INT. TRAINING CENTRE 14/ROOM 112 - DAY
Within Room 112 of Training Centre 14, several students sit seated at desks, their attentions rapt upon the instructor standing at the head of the class. The instructor, for his part, desperately tries to get a malfunctioning projector to work to no avail.
INSTRUCTOR #2: (sighs) Well, this piece of garbage's busted. (to Anakin and Orowi) I want you two to go to the supply room and bring back another projector.
OROWI: Why both us?
INSTRUCTOR #2: (rolls his eyes) Do you know how heavy one of these things is? I send only one of you, and it'll take you half an hour dragging it here.
OROWI: I don't know if I can lift something that heavy.
INSTRUCTOR #2: You can fly, can't you? You'll be air support. Now go!
With the instructor's command, Anakin and his Toydarian friend both rise to leave the classroom. As they make their way down the empty corridor to the supply room, Orowi flies up beside Anakin, who stares blindly ahead with his mind a million kilometres away.
OROWI: I never studied the uprising in school, but from what I did hear about it, it didn't happen the way Poule says it did. What do you think?
ANAKIN: (absentminded) Uh-huh, yeah.
OROWI: (bemused) Anakin!
ANAKIN: (snaps out of his trance) Hu-wha!?
OROWI: You weren't listening to me.
ANAKIN: Sorry. I've got a trillion things on my mind.
OROWI: I noticed. You've been like that all day. What's the matter?
ANAKIN: I don't know if I should talk about it.
OROWI: Why not?
ANAKIN: Well, it's kind of embarrassing.
OROWI: Oh, c'mon -- gimme the prize.
ANAKIN: (under his breath) It's about Nashira.
OROWI: It's not that time of month, is it?
ANAKIN: (cont'd) She kissed me last night.
The Toydarian freezes, hovering in mid-air.
OROWI: Kissed you?
ANAKIN: (alarmed) Not so loud!
OROWI: (covers him mouth) Sorry! (beat) What did you do? Did you ... you know ... return it?
ANAKIN: (frowns) Of course not. (beat) I pushed her.
OROWI: (cocks an eyebrow) Pushed her?
ANAKIN: I didn't mean to, but she kissed me right when I was waking up from a nightmare.
OROWI: Must have been some nightmare.
Anakin's face goes stoney for a moment.
OROWI: Hit a nerve?
ANAKIN: Yes.
OROWI: I guess we shouldn't talk about it anymore.
The two then end their conversation, continuing on their way to the supply room.
ANAKIN: The nightmare was about Nashira.
OROWI: I thought we weren't going to talk about it anymore.
ANAKIN: (cont'd) She appeared in my dream, but she wasn't really Nashira. She was this beautiful women who wore her face, but it wasn't her.
OROWI: This doesn't really sound like a nightmare to me.
ANAKIN: She led me into a pyramid, to a stone coffin. When I opened it up, I found my own body inside. Then she licked my face.
OROWI: Odd, but still kinky.
ANAKIN: (frowns) Would you quit it with the bad jokes? It isn't funny.
OROWI: Sorry ...
ANAKIN: (cont'd) Her tongue was long and a dark blue or green, covered in tiny, sharp teeth. When she licked my face, she tore it right open. (beat) I can still feel those teeth cutting into me.
OROWI: Odd that you should have that dream right when she was kissing you. Coincidences will happen, I suppose.
ANAKIN: But was it a coincidence?
OROWI: I'm not following.
ANAKIN: Maybe it's a sign, a warning. Maybe the Force is trying to tell me something about 'Shira.
OROWI: Like what?
ANAKIN: I don't know.
OROWI: Did you tell her about the dream?
ANAKIN: I just told her I had a nightmare. I didn't tell her she was in it or that she was a face-eating monster.
OROWI: Maybe you should tell her about it.
ANAKIN: What good would that do?
Orowi simply shrugs.
ANAKIN: (cont'd) Telling her would only freak her out. She's sensitive enough as it is.
They finally come to the door leading into the supply room. Reaching out, Orowi pushes a button set into the door's control panel and it slides open. Stepping inside, they find the room pitch black within.
ANAKIN: It's like a black hole in here. Turn the light on, would ya?
Orowi presses the button for the lights and a dim, gray illumination barely fills the room.
ANAKIN: (sarcastic) Oh, that's so much better.
OROWI: Don't complain to me about it. It's not my fault they haven't changed the tubes.
Taking care not to trip or fly into any obstacles, they make their way deeper into the heavily cluttered supply room.
OROWI: You see one of those projectors lying anywhere?
ANAKIN: Not yet, I --
Anakin freezes as a shape moves in the corner of his vision. Turning to his left, he finds a hulking humanoid shape standing in the deep shadow, its arms wrapped around a cylinder-shaped piece of machinery.
Before either Anakin or Orowi can say or do anything, the shape lunges out of the shadows and takes off into a sprint towards them. Emerging from the deep shadow, the shape reveals itself to be Gurkan the Abyssin. Without so much as a growl, he plows right through Anakin and Orowi, knocking them both sprawling to the floor as he dashes out the door.
OROWI: (rubbing his head) What just hit us?
ANAKIN: I think that was Gurkan. He was holding onto something.
OROWI: What?
ANAKIN: Some piece of machinery, I guess. I didn't get a good look at it.
Together, the two friends right themselves.
OROWI: The way he took off when he saw us tells me that he wasn't supposed to be in here. Maybe we should tell someone.
ANAKIN: Tell someone? Why should we do that?
OROWI: He could be planning to do something with whatever it was he took.
ANAKIN: Oh, really? Like what?
OROWI: You tell me. Maybe he's going to build a bomb with it.
ANAKIN: If he's building a bomb, then let him build a bomb. Maybe he'll blow this place straight to hell and give us the chance to escape. It'll give the Mandies a great big headache they deserve, that's for damned sure. (beat) C'mon, let's find that stupid projector.
Orowi goes quiet. Silently, they continue their search for the elusive projector.