Star Wars®: Rebel Force #3: Renegade by Alex Wheeler

Author:Alex Wheeler
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scholastic
Published: 2009-09-14T16:00:00+00:00

Luke opened his eyes, squinting against the bright sun. He was lying on his side, his right cheek planted against the ground. The arid, empty landscape stretched to the horizon. The Stone Needle was nowhere to be seen. Nor was his skyhopper. There was nothing in sight but sand.

He remembered the crash.

Uncle Owen’s going to kill me! he thought ruefully.

And then he remembered everything else.

This is not a good time for me to piloting anything.

Luke tried to sit up, but something was stopping him. Binders, around his wrists, around his ankles. And around his chest and knees, thick cords binding him to another person. Luke craned his neck around as far as it would go.

“Jaxson!” he hissed. “Jaxson!” Louder this time. But the body attached to him didn’t move.

Something else did.

“Awake already?” snarled the massive green creature hulking over him. Luke recognized the distinctive scaled face, clawed hands, and razor-sharp jaws of a Trandoshan, a race of aggressive reptilian warriors. This one was taller than average, his scaly limbs bursting from a bright orange flight suit that had clearly been designed for a creature much smaller than him. Luke wondered what had happened to the suit’s original owner. He suspected that the blast rifle slung around the Trandoshan’s neck might have had something to do with it. The Trandoshan flicked his long tongue at Luke. “You’ve got a pretty hard head. For a human.”

Luke struggled to move, but Jaxson’s immobile body held him in place.

“You did something to our skyhoppers,” Luke accused the Trandoshan.

Bossk widened his jaws in a smile. “The pulse generator wiped out every electrical system in a forty kilometer radius. Namely: yours.”

“Why?” Luke said. “We’re not your enemy. I don’t even know who you are!”

“But I know who you are,” the Trandoshan said. “Luke Skywalker. Friend to that galactic scourge Han Solo. And he’s got plenty of enemies.” The Trandoshan straightened up, smoothing out his flight suit. “I’m surprised none of them came to me sooner. You want a job done right, Bossk is the one to do it.”

He was a bounty hunter, Luke realized. Which meant there was no point in trying to talk him out of it. Hunters were notoriously merciless and single-minded when it came to pursuing their bounty. But there was no reason Jaxson had to pay.

If he could only reach his lightsaber …

That was a useless wish. The Trandoshan, perhaps not realizing it was a weapon, had left the lightsaber where it was, hanging from a low belt around Luke’s hips. But his hands and arms were bound tightly behind his back. Much as he strained, the lightsaber was out of reach.

“Who hired you?” Luke asked, hoping to learn something that would help him.

The Trandoshan offered only an icy smile. “You’ll find out soon enough. Though you’ll wish you hadn’t.”

“At least let my friend go,” Luke said. “He’s got nothing to do with this. He’s never even met Han.”

“This worm?” Bossk asked. “Head softer than yours, it seems. He might already be dead.

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