It was the ultimate disguise. Apart from his doctor and a few Kaminoans, nobody knew what he really looked like any longer. He might even have changed too much for Taun We to spot him. He stared into the mirror above the basin and with a few seconds’ detachment saw a man on the edge of genuine old age, hair mostly gray, face largely unlined, having been protected from sunlight for almost as long as he could remember.
Even the scars from the time he escaped the Sarlacc’s acid gut weren’t that conspicuous now. He could pass for any fit man in his early seventies.
Fierfek, in a suit I might even look like a gentleman.
And that was what he needed to be right now.
If he was going to find out where the scientists at AruMed lived, he had to look as unlike a bounty hunter as he could.
Boba Fett strode out of the refreshers and into public view without his helmet for the first time in his adult life.
Chapter Seven
Luke, you know very well that it’s about a lot more than stopping Corellia having her own deterrent. It’s tempting to reveal that little surprise in the Kiris Cluster to show people why we mean business. But for the time being we’re just going to have to sit on it and hope we can persuade Corellia to disarm before our justification shows up on Coruscant.
-Cal Omas to Luke Skywalker and Admiral Niathal, in a confidential discussion of the true scope of the Corellian threat
GALACTIC CITY PUBLIC LANDING AREA 337/B.
They nearly crash-landed. So what? It wasn’t the first time the Millennium Falcon had come close to disaster, and it wouldn’t be the last. Han tried to look nonchalant.
But it had still given him a few moments of white-knuckled terror, the kind he didn’t like Leia to see but that she could probably feel anyway. They both sat in silence on the lowered ramp of the Falcon, savoring the light breeze. Small taken-for-granted things felt precious when you’d survived by the skin of your teeth.
The Falcon stood in one of the hundreds of open-air bays that flanked the landing strip, just another aging vessel. Her hull made the occasional click as the metal cooled, and an ominous pool of coolant was growing under the drive housing. Han had put a pail under the leak to collect it, and now he could hear the fluid running over the rim of the container. The pipework around the drive had sheared at the welds.
“Well,” said Leia at last, staring into the distance. As ever, she looked as if nothing serious had happened, just a little tired and close to irritation. “That was character forming.”
“Don’t suppose you could try Force-welding as well?”
“Try Jacen. He might be able to do just about anything these days.”
“So what happened exactly?”
She shrugged. “No idea. It was like getting a Force booster pack from nowhere.”
He’s my kid and I don’t know who he is anymore. But he comes up trumps when he’s needed. So maybe I should shut my mouth. “That was handy.”
“Jacen feels like he’s very close,” said Leia. “Let’s do grateful, shall we?”
“Oh, I can manage grateful all right.”
“Good.”
Leia closed her eyes for a moment. “And Jaina’s on her way.”
My sensible girl. At least one of my kids still makes sense to me. “Who else knows we’re here? Maybe we should have Luke and Mara over, too. Throw a barbecue right here. Invite the neighbors.”
“Maybe fly a really anonymous ship until things cool down?”
“Well, this baby isn’t flying anywhere for a while.”
Han stood and walked back up the loading ramp. Okay, get another vessel and head back to Corellia. Move to a new apartment. Breach Thrackan’s security and shoot him. Then worry about another war. The coolant level on the console indicator was showing zero. He went down to the drive bay, where he could smell scorched alloy and the throat-tingling whiff of the fluid. Stang, he was tired of all this. Was it ever going to end? A year with Leia, a normal year when nothing happened, nothing went wrong, none of the kids was in danger. Was that too much to ask?
When he came out through the main starboard hatch again, Jacen was sitting on the ramp with his arm around Leia’s shoulders, forehead resting against hers. Leia looked up, just a little warning glance, but Han didn’t need to be told to show his son some appreciation. It was a reflex: he grabbed him as he stood up and hugged him so hard that he felt Jacen’s ribs through his robes.
“It’s okay, Dad,” Jacen said softly. “Don’t scare me like that again, though.”
“I was going to say the same to you.” This wasn’t the time to mention taking sides. “You okay? You look worn out.”