Star Wars_ The New Jedi Order 21_ The Unifying Force - James Luceno [98]
Still, for all his discomfort, Han was happy not to be wearing one of the ooglith-masquer-like “brands” developed by Wraith Squadron’s Baljos Arnjak and being worn by all the team members assigned to killing the yammosk on Toong’l, which was guarded only by Yuuzhan Vong.
Apart from the off-the-rack spaceport terminal, Caluula was about as basic a world as Han had visited in a long while—a world where the stones that formed the walls of most buildings had been given shape by other stones, and where most of the human and humanoid population had more in common with the Yuuzhan Vong than they probably realized. It took him a moment to come to grips with the fact that on Caluula and hundreds of similarly primitive worlds, life simply went on. Even though deprived of technology, even though forced to live in the shadow of new temples, beings fell in love, got married, had children, got into squabbles with their neighbors … They learned to adapt to new foods, use Yuuzhan Vong tools, swore allegiance to the new conquerors—even while continuing to worship their own gods in secret.
“Here come our guides,” Page said.
A Rodian and a Ryn, they were wearing rustic trousers and shirts, beat-up footwear, fabric belts, and tight-fitting woven skullcaps. And clearly they were comfortable around the saddled mounts they rode and led. The size of small dew-backs, the long-snouted quadrupeds were nearly as shaggy as banthas, but lacked horns or tusks of any sort.
“I’m Sasso,” the Rodian said as the pair came within earshot of Han and the others.
“Ferfer,” the Ryn said under his breath, adding: “Gatherer one-six-four, out of Balmorra.”
Han reached up to shake hands with the Ryn. “How’s your boss?”
“On the run,” Ferfer said.
Han nodded, thinking of Droma, the Ryn who had befriended him at Chewbacca’s death, and who was rumored to head the Gatherers. “That figures.”
As introductions were being made all around, Han found himself thinking that Sasso and Ferfer reminded him of many of the folk he had had dealings with during his early years in the Corporate Sector—on Duroon, Deltooine, and other worlds. Folk who were often hardened by circumstance but true to their word.
Lately when he wasn’t thinking about the war or dwelling on the deaths of Anakin and Chewbacca, he would often catch himself reminiscing about the old days, or wondering what it would be like to return to the worlds of his youth without his tall, thick-furred sidekick, but with Leia and the kids. The person who had scammed his way through half the Outer Rim was very much alive inside him, and for all the lavish parties on Coruscant, the diplomatic affairs, state dinners, and royal weddings he’d been obliged to attend during the past twenty-some years, he was still more comfortable around beings like Sasso and Ferfer than he was around Senators and princes, the wealthy and influential. Weather-beaten faces and hands callused from hard work; the great outdoors instead of some refresher; food dug from the soil or yanked from the trees instead of factory-produced foodstuffs …
Maybe someday he and Leia would get the chance, he told himself.
Sasso pointed him to his mount, which was known locally as a timbu. Han planted his foot in the stirrup and pulled himself onto the immense saddle. The timbu grunted and turned his big, floppy-eared head to regard Han through a liquid-black eye.
“Whatever you do, don’t jerk the reins too hard,” he told Leia as she nimbly mounted a smaller timbu.
“Why, what happens?”
“Think about the worst gob of spittle you ever saw a tauntaun launch, then multiply that times ten.”
“Scary.”
“You’ve ridden a timbu before,” Sasso stated