Chapter Text
Tatooine. You have lived here for many years. When you were just a child, your family came here and left your old life behind, starting a new one.
Your mother was a doctor, famous and kind; your father was an engineer, and currently works as a mechanic. You grew up with no need, had a relatively happy life amongst the people of a little settlement, had many friends, and even a young boyfriend who you fooled with around the age of fourteen.
But everything changed in a day. Your parents were captured by a bounty hunter and brought back in front of the Empire. You could not even mourn their loss. You found yourself on the market - a Slave Market. For ten horrible days, you suffered in a cage; when you were finally taken out, it was only to realize that a man would lead you to your next master, and you end up in Jabba the Hutt's palace.
You have no more tears. Tired, hungry, dehydrated, and weak, you arrive at the sandstone entrance covered with a huge metal door; it slowly opens, and a minute later, it closes behind you, and you don’t know if you will ever see sunlight again.
You find yourself in a chamber with many other women, guarded by niktos and sometimes gamorrean guards. One day you get a call, and are sent to geto clean. The new tattoo on your left thigh burns at the touch of the water. An older Twi'lek woman washes you, gives you fresh clothes, sets your hair, and places scent around your wrist and neck.
"You have great value, so they told us," she said. "Is that true?"
"Value?" You ask, uncertain.
"Man has never touched you… is what we heard from your seller."
You are frightened to your bones. The bath… the preparation… what is going to happen?
Then you find yourself in a room. It's small, dark, with no window and only a small lamp, which you turn on. There is a tiny table, with only one chair, a locking box, and a narrow bed. And another door leads to a tiny refresher.
You look at the bed in horror, wondering who will come here… and what he might do to you. Technically you are a virgin. Probably for only a few more minutes.
The door opens. You gasp as you look up and take a step back, but the sandstone wall embraces your back. You can feel the coarse crumbling texture on your uncovered back and bare arms and legs. You wear only a few silky pieces of cloth, leaving barely anything to the imagination.
The man at the door stops for a moment, as if hesitating. He seems like a rough kind of man. You can see it in his body shape, and his posture. Compared to you, he is tall, with broad shoulders covered in yellow shoulder pads, chipped armor on his chest, and a codpiece… you are terrified. Your throat becomes useless, and you can barely breathe. He looks at you through a helmet. A T-shaped visor scans you from toe to head.
You hear voices from outside speaking huttese, which you don't understand, and then hear a laugh. He suddenly steps inside, and with a quick tap on the console, he closes the door.
You collapse to the floor, hopeless, crying. So this is the end. This man will violate you. Maybe even kill you, he has a blaster at his waist and a rifle on his back… he takes a deep breath and lets out a hissing sound, modulated by his helmet. Before he reaches for the front to take it off, you cover your eyes and sob harder, turning your body towards the wall. You imagine the sandstone coming alive and protecting you from the near future, but of course, nothing happens.
You hear the sound of the chest's lock, and then he is probably taking off his weapons, putting them down. You take a peak between your trembling fingers. He places his helmet and wrist guards in the locker with his knee protectors. Then he closes it and punches in a combination. You listen to it, and you try to remember the tone of the chimes… it has the same sound you had at home, and by the tones, you know that he hit a ten-digit long string, and you memorize it. But deep down, you know that you have no chance against him.
He is massive. Thick with muscles under tan skin, with short, black, curly hair, and a rough face… he suddenly looks from the table in your direction, then to your face. You rarely feel chills on Tatooine, and then only at night. But not even the most frigid night made you feel this devastating coldness you have now deep in your stomach, and you freeze as you try to look away.
He takes another heavy breath, and you hear footsteps approaching. You sob again hard, wince away from something… that is covering you, and has a slightly faint smell of dust and wool.
"Quiet, little one," you hear his coarse voice. "I'm not going to hurt you. No need for the fuss here."
You don't believe him. You pull the blanket closer to cover yourself and then almost jump up as the door rattles. It doesn't open. He closed it from the inside, but now he goes to it, and you can hear him open it.
You peek out again. He wears only a rugged shirt and trousers, and you can see the muscles on his back and calves again. He takes a tray inside, then places it on the bed because the table doesn't have enough room beside his armor. There is water and a bowl of food.
"How old are you?" He asks. His basic is perfect, but he speaks very monotonously. You don't answer. He asks something else, probably the same thing in huttese.
"Fourteen," you answer in a shaky voice, in basic.
He curses. You don't know why exactly. "Drink," he almost barks it like a command. You put your hands down and see him offering a cup filled with clean water.
You don't hesitate now as a sudden instinct kicks in, and you surprise even yourself at how bravely you take the cup, pull it towards you, and drink it up.
He retakes the empty cup, fills it with water, and gives it back. Now you are not so quick, and you steal a quick look at his face. You are unable to read his rigid expression. He frowns, lips slightly turning down at their corners, but his eyes seem to be scanning you. He looks at your birthmark, that is scattered around your left temple, eye, and cheek from your birth, like a scar.
"Your father owned a Firespray gunship," he says all of a sudden. His deep, rumbling voice shakes your core and brings tears to your eyes.
"Yes," you whisper. How precious were those times now? You were free, careless, and safe. Things you probably never experience again.
"I remember you," he says. "That mark… what is your name?" he asks.
You tell him your name, and he nods.
"Stand up," he orders. You slowly do as he says while holding the blanket like a shield and the cup as a weapon. "As I said, I'm not going to hurt you. But I can't help you either. Jabba said I earned a gift, but I thought it was something… different," he sighs. "I'll stay for a few nights, and I can try to claim you, but after that, you are on your own."
You nod. He moves his armor off the table. "Sit," he barks another command, and you do as he orders. He places the tray in front of you, and you look up like you’ve seen a ghost. "Eat."
You do so. For a moment, the guilty thought rushes through your mind - he offered you his own dinner; but then he takes out a ration slice from his pocket and starts to chew on that. You eat your stew quickly and awkwardly wipe your face on the blanket.
"Thank you," you say in a weak voice.
"You're welcome, little one. Now I will tell you a few tips. Be invisible, but be useful
around here. Jabba likes to feed his rancor with live prey. If you stay out of sight and have some value, you will probably manage. Do you have any useful skills?" He asks.
"I don't kn…"
"I didn't ask for dont’s. What can you do? Your father was a mechanic. Did you learn anything from him?"
You nod.
"That's a good start. His mechanic is looking for help, and maybe a place in the hangar will help keep you out of sight."
You nod. Slowly you take a deeper breath. And start to believe that he is indeed not going to hurt you.
"Now we sleep. I'll hint a few words around tomorrow. Come here," he says, and crawls up to the bed. You stand up, and your knees are wobbly as you step to the bed. "I'm not going to touch you. But you need to rest the same as I, little one. Use and seize every opportunity you have to take care of yourself, a drink, a meal, a bed, whatever. You'll never know when you will gain those again."
You lay down in the bed, holding onto the piece of fabric tightly. He doesn't touch you, and you just watch the ceiling while you listen to his breathing.
You wake up alone, and a gamorrean comes inside and squeaks something. You get out of the bed and follow him. You are taken back to the bathing area and receive a bowl of water with a rag. You clean yourself. Then you give back the skimpy clothes, getting a regular tunic instead of the silky one, and someone leads you up to the kitchen to help out the droids with the food.
Then you get a call again, and you find yourself in the hangar. A nikto looks at you as you approach. This look isn't disturbing, so you straighten yourself, and try to seem a bit more confident than you actually are.
"How do you change the fuses in a motivator?" he asks.
"You don't. It has none," you answer.
He nods. "Here," he grabs an overall and tosses it to you. It's not the cleanest one, but it will cover you and has many pockets. "This is your uniform. If you do more help than damage, you can stick around."
And you work harder than ever before. And you get the assistant mechanic title at the end of the day. To your surprise, the Nikto man who called himself Dozo tolerates you. You see many ships and even a yacht in that hangar, and next to it, one Firespray.
That night, you again get an order to have a bath. As you strip out of the overall and start to clean yourself with the wet rag, the Twi'lek lady brings you another of those small silky dresses and hangs it next to you.
"Your guest told us you are pathetic. Get yourself together, girl. Many of the others would kill for your position next to him."
You nod and finish your bath. Then another guard leads you to that room again. You wait for him now on the edge of the bed, sitting, and this time you are not as stressed as before.
After an hour, the door opens, and he comes in again. Now you only jump a little. You are sure he is not going to hurt you. He doesn't say anything, only tilts his chipped helmet down. You stand up and watch him while he removes his weapons one by one, and they end up in the chest, then the armor. 'Why isn't he saying a thing' you wonder. He is expressionless… you still don't know what he is thinking. You are unable to tell from his face any feelings he might have.
"I became the assistant of the Mechanic today," you say in a shaky voice, to break the silence finally.
"Good," he answers. His voice sounds like yesterday, still coarse like the sand that sneaks into everything on this damned planet. "But don't get used to the feeling, that things are going good."
You just nod. You want to thank him, but you realize, you don't even know his name. "What is your name?" You ask curiously.
"Boba Fett," he answers. "And that's enough talking for today. Eat the dinner and stay quiet," he says, laying down on the bed and turning away.
You hope for a little more from him, but even the next night, you don't hear any more words from him. He left you untouched; after that, you do not get any call to another room, and you see that day that in the hangar remained one ship less. The Firespray is not there anymore.
He is gone.
