"We will." Luke glanced at the comm center. "We have a message," he
added, sounding surprised. He walked over and touched a control.
Han peered past Luke's shoulder. Leia wedged between them. An Imperial
officer's head and shoulders appeared on the tri-D screen narrow face, thin
curly hair. "Commander Skywalker, we need to talk, as agreed. How soon can you
join me at my office?" The screen darkened.
"Commander Thanas," murmured Luke.
"Where's his office?" Han asked.
"Probably here at the complex. Let me find out."
Leia backed out of pickup range. "Come on, Han." She didn't want even a
glimpse at another Imperial for a few minutes. This place was getting to her.
Every time she turned around, she half expected to spot a swirling black cape.
Vader was dead! Defeated! She mustn't let black memories distract her from her
life work.
Luke told the recessed wall unit, "I believe Commander Thanas left a
message--"
Silence. Then, "Yes, that would be fine. I'll be there in about an hour."
He strolled back toward the lounge pit.
"Well?" asked Leia.
Luke clasped his hands behind his back. "We have Ssi-ruuvi ships in our
backyard again. Thanas says it looks like a blockade, just out of the defense
net's easy-kill zone. Approximately the orbital distance of Bakura's second
moon. I, uh, also have an invitation to the Imperial garrison."
"Alone?" Leia exclaimed.
Luke nodded.
"Don't do it," said Han. "Make him meet you someplace neutral."
Luke shrugged. "Bakura isn't neutral. He's probably got better facilities
up there for discussing tactics than we could find in the Bakur complex."
"Then take Chewie with you. This Thanas could arrest you just for being a
Jedi. Never mind frying the Emperor."
"But I didn't--"
"They still don't believe the Emperor's dead," Leia interrupted. "But
take Chewie anyway. Even disarmed, he's formidable."
Han fingered his blaster scope. "How fast could you call in some backup?"
"I've got a comlink. I could get an X-wing squadron off the Flurry in
orbit in... oh, an hour."
"That could be too late," Leia insisted. The Wookiee roared agreement at
both of them.
"I think I should stay here," Threepio suggested helpfully.
"Han--Leia--Chewie--I can take care of myself." Luke flopped onto a
corner lounge, scattering small blue cushions. "The more we act as if we trust
them, the more they'll go along with us. Leia made a lot of progress with the
senate just now."
"Not enough." Leia pursed her lips. "An honest exchange is our only hope
for a lasting treaty, one that could bring about the defection of many
disillusioned Imperials."
"Go ahead." Han swept out one arm. "Tell me you feel good about working
with these people, both of you. But look me in the eye when you say it."
"Well..." Leia glanced down at Luke for support. He raised one eyebrow.
"No," she admitted.
"Mm, no," Luke answered. "I don't feel good. Alert."
"Right," said Leia. "And feeling uneasy can't interfere with our
negotiations. We must make a start somewhere. We make it at Bakura."
Luke cleared his throat. "I'd rather take Artoo anyway."
From a corner where he stood, ignored, Artoo bee-dooped a query.
"For information sharing."
"Oh," Leia said. If Luke had come up with a plan, there'd be no changing
his mind. "Tell me about the senators. What did you feel from them?" She sat
down beside Luke and folded her legs up onto the lounge. Its repulsor field
felt like unseen liquid holding them off the surface.
"They were hostile," said Luke. ""Who are you, and what are you doing
here, and what business is it of yours?"'--at first. But that old fellow
Belden was glad to see us. And there were others. Others..." He glanced toward
Han, who had walked to the corner between windows. "Leia's story opened them
up. It made the first real change in their attitudes."
"I'm so glad," called Threepio from his protocol post by the door. "I
would prefer to return to our own people as soon as possible." Artoo burbled
"There, you see?" Leia stared at Han, willing him to turn around and give
her some sign that he'd approved of her presentation. An invisible wall had
dropped between them the moment that Alderaanian singled her out. "It has to
be hard," she conceded, "after years of operating covertly, to be this open."
He finally swung around, thumbs hooked in his belt. "It's like showing
your sabacc hand too early in the game. The cards can change faces on you. I
don't like it. I don't like these people. I especially don't like Nereus."
Leia nodded firmly. "He's a perfectly normal Imperial bureaucrat. But
Luke, what else did you sense? Their reaction to you..."
He frowned. "About what you'd expect, since they hadn't been warned. Why?
"
She searched her feelings for the right ^ws.
Luke found them first. "You've got Vader on your mind again, haven't you?
"
Stung, she pointed a finger at him. "I want nothing to do with anything
that came from Vader."
"I came from Vader, Leia--"
She clenched both fists at her sides. "Then leave me alone."
He shut his mouth without finishing the sentence she'd dreaded And so
did you. He could've said it, but he never chose to wound her with ^ws.
Already she regretted her outburst. It wasn't like her to lose her temper so
quickly.
"Hey," cried Han. "Lighten up, Princess. He's only trying to help."
"What do you expect from me?" She jumped up and paced past him. "To take
it calmly? To announce it to Mon Mothma?"
"Not again," muttered Han.
Leia planted her fists on her hips. Either she loved that man, or she was
going to murder him.
"Again?" murmured Luke.
"Look," said Han. "Nobody's going to tell your secret. Not even Luke.
Right, Luke?"
"We agreed." Luke shrugged. "For a while, at least, no one but us finds
out that you're related to anyone." He stretched out a hand.
Leia clasped it. Unexpectedly, Han pushed in and closed his hand around
both of theirs.
There was a roar behind her. A huge hairy paw landed on her shoulder as
Chewie continued to whuffle and shout. "What'd he say?" she asked Han.
Chewie's other paw landed on Han's head.
"That we're his Honor Family." Han tried to duck. Black-tipped forearm
fur trailed into his face. "That's the basic unit of Wookiee society. It's the
best pledge of loyalty you'll get, Leia."
No nicknames this time, no teasing, just Leia.
That was the best pledge of loyalty she'd get from Han. "All right," she
said quietly. "We have work to do. Let's use every moment until Luke has to
leave or they call us back for another session."
Chewbacca growled. Luke dropped her hand and walked toward the comm
center.
"Right." Han disentangled himself from his copilot. "We've also got to
check on repairs. Our group has set up a t emporary pit over at the spaceport.
Pad Twelve. That's Chewie's."
&nb
sp; "Ah." Luke was already punching keys. "There, I found our new data files.
Artoo, run a check. See what you didn't already get from the drone ship."
Artoo whistled cheerily.
"Keep your eyes open, kid," said Han.
"And be careful!" Threepio exclaimed.
An Alliance shuttle picked Luke up at the Bakur complex's roof port. With
Artoo loaded in its rear compartment, Luke watched the city sweep past,
perched in its concentric circles on that incredible white rock vein.
He feared that his own nervous state had set Leia off, but he hadn't
dared tell her or Han anything yet. He alone knew how desperately the enteched
humans suffered, and therefore the danger they all faced if Bakura fell. And
if that happened, Bakura's resources (and population) would help the aliens
take another world, where they'd charge up more battle droids to take another,
and another, in a chain reaction that could spread clear to the Core worlds.
Perhaps they intended to wipe out all humanity--or maintain prison worlds
as breeding populations. It wouldn't surprise him if they had other kinds of
droids that ran on human energy as well. He, Thanas, and even Nereus couldn't
even be sure they faced the entire Ssi-ruuvi fleet.
In the light of this crisis, he'd had no business being distracted by
Senator Gaeriel Captison.
Yet those sensations he'd felt, as her presence responded to his probe,
made him tingle in memory. The sensations, that is, before her sudden
reversal. He'd never felt so strong and sudden a change from attraction to
disgust. Now he had to speak with her. If she opposed Jedi so vehemently, she
could ruin Leia's chances for treaty talks. He'd rather have her honest
opposition than be ignored. At first, anyway.
Sooner than Luke felt ready, his shuttle landed at the edge of the dark,
artificial surface they'd picked out as the garrison. The nervous Alliance
pilot helped Luke unload Artoo and then sped away north toward the spaceport.
Luke stared up at the garrison's perimeter. Above and behind a fence that
crackled with high voltage, stormtroopers paced catwalks between enormous
observation towers. A shimmering, sparking force field blocked the opening
between gatehouse towers. Patrol droids converged on him from three
directions.
This was the Empire, all right. Luke strode boldly toward the gate. "Come
on, Artoo."
A pair of black-helmeted naval troopers stepped out from behind one
gatehouse. The force field snapped off. "Commander Skywalker?" asked one
trooper, hand on his blaster.
I am peace. Luke pressed his palms together in front of his chest. "I'm
here to speak with Commander Thanas."
"And the droid?"
"Information repository."
The trooper laughed shortly. "Espionage."
"I'll probably give Commander Thanas more information than I take away."
"Wait here." The trooper vanished into his gatehouse.
Luke stared through the fence. An AT-ST scout walker plodded past,
looking like a huge gray metal head on legs. The main garrison loomed across a
wide open area. "Standard" it might be, but from up close it looked suitably
huge. Luke guessed it at eight stories tall. Turbolaser turrets gleamed on
each upper level like guardians of a giant's castle. From this angle, he
spotted two vast launch chutes aimed at the sky. He could only guess how many
TIE fighters might be racked inside. He wouldn't've dared to go near this
place with a squadron of X-wings. Alone, he was safer. He hoped.
The trooper reemerged with a restraining-bolt Owner and a repulsor disk
with twin side struts. "The droid will come in on the disk," he said, "shut
down. You may carry your personal Owner, but unauthorized reactivation will be
construed as hostile."
Artoo beeped nervously.
"It's all right," Luke said. "Don't worry." He let the trooper deactivate
Artoo's main power converter. Once they strapped the silenced droid to the
repulsor disk, Luke checked the clasps to make sure his metallic friend
wouldn't fall off. He touched his Owner, which dangled beside his lightsaber.
It too reminded him of his dream back at Endor.
He'd never liked restraining bolts anyway. Governor Nereus's personnel
probably had Owners, too, that would let them command Artoo and Threepio
despite the droids' prior programming.
"Follow me," the trooper said. He led to an open skiff. Luke took a
middle seat and hooked the repulsor disk's tow cable over one side. They sped
over the base. The surface that had looked so dark on approach now seemed to
be plain, dark gray permacrete. But count on Imperial bureaucracy to cover up
anything natural.
The shuttle passed through huge blast doors between a pair of monstrous
guard towers, and into a vehicle bay permeated with the familiar military
odors of fuels and machinery.
At a speeder bike deck swarming with maintenance techs, the troopers
parked their skiff. Luke felt curiosity prickle at him from all sides. Sorry,
I'm not a prisoner. Not yet. As he disentangled Artoo, the curious became
hostile. He lifted a finger and spun a line of the Force. Something toppled
from one side of the speeder bike deck.
Techs dashed toward the noise. Ignored, Luke passed through, following
the trooper who steered Artoo's repulsor disk. They passed down a narrow
corridor with bare walls that sloped toward a narrower ceiling, then into a
high-speed turbolift. Luke's stomach dropped as the turbolift rose.
He stepped off on another level at the end of a long straight hallway.
Almost everything was gray--walls, floor, ceiling, furniture, faces--s he
noticed the contrasts quickly. An officer in black hustled across from one
door to another. Stormtroopers stood at every doorway, white-armored
guardians. Luke strode past them, eyes forward but Jedi senses on 360-457ree
alert and one hand near his lightsaber.
In a circular reception area, Luke spotted a man approaching up the far
hallway. His erect posture and measured stride gave him away. Narrow face and
thin, curly hair confirmed Luke's guess. Luke walked to meet him. "Commander
Thanas."
"Commander Skywalker." Thanas peered down an aquiline nose. "This way,
please." He turned on one heel and sauntered back the way he had come. Tall
and pike thin, he exuded an unthreatened self-assurance that warned Luke
Imperial eyes surrounded them--z if he'd needed warning. Counting weapons
visible in the corridor, Luke steered the repulsor disk after Thanas.
At the far end of the hallway, Thanas stepped into an office. Luke
followed. Simply furnished except for a curious flooring like deep tangled
moss, it looked like a place where business, not pleasure, was conducted. Even
the clean-lined gray walls were bare of mementos, as if Thanas had no past.
His plain rectangular desk had only one inset key panel that Luke could see.
"Sit down." Thanas waved at a repulsor chair. Leaving Artoo shut down,
Luke took the seat. Thanas gestured toward a servo unit. "Something to drink?
The local liqueur is astonishingly good."
Luke hesitated. Even if it weren't drugged, it might be stro
ng enough to
muddy his head. Anyway, it just didn't sound good. "Thank you, no."
Thanas sat without pouring for himself. He folded his hands over bent
elbows. "I will confess, Skywalker, I didn't expect you to come. I expected
you to ask to meet me somewhere else."
Luke shrugged. "This seemed practical." He reached out for Thanas's
sense. Watchful with a twinge of admiration, suspicious but free of deception
trustworthy for now, with tangible goodness underlying.
"True." Thanas touched a panel on his desk. Retracted projection antennae
glided up through the desktop. Above them appeared a large blue-green globe.
"Shall we observe the battle you so boldly interrupted?"
"That would be excellent. May I?" Luke gestured toward Artoo with the
restraining-bolt Owner.
"By all means."
Luke switched the little droid back on. Artoo's dome spun once, then came
to rest with the blue photoreceptor facing Thanas's hologram.
The battle had begun with a sweeping attack launched by the entire Ssi-
ruuvi line. It was, as Luke had guessed, a final push against weakened
adversaries toward planetary invasion. His forces had arrived barely in time.
"May I see that again?" Luke asked as blue Imperial pips regrouped for a
counterattack.
Thanas shrugged and reran a few seconds of holo.
"Is that a standard maneuver?" Luke asked.
Thanas tapped fingers together. "Forgive me if I decline to answer."
Luke nodded and mentally filed the maneuver under Top Security.
"Tell me," Thanas said, "are my forces' scanners in error, or did one of
your pilots bring a space freighter into the battle?"
Luke barely smiled. What Thanas didn't know about the Falcon, Luke wasn't
telling. "You must remember that much of the Alliance's support is from the
edge of legality."
"Smugglers?"
Luke shrugged.
"Probably modified beyond all legal standards."
"Stolen Imperial equipment is at a premium."
"Only after I asked did I realize the implications of your flagship
having holonet capability."
Enough on that subject. "Are you aware of what's at stake here?" Luke
told him most of what he'd concluded about the Ssi-ruuk's intentions. "Why did
the Emperor contact them?"
Thanas scratched his neck, trying to look casual, but the stress lines
around his eyes darkened. "If I kn ew, I would not be at liberty to tell you."