Star Wars: Lando Calrissian and the Starcave of Thonboka by L. Neil Smith

Author:L. Neil Smith
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub, mobi
Tags: Science fiction, Fiction, General, Calrissian, Lando (Fictitious character)
ISBN: 9780345311641
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Published: 1983-11-12T08:00:00+00:00

I'm afraid we do not understand you, Captainmaster and until we do, we cannot accept this gift you offer The Elders were at least a kilometer across, Fey being slightly smaller than Sen. Lando felt silly negotiating with them-it was rather like carrying on a conversation with a large apartment building. But from earlier conversations with Lehesu, he was prepared for their attitude and these very questions.

"Well, aside from the fact that Vuffi Raa and I have grown rather fond of young Lehesu, here, we consider it a sort of a game." Lando wished, as he hung in space beside the huge raylike creature, that there was some provision for smoking a cigar in a spacesuit. He felt better making business talk if he could smoke.

"A game? Please explain what you mean."

"Sure, Sen. I understand that you folks like mental puzzles.

Well, my folks do, too. Only we've found a way to make them more interesting and challenging: we turn them into games.

That's where somebody else tries to solve the puzzle 'first or better, or opposes your solution of it while he tries to work out his own."

"Fascinating, " Sen mused, almost to himself. He turned to Fey.

"Have you ever conceived of such a thing?"

No answer came from the Elder. To a being so ancient, a new concept came as something of a shock.

"Right," Lando said, jetting closer to the pair of aliens.

"And just to make it more fascinating, we try to play for something a little better than the sheer joy of solving the puzzle."

"Such as what?" both Elders said at once.

"Well, permit me to demonstrate, friends. Now take the game of sabacc "Am I missing something obvious here," Lando offered conversationally as he took another "card7' and the others considered their hands, "or are you people completely resigned to dying?"

A pale pink tinge suffused through Lehesu at Lando's boldness toward the Elders, but he kept his peace, trusting the gambler. Sen and Fey both performed the equivalent of looking up from their cards.

Lando's helmet indicators said he was being brushed lightly by twin radar beams.

He knew the beings were far from stupid. Their transparent bodies made it easier and more difficult at the same time to figure out their internal arrangements, but from what he'd seen, he guessed that about two-thirds of their mass was brain, and pretty astute brain at that.

"Ah yes, " Sen answered finally, "that was the reason you were demonstrating sabacc to us. I had become so fascinated with the game itself I had quite forgotten that its purpose was explaining why you wished to help us. So, you play a great sabacc game with your own kind out there, and we are a part of it. No, my friend, we do not wish to die, but there seems little alternative. I'll take a card, Starshipmillenniumfalcon, if you please. " The ship, apparently unimpressed that it had been granted status not only as a person but as an Elder among the Oswaft, duly blipped out a signal representing one of the seventy-eight sabacc cards, and fell silent again.

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