Part 10 (1/2)

Boba threw a few clothes and the battle helmet into his father's flight bag. Trying not to be noticed, he made his way along the vast halls of the stalagmite city, toward the landing pad where Slave I was parked.

He had learned that the best way not to be noticed was not to worry about being noticed. That was easy. He had something else to worry about.

Could he fly the s.h.i.+p alone, without his father watching over his shoulder?

There was only one way to find out.

Boba hurried on.

There was a guard at the door to the landing pad. Even though the Jedi had taken over the planet, the Geonosians were still guarding their property.

It was easy enough to slip past the guard while he was busy shooting the breeze with another Geonosian.

Or so Boba thought.

”Where are you going?” The guard blocked the door with his blaster.

”My dad,” Boba said. He held up the flight bag. ”He told me to put this into the s.h.i.+p for him.” ”Which one?”

Boba pointed to Slave I. It was the smallest s.h.i.+p on the landing pad. Its scarred and pitted surface belied its great speed and maneuverability.

”Okay, okay,” said the guard, turning back to his friend and his gossip. ”But you only get five minutes. Then I'm running you off.”

There was no time to check to see if Slave I was loaded and fueled.

Jango had schooled Boba in all the flight checks, but he had also let him know that there are times when they had to be overlooked. Times when one had to trust to luck.

Boba hurried. The guard might come looking for him at any moment now.

Once he was in the c.o.c.kpit, Boba pulled the helmet over his head and sat on the flight bag. To an outside observer, he looked like an adult. He hoped.

He kept his fingers crossed as he started the engines and engaged the drive, just as he had been taught.

So far so good. The guard at the door even flipped him a lazy ”good- bye” wave as Boba lifted Slave I off the platform and soared into the cloudless sky of Geonosis.

The s.h.i.+p felt familiar, almost like home. Boba was thankful for all the time he had spent practicing, and even pretending. Pretending is a kind of practicing.

The fuel was low, but sufficient to get him to Kamino. He was on his way. Wish Dad were here to see me, he thought. I know he would be proud.

That thought, instead of making Boba happy, brought a sudden sadness. He tried to shake it off.

He had other things to worry about.

Like the blip in his rear viewscreen.

It was a Jedi starfighter, on his tail.

The Jedi must have left him behind to watch for stragglers, Boba thought. Is he here to follow me, to force me down, or to blast me out of the sky?

Boba wasn't about to find out.

He knew he couldn't outrun the starfighter. And since he barely knew Slave /'s weaponry, he couldn't outfight him. That left only one option.

He had to outsmart him.

Instead of heading for s.p.a.ce, Boba dove into the canyons and mesas that surrounded the stalagmite city. Using all the maneuverability of the craft, he sliced through the narrow canyons, turning right, then left, as fast as he could.

The starfighter was gaining. But that was okay. That was part of Boba's plan.

He remembered a trick his dad had told him about. A trick that had been used on Jango Fett once, and once only. (No trick ever worked on Jango Fett twice.) Boba slowed where the canyon forked, left and right. He fired a missile at the canyon wall on the right, then turned left and landed on a narrow ledge under the shelter of a cliff.

Boba shut off his engines and waited. And waited.

If the trick worked the Jedi starfighter would see the marks of the explosion of the wall, and turn back. If it didn't...

If it didn't, the starfighter would appear around the corner, lasers blazing. Or call for backup, and the sky would fill with starfighters. Or.. .

Finally, Boba quit waiting and restarted his engines. The trick had worked. The Jedi starfighter had seen the explosion and turned back.

Boba grinned with satisfaction as he took off again. He thought I hit the wall!

Boba pushed Slave 1 up into the rings and beyond. He had never been alone in s.p.a.ce before.

He had felt alone on the planet after his father's death, and particularly after burying him. But this was different. There is alone and there is alone.

There is no place more lonely than the vacuum of s.p.a.ce. Because s.p.a.ce is No Place.

In s.p.a.ce, there is only Not. Zero. Absence. And the absence of absence...

Welcome to The Big Isn't.

Boba s.h.i.+vered at the thought of the emptiness around him-then pushed the thought aside. He had no time for The Big Isn't. He thought of his father and his code: A bounty hunter never gets distracted by the big picture. He knows it's the little things that count.

Boba had a job to do. He had to find the black book.

Boba slipped into high orbit, above the rings.

Geonosis below looked almost peaceful. It was hard to believe it had just seen the fierce fighting that had killed his father - and hundreds, perhaps thousands, of others.

It was a beautiful sight, but Boba didn't intend to spend time enjoying the view. He was already preparing the s.h.i.+p for a hypers.p.a.ce jump.

For a return, this was a simple process. Since Kamino was the last place Slave I had been, all Boba had to do was reverse the coordinates on the navcomputer.

The s.h.i.+p would take care of the rest. So he did.

And so did it.