#9947, Alishu

Alarm bells...

Alishu's eyes drifted open, finding himself in the cargo hold turned passenger area of this Brotherhood transport shuttle. The ship was falling through the upper atmosphere now, its sublight navigational sensors triggering an alarm that warned of the rapid drop in elevation as gravity finally took hold; what was perhaps the only part of the navigation system and engine that worked. Alishu knew that a good pilot would've pulled up by now, a pilot like the captain of this shuttle, but as tense moments passed there was no change in the ship's spiraling nose dive, and that meant the captain was probably dead or unconscious. Under normal circumstances, investigating whether a captain was 'coming to' or already 'gone' would be an easy task; except, the downward dive was causing the Journeyman and everything else in the cargo hold to experience weightlessness.

What was it about the Force, that made it enjoy putting people in difficult situations?

A small explosion on the starboard side rocked the ship, spurring Alishu into action, his body moving on pure survival instinct. Kicking off a nearby, floating cargo container, he shot towards the door to the bridge, crawling across wiring and wall panels to get inside. One look was all the Journeyman needed to verify his fears, both the captain and copilot were dead, and with no time to move their bodies to get access to the controls. But while the Force liked to put its users into difficult situations, it always seemed to provide a way out; Alishu glanced at his armory lightsaber. The obvious thing to do would be to sever the captain's chair from the base, letting them whole thing float away, but Alishu knew that even the base was made from durasteel, something that would be difficult to cut even if he had his feet planted on the ground. Alishu already knew what would need to be done.

It would require more finesse.

Pushing off the wall and towards the captain's chair, Alishu twisted in mid-air and made two quick swings of his lightsaber, aimed at the straps that held the pilot's body into the seat. As the body floated off, the ship still hurtling down to its doom, Alishu grasped at the controls. There wasn't much time left. With seconds to spare, the Novitiate leveled the ship out, letting it crash land on its belly, sliding harshly across a desert sand dune. As the ship was gradually slowed to a halt, Alishu's mind was already working at a million miles per hour, asking questions like: "Where am I?" and "What do I do now?". But these questions were easily answered, as Alishu gazed out of the transparisteel viewport. Outside was a familiar twin suns and seemingly endless desert in every direction, this meant that the Journeyman was on Tatooine, and that meant that if he stayed in place long enough, the whole wreck would be covered in scavengers.

By the Force, he never expected to crash land on his home planet.

He wouldn't have to wait for long before the peak of a Sandcrawler poked over the horizon. Emerging from the broken hulk, Alishu engaged in conversation using the Jawa Trade Talk he knew so well, cutting an easy deal that gave the Jawas the entirety of the wreck, but only if they provided transport the nearest city, where he hoped to visit the spaceport and find out more about why the shuttle was shot down. It would be a day's journey by Sandcrawler, and giving the Jawas everything meant that the Journeyman wouldn't have any food for himself, but he was confident that the Force would sustain him. Entering the transport, Alishu settled down for a long, uneventful ride.