THE HUTT GAMBI(84)

“What are you naming her?” Blue asked, with an impish grin. Roa grinned back at her. “The Lwyll, of course,” he replied.

Roa and his lady love, Lwyll, had been an on-again, off-again item on Nar Shaddaa for over ten years. Everyone knew Lwyll. The lovely blond woman was one of the few people on the Smuggler’s Moon who lived a completely legitimate life, earning an honest credit for an honest day’s work. Roa had been after her for years to come and live with him, but Lwyll would never do it. She saw him, but she saw other men, too, and Roa was wounded whenever she did it.

Still, he’d never been able to bring himself to take the ultimate plunge and ask her to marry him. Han and the other smugglers had teased Roa about his indecision. All his friends could tell that Lwyll was the best thing that had ever happened to Roa.

“You’re planning to fly Lwyll against the TIEs?” Mako asked. “What does the real Lwyll have to say about that?”

Roa sighed, and then gave his friends a rueful grin. “Believe me, she had plenty to say. You guys aren’t going to believe this … but last night I up and asked Lwyll to marry me.”

General murmurs of surprise ran around the table. “Don’t keep us in suspense,” Blue cried, “what did she say?”

“She said ‘no,’” Roa said. The senior smuggler’s broad, open features sagged. “She said she didn’t want to wind up a widow.”

“Can’t blame her for that,” Lando said. None of the smugglers in the room was married, and it was no accident. Living on the edge as they did, it was impossible for them to maintain anything approaching a normal family life.

Chewbacca turned to Han and spoke earnestly. The Corellian translated for those who didn’t understand Wookiee. “Roa, Chewie says that if you were a Wookiee, it’d be time for you to settle down. He thinks Lwyll is too good to lose. He likes her.”

Roa grinned. “He’s right. She’s too good to lose. That’s why this battle is my last stand as a smuggler, guys. If I live through it, I’m gonna quit this life and go straight.”

Everyone was amazed to hear this from the senior smuggler, knowing how much Roa loved the life he’d chosen. “Yep, I’m gonna do it,” Roa insisted.

“And Lwyll says if I do, she’ll be my wife.”

“Well … congratulations!” Lando said. “That’s great news.

You’re getting one wonderful woman, Roa.”

All the smugglers echoed the young gambler’s sentiments.

“I know it,” Roa agreed. “So … all I gotta do is make it through this battle …”

“Speaking of which, we ought to get back to it,” Mako said. “And figure out a way to beat these Imps.”

“We have one big advantage,” Roa said. “The element of surprise.”

Mako stared at him. “We know when they’re coming, so there’s no element of surprise there. But… they’re invading us. How are we supposed to surprise them?”

Roa smiled genially and waved a hand at the ceiling. “Think, my friends, think! What’s up there?”

“A shield that needs fixing a lot,” Mako said grimly. “Past that,” Roa said. “Traffic buoys,” Han said. “Farther,” Roa said.

Han thought for a moment, then a slow smile crept over his face. Salla laughed. “I get it! Space junk! Dozens… hundreds … of junked spaceships and parts of spaceships.”

Roa was nodding at the tall lady smuggler. “Right. So much space junk in that ring around Nar Shaddaa that ships could hide behind it, or beneath it, or in its shadow—and then pop out and catch the Imp fleet by surprise.”

Chewie voiced a loud “Hrrrrnnnnnnn!”

Now it was Mako’s turn to nod excitedly. “I think you got something there, Roa,” he said. “And it might work. Especially if we staged a couple of ships frantically running for cover—freighters, they’ll think they’re civs—and got the Imps to chase ‘em until they’re right where we want them, then”—he punched the air—”wham! We pop out of cover and clobber them!”

Excitedly the senior smuggler keyed the operation Roa had described into the datapad. The “High Command” watched as the ring of debris around Nar Shaddaa swam into view. As the Imperial skirmish ships zoomed in in pursuit of two small freighters, converging on the rightmost hemisphere (if one were facing Nal Hutta), suddenly a multitude of assorted freighters and other ships zipped out of concealment in the debris ring and zeroed in on the Imperial ships, lasers flashing.