"The Requisition Position."

By: Anthony Hummerston.

STARRING

'Mama',   Rojic,   Jimmi,   Karnov,   Niall,   Kory,  
And introducing:
Joe-90 Hen3ry and'Lucky.' and 'Blinkie.'
as the droids.

AND
Storm Cutter
their ship.

Rojic and Niall are disagreeing again. “The whole town is full of rubble.” Niall says.

“Full of profitable opportunities.”

“Is there nothing you won’t steal, and sell on at a profit?” Niall asks.

“Yes there is! Er, actually no, there isn’t! Er....I'm not sure. Can you repeat the question?”

Back at the walker, Kory, Karnov and Jimmi are watching with bated breath as the hatch opens. The smell of cooped-up soldiers assails their nostrils.

“The kind of smell that’d make a Weequay hold its nose.”

“Smells like what?”

“Like a mouldy green tangerine!”

Jimmi can’t smell, or see. –And can’t see what Karnov can see either.

“Help me up!”

Karnov reaches down to help Jimmi. “Here, hold onto this with your hand.”

Jimmi tries. On finding nothing to grab onto, Karnov says, “Try with the other hand.” Karnov looks down at his lit lightsabre. “The other remaining hand!”

Jimmi is worried for a minute. Nervously checking that both hands are still attached. Fortunately they are.

“That’s a joke unbecoming a Jedi.”

“I’m still a Padawan. –We’re like medical students, we like sick jokes before we qualify.”

“-And a black sense of humour after you graduate no doubt!”

Padawan safety manual.

Karnov peers into the walker. He can make out a humanoid in a mask and goggles. “It must be bad. -This chap’s all suited up!”

As the light fills the cramped cockpit of the walker, a head emerges cautiously. It isn’t a man in a costume, but a Kel Dor in an antiox mask. Karnov speaks loudly and slowly. “Do….You….Speak….Basic?”

“Yes…We…Speak…Basic!”

“Oh! Okay then!”

Doc Voss.

Karnov helps the Kel Dor out, and behind him is a female human. “Actually, I’m a Corellian, but an easy mistake to make.” She scolds him. Behind them is a small green-grey skinned Sullustan, who jabbers at him in its own language.

“W’mell ar- toma, wall, wendah, folal, maha?”

Before Karnov can say, “I think he’s trying to say Hand!” , Jimmi shushes him.

The Kel Dor introduces them. “I’m called Doc Voss, this is M’raa Freea,” He indicates the woman and then Voss points to the Sullustan. “-And we call him ‘Spid.’

Spid.

M’raa Freea. -That's easy for you to spell!

“I’m Padawan Karnov, this is Jimmi and this is Kory. We’re here to rescue you!”

Kory adds. “Actually we’re here for the salvage.” Voss looks in her direction. Behind the goggles, his eyes widen. “But we’re working for the Republic.” Kory adds.

“This is good. We got separated from our unit. We think that they are all destroyed. The walker needs repair, but we dare not leave the vehicle to fix it up, we are a crew-member down and there are still droids about, mopping up survivors.”

Kory smiles sweetly. “You’d be welcome to use out ship as shelter, while you make repairs. We also are arranging transport off Honoghr, we could take you with us, and I’m hoping that there would be room for the walker as well.”

“Thank you.” Voss says. “We are grateful for your assistance.”

“No problem. We’re here to help. –And commandeer equipment.”

“Commandeer, that’s another way of saying ‘requisition’”

“Yes. But without the paperwork.”

“Or the use of the word ‘steal’”

“‘Stealing’ is such a….Oh, Never mind.”

Back with Niall and Rojic, the two of them are following the Tusken raider across no-man’s land to the ruins of the town. Most of the buildings are levelled to around knee height. – Or in Rojic’s case, knee-height at an altitude of about six inches. They make the cover of the ruined buildings without incident. The Tusken leads them toward the centre of the town. They stop for a rest and a look around. Niall notices a disturbance in the ground. He gives a hand signal to Rojic to be quiet and to keep flying. Rojic misinterprets this, and keeps prattling on. “This is actually the first Tusken that I’ve come across. They are crude, but straightforward. They shoot things to get attention, and have a habit of stepping on front of one’s binoculars when you least expect it. I only hope we aren’t walking into a trap.”

Niall can’t help himself. “Well, you do present a fine target Rojic, what with your high-vis vest.”

“I’m not wearing a vest!”

“What’s that fluorescent strip down your back then?”

“That’s my true colour!”

“A shining beacon! A yellow streak a mile wide!” Niall claps his hand to his forehead.

Then he remembers why he wanted Rojic and the Tusken to stop. “Actaully I think I’ve found something!”

“What?” Rojic flutters over to investigate. Right over the thing that Niall has found.

“A cylinder in the ground!”

“An old beverage can. That’s not salvage, it’s scrap!”

“Actaully I think it might be a mine.”

“A mine! –Like a b…..”

“Don’t say that word!”

Niall extracts the canister. Having realised that Rojic’s proximity hasn’t set it off, he has decided that it is an anti-droid mine. “Probably set off by technology, rather than organics.”

“Good thing too.” Rojic is relived. He takes a moment to relive himself behind a wall. The fear is strong in this one!

Niall calls over. “It’s okay. It’s a friendly mine!”

“Rojic calls back. “Then I’ll keep it, and love it and hold it and call it George….!”

Karnov suddenly gets a mental image of Rojic with the mine. Strain as he might he can’t use the force from here. He reasons that blowing the Toydarian up with a mine is not a dark side act, though it might get three points on his provisional licence.

“A shame.” He thinks to himself. “After all- the force is not entirely black and white. It’s like yin and yang. A small dot of the opposite in each half.”

Niall looks at the mine. Some military experience kicks in and he correctly identifies it as a Mark 10 sub-v-b anti droid mine. “This has probably been deployed by the Noghri.” He looks around for more. After a careful search, he finds another ten. “I suspect that they come in packs of twelve.” He says. The Tusken is indicating a patch of ground within a ruined building. They make their way there, to find the ground littered with thousands of glass-like discs. They are around five inches in diameter, and about three millimetres thick.

“Damn this mixed-measurement system!”

“Metric and imperial units, -and we don’t even have an empire!”

The Tusken is indicating the remains of an anti-grav elevatior shaft. Near it are a set of choked stairs. Niall looks down the shaft. He calls a friendly, “Hellooo!” He keeps his hand on his weapons. It would be unfortunate if a droid should take this the wrong way and blast his head from his shoulders.

The Tusken grunts at Niall. Niall looks at him. “What’s that you say? Someone trapped down the well?”

“Urg. Ug.Hrug.Ug. Ugg’ht”

Rojic tries “Er….Anakin Skywalker just got married?”

“UghR’ rrg’urhuggr’ss”

Niall puts a finger to his lips. “Shh! That’s supposed to be a secret!”

Niall asks if he should contact Joe-90 again to translate.

“What old ‘camembert to sausage who shall I shoot for you today?’ Joe-90?”

“Never mind. We’re going down!” Niall tells Rojic.

“What about the mines?” Rojic asks.

“I think I've cleared them. ”

“Think?”

“Well you can do another search if you want to. Just jump up and down on the ground. You’ll soon know if you find one!”

He hears voices. Not droid voices. They invite him down. He and Rojic drift down in the anti-grav lift shaft. Rojic considered going up, but decided that there might just be droid snipers about. The Tusken is nervous. Niall reassures him. “It’s okay. I do this all the time.”

“All the time?” Rojic asks.

“Only when it’s funny!”

They emerge at the bottom of the shaft, which is about ten feet below the surface. – “Or three point zero-four-eight-meters in the Republic system.” Rojic reminds them.

“Thanks professor. I’ll remember the conversion factor when I throw you down a hundred-foot well.”

“It wouldn’t be much of a challenge.” Rojic retorts.

“No, what would be challenge is catching your wings when I throw them in afterwards.”

As he reaches the bottom, several aliens are looking at him. “Ahoy there!” He says. Then, as he looks at their blank stares, he tries another tack. “I’m Niall. This is Rojic. I’m from the Jedi service corps.”

“The lavatories are over there!”

Niall is offended, but doesn’t let on. “-And I’m here to rescue you!”

A Noghri pushes through the crowd. “I am Mayor Pleet. Though not mayor of very much anymore. This is one of the few buildings in town that had a lower floor. It was the records office. We are soldiers and civilians, we have casualties and some walking wounded.”

Niall offers to help. “We have a ship nearby to evacuate the badly injured and a transport on offer to rescue the rest.”

“We are grateful for your aid.”

Niall looks around. An area has been cleared for the wounded, but beyond that are scores of racks for the glass-like discs. “What are these?”

“An archive. This is the basement.”

Rojic jokes. “I suspect all the records are in aurebesh order.”

“Correction, were.”

“Were in aurebesh order.” He asks, “Was the top floor destroyed?”

“Yes, completely.” Pleet tells him.

“Shame. No more Harold Budd, or Dave whassisname.”

“Do you mean Bruce Gilbert?”

“Yeah, that’s the one. Though to replicate the sound, you could spin ground glass under the stylus, and amplify it up to around ten-point five.”

“Not eleven?”

“Nope. At eleven, people automatically assume a stress position, and promise to tell you everything.”

Rojic thinks for a moment. “I once had some music that was supposed to be under the threshold of hearing.”

“I think that’s called ‘silence!’”

“Oh!”

Niall offers to start evacuating the most badly injured. He will ferry them across the battlefield to their temporary field hospital aboard Storm Cutter. He gets on the communicator and Joe-90’s voice is heard. “Now listen, Joe. I’m sending some casualties. I want you to take care of them.”

“Take care of them sir. Certainly. Will a shot to the back of the head do, sir?”

“Not ‘take care of them,’ I mean treat them. They’re badly injured soldiers.”

“Okay sir. I’ll put them out of their pain.”

“No. Not that! Can I please speak to Kory?”

There is a pause.

“Kory here!”

“Kory, I’m sending some wounded civilians and soldiers. They need medical attention, and some space on the ship.”

“There is no more space on the ship, Niall. We found an AT-ST.”

“Well, there’s no way that’ll fit in the hold anyway.”

“Not while Rojic’s sofa is still there.” Kory reminds him.

“What about the transport?”

“I’m still negotiating with Fleevah. She’s driving a hard bargain.”

“Tell her that unless she complies, we’ll give her a lifetime’s supply of Bruce Gilbert holocron data recordings.”

“And if that threat doesn’t persuade her?”

“Tell her we’ll leave Rojic as house deejay as well.”

“I’m sure she’ll see sense, when presented with the options.” Kory signs off.

The mayor is busying himself with the injured civilians. When they are transported, he goes back into the archive and selects a few discs. With these stowed away, he takes a holocron data recorder too. “With this I can record memories. Not too far back into the past, but the last few weeks….A month at most.” He starts to say, but there is nobody around to see or hear him.

Mayor Pleet.

Rojic pilots the speeder. Niall scours the area looking for any more survivors. He finds a few. The only other building which has any significant basement is a spacecraft parts factory. After some time, he has located another nine survivors. They join the mayor and the rest that are waiting for transportation. Soon they are walking toward Storm Cutter and Rojic is picking them up. Rojic maintains that it is quicker this way, but Niall suspects that Rojic is only doing it this way to save on fuel. “Shh!” Rojic hisses at him.

Meanwhile, Jimmi, Kory and Karnov have handed the walker crew over to the ministrations of Master Junn, and left to investigate a meteorite that hit near here. They zip out over the battleground, and soon they can see a plume of smoke rising into the air. As they approach, they can make out the wreckage of a one-man fighter. They hope that they might find the pilot alive, but on coming nearer thay realise that all that strawberry jam in the cockpit is the remains of the pilot.

“A shame.” Kory is moved.

“If only I could have got here sooner.” Karnov laments.

“It wouldn’t have helped.” Jimmi says, climbing the wreckage. “Not unless you could have altered time or speeded up the harvest. I see the force ebbing from the pilot even now.”

“You can see the force after death?”

“Only for a few moments. And by that stage, it’s long gone.”

“Can you see into the future too?” Karnov asks.

“Always in motion the future.” Jimmi reminds him.

Jimmi stands on the one remaining wing to maintain balance. “Would you like to say a few final words, Karnov?”

“I suppose I’d better. Unless you want to say something.”

“I’m not particularly religious, though to me, Bruce Gilbert is a god.”

Kory says with some irony. “Sometimes it must be difficult to tell whether you’re in heaven or hell. –Speaking of which, you might want to get off the wing Jimmi.”

“No, it’s okay. I don’t sense any danger.”

“Okay then, but I must warn you that you are standing on the concussion missile pylon – and there are two live warheads right beneath your feet.”

Jimmi scrambles down. “Is there any way I can get out of here with my honour and dignity intact?”

“Well, if they’re intact, I guess you are intact. – But your reputation is in tatters.” Kory says.

Jimmi is apologetic. “I guess I should have seen that coming!”

Kory is concerned. “I’m concerned about those missiles.”

“How so?”

“Well, from where I’m standing- which is about a mile too close I might add- I think there is something leaking from the missile.”

“Eeew!”

Karnov looks closer. “Actually I think it might be lubricant.”

“Not pilot lubricant?”

“No. It’s lube. Or maybe hydraulic fluid.”

They identify the pilot as an Iktotchi. “It’s the cranial horns. Very distinctive.”

“I thought that the Chagrian had horns.”

“Yes, but they have four, and they’re more blue.”

“But the Chiss are blue.”

Jimmi says. “Funny, I never knew they were blue.”

“No?”

“No. –Funny how total blindness usually covers colour blindness as well.”

“Oh. I see.”

“I hope you’re being ironic with a statement like that!”

“I am. Though I see the force as different shades, sometimes.”

“Such as?”

“Sometimes I see black streaks in people’s auras. I think that means that they have sins that they haven’t atoned for, or if they have evil thoughts in their minds.”

“And when do you see them?”

“Mostly whenever anyone talks to Rojic.”

“But a little bit of black is okay, surely. Like Yin and Yang. One must have a spot of the other?”

Jimmi sighs. “I dunno. What am I now, a philosopher?”

“Well, you don’t seem to be doing very well as a masseur, or is that masseuse?”

“Come over here, and I’ll massage a few new lumps into your head!” Jimmi warns, inviting a few black threads into an otherwise unblemished aura.

They decide to clear the missiles. With a bit of work, they undo the bottom of the pylon enough to loosen the weapons. Then Karnov raises a hand and uses the force to draw them slowly out.

“Careful. Careful….” Kory reminds him.

Karnov concentrates. The two missiles slide free.

“Where are you going to put them?” Kory asks.

“Over there!” Karnov says, and points. As he does so, the missiles do a quick barrel roll and swoop over their heads.

“I think it’d be safer if I carried them.”

Jimmi smirks. “I think you should place one under each arm.”

Karnov sees the funny side. As he sniggers, the missiles dance a little jig in the air.

They decide to lower them onto the speeder and lash them on. Karnov says a few words for the downed pilot.

“As a loyal servant of the Replublic, I commend you to the force.”

Kory is thinking. “Actually, maybe we ought to destroy the remins of the ship with one of the missiles.”

“But I just strapped it on!” Jimmi protests.

“Well get over there and un-strap it!”

Jimmi trudges off. “Work, work, work!”

Karnov stiffens. For a second he thinks he sees a ghostly figure in the corner of his eye. He turns to look but it is gone.

Kory sees his concern. “What’s up, you smell something?”

“No….But….”

Whatever it is, you’ll be okay with…..”

Karnov gasps again. Back at the archive, Niall does so too.

“What is it now?” Rojic asks.

“I felt a ripple in the force. Something is amiss.”

Niall hops aboard the speeder with the last of the town’s survivors. He meets with Karnov at the first opportunity. “I have felt a ripple in the force.”

“I have felt it too.”

“Me too!”

“Shut up Rojic, you only feel a ripple in the force when someone drops a penny down a manhole on Tangrene!”

Jimmi concentrates. In the future and the present he can feel the ripple. Karnov asks, “Can you describe it?”

“No. Not in words. All I can do is to say that a well-built humanoid is nearby, and whatever he or she is up to has grave repercussions in the future.”

“Best go check it out. Anything we should be aware of?”

“No. But there is a shuttle in my vision. It might be important!”

They leave Master Junn and the mayor in charge, and zip off in speeders to investigate. After some miles, they see a shuttle. As they get closer they see a figure working away at it.

Kory asks. “What is that terrible noise? It sounds as though a greeble is stuck on the bottom of the speeder and is scraping along the ground.”

Rojic looks sheepish. “I didn’t believe what was said about Bruce Gilbert. I put a data disc of his into the speeder's audio player.”

“And?”

“I think it’s stuck. Wherever we go it sounds like a wild Ronto giving birth through a ring modulator.”

“You mean you can’t remove the disc?”

“No.”

“Good thing too. Coz when it finally comes out, it may well find itself in a certain place not normally associated with the playing of music.” Niall says.

Rojic looks apologetic. To make sure Niall doesn’t go through with his threat, Rojic pulls his high viz vest down somewhat further, and sits firmly on the seat.

They approach the person tinkering with the shuttle. The craft doesn’t look badly damaged, but there is a bit of carbon scoring around the engines.

“Having trouble with your shuttle?”

“No. No problem.”

Karnov introduces them all, and asks if he can be of assistance.

“No. I don’t need your help. Now clear off!”

“But maybe we can….”

“No. Clear off. I don’t need help. I don’t need your kind either.”

“But this is a barren wasteland.”

“Leave me alone.”

Jimmi puts a hand on Karnov’s arm. “He obviously doesn’t want to be disturbed. I sense much anger in him.”

Karnov whispers back. “Imagine what he’d be like if we’d played Rojic’s disc at him!”

Niall asks, “What is your name?”

“You don’t need to know my name.”

Like a drone, Niall repeats the man’s words. “I don’t need to know your name.”

“You can go about your business.”

“I can go about my business”

“Move along please.”

“Move along please.”

“Leave your wallet on the floor where it can be retrieved.”

“I’m leaving it now…..”

Karnov interrupts. “Niall! He’s hexing you!”

Niall snaps out of it. Rojic pounces on the wallet, but Niall has Sarah Jane pointed right at it. Not wanting to lose a finger- or indeed any other part of his anatomy, Rojic leaves it be.

Niall is in intimidating mood. “What’s in the hold?”

“Nothing of interest, just a simple cargo.”

“I’ll be the judge of that! Let me see!”

The man goes to block his way, but Sarah Jane is in intimidating mood too. Especially with the safety catch off.

“By the way it doesn’t seem to have a safety catch.”

“That’s his hard luck. –Extreme danger catch enabled!”

The man reluctantly steps aside. In the hold of the shuttle is a crate about ten meters long, five feet across and about sixteen hands high.

“Damn weights and measures!”

Inside the crate is another box, made of a shiny translucent material. It is soft and slippery to the touch. There are transit documents inside a clear wallet on the top, along with a sample of material. Looking through the top of the box, it would appear that the contents are made of the same stuff. Karnov opens the wallet, and slides out the sample. It is a gold colour, and finer than gold leaf. The material is so thin and flexible that the merest touch rips holes in it.

“Is this what I think it is?” Karnov demands.

“What do you think it is?” The man replies, giving nothing away.

“Er….I don’t know.”

Niall has an idea. “It’s so light and thin, and flexible. I think that it might be some kind of solar sail.”

“A solar sail?”

“Yes. A solar sail.”

“Did you say…..”

“YES! A sail that gives a spacecraft impulse, from the radiation pressure effects of stars.”

Rojic explains. “Radiation pressure is the pressure exerted upon any surface exposed to electromagnetic radiation. If absorbed, the pressure is the power flux density divided by the speed of light. If the radiation is totally reflected, the radiation pressure is doubled.”

“So?”

“So if you deploy a solar sail, and wait for a week or three, then you can build up considerable speed to traverse solar systems.”

“But why the fancy packaging?”

“Because the material is incredibly delicate. I imagine that under the layers of film, there is a grav-disc and a deployment system.”

“Much like a parachute is specially packed so it opens correctly?”

“Never needed one myself, but essentially, yes!”

“What is it doing here?”

“Not much. Though some people are said to favour such things. It certainly helps a spacecraft travel in stealth mode.”

“Some people such as who?”

“Well, you refer to him as ‘ducky’ but everyone else knows him as Count Dooku.”

“Ducky I says!”

Niall rounds on the pilot. “Who are you working for?”

“The Trade Federation. It’s not a crime is it?”

“Karnov might beg to differ.” Niall says.

Karnov replies. “I might just differ. -No need to beg!”

Karnov turns to Niall. “Cover me!”

“Cover you?”

“Okay, cover him. I’m going in.”

“Whatever.”

Karnov strides over to the man. “I arrest you in the name of the Republic.”

“Oh yeah, you and who’s army?”

Niall swings Sarah-Jane over in the man’s direction.

The man complies. He removes his tool belt and comes quietly.

“Does anyone have any binders?” Karnov asks. Only Kory has some, and they are pink and fluffy.

Jimmi is ‘looking’ at the paperwork. “I can’t make head nor tail of this.”

“You’re looking at a picture of Miss November, 25 BBY!”

“I thought I could feel a couple of lumps in the force.”

“The force does not stand around in lumps!”

Rojic asks what they are going to do with a valuable shuttle and even more valuable cargo.

Niall winks at Kory behind Rojic’s back. “I think that now we have the perpetrator in custody, we should destroy the ship, the contents and therefore the evidence. I wouldn’t want a million credits of spacecraft parts left lying around. You never know who might requisition it!”

“Agreed.”

“Set charges. Maximum spread. I don’t want two atoms of the ship or the contents around for scavengers to pick up! Maximum greebles!”

Rojic looks at the shuttle. His eyes fill with tears. As he puts his hand over them, Kory wallops the hull with the biggest spanner she can wield. “CLANG!”

When Rojic opens his eyes, the others are rocking in silent laughter.

“You are so cruel!” He says spitefully. The others laugh even more.

“That’s a big debt you owe me. You horrible tricksters!”

Kory counters. “Well it is said that Toydarians never forget a debt. Never pay one off either!”

After looking over the remins of the shuttle, Jimmi is calmer. Turning to Kory, Jimmi says. “What do you think of Fleevah?”

“She's very nice, yes. Spirited, but nice.”

“You think that Fleevah and a person like me....?”

“I don't know. I've been round the galaxy. I've seen a lot of strange things....A Miralukan and a Toydarian. It might just work!”

“You never told me she was a Toydarian!”

Rojic wades in. “What about with a guy like me?”

“You and Jimmi. -Yeah, I can see that!”

“No that is not what I mean!”

Rojic flies off agin, angrily. Kory turns to Jimmi. “The buzz-buzz of little tiny wings all over the ship. It'd be worse than bunking with a swarm of killer bees.”

“At least killer bees only sting you to death. Toydarian children probably bore you to death, steal you to death and annoy you to death as well.-And that’s before the adults start on you!”

Rojic sticks his tongue out. It isn’t a pretty sight!

NEXT EPISODE: "Evacuate! Evacuate!"

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Footnotes:

Thanks to my contributors and my proof-reader!