Star Wars_ The New Jedi Order 21_ The Unifying Force - James Luceno [243]
“You okay?” Han asked.
Luke smiled lightly. “Just thinking that it seems like yesterday we set out to find a place where you and Leia could take a vacation, and Mara could cure herself of the illness Nom Anor gave her.”
Han nodded. “And the day before that when you and I met in a cantina on Tatooine.”
Luke looked at him. “You’ve lost a son and a best friend, and the Jedi have been reduced by half their number. But the galaxy is more unified than it has been in generations. The years since the conclusion to the Civil War seem like an unavoidable period of transition to a present that no longer rings with uncertainty.”
“There’s a lot of things I’d probably do differently,” Han said, “but I’m not complaining. It can be a fresh start—providing I can keep your sister from getting involved in politics.”
“And providing I can keep you from adventuring,” Leia interjected.
Han gestured to himself in false innocence. “Hey, I don’t have the time for adventuring. I’ve got a ship to rebuild—practically from the framework up.”
“How many rebuilds will that make?” Luke asked.
Han grinned with secret knowledge. “More than you know.”
“Where are you going to perform this rebuild?” Mara asked.
“We checked out Denon—” Leia started to say.
“—but it’s not for us,” Han completed.
“Corellia?” Luke asked.
Han shook his head. “Not the place it was.”
“Han wants to go to the Corporate Sector,” Leia said.
“We’re long overdue for celebrating our twentieth wedding anniversary, and I know some worlds there …” He allowed his words to trail off, shook his head, and began to smile.
Luke and Mara traded knowing glances. “What would you say to having Mara, Ben, and me as company?” Luke said. “We’re supposed to meet with Kam and some of the others on Ossus, but that’s not for a couple of weeks.”
“Ossus,” Han said, “why that’s practically next door to the CorpSec. No two ways about it, you’ve gotta join us.”
[We promise not to get in the way,] someone said in Shyriiwook.
Han glanced to his right to see Waroo and Lowbacca approaching him.
[Now that the war has ended,] Chewie’s son continued, [Lowie and I will be assuming my father’s life debt to you.]
Han’s jaw dropped and his eyes went wide. “But we’re going on a vacation. And we’ve finally managed to convince Cakhmaim and Meewalh to take one themselves.”
No one said a word until Leia broke the silence with an explosive chuckle, then out-loud laughter, which Luke, Mara, Jacen, Jaina, Ben, and the Wookiees were quick to amplify. Han tightened his lips and sent a scowl around the table. Then he, too, began to laugh, warmly and continuously, until tears were streaming down his cheeks and his sides started to ache.
And gradually their bittersweet laughter floated from the wooden table, up past the lanterns, the wind chimes, and the thick branches from which they dangled, meandering up through the crowns of the tallest wroshyr trees and gliding weightless into the twilight sky, up, ever up into stars too numerous to count, defying the stillness of vacuum and dispersing, vectoring out across space and time, as if destined to be heard in galaxies far, far away …
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
James Luceno is the New York Times bestselling author of the Star Wars novels Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader, Cloak of Deception, Labyrinth of Evil, as well as the New Jedi Order novels Agents of Chaos I: Hero’s Trial and Agents of Chaos II: Jedi Eclipse, The Unifying Force, and the eBook Darth Maul: Saboteur. He lives in Annapolis, Maryland, with his wife and youngest child.
By James Luceno
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(as Jack McKinney, with Brian Daley)
The BLACK HOLE TRAVEL AGENCY series
(as Jack McKinney, with Brian Daley)
A Fearful Symmetry
Illegal Alien
The Big Empty
Kaduna Memories
THE YOUNG INDIANA JONES CHRONICLES
The Mata Hari Affair
The Shadow
The Mask of Zorro
Rio Pasion
Rainchaser