.
Thus, it was several days before his barely repaired Falcon made its
final approach to the secret base they had named simply Shelter. It was a
patchwork construction, largely put together from the pieces of the infamous
Maw installation, which in its own time-the days of the Empire-had been a
top-secret weapons facility. The facility itself had been blown to bits by
modules imported from Kessel-and with the help of some well-heeled friends-
Han and Leia had managed to facilitate the construction of a space station.
As a location, the Maw was just too good to abandon, especially when a
safe house was needed.
"Not much to look at," Han muttered, watching the rough cylinder gain
resolution and reveal its makeshift nature. The base of it was an asteroid
fragment, but living modules, a power core, and a rudimentary defense system
rose obviously from its surface.
"But it's something," Leia said, over his shoulder. "It's a start. I
never thought you could have pulled together the alliance it would take to
build it, but there it is. Good work, Captain Solo." Leia smiled and slipped
her hand into Han's.
"I ... Thanks. But look what happened when I was out here. Anakin was
nearly killed on Yavin Four, and we didn't have the slightest idea of what
was going on."
"Anakin is safe on the Errant Venture, as safe as he can
be anyway. Jaina's on Coruscant. Jacen's with us. I think we've done as
well as we can, Han." "Maybe. Well, let's see what they've done with the
place."
Lando Calrissian met them in the functional if unappealing docking bay.
Someone had given it a coat of yellow paint, covering the mismatched plating
it was built of, which was an improvement over the last time Han had seen
it.
"I like what you've done to the Falcon," Lando said easily, as they
stepped down the landing ramp. "The mottled yellow patches against matte
black. Very stylish."
"Yeah, well, I've always had an eye for the trendy," Han replied.
"And the beautiful," Lando remarked, switching his gaze to Leia.
"You're more bewitching than ever."
"And you're as glib as always," Leia replied.
Lando smiled his famous smile and bowed slightly at the waist.
"The Falcon-" Han began.
Lando waved his hand. "Think of it as done. We may not have much here,
but we have what it takes to patch that old hunk of junk one more time, I
think."
He scanned over their lived-in clothes and Jacen's bloodstains. "The
same goes for the three of you. Visit the 'fresher and my MD droid, please.
When you're done, I'd be pleased if you would join me in my stateroom for
food and drinks, before we meet with the others who have come."
"The Hutt representative made it safely, then?" Leia asked.
"It was tight at times," Lando said, "but we got him here."
Han cleared his throat. "We can talk about that later," he said.
"Jacen, Lando's right. You ought to have that cut looked at. And, Leia-"
"My legs are fine," she assured him.
"Why don't you let the medical droid take a look anyway? It certainly
can't hurt."
"There's plenty of time," Lando said, "if you'll just follow me?"
To Han's relief, the MD droid didn't find much on Leia or Jacen to
complain about, and so an hour later, freshened and in new clothes, the
three of them followed one of Lando's droids to his stateroom. When the door
opened, however, Han couldn't repress a grin.
"Why am I not surprised?" he asked.
"Welcome to my humble home away from home," Lando said. "Not up to my
usual standards, I'll admit, but it's comfortable enough."
The chamber beyond might have been imported from one of Lando's casinos
or luxury barges. The stone of the asteroid had been annealed, etched, and
planished to resemble Naboo tile, and the floor was of finest polished
Kashyyyk wood. The appointments were all old Coruscant-
pre-Empire-comfortable, decadently upholstered in phil-fiber brocades.
"Have a seat. The droid will bring our drinks."
A shiny new SE-6 domestic sidled up and took their orders.
"Stimcaf," Leia said. "If I have to discuss anything, I want to be at
least half awake."
"I have another theory on that," Han said. "I know you, Lando. Surely
you have some Corellian whiskey around this dump."
"Only the best, Han, though the best isn't as good as it used to be."
"What is?"
"Besides us?" Lando said. "Not much."
Jacen ordered mineral water.
"Another sober fellow," Lando remarked. "But I think I'll join Han." He
leveled his intelligent gaze at Jacen. "And you, young Jedi. How are things
with you?"
"Very well, thanks," Jacen said politely.
"You've got a lot of your mother in you. Fortunate choice your genes
made." He paused. "I understand you're hot property these days. I think
you've even outdone the old man when it comes to the bounty you'd fetch."
"That's not funny, Lando," Han said.
Lando raised his eyebrows mildly. "I didn't say it was. Just making an
observation. As you said, you know me."
"Only too well."
Lando made a wounded face, then brightened. "Ah, here are our drinks."
He took his glass and raised it. "To the old times, and to better ones."
They drank. Han grimaced. "Boy, you weren't kidding. Whyren's Reserve
this ain't."
"There have been better years, I'll grant you that." Lando's voice
softened and became more serious. "I'm sorry I didn't make the funeral, Han.
Some of my people got trapped near Obroa-skai when the Vong took it. I
couldn't leave them hanging."
"I know," Han said, taking another drink. "I heard. That's what he
would have wanted you to do."
"And you, Lando," Leia said. "How are things with you andTendra?"
"Hey, we're making do. Losing Dubrillion wasn't a lot of fun, but I've
managed to spread my assets out over the years. I've still got the operation
on Kessel, though it's attracted some attention lately."
"YuuzhanVong?"
"Nah, just pirates and profiteers. And I've been approached by the
Peace Brigade."
That got Han's attention. "Really?"
"I sent them packing. They didn't have the clout to back up their
demands, and they knew it."
"Yes, but what did they want?" Leia asked.
Lando chuckled. "The usual. Help hunting down Jedi, though they must
have known who they were dealing with. Mostly I think they wanted guards for
one of their convoys."
"What sort of convoy?"
"It seems that the Brigade has expanded. They're not just in the
business of hunting Jedi anymore-they've taken over the trade routes in
Vong-occupied territory." " "They're supplying them?"
"And their subject populations. Sure. Somebody has to."
"Of all the vile . . ." Leia couldn't even finish, she was so
disgusted.
They shifted to small talk. The whiskey was warming, and Han felt his
shoulders relax a little.
"Well," Lando said, when their glasses were dry. "Our allies, such as
they are, are waiting. We're probably as fashionably late as we can afford
to be,"
"Lead the way," Han replied.
Three beings awaited them in a conference room that evinced none of the
luxury of Lando's suite-it-was clinically spare. The most striking of the
trio was a young Hutt, reclining with a bored expression and an impatient
twitch in his thickly muscled tail. Next to him sat a human woman in her
mid-thirties. Her skin was almost as dark as Lando's, her hair clipped and
with severe bangs. She wore a formal business smock, black with a raised
white collar. She looked serious, but the female Twi'lek another turn around
the circular conference table looked positively grim.
"How thoughtful of you to finally show up," the Hutt remarked.
"Happy to be of service," Han replied, keeping his voice neutral. "And
you'd be?"
"Bored," the Hutt replied.
Han frowned and raised his finger, but Lando cut in smoothly. "Han
Solo, meet Bana. He's here on behalf of the Hutt resistance."
"And an investor in this . . . place," Bana added. "Despite which I've
been ill treated. Kept in closed quarters for the journey. Very
inhospitable."
"You understand our desire to keep the location of Shelter a secret,"
Lando said.
"I understand the insult involved. You imply I might sell the
information? My people are fighting for their lives. There is no dealing
with the Yuuzhan Vong, neither in goods nor information. They are a mad
species, and such sensible things mean nothing to them." He drew his
sluglike body straighten
"No insult was intended," Leia soothed.
The Hutt cocked his head. "You are Princess Leia. You were present when
my cousin Randa died."
"I was," Leia agreed. "He died bravely."
"This is Numa Rar," Lando continued, introducing the Twi'lek.
"It is an honor to meet you," the woman intoned, her pale blue
head-tails twisting together.
Jacen spoke for the first time since entering the room. "I recognize
you," he said to Numa Rar.
"Yes. I was a student of the late Daeshara'cor."
"You may have heard of the resistance on New Plympto, in the Corellian
sector," Lando said. "Numa is a leader of that resistance.".
He turned to the human woman. "Opeli Mors," he said. "A representative
of the Jin'ri trade syndicate."
"Interesting," Han said. "I've never heard of that organization."
"Nor have I," Leia added.
Opeli Mors gave a brief, businesslike smile. "We are a relatively new
concern. We formed to meet the needs of refugees soon after the fall of
Duro. We welcome the opportunity to expand."
"War profiteers," Leia said.
"No business can operate without an income," Mors said. "Governments
