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“So why’d you break up?” Han wanted to know.

“Life aboard a pirate vessel is … interesting,” Lando said. “But a little too … coarse … for my taste.”

Han, eyeing his friend’s dandified clothes, nodded. “I’ll bet.”

Lando sobered. “But, hey … Drea and I parted friends,” he added. “These last few months I needed … I was …” he shrugged, obviously uncomfortable. “Well, Drea came along at a good time. I was … Well, it was nice having the company.”

Han eyed his friend. “You mean you missed Vuffi Raa?”

“Well … how can you miss a droid? But … you know, Han, he was really a companion. There were times I didn’t even think of him as mechanical. I’d gotten used to having the little guy around, you know? So when the little vacuum cleaner went off with his kinfolk, I did find myself actually … missing him.”

Han thought about what it would be like to lose Chewie, and could only nod in silent agreement.

The two sat quietly for a moment, sipping their drinks, enjoying the companionship. Finally Han fought back a yawn, and stood up. “Gotta get some sleep,” he said. “Tomorrow’s going to be a big day.”

“See you at the tables,” Lando said, and they parted.

Sabacc is an ancient game, dating back to the early days of the Old Republic. Of all the games of chance, sabacc is the most complex, the most unpredictable, the most thrilling—and the most heartbreaking.

The game is played with a deck of seventy-six card-chips. The value of any card-chip can alter throughout the game at random intervals, via electronic impulses transmitted by the “randomizer.” In less than a second, a winning hand can change to a “bomb out.”

There are four suits in the deck: sabers, staves, flasks and coins. Numbered cards range from positive one to positive eleven, and there are four cards of “rank:” the Commander, the Mistress, the Master and the Ace, with numerical values of positive twelve to fifteen.

Sixteen face cards complete the deck, two of each type, with assorted zero or negative values: the Idiot, the Queen of Air and Darkness, Endurance, Balance, Demise, Moderation, the Evil One and the Star.

There are two different pots. The first, the hand pot, is awarded to the winner of each hand. In order to win the hand pot, a player must have the highest card total that is less than or equal to twenty-three—either positive or negative. In case of a tie, positive card value beat negative card value.

The other pot, the sabacc pot, is the “game” pot, and can only be won in two ways—with a pure sabacc—that is, card-chips totaling exactly twenty-three, or an idiots array, consisting of one of the Idiot face cards, plus a two, and a three—literally, 23—of any suit.

In the center of the table is an interference field. As the rounds of bluffing and betting proceed, sabacc players can “freeze” the value of a card by placing it into the interference field.

The Cloud City Sabacc Tournament had attracted over one hundred high-rollers from worlds all over the galaxy. Rodians, Twi’leks, Sullustans, Bothans, Devaronians, humans … all these and more were represented at the gaming tables. The tournament would last for four intensive days of play. Each day, roughly half of the players would be eliminated. The number of tables would dwindle, until only one table remained, where the best of the best would compete during that last hand.

Stakes were high. Winners stood a good chance of walking away with two or three times the ten-thousand-credit buy-in—or even more.

Sabacc was not traditionally a spectator sport the way mag-ball or null-gee polo was, but, since only players were allowed in the tournament hall, the hotel had arranged a huge holo-projection lounge for those who wished to watch the tournament. Companions of players, hangers-on, eliminated players and other interested sentients wandered in and out of the lounge, keeping an eye on the tournament, silently rooting for his, her or its favorite to win.

There was a ranking list displayed beside the holo, IDing the players, and showing the progress of the play. On this, the second day of the tournament, about