Part 1
The man sat down in a booth, hidden in the darkness of the bar. He did not order anything, but waited.
Finally he spotted him. The armored figure almost as mysterious (but not half as deadly) as Boba Fett.
Boushh slid into the seat across from him, his metallic voice cutting through the silence.
"[What is it?]" the bounty hunter asked in Ubese. He had five other clients that would pay very high prices, and the man who he was looking at didn't look dreadfully rich.
"I want Dash Rendar dead," the man said. This intrigued Boushh, for he hated Dash Rendar.
"[How much is it worth to you?]" he queried. No matter what the price, he would probably do it.
"Seventy-five thousand," his employer stated casually, as if chatting about the weather.
Boushh grew excited. He could have revenge and money at the same time! And if the man had lied to him, Boushh would have someone else to get even with.
Knowing better than to show what he was feeling, Boushh slowly nodded his head.
"Excellent!" the man showed his excitement. "Do it in six months or less and you will get eighty thousand."
Boushh left the bar, leaving the man and the music from the band behind.
Underneath his helmet, Boushh smiled. The other five clients would have to wait…
He walked to the spaceport his ship was in, entered the password to his docking bay, and went through the locks into his ship.
As usual, he was greeted by silence, which was to his liking. He enjoyed silence.
The only sounds he liked were the screams of his victim and blaster shots.
Right now his mind was echoing with one sound, though: the man stating his price.
"[Seventy-five thousand!]" Boushh muttered under his breath. He knew it was not like a bounty hunter to be astounded by his paycheck, but he couldn't help it.
He slid himself down into the pilot's seat. It was the only seat actually, in his ship the Maligno.
Boushh flipped the switch to start the engine, and flew out of the planet's atmosphere.
He suddenly heard screaming over the comlink. He switched it off, remembering that he had 'forgotten' to pay for his docking space.
His radar started to beep, signaling that he was being followed. He looked back, and spotted two guard ships after him.
While two guard ships could easily destroy any normal ship, the Maligno was no normal ship.
It had a hyperdrive capable of .3 past lightspeed, advanced shielding able to withstand a ton of pummeling from an Imperial Star Destroyer, and radar that could track a cloaked cruiser.
All that and the fact that he was an excellent pilot added up to a near impossibly hard time for the guard ships.
Boushh grabbed the control stick and spun the ship around, going into a dive at the same time.
When he came out of his dive he did not stop, throttling upward for a loop.
He did all this in a matter of seconds. The guard ships were only then starting to respond, firing their lasers at the Maligno.
They missed by a light-year, the laser blasts going off into space, slowly dissolving.
Boushh rolled and came around in a large U. He dipped his triangular craft down, then up, avoiding the proton torpedoes fired at him, which, unlike the concussion missiles, did not lock on.
The torpedoes passed beneath him, but he did not notice. He aimed at the lead guard ship, and shot one laser blast at the cockpit, the only place that didn't have any shielding.
The H-shaped craft exploded in a fiery ball of light, debris hurtling everywhere, with no gravity to stop it.
Boushh committed another U-turn, and sped away from the guard ship.
Glancing at his rear-view camera screen, he saw that the other guard ship had not been as lucky.
It had been hit by a piece of debris, and was hurtling towards the planet's surface, the pilot still alive.
Boushh turned of the ship's repulsors, leaving only the life support systems on.
He also typed in the code that would make the ship avoid any black holes or nebula.
Without moving from his chair, he connected to the holonet, in search of a clue for Dash Rendar.
Has anyone seen Dash Rendar? he typed in. Waiting a few minutes, he received a reply.
Yeah, I've seen him. He was in the Bespin system. it said.
The Bespin system? That was a fancy place and was expensive. This was not like Rendar.
When was this? he sent back to the unknown person he was 'talking' to.
Why do you want to know? the source asked. Curious. Curiosity killed the nerf.
Who wants to know? Boushh was also curious, but he was not talking to a deadly bounty hunter. He hoped not…
He waited twenty more minutes, but no other reply came. Obviously the other person was being extremely cautious.
Walking down the short hall, Boushh pressed the button on the food processor, ordering a simple meal of processed meat.
Chewing it aimlessly, he sat back down in the pilot seat. He got on the navigation computer and set a course for the Bespin system.
Checking his star maps, he found the coordinates. "[193.750.284.600.]" he said the numbers under his breath while punching them in.
While the Maligno entered hyperspace, he rested back in his chair and fell asleep.
Boushh woke up to a steady beeping of his console, indicating that they were approaching Bespin.
He was immediately aware of his surroundings, as usual.
The ship came out of hyperspace, and he could see Bespin from space.
It was, as some might say, beautiful. It was hardly a planet, actually.
Bespin had high gravity, but no land mass except the core, so if you fell, you would have a long way to contemplate your death.
There was also a floating city, controlled by an ex-smuggler called Lando Calrissian.
Lando was always trying to think up some new attraction to get him more business and, hopefully, money.
This city was called Cloud City, by the fact that it was in the clouds.
There were also a few dozen mining cities. Though not as large as Cloud City, these were larger than an average size ship.
When Boushh was here last he had witnessed one of the many attractions at Cloud City.
People jumped off platforms onto huge gliding beasts: their pets.
They would perform flips and cartwheels before landing and then do more on their pets.
It was rather interesting, Boushh had to admit, and it would take a considerable amount of practice to pull off.
Boushh was glad of his luck. Usually it took a few weeks to find at least one decent lead.
But still, he would have a difficult time in Cloud City, for it was extremely large.
"[Requesting permission to land,]" he said into the commlink set.
"Permission granted, Maligno," the voice crackled back to him, using the ID transmitter to find the name of his ship.
Haven been given the name of his docking bay, he settled the Maligno slowly down onto the floor of Docking Bay 193.
He walked out into the brisk air. He did not feel the cold, of course. His armor blocked it out, but his helmet's temperature sensors told him of it.
27 Fahrenheit they read. It was surprising that Cloud City commissioners had not built a roof over their docking bays.
Maybe they wanted the visitors to see the real Bespin before entering their floating paradise.
He peered over the edge, taking in the swirling masses of clouds.
Boushh still found it hard to believe that Dash Rendar was here.
Paying the toll of seventy credits for landing. Boushh nearly gaped. This was much lower then on his last visit.
Then he saw the holo-sign that read:
ONLY SEVENTY CREDITS FOR DOCKING!!! per hour
Figures.
Well, the bounty would more than pay for it, providing he found his prey in a few weeks.
It was in the unknown laws of the Bounty Hunters to never accept a bounty under ten thousand.
He walked in, stunned at the disarray Cloud City was in. It's walls were grayish-white, the floor had dirt all over it, and the work droids were leaking oil.
Actually, it was not disarray. For most cities, this was paradise, but Boushh noticed all the dirt and oil because Cloud City was usually spotless.
In fact, there wasn't that much dirt or oil. There was a lot compared to the usual Cloud City.
Boushh noticed a computer terminal to his right and walked towards it.
He started to hack into the central computer but thought better of it.
Setting hacking for last was one of the rarely mentioned bounty hunter recommendations.
He would see what he could find without hacking. If that didn't work in two weeks he would stop doing it legally.
Boushh called up the city map, looking for a bar or pub. He saw a cantina.
Memorizing its location, he walked down the hall, passing the lifts for the stairwells.
He liked walking to his destination more than riding to it. When he walked he noticed things that could help him if he needed to know about his surroundings.
After only a half-hour of walking, Boushh reached his destination.
He entered the cantina, sat down at the counter, and declined from ordering a drink.
Glancing around, he did not see Dash Rendar, but there were many shadows in this cantina, like most.
Switching his helmet to night vision, Boushh still could see no Rendar.
He slid to the man next to him. "[Have you seen a Dash Rendar?]" he said, turning on his basic translator.
The man, slightly drunk, turned to him. "I just heard that same question on the holo-net a day ago. Yeah, I've seen him. In Cloud City."
"[When?]" Boushh asked, annoyed. Perhaps Rendar was not being so easy to find after all.
"What's it worth to you?" the man garbled over some of his words.
Realizing it was the same man who had given him his lead, Boushh walked away.
He found a work droid that was not leaking oil and asked for a hotel room.
"This way, sir," it walked down the hall towards a large door that had many people walking in and out of it.
He knew from the moment he saw it that it was extremely expensive.
Turning back to the droid, he rephrased his question. "[Where can I find a hotel room that is under fifty credits a day?]"
The droid looked puzzled, then rolled his eyes back, searching his memory. He then walked towards a nearby computer terminal and looked for a cheap hotel there.
It came back, apologizing. "I am extremely sorry, sir, but there are no hotels under the price maximum you specified."
Boushh swore. This was the worst thing about Cloud City.
Without a word, he turned and walked into the large hotel the droid had first shown him.
He walked up to the registration desk, ordering a small room for the 'cheap' price of one hundred credits.
As soon as he walked into his room he wanted to leave. It made the cantina look luxurious.
The walls were ten times worse than the hallway's, the bed smelled and looked as if a dozen wild nerfs rolled in Bantha poop had slept in it.
Oh, well, he thought for second time in as many hours. It wasn't like his skin would be touching anything.
In fact, his skin had hardly ever touched anything in the past five years.
Putting the 'do not disturb' sign on his door, Boushh left the hotel.
He searched in another computer terminal, but could find no other bar or cantina.
This was not going to be as easy as he had first thought. Rendar was always lucky.
The red-headed Correlian could squeeze his way out of almost any tight spot.
He spotted a bald man with a computer fitted around his domed head.
Remembering that this man was Lobot, Lando's right-hand man, Boushh walked up to him.
"[Is there any bar or pub in this facility?]" he asked. He watched as Lobot's computer translated it for him.
Lobot thought something, the computer picked it up in the brain waves, and spoke it for him.
"Yes," the micro-computer said. "The Cloud City Cantina."
Boushh was growing extremely impatient. "[Besides that one…]" he said threw clenched teeth that no one could see.
"No." Lobot's computer said matter-of-factly. The man turned and left, walking down the hall to another patron who was having trouble with a computer terminal.
Boushh couldn't remember where Lando's office was, so he asked another droid, who gave him a straight answer.
"Second door to the left."
Boushh saw the surprise is Lando's face when the baron administrator looked up and saw the masked bounty hunter.
"Boushh?" Lando asked, puzzled. "I thought you died in that gas explosion!"
"[You'd be surprised what you can live through.]" Boushh replied shortly.
Lando, always the gentleman, got right to the issue. "In that case, what is it you want?"
"[Give me permission to look in the docking bay's customer files.]" the bounty hunter said. It was not a question.
Lando didn't fall for it. "Absolutely not! My customers are expecting total security, and, by the force, I'm going to give it to them!"
Boushh knew better than to pull a blaster on Lando Calrissian. He had done it once, and had nearly destroyed a planet. But that was a different story. One Boushh would never tell for the rest of his life.
Most people had forgotten it, it had been so long, but Boushh did.
While he could kill someone without a second thought, it was usually because that person had done something awful.
He couldn't stand to murder innocent citizens of an unarmed world.
The man sat down in a booth, hidden in the darkness of the bar. He did not order anything, but waited.
Finally he spotted him. The armored figure almost as mysterious (but not half as deadly) as Boba Fett.
Boushh slid into the seat across from him, his metallic voice cutting through the silence.
"[What is it?]" the bounty hunter asked in Ubese. He had five other clients that would pay very high prices, and the man who he was looking at didn't look dreadfully rich.
"I want Dash Rendar dead," the man said. This intrigued Boushh, for he hated Dash Rendar.
"[How much is it worth to you?]" he queried. No matter what the price, he would probably do it.
"Seventy-five thousand," his employer stated casually, as if chatting about the weather.
Boushh grew excited. He could have revenge and money at the same time! And if the man had lied to him, Boushh would have someone else to get even with.
Knowing better than to show what he was feeling, Boushh slowly nodded his head.
"Excellent!" the man showed his excitement. "Do it in six months or less and you will get eighty thousand."
Boushh left the bar, leaving the man and the music from the band behind.
Underneath his helmet, Boushh smiled. The other five clients would have to wait…
He walked to the spaceport his ship was in, entered the password to his docking bay, and went through the locks into his ship.
As usual, he was greeted by silence, which was to his liking. He enjoyed silence.
The only sounds he liked were the screams of his victim and blaster shots.
Right now his mind was echoing with one sound, though: the man stating his price.
"[Seventy-five thousand!]" Boushh muttered under his breath. He knew it was not like a bounty hunter to be astounded by his paycheck, but he couldn't help it.
He slid himself down into the pilot's seat. It was the only seat actually, in his ship the Maligno.
Boushh flipped the switch to start the engine, and flew out of the planet's atmosphere.
He suddenly heard screaming over the comlink. He switched it off, remembering that he had 'forgotten' to pay for his docking space.
His radar started to beep, signaling that he was being followed. He looked back, and spotted two guard ships after him.
While two guard ships could easily destroy any normal ship, the Maligno was no normal ship.
It had a hyperdrive capable of .3 past lightspeed, advanced shielding able to withstand a ton of pummeling from an Imperial Star Destroyer, and radar that could track a cloaked cruiser.
All that and the fact that he was an excellent pilot added up to a near impossibly hard time for the guard ships.
Boushh grabbed the control stick and spun the ship around, going into a dive at the same time.
When he came out of his dive he did not stop, throttling upward for a loop.
He did all this in a matter of seconds. The guard ships were only then starting to respond, firing their lasers at the Maligno.
They missed by a light-year, the laser blasts going off into space, slowly dissolving.
Boushh rolled and came around in a large U. He dipped his triangular craft down, then up, avoiding the proton torpedoes fired at him, which, unlike the concussion missiles, did not lock on.
The torpedoes passed beneath him, but he did not notice. He aimed at the lead guard ship, and shot one laser blast at the cockpit, the only place that didn't have any shielding.
The H-shaped craft exploded in a fiery ball of light, debris hurtling everywhere, with no gravity to stop it.
Boushh committed another U-turn, and sped away from the guard ship.
Glancing at his rear-view camera screen, he saw that the other guard ship had not been as lucky.
It had been hit by a piece of debris, and was hurtling towards the planet's surface, the pilot still alive.
Boushh turned of the ship's repulsors, leaving only the life support systems on.
He also typed in the code that would make the ship avoid any black holes or nebula.
Without moving from his chair, he connected to the holonet, in search of a clue for Dash Rendar.
Has anyone seen Dash Rendar? he typed in. Waiting a few minutes, he received a reply.
Yeah, I've seen him. He was in the Bespin system. it said.
The Bespin system? That was a fancy place and was expensive. This was not like Rendar.
When was this? he sent back to the unknown person he was 'talking' to.
Why do you want to know? the source asked. Curious. Curiosity killed the nerf.
Who wants to know? Boushh was also curious, but he was not talking to a deadly bounty hunter. He hoped not…
He waited twenty more minutes, but no other reply came. Obviously the other person was being extremely cautious.
Walking down the short hall, Boushh pressed the button on the food processor, ordering a simple meal of processed meat.
Chewing it aimlessly, he sat back down in the pilot seat. He got on the navigation computer and set a course for the Bespin system.
Checking his star maps, he found the coordinates. "[193.750.284.600.]" he said the numbers under his breath while punching them in.
While the Maligno entered hyperspace, he rested back in his chair and fell asleep.
Boushh woke up to a steady beeping of his console, indicating that they were approaching Bespin.
He was immediately aware of his surroundings, as usual.
The ship came out of hyperspace, and he could see Bespin from space.
It was, as some might say, beautiful. It was hardly a planet, actually.
Bespin had high gravity, but no land mass except the core, so if you fell, you would have a long way to contemplate your death.
There was also a floating city, controlled by an ex-smuggler called Lando Calrissian.
Lando was always trying to think up some new attraction to get him more business and, hopefully, money.
This city was called Cloud City, by the fact that it was in the clouds.
There were also a few dozen mining cities. Though not as large as Cloud City, these were larger than an average size ship.
When Boushh was here last he had witnessed one of the many attractions at Cloud City.
People jumped off platforms onto huge gliding beasts: their pets.
They would perform flips and cartwheels before landing and then do more on their pets.
It was rather interesting, Boushh had to admit, and it would take a considerable amount of practice to pull off.
Boushh was glad of his luck. Usually it took a few weeks to find at least one decent lead.
But still, he would have a difficult time in Cloud City, for it was extremely large.
"[Requesting permission to land,]" he said into the commlink set.
"Permission granted, Maligno," the voice crackled back to him, using the ID transmitter to find the name of his ship.
Haven been given the name of his docking bay, he settled the Maligno slowly down onto the floor of Docking Bay 193.
He walked out into the brisk air. He did not feel the cold, of course. His armor blocked it out, but his helmet's temperature sensors told him of it.
27 Fahrenheit they read. It was surprising that Cloud City commissioners had not built a roof over their docking bays.
Maybe they wanted the visitors to see the real Bespin before entering their floating paradise.
He peered over the edge, taking in the swirling masses of clouds.
Boushh still found it hard to believe that Dash Rendar was here.
Paying the toll of seventy credits for landing. Boushh nearly gaped. This was much lower then on his last visit.
Then he saw the holo-sign that read:
ONLY SEVENTY CREDITS FOR DOCKING!!! per hour
Figures.
Well, the bounty would more than pay for it, providing he found his prey in a few weeks.
It was in the unknown laws of the Bounty Hunters to never accept a bounty under ten thousand.
He walked in, stunned at the disarray Cloud City was in. It's walls were grayish-white, the floor had dirt all over it, and the work droids were leaking oil.
Actually, it was not disarray. For most cities, this was paradise, but Boushh noticed all the dirt and oil because Cloud City was usually spotless.
In fact, there wasn't that much dirt or oil. There was a lot compared to the usual Cloud City.
Boushh noticed a computer terminal to his right and walked towards it.
He started to hack into the central computer but thought better of it.
Setting hacking for last was one of the rarely mentioned bounty hunter recommendations.
He would see what he could find without hacking. If that didn't work in two weeks he would stop doing it legally.
Boushh called up the city map, looking for a bar or pub. He saw a cantina.
Memorizing its location, he walked down the hall, passing the lifts for the stairwells.
He liked walking to his destination more than riding to it. When he walked he noticed things that could help him if he needed to know about his surroundings.
After only a half-hour of walking, Boushh reached his destination.
He entered the cantina, sat down at the counter, and declined from ordering a drink.
Glancing around, he did not see Dash Rendar, but there were many shadows in this cantina, like most.
Switching his helmet to night vision, Boushh still could see no Rendar.
He slid to the man next to him. "[Have you seen a Dash Rendar?]" he said, turning on his basic translator.
The man, slightly drunk, turned to him. "I just heard that same question on the holo-net a day ago. Yeah, I've seen him. In Cloud City."
"[When?]" Boushh asked, annoyed. Perhaps Rendar was not being so easy to find after all.
"What's it worth to you?" the man garbled over some of his words.
Realizing it was the same man who had given him his lead, Boushh walked away.
He found a work droid that was not leaking oil and asked for a hotel room.
"This way, sir," it walked down the hall towards a large door that had many people walking in and out of it.
He knew from the moment he saw it that it was extremely expensive.
Turning back to the droid, he rephrased his question. "[Where can I find a hotel room that is under fifty credits a day?]"
The droid looked puzzled, then rolled his eyes back, searching his memory. He then walked towards a nearby computer terminal and looked for a cheap hotel there.
It came back, apologizing. "I am extremely sorry, sir, but there are no hotels under the price maximum you specified."
Boushh swore. This was the worst thing about Cloud City.
Without a word, he turned and walked into the large hotel the droid had first shown him.
He walked up to the registration desk, ordering a small room for the 'cheap' price of one hundred credits.
As soon as he walked into his room he wanted to leave. It made the cantina look luxurious.
The walls were ten times worse than the hallway's, the bed smelled and looked as if a dozen wild nerfs rolled in Bantha poop had slept in it.
Oh, well, he thought for second time in as many hours. It wasn't like his skin would be touching anything.
In fact, his skin had hardly ever touched anything in the past five years.
Putting the 'do not disturb' sign on his door, Boushh left the hotel.
He searched in another computer terminal, but could find no other bar or cantina.
This was not going to be as easy as he had first thought. Rendar was always lucky.
The red-headed Correlian could squeeze his way out of almost any tight spot.
He spotted a bald man with a computer fitted around his domed head.
Remembering that this man was Lobot, Lando's right-hand man, Boushh walked up to him.
"[Is there any bar or pub in this facility?]" he asked. He watched as Lobot's computer translated it for him.
Lobot thought something, the computer picked it up in the brain waves, and spoke it for him.
"Yes," the micro-computer said. "The Cloud City Cantina."
Boushh was growing extremely impatient. "[Besides that one…]" he said threw clenched teeth that no one could see.
"No." Lobot's computer said matter-of-factly. The man turned and left, walking down the hall to another patron who was having trouble with a computer terminal.
Boushh couldn't remember where Lando's office was, so he asked another droid, who gave him a straight answer.
"Second door to the left."
Boushh saw the surprise is Lando's face when the baron administrator looked up and saw the masked bounty hunter.
"Boushh?" Lando asked, puzzled. "I thought you died in that gas explosion!"
"[You'd be surprised what you can live through.]" Boushh replied shortly.
Lando, always the gentleman, got right to the issue. "In that case, what is it you want?"
"[Give me permission to look in the docking bay's customer files.]" the bounty hunter said. It was not a question.
Lando didn't fall for it. "Absolutely not! My customers are expecting total security, and, by the force, I'm going to give it to them!"
Boushh knew better than to pull a blaster on Lando Calrissian. He had done it once, and had nearly destroyed a planet. But that was a different story. One Boushh would never tell for the rest of his life.
Most people had forgotten it, it had been so long, but Boushh did.
While he could kill someone without a second thought, it was usually because that person had done something awful.
He couldn't stand to murder innocent citizens of an unarmed world.