Star Wars - The Courtship of Princess Leia

by Dave Wolverton

  Leia looked up. Four stars seemed to be falling in unison out on the horizon. They twisted in the sky and vectored toward them. The little group hid in the Falcon for the rest of the following day, unable to see how large the search party was, whether a band of stormtroopers might be surrounding the Falcon as the fugitives fed on cold rations. Han kept the automatic blaster cannon lowered, just in case. Dozens of times during the early morning they heard fighters flying over, skimming the treetops. And at mid-morning, a steady barrage of missiles dropped for an hour, decimating the downed Frigate. The Falcon rocked from the explosions, and the whole group sat there stunned, amazed that Zsinj's men would go to so much trouble to demolish a wrecked ship, wondering if some of the missiles might eventually be dropped on them.

  Once the bombardment stopped, the ship became quiet. But after half an hour, another group of fighters circled. Threepio ventured, "They're searching for us!"

  Han sat, staring up at the ceiling, listening for the return of the fighters. Some of those craft had sensors that could hear a whisper at a thousand yards. Leia closed her eyes, straining her senses. She could no longer feel the presence of the dark beings she had felt earlier, could feel nothing at all, and she wondered if it had been a hallucination.

  Early in the afternoon the fighters apparently gave up the hunt, and Leia wondered at that. If Zsinj's men believed they had made it to the planet, surely they wouldn't give up so easily. Certainly they would never have given up if they'd known that a New Republic general and an ambassador were aboard the ship. So obviously they didn't know the Falcon had landed safely and they didn't know who its passengers had been. But then a more troubling thought occurred to her perhaps Zsinj's men weren't hunting because they didn't believe the group could survive on this wild planet. There had to be some reason that a planet this beneficent wasn't more settled.

  As the sun began to set, Han got up and stretched, put on a flak jacket and helmet, got out a blaster rifle. "I'm going to go on out and have a look around, make sure that Zsinj's men have left."

  Leia, Threepio, and Chewie waited in the ship. Chewbacca began to get nervous after half an hour. The Wookiee whined plaintively.

  Threepio said, "Chewbacca suggests that we go look for Han."

  "Wait," Leia said. "A big Wookiee and a golden droid are too easily spotted. I'll go look for him."

  She pulled on some combat fatigues, threw on a flak jacket and helmet, then went outside, blaster turned to full power. She set off down a trail toward the lake, watching for stormtroopers. At the very least, she expected some kind of patrol on speeder bikes. But she found Han only a hundred meters from the ship, standing by the muddy bank of the lake, watching the sun set in a wash of vibrant reds and yellows with muted purples.

  He picked up a rock, tossed it out over the lake and watched it skip five times. Some creature called in the distance, making a whooping sound. It was all very restful.

  "What are you doing out there in the open?" Leia asked, mad as hell at finding him in such reverie.

  "Oh, just looking around." He glanced down at the mud puddle by his feet, kicked over another flat stone.

  "Get back here under cover!"

  Han put his hands in his pockets and simply watched the sunset. "Well, I guess this is the end of our first day on Dathomir," he said. "It's been kind of uneventful. Do you love me yet? Are you ready to marry me?"

  "Oh, please, get off it, Han! And get back here under cover!"

  "It's all right," Han said. "I have reason to believe that Zsinj's troops have left already."

  "What could possibly give you that idea?"

  Han pointed down at the muddy shore of the lake with his toe. "They wouldn't hang around after dark with these near."

  Leia stifled a crywhat she had taken to be a mud puddle was in fact a footprint nearly a meter long, something incredibly big, with five toes.

  At the dinner table, Isolder sat with his mother and Luke, feeling glum, disappointed. His mother had arrived only this morning on Star Home , and in the course of a few hours she had achieved something that Isolder hadn't been able to do in a week learn where Han had taken Leia. She had rightly reasoned that the various rewards for Solooffered both by the New Republic, which wanted him alive, and by various warlords, who wanted him deadmade the offers far too tempting. Rather than settle for a part of the pot by releasing information, everyone with a clue as to Solo's whereabouts would hunt him down themselves. So her spies had concentrated on tracking outbound ships, following various disreputable pilots. Omogg had accidentally tipped her hand by purchasing a new heavy weapons system for her personal yachtthe kind of system someone would use only for a very dangerous mission.

  Now, Isolder was waiting for his mother to revel in her victory, make some seemingly inconsequential but pointed remark designed to show the superiority of the female intellect over that of a male. The women of Hapes had an old saying Never let a man become so deluded as to believe that he is the intellectual equal of a woman. It only leads him to evil.

  And Ta'a Chume would never do anything that might lead her son to evil. Still, she remained remarkably cordial over dinner. She talked with Luke Skywalker, laughed disarmingly in all the right places. She kept her veil down, yet managed to be seductive. Isolder wondered if the Jedi would sleep with her. It was obvious that she wanted him, and like all the Mothers before her, she kept her age well. She was very beautiful.

  But Skywalker seemed not to notice either her beauty or her veiled attempts at seduction. Instead, his pale blue eyes seemed to scrutinize the ship, as if he wished he could take a gander at its technical readouts. The first queen mother had begun constructing Star Home nearly four thousand years earlier, basing the floor plan for the ship on her castle estate. Plasteel interior walls were all covered with a facade of dark stone, and the minarets and crenellated towers were all capped with crystal domes. The castle on Star Home perched on a great hunk of wind-sculpted basalt that the ancients had hollowed out so that they could hide the dozens of giant engines and hundreds of weapons in its arsenal.

  Though Star Home was no match for one of the new Imperial Star Destroyers, it was unique, more impressive in its way, and certainly more beautiful. It tended to awe foreigners, especially at times like this, when they were dining peacefully near some planet, and the brilliant light of dancing stars refracted in the ancient crystal domes.

  "It must be fascinating to do your kind of work," Ta'a Chume said to Luke as they finished the last course. "I've always been very provincial, staying close to home, but youtraveling across the galaxy, searching for records of the Jedi."

  "I really haven't been doing it long," Luke said, "just the past few months. I'm afraid I haven't found anything of value. I'm beginning to suspect that I never will."

  "Oh, I'm sure there are records on dozens of worlds. Why, I remember when I was younger, my mother once granted refuge to some Jedi, a group of fifty or so. They hid out in the ancient ruins of one of our worlds for a year, running a small academy." Her voice became rough. "Then Lord Vader and his Dark Knights came to the Hapes cluster and hunted the Jedi down. After Vader killed the Jedi, he merely sealed them in the ruins at Reboam, I hear. Perhaps they kept some records of their doings, I don't know."

  "Reboam?" Luke asked, suddenly intense. "Where is that?"

  "It's a small world, harsh climate, relatively uninhabitednot unlike your own Tatooine."

  Isolder could see a sudden, unreasoning hunger in Luke's eyes, as if he wanted to discuss this more. Ta'a Chume offered, "When this is all over and you've rescued Leia, come to Hapes. One of my counselors, who is getting quite old now, could show you the caves. You would be welcome to keep anything you find in them."

  "Thank you, Ta'a Chume," Luke said, and he stood, obviously too excited to eat. "I think I'd better prepare to go now. But before I do, may I ask you one more small favor?"

  Ta'a Chume nodded, inviting him to ask.

  "May I see your face?"

  "You fla
tter me," Ta'a Chume said, laughing lightly. Behind her golden veils, her beauty was hidden, and in all of Hapes no man would ever have been so bold as to ask. But this Luke was simply a barbarian who did not know he was asking for something that was forbidden. To Isolder's surprise, his mother pulled up her veil.

  For one eternal moment, the Jedi gazed into her startlingly dark green eyes, the cascades of red hair, and held his breath. In all of Hapes, few women could vie with the Ta'a Chume for beauty. Isolder wondered if perhaps Skywalker had noticed his mother's discreet advances after all. Then Ta'a Chume dropped her veil.

  Luke bowed low, and in that moment his face seemed to go hard, as if he had peered into Ta'a Chume and did not like what he'd seen. "Now I see why your people venerate you," he offered casually, and he left.

  The hair prickled on the back of Isolder's neck, and he recognized that something important had just happened, something he had missed. When Isolder saw that Luke was well out of hearing range, he asked, "Why did you tell the Jedi that lie about an academy? Your mother hated the Jedi as much as the Emperor ever did, and she would have relished hunting them down."

  "The Jedi's weapon is his mind," Ta'a Chume warned. "When a Jedi is distracted, when he loses his focus, he becomes vulnerable."

  "So you plan to kill him?"

  Ta'a Chume rested her folded hands on the table. "He represents the last of the Jedi. Listen to him talk of his precious records. We don't really want to see the Jedi rise from their graves, do we? The first band was troublesome enough. I won't have our descendants bowing to his, ruled by an oligarchy of spoon benders and readers of auras. I have nothing against the boy personally. But we must make certain that those of us who are best trained to rule, continue to rule." She shot Isolder a glare, as if daring him to challenge her reasoning.

  Isolder nodded. "Thank you, Mother. I think I had best get ready for my journey." He rose from his chair, hugged his mother and kissed her through the veil.

  He knew that he should have left Star Home immediately, headed for his own ship. Instead he hurried down to the guest docking bay, found Skywalker at his X-wing fighter, preparing to disembark. "Prince Isolder," Luke said. "I was just getting ready to leave, but I can't find my astromech droid. Have you seen it?"

  "No," Isolder said, glancing about nervously. A technician came in from a side corridor with the droid.

  "Your droid started throwing sparks," the technician said. "We found a shorting circuit to his motivator."

  "Are you all right, Artoo?" Luke asked.

  Artoo whistled the affirmative.

  "Mr. Skywalker," Isolder said, "I . . . wanted to ask you something. Dathomir is what, sixty, seventy parsecs?"

  "About sixty-four parsecs," Luke answered.

  "The Millennium Falcon will have to travel a twisted course through hyperspace to make that kind of jump," Isolder said. "What kind of man is Solo? Will he take the most direct route?"

  Computing a jump in hyperspace was a laborious task. The nav computers tended to take "safe" routes, routes where the black holes, asteroid belts, and star systems were well charted. But such routes were often long, tediously twisted. Still, a long route was far better than a short, dangerous trip through uncharted space. "If it were just him," Luke said, "yeah, Han might take a shorter route. But he wouldn't put Leia at risk, not knowingly, anyway."

  Luke had an odd tone to his voice, as if he were not saying all that he knew. "Do you think Leia is in danger?" Isolder pressed.

  "Yes," Luke said huskily.

  "I heard of the Jedi Knights when I was a child," Isolder said. "I was told that you had magical powers. I have even heard that you can pilot starships through hyperspace without the aid of a nav computer, and that you can take the shortest routes. But I have never believed in magic."

  "There's no magic to what I do," Luke said. "The only power that I have is what I draw from the life Force around us. Even in hyperspace I can feel the energy inherent in suns and worlds and moons."

  "Do you know that Leia is in danger?" Isolder asked.

  "Yes. I've felt a sense of urgency for her. That's why I came."

  Isolder made up his mind. "I think you are a good man. Will you take me to Leia? Perhaps you could shave a few parsecs off our trip. We might even be able to reach Dathomir before Solo."

  Luke studied the prince, said doubtfully, "I don't know. He's got a big head start."

  "Still, if we could reach Han Solo first . . ."

  "First?"

  Isolder shrugged, gestured to the fleet of Star Destroyers and Battle Dragons just outside the energy field. "If my mother reaches Solo before we do, she will kill him."

  "I suspect you're right, and she does not wish me well, either, though she seems friendly enough," Luke said, surprising Isolder. So the Jedi had sensed his mother's intent.

  "Take care of yourself, Jedi, and meet me on my ship," Isolder whispered, knowing that in all probability his mother would hear of his betrayal of her within the hour.

  "I'll be careful," Luke said, and he patted his R2 droid lovingly and stared at it, as if gazing through its metal exterior.

  Chapter 11

  Leia stormed up into the Millennium Falcon , threw her helmet to the floor so that it bounced and clattered into a corner. Han followed her up the ramp, around to the lounge where Chewbacca and Threepio were playing games on the holo board.

  "Great, Solo, great!" Leia shouted. "What have you gotten us into? I'll tell you why Zsinj's men aren't searching for us they figure we're all going to die, so why bother!"

  "Look, it's not my fault!" Han shouted. "They're trespassing on my planet. They're all trespassing! And as soon as we get out of here, I'm going to figure some way to evict the whole bunch!"

  Chewbacca growled questioningly.

  Han said, "Aw, nothing much."

  "Nothing much?" Leia shouted. "There are monsters outside. For all we know the planet could be crawling with them!"

  "Monsters?" Threepio whined, rising from his seat, hands rattling. "Oh dear, you don't suppose they eat metal, do you?"

  "I don't think so," Han said sarcastically. "Outside of space slugs, I've never heard of anything that big that eats metal."

  Chewbacca growled, and Threepio asked, "How big are they?"

  "Let me put it this way," Leia said, "we haven't seen them yet, but if the footprints are any indication, one of them could probably eat all three of us for breakfast and then use one of your legs to pick his teeth."

  "Oh dear!" Threepio shouted.

  "Aw, come on now," Han said, "don't frighten the droid. For all we know, these could be harmless herbivores!" Han tried to put an arm around Leia's shoulder to comfort her, but she pulled away, waved a finger in his face.

  "I sure hope not," she said, "because if that track came from a herbivore, then you can bet there's something even bigger around here that eats it." She turned and looked away. "I don't know why I let you bring me here. How could I be so stupid? I should have made you turn yourself in. Warlords and monsters and who knows what else? I mean, what can you expect from a planet you won in a card game?"

  "Look, Leia," Han said, touching her shoulder again, trying to get her to turn to him for comfort, "I'm doing the best I can!"

  Leia spun and talked directly in his face. "No! I'm not going to let you sweet talk me. This isn't a game. This isn't a fun ride. Our lives are on the line. And right now, whether you love me and want me to marry you, or whether I love Isolder and want to marry himnone of that matters anymore. We've got to get out of here. Now!"

  Han had seen Leia like this only very few timesalways when her life was in danger. He had often thought that with his relaxed attitude, perhaps he enjoyed his life more than she enjoyed hers. But when he saw her fierceness rise to the surface, he realized that she loved life more passionately, more deeply than he could. Perhaps it was her Alderaanian heritage surfacing, her culture's legendary respect for any life, something Leia was forced to lay aside in her fight against the Empire. But a
lways it surfaced, and Han kept finding that Leia was like that she hid her feelings deeply, so deeply that Han suspected even she didn't know what she felt.

  "All right," Han said. "I'll get you out of here. I promise. Chewie, we're going to need some weapons. Let's get out the heavy artillery and the survival packs. We saw a city not more than a few days over the mountains, and where there is a city, there's got to be transportation. We'll just steal the fastest ship available and blast out of here."

  Chewbacca whined his concern over leaving the Falcon .

  "Yeah," Han answered. "Let's lock her up tight. Maybe someday we can make it back, salvage her." He swallowed hard, unable to speak anymore. Two or three seasons out here in the mountains, in the rain and snow, and the wiring would get so rusted and shot that the Falcon would be practically worthless. And chances were that the New Republic wouldn't win its way this deep into Zsinj's territory for another ten years.

  Leia stared at him, unbelieving.

  "You always said that the Falcon was my favorite toy," Han said. "Maybe it's time to give it up."

  He went to the storage locker, pulled out an extra helmet, some snap-on camouflage battle fatigues to hide Threepio's golden exterior. He went to find Threepio and get him dressed, but the droid was already standing at the bottom of the gangplank, his golden eyes shining as he gazed out into the forest in the dusk. Leia and Chewie were shutting down the Falcon , preparing her for storage.

  "I've got something for you," Han said to Threepio. He pulled out the battle fatigues. "I hope they don't baffle your sensors or impede your mobility or anything."

  "Clothes?" the droid asked. "I wouldn't know. I've never worn clothes before, sir."

  "Well, there's a first time for everything," Han said, moving behind Threepio to snap the fatigues on. Somehow, it made him feel uncomfortable. In some homes, the wealthy had droids dress them, but Han had never heard of anyone dressing a droid.

  "I think it would be best if you leave me here, sir," Threepio volunteered. "My metallic surface might act as a lure for predators."