"And a good point it is, too," Luke admitted, half trying to watch the last bit of red fade away on the ch'hala tree he'd touched. The Nkllon contact with the mysterious Jedi had been like that: there for a short time, and then gone without a trace. Was C'baoth perhaps no longer fully in control of his powers? "New subject, then. What do you know about this Outbound Flight project the Old Republic put together?"
"Not much," she said, frowning with concentration. "It was supposedly an attempt to search for life outside the galaxy proper, but the whole thing was so buried in secrecy they never released any details. I'm not even sure whether or not it was ever launched."
"The records say it was," Luke said, touching the next ch'hala tree in line as they passed by, eliciting another flash of red. "They also say that C'baoth was attached to the project. Does that mean he would have been aboard?"
"I don't know," Winter said. "There were rumors that several Jedi Masters would be going along, but again there was no official confirmation of that." She looked sideways at him. "Are you thinking that might be why he wasn't around during the Rebellion?"
"It's possible," Luke said. "Of course, that would just raise another whole set of questions. Like what happened to them and how he got back."
Winter shrugged. "I suppose there's one way to find out."
"Yeah." Luke touched the last tree in line. "Go to Jomark and ask him. I guess I'll have to."
Leia's office was grouped with the other Inner Council suites just off the cross hallway that linked the Grand Corridor with the more intimate Inner Council meeting room. Luke and Winter entered the outer reception area, to find a familiar figure waiting there. "Hello, Threepio," Luke said.
"Master Luke-how good to see you again," the gold-skinned droid gushed. "I trust you're well?"
"I'm fine," Luke told him. "Artoo said to say hello when I saw you, by the way. They've got him over at the spaceport helping with some maintenance on my X-wing, but I'll be bringing him back later this evening. You can see him then."
"Thank you, sir." Threepio tilted his head slightly, as if suddenly remembering that he was supposed to be acting as a receptionist here. "Princess Leia and the others are expecting you," he said, touching the inner chamber release. "Please go on in."
"Thank you," Luke said, nodding gravely. No matter how ridiculous Threepio might look in any given situation, there was always a certain inherent dignity about him, a dignity that Luke usually tried to respond to in kind. "Let us know if anyone else comes."
"Of course, sir," Threepio said.
They went into the inner chamber to find Leia and Han holding a quiet conversation over a computer display on Leia's desk. Chewbacca, sitting alone near the door with his bowcaster across his knees, growled a greeting as they entered.
"Ah-Luke," Leia said, looking up. "Thanks for coming." She shifted her attention to Winter. "That'll be all for now, Winter."
"Yes, Your Highness," Winter nodded. With her usual grace, she glided from the room.
Luke looked at Han. "I hear you dropped a double size thermal detonator on the Council yesterday."
Han grimaced. "I tried. Not that anyone really believed me."
"One of those instances where politics drifts off into the realm of wishful thinking," Leia said. "The last thing anyone wants to believe is that in our sweep we somehow missed one of the Emperor's Grand Admirals."
"Sounds more like willful denial than wishful thinking to me," Luke said. "Or do they have another theory as to how we got edged so neatly into that Sluis Van trap?"
Leia grimaced. "Some of them say that's where Ackbar's collusion comes in.
"Ah," Luke murmured. So that was the thrust of Fey'lya's scheme."
"I hadn't heard any of the details yet."
"So far, Fey'lya's been playing the sabacc cards close to the fur," Han growled. "He claims he's trying to be fair; I think he's just trying not to rock all the stabilizers at once.
Luke frowned at him. There was something else in his friend's face and sense : "And maybe something more?" he prompted.
Han and Leia exchanged glances. "Maybe," Han said. "You notice how quickly after the Sluis Van attack Fey'lya dropped the hammer on Ackbar. Either he's one of the great opportunists of all time-"
"Which we already know he is," Leia put in.
"-or else," Han continued grimly, "he knew in advance what was going to happen."
Luke looked at Leia. At the strain in her face and sense : "You realize what you're saying," he said quietly. "You're accusing a member of the Council of being an Imperial agent."
Leia's sense seemed to flinch. Han's didn't even flicker. "Yeah, I know," Han said. "Isn't that what he's accusing Ackbar of?"
"The problem is timing, Han," Leia said, her tone one of strained patience. "As I've already tried to explain. If we accuse Fey'lya of anything now, it'll just look like we're trying to take the pressure off Ackbar by turning Fey'lya's charges back against him. Even if it were true-and I don't think it is-it would still come across as a cheap and rather mindless trick."
"Maybe that's why he was so quick to finger Ackbar in the first place," Han countered. "So that we couldn't turn it back on him. That ever occur to you?"
"Yes, it has," Leia said. "Unfortunately, it doesn't change the situation. Until we've cleared Ackbar, we can't go making accusations against Fey'lya."
Han snorted. "Come on, Leia. Political waddlefooting is fine in its place, but we're talking about the survival of the New Republic here."
"Which could fall completely apart over this without anyone ever firing a shot," Leia retorted hotly. "Face it, Han-this whole thing is still being held together with hope and crating tape. You get a few wild accusations flying around, and half the races in the old Rebel Alliance might decide to pull out and go their separate ways."
Luke cleared his throat. "If I can say something :?"
They looked at him, the tension in the room fading a little. "Sure, kid, what is it?" Han said.
"I think we all agree that, whatever his agenda or possible sponsors Fey'lya up to something," Luke said. "Maybe it would help to find out what that something is. Leia, what do we know about Fey'lya?"
She shrugged. "He's a Bothan, obviously, though he grew up on the Bothan colony world of Kothlis instead of on Bothawni proper. He joined the real Alliance right after the Battle of Yavin, bringing a good-sized group of his followers Bothans in with him. His people served mainly in support and reconnaissance, though they saw some occasional action, too. He was involved in a number of wideranging interstellar business activities before joining the Alliance-shipping, merchandising, some mining, assorted other ventures. I'm pretty sure he's kept up with some of them since then, but I don't know which ones."
"Are they on file?" Luke asked.
She shook her head. "I've been through his file five times, and I've checked every other reference to him I could find. Nothing."
"That's where we want to start our backtrack, then," Han decided. "Quiet business stuff is always good for digging up dirt."
Leia threw him a patient look. "It's a big galaxy, Han. We don't even know where to start looking."
"I think we can figure it out," Han assured her. "You said the Bothans saw some action after Yavin. Where?"
"Any number of places," Leia said, frowning. She swiveled the computer around to face her, tapped in a command. "Let's see :"
"You can skip any battle they were ordered into," Han told her. "Also any time there were only a few of them there as part of a big multispecies force. I just want the places where a bunch of Fey'lya's people really threw themselves into it."
It was clear from Leia's face that she didn't see where Han was going with this, a sentiment Luke could readily identify with. But she fed in the parameters without comment. "Well:I suppose the only one that really qualifies would be a short but violent battle off New Cov in the Churba sector. Four Bothan ships took on a Victory-class Star Destroyer that was snooping around, keeping it busy until a Star Cr
uiser could come to their assistance."
"New Cov, huh?" Han repeated thoughtfully. "That system get mentioned anywhere in Fey'lya's business stuff?"
"Uh : no, it doesn't."
"Fine," Han nodded. "Then that's where we start."
Leia threw Luke a blank look. "Did I miss something?"
"Oh, come on, Leia," Han said. "You said yourself that the Bothans pretty much sat out the real war everywhere they could. They didn't take on a Victory Star Destroyer at New Cov just for the fun of it. They were protecting something."
Leia frowned. "I think you're reaching.
"Maybe," Han agreed. "Maybe not. Suppose it was Fey'lya and not the Imperials that sneaked that money into Ackbar's account? Transferring a block fund through Palanhi from the Churba sector would be easier than sending it in from any of the Imperial systems."
"That takes us back to accusing Fey'lya of being an Imperial agent," Luke warned.
"Maybe not," Han argued. "Could be the timing of the transfer was coincidence. Or maybe one of the Bothans got a whiff of the Empire's intentions and Fey'lya figured he could use it to take down Ackbar."
Leia shook her head. "It's still nothing we can take to the Council," she said.
"I'm not going to take it to the Council," Han told her. "I'm going to take Luke, and we're going to go to New Cov and check it out ourselves. Quiet like."
Leia looked at Luke, an unspoken question forming in her mind.
"There's nothing I can do here to help," he said. "It's worth a look, anyway."
"All right," Leia sighed. "But keep it quiet."
Han gave her a tight grin. "Trust me." He raised an eyebrow at Luke. "You ready?"
Luke blinked. "You mean right now?"
"Sure, why not? Leia's got the political end covered here okay."
There was a flicker of sense from Leia, and Luke looked over just in time to see her wince. Her eyes met Luke's, her sense pleading with him to keep quiet. What is it? he asked her silently.
Whether she would have answered him or not he never found out. From over at the door Chewbacca growled out the whole story.
Han turned to stare at his wife, his mouth falling open. "You promised what?" he breathed.
She swallowed visibly. "Han, I had no choice."
"No choice? No choice? I'll give you a choice-no, you're not going."
"Han"Excuse me," Luke interrupted, standing up. "I have to go check out my X-wing. I'll see you both later."
"Sure, kid," Han growled, not looking at him.
Luke stepped to the door, catching Chewbacca's eye as he passed and nodding toward the outer office. Clearly, the Wookiee had already come to the same conclusion. Heaving his massive bulk to his feet, he followed Luke from the room.
The door slid shut behind them, and for a long moment they just stared at each other. Leia broke the silence first. "I have to go, Han," she said softly. "I promised Khabarakh I'd meet him. Don't you understand?"
"No, I don't understand," Han retorted, trying hard to hold on to his temper. The gut-wrending fear he'd felt after that near-miss on Bpfassh was back, churning hard at his stomach. Fear for Leia's safety, and the safety of the twins she carried. His son and daughter : "These whatever-they-ares-"
"Noghri," she supplied the word.
"-these Nogti have been taking potshots at you every chance they've had for a couple of months now. You remember Bpfassh and that mock-up of the Falcon they tried to sucker us into getting aboard? And the attack on Bimmisaari before that-they came within a hair of snatching us right out of the middle of a marketplace. If it hadn't been for Luke and Chewie they'd have done it, too. These guys are serious, Leia. And now you tell me you want to fly out alone and visit their planet? You might as well turn yourself over to the Empire and save some time."
"I wouldn't be going if I thought that," she insisted. "Khabarakh knows I'm Darth Vader's daughter, and for whatever reason, that seems to be very important to them. Maybe I can use that leverage to turn them away from the Empire and onto our side. Anyway, I have to try."
Han snorted. "What is this, some kind of crazy Jedi thing? Luke was always getting all noble and charging off into trouble, too."
Leia reached over to lay her hand on his arm. "Han I know it's a risk," she said quietly. "But it may be the only chance we ever have of resolving this. The Noghri need help-Khabarakh admitted that. If I can give them that hell if I can convince them to come over to our side-that'll mean one less enemy for us to have to deal with." She hesitated. "And I can't keep running forever."
"What about the twins?"
He had the guilty satisfaction of seeing her wince. "I know," she said, a shiver running through her as she reached her other hand up to hold her belly. "But what's the alternative? To lock them away in a tower of the Palace somewhere with a ring of Wookiee guards around them? They'll never have any chance of a normal life as long as the Noghri are trying to take them from us."
Han gritted his teeth. So she knew. He hadn't been sure before, but he was now. Leia knew that what the Empire had been after this whole time was her unborn children.
And knowing that, she still wanted to meet with the Empire's agents.
For a long minute he gazed at her, his eyes searching the features of that face he'd grown to love so deeply over the years, his memory bringing up images of the past as he did so. The young determination in her face as, in the middle of a blazing firelight, she'd grabbed Luke's blaster rifle away from him and shot them an escape route into the Death Star's detention-level garbage chute. The sound of her voice in the middle of deadly danger at Jabba's, helping him through the blindness and tremor and disorientation of hibernation sickness. The wiser, more mature determination visible through the pain in her eyes as, lying wounded outside the Endor bunker, she had nevertheless summoned the skill and control to coolly shoot two stormtroopers off Han's back.
And he remembered, too, the wrenching realization he'd had at that same time: that no matter how much he tried, he would never be able to totally protect her from the dangers and risks of the universe. Because no matter how much he might love her-no matter how much he might give of himself to her-she could never be content with that alone. Her vision extended beyond him, just as it extended beyond herself, to all the beings of the galaxy.
And to take that away from her, whether by force or even by persuasion, would be to diminish her soul. And to take away part of what he'd fallen in love with in the first place.
"Can I at least go with you?" he asked quietly.
She reached up to caress his cheek, smiling her thanks through the sudden moisture in her eyes. "I promised I'd go alone," she whispered, her voice tight with emotion. "Don't worry, I'll be all right."
"Sure." Abruptly, Han got to his feet. "Well, if you're going, you're going. Come on-I'll help you get the Falcon prepped."
"The Falcon?" she repeated. "But I thought you were going to New Cov."
"I'll take Lando's ship," he called over his shoulder as he strode to the door. "I've got to get it back to him, anyway.
"But-"
"No argument," he cut her off. "If this Noghri of yours has something besides talking in mind, you'll stand a better chance in the Falcon than you will in the Lady Luck." He opened the door and stepped into the reception area.