Star Wars: Return of the Sith

7: Revenge and Rescue

By Nanaki

Kuat Drive Yards, Orbital Shipyard #9

"I've recently discovered that a business over on platform twelve is owned by Gadran the Hutt, and managed by several of his Red Star Pirates." Jaing Danar informed his son.

"Right here at home?" Jerin raised his eyebrows in surprise. "How come we're just now finding out about it?"

"It was hidden behind an expert screen of money laundering and dummy corporations." Jaing shrugged. "I'm betting Gadran did his best to hide it after you swore your oath to kill him. He knows where you're from, after all."

"Oh well, the important thing is, now I can destroy it." Jerin rubbed his hands together in anticipation.

"Yes," Jaing nodded, "But your usual strategy of charging in with all guns blazing won't work here."

"Oh, why's that?" Jerin folded his arm.

"It's a brothel." Jaing told him bluntly.

"Hell." Jerin let out a long sigh. "Even if I killed the managers, I wouldn't really be ruining the business unless I could get all the girls out." Now he looked up at Jaing again. "I'm assuming, being a Hutt owned business, that the girls are slaves."

"You assume correctly." Jaing nodded.

"How many?" Jerin frowned, clearly expecting a high number.

"Thirty six." Jaing replied calmly.

"Too kriffing many." Jerin leaned forward now, thinking. "There's no way I can sneak that many out past security. Not without shooting someone who doesn't deserve to be shot, anyway."

"As it happens," Jaing began with a grin on his face, "The head of security on platform twelve owes me a favor."

"Dad, everyone in this system owes you a favor." Jerin smiled as well.

"True enough." Jaing shrugged. "Now, it's too late to do anything tonight, but I have a feeling that tomorrow night, through a tragic scheduling error, there'll be no security personnel on duty in that sector of the platform between five and eight a.m."

"Excellent." A toothy grin lit up Jerin's face now. "Not only do I get to cost Gadran a TON of money, but I even get to be the good guy on this one."

"I thought that might make a nice change of pace for you." Jaing smiled as well. "Just do me a favor and don't set the place on fire, okay?"

.

Kuat Drive Yards, Orbital Shipyard #12

Jerin's heavy beskar boots weren't exactly quiet as he headed down the hallways, and even though there were no security personnel around, he still cringed. He would never have dared to wear his armor if he needed to be inconspicuous, because the sight of Mandalorian armor was a sure sign that a battle was about to start. That fact should help to make him nice and intimidating for any employees that remained at the Blue Haven brothel. Even heading into a potentially dangerous situation like this, Jerin was in a very good mood. He'd slept in late, taken his parents out to lunch, and gotten fairly tanked with Marus in an effort to fall asleep early. He felt totally sober now, though he knew he wasn't quite there. The only thing nagging at the back of his mind was the possibility that he should once again try to talk Tenn out of coming along. As the classic T-shaped visor of his helmet turned toward her, she merely raised an eyebrow in response.

For her part, Tenn felt no reservations about coming along with Jerin for this mission. She knew that at virtually any brothel, women of her species made up a fairly large percentage of the girls, and she figured she could help out. Besides, it definitely wouldn't hurt to have another Force user along. Right now, Tenn was pondering the significance of the color of Jerin's armor. She had read that Mandalorians only wore the sandy-gold color she was seeing now if they were on a quest for vengeance. That certainly fit in with what she had observed about Jerin so far, but his armor also had a green trim, and she wondered if there was any significance to that. Jerin had tried to talk her out of coming along, but with the absence of security, she didn't think there would be much danger.

They came to an elaborate pair of doors twice the standard width, the large "Blue Haven" sign above the doors still glowing. Technically, the place was open twenty four hours a day, but there were unlikely to be many, if any, customers at six in the morning. Besides, they had to let the girls sleep sometime, and hopefully any guards would be less alert in the quiet hours. Jerin pushed the button to open the door, and strode calmly inside.

There was only one man behind the counter, who looked up in surprise at seeing a Mandalorian in full armor. "Welcome to Blue Haven. What can I do for you?" He asked automatically.

"Do you fear death?" Jerin asked calmly. This was part of the code agents of Gadran the Hutt used to identify each other.

The man behind the counter smiled in relief, figuring he now knew what was going on here. The Mandalorian clearly worked for Gadran, and was delivering a new acquisition. Even better, that new acquisition was purple, a color that he'd thought didn't actually exist. They were going to make a TON of money on her. "No." He shook his head. "Death fears me."

Jerin calmly shot him in the head then, his blaster set on stun only because Tenn had loudly protested at the part of Jerin's plan that involved killing everyone who worked directly for Gadran. Jerin had eventually caved, realizing that what Gadran would do to his employees for losing so many slaves was way worse than just shooting them. Jerin blinked with his eyes focused on a particular symbol on his helmet's HUD, and the view inside switched from a standard to 360 degree display. Jerin stood unmoving for several seconds, waiting for more guards to come charging into the reception area, but no one appeared. "Security's a little lax here." Jerin observed.

"They probably rely on the station security for the most part." Tenn reasoned. "After all, we're pretty deep in the bowels of the shipyard here." That was true enough. Jerin had docked his ship in the closest bay he could, and even so, it had taken them nearly forty five minutes to get here.

"Well then, let's not waste time." Jerin turned the dim lights in the room all the way up, revealing a rather elegant looking circle of sofas, surrounded by curtains either light blue or purple in color. Then, Jerin banged the butt of his blaster on the counter several times, causing Tenn to wince at the loud noise. "All right, everybody up!" Jerin shouted.

Most of the doors adjacent to the main area opened up then, filled with Twi'lek girls of several different colors sleepily rubbing their eyes. No one actually came out of their rooms, however. "Everybody up, because we're leaving!" Jerin elaborated. THAT got a reaction, and within a few minutes, the main reception area was crowded with the full complement of the brothel, most of the girls dressed only in skimpy nighties that were at least somewhat transparent. 'I can think of worse ways to mess with a Hutt.' Jerin thought to himself as he started a head count. Several of the ladies were talking to Tenn, though they strangely seemed more interested in the purple color of Tenn's skin than where they were going. Jerin wondered if there was some kind of cultural significance to purple that he was unaware of, aside from it just being a very rare color.

When Jerin had completed his tally, he counted twenty seven Twi'leks, five Zeltrons, and three humans. His eyes had narrowed as he went along, and he realized that several of the Twi'lek girls couldn't be much over fourteen years old. True, Jerin himself had been married when he was only sixteen, but that had been his choice, not something he was forced into. Now something else caught his eye, and he frowned in puzzlement. "Why so many green?" He leaned over and quietly asked Tenn. A full twelve of the twenty seven Twi'leks were some shade of green.

"Well, based on what I've heard, Gamorreans prefer green." Tenn let out a long sigh.

"Gamorreans?!" A repulsive image came unbidden to Jerin's mind, and he shook his head rapidly, trying to clear it. "Shouldn't they find your species as repulsive as you find them?"

"That is the general rule for this kind of thing, but..." Tenn shrugged. "For some reason, it doesn't seem to apply to Gamorreans."

Jerin was momentarily at a loss for words, but then he realized that there was an important detail he'd overlooked. "Wait a minute, we're missing one." He raised his voice so that everyone near him would be able to hear, and not just Tenn. "Ladies, my intel said there'd be thirty six of you here, and I only count thirty five!" He called out. "Who's missing?"

There was a concerned murmuring for a few seconds as the ladies all looked around. Finally, one of the younger Twi'lek girls, this one of a dark blue color, raised her hand up and waved to get Jerin's attention. "Joona's not here!" She called out.

"Where might she be?" Jerin asked, though he was already starting to head for the back of the main room.

"Last room on the right in the main hallway!" The same girl pointed.

"Jerin!" Tenn called, and he turned back to look at her. "If there were more guards in here, she might be a hostage. Be careful."

"Don't worry." Jerin flashed her a thumbs up. "If worse comes to worse, I'll stun her and then get the guard while she's out of the way. But I have a feeling the Force will get me through this one."

.

Joona Sohm let out a contented sigh, thoroughly enjoying the attentions of the guard in her room. A Lethan, or red skinned, Twi'lek woman, Joona knew that she fetched VERY high prices, even if she never saw any of that money herself. As such, she was one of the few girls who rated her own private room at night, and that definitely had its advantages. One such advantage was being able to seduce a potential method of escape in privacy.

Joona had been sold into slavery by her own clan when she was thirteen years old. Now twenty, she had never allowed herself to give up on the idea of escaping, not even for a second. While the shift managers considered her one of the nicest and most cooperative of all the girls, that was simply a way to get them to lower their guard. Well that, and Joona didn't particularly care for getting hit, either. At any rate, the most realistic shot she had seen at escape in a long time had started working here one month ago.

His name was Denan, and he was an eighteen year old human with long, wavy brown hair. How he had ended up working here, Joona still wasn't clear on, but it definitely didn't seem like a good fit. Denan tended to blush like an idiot whenever he actually made eye contact with any of the girls, and he also tended to stammer and mumble while giving orders. Though orders, when coming from Denan, tended to sound more like polite requests, which some of the girls would occasionally dare to refuse. When this happened, pretty much everybody got in trouble, so Joona tried to make sure she was always around to back Denan up when he was working.

Fortunately, Denan was pretty handsome, as far as humans went. But even if he'd been the most hideous sentient Joona had ever seen, she still would have slept with him, because he was obviously smitten with her. It was a pretty basic escape plan, as far as they went: Shower him with affection until he'd do pretty much anything she asked, including helping her escape. So far though, it seemed to be working. Just the fact that Denan was in her bed now was proof of his devotion, since this kind of thing was strictly forbidden. In addition to worries about potential escapes, the girls were also supposed to save their energy for paying customers only. But Joona had him hooked now, and it had been pretty easy, since she'd quickly discovered that she was the first girl of any species that he'd been with.

The only potential flaw in her plan was that her feigned affection wasn't entirely feigned anymore. Despite being a nervous, goofy kid, Denan was a genuinely nice guy. He'd mentioned as casually as possible recently that he'd looked up Joona's sale price, and that it was more money than he would make in ten years. On top of that, Denan had clearly been feeling guilty as he reported this news. However, just the fact that he'd even been interested in buying her for himself tugged at Joona's heart in a way she hadn't expected. If he was only interested in sex, there were much cheaper slaves he could go for. As much as Joona hated to admit it to herself, there seemed to be some semblance of an actual bond developing between them. That was why she'd been contemplating her escape plan lately. If a low level employee like Denan was caught helping a slave escape, Gadran the Hutt would no doubt have him put to death in a most unpleasant way. Even though he was technically one of the people keeping her imprisoned here against her will, she genuinely didn't want that to happen.

So, when Joona heard a loud thump coming from the direction of the front entrance, she quickly tapped Denan on the shoulder. "Den, did you hear something?"

Denan raised his head up from where he'd been kissing her neck to look her in the eye. Then he looked at the door. "I don't hear anything." He said after several seconds. He was about to lower himself back down on top of her, when the sound of a door opening could be heard from up the hallway. Denan propped himself back up and frowned in puzzlement. "Why would someone else be up this time of day?" He wondered.

"Late customer, maybe?" Joona suggested, but she dismissed the idea herself even before Denan started shaking his head.

"You know better than I do they wouldn't use one of the rooms back here." Denan was looking at the door again. "All the girls would complain about being kept awake." They both kept their eyes on the door, listening for a good while before relaxing.

"Den, maybe you should go." Joona suggested. "We'll both be in big trouble if they catch you here."

"True enough." Denan grunted as he flipped himself over, laying down next to her on the bed. "The thing is, I doubt that I could successfully sneak out before the shift change. It's not like I have espionage training from Republic Intelligence, or anything like that. If I didn't know how to slice into the security cameras and erase all evidence of my visits, they definitely would have caught me already." They both remained quiet for several seconds, ears straining to hear anything, but there was only silence. "I dunno." Denan shrugged. "Maybe we're not the only ones who do this kind of thing."

"Probably not." Joona shrugged. "But it still makes me nervous."

"Really?" Denan raised an eyebrow. "Then maybe I can calm you down..."

"Den, I really think- ooh!" Joona let out a soft cry as an involuntary shudder ran through her body, though it definitely wasn't a bad kind. "Oh, I never should have taught you that move." She groaned.

"Why?" Denan grinned. "Because I use it TOO well?"

"Exactly." Joona nodded. She was still a little concerned about the noises earlier, but she hadn't heard anything else. She put her hands on Denan's shoulders and allowed a mischievious grin to return to her face. "You should know-" Whatever else she had been about to say was lost in the noise of the door being kicked open, followed a split second later by the dented door slamming into the wall. The hallway was dark, but in the light spilling out from her room, Joona could make out the figure of a Mandalorian in full armor. Unnoticed by anyone else, her grin got even bigger.

.

"You know, the door wasn't locked." Tenn informed Jerin dryly, but he gave no outward sign that he'd heard her.

Jerin let his blaster enter the room first, closely followed by the rest of him. The human kid on top of the unfortunate girl was staring at him with wide eyes. "Get off of her!" Jerin ordered forcefully. Now the guy's mouth was moving, but Jerin couldn't discern any sound aside from incoherent mumbling. "I said... GET OFF OF HER!!" To emphasize his point, Jerin reached out with his left hand, then used the Force to yank the kid out from under the covers, then off the bed completely, then to slam him into the opposite wall. The naked young man hit the wall with an unpleasantly loud sound, then crumpled to the floor.

Jerin didn't hesitate for a second. He darted forward, hauling the kid up into the air by his neck. Tenn would probably know that Jerin was using the Force to hold the kid up off the ground, but the kid wouldn't, and that was the important thing. "Tell me..." Jerin used his free hand to press the barrel of his blaster against the guy's temple. "Do you fear death?"

"Urgk!" The kid gasped, before he grabbed Jerin's arm with both hands and used that to relieve some of the pressure on his throat. "Is... Is there any answer I can give that won't result in me dying?" He croaked.

Jerin was about to remove his blaster and let the kid drop, but before he could, he felt another pair of hands on his left arm. "Please, don't shoot him!" Jerin turned to see the red Twi'lek girl trying to tug his blaster away from the guy's head. He had expected her to either cover herself with the sheets or make a dash for her clothes, but she was still completely naked, aside from her headdress. Jerin was suddenly very glad he was wearing his helmet, because he wasn't exactly looking her in the eye.

"Why do you say that?" He asked calmly, even as the kid began to flail his legs.

"Believe me, you could shoot anyone else who works here and I would do nothing but cheer you on, but this one is different from the others." She took her hands off his arm and instead made a pleading gesture. "He doesn't deserve to die."

"If you say so." Jerin let the kid fall to the floor with a heavy thud, then holstered his blaster. He didn't feel like mentioning that his blaster had been set to stun, anyway.

"Who are you, anyway?" The girl wondered.

"Someone who hates Gadran the Hutt with every fiber of his being." Jerin answered calmly. "I'm here to shut this place down."

Joona's eyes briefly darted to the door, but she knew the entrance was too small for her to have a chance of slipping past. She did her best to calm the fear that was rapidly increasing her heartbeat, and focused on the positive aspect of this situation. 'At least I'm going to be free.' She reminded herself. "All right, at least get it over with quick." She said out loud, bowing her head. "Because I've already suffered enough for three lifetimes."

Jerin was puzzled by this statement for a second, until he realized that she thought he was going to kill her. "It seems I haven't made my intentions clear." He remarked, then reached up to undo the seals holding his helmet in place. He removed it and tucked it under his arm, so the grin on his face was clearly visible. "My name is Jerin Danar and I'm here to rescue you."

.

"I like rain, I like ham, I like you.
You're around, you're right here, so you'll do!
I wanna tell you how much I love your mind,
But it simply isn't truuuuuuuuueeee!" - Trey Parker and Matt Stone - "Only A Woman", Team America: World Police

.

(Nanaki's note: Sure, I could have gone for the "My name is Luke Skywalker and I'm here to rescue you," line, but that just seemed too obvious. Besides, I'm enjoying the abolishment of my self-imposed rule that I wouldn't use funny quotes for "serious" stories.)