Chapter Four: Sold

It was never pleasant waking up, and realizing that you were still locked in a cell, still a slave. But this morning was even more unpleasant. Why? Maybe because someone was nudging Luke none to gently with a blaster.

"Wake up, you slave scum!"

That comment got Luke up.

"Wait a minute! No one calls me that! I am not a slave!"

"You wanna bet, kid?"

"What's going on, Luke?" Marle' asked.

"Come on, Marle' I think we're leaving."

"You got that right, kid. Market day. Get up!"

Slowly, Luke and Marle' got to their feet, while two more men entered the room.

Luke resisted the handcuffs that they eventually got on him, and then, they led Luke and Marle' out of the room.

"I'm really hungry," Luke muttered.

"Too bad, kid."

It was obvious that they weren't planning on feeding them, before they were sold.

Sold.

In all his life, Luke never thought of himself ever being sold. Of becoming the property of another person. To not have any control over his life. The galaxy just didn't work that way! Luke had heard that even Darth Vader was opposed to slavery.

And that thought led Luke to wonder why Vader was opposed to slavery. Since when did the Dark Lord care if people were abused? Of course Luke would never know the answer to that. But that did make Luke hope that maybe Vader would find out about all this, and put an end to it. Maybe Vader cared because he had once been a Jedi, before he had murdered Luke's father.

I had a dream I was a Jedi. I came back here and freed all the slaves.

Where had that come from? That was certainly not a memory of his! Was he seeing a memory of someone else? That would be cool! Maybe he was using the Force without trying to, again!

By this time, they had reached the market, and had joined a line of some other slaves. It was a long line, with a stage at the end, where the slave would be displayed, and eventually sold. Marle', who was in front of him, began to cry.

"Don't worry, Marle'. Maybe we can find some way to stay together. Don't worry, I'm right behind you."

Luke loosely put his arms around her, feeling a since of brotherly protection come over him. He would NOT let them be separated! But what could he do?

It seemed like hours before Marle' was finally pushed up, onto the stage. Luke worried for her. She looked pale and thin, and she hadn't eaten for days. And standing in front of a crowd of possible future owners didn't exactly help the situation. She just looked all the more terrified.

"And we have this fine girl, still young and pretty, only seventeen years old, what will it be?"

A male spectator in the audience spoke up.

"Thirty credits!"

"Only thirty credits! You've gotta be kidding me! Can I hear forty credits?"

"Forty credits!" another male called out.

"Forty-five credits!" called another.

"Fifty credits!"

"Sixty credits!"

"Seventy credits!"

"Seventy, going once, going twice, gone! To Mr. Taska Kamein!"

A very frightened Marle' was lead off the stage to her new owner, while Luke was pushed none to gently up onto the stage.

"And we have this young man here"……………..

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"Hay, your worship! Surprised to see your high exaltedness in our humble ship."

"Shut up, Han. I worried."

"About the kid? Yeah, me too. He should have been back days ago."

"I can't even sleep anymore. Last night, I woke up hearing Luke calling out."

"Whoa, your worship, let's not go crazy!"

"I know it sounds weird, but somehow, I know it was him. He was hungry."

"The kid's always hungry. That's nothing new."

"No, Han! I mean really hungry."

"O-kay. Like to watch a little holovid?"

"Sure," Leia agreed reluctantly.

Han rested on the sofa next to her, and turned the Falcon's holovid on.

"Whatcha' wanna watch?"

"Anything."

"Great! That leaves it up to me. You're only to kind."

As Han flipped through the channels, Leia watched, uninterested, until she saw something on one of the channels that grabbed her attention.

"Go back! Han, go back!"

"Alright, your worship, don't get so bossy!"

"Han, just go back, I think I saw something."

Han went back to the channel that Leia seemed so interested in all of a sudden.

"There! Look!"

Han looked, and saw the last thing he ever thought he'd see.

It was a slave market of some sort. On the bottom of the screen, it said the broadcast was coming from Ambria.

Han looked back to the stage and saw……………….. Luke! They were selling Luke! No way! No one sold his friends like that! Han jumped up from where he was sitting.

"Okay, I know the kid has a tendency to get into trouble, but this is way unacceptable!"

"Han, we have to go save him!"

"One problem with that, your worship, all slaves have this little transmitter inside their body that can blow up if they try to leave."

"But there has to be some way to rescue him!"

"Well sure. If you know how to dismantle the transmitter without blowing up Luke in the process."

Leia was reluctant to admit that she had no idea how to even start to dismantle a slave transmitter.

"You see? We're gonna have to do some research and learn about what we're dealing with before we attempt a rescue."

"Well then, what are we waiting for? We've got some research to do!"

Don't worry, Luke. It won't be long.

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"Seventy-five credits!"

"Eighty credits!"

The bid went on. With every bid, Luke got angrier and angrier.

Don't worry, Luke. It won't be long.

Who said that? Was he hearing someone else's thoughts? No, maybe…………. Leia! Leia had unconsciously contacted him through the Force! Luke had no idea that she was Force sensitive! He hoped she knew what she was doing………………

"Sold! Once again to Mr. Taska Kamein!"

Taska Kamein? That was the man who had bought Marle'! Well at least one thing was going his way! Maybe they could find a way out of this! He would never be someone's property! Never!

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At that moment, Vader felt a since of resolve, a since of determination that could only be coming from one person, Luke.

He wondered what the boy was doing. Apparently, something was wrong because even through the Force, Vader could tell that his son was hungry. Of course, because Vader had once been a teenager, he knew that it was hard to keep a teenager full, but Vader could tell that this was more than teenager hunger. This was the hunger of someone who hadn't eaten in a while. The thought of his son being starved made him angry. Someone was going to pay for this! Just as soon as his son could be located………….

Author's Note: Don't worry. More chapters are on the way as soon as I can write them!