Star Wars_ Fate of the Jedi 01_ Outcast - Aaron Allston [41]
Lando mimicked his tone. “He's impossible to deal with, he hates Kessel more than you do, he's not my friend …”
“Of course we'll help,” Leia said.
Han looked at her. “No, no, no. Wait until you've had some caf. Your reasoning centers will kick in—”
“Hush.” She returned her attention to Lando. “We'll launch today.”
Lando sighed, relieved. In his impossibly smooth and gracious manner, he said, “Bless you, Leia. And you, too, Han.”
Han managed to keep his teeth from clenching. “Think nothing of it. We'll let you know when we're en route, old buddy.” He switched off the holocomm connection.
Then he turned to glare at his wife.
She gave him a look that was all innocence. “What?”
“Don't you have to clear things like this through the Temple before you rush off?”
“Theoretically, yes. But not this time. It's better to help a friend and take your punishment than be refused permission and not be able to help.”
“All right, how about this: Kessel?”
“Innocent beings live on Kessel. Even the energy spiders don't deserve to die just because they spooked you.”
“Nothing spooks me.”
“Then you won't mind going back.”
“I do mind. Did you forget about Allana?”
From the way Leia froze, it was clear that she had forgotten Allana, perhaps only because Leia was sleep-fogged. Allana—known to everyone but Han and Leia as Amelia and never referred to by her real name except in the utmost privacy—was the daughter of Jacen Solo and Tenel Ka, conceived before Jacen's recent efforts to gain mastery over the galaxy. She was Han and Leia's granddaughter, raised for her first five years by Tenel Ka, Queen Mother of the Hapes Consortium. At the end of the war between the Alliance and the Confederation, Tenel Ka falsely announced Allana's death to protect her from those who might kill her to gain the Hapan throne. Tenel Ka had sorrowfully given the care of her daughter to Han and Leia. The girl, now seven, lived these days under the guise of Amelia, adopted daughter of the Solos.
If Han and Leia raced off to Kessel, they'd have to take her along or leave her behind with near strangers. Allana's aunt Jaina was no stranger, but her life as a Jedi was an active and dangerous one. Luke and Ben were gone. There was no one else left whom they could entrust with Allana.
“We take her with us.” Leia's voice was decisive.
“Don't get mad at me to cover up the fact that you forgot.” Han pointed an accusing finger at her. “We agreed to settle down—as much as possible—for her sake. We agreed that we couldn't drag a little girl around the galaxy as we stupidly try to fix other stupid people's stupid problems.”
“That's just it.” There was a note of desperation in Leia's voice. “We weren't able to do anything for Luke. We can't do anything to stop the bureaucratic catastrophe that's descending on the Jedi Order right now. But we might be able to help a friend.”
Han considered. When she put it like that … he'd never regretted marrying a woman who could out-argue him on just about every issue, but he was often inconvenienced by it. “Of course, if we just take off this morning without telling anyone where, you won't get assigned your own government spy.”
“Observer. And you're right. We wouldn't be accompanied by a nosy intruder who inconveniences you as much as me.”
“And Allana wouldn't have to put up with a stranger.”
“Also correct.”
“We already lose a lot of private time raising a little girl. Add a government spy and we lose the rest.”
Leia nodded, encouraging him to continue down that line of reasoning.
“And it could be put off even longer if the Falcon's hyperdrive