Part 16 (1/2)
”Artoo, where is Leia?” Luke asked.
He and Dash had returned to Ben's, each on a swoop. The two swoops were under the camo-tarp with the X-wing now. Dash's s.h.i.+p was in Mos Eisley at the port.
”Gone to Rodia to connect up with Black Sun.” Luke nearly dropped the container of cold water he held. ”Black Sun! Is she out of her mind?”
Dash smirked. ”Oh, you're an expert on them, are you?”
”No, but I talked to Han a lot while we were cooped up on Hoth during the cold, stormy nights. He had dealings with them. He said they were more dangerous than the Empire.” He paused a second. ”Why would Leia want to contact Black Sun?”
Dash shrugged. ”Got me. Maybe they might know who wants you dead. The princess is fond of you, though I can't see why. You gonna hold on to that water until it evaporates?”
Luke glanced at the forgotten container. ”Oh, sorry.” He handed the water to Dash, who poured himself a large cup, then drank noisily from it.
The idea of Leia fooling around with a vicious underground criminal organization didn't sit well. Still, what was he going to do about it?
She was a big girl; she'd been taking care of herself okay before they'd met. Well, if you didn't count getting captured by Vader. Sure, he and Han and Chewie had rescued her from that, but they hadn't exactly covered themselves with glory doing it. They had covered themselves with a stinking effluvium in that garbage pit...
”So, what's the drill, kid?”
”Huh?”
”We gonna sit around here and wait for them to come back? Or you maybe want to go ask the Hutt why he sent that comedy troupe out to zap you?”
”Jabba's got no reason to be after me.”
”Unless somebody put him up to it. That's why I'm here, remember? Since it's nice and quiet, I could teach you how to fly those swoops right.”
”Listen, they'd have never caught me in Beggar's Canyon-”
Artoo began whistling and beeping frantically.
”I don't like the sound of that,” Luke said.
”What is it?” Dash said.
”Something outside, sounds like. We'd better go see.” Artoo beeped again.
Dash pulled his blaster and checked the charge read-ing.
Luke reached down to touch his lightsaber to a.s.sure himself it was still hanging from his belt. Artoo chirped and rolled toward the door. Outside, they saw the fire of a braking rocket high overhead.
”Looks like a message droid,” Luke said.
Artoo seemed to affirm that.
Dash blew out a breath and reholstered his blaster.
Message droids weren't something you had drop in on you every day. They were used when fast deliverywas needed and you didn't want to risk the holonet and its relays, but they were expensive and good for only one shot; unless you had a new booster lying around, you couldn't reuse them.
Artoo whistled again.
”That's awfully fast. I hope they shockproofed it,”Luke said. Dash had already started for the door. Outside, the incoming vessel, tiny as it was, was visible as it fell toward the desert floor half a klick away.
”Who knows you're here, kid?”
Luke shook his head. ”Leia, Lando, Chewie, Threepio.”
”And Jabba,” Dash said. ”Though I don't think he'dspend the money for a droid when he could make a local com, he wanted to talk to you. Not to mention kill you.”
”Maybe it's for you,” Luke offered.
”I doubt it. I don't leave forwarding addresses. n.o.body knows I'm here except your friends, and they have no reason to call me.”
Luke watched as the little message s.h.i.+p plummeted. It began firing retros and slowing, but it was still coming down pretty fast. The droid must've underestimated the gravity or something.
Maybe it was for Ben. Somebody who had been out of touch for a long time and didn't know he was... gone.
The message carrier hit hard enough to splash sand and make a noise they could hear five hundred meters away.
”Let's go see,” Dash said.
Luke ground his teeth. He started to say something about giving orders, but held himself in check. Jedi Knights were supposed to be even-tempered. He'd have to work on that.
They started toward the s.h.i.+p.
In his inner sanctum, Xizor awoke from a light doze to the sound of his personal and private comlink speaking his name softly.
”Incoming call for you, Prince Shheezzorr.” Was that his imagination, or did the voxchip slur his name as the chair he'd replaced had done?
Nothing lasted these days. Everything started to break down before it was properly broken in. The Empire was going to entropy in a turbolift.
”Put it through. And do a self-diagnostic on your voxchip.”
The small-scale holoproj flowered on his desk. It was one of his local spies.
”Yes?”
”You asked me to inform you when Lord Vader returned to his castle, my prince. He has just arrived.” The Dark Prince nodded. ”Good. Maintain normal surveillance procedures.” The spy nodded and broke the connection.
His image blinked out.
So, Vader had returned from the wars, having unwittingly done Xizor's bidding by hitting Ororo where it hurt the most, in the credit balance.
Along with Guri's little demonstration to the ranking officers, Ororo would be well-behaved, at least in the near future.
Best he not call on Vader just yet. Doubtless the Dark Lord of the Sith needed some time to cool down a bit from the slap on the hand the Emperor had delivered. Vader's main problem was that he allowed his temper to rule him. A legacy of his mammalian heritage - it was that way with many species and detrimental nearly always. Cold allowed precision; heat threw caution aside and plunged in rampantly. Cold was the process of deliberation and planning, heat the result of unbridled pa.s.sion. Pa.s.sion was fine, but only when controlled and channeled properly.
Take Princess Leia, for instance. She attracted him, but he would bring her to him slowly and with care, not in some wild chase in which he cast off his intellectual moorings and sailed out on the sea of l.u.s.t. Ah, no, that was not the Falleen way. The Falleen way was cold.
Cold was better than heat.