Star Wars : Imprisoned

Wrote this one as an exercise on Hooley's behalf.

STAR WARS: IMPRISONED

“Hey, kid. Hey.” A coarse voice called across the small cell. “What’re you in for? I bet you got caught trying to steal something eh? Bloody humans, always trying to take things they think they deserve. I swear you’d think..”
The voice rambled on in the near pitch black darkness, droning in the silence among the occasional rattle of chains. The human turned from the inobservant speaker and laid his head in his hands, trying to ignore the dark stone walls and vibro-bars that surrounded him. He took a deep breath and nearly gagged on the stench of filth that hung in the stale air.
How the hell did I end up here? He said he had it, that he’d done it a hundred times before. I should never have listened to him.
“Never can trust a jedi.” He said quietly to himself.
“What was that?” A deep bass murmured just a few feet away. The human hadn’t seen him when he entered and jumped in surprise. “So it’s a jedi’s fault you’re in here eh? Me too.”
The human remained quiet, eyes lowered to the stone floor. He shivered at the cold. The planet Me’ernen was predominantly swamp with humongous ocean-sized bogs covering eighty percent of its surface. The little land remaining there was chilled from the wind that rode the waves and had forced the occupants to accommodate it in their infrastructure. Having no mountains or great rock deposits, the cities were made of wood from the various trees that surrounded the area and were built up atop one another; the wealthy being higher in the warmer air.
The prison however, was underground and freezing in the darkness. Only a single lantern illuminated each block. It was just enough light for him to see his breath swirl and dance in front of his face.
“What’s your name, human?” The deep voice asked politely, a soft edge in his tone. “I’m Throck, a Zabrak from Dathomirian.”
A few moments passed in silence as he attempted to find his voice.
“Jordan.” He said slowly. “Human obviously. From Alderon.” He added nervously.
“Pleasure to meet you.” Throck said with heavy sarcasm. “How’re you liking the Me’ernen hospitality?”
“Oh, it’s just bloody fantastic. Free room and board, two square meals a day, and a roof over my head? Too good to be true.”
The Zabrak boomed a throaty laugh, chuckling deeply. Across the cell the coarse voice was still going on about obtrusive humans.
“Your friend doesn’t seem to know no one’s listening.” Throck commented.
“He’s no friend of mine.”
“Surely you didn’t come here alone? Me’ernen is a tough place.”
“No, I came with a friend of mine, Otis. He—“ Jordan cut himself off suddenly as he realized what he was about to say. “He has a lot of family here. Gave me a place to stay.”
Throck noted the hesitation but dismissed it. “That’s good. All too often we have offworlders show up here expecting to usurp these backwater bumpkins only to end up here or floating belly up.”
Jordan looked over in the darkness at the shape that was Throck. From what little he could tell, Throck was tall and broad, possibly overweight, or maybe just built to fight. He weighed the pros and cons in his mind before speaking.
“How’d you end up here?”
Throck shifted off in the corner and tugged at his chains to loosen them on his wrists. “I got a call a few months back to come here for a job. Easy pickings. Just had to show up, receive a single item and pay, then head back to Dathomirian. So I found a crew to give me a ride and I made it here within the week. I met a man named, Feren, and told him my business. He looked me up and down and smiled. Right then and there I knew it was a mistake to come.
However the credits were too appealing and I stayed. They gave me this little metal case and a satchel of credit chips. Then told me to get on my way soon as the suns were up.
I never got the chance.”
Jordan inhaled suddenly as he realized he’d been holding his breath and leaned forward, intrigued.
“What happened?”
There was a rumble in Throck’s chest, like a growl, primal yet sentient. The thought made Jordan’s spine tingle.
“Jedi.” He spat. “That’s what happened. They stormed my ship in the night and stole the case, claiming it was evidence in a series of murders and I was under arrest for smuggling! Can you believe it? Next thing I know, I’m in chains sitting in an interrogation room aboard one of their cruisers.”
Jordan swallowed hard at the way the conversation had turned. “Didn’t they give you a chance to clear your name? To testify?”
“Jedi don’t care about Zabrak. They think we’re all lining up to be Sith. Every time I tried to open my mouth, it felt like a rope was tightening on my throat. A few more hours of me being ‘resistant’ and they tossed me in here without any official charges. No one knows I’m here either, they told my contact I had left with the shipment and payment to the Korriban system. Now I’m labeled a traitor and thief back home. And here I am rotting.”
Jordan sat for a while, stunned, silenced by the unfair treatment of the person just a few feet from him. He couldn’t believe such a thing was possible by the order everyone he had grown up with looked to for protection and order. His head was swimming with doubt and he was fearful his faith would be shattered before long.
“So how’d you end up in this cozy little ghetto of ours?” Throck said after a few minutes in silence. His resonant voice echoing softly off the thick grimy walls.
Jordan remained silent for a while longer as he worked out a censored version of his tale.
“I guess it all begins back on Alderon. My friend Otis and I had always wanted to be..helpful. To give back to those who had raised us orphans. So we trained here and there to become..helpful.” He swallowed as his dry throat constricted. “We left Alderon after a few years and travelled to a few small planets, mostly desolate with small populations.”
“Which is why you came here.” Throck stated.
“Exactly. So, we came here and started looking around for things to do, people to assist with whatever matters they needed attending to. And before long we met a man named Alfren who claimed his house had been robbed. We checked out the area and found it crawling with ‘thieves’.” Jordan said and motioned the quotation marks in the air with his fingers. “When all was said and done, Alfren pulled a pistol on us from behind and things..escalated. Alfren’s group arrived and reported us to the authorities as murderers. There were no thieves, just a rival gang who needed to be put down.”
“Where’s your friend, Otis then?”
Jordan opened his mouth to reply when a sudden glow of green illuminated the dark cell as a lightsaber flashed into life with a zap like electricity.
“I’m right here.”