Left Behind

Chapter 4: The Ship

"You didn't bring a ship, did you?", I asked and looked at Erlin. "I'm afraid not", he replied and looked at us. "If we head to the shipyard right now and manage to buy an intact ship today, we might be able to leave this dusty planet before nightfall", I thought outloud as we started walking towards said shipyard. "So to sum this up... Master Tairnair told you to go to Tatooine for a mission but he didn't even tell you what?", I asked him still a tad dumbfounded. The padawan learner just nodded. "And you didn't question him at all?" "In the beginning I didn't. I trusted him." Instead of replying I just let out a quiet humm and we continued walking towards the big shipyard in crippling silence.
Before we could enter the shabby looking shipyard, a group of four hideously dressed figures stepped out from behind the sandstone walls. "Aye, you need'a pay an entry fee to enter this shipyard", said the buffest human male I've ever seen. While he raised a blaster shotgun, Zabru just raised his eyebrow. "Since when did this cost money?", he just asked with a smug smile on his lips. "Ever since we took over these parts. Either pay with money or with that alien slave you got there." Zabru's facial expression immediately dropped from smug to a cold stare. "She is not a slave, you piece of trash." "Aye, whatever. Pay up or leave", declared the human and snarled at us. I took a quick glance at Zabru to determine his plan. He immediately drew his blaster and quickshot three of the four scoundrels. The last one was a shabby looking young man who just ran for his life. "That was pretty impressive. Where did you learn to shoot like that?", Erlin looked at Zabru with a more than surprised expression on his face. "I'm a bounty hunter", was all Zabru replied to the padawan's question. I simply nodded, trying my best to scout out some of the ships as we entered the shipyard. "Used to be bustling here", I exclaimed while looking all around me. There were ten people at most.

"What type of ship are we looking for, Zabru?", asked Erlin and looked at one old Corellian Freighter in awe. "Nothing too old. So not the one you're currently looking at." I giggled at the boy's disappointed facial expression. The ship he was staring at was old, shabby, broken and quite ugly. After looking on the underside of the ship it was apparent, that it didn't even have weapons anymore. After walking through the sheer endless masses of ships, we came across a slightly modified Barloz-Class freighter. "That one doesn't look half-bad", I mumbled towards Zabru, trying to avoid the seller's attention for now. Zabru was looking at a different ship but immediately turned around when I started talking. His dark hair wooshed in the slight breeze as he looked at me and then the ship. "Doesn't seem too bad honestly. A lot better than that shabby Corellian Freighter over there", he said just as a vital component of said Freighter suddenly broke off, nearly hitting the ship's seller, who yelled out for his droids to fix the damage. "Hm, it's not too bad honestly. The weapons look intact and the condition is overall decent", he said as he took looked at the ships underside. "Where is the damn seller though?", he asked annoyed as both of us looked around. Behind a couple of old and rusty crates sat an older human lady with a big flowery sunhat. "The 'damn' seller yer looking fo' is right 'ere", yelled the lady making sure to say 'damn' extra loud. She may have looked rather elegant for a planet like this, but the way she's talking proved that she definitely wasn't a member of high society. Erlin may have looked a bit dumbfounded, but Zabru, who was used to people like this, casually walked over to her and started negotiating the price. Before I could also walk over however, Erlin grabbed my arm and tugged me back. "What's up, kiddo?" "Master Tairnair..." "What about him?" "Did he ever tell you about his other padawan?" "Uh, I think so. I don't remember their name, but weren't they killed by a bounty hunter when Master Tairnair was still pretty young?" "Yeah, their name was Sindy Ko'lai. They apparently accused Master Tairnair of hurting them before the mission that lead to their ultimate disguise." Interesting. I stroked my chin while in thought and wanted to reply but Zabru came over with a big old grin on his sunkissed face. "Ladies, gentlemen, we've got ourselves a ship." The seller lady waved and yelled "It was my husband's! Take good care of it, will ya?" before leaving the shipyard altogether. With a highfive and a quick hug Zabru and I celebrated this victory. "We're finally going to leave this planet!", I yelped in excitement as I hugged the padawan also. He smiled and hugged me back and asked "How long have you been here?" "Too long", I laughed and turned to Zabru. "Time to leave this shithole." "Time to leave, princess."

The cargo bay ramp opened with a loud vroom and revealed a well-kept cargo bay that must've recently been cleaned. We stepped into the rectangle shaped room with four doors leading off of it. "This is the smell of freedom", sniffled Zabru as he looked around carefully and took a deep breath of air. "Nope, lemon ship cleaner", I chuckled and pointed to the half-empty bottle of lemon ship soap that was standing in a corner next to a mop. "Looks like she didn't need those anymore. How was the price by the way?" "Eh, it was alright. Considering the fact that we got this ship in decent condition and with that beautiful mop and half empty bottle, I think it's pretty good. We got about two thousand credits left that we can use for fuel and if we're unlucky some repairs. I just hope this ship is already fueled. I don't want to carry a fuel canister here" "We could just hire a droid to get it here", exclaimed the padawan as he looked around the ship in awe. "Oh Erlin, I wish. Zabru is the kind of guy to say 'Why should I rent a speeder bike and get to my target location in an hour when I could just walk there for the whole day and all that for free?'." Erlin just let out a small 'Oh'.
"Alright, time to get to know this beauty. The first door reveals.... Drumrolls please...", said Zabru with a huge smile on his face as he opened the first door. "Living quarters! Beautiful! With four beds, how spacious. The second door....... A small storage room! Oooo, it comes with... Whatever that is?", he questioned as he pulled up the shabby rag. "That's underwear", I simply said as I watched Zabru throw it into a corner while making gagging noises. "Alright. The next door reveals... The weapons. Can you check those, Roccha?" I nodded as I quickly did a check on the main components of the weaponry system and initialized a system check in the sidepanel. "I'll check back on this later" Zabru nodded and we all walked towards the cockpit. He hesitated for a second before opening the doors to the cockpit. The cockpit was pretty spacious with two pilots seats and two seats the sides for possible guests. The windshield extended all the way under the pilot seats and above them making the view incredible. "Wow, we really got lucky", I mumbled as I quickly started the ship to run a speedy systemcheck. "Time to leave this rocky, sandy shithole", hollered Zabru and cheered.