[Black Fleet Crisis(22)

“I know, ” Luke said. “Will you come see me, alone? “

“Uh-all right. Where are you? Are you really on Coruscant, like Leia says? “

Luke did not answer directly. “Take your speeder due west from Imperial City. When you reach the coast, turn off your nav system and release the controls. I’ll bring you here. “

“Well-okay. That’s easy enough. But it’ll have to be later, ” Han said apologetically. “Tonight. Somebody’s got to watch the kids. “

“Of course, I’ll see you tonight. “

“Wait, ” Han said quickly, before Luke could break the link. “Is this supposed to be a secret? Can I tell Leia where I’m going? “

“If you need to. I don’t want you to lie to her. “

“You sure you don’t want to just call her yourself, talk to her? “

“I’m sure, Luke said. “Tell her what you need to. But please come alone. “

The shore of the western sea had been a glittering playground, a gay andGlorious world that never slept, before the clone Emperor’s Force storm had ravaged Coruscant. It had yet to fully recover. Only the lights of a few scattered resorts marked the broken lines of the coast as Han’s speeder flashed overhead and bored into the dark sky over the western sea.

Han waited several long seconds, until he realized he couldn’t say what exactly he was waiting for. “Okay, Luke. Hope you’re listening, wherever you are. I really don’t want to go swimming tonight. “

Leaning forward, Han reached out and switched off the nav system, a process that took three confirmations and two overrides. A third of the speeder’s cockpit controls went dark, while a bright orange legend across the bottom of the viewshield warned FLIGHT MODE.

“Here goes nothing, ” Han said with a sigh, sitting back and crossing his arms over his chest.

Almost immediately the speeder veered sharply right and dived toward the water. It was all Han could do to stop himself from grabbing the controls again.

But the speeder soon leveled off, though at an alarmingly low altitude.

The moon was still well below the horizon, but Han could see the undulating surface of the sea by the pale phosphorescent light of millions of tiny creatures riding the swells and currents. The sight was eerie and marvelous, but it was also barely an arm’s length below the flat underside of the speeder, and racing by at a dizzying clip.

“Hey, Luke-you out there? ” Han said, slouching as much as the speeder’s seat and his long legs would allow. “Is this gonna be a long flight? Do I have time for a nap? Hey, pal, you can start food service any time. “

There was no response.

“Lousy spacelines, ” Han muttered, closing his eyes. “They’re all smiles till they have your money and herd you on board. Then see if you can get a glass of water-” A long-winged sea shrike rose from the rocks to fly in formation with Han’s speeder as, slowing, it arrowed toward the beach. Wakened by the change in the pitch of the speeder’s thrusters, Han strained to make out where it might be headed.

Then a hole opened in the sky ahead, a brightly lit oval that hung above the beach like a doorway to morning. The sea shrike veered off, and the speeder coasted through the oval of light and settled on the floor of an otherwise empty high-ceilinged chamber.

Han twisted sideways in his seat to see where he had come from, just in time to watch the opening seal itself behind him.

Hello, Han, a voice said in his mind. Come up.

“Come up? ” Han said, scrambling out of-the speeder. “There’s no-” As he began his protest, the nearest wall deformed into a ladder, and an opening appeared in the ceiling above it. “Sure, ” Han said. “As if it would have been any more trouble to make stairs. “

But he reached out and clambered up the rungs all the same, taking them two at a time as a point of pride. He wasn’t happy, though, to hear his own grunts at the bottom or feel his heart racing at the top.

Han found himself standing at the bottom of a large spherical room containing no furniture or technology-at least, none that he could spot. “Now what? “

Keep coming, said the voice in his head. Walk up the wall.

“Easy for you to say, ” Han said, starting to feel annoyed.

But the opening he had climbed through had already vanished, leaving him with little choice. He started up the curving wall, and found to his surprise that wherever he stood seemed to be the bottom of the sphere.

There was no telling whether it was a trick with grav fields, some sort of Jedi legerdemain, or the room itself was turning under him. Han tried not to think about it, though his steps became cautious as he went past the halfway point up the wall-or, at least, what should have seemed like halfway up the wall.