"Oh." He fingered the holorecorder on the strap. "Would you let me record a reaction from you on this whole observer program, something expressing your thoughts?"
"No! That"s not part of your observer role, is it?"
"Well, no."
"You aren"t recording anything for personal or professional use, are you? Everything you record has to be turned over to the government, right?"
"Uh, sure."
She glowered at him. "Look, I"m in the middle of some record keeping here ..."
"I understand. Master Hamner has set up a waiting room for us observers in a chamber off the Great Hall. The old youngling lecture hall, he called it. Did he mean old younglings, or old hall? Never mind. I"ll be there. You need to check in with me if you decide to leave the Temple so I can accompany you. And I have to check in with you at intervals to make sure you haven"t, you know, wandered off. Sorry."
Stunned, she just nodded. Dab waited a few moments to make sure no further words were going to issue forth, then retreated. The door slid closed behind him, leaving Jaina in merciful silence.
Until she spoke again. "Random rotation, my eye. This is somebody"s idea of a joke, and whoever it is will find himself dumped in a garbage compactor."
RESIDENTIAL DISTRICT NEAR THE JEDI TEMPLE, CORUSCANT.
Tahiri hit the b.u.t.ton to open her apartment door. It slid aside, revealing a tall, very old man standing outside. His hair was white and thin, his eyes a surprisingly clear blue. He wore a loose white tunic belted at the waist, along with black trousers and boots. Oddly, although his left arm was prosthetic, no attempt had been made to disguise the fact; it was an ancient replacement, three-quarters of a century old at least, distinctly mechanical despite its graceful, human lines. It was the color of brushed durasteel from the fingertips to where the white sleeve covered it.
He gave Tahiri a brief, cordial smile. "Tahiri Veila?"
"Yes."
"I"m Commander Trinnolt Makken, Imperial Navy, retired. I"m your government-appointed observer."
She laughed. Then she thumbed the door closed.
The bell chimed again, and she could hear the commander"s m.u.f.fled voice. "This is not a joke. I have legal identification."
She opened the door again. "I heard from friends, I mean contacts, about this observer thing. Commander, I"m not a Jedi."
"It applies to Sith, too, when they can be identified."
"I"m not a Sith, either."
He held up a datacard with his flesh-and-blood hand. "Regardless, your name is on the doc.u.ment."
She glanced at the card. It rose up a couple of centimeters into the air. It strained as if struggling, then snapped in two. The pieces dropped into his palm.
She fixed him with a look that was no longer friendly. "Not Jedi," she explained, as if to someone who spoke only a few words of Basic. "Not Sith. Do you fly? Thrusters from metal arm, thrusters from nostrils?"
Grim, he shook his head.
"Then don"t come back until you do, because you may find yourself dropping two hundred stories out a viewport." She slid the door shut.
This time, the commander did not activate the chime.
JEDI TEMPLE, CORUSCANT.
Jaina and Master Hamner encountered each other outside the Masters" Chamber. They both frowned.
"Have you seen my new observer?" Jaina asked.
"Can you tell me where your mother is?"
"Come down to the old youngling lecture hall, which he seems to think is a schoolroom for old younglings."
Master Hamner fell into step beside her. "Is that where your mother is?"
"No, that"s where he is," Jaina said. "And you know, he"s not to blame."
"Perhaps you know where your father father is, and could tell me, and he would know where your mother is." is, and could tell me, and he would know where your mother is."
"He"s not to blame for looking like my brother Anakin."
"Your father? Of course he"s to blame for looking like your brother. I would have thought it would relieve him. It does, most fathers."
"Master Hamner, please concentrate concentrate. Having an observer who looks like my brother can"t be a coincidence. It"s a cruel joke or an insult, and if my mother and father see him, it"s going to make them feel very bad."
"Ah. Excellent. Where might your mother and father be, that they might see him?"
They came to a stop at the doorway of the former youngling lecture hall. The doorway was double-wide and open. Inside, the chamber was mostly unoccupied; round tables had replaced some of the old side-by-side lecture seating. At some of the tables were men and women, many of them older and ex-military by the look of them, the others a mix of ages, all of them apparently very fit.
She pointed to her new observer, who sat with two others, eating a salad and talking. "That one. Tarc."
Master Hamner looked and tilted his head. "He does does look like Anakin Solo." look like Anakin Solo."
"So you think it"s a coincidence?"
"You"d have to ask your father about that, too."
"No, no, that he was a.s.signed to me."
"Oh." He shrugged. "Really, I couldn"t tell. The a.s.signments are handled out of the Chief of State"s office."
"Well, I want him swapped out for someone else."
"Then you shall have to contact the Chief of State"s office. I am certain she will be receptive to the suggestion. The Jedi are are among her favorite people." among her favorite people."
Jaina bristled. "Do you have any dead relatives you"d like to be followed around by?"
He took her arm and led her away from the door at a sedate pace. "You know, you have your mother"s mouth. By which I do not mean that the configuration of your chin and lips resemble hers, though they do at certain angles, but that the things that come leaping out of your mouth-words, invective, insults-have a distinctive Organa family flavor to them."
"Thank you. What were you asking about Mom?"
"Where she is."
"At home, I suspect."
Hamner shook his head. "It appears that the Millennium Falcon Millennium Falcon took off for s.p.a.ce at just past dawn this morning, with your father, your mother, and your adopted sister aboard." took off for s.p.a.ce at just past dawn this morning, with your father, your mother, and your adopted sister aboard."
"Oh. Well, perhaps they wanted to take Amelia out for a field trip."
"Into s.p.a.ce."
"Pretty normal for my family."
"The comm recorder at their quarters, responding to my code, said to make requests for direct contact to the office of Lando Calrissian, Tendrando Arms."
"Well, there"s your answer."
"And the office of Tendrando Arms says they do not know where Lando Calrissian is, but they will pa.s.s the message along. So I was wondering if you had any other means to get in touch with your mother, any back-door method."
"No, I"m afraid not." That was a bald lie, but one she had practiced so well and for so many years that she doubted Master Hamner would be able to detect the deception in the Force.
He seemed satisfied. "Very well."
"I apologize, Master Hamner. Parents like mine, they stay out all hours, they never tell you where they"re going, they keep secrets ... They"re making me old before my time."
The Master blinked, and Jaina sensed that, somewhere deep beneath his Jedi calm, he was resisting the urge to throttle her. But all he said was, "Very like your mother." like your mother."
"I need to go off and contact the Chief of State"s office. Can I help you with anything else?"
"No, thank you, I"ve had all the help I can endure."
KESSEL.
EVEN FROM A HIGH ALt.i.tUDE, IT WAS CLEAR THAT LANDO"S KESSEL mineworks had changed substantially in the decades since Han had been an involuntary worker within them-before Lando had owned them. When he and Chewbacca had been captured and pressed into service here, the main mine entrance had been a huge open pit surrounded by broad salt plains and a few administrative buildings. Now the pit was covered, a low, square gray building in place over it, and the buildings immediately around it were far more numerous-though no more attractive; Lando"s personal sense of style had clearly been no influence in the motley collection of prefabricated gray, off-white, and tan enclosures. mineworks had changed substantially in the decades since Han had been an involuntary worker within them-before Lando had owned them. When he and Chewbacca had been captured and pressed into service here, the main mine entrance had been a huge open pit surrounded by broad salt plains and a few administrative buildings. Now the pit was covered, a low, square gray building in place over it, and the buildings immediately around it were far more numerous-though no more attractive; Lando"s personal sense of style had clearly been no influence in the motley collection of prefabricated gray, off-white, and tan enclosures.
A couple of the larger buildings and several of the smaller ones now lay in ruined heaps, testimony to the power of recent ground quakes in the area.
Following Lando"s navigational beacon, Han found himself staring at a Falcon Falcon-sized circle of a bare white salt plain surrounded by irregular chunks of brown synthstone probably scavenged from some of the felled buildings. He set down with the speed of confidence, absently adjusting the length of the Falcon Falcon"s landing gear extensions so that the transport would be perfectly level on the irregular ground. Adjusting thrusters and repulsors to zero, allowing the Falcon Falcon to settle fully onto her landing gear, he smiled-he might be on Kessel again, but at least his landing had been perfect. to settle fully onto her landing gear, he smiled-he might be on Kessel again, but at least his landing had been perfect.
Beside him, sitting on Leia"s lap on the copilot"s seat, Allana asked, "When can I I do it?" do it?"
"Do what? A landing?"
She nodded, wide-eyed. "Uh-huh."
"When I think my heart will survive the experience." Han gave Leia a look as if to say, Or maybe I"ll be lucky and die before then Or maybe I"ll be lucky and die before then.
Leia gave him a smile that was part amused malice. She looked down at her granddaughter. "Soon, I think he means."
By the time Han got the boarding ramp lowered, Lando and Nien Nunb were at its base, waiting, wearing the breath masks required to survive Kessel"s thin atmosphere for more than a few minutes. Nunb, Lando"s manager in this enterprise, was Sull.u.s.tan, with a head that looked oddly as though it had settled in melted layers upon his shoulders; unlike most of his species, he was only slightly shorter and rounder than the average adult human.
Lando sprang up onto the ramp with the vigor of a man half his age. "Han! You made great time."
Han gave him a quick embrace. "We were chased off Coruscant by bureaucracy. You were the lesser of two evils."
"I usually am." Lando offered one of his rakish smiles, obviously pleased still to be considered a bad influence. "C"mon inside. Tendra and Chance are there." He glanced up at the top of the ramp. "Hey, Artoo! Long time."
The conference room was laid out with a light lunch and drinks. The chamber did not seem as though it belonged on this dingy, slowly dying world; the oval table in the center was topped with the finest blue-white marble, the chairs were covered in flawless dark leather, and the whole atmosphere conveyed a sense of doing business in the heights of Coruscant"s business district.
But the oversized display viewport in the longest wall showed the unpromising grounds of the mineworks, powdery, sterile whiteness from which nothing could grow. In the near distance was the parked Falcon Falcon. Farther away was a dark building with featureless brown walls; every few minutes, a gout of gas erupted from it, sending much-needed oxygen and nitrogen into the unhealthy-looking pink sky. In the far distance on artificial slopes was a building of tremendous size, gray and tan, its outer walls steeply slanted backward with rows of gleaming durasteel and transparisteel; that, Han knew, was the old Imperial Correctional Facility, the prison from which the former masters of Kessel had drawn the workers for the mines.
Han, Leia, Lando, Tendra, and Nien Nunb sat at the table. In an adjoining chamber, the door left open so sound would carry, Allana and Chance played in the company of the droids-not just C-3PO and R2-D2 but also the little boy"s nanny droid. The four-armed automaton with its round, beaming face and almost-human female voice looked identical to Nanna, the ferocious defensive droid fabricated from a nanny droid and a YVH 1 combat droid to nurse and protect Ben Skywalker in his early years; Leia idly wondered if this was the same one.
Tendra, Lando"s wife-a lean woman, dark-haired, many years the junior of her husband-was dressed in a pearlescent blue jacket-like top that suggested a world of distant sands and arena duels between animals and men. The blouse beneath it was an iridescent gray, and her long skirt alternated layers of those two colors. Tendra waited until the catching-up chitchat had completely died away before getting to business. "I guess I ought to offer some context."
Han nodded ruefully as he ate a strip of grilled bantha steak from a skewer. "That"s definitely the businesswoman"s approach. Do you have a printed agenda to give us?"
She smiled. "Quiet, you. Lando has owned these mines for about thirty years now. I bought in when we married. Nien Nunb, who manages the facility, and very well, I might add, gradually acquired shares as part of his contract. The three of us own the business outright."
Leia nodded. "And since Kessel"s government basically consists of whatever the major business owners want it to be, there"s no one to bail you out if disaster wrecks the business."
Lando looked unhappy. "That"s right. And while on the one hand the only thing we stand to lose is money, it"s a lot lot of money. And on the other hand, if this business becomes unviable, for us or anyone else, the amount of glitterstim available in the galaxy drops to zero. All the legitimate medical uses of the drug go away." of money. And on the other hand, if this business becomes unviable, for us or anyone else, the amount of glitterstim available in the galaxy drops to zero. All the legitimate medical uses of the drug go away."
Nien Nunb spoke in the rapid, singsong language of his people; he understood Basic, but had a hard time articulating it.
Lando translated: "And, yeah, there"ll be a negative reaction on the illicit side of things. Glitbiters, glitterstim addicts, will cause a lot of trouble as they fight over the last remaining stores, and there will be a scramble for a new drug to appease them. They"ll probably end up with more dangerous ones, like one of the synthetic ryll replacements."
Finished with his skewer, Han set it down. "I thought Kessel was just a rock. An ugly, cold rock shaped like a ground tuber, spinning peacefully through s.p.a.ce. No tectonic or volcanic activity at all."
"It is." Lando frowned.
"That"s what we thought, too, until the quakes started," Tendra said. "This was about two standard years ago, at the height of the war. Actually, I remember exactly when. I got Nien Nunb"s report about the first quake the same day the news broke about the destruction of Centerpoint Station. The first few quakes were very minor, but they"ve gotten worse over time. The scientists don"t know what"s causing them, so they can"t make any useful predictions, but they have no reason to believe they won"t continue to worsen until they wreck everything, collapsing all the mines and destroying the atmosphere plants, which would make the planet uninhabitable."
Nien Nunb spoke again. Lando said, "Yeah, I left that out. Sorry." He returned his attention to the Solos. "He"s reminding me that the seismologists we brought in detected a system of natural caverns, really big ones, much deeper than our mineworks. Seismic scanners have detected them, and also revealed that some have collapsed betweeen readings, which may be part of the whole disaster."
"Why are there caverns in the first place?" Leia asked.
Lando looked confused by the change of subject. "Huh?"
"Caverns are usually caused by water moving through soft rock, eroding pockets out of it, correct?"
"I guess."
Han grinned at Lando. "Science hurts, doesn"t it, pal?"
"Economics is my science."
Leia continued, "But Kessel has never had that kind of water."