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Both Jiliac and Jabba had personal space yachts. Han discovered that each of them had sizable holdings on other worlds than Nal Hutta—matter of fact, Jiliac was the de facto ruler of Dilbana, and Jabba was the top crime lord on a backwater world called Tatooine.

One day Han and Chewie were called upon to pilot Jabba’s personal yacht, the Star Jewel, to Tatooine. Han would’ve rather hauled spice, frankly. Jabba was temperamental and used to getting his own way, and made a demanding, irascible passenger. Han was glad that the Hutt had brought several of his personal servants along to tend to him, so that all he, Han, had to do was pilot the ship.

Foremost among Jabba’s entourage was a Twi’lek valet named Lobb Gerido. Jabba treated Gerido terribly, ordering him around, snapping at him, and insulting him. Han was just glad that he didn’t have to put up with that sort of thing. Jabba’s entourage also included several humanoid dancing girls, a nalargon player nicknamed “Whizz-Bang” and Jabba’s and Jiliac’s chef from their residence on Nar Shaddaa, an Ishi Tib named Totoplat.

The purpose of Jabba’s voyage was to transport a “pet” he’d recently acquired to his palace on Tatooine. The thing was a nightmare—slashing claws, a huge suckerlike mouth, and an insatiable appetite. Han discovered it was called an Oskan blood eater. Han’s stomach turned over the one time he watched its keeper feed it. The entire hold area stank from the creature’s occupation. It was a messy eater, and its effluvia was enough to gag a Corellian corpse-grub.

The yacht was a big ship, a Ubrikkian cruiser. It was fast, powered by a pair of Ubrikkian N2 ion engines, with auxiliary power provided by three smaller Kuat T-c40 ion engines. It was also well shielded and heavily armed with six turbolasers. In its docking bay was space for six Z-95 Headhunter fighters, as well as two small landing shuttles.

This trip, as happened frequently, Star Jewel was down to two Headhunters, with two pilots to crew them. The little fighters were tough, but they had no hyperdrive, and Jabba was known to order them deployed as a rear guard while he took off into hyperspace. Jabba was tough on Headhunters and their pilots.

Tatooine was a remote world, back of beyond, and Han had to make several hyperspace jumps to reach it. His next-to-last jump put him into a little-traveled spacelane, but it was the most direct route to Tatooine.

That’s where the pirate ships were waiting for them. Four Drell teardrop-shaped vessels, sleek and shining, small but deadly. Han had faced their like before, when he’d been piloting for the Ylesians. The moment he saw them his mental alarm bells went off. Pirates!?! They could be! Better to be safe than sorry …

“Chewie, shields on maximum!” Han snapped, sending the yacht into an evasive maneuvering pattern while his copilot adjusted their deflectors to maximum strength. Han flipped on the comm unit. “Attention! Gunnery crew, stand ready! We may be seeing some action!” He switched frequencies. “Headhunter pilots, report to your snubs! This is not a drill!”

Even as the words left his mouth, the closest ship spat a salvo of quad laser fire at them. I was right! Han mentally congratulated himself. Thanks to his caution, the Drell ship’s fire went wide.

The ships were only a third the size of Jabba’s massive space yacht, but their quad laser cannons spat deadly bursts at the bigger ship as they rushed in at top speed. They were so small they were going to be difficult to hit. Han banked the Star Jewel around and yelled, “Gunnery crew … fire at will!”

Even as the crews manning the yacht’s six heavy turbolasers began returning fire, Han switched to another comm frequency. “Attention, passengers and crew—we are under attack! Prepare for evasive maneuvers. Activate your restraint systems.”

Beside him Chewie was performing his job ably, leaving the piloting mostly to Han, but busy balancing and distributing power to their shields, monitoring the ship’s status, checking on how much