In the large cell, working without tools, Chewbacca had managed to make some progress with C-3PO. More wires had been sorted, some had been reconnected, and the droid’s right arm—like his head—had been reattached to his upper torso. Chewbacca had the torso propped up on his lap as he adjusted the circuits that were housed in the middle of the droid’s back. C-3PO’s audio and visual sensors seemed to be working fine and, as he faced the cell’s far wall, he was able to comment on the Wookiee’s handiwork.
“Oh, yes, that’s very good,” C-3PO said as the Wookiee tweaked a circuit. “I like that.” Suddenly, the lights in the protocol droid’s eyes flashed off. “Oh! Something’s not right because now I can’t see.” After Chewbacca made another adjustment, C-3PO continued, “Oh. Oh, that’s much better.”
Then C-3PO tried to wiggle the fingers on his right hand, but something about the action felt awkward. “Wait,” he said, and twisted his head to look down at his chest. “Wait! Oh, my!” he cried. Where he’d expected to see his chest, he instead saw the exposed circuits on his back, and was suddenly livid. “What have you done? I’m backward, you flea-bitten furball. Only an overgrown mophead like you would be stupid enough—”
Chewbacca threw the circuit breaker at the base of C-3PO’s neck, and the droid’s eyes and voice switched off. The Wookiee was about to resume the repairs when he smelled something in the air, then heard the sound of approaching footsteps. As he placed C-3PO’s upper body with the rest of his parts, the cell’s door slid up into the ceiling. Turning to the doorway, he watched as two stormtroopers hauled in Han.
Han’s arms were draped over the stormtroopers’ shoulders. His eyes were open, his jaw hung loose, and the toes of his boots dragged along the floor behind him. The troopers dumped him into the cell and left, sealing the door behind them.
Chewbacca barked with concern as he kneeled down to hug Han.
“I feel terrible,” Han mumbled.
The Wookiee gently lifted Han to his feet, then helped him over to a bare metal slab, a retractable resting platform that projected from the wall. Han winced as Chewbacca lowered his aching body upon the slab.
A second door slid open, and two stormtroopers shoved Princess Leia into the cell. Instead of the clothes that Lando had given her, she was back in the same insulated jumpsuit she’d worn when she’d arrived at Cloud City. She saw Chewbacca standing beside Han’s prone form. Chewbacca whimpered a sad greeting.
Leia moved to the metal slab, then knelt beside Han and gently pushed her fingers through his hair. His eyes briefly locked on hers. She said, “Why are they doing this?”
“They never even asked me any questions,” Han said.
Leia kissed his forehead. Then the door slid open behind her. Leia turned to see two blue-uniformed Cloud City guards enter, followed by Calrissian.
At the sight of the caped man, Chewbacca roared.
Han was having difficulty raising his head, so Leia turned back to him and whispered, “Lando.” She remained beside Han as Lando and the two guards walked to the center of the cell. Leia noticed Lando wasn’t wearing his customary smile, and that his expression was downright grim. But after the way he’d handed them over to Darth Vader, she didn’t much care whether Cloud City’s administrator was having a bad day.
Han struggled to rise from the slab and said, “Get out of here, Lando!”
“Shut up and listen!” Lando shouted. “Now, Vader has agreed to turn Leia and Chewie over to me.”
“Over to you?” Han said with disbelief.
Leia wondered, What’s Lando trying to pull this time?
Lando said, “They’ll have to stay here, but at least they’ll be safe.”
“What about Han?” Leia asked.
“Vader’s giving him to the bounty hunter,” Lando said.
Leia glared at Lando. “Vader wants us all dead!”
“He doesn’t want you at all,” Lando said. “He’s after somebody called, uh…” Lando had to search his memory for the name Vader had said in the holding chamber, but quickly remembered. “…Skywalker.”
“Luke?” Han said, sitting up on the slab.
“Lord Vader has set a trap for him,” Lando said.
“And we’re the bait,” Leia immediately concluded.
Lando said, “Yeah, well, he’s on his way.”
“Perfect,” Han said as he slowly rose to his feet. On shaky legs, he stepped toward Lando and said, “You fixed us all real good, didn’t you? My friend!”
Han moved fast for a man who’d just come off an Imperial torture rack. His right fist connected with Lando’s jaw, sending Lando stumbling back into one of his guards. But Han’s coordination and sense of balance were all off, and he tried to grab Lando as he fell forward. He only managed to snare Lando’s cape before he hit the floor.
There wasn’t any trouble with the guards’ coordination. Han tried to push himself up from the floor, but one guard drew a blaster and slammed the weapon’s butt into Han’s back. The other guard drew his blaster and aimed it at Chewbacca. The Wookiee roared and Lando shouted, “Stop!”
The guards held their fire and Leia moved beside Han’s fallen form. Lando pulled his cape back around his shoulders and said, “I’ve done all I can. I’m sorry I couldn’t do better, but I got my own problems.”
Han looked up from the floor and sneered, “Yeah, you’re a real hero.”
Lando, looking more grim than ever, walked out of the cell with his two guards. After the door slid shut, Chewbacca knelt down beside Han. As Han caught his breath, Leia shook her head and said, “You certainly have a way with people.”
Han tried to offer a smile, but after everything he’d been through, even smiling hurt.
Even without Darth Vader’s sinister presence, the windowless carbon-freezing chamber was among the least inviting places on Cloud City. The dark chamber was an effective but inelegant device, used to mix Tibanna gas with carbonite, then flash-freeze the mixture into solid blocks that could be easily transported. The mixing and freezing were done in a deep pit at the center of an elevated circular platform that dominated the chamber, and the carbonite blocks were removed by retrieval tongs—large retractable manipulator claws—that were housed in the high ceiling above the central pit.
Steam blasted and billowed from various vents throughout the chamber, which was ringed by a narrow catwalk. Two stairways descended from the catwalk to the elevated platform’s surface: a concentric design of embedded red lights, air intakes, and black metal. The combination of the red-illuminated metal floor and rising steam made the platform resemble an immense heating element that was set on “hot.” If the chamber’s inhospitable design were not enough to discourage tourism, the platform’s perimeter was also without a guardrail.
Darth Vader stood at the platform’s edge, gazing down at the sheer drop to the metal pipes and hoses that laced across the chamber floor. He turned and walked through rising steam to the platform’s center, where Lando, Lobot, and two stormtroopers stood near the open pit. In the pit, two Ugnaughts busily readied the control casing for the mixing and freezing process.
Vader said, “This facility is crude, but it should be adequate to freeze Skywalker for his journey to the Emperor.”
An Imperial soldier stepped onto the platform and approached the dark lord. “Lord Vader,” said the soldier, “ship approaching, X-wing class.”
“Good,” Vader said. There were many carbon-freezing chambers on Cloud City, but Vader had chosen this one for its strategic position: It had the advantage of being closest to Platform 327, where the Millennium Falcon would be easily sighted by Skywalker. Confident that Luke would walk right into his trap, Vader ordered, “Monitor Skywalker and allow him to land.”
The soldier nodded, then walked quickly from the platform.
Lando said, “Lord Vader, we only use this facility for carbon freezing. You put him in there…it might kill him.”
“I do not want the Emperor�
�s prize damaged,” Vader said. “We will test it…on Captain Solo.”
Vader moved across the platform, and the two stormtroopers followed. As they passed by Lobot and Lando, one stormtrooper gave Lando a mild shove to stand aside.
Understandably, Lando didn’t shove back.
In his X-wing starfighter, Luke descended through Bespin’s upper atmosphere. Behind him, R2-D2 beeped with excitement as the X-wing flew through beautiful white clouds and emerged within visual range of a great, floating metropolis.
Cloud City was straight ahead.
Boba Fett led the procession along the catwalk that wrapped around the wall of the carbon-freezing chamber. The sinister bounty hunter was followed by Han Solo, whose hands were manacled before him, then Princess Leia and Chewbacca. Strapped to the Wookiee’s back, a cargo net carried C-3PO’s parts. The droid was upset that only his head and right arm had been reattached, and seemed even more dismayed that his head faced the opposite direction of Chewbacca’s. In this manner of travel, the droid was unable to see where they were going, and was forced to face the two stormtroopers who followed the Wookiee.
C-3PO saw more stormtroopers stationed around the chamber, and tried to twist his head around to see where Chewbacca was heading. “If only you had attached my legs, I wouldn’t be in this ridiculous position,” the droid complained. “Now, remember, Chewbacca, you have a responsibility to me, so don’t do anything foolish.”
The group followed Fett down the stairs to the chamber’s elevated platform. On the way down, Leia noticed Lobot standing at the bottom of the stairway. Then she saw Lando, standing near the platform’s center, looking down into a pit where some Ugnaughts were working.
Two stormtroopers preceded Darth Vader into the chamber via the second stairway. As Vader descended to the elevated platform, he saw that the Ugnaughts were making final adjustments to the control casing into the central pit. It appeared the carbon-freezing apparatus was all in place.
Han came to a stop behind Lando and said, “What’s going on…buddy?”
Without turning to face Han, Lando said, “You’re being put into carbon freeze.”
Leia and Han were standing just a short distance apart, but when they turned to face each other, Leia felt the distance like a chasm. Across from them, Fett approached Vader and said, “What if he doesn’t survive? He’s worth a lot to me.”
“The Empire will compensate you if he dies,” Vader said. Then he turned to the stormtroopers and commanded, “Put him in!”
Realizing what was about to happen, Chewbacca let out a wild howl. He threw his right arm out to his side, striking a stormtrooper with enough force to launch the figure from the elevated platform. Before anyone thought to react, Chewbacca lashed out with his left arm and disposed of a second stormtrooper in the same fashion. Across the platform, Boba Fett brought up his blaster rifle, but Vader—hoping to preserve his other captives—lashed out and grabbed the rifle’s barrel, forcing the bounty hunter to aim away from the melee.
“Oh, no!” C-3PO cried from Chewbacca’s back as more stormtroopers rushed the Wookiee. “No, no, no! Stop!”
“Stop, Chewie, stop!” Han shouted. “Stop!”
Chewbacca threw a third stormtrooper from the platform.
Glad to have Han’s support for once, C-3PO pleaded, “Yes, stop, please! I’m not ready to die.”
Han shouted louder, “Hey, hey! Listen to me. Chewie!”
Chewbacca howled. The stormtroopers swarmed around the Wookiee, trying to fit a pair of durasteel binders over his thick wrists in case he attacked again. Still enraged, the Wookiee was considering falling back over the side of the platform and dragging as many stormtroopers as he could with him when Han said, “Chewie, this won’t help me.”
Realizing the Wookiee was still considering doing something drastic, Han shouted, “Hey!” He gave Chewbacca a stern look. “Save your strength. There’ll be another time. The princess—you have to take care of her.”
Leia glanced at Darth Vader and Boba Fett, then edged past the stormtroopers to stand close between Chewbacca and Han.
Han looked up at Chewbacca and said, “You hear me? Huh?”
Whimpering, Chewbacca nodded. As the storm-troopers secured the binders to the Wookiee’s wrists, Leia and Han looked sorrowfully at each other. Both knew it might be their last moment together. Han moved forward and Leia raised her mouth to his for one final kiss.
The stormtroopers pulled Han away and made him walk backward until he stood upon a hydraulic lift at the platform’s center. Han kept his eyes on Leia.
Leia called out, “I love you!”
To which Han said, “I know.”
Two Ugnaughts approached Han, removed the manacles from his wrists, then stepped away from him. Leia watched the lift descend, carrying Han down into the central pit. From where Leia stood, only Han’s head was visible. His gaze never strayed from her.
Lando looked from Han to Leia, then back to Han. Chewbacca howled.
Darth Vader gestured to an Ugnaught at a nearby control panel. The Ugnaught threw a switch, and only then did Han look away, flinching once before he appeared to vanish within a powerful blast of steam that exploded from the pit.
From behind Chewbacca, C-3PO said, “What…what’s going on? Turn around. Chewbacca, I can’t see.”
Chewbacca whimpered. The steam was still clearing as the large retrieval tongs descended from the ceiling to the pit. The tongs locked onto the solid block of carbonite, then raised the heavy block from the pit to the platform.
Colored a lustrous dark gray, the carbonite block was 81 centimeters wide, 203 centimeters high, and 25 centimeters deep. It weighed over 100 kilograms, not including the weight of Han Solo, who was frozen solid within it. His face and the front of his body protruded slightly from the block’s flat surface, with sharp, clearly defined creases on his shirt and pants. His hands and forearms—raised defensively—protruded the most. In all, he had the appearance of an unfinished statue, its form only partially emerged from a slab of black metal. But in this case, the statue looked as if it had been fighting to escape.
Two Ugnaughts stepped up to inspect the carbonite block’s control casing, a frame with slender monitors embedded in its sides. After checking the monitors for gas ratio and carbonite integrity, one Ugnaught reached up to place his small, strong hands against the block’s front, then pushed. The block fell back against the metal platform with a loud clang, and the noise made Leia jump back against Chewbacca.
But she couldn’t tear her gaze from Han’s frozen form, which now faced the ceiling. Prone on the floor with his hands clutching at the air, Han looked as if he were perpetually drowning. Devastated, Leia shuddered, and Chewbacca turned his body to her.
The Wookiee’s movement allowed a very curious C-3PO to finally get a glimpse of what had transpired. From Chewbacca’s back, the dismembered droid said, “Oh…they’ve encased him in carbonite. He should be quite well protected—if he survived the freezing process, that is.”
While Fett and Vader watched, Lando stepped over to the prone block, knelt beside it, and examined the control casing’s monitor for life systems. He pushed a button, listened to the monitor, then checked the illuminated readout.
Vader said, “Well, Calrissian, did he survive?”
“Yes, he’s alive,” Lando replied. “And in perfect hibernation.”
As Lando rose and stepped away from the carbonite block, Vader turned to Boba Fett and said, “He’s all yours, bounty hunter.”
Fett responded with a single nod.
Vader looked to the Ugnaughts and ordered, “Reset the chamber for Skywalker.”
Just then, an Imperial officer descended to the chamber platform. Stopping in front of Vader, he said, “Skywalker has just landed, my lord.”
“Good,” Vader said. “See to it that he finds his way in here.”
The officer hurried out. Vader turned and watched Lando approach Leia and attempt
to take her arm, apparently with the hope she would allow him to escort her from the chamber. Leia jerked her arm away.
Vader said, “Calrissian, take the princess and the Wookiee to my ship.”
Lando was outraged. “You said they’d be left in the city under my supervision.”
“I am altering the deal,” Vader said. “Pray I don’t alter it any further.”
As Vader swept out of the carbon-freezing chamber, Lando’s hand instinctively went to his throat. He knew what Vader would do to him if he pushed his luck.
Lando looked at Lobot. Lobot returned the gaze with a sidelong glance. And with that single, silent communication, Lobot knew what he had to do.
Luke had landed his X-wing starfighter without any difficulty, but as he and R2-D2 moved carefully down a white-walled, high-ceilinged corridor, he knew that something was very wrong on Cloud City. He didn’t understand why there hadn’t been anyone to greet or confront him on the landing platform.
Where is everybody?
Moving quietly forward, Luke arrived at a side hallway. He peered around the corner to see that the hallway connected with another corridor. He was about to enter the hallway when he heard footsteps.
Luke pulled back quickly, drew his blaster pistol, and flattened against the wall. With his blaster held tight in his right hand, he leaned forward, took a cautious peek down the hallway, and saw Boba Fett walking down the corridor.
Boba Fett?! What’s that bounty hunter doing here? He saw Boba Fett’s helmet shift slightly, as if he were about to turn to face Luke, but he didn’t turn his head as he kept walking. Then Luke remembered the bounty on Han. Maybe Yoda and Ben were wrong. Maybe my vision had nothing to do with Darth Vader and the Emperor. Maybe it was all about Boba Fett capturing Han.
Fett was followed by a floating slab of metal that Luke couldn’t make out. The floating slab was followed by two blue-uniformed Cloud City guards, who held the end of the slab and appeared to be guiding it through the hallway. Luke realized the slab was resting on a thin repulsor sled, an antigravity device used to transport heavy objects. The guards were followed by a pair of Imperial stormtroopers.
The Empire Strikes Back (Junior Novelization) Page 12