[Legacy Of The Force] - 02(65)

“Yeah, ours.”

Han cared about Corellia in that abstract way people did when their home-even their unhappy home-was being attacked by outsiders. He’d never thought of himself as a patriot; he simply felt Corellian to the core. But there was one thing that still drove him above all others, and that was Leia and the kids.

“Thrackan doesn’t stand a chance of taking three Jedi,” said Leia, as if she did a little telepathy on the side. “It’s you I’m worried for.”

“Jedi have been known to get killed.”

“It’s not very gracious of me, but I kind of wish Jacen had shot him after all.”

“You and me both.”

The rental agency office was crowded when Han and Leia reached it. There was a line of people, some with young children, some elderly, waiting with bags and cases of varying sizes.

“You just arrived from Coruscant, too?” said the harassed-looking woman at the main desk.

“Well-” Han didn’t get the impression that she recognized him as Public Enemy Number One. “Yeah, we just got in.”

“You’re ahead of the rush, then.” She handed him a datapad. “Register your details. We’ve only got one-bedroom apartments left. Will that be okay?”

Han glanced at Leia.

“We just want a roof over our heads,” she told the woman.

“We’re all shocked at what’s happening on Coruscant, ma’am. But you’re safe now. Who’d have thought it? Han Solo’s son, too.”

“Yeah, we’re shocked, too,” said Han, and meant it.

They signed a lease as Jay and Lora Kabadi and found themselves disguised quite by accident as just one couple in the first wave of Corellians fleeing Coruscant to avoid internment. The irony wasn’t lost on them.

“Nice timing, son,” Han muttered.

SENATE CHAMBER. CORUSCANT: EMERGENCY DEBATE ON INTERNMENT POLICY.

Jacen sat next to Niathal on the Mon Calamari delegates’ platform and listened to Corellia’s Senator Charr haranguing Chief Omas about the abuse of human rights on Coruscant and the lack of consultation with the Senate.

“We have no option but to withdraw our ambassador,” said Charr.

“Is that Coruscant or the Alliance we’re talking about?” Omas asked.

Charr hesitated. “Isn’t that one and the same, Chief of State?”

“I think the honorable representative for Corellia understands that the action I took was to ensure the safety of Coruscant citizens, which is a responsibility given to me by the Coruscanti local authority, and so does not require sanction by the Senate. So which entity do you wish to withdraw representation from?”

There was a general murmur of support but significant scoffing from some of the Outer Rim delegates. Omas stood his ground. At the moment, Corellia’s allies were a minority, but that would change unless they were given a good reason not to line up behind her.

“How do you feel about that blockade, Admiral?” Jacen asked quietly. Senatorial platforms detached from the walls of the massive chamber and hovered into the void between them for delegates to deliver impassioned but noncommittal speeches against terrorism and the need for unity.

“Are you asking if I could mount one now?”

“I’m assuming you can. Do you still favor one?”

“Yes, because that’s the most robust stance I can persuade the Senate to allow. And blockades are very flexible responses,” Niathal said.

“If it were carried out on behalf of the Alliance, that is.”

“We live in a world of blurred lines.”

The debate was remarkably subdued, all things considered. Jacen began to wonder if the backlash he had expected was actually his fear of the Jedi council’s opinion. If anything, he appeared to be … popular.

That didn’t make him comfortable. He wanted to remain aloof from anything that might sway him, and even a Jedi could enjoy being liked a little too much.

Jacen and Niathal joined Omas in the Chief of State’s cabinet room, where Senator G’Sil was already waiting. Omas didn’t look happy and sat down at the head of the lapis-inlaid table with slow deliberation.

“Well, let’s be grateful today’s events went as well as they did.”

G’Sil looked up. “Where are we housing the internees?”

“Just over half of them had Corellian passports in the end, so we’ve put them in an old barracks block for the time being,” said Niathal. “The rest were allowed to return to their homes. The question is how far we plan to go with this, because we have a lot of Corellian citizens resident here, and if we have to intern them all by force it’s going to be a labor-intensive job.”