[FIC] The Destiny of all existence

[Vladimir-Vlada]

This is an idea I go that I wanted to make. I wanted to make this to pass the time, because I can't get this idea out of my head. I won't tell anyone anything about the fan fiction. Except maybe after some chapters.

 

By the way, the time line will be revealed through the chapters.

 

Now on to the story.

 

THE DESTINY OF ALL EXISTENCE:

PROLOGUE

 

 

Several years have past since many conflicts have been ended, and all that was peaceful has set itself in everyone’s minds. But all the people could think of was still war and suspicion towards each other. Conflicts emerge but they still collapse. But sometimes conflicts emerge and they gather all around them, leaving no one out of it… Conflicts like the one that emerged now.

[Vladimir-Vlada]

THE DESTINY OF ALL EXISTENCE:

Chapter 1: The Shroud of Emptiness

 

 

As the quiet sounds of beeping of perhaps computers and machines, a person tried to gather its senses. The person slowly opened its eyes, but with effort; the tiredness was killing it. As it opened its eyes, it saw that on its eyes were put a pair of goggles and some computer diagrams. There was nothing through the pair of goggles, like empty deep water. The person then started to slowly think, but there was nothing to think about. It tried to think who it was, but there was nothing. It didn’t know where it was, or how it got where it was. It had to figure out what is going on, the emptiness was horrid; no clue about identity, not to mention existence. Suddenly a human-like metallic figure appeared. By shape it reminded of a human, but a lot of parts could be seen, its head was shaped like a circle with two parts missing at the end of each cheek. Its eyes were also different, it reminded like flash lights. The figure picked up a rectangular shaped object and it started to tamper with it. It then said:

“Room 4, bed number 22. Patient RQV 8163. Name: Unknown. Home world: Unknown. Age: approximately 36 years old according to vital signs, appearance suggests 20 to 23 years. Gender: Male; Species: Human. Status: Subject starts to regain consciousness; amount of hemoglobin’s increasing steadily; brain functions steadily reorganizing.”

Human Male. At least he knew what he was. But the rest was of no knowledge to him, not even location. He tried to move, but he could barely keep his eyes open. He felt like a corpse, the tips of his fingers were trying to warm up since they were so cold. He tried to speak but he was too weak. The machine went away and soon afterwards, the man fell asleep.

He slept for quite a while, not aware of how long did he sleep. He then woke up, he was still weak but he could now open his eyes with ease. The goggles were still on and the ceiling was white, he didn’t realize it before. Then, all of a sudden a little girl approached him. She wasn’t exactly in puberty; she was approximately 9 years old. She looked at the man with curiosity and said innocently:

“Hello, my name Ely. What is yours?”

He looked at her, trying to show niceness, but his eyes were like blank, empty marbles. The little girl thought that the man was dead and that’s why he didn’t reply. She then saw the eyes move slowly towards her. She got scared and ran away, with a short scream. The machine that examined him passed in front of the man, saying:

“Please, do not disturb other patients. Especially that one, he has suffered very delicate wounds.”

And with these words the man’s eyes became weak and he fell asleep again. His thoughts were empty, just like his eyes with that girl. Then he woke up again. This time he was starting to think that he should try and get up, maybe after several seconds when he gathers the strength. He opened his eyes and saw the ceiling again. But this time he could see the room he was in: a medium-sized white room with beds the shape of rectangles. The room was mostly white and there were other people lying on the beds and recovering from other tools over the beds. The tools were data-processing panels (for showing the status of the patients), robotic arms with three needles and robotic arms for injecting serums like insulin or anesthesia. He then saw a man in a gleaming white suit and a woman in a blue jump suit appear above him; the machine was there as well.

The man had a short dark haircut, normal brown eyes and a somewhat small nose. The woman had short blond hair, green eyes and nice face curves.

“So, this is patient RQV 8163, isn’t it?” Asked the man in the white suit like he was examining the patient.

“Yes, sir. The patient has shown remarkable recovery considering his wounds.” Replied the machine, while a patient started to lie on a bed, next to the man. On the bed, where the man in the white suit and the machine were; was a man covered in black and his head was covered by a black, cubic plastic box. Except that there was plastic glass on its top to show the eyes of the man. The woman in the blue jump suit looked at the man and back at the doctor.

“Well at least his organs are.” She said to the man in the white suit with uncertainty.

The man looked at the patient with regret. He sighed with remorse and looked back at the woman.

“How long has he been here?” he asked.

“About a day or two. I am not sure.” Replied the woman.

“Has the patient showed any brain activity?” asked the man with a little worry.

The woman and the machine remained silent. They didn’t know what to say.

“Did he move his eyes? Did he try to speak? Anything.” The man continued a bit sad.

“No.” replied the woman.

“That’s what I was afraid of.” The man said with regret. “This patient should be moved to the transplantation section.”

The patient didn’t really like the sound of that. He wouldn’t like that his organs are given to others, while he is still alive.

“Excuse me, doctor, but the patient does show signs of brain activity.” Began the machine pointing at the panel above the patient. “There are signs of signals between the nerve cells.”

“But the patient doesn’t react like a conscious being. Much more like a plant.” Said the doctor, who was stating the facts sadly for the patient.

“Give him a little more time. He will surely get well.” Begged the nurse, but still understanding the doctor.

“I am afraid that time cannot be given. There are more patients coming every day. And we need as much room as possible.” Explained the doctor with regret.

The patient then decided that he must do something to prove the doctor wrong; or otherwise he will end up dead for sure. The patient started to desperately try and move his fingers. Then maybe try to move his head. There weren’t much results and no one noticed.

“But there must be something we can do.” The woman pleaded “The patient still has a chance.”

“I am afraid there is nothing we can do anymore, nurse. Everything we posses for cases like this failed.” Reasoned the doctor with regret in his voice. “We should turn off the life support system.”

The patient started to struggle even more desperately with even more energy, but with hardly any results. The fingers, the arms, nothing was moving. He then started to try and gather the strength he had, but still no effort.

“Come on… Damn it.” The patient whispered. He opened his eyes from surprise; he could speak. The doctor, the nurse and the machine turned to the source of the sound. It seemed that the source was the patient near them. They came closer to the patient’s head, near the robotic arms that were deactivated. The humming and the beeping of the panel above him broke the silence.

“It seems like that the patient has regained consciousness after all.” Said the doctor with signs of relief.

“Are you all right, sir?” asked the nurse again with relief.

“Yes… I think I am.” Replied the man slowly.

“Well, this is a nice start.” Said the doctor. “Now, I think that you should sleep. It’s late at any rate.”

The doctor, the nurse and the machine moved away from the man and he downed into sleep.

 

 

At the same time the first man awakens, another person slips out of its dreams. Its head hurt, like someone hit it in the back. It opened its eyes slowly and got up rather insecurely. It tried to think as well, but it was all blank; no knowledge of almost anything. When it opened its eyes it saw that there was light around him, but behind it was only a small, empty, cubic room. The person started to step out, but then it burnt its arm. The person grunted in anger and said taking its hand:

“Damn it!”

The person folded the arm for several moments and the pain stopped as immediately as it came. It then realized that it was a male and a human also. Even though there was a pair of leather gloves on its hands, the person realized that it was a human male. He looked around the small space the light around him. He then realized that this space he was in was like a cage, but the light wasn’t exactly light, more like a field of electricity, except that it surely wasn’t that. Suddenly a barely notable part of the wall slid and inside stepped a very strange creature. The creature wore an armor which was orange and it didn’t have many textures, except the blue horns on its shoulders. The creature had a head the shape of a normal human, but it had skin like a reptile orange color. The mouth was also reptilian-like and the tongue was something that reminded of a snake. The eyes were like cats eyes, with some textures of snake eyes. The prisoner looked at the reptilian like creature for several moments, curiously.

“Who are you?” he asked. The reptilian creature started to speak with a quite strange hissing, quite displeased. It sounded like something from a snake. Normally, most people wouldn’t understand the noise; but strangely, the man in the cage understood it. It sounded something like:

“Silence, whelp! Or you will get more of the treatment.”

“What?” the man asked confused. The reptilian creature approached the beam of light and tampered with a computer panel. Then streams of electricity hit the man in the cage and he fell, unconscious.

His dream was as strange as the situation he was in, he didn’t have any idea who this creature was, or how did he get in the cage. The worst part was, he didn’t know what he was. Suddenly a light tamper on the soldier woke him up; he heard the words in the lizard-like language:

“Get up!”

The man opened his eyes and looked up. He saw the lizard creature point a gun at his head. The gun had a rough cylindrical shape with a small barrel to continue it; the handle seemed to be like a part of the form, other than an attached part in later production. He got up and looked at the lizard ling pretty mad.

“Move.” The creature hissed in disrespect as the man put his hands behind his head and started walking out of the small cargo room. There was nothing in the cargo room except the cage he just stepped out of. They continued through a small corridor and exited the ship. The ship was nothing special: an egg shaped shuttle with organic like structure. Outside of the ship were endless grassy plains, with a lot of hills. Somewhere in those plains a tree appeared once in a while. The weather was sunny and the wind that blew, pointed out to late summer. In front of him was a big skyscraper. Not those skyscrapers that appear in big cities, but ones that were rebuilt, changed, upgraded and so much more. The man entered along with the creature. Inside was like a classy palace. Not classy by architecture and arts, but by upgraded technology and so. Inside were people with guns, who drank and played cards like there was no tomorrow. The people were either humans, the lizard like beings, some human like creatures that were bold and seemed like that their skin has decayed and many more. They walked on through the corridors which looked like space ship corridors: with tubes, metal panels and grey walls. After several seconds of walking, they reached a big white chamber with much furniture of grand design, slenderness and enjoyable features. At the right on the polls were several females with blue skin and some kind of tentacles that spread across their head; strange but very attractive. The man thought that this might be an enjoyable place, if it wasn’t full of people with blasters and if he wasn’t being threatened with a gun. They approached the farthest end of the room where a giant worm-like creature was. The creature had eyes, a mouth and small hands but it was still a worm. As they approached the man received a bad feeling about this meeting, and that perhaps he should stay cautious. The worm creature started to speak. It was a strange language, but the man could still recognize their meaning, as well as the signs of annoyance in its voice.

“Oh. Another pathetic trophy, Khar’em. What did you bring me this time?” asked the worm like creature. The man frowned lightly at the words, because he was insulted a bit.

“This can be a servant or an armorer. I thought that it was worth it.” Replied the lizard being that seemed to be named Khar’em.

“You never think, Khar’em. All you ever tried was to gain the upper ranks by bringing me worthless civilians.” The worm spat, trying to discredit the lizard creature.

“He is not worthless. I can assure you of that.” Replied Khar’em.

“Come to your senses, Trandoshan! He is a runt.” Yelled the worm creature at the alien.

“Well, let’s see it, shall we, Hutt?” suggested the Trandoshan, trying to gain something from this argument. The Hutt after several seconds agreed. Khar’em made the man kneel before the Hutt, to impress him. The man wasn’t exactly happy about any aspect of the situation.

“Now, what do you have to say about my Twi’lek slaves?” asked the Hutt a bit rushing.

The man looked at the worm creature and replied:

“They are nice.” Began the man calmly at first “Too bad that they are slaves and have to waste their time with you.” He ended spatting at the Hutt.

The Hutt and the Trandoshan were both surprised at this reply, since no one had the guts to say it.

“Really, is that so?” asked the Hutt peculiarly.

“Yes. And maybe you can see that I am saying the truth.” Replied the man, still kneeling.

“Is that a complaint? Or an insult?” asked the Hutt proudly.

“It depends on what you see as complaints or as insults.” Replied the man calmly.

“Do you know what is the penalty for insulting me?” asked the Hutt a bit angrily and pressing a button on the nearby wall secretly.

The man paused for a second and replied with disrespect:

“No, I don’t.”

“Then let me introduce you to that subject.” Began the Hutt. “I am pretty sure that you are familiar with the Magna bodyguard robots.” The Hutt spoke, when the man heard an unpleasant sound of an electrical discharge and of twitching of mechanics. He was worried, but he was cautious.

“No, I don’t know them.” The man said innocently.

“Then I introduce you to one.” Began the Hutt “Make use of him, since he will be the last ‘person’ you will interact with.”

A giant electric stick started to swing towards the man. The man immediately kicked behind him with his left leg, making the machine trip. The machine was a droid of primitive structure: it had the basis of a human skeleton, but all parts could be seen. It was made out of silver, to increase the renown of the owner. The head was cone shaped, the mouth was like a breathing mask and the eyes were red lights. The droid stayed up, but it was a bit stunned. The man took the chance and he got up, turning quickly towards the droid. He grabbed the stick with his both hands and swaged it to the left to gather strength and then right across the droids torso, disabling it. The man turned to the Hutt and saw Khar’em run towards him, panicked. The man slashed from the upper right, hitting the Trandoshan, hurting him and making him fall. The man turned to the Hutt and stepped jumped above him, holding the stick above its head. The man was trying to keep himself together. He was shacking from what he had done and the effort he just put into this. The Hutt was surprised and a bit amazed at how this ‘runt’ as he called the man, managed to defeat his best droid bodyguard.

“Well, that was… impressive.” Commented Khar’em, surprised as well; he got up.

“Indeed.” Said the Hutt, trying to remain calm, considering that the man was holding a powerful electric rod over his head.

“How about that you start working for me?” suggested the Hutt confidently.

The man frowned and replied:

“Why should I work for you?”

“Now, you won’t be working for me.” Explained the Hutt “This is a mercenary guild; you will work for someone who pays you and give me some of the money you earn. How about it?”

“No deal.” Replied swiftly the man, still holding the rod next to his head, above the Hutts head.

“I think that you should reconsider it twice.” Said the Hutt suggestively “Come on. What is your name?”

The man stopped breathing and thinking. He didn’t know the answer and that was horrifying him. More than the fight that just happened. The man looked at the Hutt with sadness and said:

“I don’t know.”

The Hutt frowned at the man, confused.

“You don’t know?” he asked the man.

“No.” the man shook his head.

“Do you know your home world? Or age?”

“No.” replied the man “Nothing.”

“Then what other choice do you have? This is the best solution.” The Hutt persuaded.

Then the man lowered the rod and replied:

“All right. But I get to decide to leave whenever I want to.”

“You have my word.” Replied the Hutt.

The man put the rod away and stepped away from the hut. He turned around and saw many people that paid attention to the incident that just occurred. Some were amazed, some were shocked, others were impressed or some started to like this man.

“IN-52!” called the Hutt.

“Yes, master. What needs to be done?” a human-like droid lowered towards the Hutt. The droid was made out of metal and by the looks it did look like a human being. It was white color, the mouth didn’t move and the eyes were two like light bulbs.

“Give this man here a room to live in. Pick any free room for him.” Ordered the Hutt.

“Yes, sir.” Replied the droid and it walked in front of the man. The man looked at the droid in deep thought. The droid looked at the man and shook its hand towards the exit:

“Come along then.”

The droid started to walk and the man followed. They turned left after they exited and continued down the hallway.

“Please, don’t take Master Woggas behavior personally.” Began the droid “He behaves like that towards everyone. He is just a proud person.”

“Yes, I’ve noticed.” The man replied.

“He has been in stress lately. Please understand.”

The droid then turned to a door that was past a mercenary that was smoking something. The droid tampered with the console next to it and the door slid open. The droid turned to the man and said:

“Here you go sir.”

The man approached the door and took a peak inside. It was a room with a bunk bed. It reminded like crew quarters, except that there was a table, a low quality couch and a cone form that must be a holo-projector.

“The quarters aren’t top class. But if you circle around the building you will see that the other rooms aren’t different. Except the Masters quarters.” Explained the droid. The droid then handed over a rectangular-shaped plastic card:

“Your key, sir.”

The man took the key and replied:

“Thanks.”

He stepped inside the quarters and the droid asked:

“Do you need any clothing, sir?”

The man looked down. He was wearing a blue suit with some pockets on the torso that reminded of a jacket.

“No it’s all right. I’ll find something myself eventually.” Replied the man.

“Yes, sir. Call me whenever you require something.” The droid bowed and it departed. The door closed behind. The man then stepped to the bunk bed. He laid down on it and started to sleep.

 

 

At the same time the first two people awakened, another person tried to gather its strength. The person didn’t feel well; it was hurt on many places of the body. The person opened its eyes at the sign of movement. The person saw that it was in a brown room, with benches on which sat other people. The people were covered with leather clothes and leather capes so it was hard to determine who was who. But it was easy to determine what was who. Some were humans both male and female; some were horned humans both male and female; others were humans with tentacles that came out of their heads; and so on. The room was rocking like that there was a storm outside, except there was no thundering. The people were quite sad and quiet to be more precise, like that they await execution. The person looked around confused. How did it get here? The person then turned to a man that sat next to it, the man was depressed.

“Uh… Excuse me.” Called the person the man next to it.

The man looked up at the person.

“Yes?” he asked.

“Do you by any chance know, where are we?” asked the person uncomfortably.

“Well, we are on a transport vehicle.” Began the man “And we are all nobodies.” The man finished with signs of irony in his voice. The person looked downwards to the floor in the shades of its thoughts.

“By the way.” Began the man and the person turned to him.

The man started to draw his hand:

“I am Krindo. Krindo Lains.” The person shook the hand of the man.

“Nice to meet you.” Replied the person.

“And what is your name?” asked Krindo.

The person paused suddenly and started to think. The person thought through and it didn’t know its name. It cycled through again and realized that it didn’t know anything about itself. Krindo looked in confusion at the person that was staring blankly somewhere behind him.

“Excuse me?” asked Krindo.

“Yes.” Replied the person.

“Your name. What is your name?” Krindo asked.

The person looked down and said:

“I… don’t know.” The person replied sadly.

“Well, it isn’t a big deal.” Began Krindo pulling his hand back “After a while, it won’t even matter.”

“Do you know…” began the person, Krindo turned to the person “What am I, by any chance?”

The man looked at the persons face and replied:

“You are a male.” Began Krindo “And you look human to me. Unless you have any organs or body parts that I don’t see (which I doubt, since you know when someone is a human or something else).”

The man turned away, leaving the person he was talking with to its thoughts. The person was now wondering what the man meant by the fact that he didn’t know his name wouldn’t matter anyway. Are they going to be executed? Or are they going to be taken to prison? So many questions were popping in his head which didn’t have any answer. He still thought that it was the worst fact was not knowing his identity.

Suddenly a giant door opened revealing a very bright light outside. Then a grumbling was heard and everyone got up from their seats. The man got up as well. All the people started to exit the vehicle. Outside was a sand and there was a city. The city looked more like a high-tech village, since it didn’t have skyscrapers. The ‘village’ was consisted of mostly low buildings that were either round, square shaped or both combined. There were also some strange cylinder shaped metallic posts. The posts were, possibly, either street lights or water extractors. Or maybe they were both. But that wasn’t on the man’s mind, for he was too worried to think about anything. The man continued, in deep thought. When he approached the exit, the people in front of him spread to the front. He looked around to see how everything looked like, so he slowed down a little. They were on an opening, where a lot of people could come and see the commotion. Suddenly, someone hit him in the back and he fell down on his knees grunting from irritation. Then he heard some strange language:

“Get up and hurry, slave!”

Slave? the man thought in shock as he raised his hands to his eyes and saw the chains of titanium that were tying his hands. He looked at them for several seconds to calm down and realize that he is now property. He was now something that people would trade with; he didn’t have a right to his acting, thinking or emotions. Then a big figure walked into the view of the desperate man. The man looked up. The figure was a fat and green creature that had cotton covering its torso. Its face looked like a pig without the floppy ears and the eyes were a bit small. So in short terms, the alien looked like a grumpy pig, so a person could find it funny. But the axe the alien was wielding wasn’t funny at all. The alien looked angrily at the man and said again in his language, which the man understood:

“Didn’t you hear me slave?! I said get up!”

The man got up slowly, looking at the alien. The man then walked a bit to the right of the alien, still looking at him. The alien was still staring at the man. Then the alien spoke again angrily:

“What are you waiting for? Get in the line.”

The alien pushed the man in the line along with the other slaves. After a few moments, several more pig aliens stepped out and stood left and right of the slaves at the edge of a wooden platform. Suddenly a lot of people gathered around the platform and waited for something. The people that came were mostly humans, wearing expensive clothes and possessing rare jewelry; rich people overall. The slaves stood still, looking down in sadness at the thought of their destiny. The man was looking around thinking of how this came to be. Then a tall man, that had moustache and a short hair cut, in an expensive suit stepped out of the hall way the slaves were in. He then stepped on the edge of the platform and began grandiosely:

“Ladies and Gentlemen.”

The introduction forced all of the people to remain silent. The rich man looked around and continued:

“Allow me to present myself. My name is Prensen Clain. I travel around the Galaxy to bring you people below your worth to do your bidding… For the right price.”

“And how big will this price be?” asked a man from the crowd.

“It all depends on the bargain.” Replied Prensen.

“When can we get the slaves?” asked another man.

“You can get the slaves right after you pay their price.”

The man asked Krindo quietly while the questioning continued:

“What will happen now?”

“When the slaver announces, the marketing will begin. All of these rich people will climb on the platform and consider who to buy.” Krindo replied.

The man looked around, still worried about the situation.

“Now, gather around please.” Began Prensen “And come here so that we could start bargaining.”

The rich people climbed on the wooden platform and started to look at the slaves. The entire bargaining took hours. The rich people and Prensen were talking almost all of the time; the people were looking at the slaves and commenting them. Sometimes the people would get furious about the outrageous price. Slaves were sold like food during starvation. The man found out some of the names of the aliens he saw. The blue humans that had tentacles on their head were called Twi’Leks. Twi’Leks seemed to be the most numerous (after them were humans); the females seemed to be the most wanted gender amongst them, and the males were buying them the most. The horned humans were called Zabraks. Zabraks weren’t much bought like the Twi’Leks, but they were very expensive. The giant hairy creatures were called Wookies. Wookies were bought by slimy worm creatures called Hutts. Humans were also sold, females especially to males, while males were sold to shop owners. The man also found out that the pig aliens were called Gammoreans.

The man and Krindo stood there, still looking at the ground in desperation. Suddenly, they heard something between a shop owner and Prensen.

“And you say he is a good accountant?” began the shop owner a few meters away from Krindo, where he was talking to Prensen.

“Yes. He was even an accountant with me. Thanks to him, I got out of bankrupt when the Bank wanted to shut me down.” Replied Prensen, like he was bragging in a presuasive manner. The shop owner looked at Krindo in thought and said:

“Deal.”

Prensen and the shop owner shook their hands and Prensen said triumphantly:

“You won’t regret it, sir.”

“Here is 2000 credits. As you wanted.” Said the shop owner, handing the blue pieces of hard paper, which were money to Prensen’s two hands. Prensen put the money into his left pocket and the shop owner grabbed with his left hand Krindo by his left arm. Krindo looked at the shop owner in surprise.

“Come on. Let’s go.” Ordered the shop owner to Krindo.

Krindo then turned to the man, hiding his sadness:

“Well. I am going.”

“I wish you luck.” Replied the man with regret.

Krindo turned around and went on as the shop owner led him somewhere. After hours of transition and on, there were only six slaves left: two female Twi’Leks, one Zabrak male, one Human female, one Human male and him.

The Gammoreans were mostly around the area, looking at the buildings. Prensen was counting the money on the table. When Prensen counted the money, he didn’t seem pleased at all. He whispered:

“Damn slaves. They aren’t worth a swoop normal star ship.”

He got up and looked at the slaves with rage, but he wasn’t yelling:

“What? You think that you are special because you are people?” he began “Well you are not!” he yelled.

Prensen approached the two female Twi’Leks that were shivering.

“What is it?” he began with the same psychotic tone and glare “Not good enough!? Try harder!” he yelled and they lowered their heads. “You can’t even dance properly!” he stopped and continued to the Zabrak male.

“And you?” Prensen turned to the alien, who was looking at Prensen calmly “You are missing a plank in your head. Do you understand!?” Prensen yelled.

The Prensen moved to the Human female who was trying to keep herself together:

“You are one incompetent shutta, you know that?!” he yelled, she tried to speak but he yelled even more “Shut up! Or I will cut your throat!” he finished and she lowered her head and started to shiver from fear.

Prensen approached the Human male:

“Can you even use a gun!?” he yelled, but the man just blinked “No! Of course not! Well you better try!”

The man shivered also in great fear. The Prensen reached the last slave, the man. Prensen turned to the man.

“And who the hell are you supposed to be?” yelled Prensen “Do you know how to do anything?!”

The man looked up and just starred at Prensen, frowning lightly.

“That’s what I thought.” Commented Prensen and he moved away starring at the city. A Gammorean yelled:

“All right. Slaves, get into the ship.”

“No!” yelled Prensen turning. The Gammorean looked at him in confusion. The man starred still at Prensen and realized that this didn’t seem like rage, but more like panic.

“I think that I am up for a walk through the desert.” He said ironically.

“Why? Are you hoping to catch something along the way?” asked the Gammorean.

“I was thinking that we should take our slaves for a walk. Don’t you think?” asked Prensen with an evil smile on his face. The Gammorean smiled back and said happily:

“Why not?”

“Right.” Answered Prensen and he ordered as the Gammorean approached the slaves “Everyone! We are going through the desert!”

The Gammoreans cheered while the slaves only remained sorrow. Then the Gammoreans made the slaves stand in a line, like cattle. A whistle was heard and the slaves and the slavers began to move through the city. Leaving behind the sunset that was following them, as they stepped into the endless desert that would make their bones freeze as they continues into the night.

 

To be continued…

[JediKnight707]

It looks really good, but you need to tone it down. Don't wait like 8 weeks until you get a LONG chapter, wait until you get a few MW pages. Then post.

[The Doctor]

I agree... your chapter is far to long. It's good stuff, it's just... too long.

[Vladimir-Vlada]

Yes! Feedback!

 

Thanks for the comments. The thing about the chapters being too long is because of how I like things. I like long, complex and serious chapters and stories. I am not the type of writer "I'll post the next chapter by the end of the week" and make 2 A4 pages. And I don't get writer's block often.

When I get an idea (the middle, the beginning, the end, anything), I walk around and think of the entire plot to the end when I mean it. Then I sit down and write like there is no tomorrow.

 

This won't be something short, so sorry. But short chapters aren't going to happen any time soon.

[The Doctor]

The chapters don't have to be shprt per se. In fact, that's worse than having the super long. But there is such a thing as too long.

[Vladimir-Vlada]

You think that this is long? Wait until you see some of my KOTOR fan fiction. Now that's what I call long.

[Hallucination]

^^^I remember that, and that was very long. I just re-read it yesterday in fact.

Good fic, keep it up and I might have an idea what's going on:xp:. Keep up the great work!

[Vladimir-Vlada]

Yeah and I gave up on it, since my sense of humour is junk. Update will come tomorrow because I have commitments.

 

P.S. What do you mean you have a pretty good idea of what's going on?

[Hallucination]

Yeah and I gave up on it, since my sense of humour is junk.

Actually, I found it pretty funny. Although Ryan trying to stop Atton from keeping the pics of the Handmaidens took away from the atmosphere.

 

P.S. What do you mean you have a pretty good idea of what's going on?

I mean if you keep up the story I'll have a good idea of whats going on, right now it's really rather confusing.

[Vladimir-Vlada]

Actually, I found it pretty funny. Although Ryan trying to stop Atton from keeping the pics of the Handmaidens took away from the atmosphere.

You wouldn't believe what kind of ideas I had for this. I wanted to write it to the end... But I am considering continuing that.

 

I mean if you keep up the story I'll have a good idea of whats going on, right now it's really rather confusing.

Phew! I was afraid that I blew it. Thanks for the feedback.

[John Skywalker]

great work Vladimir i'd love to see more of this

[Vladimir-Vlada]

Thanks John. Update will be posted in half an hour to one hour.

[Vladimir-Vlada]

THE DESTINY OF ALL EXISTENCE:

Chapter 2: Gathering the facts

 

 

The morning came and the man in the medical room woke up. He could open his eyes normally; he was still in the dark suit. He opened his eyes like that he blinked, but still he wasn’t in his best condition. When he opened his eyes he nearly shook from the surprise. The blond woman, who was a nurse, was standing above him, holding a metal plate. She smiled and said:

“Good morning.” She put down the plate next to him and picked up a data pad. She then tampered with it and asked with the same amount of niceness:

“And how are we feeling today?”

“Uh, fine.” The man replied insecurely “I think.”

“Good, now let’s see if you think properly.” She joked and then she started to speak “Blood pressure is normal. Brain functions properly. Motored capabilities working.”

She then put the data pad down and turned to the man.

“Well, that was your daily check. Seems like you are doing all right.” She commented and looked at him. He looked at her as well, not knowing what she wanted.

“Yes. Do you want to tell me something?” he asked innocently.

“Actually I was thinking of trying to find out your identity. It is required for security reasons.”

She shrugged and started to prepare mentally for asking. The man only remained silent and insecure.

“Do you know your name?” she asked after several moments.

The man remained silent for several moments and replied:

“No.

“Do you know your home world?” she asked again.

“No.” the man replied sadly.

“Do you have any possessions?” she asked, paused and continued “Friends? Family? Career?”

The man only shook his head and said:

“No.”

“Do you know anything that might connect you to your past?” she asked like it was the ultimate question. The man only replied:

“I… don’t remember anything.”

She paused for a while and asked:

“What about recent galactic events?”

The man looked a bit confused; he didn’t know anything what was going on outside the room he was in. He felt like that he was isolated.

“That was the question I wanted to ask you.”

She remained silent like she was honoring the dead. She never met or heard of anyone that has had total amnesia. She didn’t hope to hear from one, much less meet one, or cure one. She wanted to show sympathy because it was her duty, and perhaps help this man. The man felt ashamed. He thought that he was an ignorant fool since he doesn’t know anything… He didn’t even have skills in any science.

“Well.” The nurse began, insecurely, trying to hide her sadness “You can ask me some questions. Maybe you could get to know me.”

“Where am I?” asked the man realizing that he didn’t ask it earlier.

“Well, this is a free clinic for citizens.” Explained the nurse, looking around “You are on Corellia; one of the most important political and economic centers.” She looked at the man and continued “It is consisted of many cities, of endless grassy plains, high mountains and nice, big lakes. Corellia is also a very important asset to the Empire.”

The man paused for a moment and said:

“Empire?”

“You see, the Galaxy is reformed into a parliamentary Empire, in order to bring the best decision.” The nurse explained happily “The senators, who are chosen by voting, go and decide along with the emperor to do the best.”

“And does it work?” asked the man through his mask.

“It works every now and then.” She replied with some signs of irony in her voice “But they seem to get the job done concerning the economy and industry. But it is really needed… considering the recent conflicts. Especially the one not so long ago.”

“Are the people happy?” asked the man.

“Well, I am sort of.” She replied but then she shook her head and said “But let’s not talks about politics. And let’s get to the reason to why I am here.”

“All right.” Replied the man insecurely.

The nurse started to examine the data pad again and she stopped after several moments and turned to the man again and said happily:

“Oh! I forgot to add. Your breathing has stabilized; you can remove that mask now.”

The man was relieved, he could finally see with his own eyes. She downed to his head and grabbed behind his head. She then said:

“You better close your eyes or you’ll be getting a lot of dust in them.”

“All right.” Replied the man and closed his eyes, holding them tightly.

He then felt that she was touching a numb behind his helmet. She carefully searched for the button to release the mask; she was a bit worried that something might go wrong. The man was clinging onto the nurse that she will do it correctly. Suddenly the numb was pressed behind his head and a large amount of frozen oxygen was released. The nurse pulled his mask off and put it to the side.

“It’s over. You can open your eyes now.”

The man heard her with relief and opened his eyes. He saw the woman and she smiled:

“Is it better?”

“Believe me, I feel like I’ve been born again.” Replied the man starring at the ceiling.

“Good. Now I am going to test your motored capabilities.” She began examining the data pad. “We’ll start by testing your hands.” She looked above him and said pointing: “See if you can grab this crow bar with both of your hands.”

The man looked up and saw the extended tube above him. It could be seen under the angle of 90 degrees. The man started to try and move his hands. At first the arms couldn’t move and the fingers could barely move. He desperately wanted to grab the crow bar and start to recover. The nurse watched with regret as she saw how the man had troubles trying to do it. Then the man started to raise his hands and suddenly, he grabbed the crow bar with his right hand and held it. He breathed with relief and the woman said:

“Good. Now the other hand.”

The man breathed deeply and started to move his other hand, but a little easier because his wrists started to function properly. He grabbed the crow bar with ease.

“Great! Now try to move your head.” She said happily while writing something in the data pad.

The man tried to move his neck slowly, in order to make him flexible. He was a bit scarred that maybe he will break his neck if he does it too quickly. He turned slowly his neck to the left and suddenly it cracked. The man thought that he was dead, but he wasn’t and he shook his head to the right, normal speed. He could now move his head, arms and body, but not yet legs.

The nurse saw how he progressed and she said smiling:

“You are getting back into shape pretty quickly. Try and move your le-“

Suddenly she was cut off by a call from the doctor:

“More patients arriving.”

She turned and yelled:

“Coming!”

Then she turned to the man and said while leaving:

“I’ll be back later to maybe explain what was going on lately in the Galaxy. In the meanwhile there are controls next to your bunk. You can make yourself comfortable.”

The nurse left and the man remained on his bed. He looked around to examine the controls she was mentioning. He moved to the left and saw a lot of buttons that indicated on some functions. One was named “Mirror”. The man didn’t understand at first what was the use of a mirror on a bunk bed, but he realized that it must have had the function to deflect the light during an operation. He pressed that button since he wished to see his appearance. Suddenly a mirror appeared above the man; it was connected to the wall with a robotic arm. He grabbed the mirror with his right hand and brought it down to see his face. In the reflection he saw that he had blond hair that traced to the beginning of the neck. Although the hair was longer, but it was stuck to the neck so it looked like he had a short hair cut. He had blue eyes a normal shaped nose and medium sized mouth. He looked like that he was 24 years old, although he was 36 years old. The man pushed away the mirror and he started to practice the working of his legs by folding them gently. He didn’t start well, but he was making progress.

 

 

At the same time, the man in the giant sky scrapper was standing in front of the mirror, making sure that his tie is set right, like that he was preparing for mating season. In the reflection he saw his appearance. He had a short, dark hair cut, the color shifted to brown a little. His small beard extended across his chin to both ears. The beard wasn’t like those beards that pirates and prisoners had; it was more like the beard of any normal citizen. He had moustache that were above his mouth. His head was somewhat long. He had dark brown eyes which reflected signs reason. The nose was normal but it looked like it was long since it extended from the eyes all the way to the mouth. According to his appearance, he was around 30 years old.

He just finished taking care of his tie on his only suit: the grey suit in which he arrived. He left his room and turned left, continuing to the cantina. The hall ways were pretty much the same as they were when he arrived. He continued through until he got to an opening that lead to a large room that was mostly red because of the infra red lights. In the upper right corner was a bar stool, regular bar stool with all kinds of drinks no one could possibly remember their names. In the upper left corner were Twi’Lek slaves that were dancing on the poles. Throughout the cantina were tables, and at each stable sat at least one person with a gun. The man stepped inside, looking around to find a place to sit. At a table near the door, several mercenaries were playing a card game. They laughed for several moments until they saw the man that entered the room. They looked at the man as he looked around to find a place to sit. Suddenly a mercenary, who was a human male whistled.

“Hey. Over here!”

The man looked around to see where the sound came from. Then again someone called him:

“Here!”

The man looked to the central table in the right wing, near the bar stool. There were several mercenaries, holding some pieces of paper. He made his way to the table and stood above it. The mercenaries looked at him and the human male, who had a normal head, short brown hair and a small nose told him:

“Why are you standing? Have a seat.”

The man pulled a chair and sat at the table. There were 5 mercenaries. Two were human males, one was a Trandoshan and the other two were aliens the man didn’t recognize.

“So.” Began the human male that called him “How are you hanging? Got used to everything yet?”

“I am trying.” Replied the man coldly as he sat down “So what’s the deal?” he asked.

“Well, I am Arsen.” Introduced him the human male “This is Ruplic.” Pointed Arsen towards the other human male who was a big man. He was bold and he had brown eyes. His head was long and his nose was as small as his mouth. His skin was dark.

“Qual’hen.” Pointed Arsen towards the Trandoshan.

“Fleger.” Pointed Arsen towards the alien that had a head shaped like a head of a fly. The head wasn’t as complexly built as the head of the fly and it was green. The creature had pointy, green ears on the far, upper sides of its head. The eyes were completely black so they were like bug eyes. The mouth looked like the bottom part of a vacuum cleaner.

“And Ublten.” Pointed Arsen towards the alien that had a head the size of a sink. The head was extended forward from the neck and it was shaped like the bottom part of a snail. The eyes were connected to the side and they looked like Human eyes. The skin of the alien was as rigid as a mushroom.

“And what species are Fleger and Ublten?” asked the man.

“Fleger is a Rodian and Ublten is a Ithorian.” Replied Arsen.

The man looked at the pieces of hard paper the mercenaries were holding and asked:

“What’s that?”

Arsen looked at the pieces of paper and said confidently, while folding the cards:

“These are cards. And what we are playing is for real men.”

The man asked hastily:

“Gambling?”

“A classic game of Vertent.” Replied Ruplic.

“What is Vertent?” asked the man.

The mercenaries looked at each other and then Arsen turned to the man to answer him:

“It is a game that will see how good you are at anything.”

“That’s a pretty sharp law that rules here.” Said the man like he was making a remark “What makes you think that people are good at everything, if they play cards well?”

“Because every newcomer that started here, played the card game to prove his worth.” Began Ruplic. “And each and every one of them, who proved their worth succeeded in this guild.”

“So.” Began Arsen, mixing the cards with a face expression that would make anyone suspicious about any word that he would say “Are you up for it?”

The man thought for several moments and then he said:

“Sure.”

Arsen started to mix the cards, but suddenly the man realized that he didn’t know the rules.

“Um… What are the rules?” the man asked.

Ruplic, Ublten, Arsen and Fleger looked at him in shock. Ruplic looked at Arsen then starred back at the man in shock.

“You don’t know the rules of Vertent?” asked Arsen in shock.

“I thought that you realized that I didn’t since I didn’t know what it was.” Commented the man, frowning since their reaction wasn’t exactly something that he was expecting.

“Everyone knows the rules of Vertent.” Began Fleger in his strange alien language which the man understood “Even if you were in elementary school, you would know its rules, but not its name. Only idiots don’t know the rules.” Felger finished with irony.

“It happens that some people learn in school, instead of playing cards.” Replied the man like that he was making a remark.

“Watch it wise guy.” Warned angrily Felger, pulling out his blaster and pointing it towards the man “I remember a rookie who was as confident as you are. He didn’t end up well.”

“Hey!” began the man trying to calm down the situation “I didn’t want to start a fight with you, or get killed above all. I just came here to ask a few questions and maybe see what’s up around here.”

“He proved his point, Felger.” Said Arsen, trying to calm down the situation. Felger looked at the man and started to holster the blaster, grumbling in annoyance.

“So, do you want to play?” asked Ruplic.

“Hit it.” Replied the man.

Arsen started to mix the cards and started to deal two to every person.

“The rules are simple.” Began Arsen while dealing the cards in counter clockwise way “Each player gets 9 cards. Each player holds 5 cards up and 4 cards folded down. When you see your cards, you will have several symbols. The symbols in the game are: Ace, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10, General, Queen, Emperor and Existence. There are several symbols on those symbols as well.” Arsen paused for a few moments and continued “When you see two same cards, you pair them and put them down. Then you can gather one card from your bunch. A card is exchanged between the two players in counter clock-wise order. To win, you have to gather the strongest combination of symbols possible. There are several combinations.”

“The counting line.” Said Arsen showing the man cards that were counting from 2 to 9.

“This is the weakest combination in the game. Once you receive it, you lose. Permanently.” Arsen finished like that it was a prediction and then he grabbed other cards.

“The money of the rulers.” Arsen was showing cards counting from 5 to 10 and it had The King and the General “This is a pretty strong combination that can counter several minor combinations, nothing special though.”

Arsen then pulled out other cards.

“The ranking system.” Arsen was showing cards two Aces, a number from 2 to 10 and a General “A powerful combination indeed. Better watch it when someone gets this.”

The man was listening carefully as Arsen pulled some other cards.

“The upper elite.” Arsen was showing two Generals, one Queen and one King “This can beat the ranking system combination in no time, but careful; this combination isn’t received easily.”

“And the most important card: Existence.” Arsen showed a card which was showing a Galaxy “This card is the most powerful in the game. Whoever wields it enhances the worth of the combination. If you have them both, you win the game permanently.”

In the corner two mercenaries, one Human male and one female Twi’lek were watching the table the man was sitting.

“Oh, man.” Sighed the male mercenary “They’re going for another rookie.”

“Did they show him some of the better combinations?” asked the woman.

“You mean any of those ‘Queens titles’, ‘Emperors guard’, ‘Aces men’?” asked the man in regret. The woman nodded and the man said:

“No.”

“Think, maybe this guy has a chance.” Explained the woman in hope to stop these double-crossers “Does he know how to play cards?”

“No.” the man replied in disappointment.

“Not even Pazzak?” asked the woman surprised.

“What did you expect? The guy had total amnesia.” Replied the man.

The woman moved a bit away from the table. She looked to the side in ironic regret and then said to the man:

“He’s doomed.”

“Well, let’s just watch and hope for the best.” Said the man as he started to walk to the table along with the female Twi’Lek.

 

“That covers it.” Said Arsen satisfied as he looked at his cards “Shall we begin?”

“I wanted to ask something.” Began the man curiously and he asked “What is this rock?”

Arsen thought for a little and then said:

“This is Dossun. It’s nothing special really, except this guild and a city not far from here.”

“Also there was some Imperial base around here somewhere.” Added Felger quickly.

“You got the idea of the game?” asked Ruplic, taking his five cards.

“Sure.” Replied the man taking the cards and then he thought a little. He frowned and he asked in confusion:

“How do you value the combos?”

There was a moment of silence and then Ublten replied:

“In credits of course.”

Then the man dived into deep thinking. Was this a test from the guild? he thought to himself. The mercenaries were most certainly trying something, but he decided to play along. He hid his suspicion and held the cards.

“Okay.” Said the man coldly “How much?”

“How much have you got?” asked Arsen.

The man thought that he didn’t have any money that was called credits, but he dived into his pocket anyway. He then found several pieces of hard paper in his pocket. He pulled them out and counted it. They were credits and the man said:

“I’ve got 400.”

Felger smiled in his thoughts and whispered to Ruplic deviously:

“This one is as good as ours.”

Ruplic remained silent, but he was smiling deep inside him.

“Now.” Began Arsen “Shall we begin?”

The man frowned and said:

“Let’s see what you’ve got.”

The mercenaries and the man picked up their cards and looked at them. The man had two 5s, one General and an Ace. The man left the 5s to make a combination. As Arsen paired two cards, putted them down, picked up another and offered his bunch to Felger, the man asked:

“So what was going on recently?”

“Why do you want to know?” asked Ruplic who wanted to pair two cards, but kept them. Felger took another card and offered some to Ublten.

“Let’s just say, that I missed all the parties.” Replied the man with a smile.

“Okay, where to start?” said Arsen as he looked at the cards “Well, the Galaxy is not a Senatorial Republic anymore. It is now a parliamentary Empire now.”

“How so?” asked the man as Ruplic took a card from Ublten.

“Well they figured that since the past one didn’t work. And they say that there wasn’t much freedom in the past system.” Began Ruplic looking at his cards, Ublten paired two cards “They thought that maybe they could employ a ‘new mixture of democracy’.”

Ruplic offered the cards to the man. The man picked one and he said as he looked at the cards:

“Prime Ministers were too corrupt for them, huh?”

“Yeah. Pathetic excuse if you ask me.” Commented Felger.

The man saw that he had a ten, two Aces and a General. The man then confidently put his cards on the table:

“Ranking system” the cards were set down. The man thought that he won, since those were powerful cards. Arsen looked at the cards imitating impresses.

“Those cards are good.”

“But.” Said ironically and happy Ruplic and he settled down his cards.

“Aces men.” Said Ruplic showing his cards.

The man frowned and he looked at Ruplics cards. It had two Aces and two 10s. Arsen dropped his cards and said:

“Upper elite.”

“The lovers.” Dropped Ublten a General and a Queen.

“The rulers of the Galaxy.” Said confidently Fleger as he dropped three Kings and one Existence card.

“Most of the money goes to Fleger.” Said Arsen and he pushed his several hundred credits to Fleger, Ruplic followed and Ublten did also. They all then looked at the man that was looking confused at the cards.

“Hundred credits please.” Said Arsen.

The man pulled out those hundred credits out of his pocket and left them a bit embarrassed, but he didn’t show it. He then thought of fighting them even more. Arsen dialed the cards and they all picked it up. The man saw that he had a General, a Queen and a King. He had potential and he looked at the people.

“Now that I remember it-“began Arsen looking at his cards and giving one to Felger “There were a lot of conflicts recently. Bad business.”

“Yeah you tell me.” Said Ruplic while pairing two cards and getting another one “Like two years ago was the conflict with the cult of Darth whatever.”

“The Republic and that Church, the so called Order, turned to be a bunch of jerks.” Commented Ublten “They were like idiots.”

“They were all like idiots.” Said Felger giving a card to Ublten and pairing two cards. “Except that no one wants to admit it.”

“You said it.” Agreed Ruplic “All they do is gather money, and in the end they stab you in the back.” Ruplic received a card and the man picked a card from him. The man now had the combination he wanted and he dropped them confidently:

“Upper elite.”

“Queen’s titles.” Said Ruplic

“Emperor’s guard.” Said Arsen.

“Military force.” Said Ublten as he showed the four generals.

“Ace’s men.” Said Fleger and dropped the cards.

The mercenaries gave the money to Arsen. The man had no choice and he gave hundred credits in sign of small defeat to Arsen. Now came the third part.

 

The people started to gather since they saw the commotion was getting bigger. They all gathered around the table when the part neared its end. Everyone was interested in the fate of this brave rookie that wanted to win. The human male mercenary approached the female Twi’Lek mercenary and asked:

“How is it going?”

“Looks like that the rookie is losing, badly.” She sighed.

“There’s got to be a way that he can win.”

 

The mercenaries just put their cards down.

“The lovers.” Said Arsen.

“Ace’s men.” Said Ruplic.

“Queen’s titles.” Said Ublten.

“Emperor’s guard.” Said Fleger.

“Seems to me like that this is not your lucky day, rookie.” Said Fleger in disrespect.

“Not to mention a credit-losing day.” Joked Arsen, to which Ruplic laughed a bit.

The man was mad since he got ‘the money of rulers’. He pulled out his hundred credits and he gave it to them in respect.

“Final round.” Announced someone in the crowd. The crowd started to talk about who will win, most of them thought that the mercenaries would win.

The female Twi’Lek turned to the human male:

“Final shot. Hope that he succeeds.” They started to hope that he will do it.

“Now.” Began Arsen, dealing the cards “If you lose, you are out of this guild and will be never respected again… You can give up.”

“I’ll go to the end.” Answered the man coldly. Arsen dialed the cards and they looked at them.

They swapped cards slowly, the crowd went silent. Arsen paired two cards and pulled one. Fleger gained that one and gave it to Ublten. Ublten paired two cards and gave one to Ruplic. Ruplic picked one card and gave one to the man. Then Arsen looked around confidently and dropped the cards saying:

“The rulers of the Galaxy.” The crowd cheered and silenced in a second.

Fleger looked the same way as well and said dropping the cards:

“The upper elite.” The crowd also yelled as same as with Arsen.

Ublten followed and said:

“Ace’s men.” The crowd cheered like it was a football game.

Ruplic did it also and he said confidently:

“The beauty of the universe.” Leaving three queens and one Existence card. The crowd went wild and everyone silenced looking at the man.

“So.” Began confidently Arsen “Ready to admit defeat?”

 

The man paused and looked around. The crowd seemed to be supporting the mercenaries, even though they were quiet as the dead. But then he saw some of them give money, credits to others saying:

“Bet on the team.”

The man realized that this wasn’t a test of skills. It was to humiliate people, to rob them of their hard earned money. The man paused and he tried to think, looking at his cards.

 

“Well?” Asked Ruplic.

The man paused for a second and then he folded his cards, closing his eyes in shiver. Fleger chuckled a little and asked proudly:

“Did you learn anything now, school boy?”

Then the Rodian started to laugh and they all started to laugh like that there was no tomorrow. It was loud, everyone was laughing at the man since he lost so bad.

“Looks like that the elite has proved again.” Began Ruplic happily and laughing and then finishing with Arsen: “We are the best!” They all continued to laugh insanely.

“So much for the hero!” screamed Arsen in laughter along with the others. But the man didn’t laugh. He just frowned in anger and mixed his cards. He then spread the lower side of the cards on the table. The people were still laughing. Then the man picked the last card and drew it to the left. He then pushed the card and they all turned around, one by one. He then threw the card to the last part; they were all in place. The people continued to laugh, but then Arsen stopped and looked in shock along with a small part of the crowd. Fleger stopped laughing immediately along with Ublten, another large part of the crowd silenced as well. Ruplic continued laughing, but when he looked, he stopped laughing steadily and stopping along with the last of the crowd. The crowd then gasped loudly for a moment when they looked at the man’s cards. The cards were two aces, two 10s and a general. The mercenaries and the crowd looked up from the cards at the man.

The man was sitting, frowning and standing like that he was ready to die.

“Seems to me like that you’ve just been beaten by a rookie.” Said the man confidently. Everyone was still silent. The man took the 2000 credits that were in the bet slowly. Then he put them in the pocket and said:

“Looks like that the elite isn’t the best anymore.”

“And I did learn something.” He added while he started to get up “I learned to never play cards again with scam makers like you.” He pointed to the mercenaries at the table and got up. They all remained silent. No one could believe that the best carders were defeated by a rookie that didn’t even know his name. The crowd turned to watch the man leave the cantina.

When the man left, he frowned at the credits that he was throwing in the air and catching like a professional, as he made his way to his room to have a rest.

 

 

As the first two men awakened at the same time, the third man also was starting his day. He fell on his knees because he tripped. He was sweaty, he could barely breathe and his ankles were hurting. The sun was boiling like that they were on the star itself, except that it’s worse because they weren’t melting. The man’s head fell on his chest from the pain and the tiredness was killing him. Then someone hit him in the back and yelled:

“Move slave!”

The man looked around and saw a Gammorean riding a giant green lizard with a fat body. The man got up and he started to walk. In front of him were several Gammoreans on these lizard creatures including Prensen who rode one of them. In front of them were the rest of the slaves: two female Twi’Leks, one male Zabrak and a female human. The female human had short brown hair and nice light blue eyes. She also had nice face curves. The Gammoreans were making them all march like that it was war time. Next to the man the human male appeared. He had short black hair, green eyes and a long head. They marched on like cattle. They felt like walking sand.

“12 years.”

The man turned to the human male and asked quickly and unconsciously:

“What?”

The human male breathed heavily:

“12 years I have been fighting to change something. To help make something that those who planned it all, promised us. But nothing changed!” the man tried to yell but he nearly tripped.

“Who are they?” asked the man in desperation.

“Those who lead us all those years ago.” Said the man angrily “But failed to do even listen.”

“Who are they?” asked the man again.

The human male looked at the man and yelled:

“Why do you care?!”

“Because I don’t know anything about what is going on here.” Replied the man, barely keeping himself from yelling.

“Then let me explain.” Began the human male “First there was an Empire, oppressive and destructive. The Emperor was cruel, but we rebelled and defeated him.”

“Yes?” said the man, barely moving.

“Then we continued to build, and we all tried to keep ourselves on our toes. We trusted the leaders.” Continued the human male, like that he was on drugs.

“There were a lot of conflicts, but we kept ourselves together.” He said as he continued along with the man, near the lizard creatures and the other slaves.

“But then the great conflict came and we fought and died side by side.” Continued the human male “But the leaders that we trusted betrayed us and killed even more of us!”

“After the conflict, when we thought that this Emperor that saved us could do any better; nothing changed. Nothing!” yelled the human male.

The man was breathing hard and his leg was shivering.

“What does this Emperor do anyway?” asked angrily the man.

“All he does is sit in his chamber and drinks the best ale in the Galaxy.” Replied angrily the human male. The man frowned in rage and said:

“We will make him see what is happening.” He paused for a moment “This is torture!”

“You won’t make it past thirty meters.” Said the human male “The slavers will shoot you.”

The man paused and asked:

“What is your name?”

“Dellion.” Replied the human male desperately “Dellion Wup. What about you?”

The man paused and said:

“I don’t know.”

“It doesn’t matter anyway.” Replied Dellion desperately “But I will answer all your questions the best way I can.”

“What is this battle that happened 12 years ago?” asked the man in pain.

“It was-“began Dellion “The legendary battle of Endor. Where it all ended for the first Empire. After which was supposed to be the age of peace.”

“So what was the problem?” asked the man walking on.

“Conflicts… and corrupt leaders that betrayed us!” yelled Dellion “They promised peace, but brought betrayal.”

“Does it concern this Emperor as well?” asked the man, blinking from the small amount of water.

“Yes…” said Dellion “They all said that there will be freedom that was once before, but there was no peace or freedom.”

The man then asked:

“What planet is this?”

“Tatooine.” Replied Dellion “The worst place you could possibly be in.”

Dellion paused for a few seconds and then turned to the man who was really tired:

“And how are you doing with that…. Amnesia? Amnesia, right?”

The man paused for a moment and said in sadness and tiredness:

“I hear the stories of your freedom… But I will never know for anything.” The man paused and showed the chains “Except for this.”

“Believe me… It is better to live without knowing what freedom is; rather than to sip it for a few moments and be torn from it forever.”

They moved for several minutes in quiet and then the man asked Dellion:

“But what was this… war that brought you into this place?”

Dellion paused in thoughts as he tried to remember.

“It was against a powerful faction… I don’t remember.” Replied Dellion, nearly collapsing. The man was near death. He could feel it. It was crawling behind the corner. He felt like that he was in a grave already, with all the slaves that were also tired, desperate and near death from thirst. Then suddenly someone yelled:

“Oasis! We can make a stop there.” Suggested Prensen.

The man and the other slaves looked forwards. There was an oasis. They were all happy, if only for moments to just hide under the palm trees and take the water. The slaves and the man rushed faster than the lizard creatures.

When they reached there, the Gammoreans and Prensen climbed down and started to drink some water. The slaves quickly approached the water and started drinking the sweet source of all life in the Galaxy. The man approached, tired and wasted. He hurried and fell on his knees near the water. He saw his appearance, but he wasn’t paying attention to it. He just grabbed the water with his both hands and spilt water on his face, making him refresh. He then grabbed slowly the water and drank the icy water that made him feel like he was all new again. He grabbed several other sips along with the other slaves. Suddenly a Gammorean pushed him and threatened:

“You drank enough, slave.”

The Gammorean approached one of the lizard creatures and started to take care of the saddle. The man stopped starring at the Gammorean after a few seconds and he realized that he saw how he looked like. He wasn’t sure, so he looked again. He made sure that he was right. He saw that he had a short brown hair cut, whose color had an unnoticeable part of red and a normal sized head. He had blue eyes and a medium sized mouth. His nose was a bit small by length, it extended only to the middle between the mouth and the eyes. By the looks of it, he seemed to be in his early to mid 20ies.

After several minutes Prensen yelled:

“All right, let’s go!”

The slaves and the man got up. The Gammoreans got up on the lizard creatures. Then they forced the slaves into a row again, making them march yet again like cattle towards the way the sun was descending into the endless desert.

 

To be continued...

[The Doctor]

Thanks John. Update will be posted in half an hour to one hour.

 

You lied. It was 4 hours!!

 

Nice job. Still too long though

[Hallucination]

^Ha! You used the wrong 'to'!

Good job Vlad, keep it up!

[RC-1162]

excellent job Vlad, im not through with the 2nd chap yet but what i read till now was great. now i have to figure out how to squeeze you into my sig.

[Vladimir-Vlada]

Thanks. I'll try to keep it updated. Now let me just think how to show this...

 

Aha! I've got it.

[The Doctor]

^Ha! You used the wrong 'to'!

Good job Vlad, keep it up!

 

Fixed. Ya grammar fascist

[Vladimir-Vlada]

I am terribly, terribly sorry for the long delay. I was having some work to do. Here is the next chapter.

[Vladimir-Vlada]

Stupid word count!

 

Just a second please...

[Vladimir-Vlada]

THE DESTINY OF ALL EXISTENCE:

Chapter 3: Decision that affect lives

 

 

The man in the hospital woke up when the sun rose. He then blinked for several seconds, just to make sure that he gathered his strength. He then put his hands next to him and pushed slowly upwards. He maintained on his elbows. The room was still the same: with large metallic beds that had tools to maintain life support. He was feeling a lot better than the first time he woke up; he thought that maybe he could get up. After yesterday when he managed to move his arms, head and torso; he thought that maybe his legs got better. He tried to move them, hoping that he could do it. He couldn’t do it much, so he stopped. Suddenly the nurse entered the room carrying a plastic plate with some instruments that must have been for checking blood pressure and so. She smiled for a moment and said arriving:

“Good morning.” She sat down the plate and picked up an instrument that looked like giant metal coin “And how are we feeling today?”

“I don’t know about you, but I am fine. Sort of.” Replied the man feeling relaxed. The nurse put the giant metal coin on the black cotton clinic uniform the man was wearing. She carefully set something on the coin. The man then felt that the coin was tightening his arm a little. Then the tightness started to degrade. The woman picked the coin of and said grabbing the data pad:

“Blood pressure is normal.” She said typing something into the data pad “Now let’s see how your brain is dealing with things.”

She then picked up a strange metallic tube and leaded it closer slowly to the man’s head. The man felt somehow strange at first, like that something was buzzing in his head. Then his vision started to get blurry and started to get dizzy. The nurse then pulled the tube away from the man’s head as he grabbed it stopping a fall. She looked at the meter on the tube and said:

“It handles. But not really great.” She put the tube down and turned to the man and said:

“Anyway, I think that you are doing great, especially considering your wounds.”

The man looked at the nurse after the blurriness and the dizziness:

“I want to try and get up.”

The nurse widened her eyes in disbelief:

“Get up? You can barely stay awake for 2 or less hours, much less walk around.”

The man turned and said:

“I still want to try.”

“The doctor won’t allow you.” The nurse remarked “And I am not allowing you.”

The man remained silent for a few moments and then he said:

“Please, just this.”

“No. You are too weak, you won’t be able to even get off the bed.” Reasoned the nurse calmly.

“Then I will do it myself.” Said angrily the man as he turned to the side. He then jumped off the bed to stand up, but suddenly he fell down and grunted because of the fall. The nurse came around the bed in shock and looked at the man.

“Are you all right?” she asked, a bit worried.

“Yes, I am fine.” Replied the man in a very annoyed tone. He grabbed the bed and started to pull himself up to stand.

“I told you. You can’t walk, not yet. You are too weak.” Reasoned the nurse again.

“I am fine.” Said the man trying to keep himself from getting mad. He got up and managed to stand while he concentrated on gathering his strength. The nurse was now a bit worried for the man. She put down the data pad and went towards him to grab him.

“Come on, lay on the bed.” She tried to convince and reason him.

“I have to start walking.” He said angrily and he managed to dodge her, nearly falling down. He held on to the bed and tried to prepare to let go off the bed. The patients looked mostly confused at the situation that was before their eyes. The patient next to the bed the man was lying on; wanted to get up himself and force the man to stop complaining. The other patients were mostly sleeping. The nurse tried to slowly reason with the man not to do it. Suddenly the man let go and he started to walk unstably. He grunted a little and angrily tried to maintain his stability. He tripped towards the upper left of him. He then walked for two steps, like a child when learns to walk. Suddenly he started to fall, but he pushed a cart of medical equipment and grabbed on to another bed. The patient that was on the bed suddenly woke up and looked up. The man was breathing heavily and was obviously preparing for something. The man then turned to the patient, who was a woman. The patient was a bit afraid that the man would probably attack her. But the man just pushed away and continued to try and walk. He tried to keep himself up as he desperately made another step. His legs could barely move since he wasn’t exactly in his best shape. Suddenly the nurse grabbed him and started to drag him onto the bed.

“If you won’t do it. I will.” She said as she dragged him. The man tried to convince her to release him:

“Please, I can do it.”

“I see how.” She commented as she pointed towards the cart. She pulled him and made him stay on the bed. Then she initiated something on the console and the man felt metal that now held his hands. He was shocked at what the nurse had done and she said as she moved from the console:

“Sorry, but I had to take drastic measures.”

She then left the room to help other patients.

The man looked at the metal cases that stopped his hands from rising. He tried to push the hands up, but he only encountered the several inches wide steel. He stopped, since it was hopeless. He remained on the bed, still determined to try and walk. The man remained still staring at the white ceiling that was blank… It reminded him of his thoughts. After several hours the man then got sick of waiting and he started to try and free himself again from the cuffs. He pulled with all the strength he had. The steel oval cuffs didn’t budge no matter how hard he tried. He continued to do it, waving his head a little. Suddenly the bed turned around and the man fell of the bed on the floor. He hit his torso, hand, it quite hurt. The man grunted a little, having his eyes closed. When he opened his eyes he saw that the hands were out of the cuffs. He then got up and started to limp.

The nurse was talking to the doctor the man saw earlier.

“And the patient seems to behave more uncomfortably.” She finished what she wanted to say, a bit worried.

“Any particular reason?” asked the doctor curiously.

“Not really. But it seems that he is upset about something.” Replied the nurse curiously.

“What should we do?”

“I think that you should ask him, about the problem.” Answered the doctor.

“I’ll go to him.” Said the nurse.

The doctor then took a glance to the gleaming white hall ways. He turned back. But then in shock he looked again and said:

“You don’t have to.” Said the doctor frowning.

“Why not?” asked the nurse.

“Because it seems like that he is already here.” Replied the doctor pointing outside of the white room full of medical beds. The nurse turned and saw the man limping, trying to remain up. The nurse rushed in panic to stop the man from falling and make him go to his bed for once. The man continued, not paying attention to anything. He desperately wanted to start walking, but it didn’t progress quite well. He limped once and tripped, falling down. The nurse crouched and picked him up, dragging him towards the end of the hall. The man noticed that she didn’t take him to his room. She was taking him elsewhere. She dragged him for several minutes and then pushed him into a room that was different than the clinic rooms that were mostly around. The room was a small, isolated part that had blue walls and white, metal floor that was covering the bottom. The room had a small kitchen with a refrigerator and some sinks. There was a giant plasma television and a couch of normal quality in front of it. The man fell on the couch that was turned to the plasma TV attached to the wall on the other side of the room. He looked at the floor for a moment to get ready for what is to come. The nurse walked into his view and stood in front of him. She was a bit displeased but also worried about the man:

“May I ask what the problem is?” she asked, sounding a bit demanding.

The man looked up and said:

“Nothing. I just want to start walking.”

“Why? What is so important? You can barely stand.” She tried to reason with the man but he snuffed in annoyance “There are other patients that have to be taken care of.”

The man sighed and replied:

“You don’t understand.”

“You are right. I don’t, but help me here.” She pleaded.

The man looked up and said:

“What is the difference? I still don’t know anything.”

”What do you mean?” asked the nurse curiously.

“You know what I am talking about.” Began the man, sounding disappointed “I don’t know my name. I don’t know my home. I don’t know anything. ”

“I know how you feel.” The nurse answered trying to calm him down.

“Do you? Do you know how it feels to not know anything about yourself?” the man’s started to show signs of desperation, but he still sounded mad “Do you know what it like is to have 36 years and not know anything?”

“You suffered severe wounds. We didn’t even know if you were going to stay alive.” The nurse explained.

“Right now I wish that I was dead.” Replied the man madly “I feel useless. I am a burden; and because of me other people don’t get to live, but I, a man who doesn’t know his own life lives.”

“Everyone deserves to live.” The nurse tried to reassure the man “Even you.”

“I don’t deserve it.” He desperately replied in madness “I am only a waste of dirt.”

His head fell into his hands and he tried to hold himself from sobbing in desperation. The nurse watched in sadness as the man tried to squeeze his head like an egg. She sighed as she realized how he really wished to do something to help, even though he couldn’t. She approached him and sat next to him on the couch.

“It’s all right.” She tried to reassure him.

The man continued to hold his head in desperation and madness towards himself. He thought that he was guilty because other people couldn’t be cured because of him and that helping him was criminal. He gathered his strength not to start yelling and said when he removed his head from his hands:

“I am sorry. I didn’t mean to behave like that.” He apologized as calmly as he could.

“It’s all right. There is no need to apologize. It happens.” The nurse reassured him.

“It isn’t supposed to.” Replied the man in regret.

“You’ll get better, I can tell.” Reassured him the nurse “You just need a little more time. I know that you can get back on your feet.”

The man turned to her and said:

“Thanks for being here for me.”

“No problem.” Replied the nurse happily.

The man then wanted to start and get up, but he then stopped and asked:

“By the way, I never found out your name. What’s your name?”

She smiled and replied:

“Patricia.”

“Nice to know.” The man shook her hand.

“Shall I take you to your bed?” she asked smiling after releasing her hand.

“All right let’s go.” He said as he got up and started to walk. “Maybe I could-“

He suddenly stopped and looked down and then back to Patricia. He couldn’t believe that he was walking. He completely got better, save for the headache. She looked at him and said:

“Well, looks like that I don’t have to carry you.”

She got up and they exited the room. They proceeded through the hallway carelessly. Patricia, even though there were many things on her mind, still remained cheerful and happy. The man on the other hand wasn’t exactly happy, since he was still thinking about his situation.

“So, what made you study medicine?” asked the man while he walked with Patricia.

“I wanted to become a doctor I guess.” Began Patricia, telling her story “Every time I saw someone get wounded, I would run as fast as a rabbit towards them to help them. Everyone liked me because of that and I was soon called ‘Mobile helper’.”

“And how did your parents react?” asked the man again curiously.

“My mother approved it. She always approves everything.” She commented chuckling a bit “But my father didn’t want me to do it.”

“Why is that?” asked the man.

“He wanted that I become something like a politician.” She began, with signs of regret and anger “I don’t know why. Later I did go to medical school after I confronted him to allow me.”

“Did it go well?” asked the man carefully.

“What does it looked like?” she asked smiling.

“I see.” Replied the man calmly.

“By the way, do you want something to read?” asked Patricia.

The man remained silent for a moment. He didn’t know if he could read.

“You can read, right?” she asked, showing signs of surprise.

“I don’t know.” Replied the man slowly, feeling a bit uncomfortable.

Patricia was a bit surprised, she wanted to say something. Before she could say something a young boy, aged 10 ran up to the man.

“Mister, mister.” The boy called waving a white paper.

The man looked at the young boy in curiosity, thinking of what might he want. The man crouched to be able to speak with him.

“Yes, what is it?” asked the man normally.

The boy approached him and said giving the piece of paper:

“Here is something that I want to show you.”

The man took the piece of paper and looked at it. There was a drawing on it. The drawing looked like that it had two animals. Both looked like dogs, but one was brown while the other was dark. The drawing looked nice, considering the boys age. The man then noticed some signs in the upper right corner:

“The quick brown fox jumps over a lazy dog.” The man said looking at the signs.

“The fox is you jumping over the man in the room you are in.” explained innocently the boy “The lazy dog is the mister in the room where are you, lying all the time. And the quick fox is you, jumping around like a seeker.”

The man snuffed and gave him back the drawing.

“You’re pretty good. Thanks for the drawing.” Said the man as he looked at him.

“Thank you for the compliment, mister.” Replied the boy innocently and ran somewhere else.

The man got up and commented:

“Such a good kid.”

He then turned and saw Patricia smiling at him. The man looked at her confused and asked:

“What?”

“Well, it seems like that you can read.” Concluded Patricia “What do you want to read?”

The man thought for several seconds as they walked and then he said:

“I am acutely interested in this… conflict with an alien race that happened recently of which you spoke earlier.”

“Lucky for you I have just the thing.” Replied Patricia as she pulled a data pad out of her pocket and gave it to the man. The man looked at the data pad.

“It isn’t much since most of the soldiers that were in the war only knew it by appearance.” She apologized “Enjoy.”

“Thanks.” Replied the man.

They then reached the door that lead to the room where the man was and they stopped.

“I have to go now. Other patients are waiting. See you.” Patricia bid him farewell and left towards another part of the clinic.

“See you.” Replied the man.

The man turned to the door and entered. He approached the bed and then climbed on it. It seems like that someone made sure that the bed was repaired while he was gone, perhaps its clinic policy. He then formed into a sitting like position, like reading a book in bed. He tapped the data pad and started reading.

The data pad held more general facts, rather than details about this war. It explained that about several months ago, the New Republic (the galactic regime that existed during that time) came in contact with an unknown alien race that was never seen or classified as encountered anywhere in written history. The aliens, according to the description, were giant, powerful and scary creatures. Their bodies were like non-developed younglings with several mutations that eradicated its face. The face had no nose, no hair and the eyes reminded of skeletons. They were covered with armor that, by the looks of it, is from some species of a giant crab. The armor was dark and it showed signs of purple. They had a very powerful melee weapon that could be used as a whip or as a giant electric staff. By the looks of it, the weapon is an animal that had resistant skin and often had nitration acid that wastes energy from it to create electric discharges for defense. The New Republic sent officials to greet the aliens. But just when the officials arrived, the aliens killed them and began a war against the galaxy.

The war went on very rapidly, but victories were sometimes on the Republic’s side, and sometimes on the alien’s side. After several days an assassination attempt occurred on one the Order’s main leaders. The official survived and another investigation began. The Order’s main leaders remained in contact with the Supreme Chancellor of the Republic. After several days or a week, the Chancellor passed the control of the military to the main leaders of the Order. The leaders then executed several high ranking officers, both Republic and Order alike. Then, the Supreme Chancellor and the leaders of the Jedi Order started attacking fleets that were still in the hands of the Republic high command. Things were desperate for the Republic since it was being raided by the aliens and the separatists. But then a young general by the name of Aldian Wenran appeared with an idea to confront the fleets at the planet of Vastrip IV, near Coruscant. The command of the Republic forces was given to Wenran. The battle was won by the Republic forces. After that, Wenran gained huge popularity with the Senate and he was pronounced Emperor. The Supreme Chancellor was arrested and executed for treason. The Jedi, who lost the entire forces they had, were all killed at their main base that was bombed, the order was given by the senate. After that, Emperor Wenran commanded the forces against the aliens. The aliens were less successful and were easily defeated at the hands of the Imperial command. The aliens withdrew from known space after a month of intense war-waging. The Order members that decided to join the Republic against the Order and the Republic separatist formed a new Order that was gong to do a better job than the last one.

The man stopped reading the data pad, since there was nothing else left to read. He put it away and started to think about how much he has learned about what was happening recently. He looked at a clock and saw that he spent around twenty minutes reading that.

“Having fun?” asked the patient on the bed left of him in a quite rude tone.

The man turned to the patient and frowned:

“What do you mean?”

“I meant that you are completely healthy, but you are still here.” Replied the patient in the same tone.

“I don’t like it why I am here either, but I don’t complain about other people being treated.” Replied back the man, trying to prove his point.

“And who are you to tell me?” asked the patient as he turned his back towards the man and began to sleep.

The man then got up and exited the room. He started to walk around, to see what kind of a hospital this is and meet some new people. But yet, the things on his mind were actually the words the patient just said. The man after several moments spending in the dark trance of those words stopped thinking about them and continued to walk. He turned right at a corner and saw the doctor that treated him and Patricia talk. They sounded like something was wrong.

“Their status is getting worse doctor. I don’t think that they will live for a day or two more if something isn’t done.” Told Patricia to the doctor in a worried tone.

“All I can say, nurse is that I am trying my best to find who can participate in this operation.” The doctor replied like that he rehearsed that line time and time again.

“Why do you need other doctors?” asked Patricia in agony “You are one.”

“Who said that I need doctors?” replied the doctor, explaining “The thing I need is a volunteer.”

“For what?” asked Patricia confused.

“We need one, as a patient, to act as a life support machine.” Replied the doctor.

“I… don’t understand.” Replied Patricia confused.

The doctor paused and looked at the two beds that were together. On the beds were one adult woman and one little girl. The woman had a short, dark hair cut. Her nose was small and she wasn’t very much tall. She wore a white jump suit. The girl also had a white jump suit and had also short dark hair. The man recognized the girl as Ely, the girl that awakened him several days ago.

Those two were probably mother and daughter, and they were connected too two panels above them that showed their heart beat and blood pressure.

“We have to pull out that thing, doctor.” Reasoned Patricia with the doctor “If we don’t do it in the next 12 hours, they will end up dead.”

“Cancer or no cancer, they still have the same problem.” Replied the doctor.

“What problem?” asked Patricia “All you have to do is insert anesthesia into their bloodstream and pull the cancer out.”

“Well the first part is the problem.” Replied the doctor slowly.

“What do you mean?” asked the nurse.

“Take a look at the brain activity and tell me what you see.” Said the doctor like he was educating her.”

Patricia examined and noticed that the diagram went up and down quickly.

“The brain waves seem to be disrupted by something.” Said Patricia, still interested.

“Now look at the blood pressure.” Said the doctor.

Patricia looked at it and said:

“It is slowed down.”

The doctor nodded and remained silent waiting for her to say something. Then she got up and said in shock:

“They have brain tumor as well!”

“Yes, nurse and that is the problem.” Said the doctor.

“But, that can be solved too doctor Stein.” Explained Patricia “Why do you say that the anesthesia is the problem?”

“I thought that you concluded when I said that you look at the blood pressure.” Replied Stein, but before she could answer he said: “Yes. The tumor is located in the neural tube, right where the functions of the body are located.”

“But how does that disrupt the brain waves?” asked Patricia.

“It is doing it, because it has infected some of the key parts of the neural tube, which don’t allow it to function properly.” Explained Stein.

‘How?” asked Patricia in curiosity.

“As the brain tumor spread it seemed to have also caught the blood stream, making the substance located in the blood travel inside the neural tube.” Began Stein to explain in an uncomfortable way “Most of these substances aren’t dangerous since the neural cells don’t react much to these types of chemicals. However!” pointed out Stein “If anesthesia gets into the neural tube, it will stop functioning for the time until the anesthesia is degraded and the heart won’t pump blood; making the entire body die within minutes.”

“But that still doesn’t explain why you would need a volunteer.” Replied Patricia “It seems to me like there is no hope.”

The doctor paused for a moment before he began:

“That is why I came here. There is still hope. If we find someone who will be like a patient during the operation to support the bodies of these two, maybe we could perform the operation.”

“How?” asked Patricia.

“When the volunteer comes into this operation, we will connect through a tube all of the organs to the persons neural tube. Then through electric discharges, the neural tube of the person would support the organs while the operation takes place.”

“Doctor, we don’t have time for looking for volunteers.” Reasoned Patricia.

“Oh, please, nurse.” Rolled his eyes the doctor in desperation “Don’t you think that I would volunteer myself if I wasn’t the only doctor that knows how to do it on this planet?”

Patricia sighed along with the doctor and said:

“Then I think that we should start looking.”

“And as soon as possible, nurse.” Said the doctor “I don’t think that there will be much volunteers for this one.”

The man who listened to the conversation now started to remember the words that the patient next to his bed told him. He thought that it was horrible that these two people would die and that he, who doesn’t even know his identity lives. He then realized how useless he was, compared to everything. He then gathered his courage to do what he must.

The man stepped into the room and said:

“You don’t need to bother. I am volunteering.”

Patricia and Stein looked at the man in surprise. They didn’t expect him to hear all of this. Patricia approached him and she asked:

“What are you talking about?”

“I wish to assign for this operation.” Replied the man “They might have a chance.”

“Didn’t the test show clearly?” asked Patricia like she was pointing out a fact “Your organism itself can’t support itself properly.”

“I want to help.” Insisted the man, with signs of desperation in his voice.

“What level of radiation was he tested on?” asked Stein curiously.

Patricia turned to the doctor and replied:

“Alpha rays only.”

Stein widened his eyes in shock and said:

“Good gravy! How is he able to stand then?”

“Well, the neural system is reorganizing quickly and he is recovering quite well.” Replied Patricia.

“You should get back to your bed, sir.” Began the doctor like he was trying to get rid of the man “There is nothing you can do here.”

The man tried to speak but Patricia silenced him. The man sighed and turned, starting to leave. He thought about this entire situation and how he must help those two women. It was doubtful that Doctor Stein would find any volunteers to participate in this operation and it was obvious that they won’t allow him to participate. The man decided to act, to try and get himself to make sure that he is in the operation. The man then saw a room on his left that was a bit strange. It was small and it had the same looks like the hall ways and the clinic rooms but there were different things in there. In the upper left corner was a green plant that was used to decorate the room. But the interesting details were the round, grey desk in the upper right corner and the electric board right on the wall next to it. At the desk stood a machine that was similar to the one that examined the man. There were 2 doctors and several nurses.

The man walked in there, knowing that he might not be allowed in here. He walked up to the desk; the droid turned to him.

“Yes, may I help you?” asked the droid.

“What is this place?” asked the man curiously.

“This is the planning room for future operations that are on schedule.” Replied the droid “How may I help you?”

“I wish to apply for an operation.” Replied the man.

“Your name, doctor?” asked the droid.

“Uh… I am not a doctor.” Replied the man insecurely. “I am a patient.”

“Patients cannot apply for an operation. Only doctors assign to operations.” Replied the droid.

“But-“

“Please, go back to your bed, sir.” Finished the droid and turned to another doctor.

The man inhaled deeply and exited the room. He walked along for a short time, feeling pathetic since now there is no way to save them now. He stood against a wall and just starred at the floor with his hands crossed. He tried to think and think about a plan to somehow sign up, in any way that occurs. But after several seconds he sighed as a sign of losing hope. Suddenly, a cubic metal cart pulled next to the man. The person who was pushing it wore a light blue suit with a small light blue cap on its head. The person was a man. The man concluded that the person dressed in light blue is a janitor. The janitor walked up to a nurse and they started to talk:

“Hey. How’s it hanging?” asked the janitor greeting.

“Here and there.” Replied the nurse.

“The patients been though on you?” asked the janitor with a smile.

“In a way.” Replied the nurse with a smile.

The man leaned and looked into the cart. It was full of uniforms for doctors.

“And how’s it hanging with you?” asked the nurse.

“Here and there with me also.” Replied the janitor “The doctors really like spilling coffee.”

The nurse snuffed and said:

“You tell me.”

The man then came to a plan that might even work on the droid. He leaned closer to the cart; like that he was waiting to jump.

“Speaking of coffee, how about you and I go and have some?” asked the janitor.

The nurse thought for a little. The man used that moment and he quickly grabbed a doctors uniform and hid it under his suit as he walked down the hall way.

“OK.” Replied the nurse.

The man continued walking towards the room Patricia took him to earlier. He entered it and looked around. No one was in it. The man started to take off suit. After several minutes he was dressed in the white coat of a doctor. He stepped out and continued through the hall way. He feared that maybe someone would recognize him and put him with force on the bed in his room. A nurse started to approach him, minding her own business. He became tense, thinking of what might happen. He continued and the nurse saw him. The man became really tense, but the nurse only said:

“Good day doctor.”

The man was relived; he fooled them. Now he could guarantee that the droid would be fooled also. He took a left and entered the planning room. The man approached the desk and the droid greeted him:

“Hello, doctor. How may I be of assistance?”

“I wish to assign a patient to an operation.” Replied the man like that he was a doctor.

“Very well. To what operation do you wish assign a patient doctor?” asked the droid typing something in the computer.

The man paused for several moments. He didn’t know the name of the two women he saw earlier. He then insecurely said:

“Uh… Two women. One is a mother; one is a little girl, probably daughter.”

“You have to be more specific, sir.”

The man paused for a second and tapped his right side of the head with a finger. He tried to remember something that will allow him to recognize. He then remembered and said:

“They both have brain tumor and cancer in their torsos.”

“That helped me. One moment, please.” Said the droid and it started to tap on the computer. The droid stopped and said:

“Ah, yes. They have that rare case that most doctors are talking about.” The droid paused and then finished “I see now, what kind of a patient do you wish to assign. Which one?”

“I wish to assign patient RQV 8163.” Replied the man, trying to stay calm.

The machine tapped something into the computer and then it turned:

“The one with the case of amnesia, whose identity cannot be determined.” The droid paused and then finished: “Doctor, that patient doesn’t have a stable neural tube. It isn’t recommended.”

“Oh, but the patient is fine.” Replied the man trying to convince the droid “I checked him myself.”

The droid paused as a sign of suspicion.

“Are you sure?” asked the droid after several moments.

“Yes, actually.” Began the man “He managed to hold his nerve system together at Gamma rays.”

The droid then said:

“Then it is settled.” The droid began to type something into the computer and then said:

“What is your name, doctor?”

The man paused out of shock, not knowing what to say. He then said:

“Doctor Stein.” Knowing that he would fall into trouble.

“That is taken care of.” Finished the droid “Have a nice day doctor.”

The man let go his breath in relief and stepped away from the desk. He exited the room. As he continued down the hall way, he felt that now everything is taken care of. Only the operation waits. The man entered the room he was in, not long ago and dressed back into his patient’s suit. He exited the room, carrying the robe under his suit. He continued through the hall way, like he was minding his own business. He then saw the same cart he took the robe from earlier. It was both funny and ridiculous since the janitor said that he was in a hurry. The man also saw the janitor speak to the nurse. The man continued normally towards the cart.

“… and the patient in room number 23 was annoying and so.” Finished the nurse.

“Is that the guy that always complains about his suit being dirty?” asked the janitor.

The man was now really close to the cart and he was getting ready to pull the robe with his right hand.

“Yes, he is. Why do you ask?” Replied the nurse.

The man quickly put the robe back in the cart without looking.

“Well, just curious.” Replied the janitor.

The man continued and entered his room. He came to his bed and lay down on it. He closed his eyes, thinking about the operation that will surely take place in hours. He fell asleep.

[Vladimir-Vlada]

After several hours he was suddenly waken up by a lot of noise. A machine and 2 or 3 nurses came and started to grab the man by the arms and legs.

“All right, this is the patient.” Said one nurse in urgency, grabbing him by the left arm “On the count of three, we will put him on this moveable bed.”

The man looked right of him and saw the floating blue bed made out of metal.

“One, two, three.” Said the nurse as they pulled the man and put him on the bed. The man didn’t feel quite comfortable, since he didn’t know what it will be like. They pulled the bed out of the room and continued to pull him down the hall way after turning to the right. The ceiling was passing in front of the man’s eyes like that he was going through an endless tunnel of death. It was ironic really, to go down the hall way to save someone’s life, but knowing that you probably won’t come out alive. The man then entered a big black room with a lot of machinery and panels. The panels showed many things: blood pressure, brain activity, consciousness of patients and so on. The machines were mostly robotic arms made out of bars that had injections, scalpels, and mirrors and so on. Next to the man were the mother and the daughter, asleep in coma. The mere look at them would cause the man to lose his hope in everything, but now was not the time for that. Right then a person walked into the room. It was Stein. He was putting his gloves on.

“Is the volunteer brought?” asked Stein as he pulled his gloves on.

“Yes, doctor.” Replied the nurse as she pulled on white mouth and nose coverers on her face. “The only one that assigned.”

“Good.” Replied the doctor as he finished pulling his gloves and started approaching the three beds “Now let’s see who is the noble-“the doctor stopped in shock when he saw the man.

“You?!” asked the doctor in shock.

“Yeah, it’s me.” Replied the man coldly “Is there a problem?”

Stein tried to speak but he was in shock and too many questions were racing through his head. He didn’t know what to say. Then the doctor turned to one of the nurses:

“Why have you brought this patient?”

“You assigned him to this operation, sir.” Replied a nurse in confusion.

Stein looked at the nurse in even greater shock and tried to say:

“But-“

He suddenly stopped and looked at the man. Stein then realized what happened. The man assigned himself to the operation. The man only starred in a blank manner, not caring about the doctor’s madness. The doctor then said coldly:

“Very well. Let us begin.”

Then the doctor approached the bed and got right of the man. The doctor turned one of the nurses:

“Nurse, please give me the organic connector.”

“Right away, sir.” Replied the nurse and handed over an electric tube. The doctor picked it with his both hands and started to move the tube to the rear of the man’s head. The man wasn’t exactly feeling comfortable, since no one would when someone sees an electric tube being put behind his head. The doctor then formed an electric cap on the tube and put it on the man’s neck. The man then started to feel how the organs of the woman and the girl were functioning. It was frightening at first, but later it became a little easier to accept. The doctor then got away from the man and asked looking at him:

“Are you feeling all right?”

“Sure. Everything is OK.” Replied the man, feeling a little itch behind his head.

“Insert the anesthesia.” Ordered the doctor to the nurse.

The nurse manipulated a console and two robotic arms injected the woman and the child with anesthesia. The man, watching the strange sight, tried to remain calm, because in a few moments everything will depend from his brain. On the panel the seismograph became silent, meaning that their brains are not functioning properly from the anesthesia.

“I recommend to you that you don’t turn to them.” Began the doctor grabbing a small scalpel “You have to remain awake. Otherwise, everything falls off.”

“Don’t worry.” Replied the man.

The doctor then approached the woman next to the man. Stein leaned forward, still holding the small knife in his hand. The man then turned just for a second to see how it is progressing. The doctor carefully started to cut open the back of the woman’s head. The man shivered in disgust and turned. Stein noticed it and said:

“I told you not to look.”

“All right, I won’t.” replied the man.

The doctor then opened the woman’s head and the brain could be seen. The doctor then saw a big yellow object that spread through the neural tube. Stein then forwarded his hand and said:

“Scalpel and the pick tool.”

The nurse, who was frightened from the sight, turned and gave both of the tools to the doctor. Stein then started to cut the strong nerve-like object and started to pull it carefully with the pick tool. Stein was sweating while doing this. Scarred that he might do something wrong. The man also knew what was going on and he was hoping that everything goes as planned. The nurses remained silent from shock that something might go wrong, but that their inexperience won’t be able to save the woman. Suddenly, the nerve-like object was pulled out and Stein started to breathe calmly as he gave the pick tool to a nurse. The nurse, still holding her breath brought the pick tool over a small, silver cylinder storage tank. She opened it with her left hand and shrugged the pick tool in fear and the nerve-like object fell into it. She closed it quickly and gave the pick tool, to the doctor. Stein got up and whipped the sweat off of his fore head with his left sleeve. Stein then walked above the man. The man remained calm and was happy, since the first part of the operation was successful. Stein asked him, still breathing heavily:

”Are you holding?”

The man breathed hard:

“Sure. Fine with me.”

Stein then looked at the girl and said:

“OK. One more time.” Stein paused for a few moments “You know how that passed quickly?” the man nodded “Good. Hold on there.”

Stein then came behind the girl, even more afraid this time. The problem with the little girl was that her brain was small as well. And that it will be more risky and dangerous this time. Stein started to slowly open the girl’s head. The man didn’t turn his head this time, not wanting to experience the sight again. Stein slowly opened it and saw the same nerve-like object he encountered within the woman. Stein then started to use the scalpel and the pick tool. The nurses also remained silent along with Stein. The man was still trying to remain calm.

Suddenly, the man started to feel a little dizzy. The seismograph buzzed and one of the nurses looked at it on the wall right of the man. She then looked at the man with a little worry. The man’s vision became blurry. The nurse then widened her eyes, because the thing she hoped not to happen; was happening.

“Doctor, something is wrong with the patient.”

Stein then stopped in shock. He feared that this would happen. He then turned to the man and said:

”Quickly! Help him stay awake.”

The nurses quickly approached the man and started injecting him with many chemicals, which not even they could tell what they are. The man felt even more blurry and dizzy by every moment. He was aware that he was nearing death. He tried to hold his consciousness together, for the sake of those two.

“Inject him with electroshocks.” Ordered Stein in panic.

“Doctor we are losing him quickly.” Replied the nurse in agony. The man now started to hear their voices like an echo.

“Well, try and bring him back!” said the doctor in panic.

The man then fell into a dark coma. He couldn’t see or hear anything. Descending through that endless dark tunnel, the light wasn’t visible. It was horrible, and every person in existence would agree without doubt. Suddenly everything went dark… for a moment. After that, bliss was formed and the man started to awaken again, hearing the voices of the doctor and the nurses.

“I should have called for somebody else to volunteer!” yelled the doctor leaving an echo.

“There must be a way to regain him back.” Said the nurse as the echoes started to become silent and the vision started to return like hyper spacing.

“Doctor he is back.” Said a nurse in confusion looking at him. The vision was back completely.

They all looked at him and tried to understand what just happened.

“Phew!” commented the doctor “For a moment, I thought we lost you.”

The man looked at the ceiling in desperation and said:

“So did I.”

“Then, maybe we could-“

“Just pull it out. I can hold it.” Replied the man, realizing that he was maintaining his neural tube with his will. The doctor quickly turned to the girl and pulled out the nerve-like object with success and speed. He gave it to the nurse and said:

“Got it.”

“Has the anesthesia stopped being active?” asked the man, trying to hold himself together.

“Yes.” Replied the doctor after a moment “It just stopped being active and I’ve just closed their heads.”

“Then…” began the man slowly “I can sleep now.”

His vision started to become blurry again and the dizziness returned.

“We’re losing him again!” yelled a nurse in desperation. Her voice was like an echo and the man fell into a strange darkness again.

After a while, the man awakened on his bed in his room. There was the ceiling again. Suddenly, Patricia appeared in his view a bit angry.

“You are one crazy son of a shutta. You know that?” she said like that she was giving the man a lecture.

“Oh, good morning.” Replied the man in a satisfied manner “I don’t think that I pleased you today.”

“Do you realize what you did a few hours ago?” asked Patricia angrily “You nearly got yourself dead!”

“So? People die all the time. What am me off the world map?” asked the man, not caring about what he just said.

“And the lives of a mother and a daughter?” asked Patricia angrily.

The man widened his eyes in shock, scarred that it might not have been successful.

“You mean that-“he tired to speak, but he couldn’t finish from the shock.

“Yes.” Replied Patricia “Here they are.”

The man looked to the left of him and saw the little girl and the woman. The man let go the air out of his mouth in relief. The girl hugged him and said:

“You are alive!”

The man looked at Stein who just appeared, the woman and Patricia in surprise.

“I am fine. Why are you so worried about me?” asked the man in surprise.

“After the operation, we thought that you were done for.” Replied Stein, like a doctor would “Hopefully, you got through.”

“But they were the ones in danger.” Replied the man, like that he was making an excuse “Not me.”

“But still, you did something very noble. While doing it with much work.” Replied the doctor, reassuring him “Thanks to your effort, instead of three corpses, we ended up with two people saved.”

The little girl moved away from the man. The woman lowered to the man and gave him a kiss on the cheek. The man was a bit surprised by this and started to stare at the woman. The woman moved away and told him in a nice voice:

“Thank you.”

The man only replied:

“Don’t mention it.”

The woman and the little girl walked away and left the man lying on the bed along with the doctor and Patricia standing near him. Patricia didn’t really look pleased and she asked:

“Are you going to apologize now?”

The man replied with a sigh:

“Yes. Sorry for not saying this to you.”

Then a silence of several seconds endured. After several seconds Patricia and the doctor started to smile. They then started to laugh lightly to cheer the man up. The man then smiled in happiness and started to laugh himself. After several seconds of laughing, they stopped and the doctor said:

“I guess you could use some rest now. Come nurse, let us leave the patient.”

They walked away, leaving the man to rest in his first moments of happiness that occurred for the first time in his ‘life’. It was strange at first. But the feeling became so overwhelming and beautiful that he just let it be there, no matter what was going in. He then starred at the ceiling, still smiling like a person would when their dreams come true.

[Vladimir-Vlada]

At the same time the first man at the clinic woke up, the second man started his day as well. He went through the hall ways of the sky scrapper, remembering the victory that he gained the other day. He wasn’t too exited about it though, after all, he only won credits. The man entered the cantina after taking the left. The cantina was still the same with all the Twi’Lek females dancing seductively and most of the patrons were either drinking or watching on the giant plasma television two Magna bodyguard droids which were fighting. The man approached the bar that was in front of him and sat at it. The bar man who was a droid, like the IN-52 droid the man saw two days ago. The droid was holding a glass in its right hand, while cleaning it with its left hand.

“Would you like to drink something, sir?” asked the droid in a scrambled voice.

The man thought a little. Maybe he could use something to drink. The man turned to him and said:

“A glass of water.”

“Right away, sir.” Replied the droid as it took a glass from under the bar and started to pour the water.

“How did those guys from yesterday take the loss?” asked the man curiously.

“Normally, the cheating gentlemen would forget the entire thing in drinking and betting.” Replied the droid “But this time, they just withdrew to their rooms and haven’t spoken to anyone since.”

“Isolation from the public, huh?” asked the man, like that he was making a joke.

“Perhaps…” commented the droid and it picked up the glass and started to hand it over to the man “Your water, sir.”

“Thank you.” Said the man as he took it from the droid’s hand right away and started drinking. But, suddenly he tasted something disgusting and spit the water out, like a sprinkler. The man then turned to the droid and frowned.

“What is wrong? Don’t you like your water?” asked the droid innocently.

“There was something that tasted like a bug in this glass. I know it. Something touched my mouth.” Complained the man, showing the glass which was obviously incredibly dirty.

“Then I will get you a new glass.” Replied the droid, taking the glass with its left hand.

“And give me some alcohol this time. Any drink.” Added the man.

“Right away, sir.” Added the droid.

The man then waited, still a bit angry about the possible ‘bug’ in his drink.

 

A few meters away from him were two mercenaries. The human male and the female Twi’Lek. They watched the man as he waited for his drink.

“There is the man.” Commented the human male.

The female Twi’Lek looked at the man and frowned. She then thought for a little and then said calmly:

“I’ll go and greet him.”

“Why?” asked the human male a bit annoyed, while watching the female Twi’Lek get up.

“To see what kind of a person he is.” She replied after a moment.

The human male frowned in disapproval, but the female Twi’Lek only ignored the male’s comment. She started approach the man with great care. She tried not to scare him; like that she was trying to catch him as a prey. The man received his drink and picked up the glass with his right hand. He pulled the glass to his mouth and started to drink. The Twi’Lek approached him from the left curiously and asked:

“Having fun?”

The man after a few moments spit the drink even harder and faster to the side in disgust. He looked at the remaining fluid in the glass and complained:

“This is even worse than the last one.”

The man then spilt the liquid to his right side and then put the glass on the bar stool. The female Twi’Lek then spoke:

“Hey.”

The man turned to her and said:

“Yeah?”

“Well, I thought that I might say hello.” Replied the female “And maybe buy you a drink.”

“Thanks, but I already had one.” Replied the man, taking the glass with his right hand and looking at it “Wasn’t fun, really.”

The man then put the glass down and called, drawing a little away from the bar:

“Bartender!”

“I am Dowena.” Said the Twi’Lek “And you are?”

The man turned to the female Twi’Lek and looked at her. He then realized that she was wearing a brown jacket and tight black pants. The man then remained silent, but still with a thoughtful expression on his face.

“Oh.” Replied Dowena, like that she remembered “I forgot that you actually lost your memory. Sorry.”

“No, big deal.” Replied the man carelessly “You didn’t do anything.”

“And how are you handling it?” asked Dowena curiously.

“Well, I’m getting used it.” Replied the man looking around in a thoughtful manner “It isn’t a walk in the park, though.”

“Did you get any work?” asked the female Twi’Lek.

“Not yet. I’m still waiting for it.” Replied the man nicely.

The woman smiled and said:

“You’ll get one, don’t worry.”

“Unless someone forgets about me and-“

Suddenly the man was cut off by an alien voice that came out of his pocket. It wasn’t loud, but it could be heard:

“Report to the recruitment chamber. There is something for you.”

The man frowned in misunderstanding and realized that it was the card to his room. He turned and pulled out the card from his right pocket with his right hand. The card was blinking in bright red color. The man then asked curiously:

“What does it mean?”

The young Twi’Lek smiled and replied getting up:

“Looks to me like that you’ve just been chosen for a job.”

The Twi’Lek left, leaving the man to hold his card. The man was satisfied, he needed to get a job to start working and here is one now. Maybe this was one of the moments that change a man’s life when he starts to get back on his feet. The man put back the card in his right pocket in happiness, since this is just the first step to pulling everything back together in his life. He then got up and started to walk to the recruitment chamber, smiling. He walked for several minutes until he reached the recruitment chamber turning right. The recruitment chamber was a small room, with a round bar stool-like wall, at which droid’s much like IN-52 were standing, taking most of the mercenaries and assigning them with jobs. There were a lot of panels which showed who was assigned to each mission or job. There were Rodians, Trandoshans, Humans, Twi’Leks and so much more. The man started to approach the entire bunch, but he didn’t really feel comfortable because they were pushing like that there is no tomorrow. The man continued through the giant cloud of people that tried to receive jobs to work for money. A few meters away from there stood Fleger with a Trandoshan.

“And you say he robbed you through cards?” asked the Trandoshan in surprise.

“Yes. He used the old combination which no one could ever get.” Replied Fleger, trying not to think about it.

“Then how did he get it?” asked the Trandoshan, not giving up his curiosity.

Fleger thought a little and then replied:

“The only way he could have gotten it, is if he either cheated or understood the rules.” He paused for a moment and then said: “But I doubt that it is any of that, because no one can do any of those two things at first try.”

The man started to get close to the desk, holding the card in his right hand. The man approached the desk and gave the blinking card to a droid. Suddenly someone added to the man in a rude tone, out of disrespect:

“Depositing the credits you stole?”

The man turned to the left in surprise and saw Fleger. The man’s surprise disappeared from the face and he said:

“Well, what a pleasant surprise. Care to play another game?”

“You couldn’t have gotten that combination. You aren’t good enough to get it.” Replied angrily Fleger.

“Guess again, cheating bug.” Began the man like that he was insulting Fleger back “While I was trying to figure out the rules. The four of you were cheating behind my back.”

“You are a liar, idiot!” said angrily Fleger, taking out his blaster pistol and pointing it towards the man.

“Maybe this will clear your mind.” Replied the man taking out an ace out of Fleger’s sleeve and throwing it away victoriously. Fleger was surprised and he looked in disbelief as the card fell down on the floor. He thought that the man wouldn’t discover it, but in fact he did.

The man looked at the droid that was approaching. It carried the man’s card and a piece of paper. It handed them over and the man took them both, looking at them curiously.

“You will find all the information you’ll need.” Said the droid as it walked over to other mercenaries.

The man then looked again at the paper in his right hand and the card in his left hand. On the paper was the number of that read: UVI 4099. The man didn’t realize what it meant, so he turned to the droid:

“What does this mean?”

The droid turned to the man and said:

“That is the number of the platform where you have to go to catch a transport.”

“And where are the platforms?” asked the man curiously.

“They are mostly on the 5th floor. You will find your way there.” Replied the droid turning to another mercenary.

The man looked at the card and the piece of paper and put them in his pockets. He got away from the desk and stepped out of the room. He continued through the hall ways, imagining what his job might be. Most probably guarding something, but it doesn’t have to be like that. The man found some stairs that were made to go up in a spiral shape. The man climbed them. He then continued looking for some more stairs, since he was at the base of the sky scrapper. As he looked around, he started to think of what transport would it be. He could only think of a small vehicle, perhaps a mini copter. The man found the idea funny. The man then found the other stairs that were the same as the previous one. He climbed them and found some more stairs and climbed them as well. Then another and another and, finally, the last stairs. The man looked around and saw that there were lots of big openings that had platforms on the outside. The openings were large square-shaped passages that lead to the outside. The man saw numbers and letter above each of them. He then noticed that he was at the platform UVI 4090. He started to walk to the right, since towards the right, the number was increasing. He reached UVI 4099 quickly and started to approach it from the corner. He gathered in strength to prepare for the task that was going to be at hand. He walked through the passageway calmly. He started to come out of the small passageway, seeing the front of something that looked like a car. When he came out, he was caught in surprise. Dowena and a human male mercenary were there, packing some things. They halted and looked at the man with surprise as well. The human mercenary wore a green jacket, grey trousers and black boots. He had a normal sized head, red hair, brown eyes, a normal sized nose and medium sized mouth.

The man looked at the piece of paper he held in his right hand. He then looked at them and asked, holding the paper up:

“Is this platform UVI 4099?”

“Yeah, it is.” Replied Dowena who recognized him “Why do you ask?”

“I thought that this was a solo mission.” Replied the man, a bit confused.

“Well, we thought that we were the only ones assigned to this mission as well.” Replied Dowena and then finished with a smile: “But still, it’s good to have someone aboard.”

The man put the piece of paper back into his pocket and asked:

“Is this the ride we will be using?”

Dowena looked at the vehicle and said:

“Yes. I hope it is good enough.”

The vehicle was a small car that didn’t have wheels. It was yellow and the front had round flash lights which were based on Neon. The front was exactly stylish; it was more casual, reminding of an old car. The back looked like it was sliced down in a way that the ‘car’ looked like an officer’s car.

“Fine enough.” Commented the man in satisfaction “Better this than-“

Suddenly the man grunted in pain and grabbed his head which hurt. Dowena and the mercenary got worried. Dowena got closer to the man who still held his head in pain. She didn’t know what was happening so she asked quickly:

“What’s wrong?”

The man continued to hold his head for several more moments and then he said, restoring from the powerful pain:

“I’m OK.”

He got up and looked at Dowena, who was still a bit worried.

“Are you fit enough to go?” she asked, still worried.

“Sure.” Replied the man “Are we going?”

Dowena wanted to reply, but the mercenary cut her off and pulled her with him. The mercenary added to the man:

“Hold on a sec.”

They got to the car and the mercenary began to speak, sounding like that he wasn’t pleased with the situation:

“How do you know that we can trust him?”

“What is wrong, Blains?” asked Dowena in annoyance.

“I’ll tell you what’s wrong!” said Blains a bit angrily, but quietly enough to make sure that the man didn’t hear them “What if he leaves us high and dry when we finish the job?”

Dowena rolled her eyes and said:

“He has amnesia, Blains.”

“So?” asked Blains angrily “He could be a convict that is a bred born killer.”

“Don’t be so paranoid.” Snapped Dowena “He could be helpful. Don’t be so disrespectful.”

Blains looked at the man angrily and then replied in a decisive tone:

“All right. But I’m keeping an eye on him.”

“Agreed.” Said Dowena smiling.

“So.” Said a voice right of them.

They turned in surprise and saw the man standing near them, keeping his hands crossed.

“Are we going to get this show on the road? Or are you going to continue on whether to put me in the trunk or the glove compartment?”

They looked at each other and Dowena said innocently:

“All right. We’re going.”

Blains entered where the controls of the car were. The controls were a lot of buttons along with a steering wheel that could be moved up and down as well as strafe to left and right. The steering wheel was made out of plastic. The man got into the car on the rear seat. The car lifted up a little, surely because of the artificial anti-gravity generator that used suppression. The man was surprised by the technology that he witnessed to work. The car then turned towards some mountains and it started to fly at high speed. The man didn’t mind the wind that hit his face, like a cold shard of ice that travels faster than light. The man thought that maybe this was a good opportunity to meet them.

“What’s the mission?” asked the man.

“There’s an old warehouse in the city where we are going.” Began Blains, concentrating on the mountains that were getting bigger “All we have to do is collect some stuff before it goes to hell.”

“What stuff?” asked the man.

“Just some crates, nothing special.” Replied Dowena.

“And where is this city?” asked the man.

There was silence for a few seconds and then Blains said:

“Right here.”

The car flew over the mountains and descended down to the big city, that wasn’t exactly something great. The city had structures that indicated that it was in early development: There were tents everywhere, the buildings looked like that they were pulled out of junk yards and so on. The buildings didn’t seem to be something of defined shape; they were more slender and round than any building encountered, sort of like giant metal eggs. The car started to descend at great speed, entering the giant column of similar cars to the one that just entered. The man looked around, thinking of how unusual this city is: Big, but still seemed poor.

“It isn’t much of a city, but it still works.” Commented Dowena carelessly.

“So I see.” Commented the man thoughtfully.

The man remained silent for several minutes. Thinking of maybe finding out about this war the people mentioned.

“You have any questions?” asked Dowena like that she predicted the man’s thoughts.

The man caught in surprise, didn’t speak for a moment and then he asked:

“Who were these aliens that began the war I heard about?”

“They are a bloody bunch.” Replied Blains “Cold blooded murderers like I say.”

“What can you tell me about them?” asked the man curiously.

“They are… enormous.” Began Dowena, trying to remember the sight of the only time she saw one of them “All I remember from one was that he was like a corpse giant.”

“And those eyes.” Commented Blains in fear “Those eyes aren’t of any living being I have ever seen. They were like… monster’s eyes.”

“Could it be that they attacked because you thought they were ugly?” asked the man sarcastically.

“No.” replied Dowena, still in a serious tone “They have some belief. Their religion seems to force them to consider pain a gift.”

“Sounds like a way to manipulate their citizens to me.” Commented the man.

“At least it is more obvious than what the emperor is doing with his aristocracy.” Commented Dowena, like that she was making a remark.

“More like aristocrats.” Fixed Blains in the same tone Dowena did.

“But still, the war was pretty bad.” Replied Dowena, trying to forget the bad memories.

“You said it.” Finished Blains in the same tone.

“But let’s not talk about politics.” Began Dowena, changing the subject “How about I ask you several questions?”

“Sure. As long as its something I know.” Replied the man, trying to hide his non-understanding about the recent subject.

Dowena paused for a second and then asked in a way a teenager would, hastily:

“How did you get this amnesia?”

The man paused for a few moments and then replied with hidden depression:

“That’s the question I have been asking myself ever since I woke up.”

“And, how does it feel like?” asked Dowena.

The man lowered his head and sighed:

“What do you think?”

Dowena saw that she made a mistake by asking him that and then said reassuring:

“I am sorry… I didn’t mean to make you feel bad.”

The man raised his head up, trying not to think about the amnesia in sadness and said:

“You didn’t.”

The man then turned to Blains to ask something:

“Where is this factory that you mentioned?”

“We’re nearly there.” Replied Blains making a turn to the left “Just hold your pants tight.”

The man then looked to the left, viewing the cars that were next to their car. Also he watched as the desolate buildings pass by him, thinking of how time passes as quickly as the buildings do.

“Can I ask just one more question?” asked Dowena politely.

The man looked at her and replied:

“Go ahead.”

“The game from yesterday” she began “You remember.”

“Yeah, what about it?” asked the man.

“How did you get the ‘Military of the World’ combination?” she asked like it was a question that tormented her for days.

The man smiled, thinking of how pleasing that experience was. Ever since he saw the look on their faces when he showed the combination, he smiled in satisfaction at the mere mention of it. He looked at her and replied:

“I have my ways.”

[Vladimir-Vlada]

Suddenly, the car turned to the right and landed on a concrete platform.

“We’re here.” Said Blains, letting go off the steering wheel.

They all started to exit the vehicle in a normal manner. The man opened the right back door of the car with his right hand. He pushed the door still holding it with his both hands. He started to get out, looking upwards. He got out and closed the door. He then looked at the giant building in front of him. The building was made out of bricks and metal. It was painted in somewhat red color, but it still looked old. The building was shaped in a cubic manner without any indications of some special projecting, save the cylinder black chimneys. The building had two segments: one large and one small, each connected to the other with a small, artificial bridge covered in glass and metal that was above them. There weren’t many windows. The windows were mostly small and they seemed to be very dirty.

As the man watched the old factory, like that he was examining it; Dowena approached him and said looking at the factory:

“Well here we are: the old ion engine factory. It isn’t exactly glorious so to speak.”

The man frowned and looked at Dowena in surprise:

“This was a space engine factory?”

“Yeah. But it went bankrupt quickly after the war.” Began Dowena in regret “Just like other things across the galaxy.”

The man paused for a second and then said looking at the factory:

“So I see.”

“There are the boxes.” Said Blains pointing towards one point of the factory where several crates were “Let’s go and take them.”

Dowena started to walk and she went for the crates. The man also started to walk towards the crates, coming near to Blains.

“Oh, by the way.” Began Blains pulling something out of his left pocket with his left hand and turning around “Take this.”

Blains turned around and handed over to the man something that looked like a gun. The man took it with his right hand and started examining it with his both hands in mild interest. The gun wasn’t really big. It had a thin barrel whose end had a widened white part which was the firing hole, out of which escaped surely Alpha rays, but it didn’t have to be that. The gun was black and to the firing barrel was connected a square-shaped part which had several buttons that were used for decoration. At the end of it was a handle, made out of plastic which was brown, so it looked like it was made out of leather.

The man still examined the gun for a moment.

“I am pretty sure that you have your ways with guns as well.” Added Blains.

The man holstered the gun in his right pocket and said:

“You got some words there as well.”

“I know.” Added Blains “So let’s get this over with shall we?”

The man nodded and continued with Blains. They went to the crates and started picking up.

“Ever thought of how the entire galaxy works?” asked Blains picking up a crate made out of iron.

The man realized that Blains was asking him. The man picked up a crate and said while walking:

“No, why do you ask?”

“I thought as much, since you don’t remember anything.” Replied Blains, still walking towards the car, carrying the crate.

“I don’t see the point.” Replied the man, getting closer to the car. The man approached it and put the crate into the car along with Dowena and Blains with ease. They turned around and the man continued:

“Politics don’t interest me really.”

“But why? You have to secure your future some day.” Began Dowena, like that she was begging for a reason she wanted to hear “You can’t stay neutral always.”

“I’ll think about it when the time comes.” Answered the man carelessly, with slight annoyance, while he grabbed another crate “For now we should take care of the job.”

“Good point. Politics are good to discuss when you have free time.” Replied Dowena, agreeing with the man. They carried the crates for a few more moments, until they reached the car. They put the crates at the large back of the car, where the rest of the crates were. Blains put down his crate after Dowena and the man and then he whipped the sweat off of his fore head with his left hand.

“That’s the last of them.” He said as he looked at the place where the crates were. He noticed a crate that was rusty. Blains thought that it should be thrown away, since rusty containers are always useless.

“Hey, throw that away, while we prepare the car, will you?” said Blains as he approached the car.

The man nodded and came to the crate. He grabbed it and walked around the corner to drop it from the cliff. The man walked for a few moments, not minding the city climate that wasn’t really great. He thought of how this was easy and perhaps that being a mercenary isn’t what he thought, but he didn’t care. He stepped to the edge of the cliff and dropped the crate out of his hands. The crate fell down, like a meteorite would when it descends through the atmosphere.

 

Blains just finished repairing the already broken rotor. He got up and looked with satisfaction at the work of art he made. Suddenly someone tapped him on the shoulder. He turned around and said in surprise:

“Hey!”

But then someone hit him and he fell asleep.

 

The man started to come back, still imagining how the crate continued to fall. He started to approach the corner where he turned. His thoughts now were centered on the car that seemed to be taken out of a junk yard. But it wasn’t that bad. The man carelessly started to exit the corner. Suddenly he stopped in shock and quickly stood against the wall, hiding from the corner. He leaned around and saw the horrid sight: Dowena and Blains were unconscious. And they were dragged by a Rodian and two strange aliens. One was a corpse-like human and the other looked had at least 8 eyes in the form of tentacles. The Rodian wore a silver suit with green stripes, something like a jump suit. The tentacle alien wore a black suit. While the corpse-like alien wore a strange armor of a turtle and leather pants.

“This one seems to be pretty heavy.” Commented the corpse-like alien, carrying Blains.

“She ain’t a feather either.” Complained the other alien, carrying Dowena.

“Shut up you two! We’ve got to get rid of them.” Said the Rodian.

The man watched in desperation as the aliens dragged them into the factory and closing the door behind them… It seems like that the job of a mercenary was even more different than he evaluated. He lowered his head and walked away from the wall, looking towards the city in sadness. He noticed that all the crates were on the car and that he could just drive away and takes all the credit for himself. The dilemma was great: He could walk away or die trying to save someone else’s life. He knew that if he went in after them, that he would be committing suicide and that everything would be for nothing. But still, their lives seemed to be more of value than his. He was desperate, sad and ashamed, unable to determine what to do. All this lasted for a minute, a mere minute was enough to analyze his life. Then hope came back to him: Maybe he could save them; maybe he could do something to at least do what is right. He decided what to do: He was going to save them.

The man frowned and walked around the corner to see the entrance to the factory. It was a giant black door, which was rusty. He wanted to open the door, but he realized that it would be guarded and that he should find another way around. He strolled around, looking upwards. He suddenly found a shaft that lead to the inner part of the factory. He leaned to it, since it was low on the wall. The man opened it with his both hands and jumped in it. He closed it behind and started crawling through the narrow metal tunnel. He saw below him some mercenaries that were talking. By the looks of it, they were human males. They wore red suits that looked like they were divided into jackets, pants and helmets. The ‘helmets’ were red leather that covered their heads, but their eyes were covered with black glasses and their mouths were uncovered. They were carrying blaster rifles. The blaster rifles were small and light weapons, but they were standard in both covert operations and frontal battles. A blaster rifle had a long barrel to which was connected a small magnifying barrel on its top. To its side was a small magazine round. The handle was small and it could be picked with ease. The blaster rifles are always black. The man listened to their conversation, carefully; believing that he might find out something.

“Did you hear about those two we captured outside?” asked one mercenary who seemed to be intense.

“Not really. I was forced to guard these stupid crates.” Replied the other mercenary in annoyance.

“I hear they are Wogga’s men.” Began the first mercenary like that he was making a plan “We could make a fortune out of them.”

“Don’t be naïve.” Replied the other mercenary, snuffing “Wogga doesn’t give a damn about his men. Only about his interests.”

“I hope that their view from the office will be good enough.” Commented the first mercenary.

“That depends if they wake up.” Laughed the other mercenary along with the first one, while walking away.

The man found out where Dowena and Blains were the office. He continued through the duct, like a mouse… Except that he didn’t stink. He reached a good spot to drop from. The man opened slowly the shaft opening, getting ready for the jump. The shaft was moved. He grabbed the ledge of the opening and fell down on the concrete, not making a noise. The man was surprised for a bit, since it wasn’t heard that loud. He continued through the narrow opening he was in, holding the crouch position. He reached the edge of the opening and saw that it leaded to the center of the factory. He leaned to the right to see how it looked like.

The factory was like an old farm silo, filled with giant red crates that formed something like a maze. On the other end of the factory were stairs that most probably leaded to the office, where Blains and Dowena were. On the other side of the factory, there were several mercenaries, which carried blaster rifles. The mercenaries were a Rodian, three humans, two tentacle-like aliens and a corpse-like alien. They were talking about something. The man jumped to a crate, hiding behind it. Alas, he made a noise when he landed, so he whispered: “Damn!”

A human mercenary heard it and warned:

“Quiet.”

The other mercenaries remained quiet and looked at how the human mercenary began to approach where the sound was heard. The man remained against the crate; like that he was attached to it, hoping that he might get out of this mess. The mercenary started to get closer and closer. The man was starting to shiver lightly, but he tried to calm himself. The mercenary approached the crate and looked around it. The man saw how the mercenary above him examined the surroundings. The mercenary didn’t see anything and he shrugged. He turned and approached the other mercenaries:

“Nothing there. Just some mice, I think.”

The mercenaries became calmer and they started talking again, like nothing happened.

The man was now a lot calmer that he got out of the situation, so he let go off his arms to fall down. Suddenly, he a small racket was heard and the man looked in shock to the left of him. He seemed to have hit some bottles, making one nearly break, but it didn’t. Alas a cork fell out of it and rolled down to the mercenaries. The mercenaries became more intense and suspicious with this racket. They all ducked for cover, thinking of what it might be. A human mercenary approached the cork carefully, looking at it. He crouched and picked up the cork. The mercenary examined the cork, realizing that something must be behind the crate. The man then started to realize that the mercenary started to get closer and closer; and as he got closer, the man became more intense by the moment. The mercenary started to approach from the left side, starting to see that there might be something there. The man then knew that he had no choice so he did the following: He pushed his right hand into his right pocket and pulled out the gun Blains gave him. The man then slowly raised the hand to his head and brought his left hand to hold the gun, like that he was preparing for something.

The mercenary then strafed to the left and saw the man. The mercenary aimed and yelled in surprise:

“There is one!”

The man in a mere moment turned to the left to unattached himself from the crate. The man aimed directly at the mercenary with gun in his right hand. The man fired an alpha ray at the mercenary, which hit the mercenary in the torso. The mercenary fell over from the hit and fell down dead.

The other mercenaries aimed at the crate, knowing that there is someone there. The man got up and aimed at a tentacle-like alien with his right hand. The man fired two shots: one flew over his shoulder; the other hit the crate in front of which the alien was. The other mercenaries started to shoot as well, but the man ran into another cover that was right of the crate. The man had doubts about what to do now, since they will surely start to approach him. The Rodian did come out and start to approach the place where the man was. The man quickly came out of his hiding place and shot the Rodian in the hand and the shoulder, making him fall down. The man then returned to his cover and stayed there, while the other mercenaries shot. He didn’t know what to do, because they were too strong. Suddenly, the man noticed an opening amongst the crates that leaded to the top of the bunch. He holstered the gun into his right pocket. The man turned around and climbed onto the first bunch. Then he climbed on the top of it. The mercenaries saw him and started to shoot at him, since he was starting to get annoying and they had to do what they were paid for. The man ran towards the giant window of the office, dodging the rays as much as he could. Suddenly, one hit him in the shoulder. Then one hit him in the torso. The man was in pain, he could feel it and the mercenaries knew it just like that. But he still ran and suddenly he gathered all the strength he had and jumped through the window. The window broke and the man rolled, ending up in a crouching position. He held the hand on his torso, where the blaster ray hit him, to ease the pain that was still there. He tried not to think about it, but it just wouldn’t go away. The man got up and looked in the corner of the office. There were Blains and Dowena, unconscious like they were dead tired. The man knew that the mercenaries were coming so he grabbed them both and put them on his shoulders. But he didn’t have a way out. He looked around in desperation for a moment. There was no way out except the giant window that showed towards outside, where the car was. The man saw how high it was and he had doubts. He was in an even greater dilemma: He didn’t know which to choose. But then he frowned towards the window. The man started to run and run. At the moment the mercenaries were supposed to enter, the man jumped through the window and started to fall down. As he descended he closed his eyes, trying to sway away everything like it was all a bad dream. He thought that he was going to die and that everything is lost. But suddenly, he fell, but stood on his feet. The man opened his eyes to witness this ‘miracle’. He was standing after falling from at least 6 meters. The man couldn’t rejoice now, he started to run towards the car that was just there, the only escape as he referred to it. He quickly threw Blains and Dowena into the back of the car and he jumped into the front seat. But he didn’t know how to drive. Hopefully he remembered what Blains did, so he repeated. The man fired up the anti gravity force, making the car lift due to the suppression. Then he pressed the pedal at his foot and started to pilot. At first he made several turns, because he didn’t practice it enough, but he quickly got the hang of it and flew to the sky scrapper. The man didn’t think of anything, he just let himself become like light as he rushed towards the guild. The man then descended on the platform; like that he was landing an airplane. The man jumped out of the car and grabbed Blains and Dowena out of the car to carry them. The man carried them into the building with great effort, because he was in pain and they really were heavy. When the man entered several people looked at him in surprise, while one ignored him. The man then tried to yell, still in pain:

”Qu…Quickly! Call a medic!”

A person quickly called through a panel that contacted a droid. The droid came after several moments, bringing two movable hospital beds. The droid and another person helped the man put down Blains and Dowena on the beds, to move them to the infirmary. The droid took both beds away to the infirmary, where the patients belonged. The man didn’t feel anything for several moments, but then he was relieved from the pain. He was tired, but happy, satisfied and worried a bit. The man fell on his knees and said looking up and pulling his fists:

“I…” he began slowly “Did it.”

A person approached the man in confusion and worry, uncertain of the man’s condition:

“Are you all right?”

The man got up and answered, pushing away the person’s arm:

“Yeah.”

The man then started to walk away to his room, emptying his thoughts. The way everyone wants to end their day. He wished to center his thoughts on other things, besides the act he had done, thinking that it would make him even more miserable. But instead of making him miserable… It made him happy. And for the first time, he smiled, even though it was in secret, for he now knows that he actually did something for people, instead of people doing something for him.