After the Two Suns Set
By
Runt Thunderbelch
Chapter One: Baba Qwim's
"Luke! Luke Skywalker!" In the last light of Tatooine's second setting sun, Tank Sunber had just jumped off a boulder and was waving his arms frantically. "Luke, over here!"
Luke guided his landspeeder over and pulled up. Tank scooped up the body of his tiny gyrowheel in one hand and the wheel itself in the other. Luke laughed, "What happened to you?"
"Ah, my vertical strut snapped." He set the two broken pieces into the back of the landspeeder and climbed in beside Luke.
"I told you, you're too big for a gyrowheel. You need a speeder."
"I'm too poor for anything bigger than a gyrowheel."
"If you're broke, why are you going to Anchorhead?"
"I didn't say I was broke; I said I was poor. I have enough to get drunk and cause some major trouble."
"Yeee haaa!" Luke tromped on the accelerator while Tank cranked up the landspeeder's polyphonic system. Wild rhythms pounded out as they slipped onto the salt flats which led to the city.
As they sped along, Tank yelled over the pounding music, "Have you heard anything from Biggs?"
Luke got that far-away look in his eyes. "Naw. I guess the Academy is still keeping him pretty busy." Luke and Tank had been planning on going to the Imperial Academy along with Biggs, but Luke's uncle had kept him here on Tatooine for another season, and Tank had flunked the entrance exam. "You ever get the feeling you're imprisoned on this chunk of rock?"
Tank nodded. "Nothing here but heat, sand, salt, grit, and Tuskin raiders."
"I hate the heat," Luke began, and Tank quickly joined in, "I hate the sand. I hate the salt. I hate the grit. And I hate the Tuskin raiders!" They broke into laughter. (It was either laugh or cry.)
At Anchorhead's edge, they were stopped at a roadblock. Tank turned down the music.
"Where are you kids going?" asked the sandtrooper.
"To the Archives, sir. We have an assignment for school."
"Archives are already closed. It's Friday night."
Luke didn't even blink. "We know. We're staying at my uncle's place tonight so we can get an early start tomorrow."
The sandtrooper wasn't buying any of this. "What's his comm number?" When Luke rattled one off, the sandtrooper punched it in.
"Yeah?" came the hollow response.
"Good evening, this is Trooper Faff at the Route 2 roadblock. We have two adolescent males in a speeder here. The driver claims to be your nephew."
"Luke, yeah, he's my nephew. Is the other one a big ugly guy, most likely with a broken down gyrowheel in the back seat? What have they been up to?"
"Nothing that we know of, sir. We're just making sure they aren't coming into town to cause trouble."
"Naw, we're expecting them. Let 'em through will you? My wife's starting to drive me crazy."
"Yes sir. Sorry to bother you." He waived Luck and Tank on ahead. "Okay. Move along."
Luke accelerated. Tank cranked the tunes back up. They skimmed into town and drove to Baba Qwim's, a barbeque joint at the Y-shaped intersection of Dofos, Route 2, and Sunlight Avenue. The landspeeder bounced in and then slid neatly into a parking spot.
Fixer Loneozner was outside waiting for them, a triumphant grin wider than the galaxy on his face. "So, how's my favorite nephew?" he asked coming over to the speeder. He glanced in the backseat, "Tank, did you break this thing again?"
"Hit a blasted rock," grumbled Tank.
A fist-sized hover droid had floated out of Baba Qwim's and now projected a holo of the menu.
Fixer tossed the wheel over onto the gyrowheel's body and climbed into the back of the landspeeder. "Leave it out behind Tosche Station. I'll get to it tomorrow, if I can. Tank, you really need a speeder."
"What I really need is a million trugats."
Luke said, "What I really need is a Famine Crusher, large tuberspices, and a medium Quencher."
The hover droid chittered.
"We eatin' here?"
"Sure. Then we'll cruise the delta lookin' for women."
Fixer shook his head. "I already got me a woman, and she's dragging me to her koochoo school dance. You guys want to come?"
Tank shook his head. "I never want to see the inside of that penitentiary again."
Fixer crooned, "Hot high-school women, all willing to drool over a man who's already graduated."
"Chaperones. No alcohol. So spare me." Tank studied the menu. "Give me three flamewraps, a double-ice Quencher, and Luke, can I have some of your tuberspices?"
"No way."
"Then give me some regular-sized barbequed skins."
The hover droid chittered again.
"What do you want, Fixer?"
"I'd better not. Camie's is on her way here now, so we'll probably get something to eat at the dance."
"MMmmMMMmmm. Cafeteria food."
"Kiss my foot. Hey Tank, you want to make some money?"
Tank turned around warily.
"Drive my hoverbike back to Tosche Station and then bring Jabba the Hutt's sandslider back here. I'll pay you seventy-five trugats."
Luke said, "Now you're working on Jabba the Hutt's stuff?"
"Hey, I'm the Fixer. -–But don't even think of putting a scratch in the paint. Jabba's not the forgiving type."
"Not tonight," replied Tank. "Me and Luke are going women hunting. We're going to bag us a couple of she-devils!"
Fixer dug out four twenty-trugat coins and wafted them as if they were bantha steaks. "Seventy-five trugats."
"Make it eighty, and only if Luke says it's okay with him."
"It's okay with me, Tank. I'm in the shade."
Fixer grinned. "Eighty it is." He handed over the quartet of coins and the two sets of keys. He turned at the sound of a landspeeder chiming. "Oh, someone save my sorry, sorry soul!"
Camie with her oh-too-cute button nose was driving into the parking lot. From the backseat of her landspeeder grinned Windy and Deak.
"Oh look Fixer, you're babysitting."
"Camie!" Fixer climbed out of Luke's landspeeder and headed over.
"We're just giving them a ride to the dance. They have dates waiting for them there."
"With women?"
"Tonight!" sang Windy, "there'll be flames of passion, heartbeats crashin', love lights flashin, we'll do something rash and . . . dangerous! Tonight! My love, tooo-niiiight!"
Fixer climbed in beside Camie and moaned, "Shoot him, please?"
She accelerated away.
The food hovered out on top of a couple of zipdiscs. When they gathered in the food, the zipdisks dashed back into Baba Qwim's.
Luke took a bite of his Famine Crusher. "Tank, do you think we'll ever get off of this lousy planet?"
Tank was dribbling sauce on his skins. "Sure, your uncle promised you can go to the Academy after next season, and I have my ap in for the army. They're bound to take me."
"But you're a pilot!"
"Eh, I'm too big to be a pilot. I should be slugging it out on the ground. Oooh, cool song!" He twisted the volume up even louder. "Juke, jiggle and jump!" he sang. "Juke, jiggle and jump! Juke, jiggle . . . jiggle and jump! Juke, jiggle and jump!"
Luke took another bite of his Famine Crusher.
Tank was chewing on a flamewrap. "We'll reel in a couple of bad women tonight, eh Luke? That Fixer's so blasted lucky to have a girl like Camie - pretty as a sunset and sweeter than bottlejar sap. No more hunting for him, just a quick comm-call and zip she's in his arms. I think she's way too smart for him, but she seems to like him; so hey, what do I know?"
Luke chewed on his Famine Crusher, regretting horribly the one time he had kissed Camie. Okay, it had been she who had kissed him, but he hadn't stopped her. He still remembered how good she had felt in his arms and how soft her lips were. He remembered the lavender scent of her hair. She drove him crazy when she and Fixer rode in his back seat with the wind flipping her short skirt up and down, teasing him with flickering glimpses of her tan legs. At times, he longed for a second kiss from her, but she was his friend's girl. He needed to keep his hands off. He needed to keep his thoughts to himself.
When they finished eating, Tank went looking for Fixer's hoverbike. He found it at the end of the row, mounted it, started the engine, rose up into the air and scooted off down Route 2 towards Tosche Station.
As Luke reached to start the ignition, the passenger door swung open, and who slipped into the seat beside him but Biggs Darklighter. His best friend wasn't in his Academy uniform but instead was wearing civilian clothes. "Don't ask questions, Luke. Just get me out of here as fast as you can," said Biggs, his dark eyes searching for danger.
