Early years.
—————————————
The lights of the largest room inside the Warrior of Darkness were off. The laughter of the children was long gone. Every orphan was in the bed that was assigned to them when they boarded the oh so familiar ship, a Colossus-class Heavy Liner back in Corellia. The mandalorians who owned this business had been traveling through the galaxy for quite a long time, always on a new planet; sometimes paying to get the orphans into their custody, other times just finding and kidnapping them from their homeworlds. Most of the times, it took several years for them to come back to the exact cities where they got the children. After picking up enough of them, they would board the ship and fly to the capital so the orphans could get a home in Coruscant, and they themselves of course, a large amount of cash.
The Galactic Empire didn’t really care about this kind of business, although selling and buying humans wasn’t the best choice of carrier, it had to be done in the shadows. In fact, the idea of getting children for the families that supported the Empire and who couldn’t conceive was fully accepted, if not encouraged.
There was a little girl laying in her bed at the end of the last bed row; even though she was not moving at all, she was awake. Her dark and long hair was slightly covering her face, her deep green eyes were staring at the barely noticeable blue light that the R2 unit that was placed next to her bed was projecting. The little girl was seven and had been with the Mandalorian since she could remember. Never, on the long trips to the planet city during those six years she had been adopted by a family or sentient. There were three things she knew for sure: Her last name was unknown, she didn’t have a home and the only thing she owned in the entire galaxy was the droid standing next to her. Drael, which she was told was her name, was a very quiet girl. All the other orphans thought she was quite strange, especially since she prefered spending her time with her droid rather than with the others.
“Yes, we will arrive to Coruscant in four hours, everything is set up…” Drael heard some whispers, she sat down immediately and tried to listen. A mandalorian who came from the cockpit of the ship was talking to another one. The girl opened her green eyes widely and looked at the droid after what she just heard.
“Inkabunga” [Amazing] She whispered in Huttese without noticing. Although Drael spoke mainly Basic, she knew a few words in Huttese, apparently something she learned before being an orphan. Nevertheless, she didn’t remember where she got those words or why she was able to remember that sort of thing and not anything else. “Did you hear that, Artoo? Coruscant! I might finally leave this ship.” The droid beeped in response. Artoo was Drael’s droid, she named it that because she couldn’t think of a better name for an R2 unit. “I guess I should sleep some,” she said while she reached to Artoo with her left hand and patted the droid as if it was alive.
* * *
“Pick up your stuff and get the hell out of the ship! I said now small pieces of…”
“I told you not to treat them like that, at least not on this planet, Jager. We don’t want to bring undesired imperial guards in our direction.”
Drael and her astronomech were the first to abandon the ship. The entire crew walked into a very old, rusty building. It was late and dark, but Drael knew the building very well, she had seen lots of children leave from it with their new family. As she walked in with everyone else, the light of the room hurt her eyes, as it did with the other children, and it illuminated everyone’s face. Drael’s hair was still dark but it had some purple highlights that were now evident under the light. The mandalorian led every orphan to a kind of cubicle behind glass, better kown as the -glass cage- to every child. They used to stay inside them until either they were bought by someone or until they were told to board the ship yet again.
The day went by very slowly and the little girl with green eyes lost hope. Suddenly, a mandalorian came running from the front door. “Imperial guards are here!”
“What?!” said the mandalorians in a chorus.
“We had a deal with them, they have no business in here.”
“They aren’t alone. They came in a senatorial ship. We have important guests.” As the tallest of them, a mandalorian called Frell, who apparently was the boss, finished saying that, two figures joined them in the room. They froze as they recognized the figures.
“Senator Rak Sha,” said Frell as he bowed, everything and everyone else was silent. “We are very pleased to receive you and your lovely wife, Lady Lahini tonight. The senator was a tall coruscanti who was in his fourties, his wife was clinging to his right arm. Senator Rak Sha simply nodded to Frell.
“I understand you have a business here.”
“Yes, my lord.”
Drael was almost one with the glass, as she was pushing her body onto it in order to get a glympse of what was happening, she was pretty impressed by the aristocrats.
“Oonai, how about that one? She is really cute, her eyes are lovely.” Said the woman while pointing at Drael. Drael froze right at that second. Senator Rak Sha and Lady Lahini were very involved in the government, they supported the Galactic Empire ideals. They had been married for years but they didn’t succeed in having a child of their own, a fact that was the cause of laughter and bad publicity for the senator. Thus, they were there to adopt a child.
“Jager, bring that kid and her ugly droid” Ordered Frell, suddenly understanding the purpose of the senator’s presence on that lugubrious place. “She’s a human girl my lord, seven years old, has been with us almost since she was born. That astromech is hers, it’s her only belonging, she came with it, we didn’t dare to take it away from her, you know how it is, these kids have nothing in…”
Senator Rak Sha waved a hand. Tha mandalorian got quiet as he saw it. Drael walked to the happy couple very slowly, Artoo was following her, she was not crying, not smiling either, she was in shock. Senator Rak Sha smiled as the girl aproached. Lady Lahini reached to her hair and caressed it. The senator finally looked at the mandalorian. “We’ll take her, I’ll pay you. But know at once, that if you ever mention this on your poor and worthless life, any word about this and you’ll regret it forever. I will destroy you and your so called business. You hear me, Frell?”
“Yes, sir.”
[Drael at the window of her room on Coruscant].
* * *
Leave a Reply