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Chapter Two
Han'S Revival
Jabba's Palace, Tattooine
The court of Jabba the Hutt was in the midst of a drunken, raucous party. Sloppy, smelly monsters cheered and made rude noises as Oola and another female Twi'lek dancer (whose body was rather heavy) performed a seductive dance in front of Jabba's throne.
Jabba leered at the dancers and with a lustful gleam in his eye beckoned Oola to come and sit with him.
Fear filled her and she stopped dancing and backed away, shaking her head. Oola had once been a member of the Ryloth Rebellion before being captured by slavers while on a mission and sold to the Hutts. Even after three long years of being a slave, she had still managed to preserve some of her defiant spirit.
At her refusal, Jabba swiftly began to get angry and jabbed a finger at a spot next to him. "Da Eitha!" he barked sharply.
The lovely woman shook her head again and scream. "Na Chuba negatorie Na!" she yelled. "Na! Natoota..."
Jabba was furious at her refusal and pulled her toward him, tugging harshly on the chain and making her choke and reach up to grab her neck. "Boscka!" He jabbed a button and, before the young slave girl could try to flee, a trap door in the floor sprung open and swallowed her up. As the door snapped shut, a muffled growl was followed by a terrified scream.
Jabba and his monstrous friends laughed hysterically and several revellers hurried over to watch her grisly fate through a rusty metal grate.
Threepio, standing to the side, cringed and glanced wistfully at the frozen form of Han, but was immediately distracted by the sound of a shot offscreen. An unnatural quiet swept through the formerly boisterous gathering.
On the far side of the room, the crush of debauchers moves aside to allow the approach of two guards followed by Boushh, an oddly cloaked bounty hunter, leading his captive, Han's co-pilot and best friend, Chewbacca.
Bib took his place next to his disgusting master, and whispered into his ear, pointing at Chewbacca and the bounty hunter. Jabba listened intently, then the bounty hunter bowed before the gangster and spoke a greeting in a strange, electronically processed tongue called Ubese.
"I have come for the bounty on this Wookiee," he declared in Ubese.
"Oh, no!" Threepio gasped. "Chewbacca!"
"At last we have the mighty Chewbacca," the Hutt sneered in his native tongue. Jabba let out a loud, long, blood-curdling laugh and turned to Threepio, waving him closer.
The droid obeyed reluctantly, shrinking in on himself. "Oh, uh, yes, uh, I am here, Your Worshipfulness. Uh... yes!"
Jabba continued to speak, as Threepio nervously translated for him.
Boushh listened, studying the dangerous creatures around the room. He noticed the legendary Boba Fett, standing near the door and glaring darkly at his opposing bounty hunter.
"Oh," Threepio stammered out. "The illustrious Jabba bids you welcome and will gladly pay you the reward of twenty- five thousand."
"I want fifty thousand," Boushh demanded. "No less."
Jabba flew into a rage, knocking the golden droid off the raised throne into a clattering heap on the floor. Boushh adjusted his weapon casually as Jabba raved in Huttese and Threepio struggled back onto the throne's pedestal.
The dishevelled droid tried to compose himself as he continued. "Uh," he mumbled "...but what, what did I say?" He turned to Boushh. "Th, the mighty Jabba asks why he must pay you fifty thousand."
In response, the bounty hunter held up a small silver ball in his hand. Threepio looked at it, then looked at Jabba, then back to the bounty hunter. The droid was very nervous and Jabba was getting very impatient.
"Because he's holding a thermal detonator," Threepio whimpered.
The guards all instantly backed away, as did most of the other creatures in the room. Jabba stared hard at the silver ball, which had begun to glow in the bounty hunter's hand. The room had fallen into a tense hush.
Jabba stared at the bounty hunter malevolently until a sly grin finally crept across his vast mouth and he began to laugh.
"This bounty hunter is my kind of scum," he declared, unconcerned at the prospect of the bomb going off. "Fearless and inventive." He turned to Threepio and barked out a few curt words.
"Jabba offers the sum of thirty-five," Threepio informed the Uban. "And I suggest that you accept it."
Bib and the other monsters studied the bounty hunter and waited for his reaction. Boushh released a switch on the thermal detonator and it went dead. "Zeebuss," he snapped.
"He agrees!" Threepio announced in relief. "The raucous crowd of creatures erupted in a symphony of cheers and applause as the party returned to its' full noisy pitch. Chewbacca growled in anger as he was given over to a group of guards. No one noticed, as he was led away that a human was disguised as a skiff guard in a partial face mask. It was Lando Calrissian, and though Chewie recognized his scent, (and knew the plan), neither the Wookiee nor the smuggler dared to exchange any signs of recognition, least their plot be discovered.
The band started back up and some more dancing slave girls took the centre of the floor, to the hoots of the loudly appreciative creatures.
Boushh leant casually against a column with gunfighter cool and surveyed the scene, his gaze stopping only when it connected with a glare from across the room. Boba Fett was watching him. Boushh shifted slightly, cradling his weapon lovingly. Boba Fett shifted with equally ominous arrogance. Bounty hunters were rarely friends with each other for a reason, after all.
Later that night, the room was silent and deserted, only the awful debris of the alien celebration giving mute witness to the activity that had been there before. Several drunk creatures lay unconscious around the room, snoring loudly.
A shadowy figure moved stealthily among the columns at the perimeter of the room. It was Boushh, the bounty hunter. He picked his way carefully through the snoring, drunken creatures.
Han hung spotlighted on the wall, his coffin-like case suspended by a force field. The bounty hunter quickly deactivated the force field by flipping a control switch to one side of the coffin. The heavy case slowly lowered to the floor of the alcove.
Boushh stepped up to the case, studying Han, then turned to the controls on the side of the coffin. He activated a series of switches and, after one last, hesitant look at Han, slid the decarbonization lever.
The case began to emit a high-pitched sound as the hard shell covering the contours of Han's face started to melt away. The bounty hunter watched anxiously, biting his lip in a move that seemed uncharacteristic for the confident man, as Han's body was freed of its' metallic coat and his forearms and hands, previously raised in front of him in reflexive protest, dropped to lie slackly at his side. His face muscles relaxed from their mask of horror. He appeared dead.
Boushh's ugly helmet leant close to Han's face listening for the breath of life. Nothing. He ran a hand over Han's body and waited.
Han's eyes popped open with a start and he began coughing and gasping as his head darted around without appearing to take in any of his surroundings.
The bounty hunter reached out and steadied the staggering man.
"Just relax for a moment," he instructed him gently. "You're free of the carbonite."
Han touched his face with his hand and moaned.
"Shhh," Boushh murmured, running a hand through his hair. "You have hibernation sickness. You need to rest."
"I can't see," Han croaked out.
"Your eyesight will return soon," Boushh assured him.
"Where am I?" Han asked, voice still ragged and trembling.
"Jabba's palace," Boushh replied, still stroking Han's hair gently. For some reason, Han felt as if the gesture was familiar, but it was too dazed to know where from.
"Who are you?"
The supposed bounty hunter reached up and lifted the helmet from 'his' head, revealing first the face of a typical Uban. Then he ran his hand over his face, making it ripple before it turned into the features of a human woman in her early-twenties, though her eyes were tired and troubled. She had golden hair (pinned in an infinity-styled bun), gentle features and blue eyes filled with love as she gazed at Han. It was Leia Naberrie, the Last of the Jedi.
"Someone who loves you," she whispered, her eyes shimmering.
Han finally placed the voice, gasping out a desperate "Leia!"
Her eyes shimmered with tears as she answered him. "Yes Han. It's me. But we don't have much time. I gotta get you out of here."
As Leia helped her weakened lover to stand up, she was so intent on him that she failed to recognize the Force's warning in the back of her mind until it was too late for the pair. The relative quiet was pierced by an obscene Huttese cackle that came from the other side of the dark alcove.
"What's that?" Han demanded urgently, his eyes flicking from one side to the other in a futile attempt to see what was happening. "I know that laugh."
The curtain on the far side of the alcove opened, revealing Jabba the Hutt, surrounded by Bib and several other of his alien 'courtiers'.
Jabba gave another ugly laugh again, and his cronies joined in with him in a cacophony of sadistic alien glee.
Han swallowed in recognition, his vision beginning to return. "Hey, Jabba," he said nervously. Leia had positioned herself half in front of him, one hand hovering over her blaster, dangling from her belt. Unfortunately, Jabba's guards had surrounded them, and Leia cursed herself for being such a fool. She knew better than that!
"Look, Jabba," Han went on in a nervously reasonable tone of voice. "I was just on my way to pay you back, but I got a little side tracked. It's not my fault, it's the Empire's. They tried to kill me! You'd never get your money if I was dead, now would you?" he babbled on, barely knowing what he was saying, his head pounding fiercely and his thoughts feeling foggy.
Jabba laughed maliciously at the evident anxiety the two infamous Rebels were unable to hide. "It's too late for that, Solo," he told Han scornfully in Huttese. "You may have been a good smuggler, but now you're Bantha fodder."
"Look...," Han tried to convince him, only to be cut off by the king of the Hutts and the Galactic Underworld, who was beginning to lose his temper.
"Take him away!" Jabba yelled at the guards.
Leia cried out and jerked as the guards grabbed Han and started to lead him away. But as she moved towards him, one of the guards jabbed his blaster into the side of Han's head, causing her to freeze in place. Fearing for his life, she didn't dare to move again, or try to use the Force. She couldn't risk not being quick enough. Luke, Neena and Lando were their best hope now.
"Jabba...," Han called, setting aside his pride to beg as he heard Leia's cry and felt the blaster press into the side of his head. "I'll pay you triple! You're throwing away a fortune here. Don't be a fool!"
Jabba ignored his pleading, and Han was roughly dragged off by the guards.
Lando, still disguised as a member of Jabba's small army, quickly moved forward and attempted to lead Leia away. He was stopped by Jabba's sharp order.
"Bring her to me," the Hutt demanded.
Jabba chuckled as Lando and a second guard dragged the beautiful, young Jedi apprentice towards him. Threepio peeked out from behind a random courtier, squeaked softly in horror at the sight of his mistress' rough treatment and quickly turned away in disgust.
Leia was flung onto her knees in front of the Hutt, but just as quickly scrambled back up, ignoring and resisting the guard's attempt to shove her back down again and glaring icily at Jabba.
For a second, Jabba had to hide a shiver as he recalled the Jedi of Old, and the many feats they had been rumoured to be capable of. Even a half-trained Padawan had been a fearsome and lethal opponent, able to bend a person's mind to their own will. And Leia Naberrie was no Republic-era Jedi. She was an Empire-era Jedi, and a soldier. He couldn't underestimate her, or he would find himself short a few limbs. Including his head.
"You won't be able to keep us here," she whispered in warning, her blue eyes boring into him. "The Force is with us."
"I don't believe in the Force," Jabba grunted back, making Leia smirk darkly.
"And that's why It will never help you," she said simply.