#jade solitaire

“Excuse me, folks - I’m looking for Talon Karrde.”

It was a genial voice, affable even, but there was steel under it and I felt my shoulders lock up in response to the inherent threat.

Who was this and what was he doing on Karrde’s ship?

Chin’s expression from across the console mirrored mine as I got to my feet to greet the intruder.

“Captain Karrde isn’t here right now.” I replied as I scrutinized the burly human in the bridge doorway. There was nothing familiar about him but his attitude, “how did you get in here?”

The vague unease grew as  the stranger declared that Dankin had let him in and that he and Karrde went way back. He wondered when he was going to return. My eyes darted to Chin who shrugged almost imperceptibly. Chin had no idea who this guy was either. 

“If you’d like, you can leave a message.” I offered, coating my voice with a geniality I doubt fooled the intruder. Who was this? He was too young to be the elusive Car’das.

“No, I’m afraid that won’t do.” He continued as he casually waved a hand at the viewport as though he was about to start a speech. 

The vague unease sharpened into a flash of my danger sense and I reached for my blaster – too late. The man’s hand had split down the middle revealing it to be a prosthetic hiding a blaster of his own: a stingbeam if I had it right, and we were certainly in range for the deadly weapon.

Fierfek.

“My employer would like a word with you all.” Our attacker declared. Of course he was working for someone else. That hidden blaster trick screamed hired gun, “he’d prefer you arrive undamaged but he’d understand if that’s not possible.”

My lip twisted of its own accord. That threat was not for me. Alone, I could take this guy and make him regret ever setting foot on the Wild Karrde. But I wasn’t alone and his weapon was pointed at Chin. And since Dankin and the local crew hadn’t burst in yet, our attacker wasn’t alone either. 

There were no good choices.

“I would hate to disappoint him.” I responded cooly. I held my hands away from my body in surrender. Three days. I’d been home for three days!

Trick Blaster’s employer turned out to be Ja Bardrin, the industrialist who had most of Uoti sewed up in his pocket. And he’d heard of me. I supposed I should be flattered, but one of the most disconcerting follow ups to that sort of recognition by that sort of man is the phrase “you’ll do nicely.” And that’s what he said.

Do nicely for what?

Tired of any sort of games, I repeated  myself, “what do you want?”

I didn’t know it at the time, but the task he blackmailed me into would change my fortune and my future in ways I could never have predicted. 

Sansia had not exaggerated the slaves’ quarters in the least. They were almost as slimy as the pits had been. And, as I got in line for my turn to clean up, I could see the washing troughs were filled with a liquid that was definitely not water. It was basically just a less viscous version of the same slime we’d been sifting through for pupae. It was hideous, and I could see the impact on my fellow prisoners as they drifted through the motions on autopilot. The despair was thick around me and I wondered if that was a place I’d have gotten to in life if I hadn’t found Karrde, if Palpatine hadn’t died. 

I shuddered and pushed that thought away as I worked my way to the centre of the crowd and slowly slid the vials and spray bottles out of the neckline of my jumpsuit. As I inspected the labels, I sighed with relief. One vial of Alkaligin and two of liquid Pomanganel.  They were indeed the chemicals I needed. As much as life under Palpatine had been its own sort of prison, at least there I learned the skills I needed to hopefully get usl out of here.

“I thought you were kidding about going to pick up some things. Where did you get those?” Sansia’s voice hissed in my ear. She sounded surprised and impressed.

“Medic supply cabinet, “ I mumbled, filling one squeeze bottle with the Pomaganel as she covered me from the cameras. 

Eyes wide, she warned there were probably also cameras  in the med facility and seemed to brace herself.

“I know.” I looked up to see more surprise on her face, “don’t worry. I took care of them. Here, hold these.”

I handed over the full squeeze bottle and empty vial as I poured one vial of Alkaligin into the other one.  Sansia looked pretty awful for someone who’d theoretically just cleaned herself up. That was definitely by design. Praysh relied on the sense of filth and humiliation to keep his prisoners from revolting.  I realized Jabba had taken the same approach using differently hideous tactics. And they’d worked until he’d tried them on Organa-Solo. 

With the thin reassurance that the biting pupae didn’t hurt anymore than the neuronic whip had, he dumped me into the slime pit.

I felt bad for splashing a nearby woman as I landed, but she waved off my concern.

“Don’t worry about getting dirty, either.” She said in a dreary monotone, “You’ll never be clean again.”

“Cheery thought.” I muttered under my breath as one of the guards cracked a whip overhead. I took the hint and got to work digging in the muck.

I needed to find Sansia Bardrin and come up with a plan to get both of us out of here before either she or I started to sound like the rest of these slaves. I felt a red hot thread of anger worm its way through me as I considered a future mucking around for pupae under the watchful eye of leering sadistic Drach’nam guards. Never clean again.