Abyss (18 page)

“That’s a complicated question,” Leia said. “Unfortunately, lots of people are killed during wars. You know that.”

Allana nodded. “By
soldiers,
” she said. “On the other side. But I thought Tahiri was on my father’s side.”

“For much of the war, yes,” Leia said. “But not at the end.”

“But when Tahiri killed Admiral Pellaeon, she was on my father’s side, wasn’t she? And so was Admiral Pellaeon.”

“Not exactly,” Leia said. “Admiral Pellaeon wasn’t really on anyone’s side at that point.”

“So he
wasn’t
in the war?”

“Not officially,” Leia said. “From what we’ve been able to learn, he was still thinking about which side he wanted to be on.”

“Then Tahiri wasn’t supposed to kill him,” Allana insisted. “You’re not supposed to hurt people who aren’t part of the war.”

Leia smiled and shook her head at her granddaughter’s unrelenting logic. Allana was beginning to convince
her
that Tahiri should stand trial. Leia retrieved her dropped mug from the floor, then stalled for time by calling for C-3PO.

Finally, she said, “You’re going to make a great Queen Mother someday, Allana. Those are very astute questions.”

Allana beamed with pride, but said, “I recognize a Solo Slide when I see one, Grandma. Don’t try to put me off with flattery.”

This actually jolted Han out of his tantrum. “She’s got you there, Grandma.”

He looked around at the hot chocolate he had sprayed all over the room’s white decor, then shrugged, quaffed down what remained in his mug, and turned back to Allana.

“It’s like this, kid. You know what spies are, right?”

Allana’s eyes grew wary and frightened, and Anji rose in her lap and arched her back. Allana carefully set her hot chocolate on the table, then nodded.

“I know.”

A pained look came to Han’s face, but he pressed on. “I thought you probably did. Well, Tahiri was sort of spying for Jacen. And when she found out that Admiral Pellaeon didn’t want to bring the Imperial Remnant into the war on his side, Jacen gave her an order.”

“To assassinate Admiral Pellaeon?”

“That’s right,” Leia said, once again amazed—and grateful—for how well attuned Han seemed to be to their granddaughter. “Tahiri was following orders, just like any soldier.”

Allana’s frown remained. “Do soldiers
always
follow orders?”

“
Almost
always,” Han said. “When they don’t, they need a really good reason.”

Allana considered this for a moment, then cocked her head up at him. “Then you must have had a
lot
of really good reasons when you were a soldier.”

A laugh—a
guffaw
, actually—exploded from Leia’s belly. She reached down and mussed her granddaughter’s black-dyed hair.

“You don’t know the half of it, sweetheart.”

“Yeah, but I always got the job done,” Han said. He winked at Allana. “Besides, nobody loves a yes-man.”

Allana nodded seriously. “Mom says the same thing,” she agreed. “I think that’s why she’s still so lonely. Hapan men are
all
yes-men.”

Leia had a sudden, sad glimpse of her granddaughter’s future: a smiling, redheaded woman standing beside a white throne, surrounded by beings of all species—Bothans and Hutts, Ishi Tib and Mon Calamari, even humans and Squibs—but somehow still alone. There was no man standing
with
her, no one like Han to whom she could turn for comfort or support. Allana Solo was going to live in a time of unprecedented peace and harmony, a time of prosperity for all the species of the Galactic Alliance. But
she
would be the one who kept it, the one to whom the rest of the galaxy turned when that peace was threatened.

That
was the destiny for which the Solos were preparing her. Leia knew from their brief visits to Tenel Ka how lonely such an existence could be, how wearying and frightening it was every day. What Leia did
not
know was whether she had the courage to condemn Allana to that destiny, to doom her to a life in which her word steered the fates of worlds.

“… that right,
Leia
?”

Startled from her reverie, Leia forced a smile and nodded to Han. “Umm … if you say so, dear.”

Han frowned, puzzled and irritated. “I sure do,” he said. “We’re talking about her grandfather, after all.”

“Right. Prince Isolder was a good man,” Leia said. “
And
independent.”

Han shook his head in exasperation and started to chastise Leia for not paying attention, but Allana cut him off.

“It’s okay, Grandpa. You’re not always listening to Grandma, either.”

Han’s expression changed from irritation to guilt, and Leia patted Allana’s back.

“You’re quite the peacemaker, aren’t you?” she asked. “Don’t ever lose that, okay?”

“I won’t, Grandma,” Allana said. “But what were you thinking about just then? You felt so sad.”

Leia hesitated, dreading the prospect of trying to keep her vision hidden from Allana. Fortunately she was spared the necessity by C-3PO’s timely arrival.

“Please excuse the interruption, but—” C-3PO stopped three steps into the room and ran his photoreceptors over the hot chocolate sprayed over the couch, the beverage table, and the floor. “Oh, dear. I see Mistress Allana spilled her hot chocolate again.”

“Hey, it wasn’t me!” Allana thrust her cup toward him, sloshing more hot chocolate onto the couch. “Look.”

“I’m afraid Han and I are the culprits this time,” Leia said. “Where have you been? I must have called for you five minutes ago.”

“I’m terribly sorry, Princess Leia. I was answering the secure holocomm.” C-3PO turned to point down the hall toward the den. “Wynn Dorvan is asking to speak to you or Captain Solo. I tried to explain that you don’t take calls during
The Perre Needmo Newshour
, but he was most insistent. He seems to think you have been ignoring a message he sent.”

“
The
Wynn Dorvan?” Han asked.

Leia added, “As in Chief Daala’s personal assistant?”

“Yes, that would be the correct Wynn Dorvan,” C-3PO said. “Though I certainly understand your confusion. There are more than one hundred and seventy thousand Wynn Dorvans listed in the Coruscant directory.”

The Solos traded puzzled glances. They knew Wynn Dorvan from the days of the New Republic. As the underdeputy of tenolodium reserves, he had uncovered a lucrative skimming operation run by his own supervisor. Rather than ask for a cut—as many bureaucrats in his position would have done—he had risked his life to bring the matter to the attention of the New Republic Chief of State—who happened to be Leia at the time. After that, he had risen steadily through the ranks on the strength of his reputation. And now he was Chief Daala’s personal aide.

“Shall I tell Master Dorvan that you’ll be happy to return his call after
The Perre Needmo Newshour
?”

“No, we’ll take it now,” Leia said, starting toward the den. “Stay with Allana.”

“And call the Ess-Nine,” Han added, waving a hand at the hot chocolate. “That stuff stains if you don’t get it up right away.”

Leia led the way down the hall to the extra bedroom that served as their den, then stepped over to the small holocomm unit in the corner. Floating above the holoprojection pad was the fist-sized head of a nondescript man, his only remarkable feature being the fact that not a strand of his brown hair was out of place.

“Hello, Wynn,” Leia said, folding her arms across her chest. “Isn’t the HoloNet a rather expensive way to comm across town?”

“That’s why nobody will think to monitor it,” Dorvan replied. “Is your end secure?”

“Scrambled and secure,” Han assured him. “What’s all this about? If Daala is trying to backchannel something on those arrest warrants—”

“Actually, Chief Daala doesn’t know anything about this matter,” Dorvan interrupted. “And I hope she never finds out. That’s why I’m using a scrambled holocomm unit.”

“We’re listening,” Leia said. “According to Threepio, you think we’ve ignored a message from you?”

“Regarding the Mandalorians,” Dorvan replied. “Are the Jedi
trying
to convince Chief Daala she has no other choice? As soon as those apprentices left the Temple, she instructed me to secure funding for a full company. I’ll be able to delay things for a week or so because she wants it kept off the ledgers, but beyond that—”

“Wait a minute,” Han said. “A
company?
Are you telling me Daala is about to send for an entire
company
of Mandalorians?”

“Of course,” Dorvan answered. “Haven’t you seen Head of State Fel in the last few days?”

Han and Leia exchanged glances, and Leia began to have a sinking feeling. Jag had some fairly rigid ideas about duty and honor, and he might have felt that carrying messages for Dorvan would create a conflict of interest for him.

After a second, Han said, “Oh yeah,
that
company.”

Dorvan’s head dropped. “He didn’t tell you.”

“Head of State Fel seems like a strange choice for a courier,” Leia
said. “Especially when you’re obviously willing to risk direct contact with us.”

Dorvan looked up again. “He wasn’t actually a courier,” he explained. “I just made sure he overheard what Chief Daala was considering, so that I wouldn’t have to risk my job—and my freedom—by contacting you directly. Given Fel’s relationship with your daughter—”

“You assumed he’d do the right thing,” Han finished, his tone growing hard. “Me too.”

But Leia wasn’t so easily convinced. “Nice try, Wynn, but you can tell Chief Daala we didn’t fall for it.”

Dorvan’s brows came together. “Fall for what?”

“Her bluff.” Leia leaned closer to the hololens, so that her face would be appearing to grow larger at the other end of the connection. “You’re as honest as bureaucrats come, Wynn. You’d never betray Daala like this.”

“And surely not for free.” Han leaned down beside Leia, then flashed one of his smirky half smiles. “Like Leia said, nice try. You had me going there for a minute.”

Dorvan’s face reddened. “I am
not
bluffing!” he said. “And I would
never
do this for money.”

“No?” Leia asked. “Then why would you do it?”

“For the good of the Alliance, obviously!” Dorvan spat back. “Or am
I
the only one who thinks it would be a travesty for Chief Daala to drive the Jedi into disbanding?”

“Is that what she’s trying to do?” Leia asked.

“It’s certainly an outcome she’s willing to accept, if necessary. But I do think she sincerely believes the Order should be brought under government control.” Dorvan licked his thin lips, then added, “And frankly, considering recent events, I have to wonder if she might be right.”

“Then why talk to
us
?” Han demanded.

“Because even if Daala is right about that much, she’s wrong about everything else,” Dorvan said. “She thinks the Sith are no more than Jedi in dark robes, and that the only way to keep them from returning is to keep the Jedi under the government’s thumb.”

“And you don’t share that belief?” Leia asked.

“Would I be taking this kind of risk if I did?” Dorvan replied. “There are dark things out there in the galaxy, Princess Leia. I understand that. And I also understand that it’s a terrible mistake to confuse those dark things with the Jedi Knights who are trying to protect us from them.”

Leia considered this for a moment. “Let’s say I believe you for now—Daala is going to send for the Mandalorians. What is it that you want me to
do
with this information?”

“Use it, Princess Leia.” Dorvan’s face grew smaller as he leaned away from his own holocam. “Pass it along and use it.”

Ten minutes after signing off with Dorvan, Han and Leia were in the apex of the Jedi Temple, stepping out of the turbolift into a white larmalstone foyer. To one side, a heavy blast door guarded the Situation Room, a state-of-the-art command center filled with tactical displays, HoloNet feeds, and enough comm stations to put the flagship of most GA fleets to shame. To the other side, a sealed security door protected the Grand Master’s offices, which Kenth Hamner had only recently occupied.

Rumor had it that Kenth had claimed the offices reluctantly—and only because it was too difficult to oversee the Order’s affairs from his old Master’s office on the floor below. But Han didn’t buy that. Kenth’s move was a pretty transparent attempt to assert his authority as Luke’s replacement. And the attempt was bound to fail, because Luke
couldn’t
be replaced. There was only one Luke Skywalker, and a Jedi Order without Luke at the helm just wasn’t likely to stay an Order very long.

Directly opposite the turbolift stood the ornate double doors to
the Council Chamber. Two apprentices were always assigned to guard the entrance, but today they were being overseen by a tall, brown-haired Jedi Knight with a slender face and dark, piercing eyes. The mere presence of any Jedi Knight indicated the Masters didn’t want to be disturbed; that the Jedi Knight was Jaden Korr told Han that someone—no doubt Kenth Hamner—didn’t want to be disturbed by the
Solos
in particular.