Watto was in an unusually jovial mood that night as he finished up some work at his shop. The Nubian ship that he had won earlier that day stood gleaming in the back junkyard, already semi-disassembled. This day was going so well for him . . . he was so proud of his prize and he still had his best human slave.
He went to go put a fuel converter out in the back and when he came back into the store, he saw a black hooded figure standing there. "Di chuba de niga?" He fluttered closer to the figure and tried to see its face. The hood was doing a great job of covering the facial features of the person. "Di chuba de niga?" he asked again. His little beady eyes widened as the figure took out a blaster, and a choked yell was suddenly silenced.
~*~*~
Meli never thought that Toydarians could be so . . . annoying. This one proved her wrong. She bent down and struggled with the overweight creature's body as she moved it behind the counter. "There . . . we . . . go . . . there. That little guy needs to lose some weight . . ." She put the blaster back and looked around. "Shmi was right when she said that this guy was a junk dealer. I can come up with more quality merchandise." She moved over to the doorway and stopped when she saw the beautiful ship gleaming in the moonlight. *That must be the ship that Obi-Wan and his friends came in. Its really quite beautiful - Nubian architecture and other objects usually are. Wait, get a hold of yourself, Meli,* she thought as she turned around. *You're here to look for that remote and disarm it.*
She began going through doors and looking on the shelves. *Now, why would he be keeping a remote where just anyone could find it or anything could hit it?* She stopped and tried to think of any other places where the little creature would hide it . . . that is, until she spotted a pouch on Watto's tool belt. "Of course," she said out loud as she moved over to the unconscious creature's body. She opened it up and pulled out a locked remote. "Here we go . . . let's see . . . it looks like a typical battery circuit . . . this shouldn't be too bad if I can just keep it locked." She unrolled a small tool kit. "Let's get started."
About fifteen minutes later, the red light on the remote turned green. She didn't hear any telltale explosions, so she presumed that Anakin was still alive. *Good job,* she thought to herself as she rolled back up her tool kit and put the now-defective remote back into a part of her belt. *Now back to the group . . .* Before she left, however, she heard the Toydarian stirring. She couldn't have that, now, could she? Getting out her blaster, she shot him once more.
~*~*~
"Did you get it? Is Anakin free now?" The bounty hunter took out the remote and threw it down in front of her. "He won't blow up, if that's what you're saying." She could see the mother's eyes widen. "How did you get this? Watto won't let Anakin's remote out of his sight since he's his most valuable possession." "A little setting on the blaster labeled 'stun.' Its amazing at how annoying he was, and he also needs to, in my humble opinion, lose some weight." Shmi smiled. "Of course . . . that's Watto for you." Melisandra turned to Obi-Wan and said, "I think we should get the boy and all of us should head to my ship right away." "You're right," he said. "Where is your ship?" "Its before you get into the Dune Sea, on the outskirts of the town." "Right. We'll meet you there. I don't think Qui-Gon really *wants* to talk to you right now." The woman nodded and left just as quickly as she had come.
~*~*~
The thrusters were warmed up, the ramp was down . . . now all she needed was her passengers. *Obi-Wan,* she thought, *Come on. I'm getting a real uneasy feeling right now.* She had no idea how long it had been since she'd left the town, but all of the sudden she saw a beam of red light appear about 100 feet from the ship. A green beam appeared right next to it soon after and, after turning on the emergency outside lights, could see the Queen, her handmaidens, the little boy, and Obi-Wan running towards her. She began the take-off process and waited until she thought everyone was on board. Her friend came up to the cockpit and told her to fly with the ramp down close to where the two lights were battling. "Why?" "So Master Qui-Gon can get on." She looked over to Obi-Wan and asked, "Do we have to?" "Yes!" She knew that he couldn't leave his Master until the trials were complete and, keeping that in mind, did as her friend asked. When she felt something land on the ramp, she began to close it and sped up for fear that his opponent would follow him onto her ship. She didn't hear any alarms after she had enabled the security system and after they were clear of the planet, she sat back and sighed.
Sorry this chapter is so short, everyone! I try not to mix location settings (don't ask why...lol) so next will be about 1 chapter or so and then we arrive at Coruscant. I want a couple of reviews before I update, though! (just so I know people are still reading this...)