Star Wars_ I, Jedi - Michael A. Stackpole [17]
“Thanks.” Wedge nodded and sat back in his chair. “So, what brings you here? Just visiting?”
I swallowed hard. “Not exactly. I need a favor. A big favor.”
His reply came a bit more gravely than before. “What is it, Corran?”
“Mirax is missing and I need to find her. General Cracken knows where she was last reported to be—she was doing a job for him at the time—and he won’t tell me where that was.”
Wedge frowned. “He doesn’t want you running off and jeopardizing her life and his operation.”
“I know, but she’s in trouble and I need to help her. I want to know if you would be willing to speak to Councilor Organa Solo and see if she would help me petition the Council to order Cracken to give me that information.” I tried to make my request sound reasonable, but even as I heard the words, I knew it was insane. Even if Wedge helped, the Council could never give me what I wanted. I was way out of bounds and I knew it, but I had no other choice.
Before Wedge could answer, a bright-eyed man swung in through the office doorway. He was looking back at Wedge’s assistant and said, “It will just take a second, and then I’ll be out again.” He looked over at Wedge with a rakehell grin as wide as a Hutt and full of trouble on his face. “Wedge, want to make a run with me to Kessel?”
“Kessel? That’s the last place I’d think you’d want to go.” Wedge blinked away his surprise. “Thanks for the invitation, Han, but I’ve got duties here.”
“What duties? Construction droids run themselves. You can head out with me and check on folks you left there, like that Fliry Vorru.” Han Solo looked past Wedge and acknowledged me with a quick nod. “Sorry to interrupt.”
Wedge looked from him back to me, then smiled. “Have you two not met?”
I shook my head. “I know General Solo by reputation, certainly.”
Han Solo’s smile remained in place. “No longer a general, just a civilian, thanks.”
Wedge smiled slyly. “I don’t think that’s the whole of the reputation he means, Han. This is Corran Horn. He used to be with CorSec.”
Han extended a hand to me. “Then I know you by reputation, too. And your father.”
“My father?”
Corellia’s most notorious smuggler nodded. “He was on my trail once. Had to take an appointment to the Imperial Naval Academy to escape him.”
Han Solo had a hint of smugness in his voice that I’d long associated with smugglers and criminals boasting of their narrow escapes, and I wanted to hate him for it. I knew he’d trafficked in spice for a Hutt and that, too, was cause for me to think him the dregs of the universe. Even the fact that Corellians were often seen as flashy scofflaws in the rest of the galaxy, largely because of the fame of his exploits, was more than enough to have earned him my enmity forever.
But there was something in his eyes and the firmness of his grip that hinted at the honorable spirit at his core. It would have been easy to deride him as nothing more than a mercenary who had found his fortune in Princess Leia, but that denied the sheer pain he’d suffered and the effort he’d put into fighting against the Empire. Something in the man struggled against taking the easy way out, against abandoning friends and abandoning hopeless causes. Perhaps it was a will to succeed or a fear of failure, both or even more, but it caused me to realize that a catalog of his crimes and deeds could not sum this man up.
“I am pleased to meet you, sir.”
“You were CorSec, I’m supposed to call you sir.” He shrugged. “But formality has never been my strong suit.”
Wedge waved Han to a chair, but the man remained standing. “Corran was just asking me to speak to your wife on a very important matter. Do you remember Booster Terrik?”
Han’s face brightened. “Booster? Hard to forget him. He was a legend among smugglers before Corellia cooled into a ball. Didn’t your father send Booster to Kessel?”
I nodded. “Five years.”
Han winced. “That’s a long time in the mines.”
Wedge nodded. “Corran married Booster’s daughter, Mirax.”
“Really! Someone who finally has in-laws that are as interesting as mine.” Han looked