“dah dah dah, duh da-da, duh da-da”

  Rey sang a little tune to herself as she worked. Even if the echoes of the starship corpse were far too distant to hear her, she still felt that if she strained, she could feel the vibrations make the odyssey through the hull back to her fingers. It made her feel connected to the durasteel carcasses. Like if she sang to them, they would be filled with her song and join in with the chorus.

  She worked the pry tool and peeled away the rest of the warped pseudo-metal she was working on in one shuddering shriek-pop. It was a strange song. But it was hers.

  She gently placed the removed cover to the side of the small cradle she was sitting on. No sand inside. She grinned behind the mask dragged up over her face. That meant that no one else had been here.

  Jakku was the graveyard of the Old Empire. Littered with its glory. The sands were studded with the fallen fleet of the Imperial Navy. Unkar had grumbled that the ships were still falling from the sky when the corporations and industrial strippers had begun the mass looting of the carnage. Now, twenty-nine [?] years later, almost everything of value had been plundered from the remnants. Only the desperate, hungry and isolated scavengers still picked at the gristle on their neutronium bones.

  Like her. Rey’s smile twitched behind the fibroid mask.

  She ran her hands over the components of the revealed compartment. That was a plasma squeezy thingy, they sold ok. The dome-like part over there was meant to spin, she thought. If she could prove that it still moved, that would make it more valuable. There was one of those boxes she had seen before. She still didn't know what they did, but they had lots of dead lights on them, which made them seem important.

  Maybe they were a diagnostic tool of some kind? She traced her fingers across conduits bearing ancient marks of overloaded plasma. They seemed to quiver under fingers as if they still ran hot. Yes, that ring would measure something about the flow, then feed the information to the box. Heat? No. Density.

  Rey sighed. If the plasma was shot through in this part of the hull, then the diagnostic box would most certainly be cracked. Not worth much to Unkar then. She pulled out her multitool with the chipped bits. Boxy was staying here then, but Squeezy and Dome were coming with her.

  Her mind wandered as her hands worked at the squeaky bolts holding the valuable salvage to the sinew of the dead ship. It was already past the hottest part of the day, and she had been ranging further from Niima Outpost to find new scrap. They would move if it seemed like this region had been picked clean, but that would be Unkar’s choice. Unkar preferred to keep the working scrappers lean and sharp. He had told her when she was a child that the management of the scrapers was a delicate business. He had made it seem like he was passing down wisdom to a favoured mentee. Rey was pretty sure he just wanted someone to brag to.

  The last of the scrap plucked from the hollow and secured tightly against her body, she unlatched her grapnel to gain some slack on the climb-wire. Swinging her legs back and forth, she gained the momentum to lurch towards a thin ledge jutting against the wall. Her toes gripped the ledge through her thin-soled shoes, letting her pull herself against the wall.

  Traversing the inside of the fallen Star Destroyer was always a thrill for Rey. The impossible silence of the still cold wreck made Rey feel as if she was sneaking into the cavern of some beast. It helped her pretend that she wasn’t the only living being for hours of travel.

  She loved to find the little paths to traverse inside the hollow carcass. Strangeness and winding ridges made by the off-kilter position in which the starship had fallen. Floors became ramps and bulkhead doors became ladder rungs as Rey carefully retraced her steps to the great rent in the side of the hull from which she had entered.

  After the coolness of vast durasteel, the sun of Jakku seemed loud and oppressive before her eyes and skin adjusted. The vast expanse of rolling dunes were only occasionally broken by distant rock formations or colossal capital ships being slowly weathered away.

  Eventually, even those would be ground down by the sun and wind. Jakku was determined to be a nothing planet in the middle of nowhere. It wasn’t going to allow a minor galaxy-changing space battle to get in the way of that.

  Her sledge was undisturbed where she had propped it up against the sand-pitted exterior hull. The small pattern she had traced in the sand by the base looked untouched. It only took having her haul being stolen out in the sands once before she started to foster a healthy paranoia.

  Rey stowed the myriad of clamber-claws and climb-wire into the mesh compartments held against her body. She counted the two paces from her sledge to where she had buried her travel bag, clearing the sand away before she slung it over her shoulder. Eyeing the lengthening shadows, she counted the steeply sloping dunes to where she had left her skimmer.

  There was nothing to do but start walking. She let the sledge fall to the sand with a soft thwump. Rey grabbed the handles and pushed with her legs before jumping fully onto the sledge as it tilted over the dune.

  “Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee”

  Rey whispered behind her mask as the dry wind gust past her face. It felt amazing to be in such free motion after the careful sneep-steps of traversing the innards of the wreck. She revelled in the loosening of her concentration as she let her eyes close behind her goggles. Only opening them as she felt the soft grind of sand, while the sledge came to a halt at the base of the dune.

  Rey picked herself up and looked at the steep, sandy, calf-burning dune rising in front of her. She felt an irrational pool of anger before she smothered it in good-natured acceptance. The skimmer was two more dunes away, and at least she would get to slide down as much as she trudged up. She slung the sledge across her back and dug her shoes into the sand.

  *****

  Niima outpost was barely a settlement. Spread out, temporary shelters made of the same beige sand as everything else on Jakku. Everything sturdy was built low, as if they were afraid that if they stacked three bricks, everyone who only had two bricks would kick them over out of spite.

  The single water well in the outpost was a healthy distance from any tents or lean-tos. Anyone who looked like they were trying to claim the lone source of water would quickly be set upon by everyone else.

  The only reason there was a sense of community at all was due to Niima outpost having the only functioning nav beacon in the hemisphere. Anyone coming to this side of Jakku was forced to come to Niima. Building a spiteful hub of trade and commerce. Hub was a strong word. The people coming to Jakku were usually here because they had nowhere else to go. Rey was usually polite enough not to ask.

  Rey shook one of the pieces of salvage underneath the water in the trough before her, watching as a couple more bits of dislodged debris flaked off. Eema sat on a small rug on the other side of the trough, working on her own salvage. Eema must have bartered it from some scavenger. Eema was an old woman with white hair and thick, leathery skin. Yet her hands were nimble and she stuck her tongue out of her mouth while scrubbing. In a way, it made her look youthful. Rey knew she had been here since Rey was a baby.

  Eema kept an engraved durasteel portrait of a man she claimed was her father next to her as she worked. Rey knew that Unkar and some of the other scavengers snickered whenever they saw the portrait. They said it was a portrait of a clone, as if that in and of itself was funny. Rey had never met a clone, so she would reserve judgment.

  Scrap cleaned enough to show its value, Rey bundled her haul and made her way to the biggest structure in the outpost.

  Unkar’s bazaar was a rickety construction of cloth and stilts. Unkar never built it himself; instead, he placed his reinforced kiosk in a prime spot and let those who needed to queue build the shade-providing structure around him. Eventually, this led to more traders finding shady corners to set their wares and the piecemeal expansion of the bazaar as needed.

  The line moved quickly, and soon Rey placed two of the pieces of cleaned salvage on the raised counter. She met Unkar's shrewd, piercing gaze. The hulking Crolute had almost translucent, glistening skin. The bulbous features looked like they were meant to exist without gravity, and the weight of being on Jakku had malformed them like a deflated waterskin.

  “What you've brought me today is worth... Hmmm... A three-quarter portion.” Unkar demurred, voice full of false wisdom.

  He placed a roce-paper wrapped packet of skem-meat with a pouch of loav on the counter. He put it on her side, the salvage closer to him. Assuming the deal was already done.

  Rey knew that anyone else would get more. Unkar was still trying to squeeze her into working as one of his enforcers again. Trying to be just fair enough to not tempt her into doing something, but also keep her just on the edge. He wanted one bad scavenger run to send her crawling back to him.

  No one else in Niima would sell to her. Unkar kept a careful balance of petty vengeances and oily whispers to ensure that he had more friends than enemies in the outpost. And those enemies knew the unfair cost of annoying him.

  Rey nodded thanks and swept the rations towards her. She wouldn’t give Unkar the joy of seeing her anger.

  Returning to her skimmer, Rey scanned the surrounding sand to ensure nobody had approached the bike while it had been out of her line of sight. The sun was setting as she set off across the desert, leading to an almost cool dusk as she arrived at home.

  Her little home was set into the hull of a collapsed AT-AT. The once hard lines had been smoothed by endless sand, making the durasteel beast look kinder. Rey liked to imagine the AT-AT curling around her home, sheltering her.

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  The evening routine felt grounding. The heat evaporated quickly in the cloudless sky. None of her traps had been tripped, her small collection of knick-knacks all in their right place. The small doll Eema had given her as a child, which she had howled and howled until Unkar let her keep it. The small cot in the corner with her kitchen supplies neatly arrayed on the shelf above.

  Rey hummed to herself as she fried the skem-meat in the small wok she had, enjoying herself by dramatically sprinkling pfeffer into the wok. She set the loav aside in a ramekin with some of the water from the moisture catcher.

  The small dinner put together, Rey balanced her plate across her arms, bringing the meal into the now cool desert night. The stars swarmed the sky and made the night feel alive with light. In the distance, the light of Niima outpost seemed small and careful. Like something to be nestled in her hand.

  Rey ate with her fingers as she enjoyed the night, mopping up the dregs of her plate with the now-set loav. One of the lights in the distance jittered as a ship lit its engines for liftoff. Rey quickly licked her fingers clean and grabbed the old pilot's helmet she kept beside her when she ate dinner outside.

  The helmet had a monstrous scorch mark striking through the ancient Rebellion phoenix and exposing the inside wiring. It was one of the few pieces of salvage that Rey had repaired instead of sold. It had taken a few times to get right, but after seeing so many destroyed electronics, she had picked up what they were supposed to look like when they were less destroyed.

  Through the helmet’s scopes, Rey could focus on the distant ship in the false colour generated by the multiple spectrums. The ship was one of the old Orbital Liftloaders. She recognised the design as the one which had been parked behind Kellop’s small lean-to. It had been on Jakku for a few months, owned by a shifty droid who seemed to know Kellop personally.

  She wondered, like she did every time she saw a ship leaving Jakku, what had led to them finally setting off? Where were they going now?

  It was always fun to dream about the adventures the fleeing ships would have. Far more fun than listening to the stories that incoming ships told. Those stories all finished with the storyteller ending up on Jakku.

  A high-pitched electronic squeal broke the desert air. The electronics in the helmet flickered to life, decrepit sub-routines reacting to the binary noise. Confused and fractured visuals triangulated the signal and cautiously identified it as an ally.

  Rey tore off the helmet as another high-pitched beeping came from across a dune. It sounded like a droid in distress. She grabbed her quarterstaff from the ground, inadvertently kicking sand over her dinner plate in her haste. Using wide steps, Rey scrambled up the dune, following the agitated beeping.

  On the other side of the dune, a Teedo was attempting to jab down at a small orange and white BB droid trapped under a net. The Teedo was squarking in Teedospeak at the droid. It was awkwardly wielding an ion-spear from the saddle of a large cybernetically enhanced luggabeast. The small droid had a small spark-welding appendage extended and was jousting against the ion-spear with limited success.

  Rey took in the scene for a beat, stunned by the sudden action before her. Then a flush of indignation filled her chest as one of the jabs skirted along the chassis of the droid.

  “Hey!” Rey shouted, rushing down the dune.

  The Teedo looked up, his masked face making his head seem overly large on the child-sized body. Rey recognised the Teedo but didn’t bother pegging a name to him. With the pseudo hive-mind species, it wasn’t worth the bother.

  “Tal'ama parqual!” protested the Teedo as Rey reached the pair.

  Rey pushed aside the spear with her staff.

  “It doesn’t look like legitimate salvage to me, that droid is still using all his parts!”

  The droid beeped in agreement.

  “Parqual zatana!”

  “No, you listen to me!”

  Rey imposed herself between the still trapped droid and the small Teedo mounted on the huge luggabeast.

  “You let this drop now, or I will suggest to HK25 and C12 how fresh those droid parts you brought in last month seemed to me.”

  Rey could feel heat rushing to her face. She felt it was a great effort to maintain eye contact with the masked face. She had spent so long keeping to herself and deftly avoiding conflict that the sudden confrontation was making her heart beat out of her chest.

  Even when she had been an unwilling enforcer, she had only needed to stand near Unkar with her quarterstaff. Occasionally, she had needed to silently and efficiently take down someone who thought they could get away with trying something. But even then, she had never needed to make a big deal out of it.

  The BB droid was swivelling its head between the two of them to see who would make the next move. Rey turned and started to tear apart the net covering the droid after a beat. The Teedo threw up his arms in frustration and kicked his little legs into the luggabeast, urging it on. Seeing the Teedo give up the little BB-8 droid began a series of angry beeps and trills at the retreating figure.

  Rey quickly hushed the droid, worried that the Teedo might become offended and turn around. The netting fell apart, and the little droid wheeled back and forth. He seemed to be enjoying his newfound freedom. The droid beeped a happy note to Rey.

  “Hold on, your antenna is bent.”

  Rey straightened the bent wire once the little droid tilted his head towards her in permission. She leaned back on her haunches, properly examining the droid for the first time. He was undeniably adorable. A large ball chassis which moved in all directions while a dome head remained balanced on top. The droid was white and orange with only a few scuffs of exposed metal showing its age.

  With that paint, it was clear that this droid hadn't been in the sands long, and its body was too small for it to have any reason to be travelling this far into the desert.

  “Where did you come from?”

  BB-8 gave a few light, authoritative beeps. Rey held back a grin. Something in the tone made the droid seem young. Like a child, proud and certain.

  “Classified? Really? Me too. Big secret”

  Satisfied that the droid was not damaged by its time in the desert, she stood up. Secret or not, there really was only one place the droid could be going on a planet as empty as Jakku.

  “Niima Outpost is that way. Stay off Kelvin Ridge. Keep away from the Sinking Fields magward, you'll drown in the sand.”

  It was only a short journey, and the droid would easily make the few hours if he kept to the safe areas. The droid looked in the direction of her pointing finger and then back to Rey.

  Rey hesitated, then spun on her heel to head back up the dune.

  The droid beeped behind her. She turned sharply back to face it. It had rolled towards her as she had walked away, leaving a channel in the sand behind it.

  “No use following me. Town is that way.”

  The droid trilled lightly.

  “No.”

  Rey put her back to the droid and started up the dune. He let out a warbling beep. He was alone, and from his perspective, the desert felt strange and unfamiliar. Rey pursed her lips but felt her resistance crumbling. The droid was very cute.

  “Come on then,” she relented, ”in the morning you go.”

  The ball servos hummed as he wheeled until he was beside her heels, beeping happily.

  “You're welcome.”

  *****

  Rey watched BB-8 trundle back towards her, head tilted slightly down.

  “Don't give up. He still might show up. Whoever it is you're waiting for. Mr Classified.”

  Niima outpost was waking up as the sun rose, chasing off the desert chill. The little droid had already poked and beeped his way everywhere he could get. He was looking for whoever he was after. Rey had done her own asking, but nobody knew of any new arrivals to Niima.

  “Nothing much to do on Jakku but be patient. I am sure he will turn up. Nobody comes to Jakku for no reason.”

  BB-8 roll-bumped against her shin, sensing the melancholy in her voice. He beeped a curious few notes.

  “Haha, I didn’t have much of a choice. My parents left me here with Unkar when I was a child.”

  Rey leaned in with a forced, conspiratorial smile.

  “I reckon they were running from something, and they couldn’t afford to put me in danger, so they hid me on Jakku.”

  The story was one she had been telling since she was old enough to understand what had happened. Even when the years made the story ever more unlikely, she couldn’t stop herself from believing it.

  “One day they are going to come back here, and I’ll be there waiting, making them proud with how I've grown up.”

  The smile became more natural as the little droid listened with rapt attention. Belief was easier when you weren’t the only one.

  Rey shifted her pack as she stood up. The reinforced rollers of Unkar’s kiosk had just risen. The line of scavengers was quickly forming. Rey eked in an early spot with BB-8 just at her heel. He was looking up at the surrounding scavengers.

  Unkar’s near-permanent smirk solidified as she reached the counter. He looked at the scrap she had placed on the counter with an expression of feigned consideration. The blobby features froze for a second as the Crolute finally noticed the little droid peering out from behind her leg. His beady eyes flickered minutely between Rey and the droid. Rey could feel him measuring their relationship. An uneasy feeling built in her stomach.

  “These five pieces are worth... Let me see here... One portion.” Unkar said, pushing the pieces around listlessly on the counter, eyes measuring Rey.

  Rey frowned. Unkar undersold her, but not by this much. He wanted her under his thumb, not after his neck.

  “Last week they were a half portion each.”

  “Hmmm…” Unkar murmured non-committally. “What about the droid?”

  “What about him?” Rey asked, confused, and the feeling in her stomach sank another level.

  “I’ll pay for him.”

  For a second, Rey thought Unkar meant to hire the droid for repair work. But as he spoke, his thick, blubbery arms reached under the counter and scattered a mountain of food packets next to her small pieces.

  “Sixty portions.” Unkar declared.

  Rey’s mind whirled. What was going on? The old war-droids of Niima Outpost hated anyone who tried to partake in droid slavery and were violent in making their displeasure known. Unkar shouldn’t even be showing her that he had this many portions in his kiosk. Rey could almost feel the heat of all the scavengers behind her, hungrily eyeing more food than they all had combined.

  Unkar was clever. He knew better than to paint such a massive target on himself. He was bound to have someone come after the haul before the day was out.

  BB-8 beeped in agitation by her leg. The pit in Rey’s stomach diffused into a singular cold sensation across her whole body. Unkar wanted the droid. He was showing everyone here how valuable he thought it was.

  “Actually... the droid's not for sale.”

  Rey backed away before taking quick strides to clear out of the bazaar, her scrap pieces forgotten on the counter. Beside her, BB-8 beeped fussily, indignant. Her little friend didn’t realise what sort of danger he was in.

  Rey needed to get him out of here.

  Before he was torn apart.