• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

FOURTEEN

“Oh, my goodness,” C-3PO bleated as the Falcon dropped out of hyperspace with a sort of flat thud that sent them all a centimeter into the air. “It’s another one of those terrible Yuuzhan Vong interdictors!”

“Relax, Threepio,” Han said, his voice so dry he sounded almost bored. “The inertial dampeners are just being a little cranky, that’s all. Lando’s so-called technicians were a little less than thorough.”

“More likely they didn’t understand the extent to which this ship is put together with chewstim and wishful thinking,” Leia joked. “No one else has ever been able to repair this thing except—”

She broke off, and Han knew why. The unfinished thought, except you and Chewbacca, was true. He and Chewie had made the Falcon galaxy-famous for doing the impossible, but it had almost always involved the Wookiee and him improvising circuits even as their shields were failing.

“You can say it,” he told her.

“Look, Han,” Leia said softly. “He can never be replaced—”

“No,” he replied, more sharply than intended. “Not with Droma, not with you.” His voice softened. “But he could never have replaced you, either, Leia. Let’s leave it at that, huh? I like my new copilot just fine.”

“Thank you. That means a lot to me.”

“I mean, she’s a little mouthy for my taste, and kinda snooty, but at least she’s easy enough on the eyes—even with the new hairdo.”

Leia’s tender expression was metamorphosing into something less benign when the mass detector bleeped and C-3PO cried, “I told you! I absolutely told you!”

“Threepio,” Han snapped, “have you ever been fired from a concussion missile tube?”

“No, sir. Of course, I did nearly fall out of the garbage-ejection tube a short time ago, which I must admit was terrifying, simply terrifying. I—”

“Threepio!” Han shouted.

C-3PO cocked his head and put one golden finger to the slit that implied his mouth. “Perhaps I should go see what Artoo is doing.”

“Yes, do that.”

Meanwhile, Leia had been analyzing whatever it was that had come out of hyperspace right behind them.

“It’s a freighter,” she said.

“A freighter? Here?” They were in occupied space, not far from Tynna.

Leia brought up the profile, revealing a blocky drive married to a long series of detachable storage pods headed up by a narrow habitation compartment. “Kuat Drive Yards Marl-class heavy freighter,” Leia confirmed.

“Out here?” Han repeated incredulously. “She’ll be easy pickings for the first Yuuzhan Vong ship she runs into. And where could she be going? Hutt space?”

“Maybe it’s a relief vessel,” Leia said. “Or a smuggler running weapons to the Hutts.”

“That thing’s got no legs,” Han said. “Any smuggler worth his spice would know better.”

“Well, there it is,” Leia said.

“I can see that.” He set his lips. “I just had an unpleasant thought.”

Leia nodded grimly. “I just had the same thought.”

“Yeah. Have they seen us yet?”

“I doubt it.”

“Let’s keep it that way. Run silent and let them pass. We’ll see for sure where they’re going.”

“Why don’t we just ask them?”

Han gave her a brief open-mouthed stare. “Boy, do you have a lot to learn. Let me handle this, willya? I know what I’m doing.”

“Right. I’ve heard that a time or two. I’ve usually had cause to regret it.”

“At least you always lived to regret it, sweetheart.”

When the Falcon powered down, Jacen was deep in meditation. He’d spent hours coaxing his wants, needs, and expectations into corners of his mind far from the conscious, surrendering himself into the silent flow of the Force.

He tuned out the sensations of the Force around him: his mother, the lesser voices of his father and the Noghri, the faint impressions of the droids and the ship itself. He wasn’t searching for anything at all, merely trying to become a part of the living Force, detached from the particulars of it. Just to feel it ebbing and flowing through him, not even seeking understanding, for in seeking one often missed what was sought, or came to an understanding tainted by desire.

Desire, like fear and anger, had to be released.

For a brief moment he