The Force Awakens (Star Wars) by Alan Dean Foster Read Free Book Online

thought you had somewhere special to be.”
    Plaintive and anxious,the electronic response was nothing like what she expected. Retracing her steps, she knelt to stare into the droid’s dark eye.
    “Don’t give up. He still might show up. Whoever it is. Classified. Believe me, I know all about waiting.”
    The droid beeped questioningly.
    “For my family. They’ll be back. One day.” She tried to smile and failed miserably.
    BB-8 moved as close to her as protocolpermitted and beeped softly. It caused her to rise suddenly, plainly annoyed by the query.
    “
What?
No! I’m not
crying
.” This time when she started off she did not look back.
    She didn’t have to. Ignoring her admonitions, the droid tagged along, beeping continuously, irritating her with distressing consistency.
    “I was not!” she continued to insist. “Just because a little water flows froma human eye doesn’t mean it’s crying. Check your info dump.” She rubbed at the eye in question. “Nothing but a piece of grit. This whole world is nothing but a big piece of grit.” The droid’s comment on this left her not knowing whether to laugh or cry.
    “No, Beebee-Ate. I don’t have a world in my eye.”
    But her eyes continued to water as she made her way deeper into town, and she gave uptrying to persuade the droid to leave her alone.
    Maybe one day things will change
, she told herself absently as she waited her turn in the line. Like the hot, dry desert wind, reality cut in as she stepped up to the front and unloaded her goods. She hid the wave of revulsion that swept through her. Maybe one day, before the universe died, Unkar Plutt would take a bath.
    The merchant madehis usual show of inspecting her salvage, buthis attention was actually on the rotund droid that had parked itself behind her and slightly to one side.
    “Two interlifts. I’ll give you one quarter portion. For the pair.”
    She reacted immediately. “Last week they were a half portion each, and you said you were looking for more.” She indicated the two devices. “Here’s two of ’em.”
    Plutt’sflesh rippled. “Conditions have changed.” He hefted one of the components and squinted at it. “Besides, this one is missing a membrane. I don’t like paying for incomplete equipment.” Before she could object further, he leaned forward. “But what about the droid?”
    “What about him?” she asked guardedly.
    “Is he with you?” Plutt smiled. Which, if anything, was worse than his usual expressionof indifference. “I’ll pay for him. He looks functional.”
    Behind her, BB-8 began to beep apprehensively. Rey ignored him, intrigued.
    “He might be.”
    “Why then didn’t you offer him up together with the interlifters?” Plutt was drooling. Normally that was a cue for her to flee while she still had control of her stomach. This time she ignored the bile.
    “As you say, he’s functional.”She spoke with studied indifference. “I can always use a functioning droid around the house.”
    Plutt begged to differ. “This one? Of what use could it be to someone like yourself? It has no service limbs.”
    “Maybe I enjoy the company. You said you’d pay. How much?”
    His pleasure apparent, Plutt could not contain himself. “Sixty portions.”
    Somehow she managed to restrain her reactionto a single muscular twitch. Sixty portions would feed her for…for…for a very long time. Time enough to do other work that had been long neglected. Time enough to relax and rest her bones. Time enough for—
leisure
was a word that had long ago been dropped from her vocabulary.
    Beeping furiously, BB-8 nudged her from behind. The droid had been following the conversation from the beginning andwas not liking the turn it had taken, not at all.
    “Quiet,” she muttered.
    Either the droid didn’t understand or else he was willfully ignoring her instructions. Having little patience with obstreperous mechanisms, she reached over and thumbed a sequence on his head. Immediately,