Star Wars: Tales from Jabba's palace by Kevin J. Anderson

Author:Kevin J. Anderson
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub, mobi
Tags: Star Wars, Space Opera, Jabba the Hutt (Fictitious character), General, Science fiction, American, Fiction, Short stories
ISBN: 9780553568158
Publisher: Bantam
Published: 1995-12-01T08:00:00+00:00

Trapped. Tessek was trapped. The monk's words echoed in Tessek's mind: "he plots your own untimely demise." Surely Jabba suspected Tessek, and those whom Jabba suspected rarely lived long. Indeed, Jabba was amused by Tessek's fear of dehydration, and just as Han Solo had spent weeks frozen in carbonite while hanging on Jabba's wall, Tessek imagined his own desiccated hide, dried until he was mummified, hanging as an ornament on Jabba's wall.

"Surely I am little more than an accountant," Tessek argued.

"Others here could handle such matters far better than I."

"Nevertheless," Jabba assured him, "your presence is not just desired; it is required. I have great plans for you."

Tessek ran to his room, began plotting furiously.

Three or four hours was all he had.

It would be too late to call off Prefect Talmont's raid on Jabba's warehouse. Tessek didn't have time to send a written message to Talmont's agents in Mos Eisley. Tessek would have to talk to Talmont after the fact, get him to raid the premises again on some future date.

Tessek considered the bomb in Jabba's skiff. If Jabba wanted to maintain his fullest military presence, the Hutt would bring the skiff along, load it down with henchmen, and use it as a protective outrider in case nder such conditions, it would not take much for the bomb to go off--a spark from a hot capacitor, a stray shot. It was a big bomb--big enough so that if Jabba's sail barge were close when it detonated, the bomb might destroy the entire sail barge, tOO.

Tessek didn't have time to dismantle the bomb. Inn deed, Jabba's men and droids were probably already scrambling onto the skiff, loading it for the trip.

Tessek had but one recourse. He would have to escape during the chaotic preparations. He packed a small bag with some credit chips and clothing, a few extra weapons. Then he rushed down to the ground floors, dodging other minions.

As he passed Jabba's throne room, he noticed Yarna, Jabba's fat dancer, a woman with six large breasts, reach into a secret compartment of Jabba's throne and stuff some small gems into her bra. She saw him, stopped in the act, and stared.

"Please," she whispered in Huttese. "It's not for me. It's for my cubs. I'm leaving, and I won't be back."

For half a moment Tessek halted, thinking that if he turned the woman in, he would appear to be more faithful in Jabba's eyes.

Instead, he shrugged at the woman, then proceeded to the motor pool.

The great hall was alive with dozens of creatures preparing the weapons, chefs bringing food to the vehicles.

Normally, Barada's droids kept a keen watch on the bay, but it was a madhouse at the moment, lit by the ship's running lights.

Sauntering over to the swoop bikes under the shadow of Jabba's sail barge, Tessek knelt to inspect each one. The swoops were little more than heavy repulsorlift engines on a frame just big enough to support some stabilizers. They could travel fast and far, but offered no protection from the elements or offensive weaponry.

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