Han Solo - Rebal Dawn Part 10

Chewie shook his head and launched into a long per-oration on females of any species who regarded males as prizes to be won. He cautioned Han that his sister, Kallabow, had decided in much the same way that she intended to marry Mahraccor. However, Chewie said, Kallabow had been cleverer about it than Salla. She'd merely given Mahraccor plenty of chances to realize that he loved her, Kallabow, until one day he'd done ex-actly that. They were very happy, Chewie pointed out.

"Well, that ain't what's gonna happen to me, pal," Hah said caustically. "You know, I'm startin' to get mad, Chewie. She doesn't care what I want-she doesn't even want to know what I want. That's no way to make someone fall for you and want to marry you." Chewie vociferously agreed.

The next night, Hah spoke to Lando in a smoky bar at one of the big Nar Shaddaa casinos. The gambler shook his head the moment Hah brought the subject up. "Han. . .Han . . . she~ dead serious about this, you know. When she told me about it, I started to laugh-'cause I know you, pal!--and Salla just about decked me."

"I know she's serious," Han said, morosely. "Blast it, Lando, I don't want to marry her-I don't want to marry anybody! Ever, maybe! I like being single, and I like be-ing able to do what I want, when I want, with whoever I want to!"

"Easy, pal," Lando cautioned, and Hah realized his voice had scaled up to the point where other patrons of the' drinking establishment were looking over at him. He took a hasty gulp of his Alderaanian ale.

"Well, have you tried telling her how you feel?"

Lando asked.

"Yeah, a couple of times, now. She just dismisses me. I'll say, 'Salla, this isn't a good idea, I need time to think about this,' or even, 'Salla, I ain't interested in gettin' married now,' but it doesn't do a bit of good." "What does she say when you say that?"

"She just tosses it off. Says things like, 'don't worry, Han, men 'always feel like that. It's perfectly normal to have pre-wedding jitters.'"

Lando sighed so gustily that his mustache quivered. "That's tough, pal," he said. "She sounds like she's set-tled on getting married to you as a good way to fix up her life. She lost her s.h.i.+p, but she's going to gain a husband."

"She wants me to quit the business and leave Nar Shaddaa. Says we can be like Roa and Lwyll, sta~ a new life doing something else. No more smuggling."

Lando shuddered. "Honest work? That's awful!" The gambler was only partly joking.

Han drained his stein of 'ale and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. "Lando, what am I gonna do? I ain't gonna marry her, that's for sure. But I can't be mean enough to her to tell her in a way that will make her listen."

Lando frowned. "That's a tough one. Seems to me, the way Salla's acting, she's just asking to be set down. But Han... you can't wait. She told me she's setting the wedding for next week."

Han sat bolt upright. "Next week? Oh, no... Lando, no way!"

Lando nodded. "You've gotta tell her, Han."

"But she won't listen!"

"What else can you do?"

Han's features hardened with determination. "I can leave, that's what. I've been meaning to spend some time in the Corporate Sector, look up a master stars.h.i.+p tech named Doc. Seems like now is a good time for that trip."

"Corporate Sector's quite a ways away."

"Yeah. And Salla doesn't have a s.h.i.+p, so she can't possibly follow me. Besides, if I just leave, that'll give her the message, clearer than anything I could say. And I'm doin' it right away, Lando. Tomorrow."

"That quick?" Lando was taken aback. "Why so fast?"

"Why stick around?" Hah asked. "I'll go see Jabba tomorrow morning, tell him I'm headin' out for a while and don't know when I'll be back. Besides . . ." he sighed, "I care about Salla. I don't want her spendin' her credits on a wedding that ain't gonna happen. So the quicker I go, the more she'll save."

"She's going to be mad," Lando said.

"I know," Hah agreed bleakly. "And I wish it didn't have to be like this. She should have some respect for me, not be so hard-headed. If there was another way around this, I'd take it, but I can't think of anything. No matter what I do or say, Salla's gonna get hurt."

"You could knuckle under and marry her," Lando said, c.o.c.king an amused eyebrow.

Han shook his head. "Lando, I'd sooner kiss Jabba."

Lando sputtered with laughter until he nearly fell off his barstool.

"I ain't losing my freedom," Han said grimly. "Salla will get over this. Yeah, she'll be mad. Yeah, she'll probably never speak to me again. I'm sorry about that, but not sorry enough to stick around. I'd sooner micro-jump through the Maw."

Lando shrugged, offered his hand. "Going to miss you, pal."

"C'mon along," Han suggested, shaking it. "Chewie and I could use a hand." "What about Jarik?"

Han made a dismissive gesture. "The kid won't be coming, I'm almost certain. Shug's payin' him more than I can afford to, and he's so hung up on that girl he can't see straight. No way he'd be up for a long trip." "True," Lando said. "First love... isn't it sweet?"

Han rolled his eyes, then the two of them laughed.

"So.,. you comin'?" Hah prodded.

"Not me," Lando said. "I've got to put in some time on the s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p lot. Since Roa left, I've been through one manager after another, and I caught the last one skimming."

"Great," Hah shook his head. "Well, I'll miss you, Lando. You watch your back, now, pal."

"You too."

Han spent one last night with Salla, but she was so wrapped up in her plans that she didn't even notice how grimly silent he was.

Just before they turned in, Han looked at her and said, "Salla. ] . I wish you'd asked me before planning all this. I ain't the marrying kind of guy."

She laughed. "All men think that, Hah... until they get married. Remember Roa? He said 'all along he'd never do it, then he did, and you never saw anyone hap-pier. That's the way men are."

"Not this guy,,' Han said, but Salla only laughed. The next morning, Hah went by his place and had ZeeZee pack up his clothes (it didn't take long, Han never had many clothes) into an old backpack. Then he and Chewie went out to the Millennium Falcon's land-ing pad atop one of the tall buildings of Nar Shaddaa.

Jarik turned up to see them off. Hah hadn't told any-one but Lando and the youth that he was going. Jarik held out his hand, and when Hah shook it, blurted, "Now I wish I was going! Come back rich, Han! Chewie, you take care of him, okay?"

Han slung an arm around the young man's shoulders, shook him playfull~ Chewie gave him a Wookiee head-rub that made the kid yelp. "You take care (ff yourself, Jarik," Hah said. "Don't let ZeeZee drive you crazy. And... take my advice, kid. Have fun, but remember: IfDn too young to get married, y~m are definitely too young!" Jarik laughed. "I'll remember than, Han!"

"So long, kid. Take it easy."

Mirlutes later, with Nar Shaddaa behind them, Han keyed his corem system for a holo message. Quickly he gave Salla~ name and codes, then instructed Message Central to "hold" the message for two hours. By that time he'd be long gone.

When the message sign'tied it was ready to "record" Hah cleared his throat self-consciously. "Hi, Salla," he said. 'Tin sorry it had to be like this, but by the time you get this, Chewie and me will be gono. I tried to talk to you, but you just wouldn't listen."

He hesitated, took a deep breath. "Salla, you're a great lady, but I'm just not ready to get married~to anyone. So try not to take it personally, okay? I think we need a break from each other. I'll be back someday. Try not to be too mad, Salla. I'm just doing what I have to. You take care of yourself, Salla, and say goodbye to Shug and Mako for me."

Chewbacca grunted insistently, and Han said, "Oh, and Chewie says goodbye, too. Stay well, Salla. Be happy."

Reaching out, he hit the "transmit" b.u.t.ton, and then slumped back in Iris seat. "Whew! That was worse than a dozen Runs, pal."

Chewbacca agreed that things of that nature were never easy.

Han nodded. "Okay, pal. And, speakin' of marriage, I think before we light out for the Corporate Sector, you and Mallatobuck deserve a little second honeymoon. So set course for Kashyyyk."

Chewbacca gazed at Hah, his blue eyes lighting up. Han grinned at the Wookiee. "Besides, I laid in another cargo of those explosive quarrels that Katarra liked so much. I figure a nice load of Thikkiian brandy might fetch a good price in the Corporate Sector. So is the Corporate Sector by way of Kashyyyk okay by you?"

Chewbacca roared his approval of Han's suggestion so loudly that Han's ears rang.

Minutes later, the Falcon was nothing but a rectan-gular streak traveling through hypers.p.a.ce on the first leg of her long journey.

u 0unt," said Jabba, staring at the screen of his data-~pad, "at this rate Desilijic will be bankrupt in forty-I Ifour years."

Jabba and Jiliac were in Jiliac~ office in her island palace on Nal Hutta. The Desilijic leader had been dan-gling bright streamers of Askajian silk for her baby to focus on and lurch toward. Of course the baby Hutt could not reach for the vivid streamers-it still did not have arms, though over the past three months, its stubs had grown longer. These days it could spend two or three hours at a time outside its mother's pouch-much to Jabba's irritation. The only time he could gain Jiliac's full attention was while her baby was sleeping in her pouch.

Hearing Jabba's p.r.o.nouncement, the leader of Desili-jic turned from playing with her infant to regard her nephew with mild surprise. "Really?" Jiliac said, and her great forehead furrowed, "that soon? I would not have thought it possible. Still... forty-four years, Jabba. We should be able to reverse this trend long before then. What reports are you looking at?"

"All of them, .Aunt. I have spent much of the past week doing a complete financial portrait of Desilijic finances."

"Where are the credits going, then?"

"Among other things, I have here the invoice from Shug Ninx's s.p.a.cebarn," Jabba said, touching a key on the datapad and bringing up the doc.u.ment. "Upgrading all of the sublight and hyperdrive engines on our s.h.i.+ps has set us back fifty-five thousand credits."

"That seems a bit excessive," Jiliac said. "Was up-grading 'all our s.h.i.+ps really necessary?"

Jabba sighed so loudly and exasperatedty that flecks of green drool spattered on the floor before him. "Shug Ninx is a rarity among Nar Shaddaa denizens, aunt. The price is fair. And, if you'll recall, we lost three smuggling s.h.i.+ps to Imperial patrols over the last six months, and another to privateers. Our s.h.i.+ps sublight engines were old and outmoded, and they couldn't elude Imperial tariff s.h.i.+ps or pirates. And their hyper-drives were so slow that we were getting complaints from customers about their deliveries being delayed! So, yes, the upgrades were completely necessary, to avoid losing more s.h.i.+ps."

"Oh, yes, I do recall that now," Jiliac said, vaguely. "Well, if it is necessary, nephew, it is necessary. I trust your judgment."

My judgment is that I sh~mld be running things around here in name &s well as fact, Jabba thought, grumpily. Aloud he said, "At least the job is done. With any luck, our s.h.i.+ps can now haul more spice, faster, and we can begin making back some of our investment. If only Besadii will hold the line this time on its new an-nounced prices for processed spice. This is their third increase in three months."

Jiliac began to laugh, a great, booming sound that echoed in the huge, nearly deserted office. (Ever since she'd had her baby, the leader of Desilijic had dismissed many of her former hangers-on and sycophants, for fear one of them would seek profit by kidnapping her baby and holding it for ransom. These days her opulent throne room held only her most trusted minions, com-pared to the way it used to be, when Jiliac was a male, childless Hutt. Jabha, of course, still enjoyed being sur-rounded by raucous crowds, music and dancing girls in his palaces on Nal Hutta and Tatooine.) When Jiliac stopped laughing she exclaimed, "Nephew, of course Besadii will not hold their line! Their strategy lately has been to reduce the amount of spice on the black market, to drive prices up. Simple economics. Highly effective, also."

"I know," Jabba agreed, morosely. "But they have to slither a fine line, Aunt. If they charge much more, they'll be competing with the Imperial spice market. And that might bring them to the unwelcome attention of the Emperor."

By Imperial decree, all spice, especially the ultra-valuable glitterstim, belonged to the Empire. But the prices for the spice sold through legal, Imperial chan-nels was so preposterously high that no one except the fabulously wealthy could afford it. Enter the smugglers and their side deals on Kessel and the other spice-producing worlds.

"We had little choice but to upgrade our s.h.i.+ps, Aunt," Jabba added. "Our markets were making threats that they were going to begin dealing directly with Besadii."

"Besadii does not have a smuggling fleet that can match ours," Jiliac pointed out, truthfully.

"Not at the moment," Jabba said. "But my sources indicate that Durga has already bought a few s.h.i.+ps, and is bargaining for others. He has announced his inten-tion of creating a fleet that will outcla.s.s ours. I believe he intends to take over the whole spice trade. We must not allow this, Aunt."

"I agree, Nephew," Jiliac said, waving an aqua streamer. "What shall we do about it?"

"I believe we must redouble our efforts to get more pilots to run our spice, Aunt," Jabba said. "There must be pilots out there who are as good as Solo."

"Is he gone?" she asked, vaguely, stroking her baby's head.

Jabba rolled his bulbous eyes and reached into a bowl for a Carnovian eel-pup, and popped the squirm-ing, squeaking morsel into his mouth. The baby Hutt looked over at him and drooled greenish-brown goo. ]abba hastily averted his gaze and swallowed noisily. "Solo has been gone for several months, Aunt. By all re-port, he went to the Corporate Sector. His loss is being felt," he waved his datapad. "Solo was the best. I even find myself missing the fellow."

Jiliac turned to regard her nephew in surprise. "Jabba, you are talking about a human. And a human male at that. Have your tastes changed? I thought you had a penchant for those tiresome scantily clad dancers you fancy. It is hard for me to picture Solo in a dancing costume, cavorting with that great hairy brute of a Wookiee before your throne."

Jabba chuckled at the image. "Ho-ho, Aunt! No, my fondness for Solo comes only from the fact that he Inakes us money, in an expeditious fas.h.i.+on. He would never 'allow himself to be boarded and his cargo and s.h.i.+p impounded for smuggling. Solo is quite clever and resourceful... for a human."

"The Empire is making its presence felt more and more out here in the Rim," Jiliac said. "There was that ma.s.sacre on that humanoid-inhabited world .... "

"Mantooine in the Atrivis Sector," Jabba said. "Since then there has been another, aunt. Two weeks ago citi-zens of Tyshapahl staged a peaceful demonstration against the Empire and its taxation. The Sector Moff sent s.h.i.+ps from the nearby Imperial garrison. The hn-perial vessels hovered over the crowd with their s.h.i.+ps on repulsors while the commander demanded that they disperse. When they did not, he signaled his s.h.i.+ps, and each vessel activated their engines. Most of tile crowd was summarily incinerated."

Jiliac shook her ma.s.sive head. "Palpatine's forces could use a few lessons in subtlety from our people, Nephew. Such a waste of resources! Far better to have landed, then herded them all into s.h.i.+ps to be sold as slaves. That way the Empire could have rid themselves of the dissidents, and made a profit at the same time."

"The Emperor should bring you to Imperial Center to advise him, Aunt," Jabba said, half-joking, but it oc-curred to him that he'd get a lot more done if he didn't have to deal with and around Jiliac each day. The baby Hutt wriggled over in front of him, and he glared at it. The mindless little creature gurgled at him, burped, then spit up.

Revolting! Jabba thought, recoiling from the noxious pool of spreading liquid.

Jiliac summoned a cleaning droid and wiped the in-fant's mouth. "Don't even suggest such a thing, Jabba," she said, sounding faintly horrified. "You know how Pal-patinc treats non-humans. His aversion to non-humans is so strong that he does not even recognize Hutts as a superior species!"

"True," Jabba said. "Shortsighted of him. But he is in authority, and we must deal with that. So far we have been able to buy protection from too close scrutiny by the Empire. It is expensive, but worth it."

"Agreed," Jiliac said. "The only reason he left us 'alone 'after the battle of Nar Shaddaa was that the Council voted to voluntarily double the amount of taxes we pay to the Empire. Nal Hutta has fifty times the wealth of most planets, and our wealth buys us a certain amount of protection. Not to mention the bribes we pay to the new Moff, and to some of the Imperial Senators and high-ranking officers."

The cleaning droid had finished its efforts, and the floor gleamed again. Hutts kept their floors scrupu-lously clean and, if they were uncarpeted, highly pol-ished. It was easier to glide around on them that way.

"They say that the renegade Senator, Mon Mothma, has convinced three large resistance groups to ally. They signed a doc.u.ment they're calling the Corellian Treaty," Jabba said. "It is possible that a widespread re-bellion may be in the offing. And Aunt," Jabba waved his datapad, "in war, there is profit to be made. We might be able to recoup our losses."

"Those so-called Rebels have no chance against the might of the Empire," Jiliac scoffed. "It would be fool-ish for us to take sides."

"Oh, I was not suggesting that, Aunt," Jabba said hastily, scandalized by the suggestion. "But there are times when profits could be made from aiding one side against the other. No permanent alliance, of course."

"Better to stay out of galactic politics altogether, mark my words, Jabba." Jiliac was holding her baby, bouncing it fondly. Good way to make it upchuck again, Jabba thought cynically.

Sure enough, the baby Hutt did just that. Fortu-nately, the cleaning droid was still within call.

"Aunt..." Jabba said, hesitantly, "since times are be-coming so... complicated, perhaps you might consider sending tile baby to the communal nursery for each day? Then it would be easier to concentrate on our business. The child is well able to spend long periods outside your pouch. Besides, they have surrogate pouch-mothers at the nursery."

Jiliac reared up, tail twitching, her expression one of shocked indignation. "Nephew! I am surprised that you would even suggest such a thing! In a year, perhaps, I might consider that, but now, my little one .needs me continually."

"It was just a suggestion," Jabba said, in as concilia-tory a manner as tie could manage. "In order to bring Desilijicg finances back to the level they were before Moff s.h.i.+ldg destructive raid on Nar Shaddaa, a great deal more time and effort will be needed. I am putting in copious amounts of time these days."

"Ho-HO!" Jiliac hooted. "And just yesterday you spent half the afternoon watching that new slave-girl cavort all over your throne room, while your new band ofj.i.z.z-wailers played for you!"

"How did you-" Jabba began, stung, then he sub-sided into silence. So what if he'd taken a few hours off to amuse himself? He'd been up at dawn, working with the clerical droids and scribes on Desilijicg financial records, getting them in order so he could prepare a complete report on the implications of the new Besadii price hikes.

"I have my ways, Nephew," Jiliac said. "But of course I don't begrudge you your leisure time. All work and no amus.e.m.e.nt makes for a dull Hutt indeed, However, in turn, I expect you to respect my need to be with my baby."

"Yes, Aunt. I do. Of course I do," Jabba said, seething inwardly. Hastily, he changed the subject. "I believe Besadii should be called to account for these increases in the cost of their spice. It is possible that we may be able to rouse the other clans against them." "To what purpose?"

"Possibly official censure and a fine. I have heard enough grumbling among the other clans to suggest that they are suffering from this price increase nearly as much as Desilijic. It is worth a try. Aunt, can you re-quest that the Hutt Grand Council call a meeting of the kajidie leaders?"

Jiliac nodded, evidently wis.h.i.+ng to be conciliatory, too. "Very well, Jabba. I will request such a meeting be-fore the end of the week."

Jiliac was as good as her word, and three days later, Jabba, along with the Desilijie bodyguards, undulated into the huge Hutt Grand Council chamber. All repre-sentatives or leaders of the Hntt crime syndicates, or kajidies, as they Were called, pa.s.sed through multiple scanning and security devices in order to be 'allowed to enter, as did their bodyguards. Nothing that could be deemed a weapon was permitted inside. Hutts were not trusting sentients ....