“I hardly think that will be necessary,” Leia said, throwing a look at Karrde. “Han and Luke have both handled classified information in the past—”
“This is not the past,” Fey’lya interrupted her. “This is the present; and they have not been cleared.” His fur flattened. “Under the circumstances, I think I had best take personal charge of this mission.”
Leia threw a look at Karrde, saw her own thought reflected in his face. If Fey’lya was able to personally bring back the Katana fleet—“You’re certainly welcome to come along, Councilor,” Karrde told the Bothan. “Councilor Organa Solo and I will appreciate your company.”
It took a second for that to register, “What are you talking about?” Fey’lya demanded. “No one’s authorized either of you to come along.”
“I’m authorizing it, Councilor,” Karrde said coldly. “The Katana fleet is still mine, and will remain so until the New Republic takes possession of it. Until then, I make the rules.”
Fey’lya’s fur flattened again, and for a moment Leia thought the Bothan was going to launch himself physically at Karrde’s throat. “We will not forget this, smuggler,” he hissed instead. “Your time will come.”
Karrde smiled sardonically. “Perhaps. Shall we go?”
CHAPTER
27
The proximity alert warbled, and Luke straightened up in his seat. After five days, they’d made it. “Here we go,” he said. “You ready?”
“You know me,” Han said from the pilot’s seat beside him. “I’m always ready.”
Luke threw a sideways glance at his friend. To all outward appearances, Han seemed perfectly normal, or at least as close to it as he ever got. But beneath the casual flippancy Luke had noticed something else over the past few days: a darker, almost brooding sense that had been with him since they left Coruscant. It was there now; and as he studied Han’s face, Luke could see the tension lines there. “You all right?” he asked quietly.
“Oh, sure. Fine.” The lines tightened a little further. “But just once I’d like them to find someone else to go off on these little jaunts across the galaxy. You know Leia and I didn’t even get a day together? We didn’t see each other for a whole month; and we didn’t even get a day.”
Luke sighed. “I know,” he said. “Sometimes I feel like I’ve been running full speed since we blasted out of Tatooine with the droids and Ben Kenobi way back when.”
Han shook his head. “I hadn’t seen her for a month,” he repeated. “She looks twice as pregnant as she did when she left. I don’t even know what happened to her and Chewie out there—all she had time to tell me was that those Noghri things are on our side now. Whatever that means. I can’t get anything out of Chewie, either. Says it’s her story, and that she should tell it herself. I’m about ready to strangle him.”
Luke shrugged. “You have to face it, Han. We’re just too good at what we do.”
Han snorted. But some of the tension left his face. “Yeah. Right.”
“More to the point, I guess, we’re on the list of people Leia knows she can trust,” Luke continued more seriously. “Until we find that information tap the Empire’s got into the Imperial Palace, that list is going to stay pretty short.”
“Yeah.” Han grimaced. “Someone told me the Imperials call it Delta Source. You got any ideas who or what it might be?”
Luke shook his head. “Not really. Got to be close in to the Assemblage, though. Maybe even to the Council. One thing’s for sure—we’d better get busy and find it.”
“Yeah.” Han stirred and reached for the hyperdrive levers. “Get ready …”
He pulled the levers; and a moment later they were again in the blackness of deep space. “Here we are,” Han announced.
“Right.” Luke looked around, an involuntary shiver running up his back. “Dead center in the middle of nowhere.”
“Should be a familiar feeling for you,” Han suggested, keying for a sensor scan.
“Thanks,” Luke said, “but getting stuck between systems with a dead hyperdrive isn’t something I want to get familiar with.”
“I didn’t mean that,” Han said innocently as he keyed the comm. “I was talking about Tatooine. Wedge?”
“Right here,” the other’s voice came over the speaker.
“Looks like we’ve got a target at oh-four-seven mark one-six-six,” Han told him. “You ready to fly?”
“Ready and eager.”
“Okay.” Han took a last look out the viewport and keyed the cargo hatch release. “Go.”
Luke craned his neck to look in the direction Han had indicated. At first all he could see was the normal scattering of stars, achingly bright against the total blackness around them. And then he saw them: the softer glow of a ship’s running lights. His eyes traced the empty space between them, his brain forcing a pattern to the lights; and suddenly the image coalesced. “It’s a Dreadnaught, all right.”
“There’s another one just past it,” Han said. “And three more to port and a little below.”
Luke nodded as he located them, a strange tingle running through him. The Katana fleet. Only now did he realize just how little he’d really believed in the fleet’s existence. “Which one do we check out?” he asked.
“Might as well take the closest,” Han said.
“No,” Luke said slowly, trying to focus on the vague impression tingling through him. “No. Let’s try … that one over there.” He pointed to a set of running lights a few kilometers farther away.
“Any particular reason?”
“I don’t really know,” Luke had to admit.
He could feel Han’s eyes on him. Then the other shrugged. “Okay,” he said. “Sure. We’ll take that one. Wedge, you getting all this?”
“Copy, transport,” Wedge’s voice confirmed. “We’re shifting into escort formation around you. So far it looks clean.”
“Good,” Han said. “Stay sharp anyway.” He keyed the transport’s intercom into the circuit and glanced at his chrono. “Lando? Where are you?”
“Just inside the cargo hatch,” the other answered. “We’ve got the sled loaded and ready to go.”
“Okay,” Han said. “We’re heading in.”
They were approaching their target Dreadnaught now, close enough that Luke could see the faint outline of reflected starlight that marked the edge of the hull. Roughly cylindrical in shape, with a half dozen weapons blisters arranged around its midsection and a bow that he’d heard once described as a giant clam with an overbite, the ship looked almost quaintly archaic. But it was a false impression. The Dreadnaught Heavy Cruiser had been the backbone of the Old Republic’s fleet; and while it might not look as sleek as the Imperial Star Destroyer that had replaced it, its massive turbolaser batteries still packed an awesome punch. “How do we get aboard?” he asked Han.
“There’s the main docking bay,” Han said, pointing to a dim rectangle of lights. “We’ll take the ship inside.”
Luke looked at the rectangle doubtfully. “If it’s big enough.”
His fears proved groundless. The entrance to the docking bay was larger than it had appeared, and the bay itself even more so. With casual skill Han brought the transport in, swiveled it around to face the opening, and put it down on the deck. “Okay,” he said, keying the systems to standby and unstrapping. “Let’s get this over with.”
Lando, Chewbacca, and the four-man tech team were waiting at the cargo hatchway when Han and Luke arrived, the techs looking somewhat ill at ease with the unaccustomed blasters belted awkwardly to their sides. “Checked the air yet, Anselm?” Han asked.
“It looks fine,” the head of the tech team reported, offering Han a data pad for inspection. “Better than it should be after all these years. Must still be some droids on housekeeping duty.”
Han glanced at the analysis, handed back the data pad, and nodded to Chewbacca. “Okay, Chewie, open the hatch. Tomrus, you drive the sled. Watch out for blank spots in the gravity plates—we don’t want you bouncing the sled off the ceiling.”
The air in the bay had a strangely musty odor about it; a combination of oil and dust, Luke decided, with a slight metallic tang. But it was fresh enough otherwise. “Pretty impressive,” he commented as the group walked behind the repulsorlift sled toward the main hatchway. “Especially after all this time.”
“Those full-rig computer systems were designed to last,” Lando said. “So what’s the plan, Han?”
“I guess we split up,” Han said. “You and Chewie take Anselm, Tomrus, and the sled and go check out engineering. We’ll head up to the bridge.”