[Thrawn Trilogy] - 01(58)

And without obvious warning, it was over. “I’m sorry,” he said abruptly, coming to a halt in front of Leia and taking her hand. “I’m neglecting my duties as host, aren’t I? Welcome to Nkllon.” He raised her hand, kissed it, and waved his free hand toward the lounge window. “So. What do you think of my little enterprise?”

“Impressive,” Leia said, and meant it. “How did you ever come up with the idea for this place?”

“Oh, it’s been kicking around for years,” he shrugged, pulling her gently to her feet and guiding her over to the window, his hand resting against the small of her back. Ever since she and Han had gotten married, Leia had noticed a resurgence of this kind of courtly behavior toward her from Lando-behavior that harkened back to their first meeting at Cloud City. She’d puzzled over that for a while, until she’d noticed that all the attention seemed to annoy Han.

Or, at least, it normally annoyed him. Right now, he didn’t even seem to notice.

“I found plans for something similar once in the Cloud City files, dating back to when Lord Ecclessis Figg first built the place,” Lando continued, waving a hand toward the window. The horizon rolled gently as the city walked, the motion and view reminding Leia of her handful of experiences aboard sailing ships. “Most of the metal they used came from the hot inner planet, Miser, and even with Ugnaughts doing the mining they had a devil of a time with it. Figg sketched out an idea for a rolling mining center that could stay permanently out of direct sunlight on Miser’s dark side. But nothing ever came of it.”

“It wasn’t practical,” Han said, coming up behind Leia. “Miser’s terrain was too rough for something on wheels to get across easily.”

Lando looked at him in surprise. “How do you know about that?”

Han shook his head distractedly, his eyes searching the landscape and the starry sky above it. “I spent an afternoon going through the Imperial files once, back when you were trying to talk Mon Mothma into helping fund this place. Wanted to make sure someone else hadn’t already tried it and found out it didn’t work.”

“Nice of you to go to that kind of trouble.” Lando cocked an eyebrow. “So, what’s going on?”

“We should probably wait until Luke gets here to talk about it,” Leia suggested quietly before Han could answer.

Lando glanced past Han, as if only just noticing Luke’s absence. “Where is he, anyway?”

“He wanted to catch a fast shower and change,” Han told him, shifting his attention to a small ore shuttle coming in for a landing. “Those X-wings don’t have much in the way of comfort.”

“Especially over long trips,” Lando agreed, tracing Han’s gaze with his eyes. “I’ve always thought putting a hyperdrive on something that small was a poor idea.”

“I’d better see what’s keeping him,” Han decided suddenly. “You have a comm in this room?”

“It’s over there,” Lando said, pointing toward a curved wooden bar at one end of the lounge. “Key for central; they’ll track him down for you.”

“Thanks,” Han called over his shoulder, already halfway there.

“It’s bad, isn’t it?” Lando murmured to Leia, his eyes following Han across the room.

“Bad enough,” she admitted. “There’s a chance that that Star Destroyer came here looking for me.”

For a moment, Lando was silent. “You came here for help.” It wasn’t a question.

“Yes.”

He took a deep breath. “Well … I’ll do what I can, of course.”

“Thank you,” Leia said.

“Sure,” he said. But his eyes drifted from Han to the window and the activity beyond it, his expression hardening as he did so. Perhaps he was thinking of the last time Han and Leia had come to him for help.

And what giving that help had cost him.

Lando listened to the whole story in silence, then shook his head. “No,” he said positively. “If there was a leak, it didn’t come from Nkllon.”

“How can you be sure of that?” Leia asked.

“Because there’s been no bounty offered for you,” Lando told her. “We have our fair share of shady people here, but they’re all out for profit. None of them would turn you over to the Empire just for the fun of it. Besides, why would the Imperials steal my mole miners if they were after you?”

“Harassment, maybe,” Han suggested. “I mean, why steal mole miners anyway?”

“You got me,” Lando conceded. “Maybe they’re trying to put economic pressure on one of my clients, or maybe they just want to disrupt the New Republic’s flow of raw materials generally. Anyway, that’s beside the point. The point is that they took the mole miners, and they didn’t take you.”