Jordy and Roy are standing behind the serving line, staring at a table of Turbolaser gunners. They had finished their meals and are now drinking beer and swapping stories. He looks at the clock. "We've been closed for seventeen minutes now. When are they leaving?"

"I'll ask." Roy walks to the table and talks to the group. Jordy can not hear what they say, but the gunners laugh as Roy returns. "They said I'm to fuck off."

"Really? Nobody tells you to fuck off except for me." Jordy walks to the table. "Excuse me. We are closed and we would appreciate it if you could carry on your reminiscing somewhere else."

"Go fuck yourself," says the one with the thickest neck.

"And get us more beers!" says another one, followed by laughing. Jordy fakes laughs to mock them, and the gunners stop laughing. "I said 'get us more beer!'" he says again, slapping the table.

Jordy looks at their half full beer mugs "You haven't finished these drinks. Let me help you." He waves two fingers and the Force knocks over the mugs, spilling the beer into their laps. The four gunners jump up.

"What the fuck!" screams Thick Neck. He grabs Jordy by the throat and another gunner grabs Jordy's arms from behind. "I'm going watch the life leave your eyes. Ach!" He releases his hands from Gordy's throat and grabs his own, choking.

"What's wrong, bro?" A gunner tries to help him, and the other punches Jordy in the stomach.

"Oof! That was cheap!" Jordy moves his hips to the left and swings his right arm down, hitting the gunner in the balls. He is released and pinching pinches his finger. All the gunners drop to the floor choking and pass out.

Jordy slaps Thick Neck's face until he slowly wakes up. "You had a fight with, ah, some Tie Fighter pilots, and they kicked your ass."

"Tie Fighters kick our ass," the gunner mumbles.

"Good." Jordy does the Jedi Mind Trick on the other three, and Roy helps him drag them into the corridor. They mop the floor and wipe off the tables and chairs. "Let's get out of here. This was a long day."

But, Mr. Stevens appears. "You're still here! I need your help."

"We were just leaving. Our shift is over."

"This is an emergency. Grendel is loose."

Jordy swallows hard. "Grendel the trash monster?"

"Yeah. Some fool left the door to a trash compacter open."

"That thing is in the people compartment? You should send in a bunch of Stormtroopers."

"We need to it alive, not shot up by those inbred knuckleheads."

Roy raises his hand. "Why do we have a trash monster?"

"To eat all the food waste before it rots and releases toxic gasses. Otherwise, the excessive carbon dioxide and methane would overrun the air scrubbers, and kill everybody on board."

"What does he look like?" asks Jordy. "Or she. I'm not sure of Grendel's pronoun preference."

"It...is a lump of tentacles with an eye that looks like a periscope. It swims through the drain tubes to all the compactors looking for food. We need to chase it back into any trash compactor. "

"Chase him back with what?"

"These." He reaches behind his back and brings out two shiny tubes with rectangular bumps. "These are light sabers. Prod him with these. If he grabs you, slice the tentacle off. It will grow back."

They turn on the light sabers and almost burn off their faces.

"Follow me." Mr. Stevens leads them forty-seven decks lower to a narrow open steel door. Inside is a grimy compactor room full of all sorts of trash. "Here is where he got out. You two go that way, and I'll go this way. If you see it, send me a Force direct message, and we'll try to corral it back into here. Got it?"

"You bet." Jordy and Roy march off, waving their light sabers, and Mr. Stephens sprints in the other direction. Soon, they walk half a mile. "Where is this thing?" Jordy asks rhetorically.

"I don't know."

"That was rhetorical." They hear a deep guttural roar. "Was that it?"

"Are you being rhetorical?"

"No!" Jordy stops to listen and hears human screaming. "That's it! Charge!" They run down the hallway, waving his light saber back and forth. Jordy sends a mental alert using the Force.

They turn a corner and see a mass of brown tentacles with suction bumps wrapped around two struggling crewmen. A periscope eye pops up and looks at them, and a tentacle swings toward them. Jordy swishes his light saber, cutting off the tip of the tentacle. Brown ooze shoots out onto his face. "Gross!" Jordy keeps swinging his saber, cutting off more chunks of tentacles. Grendel screams in pain, drops the crewmen, and squirms into a connecting corridor.

Jordy tries to follow but Roy grabs his shoulder. "Remember, don't kill it. "

Jordy looks down at the mauled, nearly dead crewmen. "Who thought using a man-eating monster in the trash system was a good idea? These guys are fucked up."

"Should we take them to medical?"

Jordy snaps his fingers. "I got it! We don't chase Grendel, we lure him."

"With what?"

"Fresh meat." Jordy points to the floor. The crewmen moan in protest, but Jordy grabs one by the arms. "Let's drag them to the next compactor." They find a compactor and leave the men in front of the door. One has died, but the other is groaning. Jordy opens the door, releasing a pungent foul odor.

"That's real bad." Roy covers his face. "I might puke."

"Puke back near the junction. It might attract Grendal."

Roy puts his hand over his mouth and runs about twenty feet before vomit explodes from his mouth. Most of it falls on the pants of an approaching officer in a black uniform.

"What the shit!" The officer's face turns red. He tries to kick the chunks off his leg. "After you clean this off, I'll have you tortured and killed." Mr. Stevens runs up from behind him.

"Where's Grendel?" He looks at the open door with the bait. "Ah, good idea. Let's go back and push him this way."

"What is going on here?" The officer stamps his foot. "Are you responsible for this man? If so, I'll have you executed with him." Mr. Stevens swings his arm as his light sable ignites. The officer's body drops to the ground, followed by his head.

"This should help." Mr. Stevens picks up the head by its hair. "Let's go get it!" They sprint through several corridors and stop at a junction of six passageways. "Which way?"" They hear screaming. "Jordy, go that way and I'll go this way. We'll flank him and push him this way. Roy, stay here and make sure he goes back that way." He points to where they just came from.

"By myself?"

"Yes." Mr. Stevens hands Roy the head and points the way they came. "Throw this to get him going." He and Jordy run down different passageways.

Jordy runs up to a junction and hears blasters firing. He finds three Stormtroopers shooting Grendel. The beast has a gunner and a technician in its tentacles, and the Stormtroopers are blasting the humans more than Grendel.

"Cease fire! We need him alive!" They ignore Jordy and keep firing. He activates his light saber and slashes the troopers, killing them. "Oops. I should not have done that." Grendel's tentacles fling out and pull in the dead Stormtroopers. "Thanks, bro. Let's keep that between us."

"Jordy! Push him this way!" Mr. Stevens is waving to Jordy from the other side of Grendel. He waves his light saber and runs forward. He hacks a tentacle as it was grabbing for him, cutting off a large section. The severed part wraps around his waist and squeezes him.

"Ouch!" Jordy stabs at the pieces until it drains of goo and falls off. "I thought we were pals!" He charges Grendel again, forcing him toward Mr. Stevens. Grendel turns into a connecting passageway and they push it forward. Its speed is slowish so they have to maintain a distance but keep it moving. Mr. Stevens pokes the tentacles constantly. Jordy jumps over the chewed up armor of a Stormtrooper. Grendel is dropping clothes, armor, and black lumps behind him.

"He's pooping!" Mr. Stevens jumps over the excrement, somersaulting five times, and landing twenty feet away. "Roy. Get ready! Throw the head!"

Roy tosses the head, steps back, and holds out his light saber. Grendel slithers into the corridor, and a tentacle snatches the head. The periscope eye looks back at Roy.

"Ahhhhh!" Roy swings the light saber, and nicks a tentacle. Grendel goes toward the open compactor.

"It's working." Mr. Stevens slaps his forehead. "I forgot to station someone past the compactor hatch. It might go past it."

"I'll run down another corridor and flank it again." Jordy turns down a passageway and runs as fast as he can. He turns down a parallel corridor and keeps running. He realizes it stops too short and will not get to the other side of the compactor. He runs back to the corridor and Grendel is already passing. "Shit!"

Mr. Stevens slows and puts his fingers to his forehead. "I sense something, a presence I have not felt since..." Roy and Jordy look past Grendel and see the open hatch. From a connecting passageway, they glimpse a figure emerge. He is tall with a flowing cape and black helmet. "Oh, fuck balls."

"Who here is using the Force without me?" Darth Vader sees Grendel approaching him. "Jesus Christ! What the fuck is that?"

"It's the trash monster!" Mr. Stevens shouts. "Force it into the compactor hatch!"

Darth Vader ignites his red light saber and swings it in a figure-eight motion with one hand. Grendel slows down, but his pursuers prod him onward. It screams and reaches its tentacles for the open hatch, and pulls itself through it, dragging the dead bodies with it. Mr. Stevens looks in and watches it sink into the gooey liquid. He shuts the hatch.

"I should have known you had something to do with that thing?" Darth Vader states, with his most arrogant tone. "A pet of yours?"

"Not hardly, but I'm responsible for it." Mr. Stevens turns off his light saber and puts it away. "Thanks for the assist. I'm glad we could work together."

"I still do not like you." Vader looks at the hatch. "How did that thing get out?"

"Someone left a hatch open, back that way." Mr. Stevens points back with his thumb. "Oh shit! It's still open!" He turns and runs. Jordy and Roy follow, waving their light sabers.

"Idiots." Darth Vader shakes his head and looks around. "Where the hell am I?"