Star Wars - Tatooine Ghost

by Tatooine Ghost (by Troy Denning)

  Leia glimpsed a pair of pods-sensor and imaging-hanging

  beneath the cockpit where the blaster cannons would normally be, then the TIE was gone, climbing into the sky, wagging its wing panels and shrinking into an H-shaped dot. The Askajians cheered in triumph and, not waiting to see if it would return, began to free the dewbacks from the circle.

  Borno rode over and waved a puffy hand at Chewbacca and C-3PO. "We can unstrap your friends now." He turned his narrow eves toward the Squibs, then added, "And those three, as well-so long as they don't try to sell me any more vaporators."

  "Sell a shrewd tomuon herder like yourself?" Sligh said. "That's

  impossible."

  "We assumed someone of your intellect would want the best,"

  Emala added. "Our mistake."

  Borno chuckled. "The wise ones say you must never ask galoomps to stand still. I see this is so." He motioned to the driver of their dewback. "Free them. We would not want even a Squib down where they will get smashed when we reach rough terrain."

  Han dismounted and set to work unstrapping Chewbacca, but Leia remained in her saddle.

  "Borno, forgive me for questioning your wisdom," she said. "But these Imperials seem more thorough than most, and they have a very clever commanding officer. I think they'll be back with an assault shuttle."

  Borno smiled broadly. "Of course they will, but they will look out there." He pointed in the direction the caravan had been traveling so far, then swung his massive arm in a ninety-degree arc, pointing toward a shimmering blue-brown curtain that might or might not have been the foothills of the distant Needles Mountains. "And we will be there."

  Han stopped working on Chewbacca's straps long enough to peer in the direction the Askajian was pointing. "Why there?"

  "Because that is where my vaporators are," Borno said. "The is a hiding place about three hours from here where the Jawas go when the winds are too strong. If the sandcrawler isn't there it will be a good place to start searching." "Then what are we waiting for?"

  Leia slipped out of her saddle and, trying not to gag on the musky stench of the dewback's belly, quickly unstrapped C-3PO.

  Chewbacca and the Squibs had a few bald spots where the slings had rubbed off their fur, and C-3PO complained bitterly about the sand in his servomotors. Otherwise they all seemed to have survived the ride relatively intact.

  Borno pointed at C-3PO, then asked, "Can the droid ride?" C-3PO answered in Askajian, drawing an incredulous guffaw from Borno and several other caravan drivers within earshot. Oblivious to their reaction, C-3PO turned to Leia and translated.

  "I explained to Chief Borno that I'm an excellent rider. If he wishes, I can supply a complete listing of the eight hundred ninety-seven different vehicles in which I have been a passenger." Han said, "Threepio can't handle a dewback." "I thought as much." Borno told his drivers to arrange mounts for Chewbacca and the Squibs, then waved C-3PO toward his own huge dewback. "You, I take."

  "Take?" C-3PO turned to Leia. "Pardon me for saying so, Mistress Leia, but I fail to see what use a protocol droid of my sophistication could possibly be to a tribe of... herders. Especially in a sandy climate like this."

  "He means you're to ride on his dewback." Leia pointed him toward the animal. "Ownership isn't being transferred."

  "Thank the maker!" C-3PO went to Borno's mount, where a pair of Askajians were waiting to heft him into the saddle. "I am sure to make your ride a pleasant one. Perhaps you would enjoy

  recitation of the Song of the Dongtha Slayer in ancient Askajian? My memory banks contain all seven hundred twenty-two known

  verses."

  Borno paled. "I am very glad you are not giving me this droid,"

  he said to Leia. "But perhaps now would be a good time to make

  payment."

  Leia's stomach knotted. "Of course." She glanced at the Squibs. She was not happy to see them busy inspecting the dew-back they would soon be riding. "I'm unaware of the final price, but I'm sure we have more than enough to cover it."

  "It isn't much." Borno extended his hand. "Who carries the

  vidmap?"

  "The vidmap?" Han exploded. "They're giving that away?"

  "They cannot?" Borno's expression quickly went from perplexed to angry. "But they did."

  "What my husband means is we still have need of it," Leia said.

  "So do I," Borno said. "That's why I agreed to take it."

  "Agreed to take it?" Han glared across the circle at the Squibs. "They offered it to you?"

  "Of course they did," Leia said. "How else would Borno have known about it?"

  Borno glanced from Han to Leia. "They should not have done this?"

  "No," Leia said quickly-too quickly.

  Borno's face turned the color of a volcanic eruption, and he barked something at his drivers. They immediately stopped what they were doing and began to unstrap the Squibs' saddle.

  "My apologies," Borno said. "I should have checked with you before taking the word of rodents." He cast a dark look in the Squibs' direction, then asked, "So, what are you willing to pay for our help in escaping the Imperials?"

  Under any other circumstances, after-the-fact would have bee an awkward time for a negotiation. But on Tatooine, in the middle of the desert with the possibility of an Imperial assault company dropping in any moment, the timing could not have been more perfect for Borno.

  "I know you're not interested in credits." Leia was thinking of the Askajian's reaction to the Squibs' attempts to buy his tomuon wool. "So what would interest you?"

  Borno glanced briefly at C-3PO, then shuddered visibly and spoke in a matter-of-fact tone. "The vidmap."

  Chewbacca groaned, and Han said, "I told you. We need that."

  "Then why did the Squibs offer it?" Borno demanded.

  No sooner had the Askajian asked than Leia saw the answer. The Squibs knew this terrain. She and her companions did not.

  Leia turned to find Grees leading the other two over.

  "You've got a death wish?" Grees demanded. "Turn over the vidmap."

  "And place ourselves in your hands?" she asked. "I think not."

  "It's either that or watch your husband die of thirst out here- right before you," Grees said. "We struck a bargain with Borno."

  "A bargain that leaves us dependent on you." Leia phrased this as a conclusion, not a question. "How convenient."

  Sligh shrugged. "You said make a deal with the caravan to save us. We made the deal."

  "Give him the vidmap," Han said.

  Leia turned. "What?"

  "Sligh's right. A deal's a deal." Han shrugged. "Besides, what choice do we have? Let Borno leave them here to die?"

  "Them?" Emala gasped. "After all we've been through together, you talk like we're not even partners?"

  Leia stepped over to her dewback's flank and opened the utility

  satchel hanging from her saddle. After digging her way past the holocornm, the first thing she found was the journal. She was tempted to see if she could convince Borno to take one or the other instead of the vidmap, but she would need the holocomm later, and she was not ready to give up her grandmother-not after finding her so recently. Besides, a deal was a deal. She put the journal back and fished around until she found the vidmap, then went over to Borno's mount and passed it up. "Now take us to our sandcrawler."

  Chapter 16

  It was only midmorning, and already Leia felt as though she had a crystalplas skull-as though the twin suns were blazing through her sand hood and baking her brain in hot bright light. Even through her darkened goggles, the plain ahead was a shimmering white haze, with the cruel blue hoax of a mirage sea always rippling just on the horizon. The air was still and stifling, every breath a suffocating blast.

  The caravan was moving fast, trotting toward the hideaway that Borno had assured them would have been the Jawas' first choice of shelter during the storm. The search would continue from there, depending on what they found... and whether they found anything at
all. Again, Leia had the feeling she was being influenced by the Force, drawn out into the wilds of Tatooine- though she could not imagine to what purpose. The Great Chott was as empty as it was vast; as far as she could tell, there was no place to conceal another surprise about her family-or anything else.

  The Askajians were scattered across the plain, being careful to form no rows or columns that would make the caravan easier for a high-flying surveillance droid to identify. Their globular bodies neither swayed nor rocked on their mounts, despite the dewbacks' spine-hammering gait.

  Han rode ahead and off to one side. His pack beasts had become mounts for Chewbacca and the Squibs, so he did not have any extra dewbacks to lead. Still, the heat was taking its toll. He was wobbling and bouncing, and occasionally he struggled to stay in

  the saddle.

  Leia urged her dewback forward and drew alongside him. With his eyes and face hidden by his goggles and scarf, it was impossible to read his expression. But Leia could tell by the way his shoulders slumped and his chin drooped that he was not doing well.

  "Hey-" It hurt to talk, Leia's throat was so dry.

  Han's dark goggles swung in her direction. The slump vanished from his shoulders-a brave front for her benefit-but his chin continued to droop. Not a good sign.

  Leia held up a finger while she slipped her water bottle beneath her face coverings and drank. The contents were as hot as caf. "You remembering your water?"

  Han displayed the bottle in his hand and nodded listlessly. "If you're trying to send me off to the Darklighters' farm again, forget it." His voice was too muffled to reveal anything more about his condition. "I'm not the one who sounds like a profogg... much."

  Leia smiled behind her scarf and felt her lips crack. "I've given up." That was a small exaggeration. "I want to talk about something else."

  Han's goggles remained fixed in her direction. "Yeah?"

  "I, uh..."

  Leia's throat went dry again, and this time it had nothing to do with the heat. There had been few opportunities to really talk since the auction, and Leia had kept much to herself. She had not told Han about the two visions she had experienced. Nor shared Luke's warning about how the Force was moving her, or even mentioned her grandmother's diary. And she needed to tell him, to make him understand there was good reason for her fear of having children that as much as she wanted to, it was not a choice she felt free to make... not until she had put to rest the dark face she had seen aboard the Falcon.

  "You were saying?" Han asked.

  The distant hiss of a craft in flight sounded behind the caravan, and they both turned to see a wavering sliver of ion efflux creeping across the sky. The vessel itself was not visible, not even as a faint glint, but the length of its ion tail suggested it to be a sizable craft-probably one of the Chimaera's intelligence launches, eavesdropping on local comm traffic.

  The sight reminded Leia of another problem: sometime soon, she needed to find a safe place to set up the portable holo-comm and make a progress report. Otherwise, Mon Mothma would be forced to assume that Killik Twilight was lost and Shadowcast compromised, and she might well decide to recall the Wraiths-regardless of what that would mean for the local resistance fighters.

  After watching the efflux for a moment, Leia asked, "What do you think? Signal interceptor?"

  Han shook his head. "The Imperials must have finished searching Anchorhead by now. That's got to be an assault shuttle." did not add that when the shuttle pilots failed to locate the Askajians where they expected to, the Chimaera's admiral would launch an all-out search to find them. The entire caravan had known that since slipping away from their original route two hours ago. "That what you wanted to talk about?"

  Leia shook her head. "Han, I..."

  The Squibs appeared on the other side of Han, all three riding in the same saddle and bouncing half out of control.

  "Gartal!" Leia swore. "Perfect timing, as usual."

  "You're looking a little shaky, Cap," Grees said. He was sitting in front, gripping the pommel with both hands, the reins threaded under his palms and wrapped back around his knuckles. "Listen to your mate, or you'll make a widow of her."

  "I'm doing fine." Han turned to face the Squib. "Not that it's any business of yours."

  "That's just like you." Sligh rode in the middle, both arms wrapped around Grees's waist, his far elbow wrapped around the middle shaft of the herding spear. "You never think of anyone but yourself. How do you think we'll feel having to leave you behind when the heat knocks you out?"

  "I'm sure it'll just tear you up," Han said. "Don't do me any favors."

  Leia remained silent. She and Han could hardly hold a serious conversation in front of the Squibs.

  "We are trying to do you a favor," Emala said. She was in back, holding on to the butt of the herding spear with one hand and Sligh with the other and bouncing higher than both of her companions. "We're as close as we're going to get to the Darklighter Farm-"

  "No."

  Chewbacca rode up on Leia's other side, sitting astride the dewback as though he had been born to it, his feet hanging down past its belly. Bracing himself on one of the cargo beasts Lea was leading, he leaned across and oowralled at Han.

  "I said no." Han glanced over at Leia. "I suppose you're a part of this?"

  "This is the first I've heard of it, but-"

  "Yeah, sure." Han shook his head. "You never give up, sweetheart. That's one of the things I love about you."

  "Han, if I said I wasn't a part of this, then I wasn't."

  "Okay, so you weren't part of it."

  "But that doesn't mean it's a bad idea."

  "It doesn't mean it's a good one," Han said. "I know how this works, Leia. First I agree to go, then you work me over until I think going without you is the best idea I've ever had. I've seen you do that to planetary governments a hundred times. I don't have a chance."

  "You're not a planetary government," Leia said. "And I'm not trying to talk you into something you don't want to do."

  "No?" Han's voice cracked with dryness. "Then what did you want to talk about?"

  "Orbital surveillance." It wasn't a lie-not really. She had been wondering about orbital surveillance since the overflight by the TIE reconnaissance craft. "You know the Chimaera has to have spy satellites in place, and we're not exactly under cover."

  "More than you think." Han took a long drink from his water bottle, then continued, "No sensor in the galaxy is delicate enough to find us right now. The reflection blast is hiding us."

  "Reflection blast?"

  "The Great Chott is a giant mirror." Han waved a hand at the pale surface of the surrounding salt plain. "With two suns shining down, this time of day all a spy satellite sees is heat and

  light-same for a high-flying surveillance drone. If the Imps want to find us again, they have to come down low-and that takes time."

  "That's why Borno waited until the suns were up to change directions."

  Han nodded. "He knows his evasion strategy." He turned and looked into the shimmering whiteness ahead. "I just hope we find some cover soon. Once that shuttle reports we aren't where we're supposed to be, it won't take them long to send a flight of TIEs out on a search grid."

  An Askajian rode up behind them, arriving with such silence and suddenness that when he spoke, Leia nearly jumped out of her saddle.

  "Why are you bunched together like this?" He gestured at the sky with his spear. "You make it easier for the sky eyes to see us. Spread out, or Borno will take your mounts and leave you for the white shells."

  The Squibs drifted away immediately. Chewbacca, who never responded well to threats, flashed fangs and glared until the Askajian finally looked away.

  "If you please," he said more politely, "we shouldn't take chances."

  Chewbacca grunted an apology that, judging by the way the Askajian's eyes widened, Leia was sure the rotund being did not understand. Chewbacca snickered and angled off a bit. Still hoping to have a private word with Han,
Leia lingered a moment to see if the Askajian would allow them to remain together.

  "Please," he said. "It is even more important for you to separate. You are leading pack beasts."

  "Of course." Leia wished she had a set of fangs to flash, but she knew the Askajian was only trying to protect them all. She glanced in Han's direction and, slowing her mount, asked, "Can we talk later?"

  "You know we can." Han's goggled eyes lingered on hers "I'm not going anywhere."

  Leia fell in twenty meters behind him. Even at that short distance, the heat distortion reduced his shimmering figure to an unrecognizable silhouette, but she would at least be able to tell if he fell out of the saddle or let his mount wander. She felt her tongue sticking to the roof of her mouth and reminded herself to drink. The water was hotter than ever. She forced herself to swallow three long gulps, then put it away. In this heat, she would have thought any water would taste good. But the stuff in her plastoid bottle was beginning to have all the flavor of rancor drool. She set a chime on her chronometer to remind her to drink again in a quarter hour.