From: Vance <[email protected]>

This here's a clip from Zahn's short story, "I forgot what it's called." Oh well.


Timothy Zahn's Tribute to Boba Fett

The following is an excerpt taken from "A Slight of Hand," a short story from the anthology, "Tales from Jabba's palace." The story is of Zahn's character, Mara Jade, and her infiltration of Jabba' palace, with the goal of the assassination of Luke Skywalker. The excerpt takes place immediately after Boushh the Bounty Hunter collects the bounty of Chewbacca in the movie, "Return of the Jedi." In the excerpt, Jade is disguised as Arica, a palace dancer, and walks to Boba Fett to get some information on Boushh.

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Mara waited until it was over and the Wookiee had been dragged away. Then, she made her way through the reinvigorated party atmosphere to where the bounty hunter Boba Fett stood silent guard. "Excuse me, sir," she said timidly, reaching a hand almost to his shoulder and then stopping, as if she'd been planning to tap him there and had suddenly thought better of it. "My name's Arica--I just came in today. That thing with the bounty hunter--that was pretty scary. Does that sort of thing happen often?" For a long moment he just stared at her, and for that same long moment Mara thought the game was up. Boba Fett had done a fair amount of quiet work for the Empire over the years, and it was entirely possible that he had spotted her at some point in the Emperor's entourage. She reached out with the Force, trying to touch his mind. But his control was excellent, and nothing she could read gave her any clues. "Nice to meet you, Arica," he said at last, in that flat voice that so terrified his victims and impressed his employers. "Don't worry about Boushh--he might have looked crazy right then, but he's not. And don't worry about anyone else. Jabba knows who can be trusted. No one else gets in." He tapped the blaster rifle at his side. "And I stay around here a lot between Jobs." "I'm Glad," Mara breathed. "Thank you--I fell much better." "My pleasure."