by Troy Denning
“Exactly,” Lando said. “But now we have a chance to mobilize.”
“We?” Leia arched a brow, then asked, “Are you sure you want to involve yourself in this, Lando?”
Lando looked at the floor for a moment, then said, “To tell the truth, it’s the last thing I want.” He grabbed a tumbler off the tray and emptied it in a long gulp, then placed the glass back on the tray. “But with a whole planetful of Sith on the way, I doubt there’s going to be a choice for anyone.”
He placed the last two tumblers on the table, one in front of Han and one in front of a Sullustan-sized stool with a well-worn nerf-hide seat, then returned to the bar to refill his glass. With a contemplative silence hanging over the room, Leia took a sip of the burtalle. It was as special as Lando had claimed, with a deep, malty flavor tinged by musky notes from the moagwood aging casks. It was also extremely potent, leaving her tongue and the roof of her mouth feeling dry and smoky.
Han took a sip from his own tumbler, then raised his brow in approval. “I’ll say this for the Senator—he serves some of the best jet juice I’ve ever had.”
A bright Sullustan voice rang out from the back entrance. “I’m glad you approve, Captain Solo. Coming from you, I take that as quite a compliment.”
Leia turned to see a distinguished-looking Sullustan in a gold-trimmed vest entering the room. With heavily wrinkled dewflaps and long bags hanging beneath his eyes, he was clearly an elder of his species. Yet he bore himself like a young man, carrying his shoulders thrown back and walking with a confident gait. When Leia and the others started to rise to greet him, he was quick to wave them back into their seats.
“We don’t have time for that nonsense,” he said, going straight to the table. “I’ve got a subcommittee hearing to chair in …” He checked his chrono. “… fifteen minutes, and Lando said this was urgent. So let’s get straight to it.”
“Very well, Senator Wuul,” Leia said. “The reason we asked—”
“Not that,” Wuul said, raising a hand to silence her. He slipped onto his stool and snatched the drink Lando had left for him, then drained it in a single gulp. “The burtalle. And call me Luew. Only the opposition calls me Senator.”
He raised the empty tumbler above his head, signaling Lando for a refill, which, Leia noticed, was already on its way. Once Lando had traded the empty glass for a full one, Wuul’s head suddenly snapped around, and he peered at her out of a single dark eye.
“You’re not the opposition, are you, Jedi Solo?”
Leia flashed a reassuring smile. “Of course not, Luew.” She grabbed her own drink and clinked glasses with Wuul, then said, “Any friend of Lando’s is a friend of ours. And please … call me Leia.”
Luew responded with a crafty smile, then took a small sip of his fresh burtalle and placed the glass on the table. “Glad to hear it, Leia.” He turned his gaze first to Han, then to Jaina, and said, “Okay, now that we understand each other, why don’t you tell me what’s so urgent that you had to come over here in a dirty flight suit, young lady?”
Jaina’s cheeks reddened, but she sat up straight and replied with a single word. “Sith.”
Instead of reaching for his drink as Leia had expected, Wuul slumped and shook his head in dismay.
“Another one? I thought we were finally finished with those azkancs.” The vile term had barely left Wuul’s mouth before he winced and glanced over at Han. “No offense intended, Captain.”
“None taken,” Han assured him. “But if it was just one azkanc, we wouldn’t be here. Luke and Ben have run into a whole planetful.”
Wuul cocked his head in confusion. “A planetful? Of Sith?”
“We don’t actually know that it’s a whole planetful,” Jaina clarified. “But there are a lot. They call themselves the Lost Tribe, and we think they’ve spent the last two years putting together a battle fleet.”
“A fleet? Of Sith?” Wuul seemed too shocked to comprehend what he was hearing. “But I thought they only came—”
“Yeah, in twos,” Han finished. “So did I. But that’s kind of a recent development. Near as we can tell, these guys have been marooned on some world called Kesh for the last five thousand years.”
“I see.” Wuul’s dewflaps went from pink to pale green, but he seemed to gather his wits and sit upright. “And they have been responsible for the madness afflicting the young Jedi Knights?”
“Uh, no.” Han looked to Leia for guidance as to how much he should reveal. “Not really.”
“Their illness was caused by an ancient being named Abeloth,” Leia explained. “She made contact with the Jedi Knights while they were still children, when we were hiding our young ones in the Maw during the war against the Yuuzhan Vong.”
“But that’s not really important now,” Jaina added. “Abeloth has been destroyed. What we need to worry about is the Sith.”
Wuul’s gaze shifted to his burtalle, and Leia thought he would take another drink in an attempt to calm himself. When he surprised her by merely gazing into the glass while he contemplated what he had just been told, she realized that his hard-drinking act was just a ruse designed to put other people at ease—and, perhaps, to cause them to underestimate him.
After a moment, Wuul nodded and returned his gaze to Leia. “The Jedi can’t handle the Sith with Daala breathing down their collars. Is that correct?”
Leia nodded. “Exactly.”
Wuul contemplated this for a moment, then asked, “And what do you expect me to do about that? I’m the chair of the subcommittee on mineral taxation. I don’t have that kind of leverage over Daala.”
Lando stood up and slapped a hand on Wuul’s shoulder. “Luew, old buddy, we’re not looking for leverage. And you know it.”
Wuul’s brow rose. “I do?” He looked up, feigning an innocence his Force aura did not exude, then he saw the expression on Lando’s face and exhaled loudly. “Okay. But after this, we start from even again.”
Lando’s chuckle verged on a true belly laugh. “Fair enough,” he said. “What’s a little sabacc debt compared with the possibility of a Sith empire?”
“I’m glad you see it that way.” Wuul motioned to the tumbler in front of Lando’s chair. “Now sit down and drink some of that burtalle while I prepare a little gift for my new friends.”
“Thanks,” Lando said, smiling and returning to his chair. “Don’t mind if I do.”
Wuul pulled a small datapad from inside his tunic and thumbed some keys, then slid the pad across the table toward Leia. “That’s a list of everyone in the government and the military who owes me a favor—and who can be counted on to keep it.” He continued to hold the datapad beneath his fingers. “But I trust you’re not talking about another coup.”
Leia hesitated, glancing across the table at Jaina. So far, they had not revealed anything the entire galaxy was not going to learn within the next couple of weeks anyway—there were already rumors coming out of Hutt space that there had been some Sith involvment in the slave revolt on Klatooine. But the Council’s plan for dealing with Daala had to remain a closely held secret until the trap was sprung—and Senators with gambling debts did not usually make the most trustworthy of partners.
When Leia did not reply quickly enough, Wuul’s face sagged. “I see.” He pulled the datapad back and turned toward Lando. “I don’t know how you could think I’d involve—”
“It’s not a coup,” Leia interrupted. She also turned to Lando. “How much does he owe you?”
Lando’s eyes lit in comprehension. “Not much.” He flashed an artificial grin. “Just twenty-five.”
“Twenty-five hundred?” Jaina asked.
Lando shook his head, and Leia’s heart fell.
“Twenty-five thousand?” she clarified. That wasn’t a lot next to a Senator’s salary, but politicians had been known to sell out for less. “Lando, I wish you’d mentioned this earlier. I’m not sure the Masters would have approved coming to Luew if they had known he had gambling debts.”
Lando continued to smile. “Why?” he asked. “It’s a private matter between Luew and me.”
“And it isn’t twenty-five thousand,” Wuul added gruffly. “What do you take me for? A chump?”
“Twenty-five million?” Han asked, whistling. He turned to Leia. “Look, I don’t think you need to worry about Luew. With that kind of money on the table, nobody is going to sell us out.”
“Relax, will you?” Lando said. “Luew wouldn’t sell you out at any price.”
“Thank you, Lando,” Wuul said. “Also, just for the record, it isn’t twenty-five million.”
A stunned silence fell over the room, and Jaina asked, “Blazes, Luew. How much are you into him for?”
“Twenty five credits,” Wuul said, clearly irritated. “Just twenty-five, no zeros. I’m sure that seems like Jawa change to you Jedi, but it’s the same sabacc no matter what the stakes.”
“We haven’t played high stakes since before Luew took office,” Lando explained.
“It just wouldn’t be right,” Wuul added, “the chairman of the committee on mineral taxation taking all that money from the owner of a mining world.”
“Oh dear, Luew,” Leia said. She felt a little guilty and foolish for leaping to such a wrong conclusion, but the possibility of corruption was not something she could ignore—not when Kenth’s plan depended so heavily on honest politicians. “I think we owe you an apology.”
“Nonsense—you’d have been wrong not to investigate.” Wuul waved a dismissing hand, but without meeting Leia’s gaze. “Now let’s talk about this bill you want me to write. I assume that, basically, you want the Jedi’s current status written into law, with guarantees of financial support and military cooperation.”
Leia raised her brow. “Are we that obvious?”
“Only to me, my dear,” Wuul said. “You need this bill to come from someone you can trust, but someone not normally aligned with the Jedi, because Daala will be on the lookout for that. You also need someone who can bring a lot of votes your way, because you’ll have to override the Chief of State’s veto—and that makes it fairly obvious what you want from me.”
Jaina nodded, but looked nervous. “I really hope Daala isn’t this smart,” she said. “Because if it’s that easy for her to figure this out, the galaxy is in big trouble.”
“Unfortunately, she is that smart,” Luew said. “And that’s the weak spot in your plan. We can’t make this happen without talking to each other. Sooner or later, Daala is going to catch a whiff of our communications and realize what we’re doing. Once she does, we need to bring the bill to the floor before she can gather enough support to block a vote.”
“Why don’t we just attach it to something she can’t have blocked?” Leia asked.
Wuul shook his head. “They outlawed that little maneuver when they chartered the Galactic Alliance,” he said. “To tell the truth, I’m surprised the Jedi decided to take the political route after the attempt on Bwua’tu’s life. With the support you have in Hapes and the Empire, I’m surprised you’re not threatening to just leave Coruscant.”
“Probably because we’re not the ones in charge,” Jaina said, allowing her frustration to show. “And Grand Master Hamner is afraid to call Daala’s bluff.”
“Actually, he thinks a political solution would be better for everyone, if we can work it out.” Leia shot her daughter a disapproving scowl, then turned back to the Senator. “But what does the attack on Bwua’tu have to do with anything? Even Chief Daala doesn’t seem to think the Jedi were involved with that.”
“That’s not quite right,” Wuul corrected. “The rumors I hear actually have her saying, ‘If the Jedi were that incompetent, I wouldn’t be worried about them.’ ”
Lando cocked his brow. “Meaning?”
“Meaning she can’t imagine the Jedi failing,” Wuul explained. “So she’s wondering whether it was someone trying to make the attack look like Jedi, or a Jedi plan she just doesn’t understand yet. By all accounts, she was really thrown for a loop when Asokaji accused her of ordering the admiral’s assassination in retaliation for the arrangement with Grand Master Hamner.”
There was a moment of stunned silence as Leia and her companions contemplated the arrangement to which Wuul might be referring. As Bwua’tu’s aide-de-camp, Rynog Asokaji would be privy to the admiral’s most closely guarded secrets—including any clandestine bargains he had struck with Kenth Hamner.
Finally, Han blurted out, “Arrangement?”
This was quickly followed by a demand from Jaina, “What arrangement?”
Wuul’s wrinkled brow rose. “You don’t know?” He raised a hand and rubbed a finger across his lips as he considered their ignorance, then shrugged and said, “Apparently, Admiral Bwua’tu was worried that the Order intended to launch its StealthX wing to break Chief Daala’s siege. So he cut a deal with Grand Master Hamner. Hamner agreed to keep the StealthXs in their hangars, and Bwua’tu promised to block any attempt to use the military against the Temple.”
Leia went cold inside, and she could tell by the fury in Han’s and Jaina’s faces that they felt just as betrayed as she did. She wasn’t angry about the agreement itself. Tensions had been high during the siege, and taking steps to defuse them had probably saved a lot of lives. What angered Leia was that Hamner had done it without consulting the Council. He had taken it upon himself to leave Luke and Ben unsupported against an entire tribe of Sith—to hold the security of the Jedi Temple above the security of the entire galaxy—and he had not even bothered to inform the Masters of his decision. And why? Obviously, because he knew they would have disagreed with him. Those were not the actions of a good leader—they were the compromises of a man out of his depth.
When the silence in the chamber grew uncomfortable, Wuul said, “Look, my friends, my information is coming to me secondhand, through General Jaxton of Starfighter Command, so it’s quite possible I have some of the details wrong.”
“Maybe,” Han growled. “But the ones you have right explain a lot.”
Wuul dropped his gaze. “I see.” He reached out and absently began to spin his burtalle glass, then asked, “It seems the bill is just a stalling tactic—one aimed at you. Shall I still pursue it?”
“Yes, absolutely,” Leia answered. “The whole Council agreed to it. I doubt they’ll have a change of heart just because he’s been keeping things from them.”
“Besides, it would be the best solution to the problem—for everyone,” Lando pointed out. “Just because it’s a long shot doesn’t mean we shouldn’t take it.”
Wuul cocked his head to look up at Lando. “Yes, you do have a love for long shots, don’t you?” He thought for a moment, then said, “Very well. I’m going need some things from you.”
“Of course,” Leia said. “Whatever we can do to help.”
Wuul raised a hand and extended his thumb. “First, I need to know I won’t be endangering Alliance citizens. You’re sure the creature that has been spreading this illness is no longer a threat?”
Lando nodded. “We didn’t see the corpse ourselves, but Luke said over the comm she was dead.”
“They’re going to try to bring the body back for analysis,” Jaina added. “Plus, well, everybody’s sane again.”
“True.” Wuul smirked, no doubt recalling the image of Han forcing Daala’s own expert to certify that Sothais Saar and Turi Altamik were completely sane. “It certainly looked that way on the news.”
Even Jaina smiled at this. “Yeah, I wish I could have seen that.”
“No problem,” Han said proudly. “I’ve got the whole thing on vid.”
“Mine’s in full holo.” Wuul paused a moment, then turned to Jaina. “Second, we’re going to need a distraction to keep Daala’s mind on something aside from what we’re doing in the Senate.”
“Okay,” Jaina said. “What do you have in mind?”
“The integration of the Empire,” Wuul said.
Jaina’s expression grew confused,
and she looked to Leia for clarification.
“The assassination attempts have had an upside for Jagged,” Leia explained. “He’s finally backed the Moffs into a corner. It looks like he’ll be able to bring the Empire into the Alliance after all.”
“Which will only strengthen Daala’s hand when it comes to the Jedi,” Wuul observed, continuing to watch Jaina. “So we need those negotiations to start unraveling, and keep unraveling until after the Senate passes my bill. The more time Daala has to spend tossing those beetles back into the pot, the longer it will take her to catch on to what I’m doing.”
“That makes sense,” Jaina said cautiously. “And you want me to … what? Steal their charter agreement?”
Wuul’s dewflaps sagged in disappointment. “I was thinking of something a little more difficult to repair,” he said. “New conditions, greedy holdouts, language quibbles … whatever hurdles you can convince Head of State Fel to throw Daala’s way.”
Jaina’s mouth tightened, and her Force aura began to draw in on itself. “I doubt I can convince him to do anything like that.”
A devious grin came to Wuul’s small mouth. “Don’t sell yourself short, Jedi Solo.” He extended his hand and laid it over hers. “You’re quite an attractive mating prospect, by human standards. I’m sure it will be easier than you think to convince Head of State Fel to help us.”
Jaina bit her lips, then dropped her gaze and did not reply.
Leia reached over and gently pulled Wind’s hand away from her daughter’s. “It’s not public knowledge yet, Luew, but Jaina and Jag broke off their engagement a few weeks ago.”
“Yeah,” Han said. “Over the same kind of thing.”
Wuul looked from Leia back to Jaina. “I’m very sorry to hear that, my dear.” He reached out and patted her hand again. “But I’m sure you can convince him to take you back. You’re a Jedi.”
The amputation was the least of Nek Bwua’tu’s wounds, but it was the most visible, with the stump of the arm resting atop a pillow next to the old Bothan’s chest. His thick fur had been shaved away to just above the elbow, where the end of the limb was wrapped in a white, seepage-stained bandage. His midsection had been cut and burned so badly that even a 2-1BXS combat-trauma surgical droid had required thirty hours to repair and replace the damaged organs, and now his torso lay completely hidden beneath a hard-shelled bactabath body cast. It reminded Daala of the ribbed blast armor that her turbolaser crews had worn, back when she had actually commanded Star Destroyers.