7 Star Wars: Werrin the Worried

The Junkers had their own system for electing the village leader; only the eldest thirty in the village got to vote on who to elect and their age became their voting power. For example, Doc's vote counted for fifty-two ballots, his age. Whichever candidate had the most ballets became the leader, irrelevant of there own personal desires, as anyone in the village could be elected by the elders forcefully.

Incidentally, Jent was among the eldest thirty, number twenty-nine to be exact, at the age of thirty-seven.

Werrin had not been voted in because of his managerial skill, neither was it because of his ability to lead and he wasn't what you'd call wise either. Werrin had been voted in for a single very special reason...

He was bloody suicidal.

That's not to say he wanted to die, no Werrin liked himself far too much for that to be the case, but more so that he had the habit of taking great risks out in the heaps, something he had probably picked up from his mentor, Jent.

The Doc had a lot of sway among the elders in the village and along with his own sizable vote he had managed to confine Werrin to the village as its leader, much to Werrin's disapproval.

Jent and Ian were making their way to Werrin, who could be found atop his throne in the residential area; at the village's centre. With Ian now awake and walking on his own two feet, the pair got a lot more attention than before and many Junkers walked up to Jent asking him what was going on. "Found an off-worlder. Going to see Werrin" he would reply simply, not stopping to chat.

As Ian followed Jent, watching him talk to the other Junkers, he thought to himself 'What a strange language,' the Junkers spoke with an odd mixture of short words and bird-like chirps, completely foreign to any language that could be found on Earth.

It wasn't long before they reached Werrin's home, which he had made his official place of business. Standing outside Werrin's door were two sentries; both bodyguard and warden, they watched out for possible threats and kept Werrin 'safe'. The guards stood silent and simply waved Ian and Jent through, they were expected.

Inside Werrin sat atop a throne, one that he had crafted for himself out of various pilot seats brought from the bazaar. He was slouched to one side, his head was propped up by an arm and his eyes were half-closed. He was snoring; asleep.

'Who's this lazy bastard?' Ian thought, looking at the sleeping 'King' on the throne.

"Werrin!" Jent shouted.

"Huh, huh," Werrin sat up stretched and yawned, much like Ian had earlier.

Jent let out a little chuckle, comparing the two in his mind. "You up now? I take it that Nu'bar has been by, so why are you sleeping, an off-worlder not interesting enough for you." Jent joked.

"You'd be tired too if you had to spend all-day, quelling petty squabbles, sorting through resource allocations and talking to that old todger Buskin," Werrin complained before looking down at Ian. "So this is him.. is it? He doesn't look all that impressive," he said, getting up off his throne and walking up to Ian.

Ian watched Werrin approach, warry. Werrin crouched down and looked Ian in the eye before grabbing his cheeks. "Hmmm, he certainly feels normal, all soft and--- Youch!" Ian had grabbed one of Werrin's fingers and bent it, not enjoying the grandma-like pinch from another man.

"Tch," Ian tutted before letting go, worried he might have caused trouble for Jent.

"Fiesty one isn't he? Damm that really hurt," Werrin whined to Jent.

"Stop messing with the boy, he's been through enough as is."Jent scolded and Ian relaxed a little, seeing his saviour scolding the supposed 'king'.

"Ok, ok... Let's get to the matter at hand then, I've heard Nu'bars side of things but he didn't really have much to tell." Werrin said, blowing on his bruised finger in between words.

Jent filled him in on what had happened out in the heaps, how he had found Ian and the state he found the SSP9 refuge in.

"Tsk, it's not the first time this has happened, just last week we lost Dresden and Peretti, almost exactly the same way too. Kuleski left his post, he comes back, and they both just up and vanished. At this rate, I'm going to have to seal off some of the tunnels so I can double up the guard, otherwise their just going to get picked off two at a time." Werrin said, bitterness in his voice."

"Or we could organise a raid party, hunt down the killer," Jent suggested.

"Ah, hunt it down... yes a fantastic idea," Werrin said with a conniving glint in his eye.

"Werrin, don't even bother. I know exactly what you're thinking," Jent said, knowing full well that Werrin was plotting to sneak off and hunt the creature down himself.

"What are you talking about Jent," grinning, Werrin shook his head in denial "I'm not thinking anything."

"That's exactly your problem Werrin," Jent lamented, "You don't think."