Chapter 2
Time slid slowly by, tension mounting as discussion became idle conversation which soon lapsed into silence. There was no chrono in the room, no windows, a crypt with nothing to mark the time but the passage of their breaths and the slowly congealing blood on Hera's face. Fen felt a growing prickle of dread along her spine and could not place it as a sign from the Force or just her own anxieties. Every sound made her jump with fright. She had put so much effort into learning how to survive this life, if anyone discovered them, they would both be killed. A repressed part of herself wondered if that would be so bad. Her thoughts ran in circles, tangling themselves into knots, eyes drawn to the corpse on the floor.
"Do you think we've waited long enough?" Hera broke the silence like a pane of glass.
"I think so." Fen could take her eyes from the man she had killed, the memory of that power, however brief danced like a mirage in the back of her mind, tantalizingly out of reach. She tried again to reach for that power but, like a ghost, it would not answer. Dismayed, she stood and tried to steady her nerves.
As quietly as possible, Hera undid the lock and the door hissed open. They both let out a breath of relief as the hallway revealed itself to be empty. "Which way"
"Right." Fen left the room, door hissing shut on the body behind them. Slowly, they walked down the hall, contrary to every inborn response Fen possessed. She wanted to run, throw everyone aside and run until she was free. As though she could sense this, Hera laid a hand on her arm. Though the smooth stone hallway was empty, it was not silent. Music emanated from the hall; with Arok's court done for the day there would be more drinks, more music and more dancing. The beat of the music reverberated the walls around them, giving the building the impression of a heartbeat.
The hall ended in a tight corner, together Fen and Hera peered around the wall and took in the party that was in full swing. The room was darker than normal and in the place of a smoke-shrouded Hutt were dancers, backlit by flashing blue light. Most of the floor had been filled with tables for the accumulated bounty hunters, slavers and related scum that collected around the Hutt like lice on a Bantha. Hera pulled her back. "This is great! There are tons of people, we can just sneak through.
"There's still the guards." Fen shook her head,
"There's only the two of them by the door though, that's not too many to fight." Fen could only look at Hera in dismay. The twi'lek was delusional if she thought that they were a match for even one guard, even a very drunken one. Hera sighed, coming to reality. "Then we need a distraction of some kind to get out the door. They both risked another look, just in time to see a fight nearly break out.
"We need something like that." Hera smiled, "But a bigger fight than over a chair."
"Like what? Me just dumping drinks on some slaver isn't going to start a riot."
"I'm sure we'll come up with something. It's better than the other idea I had anyway."
"What was that?" Fen wasn't sure she really wanted to know.
"Seduce the guards and knock them out." Hera shrugged. "Or you could always distract them the Jedi way?" There was a note of doubt in Hera's voice that hit Fen in the gut. Old memories bubbled up in her mind of deflecting blaster bolts and flinging droids. Again, she reached for the Force and again, found nothing.
"You're right. Starting a bar fight is the best idea we've got." She threw her best slave mask on, unwilling to let Hera see her dismay at her own powerlessness. It had been so much easier to forget about her missing sense before. Now once again it was a raw wound she couldn't stop poking at.
Hera nodded. "How hard can it be to get a bunch of drunken slavers to fight?" It felt like a challenge.
Fen shrugged, pulling her fingers quickly through her hair and adjusting her scraps of clothing, placing the mask, one of benevolent calm that slaves wore so well, back on. Head held high and back straight, she walked around the corner, half smile playing false notes across her face. The sound of music hit her like a wall as the duo walked into the hall. As fast as she could, Fen took in the scene. Several dozen tables filled the space between her and escape. Betide them, slave girls with trays of drinks wove their way around the drunken masses, deftly avoiding hands and paws as they went. At the far end of the room, the small non-descript entrance to the stairwell and their escape. Two Gamorreans on either side, looking bored as they watched the party going on without them.
She looked beside her briefly to see Hera with her eyes fixed on the far door with the intensity of a predator. Fear welled up in her once more, they still had only the barest shreds of a plan separating her from a slow death. Her only option was escape. The finality of it galvanized her, at least for now as Fen walked over to the bar. Claiming a tray of drinks almost larger than her, she lifted it above her head, throwing the Duros beside her a quick smile. Beside her, another slave Fen vaguely recognized struggled to balance her tray, fear writ large across her face.
Fen had a sudden pang of consciousness. She and Hera might escape but what about the rest of the slaves here? She smiled at the other slave and slowly turned away. Powerlessness threatened to overcome her for a moment, how many women had died here before she came? The number since she had arrived was at least a dozen. How many more would suffer after she left? But what could she do? Heart heavy, Fen pulled herself out of the low-level misery that permeated the room and instead scanned it, looking for the drunkest patron she could find.
A small, true smile flickered across her face as she recognized a Wookie with dark fur and a long scar across his face. She walked into the forest of tables, beginning a circuitous root towards him as she tried to catch his eye. Begins of all descriptions grabbed drinks from her tray as she slowly walked, for the first time in her life almost ready for one of them to make a move.
The timing couldn't have been more perfect if she tried. As she caught the Wookie's eye and smiled broadly, a Roadian grabbed her free hand, pulling her violently. The poorly balanced tray fell, remaining drinks falling and shattering on the head of a nearby human who whirled around suddenly. "What the Sith!?" The drenched man shouted as Fen tried to pull herself away from the Rodian who grabbed her arm tighter and wheeled her in. Quickly, she shot what she hoped was a desperate glance in the direction of the Wookie. The human took in the situation. Waiting exactly no seconds, he wordlessly decked the Rodian in the face, sending him staggering backwards, releasing his clammy grip on Fen's upper arm. That grip was immediately replaced.
"That bug-eye giving you trouble sweetheart?" Fen smiled, moving her eyes upwards quickly from the rotting teeth in his mouth.
"Thank goodness you're here!" She shot a glare at the recovering alien on the floor.
"A pretty girl like you shouldn't have anything to do with scum like that, let me show you a good time tonight." His words were gilded, but he was holding her arm tight enough to leave bruises. She batted her eyelashes at him for a moment as though she were seriously considering his offer. Pouting, she looked over at the Wookie, who luckily still had his eyes focused on her like lasers.
"I'm really sorry, but I'm with him tonight." She gestured over her shoulder at the Wookie and made to pull away but he gripped her tighter still, grabbing her face with his free hand. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the Wookie rise to his feet.
"You deserve better than that doll." Her arm was beginning to go numb as his chapped lips slammed into hers. He withdrew a moment later, turning to look at the Wookie towering over him, teeth bared. In that moment of distraction, Fen risked a glimpse behind her at the last known position of Hera, hoping she remained close by. She was, but had wound up on the lap of another human who was muttering something about the blood on her face. She met Fen's gaze. There Fen saw that all the strength the twi'lek possessed was going into not punching the human in the face. Endeavouring to hurry this fight along, Fen turned to attention back to the situation at hand. The Wookie was growling something unfriendly, drool dripping from a fang, but the human held her fast.
"She's mine now fur-ball! Go find someone your own size." The Wookie grabbed Fen's other arm and she felt a sudden lurch of foreboding. Again she tried to free herself from the human's grip, but his cheeks were slightly flush with drunkenness and there was a glint of fury in his eyes. Internally, she smiled.
It was the human who, unwisely threw the first punch. Releasing his death grip on her arm by a fraction, he swung at the 8-foot ball of fur and muscle. In a moment, Fen was free from both of their clutches and the human was sailing across the room. To her absolute delight, he hit the back of the Roadian from earlier, who had no qualms about adding insult to injury. As the Wookie ran forwards to grab his new prey, Fen shoved a chair in his path and he went tumbling into a Trandoshan. At the same moment, Hera punched the human who held her and threw a beer in the face of the other man at the table. She ducked the incoming blow and it landed in the face of the man who's lap she had been in a moment ago. After that, it was hard to see what was happening.
A few more second passed before the Gamorreans decided that door duty was far less exciting than a bar fight and, grunting, ran towards the skirmish. With a hear-beat of eye contact between them, Hera and Fen ran to the door.
Hera didn't dare look back as she ran, her eyes fixed on the door and the hope that lay beyond. She could barely spare a thought for Fen, running slightly behind her, the noise of the fight they had started chasing them like a physical force. Had it only been half a day since she had come down these stairs? Already it felt like a lifetime ago. As her lungs started to burn, she tried to focus on running up the stairs and sucking the damp, mildew-filled air into her lungs. As she rounded the next corner and the next, her muscles begged her to stop, to slow down, but the fear racing in her heart drown out the petty concerns of her body. She did not want to die here. Even execution by the Empire seemed a mild fate compared with this.
Despite her focus on running, her mind pulled in a different direction. Slavery was no stranger to Hera, it had stalked her home world for centuries. Likely, it would continue to do so for many generations to come. Wound on top of wound Ryloth had suffered, slavery by the Hutts, the inflexibility and stagnation of the old republic, the Clone Wars and now the Empire. Each pain demanded to be fought and Hera had. However, her focus had lately been dominated by the Empire that was slowly closing a vice-like grip on Ryloth. Slavery had always been a distasteful fact of life, but something that could be dealt with later. No longer. Hera thought, distracting herself from yet another flight of stairs ahead of her. When she returned to her home, it would be the slave markets to which she turned with the full force of her anger.
After what felt like an eternity, the floor mercifully leveled out. Both of the women reached the top and were forced to halt, gasping for air, legs shaking. For a few precious moments, they stood there, hands on their knees, eyeing each other with the wariness of prey. "You alright?" Hera gasped, Fen was nearly white, Hera doubted she looked any better.
"I think so." With an effort of will, both of the girls straightened and rounded the last bend, only to retreat an instant later. Two more guards, humans this time, blocked the door leading back to the outside world and freedom. Leaning against the wall, Hera finished catching her breath, trying to force her brain to think, to work the problem. She was weaponless, and doubtless far from the acceptable domains of the slaves. She would have the element of surprise if she ran at them, but there was a slight chance that they would be good at their jobs and shoot her before she could get one of their blasters.
"Thoughts?" She turned to Fen, who's chest was still heaving. She looked so afraid. A year and a half the human girl had lived in the darkness, Hera recalled, unable to see the sun. Victory was so close at hand. As much as she didn't want to die here, she didn't want to let down this girl she had dragged with her into danger. Hera decided that running the guards was probably the best option right now. If nothing else, to them she was property of their master, they may be unwilling to damage her for fear of repercussions. "I'm just going to run at them and try to get a blaster." Fen managed to look even more terrified.
"That is a terrible idea." She hissed.
"My first one worked out fine!" Hera retorted, taking a deep breath, trying to remember the exact position of the men from her quick glance. She took a risk and peaked out behind the corner again. Unfortunately, one of them was looking right in her direction.
"Hey!" He shouted, more surprised than angry. Hera pulled her head back, but she could hear a set of boots coming towards her. Just one set however. She smiled and readied herself in the moments she had left. As he rounded the bend he began "What are you…" Before he could say another word, Hera punched him hard in the gut. As he staggered backwards, she grabbed his blaster and fired without hesitation. A ring of blue light caught the winded man in the chest and he collapsed. The second man rounded the corner and she shot him to, his large frame slumping down on top of his partner.
"See, it all worked out!" Hera smiled at Fen, who managed to return it before they ran towards the door. While Fen grabbed the second guard's blaster, Hera hit the button next to the door and it opened slowly. As soon as there was room to squish through, they both did so, the cool night air blasting them in the face.
It was a clear night. Stars and two moons illuminated the dark forest, but it was the air that Hera noticed first, clean and fresh with none of the stink of the court below. She glanced over at Fen. The other girl had her eyes closed, head tilted up to catch the feeble light of the moon, a radiant smile, free from fear across her face. Unwilling to disturb her, Hera waited a few precious seconds, listening to the sounds of insects filling the air. A profound wave of homesickness overcame her as she heard the melodies of a night on Ryloth.
Even more determined to escape, she grabbed Fen's arm "Let's go!" With a jolt, the other girl moved into action and they both began to run again, weary legs protesting.
The road connecting the palace and the spaceport was not long, but it seemed an eternity under the vast night sky as they ran, off to the side and as quietly as they could manage with the air burning in their lungs. Hera's ever sense was alert for the sounds of disturbance behind her, but she heard nothing. Stars were soon blotted out by floodlights that illuminated the cracked ferrocrete and reflected off the hulls of a few ships. Between them and the next step towards freedom, yet more guards. Half a dozen this time. They chatted as they idly wandered the perimeter, their conversation echoing in the mostly quiet night.
"Which ship?" Fen asked, here eyes fixed on a gleaming ship with a pointed nose.
"That's the one I came here on." Hera pointed towards the freighter with a pockmarked hull. "I had the owner's commlink, it might let us in. At any right, security will be looser on it, its so old."
"Are you sure? We may have to avoid turbolasers yet." She cast a dubious look at the lumbering ship.
"I'm sure." Hera lied. "It's our best chance. Besides, I've flown worse." She could feel Fen's look of curiosity, but kept her eyes firmly fixed on her goal.
"Should we make a run for it or mark the guard rotations first?" Now it was Hera's turn to give Fen a sidewise look, there was something changed about the ex-slave girl, a sharpness born of training, the kind that drove out fear.
"I'm not sure." Hera looked back, the white limestone of the palace just visible above the treeline, reflected in the moonlight. "I don't want to be here any longer than necessary." Fen gave a tight nod, her eyes focused on the men walking in front of them, long shadows stretching across the pavement as they moved around the corner and into darkness.
Grasping her blaster tighter, Fen whispered, "Now." Without hesitation, Hera began to run in a straight line, but slowed when she saw the other girl, hunched over and sticking to the shadows of the nearest ship. Fen pulled herself close to its bulk for a few seconds before moving slowly underneath it, disappearing from view. Hera followed close at her heels, not daring to speak.
They both darted through the patches of light between them and the sleek ship's deep shadows. Pausing for a moment, Fen held a finger up to her lips, eyes focused on the nearby guards, laughing with blasters holstered. In a moment, she was moving again, running to the shadow of their chosen freighter, it's wide bulk shielding them mostly from sight.
"Move quickly." Fen breathed in Hera's ear. Running up to the control panel by the hatch, she fumbled with the comlink she had stuffed in the ruins of a pocket. Her heart fell for a full swooping second before she felt the cool metal cylinder. As soon as it left her pocket, it and the ship gave a loud beep. Fen hissed her displeasure and cocked her blaster. For a moment, silence. Then the ramp began to lower. It seemed unbearably loud in the quiet. The chatter of the guards had stopped. There was a click as Fen set her blaster to kill, eyes scanning the darkness. Inch by inch the ramp lowered, hissing and squealing. Hera gritted her teeth and put her finger on the trigger.
Blaster fire erupted on all sides as the guards converged. The girls began to fire back a second later. Hera glanced at the ramp, a few more seconds and she could jump inside. Stepping out of the shadows the guards continued to fire, Hera and Fen both pressed against the side of the freighter with no way to maneuver. Beside her, Fen gave a yelp as a shot caught her in the arm and Hera had a moment of doubt. She might yet die here, under a pair of foreign moons. She turned to look a Fen and saw a furious anger in the young woman's eyes that chilled something inside of her.
Flinging out her arms, Fen yelled and the guards flew backwards, blasters torn from their grips. For a moment, the sound of the ramp echoed alone. Hera didn't waste a second. Together, both of them scrambled up the ramp and slammed the reverse button. Unspoken, Fen remained standing in the doorway, firing at the guards, eyes bright with anger while the ramp changed course and began to close.
Hera ran as fast as she could to the cockpit, slipping slightly on the metal floors. Sliding into the pilot's chair, she couldn't help but smile, back in her element at last. The ship came alive under her fingers, engines coughing to a start. In seconds, she had the ship up in the air. A sense of relief filled her as she pulled the ship up to meet the stars. Beside her, Fen sat down, holding her arm, likewise bewitched by tantalizing freedom that waited above.