The room they found themselves in had a doorway leading out to the narrow, disturbing hallways they’d come in through. The glittering in the strange alloy walls seemed more frenetic now, as if the architecture itself knew it was in danger. Scarlet pulled up her datapad, but the holographic map was as fuzzy and imprecise as a dream. Scarlet closed it out, shut her eyes in concentration, and then a moment later opened them.
“Follow me,” she said, and took off at a fast limp. Han shrugged and followed, Leia right behind.
Scarlet did seem to know where she was going. She took several turns that Han didn’t remember from the first time, but at the end they wound up at the glowing metal hatch. The planet cooperated by keeping the shaking to a minimum while they made their way to the upper temple. But the minute they stepped foot on the stone floor, all restraint was lost. The planet shuddered like a bantha with the spurs in its flanks, bucking and shaking as if it were trying to throw them off. After several seconds of tossing them from one side of the corridor to the other, the quaking settled into a sullen but constant low rumble.
“Run,” Scarlet said. Han was already running, Leia’s hand in his. He grabbed Scarlet’s as he went by. If he lost either of them in the dark of the temple, he’d never have time to track them down.
If there were stormtroopers left at the site, they were hiding or had run off into the jungle. Imperial-issue equipment lay scattered on the ground, much of it knocked over by the quakes, some of it crushed flat by stones falling from the ceiling. As they sprinted, a massive block of stone the size of a landspeeder dropped from above and cut their passage in half.
Scarlet didn’t hesitate, turning at the next junction and leading them through a side passage to get around it. Dust was filtering down from the ceiling, thickening the air. A pit in the floor opened a few feet ahead as they ran, and Scarlet yelled, “Jump!”
They didn’t break stride as all three leapt across the abyss, then two turns and a long sprint later they were out in the free air of the dying planet.
All around them, the jungle was bucking and rolling like the surface of a stormy ocean. The massive trees cracked and split with the motion. Leaves the size of starships fell out of the sky, crushing anything beneath. Energy fields filled the skies with rainbows where the shear forces were enough to refract the light. The vast planetary mechanism fighting to regain its equilibrium and failing.
Han jumped up, grabbed the edge of the first level of the pyramid-shaped temple, and pulled himself onto it. He reached down to help Scarlet up, then ran to climb the next level while she hauled Leia up. Far to the east, a cloud of dust rose toward the sky. When they’d gone up a dozen levels or so, the layers got smaller, allowing them to run individually and make much better time.
As he jumped from step to step a hundred meters above the rolling jungle floor, Han pulled out his comlink and yelled to Chewbacca, “Where are you?”
The Wookiee roared back.
“What do you mean the start-up cycle keeps shorting out? You better make this work, pal, or we’re all gonna die.”
Passing him, Leia pulled herself up onto a square stone block and stopped. They were at the top. Scarlet joined her and bent over at the waist, panting. Han looked around and saw nothing but the pyramid of stone below them and the quivering jungle all around. No ship in sight.
Scarlet gasped. Han followed her gaze. To the east, where the great plume of dust had risen, the ground was crumbling away. Island-sized swaths of jungle fell away, and the white-gold light of the unstable core blazed out. Whatever forces had kept the planet steady until now were failing, and Seymarti V was eating itself.
“Is he going to make it?” Scarlet asked. Han thought she meant Chewbacca, so he started to answer, but Leia cut him off.
“He should be here any second.”
As if summoned by her words, an X-wing screeched out of the sky toward them. It came to a hovering stop a few feet from the top of the temple. Out of Leia’s comlink Luke’s boyish voice yelled, “Get on!”
Leia climbed onto a wing, and Scarlet followed.
“This is not a permanent solution,” Han said. They couldn’t exactly ride off the planet on the wing of a starfighter. But he followed. Buying himself a few extra seconds was what he did when it was all he could do.
“Hold on,” Luke said, and the X-wing pulled up away from the temple.
The planet gave a massive shudder that blew trees the size of office towers into the sky, and the entire temple beneath them fell into the planet in a cloud of dust and stone and scorching hot air.
A black dot on the rapidly eroding horizon turned into a disk and then into the Falcon, flying at them at high speed. A cloud of pale yellow dust bloomed up around them, obscuring the ship for a moment. A hot wind stinking of sulfur whipped them, pressing grit into Han’s eyes.
“I’m not going to be able to hold on for much longer,” Scarlet said, her voice as calm as if she were talking about getting lunch rather than plunging to her death as the planet below her tore itself apart.
“You won’t need to,” Han said, and a dark shadow rose through the dust below them. The Falcon edged up a centimeter at a time until all three could drop onto it and scramble through the hatch.
“Punch it, Chewie,” Han yelled as he ran to the cockpit. Chewbacca already had the Falcon flying straight up at its fastest atmospheric speed.
“Get belted in!” Han yelled to Scarlet and Leia.
“Hyperdrive working?” he asked as he settled into his seat. The Wookiee growled out an affirmative. “Get us a calculation for the current fleet position. We’re going there in a hurry.”
While Chewbacca worked, Han scanned the space around them. Eight X-wings flew in honor guard formation behind them. There were no Imperial ships in sight. The blue sky was streaked with clouds as jagged as claw marks. As he watched, the blue deepened to indigo, and the first scattering of stars showed through.
“Looks like we’re all good for jump,” Luke said, his voice compressed and flattened by the headset.
“That planet is looking unstable,” Wedge’s voice said.
“Noticed that,” Han replied, throwing the throttle to maximum to put as much space as possible between the Falcon and the planet while Chewbacca finished prepping the jump.
“Be nice,” Luke said. The sky was almost black now, the stars bright and wide and scattered.
“Be ready to jump,” Han said to all the following ships, “in five . . . four . . . three . . . two . . .”
The planet detonated behind them, hurling a massive shock wave of energy and vaporized matter after them.
“One.”
The stars disappeared in a swirl of light.
Thirty-Two
The vast, dark ocean of space glittered with light. Each star was the chance of a habitable planet or moon, an independent station or asteroid base. The brightness beckoned and consoled, promising that there was life and energy and civilization all around. That the void could be overcome. And when the violence that life and stars carried with them was too much, the emptiness also offered safety.
The Falcon had jumped into the middle of General Rieekan’s battle preparations. The young fighter pilots had been disappointed that a pitched battle around Seymarti had been avoided. The admirals had been relieved. The sting at losing the great new weapon was pulled by knowing that the Emperor didn’t have it. If there were people who were relieved that the Rebellion hadn’t captured the prize, either, they were quiet about it.
That didn’t mean there was no joy to be taken.
“I’ve read the reports, Captain Solo,” Colonel Harcen said, tapping uncomfortably on his desk. “You certainly went above and beyond any of our expectations of you.”
“Thanks,” Han said, ignoring the implied criticism. “So you’re ready to pay me?”
Harcen’s jaw stiffened and he looked at the decking. “I wanted to discuss that with you. I notice that your requested payment was somewhat larger than—”
r /> “I signed on for a jump to Cioran,” Han said. “We went from there to Kiamurr to Seymarti. Scenic route has more overhead.”
“But the agreement—”
Chewbacca growled and leaned forward. Harcen flinched and leaned back.
“The option was to let the Empire kill everyone on Kiamurr, break the Rebellion, and get control of the K’kybak weapon,” Han said. “If next time you want me to stop and renegotiate, we can do that, too.”
“Of course not,” Harcen said. “It may simply take a few days to arrange the transfer of the balance. I’ll need to get approval.”
“You do that,” Han said.
Chewbacca howled and waved a massive fist. Han thought he was overplaying it a little, but he didn’t complain. It was the simple pleasures, after all, that made life worth living. Han stood up, touched two fingers to his temple in mock salute, and headed out to the corridor.
The comfort he felt getting back to the rebel fleet with its cobbled-together ships and thirdhand air recyclers made Han a little nervous. He didn’t like to think he was getting too attached, but so far he’d dealt with that by not thinking about it, and the strategy seemed to be working. Together, he and Chewbacca headed down the narrow metal stairway, then turned to port and headed for the fighter hangar and the Millennium Falcon. Neither spoke, but Chewbacca huffed quietly under his breath. It was something he did when he was feeling particularly self-satisfied. There was even a little spring in the Wookiee’s step. As they stepped out into the chaos of ships, tool kits, coolant-delivery tubes, service droids, and orange-jumpsuited pilots, Han leaned in toward him.
“And what’s got you in such a good mood?”
Chewbacca yelped twice, lifting his chin to indicate the hangar and everyone in it.
“Of course we didn’t die,” Han said. “We were safe the whole time.”
Chewbacca let out a chuffing whine.
“Because I was there,” Han said. “That’s why.”
“Han!”
He turned. Luke waved from the side of the hangar, and beside him, C-3PO echoed the gesture. Half a dozen other fighter pilots were gathered around them. Han thought he saw the glimmer of hero worship in some of their eyes. Han waved back, then looked toward the Millennium Falcon. The scar where Baasen’s homing beacon had struck home was still bright, and the panels above the rear deflector shield were off, exposing the wires and energy couplings beneath. The thought of the hours of work ahead made Han’s shoulders ache. It could wait a little bit longer.
“Hold on a minute, Chewie,” he said. He sauntered over to the group. “Hey, kid. What’s going on?”
“I was just telling Gram and Ardana about what happened at Seymarti,” Luke said.
Han nodded, a knowing half smile on his face. He turned to the other pilots. “He tell you how he took down an Imperial Star Destroyer by himself?”
“I didn’t do it by myself,” Luke said. “There were eight of us, and Wedge led the attack. And no, I was telling them about how you and Leia blew up the planet in order to stop the Empire.”
“Yeah. Well, all right. That’s a good story.”
“Did you really ride up out of the atmosphere on the outside of an X-wing?” one of the pilots asked. She looked even younger than Luke. Pretty soon the Rebellion was going to be taking them out of diapers and putting them straight into pilot’s seats, Han thought. He shrugged.
“It wasn’t as impressive as it sounds,” he said. “Chewie was right there to catch us.”
The pilots’ gazes all turned to Chewbacca, who stood a little taller and preened.
“What are you guys doing next?” Luke asked.
“If there’s not another emergency, we’re fixing the ship,” Han said.
“What about after?” the younger pilot asked.
“I’m pretty sure there’ll be another emergency by then,” Han said. They all laughed like it had been a joke. And it had been, mostly.
“I was just going to go see Leia,” Luke said, stowing his helmet. “You want to come?”
“You want me to?” Han said, and then when he saw Luke thinking about the question, quickly added, “Sure, why not? Her Worshipfulness might be able to get them to shake my credits loose a little faster.”
As they passed through the ship, Han listened to the chatter around them. Most of it was about Kiamurr and Seymarti, but there was other news and gossip. A fleet of unidentified black ships had been sighted near Thedavio VII, and no one knew if they were some kind of new Imperial design or something different. The uncle of a friend on Dantooine had been in a cantina when a bunch of Imperial troops had swooped in and carried off the barkeep. The survey mission to Cerroban had run into Imperial probes, taking it off the list of possible locations for the new base.
The Rebel Alliance was built on stories as much as it was steel or hyperspace engines. What had happened on Kiamurr and Seymarti was thick in the air right now, but new events would come and wash it away. It wouldn’t be long before the fact that Han could have ended the war and didn’t, or that the Empire could have had its foot on the neck of the galaxy forever and he’d stopped it, were just bits of trivia, easy to forget in the press of stories that the Rebellion told about itself.
They found Leia in a meeting room off the command center. The screens around the walls were bright with schematics of the ships in the fleet, a map of the galaxy with half a dozen tiny sectors marked off in blue, and a constant feed from the sensor logs. The little red R3 unit that Hunter Maas had owned was in a corner with R2-D2, the pair of them whistling and chirping away to each other while C-3PO shifted his head back and forth between them, trying to keep track of the machine-language conversation.
Leia was wearing a simple gray jumpsuit, and her hair was pulled back. Scarlet Hark, sitting across from her, was a thousand times gaudier in a flowing gown of emerald and crimson, with her hair braided in an elaborate curve that made her seem like a human flower that had just bloomed.
“Solo!” the spy said. “I was hoping I’d see you before I left.”
“Sure,” Han said. “You’re looking . . . ah . . .”
“Ridiculous, isn’t it?” Scarlet said, a mad gleam in her eyes. “I’m Feyyata Baskalada, queen of the Emurrian opera on tour with the company. We’re going to Surdapan Station.”
“A very dangerous place,” C-3PO said, waving a golden arm. “I have tried to warn them, but no one ever seems to listen to me.”
“Uh-huh. What’s happening there?” Luke asked, visibly trying not to stare at her.
“Rumor has it that an engineer out there built a blaster that ignores deflector shields,” Scarlet said. “It’s probably bantha fodder, but if it’s not, I want to make sure we have it and no one else does.”
Leia frowned. “Can you sing opera?”
“No,” Scarlet said. “Not even a little bit. This should be hilarious.”
From the corner, Hunter Maas’s R3 squealed. Scarlet stood up, her dress clinking like a crystal chandelier in a breeze.
“Thank you, R-three,” she said. “I know we’re short on time.”
“Wait,” Han said. “You understand what it’s saying?”
“No, but I guess well,” she said, putting out her hand. “Thanks for the ride, Captain. I hope we can work together again sometime.”
“It’ll cost double,” he said, shaking her hand. “You’re a pain in the behind.”
“Likewise.”
Chewbacca grunted and muttered, folding his arms across his chest. Scarlet paused in front of him, her palm on his hand.
“Me, too, sweetheart,” she said. “But I’ll be in touch. When I can.”
Chewbacca swept Scarlet up in a massive hug. She wrapped her arms around his neck, and they stayed that way for long enough that Han started feeling a little uncomfortable. When the Wookiee put her down, Scarlet gestured to the R3 unit, and the two of them left together.
“Are you tearing up?” Han asked.
Chewbacca barked a sharp reply.
/>
“All right,” Han said. “Just asking. No need to get hot about it.”
“We just wanted to come make sure you were doing okay,” Luke said, touching Leia’s arm. “After you got back, you seemed a little . . . upset.”
Han looked up at Chewbacca and mouthed She did? Chewbacca rolled his eyes and nodded. Leia patted Luke’s hand and sat down.
“I’ll be fine. There’s been a lot of fallout after Kiamurr. We lost a lot of people,” she said, and her voice had a cold tone that Han thought he might understand. “But the ones who did survive have renewed their hatred of the Empire. I’ve had contacts from several people and groups that I hadn’t expected to hear from. We’ll come out of this stronger than we went in.”
“That can only be a good thing,” C-3PO said.
“It will be if we win, Threepio,” Leia said. And if we lose, it’s just more bodies in the graveyard. She didn’t say the words, but Han understood her humorless smile. He thought of Baasen again. The least likely martyr of the Rebellion. The universe was a big place, and strange things happened there.
From the command center, Commander Ackbar’s voice grated and snapped. Han didn’t recognize the voices that responded.
“Any regrets?” Luke asked. From anyone else, the question would have seemed like prying. From the kid, it was too openhearted and sincere to take offense at.Leia shrugged. “Some,” she said. “But I don’t know what I’d have done differently. Regret that I couldn’t find a better way through than the one I found. Does that count?”
“What about you?” Luke asked, and it took Han a few seconds to realize Luke was talking to him. He opened his mouth to say no, then paused, shrugged.
“You know,” he said. “There were a bunch of critters on Seymarti who were just trying to make it through another day in their crappy little swamp. They didn’t deserve what happened to them.”
Leia raised an eyebrow.
“That’s your regret?” she said.
“Why not? It’s a good one.”
“What about having the key to end the war in your hand and choosing to throw it away?” Leia said, her voice a little hard with sorrow. Just for a moment, he saw behind her façade. From this moment on, she would be carrying a little more of every death in the war. Every adolescent fighter pilot who got shot down by a TIE fighter, every spy who got exposed and executed in an Imperial prison, every foot soldier who fell under a stormtrooper’s blaster rifle would be in part because she’d had the chance to take the power of the K’kybak and Seymarti V, and she hadn’t.