precious time

But then he heard a voice, a very distant-sounding voice, fighting its waythrough the crackling noise. "Nice of you guys to drop by. Hope we didn't get youup too early." Zev welcomed the characteristic cynicism in Han Solo's voice. He switched histransmitter back to the hidden Rebel base. "Echo Base, this is Rogue Two," hereported, his voice suddenly rising in pitch. "I found them. Repeat…" As he spoke, the pilot pulled in a fine-tune fix on the signals winking on hiscockpit monitor screens. Then he further reduced the speed of his craft, bringing itdown close enough to the planet's surface so that he could better see a small objectstanding out against the fleecy plains. The object, a portable Rebel-issue shelter, sat atop a snowdrift. On the shelter'swindward side was a hard-packed layer of white. And resting gingerly against theupper part of the snowdrift was a makeshift radio antenna. But a more welcome sight than any of this was the familiar human figure