Honor Among Thieves

“All respect,” Baasen said, “I was hoping for something smaller.”

“So was I, but I was expecting we’d see more,” Leia said. “What do the active scanners show?”

“They show little dark circles where I haven’t turned them on,” Han said. “Seems to me that announcing that we’re here with an active signal might not be a great plan.”

“Could disguise them a bit,” Baasen said. “Shift the spectrum, bounce the signal off the atmosphere of that sixth planet for scatter.”

Chewbacca snarled and howled, but he also started setting it up. Han sat forward in the pilot’s chair, his fingers laced together. The display showed that the gas giant and one of its moons would be blocking them from the Imperial ship’s sight for another few minutes at least. He leaned forward and thumbed up the hyperdrive. The whir and hum filled the ship, but even before he looked at the readouts, he knew. It sounded wrong.

“What are you doing?” Leia snapped as he shut it back down.

“Seeing what our options are, Your Worship,” Han said. “It’s not looking like tactical retreat’s one of them. Whatever that thing is, it’s affecting our hyperdrive.”

“That confirms it, then,” Leia said. “They’ve found it. And they’ve found out how to turn it on.”

“And so we’re not getting out of this system unless we get down there and turn it off.”

“Not unexpected,” Baasen said. “But still a bit disappointing. Hey, boyo, at least your magic gizmo exists, eh?”

At least I won’t be shooting you in the back today, he meant.

The communications panel flickered to announce an incoming signal. Not from a hyperwave relay, though. Those channels were coming in as unstable and wild as the hyperdrive itself. Instead it was coming in on standard radio, a weak signal, but using a Rebellion encryption code. Han felt the sudden release of tension in his chest that he hadn’t even known was there. He scooped up the headset and opened the channel.

“This is the Millennium Falcon,” Han said. “Who’ve we got out there?”

“Han!” Luke said. The relief in the boy’s voice was enough to set Han grinning. “What are you doing here?”

Han smiled at Leia and pointed to his earpiece. Leia’s eyes were bright, and her relief showed in the way she held herself.

“Looking for you, among other things. What’s your status?”

“We’re grounded right now. When we got here, we ran into a patrol of Imperial fighters,” Luke said, and then paused. “It got a little hot.”

“Do the bad guys know where you are?”

“No,” Luke said. “We took the fighters that were left and skimmed past one of those solar flares, then killed power. The TIEs looked around for a while after that, but then they stopped. I think they assumed we’re all dead.”

Leia pointed to the copilot’s headset. Chewbacca growled and whined, shaking his head in refusal.

“I’ll give it back,” Leia said, her hand still out imperiously. Chewbacca coughed and handed it over. Leia put the headset on and adjusted the strap to her much smaller skull. “Luke. It’s Leia. How badly is the force hurt? Where’s Wedge?”

“We’ve got seven fighters still ready to go,” he said. “We lost Burlis and Chrenn in the first pass. Daawis is still here, but his attitude stabilizer’s shot. Wedge is helping him try to get it working right now. I think we could fix it, if we had the parts. But we can’t get the hyperdrives to work. None of us.”

“We know, kid,” Han said. “That’s why we’re here.”

“Is it some kind of new Imperial weapon?” Luke asked.

“No,” Han said at the same moment Leia answered, “Not yet.”

“Well, whatever it is, we’ve been trying to transmit a warning and tell everyone to stay away from here.”

Scarlet poked her head into the cockpit, and Han held up his palm. The Bothan’s bleating voice and the R3’s chirrups and whirs came behind her, a chorus of inquiry and concern. The Falcon wasn’t built to have that many people all wanting to be in the middle of things together.

“Where are you, kid? We’ll come have a conversation in person.”

“There’s an ice cave on the second gas giant’s third moon,” Luke said. “It’s even got a little atmosphere.”

“Sounds glorious,” Han said. “Hang tight, and we’ll be right there.”

“I’ll tell the guys not to shoot you,” Luke said. Han could hear the smile in the boy’s voice. Was I ever that young? he thought. Han dropped the connection.

“So they’ve got it already,” Scarlet said.

“It can’t be that straightforward,” Leia replied, handing the headpiece back to Chewbacca. Han noted that she didn’t put it back to the Wookiee’s size. “If they didn’t think it was a risk to be nearby, they’d have more than one Star Destroyer standing guard over it. And if our hyperwave relays are down, it’s a safe bet theirs are, too. My guess is they’ve found it, whatever it is, and they’re still trying to figure out how to make it work.”

Baasen shifted to give Scarlet enough room in the cockpit. “Interesting day, this’ll be.”

“Do we think it’s still on the planet,” Leia asked, “or would they have taken it up to the Destroyer itself?”

“I don’t know,” Scarlet said. “Galassian doesn’t talk about the size of the thing. If it’s working—”

Chewbacca howled at Han and nodded toward the tactical display. Han squinted at it as a pale blue arc appeared between the planets.

“—I’d assume it’s on the planet, though. Whatever resources it needs to function are down there.”

“No,” Han said to Chewbacca. “The burn’s too long. I want us running as quiet as we can here. Take it up a third of a degree and we can slingshot around that big moon there. Make it to Luke faster, and there’s less chance of the Star Destroyer seeing us.”

“You think they’ll have forces on the ground, then?” Leia asked.

“A science team at least,” Scarlet said. “Guard forces, too. Galassian’s initial survey showed several different strata of ruins, so I’d expect that it’s somewhere under the planetary surface.”