Sexual Politics
by Patricia D'Orazo
art by Laura Sherman
PART 2
Leia entered the landing bay with the proper decorum expected of a Daughter of the Royal House, but propriety was abruptly forgotten when she spotted Luke climbing down the ladder from his X-wing.
"Luke! Luke! Luke!" She rushed up to him, pushing aside other well-wishers. His arms were around her and she was spun in the air. A princess should not behave so in public, but for once she didn't care. He was alive, she was alive, the rebellion was alive. Hope was still alive. They hugged each other and danced around in a circle.
Then Luke flew out of her grasp, launching himself at a grinning Han Solo. Leia smiled as the pair alternately hugged and smacked each other on the back.
"I knew you'd come back!" Luke crowed. "I just knew it!"
"Well, I wasn't gonna let you get all the credit and take all the reward," Han announced cheerfully, and gave Luke a shove on the side of the head that nearly knocked the youth off his feet.
Too much time spent with Wookiees,Leia thought dryly.
Behind the pair, she noticed some of the senior Alliance officers. Sour frowns adorned their faces. Annoyed, Leia moved in between Han and Luke to give the smuggler a hug.
"I knew there was more to you than money," she said loudly and pointedly.
He gave her a grin and slipped his arm around her. She was surprised at how pleasant it felt to be snuggled against his side.
Luke gave them both a hug, which was interrupted by the plight of the droids. Leia remained nestled against the warm Corellian while Luke reassured Threepio, then Han threw his arm over Luke's shoulder and pulled him back into their embrace. As the three of them headed for the main control center, Leia was so happy she even thought it was funny that she was short enough to fit under the linked arms of her companions. Somehow, it just seemed right. To hell with sour-faced officers.
Leia Organa smiled wryly at the reflection in her dressing table mirror. The elegant woman with the crown of braids and silver jewelry was a far cry from the smudge-faced girl with the mussed hair who'd been hopping around the landing bay scant hours ago, hugging the Rebellion's newest heroes.
She'd felt happy then. Free. But a Daughter of the Royal House always accepted her role, and her role now as a symbol of the Rebellion was to look suitably regal while giving out medals.
The doorchime to the quarters she'd been given announced a visitor. She gave a last pat to the simple white gown she wore, then voiced her permission for entrance. Dodonna came in, hands behind his back, frowning at her.
"Is something wrong?"
"I wish to speak to you before you join the celebration, Your Highness."
Dodonna was usually more formal than Willard, but there was something about him that put Leia on guard.
"There is something wrong. Aren't the evacuation plans proceeding properly? I know you felt we shouldn't take time out for the celebration, but--"
"No, Your Highness, you and the others were right. With the droids working on the early stages of evacuation, we have enough time to spare and this celebration is needed--it will restore morale, replenish the spirit."
"Then, what is wrong?" Leia inquired gently. She stepped forward and put a hand on the general's arm. Was his tough old heart mourning for Alderaan, too?
"It's Skywalker. I'm afraid he's planning to leave the Rebellion."
"No! He wouldn't..."
"He's been overheard talking to Solo. That damn Corellian is trying to convince him to leave and take up a career in smuggling!"
Leia found herself blinking in surprise. She realized that she had merely assumed Luke would stay with the Alliance and would convince Han to stay too. It had never occurred to her that it might work the other way around.
"Leia, you realize how important a Jedi, even an apprentice Jedi, is to the Rebellion. A rallying point, a symbol, perhaps even a hope to defeat the Emperor on his own ground. Hope, Leia, the hope of the Alliance. We can't let him go running off to become a pirate!"
Dodonna's despairing howl would have been amusing, if the thought of losing their potential Jedi hadn't been so genuinely appalling. Leia asked calmly, "What do you wish me to do, General? I could ask Captain Solo to refrain--"
"It's not Solo I want you to talk to, it's Skywalker." Dodonna paused, glanced away, then looked her in the eye as he said, "I think you should do more than talk to Skywalker. It would be good if you became close to him. Very close."
Leia stared at her father's old comrade. Surely she was misinterpreting him. He couldn't be suggesting what she thought he was suggesting.
"I've seen the way he looks at you. If you became involved...he would never leave."
He was suggesting exactly what she had suspected.
As if unnerved by her silent stare, he coughed gruffly and blurted, "Well, he's a fine young man, a fitting young man. The kind of man a princess... The Alliance needs him! And Leia, maybe, you need someone, too. Now."
Now.He didn't say, "Now that Alderaan is gone," but she knew what he meant. With a kiss on her brow, he was gone. Leia stayed in her quarters for some time, staring at her reflection.
Still on the dais with the rest of the Alliance officials, Leia looked down, watching Han and Luke talking to Wedge Antilles and a few other pilots. She smiled again, thinking about the ceremony. Luke had looked so handsome. Han had looked embarrassed. Leia decided that it suited him. Maybe he wasn't a long lost Prince of Corellia, but he could be rather pleasant at times. She was glad they had given a medal to Han, too. He had loudly declared he wasn't part of the Rebellion--a point of Corellian honor--but if he hadn't come back when he had...Luke, the base, the Alliance itself would be nothing but a memory.
Like Alderaan.
Leia firmly pushed her sadness away. In a few moments she would be joining the victory celebration. There would be drinks and dancing and an outpouring of joy over the sheer fact of survival. She didn't feel she would serve Alderaan's memory by weeping and moaning. Alderaan was part of the Force now and the Force was life, not death.
"Leia?"
Looking toward the voice, she saw Marsh Kulaashi coming toward her. The aristocratic, gray-haired senator had been one of Keela's lovers and confidants. He took Leia by the arm and drew her away from the others.
"What is it? Is there some trouble?"
"No trouble. Dodonna said he spoke to you...about Skywalker."
Leia nodded, wary now.
"He's not the only one who thinks this way. Others on the High Council...Leia, we cannot rely solely on his ideals to bind him to our cause. Too much depends on him."
Others on the High Council. The same ones who had given Keela her assignments. The same ones who had sent Leia to Tatooine to bring back Ben Kenobi. They had expected her to bed an old general if necessary; they probably thought they were being kind ordering the seduction of a handsome young man as her next duty to the Rebellion.
Kulaashi leaned closer; his voice became soft and persuasive. "Leia, Keela and I spoke of you often. I know that you have never been called on to serve the Rebellion in this fashion."
"To be the Alliance whore, you mean?" Leia snapped in a low voice.
"Are you calling Keela a whore?"
"No, I..."
"Look at him, Leia." Taking her by the elbow, Kulaashi turned her so she could see Luke. He looked so handsome in his uniform and bright pilot's jacket, his face open and eager beneath the fair hair. "Is the thought of being kind to him, being close to him, so repulsive to you?"
"No!" The protest was out of her mouth before she could stop it. She remembered how nice it had felt to be in his arms, but a friendly hug was not the same thing as being sexually intimate.
"It will be your decision, of course, but remember how much the Alliance needs him."
Duty. Always duty. Before celebration, before happiness, before everything.
A toast," Marsh Kulaashi offered, raising his goblet. "A toast to a great lady, Ambassador Keela Duvay."
Leia, standing amid a cluster of former Imperial senators, raised her cup and drank to her friend. There had been many such toasts this night, to the living and the dead. She was beginning to think the wine was affecting her. She felt light-headed. Sighing, she looked at Kulaashi over the rim of her goblet.
As the others drifted away, Kulaashi crooked a finger at Leia. "Your Highness, I want you to look over there."
Obediently glancing in the indicated direction, she saw Luke and Han. Seated at a table behind a litter of cups, the pair had their heads together. Han was pointing across the great chamber, talking animatedly about something while Luke listened intently.
"Do you know what will happen to morale if Luke leaves the Rebellion?"
"He won't leave," Leia said firmly.
"Leia, you know what it will do to the Alliance if he leaves, but think of what it will do to him. His father was a Jedi. He has the potential to be a Jedi, too. Think of what it will do to him, to leave the life of service to the Republic, the life he was born for, to go wandering the galaxy as a freighter bum."
But he'll be free,Leia thought suddenly. Free of senators who leaned close and whispered urgently and tried to manipulate your mind and heart. Who reminded you of your duty.
The duty of a Jedi, the duty of a princess. Duty, always duty.
Luke was sitting at the table, just smiling and drinking. Leia watched him closely as she sipped from her goblet. She was being silly, really. She had been willing to die for the Rebellion. Now she was balking at this. Such a small thing. She could tell he was interested in her; it would be easy. So easy. No elaborate charades of girlish intrigue, no maneuvering to avoid ladies-in-waiting. They would just slip off somewhere. She would whisper words of passion in his ear, arouse his interest in ways Keela had carefully described. Dodonna had arranged that Luke had a private room. They could go there.
And he would love her.
Would that be so bad? To have a handsome, clean-limbed, gentle young man love her. To touch and be touched, to have someone hold her. She needed someone to hold her. She needed to talk, to tell someone about Alderaan. Not its destruction, but its beauty. Why not Luke?
It would not be so bad. Luke would be gentle; he wouldn't hurt her. She would make him happy. She would...
Leia managed to get Luke away from Han when the Corellian sailed off to dance with a rather busty computer tech. Taking Luke's hand, she'd suggested they slip away, and he'd amiably agreed.
They walked out onto the temple terrace. The breeze was moist but cool. Leia felt soothed by it. They moved hand in hand, and she felt content.
When they stopped to peer over the edge, he put his arm around her protectively. She knew she didn't want him to leave.
Strolling back inside, they found a quiet place where a wide ledge was striped in silver and shadow from the light of a nearby work lamp.
"Let's sit here, for a moment?"
"Sure."
He plopped down, a little ungracefully. It made her laugh. Bending down, she brushed her lips against his blond bangs. "I think you're a little drunk."
"I think you're right."
She sat beside him. He really was very handsome, endearing, with that little wistful smile on his face as he looked at her.
"You're so beautiful, Leia. You're the most beautiful thing I ever saw in my life."
The time was now, and she knew it. Taking a deep breath, she slid her fingers around his. "Luke, I...I don't want you to leave."
His smile widened, and he squeezed her hand. Leia felt the pressure of his fingers on her flesh; strong, callused fingers. She thought of how that hand would feel on her naked breast. A shudder that had nothing to do with pleasure rippled through her.
Luke's expression turned bemused. Then he keeled over into her lap.
Leia grabbed at him. By wrapping her arms around him, she managed to keep him from sliding off her lap onto the floor. Somehow she didn't think this was what the High Council had in mind when they told her she should get closer to Luke Skywalker. And yet it felt strangely pleasant, holding him this way.
"I had a feeling this would happen."
Looking up, Leia saw Han Solo stroll toward them. He gave her a crooked grin.
"Too many Azoorian brandies," he informed her. With effortless ease, he levered Luke out of her lap and across his shoulder, then started down the hall with his burden.
Leia's hesitation lasted only a moment before she ran down the corridor in pursuit.
Leia watched mutely as Han dumped Luke on the bunk and then started to take off the young man's boots. Luke rolled over on his stomach and began to snore. This was not the way it was supposed to happen.
"They sent you to bunk him, didn't they?"
The sharp question brought Leia's head up from her contemplation of the somnambulant young pilot. Hazel eyes watched her; she didn't like the contempt in their depths.
"They sent you to bunk him, didn't they?" His voice was sharper.
Leia winced. Bunking was Corellian slang for sex, but a particular kind of sex, where a more experienced female took advantage of a younger male.
"I knew it. I could see it coming. Does the Council send you to bunk all the new recruits? Too bad you guys don't have recruiting posters. It'd make a good slogan. 'Join the Rebellion, bed a princess.'"
"It's not like that! I...they know I need someone. They just wanted me to have someone to...comfort me."
"Sweetheart, he's the one who's green as Surlian grass, not me. I've seen it before. Your High Council wants their pet Jedi tied to them good and tight. Ideals are fine, but they're no substitute for a little warm flesh."
"It's not like that!"
Snorting, Han gestured toward the bed, "Well, crawl in, Your Worship. He'll wake up in an hour or so, then you can be a good little soldier, show him a good time, and make sure he won't want to leave the Rebellion."
At that moment Leia hated Han Solo. She wanted to kill him, to tear his handsome, angry face to shreds with her carefully manicured nails. She hated him because he was speaking the truth. Not elegant words about duty and hope, but the truth. "He's just a dumb kid from the back of nowhere," Han said softly. "It'll hurt like hell when he tips to the truth. Don't do this to him."
The quiet reproach stung even more than the coarse baiting. Put on the defensive, Leia reacted by attacking. "And what is it to you, Captain Solo, if he is hurt? You don't even know him!"
"Oh, I know him. I know what that's like, to be alone, to have nobody in the galaxy care whether you live or die. Somebody's got to look after him. Somebody's got to keep him away from people like you, who just want to use him."
"You just want to use him yourself. You don't care about him. You don't care about anyone or anything!"
"I care. About my clan, my close kin, Chewie, things that are important."
"The Rebellion is important! We all have to fight..."
"Save your recruiting speech, sweetheart!" The handsome face, which a moment before had shown quiet supplication, suddenly went cold. "You know, I thought maybe you were different. But you aren't. You're just like the others. You just use people. Use them up if you have to."
He made a Corellian hand gesture; an elegant, intricate fluttering of fingers that ended in a clenched fist and indicated the gesturer was disgusted beyond endurance. Leia had seen the Corellian Senator make the gesture many times during long debates in the Imperial Senate Hall.
"What the hell do I care who you bunk? He's just a dumb blond kid and you're just an Alliance tart."
She hit him then. Not a ladylike slap, but a double-fisted blow, with both hands linked together, hitting like a hammer. He'd just started to turn away from her so the blow struck him in the back, between the shoulder blades and knocked him off balance. He hit the doorframe and rebounded with a grunt, ending up on the floor.
"How dare you!" Leia kicked him, then yelped in pain. Her soft dress slippers offered no protection for her toes. "I'm a Daughter of the Royal House of Alderaan and I will not be spoken to in such a fashion by a money-grubbing mercenary..."
Han grabbed her ankles and the next thing she knew she was on the floor, her wrists imprisoned. He crouched over her, his body at an angle so she couldn't kick him again.
"I told Luke you had plenty of spirit and I was right." The Corellian grinned down at her. His hands were wrapped around her wrists, pinning them. Loosening his grasp slightly, Han caressed her palms with his forefinger. The simple touch sent a shiver down her spine. His smile grew sly. "You know, I have a fast ship and a lot of contacts. If I drop a few names, your Council might send you to bunk me."
"It's not...I never..." Under the cold, hazel-eyed contempt, her glib tongue seemed to have deserted her. She could only stutter and stumble over an explanation. It shouldn't matter what Han thought of her, but it did. She couldn't stand to see that look in his eyes. "I never...did anything like this before...never..."
"Then you better think about it, Your Worship," he said softly. Letting go of her, Han sat up. He rubbed the back of his neck. "Think about it long and hard. Because once you say yes, it will be harder to say no to them. Today it's a nice, young Jedi knight, but tomorrow they might send you to warm the bed of some corporate big shot so he'll sell them spare parts. Or maybe it'll be some Imperial official they want you to bed and then kill." He touched a forefinger to his brow in a spacer's farewell, then he was gone.
Leia rubbed her hands over her face. Han was right. If she did what the Council wanted this time, it would give them a measure of control over her, control she did not want to relinquish.
Control. She hadn't been very controlled around Han Solo. What was it about that damnable man! On Kotaria, she'd faced mobs screaming insults at her and had not even flinched. One remark from that sardonic mouth and she'd attacked him like a...a Corellian. It was too horrible to contemplate.
What was it about Han Solo she found so upsetting? Perhaps it was that he spoke the truth. And she found it difficult to deal with the truth. Truth could be ugly and hurtful; all of her training had been geared to smoothing over the truth with words, making it prettier, sweeter, painless. But no pretty words could conceal the truth of the choice she had to make.
A loud snore from the bed drew Leia's attention back to Luke. He'd rolled over on his back. She stood up with a sigh. Straightening her gown, she eyed the sleeping young Jedi. As she watched, he turned sideways, stopping his snores. His blond hair spilled over the pillow. He looked about twelve, young and vulnerable, in need of protection from the users in life.
Like Marsh Kulaashi.
Like me?
Turning, Leia looked at her somewhat tousled reflection in the highly polished door of a wardrobe.
"Time to choose, Leia."
The night was warm, but the moist breeze was cool. Leia walked silently on her soft dress slippers. Rounding a corner, she saw Han Solo. He was standing on the ledge. For a moment she thought he was about to leap off and take flight.
Leia had a sudden memory of a holotape in her father's private collection, of a beautiful young woman standing on a ledge. She'd started to dance, graceful and fearless. She was Kullumbine Kiersola, Starsword, Daughter of Princes. No matter how many times she saw that tape, Leia still expected the woman to take flight, like the falcons that were her clan's symbol. Leia had always wanted to be like that, brave and free, full of grace and daring.
Now the tape was gone, the archive room was gone, her father was gone. And yet...the memory of that dance lingered in Leia's mind. Alderaan was there, too. Inside of her, with her always.
Han turned suddenly. Noticing her, he hopped off the ledge and stalked toward her. "Well?"
She raised a regal eyebrow. "Well?"
"You going to bunk him?"
"No," Leia said firmly. "I am not going to bunk Luke Skywalker. Not only would such an action be demeaning to me, it would besmirch everything we of the Alliance stand for. And in the end it would backfire on us. He would find out the truth and he would leave."
"He still might leave."
"Are you going to make him?"
Han chuckled. "I don't know where you get this idea that I can make that kid do anything. Nah, he'll stick around. He's too dumb to leave."
"And what about you?"
Han heaved an exasperated sigh. "Someone's got to keep him out of trouble." An irate finger suddenly wagged in her direction. "But I'm not joining your Rebellion. I'm Corellian, remember."
"Oh, I remember. I also remember you mentioning contacts?"
"I expect to be well paid for any services rendered. In hard currency." Han quirked an eyebrow at her. "What about you? If you don't obey orders, won't you get in trouble with the Council?"
"I am not under the Council's orders. I am a member of the Council. I make my own decisions and comport myself as I see fit, in a fashion I believe suitable for a Daughter of the Royal House. Anyway, what can they do to me? I'm not a commissioned officer. It's not as though they could demote me from Princess to Countess." That made him grin. Leia almost sighed at the sight of a smile adorning his face. He really was terribly handsome. Just like the Princes of Corellia.
"There were pink flowers."
Leia blinked at him. "I beg your pardon?"
"There were pink flowers in the garden. The kind that turns red in high summer. And a fountain with a dancing woman in it."
Leia gasped. The garden in the palace on Alderaan. "How do you...that was the private garden, it was never on the holonews shows...how do you know what it looked like?"
The Corellian's smile widened. "I was there. In the garden. A long time ago. My Ma repairs droids sometimes and there were some malfunctioning units. Anyway, I was snooping around and I found that garden. It was beautiful."
"It is. In summer, the flowers will be..." Leia stopped as she realized there would never be another summer on Alderaan. That the flowers would never bloom into their scarlet splendor.
Tears filled her eyes. She blinked fiercely to keep from showing such weakness. A finger touched her chin, tilting her face up.
"Alderaan is gone," she whispered.
"I remember Alderaan. And you remember Alderaan. So it's not gone. Not as long as we remember. Tell me about Alderaan."
It was what she had wanted, what she had needed this night. Someone to talk to about Alderaan. Leia slipped her arm through Han's.
"Yes, Captain Solo. I would like that very much."
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PART 1