I. Rats with a side of Beetles please
Freedom smells like rocket fuel.
Or more specifically, it smells like rockets blasting off, taking you away from wherever it was that you didn't want to be. Apparently it also smells like the blood of the dead trandoshan lying in the middle of the ship's control room.
Jono lurched back as the ship raced through the atmosphere. Grabbing onto the copilot's chair, he braced himself as not to be thrown to the floor. He didn't know a lot about starships but he was sure that this one shouldn't be shaking as much as it was. Apparently, freedom sounds like the rattle and clanging a ship makes as it tears itself apart trying to get into low planetary orbit. The ship's side-to-side convulsions caused the trandoshan corpse to perform a macabre jig as it tossed lifelessly on the floor.
Jono studied Goddy, the stocky man who sat at the ship's controls furiously attempting to stabilize the craft. He glanced back at Jono. Just for a moment, Goddy's face seemed to display an emotion that Jono had never seen in him: panic. And just as soon as it seemed like Goddy was feeling fear, that instinct which is seemingly universal to every living creature, he flashed a big toothy grin and gave a thumbs up. That was Goddy, cool as a cucumber even now.
Next to him sat Toad, a large man dressed in a dark tunic and turbin. He worked steadily on the astronav computer, plotting the ship's jump to lightspeed. If Goddy could seem cool and collected, Toad appeared utterly serene amidst the turbulence of the ship. He nudged Goddy and pointed at the astronav's screen, indicating that his calculations had been finished. Wherever it was that they were about to go, Toad had figured out how to get there. Goddy nodded in approval. He swiveled in his chair and pointlessly yelled something to Pak, a young trandoshan at the rear of the control room and the the fourth member of their crew. The clatter of the ship drowned out any attempts at verbal communication.
Although Pak was just slightly older than an adolescent, he was resourceful and quick thinking. While Jono had simply tried to stabilize himself by gripping onto the Toad's chair (and to Toad's tubin, and his face), Pak had quickly devised an improvised harness from cables strewn about the ship and tied it to one of the supporting beams which ran up along the side of the control room. He had taken out his hydrospanner and was repairing some of the damage that the ship had sustained during their firefight with the ship's previous (and now dead) owner, the trandoshan, Yaba.
Jono couldn't believe that their hairbrain scheme had worked. For two months he had been a slave of Teemo the Hutt, and for more than month before that he had been stranded on a backwater planet in the Kashyyyk Region at the edge of Hutt Space.
That planet was Katheema, a heavily forested world with nothing but a few trading outposts for the few solitary hunters and trappers who called it home. Katheema was so insignificant that it didn't appear on most star charts. But to Jono, and his brother Arno, Katheema came to symbolize all their hopes for a prosperous new life - for themselves and their family. They had found a small vein of kaiburr crystals located deep in a mountain range hundreds of miles from the nearest outpost. The entire vein of crystals could easily fit into a large stein with room to spare, but the Empire would pay handsomely for such a treasure. It was probably worth enough credits that they would never have to work again, nor would their parents or their sister. They could pay off the farm, invest in other properties - life would be smooth sailing.
But in absolute truth, it wasn't Jono and his brother who had found the keiburr vein, it was just Jono. It was Jono who had the knowhow to track down keiburr crystals, and who had initially journeyed to Katheema alone with the gear necessary to find the vein. And once he had found the vein, his parents had convinced him to bring Arno in on this venture. With the right drilling equipment, extracting the crystals was a two man job. But of course the equipment would cost credits, and for that they borrowed heavily from their parents. But in the end it would all be worth it. Soon, the twenty thousand credits that they had spent on equipment would be a drop in the ocean of profit they would be swimming in.
The only problem was that his brother was Arno. Jono had always been the polar opposite of his younger brother. Jono was tall and athletic, and there were more than a few women who would consider him handsome. Arno was also tall but most people who saw him would probably describe his as imposing rather than athletic, and there were few women who would describe him as handsome without first partaking in strong drink. While Jono was studious, earning degrees in engineering and geology, Arno had spent his youth at the sabacc tables. Now in his late 20s, Arno had little prospects. He had spent the last few years travelling from one star system to another, with little direction in life. Perhaps it was out of concern for Arno, or maybe he was simply doing his duty as the older brother, or maybe it was just due to pressure from his parents, but Jono felt that it was only right to share his discovery with Arno.
And this is where their tale goes awry. Since then, Jono had retraced his steps hundreds of times in his mind - searching for any clue of what had actually happened. Roughly 6 months ago Jono and Arno arrived on Katheema, with their newly purchased mining equipment and a sense of optimism that belongs only to those who are sure that riches are just around the corner. Three months of drilling found them miles beneath the unnamed mountains that held their treasure. Their scanners had been detecting increasing amounts of arelium, a rare but useless mineral in which keiburr crystals are always embedded. Jono could almost feel the crystals in his hands. In his mind's eye, he could see his new life of prosperity. He could see the house that he was planning to build, with the patio looking out onto the open ocean - he knew just the spot. He envisioned attending his nephew's graduation from an expensive and exclusive academy, the tuition for which he had paid. Daydreams of wealth such as these are usually only had by lazy men, but somehow he felt justified.
They found their first crystal after a grueling twenty hour stretch of drilling. Exhausted and filthy, Jono plopped down on an outcrop of rock and pinched the tiny crystal between the tips of his thumb and index fingers. It seemed warm. He studied it under the light of a nearby lamp with his loupe. Supposedly this tiny thing had such a tremendous power that the Jedi or Sith would pay a small fortune for. He knew it did have power, it had the power to make dreams come true. It had the power to turn a family of farming peasants into wealthy landowners. They decided to eat and rest for a few hours before extracting the remaining crystals in the vein.
Perhaps Arno had put something in his water, or maybe he had laced his rations with something devious. For over twelve hours, Jono tried to fight through a drug induced haze. Just as it seemed that he was clawing towards lucidity, his mind would become confused. Reality and the imaginary switched places freely. Jono would spend the next few months analyzing every semi-reliable recollection he could fish out of the murky memories that he had of these hours. He remembered hearing footsteps. He remembered rocks being dragged. Was there anybody else besides Arno? He could clearly remember the sounds of voices, but did these voices originate from Arno and his accomplices, or did they come from the hallucinations that he too had been talking to?
He awoke alone. Some of their supplies and equipment were still there, but Arno and the crystals were not. The entire deposit of arelium had been mined out. All their scanners were silent.
Upon climbing out of their mineshaft, Jono found that Arno had taken their repulsorcraft as well. He knew how to navigate the wilderness on foot, but he was still hundreds of miles from the closest outpost, and he only had a few days of rations.
They say that if you are lost in the wilderness, head downhill. This is where you will find flowing streams of fresh drinkable water. This is a universal rule that applies to most planets that have enough gravity and liquid water, including Katheema. Fortunately, having clean water was no longer going to be a problem, but soon he was foraging for his meals. He managed to find bugs and rodents that he knew were safe to eat, but they only provided him with enough sustenance to survive, but not the energy to trek the distance to an outpost that felt further every day.
Jono was completely emaciated when he was discovered by the hunter. He had been in the wilderness for nearly a month. The hunter who had found him said that it was a miracle that he had not died of starvation or exposure. Jono had been rushed to one of the Katheema's few settlements that had medical facilities where he spent several days recovering.