Clearly I don't own Star Wars, so budge off.
Chapter 5. Hutts, Bad Engineering, and a Surprise Visitor
They were sold quickly the next day to a large package of slaves going to Gardulla the Hutt. Huddling on the crowded transport, among so much misery, Ben wondered about the will of the force sometimes. Shmi grasped Anakin in one arm, her other tightly around Ben's shoulders. Eyes wary she glanced out from under a drab green shawl, under which she wore an equally faded purple half jacket, beige shirt and brown skirt and leggings. Ben was dressed much the same, in brown shirt and leggings, a too large beige many pocketed jacket over that tied with an obi of grey fabric and wrapped from wrist to elbow with bandages to keep his sleeves from catching in things. His blue shawl was currently wrapped around a sleeping Anakin. Clutched in Anakin's hand was the model starfighter. Ben was thinking of taking it from him, scared as he was.
The journey took a full month and they were some of the first to disembark under the careful eye of Gardulla and her henchmen. Shmi gazed around at the sandy horizons, her eyes wary. Anakin was tucked in the crook of her right arm, his tiny fists wrapped in her shawl. Shmi's left hand wrapped around Ben's wrist, as he came up behind her, making sure she didn't lose him in the crowd.
"Well," Ben muttered in her ear, his voice bitingly sarcastic, "At least I finally made it to Tattoine, and look Anakin's here."
"Very funny Ben." Shmi muttered back as they queued up to be processed, and have their skills assessed.
"Names species and ages?" a droid asked.
"Shmi, Ben and Anakin Skywalker. Humans. Thirty-five, Eighteen, and Two" Shmi replied.
"Special skills?"
"Myself and Ben are both skilled ship and maintenance mechanics."
"Walk to your left, to receive your assignments." The next several hours were spent being told to hurry up, and then waiting, until finally Ben and Shmi had been assigned to work on Gardulla's large collection of podracers. They were mostly left to fend for themselves in terms of food and housing. As long as they avoided the guards and stayed within their chips' boundaries they were given no specific instructions.
Ben eventually found them a corner to huddle in for the night, keeping away several people who decided they looked like easy pickings with several mind suggestions.
The next morning Shmi handed Anakin to Ben and told Ben to get to work, while she made alliances. At Ben's protest she reminded him that she had been doing this for a lot longer then he had, not to mention that she too had the force. Nodding reluctantly and tying Anakin to his back, Ben had set out to find the maintenance bay.
Ben was the only living being aside from Anakin in the whole cool basement of scattered parts, tools, and about twenty or so flying machines, everything from a large desert schooner to speeder bikes. The whole maintenance bay was simply a huge dirt cave with the only light coming from dim overhead lamps, and the large opening at the end leading out into scorching desert. There were several astromech droids whirring around, and several other maintenance droids including the boxy EG-6 and one very lost republic city janitor droid, classified as RC-M10 desperately trying to keep the place tidy, while missing half its tool arms. Ben's first task was to shut it down so he could reprogram the poor thing.
By the time Shmi arrived with food and a grim expression, Ben was arm deep in one racer and had set the droids to organizing things.
"Ben come out of there so I can speak with you. Ani where are you baby?"
"Mama." Anakin called out from where Ben had made a makeshift playpen with some netting.
"Yes Mom?" Ben replied, emerging covered in grease already. Shmi handed him some food and picked Ani up before responding.
"It's not good Ben." Shmi's lilted accent thick with worry. "Not good at all. Firstly everyone speaks Huttese. There are thugs everywhere, and as far as I can tell there are no alliances any where, it's everyone out for themselves, people are too scared and there's too little to go around. Even if you do deactivate our transmitters we're too far from anywhere to escape, we'll die of thirst first. If we try and escape on one of the machines they'll probably catch us. Gardulla has too much money, slaves are worth less then droids out here." Shmi finished, and began to feed Anakin.
"What about freshers and things?"
"I'm sorry Ben, but there aren't any, and when I took the food from the kitchen, well it wasn't good Ben. I don't know how we're going to keep Ani from getting sick. It looks like anything we need were going to have to steal, and from what I can tell the punishment for stealing is death." Ben sunk to his knees beside the racer he had been working on with a sigh.
"Don't die mama" Anakin piped in.
"We're not gonna die, Ani, don't worry." Shmi replied, stroking Ani's blond head.
"I'm sorry Mom," Ben spoke, rubbing his filthy hands through filthier hair, "maybe I should have killed Pi-Jaddica, or at least tried harder to get us some place better."
"It wasn't your fault Ben. I know it's awful but we have the force, and it could be a lot worse. We could be separated from each other, or we could have been sold to a brothel. I hate to say it, but this is place is fairly normal for people like us. We're just going to have to survive, and try and get ourselves sold."
"All right, I think I can do that. About the food, I may be able to rig us a working kitchen in here. Maybe even a hydroponics bay if we can steal some seeds. It won't be much but it will be better then nothing. We might as well just sleep down here too"
"We're also going to have to figure out a way to keep things out from there." She pointed to the entrance leading out in to the desert. "Can you make us hammocks, at least for tonight so we don't have to sleep with," she paused trying to find the right word, "crawling things?" Ben nodded, his mind already far away with ideas. "Good, I suppose we might as well get to work."
By nightfall they had made a makeshift cooking and sleeping area. Even though the days were blazing hot the night was blisteringly cold, and occasionally you could hear the whispery rasp of something scaly moving across the floor.
Morning found Ben and Shmi sitting at the edge of what they had begun to refer to as the cave, while Ani played in the sand, meditating as the sun rose. Occasionally Ani meditated with them, but some days he didn't have enough patience, and Ben almost thought that with his connection to the force, he almost didn't need to. Shmi kept half an eye on him, making sure he didn't stray too far, or decide to pick up anything dangerous.
The rest of the morning was spent cleaning organizing, and seeing what they could salvage or steal to create the most moderate of living spaces. They took the corner farthest from the cave entrance to sleep in, with the help of droids, dragging shelves over to create makeshift screens, and hanging hammocks made from cargo netting behind them. Ben dragged left over cushions from old pod racer seats and a worktable just outside the entrance to the desert, hanging a canvas awning over them so he could have a good place to work with light.
Shmi fleshed out the cooking area, making pots and pans out of old sheet metal with a soldering iron. With Ben's help she made an electric stove out of some ancient heating coils, circuits, and a half used power source. The whole thing also doubled as a heater, when raised high off the ground so Anakin couldn't get to it.
Ben had commented that they didn't really need it, as all they had to do to cook was leave food outside at noon. All that had earned him was a look from Shmi. Just before lunch Ben began to see if he could cobble together a hydrogen collector to see if he could make water.
They stopped for lunch just after mid-day eating small pieces of flat bread that Shmi had saved from yesterday. After lunch their one and only protocol and communications droid an ancient and much modified GE3 bipedal, had informed them that they were to ready one of the pods for a race tomorrow. The astromechs had immediately congregated around the racer, although smart things that they were, had already learned to listen to Ben and Shmi, and waited for instructions.
Quickly asking GE3 questions, Ben and Shmi got to work. The GE3 despite being so old, almost three hundred years by Ben's calculations, was quite knowledgeable. Telling them anything they needed about the upcoming race, what time they needed the pod ready, what to do after they finished it, and how to contact the racer, a rather annoying Dug. Shmi was grateful to learn that GE3 also had some child watching programming, and set it to begin teaching Anakin huttese, although Anakin barely spoke basic.
The dug racer came by just before sunset with an entourage, posturing and bullying.
"You're a woman, what you know about mechanics?" The dug demanded in very backcountry huttese. Shmi barely spoke the language but she responded as best she could.
"I learned on Kabray station. Sir. Owner taught me."
"They're just human slaves, boss." One of the entourage spoke up, "Don't bother with them."
"She can't be too bad boss. She's got two sons, strong womb on this one." Another pipped in.
"I don't give a shit's shoes about her womb. You better have that racer doing over three hundred, you understand woman?"
"Yes sir." Shmi bowed, motioning Ben to do the same. With that the dug swept out to go see Gardulla, leaving Ben and Shmi to let out relieved breaths.
Later that night Shmi took Ben up to explore, leaving Anakin asleep under care of two astromechs as guard dogs and under the ministrations of GE3. First they went to the kitchen to get more food, Ben taking a large risk and stealing a whole gallon of water and some of the large fruits, to see if he could grow things from their seeds.
Next they wandered up from the slave levels to the upper living levels, which seeing how hutts lived wasn't much better. Ben even managed to find a holo-net portal, and download schematics to make a water-vaporator to pull moisture from the air. Despite the lack of sleep, it was definitely worth it, as when they retreated back to the cave they had everything they needed to make their life tolerable.
Ben and Shmi's pod modifications worked surprisingly well, and the pod won the race the next day. Then continued to do better and better each race. Soon they found that food wasn't a problem for them, as some of the racers grateful they hadn't crashed and died made sure they had what they needed.
Occasionally Ben or Shmi accompanied one of the racers to the track. That was always nerve racking, as that put them in direct sight of Gardulla who could easily blame them if one of her pods didn't win, which usually resulted in a bruise or two. Only once had there been a beating.
Anakin seemed to grow and learn more each day. Both in the force and whatever academic materials Ben could find, which wasn't much. By two and a half he could recite the alphabet in three languages, knew most of the parts of a podracer, and could set the sand and small pebbles to whirling with the force. Which annoyed both Ben and Shmi to no end, as one of his favorite games was flicking them in the head with said pebbles.
Anakin had such an odd upbringing in that cave, droids, who he really didn't understand weren't quite alive, and a few small snakes his constant companions. Before he could even really speak completely fluently Ben already had him fixing small things, trusting him not to simply shove small screws and such in his mouth. Ben and Shmi often sighed at the inadequacy of it, but Anakin saw nothing wrong. He loved his Mom and big brother, they always smelled nicely of engine oil and smoke, they always made time to play with him, and listening to their stories about Anakin and Obi-Wan the great Jedi, while bundled up under the stars was nice. The cave and its surrounding sand was home, everything else was terrifying to him. Shmi and Ben did nothing to discourage this attitude, it was terrifying to them too.
Although they thought they lived quite well and were content to just be left alone, and fix ships, they were in fact living in abject poverty. They had no running water, barely any electricity, and they lived with creatures of the desert constantly trying to find a cool place to sit. Ben had made a working vaporator, although it was only enough to grow their small row of vegetables, and sometimes enough water to give their faces a quick wash occasionally. Aside from that they were always filthy, and had only one set of clothes each. Often it was so warm they didn't really bother wearing much of them, they didn't need to protect themselves from the sun, living as they did in a cave. Occasionally there was time to relax on the cushions outside, and a nap during the hottest part of the day wasn't unheard of. When they needed new parts they sent one of the droids up to order them. The pods were better taken care of then they were. As long as they didn't really leave the cave, and disappeared when Gardulla came by to inspect things they were all right. The one time Ben hadn't gotten away fast enough after a loss, one of Gardulla's thugs had beaten him so badly he had been sick for a week.
Of course things were fine, well sort of miserable but fine, until the force decided to mix things up again. It decided as always that these sort of things had to occur in the exact middle of the night, waking Ben up with a jerk once again.
"Ben. Honey, what's wrong." Shmi muttered from where she and Ani were sleeping in a hammock, as Ben woke her up by tumbling out of his own hammock.
"Not sure Mom. Be alert. Stay here, felt something." Ben muttered back quietly, searching for and hefting the longest wrench they had in one hand, the one he often used to practice his katas with.
Moving quickly and silently towards the dirt stairs leading up to the upper levels, he began to explore, the force guiding his movements. All seemed quiet, and he could find nothing wrong, still the force urged him forwards. Finally he found himself in one of the passages coming off from the main entrance way. There was a quiet but intense scuffle going on just to the left of him. Pressing himself into the shadows Ben edged as close as he could get, pulling the wrench up into a ready position.
Suddenly the force seemed to shout "Now!" at him and using the force to enhance his speed he jumped, bringing the wrench down on one of Gardulla's hulking saber toothed guards.
With an almighty crack on the guards green skull, the creature toppled to the ground. Leaving Ben facing a young human in his early twenties with a yellow stripe across his deeply tanned nose, a quickly bruising cheek, a few dreads, and a padawan braid.
"Really Quin," Ben whispered, "even I can do better then that." Quinlan Vos, a jedi who although a few years older then Ben, had been in Ben's clan, stared back in shock. Rolling his eyes at Quinlan Ben leaned down over the guard.
Shmi had discovered a few months ago that she could create electric sparks with the force if she rubbed air molecules together when she snapped. Ben applied this technique to the guard now, causing him to jolt awake.
"There was no one here, you saw nothing, you fell and hit your head. You can go back to sleep now" Ben whispered, waving his fingers in front of the guards bulbous eyes, and letting him slump back to the ground. Beckoning to Quinlan he lead the way down another set of stairs and towards the cave.
"Who are you?" Quinlan whispered after a few moments of tense silence as they traveled through the filthy fortress. The figure in front of him was utterly unrecognizable to him, with filthy shabby clothing, dirty face smeared with grease, shaggy sun-bleached red-gold hair pulled back in a small tail, and skin cooked as far as skin so pale could be. Clutching the wrench loosely, this young man in front of him looked utterly destitute, and almost feral. Although his voice, his voice was odd, buried under a roughness was definitely pure Courscant.
Ben smiled at Quinlan's impulsive nature, but simply put a finger to his lips as they were passing a room with sleeping slaves in it. Up ahead they could talk. Pulling Quinlan into an unlit empty droid cupboard, and flicking on the dim light, Ben fell into a Jedi bow that one gave to those of similar rank.
"My name is Ben Skywalker, but I was once known as Obi-Wan Kenobi."
"Obi!" Quinlan stared in shock, "What the hell are you doing here? Everyone thought you'd gone rogue after you ran on Corellia. Bant sobbed for a month."
"Oh kriff, I hoped I hadn't upset herself to much. She's going to be furious with me when I finally do get back."
"Damn right she is. The council is gonna be as well when I drag you back."
"Yeah, about that, Quin. I'm afraid I can't let you do that."
"Why the hell not?"
"To answer your original question, as to what the hell I'm doing here, I need to stay and protect my family. That's why I left in the first place, Jedi aren't really allowed to prioritize some suffering over others. I was having dreams about my little brother burning. Now come on, I can answer more questions later, its not really safe here. Also if you wouldn't mind, call me Ben."
"Sure Ben." Quinlan responded, but Ben was already on the move, gliding silently down the hallway, and over sleeping figures. He followed the almost ghost like figure down through the cool hallways, until finally he had to duck to get down a pair of out of the way dirt stairs.
"BEN! Where have you been?" Shmi whispered almost frantically, as the pair emerged from the bottom of the stairs.
"Ben!" Anakin squeaked joyfully, launching himself into his older brother's arms.
"Hi Ani. Mom this is Jedi Padawan Quinlan Vos. He needed help out of a tight spot. Don't worry no one knows he's here. I mind-tricked the guard. Quin this is my mother Shmi Skywalker, and my little brother Anakin."
"Pleased to meet you, Madame Skywalker." Quinlan replied, with a bow.
"Just Shmi is fine Padawan Vos. It is nice to meet another Jedi, but if I may ask what are you doing here, and why did you need my son to endanger himself."
"Mother. Please." Ben muttered.
"It's alright, Obi-, I mean Ben. Your mother deserves to know. I am trying to track my master. Master Tholme left me with Master Jinn on Ragoon VI a couple months ago, who by the way is not overly pleased with you either Ben."
"Well tough luck," Ben replied, hoisting Anakin higher on his hip, "he didn't want me in the first place."
"Anyway my Master's gone missing, and so I ditched Master Jinn to go after him. Last I heard he was visiting one of the hutts." Shmi motioned them over to their small outdoor cooking area where she began to boil bantha-milk for an herb drink. As they had no cooling unit it wasn't safe to drink otherwise. Sitting and accepting the drink Quinlan finished his story, and Ben and Shmi told him what they knew.
Quinlan had so far tracked his Master through three systems, and this was his last lead. That was until Ben asked him if he had visited Jabba. Jabba was rather nastier then Gardulla and hence was quickly taking over her territory, although he was still relatively unknown. Quinlan thanked them and asked them if he could stay here for just one night. Shmi of course replied with a yes, retreating back to bed. Leaving just Ben and Quinlan sitting on the cushions under the amazing starry sky, with Anakin asleep in Ben's lap.
"Obi-Wan, Sorry, Ben, what are you really doing here? I mean living like this," Quinlan spoke as he leaned back to look at the sky and motioned to the cave and the pitifully little it held. "You said you wanted to protect your little brother, but this is hardly the place for a child."
"We don't really have a choice. We're slaves Quin. I've been one since Corellia; it was the only way to find them" Ben replied quietly, watching Quinlan's carefully neutral expression before his eyes fixed on Anakin's sleeping face, stroking back the toddlers bleached blonde hair. "Quin, can you do something for me?"
"Sure Ben, anything."
"Look at Anakin with the force, tell me what you see?" Quin did so, concentrating hard.
"Seven Corellian hells." Quin whispered intently, after a moment, "He's so strong I could practically read at night from the light he gives off."
"I think he's the Chosen One Quin." Quinlan sat in silence for a few moments digesting that information, neither confirming nor denying Ben's suspicions.
"Do you want me to tell the council about you when I go home?"
"I'm not sure. I think the force wants us to stay here for now."
"Meditate on it with me Ben? You still do that right?"
"Of course Quin, my mother and I both, probably more then you I'd wager." Ben replied rolling his eyes, and the two young men settled down to do so. Emerging some time later as the sun came up, Quinlan drifting up after Ben.
"Sunrises and sunsets are the best part of this place." Ben muttered, shifting Anakin who was still sleeping on his lap to his shoulder.
"You love him a lot don't you? Regardless of blood." Quinlan replied.
"More than any Jedi ever should." Ben spoke softly, using his free hand to haul Quinlan to his booted feet. "That's why I think you shouldn't tell the council about us. I don't think Anakin is supposed to be Jedi even if he is their savior. I don't think I am either. The force is telling us to stay here for now."
"I will honor your wishes Ben, but you will come back to us someday right?"
"I think so Quin, but we'll just have to see. I'm certainly not going to let Anakin remain a slave forever." Quinlan nodded, and folded his cloak over Ben's shoulders. At Ben's protest he spoke.
"Don't tell me you don't need it. At least take it for Anakin. Thank your mother for me, she took a risk hiding me."
"I will. If you think they won't tell would you at least tell Bant and Garen where I am? You can leave out the rather unpleasant details."
"I will tell, but I'm not lying to them Ben. You live in a shit hole and your friends deserve to at least know their worrying wasn't for nothing."
"Thank you Quin. Good luck finding your Master." Quin nodded, and they grasped arms.
"Be safe Obi-Wan." And with that Quinlan Vos was gone, jogging out into the desert, towards where he had hidden his speeder.
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