He wasn’t going to use Leia’s diplomatic status as a cover for his return, either. This was his home: he had a right to walk in anytime he liked. No, he wasn’t sneaking in. He was making a covert entry. It was all about discretion.
Who was he kidding? Discretion. He fumed silently and banked the Falcon a little more sharply than he planned.
“You need to learn to meditate,” said Leia.
“I don’t like the sound of the coolant systems.”
She adjusted them manually without being asked. “Time for some maintenance, then.” Han’s rough handling of the ship left Leia making silent but pointed safety adjustments that were as eloquent as a retort. “Before she blows a coolant line. Or you burst a major blood vessel.”
“That obvious, huh?”
“And Jacen’s left three messages.”
Han jerked the Falcon hard to starboard, a little too hard. The stabilizing drive groaned in complaint. “I’m not rational enough to talk to him right now.”
“Really? Never stopped you before.”
“Okay, maybe I’ll relax by asking Zekk what his intentions are towards Jaina.”
“That would help matters a lot …”
“I liked Kyp better. Whatever happened there?” Han asked. “And what about Jag?”
“I shot him down. You know perfectly well I did.”
“Oh, yeah. I do recall. And I intimidate her boyfriends, do I?”
“You’d already shot down Jag long before I ever took a laser cannon to him, honey. I’ve got a list of intimidated ex-boyfriends somewhere. There’s just Zekk left to put through the grinder and then you’ve got the whole set.”
Han wanted to let Leia prod him into a better mood with some well-aimed sarcasm, but for once it wasn’t working. Things had always been so clear before. He always knew who the enemies were, and they were good plain ones worth shooting: the Empire, the Yuuzhan Vong, and any number of aliens whose purpose and intent was obvious-to threaten him and all those he held dear.
Now he was in conflict with those very people he’d fought to protect-his oldest friend and his own son-and regarded as a Galactic Alliance crony by his own people. It wasn’t so easy to be a hero now, even if he knew he was right. He’d never known what it felt like to be the bad guy before.
Hey, I’m not the one who’s wrong here. It’s the Alliance.
“Sorry, sweetheart.” He hated himself when he took it out on her. “I just get mad when he won’t see history repeating itself here. Y’know, big empire making decisions for the galaxy, whether it wants it to or not?”
“Now, is that about Luke or Jacen?”
“Okay. Both.”
How could Luke not see it? Didn’t he see the warning signals? Didn’t he see how much like the old Empire the Alliance was becoming?
You got a short memory, kid.
“I’ll keep talking to Luke,” said Leia. “But you talk to Jacen, okay? I’m worried about him.”
“Will do.”
“Promise?”
“Would I argue with you, Princess?”
“Yes. You always do.”
“So … promise me this will never come between us.”
Leia laid her hand on his as he grasped the steering yoke, and squeezed harder than he thought she ever could. It almost hurt. “We’ve come through a lot worse than this.”
“That’s true.”
“It’s just a few more gray hairs.” She grinned again. “And I like you better with gray hair, actually.”
That was all he needed. She always put the galaxy back together for him. She was solid and certain, and she was usually right. He sometimes wondered what his life would be like today if he hadn’t met her-if he hadn’t met Luke. A space bum, and an old, tired one at that. Leia had given him a sense of purpose beyond himself and the energy that went with it.
She’d also given him three kids who were his heart and soul, and he had no intention of seeing his only surviving son sucked further into the Alliance’s drive for galactic control.
Han took the Falcon on a high approach path over Coronet, looking down the green patchwork of parks, public gardens, and farmland beyond that made it so very different from the Coruscant landscape. He set the ship down on the civic landing strip, merging among a variety of vessels of all sizes and states of repair, and shut down the drives.
“Okay, time to be ordinary,” he said.
They split up to walk the distance to the apartment they’d secretly rented a few days earlier, just two middle-aged people who weren’t together and who were merely faces in the city crowd. No hidden passages or disguises were needed. It was all about looking casual: ordinary clothes, ordinary apartment, ordinary people just going about their business, and not the Solos in the middle of a war at all. They walked along the tree-lined street, idly glancing at shops like everyone else. Han stayed twenty meters behind Leia. She could sense where he was but he needed to keep his eyes on her, even though she was well able to look after herself if she was spotted by the wrong people.