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The Sarlacc’s tongues, in the meanwhile, continue to quest around the sandy surface of the pit for potential food. One brushes over Shaara’s leg and keeps moving—and then it comes back.

Shaara screams, and the Imp does what is perhaps the most surprising thing in this entire story. He pulls his personal vibroblade from his boot and throws it at the tentacle that has hold of her.

The tentacle lets go, but two others snap up immediately, and half a dozen more begin groping up the side where the blade has come from. At this point the Imp’s courage fails entirely. He begins to claw his way up the walls of the Great Pit of Carkoon. This seals his doom. One of the tentacles grasps Shaara’s metal-wrapped leg, while two others grab the Imp and tear him in half as they drag him in. Shaara says she thinks he died quickly. I hope that she is right.

Then the tentacle that has hold of Shaara picks her up, coils down toward the Sarlacc’s mouth—and uncoils most violently, throwing her out of the Pit of Carkoon entirely. The family landspeeder is a total loss but its comm unit works well enough that she can send out a call for help, and she does so.

Ah, look. We are getting near the Pit of Carkoon. Come this way, please.

Why does the Sarlacc let her go? That is a very interesting question, Mister Boba Fett. First of all, I wish to point out that it does not let her go, it makes her go. I do not know why it does this, but I have given it much thought over the years and I have several theories on the subject.

Perhaps it has had enough food for now, and it throws the excess back. Shaara does not like this theory, and neither do I. I have seen it eat much more than this at one time.

Shaara thinks that the tentacles are tongues indeed and have a sense of taste. She thinks that the Sarlacc decides, based on the metallic taste of her suit, that she is not edible. I do not think this is true myself, for I have seen the Sarlacc swallow some things which could not possibly have tasted like organic matter, and the armor of the Imps did not seem to bother it at all.

What I personally think is this. Nobody really knows anything about the Sarlacc. It seems to be the only one of its kind, but creatures simply do not evolve as individuals in such a manner. And it is very old. We assume that it is not intelligent, but perhaps it is. Perhaps it just has a slower kind of intelligence which takes years to think a single thought. And maybe, just maybe, it knew what it was doing.

I do not know why the Sarlacc saved my sister, and that is really all there is to say about it. My parents say that they have never heard of the Sarlacc eating anyone who had not done something to deserve it, but if so we are undoubtedly all Sarlacc food in the final analysis.

Ah. Here we are. This is the best place to watch from, even better than Jabba the Hutt’s throne. Stay right here in the skiff and I can promise you a truly amazing view. You may even see what few have seen and lived: the Sarlacc’s belly.

A Barve Like That: The Tale of Boba Fett

by J. D. Montgomery

With the passage of the years he had learned to recognize certain things.

When he first returned to awareness he knew that he was on the surface of a planet. Artificial gravity shimmers at the boundaries of perception; on a ship under thrust the engines, however well damped, vibrate; and gravity provided by angular momentum causes a Coriolis effect that a human who has trained himself can recognize.

But that was all that he knew when the voice out of the darkness said, You are Boba Fett.

Fett’s head jerked up and he stared into—

Nothing.

He reached for his rifle—and did not move. His arms and legs were firmly restrained. Fett hung in darkness, feet not touching the ground.

He heard a distant crack followed by the same noise again, rather more close. His head was not restrained but the rest of his body felt as though it had been wrapped in—

He stuck out his tongue and flipped the switch that turned