Master here,” Leia said, shrugging. “You’ll have to decide that for yourself.”
Corran did not even need time to think. His chin simply dropped, then he swung a leg around and started back across the stepping-stones.
“You win,” he said. “This isn’t something I should decide on my own.”
“Maybe not,” Leia allowed.
Corran stepped off the last stone and gave Leia an exaggerated frown.
“No gloating at Masters,” he said. “Hasn’t Saba taught you anything?”
SIX
The big hoversled emerged from behind a massive hamogoni trunk and skimmed across the forest floor, crashing through the underbrush and weaving around bustling crews of insect loggers. Han slipped the landspeeder he was piloting behind a different trunk, this one at least twenty meters across, then stopped and took a moment to gawk around the grove of giants. Many of the trees were larger than Balmorran skyscrapers, with knee-roots the size of dewbacks and boughs that hung out horizontally like enormous green balconies. Unfortunately, most of those balconies were shuddering beneath the droning saws of Saras lumberjacks, and a steady cascade of branch trimmings was raining down from above.
“Okay, Han,” Luke said. He was sitting in the passenger’s seat beside Han, using a comlink and datapad to follow the tracking beacon they had planted on their quarry back in Saras nest. “The signal’s getting scratchy.”
Han cautiously moved the landspeeder out of its hiding place, then, when they saw no visible sign of their quarry, hurried after the hoversled. In mountainous terrain like this, a scratchy signal could quickly turn into no signal at all, so they needed to close the distance fast. He dodged past a crew trimming the sprigs off a log as big around as a bantha, then decelerated hard as something big and bark-coveredfell across their path. A tremendous boom shook the landspeeder, rocking it back on its rear floater pads, and the route ahead was suddenly blocked by a wall of hamogoni log twelve meters high.
Han sat there, waiting for his heart to stop hammering, until a shower of boughs and sticks, knocked loose by the falling tree, began to hit the ground around them.
“Perhaps Master Luke should drive,” C-3PO suggested from the backseat. “He has taken better care of himself over the years, and his reaction time is point-four-two second faster.”
“Oh, yeah? If we’d been point-four-two seconds farther ahead, you’d be a foil smear right now.” Han jammed the landspeeder into reverse and hit the power, then said to Luke, “Okay, I give up. How are these guys leading us to the Dark Nest?”
Luke shrugged. “I don’t know yet.” His eyes remained fixed on the datapad, as though he had not noticed how close they had just come to being crushed. “But the barrels they’re carrying are filled with reactor fuel and hyperdrive coolant. Do you see anything out here that needs so much power?”
“I haven’t seen anything on this whole planet that needs that much power.” Han started the landspeeder forward again and began a hundred-meter detour around the fallen tree. “That doesn’t mean our smugglers are headed for the Dark Nest.”
“It’s the best explanation I can think of,” Luke said.
“Yeah? What would the Dark Nest do with hyperdrive coolant? And that much reactor fuel?”
“I don’t know yet,” Luke repeated. “That’s what scares me.”
Han rounded the crown of the fallen tree, drawing a cacophony of alarmed drumming as he nearly ran into a lineof Saras loggers scurrying toward the tree from the opposite side. A few of the insects carried modern laser cutters, but most were equipped with primitive chain saws—or even long, double-ended logging saws powered by hand. C-3PO thrummed a polite apology; then the Killiks opened a hole in their line, and Han took the landspeeder over to where the hoversled had disappeared.
“Blast!” Luke said, still staring at his datapad. “We lost the
Corran did not even need time to think. His chin simply dropped, then he swung a leg around and started back across the stepping-stones.
“You win,” he said. “This isn’t something I should decide on my own.”
“Maybe not,” Leia allowed.
Corran stepped off the last stone and gave Leia an exaggerated frown.
“No gloating at Masters,” he said. “Hasn’t Saba taught you anything?”
SIX
The big hoversled emerged from behind a massive hamogoni trunk and skimmed across the forest floor, crashing through the underbrush and weaving around bustling crews of insect loggers. Han slipped the landspeeder he was piloting behind a different trunk, this one at least twenty meters across, then stopped and took a moment to gawk around the grove of giants. Many of the trees were larger than Balmorran skyscrapers, with knee-roots the size of dewbacks and boughs that hung out horizontally like enormous green balconies. Unfortunately, most of those balconies were shuddering beneath the droning saws of Saras lumberjacks, and a steady cascade of branch trimmings was raining down from above.
“Okay, Han,” Luke said. He was sitting in the passenger’s seat beside Han, using a comlink and datapad to follow the tracking beacon they had planted on their quarry back in Saras nest. “The signal’s getting scratchy.”
Han cautiously moved the landspeeder out of its hiding place, then, when they saw no visible sign of their quarry, hurried after the hoversled. In mountainous terrain like this, a scratchy signal could quickly turn into no signal at all, so they needed to close the distance fast. He dodged past a crew trimming the sprigs off a log as big around as a bantha, then decelerated hard as something big and bark-coveredfell across their path. A tremendous boom shook the landspeeder, rocking it back on its rear floater pads, and the route ahead was suddenly blocked by a wall of hamogoni log twelve meters high.
Han sat there, waiting for his heart to stop hammering, until a shower of boughs and sticks, knocked loose by the falling tree, began to hit the ground around them.
“Perhaps Master Luke should drive,” C-3PO suggested from the backseat. “He has taken better care of himself over the years, and his reaction time is point-four-two second faster.”
“Oh, yeah? If we’d been point-four-two seconds farther ahead, you’d be a foil smear right now.” Han jammed the landspeeder into reverse and hit the power, then said to Luke, “Okay, I give up. How are these guys leading us to the Dark Nest?”
Luke shrugged. “I don’t know yet.” His eyes remained fixed on the datapad, as though he had not noticed how close they had just come to being crushed. “But the barrels they’re carrying are filled with reactor fuel and hyperdrive coolant. Do you see anything out here that needs so much power?”
“I haven’t seen anything on this whole planet that needs that much power.” Han started the landspeeder forward again and began a hundred-meter detour around the fallen tree. “That doesn’t mean our smugglers are headed for the Dark Nest.”
“It’s the best explanation I can think of,” Luke said.
“Yeah? What would the Dark Nest do with hyperdrive coolant? And that much reactor fuel?”
“I don’t know yet,” Luke repeated. “That’s what scares me.”
Han rounded the crown of the fallen tree, drawing a cacophony of alarmed drumming as he nearly ran into a lineof Saras loggers scurrying toward the tree from the opposite side. A few of the insects carried modern laser cutters, but most were equipped with primitive chain saws—or even long, double-ended logging saws powered by hand. C-3PO thrummed a polite apology; then the Killiks opened a hole in their line, and Han took the landspeeder over to where the hoversled had disappeared.
“Blast!” Luke said, still staring at his datapad. “We lost the
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