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[Thrawn Trilogy] - 01(30)

By:Timothy Zahn


From overhead came another roar; but this time Chewbacca didn’t simply fly the Falcon past the marketplace. Instead, forward maneuvering jets blasting, he brought it to a hard stop. Hovering directly over his beleaguered companions, swivel blaster extended from the ship’s underside, he opened fire.

The Bimms weren’t stupid. Whatever Han and Leia had done to stir up the hornet’s nest, the hornets themselves clearly had no desire to get shot at from the sky. In an instant the roiling yellow mass dissolved, the Bimms abandoning their attack and streaming away in terror from the Falcon. Forcing his way through the crowd, using the Bimms for visual cover as much as he could, Luke started around the attackers’ circle.

Between his lightsaber and the Falcon’s swivel blaster, they made a very fast, very clean sweep of it.

“You,” Luke said with a shake of his head, “are a mess.”

“I’m sorry, Master Luke,” Threepio apologized, his voice almost inaudible beneath the layers of hardened spraynet that covered much of his upper body like some bizarre sort of gift wrapping. “I seem to always be causing you trouble.”

“That’s not true, and you know it,” Luke soothed him, considering the small collection of solvents arrayed in front of him on the Falcon’s lounge table. So far none of the ones he’d tried had been even marginally effective against the webbing. “You’ve been a great help to all of us over the years. You just have to learn when to duck.”

Beside Luke, Artoo twittered something. “No, Captain Solo did not tell me to duck,” Threepio told the squat droid stiffly. “What he said was, ‘Get ready to duck.’ I should think the difference would be apparent even to you.”

Artoo beeped something else. Threepio ignored it. “Well, let’s try this one,” Luke suggested, picking up the next solvent in line. He was hunting for a clean cloth among his pile of rejects when Leia came into the lounge.

“How is he?” she asked, walking over and peering at Threepio.

“He’ll be all right,” Luke assured her. “He may have to stay like this until we get back to Coruscant, though. Han told me these stokhli sticks are used mostly by big-game hunters on out-of-the-way planets, and the spraynet they use is a pretty exotic mixture.” He indicated the discarded solvent bottles.

“Maybe the Bimms can suggest something,” Leia said, picking up one of the bottles and looking at its label. “We’ll ask them when we get back down.”

Luke frowned at her. “We’re going back down?”

She frowned at him in turn. “We have to, Luke-you know that. This is a diplomatic mission, not a pleasure cruise. It’s considered bad form to pull out right after one of your ships has just shot up a major local marketplace.”

“I would think the Bimms would consider themselves lucky that none of their people got killed in the process,” Luke pointed out. “Particularly when what happened was at least partly their fault.”

“You can’t blame a whole society for the actions of a few individuals,” Leia said-rather severely, Luke thought. “Especially not when a single political maverick has simply made a bad decision.”

“A bad decision?” Luke snorted. “Is that what they’re calling it?”

“That’s what they’re calling it,” Leia nodded. “Apparently, the Bimm who led us into the marketplace trap was bribed to take us there. He had no idea what was going to happen, though.”

“And I suppose he had no idea what the stuff he gave the chief negotiator would do, either?”

Leia shrugged. “Actually, there’s still no hard evidence that he or anyone else poisoned the negotiator,” she said. “Though under the circumstances, they’re willing to concede that that’s a possibility.”

Luke made a face. “Generous of them. What does Han have to say about us putting back down?”

“Han doesn’t have any choice in the matter,” Leia said firmly. “This is my mission, not his.”

“That’s right,” Han agreed, stepping into the lounge. “Your mission. But my ship.”

Leia stared at him, a look of disbelief on her face. “You didn’t,” she breathed.

“I sure did,” he told her calmly, dropping into one of the seats across the lounge. “We made the jump to lightspeed about two minutes ago. Next stop, Coruscant.”

“Han!” she flared, as angry as Luke had ever seen her. “I told the Bimms we were coming right back down.”

“And I told them there’d be a short delay,” Han countered. “Like long enough for us to collect a squadron of X-wings or maybe a Star Cruiser to bring back with us.”