Star Wars_ The Jedi Academy Trilogy 01_ Jedi Search - Kevin J. Anderson [78]
Luke picked up Jaina with the Force again, raising her into the air. She giggled and began flailing her arms and legs as if swimming through the open spaces of the room.
“Leia, I need your help in a couple of bureaucratic matters,” Luke said.
“Sure.” She smiled wryly at him. “What can I do?”
“I still need to contact Mara Jade and a handful of other possible Jedi candidates. But now that I have two trainees here and waiting, I’ve got to find a place where we can begin our Jedi studies. And I have to find it soon.
“I’ve spoken with Streen and Gantoris, and it’s clear to me that Coruscant is not appropriate. Streen doesn’t like to be around people, and he’s not going to be very comfortable anywhere in Imperial City. All of Coruscant is covered with metropolis, buildings on top of buildings.
“And—” He hesitated, but this was a private conversation with Leia; he could not hide any of his worries from her. “There is some danger about what we might do. Who am I to be teaching all these Jedi potentials? I have no way of knowing what might trigger a disaster like one of the Emperor’s Force storms. It would be better if we found someplace isolated, a place of solitude where we can conduct our training without interference.”
“And in safety.” Leia’s dark eyes met his, and he knew that both of them were thinking of Darth Vader. “Yes, I agree. I’ll try to find you an appropriate place.”
“And while you’re looking,” Luke continued, “we also need to relocate all of the people on Eol Sha. There’s only about fifty of them left on that outpost, but the planet is doomed. When I took Gantoris, I promised we would find a new home for the survivors. See what you can do.”
“For a group of people that small, it shouldn’t be difficult,” Leia answered. “Anyplace sounds better than the planet they’re leaving.”
Luke laughed. “Or you could always have Han win another planet for them in a card game!”
She looked at him as if stung. Yes indeed, he thought. It was something to do with Han. He bounced Jaina up in the air again, touching her to the ceiling, then letting her fall back down.
Suddenly Lando Calrissian burst into the room unannounced. “Leia! Winter just told me that Han hasn’t come back yet. Why haven’t you talked to me about it?”
Startled, Luke let Jaina fall and barely managed to catch her in the air a handbreadth above the hard floor. Jaina giggled deliriously, confident that the whole thing had been planned.
Lando looked upset and angry as he glared at Leia, planting his hands on his hips, pushing back the cape to hang behind him. Then he noticed Luke standing in the room. “Luke, are you going to do anything about this?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about—but I think Leia was just about to tell me.”
Both men looked at her. She sighed and sat down. “Yes, Han is missing. He went off to Kessel about two weeks ago, but now he’s four days late coming back. He never contacted me, so yesterday I got in touch with Kessel. I spoke to someone who seems to be in charge, a Rybet named Moruth Doole.
“Doole says that Han and Chewie never arrived. Kessel has no record of the Millennium Falcon. Doole suggested they might have gotten lost in the black hole cluster.”
“Not Han!” Lando said. “And not in the Falcon. He knows how to fly that thing almost as well as I do.”
Leia nodded. “All through the conversation I sensed something wrong with the way Doole was acting. His answers were too pat, and he seemed nervous. I had the distinct feeling he was expecting my call and had already made up appropriate excuses.”
“I don’t like that,” Lando said.
“Well, if Han is missing and you knew since yesterday, why didn’t you send out a fleet of New Republic scouts?” Luke said. “A formal search party? What if he is lost in the Maw somewhere?”
Leia sighed. “Think