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Nonetheless, he held his head high and strode down the ramp, swirling his cape and beckoning the two droids to follow. “Threepio, can you understand any of those announcements? Figure out where we’re supposed to go.”

Threepio scanned the data walls that listed services offered by Umgul City. Text scrolled out in several languages.

Four stubby vendors rushed over to the new visitor, pushing trinkets and souvenirs at Lando. The scruffy-looking hucksters were Ugnaughts, the ugly little maintenance creatures that filled the lower levels of Cloud City. “Why not bring a baby blob home for the kids, sir?” The Ugnaught thrust out a greenish, oozing mass that looked like a fist-sized wad of phlegm.

“How about some blob candy, sir? Best in the city! My secondary mate makes it at home.” The gelatinous blob candy looked identical to the baby blob the first Ugnaught had offered.

“Good-luck charm?” said a third Ugnaught. “Works for all religions!”

Lando waved them away. “Threepio, where are we going?”

“Adjusting for local time, sir, I believe there is an important blob race beginning in less than one standard hour. The Umgullian mass-transit systems will take us directly to the blob arena. I believe the mass-transit access is—”

The four Ugnaught souvenir vendors began falling over each other offering to guide the fine gentleman to the arena.

“—immediately to our left.” Threepio gestured to a brightly painted tunnel entrance.

“Come on,” Lando said and, without looking back, walked over to the mass-transit entrance. The disappointed Ugnaughts hurried off to hunt for other customers.

The mass-transit trip was like a roller-coaster ride without wheels. A slim tubelike car shot through the tunnel up to the top of the bluff, splashing through high-rising fog and rushing over woodlands where trees crammed into notches in the weathered limestone. The ground was a crazy quilt of bright signs describing tourist attractions, eating establishments, pawnshops, and high-interest, no-questions-asked gambling loans.

At the great entry kiosks to the blob arena, streams of people and other creatures pushed in, paying their credits and obtaining seat assignments. Lando paid for himself but argued with the ticket-taking computer over whether his two droids were companions (and thus needed to buy tickets) or subservient information-processing attendants; Lando won the argument, though Threepio seemed insulted at being classed as little more than an appliance.

The blob-racing stadium was a vast sinkhole that had collapsed into the top of the bluff, a circular pit in the rocky ground. The Umgullian stadium management had carved thousands of seats, stalls, pits, and sockets out of the sloping rocky walls to accommodate all manner of bodily configurations.

Giant whirring fans had been mounted around the rim of the sinkhole, generating a hefty breeze to shove back the encroaching fog that pushed in from all sides, driving it into the open air, where it dissipated.

After pushing his way along the crowded halls, Lando found his seat, pleased to see that it had a good view of the entire “blobstacle course” below. The odds panel in front of his seat listed information about the fourteen blob challengers for the day’s first heat and also counted down the twenty minutes remaining before the next race would begin.

A grin spread across Lando’s face as he took in the smells of treats and condiments, saw whirring robotic drink dispensers drifting through the stands. He was enjoying this already. It brought back plenty of old memories.

As baron-administrator of Bespin’s Cloud City, Lando had spent much of his time in the high-class casinos, watching the tourists and high rollers. He had never seen blob racing before, but the excitement in the air made his heart beat faster.

Threepio fidgeted, looking at the crowd. A white ursine creature nearly knocked him over as it pushed its way to a seat farther down the mezzanine.

Lando couldn’t forget the primary reason why he was here, though. Mounted to Artoo’s body core was the power pack of the Imperial