Tales from Mos Eisley Cantina Read Online Free PDF Page A

“I’ve told you enough, Greedo. On another day perhapsI will answer all your questions. Go to bed now, my son.”
    “Yes, Mother.” Greedo touched his hand suckers to his mother’s in the traditional all-purpose greeting and good night. He went to his straw-filled bed in their little hut, where his brother was already asleep.
    Greedo lay for hours, thinking of silver ships, of his father the bounty hunter … and the greatness of life among the stars.
    2. Red Navik
    A month and a day after Greedo and Pqweeduk found the silver sky ships, Navik the Red, leader of the powerful Chattza clan, found the Tetsus.
    Greedo and his brother were climbing high in the Tendril trees when they saw a bright flash in the sky. They watched with quiet curiosity as the flash flowered and became a glittering red shape that grew larger and larger, until they could see it was a sky ship, twenty times larger than the small silver ships in the cave.
    Anxious voices called from below. Greedo hooted with excitement and began to slide rapidly down the smooth tree, using his suckers to skillfully brake his descent. His brother was right behind him.
    Below they could see the people coming out of their huts and pointing at the big sky ship. Uncle Nok and Uncle Teeko and others were running to get the weapons. Greedo sensed their fear.
    “C’mon, Pqweeduk!” Greedo shouted, as his feet hit the ground. “We have to save Mother! We can’t let them kill her!”
    “What are you talking about, Greedo? Nobody’s killing anybody!” Pqweeduk dropped to the ground and obediently followed his older brother.
    As they ran through the trees, the red ship swooped lower, uncoiled its landing gear, and settled in a cloud of fiery smoke at the edge of the village.
    Twin hatches hissed open. Greedo stopped and turned and gaped in awe as armored Rodian warriorspoured out of the giant ship—hundreds of them, each wearing bright segmented armor and each carrying a vicious-looking blaster rifle.
    The sight of these killers transfixed the young Rodian. It was a full minute before he felt his brother tugging fearfully at his sleeve. And then he heard his mother’s voice, urging him to run . The last thing Greedo saw, before he turned his face to the forest, was the figure of a tall, imposing Rodian with a bloodred mark that stained most of his face. The marked warrior shouted an order, and the others raised their weapons.
    The scream of laser fire mixed with the dying shrieks of the people, as Greedo and his brother and mother fled into the jungle.
    Uncle Nok and Uncle Teeku and twenty others made it to the cave ahead of them. There was a great grinding noise and the roar of a landslide, as the top of the mountain opened, throwing off its burden of earth and stones.
    Greedo caught his breath as the three silver ships gleamed in the light of the midday sun. Powerful engines already whined awake.
    Uncle Nok greeted Greedo’s mother as he urged everyone to get aboard as fast as possible. “Neela— now you know why I was always visiting the ships! I was keeping them in repair for this very day!”
    Greedo’s mother hugged her brother Nok and thanked him. Then they all rushed aboard, followed by a stream of refugees coming out of the forest.
    Two of the silver ships lifted easily on columns of repulsor energy, their fission-thrust engines whining up so high that the sound vanished beyond the range of Greedo’s hearing. The third ship was waiting for the last stragglers … the last survivors of the massacre.
    A portly Manka hunter named Skee charged out of the forest, screaming that everyone behind him was dead—”Leave! Take the ships away, while you still have a chance!”
    The third ship never got its hatch closed. A single bolt of ion energy fused its stabilizers into a molten mass, and a split second later a powerful laser blast blew the power core.
    As the first two ships shot skyward, a bright sphere of fusion fire blasted back the jungle, mocking the