Tales From The Empire

by Peter Schweighofer

  deal with Thyne. Give us a couple of minutes, then go fast.

  Steal one of Thyne's airspeeders and fly. Head back to your ship and

  get out of the system."

  Trell nodded. "Thanks."

  Corran frowned at his father, then pointed at Trell.

  "And, listen, don't put that cargo back on your ship. You don't want

  to be shipping spice around."

  Trell shivered and Corran took that to be an eloquent answer to his

  caution.

  "Ready, Dad?"

  "All set."

  Corran smiled and ran backward at the door. He leaped up and hit it

  smack in the middle with his back.

  The door exploded into fragments around him, spraying large chunks of

  wood into the narrow corridor outside the makeshift prison. Corran

  crashed down amid it all, yelping involuntarily instead of letting

  forth with a great oof as he had planned. No jagged edges, but the

  debris sure is tumpy.

  Hal's voice flooded through the dying echoes of the door's crisp

  crack.

  "Keep that Tunroth away from me!"

  With his eyes nearly shut, Corran saw Somms come flying down the stairs

  to the landing. The man kept his back to the stone wall as he crept

  toward the cell, then he brandished the blaster carbine and prepared to

  rush into the cell. To do that he prepared to pivot on his right foot,

  fill the doorway, then go in.

  As Somms' left foot came around in the pivot move, Corran caught it in

  his left hand. Letting Somms' momentum pull him up into a sitting

  position, Corran

  brought his metal truncheon down on the top of the

  man's pelvis. Somms started to cry out, more in surprise than pain it

  seemed, when Hal appeared in the doorway and clipped him with a fist in

  the head.

  Somms collapsed to the floor and did not move.

  Corran frowned at his father. "Why cut the club if you aren't going to

  use it?"

  "Didn't need it." Hal snaked the blaster carbine from beneath Somms,

  flicked the selector lever over to stun, and pumped a blue bolt into

  him. The Black Sunher twitched once, then lay gently still. "I expect

  he'll still feel the blow you dealt him when he wakes up."

  "We can but hope." Corran rolled him over and unfastened his blaster

  belt. Donning it himself, Corran pulled the blaster from it and

  checked the power pack. He glanced up at his father. "You going to

  leave that set on stun?"

  "I haven't noticed that killshots fly any more true than stunbolts."

  "True, but there's just so many more forms to fill out when we bring

  them back alive."

  "Don't even joke about that, Corran." His father gave him a reproving

  glance that made Corran feel about as big as a hologame piece. "Set it

  on stun and you won't regret accidentally hitting a friend."

  "Yes, sir." Corran flicked the pistol's selector lever to stun and

  stood up. He waved his father toward the door.

  "Time to get Thyne. Age before beauty."

  "Brains before impudence." Hal tossed a quick salute to Haber Trell

  and Rathe. "Luck to you, but keep your heads down and get out of here

  fast. If Thyne doesn't react well to our refusing his hospitality, you

  don't want to be in the blast radius."

  Arl Nidder matched Jodo Kast's long-legged stride as best he could.

  The bounty hunter impressed him, but the armor impressed him more. Now

  if I had a suit of that Mandalorian armor I'd be pretty tough. I'd be

  able to get a lot of light-years between me and the rest of the

  Bromstaad boys. Maybe

  I hire out to do wetwork for some Moff, or maybe even Prince Xizor.

  His ruminations ended abruptly as they reentered Thyne's office.

  Nidder liked the office because it seemed like a museum to him. He'd

  never been in a real museum, but he knew they were places where old and

  valued things were collected. He took it as a mark of pride that Thyne

  kept him close enough to protect the crime lord's prized possessions.

  Surrounded by beauty though he was, Thyne did not look happy. The

  holoprojector plate built into his desk showed a view of Thyne's

  fortress and the surrounding valley in translucent green detail.

  Moving around the area were small orange icons that Nidder had seen in

  security simulations, but only when they were running worst case

  scenarios to scare the wits out of new recruits.

  Nidder's jaw dropped. "Are those really storm-troopers?"

  Thyne nodded, then snapped a comlink on. "All personnel report to

  battle stations. This is not a drill. We have hostile deployment to

  the north and east. Move it, I want all defenses reported as

  operational in thirty seconds."

  Nidder and Deif started toward the room's partially ajar doors, but

  Thyne stopped them with a snarl. "Not you two. Not that I don't trust

  you, Kast."

  Kast raised his hands. "But you don't trust me. I'll remind you of

  this next time we negotiate a price for my services." The long, tall

  bounty hunter pulled a chair around where he could watch Thyne on the

  right and the doors at the left, but did so in such a casual way that

  it took Nidder a moment or two to recognize exactly what he was

  doing.

  Kast looked directly at Nidder, then calmly crossed his right leg over

  his left.

  Nidder shifted uncomfortably and got the distinct impression that the

  only way he'd get a suit of that armor was to be lucky enough to be

  around when someone else killed Kast and peeled him out of it. Of

  course, the

  thought didn't form itself exactly that way in Nidder's brain. He just knew he didn't want that suit of armor, just one like

  it.

  His momentary feeling of inferiority vanished as he realized Kast

  wasn't as smart as he thought himself to be. If the mercenary had

  turned his chair around he still could have watched the desk and doors,

  but also could see the painting of frolicking nudes on the wall. As it

  was, Nidder could fully appreciate it--though he was at a loss to

  explain why the artist had included gardening implements in the

  painting--and smiled to let Kast know what he was missing.

  The hologram shifted to a schematic of the house, with the corridor

  outside the door rendered in yellow light that blinked on and off.

  Thyne hissed furiously. "Someone is in the hall. The Imps have

  already infiltrated the building." He pointed Nidder and Deif toward

  the door: Kast started speaking in a loud voice. "Of course, handling

  things in a diplomatic manner works best." The bounty hunter pointed

  toward two spots along the wall where the Bromstaad mercenaries could

  cover the doorway with a murderous cross fire. "Then again, there are

  times when one has to be undiplomatic."

  Nidder marveled at how Kast's voice covered the sound of his approach

  to the door. He stopped exactly where Kast wanted him to and drew his

  blaster pistol. He set it to kill and waited, but shot Kast a wink and

  a nod. When the nod was returned, Nidder even began to imagine that

  Kast might take him on as an apprentice, or even a partner. He's seen

  how good I am. He knows what he'll be getting when we work together.

/>   The exploding of the lower half of one door interrupted Nidder's

  fantasy. Through the smoke and spray of fiery debris came the smallest

  of the prisoners they'd left below. Coming up into a crouch from the

  somersault that carried him through the hole, the brown-haired man

  raised a blaster pistol and triggered two shots. The first

  blue bolt

  missed, but the second caught Deif in the stomach, wreathing him in

  azure energy.

  Nidder brought his pistol in line with the little man. He doesn't see

  me. He doesn't know I'm here. His mistake. Nidder started to tighten

  his finger on the trigger when he felt himself moving backward.

  He felt his shoulders hit the wall, then his head rebounded from it.

  Through the exploding stars he saw a second bolt flash out from the

  blaster built into the thigh of the Mandalorian armor.

  In the nanosecond it took for the scarlet bolt to sizzle through his

  chest, Nidder realized Kast had positioned him so carefully and

  precisely because the bounty hunter wanted to kill him. Nidder did not

  feel outrage at having been so easily betrayed and slaughtered, nor did

  he, in his dying moment, grant Kast a modicum of respect for having

  worked so coolly to slay him. No, for Arl Nidder, dying as he slid to

  the floor, there was only one final thought. Now if I had a set of

  that armor ....

  corran saw the red bolts burn by on his left and swung around in that

  direction as his target flopped to the ground. At the back of the

  room, Corran saw Thyne running for where a wall panel slid back to

  reveal a black recess. He started to track the fleeing crime lord, but

  pulled his pistol back as Kast's head and shoulders eclipsed Thyne.

  He's getting away.

  Corran glanced back at the door. "All clear."

  Hal stepped through, looked at Nidder's body, then at Kast.

  "That's another round of drinks on me by way of thanks."

  The bounty hunter uncrossed his legs and stood. "Pest control."

  Corran pointed at the dark opening in the wall.

  "Thyne went out through there."

  Hal approached it cautiously. "Looks clear."

  Corran appropriated the blaster carbine the man he'd shot had been

  carrying and set it for stun. "Let's go find him."

  He turned to Kast. "Come along. We could use your

  help.

  There's a bounty on Thyne. We're going to get him, but the bounty can

  be yours." Corran looked around the room at the garish decorations and

  horrific art. "It might even be sufficient to buy some real art and

  offset memories of this place."

  "You tempt me very much." Kast shrugged. "However, someone with such

  inferior taste in art should not be hard to catch. I would join you,

  but I'm a simple bounty hunter and I still have a job to do."

  Despite having no read on Kast, Corran knew he was lying. He raised an

  eyebrow. "I don't believe you're a simple bounty hunter."

  "Nor do I believe you and your father are simple hoodlums looking for

  underworld employment." Kast crossed to the desk and punched a button

  on the holographic display unit's control panel. A view of the

  surrounding area came up and Corran saw small orange icons moving in

  swarms over the terrain. "These are Imperial storm-troopers.

  They're likely to make things uncomfortable if you don't get going.

  You don't want to be caught here."

  "Neither do you."

  "I won't be."

  Corran nodded. "Another time, then."

  "Perhaps." The finality in Kast's voice told Corran there never would

  be a next time, and somehow he didn't find that prospect cause for

  anything but relief.

  Corran rejoined his father just inside the entrance to Thyne's escape

  passage. The narrow corridor had been melted through the native stone

  with a gentle slope downward.

  Every fifteen meters or so it cut back on itself, forcing the Horns to

  advance carefully. The brevity of the passages meant any firefight

  would be at close quarters and extremely deadly.

  Corran clutched his blaster carbine in both hands and snuggled it

  against his right flank. It had been modified slightly after its

  arrival from the factory by the inclusion of a pinpoint glow rod

  attached to the left side of the barrel, and more work had been done on

  it to make it what was

  known in street parlance as a hotshot. The

  trigger guard had been cut away, leaving the trigger free and the

  weapon liable to be fired when the trigger caught on clothing or was

  otherwise jarred. Using a hotshot was supposed to indicate how tough a

  person was, but it only took one view of the results of an unsafed

  hotshot pistol being tucked into a waistband to convince most folks it

  was a foolhardy modification.

  Of course, no one is going to tuck a carbine into his pants.

  Corran smiled slightly, then nodded as his father signaled him to come

  forward. Remaining low, Corran came around the corner of the corridor,

  then dropped to the ground as a red blaster bolt sizzled through the

  air above him.

  He shot back twice, but neither blue bolt hit anything but stone.

  "Corridor widens out into a natural cave.

  We're probably at the rear of the property."

  "Okay, take it slow. Lose the light."

  Corran flicked off the pinpoint glow rod and closed his eyes. He

  waited for a count of ten for his eyes to get adjusted to the darkness,

  then opened them. Biolumines-cent lifeforms--lichen and the things

  that ate it-gave off a purplish glow that allowed Corran to make out

  shadowed shapes. Some were regular and appeared to be duraplast boxes

  of varying sizes, while the larger, more menacing ones were curiously

  hunched and gnarled stone formations. There seemed to be little

  physical modification of the cave; the floor remained uneven and boxes

  had been wedged in various places where space allowed. Corran assumed

  the previous owner had kept the cave in its natural state and Thyne had

  stored in it precious or vital cargoes that he did not trust to have

  any place else.

  Corran crept forward, remaining low. He reached the first box and in

  the faint glow made out the stenciled Imperial legend proclaiming it to

  be full of blaster carbines.

  He would have opened it, but the scent of spice lingered strongly

  enough in the immediate area that he

  knew what it really contained.

  Either Thyne is just storing spice in this, or Black Sun has some

  backdoor Imperial connections that are allowing them to ship this stuff

  in past Customs.

  I'll have to ask Loor about that.

  Corran whistled short and sharp, then heard his father close the gap

  between them. For an older man, and one as big as he was, Hal moved

  pretty quietly. I felt his presence before I picked up that slight

  scuff of his sole against the stone.

  Oh, Thyne, you don't know who you're messing with.

  A return whistle sent Corran forward. He moved slowly and carefully,

  wending his way from one dark rock to another. He did his best to

  avoid those that were glowing because he didn't want to silhouette

  himself
against one.

  He took great care to make as little noise as possible, and smiled as

  he hunkered down behind a large black rock.

  Corran looked back toward his father and was set to whistle when he

  heard the scrape of metal on a rock. He glanced up and triggered one

  shot from the blaster carbine.

  The azure bolt streaked past Thyne as he leaped down from a large

  dolmen, then Thyne's right heel caught Corran in the shoulder and spun

  him to the ground. His blaster carbine bounced away, firing off two

  random shots. He felt Thyne's left arm tighten around his neck and

  then he was hauled to his feet as the alien straightened up, his body

  shielding Thyne from fire.

  The muzzle of a blaster pistol ground in under the right corner of

  Corran's jaw. A glow rod lit up, bathing the right side of Corran's

  face with light. The muscles on the arm around his neck bulged,

  constricting his breathing and killing any thoughts of struggling.

  Thyne growled loudly, sending angry echoes of his voice throughout the

  cavern. "Your partner is dead if you don't show yourself in five

  seconds."

  Those five seconds took an eternity to pass for Corran, and he filled

  it with an unending series of if-onlies. If only I had tucked the