On they walked, through increasingly squalid and dirty passages. The occasional pools of water grew more frequent, and more filthy. There were a number of unpleasant odors, some of which Luke could identify, and a number that he was just as glad he could not.
At last the walkway they were on came to a halt before a huge blastproof door. Lando punched a combination into a keypad, and the door slid back into the wall with a ponderous rumbling of machinery.
They stepped onto a terrace overlooking a huge subterranean cavern, a hollow dome, easily a kilometer across.
Luke, quite astonished, found himself on a platform that looked down into a complete pocket city of low stone buildings and cool green parks. The dome was brightly lit, the air sweet and pure, the walkways and byways clean and tidy. The buildings were widely spaced, their stone walls brightly painted. Pathways snaked through neatly kept lawns, and the roof of the dome was painted a royal blue.
"Welcome to Dometown," Lando said.
"Very nice, Lando," Luke said as he leaned over the low wall of the terrace and admired the view. "Very nice indeed. Not at all what I expected."
"Well, our developers kept it quiet," Lando said.
"Didn't want just anyone knowing about it. We found this underground chamber. it'd been built for space knows what reason, and who knows how old it is. Back then it was full of ruined machines, and old junk, and a whole herd of mutant hive rats and practically everything else you'd ever want to find. We got it cleaned up, refurbed the air and water and security system, and built some decent housing.
It's not exactly in the poshest neighborhood, but who cares?
You can rent a nice big place here for a tenth what it would cost to get a high-status broom closet on the surface."
"I supposed you were one of the investors in this little project?"
Luke said.
Lando laughed, clapped him on the shoulder, and led him down a low, wide ramp into the dome. "Suppose away," he said. "I decided, just for once, to put my money into something small and local. Just this once, why not be one of many partners, instead of being the whole show myself?
Why not think small, and build a nice neighborhood? I've run a whole city by myself, and take it from me, this is easier."
"So you're no longer thinking about the grand-scale projects?" Luke asked.
Lando looked at him as they walked along, clearly surprised and maybe a little bit hurt. "I'll never quit doing that, Luke. If you don't think big, what's the point of thinking at all? I just got tired of having nothing at all to fall back on.
It might not be in a high-status neighborhood, but status isn't everything-and no one has to know where I live, anyway. Now I've got a little bit of income from this place, enough to live on and just a bit more, and I have a place to live that's mine, that no one can take away from me.
And it's all in the most bombproof and secure depths of the capital planet."
"A safe, secure investment," Luke said, grinning at his friend.
"I know, I know," Lando said. "Don't let it get around, or I'll ruin my reputation. Come on, my house is just up this way. Let's go in."
Five minutes later they were relaxing in the elegant, if somewhat spartan, confines of Lando's house. Luke had to admit that Lando had a point about space. Only the richest of beings, or the most exalted of government officials, could have afforded anything this size anywhere near the surface.
The house was built of stone-a highly cheap and available building material when one is building underground-and the walls and floors were smooth-polished granite. It was cool and quiet, and the rooms were comfortably expansive.
Lando sat Luke down on a low, luxurious couch and brought him something cool to drink before sitting down on a matching chair next to the couch. Then Lando began to talk-and talk about everything but the matter at hand.
Most uncharacteristically, he seemed reluctant to come to the point. He fussed about, worrying that the room was too hot or too cold, that Luke was not comfortable, and that his drink needed freshening up.
At last Luke decided he was going to have to push a bit.
"Lando, you didn't bring me down here to find out how much ice I like in my drinks. Why am I here?"
"All right," Lando said. He paused for a long moment, and shifted in his seat. Even if he was coming to the point, he seemed to feel the need to do so gradually. He set down his own drink on the side table and leaned forward, an earnest expression on his face. "I told a bit of a fib back there as we were walking up this way, when I was talking about building this place," he said. "The truth is I did stop thinking big, for a little while there. I didn't even realize it at first. I got all involved in getting Dometown put together.
It was a safe, secure job, and they needed someone with my skills, and I liked the work. Heck, after putting Nkllon together, getting this place built was more like a hobby than a job-and I liked the way it was easy. I'd been shot down and kicked out and blown up and wiped out so many times I just didn't want to deal with that kind of big-time struggle anymore. So I put all my energy into getting Dometown put back together and cleaned up and families moved in.
"Nothing at all wrong with that," Luke said. "You've really accomplished something here.
"Yes, I have," Lando said, a touch of pride in his voice.
He looked around his parlor, obviously seeing beyond the walls to the town he had made. "That is to say, I did a good job here. But then, after a while, it dawned on me I was still doing the job, even though the job was done."
"I don't understand," Luke said. "How could you be doing the job if it was finished?"
Lando shook his head sadly. "That's easy, Luke. Billions of beings do it every day. They get up in the morning, push some pieces of paper around on a desk, make some com calls, decide on the blue-gray paint for the corridor over the gray blue, have a meeting, and feel like they've accomplished enough for one day. They go home, and then they come back the next day and do it all again. That might be all right for some, but not for me, and when I caught myself doing it I realized it was time to move on."
"Move on to what?"
"I don't know," Lando said, making a rather abrupt gesture of dismissal. "That's not even really that important just now. The main question is move on with what? My father used to say, `You can't think deeper than your pockets,' and there's a lot of truth to that. I started thinking back on all my schemes that had crashed and burned one way or the other. It seemed to me that I could have stuck it out if my pockets had been deeper, if they had been filled with more credits.
"If I had the reserves, the resources, I could have ridden out the bad times and gotten Bespin or Nkllon back on a paying basis. Deep pockets give you staying power, let you hang in and lose money until you're earning it again. I realized that the question was: How to get money? Serious money. How could I get those deep pockets?"
"And now you've figured out how, and you want my help to do it"' Luke said, more than a little amused.
"Right," Lando said. "Exactly right. I've figured out how to get deep pockets full of money, and I need your help to do it."
"Well, then," Luke said. "How do you get deep pockets?"
"Simplest thing in the universe," said Lando. "You marry them." There was a moment of dead silence as Luke stared straight at Lando. It wasn't easy to surprise a Jedi Master, but Lando had done it. "You're getting married?" Luke asked at last. "To whom?"
Lando shrugged his shoulders and laughed. "I haven't the faintest idea," he said. "Well, that's not strictly true.
I do have a short list of candidates, but it could be anyone on the list, or maybe even someone I haven't thought of yet."
"But-but-how can you marry someone you don't know?"
"I'm not marrying a who," Lando said. `I'm marrying a what. I'm marrying money. What's so strange about that?
People have done it since the beginning of time. A rich wife could do me a lot of good-and I could do her a lot of good, too. Make her richer, for one thing
." Luke looked at his old friend, and asked a careful question. "Where do I come into all this?" Luke asked.
"Ah, now that's the tricky part," Lando said. "I'm not altogether unknown in the galaxy. People have heard of me.
Unfortunately sometimes they haven't liked what they've heard. Stories get started. Some of the stories aren't even true. But they're out there just the same. That's why I want you to come with me while I'm searching for my wife-"
"What? That's the reason for the trip you want me to go on?"
Lando looked surprised. "Yes. I thought I had explained that part. I want you to come with me while I go wife hunting."
"And do what?" Luke asked. `Convince them that the true stories aren't true'? I can't go around bending the facts just to suit you, Lando.
`No, of course not," Lando said. "But I've changed, Luke. I'm not going to say I'm a whole new person or any nonsense like that. I couldn't get you to believe it anyway.
But I'm not the way I was in the old days. I'm more solid, more steady. Could the old me have gotten this place built?" he asked.
Yes, Luke thought. Built it and then lose it all on one hand of sabacc. But fortunately for Luke, his sense of tact was not called upon to battle with his need to tell the truth. Lando was talking on, without waiting for an answer.
"I'm not going to deny my past," Lando said. "There's no point in even trying. Anyway who wanted to find out about me could do so very easily. I have nothing to hide."
He caught the look in Luke's eye and shrugged. "Well, nothing much. Besides, most of the women I want to get a look at know who I am already. Some women even like my reputation. They think it's exciting, or romantic or something. Besides, look at where I started, and look at where I am and all the places I've been on the way. I'm proud of what I've done." Lando looked at Luke again and put his hands up in a mock gesture of surrender before Luke even had a chance to object. "All right, I'm not proud of all of it, maybe, but at least some."
"And you ought to be proud," Luke said, trying to be reassuring. "You've done great things. The New Republic might not even be here today if not for you.
"Thanks," Lando said. "I appreciate that, especially coming from you."
"Is that what you want me for?" Luke asked. "To go and say that to all your prospective brides?"
"Nooco, not exactly," Lando said. "I just want you to be there with me. I figure if I show up with you, that's going to make me more respectable even if you never say a word. They'll know my intentions are honorable if I show up with a Jedi escort. There won't be any hanky-panky while you're around." Luke fought hard to repress a smile. "Wait a second,' he said. "Just let me understand this. You want me to be your chaperon?"
Lando rewarded Luke with one of his most dazzling smiles. "Exactly. Couldn't have put it better myself. With you around, I'll be respectable. They'll know I'm sincere."
"Are you sincere?" Luke asked. lando looked surprised again. "About money? Never anything but."
"No," Luke said. "About marrying. What about the woman in question?"
Lando looked puzzled. "How do you mean, what about her?"
"Well, you can't just walk up to a woman and say, `Hello, I heard about your large bank account, let's get married." Why should she want to marry you? And what about love, and romance, and commitment, and children and so on? She'll want to know where you stand on all that sort of thing." laando seemed a bit taken aback. Perhaps it had never entered his head that there was a woman alive who wouldn't want to marry him. "You've got some good points there," he said, in the tone of voice of a man tripped up by an unexpected question. "I must admit that I haven't thought them all through. But don't you forget that marriages are more than just love and flowers. They're business relationships, even political relationships.
"Besides, even if you leave romance out of it, I really am not at all a bad catch." He made a wide sweeping gesture with one hand. "I have this place-not just the house, but Dometown-providing me with a nice little income. I won't need my wife's money to live on. I'd just use it to invest. I could take money that's just lying around and make it work, make it grow. I have a lot of experience in managing large projects and dealing with people, I have a pretty fair war record, and let's face it, I do have some connections with the powers-that-be on Coruscant."
"And bringing me along would remind them of all that," Luke said.
"Absolutely," Lando said, completely unabashed.
"You'd make a great sales tool even if you never said a single word."
"I see. Well, who's on your list?" Luke asked, no longer even trying to repress a smile.
"Quite a number of people," Lando said, his voice earnest and thoughtful, like a salesman who wanted to be sure you knew just how impressive his stock was. "I've been working the data banks hard, of cour'se, doing all sorts of searches. But not everything gets into the computers. In fact, most things don't. So I've been working the rumor mills, reading off-planet news, talking to ship captains, that sort of thing."
"All the things you do when you're looking for a business opportunity," Luke said.
But Lando missed the joke. "Exactly," he said. "I've been doing it all. And I've come up with about two hundred and fifty candidates." "Two hundred and fifty!" Luke half shouted.
"That's right,', Lando said. He pulled a portable data reader out of the pocket of his blouse. "I've got `em all right here."
"Lando, I can't go around with you to visit two hundred and fifty women!" Even as he said the words Luke knew he was trapped. Lando, galaxy-class salesman and con man, had pulled him in. Luke had just let Lando know there was some lower number of women that Luke was willing to go and see. Luke hadn't really wanted to agree, but it was already too late. Now it was merely a question of haggling over the price, the number of women Luke would be willing to visit.
"Oh, I don't expect that much of you," Lando went on in the same earnest, slightly anxious tone. "For that matter, I certainly don't plan to visit anywhere near that many myself. I've ranked the list, and I sincerely hope I don't have to go past the five or ten most desirable candidates."
"Five or ten most desirable, eh?"
"That's right. Of course, when I find what I'm after, I'll stop looking. Maybe we'll-I'll-get lucky at the first stop."
Luke reached for his drink. "So who's that first stop?" he asked, making ready to take a sip. "Who's your numberone prospect?"
"A young lady by the name of Tendra Risant. Ever heard of her?"
"No," Luke said. "Any particular reason that I should have?"
"Not really. She's a minor functionary on Sacorria, one of the Outlier worlds in the Corellian Sector. She's not the richest on my list, but she's wealthy enough, and her family is the real draw. They have strong contacts throughout the Corellian Sector. And those connections could be worth a lot more than cash to the right sort of fellow."
"To a fellow sort of like you?" Luke asked.
Lando smiled wolfishly. "A fellow sort of like me," he agreed.
"Who else?" Luke asked.
"Let's see," he said, consulting the data reader.
"There's Condren Foreck on Azbrian. She's a little on the young side, but her father's getting on in years.
"What's that got to do with it?" Luke asked.
"Come on, Luke, think it through. If I'm going to marry an heiress for the money, I've got to consider how long it will take me to collect." He took a moment to read over the notes on the data reader again. "Still," he said thoughtfully, "her father has quite a stack of the stuff. It'd be worth waiting for, and besides, she gets a pretty fair income off the trust funds in the meantime. Not a bad prospect at all.
Hmmm. I assume she's healthy enough. It says here she's a famoust athlete on her world. Of course, that could just be Daddy buying her way to the trophies. You never know."
Luke did not pretend to follow the last portion of what Lando had said. Maybe Lando wanted a wife that would die early and leave him in sole possession of the proceeds.
O
r else maybe he wanted a young healthy wife who was likely to outlive her father in the long run and keep the trust funds coming in the meantime.
"All right," he said. "Who's next on your list?"
"Actually, the first one I plan to visit," Lando said.
"Sort of a long shot, but she's on the way to the Corellian Sector, and that's where I want to end up, so I can attend the last half of the trade summit and see what deals are being made."
"So who is your choice number three?"
Lando looked at his notes again. "Karia Ver Seryan,' he said. "Lives on the planet Leria Kerlsil. Getting on toward middle years, or perhaps a bit past. Widow of one Chantu Solka rather sharp fellow I knew pretty well in the old days. He was a ship broker who made his money knowing which side to het on in the war against the Empire-and kept his money by knowing when to change his bets. She married him about eight years ago and he died about five years ago. Left everything to his wife. She sold the business. I don't have much information on her, but according to my accounts, she doesn't seem to do much now that she has her money. I guess she's better at spending the money than earning it.,' It didn't take much for Luke to develop a mental image of Karia Ver Seryan that was, to put it mildly, not alluring.
Star Wars - Ambush At Corellia Page 11
