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She looked around the room, at her closest remaining allies in the government. Familiar faces, and three unfamiliar faces, elected after the bombing. Meido, R’yet, and Wwebyls watched her warily. Her friends had sympathetic expressions on their faces. Even those who normally opposed her were looking at her with pity.

“Is this all it takes?” she asked. “An accusation, and a good man is found guilty of a crime he didn’t commit? This is not proof, and even if it were, you all know Han. You know he’s not capable of this.”

“Leia, please, don’t make this difficult,” Gno said.

“What do you want me to do, Senator?” she asked, using his formal title. “Resign?”

“No,” he said. “Absent yourself from any proceedings concerning Han.”

“And if I don’t?”

Gno looked away from her. C-Gosf squeezed Leia close and then let go. “Think about it, Leia. We’ll meet in the morning. By then this news won’t be quite as shocking.”

“The news isn’t shocking,” Leia said as she stood. “What’s shocking to me is your willingness to believe it.”

“Forgive me, President,” Meido said. “But whoever planted that bomb had to have access to the Chamber. Very few people had such access. The person who set the bomb will be one we trust. I can guarantee that, just from the circumstances. And I think when you’re calm you’ll realize that too.”

Leia stood slowly, drawing upon all her regal training to stare down Meido. “When I was eighteen years old, I stood beside Grand Moff Tarkin as he gave one order from the depth of space and wiped out Alderaan, my home planet, with a single blast from the Death Star. Until that moment, I had believed the destruction of a planet in an instant was impossible. So don’t tell me what has to be true, Meido. I am Force-sensitive. If my husband were to betray me or the Republic, I would know. And so would my brother, who is a Jedi Master. We still don’t know what happened in the Hall that day. And until we do, we can’t be certain if a friend betrayed us, or if someone tested a new weapon. But if I were you, I would stop making baseless accusations now. Such accusations will only divide us. And now, more than ever, we need to be unified.”

She met everyone’s gaze individually. Borsk Fey’lya was leaning back in his chair, his eyes bright. Bel Iblis wasn’t looking at her. ChoFï was studying his hands. C-Gosf’s whiskers were trembling, and she wouldn’t meet Leia’s gaze. Gno was the only one of her friends who smiled at her, in an attempt to reassure her.

They would not do any more than they already had. She could count on them to hear the evidence, nothing more.

Leia nodded once. “This meeting is adjourned until tomorrow morning. By then,” she said, “I expect answers. Not accusations. Concrete information. Am I clear?”

Leia didn’t give them a chance to respond. She turned and walked out of the room, holding herself as proudly as she could. But once she was alone, she let the shaking overtake her.

It had begun. The unity she valued above everything except her family was shattering.

Just as she had known it would.

As the Lady Luck landed on Skip 1, Lando visually scanned the docking bay for the Millennium Falcon. The Falcon had features that were obvious even next to the same model Corellian stock light freighter. Lando saw none of those.

Blast Solo. It would be like him to be gone by the time Lando decided to do the heroic thing. Still, Lando wouldn’t be able to track him any other way.

He hoped Han was all right.

The Lady Luck bounced her way onto the surface. Landing without slave circuitry and only relying on outdated tractor equipment was more of a risk than he had thought it would be. He cursed and resisted the urge to run a check on his ship.

When the ship stabilized, he went to the cargo door and opened it from the inside.

Sinewy Ana Blue stood outside, one hand on one slender hip. She looked good in her shorts and tightly tied shirt, a little older, but no wiser. He grinned. He had always been unable to resist Blue.

“That cargo list was one of the most embarrassing I’ve ever seen,” she said. “It’s clear you haven