Chapter 5

Tatooine, Tatoo System

Arkanis Sector

Jabba might live to be a thousand years old. No Hutt was in a hurry with a lifespan like that. He has acquired lifetimes of experience, knowledge, and contacts. Jabba was permanence, stability–he was the unspoken law of Tatooine. He had these transient species beat from the start.

But in recent days, the walls of his palace seemed to crawl ever closer. Less like the fortress of authority it was, and more like an enveloping cage threatening to suffocate him alive. For the first time in Jabba’s long-lived life, he was counting away the days. For the first time, he was aware of the minutes and the seconds ticking away, of every suffering moment Rotta wasn’t in his arms.

A Gamorrean guard brought two figures–a young human and what appeared to be a modified R2 unit–before his throne, “The slicers you’ve hired have arrived, my lord.”

The Jedi observed the hired hackers impassively, content to observe from their little corner of his hall. Jabba treated Jedi with caution, in the rare cases he had dealings with them. Their mystics and magics can make them so unlike their species, making them unpredictable, and unobservable. He could never get a handle on their physical abilities, or in the case of Luminara Unduli–her state of mind.

Luminara Unduli was a general in their army, along with her apprentice. Both Mirialan. The apprentice was more expressive–showing unease and revulsion at him and his home–but the master watched and observed with absolute indifference. It did not matter whether how provocative the Twi’lek dancers were, or how he snacked on paddy frogs from a jar of brine, Luminara Unduli remained as serene as a clear day, and as immovable as a brick wall.

It made him uncomfortable.

But Jedi were humans–or any similar bipedal species–and they were not immortal. And any living being had wants and needs, and had things they were willing to trade for them. Jabba would do whatever it takes to get Rotta back to him unharmed. Nothing else mattered. He could loan off all his spacelanes to Dooku and his Separatist Alliance, or to the Jedi and their Republic; what did matter to him? Let them fight their fleeting war. It meant nothing to a species as long-lived as a Hutt.

Jabba kept his anxieties and fears for his son hidden beneath a veil of contemptuous pride, struggling to relay his repose as he lounged on his dais. He plucked out any paddy frog and slurped it down head-first, even though he had long lost his appetite. As he licked the frog’s dangling legs into his mouth, he carefully observed the bounty hunters’ reactions.

The human slicer watched with wide eyes, as did most people when they watched him eat. At least he continued to pay acceptable respect.

“Who are you?” Jabba grunted, letting TC-70 translate.

“I am Gaib, Lord Jabba,” the hacker bowed, “And this is TK-Oh.”

“Report your findings,” he said casually.

“Uh–” the boy glanced at the Jedi curiously, “–We managed to track your son to the planet Teth, Lord Jabba.”

Jabba clutched at every shred of information. Every minute that ticked away, his worry for his son only further deepened. Are you well, Rotta? Are you afraid, hungry–are you still alive? Did these transients understand his worry? Did they understand that when you’ve lived for a thousand years, when your only child was you–your own flesh and blood, because Hutts needed no partner to produce a child–and not something you could recreate endlessly like their rapid-breeding species, that your child was your entire future?

He doubted it. These creatures were such temporary things, incapable of seeing beyond the present of their own lives.

“I paid for more than this,” Jabba growled, “How did you find that out?”

“ATC records you so graciously allowed us to access, my lord,” Gaib yammered off quickly, “We checked all outbound flights from Tatooine at the estimated time, and… and sliced into all the outgoing comlink connections to HoloNet hyperwave transceivers within a day’s range. What we found was a ship requesting access to the Galactic All-Species Self-Help Database.”

The hacker wetted his lips, choosing his next words carefully, “Teekay here, he examined a request for information on Hutt health and illnesses.”

The very implication made Jabba feel cold.

“Hutts do not get sick–” in the rare times they did, something was very wrong, “–Why would they look there?”

“Well, how many beings know how to care for a Hutt baby?” Gaib shrugged, “You kidnap a baby from another species, and since it’s a kidnapping and not an assassination, you want to keep that baby alive and well, right? So you check what’s normal for a Hutt baby, and what’s not– like, whatever Hutt babies do. Being sick, maybe.”

If it were not for the fact that this was no place and time for fretting, Jabba would have already broken down into a rage. Hutts did not fall ill. Virus, infection– most poisons don’t work on them. Even babies. Something was very wrong indeed.

“You think my son is sick?” he did not have to act out the anger in his voice.

TK-0 summarised the report, unmoved, “Somebody on a ship departing Tatooine on the same day your son was kidnapped accessed the GASSH Database to download files on Hutt physiology and illnesses. And that ship was tracked to Teth.”

Jabba waved for TC-70 to pay them, closing his eyes. He didn’t see them leave. The worst passed through his mind and thoughts, dread filling his gut like foul dinner. The scum that kidnapped Rotta couldn’t even do it right! And now Rotta is sick, alone in some backwater world and surrounded by Jabba’s enemies. Because only Jabba’s enemies would dare trespass against him like this.

“Lord Jabba,” Luminara Unduli’s smooth voice awakened him from his nightmare, “We will return your son to you.”

“You will find and return Rotta to me alive and well,” Jabba corrected, “And if the Republic wants passage through my spacelanes, you must also bring me the scum who kidnapped my son.”

How many beings know how to care for a Hutt baby? The bounty hunter’s words rang through his head. The kidnapper risked being tracked by accessing the GASSH Database for a reason. A dire reason.

“You have one planetary rotation to bring Rotta back to me,” Jabba added, “One Tatooine rotation. If you cannot do this, then Count Dooku and his droid armies will.”

He gestured to TC-70 to relay his words to the Jedi in a language they can understand. Unduli raised a single eyebrow at his onerous demands, remaining ever the perfect image of stoicism, her expression as tranquil as a still lake. Her apprentice, on the other hand, was not so collected. Her eyes widened for a fraction of a second–a telling gesture that told him everything he had to know about what she thought about his demands.

Unduli turned her neck to stare up at him, unblinking, “Do you wish the kidnapper presented before you dead or alive, Lord Jabba?”

“Either,” he growled, “But I would prefer alive… so I can kill them myself.”

“Very well,” her already flat lips thinned even further, “We’ll do it. If you would excuse us.”

Credit where it was due, the Jedi was nothing if not composed. The woman didn’t pretend to grovel or flatter, like Palpatine–she managed to be respectful without showing fear. Without showing anything at all, really. A lesson she could teach her apprentice more.

“You better,” Jabba warned one final time, “Or I will have your heads as well.”

He meant it.

⁂

Orbit of Teth, Teth System

Baxel Sector

I could hear the telltale fizzle of a holoprojector winding down behind me as we approached the garden world of Teth, its atmosphere shrouded in purple and punctuated with vast hurricanes–of which great, continent-spanning spiral cloud formations could be seen from space.

“Is it wise to open communications now?” I leaned on my fist, “Anyone can track your hyperwaves, so long as they are looking for it. You may as well be shouting our positions to any keen ear who is seeking our location… like Jabba.”

Footsteps, as Ventress approached from behind. I tensed.

“We need to hurry,” the hissing of an igniting lightsaber did not come as expected, “Count Dooku has informed me that the Jedi Luminara Unduli have just left Tatooine, and is after us.”

I frowned–that was way too fast. We weren’t even on the ground yet! Either Dooku misread the itinerary and tipped Jabba off early, or someone exercised less-than-stellar radio discipline. For a galaxy, this one is smaller than you’d expect. With access to the right authorities and the right clues, you can track down just about anybody. Pinpointing their exact location was quite a bit harder, but that is besides the point.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

All Jabba-and the Jedi–have to know is that we are at Teth. Their planetary scanners can do the rest.

“Too fast. There must have been a leak–I will check if there had been any unsanctioned hyperwave communications from my ships,” I veiled my accusatory tone with military deference.