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He clicked an old-fashioned, shiny button. Faal’s pretty face was replaced by a blank screen. His smile disappeared as if it were a glow rod he had switched off.

Though he was the only living being on the ship, Lando was not alone. There was a full crew complement; it was simply one composed entirely of droids. He turned in the levchair to regard the one with whom he had the most interaction, the bridge droid Cybot Galactica Model RN8.

“Bust my rear getting you droids and this ship functional, and Luke hightails it out of here without me. Nice of him to leave such an attractive welcoming committee though.”

Ornate straightened and turned her head globe to regard him with her three blue photoreceptors. The transparent globe was alive with the sparkles of her processing unit, and her bronze body casing was decorated with comets and stars. She was extremely old, functioning well, and as lovely as any piece of art. “I am not programmed to evaluate human standards of attractiveness,” Ornate said in a deep, purring voice.

“I am,” Lando said cheerily. Ornate merely turned her globe head back to the navigation console. Lando grinned a little and swung the chair back around just in time to see a white flash indicating someone dropping out of hyperdrive.

Four vessels suddenly appeared, bristling with weapons, their forms bulky and threatening. Lando’s gut twisted, his humor gone.

“Oh great,” he muttered. “Just what we needed. Hutts.” He waited, sweat gathering at his hairline, to see if he would be hailed, but the Hutts were apparently here on other business. After less than a minute, they dived as one for the atmosphere. Lando breathed out a sign of relief that lasted about two seconds.

“Faal to Rockhound!” The pretty voice was urgent.

“Rockhound here, go ahead, Captain Faal.”

“We are under attack! Repeat, under attack! Request aid immediately!”

“What’s going on? Ornate, ready the Stoneskipper!” The droid inclined her sparkling globe and began the process for readying the Rockhound’s small skiff. “Who’s attacking you?”

“The Hutts! They are opening fire!”

Oh, this was great. Just great.

“Captain Calrissian, I assure you, it’s a huge misunderstanding!” Faal continued. The strain of trying to speak calmly made her pleasant voice less so. “But as our ally, I request that you aid us!”

“I can’t take this baby down. Best I can do would be a skiff.”

The four Hutt ships, obviously reinforcements to whatever atmospheric vessels were already engaged, were now heading down toward the surface. “Then perhaps you could be of use elsewhere. Do you know beings on this world?”

He did, several, and lots of them would not be particularly happy to see him. Especially if his new “allies” had riled the Hutts. “Uh,” he said, “a few.”

“They will destroy the Starstalker and all aboard if they do not call off their attack,” Faal was saying. “If you could—”

Six more Hutt vessels exited hyperspace, splitting up gracefully to encircle the Winged Dagger. Fortunately, for the moment, they seemed unaware that Lando had anything to do with the Sith vessel and whatever was going on planetside. Lando was debating the wisdom of simply powering up the Rockhound and heading right for the Maw, leaving these two Sith ships to their own devices. After all, he was there to help Luke, not Luke’s buddies. But then again, one didn’t really want to anger a Sith, did one?

Another ship arrived. “For crying out loud, what is this, a party?” Lando yelped to Ornate. “How many Hutt ships do you need to take down—”

He broke off in midsentence when he saw what kind of vessel it was. Or rather, didn’t quite see. It was like a phantom, the slightest distortion against the darkness and starlight. But Lando had a lot of experience seeing things others might miss.

It was a StealthX, and that meant Jedi.

“Hail it,” he told Ornate. “Now.” The droid complied. Lando knew that the vessels had to maintain silence in order to be undetected, and wasn’t sure if the pilot of this particular ship would respond. However, a familiar voice crackled