When morning came on Tatooine, it was hot at the beginning. Jim woke up but he could not get up of course. Bones helped him sit up and gave him some water, which Jim grabbed. "Hey, you have to just sip for now," Bones said.

"Where are we?" Jim asked.

"We're on Tatooine. Remember?"

"No."

"We went through the rift, and we crashed this time."

Jim considered that. "We're in that other galaxy again," he said, sounding like he had to struggle with breath.

"Yeah. Lay back down."

Jim did not resist being lain back down, but he grimaced. "I feel terrible," he said.

"You look terrible. You've got a raging fever, I don't have anything to give you for it because a lot of our stuff was burned up with the ship. I set that bone and closed up that wound but that's about as far as it can go for now."

"So, we're in trouble like always."

"Yeah, and we sure do need your brain in this."

"Where exactly are we?"

"Somewhere in the territory of the Tusken Raiders, and they don't like it. Solan is gone to try and find help."

"What?"

"Solan went to try and find help. Spock is here, and I'm taking care of you."

"What about yourself?"

"I have a broken rib. It hurts, but I'll live. Solan has one too, and Spock hit is hard head. He's alright though."

"I didn't strap in," Jim said as he closed his eyes.

"Right. You were telling everyone else to but you didn't."

"I was trying to get control of the ship. I didn't have time."

"You expect everything to just work out."

Jim did not answer but fell asleep again. Bones touched his forehead. He knew the heat of the day would do Jim no good with that fever. He was just glad they had the rock shelter that reflected some of that sunlight and heat.

Spock came back into the shelter after staying out to watch for a while. "I believe we would benefit from some attire from this planet," he said.

"Spock, are you complaining about the heat?" Bones asked.

"No. I am simply stating that we would benefit from different attire."

"Uh huh. You're complaining and don't want to admit it."

"Doctor, the sun on this planet is double that of normal planets. It is logical that it would be oppressive to many species."

Bones scowled at that. "Alright then. I agree."

"You can't win an argument with Spock," Jim said barely above a whisper.

Spock squatted beside Jim. "Captain, how do you feel?" he asked.

"Lousy."

"I am hoping that Solan will at least find transport for us so that we can get you to one of the spaceports."

"That would be nice. Maybe we could try to contact someone."

"We do not know what timeframe we are in now."

"Oh, I'm sure we'll figure it out." Jim groaned. "This hurts."

Spock and Bones did not like to see their friend suffering, but they could not help him anymore than they were at the moment.

Solan was walking across pure sand now. There were no rocky structures, and he was keeping track of his direction with the tricorder that Spock had given him so that he could find his way back to them. He had never felt such heat. Not even when he was on Kolarus III. He had never wanted to go back to that planet when he got off it. He was sure he did not want to come back to this one either if he ever got off it. As he looked out across the vast sand dunes, it made him think of seeing the Sahara Desert on Earth. How did anyone live on this planet? And the sand was hard to walk in, it blew in his face, and he kept chomping down on grit. Besides that, his side hurt. He wondered how long he would have to walk before he would find anything out here, but according to Spock and Doctor McCoy, there were actually people who lived on this planet besides those Tusken Raiders as Spock called them.

As Solan walked, he felt weary, not only because of the heat, but because of that pain in his side. Then he saw something lumbering across the sand. It kinda looked like a giant anvil mixed with a tank. It was reddish in color and actually rolled on tracks. He wondered if he was seeing things, but no, he was not, and it was coming that way. Then he wondered if maybe they would give him a ride somewhere.

As the monstrous vehicle came closer, Solan wondered if whoever was driving that thing could even see him out there. Maybe they would not just run over him. However, as the vehicle got closer, it slowed down and then stopped not far from him. Solan waited and a large door opened on the side of the machine. He was starting to get a little nervous until he saw the beings who descended the ramp. They were small beings, no more than a meter tall, dressed in red robe-like outfits, and their faces were covered except for glowing yellow eyes.

Solan just stood here as two of them came out and began jabbering to him in voices that did not even sound human at all, although the beings were humanoid. "What?" he asked. "I'm not from around here. I don't know what you're saying."

The being gestured to the large vehicle and jabbered more at Solan. "You want to show me something?" Solan asked.

The being nodded then. Solan was not sure he liked that, but he followed them over to the vehicle. They gestured for him to stop outside it, and went back inside. Soon, they came out with a droid. The creature jabbered at Solan and gestured toward the droid, and Solan realized they wanted to sell him the droid. "No, I don't want a droid," he said. "I need transportation."

The beings jabbered among themselves and then did the equivalent of a shrug. "You can't take me to a spaceport?" Solan asked.

More jabbering and shaking of the heads let him know that they most likely were letting him know that they were not a taxi service. "Well, thanks a lot," he said. "You wasted some of my time, and now you won't even help me."

Solan began walking again and he could hear jabbering behind him. He supposed he could follow the tracks of the vehicle and maybe he would find some civilization, if one would call anything on this planet civilization. He had not been here before but he certainly had not seen anything that looked even remotely like civilization yet.

Solan walked all that day without seeing anything but sand and rocks. He hoped Jim was okay after lying there in that heat all day, and maybe they had not had to fight off Tusken Raiders. As he topped the next hill, he could see a small cluster of buildings. He hoped the people there were friendly enough to help him. He walked down there, and stopped a moment.

"Hey! Anyone here?" he called.

"Hello!" someone called. A young man came from inside the small structure that was partly underground. He was dressed in a bluish tunic and beige pants and boots, and he had short brown hair.

A young woman came out next. Her blond hair shined in the overpowering sun. Solan walked over to them. "Hi," he said. "Could I get some water?"

"Of course," the man said. "Come in. My name is Owen Lars, and this is my girlfriend, Beru."

"I'm Solan."

Solan followed them inside where it was actually a little cooler. An older man sat at a table inside. "Father, we have a visitor," Owen said. "Solan, my father, Cliegg Lars."

"Hi," Solan said.

Beru gave him a glass of water and he drank it all before he said anything else. "Thank you," Solan said.

"What brings you out here?" Cliegg asked. "Where are you going? You're walking?"

"Well, I'm kinda lost. My friends and I crashed out there and I've been walking all day trying to find someone to help. My captain is seriously injured."

The others looked genuinely alarmed. "You crashed in the badlands?" Cliegg asked.

"I don't know what it's called, but it sure isn't friendly. We need help."

"Owen, take a speeder and pick up his friends."

"Yes sir," Owen replied.

"Thank you," Solan said as he followed Owen back outside.

They were soon on their way, and Solan showed him the way to where Jim and the others were. In the speeder, it only took them until the afternoon to get there. Spock was watching from the shadows of the cliffs, and Solan thought he looked relieved to see them. "I found help," Solan said as he jumped out of the speeder.

"I am pleased that you have returned," Spock replied.

"This is Owen Lars. Owen, this is Spock. Let's get the others and get out of here."

They went over to where Jim and Bones were. "We have a speeder," Solan said.

"Great," Bones said.

Jim groaned as they got him up, but they carried him to the speeder and got him into it. They all managed to get into it and headed back to the Lars farm. When they arrived, it was already dark. They got Jim into the small place and Beru showed them to a room where they could put him.

Jim was still having fever and he was in pain. "Are there any medical centers around here?" Bones asked. "Are there any medical supplies?"

"We don't have any here," Beru replied.

"Is there a hospital?"

"Not on Tatooine, I'm afraid but there are medical centers in the spaceport. There are medical frigates, but I wouldn't know where any of them are."

"How can we get a ship off this planet?"

"You would have to go to one of the spaceports."

Bones made Jim as comfortable as he could, and then went back into the kitchen area where everyone else was sitting around a table. "So, what are we going to do?" Bones asked.

"We must get some rest tonight first," Spock replied. "They have agreed to let us stay here for the night. It is not safe to travel at night."

Solan rubbed his face. "I'm ready for some sleep after walking across the Sahara all day," he said.

"You should drink plenty of water tonight too," Bones replied.

"Right." Solan got another glass of water and went to the room he had been assigned for the night.

Spock stayed at the table. "Mister Lars, can you tell me the state of the galaxy at this time?" he asked.

"The state?" Cliegg asked.

Bones shook his head. "He wants to know if there's some kind of Emperor trying to build death stars and trying to take over the whole galaxy. And is there some sort of army of the Republic?"

Cliegg was silent a moment. "We've heard of a clone army, but the Republic doesn't reach out here."

Bones forced himself not to roll his eyes. "So, you've never heard of Anakin Skywalker?"

Cliegg scowled. "Skywalker? I've heard that name somewhere."

"You remember," Owen said. "There was a big stink about some slaves escaping, and their last name was Skywalker."

Bones looked at Spock, who simply raised an eyebrow. "How do you know them?" Cliegg asked.

"Oh, we just heard what you heard," Bones replied. He avoided Spock's disapproving look about him lying.

"I don't really approve of having slaves. I had seen Shmi Skywalker. I had considered buying her myself and freeing her. She was too much a lady to live her life as a slave."

"We do not feel that anyone should be a slave," Spock declared. "We are simply trying to find out what is happening in this galaxy now."

"This galaxy?" Cliegg asked.

"He means this planet," Bones interrupted. "We come from…far away."

"Well, I think we could talk about all this more tomorrow."

"Me too. We're all tired. It's been a rough day."

Bones and Spock left the kitchen area and headed for the other side of the small complex where their rooms were. "Spock, what were you trying to do?" Bones asked. "Couldn't you tell he was getting suspicious of us?"

"Doctor, lying is not the way to stop people from being suspicious," Spock replied.

"We can't just go around telling people we're from another galaxy."

"We did before. It did not cause us any adverse reactions."

Bones rolled his eyes at that. "Adverse reactions. Spock, sometimes I think you're an adverse reaction."

"Insults are not going to help us at this time. Will you be staying with Jim tonight?"

"Of course. I'll sleep in the floor in there."

"I will see you in the morning, and perhaps we can figure out how to get off this planet and find those whom we befriended before."

"Yeah. Whatever you say."

Bones went on into Jim's room where Beru was putting a cold cloth on his forehead. "He's very warm," she said.

Bones nodded. "Yeah. He needs medical care that I couldn't give him out there. I'll stay in here with him tonight."

"Very well."

Bones scanned Jim again before he lay on the floor. He hoped tomorrow would be different…