“Have you ever broken anyone’s neck?”
“Well, yes. But it was before I was technically a spy …”
Across a span of days, Han and Leia put together facts, numbers, disappearances, reappearances, ship movements, personnel reassignments, things said, and things not said into a complex computer projection, carefully maintained-though scarcely understood-by C-3P0.
Fact: elements of the Galactic Alliance Second Fleet were being diverted from their missions of record. As an example, the Mon Cal heavy carrier Blue Diver was supposed to be heading out to the Tingel Arm of the galaxy on an annual fleet mission to retrace the Yuuzhan Vong’s entry route into the galaxy in order to spot any lingering manifestations of their passage. Yet when it had reprovisioned, it had not taken on the sort of provisions appropriate to a months-long solo mission.
Fact: communications between Coruscant and Corellia continued to be problematic, in a fashion suggesting that comm traffic was being heavily monitored and analyzed-but no anticipated boycotts or economic sanctions had been put in place against the increasingly independent system.
Fact: civilian experts on Corellian government, military, and economics were increasingly unavailable. None had technically disappeared; all were “on vacation,” on leave of absence, on recent intergallactic assignment. The same was not true of experts on other worlds that had united with Corellia in agitating against the GA Commenor or Fondor, for instance.
Fact: Corellian corporate properties belonging to Pefederan Lloyn, chair of the GA Finance Council, had recently been sold or traded in kind for properties in the Kuat system. In theory, because of the active role she played in GA government finances, Lloyn was not exerting any direct control over her business holdings, having assigned that control to business officers for the duration of her government service … but Han Solo put no faith in theories heavily involving the integrity of government officials.
These were only a representative sampling of the data Han and Leia found and loaded into C-3PO’s new analysis routine. But all the facts supported Han’s growing conviction that something very bad was about to happen in the planetary system where he’d grown up. His conviction wasn’t eased when C-3P0, during one of their analysis sessions in the Solos’ living chamber, said, “To all appearances, Corellia is about to experience a-a pasting, I believe the term is.”
Han snorted, an irritated noise that caused the protocol droid to lean back, away from him. “Does your newfound analytical skill give you any idea as to exactly what form this pasting is going to take?”
“Oh, no, sir. I’d have to be loaded with extensive military planning applications, not to mention extensive databases, in order to offer you a useful prediction on that matter. Which would, of course, interfere with my primary function as a protocol droid. Why, the memory demands alone would force me to remove millions of language translators and inflection interpreters. That would be disastrous. I might even become”-the volume of the droid’s voice dropped-“more aggressive.”
Leia kept her face straight. “That would be terrible. What form would this aggression take? Would you strangle security officers and kick children?”
“Oh, no, Mistress. But I might become … more sarcastic. Even verbally abusive.”
“Goldilocks, go get us some caf,” Han said.
“Yes, sir.” The droid rose. “I don’t believe any has been brewed. Would you like instant?”
“About as much as I’d like a blaster burn on my kneecap. Go ahead and brew some.” Han waited until C-3P0 was in the kitchen and the door closed behind him. He turned to his wife. “So what do we do to keep this from happening?”
Leia drew in a breath to answer, but held it for several long moments. Han stared at her curiously. He could tell that she was framing her reply, but she was so well practiced at doing so that she could normally compose a speech as she was beginning to recite it. This sort of delay was unusual for her.
“Perhaps,” she finally said, “the best thing to do would be to not interfere.” The look she turned upon him suggested that she expected him to transform into a rancor and go on a rampage.
“Not do anything,” he said.
“Han, what happens if Corellia continues doing exactly what it’s doing … and gets away with it? Suffers no consequences?”
“Corellia becomes independent again.” Han shrugged. “So?”
“And other worlds follow Corellia’s lead.”
“Again-so?”
“The Alliance will be weakened. Things will become more … untidy. More opportunities for crime. Black markets. Corruption.”