So here's where we stand. Jabba's long dead, The Empire fell, The New Rupblic rose, and then those kriffing Yuuzhan Vong invaded and laid waste to my homeworld, Rodia, amongst countless others. I've been bouncing around the galaxy without home or family for the last couple of decades, hiring out my slicing skills to those who can pay, when an intriguing opportunity arose: the Republic had impounded a familiar Firespray-class patrol craft above Tatooine and taken it to one of their regional impound yards. And they called upon yours truly to open it. Naturally, an elite slicer such as myself had little difficulty opening the ship. The New Republic customs agents who triggered some of the traps when they went in, however, weren't so lucky. Piece of advice #1: Never go in first.
So, the (surviving) government types went about cataloguing the contents of the ship and found an electronic strongbox they wanted me to open. Knowing the owner of the ship (not personally, but he also used to work for Jabba, and word gets around), I set up my scanning and slicing equipment and stood well back. Piece of advice #2: With bounty hunters in general, and Boba especially, expect EVERYTHING to be booby-trapped. Since nothing exploded, electrified, shot out metal spikes, sprayed acid, seeped venom or released a burst of toxic gas, I went in for a closer look and spent some time examining it minutely. On the bottom of the strongbox, a little plastic tab was sticking out of a slot near the power cell compartment. From a safe distance, I instructed a bomb-disposal droid to remove it. Nothing happened. Clipped into a declivity on the bottom of the case was a clear plastic data card. I instructed the bomb-disposal droid to remove it from its hiding place. Again, instant death failed to occur. I found two buttons cleverly worked into the design of the box: looking at it with the skull design right-side-up, you are meant press the two somewhat tear-drop-shaped buttons closest to you on either side simultaneously. This will cause a small shield to slide down and uncover some lights and a card-slot. A short press will cause a small burst of sound and a brief flash of lights, holding down the buttons leads to more sounds and slightly more lighting. I have been unable to determine the significance of the two different patterns. Inserting the data card into the slot below the lights releases a catch, and the main vault door slowly opens, accompanied by more blinking lights and an ominous sound similar to a seismic charge going off. I can only think these sounds are meant as an alarm, because they are fairly loud. Interestingly, the catch can be released with any number of small plastic cards, like credit chits or bank cards. Excellent foresight if you have a tendency to lose your cards, not so great in the security department.
Inside, there were some interesting finds. For starters, there's a two-sided Wanted poster, Basic text on one side, Aurebesh on the other, announcing the bounty for Han Solo and Chewbacca. There are also hardcopies of Boba's BoSS (Imperial Bureau of Ships and Services) captain's licence, ship registration, and weapons permits. There is also a small projectile clipped into place that the Humans couldn't identify at first, but looks like some kind of multi-pronged poison dart made of lightweight metal or alloy. I opted not to touch it. Just in case.
Finally, there are three books bound into two volumes. The shortest one is a copy of "Making A Killing - My Memoirs" by Cradossk, a former head of the Bounty Hunter's Guild. It's short, rather violent (but funny in places; you have to be from a reptiloid hunter species to truly appreciate the jokes), and besides a personal memoir, this slim volume gives some sound advice on becoming (and remaining) a bounty hunter. The inscription at the front "For my son, Bossk" has been crossed out, and under that is written "For Boba Fett. I WISH you were my son. - Cradossk". Tells you a lot about the Trandoshans, doesn't it? Boba has made a few annotations in the margins in the later portion of the book. Very telling, and probably of interest to historians.
The second volume, rebound as "The Bounty Hunter Code," are the Updated Imperial Edition of "The Bounty Hunters Guild Handbook" and "Death Watch - Ba'jurne Kyr'stad Mando'ad." The latter, a depressingly Storm-and-Drive treatise by Tor Vizsla reads at first like a rallying cry against oppression and return to glory for the Mandalorians, but careful analysis (it was one little section of one sentence calling non-Humans "beast species" that set off my danger instincts) shows this to be yet another bit of horrible, thuggish-yet-eloquent purist propaganda, something the galaxy could do without. Having said that, it does contain lots of useful information on Mandalorian weapons, tactics, and history, once the sickening bias is accounted for. Fortunately, this purloined volume has been passed down from Jango Fett to some pirate guy called Hondo Ohnaka, to Aurra Sing, before being passed onto Boba, and each of them has added insights, advice and commentary to balance things out a bit. Considering how muddled the history of Mandalore has become in the last few decades, pretty much any and every insight is helpful.
The first book in the tome, however, is what really caught my attention, simply because of who owned it. This copy of "The Bounty Hunters Guild Handbook" has similarly been passed down from hunter to hunter. Originally owned by Bossk, it wound up (briefly) in the hands of my late cousin, Greedo, the poor little guy. Then, somehow, Dengar got hold of it (I never trusted that slob) before passing it on to Boba Fett. Each of these hunters has similarly scrawled various thoughts and comments in the margins. (I swear, we live in a galaxy full of dedicated book-defacers!) Bossk's comments were written when he was young, obnoxious, and arrogant. Now, he's middle-aged, obnoxious, and arrogant. Greedo's notes show that while incredibly eager, he was woefully ill-prepared for a life as a bounty hunter, poor guy. Dengar's cynical and abrasive tone is obvious in his graffiti, while Boba's comments are much more calculating, and hint that he intends to pass this treasure trove of knowledge onto his daughter. Somehow, Han Solo managed to sneak a few snide comments in, usually directed at cousin Greedo. Something to square with him later, I think . . . .
Anyway, the contents of the Guild Handbook are very helpful and provide a good insight into who bounty hunters are and what they do. In short: turns out there's a lot more filework than you would think. Joining up, rules and regulations, differing grades and classifications of bounty, permits, multitasking whilst on a hunt, resources from Guild contacts to street informants to specialist information brokers, the history of the Guild, a step-by-step walkthrough on how you get and conduct a hunt, combat tips (including how to hotwire a speeder in a hurry), survival tips, advice on selecting and maintaining the right weapons and gear for the job, information on Why You Should Join The Guild, different types of employment opportunities, and affiliated hunters' guilds with their own unique membership criteria: these subjects are all covered in great (some might say tedious, others might say helpful) detail.
Well, once all this had been catalogued, the New Republic agents wrote up a report, stuck it into the lid, and set it aside for impound. Then they walked away to poke around the other nooks and crannies of Slave I. So I nicked it. I'm going to read through these books thoroughly, then pass the strongbox and all its contents back to Fett, along with letting him know where he can pick up his ship. Piece of advice #3: If you've done something that would make Boba Fett angry with you, like breaking into his ship and personal strongbox, make it up to him in some way so he won't kill you when he eventually finds out. And he WILL find out.
As for me, with Rodia devastated and all my family gone, I need someplace to settle down. Mandalore seems worth a look . . . .
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Customer reviews
Awesome quality - feels like it has been taken right out of the films, texture on the pages and cover is perfect. Guarenteed you will feel like a Star Wars bounty hunter when reading this book - I highly recommend the entire series of Star Wars books by Daniel Wallace.
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