When we last left off, Han was about to make a suicidal charge right into an Authority crossfire and all
but certain death. But just before he can get the word, he's slammed in the back of the head as a
furball wraps itself around him. As he recovers, he sees it's Pakka.
Pakka? Pakka!
How did you get here?
To get the answer to that we must look over our shoulder to see Atuarre standing nearby, ready to explain. We did mention there were two airlocks into this tower, one on the prison level and one at the ground floor? The Espos had docked at the ground floor because they didn't want a forced entry to
let out all the air and kill their boss. Left with no other options, Atuarre has brought the
Falcon into the prison air lock. And not just the
Falcon -- as mentioned in the last chapter, she's also taken a junction station from the complex with three long tunnel tubes. These tube are pressurized and they can cram a LOT of people into the tubes and station, many times the
Falcon's normal capacity.
Okay, time for a new plan: A fighting withdrawal to the freight airlock, evacuating as many prisoners as possible into the tubes and the
Falcon while an armed screen of prisoners fights a delaying action to buy them time to leave. Han is notified that Viceprex Hirken is calling for him; realizing
the bad guys will realize something is up if he isn't there to answer, he returns to the front line and leads the defense. He and his team are able to hold Hirken's group to a stalemate, but the lower decks team is being slaughtered by the Espo strike force pushing up from the assault transport.
While this is going on someone -- I suspect it was Chewie -- has an idea. They run one of the pressurized tunnel tubes down the tower to connect to the assault ship's emergency airlock. Once connected, a boarding party led by an angry wookie storms aboard. The transport is held only by a skeleton crew, as everyone else is fighting up the tower to relieve the Viceprex. The Assault Transport is swiftly taken. Chewie undocks it to prevent its recapture, then moves it out into space next to the
Falcon. Prisoners swarm from the tube docked to the prison airlock up, through the tubes, into the
Falcon, into the assault transport, into the junction station, and just waiting in the pressurized tubes. It is a very tight fit but no one's complaining.
Han gets the word that all but a hundred prisoners have evacuated. He orders everyone who's not armed to get out now, while the remainder of his team moves back to their final fighting positions. Just then the heavy repeating blaster, shielded as we expected, pokes its ugly snout into the chamber. Han doesn't waste his shots on it; he simply falls back with his team to their final. Fortunately, the door is somewhat small so it is difficult for the Authority to move their support weapon in to deploy it effectively, so we have a few minutes. While retreating, Han notices Bollux stuffed into an alcove -- he wasn't able to keep up in the press of evacuees. Han helps him up but, just as they prepare to retreat, Bollux uses the last of his mobility to shove Han down.
Then his head explodes as a blaster bolt, intended for Han, strikes him in the cranium.
BOLLUX! NOOOOO!
Han whips around and brings his blaster around in a speed draw. In the split second of the engagement as he brings up his weapon he realizes his target is Uul-Rha-Shan, who is already adjusting for a second shot.
There is a flash of light.
Then Uul-Rha-Shan flies up and backwards, his chest a smoking ruin. Debris falls from the ceiling where his own shot hit, just fractions of a second too slow to kill Han.
Han is thunderstruck, heartbroken, cradling Bollux. He never really believed Bollux was just a droid, just a metallic appliance to be used and discarded. Around him the battle swirls as the Espo infantry, happily unsupported by the repeater, charge in, and are thrown back by a prisoner counterattack.
A Trianni ranger brings Han to his senses; it's Atuarre's husband. Atuarre told him not to come back without Han, and if he hadn't come his son Pakka would have. So together they carry Bollux' shattered frame -- in which Blue Max is still lodged -- back to the airlock.
The Espos seem oddly inactive while all this is happening.
Finally, it is Han at the airlock -- he insists on being the last person out, as befits the leader. Just as he's about to close the tube, he hears a shout from down the corridor -- "Solo!"
It's none other than Viceprex Hirken all by himself. He got word that the Assault Transport has left so he deliberately sent his own guards down that way, then came here by himself, begging to be taken along.
So he's sacrificed his wife and all his subordinates to save his own skin? What a swell guy.
Be that as it may, if I were in Han's shoes I'd have taken him. In addition to the pragmatic issue that he will be a valuable hostage both to guarantee escape and to ransom back to the Authority, I wouldn't abandon anyone to death by re-entry if it could be avoided, even a scum like Hirken. We can always kill him later.
But that choice is taken out of Han's hands. Scarcely has Hirken finished pleading for mercy when he's burned down from behind. And here comes his wife, Neera, wielding an obviously just-fired blaster and backed up by the entire armed Espo contingent. Seeing the Heavy Mob heading his way, Han decides it's well past time to leave. He steps in and irises the tube closed, then detaches it and the entire ungainly contraption begins to carefully move. He has a momentary vision of Neera and the guards beating on the airlock hatch, but then the Tower has fallen away from them and they are swept from his sight. None living will ever see them again.
It is very crowded in the tubes and the ships, and almost everyone who is able is busy organizing, attending to the wounded, flying the ships. Only Pakka, in the
Falcon' cockpit, has the visibility and leisure to silently watch the tower dwindle to a speck, a spark , against the greater mass of the planet.
Then there is a sudden, bright flare.
Then there is darkness.
...
With that, it's time to move on to denouement o'clock. We're at the outlaw tech's base and dropping off the various prisoners. Doc reunites with Jess.
To our delight, we find that Bollux is "alive" after a fashion. In the microseconds between the blaster impact and the destruction of his brain, Blue Max, who was in connection with him at the time, pulled down his essential matrices and stored them inside his own frame. Now "Bollux" shares Blue Max's frame with Blue Max, as much alive as when he was running on separate circuits. He's lost a fair number of nonessential memories, but, as he puts it "I can always relearn camp sanitation procedures if I need to".
Doc promises him a new and better body. Rekkon's nephew, a dark-skinned young man who looks much like his uncle , is offered a place among the outlaws. And at last Jessa looks up Han and asks what his plans are: Join them against the Authority? Or clear out.
Han tells Jess HIS preferred revenge is to "Rob 'em blind." So he's not sticking around for a crusade. Which is just as well. In the Legends continuity the
Corporate Sector Authority outlasted the Empire, outlasted the New Republic which followed it, and survived through the Yuuzhan Vong invasion. It experienced a slave revolt in 44 ABY but does not appear to have fallen because of it. Apparently a corporate oligarchy is inherently more stable than one-man dictatorship by a megalomaniacal Sith. Who knew?
Jess has a consolation prize for him -- a new guidance system, an overhaul, various minor repairs, and some, ah,
alone time with her.
This was the written in the 70s after all, so a consequence-free hookup is just the ticket for a conquering hero in a male fantasy. This is why, I suspect, when Tarquin's female colleague bargained with him for the Snarl area at the end of Blood , Sweat, and Tears, a lot of readers quickly assumed Teh Sex was involved. It's very much a trope in adventure fiction, and not subverted enough, in my view.
Chewbacca watches them walk off together and ponders to himself: He's going to enjoy some well-earned R&R himself, but after that, everyone in the galaxy had best hold onto their cash with both hands.
FIN.
Re: Let's Read: The Han Solo Adventures (1979)
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