[Black Fleet Crisis] - 02(80)

Anakin, Jaina, and Jacen showed no sign yet that the novelty of playing in and along the sea was fading.

None of them had ever seen a body of water so vast that it met the horizon, or one that was home to carnivores large enough to devour an adult in a few bites, and it made an impression on them. They allowed Han to tell them of the wreck of the starfreighter Just Cause, which lay nine hundred meters below the surface, its cargo of precious metals guarded by superstition and schools of razor-toothed narkaa. They even stood still for a visualization lesson from Leia, who asked them to imagine being creatures of the sea, looking on the land for the first time.

Then they were off to play, wading into the sea and leaving stories, lessons, and parents behind. Jacen was captivated by the idea of the narkaa and kept plunging below the surface in hopes of seeing one.

Jaina loved the warm current flowing along the beach and said that floating in it and letting it carry her along made her feel as if she were flying. And even though the water was nearly as tranquil as Lake Victory, the little waves that broke at the shore and tumbled over themselves trying to climb up the beach proved a fascination to Anakin.

The only blemish in the picture was Leia. She was present in body but not in spirit. Her mind was on matters far removed from the beach—matters Han had brought her there to forget, at least for a time. Politics and diplomacy and statecraft and war were still taking her away from all of them. And Nil Spaar’s reversal from potential ally to determined adversary was still an open wound.

“Dad?”

Han twisted his head toward Jaina, who had come up unnoticed to stand close enough to drip water on his leg. “I’m sorry, I can’t rescue your brother from the narkaa,” Han said, squinting. “I left my hero suit in the cabin.”

Jaina just ignored his gibe, as she was wont to do when intent on her own business. “Jacen and I are going to go down the beach and look for sea motes. Okay?”

“Okay,” he said. “But don’t go out of sight. If you can’t see me, I can’t see you.”

For a moment she gave him her impatient I-know - that-Dad look. But Jaina was learning not to throw away her victories, and said nothing more than a breezy “Thanks!” as she ran away to where Jacen waited.

Han’s gaze flicked to Anakin, who sat at the edge of the water carving pools and rivers with his fingers for the waves to fill, then to Leia, who had gone twenty meters up the beach with her comlink. After a moment’s hesitation, he bounced up from the sand cover and started toward her.

Leia’s conversation ended before he was halfway to where she stood, so he heard none of it. He only saw her switch the comlink off and turn as if to come back to him. But when she saw him approaching, she waited for him there instead. “I’m sorry,” she said, kissing him dutifully.

“I didn’t think that would take so long. Do you still want to go swimming?”

“You may as well tell me the news first.”

“Admiral Ackbar says the Fifth has taken up station without incident.

No sign of the Yevethan fleet.”

“Good,” said Han. “Maybe that business is over now.”

“I don’t think Nil Spaar makes empty threats. If anything, he understates them.”

“Maybe he does, maybe he doesn’t. I didn’t kidnap you away from Imperial City so you could hold strategy sessions in a bathing suit.”

“I know,” she said, taking his hand as they started to walk. “Ackbar says that Senator Tuomi raised a challenge to my credentials this morning.”

“Oh, here we go again—” “Tuomi said the refugee population of Alderaan didn’t constitute a state, and we’re only entitled to nonvoting membership and representation by a legate. And, of course, a legate can’t be president of the Senate.”

“Isn’t that old news? Wasn’t that issue settled when the Provisional Council was dissolved?”

“There are a lot of new members since then—Dran-nik is one of them.

Members who weren’t around when the Alderaan question was decided, who didn’t have any part in the decision. I guess some of them want to have their say now.”

“But can they actually do anything to you?”

“The Ministry Council could, in theory,” she said.

“But the chairman was a friend of my father’s. I don’t think he’ll let this get very far.”

Han shook his head. “I have to tell you, Leia—nothing makes my head hurt faster than trying to keep straight who’s really in charge of what around here. It seems like every time I think I’ve got the gist of it, someone comes along to rename half the offices and rearrange the rest of them.”