2
Search
I rolled myself over.
The sun beat down on my face as I stood up.
The rag that had been protecting my mouth from the sand had been blown off when I fell down the hill. I turned my head left and right looking for the piece of blue cloth. It was lying in the sand off to my left. I walked over to it and picked it up. I retied it around my mouth and stood there looking at the dune pit I was in.
The day was coming to a close and I wanted it to end faster. I knew that it would be freezing when night did come but at least it wouldn't be hot.
I hated the sand and all it stood for. My search through the great dune sea was like my search to find a speck of joy in a day so deprived of it. I wanted to lie back down and go to sleep but if I did do that I doubted I would ever wake up.
It must have been 4 hours now. And I hadn't stopped going. I needed to go farther in. I needed to find My brother. It took me forever just to find someone to take me more than 10 miles out into the great dune sea. I was not about to stop my hunt now.
I tried to climb back up the hill and go back to walking along the tops of the dunes. I trudged up the hill. Telling myself all the way… step, step, step. I was halfway there, step, step, step. Three quarters of the way, step, step, step. I got to the top and groaned.
I had hoped to see something on the horizon but nothing was there. I considered giving up, but this was about Finch and I had to find him. I had come to Tatooine hoping to find my brother and hang out for a little wile wile I caught up on things with him.
I thought I would only have to land in Mos Eisley walk to the barracks and see him. I should be home by now I thought to myself, or at least on my way. I thought of my warm bed and excellent food. I shouldn't be here frying to death.
I knew I should have lied to those to guards that were poised outside the barracks. I should have called myself Janus or Luke, but no I had to go and tell them my real name.
I moved slowly along the crest of the sand hill silently cursing every stupid thing I did to get me here. Sure thinking that the storm troopers would believe his fake summons was bad, actually thinking that I could leave after the two guards had given him a direct order pretty stupid too, but if I had had any brains at all then I really wouldn't have done the one thing you never do when you don't want someone to know you name, I would not have told them my name.
As I walked on toward what I hoped was my destination, I thought of how really bad things started getting after I told them I was Han Solo.
"Your Han Solo."
The trooper on the right sneered.
"The Han Solo, who is always there for me when I need him. The Han Solo who is rough but soft. Are you that Han Solo?"
The two troopers looked at me obviously abandoning all protocol for the sake of mocking me. I had these names shot at me in the past but only by one person. Finch. I felt my face reddening and it wasn't because of the heat.
"So you guys do know Finch."
I said with relief flooding through me.
"Know him?"
the one on the left said.
"Up until a few weeks ago we couldn't get rid of him."
They turned and started jabbering about how Finch had a habit of yipping when he got excited. I had noticed it before but it was something Finch took offence to it so I turned off the yipping jokes. The two troopers in front of me however had no problem insulting my brother about it.
"Hey, come on could you tell me where my brother is."
The troopers continued laughing oblivious to my questions.
"Hey," I said a little louder "Tell me where my brother is or..."
That got their attention.
"Or what? We are imperial storm troopers you can't do anything to us. Thanks for your name, you can leave now."
I couldn't see them under their helmets but if I could I had a feeling the'd be grinning. If there was one thing I hated storm troopers throwing their weight around. All they were was a bunch of teenage boys who lifted weights and had guns given to them. That didn't make them anything special. In the recording I got from Finch he seemed like his old self nothing new or special, no arrogance at his sudden and new position. These two how ever chattered away as I stood there waiting for the whereabouts of my brother.
My patience snapped. It had always been low, but that was it. I drew my newly acquired blaster pointed the nozzle at the sky and fired a red beam of energy into the clouds.
The storm troopers swung their blasters of their shoulder with lighting speed. The right one aimed his at my head as the left one swung the butt of his weapon into my stomach. I gave off a grunt of pain and fell to the earth. The two soldiers stood over me blasters trained on my head.
"You're under arrest by imperial law, on the charge of attacking a law enforcement unit."
The one on the right said. They leaned down and grabbed the scruff of my shirt.
"If you're lucky you can join your brother soon."
They haled me to my feet and the left one stood in front of me. I knew they had me and my blaster lay ten feet away in the dirt.
"Fine,"
I said in admission
"but where is he?"
The right one steered me toward the door.
"The little twerp went off on his own against a direct order to hunt down the Hutt. That one was always looking to be the best so when he heard about the great crime lord in the middle of the great dune sea he jumped at the idea of running him down and becoming a hero."
I let my head sag.
"Which way is the great dune sea."
I asked.
The one on the left gave his head a jerk toward the endless expanse of golden brown off to our left.
I let them take me down into the barracks. They towed me to the lower level of the building. There lay a hallway with about two dozen cells lay off to both sides. The shoved me in the one closest to the door. I smiled just a tiny bit. They didn't see.
"Stay put, we'll be back for you in an hour."
I smiled again. Only an hour, I thought, this is going to be easier than I thought.
They left me there and I waited until I was sure there were out of earshot and I drew out another blaster for inside my jacket pocket. The night before after killing snail-man I had taken the smaller gun from his hand and stowed it under my jacket. I knew it would come in handy and just then it did.
I hopped up of the slab of concrete set against the back wall of the cell. I then noted that the cell wall in front of me had no panel or button collage. It was just a piece of black wall.
I sat back down dejected.
My plan had been to shoot the part of the wall that would be most densely packet in wires and buttons and hope it would open, but If I just started shooting random points on the wall then that might attacked some unwanted attention.
You know what,
I said to myself,
If they hear me shooting then they'll open the door any way. Let them come.
I popped up out of my seat and began to fire blaster bolt after blaster bolt at the wall. Red light began bouncing everywhere. I ducked as one of my shots hit the corner and began to rickoshea around the room. I stood up after the shot had used up the last of it's energy and dispersed. I continued until I began to hear shouts in the hall.
I ran to the side of the door waiting for the team of troopers to come bursting in. And soon enough they did.
Half a dozen troopers shot right past me and filled the cell block. They stood there staring at the concrete bed and just as I hoped none turned to face me they all just gawked at the empty room.
I silently looked down at the blaster in my hand. I still had a 10 shots left. Enough to kill all the storm troopers present. I moved my arm into the firing position.
"Where'd he go?"
One of the troopers voiced allowed. They had no clue I was behind them. Every bone in my body told me to fire upon the troopers. I could ensure my safety and go to this Hutt that the two guards had mentioned. My finger drew a fraction of an inch closer to the trigger then I lowered the gun.
I decided to just back out slowly, I'd probably get further away two. I slid silently to the door and I froze on the threshold.
Two other storm troopers were standing directly in front of me in the hallway. I froze. So much for a sneaky exit.
"He's here!"
The left one shouted. I recognized his voice. This was one of the guards that had insulted Finch on the barracks door step. That was justification enough. I sent a bolt of red light slamming into the trooper's chest. He flew backward with a steaming hole where the shot had impacted.
I grabbed the end of the other trooper's gun and jolted it to the left so that when the weapon fired in did so right back into the cell at the other six. A scream emanated from behind me so I knew that another opponent had fallen. I dealt the one in front of me a punch to the face, and shoved him into the cell. I turned to see the outcome.
One of the storm troopers in the cell fired a shot at me, but the one in the hall fell across the shot's path and took the bolt to the face.
I ran, no remorse in my heart at all those two had disrespected a member of my family. The deserved what they got. And when you're trying to assassinate your own captive then anything goes.
I continued to dash up the halls mapping my root for my memory of coming in.
I would have bagged my head before bringing me down into my secret barracks if I were those two guards, but I wasn't. Good thing too, since those two guards were now ling dead in the building I had just left.
I continued running until I could no more. Great now I'm a fugitive. I said allowed. No one heard me. It didn't matter. Soon I would be out in the desert. And the guards had made it more than clear that they thought Finch was dead. So if I went then I too would be claimed dead if I decided to peruse the Hutt.
Only the two guards had known my name. So if I were to die no one would remember me.
I set out to find someone who would take me to the Hutt. I asked three men and one bull-wolf-spider-man hybrid. None agreed. "You want me to take you to HIM?" one of the men said,
"You're crazy if you think I'll take you to him, get your scull looked at."
I decided to not do that. I kept searching until I found a man willing to do it.
"Big price for a big risk."
He said to me,
"100 credit standards, you willing to pay it?"
I grudgingly agreed and we set out in the desert. He wasn't the most trustworthy fellow I could tell so I watched him closely the whole way.
However when He told me that he saw our destination of to our left the excitement took me and the backstabbing traitor booted me over the side. He turned around and sped off with the rest of my money and my spare blaster, and ammo that I had collected from one of the storm troopers guns. I was left there stranded a ways off from my destination. No food no shade completely alone.
I stumbled through the sand blinded by the gale that had came up from nowhere. I wanted to rest just for a moment, but I had a feeling stopping would result in an previously unknown funeral. I kept moving I needed to reach the Hutt.
I crested the dune I was on and saw it. About 3 miles ahead of me were a few cylinders of varying height and size with different roofs and patterns, there it was. So close to me at last. I had almost reached the Palace, of the Hutt.
I was so excited that I didn't notice the figure in black up behind me until it was too late. He raised some sort of staff over my head and I blacked out.
