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Zekk's astonishment gave way to scorn. He looked at the black slit in the helmet of the bounty hunter.

"So you're a turncoat? Just like that, you're on our side?" Lowie also grumbled his disbelief.

Raynar exclaimed, "I thought you were working for Nolaa Tarkona. She had you out looking for my father."

Fett turned to him. "Nolaa Tarkona wanted the location of this depot. I gave it to her. My work for her is finished, paid in full."

Zekk stared in astonishment, remembering how Boba Fett had told him that all obligations to an employer ended once the bounty had been delivered.

"So what made you choose our side? A twinge of moral responsibility?" He raised his eyebrows.

Fett's impenetrable helmet gave the slightest shake.

"A bounty hunter does not take sides."

"Then why are you here?" Raynar asked. A flush colored his cheeks.

"Tyko Thul hired me. He offered a large reward if I could bring you and your father safely away from this asteroid."

Raynar hung his head. Zekk could barely speak himself. "Too late, Boba Fett. Bornan Thul is dead from the plague."

Fett seemed unaffected.

"Then I will complete the rest of my assignment, and see that Raynar gets out safely. I will cover your retreat. I trust you can make it to your ship without assistance?"

Zekk regarded the masked man with distrust.

"It doesn't trouble you that your very next bounty is to assist the enemy of your former employer?"

Boba Fett straightened, as if the answer to the question should be obvious. "I don't judge right or wrong. I just do my job."

Zekk squared his shoulders and suddenly knew he was stronger than Boba Fett. His mind was clearer. His heart was cleaner.

"Then I guess I don't want to be a bounty hunter after all," he said, and tossed his long black hair over his shoulders. "I don't let a paycheck decide between right and wrong for me."

Leaving Boba Fett behind, he walked with Lowie and Raynar down the last remaining tunnel to the Lightning Rod and their escape from the asteroid.

RAABA'S STOMACH LURCHED as she threw the Rising Star's engines into full reverse and pulled away from where she had been docked against the asteroid. Yes, it looked as if they might escape after all. But something was terribly wrong with her leader. Nolaa Tarkona coughed again, and her pale face streamed with oily perspiration. Her single head-tail writhed and contorted in convulsions of pain. Watching the Twi'lek woman, Raaba hovered just above the rocky surface. Nolaa's breathing was labored, but her eyes burned with unquenchable fervor.

"Hurry," she said, "we must get back to the armada. Our time of triumph is at hand. Don't hesitate now."

But Raaba could not deny the evidence before her eyes: Nolaa had been exposed to the Emperor's plagues. One of the diseases had killed the human Bornan Thul, and another had killed Rullak-and now it was apparent that one was also working its poison on Nolaa Tarkona herself. Raaba shook her head to clear it and growled a question: how many plagues had been let loose in the Emperor's biological weapons chamber? The Twi'lek woman looked surprised.

"Three, four, perhaps a dozen. What does it matter? Many of the canisters were destroyed." Nolaa reached inside her cloak and pulled out a fistful of vials labeled HUMAN, FAST-ACTING. "Don't you see?" she said. "We have what we came for. The means to destroy our enemies for all time!"

Raaba felt her chocolate-colored fur stand on end. She sucked in a deep breath, but coughed instead. Only then did Raaba understand what she had done. Yes, she had rescued her leader from the plague chamber-but at what cost? The Twi'lek leader was sick, perhaps dying from one of the plagues she had encountered. Certainly, she'd been exposed to both the human and the Quarren specific organisms. Even if Nolaa's intention was to kill every human in the galaxy, how could she not recognize that she also endangered every Quarren and every Twi'lek, at the breathe. By going into the plague chamber