Showdown at Centerpoint Read Online Free

And as Dracmus assured him that the Hunchuzuc had no such ships, it only made sense to assume that whoever it was who did have Light Attack Fighters might take a dim view of the coneship’s arrival. Things could get sticky. Han had worked on the assumption that there would be trouble, and done his best to plan accordingly.
    The
Jade’s Fire
could provide a certain amount of covering fire, if push came to shove, but the other ship would be an uncertain protection at best. The coneship was completely unarmed, and had no shields at all. It didn’t even have enough reserve power to hook up any weaponry—a moot point in any event, as there was no practical way to dismount any of the
Jade’s
weapons or attach them to the coneship. Han had looked into it. Short of standing in the airlock and taking potshots atany attackers with his hand-blaster, there was not much he could do.
    But Han was used to working with nothing. Even a ship as decrepit as this one could play a few tricks if need be. He had found a way to rig up a defense that might provide some measure of protection if things got hot.
    Of course, sometimes, when you worked with nothing, nothing was exactly what you got. And sometimes, if you got into a fight with people who had better hardware, those other people won. Not a happy line of thought when you were on board a flying practice target headed into a war zone.
    And his thoughts didn’t get any happier a few minutes later when Leia sent that attack warning.

CHAPTER TWO

Landing
    L
eia Organa Solo, Chief of State of the New Republic, sat at the navigator’s station aboard the
Jade’s Fire,
watching the coneship drift in toward the planet Selonia. She had been a fool to let Han stay aboard that bucket of bolts. But she knew perfectly well that there had been no chance at all to get him off that ship, once he had decided he owed something to the Selonians on board.
    But what, exactly, was he getting them into? Leia was forced to think not just like a wife but like a politician. She could not see any way of avoiding it, but there was no question that Han was being drawn in by these Selonians—and that Leia was being drawn in as well. It would be easy, all too easy, for the New Republic to find itself on one side or another of a fight it had no business in. It would be even easier to get tempted into bargains with these Hunchuzucs, bargains that had a few too many hidden strings attached …
    “He’ll be all right, Leia,” Mara said. “We’ll stay right with them, all the way down. The
Fire
can offer them more protection than you think.”
    “Hmmm? What? Oh, yes,” Leia said, pointlessly embarrassed. It was somewhat mortifying to be reassured by Mara Jade, of all people. Somehow to have Mara assume that Leia was worrying about her husband’s safety when she was really thinking about thepolitics of the situation made it even worse. Was she so callous that calculation of political advantage even pushed aside worries about her husband? So calculating that even Mara Jade was capable of more concern for Han?
    But Leia told herself, rather firmly, that she had more sense than that. She had no choice but to think on more than one level. What good would it do Han if she got so tied up in sentimental worrying that she failed to foresee the dangers ahead?
    “Han will be all right,” Leia said again, trying to convince herself as much as her companion. “If anyone can get that tub down to the surface, he can.”
    “
If
anyone can,” Mara agreed, none too reassuringly. Mara was at her usual post, at the pilot’s station, guiding the
Jade’s Fire
down toward the surface. She frowned and adjusted the thrust controls a bit, slowing them down again.
    “Trouble?” Leia asked.
    Mara shook her head without taking her eyes off the viewport. “Nothing we can’t handle, but I don’t like being behind the coneship. That Selonian pilot needs a flying lesson or two. If she hits the brakes like that too many times,