Chapter 3: Fighter
As the speeder pulled up to the space port I was surprised by the spaceship of my captor. I was expecting a sleek, black, predatory ship, something that mirrored its ruthless captain. Instead the ship was a dull grey, clunky, trapezoid shaped mess. Mismatching grey plates covered the hull. The front end was sloped back and up, the cockpit was on the starboard side of the ship with a domed glass bubble rising out of the sloped grey metal. Underneath the cockpit was a pair of fixed blaster cannons. On the port side was a gun turret shaped like the cockpit. On the top of the ship was a secondary gun turret. Currently, a boarding ramp extended down from the middle of the ship.
"You fly this hunk of junk." I complained to my captor.
"Did you expect me to fly a menacing, ostentatious ship covered in black and red that screams Sith?" She asked me sarcastically as the speeder pulled to a stop.
"Well no but I expected something that was at least not being held together by spare plates." I wanted to fight back against this unnamed fiend who had thwarted my plans of freedom, even if the only weapon I had was my words.
"The spare plates are a disguise; the ship is in excellent condition. I simply prefer not to scare away all my prey as soon as I enter a system." She said in a cold predatory tone as she slid out of the back of the speeder.
Her words were a simple explanation, but I sensed a threat beneath them; so, I decided to change tactics. "If we are going to be blazing off into space together on this 'wonderful ship' I should at least know your name." I waved my arm at the busted looking ship as I spoke.
"You may call me Khazadora." she answered.
"Well Khazadora my name is…"
"Stop right there. I don't care what your name was before, or anything about your life before today. If you graduate from the Sith Academy the Sith Lords will give you a new name, a name of power, but for now I will call you Jetsam." She declared.
"Jetsam?" I asked incredulously.
"Yes, it's a term for ship cargo that was jettisoned or tossed aside for one reason or another," she explained.
"You named me 'junk'!" I yelled. "You can't just change my name to something that basically means trash."
Meseph waited in the speeder waiting for us to finish our arguement.
Khazadora turned around and grabbed my throat with her armored left hand. "In the eyes of the Sith you are trash. You think the beating I gave you today was bad; you don't know anything. The Sith instructors take pleasure in breaking each one of their students and if you try to escape the pain will be tripled. Every time you succeed, you instructors will hate you more, and as grow stronger your fellow students will plot your death. I'm calling you Jetsam so they underestimate you; it might just save your life."
She let go of my throat and I rubbed my bruised throat. "Do you think you are doing me some big favor taking me to the prestigious Sith Academy where everyone wants to kill me?" I spat at her.
"At least you want be worm food." Tarelk shot back as she marched up the ramp of the ship. "And if you survive you will become more powerful than you ever thought was possible."
As Meseph got out of the speeder I turned around and asked him, "Does Tarelk really eat her slaves?"
He looked at me with a face full of pain, "It is true. I have lost several friends to Tarelk's appetite and you, little one, were already on the menu. That is why Tarelk sent Hotaq to retrieve you." He put his hand on my shoulder. "Today your ancestors have saved you from the jaws of death, remember this and let it give you the courage to stare death in the face when it comes for you again."
A chaotic swirl of emotions swam though me. "I am sorry Meseph, for how much you have suffered. But at least now it is over."
"Thank you, but neither of our suffering has ended today. Our Ancestors have given us the weapons to fight back but it is up to us to forge our own path."
The truth of Meseph's words settled into my heart. I was escaping Nal Hale'et but I wasn't free, not yet. But someday I would be free even if I had to fight my way out of the Sith Academy. "Well let's get these slave devices out of us." I said trying to muster my courage as I marched up the ramp of the ship.
A few minutes later:
Inside the ship's cargo hold I was tied down on a small metal table, Meseph was held a sparking wire and Khazadora held a vibro-knife inches above my shoulder. "The device is embedded in your left shoulder; Meseph will apply a mild shock to temporarily disable the device. This will buy us a few seconds. Then I will remove the device. Ready?"
I nodded my head and bit down on a cargo strap. Electricity tore through my body as Meseph held the wire to my chocolate skin. My body thrashed against the bindings holding me on the table. As soon as the shock of electricity faded, I felt an even worse pain. The vibro-knife dug into my shoulder, searing fire shot through my whole arm. I screamed around the cargo strap in my mouth.
Khazadora ran outside of the ship with the explosive and I lay on the table struggling to control my breathing and the tears streaming down my face. Meseph applied a bacta-infused ointment onto my wound. I heard the thump of the device exploding. The explosion wasn't large, it didn't need to be it was so close to the heart and lungs even a small explosion was lethal. After a minute I slide off the table and Meseph readily stepped forward to take my place.
I stared at him incredulously, "It is better to get it done quickly, the device can be detonated remotely." As he explained he took off his jacket, leaving on only a sleeveless white under-shirt. When he laid down on the table, I could see the crisscrossing scars of a whip on his shoulders. I realized the brutal history Meseph had been through. He didn't fear the cut of a knife, that was nothing compared to what he had faced as a slave. I also realized the truth of my past situation; I hadn't really been a slave I had been more like a shema-lamb waiting for slaughter.
Rage built up inside me. How could everyone on this stupid mud-ball let Tarelk do these things? Where was the justice? What kind of rotten place was this galaxy? As I stewed in my rage, I saw Khazadora returning with a cold smile on her lips. Could she sense my emotions? And if so, why did my anger make her smile? Something that made this Sith happy couldn't be a good thing; so, I steeled my emotions, put aside my righteous fury and focused on the task before me.
I picked up the live wire and asked Meseph, "Are you ready?"
"I am ready," he declared firmly before biting down on the cargo strap.
"Sorry about this," I whispered under my breath as I touched the wire to Meseph's shoulder. After a second I pulled the wires back and Khazadora sliced open his shoulder and extracted the device. The bomb was smaller than my thumb. Khazadora quickly took it out of the ship once more. She didn't hold it in hands but rather carried it using her dark Force powers.
As she left the room, I found the tub of bacta-ointment and applied a generous amount to Meseph's cut. Retreating to a corner of the room I sat down on a built-in bench and worked through my thoughts and emotions. I was so confused and angry, but I knew one thing, someone had to make that gross Hutt pay for her crimes.
Khazadora returned to the room, her and Meseph exchanged a few words. She handed him the blaster she had taken from Tarelk's thug. She then walked out of the main hall toward what I assumed was the cockpit, I wasn't sure. Khazadora had not given me the grand tour of the ship she brought us in and immediately proceeded to cut us up. She was scary.
Meseph walked over to me. "I must go now but I hope to meet you again under better circumstances." He told me as he held his right fist over his heart.
I wasn't familiar with the gesture, but I mimicked it and replied, "Likewise Meseph and take care, this planet is merciless."
"I know the cruelties of this planet very well; it is you I am worried for. Even among the Hutts Sith are infamous for their cruelty."
"I will watch my back and thank you Meseph, for worrying about me, not many people have ever cared. Bye."
"Goodbye." He turned around and exited the ship.
I felt the gentle rumble as the ship rises from the ground and sails through the sky. There was a moment of turbulence as we broke away from the planet's gravity well and then the jolt, of what I assumed was, the ship leaping to hyper-space.
I had recovered somewhat from the jarring series of events of today. My spirits were lifted after having finally escaping Nal Hale'et. Few people ever managed to escape the control of a Hutt. I feared Khazadora and the other Sith but after seeing her powers I felt a growing curiosity, a thirst for the power to ensure my own freedom. But I knew blindly trusting any Sith would be a fatal mistake.
These thoughts occupied my mind when Khazadora came to find me.
"Are you going to train me how to use the Force?" I asked her.
"You already have a pretty decent grasp of the Force. That is how I found you, though I must admit I was a little disappointed in your lack of imagination. Using the Force for petty theft…" She trailed off as she shook her head in disappointment. "I can teach you some more advanced Force techniques latter but before we reach Moraband I need to teach you how to fight, otherwise you will be dead on arrival."
"Are people really going to be trying to kill me at the Sith Academy?" I inquired.
"Yes, but I will make sure you know more than enough to survive. I can't have you dying on me, I've got plans for you." As she spoke, she opened a cabinet full of metal rods and strange round devices. "Learn how to defend yourself and you will have an advantage over many of your classmates. But do not become overconfident some of those you study with will have been training to use the Force since before they could talk and wielding a lightsaber since they were four years old."
She pulled out two rods and tossed one to me. "Defend yourself!" Kazadora screamed as she attacked me. I managed to block her first attack, but I couldn't even see her follow up attack as it knocked the training rod out of my hands.
"You need to feel the Force coursing through your body when you fight. Be one with the Force and then your weapon will be one with you, an extension of yourself. Remember how you felt as you used the Force to survive back on Nal Hale'et." She didn't even give me a chance to pick up my training rod but attacked me again as she spoke. I rolled across the hard metal floor, the shock rattling my bones. I grabbed my training rod, and desperately defended myself. This time I managed to block six attacks as Khazadora forced my back to the ship's hull. With no where left to retreat I was quickly disarmed again.
"Better but let's continue." At least this time she let me pick up the rod before she attacked me.