Vision of the future

'Don't tell me,' he warned as Lando picked up the datacard and slid it into the computer reader.

'You said it was clean.'

'We thought it was,' Lando said, pulling up the Caamas Document on the large plotting display.

'But then Moegid thought of something else to try.' He pointed to the display. 'Turns out it's been altered.'

A whole string of Corellian curses ran through Han's mind. None of them was adequate for the situation. 'Altered how?' he asked, just for the record.

'You have to ask?' Lando growled. 'The list of the Bothans involved in the attack has been changed. The one thing we absolutely needed.'

Han stepped closer, peering at the display. 'You're sure,' he asked. Again, just for the record.

'Moegid is,' Lando said, looking down at the Verpine. 'It's a masterful job, but there are some tricks the Verpines have come up with over the years.' He pointed at the display. 'Remember how surprised we were when we first looked it over and saw how many of the top Bothan families were implicated? Well, now we know why those names are there.'

'A little something to stir the pot a little more,' Han said with a grimace. 'And to make the rest of the New Republic trust the Bothan leadership even less than they already do.'

'You got it, old friend.' Lando pulled out one of the other chairs and sat down. 'Which means we're right back at square one.'

Han pulled out a chair for himself. 'We're not even that lucky,' he said glumly. 'I already told Leia we've got the document.'

'You don't think she'll keep that information to herself?'

'Normally, yes,' Han said heavily. 'Unfortunately... she already said she was going to give Gavrisom the good news.'

'And he won't keep it to himself?'

Han shook his head. 'He's on Bothawui, trying to keep a war from starting. And he's not the type to not use every tool he's got.'

'So in other words, we're going to show up at Bothawui with everyone expecting us to be the heroes of the day.' Lando shook his head. 'Where's an Imperial ambush when you need one?'

'I wouldn't joke about that if I were you,' Han warned him. 'You can bet that Thrawn will be keeping the Empire off our backs on this one; but there are a lot of people on our side who won't want to see the Bothans getting the chance to slip off the hook.'

Lando winced. 'I hadn't thought about that. Though come to think of it... no.'

'What?'

'I was just thinking about what Thrawn said about Fey'lya's people stealing those Xerrol sniper blasters,' he said slowly. 'But if he was lying about the Caamas Document...'

'Doesn't necessarily mean he was lying about that, too,' Han said. 'For that matter, we don't have any proof that Thrawn was even the one who changed those names.'

Lando snorted. 'You don't really believe that, do you?'

'Someone's going to bring it up,' Han pointed out. 'I can guarantee that one.' Lando muttered something under his breath. 'This just gets messier and messier. So what do we do?'

Han shrugged. 'We go to Bothawui on schedule and pretend nothing is wrong. Maybe the Bothans really do know who was involved. If they do, maybe we can bluff them into coming clean.'

'And if they don't, or we can't?'

Han got to his feet. 'We've got two days to come up with something else. Come on, let's go turn this crate toward Bothawui.'

* * *