A New Threat

by Elizabeth Hand

  "We understand," he said. His voice sounded wistful, but his blue eyes

  shone. "We are very proud of you, Boba. Your father would be proud, too."

  Gab'borah reached into the pocket of his chef's robe and withdrew a

  small packet. "Here. These will last a long time. Wherever you're going,

  you'll need food." Boba took the packet. He peeled back a corner to see

  what was inside.

  "Gleb rations!" He made a face, then said, "I mean, thank you,

  Gab'borah." Gleb rations didn't taste very good, but a single small cube

  provided enough energy and nutrients for a day's hard work.

  "We'd better go," said Ygabba. She gave Boba a wistful smile. "I have

  one more thing for you. Not as exciting as gleb rations, but..."

  She held out a small object, about the size of Boba's hand.

  "What is it?" he asked, taking the object. It was heaver than it

  looked, encased in a gray plasteel container.

  "A surprise," said Ygabba. "Wait till you get wherever it is you're

  going. Then open it."

  Boba nodded. "Thanks, Ygabba."

  "You're welcome. I hope it helps." She grinned at Boba, pointing at

  his helmet. "You take care of that, too. I won't be around to watch it for

  you!"

  Boba smiled. "Don't worry, " he said, waving good-bye as the two of

  them turned and walked back down the hall. "I will."

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Boba had been off-planet before, of course.

  He had been born on rainswept Kamino, and had buried his father on

  Geonosis, a desert planet even more desolate than Tatooine. He had been to

  Aargau, where he retrieved what remained of his father's fortune and

  explored the planet's treacherous, mazelike Undercity. And before that he

  had been on a moon of Bogden, and the poisoned world of Raxus Prime. Raxus

  Prime was where Boba had met up with the man his father had called "The

  Count."

  Some people knew the Count as Dooku, a leader of the Separatists.

  Others knew him as Tyranus. Darth Tyranus was the agent who had chosen

  Jango Fett as the source for the Republic's vast clone army.

  Now the Republic and the Separatists were at war. Count Dooku and

  Tyranus were on opposing sides of the conflict.

  And only Boba Fett knew that Tyranus and Dooku were the same man.

  This knowledge had saved Boba's life on Aargau. This knowledge was a

  weapon.

  Like a weapon, it gave Boba great power.

  And like a weapon, it had the power to kill those who used it.

  In the cockpit of Slave Boba made a last-minute check that his

  firearms were stored and ready for use.

  "Jet pack, blaster, jet pack generator, ion stunner, grappling

  missile." Boba counted off his deadly array. "Dart shooter, rocket

  launchers, whipcord thrower..."

  Jabba might be greedy and disgusting and power-hungry. But when it

  came to outfitting his favorite bounty hunter, he was as generous as his

  Gamorrean guards were stupid.

  New weapons gleamed from Slave I's storage bays: blaster, ionizers,

  plasma missiles. And, at Boba's request, Jabba had arranged for brand-new

  sensor-jammers to be installed on Slave I, as well as a state-of-the-art

  interstitial stealth shield. But best of all was the shining set of Westar-

  34 blasters on Boba's weapons belt.

  "I'll never let you down, Father. Not as long as I have these," Boba

  murmured as he checked a blaster's power cell cartridge.

  Once the Westar-34s had belonged to Jango Fett. Now they were his

  son's. The blasters had been designed by Jango, and specially made for him.

  Compact enough to fit in a jet pack, the weapons were cast of a nearly

  priceless dallorian alloy, designed to withstand furnace heat.

  Boba wasn't sure what was in store for him on Xagobah. But he was

  pretty sure things would heat up once he got there.

  He settled behind the ship's console and set his course for Xagobah.

  He glanced out the viewscreen.

  "Looks like I'm not the only bounty hunter anxious to leave," he said.

  In the docking bay around him, dozens of other ships were getting

  ready to depart Tatooine. Astromech droids and Ughnaught mechanics were

  everywhere, scrambling to make last-minute adjustments to starships and

  speeders. In the hazy, red-tinged air above him Boba could make out more

  starships, flashing like falling stars. He pressed Slave I's thruster

  igniters.

  With a deafening rumble and an explosive burst of flame from its

  fusion reactors, Slave I shot from the landing bay.

  "Yes!"

  Boba's heart pounded with the thrill that accompanied every new

  mission. Below him, the Dune Sea spread like flame across the surface of

  Tatooine. And like flame the brilliant red-and-orange dunes almost

  immediately faded into black, as Slave I pierced the planet's atmosphere

  and headed into the vast realm of space.

  Boba checked the coordinates for Xagobah. He glanced out the

  viewscreen and saw the usual flash and flare of planets and distant stars.

  He frowned. "What's that?"

  At the bottom of the viewscreen, something glittered and darted like

  an asteroid. Something that shouldn't be there.

  "There's no asteroids in this sector," said Boba. "No recent planetary

  upheavals..."

  Boba quickly checked Slave I's flight plan. There was no sign of

  meteor activity. The glittering spark grew larger on the viewscreen. Boba

  leaned forward.

  "That's no meteor!"

  Instinctively he reached for the control unit of Slave I's missile

  deployer.

  "That's a fighter!" he cried. "And it's tailing me!"

  His fingers flashed across the console. Immediately the enlarged image

  of a Koro-1 exodrive air‑speeder filled the screen. Furiously Boba punched

  at the console. He needed that vehicle's registration data...

  Silvery letters filled the screen. Andoan registry, licensed to Urzan

  Krag of Krag Fanodo.

  "The Aqualish," Boba breathed. "He wanted this assignment, too. Well,

  he's not going to get it!"

  Before him on the viewscreen was a white-hot burst. Slave I shuddered

  as though it were starting re-entry.

  "He's firing on me!"

  Immediately Boba went into attack mode. The Andoan vessel blinked from

  sight.

  "He has a cloaking device," muttered Boba. "Well, so do I."

  Boba deployed Slave l's sensor jammers, then activated the protose

  detectors. They indicated that the Andoan ship was somewhere behind him.

  "You want to play hide-and-seek?" said Boba. He grasped the controls

  of Slave I's laser cannons and fired. "Well, hide from that!"

  The energy bolts streaked through the black emptiness outside the

  ship. They found their target and seemed to liquefy around it. The Andoan

  speeder's outlines appeared, cloaked in a blazing plasma skin.

  The Andoan vessel seemed to hover like a teardrop waiting to fall.

  An instant later a blinding flare of blue-white plasma engulfed the

  Aqualish's ship.

  "Gotcha!" exclaimed Boba.

  Backlash waves of energy from the blast pulsed around Slave I, then

  dispersed. Where the Andoan speeder had been, brilliant specks of debris

  floated, l
ike a miniature asteroid field.

  "What a great way to start the day!" gloated Boba. His eyes shone as

  he activated Slave I's navigation program. He leaned forward, his fingers

  automatically programming the coordinates for his destination.

  "Next stop - Xagobah!"

  CHAPTER SIX

  Boba was not surprised that Wat Tambor had chosen Xagobah for his

  citadel. This entire sector was known to be a favorite of smugglers making

  their way between more habitable regions. Jabba had underworld contacts on

  various planets there.

  Still, until he had received his assignment, Boba had never heard the

  crime lord mention Xagobah.

  He had never heard anyone mention it. "But there it is," he murmured.

  Dead ahead of Slave I, a planet shimmered into view. Boba blinked,

  wondering if his eyes had gone funny.

  The planet seemed out of focus. Its outlines were blurred, as though a

  vast hand had drawn it with colored ink, then smudged it.

  Yet as Slave I drew nearer, Boba saw that the problem was not with his

  eyes. The problem was with Xagobah.

  The entire planet seethed with colors. Purple, violet, lavender,

  maroon, plum: every shade of purple Boba had ever seen, and many he could

  not have imagined. The colors shifted and moved above the world's surface

  like an immense, restless demonsquid. Tentacles of indigo and violet spiked

  thousands of kilometers upward into the atmosphere, then retracted. As

  Slave 1 began its descent, Boba glimpsed jagged flashes of lightning below

  Xagobah's violet haze.

  Atmospheric storms.

  "That's not good," he said to himself.

  He saw something else, too. It hovered hawklike, safely out of reach

  of the lightning storms - one of the largest vehicles he had ever seen.

  A Republic assault ship.

  "They sure mean business," Boba said grimly. Quickly he checked to

  make sure Slave l's cloaking device was still activated. "Now - let's take

  a closer look."

  He drew Slave I as close as he dared to the troopship. It was an

  Acclamator, one of the military transports specially built by the Republic

  to carry clone troops across the galaxy. Each ship held up to 16,000 clone

  troopers, as well as armored walkers, gunships, speeders, and ammunition

  supplies.

  And there would be Republic command personnel on board as well - and

  Republic military commanders on Xagobah's surface.

  "Which is where I'm headed," said Boba. "Better get there, fast!"

  He took a final look at the Acclamator. Then he hit the thrusters.

  Slave I shot toward Xagobah.

  Outside, streamers of purple and lavender whipped past. Boba thought

  about the troopship. It certainly looked like the Republic had sent an

  entire clone army to lay siege to Wat Tambor.

  From what Boba knew about the Separatists, they would have their own

  army, geared to fight back.

  A droid army. Battle droids, super battle droids, spider droids, the

  works.

  Boba's grip tightened on Slave I's controls. He had successfully

  fought droids back on Tatooine, when he rescued Ygabba and the other kids

  from the evil Neimoidian.

  But he'd never had to fight an entire army of them! "Good thing I have

  my body armor," said Boba. "And my blasters..."

  The ship's nav program showed he was fast approaching the surface. He

  still wasn't sure what Xagobah looked like, close up.

  But he knew what he would find there - Trouble.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Boba locked Slave I into cruising mode. Outside, shreds of dark purple

  mist flew by like flocks of winged mynocks. Boba watched the haze grow

  thicker - and darker - the closer he came to Xagobah's surface

  I still have no idea what kind of life-forms are native to this place,

  he thought. He peered through the writhing fog. It was almost impossible to

  see anything, which meant it would be difficult for others to see him.

  "That's a good thing, too." Boba reached for his jet pack. "The

  Republic is after Wat Tambor. And Wat Tambor will be busy defending himself

  against the clone troops - and none of them will be happy to see me coming!

  "

  He turned back to Slave I's console. Outside, the mist no longer

  moved. Instead, it hung like a heavy, purplish curtain over everything. As

  Slave I cruised a short distance above the surface, Boba got his first

  glimpse of Xagobah.

  And what he saw there was disgusting! "Mushrooms?" exclaimed Boba.

  Only these weren't ordinary mushrooms. They were as tall as trees; as

  tall as the rock formations that surrounded Jabba's fortress. He saw orange

  fungi shaped like towers, with long rubbery appendages dangling from them

  like arms. He saw entire forests of umbrella-shaped mushrooms, yellow,

  crimson, poisonous green. In spots the ground was covered with a carpet of

  wriggling things like hair or fur. They waved and changed color as the ship

  passed overhead, darkening from pink to darkest violet. Some of the tallest

  mushrooms sported fungi like ladders crawling up their sides. Really

  crawling, like slugs or gigantic swollen caterpillars.

  "Gross!" said Boba.

  Though it was also sort of cool, in a horrible way. He stared at a

  huge fungi that looked like a bloated jellyfish. It pulsed and belched

  clouds of purple-black smoke as Boba's ship hovered above it.

  Only it wasn't smoke, but spores.

  "That's what the fog is," Boba realized in amazement. "Not mist, or

  clouds - but billions and billions of mushroom spores! I wonder if it's

  safe to breathe?"

  Quickly he logged into the ship's medical computer and read the data

  there.

  It is recommended that you take an antidote before setting foot on

  Xagobah, as a precaution. Most of the fungi are harmless, but some have

  toxins that can be fatal if swallowed or breathed. Others can cause changes

  to non-native biological entities.

  "Like me?" asked Boba, as he took a small inhaler out of his med kit.

  Boba breathed in the antidote, then tossed the empty inhaler.

  "Changes," he mused. "I wonder what kind of changes? Well, I'll have

  plenty of time to find out - later. Right now I'm out to find Wat Tambor."

  Slave I was cruising well below the mushroom forest's canopy now.

  But in the distance, Boba could see something other than rubbery fungi

  and coiling tendrils. Laser fire.

  He stared out as bolts of bright blue flame erupted through the haze

  of purple and black. For a moment the flares illuminated the scene below.

  "There it is," breathed Boba.

  In the center of a large clearing an immense structure loomed: Wat

  Tambor's fortress. It was too dim to see clearly. But Boba could make out

  dark slashes about 500 meters from the citadel - a series of trenches

  engineered by the Republic's troops. More laser fire rose from here,

  streaking toward the fortress walls. Boba could just make out myriad forms

  moving through the shadows.

  "Clone troopers," he said aloud, preparing to land. "This is where the

  action is. Which means - that's exactly where I'm going!"

  Back on Tatooine, one of the first things Boba had done was arrange
<
br />   for his ship to be completely overhauled by Mentis Qinx. At the time, Boba

  had no credits to pay for the work. He'd bluffed his way into it,

  projecting enough confident authority that he'd fooled Qinx's

  administrative droid.

  And the bluff had paid off. Qinx had upgraded Slave I's power cells.

  He had installed a series of camo covers that concealed new turbolasers and

  concussion missile launchers. He had upgraded the engineering console. He

  had even replaced the existing hardware grid with a larger one. Someday,

  that grid would accommodate more advanced stealth hardware.

  Unfortunately, Qinx hadn't installed it yet. "That'll be your next big

  project, Qinx," muttered Boba.

  He stared up at the vast Republic assault ship hovering just beyond

  the planet's atmosphere. Slave l's interstitial shield had worked

  beautifully out there, with the Republic's eyes trained on the surface of

  Xagobah.

  But would it work here on the planet itself?

  He activated all the ship's auxiliary cloaking devices and began to