Jek sat on an old cargo crate, staring thoughtfully out the window of his command room. The thought never occurred to the Jawa that his meditations could be compared to those of the commanding officer of an Imperial Star Destroyer, staring out a viewport over a vast starscape. Jek's view, however, was much different, in that all he saw were the vast, sandy dunes of Tatooine rolling over the landscape. This scenery was all he had ever known.
A subordinate Jawa entered Jek's "command room." At least that was the name that he had given it in his mind. The younger creature waited patiently for Jek to detect his pheromones and turn around. To his surprise, however, Jek did not turn his body around, but swiveled his command chair around to face him. The younger Jawa did not understand the significance of this, of course, since Jek was the only Jawa around when he'd gotten the idea. He had seen a holo in Mos Eisley of an authoritative-looking man in an Imperial uniform, turning his chair 180 degrees to face his subordinates. This had inspired Jek to install a long, loose screw to connect his box to the floor-bolt. He doubted the other Jawas would ever understand the concept, but Jek needed every element possible element to make himself appear in command, even if the element could only be recognized by the subconscious. Jek faced his comrade and made a satisfying note of the awe and admiration in his scent.
"Speak up, clan brother!"
"Brother," the other Jawa began, faltered, then resumed. "A glint has appeared a few kilometers to the east. It is a possibility that it is sunlight reflecting off metal. It may be a valuable piece of salvage!"
Forgetting his dignity, Jek jumped off his command chair and hurried to the scanner room. The chamber was empty; the Jawas that monitored the instruments were probably in another section of the crawler eating or sleeping or doing some idle thing like that.
Jek ran his hands over the instrument panel, increasing the power to the long-range scanners that searched for wreckages, random pieces of scrap metal, or abandoned machines that the Jawas could repair and sell. The range increased, but the sensors still registered no reading on the metal detectors.
"They detect nothing," Jek said disappointedly. He flipped a few switches to decrease the strain on their power cells.
"Wait a moment, brother," the other Jawa said. "Look there."
Jek looked where the other was pointing, and his eyes quickly brightened. "The auditory detectors!" he exclaimed. "Noise in the desert.!"
As Jek keyed for microphone pickup, he prayed that the sound wasn't desert winds or some creature giving its native call.
He was greatly surprised and relieved when a clear voice resounded over the pickup in clear interplanetary Basic: "Aaay! AAaay! Over here! Please! Aaaay!"
Jek hurried to another portion of the crawler to look out the west-facing viewport. There was indeed a glint reflecting off the inexorable midday suns. Jek recognized the reflection of metal as well as any other Jawa would. A find! And a great one, indeed: a droid, functional enough to call out to them in a sound loud enough to be detected clearly by the crawler's audio pickup! Jek could already feel the credits between his fingers as he moved the sandcrawler off in the direction of the abandoned droid.
Jek leaned back in his command chair and smiled beneath his hood. Their latest acquisition, a shiny, golden-colored, protocol droid had submitted to the Nkik salvage team with virtually no resistance. It had only taken the Jawas the effort of brandishing their ion blasters to the machine to make it comply. The other Jawas had wanted to use the blasters anyway, but Jek had forbade them. The better condition an acquisition was in, the more likely it was to be sold, and at a higher price. The Jawas had fitted the droid with a rusty, but functional restraining bolt, and tossed him into the cargo hold with the rest of the scrap.
Jek rubbed his fingers together. Soon, they would be approaching a tributary of Beggar's Canyon, then it would be time to move on to some of the local moisture farms to sell their goods. Following that, Jek would guide his crawler to a great camp near the Dune Sea for the annual swap meet of all the Jawa clans. He was looking forward to cashing in on his wares and exchanging tales with the other Jawas. He was especially anticipating seeing his oldest friend and clan brother, Het Nkik. He would tell Het of his new authority and success; Het would tell him of his journeys and the development of his radical ideas, and they would both discuss new projects and ventures to take on together, as they reminisced of the past and planned for the future.
It was late in the evening when the sandcrawler picked up a droid on its sensors. Jek immediately sent out an acquisition team. Then, a notion occurred to him. In order to establish his new position as captain of the crawler, he should earn the trust and admiration of all of its crewers. He had always enjoyed taking a leadership role in previous acquisitions. With virtually no hesitation, Jek secured his ion blaster in his holster, then went out to capture the droid.
Jek stood in a dark recess of the canyon wall. There were many good places to hide in these small canyons, which made it an ideal place for an ambush. Jek stood in readiness as the droid made its way through the chasm.
Just as he had predicted, the droid was heading in his general direction. This close to it, he could see it was an older model R2 unit. It didn't look as though it was in prime condition, but it was a better quality than most of the merchandise the Jawas sold. If he couldn't pawn it to a moisture farmer or some other gullible creature, it would bring good fortune at the swap meet.
The little astromech unit rolled within range. Jek was in a perfect spot to surprise the robot. With great finesse, he leaped out into the mechanical being's path and fired an ion blast straight into the barrel-shaped automaton.
As the ion blast fried the systems of the tripodal robot, the little droid let out an extended squeal of surprise and anger, then tipped neatly off its feet and clunked onto the sandy rocks.
Jek made a brief examination of the now unconscious automaton, then gave the "all clear" signal. Gesturing to his invisible pack of ambushers, he called out "Utinni!"
The acquisition team materialized from their hiding places, jabbering and shrieking with delight at their leader's bold ambuscade. At Jek's direction, several of them picked up the deactivated machine and carried it toward the sandcrawler.
The Jawas set the R2 unit upright near the crawler. One of them quickly fitted it with a restraining bolt and stepped clear.
Jek slammed down on a lever on the vehicle's side and, with a loud whoosh, the little droid was sucked unceremoniously up into the vacuum tube mounted on the sandcrawler.
Jek allowed the others a few moments to chatter before he gave the order for the team to return to their posts inside the crawler. He, himself, scurried into a small tube, feeling quite satisfied. He headed for his command room, pausing only briefly to order another Jawa to make sure everything was secure in the cargo hold.
He had just sunk into his swivel chair, when the Jawa rushed into the chamber, babbling something about missing cargo. Jek headed for the huge cargo bays that took up a large portion of the crawler.
As he began his search, the other Jawa rushed toward him, still chattering mindlessly about the lost merchandise. After a few seconds, Jek managed to ascertain that the missing item was a GNK power droid.
Jek sighed. He had heard the unmistakable dialogue of a "Gonk" droid, as they were nicknamed, only moments before. He motioned his clan brother forward and gestured toward a shadowy recess of the bay. Pulling a droid caller from his bandoleer, he pointed it toward the niche and buzzed the receiver bolt.
The droid walked forth, answering the call in the unmistakable dialogue unique to its class: "Gonk. Gonk! Gonk, gonk, gonk!"
Jek half wondered why its creators had given it speech at all. It was no more than a walking battery, a sub-sentient portable recharger for the galaxy's vast variety of machines.
The other Jawa's pheromones were already expressing its embarrassment. Jek decided he had learned his lesson, and therefore ascended to his command room issuing no punishment. There was no sense in disciplining him if he erred on the side of caution. Jek had long ago learned that such was better than to take chances. Inventory was not the aspect of trading that one should take risks in.
Jek Nkik ushered the sandcrawler on. Markets awaited. And so did the swap meet.
He didn't want to be late.