Cryos dropped out of the portal into the vacuum of space. Draco decided to be helpful and expanded out to his spaceship form. Cryos boarded and turned on the scanner Washu had given him. A holographic projection of the galaxy appeared in the air with millions of tiny specks representing the fibers it was picking up.
Cryos groaned. Washu had made the scanner too powerful, it was picking up all the fibers Fett had ever dropped everywhere he went over the years. It was going to take days to even begin to check all the star systems with these fibers in them.
But then something caught his eye. One of the spots was moving. It left the star system it was in and was moving faster than light. "Bingo!" He shouted. "Draco, set course for the Imperial Remnant."
"Eye eye, Captain!" He bellowed. "May I add that your feet were minty fresh when you boarded!"
Cryos made a funny face. "Draco, is something wrong with you? I mean other than the usual."
"Probably…" He admitted a split second before the starburst kicked in. Cryos hadn't been ready for the jolt into starburst since Draco was talking at the time, which was probably the lizard's intention all along.
The starburst ended and Cryos pealed himself off the back wall. "This is the right place?" He asked.
"Uh… sure! Why not?"
Cryos sighed. He'd probably have to check the star charts to figure out where Draco had landed them. But before he could, space rippled in front of him and a ship dropped out of hyperspace. It was the Salve II, Boba Fett's ship.
"Draco! Open a hailing channel!"
"Open."
"Fett, its Cryos." He announced.
"Cryos." Came Fett's flat, monotone reply. "They said you died, that were sucked into a black hole."
"Well I did fall into a black hole, and I'm not sure if I died or not, but I'm back now." Cryos decided to move to business quickly, before Fett lost interest. "I have a business proposition for you."
"Not interested." Fett replied instantly. "I've learned the hard way to not get involved with either you or your daughter. I'm not on the same level as either of you. I'm still alive today because I know when I'm beat."
"I could make it worth your while."
"I seriously doubt that."
"I'm transmitting some data now." Cryos pulled one of the datacards from his pocket and stuck it in a slot on Draco's main console. "Files on Hutt dealings mostly. This is just a sample of course, but I suspect it would be worth several hundred thousand credits to the right buyers. And I have a whole storage crate of datacards."
Fett paused for a long while. "Do you have more of these cards with you?"
"Just a few," he admitted.
"Transfer what you have, then I'll let you know if you managed to grab my attention."
Cryos transmitted the remaining handful of cards and waited. Fett seemed to be waiting an awfully long while to reply. But finally the intercom clicked to life.
"Tell me about this proposition of yours."
Cryos explained his idea to have Boba Fett lead the diversionary squadron in the assault on the former Courosant.
"No deal." Fett answered the instant he had finished speaking. "I work alone. Not by choice, but by the fact that no one could keep up with me. Also, I already said I'm not getting involved in anything involving you or your daughter. Keep your cards."
The Slave II started to power up its engines for another jump to hyperspace.
"Wait." Cryos cried. "I have something else to offer."
The glow from Fett's engines died. "I'm listening."
"Surely you've heard stories of my storeroom."
"The place where you keep things that you've confiscated from various tin pot dictators across the Multiverse. Intriguing to mad scientist perhaps, but not to me."
"It's far more than that. I have experimental weapons and armors. Ships that could fly through the liquid core of a gas giant planet and come out in perfect condition. Vast storehouses of information, including several centuries-old paper bound tomes handwritten by the Mendalorian warriors themselves."
"What… exactly… are you offering me?" For the first time, Boba Fett sounded unsure.
"Anything you want. I'll take you to the place and let you load up your ship. Hell, I'll HELP you load it if you want."
Fett paused for a long time. Cryos thought Draco had turned off the transmitter until he finally replied. "I will take one shipload of anything I want from your storehouse. I will not save a log of where said storehouse is located and I will not sell anything I take with the exception of materials obviously intended for blackmail proposes. In return I will assist you in your plan to retake Courosant and to kill your daughter, but I will not leave my ship or land on the planet under any circumstances. Are these terms agreed upon?"
"Except for the part about killing Yamna, yes. I intend to save her from herself."
"I will not be involved in that part of the mission, so I don't care what you do with her. Besides, my kind will always survive, no matter who is in charge."
"Meat us at the following coordinates and time." Cryos transmitted the data.
"Very well. I just hope your pilots can keep up with me. Because I'm not slowing down for anything. And if they get in my way, I won't hesitate to kill them."
"That shouldn't be a problem." Cryos assured the bounty hunter.
As Boba Fett's ship turned to go, it gave a slight, almost imperceptible wiggle. Any other pilot, any other ship, Cryos would have discounted it as a sticky stabilizer, or an unbalanced thruster, or any number of things that could cause that. But Fett's ship was beyond top of the line, and he devoted his life to keeping it that way.
Cryos had seen, however, pilots rock their ships slightly as a friendly salute to one another.
"No…" Cryos muttered to himself. "Not Fett. I must be seeing things."
He sighed as Draco began powering up another unrequested starburst. A quick glance at the starcharts showed it was on the right way to Kentra's asteroid hideout, but far off enough that Draco was deliberately messing up.
With a shake of his head, he thought to himself. Home sweet home…