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Doole placed his webbed Rybet palm on the top of the sealed container. With a slight hum a beam of light curled around his fingers in an ID scan; the small container burped as the airtight seal was broken. The lid slid away to reveal a padded interior compartment.

The box was filled with slender, black-wrapped cylinders about half as long as a finger. Han recognized them immediately. “Glitterstim,” he said.

Doole looked at him. “The most potent form of spice. With it I’ll be able to read the truth of what you say. Your errant thoughts will betray you.”

Han felt a sudden sense of relief. “But what if I don’t have any hidden thoughts to betray?”

Skynxnex struck Han’s head with the back of his hand, sending him reeling. Chewbacca tried to stagger forward, but the stun-cuffs silenced his bellows and made him sway dizzily, barely able to keep his balance.

Doole selected one of the slim black cylinders and held it in his fingers. With a deft motion he peeled off the opaque outer wrapper and withdrew a thin bundle of transparent glassy fibers. As Doole held the inert glitterstim up to the light pouring through the broad viewing window, the light-sensitive spice began to scintillate and glow from within, ripening.

Han watched until it was ready for Doole to consume. He swallowed a dry lump in his throat.

Doole opened his mouth when the segment of glitterstim glowed a pearlescent blue. He extended his sharp purplish tongue to wrap around the crystalline fibers, which he drew back into his mouth. The glitterstim crackled and fizzed; as Doole flexed his lips, tiny sparks seeped out the corners.

Han stared as Doole closed his blind eye and breathed deep, watery breaths. The spice would act on Doole’s mind, pump up his latent powers. The automatic focusing gears of Doole’s mechanical eye clicked and whirred, spinning around as it tried to make sense of the visions pouring through the Rybet’s mind. Then Doole turned to face Han and Chewbacca.

Han winced as he felt tiny fingers clawing around in his brain, picking through the lobes of memory, images he had stored in his thoughts … searching, searching. He tried to shrink away but knew he could keep no secrets from anyone pumped on glitterstim.

Skynxnex chuckled, then immediately fell silent, as if afraid of directing Doole’s attention to himself, where his own brain could be picked.

Han felt anger growing, outrage that Moruth Doole could dissect the private moments he had with Leia, could observe the births of Han’s three children. But the spice effects lasted only a few moments, and Doole would be concerned mainly with learning why Han and Chewbacca had come to Kessel.

“I really was telling you the truth, Doole,” Han said quietly. “We are on a peaceful mission to reestablish diplomatic contact with Kessel. The New Republic is trying to open up trade and welcome you. We came in peace, but you just declared war on yourself by shooting down their first ambassadors.”

Chewbacca growled.

Skynxnex stiffened, then took a few awkward steps forward. “What is he talking about?”

Han raised his voice. “Read the truth in my mind, Moruth.”

The Rybet’s mouth hung slack, and Han could see glitterstim sparks sputtering around his cheeks. He felt the tiny probing fingers crawl deeper and deeper into his mind, scrabbling around. Doole was frantically trying to find some proof of his suspicions as the spice enhancement faded away.

But Doole could find nothing; there was nothing to find. The only thing he did learn was the power of the Alliance forces that would be arrayed against him. A fleet that had succeeded in overthrowing the entire Empire would certainly be sufficient to destroy a ragtag outlaw operation on Kessel.

“No!” Doole wailed. He whirled to glare at Skynxnex. “What are we going to do? He’s telling the truth!”

“He can’t be!” Skynxnex said. “He’s a—he’s—”

“The spice doesn’t lie. He’s here for exactly the reasons he said. And we shot him down. We took him prisoner. The New Republic