Interlude 4: The Dark Wanderer

  Mos Espa was uncharacteristically quiet today. The streets were as dry and cracked as usual. Some small Womprats scurried around, munching on the food that was left out in the stalls or the broken, rotting carcasses on the ground. Everyone was inside. Hiding from the sandstorm that was rapidly approaching.

  As the darkness and deafening winds washed over the massive city, a black-cloaked figure landed gently from the sky. Something writhed underneath his cape, but calmed down as he started walking calmly down the street. The man was massive, as tall as a Wookiee, but with wider shoulders. Every step of his armored purplish-black feet caused the ground to crunch and crack.

  Those glowing golden eyes scanned the buildings curiously. A smirk appeared on his dark-red lips. His face was an ominous shade of crimson. Almost like he was trying to look like a villain at first glance.

  “Master! Please! Please let me inside!” A young Twi’lek woman was desperately banging on the door to a house as her naked green body was whipped by the wind and sand.

  “Shut the frak up, you nasty schutta!” A man’s voice came from inside.

  “I’m sorry! I promise I’ll never let those pigs touch me again!” She begged and pleaded as her sensitive Lekku were scraped by the sandstorm.

  “I forgave you the first seven times, but I’ll never forgive you this time! If I didn’t love you so much, I’d kill you myself!” The guy inside the house was crying as loudly as the woman outside… It was all very dramatic.

  “Aaaah! Master!” The girl screamed desperately when a Womp Rat the size of a dog chomped down on her left leg, dragging her away from the door that opened, revealing a human man with a blaster rifle.

  “Let go of her!” He fired a plasma bolt, but it missed and was back-hand deflected by the Dark Wanderer who happened to be watching the show. The bolt flew off into a market stall and exploded.

  “Master~!” The Twi’lek was screaming anxiously as her ankle was ripped off, with blood spraying everywhere. The sand getting in her open wound definitely didn’t feel great either.

  “E chuta!” The man fired again and again, with the accuracy of an Original Trilogy Storm Trooper, he actually blasted the left arm off the woman he was trying to save. The Womp Rat did get scared away by all the explosions and heat though. Not that it really mattered much at that point.

  “No!” The man cried out and hugged the dying girl in his arms, “Please no! Somebody! Hey, you, call a Medical Droid or a doctor, something! Please!”

  “You know… I’m something of a doctor myself.” The devilish man smirked as he knelt down in front of the Master and Slave.

  “I umm, I don’t have a lot of Credits…” The Master started getting nervous as the ‘doctor’ was about to administer treatment for the girl that was already unconscious from blood-loss and shock.

  “Don’t worry about it.” The man snickered ominously and placed his black claw-like hand on the guy’s bare shoulder, “The Swarm has free healthcare for everyone!”

  “The wh-aaaaagh~! No~!” The man screamed desperately as beetles drilled under his flesh and up his neck, down to his hairy chest and even infested his beer belly. At the same time, the man’s other hand was placed on the nearly-dead Twi’lek’s sternum. Between those massive green breasts. A moment later she opened her glowing purple eyes as a new third eye emerged in the middle of her forehead! Then dozens of other eyes opened up along her head-tails! That bloody shoulder stump erupted with a slimy purple tentacle that quickly swelled up, getting covered by segmented black carapace, ending in a big crab claw…

  “Isn’t that better?” The Dark Wanderer grinned at the horrified man as the guy’s eyes rolled into the back of his head, then fell out of their sockets. It was fine though, because bug-like compound eyes took their place. His stomach opened up into a toothy maw, with a long slimy purple tongue hanging out.

  “Yes… Master.” The guy growled from the new mouth on his abdomen.

  “Now she’ll never get raped again and you’ll never get cucked!” The devil stood up and towered over the two of them as they groveled on the ground in the sandstorm.

  “Thank… You… For… The… Help… Master.” The Twi’lek girl’s face twitched as her teeth fell out, replaced by sharp and powerful fangs. Those many eyes were pelted by the wind and sand, but fortunately they had protective transparent eyelids so that she wasn’t bothered.

  “Anyway, you guys should get back inside.” Their new Master reached down and casually picked up the severed green arm, tossing it to the woman’s crab claw. She pinched it and then started chomping down on the meat, even biting through the bone, while her former master started eating her hand with his bottom mouth.

  “It always feels good to do a good deed.” In a happy mood, the mysterious stranger continued along his way.

  Where are you? Who are you? What are you?

  Opening her eyes, the Rutian Twi’lek girl took in a sharp breath. She stared out at the beautiful ocean and muttered to herself, “Amon Kal.”

  “You’re thinking about that boy again?” A two foot tall green goblin-like woman walked over and sat down on a simple white beach towel. She was wearing white and brown Jedi Robes, just like her Padawan.

  “Master Yaddle, the Force is trying to warn me about him. I know it.” The pretty teenage girl looked at her 500 year old Master and frowned, “Why are you laughing?”

  “Heheh~!” Yaddle shook her head and patted the girl on the thigh, “When I was your age… When I was a couple hundred years older than you, I felt the same way about a certain boy.”

  “This isn’t a childish crush, Master.” The Padawan rolled her bright blue eyes and asked, “Did you find out anything about him? How many Amon Kals could there possibly be in the Galaxy?”

  “It really is an uncommon name.” The middle-aged space goblin nodded her head, “Only a hundred and fifty billion Amon Kals on record. Less than a hundred million are confirmed alive today. Only a hundred thousand of them have red skin.”

  Only a hundred thousand…

  “In other words, this monster is out there somewhere and we have no idea who he is or how to find him?” Those long head-tails drooped onto the hot sand. Suddenly she saw a massive dune sea! A city inside a huge crater! Blackened mountains-

  “Eldra.” Yaddle’s voice snapped the girl out of her vision, “The Force often shows us glimpses of possible futures or even things that happened in the distant past. It is entirely possible that this Amon Kal you’re worrying about has died ages ago, long before even Master Yoda was born.”

  Is that really the case?

  Eldra furrowed her dark brows, “Why would a ghost from the distant past be haunting me now?”

  “From my experience as a Jedi all these centuries…” The goblin girl smirked, “That’s something you’ll probably figure out when it’s far too late to actually do anything about it. Heheheh~!”

  “Master!” In the end, her teacher wasn’t really much help at all. Telling a teenager to stop worrying about a potentially existential threat to the Galaxy was usually pretty counterproductive.

  He’s on a desert world. There’s a city in a crater. Black mountains. Slavery… The Outer Rim most likely. That girl was a Twi’lek, so maybe Ryloth? But they weren’t speaking Twi’lek. Galactic Basic is also common on Ryloth as far as I know. I can’t just fly over to Ryloth though. That’s on the other side of the Galaxy. No matter how much freedom my Master likes to give me, she’ll never allow something so dangerous and ridiculous.

  “Mos Espa.” A name flashed through her mind!

  “Master, have you ever heard of a place called Mos Espa?” She breathed a sigh and smelled something burning. Looking over, she saw a tall and dark figure standing there with a blazing red lightsaber in his hand!

  Then she looked down and saw her Master’s decapitated corpse, those big eyes staring blankly at the sky. Thunder cracked in the sky and rain started falling around them. The white sands were slowly dyed red from the bloody rain. It burned. But it also felt… Good.

  There is no emotion, there is peace.

  “Peace is a lie.” The voice was deafening and shook the skies like thunder! Eldra looked up at the sky and her eyes widened in horror! Massive purple tendrils reached down from the sky, stabbing into the ocean and the ground! The world shook like an earthquake and a ridiculously huge gaping toothy maw took up most of the sky!

  “There is only War!” The creature roared so loudly that she felt like her body would rattle apart! Her ear-nubs burst open and her Lekku exploded! The world spun and everything disappeared into darkness…

  “Hey, you. You’re finally awake.” Eldra opened her tired eyes and immediately noticed that her wrists were bound. She was sitting on a creaky old-timey wooden cart and freezing her ass off in nothing more than a linen cloth around her tits and a dirty loin-cloth covering her crotch. The Jedi quickly closed her hairless blue thighs and looked up at the man who was speaking, “You were trying to cross the border, right? Walked right into that Imperial ambush.” She looked over at the white armored Storm Trooper driving the cart on her left, then back at the handsome red-skinned boy across from her who was still yapping, “Same as us. And that thief over there.”

  “Damn you Rebels…” Another red-skinned man, also with yellow eyes, but a circle of blood-red around his irises, but he was bald instead of having long black hair, and there was a crown of horns around his skullcap. He also had black markings around his eyes, face, ears, jaw, nose, basically his whole head was covered in them. The Zabrak man growled, “Hoth was fine until you came along. Empire was nice and lazy. If they hadn’t been looking for you, I’d have stolen that ship and been half-way to Tatooine.” He looked towards the girl and said, “You there. You and me, we shouldn’t be here. It’s these Rebels the Empire wants.”

  Amon retorted, “We’re all brothers and sisters in binds now.”

  “Shut up back there!” The Storm Trooper shouted back at the two of them, continuing to drive the cart through the snowy wasteland of Hoth.

  “What’s wrong with him?” The Zabrak Thief asked, looking towards the little blonde boy who was gagged and bound like the rest of them.

  “Watch your tongue! You’re speaking to Anakin Skywalker! The Chosen One!” Amon shouted at the other man.

  “Anakin… Darth Vader?” The Zabrak Thief looked at the boy in shock, “I thought you joined the Empire? Hunted down and slaughtered all the Jedi… Since when did you join the Rebellion?”

  “Wait, what?” Eldra finally couldn’t keep her mouth shut anymore and couldn’t help asking, “What do you mean he hunted down the Jedi?”

  “Don’t worry about that. Different timeline.” Amon shrugged his shoulders and leaned back, easily snapping the ropes around his wrists. He was cloaked in a black robe, but it seemed a little drafty. Well, very drafty. With his legs spread like that, he really wasn’t hiding anything.

  “Different timeline?” The Twi’lek was confused, especially since the surroundings were rapidly warping again. From a carriage to her meditation chamber on her Master’s T-6 Jedi Shuttle.

  Wait, am I still on Dantooine? When did I get on this ship?

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  “Yeah, different timeline.” The Langhesi boy chuckled and pointed out the open door, towards a pretty middle-aged Togruta woman. She was dressed in a white Jedi robe and using two white lightsabers, training in various forms. The Force felt so warm and soft around her, yet there was a cruel and cold darkness hidden underneath.

  “Who is she?” Eldra asked curiously as she stood up and almost collapsed from dizziness, but her face pressed against the man’s warm abs… He was so tall!

  “Ahsoka Tano.” Amon hugged the blue girl gently, “She’s about one year old at the moment. I really wanna kidnap and experiment on her-”

  “I knew it! You’re a monster!” The girl pushed him away and his appearance transformed! His sexy red flesh was transformed into black and purple armor, while only his handsome face remained the same! Even his long black hair was turned into slimy, bug-like tendrils!

  “Oh please, as if the Jedi are any better.” He snorted and laughed, pointing at the woman in the other room. “Poor kid was groomed from childhood into a soldier for the Republic. Fights in a war from 14 to 17, hell, she even dies at least once and comes back to life. Ahsoka was framed as a terrorist, imprisoned, betrayed by everyone she thought she could trust, everyone except her Master… But let’s just say that she was smart to run away from that bullshit while she still had the chance. After all, her Master became-”

  “Stop, stop trying to trick me!” Eldra pulled a lightsaber off her hip and realized she was wearing her Jedi Robes again, then extended the blade and pointed it at the giant monster! The two of them were suddenly standing in the middle of a scorching hot desert!

  *Tshh-raaaaaah~!* Amon’s purple lightsaber ignited with a deafening roar! The hilt looked like some sort of black and purple insect, similar to the rest of his body! There were six tentacles wiggling around behind his back as he floated off the ground.

  “Is this where you are?! This desert world?!” The crazed Padawan reached out and used the Force to pull the bastard towards herself! Then she clashed against his lightsaber, but was sent flying across the sand!

  “Maybe? Or maybe I’m on Hoth? Maybe I’m on Dantooine? That’s where you’re at now, right?” Amon snickered as he stepped onto the sand and slowly walked towards the tiny Twi’lek girl, even though she attacked him with all of her strength, a casual swat of his lightsaber would send her flying dozens of meters through the air or across the sand!

  “Tatooine! That’s the name of this planet! That’s the name the Thief said!” Eldra screamed as she pushed him back with the Force! But it only took a moment for him to appear in front of her again! The purple blade slashed down and knocked her own lightsaber through her face!

  “Aaaaah~!” Eldra screamed in agony for a moment before her jaw was gone, her breasts were burned away and even her legs below the knees were chopped off before her own lightsaber finally turned off…

  “Seriously though. You’d think they’d put some fucking safeties on these things, right?” Amon started laughing as she was writhing in agony on the scorched and bloody sands.

  No! No! This isn’t real! This is a vision! This is just a dream!

  “Don’t worry. Tis but a flesh wound.” That devilishly handsome face grinned, revealing those terrifying fang-like teeth as he knelt down in front of the horrifically wounded girl, “Aww, don’t be afraid. You know… I’m actually a pretty fucking amazing doctor if I do say so myself.”

  Please no! Master, save me!

  “Oh, don’t be such a baby.” He cupped her mutilated face in his claws and chuckled, “Besides, I’m your Master now, Eldra.”

  “Never~!” Eldra woke up screaming her lungs out! She felt like her face was still a mess, but at most, she just had some sleep in her eyes and a runny nose. The Jedi Padawan was usually pretty good at controlling her feelings, but she couldn’t help curling up in a ball and sobbing on her side.

  Master, where are you?

  She sniffled and eventually got out of bed, looking around the ship for her Master. For a moment, she thought this was another nightmarish vision, but her mind started returning to calm as she remembered the past few days.

  Master Yaddle went to Coruscant for a Council Meeting. She wanted me to go back to Dantooine to take care of her dog. Can’t have her exotic pet breeding with a Kath Hound and creating an ecological disaster…

  “Lady Katis, have you awoken yet?” A masculine voice rang out through the speakers in the small dormitory.

  “I’m awake, what’s wrong, Hikari?” The Twi’lek sniffled and took a deep breath, calming herself down even more. Leaving the room in a gray sleeveless top and a long white skirt that reached her knees, she made sure her lightsaber was safely on the right side of her belt. Then adjusted her headdress, the tight leather bindings were uncomfortable, but they kept her focused. It also prevented her lekku from wiggling around and touching things on their own…

  “We’ve received a distress signal from a small freighter. As per standard Jedi protocol, I have assured them that we are on our way to offer any assistance they might require.” Although it seemed a little suspicious and odd, Eldra wasn’t some newbie Padawan. She’s been a Padawan under Master Yaddle for over a decade now. At 18 years old, it would be fairly normal for her to become a Jedi Knight by now.

  “Any idea what we’re dealing with?” Eldra didn’t take long to reach the cockpit and sit down next to the skinny humanoid Droid that was piloting the ship.

  “According to their distress call, they were being attacked by pirates.” The Droid paused for a few seconds as the ship exited hyperspace, revealing bits and pieces of what used to be a starship of some sort.

  “How long ago was the distress signal sent?” The young woman frowned and closed her eyes to ‘feel’ for any lifesigns, but unsurprisingly, there wasn’t much. At least nothing like a human.

  “Several weeks ago. It is rather unfortunate, but it is entirely possible that some species could have survived.” As soon as the Droid said that, they both noticed some signals popping up one after the other, “It appears that the Force is with us! Look, these are escape pod signatures!”

  “I can see that, Hikari.” Eldra smiled wryly, “Let’s hope that the Force is with them as well. Just because they made it to an escape pod didn’t mean they made it there in one piece… And we don’t know how well equipped the escape pods of this particular ship were…”

  “Oh don’t be so pessimistic!” Hikari chuckled and then set a course to the nearest pod, “You would be amazed at how resilient organics can be when it comes to survival!”

  “I hope you’re right.” She sighed and leaned back in her comfy chair.

  Why am I disappointed there were no pirates or slavers to fight?

  “Entering Hyperspace, now.” It was only a few seconds before he announced, “Exiting Hyperspace.”

  The ship reappeared in real-space and the first escape pod was right in front of them. Just a simple metal sphere that looked busted up and severely damaged.

  “How unfortunate.” Hikari shook his head, “The life-support systems are compromised. Perhaps we’ll have better luck with the next one-”

  “Wait.” Eldra raised her right hand and closed her eyes tightly. She tilted her head slightly and felt something, somehow, someone was still alive in there. Amazingly enough, “I think there’s actually a human in there?”

  Maybe she had an exosuit available?

  “I’m engaging the tractor beam now.” Within a few seconds the pod was lined up with the airlock, though since the pod was so damaged, the airlock couldn’t establish a proper seal.

  “I’ll have to put on a suit. It’s fine.” Eldra left the cockpit and headed through the ship, reaching the airlock room. There were several large and small space suits inside. A few were the size of Yaddle, while a few were her own size. They just looked like a skin-tight blue rubbery material that covered her whole body from the neck down. A transparent plastic bubble covered her entire head. There was a white utility belt around her waist and a long dangly white loin-cloth to cover her crotch and ass. Otherwise it would be a bit too revealing.

  “Okay, vent the atmosphere in the airlock.” She gave the order and her Droid followed it immediately. A few seconds later, she walked over to the metal door and opened it, revealing the damaged pod doors. She took a breath and then used the Force with both hands to pull the doors to the sides!

  Knew it.

  She smirked when she saw the unconscious human woman that was wearing a thick black space suit. Only her face was visible through a durable transparent plastic cover. The woman looked surprisingly healthy considering that she was likely starving and dehydrated for weeks.

  Didn’t know humans could even survive that long without food or water. Though it’s possible that she was recycling her urine and sweat. As for food, the pod probably had something. Not sure how she managed to eat it, but when push comes to shove, humans will do whatever it takes to stay alive.

  “It’s okay now. You’re safe.” Eldra smiled as the blonde girl opened her blurry blue eyes, “Everything is going to be fine.”

  “You’re… A Jedi?” The woman saw the lightsaber hilt and felt relieved, “Thank you… Thank you for saving me, Jedi Knight.”

  “Eldra Kaitis, you can call me Eldra.” Eldra chuckled, easily pulling the floating human out of the damaged escape pod and into the airlock. The doors shut automatically and then the air started returning rapidly. Pressurizing the small room so that the woman could finally take off her suit after weeks.

  “I’m only a Padawan though, not a Jedi Knight.”

  “It’s okay.” The blonde girl smiled as she slowly took off her suit, revealing her extremely skinny and bony naked body, “Even a Padawan is still a Jedi. Plus this ship…” She whistled and shook her head, “You might not be a Langeshi Forger, but you’re definitely worth the suffering I’ve endured the past month.”

  E chuta! It’s a trap! Of course it’s a trap!

  “Lady Katis! We have a problem!” The ship rumbled and sirens blared as Hikari shouted through the intercom, “We’re being ambushed!”

  “Hahaha~!” The blonde girl cackled for a moment, before she was punched unconscious by a blue fist.

  “Frakking pirates! Always so arrogant!” Eldra had to resist the impulse to just toss the woman out the airlock. In the end, she dragged her over to the brig and locked her away. Then headed to the gunner seat near the back of the vessel. Hopping in the seat, she started firing at the pirate starfighters, blasting three of then into pieces within only a few seconds!

  I wonder when it was that I stopped feeling bad about killing people? Well, there is no death, only the Force… And Jedi aren’t supposed to have emotions.

  *Rumble~!* The ship shook violently and she asked, “What’s going on Hikari?!”

  “We’re being boarded!” The Droid shouted anxiously, “They have us in a tractor beam! There’s so many of them!”

  As the ship was forcefully turned around, Eldra was horrified to see the massive frigates that surrounded them! Each ship was 200 to 400 meters long, but there were also plenty of Starfighters and shuttles about the same size as her own ship…

  Master… What the frak do I do in this situation?

  She was well and truly frakked. Aside from some sort of divine intervention, there was almost no possible way she could escape or survive this situation. No, there were ways to survive, she knew that she could survive… They wanted her alive.

  But is it worth it? Maybe I can survive long enough for Master Yaddle to come save me, but…

  Eldra closed her eyes and calmed herself down again, “There is no emotion. There is peace.”

  “Lady Kaitis, what should we do?! I’ve locked down the ship but it won’t take long for them to break through to the cockpit and take control!”

  “There is no ignorance, there is knowledge.” She took the hilt off her hip and got out of the chair, walking outside of the room. She was still wearing her space suit, which was nice, since the atmosphere in most of the ship was vented by now.

  “There is no passion, there is peace.” She spoke calmly as she deflected a blaster bolt back at a man’s face, blasting his helmet open and exposing him to the vacuum to die horribly.

  “There is no chaos, there is harmony.” She murmured as she hacked and slashed apart half a dozen humanoids. Their blood and entrails splattering around the room, spraying across her helmet and blocking her view. But it was the same for the others in the room who were firing wildly at her, but mostly just killing each other.

  “There is no death, there is the Force.” Eldra stabbed her blade through the back of a Quarren woman who screamed in agony as her internal organs were superheated, then her entire abdomen exploded inside of her space suit.

  “Hikari, activate the self-destruct.” She wasn’t giving up, but she wouldn’t allow them to take the ship or the Kyber Crystals and other very valuable items stored inside. Even Hikari would have to be destroyed, rather than captured.

  If they capture him, then they can target other Jedi. I can’t let that happen.

  “I understand…” The Droid sighed melodramatically, “If you survive this, please tell Master Yaddle that I’m sorry I failed you both.”

  “It’s not your fault, Hikari. You were only following protocol.” Eldra smiled wryly and wiped the scorching hot blood from her helmet, “I hope… I believe I’ll see you again, Hikari, somehow. May the Force be with you.”

  “I wonder… Can Droids become one with the Force?” As soon as he said that, the ship started shaking even more violently! They were finally pulled inside the flagship!

  “You’re alive, aren’t you?” The Twi’lek girl couldn’t help tearing up again as she walked over to the open airlock, “I hope I’ll see you again someday.”

  There was no response.

  The ship is about to explode. But where do I go? What can I do in so little time?!

  She didn’t want to give up! So she jumped down and deflected a few blaster bolts! She was in a hangar bay and there were obviously starfighters available nearby!

  I need to grab a ship and get out of here before the whole place-Wait, what?!

  She was being yanked back towards the ceiling! At first, she thought she was fighting a Jedi, but then she realized it was just a tractor beam… Not only that, but the ship wasn’t exploding. It didn’t explode. It just stayed there silently.

  *Tshhh-daou~!* She kept swinging her lightsaber around and deflected everything she could, but the blue stun-bolts eventually started hitting her suit! The suit shorted out and her air supply was cut off… She took off the helmet to keep fighting, but eventually she started getting clipped by tasers again. She used the Force against the Tractor Beam but that was useless. Just made her get hit by more stun bolts!

  No! No, I can’t get captured!

  She held the lightsaber up to her own throat and wanted to end things, but then the hilt flew out of her limp hand and hit a magnet far off in the distance…

  “Master… Save me, please…” She couldn’t help but remember that silly Twi’lek schutta from her nightmare.

  The Force was warning me… Not so literally, but in metaphor and allusion. I was so stupid.

  As her consciousness faded, she saw that bony naked pirate girl. She had a broken nose and blood dripping down her face, but she was smiling. Grinning from ear to ear. After all, as she said, Jedi were worth a lot on the black market. Especially a young and sexy Twi’lek Jedi.

  Hoth… Tatooine… Amon Kal.

  Her last thoughts were about that monster again. She needed to stop him. She needed to warn her Master. She needed to warn everyone…

  Unfortunately, the Force didn’t seem to give a damn about her obsession. It never cared about the atrocities that mortals committed upon each other. Why would it?

  “Would you care about the individual microscopic parasites inside their body? Would you even know their names or care about their stories? Would you kill a thousand ‘evil’ bacteria to save a singular ‘good’ bacteria?” Amon’s voice echoed in her foggy mind as she felt her numb body being stripped of her space suit, poked and prodded by cold metal, then… Frozen.

  Carbonite maybe? Could be worse.

  “Don’t be happy too soon. What if they left your ass unfrozen and used you as a sex toy while you’re trapped?” He casually mentioned something horrifying, but not very realistic. If they did that, her ass would become necrotic pretty fast. Since the rest of her body, including her heart and brain, were still ‘frozen’.

  How am I even thinking anymore?

  “Yeah, it’s a mystery. You know what they say about dreams though.” The deep voice whispered into her mind as it slowly went completely silent.

  ***

  The skinny blonde pirate girl was standing in front of the Jedi Padawan encased in carbonite with a wry smile on her haggard face. She breathed out a long sigh and shook her head, “Jedi are always so frakking arrogant.”

  “Good work! Hahaha~!” A massive blue-skinned T’surr man was grinning as he stomped over and patted the tiny human girl on the shoulder! His four red eyes glowed ominously, “I honestly can’t believe your plan actually worked! Between the Jedi, her ship and the cargo on board, we’ll be making a fortune!”

  “As long as I get paid, Krayn, I couldn’t care less what you do with the Jedi or her ship.” The woman put on some tight purple pants and a similar leather-looking purplish jacket. She had a bunch of beads dangling from her belt that had some memorable significance, a fancy buckle, a special silver blaster pistol and a silver helmet that she used to tie a purple veil from one side to the other. Then her skin transformed, becoming gray and rough, with her nose splitting down the middle and becoming unusually high compared to her lips. Her blue eyes widened to the sides and her sclera disappeared.

  “You look a lot better this way.” The giant monster said to the shapeshifting Clawdite Bounty Hunter, “Zam, are you sure you don’t want to stick around to enjoy the festivities?”

  “You know I’m a workaholic, Krayn.” The woman chuckled in a raspy voice, “Jango’s got another gig lined up. Something big.”

  “Jango Fett…” The huge T’surr growled the name, “One of these days, that man is gonna get you both killed. Mark my words.”

  “I’d say the same about you and this slavery business.” Zam shook her head, “Sooner or later, slaves always rebel. It’s what we always do, right?”

  “I know.” Krayn groaned and shook his giant blue head, “I’m planning on retiring within the next five or six years. The damn Hutts can find someone else to rule Nar Shaddaa.”

  “They already have someone else ruling Nar Shaddaa.” The shapeshifter chuckled, “You won’t be missed.”

  “We’ll see about that.” He didn’t plan on going down without a fight, though he hoped his contingency plans would be enough to save his ass in case something really did go wrong. Or the Hutts thought he was getting too powerful and greedy for their tastes.

  “By the way, what happened to the girl I was impersonating?” Zam asked randomly, “That security guard.”

  “The smuggler?” He rubbed his hairless chin and frowned, “She stole a starfighter. Probably half-way to Tatooine by now. Probably one of Jabba’s schutta’s.”

  “Jabba or Gardulla. None of my business either way.” She couldn’t help feeling like she was jinxing herself. Hopefully Jango’s new job didn’t have anything to do with Tatooine or the Hutts.