[Boba Fett] - 2(26)

“Not with those starfighters on our tail!” Boba shouted. “There’s no place to hide up there.” He had counted at least four from the Candaserri. The Jedi had called for reinforcements, and gotten them.

“Well, we’re not exactly invisible here!” Aurra Sing yelled back. “We’re surrounded - and there’s a storm coming. These Bespin storms are deadly.”

Maybe that can work to our advantage, Boba thought.

He checked the radar imagery. There it was - a monster storm, towering from the bottom levels of the atmosphere, all the way to the lower reaches of space. It was streaked with lightning, and it spun like a supersonic top.

“Hang on!” Boba cried. He spun Slave 1 out of the cloud, into the middle of the waiting Jedi starfighters.

KA-RANG!

KA-RANG!

Boba threw the little ship into a shimmy, dodging laser bolts as it streaked across Bespin’s cloud-stacked sky, with four - no, six - no, eight! - starfighters and a Cloud City sky patrol tight on its tail.

“Now you’ve done it!” cried Aurra Sing. “They’ve all seen us.”

“Not for long,” said Boba, thinking of his father as he headed straight for the lightning-stitched storm cloud. “Nobody follows where we’re going!”





CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO


Total darkness.

Then blinding light.

Slave I shook and spun and creaked and groaned.

The turbos were useless. Nothing could, match the power of the storm. The ship went where the storm sent it, which was down, down, down -

Slave I was designed to withstand the high vacuum of outer space, not the tremendous atmospheric pressures of a gas giant like Bespin. A crack appeared in the cockpit canopy; Boba smelled an acrid, toxic stench.

“We’re breaking up!” cried Aurra Sing. “I thought we were heading for space!”

“Me too,” answered Boba.

Both their voices were soon drowned out by,      the screaming of the wind. Boba stood the ship on end and hit the turbos, holding on for dear life. Slave I shook, it rattled, it rolled and spun and tumbled end over end. The lightning crashed over them in huge breaking waves, like a surf of light.

Boba saw: Aurra Sing’s face reflected in the viewscreen, and for the first time she looked more terrified than angry. The sight scared him. He knew that he looked even more scared.

Then, suddenly, it was over.

The silence was more terrifying than the noise. Boba knew that he was dead - he saw stars everywhere.

Cold, tiny, silent stars.

“We made it,” said Aurra Sing. “Good flying - for a dumb kid.”

Boba didn’t bother to answer. He was weak with relief. They had made it. Slave I was in space. The plucky little starship had climbed the spinning walls of the storm, all the way into orbit around Bespin. No one had dared follow.

“We need to talk,” said Boba. He was exhausted, but he felt a new confidence. “This is my ship. I want it back. Now.”

“Later,” said Aurra Sing, laughing. “There are other planets in this system where we’ll be less conspicuous. Unless you want to wait here for the Candaserri to spot us?”





CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE


“Your father and I were not exactly friends,” said Aurra Sing, once they were in orbit around dark planet; a sister to Bespin which was still visible as a tiny globe in the distance. “Bounty hunters don’t have friends. But I respected him. He was the real thing. No sentimental attachments, no loyalties.”

“Like you?” Boba asked.

“Sort of - and sort of like, you,” Aurra Sing went on. “You’re developing some of his better qualities. Not that I care. Our paths have only crossed out of my necessity.”

Boba wondered what this meant. “Let’s, uncross them, then,” he said. “This is my ship. Pick a planet, and I’ll put you off; we’ll say farewell,” “And good riddance, too,” said Aurra. Sing.

“But first we have a job to do together. You and me and your father, Jango Fett.”

“My father?”

“He was richer than anyone realized. He left credits and treasure stashed all over the galaxy. It’s yours, Boba. All you have to do is pick it up.”

“Where?” Boba asked. His heart was pounding with excitement.

Aurra Sing smiled. “Several places. I happen to know where they all are. That’s why we’re a team. I have the coordinates and you have the codes.”

“Codes? I don’t have any codes.”

“Your DNA and retinal scans are the codes. Your father made sure the treasure could only be accessed by his son.”

“Why should I trust you? How do you know all this?” Boba asked. “You already stole my ship once, and betrayed me to Dooku.”