Acting on the tip we received in the prologue, Lando has just landed in the spaceport on
Rafa IV.
ready to follow up on his lead to the ruins and the treasure therein. He is wearing a captain's hat and looks very suave and debonair in his outfit as he steps down the gangway, but he immediately receives a snarky remark from flight control: "What's that garbage on your thrust-intermix cowling,
Em Falcon, over?"
They can't say anything about the amateurish touchdown Lando had made. He's well aware of it. Gambler, scoundrel, a Michaelangelo among the artists who perform the con, but pilot he's not, and he knows it. That's why this flight down was made, not by himself, but by a Class 5 robot pilot, the equivalent of something picked up at a thrift store. As they settle down, the droid welcomes it's passengers aboard the pleasure yacht
Arleen, now in transit in interstellar space to --
Obviously the poor being is delusional. Lando shuts it down. He then finds the things ground control is complaining about -- some bat-like thing. He is forced to ask ground control what they are, and is snottily informed they are mynocks. Which ride asteroids (of which the previous Osean system had many) and are supposed to be removed in orbit BEFORE they're brought down into atmosphere and start reproducing. Lando had better get cracking quickly or they'll not only wreck his ship, they'll spread and cause problems for everyone else in the spaceport.
And THAT, ground control notes, will be an EXPENSIVE proposition.
This is going to be terrible on Lando's semiformal clothes, but he puts on a vacuum suit, then hooks up a steam line to the
Falcon's reactor. Armed with this high-powered lethal device, he sweeps all the mynocks off the ship in a lengthy, grueling task which is not at all becoming for a gentleman of leisure such as himself.
Once he's done, Ground control mocks him some more. "Good going, ace! Didn't you get an instruction booklet when you sent your box-tops in for that pile of junk you're flying? Over."
Box-tops. Ah, that's a legacy from my childhood. Cereal companies like general mills would run ad campaigns where they would send you a small prize, free, if you mailed them a certain number of cereal box tops. These were never especially valuable prizes, and suggesting the
Falcon was a prize in such a contest is about as insulting as can be. Lando is offended; the previous owner insisted the
Falcon was one of the fastest ships in the galaxy. Lando, however, has not found evidence of this. Certainly his rental droid pilot wasn't able to get anywhere near the advertised speed from the ship. But then, the class five droid would probably lose a race even if it were flying a tie fighter in a race of star destroyers.
Lando tries to cut his losses by selling them the obviously-useless piloting droid, but control will have none of it; they are well aware of where that droid is from and they aren't going to buy someone else's property. He'll have to have it shipped back to Osean to its rental outfit as freight. Again, expensive.
This is not at all a good day.
Lando sets off to find a card game. As he does so he reflects on the planet he is on, and we get expositioned dump that there are only three things notable about this planet.
The first, of course, are the ruins themselves.
The second are these things called 'life crystals' which have an effect on dreaming, enhance intelligence, and quadruple human life expectancy.
... Sounds like Arrakeen spice has entered the GFFA.
They can only be cultivated in the various planets , moons, and planetoids of the Rafa system -- something about the sun, perhaps?
The third thing to know about this planet are the life-orchards in which these life crystals grow. They are a death sentence as well as very hard labor to harvest. Thus Rafa IV is a prison planet, as the local powers-that-be make use of the indigenous Rafa inhabitants in typical colonial exploitation , as well as prisoners from more than a million other worlds. Star's End, where the prisoners are kept in suspended animation, is a paradise compared to the living hell that is the Life-Orchards.
I say "is" because this book predates Han's ownership of the
Falcon and his destruction of Star's End. So it's still around.
Lando travels through the town, which appears to be primarily made up of the poor and destitute. He notes an old man pushing a broom. "The colony was an anthill built on soil scrapings between ancient, artifical mountains .. drab by comparison with the polychrome towers surrounding it. Streets were narrow, angling oddly. Human-scale homes, offices and storefronts merely fringed the feet of titanic, nonhuman walls".
Lando is wearing his second best clothes with a cummerbund into which he has tucked a tiny, five-shot holdout blaster. He doesn't need a larger weapon because his primary weapon is between his ears, not in his belt. If there is trouble he will more likely fast-talk his way out of it than try to fight.
Finally, he reaches a bar -- the Spaceman's Rest. Lando notices, out of the corner of his eye, that same old man with his broom now sitting in the cantina. A police spy, perhaps? Or a criminal contact? Whoever he is , it seems likely he wants to track the comings and goings from this spaceport.
The mechanical server asks Lando if he's looking for a cargo. Lando declines, and asks where he can find a game of chance .. putting on a deliberate colonial accent. "When in hickville, act hicker than the hicks." City polish scares people away, but anyone with a crooked streak wants to take advantage of a country bumpkin. Lando will play that role to the hilt right up to the point he takes their money.
The droid has learned a thing or two and holds out for a bribe. Lando obliges with an extremely generous tip for the drink he just ordered and, sure enough, there is a game ... "research into probabilities", as it is called here to evade the usual restrictions against gambling. The droid heads out and Lando prepares to wait. It seems his luck is about to change.