A Reluctant Sith

Chap 10

The ship set down. The engines wound down. Ahrie opened her eyes. The others on the ship were all standing. Pulling all of their things together and heading toward the door.

The door on the other side of the cabin opened and sunlight flooded in. She could see small pieces of blue sky between the people exiting. She waited until the cabin was empty, stood, slid her backpack on, and headed for the door.

And down the ramp.

Ahrie would call it a city. When the Empire destroyed the planet's capital city on the other side of the globe, this town became its one space port. Everything coming on and going off the planet cycled through here. Except for pirates and smugglers.

Dozens of ships were parked in neat rows. The town on one side and an open grassy plain with woods in the distance on the other. A single undeveloped dirt road left the town from between the rows of parked starships. A promenade of worshipped, flying, technological idols to unknown gods. It split into five separate roads about a click away. The one in the middle led straight through the forest. That was her path.

Ahrie bought some of local fruit from a vendor. Paid to fill her water bottle from a filtered barrel. This town was where the modern and old worlds collided. Hyperspace capable starships parked just outside a city with little to no running water. Nor waste management systems. A den of piracy and smuggling under the Empire. And now, still, a gateway between the Republic and the Outer Rim. The Emperor raped this world for everything it would give up.

Ahrie headed out along the road. It would be a ten click walk to Sho's.

This was the first time in her life she was doing something unwatched, unmonitored by others. Her parents weren't there. Sidious and Vader were gone from mind. She realized that if she were to die out here, Touell would have to send a search party to find her.

A cool breeze blew across the fields. The tall grass danced. And the trees. The sound of the wind got louder as she stepped into the forest. The dirt road was shaded by the over hanging branches. Grass was growing across most of the roads. Very little use by locals. But enough animal scat piles to see that there was some.

She stopped. Closed her eyes and inhaled. She opened her mind and pushed out. She could sense the grass. And the trees. Innumerable annoying insects. And several animals. Her mind had never been this open to the life that surrounded her. Without the muted, darkening perversion that Sidious and Vader had once forced on her. The colors were brighter. More intense. The mix of sounds was almost deafening. The smells were intense. Not that this world was anymore real than those she had been to in the past, but that the filter behind which she has lived almost her entire life was gone.

She started to walk again. This time she maintained an awareness of the world around her. From the flying animals overhead, to the small insects scurrying across the dirt road. An intense sensation she had never experienced before.

Five clicks in and she could see where the forest ended onto another grass plain that slowly lifted into a line of hills. The entrance to Sho's establishment was located between two of those hills. Occupied the space between and beyond them.

Ahrie left the forest, headed out across the plain.

"Hey," came a young voice behind her. She had known they were there, hiding in the brush. Not sure they were dumb enough to engage her. "Where you think you're goin'?"

Aerie stopped and spun around. Six young adults. Or old younglings. Males. Stood across the road.

"You ain't paid your toll," the one standing in the middle and in front said.

"Toll?" Ahrie asked.

"For traversin' our forest."

"No one advised me there was a toll to walk a grossly mismanaged and unmaintained road which, clearly, you did not build."

The young men laughed.

"You may be right. But, you're gonna pay. Or we're gonna have to extract payment. You sound lovely. Pull up your hood so we can have a look at ya."

Ahrie turned back around and continued her walk.

"Hey! No one disrespects us like that. Go get her!"

Four of the young men took off in a run toward Ahrie. Half way to her, all four tripped over their own feet at the same time. They fell face first into the road. Laid on the ground, their faces covered in dirt and a little blood.

"What did we just see?" The leader of the young robbers asked. "We will collect," he yelled. "One day, we will collect!"

Ahrie walked on until she came to a wall constructed of starship hull scraps. It ran from the bottom of one hill to the bottom of the other. Hills with steep inclines that no one was going to climb. The road ran up to a spot in the middle where two large gates sat open to the inside.

Ahrie could hear clanking. The use of tools. Welding.

Sunset had begun. The daylight was beginning to dim. The sky was shifting to intense hues of yellow, orange, and red. The first planetary sunset she had ever laid her own eyes on.

The air was cooling off. The wind picked up a little. The sound of the rustling trees in the distance was getting louder.

She walked through the open gates to see an old transport ship against the right hill. A single deck high, there would be rows of state rooms behind the bridge. A custom build for important people. It looked like someone landed it there a long time ago and it just had never taken off again.

Against the other hill, and reaching back a good way, was a large covered work area. Deck matting made the floor. It was covered overhead by flat sheets welded together, resting on pillars of spare parts. All scrounged from what she could see further on through the hills. A massive ship boneyard.

A mix of old ships and recent Imperial stuff. TIE fighters. Even some of the rebellion's fighters. Commercial. Military. Civilian. Smuggler and pirate favorites. She had never seen such a varied collection in one place. None of the Empire's scrap worlds ever contained such diversity.

And in the far distance, through the haze. The bridge of a Star Destroyer towered above everything else. She could make out dots of sparkles and holes in the hull. Floating droids and lift shuttles moving about. It was being stripped.

"Who are you?" Asked a gray haired man as he descended the ramp from the ship on the right. The hair on his head was short. What some would call a military cut. But, he had a short beard as well. He wore gray, stained overalls. He was wiping his hands on a black rag.

He was taller than Ahrie, by at least a head. While his overalls were a little loose on him, she could tell he was on the serious side of fit. Muscular.

A sound she recognized as thunder echoed through the hills. The flight attendant had told them a storm system was rolling into the area this evening.

Ahrie looked around. There was no one else, other than the droids attending to several speeders and a shuttle parked under the makeshift shop roof.

She pulled her hood back.

"Ah, Ahrie. You made it safely, then. No problems?" He didn't flinch. She didn't detect any fear in him. Not only no reaction to her presence, but he was not feeling fear of anything. Anyone. She guessed that what she sensed from him, he would call being content.

"None."

"This way. I'll show you to your room. Everything on the ship works. Central fusion generator. And I punched a pipe into an aquifer under the hill here. Showers. With hot water. Lights. Even some of the entertainment channels coming back to life. Come, come. I just cooked up a real meal for the first time in forever. And that rain is going to be here shortly.

She walked toward the ramp. A flash. Lightning. She climbed the ramp, looked out over the fence. Covering part of the sunset were dark clouds. Black. And they seemed to be blowing her way. A clap of thunder.

And. And the smell of the air changed.

"Sho?" Ahrie asked, standing in the doorway. "What is that smell?"

Sho walked back to the door and inhaled.

"The smell of coming rain," Sho said. "You got nothin' to fear."

He turned and walked back inside. She followed.