“REVERTING TO REALSPACE,” THE PILOT SAID OVER THE YT'S INTERCOM while Rej Taunt and the Gossam were sipping drinks in the main hold. “Entering the Tion Cluster.”
“No need for undue concern,” the long-necked alien said, taking note of Taunt's worried expression.
“I'm not comfortable with bugs—any of them. Not even Neimoidians, and they're almost humanoid.”
“The Colicoids will be easily appeased by our cargo,” the Gossam said in his most assuring voice.
Taunt said nothing in a definite way.
The Gossam's name was Lu San. A longtime Nar Shaddaa resident, he had spent two years in an internment camp on the Smugglers' Moon at the start of the war, but, like several other members of his species, he used the time to establish contacts among the criminal underworld and was already reaping the benefits of that education.
“Your ship is a marvel,” Lu San added after a moment, clearly hoping to put Taunt at ease.
Glancing around him, Taunt nodded. “A thing of beauty.”
During the walk-through of the rebuilt freighter, Bammy Decree's enthusiasm was so contagious that Taunt hadn't even bothered to have the mechanic's work double-checked. Instead he'd relied on the word of his pilots, who had taken the ship on test flights to Nal Hutta and Ylesia, and pronounced her a wonder.
And she was.
Renamed Second Chance and bearing a Nar Shaddaa registry, the YT concealed enhanced sublight and hyperdrive engines and sophisticated sensor and communications suites. Refitted with new mandibles and cockpit, the saucer had been twisted back into shape and cleaned up but left to look its age, with fresh paint and duralloy only where needed, while the interior now sported a spacious main hold, a small galley, a refresher, and a private cabin for Taunt, with a bunk sized to his bulk and smaller versions for guests. It would take an expert eye to detect that the ship was now a composite of a 1300f and a 1300p. For a relative beginner, Decree had done a superb job and more important, had known better than to delay completing the work or add to the price he had quoted.
Taunt was so eager to try out the ship that he had accepted a job from a Black Sun Vigo he might otherwise have turned down. If only it hadn't involved dealing with bugs … But Taunt had long had his eye on furthering his reputation as an earner with the Black Sun leadership, and the chance to do that had offset some of his initial revulsion.
And fear.
Black Sun was finally recovering from an attack thirteen years earlier by an assassin who had executed the cartel's head honchos, including the flamboyant Alexi Garyn. During the war, several Vigos had attempted to assume leadership, but plans to align with the Hutts in controlling the flow of the specious healing agent bota had backfired and left Black Sun in shambles. Lately, though, there were signs of reorganization under the guidance of Dal Perhi and a Falleen crime lord named Xizor.
It was one of Perhi's lieutenants who had approached Taunt with the job and put him in contact with a Koorivar named Masel, who had recommended using Lu San as an intermediary with the Colicoids. Masel was one of a new breed of information brokers born out of the ashes of the war and the birth of the Empire. One day soon Palpatine's navy of Star Destroyers commanded by flesh-and-blood officers disgorged from the Imperial Academies would rule all space. But until then there were credits to be made by taking advantage of what the war had left in its wake. Many would miss the Jedi Order, but no one Taunt knew. The Empire was already better armed than Black Sun and other enterprises, but at the very least, Palpatine's proxies could be dealt with turbolaser for turbolaser rather than turbolaser against the force.
The Second Chance carried no major weapons, but the cargo holds were packed with what Taunt hoped would prove even more effective in dealing with the insectoid Colicoids: fifty metric tons of flash-frozen eopie meat.
The chitinous, carnivorous hive-minded designer-manufacturers of the tri-fighter, destroyer, and sabotage droids that the Separatist conspirators had purchased in mass quantities to hurl against the Republic had decamped from their native Colla IV at the end of the war and immigrated to worlds in the Tion Cluster, among other places. Most of their deadly inventions had been deactivated, but many of their self-modeled droidekas had been acquired by security companies operating in the Corporate Sector, and some of their other innovations had found their way onto the burgeoning black market. Among them were containerfuls of the melon-sized Pistoeka disassemblers known as buzz droids, which Black Sun had decided were perfectly suited for work in Nar Shaddaa's vehicle and vessel chop shops.
Taunt hadn't had personal dealings with the Colicoids, but he knew fellow criminals who had, back when the insectoids had attempted to assume control of Kessel's spice trade and had sought to take over a spice factory on Nar Shaddaa, only to learn the hard way that a former slaver would prove to be more deadly than they were.
“It's something about their posture,” Taunt said, his anxiety triumphing over his pride in the Second Chance. “I can stomach Ruurians, Kamarians, even a Geonosian or two, but there's just something about their … concavity that makes them seem more aggressive.” A shudder passed through him. “I'd feel safer sleeping with an Anzati.”
“They are more aggressive,” the Gossam said. “And your … how should I put it? Your healthy corpulence is bound to excite them to hunger.”
Taunt's eyes widened. “Don't tell me that.”
Lu San smiled pleasantly. “That's why the quadruped meat must be off-loaded before we make an appearance. Beyond its purpose as barter, the eopie will distract and placate them long enough for us to conduct and conclude our business. The tactic worked well for the Trade Federation when it placed its initial order for droidekas.”
“But Neimoidians begin life as grubs. There's common ground.”
Lu San waved his small hand in a dismissive gesture. “The Colicoids are well known to feast on even their own kind.”
Taunt's ample mouth twitched. “Ever see one of them ball up— like the droidekas?”
“Once only,” Lu San said. “In the presence of a hueche—their onetime predator on Colla Four.”
“Couldn't we have gotten one of those, just in case?”
“The Colicoids are thought to have eradicated them. Perhaps from a cloner if there had been time.”
Taunt stood up and paced across the main hold. “What else do I need to know?”
Lu San's bulging, saurian eyes tracked him. “Protocol dictates that you keep your chins down.”
Taunt, who had almost as many rolls of fat under his mandible as the pregnant females of his species had breasts, pressed his chin against his upper chest. “Like this?” he managed to say.
“That will do. What's important is that you refrain under any circumstance from showing your neck.”
Taunt shifted his gaze to Lu San's spindly, ring-encased neck. “You're not worried?”
The Gossam indicated himself. “Not nearly enough meat on my bones.”
* * *
Staggering through the ring corridor while the Second Chance raced away from the Tion planetoid at full speed, Taunt tried in vain to get control of himself. In his years on Nar Shaddaa, he had witnessed the brutal executions of collaborators and betrayers; he had seen would-be defectors fed to rancors and traitors tortured at the hands of droids programmed for sadism. But he would be lucky to erase the Colicoids from his memory.
Emerging like a sudden plague from the burrows that hollowed the planetoid, slavering while the rapid-thawed and microwaved eopie meat was being off-loaded from the ship, tearing into it with such abandon that blood misted in the thin air and collected like dew on Taunt and Lu San, Viss and Heet as they deboarded the ship …
The Colicoids were so stimulated by the feeding frenzy, Taunt was certain that he and his entire party would be ripped limb from limb and consumed live before Lu San could close the deal for the buzz droids.
Somehow, though, the Gossam had made it happen, and the spherical droids had been moved with due haste into the same holds that had held the meat. But then poor Viss, lost in the effort of loading the cargo, had stretched out his neck to work kinks from his shoulders and the feeding frenzy had recommenced. Half a dozen of the barbarous insectoids pounced on him and stripped his bones of meat and flesh faster than Taunt could comprehend … Taunt tucking his chins against his chest the whole while, and Lu San, poor Lu San, ineffective in preventing the tragedy and paying dearly for it when he tried to intervene. Smelling the sudden fear coming off him, the Colicoids had sliced and diced the Gossam like raw filleted fish, indifferent to whether he constituted a meal or a snack, and not a scrap was left behind.
Taunt shuddered.
Two circuits through the ring corridor and he was still shaking uncontrollably. Two more and he finally began to calm down, the YT gaining speed and distance for the jump back to Nar Shaddaa.
That they had come away from the horror with their cargo intact was nothing short of a miracle. The sabotage droids were piled a meter high in the cargo holds—unsecured and rolling around like ball bearings in a duratin can—and a Colicoid Creation Nest computer sat in the number two hold, capable of tasking them for their eventual chop shop duty.
Lumbering into the main hold, Taunt lowered himself onto the acceleration couch, waiting for the pilot to announce that the ship was ready to make the jump to lightspeed. But when after too long there was no word, he called forward.
“What's the delay in going to hyperspace?”
The response was a worrying moment in coming. “The navicomputer says that the hyperdrive isn't responding. I'm going aft to check it out.”
Taunt cut his gaze to the cockpit connector in time to see the copilot hurry into the ring corridor. Before he could lift himself out of the couch, a cry of surprise echoed forward.
“The buzz droids are activated! They're disabling the entire ship!”
Bammy Decree's face filled the engineering station's main display, his expression a mix of confusion and deep concern.
“Pistoeka sabotage droids? But how—”
“I bartered for them,” Taunt cut him off. From all directions came the sound of the droids chattering to one another and the Second Chance being taken apart. “I'll explain later, but right now we need to know how to deactivate them before they undo every system on the ship!”
“Did the deal include a control computer?”
“Yes, yes!”
“Then can't you just shut it down?”
“It is shut down! We never activated it.”
“Then how—”
“And the navigator's telling me that the droids are mainly reversing all the work you performed! Like they're trying to return the YT to factory specs. How can that be?”
“The work I did?” Decree fell silent for a moment, his jaw unhinging slightly. “Did anyone help you broker this deal?”
“The Koorivar—Masel. But what's that have to do with anything?” Taunt didn't bother to wait for a reply. “Is this because of some component you installed? Some aftermarket part? I warned you, Decree, no aftermarket parts!”
Decree squeezed his eyes shut, then opened them wide. “You've got to bring the Pistoeka control computer online. Instruct your engineer to have the computer task the droids with reverting to their standard programming.”
“Did you get that?” Taunt yelled over his shoulder.
“I'm on it,” the engineer told him.
Taunt returned his gaze to the display. “What else, Decree?”
“Then you've got to jettison them—every last one of them. Can you do that?”
“Can we do that?” Decree shouted to no one in particular.
“It'll take a while, but we can do it.”
Taunt expelled his breath. “Decree, this had better work. If not, there won't be a planet remote enough for you to hide on.”
Decree swallowed and nodded. “It'll work.”
“What do we do about the damaged systems? The kriffing droids have torched their way into nearly everything!”
“Have your engineer inventory the damage. I'll get hold of the parts you need and find someone with a fast ship. I'll repair everything personally.”
“Get started on gathering parts. I'll contact Nar Shaddaa and set you up with a ship.”
Decree looked sheepish. “I, I—”
“Save it,” Taunt said, and ended the communication.
Big hands shaking, he stood to his full height. He would have to come up with an explanation for the Vigo, as well as credits enough to pay for the eopie meat and the cost of the trip. The fiasco. He wasn't sure just how long he had been standing at the engineering station when Heet hurried into his peripheral view.
“The droids are shut down. Naath is below, getting ready to jettison them. But they did a lot of damage, boss. Comms up and running, but we've only got the sublight drive.”
Taunt nodded absently. “Help is coming. Have a list prepared of everything needed to repair the hyperdrive.”
“Will do.”
Heet no sooner moved off than the voice of the pilot rang out from the cockpit. “Boss! You'd better get in here. We've got a serious problem on our hands.”
Taunt whirled from the engineering station and thundered through the connector into the cockpit, nearly slamming his head on the hatch's low head jamb. The pilot indicated two glinting shapes in the center of the viewport.
“Imperial Navy. One of the older Acclamator-class assault ships, with a Destroyer escort.” The pilot looked at him. “Do you think they've had their eye on the Colicoids? Could they have observed the deal go down?”
Taunt worked his jaw. “Even if they did, they're not going to find any evidence of it.”
The pilot touched the earphones of his headset. “They're comming us. They want us to power down and submit to an inspection.” He glanced at the viewport. “The escort's vectoring for intercept.”
Heet squeezed into the cockpit behind Taunt. “The droids are jettisoned.”
“Good,” Taunt started to say, then stopped himself, all color draining from his face. “Decree had us retask the droids to their original programming.”
Heet stared blankly.
“Their original programming is to disable Republic vessels!”
The three of them swung as one to the viewport.
A choice epithet flew from the pilot. “The escort's flying right into their midst!”
“Warn them away!” Taunt said. “Tell them we have a radiation leak!”
“Overseer, this is Second Chance,” the pilot said into the mike. “It would be better if we came to you—But—But—No, that's not the case—It's—” Turning to Taunt, he said: “They suspect a trick. They're threatening to open fire.”
For a moment, Taunt couldn't get his vocal cords to work. “How much time until the escort reaches the droids?”
The pilot brought a magnified view of the ship to one of the displays. You didn't have to be a technical wiz to grasp that the spherical sabotage droids were already maneuvering toward the escort.
“They're penetrating the deflector shield. Attaching!”
Taunt stumbled backward into the copilot's chair, which nearly collapsed beneath him.
The cockpit fell eerily silent, except for deliberate tones issuing from the communications suite. Then, without warning, an explosion blossomed in front of the YT and nova-bright light flooded through the viewport.