Chapter 1

Of course, she hadn't gotten the job. Lanna sighed sadly. Nobody wanted to employ a sales woman if the deal included Boba Fett tagging along. She could understand the shop owners -- but still. She wanted a job, which meant that something had to be done about Boba Fett. Something had to be done.

Lanna stopped in mid-stride, turned, and bumped nose first into Fett's breast plate. Automatically, she raised her left hand to hold her injured nose, but only managed to bruise it on his tool belt.

"You!" she snapped at him. "Come with me!"

She stalked back to her speeder, claimed the driver's seat, and waited impatiently for Fett to get seated next to her. As soon as he could no longer fall out, Lana kicked the engines to full speed.

Something had to be done.

Now.

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At her flat Lanna began pacing her living room, wondering what to do next. Fett, who had only taken the time to remove his helmet, followed her around valiantly, trying to dress the wound on her hand at the same time. But unlike her, Boba did not bounce into Lanna when she suddenly stopped.

"There must be a way to undo this spell," Lanna declared. "There simply has to be. And we are going to find it." She glanced at Fett, who still held gauze bandages and scissors in his hands. "Do I have to put a bounty on it, or will you help me anyway?"

The bounty hunter only looked at her without moving a muscle.

"OK," Lanna conceded. "What about this: If you still want to marry me after the spell is broken, I will."

"Does that mean we're engaged?" Fett asked, completely ignoring the what-ifs.

"Don't go running off buying a ring, yet," Lanna told him. "There'll be enough time when we get back. Weddings don't organize themselves, you know."

For a short while Fett stood still, regarding her intently. "I will help you," he said finally.

With a delighted squeal Lanna jumped to hug him, banging her newly bandaged hand against the green armour. "Ouch!" Her joy turned into frantic hopping around and shaking her hand vigorously.

Fett watched her for a second, shaking his head slightly. "I'll call Mr. Lorret."

By the time Lanna had caught herself again and behaved about as close to normal as she ever got, a very old and wrinkled version of the man she remembered had appeared on the screen.

"Yes?" he asked, blinking his eyes repeatedly.

"Mr. Lorret," Lanna greeted him. "I'm glad we caught you at home."

"Huh?" the wizened man said. "Do I know you?"

"You might not remember me," Lanna replied, "but don't tell me you have forgotten about him, too." Behind her, Fett entered the comm's range on cue.

Lorret paled visibly and swallowed hard. "What do you want after all these years? Sue me?" His voice was a mixture of fear and spite.

"Nothing that serious," Lanna assured him. "All we want is the name and address of the person you got the potion from. I think we have some issues with him."

"Um." Lorret hesitated. "And if I refuse to give them to you?" he asked tentatively.

"In that case," Boba answered before Lanna could, "we might have some issues with you."

Mr. Lorret seemed to digest that slowly, probably weighing the value of his life against that of his honour, and came to a predictable conclusion.

"All right, I will give you the information, but you will have to come to me. I cannot disclosed this over an open channel."

"That should be no problem," Lanna replied, feeling jubilant. "Give us your address and a time -- soon, if possible -- and we'll be there."

Mr. Lorret did not look too happy as he sent his data. "I'll see you in two days, then." He bowed out, and broke the connection before either Lanna or Fett could say anything. They looked at each other for a moment, then Lanna shrugged.

"Better get packing, Boba," she said, a grin spreading over her face.

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Two days later, Lanna and Boba met the old lawyer in a small club in the most out-of-the-way retirement area on Moark anyone could think of. Lanna wondered if he was mainly hiding from them, mostly or from others as well. Mr. Lorret was hiding behind a huge flimsy-news when they entered. They only realized he was there when he approached them, glancing around furtively, and dragging them into a small niche, still holding up the flimsy protectively. Lanna came to the conclusion that there were probably more dissatisfied customers of his around.

"I will not ask how you got my number," he said, glancing at Fett. "I had hoped to spend the rest of my day untroubled in this resort, you know."

Lanna cocked her head slightly. "We will not tell anybody," she promised him, at the same time promising herself to ask Fett a few pointed questions later on. "We only want to know where we can find the man who gave you the potion. Then we'll be gone like the wind."

Mr. Lorret did not look convinced. "Very well. He called himself 'Magic Mortimer' and had advertisements out all over Coruscant. His fame spread through hearsay; many of his potions had the most astonishing results. Rumour has it that he even made a queen fall in love with some stupid Jedi once -- but it ended in disaster." He shook his head sadly.

Apparently seeing the peeved look on Lanna's face he hurriedly went on. "But I'm boring you, I'm sorry. Anyway, he was the best, so we got the potion from him."

"And where is he now?" Fett interrupted impatiently.

"Well, at the end he got - strange. He looked pretty ropy the last time I saw him, kept babbling about going home but missing some kind of key." Mr. Lorret shrugged. "It was all rather unclear, for, as far as I know, you don't need a key to get to Alzoc. But he kept raving about it. A portable key, or prod key, pod key -- as I said, it didn't make much sense."

"Portkey," Lanna said suddenly. "He was looking for a portkey on Alzoc. What about his current address?"

"Um," Lorret said. "This is all I have. It's some years old already, but it's really all I ever knew about Magic Mortimer." He gave Lanna a data card. "I swear."

Lanna took the card and gave it to Fett without looking at it. "We believe you," she assured the lawyer, "for now. If any inconsistencies come up, you can prepare for another visit from us." She gave Mr. Lorret a hard stare that was probably emphasised by Boba's impenetrable gaze.

"Good bye, Mr. Lorret, and hopefully farewell, too." Lanna turned and left with Boba in tow.

In the landspeeder she finally turned to Fett. "So how did you get his number?" she asked.

"I have my sources," Fett replied. "And I never let a target out of sight if there is the possibility that I need to contact them again." He didn't even take his eyes off the street. "And how do you know what a portkey is?"

"I have my resources," Lanna replied looking smug. "Let's see what's on the data card. Though I think it is safe to head for Alzoc already."

Fett nodded.

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It turned out that there was not much useful information about Magic Mortimer at all on the data card. There were a lot of advertisements for magical merchandise, dates for fairs at which Magic Mortimer would have a stall, some holo news concerning him, and a suspicious folder containing data one would only gather if one thought about suing or taking over a business. Lanna believed Mr. Lorret capable of both.

"Not much help, is it?" she said leaning back. The most interesting bits for her had been a tangled and complicated log following Mortimer's merchandise back to Alzoc, even though it was registered as an empty planet. Unfortunately, the log stopped there each time. It seemed as if Magic Mortimer had just plucked his potions off the trees on the planet.

"Not even a picture," Fett agreed. He had changed into a grey jumpsuit again as soon as they had taken off. "But the trail clearly goes to Alzoc. So we have a place to start."

On a typed command, the map of Alzoc appeared on the screen of the Slave I. "Following the pattern of landings that were observed, this is the most likely area to find something," the bounty hunter explained.

A big green patch suddenly covered half of a continent. Lanna leaned forward again to scrutinize it.

"It's a pretty big area, isn't it?" she asked with her eyes intent on the map.

"Compared to a precise spot to look for something, yes," Fett agreed. "Compared to the whole planet, no, it's not."

Lanna sighed and turned to look at Boba. "So it's just my good luck that I have a seasoned bounty hunter at my side whose experiences of the last few years will be so extremely helpful." The she spun her chair back to face the screen and placed her face in her hands. "Oh, bugger," she murmured.

Taking full advantage of the situation, Boba put his arm around Lanna's shoulders and squeezed her gently. "The sensors of the Slave I are top of the line," he soothed her softly. "If there is anything out of the ordinary, be it only a lump of molecules, we will find it."

Lanna relaxed in his arm and leaned against him. "Oh, bugger," she mumbled again.

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Alzoc was not much more than a lump with an atmosphere circling a small sun out in the nowhere of the Outer Rim. Research in the files aboard the Slave I had brought up nothing except that once Gamorreans had tried to colonize it. How successful they had been was not documented, though.

Hopefully not too successful, Lanna hoped. Having to ward off bunches of Gamorreans while they were looking for something that could be as small as a button was not exactly her idea of fun. They had set down the Slave I a good bit away from the object in question, fearing that the repulsors might blow it away if they landed too close. Fett had taken his time to secure the vessel for an unspecified time, then taken unspecified time himself for getting into his Mandalorian armour. Lanna assembled her survival pack for unforeseen situations and awaited Boba anxiously at the hatch.

"Let's get this straight," Fett's filtered voice asked as he closed the hatch again and powered up the security systems. "A portkey is an object that will teleport you to a different place when you touch it."

Lanna nodded. "That's how it is supposed to work. I know it sounds silly but --"

"Not more than a love potion that actually works," Fett interrupted her. He started to walk down the meadow into the direction of the setting sun. Lanna followed, trusting that he had the position of the object somewhere in his systems.

After a while she caught up with his brisk strides. She couldn't see any signs of approaching Gamorreans, though it irritated her that she couldn't turn up the audio-enhancers because Fett wore them. The same with the infrared vision and environment stats. It's amazing how fast one can get used to those gadgets, she mused as she followed Fett.

After a short walk they reached a small copse of trees. Since Fett simply approached the wood, Lanna assumed that no Gamorreans hid in it. Being dependent on Boba did make her a bit nervous. But the bounty hunter in question didn't seem to notice. He went to a tree that to Lanna looked exactly like all others, and stopped there. Then he bent down to lift something that seemed to be a small and very rusted tin.

"Don't!" Lanna shouted, and grabbed his shoulder.

"Why not?" Fett asked, standing up again and facing her. "If this really is a portkey…."

"If this really is the portkey --" Lanna interrupted him, taking his hand, interlocking their fingers tightly, and giving him a squeeze -- "if this really is a portkey, you can try it now."