which imports raw spice from the spice mines of Kessel and then refines it for a Hutt criminal syndicate. Using a false identity, he takes a job as a pilot and smuggler, putting the skills he learned committing a wide array of crimes in the Corellian system for Shrike. He discovers that the religious pilgrims are in fact slaves, who choose to stay on the planet due to their overlords' misrepresentation of a mating call of their species that can induce extreme pleasure as really being a kind of spiritial gift. Han secretly records a conversation with the High Priest and plays it to help one of the slaves who he is attracted to, the Corellian Bria Tharen, wake from her mental prison. Before they leave the planet, Han steals a number of valuable artifacts from the High Priest's collection, intending to sell them. Han and Bria convince Han's feline bodyguard Muuurgh, who has recently lost a mate who may be at another colony, to join them. The trio blows up a large spice refinery to create a diversion and liberate Muuurgh's mate. They escape to another planet, where the two felines are joined in matrimony. Han and Bria visit Corellia and meet Bria's family. Han realizes that he is falling in love with Bria, but realizes that due to his shady past, he will never be accepted by her aristocratic parents. Her mother especially dislikes his past as a pod racer under a different name. Having sold the stolen goods, Han makes plans to join the Imperial Academy on Coruscant. Unable to withdraw his funds, he must flee from stormtroopers. Bria leaves him, thinking she will stand in the way of his future at the Academy, but helps him with a loan from her father. Han, although broken-hearted, is accepted by the Academy, and he becomes the pilot he has dreamt of becoming. After graduating, his past catches up with him via an ambush by Garris Shrike, who is bounty-hunting him. Shrike is killed by another bounty hunter hoping to collect on Han, whom Han kills in self-defense. The dead bounty hunter's face was disfigured, and Han swaps outfits with him, hoping this will persuade future bounty hunters of his death. He goes on to Carida, the Imperial military training world. The Hutt Gambit A few years after the first book, Han has been court-martialed and ejected from the