Zorba the Hutt's Revenge (3 page)

Luke swirled in a circle so fast that he was only a blur in the corner of their eyes. His lightsaber struck them both in one swing.

CRASSSSSHH! The bounty hunters hit the ground at the same moment.

"Come on, let’s go!" Luke said to Ken and the droids. "Before any of their friends get the same idea!"

Luke opened the hatch, and they all popped into the Y-wing, with Artoo-Detoo next to him in the copilot position. "Set course for Bespin, Artoo," Luke shouted.

"Bzoook!" Artoo beeped.

A moment later Luke activated the main thrusters. Their spaceship quickly departed from Tatooine.

When Tatooine seemed to be just a small glowing ball in outer space, floating between two fiery suns, Luke put the spaceship into hyperdrive. Then they quickly accelerated past the speed of light.

Luke glanced over at Ken. "Do you have any idea why Trioculus is after you?" he asked. Ken shook his head no.

"That three-eyed dictator practically burned down all the rain forests on Yavin Four trying to find you," Luke went on. "Somehow he found out that you’re traveling with me. He’s even got every bounty hunter in the galaxy on your tail." Luke glanced at Ken’s downcast face. "You must have some idea why he believes you to be such a threat to him." Ken shook his head no again.

"But you do know, Ken," said Chip. "It’s quite irregular for you to hide the truth from an officer of the Rebel Alliance. Especially a commander, like Luke Skywalker, who’s accepted the job of protecting you. Very irregular indeed."

Ken swallowed hard. "I’m a threat to Trioculus because I know too much about him."

"Such as?" Luke asked.

"Things I learned in the files of the Jedi Library-back in the Lost City," Ken answered mysteriously. "My droid teacher, Dee-Jay, told me I was not to tell anyone, Commander Skywalker-not even you."

"Not even me?" Luke said in a hurt voice. "What is there that you can’t share with me, your guardian and protector? I take my responsibility to you very seriously."

"I’m sorry, Commander Skywalker," Ken replied. "But if I told you certain things, it would make your life even more dangerous than it already is." Luke nodded, then clamped a hand on Ken’s shoulder. "I understand, Ken," he said, though he didn’t really understand. But he hoped that, in time, Ken would open up more and decide not to keep any secrets from him.

The planet Bespin was located just off the Corellian Trade Route. After Luke downshifted from hyperdrive, he pointed out Bespin’s two largest moons, H’gaard and Drudonna. They were known as The Twins.

Bespin was aglow in a rainbow of color. Luke explained that it was a type of planet known as a gas giant, with a liquid metal core. The metal was rethin, and the core was called the Rethin Sea. The Rethin Sea was warm-not boiling hot, like the deep interior of most planets.

Most of Bespin was gas, or atmosphere. And Cloud City had been built to float in the sky of Bespin. It was held afloat by powerful repulsorlift generators. The city was built in levels. At the top were the hotels, spas, clubs, shops, museums, and casinos. That’s where the tourists and wealthy visiting gamblers stayed. The lowest levels were called Port Town-a dangerous place, home of Cloud City’s underworld; those levels were filled with bars and industrial loading docks. There were also casinos for sleazy gamblers and outcasts down on their luck. As soon as Luke’s Y-wing landed in Cloud City, they were met by Governor Lando Calrissian.

"Well, look who just dropped in from hyperspace," said Lando, his hands on his hips as he beamed a broad smile. "The Jedi Knight from Tatooine. And you’ve got company with you, Luke. Who’s the short guy?"

"I’m tall for my age," Ken piped up. "They call me Ken."

"And they call me Baron Administrator Calrissian, Governor of Cloud City. But if you’re a friend of Luke’s, you can skip the formalities and call me Lando."

"Pleased to meet you, Lando," Ken said, reaching out to shake his hand. As they spoke, Ken was distracted by a silvery gleam from a hazy, distant cloud. It looked like a building floating in the sky.

"That wouldn’t be Han’s sky house by any chance, would it?" Ken asked, pointing toward what he saw.

"It would indeed," Lando said, grinning. "That faint, black speck in that swirling cloud over there is where Han camps out these days-Han Solo’s personal stomping grounds in the sky."

Ken squinted and tried to pick out more details, but he could scarcely see the house, the air was so brown with haze.

"We call it braze," Lando explained, as if reading Ken’s thoughts. "Short for brown haze. It’s air pollution. And it’s becoming a serious problem here in Cloud City." Luke, Ken, and the four droids followed Lando, walking along a ramp toward Cloud City’s fleet of cloud car convertibles.

"Highly irregular to have brown air on a planet such as this," Chip commented.

"I certainly agree," Threepio added. "It’s fortunate we droids aren’t organic creatures. At least we don’t have to breathe this discolored, chemical-ridden atmosphere."

"What causes the braze, Lando?" Ken asked.

"If you’re looking for somebody to blame it on, blame Trioculus-the power-mad tyrant who’s now running the Empire. Trioculus has stepped up war production on a huge factory barge floating on the liquid core of this planet."

"You mean on the Rethin Sea?" Ken asked.

"Bright kid," Lando said, shooting a glance at Luke. Then Lando looked back at Ken. "The Rethin Sea is full of rare metals and Tibanna gas," Lando continued, "and Trioculus is mining them to make Imperial war machines in his factories down below. He gets his mass-produced ion cannons, and we get stuck with the smelly braze." Lando sighed. "I sent him two messages asking him politely to please shut down and go away. But Trioculus doesn’t understand the word ’polite.’ He told me if I ask him again, he’ll invade Cloud City and take us over."

Lando opened the door of a green cloud car convertible. "Well, friends, I’m loaning you an official government car for you to fly over to Han’s party. Climb aboard."

"Aren’t you going to the party with us, Lando?" Luke asked.

"Later. Tell Han I’ll be by in a few hours." Lando pointed toward a tall building-the Holiday Towers Hotel and Casino. "I’ve got some police business to check on. A greasy little Rodian alien has a new system for cheating at the card game of sabacc, and he’s trying to break the bank at Holiday Towers again."

At Han’s private cloud the spectacular housewarming party was already in full swing. A true intergalactic affair, there was dancing, music, friendly conversation, and plenty of zoochberry juice.

The floating sky mansion was filled with humans, aliens, and droids, all bumping into one another’s elbows, claws, fins, flippers, and metal arms.

In the center, the most comfortable chair ever designed-a sort of gigantic floating pillow-was reserved for the guest of honor, Princess Leia. Her eyes were closed for the moment, letting the gentle rocking motion relax her and help her for a few moments to forget her worries about SPIN’s plans and secret projects.

Beneath Leia’s floating chair, Han was playing the role of a busy host, making sure that everyone’s zoochberry glasses were full, and catching up with his buddies from his home planet, most of whom were bachelor Corellian cargo pilots. One by one he introduced everyone to Princess Leia.

Meanwhile, Admiral Ackbar, the sad-eyed Calamarian fishman, stood in front of the band and talked on and on about the military strategy that helped win the Battle of Endor for the Rebel Alliance.

But nobody was paying much attention to Admiral Ackbar-especially when Han began to open his housewarming gifts.

Every few minutes Han had to jump up and run to the kitchen to check on the gourmet feast he was cooking on his nanowave stove.

Then Chewbacca put on a chef’s apron and took over the cooking, so Han could dance with Princess Leia.

The band knew all of Han’s favorite Corellian folk dances. Han even taught Leia how to do the Space Pirate Boogie.

When they were both out of breath and laughing from dancing so hard, Han asked the band to play "Sweet Lady from Alderaan." He thought it would make Leia happy, because Alderaan was her home planet. But instead it brought tears to her eyes as she remembered how the Empire had used the Death Star to blow the entire planet of Alderaan to pieces. Then Leia started coughing. "Are you all right, Princess?" Han asked, worriedly.

"It’s the braze," she said. "The air pollution on Bespin seems to be getting worse."

"Chewie," Han shouted, poking his head into the kitchen. "Turn up the power on the repulsorlifts. Take the house up another hundred feet or so. The air will be cleaner up there . ."

"Grooowwwrrr!" Chewie agreed, reaching for the repulsorlift controls over by the wide window that looked out on the brown sky.

"Han, you can’t spend the rest of your life here going up higher and higher in the sky, trying to get away from the braze," Leia said. "That’s just running away from the problem."

"Well, that’s the code we Corellians live by," Han said with a laugh. "If you can’t do anything about the problem, run!"

"It’s not funny, Han," she replied. "What will you do when you get up so high that the air is too thin to breathe?"

Han shrugged. "I guess I’ll worry about that day when it comes. And until then-how about another dance, Princess?"

And that’s when Luke Skywalker and Ken showed up with the droids-Threepio, Artoo, Chip, and Kate.

When the hugs and hellos were over, Luke introduced Han to his housewarming gift. Han was overwhelmed. He asked Kate to demonstrate some of her modern housecleaning techniques. "Of course, Master Han," said Kate. "Do you see that stain way up in that corner of the ceiling?"

Han squinted and noticed the mark.

Kate fired a vaporizing beam from her fingertip. The stain instantly disintegrated. "A small sample of my many skills," said Kate. "But I’m best at washing dishes, cleaning windows, and restoring stained carpets."

"Incredible," Han said, proudly putting his hands on his hips. Kate seemed to think just as highly of Han.

"You’re the most handsome Corellian cargo pilot I’ve ever met," Kate said.

"Now don’t get jealous, Leia," Han said with a mischievous grin. "Looks like you’ll have to get used to the fact that I’ll be living with another woman from now on.

"As long as she’s a droid with metallic microcircuits, I think I can keep my jealousy under control," Leia replied, with an equally mischievous grin. As everyone got swept up in the excitement of the party again, Admiral Ackbar tried to snare Ken. He thought Ken would be a good audience for his war stories of how the Rebel Alliance blew up the Empire’s Death Stars. But Ken tricked Threepio and Artoo-Detoo into keeping Ackbar company, while he and Chip ducked away to tour the house with Princess Leia.

"We can’t even see the skyline of Cloud City with all this braze in the air," Ken said in a disappointed tone.

Then Leia noticed a new pair of long-range macro-binoculars that someone had given Han as a gift. They enabled a person to see details several miles away. She handed them to Ken.

"Try these," she said.

Ken raised the macrobinoculars to his eyes and looked out the window. Suddenly, in spite of the braze, the view was incredibly clear. Ken could now see all the details of the distant skyline. Then he spotted a bell-shaped space vehicle approaching Cloud City.

"Hmmmmm. That’s really unusual, Princess Leia. I think I see a Huttian spaceship," Ken said.

"How do you know it’s a Huttian spaceship?" Chip asked, as Luke came over beside them.

"Because I’ve studied spaceship designs back home," Ken said, lowering the macrobinoculars so he could see Luke. "It’s shaped like a bell with a big door. It’s large enough for a big, fat Hutt to get in or out."

"That’s very strange," said Leia. "The Hutts almost never come to Cloud City anymore."

"Why not?" Ken asked.

"They used to come here all the time," Luke explained. "That was when Jabba the Hutt was alive and owned the Holiday Towers Hotel and Casino. But ever since Jabba died and Cloud City took over Holiday Towers, all the free-spending Hutt gamblers stopped coming here. They felt they weren’t very welcome anymore."

"Here, take a look," Ken offered.

"Thanks," Luke said, taking the macrobinoculars.

Luke flipped a small button on the side of the macrobinoculars. Now they were powerful enough for him to read even the name on the side of the spaceship: Zorba Express.

CHAPTER 4

A Friendly Game of Sabacc

The Zorba Express wobbled as it settled onto a landing bay in Cloud City.

CHIZOOOOOK! SQUEEEEEEEEEGE!

As the ancient, bell-shaped space voyager let out a long wheezing sound, the Cloud City Space Dock attendants exchanged an amazed look.

For an express spaceship, it certainly wouldn’t be able to take many more express journeys. In fact, after a few more trips, it was doubtful it would even be able to break the sound barrier anymore.

From out of the hatch of the Zorba Express came a very odd trio. First came Zorba the Hutt, who at once began coughing, because of the braze.

Then came CB-99, the slightly bent, barrel-shaped droid following Zorba. He rolled along while Zorba squirmed his way across the wide platform.

Last came Tibor, the bounty hunter, his shiny armor strapped tightly around his horny green scales.

Their destination: The Holiday Towers Hotel and Casino.

Soon they entered the lobby, which was filled with noisy, glowing games of chance. This was where the rich gambled: slickly dressed aliens in colorful costumes, wealthy business beasts from the moons of Mima, and snobby humans who brought their droids along to pull the handles of the jingling Spin-and-Win machines.

Zorba attracted quite a few stares as he wobbled up to the main desk, licking the drool from his chin with his thick dark tongue. He began a conversation with a fancy clerk droid. The clerk droid’s body glittered with polished gems. Nothing but the best for the Holiday Towers Hotel and Casino. "May I help you, urn, sir?" the clerk droid asked.