An Alderaanian Love Story

Chapter 2

  No matter how hard Han searched the male hutt's face, all he could see was disappointment. He tried to look past that, but, behind that thick veneer of disappointment, all he could find was even more disappointment. Going into this conversation, Han hadn't predicted an easy, quick and friendly discussion. To hope for as much would be foolish. And he had been right.

  "Look, Jabba," he tried offering an easy smile as he displayed his hands at his sides, a sign of helplessness. "I'm workin' on it, alright? I just need a little while longer. I've already got half of the payment. All I need left is, what? One quick job to finish it off? I'll have the full payment in no time." That was a lie. Han had hardly an eighth of what he needed to pay off his debt to Jabba the Hutt and the slimy crime lord was fully aware. "No, Solo," he objected in Huttese, raising a fat, jiggly arm, pointing his tiny hand at the smuggler standing before him. "You have already failed me. You used to be my favorite man for the job. You never missed a shipment, my spice always came in on time. But now, I may never be able to trust you again. This is very sad, Solo. Very unfortunate. I have many customers who are angry with me now. And I don't think that's fair, is it, Solo? They were waiting for that glitterstim. And you have failed them too."

  "I'm sorry, Jabba, but Imperials were on my tail. It took me a while to see them chasing me. I had no choice. I had to dump the load! I was about to get caught. But. I found a guy. He's got a whole five loads of it, fresh stuff, just waiting. I'm going to pick it up, bring it back here for you, and then we can forget all about this silly debt." Han settled an arm around the hutt's shoulders, trying to ease the situation, but he knew he had it coming for him. "It'll all be behind us both. Doesn't that sound nice, Jabba?"
  "I refuse to wait any longer, Solo, my boy. If I don't have all my money by tonight, there will be a bounty on your head, sooo huge, you won't be able to go to another civilized system ever again! Tonight, Solo. I need that money."
  "You got it, pal," Han agreed, slowly backing away. "Tonight, you'll have that money. Until then, I gotta go pick up that fresh glitterstim package for you. See you later, Jabba." Han turned around, hands in his pockets, boots clicking against the stony ground as he left. He tried not to look panicked even though he was, tried to look tough, not alarmed, but he was internally debating the best, quickest, most efficient route out of Tatooine's way. After smuggling for Jabba for some time now, Han knew fully well that the hutt would keep to his word. Which was exactly why Han needed to hurry and take the Falcon with Chewie out of the Tatoo system now. He had himself in deep water with the nasty crime lord and the last thing he wanted was a wealthy bounty to worry about.
  Hurrying to his private freighter, the Millennium Falcon, Han reminisced on the events that had led up to this. After gaining his freedom by escaping from the Corellian pirate Garris Shrike, Han had worked odd jobs for the t'landa Til priests of Ylesia until he learned of the priests' suspicious ceremonies with their prisoners and he happened into one of them: Pilgrim 921, redhead Corellain beauty Bria Tharen. The two stole rare, expensive artifacts that had belonged to one of the priests, Teroenza, and bought their way off world and a transport to Coruscant. However, nothing Han had ever had stayed very long and Bria, overcome by her addiction to the Exultation Ceremonies the priests had used to keep her on Ylesia, left him, running off to some place Han didn't know.
  As he had always been fascinated with ships, freighters, anything that flew in space and could hit lightspeed, Han decided to try joining the Imperial Academy and was actually admitted in! Although, he was expelled after an unfortunate incident involving an Imperial officer and a Wookiee slave: Chewbaccaa. Han had rescued the poor guy from the officer's beatings and the two had joined forces to tough out life together. Or, more that Chewie had joined him in accordance with a life debt.
  Now, here he was, a bounty on his head and on the run once again. He found himself at the foot of the Falcon's boarding ramp and headed in to start up the ship. "Alright, pal," he began saying to Chewie who sat in the copilot's seat. "We'd better get going. Jabba's not too happy about his glitterstim. Let's get out of here before he sends Greedo after us. Again."