Star Wars_ Legacy of the Force 01_ Betrayal - Aaron Allston [108]
Luke felt his lump return, but this time he knew it was caused by pride, not pain. “That’s it,” he said. “There never seems to be a right answer is a right answer.”
“Oh.”
“Watch out for people who tell you they know the right answer,” Mara added. “They may think they do, but often they’re wrong. Or they may just know that thinking is so hard, many people don’t want to do it. They want a leader they can trust…so they don’t have to do the hard work of thinking. That’s one type of leader you don’t want to follow.”
Ben opened his mouth as if to ask another question, then closed it again.
“You’re right,” Luke said. “If you asked whether you should tell Han and Leia about the Anakin Solo droid, we’d just have to say we don’t know.”
Ben looked up at him. “Sometimes you hate being a Jedi, don’t you?”
Luke thought about it, then nodded. “Occasionally.”
“Me, too.”
Within an hour, all members of the three parties had departed—all but Jaina, Zekk, Jacen, and Ben, who waited behind to begin their investigations from this habitat. They waved at the departing corvettes and transports from the viewport in what had been Han and Leia’s suite.
When the last of the departing ships was gone, Jacen turned to the others. “First,” he said, “sleep. Then we get under way.”
chapter twenty-two
CORONET, CORELLIA
Taking two of the most famous people in the galaxy and smuggling them onto a highly developed, security-conscious world was actually quite simple. Luke knew it would be, at least once, and so didn’t bother consulting any of the many Intelligence friends and allies he had—beyond arranging for identicards for himself and Mara.
Now he stood in a crowded line at a crowded security station in the crowded Corellian city of Coronet and stared, smiling, down at the unamused, weathered face of an officer of CorSec, the system police.
The man squinted up at him. “Luke Skywalker,” he said.
Luke nodded, his smile broadening.
“I really don’t see it.”
“Oh, come on.” Mara stepped forward, voice raised in Luke’s defense. “He looks just like him.”
“Too short,” the CorSec officer said. “No one would believe in a Luke Skywalker that short.”
Luke let a slightly whiny note creep into his voice. “I can do backflips just like him.”
“I’m sure you can.” The CorSec officer waved Luke’s falsified identicard under the needle-like point of a data transmitter. A pinpoint light on the identicard switched from red to green, signifying that the visitor’s visa for Emerek To-vall, actor-impersonator from Fondor, was approved. He was now free to enter Coronet and conduct lawful business of all varieties.
“Would you like an autograph?” Luke asked.
“No, thank you. Move along.” The disinterested officer took Mara’s identicard next.
Three places up in line, a couple who bore a remarkable resemblance to Han Solo and Leia Organa—as they had looked decades before, at the time of the Battle of Yavin, down to Leia’s white Senatorial dress and side-bun hairstyle—waited patiently at another station. The CorSec woman there looked skeptically at the screen in front of her and asked, “Jiyam Solo?”
“That’s right,” the Han impersonator said, his voice richer, more theatrical than the real Han’s.
“Any relation?”
The impersonator shook his head. “I changed my name for professional reasons.”
“Does it help?”
“I get a lot of work. Here, we’re doing a bio-holodrama of the Solos, with two endings, depending on whose side he takes in the upcoming conflict…”
Just beyond him, the Leia impersonator patted her right-hand bun and spoke to the man in line ahead of her. Over the crowd noise, Luke could barely make out her softer tones: “No, we’re not married, but I’ve worked with him before. Well, yes, maybe. Where are you staying?”
Mara bumped into Luke from behind. “Move along, Shorty. I’ve cleared customs.”
Luke picked up his bag and moved toward the chamber exit, through which other visitors to Corellia were streaming. Inside the bag, its housing replaced by a more innocuous one, its power supply replaced by one far less potent, his