Star Wars_ Fate of the Jedi 04_ Backlash - Aaron Allston [19]
Carrack nodded approval, but Yliri laughed. “I knew you were famous, but I didn’t know you were so bossy.”
“Corellians are natural leaders, sister. You should know that.” Leia rolled her eyes, but her smile took the sting out of it.
ABOARD THE MILLENNIUM FALCON, DATHOMIR SPACEPORT
C-3PO hovered, as was his nature, at the entrance to the cockpit while Allana had her encrypted comm conversation. She might, after all, need reassurance or a glass of milk at any moment.
The golden droid could hear the little girl’s side of the conversation, with Queen Mother Tenel Ka’s voice reaching him as a series of buzzes. Voices across the comm speakers had to be easy to understand by those in the pilot’s seats, but the speakers had recently drifted out of register, as they did from time to time. C-3PO suppressed a sniff—or, rather, a synthesized sound identical to a sniff in both characteristics and meaning. His speakers never became misaligned, and if they did, he’d see to their repair immediately. It was no wonder the Falcon was constantly breaking down. Such shoddy maintenance …
Allana’s conversation was winding up. “I will … I won’t … Don’t worry, I have Anji … I’m not bored.” Even the droid could sense the lie in the girl’s words. “I love you, too. Falcon out.” There was pride in the last two words; clearly, she felt very adult in remembering to add them.
The little girl rose from the pilot’s seat and turned back to face C-3PO, her red hair so like her mother’s, her serious expression so like her grandmother Leia’s. She gave the droid an unfriendly look. “You don’t have to listen to me all the time.”
“To do my job effectively, young mistress, I do. And I am very, very good at my job.”
“Most of the time, I guess.”
She sighed, clearly upset about something, then stepped over to Anji, who was curled up on the copilot’s seat. She sighed again, then began to stroke the nexu’s fur. Anji responded with a welcoming purr, but Allana did not seem to notice. She merely stared out the cockpit canopy, shaking her head at some little-girl sadness that C-3PO could only guess at.
“Come now, you mustn’t worry about your physical welfare,” C-3PO said. “Artoo and I are quite capable of keeping you tidy and well fed.”
Allana whirled on him. “I’m not a kid, Threepio!” she said. “I can keep myself tidy, and I know how to use the food synthesizer as well as you do.”
Anji raised her head and cast a wary eye on C-3PO, obviously appraising whether she needed to test the effectiveness of her bite restrainers on him. C-3PO did his best to ignore the ungrateful feline and kept his attention focused on Allana.
“Well, then, I’m afraid you’ll just have to tell me what’s wrong,” he said. “I certainly can’t fix it if you make me guess.”
“You can’t fix it at all,” Allana complained. “They forgot.”
“Oh, come now. Perhaps Captain Solo is prone to forgetfulness, but that’s not the case with Princess Leia,” C-3PO replied. “Whatever it is, I’m sure she left instructions for me to arrange it on her behalf.”
Allana’s eyes lit up. “Really?”
“Of course,” C-3PO said. “What is it that you’re thinking of? Her offer to teach you how to play dejarik?”
Allana stepped over to him. “The rancor!” she said. “Grandma promised me that the next time we were on Dathomir, I could ride a rancor!”
A surge of static shot through C-3PO’s central processing unit. “Oh dear, perhaps they did forget,” he sniffed. “I’m afraid no one said anything to me about that.”
Allana scowled at him. “I thought droids couldn’t lie.”
“I didn’t lie,” C-3PO replied, suppressing an electronic sniff. “I was merely … mistaken.”
“About Grandma never forgetting?” Allana demanded. “Or the part about leaving instructions to take me rancor riding?”
This time C-3PO did not suppress the sniff. “Clearly, you need some alone time. I will go about other duties. Please call if you need me, mistress.”
C-3PO moved aft, his microservos whining