3PO backed away from Master Cole. "I"m so sorry, sir. It"s just me. C-3PO, at your service." Master Cole"s scream died, and he brought a hand to his face. R2 beeped at him sympathetically.
"We"re still in this place."
"Only for a moment, sir," 3PO said. "R2 has gotten us transport."
"Brakiss?" Master Cole said.
"He left, sir. The astromech droids attacked him, and he ran away. After I-" R2 bleebled.
"-Ah, after we defeated the Red Terror."
"The Red-?"
"Oh, it"s a long story, sir, but quite intriguing. You see, after I left you-"
"Later, 3PO." Master Cole pulled himself up on his elbows, and peered at R2. "Did you solve what you needed to?" R2 whistled his affirmative.
"Oh, more than solved it, sir. He deactivated all the detonators. It seems that Brakiss designed them all to be handled from one remote, although why he would do that seems quite unusual to me. R2 a.s.sures me that it is custom among droid manufacturers. It allows for defective models to be deactivated, even in difficult-to-reach areas where-"
"Can no one shut him up? " Master Cole said as he rolled off the table.
He moaned slightly.
"I don"t think you should be getting up, sir."
"I don"t think I want to stay here any longer. Where is the freighter?"
"Where we left it, sir. But you are in no condition to fly it. Master Calrissian shall be here shortly. He"ll take us back to Corus-cant." 3PO moved to help Master Cole stand, but Master Cole flinched.
"Did they hurt you badly, sir?" Master Cole gave him a withering glance.
"It didn"t exactly tickle." 3PO nodded. "Well, sir, it might do you good to remember two things: R2 and I did rescue you, and if you"ll forgive my impertinence, sir, no two droids are alike. I know many sentients forget that, but we are individuals and can remain so without a memory wipe."
Master Cole smiled. "I know that, 3PO. You startled me when I came to.
And as for the rest, well, it hurts to be touched at the moment. I"m sure that will fade." He gazed down at R2, who hovered near him. "I"ve learned from both of you never to underestimate a droid. I"ve been as bad as the rest of the galaxy in taking you all for granted. I"ll never do that again." R2 beeped happily.
"What did he say?" Master Cole asked.
"That it sounds as if you"ll be all right now." 3PO"s hand clanged as it rested on R2"s head. "It seems, thanks to R2"s quick thinking and my negotiation skills, that we"ll all be fine now." Master Cole grinned. "I think you"re right, 3PO. I think you"re right."
Mon Mothma walked Leia to the redesigned Imperial ballroom. Leia was wearing a copy of her white dress, but she had forgone the braids wrapped around her ears. Instead, she wore her hair down. Han had smiled at her before she left the suite, and had made her promise to return from the Senate early. The children were due back the following day. He wanted to make the most of his time alone with her.
So did she.
"I still don"t understand how you got them to call off the recall election," Leia said.
Mon Mothma smiled. "I didn"t, Leia. You did. You and Wedge and Han and Luke. If you hadn"t successfully defeated Kueller, you would have come back here to a political storm unlike any you"ve ever seen. But when it became clear that Han wasn"t involved in the bombing, and instead you all had been the ones who caught the culprit, Meido and his followers could do nothing else but support you." Leia clasped her hands behind her back.
"But you had to have done something. You already had Meido off the Inner Council by the time I came back." Mon Mothma shrugged. "I"ve had more years of experience dealing with divergent voices than you have, Leia.
You"ll need to learn how to work with a group that is no longer h.o.m.ogeneous. The Senate won"t always agree on policy anymore. You"ll have to build coalitions."
"With Imperials?" Leia asked, shuddering.
"Former Imperials who really had nothing to do with the Empire. You can"t always blame people for their pasts. You should know that better than anyone, President Organa Solo." Mon Mothma had a point. Han"s past was shady at best, and yet he was getting a hero"s commendation for his work with the wounded on Smuggler"s Run. So was Lando. Lando had already asked Leia how much financial compensation went along with the commendation, and had frowned when she said that grat.i.tude came without monetary reward.
And then she had promised to pay, out of her own pocket if she had to, for the refurbishing of the Lady Luck. It was the least she could do.
Lando had saved hundreds of lives.
"Any word from Chewbacca?" Mon Mothma asked.
Leia nodded. "He and the Alderaan are due at any point. It took him a while to find the wild pride of Thernbees. Apparently, when their number had been so badly hunted by the Je"har, they had moved away from their normal stomping grounds. But Chewie was able to deliver our Thernbee back to them."
"He sounds like a delightful creature."
"He was too big and pesky to be delightful," Leia said. "And it took him two days to digest the ysalamiri. Mara, Luke, and I were stuck in the Falcon, playing holographic games while Han and Chewie argued about who would repair the damage."
"They must have fixed it." Leia grinned. "They did. After Mara threatened to shoot them both." Mon Mothma laughed. They stopped in front of the ballroom door. Mon Mothma put her hand on Leia"s arm. "You realize that some of the senators are saying 3PO and R2 should be deactivated for taking such initiative. They also want action taken against Cole Fardreamer. The theft of the freighter has them all disturbed. They"ll try to make that the first order of business." Leia glanced at the closed doors. The last time she had gone into a Senate Chamber dressed like this, she had been worried about the petty backbiting of the senators.
The explosion had come out of the blue, had ruined so many lives, and had made those worries seem trivial.
Kueller. His youthful face would haunt her longer than his death mask would.
His actions would haunt her longer still.
He had taken so many lives without a single thought. And it had taken so much to defeat him. She would do everything she could in her position as Chief of State to see that no other monsters like him were created under her watch.
And the first order of business would be to make sure no truth got distorted by opportunistic politicians.
"They won"t succeed in deactivating the droids," she said. "R2 and 3PO are heroes. I have some ideas about changing the laws regarding droids.
And they won"t touch Cole Fardreamer. He discovered the flaws in the new X-wings. It"s on his suggestion that we"re returning to the older models.
I"ll take care of all of this. I also have some bridge building to do."
"Sounds like a busy day," Mon Mothma said.
"It can"t be too busy," Leia said. "Luke is having his last bacta treatment this afternoon, and I plan to be there when he wakes up. Then I am going home. Han promised dinner for me."
"And no children until tomorrow," Mon Mothma said.
Leia smiled. "A person always has to make the best of every situation,"
she said.
"Oh, you do, Leia," Mon Mothma said.
The moment had suddenly gotten too serious for Leia. She put her arm around Mon Mothma"s waist. "A whole new chapter in here," Leia said.
"Yes," Mon Mothma said. "And the first order of business is for me to step down and you to regain your post."
"Think they"ll ratify my return?" Leia asked.
"Without dissent," Mon Mothma said.
Then they opened the door to the temporary Senate Hall. Leia was already planning her speech. It would be different from the one she had planned so long ago. This one would be about unity and respect.
She would set the tone for the new Senate term.
And this time, she would do it right.