Read Online Star Wars: Before the Awakening by Greg Rucka - Free Book Online Page A

name.
    “Devi.”
    “Yeah,” the woman said. “You’re Rey, right? What’re you building?”
    “I’m not building anything.”
    “Unkar’s not gonna pay for that. Porto’s crew brought in, like, maybe a hundred band limiters in the last week. You gotta know that.”
    Rey shook the component dry and shoved it into her satchel, hoping the conversation was over.
    It wasn’t. Devi looked to her side, and her partner—another human, almost a head taller than Rey, with his hair shorn identically to Devi’s—slid onto the stool besideRey. Devi took the one opposite.
    “You know Strunk, right?” Devi asked.
    Rey began gathering the pieces she’d set out to dry. Her staff was to her left, in easy reach, opposite where Strunk had taken a seat. Rey wondered if she would have to use it.
    “You hold pieces back.” Devi scratched her chin, leaving a smear of grease behind. “We’ve seen it. Like, you had the junction box for a power inverteron the YT series a couple days ago. That could’ve gotten you a lot. But you didn’t trade it.”
    “Doing a lot with circuits and cabling, too,” Strunk said. “Like you’re wiring something up, you know?”
    Rey stared at him. Strunk shrugged and smiled apologetically.
    “We don’t mean to pry, Rey,” Devi said. “We’re just curious, is all. You’ve not been around as much as you used to, and it’s just…youknow, it’s just strange. Like, why would you not trade that stuff, you know?”
    “I’m not that hungry,” Rey said.
    Devi looked surprised. Then she laughed. “Sure, okay. I get it. We all mind our own business. I get it.”
    “Yes,” Rey said. “That’s what we do.”
    Strunk nodded. Rey stuffed the remaining components into her satchel, grabbed her staff, and got to her feet.
    “Nice talking to you,” Reysaid.
    “Hey.”
    Rey turned back to Devi.
    “Thing is,” Devi said, “we’ve noticed. So maybe somebody else has, like, noticed, too. Know what I mean?”
    Devi tilted her head ever so slightly in the direction of Unkar’s window. Rey couldn’t see him there, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t watching. She looked back at Devi.
    “I’ll keep it in mind,” Rey said.

    It was another ten days before they foundher. Rey knew it was coming. The two memetic sheets that had kept the freighter hidden had died, one after the other, the same day she’d spoken to them in Niima, and as a result she had to resort to throwing shovelfuls of sand over the hull of the ship. It was a weak concealment, and every time the wind picked up the hull would be revealed for anyone close enough to see.
    She tried to be morecareful, but there were just too many places to hide amid the graveyard, too many places to keep watch. If Devi and Strunk were really on to her, all they needed to be was patient and eventually they’d see Rey on her speeder, heading out. They would follow, and it wouldn’t matter how many times Rey switched directions or doubled back, if she rode out in the morning or the afternoon. She would be seen.So it was never really a question of
if
but
when
, and Rey accepted that.
    She was on her back in the crawl space off the cockpit, trying to get the navicomputer relays reconnected, when she heard them outside.
    “Rey?” It was Devi. “Hey, Rey, you in there?”
    Rey sighed, then pulled herself up and out of the floor. She set the microblade beside the rest of her tools, grabbed her staff, and headedinto the cockpit. Devi and Strunk were both standing outside. Devi was grinning and Strunk’s mouth was open, as if he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
    “What?” Rey asked, then added, “Do you want?”
    “This is
amazing
!” Strunk shouted, as if snapping out of a trance. “R’iia’s shorts, Rey! This is
amazing
!”
    “It’s just a ship,” Rey said.
    Devi laughed. “Just a ship? You’re crazy! Look at thisthing! How’d you find it?”
    Rey climbed into the pilot’s seat, pulled herself out of the half-repaired cockpit, and