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Authors: Brian Daley
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this attractive.
“Girl,” breathed Badure, “for a second there I thought you were a ghost. It might’ve been Lanni, standing there.”
An hour ago I’d have said she couldn’t find romance in a prison camp with a jetpack on! I’m slipping
, Han thought. Then he found his voice. “But why?”
While Hasti inspected Han distantly, Badure explained. “When Lanni diverted course on a freight run to store the log-recorder disk at the vaults, she changed into this localoutfit Hasti’s wearing so word wouldn’t leak that a woman from the mining camp had been there. Fortunately she gave us the rental code and retrieval combination before she was killed by J’uoch’s people. Hasti must look as much like poor Lanni as possible, in case any of the vault personnel happen to remember her sister.”
Hasti motioned back toward Han’s quarters. “Nice wallow you have there; it looks like the end of a six-day sweepstakes party.”
His reply was cut short by an angry caterwauling from the cockpit. It was Chewbacca insisting that Han come up for the reversion to normal space. “I wonder if I wouldn’t be asking too much to view the procedure from the cockpit?” Skynx said to Han.
“Sure; we’ll find some place for you.” Han met Hasti’s aloof gaze. “How about you? Care to watch?”
She pursed her mouth indifferently. Skynx left off observing what was, as far as he could conclude, a variation of human preening/courting rituals and excitedly hurried toward the cockpit, followed by Badure. Han, weighing Hasti’s expression, decided neither to offer his arm nor to touch her in any ushering-along gesture.
None of them noticed Bollux, who remained behind, contemplating the war-robot’s head, his cold fingers resting on the imposing armored brow.
VI
DELLALT had, in its heyday, been a prominent member of a strategic cluster during the pre-Republic phase known locally as the Expansionist Period. That importance had run its course. Altering trade routes, increased ships’ cruising ranges, intense commercial competition, social dislocation, and the realigning power centers of the emergent Republican had long since converted the planet to a seldom taken side trip, isolated even from the rest of the Tion Hegemony.
Dellalt’s surface boasted far more water than soil. The treasure vaults of Xim were located near a lake on the southernmost of the planet’s three continents, a hook-shaped piece of land that crossed Dellalt’s equator and extended almost to its southern pole. Around the vaults stood Dellalt’s single large population concentration, a small city built by Xim’s engineers. The travelers studied it during their approach.
Heavy weapons emplacements and defensive structures around the city were now gutted ruins filled with crumbling machinery. Broken monorail pylons and once grand buildings, falling back to dusk, were overgrown with thick dendroid vines. Recent construction was sparse, poorly planned, and done with crude materials. There was the wreckage of a sewage- and water-treatment plant, indicating just how far back Dellalt had slipped. Badure mentioned that the planet harbored a race of sauropteroids, large aquatic reptiles that lived in a rigidly codified truce with the human inhabitants.
Port officialdom was nonexistent; a bureaucracy would have been an unprofitable expense, something the Tion Hegemonyavoided. Han and Badure, intending to attract attention, made a show of stretching and pacing as they came down the ramp to a landing area that was no more than a flat hilltop showing the scorches of former landings and liftoffs. Their breath crystallized in the cold air. Han had donned his own flight jacket. Glossy, cracked, and worn with age, it showed darker, unweathered spots where patches and insignia had been removed. He pulled his collar up against the wind.
Below them the decaying city spread out along slopes leading down to the long, narrow lake, part of Dellalt’s intricate aquatic
“Girl,” breathed Badure, “for a second there I thought you were a ghost. It might’ve been Lanni, standing there.”
An hour ago I’d have said she couldn’t find romance in a prison camp with a jetpack on! I’m slipping
, Han thought. Then he found his voice. “But why?”
While Hasti inspected Han distantly, Badure explained. “When Lanni diverted course on a freight run to store the log-recorder disk at the vaults, she changed into this localoutfit Hasti’s wearing so word wouldn’t leak that a woman from the mining camp had been there. Fortunately she gave us the rental code and retrieval combination before she was killed by J’uoch’s people. Hasti must look as much like poor Lanni as possible, in case any of the vault personnel happen to remember her sister.”
Hasti motioned back toward Han’s quarters. “Nice wallow you have there; it looks like the end of a six-day sweepstakes party.”
His reply was cut short by an angry caterwauling from the cockpit. It was Chewbacca insisting that Han come up for the reversion to normal space. “I wonder if I wouldn’t be asking too much to view the procedure from the cockpit?” Skynx said to Han.
“Sure; we’ll find some place for you.” Han met Hasti’s aloof gaze. “How about you? Care to watch?”
She pursed her mouth indifferently. Skynx left off observing what was, as far as he could conclude, a variation of human preening/courting rituals and excitedly hurried toward the cockpit, followed by Badure. Han, weighing Hasti’s expression, decided neither to offer his arm nor to touch her in any ushering-along gesture.
None of them noticed Bollux, who remained behind, contemplating the war-robot’s head, his cold fingers resting on the imposing armored brow.
VI
DELLALT had, in its heyday, been a prominent member of a strategic cluster during the pre-Republic phase known locally as the Expansionist Period. That importance had run its course. Altering trade routes, increased ships’ cruising ranges, intense commercial competition, social dislocation, and the realigning power centers of the emergent Republican had long since converted the planet to a seldom taken side trip, isolated even from the rest of the Tion Hegemony.
Dellalt’s surface boasted far more water than soil. The treasure vaults of Xim were located near a lake on the southernmost of the planet’s three continents, a hook-shaped piece of land that crossed Dellalt’s equator and extended almost to its southern pole. Around the vaults stood Dellalt’s single large population concentration, a small city built by Xim’s engineers. The travelers studied it during their approach.
Heavy weapons emplacements and defensive structures around the city were now gutted ruins filled with crumbling machinery. Broken monorail pylons and once grand buildings, falling back to dusk, were overgrown with thick dendroid vines. Recent construction was sparse, poorly planned, and done with crude materials. There was the wreckage of a sewage- and water-treatment plant, indicating just how far back Dellalt had slipped. Badure mentioned that the planet harbored a race of sauropteroids, large aquatic reptiles that lived in a rigidly codified truce with the human inhabitants.
Port officialdom was nonexistent; a bureaucracy would have been an unprofitable expense, something the Tion Hegemonyavoided. Han and Badure, intending to attract attention, made a show of stretching and pacing as they came down the ramp to a landing area that was no more than a flat hilltop showing the scorches of former landings and liftoffs. Their breath crystallized in the cold air. Han had donned his own flight jacket. Glossy, cracked, and worn with age, it showed darker, unweathered spots where patches and insignia had been removed. He pulled his collar up against the wind.
Below them the decaying city spread out along slopes leading down to the long, narrow lake, part of Dellalt’s intricate aquatic
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