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Ten red droids, their oddly colored metal forms glistening in the artificial light. They had laser cannons pointing out of their chests, blasters instead of fingers, and flat eyes showing the intellectual capacity barely above a binary load lifter.

The other droids backed away from Artoo, and he faced the Red Terror alone.

Forty-six

The Millennium Falcon came out of hyperspace almost on top of the Wild Karrde. Han swerved quickly to miss Talon Karrde’s ship, infinitely relieved that he no longer had passengers. Still, Chewbacca swore loudly and creatively in Wookiee, using descriptive terms Han wished he didn’t have to think about.

He braced himself against the communications console, and jabbed it with his finger. “What the hell do you think you were doing?” No greeting, no nothing. He was too angry for that. Karrde had been careless.

Han was tired of carelessness.

Karrde’s deep voice answered. “Fine greeting for someone you asked to help you.”

“When giving rendezvous coordinates, the normal procedure is to put a little distance between the ships,” Han said. “We all could have been killed.”

“It’s a lot worse out there,” Karrde said. “Your fleet is taking a pounding, and I’m not going to stay.”

Chewie flicked on the long-range sensors, and the battle screen. Han could see only the Wild Karrde through the cockpit transparisteel, but the long-range battle screen showed the fleets. The blips looked very close to each other, and almost indistinguishable. It looked as if both Kueller and Leia had large forces.

And it didn’t look as if things were going well.

The urgency Han felt tripled.

“You got what I need?” he asked.

“I hope you have the credits to pay for them,” Karrde said.

“You know, just once, Karrde, you should donate your services.”

Karrde grinned. “I would never get rewarded as richly as you have, Solo.”

“Believe it or not, Karrde, I never did any of this for the reward.”

“I believe it, Solo. And every once in a while, I donate my services too. Mara’s outside with your ysalamiri. Say thank you.”

Han hadn’t expected Karrde’s quick capitulation. It made him instantly suspicious. “Yeah, ah, thanks,” Han said. He waved a hand at Chewie. “Go let her in.”

Chewbacca was already out of his seat.

Han turned back to Karrde. “You’re letting Mara come with us?”

“I’ve got no need for her. Seems she has some interest in what happens to Skywalker. Says you might need her.”

“She knows this Kueller, then?”

“I doubt it.” Karrde’s pet vornskr put its face near the screen. The creatures were ugly, even from a distance. “I think it’s more personal than that. She’s been having daylight dreams. She thinks she’s hiding them from me, but she’s not.”

“Kueller’s after her too.”

Karrde nodded. “I’m beginning to think the phrase, ‘May the Force be with you’ is a curse.”

“I sure hope not,” Han said. “The Force has been with me for years now. My family’s steeped in it.”

“You know what the ysalamiri will do, don’t you?”

Han grinned. “That’s why I want them. Thanks, Talon.”

“Don’t mention it,” Karrde said. “I mean that.”

The outside hatch snapped shut, and Han could hear Mara’s voice in the passageway. He got out of the cockpit and went around the lounge area to the top hatch.

Mara Jade’s lithe dancer’s figure filled the hallway. Her green eyes blazed as she thrust the nutrient cage with the ysalamiri at Han. “Keep these things far away from me,” she said.

He had never liked her much. She had always been abrasive, and not in the pleasurable way he found Leia’s occasional rough edges to be. He could never forget that Mara Jade had once been Emperor Palpatine’s secret weapon and trusted confidant, the Emperor’s Hand. Luke claimed that her hatred had been implanted and that she never really believed in the Empire. But Han’s world didn’t have as much gray in it as Luke’s. Mara Jade once worked for the Empire. Therefore he would never really trust her.

“If you didn’t want to be near them,” he said, “then you should have left with Karrde.”

She