Star Wars_ The Han Solo Trilogy 01_ The Paradise Snare - A. C. Crispin [6]
“No, I won’t leave you!” Han replied, clutching her harder. Tears blurred his vision, and she swam below him in a sea of brown fur. “I don’t care if I get away! Oh, Dewlanna …”
Making a great effort, she raised a huge, furred paw-hand and grasped his arm. Han had to struggle to translate her speech. “I know,” he choked, talking aloud so she’d know he understood her. “I know you care about me …” she rumbled again, “as much as you do your own children.”
Han swallowed, his throat tight and aching. “I … I feel the same way, Dewlanna. You’re the closest thing to a mother I’ll ever have.”
A long moan of anguish made her shudder. She rumbled at him again. “No,” Han insisted. “I’m not leaving you. I’ll stay with you till … till …” He couldn’t finish the sentence.
Dewlanna grabbed his arm with a ghost of her old strength and growled at him urgently. “If I …” Han was having trouble comprehending her slurred speech, “if I die … nothing? Oh, you’re saying that if I don’t live, you’ll have died for nothing?”
She nodded, her eyes in their nest of hair holding his with all the intensity she could muster. Han shook his head stubbornly. How could he abandon her to die alone?
Dewlanna rumbled softly, faintly. “Yeah, I’m sure you’ll be safe, one with the life-power,” Han said, trying to sound sincere. He knew some Wookiees believed in a unifying power that bound all of existence together. Personally, he thought this power—he’d never been able to translate the term accurately, the Wookiee word could have meant “strength,” or “force,” too—that Dewlanna believed in so steadfastly was just superstition.
But if it comforted her to believe in it during her dying moments, Han wasn’t going to argue with her. He remembered the words she’d said to him several times. “Dewlanna, may the life-power be with you …” For a moment he wished that he, too, could believe …
She moaned with pain. Han could see she was going fast. Then Dewlanna rumbled feebly, and again he automatically translated. “Your last request …” He choked, barely able to get the words out, “You want me … to go … to live. And to be … happy.”
Han struggled not to break down. “Okay,” he agreed. “I’ll go. I still have time to get aboard that robot ship before it takes off.”
Dewlanna whined faintly.
“I promise,” he agreed, his voice ragged. “I’ll go now. And I swear I’ll always remember you, Dewlanna.”
She was beyond speech now, but he was sure she’d heard him. He laid her gently on the deck, then rose and picked up the blaster. Then, after giving Dewlanna one final look, Han turned and raced out the door.
His running feet resounded through the corridors of Trader’s Luck; the time was past for stealth. He had to reach the docking bay, and that robot Ylesian freighter! Han had no idea when it was due to blast away from the Luck, but the loading schedule posted for the space dock workers had listed it as being ready for blastoff as soon as the droids finished fueling. And when he’d swiped the spacesuit and hidden it, they’d just started that process.
The Ylesian Dream might be leaving any moment!
Gasping, Han sprinted for the lock, his feet thudding along the decks that had been his playground ever since he was old enough to remember. In the distance, he could hear sleepy voices, interspersed with shouts and orders.
I can’t let them catch me. Shrike will kill me. The certainty lent speed to his flying feet.
He skidded around the final turn and grabbed the spacesuit he’d hidden behind some fueling equipment. The helmet flopped over his arm, banging him in the midsection as he hastily keyed in the code he’d stolen into the airlock door.
Seconds passed. The sounds of pursuit were growing louder. But surely they’d think he was headed for the shuttle deck or even the lifepods. Nobody