The Han Solo Adventures Read Online Free PDF Page B

and identification certificates for himself and Chewbacca. He leaned close to Ploovo, right hand still close to his blaster.
    “Why don’t we just sit here awhile, colleague ? And as long as we’re at it,” he addressed Ploovo’s flunkies, “you all have my permission to put your hands right up on the table here, where Chewie and I can see them. Now! ”
    Ploovo’s upper lip beaded with sweat. If anyone made a play now, he would certainly become corpse number one. He stuttered an order; his men complied with Han’s proposal.
    “Compose yourself, Solo,” Ploovo implored, though Han was quite serene; it was Ploovo’s face that had become pasty white. “Don’t let that, er, renowned temper get the better of you. You and the Wookiee can be so irrational at times. Take the occasion when Big Bunji was careless enough to forget to pay you, and you two strafed his pressure dome. He and his staff barely had time to get into their survival suits. Things like that give a man a bad reputation, Solo!” Ploovo was shaking now, having very nearly forgotten his money.
    The Security Police had been circulating. They stopped by the table, two rankers and a sergeant. Their timing couldn’t have pleased Ploovo less.
    “Everyone at this table, produce identification.”
    Chewbacca had assumed his most innocent expression, his big, soft blue eyes upturned to the soldiers. He and Han offered their falsified IDs. The pilot’s hand hovered near his weapon’s grip, even though a shootout now, in this position and at these odds, with the door firmly held by reinforcements held little promise of survival.
    The Espo sergeant ignored the credentials of Ploovo and his gang. Skimming Han’s he asked, “These are correct? You’re the master-owner of that freighter that made planetfall today?”
    Han saw no margin for deception there. And if the Authority had already connected his new persona with events surrounding the illegal landing on Duroon, he was as good as dead. Still, he managed to look faintly amused and somewhat bewildered by all this interrogation.
    “The Sunfighter Franchise ? Why, yes, Officer. Is anything wrong?” Guileless as a newborn, he gazed up at them.
    “We got your description from the docking bays supervisor,” the Security Police sergeant answered. “Your ship’s been impounded.” He threw the IDs back on the table. “Failure to conform to Authority safety standards.”
    Han’s mental processes switched tracks. “She’s got all her approvals,” he objected, thinking he ought to know, having forged them himself.
    The Espo waved that way. “Those’re outdated. Your ship fails to meet new standards. The Authority redefined ships’ performance profiles, and from what I heard, buddy, your freighter violates hers about ten different ways and doesn’t appear on the Waivers List. Just on external inspection, they found her lift/mass ratio and armaments rating way out of line for nonmilitary craft. It looks like a lot of radiation shielding got removed when the thruster ducting was chopped and rechanneled. Also, she’s got all that irregular docking tackle, augmented defensive shields, heavy-duty acceleration compensators, and a mess of long-range detection gear. That’s some firecracker you’ve got there.”
    Han spread his hands modestly; this was one time when he didn’t feel like boasting about his pride and joy.
    The Espo sergeant went on. “See, when you run a hot rig like that, small payload, overmuscled, the Corporate Sector Authority starts thinking you might take a notion to do something illegal with it. She’ll have to be refitted to original specs; you’ll have to appear and make arrangements.”
    Han laughed airily. “I’m positive there’s some error.” He knew he’d been lucky they hadn’t forced the locks for an inboard search. If they’d seen the anti-sensor equipment, jamming and countermeasures apparatus, and broad-band monitoring outfit, this would have been an arrest party.