Star Wars: Hope Fails

Chapter 5: Sarna And Ship

"I've made a new acquisition, Sarna, sir."

Sarna couldn't hear Ship. He snoozed beneath a thread bare blanket in the reclined captain's chair.

"Sir?" Ship asked. "You asked to be notified when I made an acquisition. I have, sir. An Incom T-65 X-Wing starfighter."

Sarna snored and rolled to his side.

The low air alarm klaxon went off and Sarna sprang to his feet. He was a short, stubby fellow in his 60's; grizzled, gray, and surly. "Oh hell! Where's the back-up valves?!"

"I'm sorry, sir, but you wouldn't wake up." Ship had increased the public address system's volume so to be heard above the klaxons' din. "I will now deactivate the alarms." The alarms went silent. "I have made a new acquisition."

Sarna scratched his head and stretched, giving a big yawn for a small fellow. He grabbed his battered hard hat off Ship's main control panel and plopped it over his wiry hair. It slid to its usual lop-sided position as he descended the ladder leading out of the cockpit into Ship's acquisition bay.

Ship was an old salvage vessel. It roamed space in search of anything that was worth money as scrap - space craft, satellites, platforms, jettisoned trash. Or, since Sarna liked to tinker, anything that he could fix-up and sell. 

Sarna stepped off the ladder onto the grimy steel deck of Ship's acquisition bay. The acquisition area was fairly cavernous in order to house multiple large finds and separate or work on each find easily. Overhead cranes with chains and hoist arms lined the ceiling. The floor had several repair stations, work trenches, and tools scattered amid the various pieces of salvage. Every bit of the area was dingy, greasy, dusty, and worn from years and years of use. And cramped because Sarna kept several projects going at once, all in various stages of completion.

Sarna weaved his way between burned-out engines and partial satellite arrays. He kept a narrow path that led through the deck to anywhere that he had the use to get to. Eventually, he arrived at the inbound acquisition portal and stood on tip-toes to see what Ship had found floating in space. Inside the air-tight chamber was Luke Skywalker's X-Wing - badly busted-up but mostly intact.

"Huh," Sarna grunted. "Pressurize the chamber and bring it in here."

"Right away, sir," Ship chimed pleasantly.

The hiss of recycled oxygen filled the inbound chamber. A green indicator flashed when the atmosphere was safe and the portal opened. The X-Wing slid inside on a conveyor table and settled on the floor with a long moan from the worn hydraulic system.

Sarna looked the X-Wing over.The fuselage and wings were pitted by cannon blasts. There was a charred R2 unit fused into the craft's astromech socket. One of the KX9 cannons was ripped off along with part of the Strike Foil it was attached to. And the engines were shot. 

"This thing's going on the scrap pile," Sarna growled. He liked finding junk that was worthwhile to fix up. This X-Wing didn't fit the bill.

Sarna waddled back into the acquisition area. A moment later he returned with a short ladder on his shoulder which banged into things every time he turned a corner. He put it against the X-Wing's fuselage and climbed to the cockpit. All that was visible through the glass was a solid white block of Life Foam. Sarna frowned. "Is there someone in there?"

"Yes, sir. I detect one human male inside in suspended animation," Ship replied. "Shall I power up the Medi-Bay?" 

Sarna ripped off his hard hat and threw it on the floor. "Oh hell!" he fretted. Another mouth to feed.

--

Luke Skywalker floated in space. Around him drifted luminous bits of sand and metal, and beyond, stars against infinite black.

"Luke, anger and fear lead to the dark side," drifted the voice of Obi-Wan Kenobi.

"Ben?" Luke asked.

Obi-Wan materialized out of the dark of the galaxy. "Don't give in to the easy way, Luke."

"Ben! I thought you said I could trust the Force!"

"Peace, Luke. You must learn peace..." Ben faded as Princess Leia materialized in his place. She ran towards Luke - arms wide, an amulet 'round her neck swinging behind her white gowns.

Luke's heart leaped. He opened his arms to receive her embrace. But, behind her, Darth Vader formed out of black. His light saber snapped to life and glowed red against his obsidian armor. He drew it back to cut the Princess down.

"Leia!" Luke screamed. And awoke in a small, sterile Medi-Bay. "Whu... Where am I?" he gasped.

"You are aboard salvage freighter 8112," Ship answered.

Luke looked about wildly. He lay naked in a shallow trough of Bacta fluid. "Where are you?"

"Oh! I apologize, sir. I am a Kreedon Heavy Salvage Freighter. Serial number 8112. My master, Sarna, simply calls me 'Ship'."

Luke sat up. "How did I get here? Where are my clothes?"

"While mining asteroids I collected an Incom starfighter that was adrift and badly damaged. You were aboard. Your vessel's emergency systems encased you in Life Foam once it sustained sufficient damage detrimental to the preservation of life. Your clothes are being laundered."

Luke searched for the exit from the Medi-Bay. He swung his still-wet legs off the edge of the table. "Where is my ship?"

"Master Sarna is cutting it up for scrap in my acquisition bay, sir."

Luke's eyes went wide with horror. He sprang from the table and dashed out of the Medi-Lab.

"Sir! Your clothes!" Ship exclaimed.