Chapter Nineteen
Corellia
Carrying his satchel toward his house, Han Solo felt relief to finally be home. He knew that Lando already had his next gig lined up - a starring role in another holo-film. He would be filming on the lower levels of Coruscant which was not his favorite place, but the producer and director wanted everything to appear 'authentic' and apparently a nice set on the upper levels, where things were much safer and cleaner, just wouldn't do. His new role was to play the part of a New Republic bounty hunter searching for and destroying droids that had been programmed to kill all sentient beings. To make matters more interesting, the droids in this holo-film had the ability to go undercover with a cloaking device. Han thought the premise sounded pretty lame, especially the part about hand-held cloaking devices, but they were paying him ten million credits to star in this stupidity so who was he to argue.
At least it wasn't a musical. Lando and Coruscanti Labels kept pressuring him to take roles where all he had to do was sing songs and look dashing and desperate. Han had read some of those scripts and they all had pretty much the same plot: Rich boy pretends to be poor in order to get the pretty girl that doesn't like stuck-up rich people. Poor boy pretends to be rich in order to woo the pretty girl that doesn't much care for lower class guys. Down on his luck swoop racer tries to impress pretty girl by winning a galaxy-class race, while deftly avoiding creditors. Throw in a lot of lame tie-in songs for good measure, and that was each holo-movie in a nutshell. Han put his foot down with a resounding 'no' and Lando hadn't bothered him too much lately showing him scripts for that type of drek.
Lost in his own thoughts, Han opened the doorway to his home and then stood there with his mouth hanging open in utter astonishment.
In the center of his large living room were two young Jedi teenagers, a human boy and a male Wookiee, and they were busy training with their lightsabers. A Mon Calamari that Han thought was a female was floating in mid-air, her knees splayed out, ankles crossed with her large eyes shut tight. Across the living area there was a large floor to ceiling double pane duraglass door which opened to the outside to Han's pool. There, around the pool, an adult human female was busy chasing around two young human girls who were screaming and giggling and obviously using the Force to throw every piece of lounge furniture and various flotation devices into the pool.
"Hi, Evin," Luke called out, exiting from the kitchen area and holding a large mug of what Han thought might be ale. Luke took a swig. "You're home a few timeparts early."
Mara, also holding an ale, followed Luke, and was looking amused at his expense. Han had come to the realization that Mara always seemed to think his life was amusing. "If you allowed Luke to train you, then you probably wouldn't be so surprised right now," she said, smirking. "You could have sensed there were a lot of beings inside the house."
"Mara's right," Luke added, wiping the foam from his lips. "We need to go to llum to get you a kyber crystal so you can build your own lightsaber. That's important."
"Who... who are all these beings?" Han managed to splutter, totally ignoring Mara's jab about training as a Jedi and whatever it was that Luke was prattling on about. The beings inside - and outside - sure didn't look like the sort Wes would invite over for a party, and besides, Wes hadn't yet had time to arrive back at the estate since he was in charge of packing up the stage equipment after a concert.
"Oh, those beings?" Luke asked, trying to act nonchalant. "Those are my students. The Academy building isn't finished yet, and they needed some place to live in the meantime, so -"
"So you thought they could just all come live here?" Han asked, his voice rising with each word.
"You did say you had lots of bedrooms," Luke replied, sounding a bit defensive. "I lost my lease and they had to leave. What was I supposed to do with them?"
"I, um... well..."
"Good answer," Mara said sweetly. "Luke, why don't you introduce all your students to Evin, our kind, benevolent benefactor."
"Sure," Luke said, sounding cheerful again. "Everyone, come over here please."
The students stopped what they were doing and stood dutifully behind Master Luke.
"This is Lowbacca," Luke started, then looked pointedly at Han. "He's Chewbacca's nephew. You know who Chewbacca is, right? Big war hero. Loyal friend to Han Solo."
Han narrowed his gaze at Luke then turned to the Wookiee. "Hello, Lowbacca." Lowbacca didn't respond verbally since he assumed, incorrectly of course, that Evin Daysun wouldn't understand Shyriiwook.
"And the young man is Kyp Durron. Mara and I rescued him from the spice mines and discovered his Force talent during our escape."
"Hello, Mr. Daysun," Kyp said, stepping forward to shake Han's hand. Then he looked at Luke in surprise. "Master Luke, do you know that Mr. Daysun is, uh, Force-sensitive?"
"I know," Luke replied in his oh-so-patient "Master" voice, which made Kyp flush.
"Is he one of your students, too?"
"Not on your life, kid," Han responded before Luke could say anything.
Luke sighed and continued with the introductions. "Cighal, meet Evin Daysun."
Han was never quite sure how to shake the flipper of a Mon Calamari, so he just gave a quick wave in her direction.
"Meet Teneniel Djo and her younger sister, Tenel Ka, from the planet of Dathomir," Luke said, waving the two forward.
The little girl was perhaps around six or seven, Han wasn't a very good judge of a child's age. Tenel Ka looked up at him, eyes wide, and said, "You are a very pretty male. My sister would probably like to own you."
Han blinked. "What?"
"It's a matriarchal society, somewhat like the Hapans," Mara explained. "Except the men there really are owned by the women. They tried to buy Luke, too. Fortunately, I was able to convince them I already owned him." Mara glanced over at Luke, who was busy staring at the shiny wood floor like he'd spilled some of his ale.
"My sister is correct," Teneniel said, smiling broadly. "You are very pretty. Perhaps you would consider coming back to Dathomir with me and becoming my slave? I will treat you very nicely and we will make very beautiful babies together. All the other witches will be very jealous of me."
"Um, I don't think so, but thanks for askin'." Han glared at Luke, who seemed to have gotten over his own discomfort and was now grinning at Han.
"And last but not least," Luke said, waving another little girl forward, "this is Tahiri Veila."
"Where do you live?" the child, around the same age as Tenel Ka, asked in complete earnestness.
"I, uh, live here."
"Master Luke allowed you to come here, also?"
"Allowed? Honey, I own this house. I'm the one that allowed him to move in with me," Han said, trying to keep his temper in check.
"You know, Evin Daysun, famous singer and actor, I don't think even one of these trainees has a clue who you are," Mara said, smiling broadly. "I guess you must not be as popular as you claim to be."
"I guess not," Han said dryly, still glaring at Luke. Considering the odd places where Luke had dug up these trainees, it would have been more of a shock if they knew the name of any entertainer in the galaxy. "You don't mind if I unpack and take a quick shower, do you?"
"No, you go right ahead," Mara said, giving a strange look at Luke that Han could not quite interpret. "We'll be waiting for you to start dinner. Everyone is starved."
Han whipped his head back around to face Mara. "What? You expect me to cook meals for everyone?"
"All the time. Three times a day," Mara responded, keeping a straight face. "You're probably the only decent cook living here."
"Mara, stop teasing Evin," Luke told his fiancee. "He doesn't have to cook three meals a day for us. Only two. And he has to do the laundry."
"Funny, kid," Han muttered, hoisting his duffel bag and hustling into the relative safety of his bedroom.
Leia was sitting on the edge of the bed waiting for Han to appear, her face pale and worried.
If Solo was surprised before, now he was stunned beyond words.
"Shut the door. We have to talk," Leia said quietly, watching as he obeyed after a short hesitation where he obviously was trying to regain his wits. "You haven't heard?"
"Heard about what?" he finally managed to say, still frozen in place.
"There wasn't anything about me on the Hapan news-vids?"
"The only thing I saw was that you were traveling to Coruscant to attend a political conference, but that was four weeks ago. I thought you would be back on Hapes by now."
"Isolder had our marriage annulled."
Han shook his head, trying to comprehend. "Does that make you happy? Or unhappy?" He truly wasn't sure anymore what Leia wanted.
"If it were just the marriage dissolving I'd be thrilled. But they claimed full custody of Isabell and banished me from the Consortium. Unless I can somehow get custody from them, I'll never see her again." Although Leia hadn't meant to cry, she could feel tears forming and Han was instantly by her side, sitting down next to her and taking her hand in his.
"Oh, Sweetheart, I'm so sorry. Why do you think they did that?"
"Because you and I made love, and you still had your," she just decided to go ahead and say the word, "damn pubic hair."
"Let me get this straight. If I would have used the cream beforehand, then it would have been perfectly alright for us to screw around?"
"Yes. I would never have asked you to use that stuff. It's permanent."
"I keep tellin' you and tellin' you, those Hapans are crazy-ass bastards."
Leia leaned into his shoulder. "I have to get her back, Han. Evin, I mean. Luke keeps telling me I have to use your new name, or I'll slip up in front of your employees or the students."
In the privacy of their bedroom, Han didn't care which name Leia used as it was irrelevant to him. After more than three years he'd gotten used to being called Evin, anyway. "We'll get her back, Leia. If I have to spend every last credit to either of my names, we'll get her back."
Although Leia wasn't so sure, her heart filled with joy at his words. She knew he loved her, even more than he loved all the credits in the galaxy; an amazing transformation from the man she'd first met onboard the first Death Star.
Lifting her eyes, she was about to tell him how much she loved him and what he meant to her, but she didn't have a chance.
"Princess Leia!" a prim voice called out from the 'fresher. "I have put away all your new clothes and makeup and brushes and - " He toddled out into the bedroom. "Oh, I did not hear that you had company." He tilted his head to one side. "If my memory chip serves me correctly, you appear to be Master Daysun. I would very much like to hear you sing me a song, Master Daysun. I am not fussy as to any particular style of music, so you may pick whatever song you would enjoy serenading me with."
Han turned his wide, shocked eyes down to the petite Princess, noting she was now looking vaguely amused and waiting for his reaction. "Fuck."