[Galaxy Of Fear] - 07(5)

“You see,” Hoole said to his niece, “there’s absolutely no danger here.”

He opened the hatch. But as he did, a white-armored boot lashed out and kicked him in the stomach. The Shi’ido stumbled backward as five stormtroopers leaped into the ship, their blasters drawn.

One of the Imperials spoke from behind his armored helmet. “You are all under arrest.”





CHAPTER 3


A fat Imperial officer waddled into the ship behind the troopers. His brown uniform barely held his belly in place. His chubby cheeks were damp and red from Tatooine’s heat, but he managed to look threatening as he raised his blaster.

“Who are you?” the officer asked.

Tash held back a shudder. The Imperials had found them. She tensed, expecting to feel the deadly heat of a blaster bolt at any moment.

Hoole slowly rose to his feet. “I am an anthropologist,” the Shi’ido explained without giving his name. “These are my… research assistants.”

It was a bad lie, but the stormtrooper hardly noticed. “Where is Karkas?”

“Who?” Hoole asked.

“The criminal,” Tash whispered.

The stormtrooper heard her. “Affirmative. He was spotted at the Koda Spaceport and then vanished. Three ships departed the spaceport at the time of his disappearance. Two of the ships, including this one, were tracked on courses for Tatooine. Now, where is he?”

Hoole carefully explained the mistake. They did not know Karkas, and they had certainly not allowed any criminals on board their ship. Tash told the officer that she had seen Karkas in the Koda cantina-and that the cantina’s owner had told her about the mark Karkas left on his victims-but that they had not seen him since. Hoole concluded, “The fact that our ship left at the same time he disappeared is pure coincidence.”

The Imperial official seemed to believe him-but only after his troopers had thoroughly searched the ship and found no sign of Karkas.

“Very well,” the officer said. “You are free to go where you wish on Tatooine. But,” he said, looking at Tash, “if you spot him again, inform me immediately. Contact the Imperial garrison here and ask for Commander Fuzzel.” The officer tried to suck in his round gut as he said, “A good thing for you Karkas was not here. That fugitive has quite a price on his head. When I find him, I intend to make him regret the day he was born. Now, on your way.”

Hoole, Zak, and Tash hurried out of the docking bay. Zak cast a nervous glance back over his shoulder. “That was not prime,” he said as soon as the Imperials were out of earshot. “We could have ended up in a detention block faster than a Hutt can count credits.”

“Indeed,” Hoole said without turning around. “Fortunately for us, Commander Fuzzel was more concerned with finding Karkas than with checking our identification.”

As they left the docking bay, they had to pass through another checkpoint. But this one was designed to track people leaving the planet. An Imperial soldier waved Hoole and the two Arrandas through as they examined the identification of two departing humans dressed in long brown robes.

“Those are the tallest Jawas I’ve ever seen,” Zak said.

“They are not Jawas,” Hoole said. “They are B’omarr monks. It is strange to see them out and about, let alone leaving the planet. The B’omarr monks usually keep to their chambers to study. Come, we must find transportation into the desert.”

They tried to rent a landspeeder from a local merchant. “Five hundred credits,” the merchant demanded.

“What?” Zak and Tash gasped.

Hoole glanced back at the Imperial troopers patroling the town. “Very well,” he said.

“But that’s way too high,” Tash insisted.

“Transports are in high demand,” the dealer explained. “The Imperials say there is a lot of criminal activity on Tatooine these days. They take speeders to use in their searches. Then the locals want speeders to avoid the Imperials. Bad news for you, but it keeps me in credits. By the way,” the merchant added, “what is your destination?”

Hoole paused. “The palace of Jabba the Hutt.”

“In that case, the price is double,” the merchant said, lowering his voice. “I’ve lost too many speeders that way. Visitors go out to Jabba’s palace… and they are never seen again.”

It took only three hours to ride from Mos Eisley to Jabba’s palace, but the trek seemed much longer under the blaze of Tatooine’s two suns. Just when Zak and Tash thought they would faint from the heat, Zak spied an enormous castle nestled among the rocks of a dry mountain range.

It was the palace of Jabba the Hutt, the most feared gangster in the galaxy.