Jaden Korr - The Beginning - Chp 1

Chapter 1. The Slave Trade

'Alright then remind me again why we're going to this desolate rock in the middle of nowhere!' A man in his late forties with thick grey hair yelled angrily at twilek sitting down in a chair in front of him.

The twilek boredly played with a glass cup in his hands for a moment before turning around and staring up at the agitated man.

'First of all I need you to trust me my old friend.' The twilek cooed in Basic as he slowly put the glass down on a table beside him. 'Secondly it's because this desolate rock is full of refuges…desperate refuges looking for a good time.' The twilek stood up and walked over to a nearby window where he looked outside his starship window down at the planet below.

'We need credits! Not just to be kind to the poor scum down there!' The man said angrily crossing his arms.

'When did I ever say we would be delivering our services for free!' The twilek laughed not turning around. 'We have some of the most beautiful slave dancers that will make any man no matter what dead beat status they have want to watch them and give us their money for the right to.' The twilek turned around and grinned. 'And besides this forest planet will not have any type of authority that we will run into to try and take away my slaves that I bought with my own credits mind you!'

'You better be right Righter or else all our investments in these slave dancers will be put to waste!'

'Desperate men will pay anything Telo my friend…anything…' The twilek said with a grin.

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'Quickly now you slaves get off the ship!' Telo yelled standing beside his and Righter's small ship which had landed on a dirt landing pad. He looked up at the ramp and watched as a group of about 5 female twileks all quickly ran down the ramp stopping in front of him.

One of the twilek young women began speaking twilek to the others but Telo quickly barked at her to be quiet.

'Basic only! I want to know exactly what you slaves are saying!' The young female twilek nodding quickly.

'I sorry.' She stuttered looking up at him.

'You better be, now wait here whilst I talk with your master to see where we are to preform whilst we're at this disgusting place.'

The twileks watched as Telo walked away but they weren't left alone because they could see another of Righter's men watching them from a short distance away.

'You know not to speak our language in front of him!' A light blue twilek said looking at a darker shade of blue twilek who looked down at the ground.

'I sorry Minara, basic, is hard, we not paid to talk…' She said looking down at the ground. It was obvious from the way she was acting and speaking she was a new slave to the group who hadn't yet learned the rules that Telo and Righter enforced on their slaves.

'You will learn!' Minara snapped. 'Our youngest learned very quickly and so will you.' She said pointing to a young light purple coloured twilek who looked no more than 16 years old. 'How are you feeling young Jaden?' She asked looking down at the girl.

'Alright.' Jaden said with a sigh.

'This planet I have never heard of it before.' Another red twilek said looking at Minara who obviously was in charge of the small group of twileks.

'Master called it Rylis…I have not heard of it before but since the Empire took over many new planets are being inhabited on the outskirts of the galaxy.'

Jaden looked past the group of twileks in front of her and looked out to a very makeshift city in front of her. There were no buildings higher than about 3 stories and most builings appeared to be made of local materials such as wood, and types of pale stone and brick.

She glanced behind her at the ship and noticed that behind the ship rose a wall that stood about 10 to 12 feet high. Following the wall she soon noticed that it appeared to encase the entire city.

The quarters where she and her fellow slaves were kept had no windows so she hadn't been able to see the terrain when they had come in for landing but she could see that tops of trees over the high fence which made her believe that there must be some type of forest beyond it. The idea of a having a huge fence surrounding the city made her believe that there was obviously something that the city folk wanted to keep out.

'Jaden? Jaden did you hear me?' Minara said looking down at Jaden who quickly snapped out of her thoughts.

'Yes!' She looked up at a glaring Minara. 'No…sorry.' She said.

'You need to stop all this day dreaming my dear, you better not anger our Masters or then you will be in trouble!' Jaden nodded sadly.

'Come on girls this way!' Telo said reappearing from a nearby building and clapping his hands. 'The cantina is this way they have a room where you can prepare yourselves for this evening.' He said motioning the twileks over. 'Now stick close girls and follow me.' He said turning back around and walking away from the landing pad and into the city. Jaden and the others quickly followed him.

As Jaden followed she looked around at all the citizens of the city. What all the citizens appeared to her to have in common was that they all looked tired and she could feel this strange sense of sadness and fear emanating all around her from them. There appeared to be no children at all and everyone appeared to be adults.

As Jaden was walking she soon noticed an older man sitting down on a path who appeared to be begging for credits. Stopping Jaden looked down at the man who stared longingly up at her and put out his hand and said something in a language she didn't understand.

'I…' She started but was interrupted when Minara quickly grabbed her hand and dragged her away.

'No talking to these people.' Minara said quickly as Jaden quickly followed into line.

'He looked like he needed some help.' She frowned angrily up at Minara.

'Don't you dare get angry at me!' Minara said staring down at Jaden who crossed her arms. 'You have so much to be grateful for! If it wasn't for me and the Masters you could be dead now and yet you still not listen to me or them!' Jaden's frown quickly faded.

'Minara I'm sorry I…' Jaden started as Minara sighed and looked down at Jaden.

'No look I'm sorry I didn't mean to snap.'

'You women be quiet!' Telo growled angrily glancing back at them as the two quickly nodded as he stopped for a moment to get his bearings. 'This stupid city! Every street corner looks exactly the same! This map is useless!' He said throwing a scrap piece of paper into the air as he continued walking.  The twileks including Jaden quickly followed after him. Jaden was slightly amused at his annoyance but kept it well hidden as not to anger him more.

Even though Jaden hated both Telo and Righter for the way they treated her and her fellow slaves from what she had heard from Minara on how other Masters treated their slaves she should really consider herself lucky. Jaden had heard horrible stories of murder and death from other slaves who had even crueler masters. Both Telo and Righter never hurt any of them but did threaten to leave them on some desolate planet alone if they didn't do as they were told and in this day and age that was a death sentence. In this galaxy controlled by the Empire and the Sith making a fair living if you weren't working for the empire was almost impossible. With so many people starving and dying all across the galaxy Minara was right in telling Jaden to be at least thankful that even though she was a slave she had relatively kind masters, a roof over her head and food on her plate at meal times.

However call her selfish but Jaden wanted more than what she had, she wanted to be free to explore the galaxy for herself to become a somebody and not just a slave dancer. She had never told anyone before but sometimes she felt different than everyone else, it was as though she had some type of sixth sense and that she was able to sense things that others couldn't. It wasn't a feeling that she was better than anyone else of course but she just felt different more one with everything around her but she was too afraid to tell anyone and so she kept such feelings and thoughts to herself.

'Finally we're here!' Telo said as Jaden looked past her fellow slaves at a rather large building in front of them. 'Hurry now girls go in and get back stage and dress yourselves in your attire we have many customers to please.' He said clapping his hands as the twileks including Jaden quickly ran inside.