Imperial times- Coruscant

He arrived in the hollowed out shell of what had once been part of the city�s tube transit system. This station on the line was abandoned sometime during the clone wars, now most of the lurking half-sentient creatures in the area called it home. One of the closest vagrant creatures hissed at him as he dropped down from the ceiling. He returned the snarl, orange-gold eyes glowing in the dim light. The semi-human creature backed away, dragging it's tattered blanket with it.

He�d learned a long time ago that big muscles and claws outweighed any sort of ranking system that these beings had built down here. He was avoided, sometimes feared, and occasionally even threatened for bothering the local order, but he didn�t care.

He cautiously walked across the tunnel toward what had once been a lobby for people waiting to ride the tram that used to come through this station. A few of the other things that inhabited the abandoned station watched him from the darkness. He adjusted his fighting staff, which he carried slung over his shoulder by a strap tied to each end of it. Some of the watching eyes drifted away, their owners fading further into the shadows. Most of them had seen him fight before, and seen the amount of damage he could inflict with that staff in an extremely quick time.

He stepped over a sleeping human, walking up the stairs to the doorway of the former lounge. A large alien with three eyes stepped in front of him, barking something about not belonging around here. He growled, stepping up to his full height. He was still a little shorter than the alien, barely coming to the alien�s chest, but he stood his ground. As much as he hated to even bother with the local filth, he needed to speak to Drekano.

He took a step forward, but the alien stepped in front of him again, holding his arm out to block the visitor's path. He flicked the point of a long green ear, the growl deepening. The alien started to bark something again, pushing him back. He snarled, baring his pointed teeth. He grabbed the three-eyed alien�s wrist, sinking his claws into his brownish-pink skin.

The alien yelped as little ribbons of dark red blood ran from the punctures. He reached out a wide hand to grab the visitor by the throat. He missed as he pulled away from his hand, grabbing the pink alien by the elbow and twisting his arm around behind him.

"Speak Drekano, no you," he hissed, pressing the alien�s arm behind his back and twisting it into the shallow between his shoulder blades. The alien screeched in pain as a grating noise came from his shoulder.

"Tarik, let him go," a voice said from within the lounge. He twisted his claws in the three-eyed alien�s arm before releasing him. 'Tarik' was the name Drekano had given him, the people who�d created him hadn�t bothered to name him.

"Our green-striped friend is always welcome among us," the voice said again in a mock-cheerful tone.

Tarik snarled, and the large three-eyed alien reluctantly stepped away from the doorway, cradling his bleeding arm. He didn�t really like the name Tarik, it meant �little kid� or something in Drekano�s native language. Someday he planned to find a name he liked for himself, something that fit him better than the menagerie of names that everyone else called him.

He stepped into the dull pink-orange light of the lounge. A pudgy alien hybrid slouched on a couch along the far wall, he had purple eyes, and orange skin mottled with blue splotches, as though someone had spattered him with paint.

Drekano�s black reptile-skin vest and pants made Tarik instinctively cringe, the dull gray stripes on the leather was unsettlingly similar to the dark green pattern of his own stripes.

He kept a respective distance from the pudgy alien, Drekano always smelled like Spice and raw sewage to Tarik�s hyper-sensitive nose. He rubbed his snout with the back of a clawed hand, he didn�t like any of the smells down here at all.

"So, what brings our little green friend down to our abode today?" he said, focusing his angled purple eyes at him. Tarik snorted, twitching his tail nervously.

"No eat," he grumbled, still embarrassed that was going to have to ask the orange ball of goo for his food. Drekano had made sure that Tarik's resources were extremely limited lately. He�d even gone as far as to tell some of the Stormtroopers where Tarik was hiding on a few occasions.

Tarik wanted to sink his claws into that bloated orange flesh and rip him to pieces, but he knew he�d be dead before he drew blood. Drekano had built himself a nice little empire under the Empire�s nose. The ugly seven-foot tall creatures standing next to the doorway as his bodyguards looked a little nervous around Tarik, though. He had mauled one of them a year ago, and the others were still wary of the smaller yet lethal Tarik.

Drekano, unfortunately, wasn't afraid of him. He had some stupid idea that Tarik should work for him, either as a guard or as one of his pet gladiators. Tarik wanted no part of either, so Drekano had recently taken to forcing Tarik to come to him for help, trying to make him owe his life to him for helping him survive.

Normally he would have just gone off somewhere and stolen food like he usually did, but there were too many Stormtroopers and soldiers around lately. A life on the run and starvation didn't mix well, and he hadn�t eaten in a few days.

The increased imperial security presence on the lower areas had made it harder for everyone to survive. Drekano took great pleasure in making sure that everyone who had to come to him and his people knew just how grateful they were supposed to be to him for his �generosity�.

Drekano laughed, "Little Tarik is hungry? so sad," he said, leaning forward in his seat. "Wants to be fed?" he said, laughing. The scattered beings in the room snickered, but not as enthusiastically. They knew that Tarik had a habit of lashing out at people who he didn�t like, and that he didn't like being laughed at.

Tarik growled softly, "No," he said, still growling, "No from you!" He snarled, he wasn�t hungry enough to stand there and be mocked. Drekano blinked his purple eyes at him in mock-surprise.

"My food is not good enough for the little freak?" he said, the sides of his neck turning darker orange.

"No," Tarik said, snorting angrily, "No a freak," he hissed. Drekano leaned back in the over-stuffed couch, glaring at Tarik.

"No give eat," he said, "No fair, you speak Troopers, bring trouble!" he snarled, flattening his pointed ears against his head defiantly.

Drekano suddenly growled, sitting upright and turning a deep orange-red. Tarik swished his tail nervously, he hadn�t talked to Drekano like this before, he honestly didn�t like talking to him at all. He flicked his tongue warily, he could sense that he�d definitely made Drekano mad.

"I will do whatever I well please!" Drekano shouted, his words echoed through the room, sending Tarik a step back and startling a few of the oddities outside the room.

"I can summon the dammdable Stormtroopers down to skin your sorry hide alive if I please!" Drekano bellowed, enraged. He paused, trying to calm himself.

Tarik shuffled back a step, glancing around the room uneasily, orange eyes glowing nervously.

Drekano smiled menacingly, leaning forward in his seat toward Tarik. "And right now it now pleases me to chase your sorry half-breed hide out of my presence," he said, sneering. He nodded at the two large guards beside the doorway, who suddenly seemed a lot less uneasy about taking on Tarik.

Tarik flexed his claws, suddenly glad that he�d hidden his pack somewhere safe before he�d come here.

The guard closest to him switched on his force-pike. Tarik growled, lowering into a more defensive position. He flicked the points of his ears toward the guards, orange-gold eyes glittering. He snarled as the other guard started to advance. He tensed, planning on running through the archway before the guards could reach him. The closest guard poked his staff at Tarik, he dodged, hopping to the left.

Tarik dropped into a crouch, snarling at the guard. He reached for his staff, slinging it off over his head. He snapped the tether from the ends as the second guard came closer. He stood, blocking the guard�s thrust with his battered wooden staff. Electricity jumped along the staff, making him pull his hand off the staff for a second as the zap passed. He chirped, grabbing the staff again as the first guard came after him again.

Drekano sat on his fat couch, watching them in cruel amusement. Tarik twitched his ears, swiveling them back and forth, trying to anticipate who was going to attack him next. His heart raced inside his chest, he hadn�t planned on fighting anyone today.

He flicked his gaze from alien to alien warily. One unarmed he could handle, but two with force-pikes was too much. He managed to block most of their attacks, skipping around the room to avoid their zaps. One of them managed to get past his guard, zapping him in the leg near his scars.

He screeched in surprise, the electricity coursed through his leg, numbing it. He collapsed onto the grimy floor, leaning heavily on his staff, snarling and panting. He sensed the faint flickering in the light above him. Glancing up, he noticed the ventilation shaft with the slowly rotating fan for the first time. The fan wobbled, turning so slowly that it was barely worth having it on. He looked back down at the advancing guards, an idea creeping into his mind.

Drekano snorted derisively, "This is what I tried to make answer to me?" he said. "He can�t even hold you two off," he snorted again, half closing his purple eyes in thought. Tarik tried to catch his breath, leaning heavily on his staff, desperately hoping that his leg would wake up soon. He growled softly, watching the other guard pause in his advance.

Drekano sighed, "disappointing, extremely so," he said, grumbling. "Get rid of it," he said, waving a pudgy hand dismissively. The closer guard sneered, he cranked the power setting up on the staff.

Tarik tensed, if he got hit now, it wouldn�t stun him this time, it would kill him. He snarled, finally feeling the tingle of awareness returning to his leg. He kept his leg still, letting them think it was still immobile.

The guard advanced, pointing the pike at him. He could smell the electricity crackling around the end of the staff. He deepened his snarl to a growl, he had no intention of dying this early in the day.

The guard stepped closer, sneering. Tarik drew his leg up under him, readying powerful muscles. The guards slowed, seeing him move his leg. He growled, glancing up at the vent again. He glared at the guards, snarling. He closed his claws tighter around his staff, grinding the end into the ground. The guard closest to him was almost directly under the vent shaft.

He suddenly lashed out, slashing the guard across the shin with his claws. The second guard tried to hit him with the pike before he could do anything else. Tarik dodged the active point, grabbing the staff behind the crackling energy field. He yanked the staff forward, knocking the guard off balance. The guard that he�d clawed brought his staff down hard on his shoulder.

He let out a roar of pain, buckling under the impact as the electricity raced through his shoulder. His left shoulder went numb, his arm nearly useless. Luckily, the guard hadn�t turned up his staff yet. The second guard yanked his staff back out of Tarik�s weakened grip. Tarik grabbed for his own staff, which he�d let fall to the ground when he�d grabbed the force-pike. He thrust it up into the first guard�s mid-section, bringing a grunt of pain from the larger being. Fortunately, Tarik was now too close to use the pike on.

He sank his claws into the doubled-over guard�s arm, pulling himself up as the other guard tried to strike him. He barely missed Tarik as he climbed onto the first guard�s shoulder. He jammed his staff through the rusted mesh covering the air vent, jamming the fan blades in place. Drekano snarled, realizing what was about to happen.

Tarik kicked the guard in the face as he leapt up, catching the edge of the shaft with his claws. The second guard tried to hit him with his pike, but missed as he jumped. The guard�s pike hit the first guard as Tarik pulled himself up into the shaft. Tarik winced at the guard's screech of agony as the electric shock ripped through him.

He squeezed past the stilled fan blades, grabbing his staff with the end of his tail. He yanked the staff free, dragging it up the shaft after him. Drekano�s screaming obscenities echoed up into the shaft, he was bright reddish orange, and his blue spots had turned a vivid shade of purple in his rage. He�d actually gotten up off his couch and waddled over to shout up the vent shaft at Tarik. He screeched curses and threats in at least a dozen languages toward the ceiling.

Tarik mostly ignored his screeching as he climbed the vent, squeezing himself along the narrow shaft, dragging his staff along the shaft behind him with his tail.

He emerged into an even smaller side shaft. Punching out the grate at the end of the shaft, he squeezed through the opening with some effort, dropping into a small maintenance area. He could still hear the bellowing of Drekano echoing up the shaft. He snorted, wiping a smudge of blood off his snout.

Tarik looked over at his shoulder, he was bleeding pretty badly. He made a soft rumbling noise, poking at the singed gash caused by the force-pike. He pulled his staff the rest of the way out of the vent, picking at the splintered end where he�d jammed it into the fan�s workings.

He pulled a long piece of cord from a pouch hidden inside the waistband of his shorts, tying it to one end of the staff, then to the other. He then slung the makeshift strap over his shoulder, flinching as the weight of the staff pulled the cord into the wound on his shoulder. He fought off a hiss of pain, moving the cord to a less painful position.

He snorted, pushing his hair out of his eyes, his nose twitching slowly, sniffing. He swiveled his ears toward the shaft, listening to the faint scraping and pinging noises emanating from the shaft.

He snorted again, turning and limping out of the maintenance room through an access tunnel. He wasn�t about to wait around and find out who was small enough and determined enough to follow him up the shaft.

----on to Part 3 of Chapter 1---

© 2000 Michelle Petrosky

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