Read Online Star Wars: The Han Solo Trilogy I: The Paradise Snare by A.C. Crispin - Free Book Online

anything. But there was too much resemblance in their features to be coincidence. The same shape of the brown eyes, the same kind of lips, the same quirk to the eyebrows … the same nose and jaw-line …
    The other boy was gaping back at Han, having evidently noticed the same thing. “Hey!” He shook Han’s arm roughly. “Who
are
you?
”
    “
My name is Han Solo,” Han replied steadily. “You must be Thrackan Sal-Solo
.”
    “
So what if I am?” the other said sullenly. Han was beginning to feel uneasy about the way the boy was eyeing him. He’d seen vrelts with more warmth in their eyes. “Han Solo, eh? I never heard of you. Where do you come from? Who’s your mother and father?
”
    “
I was hoping you could tell me that,” Han said evenly. “I ran away from where I was staying, because I wanted to find my family. I don’t know anything about myself except my name
.”
    “
Huh …” Thrackan was still staring. “Well, I guess you must
be
one of the family …
”
    “
Looks like it,” Han agreed, not realizing until he spoke that it was a pun. But Thrackan didn’t appear to notice. He seemed mesmerized by Han and, releasing his grip on the other’s arm, walked around him, studying him from every angle
.
    “
Where did you run away from?” Thrackan asked. “Will anyone come looking for you?
”
    “
No,” Han said shortly. He wasn’t about to trust Thrackan with anything that could come back to haunt him. “Listen,” he said, “we look alike, so we must be related, right? Could we … could we be brothers?” Funny, but after all his dreaming about finding a family that would rescue him from
Trader’s Luck,
Han found himself hoping that wasn’t the case
.
    “
Not a chance,” Thrackan said with a curl of his lip. “My dad died a year after I was born, and my mom shut herself up here ever since. She’s kind of … a loner
.”
    That fit with what Han had read about the Sal-Solo family. Tiion Solo had married a man named Randil Sal, some twenty years ago. The public records had carried his obituary
.
    “
Maybe she’d know something about me,” Han said. “Could I see her?” He took a deep breath. “Please?
”
    Thrackan seemed to consider. “Okay,” he said finally, “but if she gets … upset, you’ve got to leave, okay? Mom doesn’t like people. She’s like her grandfather, won’t have human servants, just droids. She says humans betray and kill each other and droids never do
.”
    Han followed Thrackan into the huge house, through rooms full of shrouded furniture and paintings draped against dust. The family, Thrackan explained, used only a few rooms, to save the cleaning droids time and effort
.
    Finally, they came to Thrackan’s mother’s sitting room. Tiion Solo was a pale, dark-haired woman, plump and unhealthy-looking. She was far from attractive. But, looking at her, studying her face, seeing the bones beneath the puffy flab, Han thought that once, long ago, she might have been beautiful. Seeing her features, a memory stirred within him, so faint …
    Once, he’d seen features similar to hers, Han thought. Long ago, far away. The “memory,” if memory it was, was as fleeting and elusive as a drift of smoke
.
    “
Mother,” Thrackan said, “this is Han Solo. He’s related to us, isn’t he?
”
    Tiion Sal-Solo’s gaze traveled to Han’s face, and her eyes widened in distress. She stared at the boy in horror. Her
mouth worked, and a thin, shrill mewling sound emerged. “No … no!” she cried. Tears gathered in her brown eyes, coursed down the flabby cheeks. “No, it isn’t possible! He
’s gone!
They’re both
gone!”
    Burying her face in her hands, she began to weep hysterically
.
    Thrackan grabbed Han by the arm and dragged him out of the house
. “Now
look what you did, you little idiot,” the youth said, glancing uneasily up at his mother’s window. “She’ll be a mess for days, she always is when she gets like that
.”
    Han