The Force Awakens (Star Wars) Read Online Free PDF Page B

metal-capped head. A separate layer of flesh flowed downward like a second neck. Looseblack pants were tucked into heavy work boots, while the long-sleeved, dun-colored shirt struggled to containadditional layers of neck. Half a dozen bicolored metal plates hung from his neck and shoulders to just below the thick knees. Muscles were hidden beneath an additional layer of blubber.
    While she knew he looked forward to their occasional business dealings, she could not say the same.Since that would have required not only listening to him but looking at him, she always strove to keep their encounters as brief as possible.
    Unkar Plutt, on the other hand, was delighted to extend their encounters for as long as she could stand it. He always took his time when examining her pieces, letting his gaze rove slowly over everything she put before him, making her wait. Only whenthe bounds of common courtesy had been markedly surpassed did he deign to acknowledge her presence.
    “Rey. A decent offering, if nothing remarkable. Today you get a quarter portion.”
    She did not give him the pleasure of seeing her disappointment, just took the pair of packets that appeared in the transfer drawer in front of him. One transparent package contained beige powder; the other,a more solid slab of something green.
    “That’s my girl,” Plutt commended her.
    Not replying, she turned and left, moving as quickly as she could without alerting him to the fact that his presence disgusted her. She could feel his eyes all over her until she exited the big tent.
    —
    Out on the salt flats of Jakku, the only place to shelter from the sun was inside something one had builtoneself. Rey’s speeder was an insignificant speck against the fiery, setting mass as she slowed on approach to her residence. Climbing down, she left it parked where it had stopped. There was no reason to secure it. Few came this way. Those who did, including the pirates and bandits who haunted the desert wastelands, wouldn’t waste time trying to steal a vehicle as dated and banged-up as hertransport.
    Unloading, she gathered her belongings and headed for themakeshift entrance that led into the belly of the half-destroyed AT-AT walker. It might be an ancient, rotting, rusting example of now useless military might, but to Rey, it was home.
    After carefully unloading her gear and supplies onto the homemade cabinets and shelves, she remembered to make a scratch mark on one interiorwall of semi-malleable material. She had long since stopped bothering to count the scratches, which now numbered in the thousands.
    Bits and pieces of homemade décor ornamented isolated alcoves and corners: here a handmade doll fashioned from reclaimed orange flight suit material, there a cluster of dried desert flowers; on the far end of the bed insert, a pillow that had cost her a day’s work.It wasn’t much, but where such examples of defiant individuality had been placed, they softened the drabness of their surroundings.
    Green slab-stuff sizzled in a makeshift cook pan. Opening the packet of beige powder, she dumped it into a tin half full of water. A brief stir activated the mixture, which promptly expanded and solidified into a loaf of something like bread. She slid the cookedmeat off its pan and onto a plate, then slipped the loaf out of its container. Taking a seat, she dug into both as if she had not eaten in weeks. It seemed that these days all too many meals were like that.
    When she had finished, she picked up the plate and licked it dry before setting it aside. Rising, she moved to a window that looked in the direction of Niima. The signature contrail ofa single ascending ship streaked the flat dark blue of the evening sky like chalk on slate. Wiping her mouth, she turned to a shelf where an old, badly damaged Rebellion helmet rested. She stared at it for a moment, then picked it up and put it on.
    Still wearing the helmet, she made her way outside into the cooling air. Nothing much to see tonight,