Star Wars_ Young Jedi Knights 08_ Diversity Alliance - Kevin J. Anderson [40]
"What led you here to this planet?"
"A rumor... a hunch... a partially restored bit of data from a damaged file."
Given that half the bounty hunters in the galaxy were out searching for Thul now, Zekk figured it was the best answer he could expect. "Well, it looks like I found the record of my target," he said, spotting an arrival document naming Fonterrat.
He played the record, which showed the docking of the scavenger's ship as well as a manifest of its cargo. Zekk was pleased to note that the bartender's ronik shells were still on the list.
Within hours of Fonterrat's arrival, though, the plague had begun to spread through the human colonists on Gamma-lin.
"This last entry," Zekk said, scrolling ahead, "was made just one day later." He punched up the record, and the image of a diseased, disfigured man lurched in front of the recorder. His hands trembled; his skin had a slack and blotchy appearance.
Zekk thought he recognized the dead controller Boba Fett had tossed out of a chair only moments before.
"This plague has hit all of us," the man croaked. "Must've come in aboard the ship of that alien trader. He brought the plague here."
The dying man sucked in a deep, shud-dery breath. "He's not affected by it. He seems to know something about - it, though he is without symptoms.
We have imprisoned him in our small brig to give He coughed. "To give us time to investigate.
"Crime was rare here on Gammalin. We all worked hard together to make this our home. Now nothing is left to us but death. Everyone is dead.
Man, woman, child. I fear... I fear there is no one left alive even to feed our plague carrier. Fonterrat..." He collapsed onto one elbow, trembling. "Ah. No matter... he deserves no less for bringing this total devastation upon us."
The man slumped forward, coughing and wheezing, without turning off the recorder.
Zekk fast-forwarded through several minutes of the man's gasping convulsions, and then the log recorders timer shut it off automatically.
"Fonterrat may still be alive," Zekk said.
"I've got to find the town brig," He turned back toward the metal stairs, and was surprised when Boba Fett followed close behind him, his armored boots clanging on the floor.
After searching through several likely buildings on the silent streets, Zekk finally threw open a door to a small secured facility with bars on its windows. Once inside, he pulled a glowrod from his suit pocket and shone it on the row of makeshift cells, most of them empty. He crept forward, peering from one into another.
Small creatures skittered about, tunneling into the ever-present dust that had gathered in the corners.
One human prisoner sprawled out on his bunk, showing the now-familiar symptoms of the plague. "Justice comes in its own time," Boba Fett observed. "No 'matter what this man's crime was."
Zekk found Fonterrat, dead, in the fourth cell.
Though the alien scavenger had been immune to the strange plague that wiped out the entire human colony, he had not been immune to starvation and neglect.
Judging from the information on the log tapes, Fonterrat had been trapped in his cell, without food or water, for more than two weeks.
Zekk worked the controls outside the cell door. They were simple enough, but he used the Force to nudge the code and unlock the security systems.
As the door swung open, Zekk stepped in, uneasy with anticipation. His breath echoed in his helmet.
He recognized the small rodentlike alien from the holo the bartender had shown him--big eyes and ears, pointed snout, and fine gray-brown fur across much of his body. In his delicate, stiff hands Fonter-rat clutched a message cube. The light blinked on the top. He had left some sort of final recording.
Boba Fett was there first, grabbing the message cube. "Hey!"
Zekk said. "Fonter-rat is my bounty. You're interfering with my hunt.
Bounty Hunters Creed, remember?"
"Your hunt is concluded,"