When the beast reached the top of another ice slope, Luke brought the animal to halt. He pulled off his dark-lensed goggles and squinted for a few moments, just long enough for his eyes to adjust to the blinding glare of the snow.
Suddenly his attention was diverted by the appearance of an object streaking across the sky, leaving behind a lingering trail of smoke as it dipped toward the misty horizon. Luke flashed his gloved hand to his utility belt and clutched his pair of electrobinoculars. Apprehensive, he felt a chill that competed with the coldness of the Hoth atmosphere. What he had seen could have been manmade, perhaps even something launched by the Empire. The young commander, still focused on the object, followed its fiery course and watched intently as it crashed on the white ground and was consumed in its own explosive brilliance.
At the sound of the explosion, Luke’s Tauntaun shuddered. A fearful growl escaped its muzzle and it began to claw nervously at the snow. Luke patted the animal’s head, trying to reassure the beast. He found it difficult to hear himself over the blustering wind. "Easy, girl, it’s just another meteorite!" he shouted. The animal calmed and Luke brought the communicator to his mouth. "Echo Three to Echo Seven. Han ol’ buddy, do you read me?" Static crackled from the receiver. Then a familiar voice cut through the interference. "Is that you, kid? What’s up?" The voice sounded a little older and somewhat sharper than Luke’s. For a moment Luke fondly recalled first meeting the Corellian space smuggler in that dark, alien-packed cantina at a spaceport on Tatooine. And now he was one of Luke’s only friends who was not an official member of the Rebel Alliance.
"I’ve finished my circle and I haven’t picked up any life readings," Luke spoke into his comlink, pressing his mouth close to the transmitter.
"There isn’t enough life on this ice cube to fill a space cruiser," Han answered, fighting to make his voice heard above the whistling winds. "My sentry markers are placed. I’m heading back to base." "See you shortly," Luke replied. He still had his eye on the twisting column of dark smoke rising from a black spot in the distance. "A meteorite just hit the ground near here and I want to check it out. I won’t be long." Clicking off his comlink, Luke turned his attention to his Tauntaun. The reptilian creature was pacing, shifting its weight from one foot to the other. It gave out a deep-throated roar that seemed to signal fear.
"Whoa, girl!" he said, patting the Tauntaun’s head. "What’s the matter…you smell something? There’s nothing out there." But Luke, too, was beginning to feel uneasy, for the first time since he had set out from the hidden Rebel base. If he knew anything about these snow-lizards, it was that their senses were keen. Without question the animal was trying to tell Luke that something, some danger, was near.
