Chapter 2

Leia tries to move her arms, but fails. Her legs are equally immobile. What she can feel are three leather straps on each limb and two more straps, pinning her to a hard substance. This was part one of scientific torture.

Though Leia cannot see it due to the sack covering her head, she has been tied across a metal table. The table has been placed vertically so as to grant Ortugg, the chief of Jabba's nine Gamorrean guards, a clear punch to her stomach.

Leia feels the breath getting knocked out of her, making her gasp. Ortugg slaps at her chest, causing her to hiss. He chops her right thigh, causing her to shriek. The beating goes on for a solid hour, with Leia's cries echoing throughout the room. Ortugg is careful to not use his full power; Jabba would kill him or worse if one bruise or cut was found on the girl.

After the hour had passed, Ortugg leaves Leia as she is. Leia spent the next hour adjusting to the pain from his strikes. Once she feels better, she tries to move a bit to relieve pressure on her arms. At this, Ortugg leaps forward and gives Leia another fierce strike to the stomach. Leia resolves to not move again for as long as it took.

After another hour, Leia has become numbingly bored. She is still spread-eagled and unable to see; she could not even count ceiling tiles now. There had to be something she could do. She tried to picture Luke's rescue mission; Jabba getting sliced in two with a lightsaber, the palace getting detonated, Han regaining his sight and taking her into his arms.

After another hour of these fantasies, however, Leia once again is left with an unoccupied mind. She tries clicking her teeth to pass time, but Jubnuk jumps up and punches her in the groin this time. She screams, provoking Jubnuk into punching her in the stomach. It takes Leia quite a bit to recover from these blows. An hour passes. Then two. Then three.

Leia is losing her mind. But she knows that she should just stay quiet and still. Do not rebel for nothing, She reminds herself. All she can hear are a few grunts from the pig-like Gamorrean, which soon serve to annoy her. But she can't even cover her ears...

One hour passes. Then another one. Finally, Ortugg walks over to Leia and whips the bag off her head. As Leia gasps and begins to recover from seeing the bright lights of the punishment room, another Gamorrean walks in with the gold collar and leash.

Leia can only sigh as her neck is chained once more. At least Ortugg undoes the straps before she gets dragged out of the room.

Leia has almost forgotten how cumbersome her jerba hide boots were, and it proved difficult to stumble through the dark hallways of the Palace. The fact that that Ortugg was walking behind her with a ready blaster did nothing to help her situation.

It is not long before Leia and her escort reached the throne room, where Jabba was throwing another party. He eyes immediately go wide upon seeing her, and he bellows for the Gamorreans to pick up the pace. C3P0 can only watch in horror.

As soon as he gets hold of the leash, Jabba shoves Leia to the ground and pulls her into his bulky stomach. He pulls hard on the leash as a final admonishment before relenting and rubbing her shoulders.

After a moment of observing the usual debauchery and movement of the party. He belches out something in Huttese. If he could, C3P0 would have grimaced and emptied his stomach. Alas, he could not. He translated Jabba's words, "I see that round in the scientific punishment has humbled you, Princess. But with punishment must come an apology. You may atone yourself before me by dancing."

In any other situation, Leia would have been repulsed. But after half a day of immobility and a session of sitting with Jabba, she was eager for any kind of movement. She quickly got up and ran to the center of the room. With a shout from Jabba, the music and party resumes, with the singer Sly Snootles belting out the song Lapti Nek.

Leia just stood there for a brief second, suddenly unsure of what to do. Her only dance lessons had been during her teenage years on Alderaan, and she felt squeamish about showing off her costumed body for the depraved Hutt. She finally settled on a system of traditional court dancing techniques from Alderaan. She spread her muscled legs and swung them to the beat of Lapti Nek, twirling her body and skirts, her dancing aided by her years of combat training and physical exercise. She felt energetic, euphoric, finally using her limbs and letting out all her contained energy.

Jabba's interest in his new slave's dancing quickly waned. Though the green Oola had excelled at the traditional movements of the great Ryloth schools, she had been taught to show off her lithe green body to satisfy the Hutt's sexual appetite. There was not enough time to teach Leia how to enrich her drab, formal style. What's more, the lack of risque movements forced Jabba to contemplate one of the great inequities between his kind and that of the bipedal species of the galaxy: movement.

He had seen it countless times, all the Hutts had. Humans and Twi'leks and others moving so freely on two appendages, and as carelessly as a Hutt could speak. The most a Hutt could do was to slowly slide across a surface on their tails, and even then, the surface had to be smooth with no obstacles or dents. And as a Hutt who weighed 2993 pounds, Jabba could not even perform that movement, and could only travel by using his repulsorlift dais.

Jabba watched the Princess for a few more moments in mild envy, then commanded the band to play his favorite song, Jedi Rocks. But even this proved incapable of lightening the Hutt's mood, and eventually he shouted that the party was to end. He dragged Leia back to him and the guests began to file out. Leia fell down next to Jabba, winded from her experience. Next time, she told herself, don't use up so much energy.

Before the lights turned out and the palace went on lockdown, the Imperial agent Mara Jade entered the throne room and approached the Hutt. "Master Jabba," Mara says without concealing her impatience. "How long do you intend to stall with the Princess Leia? My Emperor may become impatient." She pauses, flustered. "The reward is optional, of course. The Emperor may increase it if you want."

Jabba smiles at Mara. "Do not be hasty," he says. "You still have a mission to complete, and I intend to help you in any way possible. Please note that I am always eager to work with your Empire. Under the fraudulent peace administered by the galactic Republic, I am free to conduct my business and other activities with your Emperor's permission. For now, I have no benefit from turning against you. You are dismissed."

Mara gives a curt bow and exits the throne room, allowing Leia to breathe a little easier. Jabba thrust his hand into his snack aquarium to grab a Klatooine paddy frog before wolfing it down. In doing so, little chunks of it fell from his mouth and upon the costume of his captive, causing her to recoil in disgust. This gave Jabba an idea.

He gave a quick jerk with the leash, forcing Leia to her feet and facing him. He quickly grabs another frog and brings it to his mouth, biting it's head off. He then thrusts it at Leia, who appropriately gags and turns her head away. In response, Jabba gathers more of the leash in his hand and pulls, choking the Princess.

After a half a minute, Jabba relents, allowing Leia to wheeze and gasp for air. She very reluctantly takes the remainder of the frog and huddles beneath Jabba to eat it. The flesh is slippery and acrid. The blood is sour and it's smell assaults her nose. She has to carefully pull out the bones. But she cannot resist eating it, not with Jabba in such proximity.

When his captive has finished eating the entirety of the frog, even the internal organs, Jabba smiles and strokes her face, pleased with her act of submission. He lifts her face up, capturing her small human eyes with his huge reptilian ones. He eventually pushes her by the shoulder, arranging her to lay along the side of his bulbous belly. She does not resist.

It is not long before the besieged princess and the smug Hutt fall asleep together. C3P0 can only watch in disgust.