Leia took a deep breath. She glanced over at Han and pointed at the throttles, signaling him to be ready to make a break for it, then said, “That’s clearly not true.”
There was a long pause, during which time the Falcon passed by Zvbo’s ghostly crescent and slipped into the full darkness of Qoribu’s umbra.
Finally, the Chiss asked, “Did you just call me a liar, Falcon?”
“We can see the search operation is going poorly,” Leia said. “You’ve expanded your radius to an area your flotilla couldn’t cover properly in a week, and the situation is rapidly growing worse. So please don’t insult me by telling us you have the situation under control.”
“Very well.” The officer’s voice turned icy. “Then I will simply instruct you to leave the area at once. Your assistance is not desired.”
Han made a turning motion, but Leia shook her head. She was just getting started
“Negative,” she said. “We’re continuing on to assist.”
“Now you are the one insulting me,” the officer said. “Whatever your interest is here, I doubt it is Chiss casualties. Turn back, or you will be fired upon.”
“I really doubt that,” Leia said. “If you don’t know who flies the Millennium Falcon, I’m sure your superiors do. The Chiss are not going to fire on a former New Republic Chief of State and Luke Skywalker’s twin sister-not over a few moons that aren’t even inside their own territory.”
A flurry of red cannon bolts flashed past and lit the Falcon’s canopy.
“Shouldn’t we ob-b-bey?” Juun stammered. “He s-seems very serious!”
“You’ve got a lot to learn about security patrols,” Han said. “If he had been serious, we’d be sucking vac right now.”
“I see.” Juun’s tone was one of sudden enlightenment. “You have a copy of their procedural manual!”
Han let his chin drop and shook his head.
A moment later, the officer finally grew tired of waiting for Leia’s protest. “That was your only warning. The next time, we fire for effect.”
“Just how many Jedi would you like in this system?” Leia retorted. Her threat was far more empty than the officer’s, since even if there had been enough Jedi Knights to carry it out, Luke would never use the Jedi in retaliation. “This is no longer an unauthorized operation. Master Skywalker has already taken half of our Jedi Knights and started back to the Galactic Alliance. I’m sure your superior wouldn’t want my brother’s report to the Jedi Order and Chief of State Omas to be influenced by another unfortunate incident. Wouldn’t it be better to allow us to assist, as a gesture toward continuing to resolve this thing?”
There was a short silence, then the Chiss asked, “Which Jedi Knights departed with Master Skywalker?”
Leia smiled. It was an obvious honesty test, with the Chiss asking for information their spies had probably already supplied.
“Luke and Mara took Tesar Sebatyne, Tekli, my son Jacen, and Tahiri Veila,” Leia said. “We plan to take the rest with us when we go.”
“You give your word?” the Chiss asked.
“Certainly, if your commander will give his word that the Chiss will cease their attempts to force the Colony to depart Qoribu,” Leia answered. She doubted the standoff would be resolved so easily, but it was worth a try. “In any case, we will be leaving a senior Jedi to monitor the situation.”
There was another pause, then the Chiss said, “Obviously, I lack the authority to negotiate on behalf of the Ascendancy.”
“Obviously,” Leia said.
“But the offer will be passed to the appropriate Aristocra. Until then, we are honored to accept your offer of assistance. Please proceed to the coordinates I transmit and begin a two-kilometer grid search.”
“Copy,” Leia said. “And thank you for allowing us to help.”
“My commander asks me to express his gratitude for your assistance,” the officer replied. “Out.”
The coordinates appeared on the navigation display.
“We’re not going to find anyone up there,” Juun complained. “That’s practically out of orbit!”
“Juun,” Han said. “You’re supposed to be a smuggler.”
“I am a smuggler.” A catch came to Juun’s voice. “At least I was until I lost the XR-eight-oh-eight-g.”
“Then you should know we’re not going anywhere near there.” As Han spoke, he was swinging the Falcon away from Qoribu’s dark mass onto a heading that would carry them generally toward the area they had been assigned. “We just gotta make it look good.”