Chapter Forty Four

Aayla was not having fun. At first the mission had not gone nearly as horribly as she had worried it might. Quinlan and Aayla had inserted themselves relatively easily into the spacer scum that came to Tatooine, having to rely on their false identities as they had feared given the local population included several representatives of species immune to Jedi mind techniques. Quinlan had outdone himself with how he had fallen into his roll. Aayla too had pulled off a perfect little docile slave girl act if she said so herself.

They had worked their way through every Mos, which was a designation used to denote a town on this planet, in a matter of days, using their Force powers to try and discover a trail for the illegal slave ring. A few of the Mos were actually somewhat decent, being built around large farming communities. Others were the exact opposite, cities developed and used by as spaceports for spacers. And two in particular were controlled lock stock and blaster by the two Hutts who made their homes here.

After finding out which one of the two Hutts was more involved in slaving, both the legal and illegal sort out here there really wasn't that big difference between the two, they concentrated on Mos Eisley, where Jabba the Hutt had more power than Gardulla. Quinlan and Aayla again began to look around, trying to find a trail, only to run into a dead end. It turned out that while Jabba owned much of the spaceport here, he only used it for his peripheral business dealings. He had a fortress of his own complete with a small hidden landing bay where he conducted most of his business.

Eventually Quinlan and Aayla decided to insert themselves into Jabba's fortress. There were too many other races around here besides the Hutt who was immune to Jedi mind tricks, so they couldn't simply go there and blend in with the crowd.

Flashback:

"But then how will we go about it? I shouldn't have to tell you this master Vos but even looking like this, I will be too tempting a target." Aayla had gestured down to herself and her currently white skin, with a few scattered dots of darker color.

"No you don't have to tell me, and I understand your concerns. But we are at a dead end here Aayla. If Jabba is involved one way or another, the only way we can move forward with this investigation is to get into his palace somehow." Quinlan scowled, shaking his head. "I could go and ask for work from him, but I doubt an itinerant smuggler without any connection to him, or at least the Desilijic clan and that would take years to set up, could stay there without being noticed. And Jabba is always within the main hall, he could see through any attempt to hide myself. I suppose I could sign on as a simple thug, but even then it's doubtful they would trust me to stay within the palace. I could manipulate a few of his men to vouch for me, see if there's work for a thug, but…"

"Given the fact we've talked to a few such and they all report being forced to leave every night, it's doubtful that doing so would get you access to what we want." Aayla finished sourly.

Quinlan began to pace the small cockpit of the tramp freighter they had been assigned for this mission, then frowned. "So, I can get a job as a gunman, that'll get me an in to the palace at least. As for you…" Quinlan's frown disappeared to be replaced by a slowly growing smile. "Tell me Aayla, that color changing trick of yours, can you do other things with it? Specifically look like you have a skin disease?"

That idea made Aayla narrow her eyes speculatively for a moment then she nodded. "Yes I can master, and I even know which one to use…"

The next day, Quinlan approached Bib Fortuna, Jabba the Hutt's majordomo who had come into the city with several dozen men in order to terrorize a few recalcitrant smugglers who had held back Jabba's tithe from their latest runs. They had done so at Quinlan and Aayla's mental suggestions for just this purpose, though it hadn't taken much nudging. They were an arrogant lot.

Quinlan approached him under the persona he'd taken so long constructing, a down on his luck smuggler, clothing matching the image, as did his lank hair and nearly beaten expression. "Lord Fortuna, may I speak to you?"

Reaching into Bib's mind with the Force, Quinlan subtly made him more susceptible to healing Quinlan out, empowering his greed and arrogance further as well. "Speak quickly human," the Twi'lek said. "I am a busy being after all."

"My name is Xevec, I am the owner of the Maze Jumper. It has developed a problem with its engines and I need money to repair it."

Bib's face contorted into a sneer, obviously recognizing the name. He was about to refuse to pay for its repair whatever percentage of ownership 'Xevec' offered, but Quinlan spoke before he could. "I, I have a slave girl, gifted to me in payment on a recent run. She is beautiful in form, and well worth the money needed to repair my ship. I wish to sell her to your Lord Jabba, or to you personally."

Of course Bib couldn't own his own slaves and Quinlan knew it. He was almost as much Jabba's property as any of the slaves. However, Bib could make use of his master's slaves within reason, and looking past Quinlan's shoulder he spotted the slave in question, waiting docilely behind Quinlan.

"Her name is Sarn'vetuca, she has been trained as dancer, pleasure slave, and waitress. All yours for the price of repairing my ship…" Xevec wheedled, reinforcing his words with the Force.

For a moment Bib simply stared, his long manicured nails clicking against his side. The girl was young obviously, but amazingly well-formed despite her rather lackluster color, her breasts perky and legs unblemished and long. Her Hazel eyes were also alluring, and her submissive stance told Bib she had been trained to serve since birth. For a moment he was tempted to try out the merchandise before buying, but decided against it. Lord Jabba might well kill him for that effrontery. "I believe that we can come to some deal here…"

Later that same day Bib scowled angrily, shaking his head as the medical droid moved away from Jabba's newest acquisition. It was common practice to make certain a slave had no diseases upon purchase, though some professional slavers presented papers to that effect. This time it had saved Bib from a virulent skin disease called Filthy Hide. Though beginning on the planet of Ord Padron among the humans there, it could spread to any near-human species and was particularly ugly on reptilians. "Her master cheated me!"

Lounging next to Bib on his hover bed Jabba seemed to take this downturn in fortune in stride, chuckling in amusement slapping his fat chest with one meaty arm. "That will teach you to try to buy from an unknown, fool!" He said to his majordomo in Huttese. "And he cheated me not you. But as you were the one doing the buying I will be taking it out of your pay. Still girl, you will be put to work."

Aayla replied docilely, looking for all the world as if she hadn't even known about the disease she had shifted her skin to mimic. "I live to serve masters."

End Flashback

Aayla came out of her musings, one forearm automatically coming back to smack a hand away from her rear, and she turned scowling, saying in Rylothi, "You are not my master! Only my master is allowed to touch the merchandise!"

She'd seen a few of the other girls react like that, and knew it was all right. The giant slug seemed to get a kick out of it, so long as they didn't act that way towards him or his favorites.

Luckily the man who'd tried to feel her up wasn't one of those favorites. A second later one of the nearby Gamorrian guards rattled a massive battle axe at the man, who backed away quickly scowling angrily at the young Twi'lek girl.

Aayla quickly put him out of her mind though, turning back to her job, her real job and cover job. Even as she filled up her tray with drinks from the bar Aayla scanned the crowd with her eyes, almost freezing at one point and pulling back her Force powers under the strongest Force Stealth she could, not even attempting to use the Notice-Me-Not techniques. Harry's techniques caused a slight, visible splash when you first applied them, and right now that would be far too dangerous, just like trying to hide her physical presence with Force Cloak would have been. What the Kriff is she doing here!?

Another woman had just walked through the doors. She was somewhat on the short side for a grown woman, though still taller than Aayla of course given their disparate ages. She was built along the same lines as Aayla too, and her skin was aqua almost close in color to Aayla's normal skin tone.

There the appearances ended. For one thing, the woman was a human derivative, with long red hair grown out in a ponytail at the back of her head, with some kind of antenna thing sticking out one side of her otherwise bald head. She wore a vest of red, and green pants and several pockets like most spacer had. On her shoulder she carried a long barreled custom-built blaster rifle, and there was a cylinder at her side which might well have been a lightsaber.

She also had the eyes of a hunter, for that was what she was. The woman's name was Aurra Sing. She was a Jedi killer, a bounty hunter without fear or conscience, and now she was here.

There were rumors about the woman that said Aurra was also a Force sensitive, hence Aayla's caution. At the very least she was able to use a lightsaber in combat almost as well as a Jedi could, so Aayla had no desire whatsoever to bring Aura's attention towards her. Aayla was good with her lightsabers, but Aurra had killed both masters and Jedi Knights in the past two years.

Aayla quickly filled her tray up with drinks, moving around the party that was always going on in the main hall of Jabba's palace, staying well away from the girl, allowing one of the other serving wenches to serve her. Thank the Force Master Vos already left for the day! Her master had indeed been able to get a job as a thug, but Jabba was surprisingly organized about such things, never allowing new blood past the main hall (and unfortunately his own sight) and never allowing them to spend overlong even in the main hall.

She watched out of the corner of her eye past several people as the majordomo, at Twi'lek named Bib Fortuna moved through the crowd towards the woman. He was a particularly odious individual, one that Aayla thought was possibly the worst examples of all the more horrible, and vile things people thought Twi'leks were.

And he's grabby too, Aayla thought sourly, watching him paw one of the other girls almost absentmindedly as he led Aurra through the crowd towards the far end of the hallway where Jabba lay on his hover bed/throne.

Still, what in the kriff is Aurra kriffing Sing doing here?! Did someone spot Quinlan, or me? No, that's impossible. I'd put our Force Cloak's up against anyone, not just some lousy bounty hunter who just might be a Force sensitive. We can sneak up on other Jedi for goodness sake! Still, she's no regular bounty hunter, no way could Jabba have her on retainer for any length of time. So what is she here for?

So busy was Aayla with her job and thinking about Aurra Sing that she didn't see someone else enter the palace. He came down from the hanger bay, his face and body obscured by a heavy cloak. He moved through the crowd, stopping only once as he saw caught sight of Aayla, staring hard at the side of her face visible from where she was moving through the crowd. And with her Force powers pulled in so much so that Aurra couldn't sense her, Aayla in turn could not sense the man's regard.

The man of moved through the area as if he owned the place, followed by a tall saturnine looking human male, who wore a bandolier with knives all over it, and a blaster at his hip. Only once was he challenged as he exited the hall, moving down and toward the back of the palace. A large Gamorean guard thrust his axe-staff out in front of the man blocking the passage. Before the Gamorean guard could speak however, the human had already raised his blaster, and thrust it into the Gamorean's mouth.

"Let us pass," the man in the cloak said, pulling it back slightly to reveal that he was a Twi'lek, heavyset, with the same blue skin color that Aayla normally had. He was missing one eye, and there was a mark across his neck that looked as if he had almost had his neck slashed open. "Then send someone to tell Lord Jabba that I am here. And that we might have a problem…"