Leia knelt beside the little red droid. The rat-bird droppings still streaked its finish. The R3 squealed and squeaked.
“It’s all right,” Leia said. “I’ve done this before. It isn’t going to hurt at all.”
A cascade of sparks flew from the droid’s chest panel, its indicator light dimmed and brightened again. A beam of light shot out, and the rough, jittering hologram of a man appeared standing on the floor in front of the R3. He was younger than Han had expected, with flowing, shoulder-length hair the color of honey and eyes that would have looked at home on a snake. His smile was obsequious and greedy.
Another hissing spark, and Galassian came alive. He pushed his hair back from his face. His grin was broad, and his eyes seemed to flicker in a way that made Han think of fevers. A pair of floating round droids hovered, one over each of the man’s shoulders.
“Master,” he said. “It is after much hard work and many weeks of effort that I bring this news to you. I was not certain, but now I am pleased to say that our fondest hopes are achieved. With this new toy I’ve found, your rule will be eternal and utterly, utterly absolute.”
Leia took in a deep breath. Her chin lifted in defiance. She looked beautiful that way.
Han reached up into the access panel. The relay under his fingertips was cold, the power light dull and dead.
“Still nothing,” he shouted.
Chewbacca’s roar rose from the flooring.
“I didn’t say it would be,” Han said. “But I’m telling you there’s no power right now.”
The Wookiee’s grumbling faded to near inaudibility. Han let himself fall back, massaging his hand. The rear deflector shields were proving harder to repair than he’d hoped, but he and Chewie were making progress. If he’d been able to reroute more of the power from life support, it would have been faster. Which brought him back again to the idea of throwing Baasen out the lock.
It was probably the smart thing. He didn’t have any illusions about the bounty hunter’s newfound allegiance. As soon as the opportunity arose and it looked like there was even a little bit of profit in it, Baasen would put a hole through Han’s chest and be glad that he’d done it. The truth was Han had killed people he liked more for less reason. It was the cold-bloodedness of it that escaped him, or that he told himself escaped him. He wondered whether, if he hadn’t snapped at Leia about her tactics on Kiamurr, he’d have had an easier time doing the obvious thing with Baasen. He hoped it would have been just as hard.
“Captain Solo,” Scarlet said. “You have a minute?”
“Sure,” Han said. “You got the whole thing decrypted, then?”
She nodded. “How are the repairs?”
“We’re getting there.”
Chewbacca howled and muttered. Scarlet laughed.
“It’s not as bad as he says,” Han said. “We’ll have full power to the deflectors before we jump again.”
The meeting was in the cabin Scarlet and Leia were sharing. With him added in, there almost wasn’t space, but the door closed and sealed, and Baasen and Sunnim weren’t likely to overhear anything they said.
“What’ve we got?” Leia asked as Han tried to find a comfortable way to squat by the bunks. It was strange being in his private quarters with the two attractive women. In other circumstances, he’d have been turning down the lights and pouring drinks. Now he just felt awkward.
“More than I expected,” Scarlet said. “It’s coordinates to the system and data from the sensor sweeps, but Galassian also made some exploratory surveys on the planet’s surface. Since the K’kybak died out, their planet’s pretty much gone to ruin. There are old cities drowned in swamps and fallen into the oceans. It’s not a hospitable place, either. Pretty much anything that isn’t predatory is poisonous.”
“Lovely,” Leia said.
“It gets better. The K’kybak left behind an old defense grid. It’s been unattended so long it’s mostly dead, but every now and then part of it becomes active enough to throw off jumps going out of the system. That’s how Galassian found the place and decided it was something more than a swamp planet. The system that the defense grid uses to disable hyperdrives is in a barricaded temple. Galassian has a rough map of the place.”
“All right,” Leia said.
“He’s found the controls for the device, and he’s started working out a translation for them.”
“He has a manual for it already?” Han asked.
“The beginnings of one,” Scarlet said. “I’m going through it now. I don’t really understand most of it, but I’ve spent a lot of time studying him. So some of it makes a little sense.”
“That’s a lot farther along than I’d hoped,” Leia said.
“I know. If he’s right, the Empire’s on the edge of controlling hyperspace jumps for ships, the hyperwave relays for information. Pretty much everything that uses hyperspace.”
“That’s bad,” Han said. “That’s really bad.”
“The good news is that getting to the device is a royal pain in the butt and viciously dangerous, so Galassian’s being very careful. The bad news is it’s a pain in the butt. And dangerous.”
“And I assume it’s in some totally secluded part of the galaxy that’s going to be difficult to reach, too,” Han said.
“Actually, that part’s not so bad,” Scarlet said. “It’s near some of the major lanes. No one’s used it because there’s nothing there, and ships kept disappearing when their jumps went wrong.”
Han narrowed his eyes. A tingling sensation started crawling up his neck.
“I think it’s safe to assume the Empire has exploratory and scientific teams in the system already,” Scarlet said. “I assume they have fighter escorts, but I don’t know if they’d risk putting in a heavy military presence until they knew the device was secured and inactive.”
“Where is it?” Leia asked.
“Fifth planet of the Seymarti system.”
Leia frowned.
“I’ve heard of that system,” she said. “Why have I heard of that system?”
“Because,” Han said, “you just sent Luke there.”
THEY DRIFTED THROUGH THE TRUNDALKI SYSTEM, an old smugglers’ stopover Han had used any number of times. He’d chosen it because it was a relatively short jump from Kiamurr, and because he could be pretty sure no Imperials would be waiting on the other side. The only planet in the system that had any life on it was unimaginatively named Trundalki IV, and was nothing more than a blackmarket shipyard surrounded by several dozen bars and gambling dens. The Imperials had never bothered with Trundalki because there was nothing there the Imperials wanted. That was how to keep going. Keep your head down, move fast, and when the people looking to shoot you showed up, be somewhere else.