It was quite a day for Asu-non. First his sister, Hyla, had let him sit with her on the speeder to school, and now he was going home early. Their mother insisted on the children going to a real school and "learning to socialise," in addition to their lessons from their nanny droid. But, Asu thought friends were for playing with, not learning with, so any day he got to go home early was a day that made more sense. Plus, today, father had sent the good speeder. The one with the built in droid driver and the big puffy white seats where you couldn't feel the hard bottom no matter how hard you pushed.
The day made less sense when Asu-non got home. Instead of getting to play or watch holos, Mona – that was his nanny droid M0-N4 – rushed him to the 'fresher and made him bathe. He'd already bathed that morning and hadn't done any running around at school – he'd hardly had time. But, Mona insisted that a very big decision was being made today and he had to be presentable. Asu couldn't imagine what decision would depend on him having two baths in a day, but Mona wouldn't explain.
When Asu was clean, Mona made him brush his thin white hair into a long pony and dressed him in his second-best robe. His best robe was a deep burgundy and that wouldn't do today, no no, Mona had insisted. Asu's second-best robe was a navy blue with silver trimming that was very nice but didn't put him above himself. So, Asu thought it was probably for the best, wanting to stay firmly where he was.
Asu came into the living area of their Coruscant apartment, to find Hyla frowning her biggest frown. But, their father was there, and he wasn't frowning even though he usually did. He was pacing the carpeted room, fiddling with things that usually only the cleaner droids touched, and constantly lining up the little red and blue boxes on his black shirt.
His mother turned from adjusting the viewers on the wall – they weren't high enough to have real windows, no matter how often Hyla complained to mother that all her friends had windows – and knelt in front of Asu. She gave him a wink and Asu smiled. Then came the knock on the door.
Hyla grabbed Asu and dragged him to the door.
"Side by side, like the Empire Day parade." She hissed, glaring until he nodded.
The door swung open, and the adults began to talk. Asu didn't listen. Outside the door he could see a real Imperial Guard. Tall and straight, with a cape and everything, Asu starred and starred and thought he might only see red again for the rest of life. He was wondering if the guard might show him his vibro-pike when his mother touched his shoulder.
Then, instead of seeing the glorious shining red of the guard's uniform he saw a boring old man's face. The man was crisp and grey. He smiled warmly. Asu thought there was something wrong with the man's face, even though he couldn't quite see what it was.
"Asu-non, the Emperor asked you a question, young man." Asu's father was very firm, but at least he wasn't yelling.
"Sorry, sir." Asu said and looked at his feet, even though he didn't know what he was sorry for, it was better not to ask father 'what' or 'why.'
"Oh, it's quite all right." Said the old man in a kindly voice. "It's a big day for Asu-non as well. Have you been in space before, young man? Perhaps you're most excited to live in a house surrounded by real earth?"
"Sir?" said father.
"Yes, Commander. That is to say Major."
"Oh sir!" mother blurted.
"It's quite nothing, dear woman. Please let us eat and we can discuss everything." The old man led everyone to the table, although it was only a step away. Asu noticed the old man was allowed to wear his good red robe, but didn't say anything. Before they sat, Asu's father smiled at them all.
The adults talked all through dinner, barely touching their food. Which Asu quite understood, given that they had to eat "real Noobian Shaak steak" and not the sweet and spicy noddles they would normally have if father was home for meals. But Asu was very good and ate all his food, and didn't get restless at all, even when Hyla's laugh got really, really, irritating.
When the old man left, his father told Asu that he was very proud, but he still didn't get to see the guard's vibro-pike.
The next day Asu-non went to school, and the day after that. On the third day, which would normally be a rest day, Mona woke him up early and said it was time to go. Asu didn't like being woken up, but everyone said that their new home on the Wobbly planet would have a real outside, just like in the holos. So, Asu didn't complain.
When they finally came out of hyperspace forever later Asu and Hyla got to go to the cockpit to see the planet as they landed. Asu wasn't sure what a "Wobbly" planet should be like, but this one just looked like any planet.
"What makes in Wob-a-ly?" he asked, not expecting a reply.
"It's just a name, stupid." Snarked Hyla. She didn't say anything else, until they were in atmosphere. They came in over ocean, which even Asu thought was pretty great. When they were over land Hyla gasped "Oh! Those kriffing girls would be so jealous now!"
Asu didn't see what the excitement was, it all looked like a big hole in the ground to him.
When mother led them down from the shuttle Asu admitted it made a bit more sense, even though he thought it was weird Hyla had changed into a dress. The whole place was soft, and it smelt like Skydome, which was the best place for school excursions and birthday parties. The guards were boring though, they wore white, and it wasn't even polished. Even the door guards had blasters not vibro-pikes.
The house was the best part. It was a whole building all to itself, it had a bottom floor for spending days, including a school room with a shining gold protocol droid and a teaching droid. It also had a top floor where the bedrooms were. Hyla got there first so took the good room with a view of the craggy grey mountains that turned orange in the sunset. But Asu couldn't complain, his room was bigger than the whole living space in their old apartment, and even though you couldn't see mountains it still had a real window.
The house also had an ornament that was rarely visible back on Coruscant. Father was home every night and even home some days that were days off school. Even though they didn't get sweet and spicy noddles every night this still seemed ok to Asu, because father hardly yelled at all anymore. Not for weeks and weeks.
One day that changed. It was a school day, well not really school because there were no other children, but it was a day that Asu did his lessons. It was boring lessons on galactic history today. Even the teaching droid hadn't bothered to stay in the room, and the protocol droid was fluttering about because Hyla had got up and left after her commlink went off even though it was ages until lunch. Asu didn't see why he had to stay there and listen to the things they always said on Empire Day again, so he didn't.
First, he looked outside. But it was raining so he went back in. He thought to look for mother but then remembered she had gone to Chandelier or some boring planet and that had made Hyla yell. Second, he went to his room. None of his toys wanted to play today, and there were no new holos until tonight, so he tried to draw what he saw outside his window. He was pretty happy with it, and was adding in a few Nexu, when he heard a noise coming from his parents' room. He thought that maybe his mother had come home early so he went to check. But no, it was just some lady with long fine white hair like his and father.
He was shutting the door to leave when his father saw him. Father jumped up and yelled and yelled. Asu's shoulder's slumped, he thought his father had gotten over yelling, but apparently not.
After that the rain didn't seem so bad, so Asu went outside. There wasn't much around the house. They went by speeder to go anywhere, and the nearby trees weren't actually a forest, just a bunch of trees planted together to keep the place his father worked out of sight. So, Asu walked. He walked and walked. While he walked, he decided two things. First, that it was probably just the white-haired lady that made father yell, and that once she was gone his nice father would be back. The second was that he was grown up enough now that everyone needed to stop calling him "Asu" and use his proper name.
After he'd decided this, he thought about going home. But he didn't want to chance the white-haired lady still being there and making his father yell. He really didn't want to have to do more galactic history. Besides off in the distance was a fence, and he hadn't seen anything for ages, so he decided to go look.
It took what felt like hours, but was really only twenty minutes, for Asu-non to get to the fence, even with him doing sprints to get there every now and then. Past the fence was really different to Asu-non's side of the fence. There were no plants growing there, not even the scraggly grasses and little wildflowers on Asu-non's side. It was all rocky, and Asu-non thought it probably smelled. It wasn't flat either, it sloped up away from the fence. Asu-non looked back toward home, in the distance he could see the trees that blocked the view to this place from home. There were definitely no trees on the other side of the fence.
The only thing that seemed the same on the other side of the fence was that there was a boy there. He was the same height as Asu-non, who thought that if they were back on Coruscant they'd be in the same class. This boy also had fine white hair like Asu-non. But his wasn't long and tied back, instead it was loose and all different lengths, and it was dirty. Weirdest was what the boy wore. He didn't have a proper jumpsuit for playing outside, or even shoes. Instead, he wore pyjamas that were blue and white stripped.
"Hello." Said Asu-non.
"Hello." Said the boy. It was then Asu-non noted another difference. The boy was skinny. Not like Asu-non was skinny. He was skeletal. A monster from a holo. A corpse cursed by the evil Jedi warlocks. But Asu-non was not an ignorant Nerf Herder. He knew there were lots of species in the galaxy besides humans, and they looked different. Maybe this boy was one of them?
"Are you a Human?" he asked.
"Arkanian." said the boy. Asu-non didn't know any Arkanians, so for all he knew they all looked like this. Perhaps they all hid, so no one was scarred of them. Asu-non thought that was sad but nodded sagely.
"And Hungry." said the boy. Asu-non looked back at the trees in the distance and frowned.
"I didn't bring any food, sorry." He said and then stood awkwardly for a moment. The boy looked at him without speaking.
"Maybe we could play instead?" Asu-non suggested. The boy nodded, but didn't move.
"What do Arkanians play?" asked Asu-non, then felt he should have just suggested Hunters and Jedi. The Arkanian looked at him and then said:
"0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8 what comes next."
"I don't want to do homework." Whined Asu-non. The Arkanian's lip curled up derisively, but he didn't say anything.
"Let's race?" suggest Asu-non.
"Tired." Said the Arkanian.
"Oh, maybe we should just sit and talk then." So, they did. The Arkanian didn't say much that first day, and didn't even laugh. Asu-non was sure he would get him to laugh with his next story about Hyla's laughing at everything the old man with the weird face said at dinner, but he didn't get to start his story because a horn sounded. With that the Arkanian got up and walked away. Asu-non figured the boy had to go back to class, and it was getting late, so he just called out that he'd bring some food tomorrow and then walked home.
When he got home he wanted to tell everyone all about the Arkanian in stripped pyjamas, but father met him at the door. He sat him down and said to Asu-non that he didn't see anything today worth talking about. Asu-non wanted to say he actually he'd found a fence and had met an Arkanian who was very interesting, and ask if maybe he could go to his school and meet some other kids. But father had said it in the same voice he used when talking to the guards in their boring white armour and they always did what father said, so Asu-non thought he shouldn't speak of the Arkanian. So, he just said, "That's true father." And went to bed. Because of this he never told anyone about the Arkanian in stripped pyjamas.
The next day Hyla vanished from lessons before lunch again. They were doing numbers today and Asu-non had really tried to pay attention because he knew his new friend liked numbers. But it was hard. He'd woken up tired and sitting looking at a screen of numbers and new weird symbols and letters where numbers should be didn't help.
Instead of study he went to the kitchen and took a bag of bread and some berries. He thought of taking cheese but thought it might go bad in the heat. That made him think of taking water, so he filled two canteens from the sink and set on his way.
The heat made the walk take forever and by the time he got to the fence, Asu-non could feel his skin going all prickly.
At least his new friend was there waiting for him. He'd never seen a smile so big when he offered the Arkanian water and bread. He tried to hide his surprise when he saw that there were gaps in the Arkanians mouth where a human would have teeth, and that some of the teeth that were there were black.
After that they did a few races, but decided it was too hot. Then Asu-non told the Arkanian about the lessons he was doing. The Arkanian said that it sounded like he was supposed to work out what number the letter in the problems should equal each time. Asu-non said he wished the teaching droid had just said that. Then he said that it sounded like the Arkanian's school was much better than his teaching droid. The Arkanian told Asu-non that it was more of a prison than a school. Asu-non laughed at that, but the Arkanian just looked at the ground.
"Is it because they don't give you enough food?" Asu-non asked after the silence dragged. The Arkanian nodded to that, but just starred when Asu-non asked why he couldn't just ask for more. After that the horn sounded and Asu-non went home.
Over the next few weeks Asu-non went to meet his friend as much as he could. He kept his promise to bring food and water as often as he could. He wanted to invite his friend home, but couldn't think how to ask father about it since he had said not to talk about the Arkanian. Asu-non always went to lessons with droids in the morning, mostly so he'd have something to talk to his friend about. The Arkanian seemed happiest when he helped Asu-non understand something from his lessons.
But then Asu-non had to break his promise, and he felt bad because he couldn't even tell his friend that it wasn't his fault. He felt very bad because he was so excited when his mother was home one night, but it was mother who wouldn't let him out.
When Asu-non came home and saw his mother waiting at the door to the house he ran up and hugged her. She was so happy to see him too. But then she frowned at him and got up to yell and father, which was very serious because usually only father yelled, and he hadn't yelled in ages. In fact, Asu-non realised, he hadn't even spoken to him in weeks and weeks.
Then his mother came back and give him a big hug and a smile and said she would get him cleaned up properly. She took Asu-non to the bath and combed out his long hair herself. Then she rubbed ointment on his face arms and legs. That stung at first, but then felt much better. Asu-non realised his skin had been all prickly for ages, and now it wasn't. It really was good having mother home.
That night he, mother and Hyla all watched holos together. He even got to choose the first one. Hyla's was very boring, but that was ok because he fell asleep during it.
When he woke up the next morning in his bed, he found his mother had laid out a brand-new green robe for him. It was very nice but not good for going outside. When he told mother that she said it was ok, he had to stay inside until his skin had healed, and that by then she could get him some new jumpsuits for play.
That was when Asu-non realised he was going to break his promise to his Arkanian friend, maybe for days and days in a row. He felt angry at his mother for that, and bad that he was angry at her. He was sure she would understand if she knew about his friend. But he obeyed his father and didn't tell.
After a few days Asu-non wasn't angry anymore. He was bored. All he was allowed to do was his lessons and play inside. It was nice that mother was there, but she was always on her holocommunicator to someone and was not to be disturbed.
Then he got a surprise. Mother told him and Hyla together that she and father were going away for two nights to "fix things" and that Hyla was in charge. His sister and mother all seemed very serious, so Asu-non hid his excitement. That night he stayed up planning all the ways he would apologise to the Arkanian. He would definitely need to bring extra food. His friend must be starving by now.
Because he stayed up so late planning, the next morning he slept in. He woke up when Hyla came bursting into his room.
"You have to be gone in half an hour." She demanded.
Asu-non was so excited, he didn't even cower at her yelling.
He tried to run the whole way to the fence. But with all the extra food he'd packed it was just too hard. When he got there and saw his friend he started to cry. His friend looked like he had the first day they had met. Like he didn't have enough muscle in his face left to smile. Asu-non handed over the food and cried and cried.
After he ate, the Arkanian said:
"It's ok, it's not your fault they don't feed us."
"It's not that," replied Asu-non, "It's just I promised, and mother wouldn't let me out and I couldn't even come and tell you…" he trailed off sniffling. Then he wiped his nose and said in his most grown-up voice, even though it shook a little.
"They just make me so angry." At this, the Arkanian showed him some big rusty scissors he kept in his pocket. Asu-non didn't know why he was being offered them, but he shook his head.
"But you have so much." Said the Arkanian, glancing at Asu-non's shoes.
"But none of it is mine." Asu-non tried not to yell.
"It's more than mine." Said his friend.
Asu-non thought about this for a moment, and to be fair the Arkanian didn't even have shoes, and his mother hadn't come back and fixed his hair and made his skin feel better.
Then Asu-non decided that if he couldn't have his friend over, he would visit his friend. He told him as much.
"Ok, but you'll need is disguise." Said the Arkanian. This seemed very exciting to Asu-non, and the next day when he came back, he did run all the way to the fence.
When he got there the Arkanian was doing something to the fence.
"This isn't what I wanted these for, but it is better." He said as he pulled a bit of fence apart. It was just big enough for Asu-non to get through, but a bit of wire scrapped his face. The Arkanian said that the scratch wasn't too bad, and it would help his disguise.
Once he was through Asu-non took off his shoes and changed into the spare set of pyjamas the Arkanian he brought. Asu-non left his own pyjamas (which were the wrong sort) and jumpsuit by the fence, and let the Arkanian hack away at his hair. Then they rolled around in the dirt, laughing, to complete the disguise.
When the horn went, they climbed together over the hill. It wasn't far to walk to the Arkanians school after the hill. Inside the buildings were terrible, all cracked and dirty, and no windows, even though there were no big buildings to block the view. There weren't even any droids, just guards in boring white uniforms that were even less polished than those of the guards at home.
After that day Asu-non decided that his lessons at home probably were better. All they did all afternoon was try and find black shiny rocks amongst all the black dull rocks. It was boring and involved too much digging.
That night mother and father were home, and they finally did get sweet and spicy noddles, which they hadn't had for ages. They all sat together and ate, which was boring, but also nice. But after all the digging today Asu-non was tired. His father was saying something about emptying some camp because the job was done. Asu-non only noticed because he also said that the other mine was close enough that they needn't move, which Asu-non liked because it meant he wouldn't have to leave his friend behind. He did get in a bit of trouble for trying to cut his own hair, and father made him shave it all off.
The next day Asu-non snuck off at lunch time and met his friend. He didn't run all the way this time, he was still tired after all the digging. But he decided he would go and help his friend again today and maybe they could work out a plan to get him to visit – now they had the hole in the fence – without telling. Maybe he could lend the Arkanian one of his old robes, but not the new green one, because that was new.
Again Asu-non got changed, and they climbed the hill when the horn sounded, and walked to the Arkanian's school. This time though, there was a big line to get in, and lots of guards in white, some with their blasters out and all yelling. Asu-non wanted to go home but the guards yelled at him to get in line, so he did. He stood with the Arkanian between two big furry adults and eventually got shoved inside.
When they were inside, Asu-non noticed that there wasn't any rock to dig in today, and instead there where lots of adults and children of different species, but they were all in the Arkanian's school uniform. It seemed weird to Asu-non that the adults had to wear the uniform too. After a while he turned to his Arkanian friend to say that today was even more boring and that they should go to his house, but he couldn't find him in the crowd. It was starting to get hot and very smelly in here, so Asu-non started to push his way through the crowd to the door.
He stopped when the door opened, and a line of guards in white, and a couple of adults in clothes like father's work uniform came in and formed a circle around the crowd.
After that, it took less than a day to work out what happened. Mother and father directed the droids and stormtroopers to search everywhere for Asu-non when he didn't come home. They joined in the search themselves, and so do Hyla, though she found it very hard to search through her tears.
After midnight, some workers, who had been told of the search, found Asu-non's jumpsuit and shoes by a hole in the fence that they were dismantling. Everyone knew what had happened, but by then the most of the camp's buildings had been dismantled and all the pits filled in so there was nowhere to search.
The major ordered that the pits be exhumed, but there were so many of them no one knew where to start. Besides the major had to start supervision of the next camp the next day, so he withdrew the order.
An hour before sunrise mother ordered a shuttle to take her and Hyla off world. She wasn't there to meet it when it came the next day. The stormtroopers found mother, Hyla, and father – still holding his blaster – shortly afterwards.
But, of course, that was all a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, and nothing like that could ever happen here.