When tagging was done, we were separated and the girls were led further down the ramp that seemed to be endless. I mean, we were already three levels down from where the ship had landed. Still, even now, I could feel that we were not at the base yet.
I could hear the hum of machines and the air purifying, which meant there were still several other levels beneath us.
The three Zeltron girls took turn hugging the male Zeltron who I later came to know was their brother, though the third girl wasn't that lucky.
The Nikto enforcers had changed, but there was an uncanny semblance between the current Nikto, who was now in charge of us and the one on the ship
This one was referred to as overseer.
I could tell they were brothers with the other one... the surface level Nikto.
"Break it, you break it,"... he screamed at the girls, making the third Zeltron girl jump back before hugging her brother.
"What I say about rules?" he Poked the third girl with a stuning rod and she yelped in sudden shock and pain.
I had to restrain the male Zeltron who had been about to interfere. That would have been a really fast way to die.
The Niktos may have changed, but their attitude was still the same. They all seemed ready and craving to get an opportunity to torture. I could recall from my gaming and media consumption of star wars franchise that Niktos often enjoyed serving cartels and syndicates.
Torture seems to be in their blood.
Once all the girls had disappeared, the remaining male slaves... because that was what we were now, were further arraigned before the overseer.
He glared at us with the spikes on his face, almost growing large out of menace.
Or it could be just that my hateful imagination seeing things.
"Now listen, boss has his rule, but down here I have mine."
He paused to scan our faces
"So you play by his, but don't cross mine...See, you are not allowed to move a square of an inch other than where you are told to go, which will be within this enclosement. If I need you to go anywhere else, I will politely ask."
He grinned, exposing his tainted teeths
"Should I find you traversing beyond where you are allowed to? ...And say you are alive. That is because these security droids might have made a nasty work of you already...." Hell, I rejoice. See that collar on your neck? I can zap the shit out of you, or I can trigger the detonation and turn you into purple mist. Oh, believe me, I would enjoy that."
I did not know why his eyes was fixated on me. Maybe his brother had passed his obsession to him.
" Now,work here is simple.You move the crates that you are allocated to where you are told. Do not open the crates. Do not ask a question.And most important, do not destroy the contents. Or again, I might blow your head. Or if boss is kind enough, your debts might skyrocket."
Like hell they will...they should really find another line of lie. If anyone was serious here, they knew the debts would sky rocket anyway.
There was no paying that debt.
" Sleep? You will sleep when work ends. And we will rise when you are told to.That is why you exist here. Now, the crates."
There were other enforcers apart from the Nikto
Several of them. They had been monitoring the work that had been ongoing as we were tagged and instructed. Of course There were other slaves apart from us.
And they had been doing the work like we did not exist. There were not even glances thrown away. And I could easily see why.
All around us there were holocams situated on different corners.
"Oh," the Nikto screamed. "And don't try to nick anything that doesn't belong to you... And nothing here belongs to you. Not even yourself." He screamed.
The first crate I took was a yellow crate. There was no tag in it. And luckily it wasn't heavy also.
Because honestly, I was tired to death. Not only physically but mentally as well. The eventful day had drained all energy from me.
I had expected at least we might have been allowed to rest before our troubles began the next day. Apparently that is not how slavery worked.
Our team was made of the remaining human males, which were four of them. The green Twi'lek male, the Zetron who I had restrained a short while ago, me and the gigantic Devaronian who had answered me the first time I'd been thrown in the ship's slave compartment. All of us were allocated the yellow crates
Halfway through the work, one of the human males dropped it And small sachets of colorful substance spilled all around. Good thing they were already sealed.
But that did not stop him receiving a kick to his chin from the closest enforcer. By that time I was coming from the storage section.
The Nikto overseer was already there. He quickly bent down as if to check the crates. But I saw his hand brush quite close to a couple of sachets before enclosing them in his huge fist
His eyes caught mine, but I avoided contact on time, pretending to look ahead. The next moment I heard the human male screaming. Well, all of us couldn't stop ourselves from looking.
The debt collar on his neck was vibrating and he was screaming and breathing like a dying man. Of course, the collar was choking him. And in addition, guards were kicking him.
the Nikto was already using the stun rod on him.
Poor guy. By the time they were done, he was already bleeding through his nose.
"Up! Get the fuck up! The Nikto yanked the boy to his feet.
The boy swayed dangerously as if he would drop any moment. He was already weak from the beating and the stuning and the shocking.
Luckily though, out of pure will he seemed to steady himself.
"pick every little sachet. For your sake, you better pray every one of them is there."
Again his eyes caught mine as he said this. But I looked away.
there was none of my business there. I tried to tell myself. Although everything in me was screaming.
'Tell it to his face.' But what would that do? It would only add me to the list of the humans being kicked.
I think I had seen one of the enforcers drive his foot towards the human's feet and trip him. If I was right, it wasn't only the Nikto who had stolen a few spices there. Several guards might have done it.
I was certain that even if whoever controlled those holocams was looking, he might not have seen anything judging by the angle of how they had done it.
One enforcer had stood on the direction of the cameras. Then the Nikto proceeded to nick his part.
How the rest had done it, I couldn't tell. Couldn't even tell whether they had. But I was certain they had.
These enforcers weren't that superior to us anyway. Some of them had probably been lucky debtors who had managed to pay it. Their main survival here was through stolen goods.
So there were two smugglers here. The main one which was Hato and these enforcers who tried to benefit of his loot. I had no doubt however that the same fate that we would have suffered if we were caught stealing would be the same fate they did suffer.
The male human limped through the rest of the day until the yellow crates were done. And then the Nikto overseer called us to a stop.
Not to everyone, but the batch that we had arrived with
Already next to him there were crates of what looked like water and strangely packed goods... food I thought.
True enough it was what would be our food for the day.
another enforcer human this time stood next to the crates with a scanner.
one by one we were allowed to pass through, picking one sachet of what turned out to be an energy bar and a canister of water.
" Move, move, move, move, move." the Nikto screamed. "you have five minutes to clear your food and then it's off with you."
I had not much appetite. Still I forced the vile stuff down my throat. The water was even worse than the food.
It tasted like piss, or at least like whatever piss would taste like. It was like a mixture of rust and recycled water. Nonetheless most of the slaves got their food down.
thankfully I had eaten while in the escape pod. I couldn't imagine how long the journey had taken and how famished they were.
I couldn't finish my energy bar, so I secretly passed it down to the Zeltron male who whispered a thank you.
after the meals, we were guided to what I could only equate to a latrine. It wasn't that big and it was supposed to hold 11 of us for a whole night.
"Move your feet, move your feet."
By the time all of us were inside there wasn't a space to even move. There was one large square mattress on the floor. The door was slammed behind us and I heard the clicking of the lock mechanism.
Despite the dire state of our beddings, at least they had been considerate enough to throw in a mattress. Though how all of us would fit there was another matter altogether.