God Save the Queen Book 2: Chapter 10 (Patreon)

Chapter 10: Fallen from the Sky

As the escape pod tumbled away from the ship, Anakin reflected that his Master had been correct. You couldn’t rely on the Force for everything.

“Hey—hey!” He grunted when the back of the girl’s knuckles grazed his cheek. “Calm down!”

For instance, it usually warned him of danger, but was he really in danger right now? The escape pod wasn’t going to breach, he could tell, and there was an entire fleet that would come scoop them up off the planet, if they even made it that far.

Anakin felt the pod jerk once as one of the hammerhead’s tried to lock tractor beams on it. Probably Captain Ciqella; he was always quick on the ball like that. Just not quick enough this time as the pod slipped free with a shudder that sent the girl in his arms into another thrashing fit. He managed to hook a foot around one of the harnesses before they could get bashed into a wall of the pod.

“Force, just—” He grabbed a wrist, pinning it behind her back.

Of course, the Force also warned him about other people’s intentions, so he’d known the girl was going to tackle him the exact moment she’d decided to.

Which had been about a second after her shoulder had hit his stomach.

Anakin snagged her other arm, pressing them both against her sides. “There!” He let out a breath. “Just…stop. Okay?”

She jerked for another few seconds, before slumping and leaving them floating in the center of the escape pod. He felt frustration and anxiety coming off her in waves. She mumbled something against the fabric of his tunic.

“What?”

“…let go of me.”

Anakin laughed. “Promise you’ll stop trying to punch me?”

She nodded silently.

Anakin let go of one arm, then the other a second later. The spacer took a deep breath and pushed off of him. She drifted backwards, one hand reaching out behind her to snag the edge of a harness.

She pulled herself into the seat and then did her best to look very, very small.

It was only then that Anakin noticed the frayed cloth wrapped around her eyes. She looked like a human, but last he checked, the only humans that could tackle him blindfolded were other Jedi, and she definitely wasn’t one.

With a shrug, Anakin flipped in the air, taking in the rest of the pod. “Wow, this one is old.” He’d seen a few decommissioned pods and shuttles in his time, even if his Master didn’t let him go to junkyards as often as he would like. How was he supposed to make new upgrades for—

No, now wasn’t the time to think about that. Anakin took a deep breath, releasing those thoughts to the Force. First, he straightened his tunic and belt, before checking his possessions.

Now that he thought about it, the girl never once went to grab Anakin’s lightsaber. Another reason the Force hadn’t warned him of danger? He’d have to ask Master Qui-Gon after.

His commlink was crushed from when he’d landed in the pod. Normally, it would take more than a few seconds of ship gravity to do that, but he’d taken off the hard outer casing to do some tinkering during the trip to Serenno, and now, well…

Anakin rubbed the back of his head.

From the corner of his eye, the padawan did notice how the spacer girl’s face tracked him as he floated across the interior of the pod, which just about clinched it. “You’re Miralukan?”

She flinched, pressing back into her harness.

Anakin flipped himself again, settling into the seat across from her. “Hey, I’m not upset or anything, kay?”

Her lips pulled into a glum frown. “Duke will be though…”

“Who’s Duke?”

She shook her head, fingers pressed tight against the crash restrains.

Anakin sighed, looking towards the small window. Space whipped by in turn after turn.

“I’m Anakin,” he said. “I’m a Jedi, so you can tell me stuff, you know.”

The girl shifted, even without eyes, Anakin could feel her staring at him.

He laughed. “Yeah, that one doesn’t usually work. But if neither of us talk, this’ll be a real awkward trip. Wanna tell me your name, at least?”

The Miraluka girl’s head dipped towards her lap. “…Schel”

“Right.” Anakin nodded once. “Look, I’ll make sure you don’t get in trouble for, you know, tackling me into the escape pod.”

Schel didn’t reply.

Well, there was a limit to what he could do. With a shrug, Anakin buckled his own harness. “So what’s it like living on a ship? When I was a kid, I wanted to be a spacer. Maybe even get my own ship.”

She frowned. “You’re a Jedi.”

Anakin looked down at himself, touching his beige tunic in surprise. “I am? Wizard!” He grinned. “Wait till I tell everyone back home.”

Schel snorted, turning away.

Anakin just continued blithely. “I wasn’t always a Jedi, though. Before, well.” He leaned his head back against the bulkhead. “It makes even getting stuck in a rogue escape pod seem like a dream come true.”

He could feel her curiosity, but sometimes you had to wait a bit. Couldn’t just expect the womp rat to just walk into his hand. “Better buckle up. Pod’s gonna start shaking soon.” Shortly after, he felt the tell-tale rumble of the atmosphere scraping against the hull. “Just sit tight when we land, okay? I’ll make sure we’re safe until we get picked up!”

At that, she grimaced. Anakin wasn’t the best at sensing other people’s emotions, but hers were so loud they almost filled the pod. Anakin kept chatting about this and that, feeling a little surge of victory every time he managed to coax even a one-word reply out of Schel.

Anything to pass the time until the retrothrusters fired. Anakin always hated waiting.

The escape pod touched down with a heavy thump, sliding once before coming to a complete stop.

“Finally!” With a flick, Anakin released the restraints and dropped to the ground. Shel hung sideways across the escape pod, and he helped her down before popping the hatch. With a quick flex, he jumped out of the same opening he’d been tackled through just a few minutes prior and landed on the top of the escape pod.

Only to be met, to his immeasurable disappointment, with waves and waves of sand.

“Ah, man.” Anakin looked down at Schel. “We landed in a desert!”

“…Okay?”

Anakin shook his head. “I hate sand.” He dropped back into the pod. “It’s coarse, rough, and it gets everywhere.” He sighed, grabbing the battered survival kit mounted on the wall, before holding his hand out.

Schel pulled back slightly. Anakin tried not to be hurt. “C’mon. Don’t want to get stuck in here if something big comes along.”

She grabbed his hand.

He pulled the Miraluka close, smirking at her ‘eep’ of surprise. It was easy as pie to vault out of the pod with her hanging from his arm. They landed lightly on the sand. “There we go.” Anakin set her down. “You good, Shelly?”

“Uh…”

He set her down gently, and she staggered half a step. Anakin caught her wrist. “Careful there. I guess force sight doesn’t really work on the sand.”

She shook her head.

“What…do we do now?”

Anakin hummed.

He lifted a hand, and with a flex of will, he pushed the escape pod over so that the access hatch lay against the ground. “There. We can build a little camp out of the entrance.”

Schel crossed her arms. “I thought you said we needed to be out of the pod!”

“If you wanna be stuck there when something small enough to fit inside shows up, be my guest.” Anakin popped the survival kit. “Heat blankets? Yeah we’re set.”

The sun was already dipping towards the horizon, so while it was still brutally hot, they maybe only had an hour until it started to get cold. Anakin didn’t know how long it would take for rescue to get here, but he figured it was better safe than sorry.

Plus, Padme would probably ruffle his hair again if she showed up and he was just sitting on the sand. He wasn’t a kid anymore.

“Wanna dig a hole for a fire?” He tossed a small shovel out of the kit before hanging the largest heat from the top of the escape pod. With a bit of work and some rocks he made a little half tent area that would trap some heat, and if it got too cold, they could just let it cover the entrance of the pod.

Other than that, the rest of the camp was quick work. Schel asked him once how he knew what to do so well. Maybe she expected “jedi training” as the answer, but he just told her that he’d grown up on a planet like this.

You didn’t live long on Tatooine if you didn’t know how to weather out a sandstorm. Later, as the sun started to disappear, they sat next to each other in front of a small fire, munching on the survival rations as the water condensator pulled what moisture it could from the air.

“I thought…” Schel paused. “I thought Jedi got taken when they were babies.”

“Most of ‘em do.” Anakin shrugged. “Master Qui-Gon didn’t find me until I was nine.”

“What were you, before that?”

He smiled. “I was a slave.”

“The Jedi saved you?”

“Padme saved me,” Anakin replied. “She was the one on the comm channel. Master helped too, but it was Padme that got me and my mother out of there.” He hummed. “She could probably help you too, if you don’t want to go back to Duke.”

Schel folded her hands in her lap. “I doubt she’ll care. Especially after…” They both ignored the escape pod in the room. “She didn’t sound…forgiving.

“Nah. She just talks like that.” Anakin stretched. “She’s a big softie. Just tell her what you’ve been through and I’m sure she’ll take you as far as the next space station.”

Schel didn’t reply to that.

The sun finished setting. It hadn’t even been a full hour, by Anakin’s reckoning. Just one way this planet was different from Tatooine.

“You said you want to be a spacer,” Shel said.

‘Used to’ Anakin almost said, but Qui-Gon had told him that ‘silence spoke volumes’ enough that it finally started to sink in.

He waited.

“I don’t.” She spat out the last word like a hiss. “I hate it. I hate that stupid ship. It smells, everywhere. It breaks everywhere too. And Duke always makes me fix it, just cause my dad was a mechanic! And it’s too small.”

“Yeah.” Anakin nodded. “Ships are always small.”

She nodded emphatically. “There’s no space for anyone. Everyone’s always tripping over each other. I hate it. This,” she pointed towards the open horizons. “Even this is better. Sometimes I feel like I can’t even breathe on that ship!”

Anakin reached out, putting a light hand on Schel’s shoulder. She didn’t flinch, she’d probably seen it, however her force vision worked. “Like you’re drowning.”

She nodded again, slumping as the energy left her. “I hate it,” she said again.

“That sounds horrible.” The corner of his lips pulled into a smile. “You’ve cured me of wanting to be a spacer.”

She snorted at his terrible joke. “Good. No one—”

They both paused. Later, Anakin would ask if she’d sensed it too, but apparently she’d felt the change in him instead. Which was weird, because they were a lot louder, but the Force worked in mysterious ways.

But that was getting a little bit ahead of things. Out of the sands, almost as if they melted out of the night air, three aliens appeared and approached their little camp.

One held a primitive spear, resting against a broad shoulder as four broad feet padded against the sand. All of them had four legs, and a stubby upper body with forward mounted arms.

The leader approached the two of them, and Anakin stood, stepping half in front of Schel.

The leader took his spear, and planted it in the sands. “Uv’ul’eluru. Uk’uklou shuru.”

Anakin blinked. “I don’t suppose any of you speak Basic?” The three newcomers shared silent glances. “No?” Anakin gave a sheepish grin. Maybe he should have spent more time on language studies. “What about Bocci?”