Chapter 4 - The Scavenger Girl (1/2)

Jakku was once the scenario of one of the most imporrtant battles that put an end to war between the Old Empire and the Rebel Alliance 30 years ago. The battle of Jakku was the final battle where both sides bet everything and in the end the New Republic was born and the Empire was forced to sign the Galactic Concordance. The celebrations and and parties lasted for many years in all the galaxy. However, Jakku did not change at all and when the war ended and the survivors went to celebrate, the people from Jakku was forgotten and left with all the trash and junk from the conflict. Speeders used by the land forces to make ambushes and fast attacks, starfighters and TIE fighters which were shot down after cruel and hard battles. Bombers who missed their targets and ATATs whoch were taken down after who knows how many sacrifices. Star destroyers who fell down from the atmosphere and now covered many places of this desert planet as a testament of how destructive and collosal this battle was.

The people that lived in the planet did not complain, quite the opposite in fact since they learned to make of this junk a way of living. Nobody remembers what the original natives of this planet used to do before to survive but after the battle of Jakku the majority of population, for not saying all of it had a main occupation: Scavenging.

The work was simple and very straightforward. Go to a wreckage from the battle of Jakku, enter the ships and find anything that can still be used, clean it and bring it to the nearest post. Get your payment, which in the majority of case was in food rations, and then return next day with more usable parts. One could believe that this job would simply stop sooner or later when all usable parts are ran out, and that would be a logical ȧssumption, except for the fact that today, even after 30 years, there were still unnumerable wreckage sites and many others which had not been discovered or touched due to the danger and difficulty of the zone where they were and even in the ships that had been already searched, some lucky scavenger managed to still find parts that others had overlooked. In simple words, the battle of Jakku had been so massive that the quantity of vehicles, ships and weaponry was simply infinite and did not seem to end any time soon.

In one of the many sites where scavengers used to look for pieces and equipment which was a crashed star destroyer, a young and agile girl was hanging from a rope many meters above the floor while looking inside one of the several internal systems of the abandoned steel giant.

- ”I knew it!”- she said with a victorious voice when she found a power conductor which was in an excellent conditions- ”It seems I will eat today.”

She placed the part carefully on her bag and after making sure there was not anything else, she used the rope to descend to the floor with care. She may have continued looking for more pieces, but she knew that it was already late and she had to return and exchange what she already had.

- ”I just hope that Fishblob is in a good mood today”- she said to herself while taking off her hood and grabbing her water bottle and noticing there was not much left.

She drank the rest of the liquid avidly and licked her lips wishing for more. She sighed and put the canteen away while placing the parts she had salvaged in a piece of metal she used as slider and skid down the dune of sand where the star destroyer was. She guided the simple slider in direction of a speeder that was waiting for her some distance away. Once she was near, she stood up and dragged the piece of metal to her vehicle and started to place the new findings to the ones that were already placed in the bag of the speeder. After some moments, everything was secured and she started the speeder and dashed away at maximum speed crossing the desert in direction of the nearest post.

- ”This is definitely faster than before”- she said while being alert and checking her surroundings.

Many people would look at her speeder with ridicule and would laugh at her for riding such a crude vehicle, but Rey would not change her hovercraft for anything. ot only was this speeder of great help to her and allowed her to scavenge faster and in more quantity than before, but one has to consider that it was built from scratch by her. Some years ago, she had found the schematics in a memory system and she had managed to slowly gather the materials after many years. She still felt a pain in her heart remembering all the parts that she had ruined and wasted in her early attempts to build it.

- ”I could have exchange them for so many rations...”- she said grumpily as she tried to forget those bad memories- ”but I can't complain now...”

After many failures she finally built the speeder and now it was definitely a boost in her job. In that moment she finally saw the silhouette of her objective: The Niima Post where she could exchange the parts she got for food and other necessities.

- ”Hello, Rey”- said one of the guards that patroled the surroundings of the post- ”already decided to come and live with me? I will treat you well...”

Rey ignored the guard and rode in direction of the mechanic trading area. Those guards were just lowlives who had been hired by the Boss of the post in order to keep the are safe and free of disturbances and possible threats to him. Rey knew that thug had already three ”partners” and he used to beat them after getting drunk practically every day. She arrived to the place where the Boss of the post made the deals and unloaded all the parts she had. However, she had to clean the parts first and the Boss was very strict about using the facilities he provided for cleaning the parts found in order to avoid reselling and stolen goods from other posts. Otherwise, he would simply not buy the parts and then you would have to go to another post to trade which would cost you many weeks of travel. For this reason, the scavengers had to put up with the rules the Boss implemented as they had no better option.

- ”It's full today”- Rey said while looking for a free space in the cleaning area after she got the tools that she needed from the drawers around her.

After some minutes, she finally found a spot and she started the tedious process of scrubbing and polishing the old parts as much as she could since she knew that the level of cleanliness would affect the payment she would received. An hour passed and she was about to finish when she felt her arms and back stiffed. She breathed and tried to stretch when she saw an old lady doing the same job she was doing. Rey saw this fragile and weak woman using her bony and trembling hands which bȧrėly showed any meat under the wrinkled skin trying her best to polish and scrub an electrical fuse that seemed to be from a starfighter. The scene should not have been rare for Rey who lived in a planet in which practically everyone worked in scavenging and the trade of mechanical parts, but for some reason today, Rey felt that she could not looked away from this woman as if she was entranced by her.

- ”It's been 19 years already...”- she said watching her own hands and the piece she was cleaning- ”how much time more will I have to wait?”

As far as she could remember, Rey had always been in this planet fighting every day to survive. In order to feed herself she had immediately started working by cleaning mechanical parts under the orders of different ”colleagues” who many times just exploited her in exchange of a ridiculous amount of food and a little space to sleep. Of course, not all of them were bad and some of them even taught her patiently the different tricks of the bussiness like how to recognize a good piece of equipment from a bad one or how to decide where to look in the wreckages. One important skill she was taught was to name the different parts and equipment that she found and know what fuctions they had in the entire system.

- ”If you don;t know what you're selling”- had said one of them while explaining her the function of certain shiny circuit- ”people will scam you and give you much less of what they should, so you'd better learn about your goods.”

And she did and after some years she was able to hundreds of different parts and what they were used for even if she had never seen them working for real. After that experience, Rey understood a very important lesson, that no matter if someone is good or bad, all of them had something that she could learn and she always kept her eyes open and ready to make those tricks hers. She had to, she would starve otherwise.

- ”She has good intuition and instinct”- many of her colleagues would say about her- ”she's a quick learner.”

Many of those good people that had seen her potential had even proposed her to leave the planet with them, but Rey had always declined their offers and in many occasions, she needed all her will strenght to do so. The reason was simple and easy to understand.

- ”I'm waiting for my parents”- she had said every time someone tried to convince her to leave- ”they will return for me and I have to be here or they will be worried.”

From time to time, she went to check the new space ships that arrived to Jakku with the illusion that maybe in one of those her parents would come for her to pick her up. Many years had passed and inside her the doubt and harsh reality was starting to sink... However, she still refused to let that small hope go.

- ”Baykunn shomekta”- a pitch voice talked to her in an agressive tone and made Rey stop her reverie- ”gogomichta arekla!”

Even if one couldn't understand the language of the alien, one still would be able to tell that it was not being nice. Rey hurried up remembering that other people were waiting for a spot for the cleaning process.

- ”Look who is back”- said the Boss called Unkar Plutt or as the scavengers called him ”Blobfish”- Did you think in my offer? do you want to return and work for me?

- ”I'm fine for now”- she said forcing a bitter smile- ”but if something happens I'll consider it”

- ”I see”- said Unkar with a dissapointed look and started to count and analize the pieces she had brought. After some minutes he gave Rey a serious look- ”What you brought me today is worth... mmm... one quarter portion.”

Rey bit her lips trying to control her anger. It was very obvious that he was getting revenge for her rejection. Every time that she brought materials, he asked her to work with him and every time she declined, he offered less food for more parts. She looked at him with more attention as she had done so many times before.

Unkar Plutt (nicknamed by others as Blobfish) was a Crolute who instead of living in a planet full of water as the majority of his species, had chosen to be in a desert one. He normally didn't go out from his bunker and none doubted that he was the absolute tyrant of Niima Post with every scavenger under his rule even if one was considered a ”freelance” since this post was the only one in the area. According to the stories she had heard, many years ago there were many gangs and thugs competing for the area, but using deceit and underhanded methods, Unkar had managed to make athe competence mysteriously dissapear and had made the Niima Post his personal little kingdom protected by the thugs he paid to take care of unwanted bussiness or people, so none would even try to be on his bad side. Even if the deal he was offering was a blatant scam Rey knew better than trying to complain.

- ”Get the food and go”-he said grinning with satisfaction- ”there is a line behind you.”

When she was younger, Rey had worked for him and she must say thatshe had enjoyed of his resources and protection. Of course, Unkar had treated well not out of generosity but because of Rey's skill since she was considered one of the best scavengers in Jakku despite her age. Sometimes she had even believed there was some heart under those scales but in moments like these she really wanted to punch his face but she knew that if she annoyed him, the next time he would offer even less so she swallowed her anger and just picked up the food ration before going out.

- ”Give me some of those and these ones too”- Rey went to the other side of the post to buy other ingredients and materials. She knew that the rations of today would not be enough so she had to complement her diet with some cheap vegetables and maybe fruit if she was lucky to find some.

- ”Did you hear about Tuanul?”- Rey heard some of the scavengers that were in the zone making small talk- ”They said that Tuanul Village was destroyed and all its inhabitants killed”

- ”Yes, terrible bussiness”- said the other person with a scared expression- ”I heard the First Order attacked them for not paying the quota they asked from them.”

- ”Humph! Those animals are getting more and more daring!”- said the first scavenger- ”The republic just ignores them and pretend they don't exist.”