Abyss (10 page)

A Rodian female stepped forward, her multifaceted eyes sparkling with far too much delight. “Yes, Captain?”

“The warrant.”

She was passing him a freshly printed flimsiplast even as he spoke. Han saw the miniature printer hanging from her equipment belt and felt his stomach go hollow.

Atar examined the document briefly, then nodded and passed it to
Leia. “The print is a bit smaller than usual, but I believe you’ll find everything in order.”

Leia accepted the document, her impassive face betraying none of the shock that Han knew she was feeling. She examined it briefly, then said, “Very clever, Captain.”

“I really can’t take the credit, Jedi Solo,” Atar replied. “When it comes to the Jedi menace, Chief Daala has given the order to facilitate due process in every legal manner.”

“So I see.” Leia gestured Jaina to remain where she was, just outside the gate, then held the document out toward Han. “What do you think?”

Han took the warrant and squinted down at the tiny lines of legal text. It was a detention order rather than an actual arrest warrant, but that didn’t negate its validity. The names were spelled correctly, their species were identified properly, the justifying incident was described accurately, and the chronostamp—less than five minutes old—was certainly valid.

“I’m no expert, but everything seems right.” He looked over at Atar. “Who’s Judge … 
Lortle
?”

“Arabelle
Lorteli,
” Atar corrected. “Designated judge for all matters Jedi.”

“
Daala’s
appointee?” Leia asked. “A new one?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Atar replied. “Now, since even
you
agree that everything’s in order, we’ll be taking custody of Jedi Knights Warv and Saav’etu.”

He started to lead his squad across the threshold—until Leia raised a hand in his direction.

“Wait.”

Atar stumbled back, and Leia turned to Han with one of those defiant gleams that always came to her eye when she smelled something rotten in the halls of power. “I don’t know, Han. How do we handle this?”

It was not a real question, of course, since Han was neither a Jedi nor a legal adviser. It was a signal. He watched as Jaina subtly checked to make sure she was clear of the gate’s drop path, and he knew she understood it, too.

“It looks like we don’t have any choice,” Han said. He shrugged and passed the warrant back to Leia, then turned to Atar. “Wait here. We’re gonna have to get Master Hamner involved in this.”

Atar scowled. “We’re not
waiting
anywhere,” he said. “You’ll bring those two Jedi out here at once.”

Han sighed and turned to Leia. “I think we’d better do as he says, don’t you?”

Leia nodded. “Yes, I think so.”

She glanced over at the control panel, and the toggle button rocked to the
CLOSED
position. The gate started to descend so swiftly that she barely had time to look back and meet Atar’s puzzled gaze.

“Okay, Captain—you win,” she said. “We’ll be right back.”

“What? Wait!” he sputtered. “Why are you clos—”

The gate clanged shut, leaving Han and Leia alone together. Han hit the lockout switch to prevent it from being inadvertently opened by a returning Jedi Knight, and then turned to Leia.

“You know, sometimes I’m really glad I married you.”

“Just sometimes?”

“Oh, I’m glad
all
the time—but at times like this, I’m
really
glad.” He took her hand and started down the tunnel to check on the new patients. “How long do you suppose they’ll wait?”

“It’s going to take the good captain a few minutes to overcome his embarrassment and comm for new orders,” Leia said. “So we’ve got a while.”

“Good. Do you suppose Jaina’s going to be okay out there?”

“Of course.” Leia closed her eyes for a moment, and Han knew that she was reaching out to check on their daughter through the Force. “She’s with Jag, isn’t she?”

Even with the roof buckled down into the passenger cabin, the Imperial limousine still had enough headroom for Jaina to sit upright. Jag was another story. Although he was not tall for a human male, he carried much of his height in his torso, an unfortunate trait that Jaina hoped would not be inflicted on any children who also happened to inherit her short legs … assuming, of course, they even
wanted
children. Like a lot of things regarding their coming marriage, starting a family wasn’t something they had found time to discuss yet, at least not in the way it needed be discussed.

At the moment, Jag’s long torso was forcing him to do one of the few things that Jagged Fel did not do well: slouch. He was hunched down next to Jaina, his head against the roof liner and his shoulders pressed to the back of the seat.

“Thanks for the getaway.” Jaina glanced out the back viewport at the still-confused GAS squad, several of whom were pounding their weapon butts against the closed gate and demanding that it be reopened.

“Probably better for me not to be around when that gnakhead Atar finally decides he’s been had.”

“Probably,” Jag said. “But I
am
surprised your mother manipulated him so easily. One would think Daala would have more sense than to send a weak-minded commander to keep watch over the Jedi Temple.”

“Jag, that wasn’t a Force suggestion.” As Jaina spoke, Atar turned to watch the departing limousine. “It was the Sligh Slipper.”

“The
Sligh Slipper
?”

“A little trick my parents picked up before I was born,” Jaina explained. She gave Atar a parting wave. The captain’s face reddened, and he began to snap orders into his headset microphone. “Didn’t you see how Dad noobed Atar?”

Jag fell silent for a moment, his brow slowly rising. Finally, he let out an incredulous snort.

“It’s a good thing your father isn’t a Jedi,” he said. “Han Solo with Force powers would be very frightening thing.”

Jaina smiled and opened her mouth to agree—until she was nearly thrown from her seat as the limousine came to sudden stop. She looked up to see a GAS assault speeder blocking the exit less than five meters ahead, its cannon turret pointing down the lane. Whether it was targeting Jag’s limousine or the gate behind it was impossible to say.

“Those GAS guys are starting to get pushy,” Baxton observed from the driver’s seat. The privacy screen between them could not be raised because of the crumpled roof, so he didn’t need the vehicle intercom. “I can just float over them, sir. Even if they open fire, our armor can take it.”

Jag shook his head. “No, that would give them room to claim we intended them harm,” he said. “Just step out and ask them to let us pass.”

“And if they don’t?” Baxton asked.

“Be insistent,” Jag said. “Captain Atar is trying very hard to make us blink, but he’s not going to cause an intergalactic incident by attempting to remove Jedi Solo from a diplomatic vehicle.”

Baxton acknowledged the order, then stepped out and approached the assault speeder blocking their path. A young Duros officer popped
out of the blaster turret, pointing at the limousine and making angry demands. Baxton stood his ground, shaking his head and pointing his own finger, insisting the speeder be removed. After a minute of shouting back and forth, the Duros suddenly jumped down to stand lip-to-nose with Baxton.

“Looks like Atar’s orders were firm,” Jaina observed. “Maybe I shouldn’t have rubbed it in.”

Jag turned to peer at her beneath the crumpled roof. “Rubbed it in
how
?”

“It was no big deal,” Jaina said. “I just waved at him.”

Jag closed his eyes in exasperation. “You
waved
at him?” he repeated. “As we were leaving?”

“Of course as we were leaving,” Jaina retorted. “When do you think I’d wave at him?”

Jag let his chin drop. “You have
got
to stop antagonizing Daala’s people.” He looked away, and the dirty haze of a secret came to his Force aura. “This situation is getting out of hand.”

Jaina spun to face him. “What situation is that?”

“The whole situation.” Jag continued to look away. “Between the Jedi and Daala. It’s not doing the Order any good.”

“Tell me something I
don’t
know,” Jaina replied. “Like, whatever you’re holding back.”

Jag’s nostrils flared, and he turned to meet her gaze with obvious effort. “I’m not sure I know what you mean.”

“Jag …” Jaina opened her borrowed raincoat just enough to show the lightsaber hanging from the belt of her torn dress. “
Jedi
, remember? I know when you’re lying.”

Jag sighed. “I heard something that I shouldn’t have—and that I definitely shouldn’t be repeating to a Jedi.”

“Jag, I’m your
fiancée,
” Jaina said. “And I happen to be a Jedi. If that means you’re going to try to keep secrets from me, maybe we need to reevaluate—”

“All right, I surrender,” Jag said, raising his hands. “But if you get to play the fiancée chit, so do I. This has to stay between us.”

Jaina nodded. “That’s fair, I guess.”

“No guessing,” Jag replied. “This can’t be like Qoribu.”

Jaina winced. It was a low blow, but maybe one she deserved. During the Killik crisis, she had made a promise to Jag that she had later broken. Ultimately, her failure to honor her word had resulted in Jag’s exile from the Chiss Ascendency.

“Okay,” she said. “This is locker stuff. I won’t tell
anyone
.”

“No matter what,” Jag insisted.

Jaina’s only reply was a stony silence. She had given him her word, and it was really starting to scorch her that he continued to question it. She looked forward and noticed the rim of something metallic lodged behind the beverage locker in front of her, between the two rear-facing seats. Maybe a glow rod or something had been knocked out of its storage slot when Bazel hit the roof.

As Jaina shifted forward to retrieve the object, Jag let out a sharp breath. “Shall I accept your silence as a yes?”

More irritated than ever, Jaina forgot about the glow rod and turned to scowl. “Accept it however you like.”

“Fine.” Jag took a breath, then said, “I overheard something alarming when I was in Daala’s office yesterday. She’s thinking of hiring a company of Mandalorians.”

“Mandalorians?”
Jaina repeated. “What the blazes
for
?”

Now it was Jag’s turn to be silent, and Jaina quickly realized how ridiculous her question was. She had spent a couple of very sad months training with Mandalorians when she was preparing to hunt down her brother, Darth Caedus, and she could think of half a dozen reasons Daala might hire a company of Mandalorian commandos. But only one of them would make Jag nervous about telling her.

“For
us
?” Jaina gasped.

Jag nodded. “She’s been inquiring as to how many supercommandos it might take to handle the Jedi,” he confirmed. “Exactly what she’s considering, I don’t know. But it can’t be good.”

Jaina didn’t know whether to be angrier at him or at Daala. “And you thought you were going to keep this from me?”

“Of course,” Jag said. “I didn’t want to put you in this position.”

Jaina frowned. “
What
position?”

“Of having to keep my secret,” Jag said. “It’s a burden you shouldn’t have to carry.”

Jaina fell back in her seat, her anger changing to shock as she began to understand. “You expect me to keep this news to
myself
?”

Jag remained silent, studying her with his steely eyes, searching for a hint as to which duty she would honor—the promise she had just made to him, or the oath she had sworn to the Order, swearing to always put the Jedi first.

“Stang … this isn’t fair, Jag.”

“I’m sorry.”

Jaina nodded. “Well, that’s something.”

“I’m trying to negotiate an autonomous membership in the Galactic Alliance,” Jag explained. “So far, Daala keeps saying all or nothing. She thinks divided loyalties are what sparked the last civil war.”

“She might have a point.” Even as Jaina said this, she began to see a glimmer of hope that it might not be necessary to make this impossible choice. “Jag, could this be some kind of—”

“Test?” Jag finished for her. “We’re not that lucky. I didn’t hear it from Daala herself, just someone talking on a comlink when he didn’t realize I was in the room.”

“It could still be a test,” Jaina said. “Chiefs of State
do
occasionally use proxies for that sort of thing, you know.”

Jag shook his head. “Wynn Dorvan doesn’t strike me as the kind who involves himself in those sort of games.”

Jaina’s stomach sank. Wynn Dorvan was Daala’s top aide, a rare Coruscanti bureaucrat known as much for his integrity as his competence.

“Bloah,” she said. “And you really need Daala to give in to you on this?”

“I’m afraid so,” Jag said. “If I try to subordinate our government to the Galactic Alliance—especially one led by Natasi Daala—the Moffs will go into open rebellion. I barely have the support to bring us in as equals.”

“And you’re doing good to get that,” Jaina said. “I doubt even Uncle Luke expected you to persuade the Moffs to consider unification at all.”

“I have motivation. For the first time in recent memory, the entire galaxy is at peace.” Jag took Jaina’s hand, and a hopeful note came to
his voice. “And if I can convince Daala to let the Empire come into the fold on its own terms, we just might keep it that way.”