THE HUTT GAMBI(66)

Fett had checked his sources, and traced the woman to Corellia, then to one of the Outer Rim sectors, but then she’d dropped out of sight completely. There was one possible lead linking her to a private yacht bound for Coruscant, but that was an unconfirmed rumor at this point.

But … Fett hated the thought of not bringing in Solo to face a humiliating, painful end at the hands of the High Priest, Teroenza.

Fett had tortured captives, when necessary, to obtain information. He didn’t take pleasure in it–or in their deaths, when that was what the bounty required.

But for Han Solo, he was willing to make an exception …

“Well?” Jabba’s deep voice boomed, startling Fett out of his reflections.

“What do you say, bounty hunter?”

Boba Fett thought fast, and finally arrived at a solution that was, he felt, the best under the circumstances. It allowed him to maintain his integrity as a bounty hunter, while also allowing him to do the practical thing.

“Very well,” he said. “I’ll take the twenty-five thousand.”

Aruk wants me to pursue Tharen as a priority anyway, he told himself, so I’ll be fulfilling the client’s wish. And the bounty on the Tharen woman is fifty thousand, so when I’ve brought her in, I’ll send Jabba back his twenty-five, then hunt and kill Solo. Honor is satisfied, I’ll have fulfilled my commissions, and gotten the chance to see Solo die.

It was a good compromise, Fett decided. Everyone except Teroenza would be pleased—and, officially, Boba Fett wasn’t working for the High Priest, he was working for Lord Aruk. It was Aruk’s bounty, and the Besadii Lord had made it clear that all he wanted was Solo dead.

Simple and profitable. Fett was satisfied.

“Very well,” Jabba boomed, obviously pleased. He made a note on a palm-sized datapad. “A total of thirty thousand credits has just been added to your account.”

Fett inclined his head in that not-quite bow. “I’ll show myself out,” he said.

“No, no,” Jabba said hastily. “Lobb will have to open the blast door for you.” He pressed a button on his datapad, and the Twi’lek appeared seconds later, headtails flying. Lobb bowed repeatedly.

“Farewell, Fett,” Jabba said. “I shall keep you in mind for any further commissions Desilijic has.”

Boba Fett did not reply, only turned and followed the majordomo out, stopping on the way to pick up his blast rifle.

The blazing sands of Tatooine seemed doubly bright after the darkness of Jabba’s throne room, but Boba Fett’s Mandalorian helmet automatically filtered out the harmful rays, allowing him to see clearly.

Boarding Slave I, he took off, checking his departure vector, swooping low over the scorching desert. Fett glanced down at those featureless expanses, those dunes that rippled, almost like the waves of an ocean.

He’d rarely been to Tatooine, and he couldn’t imagine ever returning.

What a desolate place. He knew that there was supposed to be life in the deserts, but here, there was nothing. Just unmarked sand.

But wait … what was that?

Fett leaned closer to his viewscreen as Slave I swooped over a huge pit that yawned open at the bottom of a depression in the sand. Fett thought he saw something moving within the pit … spiky fronds or perhaps tentacles.

Wonder what that thing is? he thought, sending Slave I soaring up into the atmosphere. Guess there is something living in that desert, after all.

Moments later the stark brownish world was far behind the bounty hunter, so distant it was not even a memory…

One week after leasing the Bria from Lando, Han Solo was cursing the little freighter, himself, Lando, and the universe in general.

“Chewie, old pal,” Han said, during a moment of uncompromising honesty, “I am an idiot for picking this ship. She’s nothing but a pain in the ass.”

“Hrrrrrrrnnnnnn,” rumbled Chewie, in complete agreement.

The Bria needed considerable work, they discovered from almost the very beginning. She’d flown fine during their “test spin,” but as soon as the lease was finalized, the problems erupted like geysers on the methane moons of Thermon. The first time they took their new acquisition out on a smuggling run, for the first ten minutes the ship worked fine … then the aft stabilizer shorted out, and they had to have her towed back to Nar Shaddaa via tractor beam. They fixed the stabilizer, aided by Lando’s little tentacled droid, Vuffi Raa (whom, it seemed, was the Millennium Falcon’s main pilot these days), and then tried again.

This time the bow stabilizer blew.

Han and Chewie fixed the Bria again, cursing and sweating through the repairs, then tried again. And again. Sometimes their little SoroSuub