The Crystal Star by Vonda McIntyre Read Free Book Online

first dome of Crseih Station spread out like a carnival around him. Bands and jugglers,
    acrobats and merchants demonstrated their abilities or displayed their wares.
    A group of Brebishems lay in a heap on the side of the path, wriggling and rolling together, twisting their
    long snouts and flapping their wide leaf-shaped ears. They squeezed so close together that they
    resembled one organism, as if their soft wrinkled mauve skins had touched and melded. A low
    continuous moan emanated from the group. It was impossible to tell if one or all made the sound.
    Luke threw a coin into the basket sitting before the Brebishems.
    "What's that for?" Han said.
    "Appreciation for their art." "Art?" Han looked at Luke askance, but Luke was perfectly serious.
    "It isn't any stranger than dancing, or bolo-ball." "You're entitled to your opinion," Han said.
    An image came to him, unbidden, of the last time he and Leia had danced. Some reception somewhere,
    he could not remember when or even what planet the event had been on. Only that there had been a few
    minutes free of diplomacy, toasts, and salutations, and he and Leia had held each other close in the
    mirror-fractured light on the sparkling dance floor. A sharp pang of desire and loneliness touched his
    heart.
    "Please, honors, a small coin left for me?" An individual only as high as Han's hip plucked at the sleeve of
    his shirt. A long gray-green pelt concealed the being's form.
    "Has it got a coin in its pocketses for me?" "No, I don't have any change on me," Han said. He pushed
    the long thin fingers, like brittle twigs, away from his pockets.
    "Wait," Luke said. "I have some." He gave the being a coin. His voice was very gentle when he spoke to
    the being. The bony fingers snatched the coin, which vanished somewhere beneath the long coarse fur.
    The being snuffled and went past them, toward the airlink.
    "Other passengers coming?" the being said hopefully.
    "Just us," Han said.
    Several other beggars, guides, and tchochke-sellers converged on Han and Luke.
    "They're mine, mine!" the being cried. "Find your own!" They all ignored the hairy being's protests.
    "No, thanks, we don't want any," Han said, sidling through the group and dragging Luke with him. He
    imagined Luke passing out all the rest of their spare credits before they made it beyond the entryway.
    It did not take them long to escape. The beggars, guides, and sellers retreated to their places near the
    entryway and waited for more receptive customers.
    But the hairy being had followed Han and Luke through the crowd. It circled them warily, muttering,
    "Mine, mine." "The droid who came in with us," Han said.
    "Did you see him?" He craned his neck to look across the chaos of the welcome dome. In any group of
    standard humans, Han Solo could look over the heads of most of them.
    Within the mix of sentient life-forms gathered at Crseih, he was of no more than average height.
    And he had to remind himself that he was looking for a purple droid, not a gold one.
    "Droids never have spare change," the hairy being said. "Droids never have pocketses. No reason to ask
    droids." "Maybe you could help us," Luke said. "In another way." "Help?" the being asked suspiciously.
    "Work?" "Just show. Show us where there's a good lodge.
    Help us get our bearings at Crseih Station." "I can find us a lodge," Han said, insulted. "I haven't been out
    of touch so long that I can't even find us a lodge!" "Shut up!" Luke whispered fiercely.
    Startled, Han stopped his protest.
    "Lodge, yes, lodge," the being said. "And places to eat and places to buy nice clothes, specialize in
    human fit." The being loped off, its heavy fur bouncing against its sides.
    Luke followed it. Han glanced at the ceiling in supplication. As the ceiling neither replied nor did anything
    to help, he shrugged and went along, muttering, "Damned if I'll take fashion criticism from a guy in a hairy
    suit."
    The hairy being led Han and Luke through several airlinks and as many