Distant Horizons/Chapter 4

Chapter 4 Travel to the Belt

“Damn hate this stuff”, sighed Shia, as he took a last mouthful of his oatmeal. He sighed grimly, and then turned to Trisha. Trisha sat silent, and quietly chewed her oatmeal. Yes, she hated this stuff as well, but frankly, she didn’t give a kriff on anybody so long as she had something to eat. She was deep in thought. She had known Hando for a long time, and she had fallen in love with him. They had had a great time together, along with all of their other friends on board the Distant Horizons. They had been adventurers and smugglers. They had spent years sneaking around the Galaxy, laughing at people, laughing at the empire, the rebels, the new republic... everybody. The money had come in from all around. They had smuggled spice for Lady Valerian and Jabba the Hutt on Tatooine, smuggled illegal arms for Wonn Ionstrike on Bespin, stolen a rebel transport for Jillo Bethess on Ando, and done all sorts of other minor criminal activities. Yet now, they were finished. Now, they were drifting in empty space, with no communication, navigation, engines or life support. And Hando had gone insane. She had spoken to Hando less and less over the past few days, and now she were starting to get the feeling that he didn’t want to talk to her. A draft of cold air entered the room. Trisha stopped chewing and looked up, her mouth still full of oatmeal. What was this? She looked at Shia. He had obviously also noticed, and was looking around wildly. Suddenly, Trisha felt cool air in her mouth, and in the folds of her eyes. Fresh air. Suddenly Shia started laughing loudly and merrily. He got up, and stretched, and breathed in deeply. And then Trisha smiled as well. The life support. It was back on again. “At last” whispered Shia.

Trisha walked into the hallway. The fresh air was brilliant. There was nothing like fresh air. All her life she had never known how important it was. As a teenager she had sat in a room all day with all windows closed. She had hated the drafts and windy air. Fresh air. Cold air. But now the air was everything. She remembered Bespin. Not just a planet, but an enormous gas giant made entirely of air. The fresh air paradise. She longed to go to the windy gas world once more. As she started thinking of planets, Trisha realized how much she missed them. Planets were so... big. Enormous, endless space. And that reminded her how much she wanted some room. Now, at least they had fresh air, but the ship was still small and they were all squashed together. On a planet, there truly was endless room. Room to run, room for privacy, room for everything any being would want. A huge heavy airlock clamped open. Trisha turned the corner. Ghoel, the Wol Cabbasshite, was pushing a huge plastic garbage sack into the ejection airlock. Before Ghoel saw her, Trisha quickly inserted the Magnetic earpiece with which she could speak with Ghoel, for she knew Ghoel -quite fairly- expected everybody to have this earpiece in at all times so he could talk with his friends. Trisha wondered what was in that huge bag. “Don’t ask”, came Ghoel’s recorded voice through the earpiece, “I don’t think you’ll want to know”.

“Why?” asked Trisha. Ghoel did not answer, but he slithered further across the ceiling of the corridor, pushing the bag into the airlock. He stuck out his tongue, and pushed the close button on the door panel. Slowly, the huge blast door closed. Ghoel pressed the eject button on the panel, and Trisha heard the sound of outside door opening. Through the viewport, she saw the sack freeze up in seconds. It knocked against a small asteroid and smashed into frozen bits. “Hando’s in the cockpit”, sighed Ghoel, and he slid across the ceiling back over to the common room. Trisha stared at the bits of the bag, and identified the frozen husks of several creatures. She stood there, silently, for a moment, before turning and heading down the corridor.

Hando wiped the sweat from his brow. He picked up a mirror and stared at his reflection. His green duros face appeared bland and pale, and his eyes glinted like those of a tired rancor. He sighed. At least he’d finished with the problems in the hold. Where the sarlacci had come from was completely beyond him. He and Ghai had searched the hold, and found no holes in the hull. The creatures could not have come from outer space, that much was clear. Hando wondered whether they had been snuck aboard by the pirates they had battled in the Tatoo system. Wherever those monsters came from, the important thing was that they were gone now. The door slid open and Ghai entered. He set his huge body down in the Co-pilot chair. His eyelashes were fluffy and pearl; the Herglic must have just got out of the shower. Ghai sat back and breathed out, and then breathed in deeply. He took a bite of the meat chop he was holding. “What ‘sat” grunted Hando. Ghai chuckled, his deep voice vibrating through the cockpit. “Take a guess”, he laughed. “What... oh no! You serious?! “Yep”, laughed Ghai, “Sarlacc” Hando didn’t respond to that. He felt his stomach turn over in his body. He couldn’t believe Ghai had actually cooked and eaten one of the creatures that had nearly killed him, even if he was the biggest and was probably starving the most. He ignored Ghai. As well as finally repairing the life support, Hando had got some of his sensor equipment back online. The engine worked anyway. It had worked the whole time. Unfortunately, both hyperdrive and backup hyperdrive were completely destroyed. Hando smirked at the irony of taking a million years to get out of here with the sublight drive, when he could have taken as little as an hour in hyperspace. With his tired hand, Hando activated the engine. A large asteroid field came up on the scope, a few million miles away. Hando cursed under his breath. In the background, Ghai took another bite of his roasted sarlacci. If they had the hyperdrive, it would take a few seconds to get there, but with this lowly sublight drive, it would take nearly a day. Realizing he had no other choice, Ghai started the engines, and the Distant Horizons sped into space. Satisfied he turned and left the cockpit. Earlier that day, he had laughed at Ghai for thinking the Gravity generators were malfunctioning. Now, he was sure they were indeed failing. He could back flip through the air now and jump all the way up into the sleeping quarters. He was surprised how much easier life was without the gravity, but he was aware that too long in space could lead to serious ailments. But he would cross that bridge when he came to it. Now, he desperately needed sleep. He lay in his bed. As he lay there he thought of Trisha. He had wanted to marry her, and he hoped she was still with him. He had neglected her, that much was clear, and he knew she had noticed that. But now that they had air again, he would warm to her again. Yes, he would warm to her. Hando was deep in thought, and he slowly drifted to sleep.