Star Wars_ Millennium Falcon Part 32

Leia swiveled her chair toward him. "I've known him practically all my life. He represented many of the so-called loyalists in the years preceding the Clone Wars."

Han made his mouth a rictus. "You're kidding. He doesn't look half old enough. First Quip Fargil, now Lestra Oxic. What am I doing wrong?"

Leia laughed. "Lestra is one of the people who keep Aurora Medical in business-and not simply as a patron. He made occasional visits to Alderaan when I was growing up. He and Bail had many private talks. Bail respected Lestra because he continued to befriend and offer legal advice to Palpatine's enemies, despite the dangers that posed to his career and to his life. But for Lestra to represent two s.h.i.+p thieves on Vaced ..."

"Maybe he's doing it for the public good?"

"That's as good an explanation as any. You know he was the lawyer for the Colicoids in that recent case."

"The lawyer who lost. So maybe he's taking work wherever he can find it."

Leia ridiculed the idea. "He's wealthy beyond even your wildest dreams. He's said to have one of the most extensive collections anywhere of Coruscant Republicana."

Han thought about it. "You don't think he hired those thieves to add the Falcon to his collection."

"I wouldn't put it past him."

Before Han could respond, someone said, "Permission to enter the c.o.c.kpit, Captain."

Han saw Mag standing in the hatch and beckoned him in. "Take a seat."

A crescent of Vaced hung in the viewport, the world's small moon engulfed in shadow.

"Your s.h.i.+p is even more amazing than I'd heard," Poste said. "Quip told me a lot about it, but I guess I wasn't expecting a hundred year-old vessel to look this good."

"A hundred and three," Han corrected. "Does Quip do a lot of bragging about having named her?"

"Quip? Never. Only a handful of folks on all of Vaced know him as Quip as opposed to Vec, and even those folks don't know he ever owned the Falcon. Besides, he feels too bad about what he did to tell anyone. He's still expecting some former member of the Rebel Alliance to come gunning for him. I was surprised when he agreed to meet with you."

"A story like Quip's, it gets bottled up. It has to come out sometime."

"Quip says the Falcon is running a point-five hyperdrive."

"It's a fact. With a Series Four-oh-one Isu-Sim generator."

"Incredible," Poste said. "What's the power source?"

"Quadex."

"What drives her sublight?"

"A pair of Giordyne SRB-four-twos-modified, of course."

"Deflector s.h.i.+elds?"

"Torplex generator, with a Novaldex stasis for support."

Poste whistled in admiration. "If there's time, I'd really like you to show me around before you drop us at Toprawa."

"We can do it now," Han said. "As soon as we make the jump to lightspeed, I'll enable the autopilot." He swiveled away from the navicomputer to face Leia. "Unless you want to take the helm."

Leia shook her head. "I promised Amelia I'd help her prepare snacks."

"Don't go to any trouble on our behalf," Poste said.

Leia slid out of the harness. "No trouble. But we can't leave Threepio to do it all by himself."

Han studied the coordinates the Rubicon had provided. "All set. We'll start with the sublight engines."

Outside the viewport, the stars streaked.

Chapter twenty-nine.

Jadak had entered into a dejarik match with the hologame computer and was pretending to be engrossed in overseeing his bestiary of holocreatures when first Leia, then Han and Poste left the c.o.c.kpit for the stern of the s.h.i.+p. Jadak waited until they disappeared around the curve of the ring corridor, then paused the game, rose from the table, and hurried through the connector to the c.o.c.kpit. Planting himself in the pilot's chair, he pivoted from side to side, then swung to face the navicomputer.

For all the YT-1300 had changed over the decades, the c.o.c.kpit had undergone the fewest modifications since the days the s.h.i.+p had been known as the Stellar Envoy. Solo or someone before him had added an additional pair of chairs, and the instrument panel boasted a bewildering array of retrofitted toggles and levers, reflecting the changes made to the stock propulsion, guidance, and sensor systems. Then there were the controls for the quad lasers and Ground Buzzer repeater. Otherwise, the c.o.c.kpit was much as Jadak remembered it, and just sitting in the chair was enough to transport him back in time. He half expected to turn and find Reeze sitting in the copilot's chair, complaining about one thing or another.

Jadak studied the navicomputer, which still retained its original alloy faceplate with the name RUBICON in raised letters across the top. Spots of rust had formed around the bolts that fastened it to the bulk-head, but the keyboard was relatively new.

Jadak gazed at the raised letters. "Rubicon," he said softly. Digging into his pocket, he pulled out a sc.r.a.p of flimsi on which were scrawled some of his attempts at deciphering the mnemonic phrase Senator Des'sein had had him memorize.

He gazed again at the navicomputer, then studied the handwritten phrase. His forefinger moved across the flimsi. "R ... u ... b ... i ... c ..."

His heart began to race. He stared at the flimsi. "Restore," he said quietly. His finger moved over the letters. "R ... e ... s..." He stopped. "Reset? Reset. . . Rubicon ..." He looked from the flimsi to the navicomputer and back again. "Reset Rubicon to . . ."

Some of the keyboard tabs were marked with numbers and letters. Had the mnemonic phrase been designed to remind the bearer to reset the Rubicon to the numbers represented by the nine letters that made up the final two words? If so, did the numbers represent time-s.p.a.ce coordinates or was the numerical sequence itself a cipher?

In either case, he didn't expect the Falcon to respond, much less alter course-not while traveling through hypers.p.a.ce. But it was possible that the navicomputer would furnish him with the name or the star map coordinates of the treasure world.

If at least that much happened, Jadak would have no further use for the Falcon. The Solos could drop him and Poste at Toprawa and be on their merry way to Nar Shaddaa or wherever else, and he and Poste could begin to figure out how to raise enough credits to finance an expedition to the treasure world.

Centering himself over the keyboard, Jadak hit the RESET b.u.t.ton and used both his forefingers to enter the nine-digit code. The navicomputer chimed in response, but neither a name nor coordinates appeared in the display screen.

Instead he heard a pained cry issue from elsewhere in the s.h.i.+p.

Anyone observing Han as he whirled and high stepped his way through the Falcon's port ring corridor might have a.s.sumed that he was executing a rather sloppy interpretation of the Sacorrian Jig, which had enjoyed a brief revival in popularity on Corellia in the years after the Battle of Yavin. But in fact Han was attempting to yank from his trousers pocket the archaic transponder Allana had discovered weeks earlier, which was just now needling his upper thigh with a series of painful electric shocks.

Bouncing the device in his cupped hand when he finally managed to withdraw it, he was on the verge of smas.h.i.+ng it underfoot when it suddenly calmed down.

By then Jadak had hurried from the c.o.c.kpit and was standing in the center of the main hold when Han and Poste appeared from one side and Leia, Allana, and the protocol droid appeared from the other, none of them looking very happy.

"Kriffing thing went off in my pants!" Han shouted.

Leia gestured. "Maybe Mag or whatever his real name is can explain."

Jadak heard a sound he had thought he would never hear again- the snap-hiss! of a lightsaber being activated-and all at once he and Poste were being forced back toward the hologame table's arc of acceleration couch.

"Down," Leia said. "Both of you."

Poste sat, and Jadak followed suit.

"Last time I saw one of those it was dangling from the belt of Jedi Master J'oopi She," he told Leia.

Her expression turned quizzical. "What?"

"What's going on?" Han said, glancing from Jadak to his wife.

"Tell him, Threepio."

C-3PO raised an arm and pointed to Poste. "Captain Solo, he was the one responsible for jamming communications and shutting me down. With the help of a nasty little slicer droid, I might add."

Han stared at Poste and Jadak. "You two are in league with those s.h.i.+p thieves?"

Jadak shook his head. "We're more like members of the opposing team."

Unholstering his blaster, Han stepped toward the table. Behind him, Leia deactivated the lightsaber and sat with Allana at the engineering station.

"What's your real name?" Han asked Poste.

"Flitcher Poste," he said quietly. "And I'm really sorry about..."

"And yours?" Han cut him off, glaring at Jadak.

"Tobb Jadak." Nodding toward Poste, he said: "He's only involved because I dragged him into this."

"Then you've got a lot of explaining to do."

Jadak exhaled through his nostrils and sat back in the couch. "Remember in the restaurant when I told you I had no idea who owned the Falcon before the Nar Shaddaa crime boss? I was lying." He tapped himself in the chest. "I piloted the s.h.i.+p before he had it."

Han's eyebrows formed a V. "When was that?"

"Well, about . . . seventy-two years ago. It was called the Stellar Envoy back then."

Han laughed. "What'd you fly it in, your diapers? There's no way you're that much older than me."

"Oh, I am, Solo. By a good twenty-five standard years."

Han stared at him. "That would put you close to a hundred."

Jadak nodded. "Don't I know it."

"Who is the Jedi you mentioned?" Leia asked suddenly.

"A Kadas'sa'Nikto of the old Order. Master She was present when I received my final orders regarding the Stellar-the Falcon."

Han looked at Leia. "Are you following this?"

Leia didn't answer him. "When and where was that?" she asked Jadak.

"The Senate Annex. The year you were born, if I'm not mistaken."

Leia folded her arms. "You're not mistaken. But that isn't exactly cla.s.sified information."

"Is any of this on the level, Jadak?" Han said.

"All of it."

"You're just a hundred-year-old pilot who's still in love with the Falcon, is that the idea?"

"I won't deny loving the s.h.i.+p, Solo. But the truth is, I don't want her. I want the secrets she's safeguarding."

Allana hurried from the engineering station before Leia could grab her. "What secrets?" she said, wide-eyed with antic.i.p.ation.

Jadak looked from her to Han. "That transponder your dad's holding ... I think it was installed on the Falcon by Master She just before I took off on what I thought was going to be the Falcon's final mission."

"The Jedi sent you on this mission?" Leia said. Jadak shook his head. "The outfit I worked for was known as the Republic Group."

"The covert loyalist organization?"

"The same, Princess Leia. I worked for them for ten years, carrying out all kinds of missions with this very s.h.i.+p. My orders on that day in the annex were to deliver it to an Antarian Ranger on Toprawa-a woman named Folee, who was going to look after the s.h.i.+p from that point on. The thing is, I never made it to Toprawa. Clone pilots pursued me off Coruscant and the s.h.i.+p took a hit from a Republic cruiser laser. My partner and I made a last-instant jump to Nar Shaddaa, but we reverted without the ability to maneuver." Jadak paused briefly. "We collided with a bulk cruiser. My partner died."

"I'm sorry to hear that, Jadak," Han said. "But I'm still waiting to hear where you've been for the past sixty or so years."

"In a coma," Jadak said evenly. "In a medcenter near Nar Shaddaa for the first couple of decades, and at Aurora Medical for the rest."

"We were just there," Allana said.

Jadak nodded. "Talking to Dr. Parlay Thorp, the way I figure it. But I don't think she has anything to do with this."

"To do with what?" Leia said.

"The game of hide-and-seek I've been playing with Lestra Oxic. He's the one who had me moved from Nar Shaddaa to Aurora, and he's had his underlings chasing me ever since I woke up. Those two joyriders back on Vaced? They belong to him. So does the doctor who supervised my rehabilitation-Dr. Sompa."

"We spoke with him," Leia said. "Parlay even mentioned you!" Jadak mulled it over. "That explains how Oxic put two and two together about the Stellar Envoy and the Falcon." He looked up at Han. "Oxic knew I was searching for the s.h.i.+p. Once he made the connection, he figured on stealing the Falcon, knowing that I'd have no option but to turn myself over to him if I wanted a piece of the prize."

"I knew it!" Allana said. "There is a treasure!"

Han's eyes darted from Allana to Jadak. "Is she right?"

"The Falcon holds the key to locating a treasure that was described to me as 'sufficient to restore Republic honor to the galaxy.' " Leia's brow furrowed. "Honor?"