The Fight to Survive

by Terry Bisson

  gotten lucky and humiliated Jango Fett by escaping twice.

  Boba wanted to watch him die.

  The apprentice Jedi, he didn't care about one way or the other. The

  problem was the woman. Boba didn't want to watch her die. Not at all.

  One of the Neimoidians did, though. He was rubbing his chubby hands

  together so hard that they were starting to get red.

  Boba looked away, disgusted. It's guys like him who give executions a

  bad name, he thought.

  The crowd suddenly roared even louder.

  And no wonder! Three barred gates down in the arena were opening.

  Riders in fancy costumes, mounted on orrays, were poking at monsters with

  sticks and spears, driving them into the central ring.

  And what monsters! Boba recognized them all from books.

  The first was a reek, a sort of killer steed with razor-sharp horns.

  The second one was a golden-maned nexu with claws and sharp fangs.

  And the third was an acklay, a monster with large, clenching claws,

  big enough to cut an orray in half with one pinch.

  The crowd loved it, and why not? This was what the execution arena was

  all about. Death for fun.

  Boba was even starting to get into it, a little bit.

  The prisoners weren't, though. The woman had gotten out of her chains

  somehow and climbed to the top of her post.

  Go! Boba thought. Even though he knew it was wrong, he hoped she would

  escape. He even had a fantasy that he would help her. Then she would join

  him to enjoy watching the two Jedi get killed.

  Of course, Boba knew such a fantasy was ridiculous. No one would

  escape. What was happening down in the arena was an entertainment, but it

  was also an execution.

  The reek was running around the arena, slashing at the air with its

  horn and, it seemed to Boba, enjoying the wild cheers of the crowd. Then

  the great beast got serious. It charged the young Jedi's post.

  WHAM! The reek hit the post a smashing blow, while the Jedi dodged

  sideways as far as his chain would let him. Then the Jedi jumped up, chain

  and all, onto the reek's back, which was, for him at least, the safest spot

  in the whole arena.

  Cool move! Boba thought, in spite of himself.

  Then the young Jedi did something even cooler. He wrapped the chain

  around the reek's horn, so that when the beast backed up and shook its

  head, the chain was torn free from the post.

  Now the Jedi had a chain he could swing like a whip.

  Boba cheered. Like the rest of the crowd, he was cheering for the

  reek.

  The other Jedi, Obi-Wan, shifted deftly as the monster knocked the

  post flat, snapping it in two - and breaking the chain at the same time.

  The nexu was after the woman. Its long fangs were bared, and it was

  trying to claw its way to the top of the post where she was perched, barely

  holding on.

  Boba closed his eyes.

  This one he did not want to watch.

  The crowd groaned. AAAAAWWWWWW!

  Boba opened his eyes. The Jedi Obi-Wan had grabbed a spear somewhere.

  He was using it to pole-vault over one of the orray riders. The acklay

  chasing him rammed into the rider and his orray, knocking them both flat.

  The acklay opened its huge claw, and then -

  CRRRRRRUNCH!

  It was the rider, an employee of the arena, who-had been pinched in

  half. But the crowd of Geonosians didn't care. They just wanted to see

  blood. They didn't care whose blood it was.

  Meanwhile, the young apprentice Jedi was riding the reek. He was using

  the chain for a bridle, controlling the beast.

  The woman was still trying to get away from the nexu, which had ripped

  her shirt. Using her chain like a swing, she flew through the air, kicking

  the nexu into the sand and injuring its leg. Then she landed back on top of

  the post, out of reach.

  Go! Boba thought again. Only to himself, of course.

  The apprentice Jedi rode up on the reek, the beast completely under

  his control. The woman jumped on behind him. The nexu spat and snarled with

  rage - and then was attacked and killed by the reek. The Jedi called Obi-

  Wan jumped up behind the woman, so there were three of them on the reek,

  charging around the arena.

  The crowd went wild. They weren't exactly cheering the gang of

  criminals - but they loved the excitement.

  Boba cheered, too. He was glad to see the woman get away. So far,

  anyway.

  It was all too much for the Neimoidian, though. He turned to Jango

  Fett. His beady little eyes were filled with rage.

  "This isn't how it is supposed to be. Jango, finish her off!"

  Boba watched, wondering what his dad would do. Jango didn't move.

  The Neimoidian stared.

  Jango Fett stared back.

  The Count broke the silence.

  "Patience, Viceroy," he said. "She will die."

  A cheer went up and Boba looked down toward the arena.

  The gates were opening again, all four of them this time. Droidekas

  rolled in, unfolding as they surrounded the prisoners, their blades

  gleaming wickedly in the light from the hole above the arena.

  Before Boba could even blink, the droidekas had completely surrounded

  the three prisoners on their reek.

  It was over.

  Boba closed his eyes. He didn't want to watch. Then he heard a noise

  behind him.

  A very slight clicking sound. He opened his eyes and turned, and saw a

  terrible sight. A Jedi, standing behind his father.

  The Jedi's face was dark, like fine wood. His eyes were narrow and

  cruel. His purple lightsaber was drawn, and ignited.

  And held across Jango Fett's neck.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  The' Geonosians stopped cheering. The droidekas stopped advancing.

  The reek, with the two Jedi and the beautiful woman on' its back,

  stopped prancing and bucking and rearing. A hush fell over the entire arena

  and all eyes turned away from the Jedi and the droidekas. All of a sudden

  the show was not in the ring, but in the stands.

  Everyone was staring at the officials' box, where the Jedi held the

  lightsaber to Jango Fett's neck.

  We are the show! Boba realized with horror.

  Jango Fett stood perfectly still. His Mandalorian battle armor Was

  useless against a Jedi lightsaber. One flick of the Jedi's wrist and he

  would be decapitated.

  Boba was scared.

  As usual, the Count kept calm. Boba had noticed that he liked to turn

  everything into a game, even a bad situation. Even an emergency. The Count

  seemed to know the Jedi.

  "Master Windu," he said, in a smooth, oily voice, "how pleasant of you

  to join us. You're just in time for the moment of truth. I would think

  these two new boys of yours could use a little more training."

  "Sorry to disappoint you," said the Jedi. "This party's over."

  The Jedi gave a little hand signal. It looked to Boba as if lights

  were coming on all over the arena.

  Lightsabers.

  There were at least a hundred of them - some in the corners down by

  the ring, others up high in the stands. They came on all at once.

  And each was in the hands of a Jedi.

  Where had they
come from? How had they all gotten in?

  Boba was amazed at how bad the Geonosians' security was. And he was

  beginning to understand his father's grudging respect for the Jedi. They

  had their ways.

  The Count, as always, tried to seem unimpressed. That was his style in

  a crisis.

  "Brave but foolish, my old Jedi friend," he said. "You're impossibly

  outnumbered."

  "I don't think so," said the Jedi called Windu.

  He scanned the crowd with his hooded eyes. "The Geonosians aren't

  warriors. One Jedi has to be worth a hundred Geonosians."

  But the Count came right back at him. "It wasn't the Geonosians I was

  thinking about."

  It was the Count's turn to give a hand signal, even slighter and more

  subtle than the one the Jedi had given. Boba heard a sound like a storm on

  Kamino - a low rumble. Suddenly all the doors in the arena opened and every

  aisle in the stands was filled with Battle Droids.

  The Battle Droids ran down the aisles with their lasers flashing,

  firing at the Jedi and scorching whatever else was in their way.

  Lasers flashed overhead, and Boba ducked. The Jedi called Windu had

  gone from offense to defense in an instant. He was deflecting the droids'

  lasers with his lightsaber; it was like fencing with the air.

  That was all Jango Fett needed. He crouched and fired the flamethrower

  that was built into his battle armor.

  WHO0000SH!

  Windu was engulfed in a torrent of orange flame, and his robe caught

  fire. It flared behind him like the exhaust of a rocket as the Jedi jumped

  out of the stands into the ring.

  Jango let him go. He turned and went into action with the Battle

  Droids and the Geonosian troops, toasting the Jedi with vicious laser fire.

  The Jedi all began to clump in the center of the arena, back-to-back,

  around the reek with the apprentice Jedi, Obi-Wan, and the beautiful woman

  still on its back.

  The fight was on!

  The reek wanted no part of it. It leaped into the air, throwing the

  three off its back. Then it ran in wild circles, snarling and snorting,

  stomping and stamping, crushing droids, Geonosian troops, Jedi, and

  bystanders under its hooves.

  "Go!" Boba shouted, out loud this time. It didn't matter which side he

  was on - it was exciting to watch. Blood and bodies were flying. And the

  only person down there in the ring that he liked, the pretty woman, was

  unhurt, at least so far.

  She was standing in the middle of the ring with the Jedi. Somebody had

  tossed her a blaster rifle. She was pretty good with it, too, blasting

  droids and Geos on all sides.

  Jango was standing right beside Boba, taking a heavy toll from the

  stands, firing with deadly accuracy into the Jedi. It was the first time

  Boba had ever been in such a big battle with his father.

  And he loved it!

  "Stay down, Boba!" Jango ordered, and Boba knew better than to

  disobey. But he was able to peek over the railing and see down into the

  ring.

  In the middle of all the confusion, Boba saw the Jedi called Mace

  Windu, the one his dad had scorched. He was mowing down droids and

  Geonosian troops with his lightsaber, rallying the Jedi with his boldness.

  The reek saw him, too. The big, horned beast singled him out and

  started chasing him around the arena. Boba had to laugh. The Jedi had gone

  from hound to hare in about one second.

  Mace Windu tried to make a stand. He skidded to a stop and slashed out

  at the reek with his lightsaber. But the reek kept coming - and knocked the

  lightsaber out of his hand.

  It went flying, and the Jedi took off running again.

  Jango Fett put his big, gloved hand on his son's head and growled,

  "Stay here, Boba. I'll be back!"

  That turned out to be the last thing he ever told his only son.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Jango Fett used the jet-pack on his Mandalorian battle armor to rocket

  down into the arena. He landed right in the middle of the fighting. The

  runaway reek, which made no distinction between friend and foe, tried to

  stomp him.

  From the stands, Boba saw his father dodging and rolling, trying to

  get out of the way. He bit his tongue to keep from screaming out. Those

  hooves were as sharp as knives.

  But Boba needn't have worried. His dad rolled free, jumped to his

  feet, and proceeded to kill the beast. A couple of blasts and the reek was

  no more.

  Then Jango Fett and the Jedi, Mace Windu faced off, one-on-one, while

  the fight raged all around them.

  Boba stood on tiptoe, trying to see, and at the same time dodging the

  bolts that were filling the air like angry insects. Super Battle Droids,

  more powerful than the Battle Droids, were now dominating the battle.

  The dust rose in a cloud. The arena was filled with screams and

  shouts, the clash of lightsabers and bolts of laser fire. Boba yelled "Dad!

  " as he tried to see.

  And then he saw.

  He saw.

  He saw the Jedi's lightsaber swing in a deadly arc. He saw his

  father's empty helmet go flying. He saw his father's body drop to its

  knees, as if in prayer.

  Boba watched in breathless horror as Jango Fett fell lifeless onto the

  bloody sand.

  "No!" Boba cried. No, it can't be!

  The concussion from a nearby blast of laser fire knocked Boba down. He

  stumbled to his feet, ears ringing, and saw that the arena below was

  littered with bodies and pieces of droids and droidekas.

  The acklay and the reek both were dead. The Jedi were outnumbered but

  still fighting. And the beautiful woman was right in the middle of it all,

  blasting droids and Geonosians alike.

  Boba couldn't see his father or the Jedi he had been fighting. Had he

  dreamed it all? The swing of the lightsaber, the helmet flying off; the

  warrior falling to his knees, then toppling over, like a tree.

  A bad dream, Boba decided. That was it! His father was somewhere back

  up in the stands.

  Boba knew that he didn't like to fight alongside droids. Jango Fett

  scorned the droids because they had no imagination. Imagination, he often

  said, is a warrior's most important weapon.

  A bad dream, Boba thought, pushing his way down the stairs, toward the

  arena.

  Even without imagination, the Super Battle Droids were winning. They

  were programmed to win, or at least to never give up. And even with all

  their losses, they far outnumbered the Jedi.

  The droids in the stands kept firing, and the droids in the arena kept

  advancing, and soon there were only twenty or so Jedi left.

  They stood in a clump in the center of the arena, back-to-back,

  lightsabers and lasers drawn. Trapped!

  The aisles were full, so Boba climbed down from seat to seat, toward

  the arena. The Geonosians were cheering as the droids moved in for the

  kill. Then the Count raised his hand.

  "Master Windu!"

  Silence.

  Boba stopped. What's this? He watched as the Jedi his father had been

  fighting stepped forward, covered with dust and sweat.

  "You have fought gall
antly," said the Count. "Worthy of recognition

  in. "

  Boba didn't wait to hear more. He knew it was all a lie. It had to be.

  He continued to jump from seat to seat, down toward the ring, pushing

  and shoving his way through the crowd.

  He couldn't think. He didn't want to think. He just wanted to get into

  the ring and find his father, Jango Fett, who would tell him: Don't worry,

  Boba, it was all a dream. A bad, bad dream.

  "Now it is finished," said the Count. "Surrender, and your lives will

  be spared."

  "We will not be hostages for you to barter with, Dooku."

  "Then I'm sorry, old friend," said the Count. "You will have to be

  destroyed."

  The Count nodded and the droids were just about to fire into the

  little clump of Jedi, ending the whole thing, when all of a sudden the