Star Wars_ The Han Solo Adventures - Brian Daley [249]
They gathered their gear and moved on. At the end of the next corridor was a metal wall bearing a Wookiee-high representation of Xim’s death’s-head symbol. Chewbacca lifted the fusion cutter to it and began slicing, splitting the insignia in two amid flying, flashing motes. Then he began carving in earnest. Heat washed back across him.
In short order there was a wide opening in the door. Beyond, bathed in the glow of illumi-panels that had been keeping the place bright for generations, was the glittering of gems, the gleam of metals, piles of strongboxes, and racks of storage cylinders in warehouse-sized shelf stacks that stretched from floor to high ceiling and away into the distance as far as they could see.
And this was only the first of the treasure rooms.
Skynx was quiet, almost reverent. He had made the find of a lifetime, a discovery out of daydreams. Badure and Hasti remained solemn, too, as they considered the size and wealth of the place, the impact it would have on their lives, and the memory of what they had gone through to stand here.
Not so Han and Chewbacca. The pilot jumped through the gap in the door, wounded arm held to him by a traction web. “We did it! We did it!” he shouted in glee. The Wookiee lurched after him, tossing his long-maned head back with an ecstatic “Rooo-oo!” They slapped each other, laughter echoing away into the piles of treasure. Chewbacca’s huge feet slapped the floors in a thumping victory dance as Han laughed in joy.
Skynx and Badure had gone to open containers with Bollux’s help, to examine Xim’s spoils. Chewbacca offered to assist them. “Spread it out here!” Han enjoined him. “I want to roll around in it!”
He paused when he noticed Hasti nearby, eyeing him strangely. “I always wondered what you’d be like,” she told him, “when you found your big win, you and the Wook. What now?”
Han still rode the wave of elation. “What now? Why, we’ll, we’ll—” He stopped, giving the subject some serious thought for the first time. “We’ll pay off our debts, get ourselves a first-class ship and crew, uh …”
Hasti nodded to herself. “And settle down, Han?” she asked softly. “Buy a planet, or take over a few conglomerates and live the life of a good man of business?” She shook her head slowly. “Your problems are just beginning, rich man.”
His joy was receding fast, replaced by a tangled knot of doubts, plans, the need for forethought and mature wisdom. But before he could berate Hasti for being a spoilsport, he heard Chewbacca’s angry roar.
The Wookiee held a metallic ingot, frowning at it in disgust. He dumped a handful of them onto the floor in a chiming avalanche and gave the pile a kick that sent ingots skittering every which way. Han forgot Hasti and went to his friend. “What is it?”
Chewbacca explained with frustrated grunts and moans. Han picked up one of the ingots and saw that his copilot was right. “This stuff’s kiirium! You can get it anywhere; Skynx, what’s it doing in with the treasure?”
The small academician had located a vault-directory screen at the end of the nearest shelf stack, an old televiewer mounted on a low stand. He brought it to flickering life, and columns of ciphers and characters raced across the screen as Skynx answered distractedly.
“There would seem to be a great deal of it here, Captain. And a huge quantity of mytag crystalline vertices and mountains of enriched bordhell-type fuel slugs, among other things.”
“Mytag crystals?” Han repeated in puzzlement. “They run those things off by the carload; what kind of treasure’s this? Where’s the real treasure?”
A belly laugh distracted him. Badure had found a canister of the mytag crystal and flung a double handful into the air. The crystals rained down around him, catching the light, as he convulsed in laughter. “This is it! Or was, an age ago. Don’t you see, Slick? Kiirium is artificial shielding material, not very good by modern standards but a major breakthrough