• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

When he had the other man’s weapon, Han let him ascend, then made him shuck his tool belt. Patting him down and finding no other weapons, Han motioned for him to move into the lounge, then called up the ladderwell for Atuarre to come down from the ship’s top quad-mount.

He kept one eye on Torm, who was staring in shock at Rekkon’s body. “Where’s her cub?” he asked the man quietly.

The redhead shrugged. “Rekkon told Pakka to look around for a medi-pack. You weren’t the only one who was injured along the way. The cub went off to rummage around. I guess when you yelled for everyone to stay put and hang on, he did.” He looked back to Rekkon, as if he couldn’t fathom the fact of the man’s death. “Who did it, Solo? You?”

“No. And the list of possibilities is awfully short.” He heard Atuarre’s light tread on the rungs and covered her as she came down the ladderwell.

The Trianni’s features became a mask of feline hatred. “You dare point a weapon at me?”

“Gag it. Toss your gun out here, careful, then step out and drop the tool belt. Somebody’s killed Rekkon, and it could be you as easy as anyone. So don’t push me. I’m not telling you twice.”

Her eyes were wide now, the news of Rekkon’s death appearing to shock her out of her fury. But how can I tell if it’s real or an act? Han asked himself.

When he had them both in the forward compartment, he still found he couldn’t pick up anything but shock and dismay. Theirs, at least, served to prod him out of his own.

A clanking on the deckplates marked Bollux’s arrival from the cockpit. Han didn’t look around until he heard the urgency in the ’droid’s voice.

“Captain!”

Han whirled, dropping to one knee, blaster up. Beyond the cockpit offshoot from the passageway crouched the cub, Pakka, his small pistol held in one paw-hand, a medi-pack swinging from the other. He seemed to be wavering indecisively.

“He thinks you’re threatening me!” Atuarre rasped, moving toward her cub. Han swung his blaster to cover her and looked back to the cub. “Tell the kid to drop it and come to you, Atuarre. Do it!”

She did, and the cub, shifting his wide eyes between Han and his mother, obeyed.

Torm took the medi-pack from the cub and handed it to Han. Still covering his passengers, Han moved to an acceleration chair and opened the pack with his free hand. He held the nozzle of an irrigation bulb against his forehead injury, then wiped at it with a disinfectant pad.

Putting the medi-pack down, he took up the three confiscated weapons, put them aside, and confronted Torm, Atuarre, and Pakka. His mind ran in circles. How to tell who had done it? They’d each had a weapon, and time. Either Pakka had doubled back from his search, or one of the others had left his turret long enough to murder. Han almost regretted not having exchanged fire with the Shannador’s Revenge; at least he’d have known if either of the quad-mounts was untended.

Atuarre and Torm were trading suspicious looks now.

“Rekkon told me,” Torm was saying, “that he took you and the cub on against his better judgment.”

“Me?” she shrilled. “What about you?” She turned to Han. “Or, for that matter, you?”

That shook him. “Sister, I’m the one who got you out of there, remember? Besides, how could I lift off and shoot Rekkon at the same time? And anyway, Bollux was with me.” Han rummaged again in the medi-pack, dug out a patch of synth-flesh, and pressed it over his injury, his mind in a turmoil.

“That all could’ve been done by computer, Solo, or you could have killed him just before I came down,” Torm said. “And what good’s a ’droid for a witness? You’re the one pointing the blaster around, hotshot.”

Han, pushing the medi-pack aside, replied, “I’ll tell you what: you’re all, all three of you, going to keep an eye on one another, and I’m going to be the only one with a gun. If anybody has the wrong look on his face, it’s going to be all over for him. You’re all fair game, understand?”

Atuarre moved to the gameboard. “I’ll help you with Rekkon.”

“Keep your hands off him,” Torm shouted. “It was either you or that