“This view was one of the reasons Bornan and I chose this building for our headquarters.”
His mother wore her midnight-blue gown shot with silver and belted with a sash in the colors of the House of Thul. Her fingers toyed with the sash and her lips curved in a faint smile.
“Somehow I feel closer to your father just standing here.”
At the heart of the plaza, a fountain with hundreds of tiers burbled, trickled, gushed, and spouted. The spectacular display reminded him of the Dro family’s Ceremony of the Waters, a tradition from their Alderaanian heritage. For the millionth time since his father’s disappearance, Raynar found himself wishing that his whole family could be together again, and that he had remembered to enjoy those times more in the past….
“He’s in danger, you know,” Raynar said.
Without looking away from the fountain, Aryn nodded. “Tell me what you’ve learned.”
Raynar took a deep breath, then let it out slowly. “It all started with the Twi’lek leader, Nolaa Tarkona. Dad was negotiating some trade agreements with her when he disappeared.”
Her gaze still fixed on the fountain, Aryn nodded.
“Bornan was planning to meet with her at the Shumavar trade conference … but he never arrived.”
“Dad decided to disappear, but he had a good reason. Nolaa Tarkona’s interplanetary political movement, the Diversity Alliance, was supposed to bring nonhuman species together to right the wrongs of the past. Unfortunately, Nolaa decided that the only way to right those wrongs was to destroy all humans.”
“But why should she have singled out Bornan?” Aryn asked.
“An alien scavenger named Fonterrat discovered an Imperial storehouse that held a plague that could kill humans specifically. Fonterrat offered to sell the information to Nolaa Tarkona, but he refused to deal directly with her. Instead he insisted that she send a neutral party to meet with him on an ancient planet called Kuar.”
“And so Nolaa Tarkona sent Bornan?” Aryn said.
“Right. As far as we know, Dad traded a time-locked case full of credits for a navicomputer module that had the location of the plague storehouse in its memory. Just a simple exchange. Dad was supposed to deliver the navicomputer to Nolaa Tarkona at the Shumavar conference. He’d probably never have known what he was carrying—but at the last minute I guess Fonterrat confessed it to him.”
Still looking down at the bustling plaza far below, Aryn Dro Thul shook her head.
“That scavenger could have been exaggerating about the plague.”
“He wasn’t,” Raynar said. “Early in his negotiations with Nolaa Tarkona, Fonterrat gave her at least one sample. Nolaa used that sample to booby-trap his payment. At Fonterrat’s next stop, an all-human colony on Gammalin, the plague killed everyone. The colonists locked him up before the plague killed them, and Fonterrat died in a tiny jail, since no one was left alive to take care of him. If Nolaa Tarkona ever gets her hands on that plague, the entire human race will be destroyed. So, ever since he got the navicomputer from Fonterrat, Dad has been on the run, trying to keep it from her.”
Aryn’s shoulders drooped. “That sounds like your father—but why didn’t he simply destroy the module, or bring the information here to Coruscant?”
“It’s not that easy,” Raynar said. “We know that some members of the Diversity Alliance have infiltrated the New Republic government. A Bothan soldier wearing a New Republic uniform even tried to kill Lusa on Yavin 4. Maybe Dad suspected the information wouldn’t be safe if he delivered it here.”
“Yes, your father has always had good people instincts,” Aryn agreed.
“Then he probably also guessed that Nolaa Tarkona would stop at nothing to get that plague—with or without the navicomputer. When Jacen, Jaina, Tenel Ka, and I were prisoners on Ryloth, we learned that she wants to release that plague and infect every last human in the galaxy.”
“I wish I were there to help your father,” Aryn said.
“I wish I could help him too,” Raynar said, taking his mother’s hand a bit awkwardly. It felt strange at first, but he had come to realize in the past months how easy it was to lose the things and the people that you cared about. “I’m glad you came out of hiding, Mom,” he said.
Aryn Dro Thul stood tall, straightened her shoulders, and looked into Raynar’s eyes. “Sometimes we simply have to face our worst fears,” she said. “You’ve shown so much courage since your father disappeared. I’m very proud of you, you know.”
Raynar sighed. “I guess facing our fears is a part of growing up.”
His mother raised her eyebrows at him. “Maybe. Even so, it never gets any easier.”
With a contented smile, Leia Organa Solo gazed slowly around the meal table in the Solo family’s quarters of the Imperial Palace. It was still hard to believe that her husband and three children were here at home, all at the same time. She allowed herself to enjoy the moment, though it had taken a galactic crisis to bring them together.
“More nerf sausage, Master Jacen?” See-Threepio offered. “It is a particular Corellian favorite.”
“Maybe just one,” Jacen answered. Leia noted that Jacen was taller than she had remembered. It amazed her to see how the twins and Anakin changed each time they returned from their studies at the Jedi academy. After serving Jacen, the gold protocol droid turned to Jaina. She held her hands over her plate, as if to protect it from Threepio’s enthusiastic service.
“Couldn’t eat another bite,” Jaina protested.
“Over here, Goldenrod,” Han said, holding out his plate for more. “These are just like the ones Dewlanna used to make for me when I was a kid.” Anakin smiled sympathetically at his brother and sister.
“I have a feeling you’re going to need all your strength when you speak to the New Republic Senate tomorrow morning.”
“Tomorrow?” the twins asked in unison.
Leia nodded.
“I’ve scheduled a special meeting of the New Republic Senate. I’d like you and your friends there to present your findings. I think the whole galaxy needs to know what the Diversity Alliance has been planning.”
2
The New Republic Senate chambers were full to overflowing. Jaina looked uncertainly through the door into the immense, crowded room and then back at her mother.
The Chief of State shrugged.
“We had a vote coming up on several major issues, so I requested full attendance today. I haven’t seen some of those senators and delegates in months.”
Tenel Ka said, “Perhaps they heard of our intention to discuss the Diversity Alliance.”
“More than likely,” Leia admitted. “I know you all understand how much is at stake here.”
“If you want, I could loosen up the crowd with a joke.”
Jacen waggled his eyebrows. Leia turned toward him with a startled look, but Jacen held up his hands in a placating gesture.
“Hey, I was just kidding!”
Beside him, Lowie and his sister Sirra both rumbled deep in their Wookiee throats.
“Okay—bad timing, I admit,” Jacen said. “It’s just that we all seem so tight and edgy.”
“You’re right,” Jaina said, drawing a slow deep breath and letting the Force flow through her. A wave of calm clarity washed the worry from her mind. Around her, the other companions also used Jedi relaxation techniques, with varying degrees of success. Her father and Chewbacca, along with her uncle Luke, the Jedi historian Tionne, and Kur, the Twi’lek politician rescued from exile on Ryloth, had already taken their seats toward the front of the Senate chambers.
“Well then, what are we waiting for?” Jaina asked.
Much later, an hour after they had finished telling of their adventures and delivered their alarming news, it still wasn’t over. Jaina grew defensive as yet another representative stood up to take the floor. She could sense her brother’s bafflement at the response with which the Senate had greeted their announcement. Tenel Ka, as usual, was stolid and alert, probably scanning the crowd for any signs of trouble. Only Chief of State Leia Organa Solo seemed perfectly calm, as if she had expected the reactions of the senators and delegates. She looked around the room with a practiced ease, seeing everything, listening to everyone, gauging the reactions of her audience.