Chapter 11
Alex awoke with the intense heat of the desert sun in his face. His lips were dry and his head throbbed and ached around the spot where he was struck. He found that he was being carried by a large Barabel, much like the one from the frigate, only that this one had brown plated skin and was much bigger.
"We stop here to rest." The Barabel shouted to his companions in a deep throaty voice. "Then we continue until nightfall."
The Barabel threw Alex onto the sand like a ragdoll and then proceeded to tie him up to a Eopie using some cord. A Eopie was a camel like creature native to the sands of Tatooine. They were often used in desert travel for their continuous endurance and ability to carry a heavy load. This Eopie only carried a few bags of food, water and other gear.
Alex saw that there were five people in the group, the Barabel, a Rodian, and three humans. The Rodians were a reptilian humanoid species with green shaded skin, large round black eyes, tapir-like snouts and a pair of saucer shaped antennae on their heads, which served to pick up vibrations.
Alex sat up in the sand, and his head was still slightly spinning after awaking from being unconscious. "What happened to the other people I was with?" he asked.
"Your master is dead." The Barabel answered sternly.
"Dead?" Alex uttered. "What about the other? The girl, where is she?" Alex asked again.
The Barabel did not respond, he just picked up a blaster rifle and began to clean out the muzzle.
"At least tell me where we are going." Alex demanded.
"We are taking you to Clantaano City, there you will find a transport off the planet."
'They are letting me go,' Alex thought. None of this made any sense, someone obviously betrayed Alex and warned Black Shot about who they were, so why was he still alive.
"Why are you letting me go?" He asked, "Why not just kill me?"
"Those were our orders." The Barabel said, "Just be glad that Black Shot didn't feed you to his Krayt Dragons." The Barabel stood up and shouted to his men, "Alright, breaks over, now get moving!"
The five men stood up, as well as the Eopie that Alex was tied to, and they began to walk.
'If there was a traitor among the Jedi then I have to find out who it is,' Alex realised, 'I'll have to get back to that facility.'
Alex studied his captors, the Barabel carried a wooden walking stick and a rifle, and the three men were unarmed, but the Rodian had a hand blaster strapped to his belt and a knife tucked into his boot.
Alex quickly ran through the escape plan in his mind, and then proceeded. He dropped to his knees and then rolled instantly to the right. He snatched the Rodian's knife from its boot and used it to cut his hands free. Alex then jumped backwards, just in time to escape a blow from the handle of the Rodian's blaster. He jumped forward again, too fast for the Rodian to retaliate, and he grabbed the Rodian by the neck, and held him in front of his body. Alex did this just in time for the Rodian to shield him from a blast of the Barabel's rifle. The blast struck the Rodian fair in the chest, and he died instantly.
Alex took the blaster from the dead Rodian's hand and shot the Barabel between the eyes. The large creature fell backwards into the sand, smoke rising from his forehead.
Alex then dodged an incoming fist from one of the humans and then countered the attack, smashing the handle of his blaster into the human's temple.
Alex kicked the next human in the groin as he ran at him and the human fell onto his knees, doubled over in pain.
The last human had grabbed a hidden blaster from the Eopie and he fired it at Alex. The blast missed Alex's body and in return Alex used the force to pull the blaster from the human's hand. Alex caught the weapon by the heated muzzle in his own hand, flipped it around and then shot the man once in the chest. The human was thrown on his back into the sand, killed instantly from the force of the blast.
With his captors' dead, Alex gathered the things he needed and began the long walk back to the facility where he hoped to confront his betrayer.