Free Heir to the Jedi by Kevin Hearne Page B

“Run, idiot!”
    Hafner’s fingers probed at the bone, and it moved again. “Look at this. The bone inside that runs along the snout actually rotates in a full circle. Must be an extraordinary socket and musculature system at the base of the skull, and that feeding tube must retract far up inside for it to be allowed such free movement.”
    His fingers clutched around the end of the snout. “Down here there is a ring of bone, near the orifice. Yes, it is a ring indeed. I wonder if …”
    He squeezed and pulled down against the skin of the snout—and unveiled a horror. It was a rotary blade of teeth, pointed down and insulated by its angle from cutting the inside of the creature’s snout. But they could cut through a helmet—and then a skull—just fine. The teeth were discolored but otherwise undamaged.
    “This is incredible,” Hafner mumbled. “They use these teeth and a rotary motion to drill through the skulls of their prey, damaging the brain, and then when their victims fall down, they insert their feeding tubes and … well. Feed. What must they be made of, to penetrate through these helmets like they did? Some sort of crystalline coating to the teeth, perhaps, as hard as diamond?”
    The picture was rocked as a weight fell down upon Hafner’s head. “Oh! I have one on me!
Harvester
, come quickly! I’m stunning myself and the beast!” We saw him pick up the blaster onthe ground, heard the stun blast, and then the cam view slipped down and sideways as Hafner hit the forest floor. The picture was replaced by Fayet Kelen.
    “Unfortunately, the
Harvester
did not arrive in time to save Hafner. Before it could arrive, the beasts had all woken, finished their meals, and departed. The
Harvester
crew did not land, but rather extracted the bodies with cables and claws. They stunned the bodies to make sure none of the beasts was hitching a ride into the ship, and then left the system to report back to me.
    “The brains had been completely removed from the victims. The Bith, Priban, had also been poisoned. Those spines contain a toxin. They were otherwise untouched, but their deaths have revealed the most stunning biotech find in a good long while. A poisonous, adaptive creature with a natural drill mechanism capable of penetrating most armors and perhaps fooling weapons scanners? The potential from this single species alone is worth millions of credits, never mind all the other species on Fex.
    “For now we are calling these creatures Fexian skullborers. I sent another crew, the one you are going to find, with upgraded armor and infrared goggles to spy the creatures when they are in camouflage. The armor you have is even better than theirs but cannot accommodate the goggles. Do not leave your ship without the armor on. Stun anything you bring into the ship to make sure no skullborers are hiding on it in camouflage. If you can bring back any skullborers, dead or alive, my bounty will be great. At minimum I need confirmation that the crew is dead or alive and a report on the condition of their ship, the
Harvester
. That ship was fitted with a remote-activated beacon. If it has not been obliterated, it should broadcast a signal in response to the codes I am including in this file. I’m also including other stills and reports for your review. Good luck and safe hunting.”
    The holo winked out and Nakari looked at me. “Hey, Luke.”
    “Yes?”
    “I know that it’s really early and we haven’t even made it intothe system yet, but I’m going to gently suggest that the Alliance does not try to establish a base on that moon.”
    “Yeah, I think that’s a good call.”
    “Now we know what the stun sticks are for. They make perfect sense.”
    “Did the second collection crew have them, I wonder?”
    “Maybe that’s in the rest of the information he included.”
    “Maybe. We should review all that.” I called out, “Artoo, can you give us everything else Nakari’s father included in that