“WAS THAT…REALLY LUKE SKYWALKER?” asked Tyra, the scavenger girl.

“That…depends on your focus,” said Ulina. Her eye patch turned to a gentle pulsing blue as she added, “Legends about our heroes don’t matter as much as what we choose to make of our own lives when the legends move us.”

Tyra bit her bottom lip and nodded.

The other deckhands started getting into a heated debate.

“Luke couldn’t really have tossed Star Destroyers down to Jakku by magic, could he?”

“So you’re an expert on magic now?”

“Maybe the Imperial was just confused.”

Ulina finally stepped in and made it clear that it was time for everyone to go to their bunks. As Dwoogan and G2-X cleaned up the galley and the mess deck, Ulina headed for the cargo hold to check that the shipping crates were secure before docking.

The yawning deckhands made their weary way through narrow corridors and up rickety ladders to tiny cubbyholes and bunk beds wedged between pipes and ducts. The Wayward Current was designed to maximize every bit of cargo space, and the crew had to make do with whatever odd nooks and crannies were left over.

Teal waited until the others were gone from the mess deck before shuffling up to Dwoogan. She held out her credit chip.

“Again?” asked a surprised Dwoogan. “You’ve been buying every night, just about. You know, you really ought to try to save up. If you’re still hungry after a full ration, you’re probably not getting enough sleep. You can’t spend all your wages on snacks and drinks. When I was your age, I—”

“It’s my money,” hissed Teal. “Don’t tell me what to do.”

Dwoogan sighed and took the credit chip to scan it. Then she unlocked the pantry door and pulled out another ration pack, divided the bread and the nutrient paste tube in half, and handed the half portion to Teal.

“Thank you,” said Teal. “And please don’t tell—”

“It’s your money,” said Dwoogan. “As long as you aren’t stealing from the ship, it’s nobody’s business. Not even Captain Tuuma’s.”

Silently, Teal tiptoed to the maintenance closet next to the engine room. She waited in the shadows until she was sure no one was around, ducked into the closet, and crawled through the gap between two thick coolant pipes until she found herself above a grate. She lifted it off and dropped through the opening into the crawl space below. A few twists and turns later, she emerged into a tiny room that was barely big enough for her to stand up and lie down in. The compartment had perhaps been added by one of the Wayward Current’s former owners as a hiding place in the event of a pirate boarding, or maybe it had just been left over and forgotten during some round of retrofitting. In any event, no one in Tuuma’s crew, save for Teal, knew of its existence.

“Hey, I got you a little more food.”

The woman who was already in the room was a few years older than Teal. Dressed in a thick white flowing robe, with her long black hair tied in a plain ponytail, she seemed the very image of simplicity, completely out of place among the twisting pipes and rat’s nest of exposed wiring that surrounded her.

“Thank you,” she said to Teal. “The food you brought me earlier was enough. I don’t need much since I’m not moving around a lot. I feel terrible taking your food all the time.”

Teal broke the half portion of bread and handed the larger piece to her along with the nutrient paste. She bit into the rest of the bread hungrily. “You need the strength,” she mumbled as she chewed. “When we get into port tomorrow, they’ll scan the whole ship. We’ll have to do some work tonight to prepare for your escape. Tuuma will kill both of us if he finds out.”

The woman nodded and didn’t protest any more. She chewed slowly and thoughtfully, as if completely unconcerned with being a stowaway on a ship whose captain would have no scruples about throwing her out of the air locks upon discovery.

Teal finished her bread in just a few bites. Rather than staring at the food in the woman’s hands, she decided to distract herself by recounting to the woman the stories she had just heard from Dwoogan and Ulina.

The woman paused when Luke’s X-wing was mentioned, and a light seemed to brighten her eyes. But she said nothing as she continued to chew and listen to Teal.

“I may know a story about Luke Skywalker, too,” she said after Teal was finished.

“Really?” Teal was surprised. The woman had not seemed to her an experienced traveler or adventurer. Indeed, she had been mesmerized by Teal’s stories the past few weeks, exclaiming over even minor victories, like the time Teal had managed to convince a trader in Ara Dyelle that an ordinary lizard egg was a rare artifact worth five full rations. In contrast, the woman had not told Teal any stories at all.

“Can I hear it?” Teal asked eagerly.

The woman hesitated. “Where I’m from…I’m really not supposed to…”

Teal didn’t press. Everyone was entitled to keep their secrets. She didn’t like to talk about her past with just anyone, either.

Teal had discovered the woman hiding in the fathier stalls near the start of the Wayward Current’s voyage, and rather than reporting her to the officers, Teal had decided to help the stowaway hide. It just felt like the right thing to do. After all, when she had first escaped from the slavers in the colonies, a kind Hutt mechanic had helped her stow away on a mining transport without asking for anything in return.

The woman closed her eyes and seemed to be either meditating or thinking hard. Teal was about to remind her that they needed to start preparing for her escape in the morning when the woman opened her eyes and nodded resolutely.

“I trust you, and I trust that it means something that you told me about Luke Skywalker tonight. Let me tell you a story….”