6
Chapter Fourteen: The Dance of Serpents
Stormy had brought Han, Oola, Raddek, and Qualle to stand before Moff Mokk in the atrium at the central base of Rondirak 12. He had left them there under the custody of Mokk's soldiers and departed.
Moff Malken Mokk was a short man with longish black-and-grey hair and a goatee-style beard. He wore an Imperial uniform, but he had also added his own multi-colored sash, evidently because he wished to bring a dash of flair to his drab uniform. His men were rather haphazardly dressed in partial uniforms, some with their jackets un-done. These were the soldiers from the mercenary forces which were being used to lead incursions into the Outer Rim, Marney surmised.
"My dear friends of the Alliance," Mokk introduced himself in a grandiose manner, "I am Moff Malken Mokk, and I am the Governor of Rondirak 12 and its surrounding regions..."
"By 'surrounding regions' he means anything in orbit around the planet," Solo muttered.
"Excuse me, Captain Solo, but I am speaking!" Mokk scolded him, "Please, do not interrupt or you will find yourself joining your wookiee friends in the salt mines. Today, prisoners, I have good news for you: I have chosen the four of you lucky individuals to be given as gifts to our Special Guest Visitor, Moff Wilhuff Tarkin!"
Mokk paused in order for the prisoners to marvel at their good fortune before continuing his speech.
"You are being chosen because we believe you each possess special properties, which will hopefully impress upon the Moff the importance of our work here."
"Oola, your talent as a dancer is of course legendary, and so you were the perfect choice as a 'soft gift' to the Imperious Wilhuff Tarkin."
Han was about to make another of his witty comments, but Mokk intervened quickly before he could open his mouth.
"Captain Solo," he addressed the smuggler, "You are being chosen for your devious talents as a 'secret transport servant'. I trust you will enjoy your new service position and work hard for the Moff."
"Master Qualle," Mokk called out to the quarren, "I'm afraid you have sorely tested our patience. You left the Emperor a rather unfortunate gift in his Imperial Fountain, and so we wanted to return the favor: you are to be served to Palpatine as his favorite dinner dish...I am told he loves squid."
Raddek stared at Mokk in horror, but Qualle seemed to take it all in stride.
"Oh, well," he replied, "It's been nice knowing you, Marney Raddek. I hope The Big Pal enjoys my taste."
Moff Mokk was not finished with the prisoners yet. He turned his attention to Marney.
"Captain Radka Marne Raddus, alias Marney Raddek! We know you well throughout the sector, as a trash-man of some note. It's well understood by us that you rescue children along with our trash, and we have allowed it when it has been convenient for us to do so. But now, my dear Captain Raddek, you are being led to a higher purpose: Moff Tarkin expressed a special interest in you because you are the son of the infamous scoundrel, Admiral Charcorr Raddus. In addition, you also just happen to be the cousin of the Moff's escaped slave, Gial Ackbar. I understand that Ackbar is now serving as a Commander for the Rebel Alliance."
Raddek's heart began to pound in fear. He had no doubt as to what Tarkin would do to him, as a punishment to his father and Commander Ackbar...not that it would be much of a punishment for either of them if Radka Marne Raddus were to meet his demise, but it would definitely be a terrible loss for his mother Rallen and his sister, Senator Raidlen Marne.
As for Commander Gial Ackbar, he had made it clear to his cousin Radka many years ago—at a time when they both held the rank of captain—that he would not associate with him as long as he drank excessively. Radka had felt upset about his cousin's decision, as they had once been very close friends as children; and since Gial never seemed to be particularly bothered by his Uncle Raddus' similar drinking habits, the young Radka had been forced to come to the conclusion that his southern cousin looked down upon him.
He pushed aside all thoughts of his original family, for it was too painful to contemplate. He knew that he needed to maintain his dignity in the face of this threat, if only for the benefit of his immediate family, Lyna, Rixxi, and Sal. He wondered where they were right now and if they were safe. He knew that Lyna had volunteered herself to do a show for Tarkin so that she might make one last-ditch attempt to rescue her mate; but that hope seemed to be fading fast as a herd of floor-pounding stormtroopers arrived upon the scene, led by a tall, thin man dressed in a grey Imperial uniform.
"Governor Tarkin!" Moff Mokk exclaimed, "At last, he's here...I do hope he'll be impressed by our efforts here."
"I wouldn't hold my breath," Solo muttered, as Mokk glared at him.
Mokk was given no opportunity to retort to Solo's impudence as Tarkin marched up to Mokk and stopped just short of him.
"Governor Tarkin," Mokk greeted him, "I hope you have had a pleasant journey."
"Mokk," Tarkin snapped, clearly impatient with niceties, "Your facility is a disgrace. Your men are barely dressed, and half of them seem hung over from a late-night drinking binge. I think it's high time that Imperial Troops take over this pathetic little world of yours and turn it into something that can really take a bite out of The Fish Planet, among others."
Mokk appeared crest-fallen. His aspirations to impress the Moff had obviously been crushed, but he soldiered on nonetheless.
"Moff Tarkin," he said, "I know my men are a bit...er...rough around the edges, but you see that's the secret of the success of Rondirak 12. We send out the tough-guys in order to better deal with those rugged rebels."
"You're a fool, Mokk," Tarkin taunted him mercilessly, "I hope you've neutralized the 'info-chip' threat?"
"Yes, indeed, Moff Tarkin!" he cried, delighted to have an opportunity to regain his dignity, "My Chief of Security will show you what we are doing to protect our facility."
Mokk turned a great big viewing-screen on and to Marney's surprise, his wife Lyna was onscreen along with Stormy and TT2. She was dressed in a plum-colored, traditional twi'lek dancing outfit, evidently ready to put on a show for the Moffs. Stormy was supervising the droid as it put the finishing touches on a shield which had been set up to protect the central control panel—the same one into which they were supposedly going to insert the info-chip.
"What are you doing, Chief?" Mokk asked Stormy, "Could you explain it to us?"
"Sure thing, Moff Mokk," Stormy responded politely, "I have recently captured the spies' droid, TT2, and re-programmed it. It has just now put up a state-of-the-art, localized shield which will stop all unauthorized personnel from tinkering with any aspect of this base's central control systems."
"Excellent, Chief!" Mokk praised his stormtrooper, "Please come and join us for the show, and bring Captain Raddek's ravishing wife with you. Moff Tarkin, you are in for a treat!"
"Oh, marvelous," Tarkin scoffed in a bored tone, "All right, let's get this silly thing over with. I am not particularly in the mood for entertainment, but I will watch because of the twi'lek dancers...I hope they're more competent than most of your mercenaries, Mokk. By the way, is that my new pet fish?"
"Yes, Governor Tarkin," Mokk replied eagerly, "This is Radka Marne Raddus, son of the fish-ogre Charcorr Raddus. He's also the cousin of your former pet, Gial Ackbar."
"Ah, yes," Tarkin said, strolling over to the prisoners and poking Marney with a baton, "My dear slave Gial, who betrayed me and ran off with the rebels. As for Admiral Raddus, I would have preferred to have owned his daughter, Senator Raidlen Marne. She would have been the better prize; but I suppose we'll have to make due with the Garbage Carp. I would like a special holographic video taken of this creature being turned into fish-sticks and fed to your grimy little men, Mokk. Then, I would like one copy sent to Raddus and one to Ackbar, if you please. They may not be particularly bothered by the loss of their most embarrassing family member, but I believe the symbolism of the act will have the desired effect upon them."
"Yes, Moff Tarkin!" Mokk crowed, "And I suppose you will want to deliver this fountain-fouling quarren, Qualle, to the Emperor himself?"
"No, my little Moffett, I'll let you kill, package, and freeze the squid-food for Palpatine. Send it to him on one of your salt transports..."
As Tarkin and Mokk bantered back and forth about the fate of himself and Qualle, Marney felt as though he were going to be physically ill. This was not the way he wanted to go...being fed as fish-fodder to the mercenaries. He wondered if his father or even his cousin would feel anything at all for him when they each received the hologram.
His musings were interrupted as Stormy strode into the room with Lyna and the re-programmed TT2.
TT2 has experienced a short shelf life, Marney thought ruefully, and maybe all of us will as well.
Lyna walked past the two Moffs to her husband and boldly embraced him, to the disgust of Moff Wilhuff Tarkin. She ignored the militaristic governor as she handed Marney his son Salken's glistening white sonic star guitar.
"This is a gift from Sal," she murmured softly, "You sing your heart out for us, Marney Raddek, and Oola and I will dance. Let's song-storm these Moffey guys."
"Sure," Marney agreed softly, taking his son's guitar with deep reverence.
He understood that this might be his last time to be with Lyna before he died; but he did not want his wife to know that, and he especially did not want her knowing how he was going to die. She would be too upset and would probably want to rip Tarkin's throat out.
Lyna was at present bowing to Moff Tarkin.
"Sir," she asked him respectfully, "May we begin entertaining you?"
"Yes, of course," Tarkin replied in a much more enthusiastic tone than the one he had used with Mokk, "I think we can make the time."
While Mokk was ushering Tarkin to his chair, Lyna gestured to the prisoners.
"We need to really distract them," she whispered, "Oola, you and I will perform the Dance of Serpents for them. Can you stand to do that?"
Oola grimaced, but nodded her head in compliance.
Marney's multi-directional vision caught a glimpse of Han Solo exchanging a quick word with Stormy. Suddenly, he felt a glimmer of hope inside him, but he was not sure why.
"Qualle," Lyna commanded, "I need you to perform quarren love calls as background music for our dancing. Marney will play guitar and sing a song that he and I wrote called "Sea Snake"...and Captain Solo, can you sing?"
Han looked at her in horror, as though he would rather languish inside one of the Emperor's torture chambers than to do what she had just suggested.
"I don't sing," he informed her, "and I don't dance...especially not in front of moffs and stormtroopers."
To Marney's surprise, Stormy opened TT2's back hatch and brought out an instrument.
"Here, Han, you can bang on this," he said, throwing Smug a cylindrical object made from animal hide, "It's a wookiee mating drum. I confiscated it from Yabecca while I was interrogating the crew."
"Fabulous," Solo muttered sarcastically as he took the drum with great reluctance, "I get to be a part of the fish-fried talent show."
Marney stared at Stormy in complete shock. How had the stormtrooper gotten hold of Yabecca and the crew? They were supposed to have escaped into space. His anxiety skyrocketed as he contemplated the idea of the kids being interrogated by those Imperial pit vipers. The hope that he had felt a minute ago evaporated into suspicion as the thought entered his mind that Han might actually be working with Stormy for the Empire. It seemed to him that Solo and Stormy had displayed a hint of camaraderie. On the other hand, he reasoned, Han seemed like the kind of man who would want to do things his way rather than to be dictated to by Imperials. He decided that he would give Smug the benefit of the doubt for now, because he might be helpful later on if they were to have any chance of rescuing the kids.
"Stand up straight while you're playing for Tarkin, Marney," TT2 ordered him as the performers made their way up to the atrium's large stage, "and to answer your question, I haven't been re-programmed so much as extra-programmed."
Marney glanced at TT2, confused. Any re-programming should have wiped her memory clean of Qualle's mother's influence on her personality. He wondered why Stormy would want to keep the personality aspect of the droid operational; but there was little time to contemplate the matter. Stormy brought out his blaster pistol and began to push the dawdling prisoners forward.
"Get going, you miserable batch of shark's bait!" he bellowed loudly, as if trying to distract their attention away from TT2's strange comment, "Moff Tarkin doesn't have all day to wait for you!"
As they were ascending the steps to the stage, Han managed to whisper to him surreptitiously, "Hey, Raddek...Chewie's just made Yabecca his girlfriend, but it's not us they'll be busting out."
Marney's heart skipped a beat upon hearing Han's words. Lyna must have managed to get his message to Yabecca, and it sounded as if there might be some kind of plan in the works...if indeed Yabecca and the rest of the crew were still free.
Marney dared not dwell on the faint possibility of escape. After all, he told himself, how much damage could two wookiees do to an Imperial military base?