TALES OF THE FREESPIRIT

EPISODE I: DISCOVERY

~ Chapter 2 ~

by I. J. Thompson

Illustrated by Allan Whincup and Dave Myatt


The yellows and oranges of the brilliant Bodrin sunset were gradually giving over to reds and purples as Avery arrived at the cabin belonging to the Pollos family. Hitching Bella to the post outside, he made his way over to the cabin's only door, and ran his cardkey through the slot on the wall. The heavy door opened obediently, and he stepped into the darkened room, fumbling on the wall for the environmental controls. Clicking the lights on, he was greeted with a sparsely decorated living room, which turned into a small kitchen on one end. Three bedrooms and a refresher bordered on the far wall, and the centre of the cabin was dominated by a large, old style wood burning stove.

Avery began rummaging through the foodstores, taking a general inventory. As he did so his stomach growled impatiently, and he was surprised by how hungry he had become. Not stopping even to take off his jacket, he set about making a great meal, which he ate enthusiastically.

After he'd eaten and showered, Avery settled down in one of the chairs to contemplate his situation. This contemplation quickly gave way to boredom, and he began to pick about the cabin, looking for some sort of distraction. Night had fallen, and the land was quiet. There was no holovision here (the Pollos' wouldn't have one in their home, either), but there was an impressive apparatus whose function seemed to be the playback of recorded music. Avery hunted around eagerly, but ultimately was defeated: no albums. Resigned, he settled back into his chair to wait for sleep, which knocked him out almost as soon as he closed his eyes.

He awoke short hours later, to the startling sound of blaster fire. Leaping to his feet, Avery jumped behind a piece of furniture, listening intently. Two more shots cracked the silence, and he was slightly relieved to hear they sounded fairly distant. A loud yelling could be heard as well, in a tongue Avery couldn't place. Then, answering the yells came a beastly roaring, with which he was very familiar: horoks.

Rushing to a large closet, Avery was relieved to find a formidable hunting blaster inside, and cursed himself for not looking for the item sooner. You're a fugitive now, he told himself, and it's time to start acting like one.

He ventured out into the dark night, where Bella waited for him, whining nervously. He unhitched the cracian thumper, feeling guilty for having left her out here. The animal could probably ward off one horok, but not a pack of them, and certainly not while hitched to a post. Avery leaped astride the animal, and they charged off toward the sound of the disturbance. He almost stopped to question his actions, but wouldn't entertain the idea of turning back. He wasn't exactly thinking like a fugitive, but Avery Kranzt was a country person. And when wild animals attacked country people, neighbours helped.

Lights began to reveal themselves through the black forest, and Avery charged toward what looked like a landed spacecraft of some kind. The roaring continued, as did the blaster fire, which became visible beneath the vessel. The trees gave way to a clearing, and Avery leaped off his mount, taking stock of the situation. There were at least three horoks in the clearing, slobbering hungrily around their vicious tusks, brown fur shining under the lights. One of them was busily trying to eat a chromed, humanoid robot, which called out helplessly in a female's voice. The other two alternately charged the owner of the weapon, who stood over six feet tall, and was covered with hair almost the same shade as that of the horoks. The Wookiee female yelled loudly, blasting at the howling animals with a bowcaster. One more horok lay dead on the ground, its ribs scorched from blaster fire.

One of the tusked beasts turned toward the new arrivals, and moved to attack Bella, the larger and meatier of the two. This gave Avery a clean shot, and he felled the animal with three rapid bursts from the hunting rifle. With only one opponent to deal with, the Wookiee was able to back up, and drop the beast that pounced her way, as well. This left one horok, who continued beating the shiny robot back and forth like a tin can, seemingly enraged by the squeals of terror emanating from the hapless droid. Caught between the laser bolts coming from both sides, the animal was dead in moments. Silence fell over the clearing, broken only by the soft buzzing of the ship's landing lights.


"This is the Treespirit, isn't it?" Avery asked.

He was sitting in a chair in the craft's lounge area, rifle resting across his knees. The Wookiee sat in a chair opposite, huge paws selecting instruments from a toolkit and using them to pull the silver droid back into shape. She'd had one hip joint twisted badly, and was dented in more than a couple of places.

Not looking up, the Wookiee hooted a response, which the droid translated. "How do you know of the Treespirit?"

Avery recounted the recent events in the space over Bodrin, and his involvement, being careful not to say anything about what had happened after that. "Besides," he went on, "we don't get a lot of traders here. To see two Ghtroc 720's in a row would be quite a coincidence."

The Wookiee seemed to soften somewhat, and grunted another response. "Well…" the droid translated, "traders as we are, Dorok Zalaster and his band are natural enemies of ours. It was our pleasure to assist you." The droid's alto voice was tinny and strained, and she sounded for all the world like a common, automated communications operator. Avery considered asking her to say, "the number you have reached…" but pushed the thought away with a smile.

Oblivious, the droid went on. "I suppose, then, the polite thing would be for us to introduce ourselves. My name is RO-6, and I am the humble servant of Miss Grakkata, the captain of this vessel." The Wookiee female growled, and nodded a greeting.

"Avery Kranzt," the human said, "and it was also my pleasure to assist you. Those horoks aren't to be trifled with. I'm surprised we handled them as well as we did, actually. Though if I'd come along later, I don't know what would have happened…"

The chrome droid fixed her large, convex 'eyes' upon him. "And what," she asked, "were you doing out here, anyway?"

Avery studied the pair nervously, uncertain what to say. On the one hand, he was armed, and might be able to get out of the situation even if these two turned out to be his enemies. But somewhere inside, he had a nagging feeling that this Grakkata and her droid could be trusted, and might even know something about the fugitive life themselves. Going with his feeling, he told the two slowly and carefully about the afternoon's experience in the quarry, his murder of Greel, Brobec and Spinter, and the strange, jewel finger.

The Wookiee listened patiently, and sat silently for a moment before responding. The servant droid RO-6 turned toward him, saying, "Grakkata would like to see this crystal, if you please."

Well, here goes nothing, Avery thought, retrieving the strange artifact from his jacket and tensing, ready for trouble, as he handed it over. The Wookiee studied it at length, holding it this way and that, peering at it under light, and even, for one nerve-wracking moment, tasting it. Seemingly satisfied, she passed it back to the young human without ceremony.

"Grakkata doesn't know what it is," Arro-Six stated flatly, "and neither do I." It was clear from her tone that this was a mystery with no apparent solution, and ought to be dropped. But the Wookiee began speaking, and went on for several moments. What she said seemed to give the robot pause, and Arro answered her in fluent Wookiee, seeming to argue something. Grakkata responded with a sound that suggested there was no room for argument, and the shining droid seemed resigned as she turned to Avery. "Well, it seems clear that if we are going to find a solution to your puzzle it will be found not here, but at the quarry where this trouble began, in the first place." She turned back to the Wookiee, who nodded, indicating she go on. "Are we to expect any trouble once we get there?"

Avery shook his head in confusion. "Wait a second," he asked, "you guys are helping me? I always heard you spacers didn't help nobody. Why would you risk your necks for me?"

Grakkata growled a reply, which Arro translated, pointing over at the Wookiee female with one shining chrome thumb. "She's going to ask you a favour."


The trip back to the quarry was made easier due to Grakkata's generous offer of her cargo skiff, which provided a smooth ride, albeit a slow one. Making the trip more difficult was the skiffs' lack of any running lights, forcing the pair to try and illuminate their path down the country roads with handheld glowrods. Arro-Six had elected to stay behind, and Grakkata had brought along a comlink with which the droid could alert her to any danger back at the Treespirit. Avery had asked why a legitimate trader would choose to land her vessel so far outside a settlement, and the answer, as it turned out, was directly connected to the favour Grakkata had then proceeded to ask of him. It seemed the Treespirit had taken irreperable damage to some critical hyperdrive components during its dogfight with The Last Thing, and the Wookiee was nowhere near having the credits needed to buy replacements. With Avery's help, she proposed to break into the equipment stores in the hangar in town, take what she needed, and bring it all back here for repairs. Avery instinctively took offence to the idea of doing something so dishonest, and then was reminded of the sick feeling of Spinter being crushed beneath his trucks' treads that afternoon. I think a little thievery is the least of my worries, he mused to himself.

Finally arriving at the site, the pair was able to abandon their glowrods in favour of the illumination provided by light poles positioned sparsely around the quarry. An eerie silence enveloped them on all sides, and a cool, midnight breeze tickled Avery's neck. Grakkata covered the pair with her bowcaster, in a combat-ready stance that Avery thought looked a little too professional for the average free trader. Clearly, there was more to this Wookiee woman than met the eye.

The ambush they'd been half-expecting didn't seem to be present, and Avery was able to investigate the area without any difficulty. He was forced to rush, however, as more horoks could be heard howling in the surrounding woods, and their keen sense of smell would lead them to the Human and his friend in no time.

Greel's body was gone. The area showed no sign of a struggle, though Avery wasn't sure there had been any, to begin with. The tracks that should have been left by the treads of the two trucks were gone, as well. Avery didn't like this. If the law was after him (as they should have been, in Avery's opinion), then surely there should be some sort of investigation going on here, now. And yet the area was deserted, just as it would be on any other night.

Climbing the rickety wooden stair to the foreman's bunker, he was given a shock by the sudden sound of a voice in front of and below him. Leaping backward with a startled cry, he landed roughly in the dirt, struggling to stand while scrabbling for his glowrod. Grakkata was at his side in a second, growling menacingly and pointing her bowcaster into the impenetrable darkness beneath the stairs. Avery stood back and shone his light into the area, but there appeared to be nothing there.

Their ears, however, told them a different story. The voice spoke up again - deep, indecipherable, but clearly intelligent. "Rrrr-hrrr, hrrrr…"

To Avery's surprise, a patch of darkness dislodged itself from the area beneath the wooden stairs, and came rumbling toward them. As the shape drew itself out into the light, it was revealed to be nearly a meter high, hemispherical in shape, its entire surface covered in featureless, dull black metal. It's one facial feature, a small photoreceptical 'eye' on a short stalk directly atop the domed figure, stared at the two of them blankly as it rolled forward.

"Hrrr-rrr, hrrr!"

Avery exhaled sharply, and laughed despite himself. "It's one of the quarry demolition droids," he announced to the Wookiee, who still had her weapon trained on the mumbling robot. "Let's see who it is…" he knelt down to read the serial number printed discretely near the droid's base in silver letters: LIN-D0T.

"Dot!" he said, delighted to see his favourite of the quarry's droids. True, demolition droids were not especially known for their sparkling personalities, but Avery had worked with this particular unit long enough to call him a friend. "Maybe you can help us," he said. "What do you know about what happened here today?"

"Rrr, hrr…" Dot said, rolling back and forth nervously. Like any blasting droid, he was accustomed to taking orders, not answering questions. Mumbling a little more, he stared up at Avery helplessly.

Avery decided to simplify the question. "Were you here on the site today?"

"Hr." Dot replied flatly, a sound Avery recognized as an affirmative. He continued.

"Did you see what happened between me and the boss?"

"Hr."

Avery bit his lip, and asked the big question.

"Did you make a recording of it?"

"Hr."

Avery rose, smiling a victory smile at Grakkata. "Nice work, little buddy! Crank up your projector, and let's see it."

He was interrupted by a warning nudge from Grakkata, and turned toward the Wookiee. She was peering off into the dark woods that bordered on the quarry, tensely brandishing her weapon. Avery looked off into the darkness, and saw shapes moving there, shapes that growled.

"Tell you what, Dot," he slowly said to the round droid. "Why don't we all just quietly make our way to that cargo skiff over there, and you can come with us and tell us all about it…"

Avery wasn't certain the robot had enough of a personality to allow it to leave its job site, and was pleasantly surprised when Dot began rolling obediently toward their transport. Avery followed, alongside Grakkata, the pair of them walking backward and covering the slowly approaching animals. One by one the horoks began emerging from the darkness, hungry eyes watching them intently. There was a tense moment while Avery and the Wookiee dropped their weapons to lift the heavy droid onto the skiff, but the horoks, four of them, simply stood together in the dimly lit area, growling lowly and dripping drool.

It was the sound of the skiff's igniting drive that broke the standoff, and brought the raging predators howling after them. Grakkata pushed the simple transport's accelerator to the limit, while Avery took pot shots at the pursuing beasts with his hunting blaster. He killed one, whose rolling, blasted body served to trip up two of the others. The one remaining horok chased them a little longer, then stopped, howled angrily, and began chasing its tail in tight circles along the darkened, dusty road.


The quarry was alive with activity, looking all the more so because everything was happening at double speed. The picture covered a small area of one of the Treespirit's interior walls, and was generated by a small video projector that had raised itself out of the thirty-centimeter slot opening in Dot's 'head'. The sleepy droid continued running the recording at high speed, and muttered at length.

Arro-Six, the only one in the chamber that could have understood him, replied in basic. "You'll never have a holoprojector," she told him, "only survey droids and astromechs get those!"

Dot snorted loudly, and it was very clear to all what he thought of that. The projection kept running forward, and Dot explained through Arro that the segment Avery wanted to see should be along shortly. Workers could be seen leaving the quarry, looking comical in high speed as they shut down machinery, removed helmets, and slapped each other on the back to mark day's end. Then the picture began to slow, and Dot rumbled again.

"Here we are…" Arro translated.

The image slowed to reveal the demolition droid's perspective as he rolled along toward the droid shed, where the other quarry robots were already arranging themselves into neat lines. A distant shout could be heard suddenly, and Dot stopped, listening. There it was again:

"Hey, you guys, come here!"

Dot looked back at the other droids, all of whom appeared to be out of acoustic reception range, for none of them seemed to have heard the call. The robot sat a moment, perhaps deciding whether or not to pretend he hadn't heard it either, then trundled off toward the source of the sound, turning his camera in the new direction. Coming to a halt atop a slight ridge, he trained his camera on a pair of workers who stood beside a pile of rubble about forty meters away. Zooming in, the pair was revealed to be Avery and Greel, the latter jumping up in the air excitedly.

"He's gonna be rich!"

Avery gave the man a warning shove, secreting something away in his jacket's pocket. The two were joined by Brobec and Spinter, who appeared from off-camera.

"What have you got there, son?" Brobec asked, studying the younger man coolly.

"He's gonna be rich!" Greel hooted again, though no one was looking at him. Hesitantly, Avery reached back into his jacket and produced a twenty centimeter, cylindrical object which Dot's camera revealed to be a crystal, of some kind.

Spinter inhaled sharply at the sight of the object, and gave his superior a significant look. Brobec's face betrayed no emotion as he stepped forward. "That belongs to Elrood Quarry Corp, not you, Kranzt." He held out a hand. "Give it to me."

Avery replaced the jewel in his pocket without a word, while Greel once again began screeching excitedly. "Forget it, boss! We're quarrying bodrite, not gems! That thing is Avery's, fair and square. Maybe if you two lilywhites had to scrabble around in the rock once in a while, you'd find something of your own!"

Brobec studied the man for a moment, then reached into his coat. Producing a small blaster, he pointed it at the hysteric and blasted him in the chest without ceremony. Greel slumped to the ground, and Brobec and Spinter turned back to face Avery.

But instead of running or protesting, the young man shuddered violently, and blinked his eyes several times. He looked around blankly, seeming to take in his surroundings for the first time, as the foreman Brobec brandished his blaster, and spoke again. "Give us the rock…"

Avery turned away from the projected image, leaving Grakkata and the droids to watch undisturbed. He knew how the rest turned out. He pulled the strange jewel-finger from his pocket once again, turning it over in his hands as he thought.

Well, at least I didn't kill Greel; he mused, taking heart in that simple fact. But I still have no idea what happened to my memory. He studied the strange artifact intently, wishing it to explain everything to him. The mysterious finger did no such thing, of course.

His thoughts were interrupted by Arro-Six, whose winding gears he heard coming up behind him. "Grakkata suggests you bed down for the night," she said, not unkindly. "Her end of the deal has been fulfilled, and the two of you have a big day ahead, tommorow."

Avery nodded, putting the crystal away, and wandered off through the ship to find a bunk.

~ Turn to Chapter 3 ~



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