Star Wars_ Millennium Falcon - James Luceno [104]
“Gone like the Imperial base?” I asked him.
“Simply gone,” he said. “Moved on.”
There was nothing I could do. She had left.
Each morning for the next month I was amazed to find the Falcon resting on her landing gear, gaudy with paint but still there. I don't know what I expected to happen, but it wasn't until the Molpol Circus arrived on Hijado that I began to understand. Dax Doogun took one look at the ship and decided that he had to have her. And in fact the Falcon couldn't have looked more perfect for a circus. Dax's offer was generous beyond my wildest imaginings—more than enough to finance the medical and research center I dreamed of establishing on Hijado.
And how could I refuse, in any case, when the Millennium Falcon had already moved on?
“The research team I assembled remained on Hijado for ten years,” Parlay Thorp said from one of the garden benches. “Long enough, I might add, to see the Imperial base destroyed—an event Noneen and his people took in stride, since to them it had been long gone.”
“I take it you've put your discoveries to good use here at Aurora,” Leia said.
Thorp smiled faintly. “How I wish. But the truth of the matter is that we never discovered the key to their precognitive abilities or their longevity. In an effort to find some link to other long-lived species— Hutts, Wookiees, Gen'Dai, and Falleen—we carried out exhaustive studies, but found none. We considered the possibility that Noneen's people were tuned into the same sort of circadian rhythms to which many insectoid and saurian species respond, but the results were inconclusive. We thought that their health and longevity could be attributed to a naturally occurring form of bacta or bota, but found no evidence of that.”
Thorp looked at Leia. “I never entirely let go of my belief that they had the Force.”
Leia said nothing.
“After a group of Rebels destroyed the Imperial base, the Empire returned to make a further example of Hijado.” Thorp glanced at Allana. “I … don't know what became of Noneen and his people.”
“Maybe they were already gone,” Allana said, climbing up into Leia's lap.
“Perhaps they were,” Thorp said with a smile.
“And maybe they did have the Force.”
“Well, who knows,” Thorp said. “Perhaps someday we'll chance upon a sentient species that will provide us with the key to immortality. Until such time, there's little we can do but continue to rely on technology to extend our lives year by year.” She brightened somewhat. “Doctor Sompa recently had a human patient emerge from a coma that lasted for more than sixty years. The exception to the rule, of course. Even with beings frozen in carbonite.”
Han stirred uncomfortably in his chair. “Getting back to the Falcon …”
“Ah, yes. You're wondering how such a ship should find her way into the life of a young physician.”
“Someone gave it to you!” Allana said.
Thorp's eyes widened and she laughed. “You're absolutely right, Amelia. Someone actually gave it to me. He said it was a donation.”
“He,” Han said, sitting forward.
Thorp turned to him. “At the time he refused to tell me his name, but I eventually found out. Someone had done a poor job of clearing the Falcon's registry, which listed the owner as Quip Fargil. I've no idea where he ended up, but he was on Vaced when he gave me the ship. And I remember having the distinct impression that he was a soldier.”
“An Imperial?” Han said, steeling himself for bad news.
Thorp shook her head. “He had the look of a Rebel.”
“I'm telling you, Lestra, it's the same ship,” Lial Sompa's 3-D image said from atop the holoprojector built into the hardwood floor of the mansion study on Epica.
Oxic's expression of incredulity didn't change. Muting the study's audio feed, he glanced at Koi Quire. “Any history of mental illness in Sompa's family?”
“None that I'm aware of. We should at least hear him out.”
Oxic reenabled the audio pickups. “Lial, Corellian Engineering manufactured more than ten million YT-Thirteen-hundreds just in the first years of production.”
“I'm aware of that,