Hey everyone!! Or to those who actually want to listen........(crickets can be heard chirping in the silence)......ok, then. Hi to me!!! Ok. This isn't really working is it? Fine, next part of the story.....
Full disclaimer on ch1
Oh, i almost forgot.
Heidi: The words Aeterno Estel are actually half latin half elvish. Hehehe. Estel is elvish for hope (according to Tolkien). If you've ever seen Lord Of The Rings, that was Aragorn's name when he was younger. Hope.
****Like a tunnel that you follow
To a tunnel of it's own
Down a hollow to a cavern
Where the sun has never shone
- The Windmills Of Your Mind
****Obi-Wan looked up from his work - stacking crates and unloading the pallets. His back ached, actually, he just ached all over. But his back hurt the worst. Everytime he breathed his back felt like it had red-hot fire leaping all over it and his ribs felt like they were shoving knives into his lungs.
He wiped his hand over his face and brushed his sandy-colored hair back over his shoulder. (God, it's annoying!) Over the last 3 months it had grown long and he had just let it grow. It was naturally kept neat by a piece of rope that held it back from his face but at the moment it hung over his eyes, damp from his sweat. He paused and caught Billy's eyes. She was at the conveyer belt piecing together some sort of weapon.
They worked in an ammunitions factory. He unloaded the boxes and placed the parts on the belt, he was the muscle. Then the quick and nimble-fingered girls would let the fingers flit over the belt and snap bits of metal together, inserting crystals, adding screws, viewfinders, passing it through the lasers to fuse the wires together and putting down a semi-finished weapon back down on the conveyer belt. As far as the rank of importance went, he was the lowest of the low. All he did was move boxes around - admittedly some of them were so heavy that it took all his power and more but the girls were considered more important over him. They had the skill to put together a blaster in 10 seconds. He had the skill to move a box and empty it in 5 minutes.
Obi-Wan grimaced imagining what the weapons were actually used for. It couldn't be good. Billy caught his glance and grinned back, momentarily stopping to make faces at him. Obi-Wan smiled in spite of himself. That girl just made him laugh when he was down. It was almost like she knew his feeling inside out. When he had been at the depth of his depression, she was there to keep urging him on. He stood a moment longer looking at her, (She's really pretty actually) The thought shocked him. He had never seen her in that light. Sure, she was pretty, most girls were, but she was quite breath-taking if you mentally scrubbed the dirt and grime off her and added some meat to her bones.
(Fantastic figure, WHAT?? Stop thinking about it 456! She's your friend, like Bant..........hang on, who the hell is Bant?? Where did that come from?) Obi-Wan didn't realize that his mouth was hanging open, until his eyes re-focused on Billy who was doing an over-exaggerated impersonation of him. She looked quite stupid, with her mouth hanging open, eyes wide and a shocked expression on her face. She then wriggled her eyebrows and rolled her eyes. Obi-Wan's smile turned to frown as a guard stepped up behind her and backhanded her across the back of her head. Obi-Wan started to move forward but a glance at Billy made him stop, her eyes were warning him to come no closer. Even though he was across the other side of the room he could quite clearly hear the screaming of the guard.
"What do you THINK you're DOING? You're paying no attention! I've been watching you, it's been almost 5 minutes and you haven't DONE anything! INSOLENT SLAVE! Don't you EVER slack off! You do this again and I'll leave you in the guardhouse for a night to let them teach you a lesson! Do you hear me girly? I'm sure they wouldn't mind a pretty piece of meat like you to keep them company on a cold night, do you understand?" Obi-Wan swallowed; he would kill this guard if he laid a finger on her.
"Yes", the word was merely a whisper, Obi-Wan could see that the threat had shaken the girl, she had turned pale and was trembling slightly.
"What did you say?" The words were calm but dangerously monotone.
"Yes, SIR!" Louder this time, so that everyone could hear it, emphasis on the sir.
"Good. That's a good little slave. Now get back to work before I decide to take you myself........"he left the sentence hanging , grinned evilly and took a step back, still watching.
Billy got up from the ground, where the man had struck her down and her fingers began to flit once more over the belt, although Obi-Wan knew her enough to know that she was still shaken, it was just the stiffness in her shoulders that gave her away.
(One day......one day, I'm going to kill those guards) Obi-Wan thought darkly as he returned to work. He kept glancing up at her but she kept her eyes firmed glued to her work and that made him even more angry. Guards scaring her into submission, he would NEVER bow to them. NEVER!
Hours passed and Obi-Wan's back ached incessantly. The hours seemed interminable but surely the light grew dim within the factory as the planet's twin suns began their descent. Billy hadn't looked at him since the incident, something that Obi-Wan could understand but couldn't understand. A siren sounded twice and Obi-Wan dropped the box he had been unloading in relief. The other slaves finished up, packed up their gear and started to file out to get the dinner rations before heading to bed.
Obi-Wan finally caught Billy's eye as she lined up and he gave her a comforting smile, in return he received a wan smirk. He pointed to himself and made a series of complicated hand movements to mean that he would be out there shortly. The slaves had made their own silent communication system; it came in useful when there was a total talking ban. It had taken Obi-Wan 2 months to learn the basics of "What?" "When" and "GODDAMMIT" - or words to that effect. He smiled internally as Billy replied saying she'd wait outside for him, he replied to her saying, with several hand movements that made Billy grin, to save him some food. It had become a personal joke between them. When the guards had been at their worst, halving the boy's rations, Billy had taken to stealing extra food to feed him. Obi-Wan had been horrified when he had found out where the extra food was coming from and had made Billy promise never to do it again. She had agreed sullenly and that had been the end of it, or so he liked to think.
Obi-Wan stacked his boxes back up, tidying up his work station and turned to leave but suddenly a hand clapped onto his shoulder. He winced at the sudden pressure and unconsciously looked up........
...............into his new master's face. The look of speculation that had been brooding there quickly changed to one of amazement and then horror then contempt. The boy couldn't help staring When the boy didn't turn his eyes away the man's face swiftly turned to anger and he hit the boy solidly in the face. The force of the blow took the boy by surprise, it spun him around and he ended up on the ground, dazed.
"Haven't you taught your merchandise it's manners?" A voice was sneering, "You know, I might decide to not take this pitiful creature after all......."
The boy shook his head fuzzily (What did I do wrong?) He shakily regained his feet and wiped the trickle of blood that was slowly seeping from his nose. "I'm sorry if I offended you-" it was as far the boy got before the slave lord struck him in the back with the electrified staff.
"Merchandise doesn't speak! Merchandise doesn't meet eyes. Slaves have no right to look someone in the eye like an equal. You are a slave boy, if we want to see your eyes we'll gouge them out and hang them up, got it?" The seller pushed his argument into the boy with several more blows to his unprotected ribs. He then turned back to his customer, "I'm sorry about that but he's only new. Found him wondering around like an idiot. Doesn't have any memory, couldn't even walk properly before I got to him. I'll bring down his selling price because of the damage that I've had to inflict on him, but I've taught him a lesson that he won't forget, will you slave?"
Obi-Wan had once more gotten to his feet and had indeed learnt his lesson. He kept his eyes firmly on the ground. He didn't even speak but just shook his head.
"You see? Still learning, just got to re-educate him you see? Now, let's see again. How much did you pay for him? I'll lower the price because of simplicity, and here is the girl that you also bided for, now isn't she a pretty creature?
The sale had gone quickly but it had all been a blur to the boy who was still trying to come to terms with the fact he had no memory, he was a slave and the new 'lessons' he was learning. He had never forgotten that lesson though, never, EVER look up.........
...............and quickly corrected his gaze, his lesson coming back to him. He stared at the ground impassively as the voice reached his ears, "Are you slave 456?"
Obi-Wan nodded mutely (No talking) he remembered.
"As part of your punishment you have been given another work assignment. You have been given the rest of this night to move all the boxes that have just been freighted. The boxes are currently outside and you have to move them inside, into Holding Bay 15. Understand?" The voice carried no emotion, no hint of sympathy.
After the first initial shock of this task in front of him he nodded silently. (Just you wait.......one day, I'll get those guards.......) The guard left noiselessly. Obi-Wan sighed and plodded out to the cargo doors and sure enough; there were the pallets, stacked high with packages that had to be taken inside. Just as the boy watched, his face drooping while analyzing how long it was going to take, the clouds opened up and it began to rain. It wasn't hard rain but just a drizzle, light enough to see through, heavy enough to be annoying.
As Obi-Wan watched the guards retreating back a thought sprung into his mind and he started. He cursed silently and ran after the disappearing guard. A feeling of rebellion overtook him and as he tugged on the guards uniform. He looked up, past his eyes and spoke, "Would I be able to get my dinner rations first?"
The guard surveyed the battered boy in front of him without a flicker of sympathy. He took in the torn shirt, the bruised face, the swollen lip, the bloody clothes, the black eye and the ribs clearly showing through the skin. The thought of pity didn't even enter his mind. The boy was slave, that's all there was to it - who really cares about slaves? He had grown up with slaves all around him and although he didn't mistreat them he couldn't care less if there were mistreated. To him they were just like a piece of machinery, they weren't human, they were slaves. He consulted his data-pad and replied, "It doesn't say anything about not receiving them here, all you need to do is make sure that the boxes are in Holding Bay 15 by the next sun circle." The guard looked at his watch, "That means you have 8 hours", he said curtly and walked away.
****Any suggestions? Hurry it up?
****