Cold. It was the first thing I ever felt, and it was probably the only thing I truly ever felt. But that was to be expected, Arkania was a frozen planet, the surface was frozen tundra and underground well…it was still cold but the zell-heaters were able to keep the temperature at a livable level. But the mines had no zell-heaters.
Arkania was composed of three levels. Two of which were livable for a length of time. The surface was, as before stated, tundra during the day the temperature was -5 degrees if one were lucky at night the temperature dropped to -50 to -60 degrees. Though it was marked unlivable small shacks and several homes were scatted around the globe, along with a medium sized space port for the shipping of diamonds and other such rare minerals off world.
The second level was the main living level of Arkania. It was a vast system of tunnels carved into the ice much like the design of Hoth. But unlike Hoth the ice walls that made up the homes and tunnels of each civilization was lined with tubes filled with Zellulem.
Zellulem was created by Kenterick in 83 BBY. It was a bright green, tasteless and odorless object that needed a temperature of 85 degrees to get to a liquid forum. But once in that liquid stage it remained at that temperature for three months. So it became the perfect object to heat Arkania. On the outside of each city was a large zell-heater powered by solar plates that were located above the surface that changed the heat energy down to a large insolated cavern filled with Zellulem that was being constantly heated. When the three months were up the Zellulem was filtered into the cavern and new Zellulem took its place.
The third and final level was the mines. A vast system of tunnels that spanned most of Arkania. These dark depths were one of the main reasons that the Arkanians only saw inferred. The mines existed for the export of Arkania's greatest wealth, diamonds. The Arkanian diamond mines produced two-thirds of all of the diamonds that were distributed throughout the republic. Trapped inside ice it was hard to distinguish diamond from ice crystals, except for the heat. A cluster of diamonds radiated a large amount of heat, comparable to that of a human body or Zellulem.
It was for this reason that the mines were kept cold and locked away from the zell-heaters. But who in their right mind would wish to live in these hash conditions, mining in the semi-dark with only the heat signature of the person next to you or the faint pulse of a diamond cluster buried deep in the wall in front of you. Not the brilliant scientists of Arkania, nor did they want their families to reside in such a place. So the task was left to the lesser. The poor, those lacking scientific minds, the criminals and the do-gooders alike, and me, an Arkanian offshoot or cross breed.
My name is Dareatrean Munkiren, ah the last name rings a bell, no surprise there, who on this frozen ball of a planet hadn't heard of my father. The great scientist Sareal Munkiren, leader of the Arkanian Renegades (add sarcasm and a deep almost impressed like voice), yeah that was him the man who started it all. No surprise I'm here then is it? A father like that? But as I said, I'm an offshoot, means I'm of two species. My dad is Arkanian, my mother though, she was a Firrerreo. I've never met her though, and truthfully I never met my father either. She left me with him when I was barely a year old, spewing something about not being able to keep me and such. Was a disgrace to my father and his name being saddled with an offshoot daughter, heck he couldn't even hide me.
I have too much of my mother in me to pass for an Arkanian. I got my father build, semi-short (5'7") but lean, his eyes, white glossed over, his ability to see in shades of inferred, and his hair for the most part. His hair was white and reached well past his shoulder blades; I have its length and color at least in the lower half. Level with my shoulders my hair changes color, from root to shoulder its black, but from there on its white, this two-tone trait comes from my mother. My skin tone is also vastly different from that of an Arkanian, they have a pale or white skin color, and mine is a bronze-copper color almost like I have a natural tan. But if all this wasn't enough, if my appearance didn't already shout alien at the top of its lungs I also inherited by mothers five-fingered hand. Arkanians only have four.
So being a one year old offshoot my father decided to rid himself of the little problem and dropped me into the mines. Adascopolis, was the city that I lived under, it was the capital city and had one of the larger mining facilities. It was because of that fact that I had managed to survive these past six years. I was raised by several of the miners who had banned together to form a makeshift community. They were Arkanians who were poor and unable to pay their debts. As repayment they were thrown into the mines to work it off. Problem is that the debt was too high for all four of them to pay off on their own. So I was taken in under their wing to help ease the burden on the youngest child, their five year old son.
Fair trade as I saw it. The boy got to be released into the world and I got to live. It was Bellease, the wife, who introduced me to my heritage. As long as we kept quiet for the most part the guards wouldn't beat us for talking at night, that is if they were able to find us. Diamonds were not the only thing besides bodies that gave off heat in the mines. Some small caverns and unused passageways were filled with pockets of hot air, from the planets core, that masked the heat of a person; it was in these locations that most groups gathered. And it is where I am right now.
We were in sector seven mine areas, three sectors below our home level. There had been a cave in and many of the workers of sector seven had been crushed under the ice. It was not uncommon for the guards to move miners around to where they were needed, and sector three sadly, had an overflow of workers. Illisace, my adopted father, and I had been brought down. Bellease and Hernika were left above. The passages were narrow and turned and twisted every which way. We had to walk with our hands out in front of us to stop from running into walls.
There were three others brought down with us. Two were young, older than me but still in their early teens, a boy and a girl by the sounds they were making they had to be offshoots like me, probably Neimoidian. Those two would be useless to us down here. Not only could they not see in the dark but they would also spend most of the time refusing to dig, or digging slowly and in the wrong location. The other was a pure-breed Arkanian, he was tall based on his heat signature and the aura around him warned anyone in a five mile radius to steer clear of him. Every step he took was accompanied by the clash and clacking of heavy chains. My best guess was that he had to have been one of the prisoners that had been brought in recently, he wasn't from our level and he seemed to be far too full of himself.
We marched down like this for what felt like three more hours, but the passage of time was always hard to track in a place like this. It was by the change in the amount of guards around us and the sound of Iron Foot, which I had taken to calling the man in shackles, as he walked. The shackles no longer banged and clanged but rustled and shifted, as if in a semi-deep snow and not on a hard surface. We were right next to the doors if there was a snow drift.
It wasn't really snow that we were walking through, at least not in the sense of frozen water falling from the sky, it was shavings from the icy walls that housed the auto-sector doors that caused the snow. Each week the guards would have to bring out the chippers, a machine that cracked the ice into small chunks and flacks, to break away the condensed ice over the doors. They must have just done it too, not long before their arrival; the banks were only this deep for the first few hours. The hum of the machinery alerted our small band of miners that the doors were opening. And we were ushered through to march down a winding path again.
This design was done purposely. For a half-a-mile long stretch the tunnels on either side of the doors were wound tightly in twists and turns doubling back on itself and then going forward this was so no prisoner could escape and hope to catch the door guards off guard. The Neimoidians were complaining, as their kind was prone to do, about the distance they had to walk. Only moments before we arrived at our digging location guard walked passed in front of us. As was customary we stopped, all but Iron Foot kept walking and slammed right into the guard.
"Watch where you're going, scum," The guard yelled shoving him back with his blaster rifle. Instead of falling backwards he crumpled up over the man's hands. The guard went to pull back but Iron Foot had a strong grip on the butt of his blaster. "Let go wor…"
The sound of the blaster going off drowned out whatever it was the guard was going to say. Iron Foot stood up straight and the sound of metal clanking to the ground alerted our escort to the fact that he was unshackled. The guard brought up his blaster to shot down the prisoner. Blaster fire filled the room as Iron Foot ducked and dived.
"Get down!" Illisace yelled, he grabbed my shoulder and threw me to the ground. I hit the ice hard. My head slammed against the ground and everything went black. I blinked repeatedly and looked around. The room was black but I could hear the sound of blaster fire and running feet. The Neimoidians were yelling, or at least the girl was, it sounded like her brother had gotten shot but I wasn't really sure because it was a mix of Arkanian and Neimoidian. Slowly I pushed myself to my feet, still blinking to regain my vision and ran. I stumbled along the winding path thankful that I was heading in the right direction.
I stopped momentarily to catch my breath and could hear the sound of someone behind me, several someones actually. There was nowhere for me to go, blind and cornered I curled up in a ball close to the ground. It sounded like the fight had followed me; a blaster went off in the small space and one of the figures jumped to cover me. It was Illisace, I could tell by his forum. He fell back off of me and onto the ground. I still couldn't see but his breathing was faint.
He was gasping for air and I could only make out part of his last words, "Don't…don't let….them…get…my daughter…get to…" and them he died, in my arms. The man who I had thought of as a father all these years lay in my arms dead. And I felt nothing, I still felt the cold. In the distance I heard the sound of blasters the Arkanian prisoner must have reached the guard doors by this point. So I got up and ran, blind and scared I ran for the guard doors.
As I reached the end of the tunnel something strange happened, the room was filled with a light. It was red. So I wasn't blind it was just too cold before, but that didn't explain why I couldn't see Illisace. I crept forward slowly afraid of how many people were in the room to create so much heat. But as I edged around the side of the tunnel into the cavern I realized that it was empty. Well at least empty of warm bodies. Something was wrong. The red I was seeing was from red lights on the walls not from people's body heat. The inferred vision I had lived my life with was gone.
If I had been scared before, well now I was terrified. In a panic I ran to the metal doors and began to pound on them. "Let me out!" I screamed at the top of my lungs as I slammed the flat of my hand against the slightly warm metal. It had just recently been opened, probably by Iron Foot. And then the silence was shattered.
An alarm filled the room bleeping and the lights flashed on and off, "Attention prisoner, you are in direct violation of code 01227, please step away from the door and surrender. Your picture has been taken and escape is impossible." A computerized voice filled the room. I backed away slowly as the doors opened. But no guards were standing on the other side. More dead bodies filled the room. Cautiously I poked my head around to see why the doors had opened. There was a large button on the door, and a body lying just below it.
Something moved on the small guard tower above. I stepped back out of range as I heard someone run off. As I looked around again I saw the back of an abnormally tall Arkanian run down the tunnel, Iron Foot had just started clearing the pass in front of me. The sound of more guards running towards me through the guard shaft reminded me of that tunnel.
To make the route between doors faster for the guards a sub-route was carved that linked to each door, but the doors were always shut, except for moments like this when the alarm went off. I ducked into the corner by the door and watched as the guards ran past. When the last was clear I slipped in. My new found vision was a godsend, the tunnel was brightly lit and very cold, and I wouldn't have been able to see without it. I ran down the pass as fast as I could.
Two more doors went by before I stopped, a button similar to the one for the guards door was right by that one with an odd symbol painted on it, but because we couldn't see it normally it had to be done in heated paint. As I walked out into the room I was confronted by five guards. Iron Foot hadn't gotten this far yet.
"Rouge prisoner, get her!" one of the guards yelled. They opened fire and I ran for the tunnels. The guards were following me but this was my sector I knew how these tunnels twisted and didn't need vision at all to navigate them. I slid free and veered right. Right was living quarters and I made my way to the cavern we had stayed in last night. As I ran I found out I was wrong, Iron Foot had been here, how I didn't know, and he had carved a bloody pathway. Bodies were scattered over the floor and in the dark I couldn't tell who they were. In my mind I could see the bodies of Bellease and Hernika lying among other nameless corpse.
"She went this way," one of the guards were behind me but I could feel the heat of the cavern on my left. Quickly I jumped in and moved to the back wall. There I sat listening to the sound of the guards moving past. All except one. Someone stopped and entered the cavern. Fearing they could hear me I held my breath to stay quiet.
"Girl get up," the voice was male, but it was not computerized voice, it had to be Iron Foot. "Girl on your feet, they think you helped me you will be killed if they catch you. I can get you out of here and to Trade city to get off this frozen ball but you have to move now."
It was all the convincing I needed. I got to my feet and followed him. How we got out was a blur, since I couldn't see, but when we got to the surface I had to stop. Everything was covered in snow and it was freezing. The space around us was completely open; if the guards planned to follow they wouldn't have a hard time finding us.
"Girl," Iron Foot turned to me. He was tall, and had whitened eyes and pure white hair; he blended in well to the ground. His face was scared, marring the fact that he was still very young. He smiled and began to walk away, knowing I would follow. "I can get you off planet I have friends waiting for me but after we land on Taanab you are on your own."
The trip through the snow seemed to take forever. In reality it only took three hours but it was cold and I was soaked through almost instantly. But it wasn't long before the ship came into view. Thankfully Iron Foot, I later found out his name was Fildiore, had not been lying. They were his friends and they were going to Taanab. He was greeted by a female Bothan, she was furry with a more round face and glowing green eyes, I was greeted by suspicious stares. The trip could not have been fast enough. And only when I was dropped on the space port of Taanab, I realized that I was truly alone.
"Fresh bread, only five credits."
"Deltra sticks, finest on the Hydian way."
"Meats and fish, all kinds all prices."
"Coruscant Silks, cheapest price in the galaxy it's practically a steal."
"Most of the time it really is," a voice behind me commented. I jumped and turned to face a woman with short black hair and a lined face. She was wearing worn clothes and looked tired. She carried herself like a person who had worked for everything she had, and after spending several nights here I wouldn't doubt that she had.
"Really is what?" I asked confused. What could be so bad that she sounded this skeptical about it?
"A steal, they probably stole the silks and brought them here to sell off at a cheap price to go back and do it again. Worthless gutter slugs all of them," she mumbled under her breath as she steered me away from the market. We walked for several minutes moving between main streets and side streets. Taking twists and turns that occasionally doubled back in the direction we had just come from. This lasted until I was faced with a small red door. She pushed the door open and I walked into a small cooking area. The floor was covered in tiles and the room had two chairs. She made me sit in one and then asked, "So what's your name?"
I looked up, no one had wondered about my name since Arkania, and the only ones there who cared were dead. "My name is Daretrea…"
"Stop! Stop, stop, stop," she yelled at me. I watched as her eyes got really wide and she studied me for a moment. "Are you stupid or something? You don't just tell people your name. Your Firrerreo right?" I nodded. "Then you should know that telling a person your name gives them power over you. Did your parents teach you nothing?"
"I never knew them," I replied. The woman looked at the ground, guilt filling her eyes. "Don't feel bad I really don't care. How is it that you know that rule about the Firrerreo? If you don't mind my asking that is."
"I'm a Firrerreo. Names Drek, at least it's the name I tell everyone. It's a shortened version of my first name, almost a nickname. So let's try again… what's your name?"
I paused for a moment. What could I call myself? There was no nickname I had ever been called. The only other names I had ever been called was girl of scum, both were the guards in the mines, and neither was a suitable name.
Drek must have noticed my hesitation, "Alright so what is your actual name?"
"Dareatrean Munkiren," I replied. She looked at me weird for a while, I had never realized until this very moment how long my name actually was. A nickname actually seemed warranted. I stopped and considered my name, I needed to shorten it but it had to be something that described her.
"Dareat. No doesn't sound right. Treanren, no. Dareamun, maybe," Drek was trying she had been saying names like this for a while now.
"Darekiren," I said looking up from the floor. Something still sounded off about it though. The name seemed right but just not haw I said it. "I mean Dare-Kiren."
"Dare-Kiren. Hum, Dare-Kiren, sounds like a Jedi name," Drek said smiling to herself. She laughed and shook her head. "Have to say my friend that you kind of look like a Dare-Kiren. So the question now is where are you going, Dare-Kiren?"
"I don't know. All I know is that I'm never going back to Arkania again." I said looking again at the ground, I had almost figured out the tile patterns the first time, now I was determined to memorize it.
"Arkania?" Drek asked. I winced trying to cower and hide. I had been hoping she wouldn't ask that question. I shut my eyes and hopped that Drek would pass over the question and continue on. But of course she didn't. "Dare-Kiren, why were you in Arkania? And why were, or are, you trying to get away from there? You're not a murderer are you?"
My eyes shot open and I looked up at her quickly, "No I was just a kid who…" but I stopped when I realized that I was no longer seeing her. I could only see her heat signature; my vision was back to inferred.
"You're an Arkanian offshoot," Drek said, her voice filled with shock and awe. "So that's why…and the name…you're not the daughter of Sareal are you?"
"I…well I," I slowly nodded. I cringed, waiting for her to yell of scream of get a blaster and try to kill me. Instead she laughed. I blinked rapidly, and something strange happened, my vision quickly flickered from inferred to normal then to inferred and finally ended on normal. Something was very wrong with me. I blinked several times more but nothing happened. After I stopped I realized that Drek was no longer laughing.
"Dare-Kiren, are you okay," she asked. I continued blinking, shaking my head every couple of seconds to see if it would happen again. I jumped when she placed a hand on my shoulder; I hadn't heard her walk over to me. "I…I have to go."
With that I ran out of the house and back onto the street. I looked around quickly and decided was going left. The sound of a door slamming behind me echoed down the road, followed closely by Drek yelling for me to turn around.
I ran. Yeah stupid I know, but I was scared. And what the else was I supposed to do. A seven year old running around on a planet all alone… so promising, it had danger written all over it. I didn't know where I was or where I was going for that matter. I had no idea any of the names of other planets accept this one and Arkania, so I had no way of even knowing where to go.
I stopped to asses my situation. I was standing in an empty street in front of what looked like a library. Okay so this was at least slightly promising. If I could find audio records of the planets then I could find one to go to next. I ascended the stairs and opened the door. It was dark and empty. I passed by rows of shelves filled with data pad in ports to upload books and information to. But I was looking for the Star maps. I found them in the back of the building. As soon as I entered the dark room it lit up with almost 400 hundred small pin-points of light.
"Location?" I asked.
"The planet Taanab." The computer responded
"Search for planet..." but what was I looking for? I didn't want to be stuck on a frozen ball of a planet ever again. "With a desert climate."
"Planets found." The star map rearranged itself and most of the lights went out. The lights lined up across the room based on temperature and conditions. I walked up and down the line of planets and stopped on a smaller brown one. Slowly I reached my hand out to it and jumped back when the planet enlarged and the computer began talking. Tatooine, Region: the outer rim territories, Sector: Arkanis sector, two suns and three moons, rotation period: 23 standard hours, orbital period: 304 local days."
"Perfect," I said. The planet sounded great and now I just had to get there. I left the building as quietly as I had come in. The streets seemed friendlier as I walked them this time. I wandered around looking for the space port again. I know I had no money one friend, but that didn't matter. I planned on hitching a ride in one of the shipment transports.
The Neimoidian ship the Invictus was on its way to Tatooine, with just a brief stop at Coruscant beforehand. I was in the cargo hold hidden behind several large crates. I was all settled to get my free ride when I fell asleep.
Yeah that's right. I fell asleep when I knew there were going to be some Neimoidians wandering around. Oh and guess what. They found me. Thank fully I don't really remember much of what took place because the first blow one landed was in the face. I spun around with the force of the blow and my head slammed into one of the crates. I was out cold.
Authors Note: alright. I know just about everyone who has read any of my other stuff is going "jesus Christ another story" I will finish Legion one tomorrow, or should at least, and will flip between this story and my tron one. This fic will not be rated M amazingly enough. Hope you guys enjoyed. And as per usual please R and R.