Scoundrel’s Luck – 70

After a week of amusing themselves by working on the Falcon Han and Chewbacca are happy to drop to sublight speeds. The beauty of the Aldo Spachian Comet is legendary. Trapped between two stars of an otherwise unremarkable binary system, the comet is so spectacular that beings will risk death for a look. Any pilot wishing to pass close to the comet has to fly a tightrope between its two stars. Overcompensating to escape one star’s gravitational attraction often means plunging into the other.

Han rechecks the course the nav computer has plotted. The quickest route to Tatooine runs right between the stars, through the comet’s coma, a gaseous sphere 100,000 kilometers across. Buried somewhere inside the coma is a 10 kilometer chuck of dirty ice, rock, and metal which they will probably not see unless they hit it. Han briefly considers flying around the entire system. But Leia – or Alfreda – will no doubt risk the shortcut. Han does not intend to be outdone by a woman, whatever her name.

The comet currently hangs almost exactly between Aldo and Spach. Even from a distance of several tens of millions of kilometers, each star is the size of the Falcon and shines with an intensity that would dim a turbolaser blast by comparison.

Most comets have two tails, a straight one with a firey appearance, and a glowing, slightly curved one. The Aldo Spachian Comet has four tails, two straight and two curved. The straight, firey tails shoot a quarter million kilometers in opposite directions from the gaseous coma. They end in stubby, mushroom-like caps. Han knows that these tails consist of ionized gases dragged away from the comet by solar winds. He guesses that the unusual stubby tall caps are created when the solar wind of the opposite star forces the tall to curl back on itself.

The glowing, curved tails sweep away from the coma, also in opposite directions. They are made of dust particles so fine that the touch of starlight knocked them into space. Perhaps a half-million kilometers from the coma, each tail turns back in a great arch and tapers to a narrow point that ends abreast of the coma.

To the occasional brave-hearted tourist, the star-trapped comet is a natural phenomenon of supernatural beauty. To Han, who is braving the system’s hazards, the comet is a sobering picture of the tumultuous forces he challenges.

The Falcon’s emergency receiver channel sounds a chime alarm. “I thought this looked too easy,” the smuggler mutters. He opens the emergency channel. The message is a simple SOS, apparently set to transmit automatically whenever a ship comes into range. Although Han tries to raise a sentient response, none comes.

“Where’s that coming from?”

Chewbacca groans a disbelieving reply.

“I only know one fool who would crash-land on the comet nucleus,” Han growls. “Leia!”

Chewie sighs.

“We ought to leave her there,” Han says. “That would serve her right for racing me.”

His comment elicits a not from the co-pilot.

“If we had any sense, that’s exactly what we’d do.”

The Wookiee nods again.

Han studies the comet. What are the chances someone can survive a crash on it? With two suns this close, the Corellian guesses the temperature on the surface can melt iron. If the ship’s hull has been breached, there will be no survivors. If the hull has remained intact, they can last only a matter of hours.

“I guess we don’t have much sense.”

Chewbacca growls his agreement. He has already locked onto the signal with the direction finder. Han shifts his attention to plotting the safest route.

What he sees on the flight computer vidscreen concerns him more than the danger posed by the twin suns. A large wedge has appeared 85,000 kilometers behind the Falcon. Two smaller silhouettes have separated from the large one. It can only be a Star Destroyer dispatching TIE fighters!

“They followed us!” Han yells. “How’d they do that?”

Chewbacca utters a question.

“Just one,” Han says. “I don’t know where the second destroyer is.” The TIE fighters already streak toward the Falcon. The destroyer remains stationary; Han doubts it will move. Bringing a ship its size close to the tricky gravity wells of a binary system is sheer folly.

During the long hyperspace jump, Han and Chewbacca drain one power cell from the Falcon’s batteries. Keep track of the number of power cells they use during this adventure.

If Han fights the TIEs now, Click Here
If Han tries to answer the distress call before the TIEs catch him, Click Here