Coruscant: Fornia's apartment
Fornia was inside the Slave I. Inside his ship. Any tentative truce that Fett had imagined between the two of them was dissolving rapidly as he pictured her on his ship, seeing her as clearly as he had a few minutes ago. She would walk about confidently, carelessly; her shoes would land heavily upon Slave I's metal floor. She would touch things. Like she had tried to touch his armour. Fett remembered that moment very well. She had entered the room, she had assumed he was asleep, without any indication of caution she had made a grab for his armour. The way she had jumped when he reprimanded her had given him some gratification, he had to admit to himself.
Fornia appeared in the doorway, carrying a holo-projector in her hands. Her sudden reappearance had almost taken Fett by surprise. If Boba Fett ever could be taken by surprise.
"I sent your message to this." She said. She sounded breathless.
"You were gone for a while." Said Fett coolly. His desire to be civil to her had evaporated. Fornia immediately flared up in response.
"Oh, for your information, I had absolutely no idea where Dengar left your ship, and as there are about two hundred landing platform, I think I did pretty well to find it so quickly! I didn't realise there was a time limit. I'll delete the message and try to do it again in under a minute, if you like."
"Alright, sorry!" Fett said, his voice rather louder than usual, "I was just worried-" Fett stopped. Had he just apologised to her? Fornia, by her raised eyebrows, seemed just as astonished. "I was just worried about my ship."
"Well, you needn't have been," she said quickly, "it's-"
The lights went out. Fornia and Fett stared at each other through the sudden half-light. Fornia pressed every button on the security panel next to the door. Nothing happened.
"Power cut, I think. I think I remember the holonews guy saying to expect them…" she said.
"It's not just us." Fett said through the gloom. He was pointing out of the window. Fornia looked and saw the building opposite, usually flecked with thousands of lights, was in darkness too.
"Ugh. I wonder how long before it comes back on." Fornia stepped to the window and rested her head against the cool glass. "There was something I wanted to watch on Holovision tonight."
Fett smiled, and was relieved to find that Fornia, still at the window, had not seen it. So much for the evaporation of civility. He cleared his throat.
"Oh, the message. Sorry." Fornia turned around.
"Me too." Was he saying sorry again? What was wrong with him? "About the power cut."
"Don't worry, it'll be repeated." Fornia smiled, genuinely, and sat herself cross-legged at the end of the bed. She handed Fett the projector. He started to play the message, then paused it. He looked at Fornia, the slightest hint of a plea in his eyes.
"It is my message." He said.
Fornia blinked, then smiled. "Of course. I'll leave you to it, and you can hear it in total isolation, on one condition; if you can stand up for at least thirty seconds."
Fett clenched his jaw, and gave her a frozen look.
"Fine." he said shortly. Fornia grinned at him. Fett worked extremely hard to remain expressionless. He hit the play button. The darkened room was filled with jerky, flickering blue light. A figure hovered on top of the projector, a young alien women whose species Fett could not name. She had short feathery hair and an equally feathery tail billowing out from behind her, which contrasted oddly with the military vest, trousers and boots she wore. Fett noted, a familiar grim feeling settling in his stomach, the holster that hung from the woman's belt, complete with a blaster.
"I am interested to know about the battle of Trangor Prime. I will pay very well for information. Contact me if you want to make a lot of credits."
The message ended. Fornia looked at Fett.
"Who, er, was she?"
"I've never seen her before in my life."
Fornia looked at her nails. "Well, how did she expect you to be able to contact her, then? She didn't leave a name. Is she a bounty hunter too?" Fornia's voice sounded worryingly casual.
"No. I don't know. I told you, I've never met her. You're right, though." Fett said abruptly. Fornia looked up. "Why didn't she leave a name?" Fett was genuinely puzzled, so much so that he didn't even attempt to hide his confusion from Fornia. "Unless… it's a trap." He was talking to himself more than to her. "She left an ambiguous message in the hope that I'd try to track her down."
"So. What would that achieve?" Fornia asked, seemingly intrigued.
"So she could spring a trap on me if I tracked her down. She could be waiting with… ten thermal detonators, or something."
"Why?" Said Fornia. "Just because you're Boba Fett? Do you get that sort of thing a lot?"
Fett caught himself almost smiling again. "Maybe," he said, "but I think this is to do with Trang-" he stopped himself. Could he trust her? Fornia looked back at him, levelly, though her blue eyes were wider than usual. "I think it's to do with what happened on Trangor Prime."
"Why would anyone want information on that? It was all over the news. Chancellor Tular told everyone what happened there. Jedi and bounty hunters and the battle, everything."
"No, there was something else…"
Suddenly a light on the holo-projector started flashing.
"New message." Said Fornia, her face bathed eerily in a soft red glow, every few seconds, from the blinking light on the holo-projector. Fett, reflexively, pressed the play button.
Corellia: Dengar's House
Ellay Ko'alo watched Dengar through the red fuzz of her binoculars, as he moved about the garden of his modest home. He was completely unaware of her presence, she was sure. He was watering his plants.
Ellay felt a sensation she was unused to. Upon reflection, it was… relief. The stories were true, then. Dengar had gone soft. She watched as he lovingly pulled stray leaves off a large, light blue bush. He was as dangerous as a toothless Ewok. Earlier in the day, as she had been piloting her ship to Corellia, she had felt… concerned. She had come across Dengar before, although indirectly, and she knew he was dangerous. He was at Jabba's Palace during her brief employment there. Imprisonment, you mean. Ellay rubbed her fingers over the smooth surface of the binoculars. She had pushed those memories away for the last three years. But, during the flight, she had forced herself to relive them. She needed to remember everything she could about Dengar.
And she had. She remembered the way he walked- no, you couldn't call it walking- he lumbered around those dark squalid corridors and passageways, he dragged that hulking armoured form around. His eyes scared her more than his size, though. Empty. Utterly empty. He moved, he talked to an extent, but there was never so much as a spark, a glint, in his eyes. The lights were still on but everyone had left Coruscant, as the other girls used to say. They wouldn't go near him like they would the other hunters. The dancing girls would fawn over famous hunters like Bossk and Boba Fett, but Dengar terrified them. He had ten times the danger and none of the glamour that the other hunters had.
Ellay remembered the horror stories about him. Some awful experimental operation the Empire had carried out on him. He'd had an accident, and to save his life they took away his emotion; the part of his brain that felt pain and pity. He'd kill you without a first thought, never mind a second one. They called him 'Payback'.
After she'd left Jabba's Palace - escaped, you mean - Ellay hadn't thought much of Dengar. She quickly became out of touch with the whole criminal underworld. When she began her hunting career, she was found almost immediately by Chayni, who wanted a fresh young hunter he could use exclusively. She only had missions and contracts from Chayni, and they were always completely removed from the rest of the bounty hunting fraternity. That was why the news that Dengar and Fett were working together was such a shock. She was totally unaware of anything that had happened in the criminal underworld during in the previous three years. Perhaps that was something to worry about. Would Chayni want someone so inadequate working for him? But no, Chayni knew everything anyway, knowing everything about the world of bounty hunters wasn't her job, Ellay was just a hired gun. Speaking of which, it was time to stop watching Dengar, and start shooting.