Star Wars: Return of the Sith

17: Denan's Past

By Nanaki

Kor Desilijic, in the Bootana Hutta

"I'm going to take away everything that's yours, until you have nothing but your life. Then, I'm going to take that too." Gadran Desilijic Ionne roared in anger, and his pudgy left arm easily knocked over the unfortunate protocol droid that had been displaying the security holo from Kuat. It wasn't the death threat that bothered him; he'd been threatened with worse by far more powerful beings than Jerin Danar. The thing that irritated him to no end was the fact that Jerin Danar had been making threats for four solid years now, and the foolish human was still alive.

Seated on a luxurious couch in one of his kajidic's many, many palaces on their ceremonial throneworld of Kor Desilijic, Gadran was surrounded by a small army's worth of underlings, all of them looking appropriately nervous about their boss's anger. In addition to the standard Hutt slave species of Nikto, Vodrans, and Klatooinians, there were also plenty of Hutt hangers-on like Weequay, Gamorreans, Devaronians, Toydarians, Twi'leks, and humans. However, being relatively young, at least by Hutt standards, all of Gadran's thugs were either quite young and inexperienced, or else had been demoted from serving Gadrans' older, more influential relatives.

As a result, Gadran once again found himself turning to the only one of his underlings that had proven himself to be at least moderately loyal and competent. "What's happened to the guard who let them escape?" He growled at the Twi'lek named Zesham, in his native Huttese.

"Kuat Drive Yards station security is holding him for questioning, and likely for his own protection." Zesham answered, also in Huttese.

"Arrange for him to be brought here." Gadran ordered.

Zesham winced in sympathy. He knew what that meant. "In all fairness, Great Gadran..." He began hesitantly. "This wasn't a situation he could have reasonably been expected to anticipate. Normally, station security would have stopped a fully armed and armored Mandalorian well before he got near the brothel."

"I don't care." Gadran's huge eyes narrowed. "If that guard had any functioning brain cells, he would have hit the alarm as soon as Danar walked in the door. All of my employees are SUPPOSED to be able to recognize Jerin on sight." Gadran paused for a second, thinking. "Bring the manager of the brothel here as well." He added as an afterthought. "I also understand that young Denan Zahn was involved in this."

"Yes, sir." Zesham nodded. "When we first spotted him on the security holos, we thought that he was merely cooperating with Jerin until he could raise the alarm."

"Despite the fact that he's not scheduled to work at that time of day." Gadran observed.

"Well, yes." Zesham admitted. "But after reviewing the holos from the docking bay where Jerin parked his ship, it's clear that Denan left with the Mandalorian."

"Apparently he wanted to keep receiving the free samples he's been enjoying." Gadran snorted. "It seems that boy wasn't content to owe me only the small fortune he already did."

As usual, Gadran was oblivious to the true nature of the problem, Zesham thought. Denan Zahn was useless as any kind of a fighter, but he was a very good slicer for his age. Jerin Danar, on the other hand, knew virtually nothing about the intricacies of the HoloNet, but he was an expert at fighting in the real world. Together, the two of them could make a formidable team. Of course, Zesham didn't dare to say any of this out loud. He had no desire to share the fate of the hapless guard from the brothel. "What would you have us do now, Great Gadran?" He asked.

"Recover my stolen property, of course!" Gadran thumped his fist on the left arm of his sofa. "Those girls were by far the most profitable of my many enterprises."

'Of course they were.' Zesham thought bitterly. The only expenses involved with the business were for food, and once in a while, some basic medical care. In return, each girl almost always earned Gadran over 30,000 credits every month. Some of the most popular earned over 100,000 a month. It would probably take Zesham close to a decade to save up that much.

"And if at all possible, will someone FINALLY kill Jerin Danar?" Gadran added.

"It's quite likely we'll have to try to do both at once." Zesham observed.

"True. Which is why I want you to lead this operation personally." Gadran ordered.

Despite himself, Zesham couldn't keep a small sigh from escaping his nose. "My Lord, have I not already proved my loyalty to you a dozen times over?"

Gadran turned to glower at him. "If you are indeed loyal, then proving it once more should be a small matter, no?"

Zesham took a deep breath, then straightened up and nodded. "Of course, Great Gadran. All will be to your liking."

"That would be a first." Gadran said dryly. Privately, he doubted very much that his personal guards were capable of accomplishing either of the goals he had just assigned them. It was quite likely that Jerin Danar would simply kill anyone who tried to recapture the slave girls, and Gadran would have to pay through the nose for more talented mercenaries to get the job done. However, he would gladly send his own guards in first, even so. If they failed, it would at least save him the trouble of having to pay them for their inept services, and if they succeeded... Well, that would be a very pleasant surprise.

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Commenor

The first person from his group that Jerin spotted at the shopping center was Denan. The teen was sitting by himself on a wooden bench in the shade, his head slumped forward, eyes shut. His head would occasionally rise up a bit, his sleepy eyes would attempt to open, but then he'd nod off again. "Sheesh, some bodyguard you are." Jerin smirked as he walked up to the bench.

Denan's head snapped up again, and it took his eyes a few seconds to focus on Jerin. "Huh? Oh, that didn't take long." At that, Jerin knew that he'd been asleep for quite a while, because it had, in fact, taken quite a while. In the interest of speed, instead of swapping out his water and sewage tanks for larger models, Jerin had simply had a second one of each installed on top of the original. Even so, and paying a ridiculous service charge for a rush job on top of that, it had taken over five hours. Jerin was relieved that he hadn't received any distress calls during that time, but he was pretty sure that just meant any potential enemies would be waiting in orbit until they left the planet again.

"Are any of the girls ready to go yet?" Jerin asked as he looked around, not spotting any of them.

"Doesn't look like it." Denan stretched and yawned. "But you got done sooner than we expected."

"Look at your chrono." Jerin said calmly, irritated but mildly amused, even so.

"Don't have one." Denan held up his empty left wrist for Jerin to see. In response to Jerin's disapproving glare, he elaborated. "I usually have a datapad with me at all times, so wearing a chrono too would be redundant. But I didn't have time to go back to my quarters and pack before we left."

Jerin sat down on the bench on Denan's right. "So, how did you end up working at Gadran's brothel, apparently after losing several body parts because of him?"

"Basically, I got sloppy." Denan admitted. Jerin just raised an eyebrow, so he continued. "I've been a self-taught slicer for about five years now. Thought I was pretty hot stuff too. I spent plenty of time breaking into secure systems, just to see if I could, without actually doing anything. About a year ago, I decided it was time to try to make some money at it.

"I'm sure you know that gambling over the HoloNet is illegal in Republic space." Jerin nodded slowly. "I'm sure you also know that there are a million loopholes to get around that restriction, the biggest one being that it's legal if the servers handling the transactions are NOT located in Republic space. So gambling via Hutt owned servers seemed like a good way to go."

"But gambling of questionable legality isn't slicing." Jerin observed.

"Oh, that was just the first step." Denan smiled. "The slicing aspect was how I rigged the games in my favor. Sabacc especially, since there are so many randomizing elements in that one, it was the easiest to rig without being noticed."

"That's a subtle form of theft." Jerin nodded, though Denan wasn't sure if it was in approval or not. "Much less likely to be noticed than just raiding a bank account."

"And I was very careful, even so. I'd win a few hundred credits for a few nights, then come back and lose a thousand. If someone paid attention to my activities for a whole month, then they might have noticed that I was raking in about five thousand credits in that time, but I figured that with all the gambling that goes on in Hutt Space, no one would be paying that much attention. I covered my tracks carefully, and I checked on a regular basis for signs that anyone had noticed I was modifying the actual games, but it didn't seem like anyone was paying attention."

"I think I can see where this is going." Jerin said sympathetically.

"Yeah." Denan sighed. "Since no one seemed to be paying attention to me, I got greedy. After a while, I stopped pretending to lose so often, and I also stopped checking to see if anyone was keeping tabs on me very often. Eventually, I was just cleaning the place out every night. I might as well have just been raiding Gadran's bank accounts. Even so, I was so sure that I was hot stuff, I was confident that I could outmaneuver any attempt to grab the money back over the HoloNet, especially since the Republic wouldn't bother to prosecute me."

"They didn't come for it over the HoloNet, did they?" Jerin surmised.

"No, they did not." Denan confirmed. "The day after my eighteenth birthday, I moved out of my parents' place and got myself set up in a pretty nice neighborhood, close to the top of shipyard six, thanks to all the money I'd been pocketing. The next night, a gang of Weequay broke down the door, beat the living daylights out of me, then tied me up and tossed me into a storage closet in the back of a freighter that had to be at least five hundred years old. When they finally dragged me out, what felt like years later, I found myself in a palace on Nal Hutta. By that time, I had what I thought was a pretty good plan to save my skin. I'd explain to whichever Hutt I'd ripped off how I'd done it, and offer to work as a slicer for him. I could bring in way more money than I'd stolen in a short time, so it would be a waste to kill me, right?"

"Unfortunately, the Hutt you'd ripped off turned out to be Gadran." Jerin pointed out.

"Very unfortunate, yes." Denan agreed. "When I was brought before him, I'd barely started my pitch when he just waved his arm and ordered his thugs to toss me 'into the pit'. At that point, I figured he just wanted to put a good scare into me, really let me know who was in charge. So after his thugs slid me down a chute into a big, sandy arena, I just kept going with my pitch, yelling up at Gadran about how much money I could make for him. I kept it up until the heavy metal doors on the other end of the arena started to open, and I got a glimpse of the nexu inside."

"Ouch." Jerin winced in sympathy.

"At that point, my sales pitch became somewhat less dignified." Denan admitted. "Less percentages and profits, a lot more begging for mercy from the greatest of all Hutts. There was probably some crying involved too. Apparently Gadran thought I provided some good entertainment value from that, so as soon as the doors opened enough for the nexu to burst through and charge at me, he ordered her to stop." Jerin raised an eyebrow now, clearly wondering where Denan's false appendages had come from, in that case. "The nexu was very well trained, I'll give her that. As soon as she heard the command, she stopped where she was, even though the poor beast was clearly half-starved. Her cubs, however, were not so well trained."

Denan looked right at Jerin now. "I held up my left arm to try to protect my head, which, you can tell, was not that effective."

"Well, that depends on how you look at it." Jerin shrugged. "You're still alive, aren't you?"

"True enough, but it wasn't much consolation at the time. Anyway, a bunch of Gadran's thugs had to stun the little bundles of teeth to get them off me. Gadran had them take me to a team of surprisingly modern medical droids, who patched me up pretty well, all things considered. The next day, he presented me with a bill for the medical care, as well as a charge for about triple what I had actually swindled from him. But it didn't surprise me that a Hutt would charge a high interest rate, so I told him no problem, I could make that amount of money for him in just a few months.

"That's when he laughed and told me that he had no intention of hiring me as a slicer. He told me I'd be working for him at the brothel, where it would probably take me a good five years to pay back what I owed." Denan's eyes narrowed. "That's when I finally realized he didn't give a kark about the money at all, he just enjoyed watching inferior beings suffer. Which I'm sure is why he sent me to work at such an awful place. Any job that involves managing slaves is terrible, but the particulars of this job..." He shuddered.

"That's why, when Joona started being flirty with me, I didn't do the smart thing and ignore it." Denan admitted. "I knew that she must be laying the groundwork for some kind of escape plan, and I also knew that Gadran wouldn't order the nexu to stop next time if I got caught canoodling with her, but both of our terrible lives seemed more bearable when we were together, so I didn't much care. And so it went, until you came along." He finished.

"Yes, for a Hutt, Gadran doesn't seem to care much about money at all." Jerin nodded. "All he wants is for everyone to be afraid of him, so I'm sure it drives him crazy that I'm not."

"Not even a little?" Denan probed. "He does have a small private army at his disposal, as well as plenty of powerful relatives."

"Not even a little." Jerin confirmed. "He's ensured that hate is the only possible emotion I can feel in relation to him."

"You mind explaining why?" Denan probed, and Jerin turned to glare at him. "I mean, you don't have to, but I explained my situation, so fair's fair."

"True enough." Jerin looked away again. "It's not a secret or anything, just something I don't enjoy talking about. Still, I suppose you deserve to know..."

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"Whenever you gamble, my friend, eventually you lose." - Qui-Gon Jinn, Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace

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(Nanaki's note: For a while after I posted chapter 16, I figured that my note in chapter 17 would be about some inconsistencies in physical descriptions of the actual Sith species, or Ania Solo. While I will get to both of those eventually, today I have a larger issue to tackle. Namely, the official cancellation of the Expanded Universe this story most definitely still takes place in. Yeah, I won't be using that "Legends" label here. As far as I'm concerned, The Force Awakens and its sequels are alternate universe tales, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. I like the Kelvin timeline Star Trek universe just fine, after all.

Still, when I first heard that the Expanded Universe was being erased to suit the whims of J.J. Abrams, I was more than a little cranky. I was convinced that it would have been possible to write a movie that respected the Expanded Universe, without requiring the audience to know that much about it. After giving it some thought though, I can understand why they didn't go that route. If the movie didn't feature prominent EU characters like Jaina Solo-Fel and Ben Skywalker, you'd have to come up with some convoluted offscreen reasoning why. If the movie did feature them, how do you quickly and efficiently introduce those characters to audience members who have no idea who they are? Flashbacks? When those flashbacks would have to include the Yuuzhan Vong and Darth Caedus, who are otherwise not in the movie at all? Nope, that's no good. Never mind that no Star Wars film has ever used a flashback anyway. (I'll point out here that Rey's "flashback" in The Force Awakens was actually a Force vision that also included things she never witnessed herself, so that gets a pass.) What else could you do? Maybe hand out an informative pamphlet to every single person who buys a ticket? For the record, that's exactly what I would have done, but based on the number of people who kept up with the Expanded Universe versus the number of people who went to see The Force Awakens, I can see why they didn't go that route.

So, once I accepted the fact that the new movie would be ignoring the Expanded Universe, I decided that I could come up with a modified version of the Episode VII plot that did take place in the EU. Obviously, Chewie wouldn't be alive in the EU version, but if he was crucial to the plot, maybe Lowbacca could fill that roll. As it turned out, that line of thought was a complete waste of time. Every aspect of the plot in Force Awakens that wasn't a direct redo of the original film was ripped straight from the Expanded Universe. Let's see, Han and Leia's son falls to the dark side? Check. Imperial remnants have another planet-destroying superweapon? Oh man: The Tarkin superlaser, Palpatine's Galaxy Gun and Eclipse class Star Destroyers, The Death Star prototype, Centerpoint Station, the Darksaber project, and probably several others I'm forgetting. Han Solo reacts to a traumatic personal loss by reverting to his old scoundrel ways? Yep, that's been done. There's a new Emperor? Grand Admiral Thrawn, Admiral Daala, Supreme Overlord Shimrra, and Darth Krayt are not impressed.

I know that makes it sound like I pretty much hated The Force Awakens, which is definitely not the case. Plot-wise, it didn't have an original bone in its body, but in a Star Wars movie, that's not really a big deal. In terms of plot, Star Wars has never strayed far from the basic Hero's Journey model. It's the amazing visuals and sound that really give Star Wars its unique appeal. Unfortunately, those are the two elements that are absent from a written Star Wars story, which is likely why Star Wars novels tend to have more complicated and intricate plots than the actual movies do. In most ways, I loved The Force Awakens. The music and visuals were amazing, the four new main characters were all very strong, and we saw the Force being used in ways we'd never seen before. Even in The Force Unleashed, we never saw Starkiller use the Force to outright freeze a blaster bolt in midair. That was quite a scene.

At any rate, this separation of universes actually solves some continuity problems, namely with the Clone Wars. Now the Clone Wars comics and novels can go back to fitting nicely into the old Expanded Universe, while the Clone Wars TV show can be the official version of the conflict in the new universe. So, as far as my story is concerned, Anakin Skywalker never had a Padawan, and became a Jedi Knight just six months before Episode III.

While I've largely made my peace with this, I do hope the publishing industry eventually wises up and puts out some new novels under the "Legends" banner. A Star Wars without Jaina Solo, Ben Skywalker, or Allana Ka Solo is still a Star Wars I have a hard time being excited about.

Oh, and look for another new chapter in less than six years this time.)