Star wars, p.34
Star Wars, page 34
“Trinkris, are you positive?” The captain’s voice was sad but unsurprised.
“You know I’ve been considering returning to Glee Anselm for some time,” Zalma said. “I miss the water, the one thing even the Halcyon can’t provide enough of.”
“I was preparing a recommendation for you to transfer to one of the aquatic ships,” Captain Dicto said. “But if you’d prefer this…”
“Excellent!” Kelad said cheerily. “So, I have the parts, I have a crew, now I just need a contract with my payment stipulations.” The man threw out a number that made Leia’s eyes pop.
Yens shook his head mournfully. He had the method to save his moon, but not the means. The Empire had been bleeding the moon dry, blocking trade and limiting their regular exports. Leia didn’t know the details of Madurs’s coffers, but she could guess that Kelad’s demands were impossible.
“The new republic will pay once it is established,” she said, leaning over and taking the prime minister’s spot in the holo.
“I cannot sign away my people’s freedoms, not again,” Yens said in a low, tight voice, clearly torn. How could he choose between paying an impossible debt and saving the world he lived upon?
Leia shook her head. “The new republic will pay,” she told him. “Not as a loan. As a gesture of goodwill.” She was sure Mon would approve the funds, but if not, she would drain her own accounts. Leia would not let another world die at the hands of the callous Empire, not if she could help it. “In time, I hope you will learn that this is the function of a good government—to give aid when it is needed, to prepare for it when it is not.”
Yens nodded, his lips tight, as if he did not trust himself to speak in this moment. “And Captain Dicto?” Leia added, turning back to the holoprojector. “Let us negotiate the cost of the tractor beam when I’m back aboard.”
“Take the hateful thing,” Captain Dicto said. “It’s Imperial. We don’t need it—we have bay loaders. It is my goal to scrub every vestige of the Empire from this ship.”
“Perhaps, then, we can come to a different agreement, one that suits all. The Imperial battle aside,” Leia said, laughing a little, “Madurs has proven to be a hospitable stop on the cruise. Maybe we can develop a different tour, one for citizens of our democracy that can showcase how the Empire damaged worlds, but how we try to repair them.”
The captain nodded, thinking. “Perhaps.”
“So!” Kelad interrupted. “I should bill the government then?”
Leia glared through the holo. Opportunist was too kind a label for the man. “The government will not be dealing with a private…individual,” she said, unable to keep her disgust from her voice. “I’ll draw up a contract with Yens and Zalma as representatives of the business venture.” She stated another sum, one far more reasonable.
Kelad opened his mouth to protest the lower amount, but Leia could just hear a grumbling growl that sounded remarkably Wookiee-like. Kelad’s eyes widened, and Leia almost regretted not hearing the full extent of her husband’s threat to the man. But he turned back to the holo and nodded. “Fine,” he said. “Deal. That was more than the buyer on Synjax offered anyway.”
Leia could now see exactly why Han had wanted to throw the man out of an air lock.
CHAPTER 59
HAN
THE SPACE ABOVE MADURS WAS crowded.
Mon’s promised evacuation ships had arrived to cart the people of Madurs into orbit while the moon’s core was being worked on. Several of the underwater fishers, including Balangawa, remained on the surface despite the danger in order to help in the underwater installation of the thermal oscillator.
Leia was among those who stayed, so Han joined the engineers when they went down to Madurs. Captain Dicto assured Han that the Halcyon would wait to depart in order to ensure the safety of the people of Madurs. Kelad, meanwhile, assured Captain Dicto that he would have the moon stabilized within the day, although Han was doubtful the quick talker could actually deliver. At best, he expected the initial install would be done in a day, but it would take far longer to truly neutralize the ice quakes.
“Isn’t she a beauty?” Kelad asked, running his hands across the Halcyon’s dismantled tractor beam.
“No,” Han said flatly.
“Behave,” Zalma warned.
“You just don’t see my vision,” Kelad said. The transport shifted as they neared the surface of Madurs. Kelad brought out his datapad, and schematics for his large-scale thermal oscillator illuminated on the screen.
Kelad chatted away, pointing out which parts of the tractor beam he’d already altered, which others would be taken apart, and how he would put it all back together with the plates of carnium from the ice palace. The transport landed on the barren field near the floating dock. The gangway door opened, and Han walked past the man, utterly ignoring him even as he sputtered at the way Han obviously wasn’t listening.
Han stomped out of the transport, his eyes skimming the icy surface of Madurs. There she was.
Leia was deep in conversation with someone via holo on her comlink, but Han completely ignored that, wrapping his arms around her and silencing her protests with a kiss. As soon as they broke apart, Leia raised the comlink. “Sorry, Mon, Han is impatient.”
The holoprojector showed a somewhat bemused Mon Mothma. The leader wasn’t with the evacuation ships, instead remaining at the temporary headquarters. “I’ll be in touch later,” she said. “Don’t forget to have this so-called genius you found get back in contact with me. If he’s really this good, I’ve got some engineers with new ship designs that could use some upgraded tractor beam technology.”
Leia’s gaze flicked up to Han, hurt in her eyes that he wished he could make disappear. The war was over. But the need for newer, better, stronger warships might never be.
“Leia, Han. Happy honeymoon.” The holo disappeared.
Before Han could say anything, Leia’s eyes settled on Zalma. “The Nebulon-B frigates Mon sent are equipped with tractor beams that are already engaged in order to help stabilize the core while you work.”
“That’s a good temporary fix,” Zalma said.
“I thought of it!” Kelad interjected.
Leia’s cool eyes looked right through the man as if he were not even there. Instead she turned to Han. “The frigates obviously cannot stay in orbit forever. And we’re still getting ice quakes. Milder than before, but…”
Han cast his eyes up, even though he couldn’t see the frigates from where he was. All the inhabitants of Madurs who evacuated were on the ships above, no doubt watching their moon, hoping it wouldn’t shatter.
“Well, let’s get this thing in the water,” Balangawa said, striding forward with her crew.
They loaded the dismantled tractor beam onto carts and headed to the dock. With the fishers all either evacuated or on the crew to help, the floating dock was mostly empty. It was strange, Han thought—they had just been there in the crowd of work crews, voices filling the corridors. Everything was quiet now, but not enough time had passed to remove all traces of the people who’d been there. Even though it felt as if this world had been abandoned, there were personal items left in the lockers, half-eaten snacks on one of the desks. Dust had not had time to settle. Bait buckets along the ring of the fishing hole had not even yet begun to smell bad, or, at least, no worse than they had before.
The entire world was paused, waiting to see if it would be saved.
“So, the initial process is pretty simple,” Kelad said. “If this works, it’ll be enough stabilization to see us through the bigger build.”
Even though Han had dismissed Kelad’s schematics before, the ragtag crew gathered around, going over the plan. The initial stage would ensure stability enough to bring the evacuees back to their moon. Kelad’s long-term plan, which would take more than a year to see through, would build a housing unit connecting the thermal oscillator all the way to the surface for easy, consistent maintenance and checking.
“Meanwhile,” Balangawa said, “the water temperatures are already tracking cooler than before. And we installed this while we waited.” Balangawa showed them the radial seismograph display.
While Kelad, Zalma, and Balangawa’s crew went into the under-ice ocean with the pieces needed to install the initial stages of the thermal oscillator, Han and Leia stood around the radial seismograph display. Tiny lines jittered in circles on the screen, indicating the mini-quakes that rattled the moon’s core.
“Do you think we have a chance?”
Han turned to see Prime Minister Yens. He nodded to the man, an appreciative look in his eyes. Han had initially believed that the prime minister was weak and bending, but he had seen the steel in the man’s resolve, the way he worked with his people instead of against them.
“See for yourself,” Leia said. A burst of energy trembled on the radial seismograph display, but then the lines dropped harshly. The thermal oscillator worked quickly.
Prime Minister Yens’s body sagged in relief.
* * *
—
They stayed on the surface of the moon long enough for the first shuttle of evacuees to return to the surface. If the celebration at the defeat of the Imperial station had been joyous, the reunion of the citizens of Madurs on their icy moon was effervescent. It was the difference, Han thought, between the fires that had burned on Endor, the dancing and the music that had happened in the wake of their victory, compared with the more solemn awe of the Rebels at the flower-fliers that had emerged after his wedding with Leia. One was relief for surviving bursting out chaotically. The other was quieter, a recognition of what was lost, a solemn appreciation of what was not.
Han and Leia returned on the shuttle to the Halcyon after saying farewell to Zalma and the people of Madurs. As the ship came into view from the shuttle’s small windows, Leia nudged Han.
“So, did you get to fly the fancy ship after all?”
Han grinned. “Fired some cannons at the Empire, that was nice.”
Leia laughed. Han had liked being at the helm of the Halcyon, even if it’d only been for a moment, but it really just made him miss the Falcon even more. That was home. It wasn’t just piloting; it was the Falcon.
He couldn’t wait to get back to his ship.
The shuttle connected to the loading bay of the Halcyon so smoothly that it was almost undetectable. The door opened, and D3-O9 stood there, ready to welcome the pair back aboard. Leia walked out first, but Han caught her by the wrist and spun her around, claiming her lips in a kiss. He had one sort of home with the Falcon, but he was already looking for a different one with Leia. Would life always be that push-and-pull, similar to the gravity working against the tractor beams, as he oscillated between ship and wife, adventure and peace, one home and the other?
He didn’t know.
But amid all the uncertainty that the past few days had exposed to him, she stood in the center, the clear vision of the one thing he truly needed. He didn’t know how to put any of that into words, and he could only hope his kiss was enough. Leia’s head tilted up, her arms going around his neck, her lips claiming his with the same urgency, the same desire, the same love. This wasn’t a gentle kiss; it was a mutual vow.
D3-O9 made an impatient noise. “This area is for loading and unloading purposes only,” the droid informed them. She refrained from shooing them, but only just.
Leia laughed, and Han’s heart twisted. If he had known his honeymoon would have turned into a rescue mission and a battle against an Imperial holdout, if he’d been told that he would face Beck again and the cold, if he’d foretold the fate of this trip…he didn’t think he would have taken it.
But if he hadn’t taken it, he wouldn’t have gotten that one moment of pure joy glowing in Leia’s eyes when she was breathless from his kiss.
And that would have been a damn shame.
CHAPTER 60
LEIA
HAN HAD INSISTED ON GOING to the dining room himself to procure a much-needed meal and bring it back to the suite so they could dine in private, and Leia was more than happy to oblige. Almost as soon as the door zipped closed behind him, though, D3-O9 pinged Leia at the Droid Link Panel.
“Riyola Keevan would like to speak to you,” the droid said politely. “Should I schedule a meeting?”
“I’m not busy now,” Leia said. “Should I meet her somewhere?”
“She says she can come to your room, if that’s acceptable.”
Leia agreed, and a few minutes later, Riyola arrived. “I’m so sorry to bother you,” she said.
“Come in,” Leia offered.
Riyola shook her head. “I just—I wanted to tell you personally how much I appreciated all you’ve done. Not just turning your honeymoon into a chance to help strengthen the galaxy after war, but then all you did on Madurs—”
“I was actually thinking about that,” Leia said. “I saw a work of art on Madurs that really stuck with me. The artist no longer lives on the moon; she’s studying art on Hosnian Prime now, but I wondered if I could contact her, perhaps I could commission a work of art for the Halcyon. Would that be acceptable?”
Riyola flushed. “I’ll have to clear it with the captain, but I cannot imagine it would be an issue,” she said. The Pantoran paused. “Although…it wouldn’t be made of ice, would it?”
Leia laughed. “According to the docent, the artist left in order to study media that won’t melt.” She would have to speak to the artist, but she hoped that as the Empire fell, Madurs was saved, and the new government formed, the artist would be in favor of something more permanent to reflect a unified government. If there was one thing Madurs had taught her, it was the power of art to exist even in the darkest times, to silently stand in opposition to the destroyers.
Art was a form of rebellion.
Leia and Riyola chatted for a bit more, and after another sincere thanks, Riyola left. Han still wasn’t back, so Leia sent a comm to Mon to update her on the status of Madurs and secured a promise of more engineers to arrive to aid in the development of the thermal oscillator—and to ensure that Kelad could actually do the job he’d exploited the situation to procure. She closed her holocomm with a heavy sigh. Leia was used to the invisible work of politics, the minute details and the layers of negotiations and compromises, all the labor that wasn’t glamorous.
This had been different.
No one—except, she thought, Han—had seen her use the Force. It was already a legend on Madurs, excused as coincidence or ignored as exaggeration, but she knew it had been real, even if it hadn’t been seen.
All those other times, she had tried to use the Force. She’d called for it in privacy, in the climate simulator. She’d screamed for it underwater, nearly drowning and freezing. But this time? Leia hadn’t been trying to use the Force. Or, rather, she hadn’t been trying to control it.
Leia let out a harsh breath. She should have known better, but perhaps that was her legacy from her biological father—a desire to control. After all, wasn’t that how Darth Vader had always used the Force? As a weapon, as a means to—literally—force those around him to bend to his dark will? No wonder the Force hadn’t worked for her when she emulated him; she would have learned to hate it as much as she hated him if it had.
Or I would have become him.
Leia demanded that she dwell in the thought, not push it away. She had only brushed against the Force on Madurs, but even now, she felt the power of it seeping into her, making her long for it all the more. It was intoxicating, and—
And she craved more.
“I need to speak to Luke,” Leia said aloud, then repeated it. She wasn’t sure if this need—this hungering longing for power—meant that she should learn to control it, or if it meant she should deny herself the use of it.
Her hands bunched into fists. Now that she had tasted the power of the Force, she…she couldn’t deny that she longed for more.
But if claiming the Force meant following in Vader’s footsteps…
No. Never that.
When she had brushed up against the power of the Force on Madurs, it hadn’t been in an attempt to destroy, not like Vader had. She hadn’t been commanding the edont to attack; she hadn’t even meant to reach the edont.
She had simply wanted help.
Tentatively, Leia reached out again, simply hoping to feel…something. She closed her eyes, trying to recall the peace, the silence, the stillness of the sea.
No—she hadn’t felt the Force in the water. She’d felt it inside herself.
That was also the difference. All those other times, she’d been reaching forward, trying to grab something in the great beyond, but…it had been threaded within herself the whole time. The Force as much felt her as she had felt it. And so, when she had asked for help rather than trying to seize control, it had answered.
As if it had been waiting for her to simply ask all along.
The door to the suite opened, and Han came inside carrying a tray that he set on the table in the corner. Leia stood, and Han wove his arms through hers, holding her against him, demanding nothing of her but her presence.
Love was like the Force. She hadn’t asked for it. In a lot of ways, she knew, their love was only going to complicate things.
But something inside her had called out to Han, and something inside him had answered.
CHAPTER 61
HAN
HAN KISSED THE TOP OF Leia’s head. “Hey, sweetheart,” he said softly.
She looked up at him with those big brown eyes of hers, and he shook his head. Unfair of the universe to give her eyes like that.
