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Dengar sat alone and wondered. With Solo captured, would Vader come after him? Dengar doubted it. The Dark Lord of the Sith had his own political agenda, men to command, an Empire to run. Dengar was almost beneath his notice. But Dengar didn’t want to cross paths with him again.

Over the loudspeakers, the city administrator, Lando Calrissian, announced that Imperial troops were taking over the station, and suggested that all personnel evacuate immediately.

Around Dengar, the gamblers and citizenry of Cloud City broke into an uproar. People began running for exits.

Dengar finished his drink, stood, and noted to the empty air, “It seems that everywhere I go lately, people are evacuating.”

Stormtroopers appeared at one door on the mezzanine above him. Someone, perhaps an undercover security guard or a patron of the casino, pulled a heavy blaster, and a firefight erupted.

Dengar glanced out the window. Boba Fett’s ship was arcing off through the clouds, and Dengar knew intuitively that the bounty hunter would not have left without his prey.

He cursed under his breath, watching the tail fire of Boba Fett’s ship. It seemed that that was all he ever saw of Han Solo.

The firefight at the far end of the room was becoming rather heated, and smoke now filled the air.

Dengar sighed, looked at his chronometer. The port authorities may have had time to fix his ship, but he doubted it. The new engines were probably laid in, but he doubted that all of the electronic connections were made. He got up, stretched, decided to go search for Manaroo.

He rushed through a curtain of shimmering lights, found himself in a corridor that led to a larger room.

In it, two stormtroopers stood guard over half a dozen performers who sat on the floor, hands clasped over their heads. Manaroo was with them.

Dengar called to the stormtroopers, “Excuse me, gentleman, but the dancer is coming with me.”

The stormtroopers swiveled their heavy blasters toward Dengar, and one shouted, “Put your hands on your head.”

Dengar watched them for a half a second, then took one step to his left, pulled his blaster, and killed both men.

“Make me,” he said, as they dropped to the ground.

Manaroo sat on the floor, mouth wide in shock. Dengar went to her, took her hand, and pulled her to her feet. The other performers scurried off without any urging.

“Let’s get out of here while we still can,” Dengar grunted.

“Where to?” she stammered.

“Tatooine,” Dengar said. “Boba Fett is taking Han Solo to Tatooine.”

Fortunately, when Dengar reached the repair docks, his ship was already out of the repair bay and sat gleaming on the launch field. The dockmaster had gone beyond repairing the ship, and had actually cleaned the exterior, filling the micrometeor pits and applying a fresh coat of protective paint. Too bad no one was here to collect for the repairs.

Unfortunately, half a dozen stormtroopers sat at the launch pad beside a light cannon. Dengar and Manaroo were hiding in a repair hangar, behind an old freighter. The sounds of fighting and explosions echoed all around Cloud City.

Dengar watched the stormtroopers all positioned in a tight knot, and grumbled to himself, “This is what grenades are for.” These must have been fresh troops, lacking basic training.

He reached into the leg pouch on his body armor, pulled a grenade, armed it, and hurled it twenty meters till it popped a stormtrooper on the helmet and exploded.

At the sounds of running feet, Dengar looked down a side passage. Several stormtroopers, in company with Darth Vader, ran past in an adjoining corridor.

Instinctively, Dengar ducked. He really didn’t want to draw attention to himself.

When the stormtroopers passed, he took Manaroo’s hand, rushed to his ship, and in half a moment, blasted off through the clouds.

Signal jammers were screaming all across the spectrum, and Dengar couldn’t get a fix on any other vessels in the area, but his rear viewer showed a trio of TIE fighters swooping down from a towering cloud behind him.

Dengar dove into the cover of a nearby cloud, spiraled