"For now."

"Which one?"

"You'll see."

"Why?"

"Why are you asking so many questions?" That was Boba's signal to shut up. His father had his reasons for everything, but he usually kept them to himself.

"You don't want to know," Jango Fett said as he hit the b.u.t.ton marked HYPERs.p.a.cE.

If s.p.a.ce was awesome, hypers.p.a.ce was double awesome.

Double awesome strange.

As soon as Slave I shifted into lightspeed and slipped into hypers.p.a.ce, Boba's head started to spin. The stars were flying past like raindrops. It was like a dream, with far and near twisted together, time and s.p.a.ce mixed like oil and water, in swirls.

Boba dozed off, because even strange becomes tiring when everything is strange....

Boba dreamed he was meeting the mother he had never had. He was at a big reception in a palace, and he was alone. It was like a story in a book. There was someone coming toward him, making her way through the crowd. She was beautiful, in a white dress. She was walking toward Boba, faster and faster, and her smile was as bright as...

"Boba?"

"Yes!?"

"Wake up, son."

Boba opened his eyes and saw his father at the controls of Slave I.

They were out of hypers.p.a.ce, back in "normal," three-dimensional s.p.a.ce.

They were floating. Directly ahead of them was a huge red planet with orange rings.

It was beautiful, but not as beautiful as the vision Boba had seen in his dream, coming toward him across the ballroom floor. Not as beautiful as... Boba felt himself slipping back into his dream.

"Geonosis," said Jango Fett.

"What?" Boba sat up.

"Name of the planet. Geonosis."

As Slave I approached Geonosis, it headed toward the rings. Only from a distance were they smooth and beautiful. Up close, Boba could see that the rings were made out of asteroids and meteors, lumps of rock and ice - s.p.a.ce rubble.

Up close they were dangerous and ugly.

Jango's hands were dancing over the star-ship's controls, switching them from autopilot to manual. Flying under the rings would be tricky. As he expertly eased the ship into approach orbit, he said, "Next time, when we get to a planet that's easier to land on, I'll let you fly the approach on your own, son."

"Really, Dad? Does that mean I'm old enough?" Jango patted his son on the shoulder. "Just about, Boba. Just about."

Boba leaned back, smiling. Life was better than dreams. Who needed a mom when you had a dad like Jango Fett?

Suddenly Boba caught a glimpse of something on the rear vid screen.

A blip. "Dad, I think we're being tracked!"

Jango's smile disappeared. The blip was matching their every turn.

A ship on their tail.

"Look at the sensor screen," Boba said excitedly. "Isn't that a cloaking shadow?"

Jango switched the sensor screen to higher res. It showed a tracker attached to the hull of Slave I.

Boba couldn't believe it. Hadn't he watched the Jedi slide into the stormy sea of Kamino? How could the Jedi have survived to follow them?

"He must have put a tracking device on our hull during the fight,"

said Jango, with the steel of determination in his voice. "We'll fix that!"

Boba was just about to ask how, when his dad pushed him back into his seat.

"Hang on, son. We'll move into the asteroid field. He won't be able to follow us there. If he does, we'll leave him a couple of surprises."

CHAPTER EIGHT.

Into the asteroid field! Boba felt a cold touch of fear as his father pulled back on the controls and Slave I slid upward, into the ring itself.

Jagged rocks zipped past, on either side. It was like flying through a forest of stone.

Boba couldn't look. And he couldn't not look, either. He knew that if they hit one, they were dead. Obliterated.

Erased.

They wouldn't even leave a ripple on the galaxy.

Then Boba told himself: Stop worrying... Look who's at the controls!

Boba kept his eyes on his father. The asteroids were still zipping past Slave I but they didn't seem quite as scary.

Jango Fett was at the controls.

Boba relaxed and checked the rear view-screen. "He's gone," he told his father.

"He must have gone on toward the surface," Jango replied.

Suddenly the image on the viewscreen wavered with a rogue signal.

In the static Boba saw a familiar outline.

The Delta-7.

"Look, Dad, he's back!"

Jango calmly hit a b.u.t.ton on the weaponry console marked SONIC CHARGE: RELEASE.

Boba looked back and saw a canister drifting toward the Jedi starfighter.

He grinned. So long! The Jedi was doomed....

And so was Boba. Because when he turned back around in his seat and looked forward, he saw nothing but stone. Slave I was heading straight for a huge, jagged asteroid!

"Dad! Watch out!"

Jango's voice was quiet and cold as he pulled Slave I into a steep climb, barely missing the killer rock. "Stay calm, son. We'll be fine.

That Jedi won't be able to follow us through this."

That was the plan, anyway. But the Jedi had other ideas. As his father deftly guided Slave I through the asteroid field, Boba kept his eyes on the rear screen.

"There he is!" he cried.

The Jedi starfighter was still there, right on their tail. It was as if it were tied to Slave I. Jango shook his head grimly. "He doesn't seem to be able to take a hint. Well, if we can't lose him, we'll have to finish him."

Hitting a b.u.t.ton, he turned the starship and headed straight toward another asteroid, even bigger than the last one.

Only this time, he didn't pull up. Instead, he flew straight toward the jagged surface.

Boba couldn't believe it. Was his own father trying to kill them both? "Watch out!" he cried.

He closed his eyes, waiting for the explosion. So this is what it's like to die, he thought. He felt amazingly calm. He wondered how badly it would hurt when they hit. Or would it just be like a flash of light? Or..

Or nothing.

With Jango Fett at the controls, Slave I never slowed, never hesitated.

It looked like certain death.

The ship dove straight down into a narrow canyon on the asteroid's surface.

At the bottom was a cave, with an opening just big enough for a small starship turned on its side.

Just barely big enough...

Something was wrong.

Nothing had happened. Boba was still alive. He opened his eyes.

He saw rock everywhere. His dad had flown full speed into a hole in the asteroid, and now Slave I was speeding through a narrow, winding tunnel.

But going slower and slower.

At least we're still alive, thought Boba. But if the Jedi is chasing us, why are we slowing down?

He soon found out. The tunnel went all the way through the asteroid. When Slave I emerged from the stone pa.s.sage, it was right behind the Jedi starfighter.

The hunted had become the hunter. Slave I was on the Jedi's tail.

It was the coolest maneuver Boba had ever imagined. He could hardly control his excitement. "Get him, Dad! Get him! Fire!"

Boba didn't have to tell his father. Jango Fett was already blasting away. On every side of the Jedi starfighter deadly lasers were st.i.tching streaks of light through the blackness of s.p.a.ce.

"You got him!" Boba cried, when he saw the Jedi starfighter rocked by an explosion.

A near-miss, but not a kill.

Not yet.

"We'll just have to finish him!" said Jango. He reached up to the weaponry console and, with two quick flicks of his wrist, hit two switches: TORPEDO: ARM and then TORPEDO: RELEASE.

It was Slave I's turn to rock as the torpedo kicked out of the hull and locked onto the Jedi starfighter.

Boba watched, fascinated. The Jedi was good, he had to admit. He zigged, he zagged, he tried every kind of evasive maneuver.

But the torpedo was locked on, and closing. Then the Jedi starfighter flew straight into the path of a huge, tumbling asteroid And it was all over.

There was no way to avoid the collision. Caught between the torpedo's blast and the unforgiving stone, the Jedi starfighter disappeared. Only a trail of debris remained.

"Got him..." Boba breathed. "Yeaaaah!"

Jango's reaction was more subdued. "We won't see him again," he said quietly as he guided the ship out of the asteroids and put it into a descent pattern, down toward the giant red planet.

CHAPTER NINE.

Boba had thought Geonosis might be different from Kamino with schools, other kids, and lots to do.

It was different, all right, but that was all.