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

[tomandtish]

I’d be interested in seeing more numbers and background on this.

If there were troubles with selling these, they weren’t enough to prevent the Lando trilogy from being published, and they may have been due more to broader issues in the SF/F market. CJ Cherryh had trouble with some of her smaller experimental novels in roughly the same timeframe—little gems like Wave Without A Shore that were a bit more nuanced and thinky than the typical pulp SF. They were much better novels than most of what was being published, but they had difficulty competing with overstuffed epics.

It’s also a little difficult to compare sales for the Han Solo books compared with the second flowering of the EU that brought Thrawn and Mara Jade. The Solo novels were clustered around 1979-1980, whereas the main pulse of EU novels began to expand in the mid-90s. That’s a fifteen-year difference in the markets, so that may well have had more of an effect on overall sales than what the characters could do inside those novels.

Yeah, Palaman is right. Up until the end of the 70s Star Trek was the only sci-fi series with any decent amount of books. And roughly half those were novelizations of shows (either original series or animated series). Even it didn't start releasing significant numbers of new material until 1981.

And Han has always been Han's biggest problem. At this point in his life (and certainly up until ANH) he's still very much making up things as he goes. He's a pretty decent example of decent INT but poor WIS. Occasional decent ideas but never takes time to think it all the way through.

[pendell]

Chapter 2
This deal was bad from the start.

Spoiler

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The Millenium Falcon enters Authority space and discreetly puts out the word they're
available for hire, no questions asks.

After a degree of time, a message popus in their queue. A name : Zlarb. A planet: Lur. A set of coordinates. A cash advance.

Nothing more needs to be said. Nothing more is said.

Han takes the lure, and the chapter opens with them dropping to the surface of the planet Lur.

No image available, but its an icy world covered in glaciers. It also has a very thick ionization layer, thunderstorms. The author casually name drops that the Falcon resembles a ghost ship in the fog , like the Permondiri Explorer or the fabled Queen of Ranroon. Those names may or may not be Chekhov's guns setting up a future encounter with them.

The ride down is extremely bumpy, and damage lights go off. Bollux, seated in the communication officer's seat, reports that the auto-firefighting controls are malfunctioning. He hustles aft to see if he and Blue Max can resolve the problem before the compartment gets floaded with firefighting foam.

Then -- they're through the layer and an active landing beacon is detected, in the middle of a big, empty glacial field. Han doesn't trust his terrain following sensors in this weather, not after all
the jury-rigging the Falcon has experienced, so brings the ship in very slowly and carefully.

Touchdown. Chewbacca slides into the command seat and takes control of the Falcon's onboard guns, he will watch from here in case of trouble. Han , meanwhile, goes to lower the landing ramp and meet the contact. On the way he sees Bollux with his chest open; he and Blue Max were able to catch the firefighting system on its very last safety; it's okay for now. Han tells him to button up; clients get nervous at the sight of Blue Max, and is there a reason to show all their cards?

He steps out into the storm, and hears a voice call his name behind him:


Described in text as "tall, broadly built man with extremely fair skin, white blonde beard and
clear gray eyes with creases that gave him an intense, threatening look." "Wearing a thermosuit and a facebowl that muted his voice... the thermosuit was white and the facebowl reflective, making him nearly invisible on the glacier".

He approaches with his hands open in front of him and Han, who had drawn his own blaster at the sound of his name, holsters it. The man presumably takes off his facebowl so Han can see his features. Yes, this is Zlarb .

Han asks if they need help with the cargo -- he's brought a handtruck for the purpose. Zlarb looks amused but declines; he doesn't need a handcart for the cargo. Han agrees. Fine. Bring the cargo to the ramphead; He and Chewie will take it from there.

Zlarb's expression changes. That isn't the way it's going to be. In fact, he and Han are going onboard the Falcon. Now.

At this point he shows his hand, and Han finds himself facing a palmgun.

Soon enough, Chewbacca discovers the situation. Han doesn't need to signal distress to his partner -- all he has to do is NOT give the subtle all-clear signal when he boards for Chewie to realize there's a problem. But Zlarb is standing too close to Han ; the Falcon's guns will kill both of them. Left with no choice, Chewie leaves the cockpit and comes down to join them, a prisoner.

They are joined by two of Zlarb's henchbeings. One of them is "a humanoid, a giant, burly creature of nearly Chewbacca's size .. skin was a glossy brown, and vestigial horns curled at his forehead." Doesn't wear either a thermobowl or thermosuit. A zabrak, maybe?

The second is a brutish thug of the type straight from central casting's thugs-r-us. What is notable about him, however, is that he has a Nashtah


on a leash. A "storied hunting beast from Dra III .. six powerful legs, each armed with long, curving, diamond hard claws... triple rows of jagged white teeth, long barbed tail [muscular], green, sleek hide".

Han is puzzled. What do they need a Nashtah for? Out here? And what does this have to do with the cargo?

The five enter the ship and Zlarb orders Han to open the main cargo so they can start loading. A fourth henchbeing, named Wadda, seemingly their technical specialist arrives. Seeing Bollux, Zlarb orders Wadda to restraining bolt put on him. Han tells Bollux to go along with it. Bollux seemingly shifts himself to a better seating position, then the bolt is put on and he's out like a light. The bolt puts interference between his command-and-control module and the rest of his body. Thus isolated, he is completely helpless.

Now the cargo arrives, escorted by two more of Zlarb's people, and all of Han's questions are at last answer. The cargo is living intelligent beings, Lurrians



Described in text as "erect bipeds, covered in fine white fur, their feet protected by calluslike tissue. Their eyes were large and ran to green or blue."

Around each of their necks is a collar ... and one of the slavers holds a control device which Han recognizes it as an illegal device called a director, a remote control device which, on the press of a button can deliver electroshock pain to those wearing the collars, starting from "mild irritation" escalating through "excruciating pain" all the way up to death. These, then, are slaves, and these collars are the instrument of their imprisonment.

To my eternal sadness and disgust, this isn't science fiction any more. You can buy them for a pet . I don't understand why anyone thinks a shock collar for a dog is any way to restrain a fellow creature, but there's the additional problem they don't work -- I've had the dogs of neighbors who own these "invisible fences" come running right up to me. If the shock isn't excruciating, the dog can shrug it off -- and if it IS excruciating, what do you own a pet for?

Sorry, gotta stop ranting now. Back to the story.

Han's response is immediate: "Not on my ship". Chewbacca's fury is even greater; remember that wookies as slaves are a thing on Kasshyk. Wasn't Chewbacca a slave once himself? Isn't that why he owes Han a life debt? Anyway, he is furious and is restrained only by the sight of several blasters covering him.

Zlarb tells Solo he's in no position to bargain. "Be reasonable", he says. If they make it to the drop off point he and Chewbacca will be "taken care of" but if they're caught en route it's the death sentence for all of them.

Han picks up on that ambiguous phrase "taken care of" and realizes he's a dead man. The Corporate Sector has contract labor very similar to slavery but it doesn't allow actual whips-and-chains slavery. Seems Zlarb has grabbed these people, experts in genetic manipulation and in great demand, so he can take them into the corporate sector and force them to sign on as just such "contract labor". But not only is this absolutely illegal even for the not-exactly-scrupulous Authority, there's also the fact we have Authority people kidnapping intelligent beings outside of Authority space and bringing them across polity lines. That makes it an Imperial matter; the ISB is responsible for these kind of crimes and they will deal with it harshly if found out.

But wait, doesn't the Empire enslave intelligent beings? Sure they do; but Palpatine doesn't share his toys. Illegal slaving, like illegal cloning, is something the Empire will crack down on hard.

Given this fact, what are the odds that Zlarb will pay them off and risk them telling tales in the local pub, drawing law enforcement attention? No. More likely Han and Chewbacca will disappear once the job is done. They were recruited under the table and no one knows where they are, no one will avenge them if killed. They are totally expendable and will indeed be expended. It also means Zlarb doesn't have to pay them.

All of this goes through Han's head but he's under the gun of his own blaster, which Zlarb has pointed to him. Zlarb takes him and Chewbacca to the cockpit, looks over the board, and orders Han to raise ship.

It's nice to see that these books hate slavery so much. I know I've given them grief about droid slavery, but I have to give props that they at least recognize slavery of meatbags is wrong.

The slavers have been thorough and competent but they have made one mistake: There are four members of the Falcon's crew, not three. Blue Max, concealed inside Bollux's chest, isn't affected by the restraining bolt's interference with Bollux's CPU. Further, the restraining bolt only interferes with command-and-control, it doesn't actually have any effect on the raw servoes of Bollux's body itself. Blue Max diverts a great deal of his own power supply into Bollux's systems, manually triggering awkward movements, opening the chest cavity, finally triggering a spasm which allows him to bring his adapter into the computer port he was working on before these rude intruders boarded. Bollux's body falls forward, snapping the adapter arm off with the computer equivalent of blinding pain, but not before Blue Max has had a chance to send a single command to the Falcon's computer.

Which is to disable that last firefighting safety they were working on and trigger off every last extinguisher on the ship, all at once.

In the cockpit, Zlarb is still waving his gun at Han when they are suddenly up to their nostrils in foam. Han and Chewbacca seize on the distraction to jump Zlarb and beat him unconscious. Han grabs up his blaster, then he and Chewbacca set off to retake their ship.


Just down into the next passage way we meet the Nashtah handler and another guard.

COMBAT ENCOUNTER!

Round 1 (at range): Han shoots and kills the second guard. Chewbacca is still closing. The Nashtah handler releases his animal.
Round 2: The Nashtah springs at Han but Chewbacca gets an attack of opportunity and grapples it. Han shoots the handler.
Round 3: Chewbacca is hurt, but uses his superior strength to bash the creature into the bulkhead, one side and then the other. He drops it when all the bones in its body are broken.

3 enemies down, 3 to go.

Further on into the passage, they meet the fourth guard armed with a blaster. Han and Chewie "Surf" on the foam toward him. His blaster wavers as he can't decide who to shoot, and then it's too late as Chewie is on him. While Chewie busies himself in beating seven kinds of stuffing out of the slaver, Han continues to the cargo hold. He's a bit concerned about what he's going to do there, as at the slightest hint of trouble the guards will throw the kill switches on the director and all the slaves will die.

But when he arrives, he finds the problem has been taken out of his hands. The kill switches have been thrown and many of the slaves are dying on the ground in agony, but the Lurians are a very tough species and the remainder are already mobbing the guards. As Han watches, they pummel the slavers into submission, deactivate the director, then grab their blasters.

Han enters the hold , holstering his blaster, and raises his hands. One of the Lurians with a blaster turns to regard him. Han tries to make peaceful contact but with his usual foul luck he fails the diplomacy check. Even as he speaks the blaster comes up.

It takes all of Han's self-control not to draw himself and to remain standing there; looking peaceful. Even if he DID win the speed-draw the rest of the mob would jump him next round. The blaster fires !

.. Past Han. Han turns around to see Zlarb, who wasn't quite as dead as Han would have hoped, crumpling with a gaping hole where his chest used to be.

Han rushes over, but sees there's no hope. Maybe if they were at a first-rate medical center Zlarb could be saved, but not on the Falcon with basic first aid supplies. "They weren't quite as meek as you thought, were they Zlarb? Just real patient."

Zlarb gives no answer; he's gone into the Dark Side of the Force and there is no return.

To business; Chewbacca has finished with his slaver who is now secured at the ramp. The two guards overwhelmed by the Lurians are themselves also alive and in restraint; a commendable show of mercy from slaves to their would-be captors. Han checks in on Bollux, and sees to him.

Next is to search Zlarb's body. Han must have some ranks as a rogue, because he detects the obvious trap on his carrying case and is able to disable it, revealing a data plague, another small item, and a message tape. We'll deal with those in a moment.

Next up is the captured slavers. Han interrogates them. Someone owes him ten thousand and he wants it. "Not telling me where I can get it would be the dumbest thing you'll ever do in your lives, and one of the very last."

The guards talk, but they don't know anything. Zlarb hired them and arranged all the contacts, all the payments. They're just muscle. They know nothing.

Han believes them. He's in no mood to do them any favors. He slaps the slave collars on them and hands the director unit to one of the Lurrians. The Lurrians show by gesture that they understand; in this act of frontier justice, the slavers will be made to pay for the crime of kidnapping and the crime of murder of several Lurrians with the collars with their own freedom. I don't like slavery but this seems .. just. They're receiving the very fate they intended for others. And it's not all that different from a term in prison at hard labor. Exactly how long that sentence will be at the sole discretion of the Lurrians.

As the Lurrians and their prisoners file down the ramp, Han investigates the contents of Zlarb's case further.

The "other item" proves to be a Malkite poisoner's kit. So Zlarb, in addition to being treacherous and a slaver, is also a poisoner as well. It doesn't make Han regret his death any more.

The data plaque contains coordinates and planetary index numbers, ship registry codes and rental agent ids, most on the planet Ammuud .

Now to the message tape, which reveals a holo of a young, dark-haired man with this data:

"
The measures you suggested are being taken against the Mor Glayyd on Ammuud. When delivery of your current consignment is made, payment will take place on Bonnadan. Be at table 131, main passenger lounge, Bonadon Spaceport Southeast II at [time]."

After the message is seen, it automatically erases.

Bonadon , eh? Sounds like we have an appointment to keep.

That was a dark chapter for the Star Wars universe. I'm glad it ended well, but Han and Chewie seem even further up the creek than they were before.

Some good action sequences and some well thought-out SF both on the planetary approach, the encounter, and the tech used. Brian Daley also did an excellent job of laying out all the pieces to the story beforehand so that none of it is altogether surprising but comes to a satisfying conclusion. Again, Brian Daley does a terrific job of writing a competent nemesis against which Han has to earn his victory, which is one reason these stories are so satisfying.

ETA: Thinking about it, Han reminds me of western characters, but the second wave, not the early golden age. The first-wave heroes like the Lone Rangers were paladins sans peur et sans reproche, just carrying revolvers instead of swords. They'd shoot the gun out of the outlaw's hand and not take payment for a good deed.

Han seems more like a Clint Eastwood hero, like Will Munny in Unforgiven . He's tarnished, compared to the squeaky-clean heroes of black-and-white cinema. He's not the sort to shoot a gun out of a hand, nor is he the sort to turn down a buck, ever. But somehow , despite his cynical exterior, he's always on the side of the weak and the helpless against the cruel and the vicious.

He reminds me a bit of Vimes in Pratchett's Night Watch .

Vimes let him go, and turned his attention to the men.

None of them had ever been taught anything. They’d learned, to a greater or usually a lesser extent, from one another. And Vimes knew where that road went. On that road coppers rolled drunks for their small change and assured one another that bribes were just perks, and it got worse.

He was all for getting recruits out on the street, but you had to train them first. You needed someone like Detritus bellowing at them for six weeks, and lectures about duty and prisoners’ rights and the ‘service to the public’. And then you could hand them over to the street monsters who told them all the other stuff, like how to hit someone where it wouldn’t leave a mark and when it was a good idea to stick a metal soupplate down the front of your trousers before attending to a bar brawl.

And if you were lucky and they were sensible, they found somewhere between impossible perfection and the Pit where they could be real coppers – slightly tarnished, because the job did that to you, but not rotten.

That's what I see in Han -- a real hero. Slightly tarnished, but not rotten. It's believable. Maybe that's why I'm still reading these stories, when I stopped reading Silver Age DC back in my childhood.


Respectfully,

Brian P.

[runeghost]

Yeah, Palaman is right. Up until the end of the 70s Star Trek was the only sci-fi series with any decent amount of books. And roughly half those were novelizations of shows (either original series or animated series). Even it didn't start releasing significant numbers of new material until 1981.

And Han has always been Han's biggest problem. At this point in his life (and certainly up until ANH) he's still very much making up things as he goes. He's a pretty decent example of decent INT but poor WIS. Occasional decent ideas but never takes time to think it all the way through.

I was thinking the same thing. Solo's behavior here - the multiple failure to perform due diligence, or think things through - feels a lot like a PC either with low wisdom or playing up a flaw.

My memory of my on reaction to it back in the day wasn't that it made Han unlikeable - I thought it was funny, in a sort of tragic-slapstick sort of way. It made Han's plight his own fault... which is probably a good choice story-wise. As readers, we want to be interested in what's happening with Han, but we don't want this to be a tragedy. Having his circumstances be self-inflicted keeps them balanced story-wise; the author isn't backing Han into a corner - Han did that himself. YMMV, of course.

[tomandtish]

Slavery always leaves a dirty taste in my mouth, but there are some considerations here.

Spoiler

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The Lurrians are taking the two slavers as slaves in compensation for the lives lost. Is that a reasonable punishment? Does it change anything if the choice is slavery or death? To me, if the choice was slavery or death I'd choose slavery. There's always a possibility I could escape.

[pendell]

I've already ventured my opinion in spoilers. From a natural-law perspective, the thugs got exactly the thing they'd intended for others. If anything,

Spoiler

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If we're settling scores, they still owe the Lurians. Because they killed a lot of Lurians in the cargo bay when they flipped those kill switches on. They can't make up for those deaths either with their own labour or their own lives, so all in all I'd say this is a relatively merciful option. It's not all that different from life imprisonment at hard labour, with the caveat there's no indication parole is impossible. The Lurians decide how long their sentences are -- if they make themselves valuable or perform some great service , they could be freed early. It's not like this is chattel slavery, where people are slaves and so are their children. This is closer to what it was in the ancient world , where it was a common way to collect on a debt.

What other options are there? We can't ship them to the Authority for trial and imprisonment there. Imprison them in the Lurian's settlement? If these people are stone age, they don't have the resources to keep extra mouths around who aren't contributing somehow. "If a man will not work, neither let him eat" may be cruel in an age where universal basic income is a possibility, but for most of human history people were living right on the edge of survival; they couldn't afford to keep people around if they weren't pulling their weight somehow. That's why prisons as we know them didn't really come into existence until the 19th century -- before that, prison was somewhere you went to wait for your sentence or until you'd paid off a debt. And often, in those kinds of prisons, you were expected to pay for your lodgings and food , typically brought in by family.

So the Lurians probably don't have a prison or the ability to keep one. That leaves turning them loose (not an option) or killing them outright .. but if they are killed outright, well, there's a lot of dead Lurians who aren't helping the village survive anymore. That labour shortfall has to be made up somehow.

So I'm not really seeing any better options, unless we're going to just shove them out into the snow here and now.

Respectfully,

Brian P.

[tomandtish]

I've already ventured my opinion in spoilers. From a natural-law perspective, the thugs got exactly the thing they'd intended for others. If anything,

Spoiler

Show

If we're settling scores, they still owe the Lurians. Because they killed a lot of Lurians in the cargo bay when they flipped those kill switches on. They can't make up for those deaths either with their own labour or their own lives, so all in all I'd say this is a relatively merciful option. It's not all that different from life imprisonment at hard labour, with the caveat there's no indication parole is impossible. The Lurians decide how long their sentences are -- if they make themselves valuable or perform some great service , they could be freed early. It's not like this is chattel slavery, where people are slaves and so are their children. This is closer to what it was in the ancient world , where it was a common way to collect on a debt.

What other options are there? We can't ship them to the Authority for trial and imprisonment there. Imprison them in the Lurian's settlement? If these people are stone age, they don't have the resources to keep extra mouths around who aren't contributing somehow. "If a man will not work, neither let him eat" may be cruel in an age where universal basic income is a possibility, but for most of human history people were living right on the edge of survival; they couldn't afford to keep people around if they weren't pulling their weight somehow. That's why prisons as we know them didn't really come into existence until the 19th century -- before that, prison was somewhere you went to wait for your sentence or until you'd paid off a debt. And often, in those kinds of prisons, you were expected to pay for your lodgings and food , typically brought in by family.

So the Lurians probably don't have a prison or the ability to keep one. That leaves turning them loose (not an option) or killing them outright .. but if they are killed outright, well, there's a lot of dead Lurians who aren't helping the village survive anymore. That labour shortfall has to be made up somehow.

So I'm not really seeing any better options, unless we're going to just shove them out into the snow here and now.

Respectfully,

Brian P.

Totally agree.

[pendell]

Chapter 3

Han Solo tries to collect a debt

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The planet Bonadan


At the very end of the Hydian Way,
it was a mining planet until the Authority cleared all the minerals of value. It is still, however, a factory world churning out finished goods by the million. The port is incredibly busy; raw resources
from all over the Corporate Sector are shipped in, turned into industrial goods, and shipped back out
to the rest of the galaxy. A million deals a day are transacted here, maybe more.

There are many spaceports here. The largest, and busiest, is Southeast II.

It is in this port , in a pleasant restaurant, that Han and Chewbacca are waiting, keeping a careful eye on table 131, where Zlarb is supposed to get paid.

This restaurant/lounge is "a light, airy and open place constructed in levels of meandering terraces where plants from hundreds of Authority world had been nurtered." The various booths have wonderful panoramic views of the outside, but the foliage screens one nook from another. Han and Chewbacca are keeping an eye on the target table through the foliage of a D'ian orchard.

No one's showed up yet, though the table is still reserved. Han is working his way through a half-bottle of wine and musing bitterly that if they don't get some money soon they won't be able to lift off again. Chewbacca, for his part, is enjoying a 2 liter mug of Ebla beer. Han amuses himself by
relating one or other of Bollux's jokes just as Chewie lifts his beer to his lips, resulting in a shower of beer. It takes his mind off his problems.

The other thing of note is this bottle of wine he's working his way through -- in a display of the excessive capitalism that makes the Corporate Sector what it is, it is covered in LED lights which, when
pressed, will give off a truly excessive light show as it declaims the (apparently) ambrosiac qualities of the contents, the health benefits, the greatness of the advertisers, on and on and on.

Man, Han is bored.

Time crawls by and no one shows up. Finally a woman forces her way into the table, over the objections of the Maitre'D, pointing out that an empty table earns no credits, reserved or not. Defeated, the restaurant attendant, admits defeat.

Han and Chewie get up and prepare to leave. This has been a bust. What now? Han sends Chewie off to check the ship, then looks back at the booth one last time ... to see the booth's occupant looking at him.

Wait, what this? Descriptive text?

"Several years younger than Han... straight black hair that fell just below the nape of her slender neck. Her skin was a rich brown, her eyes nearly black, indicating she came from a world that received a good deal of solar radiation. She had a long, mobile face that showed, Han thought, a sense of humor. She wore an everyday working outfit -- a blue one-piece bodysuit and low boots. "



And a spoilery Profile (don't read if you don't want to be spoiled. You have been warned!)

Hrn... again, the artwork doesn't agree with the text. And the profile describes her skin as "tan" when, in fact, it is brown. This woman is, in American terms, black just as Lando Calrissien would be.

As an offside, American literature has a bad habit of 'whitening' characters. Another example
is Jules Verne's Captain Nemo , who was an Indian rebel against the Raj in the original telling. But by the time the 1954 movie came about, the actor playing him was
James Mason .

I suppose 1950s America couldn't imagine a nonwhite actor in anything like a starring role without taking to their fainting couches. I suppose this is a relatively obscure SF novel, which is why it didn't trigger people with interracial romance. It's only been about a decade since the Star Trek Kiss sent the south into tizzy.

But then, I suppose the kind of people who would be most offended by this sort of thing wouldn't be reading Star Wars, not in the 1970s.

At any rate ... with all this introduction and description this person has to be a love interest, a femme fatale, or both. Cue the Saxophone .

She calls him over and waves her glass at him. Long time out? Buy a lady a drink?

I suppose it HAS been a long time, Han comes over with his wine.

As he sits down, she comments "You and your friends were the only ones keeping an eye on this table. ... It was obvious. Every time someone approached this table, you and your sidekick looked as if you were going to jump through the foliage. I know, I'm very good at reading expressions."

Han stops pouring and looks at her with renewed interest -- is she the mastermind behind Zlarb? She's nothing like the brutal thugs who apparently work for her.

He does a lookaround; no back-up people, no obvious people in coats watching their booth, no one paying any attention at all. Did she really come to meet Zlarb alone? And is this really the contact, or a scammer working an angle?

She sips the wine. "Mmm, delicious. How are things on Lur, by the way?"

Well, whoever this is she definitely knows something about their business.

Han puts on his poker face. "Chilly, but the air is clearer than it is here. Not as much smoke blowing around, know what I mean?"

Time to cut to the chase. "You have something for me, don't you?"

"Since you bring it up, we do have a little business. But the main lounge is a little public, wouldn't you say?"

Han: "I didn't pick the place. Where would suggest, sis, a dark alley? Down a mineshaft somewhere, maybe? Why not her if not to take care of things?"

Her: "Maybe I just wanted to look you over in the light ... but you can take it for granted that you've been checked
and approved. After I've left, wait ten minutes then follow." She hands over the address of a private hangar. "Bring proof of delivery and you'll get your money. "

Han balks ... he wants to be paid now. No go, go to the hanger, or go home.

It's not like he has much choice. He leaves ten minutes later, taking the wine and two glasses with him, and hope it will make up for robbing her.

So he's wondering if she's thirsty. Well, that's another way the language has changed in four decades ... or does it mean what it would mean today?

Out into the immense spaceport. Being a ship's captain, he is entitled to a courtesy shuttle which takes him to the private hangar. He goes by himself, doesn't even bothering to tell Chewbacca where he's gone or why, which to my mind is a serious breach of tradecraft. This Han is reckless -- but then, I suppose that's how he's stayed alive so long.

It's a rental hanger, pitch dark inside. "A windowless building, containing some maintenance equipment and a compact, six-seater Wanderer".

What's a Wanderer?

Can't find it in a quick google search. I'm guessing a small spacecraft. The building is deserted and pitch black. Han takes a seat on a shipping container to wait.


For pity's sake, how stupid can he be?

To no one's surprise, he's jumped from behind. A cloth is pressed into his nose, and the fumes make Han's head spin.
Chloroform, or the GFFA equivalent. He holds his breath. His opponent is wearing low-light goggles and breathing filters, so unaffected by either the fumes or the nonexisting lighting. So at least someone in this building knows how to plan.

They struggle. Han sets off the LED lights on his wine bottle which has roughly the same effect of a flash-bang. The unknown assailant, thus surprised, breaks off and escapes. THIS assailant has a brain.

Han is now worried; this was a setup (gee, is it that obvious?). He's worried about Chewbacca -- is there a second prong to this attack? What's happening to his ship?

It's time to get moving. Han rapidly vacates the buidling, looking for transport to get to the Falcon before something terrible happens.

That wasn't bad. Again, the author did his work to carefully lay all the pieces on the table before setting off the whole chain of events to unroll in an elegant manner. Han continues to shoot from the hip -- his gift of improvization and fast talking continues to get him out of the problem his inability to plan gets him into in the first place.

It looks like we have at least one intelligent adversary in the mix as well. Looking forward to the next chapter, to see how things can possibly get worse for our team!

Respectfully,

Brian P.

[pendell]

Ready for chapter 4!

Grand Theft Spaceship: Attempted; Reckless flying

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Han catches a courtesy transport back to the ramp where the Falcon is docked; they are too poor to pay to rent a docking pay, so they're just moored on the ramp. Han is worried both about his ship and about his friend, and those worries are only increased when he sees tool markings and discolorations on the Falcon's hatch; someone has tried to force entry!

Without thinking, and without concern for the fact he is unarmed, he charges right up the ramp and comes face-to-face with Bollux. Relieved to see a friendly face, he asks what has happened.

Bollux reports that Chewbacca came back, gave a quick visual inspection then left. Sometime later, a pair of humans arrived and attempted to force the hatch. However, amongst the Falcon's customizations is a heavily reinforced security door. Tools that would open up a standard freighter in minutes won't even bother the Falcon. You're going to need a cannon to force your way in. Bollux, observing them from the cockpit, uses the loudspeaker to warn them to desist or he will contact Port Security. It is an idle threat; Han has left standing orders to leave the Espos out of any problems unless absolutely necessary. The intruders are nonetheless convinced by the bluff and abandon their attempt. Bollux watches them go.

Han is furious. Damaging his ship has sent him round the bend. YOU TOUCHED MY CAR!

Yeah, I've encountered Americans who go absolutely berserk if you so much as scratch the paint on their vehicle, and Han is no exception. He demands to know why Bollux didn't go down to the belly turret and ERASE THEM, in his words.

Bollux remind him that is the one thing he can't do -- he's a three laws of robotics droid. "A robot may not injure an intelligent being nor by inaction allow an intelligent being to come to harm." We know there are battle droids and assassin droids in the Star Wars universe that don't have that restriction, but it seems standard for general purpose robots not built for combat, as Bollux is.

Han muses that he should, perhaps, change Bollux' programming. Bollux is horrified, and changes the subject to get Han's mind off of it.

Han is not thinking clearly. Bollux is manumitted, remember? He's not your appliance, he's a passenger exchanging labor for transport. You can't modify his programming without his consent, and that is not forthcoming.

It's odd how a little reprogramming can totally change a droid's personality. Still would be a terrible thing to do against his will.

Bollux changes the subject , artfully getting Han's mind off of reprogramming, by discussing the departure of the would-be ship breakers. They were a man and a woman; Han recognizes the woman's description as the one he met in the restaurant, and set up him up in the warehouse. They separated, the man got on public transit, the woman took a scooter and departed in another direction. Han gets the location, rents a scooter, and heads off in pursuit even though he's completely unarmed.


As he travels after his quarry, we get some backstory on Bonadon itself; I had previously written that it had been
mined out and now functioned solely as a trade/factory world. This is not true; the Authority is stripping the planet practically to its mantle, environment and longterm sustainability be forgotten. Once they've cleaned the place out they'll just move to another one. There are tens of thousands of solar systems in the Corporate Sector and they intend to mine them all. Han drives past a control antenna which is sending instructions to a weather satellite. Not a weather satellite as we know it, though. This satellite manipulates climate, not just observes it. Right now it's dispersing a storm inconvenient to the authority, but this is wrecking the planet's natural weather patterns, making it even less inhabitable in the long run.

Note that this was written in the 1970s before we had really observed any exoplanets; to my modern sensibility I can read this with a sense of exaggerated horror. Earth-type planets are a lot more rare than we thought they were five decades ago; super-jovians in cometary orbits are extremely common; planets in a nice circular orbit protected by outer jovians who soak up planetoids and solar debris are as rare as needles in haystacks. If we find an inhabited one we absolutely have to cherish it as if it were the Hope Diamond. Not simply plunder it.

Of course, there are plenty of asteroids, airless rocks, comets , and other junk in any solar system to which those objections do not apply. In fact, my understanding is that once you have interplanetary travel the bulk of a solar system's wealth isn't on the planets at all; better to save those for stuff like agriculture which absolutely can't be done anywhere else.

At any rate; the authority is greedy, plundering, and doesn't give a rat's tail about the planetary environment, which is rapidly collapsing to an uninhabitable state. Good thing they've got other planets to go to when they use this one up. Right? Right?

Han catches up with our dark-skinned woman , and at this point his anger has converted from rage to something approaching an adrenaline seizure. He brings the swoop to a screaming halt and leaps out, confronting the woman and a man, who has a swoop parked nearby.


The rider looks at her and say "I thought you said Zlarb sent you alone." Then he turns to Han and says "you have a fatal sense of timing friend."

There aren't any legal blasters on Bonadon, but this guy has a gift for improvization. He reaches into his bag and pulls out a Vibroknife , a surgeon's tool customized with a very large blade, and prepares to go for Han.

At this moment the woman herself pulls out a blaster and tells the man to freeze.

Wait just a minute ... where did SHE get a blaster on this planet?

...

My spidey-sense says "undercover cop". This other guy is a criminal and HE won't carry a gun, so this woman has nothing to fear from Espo security. Either she's working for somebody who owns the cops, or she's a cop herself. Smart money leans on the second possibility.

The man regards her for a split second, then turns toward her. he's getting ready to charge her!

"Quit fanning him and shoot!" Han screams!

She tries, but the blaster buzzes dry of charge.

Huh. Well, if she's a cop she's not a very competent one. Any soldier or police officer gets it beaten into them in training just how important it is to keep their weapon in good order, but she's allowed it to get jammed. A tourist out for adventure? Doesn't seem very smart.

Now deciding she's not a threat, the man goes for Han.


What follows is a very tight, very tense description of a knife fight. And , readers, it becomes pretty clear that Brian Daley knows something about fighting someone armed with a knife. Han is having to be extremely careful because, let's face it; it's a truism of knife fighting: win or lose you WILL be cut. But a vibroblade will cut through an arm as fast as a knife through butter. You CAN'T block or parry with anything because whatever you parry with is going to get amputated. Han is at a serious disadvantage, but makes up by throwing his scooter helmet in the guy's face, which allows him to close and grab the wrist of a knife hand.

Problem: This guy is actually pretty strong. They grapple, and after a few seconds he's on top of Han and that vibroblade is coming ever closer to his neck ...

then there's a loud noise and the guy's not there any more. It seems that in their fight they happened to roll into line with the Swoop's jet exhaust. The woman got on the swoop and simply turned on the engine, catching the villain in the exhaust plume.

He's not getting up again.

"That wasn't a bad move, rocketsocks", Han says.

She chews Han out for not paying attention to anything in the fight. She had been wanting to chip in with a rock or otherwise intervene but Han kept getting in the way, until the two had the courtesy to roll into the way of the swoop engine, and the villain's own body shielded Han.

Han approaches and takes a whiff of her, but there's no indication of the anesthetic his attacker at the warehouse had tried to dose him with.

She responds: " Should I sniff you back or clap my hands on your nose or what? You're a really strange one, Zlarb."

Wait, what? You think I'm Zlarb?

Han sets her straight; he's not Zlarb, he's the guy Zlarb owes ten thousand too. The woman nods; this makes his otherwise bizarre behavior add up.

Han ask who the other guy was. She explains that was who Zlarb was supposed to meet at the restaurant, but she redirected him here for a private meeting. She was playing both sides against the middle ... for what purpose? A con job? A capture op?

Just at this moment four swoops come roaring into view. Seems THIS guy, at least, understood the importance of having a backup team. They can't run on either Han's or the woman's scooter, so they grab the villain's swoop and race off, hotly pursued by the bad guys!

CAR CHASE SEQUENCE GO!

Swoops ,
... ah, I remember those From KOTOR .

CANON NOTE: The text mentions Han used to be a racer and a course rider on swoops, though that was many years ago. My guess is he must have been a hot rodder in secondary school, before he went to the academy to become a fighter pilot. That was a fairly common trajectory for pilots back in the 60s.

Also, I think this is the first time we encounter Swoops in the GFFA?

The chase is on. The bad guys aren't armed, but vehicles travelling at hundreds of kilometers an hour are already deadly weapons even without guns. Besides, everyone needs all their hands for flying. The swoops which catch up repeatedly try to use their engine was or kinetics to spill Han's vehicle, which will kill our heroes, but Han successfully avoids the attack and even causes two of his pursuers to crash. But the pursuit is still underway and it looks like there are more vehicles joining.

Han makes a desperate decision .. remember that weather sateelite we mentioned earlier? The control antenna is a cylinder and Han drives into it. The other swoops follow cautiously, not having done this before and not at all sure what Han's game is.

There is a very small barely-swoop-sized hole at the other end of the antenna. Han does some seat-of-the-pants maneuvering and makes it through! A few seconds later there is a fireball and bits of swoop follow through the aperture as one of his pursuers tries to emulate Han's reckless stunt, but not having heroic plot armour suffers the fate you would expect of anyone doing something so crazy.

"Clean hands and a pure heart win again!" He crows. "You were never in any ..."

it is at this point that he looks up and sees the faring of the cockpit has been sheared away, and his head was saved by only millimeters.

"... danger".

Well, that's our Han. He's been reacting and running on his emotions this entire chapter. He's also going up against some very smart people who are capable of planning, but so far he's been able to stay ahead of the game through rash improvization, sheer audacity, and that fabulous Scoundrel's Luck.

Some pretty interesting SF in here as well; the three law of robotics. Vibroblades. Climate impact. Swoops. All in all a very well-written story with a lot to unpack, hidden in an action novel so it's not at all boring to read.

Until next time!

Respectfully,

Brian P.

[tomandtish]

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Han muses that he should, perhaps, change Bollux' programming. Bollux is horrified, and changes the subject to get Han's mind off of it.

Han is not thinking clearly. Bollux is manumitted, remember? He's not your appliance, he's a passenger exchanging labor for transport. You can't modify his programming without his consent, and that is not forthcoming.

It's odd how a little reprogramming can totally change a droid's personality. Still would be a terrible thing to do against his will.

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That's certainly how it works here. I suspect in that universe that while manumission may give a robot "rights", I wonder how often anyone goes around enforcing that. Would anyone care if someone re-enslaved Bollux?

[Keltest]

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If a droid is bound by the Three Laws or some equivalent, can it actually be said to have free will? Definitionally they have constraints on their behavior imposed by an outside source: their original programmers.

I can understand being leery of letting somebody mess with your programming, and in particular letting Han mess with it, but surely removing a prohibition against violence is not at all comparable to slavery.

[tomandtish]

Spoiler

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If a droid is bound by the Three Laws or some equivalent, can it actually be said to have free will? Definitionally they have constraints on their behavior imposed by an outside source: their original programmers.

I can understand being leery of letting somebody mess with your programming, and in particular letting Han mess with it, but surely removing a prohibition against violence is not at all comparable to slavery.

Spoiler

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The argument would be Han changing it against Bollux's will. I agree the removing of a prohibition against violence might be a benefit, but not if the bot doesn't want it done.

[TeChameleon]

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The argument would be Han changing it against Bollux's will. I agree the removing of a prohibition against violence might be a benefit, but not if the bot doesn't want it done.

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... which begs the question, how much of Bollux's reluctance to have those laws removed are his own idea? We're getting into some very tricky, and frankly rather esoteric, moral territory with that one. If the droid is programmed to not want their programming altered, how much free will is actually involved?

[pendell]

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... which begs the question, how much of Bollux's reluctance to have those laws removed are his own idea? We're getting into some very tricky, and frankly rather esoteric, moral territory with that one. If the droid is programmed to not want their programming altered, how much free will is actually involved?

Droids in the GFFA are pretty sophisticated. As mentioned in the KOTOR, we have the case of an assassin droid deciding it doesn't want that life any more but cannot go against its basic programming. It can't reverse it's own programming, but it can definitely reach out to a human to make that change. And it goes in reverse to. G0-T0 started life as an accounting droid and ended as a crime boss. It either found ways to circumvent its basic programming -- by it's own account the droid 'broke' under contradictory instructions -- or was able to pay technicians for the necessary changes.

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My view is if Bollux is a free being under the laws of the GFFA, then it has absolute right, barring judicial sentence of one kind or another, to its own programming , memories, and body. That means he can't be memwiped or have modifications made to his fundamental ethics without his consent; from what I've seen he's more than intelligent enough to understand concepts such as 'right' and 'wrong'. He's not Han Solo's child or his ward; I think he's capable of owning himself and making these decisions independently. Although we haven't seen the exact text of his 'manumission', it's definitely implied that the law of the Empire (of all things!) recognizes he has these rights.

Respectfully,

Brian P.

[pendell]

Chapter 5.

The Debt Collector; Chewbacca is persuasive

Spoiler

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Chewbacca has been prowling the hiring halls, guilds and taverns looking for work but nary an adventure hook in sight. It's enough to make any PC a little grumpy.

But adventure calls when he returns to the Falcon and finds a being attempting to force entry -- a second time.

Let's meet our would-be ship thief, shall we?


"The being was small, perhaps a head shorter than Han Solo when standing erect rather than cowering. He had the sleek, glossy pelt of an aquatic mammal, colored a deep, gleaming black. He was a biped with short, strong-looking fingers and toes; between those toes were webs of pinkish gray skin. He had a thick, tapering tail and pointed ears that
stood close to his skull, moving independently ... his long, moist snout quivered nervously. From this whiskered snout protruded a set of long buckteeth. It was plain from his squinting eyes that his vision wasn't very acute."


Would be cute if he wasn't, you know, breaking and entering into my ship.

Man, I'm identifying a little too closely with the PCs aren't I?

Chewbacca sneaks up and grabs him. He squirms and makes a fuss, protesting. He is a licensed collection agent and the Falcon -- or at least its false registry -- is on the Red List, and therefore liable to Repossession .

European readers, is this a thing outside the US? Because it really is legal here in the US for debt collectors to literally steal your car back if you haven't been keeping up the payments. They'll put it up for auction in the hope of getting some fraction of it back, but what they really want is their money. If you took out a loan of, say , $50,000 for a car, you probably won't get more than $25,000 at an auction for it, especially since the kind of people who skip out on debts don't normally take great care of their vehicles so they aren't exactly in mint saleable condition.

The closest encounter I had with that was with an employer who skipped out on paying me a month's wages. I got an order from the labor board which literally entitled me to walk into his house, county sheriff's deputy at my side, and confiscate as many of his possessions as I wanted up to the value of sums owed. I never acted on it; the reason he'd skipped out on paying me was he was as broke as I was. If it was Bill Gates or someone swimming in money, on the other hand, I wouldn't have hesitated -- but then, they'd have probably paid up anyway.

He presents his documentation ... he has an ID from Interstellar Collections Limited made out to Spray, of Tenna, authorizing him to collect debts, garnishments,
repossessions, and any other activities pertaining thereto.

The ship in question has had 8 dunnage notices filed against it by Vinda and D'rag, starship wrights and aerospace engineers, to whom Han Solo owes 2500 credits. Han has ignored 8 dunnage notices, and the collectors have presumed default, which is why Spray is here.

At this moment Chewbacca notices the damage to the ship and becomes quite irate, and Spray protests even more vehemently. "I am most certainly not responsible for that damage! Do you mistake me for a bungler and a thug? ... I am a trained collections agent ... equipped with the latest
tools of my profession. I avoid doing any unnecessary damage to repossessed property. I have no idea who was
tampering with the hatch lock before, but you may be sure it wasn't me! I merely deactivated the surveillance system -- WITHOUT damaging it."

He shows the wookie the debt notice again, which Chewbacca promptly eats. Spray responds that will do no good at all; he has many duplicates. It is now time to pay up or give up the ship.

Chewbacca notices that the commotion is attracting a lot of notice from passerby and automata. This is Bonadan, one of the primary worlds of the Corporate Sector, not a canteen in Mos Eisley where gunfire would just be ignored. So he considers his options. They boil down to three:

1) Give up the ship. Obviously not happening.
2) Kill Spray in full view of witnesses. That'll bring the Espos down on them in minutes. They'd have to launch immediately and Han is not here.
3) Find Han and let him sort this out.

He chooses option 3. Spray demurs: Immediate payment or immediate repossession.

Chewbacca grabs him by the front and brings him up to his face. He gives Spray what might be called a smile, since it shows all his teeth.

Spray is not a stupid creature. He acknowledges that his company prefers repayment to repossession, so let's go see Han, shall we?

Spray reactivates the surveillance system. Blue Max answers. Chewbacca explains. Blue Max tells them they can find Han Solo in the Landing Zone, near the spaceport. Han had sent Bollux off to find Chewbacca there, and gone off to investigate the previous break-in. Chewbacca and Spray set off together, leaving Blue Max to keep an eye on the ship in their absence.

Viewpoint shift to Han with our female acquaintance in the Landing Zone, a dive near the spaceport, "prominent on the avenue of bars, rub-shops, gambling dens, and pawnbroker's establishments outside the spaceport's gates."

Bollux meets Han and their ... friend? He hasn't found Chewbacca.

A server comes over ... an alien and brand new to the job. "it's against house policy to have droids at the table. You two gentlemen will have to have him wait outside."

Our mysterious stranger takes sharp exception to being misgendered. The server responds "Beg pardon, I've only been working here since this morning. It's my first time away from home and I've never dealt with aliens before. Non-Sljee, I mean. the smells are so confusing. So sorry."

Unfortunately, our server is giving an old-time con artist and swindler a little too much information. Han responds: "The droid stays. Now bring us two flameouts or I'll tell the manager you insulted this lady. I'm a close friend of his."

Thus intimidated, the server runs off to bring their order. Han and the woman fall to talking.

"So you know I'm not Zlarb," Han says. "Who are you not?"

"Not a slaver ... I'm Hart-and-Parn Gorra-Fiolla of Lorrd, Assistant Auditor-General, Corporate Sector Authority."

We will call her Fiolla for short.


So .. an authority executive, and a relatively high ranking one. Han sighs on the inside. Things aren't looking good for him at ALL at this point.

Fiolla explains: She's caught wind of a slavery ring on this planet and Authority management is involved. She intends to investigate it, then dump the goods on the desk of the Authority board. The bust will be enough to get her a seat on the board as "Fiolla of Loord, heroine of the spaceways".

So : Smart, well-connected, but naive. That fits right in with her being able to game both Han and the slave contact, but not having backup and not having a working blaster. Young, then, as opposed to cynical and world-weary as Han is.

She denies that her assistant, Magg, attacked Han in the hanger. They had tried to break into the Falcon but failed. Magg, whom she apparently selected both for passing a background check and for his special talents, had been the one to actually attempt to force entry into the Falcon. After they failed, she went to keep Zlarb's appointment, as the instructions said one person and one scooter. Magg she sent to find out more about Han.

Han is "impressed by her resourcefulness, antagonized a bit by her self-assurance, and surprised by her naivete."

The server returns. He hopes they'll pay up front because he's already been stiffed twice this morning by customers who took advantage both of his newness and his inability to distinguish between non-Sljee.

Sljee -- what's a Sljee? Ah, here we go



"The Sljees were nonhumanoid sentients indigenous to the planet Sljee. They had low, slab-shaped bodies, with multiple legs, tentacles, and six jointed antennae with bulbs on the end. These antennae, called olfactory stalks, were their primary sense organs. Their unusual appearance led some non-Sjlee to mistake them for exotic animals, or even some sort of motile plants.[1]

Sljees were olfaxes, beings who sensed their surroundings and communicated primarily through scent. The Sljees even developed technological devices for scent-based communication. Though their senses of touch and hearing were comparable to Humans, they were completely blind."


That explains a lot. Seems a bit like a Dr. Seuss character. Han demands Sljee set up a tab, which he does, with some disappointment.

Han asks Fiolla why she went there without backup. She replied she had a gun and expected to be the only armed person there. How was she supposed to know the thing would conk out on her?

Oh, oh, oh. Whose gun is it? Who is responsible for ensuring it is in working order at all times? Is that an excuse I'm hearing?

Yeah, this person is definitely a privileged exec out for adventure rather than a trained police officer or soldier. From my understanding, boot camp is terrible at all times but if you really want to suffer, make a mistake with your weapon. Weapon not cleaned, weapon dropped in the mud ... if there's one thing anyone learns it's to treat their weapon better than they treat their significant other. It's what will keep you alive, after all, so it's your best friend. Don't learn this lesson, they'll let you know . Boy, will they ever.

Fiolla notes that Han's security system is really good. Magg says it was like cracking the Imperial Reserve. Really? Magg has experience safe-cracking, does he?

Just at this point Chewbacca arrives with Spray and the story is explained. The Sljee server comes back and asks what the new gentleman and his 'strapping hatchling' want. Spray protests they aren't even the same species, which sends the poor server away even more flummoxed then before. Man, this guy is having an awful day.

Spray demands 2500 credits. Han suggests bodily harm. Fiolla objects to public threats of aggravated assault. She proposes an alternative: She'll cover the cost of the debt herself -- half now, half on delivery. This will be her way of hiring Han to help her track down these slavers -- which is in his interest in any event, since he wants his money.

Yep, rich exec throwing her money around. Spray is willing to go with it, but says he wants to stick around until all the money is paid.

Han instead proposes he show Spray a magic trick -- the mysterious Disappearing Collections Agent trick. Fiolla won't have it. Share the data he has on the slavers -- specifically, on the data he took from Zlarb about the ships traced on Ammaud -- and help her with her investigation. She'll pay this debt of his and forget all about him when she writes her report. If he doesn't do this she may just have to bring his name into it.

And even Han isn't fool enough to try to disappear an authority exec.

So it looks like we have a deal.

FIOLLA HAS JOINED THE PARTY!
SPRAY HAS JOINED THE PARTY!

Joins the party theme plays.

Chewbacca and Spray set off. he growls a farewell, and to everyone's surprise Fiolla returns it.

Han notes that she's a pretty good mimic. Of course; she's from Llord. Once upon a time her ancestors were slaves and forbidden to speak while performing their labours, so they got extremely good at nonverbal cues, reading faces. They've been free people for generations, since the Jedi and the Republic overthrew the slavers (hey! The Jedi are good for something! -- or were) but the talent for mimicry has been kept alive even so. it gives her an edge. It also explains her utter loathing of slavery in all its forms. That's also why she was able to 'make' Han and Chewbacca so easily; they tipped off their interest every time someone came near the booth.


Oh, so the black person has a slave ancestry? Oh , that's so clever, Brian Daley. Still, I rather like this character. I wonder if the Authority is going to crush the idealism out of her as she climbs the ranks?

I also note that there seems to be a change in attitude of the Jedi since the time of Brian Daley's writing and the time of the prequels. The Jedi as written by Daley ended slavery lasting generations. The Jedi of the prequels don't give a bantha dropping for slaves on Tatooine.

So now that's settled; we're going as a party to Ammaud to investigate the slavery ring. As they prepare to leave , the server comes up with their check.

Han tries to pull a fast one. "Us? We just arrived, and for your information we've been sitting here for some time now. Are you trying to stick us with someone else's check?"

The Sljee is about to fall for it, but Fiolla takes pity on him and covers the check. Very decent of her. She rebukes Han, who shrugs and says simply "It's every life form for himself."

So now we have our party set. Brian Daley continues to astonish with new and varied intelligent life forms above and beyond the humans-with-different-foreheads more common in 80s TV and movies, for the simple reason that CGI wasn't very advanced and practical effects are expensive. We meet a skip-tracer, see Han deal with debt collectors, and get a view of the Authority -- or at least of some of its people -- far more sympathetic than that shown in the last book.

Fiolla and Spray seem to work well together. Them joining the party and being unable to leave seems awfully convenient. I wonder if they're working together, or if I'm just being suspicious?

Also, I think Han trying to stiff the server at the bar gives him points towards chaotic neutral rather than chaotic good. It's one thing to rob the Authority blind, but it seems to me that trying to cheat wait staff on their first day is punching down, not punching up. It's not clever or funny, just mean.

I leave it up to the reader whether Han at this point in his career is chaotic neutral or chaotic good. I still think CG, but he's definitely nudging the CN category in this chapter.

Respectfully,

Brian P.

[Keltest]

As far as the prequel jedi goes, ending slavery on Tattooine means overthrowing the Hutt families and their government. Tattooine is not part of the Republic and very much outside any legal authority they have, which basically means they would need to conquer it themselves in the name of the Republic, which is unlikely for many reasons.

[Grim Portent]

I mean, Tatooine is part of Hutt Space, the Hutts have been able to fight against the Republic outright in the past. It's a sovereign nation with it's own laws, too powerful to actually defeat.

A single planet like Zygerria or Trandosha that has bad practices like slavery within Republic space can be subjected to a lot of pressure by the Jedi and judicial forces without needing outright war. Trying the same sort of thing in Hutt Space will just start a diplomatic incident that accomplishes nothing at best.

European readers, is this a thing outside the US? Because it really is legal here in the US for debt collectors to literally steal your car back if you haven't been keeping up the payments. They'll put it up for auction in the hope of getting some fraction of it back, but what they really want is their money. If you took out a loan of, say , $50,000 for a car, you probably won't get more than $25,000 at an auction for it, especially since the kind of people who skip out on debts don't normally take great care of their vehicles so they aren't exactly in mint saleable condition.

In the UK at least we don't have private debt collectors. Debts, evictions and repossessions are handled by the bailiffs. Court agents basically, they work for the civil courts. They cannot enter property without the consent of the occupant or a warrant, cannot arrest or harm people (they need police escorts to do so on their behalf,) are not strictly supposed to just take stuff in service of a debt. I think they can confiscate cash if they have reasonable cause to think it belongs to the debtor.

[pendell]

As far as the prequel jedi goes, ending slavery on Tattooine means overthrowing the Hutt families and their government. Tattooine is not part of the Republic and very much outside any legal authority they have, which basically means they would need to conquer it themselves in the name of the Republic, which is unlikely for many reasons.

As I recall, freeing the slaves on Tatooine was a dream of Anakin's as a child. A Force Dream, perhaps? Maybe if the events of the prequels had fallen out differently Anakin would indeed have freed the planet? As it was, since he fell to the darkness, my understanding is that he never, ever wanted to set foot on it again. Which, presumably, is why he didn't go down himself to retrieve the death star plans in Episode IV, but instead left the job in the hands of a stormtrooper detachment.

Respectfully,

Brian P.

[Sapphire Guard]

Republic, where Jedi have authority- No slavery
Tattooine, place Jedi have no authority - slavery.

You could assume the Jedi don't care at all about slavery on Tattooine, but it's an assumption made, it's not in the text. Like, anywhere. At all.

[pendell]

Republic, where Jedi have authority- No slavery
Tattooine, place Jedi have no authority - slavery.

You could assume the Jedi don't care at all about slavery on Tattooine, but it's an assumption made, it's not in the text. Like, anywhere. At all.

Part of the point of a character like Qui-Gon Jinn as a foil to the Jedi Council is because he hasn't lost sight of what it means to be a Jedi, while they have. They've become too wedded to their temple and to the Republic itself, rather than to the living Force. Some discussion . I would argue it's because they were too closely tied to the Republic and its politics that they were suckered into the Clone Wars, which they had no business fighting. The entire scenario was a trap which they walked into , blinded by the Dark Side of the force and their own dogmatism. Yoda recognizes this error at the end of Episode 3, which is why he's willing to apprentice himself to the .. not dead, but transcended, Qui-Gon.

And I would further argue that part of this blindness and dogmatism they experienced was too close a focus on Coruscant and its politics, where the Temple was, rather than in the rest of the galaxy where injustices like the slavery of Tatooine went unchecked.

The Jedi are supposed to be ... symbiotes, maybe? .. of the Living Force. And the Force has jurisdiction outside the Republic. I would argue the prequel-era Jedi had forgotten the Living Force to become a de facto arm of the Republic government, which did neither them nor the Republic much good, especially as the Republic was transitioning to Empire.

ETA: Dave Filoni agrees with me

Filoni explained why Anakin’s training would have been so different if Qui-Gon had survived. He knew he was the parental figure Anakin needed since the child was already too old and couldn’t unlearn attachment and fear. Qui-Gon also had a better, clearer view of the Jedi’s purpose at this point. Filoni said that when he lost it that solidified Anakin’s fate of becoming Darth Vader.

See, even in Episode I, the Jedi had become too political. Once the war starts, they pick a side — with the Republic — and center themselves as generals and commanders in the war. They’re in charge of battalions of Clone troopers and fight viciously, even though their core mission is supposed to be peacekeeping. Qui-Gon already saw this years before.


“The rest of the Jedi are so detached and they become so political, that they’ve lost their way,” Filoni said. “And Yoda starts to see that in the second film. But Qui-Gon is ahead of them all. That’s why he’s not part of the Council.”

...

As Ahsoka tells Obi-Wan in Season 7, the Jedi are more interested in politics than saving people, when they were supposed to peacekeepers, first and foremost. Ahsoka was so brutalized and twisted by war before she left. She only saw the Republic’s side when Padmé introduced her to Separatists for the first time in Season 3. Jedi aren’t’ supposed to be on one side of civil conflict. They’re supposed to protect people on the Light Side, only fighting against the Dark and injustices of the world. This is what Qui-Gon understood and why he was so ahead of the rest of the Jedi, even Yoda.

Exactly my point. The prequel-era Jedi are more focused on politics than on saving people -- like slaves on Tatooine. And it's the showrunners themselves voicing that opinion; it is what they were trying to portray.

Respectfully,

Brian P.

[Keltest]

Part of the point of a character like Qui-Gon Jinn as a foil to the Jedi Council is because he hasn't lost sight of what it means to be a Jedi, while they have. They've become too wedded to their temple and to the Republic itself, rather than to the living Force. Some discussion . I would argue it's because they were too closely tied to the Republic and its politics that they were suckered into the Clone Wars, which they had no business fighting. The entire scenario was a trap which they walked into , blinded by the Dark Side of the force and their own dogmatism. Yoda recognizes this error at the end of Episode 3, which is why he's willing to apprentice himself to the .. not dead, but transcended, Qui-Gon.

And I would further argue that part of this blindness and dogmatism they experienced was too close a focus on Coruscant and its politics, where the Temple was, rather than in the rest of the galaxy where injustices like the slavery of Tatooine went unchecked.

The Jedi are supposed to be ... symbiotes, maybe? .. of the Living Force. And the Force has jurisdiction outside the Republic. I would argue the prequel-era Jedi had forgotten the Living Force to become a de facto arm of the Republic government, which did neither them nor the Republic much good, especially as the Republic was transitioning to Empire.

Respectfully,

Brian P.

Yeah, ok, but how does any of that stop the Hutts from just shooting them with 40 guys when they show up and try and liberate the slaves by themselves? You think they could take 40? 400 then. 4000. The hutts have actual armies. Theyre a proper government and nation, not just gangsters.

The reasons they dont go after Tattooine are entirely practical and not philosophical.

[pendell]

Yeah, ok, but how does any of that stop the Hutts from just shooting them with 40 guys when they show up and try and liberate the slaves by themselves? You think they could take 40? 400 then. 4000. The hutts have actual armies. Theyre a proper government and nation, not just gangsters.

The reasons they dont go after Tattooine are entirely practical and not philosophical.

...

I think there are other ways to effect social change when the Force is your ally than hitting people with lightsabers. In any case there aren't that many Jedi capable of taking on an entire army all by themselves. I contend much can be done simply with Force precognition without bringing in even other nonviolent techniques like Force Persuade.

Even if it does come down to cases Jedi typically are more effective when they are rallying and directing ordinary people than when they're trying to fight an entire war by themselves. In Phantom Menace they enlisted the Gungan Army and the Royal Naboo guards for the job, they didn't just charge the droid armies waving their swords.

I have no doubt that, if it came to leading a revolution, we could find people on Tatooine who don't like living under the Hutts. Slaves, of course. People who owe the Hutts money. Tuskens. And that's only if it came to armed conflict when I'd want to try some mediation first.

We wouldn't see that in a film, of course, because they're movies for young adolescents who want to see lots of lazers and 'splosions. But in the larger canon of storytelling I suspect nonviolent intervention is supposed to be the rule for the Jedi, not the exception. It's why they show up to the Naboo Blockade in an unarmed transport ship. The Republic didn't need Acclamators and Clone Armies until the old Jedi system had irretrievably broke down.


ETA: While R.A. Heinlein would disagree with me, I think violence is over-rated for the purpose of creating social change. I can't really discuss real-world issues on this board and most fantasy concentrates on violence because that's what makes a good story, but I've seen examples in real history of incidents where the reactionaries trying to prevent change won the military conflicts but still found themselves out of power in another generation or two. It's because their societies were shifting under their feet, and there's only so long you can hold it back with guns, especially when those social changes are impacting the very soldiers you expect to shoot at the 'rebels'.

Of course there have been violent revolutions that have changed the course of history. Violence does solve some problems, but A) I think it's over-rated B) There are alternatives that have worked , even if they're slower and less exciting from a storytelling perspective.

Respectfully,

Brian P.

[Keltest]

...

I think there are other ways to effect social change when the Force is your ally than hitting people with lightsabers. In any case there aren't that many Jedi capable of taking on an entire army all by themselves. I contend much can be done simply with Force precognition without bringing in even other nonviolent techniques like Force Persuade.

Even if it does come down to cases Jedi typically are more effective when they are rallying and directing ordinary people than when they're trying to fight an entire war by themselves. In Phantom Menace they enlisted the Gungan Army and the Royal Naboo guards for the job, they didn't just charge the droid armies waving their swords.

I have no doubt that, if it came to leading a revolution, we could find people on Tatooine who don't like living under the Hutts. Slaves, of course. People who owe the Hutts money. Tuskens. And that's only if it came to armed conflict when I'd want to try some mediation first.

We wouldn't see that in a film, of course, because they're movies for young adolescents who want to see lots of lazers and 'splosions. But in the larger canon of storytelling I suspect nonviolent intervention is supposed to be the rule for the Jedi, not the exception. It's why they show up to the Naboo Blockade in an unarmed transport ship. The Republic didn't need Acclamators and Clone Armies until the old Jedi system had irretrievably broke down.


ETA: While R.A. Heinlein would disagree with me, I think violence is over-rated for the purpose of creating social change. I can't really discuss real-world issues on this board and most fantasy concentrates on violence because that's what makes a good story, but I've seen examples in real history of incidents where the reactionaries trying to prevent change won the military conflicts but still found themselves out of power in another generation or two. It's because their societies were shifting under their feet, and there's only so long you can hold it back with guns, especially when those social changes are impacting the very soldiers you expect to shoot at the 'rebels'.

Of course there have been violent revolutions that have changed the course of history. Violence does solve some problems, but A) I think it's over-rated B) There are alternatives that have worked , even if they're slower and less exciting from a storytelling perspective.

Respectfully,

Brian P.

Yeah, but youll notice that the Republic didnt control Hutt space while relying on the Jedi exclusively either.

Like, I get what youre saying, but also its 1000 guys against a multi-planetary government and crime syndicate.

[The_Snark]

"Debt collector who gets suckered into joining the party because if they finish this one quick* job they can pay him back" is a great character concept. Maybe I'll remember that the next time I need to come up with a character for a one-shot game.

[pendell]

Yeah, but youll notice that the Republic didnt control Hutt space while relying on the Jedi exclusively either.

Like, I get what youre saying, but also its 1000 guys against a multi-planetary government and crime syndicate.

I think you're missing my baseline point, which is The Jedi are not the Republic. The Republic are not the Jedi. The Jedi should be able and willing to serve other groups outside the Republic. Making social change or righting wrongs should not require annexing planets or polities into the Republic as a prerequisite for solving the problems; that's just Coruscanti-centric Imperialism using lightsabers instead of star destroyers.

Reaching desperately for a real-world metaphor that might be tangentially related without bring board-problematic as the obvious example would be, we don't require American-educated medical doctors to also be American government officials. A person can take the Hippocratic oath and serve their local community while also being American, British, Russian, South African, Indonesian, Pakistani, you name it. In a world where we required every graduate of an American medical school to become an American citizen and only serve American patients, you might have a kind of imperialism where it would be argued we couldn't treat tuberculosis or Covid in Chile because they were outside the US , and there's nothing we can do without also forcing them into our political system.

That's why I argue the Jedi should serve the Living Force, as Qui-Gon does, rather than the Republic. I would have them be a group like Medicines Sans Frontiers which can bring Force Guidance, mediation, and light side perspective to the Outer Rim, Unknown Territories, and Hutt space as well. As it is, having the Jedi be a kind of state religion of the Republic means that it becomes un-patriotic to welcome the Jedi or serve alongside them anywhere else.

As Qui-Gon shows, to be a Jedi is to serve the Living Force in whatever community you already live in; it shouldn't have to come with the baggage of also serving the Republic. As it is, it's almost as if the Republic claims to be the sole governing body in the entire galaxy with a relationship to the Force, and is therefore the only government with any claim to legitimacy. A Force-centric theocracy of a kind , even if they don't extend their dominion by outright military aggression. Small wonder the Republic changes over to Empire -- the underlying ideology of our-way-is-the-only-right-way-and-we-are-the-rightful-rulers-of-the-galaxy is already implicit in their worldview, just waiting for a Palpatine to fan it into aggressive militarism.

Respectfully,

Brian P.

[Keltest]

I think you're missing my baseline point, which is The Jedi are not the Republic. The Republic are not the Jedi. The Jedi should be able and willing to serve other groups outside the Republic. Making social change or righting wrongs should not require annexing planets or polities into the Republic as a prerequisite for solving the problems; that's just Coruscanti-centric Imperialism using lightsabers instead of star destroyers.

Reaching desperately for a real-world metaphor that might be tangentially related without bring board-problematic as the obvious example would be, we don't require American-educated medical doctors to also be American government officials. A person can take the Hippocratic oath and serve their local community while also being American, British, Russian, South African, Indonesian, Pakistani, you name it. In a world where we required every graduate of an American medical school to become an American citizen and only serve American patients, you might have a kind of imperialism where it would be argued we couldn't treat tuberculosis or Covid in Chile because they were outside the US , and there's nothing we can do without also forcing them into our political system.

That's why I argue the Jedi should serve the Living Force, as Qui-Gon does, rather than the Republic. I would have them be a group like Medicines Sans Frontiers which can bring Force Guidance, mediation, and light side perspective to the Outer Rim, Unknown Territories, and Hutt space as well. As it is, having the Jedi be a kind of state religion of the Republic means that it becomes un-patriotic to welcome the Jedi or serve alongside them anywhere else.

As Qui-Gon shows, to be a Jedi is to serve the Living Force in whatever community you already live in; it shouldn't have to come with the baggage of also serving the Republic. As it is, it's almost as if the Republic claims to be the sole governing body in the entire galaxy with a relationship to the Force, and is therefore the only government with any claim to legitimacy. A Force-centric theocracy of a kind , even if they don't extend their dominion by outright military aggression. Small wonder the Republic changes over to Empire -- the underlying ideology of our-way-is-the-only-right-way-and-we-are-the-rightful-rulers-of-the-galaxy is already implicit in their worldview, just waiting for a Palpatine to fan it into aggressive militarism.

Respectfully,

Brian P.

Ok, but to stick with your analogy, we also dont have a half dozen american doctors going out to casually revolutionize the medical infrastructure of developing nations. And thats presumably without the leadership of those nations actively trying to kill them for it. There are a lot of logistics, resources and support that go into it besides the doctors just saying "It shall be so!"

The Jedi can care about ending slavery and still not have the means to actually accomplish it in the immediate future.

[Sapphire Guard]

The trouble with the Living Force is, what does it mean? How does Qui know when he's following the Living Force and not the will of Qui Gon Jinn. Qui Gonn doesn't do anything about slavery on Tattooine either.

Re@: Getting involved in politics, that's always been a puzzle for me. No one objects to Luke fighting the Empire or Rey fighting the First Order. So what is the difference with the Separatists? It seems to be that the audience knows it's a trap, and are blaming the characters for not metagaming.

Spoiler: Clone Wars Season 7

Show

Ahsoka's reservations are particularly funny, as she goes straight from 'Jedi shouldn't be soldiers or meddle in politics' to ' give me a republic army so I can invade Mandalore and change their ruler'

Consider the alternative: The Jedi don't take positions of power in the Republic. Is the outcome to that then 'The Republic doesn't outlaw slavery, so there is more of it unchecked in the galaxy?' Entirely possible. You might say that's fanfic, but so is the idea that the Jedi could totally end slavery on Tattooine but just don't care to.

MSF works by providing medical care to all comers, and survives because it doesn't take sides. If they were actively working against the local rulers (which they would be, if they were working towards ending slavery) they would end up squashed quickly.

Hard to get a slave army when their bosses have kill switches. They could still do some good (ie medical clinic that secretly deactivate the bombs), but that wouldn't really bring about the end of slavery.

Dave Filoni Believes Qui would be better for training Anakin, but George has never said anything similar. Looking at Qui himself, his disregard for rules fades away pretty fast when they are his rules, and he regards super submissive Obi Wan who apologises for disagreeing with him as 'headstrong'. Dave is not very strong about what they should do instead and how it would work (see my spoiler box above)

[pendell]

Ok, but to stick with your analogy, we also dont have a half dozen american doctors going out to casually revolutionize the medical infrastructure of developing nations. And thats presumably without the leadership of those nations actively trying to kill them for it. There are a lot of logistics, resources and support that go into it besides the doctors just saying "It shall be so!"

The Jedi can care about ending slavery and still not have the means to actually accomplish it in the immediate future.

I will concede the point that the Jedi do not have the resources to conduct a military campaign to overthrow Slavery in Tatooine in Hutt Space generally.

However, I think part of the issue I'm driving at is that resources are most important to a military campaign. And if you aren't waging a campaign with weapons, the lack of resources isn't nearly as important.

I think I've found a board-friendly example I can discuss. Everyone's seen the movie Spartacus, right? Big slave revolt in the Roman Empire?

Well, the slavers won the Servile War. Utterly. They crucified their prisoners along every mile of the Appian way in case other people ever thought of raising their head from the dust and demanding their rights as free people.

Yet in about four centuries, both in the Eastern and Western Empire slavery became increasingly rare. Never entirely disappeared, but you'd be hard pressed to find slaves -- or gladiators for that matter -- in either Empire. The anti-slavers won in the long run even if they never won an actual military conflict. There was no rematch in which heroic rebels overthrew slaveowning Emperors to create a new world of peace and liberty. But slavery went away all the same.

Slavery -- and gladiatorial games -- existed for specific social, economic, ideological, and political reasons. Change any one of those variables , the symptom created by them changes as well. Like with mice in a house, sometimes the best solution is to simply pack up all your food in containers to deprive the pests of a food supply rather than trying to kill them individually.

For example, with the advent of combined harvesters you no longer need masses of human labor to bring in a harvest.


Thus, something like slavery can be attacked technically, socially, ideologically, economically, and politically. Only one particular axis of this approach -- that subset of politics known as armed conflict -- requires the resources to build an army.

This, I think, is the origin of the truism that 'violence never solves anything'. Because when you're using an army you're using only one of the variables, and of all the variables it's the one most likely to change and the one which can most easily fall apart. If your violent action isn't aligned with similar changes on the other axes, it comes to nothing. Like Crassus, the world you fight for still changes irrevocably even though you've never lost a military battle.

So the Jedi may not have the resources to mount a military campaign, but that's only if 'military campaign' is part of the solution you have in mind. For all the other axes what you need is wisdom to know how to change things, and the will to stick it out long-term.

If only there were a race of force-using beings who lived for centuries and could have the attention span to tackle such long-range problems...

Respectfully,

Brian P.

[Sapphire Guard]

And how do you know they aren't doing that?

[Keltest]

I think the Jedi way would overtly prohibit them from getting involved in a slave rebellion, specifically. There would be a lot of hate and charged emotions flying around there, thats sort of how they get off the ground in the first place. Even if they were willing to accept a bloody violent overthrow of the Hutt government by their oppressed citizens (which, at that point, they would frankly be better off trying to convince the Republic, so it would at least be faster and cleaner) getting caught up in that sort of thing would almost invariably lead to the Dark Side.

The Jedi way already struggles to survive contact with a regular war fought by soldiers against soldiers. A slave rebellion without outside support would be almost antithetical to them.

Also, the Hutts are slavers because they have a philosophy of their innate superiority of being and the intrinsic correctness of other beings being their slaves. Its basically their religion. Thats not... really something that they can just peacefully nudge from the outside to change, I say wanting to draw a pretty firm line on where I'm going to stop talking on this topic.

[pendell]

The trouble with the Living Force is, what does it mean? How does Qui know when he's following the Living Force and not the will of Qui Gon Jinn.

I don't know how a Force Sensitive distinguishes between the leading of the force and their own will. if I had to guess, it's because when you're following the Force, those peculiar coincidences people call "luck" sort of fall into place. As opposed to when you're clouded and events conspire against you, as when Obi-Wan and Anakin blundered into a ray shield trap in Episode III.

Then again, by the end of Episode III Qui-Gon can remain 'alive' in the Force which no other modern Jedi could. I think that's pretty good prima facie supporting evidence for him knowing what the Living Force is and isn't.

Re@: Getting involved in politics, that's always been a puzzle for me. No one objects to Luke fighting the Empire or Rey fighting the First Order. So what is the difference with the Separatists? It seems to be that the audience knows it's a trap, and are blaming the characters for not metagaming.

The difference is that they are no longer acting in the interests of the Light Side of the Force to restrain evil. When they get involved with the Clone Wars, they are being manipulated by the Dark Side into serving the ends of the Dark Side. This may be why their vision is clouded.

The Separatists are not the Empire. They are aliens who have specific, legitimate grievances against the Republic being manipulated by a Sith Lord into a war. The Republic, meanwhile, is also being manipulated by a Sith Lord into war. When you have Sith on both 'sides' attempting to provoke a Galactic war, the answer is not to choose one side and fight. The answer is to stop the war from occurring at all. The war is what the Sith and the Dark Side want. That, by itself, is a reason for Light Side individuals to be looking for a solution that involves stopping the war from happening rather than playing the Dark Side's game.

It's like Haley's Shell game in the order of the stick. "The con isn't getting you to pick the wrong shell. The con is in getting you to accept that the basic premise of the game is being followed. The con is in getting you to pick a shell at all".

We don't blame the Jedi for not metagaming, but the Force is supposed to reveal all this stuff to them. The idea that they couldn't because Sidious is more powerful than the entire Jedi Order is laughable. Sidious may be a very powerful Sith, but so were Darth Bane and Darth Plagueis and generations of Sith before. It didn't happen before the prequel era because the Jedi were too on their toes to be caught out like this.

And how do you know they aren't doing that?

No evidence that I can see in any material that they did anything like that.

I think the Jedi way would overtly prohibit them from getting involved in a slave rebellion, specifically. There would be a lot of hate and charged emotions flying around there, thats sort of how they get off the ground in the first place. Even if they were willing to accept a bloody violent overthrow of the Hutt government by their oppressed citizens (which, at that point, they would frankly be better off trying to convince the Republic, so it would at least be faster and cleaner) getting caught up in that sort of thing would almost invariably lead to the Dark Side.

The Jedi way already struggles to survive contact with a regular war fought by soldiers against soldiers. A slave rebellion without outside support would be almost antithetical to them.

Also, the Hutts are slavers because they have a philosophy of their innate superiority of being and the intrinsic correctness of other beings being their slaves. Its basically their religion. Thats not... really something that they can just peacefully nudge from the outside to change, I say wanting to draw a pretty firm line on where I'm going to stop talking on this topic.

Yeah, I think we're getting a little close to the forum line myself. Thanks for the chat, though!

Respectfully,

Brian P.