Star Wars - Kenobi

had prevailed upon him to return to help out for a few months after Danner’s death, which he did gladly; you could take someone out of the oasis, Orrin liked to say, but that sense of community was always there. But Tar wasn’t likely to come back as a stocker, and they all knew it. Jabe shook his head sadly and returned to his chore.
    Walking back to the garage, Orrin found his children huddled over the back of a repulsortruck, poring over the goods inside. “That the stuff?”
    “Yep,” Mullen said, moving aside to let Orrin approach. “It’s the last batch of Tusken junk from the Bezzard raid.”
    Orrin looked into the back of the vehicle. A couple of bandoliers, another gaffi stick, some putrid-smelling pouches. The Tuskens never had anything they didn’t steal from someone else, but it was interesting to try to see the world through their eyes.
    “No clothes?”
    Mullen snorted. “You want to strip those stinking things down?”
    “Not hardly.” It was an experience you didn’t repeat. Whatever the Tuskens were born as, a lifetime in the suns, under wraps, turned them into something frightful. They smelled frightful, anyway.
    Pulling a spanner from the folds of his cloak, he used it to gently lift a pair of goggles. Tusken eyewear was strange. Some wore normal goggles, sheathed in wrapping; others wore independent eyepieces, tightly rooted in their masks. But all terminated in the same nonsensical turrets. Whatever shielding the dull metal tubes provided to Tusken eyes against the suns couldn’t have been worth the peripheral vision they took away—and if there was a way to use the lens inside to see farther, he hadn’t figured it out.
    “Not much here,” Orrin said. “Well, you know what to—”
    “Got it,” Mullen said, wrapping the bundle up.
    Orrin backed away from the repulsortruck—and right into another of Gloamer’s aides. The female mechanic—this one a proper human, not much older than Jabe—grew red-faced. “I’m so sorry, Master Gault!”
    Orrin dusted himself off. “It’s all right,” he said. “Busy trumps standing around in my world.”
    “It’s an emergency,” the dark-haired girl said. She reached for a jug of blue liquid on a shelving unit. “It’s Old Ulbreck. His engine overheated again, on the way here from his place.”
    Orrin knew Ulbreck well. The cheap character probably bought coolant by the spoonful. “He’s just sitting out there in the dunes?”
    “Of course,” the girl said. Looking around, she lowered her voice. “He’s afraid someone will steal his vehicle if he leaves. It’s no problem—happens all the time. This time it’s my turn to go out.”
    Orrin calculated for a moment. He reached out and stopped the aide. “Look, I’m heading out, anyway. I’ll take care of him.” He reached for the jug of coolant. “It’s the least I can do for the work you’ve done for me.”
    “That’s wonderful, sir! I’ll let Gloamer know.”
    The girl dashed off, leaving the Gaults alone. Mullen looked to his father. “You figuring on trying to sell Ulbreck on joining the Call again?”
    “I’m the king of lost causes,” Orrin said, snorting. “As well as the Jundland.” He laughed. “Besides, who knows? Maybe saving the old man will put us over the top. Or maybe I’ll give Kallie Calwell’s hero a run for his money.”
    “I wish,” Mullen said, glaring in the direction of the door to the store. “I’m sick of hearing that little idiot babble about the heroic drifter.”
    Veeka chortled. “Give the girl a break. He’s the first male she’s seen outside of a dewback pen.”
    Orrin found his landspeeder and settled into the driver’s seat. “Be nice. Bored people imagine things,” he said. “But if any bronze gods three meters tall come riding up, page me on the comlink. That, I’ll want to see …”
    The red comlink by the till went off. It was Annileen’s dedicated connection to Orrin. Communications were always iffy on Tatooine, but Orrin still did his best to stay in touch. She picked it up. “You can’t have run out of customers already!”
    “That’s not it,” Orrin’s crackling voice replied. “Saw something on my way out. You’re about to have a visitor.”
    Annileen inhaled for a moment.
    “No, not that visitor,” Orrin said, somehow reading her silence correctly. “Someone else.”
    Annileen listened as he explained. “Right,” she said, clicking the comlink off. “Kallie! Jabe! Come on!”
    Her