Enemy Lines II_ Rebel Stand - Aaron Allston [54]
“Since the most far-reaching government outside the New Republic is that of the Yuuzhan Vong, simple statistics give the highest probability of it being them.”
“Correct. Or perhaps the Peace Brigade, acting as intermediaries for the Yuuzhan Vong.”
“Oh, I hope not, Princess. The Peace Brigade are, well, very unpleasant. Very difficult.” This was something of an understatement; the Peace Brigade was a loose alliance of mercenaries who cooperated with the Yuuzhan Vong. Believing the Yuuzhan Vong claim that a galaxy without the Jedi would be a galaxy at peace, or just to earn profits, they had hunted the Jedi, capturing some and turning them over to the enemy. Definitely “unpleasant”—except to those who shared their ability to cast blame for the current war on anyone but the aggressors—they were widely regarded as traitors to the New Republic.
Han said, “And if they’re talking to the Vong, the Solos can’t be recognized here.”
Leia nodded. “If the Yuuzhan Vong learn that the Solos are here, they come to get us. Even if we use false names, if a Corellian YT-Thirteen-Hundred freighter lands with a dashing, vainglorious man at the controls, it doesn’t matter what name he uses, people are going to think Han Solo.”
Han shot her an offended look. “Vainglorious?”
“Vainglorious,” Leia affirmed. “Vain plus glorious. Go ahead, deny it.”
“Well … I can’t, really.”
Instead of being directed to a berth on the planetary capital’s commercial district, the Falcon followed her homing beacon to a government spaceport district some distance away from the capital. The spaceport was an enormous thing, kilometers long, with landing bays and warehousing domes on spars that extended like the arms of some sort of mutant sea creature from a central hub.
As they followed the beacon in, Han spent a lot of time at the comm board, arguing first with one minor official, then another. Finally, just before final approach, he leaned back and sighed. “We can’t land in the commercial zone,” he said.
Leia frowned. “Why not?”
“All cargo has to be off-loaded and inventoried here. New regulations. Once it’s all off-loaded, we can decide where it’s to be taken by their cargo haulers. Back on the ship, for transport elsewhere, or into one of the warehouses up here for evaluation by buyers. The thing is, no matter where it’s loaded, it costs money to move it … and it costs more to put it back on the ship than to warehouse it.”
Leia nodded, a world-weary smile on her lips. “Which is an inducement to keep the cargo up here so that a more limited range of buyers can look at it. Which helps keep prices and bribes where they want them.”
“And people called me dishonest,” Han muttered. “On the other hand, we don’t have to wait around for them to complete their inventory. We can take a commercial landspeeder in to their capital. That’ll give them lots more time to steal expensive bits and pieces from our cargo, which is really what it’s for anyway.”
A pair of Aphran men standing in front of a refueling station watched the duo emerge from the landing bay that now housed the Corellian YT-1300 freighter.
“I see a man and a woman I don’t recognize,” said the first. He was a man of middle height, his hair, beard, and mustache graying. With his reserved, courteous manner and his colorful, comparatively expensive clothing, he looked like a fit merchant. But the hardness of his eyes, when he was not trying to cause someone to like or trust him, suggested that he was not that peaceable a man. “And while the man and the woman could be the Solos, they could also be billions of other people.”
“I didn’t say they were the Solos,” the second man said. His jumpsuit matched the lavender-with-black-pinstripes decor of the front of the refueling station; he was as lean and tough looking as the banded artificial muscles found in cybernetic limbs. “I said that it was the Millennium Falcon. I don’t care where they slap paint on her or how many new antennas they mount on her, I know the look of her. I know the sound of her creaks when she comes in for a landing.”