Star Wars: Rotta's Revenge

Chapter 8

The palace was dead silent. Leia felt her heart rate increase. She knew it was too much to hope, that they'd succeed in tricking a Hutt with words. Their species was too clever for that. But there was still a chance...
"You ought to have expected that Boba Fett would have had circumstantial evidence put in place to point away from him," she said, drawing on her experience as a diplomat to sustain her. "Besides, if there was any doubt in your mind, why did you just send him to his death?"
"Whether he killed my father or not, he still failed him by allowing you and your friends to escape," the Hutt said with a sinister smile. "He deserves to be punished. The only question is: will you join him? Or will you join me, and take your rightful place at my feet?"
"Over our dead bodies," Han snarled, raising his blaster. "You're not armed. We are. You'll never take us!"
Luke cast a warning glance at him, and at Lando and Leia, who had also raised their blasters. He did not ignite his lightsaber. "We can still resolve this without resorting to violence."
"After you so brazenly lied to me?" Rotta laughed. "I don't think so, Jedi." His tone indicated that the last word was meant to be a slur. "Justice must be served. No one crosses the Hutts and lives to tell the tale."
"No one does a lot of the things we've done and lives to tell the tale." Luke smiled. "And yet we have."
The tension was broken all of a sudden by a sustained beeping from Leia's wrist comlink, loud in the dim cavern. She hesisated, then activated it.
"Princess Leia! Are you there?" It was Mon Mothma's voice. "Your presence is required for a Senate meeting. Where are you?"
Leia did not answer, hoping against hope that her silence would prompt the reaction she desired.
"Leia, if you don't answer me right now with your response telling me that you're on your way, I'm sending an army out to find you."
Leia smiled triumphantly as Rotta's eyes widened in horror. "There won't be any need for that, Chancellor," she said, not taking her gaze away from the Hutt's. "I'll be right there."
She ended the transmission and continued to lock eyes with Rotta. "Well? Will you have your revenge, even if the full force of the Republic is brought down upon you?"
Rotta sensed that he was trapped. He also sensed that there was only one way out of the trap. "The Hutts will not forget this," he growled. "There will be nowhere you can hide from us."
"I think one of the most notorious criminal families in the galaxy would do well to stay away from civilized systems," Leia responded pleasantly.
The Hutt only snorted. The four of them turned and left the palace, not daring to breathe until they were out of Rotta's sight. Once they were safe, the cheers and shouts of joy began in earnest.
"All right, enough!" Luke held up a hand for quiet. "We still need to get off this planet. Han, you think you can handle any of these?" He gestured to the bounty hunters' ships that sat before them.
"Well, none of them are the Falcon," Han replied with a grin, "but I'll do my best."
The four of them clambered aboard the nearest ship and set out for Cloud City.