As Han and Sodarra walk up the Falcon’s entry ramp, Han checks his chronometer. Twenty minutes.
“Prepare to leave port!” Sodarra orders.
“What happened?” Lieutenant Birdloe demands, following them toward the cockpit. The Captain tells Birdloe what they found in Fink’s Hole.
“If Vellam has stormtroopers there,” Birdloe says, “the Eradicator must be here. Perhaps leaving port is not wise.”
“What would you do?” Sodarra snaps. “Wait until Vellam’s agents come here, too?”
“No, sir,” Birdloe replies meekly.
Sodarra remains motionless for several minutes. Only the faint trembling in his upper lip belies his anger. At last, he says, “Vellam is everywhere; we cannot hid from him. Perhaps we must simply run.”
Han checks his watch. Fifteen minutes. “Now hold on,” he says. “First I saved you, then I brought you to Shador. If you think I’m going to try outrunning a Star Destroyer -“
“You can take your chances against the Eradicator,” Sodarra says, drawing his sidearm, “or you can die here.”
Han pushes the blaster barrel aside with one finger. “It’s no big deal,” he says nonchalantly. “Where are we going?”
“I must think,” Sodarra says.
Five minutes later, Chewbacca reports they are ready for lift-off. Sodarra still does not give the order to leave. Han is growing nervous. His last hope is to blow the external cargo hatch and evacuate the hold before the bomb explodes. That will not work unless they are in space.
“Tatooine,” Sodarra says at last. “I may find help there, and it is outside Vellam’s sector.”
The Corellian checks his watch. Four and a half minutes. “Fine,” he says. He streaks skyward and swings around the planet, hoping to avoid the Eradicator.
Once they are in space, Han enters Tatooine’s coordinates in the nav computer and activates the astrogation program. Three and a half minutes.
Chewbacca growls an urgent warning.
The pilot drops his attention to the flight computer vidscreen. A destroyer-sized wedge approaches from the far horizon. It is dispatching a squadron of TIE fighters. “Looks like the party’s over,” Han says. “They’ll be here in four minutes.”
“Battle stations, Lieutenant Birdloe!” Sodarra orders. The lieutenant goes to the main cabin to spread the alarm. “I don’t see the problem, Captain Solo,” Sodarra says. “The nav computer should finish the calculations in plenty of time.”
“This isn’t a D&S Supercircuit,” Han bluffs. “We need at least six minutes for that calculation.”
Sodarra levels his gun at Han. “Let’s hope not.”
Chewbacca moves a paw to the cargo hold evacuation switch. Han checks his watch. Two minutes – still enough time to recover the crate, if Sodarra acts fast. Han shakes his head ever so slightly.
All three watch the TIE fighters close in. The pilot moves away, but at far less than top speed. He wants Sodarra’s men to be concentrating upon a space battle when he blows the cargo hatch.
The nav computer beeps and displays the ready signal. Thirty seconds. Han does not activate the hyperdrive.
“Go to hyperspace!” Sodarra demands. The first long-range TIE shots burst to starboard.
“No,” Han says. “We’ve got to dump a bomb.”
“A bomb?” Sodarra asks.
Han smiles. “Yeah. It used to be a cloaking device.”
A look of terror crosses Sodarra’s face. “Lord Vader?”
Han looks at his chronometer. “Fifteen seconds,” he anounces.
Sodarra laughs bitterly and holsters his blaster. “Then we both lose, Captain Solo.”
The pilot does not like Sodarra’s tone. “How?”
“I know Alfreda Goot. Lord Vader has hired her on occasion. She is a ruthless murderer.”
Han stops the countdown. Three seconds. “You just bought some time.”
“Alfreda is a bounty hunter,” Sodarra explains. “If she has Leia, Darth Vader will not make his final journey alone.”
“You knew that Alfreda wasn’t really Leia?”
“Yes,” Sodarra says. “All along.”
Han hits Sodarra, then jumps from his chair and grabs the Imperial in a choke hold. “You lying scum!” The Imperial has purposefully misled him and placed Leia’s life in danger, and that angers Han beyond control. His fury surprises even him; if it was his own life that Sodarra threatened, he would have remained more calm and in control of himself. He tightens his grip on Sodarra; he just can’t help himself.
The Falcon rocks with the first near miss. Its laser cannons flare in response. Chewbacca ignores the melee and takes control of the freighter.
“Swamp slug!” Han screams. The race he had dismissed as a stupid practical joke now seems the most important thing in the galaxy; he has to win it – just as soon as he finishes with Sodarra. “I’ll kill you!”
“How will that help her?” Sodarra gasps. “Or do you simply seek a scapegoat for her death as well?”
Han relaxes his grip. “What are you saying?”
“That Alfreda kidnapped Leia to lure you into a trap. You would have seen this, were you not so determined to lay your troubles at her feet.”
A TIE fighter screams past the cockpit. A half dozen of the Falcon’s probing energy bolts follow close behind. “The race was a set-up?” He releases Sodarra entirely.
The Imperial nods.
“Then it can’t be Leia’s fault!”
“Precisely,” Sodarra says. “What are you going to do about it?”
Chewbacca growls a warning about the destroyer’s range.
Han looks around the cockpit as if awakening from a long sleep. “Eight TIEs at medium range, and the Eradicator closing to tractor beam. How about Vader’s life for Leia’s, no tricks?”
“Agreed,” Sodarra says. “Now activate the hyperdrive.”
“Not yet.”
“What now?” Sodarra yells.
“We still have someone to dump,” he says. Han tells Sodarra about the open transmission channel. “One of your men must be working for Vellam.”
“I have been as blind as you,” Sodarra says. “There is no other explanation. But who?”
“I know how to find out.”
Han overrides the automatic switcher in the power core, and manually punches over to the next cell in the hodge-podge of power cells and power core from which the Millennium Falcon draws her energy. The freighter’s ship-board lights flicker.
A moment later, Sodarra makes an announcement over the intercom. “Attention. The Falcon is disabled; we cannot flee. We will fight until the last minute, then eject Lord Vader’s cockpit and overload the ship’s power core. Of course this means our deaths, but perhaps it will shield our commander from detection.”
Sodarra and Chewbacca go to guard the cargo hold. Han attempts to dodge TIE shots without revealing that the Falcon is fully functional.
Thirty seconds later, the port escape pod ejects. “Target the excape pod,” Han orders. Four bolts strike the unarmored pod almost instantly, then Han activates the hyperdrive.
Han’s trick does not drain any power cells. Check the tally you have been keeping. If the travelers have drained four or more power cells from the Falcon’s batteries, Click Here
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