“Except that we’re back to the New Republic rep knowing about me,” Leia pointed out.
“Yes, but he’ll be a Wookiee,” Lando pointed out. “If he accepts you under his personal protection, he won’t betray you. Period.”
Leia studied Han’s face. “Sounds good. So tell me why you don’t like it.”
A muscle in Han’s cheek twitched. “Kashyyyk isn’t exactly the safest place in the galaxy,” he said bluntly. “Especially for non-Wookiees. You’ll be living in trees, hundreds of meters above the ground-“
“I’ll be with Chewie,” she reminded him firmly, suppressing a shiver. She’d heard stories about Kashyyyk’s lethal ecology, too. “You’ve trusted your own life to him often enough.”
He shrugged uncomfortably. “This is different.”
“Why don’t you go with them?” Luke suggested. “Then she’ll be doubly protected.”
“Right,” Han said sourly. “I was planning to; except that Chewie thinks it’ll gain us more time if Leia and I split up. He takes her to Kashyyyk; I fly around in the Falcon, pretending she’s still with me. Somehow.”
Lando nodded. “Makes sense to me.”
Leia looked at Luke, the obvious suggestion coming to her lips … and dying there unsaid. Something in his face warned her not to ask him to come with them. “Chewie and I will be fine,” she said, squeezing Han’s hand. “Don’t worry.”
“I guess that’s settled, then,” Lando said. “You can use my ship, of course, Chewie. In fact-” he looked thoughtful “-if you want company, Han, maybe I’ll come along with you.”
Han shrugged, clearly still unhappy with the arrangement. “If you want to, sure.”
“Good,” Lando said. “We should probably fly out of Nkllon together-I’ve been planning an offworld purchasing trip for a couple of weeks now, so I’ve got an excuse to leave. Once we’re past the shieldship depot, Chewie and Leia can take my ship and no one’ll be the wiser.”
“And then Han sends some messages to Coruscant pretending Leia’s aboard?” Luke asked.
Lando smiled slyly. “Actually, I think we can do a little bit better than that. You still have Threepio with you?”
“He’s helping Artoo run a damage check on the Falcon,” Leia told him. “Why?”
“You’ll see,” Lando said, getting to his feet. “This’ll take a little time, but I think it’ll be worth it. Come on-let’s go talk to my chief programmer.”
The chief programmer was a little man with dreamy blue eyes, a thin swath of hair arcing like a gray rainbow from just over his eyebrows to the nape of his neck, and a shiny borg implant wrapped around the back of his head. Luke listened as Lando outlined the procedure and watched long enough to make sure it was all going smoothly. Then, quietly, he slipped out, returning to the quarters Lando’s people had assigned him.
He was still there an hour later, poring uselessly over what seemed to be an endless stream of star charts, when Leia found him.
“There you are,” she said, coming in and glancing at the charts on his display. “We were starting to wonder where you went.”
“I had some things to check on,” Luke said. “You finished already?”
“My part is,” Leia said, pulling a chair over to him and sitting down. “They’re working on tailoring the program now. After that it’ll be Threepio’s turn.”
Luke shook his head. “Seems to me the whole thing ought to be simpler than all that.”
“Oh, the basic technique is,” Leia agreed. “Apparently, the hard part is slipping it past the relevant part of Threepio’s watchdog programming without changing his personality in the process.” She looked again at the screen. “I was going to ask you if you’d be interested in coming to Kashyyyk with me,” she said, her voice trying hard to be casual. “But it looks like you’ve got somewhere else to go.”
Luke winced. “I’m not running out on you, Leia,” he insisted, wishing he could truly believe that. “Really I’m not. This is something that in the long run could mean more for you and the twins than anything I could do on Kashyyyk.”
“All right,” she said, calmly accepting the statement. “Can you at least tell me where you’re going?”
“I don’t know yet,” he confessed. “There’s someone out there I have to find, but I’m not sure yet even where to start looking.” He hesitated, suddenly aware of how strange and maybe even crazy this was going to sound. But he was going to have to tell them eventually. “He’s another Jedi.”