Star Wars - Tales From The Mos Eisley Cantina

by Kevin J. Anderson

  say that.

  "The Jawas were honored to be invited," I said. "We can live

  with them-you'll see. Maybe we can come to live with the Sand

  People."

  But no one listened to me. Ariela looked at me, and she looked

  worried. I could imagine plenty of reasons for her to be worried.

  It was clear she didn't support Eyvind's ideas about my ideas. I

  was sorry to be the cause of what was probably their first

  argument.

  "We'll take this to Mos Eisley-we'll even take this to

  Bestine," Eyvind said when everybody started to leave.

  I walked my speeder into the shed and locked things down for

  the night. When I came back out, Ariela was still standing there.

  "What are you going to do?" she asked me.

  I wanted to ask her the same question. "I don't know," I said.

  We sat on the sand in front of my house and were quiet for a time.

  "Are you really from Alderaan?" I asked her.

  "Yes."

  "Don't you miss it?"

  "Not really," she said. "I'm in love, and that makes up for it.

  But I do miss the water-we're so wasteful with it there!"

  "I can't imagine such a place. I'm used to guarding every

  drop."

  "Not there. If I could take you and Eyvind to Alderaan you'd

  get fat on the water."

  "I'd swim in it all day."

  "You could take an hour-long shower and no one would care."

  "I'd keep plants in my house and water them."

  She looked at me and smiled. After a minute she stood up. "I

  won't let Eyvind cause trouble for you in Mos Eisley or Bestine. I

  can't answer for the rest."

  "Thank you," I said. After she left to catch up to the others,

  I went inside. I didn't have the stomach to eat. It was hot in the

  house, so I took the holo-display unit and walked outside onto a

  ridge overlooking my house and sheds. I'd shut down all the

  lights, so the compound was dark. I displayed the map, and it

  shone out brightly above the rocks. The rocks around the map

  looked like the mountains around my farm. The stars shone

  brightly, and I lay back on the rock to look at them.

  I do not look up often enough. I am so busy all the time and so

  tired after dark that I do not look up often enough at the stars.

  I wondered how all of this would turn out.

  Day 50 Jawa Gifts, and the Wedding

  Thirty-one Jawas came to the wedding, and they brought sacks of

  rock salt, a liter of water, a bolt of their brown cloth-and a

  diagnostic droid so small it could fit in the palm of my hand.

  They couldn't decide on one gift, so they brought some of

  everything we'd talked about.

  The diagnostic droid spoke the binary language of vaporators.

  The Jawas had polished it so finely that it hurt to look at it

  lying in the sun with the other gifts.

  People just stood and stared at their rich gifts and wondered

  at the pleasure the Jawas had in being invited to this wedding.

  Eyvind hurried up to me and asked me to come translate for him

  and Ariela. They wanted to thank the Jawas. I was standing by the

  punch bowl with the Jen-sens and Ariela's mother and sister, who

  had come out from Alderaan for the wedding. Mrs. Jensen stopped me

  before I could leave. "Maybe you're right about all this," Mrs.

  Jensen said. "Maybe you are."

  I smiled at her and hurried off to translate. The Jawas all

  bowed to me, and I bowed back. I translated for Eyvind and Ariela,

  then started answering the Jawas' questions about this human

  ceremony Yes, the humans crowded here were all potential

  customers of their wares and, yes, the tiny diagnostic droid im

  pressed everyone; no, Eyvind and Ariela would not consummate their

  marriage in public; yes, everyone hoped Eyvind and Ariela would

  have children; yes, the humans brought special foods to the

  wedding to make the day memorable. "Try the spiced juice," I said.

  "You'll love it. It's better than plain water."

  I wondered what they would think of the spice. They followed me

  to the punch table, and I poured Wimateeka a cup of spiced juice

  and gave it to him.

  He just held the cup and looked into it. "The cup is so cold!"

  he said.

  "We usually serve cold drinks at important occasions," I said.

  "Why is it red? Does it have blood in it?"

  "No-we don't drink blood!"

  Wimateeka looked up at me oddly, and I suddenly wondered if the

  Jawas drank blood at their weddings. I would probably find out

  soon enough. Wimateeka still hadn't tasted the drink. "It's quite

  good," I assured him. "At least, we think so."

  "How much does this cost?" he asked, finally.

  So he thought he'd have to pay for this. They'd all no doubt

  worried about having enough to pay for food and drinks-especially

  if they were pressed to try certain things. "Everything here is a

  gift to the guests of the wedding," I said.

  Wimateeka smiled then, and lifted the cup to his lips. His eyes

  went wide when he tasted the spiced juice -and I wondered if he

  would spit it out, but he didn't, and soon he took another drink.

  I served the rest of the Jawas, and they all loved the spiced

  juice and asked me for more and I served Jawas for fifteen minutes

  straight.

  Eyvind came up to me, nervous and anxious. "I want to get

  started," he said, "but Owen and Beru aren't here yet, and they

  were sure to come."

  "Who knows what's kept them?" I said, while I handed ajawa

  another cup of spiced juice. "But you'd better start soon or I'll

  have all thirty-one Jawas drunk before the wedding."

  Eyvind laughed.

  And the shooting started.

  From over by the landspeeders. Everyone had parked west of

  Eyvind's house, and the commotion came from there Two or three

  men were shouting and firing at the landspeeders. I wondered why

  they would do such a stupid thing - and then I saw the Sand Peo

  ple.

  The adolescents, I thought. They'd taken it into their heads to

  steal a landspeeder or two while we were busy with the wedding.

  The Sand People fought back with their gaffi sticks, and threw

  a few with deadly aim, and people screamed and ran for cover, and

  Eyvind ran off to start shooting or to stop the shooting, I didn't

  know which. I ran after him, but lost him in the crowd, and when I

  broke through I almost stumbled over Ariela holding something on

  the ground.

  Eyvind. I knelt next to her. She was holding Eyvind with blood

  all over him, and there was shooting all around us, and then Sand

  People. I stood up and held on to Ariela so maybe they would

  recognize me and not kill me and Ariela, and some of them did step

  back when they saw me -

  But something hit me in the back and sent me sprawling - a

  backhanded slap from the broad, flat face of a gaffi stick - and I

  couldn't breathe for a minute, though I never blacked out. I heard

  screams, and I heard Ariela scream, and I couldn't move, I could

  only see, for a minute, the feet of Sand People rushing around me,

  and then human feet, and a human pulled me up and leered in
to my

  face.

  "This is your fault!" he shouted. "This comes from giving them

  water."

  He shoved me back down onto the sand, but I could breathe now

  and get up on my own, and they were carrying Eyvind away.

  "He's dead," someone shouted at me, and the words hit me almost

  as hard as the gaffi stick had hit me. I couldn't breathe again.

  "They've taken Ariela," someone else shouted. "They dragged her

  away from Eyvind and took her."

  Ariela's mother grabbed hold of my arm. "You've got to save

  her," she said. "The others are going after the Sand People to

  shoot them, and the Sand People will surely kill my daughter

  before she can be rescued. You've got to save her."

  "I'll take Wimateeka," I said. "He can translate for me."

  And that eventually became our plan I had twelve hours to find

  the Sand People and convince them to turn Ariela over to me. In

  the meantime, everyone else would organize a well-equipped posse.

  If I wasn't back in twelve hours, they would come looking.

  And they would come out to kill the Sand People.

  I found Wimateeka and the other Jawas huddled in their crawler.

  I explained what I had to do, and I asked Wimateeka to come with

  me. He started shaking, but he got up and walked with me to my

  speeder. He was still shaking when I lifted him in.

  After I'd started off, I wondered why I wasn't shaking.

  Day 50, Early Afternoon I Wait by the Vaporator with a Last

  Gift of Water

  I waited by the vaporator because I thought the Sand People

  would take Ariela to their main camp, somewhere northwest of here.

  I could travel faster than the adolescents in my landspeeder, so I

  was ahead of them and they would pass by me. They would probably

  stop to see if I had left some water.

  And I had worked out what I would tell them. These were

  adolescents who needed to prove themselves worthy to be adults. I

  could offer them a way to be remembered forever in tales and gain

  an adulthood always honored negotiate with the Jawas and me to

  secure the boundaries of their land and thus their nomadic way of

  life. I knew their adults would have to be consulted, but the

  adolescents could start the process and convince them of the

  necessity of it.

  1 hoped they would agree with me. I hoped they wouldn't behead

  me first. I hoped they would agree that Ariela was a trifling

  matter compared to this and that the water and cloth Wimateeka and

  I had brought from my house to trade for her would buy her back.

  So we waited on the sand, with our water and cloth, and the

  holo-display unit and my map.

  And they came to us, suddenly. All at once we were surrounded

  by young Sand People, each armed with a gaffi stick, glistening

  sharp-edged in the harsh sunlight. The dunes were covered with

  Sand People. I looked for Ariela, but could not see her at first.

  I stood and raised my arm and clenched my fist and greeted

  them "Koroghh gahgt takt."

  They were all quiet. None of them spoke or raised their arms.

  That's when I saw Ariela bound and gagged and guarded on top of a

  dune south of me. "Tell the Sand People what I say," I asked

  Wimateeka, and I knew I had to speak quickly and well to save her

  life, and probably Wimateeka's and my own.

  I told them we could stop trouble like we had gone through

  today. I knew a way. I told them my plan, and my hope that the

  Empire would come to recognize what we had done, and what this

  would mean for their people and mine.

  Wimateeka had trouble explaining the map, and I didn't know if

  they could understand what a map was. Wimateeka and I smoothed out

  a flat space in the sand, and I set up the holo-display unit and

  displayed my map. Some of the Sand People rushed back, startled,

  but others soon crowded forward, and it began to make sense to

  them.

  But I would not negotiate till they had freed Ariela. "What we

  are about to do is better than more killing," I said. "I want you

  to free your captive-release her to me. She is my friend. Accept

  this water and cloth as compensation for the trouble you've had in

  caring for her till now."

  They argued about that, but eventually they took the water and

  cloth and passed it back into the crowd somewhere, and they cut

  Ariela free and let her walk up to me.

  She came slowly through the throng of Sand People. They would

  barely move aside for her. But she was taller than all of them, so

  she kept her eyes on me and Wimateeka and eventually got to us. I

  hugged her, and she hugged me and Wimateeka.

  And we started to haggle and negotiate and draw the lines on my

  map.

  It was working.

  I thought of all the generations of anthropologists who would

  have wanted to be here with the Sand People. The day was bright

  with sunlight, and I could feel the tension ebb away from among

  us. My map had never looked so beautiful, I thought, as it did

  then shining out flat above the sand and divided by the black

  lines of boundaries.

  We finished negotiating, six hours before my deadline.

  Ariela and Wimateeka and I packed up.

  The Sand People stood up and watched us, then started to move

  off into the dunes, heading northwest to their camp.

  Ariela climbed into my landspeeder.

  I handed Wimateeka to her and climbed in.

  And the dune west of us exploded in flame. My vaporator blew

  apart, and steam rushed up from it like smoke. Explosions ripped

  the air-and the young Sand People were screaming and running.

  Six hours before our deadline-after everything we had worked

  for had come to pass. I had to stop the shooting.

  I flew straight to where the shots were coming from -a rocky

  rise south of us-and we were not hit. A path through the fire

  opened up for us.

  Stormtroopers. There were Imperial stormtroopers in the rocks.

  The farmers who opposed me had called them in, that was all I

  could think. I slammed the land-speeder to a stop and rushed up

  into the rock. "Stop shooting!" I shouted. "Those aren't even

  adults you're killing!"

  But no one listened or stopped firing. I pushed into the

  stormtroopers and shoved their guns up to make them stop-and I was

  grabbed from behind and slammed into the rock.

  "Stop it!" someone shouted at me.

  It was the other farmers who had me, eight or ten of them.

  "The stormtroopers will kill you," someone hissed in my ear.

  "Live through this day and we'll talk later about what happened."

  I tried to break free, and they shoved me back.

  "The Empire would never let your plan work," someone else

  hissed in my ear, then Ariela was in front of me, her face white

  and tear-streaked.

  "Don't you see?" she said. "They want trouble on all the worlds

  so the majority will welcome their presence to keep the peace. If

  you make peace here, our real enemies would become clear-and what

  then?"

  I should have seen this. I should have known this would happen

  from the day
the Imperial Governors first refused to map this

  region.

  The firing stopped. The other farmers thanked the stormtroopers

  for "rescuing" Ariela and Wimateeka and me.

  "You'll have to evacuate from your farm for a time," a

  stormtrooper told me. "It won't be safe to stay in your house,

  isolated as it is."

  I wouldn't just have to evacuate for a time. This could be the

  end of my farm. The Sand People would want to kill me for

  sure-unless I could find a way to convince them I hadn't betrayed

  them, unless I could find a way to convince them just who had

  betrayed them.

  "We'll escort the Jawa home," another stormtrooper said.

  "No," I said. "I'm taking him myself."

  And I did. I would not let them take him alone. I thought they

  might kill him if they got him alone-to anger the Jawas and to

  drive a wedge between them and the farmers. So a stormtrooper

  contingent escorted us to the Jawa fortress.

  I lifted Wimateeka out of my speeder, near the gates of his

  fortress, and he rushed inside without saying a word to me.

  Day 50, Night I Become a Rebel

  The Imperial commander ordered me into Mos Eisley to make a

  deposition, and I had to go. Ariela asked me to take her mother

  and sister to the spaceport. She stayed with the other farmers to

  prepare for the Sand People's onslaught of revenge.

  "Eyvind left me his farm," Ariela told me. "I'd like you to

  help me run it after this is over-when we can go back to it."

  So I had that to think about on my way into Mos Eisley.

  I left Ariela's mother and sister at the spaceport. In a short

  time, they would be safe on Alderaan. I made my deposition, and

  the Imperials confiscated my map and let me go.

  I wondered for how long.

  In the meantime, my farm was abandoned.

  My hopes for making peace with the Jawas and the Sand People

  were ruined.

  The Sand People would surely feel betrayed and kill innocent

  people.

  My maps, my dreams, my successful negotiations meant nothing to

  the Empire.

  All because the Empire did not want us to have peace. All

  because the Empire did not care about the safety and the work and

  the lives of its citizens. We were pawns to be used and discarded

  - our efforts channeled as long as possible into "approved" paths.

  I stopped at the cantina for a drink. I could not go straight

  back.

  I sat in a dark corner and watched the people around me -