Star Wars_ Tales From Jabba's Palace - Kevin J. Anderson [122]
Jabba’s protocol droid read the death sentence to Luke Skywalker and the Rebel heroes, then asked for any last words. Han Solo retorted with curses designed to be especially offensive to those of Huttese descent, while Skywalker simply offered Jabba one last chance to surrender.
Tessek scanned the larboard horizon, certain that a phalanx of Rebel fighters must be screaming toward them. Confused, he turned and looked out the starboard side of the sail barge, then he looked up at Tatooine’s blinding double suns. Still no sign of enemy craft.
“Throw them in!” Jabba shouted, and his men pushed Luke Skywalker into the pit. But the young Jedi used the plank as a springboard—twisting in midair to land back on the vehicle, and someone on the sail barge tossed him a weapon. Within seconds, the Jedi was chopping up Jabba’s men.
“Get him! Get him!” Jabba shouted, and several henchmen began shooting at the Rebel heroes despite the fact that stray shots were as likely to hit their own comrades. They knew that Jabba would well reward the one who brought the Jedi down.
For one slim moment, Tessek had to wonder when the Alliance aid would come. Han Solo and the heroes of the Rebel Alliance were fighting the best they could, but most of them seemed to be nothing more than a bunch of bunglers. One of them fell to the edge of the Great Pit of Carkoon, and the others rushed to his aid, leaving only the young Jedi to withstand the might of all of Jabba’s forces.
Tessek pulled out his own blaster, and stood at Jabba’s back. All of Jabba’s henchmen were rushing to the larboard side of the ship, trying to shoot Luke Skywalker and the other Rebels. Tessek suddenly had a clean shot to Jabba’s head.
But even as he considered whether to shoot, Leia jumped up and wrapped her chains around Jabba’s throat, strangling him. Tessek could no longer get a clean shot at Jabba’s head, so he faded back two paces into the shadows, watching to see if Jabba’s henchmen would notice Leia’s move, wondering at the balance of this battle: would the Rebel Alliance come soon? Would Jabba’s men shoot the Rebel heroes down?
One of the Weequays—Tessek’s own henchman—turned and saw Leia, began to raise a shout. Tessek fired into the man’s throat. In all of the commotion, no one seemed to notice.
Within seconds, one of the skiffs exploded—his own bomb, he supposed—and half of Jabba’s men were dead. Leia finished off the Hutt, and Tessek, who had kept waiting for the Rebel attack, suddenly realized that there would be no phalanx of fighters. These—apparently bungling—Rebels were tearing Jabba’s trained mercenaries apart. Their Wookiee fired a cannonade into the sail barge—causing it to list and whine complaining under Tessek’s feet—then the Wookiee tried to rescue Han Solo.
Tessek turned and fled for his life. He leaped through the kitchens, snagging a jug of water as he ran, found his swoop, unlatched an escape panel, and shot out over the sands at top speed.
As he cleared the sail barge, a mushroom cloud rose up behind, a fiery testimonial to the end of Jabba’s reign.
Tessek drank deeply and poured the water over his skin, then wrapped his cloaks tightly about him as he headed home, considering how he might consolidate his forces at what once was Jabba’s palace.
He felt dry. The desert wind burned his face, sucked the moisture from him. He hated how he felt so dry, hated the hot knives of wind that sliced away at him, paring him down to the bone. But as the swoop soared over sand hills, dipped into shallows, Tessek realized that he felt light. For the first time in his life, he felt light and free …
“I’m free. I’m free!” Tessek began gibbering. He dreamed of Jabba’s wealth, lying about in unprotected heaps, and of the greater wealth carefully concealed in numbered accounts and prudently invested in businesses throughout