Star Wars_ Fate of the Jedi 04_ Backlash - Aaron Allston [77]
“A little sanding, a little paint, and you’ll never know it was touched.”
Han jumped and turned to glare at the speaker. Leia stood a couple of meters back along the access, atop the end of the boarding ramp, which was in its up position and locked into place. “Keep sneaking up on me when I’m using power tools, sister, and there’s going to be one amazing accident someday.”
She grinned. “I waited until you’d shut it off. This time.”
“The kid asleep?”
She nodded. “I kind of had to reassure her that we weren’t going to ground her until she was our age.”
“I wish you hadn’t done that. I wanted to keep our options open.” Han stepped away from the hatch and hit the button to close it. It slid into place and locked with a reassuring thump.
“I’m already making her wait until the next time we’re on Dathomir to ride her rancor,” Leia said.
“Oh yeah, the rancor. I forgot you promised her she could ride one.”
Leia’s brow shot up. “That wasn’t exactly me, you know.”
Han shrugged and smiled. “It is the way I remember it.”
He took Leia’s arm and walked with her up to the cockpit, depositing welder and goggles in a locker en route. “And how’s the nexu?”
“I think she’ll be fine. Lots of bruises.” Leia said.
C-3PO loitered in the cockpit, his body language more than usually uncertain. “We are all sealed in, sir?”
“All sealed.” Han flopped into the pilot’s chair, which was now empty of Allana’s pillows. “You and Artoo have finished all the cosmetic fixes?”
“Artoo’s handling the last of the panels that popped free during our most distressing landing, sir. Otherwise your diagnostics boards are showing all green, I believe the expression is.”
Leia took her customary seat in the copilot’s chair. “Threepio, why didn’t you inform us when Artoo first went missing? A lot of this trouble could have been avoided.”
“Oh, dear, I knew this topic would arise. I was under specific instructions from Artoo not to disturb you unless a certain amount of time passed without further communication from him. I assume he felt that his investigations might take some time. And as I’m quite familiar, from decades of suffering the consequences, with his tendencies to initiate activities without anyone’s go-ahead, I acquiesced. I truly do regret that this led Mistress Allana into harm’s way.”
“Not your fault.” Han sighed. “Heredity and environment are to blame, just like usual.”
Leia gave him a close look. “Usually it’s enough for you to say It’s not my fault, without actually coming to a conclusion about what is to blame.”
“Yeah, well. Unusual times. Threepio, go ahead and knock off. We’ll let you know when we’ve figured out what to do.”
“As you say, sir.”
Han waited until the golden droid waddled his way aft. “I hate to say it, but we’ve got to go back to Coruscant.”
“I know.”
“If Daala’s mad enough to throw Mandos at the Jedi—at our daughter—we’ve got to do something about it.”
“I agree.”
He gave her a narrow look. “Since when did you become so agreeable?”
“Since when did you become so responsible?”
Han glanced over his shoulder toward the aft sections of his ship. He couldn’t see her through intervening bulkheads, but Allana would be back there now, asleep, at peace. “Since we got another chance—and I’m not making the same mistake again.”
“Oh, I think I can count on you to foul up this time, too.” There was no real sting in her words, just amusement.
“Now, that’s the disagreeable girl I married.” He grinned at her and turned around to begin a preflight checklist. “You want to call Luke and let him know?”
“No.”
He glanced at her, puzzled.
“Just being disagreeable.” She leaned forward to activate the comm board.
CORUSCANT
Somehow, while Daala wasn’t looking, the funeral of Admiral Cha Niathal had been transformed into a morning procession to be followed by a public service scheduled for broadcast