Shifts in Sand

by Snakehealer

During their escape from Nal Hutta, Lumi and Jiba try to land their falling apart ship on a planet called Tatooine, not knowing that this particular planet will play an important role in the history of the entire galaxy. 100% written on iPhone :

Shifts in Sand

By Snakehealer, 2011

Prologue

"Lumi look, a Star Destroyer!" said Jiba Nep, my Twi'lek friend who was piloting our falling apart ship.
"Are you crazy? There are no Star Destroyers in a crappy place like... What is this place called again?".
"Tatooine. That Clawdite brain of yours has suffered from too many shape shifts."

I looked out of the window and could see in the distance the rough wedge shape of an Imperial Star Destroyer. Why here, this far out? Something big was going on.
"This is not good, I have a bad feeling about this."

Jiba looked at me, she looked stunning as always, no wonder she was such a popular dancer.
"The Hutts wouldn't call the Imps for a few stolen credits." she said.
"You call 500.000 credits a few?"
"For them yes. Hey look, there is a Hutt living here in Tatooine, Jabba. Hmm, the name rings a bell, I have heard that name." said Jibba. She was trying to find out something useful about this system from the database.

"Well you know how the Hutts take it when another species steals from them."
"They can't tell a difference between Twi'leks and you... well you have no problem, turn yourself into a Hutt and that's it".

I was massaging my muscles, they were aching like if I had been beaten up. Most species think that for us Clawdites shifting our shape is just like combing your hair in a different style. Well, it's not. We have to strain our muscles to create the change. It is no problem for a short time and a form we know, but long periods of time and new shapes tire our muscles and it hurts. A lot. I missed my relaxing massage oils that I had to leave behind in Nal Hutta.

Finally I responded to Jiba:"Jiba, you should know already that we Clawdites can't change our body mass nor other attributes, just our shape. I could never become a Hutt.
"Come on Lumi, relax girl, I'm just messing with you."

That second a buzzer went off in the cockpit and a flashing light illuminated the dark ship.
"The directional controls are failing!" I informed Jiba.
"This is not going to easy, but we will make it." said Jiba, always optimistic. We had taken some heavy damage during our escape from Nal Hutta.

Our SoroSuub transport entered the atmosphere like a meteor, leaving a visible trail. The locals are getting a real show, I thought.
I was studying the planet and to my horror, it seemed to be all desert. I checked our database and the nearest town seemed to be called Mos Eisley, and they seemed to have a spaceport. Good, if we can make it there, we could repair our ship and move on. But first we needed to land and survive, the second being the difficult part.

I didn't need to look at the instruments to tell that the ship was almost out of control and that the only thing that kept our odds for survival up was Jiba and her piloting skills. For her piloting a ship was like an extension to dancing and she was an amazing dancer. I just decided to stay quiet and let her fly. Forget about repairing the ship, I just wanted to walk out of this alive. The sand was closing in fast, very fast.

Chapter 1

I coughed. Then again. My mouth was full of sand. I seemed to be in our ship, or what was left of it. Bent metal and shattered instruments everywhere. I looked to see if Jiba was awake. It didn't take long to realize that Jiba would never wake up again. I kissed her forehead, she had saved my life.

I looked up and saw the blazing twin suns. They were merciless. How could anybody survive here? I wiped my tears, I would miss Jiba, we had been best friends for about ten standard years. But if I didn't find shade and water, I would share her faith.

I went to work. I tried to salvage anything useful. I checked my DL-44 blaster pistol, it seemed to be ok. I also took Jiba's small, easily concealable Merr Sonn Munitions Q2 blaster and hid it in my right boot.
I took Jiba's dancing dress and some of her street clothes. Her fake ID was no good now, the Hutts would be looking for it to appear somewhere. So I had no usable ID, great. At least the extra clothes would give me disguise options.
I looked for water. The water tank we had on board had broken in the crash and most of the water had leaked out or evaporated. I only got one mouthful, but it felt great.

I tried to look at the navigation equipment and the database but they were all shattered. I took a piece of cloth and covered my head and my face. I couldn't find anything else useable.

I looked at the metal box containing the 500.000 credits we had stolen from the Hutts at Nal Hutta. I couldn't drag it all over the desert, it would just slow me down and hugely decrease my chances of surviving and getting to enjoy the credits.

I looked around to find some place where to hide the box. There was a rock formation not so far away. I hoped I had binoculars, I would have liked to scan the area before going there but I had to do with what I had.

I began dragging the box behind me towards the rocks. The suns were blazing on me and made me sweat a lot, which wasn't a good thing when you are in the desert without water. After what felt like hours I made it to the rocks. I found a nice deep hole between rocks and pushed the box in after having taken some credits with me. I covered the hole with rocks and sand. I tried to memorize the location as well as I could.

It seemed to be getting towards the afternoon and the length of the day seemed to be close to a standard day. I thought I could sleep for a while and then at night go and look for this Mos Eisley place, I probably could see the lights at night.

That is when I heard a primitive, blood freezing shout or scream. It was echoing between the rocks. I got so shocked that I just run. Whatever was living there, I didn't want to know anything about it.

I wondered about in the sand for hours until I came across an escape pod. I went closer to take a look at it. It seemed to be empty. I looked at the sand around it. I saw tracks, three wheels. An R-series astromech unit probably. But there were also lots of heavy boot marks, as well as marks by some large animal.

I thought that if these people had crashed and decided to go to a given direction, specially when one was a droid that could use its scanners and maps, they probably were right. I decided to follow the tracks.

I kept on walking and walking, I lost the track of time already. I was so happy that there was no wind that could have wiped off the tracks. But like anything in desert, things can change in matter of minutes.

I don't know how long I had walked when I saw a set of new tracks. These seemed to belong to a huge tracked vehicle. It seemed to be well designed for desert conditions; the tracks were wide and the vehicle seemed to sink very little in the sand. I sighed. Only thing I could do was to follow now these new tracks.

It was getting dark already and the temperature was dropping fast when I saw a something on top of a dune. It was too dark to see what it was, but it seemed to be either a vehicle or a building. I pulled out my blaster and walked towards it.

When I got closer, I was convinced that this was the tracked vehicle that had left the tracks I was following. But this one seemed to have come from a different direction. Cautiously I approached the vehicle. It was massive. It looked like a fortress on long tracks. When I was close enough I saw that the vehicle had been in a blaster fight, pretty heavy weapons also.

To my surprise there was no one around. There were signs of fighting, some blood but no bodies. It was like if someone had attacked the vehicle and taken the bodies away. I entered the vehicle. It was full of junk. Machinery, broken vehicles, droids. Most of them were only good for spare parts. There were two droids that seemed to be more or less ok; a red domed R4 unit, but a closer look showed that it had blown a part in its dome, it still smelled burned.

The other droid was a stubby legged bi-pedal generator droid. It was switched off. I went to it and pushed the power button. The droid hummed and straightened its legs. Good, it worked at least. It seemed to be a very basic generator droid, it didn't have much of a brain. What a shame, I needed more information about this place.

I looked around and found a heater unit. I signalled to the generator droid to come closer, which it did. Slowly.

I plugged the heater into the droid and to my happy surprise the heater began to warm up. I told the generator droid to stay still and went to look for something soft. I found some small brown clothes. They smelled awful but they were all I could find. I made a bed out of them close to the heater and fell asleep. I dreamed about Darth Vader chasing me.

I woke up in the morning to a sound of a land speeder. I run to the door. The speeder was too far, but I got an idea of to which direction it was heading. I looked for food in the vehicle but didn't find anything eatable. Luckily I found some water stored in a leather bag. It tasted horrible but it was water.

I switched off the droid and jumped out of the vehicle. The sand was hot already. I began to walk to the general direction the land speeder had gone. After many hours I saw a town. I was so happy that I could have cried. It was still far but I saw a ship landing there. That must be Mos Eisley.

I gained new energy and I began to walk towards the town.

When I was approaching the city I began to stretch my muscles. As most of the species didn't like and / or trust Clawdites, I decided to shape shift. I looked at my clothes. I was wearing the same clothes I had worn when we fled from Nal Hutta. During out escape from Nal Hutta I had been impersonating a space dock mechanic. That would be a good fit for a place like this I thought. I shifted to a human mechanic shape.

I walked the remaining distance to Mos Eisley. What a dump I thought. The sand was everywhere. It seemed to get everywhere. The houses that I saw looked more like storm shelters, which, coming to think of it, they probably were.

I was going to cross a street labelled Dune Street, when I was nearly knocked over by a land speeder with a young boy and what seemed to be his grand father. They had two droids on board. Admittedly it was my fault, I was staring at a wreckage of some old cargo ship sticking out of the sand. A surreal sight to say the least.

A squad of imperial stormtroopers stopped the young boy and the grand father and asked for their papers but soon let them go.

I walked deeper into the town and soon got to the spaceport. There were hundreds of ships. I went looking around. Nobody paid attention to me, my disguise was perfect. I just had to make sure I walked like a middle aged tired man and that I didn't seem interested in anything. Or lost. Those would bring attention to me and that was the last thing I wanted.

Someone grabbed my shoulder. I turned around and saw a Wookie looking at me. I recognized him from Nal Hutta. Not the Wookie himself really but the distinctive thick chain or something across his torso. There weren't many space faring Wookies around anyway. If I remembered right, this Wookie was partners with a cocky Corellian.

The Wookie asked me in Wookie if I understood Wookie. I did, the basics. I knew that most Wookies living outside Kashyyk, which weren't many, understood basic but they couldn't pronounce it. I replied in my harshest voice, in basic:"Yeah, what do you want?"

The Wookie asked me to fix the hyper drive of their ship. I didn't catch the name of the ship, I didn't speak Wookie that well. I really didn't want to help him, one because I was starving and second because I didn't know anything about hyperdrives. But I didn't want to blow my cover.

"How much?" I asked the Wookie.
He roared the price, it was either 15 or 50, I wasn't quite sure but I really didn't care. I nodded and followed the Wookie to their ship. What a junk! It was an old Corellian YT series freighter and seemed to be falling apart. I was right, I had seen this ship in Nal Hutta.

The Wookie showed me where he thought the fault could be and brought some tools. I pretended to be studying the parts and poked things with some tools. I just hoped that the Wookie didn't find out that I was faking the whole thing, I had seen what an angry Wookie can do. It is not a pretty sight.

After some time I pulled out a random part and told the Wookie that the part was faulty. The Wookie let out a roar so loud that my ears rang. He was shouting something about the part being brand new and about ripping a head off. I hoped he wasn't talking about my head.

The Wookie pulled out 50 credits to pay for my time and went off to buy the part. I felt bad for not telling him that I didn't know what I was doing, but I liked my cover, and my head, exactly where it was. I hoped he wouldn't remember me when their hyperdrive would fail them.

I left the spaceport quickly and went looking for food and drinks. The first place I saw was a place called Chalmun's Cantina. I went in.

I was welcomed by a live band and the second dodgiest environment I had ever seen. Nal Hutta's Back Stab Cafe was still the undisputed number one. Anyway, there were dozens of species present and the mix of dozens of languages at the same time was staggering.

I went straight to the bar and asked for food and something to drink. The tough and dull looking bartender stared at me. I placed the 50 credits the Wookie had paid me on the desk. The bartender took the credits and returned with a plate of... something, I didn't ask. He also brought a drink. I recognized the smell, it was a cheap beer. I didn't even taste the food, I just ate and ate. When I finished the food I asked for water. The bartender looked at me as if I was crazy, but he brought a glass of water. I asked for more water, which he brought.

"You will do the right thing." a voice told me.
I turned around and saw the old man I had seen in the speeder before. He was looking into my eyes and I got the feeling he saw through my shape.

He put his hand on my shoulder and continued: "About hundred kilometers west from here, head towards Jundland Wastes. When you are at the Krayt Dragon skeleton, you will see twin peaks to the east. There is path going up. My hut is there. There you can rest and be safe. You will find peace there."

Before I could say anything, the old man went to speak to the Wookie I had met before.

I heard noise on the other side of the bar. The young boy was getting into trouble with a tough looking man and an Aqualish. I began to move away from there. That sort of arguments ended up usually in blaster fight. I was heading towards the door when I heard a strange sound and someone screamed. I turned around and saw the old man holding a light sabre. Could he be a Jedi? Weren't they all gone already?

I was going to go back in and speak to the old man when I saw a stormtrooper patrol approaching. Time to go. I began to walk away from the bar. I had to make a real de-tour after I ran into another patrol. It seemed that Mos Eisley was infected by them.

A Star Destroyer and Stormtroopers in a place like this. What was going on? I needed to rest and think.

I began to think about the hut the old presumed Jedi had offered to me. What did he mean by that? Did he want to rent the hut to me? Share the place with me?

That moment I saw the old man and the boy coming out of the Cantina and heading towards the spaceport. Good, I wanted to speak to the old man. Before I could get to them another squad of stormtroopers cut me off. A strange creature wearing black robe spoke to them in squeaky tones and the stormtroopers said they would check it out. The stormtroopers went to the same direction the old man and the boy had gone. I followed them.

I also made a mental note to be careful with that squeaky long nosed character. I was convinced he or she was a spy or a snitch.

I was close to the Wookie's ship when a huge blaster fight began. Not small blaster pistols, these were Imperial weapons. I heard a large ship starting its engines. Then it just hit me that it wasn't a good idea to be in one of the corridors leading to a landing pad when somebody is taking off full throttle in the middle of a blaster fight.

I began to run out as quickly as I could. I felt how the corridor trembled. I just made it out to the streets when the shockwave shot out of the corridors, knocking a few people off their feet.

I looked up and saw the beaten up freighter shooting off the planet. I just wished the hyperdrive wouldn't fail them.

I made a decision. I was going to take a look at the old man's hut. If he had told me the truth, it would be the perfect hide out for me. But first I had to go shopping.

I went walking around until I found a shop called Lup's General Store. I had my blaster pistol but I still remembered the horrifying shout I had heard at the rocks. I wasn't going anywhere near that place without some proper firepower.

I bought a pair of binoculars. I also bought a few perimeter warning devices. They would alert me if someone or something crossed a perimeter I set. After some asking and showing some credits I was taken to the back office and I bought a standard Imperial blaster rifle, the Imperial edition of the Blastech E-11.

My next stop was a shop selling dry food and water. What shocked me was how expensive water was here.

Next I went looking for a transport. I noticed that a place called Spaceport Speeders was selling the young boy's X-34 land speeder. Had the boy fled the planet? Anyway, they were asking too much for it. They did have a second hand Ikas-Adno 22b speeder bike. It was not as fast as the Aratech 74 series but it was very popular and reliable. After some negotiation I bought it. I could have bought a new Aratech but I didn't want to draw attention to myself.

Some dodgy looking merchant offered me what he called a pod racer. It was old but apparently it worked well and had belonged to Anakin Skywalker. "So what?", I asked, "Should I know the name?". Besides, I had no use for some classic pod racer, I wasn't a collector, I just wanted to get to the hut.

I loaded my shopping on the speederbike and headed towards the direction the old man had given me.

After Nal Hutta's traffic it was a joy to ride a speeder bike in the desert. You could really let the bike rip here. The trip from Mos Eisley to the Krayt Dragon skeleton took under half an hour. When I was near to the skeleton I looked towards the twin peaks as instructed and saw the hut the supposed old Jedi had been talking about.

I rode my speederbike to the hut and parked it behind the hut so that it wasn't visible. Next I did was to place the perimeter devices around the hut. I tried to place them roughly 200 meters from the hut so that I would have time to react if anything approached.

I stored my food and water. I saw that the old supposed Jedi actually had a very comfortable hut, although I would have called it a house. It seemed to include a comfortable looking bed. I didn't need more convincing, I needed to sleep.

Chapter 2

I wasn't sure how long I had slept, but it must have been a long time since it was morning already. I began the day with scanning the desert with my binoculars. The only things I saw were a few moisture farmers checking their equipment and couple of land speeders moving in the desert.

I was curious and decided to venture to the hills to explore. I still l remember the blood chilling shout I had heard a few days ago. That is why I took the Imperial blaster rifle, in case I needed firepower.

After a long climb I reached the top of a ridge and cautiously looked to the other side. I saw creatures gathered around a huge hairy four legged animal. One of these creatures was riding the animal. These creatures were dressed like the small ones I had seen in Mos Eisley, but these were man sized. Many of them carried an antique looking rifle. Suddenly one of them shouted. It was the same blood chilling sound that had scared me earlier few days ago. It was still scary but a bit less now when I knew where it came from.

I decided to stay away from these creatures. There must be a reason for me not having seen any of these in Mon Eisley. They also seemed to move in groups, which would mean that any fight would probably be against many of them, not good.

I went back to the hut and had some breakfast while staring into the desert. The supposed Jedi had been right, I felt at peace here. I was wondering what the plan of the old supposed Jedi was. When would he return or was he not planning to come back at all? I decided to take good care of the hut in case he returned.

Scanning the desert, I still saw Imperial troops there. That would mean that there must be at least one Star Destroyer orbiting the planet. Not the best time to buy a ship without identification. Better to wait until the things calmed down.

After I refreshed myself a bit I went through my stretching routine. It was easier to endure shape shifting if you kept your body in good shape. After my stretching session I sat and thought how relaxed I felt in this hut. It wasn't just the open space or the hut itself. It was more like that the hut made me feel different inside. I had spent most of my life running and living in cities where there were more people in each mega block than this whole planet had. For me now being able to just relax was fantastic.

My thoughts went back to the supposed old Jedi. What I had learned during my 23 standard years of life was that the Jedis had once helped to maintain peace and order in the galaxy. They were all killed before I was born, supposedly by Darth Vader. Could it be that this old man was one of the last surviving Jedis, hiding here in the desert. It made sense. If Vader was able to kill hundreds of Jedis, This old man would have to be out of his mind to confront Vader.

And then there was the light sabre. I hadn't ever actually seen a light sabre in action. I once saw Darth Vader when I was in Coruscant. I saw his light sabre hanging from his belt. I never forget that moment, just the plain sight of Vader scared me, and I saw him from a good distance.

I was about to leave the hut when something strange happened to me. I would swear that I heard somebody scream "No!" and at the same time a huge gust of wind blew through the hut. I fell on my knees. I couldn't explain why but somehow I knew that the old Jedi had died.

I sat on the floor, and to my surprise, weeping for the old man. Maybe it was the fact that he must have been the only person who had done something good for me, without asking anything in return. And why me? I wasn't exactly the definition for a good citizen.

When I finally stood up I saw an Imperial Lambda shuttle passing over the hut and heading towards Mos Eisley. I decided to head there and find out how things were going. I left my rifle in the hut but brought both blaster pistols. I shifted to the mechanic form and put on the dirty overall.

It was nice to cruise around on the speederbike in the open desert. It relaxed me after crying in the hut. I headed towards the spaceport, sticking to my role as mechanic. I parked the speederbike and walked to the spaceport. The first ship I saw was an imperial Lambda shuttle. The loading ramp was open and Stormtroopers were coming out. There seemed to be another squad waiting to board, it seemed like that they were changing guard. I went closer to hear them speak. I didn't want to get too close to attract attention, so I didn't hear everything.

One of the new stormtroopers asked the group waiting to board: "What is this place?"
"The most horrible place you could imagine. Make sure your suit is properly closed and your environment unit is fully charged, I think it's hot enough here to melt an AT-AT."
"Why does this always happen to me? I would rather go to a planet packed with snow."
"Well, that's not going to happen."
"Hey guys, listen to this. I heard this thing just few minutes ago. My buddy is on one of our installations, apparently a secret one, but anyway, some group of rebel scum sneaked into the installation and an old guy challenged Lord Vader to a light sabre duel."

My stomach went hard.

"No way! Was he a Jedi?"
"I don't know. Anyway, they kept on fighting and apparently the old guy was pretty good, but naturally at the end Lord Vader killed the guy."
"I would have loved to see that!"
"I will try to ask my friend if they have it on some security holovid."
"Please do. I'm TB-7761, Penta unit."
"All right, I'm TY-2232. Beta."

That moment a commanding officer walked to the arriving group. The Stormtroopers began to form lines. I decided it was time to move out of the way before someone asked for my documents. I decided to head to the Cantina, it was a place I knew at least.

When I entered the Cantina, the same band was playing there again. They were pretty good actually, I was wondering why they were in a dump like this. I walked to the bar.

The same bartender gave me the same hostile stare as the first time. I stared him back.
"I want food, real food." I told him. "And Corellian beer, not that watered down detergent."
"Hmph. Got credits?" he replied.
"Yeah."
"Hmph." and he walked away.

While waiting for my food I looked around the bar. The same Hammerhead was there as last time. I didn't recognize anybody else there. Wait a minute, yes I did. The long nosed squeaky voiced potential little snitch was sitting in a dark corner. I had the sinking feeling that he was one of these low life snitches who sold people to the Imperial officers for couple of credits. I had seen many like him in Coruscant. Most of them made the mistake of snitching on a wrong person and ended up shot.

The bartender returned with my food. And what seemed to be real Corellian beer, in a closed bottle, which he opened in front of me. I nodded. He went off to attend someone else.

I had to admit that the food was actually pretty good. I was thinking about asking the bartender about the old supposed Jedi, but I thought I would have to keep on coming to the bar many times before he would answer that question.

When the bartender came to my direction I asked him: "Tell me about this Hutt living here."
"His name's Jabba. He has a place here, Desilijic Complex. He's got a palace in Western Dune Sea. If you want work there, speak to Bib Fortuna, a weird Twi'lek. He's Jabba's major-domo."
"Thanks."
"He's got a Rancor." said the bartender before walking away. "What is a Rancor?" I thought.

I paid my food and left a small tip. It was worth it keeping this bartender happy. If I had learned something during my life, it was that the bartenders were the best source of information, no matter which system you were in.

I stepped out to the blazing twin suns and walked around the town, just to see what else there was. If the major-domo of Jabba the Hutt was a Twi'lek, that was good news for me. I knew how Twi'leks thought due to having had a Twi'lek as best friend for ten years. I also got my Twi'lek shape shift perfected and got to learn pretty well the complex method of communication with Lekkus, the tails Twi'leks have in their head. For this reason it was difficult to imitate a Twi'lek because if you didn't know the Lekku language, every Twi'lek knew you weren't one of them. The use of Lekkus was also a fundamental part of their dances.

I decided to take a look at Jabba's place here in Mos Eisley. There seemed to be a relatively clear route leading to the complex.

The door seemed to be closed and didn't see any luxury speeders parked there, meaning the Hutt wasn't there.

I decided to ride back towards my hut and take a look at Jabba's palace as it was close to the hut.

The ride there was eventless. When I saw the palace I pulled over and hid behind some large rocks. I pulled out my binoculars and began to study the mansion.

Jabba's palace seemed like a typical Hutt palace, meaning huge. Outside it wasn't up to the normal Hut standards, but that was understandable as the climate here was so harsh.

As I was studying the palace from distance, I heard a ship preparing to land, directly to the palace. My stomach went hard and I fought the urge to run. I recognized the ship. Firespray 31 class patrol and attack ship, heavily modified. This particular ship was called Slave 1 and belonged to arguably the best bounty hunter in the galaxy, Boba Fett.

I had seen Boba Fett in number of occasions in Nal Hutta. He had worked for virtually every Hutt there. The reason was simple, the Hutts could pay his astronomical fees. And the Hutts knew he would deliver, every time.

And a pissed off Hutt would definitely pay Boba Fett's fees to have the head of 500.000 credit thief delivered to his palace. My question was if the Hutts knew who I really was. They must have figured out my now dead best friend's identity. The Hutts must also know my fake identity. I swore my own stupidity, why did I introduce my mechanic identity to Mos Eisley. All the work I had done to soften up the bartender would go out of the window.

Luckily people come and go in a place like this. I just needed to figure out a new cover story I would be relatively safe. There was also the possibility that Boba Fett was here for something else, but I didn't want to take any chances.

I stayed still studying the palace but I didn't see much activity outside. I took my speederbike and headed back to Mos Eisley. An idea occurred to me.

Chapter 3

First I went to buy some clothes. I got a bit of everything, to give me more options for disguise. Next I headed towards the spaceport, I was looking for a specific creature.

After some time I found what I was looking for. The long nosed squeaky creature was hiding in the shadows, watching people pass by, gathering information.

I deliberately walked past him, pretending to be speaking on a comm unit. I made sure he heard when I said:"Yeah, I'm heading to Alderaan, leaving in few minutes."

I walked towards where the corridor split and led to the landing pads. When I got around a corner, I quickly covered myself with a brown robe, same kind what the old Jedi had worn. I left my face visible. I them quickly shifted my shape to the one of an Aqualish and began to walk back the same route I had come from.

Just as I had thought, the squeaky snitch was following me. He didn't pay any attention to me, he was looking for the mechanic leaving for Alderaan. As Mos Eisley had so many ships landing and taking off, he would never know which ship I got into. As many of the people who frequented Mos Eisley seemed to be smugglers, pirates or other criminals, nobody would waste time looking at the published flight plans, they were all fake anyway.

If Boba Fett or any other bounty hunter was after me, they would all be convinced that I was heading to Alderaan. Alderaan was a great place to hide if you were able to get in.

Alderaan was a peaceful system with no weapons and they didn't like low lives around. That kept virtually all bounty hunters and mercenaries out.

I headed back to the cantina, I needed a drink. I went to the bar and ordered a drink. There were two humans talking next to me. Something that one of them said caught my attention: "No, I'm serious. I checked my charts three times. I was spot on but Alderaan simply wasn't there."

I was about to ask but the other human got there first: "What do you mean it wasn't there?"
"As in there was no planet. Just some debris. And I even checked my range to the nearby systems and I was exactly where I thought I was. But Alderaan wasn't there."

"So Alderaan... exploded?"

"Only thing I know is that Alderaan is no longer there."

Now another pilot joined the conversation: "I overheard your conversation. My friend was passing close to Alderaan and he claimed that he had seen a man made moon, with TIEs and Star Destroyers around it. I told him that he was on spice, but maybe he was right. Maybe that moon is a weapon and destroyed Alderaan."

The two pilots looked at each other before one answered: "there is no ship with that kind of firepower, it would take a few fleets of Star Destroyers."
"Or the Katana Fleet."
"Katana Fleet doesn't exist."

The three pilots began to argue whether the Katana Fleet existed or not.
I couldn't believe what I had heard. Was there a weapon that could destroy entire planets? But there was something good in all this; the long nosed snitch must have told every bounty hunter in the system by now that my astro mechanic shape had left for Alderaan. Now when Alderaan had somehow disappeared, it made it almost impossible to find my astro mechanic shape. That was great news.

I decided to head back to my hut and think in peace. I went to my speederbike and headed towards the Western Dune Sea. I parked behind the hut and went in.

I took off my robe and shifted to my natural form and began to massage my muscles. I had found some sort of massaging oil in Mos Eisley, which to my surprise seemed to work well. While I was sitting there in the shade outside the hut, I saw a dark storm building up at distance. That caught my curiosity. During my stay in Tatooine I hadn't seen a single sandstorm. I went back in and got my binoculars.

I began to scan the desert with the binoculars, I was curious about how the locals reacted to the storm. To define it with one word; dramatic. Every building closed their doors and windows. Smaller vehicles and animals were taken inside.

Somewhere in the mountains I heard the shout of the Tusken Raiders, as I had learned they were called. Their voice didn't scare me anymore, it just reminded me that they were dangerous. In the desert, using the maximum zoom setting, I saw one of the Jawa sand crawlers stopping and closing its hatches.

I began to hear the howling wind, the storm was approaching. Although I was partly protected by the hut I could feel the wind building up and blowing sand. The combination of wind and sand began to irritate my skin. I noticed that the sand grains were actually pretty sharp. I decided to go inside and close the windows and the door.

I was wondering what would have happened to me if I had been caught up in a storm like this when I had crash landed in the desert. I probably would have died in the storm. This reminded me of how dangerous places the deserts could be.

Not being able to go anywhere gave me time to think about my time in Tatooine. I had gotten sloppy using the same shape here that I had used in Nal Hutta. The strange destruction of Alderaan had saved me from the bounty hunters.

I had never really formed an opinion about the Empire or the rebellion. Back in Nal Hutta I knew about some rebels storing weapons in one of the warehouses. I wasn't interested in politics and in a galaxy of this big, you would have to follow the senate holonet few hours on daily basis just to have a basic idea of what was going on. The fact that Emperor Palpatine and his Sith right hand Lord Vader ruled the galaxy with iron fist hadn't really affected my life. But if the Emperor had built a weapon to destroy whole planets, it was going too far. Soon every system would be a slave to the Empire or simply destroyed. It chilled my blood. Whole civilizations gone in seconds. I had heard about the Imperial Star Destroyers bombarding a planet but this was different. It wasn't a fight, it was annihilation.

I was wondering if there was something I could do. It seemed a bit unlikely from here, a distant sandbox.

I began to think what to do next. I would need a new shape, which was the easy part. Then I needed fake identification, which in turn was more difficult. Getting a simple fake ID card was easy, but when you were looking for an identity that could stand Imperial scrutiny, one needed to know who to ask. And on this planet, I didn't.

I began to think about what the Cantina bartender had said, that the major-domo of the Hutt was a Twi'lek. Out of all the species I had met, the Twi'leks were the ones I understood the most. I could go and see him and get a job with the Hutt. It would help my cover story on the planet and there I would find the best forged ID makers.

The sandstorm was still howling outside so I decided to go to sleep and rest while the storm lasted.

Chapter 4

The following day the storm was gone and I went outside. I went dust off the sand accumulated on top of my speederbike. That actually took well over an hour, the sand had gotten everywhere. I put on my dark brown robe and shifted to the Aqualish shape.

I rode to Mos Eisley and went walking around the town. It seemed that the locals were used to sandstorms, all the houses I saw were free of sand inside. I went to a small bar. I ordered the Daily Special, which coming to think of it was risky in a place like this. I also ordered some beer, specifying it had to be Corellian.

It was just then when I realized that the bar lacked the typical noise of people talking, arguing and laughing. I turned around and noticed that everybody was following the news feed from the Holonet.

"The rebellion claims to have destroyed Death Star, an Imperial warship."

"Death Star has been linked to the destruction of planet Alderaan."

"The Imperial spokesperson denies existence of any ship with that name, or any attack by the rebellion but assures that the petty rebel group will be hunted down and destroyed soon."

So the pilot at the Cantina had been right, I thought.

I finished my meal and went to buy some more clothes at the always open U Wanna Wanna open air flee market. A plan was coming together in my mind. After buying some clothes, together with more food and water, I rode back to my hut.

I had spent a lot of time around Hutts in Nal Hutta, so I understood Huttese well, although I couldn't pronounce it properly.

The Hutts looked down to rest of the species, all of them. But the Hutts were easy to deal with, as long as you didn't piss them off or try to out-smart them. To keep a Hutt happy you just had to understand Huttese and show your effort trying to speak it. On top of that, just remember to call them Your excellence or similar and you will do well with them. And don't fail them, they didn't take that too well.

I decided against a Twi'lek dancer girl form, a place like this could be a tough place for a pretty Twi'lek. I was thinking about entering as a bounty hunter but with all the high fee top notch operators, such as Boba Fett frequenting there, someone would discover the false identity in matter of hours.

I began to think what a crime lord like Jabba would need. Security? Pilots? Mercenaries? Chefs? The list was never ending. Those were the basic skill sets all Hutt crime lords needed. What I needed was something unique for this particular Hutt and this particular system.

The wind was picking up again, great, the sand would get everywhere again and... That was it! I would become a desert environment consultant for Jabba. He must suffer from this sand like everybody else.

I had spent enough time in Coruscant to know how the cocky, high credit earning consultants spoke and expressed themselves. I could pull that off. But first I needed to prepare myself.

I checked the weather, the wind had picked up but it wasn't that bad yet. I shifted to the Aqualish shape again and headed to Mos Eisley. There I went to the first to place I could find that had holonet connection, a place called Tatooni Booka. I began to read about the desert environment industry. After a couple of hours I had a good understanding who the big names were and what were the most common problems for ships and premises. The good thing about being a consultant was that you could outsource the knowledge, meaning that you just created the contact with a client and then got someone else to do the work for you. There were many sandy systems in the galaxy but in a poor system this far out didn't have the services that the inner systems had. I was sure I had found an unique service to offer.

Next I did run a search for Bid Fortuna, Jabba's major-domo. The first mention of his name came from the official Ryloth source, he wasn't welcome to his own home system. That definitely ruled out any Twi'lek shapes, he would be extremely suspicious towards any of his own kind.

I tried to think of a neutral but still exotic shape. Being exotic was always good because the people around you didn't know too much about your species or your home planet.

I was thinking about a Cerean shape but my body mass wasn't enough to create the long coned head. I could use the shape of an Iridonian, or Zabrak, as they were also called. Their colourful skin and the subtle facial tattoos would be a good cover. Also as they were generally considered as the first space travelling species in the galaxy, their species was found everywhere. The Iridonians were also strong willed and proud species, which meant that people didn't mess around with them too much.

I had spent already four standard hours in that place looking at holonet and I was getting hungry. I headed to the Cantina. I was still irritated about my mistake of introducing myself there in the mechanic shape, I would have to start from zero again.

The bartender seemed as welcoming as always, just staring at everybody. I sat down and ordered food and water. Soon he brought my serving.
"So, I heard there is a Hutt living here." I said to the bartender.
"Name's Jabba." he replied.
"How is he?" I continued.
"Long, slimy. Never seen a Hutt?"
"I meant what does he deal with, what does he like?"
"Rumour says there's spice being moved. He likes Twi'lek dancers and Nala frogs. And his Rancor."

I made a mental note to find out what a Rancor was.

The bartender went to serve some other customers and when he returned, he brought me a Corellian beer. I looked at him and was about to say I hadn't ordered it when he opened the bottle and said: "On the house, you're a good customer."

My heart missed a beat and I nearly reverted to my native shape because of the shock. He knew I was a shape shifter. Should I run? Steal a ship and try to make a run for it?

He raised his glass. Was that a thin smile on his face? That moment I knew my secret was safe with him.

It was getting dark but I wanted to find about the Rancors. I headed to the place where I had accessed the holonet before. I looked up Rancor and I didn't like at all what I saw. Apparently these Rancor things could be as tall as 10 meters and had skin so thick that not even laser bolts could penetrate it. And the Hutt kept one of those as a pet? Great.

I went asked the owner of the place where I could buy a translator unit. The old human suggested U Wanna Wanna. I headed there and within minutes I was able to find a translation unit.

This was actually my first time in Mos Eisley when it was dark. Some strange creatures had come out of their hide outs. These were the species that didn't like or couldn't handle the bright light and the heat during the daytime. It seemed also that many of these creatures saw in the infrared wave length.

I decided not to spend more time there, I went to get my speederbike and first visiting Power Station to charge my speeder, I headed to my hut. The three moons of Tatooine actually looked very beautiful in the vast desert.

I couldn't sleep when I got to the hut. I sat outside smoking a hookah pipe and looked at the three moons. I was thinking about my life. I had a bit under half a million credits hidden away and another maybe 50.000 in different bank accounts. That was the type of amount that allowed you to settle down basically anywhere in the galaxy, with just a few exceptions. There were always those few ultra expensive systems.

But the funny thing was that now when I had the means to live in relative luxury I actually enjoyed the simple life of Tatooine.

What kept on coming back to my mind was the destruction of Alderaan. I couldn't believe that the Empire would destroy a system like Alderaan. Alderaan had no arms, it was law abiding and had never caused any problems.

All this thinking finally made me sleepy and I went to sleep.

Chapter 5

The following day I began to learn the basics of the Iridonian language. Most of the conversation would be conducted in basic but I wanted to learn something, just in case.

After a week or so I felt that I would understand the basic questions. I went in front of a mirror and began to draft my Iridonian shape. I chose blue eyes and began to design a set of beautiful subtle facial tattoos, common for Iridonians. When I was happy with the shape, I repeated shifting to it until I got it right every time.

Next step would be to get a new ID. I had a feeling I knew a person who could help me. I shifted to my Aqualish form and was going to head to Mos Eisley when I saw a Java tracked fortress heading towards the hut.

I went outside. I was curious as I had never been visited by them before. They opened a large loading ramp and a number of droids came out. As these Jawas were scavengers and traders, the array of droids was amazing. Power droids, welder droids, protocol droids, astromech droids, even a strange spider-like droid.

Although the visit was interesting and entertaining, the Jawas didn't have anything of real interest to me. The Jawas loaded the Droids back on board and headed to the desert.

I jumped on the speeder bike and headed to Mos Eisley. I went straight to Cantina. I wasn't hungry so I ordered only a Corellian beer. The bartender brought it and I paid it right away.

When the bartender brought my change I leaned closer and asked: "Where would someone ask for an ID around here?"

He leaned closer so that the bystanders wouldn't hear and replied: "Speak to the Dim-U monks. Ask for Abbot Drayk."

A strange set of monks I thought. Upon finishing my beer I headed to see these monks. I found them without problems and asked for Abbot Drayk as instructed. I was greeted and taken to a quiet part of their premises. It was clear that they were keen to keep their monk cover intact.

I explained that I needed an Imperial quality ID. I was asked for the basic details such as the species, age and height. I was named a price. After some negotiation we reached an agreement. I paid them a down payment of 1/3 of the agreed amount. I was told to come back in couple of days.

Another thing I found about the monks was that they did ship transponder codes. That could become handy some day.

I was wondering whether the monks were actually religious with a little side business or if they just used the monk theme as a cover. It didn't make any difference in the end.

I took my speederbike and headed to Power Station. Power Station was a local place where you could charge your vehicles and droids. It was also a popular hangout among the locals, specially the youth.

I got my speederbike charged and just sat there chatting about speeder bikes with a human and a Toydarian. I didn't quite understand the Toydarian's interest in speeder bikes as they could fly anyway. As a matter of fact they spent a good portion of their time in the air.

As it was early still I decided to head to Anchorhead, just to take a look at it.

Anchorhead wasn't a bad town either, it just lacked the atmosphere of a spaceport. The people in Anchorhead were mostly moisture farmers or people who worked with them. It was too boring for me, so I headed back to my hut.

The following day was an indoors day thanks to a massive sand storm. I managed to get the speederbike indoors and spent the day painting it to desert camoflash colours. The original colour was dark grey. I also adjusted the stabilizer a bit, hoping to improve high speed stability. The speeder felt a bit twitchy at higher speeds and here in open desert one tended to go pretty much flat out. I tried to sleep early but the howling wind kept me awake most of the night.

Chapter 6

Next day began with climbing out of a window as the front door was buried in sand. I went around the hut and looked at all the sand that the storm had brought. You could barely see the hut. Actually I liked that. Not only did it help to camoflash the hut, it also kept it protected from the twin suns. I shovelled sand off only enough to get the door open and my speederbike out.

I shifted to the Aqualish form and headed to the monastery. I was greeted by Abbot Drayk himself. They had the ID waiting for me as promised. I had enough experience dealing with IDs that I could tell this was a good one.

"This is a good set." I told Abbot.
"We provide quality service here." he replied with a smile on his face. I handed him the remaining credits to complete the transaction.
"I hope you have more clients for us." continued Abbot.
It made sense. Abbot obviously didn't know that I was a shape shifter and thought that the ID was for a client of mine.
"I hope so too." I answered.

I was about to leave when Abbot asked: "Hey, you wouldn't happen to be interested in a Z-95?"

Z-95 Headhunter was a real workhorse. It was a one person fighter, equipped with a hyperdrive. It was a bit outdated now when the X-Wing was out, but it still was used as a trainer in many systems and even in active duty in some poorer systems. And Z95 was very reliable.

"It depends. You have it here?" I replied.
"I sure do, follow me."

We walked to one of the hidden hangars and there was indeed a Z95 Headhunter sitting there. It seemed to be in a good shape, taking into account its age and the fact that it was a fighter. What I found very interesting was that it was one of the rare two seater trainer versions.

I began to inspect it. I didn't know much about mechanics but putting up a show was good for negotiations. I saw some welding around the laser cannons.
"What's this about?" I asked Abbot.
"We changed the original cannons to the ones of an X-Wing." Abbot replied.
"Hmph."
"It's real quality job, we were paid well to do it."
I didn't want to look too interested. Inside I was very interested. Star fighters weren't the most common ship to find and this one being a two seater trainer made it very interesting.
"And the shields?" I asked.
"Stock but checked."
"Hmph. And the engines?"
"Sublight is standard, hyperdrive is a bit tweaked, Ok, quite a lot actually, it's faster than an X-Wing."
"Hmph. It's ok. Horrible colour though."
"We can paint it for you, free of charge."
"Why are you desperate to sell it?"
"Eh... We did this for a client who eh... got killed. With the Imps all over the place, we don't want to be mistaken for rebel sympathizers."
"And the transponder codes?"
"This ship wad stolen from the rebels long time ago. It has had a couple of names after that. We will do the registration and the transponder for you."
"Hmph."
"It's a good ship and I'll make a good offer." Abbot named a price.
"Hmph. I don't know, there are some good deals around."
Abbot named a lower price.
"All right, you got a deal. I will pay you a third tomorrow and the rest when you have painted the ship and done the registration and the transponder."
"Fine with me." said Abbot and we shook hands.
"Which colour, which system for the registration and what do you want to call it." abbot asked me.

The paint was silver with red stripes on it. I was thinking about a desert camoflash paint job, like my speederbike, or alternatively black, like the Imperial TIE fighters. I decided on darker camoflash paint, a variation of Boba Fett's Slave 1. That sort of camoflash would work in many different environments.

Next question was what to call it. My thoughts went back to my now dead best friend, Jiba.
"How about calling her Twi'lek Dancer?" I asked Abbot.
"No can do, there is a ship with that name that has visited Tatooine recently." replied Abbot after checking his database.
"Rain Dancer?"
"That can be done. Want that?"
I thought about it. It would honour Jiba and would add an artistic touch as on Tatooine it never rained.
"Yes, she will be the Rain Dancer." I confirmed. "When is she going to be ready?"
"Two days." said Abbot. We shook hands.

Now with my new ID I could do more things. And in a few days I would have a ship too, a real fighter. I decided to have the ship ready before visiting this local Hutt. I would have to visit my hidden treasure to get more credits for the ship.

But before that, I felt thirsty again. It was this desert, it dried you out in matter of hours. I headed to my favourite cantina.

Chapter 7

It was strange to enter and not hearing the band play. Instead there was a human woman, if she could be called that. Apparently she was singing, it those sounds she emitted could be called that. I winced.

The ever so welcoming bartender brought me a Corellian beer and opened the bottle in front of me without me saying anything. He was learning. I also ordered some food, I hadn't ever heard the name of the dish but I felt adventurous.

When Wuher, as I had learned he was called, came back with my food I asked him: "Do you happen to know if the Hutt is in the system?"
"He is. And on stroppy mood."
"Why is that?"
"The rumour is that one of his smugglers dumped a load of contraband."
"What happened to the guy?"
"Jabba sent Boba Fett after him. Poor Corellian."

That was good news. If Fett was after a smuggler, it meant he wouldn't be looking for me. I really had to find out if there was a bounty on my head. The smuggler was Corellian? Could it be the cocky one with the Wookie sidekick?

I began to think about my earlier plan to work as a consultant for Jabba. It didn't seem so interesting anymore after I found out what a Rancor was and also after visiting Anchorhead. There were more people with desert know-how than I had first thought.

"Is the Hutt looking for pilots?" I asked Wuher.
"He always is." he replied, walking away.

I finished my food and went to the huge open air market looking for a pilot suit. I found one which seemed like the one worn by TIE pilots, although this suit had no insignia of any kind. It was my size. The beauty if being a shape shifter was that all sizes fit you, but even so, this suit fit well, so I bought it. There was no helmet coming with the suit so I had to look for one. After looking around for some 20 minutes I found a standard star fighter helmet, which was white. I would have to paint it black. A girl had to look stylish.

I carried my shopping to my speederbike and headed to my hut. On the way I decided to pass by my hidden credit stash and get the credits for the ship.

I didn't go straight to the stash. I tried to make sure that if anybody was watching me, they wouldn't think I was heading to that specific place. Once I got there I noticed that there were no signs of anybody having been there. I got the credits I needed and left.

Back in the hut I painted the helmet black to match the flight suit. That made me think that it had been ages since I last had dressed up to go partying. Tatooine wasn't exactly the place for that. I was thinking about heading to Nal Shadda system to have a weekend party spree but it was a bit far for that. Or was it? I would have to think about that.

It was getting late so I decided to just relax and think about how to introduce myself to Jabba. I was thinking also just leaving this dead sandbox of a system and head closer to the core systems. Not necessarily Coruscant but somewhere close to it. But there was something keeping me in Tatooine. I couldn't tell what it was.

I looked at my new ID. So I was officially an Iridonian female, 23 standard years of age, red skin, violet eyes. My new name was Caras Dun. Caras Dun I repeated to myself aloud. I decided to call it a day and get some sleep. I dreamed about a metal planet in the sky, moving slowly closer.

Chapter 8

I had planned to wait until my new ship, the Rain Dancer would be ready but I hated long waitings.
I had some breakfast, cleaned and checked my blasters. It was too early to head to Jabba's palace. It was a good guess to assume that the Hutt had had a lavish party and was still recovering from it. I had learned that Jabba had a number of female dancers of different species. This gave me an idea. I put on my pilot suit and left the upper part open to reveal a considerable amount of my red Ithorian skin and shape. Jabba should like that detail.

I went outside and looked at Jabba's palace with my binoculars. A speeder bike was heading towards the palace. That would mean that either the Hutt was awake or someone was about to wake him up, which wasn't smart at all.

I decided that it was time to head there myself. I took my both blasters and jumped on my speederbike. I began to ride towards the palace, which wasn't far from the hut. It was easy to get there, there was only one sand road leading to the palace. The entrance to the palace was a massive metal gate. There was no window or guards. I kicked the gate.

To my shock a small round door opened and a strange robotic eye shot out, held by a long arm. It nearly hit me in the head.

"Tee chuta hhat yudd?" the eye shouted at me. I didn't know that language, but it sounded like a question.

"I am a pilot looking for work, I am here to see Bib Fortuna." I replied to the droid.

The eye droid stared at me, laughed and then disappeared back behind the small door. Nothing happened. I was convinced that they wouldn't let me in when suddenly the massive door began to open. A pair of Gamorrean guards were waiting for me on the other side. Using their axes they guided me deeper into the palace. I was used to the Gamorrean guards, I wasn't offended by them pushing me with axes. At the end they barely had more brains than a Nala frog.

The palace looked strange to me. It was clearly decorated for a Hutt but somehow it reminded me of... a monastery. It actually reminded me of the possibly fake monastery where my future ship was being registered and painted. Could the palace have been a monastery or a temple before?

The Gamorreans stopped me and I heard someone approaching. From the darkness of the corridors appeared a Twi'lek male. His eyes were studying me. He didn't say anything but I saw from the movements of his Lekkus that he found me pretty. That was a good thing.

He greeted me in Twi'lek which I pretended not to understand.

"Thank you for receiving me. I was told that you were the master here." I said. I was sure he would like being called master. The movements of his Lekkus confirmed this.

"What do you want?" Bib Fortuna asked me in accented basic. Either he didn't speak Iridonian or he didn't want to show it.

"I am a pilot and I have my own ship. I am looking for work."

Bib Fortuna circled me, studying me.

"We don't need pilots." he said after a moment.

"I heard you needed pilots who don't dump a load of contraband at the first sight of a Star Destroyer."

Bib Fortuna swore in Twi'lek.

"I am a good pilot. I can move your cargo. Can you hire me or should I speak to Jabba directly?"

More swearing in Twi'lek. But still the Lekkus indicated he liked me. Great, great!

"I decide but Jabba has to see you."

"Naturally." I replied and gave him a sweet smile.

Bib Fortuna led me to Jabba's audience chamber. If I hadn't been in chambers of other Hutts before, I probably would have panicked. There was an air of sneakiness and murder in the air. And the fear of the Hutt.

A human dancer chained to Jabba's throne was doing her dance. A number of mercenaries and bounty hunters were present. Bib Fortuna indicated for me to stand in front of the Hutt and he went to whisper on his ear.

I was looking around and saw that the snacks Jabba was having weren't Nala frogs as I was told. They were Gorgs and Klatooine paddy frogs. They looked almost the same but very different in taste. If a chef would confuse them, any Hutt would think about a murder.

The music stopped and the crowd stopped talking. The human dancer retreated, looking at the floor, scared. I began to look at the floor where she was looking at. Now I saw it, there was a trap door. I was convinced that this trap door would lead to the Rancor. I made a mental note to stay clear of it.

Chapter 9

"Hooo!" the Hutt boomed, staring at me. I bowed.
"Who are you lesser being and do you understand the higher language of Huttese?" Jabba boomed, in Huttese.
Huttese was very difficult to pronounce but I did my best: "Your Highness, a lesser species could never fully appreciate the beauty of Huttese. I have the privilege of understanding it but I am not able to speak it well." I replied.
"Hooo! The lesser species is trying to speak Huttese. It makes her wise." Jabba replied in Huttese.
"So you want to pilot for me Iridonian?" Jabba spoke in Basic, making sure everybody understood him. He wanted to create jealousy and competition, typical Hutt thinking.
"I would be honoured your Excellency."
"Hmph. We don't need pilots Iridonian."
"Your Excellency, I am sure that in your great wisdom you see the benefit of having pilots who deliver their cargo and don't dump it over board."
"Hooo! Are you trying to manipulate me Iridonian?"
I stepped off the trap door, making sure Jabba saw this as a deliberate move. Then I replied: "No lesser being could do such thing Your Excellency. I am merely trying to say that I can help your profits grow by not loosing shipments."
"Hmph."
"And I can source the best Klatooine paddy frogs."
Jabba looked at the floor where the trap door was, then his bowl of Gorgs and paddy frogs and then me. The chamber was silent.

"Hoo-Hoo-Hoo! This pilot is clever and cunning! I like her!"
I bowed.
"But you can't find better paddy frogs than mine, I know all the farms in Klatooine."
"My source is not in Klatooine."
"Hooo! Where is your source pilot?"
"Maybe we can do business together Your Excellency. Let me work for you and I will bring you a shipment of paddy frogs to try. I am sure they would be suitable your Highness."
"When can I have the frogs?"
"When can I begin to work?"
"Bring me the frogs in no more than a standard week and we will speak about your employment."
"Of course your Excellency." I bowed.
"Stay with us and enjoy tonight pilot. Music!"

Another night of Hutt party was about to begin. I tried one of Jabba's raw Klatooine paddy frogs, a sign of respect. I liked them fried or marinated but definitely not raw. On the other hand Jabba's Hookah pipe was simply excellent, for which reason I spent most of the evening smoking it. It kept me close to Jabba, which he liked and far from all the low lives that were checking me out.

Later on that night Bib Fortuna came to speak to me. He was looking at me, like if he was studying me.
"Congratulations." he said to me.
"Thank you. I will serve you well."
"Be careful." said Bib and left.

A Sullustan came to speak to me. He wore a pilot's suit. He sat next to me and offered me a beer that I had never seen before, which I accepted.
"Thank you." I said.
"Welcome to Jabba's fleet." said the Sullustan.
"Thanks. How is it here?"
"You speak Huttese so you must know how they try to pay the least possible. Apart from that it's not bad. Tatooine is such a distant place that you don't need to worry too much about the Imperial forces here. They tend to have just some slow customs ships here."
"Well, there is a Star Destroyer orbiting as we speak."
"Not anymore, it left last night."
"Ah, that's good news."
"Can I have some?" asked the Sullustan pointing at the Hookah.
"Sure."

The Sullustan took a deep breath and leaned back, enjoying the Hookah.
"What do you fly?" he asked.
"A modified Headhunter."
"A good ship apparently, never got around to try one myself."
"I like it." That was a lie, I had never flown one myself either.

While I continued chatting with the Sullustan I was thinking that tonight would be a tough night. The Hutt probably ask me to stay there for the night and to refuse the offer wasn't wise. The problem was that the Hutts were paranoid and where ever I was to sleep, I would be monitored. That meant that I wouldn't be able to shift to my own form, nor to sleep for that matter, for the fear of shifting shape in my sleep. Oh well, I would just have to deal with that.

The night went on for a few more hours during which a Twi'lek girl called Oola gave quite a show dancing in front of Jabba. She was good, very good. Seeing Oola dance made me miss Jiba.

Finally Jabba called it a night and I was shown a small room under Jabba's audience chamber. I pretended to sleep, but made sure that I stayed awake and had my DL-44 blaster pointed at the door. Although I didn't see anything, I was sure that a number of devices were keeping an eye on me.

Chapter 10

In the morning I left early. The Gamorrean guards gave me my speederbike and opened the gate. I rode out and headed out. I followed the road leading out of Jabba's palace but I didn't want to head straight to my hut as I probably was being observed. I headed first towards the mountains and the route towards Mos Eisley. After I was out of view I turned around and rode to the hut. I parked my speederbike behind the hut and went in.

I took off my pilot suit and shifted to my native form, which felt great. I began to slowly massage my aching muscles and it didn't take long before I fell asleep on the sofa.

It was past noon when I woke up. I realized that if I wanted to pick up my ship I had to get moving. I quickly got my pilot suit on and took my helmet. I jumped on the speederbike and went flat out to Mos Eisley. I made sure to shift to my Aqualish form, as this was how the monks knew me.

I found my new ship painted and registered, just as I was promised. I paid them as agreed. I was burning to take Rain Dancer out for a spin, specially now when the Star Destroyer was gone. The monks agreed to take my speederbike to Mos Eisley for me.

I climbed to the cockpit. I couldn't believe that I had my own star fighter. I began to study the controls. The monks explained to me the functions of the ship. Ships all flew basically the same but each one had a different layout for the switches and gauges. The monks helped me to go through the pre-flight check list. I started the engines.

I felt the powerful sub light engines spooling up and the whole fighter to tremble. It felt like a wild animal trying to break free. I felt excited in the cockpit, this was something totally different from Jiba's and mine old freighter that was now buried in the sand. This was a real fighter.

I noticed that all systems were running at 100% and the fighter was ready for take off. The monks moved further from the fighter, one of them moving in front of the fighter to guiding me with light rods. I appreciated this gesture as the opening in the hangar's roof wasn't much bigger than the fighter itself.

I gave the engines more power and felt the fighter tremble as it fought the gravity. Slowly the fighter began to rise. I needed to correct the position slightly to get the fighter out of the hangar. It felt strange to sit so far back and see the long nose in front of me. Our freighter had been the opposite, the cabin was in the front, you only saw space in front of you, with the rest of the ship hanging behind you.

I cleared the hangar and was met by the blinding twin suns. I pulled down the dark tinted visor. I accelerated, heading up in a 45 degree angle. There was so much power in this thing! I felt how the acceleration pushed me hard against the seat. I rolled the ship upside down and looked back to see Mos Eisley. It looked like a miniature town. It just hit me how fast I had climbed. I saw another ship in my screen. In a matter of few seconds I flew past it so fast that I couldn't even tell what kind of a ship it was. I couldn't stop giggling. This was fun!

That moment I realized that I had forgotten to turn on my radio. The planetary traffic control would be mightily pissed off with me already. I decided to leave the radio off, it was too late for that now.

I noticed how the rushing sound of air against the hull disappeared, that meant that I was out of the atmosphere. The fighter suddenly felt lighter, it felt as if it was happy to be in its element, space. At the end it was a star fighter, designed to manoeuvre in vacuum and bring death to those who opposed it.

I performed barrel rolls, loops and other moves. And couldn't stop giggling. The ship reacted so fast that it was almost scary.

I typed into the hyperspace navigation computer the destination I wanted to head to. My secret source for the best Klatooine paddy frogs in the galaxy. The planet was called Dagobah. A real dump of a system. It was simply a swamp that had the shape of a planet. That place was disgusting. Swamp, smell of swamp and strange hostile animals that liked swamps. Not a place for a lady.

However, the paddy frogs loved the place. They were frogs at the end and for them that swampy planet was paradise. During my time with the Hutts of Nal Hutta I had met a pilot who sold exclusive snacks to the Hutts at astronomical prices. Luckily I had made one run with him to Dagobah to buy some frogs from a small farm that two amphibious beings run there. I never got the name of their species. They didn't like to speak and they didn't like visitors. I hoped they would sell me some frogs, specially as the trader I had gone there with had gotten greedy and got murdered by one of the Hutt crime lords. I hoped that the farm still continued there.

Chapter 11

My navi computer indicated the correct direction. I steered Rain Dancer to the indicated direction and pulled the lever to engage the hyperdrive. If I had been giggling with the power of the sub light engines, the hyperdrive left me with my mouth open. The space around me turned into a tunnel of white stripes. The speed that the fighter flew in hyperspace was astonishing. That was real speed.

I took advantage of being alone in the fighter and shifted to my native shape and let my muscles rest. I checked all the systems and everything was ok. I checked the navi computer and saw that I had time for a nap before a way point where I would have to come out of hyperspace to pilot manually and put the fighter on a new course before engaging the hyperdrive again. I decided to take a nap.

I woke up to the buzzer indicating that I should exit hyperspace in one minute. I rubbed my eyes, stretched my muscles and prepared myself. When the count down reached zero I pushed the lever and came out of hyperspace. I quickly checked the screens to make sure I wasn't going to crash into another ship or some small moon.

I pointed the fighter to the correct direction, engaged the hyperdrive and went back to sleep.

It felt as if I hadn't slept at all when it was time to come out of hyperspace again. I waited the countdown to reach zero and exited hyperspace. In front of me was Dagobah. I checked my systems and to my surprise saw a distant X-Wing heading to Dagobah, but soon it disappeared to the mist and from my screen. I never saw it again. I wondered what an X-Wing was doing in Dagobah.

I headed through the mist to where I remembered the farm was. The weather here was horrible. It was raining almost non stop. When I came closer to the ground I slowed down and began to look for signs of life. The farm was too small and primitive to shop up in screens so I had to trust my eyes.

I kept on flying in large circles, looking for the farm. After some 15 minutes of circling I saw it. It was exactly as I remembered it, large pools covered with nets and a small house where the two farmers lived. There was a small freighter in a clearing beside the house. I shifted to my adopted Iridonian form and began landing next to the freighter. My fighter touched down softly, it probably sank a bit to the soft soil.

I switched off the engines and opened the cockpit. The moist damp air greeted me. I heard some creature let out a long throaty sound somewhere.

When I reached the ground I saw one of the amphibious creatures staring at me.
"What do you want?" he asked me.
"I would like to buy paddy frogs."
"Who sent you?"
"No one. I used to know a trader that bought them from you. Mas Shantooi."

"Where is Mas?" I heard from behind me. When I turned around I saw the other amphibious creature surfacing from the murky water. He was holding a harpoon, pointing at me. Not very trusting creatures.

"Dead." I replied.

"You killed him?" asked the harpoon holding creature.

"No, the Hutts did. He got greedy. I knew well his business with you and would like to take it over."
"We are not a big producer."
"I know. I would sell to a very exclusive clientele."

The two creatures looked at each other. The harpoon was lowered and the two creatures walked away to speak privately. I was nervous. I had begun my trip here to just buy a few paddy frogs but now I had realized the opportunity this represented. I could make some good credits with the frogs.

After a few minutes the creatures approached me. The one that still had the harpoon in his hands spoke: "We will sell you frogs. Our frogs are not cheap. You know this?"
"Yes, I am prepared for this."

In half an hour we had a box of excellent Klatooine paddy frogs packed in water containing a mild sedant to keep the frogs calm during the trip. The containers barely fit on the second seat of my fighter. Headhunter had a small storage space but it wasn't large enough for the containers.

I paid the creatures and promised to keep the location of their farm in secrecy. The harpoon one helped me to climb to the cockpit.

In a few minutes I exited the atmosphere of Dagobah and began my trip back to Tatooine.

Chapter 12

It was late night in Mos Eisley side of Tatooine when I got there. It didn't stop the air traffic control from bollocking me for not having contacted them when taking off. I apologized, claiming a radio fault.

As it was night time, I didn't want to fly directly to Jabba's palace and wake him up. I didn't want to land in the spaceport either. Someone would probably steal my frogs. I decided to land at my hut and sleep there in my own bed. Well, the old Jedi's bed. I still didn't see the hut as mine, I felt that I was a guest there.

I landed and checked up on the frogs. They were swimming lazily in their container, good, it meant that they continued alive and drugged. I went straight to the bed and fell asleep.

The following day I took my Headhunter to Mos Eisley spaceport. I rented a land speeder from Mos Eisley Speeders and loaded the frogs onboard. I headed to Jabba's palace, about half an hour trip.

I arrived to the gate of Jabba's palace. The one eyed robot came out and quickly opened the gate. It seemed that it had stored my data and knew who I was.

The Gamorrean guards showed some intelligence and used their considerable strength to haul the frog containers to the kitchen area. I followed them.

Jabba's chef didn't waste time and opened the containers. He pulled one out randomly and put it in a small transparent box. He then took a syringe and extracted some blood from the still drugged frog. I knew he was going to check the whole frog for poisons, the Hutts were a paranoid species.

The chef noticed me still standing there and rightly guessed that I wanted to know when he was going to serve them.
"I will serve them first raw this afternoon and flavoured tonight. We will let you know. Come here tomorrow afternoon."
"And my payment?" I asked.

The chef thought for a second and replied: "If he likes them, tomorrow. If not, getting paid won't be your biggest worry."

Typical Hutt behaviour I thought. I did as instructed.

I took the rental speeder back and then passed by my ship, just to check it out quickly. It seemed to be fine. There was a bit water in the co-pilot cabin were the boxes had been. I wiped it off. I was admiring my fighter. I was still impressed with the power it had, specially the hyperdrives. I had never travelled through space that fast.

I was getting hungry and decided to visit Wuher. I walked to the cantina and the band was back. That was great news, the human woman had been truly horrible. I hoped that she had left the system already.

Wuher came to ask what I wanted.
"The daily special. And Corellian beer, in a bottle."
Wuher stared at me for a second and then said: "Corellian beer is getting popular here."

I was actually more hungry than I had originally thought. I finished the food in record time. My thoughts went back to Jabba and my Klatooine paddy frogs. I was pretty confident that Jabba would like them, but as always with Hutts, you never knew. One thing sure was that Jabba wouldn't just accept my price. He would come up with all sorts of reasons and threats to bring the price down, or even better, cutting me out as a middle man. Well, that wasn't going to happen. I made a mental note to make sure my ship didn't have tracking devices before going next to Dagobah. I would also have to be careful not to be followed. I was convinced that Jabba would send someone.

I thanked Wuher and left the cantina. It was early still and I decided to get my speederbike and ride to see the monks. I got there in few minutes. Abbot himself wasn't there but I was greeted by two of the monks that had been present when I took delivery of my Z95.

These monks, as well as Abbot, had only seen my Aqualish form, not the Iridonian I was using. They would see me as a client of the Aqualish, as I was sure they would remember the fake ID they had made for me.

"Hello pilot. Welcome to our monastery." said one of the monks.
"Hello, I was sent by a common friend. I got one of your ships through him."
"Oh yes, I remember now. Please send our best wishes."
"I will do. I was wondering if you could help me. I am looking for a device or a droid to spot tracking devices."
"Well pilot, there are both. A handheld device is smaller and cheaper but a small droid is more effective in spotting the more sophisticated tracking devices."
"Do you have such droids?"
"Please follow me pilot."

Chapter 13

We walked deeper into their monastery and reached a room where they stored their equipment. There were astromech , translator, mechanic, agricultural and who knows what other types of droids present. The monks took me to a small floating droid. It was like a rounded tube, some 30 centimeters long and some 10 centimeters wide and long.

"How does it work?" I asked.
"I find device." the droid replied itself, gaining altitude and hovered at the height of my eyes.
"What sort of devices?"
"I find all."

The monk spoke, clarifying the answer a bit:"S5Q here has a very wide spectrum of scanners on board. We have seen it detecting anything from surveillance droids to ultrasound transmitters. Oh, it can also spot living beings."
"You don't use it yourselves?" I asked.
"No, S5Q is great but it has a limited range, maybe some 10 meters. We have a larger droid that covers the whole complex from any given spot. But S5Q would be great for you."
I took their word for it and agreed to buy the droid.
"S5Q, recharge yourself." the monk commanded.
"I recharge now." replied the droid and flew to its charging station.

I followed the droid's flight and navigation. It seemed to work on simple loop logic, meaning it checked its position, calculated necessary actions, executed them and began from the beginning. This made its flight a bit jerky but it got to where it wanted to go.

Now when I was alone with the monk the monk spoke to me quietly: "Here, I will give you few tracking devices and surveillance units. You need to play with S5Q from time to time, just turn on the devices and let S5Q find them. It can get depressed if it doesn't spot anything in some time."

A depressed hovering droid? Great, just what I needed.
"Ok." I answered and accepted a small bag that contained the devices. The monk brought me the droid's charging station and the droid followed slowly hovering.

"S5Q, system access, access code THX-1138."
"Beep. Access granted. Waiting input."
"New master user."
"Define new master user."
"Right here." said the monk pointing at me.
"Scanning. Scan complete. Confirm change?"
"Yes."
"Master user changed."
"Exit system access."
"Changes saved. System ready."

Great, I had my own scanner/detector droid. I thanked the monks and went back to my speederbike. I switched the droid off and placed it into the same bag where the tracking devices were. I was eager to try the droid out, so I went straight to my ship parked at the spaceport.

I walked to the docking bay 36 where my fighter was and took the droid out of the bag and turned it on. It beeped and began to hover.

"S5Q, scan this entire ship."

"Scan ship, entire."

It seemed to my that the manufacturer of this droid had opted for the most basic of vocal units. I hoped the scanner units were better.

The droid hovered to the nose of the fighter and began to search. It seemed to maintain roughly 2 meter distance from the ship, I supposed this was the optimum distance.

The droid got to the cabin area and stopped. It spoke: "Tracking device found. Type: track storage. Informing method: internal memory. Time of activation: four hours, 17 minutes, 23 seconds. Manufacturer: Kleeto Blasha Electronics. Model: DTK-5."

I was impressed. I had a question though: "What do you mean by internal memory?"

"Internal memory mean by, the device does not transmit data, user manually retrieve data."

"Isn't it better to transmit the data?"

"Transmitting range limited, subject to interference and capture."

Hmm, that made sense. Whoever had placed the device wanted to make sure they got the correct information and wanted to make sure they were the only ones to have that information.

I went to look at the device. It was a small, rounded box that was painted dark green. It was very difficult to spot it with bare eyes.

"Continue scan." I told S5S. I yanked the device off and went to the neighbouring docking bay where there was a freighter parked. I placed the tracking device on the freighter. I would pick it up after my next trip, if there was next trip. Whoever had installed the device on my ship would go on a nice, totally useless tour who known to what systems.

When I got back to my fighter the droid had stopped again. Another one?

"Creature found. Classification: rodent. Current status: stand by."

I looked at the spot where the droid was and saw a small rodent hiding in the engine housing. I threw a small rock at it and it ran away.

"Scan complete." informed S5Q. I was impressed by this little droid. I would make sure to run a scan before going anywhere.

I switched the droid off and placed it in my bag. I walked to my speederbike, stopping and doubling back couple of times to make sure that I wasn't being followed. I headed to Power Station to get my speederbike charged.

After I got my speederbike charged I headed towards my hut. It was late evening and the twin suns were going down and soon the three beautiful moons would come out. Despite being such a dead sandbox, Tatooine was actually a beautiful place, if you just knew how to appreciate it.

When I reached my hut it was dark already. I wasn't tired yet so I brought out a chair and a hookah. I set the hookah up, letting it warm up and in the mean while I opened the bag where I had the detector droid and the random devices the monks had given me.

I began to classify the devices. There was a holo recorder, good, I could actually place it in the docking bay to see if someone had tried to tamper with my ship.

Next device I was able to figure out was a motion detector. It came with its counter piece, so when the detector unit noticed movement, the portable notification unit would beep. Interesting, but probably a bit useless for me.

The rest of the devices didn't ring a bell. But I knew a way to find out. I took the rest of them and placed them randomly in the hut. I made sure I turned them all on.

My hookah seemed to be ready so I took a couple of puffs before pulling the droid out and turning it on. The droid beeped and began to hover. It seemed confused first, heading towards the desert, but it soon turned around and came back.

"Multiple possible devices found. Scan the area?"

"Yes please."

S5Q hovered towards the hut and began its scan. I knew it wouldn't find anything on the outside as I had placed all the devices inside.

I enjoyed my hookah and checked the droid's progress every now and then. Eventually it went inside.

"Device found. Type: listening device. Model: Silver Star Components KL3. Status: Active, paired not to receiver unit."

"Continue."

"Device found. Type: Chemical detector. Model: LabPro, Customs edition. Scan set for Death Sticks. Status: Active."

"Continue." I replied. I smiled at the Death Sticks part. I was convinced that the monks used those detectors to make sure that the smuggling compartments they built would stay un-detected if boarded by a customs agent.

"Device found. Type: Droid detector. Model: Kashlandan Systems DGS-22. Status: Active."

"Ok."

"Found 3 devices. Status: inactive."

"Ok." So either they needed something else to activate them or they were broken.

"Device found. Type: unknown. Model: unknown. Status: unknown."

Interesting. I would have to look into that one. This type of mysteries interested me.

"Scan complete."

"Thanks." I left the droid on, at least it hovering around would entertain me. For some reason I found its jerky flight amusing.

Tomorrow would be the big day, to see if Jabba liked my set of Klatooine paddy frogs. I was sure he would. I would have to begin to offer them to other Hutts also. One error I had decided not to commit was to get greedy. I had seen many times what could happen when creatures got greedy.

I hadn't noticed how long I had been sitting there puffing my Hookah. It was almost morning already. I switched the droid off and went to sleep.

Chapter 14

When I woke up it was past noon already. I had a quick breakfast and refreshed. I got dressed and headed to Jabba's palace.

The one eyed droid didn't laugh today, it just opened the gate. I went in and walked to Jabba's chamber.

"Hooo! The pilot has returned! Did you bring more paddy frogs?" Jabba boomed as soon as he saw me.

"Did your highness enjoy the first batch?"

"They were excellent. Did you bring more?"

"As your Excellency remembers, we must discuss payment of the first batch. And my employment."

"Hmph."

I stayed quiet. And away from the trap door. Jabba was smoking his hookah and thinking.

"I will pay you 50 credits for each frog."

"200, minimum order 20 frogs."

Jabba let out a roar and slapped one of his servant droid off its feet. "100. And you only supply paddy frogs to me."

"I am sure you can find cheaper frogs from other suppliers. Thank you for your time your excellence."

"All right pilot, I will pay 200. But you will only supply frogs to me."

"Your highness, you must understand that I have other clients as well."

"Hmph. Pilot means other Hutts you mean?"

This was getting dangerous I thought. The Hutts were not very trusting species, not even among their own kind. The thought that I would be selling the same frogs to other Hutt families didn't make Jabba happy at all.

"Your Excellence, even lesser species have developed a taste for paddy frogs. I am just a merchant trying to make a living in the galaxy. Of course providing you with the best examples is my priority."

"Make sure that is the case pilot. I expect quality."

"Yes your highness." I bowed.

"Pay the pilot. He deserves it." Jabba said to Bib Fortuna. Bib Fortuna bowed to Jabba and led me to one of the rooms behind the audience chamber where he paid me the outstanding amount. That was the beginning of my business relationship with Jabba. Interestingly he hadn't mentioned any smuggling runs to me. I supposed it meant that he wanted to keep his new paddy frog supplier safe. Or alternatively, coming to think of it, he didn't trust me enough yet to give me contraband to handle. At the end the frogs were indulgence and contraband was business. And Hutts took business very seriously.

Chapter 15

During the next few months I did a number of trips to Dagobah and kept Jabba happy. I made sure to bring him the finest examples. During my last visit to Jabba's palace I found out that the cocky Corellian had become part of Jabba's decoration. He had been frozen in Carbonite. Not so surprisingly it had been Boba Fett who collected the bounty.

I headed back from Jabba's palace to my hut. I finally began to feel that it was mine as the old supposed Jedi had died and nobody else hadn't reclaimed it either. Jabba had been on better mood since he got the Corellian on the wall. He had paid my last shipment in a blink of an eye.

I parked my speederbike behind the hut as always and went in. I was tired from the last trip. I just wanted to get off my flight suit, shift to my native form and take a nap.

If I hadn't been so sleepy I probably would have noticed the humanoid sitting in a shadow.

"Welcome back Caras." he said.

I pulled out my blaster and dove for cover.

"There is no need for that, I just wanted to have a chat. I am unarmed."

Yeah right I thought, I had seen him in Jabba's palace. He was a bounty hunter and carried a weird big axe. But then I noticed that his axe was leaning against a wall.

"What do you want?" I asked.

"We could use your help."

I came out, my blaster still pointed at him. I sat in front of him, far enough that he couldn't grab my blaster.

"Who is we?" I continued.

"My name is Lando Calrissian, I am a friend of Captain Solo."

"I don't know any Captain Solo. But that name, Calrissian rings a bell. Coruscant perhaps, a gambler?"

The humanoid took off his brown helmet and showed the most charming smile I had ever seen.

"I am impressed, you are absolutely correct. I mostly play sabbac. Captain, or General if you wish, Solo is the Corellian frozen in Carbonite at Jabba's palace."

"Oh, him. Why general?"

"Well after his participation in blowing up Death Star, the rebel leaders named him general."

"So there was a planet destroying ship?"

"A small moon actually, but yes. It destroyed Alderaan."

"So you want me to join the rebellion?"

"It would be a pleasure to have you on board. You look dazzling in that suit."

"Cut the crap."

Lando smiled and got back on track: "We could use your help to rescue Han."

"How did you find me?"

"I had seen you at Jabba's palace. I followed you here and when I told Luke about this place, he said this had belonged to his friend, Jedi Master Obi Wan Kenobi."

"The old guy was a Jedi master?"

"So you met him then?"

"He was the one who gave me this hut. Who is this Luke character?"

"He is a Jedi also, he was born here in Tatooine."

"What is this, Jedis running wild all over the place?"

Lando laughed. "No, he is one of the very last remaining."

"And what is your plan to rescue Solo?"

"You may have seen me in the palace. The rebellion has had a spy infiltrated there for some time. He got me in. Soon another rebel will come disguised as an Ubese bounty hunter and will deliver Chewbacca. After that Luke will come. Luke's plan included to hide an extra light sabre in the R2 unit."

"He's bringing a droid with him?"

"No, the droid is in Jabba's palace already. You may have seen it there. White and blue R2."

"I haven't really paid attention to be honest. But anyway, continue."

"I thought that since you seem to be one of the few to get along with Bib Fortuna and Jabba's chef, you could come in handy."

"What can I do?"

"Make sure that R2D2 is serving drinks whenever Luke is around so that Luke can get his light sabre if he needs it."

I lowered my blaster and thought about it. I was convinced that I could do it. Finally I felt that I could do something to help the rebellion.

"All right, I'll do it. And I would like to help you guys if we make it out of this alive."

"It would be our pleasure to have you. We need pilots, soldiers..."

I shifted from my Iridonian shape to a copy of Lando.

"Impressive. Most impressive. Clawdite?"

"Yes."

"We could definitely use that skill."

"Please keep it as a secret."

"Naturally."

"So how many are you in this rescue operation?"

"Myself, Luke, Chewie, Princess Leia and the two droids."

"Princess Leia? As in Princess Leia Organa of Alderaan?"

"Yes, she will be the one disguised as Ubese bounty hunter and will deliver Chewie to Jabba. You know her?"

"I know of her, I have spent some time in Alderaan."

"It was a pleasure meeting you Caras. I better head back to the palace. I will see you there."

"One question; when are the troops arriving?"

"Princess Leia will bring Chewbacca sometime tomorrow."

"Ok. See you there then."

Lando left and I shifted to my native shape and rubbed my face. This was somewhat a big moment for me. I was actually going to help the rebels. I was excited about it but also nervous, you didn't go against a Hutt without consequences.

I stood up and went to get S5Q. I thought it would be a good idea to scan the hut for listening or surveillance devices. Coming to think of it, I should have done it before Lando began to tell about the rebellion and the rescue plan.

While S5Q wobbled around the hut I began to think about the quickest way out of the system if things went wrong. I could bring my fighter to the hut. This way I could reach it in some ten minutes and then blast out of the system and disappear. But if I brought it over here it would be also more vulnerable. Maybe it was better to leave it at Mos Eisley for the time being.

"Scan complete. No devices found." S5Q informed me.

"Thanks." I replied and S5Q continued hovering around, looking for more devices.

It was getting dark already. I decided to call it a day and get some rest. Tomorrow would be an interesting day.

Chapter 16

I woke up early and refreshed myself. I got dressed in my flight suit and checked my two blasters.

I got on my speederbike and headed to Jabba's palace. I was let in quickly, I was a regular there already. I went straight to the audience chamber. Jabba seemed to be on a happy mood. I bowed to him as I entered.

I sat at a table where the Sullustan pilot was.

"Hello Z95." he greeted me.

"Hi there SoroSuub." I replied with a laugh. I couldn't tell when we had began to call each other with our ships names but it always brought a smile on my face.

The Sullustan had a hookah on the table, the only thing missing was a Corellian beer.

"Want a beer SoroSuub?"

"Wow, a pretty girl buying me a drink? How can I say no."

I smiled and stood up. I went to get us a beer. I got four bottles so I didn't need to keep on going back and forth.

"Here you go." I said, placing the bottles on the table.

"Thank you."

"Hey 95, Jabba gave me a job. Got to rendezvous with a cargo ship near Altineeda system and move some weapons. My coplot got into a brawl in Mos Eisley and will be recovering for some days. Want to fly with me? I'll cut you in."

"When are you supposed to..."

Our conversation was cut off by Jabba's irritated voice and the scared voice of the Twi'lek dancer. Jabba didn't like his toys protesting and opened the trap door to the Rancor's pit.

The crowd went wild and gathered around to see the carnage. Their show was cut short by a blaster shot and
Gamorrean guards making sounds The whole audience chamber went quiet.

An Ubese bounty hunter wearing a respiration unit built into his or her helmet walked into the chamber, with a heavily cuffed Wookie next to him. It was Chewbacca.

As a small side note, I was happy to not be in the mechanic shape, as I was sure Chewie had experienced a hyperdrive failure.

"Wow, look at that! Someone finally got the mighty Chewbacca." said the Sullustan.

"Good job." I replied.

"Look at that suit. Never seen one like that."

"That's an Ubese helmet. Their home world has very low oxygen content and when off-planet, they need to wear a respirator unit, breathing level 1 oxygen would kill them."

It was a clever disguise I thought. Everybody knew that the bounty hunter couldn't remove the helmet and show his face.

As typical, the Hutt didn't want to pay the full amount, the bounty hunter pulled out a thermal detonator, Boba Fett prepared to shoot him, Jabba laughed, finding it clever and resourceful. They reached an agreement and the Wookie was placed in a containment cell in the basement and the Ubese bounty hunter received a nod from Boba Fett, which was about as high praise as a bounty hunter could receive. If anybody found out that the bounty hunter was actually Princess Leia Organa of Alderaan, things would get very interesting indeed.

I tried to figure out the plan. I didn't quite understand how jailing the Wookie helped. I saw Lando in the crowd. He hadn't paid any attention to me, good, he knew what he was doing.

"To Jabba."

"What?" I replied before noticing that the Sullustan had raised his bottle.

"Oh yeah, right, to Jabba. He's a good worm."

The evening was eventless. I spoke with the Sullustan about his smuggling run and I said I would do it. I said it just to maintain my cover. I knew I would be out of this system way before then.

When Jabba called it a day, I pretended to have fallen asleep there and didn't go to one of the individual rooms that Jabba had always offered to me.

Chapter 17

The lights were dimmed right down. When I heard soft steps in the near darkness, I knew exactly what was going to happen. It was the oldest trap in the history of Hutts. But it was too late to warn Leia.

Most people didn't know that the Hutts saw very well in darkness and used that to their advantage. The Hutts also liked their naps and sleep, but what most people didn't realize was that they often then stayed awake at night to see what was going on in their palaces when people thought that they were asleep.

Leia was about to fall into that trap. And to make things worse, I recognized a reflection of illuminated control buttons I saw. The controls of Boba Fett's jet pack. Jabba had known from the beginning what was going on. Trying to out-smart a Hutt was very difficult and often deadly.

I could only watch how Leia defrosted Solo, removed her helmet, kissed the guy and was awarded a laugh and bright lights from Jabba.

Solo went to a containment cell with the Wookie and Leia got a new set of clothes and a chain around her neck. Jabba got a new pet, a real princess chained to his throne.

I was too tired to stay awake anymore and headed to the room in the basement that Jabba had waiting for me. I closed the door behind me and got to the bed. I couldn't figure out the logic of this so called rescue operation. All I had seen so far was humans and a Wookie being jailed. How exactly did that help anybody? I was too tired to think anymore and fell asleep.

I don't know how long I had slept but it felt like a long time. I woke up to a roar so loud that it shook the room. I literally jumped out of the bed, my blaster drawn. Since nothing seemed to be attacking me, I run to Jabba's audience chamber.

Everybody was shouting and screaming. I saw that the trap door in front of Jabba's throne was open. Great, the Rancor was getting a snack I though. The first person I came across who wasn't shouting and going crazy was Boba Fett.

"Who went in?" I asked Boba Fett.

He turned his head ever so little towards my direction and answered: "Skywalker."

My mind tried to reconstruct what had happened. I would have to speak to someone more conversational to find out what had happened. That is when I heard something very heavy falling and the Rancor crying out. I looked down to the pit and saw that the Rancor had been crushed by a massive door. Skywalker was in there, panting but alive.

The continuation was obvious. Jabba was mightily pissed off, shouting in Huttese. The whole rescue party was ordered to be thrown into Sarlacc. What is Sarlacc? Anyway, Jabba ordered his sail barge to be readied.

The drinks! I run down stairs and got a tray with glasses on it and a tray of snacks. I went looking for the R2 unit described to me. I found it in one of the corridors.

"Stop right there and listen. I am a friend of Lando. Take this and follow me." I told R2, offering the tray. R2D2 extended an arm and grabbed the tray. I hurried through the corridors of the palace to the sail barge. There were so many people hurrying to get the barge ready that nobody paid attention to me or to R2D2. Somebody already took a glass from the tray R2 was carrying. I kneeled down and spoke to R2:

"R2, make sure you always have drinks on the tray, that is your cover and allows you to move all over the barge. I know you have a light sabre for Luke. Good luck with that R2, you may be his only hope."

R2 beeped something back, I didn't understand him.

I saw that two skiffs were also being prepared. My mind was racing, trying to create a plan of some sort.

I heard noise behind me and when I turned around I saw Jabba coming in on his hover sled. Princess Leia was brought in. On the other side of the docking bay the Wookie, Solo and Skywalker were taken to the smaller skiff.

The guests were hurrying to get on board, it seemed that Jabba was anxious to get to this Sarlacc thing.

We departed in matter of few minutes. I was on board Jabba's barge. We headed out to the desert. I didn't still know what this Sarlacc thing was but I was sure I was going to find out soon enough.

We were speeding in the desert. I looked out of the window and saw a skiff with Solo, Skywalker and the Wookie. Solo seemed to suffer still from having been frozen, he didn't see well. Skywalker seemed very comfortable and sure of his plan. I wasn't so sure of anything.

During our ride I placed more drinks on R2's tray in a couple of occasions. The desert seemed endless. I was about to ask a guard what this Sarlacc thing was when I noticed that we were slowing down.

Chapter 18

I walked to one of the hatches and pushed it open. I had to look twice just to be sure. There was an enormous... something in the sand. It looked like a throat with teeth and tentacles. Interesting but not good. Definitely not good.

Jabba began his speech; victims of Sarlacc, bla bla, suffering for thousand years bla bla. Solo and the Wookie were brave. Skywalker looked strangely calm and confident.

There was a silence in the air. All eyes were on Skywalker. Jabba told the guards on the skiff to push Skywalker over to Sarlacc's throat. Because I was on the lower deck I had a good view of Skywalker. He nodded to somebody ever so slightly. I couldn't see who it was. R2! I looked around me and didn't see R2 anywhere.

Before I could think anything else, Skywalker pulled off a pretty neat stunt by dropping off the board and jumping back on the skiff. That was when R2 shot Skywalker's light sabre out of his dome and Skywalker began attacking people.

Jabba wasn't too pleased about this and began shouting. Boba Fett went airborne using his jet pack and landed on the skiff.

I saw a couple of guards running towards the hatches next to me. I had to stop them. I pulled out my DL-44 and shot the first one in the head. The second turned around and dove for cover. I also run for cover.

Just next to me a guard opened a hatch and I saw Skywalker pulling him out of the hatch and dropping him to Sarlacc.

I heard a jet pack igniting again and something heavy hitting the barge. Just then I realized that the big worm was making unusual sounds. I shot the second guard and began to run upstairs.

I was half way up when I saw Princess Organa pulling a chain that went around Jabba's neck. Jabba's tail was wiggling but he didn't have a chance, the Hutts had very weak arms and hands. He would die strangulated.

Somebody grabbed my ankle and I fell down the stairs. I hit my head against the floor and everything began to fade to black. The last thing I heard was somebody yelling: "the deck, point it to the deck." or something similar. Darkness.

I coughed. My mouth was completely dry and my head ached more than ever before. My face felt burned. So did my arms.

I slowly turned my head. A few meters from me was what was left of Jabba's sail barge. It apparently had exploded. There were bodies around me and tons of pieces of metal. Nobody moved. I coughed again. A mixture of sand and blood came out.

I slowly rolled on my back. The twin suns were blazing on me. They were merciless. They looked beautiful.