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"You contracted to bring him back to me, along with the navicomputer I paid for.

Why have you returned here without your bounty? Surely you don't intend to report failure?"

"A temporary setback," Fett said, his voice carefully neutral. "I encountered the children of Han Solo; they were unable to provide the information I required. I have other leads." He paused for a moment.

"When hunting bounty, I can never be sure what I will find--it is not always what I set out to look for."

More to the point, Nolaa's spies had reported that Jacen and Jaina Solo and their friends had actually foiled Fett out in the Alderaan rubble field, and he had fled in defeat. But she did not mention this.

The bounty hunter knew he had failed thus far, and so did she.

Nothing else mattered.

"Make no mistake, Boba Fett," Nolaa said, "about the importance of this mission.

I must have the cargo Bornan Thul stole. The future of the galaxy depends on it. Until today, I have let only a few other bounty hunters know of my interest--and I suspect some still intend to succeed where you failed.

Now, however, you give me no choice but to announce this opportunity to bounty hunters far and wide."

"Send out whomever you like, but I shall find Bornan Thul," Fett said.

His brusque tone was not threatening, but simply confident.

"I am the best. I will succeed. The others will fail."

"Then next time bring me the bounty--not words," Nolaa said.

When Fett turned without bidding her farewell, she raised her clawed hand and called after him to stop. "I have a question-something that intrigues me. I've heard about how Princess Leia Organa once wore a helmet as a disguise, passing herself off as the bounty hunter Boushh to infiltrate Jabba's palace. No one knew her identity until she was caught trying to free Han Solo. Tell me, Boba Fett: under that helmet, and behind your voice synthesizer, are you perhaps.... a female yourself?"

Fett stared at her through the narrow black slit in his helmet.

"I remove my helmet for no one," he said.

But Nolaa would not be distracted. "For that matter," she said, "are you even human?

Could you perhaps be one of the downtrodden alien species in this galaxy passing yourself off as a human?"

"I remove my helmet for no one," he repeated, still giving her no answer.

"A pity," Nolaa said. "You may go."

Boba Fett departed with brisk steps, as if · incensed that she had given him leave to go when he would never have bothered to ask her permission.

Nolaa sat back in her stone chair, bathed in the bloody red lights It was long past her rest period, but she decided to linger a while yet...perhaps much longer. Possibilities for the future continued to develop in her mind.

MORNING MIST SETTLED on the grass-stubble clearing in front of the rebuilt Great Temple. Droplets of falling moisture clung to Tenel Ka's warrior braids and sparkled there like a fine spray of gems.

Leaning against the damp hull of the Rock Dragon, she watched with mixed feelings as Jacen prepared to board the Shadow Chaser with Raynar and Master Skywalker.

She knew Jacen would have preferred to fly beside her and she was proud of him for sacrificing his personal preferences to help Raynat, who needed the support of a friend right now. Tenel Ka understood the inner torment of being constantly in danger, constantly on guard. She could have requested to be included on the Shadow Chaser, but because the Rock Dragon was her ship, Tenel Ka felt duty-bound to remain with her crew--

"Captain" Jaina, copilot Lowie, and backup navigator Em Teedee.

Still, Tenel Ka would miss her friend during the trip to the rendezvous point with Raynar's family. She had come to rely on Jacen in an odd sort of way. Somehow, his clowning and joking reassured her that all was well with the galaxy... even when all was not well.

Tenel Ka shook her head to clear it. Allowing her thoughts to dwell on such sentimentalism was unlike her.

Jaina and Lowie chose that moment to emerge from the Rock Dragon behind her.

Jaina, serious in her duties as captain of the ship, gave an immediate