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ISBN 978-1-368-01324-6
Visit the official Star Wars website at: www.starwars.com.
Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Part 1: Rey
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Part 2: Sabine
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Part 3: Padmé
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
About the Author
A Message from Maz:
I am glad you have come to see me, my friend. Come close! Don’t be shy. This is my favorite place. Look around you. See the deep starry sky? I have lived a long time. But I have never grown tired of watching the stars, here by my fire, sitting on a rock by the lake. And I have tea. Here, help me sprinkle the leaves into my kettle. You must pinch them, like so. It brings out the flavor. Spiced nysillim—delicious.
Now we have our tea, you and I, and we have the fire, throwing its orange sparks into the night sky. I know what you have come for—stories, eh? Tales. Yes, I see that I am right. And, oh, my friend, I have tales to tell, stories about true heroes. I’ve certainly known more than a few around the galaxy. Lean close. And listen—learn what it takes to be a hero. And remember, the choices we make, the actions we take, the moments—both big and small—shape us into forces of destiny.
Rey strode through the Jakku desert, her boots sinking into the sand soft as powder, staff slung on her back. The little astromech droid she’d just rescued, BB-8, rolled by her side. Teedo had picked up the droid and tied him in a net on the side of his luggabeast. Teedos were unpredictable, so it was lucky this one had listened when Rey told him to drop the astromech. You never knew with them.
Rey glanced down at the droid, his spherical body rolling along with his little head balanced on top. He was smeared with dirt, but at least his bent antenna was fixed—thanks to Rey.
“How’d Teedo find you?” she asked him.
The droid whirred at her briefly.
Rey snorted. “Oh, classified. Got it. Big secret.”
BB-8 beeped softly.
Rey paused. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d heard a thank you from someone.
“You’re welcome,” she said stiffly.
BB-8 sped up by her side and let out a gentle buzz.
Rey glanced down at the round droid. Without realizing it, she’d been speed walking toward the AT-AT she called home. She slowed her stride.
“Sorry, little guy,” she said. “I’m not used to walking with someone else.”
That was true, she reflected. She was always alone—whether she was working, selling her scrap to the junk dealer Unkar Plutt, or at home in the AT-AT. Even when she was around others, like in Niima Outpost, she was still alone.
Until now.
It felt odd, walking through the desert with someone else after so much time alone. Odd, but not bad. Actually, it felt kind of nice. Like having a friend. Or family.
But the sky was darkening to dusky purple and she was hungry. Unkar Plutt had given her only one quarter food portion for her junk that day, even though she had found especially valuable starship parts. Rey stopped and bent down.
“Niima Outpost is northwest from here, okay?” She pointed out the distant crags that marked the village.
“It takes me a couple hours on my speeder. It’ll take you longer, but the terrain is flat. Just hold straight and you’ll hit it eventually.”
She looked down at the droid’s little white head, and a funny feeling rose in her throat. She swallowed it down and patted him firmly.
“Take care, okay? And watch out for nightwatcher worms. The old scavengers say the worms can sense the vibrations in the sand—track people who might be parking ships or speeders. Then they eat the junk. There are a lot of them around here.”
She’d never seen a whole nightwatcher in the flesh—few had. Some people called them sandborers. One old scavenger called them Arconan night terrors. They usually stayed under the sand. But once or twice, coming back from a late run, she’d seen a pair of big red eyes, blinking at her from just above the surface. That was the nightwatcher worm, and though Rey knew she wasn’t in danger, her speeder and her net of junk were. She always shivered and hurried on. She didn’t want any of her stuff to be that thing’s meal.
BB-8 beeped indignantly.
“I know you’re not junk, but they might mistake you for it anyway, so just be on the lookout, okay?” Rey turned on her heel, willing herself not to look back.
A whirring sound came from behind her. Rey stopped and turned around.
BB-8 stood alone in the vast desert, his head drooping. He looked at her and let out one sad little beep.
Rey sighed. “Okay. Okay! You can stay with me. Just for tonight! I’ll take you to the outpost in the morning.”
BB-8 rolled happily by her side as the massive Jakku sun slid below the horizon, burning orange and red. The AT-AT rose like a lump in the distance. Rey’s stomach rumbled and she thought of the food she had eaten earlier. A quarter portion. She had to find a way to get more.
The whirring stopped and she realized BB-8 was no longer by her side. Rey turned. The droid was staring at something in the sand.
“Beebee-Ate, come on!” Rey called.
The night wind kicked up, whipping strands of hair in her face. “We don’t want to be out on the plains after dark.”
The droid beeped urgently.
“Wait. What do you see?” Rey stopped short, her pulse quickening.
Two red lights popped up from the sand. Just as quickly, they disappeared. Rey’s hand crept toward the staff on her back. Delicately, she slipped the strap off her shoulder and tightened her hands around the staff, holding it ready.
“Don’t move,” she muttered. “Just. Don’t. Move. That’s a nightwatcher worm. I told you, it feeds on junk.”
The droid let out one frightened squeak. Then he kept perfectly still.
Rey held her breath. The eyes popped up again. She could see the head now—like an upside-down triangle with the two blinking eyes sticking out at either end.
They waited. Rey’s heart was pounding so hard she wondered if the nightwatcher could hear it. She could almost feel its long, coiled body waiting under the sand where they stood. A moment stretched out, long and quiet. BB-8 remained frozen. Not even his antennae quivered.
The sand rippled. The red eyes zoomed toward them.
“Now we run!” Rey shouted. She sprinted as fast as she could toward her AT-AT home, BB-8 rolling along quickly at her side.
The soft sand slipped and slid under her feet and she stumbled, almost falling. BB-8 pushed himself against her and for an instant she clung to his round head.
“Thanks!” Rey gasped. “You’re a true friend.”
BB-8 beeped as his whirring accelerated into a high-pitched whine.
The ground rolled again as the nightwatcher rumbled under the sand.
“It probably hasn’t eaten today
! Hurry! We need to find something else to feed it!”
Rey’s mind raced. The AT-AT would do the trick. It had plenty of rusty beams and panels. The worm wouldn’t need much. They would just have to get there in time.
Suddenly, the worm shot into the air ahead of them like a starship blasting out of the sand. BB-8 slid to a halt, beeping frantically. Rey pulled up, whipping her staff in front of her and the droid. Her eyes bulged. The scavengers hadn’t lied—the worm was massive. Its shiny, plated coils heaved as it whipped its head around. The blinking eyes drew a bead on them and Rey sucked in her breath.
“BB-8! This way!” she shouted.
BB-8 sped up, bumping Rey and almost knocking her into the sand.
The worm whipped into the air and landed on the sand with a slap. It shot toward BB-8. The droid let out a high-pitched whine as he zigzagged, trying to avoid the worm’s gaping black maw.
The worm lunged and snapped, missing BB-8 by centimeters as the droid sped across the sand.
Rey waved her staff as high as she could, hoping to draw the worm’s attention.
“Hey!” she screamed. “Over here! Look!”
The worm’s head swung in her direction and it paused. Rey and BB-8 held perfectly still. Then the worm sank back under the sand as if sucked into the depths of the earth.
Silence. BB-8 rolled close to Rey’s side and pressed against her. Rey listened. No sound except the whisper of the evening breeze.
The droid beeped quietly.
Ffoom Before Rey could answer, the worm exploded out of the sand, writhing against the twilit sky.
“Nope!” Rey shouted. “Actually, it’s not done with us! Let’s go!”
They took off toward the AT-AT again. Faster, faster, come on Rey screamed silently. Her breath whistled in her chest, and cramping pains shot up and down her side. The worm slithered behind them, scraping over the sand.
BB-8 wasn’t next to her. Where was he? Rey whipped around. The little droid stood alone, as if frozen. The worm loomed over BB-8, its jaws wide, its tongues wiggling, poised to strike.
“Not today!” Rey shouted, and just as the creature lunged forward, she shoved her staff vertically into its jaws, cramming the weapon hard against the roof of its mouth and sensing instead of hearing its screech of pain and surprise.
Immediately, she regretted the move. Now she had no staff, which meant no protection. Rey shoved BB-8.
“Get going!” she ordered.
Rey shot a glance over her shoulder as they ran. The worm was thrashing back and forth with the staff holding its mouth open. She could see the staff bending, more, a little more, into a U-shape. Suddenly, the staff shot out of the worm’s mouth.
Rey flung herself forward, grabbing at the staff. The spinning stick thumped into her hands and she landed neatly, feet apart, body poised.
“Aaand—thank you! Keep moving, BB-8!”
BB-8 beeped as he rolled.
The worm disappeared again, burrowing and racing, the sand rippling above it like a river. The AT-AT was nearer—Rey could see its familiar shape silhouetted against the sky. Rey put her head down and clenched her teeth, charging toward it. They were almost there. Almost to the walker—almost to the junk that would satisfy the worm.
The sand moved like an arrow—the worm was tracking them underground. Rey stopped and turned sharply, hoping to throw the creature off. But the rolling sand headed straight for BB-8.
“BB-8! Wait! No!”
But before she could grab the droid, the worm erupted out of the sand and, in one swift movement, grabbed BB-8 in its jaws and sucked him down under the surface. The droid’s panicked beeps were suddenly silenced.
“No!” Rey screamed. She forced herself to stop running. Still—she had to stay still. She wasn’t going to lose her new friend to a hungry worm. She closed her eyes, drew in a big breath, and let it go. She imagined her mind focusing down to a narrow pinhole of light. She thought of nothing but the worm. Where was the worm? The worm didn’t want to hurt BB-8. It was just an animal. It was hungry. It was another living thing, and it just wanted to find food, like she did. She and the worm were the same, sort of.
Rey felt a twinge of compassion for the hungry worm and, suddenly, a thin thread flung itself like a lifeline from her mind—straight to the worm. There! It was right by the AT-AT—right by the junk!
Panting, Rey ran to the spot on the ground where she sensed the worm was. Rey raised her staff in the air. The stick felt like part of her body. It would do her bidding. The staff plunged down into the hot sand.
Thunk The staff hit something hard—the worm’s head. The worm reared out of the ground in front of her, knocking Rey off her feet. It rose mightily into the sky, thrashing its head back and forth, its red eyes glowing. BB-8 was clenched in its jaws, but the droid was still functioning. Rey could see his lights blinking.
Rey charged forward. She wasn’t thinking; she was all bone and muscle. The worm’s head snaked along the ground toward her. This was it, right now, before it disappeared again.
“Hang on, Beebee-Ate!” Rey shouted. She jammed her staff into the worm’s open mouth, wedging it behind the droid’s body. The worm whipped its head around and Rey almost lost her grip as its blue saliva flowed over her hand.
BB-8 beeped faintly for help.
“Hang on!” Rey said again.
Rey grunted as she pushed on the staff. The worm’s jaws were clamped tight, but the droid’s round body was slippery. If she could just pop him out…Rey gave a mighty shove on the staff and BB-8 suddenly sailed out of the worm’s mouth, arcing through the air and landing with a thump on the sand.
The worm snapped its jaws closed and shot across the sand toward its lost prey. Her breath whistling in her ears, Rey raced to BB-8, picked him up, and with all her might hoisted him on top of a rusting part of her AT-AT home, where he landed with a hollow thunk. She scrambled up behind him.
The nightwatcher looked up at them, its massive body quiet. It looked almost sad.
“Stay back!” she cautioned the slime-covered droid, and worked her staff behind some rusted panels—one, two, three. A beam clattered down with the panels. That was good; it could have that one, too. And another one fell. Rey shoved the junk onto the sand, right at the worm’s face.
“Here! I know you’re hungry. Take this!”
The worm sank into the sand and sucked some of the junk under, devouring it. Rey crouched beside BB-8 and listened to the crunching and gnashing under the sand. BB-8 still dripped blue goo.
“Okay?” Rey whispered to him.
The droid whirred softly.
“I’m glad that goo is your only problem.” Rey put her arm around BB-8, and together they watched the sand as the buried worm sucked down the last panel.
“We’re safe now.” Rey let out a breath. She straightened slowly, feeling as if she’d been pummeled all over.
“Welcome to Jakku,” she told BB-8. Rey held up her staff, also coated with worm slime. “How about we clean up a little?”
The droid beeped twice.
“How did I find you under the sand?” Rey hesitated. Concentrating. It was hard to explain. She’d never told anyone about it before.
“I’m just lucky, I guess.” Then she grinned at the astromech. “Unlike you, my little friend.”
The droid spun rapidly, splashing a string of blue nightwatcher goo across Rey’s face.
“Hey!” Rey wiped the goo off with her arm. “Watch it!”
The droid beeped and rolled forward. Rey followed, smiling a little to herself. She jumped lightly onto the sand and set BB-8 down beside her.
“Now, let’s go get you cleaned up.”
The AT-AT hatch was just ahead—home, some food—and funny…a friend, too.
Friend. She liked the sound of that.
The last of the night stars were still visible in the western sky when Rey opened the AT-AT hatch the next morning. She took a deep breath, savoring the lingering moments of dampness before the su
n rose. The pearl-gray sky soared over the rolling expanse of sand. The eastern horizon glowed rose pink.
Rey turned back and called, “Beebee-Ate, come on! You’re all charged up. I’m rested. Let’s get going.”
She felt a twinge even as she spoke. It had been kind of nice having company for a night—even nonhuman company. Still, the droid’s owner had to be found.
BB-8 rolled out of the AT-AT and over to the speeder, where Rey was fastening on a stronger net. She didn’t want the droid falling out over the sand.
“We’re heading for Niima Outpost,” she said, taking a clip from her belt and fastening the net to the speeder.
The droid whirred eagerly in response.
“I know you’re anxious to complete your mission.” Rey hoisted the droid into the net and tightened the clips.
“If someone’s looking for you, we’ll find them at the outpost. Everyone on Jakku turns up there eventually.”
Rey suddenly looked up, something catching her eye. She squinted at the horizon. There it was again—a flash of light. She reached into the pouch at her waist and pulled out her old quadnocs. She’d traded for them in town the previous year. The automatic tracker was faulty, but they still helped her spot things far away.
BB-8 beeped questioningly from the net beside her.
“I don’t know what it is—yet.” Rey spun the tracker dial. She spotted a small cloth-wrapped figure on an idling speeder bike on the horizon, buzzing up and down, waiting.
“Teedo…” Rey dropped the quadnocs back into her pouch. “He’s back for his prize. We’ve got to go.”
Rey reached up to mount the speeder, but before she could, BB-8 let out a warning alarm.
Rey whirled around just in time to see two of Teedo’s thugs running toward her. She caught a glimpse of rag-wrapped faces and big goggles as she whipped her staff off her back and thrust it under one of the thug’s legs. He grunted as he hit the sand. Rey shoved her staff into the net and leapt onto her speeder.
Star Wars Forces of Destiny: Daring Adventures, Volume 1 Page 1
