Star Wars_ The Black Fleet Crisis 03_ Tyrant's Test - Michael P. Kube-McDowell [16]
[Thank you, cousin.] Jowdrrl closed her tool kit and turned to face him. [I hope that that means you will accept me as your partner on the journey you are about to begin.]
[Do not talk foolish talk.]
[I know by what Malla has said that you will face an enemy as fearsome as the webweaver, and more vicious than the gundark. You should not go alone, and you need not go alone.]
[No,] Chewbacca snarled curtly, turning and clambering down the access ladder to the main deck.
[We are family—the life debt to Han Solo does not stop with you,] said Jowdrrl, following closely behind. [And you do not have enough hands. What can you do alone to help him?]
Chewbacca had reached the cockpit by then and slipped into the pilot’s seat. Turning on the ion coil preheaters, he began running through the Falcon’s streamlined preflight procedures. [You have three minutes to collect your belongings from the crew quarters and leave the ship.]
[Aren’t you going to talk to Malla before you lift?] Jowdrrl said, gesturing sideways.
Chewbacca glanced in the direction of Jowdrrl’s gesture. He saw Malla, Shoran, and Dryanta standing together on the landing platform, looking up at the cockpit. Dryanta and Shoran were wearing hunting bandoliers instead of baldrics, and a pair of tough-shelled tree bags were lying on the ground at their feet.
With a fiercely impatient growl, Chewbacca clambered out of the pilot’s seat and half ran to the boarding ramp.
[What is this?] he demanded over the rising whine of the Falcon’s idlers.
[The rest of your crew,] said Malla.
Shoran grinned brightly and drew himself up to attention. [The First Wookiee Expeditionary Force, reporting for duty.]
[Malla told us that you’re going straight to Koornacht,] said Dryanta. [We can’t let you go alone. We’re here to help.]
Chewbacca looked to his wife. [You can’t ask them to risk their lives on my debt.]
[I did not have to ask them,] said Mallatobuck. [I only had to tell them why you are going and what you face.]
[It was our idea,] Shoran said, reaching down and shouldering his well-stuffed bag. [And you can’t deny us this hunt without risking betrayal of your debt—if you go alone and fail, you will have no honor.]
Behind Chewbacca, the hiss of injectors and the clicking of compressors told him that Jowdrrl was continuing the Falcon’s preflight without his assistance.
[I never wanted any of my family to have to fight again,] said Chewbacca. [I am honor-bound. If I must, I will give my life for my friend. But I will not give yours.]
[My life is not yours to offer,] said Dryanta. [It is mine. And I pledge it to you, my cousin, and to your friend.]
[You cannot refuse us without shaming us, cousin,] added Shoran. [Jowdrrl, too.]
[Go, then, and get aboard,] he said, shooting an annoyed look at his wife. They hastened toward the ship, leaving Chewbacca alone with his Malla. [Your cleverness could cost our family their lives.]
[Or save yours,] Malla said. [I am at peace with my choice.]
Chewbacca seized her in a firm embrace, and they growled with fierce affection into each other’s shoulder fur. Then the high whistle of the thrust vents called him toward the ship, telling him that it was ready to lift. But a new voice called him back.
[Father—]
Chewbacca turned and saw Lumpawarrump standing in the wooden arch of the landing platform entryway. He was wearing his bowcaster and carrying the freshly camouflaged tree bag he had taken on his aborted journey of ascendance.
[We will finish your tests when I return,] Chewbacca called.
Lumpawarrump drew closer with tentative steps. [Take me with you. You have already broken with tradition once. I ask you to do so again.]
Malla cried out a protest, but Chewbacca silenced her with a warning gesture as he crossed the platform to where his son stood.
[Why?] Chewbacca demanded. [Why do you ask this?]
[I will be neither child nor adult until you return—I do not belong in the nursery