Star Wars - Tatooine Ghost (by Troy Denning)

Star Wars - Tatooine Ghost

by Troy Denning

Leia Organa, newly Leia Organa Solo, sat behind Han and Chewbacca on the flight deck of the

Millennium Falcon. The twin suns of the Tatoo system were hanging outside the forward viewport, a pair

of white eyes blazing up from the black well of space. Like all twins, they were bound together by a tie as

unpredictable as it was powerful. Sometimes, the bond boosted their luminosity far beyond that of two

normal suns. At other times, it sent waves of ionic discharge pulsing across space to scramble circuits and

reorient core-relative compasses. Today, the twins were assailing the Falcon with electromagnetic blasts,

overloading her sensors and filling the cockpit speakers with static. As Chewbacca worked to raise the

proper filters, the static faded from a roar to a crackle, then softened to a hiss, which rose and fell in a

sharp rhythm. Puzzled by the odd snickering sound, Leia glanced over at the master comm console and

found the reception indicator still scanning for signals. She leaned forward against her crash webbing.

"Han, do you hear..."

No sound came from her mouth. The snicker became a deep chuckle, and a nebula of black gas began

to gather in front of the Falcon. Han showed no reaction to it. Neither did Chewbacca, even when it

coalesced into the cowl of a Jedi cloak.

"Han! Don't you see..."

Again, her voice made no sound. Glaring out from beneath the cowl, the twin suns looked more than ever

like eyes-heartless eyes, full of malice and power lust. Where the cloud was thin, crooked streaks of

purple radiance created the impression of a twisted mouth and wrinkled face.

The mouth rose at the corners. "Mine."

The voice was cruel and distinct and rife with dark side power. Leia gasped-silently-and tried to raise an

arm that had suddenly grown as heavy as the Falcon.

The smile became a sneer. "Mine."

Still, neither Han nor Chewbacca seemed to notice what was happening. Leia would have screamed, had

her mouth been willing to obey.

The nebula began to thicken, and the purple wrinkles faded behind its inky veil. The twin suns dimmed to

darkness, and the black cloud assumed the shape of a familiar mask-a mask of harsh angles and obsidian

sheen, framed by the long, flaring neck apron of an equally black helmet. Vader's helmet.

A chill wave of nausea washed over Leia. The curved eye lenses grew transparent, but instead of the

blazing brightness of Tatooine's twin suns-or the angry red-rimmed gaze of Darth Vader-she found

herself looking into her brother's soft blue eyes. "Luke! What are you..."

Her question remained as silent as the others she had asked. Luke's eyes grew hollow and hard and

haunted, and the helmet moved slowly from side to side. Blue flickers of electricity snaked across the

speech circuits behind the respiratory screen, but his words were rendered nearly inaudible by static

crackling. Leia made out something about not following and staying out of darkness; then Luke fell silent

again. She tried to tell him that his equipment was malfunctioning, that his voice had been obscured, but

before she could find a way to make herself heard, the helmet stopped moving.

Luke locked gazes and held her transfixed for what might have been seconds... or minutes... his eyes

now the lifeless blue of ice. Leia grew cold, and frightened, and the mask dissolved back into the black

nothingness of space, leaving her to stare out once again into the mind-stabbing brilliance of the Tatoo

system's twin suns.

Chapter 1

Instead of bed, where she usually awoke from her dreams, Leia found herself slumped forward in her

crash webbing, ears hissing with static and eyes aching from the glare of two

G-class suns. Han and Chewbacca were still busy at their stations, Han plotting approach vectors and

Chewbacca setting sensor filters. The planet Tatooine was just drifting into view, its yellow sodium-rich

sands glowing so brightly it resembled a small sibling star in orbit around the big twins. A metallic hand

tapped Leia's shoulder. She turned to see C-3PO's photoreceptors shining at her from the adjacent

passenger seat.

"Pardon me for asking, Princess Leia, but are you well?"

"Don't I look well?"

"Oh dear," C-3PO replied, a diplomatic subroutine activating in response to her tone of voice. "Why yes,

you do look as splendid as ever, but it seemed for a moment as though you might have overloaded your

primary circuits."

"My circuits are fine."

"I'll need to confirm that later." Han twisted around and glanced over his seat with the same crooked

smile that had alternately charmed and worried Leia since their first meeting on the Death Star.

"Princess."

"Oh, really?" Leia straightened herself in her chair without fully realizing she was doing it. With his

tough-guy good looks and eyes sparkling with trouble, Han still made her sit up and take notice. "And

you think you can read my schematics?"

"Sweetheart, I know your schematics by heart." Han's smile faded, and his expression grew concerned.

"Threepio's right. You look like you've seen a ghost."

"Something like that. A bad dream."

Han looked doubtful. "I've sat in that chair. That chair isn't comfortable enough for dreams-good or bad."

"It's been a long trip," Leia said, perhaps a little too quickly. "I must have nodded off."

Han regarded her a moment longer, then shrugged. "Well, see if you can stay awake." He looked

forward again, to where the twin suns were slowly being eclipsed by Tatooine's steadily swelling disk.

"Until the sensors come up, we need to keep an eye out for other traffic."

Leia gazed out the canopy and began to search for the rapidly swelling silhouette of blocked starlight that

would mean an approaching vessel. Her thoughts remained focused on the strange dream. It had a similar

feel to the Force-vision she had experienced nearly five years earlier at Bakura, when her father had sent

an apparition begging for the forgiveness she would never-could never-grant. But that had been his doing,

not hers.

Han's hand rose into view between the pilot and copilot's seats, pointing toward a blocky silhouette

floating some distance to one side of Tatooine's yellow disk. The twin suns were now completely hidden

behind the planet, and Leia could see that the tiny silhou ette was growing larger as they approached. It

seemed to be staying in the same place relative to Tatooine, deliberately hanging in the shadow of the

planet.

"That's too square to be a moon," Han said.

"And it's no asteroid, not hanging in one place like that," Leia added. "But at least it doesn't seem to be

coming our way."

"Yet," Han replied. "How about those filters, Chewie?"

An impatient rumble suggested that the Wookiee was still struggling with the filters. Anyone else might

have been frightened, but Leia found the groan reassuring, a touch of the familiar in a time of shifting

alliances and random annihilation. When she had married

Han six months ago, she had known Chewbacca would be an honorary member of their family, and that

was fine with her. Over the years she had come to think of the Wookiee as something of a furry big

brother, always loyal to Han and protective of her, and now she could not hear him growl without feeling

that she lived in a safer place, that with Chewbacca and Luke and Han-when he was in the mood-and

millions of others like them, the New Republic would beat back the Empire's latest onslaught and one

day bring peace to the galaxy.

That, and she liked how Wookiee fur always smelled of trillium soap.

The comm hiss finally fell silent as Chewbacca found the right combination of filters. He brought the

sensors up, fiddled a moment longer, then let out a startled ruumph. "The mass calibration is off," Han

said. "That reads like a Star Destroyer."

Chewbacca oowralled indignantly, then sent the data readout to the auxiliary display beside Leia's seat

and glanced back for her affirmation. She had to look only a second to see that he was correct.

"Sixteen hundred meters, six comm bands in use, and a TIE squadron circling on station," Leia said,

feeling a little sick and worried. When the Millennium Falcon came across a Star Destroyer these days, it

was usually because one was stalking the other. "I don't know, Han. The mass calibration looks fine to

me."

As she spoke, the Falcon's computer found a profile match in its military data banks and displayed the

schematic of an Imperial-class Star Destroyer. Below the image appeared the vessel's name."The

Chimaera" Han read. "Isn't she still in service to the Empire?"

"As of two months ago, she was one of their most efficient Destroyers." Leia did not need to look up the

information. The death of Warlord Zsinj eight months earlier had emboldened the

Imperial fleet, and the Provisional Council had been mired in war minutiae ever since. "Admiral Ackbar

has been wondering what became of her."

"Deserters?" Han caught her eye in the canopy reflection. "Another captain wanting to set himself up as a

warlord?"

"Please, no! The situation out here is already too confused." With the New Republic battling the Imperials

over the scraps of Zsinj's empire and the surviving warlords exploiting the war to enlarge their own

territories, confused was an understatement. Several times, the New Republic Navy had moved against

one enemy to find itself engaging another, and sometimes two or three at once. "And the Ckimaera's

commander isn't the type. By all accounts, Gilad Pellaeon is both loyal and competent."

"Then what's he doing at Tatooine?" Han asked. "There isn't a conflict zone within fifty systems of here."

Chewbacca groaned the opinion that it was someone else's job to analyze Imperial objectives, then

began to plot hyperspace coordinates. Leia braced herself, more concerned with Han's reaction than

Chewbacca's when she explained why they still had to risk a run planetside.

She was spared the necessity when Han scowled at the Wookiee's flying fingers.

"Chewie! I can handle this, no problem." Han looked vaguely insulted. "It's only one little Star

Destroyer."

Chewbacca grunted doubtfully, then added a yawl about the folly of tempting fate for a piece of art.

"Killik Twilight means a lot to Leia," Han said. "It hung in the palace on Alderaan."

Chewbacca growled a long question that suggested they might be flying into a trap; the painting might not

even be real.

"You can't forge moss-paintings," Leia answered. "Not anymore. They require strains that don't spread

or reproduce, the cultivation of which was a closely guarded secret even in Aldera. That secret died with

the rest of Alderaan."

"You see?" Han asked. "Besides, if the Imperials were trying to lure Leia to Tatooine, they wouldn't leave

their Star Destroyer out in the open like that."

Han pointed at the tiny silhouette of the Chimaera, which had started an edgeward drift across the

canopy as the Falcon eased past it toward the planet. Chewbacca stubbornly shook his head, reminding

them of the syren plant on his native Kashyyyk, which drew victims to certain death with a scent so

alluring it could not be resisted.

"Not a certain death," Han corrected. "Or there wouldn't be so many Wookiees in the galaxy." Never

one whose purpose could be deflected by humor, Chewbacca reiterated the questions that had been

troubling them all since learning of the auction. Why was such a valuable painting being sold in a seedy

spaceport like Mos Espa? Where had it been all these years? Why was it surfacing now?

The answers were a mystery-as much a mystery as the Star Destroyer's appearance here. At the time of

Alderaan's destruction, Killik Twilight had been returning home from a museum loan on

Coruscant. It had dropped out of sight, and Leia had believed the painting destroyed with her home-at

least until Lando Calrissian reported that it would soon be offered at auction on Tatooine.

Chewbacca continued to press his case, maintaining that the Chimaera's presence was no coincidence.

With an Imperial Star Destroyer hanging off Tatooine, there would almost certainly be Imperials at the

auction. The argument was all too sensible, and though Chewbacca clearly did not realize this-one that

made it all the more imperative that Leia attend the sale herself. She leaned forward and grasped the

Wookiee's shoulder, and his tirade rumbled to an end.

"Chewie, everything you say makes sense. The Star Destroyer worries me, too. If this were just any

piece of Alderaanian art, I wouldn't ask you to take the risk. But for Killik Twilight, I must." Chewbacca

studied her in the canopy reflection. He was a ferociously brave Wookiee-one who would never deny a

friend's request for aid once he knew a matter to be important. Leia only hoped she could win his help

without having to explain herself now. Han was still stinging from that whole Hapan incident eight months

ago, and being asked to risk his beloved Falcon on behalf of the Provisional Council would not sit well

with him at the moment. Maybe not ever.

Leia held Chewbacca's gaze with a sober expression that came to her face all too readily these days.

Finally, he wrumpffed softly and nodded.

Han glanced over, his jaw dropped in disbelief. "That's it? She says must, and you don't even want to

know why?"

Chewbacca shrugged.

"But you'll argue with me?" Han glanced at Leia's reflection in the canopy. "Those are some powers of

persuasion you have there, Princess. You been studying with Luke when I'm not looking?"

"I'm no Jedi," Leia said. Then, slipping back into the flirty mood that had been the norm between them

since their wedding-it had to be driving Chewbacca mad, judging by how he turned away to look out the

viewport-she gave Han a sultry half smile.

"Just your common everyday Princess."

"There's nothing common or everyday about you," Han replied in a tone so cloying that it made

Chewbacca groan. "Or your hidden agendas."

"Hidden agendas?" Leia cringed inwardly as she vacillated between sounding innocent and playful and

came off as neither.

"We're just here to buy a moss-painting."

"Yeah?" Han's eyes assumed an amused twinkle. "Maybe Chewie's right."

"I didn't say he was wrong," Leia said, trying to sound cool-and failing. He had her, and he knew it. She

hated that. "Han, I really want that painting."

Han shook his head. "Something here smells wrong." He began to ease the Falcon's nose away from the

planet. "In fact, I'm sure of it."

"Han!"

He glanced again at her reflection. "Yeah?"

"You'll draw attention to us."

Han shrugged. "What's it matter, if we're leaving?" He turned to Chewbacca. "You about done with

those hyperspace calculations?" Chewbacca snorted and, clearly not wanting any part of what was to

follow, threw up his hands. Tatooine began to slide across the viewport, and Leia knew she had to call

Han's bluff. He was too good a sabacc player to blank his cards without making her show her hand.

"Han, we need to be at that auction," she said. "If the Killik Twilight is down there we have to buy it.

Thousands of New Republic lives depend on it."

"Really?" Han did not look at all surprised. "Imagine that." Tatooine stopped drifting toward the edge of

the viewport, but Han did not turn the Falcon back toward the planet. Leia took a deep breath, then

said, "There's a Shadowcast code key hidden in the painting. In the moisture-control circuitry."

Chewbacca's eyes grew as round as bubbles. Shadowcast was a secret communications network that

had sent Rebel messages, encrypted within the commercial advertisements that paid for Imperial

propaganda programming, via the HoloNet. The system remained undiscovered, and the New Republic

still used it to send instructions deep behind Imperial lines to its most delicately placed spies.

Han's eyes only hardened at the corners. "Honey, I think we're about to have our first married fight. Why

didn't you tell me the Provisional Council was behind this trip?"

"Because it's not," Leia said, sounding more defensive than she would have liked. Why did her political

skills always desert her with Han? "I'm the one who said Killik Twilight would be a good place to hide

the code. I'm the one who thought the painting had been destroyed with Alderaan. This is on me, Han.

The Provisional Council has authorized purchase funds, but only because Mon

Mothma strong-armed them. She's the only one who knows why we're really here."

"Oh, that makes me feel better."

Eight months earlier, Mon Mothma had been among those urging Leia to cement an important strategic

alliance by marrying the prince of a powerful consortium of planets known as the Hapes

Cluster. Han still felt so betrayed by the Chief Councilor and the rest of the council that, despite several

generous offers, he had so far refused to reactivate his military commission or assume any other formal

role in the New Republic.

Han's reaction was only one aspect of the Hapan matter that Leia regretted. Had she made it clear to

Queen Mother Ta'a Chume that marriage to her son, Isolder, was not really a possibility- and that, given

her genetic heritage, she had no interest in bearing children-she might well have salvaged an alliance via

some other arrangement, and she would not have hurt Han.

Chewbacca yawled a warning, and Leia looked over at the auxiliary display to find an assault shuttle and

three TIEs departing the Chimaera.

"Nothing to worry about," Han said, studying his own display. "They just want to see if we get nervous."

Leia was nervous, and a little exasperated, but she didn't say so. Maybe Han had drawn the Chimaera's

attention, and maybe he hadn't. Appearing too relaxed was just as likely to raise suspicions as appearing

too worried. Anything could raise Imperial suspicions.

"Han, I didn't mean to put the Falcon at risk," Leia said. "I only wanted to spend some time together, and

I thought this trip would be a good chance."

"On a mission for the New Republic?"

"I didn't know it would be a mission," Leia said. "I'm sorry." "So you thought we'd enjoy a little trip to

scenic Tatooine, pick up the lost code key, maybe swing by Jabba's palace and relive old times?"

Chewbacca reported that the shuttle and TIEs were approaching on an intercept vector. Han adjusted

the Falcon's course enough to keep their line of escape open, then looked back at Leia.

"I don't see why this code key's so important anyway," Han continued. "They must have updated it by

now. It's ten years old." "Nine years old," Leia corrected. "And the code is updated every sixth

broadcast. But even an old key would help the Imperials break the new codes. Worse, it would alert

them to the existence of a network they haven't detected in nearly a decade. It would cost the lives of

thousands of former agents still living on enemy worlds. And there's no telling how long it would take us

to replace Shadowcast- or how many current agents we'd lose in the transition." Han looked away, his

gaze dropping to his instruments, and Leia knew she had him. He would play hard to get, pretending to

think it over, but Han Solo always came through when it counted. That was his weakness, and she loved

him for it.

"Han, I really do want Killik Twilight back," Leia said. "When you see it-"

"When I see it?" Han interrupted. "You're taking a lot for granted."

Chewbacca stopped monitoring the incoming assault shuttle long enough to turn and growl.

"I know she's my wife," Han said. "That doesn't mean I'm responsible for dragging us out here. I can't

control what she does."

Chewbacca dropped his eyes in exasperation, then awrooed at Han... twice.

"Me? I'm being Huttish?"

Chewbacca snorted an affirmative, turned back to the sensors, and reported that the TIEs were starting

to accelerate ahead of the assault shuttle. Han spent a moment considering his copilot's charge, then

glanced at Leia again.

"Me?" he asked. "Huttish?"

Leia held her thumb and forefinger a few millimeters apart. "Maybe," she said. "Just a little."

Han's expression turned from disbelieving to chagrined. He nudged the Falcon's nose back toward

Tatooine, angling for the planet horizon, where the twin suns were casting a crescent of white brilliance.

"I'm not doing this for the council," he said. "I'm doing it for you."

"I know you are." Leia's smile was perhaps a little too broad, and she could not resist adding, "And the

council is grateful." Han scowled, but his retort was cut short when the comm speakers crackled to life.

"CEC transport Regina Galas" a gruff Imperial voice said. "Maintain position and stand by for

inspection."

Regina Galas was one of a dozen false transponder codes the Falcon used when traveling anonymously.

Han turned to C-3PO.

"You're on, Goldenrod."

C-3PO tipped his head. "On, Master Solo?"

"Stall." Han pointed to the microphone above the auxiliary navicomputer interface. "Try Gand. They'll

have to rig for ammonia, and that'll buy us some time."

"Of course," C-3PO said. "Perhaps I should suggest-"

"Regina Galas," a smoother voice said. "This is the Star Destroyer Chimaera. Stand by for boarding, or

we will open fire." "Threepio!" Leia pointed at the comm unit.

C-3PO activated the transmitter and used his vocabulator to emit a staccato burst of drones and clicks.

There was a long pause while the Imperials summoned a translator droid.

Han smiled, satisfied, and rose from the pilot's chair. "You know what to do, Chewie."

Chewbacca groaned and took the yoke, continuing to angle for the bright crescent at the planet horizon.

Han reached past C-3PO's shoulder and linked the comm speakers to the Falcon's intercom, then

motioned for Leia to join him.

"I'll need you in back with me," he said. Leia unbuckled her crash webbing, her heart rising into her

throat. "Han, I don't know if shooting our way out of this-

"Do I look like a gundark?" he asked. "If we shoot, we're dead."

Happy to know they agreed, Leia followed him down the access to the rear hold. By the time they

opened the hatch, the Imperials were back on the channel with their translator droid, and it was

conversing with C-3PO in a cacophony of buzzes and clacks. Han retrieved a small cargo pod, then

took it into the main ring corridor and opened one of the smuggling compartments in the floor. He began

to extract the cases of fine Chandrilan brandy that he kept to pay off spaceport masters, passing them to

Leia to stow in the cargo pod.

"What are we going to do, bomb them with intoxicants?" "You might say that," Han said. "It's called

'bribe-on-the-run.' This stuff is good currency, especially to a junior officer who probably hasn't seen a

payment voucher in months."

"Han, didn't you hear what I said about Pellaeon?" Leia asked. "He won't go for that."

Han smiled. "He won't have to."

By the time he explained the details to Leia, the cargo pod was loaded and the Chimaera's officer was

back on the comm channel, sounding as irritated as only C-3PO could make a sentient.

"Regina Galas pilot, our droid assures me there is no reason a Gand can't speak Basic."

C-3PO replied with a long rattle of a question. There was a momentary translation delay, then the officer

replied, "My point is that I know you understand our instructions.

Maintain position or you will be fired upon. Our targeting computers have you locked in."

Leia nearly fell as Chewbacca suddenly decelerated and started what felt like a turn back toward the

Chimaera. She knew it was really a maneuver to put the assault shuttle between them and the Star

Destroyer's powerful turbolasers. Han and Chewbacca had been running Imperial checkpoints since

before there was a Rebellion. They knew every smuggler's trick in the data banks-and a few more.

"I said maintain position, not come about," the Chimaera officer barked. "And speak Basic!"

C-3PO replied with a stream of flustered clicking. Han and Leia chuckled with appreciation; they knew

how frustrating the droid could be when he was agitated. They sealed the pod and ejected it through the

air lock. When they returned to the engineering station in the main hold and brought the tactical array up

on the display, Chewbacca had already brought the Falcon around and was accelerating away, with the

assault shuttle now squarely between them and the Chimaera.

The officer began to yell. "Halt! Halt, or we'll open fire!" "Open fire?" C-3PO said, still in the voice of a

Gand but now speaking Basic. "Oh my!"

Chewbacca closed the channel and, laughing so hard his roars rumbled out the cockpit access tunnel,

continued to accelerate. Unable to make good on the officer's threats without risking her own assault

shuttle, the Chimaera held her fire. The Falcon's new bearing ran roughly parallel to Tatooine's surface

instead of toward it. But knew that once they were beyond turbolaser range, or masked the

electromagnetic blast of the twin suns, Chewbacca would turn. Leia continued to watch the tactical

display, expecting the Star Destroyer to maneuver for a clear shot or divert her shuttle, but she did

neither.

"Good," Han said. "They think we're just spice runners. They'll stop to collect our jettisoned cargo, and

then we're home free. The boarding officer won't want prisoners around to tell Pellaeon what was really

in the pod."

"You're sure about that?"

Leia watched with growing alarm as the three TIEs passed the cargo pod, now angling to put themselves

between Tatooine and their quarry. As long as Chewbacca continued on a straight course, they would be

unable to catch the Falcon-but the instant she turned toward the planet, the TIEs would be in good

position to cut her off.

"They don't look all that interested in a bribe."

Han studied the display, his jaw falling a little more with each kilometer the TIEs put between themselves

and the ejected cargo. For a moment, it looked as though the assault shuttle would also ignore the pod

and stay behind the Falcon. Then a tractor beam activated in its stern, and it veered toward the bribe.

Han sighed in relief, but grabbed Leia's hand and started for the laser cannon access tunnel.

"C'mon."

"Han, what happened to no shooting?" Despite her protest, Leia allowed herself to be dragged along. " 'If

we shoot, we're dead.' You said that. I remember."

"I say a lot of things." They reached the access tunnel and Han jumped in, not climbing down so much as

using the handholds to slow his descent. "But they're trying to grab the pod on the fly. The boarding

officer needs us to make this look good, or his commander won't buy our escape."

Leia was already climbing into the upper turret. "How good?"

"Good. That Pellaeon must be a real stickler." The Falcon shuddered as Han test-fired his weapons. "Just

don't hit anything. Hit something and we're-

"Dead." Leia buckled herself into the firing seat. "I know." She slipped on the headset and spun her turret

toward Tatooine's lambent disk.

The canopy dimmed against the sapphire flash of an incoming turbolaser strike, and Leia's pulse stopped.

She steeled herself to vanish in the crash of heat and light she had been half expecting to take her since

the Rebellion began, then saw the tiny block of the assault shuttle silhouetted against the blossom of a

distant eruption. "What was that?" Leia gasped.

Chewbacca's rumbled answer made her stomach go hollow. "They blasted it?" Han cried. "The brandy

alone was two thousand credits!"

"It does eliminate our bribery plan." It was a bit of a struggle to keep her voice even. "What now?"

Han answered by laying a wall of laser bolts in front of the TIEs. "The shuttle, we can outrun," he said.

"But we need to check those fighters. Just don't-"

"Hit anything." Leia activated her range finder. "I know." At this range, the TIEs were little more than blue

barbs of ion efflux. She brought her sensor-augmented sights on-line, and the claw-shaped images of

three TIE interceptors appeared on her targeting display. She set her lead ahead of the TIEs an extra

length, then another one. She added another half length to be certain, and squeezed the triggers.

The quad laser cannons fired in diametric sequence to minimize discharge shudder. Even so, the turret

shook. Leia checked sights, found the interceptors still trying to cut them off, and fired again. The Falcon

was still at maximum range, and the bolts took an eternity to reach their destination. Most winked out

well ahead of the TIEs, but some-Han's, she hoped-merged with the blue glow of the starfighters' ion

drives. She fixed her gaze on her targeting display and continued to fire, praying that none of the images

vanished. The Imperials were accustomed to smugglers running and generally did not work very hard to

chase them down, but they would prove a lot more determined with any vessel that actually destroyed

one of their own craft.

The distance between Han's bolts and the TIEs continued to diminish on Leia's display. She cut one of

the lengths out of her own targeting lead, and their fire turned to an impenetrable storm. The Imperials

lost their nerve and turned toward the Falcon so they could bring their own guns to bear.

"Barge drivers," Han sneered. "What kind of plastiheads is the Empire recruiting for pilots these days?"

The TIEs opened fire, and tiny lances of green light stabbed out of Tatooine's yellow glow. The lines

faded to nothingness kilometers shy of the Falcon, but distant blossoms of laser energy began to burgeon

against the shields almost before Leia could disengage the lead adjustment on her sights.

Han's laser cannons began to stitch space alongside the TIEs. Leia followed his lead, and they forced the

trio back toward the Star Destroyer. The image on her targeting display switched to true size, and the

interceptors became thumb-sized blurs coming dead-on. Chewbacca continued ahead, keeping the

Star Wars - Tatooine Ghost (by Troy Denning)

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