Star Wars_ Legacy of the Force 07_ Fury - Aaron Allston [45]
Leia froze, staring up into his shocked features. “What? What?” A smile started to spread across her face.
Han sagged in relief. “Is that all? You had us really scared there.”
“All? Is that all?” Lando put a hand on the yacht’s hull to steady himself. “Fine, you can stop being scared. Not me. I’m too old to be a father. Emperor’s black bones! I’m not ready.”
Leia embraced him. “Lando, there are two types of people in this universe: those who think they’re not ready to be parents, and those who are kidding themselves.”
Suddenly relieved of a crushing weight of worry, Han sagged. He bent over, putting his hands on his knees. “Buddy, the next time you scare me like that…”
“You’ll shoot me? Do I have your word on that?”
“Lando, listen.” Leia’s voice was compelling. “You and Tendra are going to be the parents every child dreams about. Rich, famous, dashing…and so scared of fouling up you’re going to spoil your child to death. Am I right?”
Lando considered. His expression was starting to return to normal. “How old does he have to be before I start him on sabacc?”
“Two.” Han straightened up. “And no wine appreciation training until he’s at least four.”
Leia corrected him: “She.”
“It’s just…this is something I can’t fix with charm or a rigged game or a hold-out blaster.”
Leia smiled up at him. “You can’t fix it because it’s not broken.”
“Yeah.” Lando took a deep breath, fortifying himself against the future. “I have to go. My transport home lifts off in half an hour. I was worried that I wouldn’t get to see you at all before I left.”
Han clapped him on the shoulder. “Well, your luck is holding out, old buddy.”
Lando gave Leia a final squeeze, grabbed Han for a quick hug. “I want to know where you two are at all times. In case I have to holocomm you for advice.”
“Just send your message to wherever the noise is the loudest. It’ll be either us or Luke.”
“Right.” His walk once again jaunty, Lando headed for the main doors out of the hangar. He waved, giving them one last look over his shoulder, and took a final, wistful glance at the Millennium Falcon. Then he was gone.
Leia tucked herself under Han’s arm, wrapping it around her shoulders. “I am so jealous.”
“I’m not. Imagine trying to take care of a baby with this war going on.”
“Imagine having one thing, one innocent life, to think about, to the exclusion of everything else, including the war.”
“Well…yeah. You have a point.” He wheeled her around toward the Falcon. “C’mon, let’s see if we can trick some big furry guys into washing the ship.”
ABOARD THE ANAKIN SOLO
It was good to be back home, and it surprised Caedus that he had truly begun to think of his ship that way. All through his life, “home” had been wherever he hung his robes at night, as his parents’ missions and then his own missions and goals carried him from one end of the galaxy to the other.
Now he could travel those same distances and still sleep in the same bunk each night. He could keep Allana with him, safe—as safe as she could be anywhere in the galaxy—in the hidden quarters so close to his official cabin. Having a familiar location wherever he went offered comforts that he had never experienced before, offered some small compensation for the loss of friendship he had experienced since embarking on his plan to restore order, and he found himself appreciating that fact.
Of course, he could keep Allana even safer, and have even more comforts, if he traveled in a bigger, more powerful, more heavily defended vessel, something suited to the Chief of State of the Galactic Alliance. He’d have to go to the drawing board and do a little preliminary designing.
These were his thoughts as he stood on the Anakin Solo’s bridge, looking out through the forward viewports in a rare moment of inactivity. Ahead and down, relative to the ship’s keel, he could see a Golan III Space Defense Nova-Gun, one of several space stations, packed with shield generators and weapons, guarding space above Coruscant. It was far enough away to be little more than an elongated