Star Wars: Tales of the Bounty Hunters (42 page)

He had to get out of this darkened warehouse, out into the night, where there were places to run, and places to hide, and try to reach the speeder he’d come here in.

Han couldn’t believe this was happening to him.

He gathered his legs up beneath him, checked the safety on the assault rifle—he heard movement, out toward the front of the warehouse. Careful and quick—he kept his head down and ran in a crouch toward the warehouse’s rear entrance.

Lando would be jealous, if Han made it back to tell him about it, and Lando made it back to be told.

Leia was going to be furious.

Fett ducked down behind one of the growing tanks, unlimbered his flare gun and fired a shot toward the warehouse’s roof.

Actinic orange light flared; it would give Solo some light to work with. The interior of the warehouse became bright as day, and huge wavering shadows struck away from the warehouse’s supporting beams, as the flare hit the ceiling, crawled along it for several seconds, and started to descend.

Something rattled, off at the eastern end of the warehouse; Fett held his position, held his fire. Solo had thrown something—the sound came again. Patience, patience—

A single shot, the sound of broken glass, that was Solo making an exit for himself through one of the windows, before the flare faded, while he could still see to run, and Fett surged to his feet to shoot Solo down as he made for the broken window.

He had time to see Han Solo, standing fifty meters away, pointing one of the bodyguards’ assault rifles at
him. The shot took Fett in his breastplate and blew him off his feet.

Han Solo turned and ran, hit the shattered window and dove through it like a young man in his prime.

Boba Fett rolled over, staggered back to his feet only a second later, the breastplate of his combat armor so hot it burned everywhere it touched him, and in a murderous rage charged after Solo, as unaware of the pain that throbbed in his legs and chest as if it belonged to someone else.

Han ran toward his speeder under the dim light from the planet’s only moon. He was slightly disoriented; he couldn’t remember whether the downlot where he’d left the speeder was south and west, or south and east; he ran south down one of the long alleyways between the warehouses, breath coming short, and came up to the last building, the last cover before the downlot, and hesitated before rounding the corner, the downlot was either immediately to his left or immediately to his right. He tried to envision the layout of the warehouse park in his mind—he thought he’d come the quick way around, but maybe not, and if he hadn’t, then Fett might have reached the downlot before him.

A scraping sound, metal on stone—

Before he even realized what he was doing Han found himself rounding the corner, rifle up and finger tightening on the trigger as Boba Fett was turning toward him, bringing up his own rifle—

They stood there in the middle of nowhere, on a planet the rest of the galaxy had more than half forgotten, pointing assault rifles at one another, from a distance of less than a meter.

Han didn’t fire.

Fett didn’t fire.

Bizarre details piled in on Han. The aperture of Fett’s assault rifle was huge, as big as the Death Star had
seemed at first sight. The barrel wasn’t perfectly steady, it wavered slightly, moving around in almost invisibly tiny circles. The moonlight glinted off Fett’s scarred armor; Han could see the moon, reflected darkly on the black visor.

He was still out of breath from the running. His voice caught when he spoke. “I guess we’re going to … die together.”

Fett’s voice—as harsh and raw as ever. “Evidently.”

Han stared over the sight at him. “Your armor won’t save you. Not at this range.”

“No.”

“I doubt you can kill me quick enough to keep me from firing.”

Fett’s helmet moved, slightly—a nod. “I doubt it too.”

Han did not dare take his eye away from his rifle’s sight, aiming at the base of Fett’s throat. “You killed those people back there. The woman.”

Han could have sworn he saw a shiver run up the bounty hunter’s frame. “I’m sorry about that. They—she—was not the target.”

Han almost pulled the trigger on him. He could hear the rage in his own voice. “
You’re
going to die and
I’m
going to die and maybe we both of us deserve it. That woman didn’t do any—”

“She’s the one who
called
me!”

Han took a step forward and screamed, “
I don’t care!
” He found to his amazement that he was standing with the barrel of his rifle jammed up against Fett’s armor, that the barrel of Fett’s rifle was digging into his own breastbone. “I don’t know what made you like you are, you think you get to decide who lives and dies, I don’t care, come on, pull the trigger and we’ll die together!” He stared into the black visor. “Last decision you’ll
ever
get to make.”

Boba Fett said in a voice so soft Han would have sworn it could not have been Fett’s, “You first.” His
voice got even softer, amazingly. “You’re married, aren’t you? You have children who need you. What were you
doing
out here, Solo, pretending to be young? This is no place for a man like you.”

The fury that touched Han was bone deep. “Don’t you talk about my children, I’ll kill you so fast—”

“Do you
want
to die?”

Han took a deep breath. “Do you?”

Fett shook his head, the tiniest possible movement of the visor. “No. But I do not see a way out.”

The faintest breath of hope touched Han. “All right. You put down your rifle. I won’t kill you if you put down your rifle.”

Fett whispered it. “No. You put down
yours
. I won’t kill you if you put down yours. I’ll let you go back to your family, unharmed. Put down your weapons—”

“I don’t trust you.”

“Nor I,” said Fett, “you.”

A cool wind blew across the downlot; Han felt it drying his sweat, chilling him. “We take five steps back,” Han said finally. “You drop your rifle and you run like a gundark on fire. Even if I do shoot at you that armor would protect you.”

“I have bad legs. I don’t think I can outrun you.”

Han could not stop thinking of his children, of Leia. “Just walk away, put the rifle down and walk away. I’m an honest man. I won’t kill you.”

“You’re a liar,” said Fett, “by all the evidence. I think you would.” Fett paused. “When I was a young man,” he said finally, “I think I would have pulled the trigger by now. But I find that I do not hate you, and I am not ready to die to remove you from the world.”

“I made a mistake, coming here to Jubilar. I
do
hate you, I hate everything you’ve done—but my wife and children need me.”

“I don’t see a way out of this,” said Fett, “that does not involve trying to trust one another.”

“This rifle is getting heavy,” said Han, which it was;
he watched Fett over the sight. “What are we going to do?”

“Everyone dies,” said Fett.

“Yeah. Eventually. But it doesn’t have to be today, not for either of us.”

Fett shook his head; the helmet barely moved, and Han did not imagine that Fett’s attention had shifted even slightly. “I do not know,” Fett said softly. “Trust is hard, among enemies. Perhaps we should return to the battle; perhaps, Han Solo, we should let fly, and once more let fate decide who will survive, as we did when we were young.”

Kevin J. Anderson is the author of nearly 100 novels, 48 of which have appeared on national or international bestseller lists; he has over 22 million books in print in thirty languages. He has won or been nominated for the Nebula Award, Bram Stoker Award, the SFX Reader’s Choice Award, and New York Times Notable Book.

Anderson has coauthored eleven books in the Dune saga with Brian Herbert, as well as the new original novel,
Hellhole
. Anderson’s popular epic SF series, The Saga of Seven Suns, is his most ambitious work, and he has completed a sweeping fantasy trilogy, Terra Incognita, about sailing ships, sea monsters, and the crusades. As an innovative companion project to Terra Incognita, Anderson cowrote (with wife Rebecca Moesta) the lyrics for two ambitious rock CDs based on the novels. Performed by the supergroup Roswell Six for ProgRock Records, the two CDs feature performances by rock legends from Kansas, Dream Theater, Asia, Saga, Rocket Scientists, Shadow Gallery, and others.

His novel
Enemies & Allies
chronicles the first meeting of Batman and Superman in the 1950s; Anderson also wrote
The Last Days of Krypton
. He has written numerous
Star Wars
projects, including the Jedi Academy trilogy, the Young Jedi Knights series (with Moesta), and Tales of the Jedi comics from Dark Horse. Fans might also know him from his X-Files novels or Dean Koontz’s
Frankenstein: Prodigal Son
.

Star Wars:

The Jedi Academy Trilogy

Darksaber

Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina (editor)

Tales from Jabba’s Palace (editor)

Tales of the Bounty Hunters (editor)

The Young Jedi Knights series (with Rebecca Moesta)

Dune series (with Brian Herbert)

The Prelude to Dune trilogy

The Legends of Dune trilogy

The Road to Dune

Hunters of Dune

Sandworms of Dune

Paul of Dune

The Winds of Dune

The Sisterhood of Dune

X-Files:

Ground Zero

Ruins

Antibodies

DC Universe:

The Last Days of Krypton

Enemies & Allies

Original Novels:

The Saga of Seven Suns series

The Terra Incognita trilogy

Hellhole (with Brian Herbert)

The Star Challengers series (with Rebecca Moesta)

The Crystal Doors trilogy (with Rebecca Moesta)

Frankenstein: Prodigal Son (with Dean Koontz)

Captain Nemo

The Martian War

Hopscotch

Blindfold

Resurrection, Inc.

Climbing Olympus

Ill Wind (with Doug Beason)

Ignition (with Doug Beason)

Assemblers of Infinity (with Doug Beason)

The Trinity Paradox (with Doug Beason)

Virtual Destruction (with Doug Beason)

Fallout (with Doug Beason)

Lethal Exposure (with Doug Beason)

Landscapes (collection)

Dogged Persistence (collection)

Blood Lite (editor)

Blood Lite II: Overbite (editor)

Blood Lite III: Aftertaste (editor)

You saw the movies. You watched the cartoon series, or maybe played some of the video games. But did you know …

In
The Empire Strikes Back
, Princess Leia Organa said to Han Solo, “I love you.” Han said, “I know.” But did you know that they actually got married? And had three Jedi children: the twins, Jacen and Jaina, and a younger son, Anakin?

Luke Skywalker was trained as a Jedi by Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda. But did you know that, years later, he went on to revive the Jedi Order and its commitment to defending the galaxy from evil and injustice?

Obi-Wan said to Luke, “For over a thousand generations, the Jedi Knights were the guardians of peace and justice in the Old Republic. Before the dark times. Before the Empire.” Did you know that over those millennia, legendary Jedi and infamous Sith Lords were adding their names to the annals of Republic history?

Yoda explained that the dreaded Sith tend to come in twos: “Always two, there are. No more, no less. A Master, and an apprentice.” But did you know that the Sith didn’t always exist in pairs? That at one time in the ancient Republic there were as many Sith as Jedi, until a Sith Lord named Darth Bane was the lone survivor of a great Sith war and created the “Rule of Two”?

All this and much, much more is brought to life in the many novels and comics of the
Star Wars
expanded universe. You’ve seen the movies and watched the cartoon. Now venture out into the wider worlds of
Star Wars
!

Turn the page or jump to the
timeline
of
Star Wars
novels to learn more.