by Terry Bisson
system coordinates.
"Awesome!" said Garr. "This is the main command center. Everything
happens here first."
The captain and the first officers, in their brightly colored
uniforms, were consulting with a robed Jedi at a holomap table. Boba
recognized Glynn-Beti, the Bothan Jedi who had questioned him.
I'm lucky she got distracted, he thought. If she had made me open that
flight bag, I would probably be a prisoner right now.
"I wonder what they are talking about," Garr said. "Maybe they got
word about some of the parents. I would like to see my parents again."
Boba didn't say anything. It was an awkward moment.
"Someday you will meet my parents," said Garr. "You will like them."
"Maybe," Boba said. I doubt it, he thought.
Boba was ready to go, but he was waiting for Garr - who liked watching
people as much as Boba liked watching stars.
Garr lay facedown, looking through the window at the crew on the
bridge.
Boba lay on his back, staring up. He loved the dizzy feeling he got,
looking deep into a sea of stars and galaxies.
They had been on top of the bridge tower module for almost twenty
minutes. Boba checked his air tank and it was still over half full. But his
heater was running down. He could feel the chill of space seeping into his
suit, especially at his feet and hands.
"We should be heading back," he said to Garr. "Couple of more minutes,
" said Garr. "They're looking at another holomap."
"A map? Let's see." Boba rolled over and looked down.
"That's a weird map!" said Garr. "I can't tell anything about it."
"Uh-oh," said Boba.
"What?"
"We'd better get back into the airlock, fast!" "What's wrong?" Garr's
voice was sharp with fear.
Just then a siren wailed. The two could feel it reverberating through
the hull.
"That's the ten-minute alarm!" Boba said. "That was a hyperspace map
they were looking at. The ship is about to jump!"
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Faster!
Down, down -
Faster!
Around, around
Boba was no longer feeling the cold, even though the little; heater in
his suit was almost drained.
Garr was gulping air, spinning through the vacuum, grabbing at one
handhold and then another.
Neither spoke. There was no time for words. They hurried toward the
back of the ship where the big ion jets were staining the universe a pale
blue.
How much time do we have left? Boba wondered. Six minutes? Five?
"What happens if.?" Garr asked as they made their way down the fin
from the bridge tower module.
"If what?"
"You know what! If we don't get inside the ship before the jump into!
hyperspace!?"
"At best, we will see a flash of light, and be fried to a crisp in the
plasma flare of the hyper-space warp."
"That's best? What's worst?"
"At worst we won't feel a thing or even see a flash of light. We will
just look around and see no ship. It will be gone. And we will drift here
all alone, endlessly, until we die."
The alert siren still wailed but they heard it only when they touched
the hull, through their hands or the soles of their boots.
At the steepest part of the wing, Garr missed a step, and spun off
into space. Boba grabbed a seam and held on for dear life. The safety line
snapped tight - yanking Garr back into Boba.
000MMPPHHHFF!
"Careful," Boba said. He wanted to say "slow down" but he knew he
couldn't. If they slowed down, they were lost.
"You idiot!" said Boba as he untangled the line and started down, over
the rear of the wing.
"I'm sorry!" Garr said. "I missed a hold."
"I was talking to myself!" Boba said. "This whole thing is my fault.
It was a stupid idea!"
I lost track of what was most important. A bounty hunter never does
that.
Through the window Boba could see crew members running, security
droids clearing the halls, and clone troopers scurrying in formation.
How much time left? Three minutes? Two?
The airlock was still at least five minutes away...
"This way!" Boba said. It looked like a shortcut.
He plunged down into a dark "canyon" - a slot between the rear
boosters and the ventral hull fin - making his way hand over hand.
It was dark, and the handholds were far apart. Garr belayed Boba, and
then Boba belayed Garr, so that one of them was always secured to the hull
of the ship.
Boba grinned when he emerged at the other end of the slot. His gamble
had paid off. There was the lighted airlock door, still open, waiting for
them - only a hundred meters away!
Two hundred meters if they went around on the hull. One hundred if
they took a chance and floated straight across.
"Let's try it," Boba said. "This last jump can be made in one leap if
we both let go."
"But what if we miss?"
"Then we're dead. But we may be dead anyway if we don't try it. We're
running out of time."
Boba looked at his friend. He wondered if he looked as frightened to
Garr as Garr did to him. Probably!
"Well, then," said Garr, giving a brave thumbs-up, "what are we
waiting for? Let's try it!"
The airlock door a hundred meters away looked tiny.
Boba gathered the rope into a coil, took Garr's hand, and said, "On
three. One... two..."
He didn't remember saying "three" but he realized he must have said
it, for they were floating free in space, unbelayed drifting slowly, hand
in hand, toward the lighted square of the airlock door.
Both were silent. Boba was hardly even breathing. It was as if a word,
a breath, might make them miss their target, and spin them off into space.
Thirty meters, twenty, ten
As they got closer, Boba saw that the target was even bigger than he
had thought. The airlock door had handholds on either side, so he didn't
have to hit it dead center.
And at the end of the hull, just past the door, there was an antenna.
At the last minute a slight spin turned Boba and he saw that he was,
in fact, going to miss the airlock door.
No sweat. "Your move, Garr. Just grab at those handholds as we go by."
"Got it!" said Garr. "Well, almost..." Another spin had pulled Garr
back, just short of the handholds. Now they were floating on toward the end
of the hull.
Luckily the antenna was right in reach. Boba let go of Garr's hand and
uncoiled the rope. He reached out and grabbed the antenna as he floated
past.
"Got it!" he said aloud, to himself and Garr. Just as it broke off in
his hand.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
"O000ph!"
The safety line went tight, jerking Boba and Garr together, then
setting them spinning, like a kid's toy - a giant kid's toy that had been
thrown away, down the deepest darkest hole in all the universe.
The deep dark hole that is the universe.
For they were spinning away from the ship, attached to each other but
to nothing else doomed to fl
oat on forever while the Candaserri disappeared
into hyperspace.
They both were moving, falling, tumbling, head over heels away from
the ship, toward the emptiness of space.
Deep into the Big Isn't.
Realizing the worst made Boba feel calmer. His panic was gone. His
fear was gone. He remembered something his father had said: The worse
things are, the calmer you need to be.
He felt as if he were standing still and watching the universe spin
around him. There was the Candaserri; then there was Garr, at the other end
of the safety line; then just stars until the ship came up again.
Each time the ship was slightly smaller. How long before it's gone
altogether? Boba wondered. The hyperspace jump was due at any moment.
"Teff, you still there?"
"Yeah."
"It's been great, being your friend."
"Same here," said Boba. He almost wished he had told his friend his
real name. Maybe it wasn't too late.
He caught sight of Garr, wheeling through his field of view.
Then the stars again, white except for one tiny orange one.
Then the ship, still there.
Orange star? Where had that come from?
Boba watched as the orange star came up again. It was exactly opposite
the ship in his spin. If he had a jetpack, he could use the orange star for
a fix: Aiming at it would stop his spin and guide him toward the ship.
No jetpack, though. And only a few minutes of air. When it was gone
And that was when he got the idea.
"Teff? You still there?"
"Yeah."
"What're you doing? I hear a clicking noise." "I've got an idea," Boba
said.
"What?"
"Can't talk. Gotta save air. Just hang on to the line - and hope for
the best."
Boba's emergency space suit had no jetpack, but it did have something
that might possibly be used for a jetpack.
The air tank.
Boba disconnected his air tank and pulled it from his back. Now all he
had to breathe was the air in his suit. It would last less than a minute.
Boba held the air tank against his stomach and waited for the orange
star to appear in his wheeling, whirling field of vision.
There it was! He pressed the release valve. SSSSSSSSSS
The universe slowed down, just a little. Boba waited until the orange
star appeared again. SSSSSSSSSSSS
Slowed more. And this time the ship was closer when Boba saw it swim
into view. SSSSSSSSSSSSSS
We're moving! Garr was still spinning at the other end of the
lifeline. But Boba was stable. He could see the ship over his shoulder,
getting closer, as he aimed the air tank at the little orange star and used
the air like a rocket engine.
SSSSSSSSSS
For every action - like the air hissing out - there is an equal and
opposite reaction - like Boba floating backward toward the ship. He felt
the line jerk tight, and knew he was pulling Garr with him.
"What's going on?" Garr asked.
Boba didn't answer. All he had to breathe was the leftover air in his
suit, and it was getting stale.
SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
The ship was getting closer. Closer. There at the bottom was the open
airlock door.
Boba aimed at the little orange star again. SSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
Closer and closer. SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
The air in Boba's suit was almost gone. He gasped for breath.
SSSSSSSSSSSS. He sprayed the air into space, but he needed it in his suit,
in his lungs...
SSSSS SSSSSSS
The air was almost gone from the tank. Boba could see the ship over
his shoulder, getting closer and closer. But not quite close enough.
SSSSSSS
Boba felt his head spinning. His lungs were burning, begging him for
air.
Little orange star.
Garr at end of line.
Ship huge, close -
"Teff, are you there? Something is pulling us toward the ship! They
must have seen us!"
SS SS SSsssss
Last gasp of air. Did we make it?
"Garr, grab handrail!"
Did Garr hear? Boba hit the side of the door and bounced back, into
space. He reached for the handhold by the airlock door, but it was out of
reach. Just out of reach!
He was falling again, forever this time
And that was when his father came to him, out of the tomb of death,
out of the darkness of dream, grabbing his hand, and pulling.
Pulling and pulling...
Boba!
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
"Good Job, Teff!"
Boba smiled His father had covered him with a blanket made of stars,
and praised him, But didn't he know his name wasn't Teff? That was a stupid
made-up name for...
"Breathe, Taff!"
Who pulled the blanket away?
"Wake up."
Boba opened his eyes. He saw Garr's worried face.
They were in the airlock. Boba's helmet was off. He opened his mouth,
took a deep breath, and was like shaking hands with an old friend.
Air! Wonderful air.
"What happened?" he asked.
"You passed out," said Garr. "After you saved us. Using the air tank
like a little rocket. That was brilliant."
"Every action has an equal and opposite reaction," said Boba. "I think
that was one of my father's sayings. But what about the jump?"
"It happened. Feel it?" Garr placed Boba's hand flat against the
bulkhead, and there it was: the oscillating hum of the ship's null quantum
field generators. "The jump came just after I grabbed the handhold and
pulled us into the airlock. We barely made it!"
"Close call," said Boba as he hung up his space suit. "But I guess a
meter is as good as a kilometer."
"Another of your father's sayings?" asked Garr with a laugh.
"Where were you two?" asked Ulu Ulix when Garr and Boba got back to
the Orphan Hall. His three eyes were flashing fire; he was angry. "You know
there's a general alarm before a jump. You were supposed to report in."
"Sorry," said Boba. "It was my fault. We were at the rear observation
blister. I, uh, wanted to see what the stars look like from hyperspace."
"I appreciate your honesty, Teff," said Ulu Ulix, softening. "But
rules are rules. You two are restricted to the Orphan Hall for one day. No
more roaming around."
"No, please!" said Garr. "We're ten! We can't spend all our time with
a bunch of little kids."
"Apparently one of the airlocks was opened," said Ulu Ulix with a
teasing smile. "You wouldn't know anything about that, would you? You
should be more careful. If you get caught breaking the rules, you'll get me
in trouble with Master Glynn Beti. And that's the last thing I want!"
"That's also the last thing we want," Boba said quite honestly.
After that sullen day, if Garr ever wanted to find Boba, Garr knew
where to look.
The rear observation blister. The ROB.
Boba was watching and thinking. He knew he should understand what
secret Dooku thought he possessed. He remembered how bothered Dooku had
been when Boba called him Tyranus. Why was that so important?
Then suddenly - finally - Boba
understood. Tyranus had hired his dad
to help create an army of clone troopers. But now Count Dooku was fighting
the army he'd helped create. Why would you make an army and then fight
against it? Boba still had a puzzle, but he was now sure he held an
important piece - the piece Dooku had wanted to destroy. As Count Dooku,
the man was fighting against the Republic, but, as Tyranus, he had helped
create an army for that same Republic.
Boba decided to hide that information deep inside him for the moment.
