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I was asleep. And I was dreaming. I was searching. Looking for something. I was angry. Very angry. And I wanted something. I wanted revenge.
Master Skywalker’s words drifted towards me, mingled with the voice of another.
Anger is of the Dark Side.
Then someone spoke my name. I had heard that voice before, saying that word. Or rather voices. There were two of them. It was silent for a while. Then:
I sat up in bed, sweat pouring off my forehead. I had had that dream before, when Mirax had been kidnapped by Leonia Tavira. But who was that second voice?
And then it hit me. It was the voice of Valin, my four-year-old son. Mirax was bringing him to the Jedi Temple here on Yavin 4 to start his training in a few days. What could it all mean?
The days passed, and I thought nothing of my dream. But on the day Mirax was supposed to arrive, we got someone else instead.
I was up in the control room, waiting for any sign of the Pulsar Skate, when a different ship appeared on the screen. It was the Jade's Fire.
"Jade's Fire to Jedi control," came Mara’s voice over the comm. "Do I have permission to land?"
Stretching out to Mara with the Force, I could feel something wrong. Mara was worried, and that had me rattled. Mara was never worried. Not for herself, anyway. But for her friends- yes.
"Sure, Mara. Not that we could stop you."
"Corran, I need to talk with you. It’s important."
"Sure thing, Mara. I’ll meet you at the landing field."
I got to the landing field just as Mara settled her blood red ship down in a smooth landing. The former Emperor’s Hand strode down the ramp. I met my friend halfway and shook her hand warmly. I caught a sense of Mara. It confirmed what I’d sensed earlier. Something wasn’t right.
"Corran, there’s something I’ve got to tell you." Mara said. "It’s about Mirax."
My blood froze. Six years ago Mirax had been captured by the Invids and handed over to the Saarai-kaar of the Jensaarai. It was only with the combined efforts of me, my wingmate Ooryl, and Master Skywalker that we managed to rescue her.
"What happened?" I asked, trying to keep calm.
"Irik ViKrannon put a bounty on her head. She refused to pay for protection and then lit up a flight of Headhunters on her way out."
"So where are they now?" I asked, breathing deeply.
"From what Talon told me, she got caught by a Trandoshan by the name of Bossk."
Bossk. The reptilian bounty hunter had, years before, killed my father in a cantina back on Corellia.
And now he had Mirax and Valin.
"Mara," I asked suddenly, "where’s Booster?"
"What?" She paused for a second. "The Venture’s off Rodia at the moment. Why?"
"At the moment, my X-wing’s on the Errant Venture. I’m going to go after Bossk and make him pay."
Mara decided to ignore the dark tones of my last statement.
"Um, and how are you getting there?" Mara asked.
"The Academy has two shuttles." I smiled grimly. "I was thinking of borrowing one of them."
"Tell you what, I’ll take you there. I’m meeting an information broker for Karrde on the planet anyway, and you’ll get there twice as fast. Besides, I owe Mirax a couple of favours."
She smiled wolfishly at me.
With the Fire’s extra speed, we made it to my father-in-law’s Star Destroyer much quicker than expected. Mara managed to get clearance to land in Bay 2, and dropped me off.
"Thanks, Mara. If you ever need anything, just give me a call."
"Or me," came a voice from behind me.
Booster!" I said, turning around. "How did you know we were here?"
"Simple." Mirax’s father grimaced at me. "For once, the Venture’s fragging sensors were working, and we picked up the Jade's Fire as you were coming in. Given that Mara usually travels and when Karrde comes he brings his own ship. As you looked as if you were coming from Yavin 4, I guessed it would be you."
I snorted.
"Well, Booster, with conclusions like that, you should hire yourself out to Cracken as a freelance analyst!"
"Yeah, Corran-sec. Why don’t you go smuggle spice for a Hutt?"
"Well, there was that one time..." I narrowed my eyes. "You know why I’m here, right?"
My father-in-law’s smile vanished and he nodded.
"I’ve heard." He looked at Mara. "I owe you and Karrde. Big time. If you want it, there’s an empty suite up on Opal that you can use."
"Actually, I’d love it, but my schedule’s tighter than Vader’s helmet." She shook my hand, and then Booster’s, and turned to go.
"Thanks, Mara," I said sincerely.
"No problem, Corran." She smiled. "It’s what you do for a friend." Pushing back her long black hair, Mara walked into her ship. She lifted up the ship on its repulsor-lifts and rocketed out of the bay and towards the lush green sphere of the planet Rodia below.
Booster glanced around the hangar bay, warily taking in the motley collection of creatures and droids engaged in loading and unloading the various ships docked in the hangar bay. I knew what he was thinking. Even with the Force, there was no way either of us would be able to tell if anyone was eavesdropping on us. My father-in-law stood up, and I could tell that he had reached the same conclusion.
As usual, Booster’s office was a mess. Datacards and flimsy printouts cluttered all the available surfaces. The remaining space was taken up by old droid parts, half-eaten, greasy Corellian food in various stages of decay, and random other bits of junk.
I brushed the arm of a protocol droid off a chair and sat down.
"What info do you have?" I asked my father-in-law. "All I’ve got is that they were picked up by Bossk after some crime lord put a bounty on their heads for not paying for protection and shooting up some of his Headhunters."
"You’ve got most of the details, Corran," said Booster. "Bossk picked her up at Rodia, which is why I’m here." He jerked his head towards the viewport. "But I’ll tell you something else. I know where Bossk is."
"How?" I asked.
"Simple. Way back before you joined the Rogues, Vader put a bounty on Han Solo’s head. Loads of bounty hunters went over to his flagship, the Executor, to discuss terms." The older man cleared his throat. "Vader had a mini tracker put inside the flesh of each of the bounty hunters. I’ve got the receiver for Bossk’s. Currently, he’s headed to Malastere."
"How long will it take to get there in my X-wing?" I asked, spitting Booster with an emerald stare.
My father-in-law raised his eyebrows.
"You’re thinking about going after them, aren’t you?" he asked me.
"Of course I am," I replied. "That was the reason I came here, to pick up my X-wing and go. How long will it take to fuel?"
"No can do, I’m afraid," said Booster.
"What? Why not?" I asked, surprised.
"Mirax picked Whistler up when she stopped here." The tall man smiled. "However, I do have something else to use."
Booster led me to what, if the Errant Venture had still been in Imperial hands, would have been the officer’s personal vehicles hangar. In a way, it still was.
There were no lights in the hangar, the only illumination provided by the red light from Booster’s glowing red eye. I pulled my lightsaber from my belt and thumbed it on, but even with that, I could hardly see anything.
"It’s empty, isn’t it?" I asked.
"No, it isn’t," he replied.
Drawing on the Force, I used it to augment my eyesight. I could see a black shape in the gloom, almost indistinguishable from the inky darkness that surrounded it.
What is it?" I asked my father-in-law.
"That," he replied proudly, "is my ship."
***************************
Inside the ship was the height of luxury, plusher than the Pulsar Skate.
"OK, so, what’s she called?" I asked.
"The Elion," replied Booster. "After Mirax’s mother."
We sat in silence for a while.
"I had her especially designed, you know," said my father-in-law to the open air. "Stealth plates, turbolasers, ion cannons, concussion missiles, proton torps, and top notch shields.
"It’ll make two point one past lightspeed. It’s even got a gravity well projector."
I grinned at him.
"Booster, you sly old pirate. For once I’m not going to ask how many laws you’re breaking. I can follow him, pull him out of space, disable his ship and board."
"Sure thing, Corran," said Booster. "But not I... We."
I nodded.
"Your ship, your decision."
"Right Corran," said Booster, "Let’s get some stuff and go."
"Sure, Booster. When Mirax left, did she leave a box of stuff with you?"
"She did," replied my father-in-law. "Why do you ask?"
"It’s got my blaster and a couple of other things, some of which are probably illegal."
"Ah," said Booster, stroking his goatee. "And what would that include..."
"Well, one of them would be an exact copy of Mara’s blaster. I picked it up when I escaped from the Lusankya and I never quite gave it back to Cracken."
Booster grinned. "I see." He tutted in a way that reminded me very much of one of my Drallish teachers in my primary school back in Corellia.
****************
We got ourselves kitted out with all the necessary items for a boarding party, blasters, combat jump suits, extra ammo, and all that kind of stuff. We also loaded the Elion with all kinds of stores.
At last we were ready, and I swiftly piloted Booster’s pride and joy into space. It was able to pull the tightest manoeuvres I could think up and its sensors could pick up a baby Mynock at 10,0000 klicks.
By the time we reached the jump point I was in love with the new ship.
Booster nudged me.
"She’s nice, isn’t she?" he grinned.
I pulled a lever and we leapt into hyperspace. The stars stretched into bright lines.
I nodded at him.
"You could say that."
**************
We came back to real-space in an uninhabited star system on Bossk’s route. As it was a fairly obscure system, and as we only had an hour until Bossk’s ship was scheduled to arrive, we decided to power up the gravity well projectors straight away. We double-checked and triple checked all the systems. Booster cleaned the blasters and I practiced against a remote with my lightsaber. The two of us changed into our AK47 combat jumpsuits and made our way into the cockpit. Booster was letting me fly the Elion, so he was acting as co-pilot.
Right on cue, the Hound’s Tooth burst into space. I zoomed towards the bounty hunter’s ship, and launched a double salvo of proton torpedoes, the blue projectiles streaking towards the converted freighter’s side. The port side turret flared to life, detonating two of the powerful missiles. The remaining pair slammed against the ships shields despite the torrent of blaster fire headed towards them. The pilot immediately tried to twist the ship around, but I sped after them, spraying a salvo of verdant green turbolaser fire from the main guns as I went.
I switched my fire over to the ion cannons and linked the powerful weapons so that they fired simultaneously.
"Divert power from the main turbolasers and the aft shields to the ion cannons," I snapped. "Put the defensive turrets on full auto. Then get the docking clamps ready." Booster complied with my orders, his hands flying over the controls like piranha beetles over a dead stintril.
I zoomed towards Bossk’s ship, and fired twice, the blue beams lancing towards the ship’s cockpit. The shots hit home, sending writhing tendrils of azure energy skittering over the ship, shutting down electronic systems and subsystems with its electrical caress.
Booster keyed in the docking command, and we sprinted down to the main airlock. I drew my lightsaber from my belt and Booster hefted a smoke grenade. I could feel the minds of Bossk’s crew by the hatchway, three creatures. We held our weapons ready, and the airlock hissed open slowly.
Booster threw his grenade before the doors had finished opening. It clattered on the decking before releasing its billowing clouds of smoke.
I rolled forwards, igniting my lightsaber in time to block a pair of scarlet blaster bolts. Whoever Bossk’s punks were, they were going in for the kill.
Booster charged through the gloom, blasting away at what he thought was a target, but was in fact was a tapestry-covered bulkhead. He had decided to wear infrared goggles to counteract the effects of the smoke. However, it couldn’t pick up walls, so could be a bit of a pain.
I, however, had the Force. I couldn’t use telekinesis, but I could sense people.
I deflected a couple of shots back to their owners, and suddenly caught sight of five red beams piercing the darkness. Another set joined them, and I realised they were the finger cutters of a mechanic droid.
The droid slashed at me with its right fist, and I raised my lightsaber in a sweeping parry but I had to roll to avoid a vicious stab from its left hand. It must have had combat programming, I thought as I blocked another attack.
"A little help over here would be nice!" yelled Booster. He had discarded his goggles and was currently crouching behind a console to avoid a fusillade of shots.
"I’m a bit busy," I managed to yell at my father-in-law as I jumped aside to the droid’s claws.
I rolled forwards, ending up behind the droid, and dealt it a vicious thrust-kick just below the knee joint that caused the droid to topple over. Reversing my weapon, I stabbed it through the droid’s torso, vaporising components and causing the droid's photoreceptors to dim and its finger beams to snap off.
I sprinted over to where Booster was crouching. He had taken a blaster wound on his shoulder that had somehow got between the plates of his body armour. I wasted no time and quickly sprayed some salve onto the wound.
I gave him a look over.
You okay?" I asked him.
"I’ll live," the older man grunted in response.
"Good. Grab your carbine. We’re up and over in three. One, two...THREE!"
I vaulted over the console and sprinted towards Bossk’s crew. As well as the Trandoshan, there was a young Twi'lek girl and a grizzled human. Swinging my lightsaber, I deflected a shot from Bossk’s heavy blaster that set an auburn Wookiee pelt alight. As my father-in-law loosed off a flurry of scarlet blaster bolts that hit the Twi'lek in the chest, I leapt at the blond man. I sensed through the Force that he was about to throw a vibroblade at me, so I switched my lightsaber to its secondary function. The three metre, violet blade came down in an arc that sliced the man’s hand off at the wrist. He screamed and clutched at the blackened stump. As I changed my weapon's blade back to its normal length, I smashed him behind the ear with the pommel of my weapon and he collapsed in a boneless heap.
"Don’t move, Horn, or I’ll blow your head off," came a rough voice from behind me. I cursed silently. Bossk. From the looks of it, he had just stunned Booster, and seemed none too happy with me for stabbing his droid and cutting off his partner’s hand.
"Now, give me your weapons." My lightsaber clattered to the floor and my blaster pistol followed suit. As I did so, I drew on the Force and showed the bounty hunter a vision -one of my father’s death. As the bounty hunter looked around in shock, I stepped forwards, drew my mini-blaster from its wrist sheath and jammed the small muzzle underneath the Trandoshan’s scaly jaw.
"One false move, bounty hunter scum," I snarled, "and you are gonna have a nice big smoking hole where your brain is."
"Now," I said, stepping back a pace, "which cell are my wife and son in?"
"They’re not on the ship," the reptilian bounty hunter grunted.
"Where are they now," I asked.
Bossk remained silent.
"TELL ME!" I roared, and pushed. Bossk went flying through the air and smashed against the bulkhead.
I raised my hands.
"Where. Are. My. Wife. And. Son?" I asked, punctuating each word with a storm of blue Force lightening.
"On...Xagobah..." the Trandoshan gurgled. "Already...with...Irik..."
"Bossk," I asked. "Tell me. Who hired you to kill my father?"