Razor's Edge: Star Wars (Empire and Rebellion) by Martha Wells Page A

their hands dirty were bad enough; Metara, who had talked them into this and ran the ship like a cult leader in a religious colony, worried the hell out of him.
    Han told Sian and Itran what the situation was, and predictably, Itran said, as if this were somehow all Han’s doing, “Are you out of your mind? The Princess shouldn’t be here in the first place!”
    â€œYou think?” Han said, pretending to be genuinely interested in the answer, just to see what Itran would do.
    Itran railed about it and Han continued to prod him while thinking—just a little—about shooting him, until Sian finally said, “Will you two calm down and be quiet? The only thing we can do right now to help the Princess is present a united front, so let’s just do that, all right?”
    Han thought Sian didn’t care so much about presenting a united front as long as he and Itran both shut up. Which they did. The silence gave Han time to worry more about Leia’s plans. The fact that everyone from the
Aegis
and the
Gamble
who accompanied Metara and Leia down to the bay floor was armed didn’t reassure him all that much.
    The bay was big, carved out of the rock by the same massive digging tools that had chopped up the rest of the asteroid. The air had just been pumped in, so it wasn’t stale, but it was cool and too damp and had a metallic taint, probably from faulty recycling units somewhere in the system. The moisture had combined with the rock dust in the air to coat the metal panels and stone surfaces with a dirty muck. Stretching across the rocky ceiling was a heavy metal superstructure, a loading mechanism for the ore transports that had once docked here.
    Two big blast doors in the far wall opened to a corridor, where a few armed pirates waited, probably assigned to keep an eye on the newly recruited ship. Taking a quick look around, Han immediately noticed the second, unguarded way out of the bay. A moment later Sian nudged his arm and pointed up at the superstructure overhead. He gave her a quick nod.
    Three of the guards came forward into the bay, two humans and one Quara. The Quara was short, with green-gray skin, bulbous dark eyes, and two short tusks covering the lower part of his face. The two humans were both male, both big, dressed in dirty leather and carrying blasters. The Quara said, “The flightmaster wants to see the captain. Who’s the captain?”
    Metara stepped forward. “I am.” She indicated Leia with a jerk of her head. “She’s coming with me.”
    The Quara grunted but didn’t object. “The rest of your crew stays here, till the flightmaster says otherwise. We don’t want strangers wandering around.”
    Metara glanced at Kelvan and got a reluctant nod from him. She told the Quara, “We understand.”
    He turned away. “Then follow me.”
    Han watched Metara and Leia follow the Quara away, his misgivings growing. Leia didn’t even look back. The Quara hadn’t told them to hand over their weapons, but maybe that would come later, when they were away from the ship and any help. Most of the guards had been left behind, loitering just outside the blast doors.
    One of the Alderaanians said to Kelvan, “I don’t like this, sir.”
    Kelvan looked like he hated it. “No one does.”
    The Princess wasn’t going to budge from this place until she could take that captured merchant crew with her, and Han wasn’t exactly keen on leaving them here, either. He had seen too many slave pens for that. To test Kelvan’s resolve, he said, “We need to find out where they’re keeping their prisoners.”
    Kelvan’s reaction was to look toward the bay door, clearly considering how difficult it might be to get through it. “The Quara said we’re not to leave the bay, and trying to come up with some excuse might make them suspicious. I don’t want to risk that while the captain