The Hunger

by John Whitman

  Star Wars

  Galaxy of Fear

  12

  The Hunger

  by John Whitman

  source : IRC

  uploaded: 13.II.2006

  PROLOGUE

  The bounty hunter stalked the corridors of the Super Star Destroyer.

  The walls of the enormous battleship gleamed. The floors had the shine

  of brand-new, recently polished durasteel. Starship officers and

  white-armored stormtroopers-the cream of the Imperial crop-hurried past.

  They walked with the arrogance of men who knew they were serving aboard the

  newest and largest of the Emperor's ships. This was the Super Star Destroyer

  Executor, flagship of the Imperial Fleet, and the command ship of the

  Emperor's most ruthless servant, Darth Vader.

  The bounty hunter couldn't have cared less.

  His face was hidden by a gray helmet. Otherwise, the Imperials would

  have seen the hard, disinterested expression on his face and the cold look

  of a killer in his eyes. He wasn't impressed by ships or uniforms. He only

  cared about one thing: the job.

  A set of massive doors hissed open, and the bounty hunter stepped

  inside a large, dark chamber. If the bounty hunter had had any emotions

  left, he might have felt afraid. But he'd left his feelings behind in bits

  and pieces, scattered among the bodies of countless victims on hundreds of

  worlds. So he didn't feel anything.

  A figure stepped out of the shadows. Tall. Covered in black armor. Face

  hidden behind a skull-like mask. Breath rasping like a death rattle.

  Darth Vader.

  The Dark Lord of the Sith acknowledged the bounty hunter's presence

  with a nod. "Boba Fett."

  "Lord Vader," the bounty hunter replied. Then he waited. He knew Vader

  would get right to the point.

  "I have an assignment for you," the Dark Lord said. "I have just put a

  large bounty on the heads of three individuals. Two human children and a

  male Shi'ido."

  The bounty hunter's helmet dipped forward slightly. "I've never hunted

  a Shi'ido before. But human children-that doesn't sound interesting. Or

  profitable."

  "Fifty thousand credits for each of the two children. Alive. One

  hundred thousand for the Shi'ido. Alive. Seventy-five thousand dead."

  Boba Fett paused. "Then it's profitable. But still not interesting."

  Vader held up one gloved hand. "These three have eluded capture several

  times. There is more to them than meets the eye."

  The bounty hunter said, "I have another job. I'm hunting for a killer

  named Malloc. It pays more. A lot more."

  Vader closed one gloved hand into a fist. "Consider this job a

  diversion until you find him." It was more of an order than a suggestion.

  Boba Fett weighed his options. He didn't want the job. He didn't need

  the credits. But even he did not ignore the wishes of Darth Vader. Finally,

  the bounty hunter said, "Done."

  Vader handed him a datadisk. Without another word, Boba Fett turned to

  leave. The moment he did, he forgot about his reluctance. He forgot that

  Vader had just threatened him into accepting the task. He forgot about

  everything but the job.

  He wouldn't stop until he'd finished it.

  CHAPTER 1

  "Don't move, or I'll shoot the boy," said the greasy-haired human,

  pointing his blaster at Zak.

  Zak Arranda's eyes widened, but the blaster-wielding human wasn't

  looking at him. The killer had his eyes fixed on Zak's uncle Hoole. He

  didn't bother to look at Zak or at Zak's sister, Tash, who stood next to

  him.

  They stood in a dark alley in the grimy spaceport of Nar Shaddaa. The

  man, grinning at them through a mouthful of broken teeth, had practically

  melted out of the shadows the moment they turned off the main street and

  into the alley.

  "What is the meaning of this?" Hoole demanded in a calm, cool voice.

  "You have no right to threaten us."

  "This gives me all the right I need," the man said, brandishing his

  weapon. "That and my bounty hunter's license. And you three have a price on

  your head I couldn't resist."

  "A bounty hunter?" Tash said, surprised.

  Beside her, Zak was stunned. He knew that he and his sister and their

  uncle Hoole were wanted by the Empire. They'd been on the run for months,

  ever since they'd stumbled upon a horrifying Imperial science experiment and

  helped to destroy it. He knew the Empire wanted to arrest them. But he'd had

  no idea the Imperials wanted them badly enough to put a price on their

  heads.

  That meant not only that they were wanted by every Imperial agent in

  the galaxy but also that there could be dozens, maybe even hundreds, of

  bounty hunters tracking them as well. Any bounty hunter who captured them

  and turned them over to the Empire would receive a fortune in credits.

  Zak saw Hoole pretend to be confused. "I do not know what you are

  talking about. You must be mistaken."

  "I don't think so," the bounty hunter laughed. He recited facts as

  though reading off a datapad. "Two human children. A girl named Tash

  Arranda, blond, about thirteen standard years. Her brother, a boy named Zak

  Arranda, about twelve, dark hair. Traveling in the company of a Shi'ido."

  The bounty hunter continued to glare at Hoole as he said, "Never seen a

  Shi'ido before. You look almost human, except for that gray skin." The

  killer snarled. "But I done my homework. I know you Shi'idos can change

  shape. So you twitch one muscle and I'll use the boy's head for target

  practice."

  Zak looked at Uncle Hoole's face. What the bounty hunter said was

  true-Hoole could change shape. But even Hoole wasn't fast enough to stop the

  killer from firing his blaster. Zak saw a look of frustration pass across

  his uncle's face.

  Looks like we came to the wrong place, Zak thought. Again.

  Nar Shaddaa was a spaceport moon orbiting the planet Nal Hutta.

  Buildings rose dozens of kilometers into the sky and were connected by

  bridges, decks, and balconies that crisscrossed like streets suspended in

  midair. The walkways of Nar Shaddaa were filled with grime, graffiti, and

  shady-looking characters. Most of them looked tough enough to scare the

  wrappings off a Tusken Raider.

  Zak, Tash, and Uncle Hoole had flown to Nar Shaddaa in their ship, the

  Shroud, several days earlier. They needed to resupply the ship, and while

  Nar Shaddaa wasn't the most wholesome place in the galaxy, it suited their

  needs. Nar Shaddaa was known for its smugglers, gangsters, and bounty

  hunters. The spaceport was dangerous, and although the Empire had a garrison

  here, the local Imperials did little to keep the streets safe.

  Which was exactly why Hoole and the Arrandas had come.

  Since the Imperials never bothered to patrol the streets of Nar

  Shaddaa, it was a safe enough stop for two humans and a Shi'ido wanted by

  the Empire.

  Or so they'd thought.

  As though he we
re reading Zak's thoughts, the bounty hunter said, "I

  bet you figured you'd be safe from the Empire here on Nar Shaddaa. Figured

  maybe the Imperials wouldn't look around this black hole of a spaceport.

  Well, you were wrong. There are plenty of bounty hunters that'd love to turn

  you in. Lucky for me, I spotted you first."

  "Whatever the bounty is," Hoole said, "we will pay you double if you

  let us go."

  The bounty hunter laughed. "You ain't got those kinds of credits.

  Besides, word in the space lanes is that some of the biggest bounty hunters

  in the galaxy are after you three. Hauling you in before any of them could

  send my reputation into lightspeed."

  As the bounty hunter and Hoole spoke, Zak noticed how quiet Tash was.

  She'd hardly said a word, and she hadn't moved a muscle since the bounty

  hunter appeared. Glancing at her out of the corner of his eye, Zak saw that

  his sister had focused her gaze on the bounty hunter's blaster. A calm look

  had fallen across her face. For an instant-a fraction of a second-Zak felt

  something like a warm breeze pass through him. He knew what she was doing.

  Tash was calling on the Force.

  "Please put the blaster down," Hoole said. "I don't want the children

  to get hurt. I promise I won't cause you any problems."

  "Oh, I know you won't," the bounty hunter said with another

  jagged-toothed smile. "You're worth almost as much dead as alive. And since

  I get the feeling you'd jump me first chance you got, I figure I'll just

  shoot you now and save myself a load of trouble."

  With a snap of the wrist, the bounty hunter turned the blaster from Zak

  to Hoole. Zak felt the warm breeze turn into a blasting wind.

  Just as the bounty hunter pulled the trigger, the arm holding the

  blaster jerked upward, and the blaster bolt sizzled over Hoole's shoulder.

  Before Zak could move a muscle, the Shi'ido had shape-shifted into the

  bulky, snout-nosed form of a Gamorrean and pummeled the bounty hunter into

  unconsciousness with a few powerful blows. By the time Zak had taken two

  steps, Hoole had shifted back into his own shape and was tucking the bounty

  hunter's blaster into the folds of his robe.

  "Tash," the Shi'ido said calmly, "I assume you caused that shot to

  miss?"

  Tash nodded. "Yes. I'm starting to get the hang of the Force, I think.

  I still can't do much, but . . ."

  Hoole nodded. "Your power is becoming most impressive."

  Tash shrugged. "You did the real work."

  Zak frowned, suddenly aware that he hadn't done anything to help.

  "We must get back to the Shroud," Hoole said. "Nar Shaddaa is obviously

  not going to be as safe as we had hoped. In fact, if that bounty hunter is

  telling the truth, then Nar Shaddaa is one of the most dangerous places in

  the galaxy for us to be."

  "But every place is dangerous," Zak said wearily. "Everywhere we've

  gone, the Empire has found us."

  It felt to him as though they'd been on the run forever. In fact,

  they'd only been with Uncle Hoole for a little over a year. Almost twelve

  standard months ago, the Empire had destroyed Tash and Zak's home planet of

  Alderaan, killing their mother and father and all their friends in one

  terrible blow. Zak and Tash had survived only because they'd been offplanet

  at the time. Hoole, their uncle by marriage, was their only living relative.

  So they'd gone to live with him. And they'd hardly had a moment to catch

  their breath since.

  "There's got to be someplace safe we can go," Tash said.

  "No place I've ever heard of," Zak grumbled. Hoole raised an eyebrow.

  "An interesting idea."

  "What do you mean?" asked Zak.

  "A place that no one has ever heard of," the Shi'ido said thoughtfully.

  "We should find a planet that has not been charted. That would be safe from

  the Empire."

  Zak shook his head. "But if it's a planet no one's ever charted, how

  are we going to find it?"

  Hoole led them out of the alley. "There is a way. As you both know, my

  anthropology work has taken me to many different planets. Whenever an

  exploration party has discovered a new planet, they send data to our

  research facility on the planet Koaan. Sometimes, it takes months for this

  data to be studied. And since the Empire took over . . ."

  Zak snorted. "I'll bet since the Empire took over, things have slowed

  down even more."

  "Precisely," Hoole said. "The data banks at the research facility are

  filled with planets that have been located but never studied or colonized."

  Tash's eyes lit up. "You're saying we could use the information stored

  on Koaan to find a planet that no one else has bothered to study, a planet

  that hasn't made it onto the official charts."

  "Precisely," Hoole said again. "We shall go to Koaan."

  They had been lucky to escape the first bounty hunter, and their luck

  held out as they hurried through the streets of Nar Shaddaa. If they did

  pass any other bounty hunters, the killers didn't recognize them. The three

  fugitives reached the Shroud with no trouble.

  A few minutes later they received clearance to depart, and the starship

  roared out of the atmosphere and into space.

  "Once we reach Koaan," Hoole said when they were all seated in the

  ship's cockpit, "we must find Deevee. I am sure he will be able to help us."

  "Deevee!" Tash said with a laugh. "We haven't seen that droid in ages!"

  D-V9, or Deevee for short, had been Hoole's servant droid, and had

  accompanied Hoole and the Arrandas on several of their adventures. However,

  after being severely damaged by stormtroopers on the planet Kiva, he had

  retired to a quieter life as a research assistant on Koaan.

  "Deevee is still doing work at the Galactic Research Academy," Hoole

  said. "I am sure he will have access to the-"

  An alarm bleeped softly on the control board. Hoole studied the

  scanners and frowned.

  "What is it?" Zak asked.

  "There is a ship behind us," Hoole said. "It left Nar Shaddaa just as

  we did, and it seems to be following us."

  "An Imperial ship?" Tash asked tensely.

  Zak looked at the scanner, which gave a general outline of the ship

  behind them. "Doesn't look like it. It's too small. And-this is

  weird-according to the scanners, there are no life-forms aboard."

  "Then how can it be following us?" Tash wondered.

  "I do not know," the Shi'ido said. "However, it makes little

  difference. We are ready to make the jump to hyperspace. No one will be able

  to follow us then."

  With a few quick motions, Hoole entered the proper commands, and the

  Shroud lurched forward. The stars turned into white streaks as the ship

  thundered into hyperspace.

  "There," Hoole said, getting out of the pilot's seat. "We are safe. The

  coordinates are set and Koaan is not far from here. Let's go to the lounge

  and get something to eat."

  Zak and Tash followed their uncle into the central room of the Shroud.

  It was a small common room with several seats where they ate their meals and

  where Tash and Zak played hologames.

  As they entered the room, the door to a small stora
ge closet slid open

  and an armored figure stepped out. Tash, Zak, and Hoole recognized him

  instantly. They'd met him before.

  It was Boba Fett.

  CHAPTER 2

  The bounty hunter moved smoothly and efficiently, with incredible

  speed. Before they could blink, a thick cable lashed out from a device on

  Fett's wrist and wrapped itself around Hoole, pinning his arms to his sides.

  In the same motion, Fett brought his other hand up. A flash of light

  blinded Zak and Tash, and Zak felt his arms and legs go limp. As he hit the

  floor, Zak thought he was dying. Then he realized that he could still see-he

  just couldn't move.

  Boba Fett had hit him with some kind of stun bolt.

  The bolt must have missed Tash, because she was still on her feet. She

  jumped behind a lounge chair as Fett fired again. The stun bolt sputtered

  against the seat and vanished.

  By that time Hoole had recovered from his initial shock. The Shi'ido

  started to quiver, and shape-shifted into a creature that looked like a

  serpent with a collar of bright feathers. The serpent slithered away, and