“If he tries to pull out of there,” said Rozhdenst, “he’ll tear that ship to pieces.”
Klemp peered closer at the image in the viewport. “It looks like … he’s got another idea …”
The Star Destroyer’s thruster engines had throttled back down. There was a moment of stillness at the end of the construction docks, lit by the encroaching flames, then the ship was lit suddenly brighter by the simultaneous flash of its arsenal of high-powered laser cannons going off. The bolts weren’t aimed, but achieved an impressive amount of damage despite that, ripping through the weakened structure of the docks and the twisted metal of the fallen crane. Another volley of flaring white bolts followed the first.
Now the two men at the viewport could see the crane and the surrounding docks slowly disintegrate, the girder beams and great, torn masses of durasteel collapsing across one another and into a loose tangle over the Dreadnaught. Once more, thruster engines lit up; this time, the awkward forward course of the ship sent the metal fragments scattering like straws.
Rozhdenst nodded in appreciation as he watched the Star Destroyer move away from the burning wreckage of Kuat Drive Yards and into open space. “Too bad …”
“Too bad that’s not one of our guys.”
19
A woman talked to a bounty hunter.
“You know,” said Neelah, “you could be a hero. If that was what you wanted.”
“Hardly.” Boba Fett’s voice was as flat and unemotional as it had always been. “Heroes don’t get paid enough.”
“Think about it, though.” A thin smile raised a corner of Neelah’s mouth. With one hand, she tugged higher upon her shoulder the strap of the bag she carried. “Or at least savor the irony. Your blasting your way out of the KDY construction docks did the Rebel Alliance more good than their own Scavenger Squadron was able to achieve.”
She and the bounty hunter were standing in the bridge of the Star Destroyer that Fett had managed to extract from the docks’ inferno. The massive ship was silent and empty, except for them.
“How do you figure that?”
“Simple,” replied Neelah. “Kuat of Kuat had
wired
up
enough sequentially linked explosives to blow up all of Kuat Drive Yards. If he couldn’t have it under his control, he didn’t want to leave anything but smoking rubble behind. But this Star Destroyer was one of the critical links in the chain; the detonator circuits ran right through its main thruster engine compartment. And when you pulled the ship out of the docks, the chain was broken. Kuat himself didn’t live long enough to see what happened, but the result is that over eighty percent of the KDY construction docks survived intact.”
Fett shrugged. “That’s not my concern.”
“Perhaps not.” Neelah regarded the bounty hunter. She’d had no expectation of what would come from this secret rendezvous with him. The comm message had come to her at the Scavenger Squadron’s mobile command post, giving the coordinates of where she was to meet up with an unnamed entity; she had known instinctively that the message was from Boba Fett. She hadn’t told Commander Rozhdenst about that, though, but had convinced him to let her go alone and unescorted, as the comm message had directed. It was her own decision to pilot the battered Hound’s Tooth to the rendezvous. “But,” she continued, “it might be my concern. If I want it to be.”
“Of course.” As always, Fett was way ahead of her. “Kuat of Kuat is dead. That means Kuat Drive Yards is going to need a new leader. The other ruling families can see how things stack up now-if the Rebel Alliance indicates that it wants you running KDY, they’ll undoubtedly fall into line.”
“I’m not sure about that.” Neelah shook her head in disgust. “I know the Kuatese ruling families better than you do, and a lot better than anybody in the Rebel Alliance. I was born into those families, remember? My sister Kodir isn’t the only one of them for whom treachery and scheming come easily. There are plenty of ruling family members who would just as soon back the Empire, if they thought it would serve their purposes.”
“And you don’t want to do anything to oppose them?”
“I’m not sure I want to.” Neelah could see her own reflection in the dark visor of Boba Fett’s helmet. “Or that I even care what happens to Kuat Drive Yards. After all that’s happened, I’m not exactly close to anyone on the planet Kuat. Kodir is the only direct blood relation I have, and she’s already being shipped down to face a tribunal of elders from the ruling families. There’s a lot of charges being made against her: conspiracy, murder, kidnapping …” Neelah slowly shook her head. “Loyalty doesn’t seem to run thick in the Kuhlvult bloodline. I don’t feel it, at least. And maybe Kuat of Kuat was right; maybe Kuat Drive Yards deserves something more than that.”