Star Wars, The Young Queen. Chapter 3 (Patreon)

Julia Tindara

Melion and Stella took a fast ship out to Tatooine. Dropping out of lights speed close to where Tamara had not too long before. They were following a beacon signal to Tamara’s ship that only Melion had known about. Tamara had left the signal code to her sister before she headed out to save the princesses. Melion would have used it to help Tamara when she was still alive, but Jabba’s broadcast of Tamara had prevented any further purpose of using it. 

But now she is determined for it to not be in vain. Melion hopes to find whatever she can from her sister’s ship to hopefully lead her to Jabba’s Palace. His stronghold is notorious to all but has always remained treacherously out of reach. In the past, the few Republic scouts that have ever managed to find it had been quickly killed or captured. 

Stella brings the ship close to the sand dunes as they enter the atmosphere. They descend to a spec close to the side of a mountain. Tamara’s ship is spoted below. It rests in the shade of a great cliff as they land their own vessel close by. 

Mellion and Stella exit their craft and begin to approach Tamara’s ship. Everything is quiet in the valley. The ramp to the ship lies open. Stella walks up into the ship with her lightsaber at the ready. The two of them look about when all of a sudden they see the bed inside is occupied. A mess of Beautiful long hair protrudes from the top of the covers and a pair of golden tanned smooth female legs are hanging out of the bottom.

Mellion: Tamara! Tamara!

Mellion’s scream utterly startles the sleeping girl and she springs up yelling. knocking over cookware and spare parts in her panic.

Julia: AHHH!! What the hell is going on! Who is there? Sneak thief Jawas! 

The scavenger draws her blaster and shoots at Melion and Stella. The Jedi ignites her lightsaber and blocks the blasts from herself and Melion. The princess yells for everyone to stop.

Mellion: We’re with the Republic! Stop don’t shoot! We’re not here to hurt you.

Julia: Hooo woah woah! Hold it there Jedi, I may be a little hungover but I’m still fresh enough to slip a bolt past you.

Stella: I’d love to see you try, I’ll just to send it back to cure your headache. 

Mellion: Enough Stella! We startled her. I’m sorry whoever you are, we didn’t mean to frighten you. We thought this ship was abandoned.

Julia: Well think again, this is my ship. It’s not for sale and I’m not taking hitchhikers so beat it.

Stella: This isn’t your ship, it belongs to princess Tamara of Alderaan. We know for a fact you couldn’t have been in its possession for longer than a week so don’t try to tell us that…

Mellion: Ok just cool off! Let her talk…

Julia: Yea I know this is Princess Tamara’s ship,..that’s how I know no one needs it anymore. Or at least I thought I knew that. Until you two showed up just now.

Mellion: You knew? I don’t understand, did you…

Julia: See the broadcast, yea. Everyone saw the broadcast. I found this ship un-occupied when I was out scrapping for parts. Now I’m not a thief. I checked the registration and it was for Tamara Weldow. There were some of her pictures in the log as well. When I saw the broadcast of,..well…what happened to her. I just didn’t think she would be needing it anymore, that’s all. What do you want with it?

Mellion: She was my sister.

The phrase quieted the scavenger. She noticed the young girl was teary eyed from the green light of the lightsaber. The scavenger sat back down on the bed.

Julia: I’m sorry, I didn’t know. 

Stella: Well now you do. Now if you would be so kind as to vacate then it would be much appreciated.

Julia: Vacate? Listen I’m sorry to hear the sad news but this is my ship now. I’ll let you take any of her keepsakes but…

Stella: You will give us this ship.

Julia: Nice try Jedi but maybe keep practicing your mind trick. Or did you just trick yourself? Why would you come here to just take back one ship? Isn’t the royal family rich? Re-claiming one little scooter seems so petty.

Stella: We’re petty? You’re claiming ownership of a ship that isn’t your ship! 

Julia: Hahaha! You really did mind trick yourself didn’t you? 

Stella: Oh shut up you little…

Melion: Enough! We came here to find out where Jabba’s Palace is. We thought my sister’s ship would contain some information on where to find Jabba. 

Julia: Well, as it so happens, it does.

Stella: What? 

Julia: I was…He was…Jabba was my master for a while. I was a slave dancer, and many other things to Jabba the Hutt. 

Melion: THE Jabba? The one and only notorious appetite Jabba?

Julia: Yea, that Jabba. That time is behind me now and I’d like to keep it that way. This ship is the first thing in my life that could actually put that time and this place behind me. I was going to leave but I don’t yet know where to go. I just wanted a ride out of here that didn’t require me to dust off my “dancing skills”, understand? 

Melion: Please tell us everything! You don’t have anything to worry about, we can take care of you. You said you were his slave?

Julia Tindara walked between the two of them to the other side of the ship. She picked up two bracelets that were beside her speed bike keys on an end table. Her personality cooled and grew melancholic. 

Julia: Jabba the Hutt… It’s a long story. I would rather not tell all of it,..but part of it was my mother and I were taken as slaves by local raiders when I was 11 years old. I don’t remember much about the time before, but I do remember after I was taken. 

She picked up the bracelets and twirled them in between her fingers. The polished metal shined golden and orange from the light peeking in from outside.

Julia: We were in the middle of a sand sea without hope of any change for months. But then, by chance, a large land ship had come by and hovered over the raider’s camp. It was Jabba.

Julia flicked a bracelet like a lucky coin, and caught it in her hand.

Julia: He bought my mother and me from the raiders. I was so relieved to get on his palace ship. I was so happy to leave those skulking monsters behind. But I didn’t realize that I was going from one cage to another. My mother did her best to protect me from the gangsters and outcasts. She even somehow convinced Jabba to send me to the kitchen until I was 17. But my mother herself was not so lucky. She was…enjoyed… for the first few months as a dancer by Jabba himself. He always said what a beauty she was. But some of the darkest villains come to stay at Jabba’s Palace. And one day, not even a year into our stay with Jabba,..he came.

Melion stood still as the cabin grew silent. She looked back at Stella, who was deep in thought and remorse. She turned back to Julia with dew in her eyes.

Melion: Who? 

Julia was tapping one of her metal bracelets against the wall. It echoed through the small ship like a leaking faucet. 

Julia: A bounty hunter named…Turrak. He came back from a successful bounty hunt and presented a wanted scalp to Jabba. Turrak had made good on his deal to Jabba but Jabba, for the first and only time, didn’t have the full purse for Turrak’s reward. Jabba had paid three bounties that same day that he didn’t expect Turrak would be finished so soon. Jabba asked Turrak if there was anything else he might ask of him now. Or, otherwise he could wait until tomorrow to get the money. 

Julia kept banging the bracelet against the wall. Stella brooded on the disturbance in the force now vibrating in the cabin. Her Jedi powers were strong and she could now see into the past that was aflame in Julia’s mind. 

Julia: I was standing on the stone ledge, refiling Jabba’s Large cup, when it happened. Turrak walked over to my mother, who was dancing on the other end of the room, and requested her as full payment. He explained that the bounty took long, and that he hadn’t eaten in a week. Jabba,…didn’t hesitate, and agreed to my mother as his payment. 

Julia stopped banging the bracelet on the wall. 

Julia: Turrak took the light chains on my mother’s wrists and snapped them. He picked her up and brought her to the center of the room. She tried to wiggle free, but Turrak was…and still is…a monster. 

Julia lifted her eyes to meet the other’s. They were filled with tears. 

Julia: I don’t have a picture of my mother. I don’t have an image to hold onto, not a physical one. The only way I can remember what my mother looked like is to remember the look of horror on her face. It’s burned into my memory. Turrak exlaimed that “A historic day this is! Jabba finally paid twice what the bounty was worth!”….The whole Palace laughed and cheered, my Mother screamed my name, and Turrak stuffed my mother into his mouth like she was a chew toy. I tried to run to her, but Jabba grabbed me. It only took Turrak twenty seconds to eat my mother whole. He stuffed her hips into his mouth first, then sucked her up to her belly and knees, then he swallowed until her face was at his lips…then he sucked her down until there was nothing left.

Melion was speechless. She walked towards Julia and put her hand on her shoulder. She tried to comfort her as Julia wiped away the tears. 

Melion: That monster! What a cruel slug that accursed Jabba!

Stella: I grieve for you, and for your mother.

Julia: Thank you

Stella: But I still don’t understand. How did you leave his service? And how do you know where to find him?

Julia: Jabba kept his original word to my mother. I wasn’t a slave dancer until I was 17. He ended up enjoying me so much that he would talk with me often. He grew so fond of me that he made sure I was protected. After a time he even learned I had some skill with a blaster. He tossed a few small jobs my way. Some of those small jobs turned into big jobs,..and after a time I ended up buying my way out. 

Stella: You bought your way out? I don’t understand how does someone that looks like you just buy your way out of Jabba’s Palace? Jabba obviously has an appetite for dime female flesh and your about 7 cents above that easily.

Julia: Thank you, you’re not too bad yourself.

Stella: No! That’s not the point. Jabba would have eaten you himself after you began dancing. I sense you’re not telling the whole tale.

Julia: Jabba got hungry twice a day, he had me dance for him after both his meals. I learned if I requested to be his evening dancer I had a better chance to survive his sudden …digestive urges. That’s how I got to know him. That’s how I learned about him.

Melion: What is your name?

Julia: Julia Tindara

Melion: Pleased to meet you Julia. I’m sorry my friend here can be quite stern. Even after hearing such a sad story. Her name is Stella Janel, she’s my Jedi protector. My name is Melion Weldow of Alderaan, and like you, I feel the pain of the loss of a Mother. 

Julia: What happened to her?

Stella: She was taken not long ago by an emissary of Jabba the Hutt. We are looking for any clue as to where Jabba is because she will surely be taken to him first. Now if there is anything you can tell us or show us we need it now!

Melion: What Stella meant to say was that if you help us, you can have this ship, and twenty other ships if you tell us everything you know. 

Julia walked over to her large brown duffle bag at the foot of her bed. She kicked it sharply. A muffled scream of pain came out of the bag.

Stella: What in the name of the Force? What was that? Have you had a creature inside that bag this entire time? How cruel!

Julia opened the bad and pulled out a long tendril with a round head at the end of it. It was yellow and had one large eye that blinked nervously open. 

Julia: I know it’s a little unorthodox but this guy might have what you’re looking for.

Melion: Why did you just kick him? And why did you have him in a bag like that? 

The head was that of a sand squid named Prub. After nervously looking around the room his eyed sprung straight to Melion’s beautiful body. His eye traveled up and down looking at her with an objectifying confidence.

Prub: Oh my! Hello! Gllaarrghh wow you’re so hot! You seem like a nice girl! Like someone who cares about helping others. I’m starving darling I haven’t had anything to eat in forever. Please please let me stuff you in my mouth, I just need to get a..

Melion smacks Prub in the face and sends hims spinning like a punching bag.

Julia: Hahaha! That’s why I kicked him and had him in that bag.