Star Wars - Thrawn Trilogy - Dark Force Rising 02 by Timothy Zahn Read Free Book Online Page B

murmured as he and Leia started down the side aisle toward what was obviously a witness chair next to Mon Mothma's desk.

    "Mon Mothma set it up," she murmured. "I'd be willing to bet it was Fey'lya's idea, though."

    Han frowned. He'd have thought that underlining Mon Mothma's preeminent role in the Council like this would be the last thing Fey'lya would want. "I don't get it."

    She nodded toward the lectern. "Giving Mon Mothma the whole spotlight helps calm any fears that he plans to make a bid for her position. At the same time, putting the Councilors and their aides together in little groups tends to isolate the Councilors from each other."

    "I get it," Han nodded back. "Slippery little fuzzball, isn't he?"

    "Yes, he is," Leia said. "And he's going to milk this Sluis Van thing for all it's worth. Watch yourself."

    They reached the front and separated, Leia going to the first row and sitting down next to her aide, Winter, Han continuing on to Mon Mothma and the witness chair waiting for him. "You want me sworn in or anything?" he asked without preamble.

    Mon Mothma shook her head. "That won't be necessary, Captain Solo," she said, her voice formal and a little strained. "Please sit down. There are some questions the Council would like to ask you about the recent events at the Sluis Van shipyards."

    Han took his seat. Fey'lya and his fellow Bothans, he saw, were in the group of front-row seats next to Leia's group. There were no empty seats anywhere that might have signified Admiral Ackbar's absence, at least not in the front where they should have been. The Councilors, seated according to rank, had apparently shuffled positions so as to each be closer to the front. Another reason for Fey'lya to have pushed this configuration, Han decided: at the usual oval table, Abkbar's seat might have been left vacant.

    "First of all, Captain Solo," Mon Mothma began, "we would like you to describe your role in the Sluis Van attack. When you arrived, what happened subsequently-that sort of thing."

    "We got there pretty much as the battle was starting," Han said. "Came in just ahead of the Star Destroyers. We picked up a call from Wedge-that's Wing Commander Wedge Antilles of Rogue Squadron-saying,g that there were TIE fighters loose in the shipyards-"

    "Excuse me?" Fey'lya interrupted smoothly. "Just who is the 'we' here?"

    Han focused on the Bothan. On those violet eyes, that soft, cream-colored fur, that totally bland expression. "My, crew consisted of Luke Skywalker and Lando Calrissian." As Fey'lya no doubt knew perfectly well already. Just a cheap trick to throw Han off stride. "Oh, and two droids. You want their serial numbers?"

    A slight rustle of not-quite humor ran through the room, and Han had the minor satisfaction of seeing that cream-colored fur flatten a little. "Thank you, no," Fey'lya said.

    "Rogue Squadron was engaged with a group of approximately forty TIE fighters and fifty stolen mole miners that had somehow been smuggled into the shipyards," Han continued. "We gave them some assistance with the fighters, figured out that the Imperials were using the mole miners to try and steal some of the capital ships that had been pressed into cargo duty, and were able to stop them. That's about it."

    "You're too modest, Captain Solo," Fey'lya spoke up again. "According to the reports we've received here, it was you and Calrissian who managed singlehandedly to thwart the Empire's scheme."

    Han braced himself. Here it came. He and Lando had stopped the Imperials, all right : only they'd had to fry the nerve centers of over forty capital ships to do it. "I'm sorry about wrecking the ships," he said, looking Fey'lya straight in the eye. "Would you rather the Imperials have taken them intact?"

    A ripple ran through the Bothan's fur. "Really, Captain Solo," he said soothingly. "I have no particular quarrel with your method of stopping the Empire's attempt at grand larceny, costly though it might have been. You had only