"The point is, Princess, that five months ago you told me you loved me, and it wasn't the first time. You used to love me. You believed it, and you made me believe it. I thought our love was something special, something I would gladly die for, and I'm not going to let you throw away our future just because some other prince comes along!"

Other prince, he'd said. Leia tapped her foot, had to consciously will herself to stop. "Then you admit it? You are the king of Corellia?"

"I never said that."

Leia looked away at Threepio, glared back at Han. "What if I don't love you anymore? What if I really have changed my mind?"

"The news nets are already reporting that I've abducted you," Han said.

"They began broadcasting the story just before we bugged out. If you don't love me, then I'll bring you back in seven days, and I'll serve my time in prison. But if you do love me," Han paused, "then I want you to kiss Isolder good-bye and marry me." He jerked his thumb, pointing at his chest.

Leia found her head shaking in frustration. "You've got a lot of nerve."

Han stared into her eyes. "I've got nothing to lose."

He really was putting everything on the line, as he had done for her time and time again. A few years ago she had thought he was dashing and bold, perhaps a bit reckless. Now that she thought about it, he had only seemed reckless because he so often risked his life for her. Han would almost throw it away at her whim. What she had once deemed an almost inhuman courage was really a sign of his unflagging devotion. And Leia found her heart pounding in fear at the thought that someone could love her that much.

"All right," Leia swallowed. "You have a deal?"

"Princess Leia!" Threepio said in consternation.

Leia added, "?but I hope you like prison food."

As soon as the Bith ship dropped out of hypers.p.a.ce near the maelstrom of rubble that circled the Roche system, Luke knew there was trouble. He couldn't feel Leia anywhere nearby. He went to his room, called the New Republic's amba.s.sador to the Verpines over subs.p.a.ce radio, and got the old man out of bed.

"What's so important?" the amba.s.sador snapped.

"What has happened to Princess Leia Organa?" Luke asked. "I was supposed to meet her here."

The amba.s.sador frowned. "She got kidnapped a couple of days ago, by General Solo. I watch the holo vids when I can, but I'm a busy man! I don't have much time for such nonsense. You could always call Coruscant, if it's that important to you."

Luke frowned. His status as a war hero didn't give him enough pull to make hypers.p.a.ce calls on holo vid. Besides, a call wouldn't get him any closer to Leia. He needed to go back to Coruscant, start from there. "Do you have any ideas where I might find Han and Leia?"

The amba.s.sador yawned, scratched his bald head. "Who do you think I am, the chief of espionage? n.o.body knows where they are. Eyewitnesses claim to have sighted Solo on at least a hundred worlds. Invariably it turns out to be only a rumor, or some lookalike gets nabbed. I'm sorry, son, I can't be any help." The amba.s.sador flipped off the communicator, and Luke sat, puzzled. He seldom received such rude treatment from anyone, much less dignitaries. He guessed that the operator hadn't told the amba.s.sador who was calling.

Luke closed his eyes, stretched with his senses. Sometimes, in his sleep he would dream about Leia. Usually, if she was within the same star system, Luke could feel her presence. She was nowhere nearby. He decided to get his fighter out of storage and head for Coruscant.

Han was working in the galley aboard the Falcon, trying to put together his fourth candlelight dinner in as many days. The smell of spiced aric tongue wafted up, and Han was busy spooning some pudding into cora sh.e.l.ls when the pudding bowl tipped over and dropped on the floor, spattering the walls and Han's pant leg. Chewbacca had been standing at the viewport, and the Wookiee turned and laughed.

"Go ahead," Han said. "Laugh it up, fur brain. But let me tell you something: by the end of this trip, Leia is going to realize she loves me. In case you haven't noticed, it's only been four days, and she's already warming up to me nicely."

Chewbacca growled disparagingly.

"You're right," Han said with a tone of dejection, "Hoth will warm up before she will. And I suppose mating rituals are much simpler where you come from. When you love a woman, you probably just bite her on the neck and drag her to your tree. But we handle things differently where I come from. We make our women nice dinners, we compliment them, treat them like ladies."

Chewie laughed derisively.

"So we shoot them and drag them into our s.p.a.ceships," Han admitted. "All right, so maybe I'm not that much more civilized than you, but I'm trying. I'm really trying."

"Han, oh Han," Leia called from the lounge. "By any chance, do you have that first course ready? I am getting so hungry, and you know how irritable I get when I'm hungry."

"Coming, Princess," Han called sweetly as he opened the oven. He tried to pull out the pan of spiced aric tongue with the bottom of his ap.r.o.n, burned his fingers. He yelped and stuck his hot fingers in his mouth, got a hot pad and dumped the tongue on a plate. Somehow, the tongue looked bluer than it should, and he wasn't sure if he had overcooked it, if the tongue was just bad, or if maybe he'd put in too much ju powder.

"Are you about done in there?" Leia called.

"Coming!" Han shouted, and he brought the tongue to her. He'd set a nice red tablecloth over the hologram board, and the candelabra was all aglow.

Leia looked spectacular in a dazzling white dress jumpsuit and pearls, the flames dancing in her dark eyes. He set the plate down, and said, "Dinner is served."

Leia looked at him questioningly, raising an eyebrow.

"What?" Han said. "What is it this time?"

"Aren't you going to slice it for me?" she asked. Han looked at the vibro-blade on the table. He'd seen Leia hack her way through a jungle with a dull machete. He'd seen her slice ropes off her hands with a piece of broken gla.s.s. He'd even seen her dispatch some kind of swamp monster with a pointed stick that wasn't anywhere near as sharp as that vibroblade. "Of course I'll slice it for you," Han said. "It would be my pleasure."

He took the blade, began slicing the tongue into portions. When he was halfway done he decided he'd better check his progress. "Are these slices all right for you? Would you like them thicker, thinner, sliced lengthwise instead of sideways?"

"The portions look fine," Leia said, and Han finished slicing the tongue, sat down to the table and picked up a napkin.

Leia cleared her throat, looked up at him.

"What now, my pet?" Han asked.

"Are you going to sit at this table with your dirty ap.r.o.n on?" Leia asked. "I mean, that is a little disgusting."

Han remembered a moment when they had shared stale rations in a battlefield on Mindar, dead stormtroopers all around. "You're right," Han said. "I'll take it off." He got up, removed the ap.r.o.n, took it and hung it on a peg in the galley. He came back and sat down. Leia cleared her throat.

"What now?" Han asked.

"You forgot the wine," Leia said, looking at her gla.s.s. Han glanced at her plate, noticed that she'd already begun eating without him.

"Would you prefer white, red, green, or purple?"

"Red," Leia answered.

"Dry or wet?"

"Dry!"

"Temperature?"

"Thirty-nine degrees."

"You aren't going to let me eat with you again tonight, are you?"

"No," Leia said firmly.

"I don't get it," Han said. "It's been four days now, and outside of ordering me around, you haven't said one word to me. I know you are mad at me. You've got a right to be. Maybe I've ruined it for you, and you're never going to be able to like me. Or maybe you're getting so used to having servants around, that you just want to turn me into your slave.

But I would hope, if nothing else comes out of this, that at the very least you would still like me as a friend."

"Maybe you're asking too much of me," Leia said.

"I'm asking too much of you?" Han said. "I'm the one who has been cooking and cleaning and taking care of your clothes and making your bed and flying this ship. Just tell me this. Just answer me this, and answer honestly: isn't there anything you like about me anymore? Isn't there just one thing? Something? Anything?"

Leia didn't answer.

"Maybe I should just turn the ship around," Han said.

"Maybe you should," Leia agreed.

"But I don't get it," Han said. "You agreed to come on this trip," he shrugged, "albeit under duress, I'll grant you that. But you're madder than you should be. If you want to take it out on me, then go ahead. I'm right here. Han Solo, in the flesh." He leaned his face forward. "Go ahead, slap me. Or kiss me. Or talk to me."

"You're right," Leia said. "You don't get it."

"Get what?" Han said. "Get what? Give me a clue!"

"All right!" Leia said. "I'll spell it out for you: you, Han Solo the man, I can forgive. But when you brought me on this ship, you betrayed the New Republic that we serve. You're not just Han Solo the man anymore.

You were Han Solo the hero of the Rebel Alliance, Han Solo the General of the New Republic. And that Han Solo I can't forgive, I refuse to forgive.

Sometimes what you represent is so important that you can't let your standards down. You become respected as an icon, as much for what you are as who you are."

"That's not my fault," Han said. "I refuse to be bound by anyone's preconceived images of me."

"Fine," Leia said. "Maybe you don't think the universe should work that way. Maybe you want to be free to run off to be a pirate again or play around like a little boy, but that's not how the universe works! You're going to have to face up to that."

"Fine," Han said throwing his napkin on the table, "so I'll face up to it. After dinner. You tell me what you want me to do, how you want me to act. I'll change?forever. I promise. Okay?"

Leia stared up at him, and something in her features softened. "Okay."

Four days later the Millennium Falcon dropped out of hypers.p.a.ce above Dathomir and the proximity indicators screamed in warning. Leia came running, leaned over Han's pilot seat to look out: Star Destroyers littered the sky while shuttles and barges plodded up from a small red moon in a solid line toward a huge ma.s.s of metal piping and struts?ten kilometers of gleaming scaffolding that floated in s.p.a.ce at an L5 point.

It looked like some giant insect, but docked around it were thousands of craft?one Super Star Destroyer, dozens of old Victory-cla.s.s models and escort frigates, thousands of box-like barges. For one moment, Han stared at them in awe and then breathed angrily, "Trespa.s.sers!"

Leia drew a deep breath. "Well, Han, you've certainly struck the jackpot this time. Why, this planet must have more enemy fighters than a Hutt has ticks."

Han glanced over at Chewie. The Wookiee was trying to pull up the nav charts for the Ottega star system. On the head-up holo display, two red fighters began vectoring up from a Star Destroyer. "Can the sarcasm, Princess, and get yourself up to the gun well, we've got company."

Han nodded out the viewscreen to the TIE interceptors screaming toward them. Leia knew enough not to ask if Han could outrun them. He couldn't.

"Seriously, Leia, you better get up there," Han said. "Once they get close enough to see that we're not an Incom Y-four, they won't wait to shoot." Leia ran up the corridor to the stairwell.

Over the Falcon's radio, a controller began querying, "Incom Y-four Raptor, please identify yourself and your destination. Incom Raptor, please identify."

"Captain Brovar," Han answered, "carrying an inspection team for the planetary defense systems?" Han wiped the sweat from his forehead. This was the part he always hated, waiting to see if they'd swallow his story.

After a delay of four seconds, Han knew the flight controller was querying his supervisor. Always a bad sign. "Uh," the controller said after a moment, "this planet doesn't have a defense system."

Chewbacca glared at Han, and Han keyed the mike. "I know. We're here to inspect the sites to install the planetary defense system." The controller remained quiet too long, so Han added lamely, "We have an extra one, or parts of an extra one. I mean, you've got to store these defense systems somewhere, right?"

"Incom Y-four Raptor," a gravelly voice called over the same frequency.

"Do you have some kind of strange modifications to your ship?"

The interceptors were coming into visual range and Han couldn't rely on stealth anymore. He reached up to switch on the signal jammers, and Chewie winced. "It's all right," Han promised. "We won't fry our own circuitry this time. I tested it before we left."

Han flipped the switch and prayed. Chewbacca roared in fright and Han glanced over?the nav computer had gone down. As Han watched, the run lights for the hyperdrive motivator died, along with the rear targeting computer. Han realized belatedly that he hadn't tested the jammers with the nav computer working. They wouldn't be jumping to hypers.p.a.ce anytime soon.

Chewie growled in terror, and Han dipped toward the glittering shipyard, diving toward a Kuat escort Frigate. All that metal would have to play h.e.l.l with the sensors, and even though the TIE interceptors were technically faster and more maneuverable than the Falcon, Han would match his flying skills against these academy jocks any day.

Bolts of blue blaster fire ripped across the Falcon's prow, bounced off the hull, and Leia snouted over her radio, "They're in range!" Threepio stood behind the pilot's seat watching the blaster fire, shouting, "Oooh, aah!" and ducking with every near miss.

Han heard the welcome blam, blam, blam of the quad cannons as Leia returned fire. The Falcon screamed toward the scaffolding and the Frigate beyond. Huge beams of plasteel flashed past, and Han flipped the Falcon sideways to slip through the scaffolding. Han locked his forward targeting computer onto the Frigate's primary sensor array. Without active shielding on, the huge Frigate was just another hunk of s.p.a.ce debris, and Han's first blast enveloped the sensor array in blue lightning. He fired his proton torpedoes in rapid succession, and they flashed in a brilliant ball that would have fried Han's eyes if he hadn't looked away.

Among the brightening mushroom clouds, Han reversed thrusters, fired two concussion missiles into the thin stem of the Frigate, the walkways that joined the Frigate's monstrous engines with its forward a.r.s.enal. As the slowing Falcon dove for the breach in the Frigate's hull, chunks of shrapnel burst against the forward concussion shielding.

Chewie roared and shielded his face with his hands. The Falcon slammed into the yawning hold of the Frigate, and warning sirens screamed. The control panels darkened as the concussion shielding overloaded, brightened again as it died. Smoke was rising from Chewie's panel, and he growled.

"Shhh . . ." Han hissed, putting his hand over Chewie's mouth. Both of the TIE interceptors screamed into the Frigate and exploded. The corridor that the Falcon had crashed into filled with light and fire.

That's the problem with those transparisteel windows on the TIE fighters, Han thought. The worthless things darken when they detect a blast, and then you can't see anything for the next two seconds. He'd counted on it.

Han flipped off his radio jamming, began shutting down the Falcon. Leia came running down the corridor. "What in the h.e.l.l do you think you're doing? You almost got us killed!"

"Listen!" Han said, raising a hand for quiet. Between the concussion of the torpedoes and the fighters, and a few well-placed ion blasts, the Frigate's...o...b..t was already destabilizing. The ship was peeling away from the docks as Dathomir's gravity well sucked it down.

"Oh, great!" Leia said. "I'm supposed to be happy that we're going to crash into the planet instead of blow up in s.p.a.ce?"

"No," Han said. "Our concussion shielding should have kept us from damaging the Falcon too badly, and now that our sensor jamming is off, Chewie should be able to get the nav computer back on line. Meanwhile, Zsinj's navy thinks we all crashed, and as the Frigate drops toward the planet, we'll quietly move out of their interception range for ten minutes or so?plenty of time for us to plot a course. Then we just casually ease our way out of here and head for home. Trust me, I've done this before!"

Han took a deep breath and prayed. "Go ahead, Chewie, turn the nav computer back on. Show her."

Chewie growled, shot Han a nasty look and flipped the switch. The monitor stayed dim. Chewie frantically began testing other switches. The hyperdrive motivator stayed off, as did the rear deflector shields.

Threepio had been watching behind the pilot's seat and he began gesticulating wildly but refrained from speaking. When he saw that the motivators wouldn't go on, he shouted, "We're doomed!"

Han jumped out of his seat. "It's okay, it's okay, n.o.body panic. We just have a little fried circuitry here. I'll fix it." He shoved his way past Threepio and ran down the corridor to the engineering station and pulled off a face plate to get to the motivator circuitry. The nav computer he could sort of live without?for ten minutes. Just make a quick jump to get out of the solar system, then take a few days to try to fix it nice and leisurely in the cold of s.p.a.ce. But the motivators, he needed those now.

He pulled off his vest, wrapped it around his fist, jerked back the face plate. Fire erupted from the charred slag in the circuit box, and Leia appeared behind him with a fire extinguisher. She began spraying the circuitry and Han stepped back, saw that it was useless.

"It's okay, it's okay," he muttered and ran back to the c.o.c.kpit, fired all his circuits and let the diagnostics computer begin a readout. The forward sensor arrays had been smashed during the crash. "That's okay, I don't need sensors as long as I can see where I'm going," he groaned.

Concussion shielding gone. Top radio dishes clipped off. Most of the rest of it looked pretty good. As long as the diagnostics were correct, they could fly out of here?as long as they could break free of the wreck and no one shot at them and no one caught them and they didn't try to make it offplanet.

Han's head began to whirl, and he realized that the Frigate must be spinning as it sank toward Dathomir. "Hang on, folks, it's going to be a rough ride down!" he muttered. He glanced back at Leia, saw that she wasn't mad, wasn't berating him. Instead, her pale face was set in fear, and her eyes seemed dilated. The hair on her scalp had raised. Han had never seen her so scared.

"What? What?" he asked, glancing frantically at the diagnostics display.