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Bollux recovered somewhat, only to find that in the position in which the Wookiee was holding him, he could do little to exert any force of his own. What he could and did do was grasp the corner of the inspection plate and swing it over on its pivot, something Chewbacca hadn’t a free limb to accomplish. It almost jammed halfway, but with a final tug the ’droid cleared it. Once it was past that point the airflow caught it and hauled it shut with a ringing alarm. Fortunately none of the Wookiee’s fingers or toes were poised on the lip of the opening.

The depressurization was confined to one small compartment for the time being. How serious that was remained to be seen. Chewbacca wanted to lie on the deck and catch his breath for a moment but knew he didn’t have the time. He squirted thick, gluey sealant all around the inspection plate, then paused long enough to pat Bollux’s cranium with a gruff compliment.

“It was Max who brought the inspection plate to my attention,” said the ’droid modestly. Then he hauled himself to his feet and trailed off after Chewbacca, who had already dashed off toward the cockpit.

There, Spray was engaged in an uncertain contest with the controls. “We retain considerable guidance function,” he reported, “and I’ve put us on an approach path to the planet’s only spaceport. I was about to alert them for an emergency landing under crash conditions.”

The Wookiee loudly countermanded that plan, dropping into his outsized copilot seat. He, like Han, shunned involvement, and the consequent fuss or furor, that could possibly be avoided. He found that the controls responded adequately and thought he stood a good chance of landing the freighter without sirens, crash wagons, stop-netting, firefighting robos, and ten thousand official questions.

Already in Ammuud’s upper atmosphere, he brought the ship onto a steady approach path. Her hyperspace drive seemed to have suffered damage, but the rest of her guidance system responded within tolerance.

Bollux, who had just caught up, came up next to Chewbacca, his panels open. “I think there’s something you should know, sir. Blue Max just ran a quick check at the tech station. The damage has stabilized, but some of the filament tubing for the guidance systems has been exposed; its housing was cracked.”

“Will it blow?” Spray asked. Below them, they could make out features of the terrain quite clearly. Ammuud was a world of immense forests and oceans with rather large polar ice caps.

Max answered. “It’s not a question of blowing out, Spray; they’re secure, but they’re delicate low-pressure filaments. Going too deep into the planet’s atmosphere will implode them.”

“You mean we can’t land?” Spray blinked.

“No,” Bollux replied calmly. “He merely means that we can’t land too deep in Ammuud’s—”

The starship gave a convulsive shudder.

“Be careful!” squawked the skip-tracer to Chewbacca. “This vessel is still in lien to Interstellar Collections Limited!”

Chewbacca gave out a vociferous growl. One of the control filaments had imploded, the planet’s atmosphere having overcome the lesser pressure within it. The Wookiee snarled. Working to bypass the line, he had one bit of luck in that he could cut the ship’s speed back to a very gentle descent.

“—atmosphere,” Bollux finished.

“How deep is that?” Spray asked urgently. The Terrain Following Sensors had already shown them the planet’s spaceport at the foot of a high mountain range.

“Not very much lower at all, sir,” commented Bollux in neutral tones.

The Wookiee pulled the Falcon’s bow higher and reset the Terrain Following Sensors to display the features of the mountain range beyond Ammuud’s spaceport. His plan was clear; since he couldn’t set down in the lower atmosphere, he would find as suitable a site as he could in the higher mountains and hope that the lower air pressure there wouldn’t collapse the rest of the guidance system before he could set the ship down. He waved a shaggy paw at Bollux and Spray, indicating the passageway.