Chapter 10
Jez stares through the cockpit glass as Zamila disappears into swirling dust. It had been many hours since Rast had left. They had tried hailing his communicator but there had been no response. Neither of them, especially Jez, entertained the idea of just leaving him here. Jez wanted to come with her but Zamila thought it better that she went alone. The logic was hard to argue with, Zee had a tough rural background, Jez did not. If Jez called for help she may end up back in slavery, but likely not into an Imperial prison.
Now Jez was alone on the ship with the three worst enemies an addict can have; access, isolation, and time. She touches the small metal device still tucked into her waistband, just to comfort herself in knowing it is still there. She can almost taste "the drip".
"Mistress," a mechanical voice interrupts the fantasy, "Is there anything you need?"
Yes! Take this thing from me and drop it into the compactor! Jez turns to the protocol droid, "No. I don't think so."
"Yes, Mistress," the droid replies with something that sounded to Jez like disappointment.
9-LOM shuffles out of the cockpit to do whatever droids do when they aren't being useful. Out of everyone on board the Black Cat she felt she had the most in common with the strange looking protocol droid, both of them had lived their lives concerned solely with the wants and needs of others. Her primary purpose her entire life had been to be used by people, just like the droid, except she didn't have the luxury to have the ugliness wiped away periodically. Even with this commonality, Jez didn't have any idea how to relate with him. What could they talk about? Their shared experience with the slavers had been wiped from his memory banks. Jez groans and leaves the cockpit.
When Kel had set her up on a "date" with the young spice dealer Renso Tan all those cycles ago he had hoped to gain access to his supplier, Kel didn't intend for a blaster bolt to his ugly bird face. When Jez fell in love with Renso, and ran away with him, she didn't intend to end up in a cage on board a slaver's yacht. So much for best laid plans, she thinks.
Renso was charming, interesting, and the first man in a long time who saw Jez as an actual person. To Renso's credit he did try to buy Jez's freedom from Kel. Kel refused of course. It wasn't that Kel needed her in particular, he had several girls just like her. The man couldn't bear the thought of his property finding happiness. The look of surprise on his face when Renso pulled that blaster was so delicious and she wished she had a holo of it so she can watch it over and over again. Kel was the first man she witnessed being killed, but he wasn't the last. Renso had many enemies, especially after taking out a popular importer for the sake of a slave girl. The lovers left a string of smoking corpses across Hutt Space in the four or so cycles they spent together.
Renso was a passionate man; his love was as intense as his anger. When he killed Jez's master she thought he had secured her freedom, but she soon learned that not all bondage is done with slave collars and contracts. One of the most potent leashes the gangster had on young Jez was a seemingly endless supply of spice. Jez had been a major contributing factor to Renso's fall.
Before the two were together, Renso had never touched spice. He had deduced, correctly in fact, that getting high on his own supply would be a liability that he could not afford. It wasn't long before the two would be doing the narcotic together and soon Renso would go from a massive supplier in Hutt Space and the Outer Rim to just another spice-head, small time criminal.
Jez and Renso's spree of crime came to an abrupt end when Renso burned a group of slavers on Nal Hutta. He took their money to facilitate a large score of spice, and instead took his girlfriend to sip cocktails lakeside on Dandoran. The slavers caught up with them of course, but by then the credits were gone, as was the spice. To save his own skin, he gives the slavers "his last thing of value."
The betrayal of Renso was bad enough, but having to detox from spice, abruptly and completely in a durasteel cage being pawed at by slavers was unbearable. Jez had no idea how long the detox took, or how long she was kept in that cage. Alone in that dark room, time was impossible to calculate. Other girls were eventually added, some were sold off, but Jez remained. It would have been unbearable but for the first time in many years she could think clearly. Though Jez was locked away in a small cage she felt a level of freedom she could scarcely remember. Now, with this tiny device in her waistband, all of that is at risk.
Jez cleans out the last cabin and fortunately (or unfortunately) there was no other hidden contraband. She makes herself a cup of caff and something to eat. She walks through the engineering level where 9-LOM was straightening out one of the crew cabins. With nothing else to do, Jez takes a shower, fuses with her hair, paints her nails. She makes for herself a similar clothing to the ones now crumpled on the floor around the spice-shooter. She tries to sleep but she is restless and only tosses and turns.
Jez was angry. She was frustrated. She was bored to tears. Finally her resolve ceases to keep her from picking up the spice-shooter amongst the pile of dirty clothes, and so she does just that. She places the rounded end up her nostril and hits the little button at the back while she snorts.
The spice hits her nasal cavity like a stampeding bantha and she falls back onto the bed. She can taste the bitter, acrid chemical as it drips down her throat and a warm numbing sensation reverberates through her. She feels so good. Jez remembers instantly how she willingly surrendered so much of herself to the substance. She bites her lip, already fantasizing about her next hit. It's like the first time again all those cycles ago. Suddenly, something has changed. She feels her face flush and her heart race. Something is wrong.
The most common way Jez consumed spice over all those cycles, her entire adolescence and most of her adulthood, was smoking it. She would snort it on occasion but what she didn't know was that dealers would cut their product with other substances. Pure spice, like the stuff in the shooter, was a rare commodity. Perhaps when she was using everyday she could have handled it, but not when It's been months since she's had it in her system. Perhaps if the shooter were calibrated for her size and not a much larger quarren, that may have helped too.
Jez leaps up from the bed and vomits immediately . She tries to steady herself by holding onto the wall but her knees buckle and she almost falls over. She stumbles out into the main living area and tries to call for 9-LOM but it comes out as a garbled mess. She stumbles and falls hard onto the ground but she's too numb to feel it. A warm feeling spreads down her leg as she loses control of her bladder.
Jez is too weak to get back on her feet. She tries to crawl but her arms are weak and uncoordinated. She knows she's dying.
She looks up and can see Renso standing over her with that stupid grin. Kel is with him, a charred hole in place of that bird face. The two laugh hysterically at her but the only sound she hears is a loud ringing. A black figure walks towards her between the two laughing men, it's skeletal hand stretches out towards her and the world goes black.
