by Claudia Gray
Only after she’d said it did she realize she had absolutely no good explanation for what she was doing. Luckily her companion was the person least likely to require one. “What about over there?” Amilyn pointed to a fuel crawler parked close to the charter ship, definitely close enough for Leia to eavesdrop. Swiftly she fell into step behind a group of Pau’ans, whose tall stature and long, flowing robes provided good cover. Once she’d reached the fuel crawler she ducked behind it—then realized Amilyn was right behind her.
“I told you not to come with me!” she whispered.
Amilyn frowned. “No, you didn’t.”
Choose your words more carefully next time, Leia reminded herself. But Winmey Lenz was speaking again, and she focused entirely on him.
“—pleasure is entirely mine, Director.” Lenz smiled at this mysterious director as easily as he’d smiled for everyone at the last banquet. “Petty regulations mustn’t be allowed to stand in the way of necessary construction.”
“You’re a sensible man, Lenz. Are you sure you’re from Chandrila?” The director’s smile didn’t reach his eyes. “What luck, you having so much quadanium at hand.”
Lenz’s gaze no longer met the director’s. “Sometimes the fates align us with what we need most.”
As their conversation shifted into farewell pleasantries, Amilyn straightened and took on an unfamiliarly serious expression. “Why would the Empire be buying cut-rate quadanium from a senator? Why wouldn’t they just take it from a planet that’s on penalty?”
Leia put that together fast. “It could be a few reasons. Most likely, some project is experiencing budget overages that the director doesn’t want to take to his superiors.” Especially since the superiors of officers in white jackets were exclusively those at the topmost levels of the Empire—not the kind of people you wanted to disappoint.
“Is this illegal?” Amilyn clasped her hands together as though in delight. “Did we find crime?”
“I don’t know. Some sales like that are illegal, but some aren’t. Maybe the director asked Lenz to keep the deal secret for his own reasons.”
Regardless, Leia realized, Winmey Lenz’s behavior was troubling. At the very least, the man had a strong relationship with a senior Imperial official, one he was actively assisting in some major building project. He’d specifically denied having any substantive Imperial contacts in the past; that was a lie. And if he was lying to her parents and Mon Mothma about this, what else might he be lying about?
Worse: what might he be telling the truth about?
Panic seized Leia as it hit her that Lenz might already have informed on her parents. No, he can’t have—if he had, we’d already be in prison, or dead. But he knows everything about my parents’ plans, everything Mon Mothma is trying to put together. He has their trust, but he’s lying to them. That means he could turn at any minute.
“Cloud-colored,” Amilyn said.
“What?” Leia sounded snappish and didn’t care. This wasn’t the time for any of Amilyn’s wandering metaphors.
“You’ve gone so pale you’re cloud-colored.” Amilyn clasped Leia’s upper arm, as though she thought Leia would faint at any moment. Cargo shipments and travelers kept hurrying past them, reminding Leia of the mudslide on Chandrila, tumbling over and over in the muck without any way to right herself. “What’s wrong? Why is it so bad that Lenz is selling the materials?”
Telling her the entire truth was impossible. Leia managed, “He’s being deceptive. Chandrila always stands up to Palpatine in the Senate, but privately? Lenz is good buddies with a high-ranking Imperial official.”
“It’s like the cream side of the muffin.”
Leia refused to ask. She just stared at Amilyn, wondering when the tide of weirdness would ever run dry.
“They say that when you drop the muffin, it always lands cream side down,” Amilyn said, repeating the old saying like it was some profound discovery. “So I always wondered, what if you covered the muffin with cream completely, and then dropped it? There wouldn’t be a side left to point upward, so the muffin would never fall. It would remain in the air, skyfaring without scarves.”
Enough of the ridiculous—Leia opened her mouth to utter the angry thoughts in her head, before understanding came rushing in. “Wait. You mean Lenz is playing both sides. He wants to curry favor with the Empire and the ones who oppose it, so that if Palpatine does ever fall from power, he could still benefit.”
“Senator Lenz is the muffin in the analogy,” Amilyn said. “Just to be clear.”
“I got that part.” Leia’s mind was racing, considering all the possibilities. Winmey Lenz wouldn’t expose her parents, Mon Mothma, and their allies for no reason. He wasn’t a risk…yet. But the first time they faced real danger, the immediate threat of exposure, Lenz might well turn informant to save his own skin. It would be the smartest move.
An assistant was speaking with Lenz now, talking over the quadanium shipments. Probably they should seize the opportunity presented by his distraction to get away. It was difficult to remember that they were still on a pathfinding trip. Before she’d turned, though, she heard the assistant say something that pricked at her ears and made the noise of the spaceport seem very far away.
“Did he say Ocahont?” Leia asked.
Amilyn shrugged. “I wasn’t listening. I was envisioning a levitating muffin.”
“I think he said Ocahont.” That name had figured heavily in her mother’s so-called spaceport development accounts. It had to be linked to the rebellion plans. Was it possible Lenz had already betrayed them after all? The shipment to Ocahont could be bait—something for the Empire to follow and then “discover” whatever outpost awaited there.
“You’re cloud-colored again,” Amilyn said.
“I have to find out what’s going on with that shipment to Ocahont.” Leia gestured to what seemed to be the cargo vessel in question. Frantically she tried to think of ways to investigate that she could somehow implement in the next few minutes. Maybe she could access the manifest. Her royal rank didn’t give her the authority to pull a random ship’s manifest, but it was possible a Pamarthen local wouldn’t know that.
In her reverie she stared at the ground, or really at nothing, so it took her a moment to realize Amilyn was gone. Leia jerked her head upright, looking around wildly, then gaped as she saw Amilyn sneaking on to the vessel headed for Ocahont. She tiptoed up the boarding ramp, paused at the door, smiled back at Leia, and waved her forward.
“No no no no no,” Leia whispered. Stowing away wasn’t the answer. Stowaways could be put off on remote planets, jailed, sometimes even indentured as servants—
Come on. Even if any of that happened, you’d only have to get word to your parents. That’s assuming they didn’t find you first, because you know they’d search for you the instant you went missing.
She tried to push the reckless thoughts away. If this shipment was intended as a kind of sting operation by the Empire, with the help of Winmey Lenz, then it would be at the heart of military action. In that case, she and Amilyn wouldn’t be risking their freedom but their lives.
But when Leia tried to wave Amilyn back, she only got more cheerful beckoning before her friend disappeared into the cargo hold, no doubt looking for a better place to hide. Amilyn, who had no idea of the real danger ahead, was apparently determined to see this through.
Leia couldn’t let her go alone.
Looking from side to side, she chose a moment both Ishi Tib and Aqualish groups were hurrying by, chattering loudly among themselves. She wove through the crowd, made sure no one was watching, and ran for the gangway. Amilyn had recklessly dragged them into the mess; it was Leia’s responsibility to get them out.
So she told herself. It helped her pretend that, down deep, she wasn’t a little bit excited.
Chief Pangie sounded incredulous, which under the circumstances was fair. “A family emergency?”
“Exactly,” Leia said into her comlink, bracing herself ag
ainst the wall of the storage bay as the cargo vessel’s engines hummed to life. As the ship lifted off, she said, “I apologize for the sudden departure. Amilyn Holdo’s coming with me so I won’t have to travel alone.”
“Well—” The chief clearly wanted to object, but a royal family emergency probably sounded important. “You check in once you reach Alderaan, got it?”
“Got it!” Leia promised. Assuming I return home ever again.
Chief Pangie signed off just in time, because the vibration that rippled through the ship meant acceleration. No doubt they were now soaring upward at a velocity that would take them out of communications range within seconds.
Amilyn, meanwhile, had made herself comfortable, laying her waterproof mat on the floor and wrapping herself in a warming blanket. The blanket was designed to fend off harsh weather conditions but would work on the chill of a cargo bay just as well. “Come on,” she said, patting the floor next to her. “You should make your nest. It’s six hours to Ocahont, so we might as well get some sleep.”
“There’s no way I’m going to be able to sleep.” Leia sat by Amilyn anyway. There wasn’t any point in pacing the whole time.
“Why not?” Amilyn asked.
“Because I’m nervous and upset, and I don’t know what’s waiting for us when we get there.”
“Neither do I,” Amilyn said quietly. “I’m not afraid, because I’m never afraid of the things that scare other people, not even the unknown. But if I should be scared—well, you might as well tell me.”
Regardless of how this played out, Amilyn would learn some of the truth. It would be better for her to hear most of it from Leia, as clearly and honestly as possible. Her parents’ refusal to inform Leia had led to dangerous complications; if she refused to inform Amilyn in turn, what else could go wrong? Though it would be hard for even Amilyn Holdo to come up with something more ill-advised than stowing away on a traitor’s ship headed toward an illegal military outpost….
“It’s like this,” Leia said, forcing herself to focus. “Some individuals have decided that—that the worlds of this galaxy need a defense other than the Empire—a defense against the Empire—”
“An uprising.” Amilyn pronounced the word with relish. “About time!”
“Don’t be so happy about it. Do you realize what that would mean? For us, for the whole galaxy?”
The smile fell from Amilyn’s face, replaced by a solemnness Leia had never seen in her before. “Yes, I do. It’s still time.”
Once again Leia’s mind filled with images from Paucris Major, the ships all being refitted for battles to come. For bloodshed, for death.
Amilyn continued, “A few weeks ago, you made me realize that intention alone isn’t sufficient. Goodness is proved through action rather than ideas. Since then I’ve been thinking about what that means in the greatest sense, and—and I knew that meant standing against the Emperor.” Her solemn expression shifted into a smile. “I’m just really relieved I don’t have to do it on my own.”
“I bet.” Leia rubbed her temples with her fingers. “Can you keep a secret?”
“You’d better hope so,” Amilyn replied with unnerving honesty.
Not even Kier knew as much as Amilyn Holdo would have discovered by the end of this trip. Leia steeled herself to reveal all, then froze as the doors to the cargo bay slid open. She and Amilyn scooted hurriedly into a corner, hiding themselves as best they could behind some crates.
“Someone will catch us,” said a giggling Quarren, who was allowing another to pull them deep into the hold.
“No one’s going to see.” The other Quarren stroked the first one’s facial tentacles lasciviously. Is that one of their mating rituals? Leia thought, trying to look anywhere but at the groping couple arranging themselves atop one of the nearby containers. Or is that just, I don’t know, this one’s fetish? She had a disturbing feeling she was about to find out.
“I suppose we may as well seize the moment,” the first Quarren murmured. A hand with suction-tipped fingers went to the other’s collar, and Leia heard snaps being pulled free. “Who knows when we’ll get another chance to—aaaghhh!”
Leia winced as the Quarrens scrambled backward, staring at the two huddled stowaways they’d just glimpsed in the corner. She could only gape at them, even more horrified to have been discovered than they must be.
Amilyn folded her hands over her heart. “I’m so happy you two have found each other!”
Less happy to have been found was the person in charge at Ocahont, who on that particular day turned out to be Mon Mothma.
As she and Amilyn were hustled into the outpost’s headquarters, Leia caught sight of the familiar red hair and white robe and breathed a sigh of relief. “Senator. I’m so glad to see you.”
“The feeling isn’t mutual.” Mon Mothma raised one eyebrow. “You brought a friend?”
“I stowed away,” Amilyn said cheerfully. “Technically we both did, but it was my idea. So don’t blame Leia.”
Mon Mothma raised her hands as if to say, I need time to find the words. With a glance she dismissed the two Quarrens, who’d considered Leia and Amilyn their prisoners and didn’t look too thrilled about having them treated as guests instead. Leia figured they’d get over it as soon as they got another chance to be alone.
The outpost on Ocahont had apparently been built longer ago than the makeshift shelters on Crait. Although the crew of the cargo vessel had made sure she couldn’t get a good look at the total layout of the place, the differences revealed themselves. Substantial data centers ringed the room in which Mon Mothma stood, including a circular map display at the very center. The sheer length of the hallways she and Amilyn had been hustled through suggested a large compound. And anyplace that needed an enormous cargo shipment of quadanium…well, however big this outpost was, it would soon be even bigger.
Mon Mothma leaned against the map display for a few long seconds before saying, “Princess, you know that I’ve supported your playing a larger role in…our endeavors, but this is going too far.”
“This was an accident, and a lucky one,” Leia insisted. “What do you know about Winmey Lenz’s dealings with the Empire?”
There was every chance that Mon Mothma would say she knew all about it. It had occurred to Leia that Lenz might be setting up some sort of elaborate operation to sabotage Imperial works, maybe. When she saw the frown lines appear between the older woman’s eyebrows, though, she knew better. “What do you mean, Leia? Of course Lenz arranged for us to receive this quadanium—”
“He traded even more to the Empire,” Leia said. “We saw him conclude the deal with our own eyes. I didn’t recognize the official, but he certainly had a high rank, and Lenz called him ‘director.’”
Amilyn chimed in then: “The guy wore a white jacket. That’s how bad.”
Mon Mothma took a step backward. From most people it would’ve been a very small reaction, but from the calm, collected Mon Mothma, it might as well have been a scream. “Force around us. How did you discover this?”
“Our paths crossed on Pamarthe. Maybe it was a lucky accident—maybe it was the Force at work.” Although Leia believed in the Force, she rarely thought it directly guided actions. On this day, though, she was willing to consider the possibility. “Regardless, Lenz has connections high up in the Empire he hasn’t revealed to the rest of you, and that can’t be good news.”
“No, it can’t.” Mon Mothma’s long fingers tapped against the edge of the map display, as if she were working out a code. “We can’t let him know we’re on to him. We simply have to…phase him out. Make him believe we’re fighting among ourselves, less certain of our plans. If he believes the coalition is falling apart, getting nowhere, he’ll let it lie. Reporting us at that point would only expose himself.”
“Can you make him believe that?” Leia had thought politics involved more lying than any other activity. Apparently rebellions put politics to shame.
“He’s never been at the ce
nter of our plans. There are limits to what he knows. So yes, I think he can be persuaded.” Mon Mothma shook her head as though to clear it. “Besides, we don’t have to lie about the infighting. Only about our lack of resolve to overcome it.”
That sounded ominous, but also like something Leia should take up with her parents instead, at some other time, preferably far in the future. “So,” Leia began, “since this intel is highly confidential, you’ll keep this whole trip a secret from my parents, right?”
With a gentle smile, Mon Mothma stepped toward Leia, put her hands on her shoulders, and said, “Not a chance.”
Leia winced. From her chair, Amilyn murmured, “Ouch.”
“We’re still working out exactly who’s in charge of this great endeavor,” Mon Mothma continued. “Maybe it will be me, but maybe not. All I know for certain is that your parents are in charge of their own household, of which you are still a member. That means you’ll have to take this up with them.”
Before they’d parted ways for their separate transports home, Amilyn had tried to be encouraging. “You brought valuable intel!” she insisted. “That’s got to count for something.”
“Let’s hope so.”
It counted for nothing.
“We can’t keep having this conversation, Leia.” Bail Organa paced the length of the library, his hands clasped behind his back. “How many times do we have to beg you to let us handle this? To go enjoy your youth instead of rushing headlong into this?”
“I told you, I wasn’t investigating Winmey Lenz. I just happened to find out what he was up to. After that I had to do something, didn’t I?”
“Something, yes,” her father said. “Stowing away on a cargo vessel? No.”
“I was going after Amilyn!” Leia insisted. “And don’t give me that whole, if all of your friends were jumping out windows on Coruscant, would you do it, because this is different.”
“She’s right.” Breha spoke with unexpected calmness; her sorrowful dark eyes met her husband’s. “Leia responded to the situation she was confronted with as best she could. We can’t ask for more than that.”
