A bright red blast from a laser pistol squealed through the air, mere inches from Boba Fett's head. If he couldn't say anything else good about her, Boba Fett could at least say that Maeia Lin-Leena had become a better shot over the course of this hunt. Just days earlier she had posed more danger to passers-by than to him when she fired her small blaster. Now it seemed that each shot came closer and closer to taking his head off. Fortunately his helmet wouldn't allow that, but it was still pretty scary to see a laser blast coming straight for your head. Even for a seasoned bounty hunter like Boba Fett.

Boba Fett retaliated with a dangerously close shot of his own, although he had no intentions of killing the young woman. Killing her would cause him to forfeit the bounty, and he certainly didn't want to do that. No, Maeia was to be brought in alive. Killing her would have been so much easier, but then again that was why Boba Fett had been hired instead of someone else. Only the most skilled bounty hunters knew how to bring the dangerous prey in alive, and he had a reputation for being the best. Maeia, on the other hand, had a reputation of her own. She led a rebel group on one of the outer worlds, Althea III, and had even gone so far as to overthrow the local Moff once. She gave the Empire fits, but she lived on such a remote planet that they left her alone for the most part. They didn't really want to acknowledge her existence, nor did they want the rest of the steadily growing Rebellion to learn about her. They thought she might go away if they simply ignored her. The threat she presented was no more than a minor irrittion, like a small rash behind the ears or an itch between the toes -- something no one else would find out about unless you pointed it out to them. It wasn't the Empire that had a bounty on her. It was an old lover.

Tenzar Lythanyn didn't exactly offer the mushy details to Boba Fett when he presented him the job, nor did Boba Fett ask for them, but he did find out what had hppened between them along the way. He studied his prey and couldn't help but find out. Not that he cared, really. But he knew. He knew all about the crimelord Tenzar's devotion to his one-time love, Maeia. And he knew that Maeia, after she found out about Tenzar's underworld connections, could not bring herself to stay with him. And he knew Maeia had almost brought the entire operation collapsing down round Tenzar. He also knew Tenzar had a hefty sum of credits awaiting his arrival with Maeia. Enough credits, in fact, to do some major modifications to Slave I, his ever reliable ship. But first he had to catch Maeia, and that was proving to be much more difficult than he had first counted on. There seemed to be a lot of local sympathisers for the rebel legend, all of them willing to provide as much assistance to her cause as they possibly could. She wouldn't escape, though. No one ever escaped Boba Fett.

He turned down the last alley Maeia had entered and carefully began to walk down the street, blaster at the ready. No sign of Maeia anywhere. Apparently she had slipped away again. Although he couldn't say he admired her, Boba Fett did respect Maeia Lin-Leena. She had guts, and so far she had proven to be one of the most evasive of all the bounties he had pursued in his long and storied career as a bounty hunter. Her looks didn't hurt the way he perceived her either. He didn't believe in love, but that didn't mean he couldn't appreciate beauty. From a purely aesthetic point of view Maeia was a pleasure to behold. Never before had he chased after a nicer pair of legs. But once he caught them he would be turning them over to another man for cold hard credits. In the bounty hunter's world, he reminded himself, romance had no place. The only love Boba Fett felt was for the job he did. He turned around and headed back for Slave I. The lonely red sun of Irech was setting in the horizon and even he needed rest sometimes. He would catch Maeia eventually, but for now he would settle for some much needed sleep.

Boba Fett awoke to the steady hum of Slave I's engines. He quickly realized that the ship shouldn't be running right now; she should have still been sitting in a dusty old hangar on Irech.

"Don't worry," came a pleasantly soft voice, "I know how to fly this thing. I won't crash it into an asteroid or anything."

Maeia! But how?

"What's going on here?" Boba Fett asked stupidly. He had heard some strange stories before, but he'd never heard of a bounty hunter being kidnapped in his own ship by the person he was going after. It defied all logic.

"I got tired of running around and dodging lasers," said Maeia.
"I thought we might need to have a little talk -- and where better to have one? Nobody has to hear us out here, and neither one of us can escape."

Boba Fett got up and looked down at the shorter woman.

"There's nothing to talk about. I'm taking you to Tenzar Lythanyn."

He turned to go set the ship's course for Althea II, homeworld of Tenzar Lythanyn, but Maeia grabbed his shoulder.

"No, bounty hunter, we have a lot to talk about."

Boba Fett stood there stoicly, his helmet hiding everything his face might give away.

"The Rebellion could use someone like you," Maeia continued. "You're the best at what you do, and the skills you have could be
used for so much good. You almost had me on two or three occasions."

"Where is this ship going?"

"Alderaan. I need to see Princess Leia."

Boba Fett turned around again and walked away from Maeia.

"You can't change course," she cried. "Is there even the slightest hint of a man beneath all that armor?"

Boba Fett stopped. Beneath his armor was a bounty hunter, not a man. But something still tugged at him -- at the man in him. He looked at the blond haired woman from behind the protective shielding of his helmet and drifted back to a time long ago, in a galaxy far, far away. He had been a man once, but fate -- call it the Force if you like -- changed all that. There had been a time when he too lived in a fantasy world where dreams could and did come true. But no more. Life just didn't work that way. And he had the pleasure of finding that out the hard way.
Maeia could see the struggle taking place inside Boba Fett -- she could sense it. She wished she could see his face, to see the humanity there. She had run into her share of bounty hunters during her lifetime and not many of them were human. Humans didn't usually make good bounty hunters because their emotions were always getting in the way of their work. That's what made Boba Fett so amazing. Despite his humanity (if he had any), he was still the best in his business. Maeia, though, hoped she could find the man behind the mask -- and change him. Boba Fett ignored the tiny voice from his past, went to the nav computer, and set a course for Althea II. The voices and faces of
long ago popped up occasionally, but each time he pushed them away they grew dimmer. In time he wouldn't be able to tell the difference between fact and fiction when it came to his past, eventually forgetting them both. The voices had grown louder this time, but maybe that meant they were speaking their last words.


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