Part 21 (1/2)
”Good morning, Luke,” said Gaeriel.
”It's good of you to come. I wanted the two of you to meet.”
”I wouldn't have missed it for anything,” Luke said.
Gaeriel smiled. ”I'm glad,” she said, and turned toward her daughter. ”Malinza,” she said. ”I want you to meet a very special friend of mine. He's going with me on my trip.”
Malinza stopped singing to herself and looked up at Luke, her face very serious indeed. ”h.e.l.lo,” she said.
”Are you going along to take care of my mommy?”
Luke knelt down in front of the child. The time he had spent with leia's children had taught him a few things. He knew that some questions needed to be turned on their side if you wanted to understand what the child was really thinking. Maliriza was a little worried about who would take care of her while her mommy was gone. Best to try and direct the conversation to that point and rea.s.sure her as best he could. ”I'm not going along to take care of her,” Luke said, ”but I will watch out for her. And even if your mother has to go away for a while, she'd never do it if she didn't make sure someone was here to take care of you.”
”That's right, Malinza,” Gaeriel said, kneeling down next to her daughter and giving her a pat on the shoulder. ”Madame Boble will stay with you, and Lady Corwell will come by every single day to make sure everything is all right. And all your family will be here, too.
They'll all watch Out for you.”
”But I want you, Mommy,” said Malinza.
”I know you do, sweetheart. It would break my heart if you didn't.
But sometimes grown-ups have to do things they don't want to do. I don't want to leave, but I have to. Luke's friends helped us an awful lot, a long time ago. Now they need help, and we have to pay them back.”
Malinza looked at Luke, her face solemn. ”Do you really need my mommy to help you?” she asked.
Luke thought of his own niece and nephews, cut off behind the Corellian interdiction field, missing in action aboard the Millennium Falcon. Without Gaeriel, they would have no Bakuran fleet. And without the Bakuran fleet, there would be no rescue of Corellia ”Yes,” he said.
”We really do need her help.” Malinza thought for a moment, and then nodded.
”All right,” she said, her voice very serious. ”But you watch out for her, like you promised.”
”I will,” said Luke. ”I will.” The Gentleman Caller moved in toward Corellia at a leisurely pace, crawling along at sublight speeds on a course that would get the s.h.i.+p to the planetventu ally.
Tendra Risant checked the radionic transmitter for the hundredth time. It seemed to be working. All the indicator lights were showing green, and it was drawing as much power as it was supposed to, and the message repeater was definitely sending Out her hailing call over and over again. She had checked that enough times. ”Tendra to Lando,” her voice said from the speaker. ”Please respond on prea.s.signed frequency.” Pause. ”Tendra to Lando. Please respond on prea.s.signed frequency.” Pause. ”Tendra to Lando. Please respond on prea.s.signed frequency. .” Then a tensecond pause, and then the same message over again, ad infinitum.
But it had been days now, and there had been no response. Lando had told her that the radionic unit aboard the Lady Luck was always on, always scanning for messages. So why hadn't he answered yet? Was he even in-system? Was he away from the Lady Luck? Was he dead? Or was it that some component that cost a tenth of a credit had failed, some gizmo inside her transmitter or his receiver? Maybe Lando was sending a reply back, over and over again, and wondering why she did not respond. But the receiver seemed to be working just fine as well. At least, when she turned the volume gain up all the way, she got a low hissing sound, which had to be static from natural Sources. If the unit could pick up static, surely it could pick up a signal. Or did that necessarily follow? Tendra realized she did not know anywhere near enough about radionics.
But she was getting to be a Galaxy-cla.s.s expert on waiting. And worrying.
She turned up the gain on the transmittermonitor again, just to be sure that it was still working. ”Tendra to Lando. Please respond on prea.s.signed frequency.
Tendra to Lando. Please respond on prea.s.signed frequency.
Tendra to Lando. Please respond on prea.s.signed frequency.
- AUU AT aILOMA 207
CHAPTER THIRTEEN.
Yggyn's Choice Time's up,” Mara said to leia. ”It's time to decide.”
Mara sat at the pilot's station of the Jade's Fire, looking calmly at leia. leia, seated at the navigator's station, returned her gaze with an expression steadier than her emotional state. ”So it is,” she agreed.
”Time to decide.”
Once she had shaken their initial pursuit, Mara had simply left the Jade's Fire into a random orbit of the star Corell, letting the craft drift where she might, running under minimum power on all systems. The idea was that a random, unpowered flight pattern would give them the best chance of escaping detection from whoever might try and come after them.
Their course was an unstable one; the s.h.i.+p would spiral into Corell in a few months' time if left to her own devices.
Not that any such thing would happen. They could change course at any time. The problem was, they had to decide which course to follow.
They had helped each other escape, but neither had had any clear plan of action beyond that. They had attempted to come up with a plan just after their escape, but neither of them was in any shape to do so.
The discussion had degenerated into pointless bickering. It had become clear in very short order that they were too tired to decide anything.
Both women had needed at least a little time to recover from their injuries and rest up, and it seemed as if there was no burning need for an immediate choice in any event.
They had agreed on thirty hours' rest and recuperation before coming to a final decision.
The time to choose a destination and a plan had come, but leia had a very strong hunch doing so was not going to be easy. ”I take it,” said leia ”that you still want to head back to Corellia.”
”Yes, I do,” said Mara. ”That's where it's all going on.
Whatever happens in this system is going to be decided there.”
”Why should that be of any importance to you?” leia asked. ”Why should you care who's up and who's down in this planetary system?
You're not a Corellian, and if you have no love for the Human League, you certainly have no more for the New Republic. Why do you want to be where things are going on? Why don't you just get out?”
”I do care what happens,” Mara said. ”I luna trading business, and we've made a large investment in Corellia We've put in time and money and energy here, and it was just starting to pay off. We were just beginning to do some very promising routing through this sector.
My costs went through the roof when the revolts started. I want stability so I can make a reliable profit. Stability doesn't have much to do with tinpot dictators. And even if I don't much care for your New Republic, maybe the idea of someone wiping out whole star systems full of people bothers me.” Mara paused for a moment, and looked straight at leia ”But that's not the real point of your question, is it?”
leia rejected the impulse to deny what Mara was implying. No sense pretending when both sides could see the truth. ”No,” she said.
”It wasn't.”
”You wanted to know if I could offer up a plausible -'qas's -.
uuwrjuugrave; As-n explanation for my still being here, a motive for my behavior that wasn't suspicious. After all, the message about the starbuster came through me. You have to wonder if I'm part of the plot.
Might I remind you of the reasons I have for suspecting you in the plot?
The message itself was keyed to your personal characteristics, and the senders went out of their way to demonstrate that they could read your private cipher. Plus, that message contained data that could , 9nly have come from cla.s.sified New Republic sources.
”What possible motive would I have for overthrowing the New Republic's government in the Corellian Sector?” leia demanded.