HOPE  	by Guy Ainge (c) 2007

The first memory was pain.
At a cycle old sold into slavery with a new born sister to pay a families debts.
The pain of loosing that sister fours cycles later when she is sold to another master.
Pain of a slave that knew nothing else except the role of property.  
Training and punishment.  
Learn the dance or be beaten.  
Learn to pleasure or be beaten.  
Most of all learn the pain of survival.
Learn to survive seven standard cycles of this life knowing nothing else.

Then the second memory was of dream.
It was the learning of a word never herd before.  
Freedom.  
What is this freedom?  To live with no masters or keepers.
This was the dream for a cycle.  
To be free.

The next memory is of luck.  
Nine cycles of life. 
On a routine property transfer.  Sold to a new master.  The keepers call the master 'Moff.'  They laugh and say that dancing skill are not needed to please him.  Youth is.  
The transport is hijacked.  A woman enters the cargo hold and searches the containers.  Smiles and pockets her discovery.  Then she looks at the slave cage.
Blackness.  Unconsciousness.  How long.  WHERE!
The cages lock is broken and the door can be opened from the inside.  
The cockpit is destroyed.  The keepers do not move.  With blank eyes they stare out the cockpit window at a planet covered with city for as far as can be seen.  
The device on the control board had numbers.  They are counting backwards.
Run.
The outside hatch opens.  
Run.
The transport exploads.
Run.
Is this Freedom!

A memory of magic.
Two cycles on the city planet.  Coruscant.  The center of the galaxy.
Living in the trash.  
Learning a new form of survival.  Learning that masters and keepers are not the only ones that can cause pain.
Learning to hide from the gangs.
Rockmites pester.  A thought turns them away like magic.  Smile.  Something to be happy about.
Thought of the need for a tool just out of reach.  It rolls just enough to be picked up.  The wind?
A safe house.  An abandoned apartment complex.  Never sleep in the same room twice.  Never have had to sleep in the same room twice.  
Sleep is fitful.
A mind scream.
“Anikin NO!!”
Blackness.
Something to worry about?

The most important memory.  Hope.
A gang has set a trap.  
Foolish walking into a blind alley.  
Thoughts directed to the gang leader do not make him leave.  
No way out.  
Clothes are torn.  
The bruises will just be the beginning.
CRASH!!
A glowing cantina sign hits the ground behind the gang.  A speeder hits the permacreat street in a landing that is more of a crash.  The driver seem to be in a daze.
Then the giant appears.  He steps out of the speeder and moves twords the gang.  He has only one arm.  He is bald.  He is in Robes.  
He is in pain!
“I could not save the Galaxy.” the giant whispers.  
Another mind scream.
Dizziness.
The gang turns from their sport to face the giant.
“I will save this child!” the giant bellows.  
The gang leader rushes the giant.  The giant move as if he knows what the gang leader is going to do before he does it.  
The gang leader swings a Ryck Blade at the giant.  The giant catches the gang leader's arm and smashed his face with his own forehead. 
Ryck Blade now in his hand the giants swings.  The gang leader's head falls to the ground.
The rest of the gang attacks the giant.  In a blur the giant defends himself.
Soon just the giant remains standing.
The giant turns and says, “Child, if you wish, I will teach you so this will never happen again.”
“Yes” is the answer.
This is Hope.
Hope for a real future.
Hope for a real life.
Hope of finding a lost sister.
Hope.