Star Wars: The New Rebellion Read Free Page A

“Leia?”
    Leia was still cold. Colder than she had ever been on Hoth. Her teeth were chattering. She reached with her limited Force training and found her children in the apartments, just as they should have been.
    “Luke,” she whispered. Leia freed herself from Mon Mothma’s hold, and headed toward the old communications control. She contacted Yavin 4, only to be told Luke was in his X-wing.
    “Leia, what is it?” Mon Mothma asked.
    Leia didn’t answer. She waited to be patched into Luke’s X-wing. Soon his voice filled the room. “Leia?” he asked, as if he had been worried too.
    “I’m fine, Luke,” she said, relief filling her.
    “I’m coming to you. Wait for me.”
    But she couldn’t wait. She had to know. “You felt it too, didn’t you? What was that?”
    “Alderaan,” he whispered, and that was all she needed to know.
    The image of Alderaan filled her mind, Alderaan as she had last seen it on the Death Star, beautiful and serene, in the seconds before it was smashed to bits.
    “No!” she said. “Luke?”
    “I’ll be there soon, Leia,” he said, and signed off. She wasn’t ready for him to disappear so soon. She needed him. Something awful had happened, like the destruction of Alderaan.
    And she had felt it.
    “What happened, Leia?” Mon Mothma put her arms around Leia. Leia’s shivering had stopped.
    “Something terrible,” Leia said. She reached out, touched the cool gold door, straightened, and stood. “There’s death in that chamber, Mon Mothma.”
    “Leia—”
    “Luke is coming here. He felt something too.”
    “Then trust him,” Mon Mothma said. “He’d know if you were in immediate danger.”
    But he hadn’t known. He had been as relieved to hear from her as she had been to hear from him. Her mouth was dry. “Send someone for Han, would you?”
    Mon Mothma nodded. “I suppose you want to put off the opening session.”
    More than anything. But Leia straightened her shoulders, rubbed her cold hands together, and checked her braids a final time. “No,” she said. “You were right. I have to be careful of the message I send. I’m going in. But let’s double the guards this afternoon, and step up security on Coruscant. Also, get Admiral Ackbar to scan for anything unusual in nearby space.”
    “What are you afraid of?” Mon Mothma asked.
    Alderaan flashed before Leia’s vision at the moment of explosion, a flare of brilliant, horrible light. “I don’t know,” she said. “Maybe a Death Star, or a Sun Crusher. Something that could destroy us all.”

Three

    H an sat in the back corner of the smoke-filled room. He hadn’t been in this casino since he won the planet Dathomir in a game of sabacc before he married Leia. The casino had changed hands at least fifteen times since then—now it was calling itself the Crystal Jewel, a misnomer if he’d ever heard one—but it looked no different. The air smelled of damp decay mixed with smoke and alcohol. A mediocre band played Tatooine blues with a decided disinterest. All around him, conversation rose and fell with the fortunes at the sabacc tables.
    He clutched a pale blue Gizer ale, which he had snatched off a servo droid. Han’s companion, Jarril, had disappeared a few moments ago, searching for the bar. Han wasn’t sure if Jarril would be back.
    Han was watching the sabacc game at the nearest table, where a Gotal was betting all it owned. As it slid the chips across the table, it shed piles of gray hair. Most Gotals had learned to control their shedding. This one had to be extremely nervous.
    Its companions didn’t seem to notice. The Brubb, a large brown reptile, was scratching its knobby hide, leavingscales all over the floor, its tail knocking the mechanical base of a nearby servo droid. The two-armed Ssty was counting her cards, her claws making indentations in each. The tiny Tin-Tin Dwarf stood on its chair, its rat-like features focused on the pile in the center of the table.
    The dealer droids had