On the gridded floor, with his arms pulled over his head, Zuckuss heard the quick, sharp sizzle of a laser bolt, then another; their glare lit up the s.p.a.ce, stinging his eyes. In the quiet that followed, he could smell ozone and scorched metal.
Lifting his head, Zuckuss saw the lights on the side of the animate laser cannon dwindling back down to yellow and safety. Flanking the holding area, Bossk and IG-88 looked first toward D"harhan, then toward the target of his ramped-down laser bolts. The impacts had been precisely calculated and aimed, shattering the hinges of the main merchandise cage; fragments of molten durasteel, scattered across the floor, glowed a dull red. Wisps of acrid smoke rose from the edge of the cage door as it fell with a resounding clang.
"there," spoke D"harhan"s voice box aloud.
"NOW YOU SHOULD HAVE ... NO OBJECTIONS.".
"Your point is valid." IG-88"s circuitry had re covered completely from the sudden burst of laser fire. The droid stepped over the bars of the fallen door and into what was left of the cage, then turned around.
Bossk regarded D"harhan for a moment longer, his slitted eyes looking up at the cooling laser cannon with something like envy, then followed the other bounty hunter into the area"s adjoining s.p.a.ce, now incapable of being shut and locked.
That"ll take some fixing, thought Zuckuss. Con sidering the proprietary att.i.tude that Boba Fett natu rally took toward the Slave I and its fittings, he was more than relieved that D"harhan had blown the holding cage hinges and not him.
At that moment Boba Fett appeared on the ladder coming down from the c.o.c.kpit. The bounty hunters watched as Fett"s visored gaze turned toward the cage in which he transported his merchandise, then down to the barred door lying in front of it.
"That"s coming out of your share," Fett told D"harhan.
The black-gloved hand moved across the voice box"s keyboard. "no, it"s not."
For a moment longer they stood facing each other-one masked behind the visored helmet, the other faceless except for the muzzle of the laser cannon-before Boba Fett finally gave a slow nod. "We"ll talk."
"There"s a ship approaching." Zuckuss pointed to the viewport. "It must be the Sh.e.l.l Hutts" negotiator."
In the viewport, a spherical craft moved closer to the Slave I; a simple off-planet shuttle, it displayed tortoise insignia of the Sh.e.l.l Hutts and a diplomatic emblazon showing its unarmed status. The shuttle"s forward hatch had already deployed its docking arms, ready to hook up with the Slave I"s transfer hatch.
A few moments later, as Zuckuss manned the hatch"s controls, a broad face with a slit gash of a mouth appeared floating before the bounty hunters. The elongated, tapering cylinder of the Sh.e.l.l Hutt negotiator moved with ponderous grace into the holding area, its underside repulsor beams pushing invisibly against the floor grids. As the end of the tanklike casing made it through the transfer hatch, Zuckuss. .h.i.t the b.u.t.ton and irised the hatch closed again.
"Ah, Boba Fett!" The casing, studded with rivets and various maintenance ports, swung about in the holding area, past the other bounty hunters and toward the figure standing near the metal ladder. A leering smile formed on the Sh.e.l.l Hutt"s face. Tiny mechanical hands dangled beneath a gleaming chromium collar, sealed tight around the wattled gray flesh of its neck; the claws, delicate as a scuttling sea crab"s, clicked happily against each other. "How pleasant to see you again."
Fett"s response was dry and emotionless. "My feelings, Gheeta, are the same as the last time we met."
Bossk spoke from the holding cage. "You know this creature?"
"We"ve had . . . business dealings." Fett didn"t look back at the Trandoshan. "A couple times before."
"And very profitable they were, too." The cylinder with the Sh.e.l.l Hutt inside bobbed slightly as it turned toward Bossk. "At least . . . for some people." The smile on Gheeta"s face soured. "I hope," he said to Boba Fett, "that you"re not expecting the same degree of trust that you found previously on Circ.u.mtore." The little crablike hands snapped their metal claws together, hard enough to produce sparks. "After that last affair of yours, Fett, you"re not going to be greeted with open arms."
"I don"t need to be." Boba Fett stood face-to-face with the Sh.e.l.l Hutt. "You"re a business creature, Gheeta, and so am I. Warm sentiments have nothing to do with it. If you"re ready to do business, then we have something to talk about. If you"re not ready, then we don"t."
"The same old Boba Fett." The Sh.e.l.l Hutt"s head, its jowly neck bound by the floating cylinder"s collar, managed an appreciative nod. "It"s good to know that some things in this universe never cliange. Just what business is it you"ve come to Circ.u.mtore to discuss?"
"I think you"ve got a pretty good idea of that."
Gheeta"s expression turned sly, the lids over his large eyes drawing halfway down. "It wouldn"t be something to do with a certain Oph Nar Dinnid, would it?"
"Stop wasting time!" Bossk"s angry shout broke in. "You know d.a.m.n well that"s what we"re here for!"
An amused glance from the corner of one eye, then Gheeta looked back at Fett. "Your a.s.sociate has a charming directness about him."
Fett nodded. "Among other virtues."
"The others must be well concealed," said Gheeta dryly. One of the metal hands reached up to scratch between the wattles at the side of his neck. "You realize, of course, that the party under discussion-this Dinnid person-is a guest on Circ.u.mtore. You know how all Hutts are about hospitality. The happiness of a guest is a sacred obligation with our species."
Spare me, thought Zuckuss, watching the exchange between Boba Fett and the Sh.e.l.l Hutt. Throughout the galaxy, the treachery and outright malice that Hutts showed toward any who found themselves in one of their windowless palaces was proverbial. Zuckuss had heard things about how the infamous Jabba, the preeminent Huttese crime lord, went through so-called guests and the more disposable type of servants that made his flesh crawl. That was the difference, Zuckuss supposed, between Boba Fett and a creature like this Gheeta. Fett didn"t go out of his way to hurt or even kill anyone-if it hap pened, it happened-whereas Hutts in general took an active delight in other creatures" suffering.
"There are some," said Boba Fett, "who would take an interest in Dinnid"s happiness equal to your own."
"Ah, yes." The ma.s.sive head at the forward end of the repulsor-borne cylinder nodded. "Dinnid"s former employers. I take it that you"re here on their behalf?"
"I"m here on no one"s behalf but my own."
"But of course." Gheeta"s smile expanded enough to reveal his wet, flickering tongue. "I really expected nothing else. Altruism is in short supply among the pract.i.tioners of your trade. I imagine it"s the same for your friends here." One of the little crablike hands raised and gestured at the others in the Slave J"s holding area. "Rather an intimidating crew, don"t you think, Fett? It makes the heart inside my casing tremble just to look at them." Gheeta peered more closely at Bossk. "Let"s see ... you"re Cradossk"s son, aren"t you?"
Bossk"s eyes were two razor slits, his voke a low snarl. "What"s that matter to you?"
"You really are his son." Gheeta widened his eyes in mock fright. "Give the old reptile my best regards the next time you see him. "Which shouldn"t be too long from now." The Sh.e.l.l Hutt rotated himself back toward Boba Fett. "Because if you think I"m going to let an obviously vicious bunch like this come sailing down to Circ.u.mtore, then you"ve got a few circuits blown inside that helmet of yours, Fett."
The remark produced no reaction in its target. "We can hardly discuss the matter out here," said Boba Fett. "I make it a rule to talk business only when the merchandise is on the table, so to speak."
"I have to warn you." The claws of the little mechanical hands clicked against each other again. "This is very expensive merchandise we"re talking about."
"That makes it all the more profitable, then." Fett indicated the other bounty hunters. "And that"s. why we"ve come here."
"I can believe that, well enough." Gheeta used one of the claws to scratch the almost boneless flesh of his chin. "I just don"t know if you"ve really changed your ways, my dear Fett, regarding just how you acquire your profitable merchandise. I had heard, naturally, about your having joined the Bounty Hunters Guild-and I must admit that all of my clan on Circ.u.mtore were surprised by the news. Getting old and tired, are we, Fett?"
"Not tired." Boba Fett gave a slow shake of his head. "Just smart."
"Smart for you, no doubt." The Sh.e.l.l Hutt broadcast his sly, insinuating smile around at the others. "I wonder, though . . . just what your new-found friends here get out of the deal."
Zuckuss found himself gazing straight into the Sh.e.l.l Hutt"s eyes as the floating cylinder turned his way. The same sensation came over him as when he had felt the tracking systems of D"harhan"s laser cannon locking onto him, calculating the precise angle and force necessary for his destruction. The pupils of Gheeta"s eyes were like narrow windows into a realm of avarice, the slow and certain calculus of insatiable appet.i.tes. Getting blown away-literally, into disconnected atoms-by a laser bolt would be mercifully quick by comparison.
Another feeling, even more disquieting, moved inside Zuckuss: that the dark pupils regarding him with such amused contempt were not windows, but mirrors into his own heart. Little creature, he could hear Gheeta speaking inside his head, I am what you would like to be. All mouth and gut and hunger. In this cold galaxy, the commandment of Eat or Be Eaten prevailed, from the throne of Emperor Palpatine all the way down to the smallest carnivore, a Tatooinian womp rat, scuttling across an empty desert.
His heart dwindled within himself, from that moment of recognition in the Sh.e.l.l Hutt"s eyes. There had been others who had lived and fought, their struggles guided by a different code; there had been a time when even he had listened to tales of the Jedi Knights defending the old Republic. But those are fust stories now, Zuckuss told himself. Those days, and the brave creatures that had lived in them, were never coming back. And without them, the Rebels fighting against the Empire were poor, pathetic fools, doomed to failure. Their bones would be picked clean and discarded on the battlefields of worlds without names. The hungry ones, with their greed and l.u.s.t for dominion, would always win. . . .
Bleak, wordless meditation ended as the Sh.e.l.l Hutt"s knowing, judging smile moved away from him. Pull yourself together, Zuckuss told himself. He had made his pact with the universe he"d found himself in; he was a bounty hunter now, and had been so long enough to be traveling in league with some of the toughest ones in the galaxy. If he showed any signs of weakness at this point, he knew, he wouldn"t have to worry about Emperor Palpatine or any of the Sh.e.l.l Hutts; his own colleagues would tear him apart. A carnivore like Bossk would very likely con sume him, in the exact and literal sense of the word. That thought made Zuckuss feel at least a little better about having become part of old Cradossk"s intricate scheming. Better you than me, he thought, glancing over at Bossk.
"Don"t worry about us." That was Bossk"s voice, giving a snarling reply to Gheeta. "We can take care of ourselves."
"I"m sure you can." The Sh.e.l.l Hutt didn"t stop smiling. "After all ... you"re learning from the master, aren"t you? Boba Fett has always done very well for himself."
"I would be doing even better," said Fett, "if we could limit our discussion to that which we came here for. Specifically, that merchandise known as Oph Nar Dinnid."
"But that merchandise isn"t on the table right now, is it?" Gheeta"s large eyes emitted a spark of anger. "And it"s not going to be. Not out here, at least. You want to discuss the fate of our guest, you will indeed have to come down to Circ.u.mtore to do it-just as you wish. I"m only here to explain how things are in that regard. I"m giving you the conditions, not cutting the deal."
"Why not?" Zuckuss spoke up. "I don"t get it. The other members of your clan wouldn"t have sent you out here if you didn"t have some kind of authority to speak for them. If they"d just wanted to send us some message, they could"ve comm"d it out here or sent some flunky of a different species, like a Twi"lek or something. So why mess around? If you"re willing to talk about Dinnid at all, why not do it here?"
The smile on the broad, jowly face turned into a sneer. "Your colleague Boba Fett wouldn"t ask such a stupid question. A question which has an equally simple answer. We"re all aboard the Slave I right now, aren"t we? The Slave I is Boba Fett"s ship; he controls it. So as long as we"re here, he controls the discussion as well. There have been times when discussions with Boba Fett have gotten ... a little ugly. Things start out nice and friendly, and then they just . . . change somehow." Gheeta feigned mulling over that statement. "Probably because the parties involved couldn"t come to an agreement about the value and price of the merchandise being discussed." He glanced over at Fett. "You always like to get things as cheaply as possible, don"t you?"
Boba Fett made no reply.
"Cheaply," continued Gheeta, "as far as credits are concerned. When it comes to violence . . . well, that"s another story, isn"t it?" The floating cylinder turned, bringing the Sh.e.l.l Hutt"s face back toward Zuckuss. "That"s when your colleague has rather a free hand. Especially when other creatures" skins are involved. And the blood-that can also get a little thick to wade through, when Boba Fett"s around." Another shift in angle brought Gheeta"s face toward the bounty hunters in general. "So if you think I"m going to remain here, in the heart of Fett"s traveling circus of destruction, surrounded by his friends-or if not his friends, then creatures with whom he"s come to a certain business arrangement-and talk about the merchandise in question, let alone actually bring that merchandise here . . ." Gheeta"s jowls wobbled against the cylinder"s gleaming collar as he shook his head. "Then it"s not just Boba Fett who"s gone a little insane. You"re all not in sync with reality if you think that"s going to happen."
A low growl came from the doorless holding cage. "You"ve said your piece?" Bossk folded his arms across his chest.
Gheeta looked over at the Trandoshan. "Yes, I have."
"And now you"re going to be on your way?"
"As charming as your company is, I see no reason for wasting any more of your time or mine."
"What makes you think we"re going to let you leave?"
A weary sigh escaped from the Sh.e.l.l Hutt as he rolled his eyes toward the top of the holding area, "I really expected better from any companions of yours, Fett. Do you want to tell him or should I?"
"He leaves when he wants to," said Boba Fett. He turned the hard gaze of his visored helmet toward the holding cage. "First of all, the merchandise we came here for is still down on Circ.u.mtore. Anything unpleasant we do to the negotiator that the Sh.e.l.l Hutts sent out will just make it harder to accomplish anything later, when we actually go on-planet."
Bossk laid his hand on the grip of his blaster. "Maybe we should just worry about that when we get down there. I don"t see any big difference between taking care of one canned Hutt and a whole world full of them."
"There"s more inside that can than one Hutt. I"ve dealt with their negotiators before. They never send one out that isn"t packed with high-thermal explosives."
"You see?" One of the mechanical hands beneath Gheeta"s floating cylinder gestured theatrically toward Boba Fett. "That"s why he"s at the top of the bounty-hunter profession. It"s why he"s lasted so long, while others have met tragically untimely deaths. Because he"s learned that other creatures can be just as clever . . . and violent, if need be." The thin metal arm telescoped outward so that the crab-like hand could reach up to an access hatch at the midpoint of the cylinder"s tapered length. One claw pried open the hatch, revealing a ticking mechanism wired into several flat bricks of a dull gray substance.
From where he stood, Zuckuss could see the emblem and coding symbols of one of the Imperial Navy"s main armaments dumps. The explosive charges had obviously been stolen, or smuggled out by some enterprising accomplice-but they were still more than lethal. Just looking at that much destructive force made Zuckuss"s breath catch in the tubes dangling from his face mask.
IG-88 had also scanned the explosives, from where it stood next to Bossk. "It would be advisable," announced the droid, "if no one made an attempt to forcibly defuse the triggering mechanism. It has obviously been wired with a detect-and-destruct subsystem to prevent just such an occurrence."
"Of course." Gheeta looked pleased with himself. "As Fett indicated to you, Sh.e.l.l Hutt negotiators don"t come into this kind of situation unprepared. If any of you were so foolish as to lay a finger on me, or this little present I came with, then the consequences would be of astronomical significance." His lipless smile broadened. "A glowing cloud of radioactive dust . . . perhaps they"d even be able to see it back at the Bounty Hunters Guild. So at least your friends would know what had become of you."
"I think ... we can all be reasonable about this." Zuckuss hastened to speak; on the other side of the holding area, Bossk looked furious enough to fling himself at the Sh.e.l.l Hutt and start pulling wires on the explosives, no matter what the consequences might be. "n.o.body"s going to prevent you from leaving whenever you want."
"Good." Gheeta gave an appreciative nod to Zuckuss. "You, at least, show some intelligence. Keep it up, and someday you might reach the same lofty pinnacle in your trade that Boba Fett has." The crablike hand folded the little hatch back down and sealed it in place. "This thing itches abominably. I"ll be glad to be rid of it." The hand scratched at the metal door. "I"ll take my departure now. Though I imagine it won"t be very long until we all see each other again-down on Circ.u.mtore, of course."
The Sh.e.l.l Hutt"s tapered casing rotated 180 degrees so that it was facing the transfer hatchway. Without being bidden, Zuckuss hurried to the controls at the side.
As the hatch irised open, Gheeta turned the floating cylinder just enough", that he could look back at Boba Fett and the other bounty hunters. "Of course," he said blandly, "that"s up to you. About whether we do business or not. Because I have to tell you-we take a very dim view of creatures coming to visit us if they bring along the kind of firepower that you like to carry around."
The cylinder moved through the fully open hatchway. It sealed shut with a hiss; a few seconds later the mechanical noises of the negotiator"s ship disengaging were audible. In the small viewport, the craft could be seen as it began traveling back down to Circ.u.mtore.
Bossk, looking as angry as before, stepped out of the doorless holding cage. "What was that last bit supposed to mean?"
"It"s simple." Boba Fett grasped one of the ladder"s rungs. "Like everything with the Sh.e.l.l Hutts." He started up toward the Slave Fs c.o.c.kpit. "We"re going to go down and talk business, and we"ll do it unarmed. They"ll send a shuttle for us to go on-world, and we"ll leave all our weapons right here."
"You"re joking!" Bossk stared after him in amazement. "I"m not going down there defenseless!"
"That"s up to you." At the c.o.c.kpit hatchway, Boba Fett halted and looked back down at the Trandoshan. "There"s an alternative, of course. We can eliminate you from the team right now." He drew his blaster from his hip and aimed it at Bossk. "You decide."
A few seconds pa.s.sed before Bossk finally gave a slow nod. "All right," he said. "You win. That"s how we"ll play it." An ugly sneer formed on his face. "But there"s a slight problem. What about him?"
Zuckuss and the others turned in the direction to which Bossk"s gesture pointed. At the side of the Slave I"s holding area, silent and waiting, stood the ma.s.sive shape of D"harhan. The tracking systems of the laser cannon, bonded inseparably to his torso, looked toward Fett.
"Even him," Fett said quietly. "He"s going with us as well."
D"harhan punched a string of words into his voice box and turned the device away from himself. "you would have to kill me," it spoke aloud. "to render me weaponless." The voice had sounded like thunder beneath the roiling clouds of steam. The laser cannon"s tracking systems gazed hard at Boba Fett as the next words were displayed. there is no DIFFERENCE. . . BETWEEN ME AND MY WEAPONS.
"Maybe..." With growing unease, Zuckuss let his gaze move up the enormous figure. The yellow lights on the side of the laser-cannon housing were darkening, as though they were about to shift to the red of imminent destruction. "Maybe we don"t really need to take him with us. I mean ... if we"re just going down to Circ.u.mtore to talk . . . that"s not really his specialty, is it?"
"No one is being left behind," Fett stated with cold finality. "The whole team is going. That"s the plan."
"Whose plan?" demanded Bossk.
"Mine." Another simple, flat statement. "That"s the only one that matters." Boba Fett turned back toward D"harhan. "I know better than anyone that to remove your weapon would be the same as killing you; I haven"t forgotten about these things. I was there when you became as you are now. So I also know other things: that your weapon can be rendered nonfunctional, incapable of firing, by a relatively simple procedure. The removal of the light-ma.s.s core alone will do it. And then the Sh.e.l.l Hutts will have no basis for refusing you permission to enter their world."
Zuckuss flattened himself against the holding area"s bulkhead as he watched D"harhan rising to his full height, the top of the laser-cannon housing sc.r.a.ping the durasteel ceiling. The light inside the s.p.a.ce seemed to dim, as though the creature"s expanding form were swallowing it up. D"harhan"s chest, the remaining flesh-and-blood part of it, swelled outward, thrusting forward the curved gearing of the weapon mount welded to his breastbone; his shoulders pulled back, arms tensing at his sides, one hand clenching into a fist, the other still holding the muted voice box. Through clouds of hissing steam, the oiled metal of the pistons gleamed like naked sword blades; the indicator lights along the laser cannon"s barrel burned a fiery, nebulous red.
Now it"s going to happen-fear twisted sicken-ingly in Zuckuss"s gut. We"re all going to die. Mesmerized, he watched as Boba Fett stepped up in front of D"harhan, the red light blurring through the steam and silhouetting him as though by fire seen through ominous storm clouds.
"you"re wrong." D"harhan raised the voice box toward Fett. "IT won"t be easy at all."
"I am aware of his meaning." A trace of fear sounded in even the droid IG-88"s voice. "The light-ma.s.s core is shielded behind a grid of protective interlocks-that is standard for weapons of the cla.s.s he bears, to prevent just such tampering. Removal is ill-advised, even for a skilled armory technician. You could trigger an overload destruct sequence that would destroy this ship even more thoroughly than the Sh.e.l.l Hutt"s explosive charges would have."
"Listen to it," pleaded Bossk. "You"re going to kill us all-"
"I know what I"m doing." Boba Fett spoke with an unnervingly icy calm. "Do not interfere-if you value your lives."
"do you know?" Another cloud of steam hissed from the laser cannon"s mounting as the tracking systems narrowed their focus on the man standing in front of them. "the weapon is my spirit. when you take THAT BY WHICH I KILL OTHERS . . . THEN YOU KILL ME."
"It will only seem that way," said Boba Fett. "There"s a difference between this death and true death." Slowly, he reached up toward the glistening machinery whose coils were buried deep in D"harhan"s chest. "Trust me."
"Fett . . . don"t . . ."
Whether it was his own voice or one of the others, Zuckuss could no longer tell. Flinching from certain doom, he averted his face; the last thing he saw was Boba Fett shrouded in steam, one hand sinking into the coils and wires nested beneath the laser cannon"s mounting, as though the bounty hunter were a battlefield surgeon performing a crude, septic heart transplant. With a screech of grinding metal from the geared wheel, the weapon"s barrel convulsively angled upward, the tracking systems blindly defocusing, as though a pain voltage beyond the reach of mortal anesthesia had coursed through D"harhan"s embedded circuitry. The indicator lights pulsed and flared even brighter than before; Zuckuss could hear someone, probably Bossk, diving to the gridded floor of the holding area, as though there were any chance of hiding from the firepower that would rip the Slave I apart.
With all muscles involuntarily tensed, crouching against the bulkhead, Zuckuss awaited the harsh, deafening noise that he knew would be the last thing he would ever hear.
Instead, there was silence, ended by a sighing emission of steam, as though from a dying machine, the source of its energy shut off by a single valve.
He looked up, bringing his eyes away from his own lowered forearm. The red lights that had burned through the steam mist were gone now; as Zuckuss watched, the inert metal of the laser cannon shifted angle, its dark barrel slowly inching down from its ceiling-high trajectory. The blank voice box swung on a cord from D"harhan"s waist as his black-gloved hands trembled open, palms outward. His knees buckled, diminishing the ma.s.sive form that had reared up inside the ship"s holding area, turning him into something weaker and more human than ma chine. D"harhan collapsed onto the floor, rolling heavily onto one broad shoulder, the muzzle of the laser cannon sc.r.a.ping an arc across the floor, ending at the tip of Boba Fett"s boot.
Zuckuss"s gaze broke from the silenced weapon and turned toward the other bounty hunter. Boba Fett hadn"t moved from where he had been standing, as though the fall of the laser cannon was an ocean tide that he knew would break harmlessly upon the sh.o.r.e, millimeters away from him. In Fett"s hand, the one that had reached into the intricate lock and coil of D"harhan"s chest, was a dull metal rod, less than half a meter long, thick enough to fill the grip fastened upon it. When Fett dropped it with a leaden clang, the residual heat from the weapon"s reactor core brought a final sizzling puff of steam from the water vapor that had collected on the grid"s surface.
The barrel of the laser cannon lifted, moving with crippled difficulty. D"harhan"s tracking systems focused upon Boba Fett standing above him; one hand grasped the voice box and slowly thumbed in a few words.
you owe me. D"harhan raised the silent communication device. big time.
Boba Fett said nothing, but turned away and strode toward the ladder leading to the c.o.c.kpit. He halted with one boot on the bottom rung and looked over at the others watching him. "They"re already waiting for us," he said quietly. "Down on Circ.u.m-tore."
Then he was gone. Zuckuss looked over at Bossk, just now getting to his feet in the doorless holding cage.