“Maybe,” Han said. “Except for the beard.”
“Thank the Force for small favors,” Leia said dryly. “Anyway, that’s how I spent my day. Aside from chatting with smugglers, how did you spend yours?”
“Thinking, mostly,” he said. “I was thinking it was about time we got away for a while.”
“And a lovely thought that is,” Leia murmured. “But Gavrisom would have a fit if I tried to leave right now.”
“That might make it worthwhile all by itself,” Han said. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen Puffers throw a fit.”
Leia smiled. “I appreciate the offer, Han, I really do. But you know we can’t.”
“You give up too easily,” he reproved her casually. “I’ll bet you I could arrange something.”
Leia pulled away from the massage, tuning to frown at him. There’d been another change in his emotions just then … “And assuming I took that bet,” she asked suspiciously, “what else would you tell me you did today?”
He favored her with one of his innocent looks. “Me? Oh, nothing much. You taking the bet or not?”
“Out with it, Han,” she said, putting some intimidation into her frown. Where did you book us a flight to?”
As always, the intimidation bounced off without noticeable effect. “Nowhere important,” he said, a smile now lurking beneath all the innocence. “I just thought we could take a little jaunt out to Kanchen sector. Pakrik Major, to be exact”
Leia searched her memory. She’d heard of Kanchen sector, and vaguely remembered Pakrik Major being the sector capital. But that was about it. What’s out there that we’re interested in?” she asked.
“Absolutely nothing,” Han assured her. “Well, I mean except for an annual sector conference that a New Republic official really ought to attend. You know-diplomatic courtesy and all that.”
She sighed. “And what crisis are they going through that they need me to mediate?”
“That’s the beauty of it,” he said, grinning openly now. “There isn’t one. Everything out there’s real peaceful. We’d sit through a few boring meetings, then head off into the silence and relax.”
“You assume there’s silence somewhere nearby that we can get to.”
“There is,” Han said. “Pakrik Major’s got a twin planet, Pakrik Minor, where they’ve got nothing but farms, a few resorts, and lots of undeveloped countryside.”
This was sounding better and better. “Farms, you say?”
“Fruit and tallgrain, mostly,” Han said with a nod. “And forests and mountains and all the silence you want And no one here even has to know we’re going.”
Leia sighed. “Except Gavrisom,” she said, feeling a twinge of regret. “And he’ll never approve.”
Han’s grin turned smug. “Sure he will. Fact is, I called him this afternoon and set it all up. He loves the idea.”
She blinked. “He loves the idea?”
“Well, maybe he doesn’t love it, exactly,” Han backpedaled. “But he’s letting us go, and that’s what’s important. Right?”
“Right,” Leia said, eyeing him. “You going to drop the other glove, or not?”
Han shrugged. “He didn’t exactly say it outright,” he admitted reluctantly, “but I got the feeling he wouldn’t mind if the two of us sort of disappeared for a while.”
“Even with Thrawn on the loose?”
Han made a face. “Especially with Thrawn on the loose.”
Leia sighed, wrapping her arms around his neck. She should have guessed that there would be something like that behind it. Between the Bothan shooting controversy still clinging to Han and her own support of Lando’s unsubstantiated claim about seeing Thrawn, the two of them had become political embarrassments. No wonder Gavrisom was jumping at the chance to get them out of the public eye for a while. “I’m sorry, Han,” she apologized. “I always ask that one question too many, don’t I?”
“It’s okay, hon,” he said, squeezing her tightly. “We don’t have to let them take the shine off this, you know. It was our idea to take a vacation, no matter what they think it is.”
Leia smiled tightly. “You can’t throw me out; I quit,’” she quoted the old joke.
“Something like that,” he said. “Anyway, I talked to Chewie, and there’s no problem with keeping the kids on Kashyyyk a little longer. It’ll be some time just for the two of us.”
Leia smiled tightly into his neck. “You know, that’s almost exactly what I told myself when Gavrisom sent us to Bothawui,” she said. “You saw how well that turned out.”