by Terry Bisson
he should tell his new friend that it wasn't the Separatists who had killed
his father - but the Jedi.
"I'm sorry," said Garr. "What happened to your mother? If you don't
mind my asking."
"I don't mind your asking," said Boba, "if you don't mind my not
answering."
"Fair enough." Garr got up and pulled at Boba's hand. "Let's go get
something to eat. The commissary closes in a few minutes, and most of the
space brats are finished, so we'll have a little peace and quiet."
For the next few days, and for the first time in his life, Boba had a
friend. He could hardly believe it. He decided not to question it, but
simply accept it as one of the surprises life was throwing at him. By
nature - and by teaching - he was suspicious of anyone who came too close.
But now he was... enjoying it.
Garr was good at having fun. When they weren't exploring the ship, the
two played sabacc or simply lay on their bunks and talked, trying to ignore
the chaos and craziness of the other orphans.
There were a few other kids their age, but Garr avoided them, and Boba
did, too. They might ask too many questions. Because most of the orphans
were much younger, Ulu was too busy with the "space brats" (as Garr called
them) to worry about what his older orphans were up to.
All orphans were prohibited from roaming the ship unattended, but
that's exactly what Garr and Boba did, telling Ulu that they were going to
one of the ship's libraries for a book (not likely, since all they had were
boring military manuals) when in fact they were exploring the ship's
seemingly endless corridors.
Boba shared his discovery with Garr - that no one notices a ten-year-
old. And it was true. The troopers or crew members they ran into in the
corridors simply assumed that the two friends were someone else's
responsibility, if they noticed them at all.
Politics didn't interest Garr, but starships did. "This is the most
advanced assault ship in the Republic's fleet," Boba's new friend
explained. "There are over fifteen thousand troopers, all with the most
advanced weaponry. They are all alike - I think they're clones."
"Imagine that," said Boba. He wondered what Garr would think if he
knew the clones' true origin.
Garr's favorite place was the rear docking bay, where the starfighters
were lined up to be armed and serviced by busy tech droids.
"I could fly one of those," Boba said once. He regretted saying it
immediately; it gave too much away.
"Really?" Garr asked. "Who taught you? Your father?"
Boba nodded.
"My mother would have had a fit," said Garr. "What did your mother
think about you flying a starfighter so young?"
"I don't honestly know," said Boba. "I never asked her."
Boba knew his words sounded hollow. They felt hollow, too.
Boba's favorite spot on the ship was its rear observation blister, or
ROB. A small, cold room under a clear plexi dome, it was usually empty,
since the crew was too busy to look at the stars and the troopers didn't
care about anything except war and discipline.
The ship was traveling through normal space, which meant that the
stars didn't streak by (or appear to streak by) as they did in hyperspace.
Even though the ship was traveling at thousands of kilometers per second,
it seemed as though it were standing still, space was so huge.
Standing or sitting on a bench under the dome, Boba saw a sea of stars
in every direction. There were no planets visible, only gas giants, dwarfs,
quasars, and the occasional smudge that marked the location of a black
hole. Distant galaxies were pinwheels of fire.
"Okay, we've seen space, and it's boring!" Garr was always more
interested in adventure than astronomy. "Let's find something to do."
"Just a few minutes..." Boba liked the view, but he liked the dreams
he had while staring into space even more. He was always dreaming of the
day he would get Slave I back, and experience the stars on his own.
As they explored the ship's corridors, Boba and Garr often had to
stand aside for formations of clone troopers marching to the mess hall or
to the main docking bay for a battle sortie.
"I think they are creepy," said Garr.
"Me too," said Boba.
"If you see them without their helmets, they all look alike," said
Garr.
The troopers marched from place to place, or sat in their dorms
polishing their Tibanna-gas blasters. They never talked with anyone outside
their ranks, and rarely talked to one another; and never noticed the two
ten-year-olds who walked among them. They always traveled in groups of
four, six, ten - always even numbers. They didn't like to be alone.
They paid no attention to Boba and Garr as they continued to go
everywhere together. They saw the vast hydroponic farms, tended by droids,
that turned waste into air and water, just like the forests and kelp beds
on the planets. They saw the immense plasma engines, tended by droids and a
few harried crew members. They saw the clone troopers, never excited, never
bored, endlessly cleaning their weapons.
After a few days of exploring, they had covered almost every part of
the vast assault ship, except for one area.
The bridge.
"I would give anything to see the bridge!" said Garr. "I even tried it
once, but I couldn't sneak in. No kids allowed! The bridge is where the
Jedi hang out, you know."
"Who cares?" said Boba. The less he saw of the Jedi, the better.
Luckily, they seemed to have lost interest in him after their surprise at
finding him on Raxus Prime.
"I care!" said Garr. "I admire the Jedi. They are the guardians of
civilization, willing to sacrifice all so that others can live in peace. I
wish I'd be found to be Force-sensitive and trained as Jedi. Don't you?"
"Not me," Boba said. He thought about telling Garr the truth - that he
hated the Jedi, and wanted to be a bounty hunter, like his father.
But he decided against it. There was a limit to how much you could
trust anyone, even your best friend.
Garr had a secret too, at least as far as Boba was concerned. Or at
least, a mystery.
The mystery was whether Garr was a boy or a girl. Boba had gone so
long without figuring it out that now he was almost embarrassed to ask. But
he knew enough not to let embarrassment hold him back. (That was part of
wisdom, too.)
"Garr," he said one day as they were strolling down a long corridor,
"do you mind if I ask you a question?"
"Not at all," Garr said. "As long as you don't mind if I don't answer.
"
"Fair enough," said Boba, recognizing what he'd said when Garr had
asked about his mother. "Are you a boy or a girl?"
"Like, male or female?"
"Yeah, you know."
"I don't know, actually," said Garr. "I mean, I know what you mean,
but I don't know yet whether I am male or female. On my planet, it's not
determined until age thirteen."
"Determined?"
"Somewhere around our thirteenth birthday, our bodies change, and
; become one or the other. Until then, it's sort of, you know, up in the air.
"
"Cool," said Boba. "I was just wondering."
"Does it make a difference?" Garr asked.
"Not to me."
"Good. I wish everybody was like you, Teff. Did you ever wonder why I
don't hang out with the other ten-year-olds? They want to treat you one way
if you're a boy, and another way if you're a girl, and there's no in-
between. No way to be just a kid, just a person."
"Stupid," said Boba. But he wasn't surprised. He had always thought
most people, including most kids, were a little slow. "Can't they treat
somebody as just a friend?"
"Nope," said Garr. "But come on! Let's find something to do!"
They were off again.
The troopship cruised slowly (under light speed) through normal space,
on the lookout for Separatist forces. There were no more battles, though
they heard rumors of other battles taking place throughout the Republic.
"The ship will be warping into hyperspace soon," said Garr one day.
"It will take us to one of the central worlds, probably Bespin, where we
will be offloaded at some orphanage. I hope we will still be together."
"Me too," said Boba. He didn't want to tell his friend that it wasn't
going to happen. Boba had no intention of going to an orphanage.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
"Hey, Garr; check this out!"
They were in the rear docking bay, alone except for a few service
droids humming and buzzing busily on the far side of the vast room.
"What?" Garr said. "It's just a door."
The door was marked EMERGENCY ONLY.
"I'll bet I can open it," said Boba. The system looked very similar to
the one his father had used to teach him to hot-wire locks.
"So?"
"So this is our chance. You are always talking about wanting to see
the bridge, the command center of the ship, right?"
"Yeah, sure," said Garr. "But this door doesn't lead to the bridge.
This is an emergency airlock door. It leads to the outside of the ship. To
outer space."
"Exactly," said Boba. "Come on. Follow me."
With a deft crossing of wires and simulation of code, Boba opened the
door. On the other side was a small airlock, lined with space suits on
hangers. It was like a closet with two doors. Boba knew that once the inner
door was closed, and the outer door was opened, the air would rush out and
the door would open into space.
The anti-grav plates were off inside the airlock. Boba and Garr both
floated free, past the space suits.
"Yikes," said Garr. "I'm not used to this. What if I get sick and
throw up?"
"Just don't think about it," said Boba. "Pick a space suit and let's
go."
All the suits were slightly too large for ten-year-old bodies. The
suits were for emergency evacuation only, so they carried only small air
tanks and battery-powered heaters, enough for an hour and a half.
"One hour will be long enough," said Boba. "Are you sure?" asked Garr,
picking a suit. "What if something goes wrong?"
"What could go wrong?" Boba asked as he helped zip Garr into the suit.
He put on his own suit, and selected two helmets from the rack nearby.
He spit on his helmet's faceplate and wiped it with his sleeve before
putting it on. "Keeps it from fogging," he said.
"Whatever you say," Garr said, spitting on the faceplate and wiping it
dry.
When both suits were on, secure and sealed, Boba tried the comlinks.
He showed Garr the switch built into the wrist gauntlet.
"Can you hear me?"
"You're shouting!" said Garr. "Turn the volume down."
"Sorry..."
Boba made sure the inner door was closed and sealed. Then he pushed
off the wall and floated across the tiny room to the outer door, which was
thicker. Instead of a knob it had a wheel.
He looked at Garr, questioning. Garr gave him a thumbs-up.
Boba turned the wheel to the left.
One turn, two.
He was just beginning to think nothing was going to happen when, all
of a sudden, there was a WH000000SH of air. Boba shivered as the icy chill
of space rushed into the room.
Boba started to push the door open, then stopped. "Almost forgot!" He
grabbed a ten-meter coil of safety line from the wall. He clipped one to
Garr's belt and the other end to his own.
Then he opened the door and floated out into the emptiness of space.
Garr watched for a moment, swallowed hard - And followed.
They were floating in an endless sea of stars.
It was like falling, down down down, into a hole as deep as all
eternity. A hole so deep, they would never hit bottom.
The stars went on forever, and Boba and Garr floated among them like
specks of dust.
No, thought Boba, it was the stars that were dust.
And Garr and I are dust's dust
"Better now," said Garr, swallowing bravely. "Now what?"
"Now we find the bridge," said Boba. "We have over an hour. But we
have to be careful."
"I'm feeling very, very careful!" said Garr. "Good. We have to keep
secured to the ship. If we float away from it..."
"What will happen?" Garr asked.
"Nothing will happen."
"Nothing?"
"Nothing forever. We will float forever, spinning off into space until
we die. There's no way back, since these emergency suits don't have jet-
packs. But don't worry, we have our safety line."
"Do I sound worried?" Garr asked.
Boba laughed. "Yes!"
"Good!" said Garr. "If I weren't worried, I would be crazy!"
Boba made sure Garr had a good hold on the hull of the ship. Then he
floated forward ten meters until the line stopped him, and he found a
handhold on the ship.
Then he secured the line while Garr went ahead.
They took turns that way, climbed "up" the ship toward the bridge,
belaying for safety while the other forged ahead, finding the route:
Over and around the huge ion engines, each trailing a kilometers-long
exhaust of ghostly blue photons, like smoke.
Up the sheer long cliff of the Candaserri's dorsal fin, being careful
never to look back and "down" into the well of stars.
Across the traverse of the sheer hull side, staying on the steel
strips between the rows of lighted windows.
"Secure!"
"Going ahead!"
The suit comlinks made the two friends' voices seem closer than when
they were in atmosphere. They pulled themselves along, using every bolt,
antenna, edge, and knob of the hull. Sometimes, through the windows, they
saw crew members hurrying along a corridor, or clone troopers marching in
formation toward the mess hall or the dorm.
"Careful," said Boba, tucking himself into a niche whenever they
passed a window. "If anyone sees us, we're in big trouble."
"They'll raise the alarm," said Garr. "They'll think it's an attack!"
Boba and Garr were too close to the ship to see the shape or the size
of it. Each ridge, fin, or bulge in the hull was a surprise, and hid
another.
Finally, they saw the sleek pod that was the bridge tower module,
perched atop a dorsal fin. It looked almost like a smaller ship hitching a
ride on the Candaserri. It was windowless except for the wide plexi bubble-
window at the front.
"They will have alarms," said Boba. "We'll have to move carefully."
The two made their way up the fin, then to the top of the pod.
Standing roped together, and secured by their magsoles, they cautiously
worked their way forward until they had reached the top edge of the wide
forward window.
Boba knelt, Garr beside him. They crept over the edge of the window
and looked down. Boba felt totally exposed. If any of the crew looked up,
they would see two helmeted heads looking in from space!
Every alarm in the ship would go off.
But no one was looking up. The bridge was quiet. Crew members sat at
their control consoles, while officers circulated among them, checking the
