The Espos at the doors were unlimbering wide-bore, shoulder-fired blasters, but the confused crowd was milling around and no one had a clear idea yet of just what was going on. The antigrav dancers began alighting as beings raised their attention from a.s.sorted intoxicants, stimulants, depressants, psychotropics, and placebos. The room buzzed with a sort of befuddled, translingual "Huh?"

Ploovo Two-For-One, having finally dissuaded the d.i.n.ko from his abused nose by main force, flung it across the room. The d.i.n.ko landed upon the dinner of a wealthy dowager, destroying the appet.i.te of everyone at that table.

Ploovo, still caressing his wounded snout, turned just in time to see Han Solo vault the bar. "There he is!" the underworld boss exclaimed. The two bartenders rushed to stop Han, swinging the stun-staves they kept behind their bar for the preservation of order. He met the first with crossed wrists intersecting the bartender's, stopping the descending stun-stave, brought his knee up, and elbowed the first mixologist into the second. Chewbacca, following his partner over the bar with a joyous bellow that made the lighting fixtures tinkle, fell on top of the bartenders.

A blaster bolt, fired by one of the Espos at the doors, shattered a crystalline globe of four-hundred-year-old Novanian grog. The crowd bleated, most of them diving for the floor. Two more shots blew fragments out of the bar and half slagged the cash repository.

Han had struggled past the vigorous tangle of Chewie and the bartenders. He grabbed for his blaster and threw down on the Espos, peppering their general location with short bursts. One dropped, his shoulder smoking, and the others scattered for cover. Off to one side, Han could hear Ploovo and his men clubbing their way through yelling, charging customers. He headed for the bar.

Han turned to his objective, the gravity controls. With no leisure to a.n.a.lyze them, he frantically began moving indicators toward maximum. Luckily for everyone not within the insulated area of the bar, he noticed when he'd happened on the general field override, and there were no longer any free-flight dancers in the air. Thus, no one was crushed, or dashed to smithereens.

As it was, Han ran the place's gee-load up to three-point-five Standard. Ent.i.ties of all descriptions sank to the carpets, borne down by the staggering weight of their own bodies, proving there were no heavy-gee natives here today. The Espos flopped with the rest. Ploovo Two-For-One, Han noted in pa.s.sing, strongly resembled a beached bloatfish.

There was silence except for the grunts of determined breathing and the smothered groans from those who'd suffered some minor mishap in hitting the deck. No one seemed badly hurt, though. Han put his smoking blaster away, studying the gravity-field's controls, telling himself, Yo, now; what we need is a tight corridor out of here. But he was biting his lip, and his fingers poised indecisively over the adjustments.

With an impatient hoot, Chewbacca, who'd put away both bartenders, picked Han up by the shoulders and set him aside. The Wookiee stood over the console, his long fingers moving with nimble precision, peering frequently from his work to the door. In moments the bodies of the two or three patrons lying along his corridor of lighter gravity stirred weakly. Everyone else, the Espos and Ploovo's underworld contingent included, remained pasted to the floor.

Chewbacca eased himself carefully back over the bar and into the normal-gee pa.s.sageway. He clamored smugly to Han.

"Well, I was the one who thought of it, wasn't I?" the pilot groused, trailing after his friend. Outside The Free-Flight, he discreetly closed the doors behind him and straightened his clothes, while Chewie gave himself a fastidious brushing.

"Hey, Chewie, you were slow with your left just now, weren't you?" Han queried. "Is your speed going, old-timer?" Chewbacca belched savagely; age was a standing joke between them.

Han stopped a group of laughing revelers who'd been about to enter the Free-Flight. "This establishment is officially closed," he proclaimed with weighty importance. "It's quarantined. Frank's Fever."

The merrymakers, intimidated by the sinister sound of that imaginary malady, didn't even think to question. They left at once. The two weary partners grabbed the first robo-hack they saw, and sped off toward their ship.

"Things are getting tough for the independent businessman," Han Solo lamented.

III.

SEVERAL minutes later, the robo-hack deposited Han and Chewbacca around the corner from their docking bay, Number 45. They'd decided it would be wise to scout the landscape to determine whether the forces of law, order, and corporate dividends had gotten there first. Peering cautiously around the corner, they saw a lone portmaster's deputy dutifully locking an impoundment-fastener on their bay's blast doors. Han pulled his first mate back into concealment for a conference. "No time to wait until the coast is clear, Chewie; they'll be sorting things out back at the Free-Flight any time now. Besides, that geek is about to lock up the bay, and Espo patrols would get kind of curious if they saw us burning our way through the blast doors."

He peeked out again. The deputy had nearly finished making connections between alarms and the blast-door solenoids. No doubt the bay's other door was fastened as well. Han looked around and noticed an Authority liquor and drugs outlet to his rear. He took his partner's elbow.

"Here's the plan ..."

A minute later, the portmaster's deputy had wrestled the ma.s.sive lock halves into place and finished securing the impoundment-fastener. The blast doors slid shut with a shrinking of diamond-shaped opening that disappeared with a clang. The deputy pulled a molecularly coded key from its slot in the fastener, and the device was activated. Now if it were disturbed or damaged, it would instantly inform Espo monitors.

The deputy tucked the key into his belt pouch and prepared to report his errand completed. Just then a Wookiee, a big, leering brute, came wandering past in a drunken stagger, with a sloshing ten-liter crock of some vile-smelling brew cradled in his thick, hairy arm. Just as the Wookiee drew even with the deputy, a man coming from the other direction failed to avoid the shambling creature's dipsomaniacal lurches. There was a rapid, complicated three-way collision, resulting in the Wookiee's stumbling into, and spilling his liquor all over, the luckless deputy.

The instant pandemonium included accusation and counteraccusation, all in raised voices. The Wookiee gobbled horribly at both men, shaking knotted fists and gesturing to the spilled crock. The portmaster's deputy was brushing uselessly at his soaked tunic. The other partic.i.p.ant in the accident did his best to be of help. "Oh, say, that's really a shame," Han tsked with a sad, solicitous tone. "Hey, that stuff's really in there, huh," he said as he tried to wring some of the brew out of the tunic fabric. The deputy and the Wookiee were swapping inprecations and contradictory claims about whose fault the accident had been. The occasional pa.s.serby kept right on moving, not wishing to become involved.

"Fella, you better get that tunic washed right away," Han advised, "or that smell'll never come out."

The deputy, with a last threat of legal action against the Wookiee, stalked off. His pace quickened as he realized with apprehension that a supervisor might happen by at any time and catch sight-or even worse, a whiff-of him. He hurried on, leaving the other two to argue liabilities and culpabilities.

The argument stopped as soon as the deputy was gone. Han held up the key he'd lifted from the deputy's belt pouch during the confusion. He handed it to Chewbacca. "Go warm up the ship, but don't call for clearance. The portmaster's most likely got us posted for grounding. If there's a patrol ship, it'd be on our necks in no time." He estimated that eight minutes had pa.s.sed since they'd fled the Free-Flight; their luck couldn't hold much longer.

Chewbacca ran a hasty preflight while Han dashed off along the row of docking bays. He pa.s.sed three before he came to the one he wanted. In it was a stock freighter, not unlike what the Millennium Falcon had once been, but this one was clean, freshly painted, and shipshape. Her name and ID symbols were proudly displayed on her bow, and labor 'droids were busily loading general cargo under the supervision of her crew, who looked nauseatingly honest. Han leaned through the open blast doors, waving a friendly hand. "Hi there. You guys still raising ship tomorrow?"

One of them waved back, but looked confused. "Not tomorrow, bud; tonight, twenty-one hundred planetary time."

Han feigned surprise. "Oh? Well, clear skies." The crewman returned the traditional s.p.a.cer's farewell as Han strolled away casually. As soon as he was out of their sight, he took off at a run.

When he got back to Bay 45, he found Chewbacca finishing locking the impoundment-fastener on the inner sides of the blast doors, reconnecting them. Han nodded approvingly. "Bright lad. Are we revved up?"

The Wookiee yipped an affirmative and slid the blast doors shut. Locking them again, this time from the inside, he threw the molecularly coded key away.

Han had already reached his seat in the c.o.c.kpit. Taking his headset, he called port control. Using the name and ID code of the freighter down in Docking Bay 41, he requested that liftoff time be moved up from twenty-one hundred planetary time to immediately, not an unusual request for a tramp freighter, whose schedule might change abruptly. Since there wasn't much traffic and clearance for that ship had already been granted, immediate liftoff was approved at once.

Chewbacca was still buckling in when Han raised ship. Her thrusters flared, and the Falcon made, for her, a moderate and restrained departure from Etti IV. When the Espos showed up at Docking Bay 45 and cut their way in, Han reflected, they'd have one interesting time trying to figure out how somebody had sneaked a starship out from under the portmaster's nose.

The starship parted company with Etti IV's gravitational field. Chewbacca, elated over what had been a fairly nifty escape, was in high spirits. The Wookiee's leathery muzzle was peeled back in a nice-hideous smirk, and he was singing-or what pa.s.sed among his people as singing-at the top of his capacious lungs. The volume of it, in the confines of the c.o.c.kpit, was incredible.

"C'mon, Chewie," Han implored, rapping a gauge with his knuckle, "you're making all the instruments jump." With a behemothish sort of yodel, the Wookiee ceased. "Besides," Han continued, "we're not out of the heavy weather yet."

Chewbacca lost his placid look and lowed an interrogative. Han shook his head. "Naw, Ploovo's got his money; no matter how torqued off he is, his backers'll never un-pocket for a contract on us now. No, what I meant was, the long-range dish we patched together won't last forever. We need another, a top-of-the-line model. Besides, the Espos and, I guess, most other folks who like to arrest people have some kind of new sensor that evades detection on old equipment. We need one of those, too, to get back over with the smart money. One more thing-we need one of those Waivers if we're going to operate around here; we have to wrangle ourselves onto that list somehow. Dammit, the Corporate Sector Authority's wrung out thousands of solar systems; I can almost smell that money! We ain't pa.s.sing up on fat pickin's just because somebody around here doesn't like our lift/ma.s.s ratio."

He finished plotting his hyperdrive jump and turned to his partner with a sly grin. "Now, since the Authority doesn't owe you and me any personal favors, what's that leave?"

The long-pelted first mate growled once. Han spread a hand on his chest and pretended to be shocked. "Outside the law, did you say? Us?" He chuckled. "Right you are, pal. We'll take so much money off the Authority we'll need a knuckle-boom to haul it all away."

The hyperdrive began to cut in. "But first, it's time to meet and greet old friends. After that, everybody'd best hang on to their cash with both hands!" Han finished.

They had to do it in steps, of course. A hypers.p.a.ce jump took them to an all-but-deserted, played-out mining world where the Authority didn't even bother to maintain offices. A lead there, from an old man who had once seen better days, put them in touch with the captain of a long-orbit ore barge. After some finagling, during which their bona fides were checked, with their lives forfeited if that check had turned up the wrong answers, they were given a redezvous.

At that rendezvous they were met, in a deep s.p.a.ce, by a small ship's gig. When an inboard search by armed, wary men revealed that the Falcon carried no one but her pilot and copilot, the two were led to the second planet of a nearby star system. The gig parted company with them, and they came in for a landing, tracked by the upraised snouts of turbo-laser cannons. The site was a huddle of quickly a.s.sembled hanger domes and habitation bubbles. Parked here and there was a wide a.s.sortment of ships and other equipment, much of it gutted and decaying, cannibalized for spare parts.

When Han stepped down the starship's ramp, his face lit with that intense smile that had been known to make men check up and see what their wives were doing. "h.e.l.lo, Jessa. It's been too long, doll."

The woman waiting at the foot of the ramp looked back at him scornfully. She was tall, her hair a ma.s.s of heavy blond ringlets, and her shape did extremely pleasant things to the tech's coveralls she wore. Her upturned nose held a collection of freckles acquired under a variety of suns; Jessa had been on almost as many planets as Han. Just now, her large brown eyes showed him nothing but derision.

"Too long, Solo? No doubt you've been busy with religious retreats? Mercantile conferences? Milk deliveries for the Interstellar Childrens' Aid Fund? Well, it's no wonder I haven't heard from you. After all, what's a Standard Year, more or less, hey?"

"A lifetime, kid," he answered smoothly. "I missed you." Coming down to her, he reached for her hand.

Jessa eluded him, and men with drawn guns came into view. They wore coveralls, fusion-welders' masks, tool belts, and greasy headbands, but they were plainly comfortable with their weapons.

Han shook his head mournfully. "Jess, you've really got me wrong, you'll see." But he knew he had just received an explicit warning, and decided he'd better turn the conversation to the matter at hand. "Where's Doc?"

The scorn left Jessa's features, but she ignored his question. "Come with me, Solo."

Leaving Chewbacca to watch the Falcon, Han accompanied her across the temporary base. The landing field was a flat expanse of fusion-formed soil (almost any sort of solid material would do for fusion-forming, Han knew; minerals, vegetable matter, or any old enemies for whom you had no further use). Male, female, human, and nonhuman techs scrambled over vehicles and machinery of every category, aided by a wild a.s.sortment of 'droids and other automata, engaged in repair, salvage, and modification.

Han admired the operation as he walked. A tech who'd do illegal work could be found almost anywhere, but Doc, Jessa's father, had an operation that was famous among lawbreakers everywhere. If you wanted your ship repaired without questions as to why you'd been through a firefight, if you needed a vessel's ID profile and appearance changed for reasons best left unmentioned, or if you had a hot piece of major hardware to buy or sell-the person to contact, if you met his rigorous background check, was Doc. If something could be done with machinery, he and his outlaw-techs could do it.

Several of the modifications done on the Millennium Falcon had been performed through the outlaw-tech's good offices; he and Han had dealt with each other on a number of occasions. Han admired the shifty old man because held been sought by Authority and other official forces for years but never apprehended. Doc had kept himself well buffered, and piped into as many crooked bureaucrats and scuttleb.u.t.t sources as anyone Han knew. More than one strike unit had moved against the outlaw-techs only to capture a target area empty of everything but abandoned buildings and useless junk. Doc had joked that he was the only felon in the galaxy who'd have to set up an employee pension plan.

Threading among disa.s.sembled hulks and humming repair docks, Jessa led Han through the largest hangar on the base. At one end, slabs of Permex had been joined into a stark cube of an office. But when its door slid up at her command, Han could see that Doc's taste hadn't coa.r.s.ened. The office featured carpets of Wrodian weave, glittering in rich colors, each one representing generations' work. There were shelves of rare books, lavish hangings, and paintings and sculpture, some by history's greatest artists and others by unknowns who'd simply struck Doc's fancy. There was a monolithic, hand-carved scentwood desk with only one item on it, a holocube of Jessa. In it she was wearing a stylish evening gown, smiling, much more like a pretty girl at her first formal reception than a top-flight outlaw-tech genius.

"Where's the old man?" Han asked, seeing the room was empty. Jessa slid into the conform-lounger behind the desk. She clenched her hands on the lounger's thick, luxurious arms until her fingers made deep indentations.

"He's not here, Solo. Doc's gone."

"How informative; I'd never have guessed it just from seeing the room's empty. Look, Jess, I have no time for games, no matter how much you'd like to play. I want-"

"I know what you want!" Her face was bitter; it took him by surprise. "No one comes to us unless we know what they want from us. But my father's not here. He's disappeared, and nothing I've tried has turned up a hint. Believe me, Solo, I've tried it all."

Han eased down into a seat across the desk from her. Jessa explained, "Doc went off on one of his buying trips-you know, shopping for stuff that would fit the market, or for some customer's special order. He made three stops and never arrived at the fourth. Just like that. He, three crewmen, and a star yacht just dropped out of sight."

Han thought for a moment about the old man with work-hardened hands, a quick, crusty grin, and a halo of frizzy white hair. Han had liked him, but if Doc was gone, that was that. Few people who vanished under circ.u.mstances like that ever showed up again. Luck of the draw. Han had always traveled light, with emotional baggage the first thing he jettisoned, and grief was far too heavy to lug around among the stars.

So that only left thinking, Goodbye, Doc, and dealing with Jessa, the old man's only surviving kin. But when his brief distraction broke, he saw that she'd studied the entire play of his thoughts on his face. "You got through that eulogy pretty fast, didn't you, Solo?" she asked softly. "n.o.body gets too far under that precious skin of yours, isn't that so?"

That p.r.i.c.ked him. "If it was me who'd checked out, would Doc have gone on a crying jag, Jess? Would you? I'm sorry, but life goes on, and if you lose sight of that, sweetheart, you're asking to be dealt out."

Her mouth opened to reply, but she thought better of it and changed tack. Her voice became as sharp as a vibro-blade. "Very well. Let's do business. I know what you're looking for, the sensor suite, the dish, the Waiver. I can take care of all of it. We got our hands on a sensor suite, powerful, compact, a military package built for long-range scoutships. It found its way to us from a supply depot; got misrouted by a happy coincidence I arranged. I can handle the Waiver, too. That only leaves"-she gazed at him coldly-"the question of price."

Han wasn't crazy about the way she'd said it. "The money's got to be right, Jess. I've only got-"

She cut him off again. "Who said money? I know just how much you have, high roller, and where you got it, and how much you gave Ploovo. Don't you think we hear everything sooner or late? Would I a.s.sume an imbecile who's been gunrunning would be flush?" She leaned back, interlacing her fingers.

He was confused. He'd planned to arrange long terms with Doc, but doubted if he could with Jessa. If she knew he couldn't meet a decent price, why was she talking to him? "Are you going to explain, Jess, or am I supposed to do my famous mind-reading act?"

"Give your jaws a rest, Solo, and pay attention. I'm offering you a deal, a handwash."

He was suspicious, knowing there'd be no generosity from her. But what were his alternatives? He needed his ship repaired, and the rest of it, or he might as well go somewhere out on the galactic rim and bid on a contract to haul garbage. With exaggerated sweetness, he answered, "I'm hanging on your every word. By what, I won't mention."

"It's a pickup, Solo, an extraction. There are details, but that's basically it; you make contact with some people and take them where they want to go, within reason. They won't be expecting you to drop them anywhere risky. Even your stunted attention span ought to suffice for that."

"Where's the pickup?"

"Orron III. That's mostly an agricultural world, except that the Authority has a data center there. That's where your pa.s.sengers are."

"An Authority Data Center?" Han exploded. "And how do I get into a place like that? It'll look like the Espos' Annual Picnic and Grand Reunion. Listen, toots, I want that stuff from you, but I want to live to a ripe old age, too; I plan to sit in a rocker at the Old s.p.a.cemen's Home, and what you're suggesting will definitely exclude that option."

"It's not so terrible," she replied levelly. "Internal security's not especially bad, because only two types of vessels are cleared to land on Orron III-drone barges for the crops and Authority fleet ships."

"Yeah, but in case you haven't noticed, the Falcon's neither."

"Not yet, Solo, but I'll change that. We have a barge sh.e.l.l, hijacked it in transit. That wasn't much of a trick; they're robot hulks, and they're pretty dumb. I'll fit the Millennium Falcon with external control couplings and set her in where the command/control module usually goes, and part.i.tion into the hold s.p.a.ce. My people can mock up the hull structure so it'll con the Espos, port officials, or anybody else. You land, contact the parties in question, and off you go. Average ground time for a barge is about thirty hours, so you'll have plenty of leeway to get things done. Once you're in transit, you ditch the barge sh.e.l.l and you're home free."

He thought hard about that one. He didn't like anyone messing with his ship. "Why pick me for this thrilling honor? And why the Falcon?"

"Because you need something from me, for one thing, so you'll do it. Because, for another, even though you're an amoral mercenary, you're the hottest pilot I know; you've flown everything from a jetpack to a capital ship. As for the Falcon, she's just the right size, and has computer capacity to spare, to run the barge. It's a fair deal."

One thing had him puzzled. "Who's the pickup? It sounds like you're going to an awful lot of trouble for them."

"No one you'd know. They're strictly amateurs, and they pay well. What they're doing's no concern of yours, but if they feel like telling you, that's their decision."

He gazed up at the ceiling, which was patterned with glow-pearls. Jessa was offering everything he needed to make the Authority ripe for the plucking. He could give up gunrunning, petty-cash trips to backwater worlds, all that low-ante stuff.

"Well," coaxed Jessa, "do I tell my techs to get busy, or do you and the Wookiee plan to teach the galaxy the folly of crime by starving in poverty?"

He brought his chair upright. "You better let me break the news to Chewie first, or your wrench jockies will be nothing but a mound of spare parts for the organ banks."

Doc's organization-now Jessa's-was nothing if not thorough. They had the factory specs for the Millennium Falcon, plus complete design holos on every piece of augmentative gear in her. With Chewbacca's help and a small horde of outlaw-techs, Han had the Falcon's engine shielding removed and her control systems exposed in a matter of hours.

Service 'droids trundled back and forth while energy cutters flared, and techs of many races crawled over, under, and into the freighter. It made Han jittery to see so many tools, hands, tentacles, servogrips, and lift-locks near his beloved ship, but he gritted his teeth and simply did his best to be everywhere at once-and came close to succeeding. Chewbacca covered the things his partner missed, startling any erring tech or 'droid with a high-decibel snarl. No one doubted for a moment what the Wookiee would do to the being or mechanical who damaged the starship.

Han was interrupted by Jessa, who had come up to inspect his progress. With her was an odd-looking 'droid, built along human lines. The machine was rather stocky, shorter than the woman, covered with dents, sc.r.a.pes, smudges, and spot-welds. Its chest region was unusually broad, and its arms, hanging nearly to its knees, gave it a somewhat simian aspect. Its finish was a flat brown primer job peeling in places, and it had a stiff, snapping way of moving. The 'droid's red, unblinking photoreceptors trained on Han.

"Meet your pa.s.senger," Jessa invited.

Han's features clouded. "You never said anything about taking a 'droid." He looked at the aged mechanical. "What's he run on, peat?"

"No. And I warned you there'd be details. Bollux here is one of them." She turned to the 'droid. "Okay, Bollux, open up the fruit stand."

"Yes, ma'am," Bollux replied in a leisurely drawl. There was a servomotor hum, and the 'droid's chest plastron split down the center, the halves swinging away to either side. Nestled in among the goodies that were the 'droid's innards was a special emplacement; secured in the emplacement was another unit, a separate machine ent.i.ty of some kind that was approximately cubical, with several protrusions and folded appendages. Atop it was a phtoreceptor mount, monocular lensed. The unit was painted in deep, protective, multilayered blue. The monocular came on, lighting red.

"Say h.e.l.lo to Captain Solo, Max," Jessa instructed it.

The machine-within-a-machine studied Han up and down, photoreceptor angling and swiveling. "Why?" it demanded. The pitch of its vocal mechanism was like that of a child.

Jessa countered frankly, "Because if you don't, Max, the nice man is liable to chuck your teensy iron behind out into deep s.p.a.ce-that's why."

"h.e.l.lo!" chirped Max, with what Han suspected to be forced cheer. "A great pleasure to make your acquaintance, Captain!"

"The parties you're picking up need to collect and withdraw data from the computer system on Orron III," Jessa explained. "Of course, they couldn't just ask the Authority there for probe equipment without raising suspicions, and your walking in with Max under your arm might cause a few problems, too. But n.o.body's going to bother much about an old labor 'droid. We named him Bollux because we had so many headaches restructuring his gut. We never did get his vocal pattern up to speed.

"Anyway, that cutie in Bollux's chest cavity is Blue Max; Max because we crammed as much computer capacity into him as we could, and blue for reasons that even you, Solo, can see, I'm sure. Blue Max was a piece of work, even for us. He's puny, but he cost plenty, even though he's immobile and we had to leave out a lot of the usual accessories. But he's all they'll need to tap that data system."

Han was studying the two machines, hoping Jessa would admit she'd been joking. He'd seen weirder gizmos in his time, but never on a pa.s.senger roster. He didn't like 'droids very much, but decided he could live with these.

He bent down for a better squint at Blue Max. "You stay in there all the time?"

"I can function autonomously or in linkage," Max squeaked.

"Fabulous," Han said dryly. He tapped Bollux's head. "b.u.t.ton up." As the brown segments of plastron swung shut on Max, Han called up to Chewbacca, "Yo, partner, find a place and stow this mollusk, will you? He's with us." He turned back to Jessa. "Anything else? A marching band, maybe?"