Hammertong: The Tale of the "Tonnika Sisters"

For other uses, see Hammertong and Sisters.

"Hammertong: The Tale of the "Tonnika Sisters"" is a short story written by Timothy Zahn for the Bantam Spectra short-story anthology Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina, which was published in 1995. It is establishes that the Tonnika sisters seen in A New Hope were in fact Shada D'ukal and Karoly D'ulin in disguise. Laura Esterman read the unabridged audiobook, released exclusively on The Thrawn Trilogy cassette box set.

Plot summary

A group of Mistryl Shadow Guard—an ancient sect of women warriors—has been hired by Kellering to transport "Hammertong," a mysterious top-secret Imperial project. The women go to the research facility to guard the transport as additional security. They are attacked by the Imperials, and Team Prime Manda D'ulin and Pav D'armon are killed.

Shada D'ukal and Karoly D'ulin find Hammertong ready to transport inside a Strike-class medium cruiser. Angered by the deaths of Manda and Pav, they steal the Imperial project and fly to Tatooine. They evade the Imperials and crash-land in the Dune Sea; in order to transport Hammertong off-planet, they need to hire a freighter.

Shada and Karoly disguise themselves as the Tonnika sisters, professional con artists, and go to Chalmun's Spaceport Cantina in Mos Eisley, where they are arrested by an Imperial officer, who believes they truly are the sisters. In jail, a guard named Riij Winward knows they're impersonators and as proof tells them he knew about the crash-landed Strike cruiser, and where the real Tonnika sisters are. He frees them in exchange for leading him to the crash site before the sand conceals the entrance to the already half-buried cruiser. They go to the Dune Sea, and Riij tells them what the Hammertong really is: part of the Death Star II's superlaser. He reveals also he is member of the Rebel Alliance, asks for the weapon, and gives them an offer to join the Alliance. They refuse to give him Hammertong and are ready to return to their home planet, until they learn Riij took their droid with the blueprints of Hammertong inside it. They decide not to go after him, and Shada seriously considers joining the Rebels on her own if Karoly refuses.

Continuity

The story served as an elaborate continuity fix regarding the appearance of the Tonnika sisters. Galaxy Guide 1: A New Hope (1989) first established the name and background of the Tonnika sisters, describing them as indistinguishable identical. However, the performances depicting the characters in Episode IV were distinctly different in appearance. To explain the discrepancy, this story described the sisters seen in the film as imposters. Shada D'ukal, who first appeared in The Last Command (1993) returned in other Zahn-penned stories.^[2]