"Soon, Lord Vader," the admiral answered, trembling in fear.

"Yes, Admiral…" Darth Vader said slowly, "…soon." Two gigantic asteroids hurtled toward the Millennium Falcon. Its pilot quickly made a daring banking maneuver that brought it skirring out of the path of those two asteroids, nearly to collide with a third.

As the Falcon darted in and out of the asteroid field, it was followed closely by three Imperial TIE fighters that veered through the rocks in hot pursuit. Suddenly one of the three was fatally scraped by a shapeless chunk of rock and spun off in another direction, hopelessly out of control. The other two TIE fighters continued their chase, accompanied by the Star Destroyer Avenger, which was blasting speeding asteroid in its path.

Han Solo glimpsed the pursuing ships through the windows of his cockpit as he spun his craft around, speeding under yet another oncoming asteroid, then bringing the freighter back to its right-side-up position. But the Millennium Falcon was not yet out of danger. Asteroids were still streaking past the freighter. A small one bounced off the ship with a loud, reverberating clang, terrifying Chewbacca and causing See-Threepio to cover his eye lenses with a bronzed hand.

Han glanced at Leia and saw that she was sitting stone-faced as she stared at the swarm of asteroids. It looked to him as if she wished she were thousands of miles away.

"Well," he remarked, "you said you wanted to be around when I was wrong." She didn't look at him. "I take it back." "That Star Destroyer is slowing down," Han announced, checking his computer readings.

"Good," she replied shortly.

The view outside the cockpit was still thick with racing asteroids. "We're going to get pulverized if we stay out here much longer," he observed.

"I'm against that," Leia remarked dryly.

"We've got to get out of this shower." "That make sense." "I'm going to get in closer to one of the big ones," Han added.

That did not make sense.

"Closer!" Threepio exclaimed, throwing up his metal arms. His artificial brain could scarcely register what his auditory sensors had just perceived.

"Closer!" Leia repeated in disbelief.

Chewbacca stared at his pilot in amazement and barked.

None of the three could understand why their captain, who had risked his life the save them all, would now try to get them killed! Making a few simple adjustments on the cockpit controls, Han swerved the Millennium Falcon between a few large asteroids, then aimed the craft directly at one the size of a moon.

A flashing shower of smaller rocks exploded against the enormous asteroid's craggy surface as the Millennium Falcon, with the Emperor's TIE fighters still in pursuit, flew directly above the asteroid. It was like skimming over the surface of a small planet, barren and devoid of all life.

With expert precision, Han Solo steered his ship toward still another giant asteroid, the largest one they had yet encountered. Summoning all the skill that had made his reputation known throughout the galaxy, he maneuvered the Falcon so that the only object between it and the TIE fighters was the deadly floating rock.