"This is not a meeting about Han," Leia said.
"I"m afraid it is, President. Please answer me. Didn"t your husband do business on Smuggler"s Run?" She didn"t like the direction this was taking. Meido had control, and she was still several steps behind. "Of course he did business on the Run, Senator. Back in the days when you worked for the Empire. " Her words hung in the room. They sounded petty, and maybe they were. But the New Republic had never judged Han for his smuggling, just as they hadn"t judged Luke and Leia for their relationship to Vader. Meido, of all people, should want to avoid references to the past.
"I simply lived under the Empire"s rule," Meido said. "I never was anyone important. I was never a renowned person, like your husband. A successful smuggler, who, it seems, never left the profession." The chill in Leia"s hands moved up her arms. She knew where this was going. She didn"t want it to go in that direction, but she knew. She knew.
"You"d better have a point," C-Gosf said. "General Solo is a hero of the Republic."
"My point is simple," Meido said. "General Solo is behind the bombing of the Senate Hall." Leia slammed her palms on the table as she stood. "I was in that Hall. Are you suggesting my husband was trying to kill me?"
Gno grabbed at her sleeve. She shook him off. The room was deadly quiet.
"You weren"t seriously injured, President."
"And neither were you, Meido. Is that a crime?"
"The bulk of the blast hit the seats, not the floor. If he knew you"d be there-"I"d be quiet now," Gno said. "General Solo is well respected. His affection for his family is extremely well known. He has jeopardized his life for the New Republic more often than anyone else except perhaps President Organa Solo and her brother. Games like this may have been popular in the Empire, but they are not popular here. We work on mutual respect in this Council. Respect, Meido, not idle recriminations." The crimson had almost completely faded from Meido"s face. The white lines were blurring together. "I am not making idle accusations. I"m sorry, but I am not. I wish I were." The softness of his voice caught all of them.
Leia could see it. Her supporters had all leaned back in their chairs.
"You said this is a preliminary report," Gno said. "You cannot have proof."
"But I do," Meido said. He looked up at Leia, his eyes pale. "I"m sorry, President. Truly I am." The thing of it was, she believed him. She believed he was sorry. Perhaps she could feel his regret through the Force or perhaps he was sending it through his body language. She didn"t know. Slowly she sat down.
Meido pa.s.sed out several copies of a single sheet of paper. "My people intercepted this message. I have sent it to your personal computers. You can verify its authenticity through your own systems." Leia took the paper. Her hand was shaking.
CARGO DELIVERED. FIREWORKS SPECTACULAR.
SOLO KNOWS. WE CAN COUNT ON HIS INVOLVEMENT.
Lando. Lando had betrayed them again. Over the years she had learned to trust him, but that trust had always felt awkward, always slightly misplaced.
No. Lando wouldn"t betray Han. What had he said? That he"d never make up for betraying Han. Ever.
The information must have come to Meido some other way.
"There"s nothing here that says Han is involved with the bombing," she said.
"This was sent by a ship called the Spicy Lady just as it was leaving our section of s.p.a.ce on the day of the bombing," Meido said. "The Spicy Lady is owned by a smuggler named Jarril, who was seen in Solo"s company at the time of the bombing. Shortly after Jarril left, Solo left, ostensibly in search of him." It looked bad. She had known it looked bad when Lando showed it to her. She should have done something then, but Lando had a.s.sured her he had everything under control.
"This isn"t proof," Gno said.
"This is suspicious," said R"yet Coome. "I would suggest that we put out a notification for Solo"s arrest."
"We can"t do that," C-Gosf said. "He"s a hero."
"He"s a traitor," Meido said.
"He"s my husband," Leia said. "He would never do anything to harm me.
Someone is trying to set him up." She clasped her shaking hands in her lap. "What else does your report say?"
"We have only preliminary results, President," Meido said. His voice was still gentle, still filled with apology. He accused her own husband of trying to murder her and to destroy everything they all had worked for, and he was acting sorry for her.
"What are those results, Senator?" Leia"s voice was cold.
"That there was more than one detonation point."
"We know that," Leia said. "Our results say the same thing. Have you anything besides this message that links my husband to the scene?"
"He was seen with-"
"Have you?" Gno put his hand on Leia"s. She shook him off.
"Have you evidence that he planted a bomb? Have you evidence that Jarril is involved in this bombing? Do you know whether Jarril sent that message or whether someone else did? Can you prove that this isn"t some scheme to get my husband or to divide us?"
"Leia," Gno said softly.
"This seems conclusive to me," Meido said.
"It is not conclusive," Leia said. "It is mere speculation. I could devise a message tonight and send it along channels that would make it look as if you planted the bomb. Such things are easy. My husband and I are often targets for strange behavior. I don"t think we should make decisions about this until we have the whole truth."
"Leia," Gno said again.
She turned on him so fast that her hair swung loose of its tie. "What?"
she asked.
"You can"t be objective about this."
"Objective?" Leia was shaking all over with the force of containing her anger. "This man, this former Imperial, has just accused my husband of treason, and you think I should be objective?"
"Yes," Gno said. "I do. You"re the head of government. We need your calmness."
"Calmness? Calmness? This is not a situation for calmness, Gno. This is exactly what we feared when we brought the Imperials into this body.
They"re dividing us. Can"t you all see the ploy?"
"Leia," Gno said.
Meido"s entire face had gone white, except for crimson lines near his eyes and mouth. "I"m sorry, President."
"I will not accept your apology. How dare you-"
"He dares because he is doing the right thing." C-Gosf stood beside Leia and put a delicate arm around her shoulders. "Better he discusses this here, in the Inner Council, than among the other senators. Better that we do what we can to silence these rumors than allow them to spread all over Coruscant. For if we do, General Solo will always be under suspicion, even if we later learn of his innocence." All of her supporters were siding with Meido. "I"m sorry, President," he said again.
"Han had nothing to do with this," she snapped.
"Leia," Gno said, "I think you need to absent yourself from this discussion. None of us can be objective about the ones we love, no matter how hard we try." Her heart was pounding. "You believe Meido. You believe him."
"I believe we need to investigate this, Leia." Gno looked away from her.
"I"m sorry. But the charge is too serious to let slip." She looked around the room, at her closest remaining allies in the government. Familiar faces, and three unfamiliar faces, elected after the bombing. Meido, R"yet, and Wwebyls watched her warily. Her friends had sympathetic expressions on their faces. Even those who normally opposed her were looking at her with pity.
"Is this all it takes?" she asked. "An accusation, and a good man is found guilty of a crime he didn"t commit? This is not proof, and even if it were, you all know Han. You know he"s not capable of this."
"Leia, please, don"t make this difficult," Gno said.
"What do you want me to do, Senator?" she asked, using his formal t.i.tle.
"Resign?"
"No," he said. "Absent yourself from any proceedings concerning Han. "
"And if I don"t?" Gno looked away from her. C-Gosf squeezed Leia close and then let go. "Think about it, Leia. We"ll meet in the morning. By then this news won"t be quite as shocking."
"The news isn"t shocking," Leia said as she stood. "What"s shocking to me is your willingness to believe it."
"Forgive me, President," Meido said. "But whoever planted that bomb had to have access to the Chamber. Very few people had such access. The person who set the bomb will be one we trust. I can guarantee that, just from the circ.u.mstances. And I think when you"re calm you"ll realize that too." Leia stood slowly, drawing upon all her regal training to stare down Meido. "When I was eighteen years old, I stood beside Grand Moff Tarkin as he gave one order from the depth of s.p.a.ce and wiped out Alderaan, my home planet, with a single blast from the Death Star. Until that moment, I had believed the destruction of a planet in an instant was impossible. So don"t tell me what has to be true, Meido. I am Force-sensitive. If my husband were to betray me or the Republic, I would know.
And so would my brother, who is a Jedi Master. We still don"t know what happened in the Hall that day. And until we do, we can"t be certain if a friend betrayed us, or if someone tested a new weapon. But if I were you, I would stop making baseless accusations now. Such accusations will only divide us. And now, more than ever, we need to be unified." She met everyone"s gaze individually. Borsk Fey"lya was leaning back in his chair, his eyes bright. Bel Iblis wasn"t looking at her. ChoFi" was studying his hands. C-Gosf"s whiskers were trembling, and she wouldn"t meet Leia"s gaze. Gno was the only one of her friends who smiled at her, in an attempt to rea.s.sure her.
They would not do any more than they already had. She could count on them to hear the evidence, nothing more.
Leia nodded once. "This meeting is adjourned until tomorrow morning. By then," she said, "I expect answers. Not accusations. Concrete information. Am I clear?" Leia didn"t give them a chance to respond. She turned and walked out of the room, holding herself as proudly as she could. But once she was alone, she let the shaking overtake her.
It had begun. The unity she valued above everything except her family was shattering.
Just as she had known it would.
As the Lady Luck landed on Skip 1, Lando visually scanned the docking bay for the Millennium Falcon. The Falcon had features that were obvious even next to the same model Corellian stock light freighter. Lando saw none of those.
Blast Solo. It would be like him to be gone by the time Lando decided to do the heroic thing. Still, Lando wouldn"t be able to track him any other way.
He hoped Han was all right.
The Lady Luck bounced her way onto the surface. Landing without slave circuitry and only relying on outdated tractor equipment was more of a risk than he had thought it would be. He cursed and resisted the urge to run a check on his ship.
When the ship stabilized, he went to the cargo door and opened it from the inside.
Sinewy Ana Blue stood outside, one hand on one slender hip. She looked good in her shorts and tightly tied shirt, a little older, but no wiser.
He grinned. He had always been unable to resist Blue.
"That cargo list was one of the most embarra.s.sing I"ve ever seen," she said. "It"s clear you haven"t been doing much with yourself since you left here."
"I don"t have time for chitchat, Blue," he said. "I need to fix this baby and get off this mud ball before Nandreeson discovers I"m here."
"It"s probably too late," Blue said. "Nandreeson keeps track of all the traffic around the Run. You"d better hope he"s busy with something else."
"Yeah, well, I didn"t have much of a choice," Lando said. "Most of the circuitry quit. I need some repairs." Blue shook her head. "You won"t get any with that cargo list. Nothing worth trading. What have you got in your hold?"
"Nothing. I"ve been out of the business a long time." She grinned.
"That"s right. You went legit. Just like Solo. So be straight with me, Lando. You here to be with your old buddy?"
"I"m here because the Luck"s down." He had to play this cool. "Why"re you asking about Han?"
"Because he and that furball of a partner of his showed up a few days back. Figured you wouldn"t be long behind."
"And since Solo rejected her, she"s hoping for your blood." Kid DXo"ln leaned his balding head around the door. "How ya been, Calrissian?"
"Up and down."
"Yeah, heard about that gas mining on Bespin. Turning legit has its rewards, huh?"
"I lost that little property to the Empire," Lando said. He ducked under the partially open door, and stopped. Two dozen smugglers were at the base, blasters trained on him. He raised an eyebrow. "You folks sure know how to make an old friend feel welcome."
"You"re not a friend, Calrissian," Zeen Afit said. He was standing near the Kid at the base of the ramp. "You"re here to spy on us."
"For whom?"
"Whoever pays the most," the Kid said.
"Don"t accuse him of things when you have no proof," Blue said.
"I just want to get the Luck fixed," Lando said, even though his excuse was beginning to sound lame, even to him.
"Yeah?" Zeen said. "You know how it works around here. You don"t have enough cargo to trade for bantha dung, let alone a repair."
"I know that," Lando said. "But I have a lot of credits to offer."
"So why didn"t you do that up front?" someone yelled from the side.
"Because, in my day, offering money to the Run was the best way to show you didn"t belong." Blue walked up the ramp and slid her arm through his.
"It"s still that way, Lando," she said. "Don"t let them scare you off."
"I"m not," he said. "But I do want to know if I can get repairs."
"It"ll cost you," Zeen said. "Ten thousand credits."
"Ten thousand?" Lando pulled Blue closer. "You don"t even know what"s wrong yet."
"Don"t have to," Zeen said. "Figure you want to keep that ship away from Nandreeson"s people. The ten thousand is just for protection." Lando snorted. "As if you can protect me from Nandreeson. How many of his drones have blasters on me right now?"
"None," the Kid said. "Nandreeson"s got Skip 6. We don"t let him near Skip 1."
"Right," Lando said. "And you guys all work for free now."