Part 42 (1/2)
”I can leave my hatch open here. I don't have to worry about Mandos, Sin.”
”That's just what Jaster said and look what happened to him... so, as soon as I get my memory back and I can see, you're gone again....
still angry?”
”No.” He waited for her to edge forward into the front of the c.o.c.kpit and look at him, but she stayed aft. ”I'm glad you're okay.”
”And why haven't you shown at Mirta's celebration?” ”Cowardice.”
”I told Mirta the truth. She's devastated.” ”You shouldn't have done it before her wedding.” ”Bo, I never made Ailyn hate you. I never told her any-thing. That was the problem. She filled in the gaps too much. I should have explained, but I wanted us to get on with our lives.... forget you.... hey, you know.”
”I know.” But Fett knew that he could have stayed in touch, or visited, and then Ailyn would at least have seen he was around, and not totally callous-just mostly. It might not have made any difference in the end. ”I'm not good at telling people things, either.”
”If you'd told the magistrate why you shot him, you'd never have been convicted.”
”And have everyone know what he did to you? You didn't tell anyone.
You didn't want it dragged out in public.”
There was only one thing Fett could have done with a sc.u.mbag like Lenovar. He wasn't just any rapist, although that would have been bad enough; he was a Journeyman Protector, Fett's superior officer on Concord Dawn, a con-stable who should have been upholding the law, not be-traying his uniform and Fett's trust. If I could have killed him a few more times, I would have. No, the only regrets Fett had were the stupid rows with Sin, the cruel things he'd asked about whether Ailyn was really his, and all the words that couldn't be unsaid now. She would never have told him about Lenovar; finding out for himself had been the tipping point.
Unrepentant, the magistrate said. You bet I was.
With the fights, and recriminations, and everything he owned taken by the courts, and then the exile... how did anyone repair a marriage after that? Better men did, all the time, but he didn't know how.
Sintas edged closer behind the pilot's seat. Fett thought it was better if she didn't have yet another illusion ruined.
”I'd have gone anywhere with you, Bo, ”she said. ”I didn't care if we lost everything.”
”I know. I was the one who didn't have what it took.”
”The last time I saw your face.... what were you, nine-teen?”
”Close enough.”
She was desperate to look at him. Fifty-odd years. He understood why she needed to, but it was still a bad idea for both of them.
Being Sintas, she did it anyway.
She slid around in front of his seat and looked into his eyes; her, midthirties, perfect, him, over seventy, and with a savage life in those absent years that etched itself in every pore.
”Oh, Bo... whatever happened to you?” ”I survived.”
She could have looked more shocked. She just seemed ripped up by regret, but not half as much as he was. She touched the scars on his cheek-scars that had been etched by the Sarlacc's acid. It was another story he needed to tell her. ”Come and see Mirta, ”she said. ”Please?”
”She'll give me the full number on why it was my fault for not telling her.”
”No, she's a big girl now. She knows things are never as black and white as we want them to be.”
Sintas had never expected him to be eloquent, which was a blessing right then. He handed her the envelope. That was the simplest bit. ”Got a few things for you.” ”Bo, you don't have to do that.”
”Just shut up and take it.” Shysa would have done this so much better. He could do anything with a grin and that accent. ”And I should have bought you one of these at the time... and this is yours anyway.”
Fett went back to calibrating his HUD just so he didn't have to watch. Sin could do the strong-and-silent routine just as well as he could, as long as their eyes didn't meet.
”I know what's in the canister, ”she said, ”and I can't look at it right now.” It was the only holoimage of the three of them as a family, in that short, idyllic time before it all collapsed. ”But you're insane to buy me the stone. I'm never worth that much.” ”Sell it. It's yours.”
”I've got the first one.”
”Half of it. And a lot's happened since, so there'll be a different set of Fett memories in the blue stone. If you ever want to do some catching up.”
Fett wondered if Mirta had taken her to visit Ailyn's grave yet.
The problem with Mirta telling Sintas that he'd gone to so much trouble to recover Ailyn's body and then buried her with half of the heart-of-fire, was that it made him look like a nice, normal, loving father. And however decent his motives were when he destroyed his marriage, he'd never been man enough in the years that followed to visit his family and try to repair the rift. It took more guts than facing an army.
You get the life you deserve, Fett. Everyone does. ”Sin, after I left - did you find someone else?” She was holding the blue heart-of-fire between both palms, one flat above, one below, almost as if she was rolling it, eyes a little distant as if she'd already started lis-tening to its silent voice.
”I did, Bo, more than once, ”she said at last. ”But in our line of work, it never lasts, does it? You?”
”I don't remember, ”he lied. She could tell anyway. ”Let's go do the family thing, then.” Sintas put the stone in the hip pocket of her pants. ”Just this once.”
He hadn't finished calibrating the HUD, but he put his helmet on anyway. And once it was on, he looked like the Bo she once knew and loved, and the lost years vanished for a brief time. They went to Mirta's feast.
Maybe Sintas would do that Kiffar thing with the new heart-of-fire, and read and discover everything that had happened to him while they were apart, and what he just couldn't manage to tell her even now.
It was just three words. But it was three too many for Boba Fett.
NOVOC VEVUT'S HOME, KELDABE: WEDDING FEAST OF MIRTA GEV AND GHES.
GRADE.
”I've found a use for Jedi!” Carid bellowed. ”I knew I would one day! Look!”
The line of ale bottles stretched the length of the dura-plast trestle table in Vevut's crowded courtyard. Jaina con-centrated, knowing how critical the timing would be. Then she inhaled slowly, stepped back, and Force-pulled all thirty caps off in a rapid sequence that popped and rattled like a Luit pyrocracker. Froth welled from the necks of the bottles; the guests showed their approval with shouts of ”Oya!” and ”Kandosii!, ”hammering their fists on the thigh plates of their armor.
Jaina took a bow. ”Now you know why Jedi apprentices spend years in quiet contemplation and earnest study at the academy. ”
The celebratory feast was packed; guests had spilled out from the courtyard onto the gra.s.s outside the low retaining wall. A man in gray armor had an animal with him, a predator with a deeply folded coat and six legs. When she pa.s.sed, it looked up sharply as if it recognized her, and made plaintive grumbling noises, slapping its whip-like tail on the ground. Mirta edged through the crowd toward her, not looking radiant or blus.h.i.+ng.
Jaina could sense her misery, but she also knew the specific cause of it, because Sintas had told her: a single traumatic event whose consequences had spiraled out of control and finally fed into the crisis that now engulfed Jaina's own family, and much of the galaxy. It wasn't a di-rect causal chain, but it was so close and personal now that it might as well have been.
Fifty-odd years ago, what was happening to us right then? Mom was growing up on Alderaan. Uncle Luke was on Tatooine, no idea what was coming ten years down the line. Dad.... Dad was probably learning to steal speeders. And Sintas, who none of us knew or even thought about until this year, was a teenager with a baby daughter going through the worst time of her life. And none of us knew that we'd end up on this collision course.
Mirta finally pushed through the sea of bodies and steered Jaina to a quieter corner.
”Ba'buir was here with Grandmama earlier, but I can't find them now, ”Mirta said.
”They've probably got some talking to do.” ”All I can think of now is-what if I'd killed him?” ”But you didn't.”