Chapter 5 – Moisture Farmers
"Darth Maul, only you would be bold enough to do something like this." Padmé remarked as she and Dormé were brought before the Sith Lord. Despite getting hit with stun shots, both the senator and her handmaiden were able to come back to consciousness a while later, only to find themselves in stun cuffs and their weapons confiscated by Stormtroopers. Now here they were, treated like common criminals being led to their execution.
"You may wish to save the flattery for those marionettes you call senators Your Highness, for here it will get you nowhere." Maul retorted with a mocking tone.
"Not as much as it will get you once the Imperial Senate hears that you attacked a councilor ship." Dormé shot back, to which Maul just gave a slight chuckle.
"Please don't try to act so surprised my dears. You both know just as well as I do that you were not on any mercy mission of any kind. Now if we are done with the battle of wits let us get straight to the point. Several hours ago our installation on the planet Scarif was attacked by Rebel operatives, and during the chaos several transmissions were beamed to this ship by said operatives. I want to know what happened to the schematics they sent you."
Padmé and Dormé both gave the Dark Lord of look of bafflement.
"I don't know what you're talking about." Padmé replied. "If there was some kind of attack on one of the Imperial worlds, this is the first me and my assistant are hearing about it. For us, we were sent on a diplomatic mission to Alderaan by the Senate, so instead of searching for an accomplice that isn't here-"
"If you wish to continue this game of yours, then so be it." Maul interrupted. "But if you were truly on a mission of diplomacy, then explain to me how this ship jettisoned from the one that was right above Scarif?"
The two women then grew silent.
"Now as I said before, your petty little words may catch the attention of some weak-minded politicians, but this is not the Senate Rotunda Your Highness. The fact that this ship was part of the same fleet that attacked our installation already makes you a part of the Rebel Alliance and therefore a traitor by association at best! Take them away!" Maul finished as he gestured to three Stormtroopers to take their new prisoners back to the Star Destroyer Devastator.
"Holding them is dangerous." Remarked the Imperial Commander as he and Maul walked back to one of the Tantive IV's comm-stations. "If even a whisper of this gets out it could generate more sympathy for the Rebellion in the Senate."
"I've traced the operatives back to the Senator." Maul said. "Which means that now she is my final link to locating their secret base."
"Judging from the looks on their faces, it seems like they'd rather die before they say anything else." Pointed out the officer.
"Leave that to me." Maul assured. "For now use the ship's comm to send out a distress signal, then inform the Senate that all aboard were killed."
"Lord Maul." Said another Imperial officer that came up to the duo. "There are no schematics in any way, shape or form on this ship, and no transmissions were made. However, just a while ago an escape pod was jettisoned from the ship, no life-forms were aboard."
And since the Senator and her assistant didn't make their presence known until just after we boarded… Thought Maul as he realized that could mean only one thing…
"She must have hidden the plans in the escape pod." Maul said. "Send a detachment down to retrieve them, and see to it personally Commander. There will not be anyone to stop us this time!"
Needing no further instruction, the Imperial Commander went about his duty as the Devastator made its way through space, heading back to the space station aptly named the Death Star…
If R2 had the chance to speak Basic instead of beeps and whistles, he would say sarcastically that this day just kept getting better and better, for despite escaping the Empire's clutches the droid had a pretty rough crash-landing once he touched down. Once R2 was able to make his way out of the pod he quickly went over the distance to his destination in his databanks and found that it was quite a ways away from where he currently was. Frustrated but not undeterred R2 then began to make his way across the never-ending desert, trusting that his radar scope would let him know if anyone was nearby despite it being a short-range scope. However, the fact that the planet he was on had two suns was a little disconcerting to the droid because if his radar shorted out from the heat he would be in trouble, and at that point either the heat would get him or a Sarlacc would, to say nothing of the natives called Sand People.
Or at least based on the info R2 had on this planet anyway.
The astrodroid had been traveling for what seemed like hours when all of a sudden he was ambushed and knocked out by a creature he would later recognize as a Jawa. How his radar didn't pick up on them R2 didn't know, but after he woke up and found himself on a transport manned by the same creatures R2 discovered that they had jamming devices that could block radar scopes, hence how they got the drop on him.
A short while later the transport stopped and the Jawas came and took R2 and several other astrodroids outside the transport, for it turned out the scavengers had arrived at a moisture farm and were planning on selling the droids they had procured.
R2 beeped in relief that the Jawas didn't just go ahead and take him apart, but he did wonder how he was going to be able to get to his destination now that he had a restraining bolt on him, and as savvy as he was for a droid R2 doubted he would be able to convince his potential master to let him go and complete the mission his mistress gave him.
Nevertheless, the astrodroid had to do something…
"Okay Owen, try it now."
Owen Lars powered up the reader after getting it back from Anakin so as to do a final checkup on the moisture vaporator Cliegg asked him to look into. Early in the day while Anakin and Cliegg were getting ready for the Jawas to show up Owen Lars and his wife Beru Whitesun-Lars came by the farm to help out. While Owen had originally wanted to stay at his father's farm after he married Beru Cliegg would have none of it, insisting that his son strike out on his own and start his own moisture farm.
"Owen, you're past the point where you need me to look out for you. You have a wife now, and you need to carve out your own niche, just like I did."
It took a little more convincing, but eventually Owen caved in to his father's request, but he promised to visit as much as he could to help out. Even with his stepbrother Anakin there to look after him, Cliegg needed all the help he could get, especially after his leg injury from a brawl with a Tusken Raider some years back.
"It's working again." Owen remarked with a small smile. "And the vaporator's still up to par."
"Told you." Anakin said with a grin. "It just needed a little tweaking."
"Well, 'a little tweaking' for you is a little more complicated for the rest of us." Owen playfully jabbed back.
Anakin just chuckled as he took an old rag and threw it at Owen, which the latter barely dodged while still holding the reader in his hand.
"I really can't leave the two of you alone, can I?" Spoke a voice as Anakin and Owen turned, seeing a young woman with sandy blonde hair standing in the doorway with her arms crossed and a semi-stern look on her face, though a smile was threatening to spread.
"Sorry Beru," Anakin apologized. "It's just that Owen here was trying to 'fix' the vaporator-reader because according to him it wasn't working right."
"And it wasn't!" Owen insisted.
"Owen, you were about ready to smash the thing with a hydrospanner, which ain't the same thing as fixing it." Anakin retorted, to which Owen just sighed in exasperation.
"Well, if you boys are done playing with your toys, dad needs you Anakin." Beru said.
"The Jawas are here?"
Beru nodded.
"All right!" Anakin said as he made his way to the compound where the Jawa's Sandcrawler was.
"Just make sure he gets an astrodroid that knows what it's doing this time." Beru reminded. "I know 3PO's a good translator, but even he can only do so much."
"Given that it's the Jawas, I don't know if we'll have much choice, but I'll let dad know." Anakin said as he walked over to join his father.
Once he met up with Cliegg and 3PO the trio headed over to the Sandcrawler and began inspecting the droids the Jawas brought out.
"All right, we'll take this one." Cleigg said as he gestured to a red astrodroid, to which the Jawas agreed and took the payment from the moisture farmer. Interestingly enough a blue astrodroid began to move and make beeps and whistles as if protesting, but due to the restraining bolt all the scavengers had to do was press a button on one of their hand-held control units and the blue astrodroid stopped whistling.
"Okay Anakin, I know you wanted to head back to Tosche and see if Dex had any luck getting more converters, but I need you to get both 3PO and this astrodroid cleaned up before dinner." Cliegg said.
Anakin sighed wishing he had been able to go to Tosche first, but chores came first in Cliegg Lar's house, so Anakin gestured to the red droid to follow him. However, no sooner did the red droid begin to follow Anakin did it begin to smoke and blow out like a bad engine on a speeder. Wondering what went wrong Anakin walked over to the droid and inspected it closely before calling out to his father.
"Dad!"
"Yeah?"
"This R2 unit's motivator's all shot up!"
"Okay, what the hell are you trying to pull on us?" Cliegg demanded, to which the Jawas protested that they weren't trying to scam them out of anything.
As Anakin glanced at his father arguing with the Jawas, he then looked at the other droids and noticed the blue one once again acting up, with its legs shaking up and down and making whistles as well.
As he looked at the blue droid Anakin had a familiar feeling creep up on him once again which had already happened before during the scrap with Greedo earlier. This wasn't anything new to Anakin for the former podracer always seemed to have a type of feeling that would come over him at various points over the years. As a little kid he paid it no mind, but as he grew up he began to be more aware of things going on around him and not in the same way other kids did, to which at first he chalked it up as experience having already seen some very intense things at so young an age – slavery, prostitution, murders in alleyways and getting into scraps with certain sleamos – but yet somehow all of that cruelty was balanced out by the love from his mother, as well as the friendship he had with Kitster, Wald and the other kids his age. Heck, as demanding as Watto was, even he never sank to the level as certain other slave owners like Gardulla the Hutt.
Plus the fact that Anakin was the only human who could podrace was something of a conundrum, for no other human had ever been able to pull that off. Of course, Anakin figured it was just a mixture of natural talent and learning on-the-job as he went, which made sense for in podracing one had to learn quickly and efficiently if they wanted to have even a chance of coming out of a race with all their limbs intact.
But even after giving up racing that same feeling would still come up every so often, and it would always pay off in some way, so Anakin just trusted that instinct and hoped for the best.
Now here he was, having that same feeling as he was looking at the blue astrodroid that was still moving frantically and whistling.
"Hey dad!" Anakin called. "How about that blue one over there?"
Cliegg then looked to where his son was looking and noticed the blue droid as well. Figuring that it was probably the better option he shrugged, knowing his son's insights were always spot on surprisingly enough.
"All right, we'll take the blue one instead." Cliegg said to the Jawa, who conceded and in some cases seemed glad to be rid of a droid that was being a bit of an annoyance.
"Sir, are you certain of this?" C-3PO asked.
"I'm sure, 3PO." Anakin replied. I don't know how, but I'm sure.
The protocol droid shrugged as the scavengers took the now defunct red astrodroid away while the blue one happily rolled along to join its new owner.
"So little guy, what would you like me to call you?" Anakin asked as he kneeled down with a warm smile. "Or do you already have a name?"
R2 then beeped his response.
"R2-D2." 3PO translated.
"Well R2-D2, my name is Anakin. And this is my protocol droid C-3PO." Anakin introduced.
R2 then beeped back in response.
"Sir, he says he pleased to meet our acquaintances and that whatever you need him to do, he'll gladly do." 3PO said.
Anakin smiled again. "Good to know, but just between you and me don't be afraid to go against the grain a few times." He finished with a whisper.
R2 seemed a little surprised at first to hear his new owner say that, but quickly recovered and chirped back that he'd be glad to.
Anakin then gave a slight chuckle, feeling really confident that he made the right choice in picking this blue droid.
"All right, come on. Let's get both of you guys cleaned up." He said as he led the two droids over to the garage.
"Looks like someone was in the pod after all." Remarked the Stormtrooper captain as he and several other troopers were searching around the escape pod. Tracking it had been pretty simple given the Star Destroyer's computers were able to get a lock on the pod's trajectory and therefore where it would crash-land.
"More like something." Pointed out one trooper as he gestured to some tracks leading away from the escape pod that looked more like wheel tracks than feet.
"A droid then?" Guessed the captain.
"It would have to be." Replied the trooper.
"No data tapes are inside, captain." Spoke another trooper as he stepped out from the pod's interior.
The captain then nodded as he looked out in the direction of the tracks and where they headed.
"There are moisture farms here, right?" Asked the captain.
"In these parts of the planet, yes." Replied the first trooper. "They usually trade with scavengers called Jawas for droids."
The captain nodded as he then activated his comlink and contacted his commander to relay the information…
"Thank the Maker, this oil bath is going to feel so good!" 3PO remarked as he was lowered onto the tub.
Anakin chuckled to himself, knowing 3PO always said that whenever they came to the garage after working on the vaporators. Once the protocol droid was situated Anakin walked over to a makeshift radio and adjusted it so it could play some music while he worked. While the Empire had much control over the airwaves in the core worlds, that wasn't really the case in the outer rim, and as such music was much more widespread. Of course, given that the Hutts and other crime lords had an iron grip on the airwaves in the outer rim, this kind of accessibility did come at a price.
Despite this though, it was good for what Anakin needed, and while he could easily focus on his work without music, he found that it helped move things along much quicker, and it made things more fun too.
"Okay, here we go." Anakin said as he finally got an adequate signal going and a song he recognized called "Moonage Daydream" started to play just as he grabbed some cleaning tools and made his way to R2.
"Man, you've really got a lot of carbon scoring on you. You must have seen quite a bit of action before you ended up with the Jawas, huh?" Anakin remarked after fifteen minutes.
R2 chirped that that would be an understatement. Since 3PO was dozing off in the oil bath he didn't translate, but Anakin somehow was able to catch on to the gist of what the blue astromech was saying.
"A big time understatement?" Anakin guessed, to which R2 nodded and beeped, surprised his new owner understood him for the most part without a translator.
In no time at all the oil bath was done and 3PO stepped out, feeling as good as new. While the protocol droid wasn't one to indulge in anything, oil baths were definitely the exception and as such they were the closest thing to a pastime 3PO had, to which Anakin had no problem helping his droid indulge in.
"Well little guy, you definitely got something jammed in here real good." Anakin said as he started cleaning around one of R2's data drives. "Were you on a starcruiser by any chance or-?"
The mechanic never got a chance to finish his sentence, for as he tried to clean around the drive, he lost his balance and fell backwards, triggering something within R2 and the latter's mini-projector switched on, revealing a holomessage to Anakin whose eyes widened at the image of what could only be described as the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.
"Please help us Qui-Gon Jinn. You're our last hope."
"Who's that?" Anakin asked once he found his voice, to which R2 just beeped back nonchalantly.
"'Who's what?' He asked you a question!" 3PO clarified as he pointed to the holomessage. "Who is that?"
Immediately R2 felt trapped. While he had managed to rig the message to where it wouldn't play the whole thing unless he knew he was at his destination, this didn't mean people wouldn't take notice of it if they fiddled around with his person enough, and given that Anakin clearly knew his way around machines, it was amazing he didn't stumble on it sooner.
The astrodroid wanted to continue the charade and ask what Anakin was talking about, but then quickly realized that that wouldn't work given how sharp Anakin seemed to be, so he beeped back a different reply, hoping to throw his new master off.
"Oh, he says it's nothing sir – old data, pay it no mind." 3PO translated.
Anakin looked from the message to R2 and back to the message again, wondering if the blue droid was somehow covering up, given that the latter took a few moments before replying.
Noticing the look on his new master's face R2 was beginning to realize that his little reply wasn't deterring the mechanic from wondering what the message was. Given that the Empire was after what R2 had in his possession, the astrodroid knew that the less people who knew what this message was the better, but the mechanic nor the protocol droid were letting up on this. Conceding to himself that the jig was up R2 then made a decision and chirped a new reply, this time a more honest one. And all the while hoping that this choice wasn't going to screw everybody over.
"He says that he is the property of Qui-Gon Jinn – a resident of these parts – and it's a private message for him." 3PO said. "Whomever that individual may be."
"Qui-Gon Jinn," Anakin remarked as he mused on the name. "Qui-Gon Jinn – why does that name sound familiar…? Wait a sec, I'm wondering if by Qui-Gon Jinn he means Old Man Jinn-Kai."
"The old chap who lives by the edge of the Dune-sea?" 3PO asked. "That seems to be a little far-fetched."
"Well, it's as good a guess as any." Anakin replied before looking back to the message. Though he didn't know anyone by the name of Qui-Gon, the mechanic did know that Jinn-Kai was an older man who would occasionally venture to the town of Mos Eisley and either play Sabacc or trade with Jawas before being on his way. Anakin had never met the man himself, but the people who did would remark that he was a very kind person, but very much a recluse.
"Y' know, that message sounds like she's in trouble, I better play back the whole thing." Anakin said as he made his way back to R2 who then beeped in protest.
"He says the restraining bolt has short-circuited his recording system." 3PO said. "He suggests that if you remove the bolt he may be able to play the entire recording."
"Mm? Oh yeah." Anakin said as he glanced at the woman in the video again before snapping back to reality.
"Well, I guess you're too small to actually run away on me if I take this thing off." Anakin said as he grabbed some pliers and started to remove the bolt. "Okay…there!"
But instead of the video playing back at the beginning, the message disappeared.
"Hey, where'd she go? Play back the message!" Anakin called.
R2 gave one beep in reply.
"'What message?' The one you've just been playing for a few moments now! The one you're carrying inside your rusty innards!" 3PO retorted angrily as he banged his metal hand on top of R2's head in frustration.
"Anakin! Dinner's ready!" Beru called.
"Okay, I'll be there in a sec!" Anakin called back as he looked at R2 in frustration.
"Sorry Master Anakin, but it looks like he may have picked up a slight flutter." 3PO said as he scrutinized the speech pattern R2 gave a second ago.
"Here, see if there's anything you can do. I'll be back once I'm done eating." Anakin said as he handed some tools to 3PO before heading over to the kitchen.
"Just you reconsider playing that message for him." 3PO scolded.
R2 then beeped a question to the protocol droid.
"No, I don't think he likes you at all." 3PO said.
R2 then beeped one more time.
"No, I don't like you either." 3PO said as he turned away in disgust.
R2 then beeped out a moan. So far he wasn't really off to a good start with his new owner or his fellow droid, but he couldn't risk divulging more information than he already did. Plus it would only put a target on this small family of moisture farmers. Tatooine may be in the outer rim and technically out of the Empire's jurisdiction, but if the Imperials decided to investigate the escape pod he was in…
Either way, R2 had a job to do and he had to do it quickly. And since the restraining bolt was now off of him…
"You know, I think that R2 unit we bought might've been stolen." Anakin said as he joined his father at the table along with Owen and Beru.
"What makes you think that?" Cliegg asked.
"Well, when I was cleaning him up I saw a holomessage come on, and he said that he was the property of Qui-Gon Jinn."
Immediately Cliegg raised his head from his meal.
"I'm thinking he might mean Jinn-Kai. Any idea who he's talking about?"
Cliegg shook his head.
"I wonder if the guy might be related to him." Anakin mused.
"That's just a crazy old man, Anakin." Cliegg said dismissively.
"Plus, does it really matter at this point though?" Owen added. "If the droid belonged to somebody else, it doesn't belong to them now."
"Owen's right." Cliegg agreed. "In fact, tomorrow morning before you put the droids to work take the R2 unit to Anchorhead and have its memory erased. That way it'll give it a fresh start. Now I'm sorry about its previous owner, but it belongs to us now." Cliegg insisted.
"But what if this Qui-Gon comes looking for it?" Anakin asked.
"Somehow I doubt it." Cliegg replied in a tone that made Anakin wonder why his dad was being a bit tense about those names but decided to ask him about that later.
The rest of the dinner went on as usual with some small talk, but after it was over Anakin helped wash the dishes and bid Owen and Beru goodbye before heading back to the garage to finish cleaning up R2.
But before he did, there was one place he wanted to go first.
Making his way out of the compound, Anakin headed over to a set of gravestones belonging to other family members of the Lars family who had long since passed away. Chief among them was one that had been put there two years ago.
As Anakin made his way to the aforementioned grave he knelt down both in reverence and love as he looked at the name etched on the stone.
Shmi Skywalker Lars
Beloved wife and mother
It hadn't always been easy coming to the gravestone since his mother's death, but Anakin made an effort as best he could, and eventually he was able to visit the grave without feeling the hurt. Guilt though, was a whole different story…
Quickly snapping himself out of that latter feeling, Anakin smiled softly as he focused on the happy times he had with his mother. Even during the tough times they had under Watto and especially Gardulla's ownership they had each other to pull themselves through.
As he reflected on this, Anakin remembered the sage advice Shmi would give him at times, one in particular…
"I don't want things to change."
"Ani, you can't stop change any more than you can stop the suns from setting. The only thing you can do is make the best of it when change happens. It may be hard at times, but it's worth it."
"You were right mom." Anakin said. "You were right."
After being there for a while longer Anakin then got up and made his way to the garage. Part of him hoped that 3PO had some luck in convincing R2 to play the full message, but he wouldn't be surprised if the astrodroid was still being stubborn.
"3PO, what are you doing over there?" Anakin asked once he got in and turned on the light.
"It wasn't my fault sir. Please don't deactivate me! I told him not to go, but he's malfunctioning! He kept babbling on about his mission!" 3PO said frantically.
"What?" Anakin said as he grabbed some binoculars and followed his protocol droid out onto the opposite entrance. Despite the twin suns setting Anakin was able to spot the tracks 3PO pointed out to him, leading out to the desert beyond.
"Nothing but sand." Anakin remarked as he zoomed in with the binoculars but spotted nothing.
"Shouldn't we go after him?" 3PO asked.
"No, not with all the Sand People running around this time of night." Anakin replied. "We'll have to wait 'til morning."
"Anakin! I'm shutting the power down!" Cliegg called.
"Okay, I'll be there in a bit." Anakin called back. "Boy, am I gonna get it." He finished as 3PO placed a reassuring hand on his master's shoulder.
BREAK
AN: It's amazing what can help you snap out of your writer's block and inspire you at the same time. And this case, "Rogue One" did both of those things.