“I’ll explain later. For now, let me do the talking.”
Leia dashed toward the Chalhuddan vessel, a wide smile on her face—but when they noticed her approach, it was obvious these Chalhuddans had no idea who she was, because they scowled, shuffled, and averted their gazes. No doubt she didn’t look that impressive, a wild-eyed teenage girl in nondescript clothing. 2V’s admonishments rung in her memory: A princess is known in part through the grandeur of her attire!
“Points to TooVee,” Leia muttered.
As she and Amilyn came up to them, the largest of the Chalhuddans pointedly turned his back. “We need no drylander assistance,” they mumbled, “and we give none.”
Amilyn piped up: “It’s paying work. Well-paying work! She’s a princess—” Her face fell as she took in Leia’s disheveled appearance, and feebly she added, “Really.”
This wasn’t the way to impress the Chalhuddans, who only harrumphed and turned aside. Leia stepped into the center of their group, lifted her chin, and demanded, “You’ll put me in contact with Occo Quentto, immediately.”
They stared at her. One of them scoffed, a gruff and discouraging sound, but the others exchanged uncertain glances. The mere fact that she knew their leader’s name had probably startled them into paying attention.
“You heard me,” Leia continued, with all the regal chill she could muster, which was a lot. “Now.”
Within a few minutes, she sat within the humid Chalhuddan ship, wiping sweat from her brow, as the sepia-tinted holo flickered to life. “You are the princess,” Occo said, which was their version of a pleasant hello.
“Yes, I am.” She kept her face impassive and her tone demanding. “You owe me a favor, Occo Quentto, and you will repay it today.”
The large air sac beneath Occo’s chin puffed up, then deflated again. “This favor is owed. What do you demand?”
“Immediate passage to Paucris Major for myself and one companion.”
Occo nodded. “Then it shall be so.”
Without any further order or persuasion, the Chalhuddans began waddling off to make ready for the journey. As badly as Leia needed this, however, she knew it would be unfair not to say more. “Honored leader, you must hear more of the truth behind the journey.”
Occo’s enormous, wide-lipped mouth pursed in a frown. “The favor was asked. The favor will be given.”
“Your favor will be far greater than mine,” Leia said. “And more dangerous. It’s unfair to your people for me to hold you to this without explaining more.”
“What explanation can come between the Chalhuddans and their owed duty?” Occo shifted from flipper to flipper, restless with distrust of land creatures. “You dishonor us by doubting us.”
Leia bowed her head more humbly than she would’ve to the Emperor himself and shifted into formal speech. “You doubt me, honored leader, by not hearing what I say.”
One deep, exasperated croak, and then Occo said, “We will hear.”
“By traveling to this system, your brave pilots put their lives in danger. The Imperial Starfleet will soon travel to Paucris Major with the goal of eradicating everyone they find. The people there are my people, and I must save them even if it means my life. Yet I cannot transfer that responsibility onto your people without letting them, and you, know precisely what they face. Now it is known.”
Occo Quentto blinked their protruding eyes, and the air sac inflated thoughtfully. Leia wondered if she’d just been so honorable she’d lost a ship—maybe even a war.
Then Occo said, “The greater the favor asked, the greater the honor. This ship will take you to the Paucris system, where you will be met by all other Chalhuddan ships in the sector. No more than four or five can we offer, but you will be transported and guarded to the best of our ability.”
“That is more than recompense for my favor, Occo Quentto.” Leia folded her hands above her heart, hoping the Chalhuddans’ circulatory organ was located somewhere analogous. “Afterward I will again be in your debt.”
“And so we will ask another favor of you someday.” Occo’s broad face creased in an expression that she thought might be their version of a smile. “Now you understand us.”
As the holo blinked out, Amilyn said, “I hoped for some experience with the nearness of mortality, but I have to say, I’m getting quite a lot of it.” Leia turned to her, ready to suggest Amilyn stay behind here with Mon Mothma’s credit solid, but her friend was grinning. “This is fantastic.”
Chalhuddan ships were armed—not heavily, but still. She’d managed to put together her own tiny war fleet. As pleased as she wanted to be with that, when she imagined them facing an Imperial Star Destroyer—
Leia shuddered. Let the Force guide us there first, she thought. Hang on, Dad. I’m coming.
“Paucris system in three,” said the Chalhuddan pilot, squatting in their bowl-shaped chair. Leia and Amilyn—who had in the past hour learned a lot about the greater tolerance Chalhuddans had for shock waves—immediately clambered up into the jump seat and strapped themselves into a safety harness. (If the two of them shared a harness and pulled its straps as tight as possible, it more or less worked.)
Amilyn blew aside a purple lock of her hair that had tumbled into her face so that she could meet Leia’s eyes. There was no hint of her usual whimsy as she said, “What do we do if the Empire’s already here?”
“Get out before they see us, if we can.” The chances weren’t good, but they weren’t impossible; Leia doubted a droid could’ve gone over the odds more times than she had during this trip. “If not, we surrender right away. We plead ignorance, and we make it absolutely clear that we hired the Chalhuddans, who know even less than we do.”
She didn’t think it would save the Chalhuddans, but again—it was a chance. If they had even once chance in a thousand to make it through this, she owed them that.
“Plead ignorance,” Amilyn repeated. “Right. I think I could be good at that.”
“For our sakes, I hope so.”
Leia wasn’t optimistic. She figured whatever doubt she was able to instill in her questioners’ minds would vanish the instant Grand Moff Tarkin learned of her arrival in the very star system he’d named to her only hours before. Neither Amilyn Holdo nor the Chalhuddans would be able to explain this away.
Either I’m saving the lives of all the rebels in the Paucris system—or I’ve just condemned even more people to die.
When the Chalhuddan pilot pulled a lever, the vivid blue light of hyperspace changed back into a starfield. The entire ship shuddered so strongly Leia accidentally bit her tongue hard enough to bleed. Amilyn’s head knocked against hers so soundly it hurt, but she wasn’t too dazed to keep staring at the viewscreen, eyes wide, torn between hope and dread—