The others muttered similar imprecations at him as he moved up and down the line, expostulating with the Pilgrim-candidates. Hah finally stopped and stood there, wanting to howl aloud with rage, like a Wookiee. Chewie did howl in frustration.

"Chewie, short of setting my blaster on stun and shooting them all, there ain't no way of stoppin' them," the Corellian observed, bitterly.

"Hrrrrrrrnnnnnnnn," Chewie agreed, sadly.

In a last ditch effort, Han tried talking to some of the younger people, even going so far as to offer one or two a job. None would listen to him. He soon gave up in dis-gust. This had happened to him once before, on Aefao, a remote world at the opposite side of the galaxy from Nar Shaddaa. There had been an Ylesian revival, and Han had tried to warn those who were heading for the ships, but he found he couldn't compete with the Pilgrim-candidates' wide-eyed memories of the Exulta-tion. Only a few of the small, orange-skinned, hu-manold Aefans had listened to him. Over a hundred had boarded the Ylesian missionary ship ....

Hah watched the line of Corellians shuffling into the waiting transport, and shook his head. "Some people are just too dumb to live, Chewie," he said.

Or too desperate, the Wookiee rejoined.

"Yeah, well, just another reminder to me that stickin' your neck out is a good way to get your head chopped off," Han said, disgustedly, as he turned his back on the doomed Corellians and began walking away. "Next time I think about doin' that, pal, I want you to give me a Wookiee love-tap that will put me on my b.u.t.t. You'd think 'after all these years I'd learn .... "

Chewie promised, and, together, they walked away.

Despite the fact that he had his undersized hands full running Besadii, Durga the Hutt refused to give up his search to find his parent's murderer. Six members of the household staff had died under rigorous interroga-tion, but there was absolutely no indication that any of them had been involved.

If the household staff was innocent, then how had Aruk been poisoned? Durga had another conversation with Myk Bidlor, who confirmed this time that there were traces of X-1 in Aruk's digestive tract. The lethal substance had indeed been eaten.

Durga terminated the communication, and went for a long undulation, roaming the halls of his' palace, thinking. His expression was so forbidding that his staff already highly nervous, and understandably so- fled before his approach as though he were an evil spirit from the Outer Darkness.

In his mind, the young Besadii lord was going over the last months of his parent's life, mentally ticking off every moment of every day. Everything Aruk had eaten had come from their own kitchens, prepared by the staff of chefs-including the ones now deceased. (He made a mental note to hire two new chefs .... ) Durga had had the entire kitchen and the servants' quarters scanned for any trace of X-1. Nothing. The only place that they'd picked up even the smalle~ hint of the substance had been on the floor in Aruk's office, not far from his usual parking spot for his repulsor sled. And that had been just the barest trace.

Durga frowned, contorting his birthmark-stained features into something resembling a demon-mask. Something was higgling at him. A memory. Niggling... wiggling... niggling...

Wiggling... wriggling! The nala-tree frogs/ Suddenly the memory was there, sharp and clear. Aruk, belching as he reached for yet another live nala-tree frog. Up until now, Durga had never considered the possibility that the poison could have been deliv-ered by means of a living creature-after all, it seemed only reasonable that the creature would die from the poison long before it could be ingested.

But what if nala-tree frogs were immune to the ef-fects of X-l? What if their tissues had been filled with ever-increasing amounts of X-l, without affecting them?

Aruk had loved his nala-tree frogs. He'd eaten them every day, sometimes as much as a dozen of them every day.

"Osman!" Durga bellowed. "Fetch me the scanner!

Bring it straight to Aruk's office!"

The Chevin appeared briefly, acknowledged the or-der, and then vanished. The sounds of his running feet faded into the distance. Durga began undulating at top speed toward his parent's sanctum.

When he reached there, he was only seconds 'ahead of the panting servant, who was carwing the scanning device. Durga grabbed it from his hands, then rushed into the office. Where is it? he thought, looking wildly around.

Yes, there! he realized, heading for the corner. Stand-ing in the corner, forgotten, was Aruk's old snack-quarium. He'd used it to keep live food fresh, and, the last few months of his life, that live food had mostly been nala-tree frogs!

Thrusting the scanher's probe-tip into the snack-quarium, Durga activated the instrument. Moments later, he had his answer. The mineral deposits on the globe's gla.s.sinc sides contained sizable amounts of X-l!

Durga let out a bellow of rage that made the furniture rattle, then went berserk, smashing the snackquarium with one mighty blow of his tail, slamming his bulk into furnishings, crushing and destroying everything in his path. Finally, hoa.r.s.e and panting, he halted in the ruins of Aruk% office.

Teroenza. Teroenza sent the frogs.

Durga% first impulse was to fly to Ylesia and person-'ally smash the t'landa Til to a b.l.o.o.d.y pulp, but, after a moment~ reflection, he realized that it would be be-neath him to soil his hands and tail on a lesser being. Besides, he couldn't just do away with the High Priest. Teroenza was a good High Priest, and would be hard to replace. The Besadii lord was uncomfortably aware that if he had Teroenza killed, the t'landa Til on Ylesia might well refuse to continue their charade as priests in the Exultation. Teroenza was well-liked by those who served under him. He was 'also an able administrator, who had brought Besadii ever-increasing profits from the spice factories.

I'll have to have a trained replacement ready to step in before I act against him, Durga thought.

Also, Durga reflected, the evidence against the High Priest was purely circ.u.mstantial. It was remotely possi-ble that Teroenza was innocent. Durga had kept a close eye on Teroenza~ expenditures, and no large sums of credits had left his account. He could not have pur-chased the poison unless he did it in a very clandestine way... and he did not have the kind of credits it would take to purchase large amounts of X-1.

Unless he sold that wretched collection of his .... Durga thought, but he knew that hadn't happened. He kept close watch over all the shipping manifests going into and out of Ylesia, and Teroenza had, in fact, been adding to his collection for the past nine months.

The Besadii lord resolved to begin training a new t'landa Til that very week. He'd continue his investiga-tions, and by the time the new High Priest w~ts ready, he'd hire a bounty hunter to bring him Teroenza~ horn. Durga envisioned the horn, mounted on the wall of his office, right next to Arnk~ holo-portrait.

Teroenza might not be the only one who deserved to die on Ylesia. Someone had had to capture the nala-tree frogs, put them into shipping containers, and load them onto ships. Durga resolved to investigate the situation from all angles before placing his bounty.

Of course the real murderer was the individual who had purchased the X-1 and masterminded the entire operation. Jiliac was his prime suspect. She had the credits, she had the motivation.

Durga had already begun searching for links be-tween Jiliac and the Malkite Poisoners. Now he would 'also search for links between the Desilijic leader and Teroeuza ....

Surely he'd find something . . . some record. Ship-ping records, deposits of credits, withdrawMs, records of purchases... somewhere there would be evidence that would link both Teroenza and Jiliac to Aruk's death, and he, Durga, was going to find them.

He knew that the search would require both time and credits. His own personal credits, unfortunately. Durga didn't dare jeopardize his admittedly precarious position as leader of Besadii by spending huge amounts of the kajidic's money on what would be called a per-sonal vendetta.

Zier and his other detractors were already watching him, just ready to pounce on unjustified expenses.

No, he'd have to pay for it himself... and it would strain his personal resources to do so.

Durga thought for a moment of Black Sun. A word to Prince Xizor, and he'd have all of Black Sun's impres-sive resources at his command. But that would be open-ing the door to a Black Sun takeover of Besadii, and possibly all of Nal Hutta.

Durga shook his head. He couldn't risk that. He didn't want to wind up as one of Xizor's va.s.sals. He was a free and independent Hutt, and no Falleen Prince was going to give him his marching orders.

Durga left Aruk's smashed office, and went to his own. He had a long session of work at his datapad be-fore him. He couldn't let his work for Besadii suffer, so most of his search would have to be done at night, while most Hutts were sleeping.

Grimly, Durga reached for his datapad, and began keying in requests for information.

He had found his parent's murderers, he was sure of it. He knew the how, and the why. Now to gain the proof that would allow him to challenge Jiliac and de-mand persona] satisfaction for a blood-debt.

Durga's tiny fingers began racing over his datapad, and the greenish tip of his tongue protruded from the corner of his mouth as he concentrated ....

Teroenza paced slowly down the hallway in the Yle-sian Administrative Center to meet with Kibbick. The Hutt "overlord" had requested his presence almost twenty minutes ago, but Teroenza had been busy. In the old days he'd never have dared to keep a Hutt lord waiting, but things on Ylesia were changing, slowly but surely.

He, Teroenza, was taking over. That idiot Kibbick was just too stupid to realize it.

Every day he was making plans, hiring the additional guards Durga had authorized, and fortifying the planet. Instead of hiring mostly Gamorrean guards, strong but even dumber than Kibbick which was saying something!--Teroenza was carefully choosing tough-ened mercenary fighters. They cost more, but they'd be worth it in battle.

And Teroenza knew there was going to be a bat-tle .... The day would come when he'd have to openly declare his break with Nal Hutta. Besadii would never take such a bid for independenee lying down, but Teroenza planned to be ready. He would direct his troops in battle, and victory would be theirs!

The High Priest was already making arrangements to bring the mates of the t'landa Til priests to Ylesia. His own mate, Tilenna, would be one of the first to arrive. Kibbick was such an idiot that he probably wouldn't even notice for some time. The differences between male and female t'landa Til were most readily appar-ent to t'landa Til. To most other species, except for the male's horn, they appeared virtually identical. Teroenza was also planning on increasing the defenses, even if he had to sell off part of his collection to do it. He'd checked the price of a ground-mounted turbo-laser and been horrified, but perhaps Jiliac would help him out with the credits he needed. After 'all, he, Teroenza, was the only one who could implicate her in Aruk's murder. It made sense that she'd want to stay on his good side.

When Teroenza reached Kibbick~ audience cham-ber, he hesitated before the port'd, consciously sum-moning up enough of a servile air to pa.s.s. He didn't want Kibbick to be aware of his contempt. Not yet. Soon, though ....

Soon, Teroenza comforted himself. Play your part. Listen to him babble. Agree with him. Flatter him. Soon you won't have to do this any more. Only a few more vwnths to put up with his foolishness. Soon ....

One of the first things Han Solo did 'after getting the Millennium Falcon was challenge his girlfriend, Salla Zend, to a race. In the smaller, unreliable Bria he'd never had a hope of defeating her swift Rimrunner, but nOW...

Whenever the two of them happened to have cargoes bound for the Kessel Run, the two smugglers would race through that dangerous area of s.p.a.ce. They fre-quently ran spice and other contraband to the Stenness System, and the Kessel Run was the fastest way there.

One time Han would win... the next, Salla. The two ships' were very evenly matched. Neither of the two smugglers liked losing, and their friendly competi-tions became increasingly fierce. They began taking chances... dangerous ones. Especially Salla. An expert pilot, she flew her ship alone and was proud of her skill at getting the last bit of power out of her vessel.

One morning Han and Salla left her apartment to-gether, kissed each other goodbye, and promised to meet on Kamsul, one of the seven inhabited worlds in the Stenness System. Hah grinned at Salla. "Loser buys dinner?"

She smiled back at him. "I'm going to order the most expensive thing on the menu just to spite you, Hah."

Han laughed, waved, and they parted to go to their respective ships.

The run to Kessel was uneventful. Han managed to beat Salla in by nearly fifteen minutes, but one of the loader droids a.s.signed to his ship developed a malfunc-tion, and slowed the loading process. Salla~ Rimrunner came swooping down for a reckless landing while he was still loading up, and Hah was barely five minutes 'ahead of her in lifting off.

He was flying with Chewie as copilot and Jarik in the topmost gunner's mount. Imperial patrols in the Kessel region were becoming more and more prevalent these days.

Hah keyed his intercom as they went blasting into the Run. "Look sharp, kid," he told Jarik. "I don't want any Imp patrols catching us by surprise."

"Right, Hah. Just keep a lookout on those soupod-up sensors of yours, and I'll blast 'em before they know what hit 'era."

The first obstacle to be faced once they left Kessel was the Maw-a treacherous, roughly spherical region of s.p.a.ce containing black holes, a few neutron stars, and scattered main-sequence stars. From a distance, the Maw appeared in Kessel~ nighttime sky to be a rounded, fuzzy, vari-colored glow, much like a nebula. But as a ship drew closer, the spherical shape became clearer. The Maw glowed with the light from the suns within it, the ionized gas and dust trails snaking throughout in bands of color. And, seemingly looking back at Hah, were the accretion disks of the black holes.

The accretion disks resembled white, watching eyes against the dimmer regions of the Maw. Depending on their angle relative to the Falcon, those eyes were slit-ted, narrowed, or wide open. In the middle of each "eye" was a pinp.r.i.c.k black "pupil" marking each of the black holes that were sucking in the trails of starstuff.

Almost like the jungle on an Ylesian night, Hah thought. Black nights with watching predator eyes ....

Navigating the perimeter of the Maw at normal sub-light speeds was a tricky proposition, and racing around it at full throttle was asking for disaster. Han glanced at his sensors, and saw that Salla was gaining on them. He increased speed, pouring it on, until he was going faster than he ever had before on a run.

"She won't catch us now," Hah said to Chewie. "I'm gonna hold this lead until we're into the Pit and then we'll be far enough 'ahead that we'll make our jump to hypers.p.a.ce at least twenty minutes ahead of Rimrunner."

"The Pit" was a perilous asteroid field encased within a wispy gaseous arm of a nearby nebula. To-gether, the Maw and the Pit made the Kessel Run the dangerous proposition it was. Hearing Han% boast, Chewie gave an unhappy moan and made a suggestion.

"Whaddaya mean, let her beat us?" Han demanded indignantly, his gloved fingers flying over the controls as they went screaming past the first cl.u.s.ter of black holes. The gas and dust from nearby stars was being pulled into the accretion disks in long, attenuated streamers of blue-white and rose. "You crazy? I ain't buying dinner! I'm gonna win a nerf tenderloin with a broiled ladnek tail, surf and turf special, fair and square!"

Chewie eyed the Falcon% speed indicator nervously, and voiced another suggestion.

"You'll buy everyoneg dinner if I slow down?" Hah gave his copilot an incredulous glance. "Hey pal, mar-riage must be makin' you soft these days. I can handle this. The Falcon can handle it. We're gonna win this one !"

Even as he spoke, his instruments registered a strange sensor signature from the recklessly acceler-ating Rimrunner. Han stared, eyes wide, at his board. "Oh, no . . ." he whispered. "Salla, you crazy? Don't do it!"

Moments later Rimrunner~ royhock-shaped form elongated, then popped out of real s.p.a.ce. Chewie howled. "Salla!" Han yelled, uselessly. "You crazy fool! Tryin' a microjump near the Maw is just asking for trouble!"

Chewie fretted as Han tYantically increased speed even more, checking his sensors to try and find the Rimrunner. "Where'd she go? Crazy woman! Where'd she go?"

Ten minutes pa.s.sed, then fifteen, as the Falcon sped 'along, hugging the perimeter of the Maw. Hah consid-ered trying a microjump himself, but he had no way of discovering what course Salla had followed. The only thing he could be sure of was that she wouldn't have tried jumping straight from one side of the Maw to the other. The deep gravity wells from the black holes and neutron stars would have yanked her out of hypers.p.a.ce in short order-and probably straight into a black hole's event horizon, the point of no return.

No, she had to have jumped along the perimeter, perhaps to get a straight shot at the Pit ....

Chewie whined and stabbed a hairy finger at the sen-sors. "Thatg her!" Hah said, studying Rimrunner~ read-ings. Salta was still moving, but she wasn't headed toward the Pit. She was...

"Oh, no . . "Han whispered, feeling horror wash over him. "Chewie, something must have gone wrong. She ain't goin' in the right direction... "He checked his instruments again. "She came outta hypers.p.a.ce within the magnetic field of that neutron star up 'ahead!"

Rimrunner was still moving, but no longer in a straight path. Instead S'alla~ ship was within a thousand kilometers of a neutron star, looping up in a high orbit. Han's sensors showed jets of deadly plasma spewing out both sides of the flattened accretion disk that marked the neutron star~ location.

"Either the gravity well or the magnetic field must have disrupted her navicomputer, and she came out of the microjump in the wrong place... "Han breathed, feeling as though his chest were being squeezed by a gi-ant, invisible hand. "Oh, Chewie... she~ a goner .... "

Within minutes, Salla~ ship would reach apastron, or the highest and slowest point in her orbit around the dying star. Then, scant minutes later, Rimrunner~ orbit would pull it looping back around, and Salla~ ship would pa.s.s through the edge of the plasma jet. The deadly radiation levels there would fry her in moments.

A hundred memories of Salla raced through Han~ mind between one heartbeat and the next. Salla, smil-ing at him in the morning... Salla, dressed in a glam-orous gown, taking him out for a night in the casinos... S'alla, her face smudged, fixing a hyperdrive as easily as most people would fix breakfast . . . except that Salla never had learned to cook ....

"Chewie . . "he whispered hoa.r.s.ely, "we gotta try and save her."

Chewbacca shot him a look, then pointed a. hairy fin-ger at the sensors and growled.

"I know, I know, Rimrunner~ awfully close to that plasma jet," Hah said. "And for us to get close, we risk gettin' our ship knocked out and joinin' Rimrunner. But Chewie... we gotta try."

The Wookiee~ blue eyes narrowed with determina-tion and he roared his agreement. S'alla was a friend. They couldn't abandon her.

Hah opened a frequency on the Falcon~ corem, even as he began frantically ordering his navicomputer to run calculations. "Salla? Salla? This is Han. Honey, you there? We're gonna try and get you... but you'll have to do what I tell you. Salla? Come in! Over."

He tried twice more as the navicomputer began spouting possible approach vectors. He knew the mag-netic fields, ionized gas, and plasma trails would inter-fere with communications, but he hoped that the Falcon~ powerful sensors and transmitters could punch through.

"Chewie, tell Jarik to get into a vacuum suit and stand by the airlock with the magnetic grapple and the winch. I'm gonna tell her to eject, and we'll match her trajectory and pick her up."

Chewie gave Han a skeptical glance. "Don't look at me like that!" Han snapped. "I know it won't be easy! I've got the navicomputer workin' on an approach vec-tor that will keep us outta the plume~ magnetic field. Don't stand there tellin' me all the stuff that can go wrong! Get movin'!"

Chewbacca made a hasty exit.

Han tried the comm unit again. "Salla... Salla, this is Falcon. Come in." He wondered whether Salla~ abrupt reversion to real s.p.a.ce had caused her to be flung against the controls. She could be lying there, un-conscious... or dead.

"Hey, baby, answer me. Come in, Salla .... "

He continued to call as he sped toward the apas-tron coordinates. The neutron star's magnetic field was so powerful that it must have blown out every active system on Rimrunner the moment Salla came out of hypers.p.a.ce. That would almost certainly include Rim-runnerk sole lifepod, as that system was usually kept "on-line"-ready for an emergency ejection at a mo-mentk notice.

Salla was still moving, coasting at the same speed she had been when she'd first jumped into hypers.p.a.ce, but now she had no way to brake or alter direction. Most importantly, no power to blast free of the gravity well. She'd be pulled closer and closer in an ever-tighter or-bit until her ship encountered the edge of the accretion disk, then... boom.

By the time that happened, though, Salla WOuld have been dead for 'at least five minutes, from pa.s.sing through that plasma particle jet ....

Not if I can help it, Hah thought grimly. "Salla?

Salla? Can you read me? Come in, Salla!"

Finally, he heard a crackle of static, then a faint reply. "... Hah... Rimrunner... engines out. Power gone... batteries dying... can't... goner, honey... stay away...."

Hah swore loudly. "No!" he yelled into the comm. "Salla, listen to me and do exactly what I say! Rim-runner~ a gorier, fight, but not you, Salla! You're gonna have to abandon ship, and you've got only a few min-utes to do it! Was your lifepod on-line when you got hit?"

u .. 'affirmative, Han... lifepod dead... no way to eject .... "

It was as he'd thought. Her lifepod was useless, its electronic systems blown.

He wet his lips. "Yes, you can eject! We're comin' to get you! Salla, you get your rear down to your aft airlock and stuff yourself into a vacuum suit! Take both suit thrust paks, hear me? When the first runs out, activate the second. Full throttleLI'm gonna try and match your trajectory, but I want you its far away froin Rimrunner and that plasma jet as possible!" "Won't work... jump?"