"No," Dracmus said, clearly startled. "Do you speak truly?"

"Very much so," Han replied, a trifle excitedly. "It also would explain how the bad guys managed to get hold of the Chief of State's private diplomatic cipher.

She used to be a spy. She knows how to get that kind of stuff."

He thought for a moment and then spoke again.

"It all fits. Mara Jade brought us the message, and she gave us some long complicated story about how it got to her. From what was on the message container, it looked as if it had been meant for Luke Skywalker, but that they had used Mara as a backup when that failed.

But what if that was all an elaborate charadene that we bought into all the way?"

"You are suggesting Mara Jade brought a message she had written herself? That she is part of the starbuster plot?"

"Yes!" Han said. "And she was nowhere to be found the day Corona House was attacked."

"Ah! Of this I can speak, and glad to do so, to defend the honor of Mara Jade, which I wish to do. She has been sighted in Corona House since day after rocket attack."

"How do you know thatkay, okay, I should have known. You must say no more about it. You're just full of secrets you can't tell, aren't you?

But I don't know that her being there before the attack and after it, but not being around during it is much of a defense.

"But why would she do it? What would be motive?"

Han hooked a thumb at the cell door. "Our kindly hosts are very obviously all either ex-Imperial or people who just want - the good old Imperial days back.

Thrackan said as much to me. Now, I grant, she has done a lot of good for the Republic over the years, and she hasn't gone around chanting the Emperor's name out loud or anything, but Mara has never been one to show her hand. She always was good at keeping secrets.

I doubt anyone is ever quite sure of what she intends.

Suppose, just suppose, that Mara has changed her mind again. What if she's decided she wants the Empire back after all? Maybe she looks at Corellian and figures o0 have to start somewhere. I grant it's a little hard u believe, but it seems to me we're in the position of having to choose between improbable explanations."

"The idea has logic, but does not convince," said Dracmus. "I do agree Jade is hard-edged, ruthless. But she has honor, and we speak of wiping out whole planets. Could she truly be capable of such brutal savagery?"

Han nodded. "I grant you have a point. She's always been tough, and hard, but never barbaric. I can't see her as the sort to murder millions.

But maybe we don't have the whole story. We might be missing something.

Remember the first nova didn't hurt anyone. Maybe the threat to inhabited systems is a bluff."

"Mine is another theory," said Dracmus. "I believe the folk behind this are indeed ex-Imperial, but not Imperial spies. The Imperial Navy.

Some remnant formation of Imperial ships has finally made an old Imperial superweapon work. Starbuster is like Death Stars or world devastators.

Ahuge weapon, meant for terror, not true military use.

"No way," Han said. "A lot of time has pa.s.sed since the last of the Imperials were beaten back, and we've had a good look through the Imperial archives. Virtually all Imperial forces have been accounted for.

You might be able to spin out a story where someone managed to sc.r.a.pe together a task force from ships mistakenly listed as destroyed.

Some people say there are whole fleets out there that no one knows about. But even if that were true, where are the thousands of trained crew supposed to come from? Every time anything goes wrong anywhere in the Republic, some conspiracy buff or another trots out a theory of a cabal intent on reviving the Empire. If someone runs out of place mats in the palace commissary, it's an Imperial plot. I for one no longer believe in that particular bogeyman. The Empire is as dead as Darth Vader. I still say it's Mara Jade. She's a master trader, and an ex-Imperial intell operative. She's got ships, resources, technical centers, and spies everywhere, and she's real. She's no imaginary fleet of ships drifting in the Sand Crab Nebula. She had means, motive, and opportunity.

"Unless, of course, we are both right," said Dracmus.

"To make conspiracy is to draw many together. Perhaps one plot pulls in Jade, Imperial Navy fragment, Human 120 -r -s ALeague, and others, too. ; 3ut I hope you are all wrong, honored Solo. I truly do.

"Why, Dracmus?"

"It is not obvious? If she is behind this plot, she has quite deliberately arranged things so she is where she is right now, to be where she can do the plot the most good."

"What's your point?" Han asked.

"Right now," she said, "Mara Jade is in same place with your wife."

CHAPTER SEVEN.

Trust must be granted access to working communications equipment!" leia Organa Solo told the guard, not for the first time. She stood there, her fists balled up, seething with rage, as the guard ignored her and set the tray down on the table. She had been locked up in Corona House, for days now. Until a few days ago, it had been the Governor's residence, and now it was a Human League prison. It was not a place she wanted to be any more. "Didn't you hear me? You must grant me access-" The Human League guard was puffing a bit, as he always did when he brought in the food. Once he had set the tray down and caught his breath, he seemed to feel he could pay attention to his captive, and proceeded to laugh in her face, not for the first time.

"Guess what?" he asked. "I'm not gonna do it. I'm not going to grant you access to nothing. But tell you what.

You go on telling me to do it every time I bring your food up from downstairs." The guard leered unpleasantly. "I don't mind, and maybe it makes you feel better." He plopped down the lunch tray and took away the breakfast tray. "You can tell me to do it again at dinnertime, if you like." He seemed to think that was all very funny, and laughed louder than ever as he headed out 121 of the guest room, now made over into an improvised cell, where leia was being held.

Just before he reached the door, he turned back and spoke again.

"Oh," he said, "I almost forgot. We're rearranging the cells.

Seems one female prisoner had a fight with another. Gotta divide em up.

Right after lunch, you get a new cell mate." The guard laughed one more time as he stepped out into the hallway.

leia heard the lock snick shut behind him. She always heard the lock. Why was it the one thing this bunch of incompetents always remembered to do was lock the door?

leia forced herself to calm down. She opened up her fists, and took three deep breaths. There were Jedi exercises she could have done to calm herself more completely, but she didn't want to be completely calm. She wanted the luxury of a little anger.

Though she was not in the least bit hungry, and the food appeared to be poorly prepared field rations again, leia forced herself to sit down at the table and eat it.

She needed to keep her strength up. Sooner or later the Leaguers were going to decide what to do with her, and she needed to be rested, ready, alert. She took a sip of water to wash down whatever the unappetizing glop on her plate was, and tried to think.

If the secret message they had sent her was to be believed, the League was going to blow up its second star, Thanta Zilbra, in three and a half weeks, unless the New Republic agreed to their demands-and yet the demands were impossible.

Why make demands so outrageously unrealistic in the first place?

leia wondered. And why had the League gone to all the trouble of sending a secret message when the League publicly announced a slightly less detailed version of the same information only a day later?

Something did not fit. Either something had gone seriously wrong with the League's plan of action, and they were now merely improvising, as best they could, bluffing it out. Or else the secret message had been a piece of misdirection, intended to serve some other, as yet unknown purpose.

leia realized that she had finished her meal, though she still wasn't all that clear on what she had been eating. She shoved the tray aside and tried to think. None of it made sense.

The problems, the contradictions, the illogic went around and around in her head. leia could find nothing she could get a handle on.

It might have been two minutes or two hours later that she suddenly realized someone was unlocking the door.

Yes, of course. The guard had said something about a new cell mate.

Good, she thought. It will be nice to have someone to talk to.

Maybe the Human League thought she would interpret forcing her to have a roommate as some sort of elaborate insult, an invasion of the sanct.i.ty of the Chief of State's quarters, or whatever. If so, they were going to be disappointed. leia Organa Solo was a diplomat, first and foremost. She would give the newcomer a proper welcome. leia stood up, came around the table, and put a smile on her face.

The door swung to, and a grinning Human League trooper shoved leia's new companion into the room.

leia's smile faded away.

It was Mara Jade.

The door slammed shut, and the two women stood staring at each other. Mara Jade. Why her? leia wondered. There were too many unanswered questions about Mara's role in this whole crisis. She had brought the message, but there was no evidence, beyond Mara's own word, that she had received the message cube in the way she described. She had vanished completely during the attack on Corona House, and only reappeared the next day, picking her way out of the rubble of one of the ruined upper stories, claiming to have its been trapped there during the first a.s.sault. Again, there was no evidence of that but her word. And now here she was, in leia's cell.

Was it chance? Did the guards do it with some vague idea that Mara and leia would not hit it off, and put them together for their own amus.e.m.e.nt?

Or was she a plant?

How many attempts had she made on Luke's life?

That was all supposed to be in the past) ut suppose it wasn't?

leia wasn't sure what to think.

The tableau held for a moment longer, but then Mara made the first move. "h.e.l.lo, leia," she said, stepping forward and nodding her head very slightly, her tone and behavior formal, even if she called leia by her first name. "It is good to see you." She made no effort to offer her hand, or come closer. She looked cool, calm, well-fed, well rested. The troubles of the last few day if they had indeed been troublesome days for her-had left no mark on her. Mara was tall and slender, with a dancer's body and grace. Her red-gold hair flowed over her shoulders, set off by the plain black tailored jumpsuit she wore.

"And it's good to see you," leia said, not quite sure if she was lying or not. She turned and went back around the table, and retook her seat there, if for no other reason than to break up the awkward scene.

"However I must admit I am surprised."

"I think it would be a bit more accurate to say you're not quite sure what to think," Mara said evenly, taking a seat opposite leia at the table. "If I were in your shoes, I'd be wondering about me.

You're no fool, and neither am I. I can see all the reasons you might suspect me.

Nothing I can say will convince you that I had no role in all this.

I don't know how strong your Jedi powers are, but I doubt they are strong enough for a complete probe of my mind."

"Not one that I'd have any faith in," leia admitted.

"So there we are," Mara concluded.

"Are you saying I'll just have to trust you?"

Mara shrugged. "Trust me to do what? We're not allies in this, so far as I know. The one thing we can both be sure we have in common is that we'd both like to escape.

"Can I even be sure of that?" leia asked.

Mara smiled. "Yes," she said. "You can. I want out of here.

The longer I am cooped up here, the worse it will be for my trading business. You've never known me to be shy about admitting my personal interests. I'm losing time and money sitting here."

"And that's supposed to satis me."

"No," said Mara, "but it's all I've got. I'm not involved in this madness, but how can I prove a negative?"

leia looked long and hard at Mara. She had the very strong impression that Mara could say more if she wished, but it was clear she was not going to say another word on the subject. "What can you tell me about what's going on out there?

"Not much," Mara said. "I've been locked up three doors down. My ex-roommate accused me of being a League sympathizer, it got a little sticky, andso here I am. I haven't heard anything more than you.

"How about a theory, then?" leia asked. "I've had nothing to do but think about the situation, and I can't make sense of it at all.

The pieces don't fit together.

What do you think is going on?" The question was broad enough for Mara to answer however she liked, and that was the point. leia wanted to know Mara's opinionr, perhaps likelier, Mara's pretended opinion.

"I don't have a theory, exactly," Mara replied, "but it seems very clear to me that Diktat Thrackan sal-solo knows what he is doing.

He's controlling the situation, and he knows it. He's smart enough, has enough political savvy, that he'd be able to predict the results of his actions. I don't think he has to do anything. I think he just has to say he's going to do things."

"And the results of what he has said about kicking nonhumans off the planet has been riot and upheaval," leia said. "His words have caused further hardening of bad feelings between the three races.

People have been radicalized, pushed into extreme positions by extreme circ.u.mstances."

"And my guess is that is exactly what sal-solo hoped would happen,"

Mara said. "Maybe he just wants to make the New Republic look bad. He's certainly put you in a bad position."

"That's for sure," leia said. "He's set it up so I have to make one of two politically, and physically, impossible choices. Let thousands, maybe millions, die as their planet is wiped out, or else forcibly deport millions of people from their ancestral home. Whatever I do, the New Republic's reputation is going to be badly damaged, if not wrecked beyond all repair."

"That might be his ultimate goal," Mara said. "The destruction of the New Republic. He wants to set up the Corellian Sector as an independent state. Seems to me that the weaker the New Republic is, the more luck he's going to have making his independent state last."

"So he doesn't much care what happens or what we do, so long as we end up looking bad. Is that it?"

"It's one theory."

"But we can't do anything at all as long as we're prisoners," leia said. "What good does it do him to hold us?"

"None that I can see," Mara said. "So I don't think he will, much longer. I think he is going keep his troops in Corona House until he is satisfied that the situation is under control. Then he'll withdraw the troops and shut off the jamming. You and Micamberlecto will be able to give whatever orders you like-to whatever forces you can reach.

Except you won't have much in the way of forces to order around by then. You'll be very ineffectual. And you won't be able to leave the system. There's still the interdiction field. He's not going to drop that.