“That’s not a bad path,” Baasen said, leaning past Han to point at the display, “but there’s a better one if you aim for this moon here, instead. Longer path, but faster, and you don’t spend so much time exposed to the Star Destroyer because of these asteroid fields in the middle.”
Chewbacca howled and grunted.
“What did he say?” Baasen asked.
“Stop!” Han shouted. The conversations paused. From the lounge, the R3 whistled. “If you aren’t me or Chewie, please get out of the cockpit. Now.”
The others scowled or smirked, but they left. When they were gone, Han ran his fingers through his hair.
“We’ve got too many people on this ship.”
Chewbacca shrugged, adjusted his headpiece, tried it on, then adjusted it again. He growled conversationally.
“No,” Han said. “There’s only one person in charge. Me.”
Chewbacca shrugged again. This time his headpiece fit.
The ice cave was as wide as a hangar deck. Eight X-wings squatted at the back beside a surveying ship with scorch marks down its sides and blistered metal along its landing gear. The emergency lights on the ice beside them threw wide shadows against the pale blue ceiling. None of the fighting ships was unscathed. Long, black char marks streaked their wings and sides, and one of them had a pool of frozen green coolant on the ice under one wing actuator. But the pilots in their dirty orange jumpsuits all waved cheerfully enough as Han brought the Falcon gently down beside them.
As Han walked down the cargo ramp, Luke trotted forward to meet them, R2-D2 rolling behind him. The kid was grinning just as if they weren’t trapped in a dangerous system, badly outnumbered, with limited food supplies and no way to call for help or know when—or if—support was coming. Chewbacca’s roar echoed softly in the thin air as he lifted Luke up off his feet, tossing him lightly in the air. Scarlet, Baasen, Leia, and Sunnim followed behind.
“I’m glad to see you, too,” Luke said, patting Chewbacca’s arm. “What are you guys doing out here, anyway? I thought you were off in the Core getting a spy back to the fleet.”
“We were,” Han said. “Scarlet Hark? Luke Skywalker. Luke, this is the spy.”
“Nice to meet you,” Luke said.
“Likewise,” Scarlet said with a smile. R2-D2 squealed, and she nodded to the droid. “And you as well.”
“That,” Han went on, “is Baasen Ray. He’s a bounty hunter who promised Jabba he’d bring me in, and the Bothan is Sunnim, his pilot. I wouldn’t trust either too much.”
“Oh,” Luke said, frowning.
“Any friend of Solo’s,” Baasen said with a nod, and then didn’t finish the sentence.
“Is he on our side?” Luke asked.
“Not really,” Han said. “And the R-3 used to belong to a man named Hunter Maas, but Baasen killed him. Now … I don’t know. Now it’s just on my ship.”
“I feel like I’ve missed a lot.”
“Luke, I need to speak to Wedge,” Leia said, as the pair embraced. Han stepped back, pretending to look at the power leads on the Falcon. He caught Scarlet’s glance, gauging him, and ignored it.
“Right here, ma’am,” Wedge Antilles said, striding up. Han hadn’t seen him approach, but the man looked tired. His flight suit was stained by grease and what looked like engine coolant.
“Commander Antilles, we have to get down to the planet,” Leia said, stepping back from Luke but keeping one hand on his forearm. “The thing that’s broken your hyperdrives and the communication relays is down there.”
“Gonna be hard,” Han said.
“Won’t be that hard,” Baasen said. “Just need a distraction, as I see it. And here’s one now, eh?” He gestured at the fighters.
Leia’s expression went perfectly calm. Blank. Han realized she was weighing the options. The chances of safely reaching the surface of Seymarti V against the danger to the fighters. To Luke.
“No problem,” Wedge said. “We’ll divide into two wings. One can come up from sunward; the other can come in from the gas giants. If we time it right, no one will notice one extra ship dropping in on the far side of the planet.”
“And then what?”
“Then we win,” Luke said.
Han laughed. “You took out one space station with a lucky shot because I was there running interference for you, kid,” he said. “Don’t let it go to your head.”
“I didn’t say it’d be easy.” Luke grinned.
That was the thing about Luke. The way he said it, it almost sounded possible.
“All right,” Leia said. “We need to move quickly. The ship with the bad attitude stabilizer?”
“That one,” Wedge said, pointing. “I’ve been working at it for hours, but we don’t have the parts. I’d take any help I could get putting her back on her feet.”
“Han?” Leia said. “Do we have something that will patch that up?”
Han shrugged. “Let me take a look at it. I’ll see what I can manage.”
“Thank you,” she said, and her voice was a little thick. She knows how dangerous this is, he thought. She knows that she’s asking the kid to risk death. Or any of the others. Maybe all. Grand causes, he thought. All in the name of grand causes. But he had to give her this much: she was willing to risk the people she cared about just as quickly as the ones in Kiamurr that she barely even knew. Han could admire that, but it didn’t make him comfortable.
“Come on then,” Baasen said. “I’ll give a hand. I’ve still got the one.”
“All right. Thanks,” Luke said. And then, to Leia, “Why is he here?”
Han, Baasen, and Chewbacca tramped across the thick blue ice of the cave, their shadows shifting around them as they passed the emergency lights. Baasen’s expression was unreadable. The fighter, when they reached it, wasn’t as bad as Han had feared. The stabilizer was fused, but it was a standard design. Han could pull any of a dozen from one piece of equipment on the Falcon or another. The pilot was a young man, even more fresh-faced than Luke. Han hadn’t been sure that was possible.
Chewbacca hauled himself up on the fighter’s wing while Han and Baasen got a welding torch and soldering alloy. Leia moved among the fighter pilots, talking and asking questions. Seeing her among them reminded him of the halls and gardens of Kiamurr. This was what she did. It was what gave her power. If she wound up running the galaxy, it would be because of moments like this one, asking for the loyalty of people who had no reason to be loyal to her.