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then suddenly reversed his footing and his momentum, stopping Obi-Wan's progress cold. Jango launched a left hook. Obi-Wan
ducked and snapped out a straight right in response. Jango slipped his head to the side so that the blow barely grazed him. A short
rocket burst had him in the air and spinning a circle kick out at Obi-Wan, who dropped to his knees and ducked it, then came up
high in a leap, over the second kick as Jango came around again. Now Obi-Wan snapped off a kick of his own, but Jango accepted
the blow against his lowered hip and snapped his left arm down across the Jedi's shin, locking the leg long enough for him to drive
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a right cross into Obi- Wan's inner thigh.
The Jedi threw his head and torso back, lying flat out and lifting his left leg as he did, kicking Jango under the side of his ribs. A
sudden scissor- twist, right leg going down and across, left leg shooting across the other way above it, had Jango and Obi-Wan
spinning sidelong. Obi-Wan caught himself with extended arms as he turned facedown, broke his feet from their hold on Jango,
and mule-kicked the falling man backward. Then, going down to the platform to launch himself right back up to his feet, he turned
about and rushed forward, gaining an advantage on the off-balance and struggling Jango.
A right cross smashed the bounty hunter across the face, followed by a looping left hook that should have laid the man low. But
again, with brilliant reflexes, Jango ducked the brunt of that blow and caught the surprised Obi-Wan with a sudden and short, but
heavy, left and right in the gut.
The Jedi's right hand waved across between his face and Jango's, and he used a quick Force shove to throw the man back a step
until he could straighten and find a defensive posture once more.
Jango came right back in, fiercely, wildly, kicking and punching with abandon.
Obi-Wan's hands worked vertically before him, hardly moving, amazingly precise, turning blow after blow harmlessly aside. He
turned one hand in and down suddenly, taking the momentum from a heavy kick, then came right back up to lift Jango's jabbing
fist up high. Then he snapped his hand straight out, his stiffened fingers smashing against a seam in the bounty hunter's armor. Jan-
go winced and fell back. Obi-Wan launched himself forward, diving onto the man, going for the victory.
But Jango had an answer, firing his rockets and lifting both himself and the grappling Jedi up into the air. A burst of a side-
thruster sent the pair out past the landing pad proper to the sloping skirt of the structure. Jango's hands worked almost impercepti-
bly, twisting in and about the Jedi's arms and hands, expertly loosening Obi-Wan's grip. Then he fired his thrusters, left and right,
causing a sudden and repeated jerk that broke him free of Obi-Wan's grasp.
Obi-Wan hit the deck hard and slid perilously close to the edge-close enough to hear the great waves breaking against the plat-
form's stilts below him. He caught a hold and reached into the Force, using it to grab his lightsaber, recognizing that he was sud-
denly vulnerable. He heard a shot from the side, not the screech of a blaster bolt, but a pfizzt sound, and rolled as far as he could.
But not far enough. He lost his concentration, along with his grasp on his lightsaber, as a thin wire slid under his wrists, then
wrapped about them, securing him tightly.
And then he was sliding, back up the sloping skirt and across the platform, towed by the rocket-man. With reflexes honed by
years of intensive training, and with the Force-strength of a Jedi Master, Obi-Wan snap-rolled his body forward, back up over his
outstretched arms, tumbling to his feet, then leaping out to the side as the towline again went taut, jerking him along. He rolled
about a pylon and came back to his feet again, now having the leverage of the metal pole helping to hold him there.
Reaching deeply in the Force once more, he grounded himself, becoming, for an instant, almost as one with the platform.
Immovable.
The wire snapped tightly, but Obi-Wan didn't budge.
He felt the angle of the pull change dramatically as the rocket-man plunged to the deck, his pack breaking away.
Obi-Wan started around the pole, but stopped and shielded his eyes as Jango Fett's rocket pack exploded with a burst of light and
a tremendous concussion.
"Dad!" Boba Fett cried as the rocket pack blew apart, his face coining right to the viewscreen. But then he saw Jango, off to the
side and apparently unharmed, though tugging frantically against the pull of the wire-that was now being controlled by the Jedi.
Boba slapped one hand helplessly against the screen, mouthing "Dad" again, and then he winced as the Jedi slammed into his fa-
ther, kicking and butting him, and both of them, locked together, went rolling off the back edge of the landing pad, sliding fast
down the skirt and toward the raging ocean.
Obi-Wan kicked and tried to find his way back to the Force, but Jango punched him repeatedly. He could hardly believe that the
bounty hunter would waste the effort, with certain death awaiting them both at the end of the slide and fall. He managed to pull
back somewhat and saw Jango lift one forearm, a strange smile on his face. The bounty hunter clenched his fist, and a line of claws
popped forth from the armor.
Obi-Wan instinctively recoiled as Jango lifted that arm higher, but then the bounty hunter slammed it down, not on Obi-Wan, but
on the platform skirt. At the same time, Jango worked his other hand, releasing the locking mechanism of the wire-launching brace-
let, and it slid free of his arm. He screeched to a halt, and Obi-Wan slid past him. "Catch a roller fish for me," the Jedi heard Jango
say, and then he was falling, over the lip and down toward the raging whitecaps.
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"Dad! Oh, Dad!" Boba Fett cried in relief as he spotted his father clambering back over the skirt lip and onto the platform.
Jango climbed to his feet and stumbled toward Slave /, and Boba rushed to the hatch, sliding it open and reaching down to help his
father aboard.
"Get us out of here," the dazed and battered Jango said, and Boba grinned and rushed to the control panel, firing up the engines.
"I'll put her right to lightspeed!"
"Just break atmosphere and take her straight out!" Jango ordered, and his words came out with a growl of pain as he held his
bruised side. Then he noticed his son's wounded look. "Get the nav computer on line and have it set the coordinates for the jump,"
he conceded.
Boba's smile beamed brighter than ever. "Liftoff." he shouted.
Obi-Wan used the Force to grab the trailing, loose end of the wire that still held him by the wrists, and he threw that end out,
looping it over a crossbeam in the platform structure. His descent stopped with a sudden jerk.
He glanced around, then began to swing, back and forth, gaining momentum until he was far enough out to pull himself free of
the bond and drop lightly onto a small service platform, barely above the lashing waves. He took only a moment to catch his
breath, and then opened the door of the service turbolift with a wave of his hand. Even before the door opened at the landing plat-
form, he heard the engines of the bounty hunter's ship roar to life. He came over the lip, spotting his lightsaber immediately and
calling it in to him with the Force.
But he was too late. The ship was already shuddering, ready to blast away. Obi-Wan pulled a small transmitter from his belt and
threw it out long and far at Slave I. The magnetic lock of the tracking device grasped on to the ship's hull just in time.
Rain and steam pouring all about him, Obi-Wan Kenobi stood there for a long while until Slave I disappeared from view.
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