Part 7 (1/2)

Seething, Durga undulated off in search of another staff member to interrogate.

Jabba the Hutt and his aunt Jiliac were lounging to-gether in their palatial receiving room in Jiliacg palace on Nal Hutta, watching Jiliacg baby inch its way around the room. The infant Hutt was now old enough to spend almost an hour outside Jiliacg pouch. At this stage of its life, the little creature resembled a huge, chubby grub or insect larva more than a Hurt. Its arms were nothing more than vestigial stubs, and would not develop or grow digits until the baby Hutt had left the maternal pouch for good. The only way in which the baby Hutt resembled the adult members of its species was its pop-eyed, vertical-pupiled stare.

Hutt babies were born almost mindless, and Hutt youngsters did not reach the age of accountability until they were about a century old. Before that, they were looked upon as creatures who needed good care and feeding, and not much else.

As he watched the baby wriggle along the polished stone floor, Jabba wished they were back on Nar Shad-daa, where he could get more done. It was difficult to oversee the Desilijic smuggling empire f?om Nal Hutta. Jabba had suggested more than once that he and his aunt go back to Nar Shaddaa, but Jiliac adamantly re-fused, insisting that the polluted atmosphere of Nar Shaddaa would be unhealthy for her baby.

Jabba thus spent much of his time shuttling back and forth between Nal Hutta and Nar Shaddaa. His hold-ings on Tatooine were suffering by his absence. Ephant Mon, the non-humanoid Chevin, was looking after Jabba~ interests, and doing it well, but it just wasn't the same as being there himself.

Jabba had shared many adventures in the past with Mon, and the ugly sentient from Vinsoth was the only being in the universe that Jabba really trusted. For some reason (even Jabba wasn't sure why), Ephant Mon was completely loyal to Jabba, and always had been. Jabba knew that the Cheviu had turned down multiple offers to betray him for fabulous profit. Yet... Ephant Mon had never turned, no matter how much he was offered.

Jabba appreciated his friendg loyalty and repaid it by keeping only minor tabs on Ephant Mong actions. He didn't expect Mon to betray him, not after all these years... but it was well to be prepared for anything.

”Aunt,” Jabba said, ”I have read the newest report from our source in the Besadii accounting office, and their profits are impressive. Even the dissension over Durga's leaders.h.i.+p has not slowed them. Ylesia contin-ues to produce more processed spice with every month that pa.s.ses. s.h.i.+ploads of Pilgrims are arriving nearly every week. It is depressing.”

Jiliac turned her ma.s.sive head to regard her nephew. ”Durga has done better than I ever gave him credit for, Jabba. I did not think he could hold onto the leader-s.h.i.+p. By now I envisioned that Besadii would be ripe for our takeover-but, even though there is muttering and discontent with Durga~ leaders.h.i.+p, his outspoken op-ponents are dead, and no one has surfaced to replace them within the clan.”

Jabba blinked at his aunt, and a spark of hope awak-ened. That speech sounded ahnost like the old, pre-motherhood Jiliac! ”Do you know why they are dead, Aunt?”

”Because Durga was foolish enough to deal with Black Sun,” Jiliac said. ”The deaths of his opponents were too blatant to be Hutt doing. Only Black Sun has that many resources. Only Prince Xizor would be so coldly daring as to a.s.sa.s.sinate them 'all within days of each other.”

Jabba was getting excited, now. Is she coming out of her maternal mental haze? he wondered.

”Prince Xizor is indeed someone to be reckoned with,” he said. ”That is why I have done him favors from time to time. I would prefer to stay on his good side... just in case I ever need a favor in return. As I did that one time on Tatooine. He helped me then, and asked nothing in return, because I have done him favors in the past.”

Jiliac was shaking her head slowly back and forth, a mannerism she'd picked up from humans. ”Jabba, you know my thinking on this, I have told you many times. Prince Xizor is not one to be trifled with. Best to stay far away from him, and to have nothing to do with Black Sun. Open the door to them just once, and you risk be-coming his va.s.sal.”

”I am cautious, Aunt, I a.s.sure you. I would never do as Durga has done.”

”Good. Durga will soon discover that he has opened a door that cannot easily be closed. If he steps through it... he will no longer be his own master.”

”So should we hope he does that, Aunt?”

Jiliac's eyes narrowed slightly. ”Hardly, Nephew. Xi-zor is not aloe I wish to contend with. He has evidently set his sights on Besadii, but he would willingly take Desilijic, too, of that I have no doubt.”

Jabba silently agreed. Xizor would move in on the whole of Nal Hutta if given the opportunity. ”Speaking of Besadii, Aunt,” he said, ”what of these Ylesian profits I was reporting on? What can we do to stop Besadii? They now have nine colonies on Ylesia. They are pre-paring to start another colony on Nyrvona, the other habitable world in the system.”

Jiliac thought for a moment. ”Perhaps it is time to utilize Teroenza again,” she said. ”Durga apparently has no suspicion that he was responsible for Arukg death.” ”Utilize him how?”

”I don't know yet ....”Jiliac said. ”Perhaps we can encourage Teroenza to declare his independence from Durga. If they fought, Besadii profits would be bound to plummet. And then... we could pick up the pieces.” 'Very good, Aunt!” Jabba was happy to hear the old, scheming Jiliac acting like herself again. ”Now, if I can just report on these figures here, and get your input on reducing our costs in-” ”Ahhhhhhhh!”

Jabba broke off, interrupted by Jiliac% deep, mater-nal coo of affection, and saw the baby Hutt wriggling up to its mother, tiny vestigial arms held up, its bulbous eyes fixed on Jiliacg Face intently. The babyg mouth opened, and it chirrnped inquiringly.

”Look, Nephew!” Jiliacg voice was warm, indulgent.

”My little one knows mama, yes, doesn't he, precious?” Jabba rolled his eyes until they nearly emerged from their sockets and splatted onto the floor. Witness the demise of one of the greatest criminal mind~ of this mil-lennium, he thought, bleakly.

Then, as Jiliac scooped up the baby Hutt and guided it back into her pouch, Jabba glared at the little creature with an expression very close to outright hatred ....

Han spent the next couple of days with the members of the Woollee underground, finalizing their deal. The time came when he opened up the Falcon, and he and Jarik unloaded the explosive quarrels from the secret compartments. Katarra, Kichiir and Motamba clus-tered around the boxes, exclaiming excitedly over their new toys.

Meanwhile, other Woollees from the underground movement made a steady stream inside the s.h.i.+p, load-ing it with stormtrooper armor. Han was able to pack nearly forty complete suits and ten helmets into the Falcon. If the armor fetched the market price, he'd doubled his investment on the trip. Not a bad bit of bargaining!

By the time all the armor was stowed away enough so that the Falcon~ crew could move about, night was falling. Han decided that he wanted to wait for dawn for his tricky exit of the cave and straight-up flight through the trees. He and Jarik said farewell to their hosts and stretched out on the pilot~ seats to sleep.

Han was awakened before sunrise the next morning by a loud-and familiar! Woollee roar. The Corellian. opened his eyes and jumped up, nearly tripping over the sleepy Jarik. Activating the ramp, he raced down it. ”Chewie!”

Han was so glad to see the big furball that he didn't even complain when the Wooldee grabbed him, swnng him around, and ruffled his hair until it stood on end. All the while, Chewbacca was whining out a steady stream of complaints. What had Han been thinking of, preparing to leave him behind? Didn't he know any better? What could you expect from a human!

When the Wookiee finally released him, Han looked up at Chewie, completely confused. ”Huh? Whaddaya mean, I was gonna leave you behind? I'm goin' back to Nar Shaddaa, pal, and, in case it's slipped your atten-tion, Chewie, you're a married guy now. Your place is here, on Kashyyyk, with Malla.”

Chewie shook his head, uttering protesting hoots and remonstrations. ”Life debt? Pal, I know you've sworn a life debt, but let~ be realistic here! You belong with your wife, on your own planet, now! Not dodgin' Imp cruisers with me.”

The Woollee had just started in again when a loud, angry roar from behind Han made him jump and dodge. A large, hairy hand grabbed his shoulder, and Han was swung around as though he weighed no more than a sc.r.a.p of flimsy. He looked up to see Mallatobuck towering over him. Chewie's wife was furious, teeth bared, blue eyes narrowed. Han put up both hands, and shrank back against his friend's hairy chest. ”Hey, Mallal Take it easy, now!”

Mallatobuck roared again, then launched into an an-gry tirade. Humans! How could they be so ignorant of Woollee customs and Woollee honor? How dare Hah imply that Chewbacca would abandon a life debt? There was no greater insult he could offer a Woollee! Her husband was possessed of great honor! He was a courageous warrior, a skilled hunter, and when he gave his word, he kept it! Especially about a life debt!

Faced with Malla~ ire, Hah turned both hands up and shrugged, but couldn't get a word in edgewise. He looked up imploringly at his friend. Chewie, taking pity on his Corellian buddy, intervened. He stepped be-tween Malla and Hah, and spoke quickly, telling her that of course Han had meant no insult, no offense. His comment had been made out of ignorance, not malice.

Finally, Malla relaxed, and her roars turned to grum-bles. Hah gave her an apologetic smile. ”Hey, no of-fense, Malla. I know Chewie here better'n almost anyone, and I know he's a terrific guy, brave, smart, all that stuff. I just didn't know that to a Wookiee, a life debt outweighs everything else.”

He turned back to his friend. ”So, okay, you're comin' with us, and we're gettin' ready to grab some s.p.a.ce, pal. So say goodbye to your bride.”

Chewbacca and Mallatobuck walked away together, while Hah and Jarik conducted the prefiight checks. A few minutes later, Hah heard the clang of the Falcon% ramp closing. Moments later, Chewbacca slipped into the copilot's seat. Han looked at him, ”Don't worry, pal, I swear to you we'll come back again . . . soon. I did some good dealing with Katarra and her underground. Your people are going to need lots of ammo before they can even hope to take on the Imps and free your world. And I'm gonna help 'era get it.”

Jarik's voice came over the intercom from the star-board gunner% turret. ”Yeah, at a tidy profit, of course.”

Hah laughed. ”Yeah... of course! Chewie... stand by! Here...we... go!”

With great dignity, the Millennium Falcon rose up-ward on her repulsors, then drifted forward until she was out of the tree-branch ”cave.” Then, with a sudden-ness that sent everyone sinking back into their seats, Han sent his s.h.i.+p whoos.h.i.+ng straight up, through the tunnel of trees. They soared up into the skies, now flushed with the red-gold dawn. As the Falcon went higher, sunrise seemed to burst over the world in a shower of gold.

Quarrr-teUerrra; Hah thought. The sun-haired war-flor, the woman he had known as Bria .... What was she doing now? he wondered. Does she ever think about me?

Moments later, Kashyyyk was only a rapidly dwin-dling green ball behind them, as they tore through the star-flecked blackness ....

Boba Fett sat in a sleazy rented fiat on the Outer Rim world of Teth, listening to Bria Tharen meeting with the Tethan Rebel leaders. The most famous bounty hunter in the galaxy had many resources, in-cluding a spy network that most planets would have en-vied. Since he accepted Imperial a.s.signments from time to time, he was often privy to communiqu6s and other information most Rebel Commands would have loved to see.

Even though she was a Rebel officer, the bounty on Bria Tharen had not been posted by the Empire. No, this was a far larger bounty, the sum of fifty thousand credits for a live, unharmed capture, no disintegrations permitted. Aruk the Hutt, the old leader of Besadii clan, had originally posted the bounty, but his heir, Durga, had continued it after his death, and had prom-ised a bonus for delivery within three months.

Boba Fett had been searching on and off for Bria Tharen for over a year now. The woman kept being sent out on ”deep cover” a.s.signments that made her ex-tremely hard to trace. She had severed all ties with her family, probably to lessen the danger to them should she be captured by the Imperials. When she was on her home planet of CoreIlia, she lived inside a series of se-cret Rebel command bases, with extensive security and guard mounts.

Such high security was understandable . . . after all, the Rebels lived in fear of a full-scale attack by imperial stormtroopers. So they kept the locations of their bases top-secret, and moved them continually. One bounty hunter-no matter how deadly and effective-stood little chance of getting close enough to manage a live capture.

If only Besadii would have been satisfied with having Bria dead, Boba Fett was fairly sure he could have managed to kill her, even within the protection of a Rebel base. But live, unharmed capture was much more difficult ....

However, a few days ago, Boba Fett had learned through his spy network that there was a meeting scheduled for the underground Rebel movement on Teth. Taking a calculated risk that Bria would be there, he had flown Slave I to Teth two days ago. The risk had paid off; she had shown up yesterday evening.

Two days ago, when he'd first arrived on Teth, Boba Fett had located the current Rebel enclave, which was situated beneath the port city in a series of old storm drains and sub-bas.e.m.e.nts. He'd infiltrated the outskirts of the base, via the ancient storm drains and ventilation shafts, enough to locate the base janitorial supplies. There he'd placed minuscule audio pickups on a num-ber of small robot floor cleaners that roved freely from room to room, sucking up anything their tiny scanners identified as ”dirt.”

Since that time, he'd been monitoring the pickups, and today his preparations had paid off. Bria Tharen was in a meeting with two top-ranked Tethan Rebels. The tiny floor-cleaner, per its programmed instructions, had scuttled out of their way when they'd entered the room, and was now biding its time in an inconspicuous corner.