Honor Among Thieves: Star Wars by James S. A. Corey

Author:James S. A. Corey
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, azw3
Tags: sw-legends
ISBN: 9780345546869
Publisher: Del Rey
Published: 2015-02-24T05:00:00+00:00

THE FALCON FLEW QUIETLY through the vast emptiness, moving faster than a comet, but small. Han used the maneuvering thrusters lightly, shifting the ship behind whatever debris he could find and pushing to keep the bulk of the planet between him and the Star Destroyer. Long-range fighter patrols might still reach above the planet’s curving horizon. He couldn’t do anything about that. The best he could manage was to be small and fast and get down to the planet’s surface quickly when the time came.

“Galassian’s notes put the temple’s coordinates just south of the equator,” Scarlet said.

“Yeah, that’s actually in the middle of an ocean,” Han said. “I’m pretty sure he transposed these two readings.”

“Why do you think so?” Scarlet asked.

“Because that would put it more or less directly under the Star Destroyer,” Han said. “Anything dangerous or inconvenient just seems more likely to be true.”

“There’s a cynical worldview,” Scarlet said.

“Just being realistic.”

The small, blue-white sun touched the edge of the planet. Great sheets of light spilled out, caught in billions of motes of dust that surrounded the swamp world. The debris of some shattered moon, the still-uncaptured remnants of the cloud that had spawned the system, or the relic of the inward-facing K’kybak civilization. Han couldn’t say, but it was pretty to look at. And then there, in the center of the light, a speck of darkness. The Imperial Star Destroyer hove into view, and Han tensed.

His impulse was to kick the engines into a fast burn, trusting to speed and maneuverability. Restraining himself wasn’t easy, but he did it, letting the Falcon follow its trajectory like a thrown rock hissing through the darkness. No alarms had sounded yet. There was no sign they’d been noticed.

Chewbacca grunted and moaned.

“I know,” Han said. “I see it, too. We’ll try to fix it when we get down there.”

“Fix what?” Scarlet asked.

“We’ve still got a coolant leak from where Baasen hit us with the tracking beacon,” Han said. “It’s not bad. We’ll be fine.”

Scarlet took in a deep breath, letting it out slowly between her teeth.

“You know,” she said. “I love this part.”

“This part?” Han said. “Really?”

“Really,” she said. “They’re right there. Right in front of us, and they don’t see the threat. If we do it right, they never will. We’ll slide in, do what we came to do, and by the time they understand what’s happened, it’ll be too late.”

“Maybe,” Han said. “Or maybe they’ll have moved the shaft we expected to find, and we’ll wind up climbing a transmission tower while half the stormtroopers in the Core try to shoot us down. It goes that way, too, sometimes.”

“And I loved that part, too,” Scarlet said ruefully. “This is why I could never be an accountant.”

Something glittered off the Star Destroyer’s bow. A wing of TIE fighters starting their patrol, or else ending it.

“What about you?” Scarlet asked. “You have to enjoy the fear, too. Just a little?”

“Not the fear,” Han said. “I just like being a little smarter than the next guy.

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