Enjoy! (Revised 3/26/05)

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Luke dumped his stuff in the speeder as quickly as possible, not caring if he broke any of the supplies. He had to talk to the owner of the speeder; this may be his only opportunity for a very long time. He jogged through the city to the point were he saw the speeder last. He only had a little time before he had to go home, but he did not care if he got into trouble if he was late. His dream just came to life. The road forked a little ways down. Luke paused for a moment and decided to take the left road, for reasons unknown to him. It just felt right. He walked down the streets and looked on in amazement at the things he saw. This was an outlaw street. This street was the street that Storm Troopers came to clean out. Spice dealers and smugglers would sometimes build warehouses in this part of the city. It was not a respectable part of the town, but if someone was looking for something rare and did not care how much it cost or where it was from, the street was a cornucopia of shopping.

Luke swerved through traffic of speeders and people, searching everywhere for the speeder. Finally, he saw it parked in front of a standard dome building, but the driver was no where to be seen. He paused, analyzing the building, betting that the driver had gone in. It could have been a house, hotel, or something completely different. If he told his friends at school about this, they would be so jealous that he was even on the street, but what was he supposed to do now? Even in illegal bars or hotels, a boy would be rejected, because of the massive amount of trouble they could get into for corrupting minors. Turning his back to the building, Luke decided that this would be as close as he could ever get to the speeder. As he started walking away, he thought about how much he wanted that speeder. For the last four years, he slaved around the house, scraping up the money that he could, but he was still no where near the 35,000 credits that it would take to buy a speeder. Too bad I can't go in the bar, Luke thought. But wait, what if it is just a perfectly legitimate store that just happens to be located on the street? I wouldn't get in trouble if I went in there. Right?

Luke turned once more and strode to the door of the building, exuding confidence. He stood straight and tried to make himself look more mature as he walked through the doorway. What was on the other side completely amazed the teenage boy, filling grand thoughts in his head.

The inside looked like the perfect outlaw hangout. The room was filled with rare and precious things, everything from rugs to guns to jewelry to bottles of different color liquids. Despite the luxury, the room still looked dingy and worn. Traces of blaster fights were on the wall, with the scorching still quite evident. The air was thick, probably from spice smoke, and glowed from the dim lighting. Luke looked around, trying to squint through the haze to find the man would piloted the speeder outside, but he could not find him anywhere in the smoke. He saw several humanoids sitting at a table nearby discussing what sounded like shipping plans. No, Luke thought, this is no bar. This must be a house or a hideout.

"Hello," said a voice from behind him, catching Luke off-guard. Luke spun around and looked at the speaker. It was a burly looking thing, though Luke could not tell what species the speaker was. Whatever it was, it was big. "What's a kid like you looking for in here?" the creature asked. "We don't sell spice or anything." Luke looked stunned for a moment, before replying cautiously.

"I'm not here for spice," Luke answered timidly. "I'm looking for the owner of the SYG-2088 outside." Suddenly he felt horribly stupid and naïve. Great, Luke thought, he must think that I'm some kind of loser who follows speeders around. Man, I'm in so much trouble.

"What SYG-2088?" the creature asked, his voice not revealing anything. Luke just blinked in surprise.

"The one parked outside," he responded, growing more and more anxious, not sure what he should do. Running did not seem like much of an option, because the creature was blocking his exit.

"There is no SYG-2088 outside," the creature firmly stated, walking closer to Luke. Before Luke could insist that there was, another voice broke through the air.

"Yes, there is, Exrit. It's mine," said a cultured sounding voice. "Exrit" looked abashed, and with a final look at Luke, walked back to a table hidden somewhere in the fog. The man from Mos Eisley walked forward and looked at Luke. "Now, what did you want with my speeder, kid?"

"Um…" Luke couldn't bring himself to say what he wanted. It felt so insignificant, and he felt so small.

"Well, kid? You better not waste my time," stated the man, glancing down at his manicured fingernails.

"Idliketoknowwhatitcost," blurted Luke in a rush of air. The man paused a moment to decipher what Luke had said.

"What it cost? You're a farmer kid, aren't you?" the man asked condescendingly. Luke defensively adjusted his clothing, extremely conscious of the dust engrained into the fabric. He may have not like his clothing, but there was no need for the man to be so harsh, even though he had just as little respect for the clothes. "It's probably out of your price range, kid," the man said, turning around.

"I'd still like to know," responded Luke with false bravado.

The man turned around and gazed at Luke for a moment and then flatly announced, "300,000 credits." Luke stood stunned, his eyes growing wide. How was he supposed to get that much money?

He must have said it out loud because the man laughed and responded to the question. "You can't, kid. At least not yet. Just save your money and get a cheap, safe little speeder. Well, if that's all, kid." The man turned and walked away, laughing.

Luke stood there, feeling anger build up in him. That person had dared to say that he would not be able to get a speeder like that? He would not dare stoop to the level of stealing that thing's speeder now, even if it was the last speeder in the galaxy. He hadn't really been considering stealing it, because he knew he would probably be caught not even a breath outside of the city. There were probably no other SYG-2088s on Tatooine and it would be extremely simple to catch it again.

Luke stalked back outside. The suns were setting and he should go back home. But the words still reverberated in his head.

You can't…

You can't...

Oh, yes, he could, but how?

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Answer to some questions: Vader will come in a little bit; I need to set the story up first. It might be slow for a little bit, but it will get there, don't worry.