Chapter 17

Location: Tendrando Arms Tower on the planet Coruscant.

Within a half hour of Dena being detained by Tendrando employees, Chief Dorvan and Master Horn were standing before Lando in his head office. That is, in one of his head offices. Lando and Tendra owned several mega corporations, so in turn they owned several Corporate towers. Lando wasn't on Coruscant often but when he was he liked to do business face to face, one on one. So all his Corporate buildings included a room like this one. When Lando was in the house he was in full control of his house.

"Well this has gotta be big if you two are here" was Lando's greetings.

He continued: "And Corran do you mind explaining to me why Dena Yus is down in security, lookin like a damn Pantoran? Last I checked, she was taking orders from YOU!"

Corran looked at Wynn, and Wynn in turn gave him a nod. Corran rallied his inner strength for what was about to happen next.

Last week Lando was a Victim. A man who's heart had been crushed. That man, didn't seem to be in the room with them at the moment. A transmutation had occurred, and... a disturbing one at that. On the outside, Lando didn't seem to be much different from his old self ,the Lando from before the tragedy, albeit a bit darker. On the inside, however, his sorrow was resting upon a bed of burning coals. He wasn't exactly on the knife's edge of Self destruction/Causing destruction, but if he was not careful he would be drifting into that territory.

A brief scan around the room was enough to visually confirm Lando's change. On either side of the door stood 2 YVH Battle Droids. Behind Lando stood 8 YVH's. With a recent assassination attempt, beefed up security was to be expected. But this... this was different. Corran had never felt intimidation from Lando, but now... Now he thought it would be wise for himself to hold his tongue.

There was no right way to begin this conversation so Corran just started with:

"Lando...we know who did it."

Lando's whole body tensed and he had to fight a growing rigidity in his limbs as he got up from his chair and leaned forward with both arms propping him up over his desk.

In a deadly quiet and low voice he said: "It was Dena... wasn't it!"

Then he exploded: "WASNT IT! THE JEDI SHOULD HAVE VAPED HER A YEAR AGO! BUT NOOOOO! YOU GAVE HER A KARKIN JOB! ...I CANT..."

Corran had no choice but to firmly interrupt him: "LANDO!... Lando! It wasn't Dena Ok! Dena... Dena just saved the mission today that will let us track the killer."

Lando's mind was trying to process too much information and so he just stood there, stunned.

After a few silent moments his mind kicked into gear: "Wait... wait... you mean the Killer was just here?" "Actually...BOTH killers were..."

Lando grabbed a handful of his own hair with his left hand and bit down on his other hand which had turned into a fist.

He then fell backward into his chair, and with a shortage of breath he asked: "Who?"

Again Corran and Wynn shared a look between themselves. With that Wynn placed a small flat holoprojecter on Lando's table. With a faint buzzing noise, signalling the holograms activation. a glowing logo of the GA Justice Department appeared above the table. That image was replaced be a couple sitting beside each other at some kind of bar. A small glowing blue box formed around each of their faces. Along side the main image of the bar couple, Both of the individual's I.D's appeared along with an abbreviated dossier of relevant information. Everyone in the room watched in silence as the recording played out. The sound had been amplified, of course, so even their whispers came across, loud and clear.

As the recording's playback progressed, Corran could sense Lando's inner feelings dip and peek. He was struck by surprise then anger, then horror and then extreme grief. That grief mutated back to anger but this time the anger wasn't a hot burst of flame.

It was a cold malevolence that was in for the long run. "I can't believe... that piece of Hutt slime was right here less then an hour ago! I... I just shook hands with that creep...I should have been strangling him. Tell me he's going down for this!"

Wynn was not fated to be the bearer of good news: "Lando, we've hit a bit of a snag there... look we take this (he pointed at the now frozen holographic image) seriously. G.A.S and the justice department took this to a judge last night. We immediately got an arrest warrant. But less then 10 minutes later a superior court judge had been informed of the decision and used her authority to undo the first judges decision... She threw out our warrant and ..."

Both Lando and Corran interrupted Wynn at the same time with: "What?"

Wynn, to his credit continued with the perfect mixture of sympathy and professionalism. "Its obvious that he has the superior judge in his pocket and she in turn has various other officials under her thumb in order for the warrant to be quashed so quickly. The Judge brought up the fact that we had been denied an eavesdropping warrant for VoxHayly in the past, and accused us of using the Jedi investigation as a loophole to illegally surveil and record him, thus rendering all this incriminating evidence "fruit of the poisonous tree"... But don't loose hope... It's not as bad as it seems. G.A.S has multiple investigations into all the corrupt officials and judges we know are involved. It might take some time, but after we bring them down, then we can bring this evidence back and we will get him, I know we will Lando, we just have to take the long route!"

Lando just shook his head in disbelief. He closed his eyes and then massaged the bridge of his nose with thumb and forefinger, as if all the pent up frustration in the galaxy, was stored up in his sinus cavities. He opened his eyes and looked up at Corran and said: "Please... Please tell me your going to get that little witch who killed my family. Corran! CORRAN!... you have to get her!"

Corran bowed in respect for his pain and suffering, and then spoke: "Lando, things with Vestara are...complicated, all I can say is that this is part of somthing that is huge, and Justice will be served."

Lando glared at Corran and said "Vape your Jedi Justice! You said Dena put a tracker on her, right? So, give me the Damn codes so I can take care of Vestara myself..."

Corran started to shake his head and say something, but Lando cut him off: " I need this Corran! That piece of filth, destroyed one of my mines, and killed my workers and ... Now She... she (Lando started to burst in to tears, but then erupted in a rage)... SHE TOOK EVERYTHING FROM ME! I KNOW WHAT JEDI JUSTICE IS, AND ITS NOT FOR ME. I ... I need to do this!"

That was his final attempt at reaching past Corran's dignity and logic to his heart; a father's heart. But as much as it hurt Corran to hurt Lando, he could not change course.

"Lando, I'm leaving for Shedu Maad right after this meeting... the counsel will descide what to do with Vestara, just... please trust the force."

Lando began to giggle and sob at the same time: Trust?... Trust?... I have trusted the Jedi, the rebels, the GA for 40 years. And where has that gotten me. Everytime I've tried to build something beautiful and amazing, it ends up being destroyed."

He then pointed with his thumb to the ancient wounded Drexl painting behind him on the wall.

"See that? That's me. I have trust the Jedi, I have trusted the GA and that dying beast is me! You... You people are false masters and false Gods with false hope! I don't know what I expected? But I'm done Bowing and I'm done doing what good Ol Lando is supposed to do! Now Gentlemen, this meeting... is over."

With that, 2 of the droids standing behind him, came walking up to Corran and Wynn and said in a deep artificial voice that had a mechanical quality: "Gentle beings... Follow me!"

Wynn and Corran knew better than to reason with Lando now. He had unsurprisingly been pushed over the edge by the update they had provided. So, they simply gave him a small bow and said: "Goodbye Lando."

As soon as his guests had cleared the room, Lando had paged his corporate secretary and his Tendrando General Manager.

Within a minute, two small sized holographic beings appeared from the desk's built in projector.

"Good day Master Calrissian, what can I do for you?" GM Gwenth Tabernakey asked.

"Coruscant ain't safe right now. In fact the galaxy is not a safe place right now. I want you to oversee the transfer of all our operations, essential personnel , and equipment to our SSOF (Secret Special Operations Facility) on Socorro. You got 2 days. Don't worry, Im giving my mining operations a heads up and they are going to give you any logistical support you require."

Lando had picked the best people for the Job, and he trusted them, like they trusted him.

So it was unsurprising when all she said in reply was: " Very good Master Calrissian, we will get to work now."

He then turned to his Secretary, Prent Hoyce, and said: "Prent, I need you to prep one of our PHSF (Tendrando's Private High Security Force, for clients that need space security) light cruisers for take off in... 6 hours. I want you to pack it with as many UVH's, stealth survys (Stealth Surveillance Droids) and drone fighters as you can pack inside. And I want you to transfer aboard... A battery of the Mark1ACR (Atmospheric Chain Reaction) Missiles!"

Prent's only reply was: "Yes sir, right away sir! I should also inform you that the overhaul of the Lady Luck is now completed, and she is ready for flight."

At hearing this Lando desperately wanted to lunge at that tiny little sliver of "what used to be". He was seriously tempted at that moment to abandon everything by climbing aboard his faithful Yacht just to spend the rest of his days cruising every Cantina, every gambling hall in the whole galaxy. In another universe, there was indeed a Lando who chose that option and he would live out his days in a quasi peaceful haze.

But he was sick of the haze and he was sick of being told what to do. The Galaxy was broken, and those in charge were just pretenders. They wouldn't control him ever again. Only he controlled himself now. He had a mission now, and if the Jedi and the GA couldn't stop him, then neither would the gravitational pull of sentimental feelings.

He told Prent: "Have it flown to the Socorro Base."

In less then 6 hours he would be on that light cruiser, on the maiden voyage of his new destiny. The first stop on that voyage, would be a system that he would normally give a wide birth to. There he would meet a person who was more Legend than man, and more armour than flesh.

He had in his possession, the ultimate hand and Boba Fett would have no choice but to go all in.