Let's Read: The Han Solo Adventures (1979)

[pendell]

First, some replies.

I did want to know Bollux's current location in the context of the story, though.

He's with the party. He was separated from them when he volunteered to walk in front and draw attention of espos, but rejoined them at the lift chutes, with two loudspeakers hooked up through which Blue Max blared a spurious radiation alarm, thus saving the party's neck. Once he arrived they took Blue Max out of him to reactivate the chute, but didn't have time to put Blue back in before they all, Bollux included, made their getaway. Chewie carried Blue Max while Bollux ran along with them. He's just been picked up by the harvester, same as the rest of the party.

I realize this is a work of fiction but I still have a tendency to think of this in gaming term, due to the number of Star Wars RPG type games I played in the past, and I think it's entertaining to write that way.

Now, to business.

Spoiler: Chapter 7

Show

When we left off the party had just gone through the airport fence in a harvester. Once it is stopped, Han puts on his military-officer hat and tries to out-think the Authority: He deems they'll probably be concentrating on the passenger terminal and not expecting them to make for the barges. After all, these vessels are slow, automated, and run on a schedule, so not a good choice for a getaway ship, better to steal a ship in the passenger dock.

So Han has Blue Max set the harvester on autopilot down towards the passenger terminal while the rest of them head towards the freight terminal. Bollux retrieves Blue Max after he's done programming the harvester, and they run to the Falcon, still ensconced in its drone shell.

Han dashes directly to the cockpit, accompanied by Bollux (with Blue Max), and tells everyone else to strap in. He dispenses with preflight and brings up the engines to full all at once, hoping that they won't blow, but Scoundrel's Luck comes through again.

The Authority control tower signals the barge to hold. Han has the barge computer respond with a "acknowledged that I am clear to launch" message in the hopes Authority will believe it is nothing but a computer malfunction. Orran control continues to signal the ship to stop, trying various different messages in the hopes of fixing the "malfunction".

Han has to do all the cockpit setup himself, missing Chewbacca more than ever, and then sees something which makes him swear a blue streak: Their barge has been loaded down with cargo! Some efficient authority person saw the unloaded barge and decided it needed to be stocked up for the trip out, so they have several hundred thousand tons worth of additional mass in grain in the barge shell.

There's nothing to do but take off with it; blowing the shell here would alert port defenses and any patrolling picket ships.

As an aside ... several hundred thousand tons? That's bigger than a supertanker!

I find I must revise my opinion of the Millenium Falcon as a cargo carrier. By itself, its capacity is minimal. But perhaps that's not the intended use. Maybe it's more like the tractor in a tractor-trailer combination, providng the motive power for multiple containers, as I think some people have illustrated here. Set up this way, able to push or tow multiple containers, it actually could be a very reasonable choice for mid-sized freight. Still nothing compared to a Lucrehulk, but better than a spacegoing Winnebago.

Meanwhile, we're trying to get away. Han is concerned at the additional mass, and yells over to Rekkon (in the lounge, with the other passengers) to have someone in the gun turrets; they may have to shoot their way out. Then he hits the button and the barge lifts off.

Perhaps the best way to describe this getaway is like a little old lady hobbling across the street on a cane; this is the grace and speed of the Falcon encumbered as it is by the shell and several hundred thousand metric tons of grain.

As they hit atmo, something catches Han's eye: The harvester they had so recently ridden is now surrounded by self-propelled artillery, skimmers, and troop-carrying APCs. As he watches a bright fireball marks the vehicle's end as concentrated firepower knocks out the power plant. Then it is gone and they are in the black.

Wait a minute.

Was that power plant a nuclear plant? That just exploded and scattered its fuel all over the spaceport?

Well, all I can say is I'm glad we're in space now. Who knows? Maybe the spaceport will be useable again in a few centuries.

Just as the Falcon gets to the upper atmosphere it is hit by a tractor beam; there was a picket ship in transpolar orbit and it was alerted to the disturbance.

The vessel is an Invincible-class dreadnaught , and identifies itself as the Shannador's Revenge.


The text describes it as "over two kilometers long, bristling with gun turrets, missile tubes, tractor-beam projectors and deflector shields, armored like a protosteel mountain ... enough weaponry to hold and vaporize a score of ships like the Falcon".

No idea who Shannador is or why they're mad, but Han doesn't know or care. All he knows is that he's caught in a very, very strong tractor beam.

Incidentally, I don't think the Prequels , in which we found the Republic had no space navy, necessarily contradicts this version of events. While there was no all-Republic navy the various member nations of the Republic seems to have maintained their own fleets; the Trade Federation used theirs to blockade Naboo. And we saw in the Separatist meeting that the Techno Union and other factions were also willing to lend their own forces to the cause.

Doesn't seem very stable for the Republic to have no armed force but allow all the constituent nations to maintain theirs, but it's Lucas' universe and not mine.

At first, all Han can think is to refuse to surrender and take as many Espos with him as he can -- just like in Episode IV, where he was willing to go down fighting an entire battle station all by himself rather than be captured alive; death before dishonor.

Um, Han? Suggestion? Why don't we save the death-or-glory heroics for when we don't have paying passengers? If you want to get yourself killed, that's one thing. It's not right to make that decision for your passengers. The contract was 'safe delivery', wasn't it?

The tractor beam is so strong it begins to compromise the structural integrity of the barge-shell; members creak, and bits get pulled off, yanked back to the Shannador by the powerful gravitic impulse.

This gives Han an idea. Hollering into the intercom for everyone to brace themselves, he hits the EMERGENCY RELEASE button on the barge's cargo. Several hundred thousand tons of grain is dumped out into space, acting as an impromptu chaff cloud, and it completely blinds the Shannador's sensors. But still the tractor beam holds firm.

Playing his last trick, Han triggers the explosive bolts mating the barge shell to the Falcon. The Falcon surges forward, free of the encumbering mass, and makes a beeline away as the barge-shell, now under no acceleration save the tractor beams, is pulled back into the Shannador. The tractor beams are tuned to stop a fleeing ship under high acceleration, so the counter-acceleration they impart to the now-derelict barge is very, very high.

KA-BOOM!

There's no sound in space, but that is what happens. The Shannador's Revenge collides with the barge-shell at a very high velocity, and cuts it in two. But the Shannador doesn't get out of the collision unscathed; the sensor suite is out of commission, and all over the ship pressure doors slam shut as hull decompressions occur all over the front of the ship.

No telling how many Authority crewers were sucked out into space. If Han didn't have a death mark on him before this he certainly will now -- if the Authority figures out who he is. But that's a problem for another day.

Once in hyperspace, Han settles in to the cruise routine and thinks on what to do: All he can think of is Chewie as prisoner of the authority. According to Rekkon, the Authority had become very fearful of conspiracies (and their paranoia causing conspiracies to spring to life where none existed). Therefore, they will probably suspect Chewbacca of being part of some sinister plot. Thus, they will take him to their secret holding base, where all the other prisoners are, and interrogate him there. So that's that. We've got to find the secret base and rescue the prisoners. Han had originally intended to bow out after delivery, but now he's got a personal reason to help Rekkon and his team with their mission.

Let's go back to the lounge and talk to Rekkon about going up with a pl-



Well, frak.

Rekkon , slumped face first over the gameboard, is dead. Judging by the wound in his back and the smell of ozone in the air, he has been shot from behind by a needle-beam blaster bolt at low-power. Next to him is a still-bubbling clear pool which must be what's left of the data plaque that contained all the information Rekkon had retrieved from the data center.

Blast.

Han takes a minute to gather himself, then is interrupted by a noise -- boots on a ladder. Someone is coming up out of the belly turret. That's right; Han had told them to crew the turrets, and it looks like some of them did. Rekkon heaves himself up out of the turret to come face to face with Han's blaster. "Just give over your pistol, Torm. Keep your right hand on the rung and do it with your left, easy. Don't make a mistake; it'll be your one and only."

Once he has Rekkon's gun he pats him down and sends him to the far end of the lounge, then he calls up to Atuarre to come down from the top turret; he asks Torm where Pakka is. Torm says Pakka was sent away for a medipack and hasn't shown up back yet. Probably when Han yelled for everyone to stay put during the excitement, he did exactly that.

Atuarre comes out of the turret and gets the same treatment. She is furious at having a gun pointed at her and demands to know what's going on. Just at that moment Pakka enters the lounge, carrying a medpack in one hand and a blaster in the other. He hesitates, seeing his mother held at gunpoint.

"He thinks you're threatening me", says Atuarre. Can't imagine why.

Very slowly and very carefully Pakka is brought over to Atuarre and relieved of his gun. Now that they are unarmed, Han lays it out for them; Rekkon is dead and they're all suspects so far as he's concerned.

Atuarre demands to know why they think Han wasn't the murderer. Han dismisses this; he was too busy outflying the dreadnaught to have time for a light bit of murder in his spare time. Besides, Bollux was with him the entire time.

Bollux confirms this; so that's three suspects eliminated: Han, Bollux, and Blue Max. That leaves Torm, Atuarre, and Pakka.

Torm immediately insinuates that Atuarre is sus, and Atuarre comes back viciously, arguing loudly that he must be the killer.

Ah yes, the discussion period.

After a few minutes, Han tells them to can it. Here are the rules: He's locking up all the weapons on the ship except his own blaster, which he will carry with him. The other three are to sit tight in the lounge. If he sees one of them outside, he will kill them on sight. If he comes back and find that anyone in the lounge is injured, he'll kill the survivors. Do we all understand each other?

Yes? Very well. Bollux and he have work to do.

That "work" consists of taking Rekkon to the emergency airlock and jettisoning his body. It's not much of a funeral, but the last thing they need is to be boarded and have to account for a corpse.

When Han lifts up Rekkons body he sees something odd -- written in his own blood, covered by his body, is the simple message:

"Star's End, Mytus VII".

Bollux and Han discuss. They conclude Rekkon hadn't known who his killer was, but trusted Han, so he'd left this message with the expectation Han would handle the body and would see the message; this is the distillation of the now-melted data plaque: The prison is called Star's End, and it is on the planet Mytus VII.

This gives Han an idea.

Before we continue, I have an important question for you: WHO IS THE IMPOSTER? We have, in alphabetical order:

-- Atuarre
-- Pakka
X-- Rekkon (deceased)
-- Torm

Make your choice and place your bets, and let's see how this plays out.

Continuing.

Spoiler

Show

Like any good Among Us game, it's time for the crew to do their tasks. Han gives out the orders: Han and Torm will repair damage aft. Atuarre and Pakka will square away the forward compartment and warm up some food. Atuarre objects to this; she's a ranger, not a kitchen drudge. Han doesn't care.

While Han and Torm are alone, he whispers to Torm that he thinks he know who killed Rekkon: It must be the cub, Pakka. He must have been brain-programmed by the Authority as a prisoner and may not even be aware, himself, of his actions. He learned from Rekkon's body that Star's End is on the planet Mytus VI. Han wants to play along for a while to see if he can learn anything. In a few minutes they're all going to log into the computer to see if they can pull any information on the planet, maybe Atuarre or Pakka will let something slip. Meanwhile, he hands Torm a blaster; its readout shows full charge.

After the chores are done, he calls them all to the forward compartment and hands them each a handheld terminal and tells them to start searching for information in the ship's computer on the target planet -- he'll look up navigation, Atuarre planetological, Pakka unclassified Authority government data, Torm outlaw-tech data. Ready? Search!

To their amazement, their terminals remain blank after the search term is entered. Only Han's is hooked up, and he can see what's on their displays thanks to Space Teamviewer. He tells them to turn their screens around.

Torm has gone deathly pale, he knows what mistake he's made.

Atuarre's reads MYTUS IV. Pakka's reads MYTUS V. Torm's reads MYTUS VII -- which is NOT the planet Han told him. Han had told him Mytus VI. But Torm had looked up Mytus VII because he already knew what the right planet was ; he'd seen it on Rekkon's data pad.

Just before he killed him.

We've seen this gambit before. Step aside, Tyrion Lannister (mildly NSFW link) , looks like we've got someone who can play at your level.

I guess we shouldn't be surprised, should we? Torm has red hair, and everyone knows red is sus .

Torm draws his pistol and fires, just as Atuarre draws and fires at him. Both blasters buzz dry of charge.

"Two malfunctions?" Han asks, as he unlimbers his own shooting iron. "I betcha mine works, Torm."

Torm throws his pistol at Han and, while Han is distracted, quickly grabs Atuarre in a neckhold, holding her one fraction of a way from snapping it.

We did mention he was a bulky man with a wrestler build, right? And he has skill at unarmed combat.

He tries to use Atuarre as a hostage, but Pakka jumps on him, fangs extended. As he lets go of Atuarre to deal with Pakka , she turns on him.

Torm is in trouble, but he rises to the occasion. A powerful snap-kick lays Atuarre out and sends her into Han. Then he reaches up, grabs Pakka, and throws him into Bollux, who is also trying to restrain him.

With all four combatants temporarily out of action, Torm takes this opportunity to dash away, to find some place for a respite, perhaps a weapon. He passes by the cockpit, the ladder access, the ramp -- finally he reaches a small compartment , enters, and slams the DOOR CLOSE button.

He looks around -- nothing like a weapon, no useful tools -- then he realizes where he is.

He throws himself at the hatch, but it's already secured from the other side.

Han's voice crackles over the intercom. "Nice of you to choose the emergency airlock, Torm. It's where you would have ended up anyway."

We've ... we've seen this before , haven't we?

Torm starts begging, admitting he'd shot Rekkon but says he was in fear of his life; if he hadn't done it the Authority would have killed him themselves; they don't tolerate failure. He's just looking out for number one -- just like Solo said he does.

Han notes the admission. Atuarre comes to the hatch and is confused. Rekkon found and recruited him because Torm's father and brother were missing, right?

Han, more cynically , says that not only is this true, but that the fact his father and brother are missing make him the sole heir to their ranch.

So, yeah, Torm sold out his own family for personal gain. So is it any wonder he'd sell out a stranger like Rekkon too?

Torm makes his last pitch: He hasn't told everything to the Authority. he was holding on to information to drive the price up. Let Torm go, and with the information they can trade to the Authority they can not only get Chewbacca back -- a trivial ask for the info Torm has -- but enough money that Han can buy a new ship if he sees fit.

"Solo, tell me what you want; I'll get it for you, I swear! You're a guy who looks out for number one, aren't you? Isn't that what you are, Solo!? "

For a moment, Han pauses. The text tells us

"Han stared at his own lean reflection. In another man, he'd have said those eyes were too used to concealing everything but cynicism. His thoughts echoed Torm: Is that what I am? ".

After a moment's pause, he turns back to regard Torm , straining against the airlock viewport, and gives his answer.

"Ask Rekkon".

And hits the lock release.



TORM HAS BEEN EJECTED.

That's it, We've got away and the Imposter's gone. Now let's get on with rescuing our friends -- in the next chapter!

Respectfully,

Brian P.