Star Wars - Han Solo and the Lost Legacy Read Online Free PDF Page B

treatment room. The Wookiee, settling his admiral’s hat on his head at a rakish angle, wore a beatific grin; his shaggy coat, now glistening and lustrous, floated lightly on stray air currents.
    Han sketched a sarcastic salute. “
Captain
Chewbacca, sir, I’ve got the whole crew standing by for orders.”
    The Wookiee
wuffed
in confusion, then, remembering his assumed role, rumbled a vague reply that none of them understood. The girls promptly forgot Han and closed in on the Wookiee, complimenting him on his appearance. “I believe you ordered a groundcoach,
Skipper
?” hinted Han.
    His partner
awooed
confirmation, and they all set off. “What have you found to be the essential differences in thelife-experience on Wookiee worlds?” Viurre asked Han earnestly.
    “The tables are higher off the floor,” the pilot replied without expression.
    When they arrived at the carport, Han goggled and shouted, “Tell me this is the wrong slip!” Kiili and Viurre “oohed” in delight, while Chewbacca beamed fondly at the vehicle he had selected.
    It was over eight meters long, wide and low to the ground. The groundcoach’s sides, rear deck, and hood were paneled in dazzling scarlet
greel
wood that had been lacquered and polished and lacquered over and over until its metallic gleam seemed to go on forever through the fine grain. The coach’s trim, bumpers, door hinges, latches, and handles were of silver alloy. It boasted an outlandish crystal hood ornament-frolicking nymphs in a swirl of gauzy, windblown veil-dresses.
    The driver’s seat was open to the weather, but just behind it and a luggage well was an enclosed passenger cab, also paneled in
greel
wood, complete with elaborate, hanging road lamps, tasseled bunting, and running boards and handrails on either side for footmen. Astern the cab was another luggage well between a pair of ludicrous meter-high tail fins bejeweled with all manner of signaling and warning lights. From the coach’s primary and secondary antenna whips fluttered two pennants, several streamers, and the furry tail of some small, luckless animal.
    “Too austere,” Han muttered sarcastically, but he couldn’t resist popping the coach’s hood. A massive, fiendishly complicated engine squatted there. But Chewbacca quickly silenced Han’s denunciations and amazed the two girls by throwing open the cover of the midship luggage well. It contained, due to his thoughtful arrangement, a heroic picnic lunch.
    Kiili and Viurre had piled into the driver’s compartment, investigating controls, dials, the sound system, and stowage drawers. Chewbacca was running an adoring palm over aquarter-panel when Han blurted out, “I bumped into Badure today, just as I was coming into the spa.”
    Forgetting everything else, Chewbacca barked a question. Han glanced away. “He wanted to hire us, but I told him we didn’t need the work.” Then he felt compelled to add, “Well, we don’t, do we?”
    Chewbacca howled furiously. The two girls studiously ignored the argument. “
What
do we owe Badure?” Han hollered back. “He made a business offer, Chewie.” But he knew better.
Wookiees will honor a Life-Debt over anything else; he’ll never walk away from it
, Han thought. Chewbacca growled another angry comment.
    “What if I don’t want to? Are you going to go after him without me?” Han asked, knowing what the answer would be.
    The Wookiee regarded him for a long moment, then uttered a deep
Uurrr
?
    Han opened his mouth, closed it, then finally answered. “No, you won’t have to. Get in the bus.”
    Chewbacca yipped, knuckled Han’s shoulder, ambled off around the coach’s stern, and climbed in. Han slid into the driver’s seat and swung his door shut.
    “
Captain
Chewbacca and I have to go track down a pal,” he told Kiili and Viurre brusquely. Then to himself he added,
I knew this would happen; I never should have told Chewie. So why did I
?
    Kiili, twirling blond hair around one finger, smiled.