[Boba Fett] - 1(29)

No air to breathe.

He closed his eyes. He was spinning, weightless, drifting away into The Big Isn’t. The nothingness of space. Of death.

Here I come, Dad, he thought. It was almost a peaceful feeling…

Then he felt gravity pulling at him like fingers, gently. Slowing his spin. Pulling him down.

Boba could hold his breath no longer. He gulped, expecting the cold rip of vacuum in his lungs.

Instead, he tasted air. It was hardly sweet but it tasted great to Boba.

He opened his eyes.

Aia had him by the hand again.

They were soaring in the sky of a different world. A smaller, smokier world.

“Bogg 11, yes,” said Aia.

They circled down toward Bogg 11 in long loops. Boba saw Slave I parked in a rocky little valley, surrounded by piles of spaceship parts.

“Luckily he’s just getting started,” Aia said. “We made it, yes.”

They landed on the side of a small, steep hill. Boba fell and rolled to a stop. He got up, dusted himself off, and started running down a rocky path, toward Slave I.

Honest Gjon saw them coming and stared. “What if he won’t give it back?” Boba asked.

He picked up a rock. He wished he had a blaster. “Don’t be silly,” said Aia. “Put down the rock.

Thieves have honor, yes?”

Yes. It seemed so. Sort of, anyway.

“Can’t blame a guy for trying!” said Honest Gjon, throwing up his hands. The bearded H’drachi’s smile seemed genuine.

Boba shook his head in exasperation and looked into the cockpit. The flight bag was still there. The battle helmet and the black book were inside it. Maybe there was honor among thieves after all.

Boba tried the book, and it opened.

Money is power.

Not much help, Boba thought, since l don’t have any. He closed the book and put it back into the flight bag.

Honest Gjon was watching Boba’s every move.

“What does it say?”

“It says you’re supposed to give me my money back.”

“No way!” said Honest Gjon. “I fixed your strut, didn’t I?”

“He did, yes,” said Aia.

“Can’t blame a guy for trying,” said Boba. They all shared a laugh.

But while Boba laughed, he tried to think of his next move.





CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE


Boba found that he liked these outlaws of the moons of Bogden. Crime was just a game to them. They were like bounty hunters, in a way.

“Coruscant’s a dangerous place,” said Honest Gjon, when Boba told him where he was going.

“And expensive,” said Aia. “You have no money, yes?”

“I have ten credits,” said Boba. “I guess that’ll have to be enough.”

“There are ways to get money, yes,” said Aia. “Such as?”

“Such as crime,” said Honest Gjon. “I happen to know of some mmoney being smuggled from Bogg 2 to Bogg 9. A few fellows with a good ship and a little luck could take what they needed.”’

“You could be one of those fellows, yes,” said Aia.

Boba was intrigued. Money is power. “You’re talking about a hijacking? A robbery?”

“An interception,” said Honest Gjon. “Not exactly a robbery, since it isn’t real mmoney, yes. It’s counterfeit credits. They are made on Bogg 2, then sent by light-air balloons to Bogg 9 when the alignment of the mmoons is just right.”

“The atmospheres brush together and the balloons pass from world to world,” said Aia. “Like we did, yes.”

“A smugglers’ trick,” said Honest Gjon. “And if we pick off one balloon on the way, no one will mmiss it.”

“They will think one just got away, yes,” said Aia. “Of course, catching it on the fly requires a very good pilot with a very good ship. You may be too young, yes.”

“I want a third,” said Boba. “When do we go?”

“In about ten minutes,” said Aia. He looked at Honest Gjon and winked. “I told you he would do it, yes?”

From space, Bogg 2 looked like a dry dirt clod, spiked with mountains. Boba cruised over slowly, then put Slave l into a slow holding orbit just above the atmosphere.

“No lights, no electrics, no radio,” said Honest Gjon. “That way we can’t be seen. The trick is to try to catch the balloon as it rises. If you get close, I will hook it into the hatch.”

“We should let the first one go, so they don’t suspect anything, yes,” said Aia. “Then grab the next one.”

“Sounds like a plan,” said Boba.

“Look,” said Honest Gjon. “Here comes number one.”

He handed Boba a viewfinder. Boba saw a red balloon rising out of a mountain valley.

He handed the viewfinder to Aia. The balloon rose swiftly in the low gravity. It streaked past, into the stormy space between the moons. A gondola hung below it, packed with bales of credits.