[Legacy Of The Force] - 03(99)

“It’s okay, guys-you get to lock her up.” Han motioned for them to take her away. “And use the stun cuffs.”

“After you see to her nose,” Leia added. “We don’t want her choking to death on her own blood.”

Han looked down at the furrows charred across his wounded palm. “Speak for yourself.”

“Han!”

Han shrugged. “You’re the one who’s always telling me to be honest about my feelings.” He waited until the Noghri had taken Morwan away, then asked, “You’re not serious about that message, are you?”

“I am-and we need to do it now.” Leia nodded at the tactical display, which showed Tenei Ka’s formations starting to fall back in preparation for a ship-to-ship free-for-all. “Open a channel.”

Han studied his display, trying to see what Leia was talking about. Unfortunately, he was distracted by an irregular pattern of flickering and blinking.

“Blasted woman!” he said. “She hit something in the control pane!.”

“Which is all the more reason to send the message now, Han,” Leia said. “Tenel Ka can’t let this battle degenerate into a ship melee, or the Alliance won’t be able to spring its trap.”

“Trap?”

Something popped in the control pane!, and smoke began to pour out of a hole in front of the copilot’s station. Han cursed and, ignoring all the blood Morwan’s broken nose had sprayed everywhere, slipped into the copilot’s seat. The tactical display there was no better than the one at the navigator’s station, but he could see clearly enough to tell it did not show any Alliance fleets. “I don’t see a trap.”

Leia fell silent for a time, then said, “Listen, Han, if you can’t do this, just say so.”

Now Han was growing really confused. “Do what?”

“It’s okay,” Leia said. “I’ll understand.”

“Good,” Han answered. “That makes one of us.” Leia dropped her chin and glanced over, giving him one of her patented I-know-you’relying looks. “Leia, what are you talking about?”

“Once you send the message, we both know our names will be Hutt slime in Corellia,” Leia said. “Gejjen will know we were working against them here, and you’ll be branded a traitor.”

Leia’s words hit Han hard, up near the heart, and he realized she was right. If they helped Tenel Ka now, it could only be in the open, and the Coretlian High Command-Wedge, Gejjen, all of them-would know he had chosen Hapes over his homeworld.

But how could Han not choose Tenel Ka? Corellia was in the wrong here, trying to assassinate a sovereign leader and expand the war just to win a more favorable negotiating position-trying to plunge sixty-three worlds into a civil war that would make the Corellian conflict with the Alliance look like a spitball fight.

“Leia, my reputation doesn’t matter,” he said. “My conscience does.”

Leia smiled in relief. “I’m so glad,” she said. “That’s what I thought, but I didn’t want to make the decision for you.”

“Great, I appreciate that,” Han said. “But I still don’t have any idea what you’re talking about.”

“I told you I had a feeling,” Leia said. “And then you made a grab for Morwan’s blaster.”

Han frowned, remembering that Leia had said something about a feeling. “Oh, that kind of feeling. Why didn’t you tell me that’s what you meant?”

Leia rolled her eyes. “What could I say? Trust me?”

“I guess not,” Han admitted. He felt a little foolish for missing the hint, but he couldn’t be expected to read Leia’s mind all the time-after all, he wasn’t the Jedi. “But look, I can’t just open a channel to Tenel Ka and say, Hang tight, kid-the Solos are on their way. What kind of trap did you sense?”

Leia shook her head. “I don’t know exactly. Back at the comet, I sensed someone watching us.”

Han remembered Leia’s distant expression, when he thought she was trying to warn Tenel Ka. “A Jedi?”

Leia nodded. “I think it was Tesar, but he wasn’t sure about me and closed down pretty fast.”

Han frowned in concentration. “And since you felt Jaina watching us back at the Kirises…”

“Exactly,” Leia said. “Chances are that whoever was watching the Kiris fleet there…”

“… followed it here.”

Han switched the comm unit to the hailing channel, which they would need to use since they didn’t have the codes or frequencies for Tenel Ka’s fleet. Another streamer of smoke began to rise from the shield array panel, and when he tried to adjust the glides, the readout did not change.