[Legacy Of The Force] - 04(69)
“Of course.” The smile returned. “My crew will be there soon. K’roylan out.”
CORELLIAN EXCLUSION ZONE
ERRANT VENTURE
Leia and Luke embraced for a long moment, uncaring that they were surrounded by observers-those observers were family and friends. And though the private conference room Booster had set aside for his secret guests wasn’t exactly as cozy as the vessel’s more sumptuous suites, its shortcomings of comfort did not matter.
Luke drew away from his sister and followed Mara’s lead in shaking hands or offering embraces all around: Han, Lando, Wedge, Corran, Mirax. “It’s good to see you,” he said. The words were simple, but they came from his heart. It startled him to feel this level of relief at seeing people in person when he already knew they were alive and well-but, he supposed, the heart did not always believe what the mind knew to be true.
“Us, too,” Han said, and it was apparent that the distance that had developed between the two men, back when it became clear that Han supported Corellian independence while Luke remained loyal to the Alliance, had finally closed. “Though we’re kind of surprised to see you here.”
“We were in the neighborhood,” Mara said. “Not a joke. We’re in the Corellian system to see if we can pin Jacen down, get a few answers from him. Ben is missing.” Leia did not miss the little flash of pain visible in Mara’s face, detectable through the Force. “We don’t think Jacen knows where he is, but he has some information that might lead us to Ben.”
“You’ve chosen a good time to visit, then,” Wedge said. “Jacen is here. Aboard Errant Venture.”
Luke gave him a dubious look. “Jacen, gambling?”
“No.” Corran shook his head, clearly annoyed. “He’s wandering around, looking things over. Maybe he’s come to the same conclusion we did-that Errant Venture is a very useful tool for gathering data. Seems a very GAG thing for him to think of. Or maybe he wants to make sure that the ship doesn’t constitute a security leak that would help the Corellians. Either way, he’s here, so those of us he knows are having to keep even more out of sight.”
“No more gambling, even in disguise, until he goes away,” Han added.
“There’s something else,” Leia said. “Something I’ve been sensing through the Force for the last few days. There’s a presence aboard ship, someone or something I Can’t identify … but it’s here. Watchful.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” Luke said. “You won’t be offended if Mara and I go to pin Jacen with some questions in a few minutes.”
Leia shook her head. “Just be careful.”
“Count on it.” Luke seemed to hesitate before continuing. “In the meantime there are some things we need to bring you up to date on.”
“Such as Alema Rar and Lumiya, Dark Lady of the Sith,” Mara said. “And we now have a little Force technique, developed by Master Cilghal, that will help us counter the way Alema meddles with memory. We’ll teach you.”
Jacen stopped a few meters from one of the tables in the Maw Casino. Like so many of the individual dens on this ship, this one was named for a particular planet or region of space and decorated accordingly. As the Maw was an area where clustered black holes surrounded a hidden region, swallowing all light, the Maw Casino was dark, its walls black. Its silvery tables were edged with dim glow rods, and there was no overhead lighting; the servers and other casino personnel wore piping, jewelry, and accoutrements that glowed. The decor made the casino an intimate one, a place where conversations could be nearly private, where trysts could be arranged or conducted with little fear of discovery.
The table Jacen stopped to watch was a microdroid, wrestling betting table. Inset into the glowing tabletop were numerous displays. Several showed combat taking place in another chamber aboard ship-combat between droids no longer than ten centimeters, droids designed and programmed by hobbyists whose chief occupation was pitting their designs against one another. Other displays showed the odds of bets being laid on the combatants. In the duel currently taking place, a droid shaped like a piranha-beetle on treads exchanged fire with one shaped like a Tatooine sandcrawler; they were separated by a few meters of artificial terrain resembling the towering forests of Kashyyyk.
But it wasn’t the droid fight that drew Jacen’s attention. It was the woman facing him from the center of the long edge of the table. He knew her face, and he’d never expected to see it again.
He circled the table so that it would not be between them and stepped up next to her.