It was the Ewok she had sat in front of earlier, with a single white stripe running diagonally across a stocky body that was otherwise as black as s.p.a.ce. They stopped in front of Luke and stood there sissing and chortling together.

"Go ahead," Luke said. "Get it out of your system now. Who's your friend?"

"Tar... Tarfang," Saba laughed. "He sayz he can help us find our friendz... if you are finished chasing Ishi Tib."

SIX.

Save for the lining of golden wax, the rows of shine-b.a.l.l.s stuck to the ceiling, the random tunnel openings, and the lack of even a vague sense of up or down, the interior of the spherical hangar resembled all the s.p.a.ceports Han Solo had visited on a thousand unknown, out-of-the-way planets scattered across the galaxy. There was the usual collection of battered transports, the usual cargo of stolen goods on open display, the usual dregs-of-their-species smugglers bustling in and out of their vessels, working harder to make dishonest livings than they would have at honest jobs.

Han felt a swell of nostalgia rise inside, and he found himself missing the days when he could debark in such places and know that n.o.body was going to mess with him and the Wookiee. Of course, now he had a Jedi Knight wife, a pair of Noghri, and a refitted battle droid to back him up, but it just wasn't the same. Chewbacca had been his co-conspirator as well his best friend, a pain-in-the-neck conscience at times but also a comrade- in-arms who understood the betrayals and disappointments that had turned Han into the wary, bitter smuggler he'd been when Leia came along and rescued him from that aimless life.

"At least we've solved one mystery," Leia said. She pointed at a duraplast pallet filled with crates labeled RECONSTRUCTION AUTHORITY-SANITATION. "That may explain why it's been so hard to track down the RA supplies shrinkage."

"I don't know," Han said. He eyed the giant bugs that seemed to be crawling across every surface. "This pile of rocks isn't big enough to take everything that's disappearing."

The more Han watched the activity around the transports, the more he felt his skin crawl. The bugs were marching in and out of the vessels completely unescorted, off-loading cargo, foodstuffs, even vital ship's tools, and stacking them at the base of the boarding ramps. Instead of stopping the insects, the crews were doing the same thing in reverse, on-loading huge stoneware crocks, b.a.l.l.s of multicolored wax, and many of the same tools and foodstuffs the bugs were unloading. And n.o.body seemed upset about working at cross purposes. In fact, save for the care they took to avoid crashing into each other, they barely seemed to notice one another at all.

Han spied the sleek gray wedge of a Horizon-cla.s.s s.p.a.ce yacht resting about halfway up the "wall" of the docking vault, its landing struts sunk well past their feet in the waxy substance that coated the chamber. The boarding ramp was lowered and a big Tendrando Arms Defender Droid was standing beside it, her ma.s.sive torso and systems-packed limbs at odds with her cherubic face and smiling mouth.

"There's the Shadow," Han said. He brought the Falcon's nose around and started toward an open berthing s.p.a.ce on the wall next to Mara's ship. "Let's go say h.e.l.lo."

Leia shook her head. "It doesn't feel like there's anyone aboard."

"No?" Han scowled; it wasn't like Mara to leave the Shadow open and unattended-although with Nanna there, that wasn't really the case. Basically a bodyguard version of Lando's successful YVH battle droid crossed with a TD Nanny Droid, the Defender was more than capable of guarding the ship. Even the bugs seemed to realize that; every now and then, one would stop by and sweep its antennae across the ramp, but they never attempted to enter. "Probably in the cantina already."

Han swung the Falcon's stern "up" along the wall and landed in the open berth. The struts sank into the wax and seemed to hold the ship fast, but he fired the anchoring bolts anyway. Micro-gravity could be tricky; it was impossible to tell which way it was pulling until something started to slide.

Han rose and strapped on his blaster. "Okay, let's go see Nanna.

Maybe she can fill us in."

They lowered the boarding ramp and reeled back as a wave of warm, too- sweet air rolled through the hatchway. The vault was filled with a blaring cacophony of ticking that immediately sent a rivulet of sweat rolling down Han's spine. Half a dozen bugs appeared at the bottom of the ramp and started to board. They had deep orange thoraxes, pale blue abdomens, and feathery, meter-long antennae. Han's stomach turned queasy, but he started down to meet them.

Leia caught him by the arm. "Han? What's wrong?"

"Nothing." Han swallowed hard, then continued down the ramp. He was not going to be intimidated by a memory of the Kamarians. Besides, these guys were only about waist height, with four skinny arms, scrawny legs, and a stubby set of mandibles better suited to steadying loads than rending flesh. "I'm okay."

Han stopped midway down the ramp. He folded his arms across his chest and a.s.sumed a stance wide enough to block the ramp, then forced himself to glare down at the lead bug. In addition to the smooth green b.a.l.l.s of its two main eyes, it had a trio of ocular lenses atop its head, leaving him uncertain as to which set of eyes he should meet.

"Where do you fellows think you're going?"

The lead bug stared up, ticking its mandibles nervously, and emitted a soft drumming from its chest.

"Burrubbubbuurrr, rubb."

It dropped to all sixes, lowering itself to about knee height, then dipped its antennae politely and shot between Han's legs.

"Hey!" Before the bug could continue up the ramp, Han spun around and caught it by the undersized wings on its back. Some insects had a habit of hiding eggs wherever they could, and he didn't want any infestations aboard the Falcon. "Hold on!"

The bug spun its head around to meet Han's gaze, then pointed at his hands and gently clacked its mandibles. "Ubburr buurr ub."

"Captain Solo," C-3PO said helpfully, "I do believe the insect is requesting that you release it."

"You understand this stuff?" Han asked.

"I'm afraid it's only an educated guess," C-3PO said. "This form of their language is as obscure as the dance-"

"Then not a chance."

"Han," Leia said, "I don't sense any danger here. Until SeeThreepio figures out how to communicate-"

"I am communicating." Han fixed his gaze on the nearest of its eyes and said, "I don't know who you think I am, but no one boards the Falcon until I say so."

The other five bugs dropped to all sixes, then slipped to the underside of the ramp and continued toward the hatchway.

"No!" Han flipped the insect he was holding off the ramp, then started after the others. "Stop them!"

The Noghri stepped in front of Leia and placed themselves squarely in the door, crouched for action. The bugs swung back to the ramp's upper side and tried to squeeze aboard the Falcon anyway. The first pair were knocked away by a pair of quick Noghri kicks.

The remaining trio of insects stopped where they were and dropped into a six-limbed crouch. Their antennae fell flat against their heads, and a soft little "rrrrrrrr" began to come from their chests. Someone else might have described the sound as meek, but Han knew better than to a.s.sume. Bug minds did not work the same way as those of other species.

BD-8, the Solos' battle droid, appeared behind the Noghri and pointed his blaster cannon over Meewalh's shoulder. "Do not be alarmed!"

With the full jacket of laminanium armor and red photoreceptors in a death's-head face, he still resembled the YVH droid from which he had been refitted. "Intruders identified. Permission to fire?"

"No!" Leia snapped. "Stand down! Return to leisure station."

"Leisure station?" BD-8's tone grew doubtful as the other bugs continued up the ramp. "Ma'am, we're being boarded!"

"We're not being boarded," Leia said.

"Not if I can help it!" Han said.

He s.n.a.t.c.hed another of the bugs and, in the low gravity, sent it spinning twenty meters across the hangar. Cakhmaim and Meewalh removed the last two, grabbing a mandible and executing quick twists that sent the insects tumbling away.

Han nodded his approval. "See?"

A bitter odor began to waft up from the floor. Han looked down to see two of the dislodged bugs standing beside the ramp on their four front limbs, their abdomens raised so they could squirt greenish fluid on the sides of the ramp.

"What the garzal?" Han cried.

"Ubbub bubbur," the bugs drummed.

"Bubbur yourselves!"

Han raised his arms to shoo them away. They continued to squirt, and C-3PO picked that moment to interrupt.

"Captain Solo, we seem to have another visitor."

The droid pointed past Han's shoulder.

Han turned around to find a tall, bald-headed figure with large, buggy eyes and a pair of thick tusks approaching the Falcon's boarding ramp. In his hands, he carried a rag and a spray canister.

"Great," Han said. "Now an Aqualish."

"That can't be good," Leia said. The Aqualish were an aggressive species known across the galaxy for picking fights - and jumping into the middle of them. "What's he want?"

"To wash the viewports, it looks like," Han said. The Aqualish reached the base of the ramp and started forward toward the bugs. "What do you want, Fangface?"

The nickname was despised by Aqualish, but it was better to take an aggressive tone with them. They were less likely to start a fight with someone who did not intimidate easily.

"Nothing, friend," The Aqualish spoke in the gravelly voice typical of his species. "Just to help you out."

Han and Leia exchanged puzzled glances. Friend was not usually a word you heard from an Aqualish.

"We're not your friends," Han said.

"You will be."

The Aqualish waited until the bugs finished squirting, then shooed away the one on his side of the ramp and sprayed a harsh-smelling foam over the same area.

"That stuff better not be corrosive," Han warned.

Aqualish could not smile-the need had probably never arisen during their evolution-but this one lifted his head and managed to seem like he was.

"It's not." He tossed the spray canister to Han. "You need to clean that mess up."

The Aqualish pointed at the far side of the ramp, where the other worker had squirted its goo, then started to wipe the area he had already coated. Han sprayed a thick layer of foam over the side of the ramp, filling the air with a smell somewhere between rotting fruit and burned synfur.

"Tell me again what I'm doing?"

"When you tossed the workers off, they marked you," the Aqualish explained. He tossed Han the rag. "Now you have to start over, or they'll call their soldiers and tear your ship apart to see what you're hiding."

"Start over?" Leia asked.

"Transacting," the Aqualish explained. "Isn't that why you're here?"

"Uh, maybe," Han said. "You mean like trading, right?"

"More like taking," the Aqualish said. "They take what they want.

You take what you want. Everybody's happy."

The insects started up the ramp again.

"Boarding imminent," BD-8 reported. "Permission to-"

"No!" Leia said. "Stand down."

Han finished wiping the foam away, then stood up to find the six insects lined up on the ramp below.

"They're not going to lay eggs or anything?" he asked.

"No, they only do that in the heartcomb," the Aqualish a.s.sured him.

"Just let them bring out whatever they want, then take back whatever you want to keep. It's a lot easier-and safer."

"If you say so." Han stepped aside to let the bugs pa.s.s. "Okay?"

The lead worker responded with a single mandible clack, which was simultaneously echoed by the rest of the squad.

"That would be an affirmative," C-3PO offered helpfully.

The bugs started up the ramp.

Han jumped down beside the Aqualish and returned the spray canister and rag. "Sorry about that Fangface stuff." He reached for his money.

"What do I owe you for the help?"

"Nothing, friend." The Aqualish waved a dismissing hand. "It happens to everyone the first time."

"Really?" Han's mind began searching for angles, trying to figure out what kind of swindle the Aqualish was trying to pull. "Hope you don't mind me saying so, but you're a pretty helpful guy for your kind."

The Aqualish watched the last bug disappear into the Falcon, then nodded. "Yeah. I don't get it, either." He turned and started back toward his own vessel. "This place just makes me feel good."

Han, Leia, and the others spent the next hour returning to the Falcon most of what the bugs carried off. At first, the work was confusing and frustrating-especially after they had carried the same crate of protein packages aboard for the seventh or eighth time. But eventually order emerged, with the ship's crew leaving anything they could bear to part with at the foot of the ramp and stacking whatever they wanted to keep in the forward hold. Toward the end, the bugs even started to add b.a.l.l.s of wax and jugs of some amber, sweet-smelling spirit to the Falcon's stack.

Finally, the only item under contention was Killik Twilight, a small moss-painting that had once hung outside Leia's bedroom in House Organa on Alderaan. Designed by the late Ob Khaddor-one of Alderaan's foremost artists-the piece depicted a line of enigmatic insectoid figures departing their pinnacle-city home, with a fierce storm sweeping in behind them. Han had no idea why the bugs were so taken with it-apart from the subject matter-but every time he put it on the keep stack, an insect would deposit a jug of spirits or a shine-ball in its place and carry it back down the ramp again. Han was about ready to start exterminating. The painting was Leia's most prized possession, and he'd almost died trying to recover it for her on Tatooine.

A bug emerged from the Falcon carrying Killik Twilight in its four arms and stopped about halfway down the ramp, peering over the top of the frame. Han, waiting at the bottom, folded his arms and sighed.

"Come on," he said. "Let's get it over with."

Instead of continuing down the ramp, the worker jumped to the floor and disappeared behind the disordered heap of crates and spare tools stacked next to the Falcon.

"Hey!"

Han rushed to the other side to cut off the bug's escape, but it was nowhere to be seen. He glanced back at its buddies - waiting for this last bit of "transacting" to be completed-but they only turned their oblong eyes away and pretended not to notice. Han sneered, then knelt down to peer behind the Falcon's landing struts.

Nothing.

"Blast!" Han slowly turned, his pulse pounding as he searched for the bug. Halfway up the hangar wall, he saw the Skywalkers emerging from a pa.s.sage with Saba Sebatyne and a black-furred Ewok, but no sign of the thief. "Huttslime!"