Star
Wars TALES FROM THE MOS EISLEY CANTINA
by
Kevin J.
Anderson editor
TALES FROM THE MOS EISLEY CANTINA
edited by
Kevin J. Anderson
BANTAM
New York Toronto London Sydney Auckland
TO BILL
SMITH of West
End
Games who has been a wealth of information and ideas, providing the
character
backgrounds and starting points for many of these stories.
Mos Eisley Spaceport. You will never
find a more wretched hive
of scum
and villainy. We must be cautious.
OBI-WAN KENOBI
I'm ready for anything.
--LUKE SKYWALKER
CONTENTS
We Don't Do Weddings:
The Band's Tale
Kathy Tyers
A Hunter's
Fate:
Greedo's Tale
Tom Veitch and Martha Veitch
Hammertong: The Tale of the
"Tonnika Sisters"
Timothy Zahn
Play It Again, Figrin D'an:
The Tale of Muftak and Kabe
A. C. Crispin
The Sand Tender: The Hammerhead's Tale
Dave Wolverton
Be Still My Heart:
The Bartender's Tale
David Bischoff
Nightlily:
The Lovers' Tale
Barbara Hambly
Empire Blues:
The Devaronian's Tale
Daniel Keys Moran
Swapmeet: The Jawa's tale
Kevin J. Anderson
Trade wins: The Ranat's tale
Rebecca Moesta
When the desert wind turns:
The stormtrooper's tale
Doug Beason
Soup's on: The pipesmoker's tale
Jennifer Roberson
At the crossroads: The spacer's tale
Jerry Oltion
Doctor death: The tale of Dr. Evazan
and Ponda Baba
Kenneth C. Flint
Drawing the maps of piece:
The moisture farmer's tale
M. Shayne Bell
One last night in the Mos Eisley Cantina:
The tale of the wolfman and the lamproid
Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens
Contributor's biographies
Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina
We Don't Do Weddings:
The Band's Tale
by Kathy Tyers
Jabba the Hutt's cavernous, smoky Presence
Room stank of spilled
intoxicants
and sweaty body armor.
Guards and henchmen, dancers and bounty
hunters, humans andJawas
and
Weequays and Arcona lay where they'd toppled, crumpled under arches
or piled
in semiprivate cubicles or sprawled in the open. The inner
portcullis
yawned open.
Just another allnighter at Jabba's palace.
That portcullis bothers me~what if we want
to leave in a
hurry?--but
it keeps out the worst of the riffraff.
Let me rephrase that. The worst of the riffraff, Jabba himself,
paid us
well. Crime lord, connoisseur, critic;
his hairless, blotchy
tail
twitched in rhythm when we played. Not
our rhythm. His.
We are Figrin D'an and the Modal Nodes,
members in good standing
of the
Intergalactic Federation of Musicians, and we are-or were
Jabba's
full-time resident entertainers. I've
never spotted his ears,
but
Jabba appreciates a good swing band. He
also likes controlling
credit
and inflicting pain, and he finds either more therapeutic than
our
music.
Huddled on the back of the stage, we put
away our horns while
Jabba's
guests snored. My Fizzz--you symphonic
ridgebrows would call
it a
Dorenian Beshni-quel, but this is jizzmslips into a thin case in
less
time than it takes to roll an Imperial inspector and check his
pockets
for credit vouchers.
We are Bith. Our high hairless craniums manifest a
superior
evolutionary
level, and our mouth folds pucker into a splendid
embouchure
for wind instruments.
We perceive sounds as precisely as other
species perceive color.
Our band leader, Figrin Da'n, was wearily
swabbing his Kloo Horn
(there's
a joke there, but you'd have to speak Bithian to get it).
It's a longer double-reed than my Fizzz,
richer in pastel
harmonics
but not so sweet.
Tedn and Ickabel were arguing over their
Fanfar cases.
Nalan had started disconnecting the horn
bells from his Bandfill,
and
Tech--we look alike to non-Bith, but you might've picked out Tech
by the
glazed gleam in his eyes--sat slumped over his Ommni Box.
Plaster chips from a midnight blaster
skirmish littered the
Ommni's
reception dish. (The Ommni clips our
peaks, attenuates the
lows,
reverbs and amps the total sound.
Playing it takes even a Bith's full
genius. Tech hates Figrin.
Figrin won the Ommni last season in a
sabacc game.)
"Hey, Doikk". Figrin's head glistened. It was going
to be a typical Tatooine scorcher, and
Jabba's temp exchanger
needed
repair.
I cinched down my Fizzz. My Fizzz.
"What?" I had a shot
"lip,"
as
humans call it. I was in no mood for
foolishness.
"Time for a friendly hand of
sabacc?"
"I don't gamble, Figrin."
Figrin brushed the sheen off his head with
one knobby hand.
"You're thermal, Doikk."
And you're compulsive. "All musicians are thermal."
"You're thermal for a musician. Who ever heard of a bander that
didn't
gamble?"
I'm the band's inside outsider, the straight
man. I've carried
that
sweet little Fizzz through six systems.
I peg it when it cracks
and lube
it when the keys click. I carve my own
reeds. I wasn't
betting
it on any sabacc match.
Not even to placate Fiery Figrin Da'n, a
bandleader who criticizes
every
missed note, owns everybody (else) 's instruments, and isn't shy
about
giving orders.
"I don't gamble, Figrin. You know th--" A smoky silhouette rolled
in
through the main arch.
"Figrin," I mouthed, "turn
around. Slowly."
The droid's wasp waist, huge shoulders,
and squared-off head had
scalded
my memory shortly after Jabba gave us our exclusive contract:
his
vintage E522
Assassin.
Eefive-tootoo had saved my neck when one of Jabba's
human
sail-barge tenders accused me of munching out of Jabba's private
snack
tank of live freckled toads. Luckily for
me, Eefive-tootoo gave
me an
alibi. I'd vowed never again to have
more to do with humans than
necessary.
ButJabba'd been hot to feed someone to the
rancor.
Justice would've suggested throwing in my
human accuser, butJabba
and
Justice are not on speaking terms.
They dropped Eefive, liberally smeared
with meat juice, through
the
rancor's trapdoor in front of Jabba's throne.
By the timeJabba's
huge,
slavering mutant spat him out, he was beyond repair.
Or so I'd thought. Was he back for revenge?
He wore no restraining bolt. Rolling around a blaster-scarred
column,
he headed toward us. Frantically I
looked around. Nobody
showed
signs of waking up to rescue us.
The droid raised his upper limbs. Both ended at elbow joints.
Somebody'd disengaged his business parts
--but that didn't leave
him
helpless. Assassin droids carry backup.
"Figrin Da'n?" he asked in a brassy green treble.
"What would you do . . . if you found him?" Figrin sidled closer
to me,
trying to sound colorless. I've never
carried a blaster. I
wished I
had one then, for all the good it would've done.
"Message delivery," honked the
droid. "Do not fear. My
assassination
programming has been erased, and as you can see, my
weapons
are gone. My new employer saved me from
deconstruction by
using me
this way."
"He doesn't remember us," Figrin
whispered in Bithian. "His
memory's
been erased, too."
As I slowed my breathing, my longstanding
attitude about assassin
droids
resurfaced: Never worry about one you can see.
He hadn't fired
before
we spotted him, so we were safe. And
I've always gotten along
better
with droids than with most sentients.
Particularly humans.
But as for stripping Eefive of his
weapons, that would be like .
. . like saving my life by cutting off all
my fingers.
"Who's your new owner?" I asked.
The droid hissed, shushing me with white
noise.
I dropped my voice. "Who?" I repeated sotto voce.
The answer came softly. "Mistress Valarian."
Oh, ho.
Val to her friends, Jabba's chief rival in the spaceport
town of
Mos Eisley, a tusk-mouthed Whiphid recently arrived on
Tatooine. Gambling, weapons running, information for
sale, the usual .
. . but she'd thrived. No wonder she sent a recycled envoy.
Now that I'd processed the lack of
immediate risk, I leaned back
against
the stage. "What does she
want?"
"She wishes to hire your services for
a wedding, to be held in Mos
Eisley
at her Lucky Despot Hotel."
I'd heard of the Lucky Despot. Figrin puckered his lip folds.
"We don't do weddings," we
answered in unison.
Please understand. A wedding gig wastes two days (three days,
with
some species, plus the time it takes to learn new music). You're
treated
like a recording, told to repeat impossible phrases and
lengthen
the usual processional, and ordered to play a final chord as
the
nerve-wracked principals arrive center stage .
. . if they arrive.
Someone always brings a screaming
neo-note.
Then the reception, where they inebriate
themselves until no one
hears a
note. All this for half pay and full
satisfaction: You've
helped
perpetuate a species.
Eefive swiveled his flat head toward
Figrin. Obviously his
recognition
circuits still functioned.
"Mistress Valarian procured a
mate
from her home world," he declared.
Good thing I wasn't drinking. I'd've choked. The only thing
uglier
than a Hutt is a Whiphid. I tried to
imagine another
gargantuan,
rank-furred, yellow-tusked Whiphid arriving on Tatooine.
Valarian had probably promised luxury
accommodations and good
hunting.
Wait'11 he saw Mos Eisley.
The droid continued. "This job is for their reception only.
Mistress Valarian offers your band three
thousand credits.
Transport
and lodging provided, and unlimited meals and drinks during
your
stay.
Also five breaks during the
reception."
Three thousand credits? With my share, I could start my own
band--live
in the finest habitats--Figrin hunched forward.
"Sabacc
tables?" he asked.
Too late, I recovered from my greed
attack. Jabba had given us an
exclusive
contract. He wouldn't like our
performing for Valarian, and
when
Jabba frowns, somebody dies. No,
Figtin.t I thought.
"Except while performing,
certainly," the droid answered.
I buzzed my mouth folds for Figrin's
attention, but his sublime
vision
didn't deal me in. Figrin set down his
deck and commenced
negotiating.
We flew into Mos Eisley during first
twilight, with one of the
suns
dipping behind a dull, murky horizon.
Our cramped little
transport
skimmed through the decaying southern sector, chauffeured by
an
orange service droid. He, like the
former assassin, wore no
restraining
bolt, which predisposed me to like their owner.
Sentient
shadows
slipped into darkening corners as we drove past. The byword in
Mos
Eisley, which looks like a cluster of populated sand dunes, is
camouflage.
If nobody sees you, nobody shoots
you. Or testifies against you
in what
passes for local courts.
Three stories above one of Mos Eisley's
nameless streets, twin
beacons
blinked like ship lamps, and brilliant yellow beams glowed out
of a
wide-open entry hatch. The droid
maneuvered us closer. A long
curving
ramp and straight stairs swooped up from street level' to the
elevated
main entry. Beneath the stairway, I
spotted the hotel's most
notable
feature: three large portholes.
A group of investors crazy enough to sink
their credits on
Tatooine
had towed a beat-up cargo hauler here and sunk a quarter of it
under
the sand. Debris blown in by a recent
dust storm lay clumped
along
its near side, which had been starboard.
Antenna-cluster
wreckage
drooped over what must've been the cockpit.
!
mentally saluted the Lucky Despot with the
spacer's traditional
appraisal
of somebody else's ship: What a piece of junk.
Our speeder settled at the foot of the
long ramp.
"Disembark here, gentles,"
droned the droid.
We unloaded our gear from the airbus's
cargo compartment onto a
repulsor
cart. We'd only brought one change of
clothes and our
performing
outfits, and left the rest of our belongings at Jabba's
palace. Mos Els-ley's odors--ship fuels, rancid food,
1aw-tech
industrial
haze, and the sheer desensitizing smell of hot sand hung in
sullen
air.
Once inside the lobby, we blinked while
our eyes adjusted. An
orange-suited
human security guard slouched at one corner.
No sign of
Lady
Val. Mentally I recategorized her. She might trust droids, but
she
equated musicians with kitchen help.
"This way." Our droid led us past an extremely attractive
froht-desk
person, species unknown to me, whose multifaceted eyes
glistened
prettily. A long, vast room filled a
third of the ex-ship's
top
deck. Reflective black bulkheads and a
shiny black floor enveloped
several
dozen sparsely populated tables, but more than one table
tottered
over damaged legs, and here and there white strips showed
through
the peeling black bulkhead. In here--the
famous Star Chamber
Cafe--we
set up and started a number to get the' room's acoustics.
Early diners clapped, clicked their claws,
or snapped their
mandibles.
Satisfied, we repacked our gear and
grabbed an empty dinner table.
Within minutes, the show began. A comet whizzed past Figrin's
head.
Constellations appeared beneath the
ceiling and reflected in my
soup.
Holographic sabacc spreads flickered into
existence over several
tables. Now I remembered the rest of what I'd heard:
Jabba had made
sure the
Despot never got her gambling license from local Imperial
bribemeis-ters,
so Valarian had to hide her gaming equipment until
dark. Reportedly Jabba warned Lady ¥al of planned
police raids . . .
for a price.
Figrin ate rapidly, pulled out his deck,
and wandered away.
Tonight he would lose. On purpose.
My other comrades joined a
low-stakes
Schickele match.
I found a bored-looking Kubaz security
guard and struck up a
conversation. Kubaz make excellent security staff. Their long
prehensile
noses discern scents the way Bith distinguish pitch and
timbre,
and a Kubaz's greenish-black skin blends into every shadow.
In exchange for my personal stats, which
he probably knew anyway,
and a
mug of mildly intoxicating lum, I found out that the green-caped
Kubaz's
name was Thwim, that he was born on Kubindi, and that Mistress
Valarian's
prospective bridegroom, D'Wopp, was an expert hunter--common
enough
profession on their homeworld.
I also spotted a familiar triangular
face. Not friendly, but
familiar. Kodu Terrafin pilots Jabba's courier run
between palace and
town
house. He's Arcona: Dressed in a
spacer's coverall, he looks like
a
dirt-brown snake with clawed legs and arms and a large, anvil-shaped
head.
I kept up my conversation with Thwim as
Kodu minced from table to
table,
swiveling the anvil head. I watched
sidelong. Abruptly I
spotted
the yellow-green glitter of his eyes.
Immediately he slithered in my
direction. He's got me mixed up
with
another Bith, I thought wearily. Thwim
pushed back, lifting one
edge of
his cape, and made room for Kodu.
"Figrin, ihss it?" The bulbous scent organ between
Kodu's faceted eyes twitched.
"Not quite," I mumbled.
"Oh, Doikk. Hssorry." At least he knew my voice.
"Information for hssale. Want to find Figrin?"
I glanced toward Figrin's glimmering holographic
sabacc table.
Our leader hunched crookedly over his
cards, feigning
intoxication.
Not a good time to interrupt.
(Who made Doikk No'ts the band
manager? I wondered.) Kodu pushed
closer. "I don't want to hsstay," he
hissed. "Do you want to buy?
You'd hbetter." He smiled smugly.
"Ten," I offered. Figrin would cover that, if the news was
worth
hearing. Thwim watched the Uvide wheel
studiously. His prehensile
nose
quivered as a cluster of Jawas hurried by, jabbering rapidly.
"A hhundred," Kodu answered
without hesitation.
Within three minutes we'd settled on
thirty-five. He aligned his
cred
card with mine and we effected the transfer.
"Jabba." Kodu clicked his fingerclaws. "Hess angry."
"Angry?" I glanced around. "Who, this time?
Why?"
"You hsskipped out on your
contract."
My stomachs knotted around each
other. "We got another band to
cover
for us! Not as good as we are,
but--"
"Jabba notissed."
It was the worst compliment
imaginable. Who'd have guessed the
big slug
paid attention? "What'd he
do?"
Kodu shrugged. "Fed two guardss to the rancor and
promissed . .
." He shrugged again, skinny
shoulders rising along his brown
neck.
Promised to pay well if someone hauled us
back to the palace.
Good-bye, IFM retirement home. "Thanks, Kodu." I tried to sound
as if I
meant it. I'd left a sentimental mother
at the bubbling pink
swamps
of Clak'dor VII. She missed her musical
son.
Kodu touched his blaster. "Good-bye, Doikk. Good luck."
Luck.
Right. Either we slipped out of
Jabba's range fast, in
which
case Kodu wouldn't see me again,
or .
. .
I weaseled through the crowd to Figrin's
table. Fortunately,
Figrin
had just lost big-time. A Duro shuffled
the sabacc deck,
scattering
and regathering card-tiles with a deft grav hand. I tugged
Figrin's
collar. "Finish up. Bad news."
He excused himself droopily and
arose. It takes twice as long to
cross a
room when you're looking over your shoulder every other step.
Jabba pays well for mayhem.
We found an empty spot at the bar. "what?" Figrin's eyes seemed
to have
shrunk: spicing already, or faking it well.
I dropped the news on him. "We've got our instruments and two
changes
of clothes," I finished. '
"But I'm losing.
I'm behind."
I flicked my mouth folds. We would also need this gig money to
buy food
till we could get another job--or Jabba recovered from his
temper. I explained that to Figrin.
Barlight reflections wobbled back and
forth on his
head as he shook it. "We'll get off planet," he said.
"What about your . . . stash, back atJabba's?"
"Nothing irreplaceable. We'll leave tomorrow afternoon, after the
wedding. I'm ready for bigger crowds again."
I agreed.
"Even if gigs aren't so regular, out there in the
competition." We've always had a following, but you .can't
eat
"esoteric."
"Richer tables, too," he added,
gilding his voice.
"Somebody'd better stay awake
tonight. Did I hear you volunteer?"
So the spicing act was just that . . . an act.
"I'll take the
first
shift," I said.
Our band set up bleary-eyed the next
morning in the Star Chamber
Cafe. After breakfast, wedding guests started
prancing, oozing, and
staggering
into the Lucky Despot's lounge. Waiting
in the cafe, we
tuned. I tried to imagine a Whiphid wedd)ng (Did
they osculate, lock
tusks,
or shout battle cries at the climactic moment?). I'd spotted
two
turbolifts, a kitchen entry, the main entry, and a small circular
hatch
that must've once been an emergency airlock.
My caped,
long-snouted
friend Thwim staunchly held up one end of the bar. Around
ten
banqueting tables, Lady Val's staff laid out food, programmed
bartend
droids, and hung garlands, making the Star Chamber as classy as
it could
be, given its state of disrepair.
Beyond the big tables lay a dozen little
ones. I could almost
feel
Figrin's mouth folds twitch, anticipating a wealthy crowd in the
mood to
celebrate.
A red-'raucous cheer erupted in the
lounge. "They must be
married,"
Figrin mumbled. Beings streamed out into
the cafe. Figrin
swung
into our opening number.
Before we finished, I'd started to sweat
. . . and not from the
heat. Several of Jabba's toughs had ridden the wave
of that stream
into the
cafe. Were they invited guests? Or hadJabba set us up a
one-way
trip to the Great Pit of Carkoon?
One more time, I looked around at
Valadan's security.
Eefive-tootoo stood beside her back hatch,
gleaming new blasters
and
needlers retrofitted for the occasion .
. . and a shiny new
restraining
bolt dead center on his massive chest.
Evidently she only
trusted
droids so far.
A young human tottered up to our stage,
wearing clean, unpatched
clothing
and a slouch. "Play 'Tears of
Aquanna.'" He tugged Figrin's
pant leg
where it gathered above his boot. Figrin
pulled his leg free.
The human repeated his request, then
headed toward me.
I didn't want my pants stretched. "Got it," I said toward him,
then
took a fast breath and hit my E flat entrance.
How were we to know that a local gang had
adopted one of our
numbers
as their official song? The slouch and
several friends huddled
at the
foot of our stage and caterwauled lyrics they'd obviously
invented.
Several other humans lurched toward the
stage, glaring.
I elbowed Figrin. He took an unorthodox cut to the coda. We
finished
playing before the gang finished singing. Several of them
glowered.
One newcomer, a darkly tanned female,
shoved a nonsinging
bystander
aside. "Now play 'Worm Case,'"
she growled in a voice that
matched
the shade of her skin. "For Fixer
and Camie."
"Got it," said Figrin. I have a six-bar intro into "Worm
Case."
I cut it to four.
When you've played a piece six hundred
times from memory, you lose
track of
where you are during the six hundred and first.
This time
through,
it became a crazy game of cut-and-patch.
I don't remember
having
so much fun with that moldy jump tune.
This group didn't try to
sing.
Thwim and another security guard
accompanied both gangs away. I
rechecked
Jabba's toughs. They'd gathered near the
bar, just killing
time
. . . for now.
At
the end of that set, Figrin headed for a sabacc or Jabba
recovered
from his temper. I explained that to
Figrin.
Barlight reflections wobbled back and
forth on his
head as he shook it. "We'll get off planet," he said.
"What about your . . . stash, back at Jabba's?"
"Nothing irreplaceable. We'll leave tomorrow afternoon, after the
wedding. I'm ready for bigger crowds again."
I agreed.
"Even if gigs aren't so regular, out there in the
competition." We've always had a following, but you can't
eat
"esoteric."
"Richer tables, too," he added,
gilding his voice.
"Somebody'd better stay awake
tonight. Did I hear you volunteer?"
So the spicing act was just that . . . an act.
"I'll take the
first
shift," I said.
Our band set up bleary-eyed the next
morning in the Star Chamber
Cafe. After breakfast, wedding guests started
prancing, oozing, and
staggering
into the Lucky Despot's lounge. Waiting
in the cafe, we
tuned. I tried to imagine a Whiphid wedd)ng (Did
they osculate, lock
tusks,
or shout battle cries at the climactic moment?). I'd spotted
two
turbolifts, a kitchen entry, the main entry, and a small circular
hatch
that must've once been an emergency airlock.
My caped,
long-snouted
friend Thwim staunchly held up one end of the bar. Around
ten
banqueting tables, Lady Val's staff laid out food, programmed
bartend
droids, and hung garlands, making the Star Chamber as classy as
it could
be, given its state of disrepair.
Beyond the big tables lay a dozen little
ones. I could almost
feel
Figrin's mouth folds twitch, anticipating a wealthy crowd in the
mood to
celebrate.
A red-'raucous cheer erupted in the
lounge. "They must be
married,"
Figrin mumbled. Beings streamed out into
the cafe. Figrin
swung
into our opening number.
Before we finished, I'd started to sweat
. . . and not from the
heat. Several of Jabba's toughs had ridden the wave
of that stream
into the
cafe. Were they invited guests? Or hadJabba set us up a
one-way
trip to the Great Pit of Carkoon?
One more time, I looked around at
Valarian's security.
Eefive-tootoo stood beside her back hatch,
gleaming new blasters
and
needlers retrofitted for the occasion .
. . and a shiny new
restraining
bolt dead center on his massive chest.
Evidently she only
trusted
droids so far.
A young human tottered up to our stage,
wearing clean, unpatched
clothing
and a slouch. "Play 'Tears of
Aquanna.'" He tugged Figrin's
pant leg
where it gathered above his boot. Figrin
pulled his leg free.
The human repeated his request, then
headed toward me.
I didn't want my pants stretched. "Got it," I said toward him,
then
took a fast breath and hit my E flat entrance.
How were we to know that a local gang had
adopted one of our
numbers
as their official song? The slouch and
several friends huddled
at the
foot of our stage and caterwauled lyrics they'd obviously
invented.
Several other humans lurched toward the
stage, glaring.
I elbowed Figrin. He took an unorthodox cut to the coda. We
finished
playing before the gang finished singing.
Several of them
glowered.
One newcomer, a darkly tanned female,
shoved a nonsinging
bystander
aside. "Now play 'Worm Case,'"
she growled in a voice that
matched
the shade of her skin. "For Fixer
and Camie."
"Got it," said Figrin. I have a six-bar intro into "Worm
Case."
I cut it to four.
When you've played a piece six hundred
times from memory, you lose
track of
where you are during the six hundred and first.
This time
through,
it became a crazy game of cut-and-patch.
I don't remember
having
so much fun with that moldy jump tune.
This group didn't try to
sing.
Thwim and another security guard
accompanied both gangs away. I
rechecked
Jabba's toughs. They'd gathered near the
bar, just killing
time
. . . for now.
At the end of that set, Figrin headed for
a sabacc table. I
lingered
onstage, up out of the congealing smokes and odors.
One of the ugliest humans I'd ever met,
with a diagonal sneer for
a mouth,
sauntered over carrying two mugs.
"You dry?" he asked in
a
surly
black tone. "This one'slum, that
one's wedding punch."
"Thanks." Despite my distaste, I seized the mug of
punch and put
down
half of it.
"You're welcome." My plug-ugly sat down on one edge of the
reflective
bandstand, then stared out over the crowd.
Not wanting to
turn his
back. Probably a native. i wondered if he'd consider it
polite
to ask his name, or if he'd take a swing at me.
"Good band," he
muttered. "What're you doing on Tatooine?"I
set down my mug beside the
Ommni. "Good question," I said
stiffly. "We've played the best
palladiums
in six systems."
"I believe it. You're excellent. But you haven't answered my
question."
I began to warm toward him. "You're looking at it."
I nodded down toward Figrin's gaming
table. "We were passing
through
and got stuck. You work around
here?"
"Yah." Sounding blue-gray, he picked up my mug.
"I tend bar up the street. Rough living, but somebody's gotta
keep the
droids from taking over."
I hissed softly in a range humans find
inaudible.
Droids improve life. I was getting ready to remind him when he
said
"Keep your reed wet, my friend," and hustled away.
Was he one of the rare, approachable
types? Had that been a
warning? I looked for Thwim by his green cape and
twitching snout, but
I
couldn't spot either.
Soon Figrin rejoined us on the
bandstand. "Losing?"
I murmured as he plugged in his horn.
"Naturally. Give me an A." We swung back to work.
At the table just below us, something
changed hands with
infinitesimal,
micron-per-minute movements: a normal Mos Eisley
business
deal.
Something else---something hugelumbered
into
view.
Two gargantuan Whiphids--two and a half meters of tusk and
claw and
pale yellow fur, lashed together with a garland of imported
greenery--danced
toward our stage with their long furry arms draped
around
each other. I stood on a platform, but
their heads towered over
mine.
D'Wopp stared rapturously into the broad,
leathery, tusk-bottomed
face of
his bride. Without seeing the
surreptitious traders already
occupying
the closest table, the Despot's owner and her professional
hunter
sank onto empty chairs. They started
untwisting greenery .
I held my head at an angle that made it
look as if I were staring
out over
the dance floor, but actually, I was watching one of Jabba's
toughs,
an anemic, gray-skinned Duro, glide in our direction . . .
alone.
A trio of Pappfaks twirled past, entwining
their turquoise
tentacles
in something that looked like a prenuptial embrace of their
own. They nearly tripped over a mouse droid
wheeling toward Lady Val.
Seeing the droid, our hostess bride
excused herself from D'Wopp
with a
fond pat of his lumpy head. She followed
the droid toward her
kitchens.
The Duro's red eyes lit. He edged along the dance floor,
approached
D'Wopp, paused, and bowed. "Goo-ood
hunting, Whiphid?"
Jabba's Duro shouted, gargling through
rubbery lips. He extended
a thin,
knobby hand.
D'Wopp's massive paw closed on the Duro's
arm, dangling a ribbon
of
leaves. "Explain that remark, Duro,
or I shall serve your roasted
ribs to
my lady for breakfast."
"No-o, no-o." The Duro rocked his head, cringing.
"I do not signify your lo-ovely
mate. I am addressing D'Wopp,
bounty
hunter of great r-repute, am I not?"
Placated, D'Wopp released the gray
arm. "I am he."
He tilted his head back. "Is there someone you want splashed,
Duro?"
I breathed a little easier, too. Playing by memory
means occasional boredom and backflashes,
but sometimes it saves
your
neck. I kept listening and playing.
"Has the lovely hr-ride offered any game yet?" asked the Duro.
D'Wopp flicked one tusk with a
foreclaw. "What is your
point?"
I strained to hear the Duro answer. "There is a bigger-r boss on
Tatooine,
excellent one. Lady Valarian pays him
protection money. A
Whiphid
who truly enjoys the hunt doesn't settle for small bait. My
employer
just offered a r-record bounty. You're
probably not looking
for work
at the moment, but opportunities like this come r-rarely."
So the toughs were baiting Lady Val
through her bridegroom--and
not
us! Goggle-eyed, I hit a string of
offbeats and reminded myself
that
Jabba had plenty of time to come for us.
D'Wopp clenched his paws over the
table. "Bounty?
Is it a fierce bait?"
The Duro shrugged. "His name is Solo. Small-time smuggler-r, but
he made
the boss big-time mad. Jabba has man-ny
more enemies than Lady
Valarian
has, reputable D'Wopp." The Duro's
red eyes blinked. "May I
sponsor-r
you to the mightyJabba?"
The Whiphid's leathery nose twitched. "Record bounty?"
At last the Duro dropped his voice. I missed the numbers that
clinched
the deal, but D'Wopp sprang up.
"Tell your employer that
D'Wopp
will bring in the corpse. I shall meet
him then."
Solo .
. . Figrin had mentioned him as a tolerable sabacc player,
for a
human. Now he was my fellow bait on
Jabba's short. list. The
Duro
whined, "Ar-rent you staying for the celebration?"
"Later," said D'Wopp. "My mate and I shall celebrate my
glorious
return. She is Whiphid. She will understand."
Lady Val reappeared out of the crowd. Jabba's Duro melted back
into it
like an ice cube on a sand dune. I held
my breath. Figrin
counted
off another song, one I didn't know so well.
I had to
concentrate. Something rumbled at the foot of the
stage. A deep voice
shouted
"fickle" in Basic. A gruffer
one called "dishonorable."
My reed squeaked. Two bellows boomed out in an unidentifiable
language. Our loving couple attacked each other tusk
and claw, right
below
the bandstand. I stepped back and almost
tripped over Tech's
Ommni.
Figrin missed tipping the Fanfar by
millimeters.
A crowd gathered instantly. Mos Eisley being what it is, and with
Jabba's
brutes cheerleading, this brawl would spread like a sandstorm.
I took advantage of a five-beat rest and
blurted out the danger
signal.
"Sundown.
Sundown, Figrin."
"I'm still losing," Figrin
hissed. "We can't leave yet."
At the foot of stage left, Lady Val
careened sideways into a knot
of
onlookers. Regaining her balance, she
dragged three of them back
into the
multicolored melee.
D'Wopp whistled twice. Two young Whiphids charged in. Jabba's
toughs
stampeded their side of the onlookers from behind. Lady Val
shrieked. Every off-planet gangster in town, and every
passerby who'd
had too
much of Jabba, rushed in on Lady Val's side.
Chairs flew. One
crashed
into the bulkhead, offstage left.
Figrin bent over the Ommni. "End of set, thank you very much,"
he
announced
vainly over the bedlam.
Tech, wide awake for once, broke down the
Ommni. I couldn't find
my Fizzz
case. Glancing frantically around, I
spotted white armor at
the
grand entry.
Stormtroopers? Not even Valarian could've called in
Enforcement
that
quickly! All sabacc projectors shut down
simultaneously, but the
gang at
the uvide table got caught with its wheel spinning. Just this
once, I
guessed, Jabba hadn't tipped off Lady Val.
I'd've even bet
that he
sent the stormtroopers himself, but I don't gamble.
"Back door!" Figrin leaped off one end of the stage,
barely
missing
a bulky human's murderous backswing.
We followed Figrin along the bulkhead,
clutching our
instruments--our
livelihood. I spotted my new friend
Thwim bashing
heads. "Help us! We're unarmed!" I shouted.
His nose swiveled toward us. He leveled his blaster into the
midst of
us and fired. Tedn shrieked and dropped
his Fanfar case.
Appalled, I ducked. "Get the instruments!" Figrin cried.
Nalan
dove
into a scrum and emerged carrying one arm at an odd angle--and two
Fanfar
cases, I grabbed Tedn's unwounded arm and pulled him closer to
the
hatch, mentally promising anything and everything to any deity
listening,
if only I could escape with my fingers unbroken and my
un-cased
Fizzz undamaged.
Eefive stood his post, calmly blasting
every being that approached
him. Figrin stopped running so suddenly that Tech
almost bowled him
over.
I glanced back over my shoulder. No use heading that way.
Imperial and unlicensed weapons popped off
all over the Star
Chamber
Cafe.
Well, I reminded myself, I've always had
better relations with
droids
than with sentients. I marched straight
toward Eefive.
"Doikk!" Figrin cried.
"Get back here! Get
awayre" Eefive
didn't
shoot. Just as I'd figured, he still had
us on his recognition
circuits. "Let us out," I pleaded.
Something whizzed over my head from
behind.
"Shut the hatch behind you," he
honked.
"Go!" I shouted at Figrin, motioning him past me.
Figrin ducked under my arm and cranked the
hatch open. I stood
rearguard. As daylight appeared through the hatch,
beings of all
shapes
and sizes charged at it. I spotted the
slash-mouthed human
bartender
among them.
I hesitated. If nothing else, I owed him for a sweet mug
of
punch. "Come on!" I shouted, then I ordered Eefive, "Don't
shoot that
human."
Eefive may have recognized me, but he
didn't take my orders. He
pointed
his needler straight at the bartender.
Plug-ugly dropped to the floor,
surprisingly agile for such a big
human. "High register," he cried.
"Do a slide!"
It sounded crazy, but I raised my uncased
Fizzz and let out a
squeal,
pushing it higher with all the breath I could muster.
Somewhere along the squeal, I must've hit
the control frequency
for that
brand-new restraining bolt. The droid
shut down.
The barman sprang up and rushed past
me. We squeezed into the
airlock
together. "Stinkin' droids,"
he muttered, wiping blood off his
nose. "Stinkin', lousy droids."
I emerged on a narrow duracrete ledge,
three stories up. The
bartender
leaned back, sandwiching my Fizzz between his gray-belted
bulk and
a pitted bulkhead.
"Careful! That's my horn!" I cried, teetering as I glanced down.
Figrin jumped off the foot of a
precipitous steel escape ladder
and
dashed away, dodging filth and leaping sandpiles.
An anvil-shaped Arcona head poked out the
airlock.
Clutching my Fizzz in one hand, I backed
down the ladder. The
human
almost stomped my head in his hurry.
"Come on," he grumbled.
"Move." The ladder swayed from his weight. I barely held on,
wishing
I'd never met the guy. As more escapees
piled on, the ladder's
sway
became a terrifying oscillation.
I kept dropping. Once down, I spotted another half-dozen
stormtroopers
trotting up the main ramp in for-marion.
Another hot morning in Mos Eisley.
Ignoring the trickle of escapees behind
us, we ran.
"Now what?" wailed Nalan, cradling his arm against his
chest.
"Without the credits from that job,
how are we going to get off
planet?"
"Three thousand credits," Tech
moaned, wagging his large, shiny
head. "Three thousand credits."
! glanced down to examine my Fizzz. It looked undamaged.
"Not only that, but Figrin gambled
away our reserves, seeding the
table so
he'd win today. Didn't you,
Figrin?"
The barman changed directions without even
slowing down, and I
almost
got left. "This way," he
called.
STAR ~VARS ~- 18
"We can't pay you for a bolt
hole." I hustled to catch up.
"Thanks,- but we're broke."
"This way," he repeated. "I'11 get you a job."
He led us up street and down alley. I followed, thinking, I'll do
anything--shovel
sand, polish bantim saddles but I won't work for
humans.
But his boss wasn't human. The cantina owner, a beige and gray
Wookiee
named Chalmun, offered us a two-season contract.
No, I thought across the Wookiee's office
at Figrin.
It's too public, and that's too long. Jabba will find us for
sure.
"Sounds good," Figrin
answered. In Bithian, he added,
"Once we
find a
way offworld, the Wookiee can keep our severance pay. Say yes."
I almost walked back down the back stairs,
but loyalty is loyalty.
We found crash space at Ruillia's
Insulated Rooms.
We emerge daily to play in the cantina
where my only human friend,
Wuher,
tends bar. Solo beat Figrin at sabacc
yesterday, so he's still
alive,
but D'Wopp was shipped home in pieces.
Lady Val is single again
and
looks to stay that way.
And every time we tune up, I check the
crowd. Just now, I spotted
Jabba's
swivel-eared green Rodian . . .
Greedo.
He's not bright, but he's armed.
I'm watching him.
A Hunter's Fate: Greedo's Tale by Tom
¥eitch and Martha ¥eitch I.
The
Refuge
"Oona goota, Greedo?"
The question, spoken fearfully, was
answered by the mocking cries
of
luminous ho-toads hidden in the mountain cave in the dripping green
jungle. Pqweeduk scratched the insect bite on his
tapirlike snout and
made a
brave hooting noise. He listened as the
sound echoed with the
wind in
the dark hole that had swallowed his older brother.
Pqweeduk's spiny back shivered. He flicked on his hand-torch and
the
suckers of his right hand fastened tightly to the shiny hunting
knife
Uncle Nok had given him for his twelfth birthday.
Pqweeduk stepped into the yawning cave.
But the cave in the jungle was not a cave,
and a few meters in,
the
rocks and packed earth ended at an open steel door!
Pqweeduk leaned through the rectangular
opening and flashed his
torch
upward. He was in a dome that filled the
inside of the mountain.
The young Rodian saw three great silvery
ships squatting silently
in the
vastness.
"Greedo?"
"Nthan kwe kutha, PqweedukV' That was
his brother's voice.
Pqweeduk saw Greedo's hand-torch signaling
and he walked toward
it.
His bare feet felt a smooth cold floor.
Greedo stood in the open hatch of one of
the big ships. "Come on,
Pqweeduk! There's nothing to be afraid of! Come on inside and check
it
out!"
Their bulbous multifaceted eyes, already
large, grew even larger
as the
two green youths explored the interior of the silver vessel.
Everywhere were strange and unfamiliar
metallic shapes that
glittered
and flashed in torchlight or presented dark angular
silhouettes
full of hidden purpose. But there were also
places to sit,
and beds
to lie on, and dishes to eat from.
Greedo had a funny feeling he'd been here
before.
But it was only a feeling, without any
memories attached.
Indeed, the only memories he possessed
were of life in the green
jungle
where his mother harvested Tendril nuts and his uncles herded
the
arboreal Tree-Botts for milk and meat.
About two hundred Rodians
lived
together under the grand Tendril trees.
They had always lived
here,
this was the only life he knew, and all his fifteen years Greedo
and his
younger brother had run wild in the forest.
The Rodians had no enemies in this place,
except for the
occasional
Manka cat, wandering through on its way to the distant white
mountains
during Manka mating season.
The younger Rodians stayed close to home
during that part of the
year. The Mankas' savage roaring warned everyone of
their coming, and
the
RodJan men would take weapons out of secret keeping places, and
stand
guard at the edge of the village, waiting for the Mankas to pass
in the
night.
During Manka season, Greedo would hear the
guns scream, as he lay
in bed,
unable to sleep. The next morning the
carcass of a big Manka
would be
hanging for all to see, from cross-trees in the village
center.
Except for the Manka-killing, the Rodians led
a quiet
self-contained
existence. The Olders never spoke of any
other life at
least
not in front of the children. But Greedo
overheard them, when
they
thought he was asleep, talk of things happening out among the
stars.
He heard the Olders use words like
"Empire," "the clan wars,"
"bounty
hunters," "starships," "Jedi Knights,"
"hyperspace." These
words
made strange images in his mind--he couldn't make sense of them
at all,
because the only life he knew was the jungle, the trees, the
water,
and endless days of play.
But the Olders' secret talk filled him
with feelings of
unexplainable
longing. Somehow he knew that he didn't
belong to this
green
world. He belonged somewhere else, out
among the stars.
The silver ships were the proof. He knew with uncanny certainty
that
these were the "starships" he had heard his mother and uncles
speak
about. Surely his mother would tell him
why the ships were
hidden
under the mountain.
Pqweeduk isn't old enough to know . . . but I am.
Greedo's mother, Neela, was sitting on the
ground in front of
their
hut, by firelight, peeling Tendril nuts.
Her hands moved rapidly, slitting the
thick husks with a bone
knife
and peeling them back. She hooted
quietly to herself as she
worked.
Greedo crouched nearby, carving a piece of
white Tendril wood into
the
shape of a silver starship. When the
ship was finished he held it
up and
admired it, making sure his mother could see it. "Mother," he
asked
abruptly, "when are you going to teach me about the silver ships
in the
mountain?"
The rapid movement of his mother's hands
stopped.
Without looking at her son, she spoke, in
a voice that betrayed
emotion. "You found the ships," she said.
"Yes, Mother. Pqweeduk and me--" "I told Nok to
fill in the
opening
in the mountain.
But Nok loves the past too much. He's always sneaking up there to
look at
the ships." She sighed and resumed
peeling the leathery skins
off the big
nuts.
Greedo moved closer to her. He sensed that she was ready to tell
him
things he wanted to know . . . things he
needed to know. "Mother,
please
tell me about the ships."
Her moist faceted eyes met his. "The ships . . .
brought us to this place . . . this world . . . two years after
you were
born, Greedo."
"Wasn't I born here . . . in the jungle?"
"You were born out.there"--she
pointed at the evening sky, visible
through
the tall Tendril trees, where the first stars were
appearingm"on
the world of our people, the planet Rodia.
There was
much
killing then.
Your father was killed, while I was
carrying your
brother.
We had to leave . . . or
die."
"I don't understand."
She sighed. She saw she would have to tell him
everything.
Or almost everything. He was old enough now to know the facts.
"Our people, the Rodians, were always
hunters and fighters. The
love of
death was strong in us. Many years ago,
when the meat-game was
gone, we
learned to raise all our food. But our
people began to hunt
each
other, for sport."
"They . . . killed each other?"
"Yes, for sport. For deadly sport. Some Rodians thought it was
foolishness,
and refused to participate.
Your father was one of those. A great bounty hunter was he . . .
but he refused to join the foolish
gladiator hunts."
"What is a bounty hunter,
Mother?" Greedo felt a chill in his
spine,
waiting for the answer.
"Your father hunted criminals and outlaws
. . . or people with a
price on
their heads. He was highly bon ored for
his skills. He made
us very
wealthy."
"Is that why he died?"
"No.
An evil clan leader, Navik the Red, named for the red
birthmark
that covers his face, used the gladiator games as an excuse
to make
war on the other clan leaders. Your
father was murdered. Our
wealth
was taken, and our clan, the Tetsus, were nearly wiped out.
"Fortunately, some of us were able to
escape the killing, in the
three
silver ships you've found."
"Why did you never tell Pqweeduk and
me about the ships . . . and
about
our people?"
"We have changed. There was no need to dredge up the dark past.
We have become peaceful here. The guns are only brought out when
the
Manka cats are prowling. We made a vow,
in our council, that the
children
should not know of the terrible past, until they were full
grown. I am breaking that vow now, in telling you
these things. But
you are
. . . almost as tall as your father now."
His mother's eyes seemed to envelop
Greedo. He loved the way she
looked
at him. Her skin exuded a pleasing
perfume, a strong Rodian
scent. He gazed at her wonderingly. Suddenly there was so much more
to
know. He wanted desperately to learn...
everything.
"What is the Empire, Mother?"
She frowned and wrinkled her long flexible
snout.
"I've told you enough, Greedo. On another day perhaps I will
answer
all your questions. Go to bed now, my
son."
"Yes, Mother." Greedo touched his hand suckers to his
mother's in
the
traditional all-purpose greeting and good night. He went to his
straw-filled
bed in their little hut, where his brother was already
asleep.
Greedo lay for hours, thinking of silver
ships, of his father the
bounty
hunter . . . and the greatness of life
among the stars.
2. Red Navil~
A month and a day after Greedo and
Pqweeduk found the silver sky
ships,
Navik the Red, leader of the powerful Chattza clan, found the
Tetsus.
Greedo and his brother were climbing high
in the Tendril trees
when
they saw a bright flash in the sky.
They watched with quiet curiosity as the
flash flowered and became
a
glittering red shape that grew larger and larger, until they could
see it
was a sky ship, twenty times larger than the small silver ships
in the
cave.
Anxious voices called from below. Greedo hooted with excitement
and
began to slide rapidly down the smooth tree, uging his suckers to
skillfully
brake his descent. His brother was right
behind him.
Below they could see the people coming out
of their huts and
pointing
at the big sky ship. Uncle Nok and Uncle
Teeko and others
were
running to get the weapons.
Greedo sensed their fear.
"C'mon, Pqweeduk!" Greedo shouted, as his feet hit the ground.
"We have to save Mother! We can't let them kill her!"
"What are you talking about,
Greedo? Nobody's killing anybody!"
Pqweeduk dropped to the ground and
obediently followed his older
brother.
As they ran through the trees, the red
ship swooped lower,
uncoiled
its landing gear, and settled in a cloud of fiery smoke at the
edge of
the village.
Twin hatches hissed open. Greedo stopped and turned and gaped in
awe as
armored Rodian warriors poured out of the giant ship--hundreds
of them,
each wearing bright segmented armor and each carrying a
vicious-looking
blaster rifle.
The sight of these killers transfixed the
young Rodian. It was a
full
minute before he felt his brother tugging fearfully at his sleeve.
And then he heard his mother's voice,
urging him to run. The last
thing
Greedo saw, before he turned his face to the forest, was the
figure
of a tall, imposing Rodian with a bloodred mark that stained
most of
his face. The marked warrior shouted an
order, and the others
raised
their weapons.
The scream of laser fire mixed with the
dying shrieks of the
people,
as Greedo and his brother and mother fled into the jungle.
Uncle Nok and Uncle Teeku and twenty
others made it to the cave
ahead of
them. There was a great grinding noise
and the roar of a
landslide,
as the top of the mountain opened, throwing off its burden
of earth
and stones.
Greedo caught his breath as the three
silver ships gleamed in the
light of
the midday sun. Powerful engines already
whined awake.
Uncle Nok greeted Greedo's mother as he
urged everyone to get
aboard
as fast as possible. "Neela now you
know why I was always
visiting
the ships! I was keeping them in repair
for this very day!"
Greedo's mother hugged her brother Nok and
thanked him. Then they
all
rushed aboard, followed by a stream of refugees coming out of the
forest.
Two of the silver ships lifted easily on
columns of repulsor
energy,
their fission-thrust engines whining up so high that the sound
vanished
beyond the range of Greedo's hearing. The
third ship was
waiting
for the last stragglers . . . the last
survivors of the
massacre.
A portly Manka hunter named Skee charged
out of the forest,
screaming
that everyone behind him was dead--"Leave!
Take the ships
away,
while you still have a chance!"
The third ship never got its hatch
closed. A single bolt of ion
energy
fused its stabilizers into a molten mass, and a split second
later a
powerful laser blast blew the power core.
As the first two ships shot skyward, a
bright sphere of fusion
fire
blasted back the jungle, mocking the midday sun. The third ship
was no
more.
Greedo never heard the explosion. He was in the cockpit of The
Rodian,
gawking at the starlines, as Uncle Nok's silver ship vaulted
into the
unknown.
3. Not Shaddaa
Planning for this emergency, Nok had
programmed the Rodian ships
to jump
to a heavily trafficked region of the galaxy, where the
survivors
of his little tribe could lose themselves among the myriad
alien
races engaged in interstellar commerce.
So it was they came to Nar Shaddaa, a
spaceport moon orbiting Nal
Hutta,
one of the principal worlds inhabited by the wormlike Hutts.
There was a continual buzz of space
traffic between Nar Shaddaa
and the
far-flung systems of the galaxy: mighty transgalactic
transports
and bulk cargo vessels, the garish yachts and caravels of
the Hutt
ganglords, the battle-scarred corsairs of the mercenaries and
bounty
hunters, the pirate brigantines, and even the occasional
commercial
passenger liner, packet starjam-mer, or massive migration
arks. And, of course, the ever-present star
cruisers and sleek patrol
vessels
of the Imperial Navy.
The surface of Nar Shaddaa was an
interlocking grid of miles-high
cities
and docking stations, built up over thousands of years. Level
upon
level of freight depots and warehouse and repair facilities were
linked
by gaudy old thoroughfares that spanned the globe, bridging
canyons
that reached from the upper strata, swarming with life, to the
glowing
depths where several forms of subspecies thrived on the refuse
that
fell continuously from the towering heights.
Greedo and his brother and mother and all
the pilgrims on those
two
silver ships came to Nar Shaddaa, merging with the life of the
great
spaceport moon, finding a home in the huge sector controlled by
Corel-lion
smugglers.
The Corellians kept things reasonably
under control in their part
of the
moon. Gambling was an important source
of income for them. All
races
were invited to wander the brightly lit avenues and gawk and eat
and
drink and throw away money in the sabacc joints. A gun duel or a
bounty
killing now and then was to be expected, and petty thievery was
largely
overlooked.
But there was an unwritten law in the
Corellian Sector, enforced
by Port
Control: If you want to make big trouble, do it somewhere else.
The Rodian refugees merged with the
denizens of the dingy
warehouse
districts on Level 88. Over the next
months they found work
as
freight handlers and house servants, and went about their lives.
Nok ordered everyone to stay away from the
public levels, the
thoroughfares,
and the casinos, on the chance they'd be recognized by a
Chattza
hunter. Nok assured them their stay on
Nar Shaddaa was a
temporary
one, until he could locate another jungle world where they
could
dwell in peace.
For the adult Rodians it was not a happy
time--they deeply missed
the lush
green world they had left behind.
But for Greedo and Pqweeduk, a whole
universe of excitement began
to
reveal itself.
Four years later Greedo's people were
still on Nar Shaddaa,
working
and surviving. Greedo was nineteen, his
brother was sixteen.
The green youths had merged with the
boundless spectacle of the
Galaxy.
4. Bounfy Hunfers
"Jacta mn chee yja, Greedo!"
Greedo leaped back as three repulsor bikes
whipped past, jumped a
broken
retaining wall, and disappeared into one of the crowded
concourses
that had been declared off-limits by Uncle Nok.
He watched his brother and friends swerve
their bikes among the
landspeeders,
antique wheeled cabs, Hutt floaters, skillfully dodging
the
strolling gamblers, alien pirates, spice traders, street hawkers,
ragtag
homeless . . . and bounty hunters.
"Grow up, Pqweeduk!" Greedo slouched against a wall, waiting for
his
friend Anky Fremp, a Siona Skup biomorph who had taught him the
secrets
of the street.
Greedo, on the edge of adulthood, had left
the games of childhood
behind. He'd traded his repulsor bike for a fine pair
of boots. He
had
stolen a precious rancor-skin jacket. He
had learned how to strip
therm
pumps and shield regulators off Hutt floaters while the local
crimelords
were lounging in the Corellian bathhouses, making deals with
their
interstellar counterparts.
Anky Fremp had shown Greedo the ins and
outs of the black
market--who
paid the most for stolen hardware . . .
and who had the
best
price on glitterstim, skin jackets, and Yerk music cubes.
Fremp and Greedo were a team, and had been
a team for two years.
Pqweeduk was still a dumb kid, playing
mindless street games with
his
pals.
"Ska chusko, Pqweeduk!" Grow up, Pqweeduk!
While he waited for Fremp, Greedo watched
the street.
Every kind of life, human and alien,
passed through Nar Shaddaa.
Maybe half were legitimate traders and
freight haulers, working
for one
or another of the great transgalactic corporations. The rest
were
operating somewhere beyond the outer edges of the law.
One group that fascinated Greedo didn't
seem to be chasing gold
and
excitement, and you almost never saw them on the street. They were
the
so-called Rebels, political outsiders who had taken a stand against
the
despotic rule of Emperor Palpatine and his cruel military dictator,
Darth
Vader.
There were Rebels on this spaceport
moon--Greedo knew. They hid
out in
an old warehouse on Level 88, the same level where the Rodian
refugees
lived. The Rebels were stashing all
kinds of weapons
there--weapons
that arrived hidden in exotic cargos of precious metals
and
spice . . . and left in the darkest
hours of the night, on
blockade
runner ships destined for.far-flung outposts among the stars.
I'll bet the Empire would pay a lot to
know what the Rebels are
doing on
Nar Shaddaa. But how would I give the
Imps that information ?
I don't know anybody who works for the
Empire.
Just then Greedo heard the shrill sting of
laser shots and he
instinctively
ducked, crouching down behind the crumbling retaining
wall his
brother had repulsor-jumped a few minutes before.
Peering carefully. over the top of the wall, he saw a man in the
distinctive
green uniform of an Imperial spice inspector emerge from
the
shadows and run through the crowded thoroughfare. More laser shots
echoed,
and the crowd began to rapidly disperse into the surrounding
alleys
and gambling saloons.
Greedo saw bright bolts of energy smashing
off buildings and
vehicles. The running man was hit and went down, not
three meters from
Greedo's
hiding place.
Two imposing figures stepped out of the
shadows onto the brightly
lit
concourse. With deliberate steps they
approached the fallen man.
The larger of the two figures, who was
dressed in a rusted
skull-shaped
helmet and full Ithullan armor, nudged the victim with his
boot. "He's dead, Goa."
The shorter figure bent over to inspect
the victim, and Greedo got
a
glimpse of a mottled brown wide-beaked face squatting on a
disarrangement
of leather and iron and bandoleers. "Too
bad, Dyyz,"
said the
short one. "I only tried to wing
him. He was worth twice as
much
alive."
Bounty hunters, thought Greedo. They've taken their prey . . .
now they'll be collecting the reward. I'll bet it's a lot. I'll
bet
they're rich.
The big one, whom the other called Dyyz,
bent over and picked up
the dead
spice inspector and slung him easily over his shoulder. "All
in a
day's work, hey, Goa? I gave this scum a
bribe or two myself,
over the
years... but when the Imps put a man on the bounty roster,
there's
only one way to go! Let's bag and stash
him and go for a
drink."
"Fine with me. I'm thirsty as a Tatooine farmboy."
Greedo noticed for the first time that the
one called Goa had an
oversized
blaster rifle slung on his back.
He'd never seen a blaster that large. It was cased in scrolled
black
metal and layered with tubing and electronics.
A custom job, Greedo thought. Look at the sights on that thing!
I'll bet that ~ one bounty hunter who
always gets his man.
Greedo expected the two bounty hunters to
disappear back the way
they
came, but instead they walked straight toward him.
The closer they got to the retaining wall,
the more frightening
their
appearance became. The big one, Dyyz,
wore a corroded parasteel
helmet
that covered his entire head. The face
mask--narrow eyeslits in
a
stylized death's-head--communicated deadly, inexorable threat. This
one wore
the armor of the extinct Ithul-ian race--Greedo knew the
warlike
Ithulls had been wiped out hundreds of years ago, their
civilization
crushed and annihilated by another, equally warlike race,
the Mandalore. From the looks of his armor, thought Greedo,
he must
have
stolen it from an Imperial museum!
The other bounty hunter, Goa, was
outfitted in a hodgepodge of
gear
that suggested he never changed it or took it offmhe had simply
added
new pieces over the worn-out ones, until he became a walking
collection
of military costuming and equipment.
The most fascinating aspect of Goa was his
head: obviously an
intelligent
species of bird-or descended from birds.
Mottled brown
leathery
skin, featherless, with tiny intense eyes buried behind a
broad
scarred beak.
Dyyz and Goa reached the retaining wall
and Greedo ducked down.
The next thing Greedo heard was a third
voice, rasping and cruel:
"Well,
well, if it ain't Dyyz Nataz and Warhog where ya been, boys?
You should know better'n to stiff an' old
friend!"
"Ease up, Gorm. You'll get your share. Fact is, Warhog and me
are
takin' in this blacklisted spice inspector.
The Imps'11 pay us plenty and we'll be
more than happy to cut you
in on
the deal!"
"Hell we will, Dyyz." That was Goa's voice. "There's two of us
and one
of Gorm. He can wait for the credits we
owe him."
"One of me is worth six of you cage
cleanerst" Blaster fire
spanged
and red bolts of energy shot over Greedo's head. He ducked
lower
and the sounds of a fierce struggle came to his ears. Suddenly
Goa's
big blaster rifle came flying over the wall and clattered on the
pavement
next to Greedo.
As he impulsively reached out to touch the
weapon, Greedo heard
the one
called Gorm directing the one called Dyyz to hand over the body
of the
spice inspector.
"Give 'im up . . . and I'll let ya live another day--"
Finding
the
courage to again peer over the wall, Greedo saw a most awesome
figure,
two heads higher than Dyyz Nataz, clothed in heavy plated armor
and full
helmet. The eyes of the face mask were
glowing red
electronics. Must be a droid, Greedo thought. I've heard of renegade
assassin
droids taking up the bounty trade.
Or
maybe it isn't a droid . . .
Greedo suddenly had an idea. Taking the huge blaster rifle in
trembling
suckers, Greedo hefted the weapon as quietly as he could into
firing
position. He checked for a safety
switch--found it and armed
the gun.
Then, surreptitious as Uncle Nok waiting
for a
Manka cat, he hoisted the nose of the
rifle over the edge of the
retaining
wall. It pointed straight at the back of
Gorm.
Greedo saw Goa's eyes go to the rifle and
then flick away. Greedo
squeezed
the trigger.
The weapon whistled and roared and the
bounty hunter called Gorm
toppled
forward with a grunt, a blackened blaster hole in the center of
his
back.
As Greedo stood up, Goa emitted a maniacal
cackling noise and
lunged
for the rifle. But Greedo swung the
barrel at Goa's head.
"Whoa, kid! Easy there!
That's a hair-trigger yer pinching!,'
Dyyz
snorted and laughed. "Thanks,
kid. You saved our skin. We're
eternally
in your debt. Now if you'll just give my
parmer back his
weapon,
we'll be on our way."
Greedo clambered carefully over the wall,
keeping the blaster
rifle
trained on Goa. Moving closer to the
prone figure of Gorm, he
looked
into the hole he'd made in the big bounty hunter's back. Fused
wires, exploded
electronics. "Is he a
droid?" asked Greedo.
"You might say that," said
Goa. "Now about the gun --how about
we
cut you
in on the reward for this inspector?
You've earned it."
"I've got a better idea," said
Greedo. "I think I can help you
guys
make a lot of money."
5. The Smuggler and the Wookiee
"Spurch Warhog Goa?" Why do they call him Warhog?
Anky Fremp, Greedo's street friend, sat on
the edge of a parking
platform,
with his short legs dangling over a miles-deep city canyon.
Anky was a Sionian Skup, a near-human race
with small closely
spaced
eyes, hair as brittle as glass, and skin the color of dianoga
cheese.
Anky pitched one bottle after another into
the abyss.
The distance from the spaceport's highest
tower to the surface of
the Nar
Shaddaa moon was so great, they never heard the bottles hit.
But sometimes the bottles collided with a
cab or freighter
repulsing
up the shaft, and that was fun.
"What you doin' that for?" Greedo said with disdain.
"That's the kind of stupid game my
kid brother plays. If
Corellian
Port Control catches ya, we can be conscripted to work on an
ore
hauler."
"Yeah . . . you're right. I'm getting' too old for this stuff.
Oh well, there goes the last one."
A hangar scow emerged into the shaft seven
levels down, and
Fremp's
missile hit the scow pilot square on his protective helmet.
The man looked up, screaming, and shook
his fist.
When the scow lifted rapidly toward them, Greedo
and Fremp
'decided
they'd been edge-sitting long enough, and began walking fast
toward
Ninx's garage --one of their favorite hangouts.
"Okay, so tell me the deal,
Greedo. These bounty hunters you met
are
going to make you rich?"
"Yeah, I told 'em about the Rebels
runnin' guns through Level 88.
The Empire pays a big bounty for that kind
of information. Dyyz
and
Warhog said they'd cut me in on the take."
"Wow.
Will ya share it with me?."
Greedo sounded superior. "Yeah .
. . I'll throw a few credits
your
way, Fremp. But most of it I'm going to
use to buy me my own
ship. Ninx has got a cute little Incom corsair
he'll let me have for
fourteen
thousand.
All she needs is new power
couplings."
"That's nothing. We can steal the couplings!"
"Right. I can steal the power couplings." Greedo gave his eager
friend
the Rodian's version of a condescending look, as they arrived at
the
secret door to Ninx's garage. Fremp
doesn't need to think any part
of my new
ship is going to belong to him.
Shug Ninx's assistant was an ambidextrous
Corellian hyperdrive
mechanic
named Warb. Warb recognized the two
youths on the entry
monitor.
"Hey, Anky . . . Greedo.
Got any hot therm pumps for me today?"
"Sorry,
Warb. Tomorrow we'll have
something."
"Okay, see ya tomorrow. Shug ain't around and I'm busy."
"I want to show Anky that little
Incom corsair I'm going to buy."
"Hmmm . . . okay.
C'mon in. But if any tools show
up missin'
I'm
gonna know who to vaporize."
Warb buzzed them into Ninx's garage and
went back to work helping
a
smuggler overhaul the lightdrive on a beat-up YT-1300 freighter he'd
won in a
sabacc game.
The cavernous repair shop was a confusion
of dismembered ships and
the
greasy clutter of a lifetime--parts everywhere, whole assemblies
hanging
from lifts and cradles--and bright flashes of ion flow welding
from
technician droids working high on scaffolding surrounding a
massive
Kuat Starjammer-IZX fast freight hauler that seemed to take up
half the
garage.
Greedo and Anky wandered through a maze of
packing crates to where
the
Incom Corsair sat on her landing skids, gleaming like an Arkanian
jewel. She looked almost new!
"There she is," said Greedo
proudly. "I'm going to call her The
Manka
Hunter. Nice, huh?"
Anky gulped. "Only fourteen thousand credits for
this? I don't
believe
it! Shug's probably going to substitute
some broken-down
clunker
once he's got the money."
"Not my pal Shug. He knows I'm going to be a bounty
hunter. He
knows a
bounty hunter has to have a good ship."
"You're going to be a bounty
hunter?"
Greedo puffed out his chest. "Yeah.
My friend Warhog Goa said
he'd
teach me the trade. He said some of the
best bounty hunters are
Rodians."
Anky became an instant believer. "Do you think he'd teach me to
be a
bounty hunter, too?"
Greedo hooted. "I don't think the Skups were ever known
to do
much in
the way of bounty killing."
Anky looked crestfallen. The Sionan home world was noted mostly
for the
master thieves it had produced.
"Come on, Anky. Let's look at the inside of my ship."
But the Corsair's hatch was locked. Since Shug wasn't around,
they'd
have to ask Warb to unlock it.
They made their way back through the
packing crates and clutter
and
headed toward the YT-1300 where Warb and the smuggler were working.
They were almost to the freighter when
Greedo spotted a pair of
Dekk-6
power couplings sitting on a workbench,
next to Shug's milling
machine.
Greedo knew right away they were
Dekks. Dekk-6's were the best.
Modog couplings used to be the best, but
starship technology was
advancing
very rapidly, thanks to the Empire and its insatiable
military
needs.
Fremp spotted the Dekks too, and both
youths stopped to admire the
gleaming
components. A pair of Dekk-6's could
cost twenty thousand
credits--that's
how advanced they were.
"I'll bet Warb is planning to put
these in that junk heap he's
workin'
on," said Greedo. "He's going
to have to mill the casings, to
fit the
converter flanges on that old freighter."
"These are just what we need for your
new Corsair," said Anky,
fingering
the expensive hardware. "They'll
drop fight in."
Yes.
Greedo had already felt an impulse to steal the Dekks. They
were
brand-new, they were beyond beautiful, and he would never find
their
like stripping Hutt caravels.
A bounty hunter needs a fast ship. My ship will be the best.
I will replace every part of my ship with
the most advanced
components
I can buy or steal. No one will outrun
The Manka Hunter.
Greedo looked around casually and scanned
the garage.
Warb and the smuggler were floating a
heavy power cell up the
gangway
of the YT-1300. They disappeared through
the hatch.
No one was watching.
Greedo slipped off his rancor-skin jacket
and wrapped it around
the
fist-sized couplings.
"Come on, Anky. Let's go.
I gotta meet Goa in twenty 'minutes."
"Right. Let's go."
Suddenly Greedo felt powerful shaggy paws
grip him around the
waist
and hoist him into the air. He dropped
the skin jacket as he
kicked
and struggled, and the Dekk couplings clattered onto the floor.
"Te kalya skrek, grulla
woska!" Put me down, ya hairy heap!
The Wookiee turned Greedo with his paws so
he could look into the
snouted
green face. 'WNHNGR-RAAAGH.t"
Greedo saw bared teeth and angry
eyes,
and he wilted. Anky Fremp was already
heading for the door.
"What's goin on, Chewie?" The tall Corellian smuggler appeared,
with
Warb at his side. The smuggler had his
right hand on a holstered
blaster.
"HNNtLRNAWWN." The Wookiee's groans were just terrifying
noise to
the
youth, but the smuggler seemed to understand them perfectly.
"Stealing our Dekk-6's, huh? Great.
What kind of shop you guys
running,
Warb? Do you know what I had to pay for
these Dekks?"
"Sorry, Han. I told Shug I didn't trust these street kids,
but he
took a
liking to the green one . . . You know
the rules, Greedo. I'm
goin to
have to tell Shug about this. If you
know what's good for ya,
you'll
get out of here and never come back . .
. that is, if the
Wookiee
don't break yet neck first!"
The big Wookiee was still holding the
terrified Rodian a meter off
the
floor, as if waiting for a signal from his friend the smuggler.
"Wait a minute," said the
smuggler. "Don't hurt him,
Chewie. I'm
going to
teach the little sneak a lesson . . . Where'd
you put those
burnt-out
Modogs, Warb?"
The Wookiee lowered Greedo to the floor,
but kept
his hairy paw on him as Warb fished around
in a big trash barrel
next to
the workbench. A second later Warb
emerged with two blackened
and
corroded Modog power couplings. He gave
them to the smuggler and
the
smuggler handed them to Greedo.
"Here. The kid wants power couplings, he can have
these. I took
'em off
the Millennium Falcon. They've got a
real pedigree, kid. And
all I
want for 'em is this ran-cot-skin jacket.
What do you say? Even
trade?"
The smuggler grinned and the Wookiee
squeezed Greedo's shoulder.
"T-te jacta." I'll get you for this.
"Did he say what I think he
said?" asked the smuggler.
"He said it's a deal," laughed
Warb.
"Good. The kid knows a bargain when he sees
one."
The smuggler held out his hand for a
handshake, but Greedo ignored
it. Instead he made a popping noise with his
hand-suckers and threw
the
burnt couplings on the floor. Then he
turned and ran for the door.
"HWARRNNUNH. " "Yeah, Chewie, I was probably a
little rough on
him.
But you got to set punks straight while
they're still young.
Otherwise no telling where they'll end up
. . .
Here, Warb, ya want this jacket? It's a birthday present."
"Thanks, Han. How'd you know today's my birthday?"
6. The Teacher Spurch Warhog Goa was
sitting by himself, counting
a pile
of credits, in a corner of the Meltdown Cafe.
He waved his arm
when he
saw Greedo come in. "Hey, kid over
here!"
Greedo was still nursing his anger and
resentment, but he tried to
look
like a seasoned spacer as he moved through the noisy gathering.
He started to feel better when one
grizzled old Twiqek actually
jumped
out of his way.
"Hello, Spurch."
"Have a seat, kid. Ya want something' to drink? . . .
Don't sit too close. You Rodians don't smell right to a
Diollan."
Greedo took a place opposite his new
mentor. Goa ordered up a
bottle
of Tatooine Sunburn for Greedo.
"T-that's a lot of money,
Spurch." Greedo eyed the pile
nervously. He hoped Ninx would still sell him the
Corsair, after what
happened.
"Call me Warhog, kid. I don't care for that other name. My
mother
thought it was cute 'cause it means 'brave bug catcher' in our
language." Goa snorted.
He took a stack of chits off the pile in
front of
him. "Here, kid. For you.
Thanks for the tip about the
Rebels. It paid off .
. . big-time."
"Cthn rulyen stka wen!" Wow, that's great! Greedo picked up the
bills
and flipped through them. They were
small denominations . . .
far less than he had expected. Visions of piloting his own fast
Corsair
began to evaporate.
"Uh... two hundred credits . . . uh, thanks, Warhog."
"Whatsamatter, kid? You look disappointed." Goa surveyed his new
prottg6
with a bright bird eye.
"Uh .
. . I thought there would be more, I guess."
"Hey, kid. You want to be a bounty hunter, right?
Didn't I say Rodians make the best bounty
hunters?
Didn't I?"
Greedo nodded solemnly. I do want to be a bounty hunter. But a
bounty
hunter needs a ship.
"Now, you think I train bounty
hunters for free?
Huh?
Do ya? . . . Drink your Tatooine Sunburn, kid, it's
delicious."
Obediently Greedo picked up the bottle and
swallowed the thick
fluid. It tasted bitter. He felt embarrassed.
Warhog was right. "Uh .
. . I guess I . . . uh, never
thought
about
that," he said.
"Right. It never crossed your greedy little
mind. Goa gets paid
for
teaching young punks how to hunt! Now
look here--" Goa reached
into one
of the many pouches strapped to his body and pulled out a much
larger
roll of credits. "This is all
yours, if you want it--twenty
thousand. That's one-third of what the Imps paid for
the intelligence
on the
Rebels."
Greedo's eyes watered, and a profound
hunger rip-pied in his guts
as he
stared at the mound of credit notes. Visions
of The Manka Hunter
sthrted
to re-form.
Goa leaned forward and fixed Greedo with
his beady eyes. "But if
you take
this money, that's it, ya understand?
I never want to see you again. You gotta make up your mind, kid.
Do you want to learn the trade from an
expert . . . or do ya want
a few
nights on the town and the down payment on a hot rod you'll
probably
crash in a week? Warhog Goa can make you
the galaxy's
second-greatest
bounty hunter, kid . . . Warhog Goa
being the first."
Greedo let Goa's words roll around inside
his head for a minute,
and they
connected with his deepest desires. He
wanted that Corsair
more
than anything, but he felt a deeper need to hunt . . . a need to
be like
his father. And the trade of
bounty-hunting was a way of
making
lots of money. A rich bounty hunter
might own his own moon and
lots of
ships--sloops, cruisers, cutters . . .
even warships.
"You'll really teach me the
secrets?" asked Greedo diffidently.
"Teach you, I'll shove the stinkin'
secrets down your stinkin'
throat! We got a deal, kid? Believe me, I wouldn't do it for anybody.
But you saved my life. You cut me and DTyz in on your first
capture
.
. . and by the Cron Drift, you're a
Rodian. I tell ya, Rodians
are born
bounty hunters."
Greedo felt waves of pride sweep over
him. Born bounty hunter.
Rodians are born bounty hunters. Yes, I can feel it, I've always
pit
it. My father was a bounty hunter.
I will be a bounty hunter. I am a bounty hunter.
"Deal, Warhog." Greedo hooted and held out his hand.
Goa looked at the suckered fingers and a
look of disgust crossed
his
face. Even the kid's hand smells funny.
He carefully touched Greedo's hand with
his own.
'Deal, "he said. "C'mon, I'll buy ya another Sunburn at
the bar .
. . introduce ya to some of the
boys."
Fool kid fell for it, thought Goa, as he
pushed his way toward the
bar. I get to keep his share, and all I got to do
is tell him a few
"secrets"
and most likely he'll get himself aced in a month or two . .
. Anyway, who knows, maybe he will make a
good bounty hunter . .
.
'Tho I never saw a Rodian good for
anythin' except killin' unarmed
Ugnaughts!
7. Vader
Fifteen thousand kilometers out from the
spaceport moon, in the
shadow
of the luminous Hutt planet, the starry void cracked open and a
mighty
triangular war ship emerged from hyperspace.
Star Destroyer.
As the massive vessel 'moved into
stationary orbit over Nal Hutta,
Imperial
shocktroops answered the assembly klaxon, buckling on white
body
armor and pulling energized blaster rifles from charging sheaths.
The troopers' boots resounded in the main
launch bay as they ran
to
formation next to the two camouflaged Gamma Assault Shuttles that
would
carry them to the spaceport moon.
High above, on the quarterdeck of the Star
Destroyer Vengeance,
the
Mission Commander received final instructions from an imposing
figure
entirely encased in black armor. The
figure's deep voice
resonated
through an electronic breath mask.
"I want prisoners, Captain. Dead Rebels won't tell me where
they're
shipping those weapons." The
menacing hiss of the grotesque
breath
mask underscored the threat implicit in the voice and the words.
"Yes, Lord Vader. It shall be as you request. The incident on
Datar
was unfortunate, sir. The Rebels fought
us to the last man."
"We had lost the element of surprise,
Captain. Vice Admiral Slenn
paid
with his life for that mistake. This
time there won't be a
mistake. This time the Rebels won't know we're
coming. Are the
assault
shuttles ready?"
"Yes, Lord Vader. I've had them camouflaged as light
freighters,
sir. Our agents have obtained the necessary
priority docking codes
from
Port Control. We're free to enter the
Corellian Sector of Nar
Shaddaa
at any hour of our choosing."
"Good. Leave at once, find the enemy enclave, and
capture as many
Rebels
as you can. I will follow the moment the
situation is secure."
"Very good, sir. The mission will launch immediately."
When Rebel SpecForce sentinel Spane Covis
saw the two
weatherbeaten
stock freighters drop past him down the.flight shaft and
enter
Level 88, he didn't think anything about it.
From his post in a rented viewroom in Port
Tower One, Covis was
supposed
to alert his cadre commander if any unusual ship traffic
entered
the vicinity. It was a boring job. Nothing out of the
ordinary
happened.
Covis's attention was operating at about
thirty percent.
Then it hit him: The sheathing's all
wrong. The cargo doors are
too
small. The cooling towers are in the
wrong place. I've never seen
freighters
configured like those.
Covis grabbed his comlink and yelled. "Stardog One, this is
Dewback!"
"Go ahead, Dewback, what's the
problem?"
"Watch your tail, Stardog. Two rancors in the house!"
"Got it, Dewback."
Twenty Rebel commandos had already taken
up positions inside the
warehouse,
their surveillance sensors scanning the street, when the
camouflaged
Gammas rumbled into view.
In the rear of the cavernous building,
other
SpecForce infantry loaded the hold of a
massive Z-10 transport,
clearing
the warehouse of as much ordnance as they could before the
firefight
began.
In
the very center of the warehouse, behind a heavy blast shield,
a C4-CZN
ion field gun was rolled into position.
The element of surprise the Imperials
hoped for was gone.
The firefight on Level 88 was very fierce
and it happened very
fast.
Greedo's mother Neela heard a shuddering
roar and ran to the
window
of the reconstructed ventilation flue where she and her sons
lived,
in the warren of structures crammed into one end of the
warehouse
district.
At that moment one of the Gamma Assault
Shuttles transformed into
flaming
vapor, becoming a sphere of light and energy that expanded in a
flash,
igniting both sides of the street. The
green fireball seared
Neela's
large eyes, and 'she turned and bolted screaming into the back
of the
apartment.
The other Gamma unleashed twin turbos, and
the front of the Rebel
warehouse
shattered and split. The shuttle crew
ramps came down.
Imperial shocktroops emerged blasting.
Another round from the C4 ion gun, and the
second Gamma was
history. A rain of blaster shots were exchanged, sixty
shocktroops
went
down, and the fight was over. The rest
surrendered.
Greedo was hanging around with Goa and
Dyyz and a bunch of other
bounty
hunters on Level 92. The hunters had
news that a wanted list
had been
released by a top Hutt ganglord. The
Hutt was assigning
collection
jobs on a first-come basis, complete with signed contracts.
Suddenly emergency sirens began to blare
and
Greedo saw Corellian firefighting scows plunging
down the flight
shaft,
red strobes flashing.
"Looks like the Imps got our
message," said Warhog, giving Greed9
a knowing wink.
Greedo tried to sound nonchalant. "Yeah--maybe so. Could be just
another
fire started by the Gloom Dwellers.". Then smoke began to pour
up the
shaft and Greedo started to worry.
It hadn't occurred to Greedo until after
he'd told Goa and Dyyz
about
the Rebel gunrunners that there might be danger for his people.
The Rodian refugees lived and worked on
Level 88--they'd be in the
path of
any attack by Imperial stormtroopers.
"Uh .
. . guess I'll . . . uh, see ya
later, Warhog.
You too, Dyyz. Got some business to take care of."
Goa raised an eyebrow. "Sure, kid. Me and Dyyz are most likely
jumpin'
to Tatooine tonightmso if I don't see ya, good luckY' Tatooine!
The Hutt contracts! Greedo walked away feeling angry and betrayed
that Goa
hadn't invited him to go with them. So
far Goa had given him
very
little training. And he took my share of
the reward.
Greedo started to turn back, to beg Warhog
and Dyyz to take him to
Tatooine. Then his mother's screaming face suddenly
flooded his mind.
Instead of turning back, Greedo began to
run for the nearest
repulsor
lift.
Greedo stepped into the lift and hit the
stud marked "88." The
lift
dropped like a stone, stopping smoothly a few seconds later at
Level
88. An alarm sounded and the lift door
refused to open.
Automatic sensors had locked out the lift
at this level.
Looking through the transparent door,
Greedo saw why--the street
was a
mass of smoke and flame. The Corellian
firefighting scows were
working
the blaze with chemical sprays, and making rapid headway.
Greedo tried to peer through the smoke to
see if his family's
dwelling
complex was on fire. The Rodians lived
back near the refuse
core. Greedo couldn't see that far, but he guessed
everything was
okay. Only the Rebel warehouse and the buildings
across the street
were
burning.
Greedo relaxed and began to enjoy the
scene before him. He
recognized
Rebels helping the ritefighters, and he began to wonder
exactly
what had. happened here. The only stormtroopers visible were
lying on
their backs, helmets shattered.
Just then Greedo heard the sound of
rending metal and he saw the
firefighters
all turn toward the flight shaft, which was out of his
line of
vision. The firefighters' faces changed
to fear, and a second
later a
massive black war machine hovered into view, spewing laser fire
from ten
different points on its convoluted surface.
The machine was a monstrous engine of
death, shaped like a crab,
with
ripping claws left and right, a phalanx of blast weapons fore and
aft, and
a command cockpit secured behind heavy shielding in the
center,
about where a crab's mouth would be. It
floated on repulsor
energy,
it moved very swiftly, and it killed everything in its path.
Greedo pounded on the lift door. It still wouldn't open. Part of
him was
glad it wouldn't open. Part of him
wanted to leave. That part
of him
punched the button for Level 92. My
family will be okay.
Only'the Rebels are going to die.
As the lift rose away from the carnage,
Greedo got a last glimpse
of the
Death Engine as it spewed a thick stream of white-hot energy
into the
Rebel warehouse.
Then he was moving between levels and his
vision was blocked.
A moment later the whole sector shook as
if it had been hit by an
asteroid.
Greedo stumbled out onto the Level 92
thoroughfare and promptly
fell on
his face. The street heaved and shook,
and a terrifying rumble
filled
the air. People ran or grabbed onto
vehicles as they careened
past,
heading for the flight shaft.
As he dragged himself to his feet, Greedo saw
the
bounty hunters moving together toward the
reserved parking
platform
where they had all stashed their ships. He
saw Dyyz Nataz,
but he
couldn't make out Warhog Goa.
A gloved hand grabbed Greedo's
shoulder. He looked up into the
broad-beaked
face of his friend.
"Ifya know what's good for ya, kid,
you'll come with me and Dyyz.
The Imps are in a bad mood about
some-thin'.
I think the Rebs gave 'em more of a fight
than they expected."
"My folks . . . I can't leave my family . . . my people."
"Don't worry about the family,
kid. If you're goin to be a bounty
hunter,
you're going to have to kiss off the family, sooner or later.
Now's as
good a time as any . . . Besides,
they'll probably be okay."
Warhog Goa gave Greedo a questioning look
and then walked away,
following
Dyyz toward their ship.
Greedo stood and watched Warhog go, trying
to make up his mind,
trying
to decide what he really wanted.
He wanted to be a bounty hunter.
The sleek cruiser Nova Viper lifted with
the swarm of
bounty-hunter
craft that headed out of port, lining up for jump
clearances.
No clearances came. Port Control was preoccupied.
So the ships jumped anyway.
The last thing Goa and Dyyz and Greedo saw
was the collapse of an
entire
quarter of the Corellian Sector, floor upon floor, with a
magnificent
flash and rumble and roar.
"Wheez! Musta took out twenty levels!" shouted
Dyyz.
"A lot of good people just died, Goa."
"And we're alive . . . right, Greedo?"
Greedo didn't answer. He just stared at the swell{ng
conflagration,
the succession of fireballs, the billowing black clouds.
The navicomp clicked in for Tatooine.
They jumped.
8. Mos Eisley
A massive armor-plated figure stood in the
entrance of the dim and
noisy
cantina, surveying the motley crowd with glowing red electronic
eyes.
"Hey--ain't that Gorm the
Dissolver? What's he doin' here? I
thought
we killed him!"
"Sure . . . my buddy Greedo decimated his motivator.
But there's biocomponents from six
different aliens in Gorm. The
only way
to kill him is to vaporize the whole assembly."
Dyyz Nataz groaned. "Why didn't ya tell me that, Goa? I would
have
finished him. Now we got to worry about
him hittin' us for the
credits
we owe him!"
"Take it easy, Dyyz. Jodo Kastjust told meJabba gave Gorm the
sweetest
hit on the wanted list--fifty thousand credits to bring in
Zardra."
"You're kiddin'. Zardra's a bounty hunter. What's Jabba got
against
her?"
The three were sitting in the smoky
shadows of the Mos Eisley
Cantina,
sipping green Pica Thundercloud and watching the bounty
hunters
drift in from around the galaxy: Weequays, Aqualish, Arcona,
Defels,
Kauronians, Fneebs, Quill-heads, Bomodons, Alpher-idians---and
the
inevitable Ganks. Greedo even saw a
couple of Rodians. They
nodded
in his direction, but he didn't return the greeting. He'd
learned
long ago that unknown Rodians could be dangerous.
A
cocky Corellian and a big Wookiee entered and stood on the lobby
steps
for a minute, surveying the crowd. Greedo
recognized the
smugglers
he'd come up against in Ninx's repair barn on Nar Shaddaa.
He felt hatred roll up inside him at the
sight of the two.
Then the Corellian turned and left the
cantina, and the Wookiee
followed
him. Dyyz Nataz snorted: "Right,
Solo. You're in the wrong
place,
buddy."
"Han Solo? Is he here?" Warhog Goa swung around in his chair and
looked
around the room.
"Yeah. Solo and his Wookiee pal Chewbacca came in
and looked
around
and left. Solo's on Jabba's list, ya
know. If I was him, I'd
make
like a space frog and hop to some other galaxy!" Dyyz took a deep
swallow
of Thundercloud. "Now, what's this
about Zardra? What did she
ever do
to be worth fifty to o1' Jabba?"
Goa turned back to his two companions and
hoisted his glass. For
a
bone-dry planet, Tatooine sure brewed some of the best beverages in
the
galaxy--expensive, but very tasty. "Here's
to Zardra," he said,
and he
drank, then wiped his mouth with his gloved hand.
"Zardra and Jodo Kast were on a hunt
in the Sten-ness System, look
in' for
a pair o' spicejackers named the Thig Brothers.
The Thigs were
armed to
the gills with Imperial blasters they'd stole from a military
supply
depot. Jodo says to Zardra, 'Why don't
we split up?
I'll put the word around the ports that
I'm following the Thigs .
. . and you stay out of sight. The Thigs will be itchin' for a
fight--I
know those guys. They'll come look in'
for me, I'll stage a
little
face-off, and you sting 'em from the shadows.
Just stun 'em,
you
know.
We'll take 'em alive.' "Jodo knew he
could count on Zardra. She's
as
fearless as they come--and a crack shot with a stun-laser."
"Yeah. I've seen her in action. The best.
So then what
happened?"
All this time Greedo wasn't saying
anything. He was savoring
Dyyz's
remark that Solo was on Jabba's list.
Half-formed images of revenge flickered
through his mind. He was
content
to sit and listen to his friends and watch the crowd of bounty
hunters. I'm one of them, he thought. I'm a bounty hunter. Spurch is
going to
take me to meetJabba . . . Jabba needs
good hunters right now
. . .
lots of'era. Jabba needs me.
Just then Gorm the Dissolver stood up at
his table and scanned the
room
with his electronic red eyes.
Greedo ducked and shielded his face with
his hand.
Squinting between two suckered fingers, he
watched the big bounty
hunter
turn and swagger toward the lobby.
"There goes Gorm," said Greedo,
alerting his friends.
"Oh .
. . yeah? Good riddance, I
say. He'll be on
his way to find Zardra. I hope she melts him to slag!"
"Maybe we ought to warn her,
Warhog."
"Don't worry, she knows. She's got a lot of friends in our line
of
work. I'll wager a good krayt steak
Jodo's already told her."
"You're probably right . . . Sowhat's the rest of the story? Why
is Jabba
the Hutt payin' Gorm fifiy thousand to kill Zardra?"
"Easy. She killed a Hutt, that's why! When the Thig Brothers
came
look in' forJodo, they found him waitin' in the Red Shadow--that's
a bistro
on Taboon, a slag heap of a planet where nobody but 'Nessies
would
ever live. Trouble was, a Hutt named
Mageye was passin' through,
on his
way to cut a deal with o1' BolBol, another Hutt who practically
owns the
Stenness System."
"Oh, I get it. Mageye gets caught in the crossfire?"
Dyyz made a yawning noise under his
blastmask.
"Worse. Mageye is carried into the bistro on a
palanquin, ya see,
by these
five strong Weequays. The excitement
starts, the Thigs are
shootin'
at everything that moves, two Weequays get hit, they drop the
palanquin,
and the worm rolls off . . . right on
top of Zardra!"
"Hah!
Poor Zardra!"
"Poor Mageye. Zardra's wearin' full armor, but she's still
getting'
crushed and the slime and stench is about to suffocate her .
.
. So she pulls a gauge-six thermal
detonator out of her pocket and
pops it
into. the Hutt's mouth!" Goa paused for effect, letting his
listeners
form an image of what happened next. Greedo
made a soft
hoofing
noise. Dyyz emitted a choking
sound. Goa picked up his
Thundercloud
and swallowed.
"It took 'era a month to clean up the
mess, boys."
Goa swigged more Thundercloud, and his
foam-covered beak made a
satisfied
clacking,noise.
"Uh .
. . great. Good story,
Warhog," said Dyyz, laughing. "So
when's
our turn to meet with Jabba?"
Goa looked at his chronometer. "Actually, we're late," he said.
"Let's get moving."
9. Jabba
Jabba the Hutt, gangster preeminent, was
receiving petitioners at
his Mos
Eisley town house, a short walk from the cantina.
A violent windstorm brewed in the
surrounding desert, whipping
clouds
of grit over Mos Eisley. The narrow
streets of the spaceport
were
dust-choked and dim.
The three bounty hunters pulled protective
cloaks across their
faces as
they hurried to their audience with the notorious Hutt.
"Don't know how they can keep droids
functioning on a place like
this,"
said Dyyz. "My visor's already got
three centimeters of sand
under
it."
"Moisture farmers use up a lot of
droids," said Goa.
"Sand seizes joints and clogs cooling
fins, and the 'tronics burn
out. Half the population thrives off the junk
that's the main product
of this
hot and dusty planet."
Two stout Gama'rrean tuskers blocked the
heavy iron grid that
protected
the courtyard of Jabba's town house. The
piglike brutes made
threatening
grunts and brandished batde-axes as the bounty hunters
appeared
out of the darkening streets. But Warhog
Goa didn't hesitate,
roaring
.out the password he'd been given earlier.
The Gamorreans
immediately
stepped back.
The spear-tipped gate rose with the
grinding of hidden gears, and
Goa
sauntered under the menacing points with a cocksure gait. Dyyz and
Greedo
held back, waiting to see what happened to their friend.
Goa turned and cackled. "What's the matter, Dyyz?
You afraid of old Jabba? He's the hunter's friend!
C'mon, Greedo, I'll show you how to get
rich!"
Suddenly four vicious-looking Nikto
emerged from
the shadows of the courtyard and leveled
blaster-prods at Goa.
"Nudd chao! Kichawa jato!" one of them ' shouted.
"What do you know--we're just in
time! Jabba's ready to see us!"
Goa ignored the prods and strode
fearlessly toward the glowing
aperture
of Jabba's domicile.
The
Nikto lowered their weapons and snarled something
unintelligible.
Dyyz and Greedo followed, cautiously.
The raucous babble of the galactic
riffraff that crowded Jabba's
audience
chamber was deafening.
Alien and human, a hundred different
species, faces contorted with
greed
and depravity, wearing. a motley
assortment of spacers' costumes
and
military gear.
All eyes turned to the three
newcomers. Greedo surveyed the
grotesque
gathering and wonderedwit seemed as if he recognized only a
few
species from his years on Nar Shaddaa. "Are
these all bounty
hunters?"
he shouted to Goa.
"Nah.
Maybe about half of 'em. The rest
are just the slimy
bottom
feeders that enjoy being around Jabba's stench and corruption."
Goa wasn't just kidding. Greedo noticed~a rancid odor permeated
the
room, and in a few seconds he guessed its source: the great worm
himself,
Jabba the Hutt, ensconced on a platform to his right, puffing
on a
convoluted water pipe.
Greedo had seen many Hutts in the streets
of Nar Shaddaa. But he
had
never been in a closed space with one. His
stomach churned and
twisted
at the sight and smell of the miasmic mass of the great
gangster,
fawned over by unctuous Twi'leks and Squidheads and . . .
Rodians. Yes, the two Rodians they'd seen in the
cantina were
before
the great Jabba, bowing slavishly, like supplicants in the
palace
of a Paladian Prince. A silver protocol
,droid was translating
their
groveling remarks for maltdorous Jabba.
"Maybe
they're bending over to throw up," said Dyyz, reading
Greedo's
thoughts.
"How would a Rodian know the
difference?" said Goa. "The green
goons
stink almost as bad as Jabba."
Greedo gave Goa a startled look. Why did he say that?
Am I just a "green goon" to
him? He decided Goa was trying to
make a
crude joke.
As the two Rodians faded back into the
crowd, ma-jordomo Bib
Fortuna
cast a suspicious eye toward the new visitors.
With an almost
imperceptible
nod, he signaled for Goa, Dyyz, and Greedo to step
forward.
The rabble quieted as the three hunters
moved to position in front
of the
great worm. Everyone wanted to see if a
death sentence was
about to
be executed.
When it became apparent that these were
just another team of
rapacious
bounty hunters, the hubbub resumed.
"Vifaa karibu uta chuba JabbaY' began
Goa, speaking perfect
Huttese. He knew that Jabba himself spoke many
languages fluently, and
used his
protocol droid for the several million other forms of
communication.
But he wished to honor the crimelord in
every way possible.
"Mojajpo chakula cha
asubuhi!" rumbled the Hutt,
apparently pleased to be treated with
respect by scum.
"What did he say?" said Dyyz.
"What did you say?"
"I told 'im he's the most disgustin'
pile o' swamp sludge in the
galaxy. He thanked me for groveling before his
bloated slimy putrid
body."
"R-really," whispered
Greedo. "You said that?"
"Goa's pullin' yer snout, kid. We'd be rancor bait if he'd said
any of
that stuff."
Goa turned his full attention to the Hutt,
hoping Jabba hadn't
heard
the whispered exchange.
If he had heard it, Jabba gave no
sign. He proceeded to laugh
quite
jovially and popped a squirming sand maggot into his mouth.
Greedo almost retched at the sight of the
swollen tongue, dripping
with
slaver. At this distance, of not more
than a meter and a half,
the
malignant smell of Jabba's breath was overpowering.
The Hutt's lardaceous body seemed to
periodically release a greasy
discharge,
sending fresh waves of rotten stench to Greedo's sensitive
nostrils.
"Ne subul Greedo, pombo gek fultrh
badda wanga!"
Goa put one hand on Greedo's shoulder as
he introduced his protkg~
to the
illustrious gangster. Greedo bowed
nervously, as the huge eyes
turned
on him and reduced him to space dust.
Jabba and Goa exchanged a few more
phrases, and then Jabba
proceeded
to deliver a long soliloquy that ended with the words "...
kwa ho noodta du dedbeeta Han Solo?"
Goa turned to Greedo and Dyyz. "The worm has seen fit to offer us
the
opportunity of hunting one of his most notorious debtors--that
pirate
Hah Solo. Solo claims he lost a load of
spice when he got
boarded
by Imps. ButJabba thinks Solo sold the
spice and kept the
money,;
This is a collection job--Jabba wants that "I ain't messin'
with
Solo," said Dyyz. "He's got
too.
many ways of getting' revenge . . . even after he's dead."
"I can handle him," said Greedo. "He's just a smalltime Corellian
spicerunner
who thinks he's big stuff.
He stole a rancor-skin jacket off me. I'll take Solo."
Warhog Goa looked at Greedo for a moment
and then slapped him on
the
back. "Okay, kid. That's what I like to hear! This'11 be a good
assignment
to cut your baby teeth on, 'cause Solo's on Tatooine! We
saw him
today in the cantina, remember? I'll
even be able to give ya
some
backup. If he's got the money on him,
you'll get it easy."
Dyyz snorted. "Great--you help the kid. I don't want nothin' to
do with
it . . . Now what about us? You gonna set up a couple of
deals
for us, or you gonna waste the whole trip on the kid?"
"Right. I got that covered." Goa exchanged a few more words with
Jabba,
and then Fortuna handed the bounty hunters three scrolls, the
official
contracts assigning them exclusive "hunting rights" for the
period
of two Tatooine months. The Solo scroll
was for a much shorter
period,
due to the fact that Jabba was anxious to clean up a debt that
had
remained uncollected far too long.
On a signal from Fortuna, the three bounty
hunters bowed
ceremoniously
and moved back to make room for the next team of job
applicants--an
unsavory human named Dace Bonearm and his IG-model
assassin
droid.
Greedo found himself separated from Goa
and Dyyz, as they were
swallowed
up in the crowded audience chamber.
Greedo made his way to an open spot in a
corner, next to the bar.
Without being asked, the Aqualish
bartender slid a brimming glass
his
way. Greedo felt proud of himself as he
leaned back against the
wall and
sipped the syrupy Tatooine Sunburn.
Across the room he could see Dyyz,
standing next to a hunter named
Dengar
that Greedo remembered from Nar Shaddaa.
They were both
examining
their scrolls and comparing notes.
Warhog Goa was deep in conversation with
one of the Rodians.
Greedo felt a twinge of jealousy, seeing
his mentor talking to
another
Rodian bounty hunter.
I'm a bounty hunter, he thought. l'm going to stalk my prey and
I'm
going to collect the reward and l'm going to start building a rep.
I'm going to be the toughest Rodian bounty
hunter that ever was.
I wonder.
what that Rodian and Goa are talking about?
He saw Goa look toward him and then the
Rodian's eyes met his, and
Greedo
realized they were talking about him. At
first he felt uneasy
being
noticed by the strange Rodian. Then Goa
waved and the Rodian
held up
his hand, suckers out, in a gesture of brotherhood.
Greedo beamed with pride. Okay, they're. talkin' about
me--Greedo
the Bounty Hunter.
10.
Solo "Returns"
The Wookiee slammed a shaggy fist down on
the Millennium Falcon's
shield
generator and pushed back his welding mask.
"Take it easy, Chewie. I wanna get off this dirtball as much as
you
do. But without deflectors we're easy
game for spicejackers and nosy Imps."
"Hwuarrn? Nnrruahhnm?"
"Right. Jabba's throwing the biggest bounty-hunting
bash in the
sector--and
you just know our names are getting' bandied around over
dessert. That's another reason to blow this
joint. But like I say, if
the ship
had been undercover during the sandstorm, we wouldn't be in
this
mess."
Han Solo finished vacuuming sand out of
the alluvial dampers and
wiped
his brow on his sleeve. Why does a free
and unfettered guy like
me
always end up on wasted planets like this, when he could be basking
in the
oceanside breezes of any gambling resort in the universe?
Because I'm not'very good at sabacc, he
thought. Lucky sometimes,
yeah. But not that lucky. Unlike some people I know, I gotta work for
a
living.
Chewbacca made a soft warning growl and
Solo raised his head and
looked
around. Two bulbous faceted eyes were
staring at him out of
spiny
green balls of flesh. The leather-garbed
humanoid body beneath
the head
held a blaster in multisuckered fingers.
"Han Solo?" The voice from the long green snout spoke
through an
electronic
translator.
"Who wants to know?" Han knew who wanted to know. A Rodian with
a
blaster is always a bounty hunter . . .
or a bill collector.
"Greedo. I work for Jabba the Hutt".
"Greedo . . . oh yeah, I remember you--the kid who
tried to steal
my power
couplings. Okay, good for you, so now
you're workin' for
Jabba. By the way, I understand Rodian, so you can
turn off the squawk
box."
Hanjumped down from the scaffolding as
casually as
he could and picked up a rag to wipe his
hands. Hidden in the rag
was a
small Telltrig-7 blaster, carefully placed there for just this
eventuality. Fortunately he didn't have to use itMhis
mouth was his
best
weapon: "Listen . . . tell Jabba
the truth -I came to Tatooine
for only
one reason: to pay him."
Greedo turned off the translator. Goa had suggested he use it to
make
sure the "client" fully understood the gravity of the situation.
But if Solo really understands Rodian,
I'll be able to use
untranslatable
Rodian threats.
"Neshki J'ha klulta ntuz tch krast,
Solo." Jabba doesn't believe
dorsal-spine
parasites tell the truth, Solo.
"Yeah, well, what does that overfed
vermiform know? Do you really
think
I'd come anywhere near this place if I didn't have the money?"
Greedo's hand tightened on his gun. He wasn't sure if insulting
one's
employer required special action on the part of a bounty hunter.
What Solo said about being on Tatooine was
logical, though. If
somebody
was after your hide, would you fly into his back pocket?
This is going to be easy.
"Skak, tm kras ka noota,
Solo." All right, then give me the
money,
Solo. "Vnu sna Greedo vorskl
to."
Then Greedo will be on his way.
"Yeah, tell ya what, Greedo . . . 'tell ya what. It's not quite
that simple. The loot is bolted into the frame of the
Falcon here.
Secret hiding place. Understand?
Why don't you .come back
tomorrow
morning and I'll hand it right over, easy as pie. How's that
sound?"
"Nvtuta bork te ptu motto. Tm snato." No, get it right now.
I'll wait.
I'm not letting this gulley fish slip out
of my grasp, Greedo
thought
. . . espedally with Warhog watchin' me
from the shadows.
"I can't get it right now. Listen, if you can wait till tomorrow,
I'll
throw in a little bonus-a couple thousand credits just for you.
How's that sound?"
That sounded good.
"Prog mnete enyaz ftt save
shuss." Make it four thousand
credits.
"Four thousand? Are you craz~v--? Oh, all right, ya got me over
a barrel,
pal. We'll do it your way. Four thousand for you, first
thing in
the morning. It's a deal."
Without another word, Solo turned his back
on the bounty hunter
and
began cleaning a spanner. He palmed the
little blaster, just in
case the
green kid changed his mind. But a minute
later Chewie gave
his
"all clear" grunt and Solo relaxed.
"Great, Chewie. Can you believe the nerve of that guy? Now we
got to
finish prepping the ship tonight.
When that punk comes around tomorrow
morning, all he's going to
find is
a big grease spot on the hangar floor!"
over to Jabba, after the word starts to
get around . . . then
I'll
make friends with those guys. They'll
respect me and we'll have a
drink
together and they'll tell me some great stories and I'll tell
them
about how I saved Dyyz and Goa by blasting Gorm right through his
electronic
guts.
"... so, like I say, Greedo, there's
two sides to every deal with
Jabba. That's my lesson for today. If you collect the debt, you'll be
inJabba's
good graces. But if you let Jabba down,
you're as good as
dead."
Greedo tried to sound scornful. "Don't worry, Warhog. Solo will
pay. First we find out for sure if he's got the
money with him. Then,
if he
doesn't hand it over, I'll kill him and take it .... You still
going to
work backup--in case the Wookiee tries anything?"
"Sure. That's the plan, ain't it?"
"Wknuto, Goa." Thanks, Goa.
Warhog Goa sipped a Starshine Surprise and
glanced around the Mos
Eisley
Cantina. The bounty-hunter crowd was
thinning out. A lot of
hunters
had gotten their contracts and jumped. Some
of 'em were
probably
already stalking targets in the streets of cities a thousand
parsecs
away. "Solo doesn't plan to pay
you," he said, looking at his
proff~g&
"Don't you get it? It's a
stall."
Warhog noticed the two Rodians sitting in
the booth near the
entrance
lobby. They nodded to him and he nodded
back. "You ought to
meet
those two Rodies, Greedo. They're good
hunters. I'll bet they
can
teach ya stuff even I don't know. Want
me to introduce you?"
Greedo looked down at his drink. Goa wouldn't know about the clan
wars. I never told him. He wouldn't know about the time the ships
came,
hunting the Tetsus refugees.
Tetsus just don't talk to strange
Rodians. He wouldn't know that,
because
I never told him.
Yeah, but what's the point? I'm a bounty hunter now, that's the
important
thing. Bounty hunters hang together,
drink together, trade
war
stories, help each other out of jams. So
after I take my first
bounty,
after Solo pays me and I hand the money Han Solo's ship, the
Millennium
Falcon, was still sitting in the docking hangar when Greedo
walked
in shortly after sunrise the next morning.
Han Solo was nowhere to be seen. Greedo tried to open the
Falcon's
hatch, but it was code-locked.
Greedo and Goa finally found Solo and the
Wookiee having breakfast
at a
little outdoor cafe behind the dewback stables.
Greedo kept his hand on his holstered gun,
but didn't bother to
turn off
the safety because Goa had a rifle trained on the quarry from
the
alley across the street.
"Rylun pa getpa gushu,
Solo?" Enjoy your breakfast, Solo?
Greedo tried to sound tough and relaxed,
but in fact he was wound
up
fight. If Solo stiffed him today, he
wouldn't know what to do.
Jabba wouldn't be happy if he killed Solo
without collecting the
debt.
The contract was for the money, not'a
corpse.
"Greedo! I've been looking all over for you! Decide to sleep in
today?" Han chortled to himself and took another bite
of dewback
steak. Chewbacca raised an eyebrow and cocked his
head. He had his
bowcaster
leaning against his leg, loaded and ready.
"Fna ho koru gep, Solo. Kras ka noota." Don't be
funny, Solo.
Give me the money.
"Sure. The money.
Happy to oblige. You want
something to eat
first? You look like you could use a good
meal."
Greedo realized Solo was putting him on,
and sudden anger flared
in his
veins. Impulsively he reached down and
grabbed Solo's shirt.
"Ka noota! Grot pieno ka Jabba spulta?" The money! Or would you
like to
explain to Jabba personally?
'2VNRRARRG!"Instantly Chewie was on
his feet, one huge shaggy arm
around
Greedo's neck, the other grippingthe bounty hunter's blaster
hand.
"Nfuto~!"
"Thanks, Chewie." Han stood up and casually wiped his mouth
with
a
napkin: He reached over and took Greedo's weapon, snapped open the
chamber,
and removed the power cell. He handed the
useless blaster
back to
Greedo.
"You know, kid, I was almost starting
to like you. Now I'm not so
sure. Let me give you some sage advice. Stay away from slugs
likeJabba. Find an honest way to make a living . . . Let him go,
Chewie."
"Hnnruaahn!" Chewie released his grip, and Greedo tumbled
forward. Han stepped out of the way and Greedo fell
against a table,
sending
.dishware crashing.
"Nice. Where does Jabba-find these punks? What
about the guy in the alley across the
street, Chewie?"
"Hwarru n ! " "Disappeared, huh? Another half-baked bounty
creep,
probably. You'd thinkJabba could buy the
best to track a guy
like
me!"
' 'Hurrwan nwrunnh."
"Yeah, I agree. We're 'playin' with fire hanging around here.
The Falcon's prepped--we could have jumped
this morning if Taggart
had kept
his promise.
If he doesn't show by tomorrow with that
load of glit terstim he
wants
transferred, we're history, okay with
you?"
"WNHUARRN!"
"I thought so:"
Jabba the Hutt was not amused.
"Kubwa fungo no jibo! You said this inexperienced slime-wart
could
collect from Solo! I ought to toss you
both into my private
dungeon
and let you rot!"
Or words to that effect. The great worm huffed and rumbled and
oozed
foulness. On either side of his throne
platform, Weequays and
Nikto
brandished their weapons ominously. As
usual, Jabba's audience
chamber
was crowded with the dregs of a hundred galactic civilizations.
Warhog Goa was abject. He groveled shamelessly before the bloated
drooling
crimelord. As he did so, he regretted
bringing Greedo back
here
without the prize. But he had to seek
another audience, to
persuade
Jabba to let Greedo kill Solo without collecting the debt.
That was the key. Now the words tumbled out in one breath--he
had
to say
it all before Jabba pronounced their deaths!
"Oh, most incomparable Jabba, as you
are well aware, Han Solo,
that
worthless piece of dianoga dung, is a very difficult customer.
May I suggest that you allow my prot6g6 to
simply kill Solo, and
take his
ship as payment for the debt he owes you?"
Jabba grunted and puffed his water pipe
thoughtfully.
Then he seemed to brighten, if that were
possible.
"Ne voota kinja. Jabba likes your suggestion. He will spare the
superfluous
life of your prot6g&" He looked straight at Greedo before
he spoke
again.
At a signal from Jabba, the silver
protocol droid, K-8LR, stepped
up and
translated Jabba's every evil word into the Rodian tongue: "You
may
bring me Solo so that I may kill him--or you may kill him yourself
and
deliver his ship's papers to me, Jabba has seen in his wisdom that
this
must be so."
Greedo breathed a sigh of relief and bowed
slavishly.
"Thank you, great Jabba. Your wisdom is--" "No kungo! But you
had
better work fast! ! now declare an open
bounty on Han Solo. And I
raise
the price for his head to one hundred thousand credits!"
"One hundred thousand!" said Goa.
"Every bounty hunter in the--"
"Yes. So true.
If your protege can't get Solo, somebody else most
certainly
will!"
Then Jabba leaned forward and once again
fastened his malevolent
eyes on
Greedo. "And if you do not fulfill
our bargain, you had better
start
running, little green insect. Bring me
Solo--alive or dead?'
1 1. The Cantina
There was live music today. The patrons were in an ugly mood.
Greedo and Goa sat in the booth next to
the lobby entrance. When
Solo and
the Wookiee came in, Solo pretended not to see them, but
Chewbacca
articulated a low growl as he passed Greedo.
"They know we're here, Warhog."
"Yeah. That's the idea. Are you ready to execute the plan?"
"Nchtha zno to. Fnrt pwusko vtulla' pa." I'm not sure.
I'm
getting
a bad feeling.
"Well, if you're not ready, I suggest
we head for by perspace,
before
Jabba finds out. I've got work to
do:" "Where's Dyyz?"
"He left this morning. Hitched a ride with 4-Lorn and Zuckuss.
Dyyz has a rich contract--a warlord who
decided to evict the Hutts
from the
Komnor system."
"Sounds like a difficult job."
"Very difficult. But Dyyz Nataz is the man to do it.
And you're the right hunter for the Han
Solo hit, Greedo my boy.
Are you ready?"
Just then there was a disturbance at the
bar. Shouting, a
scuffle,
then the sudden flash and drone of a lightsaber. A
dismembered
arm flew through the air, landing near Greedo's chair. The
music
stopped.
Greedo and Goa had noticed the old man and
the boy come in, and
they had
heard the bartender eject the droids. Goa
had noted the quiet
intensity
of the old man, and the thought had crossed his mind: He's
old, but
I wouldn't want to test myself against him in a blaster fight.
The room was deathly silent. Greedo sucked in his breath and
hooted
softly. "Nice piece of work for an
old man," he said.
"Must be a Jedi," said Goa. "I thought their kind were long
gone."
Greedo had never seen a Jedi.
The room came to life again, the band
resumed too-fling, the
bartender's
helper removed the mutilated arm. Somebody
ordered a round
of
drinks for the house.
"Check it, Greedo. The old man and the kid are talking to Solo
and the
Wook. You're going to have to wait your
turn."
Greedo didn't respond. His veins were pumping excitement at the
sudden
carnage.
The two Rodian bounty hunters strolled in,
and Goa motioned them
over to
the table. Greedo looked at his beer,
concentrating on what he
was going
to say to Solo.
"Boys . . . I'd like you to meet Greedo . . . my apprentice.
Greedo, this is Thuku and Neesh, two fine
bounty killers."
Greedo looked up and saw two pair of huge
eyes studying him with
detached
curiosity. Did he detect hostility
glinting in those
multifaceted
orbs? The one called Thuku held out a
suckered hand. "Wa
tetu dot
oota, Greedo."
"To ceko ura nsha," said Greedo,
allowing his suckers to briefly
engage
Thuku's. The three Rodians entered into
a short conversation,
while
Goa looked on, amused. Neesh told Greedo
he'd heard that Jabba
had
awarded him Han Solo as a quarry. Neesh
seemed impressed. Thuku
warned
Greedo that Solo "has already killed two of Jabba's bill
collectors
. . . Be careful, brother. You could be the next."
"Thanks for the advice," said
Greedo, with bravado.
"I'm not worried. I've got Warhog for backup, in case Solo or
the
Wookiee
try anything stupid."
The two fellow Rodians exchanged glances
with Goa, and Greedo
thought
he detected they were silently laughing at him.
Yeah, of
course
they think I'm a young fool.
Well, that's the way it is when you're
just starting out. I'll
show
'em!
Imperial stormtroopers entered the bar,
and a minute later, when
Greedo
looked across the room, Solo and the Wookiee were sitting alone.
The old man and the boy had disappeared.
After the Imps passed their table, Goa
unhRched his blaster and
placed
it in front of him. "Okay,
lad. This is your chance. If the
Wook
tries to interfere, I'll blast him to red smoke."
The moment had come. Greedo felt a mixture of fear and
excitement. He closed his eyes and gathered his
energies. Suddenly
his mind
filled with a bright image of a jungle world, dripping green
neon
leaves, a gathering of little huts and busy half-naked green
bodies.
He saw himself, and his brother Pqweeduk,
running under the tall
Tendril
trees, running toward the village. He
saw his mother standing
in the
clearing waiting for them. He saw
himself and his brother run
to her
and she held out her arms and hugged them both.
Then he was
inside
the vision, looking up into her huge eyes.
She was crying.
"What's the matter, Mother? Why are you sad? .... I am sad and I
am
happy, Greedo. I am sad because of what
must happen. I am happy
because
you are coming home."
Greedo snapped out of his trance and a
feeling like an electric
shock
went through him. What was that ? he thought.
Goa was staring at him with an annoyed
look.
"C'mon, kid. Are you gonna make your move? Solo and the Wook are
startin'
to leave!"
The Wookiee, Chewbacca, passed their table
and disappeared into
the
lobby. The perfect moment had arrived.
Greedo stood up, hand on his blaster.
"Oona goota, Solo?" Going somewhere, Solo?
"Yes, Greedo, in fact I was just
going to see your boss. Tell
Jabba
I've got the money."
"Sompeetalay. Vere tan te nacht vakee cheeta. Jabba warm cheeco
wa rush
anye katanye wanaroska."
Greedo
snickered. "Chas kin yanee ke
chusko!" It's too late, you
should
have paid him when you had the chance. Jabba's
put a price on
your
head so large every bounty hunter in the galaxy will be looking
for you.
"Yeah, but this time I've got the
money."
"Enjaya kul a intekun
kuthuow." And I found you first.
"I don't have it with me. Tell Jabba--"
"Tena hikikne. Hoko ruya pulyana oolwan spa steeka gush
shuku
ponoma
three pe." If you give it to me I
might forget I found you.
Jabba's through with you. He has no use for smugglers who drop
their
cargo at the first sign of an Imperial cruiser.
"Even I get boarded sometimes. You think I had a choice?"
"Tlok Jabba. Boopa gopakne et an anpaw." You can tell that to
Jabba. He may only take your ship.
"Over my dead body."
Goa saw the blaster coming out of Solo's
holster under the table.
He relaxed and leaned back, sipping his
Sunburn.
Poor Greedo, he thought.
"Ukle nyuma cheskopokuta klees ka
tlanko ya oska." That's the
idea. I've been looking forward to this for a long
time.
"Yes, I'll bet you have."
With a tremendous explosion of light and
noise Solo's blaster
propelled
a bolt of energy through the wooden table.
When the smoke
cleared
there was very little left of Greedo.
"Sorry about the mess," said
Solo, flipping the bartender a coin.
Spurch Warhog Goa met with the two Rodians
on Docking Bay 86, as
he made
ready to board his ship, the Nova Viper.
The tall one, Thuku, handed Goa a chest of
newly minted Rodian
coinage,
pure gold, each coin embossed with the image of Navik the Red.
"The Rodians thank you, Goa. We would have killed him ourselves,
but we
can't let it be known we are hunting our own kind."
"His clan are all sentenced to
die," said Neesh, making a snorting
noise
with his green snout.
Goa picked up one of the coins and watched
it glint in the
bright-hot
Tatooine sun. "Yeah . . . but tell ya the truth, boys,
this is
one bounty I ain't too proud of.
Least I didn't have to kill him
myself. I knew Solo would take
care of
that."
Hammertong:
The Tale of the "Tonnika
Sisters" by Timothy Zahn ~ ~ It's a
dilemma,
really, that's what it is," Dr.
Keller ling said in that
precise
Imperial Prime University voice of his that went so well with
his
young, upper-class-pampered face. And so
poorly with the decidedly
low-class
tapcafe he and the two women were sitting in.
~'On the one hand there's the whole question
of security,"
Kellering
continued. "Especially with all the
Rebel activity in this
sector. And I can assure you that Dr.
Eloy and I aren't the only persons within
the project who are
concerned
about it."
His forehead wrinkled in upper-class-pampered
perplexity.
"But on the other hand, Captain Drome
is extremely hot-tempered in
regard
to what he considers his personal territory.
If he knew I was
even
talking about this matter outside the compound, he'd be terribly
angry. Especially with people like--well, like
you."
Seated across the table from Kellering,
Shada D'ukal took a sip
from her
cup, the wine carrying with it a hint of remembered bitterness
and
shame. Like most girls growing up on
their war-devastated world,
the Mistryl
shadow guards had been the focus of all her hopes.
They had been the last heroes of her
people, the enigmatic cult of
warrior
women still fighting to force justice for her world from
uncaring,
even hostile, officials of the Empire. She
had begun her
training
as soon as they would take her, studying and working and
sweating
her way against the odds until, at last, she had been deemed
worthy
to be called a Mistryl. Assigned to a
team, she had headed out
on her
first mission.
Only to learn that the Mistryl were no
longer the valiant warriors
of
legend.
They were mercenaries. Nothing more than mercenaries.
Hiring out to useless, insipid people like
Keller-ing.
She sipped at her wine again, listening
with half an ear as
Kellering
prattled on, letting the memories fade.
Now, a year and seven missions later, the
shame had faded to a
dull
ache in the back of her mind. Someday,
she hoped, it would be
gone
altogether.
Beside Shada, Team Prime Manda D'ulin
lifted a hand, finally
putting
an end to Kellering's ramblings.
"We understand your problem, Dr. Kellering," she said. "May I
suggest
that you've already made your decision.
Otherwise the three of us wouldn't be
sitting here."
"Yes, of course." Kellering sighed. "I suppose I'm still--but
that's
foolish. The Mistryl may be somewhat
--but still, you certainly
come
highly recommended.
When my cousin was telling me about you,
he said you had" "The
mission,
Doctor," Manda interrupted again.
"Tell us about the mission."
"Yes.
Of course." Kellering took a
deep breath, his eyes darting
around
the crowded tapcare as if wondering which of the humans or
aliens
at the other tables out there might be Imperial spies. Or maybe
he was just
wondering what he was doing outside his pampered little
academic
world. Consorting with mercenaries.
"I'm connected to a research project
called Hammertong," he said,
his
voice so low now that Shada could barely hear it over the
background
noise.
"My superior, Dr. Eloy, is senior scientist of the group.
A couple of weeks ago the Emperor's
representative to the project
informed
us that we were all going to be moved to some new location.
We're to leave in three days."
"And you don't think Captain Drome is
handling security properly?"
Manda asked.
Kellering shrugged uncomfortably. "Dr.
Eloy doesn't. The two of
them
have had several arguments about it."
"So what exactly do you want from
us?"
"I suppose--well, I really don't
know," Kellering confessed,
throwing
hooded looks back and forth between the two women. "I suppose
I
thought we could talk to Captain Drome about you bringing in some
people
to help guard us en route . .
." He trailed off, apparently
finally
noticing the expression on Manda's face.
"Let me explain something about the
Mistryl, Dr.
Kellering," she said, her voice still
polite but with an edge of
chromed
mullinine to it. "Your cousin
probably told you we were just
your
standard group of fringe mercenaries. We're
not. He probably
told you
we sell our services to the highest bidder, no questions or
ethics
involved. We don't. The Mistryl are the warriors of a
forgotten
cause; and if we hire ourselves out as temporary security to
people
like you, it's because our world and our people require money to
survive. We will not work with Imperial forces. Ever."
Strong words. But that was all they were. There was a great deal
of
simmering hatred toward the Empire among the Mistryl, anger for
their
suspected complicity during the war and for their complete
indifference
since then. But with the remnant of
their people living
on the
edge of survival, the simple cold truth was that the Mistryl
couldn't
afford to turn down anything but the most odious of offers
from the
most odious of people.
Manda could sound as high-minded as she
wanted to, but in the end
she and
the team would accept Kel-lering's job.
And as she had seven times before, Shada
would do her best to help
them
fulfill the contract. Because the other
simple cold truth was
that she
had nowhere else to go.
But of course, Kellering didn't know that;
and from the look on
his
face, Manda might have just dropped a large building on him. "Oh,
no,"
he breathed.
"Please. We need you.
Look, we're not really with the
Empire--we're
funded by them, but we're actually a completely
independent
research group."
"I see," Manda murmured,
frowning thoughtfully.
Making a show of the decision-making
process, probably in hopes of
stifling
any protest on Kellering's part when she finally named her
price. With an Imperial-funded project, that price
was likely to be
high.
It was.
"All right," Manda said at last. "We can bypass your
Captain
Drome entirely and run you a forward screen net that should
flash
out the sort of ambushes the Rebel Alliance likes to stage these
days,
You said three days till departure; that'll give us time to bring
a few
other teams in. We should be able to
field a minimum of ten
ships in
the screen, plus a two-ship aft guard in case the Rebels try
something
cute." She lifted her eyebrows
slightly. "The fee will be
thirty
thousand."
Kellering's eyes bulged. "Thirty thousand?" He gulped.
"You got it," Manda said. "Take it or don't."
Shada watched Kellering's face as it went
through the run of
shock,
nervousness, and discomfiture. But as
Manda had pointed out, if
he
hadn't already made his decision they wouldn't be here. "All
right,"
he sighed. "All right. Dr.
Eloy can cut you a credit when we
meet
with him this afternoon."
Manda shot Shada a quick glance. "You want us to meet with Dr.
Eloy?"
"Of course." Kellering seemed surprised by the
question.
"He's the one most worried about security."
"Yes, but . . . where would we meet him? Here?"
"No, at the compound," Kellering
said. "He almost never leaves
there. Don't worry, I can get you in."
"What about Drome?" Manda asked.
"You said yourself he was
pretty
touchy on the subject of outsiders."
"Captain Drome isn't in charge of the
project," Kel-lering s. aid
with
precise firmness. "Dr. Eloy is."
"Such details seldom bother Imperial
military of-ricers," Manda
countered. "If he catches us therein" "He
won't," Kellering assured
her. "He won't even know you're there. Besides, you need to see how
the
Hammertong's been loaded aboard the ship if you're going to know
how to
properly protect it."
Manda didn't look happy, but she nodded
nevertheless.
"All right," she said, her hand
curling into a subtle signal as
she did
so. "I have a couple of matters to
attend to here first, but
after
that I'll be happy to come with you, Shada can go off planet in
my place
and get the rest of the team assembled."
"Understood." Shada nodded.
The team didn't need any assembling,
of
course--all six of them were right here in this tapcafe, with their
two
disguised fighters, the Skyclaw and Mirage, parked in separate
docking
bays across town. But it was as good an
excuse as any for
Shada to
disappear from sight. Backups, after
all, weren't supposed to
be seen.
"Good," Manda said briskly. "Have the others here in Gorno by
nightfall. In the meantime--" She gestured
Kellering toward the door.
"We'll go deal with a couple of
details, and then go meet your Dr.
Eloy."
"They're approaching the gate,"
Pav D'armon's voice murmured from
one of
the two comlinks fastened to Shada's collar.
"Two guards
visible,
but I see movement in the gatehouse behind the fence. Could
be as
many as six or seven more in there."
"Copy," Shada acknowledged,
stroking a finger restlessly across
the side
of her sniper's blaster rifle and wishing Pav wouldn't get so
chatty
on the air. Mistryl comlinks were
heavily encrypted, but that
wouldn't
stop the Imperials from pinpointing the transmissions if they
took it
into their heads to do so. And this
close to a major base,
that was
a distinct possibility.
The base.
Lifting her eyes from the section of road winding
through
the hills below--the road Manda and Kellering would be
traversing
in a few minutes if they made it through the gate Shada
studied
the waves of rolling hills that stretched into the distance
beyond
the innocuous security fence cutting across her view. It
certainly
looked like the agricultural test ground the signs on the
fence
claimed it to be, not at all like the weapons-bristling popular
image of
an Imperial military research base. But
its strategic
location,
within fifty kilometers of the Gorno spaceport and four major
technical
supply and transport centers, made its true identity obvious.
Perhaps too obvious. Perhaps that was why they were moving
everyone
out. She wondered how they would handle
it: subtly with
freighters,
or blatantly with Imperial Star Destroyers.
Kellering had
implied
this Ham-mertong thing had already been loaded for transport; a
look at
the ship they were using should give Manda a clue as to how
they were
going to go about it. That would affect
how their screen net
would be
put together". They're
through," 'Pav reported. "Gate's
closing.
They're headed your way."
"Copy," Shada said,
frowning. There was something in Pav's
voice
. . .
"Trouble?"
"I don't know," Pav said
slowly. "It all looks okay.
But there's something here that feels
wrong, somehow."
Shada tightened her grip on her blaster
rifle. Pav might be a
chattercase
on the com, but she hadn't survived long enough to become
Manda's
team second without good combat instincts.
"What do you mean?"
"I'm not sure," Pav said. "They got through just a little bit too
quickw"
And abruptly, Pav's voice dissolved into an earsplitting shriek
of
jamming static.
With a curse, Shada ripped the comlink
from her collar with her
left
hand, throwing it as far away from her as she could. So much for
Kellering's
naive assurances of safety. In the split
of a hair the
thing
had suddenly gone sour . . . and Manda
and Pav were right in the
middle
of it.
With Shada herself about to come in a
close third.
Beyond the fence, from over the next line
of hills, the gleaming
white
figures of a dozen stormtroopers on speeder bikes had suddenly
appeared. Headed her way.
Shada cursed again, lining up her blaster
rifle with her right
hand as
she groped for the switch on her backup comlink with her left.
If they were lucky, they'd have a minute
before the Imperials
found
that frequency and locked it down too. She
located the switch,
flicked
it on " trap--repeat, a trap," Pav was saying, her voice tight.
"They've got Manda--she's down. Probably.
And they're coming for
me."
"Pav, it's Shada," Shada cut in,
squinting through the sight and
squeezing
off a shot. The lead storm-trooper's
speeder bike exploded
into a
shower of sparks, pitching him to the ground and nearly doing
the same
to the two on either side of him. "I
can be there to back you
up in
two minutes."
"Negative," Pav said. The tension in her voice was
gone, leaving a sad sort of resignation
that sent a cold chill up
Shada's
neck. "They're already too
close. I'll do what I can to keep
them
busy--you and Karoly had better get back to the ships and get out
of
here. Good luck, and good--" There
was a brief crinkle of sound,
and then
silence.
Ahead, the speeder bikes had shifted into
evasive maneuvers.
Shada fired four rapid shots, catching
another of the
stormtroopers
with the third of them.
"Karoly?" she called toward her comlink. "Karoly?
Are you
there?"
"They're gone, Shada," Karoly
D'ulin said, her voice almost
unrecognizable. "They're gone. The storm-trooperst" "Snap out of
it,"
Shada
snarled, keying the Viper grenade launcher attached to her
blaster
rifle barrel.
The recoil kicked the gun hard into her
shoulder as the slender
cylinder
blasted out toward the approaching stormtroopers. "Can you
get to
your speeder?"
There was a short pause, and Shada could
imagine Karoly's earnest
face as
she pulled herself together.
"Yes," she said. "Are we retreating?"
"Not a chance," Shada said
through gritted teeth, getting halfway
to her
feet and heading at a crouch toward the bushes where her speeder
bike was
hidden.
"We're heading in. Get moving." The approaching stormtroopers,
finally
presented with a target, opened fire-Just as the grenade hit
the
ground ten meters in front of them, exploding into a billowing
cloud of
green smoke.
"We're going in?" Karoly echoed in disbelief.
"Shada--" "I'm
clear." Shada cut her off, slinging
the rifle over
her
shoulder and kicking the speeder bike to life.
Over the roar of
the
engine she could hear the thuds of her erstwhile attackers falling
out of
the sky as the specially formulated smoke burned into the
speeder
bikes' power connectors. "Call Cai
and Sileenmtell them to
bring
the ships in for backup."
"But where are we going?."
Shada swung the speeder bike around. Manda and Pav were gone, and
she knew
that eventually the pain of that loss would catch up with her.
But for right now, she had only enough
room for a single emotion.
Rage.
"We're going to teach the Imperials a
lesson," she told Karoly.
Kicking the throttle to full power, she
jumped the fence, curved
around
the edge of the green cloud, and headed in.
It was a little over ten kilometers from
the outer fence to the
main
base area, and for the first eight of them Shada flew low over the
rolling
hills and wondered where in blazes the vaunted Imperial
defenses
were. Either they hadn't thrown this
ambush together until
Kellering's
ground car pulled up at the gate, or else they'd assumed
their
quarry would run for it and had concentrated their forces out
beyond the
fence.
Or else they were concentrating on
Karoly. Blinking against the
wind
pounding against her face, trying not to think about what she
might
have gotten her teammate into, Shada kept going.
She was two kilometers out when the
Imperials seemed to finally
wake up
to the fact they had an intruder in their midst . . . and
those
two kilometers more than made up for the preceding eight. Three
Mekuun
hoverscouts rose from nowhere to meet her, bolstered by two more
squads
of speeder-bike storm-troopers.
Off to the side, sections of two hills
opened up, revealing a pair
of what
looked like Comar an-tiatmospheric guns.
The air around her
was
suddenly thick with blaster and laser bolts, some missing, the rest
deflected
by shields that hadn't really been designed with this kind of
all-out
attack in mind. Clenching her teeth hard
enough to hurt, Shada
kept
going, maneuvering and returning fire on pure reflex. Off to her
left,
she could see another whirlwind of Imperial activity near where
Karoly
should be coming into
And then, suddenly, the hoverscouts and
speeder
bikes seemed to scramble out of her
path. The Comar guns shifted
their
aim away from herin And with a screaming roar the Skyclaw shot
past
overhead, spitting a withering fire of laser blasts at the
Imperials.
"Kan si manis per tam, Sha,"
Sileen's voice blared from the
Skyclaw's
belly loudspeaker. "Mi nazh
ko."
"Sha kae," Shada shouted back,
shifting fifteen' degrees to her
left as
per Sileen's instructions and permitting herself a flash of
cold
satisfaction. The Imperials might be
able to jam comlinks and
slice
sophisticated encrypts, but she would bet starships to
groundworms
they wouldn't have the faintest idea what to do with
Mistryl
battle language. To her left, she could
see Cai and the Mirage
now,
running cover for Karoly, and she made a quick estimate of their
intersect
point. Just over the next row of hills,
she decided.
Dropping a little lower to the ground-,
she braced herself for
whatever
Sileen had sent her toward.
She topped the hills; and there, nestled
in a wide valley, was a
complex
of perhaps twenty buildingg, ranging in size from flat office
blocks
to a single windowless structure the size of a capital ship
maintenance
hangar. The Hammertong base, without a
doubt.
And lying in the middle of it all,
dominating the scene by the
sheer
unexpectedness of its presence there, was the long sleek shape of
a
Loronar Strike Cruiser.
"Sha re rei sam kava no talae,"
Sileen's voice boomed again from
above
her. Without waiting for an answer, both
fighters veered off to
the
right.
A motion to her left caught Shada's eye,
and she turned as
Karoly's
speeder bike slid into formation beside her.
"You all righO"
Shada
called.
"Yes," Karoly shouted back. She still looked nervous, but at
least
she didn't look as if she were going to freeze up again. "What
did
Sileen say? I didn't catch it."
"More Imperials coming," Shada
said. "She and Cai are going to
intercept."
"What about us?"
Shada nodded toward the Strike
Cruiser. "We're going to make the
Imperials
hurt a little. Bow hatchway's
open--let's try to get there
before
they get it sealed."
They found out immediately what two of the
smaller buildings on
the
periphery of the complex were for, as sections of wall fell away
and four
more Comar guns opened fire. But it was
too little too late.
Between the harassment from the two
fighters and the small size
and
maneuverability of the speeder bikes themselves, Shada and Karoly
made it
past the hot drive nozzles at the Strike Cruiser's stern and
into the
relative shelter of its flank with no damage apart from
burned-out
shields.
"Pretty rotten security they've got
here," Karoly huffed as they
headed
toward the bow hatchway. An instant
later she nearly had to
swallow
those words as, from the ground beside the landing ramp, a
dozen
Imperials opened fire with blaster rifles.
But the two speeder
bikes
had the edge in both firepower and targeting accuracy, and they'd
covered
no more than half the Strike Cruiser's four-hundred,fifty-meter
length
before that nest of opposition had been silenced.
"Now what?" Karoly asked as they braked to a halt at the
foot of
the
ramp.
"We do some damage," Shada said,
half standing up on her speeder
bike and
taking a quick look around.
There was still some resistance, mostly
from the Comars and the
handful
of speeder-bike stormtroopers that hadn't yet been blown out of
the
sky. She and Karoly should have enough
time to make their way to
tide
Strike Cruiser's bridge, drop a canister or two of their corrosive
green
smoke where it would do the most good, and get the blazes out
again.
And then, over the distant hills ahead, a
new group of Imperial
forces
appeared, burning through the air toward them like scorched
mynocks. "Uh-oh," Karoly muttered. "I take it back about their
security. Maybe we'd better get out while we still
can."
Shada took a deep breath, her last views
of Manda's and Pav's
faces
floating up from her memory. "Not
until we've hurt them," she
said,
swiveling around and pointing her speeder bike at the ramp.
"Stay here long enough to give me a
two-minute warning, then you
can take
off."
Karoly hissed between her teeth. "Get moving," she gritted out as
she
dropped her speeder bike into the limited protection of the ramp
and
unslung her blaster rifle. "I'll
cover you. Make it fast."
"Bet on it," Shada agreed
tightly, trying to visualize the
standard
Strike Cruiser layout as she headed up the ramp. She would
have to
go forward about ten meters along the exit corridor, then
starboard
to the central corridor, then forward another twenty meters
to get
to the bridge. Standard Strike Cruiser
complement was something
over two
thousand crewers; if there was even a fraction of that number
aboard
who felt like getting in her way . . .
but she would just have
to do
what she could. She reached the top of
the ramp, swerving to the
side as
she passed under the hatchway arch to avoid the exit corridor
bulkheadAnd
lurched to an abrupt halt. "Mother
of---" "What?"
Karoly's
voice snapped from the comlink on her collar.
"Shada? What is it?"
For a moment Shada was too stunned even to
speak.
Stretched out in front of her, where the
command rooms, crew
quarters,
and combat stations should have been, was a vast cavern of
open
space, three hundred meters long and nearly fifty in diameter,
running
all the way from the bow to the main drive section. A heavily
reinforced
deck had been built across the bottom of the huge room,
connected
to the outer hull by an intricate spiderwebbing of support
lines
and bracing struts.
And extending down the center of the chamber
for at least
three-quarters
of its length was a three-meter-diameter cylinder
studded
with thousands of pipe connections and multicolored power and
control
cable linkages. Carefully
wrap-protected, just as carefully
static-fastened
to the deck, all ready for travel.
The Hammertong.
"Shada?" Karoly called again.
Shada swallowed, glancing around. The chamber seemed to be
deserted,
its crew or workers probably those who'd been shooting at
them
from the foot of the ramp. To her left,
at the far forward end of
the
chamber, the standard Strike Cruiser bridge had been replaced by a
simplified
freighter-style cockpit, also unmanned.
And from the looks of the status
displays--and the way those drive
nozzles
had been humming when she and Karoly had passed themit looked
as if
they'd been running an active status check on the flight systems
when the
Mistryl attack had interrupted them.
Which meant the ship should be pretty much
ready to fly . . .
"Change of plans," she told
Karoly, swiveling around and gunning
the
speeder bike forward toward the cockpit setup.
"Get in here. And
seal the
door behind you."
She was running the start-up procedure at
the Strike Cruiser's
helm by
the time Karolyjoined her. "Mother
of space and time," Karoly
breathed,
backing up to the copilot's seat, her eyes goggling at the
room
behind them. "Is that the
Hammertong thing Kellering was talking
about?"
"I don't know what else it could
be," Shada said, mentally
crossing
her fingers as she eased in the repul-sorlifts.
A ship this size wasn't really designed to
come this deep into a
gravity
well . . . but it seemed to be lifting
okay. The Imperials
must
have added more repulsorlifts while they were gutting the
interior. "Get the comm adjusted to our frequency,
will you?"
"Sure." Still keeping half an eye behind them, Karoly
sat down
and
busied herself with the comm.
"What's the plan?"
"The Imperials went to a lot of work
to build that thing and
modify a
.ship to transport it," Shada said, giving the displays a
careful
scan. For all their arrogance, the
Imperials weren't stupid,
especially
when it came to hardware as impressive as the Hammertong.
If their ground defenses had been
low-profile, they were bound to
have
some heavy space-based weaponry nearby to back it up.
But if it was there, it wasn't showing up
on the displays.
Hiding around the horizon? Or could the Mistryl counterattack
have
caught the whole bunch of them by surprise?
Either way, there was no percentage in
waiting around for them to
get
their seats under their rears.
"You got Cai and Sileen
yet?" she asked Karoly.
"Almost," Karoly said, her hands
busy on the board.
"I'm running a split-freq mix . . . there we go."
"Shada? Karoly?"
Sileen's voice came over the speaker.
"What in
blazes
are you doing?"
"We're giving the Empire a bloody
nose," Shada said. The Strike
Cruiser
had cleared the boundary of the base now and was starting to
pick up
speed, leaving what was left of the speeder-bike force behind
them.
"Shada--look, we're all upset about
Manda and Pav," Sileen said
carefully. "But this is just crazy.
You're going to bring the whole Imperial
fleet down on top of us."
"They need to know they can't just go
around killing Mistryl,"
Shada
retorted. "Not without paying
dearly for it. Karoly and I can
handle
it ourselves if you want to leave."
There was a hissing sigh from the
speaker. "No, we'd better stick
together,"
Sileen said. "Anyway, what can the
Empire do to us that
hasn't
already been done?"
"I'm in, too," Cai said. "One small question: Now that we've got
the
Hammertong, what are we going to do with it?"
Shada glanced back at the long silent
cylinder behind her, the
enormity
of what she'd gotten them into belatedly starting to sink in.
What were they going to do with the
Hammertong? She and Karoly
could
nurse the Strike Cruiser along for a short flight by themselves,
but that
was it. Anything beyond that--fancy
maneuvering, combat, even
basic
running maintenance--was out of the question.
"We'll have to
ditch
the ship," she told the others. "Someplace
close by. Find a way
to hide
it, then see if we can disassemble the Ham-mertong into pieces
we can
put aboard one of our own freighters."
"Sounds tricky," Karoly
said. "You got someplace in
mind?"
"We've got company," Sileen cut
in before Shada could answer.
"Imperial Star Destroyer, coming out
of hyperspace aft."
"Got it," Karoly said, swiveling
around to the sensor section of
the
board. "Confirm one Imperial Star
Destroyer.
Launching TIE fighters."
"The base probably called for
help," Shada said, keying the
navcomputer. This was it: no second thoughts, no chance of
grounding
the
Strike Cruiser and escaping aboard the fighters. They were
committed
now. "Cai, Sileen, here comes your
course feed--code
Bitterness. Make the jump to lightspeed as soon as you
can; we'll be
right
behind you."
There was a brief pause. "You sure this is where you want to
go?"
Sileen asked.
"I don't see us having a lot of
choices," Shada said.
"It"s close, it hasn't got much
of an Imperial presence, and the
locals
don't ask a lot of questions." She
could imagine Sileen gazing
out at
the Strike Cruiser and wondering just how far the locals'
indifference
was going to stretch. But-"All
right," was all Sileen
said. "You want both of us to come with you,
or should I head out and
try to scare
up a freighter?"
"That's a good idea," Shada
agreed. "Go ahead. Cai
and Karoly and I can handle this
end."
"Okay. Good luck."
The Skyclaw flickered with pseudomotion
and vanished into
hyperspace. "Here we go," Shada muttered,
keying in their course and
hoping
fervently that the Imperials hadn't torn the hyperdrive apart as
part of
the ship's preflight check. Those TIE
fighters back there were
getting
uncomfortably close, and there wasn't much margin for error
here. "Everything set there, Karoly?"
"Looks like it," Karoly said,
checking over her own board. "You
going to
let me in on the big secret of where we're going?"
"No secret," Shada said,
reaching for the hyperdrive levers.
"Just a useless little hole in
space. Called Tatooine."
It was not so much a landing as it was a
marginally controlled
crash;
and by the time the Strike Cruiser had skidded to a halt against
one of
the rippling sand dunes, it was clear to Shada that the ship
would
never leave there again. Not without a
great deal of assistance.
"Terrific landing," Karoly
commented, her breath coming a little
heavily
as she shut down the drive. "I
presume it's occurred to you
that we
stick out here like a Wookiee wearing landing lights."
"Not for long we won't," Shada
said, checking the displays. "That
cloud to
the west is the leading edge of a sandstorm.
Another hour and
no one's
going to find us. Come on, let's go take
a lookat our new
toy."
They had the wrap-protection off the first
couple of meters of the
Hammertong
by the time Cai joined them. "Any
trouble?" Shada asked.
"Not really," Cai said, stepping
up to the Ham-mertong and peering
closely
at it. "I'm not sure they even
picked me up coming in. They
sure
didn't hail
me."
"Usually no one bothers with ships
that aren't coming into the
spaceport
at Mos Eisley," Shada said. "A
lot of contraband comes
through
Tatooine, and everyone pretty much looks the other way."
"I'm glad one of us keeps up with
these things," Cai said dryly.
"So this is the Hammertong, huh? Any idea what it is?"
"Not yet," Shada said. "How's your astromech droid doing these
days?"
"Deefour? Erratic but functional. You want me to go get him?"
Shada
nodded. "We'll want to get a
technical readout at the very
least. Is the Mirage ready for that sandstorm?"
"As ready as it's going to be,"
Cai said, heading back toward the
hatchway. "I tried to position it to keep a
passage clear to both
ships,
and we can put the hatchway deflector shields up just to make
sure. I'll be right back."
The full force of the sandstorm hit about
ten minutes after Cai
and the
droid returned; and it took less than ten minutes more for
Shada to
wonder if this whole idea might not have been a big mistake.
Even through the thick hull they could
hear the drumming of the
sand
against the ship, a drumming that was growing louder with each
passing
minute. The plan had been to hide the
Strike Cruiser from
probing
Imperial eyes; it would be a rather costly victory if they all
wound up
entombed inside it.
Cai was apparently thinking along the same
lines.
"That's all the bolts down
there," she said, climbing out from
under
the Hammertong and handing her hydrospanner to Karoly. "I'm
going to
go check on the storm. Make sure we're
not getting buried too
deep."
"Good idea," Shada said,
returning her attention to her own line
of
bolts. She finished them, waited as
Karoly finished hers, and then
together
they eased the massive access panel off.
The Hammertong's inner workings weren't
nearly as complex as the
number
of pipe and power connections poking through the surface would
have
suggested.
Most of the power and control cables
seemed to run to a series of
multihelix
prismatic crystals and a group of unlabeled but identical
black
boxes; the piping seemed mostly connected to coolant lines and
sleeves. "Maybe it's some new kind of power
core," Shada suggested.
"It's a modular design--see how the
pattern of connectors repeats
every
five meters down the side? We ought to
be able to take it apart
at those
spots."
"Maybe," Karoly said, prodding
thoughtfully at one of the black
boxes
with the end of her hydrospanner.
"Deefour, see if you can find a place
to tie in. Might as well
start
pulling a technical readout--we're going to want everything we
can get
on this thing."
"Hey?
Cai called from the cockpit area.
"Shada, Karoly--you'd
better
come see this."
She was hunched over the main display,
fiddling with the
fine-tuning,
when the other two reached her.
"What is it?" Shada demanded.
"I'm not sure," Cai said. "Hard to tell through all the sand, but
I think
there's a battle going on up there.
An Imperial Star Destroyer against
something about the size of a
bulk
freighter."
Shada leaned over the display, heart
pounding. If Sileen had been
unexpectedly
fast at bringing in transport for them .
. . "Can you
scrub
the image any more?" she asked.
"I'm at the limit already," Cai
said. "It's the sand-storm--wait
a
minute, there's a break. It's a
Corellian Corvette."
Shada let out a quiet sigh. Not one of the Mistryl's ships, then.
"I wonder what's going on."
"I
don't know," Cai said slowly. "Wait
a minute. Two more Star
Destroyers
coming in from hyperspace."
"That's a lot of firepower for a
planet like Tatooine," Karoly
said. "They only had one Star Destroyer
guarding the Hammertong."
"Unless one or more of these were
supposed to have been there,
too,"
Shada suggested. "Could be they got
pulled away to help chase
that
Corellian."
"Either way, the Corellian must be
pretty important to them," Cai
said. "We could be in the middle of something
really big here."
Shada looked back at the Hammertong
and,the diminutive droidr
working
alongside it. Cai was right . . .
and suddenly she was feeling very short on
time. "Cai, do you
think we
could get one of those modules off the Hammertong?"
"We could try. Probably take a couple of days with just the
three
of us
and Deefour. Why?"
"l don't think we're going to be able
to wait for Sileen to bring
back a
ship," Shada said. "If she
hasn't made it in by the time we get
one of
those modules off, we'd better take what we've got and get out
of
here."
"You'll never get one of those
modules into the Mi- ' rage,"
Karoly
objected. "It's way too big."
"I know," Shada said. "That's why, if it comes to that, you
and I
will go
to Mos Eisley and hire ourselves a freighter.
Come on, let's
get
started."
"Over there," Shada said,
pointing toward a dilapidated building
across
the sandy Mos Eisley street and double-checking her datapad.
"That's the cantina."
"Doesn't look like much," Karoly
said, swinging the Mirage's
antique
speeder over toward it. "You really
think we're going to find
a good
pilot in there?"
"Someone in the Mistryl thought
so." Shada shrugged. "It was the
top name
on the contingency list for Tatooine."
"I doubt that's a really telling
recommendation," Karoly grumbled,
letting
the speeder coast to a stop. "I
don't like this, Shada. I
really
don't."
"Brea, not Shada," Shada
corrected her. "And you're
Senni. Don't
forget
that inside or this whole thing could fall apart."
"It's got a good chance of doing that
all by itself," Karoly shot
back. "Look, just because a couple of
stormtroopers on traffic duty
bought
this charade"--she gestured sharply at the slinky jumpsuit and
hived-hairdo
wig she was wearing--"doesn't mean anyone who actually
knows
the Tonnika sisters is going to fall for it.
They're not."
"Well, we certainly can't use our own
names and IDs," Shada
pointed
out, trying to hide her own nervousness about this masquerade.
"This place is crawling with
stormtroopers already, and if they
haven't
got listings on us yet, they will soon. The
Mistryl have been
running
this camouflage prematch system for a long time now, and I've
never
yet heard of it failing. If it says the
two of us can pass as
Brea and
Senni Tonnika, then we can."
"Looking like them and acting like
them are two very different
things,"
Karoly countered. "Besides which,
pretending to be a couple
of
criminals is not my idea of keeping low."
She had a point, Shada had to admit. Brea and
Senni Tonnika were professional con
artists~good · ones, too--who
were
said to have separated an impressive amount of wealth from an
equally
impressive list of the galaxy's rich and powerful. Under
normal
circumstances, borrowing their identities would indeed not be a
smart
way to stay inconspicuous.
But the circumstances here were far from
normal.
"We don't have any choice," she
said firmly. "Complete strangers
automatically
draw attention, and a place like Mos Eisley is always
crawling
with informants.
Especially now. Our only chance of keeping the Imperials off
us
is to
look as if we belong here. To
everyone." She looked out at the
cantina. Karoly was right; the place didn't look very
inviting. "If
you'd
rather, you can stay out here and watch the door. I can find a
pilot by
myself."
Karoly sighed. "We're going to have to talk someday
about these
sudden
surges of recklessness. Come on, we're
wasting time."
Shada had held out the hope that, like
certain other criminal dens
she'd
heard of, the cantina's interior would be a marked improvement
over its
exterior. But it wasn't. From the dark, smoke-filled lobby
and
flickering droid detector to the curved bar and secluded booths
along
the walls, the cantina was as shabby as some of the less choice
tapcafes
on their own world.
Karoly had been right: Being number one on
Tatooine wasn't saying
much.
"Watch. the steps," Karoly murmured beside her.
"Thanks," Shada said, catching
herself in time not to trip over
the
steps leading down from the lobby to the main part of the cantina.
She hadn't realized until then just how
much her eyes were having
to
adjust from the bright sunlight outside to the dimness of the
interior.
Probably deliberately designed to give
those already inside a
chance
to check out any newcomers.
But if any of the patrons were overly
curious about her and
Karoly,
they weren't showing it. Around the
room, humans and aliens of
all
sorts were sitting or squatting at the tables and booths or leaning
against
the bar, drinking a dozen different liquids and chatting in a
dozen
different languages and not paying the least bit of attention to
the new
arrivals. Apparently, the Tonnika
sisters were familiar enough
to the
clientele to be known on sight.
Or else minding one's own business was the
general
rule here.
Either way, it suited Shada just fine.
"What now?" Karoly asked.
"Let's go over to the bar,"
Shada said, nodding to an empty spot
against
one side. "We can see the room
better from there than from a
table or
booth. We'll get a drink and see if we
can find anyone from
our
listings."
They made their way through the general
flow of bodies to the bar.
Across the room, a Bith band was belting
out some bouncy but
otherwise
nondescript tune, the music not quite able to drown out the
mix of
conversations. Partway around the bar a
tall not-quite-human
was
smoking from an oddly shaped loop pipe and gazing off broodingly
into
space; beyond him, an Aqualish and a badly scarred man were
drinking
and glaring around at other customers; beyond them, another
tall
human was holding a quiet conversation with an even taller
Wookiee.
"What'11 you have?" a surly voice asked.
Shada focused on the bartender standing
there in front of them.
The expression on his face matched his
voice; but there seemed to
be some
recognition behind the indifference in his eyes.
Enough to risk an experimenL "We'll
have the usual," she told him.
He grunted and busied himself at the
bar. Shada glanced at
Karoly's
suddenly aghast expression, winked reassuringly, and turned
back as
the bartender put two slender glasses in front of them. He
grunted
again and walked away.
Shada picked up her glass, willing the
tension to flow out of her.
"Cheers," she said, lifting the
glass to Karoly.
"Are you crazy?" Karoly hissed back.
"Would you rather I had ordered
something way out of character for
us?" Shada asked, taking a careful sip: Some kind
of Sullustan wine,
she
decided. "Let's get started."
Still glowering, Karoly pulled the slender
cylinder of their
spies'
scanner/datapad from her jumpsuit and flicked it on. "All
right,"
she muttered, glancing back and forth between it and the
cantina's
patrons. "The fellow with the loop
pipe . . . never mind,
he's an
assassin.
Those two Duros over there . . . no listing here for them."
"Their flight suits look too neat for
smugglers, anyway," Shada
said. Across the bar, an old man with white hair
and beard and dressed
in a
brown robe stepped up to the Wookiee and his tall companion.
There was a short conversation between the
two humans, and then
the tall
human gestured to the Wookiee and wandered away. "What about
that
Aqual-ish over there?"
"I was just checking him,"
Karoly said, peering down at the end of
the
scanner. "Name's Ponda Baba, and
he's definitely a smuggler. That
scarface
beside him--"
"Hey!" the bartender barked.
Shada stiflened, her hand reaching
reflexively for her hidden
knife.
But the bartender wasn't looking at
her. "We don't
serve their kind here," he snapped, gesturing
sharply.
"What?" came a voice from behind her.
Shada turned around. At the top of the steps stood a boy about
her own
age, dressed in loose white clothing and frowning in puzzlement
at the
bartender. Beside him were two droids, a
protocol droid and an
astromech
unit similar to Cai's Deefour model. "Your
droids," the
bartender
growled. "They'll have to wait
outside--we don't want them
here."
The kid spoke briefly to the droids, who
turned and scurried back
out. Continuing down the steps alone, he moved
over to the bar and
gingerly
wedged himself in between the Aqualish and the old man in the
brown
robe.
"The scarface is named Dr. Evazan," Karoly said.
"I've got ten death sentences listed
here for him."
"For smuggling?" Shada asked, frowning at the brown-robed old
man. There was something about him; some sense of
quiet alertness and
self-control
and power that set the hairs tingling on the back of her
neck.
"No," Karoly said slowly. "Botched surgical experiments.
Yecch."
"We'll keep him in mind as a last
resort," Shada said, her eyes
and
thoughts still on the brown-robed man. Whoever
he was, he
definitely
didn't fit in with the rest of the clientele.
An Imperial
spy,
perhaps?
"That old man over there--do a check
on him," she told Karoly.
The kid was still standing on his other
side, gawking around like
a
tourist. Were they together?
Grandfather and grandson, maybe, in from
the countryside to see
the big
city?
And then, abruptly, the Aqualish gave the
kid a shove and snarled
something
at him. The kid looked at him blankly,
then turned back to
the
bar. Stepping away from the bar, smiling
rather like a predator
preparing
himself for lunch, Dr. Evazan tapped the
kid on the
shoulder. "He doesn't like you," he said.
"Sorry," the kid breathed,
starting to turn away again.
Evazan grabbed a handful of the kid's
clothing and yanked him back
around. "I don't like you, either," he
snarled, shoving his mangled
face
close to the kid's.
Around them, conversations came to a halt
as heads turned to look.
"You just watch yourself,"
Evazan continued.
"We're wanted men."
"Uh-oh," Karoly said quietly.
Shada nodded silently. The kid was in for it now--she'd seen
enough
tapcafe fights to know a setup when she saw one. "We're staying
out of
it," she reminded Karoly.
"But if they get arrested--"
Shada cut her off with a sharp
gesture. Smoothly, gracefully, as
if he'd
been fully aware of the situation from the start, the old man
had
turned away from his conversation with the Wookiee. "This little
one's
not worth the effort," he said soothingly to Evazan.
"Come, let me get you
something."
It was, Shada realized, as neat a
face-saving gesture as she'd
ever
seen. Evazan and the Aqualish could now
accept a drink, maybe
snarl
and posture a little more, and then move on with whatever passed
for
personal honor intact.
But unfortunately for the old man, Evazan
wasn't interested in a
peaceful
settlement. For a split second he glared
at the old man, his
predator
look hardening into something ugly and vicious.
Conversation
at the
bar had all but ceased now, every eye turned toward the violence
about to
break. From their alcove the band played
on, oblivious to
what was
happening.
And then, with a roar, Evazan shoved the
kid violently to the side
to crash
into one of the tables. His hand swung
up, a blaster gripped
in
it. Beside him, the Aqualish also had
his blaster out, an urgent
"No
blasters--no blasters!" from the
bartender going completely
unnoticed. The weapons swung up, targeting the old man.
They never got there. Abruptly, the old man's hand exploded into
brilliant
blue-white light, a flickering hard-edged fire that slashed
with
surgical precision across his two attackers.
There was a blaster
shot
that ricocheted into the ceiling, a scream and gurgling roarAnd
then, as
abruptly as it had begun, it was over.
Evazan and the Aqualish collapsed out of
sight beyond the bar,
their
moans showing they were at least temporarily still alive. From
where
she stood, Shada could see the Aqualish's blaster lying on the
floor,
still clutched in a hand no longer attached to its owner.
For another moment the old man remained as
he was, his glowing
weapon
humming, his eyes flicking around the cantina as if assessing
the
possibility of more trouble. He could
have saved himself the
effort.
From the casual way the other patrons were
turning back to their
drinks,
it was obvious that no one here had any particular affection
for the
downed smugglers.
At least not enough to take on the old man
over it.
And it was in that second's worth of pause
that Shada was finally
able to
identify the weapon the old
man had used against his attackers.
A lightsaber.
"You still want to know who he
is?" Karoly asked dryly from
beside
her.
Shada licked at her lips, a fresh tingle
running through her as
the old
man closed down his weapon and helped the kid back to his feet.
A Jedi Knight. A real, living Jedi Knight. No wonder she'd
sensed
something odd about him. "I doubt
he's for hire," she told
Karoly,
taking a deep breath and forcing her mind back to the business
at hand.
If the Jedi Knights of the Old Republic
had still been in power
when
their world was destroyed . . . "Well,
that eliminates Evazan and
the
Aqualish," she said to Karoly. "Keep
looking."
They spent the next few minutes sipping their
drinks and
surreptitiously
scanning the room, then spent a few minutes more
talking
to three of the most likely prospects. But
to no avail. Two
of the
smugglers were already under contract, though one of them
offered
with a leer to take them along as passengers if they were nice
to
him. The third smuggler, an independent,
was willing to talk, but
made it
clear that he wasn't planning to move his ship until this
sudden
Imperial focus on Tatooine had calmed down.
"Great," Karoly grumbled as they
returned to their previous spots
at the
bar. "Now what?"
Shada looked around. A few new faces had come into the cantina
since
they'd begun their search, but most of them had the look about
them of
men who didn't want to be disturbed. She
looked in turn at
each of
the booths lining the walls, wondering if they might have
missed
someone.
And paused. There, right behind them, were the Jedi
Knight and
the
kid. Talking to the Wookiee and a man
she hadn't seen come in.
"Check him out," she said,
nodding toward the latter.
Karoly peered at the scanner readout. "Name's Han Solo," she
said. "Smuggler. Does a lot of business with Jabba the
Hutt--" "Put
it
away," Shada interrupted her, looking toward the cantina lobby.
"Quick."
Karoly followed her gaze, and Shada felt
her stiffen.
Striding down the steps toward the bar,
heavy weapons held at the
ready,
were a pair of stormtroopers. Who
clearly weren't here for a
drink.
"I wonder if there's a back door out of
here," Karoly murmured.
"I don't know," Shada said,
running a finger along her slender
wineglass
as the Imperials summoned the bartender over.
Thrown against
the face
of a storm-trooper helmet, it ought to slow him down long
enough
for her to slide her knife blade into a critical junction . . .
The bartender pointed somewhere behind
them.
Shada frowned, then understood. "They must be asking about the
Jedi
Knight," she said, turning to look at the booth. A knot of aliens
brushed
past, momentarily blocking her view. They
continued on The old
Jedi was
gone. So was the kid. The storm-troopers stepped up to the
booth,
eyed Solo and the Wookiee a moment, then moved on. For a
moment,
as they looked around, their armored masks seemed to pause on
Shada
and Karoly. But they said nothing, and
continued on their way
toward
the rear of the cantina.
Karoly nudged her. "Now's our chance," she said.
"Let's go talk to him."
Shada turned back. Solo and the Wookiee had left the booth now,
Solo
heading for the lobby while the Wookiee went in the direction the
stormtroopers
had gone. Probably where the back door
was, which would
explain
how the Jedi and the kid had disappeared.
"Right," Shada agreed, taking
one last sip from her glass and
putting
it back on the bar. She turned again To
find that Solo was no
longer
walking toward the lobby. He was,
instead, backing into a booth
at the
wrong end of a blaster held by a dirty-looking Rodian.
"Uh-oh," Shada said. "Friend of his?"
"Doubt it," Karoly said, palming
the scanner.
"Hang on . . . his name's Greedo. He's a bounty hunter."
For a long moment Shada stared at the
quietly tense discussion in
the
booth, trying to decide what to do.
Taking action would jeopardize her cover
as Brea Ton-nika, and
certainly
there was no shortage of smugglers in the cantina. But there
was
something about the way Solo carried himself that she liked. Or
maybe
the fact that he'd been talking with the Jedi Knight . . .
"I'm going to take him," she
told Karoly. "Get ready to back me
up."
She reached for her knife; but before she
could draw it, Solo
solved
the problem on his own. From the booth
came a flash of muffled
blaster
fire, and the Rodian slumped over onto the table. Warily, Solo
slid out
of the booth, holstered his blaster, and continued on toward
the
lobby, flipping a coin to the bartender as he passed.
Karoly let out a breath. "Good thing we weren't interested in
Greedo. This isn't a very healthy place to hang
around."
"No kidding," Shada said. "Let's go catch Solo before he gets
away."
And then, from behind her, a sweaty hand
closed on her wrist.
"Well, well, well," a voice
said. "What have we here.>"
Shada
turned.
The sweaty hand belonged to a sweaty
Imperial colonel, his uniform
streaked
with sandy dust, a maliciously pleased look on his face.
Behind him were the two stormtroopers
who'd come through earlier.
"Brea and $enni Tonnika, I do believe,"
the colonel went on. "How
nice of
you to drop back into sight again. You
can't imagine how
brokenhe~irted
Grand Moff Argon has been since your departure.
I'm
sure
he'll be pleased to see you again."
He lifted an eyebrow.
"As well as the twenty-five thousand
you stole from him."
Smiling sardonically, he gestured to the
storm-troopers.
"Take them away."
The police station cell was cooler than
the cantina had been, but
that was
about all it had going for it. Small,
sparsely furnished,
streaked
with Tatooine's ubiquitous sand, it had all the charm of a
used
transport crate.
"Did you catch when they'd be moving
us out?"
Karoly asked, leaning against a wall and
gazing dolefully at the
door.
"Didn't sound as if it would be
anytime soon," Shada said. "The
colonel
said something about finishing up the search before getting us
transferred
to his ship."
Karoly's lip twitched. Clearly, she was also appreciating the
irony
here: 'The Imperials' search had already ended, only they didn't
know it.
Or maybe they did know it. Maybe the colonel was just playing
along
with the masquerade while he sent out for the proper
interrogation
equipment.
Shada looked around the .room. A single bunk, a reading lamp
fastened
to the wall over one end, primitive refresher facilities, a
barred
door, and a one-way observation window opposite it. Limited
resources,
and no privacy to use them.
Which left only their combat
training. And the possibility that
the Imperials
still didn't know they were dealing with Mistryl. "I
just
hope they feed us before then," she commented to Karoly. "I'm
starving."
Karoly's eyebrow twitched. "So am I," she said, looking
around.
"Maybe I should beat on the bars and
see if I can get someone's
attention."
"Go ahead," Shada said,
stretching out on the bunk and letting her
hand
rest idly on the reading lamp above her head, examining it with
her
fingertips. It Was fastened to the wall
over the bunk, but a
little
work with her belt buckle ought to get it off.
Behind it would
be power
cables . . . "On second thought,
you might want to try that
mirror
instead," she said to Karoly, nodding back at the spy window.
"Someone's probably watching
it."
"Okay," Karoly said. She stepped over to the window and pressed
her face
against it, blocking the view into the cell.
"Hey! Anyone
there?"
Quickly, Shada pulled off her buckle and
got to work as Karoly
kept up
the noise. She got one of the three fasteners
loosened; did
the
second; started on the third"Shut up the noise!" someone snapped.
Shada paused, palming the buckle, as a man
in a faded uniform
appeared
at the door. "We're hungry,"
she complained.
"Too bad," he growled. "The meals come in two hours. Now shut up
or I'll
have you strapped down and muzzled."
"Two hours?" Shada repeated. "We'll never make it
that long.
Can't you get us something to tide us over?"
"Please?" Karoly added, smiling encouragingly.
The
guard's lip twisted; and he was just opening his mouth for
what
would probably have been a memorable comeback when a young man in
civilian
clothing stepped into view. "Problems,
Happer?"
"Always," the other
growled. "I thought you were off till
tonight."
"I am," the younger man said,
peering thoughtfully at Shada and
Karoly. "Heard you were drowning in prisoners;
figured I'd come in and
take a
look. Who do we have here?"
"Brea and Senni Tonnika." Happer threw a glower at the two women.
"Very special prisoners of Colonel
Pare, And none of our business,
if you
ask me. If the Imperials want to lock up
half of Mos Eisley,
the
least they could do is provide their own holding tanks."
"And do their own ID checks?"
"Don't remind me." Happer grunted. "I've got fifteen of them
running
right now, with about thirty more in the hopper." He glared
again at
the prisoners.
"Look, Riij, do me a favor, will
you? Go down to Stores and pull
a couple
of ration bars for these two. I've got
to go down to the
check
room--the sifter's been needing a lot of babysitting today, and
those
stormtroopers are starting to get snotty."
"I'll handle it," Riij assured
him. "Have fun."
Happer grunted again and disappeared down
the corridor. "So,"
Riij
said, gazing at them again. "Brea
and Senni. Which is which?"
"I'm Brea," Shada said
carefully. There was something about the
way he
was looking at her that she didn't at all care for.
"Ah," he said. "I'm Riij--~ij Winward. You know, I could have
sworn I
heard you two had gotten on a transport heading out toward
Jabba
the Hutt's three hours ago."
Shada's heart seemed to seize up inside
her. The Tonnika sisters
were
here? On Tatooine? "We came back," she said through
suddenly dry
lips. "I guess we shouldn't have."
"I guess not." Riij paused.
"I heard something else interesting
too,
just after this big Imperial droid search came down all over Mos
Eisley a
couple of days ago. It seems the Empire's
also put out an
urgent
search-and-detain order for a stolen Strike Cruiser."
"A Strike Cruiser?" Shada repeated, putting as much scorn as she
could
into her voice. "Oh, I'm sure.
People steal Strike Cruisers all the
time."
"Yeah, I thought that sounded pretty
strange my self," Riij
agreed. "So I went over and talked to a pal of
mine at the control
tower to
see if that was even possible . You know what he told me?"
"I'm dying to hear."
"He said he'd picked up something sneaking
in toward the. Dune
Sea an
hour or so before that Star Destroyer showed up and all these
Imperials
dropped in on us. Something just about
the size of a Strike
Cruiser." Riij lifted his
eyebrows. "Interesting,
wouldn't
you agree?"
"Tremendously," Shada said, fighting to keep her sudden dread
out
of her
voice. So they had spotted the Strike
Cruiser, after all. And
Cai was
in big trouble.
"Were the Imperials pleased to hear
this?"
"Actually, he hasn't told them
yet," Riij said, eyeing her
closely. "He was going off duty at the time and
didn't feel like
holding
a question session with a bunch of stormtroopers. 'Course,
once
they came down in force and took over the tower, he was even less
inclined
to remember stuff like that. That
happens on Tatooine."
"I see," Shada murmured. They were still in trouble, but at least
they
still had a little breathing space.
"You'll forgive me if lost Imperial
property isn't high on my list
at the
moment. We have more pressing problems
of our own."
"I'm sure you do," Riij said
solemnly. "Number one being how to
get out
of here before Happer finds out you aren't Brea and Senni
Tonnika."
Shada felt herself tense up again. She'd suspected he knew, but
had been
hoping fervently that she was wrong. "That's
ridiculous."
"It's all right," Riij
said. "The microphones in this cell
haven't
worked in three months. I popped out the
circuit fuse a few
minutes
ago too, just to make sure."
Shada glanced at Karoly. She looked as puzzled as Shada felt.
"All right," she said, looking
back at Riij.
"Fine. Let's cut through the smoke here and tell us
what you
want."
Riij seemed to brace himself. "I'11 let you out," he
said.
"In exchange for some of whatever's in that Strike
Cruiser."
Shada frowned at him. "What are you doing, running a smuggling
service
on the side?"
"Not smuggling." He shook his head. "Information.
To certain interested parties."
"What parties?"
"It's not important." Riij smiled faintly. "On Tatooine, one
normally.doesn't
ask that question."
"Yes, well, we're new here,"
Shada countered, thinking hard. This
could be
an Imperial trick, she knew: a way to get her and Karoly to
tell
them where they'd hidden the Hammertong.
But somehow that seemed
a little
too subtle for people who owned interrogator droids and
normally
had no compunction about using them. "All
right," she said.
"But only if you can find us a
freighter that can handle something
three by
five meters.~'
Riij frowned. "Three by--?"
"Hey, Riij!" Happer's voice called from down the corridor.
"Gotta go--something big brewing over
at Docking Bay 97. The
Imperials
have called the whole duty force in to run backup. Can you
watch
things here a while?"
"Sure, no problem," Riij assured
him.
"Thanks."
Happer ran off, his footsteps cut off by
the boom of a closing
security
door. "Well?" Shada prompted.
"I can get a freighter," Riij
said, forehead wrinkled in thought.
"The problem's going to be getting it
fast enough. There's a
sandstorm
sweeping in across that part of the Dune Sea--a big one.
It'll
hit in a couple of hours, and there's a good chance it'll bury
your
ship for good."
"Then we haven't got much time, have
we?" Shada said. "Get us
out of
here, and let's go."
The wind was already picking up across the
sand dunes as Riij set
the
transport ship awkwardly down at the edge of the makeshift tunnel
leading
to the Strike Cruiser. "How long
have we got?" Shada asked,
shouting
to be heard over the wind as the three of them half walked,
half
slid their way down the sand to the hatchway.
"Not long," Riij called
back. "Half an hour. Maybe less."
Shada nodded back, keying the panel open
and stepping inside. On
the deck
just inside the hatchway lay the segment of the Hammertong
they'd
removed, its loadlifters still attached.
Across the huge empty
room
Deefour was warbling to himself as he poked around the rest of the
huge
cylinder, searching for any last-minute bits of data he could add
to his
extensive tech-meal readout of the device.
There was no sign of
Cai.
"Cai?" Shada
called. "Da mala ci tri sor
kehai."
"Sha ma ti," Cai replied, emerging from hiding behind one of
the
support
struts and holstering her blaster. "I
was starting to think
you
weren't going to make it back in time."
"We may not have," Shada said
grimly. "We've got another
sandstorm
breathing down our necks. There's a
transport outside--you
and
Karoly get that Hammertong segment aboard."
"Right," Cai said. "Karoly?
Grab the lifts on that end."
Together they got the Hammertong segment
off the floor and out the
hatchway
as Shada went forward to the Strike Cruiser's cockpit. As it
had
before, the flying sand was interfering with the sensors, and she
had to
adjust the fine-tuning several times before she was able to get
a good
view. As far as she could tell, there
were no longer any Star
Destroyers
over Tatooine. They must have assumed
their escaped
prisoners
had already made it off planet. Keying
off, she headed back
to where
Riij was crouched beside the end of the Hammertong cylinder,
his face
pressed close to one of the openings. "So
there it is," she
said. "What do you think?"
He looked up at her, his face
pasty-white. "Do you
know what you have here?" he whispered.
"Do you have any idea?"
"Not really," she said
warily. "Do you?"
"Look here," he said, pointing
to a plate. "See?
'D.S. Mark Two. Module Seven, Prototype B. Elom
Lemelisk."
"I see it," Shada said. "What does it mean?"
Riij straightened up. "It means this is part of the prototype
superlaser
for the Death Star."
Shada stared at him, a shiver running up
her back.
"What's a Death Star?"
"The Emperor's latest grab for
power. Like nothing you've ever
seen." Riij looked back along the Ham-mertong's
length. "And we've
got a
piece here of its main weapon."
"A piece?." Shada frowned, following his gaze. A solid two
hundred
meters of laser. "You mean this
isn't all of it?"
"I don't think so," Riij
said. "Module Seven,
remember?"
He looked at Shada sharply. "I've got to have that piece you cut
off. It's absolutely vital."
"Forget it," Shada said. "If this really is a weapon,
my people can find a better use for it
than you can."
"We'll pay you anything you
want."
"I said forget it," Shada said
again, brushing past him. Cai was
going to
need help; And abruptly, she was spun back around by a hand on
her
arm. Reflexively, she reached up to
break his grip.
She froze, staring at the blaster that had
appeared from nowhere
in
Riij's hand. "Is this how you keep
your bargains?" she demanded.
"You have to let us have it," he
said, his voice low.
"Please. We need to know everything we can about the
Death Star."
"Why?"
He swallowed hard. "Because we're likely to be its first
target."
Shada
stared at him. Tatooine was going to be
the first target?
Ridiculous.
And then, suddenly, it fell into
place. "You're with
the Rebel Alliance, aren't you?"
He nodded.
"Yes."
Shada focused on the blaster in his hand. "And this thing is
important
enough to you to kill me in cold blood?"
He took a deep breath, let it out in a
hissing sigh.
"No," he conceded. "Not really."
"I didn't think so," Shada
said. "Mish kom."
And in the blink of an eye, it was all
over. Cai, coming in from
behind
the Hammertong, had .Riij's blaster. And
Riij. "What do you
want me
to do with him?" she asked, handing
the blaster to Shada.
Shada looked at Riij, half bent over in
Cai's grip.
"Let him go," she said. "He can't stop us now. Anyway, he's sort
of on
our side."
"If you say so," Cai said,
releasing her hold on his arm. "We're
ready to
go as soon as you are."
"All right." Shada pursed her lips. "Riij, can you beat the
storm in
that' airspeeder you had aboard the transport?"
He nodded.
"If I can get going in the next few minutes.' ' "Fine.
Cai, get it unloaded. And then you or Karoly get Deefour aboard
and get
the ships ready to fly."
"Got it." With one last look at Riij, Cai headed for
the
hatchway.
Riij was still standing there, looking at
Shada. "I'm sorry the
deal's
fallen through," she told him, trying to ignore the pang of
guilt
twisting through her stomach.
He'd risked a lot for them, and it looked
as if he were going to
wind up
with nothing. "Look, if you can get
back in here after the
storm,
you're more than welcome to what's left of the Hammertong."
"Let me make you a
counteroffer," Riij said. "Join
us. You've
already
said we're on the same side."
Shada shook her head. "We're barely making it ourselves.
We don't have the time or the resources to
take on the galaxy's
problems. Not now."
"if you wait too long, there may not
be anyone left to fight with
you,"
he warned.
"I understand," she said. "I guess it's a chance we'll have to
take. Good-bye.
And good luck."
The sand was shaking the transport's hull
by the time Shada
finished
double-checking the Ham-mertong's restraints and made it back
up to
the bridge.
"We all set?" she asked Karoly as she strapped herself in.
"Yes.
Riij get off all right?"
Shada nodded. "Looks as if just in time, too."
Karoly threw her a sideways look. "I'm not sure it was such a
good
idea to let him go."
"If we start killing anyone who gets
in our way, we're no better
than any
other mercenaries," Shada said.
"Besides, he doesn't like the Empire
any more than we
do."
The comm pinged. "I'm ready," Cai's voice came.
"Same here," Shada told
her. "Is Deefour all settled
in?"
"Deefour?" Cai echoed.
"Didn't Karoly take him?"
"I thought you had him," Karoly
said.
For a long moment she and Shadajust stared
at each other. Then,
with a
muttered curse, Shada jabbed at the corem panel. "Riij?
Riij,
come
in."
There was a hiss of sand-driven static;
and then the other's voice
came
faintly over the speaker. "This is
Riij," he said. "Thanks for
the loan
of your droid. I'll leave him with the
Bothan shipping
company
on Piroket; you can have him back when you return the
freighter."
Another crackle of static and he was
gone. "You want me to go
after
him?" Cai asked.
Deefour, with a complete technical readout
on the Hammertong . .
"No," Shada told her, smiling in
spite of herself at Riij's
ingenuity. "No, it's all fight. We owe him that much. And if he's
right,
he and his friends are going to need all the help and
information
they can get."
Her smile faded. "D.S. Mark 2" the plate on the
Hammertong had said. Death Star, Mark 2, perhaps? A second
generation
of this thing Riij was so afraid of?.
It could be. And if so, the Mistryl might have to
seriously
consider
that offer to join up with the Rebel Alliance.
And if not all of the Mistryl, perhaps
Shada would do so on her
own. Maybe there she would find something she
could truly believe in.
But in the meantime, she had a package to
deliver.
"Fire up the repulsorlifts," she
told the others. "Let's go
home."
Play It Again.
Figrin D'Art: 'The Tale of Muftak and Kabe
by A. C. Crispin
M 'uftak whiffed the chilly, moist air
with his short, .tubular
proboscis,
testing it, trying to determine whether it was safe. As he
sniffed,
the huge four-eye searched the street for infrared afterimages
with his
night-eyes, the larger, lower pair in his furry visage.
Here, in the older part of Mos Eisley
spaceport, the darkness was
nearly
absolute, only lightened by the tiny gray half-moon scuttling
overhead.
Gesturing to his small companion, Kabe, to
stay be !02
hind him, the shaggy giant crept forward
to a better vantage point
behind a
large garbage receptacle. As he scanned,
his four black
ball-bearing
eyes gleamed in the darkness of his face.
Automatically,
his
olfactory organ filtered out the stench of the rotting garbage, the
rankness
of unwashed bodies, both alien and human, and the sharp, musky
scent of
his Chadra-Fan friend and accomplice.
No one here recently. He waved a massive, fur-covered paw at his
companion. "Come on," he rumbled, "the
sandtroopers are gone."
Kabe scampered out, her fanlike ears and
little snout twitching
indignantly. "I could have told you that long
ago!" she scolded, in
her
squeaky, double-time voice.
"You are so cursed slow, Muftak! Slower than a bantha, that's for
sure. We'll never reach home before. daybreak!
And I'm tired."
Muftak gazed down at her, patiently
enduring her tirade. Kabe,
despite
all her streetwise sophistication, was still a child. He'd
adopted
her when he'd found the baby Chadra-Fan wandering the streets.
"We must be extra cautious," he
reminded her. "Imperial troops
are
everywhere. The sooner we reach home,
the safer we'll be. Let's
go."
Kabe subsided sulkily, and started after
him.
"Why're they here, that's what I'd
like to know. Do you know,
Muftak?" She didn't wait for a reply, and the four-eye
held his peace.
Muftak knew a great deal about the comings
and goings in Mos
Eisley,
but generally, he only divulged what he knew for a price.
"Ships
landing all night!" she
complained. "What the hell is going
on,
anyway? The Hutt's hiring them, that's
what it is. He's going to
cut us
out completely. And if he won't take us
back, we'll have to
beg!"
Muftak emitted an exasperated buzzing
sound. "The Bloated One
isn't
part of this. This is Imperial
business."
Kabe's sharp little face blazed in
Muftak's infrared vision, and
he saw
her expression change. "Can't we go
to the cantina today?" she
demanded,
changing the subject. "Spacers go
there, drunk spacers with
fat
pockets. Last time we were there we ate
for a week on what I
lifted. Please, Muftak?"
"Kabe." Muftak sighed, a faint humming noise in the
stillness.
"I'm not so stupid as all that. I know you never miss a good
pocket,
but the real reason you want to go to the cantina is for juri
juice."
Absently, (he four-eye inspected the
twisty alleyways that opened
onto the
street. "Two cups and I'll have to
carry you home . . . the
way I
always do."
Kabe's 0nly response to this truism was an
audible sniff.
Dawn came rapidly on Tatooine, and the
desert sky was already
taking
on the faint silver sheen that presaged the rising of the suns.
Muftak lengthened his strides, tempted to
pick Kabe up bodily and
really
hurry. It was his fault they were so
late.
Expert thieves though they were, neither
Kabe's skill with
electronics
nor Muftak's great strength had prevailed against the new
time-lock
devices that all the Imperial hangars now bore.
Worse, one
of the
sand-troopers had spotted them . :
. but humans had very poor
night
vision, and, to them, all exotic aliens tended to run together.
In the dark, Muftak hoped, he could've
been mistaken for a Wookiee
or one
of the other large bipeds. Kabe was
about the same size as a
Jawa.
Stealing Imperial property was extremely
risky--but these days,
there
was little else they could do. Any
payoff would have justified
their
effort, given them the wherewithal to buy back their burglary
franchise
(lost due to an ill-advised bit of pickpocketry by Kabe) from
the
Hutt. Everything of value that didn't
belong to the Empire either,
belonged
to or had been declared off-limits by Jabbamand nobody was
crazy
enough to cross the Hutt crime lord.
In order to reach "home"--a tiny
cubicle in a section of abandoned
tunnels
beneath Docking Bay 83~ they had to pass through the
marketplace. Risky, but they had no choice.
Kabe bounced as she walked, half skipping,
her restless energy
undepleted
despite their night's labors.
Muftak shuffled rapidly, though he felt
almost too weary to place
one
huge, padded foot before the other. Suddenly,
the tops of the
whitewashed
domes gleamed; moments later, everything was splashed with
gold. The first sun was rising. Muftak instinctively switched over to
his
day-eyes, obscuring some details, revealing others. They passed a
street
vendor setting up for the day, then another.
Mos Eisley was a hellhole at best, and
recent changes made
survival
even more uncertain. The increasing
Imperial presence added
an
unpleasant new dimension to Jabba's corrupt regime. Muftak's and
Kabe's
lives had never been easy; the two of them had scrabbled for
years to
eke out a living. Now, with the Senate's
inaction, things
were
growing worse. Previously, the four-eye
had shared his little
friend's
indifference to politics, not caring who was in power, as long
as they
let him alone.
But the sandtroopers were even worse than
the Hutt's thugs. Cold,
cruel,
brutal, they were like killing droids.
Hundredsmmaybe
thousands--had
been arriving during the last two days to enforce the
will of
that ancient, rotting Emperor who lived far, far away.
Tightening the Empire ~ grip on my world
. . .
Bzzzzz.
Muftak's remote laughter echoed in his head like a
dancing
bee. My world? Ridiculous!
Bzzzzz . . .
Since there were no other creatures on
Tatooine even remotely like
him,
Muftak knew only too well that this was not his home world. When
he'd
awakened that day long ago, standing beside his shredded cocoon,
he'd
figured that his people had originated on another world--which
one, he
had no idea. He'd spent a lifetime
searching for information
about
himself, and, in the process, had learned mdch about Tatooine,
its
deserts so different from the lush paradise of his dreams.
Knowledge, the four-eye found, was power,
of sorts. Denizens of
Mos
Eisley knew that if you wanted information about almost any
activity
or person on Tatooine, you went to see Muftak.
Since he'd "adopted"-Kabe,' an
orphan like himself, the big
alien's
hazy dream-memories had receded into the background. For all
practical
purposes, Tatooine was his world.
The second sun was rising as they made
their way through the main
square
of the marketplace. It was already
getting hot, and Muftak felt
his
dew-wet, diaphanous fur drying out. Reaching
the main street, the
pair
turned west, toward their little burrow, trying to hurry without
looking
suspicious. The fences were setting up
quickly and
efficiently,
displaying freshly stolen booty. Muftak
glanced nervously
at
several blasters, priced well beyond his means, trying to look as
though
he had nothing better in the world to do than shop.
Kabe skittered about, muttering to
herself, whiffing the air, then
squinching
up her muzzle with disdain.
"Look at that trash." She snorted.
"If you'd let me rob Jabba's
town
house, I'd give them some real stuff to fence.
It'd be a snap,
and we'd
be set up for life."
This was such an old argument Muftak
didn't bother to reply. The
Hutt was
currently occupying his desert palace, but his residence in
Mos
Eisley was still fully guarded. The
four-eye lengthened his
stride. Sanctuary lay just ahead . . .
Suddenly a mechanical-sounding voice
barked, "You there, Talz,
halt!" The voice belonged to an Imperial soldier.
Hastily, Muftak obeyed, then turned,
slowly and ponderously, to
face the
sentry. As he did so, he was careful to
conceal Kabe's small
form
with his huge body.
Knowing the plan, she darted off and
ducked behind a public dew
collector. Signaling to her behind his back to stay out
of sight,
Muftak
faced the white-armored human.
Only then did it strike him... the word
the trooper had 'used.
"Talz." What was a Talz? Slowly he felt the truth sink in, like
moisture
in the desert. The Imperial trooper must
have recognized his
species!
The word "Talz" reverberated
through Muftak's mind, his heart.
Talz .
. . yes! It was part of the
meaningless vocabulary he had
found in
his brain after his "birth."
Talz means me. I am a Talz".
Muftak shook his head, pushing this
revelation to the back of his
mind. There was a more immediate dilemma to
face. The sandtrooper,
blaster
drawn, was staring at him, waiting. Muftak
let the air filter
out
slowly from his proboscis, humming a little.
"Yes, Of-ricer.
What can I do for you?"
"We are looking for two droids, one
bipedal and the other wheeled,
traveling
unaccompanied. Have you seen them?"
Not looking for us, no, by the Force, not
looking for us.
Looking for those two droids, like all the
others . . . "No, sir.
I haven't seen any droids this
morning. But if I do, Officer,
I'll let
you know."
"See that you do. All right, Talz, on your way." As the trooper
began to
turn away, curiosity overcame Muftak's caution.
"Excuse me,
sir,"
he began, scratching his head nervously.
"I noticed that you
seem to
recognize--" There was a whooshing sound .and an aircar
appeared
from around a corner. As it approached,
Muftak saw two
Imperial
troopers, one dressed in the blue uniform and short-billed cap
of an
officer. The Talz took a cautious step
back, but resisted the
urge to
run.
The sentry snapped to attention as the
aircar stopped.
The officer, a pale, sagging man with a
supercilious air, inclined
his head
briefly and commanded, "Your report, Trooper Felth." His
words
sounded lifeless, barely different from the mechanically filtered
voice of
Felth.
"Nothing to report, Lieutenant
Alima. It's been very quiet, sir."
Muftak tensed. He recognized that name.
His friend Momaw Nadon had told him about
a Captain Alima, the
butcher
who'd decimated the hammerhead's home world.
Could this be the
same
man? His rank was different, but . . .
"Interrogate everyone you see,
Felth. Don't take any chance with
this
local scum . . . and keep your blaster
ready. These bastards
will as
soon kill you as look at you."
"Yes, Lieutenant."
"What about that one?" Alima drew his pistol and pointed it at
Muftak. "An ugly bug . . . has he seen
the
droids?"
"No, sir."
Muftak gathered his courage. Things were becoming very
interesting. Worth a little risk. "Sir, respected representative of
our
beloved Empire, I am well connected in the more . . . shall we
say,
obscure . . . sections of Mos
Els!ey. It would be my pleasure to
uncover
this information for you, if I can."
The officer's eyes were very dark as he
stared hard at the Talz.
"See that you do, four-eyes. Now get on about your business.
Don't
dawdle . . . off with you!"
Kabe was only a little distance away,
still hiding behind the dew
collector,
and Muftak walked in that direction without looking back.
As he passed, the little one joined him,
chattering happily.
"They
let you go! I thought they had us,
didn't you? What happened?"
"They weren't looking for us,
Kabe. Just two unlucky droids. But
something
very . . . important happened.
A chance encounter. That trooper knew who . . .
what .
. . I am. I am a Talz! Kabe .
. . this may be the clue
I've
been looking for."
The Chadra-Fan looked up at Muftak,
squinting her little eyes
against
the morning sun. "But, but you're
not going away, now, are
you? You can't go.
We need each other. We're
partners, aren't we?"
Muftak gazed down at his friend, feeling a
strange emotion, a
distant
tugging that he had never felt before.
Gigantic hanging purple flowers filled his
mind's eye. He scraped
a claw
across his domed forehead.
"Don't worry, little one. I'd never leave you alone.
Right now, we're going back to get some
sleep. Then I have some
inquiries
to make . . . and before evening, I must
go to Momaw Nadon's
house,
find out if he knows anything about the race called the Talz.
And
perhaps . . . give him some information
in return."
"But what about the
cantina?" Kabe wailed. "You promised,
Muftak!"
The Talz ignored this palpable
untruth. "You will get your wish,
little
one. We'll go tomorrow."
Chalmun's cantina was, as always, bursting
with disreputable life.
Momaw Nadon was already at their usual
spot, and Muftak took the
seat
opposite, against the wall. The
hammerhead pushed a drink across
the
table.
"Welcome, my friend." From the position of his eyestalks and the
tone of
his grayish skin, Muftak deduced that the Ithorian was glad to
see him,
but also apprehensive--not unexpected, in view of their
meeting
yesterday.
The Talz picked up his drink, a polaris
ale appropriately tepid,
and
thrust his proboscis into the liquid, drawing deep. "Things are
going
well, Momaw. Last evening I planted the
seed that you desired.
Alima now thinks you know the whereabouts
of the droids."
"Planted the seed." Momaw Nadon blinked slowly.
With his eyes squinched shut, all
semblance of a face vanished.
"A good way to express it. If all goes as planned, the 'seed'
will
come to fruition before this day is over."
One eyestalk swiveled.
"Did Alima pay well?"
Muftak buzzed with amusement. "Five hundred.
The Imperial chit he issued proved
worthless, of course."
"Not surprising," Nadon said.
Muftak ran a claw through his hair,
scratching nervously.
"Momaw . . . what will become of you? A!ima is ruthless. Now
he's
looking for you."
"He has found me," Nadon
admitted, his dual voice a harsh whisper.
"Do not worry, my friend. All is unfolding as it must."
The Talz took another sip of ale,
reluctant to pursue this
depressing
subject.
"No matter what happens today,"
the Hammerhead continued, "things
here in
Mos Eisley are changing.
Yesterday you learned the name of your
species. Soon you will
discover
the name of your world, and where it is located. Then .
. .
what?
Will you go home?"
Muftak let out a tiny buzz, rising in
pitch. "Home. It is such a
simple
word. In my native language, the word is
'p'zil.'" He paused,
unwilling
to reveal such intimate details even to a friend. "If I have
dreamed
truly, it is a cool, wet world, with wide, rich jungles beneath
a deep
indigo sky. My dreams are full of huge
flowers shaped like
giant
bells, all colors, hanging high in the lush foliage. I climb to
those
flowers, treading along a strong ridged petal.
Deep in the
center
darkness lies a rich reservoir of nectar.
I drink, marvelous
rippling
flavors . . ." He sighed.
"This ale is only a pale
reflection."
The Ithorian bobbed his eyestalks in
understanding.
"Those dreams are true, my
friend. Racial memories, no doubt, to
guide
you when you emerge from your cocoon. Just
as you were born with
a
knowledge of your native language, I have never heard of such a
people
as the Talz, but they are obviously unique and of great value.
You must return and join your essence with
that of your people.
It is
the Law of Life."
"I haven't thought that far, I'm
afraid," said Muftak.
"I don't have the credits to pay for
such a trip.
And .
. . what about Kabe? The galaxy
is in turmoil.
Even if I could obtain safe passage for
us, I can't trust her.
She only thinks of herself. How can I take her with
me?"
Momaw Nadon closed his eyes for a long
moment.
"I may not live out the day, so I
cannot help you. But you will
think of
something, Let us drink--" Suddenly Kabe bobbed up at Muftak's
side. "He won't serve me again!" she sputtered angrily. "Damn that
Wuher. And damn Chalmun! I'll feed the Sarlacc with them both. They
won't
sell me any juice, Muftak.
My credits are good, damn it! Damn them all! You know that I--"
Muftak
interrupted her with a loud buzz. "Calm
down, little one. What
did
Wuher say?"
"He said he wanted no tipsy Ranats
robbing his customers.
Me, a Ranat! Muftak, can you go talk to him?
Please?"
Muftak stroked his proboscis slowly,
thinking. "His reaction
isn't
surprising, considering what happened last time we were here,
Kabe. But .
. . I'll speak to him." He
raised his glass to Momaw
Nadon. "After all, this is a celebration . . . of sorts."
Kabe's ears twitched with distaste as
Figrin D'an's sextet swung
into yet
another off-key, off-tempo number.
The little Chadra-Fan's hearing was as
sensitive as Muftak's sense
of
smell, and this "music" was particularly jarring. But Chalmun's
cantina
was the cheapest source ofjurijuice around, so she endured it.
She guzzled the dregs from her cup,
feeling the pleasant rush of
the
liquor.
Licking the last drops from her whiskers,
she held up her tumbler.
"More, Wuher. More juri juice! I'm thirsty!" The bartender
glanced
across the room at Muftak, muttered something under his breath,
then
grudgingly took the glass and refilled it with the ruby brew.
Kabe
grabbed it eagerly.
Suddenly, the bartender straightened, scowling
angrily.
Was he getting ready to summon the
bouncer?
Kabe stood poised, ready to run to Muftak,
but all Wuher did was
order
some moisture boy to get his two droids out of the cantina.
Relaxing, Kabe studied the customers
closest to her, scanning
expertly
for pockets to pick. With a little juri
juice in her, she was
twice as
fast and twice as clever.
No one was safe.
The identity of the two customers on
either side of her gave her
pause;
Dr, Evazan and Ponda Baba weren't good prospects. It was one of
Kabe's
secret prides that she'd once managed to pick both their
pockets,
dropping a few trinkets from the good doctor's purse into
Baba's
pocket at the same time--but they'd been very juiced then . . .
which they weren't at the moment. High; perhaps, but not enough
to tempt
her. The risk wasn't worth it.
The two prospects beyond Evazan were
definitely more promising.
The grungy moisture boy who'd been dumb
enough to bring the droids
in was
standing on her immediate right. The man
he'd entered with was
an old
fellow with a beard the color of Muftak's fur, wearing a coarse
brown
cloak with a hood no doubt made by a Jawa tailor, Kabe thought,
amused. She recognized neither of them, which meant
they weren't from
Mos
Eisley. Good! Wide-eyed desert dwellers usually presented
easy
pickings. Beyond them was the contraband runner
Chewbacca, but she
dismissed
him without a second thought: Not only did he not possess
pockets
to pick, but everyone knew it wasn't wise to upset a Wookiee.
Muftak was still in deep conversation with
Momaw Nadon. Damn him,
too. Suppose he finds his home world, what then
? He'll probably want
to go
there . . . and then, by the Force,
where'll that leave me?
Kabe had a brief vision of herself, stuck
in Mos Eisley, with no
one to
make Wuher serve her juri juice . . . no
one to protect her
from
outraged victims when her fingers weren't quick enough . . .
She'd be all alone. Kabe took a deep draft of juice, thinking of
her
small, secret hoardmso secret that even Muftak didn't know about
it. It wouldn't last long . . .
a tenday, maybe. And then what? No doubt .about it, trouble was
coming,
unless she found a way to distract the Talz.
A tall, thin humanoid down the bar was
puffing away on a hookah.
Expertly, she located his credit pouch.
Easily accessible . . . but something, she wasn't sure what, held
her
back. Ears twitching, she strained to
pick up his vibrations. For
some reason
she couldn't define, he sounded wrong.
When his gaze
brushed
hers, the fur on the back of her neck crawled suddenly, as if
someone
had draped something limp and dead across her shoulders.
Not him, Kabe thought, shuddering. Definitely not him.
The boy, she decided. He was obviously nervous, but not really
alert. And then the old man. There was something about the old man
that
betokened a quiet competence, despite his shabby clothes. She'd
have to
be extra careful with that one.
Suddenly Kabe sensed movement on her left
from Ponda Baba. She
ducked
back, barely in time to avoid a vicious elbow as he deliberately
shoved
the boy. "Out of my way, human
excrement!" he bellowed in
Aqual-ish.
Oh no, she thought, here we go again. Whiskers twitching, Kabe
scurried
behind the old desert dweller, then peeked cautiously out,
carefully
putting her half-empty glass on the bar.
The boy obviously didn't understand the
big alien's language. He
glanced
up, starfled, then silently moved away and went back to his
drink. Kabe poised herself for action; when Evazan
and Ponda Baba's
newest
victim lay charred and smoking, she'd have only a moment to snag
his
purse before he was dragged away.
Maybe, she thought, now would be a good
time to do the old one.
His attention was fixed on Ponda
Baba. Perfect.
Now, if she could only find his purse
. . . "I have the death
sentence
on twelve systems!" Evazan's loud
voice hurt her ears. Hmm.
That was a promising little bulge.
Just a little closer . . .
The old man stepped forwardmand his pocket
slid away from her
fingers. Cautiously, Kabe followed.
There was a sudden exodus away from the
bar, and Kabe realized the
fight
was about to startrebut she was determined to snatch the credits
before
she too retreated.
"This little one isn't worth the
effort," the old human was
saying,
his soft, pleasant voice carrying an undercurrent of true
authority. "Come, let me buy you something."
Ponda Baba roared in inarticulate rage,
Evazan let
out a bellow, and the young human flew
past her, landing in an
ignominious
heap beneath a nearby table.
"No blasters! No blasters!" screamed Wuher.
There was a sound like tearing silk, and
Kabe shrank closer to the
old
desert dweller, cowering until she was almost covered by his cloak.
Ponda Baba shrieked, Evazan howled with
pain, and something
dropped
to the floor with an ominous thud.
Kabe peered out, to see that the thing on
the floor was Ponda
Baba's
arm, fingers still twitching as they tried without success to
fire the
blaster again. The old man stepped back
gracefully, and the
searing
blade of light that was his weapon (a weapon Kabe had never
seen
before) flicked out. Abandoning all
thought of robbery, she
scampered
back. As the old man helped the
youngster up, the boy
staggered,
staring in disbelief at the still-twitching arm . . . and
his heel
crunched down on Kabe's toes.
She squeaked shrilly at the sharp
pain. Damn--Humans are
heavy--Whimpering,
limping, Kabe retreated into the darker recesses of
the
room, waiting for them to clean up. Luckily,
they hadn't spilled
her juri
juice...
"You mean you'll help me?" Kabe stared up at her friend, amazed.
Muftak nodded. "There'll never be a better time to take
the town
house. The Hutt is away at his palace and the city
is in chaos."
The little Chadra-Fan gazed at him
goggle-eyed, the aftereffects
of juice
slowing her thoughts. Suddenly, she
dropped her half-eaten
falotil
fruit to the dusty floor of their lair, jigging ecstatically.
"I knew you had it in you,
Muftak!"
He nodded, wishing he were as
confident. The Hutt's vengeance
would be
terrible indeed if they were caught, but the store of
treasures
in Jabba's town house, deliberately displayed to tempt the
greedy,
would be easy pickings if Kabe's "secret" entrance panned out.
The Talz
had made his decision on the way home from the cantina,
carrying
the unconscious Kabe in the crook of his arm.
Muftak looked around the dwelling they'd
shared for almost five
years. Kabe's little nest, his sleeping perch, a
trunk holding their
few
possessions. Nothing, really. And the future would only be worse.
"We'll be able to leave this
dump," said Kabe, as if she'd read
his
thoughts. "Maybe buy our own
cantina.
Live in real style." Disdainfully, she scratched a crumbling
wall,
sending a little avalanche of dirt onto the floor. "The credits
will be
worth a little risk, you'll see."
The Talz scratched his head, buzzing
softly. "There's no sense in
waiting. Tonight."
I~be nodded happily.
Nighttime.
Muftak, surprisingly agile for his size, pulled
himself
over the lip of the roof, until he was crouched on the main
dome of
Jabba's town house.
Cautious as always, he drew his ancient
blaster, scanning the
rooftop
for signs of life. The moon was heading
down, losing its
luster
among distant clouds, leaving them in near-total darkness.
Ahead of him, Kabe was already halfway up
the dome, moving
quickly. She stopped suddenly, and Muftak made out a
large,
crescent-shaped
orifice just below the dew-collector array.
Replacing
the
weapon in the sling across his back, he climbed, claws scrabbling,
up the
rough pourstone surface.
"See, Muftak," the Chadra-Fan
whispered, knotting the climbing
rope
she'd carried to the dew-collector base, "it's just like I said.
It hasn't changed since I discovered
it. Just the standard
security
net. Hear that?
Air currents singing along the edges of
the metal door.
One good shove, and it'll give."
Muftak crouched beside the portal. "Hard to believe," he said.
"Can you hear anyone inside?"
Kabe listened, ears twitching. "Just snores on another floor. No
one
moving around."
"Then here goes." The Talz got a good hold on the sill and
pushed. The access portal slowly gave, bending
inward, then the hinges
broke
and the metal fell away.
A muffled clank sounded from somewhere
below.
"The vibrations haven't
changed," Kabe exulted.
"What'd I tell you, Muftak? This'11 be a cinch for sure!"
Before Muftak could stop her, Kabe swung
herself over and down
into the
darkness. The Talz heard her chittering
quietly as she
climbed,
and knew she was listening for echoes. "Nothing
unusual so
far,"
she reported.
"I'm almost dowm" Hearing her
break off, Muftak flung himself
down,
head through the hole, straining his night-eyes. Below him, Kabe
dangled,
spinning slowly, a paw's length from the floor.
"Kabe, what's happening? Why'd you stop?" Muftak demanded.
"Shhh." As he watched, Kabe changed position, turning
upside
down,
then lowering her head until her ear was just above the carpet.
She chittered again.
"Oh, banthe dung . . ."
he heard her mutter.
"What is it?"
"A noise, below the floor...
something down there. The air has to
go
around it, and it hums . . .
metal, probably." Suddenly she let out a terrified little squeak.
"Don't come down yet! It's some kind of trap!
There's a spring actuator . . ."
Muftak watched as she clicked, trying to
gauge the structures
below
the floor. "Standard joists over
here . . ." she muttered, a
few
seconds later. With a couple of vigorous
wiggles, she swung back
and
forth, then dropped her pry bar as a test.
"No change!" she cried, then leaped off herself.
"Just land right here . . ."
When Muftak was down, they left the dome
room, and crept down the
dark
stairway. At the bottom, Kabe heard the
distinctive electronic
hum of
an alarm.
Quickly, the little Chadra-Fan located and
deactivated it.
To their right, an archway led into a
large room, a lounge of some
sort,
outfitted with luxurious, plush furniture.
One wall held an open
curio
cabinet filled with small golden statues and bejeweled antique
weapons.
Muftak gasped softly . . . the plunder of a hundred worldsmtheirs
for the
taking!
Cautiously, they entered. Working with feverish haste, they began
stuffing
valuables into the sacks they'd brought.
"We'll be out of here before you know
it," Kabe whispered, sliding
a
particularly ornate pipestand into her bag.
"Now aren't you sorry
you
didn'tk" Two lights winked on in the lounge's anteroom. A droid,
turning
itself on. Kabe froze in terror. Muftak drew his blaster.
"Oh, forgive me for interrupting
you," said the droid in a
melodious
tone. "I've been waiting for . . .
by the way"--its tone changed. "what are you doing here at this
time of
night? I know that Master Jabba's
friends are a little . . .
unusual, but . . ."
Muftak took a step toward the
machine. "We belong here. Your
illustrious
master asked us to fetch some of his possessions to
transport
to his palace."
The droid took a few mincing steps into
the room.
"That explains it then. Bzavazh-ne pentirs o pie-urith leez?"
Muftak did a double take. His language.
"Where did you learn
that?"
The droid tilted its head, and its
illuminated eyes seemed full of
satisfaction. "Oh, friend Talz, I am conversant in the
languages and
customs
of your planet, Alzoc Three, and four thousand nine hundred and
eighty-eight
other worlds. I am MasterJabba's
protocol droid,
Kay-eight
Ellerr. Master Jabba couldn't do without
me. Admittedly,
I've
never had a chance to use my Talz module before. I'll just check
with
Master Fortune to see if you are telling the truth."
Kabe, under control now, was moving slowly
toward
the droid, trying to look pleasant. She uncoiled her climbing
rope. "We're telling the truth, droid. You don't have to check."
"Oh, but I do, friend Chadra-Fan,
k'sweksni-nyip-tsik.
You have no idea what trouble I'd get into
if I didn'tw" Suddenly
Kabe
sprang and wrapped the rope around its limbs.
"The restraining
bolt,
Muftak!"
"My friends, please don't--"
K8LR was moaning like a Jawa street
beggar. "Oh!
Master Jabba will punish you--" It began to fight, but
the Talz
loped forward, and with a single motion collared it and
grabbed
the bolt affixed to its chest. K8LR was
struggling, trying to
free
itself of the ropes around its body, but Muftak was desperate.
With a quick wrench, he ripped the bolt
free.
When the bolt came off, the droid stopped
struggling.
"Oh, thank you," it said. "You have no idea how much better that
feels. I never liked working here.
Never.
That Jabba . . . so uncouth! And the rogues that work
for
him! Things I've seen would curl your
proboscis, friend Talz.
Now, if you don't mind, I think I'll be
leaving. Could you untie
me?"
"Be quiet, droid!" Kabe pricked up her ears, listening intently.
When she detected nothing, they began
gathering loot again. Kabe,
still
half trussed, followed them about, complimenting them on their
selections
in a metallic whisper.
"Kay-eight Ellarr," Muftak said,
stuffing a tiny figurine carved
from
living ice into his furry abdominal pouch, "if you really are
grateful,
tell us where the Hutt keeps his most valuable treasures."
The droid stopped, appearing to
think. "There are Corellian
artifacts
on the walls of his audience chamber that are beyond price,
if my
memory banks are correct. And a
shapework from the earliest days
of human
civilization."
"Take us there!"
As Muftak and the droid headed for the
door, talking in low voices
about
the location ofAlzoc III, Kabe hastily pried a large fire-gem
from the
eye of a sculpture.
She stuffed it into one of the myriad
pockets of her robe, joining
the
other small valuables she'd secreted about her person. I'll never
have to
pick pockets again, she thought.
They followed the droid back into the hall
and to the right. As
they
tiptoed along, Kabe's ears twitched at a noise so soft no one else
could
have heard it. Breathing.
Agonized, rasping . . . and aware. She halted before the third
door. "Who is in this room?" she demanded of K-8LR. "Whoever is in
here is
awake."
K-8LR stopped. "It is one of my former master's
victims, I'm
afraid. A human courier. They have been torturing him for days with a
nerve
disruptor."
Muftak motioned her on, but Kabe
hesitated. "Do you know how much
Valarian
would pay for a nerve disruptor?" she
whispered to the Talz.
"Droid, can you open it?"
"Certainly, madam." K-8LR interfaced with the lock and the door
swung
open.
Muftak shifted nervously, scratching his
head.
"Kabe, let's not get involved with
this. It stinks in there."
The Chadra-Fan ignored her friend,
marching into the room.
Reluctantly, Muftak followed.
A naked, frail, sallow man with an air of
infinite sadness lay
strapped
onto a bunk, moaning. As they entered,
his eyes fastened on
them. The nerve disruptor, a small black box
mounted on a tall tripod,
stood by
the bed. Kabe went over and, resolutely
ignoring the human,
began to
disconnect it.
"Water," the man pleaded in a
ghastly husk of a voice. "Water...
please."
"Be quiet," Kabe snapped. Even as her fingers moved, deftly
unscrewing
little components, she remembered the days before Muftak had
found
her, when she'd wandered the streets of Mos Eisley, him gry . .
. and
nearly crazed with thirst. Unable to
stop herself, she looked up
at the
human. Their eyes met.
"Water," rasped the man,
"Please . . ."
Kabe's fingers slowed, then, cursing under
her breath, she pulled
a small
flask from her belt and held it out. "Here's
water. Now leave
me
alone." With his arms restrained,
the human could only gaze at the
flask
longingly.
"I'll give it to you, sir," said
K-8LR, coming forward.
He raised the human's head, and held the
water to his lips.
The nerve disruptor was finally
detached. Kabe stuffed it in her
sack. "This alone will buy us enough juice for
a lifetime!" she said
triumphantly.
The human finished the water and licked
his cracked, impossibly
rough
lips. He eyed them carefully.
"You two . . . are interested in credits. How'd you like to earn
thirty
thousand, quick, without risk?"
Muftak, restless, was keeping a lookout on
the hall.
Kabe, already turning to leave,
halted. She regarded the man
suspiciously. "What d'you mean, human?"
"My name is Barid Mesoriaam. Remember that name, because it will
be your
password. If you deliver a datadot to a
certain Mon Calamari
who will
be in Mos Eisley for the next few days, the credits are
yours."
Kabe considered. "A datadot. Thirty thousand? But where'11 you
get
it? How do we know--" "You'll
just have to trust me. As to the
location
of the dot..." Mesoriaam closed his
mouth and worked his
tongue
against his teeth. When he opened it,
there was a tiny black
circle
visible on the tip of his tongue. Kabe
plucked the datadot off.
Muftak, who'd returned to the bedside in
time to hear most of the
exchange,
stared wide-eyed at the man. "What
is on this dot that is of
such
value?" he asked.
Mesoriaam tried to raise himself, but he
was too weak. "That is
not for
you to know. Tell the Mon Calamari it is
for General Dodonna's
eyes
only."
"Barid Mesoriaam is a participant in
the Rebellion
against the Empire," said K-8LR
smugly. "They wish to restore
power to
the Senate, as I understand it. No doubt
the datadot has
something
to do with Rebel plans."
The Talz stroked his proboscis,
thinking. "Here, Muftak, put this
in your
pouch," Kabe oratered, holding out the datadot.
Muftak complied. "Rebels," he repeated meditatively.
"Kay-eight, what was Jabba trying to
get out of him? Was he under
Imperial
order to do this?"
"My former master does not play
favorites," replied the droid.
"He sells to the highest bidder. Unfortunately for him, no matter
how Mesoriaam
was tortured, he revealed nothing."
"Since you know what I am and what
this dot contains," said
Mesoriaam,
"there is nothing to stop you from selling the information
to the
Prefect. But, if you do, remember that
there is no place for
nonhumans
in the Empire. In the proud days of the
Republic, all beings
had
equal status. Look around you and tell
me if that is still the
case."
Kabe scowled impatiently. "If your friend'11 give us thirty
thousand,
I don't care what he--" She whirled around abruptly. "what
was
that?"
Lights came on in the hall. "Oh, no," said K-8LR.
"This doesn't seem to be a very
promising turn of events," Muftak
drew his
blaster. "Let's get out of here.
NOW."
The Talz held his breath as he reached the
hallway, brandishing
his
blaster, but no one was in sight. Kabe
followed, trying to fit one
more
prize in her already full bag. "Jabba's
audience chamber, Muftak.
That shapework must be worth
millions!"
Muftak gaped at her, incredulous. "Kabe, are you crazy? We've
got
to---" From out of the lounge sprang two burly, porcine Gamorreans
brandishing
axes, grunting obscenely.
Muftak shoved Kabe behind him, and they
backed away from the
newcomers. The Talz triggered his blaster--but nothing
happened.
"Shoot them, Muftak!" Kabe shrilled.
Muftak emitted a frustrated hum. "I'm trying!"
Encumbered by his sack, he examined the
weapon as best he could,
backpedaling
all the while. The Gamor-reans squealed
at each other,
evidently
making plans.
Desperately, Muftak wiggled the power
supply into better contact,
saw the
ignition coil begin to glow hot. Got
it. Aiming, he fired at
the
nearest guard. The weapon spat, and the
bolt of.energy caromed off
the
guard's axhead, which it was using as a shield.
The Gamorre-ans
dived
for cover, just as a tiny Jawa appeared from another door, firing
its
blaster. Muftak coaxed out a few more
shots, sending the Jawa
scurrying
back into hiding.
"This way!" Kabe was heading past the main entrance, a
reinforced
blast
door big enough to admit the enormous Hutt.
One glance told
Muftak
it was electronically locked.
The Chadra-Fan scurried in the direction
of the audience room.
"There's another exit in here--hold
them off while I get it open!"
"Hold them off?." Muftak cried.
"How?" He followed
Kabe, and
they
dashed into the huge, circular audience chamber. Dominating the
far end
of the room was the Hutt's ornate wooden dais; over it hung a
gigantic
tapestry depicting a grotesque scene of Hutt family life.
Just as Kabe had promised, there was
another, smaller door--but it
too bore
an electronic bolt. "Now
what?" Muftak gasped. "We're
trapped!"
"Maybe I can get it open . . ."
Kabe said uncertainly.
"But I'll need time . . ."
Pulling out the nerve disruptor, she
set it
on the floor, pointing at the doorway, then turned it on. "I'll
use this
to block the entrance!"
Time was against them--they'd only gotten
halfway across the
chamber
before more Gamorreans charged through the door, howling like
Tusken
Raiders. One was armed with a
blaster. Lethal bolts ricocheted
behind
them as Muftak grabbed Kabe and dashed across the chamber,
taking
cover behind Jabba's audience dais.
The
blaster bolts halted abruptly, and the two thieves peered out
to see
the four Gamorreans staggering in the entranceway, yowling with
pain and
fury. Sighting carefully, Muftak cut
three of them down with
wellplaced
shots. The fourth escaped back into the
hall.
Kabe started crawling for the door. "I'll openre" All hell broke
loose. Ten guards of various species appeared at the
doorway, each of
them
loosing a barrage of blaster fire. Kabe's
disruptor held them
back for
the moment, but the two friends were pinned down behind the
dais.
"We can't hold out much longer like
this." Muftak grunted,
sighting
and firing into the gaggle of guards jammed into the entrance.
"Sooner or later one of their shots
will hit the disruptor--and
then
they'll be in here."
Kabe's only response was a terrified
squeal. Muftak peered over
the
dais, searching for a good target, and glimpsed chalky-white albino
features
at the back of the crowd. Bib Fortuna
. . . Jabba's Twi'lek
major-domo,
who was doubtless directing the battle from the safety of
the
hallway. A whistling snarl from overhead
attracted his attention,
and he
glanced up to see a huge net hanging from the ceiling, large
enough
to cover the entire middle of the audience chamber.
Word had it that the net contained kayven
whistlers, flying
carnivores
with appetites as large and sharp as their teeth, Jabba used
the
kayven to "influence" recalcitrant business associates into deals
favorable
to the Hutt.
Aiming at a hulking Abyssin's torso,
Muftak squeezed off another
shot,
and was rewarded when the being went down with a scream.
"Muftak, what are we going to
do?" Kabe bleated. He glanced down
at her,
saw her huddled, quivering, against his side.
"If we could only get that. t door open," the Talz muttered, half
to
himself. But it was too far away . . .
Another blaster shot sizzled overhead, so
close that Muftak threw
himself
over Kabe, almost mashing her flat. A
crackling filled the
air; the
tapestry behind them was now burning in one spot and
smoldering
in several others. That's it . . . we'll never get out of
here
alive, he thought. I'll never get off
this sandy hell, never see
Alzoc
III . . . never taste the nectar of
those flowers-"Get off me!"
Kabe squeaked beneath him. Muftak levered himself up, gasping and
gagging
on smoke.
Kabe stared at the fire round-eyed. "Muf-tak . . ."
she wailed.
The Talz squinted against the smoke
tendrils, trying to aim. He
fired at
a Gamorrean, but blurred vision made him miss.
Return fire
caromed
off the furniture.
One blaster bolt struck the nerve
disruptor, shattering it.
Now they'll be all over us.t Muftak
thought, but the guards still
held
back. Evidently they hadn't realized
that the entrance was now
clear--either
that, or the smoke deterred them. Maybe
Bib Fortuna
ordered
them to stay back, figuring the fire will get us, he thought.
That way he doesn't risk losing any more
guards.
Without warning, the exit door swung open.
Fresh night air rushed in, fanning the
flames, sending the smoke
eddying
in billows. Muftak grabbed the two sacks
of loot, shoving them
into
Kabe's hands.
"Run for it!" he ordered.
"I'll cover you!"
The Chadran-Fan hesitated. "But what about you?"
"I'll be right behind you!" he lied.
Someone as small and quick
as Kabe
might be able to make it out the door, under the cover of his
fire,
but Muftak, with his lumbering bulk, didn't have a chance. But
at least
Kabe would live. With the wealth in
those sacks, she'd be set
for life
. . .
"Go.t" he cried, literally
booting her out from behind the dais.
He fired at the guards, catching a glimpse
of her scuttling
through
the smoke out of the corners of his left eyes.
A hail of fire forced him down again, but
not before Muftak was
rewarded
by the sight of Kabe vanishing through the door. Thank the
Force
for that. He settled back, his blaster
scorching his paw as he
prepared
to sell his life dearly . . .
Gasping, choking, Kabe staggered out the
exit and into the night.
The heavy sacks of loot weighed her down,
but she'd sooner have
cut off
her arm than lose them.
Ducking through a gate and into a walled
garden, she sagged
against
a life-size sculpture of Jabba, gulping air.
Behind her she
could
hear blaster bolts whining.
Where was Muftak?
Peeking through the gate at the exit from
the audience chamber,
the
Chadra-Fan watched as clouds of smoke billowed.
With each passing
second,
the pain in her pounding heart and straining lungs eased.
Still no Muftak. Kabe glanced up the street, hearing the
distant
sounds
of firefighters and water sellers converging on the Hutt's town
house
from all directions.
Where in the name of the Force was Muftak?
Kabe winced at the sounds of more blaster
fire from the audience
chamber. Smoke darkened the night, obscuring the
stars. The entire
room
must be ablaze . . .
Muftak!
Grimly, the little Chadra-Fan realized
that her friend had never
intended
to follow her. He'd given her the chance
to escape at the
price of
his own life. Slowly, she picked up the
two laden sacks.
She'd be crazy to throw away the Talz's
last gift to her . . .
Muftak
wanted her to get away--with the loot.
Kabe took a step toward the gate on the
other side of the 'garden,
heading
for the alley. Images flashed before her
eyes, of herself,
starving,
whimpering in alleys, too weak to run, almost too weak to
walk. Muftak had picked her up, tucked her under
his arm, and carried
her home
to his den . . . had bought water for
her, and food . . .
Kabe took another step . . .
The sacks slipped from the Chadra-Fan's
fingers, thudded to the
sandy
ground near the sculpture's stone tail. Kabe
kicked them
viciously,
knowing they wouldn't last two seconds out here, no matter
how she
tried to conceal them. "Damn you,
Muftak!" she squealed
--and; turning, raced back into the
audience chamber.
Chittering loudly, Kabe could pick up
Muftak's presence by his
vibrations,
even through the engulfing smoke. The
Talz was still where
she'd
left him, but the room was now filled with advancing guards.
Muftak was returning fire, but the power
pak in his blaster was
clearly
running lowrathe beam flickered as she scuttled across the
floor of
the audience chamber.
Eyes watering, coughing as she tried to
sense vibrations, Kabe
picked
up a shape in front of her. A
Rodian. She leaped, fastening
her
sharp teeth in the guard's leg. He
shrieked, dropped his blaster
and
turned, trying to club her away with his fist.
The Chadra-Fan let
go,
grabbed the blaster, and shot the guard at point-blank range.
"Muftak!" she shrilled.
"Come on! I'll cover you!"
Somehow, despite the melee, he heard
her. Kabe chittered wildly
amid the
chaos of smoke, flame, and scuttling bodies, and was rewarded
with the
sound of the Talz crawling out from behind the dais.
Crouching down, she made herself as small
a target as possible,
all the
while firing wildly at anything moving.
She could see Muftak; he was lumbering
toward her, knocking aside
guards
as though they were children, using his enormous bulk to flatten
anything
in his path.
"Over here!" Kabe called.
"The door!"
Muftak headed toward her--only to be
confronted by two Gamorreans,
grunting
and squealing threats.
Kabe took careful aim, and shot one in the
back. His partner
whirled
toward her, and Muftak kicked him aside.
Suddenly
a new voice called out. "Friend
Talz!
Friend Talz--stand away from the' center
of the room, please!"
Kabe glanced up, through the smoke, to see
K-8LR leaning out of a
window
halfway up the wall of the dome. Muftak
obeyed, changing the
direction
of his charge just in time to avoid a huge net that tumbled
down
from the apex of the dome, engulfing most of the guards.
Shrieks and squeals from the guards
mingled with the savage
hootings
of kayyen whistlers. The net heaved
wildly.
One long stride later, Muftak reached the
Chadra-Fan, scooped her
up
without pausing, then raced out the open door.
"Put me down?' Kabe squeaked, the
moment they were clear of the
town
house. Quickly, she hurried over to the
shadow of the statue,
but, of
course, the sacks were gone.
The
Chadra-Fan's shoulders sagged.
"Bantha
dung!"
"Kabe
. . . you came back . . ."
It was Muftak, and he was regarding her
incredulously, his eyes
still
clouded with smoke. "I thought
you'd be halfway home by now."
Kabe kicked the crumbling garden wall
disgustedly.
"Muftak, you're so cursed
stupid! Of course I couldn't leave you
in
there, when you're too dumb to get out of there by yourself.. You'd
have
been bantha fodder for sure ! ' ' The
Talz regarded her
quizzically,
then, suddenly, he buzzed with soft amusement.
"Kabe . .
. you saved my life. You and Kay-eight. You came back to save
me."
The Chadra-Fan put both hands on her hips
and glared at him.
"Well, of course I did, you
idiot! We're partners, aren't we?"
Muftak nodded. "That's for sure, Kabe. Partners.
Come, let's get out of here."
The two began skulking along,
automatically moving in shadows,
avoiding
passersby. Behind them, the blaze was
spreading. "The walls
won't
burn," Muftak observed, "but the interior is going to be gutted,
at this
rate."
"Jabba's so rich he'll fix it up, no
problem," Kabe said
truthfully. "Muftak . , .
one thing puzzles me.
Who opened the door?"
"It must have been the droid,"
the Talz replied. "I only hope
that Bib
Fortuna didn't seeit helping us out.
If he did, there's no hope for Kay-eight
Ellarr."
"Where will we go now?" Kabe, ever-practical, asked.
"Momaw Nadon's house. He'll hide us . . . if he's alive. And
there
were no reports of his death, so he must have managed to
outmaneuver
Alima somehow."
"But we can't stay here . . ."
Kabe wailed. "Our lives
won't be
worth
Sarlacc spit ifJabba finds out who messed up his house!"
Muftak gave her a long look. "You're right . . . we can't stay
here. We're getting out of Mos Eisley and off
Tatooine before anyone
can
inform on us."
"How, Muftak? We lost almost all of our loot!"
Which wasn't quite true... Kabe could feel
the small bulges of
half a
dozen gems in her robe.
"Have you forgotten the
datadot?" Smugly, the Talz patted
his
furry
belly.
Kabe stared at him, wide-eyed, then began
to chatter happily to
herself. "Thirty thousand! And it will all be ours! And you didn't
even
want to go into that room . . . I
practically had to drag you! I
told you
you'd never regret this night, Muftak, didn't I? Didn't I?"
Silently, the big Talz nodded agreement.
Two nights later, in the secret hiding
place beneath the roots of
the
Ithorian's carnivorous vesuvague tree, Muftak faced the Mon
Calamari
that Momaw Nadon had conducted there to meet him. "Barid
Mesoriaam
said this was to be for General Dodonna's eyes only," the
Talz
said.
"I understand," the fish-being
said, holding out a tinned hand.
"The datadot, please?"
"First, our payment," Kabe piped
up. "Do you think we're
stupid?"
Silently, the Mon Calamari produced
credits from a pouch that made
the
Chadra-Fan's eyes gleam avidly.
Muftak hastily counted it. "There is only fifteen thousand
here,"
he
complained. "We were promised
thirty."
"I have something better than
credits, to make the rest of the
payment,"
promised the Rebel contact, reaching into his pocket.
"What could be better than
credits?" scoffed Kabe, openly
contemptuous.
"These--" the spy said, holding
up two official-looking stamped
and
sealed documents. "Two letters of
transit, signed by Grand Moff
Tarkin
himself. With these, you can go
anywhere!"
Muftak stared at the documents, all four
eyes huge.
Letters of transit! With these they'd be able to reach Alzoc
III--and
then, perhaps, Chadra, Kabe's world of origin.
"But obtaining passage out of Mos
Eisley is still no easy task .
. ."
Muftak said, taking the precious documents and stowing them,
along
with the credits, in his pouch. Gravely,
he handed over the
datadot.
"Passage has been arranged, my
friend," Momaw Nadon said, stepping
out of
the shadows. "You leave
tonight. Perhaps, now that you have
those
. . ."--the Ithorian cocked one
eyestalk in the direction of the
letters
of transit--"you will one day be able to aid the Rebellion
again."
"Don't count on it, Momaw," Kabe
squeaked.
"We're in this for ourselves, not for
any Rebellion, right,
Muftak?"
The Talz scratched his head, and didn't
answer.
Kabe craned her neck to peer out the
porthole of the small
freighter,
gazing down at the golden world below them, turning lazily
in the
light of its double suns. "I never
thought I'd see Tatooine
from
here," she chirped, a little uneasily.
"I could use a drink,
Muftak."
"Not while we're in space, little
one," the Talz said.
"We don't want you getting sick. But on Alzoc . . .
ah, there is the finest of nectar to
sip!"
"What about juri juice?" she demanded, taken aback. "Don't tell
me they
don't have any juri juice, Muftak!"
Muftak hummed softly. "I have no idea, little one," he
said
gently. Every time the Talz moved, he could feel the
letters of
transit
in their place of concealment.
First Alzoc III, he thought. Then, perhaps, Chadra . . .
and from there? Who knows?
The Rebellion has been far more
charitable
to us than the Empire ever was or would be .
. .
perhaps, after we have seen our home
worlds, it will be time to
think
once again of the Rebellion.
Kabe was still gazing out the porthole,
muttering disgustedly to
herself
about the lack ofjuri juice. But
suddenly she glanced up at
her
large friend, her little eyes twinkling.
"I've just thought of one
more
reason I'm
glad to leave Mos Eisley, Muftak."
"What is that, little one?"
"At least I'll never have to listen to
that . . . that noise
Figrin
D'an makes again! Especially his
rendition of 'The Sequential
Passage
of Chronological Intervals.' That one really hurt my ears . .
."
Muftak stroked his proboscis, buzzing
softly with amusement.
The Sand Tender:
The Hammerhead's Tale
by Dave Wolverton
T he cantina was crowded now that the
afternoon suns beat down on
Tatooine,
yet even sitting with his friend in the crowded cantina,
Momaw
Nadon felt somehow alone. Perhaps it was
because Nadon was the
only
Ithorianmor Hammerhead---on the planet. Or
perhaps it was the
news
that his longtime friend Muftak bore.
Muftak the hairy white four-eye drank a
cup of fermented nectar,
slurping
with his long proboscis, and said with palpable excitement,
"Talz
is the name of my specieswat least that is what the stormtrooper
called
me, and as soon as he said it, I recognized the word.
Have you heard of the Talz?"
Nadon had a perfect memory. "Unfortunately, I have never heard of
your
species, my friend," Nadon answered, the words from his twin
mouths
cutting through the room in stereo. "But
I have contacts on
other
worlds. Now that we know your species,
we may be able to learn
where
your home lies."
Muftak got a faraway look in his eyes as
he sipped his drink.
"Home."
"These Imperial stormtroopers that
questioned you," Nadon asked,
"what
were they after?"
"I have heard," Muftak said,
"that they are searching for two
droids
who evacuated a Rebel ship and dropped into the Dune Sea. The
Imper,
i, als are conducting a door-to-door search, even now.
"Hmmm . . ."
Nadon considered. He couldn't
tell what the
Imperials
were really after. Often they would
visit a planet, pretend
to
investigate a minor infraction as an excuse to bully the locals,
then
leave a garrison of gunslingers to "ensure the peace." A small
force of
stormtroopers had been on planet for some time.
Now it looked
as if
the Empire were raising the stakes on Tatooine.
At this very
moment,
all over the planet, residents of the underworld were scurrying
to hide
illegal drug shipments, forging documents.
Nadon saw worried
faces in
the crowded bar. There was no telling
how long the new
Imperial
forces might stay or what direction their investigations might
take.
Muftak laid a heavy claw on Nadon's arm in
warning.
"There is something more that I must
tell you, my old friend. The
Imperials
that stopped us were led by a commander named Lieutenant
Alima,
an older human from the planet Coruscant."
At the mention of Alima's name, Momaw
Nadon's blood went cold and
the
muscles of his legs tightened, preparing him to run. "It would be
a .great
favor," Nadon said, "if you could discover if this man once
led the
Star Destroyer Conquest in its attack against a herd-ship on
Ithor."
"I have already begun asking
around," Muftak answered.
"I noticed that the men in Alima's
command did not respect
himwthey
looked away when he gave orders--and even his subordinates
retained
a healthy distance from him."
"Which means?" Nadon asked.
"This Alima is an outcast among his
own menw probably recently
demoted,
on his way down in the ranks. There is a
good chance that he
is the
one who betrayed your people. If he is,
what will you do?"
Nadon stopped his digestive processes for
a moment, sending extra
blood to
his brains as he considered.
Alima was a vicious man. Contacting him would be dangerous, but
Nadon
knew he could not resist confronting the man who was responsible
for his
exile. "I don't know what I will
do," Nadon said. "If this
Alima is
my old foe, tell him that you know of an enemy to the Empire
who may
be harboring the droids. Sell him my
name .... And make sure
he pays
you well." It was an ironic
moment. For years now, Nadon had
spied
for the Rebellion and had sought to hide this affiliation. Now
he was
asking a friend to sell him out.
"One more thing," Muftak said
with a note of warning.
"This Alima was brought in by Lord
Vader as an interrogator. Word
from the
desert is that he's already killed fifty of our citizens."
"I know the type of man I am dealing
with," Nadon said heavily.
That evening, as the lavender- and
rose-colored suns of Tatooine
dipped
below the horizon, Nadon felt restless.
His sympathies for the Rebellion were
widely known, and he did not
doubt
that the Imperials would soon come to question himwprobably even
torture
him.
Over the years, Nadon had used his share
of his family fortune to
invest
in farming ventures on a hundred worlds.
His investments were
paying
such handsome dividends that he had gained a fortune, and
usually
at this time of night he would have been hard at work, managing
his
wealth. But tonight he was ill at ease.
To calm himself, Nadon decided to engage
in an ancient Harvest
Ceremony,
so he took his hovercar to a nameless valley in the mountains
north of
Mos Eisley.
There, Nadon had planted leathery,
shade-giving Cydorrian driller
trees. With their far-reaching root systems, the
driller trees had
quickly
formed a thriving grove.
Nadon went to the healthiest specimen and
pulled a series of thin
golden
needles from a pouch at his belt, then inserted the probes into
the tree
bork so that he could harvest gene samples.
As a part of the
gene-Har-vest
Ceremony, he talked softly to the tree as he woi'ked.
"With your gift, my friend," he
told the tree, "I will splice the
DNA for
producing your long root systems into the native Tatooine hubba
gourd. The hubba gourd serves as the staff of life
to Tatooine's wild
Jawas
and Sand People. And so, because of this
little pain I have
inflicted,
many people will be served.
For this harvest I thank you. And I thank you for the greater
harvests
to come."
When he had collected his samples, Nadon
lay back on the warm
sand,
watched the stars burning in the night skies, and remembered
home. Nadon had a flawless memory, so he replayed
incidents in his
mind,
and as he remembered, the' sights and smells and emotions all
came to
him new again so that he was lost to the present. He relived
the time
that he and his wife Fandomar had planted a small, gnarled
Indyup
tree to commemorate their son's conception.
For a moment in his
memory,
Nadon knelt beside his wife digging beneath a .sun-splattered
waterfall
in the steaming Ithorian jungle, then cocked his head to
listen
to an arrak snake that burst into song from the heights of a
nearby
cliff.
Then he recalled being a child, gently
inhaling with both mouths
the
sweet smell of a purple donor flower.
After the rush of memories, Nadon felt
frail, wasted.
Home.
Nadon could not go home. Once, he
had been revered among
his
people as a great High Priest, an Ithorian renowned for his
knowledge
of many agriculo rural ceremonies. But
then Captain Alima
had come
with his Star Destroyer and forced Nadon to reveal the secrets
of
Ithorian technology to the Empire.
Nadon's people had banished him. As his punishment, Momaw Nadon
had
chosen to live on this dreary world of Tatooinewthe equivalent of
an
Ithorian hell.
Where once he had led his people in caring
for the vast forests of
Ithor,
Nadon now tended the barren sands of Tatooine.
As penance for
his
crimes, he struggled to develop plants that could thrive in these
deserts,
hoping that someday Tatooine would become a lush and inviting
world.
Nadon replayed his first memories of
Alima, captain of the
Imperial
Star Destroyer Conquest. Alima had been
a young man with dark
hair, a
craggy face, and fierce eyes. Nadon had
been newly married,
High
Priest of the Tafanda Bay.
On his native Ithor, Nadon's people lived
in immense floating
cities
called herdships, which used repulsorlift engines to constantly
sweep
over the forests and plains, and the Tafanda Bay was the largest
and
finest of Ithor's planetary herdships. Inside
each herd-ship,
hundreds
of biospheres were painstakingly reproduced down to the
microscopic
flora and fauna of the topsoils. The
Ithorians harvested
plants
from the biospheres of the ships, but particularly on their huge
groundships,
they also harvested from the abundant forests of
Ithor--taking
nourishment from fruits and grains, creating medicines
from
saps and pollens, using plant fibers to create fabrics and
ultrastrong
porcelains, harvesting minerals and energy from otherwise
unusable
roots and stems.
The study of plants and their uses was the
lifework of most
Ithorians,
and the greatest of the students became priests who guided
others,
prohibiting the people from harvesting plants that could think
or feel.
Only those plants that slept, those that
were not self-aware,
could be
harvested, and then only under a rigid law: For every plant
that was
destroyed in the harvest, two must be planted to replace it.
This was the Ithorian Law of Life.
As a High Priest, Nadon had spent decades
in the service of life,
until
Captain Alima came seeking excuses to board the Tafanda Bay, then
demanded
to know the secrets of Ithorian technology.
At first Nadon
had
refused to reveal his secrets, until Captain Alima trained his Star
Destroyer's
blasters on the sentient forests of Cathor Hills.
Thousands of the Bafforr died, trees that
had been Nadon's
teachers
and friends in his youth. Neither the
trees nor the Ithorians
had the
weapons to fight the Empire.
When the forest was destroyed, Captain
Alima had turned his
weapons
on the Tafanda Bay and ordered Nadon to surrender. In a
last-ditch
effort to save his own people, Nadon had no choice but to
relinquish
the secrets of Ithorian technology to Alima.
As punishment for revealing the Ithorian
agricultural ceremonies,
Nadon
could still hear the elders' judgment ringing in his ears, "We
banish
you from Ithor and from our mother jungles.
Go and consider
your
evil actions in solitude."
Home.
Nadon found himself both envying Muftak and feeling
gratitude
that perhaps the hairy creature would find joy.
Nadon was interrupted from his reveries by
a comlink call on his
personal
channel.
"Nadon," Muftak said over audio,
"I just sold your name to this
Lieutenant
Alima. You had better get home to meet
him. Be careful, my
old
friend."
"Thank you," Nadon said.
When Momaw Nadon reached Mos Eisley, his
house was quiet. With
the suns
down, many of the townspeople were on the streets, enjoying
the cool
evening.
Out across the Dune Sea, winds raced over
the sand, raising clouds
of
dust. Static discharges in the dust
clouds made the night growl
with the
sound of distant dry thunder.
Nadon unlocked his door, checking the
doorjamb for any sign that
someone
might have forced their way in before him.
The air in his
house
was rich with the smell of kater, and dreeka fish chirped among
the
reeds of the pond in his living room. Everywhere
in the dome,
creepers
climbed the pourstone walls toward the skylights. Small trees
shivered
under the weight of a breeze produced by fans.
Nadon made his way over a paved trail into
one of his many side
domes,
to a small grove of Bafforr trees that glowed pale blue in .the
starlight
under black leaves. Nadon knelt before
them and wrapped his
long
leathery gray fingers around the trunk of one tree. The bork was
smoother
than glass.
"My friends," Nadon
whispered. "Our enemy ColY-tain
Alima is
coming. I do not know how to admit this, but I wish
to kill him."
The bork hummed under his touch, and a
pure and holy feeling
enervated
him, as if light entered his every pore.
The soothing
mind-touch
of the sentient trees nearly overwhelmed him with its
beauty,
but the trees were displeased by his confession. Above him,
the
black leaves trembled, hissing the words, "Noooo. We forbid it."~
"He
slew the Bafforr of Cathor Hills," Nadon said.
"He is a murderer. And he killed your brothers so that he could
gain
greater prestige among evil men. His
every intent was impure."
"You are a priest of Ithor," the
woods whispered.
"You have vowed to honor the Law of
Life. You cannot slay him."
"But he killed your kin," Nadon
reasoned. He did not know if the
Bafforr
understood him. Each tree in itself had
limited intelligence,
but
through their intertwining roots they were connected and thus
formed a
group intelligence. A large forest grew
wiser in lore than
any
other being, but these few trees were not a great forest. Still,
Nadon
had not come for their counsel, only for their permission.
"Our kin would have died in
time," the Bafforr reasoned.
"Atima only hurried their end."
'~[ust as I wish to hurry Alima's
end," Nadon said.
"You are not like Alima." The trees sharpened the focus of their
mind-touch,
and Nadon gasped at the beauty he felt as rivers of light
cascaded
through him.
The profound peace that settled in his
bones was meant both as a
reward
and a warning. While he basked in the
glow, he dreaded the
moment
when he would have to leave the sacred grove and return to the
mundane
world. "If you break the Law of Life,"
the Bafforr said, "we
will no
longer be able to tolerate your touch."
"I would not kill him myself,"
Momaw Nadon pleaded, "I would
command
the vesuvague tree to strangle him, or I would have the alleth
consume
him or the arool poison him."
"All
of these are lower life forms than us," the Bar-forr said,
"and
they respond to your command as if they were common weapons. But
once
again, we warn you, you cannot break the Law of Life."
The mind-touch of the Bafforr withdrew
abruptly, and Nadon choked
out a
sob as he was suddenly excluded from the group mind. He fell to
his face
and began to weep.
"Fancy meeting you here," an
unfamiliar voice said.
Momaw Nadon turned.
Beneath a glow globe that shone like a
moon stood an aging human
in an
Imperial uniform. Emerald-winged moths
fluttered about the
globe,
and for a moment the human eyed their bright green wings.
Alima's face was fatter than when Nadon
had last seen him, and his
voice
had grown hoarser with age.
His cheeks had sagged and his hair was
graying, but Nadon
recognized
him. He would have recognized that face
anywhere. "I see
you are
still a priest, crying over your sacred trees," Alima said. He
waved a
blaster toward the grove.
"And I see that you are still a
servant of evil," Nadon said,
"though
somewhat fallen in rank."
Alima chuckled. "Believe me, my old friend," he
countered, "my
fall
from grace was carefully orchestrated.
Only a fool would want to be captain of
Lord Vader's flagship: The
mortality
rate is phenomenal.
Still, Vader finds uses for me even as a
lowly lieutenant --which
is why
I'm here. So, tell me--enemy of the
Empire--where the droids
are. I paid good money to learn the name of one
who was said to be
harboring
them."
"Then you wasted your money,"
Nadon retorted, hoping that Muftak
had
extorted plenty. "I don't know the
location of any droid."
"But you are an enemy of the Empire,
serving the Rebellion," Alima
whispered
dangerously. "I'm sure of it!"
"I know nothing about any
droids," Nadon answered softly. He
checked
Alima's location. The warrior stood
close to an arool cactus.
Nadon could command it to strike, but in
order to get within range
of its
stinging spines, Alima would have to move a couple of steps
farther
down the path.
Nadon got up from the forest floor,
stepped onto the path, and
backed
away from Alima, hoping to lure him a meter.
Alima followed Nadon's eyes, glanced at
the arool.
"Do you really think I'm so stupid as
to walk into your traps,
Priest?" Alima asked.
Alima raised his blaster and pointed it at
Nadon, then abruptly
swiveled
and fired into the grove of blue-glowing Bafforr. A tree
exploded
into flame, its trunk splitting under the impact. Black
leaves
rustled and waves of pain rippled from the woods, battering
Nadon's
senses as if they were mighty fists.
"You will devote all of your
resources to finding those droids,"
Alima
said. "Look to your friends within
the Rebellion. If you do not
have a
location on the droids by tomorrow evening, I will sew your eyes
open and
make you watch as I take a vibroblade and slice each limb off
your
precious Bafforr trees, one at a time. Then
I'll drop a thermal
detonator
in your living room and fry the rest of your damned vegetable
friends. Believe me, if your family were here or if I
thought there
was
anything that you loved more in life, I would gladly destroy it,
too--"
"I'll kill you--" Momaw Nadon shouted, his stereophonic voice
ringing
through the dome surprisingly loud.
"You?" Alima asked.
"If I thought you had it in you, I'd have
brought
a squadron of men. No, you'll cave in to
my demands, just as
you have
in the past!"
Alima turned and walked away, unconcernedly,
and Nadon could do
nothing
but watch helplessly even though rage burned within him.
When Alima had left, Nadon went to his
grove to see if he could
save the
wounded Bafforr, but the pale blue sheen of its glasslike
trunk
was already turning black in death.
He reached out for the trees with his
mind. Nadon fell to his
knees in
the mossy turf under the dark leaves and pleaded, "Now? Now
may I
kill him?"
The leaves of the living Bafforr trees
circling him rustled dimly
in
response. "What? What happened?
Who touches us?"
Momaw Nadon listened to the trees'
voices. Their number had been
reduced
from seven trees down to six--just below the number needed for
the
grove to achieve true sentience. He
could not tell how much they
might
understand. "MOmaw Nadon, a friend,
touches you. Our enemy
killed a
member of your grove. I wish to punish
him for his act."
"We understand. You cannot break the Law of Life," the
Bafforr
whispered
with finality. "We forbid it."
Nadon backed away without closing his eyes
in the traditional sign
of
acceptance. Perhaps the Bafforr were
willing to die for their
principles,
but Nadon could not sit by quietly and let them.
He considered his options. He could search for the droids, give
in to
Captain Alima's demands.
The thought was so revolting that it
caused Nadon physical pain,
made his
eyes feel gritty and itch. Nadon rubbed
his forehead between
his eyes
with his long thin fingers, physically stimulating a
pleasure-inducing
gland along the ridge of his brow so that he could
think
clearly again.
If the Empire wanted those two droids so
badly, then it was
imperative
that the Empire not get them.
No, Nadon had to fight. Lieutenant Alima was a dangerous man--as
vicious
as they come. He would leave a trail of
charred and mutilated
victims
behind in his search for the droids, and sooner or later,
someone
would tell him what he wanted to know.
As much as Nadon detested violence, he
knew that Alima was a
monster,
someone who must be destroyed.
It would be a small loss to the Empire, an
ineffectual blow, but
Alima
represented a constant, undeniable threat to the Rebel Alliance.
Just as importantly, by letting Alima
live, Nadon would be
allowing
the man to kill more plants, more people.
Nadon couldn't
allow
Alima to live.
In another room a sprinkler system softly
hissed to life, and
Nadon
took that as a signal to leave. He
checked his utility belt for
some
credit chips, then went out the front door.
Down the street, he spotted three
stormtroopers on guard, standing
together
talking. They didn't hide the fact that
they were watching
his
house. Nadon had to walk past them. The flashing red lights on
their
blaster rifles testified that the rifles were set to kill. As
Nadon
passed, one of the stormtroopers peeled away and followed at a
discreet
distance.
The streets were crowded now that full
night had hit and the
blistering
temperature had fallen to a comfortable level.
Nadon passed
through
the markets and had no trouble losing the stormtrooper.
Nadon made his way to Kayson's Weapons
Shop. The gruff human who
owned
the shop had been in business forever, but Nadon had never set
foot on
the premises. It .took less than five
minutes to buy a heavy
blaster
and a holster that could be concealed under Nadon's cloak, then
the
Ithorian was back out the door.
He wandered the streets aimlessly for
nearly an · hour, without
any kind
of plan. He simply hoped to spot
Lieutenant Alima, pull his
blaster,
and shoot the human. Nadon knew that
nothing much would be
accomplished
by such an action. He would kill the
human, but in the
end he
would forfeit his own life. The precious
Bafforr trees in his
home
would be uprooted by whoever took over his house, and one way or
another
he would never be able to speak with them again.
But at least they would not be tortured by
the likes of Alima.
He set the blaster to kill, then searched
the streets until he
heard
the scream of fire sirens in his own neighborhood. For a moment
he was
struck with horror, fearing that Lieutenant Alima had already
come to
burn his house, but as he ran up the streets, Nadon saw that
some
trader's home was a roaring blaze.
Firelight
reflected from the column of smoke, lighting the streets
and
alleys in a dull red.
From every home, people were running
toward the house with foam
canisters. Water was so precious on Tatooine that the
authorities
would
probably let the house burn rather than waste the water used in
the foam
extinguishers, but if the hapless owner of the home was in the
vicinity,
he might purchase enough canisters--at inflated prices--to
rescue
his valuables.
From the corner of his eye, on a side street,
Nadon .glimpsed the
dark
uniform of an Imperial officer with ~ts billed cap. He turned
just in
time to recognize Lieutenant Alima walking steadfastly up the
hill
toward the fire, Nadon rushed up the street parallel to Alima's
path,
then turned down the next alley, running toward Alima. He pulled
out his
blaster, fumbled with it momentarily.
The gun was not made to accommodate an
Ithorian's extraordinarily
long,
thin fingers, and Nadon could hardly get his finger into the
trigger
guard. He found that his hearts were
racing, thumping wildly
in his
chest like a pair of Jawas in a struggle.
Nadon huddled against a wall, and checked
the side streets in
three
directions. He could not see anyone.
Good.
There would be no witnesses.
Alima walked into the open not a meter
away, and Nadon shouted his
name,
pulled the blaster up level to Alima's face.
Alima turned and looked at the Ithorian
calmly, glanced at the
blaster.
"Come here, into the
alley!" Nadon commanded.
His mind was racing, and he could not
think what to do. He
thought
of pulling the trigger, but he wanted to talk first, to tell
Alima
why he felt he had to do this.
Perhaps, Nadon thought, he will even
repent. Perhaps he will turn
away
from the Empire. Nadon's legs cramped,
aching with the desire to
run, his
species' preferred response for-coping with danger.
Alima laughed. "You can't kill me with a blaster set to
Stun," he
said. Nadon knew he had set the blaster to Kill,
but feared that
perhaps
it had been knocked off the setting by accident. Nadon glanced
down in
horror at the indicator lights on the blaster, saw the red
flashing
lights of the Kill setting. Just as
Nadon realized his
mistake,
Alima dodged from Nadon's line of fire and pulled his own
blaster.
A blue bolt tore through the darkness,
slamming Nadon between his
stomachs,
knocking the big Ithorian into the stone wall at his back.
For a moment, it seemed that a white sun
blazed before his eyes,
and then
Nadon found himself lying on the ground in a dark alley, and
someone
was kicking his right eyestalk.
Blood oozed from the wound. Nadon reached up with his long arms,
trying
to cover his eyestalks, and he moaned loudly.
His attacker stopped kicking, apparently
more from being winded
than
from any desire to offer mercy.
"You pacifist species are so pathetic
in battle," Alima said,
standing
over Nadon, panting. "You're lucky
that my blaster was set to
Stun!"
Nadon groaned, and Alima waved two
blasters in his face. "Find me
those
droids! You have until sunset
tomorrow!"
He pointed his blaster between Nadon's
eyes and pulled the trigger
again.
Nadon woke with a throbbing ache in his
eyestalks. It was nearly
dawn,
and a pale light washed through Mos Eisley, turning the pourstone
buildings
to golden domes. Nadon wiped the blood
from his face with
his
cloak, then managed to crawl to his knees.
He felt as if he stood
in a
whirling fog that threatened to sweep him away, and he leaned
against
the side of the building for support.
Stupid.
I was stupid, he realized. For
one split second, Nadon
had had
the opportunity to kill Lieutenant Alima, and he had failed to
do
so. Even though Nadon understood
intellectually that the Empire
could
only be overthrown by violence, his Ithorian nature had not
allowed
him to kill.
Nadon closed his eyes, tried to blink away
the pain.
He glanced up. A thin smoke hung over the city, and people
were
already
beginning to scurry for cover from the morning heat.
Nadon got up and wearily headed for home,
his ears still ringing.
He shook his head, tried to clear it. He went into his house, sat
beside a
pool and washed the blood from his eyestalk.
During the cool
of the
night, moisture had condensed at the top of the dome. No.
it sometimes fell like droplets of
rain. Above his head was a
large
gorsa tree, a stout flowering tree that used phosphorescent
flowers
to attract night insects for pollination.
Now that morning had come, the pale orange
phosphorescent flowers
were
folding in on themselves.
In Mos Eisley it was rumored that Momaw
Nadon's house was filled
with
carnivorous plants. Nadon encouraged the
rumor in order to keep
out
water thieves.
Besides, the rumors were true, but those
who walked through the
biospheres
under the High Priest's protection did not have anything to
fear.
Nadon went to a side dome where vines and
creepers hung from a
large,
red-barked tree that stood beside a pool.
Nadon said, "Part
your
vines, friend."
The tree's limbs quivered, and the vines
parted, exposing the
trunk. In the dim light of morning, four human
skeletons were revealed
hanging
from the limbs near the trunk of the tree, each with a thick
creeper
wrapped around its neck--hapless water thieves.
Nadon fumbled beneath some thick grass
near the tree's trunk,
pulled
at a handle until a concealed door jerked upward. A light
flipped
on below him, showing the ladder leading down.
Nadon
had secreted many a Rebel in the room below, and for a long
moment
he considered climbing down himself, hiding.
Perhaps in this
concealed
chamber, he would be able to disappear from view for a while.
Alima could ignite a thermal detonator in
this room, but there was
a chance
that Nadon could ride out the firestorm intact, remain hidden.
He had enough food stored here to last for
weeks.
And Nadon was sorely tempted to climb
down.
But he couldn't. He couldn't let Alima kill his plants.
One last chance, Nadon thought. When Alima comes this evening, I
might be
able to kill him yet.
Nadon got up, strolled through his
biosphere, touching the limbs
of
trees, stroking the gentle fronds of ferns, tasting the scent of
moisture
and undergrowth, the life all around him.
There was no other way, Nadon realized.
He would have to remain and fight, though
it cost him all. In the
evening,
Alima would come. Nadon knew that
Lieutenant Alima would be
true to
his word.
He would sew Nadon's eyes open and make
him watch as he slew the
Bafforr. It would gratify Alima's little Imperial
heart to know how he
had
tortured an Ithorian, leaving Nadon alive to bear witness to the
Empire's
cruelty. Alima would then incinerate the
house.
Momaw Nadon considered what that would
mean.
All of his plants would be destroyed, all
of his notes.
Years of work would be wasted. Nadon considered the plants,
decided
that he would take some containers outside, saving the
specimens
that showed the best hope of improving the ecology of
Tatooine.
The Bafforr would diemthey could not be
uprooted --but the Bafforr
had
accepted their fate, and Nadon realized that now he must accept
his.
For years Momaw Nadon had hidden on this
rock, seeking cleansing,
trying
to overcome the anger that insisted he should fight back against
the
Empire. The elders of Ithor had balked
when he suggested that the
Empire
was a weed that needed to be destroyed. His
elders would have
let the
Imperials destroy the Bafforr forests of Cathor Hills, trusting
that
some shred of decency left in Alima would make him stop short of
genocide
against an entire species. His elders
would have forgiven the
Empire.
But in all his years seeking spiritual
cleansing, Nadon had never
been
convinced that he was wrong.
He believed that he had been right to try
to save what he could.
Nadon was not above killing an insect to
save a tree.
So, Nadon had to resist the Empire the best
he knew how. Even if
that
meant he had to watch the Bafforrs be destroyed. Even if it meant
he
himself was destroyed.
He could not just let the Empire crush
him.
Nadon was exhausted, but could not
sleep. He decided to calm
himself
by continuing his Harvest Ceremony.
He went to his laboratory on the east wing
of the house, opened
the
fruit of a large Tatooine hubba gourd, and removed some pale,
transparent
seeds: Using tiny robotic manipulators, he carefully opened
four
young seeds and removed the zygotes.
Using his genetic samples from the
Cydorrian driller trees, he put
the DNA
into a gene splicer. Nine genes
controlled the drillers' root
growth. Nadon took these genes, spliced them into the
hubba gourd
zygotes,
then returned the gourd's zygotes to a nutrient mixture so
that
they could grow.
The whole painstaking ritual calmed Nadon
immensely, even though
he knew
that soon most of his work would probably be destroyed. The
task
took nearly twelve hours, and when Nadon looked up from his work,
he saw
by the shadows on the wall that nightfall was approaching.
Soon, Alima would come.
Time to say good-bye, Nadon
whispered. At this time of the day,
his good
friend Muftak would be trying to cool himself off at Chalmun's
cantina--a
difficult task considering the thickness of the four-eye's
furry
white pelt.
Nadon went to the cantina, thinking
furiously, wondering how he
might
best lure Alima into the dangerous depth of his own personal
biosphere.
The cantina was as busy as usualNbustling
with disreputable
aliens. It was a tough place, frequented by cruel
beings.
Sure enough, Nadon found Muftak sitting
alone at a table, sipping
polaris
ale while his parmer in crime, the little thief Kabe, chittered
and
wandered about in the darkness, begging Wuher the bartender for
juri
juice and eyeing the pockets of the cantina's inhabitants.
Nadon spoke to Muftak of inconsequential
things--the price that
Muftak
had gained for selling Nadon's name, Muftak's dreams of home.
Always, Nadon tried to accentuate the
positive, to leave his
friend
uplifted, but Nadon's own thoughts were dark, and when they
drank a
toast, Nadon found himself offering comfort that he himself
could
not receive.
Suddenly there was a disturbance in the
cantina: A hideously
scarred
human named Evazan and his alien sidekick Ponda Baba were
picking
a fight with some wide-eyed local moisture boy.
"I have the
death
sentence on twelve systems!" the
scarred human warned.
Nadon looked at the small group. The moisture boy was unfamiliar,
some
farmer from the desert who had come in only moments earlier with
the old
mystic Ben Kenobi. Nadon had seen Ben
only once before, when
he'd
come into town to shop. Nadon had
noticed the pair because the
barkeep
Wuher had shouted for them to leave their droids outside.
Evazan and Ponda Baba were regulars, had
been hanging around the
spaceport
for weeks.
Suddenly, Ponda Baba swung a clawed arm,
bashing the moisture
farmer
across the face, sending the boy crashing against a table.
Ponda Baba then pulled a blaster free just
as Wuher shouted from
behind
the bar, "No blasters!"
Old Ben Kenobi whipped out an ancient
lightsaber.
It hummed to life, flashing blue as he
slashed off Ponda Baba's
arm,
sliced Evazan's chest. Then he flipped
off his lightsaber and
cautiously
backed away with the young moisture farmer in tow.
Nadon followed Ben Kenobi with his eyes as
the music went silent.
The bloodshed nauseated Nadon. Old Ben Kenobi took his young
friend
to the back of the cantina, and together they spoke with the
Wookiee
smuggler Chewbacca, then retired to a private cubicle with
Chewbacca's
partner, Han Solo.
"I think I should be going," Nadon
said to Muftak.
"Things are getting.hot in
here."
"Please," Muftak said
heavily. "One last drink for old
times.
I'm buying."
This was such an unusual offer that Nadon
didn't dare refuse.
They ordered another round, and Nadon sat
talking for a few more
moments
with Muftak, said his good-byes. A
moment later, Ben and his
moisture
boy got up from their table at the back of the bar, and a seed
of
thought sprouted in Nadon's head. He
wondered what business the old
mystic
from the Jundland Wastes might have in town with smugglers,
especially
bringing a moisture farmer in tow.
Then he remembered the droids that Ben
Kenobi had with him, and
Momaw
Nadon saw the truth: Ben Kenobi was trying to smuggle the droids
off
Tatooine.
In that one second, Momaw Nadon's hearts
beat wildly and he saw
his
salvation. Nadon knew exactly where to
look for the droids, and if
he told
Alima, then the lieutenant would spare his life.
But as old Ben Kenobi passed him, the
mystic
glanced
calmly into Nadon's eyes, and somehow, Nadon suspected
that
Kenobi knew what he was thinking.
Ben and the moisture boy walked past, yet
Ben said nothing to
Nadon.
"Did you see the way he looked at
you?" Muftak asked. "Like a
Tusken
Raider staring down a charging bantha. What
do you think that
was all
about?"
"I have no idea," Nadon
said. Yet he looked down at the table,
ashamed
even to have thought of sacrificing someone else in an effort
to
escape his own pain.
Nadon fell silent for a moment, glanced
around the room.
Certainly, if Nadon could figure out what
was happening here,
others
might also. Yet Ben Kenobi was not a
regular in town, and few
in the
cantina would have recognized him. No
one followed the old
mystic
OUt.
Muftak laid a hairy paw on Nadon's smooth
gray-green arm. "You
are
'afraid, my old friend. Your worries
weigh on you. Is there
anything
that I can do?"
Blaster fire erupted from a cubicle at the
back of the cantina,
and Han
Solo stepped out, holstered his blaster.
He puffed out his
chest in
false bravado, threw a credit chip to Wuher as he left.
Muftak put a hairy paw to his head and
scratched.
"I think I had better be leaving,
too," Momaw said.
"I don't want to be here if the
Imperials come to investigate."
Momaw hurried out, looked up at the suns
dropping toward the
horizon. Time for the torture to begin.
He glanced up in despair, wishing that he
were like Han Solo,
wishing
that he could kill someone who merited death, then walk away
calmly. But he couldn't.
Even in his deepest rage, he could not
harm another.
And so, there was nothing left to do but
save what he could.
Momaw Nadon breathed deeply for a moment,
then hurried home and
began
carrying the most valuable of his plant samples and setting them
outside
the back door in the hope that they would escape the fire.
The streets were nearly deserted, except
for a few stormtroopers
that
watched the house.
When this is done, Nadon promised himself
as he worked, I will go
home. I will repudiate the elders and their foolish
traditions. I
will
bear the limbs of the burned Bafforr trees in my arms, and I will
show the
elders my scarred eyes, and then they will see how monstrous
the
Empire has become, and they will know that we must fight.
Nadon chuckled to himself. Somehow, his spiritual eyes had been
sewn
open long ago. He'd seen the evil, known
he had to fight it. But
when
Alima came and made the act physical, then Nadon's scars would
bear
witness to his people. The Ithorians
were not a stupid species.
They were not as hopelessly pacifistic as
Lieutenant Aiima and his
Empire
believed. Though they might never go to
war themselves, they
could still
help fund the Rebellion. Perhaps this
one small evil act
could
turn against Lieutenant Alima in the long run.
The Empire's evil will betray itself,
Nadon told himself.
As he considered the possibilities, Nadon
felt a strange rush of
hope. Perhaps his suffering would be worth
something after all.
Perhaps he could end this seclusion,
return to his wife and his
son and
the vast forests of Ithor.
And as Nadon considered the possibilities,
he realized that his
loneliness
and suffering here as an outcast on Tatooine did not hurt so
much. His deepest regret, he found, was not the
pain he had endured,
but that
his work here--his plant samples--would be destroyed.
On Ithor, the people had a saying: "A
man is his work." Never had
the
saying felt more true. By destroying the
results of Nadon's labor
here on
Tatooine, Alima would destroy a part of Nadon.
Nadon stood gazing down at his little
plants sitting in the
sunlight
outside the door, decided to carry them across the street,
give
them a better chance of survival.
The muted explosions of blaster fire
punctured the air and began
echoing
from buildings. Nadon looked up from his
labors. Down the
street,
stormtroopers that had been guarding his house all began
running
toward the spaceport. Nadon looked up in
time to see Han
Solo's
old junker, the Millennium Falcon, blasting into the sky.
So, Nadon realized, old Ben Kenobi's
droids made it.
off Tatooine. He watched the ship for several moments to
make
sure
that none of the planetary artillery fired on the Falcon. When he
was
certain that the ship had gotten away, he found himself running
behind
the stormtroopers toward the docking bays.
Outside the bays, some Imperial captain
stood before dozens of
stormtroopers
and port authorities, shouting in a frantic rage: "How
could
this happen?
How could you let all four of them get
away? Someone must be held
accountable,
and it won't be me!"
There at the back of the crowd, Nadon saw
Lieutenant Alima
standing
nervously, staring toward the ground. No
one was stepping
forward
to claim responsibility for Solo's breakout, and the frantic
look in
the captain's eye suggested that he needed a scapegoat.
The evil of the Empire will turn against
itself. A man is his
work. You cannot break the Law of Life.
Nadon realized what he must do. He could never kill a man, but he
could
stop Alima. He could sabotage the man's
career, get him demoted
even
further.
Nadon called out to the Imperial captain;
"Sir, last night I
informed
Lieutenant Alima that a freighter owned by Han Solo would be
blasting
out of here with two droids as its primary cargo. I suspect
that
your lieutenant's negligence in letting Solo escape goes beyond
ineptitude,
and should be considered criminal in nature."
Nadon looked at Alima, wondering if he
could make such charges
stick. Nadon had a perfect memory. He would never get tangled in a
snare of
his own lies, so long as he chose those lies carefully.
"No!" Alima shouted, giving Nadon a pleading look
that betrayed
profound
horror. The Imperial captain was already
fixing Alima with a
dark
stare. Stormtroopers stepped aside,
clearing a path between the
two men.
The captain glanced back at Nadon. "Would you swear to this under
oath,
Citizen?"
"Gladly," Nadon said, seeing
ways that he could make his false
testimony
stand up in a military tribunal.
The two had met alone in Nadon's
house. Surely Alima had listed
his
meeting with Nadon in his personal logs.
Nadon knew that as
Ithorians--a
race of peaceful cowards--his people were known as easy
targets
for intimidation. Nadon could claim that
Alima had tortured
the
information from him. Certainly, with
the bruises and bloody
eyestalks,
he could show that he'd been tortured. There
was a good
chance
that Alima would be demoted--perhaps even imprisoned.
The captain glanced back at Alima and
said, "You know what Lord
Vader
would do if he were here." Before
Nadon had time to blink, the
captain
pulled his blaster and fired into Lieutenant Alima three times.
Blood and gobbets of roasted flesh
spattered across the courtyard.
Nadon stared in shock, realizing belatedly
that the captain had
not
wished to convene a tribunal. He simply
needed a scapegoat.
"I will expect your testimony to be
recorded," the captain said.
Momaw Nadon stood blinking, unable to
move, and the suns seemed to
have
gone cold. He wavered, feeling
faint. The stormtroopers all
began walking
away, apparently heading toward a transport so they could
leave
Tatooine. The Law of Life kept running
through Nadon's mind like
a
litany. "For every plant destroyed
in' the harvest, two must be
cultivated
to replace it."
Nadon knew that his act would require
penance.
The blood of a man was on his hands, and
such a stain could not
easily
be removed. But surely the Bafforr would
understand. Surely
they
would forgive him.
At last, before the Imperial medics could
arrive, Nadon forced his
legs to
move. Numbly, he went to the warm
corpse, leaned over, and
took two
golden needles from his belt. He
inserted the needles and
removed
the genetic samples. On Ithor were
cloning tanks that would
allow
him to create duplicates of Alima. For
his penance, Nadon would
nurture
Alima's twin sons. Perhaps in their day,
they too would grow
wise and
kind, serving as Priests on Ithor, promoting the Law of Life.
Nadon packed the needles in his utility
belt, then headed toward
his biosphere. There would be so much to do before he left
Tatooine--depositions
to give the Imperials, plants to be uprooted in
preparation
for the move, hubba gourd seeds to be sown in the wilds.
A stiff wind kicked up, and stinging sand
blew in from the desert.
Nadon closed his eyes against it, and
allowed himself to become
lost for
a moment in the memory of his wife's final embrace as he was
banished
from Ithor, and in the memory he relished the scent of his
young
son. "I will be waiting here for
you if you ever return," she
had
said. And for the first time in ages
Momaw Nadon walkefffree and
his
steps felt light.
He was heading home.
Be Still My Heart:
The Bartender's Tale
by David Bischoff
O n his way to work, Wuher,
after-double-noon shift bartender at
the Mos
Eisley Spaceport Cantina, was accosted. To
make matters worse,
the
accoster was his least favorite of the many things that congregated
in this
most egregious of congregations of intergalactic scum.
An
extensor whipped from the pale shadows of the alley, wrapping
around
his ankle lighfiy, yet w~th enough strength to detain him.
Automatically, Wuher reached to the back
of his belt for his
street-club. A weapon of some kind was always a necessity
for those
who
strode the byways of a haven for cutpurses and cutthroats like Mos
Eisley. However, the pathetic voice from the juncture
of walls and
garbage
cans gave him stay.
"Please, sir. I mean you no harm. I humbly request asylum."
Wuher blinked. He rubbed his grimy sleeve over his puffy
eyes.
He'd drunk too much of his own barbrew
last night and overslept.
He had a
faint growl of hangover nagging him; he was in no mood to deal
with
riffraff begging for shelter or alms.
"Get
off me," he snarled. "Who the
hell are you?"
Wuher was a surly sort who preferred to
keep his
i 54
thoughts to himself. He also had a rather aggressive curiosity
sometimes,
though. This was a trait that his
employer, Chalmun the
Wookiee,
found to be a resource in the chemical experimentation aspects
of
Wuher's work, but claimed would ultimately cause him grief.
"I am Ceetoo-Arfour," squeaked
the voice, accompanied by a curious
blend of
whistles and clicks. "I have escaped
from the Jawas, who
intend
to utilize me for spare parts, despite extreme functional
utility
if I am left in one piece--to say nothing of the value of my
consciousness. Through sheer good luck, the Jawas used a
corroded
restraining
bolt, which fell off, allowing me to escape."
Wuher moved farther into the shadows, his
eyes adjusting farther
away
from the ambient, anguished brightness that was one of the planet
Tatooine's
charming qualities. There, amongst the
stacked refuse and
plastic
and metal containers, squatted one of the oddest things that
Wuher
had ever laid eyes upon. And Wuher had
laid eyes upon far too
many of
these scut-fling tech-rats for his taste.
"You--you're a blasted
droid!" he spat.
The metallic creature released what little
tension was left in the
extensor
and cringed back with the vehemence of Wuher's accusation.
"Why, yes sir, I am indeed. But I assure you, I am no ordinary
droid. My presence on Tatooine is a mistake on a
veritable cosmic
level."
The droid's body was low and rounded,
similar to the streamlined
contours
of R2 units. However, this was where the
similarity ended.
Bulbs and boxy appendages hung like
balconies on the robot's
sides,
amidst an array of two whiplike metal extensors and two
armatures
invested with digits. In the very middle
of its sensor-node
"face"
was an opening with a grill, set with what appeared to be
jagged,
sharp teeth. The whole affair looked
cobbled together, as
though
the droid had indeed begun its life as an R2 unit, but had been
sent
onto other paths with the help of a demented mechanical mind
owning a
half-baked electronic and welding talent.
"Wait a minute. You look like a souped-up Artoo unit, but you
sound
like one of those pansy protocolers!"
"My components include aspects of
both units, as well as several
more. However, my specialties include meal
preparation, catalytic fuel
conversion,
enzymatic composition breakdown, chemical diagnostic
programming,
and bacterial composting acceleration. I
am also an
excellent
blender, toaster oven, and bang-corn air-popper, and can whip
up an
extraordinary meal from everyday garbage."
Wuher goggled at the plasteel contraption
in disbelief.
"But you're a droid. I hate droids."
"I would be of extraordinary
use!"
Wuher wondered why he was even giving the
droid the time of day.
Damned curiosity, that must be it. He needed a blasted brain
scrub,
that's what he needed.
"Look, machine excrement. I despise your kind, as does my boss,
for good
reason. Even the lowliest Jawa knows
what tribe he's from,
even if
he's stabbing that tribe in the back. You
droids--who knows
who you
are or where you're from. You look like
bombs, and nine times
out of
ten you blow up in the face of your owners, doubtless just to
spite
them." Wuher lifted a foot, planted
it squarely on the thing's
head. "Now get out of my way. I have work to do!" He gave the thing
a
shove. It rolled back, beeping, into the
recesses of its corner as
Wuher
proceeded on his way.
"Sir!
Kind sir! Forgive my
offense! Reconsider! I shall be
here all
day, recharging my batteries. I dare not
emerge in sunlight,
for the
Jawas will find me.
Grant me asylum, and you will not be sorry,
I swear."
"Pah!
The word of a droid. Useless!" the man snarled in
contempt.
With grand, elevated disgust, Wuher
hurried away.
Just one more proof that he should not be
so free about strolling
through
alleys to save a scant few seconds. He
avoided the darker,
cooler
ones, since they tended to attract crowds.
This one, though,
was
lighter and Wuher had thought it would be a safe shortcut.
The normal byways of Mos Eisley were a
dusty cloud through which
double
suns beat beat beat hot radiation upon ugly buildings and
hangars. Occasionally a roaring beast of a spaceship
would propel
itself
into the brightness of the sky, or descend shakily to hunker
down in
hiding. The place smelled even more
strongly of its usual
blend of
noxious space fuels and heated alien body effluvia, touched
with the
occasional whiff of exotic spice, or rather more mundane rot
or
urine.
Wuher noticed amidst the urban burblings a
larger number of
speeders
than usual, as well as a discom-firing percentage of
stormtroopers.
Something odd was afoot, that was certain.
Oh, well.
It just meant that maybe he'd be busier at the cantina
today. Another shuck, another buck, as Chalmun so
eloquently stated.
Still, as the human bartender bustled
through the busy streets,
sun hood
up, squinting, he was bothered by that droid who had accosted
him. Wuher was well aware that droids were
essentially harmless. To
hate
them was like hating your latrine or stove or moisture vaporator
if they'd
somehow been overlaid with innocuous consciousness. True,
droids
tended to be essen-tialty faithless, with no ethical or racial
structure. So were a lot of biological aliens that Wuher
had met. The
truth,
the bartender knew, was that droids were an easy target.
Wuher had been abandoned on Mos Eisley in
early youth, a human
amidst
peoples who disliked humans.
He'd been kicked about and spat upon all
his squalid, hard life.
His boss hated droids essentially because
they didn't drink and
thus
took up necessary room in the cantina that might be occupied by
paying
customers.
Wuher hated everyone, but droids were the
only creatures he could
actually
kick with impunity.
He was a bulky, middle-aged man, Wuher,
with a constant
late-afternoon-shadow
beard, dark bags under his eyes, and a surly
attitude
from the top of his greasy head to the depths of his low stony
voice. His eyes were hard and dark, and it was
impossible to see
anything
but quotidian amoral stoicism in them. However,
a small fire
flickered
in his heart, a dream that he kept alive with hard work
through
years of drudgery. At night, shuffling
back to his grimy
hovel,
often as not a little tipsy from his own spirits, Wuher would
gaze up
at the night stars in the blessed cool and it would seem
possible
to actually reach up and touch them, possible to live out his
fantasy.
Perhaps then, when that dream was
achieved, he would no longer
have to
kick helpless, imploring droids to bolster his own pathetic
self-esteem. Perhaps then he could give something to
lesser creatures
than he.
The lumpy mushroom shape of the cantina
billowed before him.
Wuher stumped around to the rear entrance.
He took out his ID card, unlocked a door,
and walked carefully
down
dark steps. He turned on lights.
It was not dank down here in the
cellar. There were no dank
basements
on a world like Tatooine. However, a
dry, earthy smell was
the
foundation for all the other scents that fought for attention here,
smells
that hung upon the rows of laboratory equipment, barrels and
tanks
and vats that rose from tables and the floor like ridges of
metal,
plastic, and glass mold.
Chalmun imported a minimum of drinking
materials, the cheap
bastard. The rest of what the Mos Eisley Cantina
served was either
made in
the city, or down here.
Wuher had little time. His shift topside started soon.
Nonetheless an urgent sense drove him to a
small alcove in the
rear
section, a portion of the large basement where the other employees
seldom
ventured. He turned on a small light
there, revealing a machine
consisting
of coils, tubings, dials, and glass beakers.
In the largest
of these
beakers, a small amount of dark green fluid had collected.
Wuher examined the dials detailing gravity
and chemical
composition. A kind of acrid effluvia hung over the
enclosure, like
moldy
socks.
Sweet music to Wuher's nostrils! And the dials and digital
readouts--why,
they displayed almost exactly the ratios of contents
that
Wuher had calculated was necessary.
A shiver of excitement passed over
him. This could be the stuff.
His elixir! His perfect liqueur, suited expressly to the
biochemical
taste buds of no less a personage than Jabba the Hutt, for
all
intents and purposes lord and slave master of the criminal element
of
Tatooine.
Wuher contained his trembles, took a deep
breath, and found a
sterile
dropper tube. He lifted the stopper of
the beaker, inserted
the
tube, and sucked up a minuscule amount. Carefully,
he withdrew the
jade
treasure.
Ah!
If this distillation was the right stuff, the drink that
Jabba
the Hutt deemed to be the perfect liqueur, then what else could
Jahba do
but name him his own personal bartender, distiller, brewer,
winemaster? Thus elevated in position, the lowly Wuher
might gain
reputation
and monies that would allow him to ship off this anal
juncture
of a desert snotworld to some bright, pristine bar on a
paradisal
planet.
Wuher brought the tube toward his
mouth. A dangle of fluid
sparkled
diamonds in the amber light. He let a
touch drop to his
tongue. A flash and sizzle. A sliver of gas slithered off. The pain
was
immediate, but he bore it. He allowed
the flavoids to creep upon
his palate
like death marchers with cleated boots. He
winced and
cringed
and endured. Rotwort. Skusk.
Mummergy. Bitter and fiercely
aromatic
with a kicker alcohol afterburst.
Damn it, though. Not quite right. His bioalchemist instincts,
having
studied carefullyJabba's other favorite drinks, had synthesized
a
theoretical perfect amalgam, a liqueur that would delight the huge
wormthing.
This was not quite it. A certain element was lacking.
A certain gagging whisper of illusive yet
ineffably attractive
decadence.
Damn.
The bartender went to get his apron, and
to trudge wearily up the
stairs
to where his smoky den of work awaited.
"Water? demanded the green alien in its annoying
language.
"Bottled distilled water, bartender,
and make no mistake! I've
got the
credits for the real stuff.
This nose can tell if it's anything more
or less!" The alien
touched
its absurd proboscis with one of its green digital members.
Wuher's nose twitched. Was it him, or was the stench in this
pangalactic
hole worse than ever? "Well, buddy.
It's your call, but you look as if you
could use something a
little
stronger."
The alien's jewellike eyes glittered with
fury and its ears seemed
to flap
indignantly. "How dare you call me
by a familiar name, you
piece of
human trash. Believe me, I am a valiant
drinker of all manner
of
manly, powerful drinks. However, I make
it a rule to accept such
only
from real bartenders."
A mangled face pushed itself across the
underlit bar and into the
conversation. "Actually, this guy makes some damn fine
drinks for a
lousy
dung-eating native.
Take it from me--Dr. Evazan.
I've had many drinks in all twelve
systems
in which I've obtained a death sentence and these drinks here
pass
muster!"
Wuher nodded surly thanks. However, the arrogant alien would have
none of
it. This guy was a Rodian, Wuher
knew--and a bounty hunter
from the
boastful affront of him. A particularly
egregious
combination.
"Nonsense," said the Rodian,
tiny satellite addenda atop his head
turning
back and forth as though searching for some television channel.
Disdain dripped from his tone. "Humans don't have what it takes
to be a
proper bartender. The two terms are
mutually exclusive!"
This was the song that Wuher heard all too
often.
From the very first day that he'd
graduated from his chemistry kit
to a
taste for interesting drinks and had parlayed that knack into a
successful
application to a sleazy but effective bartender
correspondence
school, he'd been dumped upon for wanting to take on the
duties
of serving drinks to an array of peoples from different planets,
biomes,
ecologies, what have you.
Bartenders in these sorts of places,
frequented by different and
unique
bitchemistries, were more xeno-alchemists than simple pourers of
drinks. You had to pay attention to what you were
doing. Wouldn't do
at all
to serve up a nice glass of the variation on sulfuric acid that
Devaronians
enjoyed to, say, a Gotal. Likewise, a
simple beer could
make a
Jawa shrivel up like a slug. It really
wasn't that humans
couldn't
handle the challenge, it was generally that most of them
didn't
care to bother. Indeed, there were a few
in old xenophobic
Republic
days who used the opportunities to slowly poison enemies.
"Hey, greenie," snarled Wuher
defensively. "You go to Chalmun's
office. My certification is right on his wall."
"I shall! And I shall make every effort to have you
fired from
this
post. Your kind doesn't belong
here."
The Rodian leaned over the bar with its
wide orby eyes and stared
directly
into Wuher's: his species very confrontational mode for
expressing
supreme contempt.
Wuher's nostrils were immediately
assaulted by a stronger dose of
the odor
he'd noticed before. He cringed
backward.
"Pah.
Coward!" The Rodian spat on
him. "And be it known to you,
'bartender,'
that I, Greedo, am highly valued in my employ by none
other
than Jabba the Hutt. I shall also make
my complaint to him,
after I
take care of the business I have come to this lice-ridden
cantina
to deal with. Now. My bottle of pure water, please. And snap
to it
before I have to come and get it myself."
The odor was so strong that Wuher was
momentarily stunned. Even
as he
reached down, pulled up a bottle of water, clicked off the top,
he was
in a fog.
That smell . . . Something about that smell . . .
Pheromones, surely. But unique pheromones, unlike any other that
Wuher
had sniffed. The bartender had a big
nose, with highly trained
and
sensitive olfactory capabilities. This
was one of the reasons he
was such
a good bioalchemist. Something about
this Greedo-The Rodian
snatched
the bottle away, contemptuously dumped a handful of credit
chips on
the counter, and marched away into a dark corner booth.
Even though he'd had this kind of
treatment before, it still stuug
Wuher. He felt like a pile of womp rat guano, and
the fact that he
could do
absolutely nothing to avenge his slighted feelings made it all
the
worse. This, mixed with that smell. He could smell that smell to
the
corns on the soles of his feet. It
touched him to the very core of
his
being, and he was not entirely sure why.
For the next moments, he was in a kind of
reverie as he went about
his
work, serving. He worked up some nice
drinks for the band, whose
music
had actually helped make working in this dump bearable. He
served
an Aqualish and the Tonnika sisters. He
whipped up a gaseous
delight
for the blues-loving Devaronian. All the
while in a sensory
smog of
anger and confusion.
He barely noticed the new arrivals until
his assistant tugged on
his
tunic.
"Wuher. We've got a positive On the droid
detector."
Alarm swept away the mental images as
Wuher turned away and looked
down at
the little Nartian creature, two of his four arms still busy
washing
glasses.
"Thank you, Nackhar."
Wuher turned his attention to the
entranceway, to where an old man
and a
young towheaded fellow were making their way into the
light-speckled
smoky darkness of the tavern, followed by a sparkling,
mincing
protocol droid and a rolling R2 model.
"Hey!" called Wuher in his best gruff voice. "We don't serve
their
kind in here."
There
was some confusion.
He had to make his position clear. "Your droids. We
don't want them here."
The droids left.
He got particular satisfaction from
booting the droids out. It
was one
of the only exercises of power that Wuher truly felt
comfortable
with--it was a clear and free area in which he was sure he
would
offend no one else. Nonetheless, even as
he watched the droids
leave,
something bothered him. The memory of
that lone droid, stranded
in that
alley, pleading for assistance.
Somehow, the pang of that memory merged
with the strong scent of
Greedo's
pheromones to create a jarring unease and yet odd excitement
in the
bartender.
A young man in desert duds shook him and
asked for some water. It
took a
couple of shakes to get a reaction out of Wuher, but finally the
drink
was served and Wuher went about his business, serving yet another
squeaky
ranat.
He was so immersed in his own particular
funk that it took him a
while to
realize that an altercation was building.
Wuher looked over
to see
that Dr. Evazan seemed to be having a
confrontation with the
young
man. The older man stepped in and
spoke. The next thing Wuher
knew,
there was a blinding flash.
Alarmed, he cried out. "No blasters! No blasters!"
A light sword swashed through the
air. A chop, a flop --and the
gun arm
of Evazan's Aqualish companion separated from his body.
The old man and young man stepped away and
after a moment of
silence,
the band struck up again.
"Nackhar,"
said Wuher to his assistant. "Please
clean that up. !
have work to do."
Even though the doctor had stood up for
him, Wuher felt no
kinship. The man was an ugly, bent, and demented
creature.
Nonetheless, there was no reason to litter
the floor with blood
and
groans of the doctor's associate for an overlong time.
The Nartian scurried away.
Wuher went back to work.
A day's shuck, a day's buck.
Business as usual at the Mos Eisley
Cantina.
Too bad Chalmun wasn't around. His imposing figure usually
discouraged
these kinds of shenanigans.
That Wookiee that had been talking to the
old man looked a bit
like his
employer, only taller and younger.
He'd been hanging around before, with that
larcenous smuggler Han
Solo. The spacer had burbled something yesterday
about the Wookiee
being
his first mate.
Dangerous profession, that. Perhaps there were worse things in
the
universe than being dumped on by Rodi-ans in the Mos Eisley
Spaceport
Gantina.
Still, it rankled, and Wuher could feel
his anger and hatred
roiling
and coiling like a stepped-on sandsnake.
The next thing he knew, a pair of
stormtroopers had come through
the
doors and immediately stepped to the bar.
"We understand there's been a ruckus
here," said one in a muffled
electronic
voice through his white skull-like helmet.
"You bet," said Wuher. He looked around, saw the backs of the
perpetrators
at a table at the far end of the establishment.
Curiously
enough,
sitting across from them were none other than Han Solo and his
Wookiee
first mate. "The old guy and the
young guy over there.' ' He
pointed. The sooner these troopers got out of here,
the better. They
made him
nervous. The place had plenty of trouble
enough as it was.
Besides, storm-troopers were terrible
tippers.
Wuher's mind dipped back into his'musing
as he went on automatic
pilot,
making up barium frizzes and frosty sulphates and even serving
the odd
shot and a dr'aft. He even poured
himself some of his own
home-brew
ale, to take some of the edge off the mild headache that
sulked
at the back of his skull. However,
during all this he was still
haunted
by two things: that smell that still clung to his nostrils, and
that
squeaking droid. What was going to
happen to it? Why should he
care? And what did it say its specialty was?
His musings were suddenly interrupted by a
loud blast.
All heads swung toward its origin, the
table where Han Solo sat.
The jaunty smuggler was rising up and
walking toward the bar,
sticking
his gun back into its holster.
Wuher could not believe what he was
leaving behind.
"Sorry about the mess," Solo
said, flipping a two-credit chip
toward
Wuher. Normally, Wuher would have
immediately slapped a palm
down
onto the coin to prevent its appropriation.
However, he was far
too
stunned by what he saw to think about money.
There, flopped over at the table, was none
other than Greedo the
Rodian
bounty hunter, a shred of
smoke rising up from a blasted abdomen.
Greedo, dead as a starship rivet.
A kind of chill satisfaction moved through
Wuher, a transection of
reality
and dream that did not occur often enough.
True, creatures got
killed
in here all the time, and it would have given Wuher far more
satisfaction
to have actually been behind the trigger of that blaster,
seen its
power rip through that obnoxious, smelly-A kind of
transcendental
realization flashed through the bartender.
Thought
processes
meshed thunderously in his head, and it was as though the
heavens
had opened and the light of Cosmic Wisdom poured down upon him.
That droid . . . that odd, frightened droid . . .
He had to get it out of harm's way. He had to save it!
"Nackhar!" he called.
The little creature scuttled up. "Did you see that, sir?
I say that Chalmun should take all guns at
the door. I say--"
"Are
you going to be the one to do the body searches, Nackhar?"
The assistant bartender was stunned
speechless at the notion.
"Take over for me. There's an urgent task I must attend to. I
shall be
back soon. In the meantime, do not allow
the body of the
Rodian
to be moved a centimeter.
Don't let those Jawas trying to bag it
take it out of here. Do
you
understand?"
"Yes.
Of course--but if the police--"
"They can examine it all they want
to, and there's no question
about
who did it. However, claim it in the
name of Chalmun. It's
officially
our property now."
"But why can't you--where are you
going?"
"I am embarking on a mission of
mercy!"
Thus saying, Wuher left.
The droid was not amongst the refuse cans.
Alarm filled Wuher. The thing had said that it would be here
until
nightfall. Its absence could only spell
foul play.
Wuher bent and examined the sandy
floor. Sure enough, tracks.
Fresh tracks, leading down the alley in
the other direction.
Without
a further thought, either for caution or self-protection, the
bartender
hurled himself after them.
The droid must be saved.
He puffed through the twisting alleys,
following the tracks. The
ground
told the story clearly enough.
Droid tracks. A pair of small shoe tracks. A Jawa had scoped the
metal
being out, as it had feared. As he moved
along, Wuher removed
the club
from the back of his belt. Within
moments, he heard the
telltale
beeping and chitter: the sounds of the droid and its new
master.
Wuher slapped himself against a wall,
peered around the corner.
Sure enough, there they were, waddling
along. The Jawa had
clamped
a restraining bolt on the odd-looking droid.
They were within
yards of
a main thoroughfare.
He must move quickly.
Without hesitation, Wuher the bartender
leaped out from his
concealment,
ran up behind the Jawa, and fiercely and conclusively
brought
down his club upon the back of its hood.
Thunk. The Jawa went
down
like a bag of smunk roots. Speedily, the
bartender dragged the
hooded
creature back to a darker part of the alley, trailing a slight
seepage
of blood.
He went to the droid, examined its body,
and found the restraining
bolt. He pulled it off and tossed it after the
downed Jawa.
The droid came alive.
"Sir!
You have saved me. You have delivered
me from my enemies!"
"That's right, Ceetoo-Arfour."
"You have undergone a change of
heart. I knew it, I knew it, I
could
tell that deep within you there beat a heart of gold. That is
why I
risked my encounter with you. Why, this
is marvelous. This is
what
they write stories about! A hard soul,
changed for the better.
Thank you, kind human. Oh, thank you!"
"You're welcome, Ceetoo-Arfour. Yes, I realized that you were a
wronged
droid. The squalor and sadness of my life,
made me realize
that I
should do something good and worthwhile for once." Wuher
smiled. "However, we shouldn't just stand here
:and banter. There are
doubdess
more Jawas about. We should get you back
to where it's safe."
"Oh, my lucky stars shine this
day. Sir, you have redeemed my
faith in
the true pure spirituality of the human soul.
For you see, we
droids,
though of metal, possess consciousness and thus spirituality as
well."
"Oh, good. I'm sure we've got a lot of philosophy that
we can
discuss. First, though, we should hurry on," said
Wuher solicitously.
"Is there anything that I can do to
ease your path?"
"You already have, kind sir. And here I was thinking myself the
poorest,
most bereft soul in Mos Eisley.
There
is indeed room for growth in the purity of the human soul."
"Yes, I have had a complete turnabout
in my attitude
toward droids," said Wuher. "I am bringing you back to the
cantina. I will hide you in the basement, where there
are no droid
detectors."
"Oh, oh!" said the droid, clearly enraptured by this
stunning
turnabout. "Finally, I experience the milk of human
kindness."
"Oh," said Wuher, with a wry
grin. "I don't think I'm
particularly
interested in milk today."
The
drop depended, a jewel of promise.
Dropped.
The usual pain, of course. Too bad, but that was the price you
paid for
system incompatibilities. Still, Wuher
bore it stoically,
even
gladly, awaiting the news his taste buds would bring. Already,
his
quivering nostrils were be.having in a positive fashion as the
familiar
wisp of steam rose to fickle them.
Around Wuher, as though hovering
expectantly, were all the
trappings
of his experimental alcove, along
with its two new additions . . .
Yes, yes, this was new!
He detected a hint of bergamot!
Better, something more .... and it struck
him with such tremendous
power,
it was as though someone had kicked him in the head.
The taste of two bloody aliens arut in a
tangle of erupting spice
pods and
mud mushers.
He fell off his stool, a spasm racking
him.
"Master! Master!"
cried Ceetoo-Arfour. "Are
you all right?"
Wuher shivered.
He shuddered.
He arose, a silly smile on his face.
' 'Wow!"
He looked over at his still, at the larger
beaker, already almost
half
full of this deadly elixir, and with so much more still bubblingly
in the
works in the coils and guts of his makeshift lab.
"It's even better than I'd hoped,"
he said. "This is exactly the
liqueur
that will appeal to Jabba the Hutt."
"Jabba the Hutt, Master?" said the droid. "Is he not the
criminal
gang lord of this territory?"
"Nonsense," said Wuher. "He is wronged by his enemies.
He will not only be my benefactor, but
ultimately yours as well."
"Indeed!"
"Yes.
Of course. We're going into
business together,
Ceetoo-Arfour. First we shall work for Jabba the Hutt.
Then we shall shake the miserable dust of
this detestable planet
from our
heels. Greatness, Ceetoo. We are destined for greatness!"
The rough bartender beamed at his new
collaborator.
Ceetoo-Arfour stood in the very center of
the alcove.
Below a new item that extruded from his
barrel side--a spigot--was
a small
bottle full of an emerald-gray liquid.
Just a few small drops of this stuff had
been sufficient to give
Jabba's
liqueur its new and wonderful kick into the territory of
greatness. Wuher, bioalchemist ex-traordinaire, was
going to be able
to keep
Jabba the Hurt happy a very long time.
From the droid grill-jaw extruded a naked
green alien foot,
pausing
for a moment before it too was processed to remove every last
bit of
precious juice in Ceetoo-Arfour's excellent chemical extractors.
Hanging on a spike by the bubbling still
was the other new
occupant
of Wuher's bioalchemical alcove: the head of Greedo the
Rodian. Nackhar had had to fight hard with those
Jawas to procure.
the body.
It had cost him several rounds of free drinks, but it
had been
worth it.
"Here's to your pheromones,
Greedo," said Wuher the bartender,
hoisting
his dropper in toast. "Han Solo did
both Rodian females and
yours
truly a vast favor."
The head glared back blankly.
"I must say, the creature was a
gnarly, gristly thing," the droid
said. "I'm afraid that my grinders shall be
needing a sharpening after
this
arduous effort."
Wuher grinned and winked. "Nothing's too good for you, Ceetoo.
Believe me, this is the beginning of a
beautiful friendship."
For, indeed, now Wuher the bartender had
an entirely new attitude
toward
droids.
Nightlily:
The Lovers' Tale
by Barbara Hambly
Madam, I am most sorry." Feltipern Trevagg switched off the
computer
screen above his desk with the air of being anything but. "If
you
don't pay your water impost there isn't anything I can do about
your
water line being shut. I don't make the
taxes."
As it happened, he had made this one, or
at least made the
suggestion
to the City Prefect of the Port of Mos Eisley that the water
impost
be raised twenty-five percent. But,
Trevagg reasoned, rubbing
his head
cones as he listened once again to the Modbrek female's
frantic
plea for more time, she probably wouldn't have been able to
come up
with the original impost, so it didn't really matter. What
mattered
was that now, through proper go-betweens of course, he'd be
able to
offer her a few thousand credits for her dwelling
compound--which
she'd be glad to accept, after going without water or
food for
a couple of days --and rent it out by the room.
Provided, of
course,
he could arrange it with his go-betweens before the Prefect
heard
about it and outbid him.
The Modbrek female's distress irritated
him. Coming from another
of his
own species--another Gotal--it might have evoked pity, though
Trevagg
had been less ready than many of his compatriots to yield to
emanations
of wretchedness and fear. But Modbreks
were in Trevagg's
opinion
only semisentient, wispy ephemeral beings, hairless as slugs
save for
the grotesque masses of blue mane that streamed from their
undeveloped
heads, with huge eyes, and tiny noses and mouths in pointy
pale
faces. This female and her daughters,
sending forth waves of
anxiety,
reacted on him as a kind of screechy music.
"Madam," he said at last,
sighing, "I'm not your father. And
I'm
not a
charity worker. And if you knew you
couldn't pay your water
imposts--which
I assume you did know, since you've been in arrears for
two
months and neither you nor your daughters have troubled to find
decent-paying
work--you should have gone to your family or some charity
organization
before this."
He nudged a toggle on the control board of
his desk. A human
deputy
in a rumpled uniform came in and showed the three females out.
Trevagg could sense the man's pity for
them, and also, much to
Trevagg's
disgust, the fact that the human found the insubstantial
creatures
physically attractive, even sexually interesting.
Of course, Trevagg had always had
difficulty under
standing how humans found each other
sexually interesting.
Wan, flabby, squishy, they lacked both the
Gotal ability to
transmit
a range of emotional waves, and the contrast between strength
and
weakness so necessary to pleasure. How
could anyone . . . ?
He shrugged, and turned back to his desk
to tap through a call.
Behind him he heard a step on the
threshold, felt the heat of a
body--no
closer than the threshold, and human range--and recognized the
electromagnetic
aura as that of Predne Balu, Assistant Security Officer
of Mos
Eisley. Felt too like a smoky darkness
the man's weariness, the
bitter
tang of his disgust.
"You couldn't have let her have
another month?"
Balu's raspy voice sounded tired. The heat of the Tatooine suns
seemed
to have long ago baked out of Balu the savagery, the enthusiasms
so
necessary to a hunter. Trevagg despised
him.
"She's had two. Water's expensive to import."
A message flickered across the black
screen of the receiver: P.o.M
1130. Trevagg moved a finger and the pixels wiped
themselves away as
if they
had never been.
He turned in his chair, to face Balu: a
heavy man,
slope-shouldered
in his wrinkled dark blue uniform, hair black, eyes
black,
but the pitiful stubble of what humans called beard was thickly
shot
with gray. A head like a melon. Trevagg never could look at
humans
without feeling contempt and a little amusement. He knew they
had
other types of sensory organs than head cones, but even after many
years on
the space lanes--as bounty hunter, Imperial bodyguard, and
Officer
of ship security--Trevagg had never gotten over how silly, how
ineffectual,
beings looked who didn't have cones.
On Antar Four, though everyone knew in
their heart of hearts that
the size
of one's cones didn't affect their ability to pick up sensory
vibration,
Gotals whose cones were undeveloped frequently resorted to
falsies.
He simply, instinctively, had no respect
for a being without them.
"Be ready with your deputy to close
the water lines to her
compound
tomorrow."
Balu's mouth tightened under heavy cheeks,
but he nodded.
"I'm going out. I should be back within the hour."
Walking through the marketplace of Mos
Eisley always filled
Trevagg
with a sense close to intoxication. A
hunter by upbringing as
well as
by blood, he had quickly found his current position as a tax
official
a disappointment. What had been
represented to him as an
opportunity
for acquiring vast quantifies of credits had turned out to
be
little more than a clerical stint.
Yet he sensed, he knew, that there were
credits here to be made.
In the marketplace of Mos Eisley, the
hunter stirred again in his
blood.
Awnings flapped overhead in the baked
breeze, the solar coats
casting
black rectangles of hard shadow, the cheaper cotton and rag
staining
the faces of those beneath them with red and blue light. The
harsh
sizzle of bantha burgers and much-used fritter grease swirled
from a
hundred little stands wherever some enterprising Jawa or Whiphid
could
find room to set up a solar-power stove.
Races from every corner
of the
galaxy wandered the banded shadows of this makeshift labyrinth.
In one place a corpse-faced Durosian was
holding up strings of
opaline
"sand pearls" and sun-stained blue glass for a couple of
inquisitive
human tourists; in another, a nearly nude Gamorrean belly
dancer
was performing on a yellow-striped blanket to the appreciative
whistles
of a couple of Sullustans, who were among the many races to
find
Gamorreans attractive.
But more than anything else, it was the
air of danger that filled
the
place, the edginess, the watchfulness, that soaked Trevagg's cones
like
drugged wine. After a walk in the
marketplace he always came away
wondering
if he shouldn't pack in the Imperial service and go back on
the
hunt.
But as always, he looked around him a
second time, and saw how
many of
these people were dressed in castoffs or shabby desert gear.
He stroked his new jacket of deep green
yullrasuede, his
close-fitting
trousers tailored for his form and no other, and thought
again. He might not have made his fortune on this
blasted piece of
rock,
but at least he could make a little.
And the opportunity would come.
Had come.
His pulses quickened at the implications
of the vibration he'd
sensed
two weeks ago, walking through this very market. All he needed
to do,
he told himself, was be a hunter, and wait.
The chance of his
lifetime
had
come, and if he waited, it would come
again.
If things went right.
Jabba the Hutt's go-between, an enormously
obese Sullustan named
Jub
Vegnu, was waiting for him by Pylokam's Health Food booth.
Pylokam, an aged and fragile human in
trailing dirt-colored rags
and a
garish orange scarf, had been optimistically peddling fruit
juices
and steamed balls of vegetable gratings for years now,
surrounded
on all sides by a dripping banquet of dewback ribs and
megasweet
fritters--no sugars, no salts, no artificial additives, and
no
customers. Even Jabba had given up
trying to get a percentage of
his
nonexistent takings.
Vegnu was leaning on the counter eating a
caramelized
pkneb---something
Pylokam would never have stocked--the juice of it
running
down what chin he possessed; Trevagg bought a sugar fritter
from a
nearby stand and joined him. At
Pylokam's they could be assured
of being
completely uninterrupted.
"I need to set up a go-between and a
loan deal," grated Trevagg in
his
harsh, rather monotonous voice.
"Immediate takeover in three days,
complete secrecy from everyone.
Ten percent to Jabba of all subsequent
take."
They haggled a little about the percentage,
and about what the
deal
was, Trevagg knowing full well that if word got to the
Prefect---or
indeed, to several other members of the Imperial service
that he
knew about--he'd be very likely outbid before the widowed
Mod-brek
even decided she had to sell. In time
Trevagg got guarantees
of
secrecy, for what they were worth, but at the cost of another four
percentage
points. At that rate, he thought
bitterly, it would take
him a
year to make back his investment . . .
"Is that it, then?" the Sullustan inquired, licking his stubby
fingers
of the last traces of caramel and grease.
Trevagg hesitated, and the
go-between--with almost Gotal
sensitivity--tilted
his head, waiting for what would come next.
Seeming to feel, Trevagg thought,
how
big the coming deal was.
"Not . . . quite."
There was no need to scan the marketplace
visually.
Trevagg knew the hint he'd gotten, the
buzzing, shivering sense
he'd
picked up in passing through two weeks ago, was nowhere around.
And
he didn't know when it would return, when the person--the
creature--that
had caused it would next pass through Mos Eisley.
But it was as well to be ready.
"I will need a go-between on another
deal," he said slowly.
"For what?"
"I can't say." He held up his hand against Vegnu's impatient
protest. "Not yet. But !
need someone to act for me in a situation
where,
as an employee of the Imperial government, I would be expected
to
perform as a part of my duties."
"Ah." Vegnu leaned back against the counter. "But a civilian,
performing
the same task, would be rewarded?"
"Well rewarded," said Trevagg,
his pulses stirring again at the
thought
of just how well rewarded. "And
it's a task well within, say,
your
capabilities."
"How much?"
"Twenty percent."
"Gaah . . ."
"Twenty-five," said
Trevagg. "And that five is for
secrecy , for
absolute
secrecy, at the time."
"About you?"
"And about the . . . nature of the task."
The nature of the task, thought Trevagg,
threading his way swiftly
through
the blazing slats of dust and shadow, heading back toward the
government
offices a few minutes later. That is,
after all, the
delicate
thing about this deal. A simple task,
informing the Imperial
Moff of
the Sector about someone . . . someone
for whom they had been
looking
for a long time.
The sense that had come to him here in the
market two weeks ago
had been
like finding a jewel in the dirt; the vibration itself like a
sniff of
perfume, scented once in other circumstances but never
forgotten. The trick would be, of course, to keep his
go-between from
taking
that jewel--that one piece of information, that name--and
turning
it in himself.
Trevagg the Gotal knew he would have to be
very careful with this
one,
whose reward could get him the foundations of real wealth.
Passing through the market two weeks ago,
he had picked up the
unmistakable
vibrations of aJedi Master.
"Lady to see you," reported the
operations clerk in the next
cubicle
as Trevagg reentered the office. After
the blast furnace of
the noon
street the prefecture seemed shadowy and cool as a cave--the
solar
deflectors on the roof didn't really start having trouble until
two or
three hours past noon. Were it not for
the shelves jammed with
boxes of
datadisks, the dust-yellowed hard copy drooping from
overstuffed
storage boxes stacked along one wall--were it not for the
almost
palpable atmosphere of defeat, of grimy hopes and petty
spites--the
offices themselves would be pleasant to enter after a time
outside.
Only so long, thought Trevagg, as he
strode toward his office.
Only so long will I have to put up with
this place. It was no
place
for a hunter to be, no place for a true Gotal.
Just until he could accomplish his final
hunt, trap his final
quarry. Until he could turn over to the Empire
information about'this
Jedi,
whoever he was . . .
It hadn't been a passer-through, that much
Trevagg knew. After
losing
the sense of the Jedi's vibrations in the marketplace--the
thick,
strange buzzing in his cones that he had been told long ago was
the
concentration of the unknown Force, the magic of the Jedi--he had
gone at
once to the docking bays, ascertained that no vessel had taken
off for
the past several hours.
As collector of imposts he had access to
passenger lists, and had
made it
his business to personally check each traveler.
And in two weeks of roving every corner of
Mos Els-ley, he had
never
sensed that particular reaction again.
So it must be someone on the planet, but
not in the town. Someone
who had
come to do marketing, for instance.
Trevagg was a hunter. He would wait.
His mind was full of this, rather than
whoever this tedious female
was and
what she wanted of him, when he stepped through the office
doorway--and
fell in love.
The vibration of her filled the room,
before she even turned at
his
entrance. It was an intoxicant, a heady
compound of milky warmth
that he
could feel almost through his skin, of trembling vulnerability,
of an
elec-trospectrum aura like a new-blown pink teela blossom, and of
an
innocent and unselfconscious sexuality that almost lifted Trevagg
off his
feet.
She turned, putting back the white gauze
of her veil, to reveal an
alien
loveliness that stopped his breath.
What race, what species she was, he didn't
know. It didn't
matter. Skin blue-gray as desert's final twilight
molded over the
proud
jut of cheekbones any woman on his home planet of Antar would
kill to
possess, double, treble rows of them blending softly into the
fragile
ridges of the chin. More ridges led the
eye into the graceful
curve of
proboscis, a feature Trevagg had always considered striking in
such
races---like the Kubaz or the Rodians--who possessed them. Eyes
wide,
green as grass, and fringed with ferny lashes peered timidly from
beneath
a deep splendor of brow ridge, like the eyes of a rock tabbit
too
frightened to flee a hunter's step.
But above the brow was what drew Trevagg's
eyes.
Half-hidden by the cloaking gauze of the
veil, the skull rose into
four
perfectly shaped, exquisite conelets, their smallness, their
smoothness
seeming to invite the touch of a male hand, the breath of
male lips.
Of course they couldn't really be cones,
thought Trevagg the next
moment. She was no Gotal, but someone of the
dull-minded and
insentient
lesser races . . .
But the imitation was perfect, and it was
enough.
He wanted her.
He wanted her badly.
"Sir . . ."
Her voice was halting, but of a beautiful, even key,
modulated
like a deep-toned flute through the proboscis.
Her
three-fingered
hands, skin tailored over jewellike knobs, seemed to
cling to
the edges of the veil she had just laid aside, as if for
protection. "Sir, you must help me. They said I should come to you .
. ."
Trevagg found himself saying,
"Anything..."
Then, quickly correcting himself, for he
was, after all, an
official
of the Empire, he added, "Anything in my power to assist you,
miss. What seems to be the trouble?"
"I have been put ashore." Distress and fear blossomed from her in
trembling
waves. "They said there was
something wrong with my papers;
there
was a passage tax."
Trevagg
knew all about the passage tax. That was
something else
he'd
come up with.
"I .
. . I had to budget very closely in order to visit my sister
on Cona,
I . . . my family is not wealthy.
Now I've lost my seat on the Tellivar
Lady. But if I pay the
passage
tax I won't have enough to return to my mother on H'nemthe."
The name of her home world came out like a
dainty sneeze,
unbelievably
entrancing.
The vibration of her sorrow was like the
taste of blood-honey.
"My dear . . ."
He hesitated.
"M'iiyoom Onith," she
supplied. "The m'iiyoom is the
white flower
that
blossoms in the season of trine, the season when all three moons
give
their light. The nightlily."
"And I am Feltipern Trevagg, officer
of the Empire.
My dear Nightlily, I shall go investigate
this matter at once. It
grieves
me to be unable to offer you better quarters to wait in, but
this
city is not a savory one. I shall return
within moments."
Balu was in the outer office, boots on
desk, drinking a fizzy
whose
bulb sweated in the stuffy heat. He
cocked a dark eye at the
Gotal as
Trevagg closed his office door. "Give
the child back her
seat,
Trevagg," he grunted. "Yon
don't need the seventy-five credits.
You run, you can catch the ~gllie before
she lifts."
Trevagg leaned across the officer and
tapped a key on the board.
The screen manifested the schedule. Unlike many Gotal, Trevagg
had
mastered computers quickly, once those in the prefecture had been
properly
shielded. The Tellivar Lady lifted at
1400, and he knew
Captain
Fane was punctual.
But an hour wouldn't be enough.
"Trevagg . . ."
The officer's voice halted him as he reached for
the
door. Trevagg turned, mostly from a
desire to legitimately waste
time--he'd
have to walk very slowly indeed to actually miss the
Tellivar
Lady's lift. "You're a hunter. You ever hear of the Force?"
Trevagg went absolutely cold inside. He only said,
"It's supposed to be some kind of
magic field . . ."
Balu shook his head. "The old Jedi were supposed to have
it." He
lifted a
hand to indicate the Imperial communiqu(~, tacked to the
discolored
plaster of the wall behind him, offering fifty thousand
credits
for "any members of the so-called Jedi Knights." Ten thousand
for
information leading to the capture of.
Unless, of course, it was the captor's or
informant's job to
capture
or inform. Then they just got their
salaries.
And a nice letter of commendation from the
local Moff.
"I heard rumors the Jedi have been
seen on Tatooine," said Balu.
"I've had a watch on Pylokam's
stand--figuring the one place a
Jedi
might show up.
Someone's got to drink that herb tea. But I wondered if you'd run
across
anything--strange."
"Only what Pylokam serves at that
stand of his," grumbled Trevagg,
and made
a far more precipitate exit than he'd planned.
It still took him a great deal of dawdling
on the way to reach
Docking
Bay 9 too late to stop the liftoff of the Lady.
Nightlily was dazzled to be taken to
luncheon at the Court of the
Fountain,
the closest thing to a high-class restaurant Mos Eisley
boasted. It occupied one of the sprawling
stone-and-stucco palaces
that
dated from Mos Eisley's long-ago boom days; reflective solar
screens
had been stretched over the many courtyards where fountains
trickled
and gurgled among exotic plants and gemlike tiling. It was
small,
of course, and catered mostly to the tourist trade, but
Nightlily
was a tourist, and she was enchanted. Jabba
the
Hutt--be-cause,
of course, Jabba owned the place---boasted that there
wasn't
an appetite in the galaxy that couldn't be catered to by his
personal
chef, Porcellus.
Porcellus, who only operated the Court of
the Fountain during
those
few hours not spent in preparing the Bloated One's gargantuan
repasts,
knew perfectly well that he'd be fed to Jabba's pet rancor if
the Hutt
ever grew bored with his menus, so he was an enthusiastic
chef,
indeed. And, in a way, he took great
pride in his' work. The
filet of
baby dewback with caper sauce and fleik-liver pfit~ was the
best
Trevagg had ever eaten, and when Nightlily hooned, with modestly
downcast
eyes, that virgins of her people were only permitted fruits
and
vegetables, Porcellus outdid himself in the production of four
courses
of lipana berries and honey, puptons of dried magicots and
psibara,
a baked felbar with savory cream, and staggeringly good bread
pudding
for dessert.
And a great deal of wine, of course.
"Nothing is too expensive for you,
beautiful one," responded
Trevagg,
to her hummed protest about the expense.
"Or too good. Have
another
glass, my darling."
He would definitely, he thought, have to
have a chef who could
cook
dewback like this when he collected his reward.
"Don't you
understand
that fate has brought us together, fate in the form of a
stupid
ruling by a venal official?" He
took her hand in his, loving
the
satin texture, the smooth eroticism of the way the knots on its
back
tightened and swelled at his touch.
"Don't you understand what I feel for
you? What I felt for you
the
moment I entered the office, the moment I heard your voice?"
The moment I sensed in you the ultimate
prey, the most beautiful
of
conquests to be vanquished?
She turned her face aside, confused. The long silver serpent of
her
knife-pointed tongue ran nervously out to pick at the remains of
the
bread pudding in a gesture he found almost unbearably sexual. It
had to
be muscled to those three sets of cheekbones on the
in-side--what
could he not persuade her to do with that tongue!
He wasn't sure exactly what inner
vibrations he should transmit to
convince
her of his overwhelming desire for her--she obviously didn't
have the
civilized sensitivity of a Gotal, maybe couldn't pick up
anything
at all and was operating entirely at the face value of his
words. Judging by her conversation, she was either
barely sentient or
truly
stupid, and in any case, Trevagg had very little interest in
females'
thoughts or desires.
He cradled the side of her face with his
hand, reveling in the
daintiness
of the cheekbones under his clawed strength.
He felt her
timidity,
and with it, a dawning wonderment, a surge of glowing
excitement
in her heart.
"Don't you understand that I need
you?"
"Are you proposing . . . marriage?" She stared up at him, awed,
dazzled,
halfway to surrender.
Softly he nuzzled the side of her
face. Stupid as a brick, he
thought. But he'd get this one into his bed before the
day was
through.
"Trevagg, leave the girl
alone." Balu spoke in a low voice,
so
that
Nightlily, in the outer office, would not hear.
The security
officer
slouched in the doorway of Trevagg's cubicle while the Gotal
keyed
through a credit transfer and ticketing information on the
Star-swan,
leaving early tomorrow morning. The
least he could do, he
reflected,
was give the girl passage out of here--third class,
naturally--to
wherever the hell she was going. Besides,
once he'd had
her he
certainly didn't want her hanging around under the impression
that he
was actually going to go through with marrying a semisentient
alien
bimbo, wondrous though she might be between the sheets.
"Leave her alone?" Trevagg turned around disbeliev-ingly,
staring
at the
human. He kept his voice quiet, still
excluding Nightlily, who
was just
visible through the doorway past Balu's shoulder, sitting at
an empty
desk with her head bowed in shy ecstasy and her veils half
drawn
about her face. "You can be
anywhere within four meters of
that--that
love morsel, and you say leave her alone?"
Balu turned his head to consider her. Trevagg could tell from the
man's
temperature and the vibration of his pulses, even at this
distance,
that he found her no more sexually stimulating than he'd have
found a
Jawa.
Disgust flooded him at the sheer, galling
insensitivity of humans.
"Trevagg," said the officer,
"most species--most
civilizations-ostracize
members who bear hybrid children. If you
find
her
attractive there's probably enough enzyme compatibility for you to
get her
with child. You'd be ruining her for
life."
Trevagg emitted a sharp, barking
laugh. "I can't believe you.
You're within two meters of that, and
you're talking to me about
enzyme
compatibility? Man, grow some
gonads! If she was worried about
that she
shouldn't be traipsing around the galaxy in that flimsy little
head-veil
in the first place."
Balu put his hand on Trevagg's arm warningly,
and the Gotal halted
in
surprise. Balu seldom showed any
disposition to care about
anything,
but there was a definite threat in his dark eyes.
Patiently, Trevagg promised, "All
right. I'm only taking her out
for a
walk. She can always say no."
But after three drinks at the Mos Eisley
Cantina, he reflected, as
he
entered the outer office again and took Nightlily's arm--not to
mention
the prospect of marriage that seemed to push every switch on
her
board--it wasn't at all likely that she would.
"I can't believe that you would
. . . would truly love me enough
to
wed," crooned the girl, as they crossed the brazen burnish of dust
and
sunlight in the street. "The males
of my species . . . fear that
commitment.
That giving of all for love."
"The males of your species are
fools," growled Trevagg, gazing
deep
into her eyes and drinking in the heady perfume of her sexuality.
As far as he was concerned that went for
the females tOO, but he
didn't
say so. He glanced back from the shadows
of the buildings
opposite,
just in time to see a flicker of dusty robes, the trailing
brightness
of an orange scarf . . .
Pylokam the health-food seller. Crossing the street to the
government
offices.
The Gotal's mind seemed to click, all
things falling into place
with a
hunter's cutting instinct. Balu.
Pylokam had seen the Jedi.
His first reaction was sheer
annoyance. He'd already told
Nightlily
he'd booked passage for her on the Star-swan, and she'd flung
her arms
around him, asking if he had booked his own passage, to come
to
H'nemthe to marry her with due ceremony before her mother and
sisters'. He'd gotten out of that one by promising to
embark within a
few
days--"I am an official of the Empire, you know. I can't just
leave
everything all in a moment, though, believe me, ! will be
counting
the days." But it meant that there
was no putting her off.
There was no reason for Pylokam to come to
the impost offices
other
than to report to Balu, and he knew Balu, for all his world-weary
slovenliness,
was not one to waste time. He'd
investigate--and he'd
report.
And that meant Trevagg would have to find
someone to assassinate
Balu
this afternoon.
Ordinarily, of course, he'd have gotten in
touch with Jub Vegnu,
set up a
meeting, made an appointment with Jabba the Hutt, and arranged
for
payment . . .
But of course he knew---everybody
knew--that freelance assassins
were ten
for a half-credit in Mos Eisley and most of them were supposed
to hang
out in the Mos Eisley Cantina. It
couldn't be that difficult
to meet
one. The encounter would presumably be
short and sweet--that's
what
assassins were for, to make life easy for those who had other
things
to do--leaving him plenty of the afternoon and all of the
evening
to conclude an encounter of another kind with Nightlily in the
Mos
Eisley Inn.
If entering the government offices from
the noon street was like
passing
into a (more or less) cool grotto, transition from the
late-afternoon
dust and glare into the near-darkness of the cantina was
comparable
to being swallowed by a bantha with indigestion. Trevagg's
hunter
eyes switched almost instantaneously from day vision to night as
a great
drench of vibration hit him: overlapping electrospectrum
fields,
personal magnetic auras buzzing like a hive of bees, halos of
irritation
and annoyance swollen by the proximity of strangers and
exacerbated
by every sort of psycho- and neural relax-ant known in the
galaxy.
It was like the marketplace, only more
sinister, without the
bright
spiciness of making a living. The
thoughts and emotions
swirling
through the gloom were darker, more dangerous, against the
brassy
twirling of the little dark-clothed, insectoid band. "Are you
sure
it's safe?" hummed Nightlily,
clinging once more to his arm, and
Trevagg
patted her hand. Her fear reacted on his
hunter's instinct as
her
anxiety and distress had earlier--prey signals that read as an
invitation
to conquest. He felt an almost
overwhelming desire to crush
her in
his arms.
Instead he cradled the back of her
exquisite coned head in one
hand,
said, "With me, you're safe, my blossom.
With me you'll always be safe."
They took one of the small booths to the
left of the raised entry
vestibule,
Nightlily gazing around her, fearfully marveling. In
addition
to being a virgin, she had confessed to Trevagg over lunch,
she had
never been away from her home planet before, had never seen
anything
like this. As well she hadn't, thought
the Gotal, amused at
the way
she relaxed under the influence of Wuher the barkeep's drinks
computer. In another booth a completely illegal card
game was in
progress
between a ghoulish Givin, a giant one-eyed Abyssin, and a big
fluffy
white thing of a species even Trevagg had never seen; in another
a
shaggy, ferocious-looking Wolfman sipped his drink alone. While
Night-lily
sighed, and giggled over her second drink, and asked him,
"Are
you truly sure, beloved? Mating is such
a solemn thing, such an
awe-inspiring
thing . . ." Trevagg was searching the crowd with his
eyes
and, more importantly, with his cones, seeking out the vibrations
of
danger and blood, the vibrations of another hunter, as he had once
been.
"It is as nothing," Trevagg
said. "No sacrifice is too great
for
what I
feel for you." The fact that she
couldn't even detect him in a
lie--that
she didn't have that much sensitivity to the vibrations of
his
mind--only redoubled his contempt for her.
So desirable--so
innocent--so
stupid . . . No wonder they don't let
virgins travel off
her
planet. She'd told him that, too. They'd never make it home.
Not as virgins, anyway.
Meantime, his hunter senses roved the dark
forms, seeking another
hunter.
The two tall human females drinking by the
bar were a maybe: They
sparkled
with danger, a flamelike brightness that some assassins had.
But the color of their aura wasn't quite
right. The Rodian at
another
card table, with his small earlike antennae swiveling nervously
in the
noise of the room--yes. Definitely a
killer, though Trevagg
wasn't
certain he could take on Predne Balu. The
Wolfman, yes; he
looked
big enough, tough enough, to take on the human and win. The
brown-haired
human talking quietly with an enormous Wookiee at another
booth--maybe.
The edge was there, but not the
darkness. The thin man smoking a
hookah
at the bar--absolutely. His aura was
dark, terrible, but there
was a
coldness about him that made Trevagg wonder if he could be
approached
at all. That was one, he thought, who
killed for a huge sum
. . .
or for his own pleasure. Nothing between.
For the rest, they were locals: the foul
Dr. Evazan and his
disgusting
Aqualish friend were well known to Trevagg, dangerous but
not for
hire; the horned and sinister-looking Devaronian swaying his
fingers
dreamily to the music of the band was much less dangerous than
he
appeared. The old spacer in most of a
flight suit Trevagg
recognized
as a smuggler who worked for the monastery, probably
involved
in something illegal --like most of the religious brothers of
that
organization-but he would stop far short of murder.
And then he felt it. The rushing, buzzing sensation in his cones,
the
strange humming confusion; almost like the presence of a
high-energy
machine . . .
And the Jedi came into the cantina.
He was a nondescript old human, his beard
gone white as the hair
of
humans did with age, his robes shabby with wear and desert dust. He
was
trailed by a human youth--a back-desert moisture farmer, by the
look of
his clothes and the way he stared around him, as Nightlily had,
awed by
what he thought was the Big City--and by a couple of
much-battered
droids whose power cells made Trevagg's cones prickle.
Wuher the barkeep swung immediately
around. "Hey, we don't serve
their
kind here!"
"What?" said the boy, and the {aller of the droids, a
dented
C-3PO,
looked as disconcerted as it was possible for a droid to look.
"Your droids. They'll have to wait outside. We don't want them
here."
Trevagg, sitting only a few feet away,
heartily concurred.
It was difficult enough to think in here,
to determine what he
should
do, with Nightlily so soft and vulnerable and giggly on one
side,
and the dark vibrations of the assassins on the other.
"Listen, why don't you wait out by
the speeder," the boy said
quietly--an
unnecessary courtesy, in Trevagg's opinion.
A C-3PO only
looked
human, and an R2-D2
didn't even do that. "We don't want any trouble."
The old man, meanwhile, had gone to the
bar, and was deep in
murmured
conversation with the elderly monastic spacer in the flight
suit;
Trevagg stretched his hearing to pick up their words, but over
the music
of the band it was not easy.
Even less easy was it to hear something
besides Nightlily's soft
voice,
slightly flown with unaccustomed substances, asking yet again,
humbly,
how he could truly love her so much.
"Of course I do, of course," said
Trevagg, watching the old Jedi
move
into conversation with the towering Wookiee.
He looked safe for a
moment,
and Trevagg turned back to Nightlily, grasping the smooth dark
ivory of
her hands. "Nightlily, you mean
. . . Everything.
Everything to me.
She said "Oh . . ."
while staring up into his eyes.
"Oh .
. . Oh, Trevagg. That we should
have met like this--that
you
should have come into my life like this .
. ."
He wondered if he could slip away for a
moment, summon the city
police
. . . But he needed a go-between if he
were to get the money.
Slip away and contact Jub Vegnu--first
speak to one of the
assassins,
in case Balu had tracked the old man here himself.
He felt the flare of emotions, of
irrational rage and drunken
aggression,
before the yelling started. Swinging
around in his chair,
Trevagg
saw, to his horror, that the sinister Dr.
Evazan had decided
to pick
a fight with the farm boy, throwing him sprawling into a table
while
Wuher ducked under the bar yelling desperately "No blasters! No
blasters!" and someone else grabbed for a sidearm . . .
The roar of the Force in Trevagg's cones
peaked like the drumming
of a
high-desert gravel storm. The old man,
in what seemed like a
single
smooth gesture, somehow had a glowing stalk of light in his
hand. A lethal slash, a severed limb leaking blood
on the floor,
'Nightlily's
terrified hoot, and silence--a silence less shocked than
cautious
as everyone reevaluated the situation.
Then the band started up again. So did the conversations.
The wounded would-be combatant was taken
away. So was the arm, by
Wuher's
small helper Nackhan recognized as operating a fast-food stand
in the
marketplace. The old Jedi picked up his
young companion, moved
off with
the Wookiee to the booth where the brown-haired smuggler with
the scar
on his chin waited. Trevagg became aware
that Nightlily was
clinging
to his arm, and his every instinct told him now was the time
to move
in on her.
Unfortunately, now was also the time to
listen, to stretch out his
hearing,
to key and sharpen his hunter's awareness of every word they
said. Trevagg disengaged his arm from the trembling
girl, stated "You
need
something to calm you down, my blossom," and moved over to the
bar,
listening over the jumble of the music, the murmur of the crowd.
Lingering by the bar, he heard the words
"to the Alderaan system,"
and felt
the swift rush of hunter's adrenaline in his veins. It was,
indeed,
now or never.
Then,
a moment later, he heard the old man say,
"Two thousand now, plus fifteen when
we reach Alder-aan . . .
Trevagg breathed a sigh of relief. That meant a delay here, while
they
raised the cash. Probably they'd sell
the speeder the boy had
mentioned,
or the droids, or all three. That only
left the question of
Balu.
The brown-haired human and the Wookiee
were obviously not for hire
as
assassins. Judging by such of the
conversation as he could hear,
Trevagg
guessed they were only smugglers anyway.
The Wolfman was
engaged
in a sharp altercation with a lampreylike thing beside him,
whose
vibrations caused Trevagg to back quickly away, and, nearby, the
hookah
smoker felt too eerily dangerous, too deadly.
That left the
Rodian . . .
"Docking Bay Ninety-four," he
heard the smuggler say, and the old
man
repeated it, "Ninety-four," as Trevagg returned to his booth with
his own
drink and Nightlily's, double-strength and dosed with a
Love-Wal-lop
pill Trevagg had had the foresight to slip into his pocket
before
leaving the office. He knew how much
Wuher charged for them.
There would now, he knew, be plenty of
time.
Riches, he thought, and the beautiful
creature leaning on his arm,
crooning
softly, "Oh, my love, my love."
Maybe he'd even spring for a
first-class
ticket for her. It was, after all, 'the
least he could do.
He wasn't surprised, or particularly
upset, when the stormtroopers
showed
up. He even felt a kind of scorn for
them as they looked
around,
for of course the old man and the boy had vanished. So,
incidentally,
did several other patrons, including the hookah smoker.
The Rodian didn't, Trevagg observed, and
slipped one hand from
Nightlily's
soft waist to feel in his belt pouch for the money he'd
brought. A hundred credits, he had been told, was the
current going
rate for
the down payment on a man's life.
He would be glad, he thought, to get this
annoyance out of the
way. To make sure Balu was not going to cheat him
out of the reward
that was
rightfully his.
Unfortunately, just as Trevagg was rising
to go to the
Rodian's table, the Rodian himself got up,
with a shift in aura
that
told Trevagg that this was indeed a hunter, closing in on his own
prey. That prey, it turned out, was the
brown-haired smuggler, who
after a
prolonged altercation shot the Rodian neatly with a blaster
drawn
under the table.
Nightlily shrieked again and clung to
Trevagg's arm; Wuher's
helper
ran to guard the remains even as the smuggler and his Wookiee
companion
tossed the barkeep a couple of credits and took their leave:
"Sorry
about the mess." After a momentary
pause, the band took up its
tune
without missing a bar.
Disgusted and annoyed--because the Wolfman
had also left by this
time--Trevagg
gathered the flustered and languishing Nightlily on his
arm. So much, he thought, for trying to shortcut
middlemen. When he
contacted
Jub Vegnu to arrange information to the City Prefect about
intercepting
the old man and the boy at Spaceport Speeders, he'd
mention
the need to dispose of Balu for an extra hundred creds. That
should
take care of any competition for the reward for the old man's
hide.
And in the meantime, thought Trevagg,
slipping his -arm around the
trembling
bundle of aromatic sensuality that fate had dropped into his
lap,
there was the matter of this girl, and getting a room at the Mos
Eisley
Inn, to consummate what she thought would be the start of a
wonderful
marriage--the more fool she!-and what was, in actuality,
merely
the more delectable of the two hunts upon which he had engaged
today.
Really, Trevagg thought, as he guided
Nightlily's tipsy steps
along
the gold and shadow of the street outside, he might have retired
from the
trade, but he was still quite a passable hunter after all.
What with the commotion of Imperial troops
coming into Mos Eisley
to
search for a pair of droids, the sudden rumors of a Sand People
massacre
on an outlying farm, and the firefight at Docking Bay 94
ending with a smuggling craft's illegal
liftoff, nobody found
Feltipern
Trevagg's body until the following afternoon.
"Didn't anybody tell him?" demanded Wuher the bartender, brought
over to
the Mos Eisley Inn by Balu's deputy to view the body and give
the
security officer his deposition.
"Tell him what?" Balu looked up from jotting on his
logpad. He'd
never
much liked the Gotal, but that kind of death--evisceration with
what
looked to have been a long, thin knife, skillfully wielded--was
something
he wouldn't have wished on anyone.
"About H'nemthe." When Balu continued to look blank, the
bartender
added, "The girl he was with. The
H'nemthe female."
"Nightlily?" Balu was startled. The girl had looked too
frightened
by her surroundings---and too dazzled by Trevagg's
charms--to
have harmed a hair of the Gotal's head.
"Was that her name?" Wuher rolled his eyes. "It figures."
A small crowd had gathered. Of course, none of the Imperial
stormtroopers
and none of the Prefect's guard, either.
A murder this
small
wasn't worth their time. Balu couldn't
help observing Nackhar in
the
background slipping the coroner's deputy a few credits.
For what, he decided not to ask.
"The m'iiyoom--the nightlily--4s a
carnivorous flower that feeds
on small
rodents and insects that try to drink its nectar," said the
barkeep,
hands on hips and looking down at the dark-stained sheet the
coroner
had laid over what was left of Trevagg. "After
mating,
H'nemthe
females gut the males with those tongues of theirs--they're as
sharp as
sword blades, and a lot stronger than they look. Some kind of
biological
reaction to there being twenty H'nemthe males for every
female. The males seem to think it's worth it, to
achieve the act of
love. I saw them together in the can-tina, but I
didn't think Trevagg
was
crazy enough to try to bed the girl."
"He was always bragging about being
such a great
hunter," said Balu wonderingly,
stepping aside for the coroner's
deputies
to carry the body out of the dingy and bloodstained room.
"You'd have thought he'd sense it
coming."
"How could he?" The barkeep tucked big hands into his belt,
followed
the officer back out to the street.
"For her it was the act of love,
too."
He shrugged, and quoted an old Ithorian
proverb current in some
sections
of the spaceways: "N'ygyng enth'une vned 'isobec' k'chuv
'ysobek.'"
Which, loosely translated, means: "The word for 'love' in
one
language is the word for 'dinner' in others."
Empire Blues:
The Devaronian's Tale by Daniel Keys Moron
I
don't suppose it took us five minutes that
afternoon to execute
the
Rebels, start to finish.
The Rebellion on Devaron stood no
chance. My home world is
sparsely
settled even by Devaronians, and is politically unimportant;
but it
is near the Core. Near the Emperor, may
he freeze.
I was Kardue'sai'Malloc, third of the
Kardue line to
hear that name; a Devish and a captain in
the Devaronian Army.
Kardue had served in the Devaronian Army
for sixteen generations:
through
the Clone Wars, back into the days when no one dreamed the old
Republic
would ever fall. The army lifestyle
suited me, and I the
army;
aside from the stress of dealing with the Imperium, and the
detested
necessity of placing Devaronian troops under Imperial command
during
the Rebellion, it was a tolerable life.
Sixteen generations of military service
ended the afternoon after
we
overran the Rebel positions in Montellian Serat. It took me half a
year to
hang up the armor; but that was the moment.
Montellian Serat is an old city. Well, was; it dated back to the
days
before my people had star travel. That
the Rebels chose to make a
stand
there was tactically foolish, but not surprising. I spent the
night
overseeing the shelling of the ancient city walls, and in the
first
light of morning stopped shelling long enough to offer the Rebels
a chance
to surrender. They accepted the offer,
laid down their arms
by the
shattered walls at the city's edge, and came out in single file:
man and
woman they were seven hundred strong.
I herded them into a hastily constructed
holding pen, and mounted
guards. I had concern for a rescue attempt; half a
day's march south,
another
group of Rebels were still fighting.
After they surrendered, we shelled the
city into rubble.
The Empire wanted to make sure no one made
the mistake of
sheltering
Rebels again.
Our orders came just after noon. The Rebels were believed to be
moving
north; I was to take my forces and intercept them. I was not to
leave
any of my forces behind as guards for the captured Rebels.
The orders were no more specific than that
. . .
but they could not be misunderstood.
I
had them executed in mid-afternoon. I
pulled the guards back
into a
half circle, and had them open fire on the Rebels inside the
holding
pen. It took most of
five minutes before the screaming stopped
and I could
be certain all seven hundred were dead.
There was no time to bury them.
We marched south to the next battle.
With one thing and another it took almost
half a year for the
Rebellion
on Devaron to be put down. Rebellions
are drawn-out affairs,
even the
failures. When it was over, I submitted
my resignation. At
first my
superiors, humans all, could not decide whether to accept it
and let
my fellow "natives" kill me once I no longer had the protection
of the
Imperial Army, or to refuse it and execute me for treason for
having
made the request in the first place.
I recall I did not much care.
They let me go.
I vanished. Neither my Imperial superiors, nor the family
or
friends
left behind, who lusted for my horns, ever saw me, or my music
collection,
again.
Time passed.
Halfway across the galaxy from Devaron, on
the small desert planet
of
Tatooine, in the port city of Mos Els-ley, in a cantina tucked away
near the
center of the hot, dusty city, I looked up from my empty drink
and
smiled at my old friend Wuher.
I gave him the polite one. Devish are more sharply differentiated
by sex
than most species. Men have sharper
teeth than women, designed
for
hunting; Dev-ish evolved from pack hunters.
Women have canines as
well,
but also have molars and can survive on food that men would
starve
on. In rare cases, though, 'about one
birth in fifty, a Devish
man will
be born with both sets of teeth. I'm one
of them. In the old
days it
was a survival trait; Devish men with both sets of teeth were
used as
solitary scouts by the pack. They could
range farther and
survive
in terrain where most males would starve.
It may be cultural
and it
may be genetic, but there is no question that Devish with
doubled
teeth are less creatures of the pack than most Devish men.
I doubt most Devish could do what I've
done, at that.
My outer row of teeth are female, flat and
not at all threatening.
The inner row, composed of sharp,
needle-pointed teeth, is for
shredding
flesh. When I feel threatened or angry,
the outer row of
teeth
retract. In those circumstances it's a
reflex; but I can do it
on
purpose.
Sometimes I do it on purpose. It startles humans . . . well, it
startles
most noncarnivores, but humans are a special case, a whole
species
of omnivores.
There are not many intelligent omnivorous
species out there. !
have a theory about them: They're food
that decided to fight back.
In the case of humans, tree munchies. They never quite get over their
own
audacity, I suspect, and they're a nervous lot because of it.
(A human once tried to tell me that humans
were carnivores. I did
not
laugh at him, despite his molars and his pitiful two pair of
blunted
incisors, and a digestive tract so long that the flesh he ate
rotted
before it 'came out the other end. With
a body designed like
that,
I'd take up leaf eating.) Wuher gave me the usual scowl in
response
to my polite, flat-toothed smile. "Let
me guess, Labria. The
glass is
defective."
Wuher is my best friend on Tatooine. He's a squat, ugly human
with a
bad attitude and none of the human virtues.
He hates droids and
doesn't
care much for anything else. I like him
a great deal. There
is a
purity to his loathing for the universe that is quite spiritually
advanced. If I could free him from his love of money,
he might well
attain
Grace. "Yes, my friend. It has ceased functioning. If you
would
fix it . . ."
"With?"
"Oh, the amber liquid, I
suppose."
"The Merenzane Gold?"
"The bottle bears that label," I
conceded.
"One Merenzane Gold, point five
credits."
I dropped the half-credit coin on the
bartop, and waited while he
refilled
my drink. Merenzane Gold is a sweet,
subtle concoction, with
many thousands
of years of brewing tradition behind it.
A single
bottle
goes for well upward of a hundred credits, depending on vintage.
I took a sip of my drink and smiled
again. Proper.
You could use it to clean thruster tubes,
except it might melt the
shielding. I wandered over to my favorite booth, as far
away from the
bandstand
as I could get, and settled in with my ear plugs for the day.
I was the first customer in the door that
morning. I could barely
remember
a time when I had not been.
Tatooine is a nasty, useless little
planet. The only noteworthy
things
about it are Jabba, and the pilots it produces year after year.
I don't have any idea why Jabba picked
Tatooine as a base; maybe
because
it's so far from the Core that the Empire is less likely to
bother
him here. Doesn't matter, really.
As for the pilots, well, Tatooine's a
desert, filled with moisture
farmers
north to south. A single farm takes up
so much space that to
visit
with one another they must travel long distance by speedster;
their
children learn to fly at an early age. On
most Tatooine farms it
would
take you a day to walk from one end to the other, and you'd
likely
die of thirst first.
I hate Tatooine. I'm still not sure why I stayed here.
It was a temporary thing, I recall
that. I was following Maxa
Jandovar,
the great--well, for a human, great--vandfillist.
I kept missing her. She was one of the half-dozen surviving
artists
I hadn't seen live who was worth seeing.
I spent half a decade
following
her around through the outback, hitting planet after planet
weeks or
days or, in one instance that gave me ample opportunity to
demonstrate
Grace, a mere half day after she'd left.
She didn't leave
an
agenda; she couldn't, very well. The
Empire wouldn't go to the
trouble
of hunting her, but if she'd announced where she was going
next,
she'd certainly have found a squad of stormtroopers waiting for
her at
the spaceport when she arrived.
The Empire doesn't trust artists. Particularly the great ones.
Politics does not interest them, and they
persist in speaking the
truth
when it is inconvenient.
They arrested Maxa Jandovar on
Morvogodine. She died in custody.
I was on Tatooine when I got the news,
getting ready to head to
Morvogodine.
Somehow I ended up staying.
Nightlily, the H'nemthe sitting down at
the end of the bar, looked
bored
and horny. I felt sorry for someone.
"Hey, Wuher!"
Wuher looked at me from down the length of
the bar. "Yeah?"
"Universal Truth Number One: You
should never say 'Well, why don't
you bite
my head off?.' to a female
H'nemthe who is bigger than you are."
He didn't smile. Jerk.
In the booth next to mine, two humans were
trying to talk a Moorin
merc
into helping them rob a bar over on the other side of Mos Eisley;
I made a
note to myself to call the bar's owner and sell him a warning
about
the men. Not that it looked as if the
Moorin were going to
help.them;
only one of the humans spoke the merc's language, his accent
was
horrific, and his syntax was occasionally hysterical. I could see
the merc
struggling to take them seriously. At
one point the merc,
Obron
Mettlo, growled at them that he was a soldier, a fighter; he
mentioned
some of the battles he'd fought in. I'd
actually heard of
most of
them---if he wasn't
lying, he was a serious professional.
"Hey, Wuher!"
Wuher looked at me from down the length of
the bar. "Yeah?"
"What do you call someone who speaks
three languages?"
"Trilingual."
"Someone who speaks two
languages?"
"Bilingual."
"Someone who speaks one
language?"
He puzzled at it a second. "Monolingual?"
"Human."
He almost smiled before he caught himself.
The day passed slowly. They tend to.
I drank enough to keep the
world
slightly out of focus, and waited for the suns to set. I moved
around a
bit, sat at the bar a few times, looking for conversation; I
even
bought two drinks for an off-duty stormtrooper, slumming.
Wasted; he was more interested in women
than in conversation, and
I
doubted he knew anything anyway.
That is the nature of investments, though;
someday he might know
something,
if such a thing were possible for a stormtrooper. And then
he might
think of his old friend and drinking buddy, Labria.
Brokering information is a chancy
occupation, at best.
Can't say I'm any good at it.
Long Snoot showed up toward late
afternoon. It had been a good
day
until then; Wuher didn't have musicians that day, and I hadn't had
to wear
my ear plugs even once.
Long Snoot wanted to sell me information.
I smiled at him, in my corner booth as far
away from the stage as
I could
get. The sharp smile. "That's a new one. Pass."
Long Snoot's "name" is
Garindan. I had a protocol droid do a
search
on the word once. In five different
languages it meant "Blessed
One,"
"burnt wood," "dust from a windstorm," "ugly,"
and "toast." None
of the
five languages were spoken by a species that looked anything
like
Long Snoot's.
Long Snoot's the most successful spy in
Mos Eisley.
In a town with as many spies as this city
has, that says
something. He pays adequately f6r information; sometimes
I give him
information
of value. Sometimes I even do it on
purpose. "But
Labria,"
he wheedled, voice low, "this is a subject of particular
interest
to
yOU."
"Give me a hint."
He shook his head, trunk waving gently in
front of my face. I
suppressed
an uncivilized urge to swat it with a sharpened nail. (I
often
have the opportunity to exhibit Grace in dealing with Long
Snoot.)
"Fifty credits, Labria. You won't
regret it."
I thought about it. I took a sip of the acid gold and swished it
around
my back teeth for a bit. I could feel it
helping keep them
sharp. "Fifty credits is a lot. Resell-able?"
He scratched under his snout,
thinking. "I can't think to
whom."
Something of interest to me, but not
resellable . . .
I could feel my ears straighten. "Who is it?"
"Fift--" "I'11 pay. Who's on planet?"
"Figri--" - I came up out of my
seat. "Fiery Figrin Da'n is on
Tatooind
"
He made an urk noise. "People . . . are .
. . looking."
I looked around. Some of them were, in fact. Odd, having all
those
eyes on me. I let go of Long Snoot, and
they turned away.
"Sorry. Bit excitable."
He rubbed his throat. "Your nails need trimming."
"I expect they do." He sat back down again, but I
was too excited. "The band is with him?"
"Fifty credits."
A snarl rose in the back of my
throat. I pulled out a
fifty-credit
note and dropped it into his outstretched hand, and tried
to keep
the growl out of my voice when I spoke. "Who?"
"They're playing for Jabba."
"All of them?"
"The Modal Nodes."
"That's them," I said, unable to
keep the excitement out of my
voice. "Doikk No'ts on the Fizzz, Tedn Dahai
and Ikabel G'ant on the
Fanfar,
Nalan Cheel on Bandfill, Tech Mo'r on the Ommni--" "Yeah.
Those are the names."
Oh, my.
The greatest jizz band in the galaxy was
in town.
I left earlier than usual, as soon as it
was dark outside.
Wuher nodded at me on my way out. "Tomorrow, Labria."
I nodded at him and went outside into the
hot night.
"Labria" is an extremely dirty
word in my native tongue. It
translates,
roughly, as "cold food," though the basic phrase loses the
flavor
of it.
By my horns, I don't understand humans. I've lived around them
close to
two decades now. The things they swear
by! Sex, excrement,
and
religion.
I'll never understand them.
There are four hundred billion stars in
the galaxy.
Most of them have planets; about half have
planets capable of
supporting
life. About a tenth of those worlds have
evolved life of
their
own, and about one in a thousand of those worlds have evolved
intelligent
life forms.
These are rough numbers. There are well over twenty million
intelligent
races in the galaxy, though.
No one can keep track of them all, not
even the Empire.
I have no idea how many bounty hunters
there are in Mos Eisley.
Hundreds of professionals, I'm sure. Tens of thousands who would
turn
bounty hunter without a moment's pause if the bounty were high
enough,
and if anyone knew of it.
The Butcher of Montellian Serat has five
million
credits on his horns. But Devaron is halfway across the galaxy,
and
there may only be a dozen sentients on all of Tatooine who even
know for
sure what species !
long to.
(There are two other Devaronians on planet, Oxbel and
Jubal. I rather like Oxbel; we pretended to be
brothers once, during a
rather
involved scare that didn't work out the way we'd hoped. We
don't
look anything alike--his ancestors evolved at the equator, mine
toward
the north pole--but the humans we were trying to cheat couldn't
tell the
difference. I rather like Oxbel, but I
don't come close to
trusting
him. He's been away from Devaron even
longer than I have, and
it's
entirely possible that even he hasn't heard of the Butcher of
Montellian
Serat--but it's best to be safe.
(There are downsides to being safe,
though. The closest Devish
woman is
on the other side of the Core.
Just the thought makes my horns ache.) Most
bounty hunters are
lazy. If they weren't, they'd be in another line of
work.
And research is not their strong point.
I took the short way home.
A Reason for Living:
I keep a small underground apartment about
twelve minutes' brisk
walk
from the cantina. It's been broken into
twice since I've lived
there. The first time I came back and found the deed
done; the second
time I
surprised the burglar in the act. A
young human. Turns out
humans
don't taste very good.
The lights come on automatically as I
unlock and let myself in.
The door leads down a flight of stairs to
a cold, sweaty basement
that
costs an indecent amount to cool. The
heat-exchange coils turn on
automatically
when I enter; I know from long experience I won't be able
to sleep
until they have been on for quite a while --and at that it
will not
be properly cold until I am done sleeping, and it's time to
turn
them off.
There's only one thing of value in the
apartment; neither of my
two
thieves found it, fortunately. From the
outer room you go into the
sleeping
cubicle, and from there into the bathroom.
The sanitary
facilities
are human designed, but they suit me well enough. In the
shower,
you push back on the tiled wall, and it slides back enough to
step
through, sideways.
I step through and into a small
eight-sided room.
The walls are not perfect; they tend to
reflect the higher
frequencies
and absorb the lower ones, so virtually everything ends up
sounding
brighter than it should. Some of that
can be adjusted for;
some of
it I simply have to live with.
The wall behind me sighs shut. The room is already
cool; it's the first part of the apartment
to be cooled.
Along the walls are the chips.
Some of them are unique, I'm sure. Priceless.
Copies of
recordings
that are preserved by no one else in the galaxy. Some of
them are
merely rare and very expensive.
I have everyone. Or, to be precise, I have something by
everyone.
I have music the Imperium banned a
generation ago ... by musicians
executed
for singing the wrong lyric, in the wrong way, to the wrong
person,
by musicians who simply vanished, by musicians who had the good
fortune
to die before the Empire came to power.
Maxa Jandovar is here, and Orin Mersai,
and Te-lindel and
Saerlock,
Lord Kavad and the Skaalite Orchestra, M'lar'Nkai'kambric,
Janet
Lalasha, and Miracle Meriko, who died in Imperial custody four
days
after I saw him play Stardance for the last time. The ancient
masters,
Kang and Lubrichs, Ovido Aishara, and the amazing Brullian
Dyll.
I have two recordings by Fiery Figrin Da'n
and the Modal Nodes.
Da'n may be the greatest Klooist the
galaxy has ever seen. As for
Doikk
No'ts . . . there's something about his
playing that's always
struck
me as cautious, careful . . . but
sometimes, sometimes the fire
comes,
and he plays the Fizzz as well as Janet Lalasha ever did.
Most of their backup players could play
lead, in a lesser band.
I settle down in the seat, set just off
center for the room, where
the
sound comes together most cleanly, open a bottle of twelve-year-old
Dorian
Quill, and wait for the music to start.
My people believe that to kill something,
you must cherish it and
love it
as it dies. There is no barrier between
you and the thing you
are
killing, and you die as you kill.
Music is the only thing I know that feels
the same way.
The music surrounds me until I cease to exist.
I die as I kill.
It's what I live for.
I'm glad my fathers are dead.
In the morning I went to see Jabba.
He had me stand on the trapdoor, and his
tail twitched as we
spoke. That always bothers me. Part of me was frightened by it; even
carnivores
get eaten by bigger carnivores. Another
part of me wanted
to
pounce on it.
He regarded me with those slitted ugly
eyes, and laughed a
rumbling,
unpleasant laugh. "So . . . what information does my least
favorite
spy have to sell me?"
I made it good. I spoke to him in Hutt, which I normally try
to
avoid;
it hurts my throat, and I have to use both sets of teeth to make
some of
the sounds. After a long conversation,
the front row aches
from
being pulled up and then dropped down again quickly.
"There's a mercenary in
town." I'd learned what I could
about him
before
heading over. It hadn't been much, but
I'd been rushed. I
wanted
to move on this quickly--if Jabba didn't like Da'n and the
Nodes, I
might never get to see them play. Nar
would anyone else.
"Obron Mettlo. A real professional, fought in dozens of
battles,
often on
the winning side, looking for employment.
Moorin, has an
attitude--"
He made a low, grumbling sound that might have been
interpreted
as interest. Jabba had plenty of muscle,
but not always
smart
muscle; and Moorin tend to be bright as well as vicious.
I forged ahead. "If you like, I could get in touch with
him.
Bring him by to meet you . . . for dinner, perhaps.
Possibly some entertainment, some
music--music is good with
Moorin. Keeps 'em peaceable."
His eyelids drooped slightly; either he
was bored or he was
thinking. Finally he gave me a slight chuckle, and
said, "Send him
over."
I bowed and backed away as quickly as was
polite, getting off that
trapdoor. "As you wish, sir. We'll be by --would first dark be
appropriate?"
He smiled at me and it made the fur on the
small of my back stand
straight
up. "Send him by," he
clarified.
"You
are not invited."
I stood frozen at the edge of the
trapdoor, mind refusing to
function. Surely there had to be some way to
wangle-Jabba made a
sound. A familiar sound; I've heard Devish make it,
too--except that
it takes
a pack of Dev-ish.
It straightened my ears and made my front
teeth jump out of the
way. "You can leave now."
I bowed and got out.
I spent the evening at the cantina,
drinking myself into a stupor.
I just knewJabba would feed the Modal
Nodes to the rancor. He'd
never
had a decent band before, never, not once.
The closest he'd ever
come was
Max Rebo's bunch, who could carry a melody if you gave them a
basket
to keep it in.
But the next morning, I learned that Rebo
was out looking for
work.
Jabba had a new favorite.
It came this close to killing me.
For four days I couldn't sleep for
thinking about it.
There they were, not a half part's
speedster trip from Mos Eisley.
Playing for him. It ate me alive thinking about it. I lost so
much
Grace in those days that if I had any shame left to me, I'd have
to use
some of it on that period.
Sometime on the fifth day I drank too
much. I awoke lying
facedown
in the alleyway upstairs and behind the cantina, in darkness,
with
someone nudging my shoulder with his toe.
I decided to take a
chunk
out of his calf-Wuher knelt next to me. "Can
you stand up?"
The cold gravel pressed against my
cheek. I had bruises,
cuts--the
memories came back slowly Several someones had beaten
me--heavy
wood or metal staffs, I vaguely recalled.
Just a random
robbery. My right arm wouldn't move at all. "I don't think so."
"Come on." My body is denser than humans'; he staggered,
helping
me to my
feet. The strain sent a jolt of
astonishing pain through my
shoulder. "Where do you live?"
He half carried me to my apartment, and
stood at the opening while
!
fumbled with the interlock. "Do you
need medical help?"
I don't remember if I answered him or
not. It was a stupid
question. No doctor on Tatooine knew anything about
Devish
physiology--or
if they did, I didn't want to know them.
I made it to the shower before I
collapsed. I got the cold water
turned
on and sat in it until morning, trying to decide how badly I
wanted
to live.
By morning the apartment half reminded me
of home.
I stayed in it and did not go out, kept
the heat-ex-change coils
running
all day. Around midday I found the
strength to pull a slab of
womp rat
the length of my arm from the freezer, heat it to blood
temperature,
and drag it into the shower with me. I
sat under the
water,
nude, eating until my stomach bulged, and when there was nothing
left but
bones on the floor of the stall, turned the water off and
staggered
to my bedpit.
It took me some time before I felt safe
going out in public again.
Several times someone came to my door; I
didn't open it. Some
information
travels Mos Eisley faster than light. Mos
Eisley is like a
living
creature: It eats the sick and weak. I'd
survived all these
years
without having to kill more than a few of my fellow residents.
They'd have heard by now of the attack on
me--the humans who'd
robbed
me might have boasted of it, in which case I'd have them in my
freezer,
whoever they were, before the month was out.
But in any event I dared not go back to
the cantina until my
strength
was returned.
The arm took longest to heal; weeks later
it was still stiff and
it hurt
when I moved it wrong. But ! was almost out of food, so I had
no
choice. Early one morning I dressed, set
my alarms, and headed for
the
cantina.
Wuher looked up and nodded at me when I
entered.
First one in the door. He put a glass on the counter and poured a
shot of
golden liquid. "On the house.
Drink it before someone else comes
in."
I looked at the drink, and then at Wuher,
almost as much at a loss
for
words as I'd been when Jabba told me to send the merc over by
himself. "Many thanks," I finally got
out. He nodded and I lifted the
glass-And
stopped. Predators have better noses
than leaf eaters.
There was something wrong with the
alcohol. It wasHe poured
himself
a shot while I was staring at my glass, raised it to me, and
knocked
it back.
Merenzane Gold. The real stuff. Precious, pure, real Merenzane
Gold.
Wuher corked the unlabeled bottle while I
was still staring at
him, put
it away under the bar, and wandered away from me to finish
opening
up.
I took the glass to my booth, sat and drank
it very slowly. I
hadn't
known there was a bottle of real Gold on all of Tatooine. I'd
almost
forgotten what it tasted like.
I wondered how many years he'd had that
bottle
down there without saying anything about
it.
By the Cold, I'm a lousy spy.
That's something to be proud of.
I spent the morning listening to the talk
throughout the bar. I'd
been out
of touch . . . and interesting things
had happened while I'd
been
hidden away from the world. Last night
an Imperial battle cruiser
had
fought in orbit with a Rebel spaceship, and today stormtroopers
were
looking all over Tatooine for someone, or something, that had
escaped
them.
And a piece of horrifically bad news: The
damn mercenary I'd
recommended
to Jabba had picked a fight with a pair of Jabba's
bodyguards
and shot them both t}p before getting himself fed to the
rancor. There was some rumor that perhaps the merc
had been an
assassin
paid by the Lady Valarian, whose real target had been Jabba
himself-Maybe
Jabba had forgotten who had recommended him.
And maybe Long Snoot would give me my
fifty credits back.
It came to me in a vision.'
Okay, that's not true, but it?s
close. Long Shoot stopped by and
mentioned
something interesting: The Lady Valarian was getting married.
Max Rebo and band were going to play at
the wedding.
I barely noticed when Long Snoot
left. I stared straight ahead,
through
the noonday crowd come to escape the heat, not seeing them, not
seeing
the can tina. Just thinking.
"Wuher."
He turned away from a conversation with'a
pair of human females
who
looked like clones; the Tonnika sisters, they'd introduced
themselves
as. He did it grudgingly; they were
attractive, by human
standards.
"Yeah?"
"How's business?"
He stared at me suspiciously. "It stinks. It always stinks."
"How would you like entertainment by
real musicians?"
"Rebo? Can't afford him, and his bunch don't draw
what they cost
anyway."
I gave him the polite smile. "Figtin Da'n and the Modal Nodes.
They're Bith. They're good, Wuher. I mean really, really good."
"What would they cost me?"
"Five hundred a week."
He gave me the suspicious stare
again. If something sounds too
good to
be true, someone's being screwed.
"Really. A band better than Rebo's will work here for
less than
his."
"I think I can arrange it."
"How?"
I told him. When I was done he said in a somber
voice, "You are one twisted puppy,
Lab."
"Is it a deal?"
He shook his head no, said "It's a
deal," and wandered away,
shaking
his head and muttering to himself.
The Lady Valarian is the closest thing to
competition that Jabba
the Hutt
has on Tatooine. That's not saying much;
Jabba tolerates her
because
it keeps all the discontents in one place.
She's a Whiphid,
which
means she's stupid, huge, ugly, has more muscle on her than I do,
and
smells worse than Jabba. I wouldn't eat
her even after a long
hunt.
I went to see her at her hotel, the Lucky
Despot. The Lucky
Despot
isn't much of a hotel, truth told; just a spaceship that won't
ever
lift again.
"That's right," I said. "Modal Nodes. Lead is Figrin Da'n. I
know you
want the best for your wedding, Lady Valarian.
This group
makes
music so glorious, your wedding will be the talk of this corner
of the
galaxy.
People for dozens of light-years will
speak with envy and longing
of the
entertainment provided at the wedding of the great Lady Valarian
and her
handsome consort, the daring D'Wopp, of the romantic mood set
by the
finest musicians this poor galaxy has ever seen."
She glared at me--well, I think she glared
at me; with those mad
little
eyes Whiphids have, it's hard to tell--and said skeptically,
"Better
than Max Rebo? I love Max Rebo."
She would.
And she deserved to have the ugly little runt play her
wedding,
for all of me. "Fair mistress, your
taste is as that of your
tongue,
and none would dare say otherwise."
I gave her the polite
smile. "But Modal Nodes is currentlyJabba the
Hutt's favored
entertainment.
Would you have it said that the
entertainment at your wedding was
provided
by the musicians Jabba deemed too poor to play for him?"
It took her a bit to work through it. I'd gotten a little carried
away
with my syntax; Whiphids have a working vocabulary of only about
eight
thousand words. "No!
No, I won't have it! I want the Nodal Notes!" She looked briefly
uncertain. "Do you think they'll come?"
"They'll be expensive, madam. They'll be braving Jabba's
displeasure
to play for you. It might cost . . .
two, or three thousand credits,
perhaps. If I can have the loan
of a
messenger droid, I would be most happy to begin making the
arrangements
. . ."
The morning of the wedding I called Jabba.
He laughed with, I think, real amusement
on seeing me. "My least
favorite
spy!" he boomed. "Perhaps you
should come visit me. We can have dinner together,
and talk about the mercenary you
introduced to me."
"I have information, Jabba."
"Hmmm."
"Do you know your musicians are
missing? Figrin Da'n and the
Modal
Nodes?"
"Hmmmph.t" He made a bellowing
noise and rocked himself off
camera. I heard shrieks, steel clanging, things
breaking . . . I
stood
patiently in front of my comlink's pickup and waited for him to
come
back, if he was going to. After a bit he
did. "Hoooo," he
muttered,
shaking his head. "Where are they,
least favorite spy?"
"The Lady Valarian is getting married
today. She's hired them to
play at
her wedding, at the Lucky Despot Hotel."
The eyes narrowed to slits. "And what does my least favorite spy
want for
this information?"
I spread my hands. "Let us forget a certain unfortunate
introduction
. . ."
He looked at me through the slitted eyes
for a second, and then
gave the
booming laugh. "Least favorite
spy, call me again sometime."
He broke the connection.
Cold sweat trickled through the fur on the
small of my back.
Wuher had dressed for the wedding. He'd changed his shirt.
The cantina was dark and silent; I'd never
seen it like this
before,
except the first few minutes in the morning.
I gave Wuher my invitation; the Lady
Valarian had given it to me
in
gratitude for acquiring the "Nodal Notes" for her wedding, while
hinting
that, in the future, I might find it better business to share
information
with her rather than with Jabba.
Someone'11 killJabba, someday, but it's
not going to be Valarian.
"You're sure the wedding's going to
be broken up," he repeated.
"I'm sure the Modal Nodes aren't
going to want to go back to Jabba
after
this. All you have to do is offer them a
place to lie low for a
while,
play a few gigs, pick up a few credits. They're
going to be
broke;
Valarian won't pay them after her wedding is broken up."
He shook his head, tucking his shirt in
again. "You think they'll
go for
it?"
"I think they'll jump at it."
Wuher
stood there, studying me in the gloom.
"Lab . . . if you put this kind of effort into
anything else, you
could be
a wealthy being."
I shook my head, and said gently, "My
friend, this is all that I
want."
It's hard to outthink Jabba. Also dangerous.
I sat in the shadows of a building down
the way from the Lucky
Despot,
watching the crowd arrive for the wedding.
A scummy lot, all
around. I recognized several of the
"guests" as Jabba's people. I
hoped
there wasn't any shooting. I didn't see
enough of Jabba's troops
to make
that likely; if he'd decided to wipe out Lady Valarian for her
theft of
his musicians, he'd have sent more soldiers.
That was a good
sign.
I could hear, so faintly that my ears
twitched, a song that might
have
been "Tears of Aquanna." It
was followed by what was, quite
definitely,
"Worm Case."
Odd choices for a wedding. Maybe they were playing requests.
And then the bad news arrived.
Stormtroopers.
Two squads. They set down out of the night, quietly and
with
running
lights doused, in full combat armor.
One squad covered the entrance to the
hotel, and the second squad
went
in. From the moment they set down I
doubt it took them twenty
seconds.
Oh, the noise was awful. From where I sat, I could hear it.
Screams, blaster bolts, yelling, another
round of blaster
fire--one
of the stormtroopers near the entrance went down. I lifted
my
macrobinoculars and watched the building through them. Windows
opened
and the scum of a dozen different races came squirming out
through
them. I moved the macrobinoculars up,
scanning across the
structure
of the half-buried ship . . . Toward the
top of the ship,
three
stories above the dirty sand, an emergency airlock clanged open.
The
first head through it was a Bith. I
couldn't guess who: All Bith
look
alike, even when you're not looking through macrobinoculars. More
Bith
followed, and then the unmistakable squat form of my friend Wuher.
They took off across the sand together,
Wuher and the Bith, and
ran
straight by me in the darkness without pausing.
I'd never have guessed that Wuher could
move that fast . . . and
a moment
later I saw why he was managing it. A
pair of stormtroopers
came
charging after them, weapons at the ready.
I shed a little Grace
by
tripping the one in the lead. The second
stormtrooper tripped over
him. I bent over them and picked up their
rifles. I hadn't handled an
assault
rifle in--well, in a very long time, but they hadn't changed.
I pulled the charge cages from them and
handed them back to the
two
stormtroopers as they recovered their feet.
"You appear to have dropped these,
gentles."
One of them immediately jumped backward,
rifle pointing at me, and
shouted,
"Don't move!"
The other one looked at me, and then at
his rifle, and then at me
again.
"Come now," I said gently. "We're reasonable beings.
You tripped and I helped you up
again. No need for anyone to get
upset. If you got injured in the fall, perhaps, I'd
be more than happy
to
compensate you for it . . ."
I let my voice trail off and the three of
us watched each other
for a
beat.
The one pointing the useless rifle at me
said in a strained voice,
"Are
you trying to bribe us?"
I drew myself up to my full height and
stared down
at them, and gave them the .sharp smile. "Not," I said, "if
you're going to be snotty about it."
In the morning, when I reached the cantina, I found the Modal
Nodes already there, setting up.
Wuher scowled at me. "I got shot at. By a stinking droid."
"I'm sorry." He didn't seem that angry, though...
"You heard them play."
He nodded grudgingly. "Yeah. They're pretty good."
"They're the best," I said softly. "And I think you know it."
He just snorted.
"About my fee."
"Yeah?"
"Free drinks for a year."
He snorted again. "Not bloody likely. We won't get a year out of
this lot; they'll jump planet as soon as they
can find some idiot to run the lines for them."
He had a point. Still-"Their stay might be longer than that," I
pointed Out. "Jabba will want to keep them from leaving the planet.
He might even want them back someday."
He actually smiled at me; I like him better scowling.
"Seven free drinks a day as long as they keep playing.
As soon as they sneak out of here, you pay again. You pay for
every drink over seven anyway."
I grinned at him before I remembered myself, with the sharp teeth.
"Deal." I got up and walked over to where Figrin was setting up
with the band, and introduced myself.
I swear, Biths look contemptuous even when they're not trying to.
The fellow had obviously heard of my reputation: Labria the drunk.
The half bright, half sly, - half sober. He barely glanced at me.
"Oh, yes. Jabba's
least favorite spy."
The fellow was a notorious gambler. "Interested in a
few hands of sabacc? The crowd doesn't start showing
up here until later afternoon anyhow."
"I don't think so."
"Twenty-credit minimum bid."
His head swiveled as though it belonged to a droid.
"Oh? Can you back that up?"
I gave him the sharp smile, on purpose. Bith know they're food.
"Are you trying to insult me, Figrin Da'n?"
There may have been a deck somewhere, somewhen in the history of
time colder than the one we used, but I wouldn't bet on it. Bith come
from a warm, bright world. Devaronians, by the way, see farther into
the infrared than practically anyone. It's useful to be able to see
heat, when you evolve in the cold.
Buried in the black border along the edges of the cards were
markers sensitive to low-spectrum infrared light. I knew every card he
held, all that morning.
They were already broke: By the time we were done I owned their
instruments, except for Doikk No'ts's Fizzz.
And what a day that turned out to be.
For the life of me it seemed the universe had conspired to keep me
from enjoying the music. First the band squabbled with each other, and
then when they finally got going, with a nice upbeat rendition of "Mad
About Me," some old fool chopped up another fool--with a lightsaber, of
all frozen things--and interrupted it. That psychotic Solo actually
showed his face in the cantina just after that, and then of course had
to kill a miserable excuse for a bounty hunter named Greedo.
If I'd had a blaster on me I might have shot Solo in the back as
he left, but well, opportunities slip by.
Besides, it's best not to draw attention.
Afternoon slid into evening, and I nursed my drinks and watched
them play. It took them a while to get into it; at first Figrin
couldn't stand looking at me, and every time he saw me watching them it
threw him out of his game. But it's hard to stay infuriated with
someone who is knowledgeable about what you do, and appreciates it as I
appreciated them. The music got darker as the day wore on, smokier and
more intimate, and Figrin Da'n performed with his eyes closed, moving
through the numbers, with Doikk No'ts at his side; and they played with
each other, building through the numbers together, playing off each
other, feeding improvisations back upon improvisations, playing, for
the first time in who knows how long, for an audience that could, and
did, appreciate what they did. An audience of one.
They closed up with "Solitary World," an appropriate choice, I
suppose, with the long intertwined sequences of Fizzz and Kloo, ending
with one of the most difficult of the Kloo solos, and Doikk finished
his piece, bowing out in recognition of genius: And the Bith stood
there and played, Fiery Figrin Da'n in the midst of the music and I
watched him wail away, safe, sycure, surrounded by the sound, in that
place that I would never know.
Swapmeet: The Jawa's Tale by Kevin J. Anderson The sandcrawler
labored up the long slope of golden sand that rippled with heat under
the twin suns of Tatooine. The immense vehicle moved ahead at a
moderate but inexorable rate. Its clanking tractor treads left
parallel furrows on the virgin surface of the dune. Within a few
hours, gusting sandwhirls would erase the tracks and return the Dune
Sea to its pristine state. The desert resisted all permanent change.
Deep in the murky bowels of the sandcrawler, in the
cluttered engine rooms where throbbing power reactors pounded and
echoed, Het Nkik labored with his Jawa clan members. From the depths
of his hood, he sniffed the air, a veritable sauce of mingled odors.
The engines smelled as if they were getting old again, lubricant
spoiling, durasteel cogs wearing away.
Humans and many other sentient creatures loathed the wayJawas
smelled, detecting only a stink that made them turn up their noses.
ButJawas derived an incredible amount of information from such
smells: the health of their companions, when and what they had last
eaten, their identity, maturity, status of arousal, excitement, or
boredom.
Het Nkik chittered his concern. At any other time the Jawas would
have rushed to avert any potential breakdown--at least until they had
unloaded their wares on a hapless customer. But today the Jawas paid
him little heed, too preoccupied with the impending swap meet, the
annual gathering of all clans. They pushed the engine to its maximum
capacity as the sandcrawler toiled across the Dune Sea to the
traditional meeting place of the Jawa people.
Het Nkik shook his head, his bright yellow eyes glowing in the dim
shadows of his hood. The other Jawas would know he was annoyed and
impatient from his scent.
Het Nkik had odd ideas for a Jawa, and he told them to any who
would listen. He enjoyed watching his clan brothers scurry around,
confused at the thoughts he placed in their heads--thoughts that
perhaps the Jawas could do more than run and hide from persecution by
the Sand People, by the human moisture farmers, or worst of all by the
Imperial stormtroopers who had decided that helpless Jawa forts made
good practice targets for desert assaults. He wondered if someone else
among all the Jawas had realized that Jawas were only weak because they
chose to be weak. None of his people wanted to listen.
Het Nkik turned back to the engines, tearing open an access panel
and adjusting the delicate electronics.
He found it amazing that the Jawas could use all their skill and
imagination in a desperate fight to keep this ancient machine running,
yet they would do nothing to protect themselves or their property if
some antagonist tried to take it.
With the sound of a grating alarm signal, the Jawas in the engine
room squealed with delight. Cinching tight his pungent brown robe, Het
Nkik scurried after the others as they rushed for the lift platforms to
the bridge observation deck. The old elevators groaned, overloaded
with jabbering creatures.
At the pinnacle of the great trapezoidal sandcrawler, fifteen Jawa
crew members clustered around the long, high transparisteel window,
standing on inverted spare-parts boxes to see. All during Tatooine's
long doubleday, Jawa lookouts stood atop makeshift stools, gazing out
upon the baked sands, looking for any scrap of metal or signs of Sand
People or Imperial storm-troopers or hostile smugglers. Upon glimpsing
any potential threat, the pilot would swerve in a different direction
and increase speed, locking down blast doors and shuddering with fear,
hoping that the adversary would not pursue them. Het Nkik had never
heard of even a krayt dragon striking something as big as a Jawa
sandcrawler, but that did not stop the Jawas from living in terror.
Now the other small hooded forms looked down upon the broad
bowl-shaped valley among the dunes.
Het Nkik elbowed his way to one of the overturned metal boxes so
he could step up and look out across the gathering place. Though this
was his third season as an adult on the scavenger hunts, Het Nkik still
found the swap-meet site breathtaking.
He stared across the dazzling sand as the twin suns shone down on
a swarm of sandcrawlers like a herd of metallic beasts gathered in a
circle. The vehicles looked similar, though over the decades Jawa
mechanics had attached modifications, subtle differences in armor and
patchwork.
Originally the sandcrawlers had been huge ore haulers brought to
Tatooine by hopeful human miners who had expected to make a fortune
exploiting 'the baked wastelands; but the mineral content of Tatooine's
desert was as bleak and unappealing as the landscape itself.
The miners had abandoned their ore haulers, and the rodentlike
Jawa scavengers had seized them and put them to use, wandering the Dune
Sea and the Jundland Wastes in search of salvageable debris. After
more than a century, the sandcrawler hulls had been oxidized to a dull
brown and pitted by the abrasive desert winds.
Their sandcrawler had arrived late, as Het Nkik had feared. Two
days ago the pilot had taken them deep into a box-ended offshoot of
Beggar's Canyon where the metal detectors had found a slight trace of
something that might have been the framework of a crashed fighter's
hull. But instead they had found only a few girders rusted away to
flakes of powder. The oxidized debris was worthless, but before the
Jawas could leave the narrow canyon, an early-season sandwhirl had
whipped up, trapping them in a blinding cyclone of sand and wind.
Strapped to the walls of their living cubicles, the Jawas had
waited for the storm to blow over, and then used the powerful engines
to plow through the drifted sand.
Though they had arrived at the swap meet late, there still seemed
to be a bustling business. Far below, other Jawas scurried about like
insects setting up the bazaar.
Het Nkik hoped he could still find something worthwhile to trade.
Standing on their metal stools, the pilot and the chief lookout
called across to each other, discussing the final sandcrawler count.
Het Nkik calculated quickly with his darting yellow eyes and saw
that they were not the last to arrive. One of the other vehicles was
missing. Some of the Jawas around him speculated on what misfortune
might have overtaken their brethren, while others consoled themselves
by pointing out that even if the goods had already been picked over,
they would have a new batch to inspect when the final vehicle arrived.
As the pilot guided the sandcrawler over the lip of the dunes in a
switchback path down into the flat meeting area, the Jawas scurried
back to their living cubicles to prep their own wares. His body wiry
beneath the heavy robes, Het Nkik had no difficulty scrambling down
fifteen decks to reach the stuffy cubicles.
Het Nkik slept in an empty upright shipping pod, rectangular and
scarred with corrosion, barely large enough to step inside and turn
around. During sleeping cycles he buckled himself to the wall and
relaxed against the belt restraints where he could stare at his prized
possessions stashed in pockets, magnetic drawers, and field jars. Now
he grabbed the accumulated credit chips and barter notes he had earned
during their great scavenger hunt and darted toward the main egress
doors.
Faced with the magnitude of the great bazaar, the Jawas worked
together as an efficient team. They had set up their merchandise
dozens of times during their half-year trek, stopping at every moisture
farmer's residence, every smuggler's den, evenJabba the Hutt's palace.
Jawas didn't care where they sold their wares.
Down in the bowels of the sandcrawler, Het Nkik scurried among the
merchandise, tweaking the barely functional droids and servo apparatus.
Jawas had an instinctive feel for machinery and electronics,
knowing how to get a piece of equipment functioning just well enough to
sell it. Let the buyer beware.
The deserts of Tatooine were a veritable graveyard of junk. The
harsh planet had been the site of many galactic battles over the
centuries, and the dry climate preserved all manner of debris from
crashed ships and lost expeditions.
Het Nkik loved to fix and recondition broken things, energized by
his ability to bring wrecked machines back to life. He remembered when
he and his clan mate and best friend Jek Nkik had stumbled upon a
crashed fighter. The small fighter had blown up, leaving only
fragments--nothing even a Jawa could salvage.
But digging deeper, they had found the burned and tangled
components of a droid--an E522-model assassin droid that had seemed
hopelessly damaged, but he andJek Nkik vowed to fix it, secretly
scrounging spare parts from the storehouse in the Jawa fortress.
Their clan leader Wimateeka had suspected the two young boys were
up to something and watched them closely, but that only made them more
determined to succeed. Het Nkik and his friend had spent months in a
secret hideaway deep in the badlands, piecing together tiny components
and servomotors, adding new instruction sets. Finally the assassin
droid stood emasculated of murderous programming, purged of all
hunter-seeker weapons and all initiative to cause violence.
The E522 functioned perfectly, but as little more than an
extremely powerful messenger droid.
Het and Jek Nkik had proudly displayed their triumph to Wimateeka,
who scolded the boys for such folly; no one would want to buy a
reprogrammed assassin droid, he said. But Het Nkik could tell from the
not-quite-controlled rush of scent thav Wimateeka also admired the
young Jawas' brashness. Never again had Het Nkik believed common
wisdom about what Jawas could not do.
He and Jek Nkik had surprised themselves by selling the repaired
assassin droid to the tusk-faced Lady Valarian, Jabba the Hutt's chief
rival on Tatooine--a very risky trade that brought them even more
scolding from Wimateeka. Lady Valarian was a tough customer; and the
one time she had felt cheated, the only remains of the hapless Jawa
traders were a few tattered brown cloaks found in the Great Pit of
Carkoon where the voracious Sarlacc waited to devour anything that came
within reach. Het Nkik had no idea what had happened to their
reprogrammed assassin droid, but since Lady Valarian had not come after
them, he presumed the huge Whiphid smuggler queen must have been
satisfied.
Two years ago, Het andJek Nkik had been separated
upon reaching their age of adulthood, sent out to do scavenger
duty away from the Jawa fortress. In a few years, sandcrawler crews
would swap clan groupings and arrange marriages; but for the time being
Het Nkik saw his friend only during the annual swap meets.
Now he had credit chips in his barter pouch, he had merchandise to
trade--and he looked forward to seeing Jek Nkik.
The sandcrawler ground to a halt in the demarcated area set aside
for their clan subunit. When the cargo doors opened, Jawa teams
scurried to haul out the repaired droids, scraps of polished hull-metal
plates, appliances, and primitive weapons they had found among the
sands. The Jawas' motto was not to lo0k for uses in a salvaged piece
of garbage, but rather to imagine someone else who might find a use for
it.
Jawas bustled about setting up tables, awnings, credit display
readers. Others gave a last burnish to the exo-skeletons of clanking
mechanical servants. A few tried to look nondescript, hiding emergency
repair kits inside their cloaks in the event that their wares
unexpectedly stopped functioning before a sale could be confirmed.
Power droids lumbered down a ramp, little more than boxlike
batteries walking on two accordioned legs. Harvester droids and
'vaporator components were set up and displayed; Jawa salesmen took
their positions proclaiming the quality of their wares. A few lucky
ones rushed off to be the first to snoop among the items for sale or
trade by other clans.
Around the perimeter of the rendezvous flat, Jawa sentries stood
with image enhancers and macrobinoculars, searching for any sign of
approaching threat. At the slightest suspicious sign, the Jawa clans
would pack up their wares in a flash to vanish into the endless dune
wilderness.
Het Nkik looked around but could not locate Jek's sandcrawler.
After finishing setup procedures, he took his turn to look at the
other wares. In the bustling melee, he smelled the stinging sweet
scents of hundreds of Jawas keyed up with excitement. He felt the
baking suns' heat on his brown cloak, he heard the cacophony of
squeaking voices, the rumble of sandcrawler engines.
Electronic motors ratcheted and choked, missing beats until Jawa
mechanics effected quick fixes in hopes that none of the potential
customers would notice. He wandered among the huckster tables, his
excitement soured by the fact thatJek's sandcrawler was not there.
Het Nkik saw his clan leader, old Wimateeka, discussing something
in hushed tones with the clan leader from an outlying Jawa fortress
near the human settlement of Bestine. Het Nkik could smell the
concern, the fear, the indecision. Wimateeka was so alarmed he didn't
even try to mask his odors.
Het Nkik sensed bad news. Wimateeka was whispering, for fear of
sending the rest of the Jawas in a panicked flight. With a feeling of
dread, Het Nkik drove back his impulse to run back to the security of
the sandcrawler and pushed forward to interrupt Wi-mateeka.
"What is it, clan leader?" he asked. "Do you have news of the
last sandcrawler?"
Wimateeka looked at him in surprise, and the other clan leader
chittered in annoyance. Normal protocol among Jawas held that younger
members did not approach their clan leaders directly, but went through
a labyrinth of family connections, passing a message up through higher
and higher relations until finally it reached its target; answers came
back down through a similarly circuitous route. But Het Nkik had a
reputation for sidestepping the rules.
"Clan leader Eet Ptaa was telling me of a Tusken attack on his
clan's fortress," Wimateeka said. "The Sand People broke in and
attacked before the Jawas managed to flee. Our brethren will never
return to their ancestral home. They lost all possessions except what
they could throw into the sandcrawler."
Het Nkik was appalled. "If the Jawas were inside
their fortress, did they not fight? Why did they just flee?"
"Jawas do not fight," Wimateeka said. "We are too
"Because they don't try," Het Nkik said, feeling his temper rise.
His body scent carried his anger to both clan leaders.
"We would have been slaughtered? Eet Ptaa insisted .
"Jawas are too small," Wimateeka said. "Sand People are too
warlike." The old clan leader turned to the other, dismissing Het
Nkik. "This young one has a reputation for speaking without thinking.
We can only hope his wisdom will grow with age."
Het Nkik swallowed his outrage and pushed for an answer to the
question that concerned him most.
"What about my clan brother Jek Nkik? Where is the last
sandcrawler?"
Wimateeka shook his head so that his hood jerked from side to
side. "We have lost all contact with them.
They sent no explanation of their delay. We are concerned.
Perhaps the Sand People attacked them, too."
Het Nkik scowled. "We can't simply run and hide all the time,
especially now that the Imperials are growing more aggressive. We
could all work together. Many small ones can make one large force.
Now that the Jawas have gathered for the swap meet, clan leader,
will you discuss my ideas with them?"
Wimateeka and Eet Ptaa tittered with nervous laughter.
Wimateeka said, "Now you're sounding like one particular human
moisture farmer I know! He wants Jawas and humans and Sand People to
work together and draw maps separating our territories."
"Is that such a bad idea?" Het Nkik asked.
Wimateeka shrugged. "It is not the Jawa way."
Het Nkik felt as if he were talking to a droid with its power pack
removed. Nothing would ever change until the Jawas saw how things
might be different--until someone set an example.
He walked along between the tables, kicking up ac casional billows
of dust. The smell of. roasted hubba gourd made his mouth water.
Looking up, he searched the rim of the dunes for any sign ofJek Nkik's
sand-crawler.
As he passed a table from the Kkak clan, he heard a conspiratorial
whisper, unlike the entrearies by other merchants.
"Het Nkik!" the Kkak clan member said, clicking the hard
consonants and sharpening his name.
He turned and saw the otherJawa reach beneath his table to a
private stash of wares. "Are you Het Nkik?"
he repeated. "Of Wimateeka's clan, the one who is always talking
about empowering the Jawas, about making us fight? Hrar Kkak salutes
you and offers an exchange of wares."
Het Nkik felt a ribbon of cold inside him like a long drink of
rare water. "I am Het Nkik," he said, letting suspicion curl through
his body odor. It was good to let a salesman see healthy skepticism.
"The opportunity for exchange is always welcome, and the time for
opportunity is always now."
"I have something for you," the tradesman said.
"Come closer."
Het Nkik took a step .to the table, and now he was honor bound to
listen to the sales pitch. The Kkak clansman looked around furtively
and then hauled out a blaster rifle, scarred but magnificent. A
Blastech DL-44
model, more power than Het Nkik had ever held in his own hands.
He took a step backward in alarm and then forward in fascination.
"Jawas are forbidden such weapons," he said.
"I have heard rumors of such an Imperial decree from Mos Eisley,
but I have received no confirmation of it," the salesman said. "We of
the Kkak clan have been wandering the far fringes of the Dune Sea, and
sometimes communication of such things takes a long time."
Het Nkik nodded in admiration of the smooth excuse.
"Does it function? Where did you get it?"
"Never mind where I got it."
Het Nkik felt ashamed for his breach of Jawa protocol.
"If I'm going to purchase this . . ." He removed his pouch of
barter credits, knowing instinctively that he had to have the weapon.
He wanted it no matter what the consequences---and the salesman
knew it, too. "I need to know if it works."
"Of course it functions." The salesman popped out the power pack.
"You'll see that the charge is on three-quarters."
Het Nkik saw that it was a standard power pack of the type that
could be used in many sorts of equipment.
"Let me try it in that portable illuminator," he said, "just to
make sure."
Both of them knew Het Nkik could not fire the blaster with all the
otherJawas present. The Kkak salesman slipped the power pack into the
portable illuminator and switched it on. A bright beam stabbed skyward
toward the two suns. "Satisfied?"
Het Nkik nodded. "My resources are meager, though my admiration
of your wares is great."
The two haggled over price for an acceptable amount of time,
though the price didn't change much.
Het Nkik hurried away with only a few barter credits left to his
name--but the proud owner of a highly illegal blaster hidden under his
brown robes. For the first Ume in his life, he felt tall. Very tall.
He spent the rest of the swap meet looking for his comrade Jek
Nkik, but the last sandcrawler never arrived.
After the swap meet disbanded, the sandcrawlers toiled across the
Dune Sea in different directions, laden with new treasures each clan
had obtained through hard bargaining.
After an hour of relentless jabbering, Het Nkik convinced the
pilot to detour along the path Jek Nkik's vehicle might have taken, to
see if they could discover what had befallen the missing Jawas. They
headed toward the outlying moisture farms among which his clan mate's
group often traded.
Het Nkik worked in the engine room, coaxing the faltering reactors
to function for just a few more months until the storm season when the
sandcrawlers would be parked next to Jawa fortresses in the bad-lands.
Wimateeka's old mechanics would have to give the ion pumps and the
reactors a full overhaul. Het Nkik's companions were much more focused
on their tasks now that the swap meet was over.
At about midday, the lookout sounded an alarm. He had seen smoke.
Normally the sight of burning wreckage made Jawas ecstatic at the
possibility of a salvage claim, but Het Nkik felt a deep foreboding;
none of the others noticed the change in his scent.
He left his post and took the lift platform to the bridge. In
front of the wide viewport, he climbed on an overturned equipment box
and stared. The smoke grew thick. His heart sank inside him as if he
had just lost all his possessions in a bad trade.
He recognized the oxidized brown metal of an old ore hauler's
hull, the trapezoidal shape. The sand-crawler had been assaulted,
blasted with heavy-weapons fire, and destroyed.
Het Nkik knew his friend and clan brother was dead.
The lookout chittered in terror, expressing his fear that whatever
had struck the sandcrawler might still be around to attack them. But
the pilot, seeing the enormous wealth of unclaimed salvage, overcame
his uneasiness.
He used the corem unit to transmit a message to Wimateeka's
fortress, establishing his salvage rights.
Greasy tatters of smoke curled up in the air as the sandcrawler
descended toward the destroyed vehicle.
Het Nkik felt a resurgence of anger bubble within him.
He recalled how stormtroopers had assaulted Jawa fortresses for
practice. He thought of Eet Ptaa's settlement raided by the Sand
People. Yet again, someone bigger had attacked helpless Jawas, perhaps
out of spite, or for sport, or for no reason at all.
The only thing Jawas ever did was take their beatings, flee, and
accept their helplessness. Nothing would ever change until somebody
showed them another way.
He thought of the blaster he had purchased at the swap meet.
The pilot brought the sandcrawler to a halt facing the best escape
route if attackers reappeared. The hull doors clanked open, and the
Jawas scrambled out, ducking low for cover but eager to dash toward the
treasure trove of scrap. The pilot scrambled forward to apply a claim
beacon to the ruined sandcrawler, warning away other scavengers. Jawas
swarmed into the half-open door of the wreck, scurrying to see what
treasures had been left undamaged.
Several Jawas squealed as they realized they were not alone by the
damaged sandcrawler. A bearded old human in worn but flowing robes
stood off in the shade beside two droids that he seemed to have claimed
for himself. He had built a small, crackling pyre. Het Nkik sniffed,
smelled burning flesh; the old man had already.
begun the ritual disposal of Jawa carcasses in the purging flames.
The human raised his hands in a placating gesture.
Some of Het Nkik's cousins speculated that the old human had
killed the other Jawas, but Het Nkik saw this was obviously absurd.
A protocol droid walked stiffly beside the old man.
Its gold plating was a bit scratched, and it had a dent in the top
of its head; but all in all the droid seemed to be in good functioning
order. The other droid, a barrel-shaped model, hung back and bleeped
in alarm at seeing the Jawas. Het Nkik automatically began to assess
how much he could get in trade for the droids.
The protocol droid said, "I offer my services as an interpreter,
sir. I am fluent in over six million forms of communication:" The old
man looked calmly at the droid and made a dismissive gesture. "Your
services won't be needed.
I've lived in these deserts far too long not to understand a
little of the Jawas' speech. Greetings!" the old man said in clear
Jawa words. "May you trade well, though I sorrow for your tragedy here
today."
Three Jawas bent close to the rock-strewn ground and spotted
bantha tracks. They set up a wail of panic, suddenly convinced that
the Sand People had declared an all-out war.
But something did not seem right to Het Nkik. He looked at the
tracks, at the crude weapons fire that had struck the most crucial
spots on the enormous ore hauler. He sniffed the air, sorting through
layers of scent from molten and hardened metal to the .burning stench
of bodies, to the heated sand. He detected an undertone of plasteel
armor, fresh lubricants, a mechanized attack, but he could find none of
the musty smells of the Tusken Raiders or the dusty, peppery scent of
their banthas.
Het Nkik pointed this out, and the other Jawas snapped at him,
impatient, as usual, with his contradictory views. But the old man
spoke up for him. "Your little brother is right. This was an Imperial
attack, not a strike by the Sand People."
The others chittered in disbelief, but the old man continued.
"The Imperial occupying forces would like nothing better than to
see a war among Sand People and Jawas and human moisture farmers. You
must not allow yourselves to believe their deceptions."
"Who are you?" Het Nkik asked him. "How do you know our funeral
customs, and why have you claimed no salvage for yourself?."
The old man said, "I know of your customs because I try to
understand the other people who share my desert home. I know the Jawas
believe that all their possessions are forfeit to the clan at death,
but your bodies are borrowed from the womb of the sands, and their
elements must return to pay the debt you owe for your temporary life."
Some of the Jawas gasped at his eloquent recital of their own
intensely private beliefs.
"If you understand us so well," Het Nkik said brashly, "then you
know that no Jawa would ever strike back at a Tusken Raider, even for
such a blatant assault as this. The Jawas are all cowards. Nothing
will make them fight."
The old man smiled indulgently, and his pale blue eyes seemed to
bore through Het Nkik's robe, seeing deep into the hooded shadow of his
face. "Perhaps a coward is only a fighter who has not yet been pushed
far enough--or one who has not been shown the way."
"General Kenobi," the golden droid interrupted, "Master Luke has
been gone far too long. He should have had ample time to get to his
home and back by
now."
The old man turned to the Jawas. "Your salvage claim is safe
here, but you must warn the others of the tricks the Imperials are
playing. The garrison in Mos Eisley has just been reinforced with many
more storm-troopers.
They are searching . . . for something they will not find."
The two droids stood huddled together.
"But the Prefect and the Imperial Governor will continue to foster
turmoil between the Jawas and the Tusken Raiders." Then the human
turned and looked directly at Het Nkik. "The Jawas are not
powerless~if they do not wish to be."
Het Nkik felt a lance of fear and realization strike through him.
A memory returned to him like a stun bolt. He recalled with the
vividness of a double desert sunset a time--less than a year before his
coming of age--when he had scanned a crashed T-16 speeder out in the
rocky twists of an unnamed canyon. Wanting to claim the salvage for
himself, Het Nkik had not asked for Jawa assistance, not even from Jek
Nkik.
When he found the ruined vehicle, he spotted a young human male
sprawled dead on the rocks, thrown there by the crash. Apparently, the
T-16's repulsorlifts had been unable to counteract a sudden thermal
updraft; the landspeeder had crashed and skidded, leaving a knotted
tongue of smoke in the otherwise empty air.
Het Nkik had pawed at the mangled controls, ignoring the broken
body that had already begun to attract moisture-seeking insects from
crevices in the rocks. He had suddenly looked up to discover six young
and vicious Tusken Raiders, their faces swaddled with rags, hissing
through breath filters. They were angry, ready for a heroic adventure
they could tell about around the story fires throughout their
adulthood. The Sand People raised their sharpened gaffi sticks and
uttered their ululating cries.
Het Nkik knew he was about to die. He could not possibly fight
even one of the Sand People. He was unarmed. He was alone. He was
small and defenseless --a weak, cowardly Jawa.
But as the Sand People attacked, Het Nkik had found the T-16's
still-functioning security system, and triggered it. The sonic alarm
sent out a pulsating screech loud enough to curdle dewback blood.
Star-tied by the noise, the Raiders had fled.
Het Nkik had stood trembling in his brown robes, paralyzed with
fear and astonishment. It took him many moments to realize that he
alone had scared off the Tusken Raiders. A weak Jawa had driven back
an attack by bloodthirsty Sand People!
' It had been a warming revelation to him: Given the right
equipment and the right attitude, Jawas could be different.
And now he had a blaster rifle.
"I know we are not powerless," Het Nkik said to the old man who
continued to watch him, "but my clan members do not realize it."
"Perhaps they will," the old man said.
As the otherJawas scrambled over the wrecked sand-crawler, Het
Nkik knew what he had to do. He went to the pilot and forfeited his
entire share of salvage in exchange for a single functional vehicle
that would take him alone across the desert to the human space-port .
.
. where the Imperials were headquartered.
Het Nkik's sand vehicle broke down twice on his trek to the
sprawling, squalid city of Mos Eisley. Standing under the pounding
heat of the suns as the burning wind licked under his hood, he managed
to use his.
skill and meager resources to get the vehicle limping along again
over the rocky ground.
Inside his cloak the DL-44 blaster felt incredibly heavy, cold and
hot at the same time. The weight inside his chest seemed even heavier,
but burning anger drove him on.
On the dust-whipped streets of Mos Eisley, Her Nkik kept the sand
vehicle functioning until he spotted another Jawa--a member of a
distant clan who had been in town for some time--and offered the
used-up vehicle for sale. Though he drove a poor bargain, Het Nkik did
not expect to live long enough to spend the credits; but his nature
forbade him giving anything away.
On foot, Het Nkik trudged through the rippling midday heat,
clutching the blaster close to his chest, looking at languid creatures
dozing in adobe doorways waiting for the day to cool. The streets were
nearly deserted. He walked and walked, feeling his feet burn; the pale
dust caked his garment.
He knew what he intended to do, but he didn't quite know how to go
about it. He had a blaster. He had an obsession. But he had yet to
find a target--the right target.
He noted an increased Imperial presence in the city, guards
stationed by docking bays and the customs center; but no more than two
at a time. Het Nkik knew that life was cheap in Mos Eisley, and
killing a single Imperial trooper would not cause enough uproar. He
had to go out in such a blaze of glory and heroism that the Jawas would
sing of him for years to come.
In the town center he found the large wreck of the Dowager Queen
spacecraft, a mess of tangled girders, falling-apart hull plates, and
all manner of strange creatures, vagrants, and scavengers lurking
inside the hull.
To Het Nkik it looked like the perfect place for an ambush.
His instincts told him to feel helpless, but he firmly squashed
those thoughts. He had the strength, if only he could find the will to
make an example of himself.
It could change the lives of Jawas forever . . . or he could just
get himself foolishly killed.
Panic welled up within him as he considered the folly of an
insignificant Jawa planning something so preposterous. He wanted to
hide in a shadowy alley.
He could wait for darkness, scurry out of the city and find
someplace where he could be safe and cower with the other Jawas, afraid
of every threatening noise.
Afraid to fight . . .
Bracing himself, Het Nkik slipped inside the bustling cantina
right across the dirt thoroughfare from the wreck of the Dowager Queen.
Conflicting scents overwhelmed him: strange smells of a thousand
different patron species, chemicals that served as stimulants for an
untold number of biochemistries, the smell of amorous intentions, of
restrained violence, of anger and laughter, food and sweat. Strains of
music drifted out, a mixture of noises chained to a melody.
. He had credit chips. He could get a stimulant, something to
help him focus his thoughts, brace up his courage.
Her Nkik moved with quick steps down the stairs, hugging the
shadows, trying not to be noticed. Deep inside the folds of his
garment he gripped the precious blaster. He placed a credit chit on
the bar counter, straining to reach the high surface. He had to repeat
his order three times before the harried human bartender understood
what he wanted. Nursing his drink, Her Nkik hunched over a tiny
private table, smelling rich volatile chemicals wafting from the
surface of the liquid. The scent was just as intoxicating as the drink
itself.
He tried to plan, but no thoughts came to him.
Should he resort to a spontaneous action, an angry gesture, rather
than a methodically orchestrated scenario? His plan required no
finesse, merely a large number of targets and the element of surprise.
He thought of the burning Jawa corpses at the wrecked sandcrawler
and the old human hermit who had given him the courage.
He felt a warm rush of surprise as the old hermit entered the
cantina with a young moisture farmer. The bartender made them leave
their droids outside; at another time Het Nkik might have plotted a
raid to steal the two unguarded droids, but not now. He had more
important things on his mind.
The old hermit didn't notice him, but Het Nkik took his appearance
as a-sign, an omen of strength. He gulped his drink and sat up
watching the old man talk to a spacer at the bar then to a Wookiee, and
when the moisture-farmer boy got into trouble with one of the other
patrons, the old man came to the rescue with the most spectacular
weapon Het Nkik had ever seen, a glowing shaft of light that cut
through flesh as if it were smoke.
Seeing the lightsaber made him suddenly doubt his mere blaster.
He pulled out the weapon and held it on his lap under the table,
touching the smooth metal curves, the deadly buttons, the power pack
snapped into the end. He was startled by another creature joining him
at his table: a furry, long-snouted Ranat who smelled of dust and
eagerness to make a trade.
Jawas and Ranats often competed with each other in the streets of
Mos Eisley. The Jawas tended to roam the empty areas of sand, while
Ranats stayed within populated areas. They traded at times, but
generally viewed each other with suspicion.
"Reegesk salutes Het Nkik and offers an exchange of tales or
wares," the Ranat said in the formalized greeting.
Het Nkik was in no mood to talk, but he made the appropriate
response. Sipping his drink, listening to the Ranat chatter about his
wares, he tried to find a way to gather his own courage. But when the
Ranat offered him a Tusken battle talisman, he suddenly sat up and
listened.
The Sand People were great warriors; they fought creatures many
times their size, slaughtered entire settlements, tamed wild banthas.
Perhaps a Tusken charm could give him the advantage he needed
after all. And what did he have to lose?
The Ranat seemed to realize how much he wanted the talisman, so
Het Nkik offered a high price--provided he could pay a few credits now
and the rest later --knowing full well that he would never be around
for the second installment.
Against his better judgment, Het Nkik passed his blaster
surreptitiously under the table so the Ranat could look at it. With
the talisman in his hand and the blaster rifle under his fingertips,
facing the burning intensity in the Ranat's eyes, Het Nkik felt
inspiration return, felt his need for revenge. He thought again of his
clan brother Jek Nkik, how the two of them had done the almost
impossible, repairing the assassin droid--and then he remembered the
smoking wreckage of the sandcrawler.
Imperials had done that. Imperials had attacked .other Jawa
fortresses. Imperials continued to tighten their grip on Tatooine.
Perhaps his gesture would stir up not only the Jawas, but bring
about a general revolution. Then the planet could be free again. That
would be worth any sacrifice, would it not?
A loud explosion and a sudden commotion across the cantina
startled him. He wanted to duck under the table, but he whirled to see
a human sitting at a booth.
Smoke curled up from a hole in the table in front of him and a
strong-smelling Rodian lay slumped on the table. Het Nkik was
paralyzed for a moment in terror, though the Ranat seemed amused at the
Rodian's death. Het Nkik stared as the human slowly got up, avoiding
the dead bounty hunter and tossing a coin at the bar.
Life was indeed cheap in Mos Eisley, but he wanted to sell his own
for a high price. Other Jawas in the cantina scrambled to claim the
corpse; at another time he too might have fought for his share of the
remains, but he let his brothers take what they needed.
He looked down to see the Ranat fondling his DL-44
blaster, and Het Nkik snatched it away. He sensed determination
and enthusiasm pouring through his muscles.
The intoxicant buzzed through his brain. The
weapon felt light and powerful in his hands.
He would never be more prepared.
Without saying good-bye to the Ranat, he took the blaster,
squeezed the Tusken battle talisman, and scuttled out of the cantina,
across the bright streets to the wreckage of the Dowager Queen.
As soon as he was there, Het Nkik knew he had been meant to do
this. Pressing the blaster against his side, he scrambled up the hot
metal hull plates of the wreck, finding handholds and footholds to get
himself to a higher position, a good place to fire from.
His pulse pounded. His head sang. He knew this was his time.
His entire life had been focused toward this moment. He found a
shaded place. A good spot for his ambush.
A line of stormtroopers on patrol rounded the corner, marching
toward the cantina as if searching for something. They marched in
lockstep, crushing dust under their white heels, intent on their goal.
Sunlight gleamed from their polished armor. Their weapons clicked
and rattled as they walked, their helmets stared straight ahead. They
walked quickly, coming closer and closer.
He counted eight in a row. Yes, eight of them. If he, a single
weak Jawa, could mow down eight Imperial stormtroopers, that would be
the stuff of legends. No Jawa could forget that their brother, Het
Nkik, had struck such a blow against the Empire. If all Jawas could do
the same thing, the Empire would flee from Tatooine.
He clutched the blaster. He bent down. He watched the
stormtroopers approach. His glowing yellow eyes focused on them, and
he tried to determine the best plan of attack. He would strike the
leader first, then the ones in the middle, then behind, then back to
the front in a sweeping motion. There would be a shower of blaster
bolts. It would take them a moment to discover his location. For some
of them, that would be a moment too long.
There was even the ridiculously small chance that he could kill
them all before they managed a shot in his direction. In the ruined
ship he had a bit of cover.
Maybe he could survive this. He could live to strike again and
again. Perhaps he could even become a Jawa leader, a warlord. Het
Nkik, the great general!
Stormtroopers stepped in front of the ship, looking toward the
cantina, not even seeing him. Arrogant and confident, they ignored the
Dowager Queen.
Het Nkik gripped the blaster. His knees were ready to explode,
springloaded, waiting, waiting until he couldn't stand it a moment, an
instant longer--and uttered a chittering ululation of rage and revenge
in a conscious imitation of a Tusken cry. In his life's single moment
of glory, so close to the end, Het Nkik leaped up and swung the blaster
rifle at his targets.
Before they could even turn in his direction, he squeezed the
firing button--again, and again, and again.
Trade Wins:
The Ranat's Tale
by Rebecca Moesta
Dodging a pair of potentially meddlesome storm-troopers, Reegesk
clutched his treasures and scurried with rodentlike efficiency into the
narrow alley beside his favorite drinking establishment in Mos Els-ley.
Ah, yes, his favorite. Not because their drinks or performers
were of superior quality, but because he could always find someone
there who wanted---or needed~to make a trade. And in the small Ranat
tribe that scratched out a larger place for itself each day on this
arid outpost world, that was, after all, his job: Reegesk the Trader,
Reegesk the Barterer, Reegesk the Procurement Specialist Par
Excellence.
Whiskers twitching with satisfaction, he sat against a sun-washed
wall, curled his whip-hard tail loosely around him, and opened his
bundle to examine the day's prizes. An oven-hot breeze carried the not
unpleasant scents of decaying garbage and animal droppings to Reegesk
from farther down the alley. He had started the morning with little
more than a handful of polished rocks and a few tidbits of information
and had made a series of successful trades to collect the much more
valuable items that he now spread out in the dust beside him. A small
antenna, some fine cloth with very few holes in it, a bundle of wires
for the tiny 'vaporator his tribe was secretly building. These he
would keep.
But he had more bargaining to do yet. He still needed many
things: a power source to complete the bootleg 'vaporator unit that
could make his tribe less dependent on local moisture farmers, a length
or two of rope, scraps of metal for making tools or weapons.
From his perspective, he always managed to trade up. Fortunately,
he still had a few items left to trade from his most recent bargain: a
cracked stormtrooper helmet, a packet of field rations, and a Tusken
battle talisman carved from bantha horn. All this for only some
day-old information and a discarded restraining bolt. He supposed the
heat and dust could dull anyone's judgment. Perhaps the Imperial
officer--a Lieutenant Alima, who was definitely not a local--should
have paid more attention to the deal. Well, the officer had gotten
what he wanted. Reegesk shrugged.
Of course, the old warning to buyers was valid: Always pay close
attention during a trade. Less scrupulous traders tricked customers or
tried to convince them to make useless purchases, but not Reegesk.
This, despite the "semisentient" status the Empire had conferred
on the Ranat race, had gained him a reputation on the streets of Mos
Eisley for being shrewd but fair.
In fact, aside from the bothersome local storm-troopers, there
were few potential customers in the port who would refuse a trade with
Reegesk if he had just what they "needed."
Reegesk's furry snout quirked into a dry, incisor-baring smile.
Well, he knew what he needed, and he knew where to conduct his
next trade.
The interior of the cantina was relatively cool, and the dimness
was a relief from the moisture-stealing intensity of Tatooine's twin
suns. The air smelled of musky damp fur and baked scales, of
nic-i-tain smoke, of space suits that had not been decontaminated in
months, and of intoxicants from dozens of different worlds.
Reegesk stepped to the bar, ordered a cup of Rydan brew from Wuher
the bartender, and scanned the room for a likely customer. A
Devaronian? No, Reegesk had nothing to interest him. One of the Bith
musicians who was just taking a break? Perhaps. Ah'. Reegesk's
glance fell on the familiar figure of a Jawa.
Perfect.
Reegesk pulled the hood of his cloak loosely over his head as he
started toward the Jawa's small table. Jawas were private folk who
believed in being fully covered, even indoors, and in Reegesk's
experience, finding common ground with the customer always helped a
trade. He was relieved to note by the scent as he approached the table
that he knew the Jawa, Het Nkik, and had traded with him before.
When Reegesk saw the bandleader Figrin Da'n signaling an end to
the musicians' break, he hurried to get Het Nkik's attention before the
next song could begin. "Reegesk salutes Het Nkik and offers an
exchange of tales or wares," he said, giving his most formal trader
greeting to the Jawa, who seemed preoccupied and had not yet noticed
Reegesk's presence.
Her Nkik did not react immediately, but when he
did look up, Reegesk thought he saw a look of relief, as if the
Jawa were happy to be distracted from his thoughts. "The opportunity
for exchange is always welcome, and the time for opportunity is always
now," Het Nkik replied with equal formality, but the pitch of his voice
was higher than usual and his eyes darted furtively about the room.
"May both traders receive the better bargain."
Reegesk finished the ritual greeting with irony, knowing full well
that Jawas were seldom concerned with whether their customers were
satisfied. Well, that was not his way. Cunning as he was, Reegesk
traded only with customers who needed (or believed they needed) what he
had, and he bartered away only items the tribe did not need.
Reegesk's nose wrinkled briefly as he tried to identify the scent
that hung about Het Nkik. Sensing what he could only interpret as
impatience or anticipation, Reegesk decided against any further delay
and swung smoothly into the trading process. He began with glowing
descriptions of the bargains he had made that morning. Strangely, Het
Nkik was not very enthusiastic as he spoke of his own trading and
showed Reegesk a charged Blastech DL-44 blaster in excellent condition.
Reegesk did not need to feign either admiration or jealousy over
the trade; since it was still illegal to arm a Ranat in the Outer Rim
Territories, it was difficult for Reegesk to bargain for anything that
might be used as a weapon. And the DL-44 was a particularly fine
weapon.
Seeming to take little notice of Reegesk's approval of his
bartering, Het Nkik allowed the trading to move to an alternating
exchange of increasingly valuable information.
The two traders were so engrossed in their interchange that
Reegesk did not notice the Rodian bounty hunter until he had bumped
backward into their table. An obnoxious new arrival named Greedo.
Reegesk made a grab for his brew and caught it as it teetered
precariously at the edge of the table. He felt his nostrils contract
in annoyance, as they would at an unpleasant odor.
Greedo turned, apparently ready to excuse himself for his mistake,
but he stopped when he noticed the table's occupants. The greenish
tinge of his skin deepened and the lips on his snout formed a sneer as
he looked at Reegesk. "Womp!" he spat out, giving the table another
sharp shove as he delivered the epithet, and then moved off in the
general direction of the bar.
Reegesk bristled, hurling venomous thoughts after the
sour-smelling green-skinned bounty hunter. The outrage of it! The
insult. After all, Ranats were no relation whatsoever to the
nonsentient Tatooine womp rats! Greedo was one person he would not
mind seeing cheated in a trade.
When he was calm again, the trading moved to the next stage and
Reegesk began discreetly displaying the items he was willing to trade.
Her Nkik showed a mild interest in the stormtrooper helmet, but
when Reegesk brought out the bantha horn carved in the shape of a
Tusken battle talisman, Her Nkik's excitement was unmistakable.
Reegesk, quickly searching his memory for anything he knew about
such objects, managed to remember something of interest. The Sand
People, he explained, believed a battle talisman brought them the
physical strength of a bantha in battle and gave them the courage to
face death, if need be. Het Nkik asked to hold the talisman, turning
it over and over in his hands, uttering exclamations in a dialect
Reegesk did not recognize.
Reegesk hid a triumphant smile. This would be almost too easy.
It was unusual for a Jawa to show so much enthusiasm for an item
being traded, since it might skew the bartering to indicate that the
item had value to him. Reegesk closed in to begin the negotiation.
"The talisman is indeed of great value. The exchange must measure
up to its worth."
Her Nkik's reverent expression turned to one of chagrin.
"I have little with me today that is suitable for this exchange."
Reegesk's heart began to beat rapidly as he smelled his chances
improving. The Jawa definitely wanted to make a trade. Reegesk slyly
lowered his eyes to indicate the blaster that Het Nkik held in his lap,
hidden by the table. "The time for opportunity is always now."
The Jawa's hands clutched convulsively at the weapon, and for a
moment he seemed at a loss. "I cannot meet such a high price," he
answered carefully, "... today." His eyes did not meet Reegesk's. He
negotiated for a while longer before finally agreeing to an amount far
higher than Reegesk had expected to get.
"You know that I am a skilled trader," Het Nkik said.
"Here are a few credits to show my good faith. If you will give
me until morning, I will meet your price."
Success! But could the Jawa be trusted? Reegesk ordered himself
to use caution. "Then I will bring you the talisman tomorrow morning,"
he said in a calm voice. He did not want to give away his own
impatience, and he hoped the Jawa could not smell it.
But the Jawa was firm. "No. I must have the battle talisman
today." Het Nkik's voice grew agitated as he spoke. "I will pay the
rest in the morning, but I cannot wait until tomorrow." He stopped, as
if searching for a way to convince Reegesk of his serious intentions.
At last he said, "If you wait until morning, I will let you have
the use of this blaster."
Reegesk could feel his eyes light with intensity at the very
thought of having such a fine weapon.
Het Nkik's eyes burned into Reegesk's as he nodded to the weapon
he held beneath the table. "Yes, I will let you hold it and use it. I
am not afraid to arm a Ranat.
Let me leave with the talisman today, and you will have what you
need by morning."
Unable to pull away from the fervor of the Jawa's glowing gaze,
Reegesk reached out one paw to touch the weapon. Did he dare take a
risk on the honor of this Jawa? Always pay close attention during a
trade, he reminded himself. Finally, he came to a decision.
At that moment, a commotion broke out across the cantina from
them. Light and sparks filled the air, along with the sharp smell of
singed flesh. When the air finally cleared, Reegesk was able to make
out the form of Greedo the bounty hunter slumped over an otherwise
deserted table.
Dead? Yes, definitely dead. This was indeed a lucky day for
Reegesk. He felt a surge of excitement and his whiskers quivered with
glee. "Yes. I accept the trade," he said to the Jawa, who was still
staring at the scene across the room. "Keep the talisman for now.
Bring me the price we agreed on by morning."
Het Nkik suddenly turned his attention back to Reegesk. Without a
word, he pulled the blaster away from Reegesk's paw and stalked away.
"Both traders received the better bargain this day," .Reegesk
called after Het Nkik, but the Jawa did not seem to hear him.
Reegesk smiled as he watched Het Nkik walk with such confidence
toward the entrance of the cantina.
He was pleased to have made such a fair deal. TheJawa threw
challenging glances around the room as he left with the DL-44 concealed
beneath his cloak, one hand fingering the precious battle talisman.
Reegesk emptied the remaining brew from his cup and stood to
leave, inhaling deeply. The smell of the scorched Rodian bounty hunter
still hung in the air.
Very satisfactory, he thought with a contented sigh.
Moments later, he stepped back out of the cantina into the parched
streets of Mos Eisley. Reegesk patted the pocket inside his cloak that
held the power pack he had slipped from Het Nkik's blaster. They had
both gotten the trade they wanted today. He had paid very close
attention.
And now Reegesk had the perfect power supply for the Ranat tribe's
new 'vaporator.
When the Desert Wind Turns: The Stormtrooper's Tale by Doug
Beason
I
t took Davin Felth all of thirty seconds on the military training
planet Carida to decide that serving in the Emperor's armed forces was
not as romantic as he had thought.
Davin hoisted his deep blue duffel bag containing his worldly
possessions onto his back and queued up with the rest of the hundred
and twenty other recruits.
They filled the Gamma-class shuttle's narrow steel car-' ridor.
Davin was nearly overwhelmed by the diverse cut of clothes,
colors, and unusual smells that wafted from the youths. Nervous
chatter ran up and down the line of eighteen-year-olds, most of whom
were away from home for the very first time. A blast of noise
reverberated through the shuttle and the door to the outside sighed
open.
Fresh air tumbled in, untouched by atmospheric scrubbers present
on the ship; unfiltered light splashed against the gleaming deck,
reflecting down the hallway, and for a glorious thirty seconds it
seemed that all the hype and rumors about Carida, the planet used by
the Emperor's own guard as a training base for his military, were
suddenly magnified. This must be the most exciting place for a ship of
eager eighteen-year-olds to begin their new lives.
And then the shouting started.
It was as if a bomb had exploded amidst the nervous group of
draftees. Chaos, yelling, confusion, and a hundred thousand demands
were suddenly thrust upon Davin from all directions. Officers in
olive-gray uniforms or white stormtrooper armor swarmed all over them;
the recruits stood at attention, rigidly trying to emulate statues as
the officers moved to within millimeters of their faces, screaming
demands.
Davin's only thought was to try and survive, to get out of this
mess alive--he couldn't think, and every time he tried to answer a
question that was screamed at him, someone else would thrust their face
next to his and demand something else.
Davin started yelling, not caring what he said, or whom he was
speaking to, but .only reacting, attempting to look as though he were
busy answering someone else's question. He raised his voice and
shouted at the top of his lungs--and the ploy seemed to work. With all
the confusion that surrounded him, with a storm-trooper major screaming
in his face to try and disorient him, he succeeded in diverting
attention from himself. But this was only the beginning of six months
of hellish training that would mold Davin into one of the Emperor's own
elite troops.
After what seemed hours, Davin and the rest of the recruits were
led running down a pathway to the barracks.
A huge prehistoric-looking man waved them to stand at one side of
the passageway. The recruits scampered in fear. They lined up against
the wall and snapped to attention. The burly man threw them supplies:
generic dark uniforms, helmets, socks, underwear, handkerchiefs,
emergency equipment, medpac kit, survival gear, and personal-cleansing
equipment.
Davin accepted the supplies, but was too afraid to ask what he
should do with them. One small voice, attached to a man who towered
over the rest of the recruits like a solarflower grown in rich
Gamorrean dirt, said meekly, "I . . . I can't take this anymore!"
Instantly, Imperial uniformed bodies swarmed over the man. A
voice shouted, "You people--over here!
Move it!"
Bending backward under his load of supplies, Davin staggered to
join a line of recruits who looked like piles of crawling military
storehouses. The group was led away, shown to their bunks. Davin
deposited his blue duffel bag and armload of material on a cot. Two
other recruits shared the room with him. Davin grinned tiredly and
introduced himself. "Hi, I'm Davin Felth."
The first man shook his hand firmly. "Geoff f'Tuhns." He took a
quick look around the corner and held out a bag of greasy-looking food.
"Want a bite?"
Davin glanced in the bag and felt his stomach flip.
"No, thanks."
Tall, big-boned, and sporting a head of flaming red hair, Geoff
did not look as if he could ever fit inside stormtrooper armor.
Looking once more around the corner, he sighed and stuffed a
handful of food in his mouth. "If you brought any food, you'd better
eat it now.
I managed to hide this from them," he said, "but they threatened
punishment if they caught me with any more food."
"Mychael Ologat," said the second man. "What do you think of all
this?" As small as Geoff was tall, Mychael looked as though he could
fit in Davin's duffel bag; but his muscles rippled underneath his taut
skin.
Dayin was still shell-shocked from the reception getting off the
Gamma-class shuttle. They hadn't been on the military training planet
for more than an hour, but with all the supplies he had been issued and
the amount of ground they had covered, at Davin's normal pace it would
have taken over a week to get these same things done. He shook his
head. "They told me the military would change my life, but this is
crazy. I expected to get some time to look around."
"Don't count on it," said Geoff, speaking around a mouthful of
food. "We've been here since yesterday, and from what I've heard, this
is only the welcoming committee. The really tough stuff comes later."
Mychael's eyes grew wide. He stood facing the door, and he
managed to blurt out, "Uh-oh--here comes trouble."
Geoff dropped the bag of munchies and tried to kick it underneath
his bed, but he slipped and the bag slid to the center of the room.
Davin turned to see one of the largest men he had ever seen in his
life standing just outside the door.
Dressed in antigrav shoes, black shorts, a white skin-shirt, and
wearing the ominous white helmet of an Imperial stormtrooper, the man
looked like a massive pillar. He pointed at the bag of food. His
voice had a tinny sound as it came over the speakers implanted in the
side of the battle helmet.
"Your caloric intake is strictly regulated--whose contraband food
is that?"
Davin heard Geoff gulp; from what he'd said, he couldn't afford to
get caught. But no one had told him it was contraband! He spoke up.
"It's mine."
The stormtrooper turned to face Davin. "You are new here."
"That's right."
"The correct response is "yes, sir.' You will learn--or you will
fail. Consider that your only warning." He smashed the bag with his
foot, then turned to include the other two. "You sand slime have two
minutes to change into your physical training gear and get out here
with the rest of your squad---or your butt is mine.
Now move !"
The three Imperial recruits scrambled over each other as clothing
flew across the room.
"Thanks, Davin," Geoff gasped out as he struggled into a coverall.
Davin could only grunt as he hopped on one foot; he attempted to
pull on thigh-high running boots. Despite the hectic pace, the next
two minutes were Davin's last chance to relax during the six months of
training.
Fifteen pounds lighter but immeasurably stronger, Davin adjusted
to the breakneck training routine. The recruits spent less than five
hours a night in their room, falling exhausted to sleep after day upon
day of relentless training: physical fitness runs, daily expeditions
via suborbital transport to the southern ice fields for winter
training, a week-long expedition to the barren Forgofshar Desert for
survival training, a three-day battle against nature in the equatorial
rain forest . . .
Davin soon lost track of the days.
He and his roommates soon learned to get up before their "wake-up
call" came in the morning, when their Imperial stormtrooper sergeant
would kick open their door and blast his sonic whistle. Davin would
wake up a good half hour before reveille. He and the others would
scurry about the small dorm room, cleaning and dressing, only to hop
beneath their sheets for the early-morning wake-up ritualqthey had seen
what happened to the other recruits when they were caught Out of their
bunks before reveille.
Running out into the hallway, Davin would snap to attention,
waiting to hear what the expedition of the day would entail. He never
knew where he might be sent.
It was the morning Davin was in place in the hallway
nearly thirty seconds before the others that changed his life. It
didn't start out with a fanfare, simply: "Dayin, drive your butt over
to the AT-AT detachment at the end of the hall. The rest of you
sandworms fall in for inspection!"
As the rest of his squad stood at attention, Geoff punched him in
the side and whispered, "Good luck, hotshotrowe're going to miss you!"
Davin didn't have time to answer, as the Imperial trooper in
charge of the AT-AT detachment was already yelling for Davin to hurry
up. "Twenty more seconds and we'll drop you off in a reactor core!"
Davin joined the group of recruits at the end of the hall; he
recognized several of his classmates as those who had consistently
finished near the top of the class with him. They exchanged glances
with one another, but they were much too sharp to speak and bring down
the wrath of their drill instructor.
Lining up, they were marched out of the dorm area to the parade
field. Glass and syngranite buildings soared above their heads; the
parade field was surrounded by ultramodern buildings. Dozens of robot
observer eyes hovered overhead, keeping watch over the military base.
Situated in the middle of the circle of classroom buildings, a
sleek executive transport ship squatted on the grass, its door open for
boarding. The recruits were hurried in as the all-clear signal alerted
the pilot for takeoff.
As Davin settled into his seat, a Holo appeared in the middle of
the aisle. Tall and gaunt with sunken eyes, the holographic image of
the man was dressed in the fight black uniform of a ground commander.
The image spoke with forcefulness.
"I am Colonel Veers, commander of the Emperor's AT-AT forces. You
trooper candidates have been selected for your ability to learn quickly
and put the requirements of the mission over your personal needs.
No matter how superior our space forces may be, it is the
brilliance of the ground troops, ferreting out the enemy from their
dug-in encampments, that will win this conflict. The ground forces are
the true backbone needed for a total victory--and you have been
selected to man the flagship of the ground troops: the All Terrain
Armored Transport, the AT-AT!"
Colonel Veers's image was replaced by a four-legged metal
behemoth, lumbering across rugged terrain. It moved in mere seconds
distances that would have taken men on foot an hour to traverse. Twin
blaster cannons fired laser pulses from the vehicle's metallic head;
two uniformed crewmen could be seen in the command module in the
AT-AT's head. The recruits in the executive transport drew in their
breath in a collective gasp at the sight.
Colonel Veers's voice continued. "You will undergo six weeks of
intensive training in the virtual reality simulators before being
allowed in the AT-AT even as an observer. If you pass the qualifying
phase of the test, you will be allowed to accompany the AT-AT in one of
my combat battalions. Good luck to you all, but take a good look
around you fewer than one person in ten will successfully complete this
arduous training." He scanned the room as though he could look into
each recruit's face. Davin sat rigid in his seat and tried to meet the
Holo's eye, but the image dissolved from view.
A murmur ran through the ship. The recruits leaned over their
seats and whispered excitedly to one another.
The man next to Davin turned, his face flushed.
"An AT-AT! Can you believe we've been picked for the chance to
command one of them?"
The image of the monstrous vehicle stepping across the rocky
terrain still burned in Davin's mind.
Through all of his training experiences, nothing had sparked the
fire in him as had the sight of the AT-AT. It was almost as if his
destiny had been unfolded right inside the sleek executive transport.
"Yeah," whispered Davin, "and I'm going to make sure I'm not one
of those nine recruits who washes out."
The AT-AT control room seemed large to Davin Felth.
Multicolored touch-sensitive controls covered the walls and
ceiling; the rectangular viewport at the front of the control room was
as tall as Davin. Two swivel chairs sat at the front of the viewport,
allowing the pilot and co-pilot access to all the controls, yet giving
them a spectacular view of below. They were a good five hundred meters
above the ground in the AT-AT control "head," docked at the training
base.
Davin felt a shortness of breath, as if he had walked into some
sacrosanct place; but it was more than that.
He slowly stepped forward and ran a hand over the right-hand seat.
He felt rich dewback leather--only the
best for Colonel Veers's recruits!
"Do you like it?"
The voice startled Davin, and the past months of training made him
cringe at the blast he knew was to come. "Yes, sir."
The instructor joined Davin and spoke quietly, as if not to
disturb Davin's sense of awe. "I don't think I'll ever get used to the
feeling I get when I climb aboard."
He glanced at Davin. "And that's one of the attributes we look
for in our recruits, Davin Felth. If they do not respect the AT-AT,
then they approach their assignment as just another duty. They might
as well stay in their virtual reality chamber, playing like children.
We only want the best to pilot the AT-AT, because when something
goes wrong that you can't fix by VR, then it's the best who survive."
He reached up and ran his fingers over an array of lights. A low
sound thrummed through the floor as the instruments powered up. The
instructor swung the chair around and flicked at the lights in front of
him.
"Do you want to take her out?"
"Yes, sir" said Davin. He eagerly climbed into the copilot's seat
and waited for instructions. When none came, he remembered the lessons
he had been taught in the VR simulator, and quickly helped the
instructor with the checklist. Within minutes they were ready to ease
the AT-AT out of the docking bay.
Davin watched the screens inlaid above the viewport; he saw images
broadcast from the docking area of the AT-AT from all different angles.
In the seat next to Davin, the instructor effortlessly ran through
the sequence to back the AT-AT away from its berth. Although the AT-AT
was completely controlled by artificial intelligence, Davin appreciated
for the first time the enormity of the task of running a machine that
held nearly as many moving parts as the human body. The human presence
on board served as a foolproof backup.
"Let's take her up into the hills," said the instructor.
"I want to run through some target practice. I'll let Base know
our call sign is Landkiller One."
The view outside of the viewport raced across the molecular-thick
window as the AT-AT lumbered away from the base. They quickly left
behind the syngranite buildings and roads and turned into the rugged
hillside.
The ride was smooth. The AT-AT stepped across chasms so deep
Davin couldn't see the bottom. They climbed the ridge and dropped down
to the valley on the other side; boulders littered the hillside. They
were in the middle of a barren wasteland. Sheer rock rose up on one
side of them, and in the distance, Davin saw red and silver rock
formations jutting into the air, looking like a forest of multicolored
needles. Davin glanced at the clock---they had only left the base ten
minutes before, but already they were out in the wilderness.
Little by little the instructor allowed Davin to take over the
AT-AT controls. Piloting the AT-AT was just like using the virtual
reality simulator, but Davin knew that any misjudgment would be
disastrous. Davin devoted his entire attention to monitoring the
myriad instruments.
"You're pretty good at this," said the instructor after a while.
"Not many recruits are as comfortable as you."
"Thanks," said Davin, not breaking his concentration.
"Keep at this heading," said the instructor, pushing up from his
seat. "I want to check the weapons cache.
We're coming upon the target range and the terrain
doesn't change any from here."
"Yes, sir."
"Just call out if anything goes wrong; I'll be right back. But
don't leave the controls--no matter what happens."
"Yes, sir." Davin tried to keep his excitement in check. The
AT-AT almost functioned on its own, but Davin still felt heady being in
command, alone in the command center. Step by monstrous step, the
AT-AT lumbered across the barren terrain. Looking out over the rugged
land, Davin could imagine himself commanding a fleet of AT-AT's,
massing against the Rebels-Davin caught sight of something out of the
corner of his eye. A dark speck, then suddenly three more, swooped
down out of the sky. They headed straight for the AT-AT.
Davin glanced at his radar screen--nothing showed up. He punched
up his scanning instruments and got the same response: nothing at all
in the EM, gravitational, and neutrino spectrums.
Davin frowned and called out to his instructor, "I've got a visual
on some fighter craft heading this way, but they don't show up on
scanners. They're closing fast."
Dayin didn't get an answer from his instructor, still back in the
weapons cache. The only sound Davin heard was the muted rumbling of
the AT-AT's power system, and the slight jarring that came over the
electronically cushioned ride.
Davin turned in his seat. "Sir? Are you there?" The door to the
weapons cache was sealed; Davin turned back to the front. The four
fighter craft grew closer.
He slapped at the intercom and broadcasted throughout the AT-AT.
"Sergeant!" Still no answer.
The four ships split off in two pairs, each vessel turning
sideways as they came directly for the AT-AT control chamber. Bright
pops of blaster cannon erupted from the fighters as they fired upon
Davin's AT-AT.
"Hey!" Davin felt anger and fear surge through him. "Sergeant,
we're being attacked!" The vessels thundered past the AT-AT, causing
the giant war machine to sway slightly in the fighter's turbulence.
"What's going on? Are we in the target area or something?"
Still not getting a reply, Davin nearly unbuckled to go look for
the AT-AT instructor. What if something had happened to the man? The
instructor would know what to do. This was crazy!
But when Davin saw the fighter craft swoop up again in front of
him, he sat frozen in his seat. The four fighters were coming in for
another strafing run. Davin forced himself to grab at the
communicator. He flicked to the AT-AT Base frequency. "Distress,
Distress --this is Landkiller One! Attention, Base, we're under
attack. There must be some kind of mistake. I say again, Distress!"
Only the sound of white noise came over the speaker; even the
emergency Holo did not function.
Bright pinpoints of light once again erupted from -the head of the
attacking fighter craft. Davin tensed himself as the AT-AT was rocked
with the impact of a blaster cannon. A shrill alarm blasted above his
head as the acrid smell of oily smoke rolled throughout the control
room. "Sergeant--help me!" The warbling sound of another alarm
pierced the air; synthetic voices announcing damage-control procedures
came from the rear of the control room. Twenty things seemed to happen
at once.
Throughout all the confusion, Davin spotted the four fighter craft
rolling up from upon high and diving down to make another . . . and
perhaps their last . . . strafing run.
Davin grew suddenly angry at all that had gone wrong. Throughout
his short career as an Imperial military man, he had been drilled that
the only way to survive was to follow procedures. But here was a
situation that had not been covered in any textbook or testing
sequence! He was out on his own, and as crazy as it seemed, somehow
the Rebels must have found their way to the Imperial military training
planet. How else could he explain the fighter vessels not showing up
on radar?
Davin pushed all concern aside and armed the AT-AT fire controls.
If he was going to be shot at, he wasn't going to go down without
a fight. The automated fire-control system was of no use since the
enemy craft did not show up on any of his scanning instruments.
Slaving the blaster cannon controls to follow his line of sight,
he let loose a salvo of high-energy laser blasts.
The bundles of energy shot past the attacking ships.
Although his shots missed the fighter craft, the attacking ships
split up. Had they not expected him to fight back ?
The fighters flew past him, again coming so close that the AT-AT
shuddered because of the passing crafts' shock wave. Davin slapped at
the emergency beacon, sending out a continuous squawk over the
airwaves.
At the same time, he halted the AT-AT's forward motion, slaving
the AT-AT's entire computer resources to fight the incoming attackers.
Since he had to rely on his eyesight and none of the instruments
during the battle, Davin decided to put himself at the greatest
advantage. He ordered the AT-AT to kneel, dropping as low to the
ground as possible.
Slowly, with jerky motions, the huge behemoth staggered to the
ground.
Davin brought the war machine's head down flat with the body until
there remained no part of the AT-AT that the fighters could fly under.
By the time the four fighter craft came back around for another
attack, Davin's AT-AT lay hunkered on the ground.
The fighters grouped together for a high-angle dive-bombing run.
As they approached, Davin knew they could not fly under the AT-AT.
Davin forced them to make a suicide attempt on the control
chamber.
Davin jammed his finger down on the firing control.
The AT-AT rocked with the recoil from the laser cannon.
An explosion burst across the screen as he hit two of the
fighters; a third fighter tried to steer away from the flying debris,
but his wing clipped the ground and cartwheeled into a rocky cliff.
The remaining fighter bore down on him. He flew in low, wobbling
in the hot layer of turbulent desert air.
Davin waited until the fighter was nearly upon him before firing.
The craft kept close to the ground, as if expecting Davin's AT-AT
to rise and start shooting.
Seconds later, the last fighter plowed into a rock formation,
erupting with a violent burst. Red-orange flames shot out, then
quickly disappeared from view.
Davin sat in the sudden quiet. Moments ago the control room had
been filled with a cacophony of alarms and the sight of four fighter
craft attacking the AT-AT.
But now, there was only the distant throb of the onboard power
plant.
Davin felt drained, too fired even to call Base and report what
had happened. But he knew that he must, for if these four Rebel craft
had somehow managed to evade the Imperial defenses, then no telling how
many of the dangerous vessels would be lurking in orbit.
He picked up the communicator when he heard a sound behind him.
Davin turned. "Sergeant?" In the shock of battle, he had
completely forgotten about his instructor being lost in the sealed
weapons cache.
His instructor stood with his hands on his hips, grinning
wolfishly. "Good job, Recruit Felth. You've got a command party
landing on the AT-AT command module, so open up the top hatch."
"Yes, sir." Dazed and confused, Davin did as instructed.
Once outside, he searched for the wreckage of the fighters that
should have covered the landscape . . . but he was stunned to see
nothing.
"You're the first recruit to bring down all four fighters, Davin
Felth. This AT-AT was specially designed to simulate that battle it
was all projected via virtual reality into the control head." It was
almost too much for Davin to comprehend.
Recovering from the fact that he had not been in an actual battle,
Davin stood with his instructor on top of the AT-AT's sprawling
metallic head. Davin squinted in the sunlight; the dry desert air
smelled enthralling to him after the stuffiness of the damaged control
room.
A dot appeared above them, dilating in size until Davin could make
out the bottom of an Imperial command scout. Davin and his instructor
stepped back. After the command scout landed, a door hissed open and a
ramp extended to the surface.
Two white-armored Imperial stormtroopers marched out and stood at
rigid attention on either side of the opening. Davin gasped as he
recognized the man emerging from the ship. "Colonel Veers!" Davin
snapped to attention and saluted.
Veers strode up and returned the salute. He looked
Davin up and down. "Recruit Felth, is it?"
"Yes, sir," stammered Davin.
"This kneeling maneuver with the AT-AT how did you come up with
that idea, recruit?"
Davin opened his mouth but he was at a loss for words.
"Well," growled Veers. "Out with it, recruit?'
"I--I don't know, sir. It just seemed the logical thing to do.
It was the only way to keep the fighters from finishing us off, by
not allowing them underneath the AT-AT."
Veers sounded strangely cold. "And what would that do, recruit?"
Davin shrugged, thrown by Veers's line of questioning.
Why, he had fought off the fighters, hadn't he? And won!
"Well," "Address the colonel as sir!" corrected his instructor,
embarrassed to be speaking in front of Veers.
"Thank you, Sergeant," said Veers. The colonel drew close to
Davin and steered him away from the others. When they were some
distance from the instructor and Imperial stormtroopers, the colonel
spoke softly. "Now continue, recruit. What is so special about
not allowing the fighters access to the AT-AT under-belly?"
Davin stiffened. "I lost track of them when they flew underneath.
Once the fighters were under the AT-AT, they could have done just
about anything they wanted."
Veers seemed about to lose his patience. "Such
as--?"
Davin felt his face grow warm as he scrambled to think of
something, anything to appease the colonel.
"Such as . . . tying up the AT-AT legs, sir," Davin blurted out.
"All they needed was some cable and they could have easily tripped
the AT-AT."
A strange look came over Colonel Veers. The thin man smiled
tightly and looked Davin over. "Very well.
Thank you, recruit. That's very enlightening." He raised a
finger to his lips. "Keep this classified until my battle staff can
analyze the implications, understand?"
"Yes, sir!"
Veers turned to go. Raising his voice, he nodded at Davin's
instructor as he spoke. "Have Recruit Felth report to Assignments when
he returns. A man of his caliber deserves immediate recognition. My
staff will 'have an assignment worthy of his talents ready when he
returns."
"Yes, sir," said the instructor.
As an afterthought, Veers raised a finger. "And impound all the
datacubes on this simulation. Have them sent to my command
headquarters. Understood?"
"Yes, Colonel."
"And quickly. I have been dispatched for temporary duty as an
advisor to the Emperor's new Death Star. I want this accomplished
before I leave."
When the scout ship disappeared from view, Davin's instructor
clapped him on the shoulder. "I don't know how you did it, recruit,
but I have a feeling you've been marked for a one-in-a-million career!"
The familiar background hum of the starship didn't comfort Davin
Felth. The sharp oil-on-metal smell, harsh lighting, and polished
decks of the huge troop transport should have made Davin feel right at
home--but ever since receiving the hush-hush orders from Colonel
Veers's command section, he had been totally confused.
No one questioned the sealed orders when he reported to the
Imperial troop transport, and no one explained exactly what he was
supposed to do. All he knew was that now, two hundred light-years from
Carida, he was assigned to a detachment of stormtroopers, setting off
for some forsaken planet.
Stormtroopers!
He drew in a breath and tried to explain for the third time to the
man staring at papers on the desk, ignoring him. "Captain Terrik, you
jdst don't understand.
I've spent the last day trying to find out what is going on, but
no one has the authority to help me. I was told personally by Colonel
Veers that I would receive an assignment worthy of my talents. I'm an
AT-AT operator, not a . . . a foot soldier!"
The officer's smoothly shaven head snapped up so that Davin could
see the man's eyes. Deep, penetrating, and utterly without fear,
Captain Terrik bored his gaze into Davin like a lightsaber.
"Stormtroopers are not foot soldiers!" He placed his hands on his
desk and stood, barely holding back his trembling. "If it was up to
me, you Jawa slime, I'd have spaced you when we first hit vacuum. I'm
well aware of Colonel Veers's orders, and we're going to follow his
directions to the micron!"
"Very well," said Davin, somewhat relieved. He straightened and
looked smartly around the cabin.
Headquarters for the small detachment of twenty stormtroopers on
board the ship, Captain Terrik's cabin was decorated with battle
streamers, plaques, paintings of battles against the Rebels, and a Holo
of Lord Vader. "You will show me to my correct assignment, then." He
smiled at the captain. Terrik trembled more visibly and turned redder
by the second.
"Stand at attention!" growled Captain Terrik. "Listen up, you
mynock bait! It took me all day to confirm those orders, and Emperor
only knows why Colonel Veers wants this. But you belong to me now,
Felth!
We've got another month of maneuvers before we get to Tatooine,
and I intend to use that time whipping you into shape."
"Tatooine?" said Davin, his face growing white.
"What's that? There must be some kind of mistake."
"Oh, no," Captain Terrik grinned wolfishly. He picked up Davin's
orders lying on his desk and shook them under Davin's nose. "My
detachment of storm-troopers is relieving the Thirty-seventh Detachment
that has been stationed at Mos Eisley on Tatooine.
We'll be assigned to the governor, but we're not in his chain of
command~my superior is in the next sector, half a light-year away. In
case you haven't noticed, we're not going directly to Tatooine, so I'll
have a month to break in a young Jawa slime like you, turn you into a
real stormtrooper. You'll learn pretty quick what it's like to be a
foot soldier." Captain Terrik spat the words out of his mouth and
grinned at Davin. "Any more questions, golden boy?"
Davin felt what hope he had left seep out of him.
Standing at rigid attention just microns in front of Captain
Terrik's face, Davin knew what it was like to jump from a crashing ship
into a pit of burning fuel.
Davin Felth was in the best shape of his life when he prepared to
land on Tatooine. But getting there on board the troop transport the
past month had been pure hell.
The twenty stormtroopers in the detachment had all pitched in in
some way or another, "helping" Davin get up to speed in the rigorous
training. Their normal three-month period of disciplining, schooling,
and physical fitness was compressed into a never-ending nightmare for
Davin. The stormtroopers were not about to allow a mere AT-AT
operator, although a graduate of Carida Basic Military Training, into
their esteemed ranks without passing through a minimum of ritual.
Davin did not have the time to be homesick or lonely, although his
thoughts sometimes drifted to his two roommates back at Carida. He
wondered where t. hey had been assigned.
Ten hours before landfall, Davin marched up to the quartermaster
and collected his desert gear: heat-reflective armor, comlink,
filtermask, blaster rifle, blaster pistol, temperature-control body
glove, utility belt, energy source, and concussion grenade launcher.
He staggered to his cabin under the load of equipment.
Davin donned his helmet with automatic polarized lenses. Fully
outfitted in the desert-terrain gear, he clunked to the mirror in his
small cabin and looked himself over. Like it or not, he was finally a
storm-trooper.
He used his chin to click on his chinmike, activating the comlink.
He tapped into stormtrooper radio traffic for the entire troop
ship: "Access to AT-AT bay now open." "Cold assault and aquatic
assault detachments reporting still in stasis." "Tatooine landing for
refurbishment ready when ready."
A series of voices checked in. Davin thought he recognized some
of the stormtroopers' voices.
There was a long pause of silence. Sounding irritated, Captain
Terrik's voice came over the comlink.
"Ten twenty-three? Are you up and ready?"
It took Davin a full two heartbeats to realize that
Captain Terrik was speaking to him.
"Ten twenty-three ready, sir."
"Report to the landing craft, ten twenty-three. Prepare to
disembark. Move it!"
"Yes, sir." His name stripped away, Davin had been assigned the
emotionless number 1023 as part of his stormtrooper indoctrination.
Their zealous devotion to duty demanded denial of the individual,
pledging their allegiance only to the Emperor. Unwilling to make that
commitment, Davin turned his thoughts to his family, his friends, as
the training attempted to squeeze away his memories. His fellow
stormtroopers reveled in the mystery that surrounded their existence,
their lack of identity. With no one to turn to or confide in, Davin
felt miserable.
It only took a moment to gather up his meager belongings.
The clothes he had taken with him from home seemed useless now,
but he kept them as a reminder of the life he used to have. He stuffed
them in a sand-colored duffel bag and carried them with his weapons
down to the landing craft. He kept to the side of the corridor as he
walked, trying to keep out of people's way. A group of naval troopers
double-timed around the corner.
The corridor widened to the immense landing bay.
Stepping inside, he felt as if he were outdoors. Worker droids
ran along scaffolding that reached higher than an AT-AT; the bay was so
wide that he had trouble seeing to the opposite side. He set off for
the landing craft, halfway across the immense bay, to join the
contingent of stormtroopers.
"Ten twenty-three?"
Davin swung his gear down and faced Captain Ter-rik.
"Present, sir."
"You're assigned to scout unit Zeta. Something came up. We're
delaying reporting to the garrison, so pile your gear in the storage
compartment with the rest
of the detachment."
"Yes, sir."
Davin lined up and waited for Captain Terrik to finish his
paperwork. Accepting a salute from the officer on deck, Captain Terrik
faced the waiting storm-troopers.
A warbling sound came over Davin's comlink, informing him that
Captain Terrik was going to a secure communications mode, using
frequency-jumping techniques known only to the stormtroopers' sensors.
"Quickly now--change of orders. We're deploying to the surface,
bypassing Mos Eisley to participate in a search-and-destroy mission."
Someone asked, "What are we searching for, sir?"
"An escape pod. It jettisoned from a Corellian Corvette evading
Lord Vader's Star Destroyer and landed somewhere on Tatooine."
Breaking military silence, a gasp went up over the secure link.
"Lord Vader--here?"
"That's right," said Captain Terrik grimly. "Now double-time on
board the landing craft!"
Although Davin was the last to board the spacecraft, he was set
into his station before 'all the other storm-troopers in his
detachment. Lord Vader! The very thought of the Dark Lord being so
close to the backwater planet sent a chill through Davin. He hadn't
felt this strange since he had learned through the grapevine that
Colonel Veers had never even mentioned Davin's "kneeling" defense for
the AT-AT to his superiors.
It was almost as if Colon'el Veers didn't want anyone to know of
the fatal flaw in the giant walker's design.
The stormtroopers sat mute as they left the troop transport, their
home for the past month. Visual images of Tatooine flashed inside
their helmets, transmitted from the intelligence network orbiting
Tatooine.
Computer-generated graphics pinpointed the most likely landing
place of the small escape pod.
As part of scout unit Zeta, Davin was tasked with reconnoitering
the rocky highlands. He gripped his blaster rifle and stole a glance
at the rest of the storm-troopers waiting patiently in two rows beside
him. Everyone studied the data dump from the mother ship.
He wondered how the others could remain So calm when they were
about to embark on a mission. And for Lord Vader at that! He just
wondered why the pod was so important.
The scouting craft landed with a bump. The side yawned open,
spilling in hot air and brilliant sunshine.
Davin pushed out and joined the other stormtroopers, who quickly
lined up in front of Captain Terrik. No one spoke over the comlink
until Davin heard Captain Terrik's voice.
"Lord Vader's Star Destroyer is mapping the planet with a sensor
scan, trying to locate the escape pod. It must have buried itself on
landing, or was hidden by some Rebel sympathizers. We have a
preliminary position on the pod from just before it impacted, so we'll
spread out and sift through all the sand on this planet if necessary to
find it."
"Why is the pod so important, sir?" Davin surprised himself by
blurting out the question; he only hoped that Captain Terrik would be
so busy that he wouldn't yell at him.
"It's carrying classified material, and that's all you need to
know. The point is that we need to find it . . .
or we'll have to explain to Lord Vader why a detachment of the
Emperor's Own failed in their duty. Got it?"
"Yes, sir!"
"Then listen up. Alvien and Drax squads, cover the next quadrant.
Zeta squad, come with me. Headquarters at Mos Eisley has
gray-lifted in three dewbacks to aid in the search--they can cover more
territory than we can and will lead us to the pod if they get a scent.
Start a circular search pattern, move."
The desert terrain was featureless, ever-shifting.
Davin crunched his way through the sand, not sure what he was
looking for, but knowing that some kind of evidence from the escape
pod's landing had to be present. He climbed a small hill. The desert
spread out in every direction. They might as well have been the only
ones on the planet.
Seeing a rise in the sand below him, he scooted down the ridge and
poked his blaster into the ground.
He struck something hard! He clicked on the comlink.
"Captain Terrik, ten twenty-three reporting. I think !
found the pod."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes, sir." Davin excitedly dug into the ground with his blaster
butt . . . only to unearth a large rock.
Captain Terrik appeared over the ridge just as Davin made his
discovery. "Ten twenty-three, what are you doing!"
"Sorry, sir." Discouraged, he trudged back up the small hill and
joined the rest of his squad continuing the search.
After arriving from Mos Eisley, a giant lizardlike dewback was
assigned to each squad. Davin was not given the opportunity to ride
the monstrous reptilian beast, but that suited him fine. Every step
the scaly animal took reverberated in the sand.
The search seemed to last forever. Davin lost count of the breaks
he took, and per Imperial orders, they were forced to stay in their
suits and drink the distilled water flown in from Mos Eisley with the
dewback.
Setting out to cover another part of the quadrant, Davin spotted a
glint out of the corner of his eye.
There . . . whatever it was just caught the light from Tatooine's
second sun.
He almost cried out, but clamped his mouth shut.
Clutching his blaster, he bounded for the glint of light.
Slowly, the object took shape. Half-buried in the sand, the
object looked scorched. As he drew near, he made out the faint red and
blue markings of an escape pod.
There was no doubt in his mind now. "Captain Ter-rik, ten
twenty-three reporting. I've found the escape pod!"
"If this is another one of your daydreams, ten twenty-three--!"
"I'm positive, sir. It may not be what we're looking for, but it
has Imperial markings."
Minutes later Captain Terrikjoined Davin by the object.
A stormtrooper riding a dewback appeared over the crest of a rise,
waiting for a signal that it was the fight pod.
Captain Terrik surveyed the site. "Someone was in the pod. The
tracks go off in this direction."
Davin fished a mechanism from inside the escape pod. There was
only one thing that used such a device --an R2 unit. He held it up so
all could see. "Look, sir, droids!"
"All right. Form up. I'll inform Lord Vader the pod wasn't
destroyed. Now we've really got to move."
"Ten twenty-three reporting. They're not in the repair bay, sir,"
said Davin Felth. He stood in the middle of a bay full of droids, deep
in the bowels of a Jawa sand-crawler.
Cables drooped across the ceiling; tables with disassembled
equipment were strewn across the floor.
"You've all searched the entire sandcrawler?"
"Affirmative," answered each stormtrooper, calling
off their trooper numbers one by one.
"Form up outside."
Davin stepped across a Roche J9 worker droid lying on the metal
floor. TwoJawas stood just outside of the repair bay and muttered
between themselves, obviously displeased that the stormtroopers would
search their ship. Davin scanned the room one last time before he left
and counted off an Arakyd BT-16 perimeter droid, a demolition droid, an
R4 agromech droid, a WED15
treadwell droid, and an EG-6 power droid but there was no R2, or
even a protocol unit that was often paired with an R2 droid.
A gaggle of Jawas followed him outside the cruiser.
All Davin could see of the little aliens were their bright eyes,
looking out of their flowing hooded brown robes.
The rest of Zeta squad stood waiting for him, their blaster rifles
held loosely by their sides. The storm-troopers kept their backs to
one another, watching all sides for any possible attack.
As he joined the squad, Davin overheard Captain Terrik conversing
with the head Jawa on the officer's suit speaker. "You are certain
that the droids were sold to a moisture farmer at your last stop?"
After a series of high-pitched chatters came from the jawa,
Captain Ter-rik turned and waved his arm back to Zeta squad; he
switched to the secure stormtrooper frequency. "Form up with the rest
of the detachment."
Zeta squad double-timed in the sand away from the Jawa sandcrawler
to join the remainder of the storm-troopers.
They kept guard over the sandcrawler on a rise just to the south.
Three enormous hairy banthas airlifted in from somewhere, two
converted GoCorp Arunskin 32 cargo skiffs, and a Ubrikkian HAVr A9
floating fortress with two heavy blaster cannons waited on the
other side of the rise.
The Jawas yelled and shook their fists at the storm-troopers as
they left. The little brown-robed aliens then scurried around the
sandcrawler, preparing to continue their journey.
Captain Terrik!s voice came over Davin's helmet.
"Floating fortress--fire when ready upon the Jawa sandcrawler.
When it is destroyed, ride those banthas up to the wreckage and
leave that material we confiscated from the Sand People. We want
people to think the Sand People attacked the sandcrawler. The rest of
you, load up the cargo skiffs--we will find those droids at that
moisture farmer's".
The floating fortress immediately wheeled off the ground, rising
above the ridge in a banking turn.
Climbing on board the bulky cargo skiff, Davin saw two bolts of
blaster energy burst out of the floating fortress.
Over the whoops of joy from the other storm-troopers, Davin
remained quiet. His thoughts were on the little Jawas, and how they
were no more.
Davin lingered behind the rest, staying.just far enough behind the
other stormtroopers so that he didn't draw attention to himself. Zeta
squad raced through the lower levels of the moisture farmer's house,
overturning tables, ripping doors off cabinets, smashing metal lockers
with their blaster rifles until the containers popped open. One by one
the stormtroopers checked in with Captain Terrik: "No sign of the
droids, sir."
Dayin watched the stormtrooper in front of him kick over a vat of
oil before heading to the upper level. The moisture farmer's house was
a shambles.
"Zeta squad check in and form up," said Captain Terrik, his words
clipped and precise in Davin's helmet.
"Ten twenty-three," said Davin. He tried to control his
breathing, but the thought of what was going to happen next nearly
overwhelmed his senses. He trotted into the bright Tatooine
double-sunshine and stood at attention with the rest of his squad.
Captain Terrik stood in front of the moisture farmer and his wife,
just outside of the house. The moisture farmer's face was bright red
with anger; the woman cried, her head down. Davin flicked his outside
audio sensor on with his chin and listened to the exchange.
"... you men are nothing but criminals! I told you I haven't seen
those droids since last night. And look what you've done to my house!
The governor will pay for this."
"This nephew of yours," said Captain Terrik, his voice modulated
by the speaker in his battlesuit, "one more time: Where did he take the
Artoo unit?"
"Haven't you been listening?" The moisture farmer shook a fist in
the air. "I don't know--and now I would not tell you even if I did
know! You Imperial thugs are worse than I imagined." He stepped up to
Captain Ter-rik's helmeted face and spat; spittle ran down the
officer's helmet.
Captain Terrik made no attempt to remove the spit-tie.
"Where is the boy?"
"I never did care much for the Rebel movement; but now I hope they
find every one of you bantha slime and grill your carcasses!"
The moisture farmer turned and put an arm around his wife, drawing
her near. The two turned away, back toward their home.
Without emotion, Captain Terrik nodded toward the stormtroopers.
His voice came over the secure link.
"There's only one place the boy could have taken the droidsminto
Mos Eisley, to escape off planet. Zeta squad, load up. Floating
fortress, this house needs to be left as a reminder of what happens
when quarter is given to Rebels. Fire when ready."
Turning quickly for the cargo skiff, Davin Felth pushed aboard and
kept his eyes averted from the blast on the house. A sour taste clawed
up his throat. First they executed the Jawas, and now these humans.
And over what--a couple of lousy droids? What could be so
important that it deserved executing these people?
On his home planet, joining the military had seemed all fun and
games, his chest swelling with pride as he had boarded the ship to
transport him to Carida.
But now, this was reality. People were dying, being
indiscriminately killed.
The cargo skiff lifted off the ground, giving Davin a view of the
carnage below. Smoke drifted up from the house. He could see the
charred remains of two bodies lying in the scorched sand. As the skiff
wheeled toward the desert city of Mos Eisley, Davin didn't know what he
would do if he was ordered to kill.
Landing on the outskirts of Mos Eisley, the storm-troopers marched
off the cargo skiff. They spent hours digging through the databases at
the port authority, interrogating charter-ship owners, and searching
repair shops before Captain Terrik gave up in disgust and ordered a
methodical search of the streets.
The smells of the rich food, dirty bodies, and fuel permeated even
their battle suits as they gathered around Captain Terrik. "All right,
listen up," he said.
"Alvien squad, set up checkpoints on every road coming into the
city. You'll supplement the detachment already there. Drax and Zeta
squads, run a patrol through the city, check door-to-door for those
droids.
There's only one way for those droids and that kid to get off
planet, and it's got to be through this hellhole of a city. Move out."
Davin joined the rest of the squad as they double-timed away from
the detachment. Mos Eisley yawned open in front of them, a collection
of dusty, low-slung brown buildings that looked as if they had been
scattered by a juri-juice addict. Creatures in long flowing robes
moved quietly through the dirt streets; Dayin hadn't seen this many
aliens in one place since the galactic olympics on the holovid.
Every door was sealed fight, supposedly closed against the sand,
but Davin suspected it was to ensure the privacy of the unsavory
characters he saw stepping back into the shadows.
They marched into the heart of the city, passing Lup's general
store, the marketplace, Gap's grill, and the spaceport express. A
potpourri of jabbering sounds and sharp smells invaded Davin's senses,
mixed together with the ever-present sand. After his initial exposure
to Tatooine by being dumped in the middle of the desert with his
detachment, Davin realized that he really hadn't had a chance to sit
back and savor this strange new world to which he had been assigned.
But then again, he bitterly realized it might be a long time
before he ever got off planet.
His thoughts were shattered by a scream, then several shouts
coming from an old blockhouse. Davin remembered the briefings on the
landing craftmseveral buildings had been originally designed as a
shelter against Tusken Raiders. This certainly looked like one of
them.
No one else in Zeta squad seemed to hear the commotion.
Looking for a chance to get away from the craziness for a while,
Dayin clicked on his comlink. "Ten twenty-three, checking out a
disturbance at a blockhouse."
"Permission granted," said Captain Terrik. "Ten forty-seven, back
him up."
Davin gripped his rifle and peeled off from the squad. Creatures
in every form of dress moved aside for Davin and his backup. A
nondescript sign with faint lettering read: Mos Eisley Cantina.
A 2.8-meter~high green insectoid crawled from the cantina as they
arrived. It sported bulbous eyes atop a slender stalk, with four legs
supporting a slender thorax and abdomen. It chattered at Davin.
"I am taking my spice trade elsewhere if I cannot be assured of my
own safety!"
Davin turned to his backup, 1047. "Sounds like trouble."
"These places don't serve droids," said 1047.
"We're needed elsewhere."
Wanting to keep away from the droid hunt, Davin ignored him and
pushed on inside the dark cantina.
Davin's solid-state visor immediately compensated for the low
light level. He stood on an elevated entrance-way, just inside the
door. It looked like a place where smugglers, bounty hunters, and
other low-class types would hang out.
Davin spotted two people in the back, a boy and an old man, get up
from a booth and walk quickly toward a back hallway. He ignored them
and stepped up to the bartender.
Davin clicked on his outside speaker. "I understand there's been
some trouble here."
"Nothing out of the ordinary," said the bartender, nodding to the
rear of his establishment. "Just having
a little fun. You can look around if you like."
"All right--we'll check it out."
Davin kept a grip on his rifle and walked slowly through the
cantina. He passed two slender human women and a sharp-smelling Rodian
standing by the bar; a horned Devaronian nodded curtly and stepped
back, out of the way. Reaching the booth where Davin had spotted the
boy and old man heading for the back hallway, he found an
athletic-looking human who stared sullenly at the table, ignoring him.
Davin turned to 1047, his backup. "You're right--there's nothing
here."
"Let's join the others."
Davin merely grunted. He was in no hurry to witness another
senseless killing. But what else could he do?
They stepped into the brilliant Tatooine sunlight, leaving the
shady cantina behind. Davin started to suggest they continue the
search for the missing droids on their own instead of joining the rest
of the detachment, when the rest of Zeta squad marched around the
corner in lockstep, completing their circuit of the perimeter.
Before Davin could say anything into his helmet microphone, he
heard a shrill yell. It sounded like an outraged Jawa! How could he
forget the high-pitched chatter from the little creatures that they had
brutally executed?
Davin instantly crouched into a combat position, pulling up his
rifle. A long-robed Jawa leaped from a hiding place in the middle of
some space wreckage crashed in the middle of the square. The Jawa
struggled with an oversized blaster, the weapon dwarfing the
ridiculous-looking creature.
Finally aiming the blaster rifle at Zeta squad, the Jawa cut loose
with one last shrill yell and squeezed the firing button-Nothing
happened. TheJawa howled with anger and surprise. He kept pushing the
button. Everything happened so fast that Davin didn't react.
Or maybe his instincts kept him from reacting, with all of the
senseless killings he had witnessed . . .
"Crazy Jawa," muttered 1047. The stormtrooper pulled out his
blaster and flipped off a shot at the jawa, still struggling with the
weapon. The shot's momentum sent the jawa flying back against the
wreckage. It slid to the dirt. "One lessJawa slime to bother us,"
said 1047
as he holstered his blaster.
Davin stepped back in shock. What have we become?
He had almost excused the Imperial stormtroopers for the way they
indiscriminately killed the Jawas in their sandcrawler because of this
so-called threat to the Emperor.
But the moisture farmer, and now this latest act of violence . .
. Davin couldn't reconcile it. The only answer to these actions
kept coming up the same, time after time: The Empire was basically
evil.
And he didn't fit in.
But I can't resign, he thought. So what can I do?
He seemed to walk forever in a daze with Zeta squad, when he heard
a voice in his helmet speaker. "Trouble at Docking Bay
Ninety-four--we've located the droids!
All personnel, converge .and assist!"
"Come on, Ten twenty-three!" said 1047. "Follow me!"
Dayin clutched his blaster rifle and trotted after the
white-armored man. His time on Tatooine had seemed like a dream--he
didn't know how long he had been on planet, but he had been surviving
off his suit rations and supplements for longer than he imagined it
would be possible.
Captain Terrik's voice came inside his helmet. "Capture the
droids! The Rebels have them--don't let them get away!"
Sounds of laser blasts ricocheted down the narrow streets. A
crowd had gathered outside the docking bay; several peered over the
crowd and tried to get a glimpse of what was going on.
1047 switched to his outside speaker: "Move aside-now!"
Davin blindly followed his backup, more confused than ever.
Rebels? Why would the Rebel force be so blatant and try to escape
now?
Running down the alley, they rounded a corner and came upon the
firefight. A modified light freighter cruiser sat in the middle of the
docking bay, its back hatch open. Davin caught a glimpse of a boy
running up the ramp into the ship. A volley of laser blasts peppered
the area.
A score of stormtroopers were scattered around, firing upon the
light freighter. The air was filled with the searing sounds of laser
blasts.
Davin was stunned to see that an athletic-looking man held the
stormtroopers at bay--he fought at twenty-to-one odds! Was this man
one of the mysterious Rebels that dared to rise against the Emperor?
It was the same man Davin had seen at the cantina.t So this was
the one who had kept two detachments of storm-troopers on the run!
Mesmerized by the very thought that so few could accomplish so
much, Davin felt a rush of solidarity--he felt an empathy with the
Rebels, fighting against such overwhelming odds . . . and surviving.
He hadn't felt this much emotion since the day he left for Carida
. .
.
The noise and confusion were overwhelming.
Smoke sprang from stray laser blasts that ignited building
material. Stormtroopers shouted conflicting orders.
Directly in front of Davin, Captain Terrik knelt on one knee and
took careful aim at the athletic-looking man who was still holding off
the Emperor's finest.
Captain Terrik waited for the precise moment before slowly
squeezing his blaster rifle to take out the Rebel-Davin glanced quickly
around. No one was behind him; . . and more importantly, no one was
watching him.
Without hesitation, Davin pulled up his blaster and shot Captain
Terrik in the back.
The officer slumped to the ground, unnoticed by the others.
The athletic-looking Rebel scrambled safely up the access ramp as
it closed, sealing off the starship. An earsplitting wail came inside
his helmet over the storm-trooper's frequency: "Clear the area, the
Rebel's lifting off. Clear the area!"
Defeated, the stormtroopers scrambled back. Anyone left in the
docking bay would be irradiated by the starship's exhaust. Someone's
voice came over the secure frequency: "Where's Captain Terrik?"
"Leave him," came another voice. "He's dead.
Killed in the crossfire."
Cursing filled the stormtroopers' airways. Several threw their
blasters against the wall in disgust.
But as Dayin pulled back with the rest, a new sense of purpose
swept over him, like a cool wind cutting
through the endless heat. He felt a kinship with the
Rebels and almost wanted to join their cause.
But how?
Maybe he could warn them of the AT-AT's vulnerability.
Or maybe he could work as a "deep plant," passing along vital
information . . .
A spy? Maybe that was it. He'd have something to live for,
something to believe in. He felt heady, as things suddenly fell in
place.
As the stormtroopers formed up, Davin knew that he could help the
Rebels best by staying in the belly of the beast.
Soup's On: The Pipe Smoker's Tale
by Jennifer Roberson
Pain/pleasure ... pleasure/pain. Inseparable. Indescribable.
Ineluctable.
--come closer, a little closer-Tatooine. Mos Eisley. A cesspit
planet, a cesspit spaceport, offering little to the undiscerning save
perhaps the loss of coin, of limb, of life, but rich to others in risk,
in Chance, in Luck, in the endless mirage of
hope--illicit, illegal, wholly intoxicating.
--closer, if you will To me, as to blood-bred creche-mates,
Tatooine and Mos Eisley are richer still in potential: of the flesh, of
the blood, of the viscera, of the overwhelming promise of risks already
taken and risks to be taken; in the ineffable indefinable we of my race
call soup.
Pleasure/pain... pain/pleasure. Deep in flesh-molded pockets
beside my nostrils, hidden by subtle flaps in otherwise humanoid
features, proboscii quiver.
--closer yet-yet-This is what I live for, what I fish for, what I
hunt.
The scent of soup, then the soup itself, running hot and fast and
sweet in the confines of the veins, the vessels, the brain. In the
confines of the flesh.
It lends us to legend. It makes of us myth. It shapes
of us demons of dreams: Don't misbehave or an Anzat will catch you
and suck all your blood away.
But it is not blood at all.
--nearly within reach-In the bloated brilliance of Tatooine's
unyielding high noon there are no such things as shadows. Only the
boldness of the day, the magnified munificence of double suns, and the
still brighter blazing of the glory of my need.
--it has been long, too longMos Eisley is never uncrowded, but
those who understand Tatooine's uncowed character understand also its
malignance, its maleficent intent: to bake, to broil, to sear. And so
they flee, those who know, into the sullen succor of sand-scoured,
sun-flayed shelters.
What need have I of shadows when the daylight itself will do, and
the heedless, headlong haste of a man fleeing it?
--three more stepsHumanoid. I can smell him--taste him, there,
just there; measured in all the ways we measure: a tint, a hue, a
whisper, a kiss . . . a soupfon, if you will, of minor excrescence,
the steam off body-boiled soup, undetectable to all humanoid races save
my own.
--two more-He is not a fool, not completely; fools die long before
meeting those such as I, which saves us some little trouble. Better by
far to let life handle the screening process. By the time folk come to
Tatooine, the true fools are already dead. Those who have survived to
come have some small measure of wit, talent, ability, of significant
physical prowess--and a greater portion of Luck.
An intangible, is Luck; an attribute one can neither buy, steal,
nor manufacture. But it is finite, and wholly fickle. Only you never
know it.
Only I know it. I am Dannik Jerriko, and I am the Eater of Luck.
---one more step-He is good. He is fast. But I am better, and
faster.
An image only; I am too lost, too hungry: the black-blind glaze of
shock in his eyes, naked and obscene to those who understand; but he
does not understand, he comprehends nothing. He knows neither who nor
what I am, only that I am--and someone who has clapped hands across his
ears and grasped his skull to
hold it face-to-face in an avid embrace.
--hot, sweet soup.
He would fight, given leave, extended invitation.
And I give leave, extend invitation--outright terror curdles the
soup~briefly, oh so briefly, to make him think he is better than I;
that Chance is his confidant and Luck remains his lover. It isn't fear
I want, nor cowardice, but courage. The blatant willingness to step
off the edge with a life at risk, your life, trusting skill and Luck
and Chance to spread the safety net.
He is good, is fast, is willing to step off the edge; and so he
does step: leaping, lunging, lurching . . . but no one is better or
faster than I, and I have unraveled the net. Chance and Luck, thus
mated, are dismissed in my presence: I am after all Anzati.
It is simply and quickly done with the manifest efficiency of my
kind: prehensile proboscii uncoiled from cheek pockets, first inserted,
then insinuated through nostrils into brain. It paralyzes instantly.
I eat his Luck. I drink his soup. I let the body fall.
They will not know when they find him; they never know at first.
That comes later, after, and only if someone cares enough to run a
scan on him. I knit my own nightmare, make my own mythos. A quick,
clean kill; no fuss, no muss.
But assassins by trade 1lave no friends, and no one to care
enough. This is why I kill the killers.
Exterminator. Terminator. Assassin's assassin.
Soup is soup is soup, but sweeter from the container
sitting longest on the shelf.
--oh--it is sweetBut sweet--like Luck, like Chance--is finite.
Always.
And so the cycle begins, ends, begins again, and ends; but there
is always another beginning.
I am Anzat, of the Anzati. You know me now as Dan-nik Jerriko,
but I have many names.
You knew them all as children, forgot them as adults.
Legend is fiction, myth unreal; it is easier to set aside childish
things in the false illumination of adulthood, because the fears of
childhood are always formed of truths. Some truths are harder than
others. Some folk-tales far more frightening.
Let there be no fear. Fear is not what I crave, neither what I
desire. It is corrosive to the palate, like vinegar in place of wine.
Let there be courage, not cowardice; let there be arrogance
aplenty. Self-confidence, not self-doubt; security in one's skills.
And the willingness, the restlessness, the boundless physicality
of the only constant: the testing of one's limitations. Assumption of
risk, not reticence.
The challenge of Chance.
Make me no predictions. Write me no prophecy.
Permit me to take what is best of you, what is best in you.
Let me liberate it. In me you will live forever.
It is not that I want to kill beings.
Yes, I know--you have heard the tales. But this is a truth of the
heart, if you can believe I have one: Beings embellish.
I am not crazed; I do not skulk; I don't drink blood.
I take pride in appearances, pride in my heritage, pride in my
work. It is serious to me, such work; there is no room at all for
error, no latitude for a bad attitude.
Given a legitimate and efficacious way out, I would stop the
killing . . . but I have tried joydrugs, and they are not effective;
the rush is temporary and counterproductive. Synthetic derivatives and
recreations are utterly useless; in fact, such half-measures make me
ill. Which leaves me only one answer, the answer for all Anzati: the
soup in its purest form, freshly exuded and as freshly extracted. It
rots outside of the body.
Which means there must be a body.
It is a mother lode, Mos Eisley, a powerful concentration of
entities of all gender, gathering on private business that now is also
mine. Between jobs, it is vacation, holiday, opportunity to hunt for
myself. To track and find the vessel most capable of satisfying my
palate.
Call me gourmet, if you will; I see no reason not to please myself
between those assignments that, in their completions, in the method of
their completions, serve to please my employers.
I have time. I have wealth. I am in fact quite rich, though I
say nothing of it; credits are a wholly vulgar topic. If you cannot
afford to hire me, you do not even know I exist.
Only one employer, my first, complained about my prices. He was a
hollow man of small imagination . . .
I drank his soup for it, but he left me unsatisfied; the entities
who hire me are usually cowards themselves, incapable of anything
beyond the desire for power and financial reward, and their soup is
dilute. But it served, that death; no one ever again complained.
Loyalty, like Luck, cannot be purchased, only borrowed for a
precontracted space of time in which I serve myself even as I serve
others in furthering the ambitions-or settling the petty squabbles--of
myriad entities.
It is altogether a wholly satisfactory arrangement: My employers
have the pleasure of knowing a certain "annoyance" will no longer
annoy, I drink the soup of the fallen foe, and my employers pay me for
it.
But what the entities do not realize is how transitory my bondage:
It is only the soup to which I am loyal, and the purposes of
extraction.
Other Anzati bind themselves to small lives, lives wholly focused
on hunting. But there is more, so much more; one need only have the
imagination to see what lies out there, and to find a way to take it.
Let them bind themselves. Let them live their small
lives, drinking soup from unworthy vessels. Let me take the best
instead. A heady brew, such soup, far more intoxicating--and therefore
longer-lasting--than the temporary measures that other Anzati rely on.
And meanwhile I am paid to do what I must do.
Yes. Oh, yes. The best of all the worlds.
It is always the spaceports, always the bars. I suppose one might
equally suggest the brothels serve much the same purpose, but in those
places an entirely different sort of business is conducted, transitory
in nature and without much risk taken save in choice of partner and,
perhaps, of mechanics. In bars they drink, they gamble, they deal.
They come here first when a run is completed, seeking such vice
and spice and entertainments as might be purchased in the cantina; and
they come here looking for work. Space pirates, blockade runners,
hired assassins, bounty hunters, even a handful of those involved in
the Rebel Alliance. The Empire has driven the latter out of such
places as they might prefer, altering good-hearted, once-innocent
entities into souls as desperate as others, but with a vision pure and
argent as the double suns of Tatooine, wholly unadulterated by the
harsh realities of the times.
When one believes firmly enough, when conviction is absolute, one
is undaunted by odds. Their soup is very sweet.
Sand chokes. It is an entity of itself, at once coy and
pervasive. It dulls boots, befilths fabric, insinuates itself into the
creases of the flesh. It drives even Anzati to seek relief, and thus I
go indoors, out of the heat of the double suns; and I pause
there--remembering one day many years before, and a corpulent,
unforgiving Hutt --eyes closed to adjust more quickly to wan, ocherous
light, thick and rancid as bantha butter.
It is too much to hope the cantina owner might install more
lights, or improve his Queblux Power Train, identifiable by its
lamentable lack of efficiency and a low, almost inaudible whine. Such
repairs would be at odds with Chalmun's nature, which is dictated by
distrust; deals are done at dusk, not under the fixed, unmitigated
glare of Tatoo I and Tatoo II, conflagrations of eyes in the
countenance of a galaxy that is, much as the Emperor's face, shrouded
within a cowled hood.
Ah, but there is more here, inside, than relief from sand, from
heat. There is the scent, the promise of satiation.
--soup.
It is thick, so thick--at first I am overwhelmed; this is better
than I remembered: so many layers and tastes, the hues, the tints, the
whispers . . . here I may drink
for endless days, replete with satisfaction.
Ahh.
So many entities, so many flavors, so much Luck to eat. Chance is
corporeal here, variety infinite. It is a symphony of soup running hot
and fast and wet, like blood ever on the boil beneath the fragile
tissue of flesh.
I am not droid, the detector says; I am welcome in Chalmun's
cantina. And I laugh in the privacy of my mind, because Chalmun,
contented by his bias, doesn't know there are things in the world more
detestable than droids, which are on the whole inoffensive, unassuming,
and more than a little convenient. But leave a man his bigotry; if
they were all like the Rebel Alliance, so intransigent in honor, the
soup would be weak as gruel.
--soup.
In cheek pockets, proboscii quiver. For an instant, only an
instant, they extrude a millimeter, overcome by the heady aroma
detectable only to Anzati; the others, despite races and genders, are
in all ways unaware. But nothing is earned without anticipation; it is
a fillip wholly invigorating, and worth the self-denial.
Accordingly proboscii withdraw, if resentfully, coiling back into
the pockets beside my nostrils. I brush a film of sand from my
sleeves, tug the jacket into place, and walk down the four steps into
the belly of the bar.
Soup here is plentiful.
Patience will be rewarded.
He is at first disbelieving. A sour, sullen, mud-faced man,
doughy-pale despite double suns, somewhat lumpy and misshapen as if he
were unfinished, or perhaps unmade later in the small hostilities of
his life. A long blob of a swollen nose downturned above a
loose-lipped mouth. His clothing is unkempt, his hair lank and
stringy. He does not remember me.
Courtesy is nonexistent; in Mos Eisley, in Chalmun's cantina from
Chalmun's bartender, none is expected.
"You want what?"
"Water," ! repeat.
Dark eyes narrow minutely. "You know where you
"Oh," I say, smiling, "indeed."
He jerks a spatulate thumb beyond his shoulder. "I got a computer
back there that mixes sixteen hundred varieties of spirits."
"Oh, indeed, so ! would imagine. But I want the one it can't
mix."
He scowls. "Ain't cheap, is it? This is Tatooine. Got the
credits for it?"
His soup is slow, and weak, its scent barely discernible.
He is servant, not the served, not one who acknowledges edges or
assumes risks beyond setting a glass before a patron; he would offer
little pleasure, and less satisfaction.
But there are those who would. And all of them are here.
I withdraw from a pocket a single flat coin. It glints in wan
light: clean, ruddy gold. It is not precisely a credit chip, but it
will nonetheless buy my water. On Tatooine, they know it. In Mos
Eisley they know to fear it.
The bartender moisteus his lips. Eyes slide aside, busying
themselves with glaring at a tiny Chadra-Fan coming up to ask for
libation. "Jabba's marker ain't any good here," he mutters, and
reaches beneath the bar into his hidden reserve to bring forth an
ice-rimed crystal container of costly chilled water.
I leave the coin on the bar. It tells him many things, and will
tell others also;Jabba pays well, and those who work for him--or work
for others who work for him--recognize the tangible evidence of the
Hutt's favor.
It has been a long time. There have been countless other
employers in all sectors of the galaxy, but Jabba is . . . memorable.
Perhaps it is time I sought a second assignment; there are always
failed assassins the Hutt wants killed. He does not suffer
incompetence.
I consider for a moment what it would be like to drink his soup .
. . but Jabba is well guarded, and even an Anzat might find it
difficult to locate within the massy corpulence the proper orifices
into which to insert proboscii.
I shut my hand upon the glass and feel the bite of ice. On
Tatooine, such is luxury. It is not soup, in no way, but worth
anticipation. Even as the bartender turns away to bellow rudely at two
droid-accompanied humans stopped by the detector, I sip slowly,
savoring the water.
Spirits muddle the mind, slow the body, nourish nothing but
weakness. Anzati avoid such things, even as we avoid joydrugs and
synthetics. What is natural is best, even to the soup. There is
strength in what is pure.
There is weakness in vice--and I, after all, should know. In the
freedom of my lifestyle there is also captivity.
There are no bars, no mesh, no energy fields, no containment
capsules. There is instead an imprisonment more insidious than such
things, and as distasteful to an Anzat as soup drunk from a coward.
I drank tainted soup from a tainted man, and assimilated his vice:
the daily need for a proscribed but oft-smuggled offworld substance
known as nic-i-tain, its vector named t'bac.
I am DannikJerikko. Anzat, of the Anzati, and Eater of Luck.
But I never said I was perfect.
It blows up quickly enough--a Tatooine sandstorm ri'from the heart
of the Dune Sea--as bar confrontations do. I pay it no attention
beyond air-scenting for promise; it is there, but muted. ! take my
time preparing my pipe--there is comfort in ritual, satisfaction in
preliminaries~set the mouthpiece between my teeth, then draw in t'bac
smoke deeply. It is a despicable habit, but one that even I have been
unable to break.
Behind me, music wails. Chalmun has hired a band since my last
visit. It is appropriate music for a cantina dim as desert dusk.
Through the malodorous rug of smoke and sweat, the whining melody
waxes and wanes, insidious as dune dust.
--soup-I turn, exhaling evenly; in cheek pockets, proboscii
twitch.
--Soup.
A flare, abrupt and unshielded, wholly raw and un-refined.
It takes me but an instant to mark it, to mark the entity: human,
and young. Fear, defiance, apprehension; a trace of brittle
courage--ah, but he is too young, too inexperienced. Despite the
stubborn .jut of his jaw, the flash of defiance in blue eyes, he has
not lived long enough to know what he risked. He is as yet unripe.
The young know nothing of life, nothing of its dangers, its small
and large hostilities. They know only of the moment, blind to
possibilities; it is not courage in the young, only the folly of youth.
In males it is worse: a bantha-headed intransigence mixed with
hormonal imbalance.
Their soup is immature and wholly unsatisfying.
It is better to let them ripen.
I draw in smoke, hold it, exhale. In the small moment of such
activity the confrontation worsens. Two entities now challenge the
boy: human and Aqualish. It is bar belligerence, born of drink and
insecurity; a foolish attempt to establish dominance over a raw boy
whose inexperience promises shallow entertainment for those amused by
such things. A scuffle ensues, as always; the boy is swiped away to
crash against a table.
Behind it the music stops, cut off in mid-wail. It tells me much
of the band members: Clearly they are unaccustomed to such places as
Chalmun's cantina, or they would know never to stop, Experienced
musicians would play a counterpoint to the shouts, the shrieks, the
squalls, using the cacophony, no matter how atonal, to build a new
melody.
Then a wholly unexpected sound is born, a sound such as I have not
heard for a hundred years: the low-pitched, throbbing hum of an
unsheathed and triggered lightsaber.
I turn instantly, seeking . . . proboscii quiver, extrude,
withdraw reluctantly at my insistence. But they know it even as I know
it: Somewhere in Chalmun's cantina is the vessel I need.
It is a quick, decisive battle, a skirmish soon ended.
With but a single stroke of the lightsaber, the Aqualish is--well,
unarmed. One-armed, if you will.
The boy hangs back. I scent him again, wild and uncontrolled.
But there is more here now, far more than expected, hovering at
the edges, tantalizing me with its presence, with the repression of its
power . . .
and then I see the old man quietly putting away the lightsaber,
and I realize what he is.
A Master despite his reticence, seeking no battles in word or
deed; Master of what is, in such times, left wholly unspoken, lest the
Emperor suspect. But I know what he is: Jedi. I could not but know.
He is too disciplined, too well shielded against such intrusions
as Anzati probing, and in that very shielding the truth, to me, is
obvious.
I leave it its due: unspoken. I see no need to speak it.
Let him be what he is; no one else will suspect. He is safe a
while longer.
The boy has earned my study. If they have true business together
it is information worth knowing. If the old man has taken a pupil
there is indeed cause to fear --if you are part of the Empire, and
recall the old ways.
If not, as I am not--save I recall the old days, the even older
ways--it matters not at all. Unless you care to count the coinJabba
would pay, or others, including Darth Vader.
Including the Emperor.
Braggadocio. It is a staple of such places, the ritual boasting
of entity to entity to save face, or to build face; to request a place
in the world, or to make a place; an attempt to create of oneself
something more than what one is.
There are those who are indeed more--as Anzat I am far more than
anyone might suspect (or comfortably imagine)--but only rarely do they
resort to braggadocio, because everyone else knows who they are and
what they have done. To say anything at all is redundancy, which
dilutes the deeds.
But even those most skilled, even those most notorious may well be
pressed to resort to braggadocio in the implacable face of a Jedi
Master dubious of those deeds. Such entities as the old man can reduce
the strongest to creche-born, and with little said or done.
The band has recovered itself, or is under pain of reduced payment
if the musicians do not immediately resume playing. The music, less
strident now, mutes all conversations but those closest to me, but I
need not rely on words and tone for information. In braggadocio is
often borne the scent of soup.
I exhale, feel proboscii quiver, turn slowly to take my measure of
the cantina. The direction is easily gained, and as I mark it I cannot
help but smile; the old man and his pupil have gone into one of the
cubicles. It is not them I scent now, but those with whom they speak:
a hulking Wookiee, and a humanoid male.
--soup-It boils up quickly, powerfully, so quickly and so
powerfully I cannot help but mark it. It leaves me breathless.
Not the old Jedi, who is disciplined, and shielded.
Not the boy, who is young and unripe. Not the Wookiee, who is
passive in all but loyalty. The humanoid.
The Corellian.
Anzati are long-lived. Memory abides.
A curl of smoke winds its way from my pipe.
Through the wreath of it I smile. He is wanted, as is the Wookie,
but all entities in Chalmun's cantina are wanted somewhere. Even I am
wanted, or would be; no one knows who or what I am, or what I am wanted
for, and in that there is continuance.
I am careful in the hunt, always meticulous in those details
others ignore, and too often die of; I require confirmation. I commit
nothing until I am certain.
In this instance confirmation and certainty need little time and
less patience. The Jedi and his pupil depart, but are immediately
replaced by a Rodian. He is nervous. His soup is so insubstantial as
to be nonexistent; he is servant, not served.
He is coward. He is fool. He is incompetent. He is slow to
commit himself. And thus he is dead in a burst of contraband blaster
in the hand of a wholly committed and consummate pirate.
--soup-I exult even as proboscii twitch expectantly. It is here,
here--and now, right now, this moment . . . the huc, the tint, the
whisper, the shout, the evanescence of soup incarnate, enfieshed and
unshielded, and rich, so rich-I need only to go and to get it, to drink
it, to embrace as Anzati embrace, to dance the dance with the Corellian
whose soup is thick, and hot, and sweet, sweeter by far than any I have
tasted for too long a timeNow.
NOW.
But haste dilutes fulfillment. Let there be time, and patience.
--such soup The band wails on. There is the sharp scent of smoke;
the acrid tang of sweat; the smut-dusty stench of dune sand, of city
sand; the blatancy of blaster death but newly encountered, redolent of
the Rodian's cowardice and stupidity. It was a poor death worth no
comment; he will not be mourned even by the entity who hired him.
He is--was--the Hutt's, of course. Need you ask?
There is none other who would dare to hire assassins in Mos
Eisley, on Tatooine.
None but Lord Vader, and the Emperor.
But they are not here. Only Jabba.
The Hutt is in all things; is of himself all things, and
everywhere, on Tatooine, in Mos Eisley, in Chalmun's canuna.
--such soupA final inhalation of t'bac, sucked deep inside and
savored, as is the moment, the knowledge, the need itself savored. A
brief glare of searing sunlight illuminates the interior as the
Corellian pirate and his Wookiee companion depart with alacrity
Chalmun's premises, wary of Imperial repercussions. It is Jabba's
spaceport in all but name, and that name is the Emperor's, who need
know nothing of such dealings as the Hutt's; or who knows, and does not
care.
It is dusk again inside. They will clear the body away; and
someone will report to Jabba that his hireling is dead.
Has reported; he knows it by now, and by whose
hand it was done.
--such soup-But what sense in paying for it of my own pocket?
Jabba's is deeper.
Indeed, the Hutt will pay well. But it is I who will drink the
soup.
--such soup Proboscii quiver as I exhale the twinned smokestream
slowly, steadily, with quiet satisfaction and the frisson of my own
soup as it leaps in anticipation.
Han Solo ~ soupAh, but it will be a hunt worth the hunting . . .
and soup such as I--even Dannik Jerriko, Anzat of the Anzati,
Eater of Luck, of Chance--have never, ever known.
At the Crossroads: The Spacer's Tale by Jerry ORion
T
he Infinity was hot in more ways than one. BoShek smiled as he
prepared to drop out of hyperspace over Tatooine. He'd just beat
Solo's time on the Kessel run.
Of course he was running empty, bringing in just the ship to have
its transponder codes altered, but even so, it would be fun to tell the
braggart Corellian and his furry sidekick he'd broken their record.
The cockpit fit like a glove around him. He could reach all the
controls from the single pilot's chair, and everything was right where
instinct made him reach first. The windows wrapped around to give him
almost a full circle of view, and a heads-up Holo filled in the gap to
the rear. In his three years of piloting smugglers' ships for the
monastery-cum-forging operation, BoShek had never flown one so well
designed as this.
The computer counted down the last few seconds, then automatically
switched to the sublight engines.
Elongated starlines snapped back to points of light, and high to
the left the bright yellow-white disk of Tatooine swelled into being.
Holy bantha breath, it was close! Another second in hyper and
he'd have popped out underground.
He swung around so the navcomputer could get a
straight shot at the orbiting beacons, but he was willing to bet
it already knew where they were. Sure enough, within seconds the
planetary image in the navscreen filled with longitude and latitude
lines, then showed a sparse dotting of oases and settlements across the
desert planet.
Mos Eisley was about a third of an orbit away.
BoShek was just about to accelerate toward it when the navcomputer
buzzed a warning and two bright white wedges slid into view from around
the curve of the planet. Imperial Star Destroyers. BoShek glanced out
the windows and shuddered. They were so big he could actually see them
with the naked eye.
Where had they come from? Tatooine was so far off the beaten
track, the Empire hardly ever sent a tax collector, much less a pair of
warships. Somebody must have caused some major trouble while he was
gone.
And now their trouble was his too, because the Infinity was still
running under hot transponder codes. If the Imperials bothered to scan
for its engines' unique emission signature--and they no doubt
would---then they would know it was a smuggler's ship, wanted
throughout the galaxy for tariff violation, tax evasion, gun-running,
and dozens of other crimes. The fact that BoShek was merely piloting
it to Tatooine for someone else wouldn't save him in a trial. If he
ever got a trial.
For that matter, neither the monastery nor the Infinity ~ owners
would be happy with him if he let the Empire confiscate the ship. His
job was to 'bring it in undetected so the monastery's technicians could
alter its codes and give it a clean record, not to lose it to the first
patrol that happened along.
Without hesitation, he aimed straight down and accelerated hard.
In space he wouldn't stand a chance against the destroyers'
short-range TIE fighters, but down in the atmosphere, with the planet
to help confuse their sensors, he might be able to lose them.
Tatooine grew from a sphere to a close, mottled wall.
The Infinity began rocking gently as it reached the top of the
atmosphere, then a bright flash came from the starboard side and the
ship suddenly lurched to port.
The destroyers had opened fire.
BoShek kept the Infinity aimed straight down, diving deep before
he leveled out, knowing that the more air he put between him and the
destroyers, the more shielding he would have from their turbolasers.
His passage left a glowing, ionized wake behind him, but when he
slowed to just a few times the speed of sound he left no trace.
He wasn't free yet, though. Four TIE fighters from the warships
arced into the atmosphere after him, and their closer range made up for
the air's energy absorption.
The Infinity once again shuddered under Imperial fire.
Fortunately, they weren't trying to kill him yet. Confident that
he couldn't get away, they were just trying to disable the ship and
force him down. They were probably even trying to contact him by
radio, but BoShek left the receiver switched off. Any transmission he
could make would only give them his voiceprint; as it was, if he could
lose them he might remain anonymous.
He shoved the throttles forward again, at the same time
corkscrewing down and underneath the fighters to skim the sand. He was
over the vast Dune Sea, far to the west of civilization; the wavelike
dunefield erupted into clouds of roiling sand as his shock wave passed
over it.
Lining up directly behind him for another salvo, the flat-winged
fighters plowed straight through the clouds, the airborne particles
etching away their instruments and control surfaces and pitting their
windows.
They immediately rose up above the billowing sand, but BoShek
chose that moment to pull back on the throttles, letting them overshoot
him. He banked left, waited until they had committed to a left turn,
then banked hard right and shoved the throttles down again, racing for
the Jundland Wastes to the east.
The TIE fighters were catching up again by the time the jagged
canyonland slid toward him over the horizon. BoShek dodged a few last
energy bolts, then dived into the first canyon he reached and wove his
way up it at top speed. The Infinity handled like a dream, hugging the
ground as if on rails, but the TIE fighters were just as maneuverable.
Only the damage they'd taken in the sand cloud kept them from catching
him.
Then one of them made a mistake. Closing in for a crippling shot,
it crossed into the Infinity ~ shock wave, and the turbulence against
its wide vertical wings tossed it like a leaf into the side of the
canyon. The explosion sent another fighter into the ground, leaving
only two to follow him.
Losing half their number had changed the rules, though. Now they
weren't shooting just to cripple; they were out for blood. BoShek
frowned as he tried to think of a way to take them out first, but the
Infinity was built for speed, not fighting.
Fleetingly, he thought of calling upon the Force, of trying to use
its ancient mystical powers to throw his pursuers off, but he knew it
would be useless. He'd been meditating and concentrating on the Force
ever since he'd heard of it from one of the few real monks at the
monastery in Mos Eisley, but he'd never yet gotten any indication that
it even existed, other than a faint awareness of other people's
presence from time to time. The old Jedi might have been able to draw
from it to subdue their enemies a long time ago, but the Force hadn't
protected them from the advancing Empire. No, he needed something more
concrete, something physical he could do to escape.
Then he remembered a story Solo had told him once, about how he'd
faked out a bounty hunter in an asteroid belt. Yeah. The same thing
might work here.
He led the fighters deeper and deeper into the canyon, until its
high walls boxed them in on either side.
The Infinity shuddered under more and more impacts, and a flashing
light on the instrument board warned of a shield about to fail, but
instead of speeding up, BoShek intentionally slowed down. He rested
his finger on the emergency escape-pod launch button, and just as he
rounded a sharp bend, he hit it. The escape pod blew free and
continued straight into the canyon wall, where its fuel supply exploded
in a spectacular fireball. BoShek kept his eye on the heads-up
rearview, but neither of the TIE fighters emerged from the flames.
Either they'd been swallowed up in the explosion, or they'd pulled
up and were circling around to examine what they no doubt assumed was
the wreckage of the entire Infinity.
Smiling, BoShek pulled up out of the canyon, aimed straight east,
then cut his engines compleVely. He had enough velocity to fly
ballistic all the way to Mos Eisley if he had to, and with his engines
dead the TIE fighters would never spot him.
"Solo," he said aloud in the close control cabin, "I owe you a
drink."
BoShek knew right where to find him, too. Whenever the Millennium
Falcon was on planet, either Solo or Chewbacca--and sometimes
both--would be at the Mos Eisley Cantina, trying to drum up business.
After he'd dropped off the Infinity at the monastery, leaving
instructions for the mechanics to modify its engine transponders
immediately, BoShek headed straight there, not even taking the time to
change out of his flight suit first. The monastery was south of the
city's center; he stopped for a moment at the ancient wreckage of the
first colony ship, the Dowager Queen, to pass a sealed note from the
abbot to one of the street preachers there, then hurried on.
The streets were lousy with stormtroopers, but they didn't seem to
be looking for BoShek. He saw four of them hassling an old hermit and
a kid and two droids in a beat-up old landspeeder, but they evidently
weren't too interested in them either, because they let them go after
just a few questions. BoShek ducked into the cantina before the
stormtroopers could take an interest in him.
It took his eyes a minute to adjust to the dark interior , but
Chewbacca was easy to spot, towering above the other beings at the bar
the way he did. BoShek wove his way through the crowd and leaned up
against the bar next to him.
"I beat your record," he said without preamble.
Chewbacca grunted the Wookiee equivalent of "Get lost," but then
BoShek's voice registered and he turned his head to ask what record
BoShek meant.
"The Kessel run," BoShek said, grinning. "I beat your time by a
tenth, and ! had to take out four TIE fighters when I got here to
boot."
Chewbacca growled appreciatively. He howled a long, ululating
phrase that BoShek translated as "You'd better not let the customers
catch you wringing out their ships, or they'll start taking their
business elsewhere."
"Hey, we're the best there is, and you know it," BoShek told him.
He waved at the bartender, who shot him a surly look and turned
away.
"So how's the Falcon holding up? You need another code job yet?"
The Wookiee shook his shaggy head, then hooted in laughter. He
howled another phrase that BoShek tentatively translated as: "After
what you charged us last time, we've been keeping our noses clean.
It's cheaper."
"Think of it as life insurance," BoShek said, echoing the abbot's
favorite sales pitch. He was about to shout at the bartender when he
felt an unmistakable awareness of someone behind him. It was the
strongest presence he'd ever felt.
He turned as casually as he could and saw the old hermit and the
boy in the doorway. The hermit's eyes met his, and just a hint of a
smile showed on his grizzled face. Leaving the boy with their droids,
he walked straight up to BoShek and said in an astonishingly rich
voice, "May the Force be with you, my friend."
The Force? Had he really felt it just now? "I--uh--thanks,"
BoShek stuttered. "How did you know.... ?"
"Your struggles are as plain as words for someone who is trained
to see them. I could teach you much, but I fear my time here is short.
I need passage off the planet. However, since I believe you have
a ship perhaps we could further both our quests at once.
BoShek could hardly believe what he was hearing.
This old guy was practically reading his mind. BoShek had never
told anyone about his fascination with the Force, yet here came this
complete stranger who picked up on it immediately. But he'd gotten
part of BoShek's story wrong. "I wish I did have a ship," he said.
"But I'm just a pilot."
"Ah, that's a pity," said the hermit. "Perhaps when I
return we can discuss the Force anyway."
"Yeah, maybe we can."
Chewbacca growled softly, and BoShek took the hint. "I do know
someone with a ship who might be willing to take on passengers,
though," he said, nodding toward the Wookiee.
"I see. Thank you." The hermit glanced toward Chewbacca, then
looked back at BoShek and said, "I'll leave you with one piece of
advice: Beware the dark side. Your role here on the edge of society
has put you in a very ambiguous position, one that you must resolve
before you can continue in your journey. Only the pure of heart can
ever hope to wield the Force's power with any success."
"Thanks, I think," BoShek said.
"You're welcome."
It was clearly a dismissal, so BoShek bowed out with a nod to
Chewbacca, letting them discuss business while he went around to the
other side of the bar to get the bartender's attention.
He'd finally managed to get a drink and was casting about to see
if he could spot Solo when the old man pulled a lightsaber on a
walrus-faced Aqualish and an even worse looking human, and BoShek got
knocked over in the rush to give them room. The Aqualish lost an arm
in the fight, and the old man gained a wide zone of respect,' but
BoShek didn't care about either one of them at the moment, being
occupied with wiping a pint of bitter off the front of his flight suit.
Bloody brawls were nothing new in the cantina, and aside from the
old man's lightsaber this one was nothing special, but enough of the
other bar patrons had spilled their drinks that it took BoShek another
ten minutes to get served again. By then he'd spotted Solo, but the
Corellian was already deep in conversation with the old man and the
boy, so he sat back down at the bar and waited his turn. Maybe he
could learn something more from Solo about the old guy after they were
done.
While he waited, he tried asking around to find out what all the
stormtroopers were doing in town, but nobody would admit to knowing.
The Imperial troops had simply swooped down from their Star
Destroyers a couple of days ago and set up roadblocks all over town,
and in most of the other towns surrounding the Jund-land Wastes as
well. They were looking for something, but nobody knew what.
A couple of them came into the cantina, shining conspicuously in
their white body armor. BoShek looked over to see how the hermit and
the kid would react to their presence, but they were already gone. He
stood up to go take their place at Solo's table, but first the
stormtroopers, then a long-nosed, green-skinned Rodian, beat him to it.
Solo was a popular guy today.
The Rodian held a blaster pointed straight at Solo's chest.
BoShek slipped his own blaster out of its holster, ready to help
if it looked as though Solo needed it, but then he saw something that
made him reholster his weapon and watch with amusement. Slowly, almost
imperceptibly, Solo was drawing his own blaster under the table.
Sure enough, when he got it free of its holster, he gave a little
shrug as if to say "So long, sucker," and fired right through the table
at the Rodian, who collapsed forward on the smoking remains.
Solo stood up, flipped a couple of credits to the bartender, and
stalked out before BoShek could catch his
STAR ~VARS ~ 302
attention. He downed his drink and followed him out, but he had
barely made it out the door when he felt someone grab his arm and an
authoritative voice said, "All right, hold it right there, spaceman."
He turned slowly to see a local cop pointing a blaster at him.
"What's the problem?" he asked, keeping his voice as
uncont?ontational as he could manage.
The cop scowled. "The problem is, a wanted starship ran an
Imperial blockade, dusted four interceptors in the process, and landed
here in town just a litde while ago. Darth Vader's on one of the
battleships and wants somebody's head for it, and yours looks about the
right size to me. You're still suited up; how 'bout you and me have a
little chat down at the station?"
Only his years of practice at talking his way through customs
allowed BoShek to keep his expression neutral.
Inside, he was close to panic. If they got him under a
mind-probe, they'd know for sure he'd done it, and there was a good
chance he'd blow the monastery's cover as well. Either way, he was
dead.
Forcing himself to sound calm, he shrugged and said, "You've got
the wrong pilot, I'm afraid, and there's a whole bar full of people in
there who can prove it. I've been here all afternoon."
The cop hesitated, looking into the dark doorway, and when he
squinted to see inside, BoShek lashed out with a foot and kicked the
blaster out of his hands. He followed with a punch to the side of the
head, putting all his weight behind it, and the cop collapsed like a
shorted droid.
The blaster clattered to the ground a few steps away.
BoShek lunged for it but lost the race to a pair of Jawas, who
scurried away with their prize and quickly disappeared among the dozens
of taller aliens on the street. BoShek didn't particularly care; he
had his own blaster if it came to that, and as long as the cop didn't,
he was happy. He turned and walked nonchalantly--but quickly--away
from the cantina toward the city's central plaza and the thickest
crowds.
He had only made it across the street and down half
a block to the wrecked Dowager Queen when he heard a shout behind
him. Few of the street's inhabitants even looked up, since shouts from
the cantina were a regular thing, but BoShek quickened his stride
toward the old colony ship's rusted hulk.
Twisted girders arched out over the packed dirt, awnings tied
between some of them providing shade for the crowds gathered to listen
to the street preachers pontificating from the upper levels. Ruptures
in the hull and busted portholes provided glimpses into the ship's dark
interior, from which the red glow of Jawa eyes peered outward.
BoShek ducked inside the sagging cargo lock. The hold smelled
strongly of Jawas, but he didn't care. The more the merrier, in fact.
He stepped over vagrants and preachers resting in the shade,
pushing past them until he was well hidden from the street. In the dim
light filtering in through holes in the hull, he stripped off his
flight suit and flung it farther into the darkness, keeping only the
tool belt with all his personal belongings.
A chorus of growls and high-pitched chattering erupted as the
wreck's inhabitants quarreled over their new prize.
His gray suit liner was a little less of a beacon for the police,
but it still wasn't very good camouflage. BoShek knelt down beside one
of the vagrants and said, "Ten credits for your cloak." That was far
more than it was worth, and they both knew it. Without a word the
vagrant tugged off his rough brown robe and handed it over. BoShek
paid him and wrapped himself up in the noxious-smelling garment, then
pushed back toward the door.
He had underestimated the cop's tenacity. He had eviOently seen
BoShek slip into the wreckage, and was now standing at the edge of the
crowd with a small boot-top blaster in his hand. The crowd had thinned
considerably under the policeman's glare; BoShek didn't think he'd be
able to hide among the few people left.
He turned and reentered the ship. There had to be
another way out of it. He stumbled over more bodies,
circumnavigating the cargo hold, but all he found was a ramp leading up
a level. Thinking maybe there would be a stairway back down over the
outer hull, he climbed the ramp, but it only led to the observation
deck from which half a dozen preachers harangued the crowd below.
From his new vantage, BoShek saw reinforcements coming to the
first cop's aid. He was trapped, They obviously weren't going to.
drop it, not with the Empire breathing down their necks. They
needed a sacrificial suspect to deliver to the stormtroopers, and they
weren't about to let him get away now. Which meant they wouldn't rest
until they'd swept through [he entire ship. BoShek looked around
frantically, but there was no place to hide. The observation deck was
even more open than the cargo hold. It had been gutted of everything
that could be unbolted or torn loose, leaving just an empty floor with
blasted-out windows spaced evenly around it. All but one of the window
frames had a preacher standing before it, facing outward toward the
people on the street below. None of the preachers were from the
monastery; BoShek wondered why until he remembered the note he'd
dropped off here on his way to the cantina. The abbot must have called
them in for some kind of conference.
With no place to hide and no friends to help him, he could see
only one possibility. He bent down and smeared his hands along the
floor near the wall, then wiped the grimy black goo he gathered there
on his cheeks and forehead, darkening his complexion and making his
face fit his clothing. Then he stepped to the window and said in a
quavering voice he hoped sounded old and wizened, "Brothers, sisters,
friends, and aliens; beware the dark side of the Force!"
A few of the people below him looked up, squinting into the sun,
and BoShek realized why this particular window was empty. Tatooine's
twin suns were directly behind him from the vantage of anyone below;
not a good location for a preacher interested in gathering a following.
It was perfect for BoShek, though. He pulled his hood over his
head so nobody could get a good look at him from the side, then he
cleared his throat and began his sermon.
Despite living at a monastery, he knew almost nothing about the
religion they preached. He spent his time in the underground
ship-alteration complex, not in the cathedral the monks had set up to
establish their cover. He knew their doctrine was all based on the
divinity of banthas or some such crock, and had been borrowed from a
group of true believers who lived out in the wilderness, but he had no
idea how it all tied together. Far better, he thought, to preach
something he at least knew a little about, though he didn't suppose it
really mattered. Who listened to street preachers, anyway?
Remembering what the old man in the cantina had told him, he said,
"Only the pure of heart can ever hope to achieve true mastery of the
Force." A few more faces looked up, then away. BoShek spread his arms
wide. "You must open yourselves up to salvation.
You must cleanse yourselves, make peace with your inner natures,
and accept the Force as your guiding principle."
The preacher to his right had stopped his own sermon to listen.
BoShek smiled nervously at him, then went on. "When you surrender
yourselves to the Force, you deliver your lives unto the greatest power
in the universe. With it you can move mountains, see the future, and
find eternal life." Hah, he thought, this preaching stuff wasn't that
hard. Just string all the buzzwords together, and you had it.
Another of the preachers fell silent. BoShek wasn't sure he liked
their attention, but the cops had moved to surround the ship, and he
could hear the commotion in the cargo hold as they began their search.
And now, attracted to a scene of trouble like flying insects to
light, a stormtrooper patrol was also heading toward the ship.
BoShek pulled his robe closer about him and leaned farther out the
window, saying, "Repent! Dig deep into your hearts, and the truth
shall set you free!"
"Be silent," the priest on his right hissed. BoShek noted that he
wore a robe considerably cleaner than his own, and his fingers and
wrists were spangled with gold rings and bracelets. Preaching was
evidently good business.
"Be silent yourself," BoShek told him. He could hear the cops
ascending the ramp now. "On second thought, don't be. Preach, or
we're both going to be saying of~r prayers in jail." He turned back to
the window and said to the crowd below, "There are disbelievers among
you, people who deny the existence of the Force, or say that it's
weakened with time and no longer useful in these modern days, but I say
to you, every living creature that is born increases the power of the
Force."
The preacher who had shushed him glanced warily down the ramp,
then turned back to his window and picked up where he'd left off,
saying in a voice loud enough to drown out BoShek completely, "Consider
the banthas of the dunefields. They quail not; neither do they sting.
They are the holiest of beasts . . ."
Oh, boy. This guy was the real item. BoShek was glad he hadn't
tried to fake the monastery religion, although the preacher didn't seem
too thrilled to be hearing a competing doctrine, either. Well, it
couldn't be helped; BoShek was committed now.
The other preacher resumed his spiel too, offering to heal anyone
who tossed him money.
BoShek gladly let them drown him out, babbling on about the Force
merely to keep up his cover. He could sense the cops behind him, three
of them sweeping blast rifles around the observation deck. He closed
his eyes and wished for a miracle, wished that they would just turn
around and march back down the ramp and go away.
A high-pitched Jawa voice chittered angrily from below.
The unmistakable crack of blaster fire made BoShek nearly leap out
the window, but he realized just in time that the shooting had come
from outside, too. He leaned out and peered around the curve of the
hull, and could just see the Jawa lying in a smoking heap on the
ground. The patrol squad of white-or-mored stormtroopers stood in the
middle of the square, waving their blast rifles around menacingly, but
no one else fired.
The cops behind BoShek rushed back down the ramp to investigate.
BoShek leaned against the window frame for support, his legs
suddenly weak. Whatever the Jawa had done, its noisy death had
distracted the cops long enough for him to escape.
He turned to go, only to meet a gold-ringed fist with his face.
He staggered back and landed hard on the floor. "Mock us, will
you?"
the preacher snarled at him, aiming a kick at his ribs that BoShek
barely dodged.
The other preachers quickly joined the first in kicking and
hitting him. "Here's for trying to make people laugh at us!" one of
them said as he nearly wrenched BoShek's arm from its socket. "And
here's for leading the militia up here," another said.
BoShek scrambled to 'his feet, trying to explain.
"No, wait, I didn't mean to--" But they weren't interested in
excuses. Under continual pummeling, he covered his head and dived for
the ramp, rolled halfway down it, and came up running. He thought the
preachers would leave it at that, but two of them chased him right out
of the wreck and out into the plaza, where the police, gathered around
the Jawa's corpse, turned to see what this new commotion was.
"That's him!" the cop he'd knocked down shouted, and he snapped
off a blaster shot that just missed BoShek's head, blowing a rusty
attitude jet off the side of the wreck instead. BoShek leaped over the
jet and dashed around the curve of the hull; then when he had its bulk
between him and his pursuers, he sprinted straight down the street
toward the thickest crowd he could see: the buyers and sellers in front
of the Jawa trading center.
The preachers were still hot on his tail, which was the only thing
that kept him from getting a blaster bolt in the back. The police were
evidently reluctant to shoot a bona ride religious leader, even by
accident, probably fearing the trouble their followers would cause in
retribution.
Taking advantage of their hesitation, BoShek ran past the traders
and on down the street toward the used-landspeeder lot. He thought
briefly of dodging through the speeders and trying to lose his pursuers
that way, but as he drew closer he saw the triangular-headed Arconan
dealer gloating over a deal he had just made, and he realized his
salvation was at hand.
Running up to the speeder the Arconan had bought --a battered
XP-38A with two engines on the side and a third up on a fin in back--he
tossed a fistful of credits at the surprised alien, then leaped into
the driver's seat and shouted over his shoulder, "I'm taking it for a
test drive!"
"No, wait! What do yoi~ think you're--" the Ar-conan wailed, but
BoShek didn't stick around to argue.
The engines were still running; he jammed the accelerator on full
and zoomed away, nearly running over a cylindrical droid before he
swerved the speeder farther out into the street.
The cops took a couple of wild shots at him, but the energy bolts
only succeeded in making the people in the street dive for cover.
BoShek zoomed down the clear avenue, took the corner at the end of
the block at full speed, and continued on.
Two blocks farther, he slowed for another corner, then proceeded
at a more normal speed to the next corner, where he turned again and
tried to blend into what little vehicle traffic there was. His zigzag
course was leading him in a loop around Docking Bay 94.
Good. The jumbled streets dead-ending at the bay would keep the
police busy for a long time, if they even bothered to look for him
anymore.
He was thinking about ditching the speeder and heading back to the
monastery when he turned another corner and found himself gliding
toward a patrol of four stormtroopers who stood blocking the street.
One of the troopers raised a hand with his palm out, indicating
that BoShek should stop.
They didn't have their rifles drawn, which meant they were
probably just stopping everyone on the street for questioning. Even
so, there was no way BoShek could get past them or turn around and flee
before they could unsliug their blasters and take him out. He forced
himself to let up on the accelerator and drift to a stop before the
troopers, all the while frantically trying to think of a way out of
this latest predicament.
"What's your business here?" the patrol leader asked him. His
voice was distorted by the full battle helmet he wore, and the bubble
lenses of his visor kept BoShek from seeing where he was looking.
"I'm, uh, just headed down to the cantina," BoShek told him.
"I see. Is this your landspeeder?"
"I'm test-driving it," BoShek said.
"A likely story. Let's see yourw" The stormtrooper's words were
drowned out by the roar of a ship taking off under full thrust. BoShek
winced at the blast as the ship cleared the rooftops, then did a double
take when he recognized its outline. It was the Millennium Falcon.
Looks like the old man must have made it, he thought.
Too bad, in a way; he could have used a little bit of his luck
right now.
But it wasn't luck, was it? The guy knew about the Force, and by
the way he talked and the way he handled a lightsaber, he was a master
at it. He'd probably used its power to manipulate his way past all the
obstacles.
A little roadblock like this would hardly make him sweat.
Well, BoShek was sweating plenty. The storm-troopers had all
turned to watch the ship blast free, but they would be bringing their
attention back to him soon enough.
Go check out the docking bay, BoShek thought at them.
Go bother somebody else. Whatever, just let me go.
What had the old man told him about the Force?
"Beware the dark side," he'd said. "Only the pure of heart can
ever hope to wield the Force's power with any success." And he'd told
BoShek he'd have to resolve his role here on the edge of society before
he could continue his journey.
Great. Stealing the landspeeder had probably nixed whatever
chance he'd ever had at using the Force.
But he hadn't actually stolen it, now had he? He'd tossed the
Arconan who'd bought it at least fifty credits, and while it was true
that he'd only been hoping to keep the landspeeder dealer from raising
the alarm for a few minutes, he could still take it back.
All ~ght, he thought, directing his thoughts out into the vastness
of space where he imagined the Force accumulated.
I'll take the speeder back just as soon as I get free, and I'll
quit running hot ships for smugglers and I'll clean up the rest of my
act, as long as you get me out of this mess.
He didn't really expect it to work. The Force wasn't some
judgmental god deciding a person's fate; like the old man had implied,
the Force just was. It didn't care what BoShek promised. The power to
manipulate it came from within, and BoShek wasn't foolish enough to
believe he had reached internal harmony in the last few seconds. But
maybe, just maybe, he had changed enough to make a difference.
He concentrated all his effort on the stormtroopers, willing them
to let him go, and he was almost sure he felt something, a twinge of
awareness directed toward them. An answering sensation came back, as
if they too possessed some rudiments of the Force, or had once been
exposed to it. They seemed to feel his touch; all four of them turned
in unison to regard the land-speeder again.
BoShek could hardly breathe. Fog your brains, he thought at them.
Forget I'm here.
"How long have you had these droids?" the storm-trooper captain
asked.
"Huh?" BoShek turned his head toward the passenger seat,
wondering how he could have missed seeing a droid there, but save for
himself the speeder was empty.
"I," he said, but the trooper cut him off.
"Let me see your identification."
Here we go, BoShek thought. He reached slowly for his belt,
wondering if he could grab his blaster and take out all four troopers,
but the captain's next words stopped him cold.
"We don't need to see his identification," he said to the others.
"These aren't the droids we're looking Bewildered, BoShek could
only say, "That's...
uh, that's good."
"You can go about your business," the trooper said.
He waved his arms in dismissal. "Move along."
BoShek's field of vision was shot full of tracers from the sudden
rush of relief. He had to take a deep breath to keep from fainting,
but he managed to urge the landspeeder forward and around the corner
before he pulled it to a stop and collapsed back against the seat.
He had no idea what had just happened, except for one thing: The
Force was real, and he had somehow manipulated the stormtroopers with
it.
But not without a price. He imagined the old man, probably half a
light-year away by now, still watching over him somehow, waiting to see
if he would follow through on his promise.
Would he? It was hardly a question. BoShek had been given a
glimpse of something vast, something at once wonderful and terrifying.
Beware the dark side, the old man had told him, and BoShek knew
the warning was sincere. He could use this newfound power of his for
good or for evil, but once he made the choice, there would be no going
back.
He was standing at a crossroads, and whatever decision he made now
would affect the rest of his life.
Smiling for the first time in what seemed like hours, he started
the landspeeder and began driving it back to its rightful owner.
Doctor Death:
The Tale of Dr. Evazan and Ponda Baba by Kenneth C. Flint
T
he odd scraping sound could be heard even above the distant rumble
of thunder.
One of the two figures seated at the dining table twisted around,
cocking its head to listen.
"What's that?" a gruff voice demanded. "Rover, go check!"
Something shifted in a shadowed corner. A mass slid forward with
a wet, sucking sound, coming into the light. It was a gelatinous form,
a mucuslike mass of greasily shining bile-green that humped and
slithered itself over the floor as a ring of slender, bulb-tipped
stalks wavered atop the rounded mass. It oozed on across the width of
the long dining room toward one of the arched window openings in the
far wall.
"I wouldn't have believed a Meduza could be trained at all," the
second figure at the table remarked with some surprise.
The first man turned back to the guest seated across the dining
table from him. "On the contrary, Senator.
It's quite easy to train. One of the most malleable species I've
found, in fact. I wish there were more like it."
The man's face was obscured by a massive scar disfig-urin.g the
right side, leaving the right eye a slit in the sagging flesh and
flattening out the nose, giving him a piggish look.
"I can unfortunately imagine what things you wish for, Dr.
Evian," the Aqualish senator replied with a shudder of revulsion.
Generally humanoid, he had walruslike features, with large, liquid
black eyes and thick, incurving tusks. Short bristling whiskers lined
the stubby snout that was split by a wide, thin mouth.
The senator lifted a hand to clutch the glass before him. The
hand was finlike, fingerless, but with an opposable thumb. It marked
him as a member of the more prominent of the two Aqualish races, and
thus belonging to their ruling classes. He drank deeply of the dark
green Artdoan ale within the glass as he watched Rover nervously.
The gelatinous creature had by now reached one of the window
openings. Heaving itself into a higher peak, it poised a moment, its
bulbed stalks jerking about as if sniffing the air.
Beyond the opening, the vast sea of the water planet of Ando
stretched away to a gray-black horizon. In the boiling storm clouds
that hung there, spectacular lightning flickered and flared to light
the towering thunderheads.
The deep boom of thunder rolled across the gale-churned waves to
rebound from the sheer stone walls of the spired castle perched high
upon the cliffs. Hundreds of meters below the castle window, fists of
massive waves slammed themselves against the base of the rocky isle,
splaying to white fingers that grabbed fu-rllely upward.
The full magnificence of the wild scene was somewhat obscured by a
shimmering scrim of light created by the energy shield that formed a
screen across each opening.
The bloblike creature sank back down. Its pod-tipped stalks
turned toward Evazan at once and waved to him, as if in urgent signal.
Dr. Evazan cocked the remaining eyebrow above his left eye. His
half-blasted face expressed no other sign of emotion.
"You might just want to drop down under the table now," he told
his guest in a quite matter-of-fact voice.
The Aqualish senator stared in astonishment as one of Evazan's
hands appeared from tinder the table clutching a blaster pistol. The
other hand lifted to punch one button on a small tabletop console, and
then a second.
All the lights went out.
Simultaneously a sizzling sound came from beyond the windows, and
the energy screens of three openings were punctured inward as three
forms dived through them from outside.
The senator gave a shrill honk of terror and dived beneath the
thick tabletop.
The three forms hit the floor, rolled, and came instantly to their
feet. A flicker of distant lightning illuminated three humanoid shapes
as they lifted blaster rifles to fire.
Evazan was already rolling from his chair toward the shelter of a
conform lounge. He fired as he went, his bolt striking one of the
three forms squarely.
The attacker let out a grunt of pain as he staggered and went
down. The other two dived for cover. Bolts from opposing weapons
crisscrossed the dark room,
cracking into stone walls and ripping through furnishings.
One of the attackers was so intent on hitting Evazan, he was not
aware of something creeping up---not until a liquid sound made him whip
about just as Rover lunged.
The intruder had no chance for defense as the Meduza's stalks all
shot forward, touching their pod ends to the other's face and chest.
Each pod flared brightly, and the victim's form stiffened,
shuddering as if an electric shock coursed through it, then collapsed.
Evazan's twisted mouth lifted in a grotesque smile.
"Good boy, Rover," he muttered. But the smile vanished as he
looked toward the room's door, adding in an irked tone, "But where in
hell are you, Ponda?"
He moved out from his cover, crawling about the dark room, angling
for a shot at the last foe. As Evazan lifted up to take aim at the
last place he had seen the other, that final invader drew a bead on the
doctor's shadowy form.
The door of the room burst inward and a new figure 'plunged
through. A quick, well-aimed blaster bolt skewered Evazan's attacker,
barely saving the doctor from a fatal shot.
The last body thudded to the floor. Evazan climbed to his feet,
brushing himself off. "About time, Ponda," he told the new arrival,
stepping to the table to switch the lights back on.
The returning illumination revealed another Aqual-ish male
clutching a freshly fired blaster. But Ponda Baba's left hand was the
hairy, talon-fingered hand of one of the lesser Aqualish race. The
right hand and the forearm to which it was fixed were artificial, and
of a rather crude mechanical type, their skeletal metal frame uncovered
by bioflesh.
"You're lucky," Ponda replied in a growl, shoving his blaster back
into a holster. "I almost left you to take them all yourself."
With that he turned and clamped out of the room.
The Andoan senator was just rising from beneath the dining table.
Evazan holstered his own weapon and looked to his guest
apologetically.
"Sorry. In the old days, Ponda Baba would have been in here like
a shot. A real. team we were then."
"He . . . ah . . . works for you?" the senator said, still
recovering from shock.
"We were partners," the doctor tersely explained.
The senator seemed dismayed by that. "You know, he is of the
lowest caste here on Ando. Its people have dubious morals and most
violent habits. They are treated with so much contempt that few of
them stay on our planet. They go off and often become galactic
criminals."
"Well, Ponda couldn't have been a better pal to me," Evazan said,
pouring out stiff drinks for them both. "That is, until one day on
Tatooine. Had a run-in at the Mos Eisley Cantina there. An old man
with aJedi lightsaber took off Ponda's right arm for helping me.
After that we had a kind of falling-out."
"He's here now," the senator pointed out. "And it does seem he
just saved your life."
"Well, I still owe him an arm," the doctor explained.
"He's had trouble raising enough credits for a good bionic
replacement. So we've set up an uneasy alliance until I can help him
out. I supply an arm, he works as my bodyguard . . . supposedly." He
took a deep draft of his ale.
"What about them?" asked the senator, looking toward the downed
attackers.
"Them?" said Evazan, shrugging carelessly. "Just more bounty
hunters. Must have climbed all the way up here."
He set down his glass and walked toward one of the bodies. It was
clad in a gray jumpsuit and helmet, like the other two, with an
equipment belt around the waist. He rolled it over with a foot,
revealing the staring, slack-jawed face of a human male, swarthy of
complexion, lean and sharp of feature.
Evazan eyed a small device attached at the man's waist.
"They used individual field disrupters to get through the
screens," he said thoughtfully. "Looks like a new type. I'll have to
boost shield power." He looked around to the Aqualish, adding testily,
"Senator, I shouldn't have to worry about this kind of thing at all.
You're supposed to be protecting me, making sure no one can even
get near here with equipment like that."
"We can't screen and search everyone who comes to the planet," the
senator said defensively. "The security we've provided for you is
already very great and incredibly expensive."
Evazan shook his head. "Still not enough. This is the third
attempt on my life here. They get better every time."
"We had rather assumed that hiding you in such a fbrtress on such
an isolated isle would be protection enough," the senator returned with
an indignant tone.
"Of course, we didn't know then that half the galaxy was trying to
hunt you down."
Evazan stepped back toward him. "Are you saying I'm not worth
it?" he demanded.
"It is that very point about which I'm here," was the stern reply.
"All right," the doctor assented. "We'll talk about it." He
waved at the dining table. "Do you want to finish our meal first?"
The senator looked at their plates still filled with food. "Eat?"
he said, then looked toward the bodies.
"What about them?"
"Oh, Rover will take care of it," said Evazan.
The blob had already crawled up to one of the dead men. drawing
its viscous mass over the form, engulfing and hiding it. The creature
began to quiver in excitement and gave forth a slurping noise.
"He cleans up all leftovers," Evazan said. "It's part of why I've
been able to train him with such ease. He's so well fed here."
"I'm really not very hungry anymore," the Aqualish said. He sat
down and took a very deep gulp of ale.
"Let's just get on to the point of my visit, shall we? I don't
want to . . . I mean, I don't have much time to stay here."
"Fine," said the doctor, taking a seat, too. "What's your
problem?"
"Credits," the senator replied bluntly. "This whole project has
gotten out of hand. Supplying this place and your laboratory
facilities was costly enough. And now there's security. This incident
only underscores the problem. It's costing our government a fortune!"
"And well worth one," Evazan returned, leaning forward on the
table to speak with intensity. "For decades now you've been all but
slaves of the Empire, living by its orders. You've lost your pride and
your identity to survive. Just how much are you willing to pay to get
loose from your chains?"
Rover had finished ingesting the first body. Leaving only a
man-shaped wet spot on the stone, it crawled to a second form.
"No amount would be too great to be free of the Empire," the
senator admitted, trying not to watch the creature's grisly work.
"Still, my appropriations subcommittee needs reassurance to
continue your financing.
Our present budget squeeze--" "Your budget be scorched!" Evazan
shouted.
"When I finish my research, you'll have a secret so valuable to
the Empire that they'll give you your freedom and anything else you'd
want."
"Yes, yes, so you assure us," the senator replied.
"But we've had little evidence of late to support your claims for
some great medical breakthrough. Perhaps if you give me some proofs of
your progress, something solid I can take back, then I can convince
them to go on."
"Fair enough," the doctor conceded. "I'll show you how very close
to total success I am. It's already been tested several different
ways. In fact, I only need one last thing to prove my breakthrough
works. I have to find a specimen of a human male--a young, strong,
healthy, perfectly formed one."
The senator's large eyes narrowed in curiosity.
"Why?"
"You'll see for yourself." Evazan got to his feet. "I'll take
you down to the laboratory right now."
The senator looked up at him. "To your . . . laboratory?"
he said with clear misgivings. "Is that really' necessary,
Doctor? Surely some other evidence would suffice. Research data,
perhaps, or--" "I insist," Evazan said. "You have to see what I've
done here for yourself!" The Aqualish sighed and, with great
reluctance, got to his feet. ' "This way, Senator," said the doctor,
ushering him from the room.
Behind them the Meduza noisily finished its second meal and moved
on to the final course. The third dead man lay curled halfway on his
side. A small comlink unit attached to his belt was partly visible.
The tiny green "power on" indicator light was aglow . . .
Outside the castle, not far above the windows, a single figure
clung to the sheer stone wall--a man of slender build and dark
complexion, with hawkish features, deep brown eyes, and a black
mustache. He was clad like the three dead men.
Both his feet and one hand were wedged in narrow cracks to hold
him in the precarious spot, his body pressed tight to the wall against
the tearing wind. His free hand held his own comlink close to one ear.
He had listened in on the conversation between Evazan and the
senator. He had heard the two depart.
Now he listened to the grotesque squooshing sound as the creature
enveloped his last comrade.
With a crackling of shorted power the comlink channel went dead,
and the man's face tightened into a grim expression.
Hanging his comlink back on his belt, he clambered up the castle
wall with great dexterity, onto a slanting section of roof. A
long-range comlink unit in backpack form was fastened to the smooth
slate by suction-sup-port webbing. Cramming his body into a corner
between the roof and a spire to secure himself against the wind, he
pulled the comlink headset from the pack and spoke urgently into its
mouthpiece.
"Hello, Mother? It's Gurion. Do you copy?" He looked up to the
clouded sky with some concern. "Are you still up there?"
"Still in orbit, Gur," came a reply. "What's the report?"
"All dead," Gurion answered bluntly. "All but me.
Evazan must have some heavy protection inside there.
They were the best."
After a heavy silence, the voice came again, carrying a tone of
sorrow not fully masked. "That's it, then. You get off there, Gur.
Right now. We'll pick you up."
"No. Not me," he said firmly. "I'm going to go inside, get close
to him. It's the only way to be sure of nailing him."
"By yourself?." said the voice in surprise. "That's suicide!"
"If it has to be. I don't care," Gurion said fiercely. "I mean
to get to him, and I think I know how!"
Within the castle, Evazan and guest descended a long spiraling
stairway. The deeper they went into the mysterious lower sanctums of
the doctor's lair, the more apologetic the Andoan senator became.
"For my part, there's never been a question of your integrity,"
the alien explained in a voice pitched ever higher by his rising
concern. "It's my Senate colleagues who have been picking up rumors.
Some are saying you have the death sentence on ten systems."
"Twelve, actually," Evazan said carelessly. "It may be more by
now. I haven't checked."
"Really?" said the senator, his voice rising a bit more. "And
then there have been tales of some of your . . . ah . . . medical
practices."
"I won't deny there's some truth to them, too," the doctor
admitted. "I don't apologize for what I've done.
It was all to a good end."
They reached the bottom of the stairwell. Evazan un locked and
opened a massive metal door. It creaked back on its hinges, and they
both passed through.
Beyond, a single space took up all the huge castle's basement
area. Squat pillars and heavy arches of stone held up the high
ceiling. Stretching into the far shadows, bank after bank of large
glass cylinders glowed faintly, filled with gold liquid . . . and
something else.
The senator stepped forward, staring in shock. Each cylinder
appeared to contain some type of being.
He walked farther forward, looking down a row of creatures
floating in amber fluid. There were giant Wookiees and diminutive
Jawas, skeletonlike Givins and one-eyed Abbyssins. There were horned
humanoids from Devaron and insectlike creatures of the Kibnon race,
along with countless other species from planets all across the galaxy.
"Are they... dead?" the senator nervously inquired, peering into
the cylinder of a reptilian Arcona who stared back with blank,
jewellike eyes.
"Unfortunately," said Evazan. "Preserved in my special embalming
fluid. They're some of my patients who didn't survive my surgical
attempts to help them. But the medical work I did on them has still
been of great value to me."
The senator looked at the corpses again, more 'closely. All had
been worked upon in a manner that might loosely have been termed
"surgical," though the word "butchery" might better have been applied.
Most were mutilated, their bodies slashed open, various limb parts
or organs missing. In some cases the beings' own elements had been
replaced with things quite clearly alien.
"I say they've helped me," Evazan went on, walking down a row of
his "patients." "Mostly by showing where my research had reached a
dead end"--he cast the senator a ghastly smile--"if you'll pardon the
expression."
"You experimented on them?" the senator said in horror.
Evazan waved the idea away. "Of course not. I meant to help them
through my creative techniques. I intended to give them greater health
and longer. life. In theory, at least."
He touched the cylinder holding the eviscerated form of a
rodentlike Ranat. "I've devoted my whole life to helping others.
They've called me a madman, a criminal, for my pains. But no
one's understood. I was only using my skills to re-form life in
various ways, trying to create something better." He sighed .and
looked back to the Aqualish. "But it wasn't enough."
The senator looked up and down the long ranks of the doctor's
victims. "Not enough?"
"Physical alteration wasn't enough."
The doctor moved on to the next cylinder. Within was a
particularly hideous specimen. It was a creature that had been
constructed of parts scavenged from dozens of different beings,
stitched and stapled together to form a patchwork monstrosity.
"As you see, even cutting and splicing together the best of the
galaxy's body parts couldn't achieve the effect I wanted." He lifted a
hand to touch the scarred right side of his skull. "No, it was the
mind that was the key. That's why my research took a new direction.
Come over here."
He led the way along the cylinder rows and into a large area in
the middle of the room. Here a complex assemblage of electronic
equipment towered to the ceiling in a rather precarious way. Its
various systems, rigged together with tangled festoons of wire,
crackled and sizzled uneasily even with the minimal power input now
running through them.
The key feature of this haphazard but high-tech pile was two
platforms set with operating tables. Straps clearly meant to restrain
subjects added to their sinister look. Above each an odd, sievelike
device dangled by a dozen wires from a pivoting boom. More wires
connected these to the central machine.
"This is my transfer instrument," Evazan said proudly. "The main
components were modified from advanced Imperial transmogrification
units originally intended to alter droid programming. Ponda and I
managed to 'liberate' this equipment from an Imperial research
facility. But I've adapted it to use on living beings."
The senator had been staring with mixed awe and skepticism at the
dubious-appearing mass. Now he looked at Evazan in disbeliefi "Living
beings?"
"Living brains also store their gained knowledge electronically,
much like a recording. That record can be altered, erased . . . or
moved. The means to do it
is now sitting before you."
"To what end?"
"To have something no one has ever had before," said the doctor
grandly. "I'm finally on the brink of creating a practical form of
immortality!"
The senator's disbelieving look grew more pronounced.
"You are joking, Doctor."
"No joke at all," said the other. He moved closer, speaking with
sober intensity. "Just think of it! Not even the greatest of the Jedi
Masters with all their powers over matter have achieved a real
immortality. They may be able to prolong life to some extent, but they
still decay and die eventually. My method will transfer the higher
levels of a being's intelligence into a fresh, new body whenever
needed, just by the flick of a switch. Think how valuable that would
be to the Empire.
Their greatest rulers, their finest military minds could live on
forever, gathering even more knowledge with each lifetime."
"I suppose that is something the Empire would pay almost anything
for," said the Aqualish, but with grave misgivings in his tone. "If
the thing works."
"It'll work," Evazan said confidently, "and I'll soon be able to
prove it." He grinned in sardonic delight.
"Ironic, isn't it, that Evazan, the one they've called Dr.
Death, will be the one to create such eternal life!"
A nearby intercom console beeped an alert to an incoming
transmission. Evazan turned to see the face of Ponda Baba appear in
its tiny viewscreen as a voice came with some urgency from the speaker.
"Evazan, someone is at our door!"
"Our door?" the doctor repeated.
"At the sea gate below the castle. Says his aqua-speeder just
broke down. Wants to call for a lift from here."
"So he says," Evazan replied. "Let's see him."
Ponda punched at his own console and the picture on the screen
shifted to show a view of the sea gate area. A small ocean-going
repulsorlift craft sat at the castle's single dock. At the massive
gate stood a most impressive-looking human male.
He was quite large, with a strapping build, as was evidenced by
the body-hugging suit he wore. His chiseled features were handsome,
and a thatch of blond hair waved about his well-formed head.
Evazan gazed with great interest upon the man, then he punched
console buttons, bringing Ponda's image back.
"Let him come up," he ordered. "But only into the foyer. Keep a
watch on him."
"Are you sure that's smart, Doc?" Ponda inquired.
"Just do it!" Evazan snapped the intercom off and turned to the
senator. "You may get to see more than you'd hoped," he said
excitedly. "Today could be the climax of my research!"
He rushed up from the laboratory, the nonplussed senator
following. They entered the castle's huge entrance hall. In the wall
beside its main door was set a control panel with a surveillance
screen. Ponda Baba was already there, staring at a view of the room
beyond the door.
In a small, bare antechamber to the entrance hall, their
blond-haired visitor stood waiting patiently.
Evazan peered over Ponda's shoulder at the man.
His eyes lit with an eager glow.
"This one will be perfect!" he said. "What a piece of incredible
luck!"
He reached past Ponda to flick a switch on the panel. From the
ceiling light in the anteroom a crimson beam shot down, striking the
blond man's head.
He went limp instantly, crumpling to the floor.
"You killed him?" the Andoan senator said, aghast.
"Just stunned him," the doctor replied. He looked to Ponda.
"Help me take him downstairs."
He took hold of the door handle, but a hairy paw came down on his
hand to stop him.
"Hold on, Doc," came Ponda's harsh voice. "You're gonna make the
transfer to him, aren't you?"
"He looks as good as any I've ever seen," Evazan admitted. "Why
not?"
"No, Doc," Ponda barked at him. "Me first!"
Evazan regarded his erstwhile parruer. "What do you mean?"
"You promised I'd go first. You promised I'd get a body with a
good arm. I brought you to my planet, helped you set this up, kept you
alive for just that one thing. You cost me my arm on Tatooine. You
owe me.
It's time to pay up."
"How can I do that, Ponda?" he reasoned. "My perfect subject
just showed up at my door. He's here right now! ' ' "We're both lucky
then, Doc," Ponda answered.
"You got yours. I've got mine."
Realization dawned in the doctor's face. As one, both of them
turned toward the Aqualish senator.
The senator had listened to their dialogue with growing alarm. As
they looked to him, his expression grew taut with horror.
"He's not young," Evazan commented critically.
"He's one of the ruling class, though," Ponda replied.
"I get an arm, and I get power, too."
"You . . . you can't mean what I think," the senator gasped.
"We do," said the doctor, pulling out his blaster.
"Congratulations. You'll be helping to make a great step for
science." He gestured with the gun. "Get going, please."
"You can't do this!" the senator cried as they
marched him downstairs to the lab. "What about your financing?
Your protection?"
"I won't need either anymore," the doctor replied.
'Tll finally be able to acquire a whole new identity. Be free of
this scarred face. I can go out of here safe from bounty hunters, and
with a secret that can change the galaxy."
"That's what you intended fix)rn the start, isn't it?"
the other guessed. "Just to help yourseld" "What else?" said
Evazan, laughing cruelly. He shoved the senator through the doorway
into the lab.
"Now, go get onto that left table. Quick."
He and Ponda hustled the hapless senator to the table and strapped
him upon its top. Evazan pulled the left-hand boom down closer, and
fastened its dangling metal helmet over the dome of the captive's head.
Ponda sMftly took a place on the other table. Evazan repeated the
process of buckling restraints and fitting the other Aqualish with the
second weird headpiece.
Then he stepped away to a bank of controls.
He pulled levers, rotated dials, and watched readout screens
indicating the surge of power. The machine sizzled loudly now, alive
with enormous energy. The great pile of its parts shuddered visibly,
threatening to tumble down.
As the indicators showed he'd reached maximum power, he threw a
red double-handled switch. Blue-white sparks like tiny lightning bolts
flickered downward along the wires, into the metal helmets on the two
heads. The strapped-down bodies both jerked spasmodically.
Evazan watched a pair of dials fight beneath the red switch. As
the indicator on the left moved one way, its counterpart on the right
moved the other. In only seconds the two needles had buried themselves
on opposite sides of their dials.
With a cackle of glee the doctor slapped the power levers to Off.
The flickering lights quickly faded, and the crackling of energy
died away.
"It's done! It's worked!" Evazan chorded, running
to the table holding the elder Andoan's body. "Ponda!
I've done it!" he said, undoing the straps. "How do you feel?"
But the Aqualish who had once been the senator lay quite still,
apparently unconscious.
"It's okay," Evazan assured, patting the being.
"You'll be fine soon. Just rest there. I've got to see to my own
new body!"
He left the laboratory, all but running back up to the main hall.
His eyes gleamed with a wild look of nearly overwhelming
anticipation.
He threw open the door to the anteroom and charged in. His
splendid specimen still lay motionless.
He knelt beside the man, gloating over his perfect body. "All
I've wanted," he said. "Youth, strength . . .
and an unmarked face! I hope he's unharmed."
He put out a hand to lay on the man's heart.
The hand vanished down through the massive chest as if the flesh
had opened to swallow it!
He jerked his hand back, staring in astonishment.
"A holoshroud!" he gasped.
His hand shot to grip the butt of his blaster. But the other man
sat suddenly upright, swiftly striking out. A fist thrust forward to
slam into Evazan's face. The blow knocked him backward, sprawling at
full length, stunned.
Before the doctor could recover, the blond man was on his feet.
The image of his large form wavered, faded, and vanished
completely, revealing the figure of a thin and hawkfaced man of dark
complexion with a black mustache. One hand rested on the belt control
for the holographic disguise, the other hand held the grenadelike shape
of a powerful thermal detonator. Its thumb guard was already pushed
back, and the man's thumb rested on the detonator button.
"Toss the gun away, Evazan," the man grated out, "or we'll both go
up together."
Evazan drew out his blaster gingerly and heaved it far away. "Who
are you?" he demanded.
"Gurion's the name. I've been trying to get you for a long, long
time. Get on your feet."
"Pretty smart of you to use that disguise," Evazan told him,
climbing up. "You'd never have gotten in here otherwise."
"That's just what I figured. Now, get moving, you butchering
monster. Take me to the roof. Some friends'11 be picking us up
there." Gurion gestured meaningfully with the bomb. "I said, move!"
Evazan readily complied. They went into the main entry hall and
up a broad staircase.
As they turned the corner on the first landing to start up a
second flight, Evazan glanced down to see a shimmering first bit of
Rover ooze through a doorway into the hall below. He smiled to
himself.
"Look here," he told his captor, intent on keeping the man's
attention on him, "this is crazy. I'm going to be a very rich man. I
don't know how much bounty you're after, but I can pay you a lot more."
"I'm not after bounty," Gurion shot back. "My family name is
Silizzar. Sound familiar?"
Evazan blanched at the name. "I--I may have had a-a patient or
two--" he stammered.
Gurion cut him off. "You treated my whole family.
For a stomach disorder caused by a poison you gave them as
medicine! You gutted them one by one like so many fish. Seven people!
None of them survived. No, I don't want money for you. This is
purely for revenge!"
Several flights higher they reached a small door that opened onto
a flat area of the roof. A brisk wind from the sea tugged sharply at
their clothes as they came out. The distant lightning flickered eerily
on the scene, and the deep growling of the far thunder made a constant,
ominous background sound.
Gurion directed Evazan around the roof's edge, close to the spot
where his backpack comlink was secured.
"Just stand there like stone," Gurion warned. He lifted the bomb!
"Remember, if I push this button, we've both only got a few
seconds to live. I'd rather take you back to stand trial for all the
other beings you've murdered. But I won't hesitate to finish it right
here!"
"I'm a statue," Evazan readily agreed.
Gurion fetched his backpack and crouched beside it to take out the
comlink's headset. He kept an eye on the doctor as he spoke into the
mouthpiece.
"Mother, it's Gurion. Do you still copy me?"
"Still here, my friend. What's happened?"
"I've got our baby here, alive. I'm up on the roof.
Can you come get us?"
"On our way!" the voice said jubilantly. "Mother out."
Out of the corner of one eye, Evazan saw the door onto the roof
push open. One bulb-tipped stalk poked cautiously out around it,
sensing the air ahead.
"There'll be a shuttle here for us in a few minutes," said Gurion
as he put his comlink headset away.
The doctor took a couple of casual steps around him to get
Gurion's back to the door.
"You've really got to listen to me," Evazan said pleadingly.
"I've got a secret. Right here. An invention.
A very big thing. Too valuable for anyone to turn
down.' '
"Not for me," the other said flatly, his hard gaze fixed
unwaveringly on his foe.
The shining mass of Rover squeezed through the door. The creature
began to slither forward slowly, noiselessly. Flickering lightning
glinted from its gelatinous form.
"But with it I can make you live forever," the doctor argued on.
"Real immortality. Everybody wants that."
"Do you actually think giving me more lifetimes can make up for
all the lives you stole?" Gurion said in disbelief. "You're even more
demented than I thought."
Rover was now only meters behind the crouching man. The creature
began to hump up higher, its stalks shifting forward to strike out.
In the tiny mirrors of Evazan's eyes Gurion saw the
Meduza's twin reflections as a brighter lightning flare gleamed
from its surface. He sprang upright, wheeling around to see the thing
nearly on him.
Rover struck just as he jumped back away from it.
Only a single bulb's tip managed to graze Gurion's knee with a
sharp crackle of power.
The man cried out at the stinging pain and staggered.
The arm holding the bomb dropped down.
Evazan leaped instantly for the arm. His two hands clenched fight
on Gurion's wrist and he shook hard.
The untriggered detonator came loose and bounced away across the
flat roof, coming to rest before the door.
With his captor disarmed, Evazan tried to break away to let Rover
finish things. But Gurion grappled fight with him, his hands going for
the doctor's throat.
"I'll kill you with my bare hands!" he snarled.
Evazan stumbled backward as he fought wildly to break loose.
Gurion hung on with a strength born of his rage.
The back of the doctor's foot hit the roofs edge.
Desperately he swung about, dragging Gurion off balance and out
into space. The man fell.
Gurion's own weight tore his hands free from the doctor's throat.
But the last downward jerk overbalanced Evazan also.
For a moment the doctor teetered on the brink, flailing out with
his arms for balance. When that failed, he twisted his body violently
around, grabbing out for the roofs edge as he went over it.
His agility saved him. He hung on fiercely, dangling at
arm'slength against the sheer stone face. Below him, Gurion's form
plunged downward, striking the jagged cliffs at several spots.
Evazan glanced down to see the body make the final crash into a
surging wave. He then turned his attention to ensuring his own safety,
but he quickly found this was not so easy a task. His arms alone
weren't strong enough to pull him up. His scrabbling feet could find
no holds in the smooth stone.
A noise came from above him. He looked up as the toes of boots
appeared over the edge just inches from his face. His gaze moved on up
the body to see that it was Ponda Baba who stood there, staring down at
him.
"P-Ponda!" he gasped out, at first with great relief.
But a new realization swiffiy turned relief to surprise.
"But . . . how! You here? The--the transfer . . . it didn't
work?"
"Oh, it worked, Doctor," came a voice no longer
like that of his old friend. "But it worked backward."
"Backward?" he echoed.
"That's right. And so you've condemned me to the loathsome form
of one of my people's lowest breed of scum." The Aqualish lifted the
hairy arm that marked him as a social pariah on his own planet.
"You've destroyed my life as a senator, Doctor. So now I am going
to destroy yours!"
The mechanical arm lifted. In its jointed fingers was clutched
the thermal detonator. The metal thumb rested on the triggering
button.
"No!" cried Evazan. "No, no, wait! You can't!"
"Good-bye, Doc!" the new Ponda Baba said simply.
He pushed the button, dropped the bomb, turned, and strode away.
"No, no!" Evazan screamed out as the bomb's timer ticked down.
With the strength of desperation he hauled himself up. His eyes
cleared the edge. He glimpsed the ticking bomb, and just beyond it the
Meduza's form.
"Rover!" he shouted to it. "Helllip meeee!"
Far above, a small shutfie skimmed down through the atmosphere,
flashing high across the waves. The rocky isle with the towering
castle lay straight ahead.
Two men of Gurion's lean build and swarthy complexion sat at the
controls.
"There it is," one said. He looked to his companion.
"Get ready to hover above the roof, while I get out the
boarding--" A great flash of light from ahead interrupted him.
An explosion enveloped the entire castle top.
Both men stared with astonishment as the upper half of the
structure disintegrated in the initial blast. A cloud of fine debris
billowed up while larger pieces showered out and down. Then the lower
half of the shattered castle collapsed inward, becoming in seconds a
vast rubble pile.
"Poor Gurion," the first man said, looking down at the broken
remains as they soared overhead.
"That blast probably attracted Andoan security,"
said the other. "We'd better get well away from here."
He turned the ship, heading upward again.
"At least Gurion got his revenge on that lunatic Evazan," the
first man said as they left the ruins behind . . .
Far below, halfway down one rugged side of the castle's high
cliffs, a large bile-green mound of goo lay motionless on a ledge.
From its splattered edges a thick yellow oil ran, dripping in
greasy, fat globules over the edge.
Then the gellike mass heaved and quivered, bulging upward. Out of
the largest lump of its center an arm suddenly shot forth, followed by
another, and then by the head of Dr. Evazan. He took a great
shuddering breath as he broke the surface, like a swimmer who'd been
long under the sea.
With some difficulty he extricated himself from the blob that had
once been his pet. Though the loyal creature had saved him by
cushioning his fall, their hard impact together had squashed the
Meduza's life from it.
"Thanks, Rover," he said, plucking a last clinging streamer of the
slime off his shirt. He bent and patted the ruptured mass. "Sorry,
boy."
He looked upward to the blasted castle.
"Backward," he said regretfully. "Damn!" Then he shrugged. "Oh,
well. Maybe I'll get it right next time."
And with that he began the long climb downward to the sea.
Drawing the Maps of Peace: The Moisture Farmer's Tale
by M. Shayne Bell
Day 1: A New Calendar I thought: This is it. I won't get out of
this one. I topped a dune in my landspeeder--going fast, always
fast--and saw eight Sand People standing around the vaporator I'd come
out to fix. I had seconds, then, to decide what to do: Plunge ahead
over the last dunes to save a malfunctioning vaporator whose output I
needed, or turn around and speed back to the defenses of my house and
two droids. I gunned the speeder ahead.
The Sand People scattered and ran, and I watched where they ran so
I'd know where they might attack from. All for .5 liter of water, I
thought. I was risking my life for .5 liters of water. The
vaporator's production was down thirty percent to maybe one liter a
day, and I had to get its production up to the standard 1.5 and keep it
there, the farm was that close to the edge, so close that every
vaporator had to work at maximum or I'd lose the farm.
In seconds I was at the vaporator, stopped in a cloud of dust and
sand my speeder raised. I couldn't see the Sand People, though their
musky scent lingered around the vaporator in the heat at the end of the
day.
The shadows of the canyon walls were lengthening across the dunes
on the valley floor.
It would soon be dark, and I was in a canyon where Sand People had
come, far from home.
Human technology scared the Sand People--my speeder certainly
had--but they wouldn't stay scared for long. I grabbed my blaster and
jumped out of the speeder to see what damage they had done to the
vaporator.
A smashed power indicator. One cracked solar cell.
Scratches around the door to the water reservoir, as if they had
been trying to get to the water. The damage was minimal.
But what to do now? I couldn't guard all of my far-flung
vaporators. I had ten of them, each placed in a half kilometer of sand
and rock, not the standard quarter kilometer--I was so close to the
Dune Sea that a vaporator needed twice the land to pull the 1.5 liters
of water worth harvesting out of the air. If the Sand People had
figured out that vaporators held water and if they were determined to
get into them, my farm would be ruined. ! could replace power
displays and solar cells. I couldn't guard vaporators kilometers apart
from Sand People who wanted water.
I heard a low grunt over a dune to the north, and I immediately
crouched down against the vaporator and scanned the horizon. The grunt
sounded like a wild bantha waking from the heat of day, but I knew it
wasn't bantha. The Sand People were coming back.
They were determined to get this water.
And why shouldn't they, I suddenly wondered? Before I came, the
water collected inside my vaporator would have been their water,
distilled out of the air in the morning dew, not pulled out at all
hours of the day by a machine. They must have been desperate for water
to have come up to a human machine, to have touched it, to have tried
to open it. What were they suffering to drive them to this?
I heard more "bantha" grunting south of me, over the dunes, then
to the east and west, and finally to the north again. I was
surrounded, and an attack would come in minutes.
Suddenly I realized what I had to do. "Go ahead and waste your
profits," Eyvind, who owned the farm closest to mine three valleys
over, would say, "waste your profits so I can buy your farm cheap from
your creditors when they force you off the land." But I wouldn't
listen to Eyvind's voice in my head, and I wouldn't have listened to
him if he'd been with me then. I spoke to the vaporator, and a panel
slid back from in front of the controls. I punched in the number
sequence I'd programmed, and I heard the vaporator sealing the pouch of
water in the reservoir. When it finished, the door in front of the
reservoir slid open. I pulled out the pouch and set it on the sand
west of the vaporator, in shade out of the light from the second
setting sun. I took out my knife and made a tiny slit in the top,
where the air was, so the Sand People could smell the water and get to
it.
I punched in the command to close the door to the reservoir, then
told the vaporator to close the door over its controls, ran to my
speeder, and flew it to the top of a dune southwest of the vaporator.
I could see no Sand People, but I knew they were masters at
blending into a terrain and surprising the unwary. I'd heard plenty of
stories about just how quick--and deadly--they could be with their
gaffi sticks, the double-bladed axlike weapons they made from scavenged
metal off the ~Ihtooine wastes. I sat low in my speeder and tried to
watch for any movement--I did not dare fly farther away: They were all
around me and they would surely throw their axes if I tried to run, and
I did not fancy being beheaded in my own landspeeder. Besides, I hoped
they would recognize what I had done: that I had given them water. I
did not know, then, if I could hope it would buy my life and their
trust and thus my farm.
I saw movement: one of the Sand People, coming from the north,
slowly, low over the sand toward the vaporator and the water. When he
reached the water pouch in the shadow of the vaporator, he knelt in the
sand and smelled the bag: smelled the water inside it.
He lifted his head slowly and gave out one keening cry that echoed
through the canyon. Soon I counted eight Sand People--no,
ten--hurrying toward the water, from all directions, four making a wide
berth around my speeder.
Only one of them, a small one--young?--took a drink. Two others
poured the rest of the water in a thin pouch of animal skin to take
with them, and they did not spill any water. When they finished, the
one who had first smelled the water looked at me. Then they all looked
at me. They did not speak or make any noise, and they did not run.
The one who had smelled the water suddenly raised his right arm
and held up a clenched fist.
I jumped from the speeder, walked a few steps from it, and raised
my right arm and clenched my fist in return. We stood like that,
looking at each other, for some time. I had never been so close to
them before. I wondered if they had ever been so close to a human. A
light breeze from the east down the canyon blew over us and cooled us,
and abruptly all the Sand People turned and disappeared in the dunes.
They did not destroy my vaporator. They did not try to kill me.
They left the vaporator alone after I gave them the water, and
they left me alone. They had accepted my gift.
I pledged, then, to leave them the water from this vaporator. I
would miss selling the water, I knew that. I needed to sell it--but it
seemed a small price to pay if by giving them a few liters they would
then not ruin my vaporators. I could make do with the output of the
other nine vaporators for a short time--and meanwhile buy two of
Eyvind's old second-generation vaporators to fix. When they came
on-line, my output would be back to the minimum I'd need to survive.
All this effort seemed a small price to pay to be able to live
near the Sand People in peace.
I counted the days of my farm from that day.
Day 2: A Farm on the Edge Eyvind had told me I was crazy to come
out this far.
"No one has gone that far," he said. "I can't believe the
moisture patterns consistently flow up those canyons--you're only a
handful of kilometers from the Dune Sea!"
But ! had tested the moisture patterns: There was water to he had
there. Not a lot. It would not be a rich farm, like those outside
Bestine, but one morning when I was camped in what I thought of then as
a far canyon, I woke on the blanket I'd laid out on the sand, and it
was damp from the dew. My clothes were damp.
My hair was damp. I pulled the instruments from my speeder and
set them up and they all read one thing: water. Harvestable water.
Somehow it blew over the mountains and settled here before
evaporating in the wastes of the Dune Sea farther west, and it did it
day after day for the two weeks I spent in that canyon running tests.
Over the course of a year, ! tested that canyon and the surrounding
canyons twenty-nine more times--I had to have that much detailed data
to prove that this farm could work so I could borrow the startup money.
But I'd known from that first day when I woke up with damp hair that I
could have a farm here.
I spent months filling out Homestead Act forms and waiting for a
grant of land, then months filling out loan applications and waiting
for replies, all the while listening to other farmers tell me I was
crazy. But I had the undeniable facts of my readings to hand anyone
who could authorize my homestead or loan me the start-up money or even
just listen and offer advice, and finally the manager at the Zygian
branch bank did listen-and he read my reports, checked my background to
see whether I knew anything about moisture farming, which I did, and
whether I would keep my word, which I would. He loaned me the money.
He gave me ten thousand days to pay him back.
Ten thousand days was enough time to make any dream come true, I
thought.
I lay on my bed in the dark at the end of a hard day, after
leaving the Sand People the water I'd pledged them, remembering all
this, remembering how badly I'd wanted to come out here, how hard I'd
worked to get my homestead and the loan and then to set up my farm.
Not once had I thought about who might already be out here,
depending on this land I called my farm.
I rolled over and asked the computer to display the holomap I'd
made of my farm and this region.
"The files you have requested can only be accessed after a
user-specified security clearance," it said.
"Please prepare for retinal scan."
I stared for a few seconds into a bright, white light that
suddenly shone out of the monitor. I had to guard my map. I'd made
the map myself--after a year of surveying and taking photographs that i
fed into the computer and working from notes and memory--and if the
wrong people knew I was making maps it could be dangerous. I
programmed the computer to display the maps only to me and to never
reference them when working with other files; they were not
cross-referenced or indexed. When asked if such files existed, it
would say no to anyone's voice but my own. If asked to access them, it
would respond and proceed with the security clearance only if it heard
my voice.
"Retinal scan complete," the computer said. "Hello, Ariq Joanson.
I will display the requested files."
Part of the wall I kept blank and white just for this projection
suddenly became the canyons of my farm seen from the air: my house,
marked in blue; the vaporators, smaller dots of green, widely
separated; the canyons and mountains and dunes all in natural colors.
A red dot far up Bildor's Canyon northeast of my farm marked a
Jawa fortress. White dots marked the houses of the farms closest to
mine--and none of those dots were very close. "You'll be three canyons
and kilometers away from me--and I've been the farthest one out for two
years!" Eyvind had warned. Over all the canyons and mountains and
dunes I'd had the computer draw in black lines for the boundaries of
the farms.
The land lay spread out over my wall in the darkness, and the dots
for houses and vaporators gleamed like jewels behind their black lines.
Except for the redJawa dot, all of them represented human houses
or machines.
I'd never thought of putting in dots for the nomadic Sand
People--or of drawing boundaries for them and the Jawas.
"Computer," I said. "Draw in a boundary line from the northeast
border of my farm in Bildor's Canyon, along the ridges on both sides of
the canyon to a distance of one kilometer above the Jawa fortress."
"Drawn as requested," the computer responded, and it was. The
lines appeared.
"Label the space inside those new lines 'Jawa Preserve.'"
"Labeled as requested."
The words appeared, but I didn't like them. "Re-label the Jawa
Preserve, the 'Jawa--" What? Land? Reservation? Protectorate? "Just
label it 'Jawa,'" I said.
"Labeled as requested."
The word "Preserve" disappeared from the map, and the word "Jawa"
centered below the red dot.
"Now draw borders west from the northwest boundary of my farm to
the Dune Sea and west from the northernmost boundary of the Jawa land
also to the Dune Sea."
"Drawn as requested."
"Label that 'Sand People.'" The words appeared over the land.
"Have the Jawas and Sand People acquired rights to this land?"
the computer asked.
"No," I said. "I'm only daydreaming."
"Do you wish these changes saved?"
I considered that. "No," I said finally. "It is a fiction.
Erase the changes and shut down."
It did so.
I lay back on my bed. What I had told the computer to draw was
worse than a fiction. I had asked two successive Imperial Governors to
commission a mapping project of this region, with the same response:
"We just don't have the money." Translate that: "We have too many
people here who don't want accurate maps made of what lies beyond the
known settlements and farms, and if you want to live to bring your next
water harvest to Mos Eisley, quit asking for such things."
So I'd quit asking for them. But it wasn't criminals who needed
to hide places of illegal activity who threatened my life or
livelihood, yet. It was Sand People violence and Jawa dishonesty and
manipulation--all caused in part, I was coming to realize, by constant
encroachments into what had no doubt been traditional Jawa and Sand
People territories. Maps would be the first step to a secure peace for
the farmers and Jawas and Sand Peopleif you could get them all to draw
in negotiated boundaries on those maps and honor them. Without such
agreements, farmers faced the equivalent of blundering around in the
darkset-ting up farms in areas where maybe no one should go, living in
places that could and did get decent people killed. I wanted the
killing to stop.
But for that, we needed a map. The government
would not draw it.
So I drew it.
And I decided, that night, to take my map to the Jawas near my
farm and talk to them about how to take it to the Sand People. If we
agreed among ourselves on how to live together in these mountains and
canyons, maybe someday the government would make our agreements
official.
I looked at the monitor for another inevitable retina scan.
"Computer," I said, "redisplay the map I just requested and redraw
the boundaries I had you erase.
Copy this file to the portable Holo-display unit."
Day 3: In the Jawa Fortress
I knew these Jawas. I had been to the gates of their fortress
many times, especially during the year I spent measuring the moisture
in the canyons of my farm: They would come out to trade water for trash
I'd found in the desert and for information about the Empire and its
cities and the systems that made them work and the alien races and how
to deal with them. I tried to be .good to the Jawas, and fair. If
they got the better of me in a few deals, I'd come out ahead in a few
others, and the tally remained about even. Some of the Jawas even
became my friends--the old ones, the ones I could learn from who had
the patience to teach me their language, the uses of native plants,
geographic lore.
Their thick-walled fortress blended into the walls of the canyon,
but I knew how to fly straight to its closed and hidden gates. I
stepped out of my speeder and held up the Holo-display unit. "Oh,
Jawas!" I called out. "I come to you with information and to barter."
The gates opened at once--the word "barter" would always open
their gates--and eightJawas rushed out. I tried again to see inside,
but could not in the darkness there. They had never invited me in. I
had no idea what lay inside. This was a new family fortress, maybe
only a hundred years old, with, I guessed, fifteen clans---four hundred
Jawas. They were jealous of any secrets and wary of any alien, but
they would talk to me and barter with me and spend hours outside on the
sand.
The first Jawa to reach me was my old friend Wi-mateeka.
He began chittering at me inJawa, slowly, so I could understand.
"Do you still come here asking for water now that you farm it
yourself?." he chittered, and they all laughed.
"No," I said. "But I have brought you a gift of water to thank
you for your generosity to me in the past."
I set a pouch of water in Wimateeka's arms, and he could barely
hold it up alone. The others crowded around to help him set it on the
sand and to touch it, to feel the water move inside it.
"What else have you brought us?" Wimateeka asked.
. "The knowledge of maps," I said, "and how the Empire uses them
to decide questions about land. We can
use them in the same way."
I set the Holo-display unit on the level sand outside the
fortress, sand beat down and compacted by the comings and goings of
Jawa crawlers, and I asked the unit to display my map close above the
sand. The Jawas shrieked and rushed back, but not Wimateeka. He would
not leave the water pouch: He kept his hands on it.
"What is this that you have brought, Ariq?" he asked.
A map, I explained. I told them what maps are and the purpose of
them, how all the mountains and valleys and sand plains around us were
represented here with small replicas, and they began to recognize and
point out familiar features, marvel. that at this scale their fortress
was as small as the red dot.
I explained boundaries to them and what they could mean to us: How
if they agreed to respect the boundary of the land grant the government
had given me, I would not go to the government to claim land farther up
the canyon toward their fortress--I would, in fact, help them fill out
the forms to claim the land themselves.
I suggested that they buy and put out vaporators of their own, all
down the valley, to the border of my farm. Even if they didn't do
this, the imaginary line between their land and mine would give them
some protection, and I told them how I hoped the Empire would come to
accept the lines we agreed on and keep other humans from making farms
in their valley.
When I finished, the Jawas hurried inside the fortress to discuss
my information and proposal. They took the water. I asked Wimateeka
to stay outside with me for a short time. We sat in the shade of my
land-speeder to watch the sunsets while we talked.
"Can you teach me a Sand People greeting?" I asked him.
He looked up at me, surprised. After a moment, he said: "Koroghh
gahgt takt. 'Blessed be your going out from us.'"
"No, a greeting," I said. "Not a farewell." I thought
I had mispronounced the Jawa word for "greeting" the first time I
asked.
"That is a greeting," he said. "The most polite.
They greet each other like this because they are always traveling.
They will seldom stay long in one place."
Not even long enough to develop greetings, I thought, only hasty
blessings because they left each other so soon.
"Say it again," I asked, and Wimateeka did, and I repeated it till
I could say it.
"Why do you want to learn this greeting?" Wi-mateeka asked me.
I explained to him about the Sand People and the water and my
questions about the land---their land.
Wimateeka was quiet for a time, looking at me. "The young Sand
People are dangerous in the days that come and for a time," he said.
He explained that this was the time when the adolescents had to
perform some great deed to earn adulthood, deeds that often included
acts of mayhem against non-Sand People races.
"All our crawlers are coming home to wait here through this time,"
he said. "You should take, your fellow humans to Mos Eisley and do the
same.
He told me how a vast army of young Sand People had once attacked
a Jawa fortress south of us and slaughtered the inhabitants. That
fortress was still an empty, burned ruin that Wimateeka had once
visited. I was lucky the Sand People around my vaporator had not been
adolescents out to earn adulthood.
Wimateeka asked me how to operate the Holo unit, and I told it to
obey Wimateeka's voice when he asked it to display the map, nothing
more. He displayed the map three times, then asked if he could take it
to the discussions in the fortress.
"This is not a trade," I said. "I want this Holo unit back,
unharmed."
"I will bring it to you personally," he said. He abruptly
snatched up the Holo unit and hurried into the fortress.
I ate the supper I'd brought with me. After the last sunset, I
laid blankets out on the sand. I expected to sleep there, blaster in
hand--especially after Wi-mateeka's story about the young Sand People's
rite of passage--in the relative safety outside the Jawa gates.
But in the night, the Jawas came out to me, with torches.
Wimateeka led them. "You have honored us," he said. He set the
Holo unit in front of me. "Extend our boundaries to include the valley
west of us to the Dune Sea, and we will accept your proposal."
I displayed the map and told the Holo unit to make the boundary
changes. The Jawas chittered softly when their black lines moved to
include the valley they asked for. It was a valley their crawlers
traveled through to get to the Dune Sea to scavenge. Everyone would
agree that they needed that valley.
"It is not safe out here on the sand," Wimateeka said. "Bring
your blankets, your speeder, and your Holo unit and come inside to
spend the rest of the night with us."
I hadn't expected this. I got up at once and folded my blankets
and stowed them and the Holo unit in my speeder and walked the speeder
through their gates.
We did not sleep. The Jawas took me to a great room, and in the
heart of their fortress we talked by torchlight about maps and water
and the Sand People and how to talk to them about maps.
Day 5: A Greeting
Eyvind and I sat openly in front of our speeders on the dune
southwest of the vaporator and my day's gift of water to the Sand
People.
"So they come here for this water?" Eyvind asked.
"Every day."
"And they don't break into your other vaporators?"
"No."
"I still don't like this. Your farm's the farthest out, and
you're separated from the rest of us--so maybe you have to deal with
the Sand People--but my farm's the second farthest out and I don't want
to do anything to encourage Sand People to come around it. I won't
give them any water--but how long before they show up on my farm
expecting it?"
"There--I can see one of them. Watch the dunes to the northwest.
They come most often from that direction. They must camp
somewhere to the northwest."
"And you're luring them down here."
I didn't answer that. We'd argued about this again and again over
the last few days. I was not going to argue with Eyvind when Sand
People were so close to us. To give Eyvind credit, he stopped arguing,
too. The canyon was utterly still, then. No wind blew. I could not
hear the Sand People moving. It was the first time I'd brought anyone
else to see the Sand People take my gift of water.
I stood and put my hand on Eyvind's shoulder. I did not believe
that the Sand People would harm me. I hoped that if they saw me
physically close to Eyvind they would learn not to harm him or ever
want to. I'd made decisions, and I meant to stick by them--but I
realized my decisions had moved the boundaries of racial interchange
for everyone out here, I hoped for the good, that's what I hoped.
Suddenly one of the Sand People stood in the shadow of the
vaporator, near the water pouch. I hadn't seen him come up. He was
just suddenly there.
I raised my arm and clenched my fist in greeting, but he would not
raise his fist in return.
"Maybe this wasn't a good idea," Eyvind whispered.
"Should I leave?"
"Not yet," I said. I kept my arm up and my fist clenched.
"Koroghh gahgt takt," I called out.
The Sand Person stepped back, out of the shadow and into the
sunlight, almost as if he were going to run.
"Koroghh gahgt takt!" I called again. I hoped I was pronouncing
the words right--that Wimateeka had learned the greeting right to begin
with before teaching it to me, that I wasn't challenging the Sand
People to a fight or cursing their mothers.
Slowly, the Sand Person began to raise his arm and clench his
fist. "Koroghh gahgt takt!" he shouted back.
So I had it right, I thought. This was working.
I heard the greeting shouted at me from somewhere over the dunes
to the east--then from all directions and from the canyon walls, again
and again the same greeting: Koroghh gahgt takt.
Eyvind stood up. "They are all around us!" he said.
But we could see only one of them. That one picked up the water
pouch and disappeared into the dunes.
Eyvind and I took our speeders and got out of there and saw no
more of the Sand People that day. We went to my house and talked late
into the night.
I'd sent Wimateeka's warning about the Sand People's rite of
passage to all the other farmers in this region, and everyone agreed
that we couldn't run to Mos Eisley. If we did, we could never expect
to stay out here at all. But to stay, we had to have peace, and most
farmers felt that could only be guaranteed with blasters and maybe
Imperial protection. A few listened to my ideas about maps and good
neighbors. Not Eyvind.
Never once did Eyvind tell'me about his wedding plans.
Day 15: Eyvind and Ariela
I took my speeder to Eyvind's farm to pick up one of his old
broken-down vaporators, and he walked out of his house with a beautiful
girl.
"This is Ariela, my fiancee," he said. "We're getting married in
five weeks."
As simple as that. Eyvind hadn't told anyone about this, not even
me. I hadn't known he'd kept boundaries like this between our
friendship.
"I'm pleased to meet you," I told Ariela. "And congratulations to
both of you."
"You're the farmer with the big plans for us all," she said.
Eyvind looked closely at me. "Can you understand now why I don't
want Sand People coming around my farm?" he said.
The arguing wouldn't stop. I'd barely met Ariela--I'd barely been
told about their wedding--and already the three of us were arguing.
"Look," I said. "I just believe that none of us can survive out
here if we can't make peace with the Sand People and the Jawas. At any
rate, I'm sure the two of you don't want to argue with me five weeks
before your wedding. Sell me that old vaporator, Eyvind, and I'll go."
"But I think you're doing the right thing, Ariq," Ariela said, and
that stopped me, fast. I didn't know what to say.
"I think we should help you--and I believe I know the way to
start. Would your Jawa friends come to our wedding? Would you invite
them for us? As neighbors, they should be part of the important things
in our lives."
"She's never smelled them," Eyvind said.
"They'll come," I said. "I'll go today to invite them."
And I did. I dropped the old vaporator off at my house, packed up
provisions for a night in Bildor's Canyon, and set off. I reached the
Jawa fortress before the sunsets.
"You have honored us again!" Wimateeka chittered after I extended
the invitation. "But what of presents?
We should take something, but we can spare so little!
Our gifts will seem cheap and tawdry."
"They will honor whatever you give them," I said.
They took me, again, inside their gates to the great council
chamber. We talked late into the night about wedding gifts of rock
salt, which they thought might make a good gift; of water, which they
couldn't spare; of cloth, which was never in adequate supply; of
reconditioned droids, which would make elegant but prohibitively
expensive gifts.
"Offer to teach them your language," I said. "That would make a
fine gift."
But they liked best the idea of rock salt.
We did not resolve the question that night.
Day 32: Some Neighbors pay Me a Visit
I finished installing the second old vaporator I'd bought from
Eyvind just after dark, and if the diagnostics I'd run on it were
accurate it would be a decent producer--maybe as much as 1.3 liters a
day. My farm would be producing one to two liters above my old
average, so I knew I was definitely not going to miss the water I was
giving the Sand People.
I packed my tools in the landspeeder and headed slowly back toward
my house and supper. I went slowly because it was dark and there were
things out here to be wary of. At least I didn't have to worry about
the Sand People as I had before. At least there was that.
I dropped down into the canyon where I'd built my house, and there
were lights around my housema lot of lights. I sped up then.
"It's him!" I heard people shouting when I stopped.
What had happened?
It was Eyvind and Ariela, the Jensens, who'd homesteaded next to
Eyvind, the Clays, the Bjornsons--and six or eight others.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
Eyvind stepped forward. "We've come to ask you, as your
neighbors, to stop giving water to the Sand People.
You don't know what you're doing."
I'd imagined Imperial trouble of some kindmmaybe the razing of Mos
Eisley to stamp out corruption and the need to house refugees--trouble
on that level to bring people out here to my farm. Not this. "Have
the Sand People hurt any of you since I started giving them water?" I
asked.
"They killed my son five years ago," Mrs. Bjornson said.
"You don't know that," Ariela said quietly.
"I found him dead in the canyon north of us! Who else is out
there chopping people apart with axes? The Imperial investigators said
Sand People killed my son."
No one said anything for a minute. No one wanted to point out
that so many people could have been out there, not just the Sand
People. No one wanted to say that Imperial investigators might have
wanted to fix blame on suspects who could never be brought to trial.
"They destroyed five of my vaporators," Mr. Jensen said.
"They broke into my storage shed and tore it apart," Mr. Clay
said.
"One of them threw a gaffi stick that lodged in a rear stabilizer
when I was driving into Mos Eisley," Mrs.
Sigurd said. "I barely made it to the city."
Ariela stopped them. "So bad things happened out here, and all of
you jumped to blame the Sand People."
Mr. Olafsen cut her off. "It's outsiders like you, coming here
from where was it--Alderaan?--with your ideas of how we should start
living, it's outsiders like you--and this Ariq, here--who cause the
most trouble."
"I'm not an outsider," I said, but that was not the point. My
ideas were new. There could' be trouble before they worked, before we
could all live in peace. It looked as if all the trouble wouldn't come
from the Sand People.
"So you worked on a moisture farm as a kid," Eyvind said to me,
"so you've made this farm of yours turn a profit---does that mean you
can appoint yourself diplomat for the rest of us and negotiate with the
Sand People and Jawas?"
"The Sand People would have ruined my farm, Eyvind, you know that.
I have to find a way to live with them. You know that, too."
"Most people out here are against what you're doing, Ariq."
"Is that so? The McPhersons, the Jonsons, and the Jacques all
support me, and I don't see any of them here. What about Owen and
Beru? Have you talked to them? Or the Darklighters? Where do they
stand?"
"In two days we have a chance to see firsthand how Ariq's plans
are working," Ariela said. "Eyvind and I asked him to invite the Jawas
to our wedding, and they are coming as our guests."
That announcement started more arguing amongst these people than I
had ever heard. Eyvind did not look happy to have had her say that.
"TheJawas were honored to be invited," I said. "We can live with
them--you'll see. Maybe we can come to live with the Sand People."
But no one listened to me. Ariela looked at me, and she looked
worried. I could imagine plenty of reasons for her to be worried. It
was clear she didn't support Eyvind's ideas about my ideas. ! was
sorry to be the cause of what was probably their first argument.
"We'll take this to Mos Eisley--we'11 even take this to Bestine,"
Eyvind said when everybody started to leave.
I walked my speeder into the shed and locked things down for the
night. When I came back out, Ariela was still standing there.
"What are you going to do?" she asked me.
I wanted to ask her the same question. "I don't know," I said.
We sat on the sand in front of my house and were quiet for a time.
"Are you really from Alderaan?" I asked her.
"Yes."
"Don't you miss it?"
"Not really," she said. "I'm in love, and that makes up for it.
But I do miss the water--we're so wasteful with it there!"
"I can't imagine such a place. I'm used to guarding every drop."
"Not there. If I could take you and Eyvind to Alder aan you'd get
fat on the water."
"I'd swim in it all day."
"You could take an hour-long shower and no one would care."
"I'd keep plants in my house and water them."
She looked at me and smiled. After a minute she stood up. "I
won't let Eyvind cause trouble for you in Mos Eisley or Bestine. I
can't answer for the rest."
"Thank you," I said. After she left to catch up to the others, I
went inside. I didn't have the stomach to eat.
It was hot in the house, so I took the Holo-display unit and
walked outside onto a ridge overlooking my house and sheds. I'd shut
down all the lights, so the compound was dark. I displayed the map,
and it shone out brightly above the rocks. The rocks around the map
looked like the mountains around my farm. The stars shone brightly,
and I lay back on the rock to look at them.
I do not look up often enough. I am so busy all the time and so
fired after dark that I do not look up often enough at the stars.
I wondered how all of this would turn out.
Day 50: Jawa Gifts. and the Wedding Thirty-one Jawas came to the
wedding, and they brought sacks of rock salt, a liter of water, a bolt
of their brown cloth--and a diagnostic droid so small it could fit in
the palm of my hand. They couldn't decide on one gift, so they brought
some of everything we'd talked about.
The diagnostic droid spoke the binary language of vaporators. The
Jawas had polished it so finely that it hurt to look at it lying in the
sun with the other gifts.
People just stood and stared at their rich gifts and wondered at
the pleasure the Jawas had in being invited to this wedding.
Eyvind hurried up to me and asked me to come translate for him and
Ariela. They wanted to thank the Jawas. I was standing by the punch
bowl with the Jen-sens and Ariela's mother and sister, who had come out
from Alderaan for the wedding. Mrs. Jensen stopped me before I could
leave. "Maybe you're right about all this," Mrs. Jensen said. "Maybe
you are."
I smiled at her and hurried off to translate. The
Jawas all bowed to me, and I bowed back. I translated for Eyvind
and Ariela, then started answering the Jawas' questions about this
human ceremony: Yes, the humans crowded here were all potential
customers of their wares and, yes, the tiny diagnostic droid impressed
everyone; no, Eyvind and Ariela would not consummate their marriage in
public; yes, everyone hoped Eyvind and Ariela would have children; yes,
the humans brought special foods to the wedding to make the day
memorable. "Try the spiced juice," I said.-"You'll love it. It's
better than plain water."
I wondered what they would think of the spice. They followed me
to the punch table, and I poured Wi-mateeka a cup of spiced juice and
gave it to him.
He just held the cup and looked into it. "The cup is so cold!"
he said.
"We usually serve cold drinks at important occasions," I said.
"Why is it red? Does it have blood in it?"
"No--we don't drink blood!"
Wimateeka looked up at me oddly, and I suddenly wondered if the
Jawas drank blood at their weddings. I would probably find out soon
enough. Wimateeka still hadn't tasted the drink. "It's quite good," I
assured him. "At least, we think so."
"How much does this cost?" he asked, finally.
So he thought he'd have to pay for this. They'd all no doubt
worried about having enough to pay for food and drinks---especially if
they were pressed to try certain things. "Everything here is a gift to
the guests of the wedding," I said.
Wimateeka smiled then, and lifted the cup to his lips. His eyes
went wide when he tasted the spiced juice --and I wondered if he would
spit it out, but he didn't, and soon he took another drink. I served
the rest of the Jawas, and they all loved the spiced juice and asked me
for more and I served Jawas for fifteen minutes straight.
Eyvind came up to me, nervous and anxious. "I want
to get started," he said, "but Owen and Beru aren't here yet, and
they were sure to come."
"Who knows what's kept them?" I said, while I handed a Jawa
another cup of spiced juice. "But you'd better start soon or I'll have
all thirty-one Jawas drunk
before the wedding."
Eyvind laughed.
And the shooting started.
From over by the landspeeders. Everyone had parked west of
Eyvind's house, and the commotion came from there: Two or three men
were shouting and firing at the landspeeders. I wondered why they
would do such a stupid thing--and then I saw the Sand People.
The adolescents, I thought. They'd taken it into their heads to
steal a landspeeder or two while we were busy with the wedding.
The Sand People fought back with their gaffi sticks, and threw a
few with deadly aim, and people screamed and ran for cover, and Eyvind
ran off to start shooting or to stop the shooting, I didn't know which.
I ran after him, but lost him in the crowd, and when I broke
through I almost stumbled over Ariela holding something on the ground.
Eyvind. I knelt next to her. She was holding Eyvind with blood
all over him, and there was shooting all around us, and then Sand
People. I stood up and held on to Ariela so maybe they would recognize
me and not kill me and Ariela, and some of them did step back when they
saw me-But something hit me in the back and sent me sprawling--a
backhanded slap from the broad, flat face of a gaffi stick--and I
couldn't breathe for a minute, though I never blacked out. I heard
screams, and I heard Ariela scream, and I couldn't move, I could only
see, for a minute, the feet of Sand People rushing around me, and then
human feet, and a human pulled me up and leered into my face.
"This is your fault!" he shouted. "This comes from giving them
water."
He shoved me back down onto the sand, but I could breathe now and
get up on my own, and they were carrying Eyvind away.
"He's dead," someone shouted at me, and the words hit me almost as
hard as the gaffi stick had hit me. I couldn't breathe again.
"They've taken Ariela," someone else shouted.
"They dragged her away from Eyvind and took her."
Ariela's mother grabbed hold of my arm. "You've got to save her,"
she said. "The others are going after the Sand People to shoot them,
and the Sand People will surely kill my daughter before she can be
rescued.
You've got to save her."
"I'll take Wimateeka," I said. "He can translate for me."
And that eventually became our plan: I had twelve hours to find
the Sand People and convince them to turn Ariela over to me. In the
meantime, everyone else would organize a well-equipped posse. If I
wasn't back in twelve hours, they would come looking.
And they would come out to kill the Sand People.
I found Wimateeka and the other Jawas huddled in their crawler. I
explained what I had to do, and I asked Wimateeka to come with me. He
started shaking, but he got up and walked with me to my speeder. He
was still shaking when I lifted him in.
After I'd started off, I wondered why I wasn't shaking.
Day 50. Early .4tiernoon: I Waif by fhe Vaporafor wifh a Losf
Girl of Wafer I waited by the vaporator because I thought the Sand
People would take Ariela to their main camp, somewhere northwest of
here. I could travel faster than the adolescents in my landspeeder, so
I was ahead of them and they would pass by me. They would probably
stop to see if I had left some water.
And I had worked out what I would tell them. These were
adolescents who needed to prove themselves worthy to be adults. I
could offer them a way to be remembered forever in tales and gain an
adulthood always honored: negotiate with the Jawas and me to secure the
boundaries of their land and thus their nomadic way of life. I knew
their adults would have to be consulted, but the adolescents could
start the process and convince them of the necegsity of it.
I hoped they would agree with me. I hoped they wouldn't behead me
first. I hoped they would agree that Ariela was a trifling matter
compared to this and that the water and cloth Wimateeka and I had
brought from my house to trade for her would buy her back.
So we waited on the sand, with our water and cloth, and the
Holo-display unit and my map.
And they came to us, suddenly. All at once we were surrounded by
young Sand People, each armed with a gaffi stick, glistening
sharp-edged in the harsh sunlight.
The dunes were covered with Sand People. I looked for Ariela, but
could not see her at first.
I stood and raised my arm and clenched my fist and greeted them:
"Koroghh gahgt takt."
They were all quiet. None of them spoke or raised their arms.
That's when I saw Ariela: bound and gagged and guarded on top of a
dune south of me.
"Tell the Sand People what I say," I asked Wimateeka, and I knew I
had to speak quickly and well to save her life, and probably
Wimateeka's and my own.
I told them we could stop trouble like we had gone through today.
I knew a way. I told them my plan, and my hope that the Empire
would come to recognize what we had done, and what this would mean for
their people and mine.
Wimateeka had trouble explaining the map, and I didn't know if
they could understand what a map was.
Wimateeka and I smoothed out a flat space in the sand, and I set
up the Holo-display unit and displayed my map. Some of the Sand People
rushed back, star-tied, but others soon crowded forward, and it began
to make sense to them.
But I would not negotiate till they had freed Ariela.
"What we are about to do is better than more killing," I said. "I
want you to free your captivemrelease her to me. She is my friend.
Accept this water and cloth as compensation for the trouble you've
had in caring for her till now."
They argued about that, but eventually they took the water and
cloth and passed it back into the crowd somewhere, and they cut Ariela
free and let her walk up to me.
She came slowly through the throng of Sand People.
They would barely move aside for her. But she was taller than all
of them, so she kept her eyes on me and Wimateeka and eventually got to
us. I hugged her, and she hugged me and Wimateeka.
And we started to haggle and negotiate and draw the
lines on my map.
It was working.
I thought of all the generations of anthropologists who would have
wanted to be here with the Sand People.
The day was bright with sunlight, and I could feel the tension ebb
away from among us. My map had never looked so beautiful, I thought,
as it did then shining out flat above the sand and divided by the black
lines of boundaries.
We finished negotiating, six hours before my deadline.
Ariela and Wimateeka and I packed up.
The Sand People stood up and watched us, then started to move off
into the dunes, heading northwest to their camp.
Ariela climbed into my landspeeder.
I handed Wimateeka to her and climbed in.
And the dune west of us exploded in flame. My vaporator blew
apart, and steam rushed up from it like smoke. Explosions tipped the
air--and the young Sand People were screaming and running.
Six hours before our deadline--after everything we had worked for
had come to pass. I had to stop the shooting.
I flew straight to where the shots were coming from
--a rocky rise south of us--and we were not hit. A path through
the fire opened up for us.
Stormtroopers. There were Imperial stormtroopers in the rocks.
The farmers who opposed me had called them in, that was all I
could think. I slammed the land-speeder to a stop and rushed up into
the rock. "Stop shooting!" I shouted. "Those aren't even adults
you're killing!"
But no one listened or stopped firing. I pushed into the
stormtroopers and shoved their guns up to make them stop---and I was
grabbed from behind and slammed into the rock.
"Stop it!" someone shouted at me.
It was the other farmers who had me, eight or ten of them.
"The stormtroopers will kill you," someone hissed in my ear.
"Live through this day and we'll talk later about what happened."
I tried to break free, and they shoved me back.
"The Empire would never let your plan work," someone else hissed
in my ear, then Ariela was in front of me, her face white and
tear-streaked.
"Don't you see?" she said. "They want trouble on all the worlds
so the majority will welcome their presence to keep the peace. If you
make peace here, our real enemies would become clear--and what then?"
I should have seen this. I should have known this would happen
from the day the Imperial Governors first refused to map this region.
The firing stopped. The other farmers thanked the stormtroopers
for "rescuing" Ariela and Wimateeka and me.
"You'll have to evacuate from your farm for a time," a
stormtrooper told me. "It won't be safe to stay in your house,
isolated as it is."
I wouldn't just have to evacuate for a time. This could be the
end of my farm. The Sand People would want to kill me for sure--unless
I could find a way to convince them I hadn't betrayed them, unless I
could find a way to convince them just who had betrayed them.
"We'll escort the jawa home," another stormtrooper said.
"No," I said. "I'm taking him myself."
And I did. I would not let them take him alone. I thought they
might kill him if they got him alone--to anger the Jawas and to drive a
wedge between them and the farmers. So a stormtrooper contingent
escorted us to the Jawa fortress.
I lifted Wimateeka out of my speeder, near the gates of his
fortress, and he rushed inside without saying a word to me.
Day 50. Night: I Become o Rebel
The Imperial commander ordered me into Mos Eisley to make a
deposition, and I had to go. Ariela asked me to take her mother and
sister to the spaceport. She stayed with the other farmers to prepare
for the Sand People's onslaught of revenge.
"Eyvind left me his farm," Ariela told me. "I'd like you to help
me run it after this is over--when we can go back to it."
So I had that to think about on my way into Mos Eisley.
I left Ariela's mother and sister at the spaceport. In a short
time, they would be safe on Alderaan. I made my deposition, and the
Imperials confiscated my map and let me go.
I wondered for how long.
In the meantime, my farm was abandoned.
My hopes for making peace with the Jawas and the Sand People were
ruined.
The Sand People would surely feel betrayed and kill innocent
people.
My maps, my dreams, my successful negotiations meant nothing to
the Empire.
All because the Empire did not want us to have peace. All because
the Empire did not care about the safety and the work and the lives of
its citizens. We were pawns to be used and discarded--our efforts
channeled as long as possible into "approved" paths.
I stopped at the cantina for a drink. I could not go straight
back.
I sat in a dark corner and watched the people around me--people
from all corners of the Empire.
Representatives of peoples who had each, in their own way, been
oppressed by the Empire. We had all endured it.
But there was another way. I knew there was another way.
There was the Rebellion.
The Empire had driven me into rebellion.
I took another drink and looked around. I didn't know how to find
the Rebellion. I didn't know how to join. But this cantina would be
the place to find out, I thought. If I asked a few judicious
questions, maybe I'd find out. I decided to ask the Ithorian a few
tables
down.
I took another drink, for courage, but before I could move, Owen
and Beru's nephew, Luke, walked in with somebody I didn't know and two
droids that got ordered out.
Where were Luke's aunt and uncle? I wondered.
And that started me thinking, Owen and Beru's farm was quite far
from mine and Ariela's. Maybe they could use an extra hand or two till
things settled down and it would be safe for Ariela and me to go back
to our farms.
Then we could start our work for the Rebellion.
Ariela would follow me into the Rebellion. Most of the other
farmers probably would too after what had happened today. TheJawas
would help. In time, maybe even the Sand People might come to
understand what had happened to them--and that restoring the Republic
would stop Imperial atrocities. Farmers like me, in an odd alliance
with Jawas and maybe Sand People, would have to fight for our right to
live in peace on the world we called home.
After I thought this through, something told me I'd find the
Rebellion just fine, out in the mountains and valleys of the water
farms of Tatooine.
Something told me things were going to change on Tatooine, in ways
the Imperials never imagined or wanted.
Something told me that, in the end, someday, somehow, there would
be peace here.
We would draw the maps of peace.
One Last Night In the Mos Eisley Cantina: The Tale of the Wolfman
and the Lamproid by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens Instants after
the jump from lightspeed, the situation became as simple as the balance
between predator and prey. Despite the secrets bought with Bothan
blood, the half-finished Death Star above the forest moon of Endor was
ready for what was supposed to have been an unexpected assault. The
Rebel fleet was doomed.
Sivrak punched the controls of his X-wing fighter even as Admiral
Ackbar gave the order for evasive maneuvers. But that would buy only a
few moments of life.
The Imperial fleet already advanced from Sector 47--Star
Destroyers, Cruisers, waves of TIE fightersqand Sivrak knew it was a
trap. It had always been a trap.
The fur rose on his face and his fangs flashed in the reflexive
grimace of attack. In the common tongue of the Alliance, Sivrak was a
Shistavanen Wolfman, and he faced his death with all the primal rage
that evolution and unknown genetic engineers had encoded in his cells.
The TIE fighters surged ahead of their fleet, as if the Star
Destroyers were not needed in this final battle.
Already space blossomed with deadly flowers of exploding
spacecraft. Sivrak heard his orders through the static of Imperial
interference and the cries of the dying: Protect the fleet no matter
what the risk.
Sivrak howled at the challenge. He had nothing more to risk. All
that had given his life meaning was now ash scattered across the icy
wastes of Hoth.
His lips glistened with anticipation of the hunt as he switched
his weapons to manual and wrenched his craft onto a collision course
with a trio of TIE fighters.
Over his helmet communica(or, he heard the medical frigate was
under attack. But it was too late to alter his trajectory. His course
was as set now as it had been the day he had first met her.
Endor's moon spiraled before Sivrak. The three TIE fighters
converged as they changed course to meet him. His weapons carved space
like blazing gouts of blood released by the stab of his fangs. The
Imperial ships fired back, closing faster than even a perfect hunter's
eye could track.
But Sivrak throttled forward, faster still, and his fighter's
engines shrieked behind him. His full-throated voice joined theirs as
he shouted out her name as his battle cry. The all-encompassing roar
swept to a thundering crescendo as charged particles from the Imperial
fighters resonated against his own fighter's canopy. Space distorted,
wrapping him in red destruction, He embraced the end of his existence,
the beginning of nothingness. Yet somewhere inside that senseless
maelstrom, Sivrak heard faint strains of music.
Music he had heard before. Long ago. The day he had firstin
--walked into the Mos Eisley Cantina, boots heavy with the dust of
Tatooine, burning with the heat of streets scorched by two blazing
suns. He wiped a paw against his mouth, feeling the scrape of grit and
sand against his fangs, letting his eyes adjust to the dimmer light.
For a moment, he experienced a slight wave of vertigo, as if his
body had not expected to be back in a natural gravity well so soon
after . . . after . . . he couldn't remember what. He closed his
eyes and a green world spun before him. Something about a deflector
shield. Something about a . . . Death Star? He shook his head to
dispel his confusion, then walked down the stairs by the droid
detector, heading for the bar.
Without prompting, the bartender served Sivrak his regular orderma
mug of crushed Gilden, organ tendrils still writhing, attesting to
their freshness. Sivrak lapped at it, trying to remember how this
drink could be his regular when he had never been in this cantina
before. He was a rim scout, or had been, until the Empire had closed
off the Outer Rim Territories to new exploration. Now he was just
another displaced being, on the run from the Empire and all political
entanglements.
And Mos Eisley had too many Imperial storm-troopers for his
liking. He knew he'd leave as soon as he had the necessary credits.
He . . . moved to the side an instant before a Jawa scuttled past
him, rushing up the stairs for the door.
Sivrak felt a shock of recognition. He had expected the Jawa to
run past him. He had known what the Jawa would do. Exactly what the
Jawa had done that first time he had stepped in here and met . . .
Sivrak stared past the bar, into the gloom on the side of the
cantina opposite the band.
And he saw her again. Just as he had seen her that first time.
He stood by her table, savoring the unmistakable pheromones that
identified her as female, admiring the sinuous twists of the muscular
coils she draped over her chair, all the more sensual for the strength
they contained, able to squeeze the skull from a bantha. She turned to
him, her loose-hinged coral jaws revealing rings of glittering fangs,
with the outermost the length of Sivrak's claws. Her light sensors
bristled as they shifted toward him, seeing in wavelengths beyond those
even the Wolfman's glowing eyes could perceive.
Sivrak had heard of such beings before--Florn lamproids, the sole
intelligence born on a world of such dangers it meant instant death to
any who set foot on it without hyperaccelerated nerve implants.
"Buy you a drink?" the lamproid hissed seductively.
Her inflection of the predator's tongue was intensely personal, as
if they had hunted and shared blood a thousand times.
Sivrak felt the temperature of the cantina increase and he
shrugged off his jacket and sat down across from her just as he had the
first time.
But this was the first time, wasn't it? How could two beings meet
for the first time except for the first time?
"Lak Sivrak," she breathed, and Sivrak growled to acknowledge that
somehow, incredibly, she knew even his litter name.
"Dice Ibegon," he replied, disturbed that he knew her name in
turn, the moment he spoke it aloud, as if he had always known it.
"You are troubled," Dice said.
"We've met before." Sivrak had said those words in a hundred
other cantinas on a dozen other worlds, but this time he meant them.
Though how could he, a perfect hunter, forget having met such a
perfect killer?
"Are you certain?" the lamproid asked. She trailed the exquisite
tip of her lethal tail through the shimmering translucence of a snifter
of clarified bantha blood. The reflective surface of the liquid made
Sivrak think of force-field emanations. Wasn't there something else he
should be doing? Someplace else he was supposed to be?
"At the bar, I knew a Jawa was going to bump into me," he said.
"Jawas often do."
Sivrak concentrated. A new memory came to him.
"A golden droid will enter soon."
Dice brought a single drop of bantha blood to Sivrak's muzzle.
The liquid trembled on the tip of her tail. "Their kind is not
served liere," she said. Her voice was inviting, distracting.
Sivrak drew a single, razor-sharp claw against the cool pink flesh
of Dice's tail tip, transfixed by her light sensors and her scarlet
mouth and its endless rings of needle teeth. "The farm boy with the
droid will talk to it."
Dice's voice dropped in tone, sharing secrets. "And the golden
droid will leave."
Sivrak's rough-rasped tongue flicked out and captured the teardrop
of blood from the lamproid's tail.
His claws tightened around the sweet, boneless flesh, feeling the
steel cords of her muscles flex in response.
"Tell me what is happening," Sivrak said.
"Only that which has happened," the lamproid answered.
A single light sensor shifted to the left. Sivrak glanced in that
direction and saw a horned Devaronian sitting against the wall, nodding
dreamily in time to the music of the cantina's band as he watched the
main entrance.
Sivrak looked over to the entrance to see what the Devaronian
saw--an old man in desert robes, a farm boy, an Artoo unit.
And the golden droid.
The old man hurried ahead to the bar. Without knowing how, Sivrak
was aware of what lay hidden beneath the old man's robes--an antique
lightsaber.
There was an Aqualish pirate at the bar who would soon be short an
arm.
Sivrak released the lamproid's tail and began to rise
from his chair. But Dice's coils snaked out to bind him tight,
keeping him in his place across from her.
"Hey! We don't serve their kind here!" the bartender shouted.
"Tell me," Sivrak demanded.
"What you already know?" Dice replied.
The farm boy spoke to the golden droid. The golden droid and the
Artoo unit left. The farm boy joined the old man by the bar. Sivrak
struggled--not against the lamproid, but against hidden knowledge that
was somewhere inside him.
There could be only one answer, yet it made no sense.
"Is it the Force that binds us to this place?"
"The Force binds all, if you would believe in it."
"I believe only in the hunt."
The lamproid's teeth shifted in amusement--the F!orn equivalent of
a smile. "That's not what you said when we first met here. You were
most eloquent then, my romantic Wolfman."
Sivrak's eyes narrowed. Was she teasing him? "Is there a price
to be paid?" he asked stiffly. An altercation began at the bar. "To
understand why everything is familiar yet new at the same time?"
"Poor Wolfman," Dice said. "You still don't understand the
promise I made you. So for now the price of your understanding is the
same price it was the first time we met here."
Sivrak searched his memory for events yet to happen.
He cast back to predict what he had already seen.
On the other side of the bar the farm boy was thrown into a table.
Despite Dice's hold on him, Sivrak leaned forward threateningly.
"You're a member of the Alliance, aren't you?"
A lightsaber thrummed into life. The Aqualish pirate screamed.
Sivrak's nostrils flared at the scent of fresh blood exploding
through the smoke-filled air. The lamproid's tail tip fluttered as she
scented it, too. A severed arm fell to the floor of the cantina.
"I am a member of the Alliance," she said. "Just as you chose to
be, that first time."
But the heady wash of the blood scent pushed Sivrak beyond
understanding, and Dice swiftly released the pheromones that would
guide the Wolfman to the one state he could achieve without endangering
bystanders.
Sivrak arched in her deadly grip, and with a powerful undulation,
Dice uncoiled the rest of her body and slithered across the table
toward him. Then perfect killer met perfect hunter as their fangs
clashed, then locked in the lethal kiss of predators. Sivrak's senses
were overwhelmed. He felt the floor of the cantina shift beneath him,
gaining momentum as it spun faster and faster, just as if he rode
an---X-wing fighter spinning through space. A storm of debris rattled
against his fighter's skin as Sivrak fought to stabilize the craft.
His tactical display showed that two of the TIE fighters had
survived his headlong strike. The third was a vapor of incandescent
particles dispersing in vacuum. He turned to Dice to make certain she
was safe and growled when he saw only the reflection of his own glowing
eyes in the canopy. The cantina had been a hallucination, a dream of
what had been . . . what might have been . . . he couldn't be sure.
A second sun flared over Endor's moon and Siwak was torn from his
memories by a lance of unthinkable energy that burst from the Death
Star to claim a Rebel frigate. The communicator channels were flooded
with transmissions of shock and confusion. The Death Star was
operational.
Admiral Ackbar ordered a retreat--all fighters were to return to
base. General Calrissian countermanded the retreat--all fighters were
to engage the Star Destroyers at point-blank range. And every other
Rebel voice asked about General Solo's strike team on the moon's
surface. Would they destroy the force-field generator?
Had they already tried and failed?
Sivrak pulled back on the controls to bring his X-wing on course
to the nearest Star Destroyer. There were many ways to die in space.
He would find one soon enough, he knew.
The X-wing did not respond.
Siwak activated the diagnostics, rechanneled auxiliary power, and
closed his wings for increased etheric stability.
But the X-wing continued its fall toward the forest moon, and
nothing he could do would change its course.
One thought and one thought alone flooded through him: He was
going to live.
Once in the moon's atmosphere, Sivrak knew he could use the
fighter's control surfaces--useless in vacuum-to bring his craft to a
soft landing. A whole forest world waited for him. The Alliance and
the Empire would fall from his consciousness as he stalked its prey and
returned to what he knew and understood--the hunt. Perhaps, in time,
he might even forget Dice Ibegon, and things would be as they had
always been.
Simple. Balanced. The pure equation of life and death, free of
the pain of love and duty.
The raging space battle receded behind him. He watched it
diminish in a cockpit display. It appeared his damaged X-wing was no
longer a target worthy of the Empire.
He focused on the forest moon, closing fast, bringing him a new
life. Another life.
As if any life could have meaning without her.
Rebel craft exploded on the battle display. Sivrak knew that
meant the force-field generator on the moon's surface still protected
the Death Star. Perhaps his battle wasn't over yet.
He touched the atmospheric controls of his fighter, searching for
the first sign of resistance from the wispy upper reaches of the
atmosphere he plunged into. To change course one way was to land in
safety. The other way, Rebel tacticians had set the odds of a
successful atmospheric attack on the generator at a million to one.
Standard Imperial ground defenses were too strong.
Sivrak's claws tapped the control yoke as he considered his
choice. One way or another. And then his fighter yawed violently as
an Imperial particle beam sliced through a rear stabilizer. His
tactical display showed two TIE fighters closing behind him, hiding in
his propulsion wake--the same two he had faced before.
For whatever reason, perhaps to avenge the death of their wingman,
Sivrak was still at least a worthy target to them.
The Wolfman felt relieved the choice had been taken from him.
There was now no need to plan, no need to decide. There was only
the fight. The balance.
The reassuring enormity of now.
Unable to change his fighter's course in space, he threw it into a
spiraling roll, releasing all his decoys and mines in an expanding
cloud of sensor-opaque, carbon-fiber chaff. Then he locked his rear
sights onto the cloud's dark center, daring one or both of the TIE
fighters to survive the cloud's perils. Siyrak calculated he would
have time for at least two shots before the Imperial pilots could
target him. Perhaps those shots would be enough. Perhaps they
wouldn't. Sivrak did not care either way.
He glanced ahead at the rushing disk of the moon, colors smearing
as he wildly spun. At last, he felt the first tremors of atmospheric
resistance fight his craft's roll. With fierce satisfaction, he
pictured his X-wing tearing itself into pieces, raining down on the
moon like a comet come to die. It was a good image. A fitting image.
A hunter's death.
The tactical display flashed as the mines he had deployed erupted
behind him. At least one of the fighters had vanished. But then the
display glowed as a piercing beam of brilliant energy shot from the
defensive carbon cloud, blinding his rear sensors with a wash of
static-filled white that enveloped Sivrak like a smothering snowdrift
--carved by the icy winds of Hoth.
Sivrak dove for the trench before him as an energy bolt from an
Imperial walker obliterated a nearby gun emplacement, Echo Station--the
Rebel base's lone outpost on the north ridge--was a charnel house. The
awkward dead lay all around him as he pushed himself to his feet and
shook the snow and ice from his matted fur. It was so achingly cold he
could not even scent the blood of the dying. But then he caught the
scent of her.
The ground shook with the thunder of approaching walkers and the
constant firing of the ion cannon as desperate Rebels tried to clear
the way for the retreating transports. But Sivrak was aware of only
one sensation-she was close.
He ran to her, dodging the other troops in the slippery, ice-lined
trench, his brilliant orange flight suit startling amongst their white
Hoth camouflage. The main communicator channel crackled with the call
to evacuate all ground crew. The command center had been hit. All
troops in Sector 12 were to report to the south post to protect the
fighters. But Sivrak was beyond the reach of orders now. He collapsed
in the snow at Dice's side.
It was stained with the rich purple of her blood.
Sivrak spoke her name and touched her face, afraid to disturb the
ragged shard of metal that had sliced through her insulated suit and
cut deeply into her upper thorax. Purple drops of frozen blood shone
there, as if, for her, time had stopped.
Her eye sensors trembled and stiffened and she
looked up at him.
"Go," she said.
"How can I?" he answered. "I have sworn allegiance to the
Princess and the return of the Republic."
The lamproid's teeth shifted in amusement, even as her gasp of
pain formed mist in the icy air.
"You never meant to wear the uniform of a Rebel.
That day in the cantina, when we first met, you only accepted my
offer to join the Alliance as a way to wrap yourself in my coils."
She was right, of course. The first time in the cantina --the
real first time--he had made much of his Rebel sympathies, sensing it
might make him a more acceptable companion to her. But in time, he had
come to believe in what the Alliance stood for. He had become a proud
and willing warrior in its cause. But now Dice was dying and the past
no longer mattered.
"What is the past?" Dice asked, reading his mind again.
Sivrak tore the med-kit from his belt, somehow knowing that
another battle was being fought above a world of forests. He stared
blankly at the contents of the kit. Most of its salves and ointments
were for his species. He had no idea how they would react with Florn
biology. But he had to do something.
"You have done something," Dice said soothingly.
Her voice was calm, almost peaceful. She fixed her light sensors
on the clear blue sky.
"We are alike," she continued, "as you have always known. The
hunter and the killer know the sick and diseased must be culled from
the herd--and the Empire is rotten with corruption. That is why you
must leave me, to continue our fight until its end."
The vials and tubes from the med-kit spilled into the snow from
Sivrak's rigid paws. "Dice, no. I can't."
"I know you can't. In time, I know you won't. But for now, my
love, you must. Alliance and Empire. Predator and prey."
Sivrak's communicator sounded the evacuation code sound. A terse
voice announced that Imperial troops had entered the base.
"I will die with you here," Sivrak said.
He cradled her head close against his warm body.
"What is death compared to love?" Dice asked, her voice fading.
Sivrak could not move. He was losing her.
~ ,'.What you must do," she whispered, "is believe in the Force."
"If you wish me to," Sivrak said thickly, unwilling to argue with
the old religion if that is what brought her peace at this time. He
felt the mourning cry rise in his chest.
"Not because I wish you to, but because there is no other choice
you can make."
Before Sivrak could answer, the lamproid's body shivered, then
quietened. He stared down at Dice as one by one her light sensors
drooped, losing focus, losing contact. And then, amid the sounds of
battle light-years removed from the moment that they shared, Dice
blessed him with the Force, willing it to remain with him, forever.
Sivrak held her body until a walker destroyed the main generator
and the fall-back lines finally fell. Energy beams cut through the air
like falling stars.
Sivrak's communicator relayed a final evacuation alert.
The roar of departing transports, now launching two at a time, was
continuous.
But as if he were on a different world, one that knew no war or
conflict, Sivrak arose and moved with a slowness and surety that set
him apart from the chaos around him.
He heard no explosions as he laid Dice upon the snow, sheltering
her in an alcove of the trench. He felt no walker's footfall as he
arranged her fur-trimmed hood around her serene, unmoving face, and
caressed her ringed teeth that were never again to know the bliss of
shredded flesh.
A human Rebel slipped to a near halt in the trench and pulled on
Sivrak's arm to urge him to the evacuation point. But Sivrak's snarl
sent the human on alone.
Then Sivrak stood over his beloved and took his blaster from his
holster. He had heard 'the stories of what the Imperial biogeneticists
did with the bodies of the Rebel dead. How parts could be cloned and
kept alive for unspeakable research, or Imperial sport. He set the
blaster for full immolation.
"May your Force be with you," he said in the most
intimate inflection of the predator's tongue, and his breath
swirled into the frozen air to join with hers.
He would make it to the evacuation point or he
would not. There was no reason to hurry.
Sivrak activated the blaster.
Dice's body shimmered with the disassociative energy of the beam.
She became fiery, incandescent, and somehow, Sivrak thought, she
might have appreciated that transformation. And then the fire that
consumed her reached out for Sivrak, engulfing him too as---a single
TIE fighter emerged from the carbon cloud with all weapons firing
blindly.
Blinking with surprise, Sivrak felt the chill of Hoth still
pulsing through him as he instinctively switched from his etheric
rudder to full atmospheric controls, and dodged the killing strands of
the TIE fighter's beams until his rear sights locked and he fired.
The TIE fighter flew apart as Sivrak's beam tore open its skin and
the moon of Endor's atmosphere instantly ripped the Imperial craft to
dust-sized fragments.
The hunt was over.
But now the Endor moon filled his canopy. Sivrak slammed at the
atmospheric controls, fighting to reduce the X-wing's roll. The
navigation display showed his two possible courses. One to safety.
One to the generator.
The rear display showed the Death Star firing at will. The X-wing
shook as it tore through the thickening atmosphere. Sivrak's claws dug
into the yoke. He was less than thirty heartbeats from the point of no
return. Again, he had to decide. He couldn't decide.
The atmosphere sang to him. Like music. Like music from---the
cantina. Sivrak leaned against the wall inside the doorway, trying to
understand what he heard outside on the streets of Mos Eisley.
Fighting. Rioting. Speeders rushing. Detonations from the
direction of the spaceport.
He stumbled down the stairs to the bar, breathless, feeling the
panic of time running out.
It was night. The cantina was deserted. The music was recorded.
Something was wrong.
Sivrak slumped against the bar, feeling it shudder as
if it coursed through atmosphere.
"Jabba is dead," Dice said.
Sivrak looked up from the bar to find the lamproid close beside
him, studying the reflections in her snifter of clarified blood.
"How . . . ?" Sivrak rasped. His question took in everything
that had happened but Dice heard it in only one way.
"Strangled on his sand ship," Dice said. "A human slave girl, of
all things. Used her own chains."
From somewhere outside, there was an explosion, much closer than
the spaceport. The bottles and glasses stacked up behind the bar
rattled.
Dice picked up her snifter. "Mos Eisley is in flames.
No one knows who is in control." She unrolled her drinking tongue
into the blood and ingested.
Sivrak smoothed the fur around his muzzle in agitation.
He knew there was something he had to do, but he couldn't work it
out. He had to discover what was out of place here.
"If Jabba is dead," he began uncertainly, "then Hoth . . . Hoth
has already been evacuated."
Dice put the snifter back on the bartop. "That's fight," she
said.
Siwak felt the fur lift along his spine. "But then," he said,
"you're dead."
Dice slid the tip of her tail across Sivrak's forearm.
"Do I feel dead?" she asked.
The Wolfman closed his claws over the tail tip, focusing only on
the magic of her improbable presence. He heard other sounds now.
Shuffling. Voices. Boots grinding sand into the floor. He
looked up at Dice.
They were sitting at the table in the corner, the horned
Devaronian nodding to the music behind them. Now the canfina was full,
bustling. As it had been, long ago.
"The golden droid will come in soon," Sivrak said.
He wasn't sure how, but he was beginning to understand what was
happening, the choice he must make.
"And then the golden droid will leave again."
Dice's light sensors were unfathomable, as deep as a gravity well
"And what of you, this time?" she asked, as if she had read his mind.
"Will you choose to leave as well?"
"The Force," Sivrak said with wonder as understanding finally
welled within him. "The Force is with me, isn't it?"
Dice smiled, an irksome habit in those who knew the Force so well.
"The Force is within everything," she said.
"But here and now, in this canfina"--Sivrak's voice rose as all
that had happened, all that would happen, all that might happen,
converged on him at once--' 'in the trenches of Hoth, or falling toward
some nameless moon of Endor--the Force binds it all."
His pulse hammered, his lungs strained for air. A flicker of
light by the entrance showed that someone had entered the cantina. The
Devaronian glanced over to see who it was.
"Of course," Dice said, as if she had heard every word he had
spoken uncounted lifetimes ago.
The farm boy appeared on the stairs as the old man hurried ahead.
The Artoo unit and the golden droid followed behind.
"This time, when the golden droid leaves, I can leave too, can't
I?" Sivrak asked.
"That choice was yours when we first met," Dice said. "Nothing
has changed."
Sivrak felt the worldlines converge, then pull apart, not on this
one place and time, but on this one feeling, this one experience that
transcended all else.
He now knew that through some trick of the Force,
he could follow the golden droid back onto the streets of Mos
Eisley, and all would be as it had been before he had met Dice Ibegon.
The same choice but a second chance.
In love, Dice had given him this way out.
"Hey," the bartender growled from behind the bar.
"We don't serve their kind here."
Sivrak watched intently. The farm boy talked with his droids.
Only heartbeats remained. The time between one decision and
another.
One direction or the other.
"I don't want to leave you," Sivrak said to Dice.
"Knowing all that you know?" she asked. "Knowing with certainty
what lies ahead?"
Sivrak didn't answer. He simply reached out to her, to gather her
coils close around him for one timeless moment that would last, had
lasted, forever.
The golden droid left the cantina. The music played.
Sivrak waited for the hum of the old man's lightsaber to drown out
all other noise.
"Sometimes choice is an illusion," Sivrak said, at last knowing
that all choices were the same choice, and had been from the instant he
had set foot into this cantina and seen Dice Ibegon, waiting as she had
always waited to join him.
He forced his eyes shut, knowing all that would happen.
The old man reached into his cloak and pulled out his antique
lightsaber. The glow of its beam sparkled from the glasses on the bar.
The Aqualish pirate screamed. The cantina shuddered--under the
withering assault of the Endor moon's atmosphere.
Sivrak bayed at that moon as he lifted the nose of the X-wing to
make it skip through the turbulence, riding his own sonic compression
wave, shedding just enough speed to bring his velocity below the
X-wing's critical stress load. This time he reached the point of no
return and knew at once he had always lived his life precisely at this
moment. The enormity of now. His movements were instinctual, no
thought required, no decision possible. He pulled on the control yoke
to bring his course around to intersect with the ground generator's
coordinates.
His X-wing screamed through the atmosphere, the forward deflector
shields blazing red like a dying star.
His tactical display remained silent--no Imperial ground defenses
tracked him. Standard defenses were unbreachable, but perhaps, with
the space battle in progress above, these weren't standard times.
The navigation display confirmed his trajectory.
Over-the-horizon scanners locked him onto the generator's
transmission antenna. The X-wing bucked like a crazed tauntaun.
Everything Sivrak saw blurred before him, blending in with the
cacophony of his communicator: a burst of static, then Ackbar's
exultant voice--"The shield is down! Commence attack on the Death
Star's main reactor!"
The moon's forest streaked below Sivrak's X-wing as he saw a plume
of smoke and fire rush for him, the remains of the transmission antenna
already destroyed.
Solo's strike team had succeeded after all.
General Calrissian's voice broke up with static.
"We're on our way!" Raw cheering voices. Human and Bothan. Mon
Calamari and Bith. Even a droid who announced it had always wanted to
do this.
It was the frenzy of a successful hunt, Sivrak knew, even as he
understood that no power in the universe could stay the streaking
course of his fighter, because it had already been set by the strongest
power.
The flaming ruins of the Imperial base came at him with the speed
of destiny. Calmly, Sivrak took his claws from the controls--and
walked the forest of Endor's moon.
It was night. The breeze was cool. His nostrils were aflame with
the scents of a multitude of prey and smoky woodfires. The fires'
distant crackling was punctuated by rhythmic drumbeats and excited
voices lifted in triumphant song.
Sivrak drew in the clean air, flushing the last stale traces of
recycled fighter oxygen from his lungs. This time, he did not try to
remember what had happened.
He knew, in time, all answers would come.
"Those are the Ewoks singing," Dice said behind him, as he knew
she must.
He turned to face her, gasping at the ethereal wonder of her
lamproid form as she glowed with the inner light she had always
carried. The dark trees of the forest basked in her radiance.
"They celebrate the death of the Emperor," she said.
"Then the battle of Endor's moon . . . ?" Sivrak began.
"Has been won. Our fight is at its end."
Sivrak lifted his paw to touch her, and was not surprised when he
saw that his own arm shone as did Dice's body.
She wound her tail tip around his paw. "We are luminous beings,"
she said, "and always have been. True love can never be denied."
For long moments, Sivrak stood silent in that forest, united at
last in such a way that he knew he would never be alone again--a
balance even simpler than that between predator and prey, the joining
of all things in the Force. But blended in the Ewoks' chorus, he heard
the strains of a different music, from a different time.
"The cantina," Dice explained without him having to ask.
."I know," Sivrak said. "But there is no need to return there."
"There never was," she said.
And then, tail in paw, their hearts and souls en-twined forever,
Dice led Sivrak through the forest of Endor's moon, to a special place
near an Ewok village where three friends waited, as they had always
waited, as they always would wait, for all who would join them, bound
by the Force.
And behind them in the forest, the music from the cantina softly
faded, and was never heard again.
Contributor Biographies
KEVIN J. ANDERSON has spent a lot of time in a galaxy far, far the
forthcoming STAR WARS novel, Darksaber, due in December 1995--as well
as the science fiction novels Climbing Olympus, Resurrection, Inc and
several others with Doug Beason.
from Jabba's Palace and Tales of the Bounty Hunters. He has
worked for ten years as a technical writer at the Lawrence Livermore
National Laboratory. He is married to writer Rebecca Moesta.
Author of eight books--five with Cantina editor Kevin J. Anderson
and three on his own--DOUG BEASON is an accomplished short-story
writer, appearing in such publications as Analog, Amazing, Full
Spectrum, SWAge, and others. A PhD physicist, Doug has served on a
presidential commission with astronaut Tom Stafford to develop plans
for the United States to return to the Moon and go on to Mars. He
worked at the White House for the President's Science Advisor under
both the Bush and Clinton administrations. As a lieutenant colonel in
the USAF, he is currently an associate professor and director of
research at the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs,
Colorado.
M. SHAYNE BELL grew up on a ranch in Idaho. His first novel,
Nicoji, was released in 1991 by Baen Books.
His short fiction has appeared in Asimov's Sdence Fiction, The
Magazine of Fantasy and Sdence Fiction, Amazing Stories, and
anthologies including Simulations: Fifteen Tales of Virtual Reality,
Hotel Andromeda, and Under African Skies. He also just completed
editing an anthology of stories set in Utah by all the SF writers from
or living in Utah, Washed by a Wave of Wind. His poetry was nominated
for the 1989 Science Fiction Poetry Association Rhysling Award. He
writes medical software documentation. In 1987 he was awarded first
place in the Writers of the Future Contest. In 1991 he received a
Creative Writing Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.
He lived in Brazil for two years in the 1970s, where he first saw
Star Wars in a crowded theater in Campinas --the only movie he saw
during the entire two years.
He could not understand the English through the bad sound system
and had to resort to reading the Portuguese subtitles.
DAVID BISCHOFF is the author of over forty SF/ horror/fantasy and
mystery novels and several dozen short stories. His most recent
efforts include The Judas Cross, with Charles Sheffield
(Warner/Aspect), Dr.
Dimension, with John de Chancie (ROC Books), and the New York
Times bestselling Star Trek: The Next Generation novel, Grounded. He
lives in Eugene, Oregon.
A. C. CRISPIN is the author of three Star Trek novels: Yesterday's
Son, its sequel, Time for Yesterday (classic Trek), and The l pounds es
of the Beholders (Next Generation). She is the creator, author, and
co-author of the StarBridge series: Starbridge, Silent Dances, Shadow
lord, Serpent's Gift, and Silent Songs (ACE Books). In addition, she
has co authored two fantasy novels with Andre Norton: Gryphon's Eyrie
and Songsmith (TOR Books).
Ms. Crispin is a frequent guest at Star Trek and science fiction
conventions, where she often teaches writers' workshops. She currently
serves as the Eastern regional director of the Science Fiction and
Fantasy Writers of America. A Maryland resident, she lives with her
teenage son Jason, two horses, and three cats. In her spare time
(what's that?) she enjoys trail riding, swimming, sailing, hiking, and
reading.
KENNETH C. FLINT of Omaha, Nebraska, is to date the author of
fifteen novels for Bantam Doubleday Dell Books. All are works of
adventure/fantasy, many of which are based upon ancient Celtic legends
and myths.
From her earliest years BARBARA HAMBLY found fantasy and science
fiction far more interesting than reality in the modest California town
where she grew up. She attended college at the University of
California in Riverside and spent one year at the University of
Bordeaux in France. After obtaining a master's degree in medieval
history, she held a variety of jobs: model, clerk, high school teacher,
karate instructor (she holds a black belt in Shotokan Karate),
technical writer, mostly in quest of a job that would leave her with
enough time to write. Finally, in 1982 her first novel was published
by Ballantine/Del Rey.
Her novels are mostly sword-and-sorcery fantasy, though she has
also written a historical whodunit, a vampire novel, and novels and
novelizations from television shows, notably Beauty and the Beast and
Star Trek. She is currently editing an anthology of original vampire
Jedi, was released in April 1995.
Her interests besides writing include dancing, painting,
historical and fantasy costuming, and occasionally carpentry. She
resides in a big, ugly house in Los Angeles with the two cutest
Pekingese in the world.
REBECCA MOESTA is the co-author, with Kevin J.
readers, YoungJedi Knights. She is currently the co-editor of the
Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Forum. She holds a
master of science degree in business administration from Boston
University and works as a technical writer and editor at Lawrence
Livermore National Laboratory.
DANIEL KEYS MORAN claims he has never done anything or been
anywhere interesting. He is the author of the wildly popular Tales of
the Continuing Time, and does in fact very much resemble the character
Trent from those books, except that he is handsomer, wittier, and a
much better basketball player. The most recent novel in the series,
The Last Dancer, was published in 1993 from Bantam Books.
He is extremely pleased to have named, six years after the fact,
the Cantina Bar song from Star Wars. It's now called, of course, "Mad
About Me."
JERRY OLTION has published stories in most of the major science
fiction magazines and various anthologies. His story "The Love Song of
Laura Morrison" wbn the Analog reader's choice award for best short
story of 1987. His novels include Frame of Reference (Questar 1987)
and two books, Alliance and Humanity, in the Isaac Asimov's Robot City
series. His short-story collection, Love ,gongs of a Mad Sdentist, was
recently published by Hypatia Press. He is also the originator of the
Jerry Oltion Really Good Story Award for achievement in science fiction
and fantasy.
JUDITH and GARF1ELD REEVES-STEVENS have been a writing team since
1986. In education, they are authors of a series of science and
technology textbooks for Children, as well as interactive reading and
writing computer programs. In fiction, they have written two Star Trek
novels, the first novel in the Alien Nation series, and have created
their own action-adventure fantasy series in The Chronicles of Galen
Sword. Their other writing credits range from comic books to episodes
of Beyond Reality, The Legend of Prince Valiant, and Batman: The
Animated Series. For the 1994-95
television season, the Reeves-Stevenses have helped develop and
are executive story editors for the new animated science fiction series
Phantom 2040, a futuristic updating of Lee Falk's classic costumed
hero.
In 1977, at age twenty-three,JENNIFER ROBERSON spent her entire
summer in a movie theater. The ritual was simple: She and a friend
would find a "rookie," haul him or her off to the theater, and relive
vicariously the thrill of viewing Star Wars for the first time. This
ritual served two purposes: It provided a fix for Roberson's addiction,
and it got others hooked as well.
Seven years later DAW Books published her fantasy novel,
Shapechangers, the first volume in an eight-book series titled
Chronicles of the Cheysuli. Roberson has also published the
four-volume Sword-Dancer saga as well as short fiction in magazines,
anthologies, and collections, and a bestselling historical
reinterpretation of the Robin Hood legend emphasizing Marian's point of
view, titled Lady of the Forest. Her upcoming projects include a
hardcover political intrigue-fantasy trilogy, Shade and Shadow, and a
historical novel set in seventeenth-century Scotland.
Intending to target the young-adult market, KATHY TYERS started
writing science fiction in 1983. Bantam Books asked her to rewrite her
space adventure Firebird as an adult release in 1986. Her other books
include Fusion Fire (1988), Crystal Witness (1989), Shivering
Work(1991), Exploring the Northern Rockies (1991), and, forthcoming,
Bakura marked her return to space opera for all ages.
A flutist and Irish harper, Kathy performs and records
semiprofessionally with her husband, Mark.
They have one son and live in Bozeman, Montana.
MARTHA VEITCH is a writer and stained-glass artist.
oftheJedi for Dark Horse Comics. He is currently collaborating
with continuing the saga of the ancientJedi begun in Tales of the Jedi.
DAVE WOLVERTON is the author of several novels, including STAR
WARS: The Courtship of Princess Leia, Serpent Catch, Path of the Hero,
and On My Way to Paradise. In 1986 he won the grand prize for the
Writers of the Future contest. He has worked as a prison guard,
missionary, business manager, editor, and technical writer.
TIMOTHY ZAHN grew up near Chicago, studied physics in college and
grad school, and spent the first forty years of his life in the
Midwest. With such a background, it was practically inevitable that he
would settle placidly into a standard respectable middle-class
profession and standard respectable middle-class life.
Somewhere along the way, he took an unlikely off-ramp.
Writing science fiction as a hobby to relax from long bouts of
work on his doctoral-thesis project probably would have stayed a
hobby--except that in 1979 his advisor suddenly died, leaving him with
a project that wasn't going anywhere. So in 1980 he took a deep breath
and set off on a full-time writing career.
Since then he has published thirteen novels and over fifty short
stories, including the Hugo-winning novella "Cascade Point." The
comfortable obscurity to one of international bemusement. It also
permitted him to exchange the corn fields' of Illinois for the ocean
beaches of Oregon.
He is currently at work on Conquerors' Legacy, the third book of
the Conquerors trilogy.
The World of
publishing industry with the Bantam Spectra release of Timothy
Zahn's novel Heir to the Empire. For the first time, Lucasfilm Ltd.
had authorized new novels that continued the famous story told in
George Lucas's three blockbuster motion pictures: Star Wars, The Empire
Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi. Reader reaction was immediate
and tumultuous: Heir reached #1 on the New York ;Ftmes bestseller list
and demonstrated that Star Wars lovers were eager for exciting new
stories set in this universe, written by leading science fiction
authors who shared their passion. Since then, each Bantam Star Wars
novel has been an instant national bestseller.
Lucasfilm and Bantam decided that future novels in the series
would be interconnected: that is, events in one novel would have
consequences in the others. You might say that each Bantam Star Wars
novel, enjoyable on its own, is also part of a much larger tale
beginning immediately after the last Star Wars film, Return of the
Jedi.
Here is a special look at Bantam's Star Wars books, along with
excerpts from these thrilling novels. Each one is available now
wherever Bantam Books are sold.
THE TRUCE AT BAKURA by Kathy Tyers
Setting: Immediately after Return of the Jedi The day after his
climactic battle with Emperor Palpatine and the sacrifice of his
father, Darth Vader, who died saving his life, Lake Skywalker helps
recover an Imperial drone ship bearing a startling message intended for
the Emperor. It is a distress signal from the far-off Imperial outpost
of Bakura, which is under attack by an alien invasion force, the
Ssi-ruuk.
Leia sees a rescue mission as an opportunity to achieve a
diplomatic victory for the Rebel Alliance, even if it means fighting
alongside former Imperials. But Luke receives a vision from Obi-Wan
Kenobi revealing that the stakes are even higher: the invasion at
Bakura threatens everything the Rebels have won at such great cost.
Here is a scene showing the extent of the alien menace:
On an outer deck of a vast battle cruiser called the Shriwirr, Der
Sibwarra rested his slim brown hand on a prisoner's left shoulder.
"It'll be all right," he said softly. The other human's fear beat
at his mind like a three-tailed lash.
"There's no pain. You have a wonderful surprise ahead of you."
Wonderful indeed, a life without hunger, cold, or selfish desire.
The prisoner, an Imperial of much lighter complexion than Dev,
slumped in the entechment chair. He'd given up protesting, and his
breath came in gasps. Pliable bands secured his forelimbs, neck, and
knees--but only for balance.
With his nervous system aleionized at the shoulders, he couldn't
struggle. A slender intravenous tube dripped pale blue magnetizing
solution into each of his carotid arteries while tiny servopumps
hummed. It only took a few mils of magsol to attune the tiny,
fluctuating electromagnetic fields of human brain waves to the
Ssi-ruuvi entechment apparatus.
Behind Dev, Master Firwirrung trilled a question in Ssi-ruuvi.
"Is it calmed yet?"
Dev sketched a bow to his master and switched from human speech to
Ssi-ruuvi. "Calm enough," he sang back. "He's almost ready."
Sleek, russet scales protected Firwirrung's two-meter length from
beaked muzzle to muscular tail tip, and a prominent black ¥ crest
marked his forehead. Not large for a Ssi-ruu, he was still growing,
with only a few age-scores where scales had begun to separate on his
handsome chest. Firwir-rung swung a broad, glowing white metal
catchment arc down to cover the prisoner from midchest to nose. Der
could just peer over it and watch the man's pupils dilate. At any
moment...
"Now," Dev announced.
Firwirrung touched a control. His muscular,tail twitched with
pleasure. The fleet's capture had been good today.
Alongside his master; Dev would work far into the night. Before
entechment, prisoners were noisy and dangerous. Afterward, their life
energies powered droids of Ssi-ruuvi choosing.
The catehment arc hummed up to pitch. Dev backed away. Inside
that round human skull, a magsol-drugged brain was losing control.
Though Master Firwirrung assured him that the transfer of
incorporeal energy was painless, every prisoner screamed.
As did this one, when Firwirrung threw the catchment arc switch.
The arc boomed out a sympathetic vibration, as brain energy leaped
to an electromagnet perfectly attuned to mag-sol.
Through the Force rippled an ululation of indescribable anguish.
Dev staggered and clung to the knowledge his masters had given
him: The prisoners only thought they felt pain. He only thought he
sensed their pain. By the time the body screamed, all of a subject's
energies had jumped to the catchment arc. The screaming body already
was dead.
THE COURTSHIP OF PRINCESS LEIA by Dave Wolverton
Setting: Four years after Return of the Jedi
One of the most interesting developments in Bantam's Star Wars
novels is that in their storyline, Han Solo and Princess Leia start a
family. This tale reveals how the couple originally got together.
Wishing to strengthen the fledgling New Republic by bringing in
powerful allies, Leia opens talks with the Hopes consortium of more
than sixty worlds. But the consortium is ruled by the Queen Mother,
who, to Han's dismay, wants Leia to marry her son, Prince lsolder.
Before this action-packed story is over, Luke will join forces
with Isolder against a group of Force-trained "witches" and face a
deadly foe.
In this scene, Luke is searching for Jedi lore and finds more than
he bargained for:
Luke popped the cylinder into Artoo, and almost
immediately Artoo caught a signal. Images flashed in the air before
the droid: an ancient throne room where, one by one, Jedi came before
their high master to give reports. Yet the Holo was fragmented, so
thoroughly erased that Luke got only bits and pieces--a blue-skinned
man describing details of a grueling space battle against pirateers; a
yellow-eyed Twi'lek with lashing headtails who told of discovering a
plot to kill an ambassador.
A date and time flashed on the Holo vid before each report. The
report was nearly four hundred standard years old.
Then Yoda appeared on the video, gazing up at the throne. His
color was more vibrantly green than Luke remembered, and he did not use
his walking stick. At middle age, Yoda had looked almost perky,
carefree--not the bent, troubled old Jedi Luke had known. Most of the
audio was erased, but through the background hiss Yoda clearly said,
"We tried to free the Chu'unthor from Dathomir, but were repulsed by
the witches . . . skirmish, with Masters Gra'aton and Vu-latan ....
Fourteen acolytes killed... go back to retrieve . . ." The audio
hissed away, and soon the Holo image dissolved to blue static with
popping lights.
They went up topside, found that night had fallen while they
worked underground. Their Whiphid guide soon returned, dragging the
body of a gutted snow demon. The demon's white talons curled in the
air, and its long purple tongue snaked out from between its massive
fangs. Luke was amazed that the Whiphid could haul such a monster, yet
the Whiphid held the demon's long hairy tail in one hand and managed to
pull it back to camp.
There, Luke stayed the night with the Whipbids in a huge shelter
made from the rib cage of a motmot, covered over with hides to keep out
the wind. The Whipbids built a bonfire and roasted the snow demon, and
the young danced while the elders played their claw harps. As Luke
sat, watching the writhing flames and listening to the twang of harps,
he meditated.
"The future you will see, and the past. Old friends long
forgotten . . ." Those were the words Yoda had said long ago while
training Luke to peer 15eyond the mists of time.
Luke looked up at the rib bones of the motmot. The Whiphids had
carved stick letters into the bone, ten and twelve meters in the air,
giving the lineage of their ancestors.
Luke could not read the letters, but they seemed to dance in the
firelight, as if they were sticks and stones falling from the sky. The
rib bones curved toward him, and Luke followed the curve of bones with
his eyes. The tumbling sticks and boulders seemed to gyrate, all of
them falling toward him as if they would crush him. He could see
boulders hurtling through the air, too, smashing toward him. Luke's
nostrils flared, and even Toola's chill could not keep a thin film of
perspiration from dotting his forehead. A vision came to Luke then.
Luke stood in a mountain fortress of stone, looking over a plain
with a sea of dark forested hills beyond, and a storm rose--a
magnificent wind that brought with it towering walls of black clouds
and dust, trees hurtling toward him and twisting through the sky. The
clouds thundered overhead, filled with purple flames, obliterating all
sunlight, and Luke could feel a malevolence hidden in those clouds and
knew that they had been raised through the power of the dark side of
the Force.
Dust and stones whistled through the air like autumn leaves. Luke
tried to hold on to the stone parapet overlooking the plain to keep
from being swept from the fortress walls.
Winds pounded in his ears like the roar of an ocean, howling.
It was as if a storm of pure dark Force raged over the
countryside, and suddenly, amid the towering clouds of darkness that
thundered toward him, Luke could hear laughing, the sweet sound of
women laughing. He looked above into the dark clouds, and saw the
women borne through the air along with the rocks and debris, like motes
of dust, laughing. A voice seemed to whisper, "the witches of
Dathomir."
HEIR TO THE EMPIRE DARK FORCE RISING THE LAST COMMAND by Timothy
Zahn
Setting: Five years after Return of the Jedi
This' #1 bestselling trilogy introduces two legendary forces of
evil into the Star Wars literary pantheon. Grand Admiral Thrawn has
taken control of the Imperial fleet in the years since the destruction
of the Death Star, and the mysterious Joruus C'Baoth is a fearsome Jedi
Master who has been seduced by the dark side. Hah and Leia have now
been married for about a year, and as the story begins, she is pregnant
with twins.
Thrawn's plan is to crush the Rebellion and resurrect
the
Empire's New Order with C'Baoth's help---and in return, the Dark Master
will get Han and Leia's Jedi children to mold as he wishes. For as
readers of this magnificent trilogy will see, Luke Skywalker is not the
last of the old Jedi. He is the first of the new.
In this scene from Heir to the Empire, Thrawn and C'Baoth meet
for.the first time: For a long moment the old man continued to stare at
Thrawn, a dozen strange expressions flicking in quick succession across
his face. "Come. We will talk."
"Thank you," Thrawn said, inclining his head slightly.
"May I ask who we have the honor of addressing?"
"Of course." The old man's face was abruptly regal again, and
when he spoke his foice rang out in the silence of the crypt. "I am
the Jedi Master Joruus C'Baoth."
Pellaeon inhaled sharply, a cold shiver running up his back.
"Joruus C'Baoth?" he breathed. "But--" He broke off. C'Baoth
looked at him, much as Pellaeon himself might look at a junior officer
who has spoken out of turn. "Come," he repeated, turning back to
Thrawn. "We will talk."
He led the way out of the crypt and back into the sunshine.
Several small knots of people had gathered in the square in their
absence, huddling well back from both the crypt and the shuttle as they
whispered nervously together.
With one exception. Standing directly in their path a few meters
away was one of the two guards C'Baoth had ordered out of the crypt.
On his face was an expression of barely controlled fury; in his
hands, cocked and ready, was his crossbow.
"You destroyed his home," C'Baoth said, almost conversationally.
"Doubtless he would like to exact vengeance."
The words were barely out of his mouth when the guard suddenly
snapped the crossbow up and fired. Instinctively, Pel-laeon ducked,
raising his blaster-And three meters from the Imperials the bolt came
to an abrupt halt in midair.
Pellaeon stared at the hovering piece of wood and metal, his brain
only slowly catching up with what had just happened.
"They are our guests," C'Baoth told the guard in a voice clearly
intended to reach everyone in the square. "They will be treated
accordingly."
With a crackle of splintering wood, the crossbow bolt shattered,
the pieces dropping to the ground. Slowly, reluctantly, the guard
lowered his crossbow, his eyes still burning with a now impotent rage.
Thrawn let him stand there another second like that, then gestured
to Rukh. The Noghri raised his blaster and fired-And in a blur of
motion almost too fast to see, a flat stone detached itself from the
ground and hurled itself directly into the path of the shot, shattering
spectacularly as the blast hit it.
Thrawn spun to face C'Baoth, his face a mirror of surprise and
anger. "C'Baoth--!"
"These are my people, Grand Admiral Thrawn," the other cut him
off, his voice forged from quiet steel. "Not yours; mine. If there is
punishment to be dealt out, I will do it."
For a long moment the two men again locked eyes. Then, with an
obvious effort, Thrawn regained his composure. "Of course, Master
C'Baoth," he said. "Forgive me."
C'Baoth nodded. "Better. Much better." He looked past Thrawn,
dismissed the guard with a nod. "Come," he said, looking back at the
Grand Admiral. "We will talk."
The Jedi Academy Trilogy:
JEDI SEARCH
DARK APPRENTICE
CHAMPIONS OF THE FORCE by Kevin J. Anderson
Setting: Seven years after Return of the Jedi
In order to assure the continuation of the Jedi Knights, Luke
Skywalker has decided to start a training facility: a Jedi Academy.
He will gather Force-sensitive students who show potential as
prospective Jedi and serve as their mentor, as Jedi Masters Obi-Wan
Kenobi and Yoda did for him. Han and Leia's twins are now toddlers,
and there is a third Jedi child: the infant Ariakin, named after Luke
and Leia's father. In this trilogy, we discover the existence of a
powerful Imperial doomsday weapon, the horrifying Sun Crusher--which
will soon become the centerpiece of a titanic struggle between Luke
Skywalker and his most brilliant Jedi Academy student, who is delving
dangerously into the dark side.
In this scene from the first novel, Jedi Search, Luke vocalizes
his concept of a new Jedi order to a distinguished assembly of New
Republic leaders:
As he descended the long ramp, Luke felt all eyes
turn toward him. A hush fell over the assembly. Luke Skywalker, the
lone remaining Jedi Master, almost never took part in governmental
proceedings.
"I have an important matter to address," he said. For a moment he
was reminded of when he had walked alone into the dank corridors of
Jabba the Hutt's palace--but this time there were no piglike Gamorrean
guards that he could manipulate with a twist of his fingers and a touch
of the Force.
Mon Mothma gave him a soft, mysterious smile and gestured for him
to take a central position. "The words of a Jedi Knight are always
welcome to the New Republic," she said.
Luke tried not to look pleased. She had provided the perfect
opening for him. "In the Old Republic," he said, "Jedi Knights were
the protectors and guardians of all. For a thousand generations the
Jedi used the powers of the Force to guide, defend, and provide support
for the rightful government of worlds--before the dark days of the
Empire came, and the Jedi Knights were killed."
He let his words hang, then took another breath. "Now we have a
New Republic. The Empire appears to be defeated.
We have founded a new government based upon the old, but let us
hope we learn from our mistakes. Before, an entire order of Jedi
watched over the Republic, offering strength.
Now I am the only Jedi Master who remains.
"Without that order of protectors to provide a backbone of
strength for the New Republic, can we survive? Will we be able to
weather the storms and the difficulties of forging a new union? Until
now we have suffered severe struggles--but in the future they will be
seen as nothing more than birth pangs."
Before the other senators could disagree with that, Luke
continued. "Our people had a common foe in the Empire, and we must not
let our defenses lapse just because we have internal problems. More to
the point, what will happen when we begin squabbling among ourselves
over petty matters? The old Jedi helped to mediate many types of
disputes. What if there are no Jedi Knights to protect us in the
difficult times ahead?"
Luke moved under the diffracting rainbow colors from the crystal
light overhead. He took his time to fix his gaze on all the senators
present; he turned his attention to Leia last.
Her eyes were wide but supportive. He had not discussed his
idea-with her beforehand.
"My sister is undergoing Jedi training. She has a great
deal of skill in the Force. Her three children are also likely
candidates to be trained as young Jedi. In recent years I have come to
know a woman named Mara Jade, who is now unifying the smugglers--the
former smugglers," he amended, "into an organization that can support
the needs of the New Republic.
She also has a talent for the Force. I have encountered others in
my travels."
Another pause. The audience was listening so far. "But are these
the only ones? We already know that the ability to use the Force is
passed from generation to generation. Most of the Jedi were killed in
the Emperor's purge--but could he possibly have eradicated all of the
descendants of those Knights? I myself was unaware of the potential
power within me until Obi-Wan Kenobi taught me how to use it. My
sister Leia was similarly unaware.
"How many people are abroad in this galaxy who have a comparable
strength in the Force, who are potential members of a new order of Jedi
Knights, but are unaware of who they are?"
Luke looked at them again. "In my brief search I have already
discovered that there are indeed some descendants of former Jedi. I
have come here to ask"--he turned to gesture toward Mon Mothma, swept
his hands across the people gathered there in the chamber--"for two
things.
"First, that the New Republic officially sanction my search for
those with a hidden talent for the Force, to seek them out and try to
bring them to our service. For this I will need some help."
Admiral Ackbar interrupted, blinking his huge fish eyes and
turning his head. "But if you yourself did not know your power when
you were young, how will these other people know? How will you find
them, Jedi Skywalker?"
Luke folded his hands in front of him. "Several ways.
First, with the help of two dedicated droids who will spend their
days searching through the Imperial City databases, we may find likely
candidates, people who have experienced miraculous strokes of luck,
whose lives seem filled with incredible coincidences. We could look
for people who seem unusually charismatic or those whom legend credits
with working miracles. These could all be unconscious manifestations
of a skill with the Force."
Luke held up another finger. "As well, the droids could search
the database for forgotten descendants of known Jedi
Knights from the
Old Republic days. We should turnup a few leads."
"And what will you yourself be doing?" Mon Mothma asked, shifting
in her robes.
"I've already found several candidates I wish to investigate.
All I ask right now is that you agree this is something we should
pursue, that the search for Jedi be conducted by others and not just
myself."
Mon Mothma sat up straighter in her central sea. "I think we can
agree to that without further discussion." She looked around to the
other senators, seeing them now agreement.
"Tell us your second request."
Luke stood taller. This was most important to him. He saw Leia
stiffen.
"If sufficient candidates are found who have potential for · using
the Force, I wish to be allowed--with the New Republic's blessing--to
establish in some appropriate place an intensive training center, a
Jedi academy, if you will. Under my direction we can help these
students discover their abilities, to focus and strengthen their power.
Ultimately, this academy would provide a core group that could
allow us to restore the Jedi Knights as protectors of the New
Republic."
CHILDREN OF THE JEDI by Barbara Hambly
Setting: Eight years after Return of the Jedi
The Star Wars characters face a menace from the glory days of the
Empire when a thirty-year-old automated Imperial Dreadnaught comes to
life and begins its grim mission: to gather forces and annihilate a
long-forgotten stronghold of Jedi children. When Luke is whisked
onboard, he begins to communicate with the brave Jedi Knight who
paralyzed the ship decades ago, and gave her life in the process. Now
she is part of the vessel, existing in its artificial intelligence
core, and guiding Luke through one of the most unusual adventures he
has ever had.
In this scene, Luke discovers that an evil presence is gathering,
one that will force him to join the battle: Like See-Threepio, Nichos
Marr sat in the outer room of the suite to which Cray had been
assigned, in the power-down mode that was the droid equivalent of rest.
Like Threepio, at the sound of Luke's almost noiseless tread he
turned his head, aware of his presence.
"Luke?" Cray had equipped him with the most sensitive vocal
modulators, and the word was calibrated to a whisper no louder than the
rustle of the blueleafs massed outside the windows.
He rose, and crossed to where Luke stood, the dull silver of his
arms and shoulders a phantom gleam in the stray flickers of light.
"What is it?"
"I don't know." They retreated to the small dining area where
Luke had earlier probed his mind, and Luke stretched up to pin back a
corner of the lamp-sheathe, letting a slim triangle of butter-colored
light fall on the purple of the vulwood tabletop. "A dream. A
premonition, maybe." It was on his lips to ask, Do you dream? but he
remembered the ghastly, imageless darkness in Nichos's mind, and
didn't. He wasn't sure if his pupil was aware of the difference from
his human perception and knowledge, aware of just exactly what he'd
lost when his consciousness, his self, had been transferred.
In the morning Luke excused himself from the expedition Tomla El
had organized with Nichos and Cray to the Falls of Dessiar, one of the
places on Ithor most renowned for its beauty and peace. When they left
he sought out Umwaw Moolis, and the tall herd leader listened gravely
to his less than logical request and promised to put matters in train
to fulfill it. Then Luke descended to the House of the Healers, where
Drub McKumb lay, sedated far beyond pain but with all the perceptions
of agony and nightmare still howling in his mind.
"Kill you!" He heaved himself at the restraints, blue eyes
glaring furiously as he groped and scrabbled at Luke with his clawed
hands. "It's all poison! I see you! I see the dark light all around
you! You're him! You're him!" His back bent like a bow; the sound of
his shrieking was like something being ground out of him by an infernal
mangle.
Luke had been through the darkest places of the universe and of
his own mind, had done and experienced greater evil than perhaps any
man had known on the road the Force had dragged him . . . Still, it
was hard not to turn away.
"We even tried yarrock on him last night," explained the Healer in
charge, a slightly built Ithorian beautifully tabby-striped green and
yellow under her simple tabard of purple linen. "But apparently the
earlier doses that brought him
enough lucidity to reach here from his
point of origin oversen-sitized his system. We'll try again in four or
five days."
Luke gazed down into the contorted, grimacing face.
"As you can see," the Healer said, "the internal perception of
pain and fear is slowly lessening. It's down to ninety-three percent
of what it was when he was first brought in. Not much, I know, but
something."
"Him! Him! HIM!" Foam spattered the old man's stained
gray beard.
Who?
"I wouldn't advise attempting any kind of mindlink until it's at
least down to fifty percent, Master Skywalker."
"No," said Luke softly.
Kill you all. And, They are gathering . . .
"Do you have recordings of everything he's said?"
"Oh, yes." The big coppery eyes blinked assent. "The transcript
is available through the monitor cubicle down the hall. We could make
nothing of them. Perhaps they will mean something to you."
They didn't. Luke listened to them all, the incoherent groans and
screams, the chewed fragments of words that could be only guessed at,
and now and again the clear disjointed cries: "Solo! Solo! Can you
hear me? Children . . . Evil . . .
Gathering here . . . Kill you fill!"
THE CRYSTAL STAR by Vonda N. Mcintyre
Setting: Ten years after Return of the Jedi
Leia's three children have been kidnapped. That horrible fact is
made worse by Leia's realization that she can no longer sense her
children through the Force! While she, Artoo-Detoo, and Chewbacca
trail the kidnappers, Luke and Han discover a planet that is suffering
strange quantum effects from a nearby star. Slowly freezing into a
perfect crystal and disrupting the Force, the star is blunting Luke's
power and crippling the Millennium Falcon. These strands converge in
an apocalyptic threat not one, to the fate of the New Republic, but to
the universe itself.
Here is Luke and Han's initial approach to the crystal star: ~ Han
piloted the Millennium Falcon through the strangest star system he had
ever approached. An ancient, dying, crystallizing white dwarf star
orbited a black hole in a wildly eccentric elliptical path.
Eons ago, in this place, a small and ordinary yellow star
peacefully orbited an immense blue-white supergiant. The blue star
aged, and collapsed.
The blue star went supernova, blasting light and radiation and
debris out into space.
Its light still traveled through the universe, a furious explosion
visible from distant galaxies.
Over time, the remains of the supergiant's core collapsed under
the force of its own gravity. The result was degenerate mass: a black
hole.
The violence of the supernova disrupted the orbit of the nova's
companion, the yellow star. Over time, the yellow star's orbit
decayed.
The yellow star fell toward the unimaginably dense body of the
black hole. The black hole sucked up anything, even light, that came
within its grasp. And when it captured matter --even an entire yellow
star--it ripped the atoms apart into a glowing accretion disk.
Subatomic particles imploded downward into the singularity's
equator, emitting great bursts of radiation. The accretion disk spun
at a fantastic speed, glowing with fantastic heat, creating a funeral
pyre for the destroyed yellow companion.
The plasma spiraled in a raging pinwheel, circling so fast and
heating so intensely that it blasted X rays out into space.
Then, finally, the glowing gas fell toward the invisible black
hole, approaching it closer and closer, appearing to fall more
and more slowly as relativity influenced it.
It was lost forever to this universe.
That was the fate of the small yellow star.
The system contained a third star: the dying white dwarf, which
shone with ancient heat even as it froze into a quantum crystal. Now,
as the Millennium Falcon entered the system, the white dwarf was
falling toward the black hole, on the inward curve of its eccentric
elliptical orbit.
"Will you look at that," Hah said. "Quite a show."
"Indeed it is, Master Han," Threepio said, "but it is merely a
shadow of what will occur when the black hole captures the crystal
star."
Luke gazed silently into the maelstrom of the black hole.
Han waited.
"Hey, kid! Snap out of it."
Luke started. "What?"
"I don't know where you were, but you weren't here."
"Just thinking about the Jedi Academy. I hate to leave my
students, even for a few days. But if I do find other trained Jedi,
it'll make a big difference. To the Academy. To the New Republic . .
."
"I think we're getting along pretty well already," Han said,
irked. He had spent years maintaining the peace with ordinary people.
In his opinion, Jedi Knights could cause more trouble than they
were worth. "And what if these are all using the dark side?"
Luke did not reply.
Han seldom admitted his nightmares, but he had nightmares about
what could happen to his children if they were tempted to the dark
side.
Right now they were safe, with Leia on a planetary tour of remote
and peaceful worlds of the New Republic. By this time they must have
reached Munto Codru. They would be visiting the beautiful mountains of
the world's temperate zone.
Han smiled, imagining his princess and his children being welcomed
to one of Munto Codru's mysterious, ancient, fairy-tale castles.
Solar prominences flared from the white dwarf's surface.
The Falcon passed it, heading toward the more perilous region of
the black hole.
The Corellian Trilogy:
AMBUSH AT CORELLIA ASSAULT AT SELONIA SHOWDOWN AT CENTERPOINT by
Roger MacBride Allen
Setting: Fourteen years after Return of the Jedi
This trilogy takes us to CoreIlia, Han Solo's home world, which
Han has not visited in quite some time. A trade summit brings Han,
Leia, and the children--now developing their own clear personalities
and instinctively learning more about their innate skills in the
Force--into the middle of a situation that most closely resembles a
burning fuse. The Corellian system is on the brink of civil war, there
are New Republic intelligence agents on a mysterious mission which even
Han does not understand, and worst of all, a fanatical rebel leader has
his hands on a superweapon of unimaginable power---and just wait until
you find out who that leader is!
Here is an early scene from Ambush that gives you a wonderful look
at the growing Solo children (the twins are Jacen and Jaina, and their
little brother is Anakin): Anakin plugged the board into the innards of
the droid and pressed a button. The droid's black, boxy body shuddered
awake, it drew in its wheels to stand up a bit taller, its status
lights !it, and it made a sort of triple beep. "That's good," he said,
and pushed the button again. The droid's status lights went out, and
its body slumped down again. Anakin picked up the next piece, a
motivation actuator. He frowned at it as he turned it over in his
hands. He shook his head. "That's not good," he announced.
"What's not good?" Jaina asked.
"This thing," Anakin said, handing her the actuator.
"Can't you tell? The insides part is all melty."
Jaina and Jacen exchanged a look. "The outside looks okay," Jaina
said, giving the part to her brother. "How can he tell what the inside
of it looks like? It's sealed shut when they make it."
Jacen shrugged. "How can he do any of this stuff.9 But we need
that actuator. That was the toughest part to dig up. I must have gone
around half the city looking for one that would fit this droid." He
turned toward his little brother.
"Anakin, we don't have another one of these. Can you make it
better? Can you make the insides less melty?"
Anakin frowned. "I can make it some better. Not all the way
better. A little less melty. Maybe it'll be okay."
Jacen handed the actuator back to Anakin. "Okay, try it."
Anakin, still sitting on the floor, took the device from his
brother and frowned at it again. He turned it over and over in his
hands, and then held it over his head and looked at it as if he were
holding it up to the light. "There," he said, pointing a chubby finger
at one point on the unmarked surface. "In there is the bad part." He
rearranged himself to sit cross-legged, put the actuator in his lap,
and put his right index finger over the "bad" part. "Fix," he said.
"Fix." The dark brown outer case of the actuator seemed to glow
for a second with an odd blue-red light, but then the glow sputtered
out and Anakin pulled his finger away quickly and stuck it in his
mouth, as if he had burned it on something.
"Better now?" Jaina asked.
"Some better," Anakin said, pulling his finger out of his mouth.
"Not all
better." He took the actuator in
his hand and
stood up.
He opened the access panel on the broken droid ~ plugged in the
actuator.
He closed the door and looked exp
tantly at his older brother and sister.
"Done?" Jaina asked.
"Done," Anakin agreed. "But I'm not going to push button." He
backed well away from the droid, sat down on floor, and folded his
arms.
Jacen looked at his sister.
"Not me," she said. "This was your idea."
Jacen stepped forward to the droid, reached out to press the power
button from as far away as he could, and tl stepped hurriedly back.
Once again, the droid shuddered awake, rattling a bit !
time as it did so. It pulled its wheels in, lit its panel lights,
~ made the same triple beep. But then its camera eye view wobbled back
and forth, and its panel lights dimmed ~ flared. It rolled backward
just a bit, and then recovered its "Good morning, young mistress and
masters," it said.
"How may I surge you?"
Well, one word wrong, but so what? Jacen grinned, clapped his
hands and rubbed them together eagerly. "Gc day, droid," he said.
They had done it! But what to ask first? "First tidy up this
room," he said. A simple task, and ~ that ought to serve as a good
test of what this droid could ~ Suddenly the droid's overhead access
door blew off ~ there was a flash of light from its interior. A thin
plume smoke drifted out of the droid. Its panel lights flared again
and then the work arm sagged downward. The droid's ho softened by
heat, sagged in on itself and drooped to the tic The floor and walls
and ceilings of the playroom were supposed to be fireproof, but
nonetheless the floor under ~ droid darkened a bit, and the ceiling
turned black. The w tilators kicked on high automatically, and drew
the smoke ~ of the room. After a moment they shut themselves off, and
~ room was silent.
The three children stood, every bit as frozen to the s1
as the droid was, absolutely stunned. It was Anakin who rec, ered
first. He walked cautiously toward the droid and 1oo~ at it carefully,
being sure not to get too close or touch "Realpy melty now," he
announced, and then wandered off the other side of the room to play
with his blocks.
The twins looked at the droid, and then at each other.
"We're dead," Jacen announced, surveying the wrecka