Chapter 68 - The Game
"So I'll approve the Field Grid repair and the storm damage in sector C. We can take the expenses out of the general maintenance fund." Lando sat in his office with Lobot and went over the knitty gritty of boring management tasks. This was one of those duties he was thankful he had Lobot for. Otherwise he'd have to keep track of all this information by himself.
"Satisfactory decision. There is one more topic to note," Lobot said over the wrist communicator.
The screen in front of Lando changed to read another report. "What am I looking at here?"
"This is the personal activity logs of Lobot, Computer Liaison officer." Most would laugh at a friend using the third person when talking about themself, but Lando learned not to expect any differently. "There are blanks, where information was either entered and deleted or not entered at all."
"What's the matter old chap? Are you losing your memory?" Lando laughed it off.
"It is recommended to…"
Lando tapped his wrist communicator after a second when nothing came up.
"To ignore the issue. I will alert you if it gets worse."
"Hmm? Well, issues to ignore are my favorite kind." Lando was a little confused as to why Lobot would even bring the issue up if he didn't intend him to do something about it. But he shook that off and shut down his computer screen. "If we're done for the day, I've got guests to entertain."
Lobot went back to work without even blinking an eye. Lando got up and grabbed a bottle of brandy. He thought again, then picked up a deck of cards, and headed out the door.
Lando rang the buzzer on the apartment door. After a few minutes it opened and Han waved inviting him in.
"Never say I don't give you anything." Lando waved the bottle.
Han smiled and directed him to a snack bar, where he pulled out a couple of glasses.
Luke, who was sitting inside, looked up to notice his arrival. "Cool, can I have some?"
"No you're twenty, and besides your mother would kill me," Han answered.
"But mother isn't even here," Luke protested.
One of the ladies in the room rolled her eyes. "Your father is right over there."
"Dad won't care," said Luke. Their eyes scanned over to the two men who were busy looking over sheets of information with the other lady. 'What were their names? Oh yeah. Obi-Wan and Anakin. And the ladies are Mara and Leia.' If you asked which lady was the princess and which the maid, Lando would be embarrassed to say he couldn't tell them apart in this situation.
"Still doesn't matter. You're too young, kid. And I am more afraid of your mom than Master Skywalker, over there," Han said.
Anakin got up to grab something from the kitchen and added, "Me too. No booze."
Luke looked disappointed. Lando made a mental note of the family name, in case it came up later. Then he quickly sought to change the subject. "I also brought these." He held out the cards he brought with him. "Are you interested, perhaps, in a game between friends?"
Han laughed. "You still trying to win back the falcon? You're out of luck. Chewy's too attached to the girl. Won't let me part ways with her."
"No, nothing so drastic. Just a game between friends. What do you say?"
Han picked up the deck and shuffled it to examine the cards.
Luke looked over his shoulder and spoke up, "Hey, I know that game."
Han's eyes grew wide. "No, you don't."
"Yeah I do. It's Sabacc," Luke shared.
"I have a feeling he's right. If you play to their rules, you'll lose your shirt," said one of the redheads in the room.
Luke rolled his eyes in reply.
"Tell you what," Han started. "We can play for a bit of information."
Lando eyed him warily.
"Someone paid the Bounty Hunter's Guild a whopping load of credits to increase a minor warrant on me to a universe wide bounty. I'd like to know who did it. Which of my old enemies is still holding on to old grudges, and is in position to pay for it?"
Lando nodded. "And if I win, you tell me why you joined the rebellion. The real story."
Han nodded.
Lando used his wrist communicator to type a message to Lobot. 'Look up the Bounty Hunter Guild's records. The ones on the Holonet and the ones not so public. Who paid Extradition Fees on Han Solo. Use all your skills.'
A minute later, which was a little long for his near robotic friend, Lobot typed a response. 'Report will be ready in one hour.'
"I don't get it," Leia complained.
Han looked up, his mild annoyance building.
"Your plan is to cheat, but not to win." She paced in front of him.
Han almost regretted his hasty plan. "Just you two be ready when we're done." He anticipated her protesting waiting around for two men to finish their card game when he added, "I'll send Luke to get you when we're through."
Leia huffed and walked out. Han felt better about having the Ladies gone. He knew he and Lando could get rowdy during a match and didn't want them to see it. He reached into his sleeve to check the cards he stashed there earlier. All set, he walked out to the table where Lando was shuffling and dealing their hand.
"We're going back to the ship to communicate with home base again." Obi-Wan told Han.
"I still want to search for C3-PO," Anakin said. "Lando says there are some droid terminals in the city. He's probably plugged into one of those."
"We can, after we send the communication to base," Obi-Wan insisted.
Han turned back to his friend. "I would have left you the honor of dealing first, but you were taking so long," Lando said. "Besides Lukey here will tell you I dealt fairly."
Han looked over to Luke, who nodded. "Oh I don't doubt you." Han did a quick count of his cards to be sure they were all there and that nothing looked rigged before he drew from the deck, starting game play.
"So…" Lando began. "Is there a lady in your life, or just a new cause?"
Han blushed. "Luke, go pull out those Batuu Bits from the pantry."
"Whaa? Okay, I'll go get them." Luke wandered away to get the snack.
Han knew he couldn't lie to a friend as observant as Lando, and he didn't feel like making this type of confession in front of Luke. "There is a girl… but I'm not sure she's interested yet. Her name is Leia."
"Oh." Lando looked back and forth. "The Princess's handmaid?"
Han chuckled before he nodded.
"I assumed she was with the Luke kid. I saw them earlier holding hands and she was giving him flirtatious eyes."
Han choked to keep from laughing at the thought of Luke flirting with his sister. Then he remembered their little switch thing, and he assumed Lando was talking about Mara flirting with Luke. "Oh yeah. It doesn't worry me."
"Here are the Batuu Bits. What did I miss?" Luke placed the bag on the table.
"Oh, nothing at all." Lando grabbed a chip from the bag.
"I fold," Han discarded his cards.
"Awe, I missed it," Luke complained.
"Don't worry kid. That was only the first hand." Lando put down his cards and allowed Han to gather them to reshuffle. The next deal would be his.
Han glanced at his cards again. His two and three were a little worrying. He reached for the deck to pull an idiot. Together his cards formed the idiot's array, a winning hand. If this were any other game, he'd be thrilled right now. But this was not a normal game. He knew Lando well, and if he forced him to reveal anything, he'd get the bare minimum of information. No, dealing with Lando was a game in and of itself. He asked, and Lando had time to look up the information. Later on, when he is thrilled with victory, he'll share what he comes up with.
Of course, Leia had some reason to worry. A propaganda exhibition isn't what Lando was expecting for his winnings. Though getting the man to sit still for it in any other way might be difficult. Han discretely pulled the ten card from his sleeve and replaced it with the idiot card.
'Fifteen, let's see him lose to that.' Han thought.
At the end of the game, Lando revealed his hand. "A perfect Sabacc," Lando gloated.
Han resisted smiling, thinking that his idiot's array would've beaten that. "Awe, Fifteen." Han revealed his cards and hung his head in mock defeat. "Time for your winnings. Luke go get the girls."
Lando's eyes went up in a 'We did not have this kind of bet,' type of way.
Han smiled a crack. "You want to hear why I joined the rebellion." He held his hand out to draw his attention to the ladies who were setting up their visual aids.
"I'm going to go take a walk," Han said.
Luke looked up from helping his sister with a projector. "Dad asked me to look for C3-PO in the computer central mainframe. If you see him, can you send him back to the Falcon?"
Han nodded, and scurried out the door.
Lando closed his eyes as he leaned back and listened. The princess, Mara, was describing their recent victory against the imperial superstation. Lando had seen it in smuggled recordings. Of course, he didn't know about the raid on Scariff to get the plans, or how narrow their escape with them was.
Next the Lady, Leia started to share about the Alliance's other military holdings. Lando was impressed. For a group that didn't stand a real chance at victory, they were well equipped. He reasoned that they would probably survive to be a pain in the Empire's ass for at least a few more years.
Lastly, Mara spoke again about the main goals of the rebellion. Restoring the Republic, and freedom for all. Yada yada yada. Lando mostly tuned that part out. When they were finished, they all, including Anakin and Obi-Wan, who had returned mid-presentation, looked up to him with expecting eyes.
"Well, thank you for that lovely presentation. I am better informed than I had been on the Alliance and their activities. If you asked him, Han would tell you that I am not an empire loving freak." Han was still not back yet. "That being said, I have found it manageable to keep them out of my business and my city from under their thumb. I see no purpose in risking more to fight them off, when the chances for success are so low."
Leia and Mara looked down, disappointment on their faces.
Just then the door to the apartment was flung open and a golden protocol droid ran in. "Masters, Masters! I must report a grievous offense. I was man-handled! It was the Computer Liaison officer, and he kidnapped Han Solo too. This is a grievous crime! How will I ever recover!" the droid whined.
Hey Readers,
My story here is not the same as the movies, exactly. I'm pretty sure it isn't even canon anymore, but I like it and I hope you will too.
I tried looking up how to play Sabacc and I found several different versions. I tried to get it to sound real, but I don't really play more than a friendly card game.
Next week we'll find out what happened, and our heroes will be trying to rescue Han.
