Inferno: Star Wars Legends (Legacy of the Force) (Star Wars: Legacy of the Force Book 6) by Denning Troy

Author:Denning, Troy [Denning, Troy]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
ISBN: 9780345510532
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2008-04-29T04:00:00+00:00

eighteen

Hidden in the smile of an enormous cliff sculpture of a strikingly beautiful Hapan queen, the secret entrance to the Royal Hangar was—like everything associated with the fountain palace—a testament to the wealth and power of the Hapan consortium. It was also designed to accommodate the sleek little skiffs and sport ketches that messengers or secret lovers might fly, not working transports like the Millennium Falcon.

As they started down the access tunnel, Han eyed the long line of crystal lumeliers hanging from the ceiling and hoped C-3PO had been right about their clearances. It wouldn’t be like Tenel Ka to hold it against him if he hit something—but it wouldn’t make it any easier to convince her that Jacen had to be stopped, either.

In the copilot’s seat, Leia suddenly gasped, then followed it up with a couple of sharp, short breaths.

Han’s eves dropped to the maneuvering display. “What’d I hit?” As far as he could tell, he still had at least ten centimeters clearance on all sides. “I didn’t feel anything.”

When Leia did not answer, C-3PO said, “I don’t believe you’ve hit anything yet, Captain Solo.”

“You don’t have to sound so disappointed.” Han returned his gaze to the forward viewport and aligned the Falcon’s loading mandibles squarely under the last ceiling lumelier. “It’s not like you took the bet.”

“There would be no purpose in betting against you,” C-3PO replied. “I wouldn’t have anyplace to accumulate my winnings. Droids aren’t permitted to control financial accounts exceeding a million credits.”

Han might have retorted that C-3PO had nothing to worry about, but he knew the droid could recall every bet he had ever offered, and he really didn’t want to listen to the inevitable tallying of accounts.

Once the Falcon had finally left the access tunnel and entered the vast opulence of the Queen Mother’s Hangar, he glanced over to see why Leia still hadn’t answered him.

She was sitting forward in her seat, leaning into her crash webbing, her hand to her mouth. Her eyes were fixed out the forward viewport and focused somewhere, well, beyond, and she had The look. Han’s heart dropped—everything dropped—and as the Falcon swung toward the orange marshaling lights, he was not conscious of moving the yoke in that direction.

“Oh … oh!” he gasped. “Not again … not Jaina!”

“No, Jaina’s okay.” Leia was shaking her head, but she had the look of someone who had just watched a star explode. “Well, sort of. I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?” Han demanded.

He felt like loosing a volley of concussion missiles against the hangar wall, like firing the Sun Crusher into the galaxy core. If something had happened to Jaina, it would be just him and Leia now, because Jacen didn’t count anymore; they had talked it over on the way to Hapes, nice and calm, and it had taken them about two minutes to decide that both their sons were gone now, that Jacen was dead to them. If they were losing Jaina, too, it might be too much for them;

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