"Aren"t you scared?" Han grunted, flipping the Fal-con up on her side to avoid a wash of ionized gas from one of the black hole cl.u.s.ters. The Imp vessel shot at him, but it was a clean miss.
Great[ Gettin" shot at with these kids here]
"No, sir!" the kid chirped. "This is neat! Can you go faster?"
"Glad you like it," muttered Han. "Kid, I"m sure gonna try...."
He poured on the speed, skimming past the first of the black hole cl.u.s.ters. Their velocity made everything blur, almost as though they were going into hypers.p.a.ce. Han had never gone so fast in the Falcon. "Whooooo!" he shouted, as they narrowly missed being pulled in by a black hole"s gravity well.
"Whooooo!" echoed the kid behind him.
Hah began laughing like a maniac as they hurtled "along. "Like that, eh, kid? Watch me outrun these Im-peri"d slugs!"
"Go!" yelled the child. "Faster, Captain Solo!" "What"s your name, kid?" Han asked as they came around the last curve of the Maw"s terrible gravity wells, sheering so close that the engines strained in protest. "Kryss P"teska, sir."
"And you like to go fast, eh?"
"Yeah!".
"Okay..."
Han threaded his way into the Pit, zipping "along, and avoiding the hurtling asteroids by the seat of his pants. He realized that he was gaining on the Imp. The cus-toms ship was barely visible now ....
If I can get just a little farther ahead...
Sweat gathered on Han"s forehead and ran down to sting his eyes, but he never eased up on his speed. The Imperial ship was far behind him now. Han ducked and dodged asteroids, and realized he was nearing the edge of the Pit.
"Great," he grunted. "All we gotta do is get outta here, and then make the jump to lightspeed .... "
Chewie suddenly started whining and gesturing fran-tically at the board. Han looked at his instruments and groaned aloud. "Oh, blast! Three Imps out there on the perimeter of the Pit! What else could they be doin" but waitin" for us! And one of"em is a big sucker!"
Han"s mind raced. "Chewie, we ain"t gonna be able to outrun these Imps," Han said. "And we"re out-gunned. But we"ve lost that guy on our tail, at least for the moment. I think if we can get far enough ahead, we should go ahead and dump the load just inside the Pit- the way you did that time with Colonel Quirt on that other Run. After they"ve searched the Falcon to their hearts content, we come back and retrieve the cargo. Whaddaya say?"
Chewie was in full agreement. "Okay, take over. We gotta do this real fast," Han said. "Here"s the coordinates."
"Hrrrrrrnnnnnnhh!"
Leaving the Wookiee to head for the coordinates he"d selected, Han raced back to the pa.s.sageway with the secret compartments, with Kryss in hot pursuit. "You kids, give me a hand here," he said, getting out coils of wire. Several of the children a.s.sembled and stood there, staring at him. "What"re your names?" Han said.
"Cathea, sir," said a young girl of perhaps twelve or thirteen, with a long blond braid of hair. "I"ll help." "I"m Tym," said a small boy.
"I"m Aeron," said a dark-haired child. "I"ll help!"
"Good," Hah grunted, heaving up the deckplates.
"Help me get these barrels carried into the starboard airlock, and we"ll wire "em together."
Within two minutes, the spice was ready to be jetti-soned. Han shooed the kids out of the airlock, then closed it firmly behind them. He ignored the standard depressurization procedures, and, using the manual override, forced the outer doors to slide wide apart- blowing the spice barrels out into the void.
"Chewie!" he yelled. "Jettisoned! Log these coordi-nates!"
With luck, Han should be able to track the spice"s progress and find it again after a little searching. The barrels themselves were made of an "alloy that would show up on his sensors if he got close enough.
It was the best he could do, under the circ.u.m-stances.
Han ran back up to the c.o.c.kpit, and raced back "along his course, so he"d emerge from the Pit approximately where they"d be expecting him to. As he headed out of the Pit, the hnp customs ship came hurtling up from behind him. Hah looked at Chewie. "That was close."
Han"s corem unit began signaling, and he activated it. "Unidentified ship, prepare to be boarded," an angry voice said, just as Hah felt the Falcon seized by a tractor beam. "This is the Imperial light cruiser a.s.sessor. Offer no resistance and you will not be harmed."
Han sat there, with the kids cl.u.s.tering around him in the c.o.c.kpit, watching as the Falcon was drawn toward the big Imperial ship. "Kids, let me do the talkin"," he said.
Moments after docking, the Imperials were at the Falcon"s airlock, demanding to be admitted. Hah sighed and got up to let them in, with a trail of children tagging "along behind him.
The Imperial captain himself was part of the heavily armed boarding party. "Captain Tybert Capucot," the balding man with the supercilious air said, looking at Han as though he were a particularly unappetizing sight. "Captain Solo, you stand in suspicion of smug-gling spice from Kessel. I am authorized to search your ship."
Han waved at the interior. "Search away," he said. "I got nothin" to hide."
Capucot sniffed and managed to stare down his nose at Han-even though the Imperial officer was several centimeters shorter than the Corellian.
The captain beckoned a scanning crew into the ship. "Search every millimeter," he ordered. "I want that spice."
Han shrugged and stepped aside.
The Imperials searched . . . and searched . . . and searched some more. Han and Chewie winced as they heard crashes from the lounge and the "aft cargo com-partment. "Hey!" Hah protested, "I"m just an honest trader! I"m an Imperial citizen, you can"t trash my ship like this!"
"Honest trader," Capucot sneered. "If you weren"t running spice, then what were you doing?"
Han thought fast. "I was... uh... well, I was takin" these kids back to CoreIlia," he said. "You see, there was this big rescue operation on a slave world, and... uh... well, these kids got left behind. So I brought "em with me."
The captain glared at Han. "CoreIlia is that way," he said, icily, pointing aft.
Hah shrugged. "I had to stop off and buy food.
Didn"t I, kids?"
"Yes!" lisped little Tym. "We was hungry! Captain Solo saved us!"
"Captain Solo risked his life for us," said Cathea, twirling her long braid. "He"s a hero."
"He saved us," Aeron said. "We was gonna get blowed up."
Little Kryss came over and took Han"s hand, stood looking up at the Imperial Captain. "Captain Solo is the best pilot in the whole galaxy. He sure can outrun those Imperial sl---"
Han managed to put his hand over the boy"s mouth just in time. "Heh," he chuckled, grinning weakly. "Kids. They say the craziest things. You a family man, Captain?"
Capucot was not amused.
Finally the scanning crew returned, not looking pleased. "Sir, we found nothing. We made a thorough search, Captain."
Tybert Capucotg face reddened. He stood there, searching for words, then met Han"s gaze. "Very well," he said. "Our brave hero Captain Solo claims that he was taking these children to CoreIlia. Such a n.o.ble act deserves an Imperial escort. Set your course for CoreI-lia, Captain. We will escort you there."
Han opened his mouth,then closed it again. With an effort, he nodded. "Sure. Letg go."
It took him the best part of a day to reach his home-world. Han raged at the delay in collecting his spice. He knew that if anything happened to it, that Jabba would not be lenient. Business was business, and Hutts did not know the meaning of mercy ....
When he reached CoreIlia, he found that the Imps had broadcast his arrival "ahead of them, and there was a media blitz waiting for them. Han and Chewie were congratulated, hailed as heroes, and only the fact that Hah had already won the Corellian bloodstripe kept the grateful government of his homeworld from awarding him one.
Han was in a panic to get back to the Pit and his dropped load of spice. Finally he was able to say good-bye to the children-who actually were pretty good kids, he was forced to concede-and head back out, a free citizen.
The Corellian made best possible speed back to the Pit, and to the coordinates where he"d dropped the load of raw glitterstim. He spent the next four hours comb-ing the outer edge of the asteroid field, becoming more and more frantic. "It"s got to be here!" he exclaimed to Chexvie.
But it wasn"t.
Han searched for another two hours, using the aux-iliary sensor units in the lounge to augment the ones in the c.o.c.kpit. Suddenly he was interrupted by a roar from Chewbacca in the c.o.c.kpit. "I"m comin"!" he yelled, rac-ing forward.
Chexvie pointed to the sensors showing two blips converging on them rapidly. Han checked the ship IDs and then swore bitterly, smacking his forehead with his hand. "Great! More Imps! That"s all I need! Why me?"
He dropped into the pilot"s seat and reversed course, heading back into the Pit. Chewbacca growled an in-quiry, wanting to know why they were running when they had no spice on board anyway.
"Don"t you get it?" Hah snarled as he increased speed until the asteroids zipped past them in a blur. "They must"ve found the spice we dumped, and they know what we were searchin" for! You know Capucot didn"t believe us . . . he"s behind this! These slugs will arrest us on suspicion of smuggling and impound the Falcon! We"ll never get her back!" He made a hard turn to port to avoid an asteroid the size of an Imp destroyer.
"Besides . . "he added, "I don"t want "em trashin" the ship again searching her. We just got done cleanin" up the mess Capucot and his boys made."
Together, Han and Chewie sent the Falcon streaking back through the Pit, toward the Maw. His pursuers were two Imperial tariff ships, and they followed him with reckless determination.
Han"s hands moved over his controls like a man pos-sessed as they skimmed and flipped their way through the treacherous asteroid field. Chewie was howling aloud with terror at the chances his partner was taking. "Shut up, fuzzface!" Hah yelled. "I gotta concentrate!"
Chewie~ howls dropped to moans... possibly prayers.
Han was too busy to listen.
They were nearing the end of the Pit, heading straight for the Maw. "Chewie, I"m gonna have to shave the belly armor right off the Falcon, and hope those Imps won"t want to mess with these black holes," Hah said, tightly. "Those slugs are not givin" up!"
Chewbacca arrrrhhhhhnnnnned in despair. "I can"t help it! They"re not getting the Falcon!"
The two Imperial ships stuck to the smuggler vessel as though they were hooked by tractor beams. Hah and Chewie worked frantically over the Falcon"s con-trol board, adjusting their course, speed, direction, shielding ....
In desperation, Han sent the Falcon closer to the black hole cl.u.s.ters than any sane person would ever go. Only the ship"s breakneck speed might save them.
The Millennium Falcon skimmed so close to the black holes in the Maw that only her terrible velocity kept her from being captured and sucked in. The watching eyes of the accretion disks seemed to widen and narrow as the Falcon soared and swooped in and around the treacherous gravity wells. The Imperial ships hurtled after him at top velocity.
Han did an impossible spin, flip and swoop as he came around toward the last of the Maw. Studying his instruments, Hah saw that one of the pursuing Imperial ships, the smaller of the two, hadn"t been able to dupli-cate his maneuver-the ship vanished into the embrace of the black hole"s accretion disk with a tiny, ign.o.ble flare.
"Yes!" he said, fiercely. "You"re not gettin" me! Not today, not ever!"
Now the last Imperial ship was falling behind... and the Falcon was nearly out of the Maw. "Yes, Chewie! We did it!"
"Arrrrrrhhhhhhhhnnn!"
Han sent the Falcon hurtling past Kessel, and then, suddenly they were free of the gravity wells. Hah hastily bent over the navicomputer, then a moment later, shouted, "Course laid in! Punch it, Chexvie!"
Moments later they were safe in hypers.p.a.ce. Han slumped back in his seat. "That was too close," he mut-tered, hoa.r.s.ely.
Chexvie agreed.
As he sagged in his seat, Han noticed something.
"Hey, Chewie. Look!" He pointed at the instruments.
"We set a record!"
Chewie commented bitterly that their speed record had come at the expense of his nerves. Han"s eyes nar-rowed. "Hey, this is weird," he said. "It says we actually shortened the distance we traveled, not just the time. Less than twelve pa.r.s.ecs!"
Chewie growled skeptically and rapped on the dis-tance gauge with hairy knuckles, commenting that Han"s wild piloting must have caused a short and the gauge was off.
Han argued, but when Chewbacca, short-tempered, snarled at him, he gave up. "Okay, okay, I"m too tired to argue," he said, throwing up his hands.
But I did do it in under twelve pa.r.s.ecs ....he thought stubbornly.
But now he had more pressing problems to consider than speed or distance records. What in the universe was he going to tell Jabba?
Han faced the craggy, scarred holo-image of Bidlo Kwerve, Jabba the Hutt"s Corellian majordomo. Be-hind Kwerve he could see the sand-colored walls of the Hutt Lord"s desert palace on Tatooine. "Hey, Kwerve," Han said, "let me speak to the boss, please."
The ugly Corellian thug had jet-black hair with a vivid white stripe running through it, and vivid green eyes. Kwerve smiled, a small and nasty smile. "Hey, it"s Solo," he said. "Jabba"s been callin" you. Where you been, Solo?"
"Here and there," Hah said, shortly. He didn"t like being played with. "Ran into a bit of trouble with the Imps."
"Well, that"s too bad," Kwerve said. "Let me see if I can get Jabba to talk to you. Last time I knew, he was pretty ticked "cause you"re overdue with that cargo. He"s got some plans for that spice."
Han stared stonily into the comm. "Just patch me through, Kwerve, and stuff the jokes."
"Oho, who said I was jokin", Solo?"
The Corellian majordomo"s scarred visage disap-peared in a wash of static, and for a moment Hah thought he"d cut the transmission. He reached out to break the connection himself, when the static was sud-denly gone, replaced by Jabba"s ma.s.sive holo-image. "Jabba!" Hah blurted, in mingled relief and trepidation.
"Hey, listen... I got a little problem."
Jabba did not look happy. He was smoking some brown substance that roiled around in the combination hookah and snackquarium he"d inherited from the dead Jiliac, and his huge pupils were dilated from the drug.
Great, Han thought. I had w call when he was spiced ....
"Uh, hey, Jabba," he said. "It"s me, Hah."
Jabba blinked several times and finally managed to focus. "Hah!" boomed the leader of Desilijic. "Where have you been? I was expecting you here last week!"
"Uh, well, Jabba, that"s what I called to tell you about," Han said. "Listen... it"s not my fault .... "
Jabba blinked muzzily. "Hah, my boy . . . what are you saying? Where is my load of glitterstim?"