For all intents and purposes, the Tatoo System had three suns. Everyone agreed on the first two – Tatoo I and Tatoo II, a pair of G-type main sequence stars. They danced around a common barycenter, sometimes one appearing larger than the other, sometimes both appearing roughly the same size. The third sun was much more contentious. Early explorers were easily the most certain of the third star’s existence. It orbited closest to the binary pair, and shone with a brilliant intensity that in some ways exceeded either of the other stars.
Of course, when they got closer to the third star, they discovered it was actually a planet. Tatooine didn’t shine with a light of its own, it merely reflected its parents light. Though, it did so with such enthusiasm that it was common knowledge among the planet’s inhabitants that if you wanted to burn out your eyes, the fastest way to do so wasn’t to stare up at the twin suns, but down at the desert flatland. Even looking at it from the cockpit of his starship was enough to make Zeek’s eyes water. He was happy he didn’t have to go down there.
Why anyone wanted to go down there was beyond the Selonian, frankly. Aside from being the center of the roughly hourglass shaped Arkanis Sector and the intersection of the Triellus Trade Route – which Zeek had traveled down since leaving Hutt Space – and the Old Corellian Run, the planet only really had one thing going for it. It was the center of the late Jabba Desilijic Tiure’s criminal empire. Jabba was dead now, and the power vacuum was already threatening to tear the sector apart. Back on Nal Hutta, partisans of Jabba’s father – Zorba Desilijic Tiure – and nephew – Gorga Desilijic Aarrpo – were already at each others throats. His son, the Huttlet Rotta, had vanished sometime during the chaos of the Separatist War that preceded the formation of the Galactic Empire, and Zorba was waving around documentation claiming the child never existed in the first place.
Being physically closest to Jabba at the time of the Hutt’s death, the Twi’lek Bib Fortuna, former smuggler turned majordomo, was the first to make it to Jabba’s palace. Thus, he was the first to lay his claim to his former employer’s empire, much to the ire of the dead Hutt’s relatives. On top of that, many of the Twi’lek’s former coworkers found him to be a much more reasonable target than his old boss was, the hits put out on Fortuna were numerous. No doubt the space around Tatooine would soon be swarming with bounty hunters of all stripes eager to cash in.
And that was why Zeek was here. Though through his association with House Benelex, the Selonian mostly concerned himself with rescuing kidnapping victims, but a job of this magnitude, with this many interested parties, was going to need someone attempting to organize things from the sky. Otherwise, infighting might well let the target escape. And, naturally, he’d take a cut for his services when payment was rendered to the successful hunter or hunters who brought Fortuna down. It was good money, and the Selonian could at least pretend that it was good work. The Twi’lek was a criminal, after all.
He gently brought the ship into a stable orbit around Tatooine, and flicked on the autopilot to let the onboard computer take over. Then he allowed himself to relax a little, standing up from his chair in the cockpit. He turned his back to Tatooine, and padded down the ship’s central corridor to the communications room. Once there, it only took some light fiddling to set things up that he could hear anyone broadcasting to his ship from anywhere onboard. Before he was able to leave, however, shipboard sensors alerted him to the appearance of another ship.
Specifically, the hyperwave signal interceptor recorded the telltale signs of a ship dropping out of hyperspace. That brought the rest of the sensors to life, and the Sincerity’s previous owner had really gone all out on the upgrades on that front. Dynamic-class ships like Zeek’s might be old, but they were prized, then and now, for their ease of modification. The Selonian padded out to the ship’s main hold, which was dominated by a large central console, presently displaying the results of the computer’s automated investigation.
The displayed hologram, slowly rotating clockwise around the room, was a bit light on details due to the distance out the other ship was, but steadily improving on that front as the ship approached the planet. It was long, a bit longer than Sincerity, but much narrower. The cockpit narrowed to a fine point, with four wings well in the back, near the engines. Zeek recognized it as a Corellian vessel, of the Hawk series; he’d seen them before – Corellia and Selonia were two of the Five Brothers after all. Hawks were light freighters, marketed towards upscale clients; but so were Dynamics. Who knew what modifications had been done to the approaching ship.
The life form indicator pinged a single heat signature that it figured was some living creature, minimum crew and no passengers. No broadcasts from the ship as of yet, it would likely notice Sincerity before long, if it hadn’t already. Zeek took a deep breath. He didn’t realize he’d been holding it, and shuttered. Known unknowns stressed the Selonian: who was on that ship, what were they doing, why were they here? Were they another bounty hunter? Interactions with his colleagues could be fraught.
The Selonian doubled back to communications, and snatched up the clothes he’d left draped over the chair. Video communication always went better if he was dressed, and he wanted to be ready should it come to that. Once he was as presentable as he could possibly be, he dropped into the chair, and pulled himself close to the monitor. Without realizing it, he was counting the seconds. He hesitated a moment longer, then opened a comms line to the approaching vessel.
“Unidentified ship, this is the Sincerity broadcasting from Tatooine orbit,” he said, in accented Basic. If this ship was a civilian trader, he wanted to warn them. If they were another bounty hunter, if he set up a good rapport they might be more willing to work with him. “This planet is suffering from societal instability following the death of Jabba Desilijic Tiure, and may soon be home to large scale operations from an unknown number of Bounty Hunters’ Guild associated crafts. Take caution as you approach.”
