Having disposed of the immediate Imperial threat, Han opens a hailing channel and addresses the corvette.
“Disabled corvette: this is the free-freighter Millennium Falcon. Do you desire further assistance?” Han smugly awaits the affirmative response.
“Your offer brings us great joy, Falcon,” responds a man’s voice. “We will prepare the starboard docking door.”
Before maneuvering into position, Han checks the locations of the Star Destroyer and the other three TIE fighters. He still has at least eight minutes before either approaches close enough to pose a danger. Han smiles; he will need only five to load his passengers, make the next hyperspace calculations, and escape. He swings the Falcon into position with a confidence he hopes his passengers will note.
The airlocks equalize pressure, and Han deactivates the Falcon’s security program. He awaits his guests with a magnanimous smirk. When the lock opens, however, Han’s smile fades and he reaches for his blaster pistol. The crew he has rescued consists of elite stormtroopers and an Imperial officer!
The stormtroopers make no move to raise their own weapons. Instead, the officer removes his vac-suit helmet and says, “Please, do not worry. I am Sodarra, commander of these stormtroopers. We are deserters.” He is a short, stocky man with vaguely oriental features.
Han does not lower his blaster. “Stormtroopers don’t desert,” he says.
Captain Sodarra shrugs. ” And stormtroopers do not attack Imperial craft. One of us must be mistaken.” The man looks Han squarely in the eye. “I will understand if you must abandon us.”
“I decide who I abandon and who I rescue.” Han holsters his blaster. “Right now, you’re on my good side. Call the rest of your crew.”
Sodarra hesitates. “We have one rather large piece of luggage.”
“How large?” Han asks skeptically.
“We must load it through an exterior cargo hatch. Even now, my men prepare it.”
“Mister, we’ve got just about -” Han looks at his chronometer – “four minutes before an Imperial Star Destroyer and a flight of TIEs get here.”
“Yes, I know,” the captain answers calmly. “Nevertheless, we will not abandon our cargo. If you cannot wait, I will understand.”
Han sighs. “I told you, I decide who I abandon. Chewie, open the cargo hatch. I’ll start hyperdrive calculations.”
*******
A jolting explosion and an orange storm of energy announces the Eradicator’s arrival. “Concussion missiles!” Han gasps. “These guys mean business.” A moment later, the destroyer’s turbolaser batteries light the blackness around the Falcon as if she has wandered into a small sun.
Han looks at the flight computer. The destroyer is still a tremendous distance behind the Falcon. It has opened up at just less than maximum range, then purposefully overshot the Falcon. Apparently, the destroyer captain does not wish these deserters to escape.
Han stops the hyperdrive calculations. The Falcon stands trapped between the destroyer and a grid of death. If they try to enter hyperspace through the destroyer’s salvo, they will be melted to slag long before reaching proper velocity.
Han hits the intercom switch. “How’s that loading?”
Sodarra answers, “A minute longer -“
“And we’ll be free-floating molecules!” Han finishes. “That destroyer captain thinks he’s engaging a battle cruiser!”
Despite his anxious words, Han knows he cannot yet budge the Falcon. Sodarra’s crew has still not entered the ship. If he moves now, they will fall free – and be taken by Imperials or abandoned to a lingering death. In addition, Han does not know where Chewbacca is; he would never risk Chewbacca’s life simply to save his own.
So, Han sits in the cockpit for sixty seconds and observes the Eradicator’s wedge slowly closing to tractor-beam range. All the while, the destroyer’s weapon bursts cascade ever closer. Despite the awe-inspiring power of the destroyer’s weapons, Han does not enjoy the display.
Finally, Chewbacca growls over the intercom and Han punches the Falcon’s sublight drive beyond specification. He does not need to waste time deciding which way to flee; the Imperials have left only one choice: into Mon Torri’s rings!
As Han drops the Falcon into a corkscrew drive toward the planet, an Eradicator turbolaser bolt strikes Sodarra’s corvette. The ship simply disappears.
Captain Sodarra crawls into the cockpit. “My gratitude for your patience,” he says.
“Let’s not cut it so close next time, okay?” Han responds. He looks at his flight computer the destroyer has now commenced proving with its tractor beams.
“Where are we going?” asks Sodarra, eyeing Mon Torri’s growing rings.
The destroyer stops firing. The three TIE fighters fall in behind the Falcon, but they have a long way to go before reaching their range. A series of silhouettes separate from the Eradicator. They can only be more fighters. “Into that rainbow,” Han answers.
Sodarra nods. “In there, the tractor beams will find more than Governor-General Vellam expects. A wise move.”
“That’s the Governor of the Bright Jewel?” Han asks, pointing at the destroyer wedge.
“Yes,” Sodarra nods.
“Leia really did it this time.”
Han has no time to question Captain Sodarra further – they are entereing Mon Torri’s first ring. As he hoped, the ring is easily thick enough to conceal the Falcon – about a kilometer and a half. It consists motly of pebble-sized rocks and ice whcih occasionally slip through the weakened shields to skitter across the Falcon’s hull with irritating, high-pitched squeals. Unfortunately, the ring also contains enough large chunks to keep Han busy dodging.
Although Han does not relish the debris’ abuse of his ship, the pebbles will clog the Eradicator’s tractor beams with tons of useless rock and ice. The Falcon’s recent finish job seems a reasonable trade-off for eluding a Star Destroyer.
The TIE fighters reach the ring a few seconds behind Han. They do not enter it, however. They remain outside the ring and take pot-shots. Han breaths a sigh of relief.
“They intend to pin us here until we hit something!” Sodarra gasps.
“Relax,” Han says smugly. “You’re riding with the best smuggler this side of Shador.”
As if to prove him wrong, a dozen boulders appear in front of the cockpit. Han jerks the controls with maniacal precision, hoping as much as attempting to dodge the largest chunks. His efforts do not succeed completely; one man-sized chunk of ice bounces off the forward hull.
The Falcon’s power fails immediately. The drives cut out and internal life-support systems fail.
“Chewie?” Han yells, alarmed. “What happened?”
Chewbacca bellows a response.
“Hot-rodding?” Han replies. “That hurts.”
Chewbacca ignores him and rummages around in the dark. The Falcon continues to drift, ice and rock now bouncing off the hull with painful regularity. No one says a word as Chewbacca pounds and growls then growls and pounds. Finally, a terrible thump sounds and the power returns.
“My first mate’s a technical wizard,” Han casually tells Captain Sodarra.
Before Sodarra can respond, Chewie says, “Annoarrr, uuurggh.”
“What do you mean you don’t know how long it will last?”
Chewbacca growls.
“I think he means just that,” Captain Sodarra observes.
Han dodges another man-sized rock, then studies his flight computer. The TIE fighters and destroyer are so close the vidscreen shows only one wedge. He looks overhead. Beyond the ring’s debris, a great white mass of metal fills the horizon. Han cannot see the edge of the destroyer in any direction.
“How’d that get there?” he asks.
Turbolaser salvos strike rock and ice around the Falcon. Within a matter of seconds, Han estimates, a very big gap will open in Mon Torri’s outer ring. “Hold on!” Han yells. “I’m taking us in.”
He drops the Falcon out of the ring and accelerates. His move takes the Imperials by surprise. Buying enough time to reach Mon Torri’s atmosphere before the TIE fighters jump the Falcon. The destroyer, Han knows, is an old one which can skim the outer layers of a planetary atmosphere, but he has to gamble that Governor-General Vellam will not risk crossing the rings to catch a battered Corellian freighter.
A moment later, high clouds engulf the Falcon. As it flashes between cloud banks, Han looks for a mountain valley he can use to foul his pursuers’ tracking equipment. Chebacca, who has climbed into the upper laser cannon turret, reports that only two TIEs are following.
Finally, Han drops out of the clouds and finds a deep valley. Snow and narrow, bristling trees line it, and a long river of ice fills its bottom. “Perfect!” Han exclaims. He drops the Falcon so low that it barely clears the ice pinnacles rising from the clacier.
A few moments later, Chewbacca reports the TIEs have turned back. Hugging the valley walls, Han rises to the top of the ridge and slips into the next valley. As he attempts this the second time, the Falcon’s power cust out.
“Chewie, I thought you fixed that!”
Chewbacca only growls in response. An instant later, the Falcon plows into a deep carpet of snow.
*******
Han does not know how long he has lain unconcious, but when he awakes, he is resting in a bunk. Captain Sodarra stands over him. “You’ll be just fine, Captain Solo. That was the finest flying I’ve seen in my many years.”
“Thanks.” Han tries to get up. “My head hurts.”
“Rest,” Captain Sodarra says. “I’ve posted pickets. The Falcon lies safely hidden beneath the snow.”
One of Sodarra’s men bursts into the room. An inch of snow caps his head and shoulders. “Blizzard force snowtroopers approaching, sir. Sqad strength.”
“Any AT-AT walkers?” Sodarra asks.
“Negative. It’s a reconnaissance unit.”
“I’ll catch up on my sleep later,” Han says, reaching for his blaster holster.