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“It’s perfect! I don’t know why I didn’t think of it myself.”

The message center buzzed again.

“What?” Leia barked at the caller. She realized she should have been more restrained, but she had reached the end of her fuse. Mon Mothma remained at the data terminal, watching from outside the field of view.

The caller also dispensed with tact. “We need your report right now, Minister Organa Solo. The orbital debris committee is deliberating on the disposition of wreckage around Coruscant. You were supposed to attend our discussions this morning—”

Leia recognized the functionary as Andur, the vice-chairman of the committee. “My aide has already canceled my appointments for today. I’m sorry I was unable to attend.”

“We received your cancellation, but we didn’t receive your report. You agreed to write a summary and distribute it to us at this session. It’s past due! Sick children do not make the New Republic stop functioning.”

Seeing red, Leia remembered standing in Jabba’s palace, holding the pulsing thermal detonator in her hand, waiting for it to explode and kill them all. Five, four, three, two …

Somehow she restrained herself. Perhaps spending a day with Ambassador Furgan had toughened her calluses. “I may be the Minister of State, Mr. Andur, but I am also a mother. I have to do both jobs—I can’t sacrifice one for the sake of the other. My children need me now. The committee can wait.”

Miffed, the vice-chairman raised his voice. “It would have been much easier to complete our deliberations if you had been here rather than home playing nurse—couldn’t you hire a medical droid to take care of your kids’ runny noses? This is an important issue we’re dealing with, affecting the fate of all space traffic approaching and leaving Coruscant!”

Leia stiffened. “This is an important issue I’m dealing with here, too! How can you expect me to care about the whole galaxy if I don’t even care for my own family? If you wanted mindless devotion to duty without caring about people, then you should have stayed with the old Empire!” She reached for the controls. “My report will be issued to you in due time, Mr. Andur.” She switched him off before he could say another word.

At the end of her outburst, Leia slumped into her self-conforming chair, suddenly remembering her guest. Her face turned scarlet with embarrassment.

“That committee meets weekly, and there’s no reason why they couldn’t have waited until next time,” she said in a simmering, defensive voice. “I’m really not going to let any important negotiations go down the drain. I know my duty.”

Mon Mothma nodded, sharing one of her placid, heartfelt smiles. “Of course you won’t, Leia. I understand. Don’t worry about it.” The Chief of State looked at Leia with what seemed to be a new and surprising respect.

Leia sighed and stared at the planetary image on the data terminal. “Maybe I should go off and spend a few months at the Jedi academy myself as soon as Luke gets it under way—though I know that’ll never happen. Taking a vacation from Imperial City is about as easy as walking away from a black hole. Affairs of state swallow up my entire day.”

She caught herself complaining and quickly added, “But of course restoring the order of the Jedi Knights is very important. I have the potential to use the Force and so do the twins. But thorough training will take a lot of time and concentration—two commodities I don’t seem to have.”

Mon Mothma looked at her gravely, then squeezed Leia’s shoulder. “Don’t worry too much. You have other important things in store for you.”

25

Han rolled over with a groan in the detention cell. The hard ridges on the surface of his bunk—Han thought of them as “discomfort stripes”—made sleep itself a nightmare.

He awoke from a dream about Leia, perhaps the only enjoyment he had experienced in three weeks. The dim reddish light filtered down, hurting his eyes without providing useful illumination.

He blinked his eyes open, hearing people move outside his cell door, the clank of stormtrooper boots on the floor