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.

Stormtroopers! Luke suddenly realized that the Empire was definitely involved with whatever was going on at Cloud City. Looks like Ben and Yoda were right.

The procession passed out of Luke’s viewing range. Keeping his blaster out, Luke moved quickly down the hallway until he’d arrived at the next corridor. Peering around the corner, he saw the end of the procession—the backs of the departing stormtroopers—just before they rounded a corner and he lost sight of them again.

R2-D2 had followed Luke through the hallway, and beeped as he arrived at his master’s side. Luke raised a hand, signaling the droid to be silent and stay put. R2-D2 obediently stopped beeping and rolled back from him.

Trusting that the procession was now far enough ahead of him that he could follow unnoticed, Luke stepped forward into the corridor. Which was a mistake.

Boba was positioned near the same corner where Luke had lost sight of the two stormtroopers. The bounty hunter’s blaster rifle was aimed at Luke. Boba fired.

Luke fell back into the hallway as the laser bolt whizzed past him and impacted at the hallway wall. He realized too late that he must have been spotted by Fett’s targeting rangefinder as the hunter had led the others past the hallway. Fett quickly fired two more bolts, which smashed into the corridor wall near Luke’s position, then fired a fourth bolt that followed the first into the hallway wall.

Leia was walking down a corridor with Chewbacca and C-3PO—the droid’s pieces still strapped to the Wookiee’s back—when she heard four blaster shots. The shots sounded like they’d come from behind, so Leia looked back, but all she saw were two of the four stormtroopers in her escort. The other two were in front of her, and in the lead were a gray-uniformed Imperial lieutenant and Lando Calrissian.

Lando heard the fired blasters, too. He continued walking without missing a step but adjusted his cape slightly so neither the lieutenant nor anyone behind him was able to see what he did next. With his left hand, Lando reached to a thin comlink that was strapped to his right wrist, tapped a key sequence, and sent a signal to Lobot.

R2-D2 beeped frantically. Luke patted R2-D2’s dome, trying to reassure the astromech that he’d be all right. Around the corner from Luke, the two shots that had struck the corridor wall had left smoldering scorch marks.

Luke held his blaster pistol and edged out into the corridor. No sign of Fett. He pressed forward, trying to pick up the bounty hunter’s trail.

As Luke approached another side hallway, he heard more footsteps. He passed a window as he entered the hallway and did not consider that the light from the window might cast his shadow onto the hallway’s wall.

The Imperial lieutenant was walking just behind Calrissian when he saw a shadow glide across the wall of an adjoining hallway. The lieutenant stopped, gestured at Lando to open a nearby door, then signaled the stormtroopers under his command. As the stormtroopers took up firing position, the lieutenant grabbed Princess Leia and yanked her after Lando.

Luke jumped back against the hallway wall as the waiting stormtroopers fired their blaster rifles at him. After several laser bolts whizzed past him, he risked a quick glance up the hall and was almost overwhelmed by what he saw.

Four stormtroopers. Chewbacca and Leia! That Imperial officer’s holding Leia like a body shield! Is that C-3PO on Chewie’s back? Who’s the caped man opening that door?

The stormtroopers kept shooting at him, but Luke held his fire and watched as the caped man stepped through the open doorway. As three of the stormtroopers shoved Chewbacca through the doorway, Leia saw Luke and shouted, “Luke! Luke, don’t—it’s a trap!”

The Imperial officer dragged Leia after Chewbacca, but Leia gripped the doorway and shouted again, “It’s a trap!” Then Leia was pulled through. One stormtrooper fired two more shots at Luke, then exited the same way as the others.

The doorway remained open.

So it’s a trap, Luke thought. But what happens to my friends if I don’t try to rescue them?

Luke headed for the open doorway.