by Terry Bisson
"It was a misunderstanding," said Boba. "But because of it, I can't
stay with the Jedi."
"You can stay with me!" said Garr. "My parents will be returning for
me soon, I know they will! They will take you in. We can be brothers. Or
brother and sister. Or whatever."
Boba shook his head. "You are truly my friend," he said, "but I can't
afford to have friends. I have my own road to travel, alone. I must go my
own way."
"But.." Garr's big brown eyes were filling with tears.
"We must say farewell," said Boba.
"Good!" came a voice that was at the same time familiar and
frightening. For the second time that day, Boba felt a hand on his
shoulder. Only this one was cold, with a grip like steel.
"Boba Fett."
Boba turned, slowly, because of the hand that pinned his shoulder. He
saw bone-white skin, black eyes rimmed with kohl, a muscular but womanly
figure in a red jumpsuit, and a shaved head topped with a single long lock
of bright red hair.
And blazing angry eyes.
"Aurra Sing!" It was the bounty hunter who had captured him and stolen
his ship. "I knew it! I saw Slave I following the Candaserri."
Boba tried to twist away but Aurra Sing held his shoulder tight. Then
Garr started kicking her. "Let go of him! Take your hands off him!"
"Who's this?" Aurra Sing asked, picking up Garr by the hair, so that
the kicks only afflicted the air. "Do I kill it or just toss it over the
side?"
She held Garr out over the railing, suspended by a lock of hair over a
thousand kilometers of empty air.
"Neither!" said Boba, finally twisting free. He put his hands on his
hips and faced Aurra Sing defiantly. "Garr is my friend. As you are not.
What is it you want with me?"
"I want to make you an offer you can't refuse," said Aurra Sing. With
a quick toss, she dropped Garr back on the bench.
"O000ph!" said Garr. "What's going on here? Who are you? Who is Boba
Fett?"
"Your little friend is too nosy," the bounty hunter said to Boba,
without looking at Garr. "You and I have business, so tell him to make
himself scarce."
"Go," Boba said simply to his friend. He tried to keep his voice cold.
That was the only way to get Garr to leave. "I told you, I have no room for
friends. You heard what she said. Disappear."
Garr resisted. When Aurra's hand moved to her blaster, Garr was
convinced.
"Good-bye," Garr said sadly in farewell.
Boba allowed himself to say a heartfelt goodbye back. Though his heart
felt real pain, that was it.
"What is this offer?" Boba turned to Aurra Sing and demanded as soon
as Garr was gone. "All I want from you is my ship back."
"Then we're in agreement," said Aurra Sing. "That's what my offer is -
your ship back."
"Slave I." Boba's eyes were wide with hope and excitement. "Where is
it?"
"Not here." Aurra Sing's eyes scanned the other beings on the terrace.
"Too many eyes and ears. There is a city called Tibannapolis, not too far
from here. Meet me there at noon tomorrow."
"And if I don't?"
"You will, if you want to see Slave I again," said Aurra Sing. She
tossed Boba a coin. "Here - a good faith offering. It will rent you a cloud
car, which you will need to find Tibannapolis. Look for me near the ancient
refinery known as Revol Leap. If you show up with Jedi or officials, the
deal's off. You'll never see your precious ship again. Now I have to tend
to business."
Then, with a flip of her topknot, and without a word of farewell, she
was gone.
CHAPTER TWENTY
One hundred credits.
Boba checked the prices, and found out that he had barely enough to
hire a cloud car, with enough left over for, a meal, as long as it was a,
small one. He dragged it out as long as possible, wondering what he was
going to do to pass the time until his meeting with Aurra Sing. He knew
he'd have to avoid the Jedi who might be looking for him - and he wondered
why Sing would want to give him back his ship. She must want something in
return, or was it a trap? And What if she were caught by the Jedi?
Unfortunately, he couldn't exactly turn her in himself.
Noon tomorrow - it seemed like a long time away. But it wasn't. Bespin
turned so swiftly on its axis that the days were only twelve hours long.
Boba barely had time to grab a nap on a park bench before it was time to
go.
*
The cloud car was a neat little item: two open-cockpit cabs, or
nacelles, attached by a three meter-long shaft that held the repulsorlift
engines. Boba chose to ride in the cockpit with the driver, a short and
prickly Ugnaught, a native of Bespin - or so Boba thought.
"You from around here?" he asked, just to make conversation... and
maybe learn a thing or two about the planet he was now stuck on.
"We were brought here by Lord Figg," said the driver. "He gave us our
freedom, in return for our labor building Cloud City. We are eternally
grateful to him for..."
The Ugnaught driver droned on, but Boba was more interested in
studying the cloud car's simple controls: a ring that was pushed in for
down and pulled out for up, or twisted for turns.
I could fly this thing better than him!
As Cloud City dwindled into the distance, and the cloud car darted in
and around the multicolored towers of fog and vapor, Boba began to
appreciate the exotic beauty and appeal of Bespin. The atmosphere was
buoyant and thick, so it required little energy to fly or to float. Things
fell slowly, when they fell.
Evolution had produced thousands of forms of small, colorful life,
which fed on one another with happy abandon. Boba saw larger creatures,
too. Great floating sacks, with amorphous forms and shifting colors. They
were herded by men on batlike creatures.
"Wing riders," said the cloud car driver. "Riding on Thrantas. Not
native to Bespin. But then few of us are. We Ugnaughts were actually
brought here by..."
"You already told me," said Boba.
"Sorry," said the cloud car driver. "It's just that we have found our
freedom here, and we are eternally grateful to the..."
"You already told me," said Boba. He looked out the window. "There.
What's that?"
The cloud car was spiraling down through a scrim of clouds. Below,
Boba saw a huge, round, rusted wreck of metal and plastic, floating at a
tilt.
"Tibannapolis," said the driver. "I'm out here at least once a week."
It looked to Boba as if the entire abandoned city were scraps on a
plate, about to slide off into the garbage can. "Why would anyone come
here?" he wondered.
"Souvenir hunters," said the driver.
"Can you tell me where Revol Leap is?"
"I can do better than that," said the squat little Ugnaught. "I can
take you there." Instead of weaving in and out of the ruined buildings, he
dove under the city. Looking up, Boba could see rusted remains of the
Tibanna processing factories and mines. The flat bottom of the floa
ting
city was covered with algae, and plants that fed on the algae, and floating
beasts that fed on the plants, and plants that fed on the beasts that fed
on the plants.
This is a harsh universe, Boba thought to himself. / must follow my
father's example and become harsh also.
Revol Leap was at the city's edge - a section of tower as jagged as a
broken tooth that hung out over the emptiness.
Suddenly - a spot of orange, a sleek nose, a stubby wing, a familiar
beloved shape...
Slave 1. There it was! Idling on a warpout deck under the twisted
spire of the Leap.
And standing next to it was Aurra Sing.
She looked as fierce as ever, with her red hair gleaming in the dim
light that filtered through the clouds. Mad at the galaxy, Boba thought.
But why? That kind of anger seemed more of a hindrance than a help.
Remain calm at all costs was Jango's way. And it will be my way, too,
thought Boba.
As the cloud car slowed, hovered, and landed, Boba was surprised to
realize that he was glad to see Aurra Sing.
It had been nice to have a friend like Garr. But what good was a
friend you have to hide the truth from?
Aurra Sing wasn't a friend, far from it; but at least she knew who
Boba was.
"Want me to wait?" the driver asked as he landed, the little cloud car
scraping on the steel with a harsh sound.
"No," said Boba, pulling out his flight bag and throwing the driver
his last credits. "Keep the change."
"Hey, thanks, pal," the Ugnaught said. Boba realized he had overtipped
him. But what did it matter? Slave I was back!
He waved at Aurra Sing. She of course didn't wave back. Too busy
scowling at the galaxy. Boba wondered what would happen if the galaxy
scowled back
And suddenly it did.
CRACK! CRACK!
Two laser bolts hit near Aurra Sing. Another hit near the cloud car.
The Ugnaught driver jumped out of the cloud car and ran for the safety
of a nearby building. Aurra Sing stood her ground and looked up. Boba ran
to her side and followed her glance.
A Bespin sky patrol skimmer was diving out of the clouds, firing at
Slave I.
"You betrayed me!" Aurra Sing cried. She reached under her robe and
drew out a blaster. Then she backed toward the Slave 1.
"Wait!" Boba said, running after her. "I didn't tell them anything.
How can you be so sure it's the Jedi anyway?"
Aurra Sing grinned as she opened the cockpit. "Who else would be
trying to kill me? And failing so miserably?"
Boba scrambled up behind her. "Now we can get away."
"Sorry, kid, the deal's off!" Aurra Sing said. "When you told the Jedi
where we were meeting, you blew it."
"I never told anyone anything! It wasn't me!" Boba threw his flight
bag into the ship. The engines were already idling. Aurra Sing grabbed Boba
and hurled him from the vehicle. He hit the steel deck of the floating city
so hard that it knocked the breath out of him. Before he could get back on
his feet, she'd closed the ramp, fired up the turbos, and taken off.
Boba barely had time to jump free, dodging the blistering exhaust.
"Come back!" He looked up. Slave I was rising into the clouds, with
the sky patrol craft close behind. The battle was on. Both ships were
firing now, streaking the sky with tracer blasts.
Boba wanted to be part of the fight. He wanted to be at the controls
of his ship again. But how?
With his eyes on the sky, he backed up, clenching his fists in
frustration.
Then he remembered the cloud car.
Pull for UP, push for DOWN. Piece of cake.
Boba took off in hot pursuit of the sky patrol craft, which was in hot
pursuit of Slave 1. In space, he knew he wouldn't have a chance of catching
up. But in the thick atmosphere of Bespin, all vehicles were relatively
slow.
The cloud car was ridiculously easy for him to fly. And sweetly
maneuverable. Boba felt his blood drumming an excited beat. It was great to
be back at the controls of a ship, even a little tourist hauler.
Boba was falling behind, so he took a shortcut through a cloud. He had
guessed right: he came out above Slave 1, where Aurra Sing couldn't see
him. She had slowed to a near hover.
She was planning something.
Boba watched as Aurra Sing slipped into a bank of clouds, as if to lie
in wait. And soon he saw what she was waiting for.
The sky patrol craft cruised into view, circling the cloud, scanning
the horizons for Aurra Sing. Little did its pilot know that the pursuer had
become the pursued, and that Aurra Sing was preparing an ambush.
Holding his breath, Boba watched the sky patrol craft drift past the
cloud. Any moment now, there would be a blast of laser fire, and the broken
pieces and shattered crew of the patrol craft would fall slowly into the
depths of Bespin's atmosphere, where they would all be crushed flat, lost
forever in the toxic soup of heavy gases.
Good riddance! Boba thought. Then, as the craft drew nearer, he saw
who was in it. There at the controls was a Bespin pilot while Glynn-Beti
gave orders. Beside her was Ulu Ulix, and beside him, Garr.
So it was Garr who betrayed me! Garr must have told the Jedi
everything! But still... my friend. No doubt thinking this would help...
A few more meters and they would all be in Aurra Sing's sights.
There was no time to think. Boba pushed the ring forward and dove,
faster and faster. He cut in front of the patrol ship, surprising it and
throwing it off course, just as Aurra Sing's laser bolt fired
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
- and missed, by centimeters.
The little cloud car might have been small, but it was also amazingly
fast. With the sky patrol craft in pursuit, Boba dove down under the city
and threaded the cloud car into the forests of dangling algae, where it was
all but invisible among the thousands of strands some of which were
hundreds of meters long.
The patrol craft was right behind. After a quick look around, though,
it left, presumably to resume the search for Aurra Sing. Wonder if they
know I saved their lives, Boba thought. He didn't regret it, though he
wondered if it had been the smart thing to do. If he had let Aurra Sing
blow them to pieces, he would perhaps be with her now, in Slave I.
Now, here he was in the weeds. Nowhere, with nowhere to go. A ten-
year-old boy in a stolen craft. No money, no friends; he didn't even have
his precious flight bag. What was that?
Boba wasn't the only one hiding in the weeds. Slave I was cruising
through, slipping silently among the hanging fronds. Was Aurra Sing hiding
from the sky patrol craft or chasing it? It was impossible to tell.
The cloud car had no comm unit. But what did it matter? Boba was sure
Aurra Sing wouldn't talk to him anyway. She was convinced he had betrayed
her - and even though she was wrong to think he had told the Jedi where to
find her, he had betrayed her by spoiling her ambush.
If she sees me, she'll run. Or worse, blast me.
If only
I could sneak up on her, Boba thought. And then, watching her
drift slowly toward the edge of the platform, he thought of a way that he
could.
Keeping the cloud car hidden in the hanging fronds, he followed Slave
I across the underside of the abandoned city. It was clear now that Aurra
Sing was hiding from the Jedi. She was hovering, barely using her jets. Had
she lost her nerve?
Boba knew that as soon as the Jedi were gone, she would be hitting her
turbos, blasting for space.
If this is going to work, I have to make my move now, he thought. It
meant taking a chance, but Boba was getting good at taking chances.
She was drifting past. Boba waited, with his hand on the edge of the
cloud car's open cockpit, until Slave I was directly underneath.
Then he stood up.
And stepped over the edge, into the open air.
As he fell, slowly at first, then faster and faster, Boba watched the
ship below.
It was tiny; Bespin was huge.