“Bring him up and stick him with the others, then. We will check on him just like the rest.”
Boba tried not to show the emotion in his face. The troopers were easy enough to fool; or perhaps they didn’t care. But the Jedi would see through his deception. They were looking for him; he had almost been apprehended on Coruscant. He was starting to think it was better to stay on Raxus Prime, foul as it was.
But wait! Boba’s new wisdom took over. The Jedi thought he was a war orphan. He would be put with other orphans, as she had said. If he kept his mouth shut, he would get food, shelter - and transportation to another planet, where he could begin the search for Aurra Sing and Slave I.
Self-sufficiency was all about using the opportunities that presented themselves. The Jedi wanted orphans - so Boba Fett would be Orphan Teff!
CHAPTER TEN
Boba stared out the narrow viewscreen as the powerful gunship rose above the slag heaps of Raxus Prime and into the clouds. He was glad to see then last of the galaxy’s most toxic planet!
A droid fighter closed in on them, but the craft’s automated turret targeted it and annihlated it with withering turbo fire. Below, skirmishes continued as clone troopers cleaned out the slave droids and continued their work in the Count’s compound.
As he watched the clone troopers work together to fly the ship, Boba felt pangs of jealousy: He yearned to get his hands on the controls of a ship. He missed flying; it was all he had ever cared about or wanted to do.
“Entering high orbit,” said CT-5/501. “Request permission to approach Candaserri.”
“Permission granted.”
The clones worked well together, executing the small tasks of maneuvering and communications with hardly a word among them. They flew the ship skillfully, avoiding fire and making precise judgments, but without any particular joy or style.
Boba found them fascinating, but slightly repellent. It was just too weird. They were his brothers, though they didn’t know it. Like him, they were clones of Jango Fett, but they had matured at twice the normal rate. They looked and acted twenty years old, not ten.
Their rushed maturity and other engineering meant that they were very narrow in their interests and enthusiasms. They seemed to have no fear, and no excitement, either. They weren’t the least bit interested in Boba, which suited Boba fine.
The less I see of these guys, the better.
Boba retreated to a back corner of the cockpit and he opened the black book his father had left him. He needed some advice. He needed to feel that he wasn’t entirely alone.
But there was no new message. Only the message that had brought him here:
Self-sufficiency you will learn from the Count.
The Count who had wanted to kill him? Who had stolen his father’s credits and cheated and betrayed him?
Yes. Boba suddenly understood what his father’s cryptic message meant.
The Count had taught Boba never to trust anyone again. The Count had taught him that he could rely only on himself.
The Count had taught him self-sufficiency. And with that came confidence.
Boba returned to the viewscreen. Stars! He greeted them like old friends, with a fierce joy. He hadn’t realized how much he had missed them on Raxus Prime, which was so polluted that the stars were never visible.
Space, cold and empty as it was, felt like home.
The gunship soared in silence through the void until an assault ship came into view - first as a single far-off dot of light, one among millions; then as a galaxy, spinning slowly; then as a dagger shape, larger and larger, festooned with dozens of turbo lasers. “Awesome,” said Boba. “What’s its name again?”
It was the biggest ship he had ever seen - as big as a city, floating in space.
“Starship Candaserri,” CT-4/619
reported.
“Republic
troopship, Acclamator-class. Seven hundred fifty-two meters long. Crew seven hundred, military and support personnel fifteen thousand five hundred.”
“And Jedi?” Boba asked.
“Only a few. They are in command, usually on the command bridge.”
“Any names?” Boba wondered if they would include the hated Obi-Wan Kenobi, or Mace Windu, who had killed his father.
“Glynn-Beti is the Jedi general who works with us,” said CT-4/619. “You will meet her or her Padawan, who is in charge of the orphans as well. “
“Padawan?”
“A Padawan Learner is an apprentice Jedi.”
Oh, thought Boba, remembering the young Jedi, Anakin Skywalker, who had also been present at Jango Fett’s death.
Boba felt a mixture of excitement and apprehension as they drew closer to the Candaserri’s rear docking bay.
Tiny figures could be seen behind the ports and windows: crew members going about their duties, clone troops drilling.