Star Wars_ Fate of the Jedi 01_ Outcast - Aaron Allston [47]
“Thank you. What were you asking about Mom?”
“Where she is.”
“At home, I suspect.”
Hamner shook his head. “It appears that the Millennium Falcon took off for space at just past dawn this morning, with your father, your mother, and your adopted sister aboard.”
“Oh. Well, perhaps they wanted to take Amelia out for a field trip.”
“Into space.”
“Pretty normal for my family.”
“The comm recorder at their quarters, responding to my code, said to make requests for direct contact to the office of Lando Calrissian, Tendrando Arms.”
“Well, there's your answer.”
“And the office of Tendrando Arms says they do not know where Lando Calrissian is, but they will pass the message along. So I was wondering if you had any other means to get in touch with your mother, any back-door method.”
“No, I'm afraid not.” That was a bald lie, but one she had practiced so well and for so many years that she doubted Master Hamner would be able to detect the deception in the Force.
He seemed satisfied. “Very well.”
“I apologize, Master Hamner. Parents like mine, they stay out all hours, they never tell you where they're going, they keep secrets … They're making me old before my time.”
The Master blinked, and Jaina sensed that, somewhere deep beneath his Jedi calm, he was resisting the urge to throttle her. But all he said was, “Very like your mother.”
“I need to go off and contact the Chief of State's office. Can I help you with anything else?”
“No, thank you, I've had all the help I can endure.”
KESSEL
EVEN FROM A HIGH ALTITUDE, IT WAS CLEAR THAT LANDO'S KESSEL mineworks had changed substantially in the decades since Han had been an involuntary worker within them—before Lando had owned them. When he and Chewbacca had been captured and pressed into service here, the main mine entrance had been a huge open pit surrounded by broad salt plains and a few administrative buildings. Now the pit was covered, a low, square gray building in place over it, and the buildings immediately around it were far more numerous—though no more attractive; Lando's personal sense of style had clearly been no influence in the motley collection of prefabricated gray, off-white, and tan enclosures.
A couple of the larger buildings and several of the smaller ones now lay in ruined heaps, testimony to the power of recent ground quakes in the area.
Following Lando's navigational beacon, Han found himself staring at a Falcon-sized circle of a bare white salt plain surrounded by irregular chunks of brown synthstone probably scavenged from some of the felled buildings. He set down with the speed of confidence, absently adjusting the length of the Falcon's landing gear extensions so that the transport would be perfectly level on the irregular ground. Adjusting thrusters and repulsors to zero, allowing the Falcon to settle fully onto her landing gear, he smiled—he might be on Kessel again, but at least his landing had been perfect.
Beside him, sitting on Leia's lap on the copilot's seat, Allana asked, “When can I do it?”
“Do what? A landing?”
She nodded, wide-eyed. “Uh-huh.”
“When I think my heart will survive the experience.” Han gave Leia a look as if to say, Or maybe I'll be lucky and die before then.
Leia gave him a smile that was part amused malice. She looked down at her granddaughter. “Soon, I think he means.”
By the time Han got the boarding ramp lowered, Lando and Nien Nunb were at its base, waiting, wearing the breath masks required to survive Kessel's thin atmosphere for more than a few minutes. Nunb, Lando's manager in this enterprise, was Sullustan, with a head that looked oddly as though it had settled in melted layers upon his shoulders; unlike most of his species, he was only slightly shorter and rounder than the average adult human.
Lando sprang up onto the ramp with the vigor of a man half his age.