Chewbacca shot up the tree, as only a Wookiee could, using his claws and arboreal heritage to keep the princess in sight. His unexpected agility caused some comment among the natives, and they all looked at Solo and Luke, waiting to see if they would perform a similar feat.

The monster burst into the clearing and immediately attacked the carcass. Natives vanished up the tree at a phenomenal rate and Luke and Solo followed their example.

The ropes were a counterweight pulley system that had them in the branches, twenty or thirty metres up, in seconds. Luke and Solo both felt as though they'd left their stomachs behind.

They landed on a large platform and all the ropes were pulled up. To prevent unwanted visitors no doubt, Luke thought. They went up another two levels the same way and then found themselves in a village of enormous platforms built into and around one of the massive trees.

"Reminds me of Kashyyyk," Solo muttered to Luke as they landed. He spotted Chewbacca and headed for him. "Much simpler of course."

Chewie was standing over a very white and still princess, and Luke's heart leapt into his throat. Chewie rumbled at them and Solo briefly inspected her. "It's alright; she's just passed out."

"Get out !"

They looked up, startled to find someone not just yelling at them, but yelling at them in Basic. He was on the next platform up and looked totally livid.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?! Get out!"

Luke looked at Solo who was frowning very hard at the figure above. When his initial abuse did not have the desired effect, the man swiftly descended to their level.

"Get out! Are you deaf?!"

Luke took a step forward, "The natives brought us here - "

"I don't give a shit! Get out!"

Luke looked to Solo for some support and found him with a look of horrified disbelief on his face. The man thundered towards them, tall and bearish with long, thinning grey hair and a beard.

"This is not a study group! How many times do I have to tell you idiot kids?"

Chewbacca looked at Solo; he too had recognised the man.

Luke indicated the princess. "Our friend is badly hurt - "

"Not as badly hurt as he will be-" The man stopped in his tracks ten metres away, staring at the Corellian. Then at the Wookiee, and back to Solo. Now he was angrier than ever. "What the hell are you doing here?!"

Luke looked sharply at Solo. Someone from his past! That was all they needed!

Solo had come over all defensive. "I might ask you the same question."

"I work here!" The man noticed the basket with the princess in it and frowned. "What?" He moved to get a better look at her. "Good grief!"

"She's badly hurt-" Solo started to say.

The man looked accusingly at him and pointed at the unconscious girl. "That's the Princess of Alderaan!" he bellowed. "What's she doing with you?"

"At the moment?" Solo responded sarcastically, "Dying!" He opened his mouth to explain but was interrupted by the stranger who snapped, "Bring her to my hut."

"She needs a medcentre!" Solo insisted.

The man headed back towards the ropes. "Come on, come on."

"Maybe if you could give us some kind of transport to the city-" Solo suggested.

"Give you a ship?" The man laughed sarcastically. "You'd steal it!" Solo glared bitterly at him and the stranger turned back to the ropes. "Are you coming or not?"

They bent to pick the basket up and Luke said quietly, "I gather you know each other?' Solo scowled and they hefted the basket between them. "An old smuggling buddy, huh?"

Solo was startled out of a whirlpool of thoughts. "What?... No." He glared after the departing figure and muttered, "He's my father."

Luke was so surprised he almost dropped the basket. "Your father?"

The man yelled at them, "Will you hurry up?!"

They got to the ropes and lashed the basket up. Leia moaned.

"What happened to her?" Solo's father asked.

Solo answered without looking at him, "She caught the tail of - "

"The lazech?" the man said, cutting him off, and frowned at the princess a little closer. "Where?"

Solo indicated her chest, irritated by the older man's constant and typical interruptions. "Threw her into a tangle of vines and she - "

His father grabbed the princess' hand, looked at the wound and muttered with dread, "Kibrivask vine." He muttered absently, "Kvoric was babbling about something..." He frowned at them, and Luke got the impression he was really seeing them for the first time. "You're responsible for all that meat-"

"She has several broken ribs and is bleeding internally," Solo said darkly, bringing him back to the problem at hand.

The older man grunted and turned to the ropes. "She should be dead."

They moved up to the next platform and carried her to what was obviously his hut. Inside, it looked like a camp laboratory.

He hastily cleared a workbench and instructed, "Put her here."

Luke and Solo obliged, lifting her carefully from the basket and placing her gingerly on the bench, then stepped back while the elder Solo ran a handheld scanner over her. "How did you revive her?" he asked.

Solo frowned then said, "We gave her the sap - "

The man looked up. "The sap? How did you get to it?"

"Cut the vine."

"With what? A vibroblade won't cut through kibrivask."

Luke answered, "My lightsabre."

Solo's father glanced at the weapon hanging from Luke's belt and regarded him for a moment then growled at Solo. "Interesting circles you travel in nowdays."

As the man turned back to the princess, Solo asked, "Can you -?"

"I can help with the bleeding and the broken bones. The poisoning is serious."

"How serious?"

"She should be dead."

"But the sap - ?" Luke started.

"The sap helped, definitely." He opened her shirt and started working on her. "The antidote is based on the sap. But the kibrivask vine leaves tiny capsules of poison." He glanced at them. "Little time bombs if you like." He continued concentrating on the scanner. "I have some of the antidote here but I'll have to take her to the university to make sure her hand is clean. Or else, in a few days, a bomb will go off and then she will be dead." He put the small scanner down. "Alright, you two out," he said, waving his hand at Solo and Luke. "Don't leave the platform; the Kivvies'll kill you. Chewbacca, you can help me undress her."

Dismissed and ignored, Luke reluctantly followed the Corellian out.

"So, your father's a medic?" he quipped, still trying to come to terms with the fact that the 'wild man' was related to Han.

Solo regarded the treetop village around them without really seeing it. "No," he answered. "My father's a geneticist."

Luke looked at him, alarmed. "Well, wait a minute-"

Solo glanced at him. "Don't worry, he knows what he's doing."

Inside the hut, Leia cried out and Luke gave Solo a baleful look. "I hope you're right about this..."

Solo muttered under his breath as he moved away, "Yeah... me too..."