Part 5 (1/2)

On Kamino it rained all the time; on Geonosis it hardly ever rained. Kamino was all sea; Geonosis, was a sea of red sand, with big rock towers called stalagmites sticking up like spikes, here and there, from the sandy desert.

In fact, the planet looked deserted. At least that's what Boba thought when he first arrived.

Jango Fett landed Slave I on a ledge on the side of one of the stalagmites, or rock towers.

Are we going to camp here on this rock? wondered Boba as the s.h.i.+p settled on its landing struts and the engines died.

Then a door in the stone slid open, and Maintenance Droids appeared to service the s.h.i.+p.

Boba was wide-eyed as he followed his father through the doorway, which turned out to be the entrance to a vast underground city, with long corridors and huge rooms, all connected and lighted with glow tubes, echoing with footsteps and shouts.

Yet it still seemed empty. The only inhabitants were hurrying, distant shadows. No one greeted them; no one even noticed a ten-year-old tagging along after his father.

As they climbed the stairs toward the apartment they had been temporarily a.s.signed, Jango explained to his son that the Geonosians themselves were drones who worked all the time. Their planet was a manufacturing center for Battle Droids. ”And the people who make the droids aren't much smarter or more interesting than the droids themselves,” Jango said.

”So why are we here?” Boba asked. ”Business,” said Jango Fett. ”He who hires my hand..”

”... hires my whole self,” finished Boba, grinning up at his dad.

”Right,” said Jango. He rumpled his son's hair and smiled down at him. ”I'm very proud of you, son. You're growing up to be a bounty hunter, just like your old man.”

The apartment was high in the stone tower, overlooking the desert.

Jango went off to meet with his employer, leaving Boba with a stern warning: ”Be here when I get back.”

After a couple of hours alone in the apartment, Boba knew that his first impressions had been right. Geonosis was boring. Even more boring than Kamino.

Boredom is kind of like a microscope. It can make little things look big. Boba counted all the stones in the walls of the apartment. He counted all the cracks in the floor.

Bored with cracks and stones, he stared out the narrow window, watching the dust storms roll across the plains and watching the rings wheel across the sky above.

Boba wished he had brought some books. The only one he had was the black book his father had given him, the one he couldn't open. It was in a box with his clothes and old toys, not even worth looking for.

He'd have to make his own excitement. But how?

Be here when I get back. That didn't mean he couldn't leave the apartment. Just that he couldn't go very far.

Boba stepped out into the hallway, closing the door behind him. The stone corridor was dim and quiet. In the distance Boba could hear a booming noise. It sounded almost like the sea on stormy Kamino.

Could there be an ocean here, on this desert planet?

Boba walked to the end of the corridor and stuck his head around the corner. The booming was louder. Now it sounded like a distant drum.

Around the corner there was a stone stairway, leading down. At the bottom the stairs, another hall. At the end of the hall, another stairway.

Stone steps, leading down, into the darkness. Boba followed them, feeling his way, one step at a time. The farther he went, the darker it got.

The darker it got, the louder the booming. It sounded like a giant beating a drum.

Boba had the feeling he had gone too far, but he didn't want to turn back. Not yet. Not until he had discovered what was making the booming noise.

Then a last, long spiral staircase ended in a narrow hallway. The hallway ended at a heavy door. The booming was so loud that the door itself was shaking.

Boba was almost afraid to look. He was about to turn back. Then, in his mind, he heard his father's voice: Do that which you fear most, and you will find the courage you seek.

Boba pulled the door open.

BOOM.

BOOM.

BOOM.

There was no wild ocean storm, no giant beating a drum. But Boba was not disappointed. What he saw was even more amazing.

He was looking into a vast underground room, lighted by glowing lamps, and filled with moving shapes. As his eyes adjusted to the dim light, he could see a long a.s.sembly line, where huge metal machines were stamping out arms and legs, wheels and blades, heads and torsos. The noise was thunderous. The heavy, rust-colored parts, once stamped, were carried on clattering belts to a central area, where they were a.s.sembled by grim-faced Geonosians into warlike Battle Droids, which snapped to attention as soon as their heads were screwed on.

The a.s.sembled droids then marched in long lines out of the cavern, through a high, arched doorway, into the darkness.

Boba watched, fascinated. What was the purpose of all these weapons of war? It was hard to believe that there was room in the galaxy for so many Battle Droids and droidekas bristling with blades and blasters.

He imagined them all in action, fighting one another. It was exciting to think about - and a little scary, too.

”Hey, you there!”

Boba looked up. A Security Droid was hurrying his way, across a catwalk toward the open door.

Rather than explain who he was and what he was doing, Boba decided to do the sensible thing. He slammed the door and ran.

Be here when I get back, Jango had said. Boba was just shutting the apartment door behind him when he heard footsteps in the hall outside.

Barely made it! thought Boba as his father opened the door.

Two men were with him. One of them was a Geonosian, wearing the elaborate finery of a high official over its branchlike body and barrel-shaped head. The other was more simply dressed, but somehow familiar.

”And so you see, Count Dooku, we have made great progress,” said the Geonosian.

It was the Count that did it. Boba recognized the other man. ”Isn't that Count Tyra.n.u.s?” Boba asked his father, who was hanging up his battle helmet beside the door.

”Sssshhhhh,” said Jango. ”We are the only ones who know him by that name.”

”Ah, so this is the young one?” the Count said. ”You'll be a great bounty hunter someday.”

He patted Boba on the head. The gesture was affectionate but the hand was cold, and Boba felt a chill.

”Yes, sir,” he said, pulling away.