[Boba Fett] - 2(19)

“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. He had his father’s instinct for knowing it would come in handy later on. It was part of his father’s legacy to him… for better or for worse.

“Boring,” said Garr the next day, staring out.

Boba had to agree. Hyperspace looked like a clumsy child’s drawing of a universe, a first draft.

“Those streaks are stars?” Garr asked.

“Stars smeared across space-time,” said Boba. “When we drop out of hyperspace, they will look more like stars.”

“Like the orange one?”

Boba looked up from his book Operational Starfighters. He had been watching the tiny, flickering orange star for days, almost lost amid the smears.

“It’s not a star,” Boba said to Garr. “If it’s not a streak, that means it’s matching our speed exactly. Following us, maybe.”

Curious, he thought. He wished he could see it better.

“We’ll find out soon enough,” said Garr. “Ulu Ulix sent me to get you. We’re getting ready to jump out of hyperspace, and we’re supposed to be secured in our quarters.”

“Let’s go, then,” said Boba. The last thing he wanted was trouble with Ulu Ulix or his Jedi Master, Glynn-Beti. “Gotta keep them happy!”

The jump was uneventful. Just a weird lurch, a moment’s dizziness.

The orphan kids’ moods improved immediately. Boba and Garr went to the commissary for their first untroubled meal. Lunch after hyperspace was like breakfast after a long sleep. Everyone was buzzing with excitement.

“We must be near Bespin.”

The announcement would come from the bridge soon. Hyperspace jumps were a little unpredictable, but only a little.

After lunch, everyone went forward to the main observation blister, or MOB, to see the stars. Everyone except Boba. He went alone, back to the ROB.

That tiny star; there was something about it.. He picked up the viewer and scanned the sea of stars for the little orange light.

It no longer stood out, like it had in hyperspace. But he found it, just where he had thought it would be, directly behind the Candaserri.

Boba zoomed in for a better look. It was a ship. It was tiny, and it was several kilometers away, but clearly matching speed and course with the Candaserri.

Following. Shadowing. What for?

The orange color came from the glint of starlight on the rusty, battered hull.

The familiar hull.

Boba wiped his eyes. Could it be that he was overtired, just seeing things? He dialed the zoom, bringing the little ship closer, until he could see the stubby wings, the scratched cockpit, the pitted sides. He could even see the pits that had been put into the ship while flying through the asteroid belt on its way to Geonosis.