Indiana Jones and the Sith Stone
Posted by: Darth Danno 11.21.07 12:01am

Palpatine spent a few days on Tatooine until the necessary funding arrived. He already had the money in place, but needed to take steps to make sure the payment couldn't be traced either from the source, or to the destination.

What a desolate place this is, Palpatine thought as he surveyed the local population, and there was very little to do here. At least, very little to do that wasn't controlled by the Hutts. One could bet on the podraces, or there were many other forms of gambling, one could also wile away the hours in one of their pleasure palaces. You could always slip into an alcohol or nic-i-tain induced coma, or there were numerous other inebriants or intoxicants available that could lead you to the same result. This truly was a world that belonged to those who didn't wish to be found, or poor moisture farmers who couldn't afford to leave, and of course, there were the Jawas and Sandpeople.

Upon receiving the money, he delivered it to Jabba personally. The Hutt said the list should be compiled within a few weeks, and would notify him once it was ready. Palpatine had to return to Coruscant anyway, but said, in his most polite but firm voice, that Jabba did not need to contact him, he would return in exactly two weeks time to take possession of the list. The Hutt had no intention of being bullied, but the senator from Naboo knew the secrecy surrounding all of this was almost causing Jabba to salivate. The gangster sensed there was money to be made here, and lots of it. The way this mysterious benefactor threw money around to simply obtain a list of the galaxy's most competent and qualified bounty hunters, something big was about to go down, and Jabba wanted to be sure he wasn't left out of it. So he reluctantly agreed to the terms.

Two weeks to the date, Palpatine returned, with the second part of the payment. The list was provided to him upon a tiny disk, though he did ask to see a sampling of it before he handed over the money. The transaction completed, he returned to Coruscant where, in his spare time, he poured over the information he received. Eliminating some immediately, others, he mulled and contemplated over. One by one, the list got smaller and smaller, until one name remained. Settling on his choice, he contacted the Hutt a final time to arrange a meeting, and pay the last settlement owed.

Jabba first tried to get the meeting to take place at his palace on Tatooine, but Palpatine politely declined. He then suggested of quite a few ideal locations on Nar Shaddaa, again, Palpatine thought a world that was primarily dominated by the Hutts wouldn't be the most ideal locale. After some going back and forth, they finally settled on the most obvious choice: Coruscant.

So late one night, Palpatine sat alone in a booth of an out of the way club on Coruscant's lower level, waiting for his distinguished guest to arrive. Again, he had disguised himself much as he did when meeting with the Hutt. But also, there were very few who frequented this establishment that had ever seen his face, or even heard mention of his name. True, he was the Senator for the sovereign planet of Naboo, but that world didn't hold much sway in galaxy-wide affairs as opposed to the worlds run by the Trade Federation, the Techno Union, or the Banking Clan. As he sat, sipping his drink, he watched a nearby group of aliens playing cards. Another group sitting across from him laughed heartily, as one of them completed what must have been some ribald joke, or other amusing tale. The air reeked of intoxicants, but at least the bodily odors that were quite present in Jabba's palace were absent here. One had to be thankful for the small things, he knew.

"Good evening," came a voice from behind him.

The Force had alerted him to the person's presence long before they had even said anything, but Palpatine was impressed at the quietness at his approach. Other than the Force alerting him, there was no sound or smell that had given him away. "Good evening," Palpatine replied. "Please have a seat."

The man was relatively young, but even for someone his age; he had amassed quite an impressive resume. He was dressed in traditional Mandalorian garb, sans the helmet. He was covered in silver armor, with undertones of deep blue.

"Jango Fett, I presume?" Palpatine queried.

"That's me, and you are...?

The senator smiled slightly. "You may simply refer to me as...your employer."

"I haven't taken the job yet," Fett said bluntly. "I'm not even sure what the job entails, other than quite a bit of travel."

"Quite," Palpatine replied. "I have a ship available for you that will take..."

Jango interrupted, "As I said before, I haven't taken the job yet, and if I do, I have my own ship, I prefer to use that."

"Quite understandable to be sure, but I know for a fact you are not even remotely aware of exactly how far this journey will take you."

Jango looked at him somewhat quizzically. "Are you saying I'm going to have to go into unexplored space? Are you talking of going beyond the outer rim territories?"

"My good man, this mission will take you to another galaxy, far, far away from here. We calculate you trip will take at least...four standard years, and that's only one way. I believe, in your small craft, you'd lose your sanity within the first year. That's why I have procured an old Republic starship from the time of the Mandalorian wars. Your crew will consist entirely of droid..."

"Hold on a minute, lets back up a few paces, shall we? How do you even know there's anything out there? How do I know somebody didn't hire you to set this all up just to get rid of me, or at least, keep me out of circulation for awhile?"

This one definitely had his wits about him, Palpatine thought. He had certainly made the right choice. "My...master has contacts that span this galaxy, and others. There is a system of nine planets that surround a central sun. Your goal lies on the planet third from the sun, a world the inhabitants refer to as...Earth. I can show you some pictures or video footage of it, if you like."

"What do you take me for?" Jango scoffed, "any half-wit tech rat can doctor some video footage to make a Rancor look like a Womp Rat. I'm still not buying it."

"My master is prepared to make the journey well worth your while."

"A lot of good credits'll do me if I'm dead. I still think this whole thing reeks of a set up."

"What will it take to prove to you our intentions are legitimate?"

Jango sat back as he thought over his answer, rubbing his hands together, up and down in front of his face as he eyed Palpatine, then he leaned forward, and in a hushed voice asked, "why don't you start with telling me exactly what it is I'm going after."

Palpatine nodded, "of course. My master is interested in rare and valuable antiquities. He has received information of an extremely unique piece hidden somewhere within this galaxy."

"Somewhere within this galaxy??? That's quite a large stretch of territory to cover."

"My point exactly. It just so happens that one of my master's emissaries happens to be on this planet Earth and has knowledge of such a person who is extremely apt at finding such small items hidden over vast areas. It is he we are hiring you to retrieve and bring back here."

"Wouldn't it be easier and less costly to find someone around here to do the same thing? I'm sure I could..."

This time it was Palpatine who interrupted. "I am not bringing your skills into question, which I know are of the highest caliber. But whereas your talents cover a variety of areas, this one person excels in this particular field. If there is anyone who can find what we seek, it will be this man."

He could see the bounty hunter's interest was piqued, much in the same way the giant slug's on Tatooine was. But as long as he didn't try to double-cross this bounty hunter, he knew Jango would only do what he was paid for, and not look for a way to swindle the lowly senator from Naboo.

"IF I take this job, it's going to cost you. I don't come cheap. Especially for something that is going to take this much time."

"The best ones never do come cheap. Don't you want to know what it is we're seeking?"

"Not unless I'm expected to help your man find it. I'm being hired to find somebody and bring him back to you, nothing more. Also, you'll have to find someone else to take him back when the job's done. Unless you don't plan on him returning home."

"That person's fate depends solely on how well he accomplishes his mission. As for now, I've got a "wait and see" attitude towards the whole thing."

Jango changed the subject. "What can you tell me about this...Earth?"

Palpatine rubbed his chin in contemplation. "Let's see, it's very primitive compared to our standards. Space travel, lasers, and things like that are relegated to such things called comic books and the weekend cinema, as I believe it's referred to. I've done an extensive study of this world, and have loaded the ship with everything that will be crucial to your success. We've created an incredibly large converter and put it aboard. With that, you will be able to transform their crude fuel into the appropriate mixture that will power your craft for the return journey. We've calculated exactly how much fuel you will use to get there and have made the necessary modifications to make sure you don't run out, and should even arrive with a little to spare."

"Considering the distance I'm going to have to go, that ship better have one very large fuel tank."

"You're not far off. Over a third of the ship is just that, another third is the converter, the rest is for sleeping quarters, a small kitchen, and of course, the cockpit."

"Will this thing have any usable weapons?"

"A few, yes. But you shouldn't run into much need to use them once you get beyond the outer rim worlds. Like I said, the weapons of Earth are very primitive, and we've taken the liberty of installing the ship with a fine cloaking device should the need arise. As far as transfer of the subject, part of the area designated for sleeping quarters houses a stasis chamber that should hold him nicely for the return journey. The droids that will accompany you are quite well trained as to how to hook it up properly so it dispenses nourishment, disposes of bodily waste, and keeps his form in somewhat ready condition so he'll be able to function quite normally after only a small period of recuperation. I'll also supply discs on the entire history of our galaxy that will be piped into the chamber, so subliminally he will have some basis on which to go on once he awakes."

"You sure went to a lot of trouble for just one guy. By the way, what's his name?

"His birth name is Henry, but he prefers to be called...Indiana Jones."

"Indiana Jones, eh? That name sounds like it's got a story within itself. All right, I'll take the job, AFTER we discuss my fee. HALF of which I get up front."

"Of course. Tell me, how quickly do you think you would be able to depart?"

"If we settle on a price quickly, I could be ready to leave tomorrow. I just have to wrap up a few things first."

Palpatine smiled and nodded. "By all means. You know, if you're successful, I could have future plans for you. Plans on a much grander scale than this."

Jango simply smiled. "One job at a time, please. One job at a time."

Yes indeed, Palpatine really liked this bounty hunter.

Darth Danno