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“Who’s that?” Han asked Zeen.

“Wynni,” the senior smuggler replied with a wink and a leer.

Han and Chewbacca watched as the Wookiee came over to them. She growled a throaty greeting at Chewie, totally ignoring his human companion. Then she reached out one hairy paw and ran it admiringly down Chewbacca’s long arm.

Han turned to Zeen. “I think she likes him,” he said dryly, in Basic.

“Looks like,” Zeen agreed. “I think your buddy there is bein’ offered what you weren’t, pal. ’Cept he don’t look any too happy about it.”

The craggy-faced smuggler was correct. Chewbacca looked around wildly as the female Wookiee pressed up close to him, growling suggestively.

Catching Han’s eye, Chewie shook his head in a slight but emphatic movement. Han took pity on his friend. “Hey, Chewie,” he said loudly, “we gotta go.”

Wynni turned around and snarled at him. Clearly, she didn’t like having her seduction attempt interfered with. Han looked at her and shrugged. “Sorry,” he said. “We’ve got somewhere we have to be. A previous engagement.”

Wynni plainly didn’t believe him. She growled low in her throat.

Han realized that they were drawing a crowd. Kid DXo’ln, Zeen’s balding friend, stepped forward. “It ain’t polite to accuse people of lyin’, Wynni,” he told the Wookiee. “Han here is tellin’ the truth. I just signed him and his Wookiee pal on to ride as copilot and gunner to Kessel aboard the Starfire. Matter of fact, my droids should be finished loadin’ our cargo by now, Solo. Let’s go.”

Han smiled sweetly at Wynni and shrugged, with a “What can you do?” expression. Chewbacca didn’t bother trying to hide how glad he was to get away from the predatory female.

As they headed up the corridor toward Skip 1’s landing bay, Han gave Kid a grateful smile. “Thanks,” he said. “For a while it looked like I wasn’t going to be able to get Chewie out of there without making her mad.”

Kid DXo’ln grinned. “Yeah, and upsettin’ a lovestruck Wookiee ain’t exactly a smart thing to do. So, what do you want to do now? You actually up for going on to Kessel with me?”

“Sure,” Han said. “I’ve always wanted to go to Kessel. Are you going on the Run after you off-load your cargo there?”

“I don’t know,” Kid replied. “Maybe, if there’s a cargo waitin’ for me to pick up. But there’s bound to be somebody you can catch up with who’ll take you on the Run.”

Han had heard of the Kessel Run, that ultimate test of a smuggler pilot’s expertise. Traveling the Kessel Run allowed a pilot to shortcut across a large, uninhabited area of space that would otherwise have taken a vessel two days or more to skirt. But the direct route from Kessel back to the standard trade routes lay perilously close to the Maw, a massive collection of black holes that distorted both space and time. Many a ship had been lost to the Maw, lost with all hands.

Once they were safely aboard the Starfire, Kid waved a hand at the controls. “I hear you’re pretty good, Solo. Want to try takin’ her through the field?”

Han nodded, his mouth suddenly dry. Remembering Zeen’s advice, he forced himself to head confidently into the field, instead of holding back. He remembered stories told by the pilots who’d been aboard Trader’s Luck that indicated Zeen had been right—most asteroid fields could be navigated by someone with steely nerves and quick reflexes. Holding his breath, Han sent the beat-up little freighter skittering from side to side, not slacking off on their speed.

Kid sat back in the pilot’s seat and just watched. Only once did he interfere, and that was to increase the ship’s acceleration a notch, to avoid a smaller asteroid that was orbiting a larger one. The bigger asteroid had hidden its small companion. The Starfire zipped by so close that the deflector shields activated and the ship shuddered in protest. But they avoided the impact.

Han bit his lip when the chunk of rock, half the size of the ship, tumbled away behind him. “Sorry, Kid. I should’ve seen it.”

“No way