Star Wars_ Millennium Falcon - James Luceno [33]
“And Jaina?”
“Doing well.”
“Back in the fold?”
“With one foot, anyway.”
Lando didn't pursue the point. “You're on the level about tracing the history of the Falcon?”
Han nodded. “It started out as Amelia's idea, but I'm all in now. It's something we can all do together, and while there's still a chance of locating some of the old owners. The guy you won her from, for instance—”
“Cix Trouvee,” Lando said.
“That's the name I've been trying to remember!”
Lando snorted a laugh. “He had the wildest swings in luck. One year he'd be flush, the next he'd be pawning his chrono for a hot meal. Card players used to call him Glass Eye because once he began to lose you could practically read his mind. I don't have to tell you that that doesn't always mean much with sabacc, not with the randomizer, but when he was cornered you knew what his hole cards were. He was desperate when he used the Falcon as a marker. I actually felt bad about winning it—for about two heartbeats. Just the way I'm sure you felt when you took the Falcon from me.”
Han loosed a plosive laugh. “I know you still believe I outplayed you, but I was as surprised as anyone that you were bluffing. You're just sorry about losing her.”
Lando compressed his lips. “How many times do we have to go over this before you're willing to concede that you didn't win the Falcon, because I never bet her. I don't begrudge you winning the hand. I begrudge your claiming that you won her when my marker was simply for one of the ships on my lot. I could have reneged, you know. Anyone on Nar Shaddaa would have understood my side of it.”
“There were plenty of witnesses who heard you say any ship on your lot.”
Lando shook his head in irritation. “My biggest mistake was leaving the Falcon behind and trying to make an impression by arriving at Bespin on the Queen of Empire.”
The glower they traded evaporated into laughter.
“It's official,” Han said, wiping a tear from his eye, “we've both become a couple of old coots.”
Lando nodded. “We'd better drop the subject before I capsize us.”
“Good idea. But at least we can remember that far back.” Han paused. “You have any idea where Cix Trouvee is now?”
“I actually heard from him when I was operating the Belt-Runner. I've no idea where he is now, but I'm sure we can find out.”
“Lando,” Tendra called from the boat's spacious deck. “We want to go swimming.” She gestured to one of the islands.
Lando saluted and turned the big wheel through his hands, making for an isolated cove.
Han took a long pull from his drink glass and relaxed back into the padded chair. “I'm guessing business has been great.”
“Not as good as you might think.” Lando sipped at an orange-colored concoction his protocol droid had whipped up. “Tendrando's facing a lot of competition all of a sudden. The Verpines, Mandalorians, even Baktoid and the Colicoid Nest are trying to get back in the droid market.”
“The Colicoids.” Han shuddered. “I thought that bunch was forced to disband.”
“They were, but Colla-Arphocc Automata has re-formed and petitioned the courts under some new fair-trade agreement. They claim to have documentation signed by Palpatine that they were only required to disarm for a certain period of time.”
“The courts are willing to hear them out?”
“If Daala had her way I think she'd eradicate all the insectoid species, but her hands are tied.”
“Have you had any dealings with her?”
“Some.”
“And?”
“She seems determined not to repeat past mistakes. She's not a dictator, and she doesn't appear to nurse any aspirations of becoming one. Star systems are putting aside their differences in the interest of forging an enduring peace. But that has less to do with Daala than the simple fact that there's nothing to be gained by isolationism. We've had fifty years of war and wobbling. The time's come to understand that what happens in the Core affects the outer systems, and what happens there affects the Core.”
“So you're optimistic.”
Lando wagged his head from side to side. “I've been fooled before. Daala's