Chapter 3

"What a crazy week it's been," Shetka remarked, "Kicked off a secret army, leave our home planet for the first time, get employed at a parts dealership, and now we survive a slave raid and we have a slave of our own. That leaves just one thing to clear up then. Why do we have a slave of our own?"

"Shetka, I've told you a million times, she is not our slave," Arakai explained, "We're simply nursing her back to health after which we'll free her and be done with it."

"You know," said Shetka, "25 wupiupi a day would have taken care of us, but now that we've another mouth to feed I think we might need another source of income."

"It's only temporary," Arakai reassured him, "And are you suggesting that you were gonna live off my income and not find your own job?"

"What? Me?" Shetka looked sarcastically shocked, "Never! Why would you think I would think of such a devious thing?"

"Uh huh," Arakai groaned, "Well I've got to get to Auskey's. Take good care of her while I'm gone."

Now Arakai had thought Auskey's shop looked like a disaster before, but after the slave raid, the inside of the building appeared as though a wampa and a rancor used it as a venue for a wrestling match.

"Hey you," Auskey yelled, "I'm not paying 20 wupiupi a day to sssstand around looking. Sssstart cleaning this placccce up."

"25." Arakai said sternly.

"Oh…right…25," Auskey muttered, "Musssst've sssslipped my mind, heh heh."

Arakai knew that it hadn't slipped Auskey's mind. Nevertheless, he started to clean the mess created by the pirates. He got home after several hours of work with 25 wupiupi in hand. He and Shetka lived in an old shack just on the edge of the city. It contained four rooms: a living room, a kitchen, a bedroom, and a bathroom, although due to lack of water it was more of a dry bucket room. The first thing he did was check on Amee. She was sleeping on a poor quality sofa adjacent to the front door.

"She has a couple broken bones, but, if treated properly, they will heal in about 3 months." Shetka said from the kitchen when he saw Arakai standing over the girl.

"3 months?" Arakai was appalled, "You and I have had broken bones before that healed over the course of a week."

"Don't forget, we had military grade medical care," Shetka pointed out, "She merely has a splint, some soup, and a couple of Mandalorians who, despite excess training in several fields, never got too much of it in the way of advanced health care."

All Arakai could do was groan. He hated watching people suffer. He knew that Amee was sleeping not because she was tired, but because it was the only way she could forget the pain.

"How long has she been like this?" Arakai asked.

"Basically all day," Shetka answered, "I would be to if it were me."

"I suppose so," Arakai said. The two friends ate dinner and went to sleep.

Over the course of the next three months Arakai and Shetka continued to care for Amee. The three grew very close to one another and soon it was as though they were family. When Amee had finally healed, Arakai freed her just like he said he would, but Amee stayed with them because they were her only friends left on the planet. Shetka started a shop called The Far Reaches of Space, which sold goods imported from other planets, and Amee was glad to help him at the shop whenever she could. Arakai continued to work for Tosche Station and eventually convinced Auskey to raise his pay to 30 wupiupi a day. Life seemed as normal as it could be.