Qui-Gon, Jar Jar, and R2 left the ship and began walking through the desert sand toward the nearest town. But now, they were starting to wish they'd packed some sunblock before coming here. Or at least some water and sunglasses.

"This sun doen murder to mesa skin." Jar Jar whined.

"Wait!" exclaimed the captain, who approached with Padme beside him. "Wait. Her highness commands you to take her handmaiden with you."

"No more commands from Her Highness today, Captain." Qui-Gon insisted. "The spaceport is not going to be pleasant."

"The queen wishes it." said the captain. "She is curious about the planet."

Qui-Gon sighed.

"This is not a good idea." But reluctantly, he agreed to take Padme, on one condition. "Stay close to me."

So, Padme joined the boys on their journey to the spaceport.

______________________________

Qui-Gon, Padme, Jar Jar, and R2-D2 all walked into a town, where there were quite a few people walking through as well.

Qui-Gon looked around with a sense of familiarity with the area.

"Moisture farms, for the most part," he described the scene before the group. "Some indigenous tribes and scavengers. The few spaceports like this one are havens for those that don't wish to be found."

"Like us." Padme concluded.

Although that was good news, no one in the group could say they got a good feeling from this place. It definitely gave off the vibe of there being at least a few gamblers and outlaws lurking about.

"Dissen berry berry bad." Jar Jar said, and then he stepped in something icky and sticky, much worse than chewed gum. "Oh! Icky icky goo!"

Jar Jar tried to catch up with his friends, but none of them were exactly sure what to make of their surroundings. The species were different, the town was different, and again, members of the group were starting to wish they'd brought sunblock or at least a fan.

As bothered as Qui-Gon was to wipe sweat away from his head, he knew the top priority had to be getting the parts needed to repair the ship. But knowing the scammers who lived on Tatooine, they'd all have to be cautious who they spoke to.

Qui-Gon looked around and found a spot he thought seemed mostly harmless.

"We'll try one of the smaller dealers."

__________________________________

Behind a counter inside the shop sat a rather ugly creature called a Toydarian named Watto. Watto was just sitting, minding his own business, when he heard a bell that indicated customers had entered.

Watto flew up from his seat and greeted the newcomers in Huttese. Qui-Gon got right to the point.

"I need parts for a J-type 327 Nubian."

"Ah, yes! Nubian." said Watto in Basic this time. "We have lots of that."

Watto called someone in Huttese.

"Boy, get in here now!"

"My droid has a readout of what I need." Qui-Gon said.

And into the room came a little boy about nine years old. An adorable little boy too. He had kinda long but short blonde hair and bright blue eyes, and he was dressed in sandy colored robes.

"What took you so long?" Watto said in Huttese.

"I was cleaning the fan switches," said the child in Huttese.

"Watch the store. I've got some selling to do."

Qui-Gon, however, froze for a moment when he looked at the little boy, as if he'd just caught a glimpse of a long-lost friend. But, he lost his train of thought when Watto said,

"Let me take thee out back, huh? Ni you'll find what you need."

Qui-Gon shook his previous thoughts out of his head and followed Watto, but not before snatching something from Jar Jar and telling him not to touch anything.

"Hmph!"

Jar Jar stuck out his tongue and made funny noises at Qui-Gon as he walked away. Jar Jar wasn't a child; it wasn't like Qui-Gon would know if he touched anything, the gungan thought. So, Jar Jar gave into his curiosity and began perusing the droids.

Meanwhile, the little boy looked at Padme with fascination.

"Are you an angel?" said the little boy.

Padme looked at the boy with surprise, chuckling a little.

"What?"

"An angel. I heard the deep space pilots talk about them. They're the most beautiful creatures in the universe. They live on the moons of Iego, I think."

Padme had to admit, this little boy sounded very smart for his age, and she couldn't deny he was adorable too.

"You're a funny little boy. How do you know so much?"

"I listen to all the traders and star pilots who come through here," the boy continued. "I'm a pilot, you know, and someday I'm gonna fly away from this place."

"You're a pilot?"

"Mm-hmm. All my life."

Now, most kids you know, if they said that, you might think they're just being imaginative. You know, kids and their natural need to imagine and play pretend? Some kids pretend their knights, some pretend to be superheroes, and some pretend to be pilots because that's what they want to be when they grow up. So, to answer Padme's next question...

"How long have you been here?"

It was going to shock her.

"Since I was very little. Three, I think." said Anakin. But that wasn't the shocking part. "My mom and I were sold to Gardulla the Hutt, but she lost us betting on the Pod races."

That was the shocking part.

"You're a slave?" Padme gasped.

"I'm a person, and my name is Anakin." the boy, Anakin, said, sounding offended.

"I'm sorry," said Padme. "I don't fully understand. This is a strange place to me."

She wasn't the only one who didn't fully understand this place.

Jar Jar, being Jar Jar, tapped one of the droids sitting on a shelf, and it popped up like one of those springy toys and began gallivanting around the shop, messing with Jar Jar, making the poor gungan fall over and knock over a couple pieces of merchandise as he tried to get the droid under control.

Luckily, Jar Jar managed to grab the droid before it could knock anything else down. The only problem? Jar Jar didn't know how to switch it off.

"Hey. Hit the nose." Anakin said.

"Oh. Uh..." Jar Jar hit the nose, and sure enough, the droid deactivated.

_____________________________

Meanwhile, Watto showed Qui-Gon to his junkyard out back, where there were all kinds of parts. Droid parts, ship parts, pod pieces, and parts for what looked like air conditioning, which was probably a big hit for some folks on this planet.

"A T-14 hyperdrive generator. Thee in luck." Watto said. "I'm the only one hereabouts who has one. But thee might as well buy a new ship. It would be cheaper huh?"

Watto chuckled, and speaking of cheaper... Watto inquired how Qui-Gon intended to pay for the stuff.

"I have 20,000 Republic dataries." Qui-Gon said.

"Republic credits?" Watto said, not pleased. "Republic credits are no good out here. I need something more real."

"I don't have anything else, but..." Qui-Gon waved his hand to play a Jedi mind trick on Watto. "Credits will do fine."

"No, they won't."

Qui-Gon tried again, but Watto was unaffected by the Force. It appeared Watto was too strong-minded for mind tricks.

"What, you think you're some kind of Jedi, waving your hand around like that?" Watto said. "I'm a Toydarian. Mind tricks don't work on me. Only money. No money, no parts, no deal."

But then, Watto noticed something shining from under Qui-Gon's robes.

"What's this?" Watto tried to touch whatever was around Qui-Gon's neck, but...

__________________________________
"Wouldn't have lasted long anyways if I wasn't so good at building things," said Anakin.

Suddenly... BANG! CRASH! CLANG!

The ground shook very strongly, and so did everything else. Anakin almost fell right onto the floor from the counter, but luckily Jar Jar fell on his back, allowing his stomach to cushion the child's fall a little. And there was a lot of loud clunking and clanging coming from Watto's junkyard.

As soon as the shaking settled down, Qui-Gon rushed back in and urged the others to leave quickly.

"I'm glad to have met you, Anakin." Padme smiled before Qui-Gon scooped her in his arms and ran with her, Jar Jar following suit.

"I'm glad to have met you too!" Anakin shouted, hoping Padme heard him.

Just then, Watto flew in, struggling to get a bucket off of his head, but only succeeding in crashing into the wall, making the bucket shake violently like a gong and make him very dizzy. Anakin couldn't hold back his giggles as he watched the scene before him.

Watto managed to get his head free, albeit the fact that he was seeing stars.

"Outlanders..." Watto said dizzily in Huttese. "They think we know... nothing."

"They seemed nice to me," said Anakin in Huttese.

Watto shook himself out of his dizziness and managed to get his eyes to stop spinning.

"Clean the racks, and then you can go home."

"Yippee!"

Anakin happily jumped up and went to get his last job for the day done.

_______________________________

Qui-Gon contacted Obi-Wan and asked him and the crew to check for anything on board they could possibly trade for the parts they needed. Anything valuable. They had a queen on board, so they were bound to have something valuable like jewelry, expensive trinkets, and other stuff. But, not this time.

The crew checked the entire ship, but found nothing tradable.

"And you're sure there's nothing left on board?" said Qui-Gon over the comm.

"A few containers of supplies. The queen's wardrobe, maybe, but not enough for you to barter with," said Obi-Wan. "Not in the amount you're talking about."

______________________________

Qui-Gon was afraid of this, but worrying or complaining... neither of those things would be helpful in this scenario. They just needed to wing it at this point.

"All right. I'm sure another solution will present itself." Qui-Gon assured his Padawan. "I will check back later."

And he hung up.

"Noah gain! Noah again." Jar Jar said, not liking the idea of sticking around here. "Da beings hereabouts, cawazy! Wesa be wobbed un crunched!"

"Not likely." Qui-Gon said. "We have nothing of value. That's our problem."

Qui-Gon wasn't quite sure what to do. The having nothing of value part wasn't entirely true. What Qui-Gon had around his neck was something very valuable, but he couldn't let anyone else get their hands on it. So, for now, he, Padme, and Jar Jar had to keep walking until a new solution presented itself. However, Jar Jar stopped to look at a stand where he spotted what looked like a tasty snack.

Jar Jar caught the snack on his tongue, when the stand keeper caught him and asked him in Huttese if he was going to pay for it. But, Jar Jar just released the snack from his tongue, sending it flying across the market and landing at a table where a dug sat, and got his drink spilled all over him.

"Ah! Chubaa-" growled the dug.

Jar Jar tried to just walk away, innocently whistling, but the dug jumped at Jar Jar and knocked him to the ground before waving the dead snack in the gungan's face.

"Is this yours?" said the dug in Huttese.
"Who, mesa?" Jar Jar tried to talk his way out of it, to no avail.

At some point, Qui-Gon turned back to see Jar Jar was in trouble, starting to get choked by the dug, and he was about to rush over to help him, when a familiar little boy stepped in and spoke to the dug.

"Careful, Sebulba." Anakin said in Huttese. "He's a big time outlander. I'd hate to see you diced before we race again."

"Next time we race, boy, it will be the end of you." Sebulba threatened. "If you weren't a slave, I'd squash you now."

Qui-Gon, in particular, didn't like the way Sebulba was speaking to Anakin, but the little one didn't seem afraid.

"Yeah, it'd be a pity if you had to pay for me." Anakin teased as Sebulba left.

That was when Qui-Gon and Padme finally approached, and Anakin was quick to notice and say hi to his new friends.

"Hi there." Qui-Gon said.

"Your buddy here was about to be turned into orange goo." Anakin explained. "He picked a fight with a Dug, and especially dangerous Dug called Sebulba."

Qui-Gon helped Jar Jar up, the latter relieved he was still alive.

"Mesa haten crunchen. Das da las ting mesa want."

"Nevertheless, the boy is right," said Qui-Gon. "You were heading into trouble." He looked at Anakin and ruffled the boy's hair, making him laugh. "Thanks, my young friend."

And so, the travelers took off. However, this time, Qui-Gon was the one who slowed down to look over his shoulder at Anakin. The boy was so young, so sweet, and so innocent. How could fate have placed him in such a cruel place? It made Qui-Gon wonder so much, mainly about why there wasn't more being done to end all slavery in the galaxy, especially for the sake of children such as Anakin.

________________________________

Back at the ship, Obi-Wan stepped outside for some air, when he sensed something was coming. Something was coming alright, something big and very dangerous.

Obi-Wan looked out in the distance to see a huge cloud of dust heading in the direction of the outskirts and the town Qui-Gon and the others were in.

"This storm will slow them down," Obi-Wan confirmed with the captain.

"Looks pretty bad." the captain agreed. Then something on his belt beeped. He took out his comm to answer. "Panaka."

"Receiving a message from home." said a man over the comm.

"We'll be right there."

So, the captain and Obi-Wan rushed back to the ship to have shelter from the storm.

__________________________________

Anakin met again with his new friends and brought them to a stand where they had some treats Anakin wanted to introduce them to.

"Here, you'll like these pallies." Anakin said, giving Qui-Gon a pally.

"Thank you."

Qui-Gon put the pally into a pouch for later, exposing something on his belt that astonished Anakin. A lightsaber.

"Oh, my bones are aching." said the lady running the stand. "Storm's coming up, Ani. You better get home quick."

Anakin nodded. He knew better than to be outside during a storm, but then he wondered about his friends.

"Do you have shelter?" He asked.

"We'll head back to our ship." Qui-Gon said.

"Is it far?"

"It's on the outskirts." Padme answered.

Anakin was afraid of that.

"You'll never reach the outskirts in time. Sandstorms are very, very dangerous. Come on. I'll take you to my place."

_____________________________________

Anakin brought his new friends to his home quickly, and they'd arrived right in the nick of time because the storm had just started to hit their location. Everyone tried to keep from getting sand into their eyes, which was far from easy, until Anakin opened his front door and they all managed to get inside.

"Mom. Mom, I'm home!" Anakin called.

"Ahh, dissen cozy." Jar Jar said.

And into the front area came a woman with brown hair tied back in a bun and blue eyes like Anakin.

"These are my friends, Mom." Anakin said.

However, when Qui-Gon saw Shmi, he had a look of shock on his face, again, like he'd just reunited with a long-lost friend or something. But this time, the friend he was looking at had the very same expression on her own face.

"Hello there." Qui-Gon said, albeit awkwardly.

Anakin, however, paid no mind to the grownups' behavior.

"I'm building a droid. You wanna see?" Anakin asked Padme.

"Your son was kind enough to offer us shelter." Qui-Gon said.

Anakin took Padme's hand and escorted her to another part of the house.

"Come on. I'll show you 3PO."

R2-D2 decided to have a look around too. He followed the kids.

________________________________

R2 followed the two kids into a room where Anakin pulled a blanket off of what appeared to be a droid skeleton.

"Isn't he great? He's not finished yet." Anakin said.

Padme was impressed with the work Anakin had done so far. All the wiring, circuitry, and parts were put together so perfectly.

"He's wonderful."

"You really like him?" Anakin said. "He's a protocol droid to help Mom. Watch."

Anakin flipped a switch, and turned the droid.

"Oh. Oh. Uh- Where is everybody?" said 3-PO.

And that was when Anakin noticed 3-PO only had one eye.

"Whoops!" Anakin looked around and found the piece he needed.

And he placed the part for 3-PO's other eye in just the right spot. Now 3-PO could see.

"Oh, hello. I am C-3PO, human-cyborg relations. How might I serve you?"

"He's perfect." Padme smiled.

"Oh. Perfect." 3-PO sounded flattered, at least for a droid.

"When the storm is over, I'll show you my racer," Anakin promised. "I'm building a Podracer."

Threepio picked himself up and started to walk around.

"I'm not sure this floor is entirely stable." Threepio said, and then he noticed R2. "Oh, hello. I don't believe we have been introduced."

R2 beeped to introduce himself.

"R2-D2. A pleasure to meet you. I am C-3PO, human-cyborg relations."

But then, R2 beeped something else.

"I beg your pardon, but what do you mean, 'naked'?"

R2 beeped again.

"My parts are showing? My goodness! Oh!"

Anakin and Padme couldn't help giggling at Threepio's expense.

______________________________________

The storm was still brewing outside, and from inside the Nubian ship, a different kind of storm was forming.

Governor Bibble called with a critical message.

"The death toll is catastrophic. We must bow to their wishes. You must contact me."

As soon as the message was off, Obi-Wan stood up.

"It's a trick," said Obi-Wan. "Send no reply. Send no transmissions of any kind."

Of course, Obi-Wan was quick to contact his master on this matter.

________________________________

"It sounds like bait to establish a connection trace." Qui-Gon hypothesized.

"What if it is true, and the people are dying?" Obi-Wan said.

"Either way, we're running out of time."

______________________________

Meanwhile, on the city planet of Coruscant....

On a balcony somewhere, Darth Maul was walking with his master Darth Sidious, to inform him he was ready for the mission.

"Tatooine is sparsely populated," said Maul. "I will find them quickly, Master."

"Move against the Jedi first," said Sidious. "You will then have no difficulty in taking the queen to Naboo to sign the treaty."

"At last we will reveal ourselves to the Jedi. At last we will have revenge."

"You have been well-trained, my young apprentice. They will be no match for you."