Shifts in Sand

8/6/2019 Shifts in Sand

1/26

Shifts in Sand

By Snakehealer, 2011

Prologue

"Lumi look, a Star Destroyer!" said Jiba Nep, my Twi'lek friend who was piloting our falling apart ship."Are you crazy? There are no Star Destroyers in a crappy place like... What is this place called again?"."Tatooine. That Clawdite brain of yours has suffered from too many shape shifts."

I looked out of the window and could see in the distance the rough wedge shape of an Imperial StarDestroyer. Why here, this far out? Something big was going on."This is not good, I have a bad feeling about this."

Jiba looked at me, she looked stunning as always, no wonder she was such a popular dancer."The Hutts wouldn't call the Imps for a few stolen credits." she said."You call 500.000 credits a few?""For them yes. Hey look, there is a Hutt living here in Tatooine, Jabba. Hmm, the name rings a bell, Ihave heard that name." said Jibba. She was trying to find out something useful about this system fromthe database.

"Well you know how the Hutts take it when another species steals from them.""They can't tell a difference between Twi'leks and you... well you have no problem, turn yourself into aHutt and that's it".

I was massaging my muscles, they were aching like if I had been beaten up. Most species think that forus Clawdites shifting our shape is just like combing your hair in a different style. Well, it's not. We have tostrain our muscles to create the change. It is no problem for a short t ime and a form we know, but longperiods of time and new shapes tire our muscles and it hurts. A lot. I missed my relaxing massage oilsthat I had to leave behind in Nal Hutta.

Finally I responded to Jiba:"Jiba, you should know already that we Clawdites can't change our body massnor other attributes, just our shape. I could never become a Hutt."Come on Lumi, relax girl, I'm just messing with you."

That second a buzzer went off in the cockpit and a flashing light illuminated the dark ship."The directional controls are failing!" I informed Jiba."This is not going to easy, but we will make it." said Jiba, always optimistic. We had taken some heavy

damage during our escape from Nal Hutta.Our SoroSuub transport entered the atmosphere like a meteor, leaving a visible trail. The locals aregetting a real show, I thought.I was studying the planet and to my horror, it seemed to be all desert. I checked our database and thenearest town seemed to be called Mos Eisley, and they seemed to have a spaceport. Good, if we canmake it there, we could repair our ship and move on. But first we needed to land and survive, the secondbeing the difficult part.

I didn't need to look at the instruments to tell that the ship was almost out of control and that the onlything that kept our odds for survival up was Jiba and her piloting skills. For her piloting a ship was like anextension to dancing and she was an amazing dancer. I just decided to stay quiet and let her fly. Forgetabout repairing the ship, I just wanted to walk out of this alive. The sand was closing in fast, very fast.

Chapter 1

I coughed. Then again. My mouth was full of sand. I seemed to be in our ship, or what was left of it. Bentmetal and shattered instruments everywhere. I looked to see if Jiba was awake. It didn't take long torealize that Jiba would never wake up again. I kissed her forehead, she had saved my life.

I looked up and saw the blazing twin suns. They were merciless. How could anybody survive here? Iwiped my tears, I would miss Jiba, we had been best friends for about ten standard years. But if I didn'tfind shade and water, I would share her faith.

I went to work. I tried to salvage anything useful. I checked my DL-44 blaster pistol, it seemed to be ok.I also took Jiba's small, easily concealable Merr Sonn Munitions Q2 blaster and hid it in my right boot.I took Jiba's dancing dress and some of her street clothes. Her fake ID was no good now, the Hutts wouldbe looking for it to appear somewhere. So I had no usable ID, great. At least the extra clothes would giveme disguise options.

I looked for water. The water tank we had on board had broken in the crash and most of the water hadleaked out or evaporated. I only got one mouthful, but it felt great.

I tried to look at the navigation equipment and the database but they were all shattered. I took a piece of cloth and covered my head and my face. I couldn't find anything else useable.


2/26

I looked at the metal box containing the 500.000 credits we had stolen from the Hutts at Nal Hutta. Icouldn't drag it all over the desert, it would just slow me down and hugely decrease my chances of surviving and getting to enjoy the credits.

I looked around to find some place where to hide the box. There was a rock formation not so far away. Ihoped I had binoculars, I would have liked to scan the area before going there but I had to do with whatI had.

I began dragging the box behind me towards the rocks. The suns were blazing on me and made mesweat a lot, which wasn't a good thing when you are in the desert without water. After what felt likehours I made it to the rocks. I found a nice deep hole between rocks and pushed the box in after havingtaken some credits with me. I covered the hole with rocks and sand. I tried to memorize the location aswell as I could.

It seemed to be getting towards the afternoon and the length of the day seemed to be close to astandard day. I thought I could sleep for a while and then at night go and look for this Mos Eisley place, Iprobably could see the lights at night.

That is when I heard a primitive, blood freezing shout or scream. It was echoing between the rocks. I gotso shocked that I just run. Whatever was living there, I didn't want to know anything about it.

I wondered about in the sand for hours until I came across an escape pod. I went closer to take a look atit. It seemed to be empty. I looked at the sand around it. I saw tracks, three wheels. An R-series

astromech unit probably. But there were also lots of heavy boot marks, as well as marks by some largeanimal.

I thought that if these people had crashed and decided to go to a given direction, specially when one wasa droid that could use its scanners and maps, they probably were right. I decided to follow the tracks.

I kept on walking and walking, I lost the track of time already. I was so happy that there was no windthat could have wiped off the tracks. But like anything in desert, things can change in matter of minutes.

I don't know how long I had walked when I saw a set of new tracks. These seemed to belong to a hugetracked vehicle. It seemed to be well designed for desert conditions; the tracks were wide and the vehicleseemed to sink very little in the sand. I sighed. Only thing I could do was to follow now these new tracks.

It was getting dark already and the temperature was dropping fast when I saw a something on top of adune. It was too dark to see what it was, but it seemed to be either a vehicle or a building. I pulled out

my blaster and walked towards it.When I got closer, I was convinced that this was the tracked vehicle that had left the tracks I wasfollowing. But this one seemed to have come from a different direction. Cautiously I approached thevehicle. It was massive. It looked like a fortress on long tracks. When I was close enough I saw that thevehicle had been in a blaster fight, pretty heavy weapons also.

To my surprise there was no one around. There were signs of fighting, some blood but no bodies. It waslike if someone had attacked the vehicle and taken the bodies away. I entered the vehicle. It was full of

junk. Machinery, broken vehicles, droids. Most of them were only good for spare parts. There were twodroids that seemed to be more or less ok; a red domed R4 unit, but a closer look showed that it hadblown a part in its dome, it still smelled burned.

The other droid was a stubby legged bi-pedal generator droid. It was switched off. I went to it andpushed the power button. The droid hummed and straightened its legs. Good, it worked at least. Itseemed to be a very basic generator droid, it didn't have much of a brain. What a shame, I needed moreinformation about this place.

I looked around and found a heater unit. I signalled to the generator droid to come closer, which it did.Slowly.

I plugged the heater into the droid and to my happy surprise the heater began to warm up. I told thegenerator droid to stay still and went to look for something soft. I found some small brown clothes. Theysmelled awful but they were all I could find. I made a bed out of them close to the heater and fell asleep.I dreamed about Darth Vader chasing me.

I woke up in the morning to a sound of a land speeder. I run to the door. The speeder was too far, but Igot an idea of to which direction it was heading. I looked for food in the vehicle but didn't find anythingeatable. Luckily I found some water stored in a leather bag. It tasted horrible but it was water.

I switched off the droid and jumped out of the vehicle. The sand was hot already. I began to walk to thegeneral direction the land speeder had gone. After many hours I saw a town. I was so happy that I couldhave cried. It was still far but I saw a ship landing there. That must be Mos Eisley.


3/26

I gained new energy and I began to walk towards the town.

When I was approaching the city I began to stretch my muscles. As most of the species didn't like and /or trust Clawdites, I decided to shape shift. I looked at my clothes. I was wearing the same clothes I hadworn when we fled from Nal Hutta. During out escape from Nal Hutta I had been impersonating a spacedock mechanic. That would be a good fit for a place like this I thought. I shifted to a human mechanicshape.

I walked the remaining distance to Mos Eisley. What a dump I thought. The sand was everywhere. Itseemed to get everywhere. The houses that I saw looked more like storm shelters, which, coming tothink of it, they probably were.

I was going to cross a street labelled Dune Street, when I was nearly knocked over by a land speederwith a young boy and what seemed to be his grand father. They had two droids on board. Admittedly itwas my fault, I was staring at a wreckage of some old cargo ship sticking out of the sand. A surreal sightto say the least.

A squad of imperial stormtroopers stopped the young boy and the grand father and asked for their papersbut soon let them go.

I walked deeper into the town and soon got to the spaceport. There were hundreds of ships. I wentlooking around. Nobody paid attention to me, my disguise was perfect. I just had to make sure I walkedlike a middle aged tired man and that I didn't seem interested in anything. Or lost. Those would bring

attention to me and that was the last thing I wanted.Someone grabbed my shoulder. I turned around and saw a Wookie looking at me. I recognized him fromNal Hutta. Not the Wookie himself really but the distinctive thick chain or something across his torso.There weren't many space faring Wookies around anyway. If I remembered right, this Wookie waspartners with a cocky Corellian.

The Wookie asked me in Wookie if I understood Wookie. I did, the basics. I knew that most Wookiesliving outside Kashyyk, which weren't many, understood basic but they couldn't pronounce it. I replied inmy harshest voice, in basic:"Yeah, what do you want?"

The Wookie asked me to fix the hyper drive of their ship. I didn't catch the name of the ship, I didn'tspeak Wookie that well. I really didn't want to help him, one because I was starving and second becauseI didn't know anything about hyperdrives. But I didn't want to blow my cover.

"How much?" I asked the Wookie.He roared the price, it was either 15 or 50, I wasn't quite sure but I really didn't care. I nodded andfollowed the Wookie to their ship. What a junk! It was an old Corellian YT series freighter and seemed tobe falling apart. I was right, I had seen this ship in Nal Hutta.

The Wookie showed me where he thought the fault could be and brought some tools. I pretended to bestudying the parts and poked things with some tools. I just hoped that the Wookie didn't find out that Iwas faking the whole thing, I had seen what an angry Wookie can do. It is not a pretty sight.

After some time I pulled out a random part and told the Wookie that the part was faulty. The Wookie letout a roar so loud that my ears rang. He was shouting something about the part being brand new andabout ripping a head off. I hoped he wasn't talking about my head.

The Wookie pulled out 50 credits to pay for my time and went off to buy the part. I felt bad for not tellinghim that I didn't know what I was doing, but I liked my cover, and my head, exactly where it was. Ihoped he wouldn't remember me when their hyperdrive would fail them.

I left the spaceport quickly and went looking for food and drinks. The first place I saw was a place calledChalmun's Cantina. I went in.

I was welcomed by a live band and the second dodgiest environment I had ever seen. Nal Hutta's BackStab Cafe was still the undisputed number one. Anyway, there were dozens of species present and themix of dozens of languages at the same time was staggering.

I went straight to the bar and asked for food and something to drink. The tough and dull lookingbartender stared at me. I placed the 50 credits the Wookie had paid me on the desk. The bartender tookthe credits and returned with a plate of... something, I didn't ask. He also brought a drink. I recognizedthe smell, it was a cheap beer. I didn't even taste the food, I just ate and ate. When I finished the food Iasked for water. The bartender looked at me as if I was crazy, but he brought a glass of water. I asked for

more water, which he brought."You will do the right thing." a voice told me.I turned around and saw the old man I had seen in the speeder before. He was looking into my eyes andI got the feeling he saw through my shape.


4/26

He put his hand on my shoulder and continued: "About hundred kilometers west from here, head towardsJundland Wastes. When you are at the Krayt Dragon skeleton, you will see twin peaks to the east. Thereis path going up. My hut is there. There you can rest and be safe. You will find peace there."

Before I could say anything, the old man went to speak to the Wookie I had met before.

I heard noise on the other side of the bar. The young boy was getting into trouble with a tough lookingman and an Aqualish. I began to move away from there. That sort of arguments ended up usually inblaster fight. I was heading towards the door when I heard a strange sound and someone screamed. Iturned around and saw the old man holding a light sabre. Could he be a Jedi? Weren't they all gonealready?

I was going to go back in and speak to the old man when I saw a stormtrooper patrol approaching. Timeto go. I began to walk away from the bar. I had to make a real de-tour after I ran into another patrol. Itseemed that Mos Eisley was infected by them.

A Star Destroyer and Stormtroopers in a place like this. What was going on? I needed to rest and think.

I began to think about the hut the old presumed Jedi had offered to me. What did he mean by that? Didhe want to rent the hut to me? Share the place with me?

That moment I saw the old man and the boy coming out of the Cantina and heading towards thespaceport. Good, I wanted to speak to the old man. Before I could get to them another squad of stormtroopers cut me off. A strange creature wearing black robe spoke to them in squeaky tones and thestormtroopers said they would check it out. The stormtroopers went to the same direction the old manand the boy had gone. I followed them.

I also made a mental note to be careful with that squeaky long nosed character. I was convinced he orshe was a spy or a snitch.

I was close to the Wookie's ship when a huge blaster fight began. Not small blaster pistols, these wereImperial weapons. I heard a large ship starting its engines. Then it just hit me that it wasn't a good ideato be in one of the corridors leading to a landing pad when somebody is taking off full throttle in themiddle of a blaster fight.

I began to run out as quickly as I could. I felt how the corridor trembled. I just made it out to the streetswhen the shockwave shot out of the corridors, knocking a few people off their feet.

I looked up and saw the beaten up freighter shooting off the planet. I just wished the hyperdrive wouldn'tfail them.

I made a decision. I was going to take a look at the old man's hut. If he had told me the truth, it wouldbe the perfect hide out for me. But first I had to go shopping.

I went walking around until I found a shop called Lup's General Store. I had my blaster pistol but I stillremembered the horrifying shout I had heard at the rocks. I wasn't going anywhere near that placewithout some proper firepower.

I bought a pair of binoculars. I also bought a few perimeter warning devices. They would alert me if someone or something crossed a perimeter I set. After some asking and showing some credits I wastaken to the back office and I bought a standard Imperial blaster rifle, the Imperial edition of theBlastech E-11.

My next stop was a shop selling dry food and water. What shocked me was how expensive water washere.

Next I went looking for a transport. I noticed that a place called Spaceport Speeders was selling theyoung boy's X-34 land speeder. Had the boy fled the planet? Anyway, they were asking too much for it.They did have a second hand Ikas-Adno 22b speeder bike. It was not as fast as the Aratech 74 series butit was very popular and reliable. After some negotiation I bought it. I could have bought a new Aratechbut I didn't want to draw attention to myself.

Some dodgy looking merchant offered me what he called a pod racer. It was old but apparently it workedwell and had belonged to Anakin Skywalker. "So what?", I asked, "Should I know the name?". Besides, Ihad no use for some classic pod racer, I wasn't a collector, I just wanted to get to the hut.

I loaded my shopping on the speederbike and headed towards the direction the old man had given me.

After Nal Hutta's traffic it was a joy to ride a speeder bike in the desert. You could really let the bike riphere. The trip from Mos Eisley to the Krayt Dragon skeleton took under half an hour. When I was near tothe skeleton I looked towards the twin peaks as instructed and saw the hut the supposed old Jedi hadbeen talking about.


5/26

I rode my speederbike to the hut and parked it behind the hut so that it wasn't visible. Next I did was toplace the perimeter devices around the hut. I tried to place them roughly 200 meters from the hut sothat I would have time to react if anything approached.

I stored my food and water. I saw that the old supposed Jedi actually had a very comfortable hut,although I would have called it a house. It seemed to include a comfortable looking bed. I didn't needmore convincing, I needed to sleep.

Chapter 2

I wasn't sure how long I had slept, but it must have been a long time since it was morning already. Ibegan the day with scanning the desert with my binoculars. The only things I saw were a few moisturefarmers checking their equipment and couple of land speeders moving in the desert.

I was curious and decided to venture to the hills to explore. I still l remember the blood chilling shout Ihad heard a few days ago. That is why I took the Imperial blaster rifle, in case I needed firepower.

After a long climb I reached the top of a ridge and cautiously looked to the other side. I saw creaturesgathered around a huge hairy four legged animal. One of these creatures was riding the animal. Thesecreatures were dressed like the small ones I had seen in Mos Eisley, but these were man sized. Many of them carried an antique looking rifle. Suddenly one of them shouted. It was the same blood chillingsound that had scared me earlier few days ago. It was still scary but a bit less now when I knew where itcame from.

I decided to stay away from these creatures. There must be a reason for me not having seen any of these in Mon Eisley. They also seemed to move in groups, which would mean that any fight wouldprobably be against many of them, not good.

I went back to the hut and had some breakfast while staring into the desert. The supposed Jedi had beenright, I felt at peace here. I was wondering what the plan of the old supposed Jedi was. When would hereturn or was he not planning to come back at all? I decided to take good care of the hut in case hereturned.

Scanning the desert, I still saw Imperial troops there. That would mean that there must be at least oneStar Destroyer orbiting the planet. Not the best time to buy a ship without identification. Better to waituntil the things calmed down.

After I refreshed myself a bit I went through my stretching routine. It was easier to endure shape shifting

if you kept your body in good shape. After my stretching session I sat and thought how relaxed I felt inthis hut. It wasn't just the open space or the hut itself. It was more like that the hut made me feeldifferent inside. I had spent most of my life running and living in cities where there were more people ineach mega block than this whole planet had. For me now being able to just relax was fantastic.

My thoughts went back to the supposed old Jedi. What I had learned during my 23 standard years of lifewas that the Jedis had once helped to maintain peace and order in the galaxy. They were all killed beforeI was born, supposedly by Darth Vader. Could it be that this old man was one of the last surviving Jedis,hiding here in the desert. It made sense. If Vader was able to kill hundreds of Jedis, This old man wouldhave to be out of his mind to confront Vader.

And then there was the light sabre. I hadn't ever actually seen a light sabre in action. I once saw DarthVader when I was in Coruscant. I saw his light sabre hanging from his belt. I never forget that moment,

just the plain sight of Vader scared me, and I saw him from a good distance.

I was about to leave the hut when something strange happened to me. I would swear that I heardsomebody scream "No!" and at the same time a huge gust of wind blew through the hut. I fell on myknees. I couldn't explain why but somehow I knew that the old Jedi had died.

I sat on the floor, and to my surprise, weeping for the old man. Maybe it was the fact that he must havebeen the only person who had done something good for me, without asking anything in return. And whyme? I wasn't exactly the definition for a good citizen.

When I finally stood up I saw an Imperial Lambda shuttle passing over the hut and heading towards MosEisley. I decided to head there and find out how things were going. I left my rifle in the hut but broughtboth blaster pistols. I shifted to the mechanic form and put on the dirty overall.

It was nice to cruise around on the speederbike in the open desert. It relaxed me after crying in the hut.I headed towards the spaceport, sticking to my role as mechanic. I parked the speederbike and walked to

the spaceport. The first ship I saw was an imperial Lambda shuttle. The loading ramp was open andStormtroopers were coming out. There seemed to be another squad waiting to board, it seemed like thatthey were changing guard. I went closer to hear them speak. I didn't want to get too close to attractattention, so I didn't hear everything.


6/26


7/26

The ride there was eventless. When I saw the palace I pulled over and hid behind some large rocks. Ipulled out my binoculars and began to study the mansion.

Jabba's palace seemed like a typical Hutt palace, meaning huge. Outside it wasn't up to the normal Hutstandards, but that was understandable as the climate here was so harsh.

As I was studying the palace from distance, I heard a ship preparing to land, directly to the palace. Mystomach went hard and I fought the urge to run. I recognized the ship. Firespray 31 class patrol andattack ship, heavily modified. This particular ship was called Slave 1 and belonged to arguably the bestbounty hunter in the galaxy, Boba Fett.

I had seen Boba Fett in number of occasions in Nal Hutta. He had worked for virtually every Hutt there.The reason was simple, the Hutts could pay his astronomical fees. And the Hutts knew he would deliver,every time.

And a pissed off Hutt would definitely pay Boba Fett's fees to have the head of 500.000 credit thief delivered to his palace. My question was if the Hutts knew who I really was. They must have figured outmy now dead best friend's identity. The Hutts must also know my fake identity. I swore my own stupidity,why did I introduce my mechanic identity to Mos Eisley. All the work I had done to soften up thebartender would go out of the window.

Luckily people come and go in a place like this. I just needed to figure out a new cover story I would berelatively safe. There was also the possibility that Boba Fett was here for something else, but I didn't

want to take any chances.I stayed still studying the palace but I didn't see much activity outside. I took my speederbike andheaded back to Mos Eisley. An idea occurred to me.

Chapter 3

First I went to buy some clothes. I got a bit of everything, to give me more options for disguise. Next Iheaded towards the spaceport, I was looking for a specific creature.

After some time I found what I was looking for. The long nosed squeaky creature was hiding in theshadows, watching people pass by, gathering information.

I deliberately walked past him, pretending to be speaking on a comm unit. I made sure he heard when Isaid:"Yeah, I'm heading to Alderaan, leaving in few minutes."

I walked towards where the corridor split and led to the landing pads. When I got around a corner, Iquickly covered myself with a brown robe, same kind what the old Jedi had worn. I left my face visible. Ithem quickly shifted my shape to the one of an Aqualish and began to walk back the same route I hadcome from.

Just as I had thought, the squeaky snitch was following me. He didn't pay any attention to me, he waslooking for the mechanic leaving for Alderaan. As Mos Eisley had so many ships landing and taking off, hewould never know which ship I got into. As many of the people who frequented Mos Eisley seemed to besmugglers, pirates or other criminals, nobody would waste time looking at the published flight plans, theywere all fake anyway.

If Boba Fett or any other bounty hunter was after me, they would all be convinced that I was heading toAlderaan. Alderaan was a great place to hide if you were able to get in.

Alderaan was a peaceful system with no weapons and they didn't like low lives around. That kept virtuallyall bounty hunters and mercenaries out.

I headed back to the cantina, I needed a drink. I went to the bar and ordered a drink. There were twohumans talking next to me. Something that one of them said caught my attention: "No, I'm serious. Ichecked my charts three times. I was spot on but Alderaan simply wasn't there."

I was about to ask but the other human got there first: "What do you mean it wasn't there?""As in there was no planet. Just some debris. And I even checked my range to the nearby systems and Iwas exactly where I thought I was. But Alderaan wasn't there."

"So Alderaan... exploded?"

"Only thing I know is that Alderaan is no longer there."

Now another pilot joined the conversation: "I overheard your conversation. My friend was passing close

to Alderaan and he claimed that he had seen a man made moon, with TIEs and Star Destroyers aroundit. I told him that he was on spice, but maybe he was right. Maybe that moon is a weapon and destroyedAlderaan."


8/26

The two pilots looked at each other before one answered: "there is no ship with that kind of firepower, itwould take a few fleets of Star Destroyers.""Or the Katana Fleet.""Katana Fleet doesn't exist."

The three pilots began to argue whether the Katana Fleet existed or not.I couldn't believe what I had heard. Was there a weapon that could destroy entire planets? But there wassomething good in all this; the long nosed snitch must have told every bounty hunter in the system by

now that my astro mechanic shape had left for Alderaan. Now when Alderaan had somehow disappeared,it made it almost impossible to find my astro mechanic shape. That was great news.

I decided to head back to my hut and think in peace. I went to my speederbike and headed towards theWestern Dune Sea. I parked behind the hut and went in.

I took off my robe and shifted to my natural form and began to massage my muscles. I had found somesort of massaging oil in Mos Eisley, which to my surprise seemed to work well. While I was sitting there inthe shade outside the hut, I saw a dark storm building up at distance. That caught my curiosity. Duringmy stay in Tatooine I hadn't seen a single sandstorm. I went back in and got my binoculars.

I began to scan the desert with the binoculars, I was curious about how the locals reacted to the storm.To define it with one word; dramatic. Every building closed their doors and windows. Smaller vehicles andanimals were taken inside.

Somewhere in the mountains I heard the shout of the Tusken Raiders, as I had learned they were called.Their voice didn't scare me anymore, it just reminded me that they were dangerous. In the desert, usingthe maximum zoom setting, I saw one of the Jawa sand crawlers stopping and closing its hatches.

I began to hear the howling wind, the storm was approaching. Although I was partly protected by the hutI could feel the wind building up and blowing sand. The combination of wind and sand began to irritatemy skin. I noticed that the sand grains were actually pretty sharp. I decided to go inside and close thewindows and the door.

I was wondering what would have happened to me if I had been caught up in a storm like this when Ihad crash landed in the desert. I probably would have died in the storm. This reminded me of howdangerous places the deserts could be.

Not being able to go anywhere gave me time to think about my time in Tatooine. I had gotten sloppyusing the same shape here that I had used in Nal Hutta. The strange destruction of Alderaan had savedme from the bounty hunters.

I had never really formed an opinion about the Empire or the rebellion. Back in Nal Hutta I knew aboutsome rebels storing weapons in one of the warehouses. I wasn't interested in politics and in a galaxy of this big, you would have to follow the senate holonet few hours on daily basis just to have a basic idea of what was going on. The fact that Emperor Palpatine and his Sith right hand Lord Vader ruled the galaxywith iron fist hadn't really affected my life. But if the Emperor had built a weapon to destroy wholeplanets, it was going too far. Soon every system would be a slave to the Empire or simply destroyed. Itchilled my blood. Whole civilizations gone in seconds. I had heard about the Imperial Star Destroyersbombarding a planet but this was different. It wasn't a fight, it was annihilation.

I was wondering if there was something I could do. It seemed a bit unlikely from here, a distant sandbox.

I began to think what to do next. I would need a new shape, which was the easy part. Then I needed

fake identification, which in turn was more difficult. Getting a simple fake ID card was easy, but when youwere looking for an identity that could stand Imperial scrutiny, one needed to know who to ask. And onthis planet, I didn't.

I began to think about what the Cantina bartender had said, that the major-domo of the Hutt was aTwi'lek. Out of all the species I had met, the Twi'leks were the ones I understood the most. I could go andsee him and get a job with the Hutt. It would help my cover story on the planet and there I would findthe best forged ID makers.

The sandstorm was still howling outside so I decided to go to sleep and rest while the storm lasted.

Chapter 4

The following day the storm was gone and I went outside. I went dust off the sand accumulated on top of my speederbike. That actually took well over an hour, the sand had gotten everywhere. I put on my dark

brown robe and shifted to the Aqualish shape.I rode to Mos Eisley and went walking around the town. It seemed that the locals were used tosandstorms, all the houses I saw were free of sand inside. I went to a small bar. I ordered the Daily


9/26

Special, which coming to think of it was risky in a place like this. I also ordered some beer, specifying ithad to be Corellian.

It was just then when I realized that the bar lacked the typical noise of people talking, arguing andlaughing. I turned around and noticed that everybody was following the news feed from the Holonet.

"The rebellion claims to have destroyed Death Star, an Imperial warship."

"Death Star has been linked to the destruction of planet Alderaan."

"The Imperial spokesperson denies existence of any ship with that name, or any attack by the rebellionbut assures that the petty rebel group will be hunted down and destroyed soon."

So the pilot at the Cantina had been right, I thought.

I finished my meal and went to buy some more clothes at the always open U Wanna Wanna open air fleemarket. A plan was coming together in my mind. After buying some clothes, together with more food andwater, I rode back to my hut.

I had spent a lot of time around Hutts in Nal Hutta, so I understood Huttese well, although I couldn'tpronounce it properly.

The Hutts looked down to rest of the species, all of them. But the Hutts were easy to deal with, as longas you didn't piss them off or try to out-smart them. To keep a Hutt happy you just had to understandHuttese and show your effort trying to speak it. On top of that, just remember to call them Yourexcellence or similar and you will do well with them. And don't fail them, they didn't take that too well.

I decided against a Twi'lek dancer girl form, a place like this could be a tough place for a pretty Twi'lek. Iwas thinking about entering as a bounty hunter but with all the high fee top notch operators, such asBoba Fett frequenting there, someone would discover the false identity in matter of hours.

I began to think what a crime lord like Jabba would need. Security? Pilots? Mercenaries? Chefs? The listwas never ending. Those were the basic skill sets all Hutt crime lords needed. What I needed wassomething unique for this particular Hutt and this particular system.

The wind was picking up again, great, the sand would get everywhere again and... That was it! I wouldbecome a desert environment consultant for Jabba. He must suffer from this sand like everybody else.

I had spent enough time in Coruscant to know how the cocky, high credit earning consultants spoke andexpressed themselves. I could pull that off. But first I needed to prepare myself.

I checked the weather, the wind had picked up but it wasn't that bad yet. I shifted to the Aqualish shapeagain and headed to Mos Eisley. There I went to the first to place I could find that had holonetconnection, a place called Tatooni Booka. I began to read about the desert environment industry. After acouple of hours I had a good understanding who the big names were and what were the most commonproblems for ships and premises. The good thing about being a consultant was that you could outsourcethe knowledge, meaning that you just created the contact with a client and then got someone else to dothe work for you. There were many sandy systems in the galaxy but in a poor system this far out didn'thave the services that the inner systems had. I was sure I had found an unique service to offer.

Next I did run a search for Bid Fortuna, Jabba's major-domo. The first mention of his name came fromthe official Ryloth source, he wasn't welcome to his own home system. That definitely ruled out anyTwi'lek shapes, he would be extremely suspicious towards any of his own kind.

I tried to think of a neutral but still exotic shape. Being exotic was always good because the peoplearound you didn't know too much about your species or your home planet.

I was thinking about a Cerean shape but my body mass wasn't enough to create the long coned head. Icould use the shape of an Iridonian, or Zabrak, as they were also called. Their colourful skin and thesubtle facial tattoos would be a good cover. Also as they were generally considered as the first spacetravelling species in the galaxy, their species was found everywhere. The Iridonians were also strongwilled and proud species, which meant that people didn't mess around with them too much.

I had spent already four standard hours in that place looking at holonet and I was getting hungry. Iheaded to the Cantina. I was still irritated about my mistake of introducing myself there in the mechanicshape, I would have to start from zero again.

The bartender seemed as welcoming as always, just staring at everybody. I sat down and ordered foodand water. Soon he brought my serving."So, I heard there is a Hutt living here." I said to the bartender."Name's Jabba." he replied."How is he?" I continued."Long, slimy. Never seen a Hutt?"


10/26


11/26

He leaned closer so that the bystanders wouldn't hear and replied: "Speak to the Dim-U monks. Ask forAbbot Drayk."

A strange set of monks I thought. Upon finishing my beer I headed to see these monks. I found themwithout problems and asked for Abbot Drayk as instructed. I was greeted and taken to a quiet part of their premises. It was clear that they were keen to keep their monk cover intact.

I explained that I needed an Imperial quality ID. I was asked for the basic details such as the species,age and height. I was named a price. After some negotiation we reached an agreement. I paid them adown payment of 1/3 of the agreed amount. I was told to come back in couple of days.

Another thing I found about the monks was that they did ship transponder codes. That could becomehandy some day.

I was wondering whether the monks were actually religious with a little side business or if they just usedthe monk theme as a cover. It didn't make any difference in the end.

I took my speederbike and headed to Power Station. Power Station was a local place where you couldcharge your vehicles and droids. It was also a popular hangout among the locals, specially the youth.

I got my speederbike charged and just sat there chatting about speeder bikes with a human and aToydarian. I didn't quite understand the Toydarian's interest in speeder bikes as they could fly anyway. Asa matter of fact they spent a good portion of their time in the air.

As it was early still I decided to head to Anchorhead, just to take a look at it.Anchorhead wasn't a bad town either, it just lacked the atmosphere of a spaceport. The people inAnchorhead were mostly moisture farmers or people who worked with them. It was too boring for me, soI headed back to my hut.

The following day was an indoors day thanks to a massive sand storm. I managed to get the speederbikeindoors and spent the day painting it to desert camoflash colours. The original colour was dark grey. Ialso adjusted the stabilizer a bit, hoping to improve high speed stability. The speeder felt a bit twitchy athigher speeds and here in open desert one tended to go pretty much flat out. I tried to sleep early butthe howling wind kept me awake most of the night.

Chapter 6

Next day began with climbing out of a window as the front door was buried in sand. I went around the

hut and looked at all the sand that the storm had brought. You could barely see the hut. Actually I likedthat. Not only did it help to camoflash the hut, it also kept it protected from the twin suns. I shovelledsand off only enough to get the door open and my speederbike out.

I shifted to the Aqualish form and headed to the monastery. I was greeted by Abbot Drayk himself. Theyhad the ID waiting for me as promised. I had enough experience dealing with IDs that I could tell thiswas a good one.

"This is a good set." I told Abbot."We provide quality service here." he replied with a smile on his face. I handed him the remaining creditsto complete the transaction."I hope you have more clients for us." continued Abbot.It made sense. Abbot obviously didn't know that I was a shape shifter and thought that the ID was for aclient of mine.

"I hope so too." I answered.I was about to leave when Abbot asked: "Hey, you wouldn't happen to be interested in a Z-95?"

Z-95 Headhunter was a real workhorse. It was a one person fighter, equipped with a hyperdrive. It was abit outdated now when the X-Wing was out, but it still was used as a trainer in many systems and even inactive duty in some poorer systems. And Z95 was very reliable.

"It depends. You have it here?" I replied."I sure do, follow me."

We walked to one of the hidden hangars and there was indeed a Z95 Headhunter sitting there. It seemedto be in a good shape, taking into account its age and the fact that it was a fighter. What I found veryinteresting was that it was one of the rare two seater trainer versions.

I began to inspect it. I didn't know much about mechanics but putting up a show was good fornegotiations. I saw some welding around the laser cannons."What's this about?" I asked Abbot."We changed the original cannons to the ones of an X-Wing." Abbot replied."Hmph."


12/26

"It's real quality job, we were paid well to do it."I didn't want to look too interested. Inside I was very interested. Star fighters weren't the most commonship to find and this one being a two seater trainer made it very interesting."And the shields?" I asked."Stock but checked.""Hmph. And the engines?""Sublight is standard, hyperdrive is a bit tweaked, Ok, quite a lot actually, it's faster than an X-Wing.""Hmph. It's ok. Horrible colour though.""We can paint it for you, free of charge.""Why are you desperate to sell it?""Eh... We did this for a client who eh... got killed. With the Imps all over the place, we don't want to bemistaken for rebel sympathizers.""And the transponder codes?""This ship wad stolen from the rebels long time ago. It has had a couple of names after that. We will dothe registration and the transponder for you.""Hmph.""It's a good ship and I'll make a good offer." Abbot named a price."Hmph. I don't know, there are some good deals around."Abbot named a lower price."All right, you got a deal. I will pay you a third tomorrow and the rest when you have painted the shipand done the registration and the transponder.""Fine with me." said Abbot and we shook hands."Which colour, which system for the registration and what do you want to call it." abbot asked me.

The paint was silver with red stripes on it. I was thinking about a desert camoflash paint job, like myspeederbike, or alternatively black, like the Imperial TIE fighters. I decided on darker camoflash paint, avariation of Boba Fett's Slave 1. That sort of camoflash would work in many different environments.

Next question was what to call it. My thoughts went back to my now dead best friend, Jiba."How about calling her Twi'lek Dancer?" I asked Abbot."No can do, there is a ship with that name that has visited Tatooine recently." replied Abbot afterchecking his database."Rain Dancer?""That can be done. Want that?"I thought about it. It would honour Jiba and would add an artistic touch as on Tatooine it never rained.

"Yes, she will be the Rain Dancer." I confirmed. "When is she going to be ready?""Two days." said Abbot. We shook hands.

Now with my new ID I could do more things. And in a few days I would have a ship too, a real fighter. Idecided to have the ship ready before visiting this local Hutt. I would have to visit my hidden treasure toget more credits for the ship.

But before that, I felt thirsty again. It was this desert, it dried you out in matter of hours. I headed to myfavourite cantina.

Chapter 7

It was strange to enter and not hearing the band play. Instead there was a human woman, if she couldbe called that. Apparently she was singing, it those sounds she emitted could be called that. I winced.

The ever so welcoming bartender brought me a Corellian beer and opened the bottle in front of mewithout me saying anything. He was learning. I also ordered some food, I hadn't ever heard the name of the dish but I felt adventurous.

When Wuher, as I had learned he was called, came back with my food I asked him: "Do you happen toknow if the Hutt is in the system?""He is. And on stroppy mood.""Why is that?""The rumour is that one of his smugglers dumped a load of contraband.""What happened to the guy?""Jabba sent Boba Fett after him. Poor Corellian."

That was good news. If Fett was after a smuggler, it meant he wouldn't be looking for me. I really had tofind out if there was a bounty on my head. The smuggler was Corellian? Could it be the cocky one withthe Wookie sidekick?

I began to think about my earlier plan to work as a consultant for Jabba. It didn't seem so interestinganymore after I found out what a Rancor was and also after visiting Anchorhead. There were more peoplewith desert know-how than I had first thought.


13/26

"Is the Hutt looking for pilots?" I asked Wuher."He always is." he replied, walking away.

I finished my food and went to the huge open air market looking for a pilot suit. I found one whichseemed like the one worn by TIE pilots, although this suit had no insignia of any kind. It was my size.The beauty if being a shape shifter was that all sizes fit you, but even so, this suit fit well, so I bought it.There was no helmet coming with the suit so I had to look for one. After looking around for some 20minutes I found a standard star fighter helmet, which was white. I would have to paint it black. A girl had

to look stylish.I carried my shopping to my speederbike and headed to my hut. On the way I decided to pass by myhidden credit stash and get the credits for the ship.

I didn't go straight to the stash. I tried to make sure that if anybody was watching me, they wouldn'tthink I was heading to that specific place. Once I got there I noticed that there were no signs of anybodyhaving been there. I got the credits I needed and left.

Back in the hut I painted the helmet black to match the flight suit. That made me think that it had beenages since I last had dressed up to go partying. Tatooine wasn't exactly the place for that. I was thinkingabout heading to Nal Shadda system to have a weekend party spree but it was a bit far for that. Or wasit? I would have to think about that.

It was getting late so I decided to just relax and think about how to introduce myself to Jabba. I was

thinking also just leaving this dead sandbox of a system and head closer to the core systems. Notnecessarily Coruscant but somewhere close to it. But there was something keeping me in Tatooine. Icouldn't tell what it was.

I looked at my new ID. So I was officially an Iridonian female, 23 standard years of age, red skin, violeteyes. My new name was Caras Dun. Caras Dun I repeated to myself aloud. I decided to call it a day andget some sleep. I dreamed about a metal planet in the sky, moving slowly closer.

Chapter 8

I had planned to wait until my new ship, the Rain Dancer would be ready but I hated long waitings.I had some breakfast, cleaned and checked my blasters. It was too early to head to Jabba's palace. Itwas a good guess to assume that the Hutt had had a lavish party and was still recovering from it. I hadlearned that Jabba had a number of female dancers of different species. This gave me an idea. I put onmy pilot suit and left the upper part open to reveal a considerable amount of my red Ithorian skin andshape. Jabba should like that detail.

I went outside and looked at Jabba's palace with my binoculars. A speeder bike was heading towards thepalace. That would mean that either the Hutt was awake or someone was about to wake him up, whichwasn't smart at all.

I decided that it was time to head there myself. I took my both blasters and jumped on my speederbike. Ibegan to ride towards the palace, which wasn't far from the hut. It was easy to get there, there was onlyone sand road leading to the palace. The entrance to the palace was a massive metal gate. There was nowindow or guards. I kicked the gate.

To my shock a small round door opened and a strange robotic eye shot out, held by a long arm. It nearlyhit me in the head.

"Tee chuta hhat yudd?" the eye shouted at me. I didn't know that language, but it sounded like aquestion.

"I am a pilot looking for work, I am here to see Bib Fortuna." I replied to the droid.

The eye droid stared at me, laughed and then disappeared back behind the small door. Nothinghappened. I was convinced that they wouldn't let me in when suddenly the massive door began to open.A pair of Gamorrean guards were waiting for me on the other side. Using their axes they guided medeeper into the palace. I was used to the Gamorrean guards, I wasn't offended by them pushing me withaxes. At the end they barely had more brains than a Nala frog.

The palace looked strange to me. It was clearly decorated for a Hutt but somehow it reminded me of... amonastery. It actually reminded me of the possibly fake monastery where my future ship was beingregistered and painted. Could the palace have been a monastery or a temple before?

The Gamorreans stopped me and I heard someone approaching. From the darkness of the corridorsappeared a Twi'lek male. His eyes were studying me. He didn't say anything but I saw from themovements of his Lekkus that he found me pretty. That was a good thing.

He greeted me in Twi'lek which I pretended not to understand.


14/26

"Thank you for receiving me. I was told that you were the master here." I said. I was sure he would likebeing called master. The movements of his Lekkus confirmed this.

"What do you want?" Bib Fortuna asked me in accented basic. Either he didn't speak Iridonian or hedidn't want to show it.

"I am a pilot and I have my own ship. I am looking for work."

Bib Fortuna circled me, studying me.

"We don't need pilots." he said after a moment.

"I heard you needed pilots who don't dump a load of contraband at the first sight of a Star Destroyer."

Bib Fortuna swore in Twi'lek.

"I am a good pilot. I can move your cargo. Can you hire me or should I speak to Jabba directly?"

More swearing in Twi'lek. But still the Lekkus indicated he liked me. Great, great!

"I decide but Jabba has to see you."

"Naturally." I replied and gave him a sweet smile.

Bib Fortuna led me to Jabba's audience chamber. If I hadn't been in chambers of other Hutts before, Iprobably would have panicked. There was an air of sneakiness and murder in the air. And the fear of the

Hutt.A human dancer chained to Jabba's throne was doing her dance. A number of mercenaries and bountyhunters were present. Bib Fortuna indicated for me to stand in front of the Hutt and he went to whisperon his ear.

I was looking around and saw that the snacks Jabba was having weren't Nala frogs as I was told. Theywere Gorgs and Klatooine paddy frogs. They looked almost the same but very different in taste. If a chef would confuse them, any Hutt would think about a murder.

The music stopped and the crowd stopped talking. The human dancer retreated, looking at the floor,scared. I began to look at the floor where she was looking at. Now I saw it, there was a trap door. I wasconvinced that this trap door would lead to the Rancor. I made a mental note to stay clear of it.

Chapter 9

"Hooo!" the Hutt boomed, staring at me. I bowed."Who are you lesser being and do you understand the higher language of Huttese?" Jabba boomed, inHuttese.Huttese was very difficult to pronounce but I did my best: "Your Highness, a lesser species could neverfully appreciate the beauty of Huttese. I have the privilege of understanding it but I am not able to speakit well." I replied."Hooo! The lesser species is trying to speak Huttese. It makes her wise." Jabba replied in Huttese."So you want to pilot for me Iridonian?" Jabba spoke in Basic, making sure everybody understood him.He wanted to create jealousy and competition, typical Hutt thinking."I would be honoured your Excellency.""Hmph. We don't need pilots Iridonian.""Your Excellency, I am sure that in your great wisdom you see the benefit of having pilots who delivertheir cargo and don't dump it over board.""Hooo! Are you trying to manipulate me Iridonian?"I stepped off the trap door, making sure Jabba saw this as a deliberate move. Then I replied: "No lesserbeing could do such thing Your Excellency. I am merely trying to say that I can help your profits grow bynot loosing shipments.""Hmph.""And I can source the best Klatooine paddy frogs."Jabba looked at the floor where the trap door was, then his bowl of Gorgs and paddy frogs and then me.The chamber was silent.

"Hoo-Hoo-Hoo! This pilot is clever and cunning! I like her!"I bowed."But you can't find better paddy frogs than mine, I know all the farms in Klatooine.""My source is not in Klatooine."

"Hooo! Where is your source pilot?""Maybe we can do business together Your Excellency. Let me work for you and I will bring you a shipmentof paddy frogs to try. I am sure they would be suitable your Highness.""When can I have the frogs?"


15/26

"When can I begin to work?""Bring me the frogs in no more than a standard week and we will speak about your employment.""Of course your Excellency." I bowed."Stay with us and enjoy tonight pilot. Music!"

Another night of Hutt party was about to begin. I tried one of Jabba's raw Klatooine paddy frogs, a sign of respect. I liked them fried or marinated but definitely not raw. On the other hand Jabba's Hookah pipewas simply excellent, for which reason I spent most of the evening smoking it. It kept me close to Jabba,

which he liked and far from all the low lives that were checking me out.Later on that night Bib Fortuna came to speak to me. He was looking at me, like if he was studying me."Congratulations." he said to me."Thank you. I will serve you well.""Be careful." said Bib and left.

A Sullustan came to speak to me. He wore a pilot's suit. He sat next to me and offered me a beer that Ihad never seen before, which I accepted."Thank you." I said."Welcome to Jabba's fleet." said the Sullustan."Thanks. How is it here?""You speak Huttese so you must know how they try to pay the least possible. Apart from that it's notbad. Tatooine is such a distant place that you don't need to worry too much about the Imperial forces

here. They tend to have just some slow customs ships here.""Well, there is a Star Destroyer orbiting as we speak.""Not anymore, it left last night.""Ah, that's good news.""Can I have some?" asked the Sullustan pointing at the Hookah."Sure."

The Sullustan took a deep breath and leaned back, enjoying the Hookah."What do you fly?" he asked."A modified Headhunter.""A good ship apparently, never got around to try one myself.""I like it." That was a lie, I had never flown one myself either.

While I continued chatting with the Sullustan I was thinking that tonight would be a tough night. The Hutt

probably ask me to stay there for the night and to refuse the offer wasn't wise. The problem was that theHutts were paranoid and where ever I was to sleep, I would be monitored. That meant that I wouldn't beable to shift to my own form, nor to sleep for that matter, for the fear of shifting shape in my sleep. Ohwell, I would just have to deal with that.

The night went on for a few more hours during which a Twi'lek girl called Oola gave quite a show dancingin front of Jabba. She was good, very good. Seeing Oola dance made me miss Jiba.

Finally Jabba called it a night and I was shown a small room under Jabba's audience chamber. Ipretended to sleep, but made sure that I stayed awake and had my DL-44 blaster pointed at the door.Although I didn't see anything, I was sure that a number of devices were keeping an eye on me.

Chapter 10

In the morning I left early. The Gamorrean guards gave me my speederbike and opened the gate. I rode

out and headed out. I followed the road leading out of Jabba's palace but I didn't want to head straight tomy hut as I probably was being observed. I headed first towards the mountains and the route towardsMos Eisley. After I was out of view I turned around and rode to the hut. I parked my speederbike behindthe hut and went in.

I took off my pilot suit and shifted to my native form, which felt great. I began to slowly massage myaching muscles and it didn't take long before I fell asleep on the sofa.

It was past noon when I woke up. I realized that if I wanted to pick up my ship I had to get moving. Iquickly got my pilot suit on and took my helmet. I jumped on the speederbike and went flat out to MosEisley. I made sure to shift to my Aqualish form, as this was how the monks knew me.

I found my new ship painted and registered, just as I was promised. I paid them as agreed. I wasburning to take Rain Dancer out for a spin, specially now when the Star Destroyer was gone. The monksagreed to take my speederbike to Mos Eisley for me.

I climbed to the cockpit. I couldn't believe that I had my own star fighter. I began to study the controls.The monks explained to me the functions of the ship. Ships all flew basically the same but each one had


16/26

a different layout for the switches and gauges. The monks helped me to go through the pre-flight checklist. I started the engines.

I felt the powerful sub light engines spooling up and the whole fighter to tremble. It felt like a wild animaltrying to break free. I felt excited in the cockpit, this was something totally different from Jiba's and mineold freighter that was now buried in the sand. This was a real fighter.

I noticed that all systems were running at 100% and the fighter was ready for take off. The monksmoved further from the fighter, one of them moving in front of the fighter to guiding me with light rods. Iappreciated this gesture as the opening in the hangar's roof wasn't much bigger than the fighter itself.

I gave the engines more power and felt the fighter tremble as it fought the gravity. Slowly the fighterbegan to rise. I needed to correct the position slightly to get the fighter out of the hangar. It felt strangeto sit so far back and see the long nose in front of me. Our freighter had been the opposite, the cabinwas in the front, you only saw space in front of you, with the rest of the ship hanging behind you.

I cleared the hangar and was met by the blinding twin suns. I pulled down the dark tinted visor. Iaccelerated, heading up in a 45 degree angle. There was so much power in this thing! I felt how theacceleration pushed me hard against the seat. I rolled the ship upside down and looked back to see MosEisley. It looked like a miniature town. It just hit me how fast I had climbed. I saw another ship in myscreen. In a matter of few seconds I flew past it so fast that I couldn't even tell what kind of a ship itwas. I couldn't stop giggling. This was fun!

That moment I realized that I had forgotten to turn on my radio. The planetary traffic control would bemightily pissed off with me already. I decided to leave the radio off, it was too late for that now.

I noticed how the rushing sound of air against the hull disappeared, that meant that I was out of theatmosphere. The fighter suddenly felt lighter, it felt as if it was happy to be in its element, space. At theend it was a star fighter, designed to manoeuvre in vacuum and bring death to those who opposed it.

I performed barrel rolls, loops and other moves. And couldn't stop giggling. The ship reacted so fast thatit was almost scary.

I typed into the hyperspace navigation computer the destination I wanted to head to. My secret sourcefor the best Klatooine paddy frogs in the galaxy. The planet was called Dagobah. A real dump of asystem. It was simply a swamp that had the shape of a planet. That place was disgusting. Swamp, smellof swamp and strange hostile animals that liked swamps. Not a place for a lady.

However, the paddy frogs loved the place. They were frogs at the end and for them that swampy planetwas paradise. During my time with the Hutts of Nal Hutta I had met a pilot who sold exclusive snacks tothe Hutts at astronomical prices. Luckily I had made one run with him to Dagobah to buy some frogsfrom a small farm that two amphibious beings run there. I never got the name of their species. Theydidn't like to speak and they didn't like visitors. I hoped they would sell me some frogs, specially as thetrader I had gone there with had gotten greedy and got murdered by one of the Hutt crime lords. I hopedthat the farm still continued there.

Chapter 11

My navi computer indicated the correct direction. I steered Rain Dancer to the indicated direction andpulled the lever to engage the hyperdrive. If I had been giggling with the power of the sub light engines,the hyperdrive left me with my mouth open. The space around me turned into a tunnel of white stripes.The speed that the fighter flew in hyperspace was astonishing. That was real speed.

I took advantage of being alone in the fighter and shifted to my native shape and let my muscles rest. Ichecked all the systems and everything was ok. I checked the navi computer and saw that I had time fora nap before a way point where I would have to come out of hyperspace to pilot manually and put thefighter on a new course before engaging the hyperdrive again. I decided to take a nap.

I woke up to the buzzer indicating that I should exit hyperspace in one minute. I rubbed my eyes,stretched my muscles and prepared myself. When the count down reached zero I pushed the lever andcame out of hyperspace. I quickly checked the screens to make sure I wasn't going to crash into anothership or some small moon.

I pointed the fighter to the correct direction, engaged the hyperdrive and went back to sleep.

It felt as if I hadn't slept at all when it was time to come out of hyperspace again. I waited the countdownto reach zero and exited hyperspace. In front of me was Dagobah. I checked my systems and to my

surprise saw a distant X-Wing heading to Dagobah, but soon it disappeared to the mist and from myscreen. I never saw it again. I wondered what an X-Wing was doing in Dagobah.


17/26

I headed through the mist to where I remembered the farm was. The weather here was horrible. It wasraining almost non stop. When I came closer to the ground I slowed down and began to look for signs of life. The farm was too small and primitive to shop up in screens so I had to trust my eyes.

I kept on flying in large circles, looking for the farm. After some 15 minutes of circling I saw it. It wasexactly as I remembered it, large pools covered with nets and a small house where the two farmers lived.There was a small freighter in a clearing beside the house. I shifted to my adopted Iridonian form andbegan landing next to the freighter. My fighter touched down softly, it probably sank a bit to the soft soil.

I switched off the engines and opened the cockpit. The moist damp air greeted me. I heard somecreature let out a long throaty sound somewhere.

When I reached the ground I saw one of the amphibious creatures staring at me."What do you want?" he asked me."I would like to buy paddy frogs.""Who sent you?""No one. I used to know a trader that bought them from you. Mas Shantooi."

"Where is Mas?" I heard from behind me. When I turned around I saw the other amphibious creaturesurfacing from the murky water. He was holding a harpoon, pointing at me. Not very trusting creatures.

"Dead." I replied.

"You killed him?" asked the harpoon holding creature.

"No, the Hutts did. He got greedy. I knew well his business with you and would like to take it over.""We are not a big producer.""I know. I would sell to a very exclusive clientele."

The two creatures looked at each other. The harpoon was lowered and the two creatures walked away tospeak privately. I was nervous. I had begun my trip here to just buy a few paddy frogs but now I hadrealized the opportunity this represented. I could make some good credits with the frogs.

After a few minutes the creatures approached me. The one that still had the harpoon in his hands spoke:"We will sell you frogs. Our frogs are not cheap. You know this?""Yes, I am prepared for this."

In half an hour we had a box of excellent Klatooine paddy frogs packed in water containing a mild sedantto keep the frogs calm during the trip. The containers barely fit on the second seat of my fighter.Headhunter had a small storage space but it wasn't large enough for the containers.

I paid the creatures and promised to keep the location of their farm in secrecy. The harpoon one helpedme to climb to the cockpit.

In a few minutes I exited the atmosphere of Dagobah and began my trip back to Tatooine.

Chapter 1 2

It was late night in Mos Eisley side of Tatooine when I got there. It didn't stop the air traffic control frombollocking me for not having contacted them when taking off. I apologized, claiming a radio fault.

As it was night time, I didn't want to fly directly to Jabba's palace and wake him up. I didn't want to landin the spaceport either. Someone would probably steal my frogs. I decided to land at my hut and sleepthere in my own bed. Well, the old Jedi's bed. I still didn't see the hut as mine, I felt that I was a guest

there.I landed and checked up on the frogs. They were swimming lazily in their container, good, it meant thatthey continued alive and drugged. I went straight to the bed and fell asleep.

The following day I took my Headhunter to Mos Eisley spaceport. I rented a land speeder from Mos EisleySpeeders and loaded the frogs onboard. I headed to Jabba's palace, about half an hour trip.

I arrived to the gate of Jabba's palace. The one eyed robot came out and quickly opened the gate. Itseemed that it had stored my data and knew who I was.

The Gamorrean guards showed some intelligence and used their considerable strength to haul the frogcontainers to the kitchen area. I followed them.

Jabba's chef didn't waste time and opened the containers. He pulled one out randomly and put it in asmall transparent box. He then took a syringe and extracted some blood from the still drugged frog. Iknew he was going to check the whole frog for poisons, the Hutts were a paranoid species.

The chef noticed me still standing there and rightly guessed that I wanted to know when he was going toserve them.


18/26

"I will serve them first raw this afternoon and flavoured tonight. We will let you know. Come heretomorrow afternoon.""And my payment?" I asked.

The chef thought for a second and replied: "If he likes them, tomorrow. If not, getting paid won't be yourbiggest worry."

Typical Hutt behaviour I thought. I did as instructed.

I took the rental speeder back and then passed by my ship, just to check it out quickly. It seemed to befine. There was a bit water in the co-pilot cabin were the boxes had been. I wiped it off. I was admiringmy fighter. I was still impressed with the power it had, specially the hyperdrives. I had never travelledthrough space that fast.

I was getting hungry and decided to visit Wuher. I walked to the cantina and the band was back. Thatwas great news, the human woman had been truly horrible. I hoped that she had left the system already.

Wuher came to ask what I wanted."The daily special. And Corellian beer, in a bottle."Wuher stared at me for a second and then said: "Corellian beer is getting popular here."

I was actually more hungry than I had originally thought. I finished the food in record time. My thoughtswent back to Jabba and my Klatooine paddy frogs. I was pretty confident that Jabba would like them, butas always with Hutts, you never knew. One thing sure was that Jabba wouldn't just accept my price. Hewould come up with all sorts of reasons and threats to bring the price down, or even better, cutting meout as a middle man. Well, that wasn't going to happen. I made a mental note to make sure my shipdidn't have tracking devices before going next to Dagobah. I would also have to be careful not to befollowed. I was convinced that Jabba would send someone.

I thanked Wuher and left the cantina. It was early still and I decided to get my speederbike and ride tosee the monks. I got there in few minutes. Abbot himself wasn't there but I was greeted by two of themonks that had been present when I took delivery of my Z95.

These monks, as well as Abbot, had only seen my Aqualish form, not the Iridonian I was using. Theywould see me as a client of the Aqualish, as I was sure they would remember the fake ID they had madefor me.

"Hello pilot. Welcome to our monastery." said one of the monks.

"Hello, I was sent by a common friend. I got one of your ships through him.""Oh yes, I remember now. Please send our best wishes.""I will do. I was wondering if you could help me. I am looking for a device or a droid to spot trackingdevices.""Well pilot, there are both. A handheld device is smaller and cheaper but a small droid is more effective inspotting the more sophisticated tracking devices.""Do you have such droids?""Please follow me pilot."

Chapter 13

We walked deeper into their monastery and reached a room where they stored their equipment. Therewere astromech , translator, mechanic, agricultural and who knows what other types of droids present.The monks took me to a small floating droid. It was like a rounded tube, some 30 centimeters long and

some 10 centimeters wide and long."How does it work?" I asked."I find device." the droid replied itself, gaining altitude and hovered at the height of my eyes."What sort of devices?""I find all."

The monk spoke, clarifying the answer a bit:"S5Q here has a very wide spectrum of scanners on board.We have seen it detecting anything from surveillance droids to ultrasound transmitters. Oh, it can alsospot living beings.""You don't use it yourselves?" I asked."No, S5Q is great but it has a limited range, maybe some 10 meters. We have a larger droid that coversthe whole complex from any given spot. But S5Q would be great for you."I took their word for it and agreed to buy the droid."S5Q, recharge yourself." the monk commanded."I recharge now." replied the droid and flew to its charging station.


19/26


20/26


21/26

"Hooo! The pilot has returned! Did you bring more paddy frogs?" Jabba boomed as soon as he saw me.

"Did your highness enjoy the first batch?"

"They were excellent. Did you bring more?"

"As your Excellency remembers, we must discuss payment of the first batch. And my employment."

"Hmph."

I stayed quiet. And away from the trap door. Jabba was smoking his hookah and thinking."I will pay you 50 credits for each frog."

"200, minimum order 20 frogs."

Jabba let out a roar and slapped one of his servant droid off its feet. "100. And you only supply paddyfrogs to me."

"I am sure you can find cheaper frogs from other suppliers. Thank you for your time your excellence."

"All right pilot, I will pay 200. But you will only supply frogs to me."

"Your highness, you must understand that I have other clients as well."

"Hmph. Pilot means other Hutts you mean?"

This was getting dangerous I thought. The Hutts were not very trusting species, not even among theirown kind. The thought that I would be selling the same frogs to other Hutt families didn't make Jabbahappy at all.

"Your Excellence, even lesser species have developed a taste for paddy frogs. I am just a merchant tryingto make a living in the galaxy. Of course providing you with the best examples is my priority."

"Make sure that is the case pilot. I expect quality."

"Yes your highness." I bowed.

"Pay the pilot. He deserves it." Jabba said to Bib Fortuna. Bib Fortuna bowed to Jabba and led me to oneof the rooms behind the audience chamber where he paid me the outstanding amount. That was thebeginning of my business relationship with Jabba. Interestingly he hadn't mentioned any smuggling runsto me. I supposed it meant that he wanted to keep his new paddy frog supplier safe. Or alternatively,

coming to think of it, he didn't trust me enough yet to give me contraband to handle. At the end the frogswere indulgence and contraband was business. And Hutts took business very seriously.

Chapter 15

During the next few months I did a number of trips to Dagobah and kept Jabba happy. I made sure tobring him the finest examples. During my last visit to Jabba's palace I found out that the cocky Corellianhad become part of Jabba's decoration. He had been frozen in Carbonite. Not so surprisingly it had beenBoba Fett who collected the bounty.

I headed back from Jabba's palace to my hut. I f inally began to feel that it was mine as the old supposedJedi had died and nobody else hadn't reclaimed it either. Jabba had been on better mood since he got theCorellian on the wall. He had paid my last shipment in a blink of an eye.

I parked my speederbike behind the hut as always and went in. I was tired from the last trip. I just

wanted to get off my flight suit, shift to my native form and take a nap.If I hadn't been so sleepy I probably would have noticed the humanoid sitting in a shadow.

"Welcome back Caras." he said.

I pulled out my blaster and dove for cover.

"There is no need for that, I just wanted to have a chat. I am unarmed."

Yeah right I thought, I had seen him in Jabba's palace. He was a bounty hunter and carried a weird bigaxe. But then I noticed that his axe was leaning against a wall.

"What do you want?" I asked.

"We could use your help."

I came out, my blaster still pointed at him. I sat in front of him, far enough that he couldn't grab myblaster.

"Who is we?" I continued.


22/26

"My name is Lando Calrissian, I am a friend of Captain Solo."

"I don't know any Captain Solo. But that name, Calrissian rings a bell. Coruscant perhaps, a gambler?"

The humanoid took off his brown helmet and showed the most charming smile I had ever seen.

"I am impressed, you are absolutely correct. I mostly play sabbac. Captain, or General if you wish, Solois the Corellian frozen in Carbonite at Jabba's palace."

"Oh, him. Why general?"

"Well after his participation in blowing up Death Star, the rebel leaders named him general."

"So there was a planet destroying ship?"

"A small moon actually, but yes. It destroyed Alderaan."

"So you want me to join the rebellion?"

"It would be a pleasure to have you on board. You look dazzling in that suit."

"Cut the crap."

Lando smiled and got back on track: "We could use your help to rescue Han."

"How did you find me?"

"I had seen you at Jabba's palace. I followed you here and when I told Luke about this place, he said thishad belonged to his friend, Jedi Master Obi Wan Kenobi."

"The old guy was a Jedi master?"

"So you met him then?"

"He was the one who gave me this hut. Who is this Luke character?"

"He is a Jedi also, he was born here in Tatooine."

"What is this, Jedis running wild all over the place?"

Lando laughed. "No, he is one of the very last remaining."

"And what is your plan to rescue Solo?"

"You may have seen me in the palace. The rebellion has had a spy infiltrated there for some time. He gotme in. Soon another rebel will come disguised as an Ubese bounty hunter and will deliver Chewbacca.After that Luke will come. Luke's plan included to hide an extra light sabre in the R2 unit."

"He's bringing a droid with him?"

"No, the droid is in Jabba's palace already. You may have seen it there. White and blue R2."

"I haven't really paid attention to be honest. But anyway, continue."

"I thought that since you seem to be one of the few to get along with Bib Fortuna and Jabba's chef, youcould come in handy."

"What can I do?"

"Make sure that R2D2 is serving drinks whenever Luke is around so that Luke can get his light sabre if heneeds it."

I lowered my blaster and thought about it. I was convinced that I could do it. Finally I felt that I could dosomething to help the rebellion.

"All right, I'll do it. And I would like to help you guys if we make it out of this alive."

"It would be our pleasure to have you. We need pilots, soldiers..."

I shifted from my Iridonian shape to a copy of Lando.

"Impressive. Most impressive. Clawdite?"

"Yes."

"We could definitely use that skill."

"Please keep it as a secret."

"Naturally."

"So how many are you in this rescue operation?"


23/26

"Myself, Luke, Chewie, Princess Leia and the two droids."

"Princess Leia? As in Princess Leia Organa of Alderaan?"

"Yes, she will be the one disguised as Ubese bounty hunter and will deliver Chewie to Jabba. You knowher?"

"I know of her, I have spent some time in Alderaan."

"It was a pleasure meeting you Caras. I better head back to the palace. I will see you there."

"One question; when are the troops arriving?"

"Princess Leia will bring Chewbacca sometime tomorrow."

"Ok. See you there then."

Lando left and I shifted to my native shape and rubbed my face. This was somewhat a big moment forme. I was actually going to help the rebels. I was excited about it but also nervous, you didn't go againsta Hutt without consequences.

I stood up and went to get S5Q. I thought it would be a good idea to scan the hut for listening orsurveillance devices. Coming to think of it, I should have done it before Lando began to tell about therebellion and the rescue plan.

While S5Q wobbled around the hut I began to think about the quickest way out of the system if thingswent wrong. I could bring my fighter to the hut. This way I could reach it in some ten minutes and thenblast out of the system and disappear. But if I brought it over here it would be also more vulnerable.Maybe it was better to leave it at Mos Eisley for the time being.

"Scan complete. No devices found." S5Q informed me.

"Thanks." I replied and S5Q continued hovering around, looking for more devices.

It was getting dark already. I decided to call it a day and get some rest. Tomorrow would be aninteresting day.

Chapter 16

I woke up early and refreshed myself. I got dressed in my flight suit and checked my two blasters.

I got on my speederbike and headed to Jabba's palace. I was let in quickly, I was a regular there already.I went straight to the audience chamber. Jabba seemed to be on a happy mood. I bowed to him as Ientered.

I sat at a table where the Sullustan pilot was.

"Hello Z95." he greeted me.

"Hi there SoroSuub." I replied with a laugh. I couldn't tell when we had began to call each other with ourships names but it always brought a smile on my face.

The Sullustan had a hookah on the table, the only thing missing was a Corellian beer.

"Want a beer SoroSuub?"

"Wow, a pretty girl buying me a drink? How can I say no."

I smiled and stood up. I went to get us a beer. I got four bottles so I didn't need to keep on going backand forth.

"Here you go." I said, placing the bottles on the table.

"Thank you."

"Hey 95, Jabba gave me a job. Got to rendezvous with a cargo ship near Altineeda system and movesome weapons. My coplot got into a brawl in Mos Eisley and will be recovering for some days. Want to flywith me? I'll cut you in."

"When are you supposed to..."

Our conversation was cut off by Jabba's irritated voice and the scared voice of the Twi'lek dancer. Jabbadidn't like his toys protesting and opened the trap door to the Rancor's pit.

The crowd went wild and gathered around to see the carnage. Their show was cut short by a blaster shotandGamorrean guards making sounds The whole audience chamber went quiet.


24/26

An Ubese bounty hunter wearing a respiration unit built into his or her helmet walked into the chamber,with a heavily cuffed Wookie next to him. It was Chewbacca.

As a small side note, I was happy to not be in the mechanic shape, as I was sure Chewie had experienceda hyperdrive failure.

"Wow, look at that! Someone finally got the mighty Chewbacca." said the Sullustan.

"Good job." I replied.

"Look at that suit. Never seen one like that."

"That's an Ubese helmet. Their home world has very low oxygen content and when off-planet, they needto wear a respirator unit, breathing level 1 oxygen would kill them."

It was a clever disguise I thought. Everybody knew that the bounty hunter couldn't remove the helmetand show his face.

As typical, the Hutt didn't want to pay the full amount, the bounty hunter pulled out a thermal detonator,Boba Fett prepared to shoot him, Jabba laughed, finding it clever and resourceful. They reached anagreement and the Wookie was placed in a containment cell in the basement and the Ubese bountyhunter received a nod from Boba Fett, which was about as high praise as a bounty hunter could receive.If anybody found out that the bounty hunter was actually Princess Leia Organa of Alderaan, things wouldget very interesting indeed.

I tried to figure out the plan. I didn't quite understand how jailing the Wookie helped. I saw Lando in thecrowd. He hadn't paid any attention to me, good, he knew what he was doing.

"To Jabba."

"What?" I replied before noticing that the Sullustan had raised his bottle.

"Oh yeah, right, to Jabba. He's a good worm."

The evening was eventless. I spoke with the Sullustan about his smuggling run and I said I would do it. Isaid it just to maintain my cover. I knew I would be out of this system way before then.

When Jabba called it a day, I pretended to have fallen asleep there and didn't go to one of the individualrooms that Jabba had always offered to me.

Chapter 17

The lights were dimmed right down. When I heard soft steps in the near darkness, I knew exactly whatwas going to happen. It was the oldest trap in the history of Hutts. But it was too late to warn Leia.

Most people didn't know that the Hutts saw very well in darkness and used that to their advantage. TheHutts also liked their naps and sleep, but what most people didn't realize was that they often then stayedawake at night to see what was going on in their palaces when people thought that they were asleep.

Leia was about to fall into that trap. And to make things worse, I recognized a reflection of illuminatedcontrol buttons I saw. The controls of Boba Fett's jet pack. Jabba had known from the beginning whatwas going on. Trying to out-smart a Hutt was very difficult and often deadly.

I could only watch how Leia defrosted Solo, removed her helmet, kissed the guy and was awarded alaugh and bright lights from Jabba.

Solo went to a containment cell with the Wookie and Leia got a new set of clothes and a chain around herneck. Jabba got a new pet, a real princess chained to his throne.

I was too tired to stay awake anymore and headed to the room in the basement that Jabba had waitingfor me. I closed the door behind me and got to the bed. I couldn't figure out the logic of this so calledrescue operation. All I had seen so far was humans and a Wookie being jailed. How exactly did that helpanybody? I was too tired to think anymore and fell asleep.

I don't know how long I had slept but it felt like a long time. I woke up to a roar so loud that it shook theroom. I literally jumped out of the bed, my blaster drawn. Since nothing seemed to be attacking me, Irun to Jabba's audience chamber.

Everybody was shouting and screaming. I saw that the trap door in front of Jabba's throne was open.Great, the Rancor was getting a snack I though. The first person I came across who wasn't shouting andgoing crazy was Boba Fett.

"Who went in?" I asked Boba Fett.

He turned his head ever so little towards my direction and answered: "Skywalker."


25/26

My mind tried to reconstruct what had happened. I would have to speak to someone more conversationalto find out what had happened. That is when I heard something very heavy falling and the Rancor cryingout. I looked down to the pit and saw that the Rancor had been crushed by a massive door. Skywalkerwas in there, panting but alive.

The continuation was obvious. Jabba was mightily pissed off, shouting in Huttese. The whole rescue partywas ordered to be thrown into Sarlacc. What is Sarlacc? Anyway, Jabba ordered his sail barge to bereadied.

The drinks! I run down stairs and got a tray with glasses on it and a tray of snacks. I went looking for theR2 unit described to me. I found it in one of the corridors.

"Stop right there and listen. I am a friend of Lando. Take this and follow me." I told R2, offering the tray.R2D2 extended an arm and grabbed the tray. I hurried through the corridors of the palace to the sailbarge. There were so many people hurrying to get the barge ready that nobody paid attention to me orto R2D2. Somebody already took a glass from the tray R2 was carrying. I kneeled down and spoke to R2:

"R2, make sure you always have drinks on the tray, that is your cover and allows you to move all overthe barge. I know you have a light sabre for Luke. Good luck with that R2, you may be his only hope."

R2 beeped something back, I didn't understand him.

I saw that two skiffs were also being prepared. My mind was racing, trying to create a plan of some sort.

I heard noise behind me and when I turned around I saw Jabba coming in on his hover sled. Princess Leiawas brought in. On the other side of the docking bay the Wookie, Solo and Skywalker were taken to thesmaller skiff.

The guests were hurrying to get on board, it seemed that Jabba was anxious to get to this Sarlacc thing.

We departed in matter of few minutes. I was on board Jabba's barge. We headed out to the desert. Ididn't still know what this Sarlacc thing was but I was sure I was going to find out soon enough.

We were speeding in the desert. I looked out of the window and saw a skiff with Solo, Skywalker and theWookie. Solo seemed to suffer still from having been frozen, he didn't see well. Skywalker seemed verycomfortable and sure of his plan. I wasn't so sure of anything.

During our ride I placed more drinks on R2's tray in a couple of occasions. The desert seemed endless. Iwas about to ask a guard what this Sarlacc thing was when I noticed that we were slowing down.

Chapter 18

I walked to one of the hatches and pushed it open. I had to look twice just to be sure. There was anenormous... something in the sand. It looked like a throat with teeth and tentacles. Interesting but notgood. Definitely not good.

Jabba began his speech; victims of Sarlacc, bla bla, suffering for thousand years bla bla. Solo and theWookie were brave. Skywalker looked strangely calm and confident.

There was a silence in the air. All eyes were on Skywalker. Jabba told the guards on the skiff to pushSkywalker over to Sarlacc's throat. Because I was on the lower deck I had a good view of Skywalker. Henodded to somebody ever so slightly. I couldn't

Shifts in Sand

Documents

Transcript of Shifts in Sand