[Legacy Of The Force] - 01(27)

With the correct few orders, the correct few maneuvers, he could prevent a war. The galaxy might not reexperience the sort of horrors it had within living memory-the agony of worlds being besieged, families torn apart, homes and histories erased.

He could prevent it. He had to succeed.

Had to.

CORONET, CORELLIA

The diminutive woman was dressed in the flowing gowns and profanely costly jewelry strands of a noblewoman of the Hapes Consortium; a semi-transparent veil concealed the lower half of her face. Her bodyguard stood in contrast to her in every way possible: tall, primitive, and brutal of appearance, he wore the dusty robes and carried the crude blaster rifle of one of the Tusken Raiders, the Sand People of rural Tatooine. His features were concealed behind the dust-storm-resistant mask that such beings usually wore in their own environment.

Five World Prime Minister Aidel Saxan watched the two of them enter the hotel suite’s outer chamber. Saxan, a handsome, black-haired woman of middle years, wielded considerable political power, but in the company she was about to receive she did not feel at a political advantage. She was, as such things could be measured, the peer of her guests, and it was in recognition of that comparative equality she had agreed to meet them here, in this relatively ill-protected hotel away from the prying eyes of others.

When, years after the end of the Yuuzhan Vong war, the Galactic Alliance had decided to reward the Corellian system with removal of the appointed governor-general position, Corellian-born politicians had been swept into the new offices created by the change. Each of the five worlds had elected its own Chief of State, and together they had created the office of the Five World Prime Minister, charged with coordinating budgets, resources, and policies of the five worlds, as well as representing the system in negotiations with other multiplanetary bodies. Aidel Saxan was the first and, so far, only person to occupy that post.

Saxan waited until the outer and inner doors had shut behind her two visitors, then rose from the spindly decorative chair that served temporarily as her seat of power. She offered her visitors a nod. “Welcome to Coronet,” she said.

“Thank you,” the woman replied. “Before we continue-the chamber has been searched for recording devices?”

Saxan looked back over her shoulder at the CorSec officer. He stepped out of the shadows in a curtained corner of the chamber. “Thoroughly,” he said. “And there were some. Of considerable vintage. The sort a hotel security office might plant for purposes of blackmail or peacekeeping. I removed them.”

“Thank you,” the female visitor said. She reached up to unhook one side of her veil, letting it drop away from her face-the face of Leia Organa Solo.

To his credit, the CorSec officer made no noise of surprise or recognition. He simply returned to his shadowy nook.

The presumed Tusken Raider, less graceful or delicate of motion than his companion, pulled the sand-mask from his face and tossed back his hood, revealing the craggy, somewhat flushed features of Han Solo. “Yes, thank you, Your, uh-“

“Excellency,” Leia supplied.

“Right, Excellency.”

“For one of Corellia’s most celebrated heroes, of course, an audience is in order at any time … in any place. Though I’ll admit that your requests for secrecy are unusual. Please, come with me.” Saxan led her visitors into an adjacent chamber, a windowless dining room by the look of it-but the dining table, a massive thing topped with black stone inlaid with gold wire, had been rolled against the shimmering blue wall, leaving behind only well-padded chairs arranged in two semicircles. Saxan sat in the central chair of one semicircle, with her CorSec man taking up position behind her; Han Solo took the seat opposite her, with Leia sitting to his right.

Interesting, Saxan thought. So this is to he Han Solo’s speech, or request.

“I’ll get right to the point,” Han said. His features were returning to their normal color; out from under the Tusken Raider mask, he had to be cooling down. “I believe that the Galactic Alliance is going to take military action against Corellia within the week, maybe within the day.”

“Why would they?” Saxan asked, keeping her voice controlled, impersonal. “Negotiations between us and Coruscant are still cordial. Still in developing stages.”

Han shrugged. “I don’t know why. Just that they are. There are political, financial, military movements going on that all point to action here, and soon.”

Saxan considered. Could the Galactic Alliance have finally uncovered the Kiris shipyards? It seemed unlikely. She had been Prime Minister a full year before her budget auditors discovered that the secret appropriations authorized by Thrackan Sal-Solo and his political allies were being used to build a secret assault fleet. Her auditors had had direct access to the Corellian budgetary records; the GA investigators, impeded by Corellia’s formidable counterintelligence service, should not have been able to uncover the same facts.