Star Wars_ Millennium Falcon - James Luceno [51]
“A well-armed criminal element has moved in. The deal was sanctioned by Chief of State Daala herself. But the point I was trying to make is that we had what you might say was a strange encounter while we were there.” Lando paused briefly. “With Seff Hellin.”
Leia blinked in surprise. “We know Seff.” She turned to Han. “Seff was the oldest of the Jedi group that was moved from Yavin Four to the Shelter station. Maybe fourteen years old at the time.”
Han scratched his head. “Tall kid with curly hair?”
Leia nodded. “His mother is Corellian.”
“Okay, now I remember him.”
Leia positioned herself for the cam. “What happened, Lando?”
“He came to visit me at the hotel where we were staying. He wanted to know the details of the YVH deal.”
“Did you tell him?”
“I told him it was none of his business. Then he wanted to know what I thought about the fact that Daala is employing Mandalorians as a kind of royal guard.”
“Why would it matter to Seff what you think?” Han said.
“Beats me. But I finally figured out what he was getting at.”
“Which was what?”
“Whether Tendrando had given thought to manufacturing a Mandalorian Hunter droid.”
Leia and Han traded glances. “Are you certain, Lando?”
Lando shrugged his shoulders. “Not a hundred percent. But that's what it sounded like.”
Han turned to Leia. “You think he's still on Taris?”
“I don't know. This new crime syndicate could be the reason Luke sent him there in the first place.”
“Anyway,” Lando interrupted. “Just thought I'd let you know. And make sure to fill me in on what you find out about the Falcon, buddy.”
“Will do,” Han said.
From a room high in the Oseon Tower, Waglin watched the Millennium Falcon emerge from a private docking bay and launch for the sky. Merging with outbound traffic, the century-old freighter rose on a column of blue energy and disappeared from view.
“They're on their way to Taris right now,” the Weequay was saying into a comlink. “I'm watching them with my own eyes.” He paused to listen. “You're right, who'd want to tangle with Han Solo and a Jedi. But Solo has a lot of influential friends, and I thought he might be a way for you to get what you're after. Besides, Solo's a far cry from the hotshot he was. Slower on the draw.”
He listened some more.
“That's up to you, of course. But I agree, you'd have to give him a good reason for helping you. I'm just being neighborly by letting you know he's headed your way. There is one more thing: they're traveling with a young girl. Some war orphan they adopted a few years back.” Waglin waited, then said: “I don't have any permacrete ideas to offer along those lines. I'm just saying that the Solos would probably do anything for her.”
Waglin listened. “I appreciate that. You didn't hear about her from me, though. Old-timers like us have to stick together. Plus, I've got a job and a reputation to protect.”
The being at the other end of the communication spoke for a while.
“That could work. Good luck with it, then. And let me know how it ends.”
AS A MUCH YOUNGER MAN, JADAK HAD DONE HIS FAIR SHARE OF planet-hopping. But few of the trips he had logged could match the two days it took him to travel from Obroa-skai to the Smugglers' Moon, going by way of Balmorra and Onderon in an effort to foil possible pursuers. To his eyes, the galaxy had changed that much.
There was a time, for instance, when Nar Shaddaa's spaceport officials couldn't have cared less who arrived on the moon, or for what purpose. Sixty-two years later, human visitors had to submit to retinal and body scans.
Basic was still the prevalent language of trade and exchange, but Outer Rim accents were now heard as often as Core dialects. And perhaps as a result of what the Yuuzhan Vong had wrought during their push for Coruscant, you encountered fewer beings from Perlemian Trade Route worlds and more from the outlying systems. Putting their war reparations to work, Corellians and Wookiees were scarce, busy rebuilding their worlds and putting out fires. The only place a traveler might rub elbows with