Survivor: A Star Wars Story

Chapter II

REINA TAUTASKI

She knew she should have known that there was a catch with the clothes. Holding the choker at an arm's length, Reina eyed it reluctantly as she inspected the inside of the metal jewellery. It was almost cute that the Zygerrians still tried to disguise it.

Blasted shock collars.  An upgraded model none the less. 

How touching to know that they cared so much, she thought dryly.

Thea tugged at her own uncomfortably, regarding Reina's with the same expression she would dung stuck to her shoes.  If she owned a pair.

"Have I mentioned..." She grunted whilst pulling on her clothes. "How much I... absolutely... hate those... slavers?" She huffed before planting herself on her bunk, defeated.

"Numerous times." Reina replied flatly, glaring at the choker as if it would start disintegrating.  She despised it, but she dared not to leave without it.  She knew better than to disobey the wishes of her "superiors". That had happened plenty before, and she wasn't anxious to repeat the experience.

"Vascha slava." She cursed foully before taking a deep breath and fastening it around her neck. As the lock clipped, it jammed. She gave it a gentle tug and sure enough, it was stuck fast.

Sighing, she adjusted her skirt before nodding to the door. "I guess we shouldn't keep Her Majesty waiting." Reina grumbled. Thea rolled her eyes (a common occurrence with her) and walked over to the door and out into the cream-doused halls of the palace.

"Are we due in the throne room like normal?" Reina asked and Thea shrugged. There was a regular schedule that all the slaves stuck to, but she wasn't sure whether it had changed due to the arrangements for the slave auction.  Though Zygerria had split from the Republic in the great schism, an enormous slave ring was one thing they would not hesitate to launch an assault on, especially seen as they were already technically at war with each other.  There were plenty of planets in the CIS who had stood against slavery long before the split from the Republic too, and if the conversations overheard from the royal family were anything to go by over the past years, blatant parading of slavery practices would not politically go down well with them.  As such, the planning for such events was kept much more hushed now, and that discretion included the slaves.  Hells of seven stars, they had only been informed two weeks ago that the auction was even occurring soon.

"I think so.  No-one said anything about a changed morning schedule." Thea seethed slightly

Reina snorted. "Like that would stop them finding someone to blame."

"Touché." She nodded, although her heart didn't seem to be in the back and forth banter that they normally shared.

Nudging Thea gently, she furrowed her brow. "Are you feeling ok? You're a little quiet."

Thea blinked as if coming out a trance and shook her head, a smile on her face once again. "I'm fine. Just thinking about how many of these auctions I've done now."  She saw Reina's dubious expression and added, "Really.  I've done this enough times before - just another day at the palace."

Reina decided not to press. Morale was low on slave auctions and Thea had been a part of this disgusting system for a decade now.  She hardly remembered her family, or life before this.  Talking about it only made it worse.  Worse, all of the queen's slaves were handpicked from the Inter-Sector Auctions specifically, and they only knew all too well how it was to walk out into that arena under the beating sun, fresh from processing and the crowd's boos and jeers so deafening that tinnitus rang clear in their heads for the next week.