Star Wars Myths & Fables

by Lucasfilm Press

  Once, the woman even came close to catching her quarry as the two of them battled in the dark backstreets of Lothal, dancing and weaving down the narrow lanes and around the steaming outlet pipes, each of their moves a perfect match for the other’s. Then, just when it had seemed the bounty hunter would get the better of him, Misook had fled in a stolen speeder, zipping off through the bustling markets and out into the wastelands beyond. Emim’Ai, of course, went after him, only ever a few steps behind.

  So it had continued for many months, and although Misook had hoped the Mirialan might eventually grow weary of the chase and break off her pursuit, it was not to be. The bounty hunter, he knew, could not return empty-handed to those who had charged her with his capture.

  Batuu, then, was to be the site of their final dance, for Misook knew that he could not run forever and that, if he were ever to succeed in making a new life for himself, he would have to find a means to deal with his determined pursuer, once and for all.

  As relentless as Emim’Ai had been, and as hungry to prove herself, it occurred to Misook that the only way to shake her was to distract her with an even bigger prize—a bounty so large and so notorious that she would not be able to resist its allure. It just so happened that, on Batuu, the perfect opportunity presented itself.

  Misook, for all his dubious ways, was a born orator, so on his third night at the Black Spire Outpost, having recognized the bounty hunter’s ship in the dock and obtained word that she was asking after him in many of the less-than-salubrious places around town, he decided to enact his final move.

  He found a table in a quiet corner of Oga’s Cantina—a corner with a full view of the bar—and, after making merry with a number of the other patrons, buying drinks and regaling them with tales of his exploits, he began to weave the tale of Arquel.

  Arquel, in his mind, was the most remarkable thief ever to have traversed the galaxy—a woman who had incurred the wrath of scores of lords, ladies, and crime bosses throughout known space and beyond. Hers was a name that was whispered by bounty hunters far and wide, from Coruscant to Naboo, from Mandalore to Glee Anselm. This thief had a combined price on her head so large that anyone who captured her alive would have enough credits to buy their own moon. But Arquel was clever and quick and wise, and could never be caught. Tales of her derring-do were the talk of cantina patrons and smugglers, traders, pilots, and politicians. Yet she was like a ghost: gone before her targets knew they had been robbed, always disappearing into the night before anyone had even caught a glimpse of her.

  Soon, intrigued by his talk of this great thief, a large audience had gathered around Misook’s table, urging him to relate her tale. So, making himself comfortable, he leaned back in his seat, put his feet up on the table and his hands behind his head, and started from the very beginning. . . .

  * * *

  Arquel was born in the sump canyons of distant Coruscant, down amongst the lowest levels, where the streets are cast in a perpetual night and the veneer of civilization barely hides the festering nightmare of daily life.

  This was in the days following the fall of the great Empire, and although many throughout the galaxy felt the yoke of oppression had finally lifted, for those eking out an existence in the forgotten levels amidst the sewers and outlet pipes, life continued as it always had: a constant battle to obtain another meal.

  Arquel’s mother was a thief who barely managed to stay a step ahead of the private security forces who patrolled those levels (the official law enforcement agencies refused to delve so deep into the fetid criminal morass), and her father was a disgraced administrator from the Imperial era who worked as a translator for the criminal gangs, hiring out his services for a price cheaper than that of a battered old protocol droid.

  Arquel, then, had not been granted the best start in life and as a child was often to be found assisting her mother on smaller jobs, wriggling through tiny crawlspaces and ventilation shafts to open doors, lay traps, or provide distraction. As such, she learned her craft at an early age, and it was this apprenticeship that provided her with the skills she would later employ to such great effect. If her mother gave her anything in life, it was this grounding in the finer arts of thievery and deception.

  As she grew, however, Arquel became less useful to her mother, and while her father was off on business, she was often left to her own devices. Resourceful, though, she put the time to opportune use, familiarizing herself with the secret passageways and alcoves of the neighborhood, observing all the comings and goings, listening to all the many whispered conversations. Later, she would learn how to put the information she gleaned from those overheard meetings to good use—discerning patterns of behavior, collating secrets, fathoming plans. She would sell this information to interested parties or blackmail those who wished to keep their secretive dealings undisclosed. She never told her parents about her ill-gotten gains, and in time she had gathered not only a small fund of her own but also something of a reputation amongst the criminal gangs who made the sump canyons their home.

  By the age of fifteen, Arquel was running with the Hutt Clan, and while she’d begun her new career doing much the same as she always had—farming information and passing it up the chain to those in charge—she’d also made quite an impression, proving herself to be a most valuable and trusted asset. So much so that the rival gangs had taken note and begun to formulate plans of their own.

  It was around this time that the young woman learned the value—and cost—of betrayal.

  Out on a job one night with a Weequay named Malquis, Arquel found herself party to a deal between two gangs. One crime lord wished to purchase from another the hilt of a broken lightsaber, scavenged from the ruins of Geonosis and traded back and forth between the criminal gangs of Coruscant as a symbol of their power and influence. Arquel and Malquis were to make the exchange, handing over a datachip containing dubious access codes to an upper-level administration building and returning with the saber’s hilt as their prize. At the moment of the exchange, none other than Arquel’s mother revealed herself from the shadows, having followed her daughter, and she intercepted the exchange, shooting Malquis and the members of the other gang and making off with both the datachip and the lightsaber.

  Arquel, abandoned in the devastation, was left to explain herself to her employer and endure the painful punishment for her failure. Yet the betrayal hardened Arquel, like a sword tempered in flame, and she sought out her mother later that week, ambushing the woman in return and striking her down, relieving her of both the datachip and the lightsaber hilt—and her relationship with her daughter.

  Having keenly felt the punishment bestowed upon her by her employer, however, Arquel chose not to return to him with her trophies, but instead used the datachip to strike a deal of her own, purchasing transport offworld so she might at last take to the stars and make a life and name for herself in the wider galaxy.

  Of the lightsaber hilt, it is said that she still wears it to this day, attached to her belt, a constant reminder of her mother’s betrayal and what might happen if she ever trusts anyone again.

  From there, it becomes harder to piece together Arquel’s exact movements, but sometime after leaving Coruscant, she acquired her own ship, an old customized transport piloted by a reprogrammed RX pilot droid that she stole from a bounty hunter named Popundas Heth.

  Years passed, and Arquel became famed on a score of worlds, wanted by criminals and authorities alike. Nevertheless, she operated with apparent impunity, carrying out daring raids and making singular deals with even the most notorious gangsters. She traversed the galaxy, taking all she wanted, always staying one step ahead of those who pursued her, always with a smile and a wink and a flash of a deadly weapon.

  Many have taken up the trail of Arquel, hoping to achieve glory in her safe capture, but to this date, all have failed. No one knows where she will turn up next, for she has never been seen in the same place twice, but (and this was the moment Misook had been building up to all that
time) she was last seen on Batuu, in the very cantina in which we sit, just two days ago. . . .

  * * *

  Misook was wily, and he knew that, for his story to take root, he needed to play his own part in the tale; so while his audience babbled excitedly about the celebrity who had walked in their midst, he outlined his own plan to capture her—for, he claimed, he was a bounty hunter from Coruscant, a member of one of those original gangs, and as much as he pursued Arquel for wealth, he pursued her, too, for revenge. There, on Batuu, he would finally deliver it.

  As the crowd broke apart, Misook made his escape from the cantina, yet he knew from the overheard mumblings of the other patrons that word of Arquel would spread. Sure enough, the next morning, talk of the thief was on everyone’s lips, and even the news feeds were running stories about the sighting of the dangerous woman, warning any who saw her to approach the authorities rather than try their hand at restraining her themselves. Of course, there were those amongst the people of the Outpost who were formulating their own plans, for word of the size of the bounty on Arquel’s head had spread, too. Bounty hunters, vagabonds, gangsters, and scoundrels alike were plotting her capture—including Emim’Ai, who had traveled to Batuu in pursuit of Misook but had set her sights on the bigger bounty that was just within her reach.

  Laughing, Misook made for the docks, plotting a course into Wild Space, where he knew he might start his life anew.

  Throughout Batuu, the hunt for Arquel continued for several weeks, until an administrator at the docks turned up a record of an old customized transport that had visited the Outpost around the same time as Misook but had left in a hurry, logging a course into Wild Space.

  Of course, many of the bounty hunters, including Emim’Ai, gave chase, but none found Arquel, or Misook, and soon rumor had spread throughout the entire galaxy of this elusive legend—the biggest score in the galaxy, the most sought-after bounty of all.

  To this day, people seek the mysterious Arquel, telling tales of her exploits, of how one day she disappeared in Wild Space, pursued by a bounty hunter who was never heard from again.

  Only Misook, sitting somewhere with his feet up in a cantina, laughing, knows the truth: that she never really existed at all.

  GEORGE MANN is a Sunday Times best-selling novelist and scriptwriter, and he’s loved Star Wars for about as long as he’s been able to walk. He wishes he still had the Ewok village action figure set he adored when he was a boy.

  He’s the author of the Newbury & Hobbes Victorian mystery series, as well as four novels about a 1920s vigilante known as the Ghost. He’s also written best-selling Doctor Who novels, new adventures for Sherlock Holmes, and the supernatural mystery series Wychwood.

  His comic writing includes extensive work on Doctor Who, Dark Souls, Warhammer 40,000, and Newbury & Hobbes, as well as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for younger readers.

  He’s written audio scripts for Doctor Who, Blake’s 7, Sherlock Holmes, Warhammer 40,000, and more.

  As editor, he’s assembled four anthologies of original Sherlock Holmes fiction, as well as multiple volumes of The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction and The Solaris Book of New Fantasy.

  You can find him on Twitter @George_Mann.

  GRANT GRIFFIN is an illustrator working in games and publishing. He grew up outside of Austin, Texas, and did a stint in Denver, Colorado, where he got a BFA in illustration, found a wife, got a dog, and took up a career freelancing in 2013. He has since been carving out a niche in the fantasy and science fiction genre. He resides in San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua, and does his best not to indulge in too much local coffee.