[Thrawn Trilogy] - 01(64)

“We’ll meet you at the ship,” Han called after him, stepping over to Leia and taking her arm. “Come on-we’d better get back to the Falcon.”

She put her hand on his, smiling reassuringly up at him. “It’ll be all right, Han. Chewie and the other Wookiees will take good care of me.”

“They’d better,” Han growled, glancing to where the borg was undoing the last of the cables connecting Threepio to the console. “Let’s go, Threepio. I can hardly wait to hear what Chewie thinks of your new voice.”

“Oh, dear,” the droid murmured again. “Oh, dear.”

Leia shook her head in wonder as they headed for the door. “Do I really,” she asked, “sound like that?”





Chapter 15


Han had fully expected that they would be attacked during the long shieldship journey out from Nkllon. For once, thankfully, his hunch was wrong. The three ships reached the shieldship depot without incident and made a short hyperspace jump together to the outer fringes of the Athega system. There, Chewbacca and Leia replaced Lando aboard his yacht-style ship, the Lady Luck, and started off toward Kashyyyk. Luke waited until they were safely away before securing his X-wing back from defense posture and heading off on some mysterious errand of his own.

Leaving Han alone on the Falcon with Lando and Threepio.

“She’ll be fine,” Lando assured him, punching at the nav computer from the copilot’s seat. “She’s as safe now as she’s ever likely to be. Don’t worry.”

With an effort, Han turned from the viewport to face him. There was nothing to see out there, anyway-the Lady Luck was long gone. “You know, that’s almost exactly the same thing you said back on Boordii,” he reminded Lando sourly. “That botched dolfrimia run-remember? You said, ‘It’ll be fine; don’t worry about it.’ “

Lando chuckled. “Yes, but this time I mean it.”

“That’s nice to know. So, what do you have planned for entertainment?”

“Well, the first thing we ought to do is have Threepio send off a message to Coruscant,” Lando said. “Give the impression that Leia’s aboard to any Imperials who might be listening. After that, we could move a couple of systems over and send another message. And after that-” he threw Han a sideways glance “-I thought we might like to do a little sightseeing.”

“Sightseeing?” Han echoed suspiciously. Lando was practically glowing with innocence, a look he almost never used except when he was trying to sucker someone into something. “You mean as in flying all over the galaxy looking for replacement mole miners?”

“Han!” Lando protested, looking hurt now. “Are you suggesting I’d stoop so low as to try and con you into helping me run my business?”

“Forgive me,” Han said, trying not to sound too sarcastic. “I forgot-you’re respectable now. So what sights are we going to see?”

“Well …” Casually, Lando leaned back and laced his fingers together behind his head. “You mentioned earlier that you hadn’t been able to get in touch with Talon Karrde. I thought we might take another crack at it.”

Han frowned at him. “You serious?”

“Why not? You want cargo ships, and you want a good slicer. Karrde can supply both.”

“I don’t need a slicer anymore,” Han said. “Leia’s as safe now as she’s ever likely to be. Remember?”

“Sure-until someone leaks the news that she’s there,” Lando countered. “I don’t think the Wookiees would, but there are non-Wookiee traders flying in and out of Kashyyyk all the time. All it takes is one person spotting her, and you’ll be right back where you were when you first got here.” He cocked an eyebrow. “And Karrde might also have something on this mysterious Imperial commander who’s been running you in circles lately.”

The commander who was almost certainly also the man behind the attacks on Leia … “You know how to make contact with Karrde?”

“Not directly, but I know how to get to his people. And I thought that as long as we had Threepio and his umpteen million languages aboard anyway, we’d just go ahead and cut a new contact path.”

“That’ll take time.”

“Not as much as you might think,” Lando assured him. “Besides, a new path will cover our trail better-yours and mine both.”

Han grimaced, but Lando was right. And with Leia safely hidden away, at least for now, they could afford to play it cautious. “All right,” he said. “Assuming we don’t wind up playing tag with a Star Destroyer or two.”