Chapter 7 The Falleen
Rachel had lost herself in the mundaneness of the work the Hutts made her do, she made herself numb to what extra favors they offered her up as, and she’d given up hope. How long she had been wherever she was, she didn’t know, and she found herself no longer caring. She resigned herself to the fact that no one was coming for her.
That was, until, one day, she saw someone she knew. The Falleen who had started this whole thing stood at the bar, but he no longer seemed quite so sure of himself. In fact, he seemed to be looking over his shoulder almost every other minute. Did he know this was where she had been taken? Did he think she was capable of or even able to get revenge?
“Mi yarga!” The Hutt she was currently chained to yelled at her.
“Ok, ok,” Rachel tried to soothe her. “I’m going to get you a drink.”
“Dopa,” the Hutt spat back.
“Ok, two,” Rachel said.
She made her way to the bar, feeling the weight of the chain dragging behind her, hoping no one stepped on it.
When she made it to the bar and ordered the Hutt’s drinks, she saw that the Falleen noticed her.
“You’re alive!” His melodic voice came in a hushed tone as he quickly looked around.
“No thanks to you,” Rachel spat out.
“I do apologize,” he said. “Sincerely. I was given a job, and I fulfilled it dutifully. I never expected the Jedi to bring down such harsh punishment however.”
“The Jedi?”
“Yes,” he said, looking around again and lowered his voice even more. “They are looking for you. They questioned me. Looked inside my mind. But I did not know where the Hutts took you. Truly.”
“If I wasn’t chained—”
“Your drinks,” the bartender said. “And you’d better hurry. Your Hutt looks rather upset.”
“Thank you,” Rachel said, grabbing the drinks and shooting a harsh glare at the Falleen.
She turned and walked back towards her Hutt with the drinks. Despite what she thought of him, the Falleen had given her a small spark of hope. The Jedi were looking for her. They hadn’t given up on her.
But how long ago had that been? He didn’t know she was alive. How long ago did the Jedi question him? Did they find him right away, and had looked for her in those first few days and weeks? It had been far longer than that now. They must have given up by now.
The spark was gone by the time she reached the Hutt with the two drinks which were hastily gulped down. Rachel grabbed the bowl of strange looking grub-like food they kept alive, knowing that she liked to eat.
Sure enough, she reached exactly where Rachel stood without even looking, grabbed one of the creatures and ate it as it screeched.
Rachel looked towards the bar where the Falleen still stood looking back at her.
He hadn’t used whatever tricks he’d used last time on her. Had he been sincere?
She tried to reach into his mind and sense his intentions. Remorse and guilt were not something she expected for a being like him. Lust, she expected, but not guilt. The fact that he still craved her despite all he had done made her angry. Still, it wasn’t at the forefront of his mind.
No. She wasn’t going to fall for whatever tricks he had this time. No matter how alluring he was. Besides, he would need the Hutts permission before he could do anything.
As it turned out, though, the Hutts wanted to talk to him. What they discussed, she didn’t know. She couldn’t hear. But he looked in her direction more times than she liked. He was definitely talking about her or bargaining for her.
Her chain was so sharply and suddenly jerked that it caused her to stumble, and she found herself next to the Hutts and Falleen as she stood up.
He stepped up to her and brushed a clawed hand down her cheek. “I promise we’ll be quick.”
He was speaking to the Hutts, but something in his eyes told Rachel that he was trying to sell something.
And she got it. The last time he had done that, her brain had been overloaded with a strange fuzziness that had made her crave him. This time, he wasn’t having that effect. Whatever he had done the last time, he wasn’t doing now, but he was pretending to, and she needed to play along.
But how?
Clearly, just gazing into his eyes worked because the Hutts dismissed them with a wave of their hand and slithered away. Her Hutt handed the Falleen her chain, and he directed her towards one of the back rooms.
Once they were inside, he turned to her.
“We do not have a lot of time,” he said quickly.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Rachel blurted out.
He stared at her. “Trying to save your life,” he said sharply. “But if you’re not interested, perhaps you would prefer I take you as my mate.”
She tensed.
“Then I suggest you listen.”
“You realize there are cameras watching,” Rachel said, trying to motion as non-discreetly as she could in the direction of the ever-watchful camera.
“Does it listen as well?”
“I don’t know,” Rachel admitted. “I guess we’ll find out soon enough.”
“Well, perhaps we’d better put on a show,” he said. “Or find a way to innocently cover it.”
Rachel looked around. There were no blankets, only cushions and pillows.
“I apologize,” he whispered, walking toward her and placing his hands on her waist. “For the show.”
But Rachel could sense his lust as well as he guided her toward the couch that was closest to the camera laying her back on it as he kissed down her neck.
She leaned her head back both to pretend she was enjoying it and to avert her eyes from the fact that he was removing his pants.
But when he threw them and they landed perfectly over the camera, she could see why.
“You couldn’t have done that with your robe?” she asked, trying not to look at him as they shifted to sitting positions.
“It’s too sheer, and the camera would still be able to see through it,” he said. “Again, I apologize. If you would prefer, I can exude some of my pheromones so that you enjoy it rather than finding it unpleasant.”
“Is that what you did to me?”
“Have you never met someone like me before?”
“No,” she bit out. “I’ve never seen someone like you until you decided to take advantage of me!”
“I do not know how many times I can apologize,” he said. “But it was for a job, and I assure you that I will not be taking such employment again.”
“Yet you’re here.”
“On behalf of the Jedi.”
She turned to look at his face, trying to ignore the rest of him.
“They are looking for you, and I was their best lead.”
“Master Ywin found you?”
“The Jedi I lured you away from, yes. He was most unpleasant. He discovered me trying to lure another woman away and questioned me. He…looked inside my mind. I was taken to Coruscant to the rest of the Jedi and questioned further. I was persuaded to help them find you.”
“It took you this long?”
“Do you know how large Hutt Space is?”
Rachel felt her jaw clench. She didn’t. She remembered seeing it highlighted on the holomap she had tried to study on her trip aboard the Star-Jumper, but she never really studied it further.
“It took a long time to track down the Hutt I had worked with. He disappeared once he found out I had been arrested, but now that I know you are here, I can tell the Jedi, and you can be freed.”
“If the Jedi can do anything.”
Master Ywin had told her that the Republic had almost no foothold or say in Hutt matters. What they did inside their empire was their own business, and the Republic left them alone.
“I believe they will be able to, in a sense, buy you from them and free you,” the Falleen said, a sadness in his tone. “I would try myself, but I do not have those kinds of funds.”
“And I suppose your pheromones don’t affect Hutts like they do normal humans?”
“They do not, but I like your thinking.”
“So you plan on leaving here and going back to the Jedi and telling them where I am, and they’ll come get me?”
“That is the plan.”
She nodded and looked at the door. Finally, she had hope for freedom. It only relied on the person who was responsible for her capture in the first place. It required a huge amount of trust.
Reaching out to sense his mind, she sensed that he was being sincere. While, primally, he craved her, and he had the opportunity right in front of him, he chose to restrain himself and help her.
“All right,” she said, feeling herself relax slightly.
She felt him nod and sensed a nervousness from him.
“I suppose we had better finish our little charade.”
They had decided that he would exude a small amount of pheromones in order to put her in a daze as they exited the room, but Rachel found that they quickly wore off as she resumed her duties. But she knew she needed to pretend that she remained infatuated with the Falleen in order to keep up the farce they had created.
When she was dismissed back to her cell, she wondered how long it would be before the Jedi came for her.