• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

Han had slapped his friend on the back with almost Wookiee force. “Hey, congratulations, Chewie! You’re a dad!”

After a few minutes to admire the baby (whom even Han had to admit was awfully cute), Han wandered into Malla’s kitchen to give Chewie some time alone with his family. He dug around in the refrigeration unit and found some odds and ends of things to munch on, pleased that Malla had told him to make himself at home.

As he sat there, listening to Chewie and Malla discuss names for their son in the next room, Han’s thoughts wandered back to the Corporate Sector and the Tion Hegemony, and all the adventures he’d had there. He wasn’t coming home rich, that was for sure … but he hadn’t done too badly, he decided.

And he’d certainly met a host of memorable individuals—some good, most not. Of course there had been the lovely ladies … Jessa, Fiolla … and Hasti.…

Han smiled, remembering.

And then there had been the bad guys. The ones who had tried to stiff him out of credits, or, worse, tried to snuff him like a candle. Quite a host of them … Ploooo Two-for-One, Hirken, Zlarb, Magg, Spray … and Gallandra. That was one tough fellow, Gallandro. Be fun to watch him in a free-for-all against Boba Fett, weapons being equal. Gallandro could probably outdraw the bounty hunter … but Fett’s armor would give him some protection.…

Han couldn’t decide which of them would win. And speculation was moot, after all, since Gallandro had been reduced to a pile of charred meat and bone back on Dellalt, in Xim’s “treasure” vaults.

It had been fun running into Roa and Badure. He’d have to remember to tell Mako that Badure had sent his greetings.…

Han was surprised to realize that he actually missed Bollux and Blue Max. He’d never realized droids could have so much personality. He hoped that Skynx was treating them both okay.…

The Corellian fingered the newly healed knife-wound on his chin. He’d never had time to get it properly treated, and it had healed with a noticeable scar. He wondered whether he should get it removed.…

Wasn’t it Lando who always insisted that women couldn’t resist a rogue? That’s why the gambler had grown his mustache, claiming it gave him a rakish, piratical air. Han decided to keep the scar for now. After all, it was a conversation piece … or could be. He pictured himself in some of his favorite haunts on Nar Shaddaa, telling the story to some lovely, fascinated lady.…

Next stop, Nar Shaddaa, Han thought. Wonder if Jabba missed me?

“Away with you!” Durga Besadii Tai rolled his bulbous eyes and motioned the small Ubese chime player to vacate his throne room. “Enough!” The high-pitched, chaotic notes were pleasant, but did nothing to help him work up the fortitude necessary to do what he had to do.

Month after frustrating month, hour after inconclusive hour … nothing he had done had brought him any closer to a definitive answer about who had arranged the murder of his beloved parent. Durga had run into a wall as blank as the metal partitions that he now activated to drop from the ceiling and seal off the room from potential eavesdroppers. Tapping his comm unit, Durga grimly activated its privacy field, too. He didn’t want anyone to know what he was about to do. Zier … Osman, his majordomo … no one.

After all his work, all his searching, Durga had been unable to establish even a tenuous link between Aruk’s death and either Teroenza or Desilijic; nor was there any evidence to establish collusion between them.

It was time. The sour churning in his gut grew stronger, and he wriggled a bit to ease the pressure. His tail jerked and twitched, the Hutt equivalent of nervous pacing. I can manage to keep my head out of the noose if I’m just careful enough, he told himself. Even so, the price will be very, very dear. But I can stand the uncertainty no longer.…

The privacy field was established, and the walls around him were secure. Durga ran one final security scan, and turned up no possibility