Smoke. Smoke and flames and chaos. Engines screaming, a fracture in the hull, a fuel leak in the cabin. Darkness. And now… Light.
My eyes were the last things to open as I regained my consciousness. My mind was the first. It, as usual, was not inside my head, but out wandering, exploring other life-forms around me and poking Obi-Wan to annoy him. My lungs were the second thing, expanding and forcing my mouth, the third thing, to open wide and gasp air. My eyes came last, snapping the lids apart with adrenaline-fuelled speed. And it was all because of the thought of Obi-Wan, which had triggered my memories of the crash.
The crash. I thought back to it as my pupils adjusted to the brilliantly blue sky overhead. I could recall impressions, instinctive thoughts of what was happening around me, but when I struggled to fetch my real memories, they danced out of reach and faded into nothing. I went back to the impressions, the subconscious ideas, but now they were gone. I took my second breath.
Leaving that alone for now, I raised my head to look around and regretted it. Something was wrong with my neck, perhaps a muscle had been torn or stretched, because moving it hurt. I raised a hand instead and used it to hold my head steady as I used my other arm to push myself into a sitting position. As I cautiously observed my surroundings, I noted that turning my head only one way hurt, and I pinpointed where the pain came from. It was the piece of hard muscle that joined my shoulder to my neck. I closed my eyes briefly and sent Force energy there, feeling the flesh tighten and fix itself. Much better.
At last, I could take in everything around me. I was lying in a wrecked field, the grass charred and crushed by various pieces of shrapnel. A larger chunk of hull lay several metres away from me, but other than that and the little bits of metal scattered about, there was no sign of our ship. In the distance, there was a walled settlement, and beyond that, a green mountain.
I managed to get myself to my feet and took a shaky step, then another, and another, until I caught sight of a booted foot sticking out from underneath the big piece of hull. I ran clumsily toward it, praying that it was just a boot, not Obi-Wan, that was stuck under the chunk of metal. My Force senses told me that it was more than just a boot as I got closer.
It was. An arm stuck out as well, and there was blood on the grass, but he was alive. Carefully, knowing that there could be protruding pieces that had protruded into him and were lodged inside, I lifted the metal telekinetically. To my immense relief, there was nothing stuck in him. But then where was the blood coming from?
I gave him a once-over. He was unconscious, his short hair filled with dirt. His face was pale yet amazingly serene, but when was Obi-Wan not serene? His tunic seemed to be in one piece, minus a few rips and tears here and there. His boots were scuffed, which was out of the ordinary but not life-threatening. With extreme caution, I began to turn him onto his front, the knowledge that if he had a spinal injury, I could be paralyzing him for life pressing on me depressingly. I refused to be responsible for that.
The Force loved me, I decided. Before I had to roll him too far, I saw a large gash in his side. It wasn't deep but it was long and blood oozed from it consistently. I ran my fingers along it gently, checking for bits of shrapnel lodged there, found nothing, and set about healing it. I'd never been great at healing myself, let alone other people, and so I went slowly, being wary about causing more damage. Finally it was done, just leaving a pinkish, lumpy line of scar amid the white new skin.
He was stirring, it seemed, and I returned him to lying on his back. His eyes opened blearily, as always surprising me with how brightly turquoise they were.
"Siri?" he mumbled. I laughed and it sounded like a dying cat.
"No," I said sarcastically, my dry throat stinging enough to wet my eyes.
"Aw, don't cry for me," he returned, his voice just as rough and joking as mine. I smacked his shoulder.
"Are you alright?" I asked, more seriously now.
"Are you?" he replied. I looked at him in confusion. I was fine. He was the one with a foot long cut on his side. "Your face is bleeding." Was it? I put a hand to it and my fingers came back sticky and covered in red. Oh.
"It doesn't hurt," I said truthfully. "You had a gash in your side. I healed it before you woke up. Any other injuries?"
"I don't think so," he replied, struggling to sit up. I helped him, one hand on his back to support him. "Where are we?"
"Where we shouldn't be," I responded. "This would be Gamma 8A6. The undeveloped one." He groaned quietly and I grinned ruefully, trying to lighten the mood because he certainly wouldn't. "Master Windu's gonna have our heads."
"If we get off here," Obi-Wan pointed out. "Where's the ship?"
"I think it was vaporized," I said. Okay, so the mood had not been raised. In fact, it had sunk. Very fast. But it was true: the ship was no where to be found. And we were stuck on an underdeveloped world that no one had ever visited before. It could be worse, I told myself. At least the atmosphere's breathable.
"Babye!"
Both Obi-Wan and I turned at the sound of a child's voice. A young boy was running toward us, waving his arms and shouting gleefully. "Adwayni! Adwayni!"
"Hello!" I called, in that wonderfully rational way I have.
"Siri!" Obi-Wan hissed, grabbing my waving arm and bringing it down. "We're going to disrupt the evolution of this planet! We should hide!"
"They're Human, Obi-Wan," I pointed out redundantly. "They're already evolved. And besides, we're going to need to talk to them eventually if we want to repair our ship."
"More like rebuild," Obi-Wan muttered under his breath. I eyeballed him. He was being a lot more snarky than normal—usually that was my role. "Qui-Gon and Master Gallia will find us soon. We can just lie low and wait."
"Obi-Wan, we're not due to report in for another week," I reminded him. "By that time, we'd be way beyond this solar system and into the one we're supposed to be in. That makes thirty-four planets to search for us on. Our best hope is to try to fix our ship."
"With that?" he looked pointedly at the hunk of metal that had been lying on top of him just minutes before.
"What else would we use?" I asked, though I knew it was rather hopeless. Nevertheless, I'd been told over and over again to never give up, and I was determined not to.
The little boy was upon us. He babbled away in some language I'd never heard before. I looked to Obi-Wan to see if he understood it, but his face was just as blank as mine. The kid didn't seem hostile, at least. He wore a dirty dress-like thing and he was grinning. A moment later, he produced a little leather bag from behind his back and held it out to us. When we didn't do anything, he shook it and said something in a tone that said plainly, 'Are you stupid? Take it.'
Hesitantly, Obi-Wan put his hand into the bag and pulled out some sort of fruit. It was black and shrivelled and looked repulsive, but he put it into his mouth. I saw him struggle politely not to make a face at the taste. The child offered me one next, but I shook my head. He didn't seem to understand, but mimicked my gesture. Suddenly, his face lit up as if understanding was dawning on him. "Wosgraikyestis!" he exclaimed, I think. I could barely pick out what sounds he was making, the language was so unfamiliar. When I heard Huttese spoken, I could pick out words even though I couldn't understand them, just because I'd heard it spoken before. The same went with most languages, but not this one. Although, I reasoned, that made sense, being as no one had even visited this planet that I knew of. The boy kept talking excitedly.
"City," I said slowly and clearly, "We're looking for a city."
Beside me, Obi-Wan shook his head. "That's not going to help."
A voice called loudly across the field and the kid made some weird motion with his hands, said something, and ran off towards where, in the distance, I could see a tiny, stone-and-straw farm house. I could only assume he was going to get his parents, and turned my attention to Obi-Wan.
"You didn't want us to be noticed, right?" I said, "I think now would be a good time to go."
He agreed and I helped him to his feet. As I felt my battered body complain, I realized how it was a little strange that the kid hadn't cared that I had blood running down my face. I shrugged mentally and began to walk in the direction of the town I'd seen earlier, Obi-Wan in tow.
It took us perhaps half an hour to get there. As we warmed up our muscles, walking became easier and faster. I caught Obi-Wan wincing from time to time and guiltily slowed my pace, knowing I hadn't done a good enough job healing him. I almost wanted to apologize, but my pride was recovering from being shocked into silence by the crash.
When we passed through the town gates, we found ourselves in a very smelly, very primitive version of Coruscant. Actual wheeled carts drawn by equine animals clattered by, and people bustled about doing this or that. There seemed to be a general flow in one direction, so we let ourselves be swept along by that, and soon found ourselves in a large open area. It was just as packed as the streets, but it definitely seemed to be a market. There were stalls displaying fruits and vegetables, merchants advertising their wares by shouting, and others who didn't appear to be selling anything at all, but were still being handed coins from others.
Beside us was a ragged row of people, all of them bedraggled and dirty. To blend in while we gathered more information, we slipped in line with them, knowing our ripped and blacked tunics made us fit right in with them.
It wasn't until after two huge men came up to us and began to tie our wrists together that we realized that what we'd been standing in was a slave dealership. We'd just been bought. I struggled and was strongly tempted to use the Force against my captor who overpowered me easily with muscles alone, but Obi-Wan caught my eye.
"Don't, Siri," he warned. "It would look like magic. Who knows what sort of beliefs they might have? Just go with it. We can get out later."
I glared at him, knowing he was right as always, as we were led away from the market square. I did my best to memorize streets as we walked through them, but the architecture was all foreign and there were so many things to take in that I hoped Obi-Wan was helping me. Finally, we came to a stop before a large building. It took our purchasers or whatever they were to bang on the doors, and I took the opportunity to reach for my lightsaber, even though I knew Obi-Wan wouldn't approve. It wasn't there. A glance told me Obi-Wan's wasn't either.
Frack.