[Thrawn Trilogy] - 01(52)

The inference scope pinged: the unknown ship was starting to come around the pylon. Han braced himself, fingers resting lightly on the fire controls …

And with a suddenness that surprised him, the ship burst into sight, rounding the pylon in a twisting spiral. It steadied slightly-

“It’s an X-wing,” Leia identified it, sounding greatly relieved. “With Republic markings-“

“Hello, strangers,” Luke’s voice crackled into Han’s ear. “Good to see you.”

“Uh … hi,” Han said, stifling the automatic urge to greet Luke by name. Theoretically, they were on a secure frequency, but it was easy enough for anyone with sufficient motivation to get around such formalities. “What are you doing here?”

“I came to see Lando,” Luke told him. “Sorry if I startled you. When they told me I’d be going in with an unidentified ship I thought it might be a trap. I wasn’t completely sure it was you until a minute ago.”

“Ah,” Han said, watching as the other ship settled into a parallel course. It was Luke’s X-wing, all right.

Or at least, it looked like Luke’s X-wing. “So,” he said casually, swiveling the laser cannons around to target the other. Situated the way it was, the X-wing would have to yaw 90 degrees around before it could fire at them. Unless, of course, it had been modified. “This just a social call, or what?”

“Not really. I found an old gadget that … well, I thought Lando might be able to identify it.” He hesitated. “I don’t think we ought to discuss it out in the open like this. How about you?”

“I don’t think we should talk about that, either,” Han told him, mind racing. It sounded like Luke, too; but after that near-disastrous decoy attempt on Bpfassh, he wasn’t about to take anything for granted. Somehow, they needed to make a positive identification, and fast.

He tapped a switch, cutting himself out of the radio circuit. “Leia, can you tell whether or not that’s really Luke out there?”

“I think so,” she said slowly. “I’m almost positive it is.”

” ‘Almost positive’ won’t cut it, sweetheart,” he warned her.

“I know,” she said. “Hang on; I’ve got an idea.”

Han cut himself back into the radio circuit. “-said that if I had a slave circuit they could get me in a lot faster,” Luke was saying. “A hyperspace jump as close to Nkllon as the gravity well will permit, and then just a few minutes of cover before I’d be in the planetary umbra and could go the rest of the way in on my own.”

“Except that X-wings don’t come equipped with slave circuits?” Han suggested.

“Right,” Luke said, a little dryly. “Some oversight in the design phase, no doubt.”

“No doubt,” Han echoed, beginning to sweat a little. Whatever Leia was up to, he wished she’d get to it.

“Actually, I’m glad you don’t have one,” Leia spoke up. “It feels safer traveling in convoy this way. Oh, before I forget, there’s someone here who wants to say hello.”

“Artoo?” Threepio’s prissy voice said tentatively. “Are you there?”

Han’s headphone erupted with a blather of electronic beeps and twitters. “Well, I don’t know where else you might have been,” Threepio said stiffly. “From past experience, there are a considerable variety of difficulties you could have gotten yourself into. Certainly without me along to smooth things out for you.”

The headphone made a noise that sounded suspiciously like an electronic snort. “Yes, well, you’ve always believed that,” Threepio countered, even more stiffly. “I suppose you’re entitled to your delusions.”

Artoo snorted again; and, smiling tightly to himself, Han keyed off his control board and dropped the lasers back into standby status. He’d known a lot of men, back in his smuggling days, who wouldn’t have wanted a wife who could sometimes think faster than they could.

Speaking for himself, Han had long ago decided he wouldn’t have it any other way.

The shieldship pilot hadn’t been exaggerating. It was nearly ten hours later when he finally signaled that they were on their own, made one final not-quite-impolite comment, and pulled off to the side, out of the way.

There wasn’t much to see; but then, Han decided, the dark side of an undeveloped planet was seldom very scenic. A homing signal winked at him from one of the scopes, and he made a leisurely turn in the indicated direction.

From behind him came the sound of a footstep. “What’s happening?” Leia asked, yawning as she sat down in the copilot’s seat.