Star Wars_ The Han Solo Trilogy 03_ Rebel Dawn - A. C. Crispin [24]
Chewie went on to explain that the language Han had just heard him speak, xaczik, was a traditional tribal language spoken by the Wookiees indigenous to the Wartaki island and several outlying coastal regions. It was seldom heard, since Shyriiwook was the common language of trade and travel. So, when the Imperials had taken over Kashyyyk, the Wookiee underground had adopted xaczik as their “code” language. They used it whenever they had to give directives or pass along information that they didn’t want the Imperials finding out about.
Han nodded. “Okay, pal. You just tell me how to fly, and where, and I’ll take us where your buddies in the underground tell me.”
Flying low, skimming barely above, and, at times, between the tip-top branches of the wroshyr trees, Han sent the Falcon blasting along in the precise course and speed Chewie specified. Every minute or so, the Wookiee conferred with his underground contact.
Finally, as they neared Chewie’s hometown, Rwookrrorro, a kilometer-wide city set on platforms made by crisscrossing branches of the wroshyrs, Han’s copilot made him shear off in a dangerous swoop and take them straight down between the branches for a thirty-second plunge. Han’s heart was in his mouth as the Falcon dived like its namesake into the green forest, but Chewie’s coordinates were right on the credits.
Even though it looked through the viewport as though they were going to be engulfed and smashed to flinders, nothing touched the ship. Chewie barked an order, and Han shouted, “Hard to port … now!”
He sent the Falcon into a screaming left turn, then, before him, saw something that the Corellian at first took to be a huge cave, a vast black hole waiting to swallow them up.
But as he neared it, Han realized that what it was in actuality was a massive wroshyr branch, balanced across other equally huge branches. Either by accident or design, the branch had split off from the main tree, and been hollowed out, to form a “cave” the size of a small Imperial docking bay.
“You want me to land in there?” Han hollered at the Wookiee. “What if we don’t fit?”
Chewie’s snarled comment assured Han that of course they would fit.
Han fired his braking thrusters hard as he neared the “cave” opening. They passed through it, and suddenly the muted sunlight was gone, and the space before them was revealed only by the Falcon’s infrared sensors and the beams of the landing lights.
Han killed the last of their forward motion, then lowered them onto their landing struts, using his repulsors.
Moments after they touched down, Jarik appeared in the doorway of the cockpit. The youth’s hair was practically standing on end. “Han, you’re crazier than I thought! That landing—!”
“Shut up, kid,” Han snapped. Chewie was howling at him insistently, demanding that Han immediately turn off all power in the Falcon except for the batteries to power the airlocks, and to do it now!
“Okay, okay,” Han muttered, doing as he was told. “Keep your fur on.…” Quickly he killed all the power, save for the batteries. The interior of the ship was now lit only by the weak, red-tinted emergency lights.
“So, want to tell me just what is going on?” the Corellian grumbled. “Fly here, turn there, land here, turn off the power … good thing I’m a sweet-natured guy who learned to take orders while I was in the Navy. So what gives?”
Chewbacca urgently beckoned the humans to follow him. The Wookiee seemed nearly beside himself with excitement. He roared his pleasure and his eagerness to breathe the air of his homeworld.
Outside, something clanged against the Falcon’s new armor-plating. “Hey!” Han yelled, jumping up and elbowing his hairy friend out of the way, “watch it, that’s my hull!”
Hitting the “open ramp” release, Han raced down the ramp, then stopped in wonder. When he’d first flown into the “cave” it had seemed a tight fit, but now he realized the