"How's it looking Chewie?"

The big wookie takes his eyes off the navigation screen for a moment, cocks his head to one side and let out a wavering howl that leaves Han in no doubt that his co-pilot is unconvinced by their chosen course.

A lopsided smile spreads across Han's face as he stares out at the blue hyper-spacial star-scape through which the Millennium Falcon spears towards Kessel. "I know Pal, but just the bonus alone for this trip will easily pay off all our debts with the Hutts. It's worth a little risk don't you think?"

Chewbacca looks again at the crazy human, and wonders once more if his decision to take up the offer of business partner and co-pilot had been a good one. His own race was renown for its fierceness in battle, and no-one would dare question his bravery if they wished to retain their motile appendages. Humans in general were a strange lot, too much concerned with messy, distracting emotions and often shy when it came to battle. Not this one though. Behind the innocent and friendly demeanour was a being with genuine fight and a streak of loyalty that rivalled even that of his own clan members.

This particular human, however, was reckless. Very, very reckless. According to the nav computer, the course they're taking will get them from Forrnos to Kessel in only four jumps, a total distance of just under 12 parsecs. The straight line course (at current orbital alignments) measures only 10.67 parsecs. Normally, to avoid crashing into one of the various debris fields, asteroid belts and black holes that litter space between the two worlds, a ship would have to make numerous jumps, changing course wildly each time to avoid running into something. A typical run to Kessel covered a distance of 16 to 18 parsecs. Twelve was practically a straight line.

They were probably going to die.

Chewbacca let out another howl and looked questioningly at Han.

"Well," saids Han, "He was very certain that this course would work. He told me a ship left months ago to map out the asteroid belts and this course was perfectly safe. Besides, why give me bad information if it means he'd lose the cargo?" Han gave Chewbacca another of his winning smiles. "We'll be making the last jump in a short while. Why don't you check our package is ready for delivery?"

Chewbacca leaves the flight deck and makes his way back to the cargo hold, murmuring his displeasure and concern all the way. In the hold, nestled amongst the machine parts they would trade on Kessel for spice, was the thing the man who'd chartered their services back in a bar in Spicant had given them to transport. Chewbacca pulls off a dirty cargo cover to reveal a battered, deactivated R2 astromech unit. Bending down to release the retaining straps, Chewbacca reads the model designation near the edge of the rounded top of the droid, 'R2-D2' it said. Well, R2-D2 is destined for a bizarre journey, thinks Chewbacca as he pulls it over to the starboard escape airlock, pushes the droid inside, and readies the lock for release.