Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens the Weapon of a Jedi: A Luke Skywalker Adventure by Jason Fry Read Free Book Online Page B

pushing Sarco’s rifle down.
    “What? Why not?”
    Luke shookhis head. He realized he could feel the pikhrons in the Force—the comfort they took in one another and the pleasure they felt in the shade of their glen. He could also feel
their wariness about the intruders atop the happabores and their urge to flee, which was warring with their instinct to remain still and silent.
    “You’re taking away a good payday, outlander,” Sarco objected.
    “I’llpay you whatever you would have earned from the skins,” Luke said. “But we’re leaving the pikhrons alone.”
    Sarco shrugged, returned the rifles to their slings, and jabbed the happabore with the prod. As the beasts resumed their journey through the jungle, Luke looked back to see the pikhrons ambling
away through the trees.
    “Did you grow up in these woods?” he asked Sarco.
    “In Tikaroo,”Sarco said. “This is home now. I only go into town when it’s necessary. They don’t like me there. They never have.”
    “I’m sorry.”
    Sarco just grunted.
    “Mr. Sarco?” Threepio piped up. “Why do they call you the Scavenger? It seems a most peculiar name.”
    Luke grimaced. Sometimes he suspected whoever programmed Threepio for etiquette had installed something upside down.
    “It’s supposedto be an insult,” Sarco said. “My specialty is finding things of value and figuring out who wants them.”
    “If you grew up in Tikaroo, you must remember the days before the hunts,” Luke said. “When the villagers followed the old ways.”
    The bristles on Sarco’s arms quivered briefly.
    “The old ways were sentimental nonsense. Animals are a resource, like everything else in the galaxy.”

    “But the people here lived in harmony with the pikhrons for generations.”
    Sarco shrugged.
    “Besides, resources can be used up if we’re not careful,” Luke said.
    “An entire galaxy’s worth? Impossible. What’s the point of caring about a few pikhrons? Or Devaron? Or any of it?”
    Luke looked sadly at the stately trees, wondering what had happened to Sarco that he cared so little forhis surroundings. He couldn’t have been born that way—no one was. Something
had warped and twisted him, turned him bitter and withdrawn.
    “Besides,” the alien muttered, “it’s a better life traveling the jungle taking what you need than scratching at dirt with a plow.”
    “Now
that
I agree with,” Luke said. “I grew up farming, myself. It’s hard work.”
    Sarco turned his eyeless mask ofchitin toward Luke. His cilia fluttered and he cocked his head to the left, then to the right.
    “Thought you were a hyperspace scout,” he said. “Isn’t that your fighter that Kivas is working on?”
    “That’s right.”
    “You’re a busy young man. Y-wing, eh? If you want to sell, I know people who’ll pay good credits.”
    “What kind of people?” Luke asked.
    Sarco shrugged.
    “I find things,”he said. “As long as people pay good credits, what they do with those things isn’t my business.”
    “Well, my ship isn’t for sale.”
    “What about the droid, then?”
    “Of all the nerve!” Threepio exclaimed. “I am most certainly
not
for sale. Isn’t that right, Master—”
    “I meant the astromech,” Sarco said. “You talk too much—nobody would buy you.”
    Artoo chortled and Luke had to smile.

    “They’re not for sale, either,” he said. “But I’ve got a way you can make some easy credits. Take me to Eedit.”
    “Forbidden.”
    Artoo blatted derisively, and Sarco turned in his seat.
    “What did it say?”
    Threepio inclined his head haughtily.
    “He said he thought you didn’t believe in ghosts.”
    “You should shut those droids off,” Sarco said.
    “I was thinking the same thingas Artoo,” Luke said. “What are you afraid of?”
    “Nothing,” Sarco said. “But there’s a difference between brave and stupid. Ghosts aren’t the danger at Eedit.”
    “What is, then?” Luke asked. “Look, I just want to see the place—I