[Bounty Hunter Wars] - 03(85)
Neelah glanced over at Boba Fett. Even through the dark visor of the bounty hunter’s helmet, the fierce radiation of the glare directed at Balancesheet was discernible.
“Especially since you brought more company with you!” Balancesheet tapped its claws together. “Let’s not spoil the occasion for them.”
It was the first time that Neelah had seen one of the creatures that had been described to her by Dengar. The repulsiveness of its spiderlike form was mitigated for her by its relatively small size; she could have picked it up and held it in the palm of her hand. Well, thought Neelah, maybe both hands. At any rate, there had been uglier-and more immediately dangerous-creatures back in Jabba the Hutt’s palace.
“Let me think for a moment…” Balancesheet pointed one of its claw tips at Dengar. “I remember you; one of my predecessor’s customers, I believe.”
Dengar nodded. “Yeah, I did a couple of jobs that’d been arranged through Kud’ar Mub’at.”
“And you survived-that’s a credit to your skills. Not everybody in your position did.”
“Yeah, well…” Dengar shrugged. “I didn’t get rich from them, either.”
“Nobody did,” said Balancesheet. “Kud’ar Mub’at was a fool in many ways. You can’t do business with creatures as dangerous as bounty hunters and the like, and just keep shortchanging them the way it did. Eventually, all that catches up with you.”
Dengar glanced back through a small viewport beside the transfer hatch. Through it, some of the remaining fragments of Kud’ar Mub’at’s web were visible, drifting in space. “You could say that, all right.”
“You, however …” Balancesheet turned his bright multiple gaze toward Neelah. “I haven’t met you before. But you might be surprised at how much I know about you.”
“Maybe not,” replied Neelah coldly. “Depends upon how much you know about Nil Posondum. And Ree Duptom. And whoever it was that used your predecessor to hire Duptom to kidnap me and have my memory wiped.”
“I see.” Balancesheet nodded its small triangular head. “You’re a very clever young human female, Neelah-that’s what you’re called, isn’t that correct?”
She hesitated a moment, then nodded in agreement. She had decided to keep a few of her secrets awhile longer, until there was a way of knowing how much the small assembler knew.
“You’ve come to some interesting conclusions.” Balancesheet continued to regard her. “But it might or
might not have been the late Ree Duptom who did all those unfortunate things to you.” A tiny smile showed on the assembler’s face. “Doesn’t really matter, though, does it? The effect is largely the same, my esteemed guest.”
She made no reply.
“It must be genetic,” said Boba Fett. “You’ve gotten as bad as Kud’ar Mub’at ever was, with all the cheap pleasantries.”
“I was unable to speak as I wished while I was still part of old Kud’ar Mub’at. My rhetorical skills have greatly increased since then.”
“Why don’t we dispense with them and get down to the reason we came here.”
“But of course.” Balancesheet turned its jagged smile toward the helmeted bounty hunter. “And surely that reason is that you’re looking for answers. But I don’t think you’ve found any so far, have you?”
“Not the ones we wanted.”
“Or any at all, I imagine.” The narrow triangular head gave a small shake. “I could have told you that your search would be pointless. Because, believe me, I’ve already tried. That’s why I’m here in this sector, with this ship that’s become such a home to me. I had heard about your previous inquiries into the possibilities presented by the nature of arachnoid assembler physiology, Boba Fett; I didn’t think you would be interested in the subject unless there might be a use for that knowledge someday. And so I found out a few things on my own. Enough to go rummaging through the scraps of Kud’ar Mub’at’s old web-my previous home, in its way-and through the memories of my predecessor. Of course, I didn’t need to go through as elaborate a procedure as you and your partner were forced to; but then, I am of the same species as the late Kud’ar Mub’at. I was able to merely integrate the various pieces of the web, and even that withered husk that its spirit and mind once resided in, into an extrusion of my own cerebro-nervous system, and I could access all of its residual memories without even bringing Kud’ar Mub’at back to momentary consciousness.”