by Terry Bisson
to be able to take a hint. Well, if we can't lose him, we'll have to finish
him."
Hitting a button, he turned the starship and headed straight toward
another asteroid, even bigger than the last one.
Only this time, he didn't pull up. Instead, he flew straight toward
the jagged surface.
Boba couldn't believe it. Was his own father trying to kill them both?
"Watch out!" he cried.
He closed his eyes, waiting for the explosion. So this is what it's
like to die, he thought. He felt amazingly calm. He wondered how badly it
would hurt when they hit. Or would it just be like a flash of light? Or..
Or nothing.
With Jango Fett at the controls, Slave I never slowed, never
hesitated.
It looked like certain death.
The ship dove straight down into a narrow canyon on the asteroid's
surface.
At the bottom was a cave, with an opening just big enough for a small
starship turned on its side.
Just barely big enough...
Something was wrong.
Nothing had happened. Boba was still alive. He opened his eyes.
He saw rock everywhere. His dad had flown full speed into a hole in
the asteroid, and now Slave I was speeding through a narrow, winding
tunnel.
But going slower and slower.
At least we're still alive, thought Boba. But if the Jedi is chasing
us, why are we slowing down?
He soon found out. The tunnel went all the way through the asteroid.
When Slave I emerged from the stone passage, it was right behind the Jedi
starfighter.
The hunted had become the hunter. Slave I was on the Jedi's tail.
It was the coolest maneuver Boba had ever imagined. He could hardly
control his excitement. "Get him, Dad! Get him! Fire!"
Boba didn't have to tell his father. Jango Fett was already blasting
away. On every side of the Jedi starfighter deadly lasers were stitching
streaks of light through the blackness of space.
"You got him!" Boba cried, when he saw the Jedi starfighter rocked by
an explosion.
A near-miss, but not a kill.
Not yet.
"We'll just have to finish him!" said Jango. He reached up to the
weaponry console and, with two quick flicks of his wrist, hit two switches:
TORPEDO: ARM and then
TORPEDO: RELEASE
It was Slave I's turn to rock as the torpedo kicked out of the hull
and locked onto the Jedi starfighter.
Boba watched, fascinated. The Jedi was good, he had to admit. He
zigged, he zagged, he tried every kind of evasive maneuver.
But the torpedo was locked on, and closing. Then the Jedi starfighter
flew straight into the path of a huge, tumbling asteroid
And it was all over.
There was no way to avoid the collision. Caught between the torpedo's
blast and the unforgiving stone, the Jedi starfighter disappeared. Only a
trail of debris remained.
"Got him..." Boba breathed. "Yeaaaah!"
Jango's reaction was more subdued. "We won't see him again," he said
quietly as he guided the ship out of the asteroids and put it into a
descent pattern, down toward the giant red planet.
CHAPTER NINE
Boba had thought Geonosis might be different from Kamino with schools,
other kids, and lots to do.
It was different, all right, but that was all.
On Kamino it rained all the time; on Geonosis it hardly ever rained.
Kamino was all sea; Geonosis, was a sea of red sand, with big rock towers
called stalagmites sticking up like spikes, here and there, from the sandy
desert.
In fact, the planet looked deserted. At least that's what Boba thought
when he first arrived.
Jango Fett landed Slave I on a ledge on the side of one of the
stalagmites, or rock towers.
Are we going to camp here on this rock? wondered Boba as the ship
settled on its landing struts and the engines died.
Then a door in the stone slid open, and Maintenance Droids appeared to
service the ship.
Boba was wide-eyed as he followed his father through the doorway,
which turned out to be the entrance to a vast underground city, with long
corridors and huge rooms, all connected and lighted with glow tubes,
echoing with footsteps and shouts.
Yet it still seemed empty. The only inhabitants were hurrying, distant
shadows. No one greeted them; no one even noticed a ten-year-old tagging
along after his father.
As they climbed the stairs toward the apartment they had been
temporarily assigned, Jango explained to his son that the Geonosians
themselves were drones who worked all the time. Their planet was a
manufacturing center for Battle Droids. "And the people who make the droids
aren't much smarter or more interesting than the droids themselves," Jango
said.
"So why are we here?" Boba asked. "Business," said Jango Fett. "He who
hires my hand.."
"... hires my whole self," finished Boba, grinning up at his dad.
"Right," said Jango. He rumpled his son's hair and smiled down at him.
"I'm very proud of you, son. You're growing up to be a bounty hunter, just
like your old man."
The apartment was high in the stone tower, overlooking the desert.
Jango went off to meet with his employer, leaving Boba with a stern
warning: "Be here when I get back."
After a couple of hours alone in the apartment, Boba knew that his
first impressions had been right. Geonosis was boring. Even more boring
than Kamino.
Boredom is kind of like a microscope. It can make little things look
big. Boba counted all the stones in the walls of the apartment. He counted
all the cracks in the floor.
Bored with cracks and stones, he stared out the narrow window,
watching the dust storms roll across the plains and watching the rings
wheel across the sky above.
Boba wished he had brought some books. The only one he had was the
black book his father had given him, the one he couldn't open. It was in a
box with his clothes and old toys, not even worth looking for.
He'd have to make his own excitement. But how?
Be here when I get back. That didn't mean he couldn't leave the
apartment. Just that he couldn't go very far.
Boba stepped out into the hallway, closing the door behind him. The
stone corridor was dim and quiet. In the distance Boba could hear a booming
noise. It sounded almost like the sea on stormy Kamino.
Could there be an ocean here, on this desert planet?
Boba walked to the end of the corridor and stuck his head around the
corner. The booming was louder. Now it sounded like a distant drum.
Around the corner there was a stone stairway, leading down. At the
bottom the stairs, another hall. At the end of the hall, another stairway.
Stone steps, leading down, into the darkness. Boba followed them,
feeling his way, one step at a time. The farther he went, the darker it
got.
The darker it got, the louder the booming. It sounded like a giant
beating a drum.
Boba had the feeling he had gone too far, but he didn't want to turn
noise.
Then a last, long spiral staircase ended in a narrow hallway. The
hallway ended at a heavy door. The booming was so loud that the door itself
was shaking.
Boba was almost afraid to look. He was about to turn back. Then, in
his mind, he heard his father's voice: Do that which you fear most, and you
will find the courage you seek.
Boba pulled the door open.
BOOM
BOOM
BOOM
There was no wild ocean storm, no giant beating a drum. But Boba was
not disappointed. What he saw was even more amazing.
He was looking into a vast underground room, lighted by glowing lamps,
and filled with moving shapes. As his eyes adjusted to the dim light, he
could see a long assembly line, where huge metal machines were stamping out
arms and legs, wheels and blades, heads and torsos. The noise was
thunderous. The heavy, rust-colored parts, once stamped, were carried on
clattering belts to a central area, where they were assembled by grim-faced
Geonosians into warlike Battle Droids, which snapped to attention as soon
as their heads were screwed on.
The assembled droids then marched in long lines out of the cavern,
through a high, arched doorway, into the darkness.
Boba watched, fascinated. What was the purpose of all these weapons of
war? It was hard to believe that there was room in the galaxy for so many
Battle Droids and droidekas bristling with blades and blasters.
He imagined them all in action, fighting one another. It was exciting
to think about - and a little scary, too.
"Hey, you there!"
Boba looked up. A Security Droid was hurrying his way, across a
catwalk toward the open door.
Rather than explain who he was and what he was doing, Boba decided to
do the sensible thing. He slammed the door and ran.
Be here when I get back, Jango had said. Boba was just shutting the
apartment door behind him when he heard footsteps in the hall outside.
Barely made it! thought Boba as his father opened the door.
Two men were with him. One of them was a Geonosian, wearing the
elaborate finery of a high official over its branchlike body and barrel-
shaped head. The other was more simply dressed, but somehow familiar.
"And so you see, Count Dooku, we have made great progress," said the
Geonosian.
It was the Count that did it. Boba recognized the other man. "Isn't
that Count Tyranus?" Boba asked his father, who was hanging up his battle
helmet beside the door.
"Sssshhhhh," said Jango. "We are the only ones who know him by that
name."
"Ah, so this is the young one?" the Count said. "You'll be a great
bounty hunter someday."
He patted Boba on the head. The gesture was affectionate but the hand
was cold, and Boba felt a chill.
"Yes, sir," he said, pulling away.
His father shot him a stern, disapproving look as the three men walked
into the apartment's kitchen for their conference.
Boba felt ashamed. He had been rude. The chill must have been his
imagination. Count Tyranus was Jango Fett's main employer. Boba owed him
not only respect, but trust.
You'll be a great bounty hunter someday. The Count's words rang in
Boba's head. He hoped someday they would come true.
His father's battle helmet was hanging by the door. Boba took it down
and carried it into the bedroom.
He wanted to see what it looked like from inside. He wanted to feel
how it felt to be Jango Fett.
He shut the door behind him and pulled the helmet over his head He
opened his eyes and - "Wow!"
Boba had expected it to be dark inside the helmet, but it wasn't.
There were all sorts of displays scrolling down the inside of the
faceplate. Most of them were for weapons and survival systems:
ROCKET DARTS
SONIC BEAM
WRIST GAUNTLET
JET-PACK
BOOT SPIKES
COMLINK
RANGEFINDER
It was like being in the control room of a very small, compact,
efficient ship. But it was too heavy. Boba could hardly move his head. He
was just lifting it off when
Click.
Boba heard the bedroom door open. Uh-oh. Now he was in big trouble!
But no - Jango Fett was laughing as he lifted the helmet off Boba's
head. "Don't worry, son, your own armor will fit you better."
Boba looked up into his father's eyes. "My own?"
"When you are older," Jango said. "This battle armor was given to me
by the Mandalores. You will have your own someday, when you become a bounty
hunter."
"And you will teach me to use it?" Boba asked "When that day comes, I
may not be there," Jango said. "You may be on your own."
"But..."
"No buts," said Jango. He attempted a smile. "Don't worry. Your time
is yet to come."
He reached out and patted Boba on the head. This time, there was no
chill.
Later that night, Boba heard a strange noise. It was not the booming
he had heard before. It was not his father's snores, which came from the
next bed.
00W0000!
It was something far away and incredibly lonely.
He went to the narrow window and looked out. The night on Geonosis was
as bright as day had been on cloudy Kamino. The planet's orange rings shed
a soft light over the desert sands.
There was a red mesa right below the stalagmite city. It was
crisscrossed with faint trails that glittered, as if they were paved with
diamonds.
The mesa looked interesting but it was strictly off-limits. Jango Fett
had said that there were fierce beasts called massiffs that prowled the
rocks and cliffs.
00W0000!
There it was again - that lonesome, mournful howl. A massiff, thought
Boba. It sounded more forlorn than fierce.
He knew the feeling.
He wanted to howl back.
CHAPTER TEN
When Boba woke up, his father was gone. On the table there was
breakfast and a note: Be here when I get back.
Boba was out the door.
He heard the distant booming but he went the other way, down to the
landing platform. Slave I was no longer the only starship. It looked tiny
compared to the other, which came in all shapes and sizes, but were mostly
bigger.
Boba made sure no one was looking, then climbed up the ramp into the
cockpit of Slave I. The seat was a little low, but other than that, it felt
right. He had already memorized the flight controls for both space and
atmosphere. He already knew the weapons systems, the multiple lasers and
torpedoes. His dad had taught him most of it, and he had figured out the
rest for himself.
Boba knew how to start the ship, program the navcomputer, and engage
the hyperdrive. He was sure that before long his father would let him try a
complete takeoff and landing. He wanted to be ready.
He imagined he was piloting the ship while his father was mowing down
his enemies with the laser.
"Beware the wrath of the Fetts!" he cried in triumph as he zigged and
zagged through the enemy fighters....
"Hey - "
Boba sat up - he must have fallen asleep! He must have been dreaming.
"Hey, kid!"
It was a Geonosian guard.
"It's okay," Boba said. "It's my dad's ship."
He got out of Slave 1 and closed the ramp.
The Geonosian had a stupid but amiable expression.
"How come there's nothing to do around here?" Boba asked, just to be
friendly.
The Geonosian guard smiled and twirled his blaster. "Oh, plenty to do!
" he said. "There's arena! Really cool!"
"What happens in the arena?"
"Kill things!" said the Geonosian.
