by
one
Owen
Lars-nobody important-and operated by him and his wife, Beru, assisted by a young nephew of theirs. Who just happened to be someone very important-“
“Luke Skywalker,” said Dengar. “That’s who you’re talking about, isn’t it?”
“Indeed.” Boba Fett gave a single nod. “Enough of the details have become known, about Skywalker’s transformation from an insignificant, planet-bound nonentity with big and hopeless dreams to a major figure in the Rebel Alliance, to have already coalesced
into
legend.
And
that transformation could be said to have begun with a raid by Imperial stormtroopers on that dreary little moisture farm, a raid that left Skywalker’s aunt and uncle as little more than blackened skeletons in the ruins.”
“So what’s the big mystery about that? Darth Vader ordered the stormtrooper raid on the moisture farm-a lot of creatures in the galaxy know about that by now.” Dengar shrugged his shoulders. “Anybody who’s had any contact at all with the Rebel Alliance has heard most of the story.”
“The mystery,” said Boba Fett quietly, “has to do with what I found in the deactivated cargo droid aboard Ree Duptom’s ship. The spy device’s audio and video records documented the stormtroopers’ raid; the droid must have been hiding and watching from behind a nearby sand dune. The details, when I played back the files, were consistent with the known accounts of the raid and its aftermath. There were only Imperial stormtroopers to be observed, going about their lethal business. But the additional data that the cargo droid’s spy recordings held-the olfactory information, taken from the atmosphere at the time and place of the raid on the moisture farm-indicated somebody else had been there, as well as the stormtroopers.”
“All right”-Neelah spread her hands apart, waiting to hear- “who was it?”
“In the analysis of the spy device’s olfactory data were
the unmistakable pheromones of a male of the Falleen species.” Boba Fett raised a finger for emphasis. “That much was easily determined. But using my own databases aboard Slave I, I was able to narrow it down even further. The specific pheromone traces could only have come from a member of the Falleen nobility; there’s a genetic marker that is unique to that bloodline.”
“A Falleen nobleman?” Dengar’s brow creased as he puzzled over the information. “But they’re all dead now-
“There was one still alive,” said Boba Fett, “at the time of the stormtrooper raid on Tatooine. Before that, the Falleen nobility had been virtually wiped out by a genetic warfare experiment, one that was initiated by Lord Vader. Of that family grouping, the only surviving member was Prince Xizor, who was then the head of the Black Sun organization.”
“I don’t get it.” Dengar felt even more confused than before. “You’re saying that Prince Xizor was part of the raid that killed Luke Skywalker’s aunt and uncle? But Xizor would’ve had to have been directing the Imperial stormtroopers somehow, but keeping himself out of sight-“
“Not at all.” Boba Fett put his gloved hands flat on the arms of the pilot’s chair again. “The spy device into which the cargo droid had been transformed contained the evidence of Prince Xizor being present at the raid on the moisture farm-but the evidence might not have been genuine.”
“Faked? You mean somebody else created some kind
of phony evidence and planted it inside the cargo droid?” The possibilities were multiplying faster than Dengar could keep track. “Or maybe Xizor himself did it for some reason.” That didn’t seem to make sense, but then very little seemed to anymore. “But why? Why would anybody do that?”
“That,” replied Fett, “is something I do not know. Or at least, not yet. But the chances of the evidence having been manufactured, with the purpose of making it appear that Prince Xizor had something to do with the raid that killed Skywalker’s aunt and uncle, remain considerable.”
“I don’t see why that should be.” Arms folded across her breast, Neelah seemed less than impressed with Boba Fett’s analysis. “Why make things more complicated than they need to be? Maybe this Xizor creature really did lead the raid, and somehow he got caught out at it, even though he’d tried to keep himself hidden.”
“There’s several reasons for being suspicious about the evidence I found inside the cargo droid. One is that Lord Vader and Prince Xizor were mortal enemies, even as they continued their roles as Palpatine’s loyal servants. Of course, it served the Emperor’s purposes to have Vader and Xizor at each other’s throats, just as I suspect it served his purpose to pretend he didn’t know that Xizor was the leader of Black Sun. The Emperor has a devious mind-he derives more of his power from that, I believe, than any mystical Force-and it suited him for the moment to keep Xizor on a long leash. The time came, though, when the prince found a tighter grip around his neck than he would ever have thought possible. He wasn’t clever enough to avoid being caught in the snare that he helped weave around himself-and that cost him his life. I don’t intend to follow his example.” Boba Fett leaned back in the pilot’s chair, his visor-shielded gaze regarding his audience. “The upshot of the enmity that existed between Xizor and Vader is that it would have been unlikely in the extreme for Xizor to have taken any part in the stormtrooper raid without Vader having known and, more, having approved of it-yet none of my information sources on the Imperial planet of Coruscant, some of them close indeed to Vader, have ever indicated that was the case. Similarly, my contacts inside Black Sun never reported their leader Xizor getting hooked up with one of Darth Vader’s operations. Therefore, the best analysis would be that the evidence linking Xizor to the raid had been created by some third party, possibly as a way of drawing unwanted attention toward Prince Xizor. That possibility is reinforced by Ree Duptom’s own history, before he met his death aboard his own ship: he had been involved on several previous occasions with various disinformation campaigns, some of them actually linking back to Emperor Palpatine’s court. It had become something of a speciality with Duptom, the discreet spreading of lies in the various watering holes of the galaxy, so that they would do the most good for whoever had hired him.”