“Well, sure,” Han said, looking innocent. “Why just disable a ship when you can disable it and send up a distress signal at the same time?” He gazed up at the cloud. “You know,” he said thoughtfully, “sometimes I still amaze myself.”6
“I can assure you, Captain Solo,” Admiral Ackbar’s gravelly voice came over the Falcon’s speaker, “that we are doing everything in our power to find out how this happened.”
“That’s what you said four days ago,” Han reminded him, trying hard to be civil. It wasn’t easy. He’d long since gotten used to being shot at himself, but having Leia under the hammer with him was something else entirely. “Come on—there can’t be all that many people who knew we were coming to Bpfassh.”
“You might be surprised,” Ackbar said. “Between the Council members, their staffs, the prep crews at the spaceport, and various security and support personnel, there may be up to two hundred people who had direct access to your itinerary. And that doesn’t count friends and colleagues any of those two hundred might have mentioned it to. Tracking through all of them is going to take time.”
Han grimaced. “That’s great. May I ask what you suggest we do in the meantime?”
“You have your escort.”
“We had them four days ago, too,” Han countered. “It didn’t do us a lot of good. Commander Antilles and Rogue Squadron are fine in a space battle, but this kind of stuff isn’t exactly their area of expertise. We’d do better with Lieutenant Page7 and some of his commandos.”
“Unfortunately, they’re all out on assignment,” Ackbar said. “Under the circumstances, perhaps it would be best if you simply brought Councilor Organa Solo back here where she can be properly protected.”
“I’d love to,” Han said. “The question is whether she’ll be any safer on Coruscant than she is here.”
There was a long moment of silence, and Han could imagine Ackbar’s huge eyes swiveling in their sockets. “I’m not sure I appreciate the tone of that question, Captain.”
“I don’t much like it either, Admiral,” Han told him. “But face it: if the Imperials are getting information out of the Palace, they might just as easily be able to get their agents in.”
“I think that highly unlikely,” Ackbar said, and there was no missing the frostiness in his tone. “The security arrangements I’ve set up on Coruscant are quite capable of handling anything the Imperials might try.”
“I’m sure they are, Admiral.” Han sighed. “I only meant—”
“We’ll let you know when we have further information, Captain,” Ackbar said. “Until then, do whatever you feel is necessary. Coruscant out.”
The faint hum of the carrier cut off. “Right,” Han muttered under his breath. “Bpfassh out, too.”
For a minute he just sat there in the Falcon’s cockpit, thinking evil thoughts about politics in general and Ackbar in particular. In front of him the displays that normally monitored ship’s status were showing views of the landing field around them, with special emphasis on the areas just outside the hatch. The underside swivel blaster was extended and ready, the deflector shields set for hair-trigger activation, despite the fact that the things weren’t all that effective inside an atmosphere.
Han shook his head, a mixture of frustration and disgust in his mouth. Who’d ever have thought, he marveled to himself, that the day would come when I was actually paranoid?
From the rear of the cockpit came the sound of a soft footstep. Han turned, hand automatically dropping to his blaster—
“It’s just me,” Leia assured him, coming forward and glancing at the displays. She looked tired. “You finished talking with Ackbar already?”
“It wasn’t much of a conversation,” Han told her sourly. “I asked what they were doing to find out how our pals with the blasters knew we were coming here, he assured me they were doing everything possible to find out, I managed to step on his toes, and he signed off in a huff. Pretty much like usual with Ackbar these days.”
Leia gave him a wry smile. “You do have a way with people, don’t you?”
“This one’s not my fault,” Han objected. “All I did was suggest that his security people might not be up to keeping these guys out of the Imperial Palace. He’s the one who overreacted.”
“I know.” Leia nodded, dropping wearily into the copilot’s seat. “For all his military genius, Ackbar just doesn’t have the polish to be a good politician. And with Fey’lya nipping at his heels …” She shrugged uncomfortably. “He just gets more and more overprotective of his territory.”
“Yeah, well, if he’s trying to keep Fey’lya away from the military, he’s got the wrong end of the blaster,” Han growled. “Half of them are already convinced that Fey’lya’s the guy to listen to.”
“Unfortunately, he often is,” Leia conceded. “Charisma and ambition. Dangerous combination.”
Han frowned. There had been something in her voice just then … “What do you mean, dangerous?”
“Nothing,” she said, a guilty look flicking across her face. “Sorry—talking out of turn.”
“Leia, if you know something—”
“I don’t know anything,” she said, in a tone that warned him to drop it. “It’s just a feeling I have. A sense that Fey’lya has his eye on more than just Ackbar’s job as supreme commander. But it’s just a feeling.”
Like the feeling she had that the Empire was up to something big? “Okay,” he said soothingly. “I understand. So. You all done here?”
“As done as I can be,” she said, the tiredness back in her voice. “The rebuilding’s going to take some time, but the organization for that will have to be handled from Coruscant.” She leaned back in her seat and closed her eyes. “Convoys of replacement equipment, consultants and maybe extra workers—you know the sort of thing.”
“Yeah,” Han said. “And I suppose you’re anxious to get right back and start the ball rolling.”
She opened her eyes and gave him a curious look. “You sound like you’re not.”
Han gave the outside displays a thoughtful scan. “Well, it’s what everyone’s going to expect you to do,” he pointed out. “So maybe we ought to do something else.”
“Such as?”
“I don’t know. Find somewhere no one would think to look for you, I guess.”
“And then …?” she asked, her voice ominous.
Unconsciously, Han braced himself. “And then hole up there for a while.”
“You know I can’t do that,” she said, her tone just about what he’d expected. “I have commitments back on Coruscant.”
“You’ve got commitments to yourself, too,” he countered. “Not to mention to the twins.”
She glared at him. “That’s not fair.”
“Isn’t it?”
She turned away from him, an unreadable expression on her face. “I can’t be out of touch, Han,” she said quietly. “I just can’t. There’s too much happening back there for me to bury myself away.”
Han gritted his teeth. They seemed to be running over this same territory a lot lately. “Well, if all you need right now is to keep in touch, how about if we go someplace that has a diplomatic station? You’d at least be able to get official Coruscant news there.”
“And how do we make sure the local ambassador doesn’t give us away?” She shook her head. “I can’t believe I’m talking like this,” she muttered. “It’s like we’re back being the Rebellion again, not the legitimate government.”
“Who says the ambassador has to know?” Han asked. “We’ve got a diplomatic receiver on the Falcon—we can tap into the transmission on our own.”