Into the Halls of the Slug King [Nar Shaddaa]

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Her jumpsuit was torn and dirty, her slim shoulder exposed as one sleeve was about to rip off completely. Lilaena wanted to pull on it, but the binders on her hands made it impossible. Nar Shaddaa had a unique smell: equal parts algae and industrial exhaust. There was an iron bite to the air; an undercurrent of blood that only got stronger as they reached their destination.

It was a non-descript building, a two-story high warehouse stacked in a tall building of other warehouses. Landing pads suitable for a single freighter spiraled around the 'scraper to serve the various companies who took residence within. The ship she'd been brought in sat venting coolant on the pad for this level, the ramp closing up behind them.

Just outside the warehouse a squat, flying alien was yelling at some humans, and turned to greet the newcomers with a slick grin. The effect was ruined by his dangling proboscis. "Hello! You are a leetle early, but I appreciate a prompt arrival! Let me see the merchandise!"

The man behind her shoved her forward so that the hovering Toydarian could get a good look. Lilaena grimaced and turned her head as the foul smelling alien got close.

[Jeng]

“Let me see, let me see…”

He hovered left then right, his small wings beating furiously as he appraised the human woman from a dozen angles, all the while hemming and hawing. Was she too dirty, he wondered aloud. Was she too thin, or not… exotic enough for his buyers? Humans were practically ten-a-credit these days, after all. You couldn’t walk down a pedwalk without tripping over two dozen willing to sell themselves into bondage. The alien bobbed forward in midair, reaching out to lift her chin, but his fingers froze a moment from her face.

“Look with your eyes,” said the figure behind Lilaena.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

The Toydarian sucked in a disapproving breath, but his hand retreated. "Perhaps her mouth is full of rot, then, eh?" He sneered, backing up a touch.

Jeng poked her in the middle of the back and Lilaena glared at the ground, but grudgingly lifted her head and bared her teeth. The Toydarian nodded approvingly.

"Fine, fine. But she is too skinny. Too old. Does she have any skills? Good with her hands, perhaps, eh?" The alien grimaced suggestively and Lilaena looked down at the ground again, her cheeks coloring.

[Jeng]

“Throw her in a fighting pit and find out for yourself.”

The Toydarian wrinkled his snout and drifted a touch further back from the slave. “She’s not too feisty, though, eh? I don’t need trouble makers,” he said, bulbous eyes narrowing.

“She’s well-trained. She’ll do what she’s told.”

Jeng took a step forward and, to illustrate his point, said: “Kneel.”

[Lilaena De'Ville]

She turned her head to look at him and fire leapt to her eyes again, but she grudgingly got to her knees.

“Oh, ho, sometimes they like them with a little fire though, eh? So, she’s a fighter...” The Toydarian stroked his hairy chin, proboscis quivering. “Could fetch a little more. Not marked up on her face; pretty enough, if you like that sort of thing, eh? I have to see her in action if you want top price, but I will give you a hundred credits right now.”

He smiled smugly. “Blotto always gives the best price for slaves, you won’t get better price anywhere on Nar Shaddaa.”

[Jeng]

“He does? I’d love to know where to find him then. I’m sure Blotto would know a five-hundred credit slave when he saw one.”

His expression a tight, humourless smile, Jeng shook his head at the Toydarian, then nudged Lilaena with the toe of his boot.

“Up. Let’s go.”

[Lilaena De'Ville]

She awkwardly pushed herself up with bound hands as Blotto protested.

”Five hundred credits? Perhaps three. Not five. I am just a businessman, you understand, eh?”

[Jeng]

Jeng had taken hold of the slave’s binders, ready to lead her away in search of a more generous buyer.

“Three hundred?” He paused, looking between Blotto and Lilaena. She looked up at him, something unspoken in her eyes. This was what they’d rehearsed, the inevitable to-and-fro these sorts of exchanges apparently involved. Don’t accept the first offer, but don’t push back too hard. Blotto had to feel like he was getting a good deal, but not so good that he was suspicious.

“Alright. Three hundred and I’ll take the credits right now, since you so kindly offered.”

[Lilaena De'Ville]

“Alright, alright,” Blotto waved his small arms and a trio of haphazardly armed individuals separated from the shadows inside the warehouse. Two took Lilaena’s arms and the other handed Jeng a calibrated credit chit, having obviously monitored the conversation from a distance.

”A pleasure a-doing business with you, eh? If you have more you know where to bring them!” The Toydarian leered, and Lilaena didn’t look back as she was half-dragged into the building.

She managed to get her feet underneath her as the darkness closed in around her, her eyes slowly adjusting before she was shoved into a communal cage. She stuck her arms through the bars when asked and the stuncuffs were removed.

Lilaena rubbed her wrists and prepared to settle in for the night. If she minded her own business she’d make it to market the next day with no problems.

[Jeng]

Like the rest of the Smuggler’s Moon, the markets of Nar Shaddaa did not sleep. Credits and chattel alike moved freely at all hours of the day and night. Under flickering neon lights, through smoke-veiled cantinas and grimy warehouses, trade flowed, the black life-blood of the city.

By morning, Blotto had divided his stock into parcels, sectioning them off either by species or by skill, sometimes by both. There were markets where he could only sell unmarked flesh, to buyers with precise predilections who wanted a pretty bauble to decorate their home or business. There were others that wanted able bodies with some life in them, to be shipped off to work in mines and labour camps throughout the Outer Rim territories.

Jeng found the auction house easily enough. He'd debated coming in some sort of disguise, but there was no need. Evidently, no one on Nar Shaddaa was making any effort to conceal what they were doing. Throngs of potential buyers wandered among the cages, peering at slaves of all shapes and sizes. Jeng was just another face in the crowd of potential buyers, feigning casual interest in a job lot of malnourished Twi’lek being sold as dancers when the auctioneer called the crowd to attention.

Citizens of the Galaxy had barely tasted their first sip of morning coffee but on Nar Shaddaa, the first slave was about to be sold.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Lilaena sat in the corner of the cage she'd been shunted into, staring dully at the crowd of buyers that were starting to build up outside. Most were representatives of well-off citizens in Hutt space, or businessmen looking for labor, but some were majordormos to the Hutts themselves. A Devorian in deep green robes stared into the cages of fighters, talking to a guard standing to the side.

The guard grunted and turned, brandishing his shockprod. "Stand up!" he bellowed in accented Basic, jabbing the electrified end into the bars and giving anyone who was leaning against them a jolt. Lilaena flinched and got to her feet, stretching out the kinks as the Devorian pointed out a couple of the bigger males to the guard.

She'd been stripped of the filthy jumpsuit and given a pair of shorts and a tank top to wear, to better show off the merchandise. All the fighters had been oiled to accentuate their musculature. The woman who'd been in charge of it had tsked at the layers of scars that crisscrossed Lilaena's back, but said nothing. In this business it wasn't the first time she'd come across a slave who'd needed to learn a hard lesson.

Lilaena rolled her neck and popped it satisfyingly, glaring out toward the buyers. She caught a glimpse of Jeng, or perhaps it wasn't him, but then a tall, pale Utapaun glided into view. The majordomo for Tordulla Besadii the Elder, the crime boss who ruled in Bilbousa. Well known for his predilection for betting on the fighting pits, and a stable of his own slave fighters.

As the Utapaun stopped in front of the cage Lilaena bumped into one of the taller fighters and then pushed him away from her. "Watch it, you son of a whore," she growled.

The Klatooinian turned on her quickly, snarling, and she caught him in the jaw with a hard punch. Dazed, he stumbled backward, and a smelly Aqualish fighter roared in disapproval.

Oh, I guess he has a friend. Lilaena ducked the haymakers the Aqualish threw at her, and followed up with a couple jabs into his ribs. She finished off by sweeping his legs out from under him and then fell on top, raining fists into his squashy face.

She screamed with frustration as a shockprod caught her in the side, and then she was dragged off of the groaning slave and thrown into a separate cage.

[Jeng]

The Utapaun's black eyes followed Lilaena as she was hauled from one cage to another, his smile like a brace of knives. Now loitering by a cage of Rodians, Jeng recognised the towering pale alien, based on the descriptions in the intel Lilaena’s source had provided; even from a distance, he was hard to miss.

The auction of lots of fighters would be the first order of business. They could afford to leave the dancers and entertainers to the end of the day, both because they would be unlikely to cause trouble and because it would potentially heighten the buyers interest and excitement, to see but not be able to possess the merchandise. The likes of Lilaena, however, were best not left penned in together for too long.

Jeng scanned the room, looking for any sign of Blotto. Sure enough, he spotted the Toydarian, a short distance away from where Lilaena was being held, deep in an animated conversation with a snarling Barabel.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Licking blood from her knuckles, Lilaena caught the tall Utapaun looking at her and stared back, her blood still hot from the fight. He showed his teeth and turned away, just as Blotto ended his conversation with a Barabel who was upset about something.

"Get these to the front of the cage," the Toydarian wheedled, "The bidding is going to begin. And get that out! He's useless for today." He jabbed a stubby finger toward the groaning Aqualish Lilaena had laid out on the ground. Three of the masked guards jumped into action, one to pull the alien out of the cage, and the other two to unnecessarily threaten the other slaves with their shockprods.

Lilaena appeared disinterested as the auction started; other slaves were highlighted on the vid screens, their vital stats flashing on buyers' padds as encrypted bids were placed. She focused on the Utapaun majordomo, sending a thread of persuasion to his mind and finding he only needed a little push.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Two hours later she was being herded into a transport, securely stuncuffed. After the sale (seven hundred credits!) the Utapaun, Tion Fay, had clicked the collar around her neck himself, smiling thinly.

It was a small ship, suitable for an in-system flight, with a spartan compartment obviously suited for carrying slaves or other cargo. Lilaena assumed that beyond the next set of doors was a more opulent area for Tion Fay and his men.

The majordomo's guards pushed her into a seat, unceremoniously strapping her into place. Lilaena stiffened as a durasteel cord was threaded through a ring on the collar and fastened to the bulkhead. "Sit still," said one of them, giving her restraints a rough test before taking a seat opposite her.

Lilaena watched him intently, letting her eyes stay on his until the man looked uncomfortably away. "Where are we heading?" she asked.

"She talks!" said the other muscle, not looking back from where he was securing the airlock.

"Your new home." The seated guard flicked his eyes over her. "You're lucky, you'll die for the great Tordulla! It is an honor to be chosen for his fighting pits." As he spoke the ship rumbled beneath them as the engines flared to life.

"Tordulla?" Lilaena allowed a trace of trepidation into her tone. "The Besadii boss?"

The two guards chuckled, and the one at the hatch made his way to a seat, pulling his crashwebbing on. "You'll have fun, if what you did to that Aqualish is any indication. You know, before you die."

She hardened her expression. "I won't die that easily."

They laughed again. "That's what they all say."