Crossfire

by Terry Bisson

  "It was a misunderstanding," said Boba. "But because of it, I can't

  stay with the Jedi."

  "You can stay with me!" said Garr. "My parents will be returning for

  me soon, I know they will! They will take you in. We can be brothers. Or

  brother and sister. Or whatever."

  Boba shook his head. "You are truly my friend," he said, "but I can't

  afford to have friends. I have my own road to travel, alone. I must go my

  own way."

  "But.." Garr's big brown eyes were filling with tears.

  "We must say farewell," said Boba.

  "Good!" came a voice that was at the same time familiar and

  frightening. For the second time that day, Boba felt a hand on his

  shoulder. Only this one was cold, with a grip like steel.

  "Boba Fett."

  Boba turned, slowly, because of the hand that pinned his shoulder. He

  saw bone-white skin, black eyes rimmed with kohl, a muscular but womanly

  figure in a red jumpsuit, and a shaved head topped with a single long lock

  of bright red hair.

  And blazing angry eyes.

  "Aurra Sing!" It was the bounty hunter who had captured him and stolen

  his ship. "I knew it! I saw Slave I following the Candaserri."

  Boba tried to twist away but Aurra Sing held his shoulder tight. Then

  Garr started kicking her. "Let go of him! Take your hands off him!"

  "Who's this?" Aurra Sing asked, picking up Garr by the hair, so that

  the kicks only afflicted the air. "Do I kill it or just toss it over the

  side?"

  She held Garr out over the railing, suspended by a lock of hair over a

  thousand kilometers of empty air.

  "Neither!" said Boba, finally twisting free. He put his hands on his

  hips and faced Aurra Sing defiantly. "Garr is my friend. As you are not.

  What is it you want with me?"

  "I want to make you an offer you can't refuse," said Aurra Sing. With

  a quick toss, she dropped Garr back on the bench.

  "O000ph!" said Garr. "What's going on here? Who are you? Who is Boba

  Fett?"

  "Your little friend is too nosy," the bounty hunter said to Boba,

  without looking at Garr. "You and I have business, so tell him to make

  himself scarce."

  "Go," Boba said simply to his friend. He tried to keep his voice cold.

  That was the only way to get Garr to leave. "I told you, I have no room for

  friends. You heard what she said. Disappear."

  Garr resisted. When Aurra's hand moved to her blaster, Garr was

  convinced.

  "Good-bye," Garr said sadly in farewell.

  Boba allowed himself to say a heartfelt goodbye back. Though his heart

  felt real pain, that was it.

  "What is this offer?" Boba turned to Aurra Sing and demanded as soon

  as Garr was gone. "All I want from you is my ship back."

  "Then we're in agreement," said Aurra Sing. "That's what my offer is -

  your ship back."

  "Slave I." Boba's eyes were wide with hope and excitement. "Where is

  it?"

  "Not here." Aurra Sing's eyes scanned the other beings on the terrace.

  "Too many eyes and ears. There is a city called Tibannapolis, not too far

  from here. Meet me there at noon tomorrow."

  "And if I don't?"

  "You will, if you want to see Slave I again," said Aurra Sing. She

  tossed Boba a coin. "Here - a good faith offering. It will rent you a cloud

  car, which you will need to find Tibannapolis. Look for me near the ancient

  refinery known as Revol Leap. If you show up with Jedi or officials, the

  deal's off. You'll never see your precious ship again. Now I have to tend

  to business."

  Then, with a flip of her topknot, and without a word of farewell, she

  was gone.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  One hundred credits.

  Boba checked the prices, and found out that he had barely enough to

  hire a cloud car, with enough left over for, a meal, as long as it was a,

  small one. He dragged it out as long as possible, wondering what he was

  going to do to pass the time until his meeting with Aurra Sing. He knew

  he'd have to avoid the Jedi who might be looking for him - and he wondered

  why Sing would want to give him back his ship. She must want something in

  return, or was it a trap? And What if she were caught by the Jedi?

  Unfortunately, he couldn't exactly turn her in himself.

  Noon tomorrow - it seemed like a long time away. But it wasn't. Bespin

  turned so swiftly on its axis that the days were only twelve hours long.

  Boba barely had time to grab a nap on a park bench before it was time to

  go.

  *

  The cloud car was a neat little item: two open-cockpit cabs, or

  nacelles, attached by a three meter-long shaft that held the repulsorlift

  engines. Boba chose to ride in the cockpit with the driver, a short and

  prickly Ugnaught, a native of Bespin - or so Boba thought.

  "You from around here?" he asked, just to make conversation... and

  maybe learn a thing or two about the planet he was now stuck on.

  "We were brought here by Lord Figg," said the driver. "He gave us our

  freedom, in return for our labor building Cloud City. We are eternally

  grateful to him for..."

  The Ugnaught driver droned on, but Boba was more interested in

  studying the cloud car's simple controls: a ring that was pushed in for

  down and pulled out for up, or twisted for turns.

  I could fly this thing better than him!

  As Cloud City dwindled into the distance, and the cloud car darted in

  and around the multicolored towers of fog and vapor, Boba began to

  appreciate the exotic beauty and appeal of Bespin. The atmosphere was

  buoyant and thick, so it required little energy to fly or to float. Things

  fell slowly, when they fell.

  Evolution had produced thousands of forms of small, colorful life,

  which fed on one another with happy abandon. Boba saw larger creatures,

  too. Great floating sacks, with amorphous forms and shifting colors. They

  were herded by men on batlike creatures.

  "Wing riders," said the cloud car driver. "Riding on Thrantas. Not

  native to Bespin. But then few of us are. We Ugnaughts were actually

  brought here by..."

  "You already told me," said Boba.

  "Sorry," said the cloud car driver. "It's just that we have found our

  freedom here, and we are eternally grateful to the..."

  "You already told me," said Boba. He looked out the window. "There.

  What's that?"

  The cloud car was spiraling down through a scrim of clouds. Below,

  Boba saw a huge, round, rusted wreck of metal and plastic, floating at a

  tilt.

  "Tibannapolis," said the driver. "I'm out here at least once a week."

  It looked to Boba as if the entire abandoned city were scraps on a

  plate, about to slide off into the garbage can. "Why would anyone come

  here?" he wondered.

  "Souvenir hunters," said the driver.

  "Can you tell me where Revol Leap is?"

  "I can do better than that," said the squat little Ugnaught. "I can

  take you there." Instead of weaving in and out of the ruined buildings, he

  dove under the city. Looking up, Boba could see rusted remains of the

  Tibanna processing factories and mines. The flat bottom of the floa
ting

  city was covered with algae, and plants that fed on the algae, and floating

  beasts that fed on the plants, and plants that fed on the beasts that fed

  on the plants.

  This is a harsh universe, Boba thought to himself. / must follow my

  father's example and become harsh also.

  Revol Leap was at the city's edge - a section of tower as jagged as a

  broken tooth that hung out over the emptiness.

  Suddenly - a spot of orange, a sleek nose, a stubby wing, a familiar

  beloved shape...

  Slave 1. There it was! Idling on a warpout deck under the twisted

  spire of the Leap.

  And standing next to it was Aurra Sing.

  She looked as fierce as ever, with her red hair gleaming in the dim

  light that filtered through the clouds. Mad at the galaxy, Boba thought.

  But why? That kind of anger seemed more of a hindrance than a help.

  Remain calm at all costs was Jango's way. And it will be my way, too,

  thought Boba.

  As the cloud car slowed, hovered, and landed, Boba was surprised to

  realize that he was glad to see Aurra Sing.

  It had been nice to have a friend like Garr. But what good was a

  friend you have to hide the truth from?

  Aurra Sing wasn't a friend, far from it; but at least she knew who

  Boba was.

  "Want me to wait?" the driver asked as he landed, the little cloud car

  scraping on the steel with a harsh sound.

  "No," said Boba, pulling out his flight bag and throwing the driver

  his last credits. "Keep the change."

  "Hey, thanks, pal," the Ugnaught said. Boba realized he had overtipped

  him. But what did it matter? Slave I was back!

  He waved at Aurra Sing. She of course didn't wave back. Too busy

  scowling at the galaxy. Boba wondered what would happen if the galaxy

  scowled back

  And suddenly it did.

  CRACK! CRACK!

  Two laser bolts hit near Aurra Sing. Another hit near the cloud car.

  The Ugnaught driver jumped out of the cloud car and ran for the safety

  of a nearby building. Aurra Sing stood her ground and looked up. Boba ran

  to her side and followed her glance.

  A Bespin sky patrol skimmer was diving out of the clouds, firing at

  Slave I.

  "You betrayed me!" Aurra Sing cried. She reached under her robe and

  drew out a blaster. Then she backed toward the Slave 1.

  "Wait!" Boba said, running after her. "I didn't tell them anything.

  How can you be so sure it's the Jedi anyway?"

  Aurra Sing grinned as she opened the cockpit. "Who else would be

  trying to kill me? And failing so miserably?"

  Boba scrambled up behind her. "Now we can get away."

  "Sorry, kid, the deal's off!" Aurra Sing said. "When you told the Jedi

  where we were meeting, you blew it."

  "I never told anyone anything! It wasn't me!" Boba threw his flight

  bag into the ship. The engines were already idling. Aurra Sing grabbed Boba

  and hurled him from the vehicle. He hit the steel deck of the floating city

  so hard that it knocked the breath out of him. Before he could get back on

  his feet, she'd closed the ramp, fired up the turbos, and taken off.

  Boba barely had time to jump free, dodging the blistering exhaust.

  "Come back!" He looked up. Slave I was rising into the clouds, with

  the sky patrol craft close behind. The battle was on. Both ships were

  firing now, streaking the sky with tracer blasts.

  Boba wanted to be part of the fight. He wanted to be at the controls

  of his ship again. But how?

  With his eyes on the sky, he backed up, clenching his fists in

  frustration.

  Then he remembered the cloud car.

  Pull for UP, push for DOWN. Piece of cake.

  Boba took off in hot pursuit of the sky patrol craft, which was in hot

  pursuit of Slave 1. In space, he knew he wouldn't have a chance of catching

  up. But in the thick atmosphere of Bespin, all vehicles were relatively

  slow.

  The cloud car was ridiculously easy for him to fly. And sweetly

  maneuverable. Boba felt his blood drumming an excited beat. It was great to

  be back at the controls of a ship, even a little tourist hauler.

  Boba was falling behind, so he took a shortcut through a cloud. He had

  guessed right: he came out above Slave 1, where Aurra Sing couldn't see

  him. She had slowed to a near hover.

  She was planning something.

  Boba watched as Aurra Sing slipped into a bank of clouds, as if to lie

  in wait. And soon he saw what she was waiting for.

  The sky patrol craft cruised into view, circling the cloud, scanning

  the horizons for Aurra Sing. Little did its pilot know that the pursuer had

  become the pursued, and that Aurra Sing was preparing an ambush.

  Holding his breath, Boba watched the sky patrol craft drift past the

  cloud. Any moment now, there would be a blast of laser fire, and the broken

  pieces and shattered crew of the patrol craft would fall slowly into the

  depths of Bespin's atmosphere, where they would all be crushed flat, lost

  forever in the toxic soup of heavy gases.

  Good riddance! Boba thought. Then, as the craft drew nearer, he saw

  who was in it. There at the controls was a Bespin pilot while Glynn-Beti

  gave orders. Beside her was Ulu Ulix, and beside him, Garr.

  So it was Garr who betrayed me! Garr must have told the Jedi

  everything! But still... my friend. No doubt thinking this would help...

  A few more meters and they would all be in Aurra Sing's sights.

  There was no time to think. Boba pushed the ring forward and dove,

  faster and faster. He cut in front of the patrol ship, surprising it and

  throwing it off course, just as Aurra Sing's laser bolt fired

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  - and missed, by centimeters.

  The little cloud car might have been small, but it was also amazingly

  fast. With the sky patrol craft in pursuit, Boba dove down under the city

  and threaded the cloud car into the forests of dangling algae, where it was

  all but invisible among the thousands of strands some of which were

  hundreds of meters long.

  The patrol craft was right behind. After a quick look around, though,

  it left, presumably to resume the search for Aurra Sing. Wonder if they

  know I saved their lives, Boba thought. He didn't regret it, though he

  wondered if it had been the smart thing to do. If he had let Aurra Sing

  blow them to pieces, he would perhaps be with her now, in Slave I.

  Now, here he was in the weeds. Nowhere, with nowhere to go. A ten-

  year-old boy in a stolen craft. No money, no friends; he didn't even have

  his precious flight bag. What was that?

  Boba wasn't the only one hiding in the weeds. Slave I was cruising

  through, slipping silently among the hanging fronds. Was Aurra Sing hiding

  from the sky patrol craft or chasing it? It was impossible to tell.

  The cloud car had no comm unit. But what did it matter? Boba was sure

  Aurra Sing wouldn't talk to him anyway. She was convinced he had betrayed

  her - and even though she was wrong to think he had told the Jedi where to

  find her, he had betrayed her by spoiling her ambush.

  If she sees me, she'll run. Or worse, blast me.

  If only
I could sneak up on her, Boba thought. And then, watching her

  drift slowly toward the edge of the platform, he thought of a way that he

  could.

  Keeping the cloud car hidden in the hanging fronds, he followed Slave

  I across the underside of the abandoned city. It was clear now that Aurra

  Sing was hiding from the Jedi. She was hovering, barely using her jets. Had

  she lost her nerve?

  Boba knew that as soon as the Jedi were gone, she would be hitting her

  turbos, blasting for space.

  If this is going to work, I have to make my move now, he thought. It

  meant taking a chance, but Boba was getting good at taking chances.

  She was drifting past. Boba waited, with his hand on the edge of the

  cloud car's open cockpit, until Slave I was directly underneath.

  Then he stood up.

  And stepped over the edge, into the open air.

  As he fell, slowly at first, then faster and faster, Boba watched the

  ship below.

  It was tiny; Bespin was huge.