CHAPTER SEVEN

Over the next year, Unkar's crews excavated the Super Star Destroyer Ravager, which had been half-way revealed with the large sandstorm. Anything that could be recycled was. Everyone in Unkar's household was assigned to either scavenging or cleaning duties for the wreckage. Unkar even gave up his real food for ration packets in order to squeeze every druggat out of the recently unearthed ship.

Rey was no longer chained, but she was now required to sit at the cleaning tables with Grekka, under the watchful eye of Plutt from his exchange booth. The scavenger crews brought in salvage by the power sleds and speeders. Unkar had about two dozen slaves working on the wreckage, with another three dozen freelancers who exchanged salvage for ration packets.

Ships were constantly arriving from other systems, purchasing the salvage from Unkar, and leaving again. Usually one ship every few days would arrive, but never more than one ship per day.

Which is why when five ships landed around the small Niima Outpost, surrounding the complex, everyone knew they were being raided. Pirates raced down the boarding ramps, firing blasters at anything in the bazaar. Particle blasts burst glass bottles hung from a stand, shattering glass everywhere. Other blasts ignited the fabric awnings over the booths.

Unkar quickly closed his booth, grabbing a recovered E-11 blaster that still had a charge. He shot at anything that moved. Fortunately, the sight was off balance, and he missed hitting anyone.

The workers in the booths and at the cleaning tables scattered in every direction, looking for cover. Some of the pirates grabbed every item they could from the cleaning station and then broke into Unkar's trading post. Other pirates grabbed anyone they could lay their hands on for the Hutt slave trade.

After falling while running away, Grekka was taken by an alien Rey had never seen before. Grekka struggled as she was taken up the ramp of a freighter near the cleaning station.

Rey tried to run faster, trying to get to the safety of her cellar, but a human male with long dark braids grabbed her from behind and lifted her up. Rey kicked and screamed, elbowing the man in the ribs. She threw her head back and knocked the man in his forehead. She did it again, hitting some of his teeth out. The man grabbed onto her chest even harder, trying to squeeze the air out of her. Rey screamed, "Ani! Help!"

She kicked the man in his belly again as she tried to break free. Another man joined him and grabbed her by the legs while the first pirate grabbed her arms. They carried Rey this way between them back to their ship. "She's going to bring a nice price. Such spirit," remarked the first pirate. "So young! Voras will want this one for his personal household, I'm sure."

Rey continued to struggle in their grasps. She knew that Hutts were bad. Her mommy had warned her never to go near them. She wiggled some more, desperate to break free.

As she struggled, the man holding her feet jerked his head backward and then fell to the ground, releasing Rey from his grasp. Rey then saw Ani as he threw his whole body at the first pirate's chest, knocking him to the ground and freeing Rey.

Rey quickly got to her feet and ran faster than she knew was possible. She called on the Force to power her legs, running at full speed to Unkar's dwelling a click away. Ani continued to run interference for her, toying with her would-be abductors.


When Rey reached the cellar trap door, the doors were closed, but not locked—definitely not how she left them this morning. She warily opened one of the doors and crawled inside, feeling around with the Force as Ani had taught her. She could feel Unkar hiding in a corner in fear behind some shipping crates. Rey ignored him and ran to the back wall.

She found her handholds in the rough wall and crawled up into the rafters one more time. This was her safe hold—because there was nothing stored under the rafters, any intruder would just look around the empty space and spend the rest of his time searching among the shipping crates, never thinking there was anyone above him.

Rey calmed her breathing and tried emptying her mind of everything. She grabbed one of the tension poles that were stored in the rafters, barely able to lift it, but determined to push anyone back with it if they found her.

Rey tensed as she heard the cellar doors creak open. A rough male voice spoke in a language she did not understand: "Koose doe nyeeka!"

Rey felt them searching through the crates. Rey tensed as she listened to their movements, feeling through the Force. She knew that it would not take them too long until they found Unkar. Rey quietly moved further back in the rafters, but she dropped her pole when it hit a rafter slat.

Both of the pirates looked at each other at the noise. The lead held his hand to his mouth, indicating for them to be quiet. He motioned with his hand for the other to go to the rafters. The first pirate continued searching behind the crates.

Rey crouched, ready to attack, as the second pirate tried to scale the wall, with little results. Then she heard a crash from below as a crate fell and saw a bright flash of red light, followed by a thud.

Another flash, and some of the rock wall went flying, but the second pirate was not hit. He jumped down and turned toward Unkar in one motion, bringing his weapon to bear on the Blobfish. Unkar ducked behind a crate, as the pirate hit the crate with his blaster fire. Unkar fired back multiple times, as the crate he was hiding behind caught fire. Finally, the second pirate went down.

Unkar yelled, "Girl, come out now. They're dead."

Rey moved cautiously, the rafters creaking. "No." She felt around her and knew there were more coming. "There's more coming."

She could feel the fear magnify in Unkar. He quickly hid behind more crates. Rey just wished she had that blaster in her hand—they would not have gotten this far!

Now another five came down the ladder, having entered from the rear of the building. Rey tensed again, wondering where her granddad was. She knew someone was taking out pirates near the front of the dwelling, and she hoped it was he.

The leader of this group yelled, "Unkar, we know you're down here! Come out!" A few tense moments of silence. "Your behind on your tribute to Voras—he was especially upset that he wasn't told about the new ship being uncovered. Come now, and it won't be so bad."

Unkar moved his blaster between crates and shot, missing everyone and giving away his position. "Fine, we'll do this the hard way." The leader made a few hand motions, and his henchmen surrounded the corner Unkar was in. While two fired from one side of the corner, three others advanced and took Unkar.

"Please, don't shoot, don't shoot! I surrender!" begged Unkar, shaking.

"We're not going to shoot, Unkar!" spoke the leader with a nod to his henchmen. They punched him in the stomach, knocking the air out of him. "Voras just wants you to remember that you are in Hutt Space and that you owe your allegiance to him."

He nodded again, and a henchman hit Unkar on the back of the head with his blaster butt. "Your tribute just went up to forty percent. What we retrieved from the bazaar will be a down payment on your back tribute. And, Voras will be leaving a tribute collector here to make sure this does not happen again. Understood?"

Unkar drew his face back in fear and nodded his head.

"I can't hear you!"

"Understood. Understood!" answered Unkar weakly.

They dropped Unkar to the floor and exited the cellar. Unkar hyperventilated, grateful that they left but quietly mumbling, "I'm ruined. I'm ruined."

Rey waited patiently for Ani. She could not get down by herself, and she did not trust Unkar to touch her. Besides, she was sickened by Unkar's cowardice. She could hear blaster fire outside, the fire from the bazaar raging, and finally the engines of spaceships firing up. It would not be long before the pirates would be gone.

Finally, she felt all five craft lift off, shaking the cellar floor with the blast of their engines. After she heard Unkar crawl up into the main house, Rey breathed a sigh of relief. And then Ani appeared. "Granddad!"

"Rey, are you all right?" he asked, very concerned.

"Fine. Help me down?" she asked.

"No."

"What?"

"I was wrong Rey. I can't be doing everything for you if you're going to survive. I thought Unkar's was safe for you, but I was wrong," explained Ani.

"How am I supposed to get down? Jump?"

"No. You have the means. Work it out." Ani nodded his head and looked at the long pole she held in her hands.

Rey took the pole and dragged it to the edge of the rafters near the wall where she climbed up. There was enough room to drop the pole between the rafters and lean it across the crossbeam, but it was too steep to provide a safe descent.

"Not that way. Think it through," encouraged Ani.

"How can I secure it?" asked Rey. "I don't have any rope."

"Tension. Make some tension," spoke Ani.

Rey knew she could not prop it between two walls, but maybe if she leaned it against the crossbeam at the top and where the wall met the floor at the bottom . . . then she would slide down the pole.

When she reached the floor, Ani took the pole and broke it in half. He gave her one half and took the other one himself. Her beam ended up being about 30 centimeters taller than Rey, but thin enough that she could grasp it easily in her hands. It was heavy enough that she struggled lifting it.

"Rey, after me," instructed Ani as he moved into his first position, his right hand gripped under the staff about a third of the way up with the right point held low and behind him. His right leg was pulled back behind his body, with his weight resting on it. His left leg was forward, with his left hand clenched over the staff one-third of the way from the other end. The staff was held at a 45-degree angle to the floor.

As they ran through the first few forms, Ani smiled and chuckled a little. Rey asked, "Am I doing it wrong, Granddad?"

"No, darling, you're doing just fine," approved Ani. "You just remind me of a ferocious Togruta I once knew, and I miss my little ner'vod." Rey could have sworn she saw a tear in Ani's eye; but then she knew she was imagining things, because ghosts cannot cry. Can they?

They spent the rest of the day and the next few weeks in training as Unkar rebuilt the bazaar. Each day Ani would work Rey hard in Padawan exercises, from running all over the cellar and around the exterior dwelling, to climbing over the crates, lifting objects with both her muscles and her mind, scaling the wall, climbing a rope hung from the rafters, as well as press-ups, sit-ups, and pull-ups. He knew he could not let Rey continue to be unable to defend herself, not if she was going to escape and have to fend for herself in this wasteland.