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"Black Sun?" Jaina said in alarm.

Lando sloshed closer to the huts and Figrin D'an lowered a rickety wooden ladder. "Come on up! We'd love to jam!" the handleader said.

"Maybe even play a little round of sabace or two."

Other Bith band members stood up in the adjoining shacks to look with huge black eyes at the new arrivals. A few dissonant musical notes rang out as they gathered up their jumbled instruments.

"Next time you should check out who's at your door before you open fire,"

Lando said, wiping another smear of mud off the chest of his filthy shirt.

"Hey, couldn't take the chance," Figrin said. "You know how it is, man.

We got a price on our heads."

Lando hauled himself up the ladder, then reached down with his muck-encrusted grip to help Jaina climb off the ladder and into the hut.

"Well, if we really were thugs out to kill you," Lando said, "that little mud-cannon of yours wouldn't have done much other than annoy us.

Then you'd have been facing a really unpleasant interrogation session."

Two of the Bith band members groaned. One picked up his jazz stick and blew a wailing strident note.

Zekk climbed up to join Jaina and Lando in the central one-roomed hut.

The place smelled of mildew and damp wood as well as strange spicy stew that had obviously been bubbling for a long time on a thermal stove set on a stone plate in the center of the room.

A pair of the band members retrieved their instruments and set about plugging in powerpacks and tuning up. Disconnected musical notes waited through the air like clouds of ortellian whisper bats.

Lando made the introductions. "These two are my associates, Zekk"-the dark-haired young man nodded-"and Jaina Solo. You remember her father."

Figrin sat back and twiddled his big-knuckled fingers. "Solo? As in Han Solo's daughter? Yeah, Han and I spent many an hour at the sabace table."

With all of the fleshy folds around the Bith's mouth, Jaina still couldn't tell whether he was smiling. "How 'bout a game this afternoon, Lando? Just like old times."

"Not yet. We need some information," Lando said. "There's been some trouble on Cloud City and I'm pretty sure you know something about it.

You've got to tell us whatever you can. What happened to my friend Cojahn?"

Figrin sighed and a few of his band members struck up a low, mournful tune. "Man, that's a sad song," he replied. "A real tearjerker. We don't usually have stuff like that in our repertoire. Cojahn... that story has good guys, bad guys, treachery and tragedy. You know, all the stuff that makes for a surefire hit."

"So you'll tell us everything?" Jaina said. "All the details?"

Figrin sat back against the rickety wall of the hut. The other band members adjusted their instruments, ready to play.

"Why not?" the Bith handleader said. "We got plenty of time... and it's been too long since we had a really attentive audience." in the rain forest sector of the Climateria, Lowie hung upside down from an artificial tree branch, admiring the view. Em Teedee hovered right-side-up half a meter beneath the Wookiee. Anja, who paced back and forth on a limb adjacent to Lowie's, seemed as edgy and impatient as ever. Two meters lower down, Tenel Ka straddled a branch and practiced Jedi relaxation techniques while Jacen searched in vain for tiny creatures on the bark of the synthetic tree.

"Remind me exactly what it is we're supposed to be pretending to look for while Calrissian and the others are off joyriding," Anja said with an exaggerated sigh.

Lowie rumbled a reply and, since Anja did not understand the growling language, Em Teedee obligingly translated. "Master Lowbacca points out that we are not pretending to look for anything. We are pretending to enjoy ourselves whilst actually searching for any indication that someone might have wanted Master Cojahn... disposed of."

"We're not really sure what we're looking for," Jacen explained helpfully. "But while Lando, Jaina, and Zekk are poking around on the Bith homeworld, it's our job to keep an eye out for anything