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This is what it is to be human, he realized. To sit and know that on the far side of the galaxy, someone is in pain, someone hurts, and so it is my duty to go to them, regardless of the cost or risk, in order to free them from pain.

It was a way of knowing that Dengar had too long found—inaccessible, so much so that he’d forgotten that it existed.

Over the past months, as he’d hunted for Han Solo, Dengar had often puzzled over the trail. His nemesis would sometimes turn from an obvious route, such as an easy escape from the Empire, to rush headlong into battle. Such puzzling actions made it almost impossible for Dengar to calculate Solo’s next move, for one never knew whether Solo would charge a battalion or strafe a Star Destroyer. It was rumored that on one occasion, Han Solo had had the audacity to call the Emperor, accusing him of dire crimes and challenging him to a boxing match! Dengar had doubted the rumor at the time, for it seemed so illogical, but now, he reconsidered.

Finally Dengar saw why his race to capture Solo had been so fruitless: Han Solo had a conscience, and like a navicomputer it guided him on a certain course, a course that Dengar could not have hoped to understand—until now.

“You and your Attanni could come in very handy,” Dengar said, and he explained what he had just learned. “With you, perhaps I’d have had a chance at catching Han Solo.”

“And what would you do with him, then?” Manaroo whispered.

Dengar considered. With a conscience, perhaps his work would also be hampered. Certainly, in his early years, he’d have spared some of the targets the Empire had him destroy. “I can’t be sure,” Dengar said.

“When next you meet him,” Manaroo said, slipping the Attanni into his palm, “Let’s find out.”

Dengar began punching in new instructions on his navicomputer. “First, we must go to Aruza, and get your parents.”

• • •

Dengar finally returned to Tatooine. In the meantime, with the aid of Manaroo he posed as an Imperial Intelligence officer who was arranging to remove a large number of Aruzan diplomats to a “more secure facility.”

With the help of the Rebel Alliance, he managed to steal a huge Imperial prison barge, large enough to remove a hundred thousand people from the planet, and he’d manned the ship with the appropriate Corrections officers, torturers, and other staff.

It took little effort for the Rebel Alliance to send false orders for the new COMPNOR base commander to begin extracting prisoners and shuttling them up to the barge.

The Imperial officers were well-trained, and brought up prisoners as fast as they were called for.

Only once did anyone question Dengar—who had remained aloof from the dirty work and had stayed aboard his barge during the whole mission, personally “managing the incarceration.”

When the new COMPNOR base commander called on holovid just before Dengar’s departure, asking Dengar where the prisoners were being taken, Dengar just fixed the man with an icy glare and said, “You don’t really want to know, do you?”

There were rampant rumors of soft politicians, technological geniuses, and pacifist industrialists who had disappeared from across the galaxy. It was said that prudent men didn’t delve into such matters. The COMPNOR base commander fumbled for a quick apology.

Dengar flipped off the holovid with feigned disdain.

When Dengar’s ship reached Tatooine, it landed in a dusty port called Mos Eisley, a city at the edge of a desert where twin suns burned vehemently.

They landed at midday, when the city was perhaps its quietest, and Dengar led Manaroo to a small cantina where moisture farmers and criminals seemed to have gathered in equal numbers.

Dengar went to speak privately with some old acquaintances, and in a matter of minutes he confirmed that Han Solo was still alive, kept prisoner at Jabba’s palace. He left Manaroo with a few credit chips and said, “I’ll be back when I’m back,” then he took a rented swoop to Jabba’s palace.

That night, Manaroo returned to the cantina while it was busy and made a few credits dancing. Dengar had exhausted his wealth over