by Claudia Gray
“Everybody’s luck runs out sometime,” Joph muttered.
“Trust me, I know.” Greer closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Did she feel dizzy or disoriented? This had to count as stress in the extreme. But just as Joph leaned toward her, Greer’s eyes opened, clear and focused. “We have to follow orders.”
It knocked the wind out of Joph. It took him a moment to respond. “If we do this, and she dies—”
“Are you afraid of taking responsibility for your actions?” Greer snapped.
“No, I’m afraid of getting Princess Leia killed!”
She steadied herself and said, more quietly, “I am, too. But she’s right. Getting this evidence to the Senate is more important. Let’s go.”
Joph did as she said, sealing the ship’s doors and readying thrusters. Behind him, he could see the heavy pallets stacked thickly with thermal detonators. If they had a collision at any point—even too rough a ride—one of those detonators might go off. And as soon as one exploded, the others would, too.
He’d been so worried about Princess Leia that he hadn’t realized she might well outlive them.
“This is terrible!” C-3PO cried. “Simply terrible!”
“Tell us about it,” Joph muttered.
C-3PO kept on: “Princess Leia is in great danger!”
“We know, Threepio,” Greer said as she fired up the engines.
“No, no, you don’t understand!” C-3PO’s voice rose to a new pitch of alarm. “I’ve just analyzed the computers’ records of foot traffic within the city against the overall map, and it seems that a substantial portion of the humans within are currently inside the Amaxine warriors’ headquarters!”
Joph and Greer stared at each other. He whispered, “She’s not just running toward their hideout. She’s running toward their entire army.”
—
Leia’s gut dipped as the lift began its descent. With one hand resting on her blaster, she quickly took stock. All right, so I don’t have Threepio with me, much less any holocams. That means I won’t be able to fully record whatever I find down here. I’ll only be able to testify to what I’ve seen.
Would that be enough any longer? After the revelations about Darth Vader, Leia knew her credibility had plummeted nearly to zero. However, C-3PO’s data would back up so much of what she said that people might be inclined to believe the rest. Certainly their information would demand a more thorough investigation; if the Senate didn’t trust Leia’s judgment, they might trust the people sent in to inspect this place after her.
…which meant, really, that she could go for the ship. Maybe she still had time to make it. By now, Leia knew Joph and Greer well enough to be certain they’d spend a while bickering before they finally followed their orders. The risk she was taking with her life might not even be necessary.
But Leia didn’t turn back.
It had been a long time since she’d gotten her hands dirty. Too long. From now on, she intended to be on the front lines, doing whatever most needed to be done, regardless of the cost.
The lift concluded its journey, coming to a stop. Leia readied herself as the doors swung open so that she could begin taking stock of the Amaxine hideout immediately—
—but she hadn’t prepared to come face-to-face with half a dozen Amaxine warriors.
“What’s the meaning of this?” one demanded. “Who are you?”
“I’ve lost my way.” Leia put one hand to her temple as though she were disoriented. “So many alarms were going off above, and I’ve never been here before—the maps are awfully confusing, don’t you think? They should put up better maps, I think. I intend to complain to the management.”
The Amaxine warriors didn’t relax, exactly, but they allowed her to step out of the lift as though to get her bearings. Leia continued to act confused as she peeked through her own fingers, getting the best view she could. They stood on the edge of an enormous hangar, one filled with starfighters of every make and model, from X-wings indistinguishable from those of the New Republic to old TIE fighters. Were there five hundred of them? A thousand?
However many it was, the Amaxine warriors had undoubtedly amassed a fighting force capable of causing confusion or destruction on a massive scale.
“I don’t suppose I could have a drink of water?” Leia called upon her memories of Ben as she smiled at them, hoping they would perceive her as motherly. Most of the Amaxine warriors she saw were precisely the age to treat their mothers with affectionate disregard, an attitude that would go far toward getting her out of this. “That would be so helpful.”
The Amaxine nearest her shook his head no, but politely, as he hit the lift controls for her. “You should go, ma’am. As soon as possible.”
“Well, thank you just the same.” So much for trying to stall. “You’re both such nice young men—”
“Hold!” someone shouted from the back. “That woman shows up on our facial recognition system!”
Should’ve put the veil back on, Leia thought as she swung her elbow back savagely into the nearest Amaxine’s belly.
As he staggered to one side, she ran away as fast as she could toward the only open door she could see. The stitch in her side tightened, lancing her with pain. This had been so much easier when she was nineteen…
Leia reached the door only steps ahead of her pursuers, barely in time to hit the controls and seal them on the other side. Panting, she looked around to see what kind of room she’d just locked herself into. The first thing she realized was that the circular space had only one door. This had the benefit of ensuring nobody else could get in and the drawback of ensuring she couldn’t get out.
“Might as well make myself comfortable,” she muttered. “Looks like I’ll be here for a while.”
But then her gaze focused on the red rings around the perimeter, and the second thing she realized was that this room was no room. It was a landing platform, one that could be raised to the ocean’s surface—and at that instant, the floor jerked and began to move.
Alarmed, Leia looked upward at the fast-approaching ceiling; by now she could make out the plates that would soon open, allowing millions of liters of water to crush her long before she’d get the chance to drown.
Force field. There’s a force field. Find it! She recognized a small rectangular control at the far side of the floor and dived for it just as she heard the first stirring of the metal gears that would open the plates. Her hand slammed down on the control, hard.
Leia held her breath as she watched the ceiling plates open wide again. The iridescent shimmer of the force field formed a semicircle above her, keeping back the ocean. For a moment, wonder and relief made her smile, but only as long as it took her to wonder what she was going to do when the platform reached the surface. If Joph and Greer had followed orders, and by now they probably had, she had no hope of rescue. The Amaxine warriors were no doubt loading starfighters onto other platforms now, preparing to meet her above the surface. She had no plan, no backup, and only one weapon.
The ocean shifted from black to deep blue as the platform neared the light. Leia got to her feet and put her hand on her blaster. She might be trapped. She might even be doomed. But there was no way she’d go down without a fight.
Surf bubbled around her as the force field cleared the water. Twilight was falling, and the sun still illuminated only one corner of the cobalt sky. She stood amid a churning ocean with nowhere to hide. Just as Leia had anticipated, another platform broke the surface seconds later, and two starfighters—a Y-wing and a B-wing—took to the air, turning straight toward her.
She braced herself. The force field will protect you at first. No point in firing until the field goes down.
But the B-wing’s bolts sliced through the air with deadly precision. The very first spray of weapons fire hit the force field controls, and with a shimmer it was gone. Leia brought her blaster up into firing position, taking aim at the Y-wing as it approached. Maybe they’d shoot each other at the exact same mome
nt—
Laserfire screamed in from a completely different direction, scoring the Y-wing until it spiraled out of control and plunged into the depths. Leia whirled around to see a ship she’d never laid eyes on before: a sleek, modern, black-tiled racer, onto which someone had hastily added a small weapons array.
The racer came to a stop, hovering above her as a magnetic tow dropped onto the platform. Without hesitation, Leia grabbed the handgrips bolted to each side. No sooner had her fingers closed around them than the tow was activated, jerking her up into the air and into the racer’s cargo bay. Its metal doors slid shut beneath her as the racer accelerated again, and the magnetic pull went slack.
Leia’s feet slammed to the floor as she let the heavy tow drop. She ran for the cockpit, where the pilot was so hard at work he didn’t even turn around.
“Sorry I’m late, sweetheart,” said Han.
She slipped into the empty copilot’s chair beside him. “Honey, you’re right on time.”
Her husband had not only received her message, but he’d dropped everything he was doing to rush here to help her in any way he could. Leia let go of all the frustration she felt at Han’s long absences, all the bickering they’d never grown out of. In the end, she knew, he would always come through.
The B-wing carved out a wide arc; its pilot had come up here to shoot one lone woman, not to get into a firefight with somebody who clearly knew what he was doing. But the Amaxine warriors must have instilled real discipline in their troops, because he came back toward them at full speed.
“Take auxiliary weapons, will ya?” Han’s hands tightened on the controls. “I’m coming in under his belly.”
“Got it.” Leia hit the console, releasing weapons control to her. A holographic targeting system floated between her and the viewport—silly, all this modern assistance, when all you needed was to take aim—
Han brought the racer in low, skimming the surface as he tilted the ship to maximize their chances with the B-wing. Leia fired, but the B-wing had accelerated at the last minute; she only managed to clip the wing.
“We’ll get him next time.” Now Han soared upward at such a sharp angle the racer was nearly perpendicular to the ground. When a transmission came in, he flipped the switch and grinned. “Greer! How the hell are you?”
“Captain Solo?” Greer sounded breathless. “What are you doing here?”
“Don’t worry,” Leia said. “Han’s got me. We’ll follow you guys out of this system as soon as we take care of a little unfinished business.”
With a scowl, Han said, “Looks like we’ve got company.”
Sure enough, another platform had surfaced, this one with two more starfighters. Would the Amaxine warriors send up their entire fleet? If so, the racer didn’t have enough firepower to take them out.
One thing at a time, Leia reminded herself.
Without a word passed between them, Han took over primary weapons control, then separated the two laser cannons so he and Leia could fire independently. She knew every move he would make before he made it, and had already seen through the jerky, scattered targeting holos to the shot she wanted to make.
The Amaxine warriors flew closer to one another, no doubt hoping to create a battle formation. All they’d done was create a better target.
She and Han fired as one. Han’s cannon took out the B-wing, while Leia sent one of the new fighters screeching downward at high speed, fire trailing behind it. The ship hit the water at incredible speed, with enough velocity to take it all the way to—
The massive explosion was so bright that for a moment the ocean shone like the sun. Almost instantly, tsunamis rose up so high that they nearly swamped the racer, spreading outward in a vast ripple effect that might circle the entire planet of Sibensko. A few lesser explosions lit up the depths for the instants it took the water to extinguish any fire. No one still inside could have had any chance to escape.
“I hate to tell you this,” Han said, “but that might have been too good a shot.”
“It crashed through the main station structure.” Leia slumped back in the copilot’s seat. “I think it brought down the whole underwater city. But that shouldn’t have happened.” Her mind reeled as she thought of the many travelers who had been passing through; most had been smugglers, maybe not so different from Han a few decades ago. They hadn’t deserved that fate.
Then it hit her: the Amaxine warriors.
“Explosives,” she whispered. “They must have kept a massive amount of armaments down there. The crash set them off, and the explosives did the rest.”
“Damn. Sibensko’s a rough place. Only came here a couple of times, myself—didn’t trust the kind of people who did business here. And this is coming from someone who took work from the Hutts.” Han turned toward her. “So how does blowing this place up affect your investigation?”
“We destroyed all the evidence except what’s in Threepio’s data banks, and even that can’t be backed up any longer. But we also destroyed a paramilitary force preparing to attack the New Republic.” The Amaxine warriors had been defeated; the enemy was no more.
“Everything else I’d ever done, everything I’ve ever been, was erased in an instant.” Leia struggled to find the words. “People who had fought beside me in the war, or served beside me for years in the Senate—they didn’t even see me as myself any longer. All I’ll ever be to them now is Darth Vader’s daughter.”
Han snuggled her closer against his chest as they lay together in their bed on Hosnian Prime. Moonlight slanted through the bedroom window, but paler now as dawn approached. Leia rested her head on his shoulder and shut her eyes, taking comfort in the tenderness with which he kissed her forehead.
“It’s not gonna be like that forever,” he murmured. “Not for everyone. Sooner or later, they’ll remember who you are.”
“For the people closest to me, maybe.” Tai-Lin had come through for her, and despite Varish’s awkwardness, she had defended Leia from the start. Greer and even young Joph Seastriker had come around within a day or two; a handful of others were likely to follow. A few people from her past, including Ackbar, Nien Nunb, and Lando, had messaged or sent holos that showed their compassion and loyalty. Mon Mothma’s message even hinted that she’d suspected for a long while—which meant she’d never allowed it to prejudice their relationship. Leia knew now who her truest friends were, and she would never forget it. “But to the galaxy at large? Everything else is gone.”
“Then to hell with the galaxy at large.”
Typical Han. “It just hurts, that’s all. The rumors, the anger, the sense of disgrace for something I couldn’t help. Even the man who outed me to the Senate—Ransolm Casterfo—we’d been working together on the Rinnrivin Di investigation for months, and I honestly believed we’d become good friends. Yet as soon as he heard the truth about Vader, he betrayed me.”
“The guy sounds like a jerk.”
“I wish it were that simple.” Leia would’ve been able to get over that wound more quickly if she could believe Ransolm had truly been unworthy of any respect. “He’s a decent man, mostly. A decent politician, which is rarer. But he hates Darth Vader, and that’s reason enough for him to hate me.”
“Forget that Casterfo loser, will you?” Han stroked her hair, which spread across her pillow, off the far edge of the bed. “Look at it like this. You wanted out of the Senate anyway. Now you’ve got your chance. Once your term’s up, you’re free. You can spend some time flying around with an old scoundrel for a change.”
“Han, that sounds like paradise.” But she couldn’t set aside all her worries so easily. “Has it been bad for you? When the sublight relays ended, and you came out to realize they knew my secret—”
“Everyone assumed I must’ve had no idea who I’d married. I made it clear that I’d known from the start, that I don’t give a damn, and anybody with any sense wouldn’t care, either. Nobody’s been fool enough to bring up the subject twice.”
One of the b
est things about Han was that he boiled everything down to the essentials and disregarded the rest. Sometimes he simplified things too much, but mostly he helped her center on what really mattered. He’d calmed her down about Ben—more or less—but even Han could only take her so far. Even as Leia tried to push her doubts away, others crept in to take their place. “I only hope I can get someone to listen to what we discovered on Sibensko.”
“What do you mean, hope? You’ve got all the info right there with Goldenrod, right?”
“Yes, I do. And I intend to share the data with the few political allies I have left. But what we’ve learned about the rise of this paramilitary group and their role in the Napkin Bombing…that requires action by the full Senate. I doubt I can make that happen.”
Han rubbed her shoulder. “Hey. Come on. Once they hear the whole story, they’ll have to do something. Or is the Senate even more useless than I thought?”
Once, Leia would have argued with him about the Senate having no real purpose. That seemed like so long ago. “Oh, they’re useless, all right. But you don’t understand. Even to speak on the Senate floor, a quorum of senators has to decide that you and your topic are worth hearing. Normally it’s not an issue, because the quorum is set at such a low number.” She shook her head sadly. “I won’t even be able to muster that. Not any longer.”
“I’m sorry.” His thumb brushed her shoulder. “At least you took those guys out. Rinnrivin Di, the Amaxine warriors—they’re history.”
“Maybe. But we can’t afford to assume there aren’t more groups like the Amaxine warriors. And they may still have facilities on Daxam Four.”
“Hey. Just now, for tonight, let it go. Not even you can save the whole galaxy before breakfast.” Han smiled gently. “You take too much on yourself. Always have. And you’ve been through too much lately. So let someone else take care of you for a little while.”
She felt some of the tension drain away from her. “Do you have any idea how much I love you?”
