Read Online Star Wars - Han Solo and the Lost Legacy by Brian Daley - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Brian Daley
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system. Han estimated from the condition of the landing area that it saw no more than three or four landings per Dellaltian year—probably just Tion patrol ships and the occasional marginal tramp trader. The planet’s year was half again as long as a Standard one, with a shorter-than-Standard mean day. Gravity was slightly more than Standard, but since Han had adjusted the
Millennium Falcon
’s gravity during the flight, they scarcely noticed it now.
People came running up from the little city, laughing and making sounds of greeting. The women’s attire was like Hasti’s, with variations of color, layering, and cut. Male dress tended toward loose pantaloons, padded jackets, all manner of hats and turbans, and pleated, flowing cloaks and robes. Children copied their parents’ appearance in miniature. All around these humans were packs of yipping, loping domestic animals, grainy-skinned quadrupeds with needlelike teeth and prehensile tails.
Han asked who owned the single building on the field, a decaying edifice of lockslab that might be used as warehouse or docking hangar. The owner appeared quickly, making his way through the mob with curses and insults that no one seemed to take personally. He was small but heavily built, and his scraggly whiskers failed to hide pockmarked cheeks and throat that had been ravaged by some local disease. His teeth were yellow-brown stumps. Crude or nonexistent medicalcare was too common on fringe worlds for Han to feel disgust anymore.
He inquired about the building. The language of Dellalt was Standard, distorted with a thick accent. The man insisted that rental terms were so minor a problem that there was no reason to waste Han’s time, that the outloading of cargo could begin at once. The pilot knew that to be a lie, but confrontation was a part of Badure’s plan.
Bollux appeared and began making trips between the starship and the building. At first the perplexed droid found himself surrounded by screaming, laughing children and snarling, snapping domestic quadrupeds. But the cousins of the building’s landlord threatened, cursed, and slapped them away, then formed an escort to see to it that the labor ’droid could work in relative peace. Still, many eyes followed the gleaming Bollux; such automata were unknown here. The landlord’s cousins opened one of the building’s doors just wide enough for the ’droid to enter and leave. He began stacking crates, canisters, pressure kegs, and boxes inside.
The crowd milled around and under the
Millennium Falcon
, timidly touching her landing gear and gawking up at her in amazement, yammering among themselves. Then someone noticed the Wookiee, who sat looking down from the cockpit. Shouts and shrieks went up; hands were thrust at the Wookiee in gestures meant to repel evil. Chewbacca gazed down on all the activity impassively, and Han wondered if it had occurred to any in the crowd that his first mate was manning the freighter’s weaponry.
A considerable pile of cargo containers had already accumulated in the building when, with his cousins stationed around its main doors, the landlord abandoned his effusive welcomes and named an enormous rental fee. Badure shook his scarred first under the landlord’s nose, and Han shouted a threat. The landlord threw up his hands and besought his ancestors for justice, then insulted the offworlders’ appearance and the circumstances of their birth. His cousins let the ’droid continue stacking cargo in his building, though.
* * *
Each time Bollux left the outbuilding, one of the cousins swung the door shut with a creak of primitive hinges. Waiting until she had heard that sound for the third time to be certain of the routine—and having timed the ’droid’s purposely slow trips—Hasti pushed the lid off her shipping canister and stepped out, lifting her hem carefully and rubbing her cramped neck.
Anyone seen leaving the starship would have been trailed all over town by the crowds. That
Millennium Falcon
’s gravity during the flight, they scarcely noticed it now.
People came running up from the little city, laughing and making sounds of greeting. The women’s attire was like Hasti’s, with variations of color, layering, and cut. Male dress tended toward loose pantaloons, padded jackets, all manner of hats and turbans, and pleated, flowing cloaks and robes. Children copied their parents’ appearance in miniature. All around these humans were packs of yipping, loping domestic animals, grainy-skinned quadrupeds with needlelike teeth and prehensile tails.
Han asked who owned the single building on the field, a decaying edifice of lockslab that might be used as warehouse or docking hangar. The owner appeared quickly, making his way through the mob with curses and insults that no one seemed to take personally. He was small but heavily built, and his scraggly whiskers failed to hide pockmarked cheeks and throat that had been ravaged by some local disease. His teeth were yellow-brown stumps. Crude or nonexistent medicalcare was too common on fringe worlds for Han to feel disgust anymore.
He inquired about the building. The language of Dellalt was Standard, distorted with a thick accent. The man insisted that rental terms were so minor a problem that there was no reason to waste Han’s time, that the outloading of cargo could begin at once. The pilot knew that to be a lie, but confrontation was a part of Badure’s plan.
Bollux appeared and began making trips between the starship and the building. At first the perplexed droid found himself surrounded by screaming, laughing children and snarling, snapping domestic quadrupeds. But the cousins of the building’s landlord threatened, cursed, and slapped them away, then formed an escort to see to it that the labor ’droid could work in relative peace. Still, many eyes followed the gleaming Bollux; such automata were unknown here. The landlord’s cousins opened one of the building’s doors just wide enough for the ’droid to enter and leave. He began stacking crates, canisters, pressure kegs, and boxes inside.
The crowd milled around and under the
Millennium Falcon
, timidly touching her landing gear and gawking up at her in amazement, yammering among themselves. Then someone noticed the Wookiee, who sat looking down from the cockpit. Shouts and shrieks went up; hands were thrust at the Wookiee in gestures meant to repel evil. Chewbacca gazed down on all the activity impassively, and Han wondered if it had occurred to any in the crowd that his first mate was manning the freighter’s weaponry.
A considerable pile of cargo containers had already accumulated in the building when, with his cousins stationed around its main doors, the landlord abandoned his effusive welcomes and named an enormous rental fee. Badure shook his scarred first under the landlord’s nose, and Han shouted a threat. The landlord threw up his hands and besought his ancestors for justice, then insulted the offworlders’ appearance and the circumstances of their birth. His cousins let the ’droid continue stacking cargo in his building, though.
* * *
Each time Bollux left the outbuilding, one of the cousins swung the door shut with a creak of primitive hinges. Waiting until she had heard that sound for the third time to be certain of the routine—and having timed the ’droid’s purposely slow trips—Hasti pushed the lid off her shipping canister and stepped out, lifting her hem carefully and rubbing her cramped neck.
Anyone seen leaving the starship would have been trailed all over town by the crowds. That
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