Part 5 (1/2)
For at least the dozenth time in the last hour, she checked her systems' status display. More than a few of the propulsion subsystems were in the amber, but so far at least, none of them had spiked up into the red. She doublechecked her navigational settings and willed the X-TIE Ugly to fly a trifle more gracefully.
The Ugly refused to cooperate.
The Lady Luck lifted off from Coruscant with a smooth surge of power and moved gracefully toward orbit.
Lando checked his instruments. ”Everything in the green,” he announced. He checked the central repeater boards. ”Artoo's got your X-wing right in the groove behind us. I must admit I'm impressed. I wasn't quite sure our little friend was up to the job.”
”I hope you've learned your lesson,” Luke said.
”Artoo knows what he's doing.”
”Oh, I've learned it,” Lando said. ”Now I know the only incompetent droid on this trip is the one sitting behind you.
”Really, Captain Calrissian!”
”Quiet, Threepio, or I'll make you ride outside on the hull.”
It had taken some fairly ingenious improvised engineering to hook up the X-wing and the Lady Luck But now that it was done, the X-wing could fly up under the base of the Lady and dock itself to the s.p.a.ce yacht's newly installed ventral docking clamps. The Lady could take Luke's refurbished and upgraded X-wing fighter in tow. Even if had taken a bit of doing, no one had minded. They were going to be flying into the unknown, more than likely a hostile part of it, and there was nothing like having an X-wing's firepower and maneuverability if things got sticky.
However, no one had been able to dream up a way to fly the two craft through atmosphere while they were docked together-and there was no real need to try too hard, as long as Artoo could fly the X-wing to orbit.
Lando had been a bit worried by the idea, but n0t Luke.
After all, the R2 series had been designed to serve as pilot a.s.sistants. The brief flight from the surface of Coruscant merely marked the first occasion in a long, long time that Artoo had done the job he had been designed for in the first place.
”That droid can do some tight formation flying,” Lando said.
”Maybe I ought to let him do the docking maneuver once we're in free s.p.a.ce.”
”If you like,” Luke said, not really paying attention.
Anna Lando looked over at his friend. He was plainly aware that Luke was not exactly fully engaged at the moment and was trying to cheer him up. ”Yes, sir,” he said, ”we get all docked up, and next stop, Bakura.”
”Yes,” Luke said' in the same absent tone of voice.
”Bakura. Bakura and Gaeriel Captison.” Luke stared out the port of the I- Luck without seeing anything, and remembered GaerieL The, was a name out of the past, if ever there was one.
Luke had not so much as heard her name in years, but the thought of her had not lost its power to move him. He had met Gaeriel in the tumultuous days just after the destruction of the second Death Star and the deaths of Darth Vader and the Emperor. Her planet, Bakura, had been attacked by a hitherto unknown alien race, the Ssi-ruuk, which was intent on enslaving humanity. It had taken a joint force of Imperial and Republic forces to push the Ssi-ruuk back, and the Bakurans had kept a close watch on their borders ever since.
Luke and Gaeriel met during the time he was on Bakur& They had quickly goflen to know each other very well in a very short period of time-and then had been forced to part just as quickly. It would have been a gross exaggeration to say she had been one of the great loves of his life or indeed a love at all-but she p, have been. That was what gnawed at him. II Luke's path through life had been any different, if Gaeriel's religion and her duty to her home world had not called to her, if they had met in a Galaxy at peace instead of one not yet done with war . . .
if, if, if.
Luke sighed and rubbed his eyes. But none of the irs had come to be. And truth to tell, Luke knew that even if all the irs had come true, there would have been no guarantees. Luke and Gaeriel might have meant something to each other Qr they might not have. The tragedy was that they had never had the chance to find out.
”It was a long time ago,” Lando said gently. It seemed he had given up pretending that nothing was wrong. ”Life moves on.”
”Quite right, Master Luke,” Threepio piped up from the temporary jump seat they had rigged for him behind Luke's copilot seat. ”I doubt your brief encounter with her will be of the slightest consequence to our forthcoming meeting.”
”Oh, great,” Lando said. ”Now we get to hear from the greatest living authority on missing the point.” Luke and Lando had decided it might be smart to have Threepio in the control cabin, with a direct hyperwave comlink to Artoo, just in case there was any problem with the docking maneuver and the normal com systems couldn't cope. Lando was plainly beginning to regret the move, and Luke was inclined to agree.
”It is approximately fourteen standard years since you have had any contact with her,” Threepio went on, in the relentlessly cheerful tone of voice he always seemed to use when he was putting his foot in it. ”While the diplomatic phase of our mission will be quite delicate, I would not concern myself overmuch about how she reacts to seeing you.
Why, given the unreliability of human psychology, it is quite possible that she will not even remember you.”
”I remember her” Luke said in a quiet voice.
”I see that you do,” said Threepio. ”But I do not believe that you have had the opportunity to review her career since your last contact.”
”Let me guess,” Lando growled. ”You took it upon yourself to link yourself to the Upper Bloovatavian Historical Reference Data Bank and download her entire life story into that ruSty tin head of yours.”
”I am not familiar with Upper Bloovatavia, Captain Calrissian.
However, the material on Gaeriel Captison was readily available in the Diplomatic Archives of Co 52 Reeler--. Anna ASMULTATaWLONFA 53 ruscant University. I might add that there was no tin at all used in the construction of my head, and, furthermore, tin does not rust.”
”Luke, would it really bother you that much if I put just a few blaster holes in him?” Lando asked.
Luke managed a wan smile and glanced back at Threepio. ”Don't be so hard on him, Lando. After all, he did save your life when you were about to marry the life witch on Leria Kersil.”
”Yeah, but if it means I have to listen to him, I'm not sure it was worth it,” Lando said.
”Well!” Threepio said. ”I never! I don't know why I bother collecting information when it seems no one is the least bit interested in it”
”Go ahead,” Luke said in a soothing tone of voice.
”Tell me what you've got on Gaeriel.”
”Would you care for a complete report, or just a summary?”
”Just the summary, thank you very much.” Threepio's idea of complete report might take from here until the end of time to recite.
”Very good, Master Luke. Well, there is really not that much to tell. She continued in politics after the Ssiruuk were defeated and became a powerful figure in her faction of the senate. After holding various posts of increasing importance, she became the youngest person ever to hold the post of Prime Minister on Bakura.”
”I didn't know she had become Prime Minister, ' Luke said, though there was no particular reason to be surprised. She was young and smart and ambitious. Why shouldn't she rise to the top?
”I am afraid she not only became Prime Minister, but then ceased to be Prime Minister. Her party was defeated in the last elections.
Several press accounts attribute this to her being distracted from the campaign by the illness and death of her husband.”
”Husband?” Luke said. ”She had a husband?”
”Oh, yes, Master Luke. Did I neglect to mention that? She married about six years ago, to a man called Pter Thanas a former Imperial officer. I believe you met him during our time in Bakur& They had a child, a girl, whom they named Malinza. She is now four and half standard years old. Thanas contracted a lingering ailment with which I am not familiar, something called Knowt's disease, just as the campaign was getting under way, and expired two days after Gaeriel's party was defeated. It would seem that she's out of active politics, at least for the moment.”
That large a dose of news. .h.i.t Luke hard. Strange to think that Gaeriel had gained and lost a husband, reached to and fallen from the heights of power on her world, and given birth to a daughter, all without Luke knowing a thing about it.
Somewhere in the back of his mind he had held a picture of Gaeriel.
He realized with a shock just how unchanging that image had been. In his mind's eye, she had stayed the effervescent young woman he had known, all the drive and enthusiasm of youth eternally hers, frozen in time. But he should have known bette Life was not like that.
Luke felt he should say something, but he didn't know what.