Han nodded, a knowing half smile on his face. He turned to the other pilots. “He tell you how he took down an Imperial Star Destroyer by himself?”
“I didn’t do it by myself,” Luke said. “There were eight of us, and Wedge led the attack. And no, I was telling them about how you and Leia blew up the planet in order to stop the Empire.”
“Yeah. Well, all right. That’s a good story.”
“Did you really ride up out of the atmosphere on the outside of an X-wing?” one of the pilots asked. She looked even younger than Luke. Pretty soon the Rebellion was going to be taking them out of diapers and putting them straight into pilot’s seats, Han thought. He shrugged.
“It wasn’t as impressive as it sounds,” he said. “Chewie was right there to catch us.”
The pilots’ gazes all turned to Chewbacca, who stood a little taller and preened.
“What are you guys doing next?” Luke asked.
“If there’s not another emergency, we’re fixing the ship,” Han said.
“What about after?” the younger pilot asked.
“I’m pretty sure there’ll be another emergency by then,” Han said. They all laughed like it had been a joke. And it had been, mostly.
“I was just going to go see Leia,” Luke said, stowing his helmet. “You want to come?”
“You want me to?” Han said, and then when he saw Luke thinking about the question, quickly added, “Sure, why not? Her Worshipfulness might be able to get them to shake my credits loose a little faster.”
As they passed through the ship, Han listened to the chatter around them. Most of it was about Kiamurr and Seymarti, but there was other news and gossip. A fleet of unidentified black ships had been sighted near Thedavio VII, and no one knew if they were some kind of new Imperial design or something different. The uncle of a friend on Dantooine had been in a cantina when a bunch of Imperial troops had swooped in and carried off the barkeep. The survey mission to Cerroban had run into Imperial probes, taking it off the list of possible locations for the new base.
The Rebel Alliance was built on stories as much as it was steel or hyperspace engines. What had happened on Kiamurr and Seymarti was thick in the air right now, but new events would come and wash it away. It wouldn’t be long before the fact that Han could have ended the war and didn’t, or that the Empire could have had its foot on the neck of the galaxy forever and he’d stopped it, were just bits of trivia, easy to forget in the press of stories that the Rebellion told about itself.
They found Leia in a meeting room off the command center. The screens around the walls were bright with schematics of the ships in the fleet, a map of the galaxy with half a dozen tiny sectors marked off in blue, and a constant feed from the sensor logs. The little red R3 unit that Hunter Maas had owned was in a corner with R2-D2, the pair of them whistling and chirping away to each other while C-3PO shifted his head back and forth between them, trying to keep track of the machine-language conversation.
Leia was wearing a simple gray jumpsuit, and her hair was pulled back. Scarlet Hark, sitting across from her, was a thousand times gaudier in a flowing gown of emerald and crimson, with her hair braided in an elaborate curve that made her seem like a human flower that had just bloomed.
“Solo!” the spy said. “I was hoping I’d see you before I left.”
“Sure,” Han said. “You’re looking … ah …”
“Ridiculous, isn’t it?” Scarlet said, a mad gleam in her eyes. “I’m Feyyata Baskalada, queen of the Emurrian opera, on tour with the company. We’re going to Surdapan Station.”
“A very dangerous place,” C-3PO said, waving a golden arm. “I have tried to warn them, but no one ever seems to listen to me.”
“Uh-huh. What’s happening there?” Luke asked, visibly trying not to stare at her.
“Rumor has it that an engineer out there built a blaster that ignores deflector shields,” Scarlet said. “It’s probably bantha fodder, but if it’s not, I want to make sure we have it and no one else does.”
Leia frowned. “Can you sing opera?”
“No,” Scarlet said. “Not even a little bit. This should be hilarious.”
From the corner, Hunter Maas’s R3 squealed. Scarlet stood up, her dress clinking like a crystal chandelier in a breeze.
“Thank you, R-Three,” she said. “I know we’re short on time.”
“Wait,” Han said. “You understand what it’s saying?”
“No, but I guess well,” she said, putting out her hand. “Thanks for the ride, Captain. I hope we can work together again sometime.”
“It’ll cost double,” he said, shaking her hand. “You’re a pain in the behind.”
“Likewise.”
Chewbacca grunted and muttered, folding his arms across his chest. Scarlet paused in front of him, her palm on his hand.
“Me, too, sweetheart,” she said. “But I’ll be in touch. When I can.”
Chewbacca swept Scarlet up in a massive hug. She wrapped her arms around his neck, and they stayed that way for long enough that Han started feeling a little uncomfortable. When the Wookiee put her down, Scarlet gestured to the R3 unit, and the two of them left together.
“Are you tearing up?” Han asked.
Chewbacca barked a sharp reply.
“All right,” Han said. “Just asking. No need to get hot about it.”
“We just wanted to come make sure you were doing okay,” Luke said, touching Leia’s arm. “After you got back, you seemed a little … upset.”
Han looked up at Chewbacca and mouthed She did? Chewbacca rolled his eyes and nodded. Leia patted Luke’s hand and sat down.
“I’ll be fine. There’s been a lot of fallout after Kiamurr. We lost a lot of people,” she said, and her voice had a cold tone that Han thought he might understand. “But the ones who did survive have renewed their hatred of the Empire. I’ve had contacts from several people and groups that I hadn’t expected to hear from. We’ll come out of this stronger than we went in.”
“That can only be a good thing,” C-3PO said.
“It will be if we win, Threepio,” Leia said. And if we lose, it’s just more bodies in the graveyard. She didn’t say the words, but Han understood her humorless smile. He thought of Baasen again. The least likely martyr of the Rebellion. The universe was a big place, and strange things happened there.