His impulse was to kick the engines into a fast burn, trusting to speed and maneuverability. Restraining himself wasn’t easy, but he did it, letting the Falcon follow its trajectory like a thrown rock hissing through the darkness. No alarms had sounded yet. There was no sign they’d been noticed.
Chewbacca grunted and moaned.
“I know,” Han said. “I see it, too. We’ll try to fix it when we get down there.”
“Fix what?” Scarlet asked.
“We’ve still got a coolant leak from where Baasen hit us with the tracking beacon,” Han said. “It’s not bad. We’ll be fine.”
Scarlet took in a deep breath, letting it out slowly between her teeth.
“You know,” she said. “I love this part.”
“This part?” Han said. “Really?”
“Really,” she said. “They’re right there. Right in front of us, and they don’t see the threat. If we do it right, they never will. We’ll slide in, do what we came to do, and by the time they understand what’s happened, it’ll be too late.”
“Maybe,” Han said. “Or maybe they’ll have moved the shaft we expected to find, and we’ll wind up climbing a transmission tower while half the stormtroopers in the Core try to shoot us down. It goes that way, too, sometimes.”
“And I loved that part, too,” Scarlet said ruefully. “This is why I could never be an accountant.”
Something glittered off the Star Destroyer’s bow. A wing of TIE fighters starting their patrol, or else ending it.
“What about you?” Scarlet asked. “You have to enjoy the fear, too. Just a little?”
“Not the fear,” Han said. “I just like being a little smarter than the next guy.”
“That’s all it is?”
“That, and I really hate paying taxes.”
The comm flickered red and came to life. “Red Wave One, this is Red Wave Two,” Luke said. “Do you copy?”
“Red Wave Two, this is Red Wave One,” Wedge replied. “I’ve got you loud and clear.”
“We’re in place and starting our approach, Red Wave One. You should proceed when ready.”
“Understood, Red Wave Two. We’re going in.”
The Star Destroyer, black against the brightness of the sun, began to shift, turning its vast bulk. Glitters of silver and darkness spiraled out around it, and then the tiny red and orange flashes of laserfire. The battle had begun. Han fired up the engines.
“Hold on back there,” he shouted. “This could get bumpy.”
The R3 whistled and shrieked.
“What’s the problem?” Han yelled.
“The droid’s not clamped down, boyo,” Baasen said, at the same time that Leia shouted, “The restraint’s broken.”
“Well, someone get it secured,” Han said. “I can’t do everything here.”
“I’ll take care of it,” Scarlet said, and hurried back toward the lounge. At the Star Destroyer’s starboard bow, something flared. A ship dying. Han couldn’t tell if it had been one of the enemy’s or one of their own. Han tapped his fingertips against the console. Another rapid flurry of bright greenfire stuttered against the stars.
“They’re shooting at the kid, Chewie.”
Chewbacca whined and bared his teeth.
“I know that was what we wanted. It’s all going just according to plan, but they’re trying to kill the kid up there, and we’re down here. You know what I want to do, Chewie? I want to fire up the turrets, get up there, and help out.”
The Wookiee’s sigh was confirmation enough. The Falcon’s sensors lit up, warning them of the approaching atmosphere. Han tested his fingers on the forward deflector shield’s controls, waiting until the last second to bring up power. The less time they spent under power, the less likely it was that the fighters would come down. A few more seconds, and they’d be beyond the reach of the TIE fighters and into the thick soup of air where they could find out if the Empire had any anti-aircraft batteries in place.
“Red Wave Two, this is Red Wave Six. I’ve got one on my tail.”
“I see you, Six,” Luke shouted. “I’m coming in. I’m coming in—”
The radio cut out as the first of the atmosphere hit the ship. Han clicked on the shields and angled hard down. The Falcon bucked and kicked under him, sending his belly into his throat and then his boot and then his throat again. Superheated air streamed off the shields like foam at the crest of a wave.
“What’s the problem, boyo?” Baasen called from the lounge.
“No problem,” Han shouted back. “It’s supposed to be like this.”
Slowly, slowly, and then all too fast, the landmasses of Seymarti V rose up toward them. To his right, a vast, mud-colored sea glittered and shone. Red waters hugged the coastlines, fading into the deep brown middle water. On the land, an answering ocean of leaves rippled in the wind. As the Falcon drew nearer the ground, huge pillars rose up above the jungle canopy, their dun-colored sides ridged like stone eroded by centuries of rain. As Han passed over one, he saw a black swarm of insects curling out from the tower like living smoke. The waving leaves grew closer, larger. Any one of them would have been wide enough to cover the whole ship, and they rose and fell gently in a breeze he couldn’t feel.
Just as they came even with the tops of the trees, a huge green-black shape rose from below. Han had the impression of vast, steely teeth and a dozen bright-red eyes, and then the Falcon was past it. The first of the massive leaves smashed into the ship, popping the Falcon up on one side almost thirty degrees. The Bothan screamed.
“Is it still supposed to be like this?” Baasen shouted.
“Not quite,” Han replied, and pulled back hard on the controls. The ship shuddered, slowed, and dipped down again. The leaves beat against the screen until Han was sure he heard it crack. He went down deeper, dropping beneath the canopy to where massive tree trunks rose like buildings from the floor below. His eyes fixed on the proximity sensor array, his hands moved fast, and the ship ducked among the huge, black trunks. Something popped, sparks flying out from the console above him.
“Chewie! Was that something important?”
Chewbacca howled in complaint.
“Well, could you find out? I’m kind of busy here.”
He pulled up the map overlay and fed it through the sensors. Galassian’s coordinates glowed green twelve kilometers ahead. Four klicks before that, there was a rough clearing big enough to put the Falcon down.
“I can do this,” Han said to himself. “Not. A. Problem.”
The proximity alarm blared, and he threw the ship hard to the right, a massive trunk skinning by the Falcon close enough to touch. Chewbacca howled.
“Thank you for your input,” Han said. “Just . . . hold on.”
The canopy didn’t open, but it thinned. The ground below was a mass of roots like thousands of gigantic, gnarled fingers twined around one another. The jungle with a permanent death grip on itself. Han lowered the ship slowly, watching the altitude readings with skepticism until the actual size of the root cluster became clear.
“Everyone all right back there?”
“Where did you learn how to fly a ship?” Leia shouted.
“What are you talking about?” Han said with a grin. “I’m brilliant.”
The ship touched down, shifted, canted at fifteen degrees, and came to rest. Han shut down the engines with a flip of his wrists and unstrapped himself. Chewbacca rose and tugged at the still-smoking panel of the overhead console. Han scowled up at the relay. A small, blue flame danced around the blackened metal.
“We’re going to want another one of those,” he said.
Chewbacca’s growl was short and percussive.
In the lounge area, the passengers were in different stages of recovering themselves. Baasen and Leia were both finding their feet on the Falcon’s canted deck. Sunnim was still sitting, his fists wrapped around the straps and his eyes wide. Han thought the Bothan was trembling. Only Scarlet was moving confidently, stepping across t
he lounge to the storage blocks, her cheeks warm and her eyes bright with pleasure.
“Bad news is it’s going to be a little walk,” Han said. “Good news is no one shot at us on the way down.”
“That’s how you fly when you’re not under fire, then?” Baasen said.
“It’s harder to see us if we’re under the canopy,” Han replied.
“You know that’s where the trees are, though, right?” Leia asked.
The Bothan gave a small whimper.
“It worked out,” Han said. “A simple thank-you will be fine.”
Scarlet pulled a small black medpac from storage and hung it on her belt. The light from the upper turret slanted through past her as she looked over at Han.
“Who’s coming?” she said.
“I’ll not be staying behind now,” Baasen said. “And where I go, Sunnim comes with. Watch my back.”
“And here I thought we were friends,” Han said.
“We are,” Baasen said, grinning. He still looked a little greener than usual.
Chewbacca grunted and howled from the cockpit.
“No,” Han said. “You’re staying here.”
An instant later a wall of angry Wookiee boiled up from the front of the ship, waving a welding torch and baring his fangs. Han set his feet on the tilted deck and looked up at Chewbacca’s outraged eyes.
“It’s not going to do any of us any good to go get this whatever-it-is if there’s no ship when we get back. I don’t want to come up and find there’s a company of stormtroopers or corrosive ants or something infesting the place.”
Chewbacca crossed his arms, his eyes narrowing stubbornly.
“It’s a swamp out there,” Han said. “You know how your fur gets when there’s mud.”
Chewbacca’s scowl softened a bit.
“There’ll be snakes,” Han said, his voice almost gentle. Chewbacca was silent for a long moment, then turned and stalked back to the cockpit. The flare of the welding torch resumed.
“All right, then,” Han said. “Chewie’ll be here to keep you company, Your Worshipfulness. Scarlet and Baasen and Sunnim and I will—”
Scarlet and Leia chuckled at the same moment. Han’s brow furrowed and he held out his hands in a gesture of confusion.
“I believe Princess Leia had her heart a bit set on coming with,” Baasen said as he checked his blaster. Sunnim sighed and began unbuckling himself. Han turned toward Leia, ready to fight. Her dark eyes were on him, cold and implacable.
“Fine,” he said. “Fine, if you really want to go out into the middle of enemy territory and get killed, who am I to stop you?”
“Why, Captain,” Leia said, her voice sweet and unassuming and utterly false, “did you think I only risked other people’s lives?”
Right, Han thought, feeling slightly chagrined.
A sudden flare of light filled the air. For a moment, he thought Chewbacca’s welding torch had malfunctioned, but the brightness came from the turret. From the sky. Han scrambled into the cockpit, crawling over the console to look up. Through the break in the canopy, a swath of bright blue sky was scarred by black smoke and flaring green energy blasts. As he watched, the sky sparkled again, and another handful of bright flares streaked across the blue.
The radio squawked. “This is Red Wave One. This is Red Wave One. Everyone all right?”
Han picked up the headset. “What’s going on up there?”
“Mission successful,” Wedge replied.
“We got it,” Luke added.
“Got it?”
“The Star Destroyer. We got it.”
A deep rumbling shook the air, louder than thunder. All around, the jungle canopy shuddered and trembled. A massive, brightly plumed beast rose up from among the gigantic roots and fled into the twilight of the jungle, shrieking.
“Um,” Han said. “Good job.”
“It’s not over. There’s still a lot of fighters up here. We’re going to have to pull back,” Luke told him.
“I don’t think anyone can fault you, kid. We’ll let you know what we find.”
“All right, Han. Good hunting.”
He put down the headset. Chewbacca chuffed. “He got it,” Han said. The wookiee stood still for a moment, then went back to welding. Really, what else was there to say?
The others were gathered by the crew ramp. Baasen and Sunnim had their blasters in their hands. Scarlet had a handheld mapping device and a long black-composite blade. Leia was adjusting the seal on thigh-high black boots scavenged from a repair suit. From its clamps, the R3 whirred and whistled. Han nodded to it like he had any idea what it was saying.
“All right,” he said, lowering the ramp. “Let’s go.”
Twenty-Six
The Bothan stumbled over a thick root and crashed into the trunk of a massive tree. He pushed away from it, shouting curses in three languages. A long, slimy vine came away with him, wrapped around his face and neck. He continued to curse and claw at it for several seconds before Scarlet pulled the knife from her belt and cut the creeper away in two small strokes.
“Lovely planet,” Baasen said, waving his hand in front of his face to keep the clouds of tiny biting insects from flying into his mouth when he spoke.
“You could have stayed on the ship,” Han said.
“You’d have trusted me on your precious Falcon?”
“I’d have trusted Chewie.”
Leia had wrapped her face in a gauzy white scarf to keep the bugs away, but she was fighting to keep her tall black boots from sticking in the thick, muddy jungle floor. Han walked at the rear of the group, one hand on his blaster, waiting for something larger and hungrier than the bloodsucking insects to make an appearance. All around them, the air was full of the whine of tiny wings and the calls of unseen animals. Everything stank of rot.
Once the Bothan was freed, Scarlet shifted back to the front of the group and took point again. She moved through the thick undergrowth, finding the most solid footing available and avoiding the tangles of vine and moss that hung from the branches above. Occasionally, she opened up a hologram of the terrain on her datapad and checked their location. She looked like she knew what she was doing, so Han trusted that they were heading on the right path to find the temple. If not, he’d never know. The jungle looked exactly the same in every direction. And the heavy canopy completely blocked off the sky, making his usual tools for orienting useless.
“Watch out,” Scarlet said, pointing off to her left and moving right. “Deep mud here.”
Leia pulled her boot out of another mud hole with a wet sucking noise. “And that makes it different how?”
Instead of answering, Scarlet shouted in alarm and danced away from the large puddle, yanking out her blaster as she moved. Behind her, the Bothan yelled and backpedaled into Baasen, nearly knocking him down. By the time Han reached the front, Scarlet was pointing her weapon at a large creature in the middle of the puddle. Its wide mouth was large enough to swallow a Wookiee whole, and a cluster of eyes the size of Han’s fist sat on top of its broad head. Its brownish gray skin was almost exactly the same color as the mud around it, and when it croaked at them, its mouth was filled with big flat teeth.
“Don’t shoot it!” Han yelled as he ran up to it.
Scarlet frowned and cocked her head. “It almost ate me.”
“It wasn’t going to eat you. Look at it. All the eyes on top of its head and camouflaged skin—it spends most of its time hiding under the mud. And those teeth are for grinding plants, not animals. Don’t shoot it for being ugly.”
“Sure,” Scarlet said, holstering her blaster. “Didn’t realize you guys were friends.”
Han leaned over and patted the monster’s snout. “It’s just curious. Never seen a human before, I bet.”
“What about Bothans?” Sunnim said, clearly not entirely convinced by Han’s explanation.
Han ignored him. “Watch out for us,” he told the monster. “We’re not very nice.”
As if in res
ponse, the creature slid back under the mud almost without a sound. Scarlet rolled her eyes at Han and started off again, Sunnim close behind.
“Didn’t know you were such an animal lover,” Leia said when she caught up to him.
“If everyone got to kill anything that looked big and scary, Chewie would never be able to leave the ship.”
Leia laughed and hooked her arm through his, using his support to keep her feet out of the worst of the mud. “Funny, I always took you as a shoot-first sort of fellow.”
“Oh,” Han said, “trust me. I am if you’re waving a blaster in my face. Not for the crime of being slimy and having too many eyes.”
“See?” she said. “There, you keep doing that. Surprising me.”
“I’m a complicated man. Many layers to me.”
Leia jumped over a large tangle of roots, using Han’s arm to keep from sliding when she landed on the muddy jungle floor on the other side. A cloud of the little biting insects burst out of tiny holes in the ground when her foot hit, and for a few moments neither of them spoke. Leia clutched her scarf around her head, and Han waved his hand to drive off the insects. After a while, the bugs seemed to get tired of annoying them and left.
“You know what I find?” Leia asked.
“About?” Han responded.
“Things with layers. When you peel off a layer, you usually find another, smaller layer of the same stuff underneath.”
Han laughed despite himself. “You asking to look?”
She swatted him, but he could see her smiling under the veil. If it weren’t for the mud, creepers, stinging bugs, and nearby presence of a hyperspace-disrupting alien technology already at least half under the control of the Empire, it might have been a very pleasant walk.
Something the size of Han’s hands flapped out of the jungle canopy and landed on the Bothan’s shoulder. It had large, diaphanous wings in dozens of bright colors. They seemed to sparkle and radiate even with only the faint light the jungle let in. The body was thin and multi-legged and graceful, with a small, wedge-shaped head and large, black eyes. A long tail curled behind it, quivering gently.
Han froze. “Sunnim,” he said loudly, though trying to keep his tone conversational so no one panicked. “Do not move.”