Worth: A Star Wars Story

36. The Tusken

The five days that we were there felt like they were taking an eternity, and with nothing of major note or danger happening, that meant that we were perfectly, blissfully, bored out of our minds. Talks were progressing painfully slowly in the realm of attempting to open up trade routes between the Hutts and the Republic, and that left us on guard duty which was somehow more boring than an average night on Coruscant...

And that was frankly concerning.

The syndicates had been suspiciously quiet for the time we had been there, and it was slowly creeping in on a week when anything of note even came close to happening. The boys were mostly bored. Grek was getting antsy without anything to blow up, Tor was annoyed at not being able to access his manual collection, Ryder was starting to go insane with the lack of new mission ops to organize, and Hex was getting sick of treating us all for womp rat bites. Red was about the only one of us having a good time, and that was because he had taken a shine to the Bantha. 

He was out there in the courtyard every single night with the furry thing, and it was probably thanks to his odd persistence in sitting there with it that we had the first real thing happen to us during that trip. 

"It's stupid! We're their guards!" Hex complained as we walked down one of the open air corridors, shielded from the cool night air only by a canopy and little else. "Just because Shebmulla thinks that we're flesh droids doesn't mean that we are! We have as much of a right to be in there as his guards!"

"I'm not arguing with you, Hex, but we need to listen to what they say and be sure we don't make trouble for Ambassador Talani and Tal."

"I know, I just..." Hex's words died in his mouth and he stopped where he was standing when we reached the courtyard. It took me a minute to realize why he'd stopped until I turned from him to the courtyard where I saw what he was staring at.

Squatting in the sand in front of the Bantha was Red. He had a stick in his hand and looked like he was sketching something out, but what made me freeze beside Hex was the person beside him. Crouching there dressed in sandy browns and blacks was a Tusken. She had a rifle beside her on the ground, her hand never leaving it, but her head obviously turned to watch Red's hands. She must have sensed us after a time as we stood there dumbfounded, and when she looked up, I saw her body go rigid as her hand seized the rifle beside her and she leaped to her feet. Red stood up easily at the same time and nodded at us, but the friendly gesture seemed to miss the Tusken.

She raised her cycler rifle, but when Hex went to grab his own, Red rushed forward between them and slapped his arms down and shook his head, "She won't shoot you! Trust me!"

"She's a Tusken!" Hex protested as he tried to raise his rifle again, but Red shook his head and again shoved his arms down as I grabbed his shoulder and shook my head, too, my eyes never leaving the Tusken before us.

"She's a person! Besides, I think this is her Bantha."

Hex looked to me, eyes questioning if we were going to listen to Red or not, and I nodded, gesturing for him to put the rifle away as I made a show of flipping the latch on my pistol holsters down and was surprised to see the woman do the same. Red turned back to her, and I saw her lower her rifle a little, her body still tense and wary. The worn metal of her ornate mask hung down her chest and shielded all of her face from view along with the long cowl and garments she wore, but she looked exactly like the Tuskens depicted in our manuals.

"How long have you two been chatting?" I asked as I held out a placating hand, hoping to keep her from blasting a hole through us. She seemed to get the message and her body relaxed a little more.

"Uh, wouldn't call it chatting, really," Red chuckled and turned back to her with a nod. "She showed up last night trying to feed the Bantha when I showed up. She almost knifed me."