Corellian Trilogy_ Ambush At Corellia Part 27

Tendra smiled warmly. "Thank you, Luke. It is most generous of you."

"Thanks, Luke," Lando said. "1 owe you one."

Luke grinned. "See you back at the ship," he said.

"Good evening to you both." He gave a polite little bow to Tendra, and was on his way.

"Quite a guy," Tendra said.

"That's an understatement," Lando said. "Walk me back to my ship?

Slowly?"

"Very slowly," she said. "It's been good to meet you, to see you in the flesh, Lando. I don't want to lose touch."

"No reason why we should," he said as they started to walk. "1 can still call you over the holonet.

"For the moment, anyway," she said. "But there's a lot of talk going around about restricting access to the interstellar communications grid. Maybe even banning it alto gether. To keep us lrom getting foreign, non-Corellian ideas, or something.

"That's bound to work real well," Lando said. "It's not that easy to keep ideas out. But it would mean we'd have no way to keep in touch, a.s.suming I can't get another visa for a while. I'd a.s.sume the people here can't get leave to travel very easily." Tendra shook her head. "It's almost impossible," she said.

"It doesn't seem fair," Lando said. "I just met you, and I don't want to lose touch with you."

"Ah, well, that's life," Tendra said, a sad little note of resignation in her voice. "I suppose you'll just have to move on to the next star system and try your luck there."

"what do you mean, try my luck?" Lando said.

"Your luck at finding a rich wife, of course," she said.

"That's what you're here for, isn't it? Object, matrimony?"

"I must admit that I'm starting to rethink the whole idea of marrying for money," Lando said. "Things are a lot more complicated than I thought."

"Well, if it's any help, I'm not as rich as all that, anyway,"

Tendra said. "It's my father that has all the money."

"Well, I could be patient, I suppose."

"It's not even that simple," Tendra said. "I'm afraid there's a problem or two I haven't told you about."

"Uh-oh," Lando said. He stopped and turned toward her. "Here it comes."

"The first one isn't so bad. Women on this world aren't allowed to marry without their father's consent, no matter how old they are. It's a barbaric law, but there it is. If my father doesn't approve of you, I lose my inheritance."

"And that's not so bad?" Lando asked.

"I think Dad would like you, actually," she said. "I could talk him around." She smiled again. "If I decided 1 wanted you."

"Thanks, I think. But what's the bad part?" Lando asked.

"Well, you're shopping for a rich wife. You haven't tried to pretty that up, or treat me like a fool, so I suppose I'd better come clean. I've been shopping for an off-world husband for quite a while now.

Someone who could get me 268 a-Abc-e Alien AT CO-AM 269 off this planet, and away from the Triad and all the rules and regulations. Marrying an off-wonder was just about the only way a woman could get permission to leave. I advertised here and there. That's how I ended up in whatever datalist you were working from."

Lando nodded. "I sort of figured that," he said. But even so, he was glad to hear it from her, straight and clear.

"So what's the problem?"

"The problem is that xenophobia is getting worse around here. They aren't just kicking all the foreigners off the planet. The Triad announced yesterday morning that effective immediately, it is illegal to marry an off-worlder."

"What?"

"I should have told you at once," Tendra said, "but by the time I heard the news, your ship was already in its landing pattern.

Lando did not know what to say, or even where to begin.

It was not that either of them was madly in love with the other.

Not yet. It was too soon for that. And after his adventures with the life-witch, Lando realized that he wanted to be good and sure he knew his intended bride very well before he did anything irrevocable. No, he told himself again, it was not love-not yet. It might be, given half a chance, given time.

And Lando found that he didn't want to try the next star system over and see what rich women were on offer. No.

He had found someone here. Now. Tonight. Someone who might, just might, be right for him. She was rich, yes, and that didn't hurt.

He was even honest enough with himself to wonder what he would be thinking if she just told him she were poor. But rich and poor wasn't all of it, any more than his being from off-planet was all of it for her.

They could talk to each other. They understood each other, in some way that was quite new to Lando. She was someone with whom he would always have to be honest. He knew that, instinctively. That wasn't love, of course-but it was something he had never felt before, and he was not going to let it dry up and blow away just because some fat-headed bureaucrat had decided to invent some new rules.

Suddenly Lando had an idea. "Listen," he said. "I just thought of something. It might be a way around it if they 'do shut down the holocom net. A clumsy way, an awkward way-but a way."

"what?" she asked.

"It's an old gag I learned back in my smuggling days."

"Smuggling?" she asked.

"That's another story, for later,' he said. "But there's a very old communications system, that doesn't use hypers.p.a.ce at all. It uses modulation of low-frequency electromagnetic radiation, in the radio band of the spectrum.

Radionics, they call it. It's constrained by the speed of light, and it's limited in range, too, unless you beam it or use a lot of power.

But no one uses it, so cops and border patrols never bother to listen for it. I have a matched set of senders and receivers tucked away in the hold of the Ijidy Luck."

"But at light speed, if you were in another star system, it would take years for a message to get to you that wayif you got it at all."

"So who says I'm going to be in another star system?"

Lando said with a smile. "I have to go to the trade summit.

I've promised some people. But then I'll come back here to this system, real quietly and sneakily, the way only an old smuggler would know how to do." He hesitated for a moment, hoping for inspiration. And he spotted his answer, up in the sky. "And I'll park myself there," he said, pointing up at a fat crescent hanging high in the sky.

"On our moon?" Tendra asked. "On Sarcophagus? It's nothing but one big burial ground. No one ever goes there, except to inter their relatives."

"Then no one will ever look for me there. But you get your radio out, and point the antenna at Sarcophagus, and I'll be sitting there, waiting to get the message. We'll have time to work out some way to see each other again. Some way for me to slip back down to the planet, or something."

270 -rM~eAfl "It sounds crazy," Tendra said, "but I can't see anything wrong with the idea."

"Oh, I can," Lando said. "There's plenty of things that could go wrong. But it would be even wronger if I let you get away without trying to get to know you."

Tendra laughed, and smiled, and threw her arms around him.

And for once, Lando Calrissian meant every word of his elaborate compliment from the bottom of his heart.

CHAPTER SEVEN TEEN News Travels Slowly hat if they gave a trade summit," Han muttered, "and n.o.body came?" That wasn't exactly fair, but he had seen longer reception lines. He was in hia best formal clothes, standing in the lineup with Leia and Governor-General Micamberlecto and several other local big shots. So far, they hadn't had all that many hands to shake. The unsettled situation had clearly frightened off a lot of would-be delegates to the talks. And Han was willing to bet that some of the alleged delegates were really NRI agents. The trade delegations were just too good a cover to pa.s.s up.

"Quiet, Han," Leia said, keeping the smile on her face looking warm and sincere as she chided her husband under her breath. Han had to admit she looked stunning in the flowing, off-the-shoulder royal-blue gown she had chosen.

It set off her coloring and her eyes and hair beautifully.

"All of these people took big chances coming here for this meeting," she went on, still smiling. "This summit is important to them-and to your planet, in case you forgot.

So behave yourself and make everyone feel at home."

"Home, right," Han said. "As if their home was a c.o.c.ktail party.

Now, there's my idea of endless torture.

h.e.l.lo, how are you?" he said to the next delegate, interrupting himself to greet a rather regal-looking Selonian female who towered over him by six or seven centimeters.

"I am fine, Captain Solo. It is a pleasure to meet you."

"And a pleasure to -t you, too," Han said. He waited until the Selonian was out of earshot and added, "whoever you are. Head over to the bar, why don't you, the booze is free. Yup, there she goes. h.e.l.lo there," he said to the goggleed Mon Calamari who had materialized in front of him, and accepted the proffered flipper hand. "Welcome to our little party." The Mon Calamari nodded, gurgled something in a dialect that Han could not understand, and gave him an enthusiastic slap on the back that nearly bowled him over. By the time he had recovered, the Mon Calamari was gone. "Another great moment in the annals of communication," Han said. "who are these people?"

"Traders," Leia said, "as you know lull well. h.e.l.lo, so glad you could come," she said to the next person in line.

"It is a deep honor to meet you both," said the Dm11, bowing so low he nearly toppled over. Apparently a few delegates hadn't waited to pa.s.s tIrrough the reception line before hing for the bar.

"Don't make it too deep," Han said after he helped the Drall to recover his balance and sent him on his way. "I just can't keep this smile pasted on my face much longer."

"Well, how about being completely astonished instead?" Leia asked.

"Could you handle that?"

"I suppose," Han said.

"Then look to see who's fourth in line at the moment."

Han looked up, and was sufficiently amazed that he failed to make any snide comments for the next three delegates.

In fact, he was not aware of talking to them at all. Mara.

Mara Jade. Ex-Emperor's Hand. Ex-smuggler. The woman who had sworn to kill Luke, and then had a change of heart.

There she was, in a long black gown that seemed to make her seem even taller, even more slender-and even more threetening. The years had been good to her. She had lost none of her poise, none of her beauty-and she looked as dangerous as ever. He and his family had been on better terms with her in recent times, but there was something in her demeanor tonight that set off alarm bells in his head. It would be best to tread carefully around her.

"Good evening, Captain Jade," Leia said to her, offering her hand.

Mara accepted it nodded slightly. "Good evening to you, Madame Chief of State. And to you, Captain Solo. I have a message for you."

Mara directed her attention to Leia.

"For you both, and for the governor-general."

"A message?" Leia asked.

"A message cube, to be more exact," she said. "1 couldn't open it-and I don't mind admitting that I tried.

I would suggest that you and the governor-general find a nice, safe room where we can all meet at once."

Leia thought quickly. "My apartments," she said. "On the fifteenth floor. They're swept for bugs and listening devices every day.

Meet us there in twenty minutes. Han, give her a thumb pa.s.s for the turbolifi.

"Huh? Oh yeah, right," Han said. The turbolift was running in secure mode. You had to put a pa.s.scard in a slot and hold your thumb over a print reader before it would let you in. You could provide guests with access by giving them a pa.s.scard that scanned their thumbprint and keyed it to your card. Leia would have carried a few of her own, but there weren't any pockets in her long blue gown. He pulled a guest's thumb pa.s.s, a small white rectangle of plastic, out of his pocket. He pressed down on one of the two scan areas. The second scan area lit up.

"Press your right thumb down there," he said to Mara, and she did so.

The glow faded from the second scan area. Han gave her the pa.s.s.

"This will get you in and out of the lift, and into our apartments," he said. "Wait for us there. We'll be up as soon as the reception line is over."

Mara Jade took the pa.s.scard and smiled coldly at Han.

"I'll be there," she said as she walked away, and don't worry, I won't steal the silver."

"Maybe not," Han muttered to Leia "but remind me to count the spoons later just the same."

The three children were, in theory, fast asleep. In practice, of course, the fact that all the grown-ups were downstairs meant that it was their big chance to stay up late. However, bitter experience had taught them it was safest to stay in their bed'oom, with the door shut and lights low. Grownups had a nasty habit of coming back unexpectedly.

Even so, none of them were quite prepared to hear the click of the lock or the sound of the door opening. They instantly abandoned their board game and all three of them dove under the covers. It was only after he was in bed, eyes shut, and pretending to be asleep as hard as he could, that Jacen realized they had left a light on. One look at that, and Mom and Dad would know at once they had been up after bedtime. He toyed with the idea of using his ability in the Force, but he knew that his fine control was not that good. He would be just as likely to smash the lamp to bits as. .h.i.t the switch properly. He decided to risk it. He slipped out of bed, crossed the room to the lamp, and flicked it off.

He was just about to dive back to his bed when he noticed something. He listened carefully, to make sure he hadn't made a mistake, then tiptoed over to Jaina's bed.

"Psst, Jaina," he said.

"Quiet!" she hissed. "Do you want to get us caught."