Lacuna~A Star Wars Sequel

Singur

I make it to the Tosche Station and park my speeder in an alleyway. I know that it won't get stolen for two reasons: one, no one looks in this alley, and two, my speeder looks so worn down no one would want it.

I walk into the sweaty shop and go straight into the back. There, my friends Delroy Omidana and Camoela Labanoyr sit on the workbenches. They're a couple, but they won't admit it.

Camoela is more of a secretive girl, but she opens up every once and a while. I found out that she's actually related to Master Khione Bucheha, who used to visit me while I was injured and in the medical wing in the Temple.

Delroy is a very energetic soul. Though he claims that he and Camoela are from the same place, they both are completely different. By same place, I mean that they are from a disassembled group called the Itolem Society.

I don't know much about the Itolem culture, but from the way the two of them act when the other brings it up, it seems like a touchy topic. Which leads me to think that the Itolems were not very good people.

"Mornin' Dusty," Camoela's tired voice says. There are bags under her eyes as well. Dusty is her nickname for me, as she doesn't know my actual name.

"Good Morrow, prietene," Delroy greets, his accent sticking out on the Itolem word. I give a small smile at the word though; meaning friend. The both of them have been giving me small doses of lessons on the language, but it's mostly been Delroy. Something about it seems to shake Camoela badly.

"Morning you two. I'll be in the back if you need me," I say and head out the back door to my workspace.

It's a large room with one of the walls missing for speeders to enter. It looks very similar to the Od'e speeder shop, but larger.

I pull my goggles down onto my eyes and slide under a speeder that was left at the shop overnight.

As I work, my mind races with thoughts I wish I didn't have.

"Please don't take my sunshine away."

"You have to let go."

I take a deep breath. Papa is right. I do need to let go. It's just, everything reminds me of my time there. Everything.

A knock on the walls makes me roll out from under the speeder. A boy with sandy blonde hair and white robes walks in. I blink rapidly as I see him for a split second.

"Oh, you're back," I greet him. I stand up and walk over to the older boy. He smiles at me.

Though he's never told me his name, he shows up almost every day at the shop and waits by my workspace for his friends to show up, one of them being my friend Biggs.

"Nice to see you too," he chuckles. He seems to like to tease me a lot, especially about all of the grease I get on my face. I bet if he saw me without the grease, he wouldn't recognize me at all.

"What can I do for you today?" I ask him and walk back to the speeder.

"Have any good stories? I've got a little while before Biggs shows up," he says.

"Maybe, but what makes you think I'll tell them to you when I don't even know your name?" I raise an eyebrow and lay back down, rolling back under the speeder and continuing to fix its broken engine.

"You still haven't told me yours either," he says.

"Life's a bit more fun when things are a mystery anyway," I say, trying to change the topic. I haven't told him my name because I don't want him to think he's getting close to me. I don't want anyone to get close to me anymore. I feel like I might lose them. I've even stopped telling Papa everything.

"Okay then, but can you still tell me a story?" he begs. I let out a huff of air; playfully of course.

"Alright, fine."

"Yes!" he says. I poke my head up just in time to see him punch his fist up into the air. I breathe a laugh.

The engine is finished so I roll out from underneath the speeder and grab a rag, wiping my face.

"Alright, a story," I mumble. All of the stories I know are the ones my Papa told me of the Jedi. They just hurt to think about. "I don't think I know any."

"What? You've got to have one good story in that head of yours! You work in a speeder shop, you've got to have at least one crazy story from this place!" he complains.

"Well," I start. "There was a time where a Tooka trashed the alley and walkway."

"What?" the boy raises his eyebrow. "I thought Tookas were only on Lothal and Coruscant!"

"That's what I thought until one jumped on poor Warsor," I chuckle. Warsor is my boss. He doesn't own the Tosche Station, but he sure acts like it.

"Well go on! Tell me!" the blonde says excitedly.

"Okay, okay! Jeez you're pushy," I tease him. He nudges me. "Well it happened twice. The first was at night. It was close to closing time and Warsor had asked me to lock up the shop when I finished with the speeder I was working on. All of a sudden, I hear a crash coming from outside, and shortly afterwards, a scream. So, like any normal person, I walked outside to investigate, only to find Warsor with a Tooka attacking his face!"

"That's crazy!" the boy exclaims.

"Dang straight, Blondie," I chuckle. "Anyway, I got the Tooka to get off of Warsor's face and retreat into the alleyway, but it only returned the next day. I was opening the shop up because Warsor was resting, and complaining about his face hurting, when the Tooka came up behind me, but it didn't do anything. It just sat there."

"Oh wow, and those things are violent. How come it didn't attack you?" he asks.

"I'm not sure," I lie. The actual story was that I made a connection to the Tooka through the Force. But my days of using the Force are long over. "It just sat there and stared at me. No hissing or anything."

"That's wicked."

"Yeah. I gave him a name though," I shrug. "Ignolo."

"Nice name," the blonde chuckles. "When was this by the way?"

"Half a season ago I believe. About a month after I turned seventeen," I say with uncertainty.

"So about four months ago?" Blondie and Biggs had been with me in the shop on my birthday and the news just kind of slipped out. I hate my birthday now, and I guess it put me in a bad mood, so Biggs and Blondie ended up talking with me and it just slipped out.

"Yeah, sounds about right."

"Knock, knock you two," Biggs' voice calls, making us look over to him. He strolls over to us, his white cape swaying behind him.

Biggs is the oldest out of the three of us, with him being twenty-two, Blondie being eighteen, and myself being seventeen.

"Hey Biggs," I greet him.

"Hey, it's the mystery girl. You two still not telling each other your names?" Biggs says. A small smirk makes its way onto my face but I make sure to hide it. "I swear, if you two don't tell each other, I will. Why don't you anyway?"

"She won't tell me hers so I won't tell her mine," Blondie teases. I roll my eyes.

"Yeah well, when she tells you make sure you tell me. I'd like to know it as well," Biggs says.

"Will do man. Hey, we're taking off?" Blondie asks. Biggs nods and turns his head to me.

"You could come with?" he offers.

"You know I've gotta work," I motion to the speeders behind me.

"Okay then, but you know you're always welcome to tag along," the mustached twenty-two year old says.

"Thanks Biggs." I give him a small, closed mouth smile.

"Bye Dusty!" Blondie calls. Their profiles disappear from the old store, the sounds of two speeders appearing and then fading.

"Yeah, see you," I mumble.

Alone again.