Vision of the future

Carib's lips compressed briefly. 'The Empire.'

'Specifically, the central Imperial records library on Bastion,' Leia said, seeing now where Han was going with this. 'The problem is that we don't know where Bastion is.'

'We don't either,' Sabmin said. 'Our orders come from the Ubiqtorate through a special channel. We've never been directly in touch with Bastion or the current Imperial leadership.'

'Sure, but there must be some way you can get an emergency message to them,' Han said.

'Imperial ops procedures can't have slipped that badly.' Carib and Sabmin exchanged glances. 'There is a place at the edge of Imperial space where we can go,' Carib said doubtfully. 'But it's not supposed to be used unless there's vital information that can't wait for proper channels.'

'I think we can come up with something that qualifies,' Han said. 'If we can, will you take me out there?'

'Wait a minute,' Leia cut in. 'Don't you mean take us out there?'

'Sorry, hon,' Han said, shaking his head. 'But if there's one person everyone in the Empire knows by sight, it's you.'

'Oh, really?' Leia countered. 'You think you're any better?'

'I wasn't ever president of the New Republic,' Han pointed out. 'Besides, one of us has to go.'

'Why?' Leia demanded, a dull ache around her heart. Han had done a lot of crazy things in his life; but walking into the heart of the Empire was beyond even his old smuggler's rashness. 'The New Republic has other people they could send.'

'Yeah, but which ones can we trust?' Han asked. 'Besides, we don't have time to go back and hunt up a team. The whole New Republic's balanced on a blade edge right now.'

'But you can't go alone,' Leia insisted. 'And don't forget I'm a Jedi. Any trouble you get into—'

'We've got company,' one of the clones announced suddenly, pointing. Leia looked. Just clearing the distant hills, a low-flying craft was burning through the air toward them. 'Carib, you'd better get the others into the cave,' she told him, running through her Jedi sensory-enhancement techniques and squinting at the approaching vehicle. 'Better yet, you'd better all go. That looks like our Noghri guards' Khra shuttle.'

'Too late,' Carib said, his eyes on the approaching vehicle as he gestured the others to stay where they were. 'If there are Noghri in there, they already have us under surveillance. Trying to slip out of sight now will just make things worse.'

The shuttle was almost to them, skimming low over the tallgrain and showing no sign of stopping. Han made an unintelligible noise in the back of his throat, and even Leia felt a twinge of uncertainty. It looked like a Khra shuttle, but at the speed it was making, that was impossible to confirm. If it was instead a follow-up attack...

And then, at almost the last second, the craft braked hard, coming to a midair halt. A short gray figure dropped out the passenger-side door, and the shuttle shot off again, swinging high over the cave and hills before circling back toward the group gathered around the Falcon.

'Councilor,' Barkhimkh said gravely, recovering his balance quickly after his three-meter drop and marching toward them. He had no visible weapons, but with a Noghri that didn't mean a lot. 'The Pakrik Defense monitor said that a ship had come under attack, and surmised it was yours. We are pleased to find you uninjured.'

'Thank you, Barkhimkh,' Leia said, keeping her voice as gravely unemotional as his. What he really wanted to do, she knew, was to express his deep shame and self-loathing that he and Sakhisakh hadn't been there to help protect them from the attack. But he would never reveal even a hint of such feelings in front of strangers. 'We appreciate your concern,' she added. 'As you see, we were able to land safely among friends.'

'Yes,' the Noghri said, his eyes measuring the group with a single well-trained glance. 'I presume you will now be'—his voice faltered just slightly—'returning with us?' An almost undetectable slip; but for Leia it was enough. 'No, it's all right,' she said quickly, taking a step toward Carib. 'They're not going to hurt us.'

'You do not understand,' Barkhimkh snarled. There was contempt suddenly in his voice, and a blaster just as suddenly in his hand. 'They are Imperial clones.'

'They're clones, yes,' Leia said. 'But they're on our side now.' Barkhimkh spat. 'They are Imperials.'

'So were the Noghri, once,' Carib said quietly.

Barkhimkh's blaster twitched toward him, his large black eyes flashing. Any mention of their long servitude to the