I, Boba

The day I put on the bounty hunter's Mandalorian armour, I had no idea in what a mess it would all end. If I had known -- well, it's not as if I had had much of a choice then, so I guess I'd have done it all the same. After all, it was a choice between being Boba Fett or being dead.
And so I was here today, in the mess that had once been my life. Here, in the company of the galaxy's most feared man, if you could still call him that. Whatever was said about him, I felt akin to Lord Vader. Like me, he was always hidden beneath his mask, and nobody really knew what it is hiding. Like me, nobody knew him.

Only that I wasn't even a him. I was a her. And I hadn't used my name in such a long time that I sometimes almost forgot that I used to be Lorna Kees lifetimes ago. There was no time to be Lorna anymore; I had been too good at being Boba Fett.

"No disintegrations," Vader told me just then, wagging his finger at me.

I guess that one will stay with me forever. I suppressed a sigh. Having salt rubbed into old wounds was not what I was here for, and I thought that Vader was the only person who still dared to mention that incident. All others had shut up by themselves after I helped some of them shut up permanently. I couldn't have speculations about the incident, none. It was too dangerous.

"As you wish," I reply, knowing that it will sound much more grinding though the voice filters.

I was not the only one that had followed the Empire's call. Bossk, Zuckuss and Dengar, even IG-88 had come to find out how much Solo was worth to the Empire. The amount was higher than what Jabba offered, but I was sure the Hutt would not meddle with imperial affairs. Not if Vader himself was behind the bounty. Besides, there was another bounty on princess Organa's head now, too -- one that was as high as Solo's.

There was commotion among the officers suddenly, and I figured that they had spotted their target and finally locked a tractor beam on it. Pity, but maybe the Imperials left enough of Solo for me to collect Jabba's bounty. I didn't think Zuckuss and 4-LOM or Dengar knew about it, or that IG-88 even cared, but even if, I was sure I could handle them. After all, I was Boba Fett.

Dengar took of in a run, probably hoping to get to the Falcon first and still collect the bounty, which was not a wise move since it would annoy Lord Vader. And annoying Lord Vader meant signing your own death sentence. The other hunters waited to see what happened next, and only moment later Solo's ship scraped across the Executor's hull and vanished.

The bridge was deadly silent, the crew was taut, scared of Vader's reaction. The other bounty hunters, though, took the chance to get the information on Solo and make a run for their ships. The chase was on again.

I watched the other them leave, eager to begin the race. Like the Imperials they had accepted for a fact that Solo's hyperdrive had suddenly been repaired. They were good in their own ways, but there was one thing they couldn't or wouldn't do: think like their prey. I did, and I was the best. Solo's hyperdrive was not supposed to work, so I assumed it didn't. Forget about all those speculations here, it didn't work, which meant that Solo was still around somewhere. And now the possibilities were limited.

Of course, he could be hiding in the asteroid field, most men would have done that, but not Solo -- he was a gambler, and the stakes this time was his life. He'd gamble, oh yes, and high because most likely he was trying to impress the princess, whether he believed it or not. But if he was not in the asteroid file, not in hyperspace and not visible on the monitors, it could only mean that he had actually dared to attach his ship to one of the star destroyers.

A highly dangerous move, a real gamble, but it would only win him something if he could let go again before the fleet jumped to hyperspace itself. I wondered if he would not get spotted, but if he believed not, his guess was good enough for me. I would have no problem copying his manoeuvre, and with his hyperdrives still out of order I just had to watch his vector, guess the end of it and get there before him. None of that sounded too difficult.

Except getting the permission to cling to a star destroyers hull. That meant involving the Imperial which might juts as well mean forfeiting the bounty. There was no way around talking to Vader in person. I stopped in my tracks and began to walk back to the bridge.

Admiral Piett was none to happy to see me. His face showed his disgust openly, though there was nothing he could actually do against my presence.

"I need to talk to Lord Vader," I told him. The changes on the admiral's face went form surprised to suspicious to almost grudging respect. It was obviously not often, that somebody asked to see the Dark Lord. From what was know about his choking habits that was not very surprising.

He managed to alert Vader, though, and seemed again rather surprised that the dark Lord agreed to see me immediately. I thanked Piett with a short nod, and followed the two stormtroopers that had appeared on cue, to lead me to Vader. With Vader it was always stormtroopers, no matter how much military personnel there was, the Dark Lord went only for the best. Which should do wonders for my ego, now that I came to think of it.

I was lead through the usual maze of corridors. It always happens if you go anywhere on a Star Destryoer and I wonder if that's for show, for throwing you off track, when the actual destination is only few doors down the hall. We stopped in front of one of the many equal-looking doors of the Executor. I braced myself and entered the small conference room behind it without hesitation when the door slid open.

Vader stood at the far end of the room, his hands clasped behind his back. He turned to face me as I entered and, as always, I was impressed. He seemed to tower over you even when he was standing at the far end of a room - and close up the impression only grew. Vader was not only tall, but also took up the space surrounding him. He blocked out everything else.

"Lord Vader," I greeted him, indicating a bow by inclining my upper body. Respect to those who deserved it - it must be an awesomely lonely life behind that mask. At least I could go incognito from time to time, but if rumour contained just the smallest bit of truth, he could not.

"What is it that demands my personal attention?" he asked, his voice rasping though the filters. No empty phrases, no niceties - I liked the opportunity to waive social conventions.

"I may have found Solo," I told him, "but I fear for the bounty, if I told the officers. If I have to be duped, I prefer to be duped by the best."

There was a long pause. Neither of us spoke or moved, a silent display of strength. Something that is much easier to keep up behind a mask where no twitch shows and the stare of the other bounces off the helmet. Adhering to the proper hierarchy, I spoke again first.

"I want to attach the Slave I to the hull of your Star Destroyer. If my suspicion is correct, Solo is doing the same, waiting for you to go to hyperspace. Then he plans to float away with the garbage that is usually dumped before the jump." I made a brief pause to grant him the chance to comment, but the black figure remained completely still.

"If I am allowed to duplicate his moves, I can inform you of his new vector and intended target as soon as he is on his way. There is nothing around here, so you will have some time to either prepare a nice welcome at his destination, or intercept at will."

Now it is up to the Dark Lord to judge my plan - and to grant the bounty. I just hoped -

"As you wish." His voice grates into my thoughts. "If your suspicion proves to be true, you will call me immediately. We will discuss further action and your payment then."

I inclined my head. That was not the commitment I had hoped for, but at least he hadn't denied me my money completely in advance. "I will not disappoint you," I said, turning for the door.

The escort was still waiting for me, ready to bring me to my ship or detention. But the communication was impeccable and I reached the hangar without incident. I just caught a glimpse of Dengar shuffling away from the Slave I as I arrived, but I didn't believe he had managed to do any harm.

Still, as I neared my ship, the alarms blared into life, declaring that somebody had indeed planted a tracker on the hull. Once I was inside, I shut the alarm off, sealed that hatch and got ready for take off. Depending on the speed of the Imperials, I would have enough time watching the material while waiting.

I was the last one leaving, as I had been the last to come. Being first is overrated, but I kept the myth up. if necessary. If you were the last to arrive, the ships of your competitors were lined up neatly in the hangar already, and all you had to do was tamper with them as much as their owner's security allowed. No, I was not worried about Dengar the least.

I saw the bright patch of his hyperdrive exhaust vanish between the asteroids as I left the hangar bay., watching the record with one eye. It showed that, indeed, no human had put the tracking device onto the hull of my ship. A service droid had done that, placing it most cunningly out of human reach in a notch on the top of the Slave. Impressive. I guessed that this was IG-88 work, he was not beyond reprogramming normal maintenance droids for his purposes.

IG-88 was nowhere to be seen, but that droid had probably set the trackers on the others as well and was planning on simply taking the bounty head from the finder. Well, I would deal with him soon enough. If Solo wanted to get anywhere it would take him a lot of time from here - time I could use on IG-88.

With a soft thud the Slave attached itself to the hull of the Star Destroyer. I shut down all systems, even life support. Wearing this crux of an armour did have advantages sometimes.

Of course it had been very strange at the beginning. Everybody had treated me with careful obligingness, if not outright fear. But I had avoided the public as well as I could, even cantinas.
The idea of suddenly feeling a very human urge and then ending up in the men's room having to - . Well, as it turned out, with THAT codpiece Fett never belonged to the species of men doing it standing. To get anything done on the loo, the codpiece had to be taken off -- and let me tell you, Boba Fett never takes of his codpiece in public. That's why he always uses the private booths. That, and because he's a girl now -- because I'm a girl.

The Imperials took all time in the world to get ready for the jump. Finally, the Star Destroyers opened their garbage dumps. I detached my ship, carefully manoeuvring it into the trickle of rubbish. I could allow Solo a head start, let him feel safe. Not that I believed his sensors reached far enough to find me.

I had only just begun to follow the Falcon, when another ship suddenly appeared on my monitors. Dengar. He must have spotted Solo drifting away while he searched the asteroid field. Blast that, and I had so hoped to get through this with minimal casualties. Patiently I waited until I was in his range, and contacted him, as soon as he had spotted me.

"Sorry to do this, friend, but Solo is my trophy," I told him, turning the switch of my remote at the same time. A squeal on binary code hit Dengar's comm, and a second later the detonator on his ship exploded. With a sigh I returned to my original course. With the days it would take Dnegar to repair his ship, he, and I, too, knew, that he was out of the race.

When I reached the last location of the Falcon, it's trajectory had changed. It seemed Solo had decided where to go. I fed the new data into my navcomp calculating the possible destinations. There was only one they could possibly reach: Bespin. Though it was a huge gas giant, there were mining colonies scattered in it's orbit, so I pulled down all available data to determine which one he was making for.

The name 'Calrissian' jumped at me immediately. Formerly involved in many a shady business, he now owned a small mine. How shady his real business was, was anybody's guess. Once Calrissian had travelled with Solo, and no matter how they had parted, the smuggler would now try to garner his help. A neat plan, and one that would have worked well enough, Bespin lay just the opposite way his last trajectory seen by the Imperials did. I punched the comm to life, time to report success. I punched in the code to mark the call private, for Lord Vader only, and leaned back. Depending on the Dark Lord's mood I could be sitting here quite a while.

But I didn't have to wait long. With the black mask staring down at me larger than life, I wondered if displaying incoming calls on my viewport had been such a good idea. Usually, the size made it easy for me to see tiny twitches and other tell-tale signs in the faces of the others. Vader's face-mask, on the other hand, appeared only huge.

"Report," the Dark Lord demanded, skipping the pleasantries.

"I have found Solo," I replied, letting a hint of satisfaction ring in my mechanic voice. "As I expected, he is still at the asteroid field, his hyper engines malfunctioning. He has set a course that will take him to Bespin, a gas giant in the Anoat sector. His most likely destination is a small gas mining operation called 'Cloud City' which is run by an old associate of his - Land Calrissian."

A moment of silence followed. "Very well. You will follow him for two weeks to make sure that he doesn't change course. Then jump ahead to Bespin and await my arrival."

The picture vanished and only flickering static was displayed on my viewport.

Kick the old Sith's butt! My foot hit the console hard. Who did he think he was? Lord Vader, OK, but did that put him in a position to order me around like a puppy? Balling my fists, I took several deep breaths, because, unfortunately, that was exactly where it put him. Gritting my teeth, I slowly unclenched my hands. Blast him, anyway.

Slowly I took the helmet off, suddenly staring at my reflection in the viewport. It was not a face I saw often. Two weeks of trailing a ship on sublight. Two whole lost weeks, not to mention the remaining seven weeks I might be grounded on Cloud City if Lord Vader decided I better stay. Resignedly, I ruffled through my short hair. At least, I would finally catch up with my reading.