Chapter 7
Location: Jedi outpost on Shedu Maad.
"Come on buddy, you're not gonna get rid of me, so just give up and let me in." Han Solo taunted into the door's intercom between thumps with his fists.
"Han! Be Gentle with him!" Leia said, looking a mixture of annoyed and worried.
"What? This is what he needs, he's got to see people, to talk to someone."
He turned back to the door: "Don't make me get some twurp with a lightsaber to come and cut this door down." He said after another couple bangs of his fists.
That's when Leia slammed his shoulder with one of her fists.
He let out a: "Hey! Watch it Princess!"
With an even cooler tone she asked: "Twerp, with a lightsaber?"
He gave her his best lopsided smile, his first in days and replied: "Come on! I thought he would like that" he said. "Look I..."
His excuses were cut short by the hiss of the door sliding open to reveal, not Lando, but the glowing red soulless eyes of a YVH 8 series Battle droid.
Han thanked the force for the small mercies:
It was a YVH-8 "C". C as in Corporate.
Normally the YVH's (Yuuzhan Vong Hunter) appearance made Han's, as well as everyone else's, skin crawl. The face of most models resembled a screaming defleshed human skull. A laminanium skull. The rest of it's body had hinted at a semi skeletal appearance. The whole thing looked like a supercharged walking corpse. However the "C" series was designed to appeal to those looking for protection in corporate and formal settings: Politicians, Celebrities, Business Magnates... As such, these battle droids had a sculpted plastoid façade that gave it a more aesthetically pleasing appearance. But appearances... Han knew that under that pleasant looking mask lay a sophisticated killing machine that had the capability to take out a less experienced Jedi Knight. And as he looked past the droid in the door frame he saw six more red glowing eyes. Han didn't even reach for his blaster. Just 2 of these droids possessed enough firepower to take on and down a heavy star fighter. In the middle of all that awesome fire power sat a broken man, with a datapad in his hand, a lost expression in his face, and an unseen hole in his heart.
" Hey I know you wanted to be alone but this..." He said with his arms stretched forward with his palms facing upward.
Lando looked at him for a second, trying to figure out what language Han was talking in when he said "... What?... Oh. These guys weren't my Idea. When My Tendrando arms GM found out what.. what happened... (Lando struggled and succeeded at preventing another eruption of tears)... she... uh insisted I have a full detail. When I told her no, she just got Wynn on the holocomm and blah blah blah... I wanted the guy to shut up so I just told him to send the damn things."
Han nodded sympathetically and said:"Sure thing Pal."
The droids were obviously equipped with advanced threat assessment sensors that labeled Han and Leia as friendlies, because the one blocking the doorway stepped aside and the other three remained in position around Lando. Because of Lando's carefree swashbuckling ways, It was easy to forget that their friend wasn't just your everyday wealthy high roller. Lando was an empire unto himself. He just chose not to wear a suit and bang tables at board meetings.
Leia passed Han and sat beside Lando on the bed, with her left arm across his shoulders and right hand holding the top of his right arm she asked: "What are you working on there."
He was just so thankful she didn't ask that ridiculous question: How are you doing?
He answered while gesturing with the datapad: " I... I.. Don't know... I'm supposed to be planning something for... uh... them... but I don't know where to begin.
He tossed the datapad on the bed beside him.
She kindly offered: "Lando, let us work with your people; we can take care of things for you."
After that, his words carried the hint of tears: "Thank you, I guess Coruscant is expecting a big event, and I just..." he trailed off.
" Hey you know what, cancel whatever travel plans your company sent for you ( "Any ship they sent him is probably is rigged to blow up to." He silently thought.) and let us take you in the Falcon. Right? We can stay under the radar. What do you think?" Han offered.
The first hint of a smile, dared to peak through on Lando's face. "Thank you guys, that... that sounds real nice." Was all Lando could reply.
"So... do they know anything about what happen yet?" Lando asked, not sure if he could handle the truth.
Han and Leia looked at each other and then Leia answered him in a calming voice: "Nothing yet. Everyone is assuming sabotage. There is a joint investigation: Hapan, GA, and Jedi. Corran is getting everything ready and will start just as soon as Ben gets back. Luke and Tahiri will also be part of the team, along with..."
Leia trailed off. That had caught Lando's attention, which had up to that point been tenebrous.
"What ... who else?" He prodded.
She resisted: "Lando."
He persisted: "Leia."
"Alright!" She relented.
"It's Dena, Dena is there to coordinate between.." She couldn't finish her thought.
"As in Dena YUS! THE LADY THE GOT MY PEOPLE KILLED!" Lando pulled away from Leia and stood up absolutely shocked.
Lando's sudden shock? fear? anger? had been detected by the droids and must have reached the necessary threshold to activate some automatic engagement protocol. Two of the droids in the room suddenly crouched and took up positions guarding the window and the door. One pushed Lando to the floor, and the remaining droid stood in between Lando and the Solo's with it's arm mounted blaster raised. "Uh, wait, just.." Han started to say but was cut off by the snap hiss of Leia's lightsaber igniting. Her glowing blue blade intersected two well placed blast bolts, absorbing them in a flash of light and sparks.
"Stand Down! Stand Down! It's Pure Sabacc!" He yelled out the "All Is Safe"code.
Instantly the droid targeting the Solo's lowered it's blaster arm, and all the droids in the room resumed passive sentry mode.
The room's air had now grown a bit hazy and smelled of ozone from the collision of blaster bolt and lightsaber. Instinctually, Leia would have normally deflected the bolt back to sender, but almost immediately, she read the situation accurately and tried to minimize damage.
Now more ashamed then angry Lando apologized and explained: "It's the new intuitive programming , those Nerf Herders must have set it to the highest alert because of what happened."
But his voice quickly grew harder: "Are the Jedi Barvy? I thought she was coming here for judgement, and now what? She's Your Karkin Queen?"
As he spoke his voice and anger rose at a steady incline. "I can save everybody time and effort right now: SHE DID IT!"
The Solos looked at each other and then Han said with is regretful yet absolutely confident tone: "Not Possible, Friend. She hasn't left the base once since she got here... no way she had the opportunity..."
Leia, resisted the urge to educate Lando on the specifics of Jedi redemption. Most people couldn't be made to see the whole picture. Dena had happened to be a be a "special case". For all the bad she was involved with, it wasn't her in charge. No, it wasn't just that she was not the one giving orders; she wasn't in charge of her own mind and body. She may have looked like a well put together, experienced professional in her 40's. It was all fabricated. She was in reality no more than 2 years old... her memories, expertise, knowledge ... all of it was the product of flash drive learning. Like all the Biots, she was programmed (granted, less aggressively than others) to be loyal to the Qrephs. She had even be controlled by the Qrephs through her engineered dependency on a special enzyme.
But she had shown a goodness that programming and science couldn't explain.Master Cilghal with weeks of research and experimentation was able to end the enzymatic dependence. She was her own master now, even Leia had to come to terms with that. But Leia knew Lando didn't need to be educated right now. He just needed...them, so she simply said softly :"Lando, the Masters vouch for her, they would be able to read deception in the force..."
... "The Masters?" He cut her off: "They're your masters not mine. You know what?... It doesn't matter. The investigation, Dena, Everything. It's not going to bring them back."
He paused for a moment while a new sense of determination was born within him and then he said: "I think... I think this place just got a whole lot less friendly. I gotta get outa here, come on let's go to Coruscant."
With that he packed his small bag and within a few minutes he was out the door and headed to the Falcon. Han had known Lando for a long time. He played the role of "mad" lots, mostly to bluff at Sabacc or for business. But this was real anger which Lando had never really shown before.
"And he certainly doesn't have any love for the Masters." Han thought to himself.
Was this a new thing or just a blow up because of what happened. It didn't matter. When you were a friend of Han's, you got the benefit of the doubt. He was there for his friend. Within a half hour, without informing the Masters or even Luke, the Falcon was in the air setting a course for Coruscant. On board was The Solos, 3P0, four killer droids on a hair trigger , and one fundamentally changed Lando.
Writing progress notes:
Dear valued reader
The next chapter or two will involve a forensic investigation . As you have no doubt already realize, hours of painstaking research is required to make sure terms, tech, and history are accurate and consistent with the rest of the Legends universe. This is made easier by the fact that I've read every book several times, but I don't take anything for granted. I even consult sector maps to ensure space routes and regions are compatible with the Legends universe. Don't worry I'm not so bound by legends series that I don't add anything new. For one example An R2D 2 add on in the next chapter is purely my design, but I try to make it fit in seemless with what we already know about R2D2 and the company that created him. Also I'm taking the series in a new direction but not one that is disjointed from the last few books. My goal is to write a sci-fi book that takes sci-fi seriously since I know many of you, like me, do. Because of this the next couple chapters may take a bit longer to complete. Thank you for reading my book and I hope you are enjoying it.