Star Wars_ The New Jedi Order 05_ Agents of Chaos 02_ Jedi Eclipse - James Luceno [11]
Droma tugged nervously at his mustache. “Let’s just hope your pheromone levels are up to it.”
Han waved a hand in dismissal. “They only communicate like that among their own kind. I always managed to get by with Basic.” He smirked. “I’d like to see you second-guess what a Weequay’s about to say.”
“Scent.”
“Huh?”
“What a Weequay is about to scent.”
Han put his tongue in his cheek, nodded slowly, and threw switches on the navicomputer. “Maybe we’ll get lucky at Sriluur and have to put down in a sandstorm,” he said in a casual way.
“Extra concealment for the ship?”
Han snarled at him. “No, so I can see how much sand it takes to plug that perpetual motion machine you call a mouth.”
Droma grimaced, then sighed with purpose. “I guess I just don’t like the idea of venturing so close to Hutt space—with or without Yuuzhan Vong in the area. There’s no love lost between Hutts and Ryn. Many of us were enslaved by them to provide entertainment in one court or another. Some of my ancestors were required to prognosticate for a Desilijic Hutt. When predicted events didn’t come to pass, the Hutt would have a Ryn killed by his henchmen or fed to a court beast.”
“True to form,” Han said. “But you’ve got my word, no Hutt’ll stop us from locating your clanmates. We’ll have your family back together soon enough.”
“Then we can make a start on yours,” Droma mumbled.
Han threw him an angry glance. “You want to explain that?”
Droma turned to him. “You and Leia to begin with. If it weren’t for me, you’d be with her now. I only hope she can find it in her heart to forgive me.”
Han compressed his lips. “You’ve got nothing to do with what’s come between us. Heck, it’s not even between me and Leia. It’s between me and”—he flicked his hand at the starfield beyond the viewpoint—“this.”
Droma didn’t speak for a moment, then said, “Even friends can’t be protected from fate, Han.”
“Don’t talk to me about fate,” Han snapped. “Nothing’s fixed—not these stars and definitely not what happens to us in life.” He clenched his hands. “These are what determine my fate.”
“And yet even you end up in situations that are not of your making.”
“Like my being with you, for instance.”
Droma frowned. “I’ve lost friends and loved ones to tragedy, and I’ve tried to do exactly what you’re doing.”
Han looked up at him. “What I’m doing?”
“Trying to beat tragedy by outracing it. Filling your life to the brim, even when it puts you in danger. Burying your heartache under as much anger as you can muster, without realizing that you’ve shoveled love and compassion into the same grave. We live for love, Han. Without it we might as well jettison everything.”
Despite himself, Han thought about Leia on Gyndine, Jaina flying with Rogue Squadron, Anakin and Jacen off to who knew where with the Jedi. When he considered, even for a split second, where he might be without them, the angry words and recriminations that had spewed from him since Chewie’s death pierced him like rapid fire. If something should happen to them, he started to think, only to feel a great black maw opening beneath him, undermining everything he believed in. Protectively, he tugged himself from dark imaginings.
“I got along just fine without love for a lot of years, Droma. Love is what starts things rolling downhill. It’s like being sucked into a gravity well or being caught by a tractor beam. You get too close, there’s no escape.”
Droma nodded, as if in understanding. “So your mistake was in befriending Chewbacca to begin with. You would have been better off keeping your distance. Then you wouldn’t be grieving now.”
“Befriending him wasn’t a mistake,” Han said.
“But if you’d kept your guard raised all those years, you would never have grown as close to him as you did.”
“Okay, that was a risk I took. But that was then.”
“Let me suggest an alternative error. You didn’t see his death coming and you’re angry that you let your guard