CORUSCANT, 40 YEARS ABE:

Coruscant did not appear to be a world in the midst of violent conquest-at least not if one looked solely at the planet itself. From a distance, the cluttered web of lights that defined the towering city that had spread and spread over the course of eons to now cover every inch of the world's natural surface looked the same as ever. The glittering, artificial jewel that was Coruscant was too large a thing for something so small as an armed occupation to visibly affect-at least until one lifted one's eye from the planet itself to the surrounding space lanes.

The cluster of Imperial ships hovering there made the current owners of the planet all too obvious.

Lando couldn't help but shudder as he looked out the viewport of his borrowed freighter at the distant-but not-distant-enough-behemoth of the Super Star Destroyer that hung over the massive city-planet like a triangular guillotine. The ordinary Star Destroyers and smaller cruisers, shuttles, and snubfighters clustered around them seemed nearly inconsequential in comparison, almost comically small. The TIEs that swarmed continuously between the surface and their motherships above looked like petty insects, nothing more than a nuisance.

The TIEs that flanked the line of freighters awaiting clearance to land on Coruscant were another matter entirely. Far closer-and thus of far more immediate threat-than the big ships, there was nothing inconsequential about them as they flashed up and down the line of ships: an obvious deterrent towards anyone brave (or dim) enough to attempt to skirt Imperial authority and land on the planet without clearance.

Fortunately Lando was no such fool. As his comm crackled, he leaned back in his piloting chair and fixed a smooth, confident smile to his face. (The communication was voice-only so there was technically no need for the smile; the Imperial officer to whom he was speaking couldn't see it, but that was no excuse for getting sloppy. A proper con man smiled when he was sweet-talking a mark, so Lando smiled.)

"Your patience is appreciated, Captain Kadar. It appears that all of your documentation is in order."

"Thank you, Ensign Hewex," Lando replied warmly. "I quite understand why the Empire would wish to be cautious about monitoring arrivals to Coruscant at this juncture, and I appreciate officers like you taking the time to do it properly. It's been a delight to work with someone so professionally competent."

He ignored the scandalized look that See Threepio turned on him from the copilot's seat. (It forever astonished Lando how droids whose facial features were completely immobile were able to convey emotion in their static expressions, but there was no denying that many of them could and did. Well, let Threepio be scandalized; it was only because too long an exposure to blunt operators like Han left him lacking an appreciation for the finer arts of Lando's craft.) If anything, it made Lando's smile broaden in instinctive contrast.

"Oh, ah-thank you, captain." Hewex sounded flustered. Lando doubted that most of the freighter pilots who had arrived here today expecting to deliver their routine shipments only to find an Imperial blockade waiting for them had been anywhere near so gracious to the low-ranking officers tasked with regulating the process. "Your, uh, your cooperation will be noted on your records."

"It's my pleasure," Lando replied smoothly. "I look forward to making many future shipments under your impeccable management."

"Er, ah-thank you, captain," Hewex stammered. "You are cleared for descent. Please, ah, please follow your escorts and do not deviate from your assigned flight path. And, uh, welcome back to Imperial Center."

Lando bared his teeth in a wide grin and lied, "Good to be back, ensign."

The comm clicked off and his smile fell from his face faster than a sabacc novice's elation when meeting their first opposing Idiot's Array. His comfortable lounging sprawl became a tired slump. When two TIE fighters took up positions on either sides of the freighter, rather than sitting up, Lando tiredly stretched a single arm out to nudge the throttle and begin his descent.

"Oh I say, Master Calrissian!" Threepio exclaimed, and Lando winced in anticipation-but the droid's tinny voice, when he continued, was rich with praise rather than condemnation: "That was absolutely exquisite, the way you disarmed the suspicions of that Imperial goon with good manners and diplomatic charm!"

Lando glanced sideways at the protocol droid. His eyebrows raised curiously and his low spirits started to follow them. "Yeah?" he said.

Threepio nodded stiffly. "Truly, sir, it was a pleasure to watch you at work! Like witnessing a master artisan at the sculpting wheel or the easel!"

Lando couldn't help it: he smiled and shifted forward to better grasp the controls, the weight of his exhaustion lifting. "It kind of was, wasn't it?" he agreed proudly. He flipped the switch to begin warming the freighter's aging repulsors. "You know," he confided, shaking his head, "I really don't know why Han doesn't enjoy having you around more."

"Oh sir," Threepio said fervently, "I have wondered that myself for years."

Now smiling in earnest, Lando shifted to take a steadier position at the controls of his borrowed freighter as it dropped sedately into Coruscant's tiered city. When the pair of TIEs pacing him through the atmosphere turned back to escort the next ship in line, he breathed a sigh of relief.

"Oh thank goodness, they're going." Threepio echoed his thoughts, golden head swiveling to track the departure of the Imperial ships. "I hope you don't mind me saying, sir, but I find the sight of those ships most unpleasant."

Lando chuckled. "You're not alone there, that's for sure. Especially not on Coruscant today, I'd wager."

"Yes, I do think everyone would be much happier if the Empire would just go home. At least we won't have to deal with them again now that we've made it past their blockade."

"You kidding?" Lando lifted his eyes from the readouts in front of him to give the droid an incredulous look. "That was the easy part."

"The easy part?" Threepio repeated, askance.

Lando nodded, turning his attention back to the tunnel of skyscrapers through which he was now dropping, their towering length casting the freighter's descent into shadow.

"Yeah," he said, his smile a wry combination of grim resignation and predatory anticipation. "This is where the fun begins."

"Oh dear," murmured Threepio.

The freighter continued its drop into darkness while overhead, pairs of TIEs screamed past in triumph.