The Last Command (23 page)

“The Emperor had a private storehouse,” Mara said, the words coming out with difficulty. His wizened face seemed to hover before her, those yellow eyes gazing at her in silent and bitter accusation. “It was beneath a mountain on a world he called Wayland—I don’t know if it even had an official name. It was where he kept all of his private mementos and souvenirs and odd bits of technology he thought might be useful someday. One of the artificial caverns held a complete cloning facility he’d apparently appropriated from one of the clonemasters.”

“How complete was it?”

“Very,” Mara said with a shiver. “It had a full nutrient delivery system in place, plus a flash-teaching setup for personality imprinting and tech training on the clones while they developed.”

“How many cylinders were there?”

Mara shook her head. “I don’t know for sure. It was arranged in concentric tiers, sort of like a sport arena, and it filled the whole cavern.”

“Were there a thousand cylinders?” Organa Solo persisted. “Two thousand? Ten?”

“I’d say at least twenty thousand,” Mara told her. “Maybe more.”

“Twenty thousand,” Organa Solo said, her face carved from ice. “And he can turn out a clone from each one every twenty days.”

Mara stared at her. “Twenty
days?
” she echoed. “That’s impossible.”

“I know. Thrawn’s doing it anyway. Do you know Wayland’s coordinates?”

Mara shook her head. “I was only there once, and the Emperor flew the ship himself. But I know I could find it if I had access to charts and a nav computer.”

Organa Solo nodded slowly, her sense giving Mara the impression of wind racing through a ravine. “I’ll see what I can do. In the meantime—” Her eyes focused abruptly on Mara’s face. “You aren’t to tell anyone what you’ve just told me.
Anyone.
Thrawn is still getting information out of the Palace… and this is well worth killing for.”

Mara nodded. “I understand,” she said. Suddenly, the room was feeling chillier.

“All right. I’ll try to get some extra security up here. If I can do it without drawing unwelcome attention.” She paused, cocking her head slightly to the side as if listening. “I’d better go. Han and Luke are coming, and this isn’t the right place for a council of war.”

“Sure,” Mara said, turning away from her to face the window. The lot was cast, and she had now irrevocably put herself on the side of the New Republic.

On the side of Luke Skywalker. The man she had to kill.

They held the council of war that night in Leia’s office, the one place they knew for certain that the mysterious Delta Source had so far had no access to. Luke glanced around the room as he came in, thinking back again to the tangled series of events that had brought these people—these friends—into his life. Han and Leia, sitting together on the couch, sharing a brief moment of quietness together before the realities of a galaxy at war intruded once more. Chewbacca, sitting between them and the door, his bowcaster resting ready on his shaggy knees, determined not to fail again in the self-imposed duties of his life-debt. Lando, scowling at Leia’s computer terminal and a list of what looked like some kind of current market prices displayed there. Threepio and Artoo, conversing off in a corner, probably catching each other up on recent news and whatever passed for gossip among droids. And Winter, sitting unobtrusively in another corner, tending to the sleeping twins.

His friends. His family.

“Well?” Han asked.

“I did a complete circle around the office area,” Luke told him. “No beings or droids anywhere nearby. How about here?”

“I had Lieutenant Page come in personally and do a counterintelligence sweep,” Leia said. “And no one’s come in since then. Everything should be secure.”

“Great,” Han said. “Now can we find out what this is all about?”

“Yes,” Leia said, and Luke sensed his sister brace herself. “Mara thinks she knows where the Empire’s cloning facility is.”

Han sat up a little straighten threw a quick look at Lando. “Where?”

“On a planet the Emperor called Wayland,” Leia said. “A code name, apparently—it’s not on any list I can find.”

“What was it, one of the old clonemaster facilities?” Luke asked.

“Mara said it was the Emperor’s storehouse,” Leia said. “I got the impression that it was a sort of combination trophy room and equipment dump.”

“A private rat’s nest,” Han said. “Sounds like him. Where is it?”

“She doesn’t have the coordinates,” Leia said. “She was only there once. But she thinks she can find it again.”

“Why hasn’t she said something about it before now?” Lando asked.

Leia shrugged. “Apparently, she didn’t know about the clones until I said something. She was undergoing neural regeneration, remember, when everyone here was discussing it.”

“It’s still hard to believe she could just miss the whole thing,” Lando objected.

“Hard, but not impossible,” Leia said. “None of the general-distribution reports she had access to have ever mentioned the clones. And she hasn’t exactly been what you’d call sociable around the Palace.”

“The timing here’s still pretty convenient,” Lando pointed out. “One might even say suspiciously convenient. Here she was, with practically free run of the Palace. Then she gets fingered by an Imperial commando leader and locked up—and suddenly she’s dangling Wayland in front of us and wanting us to break her out.”

“Who said anything about breaking her out?” Leia asked, looking slightly aghast at the whole idea.

“Isn’t that what she’s offering?” Lando asked. “To take us to Wayland if we get her out?”

“She’s not asking anything,” Leia protested. “And all
I’m
offering is to smuggle a nav computer in to her to get Wayland’s location.”

“Afraid that won’t do it, sweetheart,” Han shook his head. “The coordinates would be a start, but a planet’s a pretty big place to hide a storehouse in.”

“Especially one the Emperor didn’t want found,” Luke agreed. “Lando’s right. We’ll have to take her with us.”

Han and Lando turned to stare at him, and even Leia looked taken aback. “You don’t mean you’re buying this whole thing,” Lando said.

“I don’t think we have any choice,” Luke said. “The longer we delay, the more clones the Empire’s going to have to throw at us.”

“What about the backtrack you started?” Leia suggested. “The one through Poderis and Orus sector?”

“That’ll take time,” Luke said. “This’ll get us there a lot faster.”

“
If
she’s telling the truth,” Lando countered darkly. “If she isn’t, you’re off on a dead-end chase.”

“Or worse,” Han added. “Thrawn’s already tried once to get you and that C’baoth character together. This could be another trap.”

Luke looked at each of them in turn, wishing he knew how to explain it. Somewhere deep within him he knew that this was the right thing to do; that this was where his path was leading him. As it had been with that final confrontation with Vader and the Emperor, somehow his destiny and Mara’s were joined together at this place in time. “It’s not a trap,” he said at last. “At least, not on Mara’s part.”

“I agree,” Leia said quietly. “And I think you’re right. We have to take her with us.”

Han shifted in his seat to stare at his wife. Shot a frown at Luke, looked back at Leia. “Let me guess,” he growled. “This is one of those crazy Jedi things, right?”

“Partly,” Leia conceded. “But it’s mostly just simple tactical logic. I don’t think Thrawn would have tried so hard to convince us that Mara was a party to that kidnapping attempt unless he wanted us to disbelieve anything she might have told us about Wayland.”

“If you assume that, you also have to assume Thrawn figured the attempt would fail,” Lando pointed out.

“I assume Thrawn prepares for all contingencies,” Leia said. A muscle tightened in her cheek. “And as you said, Han, there’s also some Jedi insight involved here. I touched Mara’s mind twice during that attack: once when she woke me up, then again when she came in behind the commandos.”

She looked at Luke, and in her sense he could see that she knew about Mara’s vow to kill him. “Mara doesn’t like us very much,” she said aloud. “But on some level I don’t think that matters. She understands what a new round of Clone Wars would do to the galaxy, and she doesn’t want that.”

“If she’s willing to take me to Wayland, I’m going,” Luke added firmly. “I’m not asking any of you to go along. All I want is your help getting Mon Mothma to release her.” He hesitated. “And your blessing.”

For a long moment the room was silent. Han stared at the floor, his forehead creased with concentration, gripping Leia’s hand tightly in both of his. Lando stroked at his mustache, saying nothing. Chewbacca fingered his bowcaster, rumbling softly under his breath; in the opposite corner Artoo was chirping away thoughtfully to himself. One of the twins—Jacen, Luke decided—moaned a little in his sleep, and Winter reached over to rub his back soothingly.

“We can’t talk to Mon Mothma about it,” Han said at last. “She’ll go through channels, and by the time anyone’s ready to do anything half the Palace will know about it. If Thrawn wants to shut Mara up for good, he’ll have all the time he needs to do it.”

“What’s the alternative?” Leia asked, her eyes suddenly cautious.

“What Lando already said,” Han told her bluntly. “We break her out.”

Leia threw a startled look at Luke. “Han! We can’t do that.”

“Sure we can,” Han assured her. “Chewie and me had to pop a guy out of an Imperial hotbox once, and it worked just fine.”

Chewbacca growled. “It did too,” Han protested, looking over at him. “It wasn’t
our
fault they picked him up again a week later.”

“That’s not what I meant,” Leia said, her voice pained. “You’re talking about a highly illegal action. Bordering on treason.”

Han patted her knee. “The whole Rebellion was a highly illegal action bordering on treason, sweetheart,” he reminded her. “When the rules don’t work, you break ‘em.”

Leia took a deep breath, let it out slowly. “You’re right,” she admitted at last. “You’re right. When do we do it?”

“
We
—that is, you—don’t do it,” Han told her. “It’s going to be Luke and me. You and Chewie are staying here where it’s safe.”

Chewbacca started to rumble something, broke off in midsentence. Leia looked at the Wookiee, at Luke— “You don’t need to come, Han,” Luke said, reading in his sister the fears he knew she couldn’t voice. “Mara and I can do it alone.”

“What, two of you are going to take out a whole cloning complex by yourselves?” Han snorted.

“We don’t have much choice,” Luke said. “As long as Delta Source is active there aren’t too many other people we know we can trust. And the ones we can, like Rogue Squadron, are on active defense duty.” He waved a hand to encompass the room. “We’re pretty much it.”

“So we’re it,” Han said. “We’ll still have a lot better chance with three than with two.”

Luke looked at Leia. Her eyes were haunted with fear for her husband’s safety; but in her sense he could find only a reluctant acceptance of Han’s decision. She understood the critical importance of this mission, and she was far too experienced a warrior not to recognize that Hans offer made sense.

Or perhaps, like Han, she didn’t want Luke going off alone with the woman who wanted to kill him.

“All right, Han,” he said. “Sure—we’ll make it a party of three.”

“Might as well make it a party of four,” Lando sighed. “The way things are going with my Nomad City petition, it doesn’t look like I’m going to have much else to do. It’d be nice to pay them back a little for that.”

“Sounds good to me, pal,” Han nodded. “Welcome aboard.” He turned to Chewbacca. “Okay, Chewie. Now what’s
your
problem?”

Luke looked at Chewbacca in surprise. He hadn’t noticed any problem there; but now that he was paying attention, he could indeed sense the turmoil in the Wookiee’s emotions. “What is it, Chewie?”

For a moment the other just rumbled under his breath. Then, with obvious reluctance, he told them. “Well, we’d like to have you along, too,” Han told him. “But someone’s got to stay here and take care of Leia. Unless you think Palace Security’s up to the job.”

Chewbacca growled a succinct opinion of Palace Security. “Right,” Han agreed. “That’s why you’re staying.”

Luke looked at Leia. She was looking at him, too, and he could tell that she also recognized the dilemma. Chewbacca’s original life-debt was to Han, and it pained him terribly to let Han go into this kind of danger without him. But Leia and the twins were also under the Wookiee’s protection, and it would be equally unthinkable for him to leave them unguarded in the Palace.

And then, even as he tried to think of a solution, Luke saw his sister’s eyes light up. “I have an idea,” she said carefully.

They all listened to it, and to Han’s obviously stunned surprise, Chewbacca agreed at once. “You’re kidding,” Han said. “This is a joke, right? Yeah—it’s a joke. ‘Cause if you think I’m going to leave Leia and the twins—”

“It’s the only way, Han,” Leia said quietly. “Chewie’s going to be miserable any other way.”

“Chewie’s been miserable before,” Han shot back. “He’ll get over it. Come on, Luke—tell her.”

Luke shook his head. “Sorry, Han. I happen to think it’s a good idea.” He hesitated, but couldn’t resist. “I guess it’s one of those crazy Jedi things.”

“Very funny,” Han growled. He looked around the room again. “Lando? Winter? Come on, one of you say something.”

“Don’t look at me, Han,” Lando said, holding up his hands. “I’m out of this part of the discussion.”

“As for me, I trust Princess Leia’s judgment,” Winter added. “If she believes we’ll be safe, I’m willing to accept that.”

“You’ve got a few days to get used to the idea,” Leia reminded him before Han could say anything more. “Maybe we can change your mind.”

The look on Han’s face wasn’t encouraging. But he nodded anyway. “Yeah. Sure.”

There was a moment of silence. “So that’s it?” Lando asked at last.

“That’s it,” Leia confirmed. “We’ve got a mission to plan. Let’s get to it.”

From the corner of the communications desk the intercom pinged. “Karrde?” Dankin’s voice came tiredly. “We’re coming up on the Bilbringi system. Breakout in about five minutes.”