Star Wars_ Legacy of the Force 04_ Exile - Aaron Allston [31]
But he put on his friendliest smile and modulated his voice into its richest tones. “Hello! I’m Bescat Offdurmin, master of the private yacht Looooove Commander. What’s a spinnerfish?”
The lieutenant opened his mouth as if to answer, looked confused for just a fraction of a second, and thought better about responding. “Love Commander, you are entering restricted space. You have to turn around and depart the Corellian system.”
“Oh, no, son, I’m here for at least a month. I’m here to gamble.”
“Gamble—sir, what’s your planet of origin?”
“That would be Coruscant.”
“Then you have to be aware that the Galactic Alliance and the Corellian system are currently in a state of war.”
“You don’t say. What has that got to do with gambling?”
“It means you can’t visit.”
“Son, I don’t see that gambling has anything to do with anything. My gambling in Corellia won’t alter the course of the war one millimeter. I mean, it’s not as though I had a bunch of smuggling compartments filled with bacta or offers of aid from Commenor, is it?”
The lieutenant’s mouth worked for a moment. Then he said, “Love Commander, prepare to be boarded and inspected.”
Lando smiled agreeably. “Now, that’s the kind of thing I like to hear. Decisiveness. Crew, activate the top air lock and prepare to be boarded.”
The lieutenant and two security officers came aboard. Han took the security men on a tour of the yacht while the lieutenant came to the control cabin, his datapad in hand and questions on his mind. He sat in the navigator’s seat while Leia pretended to ignore him.
“Captain Offdurmin, do you know what the penalties are for offering aid and comfort to the enemy in a time of war?”
“I imagine they’re pretty harsh,” Lando said. “Good thing we’re not doing that.”
“Good thing we’re not doing that,” Leia quietly echoed, making a small gesture with two outstretched fingers.
“So it’s a good thing you’re not doing that,” the lieutenant said. He checked an item off on his datapad.
“No,” Lando continued, “what we’re actually doing is something else. Something vital to the Alliance’s war effort.”
“Vital,” Leia said.
The lieutenant nodded, earnest, interested. “Vital.”
“So we have to get to Corellia.”
“So we have to get to Corellia.”
”Well, you obviously have to get to Corellia, then.”
Lando shrugged. “But how?”
The lieutenant thought about it. “Well, it’s a pity you don’t have any of the access codes provided by Intelligence. That would allow you to fly right in.”
“Oh, that would be handy.” Lando fixed the lieutenant with what he hoped was an honest look. “Do you have a lot of those recorded on your shuttle, son?”
The lieutenant laughed. “I can’t tell you, sir.”
“Of course you can,” Leia said.
“Of course I do.”
“Why don’t you just give us one, then?”
“Why don’t you just give us one, then?”
The lieutenant nodded. “That would solve everyone’s problem, wouldn’t it?”
Lando smiled. “It sure would.”
The lieutenant rose. “I can’t just transmit that sort of information. I’ll go download it from our bridge computer and give you a datachip. How does that sound?”
“Sounds wonderful.”
“I’ll be right back.”
When he was gone, Lando looked at Leia. “That wasn’t really fair, was it?”
She shook her head, smiling. “He was even more weak-minded than I’m used to. I don’t think he’s going to progress far in the service. But I still prefer this sort of thing to cutting people’s arms off.”
“And what’s your plan for when we’re past the Alliance blockade and dropping down into Corellia’s atmosphere, with starfighters coming up to blast us out of the sky?”
“Well, we can either transmit who we really are and that we want to see Dur Gejjen, which will either get us an audience or get us assassinated. Or we can try the Jedi mind tricks again, but it’ll be harder to cover up because lots of planetary sensor sites will have picked up our presence. Or we can orbit