Once Hato and the Twi'lek lady disappeared, we were forced to drop everything and gather around again.
You would have thought the Nikto overseer was about to celebrate something with the way he accepted an ugly whip from one of his enforcers.
"Strip him," he commanded, stretching the whip menacingly.
The Zeltron boy started screaming in pure terror as he realized what his new fate was.
That was not even what terrified me.
What terrified me was that the idiot was looking at me.
What the hell was he looking at me for? This was his own fault. I had warned him more than once.
But he never seemed to think about the consequences of his actions.
I avoided eye contact and even stepped behind the burly Devaronian slave.
The guy was big enough to shield me from the boy's glare.
I was not about to be dragged into his stupidity.
"No, no, do something. Do something. They are going to send them to a brothel," the boy cried.
The Devaronian stared at him like he had gone insane.
A couple of enforcers turned toward the big guy, and the overseer glared at him.
"Oh yeah? What exactly do you think he will do?"
By God, shut the fuck up.i thought now panicking.
This whole confusion was between the enforcers, the Devaronian, and the boy. They had not yet realized the boy was actually looking past the Devaronian.
But the big slave caught on soon enough.
Maybe he remembered our interaction from the previous night.
He stepped aside and shoved me forward.
The motherfucker.
At that exact moment, the first whip cracked across the boy's bare back.
The shriek that tore through the compound made every single one of us flinch.
He tried to lift his head, but the second lash came hissing down.
By the third, his head slammed forward as if he had already passed out.
The Nikto did not care.
The whip kept falling until all fifteen lashes Hato had ordered were delivered.
The boy had passed out long before it ended.
Maybe that was mercy.
Looking at the deep gashes across his back, though, I felt little comfort. With the conditions we were living in, those wounds would be infected by tomorrow.
They were Deep tissue wound, and with No treatment His chances of survival looked ugly.
"You. Take him. Lay him against the wall."
The Nikto was speaking to the Devaronian.
Luckily, he still believed the boy had been referring to the big guy.
His size made him look like the only person who would be told to 'do something'
Still, I kept wondering why the hell the boy had looked at me.
What was I supposed to do against blasters and security droids? Stop an overseer mid sentence?
I was starting to think something was wrong with those Zeltron circuits.
The Devaronian dragged the boy roughly and dropped him against the wall like a sack of meat.
We were then ordered back to work.
It took about six more trips before the Zeltron came around.
By the time he regained consciousness, we were clearing the last of the crates. Luckily, the new batch that had been expected had not arrived yet, so the overseer dismissed us early for lunch.
Being one stroke ninety six, I was first in line for rations.
Today it was a piece of something that looked like dry bread but felt like stone, and the usual bottle of water.
I waited until the line died down before stepping forward again.
The enforcer distributing rations looked at me like I had just asked for execution.
He stared at the bread and water in my hands.
"Not for me. For him," I said, pointing to where the boy was groaning, smearing the wall with blood from his back.
The enforcer looked at the Nikto overseer.
The overseer looked at me, then at the boy, disgust on his face.
For a second, I thought he would refuse.
Then he nodded.
I was handed another piece of bread and another bottle of water.
Kindness had nothing to do with it.
If anything, it confirmed they would not excuse him from work despite his injuries. That only made his situation worse.
I crouched beside him and used his own bloody shirt to wipe the drool from his mouth.
Then I opened the water and pressed it against his swollen lips.
At least that we had in common now. My own lip was finally starting to heal.
"You are a complete idiot, you know that?" I muttered as he swallowed painfully. "I told you over ten times not to interfere. What did you think you would achieve?"
I tore off a piece of bread and tried to feed him.
He pushed it away.
"You should have done something. It may be too late now. They will kill them. My sisters will never submit to working in a brothel."
I ignored that.
"Do something?"
I forced the bread back into his mouth and gave him more water.
"For your sake, I hope your sisters are not as stupid as you."
He swallowed quickly just to clear his mouth.
"I heard you. I heard you last night. You are one of them."
I froze.
What the fuck was he talking about?
"One of whom?"
He stared at me for a few seconds, weighing whether to say it.
"The Jedi."
The word alone made my body go rigid.
"What the fuck are you saying? Are you insane?"
I shoved another, bigger piece of bread into his mouth to shut him up.
He tried to turn away, but I forced it in and followed with water.
"Now listen to me. You might want to get yourself killed, but leave me out of it. Whatever you think you heard, you are wrong."
He pulled the bread out.
"I am not. I heard you say you had to access the Force. I am not an idiot. I know what the Force is."
I flinched and glanced around.
No one seemed interested in us.
"Everyone knows what the Force is,and yes, you are an idiot. That does not mean I am a Je…"
I bit my lip before finishing the word.
Here in Ord Mantel, or any smuggler world, that word alone could get you killed.
"Can you at least try not to mention that? I am telling you, I do not know what you are talking about. It must have been a mistake. Besides, you said it yourself. It was a fucking dream."
He would not let it go.
"Yes. Except in that dream, you were injured and I wiped blood from your lips. Whatever is happening, I am not your enemy. I just want you to help me save my sisters."
"Dude."
I closed my eyes and tried to steady the panic rising in my chest.
I took a slow breath before speaking carefully.
"Listen to me. If I had any power to save anyone, do you really think I would be here? Would I not have saved myself first?"
For a second, it looked like logic might reach him.
It did not.
"Not if you are here to investigate them. Is that not what you people do?"
"What do you mean, you people? Shut your fucking mouth."
I shoved the bread into his hand and left the water beside him.
"Listen carefully. If you want to tell someone, the overseer is right there. Go ahead. Just know you will get another person killed because of your stupidity. I am not whatever you think I am. I want to live just like you. And if you keep acting like this, you will not last a week here."
I walked away, leaving him to feed himself.
And that was when I realized something.
This dream state was going to fuck me up.