Star Wars - Kenobi

night’s events, she just felt cold. She pulled at the brown fabric she’d been resting under until it was over her head.
    “Is my cloak comfortable?”
    Annileen looked out from beneath the makeshift cover. Backlit by moonlight, Ben sat perched in the open window. He wore the clothes she’d seen him wearing outside his house, the day of that first visit—and he looked grim.
    But she was glad to see him, even here, even now. Given his penchant for sudden appearances, this circumstance seemed almost normal.
    “Hello, Ben,” she said, sitting up. Belatedly realizing she was lying half dressed under his cloak, she pulled it to her chin and blushed. “Sorry,” she said. “I guess you need this back.”
    “No, no, you hang on to it!” Ben turned his head quickly, nearly hitting it on the ceiling above him.
    Annileen chuckled, her first laugh in hours. She had him look outside for a moment while she found her nightshirt. “Crisis averted,” she said, passing him his cloak as he slipped down to the floor.
    “You must be exhausted,” she said, watching his shoulders sag as he sat on the floor against the wall. She had almost forgotten that their day had started in the desert, before Mos Eisley.
    “I am tired. I’ve been very busy,” he replied quietly, a respectful distance from her bed. In the hallway, there was only darkness. “I need you to listen,” he said, “because I don’t have much time.” He looked up at her. “I know Orrin was here.”
    Shifting to sit on her knees, Annileen nodded.
    “He told you about the money he owed Jabba?” Ben asked.
    “And the bank.” Annileen shook her head sadly. “It’s so much. I don’t get how he came to this.”
    “It’s about water,” Ben said. “A magical water, that tasted better than any other. And the vaporators that produced it.”
    “You mean this,” Annileen said, holding up the flask from her bedstand. She handed it to him.
    Ben didn’t refuse it. He drank, thirstily. Wiping his face, he continued. “You told me Dannar had never developed the formula because of the cost. But that after Dannar died, Orrin invested heavily.”
    “Six years ago,” she said, nodding. “Dannar was gone. Orrin’s wife had left. He’d hit bottom. I think Orrin decided it was the way to reclaim his life.”
    “But success never came,” Ben said. “Orrin’s debts grew. And he took a loan from someone who really worked for Mosep Binneed, one of Jabba’s business managers.”
    “Orrin told me,” Annileen said.
    “He started selling things off,” Ben said. “I know because I just came from his office at his ranch.”
    Her eyes widened. “Really?”
    Ben nodded. “I figured he kept things there he wouldn’t keep in his office here in the store.” Then he looked up at her guiltily. “Although I checked there, too.”
    “But how did you get in?” Annileen squinted. She sighed, impatient. “Never mind. Go on.”
    Ben stood, still speaking quietly. “Orrin was broke. So he turned to a resource he had control of. A public trust.”
    Annileen gasped. “The Settlers’ Call!”
    “You told me there was once enough money in the Fund to defend half the galaxy.”
    “I wasn’t serious,” Annileen said, reaching over to nudge the door to the hallway shut. “And he was legitimately using the money to buy weapons and landspeeders. There’s that whole arsenal in the garages!”
    “But he also uses those speeders for his ranch,” Ben said. “And there are loans taken out on all the Fund’s vehicles. As for the weapons, they all came from your store. He wasn’t exactly paying full price.”
    “And my new landspeeder?”
    “Leased. The dealer wasn’t supposed to tell you.”
    “Figures.” Annileen’s mouth twisted as she rolled her eyes. “So he’s an embezzler. I guess I’m not surprised.”
    Ben paced back in front of the window, his shadow cast by the moon outside falling across the bed. “I’m afraid that’s not all. Orrin could only rely on the Settlers’ Call for financing while the Fund was flush. When the Tuskens were on the rampage, that was no problem. But three or so years ago … something happened.”
    “I remember,” Annileen said. “After the raid at the Lars place.”
    “Yes,” Ben said, looking mysterious in the moonlight. “I’ve heard about that. After that attack, something happened to the Tuskens—I’m not sure what. But it chilled the Sand People to their bones. And the attacks mostly stopped afterward.