Ael Johnson

"Stop worrying about me...let's just get out of here...please..." He kissed her back, and walked aboard her ship with her and the guards.

Ael ate the food over the course of a half an hour, he had to get his body used to receiving nutritional food instead of the prison stuff they fed him. He stood up slowly and motioned to Bekka. "I'm ready, let's go."

"Me living would be enough for me to be untrustworthy...just get me out of here...please..."

"I never said that if I left here that I would run...take me with you...I will deal with the rest somehow..."

"It was my choice...you were worth it..." His mind started working a little bit again and he remembered where he was. "I cannot go to the Hutts and guarantee my loyalty...they are the cause of your son, our torture, and my pain...they are the cause...I cannot praise the ones who hurt me and the woman I love...I will do this for you, not them...but I don't know how long I can bear with myself by swearing allegiance to them..."

"No...please don't...let me die...here..." With that, Ael passed out.

Ael's eyes took a few minutes to adjust to the light in the area, but his heart bound out of his chest when he realized Bekka was in front of him. "A...dream????" He realized it was real, and that somehow, she was here. He jumped to her and wrapped his arms around her legs. "Bekka...you're here...my prayers have been answered..." He then realized something must have been wrong for her to come. "What's wrong? Why are you here?"

The wave soothed but he knew all too soon that once it stopped he would be in an enormous amount of pain. He kept filling up spice and suddenly he had an idea. It was so simplet, yet so easy, and now that he had no one to stop him he could actually do it. "Yes...this pick might come in handy..." He smiled but his face grew sullen as Bekka's sweet face passed through his eyes and glistened in tear drops that mingled with the spice at his feet. He sniffled and almost broke down, but made sure not to just in case someone was watching. God I miss her...but she wouldn't want me to do this...not now...not then...not in the future...somewhere the hope of a girl is still alive, and if I die, that hope will forever be dashed away... Discarding the thoughts of suicide he went back to work, trying to ignore the soothing feeling because he knew once Sly was done, his back would cry out, and he would not be ready for it.

Ael spat out blood on the ground. "Enough...enough...I can't take it anymore...I'd rather die than face this hell and torture..." He went back to work, struggling, waiting for something to take him away.

Ael fell to the ground as he was so tired and dehydrated. "Someone please save me...deliver me from this hell...I can't take it anymore..." He missed filling up a spice bucket, he knew he would be punished.

The whip cracked on his garments as he took a fraction of a second too long to load up the spice. I swear...when I get out...if I get out... The prospect of surviving became more and more grim, realizing that the Jedi with him was of no use, and he could do nothing but wait for someone to deliver him from hell, or come rescue him. He dug, and dug, filling carts with spice, working fast enough so as he would not get whipped, and making sure to talk minimally so as not to get him and others in trouble. Please...someone...save me...

He finished the contraption he had constructed with a piece of bone around 6 feet long planted perpendicularly into the wing of the skyhopper, with his shirt attached as a sort of medium to capture air. He fired off the engine of his mini-hover craft and sailed as fast as he could to the Hutt Palace.

Ael woke up some hours later a bit distressed. He looked around at the debris and tried to piece it in his mind as to what had hapenned. He could hear the scream of Bekka's sweet voice as the ship crashed into the sand with a thundering explosion soon to follow. The skyhopper was completely destroyed, except for many pieces lying here and there, and Ael was alone in the middle of nowhere with the Hutt Palace maybe a day or two away by foot. He looked around, kicking the debris, trying to find something to help him survive. He radioed the Smuggler's Moon, leaving a message at Dex's office asking for assistance. While looking for debris he found the part of a wing, the steering devices, a control box, a somehow unscathed rocket booster, and an non-destroyed bottle of fuel. He sat down with each piece and tried to put them together, crossing many wires over each other over the course of a few hours...

"Ob works for a deceitful bunch...lies and misdeeds are his ways...I know you don't know me...and I'll tell you later about me...but you have to trust me, that for now, this is for your own good...you are under the effect of many drugs...trust me..."

Ael looked down. "Ob...those needles...the drinks...to get you used to the climate...they are all drugs...I've seen that hazed look that you have all the time...you're under the effects of drugs...mabye I'll explain it all again when you're back to normal, but I've seen smugglers on that stuff...it's not good..."