Star Wars_ Fate of the Jedi 06_ Vortex - Denning Troy [65]
“He has to try,” Leia said. “We can’t fight Sith if we’re busy fighting Daala.”
“Yeah, well, trying to cut a deal with Daala is a waste of time,” Han said. He began to fling coasters like sabacc chips, tossing one in front of each seating area. “The only way to deal with Daala is to deal her out.”
Leia frowned. “Han, what do you mean by that?”
“You know what I mean,” Han said, taking a chair. “And don’t give me any poodoo about it being premature. Daala tried to take us out, and Amelia was there. She’s lucky I haven’t gone after her already.”
“Someone tried to take us out,” Leia corrected. Han was referring to a dinner a few weeks earlier, when their visit to the Pangalactus Restaurant had been interrupted by an assassination attempt. Leia found the incident more sad than angering, as the dinner had been their last with Jagged Fel before Jaina broke off the couple’s engagement. “We don’t know that Daala sent them. We can’t even be sure we were the targets.”
“You want to give me odds she didn’t, and we weren’t?” Han countered. “She set us up with that whole we can negotiate act.”
“Okay, so let’s say Daala did set us up,” Leia said. Han had never had much patience for verifying the obvious, so unless she wanted the meeting to start with a rant about Daala’s Imperial treachery, she needed to nudge him into a more constructive area of thinking. “What are you going to do about it? Launch another coup?”
Han winced at this reminder of their son Jacen’s disastrous takeover of the Galactic Alliance government, and he answered in a calmer voice. “I wasn’t thinking of us, exactly.”
“I hope you’re not thinking of the Jedi, either,” Leia said. “Because the Senate—and the public—would only take that as proof that Daala is right to fear us.”
“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that,” Lando said, joining them with a tray of drinks. “Kenth is right about one thing—the Jedi have as many friends in the Senate as Daala does, and you can put a lot of pressure on her by letting them know what’s going on.”
“I’d say that has about a ten percent chance of working,” Jaina said. “What do we do when it backfires and she starts arresting Senators?”
Lando flashed one of his brilliant smiles. “That, my dear, is when the Jedi step in to save the Alliance.” He placed a tumbler full of burtalle in front of Jaina. “You just need to be patient—and find a way to bring Kenth around before the Sith make their move.”
“You think we have that much time?” Leia asked.
Lando set a tumbler in front of her, then nodded. “With Abeloth dead, yes, I think so,” he said. “If she were still alive, the Jedi wouldn’t have a chance. But as matters stand, her attack on the Shelter students may have been a lucky break for the Jedi.”
“How do you figure that?” Han scoffed. “By giving Daala a bunch of barvy Jedi Knights she could use as an excuse to go after Luke and the Order?”
It was Jaina who replied. “By forcing the Sith to reveal themselves before they were ready. If Ben and Luke hadn’t been exiled, they would never have gone to Sinkhole Station—and we wouldn’t have known about the Lost Tribe.”
“Exactly,” Lando said. “But now we have a chance to mobilize.”
“We?” Leia arched a brow, then asked, “Are you sure you want to involve yourself in this, Lando?”
Lando looked at the floor for a moment, then said, “To tell the truth, it’s the last thing I want.” He grabbed a tumbler off the tray and emptied it in a long gulp, then placed the glass back on the tray. “But with a whole planetful of Sith on the way, I doubt there’s going to be a choice for anyone.”
He placed the last two tumblers on the table, one in front of Han and one in front of a Sullustan-sized stool with a well-worn nerf-hide seat, then returned to the bar to refill his glass. With a contemplative silence hanging over the room, Leia took a sip of the burtalle. It was as special as Lando had claimed, with a deep, malty flavor tinged by musky notes from the moagwood aging casks. It