Star Wars - Kenobi

skeptically. “People, just like us?”
    “No, that’s not the lesson here.” He looked up at her. “You wanted to be an exobiology student. The galaxy is full of creatures that are nothing like us at all. We can try to understand them, and we should. But even if we accept that they’re doing what comes naturally, one is not beholden to comply when the sarlacc asks for dinner.”
    Annileen chuckled for the first time since that afternoon, in the store. But the breath of relief that followed wasn’t fully out of her lungs before she saw another figure, peeking over the northern ridge at her. The sight froze her in place.
    “Plug-eye,” she said, recognizing the face from earlier.
    “And company,” Ben said, gesturing west and south. All the survivors were here, it seemed, lurking over the hillsides. Heads bobbed up and disappeared—as did gaderffii and blaster rifles.
    Annileen started toward the speeder bike. Ben rose and stopped her. “No,” he said. “They’ll shoot us just as the posse shot at them.”
    The posse! Annileen looked back at the rise to the east. She and Ben would be targeted for sure trying to scramble up there—and none of Orrin’s group knew they were even here.
    There was motion beyond the hills. “They’re regrouping. Probably making sure we’re alone,” he said, lowering his voice. “Stay calm and follow my lead.”
    She looked at him, startled. “To do what ?”
    “A little exobiology expedition,” he said, kneeling beside the dead Tusken. “Quick. Give me a hand!”

CHAPTER NINETEEN
    THIS IS CRAZY! THIS IS CRAZY!
    Annileen shivered in the afternoon suns, oblivious to the heat. Fear had long since turned her blood to ice, her muscles to stone. Still, Ben walked, so she did, too.
    They walked on either side of the hovering speeder bike, each holding a handlebar. The dead warrior’s gaderffii stick was propped across the bars, in front of them at chest level, as they pushed the vehicle forward. Slumped over the seat lay the body of the Tusken raider, half hanging where Ben had placed it.
    She’d thought Ben insane when he’d lifted the stinking corpse from the ground, and had raised her voice to object when he hefted it atop the bike. He’d quickly shushed her. The Tusken survivors were out there, probably looking down at them. The fact they hadn’t attacked yet, Ben had whispered, meant they were figuring out whether Ben and Annileen were alone. But it was just a matter of time. So he had started walking the bike toward the northern rise.
    Now Annileen saw them all on the other side of the hill. Plug-eye knelt, weapon in hand, above seven Tusken survivors. The warriors had taken refuge in a blowout: a hollow formed by the wind rushing and eddying against the slopes leading toward the gorge. Lying prone in its shallow recesses, their tan capes blended in with the sand, protecting them from the eyes of whoever was in the skyhopper.
    Annileen looked up, worried. She hadn’t seen the flier in a while. Maybe it needed refueling, or the posse no longer required it. Annileen sure needed it now. The Sand People watched as she and Ben approached—some looking at them, some looking up. They know it, she thought, breath catching in her throat. They know we’re alone.
    “You’re not alone,” Ben said.
    In the sandy indentation a dozen meters away, Plug-eye rose. Others stood, too, watchful of their leader. Unconsciously, Annileen slipped her right hand from the handlebar and felt for the blaster, holstered at her hip.
    “Don’t,” Ben said.
    A’Yark stared, dumbfounded. Surely the warrior’s single remaining good eye was failing now. The humans—Hairy Face and the Airshaper—were walking steadily toward them.
    The Airshaper had no sirens here, no trickery. Did she have such power that she could walk brazenly into the Tuskens’ midst? Even if she did, such presumption had to be punished. Even hunted, even terrified, the Tuskens would exact revenge—
    “A’Yark!” a warrior said. “Look!”
    A’Yark looked between the humans and recognized the limp form on the vehicle.
    A’Deen.
    Annileen forgot Ben’s warning when the one-eyed warrior snarled. She released the handlebar and drew her blaster. The Tusken started toward them. Behind, more Sand People rose from the depression. But before Annileen could shoot, Ben moved in front of the bike and into the line of fire.
    Only then did Annileen realize that Ben had the dead boy’s weapon in his hands. Ben raised