Jacen touched the landing hanger smoothly. Sure enough, there was an empty spot where their neighbor's ship had once been. He was about to enter the apartment when somebody caught the back of his collar, a tight, seizing grip. Now there was hot breath on his shoulder, too. "Hey, boy," a voice said menacingly, "Your little brother had better bring me back my ship." Jacen blinked. "Huh?" Then he remembered. If this man did anything to him, Anakin was really going to pay…
Before he could be pulverized, Jaina stepped in. "Nothing to worry about," she said calmly. "He took your ship merely as a gambling bet. In fact, he just e-mailed me and said that he won twenty thousand credits, to compensate for the ship."
Was it just her, or did the man's grip soften a bit? "How much again?" he asked. Jaina took her bluff a bit further. "Twenty thousand," she said firmly, "plus the ship back. Of course, because he won you the money, we might have to keep a bit-"
Jacen was let go with a loud thump. "Tell your brother that I'll accept the ship plus half of the amount you just said," he yelled over his shoulder. "But don't go messing around like that again. I expect to see my property in good condition when it comes back."
Jacen stood up, his eyes shining with admiration. "Anakin did that?" he asked. "But why didn't you tell me?"
"Um…"Jaina bit her lip, "I didn't tell you because…I didn't want you to get all worked up." If she spilled the truth now, he really would get worked up, and usually it wasn't a pretty sight.
"Well, you should have." Jacen said, pulling her along. "Come on, let's go find mom.
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The apartment was mostly still, save the few droids doing menial duties such as housekeeping and feeding the fish.
"Any idea where dad is?" He asked Jaina.
"No. It looks like nobody's been around for-"
A sudden beeping noise alerted them to the arrival of R2D2, who was promptly followed by C3PO. "Master Jacen," the golden droid intoned, "I'm so glad to see you are back! Oh, it has been terrible. Young master Anakin has caused your parents such pain. R2 and I can hardly stand it."
"Um…so any idea where they are?"
"Your mother is on a diplomatic mission to New Alderaan. I have no information as to the whereabouts of your father."
Despite the fact that he knew his father like the back of his hand, Jacen decided to try and contact him anyway. First of all, he had a strange feeling that his father was not alone. Someone was with him, someone who he knew personally. Another thing was that uncle Luke had only let him go because his father needed help, and if he didn't help, it would be back to baby-talk for him.
"Tell you what," he called to Jaina, once he had sent the droids on their business. "Let's stay over for the night and then go find dad. There might be a tracker on the Falcon which could be sending signals right now."
"Good idea," his sister replied, and the two Solo twins whisked themselves into their old room.
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After several hours of pure boredom, Anakin was quite relieved to see Mansa Musa come back with a small bag full of seafood. He set it down on a table, cradling his head in his hands. Anakin came into the room, sitting besides the Gungan.
"Had a hard day?"
"Oh, oh, far more wors-ed than yousa think," the amphibian moaned. "I was punished again for being late."
"Your people have a strict regulation, huh?"
"Ehh…yah." Suddenly remembering that he had a guest, the Gungan opened the sack of food and offered it to Anakin. Most of the items inside it were cold, limp, or vividly wriggling. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, picking one item randomly.
"Da big boss, he dos-eh-not like newcomers!" Mansa Musa cried between bites. "Since the big bad empire took over, all contact to other places have gone bye-bye. Even now, Ota-Gunga is still not sure whether to trust humans anymore. Not many people like yousa have come down here and lived a long life of the happy." Anakin shivered. It was hard not to when you were munching on a raw shrimp head.
"So, what you're saying is that my life is in potential danger."
"Ya."
Anakin chewed on both this thought and the remains of his food. Finally, he stood up.
"Mansa Musa…what would happen if I appealed before your king to help me get out of here? I really need to get back to the surface; otherwise I'll have to go into exile or something." He had not forgotten the small matter of what had happened to his neighbor's ship.
"We-el, he might not abbregiate it, cause' after all, yousan is a human. The main problema is how to get to the palace without nobody seeing ya."
"Any ideas on how to do that?"
"Maybe. Can I sleep on it first? Usually I have a better thinking in da morning." The Gungan licked his fingers and plodded off to bed without another word. He was soon snoring.
Anakin tried to make himself comfortable on a kitchen chair. He didn't like this situation, and he certainly didn't like Mansa Musa and his strange Gungan customs. If it meant getting out, though, he'd put up with it for a couple of days.
When he thought it was safe, he reached into his bag and pulled out the wooden box, opening it softly. There lay a lightsaber, safe from harm. Though he had been asked to leave it at the academy, he had brought it along in case. It was the fruit of several weeks' worth of labor. He activated it for several minutes, admiring its glow, before putting it back in its case.
Though Anakin hadn't dreamt of anyone seeing him, he had been watched. Someone in the darker corners quietly drew his head back and crept away.
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Throughout all his years of smuggling, Han Solo had never seen a place as filthy and as ghostly as the Under City of Taris. Since its desertion, it had resumed to its natural state: An eerie, almost surreal, planet. Lando was pretty much crazy. There was nothing worthwhile to find down here.
He followed Lando through several passages before they finally ducked under a narrow doorway in what appeared to be what was left of an apartment structure. "What the Sith could you find in a place like this?" he wondered. Several minutes later, he found out.
Two aliens, both with abnormally small heads, were sitting at a table, dealing out cards to each other. They were in a small, dirty room, stuffed nearly to the brim with broken droids, empty beer cans, and various shiny trinkets. Lando cleared his throat, calling both of them to attention.
"Lando!" He said in a sugar-coated voice. "It has been a long time since I have seen you-come now, sit, sit, so we can-" His eyes rested on Han for a few moments. Uneasiness soon built up between them. To prove a point, Han firmly planted his behind next to Lando's.
"Pray, tell me," the alien drawled, "What brings you to our little place? Nobody comes here anymore, mainly because whoever comes in rarely comes out." The two extraterrestrials laughed; each one spurting out a high, keening snort.
Lando remained serene. "The fact is," he said, leaning towards the two aliens, "we need a loan. Han here,"-he jerked a hand towards the former smuggler-"has a kid who just boosted a ship. We need to get enough money to buy a new one in case."
The alien seemed to consider this for a while. "Well," he said. "We could loan you some…but we have to be cautious. Do you play Sabacc?"
"My friend Han is the real expert," Lando replied. "Took the millennium falcon away from me in a single game." Han bowed his head modestly. Several minutes later, he realized that the aliens were tittering at him. His teeth clenched.
'Let them do whatever they want; I'll show those stuffed shirts. The creator didn't do them wrong when he gave them heads that size.'
He leaned over the table to the surprised extraterrestrials. "Say, why don't you and I play a little game together?" he asked. "If I win, you two hand over the money. If I lose, I'll handle any work that you want me to do, whether smuggling or bounty hunting or…whatever, as long as I get the money when I'm done."
The second alien's eyes glittered greedily. "My friend is one of the best Sabacc players in the galaxy," the other one explained. "Are you sure you want to take this bet?" He burst into a round of tittering again. Han narrowed his eyes. "I will."
"All right then!" Lando clapped his hands. "Deal the cards. What type do you want to play, Random Sabacc?"
Thirty minutes later, Han and the alien were still pitted against each other. Lando would occasionally call out different rules, and the two men would merely nod their heads and continue. Finally, Han Solo found a Pure Sabacc. He was pretty sure he was going to win this round. "Pure Sabaac. Take that, you extraterrestrial idiot," he said.
At the same time that Han spouted out the word 'idiot,' his opponent lay down his cards. A two. A three. An Idiot. His friend whooped in triumph. Lando just looked glum.
"Hold on, you can't do that!" Han was on his feet. "That is an illegal move; I won this game, not you!" "No, you lost." Lando cut in. "I was the randomizer, so I know. He won with the Idiot's Array."
Han kicked himself-literally. Why hadn't he been listening? The alien smirked at his obvious fury. "Good game, though. And now…about your wager."
"Yeah?" Han turned furiously at him. "You won, so now what?"
The alien handed him a slip of paper. Han read it-and nearly choked.
"Two thousand Womp Rat pelts? Are you mad?"
"No." The alien went over to a computer screen, opened up a program file. "Nowadays, Womp Rat pelts are fetching high prices in the Black Market. Most marketers use them to duplicate expensive furs. Not many people notice the difference if you soak them well." Lando chewed his lip. Things weren't quite going as he had expected…
"Find me double the amount and you will get the amount of credits that you need." Was it worth the trouble?
Well, there was no other way. Han and Lando shook hands with the alien. "Deal."
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Leia Organa calmly checked the readings on her screen. Just as she had planned, she was heading towards her brother's academy. Within minutes, she would be there. There were some things she had to talk about with her brother, and they certainly weren't rants about how hard it was to be an ambassador.
Unlike most times, when she went on other visits to distant planets, Han had actually seemed happy to have her leave. That had been the first clue. Being the worried mother/wife, she had hacked into his e-mail inbox, discovering all sorts of letters from a man called "Calrissian at Cloud City." Naturally, she knew exactly who that was-and that Han had promised not to see him.
Why the deception, then? It was simple. Leia knew that Han would never lie to her unless he was really worried about something. She had felt something through the force, but not being sure, she was going to stop by at Luke's place before she went along to New Alderaan.
"Luke?" she called once she had stepped into the main Hangar bay. Nobody answered. She decided to visit him in his apartment.
Ben was there, sulking in a chair. "Hello, Ben," she said. "Do you know where your dad is?"
"In his room. He has a headache."
This statement worried Leia. She opened the door to see Luke sleeping in a far from calm state. Every so often he would thrash and groan about cheating at cards and the taste of shrimp heads. So he had felt it too.
Leia was about to wake him up when, in a sudden effort to hit an imaginary being, Luke's fist landed between her eyes.
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A/N: That took a little longer to write, since there were so many weird things happening. Recently I also discovered that Luke's jedi academy is later deserted, and that Coruscant falls(good old wookiepedia). I hate the Yuuzhan Vong
Anyway: I slightly modified some info in previous chapters, seeing as they were inaccurate. Please R and R. If there is anything else I should know, feel free to point it out.