CORUSCANT, 40 YEARS ABE:
For all the times he had been to Coruscant, Lando would never truly get used to a world where the buildings were so tall they never really ended, just merged into the one below them; would never truly get used to a world where the sky was walled-off by thousands of layers of floor. It made him shudder. He knew the buildings were stable-they had to be, or the whole planet would have collapsed in on itself centuries ago-but every time he stopped and actually thought about the architecture of Coruscant, it set his stomach churning.
He was only a few layers down from the pricy upper levels, one could still boast fragmentary access to the actual sky, and already he was starting to feel claustrophobic. Lando glanced up at the garishly-lit signs hovering beneath the walkway overhead and thought sourly that they were a poor imitation for stars. How could people live on this world?
Today was probably a bad day to ask that question. Over the years, Lando had met several Coruscanti who would wax euphoric about their home at little provocation and proclaim that relocating to any other planet would be akin to slicing off their own primary appendage-but even the most devoted citizen was entitled to a moment or two of weakness on the day their world was conquered.
From the muttering of the crowd ahead, Lando wasn't the only one who thought so.
Unfortunately, he had been too preoccupied with trying to remember his way around a world that he visited as sporadically as possible to notice that he was walking into trouble until See Threepio said, "Oh look, agents of the Coruscant Security Force. Should we ask them for directions to the Jedi?"
"What?" Lando dragged his gaze away from the tombstone-like towering buildings. "No," he said, his handsome face drawn in bleak dismay, "if the CSF wasn't rounded-up by the Empire, it means they're working for them."
"Working for the Empire?" Threepio repeated weakly. "Oh my."
See Threepio wasn't the only observer upset with the CSF's altered allegiance. A cluster of beings that was too small to be called a crowd but too large to be a passing chance had gathered on the side of the walkway, their expressions surly. The two blue-clad security officers walked past them without looking until someone shouted, "Collaborators!"
One of the officers spun, his blaster coming up in response to the potential threat. His partner grabbed his arm. "Let them vent," he murmured to the shorter man. "Get it off their chests before they run into any Imperials."
The shorter of the pair was human, the taller a Twi'lek. His helmet was shaped around his lekku with protective deflection cloth descending halfway down each head-tail. The human's helmet was smaller, fitted to his round head, with a loose flap of the same sturdy cloth hanging from the back to shield his neck. Other than that they were dressed identically in the same blue dura-weave jumpsuits with abbreviated dark blue plastoid plating. They were armed non lethally, for the most part: stun-sticks strapped to each boot, sonic bafflers and flashbangs at their belts, Stokhli spray sticks slung at their backs. Regulations demanded that their blasters be set for stun, but due to the variety of life that filled the galaxy-and the fact that there were plenty of species out there who could shrug-off any of the aforementioned incapacitating devices as little more than a tickle-those blasters could be toggled to the standard kill-setting at need. Lando remembered there had been an especially ferocious debate over what sort of armaments Coruscant's Security Force ought to be permitted, although he hadn't paid close attention at the time. Now he found himself wishing he knew more about what else might be on the CSF officers' equipment belts. He would hate to get caught because he'd gotten too close to some stun-device's area-of-effect edges, only realizing what had happened when he woke up in Imperial custody…
He started to edge back, trying to steer Threepio away without doing anything obvious like turning around and walking the other direction. The last thing he wanted was for someone to think he looked like he had something to hide.
"Bastasi," the human officer swore. "Coddling their feelings isn't our job."
"No," yelled one of the onlookers before the Twi'lek could respond, "your job is licking Imperial boots!"
"What did you say?" the CSF officer bellowed, spinning back around and raising his blaster again.
"Come on," his partner hissed, "it's not worth it."
For a moment, it seemed like things would end there-but then a young Rodian carrying a shopping bag produced a muja fruit and hurled it at the officers. "Imperial scum!" he yelled.
The Twi'lek officer got his arm up in time to shield his face and the ripe, round fruit burst against his forearm. Red gobbets sprayed his cheeks and his blue armor-plating.
Lando closed his eyes.
The crowd-and it was a crowd now; the shouted invective and hurling of fruit had transformed them from a loose collection of Coruscanti citizens sharing space to a group of people acting and moving as a singular entity-broke into yells of their own and more items (foodstuff and trash, mostly, although Lando knew how scenes like this played-out and heavier missiles would doubtless be joining the deluge in a few minutes) were hurled at the CSF officers.
"Stop it!" the Twi'lek shouted. His white face was pale beneath the dripping juice. "Citizens, return to your homes! This situation-"
"Is a riot!" his human partner interrupted. His face was red with fury. "It is an unlawful assembly, and you will be dealt with acc-"
A second piece of muja fruit hit him smack in the nose. Lando, who had opened his eyes so he could try and shuffle Threepio and himself away from the disruption, closed them again with a groan.
"That's it!" the human CSF officer bellowed, raising his blaster to his shoulder. "You're all under arrest!"
With a sigh, his partner holstered his own blaster and pulled his Stokhli spray stick from his shoulder. He began discharging it at the crowd, tangling them in the fast-hardening mist nets. The human officer went straight to stun blasts, mowing-down three or four beings at a time with the flaring blue circles.
"Come on," Lando said grimly, grabbing Threepio by the arm. "Let's get out of here before things get-"
The angry noise of the crowd gave way to screams and the drumming thunder of a dozen feet approaching at a perfectly-matched run. The shadowy grime of Coruscant parted like a breaking tide around gleaming white armor.
"Oh no!" Threepio exclaimed. "Stormtroopers!"
"Out of hand," Lando finished quietly. "Never mind."
He dragged the droid backwards, trying to slink into the background as the stormtroopers surrounded the now-panicking crowd. The armored troopers didn't seem to care whether the people they rounded-up had been part of the assault on the CSF officers or not; everyone close enough to catch their eye was deemed guilty.
The two CSF officers saluted and, at the command of the stormtroopers, began dragging their tied or stunned prisoners into a cluster alongside the rest of the hapless citizens selected by the Imperial troops.
"Now you'll see," the human officer was crowing at his captives. "With the Empire in charge, trash like you won't be able to run roughshod anymore." The Twi'lek officer was doing his part to haul the stunned or struggling protestors into place, but he was staring askance at his partner, like he was seeing him properly for the first time.
"Quietly," Lando muttered to the wide-eyed protocol droid beside him. "Back away before they notice-"
"You there," a stormtrooper said, turning and pointing her blaster at Lando. "What are you doing?"
Lando raised his hands immediately. "Me, trooper? Nothing, trooper!" he said. He forced a wide smile and gave a little bow-careful to keep his hands in the air as he did so-and added smoothly, "Just passing by on my way home. And may I say it's a pleasure to watch Imperial efficiency at work."
"But sir-" Threepio protested. Lando elbowed the droid and grinned harder.
"Let me see your identification," the trooper demanded.
"Of course," Lando said, "of course." He reached into his pocket and produced a card with a flourish that made his cape swirl. It was a basic traveler's cape, a drab blue lined with an even drabber brown; he had changed from the elegant and expensive outfit he had been wearing when Han and his family had landed on Norulac into more ordinary garb that suited the role of freighter captain that he had adopted. There was nothing to mark him as a hero of the old Rebellion; nothing to indicate he was the wealthy owner of a respected luxury resort.
He still went tense as the stormtrooper scanned his card. The reader beeped, its lights cycling from yellow to red to blue, and then spat the identicard back out.
"You're a food importer?" the stormtrooper asked.
Lando gave another little bow, more aborted than usual; freighter captains, as a general rule, were more restrained than resort proprietors. "Just on my way home from a delivery," he confirmed with forced good cheer.
"Better get there fast," the trooper said, returning his ID. "It's easy to run into trouble out here, Captain Kadar."
"So I see, yes, thank you officer," Lando said. He flapped his hand behind him in an attempt to wave Threepio back; the protocol droid wasn't very nimble but he shuffled backwards obligingly to make room for Lando's more graceful retreat.
The stormtrooper turned away and Lando felt his chest relax. He sucked down an unrestrained breath of bitter, polluted air like it was sweet perfume and muttered, "Come on Threepio, before they change their minds."
"Yes, sir!" Threepio agreed fervently.
And then a little girl screamed.
She was a short, chubby Bothan child, the fur of her small, flat face damp with tears and ruffled with fear. She broke free of the crowd and ran past the stormtroopers.
"Halt!" one of them ordered.
"Don't let it get away!" shouted another one.
Blasters came up and Lando moved without thinking, stepping forward to catch the child as she ran past him. He turned and knelt, shielding her with his cloaked shoulders, head bowed and grimacing against the inevitable-but no blaster bolt came.
Instead rough hands grabbed him and hauled him upright. Behind him, Threepio flung his golden arms high in the air with a strangled, "Oh my!"
"What's this, we've got a hero here?" one of the stormtroopers sneered, swaggering over. Her voice was heavy with disgust.
"No, no!" Lando hurried to protest, shifting the sniffling child in his arms. She was squirming, apparently unable to decide whether to cling to Lando for protection or push away from him to continue running. "Not at all, officers, not at all. Just a-a concerned citizen who doesn't want to see things get out of hand, have things done that can't be taken back. No need for drastic measures, am I right? Everyone's a little tense, sure, but no harm has been done. In fact, I'd be glad to pay for the cleaning bills of these fine officers out of my own pocket as a gesture of Coruscanti neighborliness…"
Lando could distantly hear someone in the crowd wailing, probably a parent of the child. He did his best to tune-out the sound and focused on giving the stormtroopers in front of him the biggest, broadest smile he could muster.
"That's enough out of you, hero," the stormtrooper who seemed to be in charge snapped. "Put him with the others."
The stormtroopers had split into two task groups: one standing on guard in a loose semi-circle around the crowd and the others working alongside the CSF officers to haul the protestors into a ragged line against the nearest wall.
"All right!" one of them barked at the rest. "Let's try and make this orderly!"
Lando winced but didn't protest as the stormtroopers holding his arms marched him forward to join the anxious crowd. A short Bothan man lunged forward to grab the child that Lando was carrying. He released her with a murmur that was supposed to be soothing but probably wasn't; the Bothan man gave Lando a weak, toothy smile of gratitude and made shushing noises at the child.
With a last shove, the stormtroopers doing the man-handling stepped back, leaving their captives huddling in various states of fear and surliness beneath the blaster scopes of the rest of the troopers. The Twi'lek CSF officer watched with visible trepidation, fingers drumming nervously on the haft of his Stokhli spray stick; his human partner's expression was avid.
"What are you going to do to us?" a Rodian woman wailed.
The stormtroopers raised their blasters in eerie unison. "Imperial justice is swift," the leader retorted.
"What?" the Twi'lek CSF officer yelped.
"Shut-up," his partner hissed. "It's what they deserve."
The Twi'lek's face was drawn, his lekku coiling in distress. "No," he mumbled, "this isn't…"
If the stormtroopers heard him, they ignored him. Fingers tightened on triggers-
"Wait for me!"
Everyone, stormtrooper and citizen alike, jerked around to stare at the shiny golden protocol droid that tottered forward, one hand waving stiffly in the air as though attempting to hail an air-taxi.
"What are you doing?" Lando hissed, glancing between the watching troopers and the droid. "Get out of here!" He raised his hands and summoned his most ingratiating smile as he turned back to the stormtroopers. "That's just a translation droid I rented, it doesn't know what it's doing."
Maybe the mission could still succeed even though he'd been stupid enough to catch the attention of the Empire. Maybe one prissy, innocuous protocol droid would be too insignificant for the Imperials to care about, and they'd shoo the droid away rather than waste the time to slag him. Maybe Threepio would then somehow manage to track-down the Jedi that Lando had squandered his chance to find; maybe he could pass on Leia's message, and the Jedi would be able to get the information she needed back to her, and Lando's friends could save the galaxy again and it wouldn't matter that he was going to die on this cesspool city-planet…
"I do beg your pardon," Threepio apologized as he shuffled his way past the bemused stormtroopers. "But I really must insist that you permit me to join Master Kadar, thank you."
"Seems like he knows what he's doing," the stormtrooper who seemed to be in charge said. She sounded amused. "Let him through."
The ring of white-armored troopers stepped aside as Lando's heart sank. "I just-I don't think the rental company would appreciate having their property damaged like this," he tried one last time. "There'll probably be fines or legal action-"
"We're the only authority that matters on this world," the stormtrooper said. "Isn't that right?" she asked, lifting the muzzle of her blaster towards the two CSF officers hovering at the edge of the crowd.
"Yessir!" the human said with a grin.
The Twi'lek hesitated, his face distraught, but he finally jerked his chin in a little nod and mumbled, "Yes, sir."
"Now it's time for all of you to serve the Empire," the stormtrooper continued. "In this case," she nodded sideways towards the horrified watchers cringing on the opposite street or peering through the windows around them, "as a warning to everybody else about what happens to those who disrupt Imperial order…"
Screams and wails of protest-apology and anger mingled into a shrill, jangling cacophony-rose from the crowd. Lando looked around, panic rising hot and sour in his throat, and saw only Threepio looking back.
"Don't worry sir," Threepio said, his round eyes shining, "I won't abandon you."
Lando sighed. As the stormtroopers jostled one another companionably and readied their blasters once more, Threepio leaned in and whispered, "You were very courageous, sir!"
"I was stupid," Lando muttered as the stormtroopers spread themselves into a neat line, three troopers hanging back on either end to cover the nervous watchers lest any of them get the not-so-bright idea to follow Lando's lead and try to interfere themselves.
None of them did.
"But brave, sir!" Threepio assured him. "If I must be dismantled today, I am honored to meet my end while standing beside a friend of such caliber." Apparently misreading Lando's baleful expression, he added anxiously, "I shall do my best not to disgrace you with any exclamations of cowardice, sir."
See Threepio seemed to mean every word. Lando swallowed and tried to force a smile. "Right," he said. "I'm honored too, buddy." He had been planning to beg-useless as it might be-unwilling to give-up until the last; one never knew, stormtroopers could be capricious and he might yet talk his way out of this if he groveled enough. It wasn't as though he had anything but his dignity to lose, which meant it was worth a try-
But maybe there was something to be said for facing the end with your head held high. At any rate, he could hardly let himself do less than the prim protocol droid. He squared his shoulders and looked up, meeting the merciless blank gazes of the stormtroopers head-on while the Coruscanti citizens around him shrank together, some of them crying and some of them cursing with impotent fury.
Lando pattered the shoulder of a sobbing Rodian woman and said, "It'll be over soon-"
The first blaster discharged and he squeezed his eyes shut, flinching.
Snap-hiss! Pow-crack, pow-crack, pow-crack-crack-crack!
Lando drew a breath, and realized that if his lungs were still working it meant he wasn't dead. He opened his eyes.
He stared, mouth agape, at the whir of motion that was two Jedi slaughtering the squadron of stormtroopers. Lightsabers flashed-one turquoise, one orange-in blazing arcs that left white plastoid-armored limbs scattered across the duracrete. Blaster bolts criss-crossed the air, but the Jedi batted them away from both themselves and the terrified crowd with almost contemptuous ease.
The larger of the Jedi-a Zabrak, dressed in flowing brown robes whose simplicity contrasted sharply with the intricate tattoos that criss-crossed his face-kicked one stormtrooper so hard the man flew across the street and cracked the transparisteel window behind him. The trooper crumpled, armor plates clattering, as the Jedi lunged forward to slice the blasters (along with a few fingers) from the hands of two other stormtroopers who failed to back away quickly enough to avoid his blazing saber.
The other Jedi was a small, muscular human whose blazing red hair was tied-back in braids every bit as intricate as her companion's tattoos. Lando hoped they were as thick as they looked; when a trooper who'd dropped his blaster tried to stab her in the back with a wrist-mounted vibroblade, she cracked the back of her head into his helmet hard enough to make him stagger, then swooped his feet out from under him with a loose kick. By the time he hit the ground she had already spun, buried her lightsaber in his chest, and turned to deflect a spatter of blasterfire from three other troopers.
Lando could do nothing but stare.
The crowd of no-longer-doomed protestors seemed split between sharing his frozen shock and fleeing while they had the chance; Lando hardly noticed them go, even when the Rodian woman knocked him sideways into See Threepio as she ran past.
Lando absently steadied the droid, his attention fixed on the Jedi and their hapless enemies. It didn't take them long to finish off the last of the stormtroopers. As the redhead hoisted a last trooper over her shoulder and into a wall with a skin-crawling crack, the Zabrak neatly beheaded another one before turning towards the gaping CSF officers. He only needed to take one step in their direction, robes billowing furiously, before they were throwing their weapons down and raising their hands.
While he berated them in a low voice, the younger Jedi extinguished her turquoise lightsaber and turned to inspect the remaining crowd. "Are there any wounded among you?" she asked, planting her hand on her hip as though daring injuries to manifest and risk her wrath. She made for a strange, savage figure, the delicacy of her features belied by the almost barbaric combination of abbreviated Jedi robes and scaled hide armor. Most of the answers she received came in the form of murmurs and stammering, the would-be-victims too shell-shocked from the combination of their near-death experience, last-minute reprieve, and blisteringly fast battle to muster complete sentences. It seemed enough to content the young Jedi, or perhaps she was using the Force to check for wounds and needed no verbal confirmation or denial. She raked her gaze across them all with narrow-eyed concentration, then started with uncertain recognition when she got to Lando. Her brow furrowed and she opened her mouth.
Before she could speak and possibly give him away, Lando lurched forward and extended a hand and an alias. "Freighter Captain Ashandi Kadar, Jedi. A pleasure to make your acquaintance, and my deepest gratitude for your timely arrival-"
See Threepio might have been steadily growing on Lando since their mission began, but his inability to catch a hint was still a major flaw. "Oh, Jedi Knight Djo!" he exclaimed, leaning around Lando to beam at the young Jedi. "What a pleasure and a relief to see you again, especially in this, our hour of peril!"
Lando winced, then frowned, then turned back to stare at the Jedi. "Djo?" he repeated, too flabbergasted to try and hide it. "Tenel Ka? I haven't seen you since you were a kid, I...I would have hardly recognized you…" He should have; between the braids, the armor, the severed arm, and the steely grey eyes the young woman was distinctive, even among the idiosyncratic Jedi. But he had been more focused on the stormtroopers and his potentially imminent demise; the identity of his rescuers had been a secondary consideration at best.
That didn't stop him from feeling foolish for not figuring it out, though.
Tenel Ka offered him a stiff, thin smile and a regal nod. "Chairman Calrissian. Greetings. You are unharmed, I hope?"
Lando nodded. "Thanks to you and your friend, yes."
"Praeceptor Sazen," Tenel Ka explained with a nod towards the scowling Zabrak. The two CSF officers in front of him were cowering, the Twi'lek meekly shame-faced and the human red-cheeked with mingled guilt and fury. Jedi Sazen seemed no happier and while he had extinguished his lightsaber, the sense of menace radiating from his taut shoulders had not diminished with the battle's end.
"Well, the two of you couldn't have picked a better time to make an entrance." Lando smiled crookedly then added with wry understatement, "Except maybe by being five minutes earlier."
"I apologize for the delay," Tenel Ka said seriously. "May I ask what brought you to this danger, Chairman Calrissian? Were you on Coruscant to witness the treaty?"
"Lando, please," Lando said. "And no, I just got here. They have a blockade up there, did you know?"
Tenel Ka nodded. "This is a fact. The Empire has also interdicted all off-world communication, so we cannot coordinate with or warn the Praxeum."
"Leia, Han, and Chewie are on their way there to do that," Lando reassured her.
Tenel Ka's serious expression didn't change, but her eyes did brighten. "You have seen the Organa-Solos? They survived the attack?"
"Oh yes!" Threepio reached forward as though meaning to clasp Tenel Ka's hand and pat it comfortingly, then seemed to think better of it and lowered his arms again. "Don't worry about them, mistress!"
"They're all fine," Lando confirmed soothingly. "Bail, too. Breha's gotten herself into a bit of a pickle, but Stella and Bail are staging a rescue as we speak."
"That is reassuring news," Tenel Ka said. "Thank you...Lando."
"How about you, kid? The Jedi here all right?"
Tenel Ka nodded. "We evacuated the center before the Empire even reached the plaza. No casualties."
"That's a relief. Do you know where Tionne is? I need to speak with her."
"Yes," Tenel Ka said. "If you wish, you may accompany Praeceptor Sazen and I, and we will bring you back with us to her when we are done with our duties."
Lando felt like a speeder whose repulsors had just been shut-off, the tension and fear that had gripped him since he'd come out of hyperspace and seen those Star Destroyers waiting in orbit easing from heart-pounding terror to a low hum of nerves. "That's perfect." He grinned. "And here Leia thought it would be difficult for me to track you all down…"
Tenel Ka's eyebrows shot up. "Leia sent you?"
Lando started to nod, but barely got out the first breath of the yes he meant to offer before Tenel Ka was whirling away from him, saying, "Then let us waste no more time!"
She raised both her voice and her hand to catch her fellow Jedi's attention. "Kor! We should hasten!"
Kor Sazen glanced over at them, clearly confused by her sudden rush, but nodded. He finished whatever he was saying to the chastented Coruscant Security Forces-the Twi'lek, still looking grim, unclipped a set of binders from his belt and slapped them on the wrists of his sulking colleague-and strode back to join the others.
"You're right," he agreed easily. His voice was soft but strong, with a gentle confidence that spoke of wisdom and contemplation and belied the speed with which he had slashed his lightsaber through the bodies of the stormtroopers now strewn motionless around him. "The Empire will send reinforcements as soon as they learn what happened, and us being here will only escalate the risk to-"
Tenel Ka shook her head. "Chairman Calrissian is on a mission from Leia."
Kor's eyes widened, stark and shocked against the intricate designs that accented his rich brown cheeks. "Leia? Organa-Solo? Then let us make haste indeed." He turned to their remaining audience and said, "Gather yourselves and flee. The Empire will come to investigate and you don't want to be here to be found." He smiled softly at his nervous audience. "Keep your outrage hot, my friends, but do not let it burn you more than it does them." He spread his hands, somehow giving the impression of a man who could hold this whole polluted, overpopulated world in his palms. "Hope will endure; stay alive to meet it."
The fearful, shivering Coruscanti citizens stood a little straighter at his words; some even managed a smile, or whatever passed for their species's equivalent gesture. Lando was impressed. He knew that he had a particular gift for oration (especially emotionally manipulative oration) but Kor Sazen was on another level. He wondered if it was the Force at work, or a natural talent.
"Chairman Calrissian, an honor to make your acquaintance." Kor gave a little bow, which Lando returned graciously. "And See Threepio, I see. Greetings. If you would both follow us?"
"Only if you call me Lando," Lando said, flashing his trademark grin as he fell into step beside the Jedi. "Anybody who saves my life gets automatically elevated to first name-basis."
"Oh," said Threepio, "is that why you're so friendly with so many people, Master Calrissian?"
Lando thought he saw the ghost of a smile flicker across Tenel Ka's stoic features. Kor Sazen definitely smirked, although he smoothed it from his features almost immediately. Lando gave the droid a dirty look and said nothing. Maybe Han wasn't so far off-base with his opinion of the protocol droid after all.
"This way, please," Tenel Ka said, her voice carefully neutral as she ushered them both onwards.
Lando scowled at the cheerfully-oblivious Threepio and followed.