Star Wars: Return of the Sith

16: What the Girls Think

By Nanaki

Commenor

Joona took a deep breath as she stepped out into the bright sunlight of Commenor, savoring the first scent of an actual planetary atmosphere she'd had in seven years. True, the air on the Kuat shipyards hadn't been too bad; the shipyards were enormous, and there was plenty of circulation. Even so, there was something about outside air carried by a fresh breeze that just couldn't be replicated on a space station, no matter how well ventilated it was. The only odd thing about the air was the intense humidity. Coming from a desert world where the humidity rarely rose above twenty percent on the surface, Joona found that the moisture in the air on the tropical island that Jerin had set them down on bordered on oppressive. She wasn't sure whether she was supposed to breathe the air or drink it. However, she quickly shrugged that off, since the air was also filled with a distinctly sweet aroma, even on a landing pad at the spaceport.

Joona raised an eyebrow as the three human women first kneeled down, then actually kissed the pavement. She turned toward where Denan and Jerin were standing at the base of the Justice's boarding ramp, but they didn't seem to think this behavior was anything noteworthy. Joona shrugged, assuming that this was yet another of the many, many odd things humans did that they didn't think was odd enough to bother explaining. Most of the women of all three races were shrugging out of their blankets, as it was plenty warm in the bright sunlight.

Looking up at the sky, Joona saw that the low mountains that surrounded them on three sides were entirely covered by trees with broad leaves. Tall clouds hovered to the north, looking like they would start to dump rain any second. To the south, the pavement of the spaceport gradually sloped downward, to where a sliver of ocean was visible in the distance. Directly overhead, a trio of brightly colored avian creatures squawked loudly as they flew past.

"All right, here's what's gonna happen!" Jerin called out as he walked into the center of the group. He had shed his armor in favor of a loose long sleeved shirt and pants, but even so, Joona could still see beads of sweat running down his neck. "There's no speeder I could rent that would be able to carry all of you, so we're going to have to rely on..." He paused to shudder theatrically, "Public transportation. Fortunately, we don't have far to go from here to one of this island's main shopping centers. While you're busy picking out clothes, I'm going to be busy restocking the ship, so Tenn will be carrying a credcard to take care of everything. You'll have a two hundred credit limit to work with, so..." Jerin paused at the sudden intake of breath from many of the girls. "Something wrong?" He raised an eyebrow.

Joona found a whole lot of heads suddenly turned in her direction. 'Oh, so if there's complaining to be done, I'm the spokeswoman, huh?' An expression that was halfway between a smile and a frown appeared on her face. 'Nula, you LOVE complaining! What about you?' She wondered, but no one else was speaking up. Oh well, she probably was closer to Jerin than anyone else, albeit in an odd way, so it would probably sound less whiny coming from her. "Um..." Joona paused to clear her throat. "Even if we stick to the cheapest stuff, I don't think we'll be able to get clothes for all thirty six of us with just two hundred credits."

"Ah." Joona was relieved to see a wry grin appear on Jerin's face. "I didn't mean two hundred credits total, I meant two hundred credits EACH."

Joona felt her jaw drop, and noticed that hers wasn't the only one. She doubted that her parents had spent two hundred credits on clothes for her during the whole thirteen years she had lived at home. Plus, as the oldest of six kids, she had been the lucky one, actually getting to wear NEW clothes. Her little sisters were stuck with Joona's hand-me-downs, which grew progressively more faded and full of sewn up holes with each sister, until they were little more than rags draped over the youngest of the brood. Not for the first time, Joona found herself hoping that her father had gotten enough money from selling her to at least allow the rest of her family to live comfortably. Also not for the first time, she found herself hoping that her father had been killed in a violent speeder accident as soon as he had deposited the money in the family's savings account. After all, if you were willing to do something as morally reprehensible as selling your own daughter into slavery, you had a lot of other options. Dealing spice, for one, or maybe robbing banks. Hell, smuggling was a time honored tradition in the Outer Rim, and...

Joona shook her head as she realized she wasn't paying attention to what Jerin was saying. Now definitely wasn't the time to think about the past at any rate. For the first time in a long time, she was looking forward to the future. "-enough to make 'em last for a while." Jerin was saying. "After all, it'll probably be a while before you see your first paycheck, no matter what you end up doing. But anyway, I'm done telling you what to do for now. In case there's any trouble, Denan, Tenn, and..." He pulled a small device from the utility belt around his waist and tossed it to Joona. Her catch wasn't graceful, but she managed to keep it from hitting the pavement. "-Joona have communicators. Though hopefully there won't be any trouble. I should have done enough damage to Korgo's ship to keep him from getting here before we can take off again." Jerin flashed a toothy grin. "At any rate, I better get to work. See you soon." He waved as he walked back up the boarding ramp.

The disorganized clump of girls was still marching across the tarmac when a high pitched whine could be heard coming from the back of the Justice. Turning back to look, Joona saw Jerin racing through the air on the back of the coolest looking speeder bike she had ever seen. He did a couple barrel rolls as he passed overhead, which she had always been told was extremely dangerous, then banked around and blasted toward the north end of the spaceport, vanishing into a speck in the distance in just a few seconds. "Show off." Joona heard Tenn complain under her breath, though there seemed to be a slight hint of affection in Tenn's voice as well.

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Fifteen minutes later, having taken the spaceport shuttle to the main entrance of the facility, the ladies waited for a public speeder to stop by. The general pecking order from the brothel had reestablished itself in terms of who got to sit on the benches under the small sun shade at the stop, so the younger girls found themselves standing out under the sun, not that fourteen year old Rayna Moneta minded a whole lot. Unlike most inhabitants of Ryloth, who lived in the "twilight band" of the planet that was most comfortable, her family lived on the edge of the "bright lands", where the sun shone all the time, though thankfully low on the horizon. Still, the temperature was almost always above one hundred ten degrees, even on the rare occasions when it was cloudy, and Rayna had never felt warm enough at Kuat Drive Yards. She woke up with cold extremities and a runny nose most mornings. Right now, the sunlight felt wonderful, even if the humid air took some getting used to.

Rayna was standing slightly apart from the others, in a small cluster formed of herself and four other thirteen and fourteen year old Twi'leks. They had all arrived at the brothel within a few weeks of each other between two and three months ago, and had basically formed their own support group. After they had observed how some of the women at the brothel liked to get their way by telling extremely one sided versions of events to the shift bosses, versions that were believed only because of seniority, the five of them had agreed not to try to make their own lives easier at the expense of the others. They also did their best to back each other up during any confrontations with the older ladies, which usually didn't help at all, but they still tried. Fortunately, their informal support pact had come to Joona's notice. Unlike the five newbies, Joona's opinions carried serious weight with the shift bosses, and she did what she could to make their lives easier.

Of the five, Rayna had initially needed the most help, as she attracted the most business. While she wasn't the most attractive of the five, at least in her own eyes, nature had dealt her an unlucky hand in terms of coloration. Two of the girls in their group were blue, and the other two were green, both nice, common colors. Rayna, on the other hand, was a rather unique shade somewhere between light orange and dark yellow. Combined with the bright purple color of her eyes, she attracted a lot of attention. However, just like everyone else, Rayna had eventually grown tired of crying herself to sleep every night, and she viewed the beautiful landscape before her now the same way she viewed everything else: with a healthy dose of cynicism.

"So..." Nina, the blue girl to Rayna's right, spoke aloud for the first time since Jerin had busted them out of the brothel. "What do you all think?" It sounded like a simple question, but Rayna knew what she was really asking. If they were going to make a run for it, some point within the next few hours would be the best time.

"I didn't know what to think at first." Rayna shrugged. "But now that he's shown he's actually willing to leave us alone," She looked toward the towering thunderheads in the north, the direction Jerin had flown off to, "I think we can trust him."

"He didn't leave us alone completely." Nina nodded toward where Denan and Tenn were standing at the curb, within a few paces of each other. Both were looking up and down the street, continually scanning for trouble.

"Denan?" Rayna snorted with laughter. "There's no way he could stop all five of us together. Hell, Joona could probably knock him flat by herself if she wanted to."

"And what about her?" Mika, one of the green girls, nodded in Tenn's direction. "It's pretty clear that she's got the Force working for her."

"SHE probably could stop all five of us together." Rayna admitted, her eyes narrowing slightly. "But I think that if either she or Jerin meant us any harm, the Zeltrons would have told us by now." That was true enough. The Zeltron race possessed the ability to sense other beings' emotions, which usually meant they knew when someone was lying, if not exactly what they were lying about.

"So, it sounds like you want to stick around, at least for now." Nina surmised.

"Why not?" Rayna shrugged again. "It sure won't hurt to get some new clothes, or to get farther away from Hutt Space."

"Yeah, but who wants to go to karking Eriadu?" Mika grumbled.

"Why not? Where else are you gonna go?" Rayna asked pointedly. "Back to Ryloth? Back to the families that sold us into slavery in the first place?" Mika didn't say anything else.

"You do make a good point there." Nina nodded. "So it sounds like we're going along with Jerin's plan, at least for now."

"I don't see why not." Rayna agreed. "It offers better odds of not ending up homeless, begging for food. And, it might even be... fun." Rayna said the last word very quietly, as if it wasn't supposed to be part of her vocabulary anymore. Even so, no one disagreed with her.

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A little over an hour later, Joona found herself looking through endless racks of clothes at one of the larger clothing retailers in the shopping center the public speeder had taken them to. They had attracted plenty of attention when they'd first arrived, as most of the shoppers right now seemed to be small groups of teenage human males who weren't actually buying anything. Before long, a trio of security guards had shown up to shoo the gawking teenagers away. Now, the guards were walking a slow perimeter patrol around where the girls were shopping in the store, though the two younger ones were doing plenty of gawking of their own. The oldest, however, actually seemed to consider it his duty to keep anyone from bothering the ladies, and so far he was doing a good job of it.

The manager of the store had been delighted to have so many customers at once, especially this early in the day. He was also surprisingly knowledgeable about women's clothing, Joona thought. But then, it was his job. Even more surprising was that the manager had emerged from storage with several boxes of Twi'lek headdresses in various styles, easily enough for everyone to have a new one if they wanted, and Joona definitely wanted. In fact, she was pretty sure she was going to throw away the shiny black one she was wearing now as soon as she took it off. It wasn't that the headdress wasn't clean; if there was one thing the brothel really did well, it was laundry. It was just that too many bad memories went with it now that she had another choice.

Next to Joona, a twenty one year old Zeltron named Adona Liie also sorted through the endless selection of clothes. Adona was Joona's best friend among the Zeltrons, and usually, her best friend in general. Like Joona, Adona had steadfastly refused to let herself give up on the idea of escaping someday, or ever let herself accept the idea that her "job" defined who she was. However, for a being who could sense everyone else's emotions, that mental fortitude must have been doubly hard to maintain, given that the most common emotion at the brothel was usually complete and utter despair. Right now, Joona was getting a vibe that Adona was mad at her about something.

"I'm still mad at you, you know." Adona was also not real subtle, but Joona liked that about her. It was refreshing that someone at the brothel would simply say what she meant.

Joona was also pretty sure she knew what this was about. "Denan?" She asked meekly.

"You could have shared!" Adona griped even as she nodded. "I always thought we would help each other out if a chance at escape like that ever came up."

"I wasn't that confident yet." Joona explained calmly. "Plus, I wasn't sure I was going to go through with it."

Adona raised an eyebrow at that. "Don't tell me you actually like that doofus."

"I don't know." Joona shrugged, staring at the floor now. "He does have a kind of goofy charm. I didn't want him to get fed to a rancor, anyway." Adona seemed to think that over for a second, before she shrugged and nodded. The Hutts of Clan Desilijic were notorious for feeding beings that displeased them to a wide variety of carnivorous creatures, though rancors seemed to be the favorite. "Anyway, I was planning on notifying the authorities as soon as I could." Joona continued. "The Republic actually enforces its anti-slavery laws in this part of the galaxy, after all. On top of that, it's a moot point, anyway." She sighed. "It turns out that I couldn't have gotten away as long as that thing was in my leg, and I doubt that either Denan or I would have been able to remove it. Not without me passing out from blood loss, anyway."

"I guess you have a point there." Adona admitted. "I suppose it shouldn't be a surprise that a Mandalorian is good at carving people up, even in a positive way. Still..." She looked thoughtful for a second. "I can't help but be a little insulted that I didn't have one too. I thought I brought in just as much money for our owner as you did."

Joona wasn't quite sure how to respond to that at first. "If I brought in more," she began slowly, "I'm sure it was only because I'm Lethan. Besides, I don't think it's anything to be proud of, especially now that we're back in the real world. Also, this may not be the best conversation to be having in public." Joona said in a quieter tone, as she noticed that two local human girls, maybe eleven or twelve years old, were staring at them with wide eyes. Joona took a step toward Adona and dropped her voice to a whisper. "Plus, I don't think that shocker was implanted for monetary reasons." Adona raised an eyebrow at this. "Think about it. Nula and I were the only two who had them, right? What's the one thing that the two of us actually have in common?"

Adona frowned in thought for a moment. "Well, based on some old holos I've seen, when Nula was younger, her boobs were just as spectacular as-"

"NOT that." Joona hissed. "I'm not talking about any physical traits."

Adona frowned in thought again, then, "Oh! You were both the station master's favorite at various points. But still, why would he...?" Adona wasn't sure how to finish her question.

"Because, Force forbid that he lose his favorite and have to make do with the dozens of other girls he has access to." Joona's eyes narrowed. Bardo Green, the station manager of Kuat Drive Yards' twelfth platform, must have ordered that the shocker be implanted during one of the times when Joona had been put under to have a fresh tracking device swapped in for the old one.

"But, if he had the authority to order something like that, then..." Adona was clearly mad now.

"Then he was lying when he said he didn't have the authority to have us released." Joona nodded. "And you know what? As mad as I am about that, I'm just as mad at myself for not realizing he was lying. After all, no matter how powerful Gadran the Hutt might be, he couldn't do business on that platform without Green's permission."

"You're mad at yourself?" Adona let out a long sigh. "Don't be. I'm the one who's supposed to be able to tell when people are lying."

"Just out of curiousity..." Joona was eager to change the subject. "Has Jerin lied about anything?" She didn't think he had, but it didn't hurt to double check.

"Nope." Adona shook her head right away. "That's the main reason I haven't talked Tenn into using that credcard to book five tickets to Zeltros on the next transport out."

"Oh, I guess Zeltros isn't too far from here, is it?" Joona was surprised that she hadn't realized it. Unlike the Twi'leks, the humans and Zeltrons at the brothel hadn't been sold into slavery. They had either been captured in pirate raids, or born to parents who were already slaves. As such, there was no real reason why they shouldn't head back to their worlds of origin.

"Yeah, Jerin's ship could probably make it in a couple hours." Adona nodded. "Even on a public transport, it probably wouldn't take over six hours."

"Are you guys thinking of taking off?" Joona wondered, somewhat worried by the sudden burst of anxiety she felt at the idea of being separated from Adona.

"Well, I can't speak for the other Zeltrons, but I'm not." Adona grinned. "Zeltros isn't going anywhere, and I've never been within 20,000 light years of Eriadu. Besides, I get the feeling that Eriadu isn't going to be the end of it."

"Oh yeah? Why's that?" Joona was smiling now too, mainly out of relief.

"I can't really give you a solid explanation. There's just been so much weird stuff happening since Jerin showed up, I really doubt that he'll drop us off on Eriadu and never see us again." Adona shrugged. "I mean, we've got rival Hutt clans and dark jedi mixed up in our escape now. And, if Jerin could somehow put us all up at the most exclusive resort in the galaxy in order to make Gadran furious, I bet he'd do it."

"Why DOES he hate Gadran so much?" Joona wondered. "He's clearly not hurting for money, so I doubt that it's about a bad business deal."

"No." Adona shook her head. "He hides it well, but Jerin is carrying a whole lot of grief that I don't think has EVER been properly expressed."

"Gadran killed someone important to him." Joona stated it as a fact, not a guess. "Someone he loved."

"I think so, yeah." Adona agreed. "It makes more sense than any other theory I could come up with."

"Well then..." Joona looked up at the ceiling, lost in thought for a second. "If we stick with him long enough, we might get to see Gadran die."

To Joona's surprise, Adona frowned slightly in response. "It's an appealing thought, but if we were close enough to see it happen, we'd probably be in more than our fair share of danger."

Joona's eyes narrowed once again. "Kark it, I'll put the blaster bolt between the fat slug's eyes myself if I get the chance. Jerin's not the only one with a reason to hate him."

Adona's frown deepened. "Joona, your emotions right now are... kind of scary. Let's focus on the positive stuff, all right? We can do whatever we want, and we get free clothes." She turned back to the clothing rack that Joona had completely forgotten about.

"Yeah, good point." Joona nodded, though she was still thinking about helping Jerin get revenge. To do that, she'd have to find a compelling reason for Jerin to keep her on board after the other girls left, and she had a feeling that the most obvious idea that came to mind wasn't going to work. Not on Jerin, anyway.

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"It's true what they say. Beauty really is an absolute curse!" - Winry Rockbell, Fullmetal Alchemist

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(Nanaki's note: All right, before you all start leaving comments about how Clone Wars ret-conned the galaxy so that Ryloth has day and night just like every other planet, read the rest of this note. I HATE that Clone Wars did that. They took something that made Ryloth unique and interesting, then got rid of it for no reason I can see. True, Lucas can do whatever he wants to his galaxy, without bothering to ask the fans what they think. Still, this is MY story, and I can do whatever I want here. But for those of you who demand an in-universe explanation, here it is: Just before their invasion of Ryloth, the CIS forces used an experimental gravity control device to tilt Ryloth on its axis ninety degrees, hoping to throw the population of the planet into chaos. It worked, up to a point, but soon enough the Twi'leks got used to having night and day, just like they have on every other world they live on. Shortly after the rise of the Empire, Palpatine and others who shared his human supremacist ideology realized that the CIS experiment had resulted in Ryloth having a LOT more land suitable for habitation and farming. Not liking the impending Twi'lek population boom, Palpatine ordered that the same device (or a freshly constructed one, if the original was destroyed in the Clone Wars) be used to tilt Ryloth's axis back the way it had been. As a bonus, this even allowed Palpatine to score some points with most Twi'lek leaders on Ryloth, who were grateful that he had restored their world to its natural state. And there's your in-universe explanation. Plus, let's go ahead with...

Character Name Origins #5: Joona Sohm

The Star Wars galaxy is packed with both planetary and individual names with the oo sound. Consider: Naboo, Nute Gunray, Tatooine, the double whammy of Count Dooku, Luke Skywalker himself, Dantooine, and Oola, just from the actual movies. The expanded universe gives us a whole bunch more: Ulic Qel-Droma, Exar Kun, Klatooine, Ood B'nar, Ludo Kressh, Kooriva, and another double whammy in Jedi Master Ooroo. I wanted a "Double O" name for one of my characters, and that's where "Joona" came from. The last name simply came from an "Enough already!" feeling on my part. My first thought was "Tenona". Seriously. Then I actually looked at it, and asked myself, "What's Denan's last name going to be? Jerinson?" Next, I changed it to "Zanona", but that still didn't feel right, probably because it wasn't different enough from "Tenona". Finally, I just said, "Screw it, let's make it a short one." So, that's where "Sohm" came from. I belatedly realized that this could be something of a play on words, especially if you've just watched the "Phantom Planet" episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000. As in, "So, some?" or "Looks like 'some' is rapidly approaching 'none'." But, it's not really pronounced as "some", at least in my mind. Emphasize the H as much you can, ("Can't have a pie without Cool Hwip!") and you'll probably be pronouncing "Sohm" like I would. Anyway, look for another chapter in the not too distant future. Probably before Halloween, anyway.)