Sunday, July 20, 2008

Jaka and AL: chapter 1, part 3

Part 3:
The Tuskan raiders sat quietly on a rock in the middle of the broken camp. It was a nightly ritual for them to patrol the camp area until the hunting party sent for them. This was to guarantee no one followed the hunting party. If someone stumbled on the camp, the patrollers would rush at them creating an illusion of more than two, scaring off anyone who came near. Simple and effective, no one could follow the hunting party's footsteps from the camp. Jaka knew this. So, how does a lonely little jawa get past the raiders? He knew his best chance was to wait it out until the patrollers were summoned. Jaka headed back towards the droid.

Back at the water puddle, the droid stirred slowly, trying to get his bearings. He tried to extract his sattelite dish, but that had been bent out of shape during the crash. The crash, the crash, the crash.... the droid barely remembered it. He would eventually remember everything, but at this time he was preocuppied with trying to find out where he was. He saw a strange little creature in a brown hooded robe with large orangy-gold eyes coming at him. He was too tired to shriek in horror. In fact the droid seemed paralyzed, unable to move or think. He could see, he could sense a strong breeze, he could feel the sand about him. Other than that, he could be dead for all he knew. The little creature bent down and whispered that they would spend the night here for now, at least until the something and something left some... camp? What the heck is the creature trying to say? Odd, I understand his language. I think he's trying to dig me out. What's going on? Am I dead? OK, I'm on a sandy planet with a small brown-robed creature trying to dig me out. I can't move. Should I run a diagnostic test? I'm too tired..... The droid decided it was best to shut down some of his systems to save energy.

Jaka kept whispering that everything was going to be OK. They just had to wait it out a little while longer, and everything was going to alright. Just hang in there. I'll take care of you. We've got to wait for the Tuskan patrollers to leave. I can't carry you by myself, so I have to make a carrier out of the leftover canvas. Don't fade out on me....
Jaka was dismayed to see the droid shut down. Was it dead?

It was going to be a long night.

1 comment:

Jim said...

Great story so far .....
Jim