Distant Horizons/Chapter 10

Chapter 10 Victims

Shia Hamid woke up. He was on the bottom bunk in the sleeping quarters, and this morning for the first time in months, morning sunlight was shining through the window. Shia smiled, and tried as hard he could to remember precisely which planet he was on. Images flashed through his brain. Images of vast jungles, waterfalls, cold, humid air, but also of shining crystal walls. A palace. Stars woven into the walls, chandeliers hanging. Then all at once, Shia remembered the Hole. Two holes in fact. One black hole, and one white hole, intricately connected through the fabric of space, and with these ones they ended up in the weirdest place in the universe. Well, actually, not in the universe at all, but at the core of the Multiverse. And, now, as usual, Shia began to resent Hando Likir for his terrible decisions. He pushed his cover aside and sat up, putting his legs on the floor. He stretched. Then he relaxed and looked around. He heard trickling water and loud jazz, the sound of Ghai having a shower as usual. He looked up to the top bunks, where Hando and Trisha slept. Hando was snoring away. Shia scowled at him. Why the Hell have you brought us here for, Hando? He said in his mind, why did you get us intone mess after the other. Shia remembered everything, from start to finish, which made up the catastrophic events leading up to landing way out here, somewhere out of the universe. They had been smuggling spice for Jabba the Hutt, as usual. Jabba and most of his court were drug addicts, and Ryll spice from Ryloth was well paid for if supplied in sufficient amounts. It had been he, Shia, who had done most of the dirty work getting the spice out for them. And Hando was like, well, indifferent. He got on with it and they sped back to that rock of a world Tatooine. And when they got there, as usual, some space gang had taken pathetic pot-shots at them, mindless and with no real aim, like the way sand people fired at speeding podracers. The pirates were there to annoy, not to destroy. But this time, Hando, the clever Captain Hando had decided that the pirates were damaging his ship and that he would damage theirs back. Of course, Shia had warned him, and so had Ghoel, who right now, was hanging from the rafters. But obviously, Hando had taken no notice. In short, he had flown straight at the pirates, got them firing at him like mad, and eventually he had gotten so obsessed that the ship was nearly destroyed. Well done brother, thought Shia scornfully. After he realized his ship was going to blow, Hando had set the navicomputer for some desolate place in wild space, and let it go. And then all of them got knocked out by and ion cannon blast. They had woken up days later from what Shia thought of as a coma with no idea where in the universe they were. And then they had drifted mindlessly for months on end, until Hando had the bright idea of flying straight into a turbulent nebula. And now they were here, at the core of the Multiverse, with no way to get out. Shia was sure boredom and resentment of Hando would get him before he starved here. Then Shia considered. There was an awful lot of life in this weird core-place. Maybe starvation wouldn’t get them after all. Shia stood up and looked back at Hando, then at Trisha. But she wasn’t there. It didn’t take long for Shia to work out where she was. Obviously, she had gone exploring alone in the forest. Alone in the weirdest place imaginable. Shia peered out of the sliding door of the sleeping quarters. He could not see the entry hatch from here, but from sparkling sunlight and the cool draft blowing through the ship he could tell Trisha had indeed left, and left the boarding ramp down. Great. Who knows what had already crept onboard the Distant Horizons since? Oh man Trisha, why are you even more stupid than your boyfriend thought Shia. “Where’s Trisha?” came Hando’s voice from above. Shia turned around gleefully. He was eager to see that pathetic reptile’s reaction when he found out the truth. “I believe Trisha,” said Shia, “has gone for a little walk this morning.” Hando’s reaction was worse than even Shia had predicted. For a moment he simply stared at Shia gobsmacked, but then he climbed with speed down the ladder, hot, sweaty, trembling and half naked, muttering curses under his breath. Then he sprinted out the door and into the corridor, and disappeared round the corner. Shia smiled. It didn’t take all too much to freak Hando out. He could have freaked him out even if Trisha had not gone out. Shia swished his two green Lekku to the back of his face. A worried looking rabbit droid plodded past. Shia greeted it with a nod and a slight twitch of his Lekku. He listened, but he did not hear Ghai in the shower any more. Obviously the Herglic was somewhere else. Shia knew there might be fruit or animals outside, but no way was he going out there with Hando searching for Trisha in a romantic save-princess-from-dragon hunt. He would eat Tanaabian oatmeal instead. He had eaten nothing but the stuff for months, but no food tasted bad for a twi’lek when they had made fun of a foolish Duros companion. Shia turned into the kitchen. And he was met with an unspeakable horror. The monster lashed out and brought him to the ground, and at that moment, darkness fell suddenly over the core of the Multiverse.