[The Manticore]The base used by Viscos was built into one of the many asteroids that dotted the passage, and consisted of several large hangars along with a living area. It had little in the way of discernable defences, but was well hidden, and hosted a powerful armada of pirate craft, with over a dozen starfighters and several larger ships that could be used to carry boarding parties. There was even a good sized bulk freighter moored to the asteroid, although Rasha got the impression that it was more for moving the asteroids the pirates used to pull ships out of hyperspace then for any sort of combat action.
A gentle shudder ran through the pirate transport Rasha had been taken aboard as it came to rest on the hangar floor.
“Hey Boss, what do you want us to do with the girl?” one of the pirates next to Rasha demanded as Viscos made his way towards the transport’s boarding ramp.
“Just bring her along for now. We’ll find a place to put her once we’re done here.”
With that, the red-skinned twi’lek pirate exited the ship, and Rasha was forced to follow along with his ‘entourage.’ She got quite a few jeers and catcalls from the assembled pirates as she was led out of the transport, but her cringing reaction was more an act then a reflection of her true feelings. She’d encountered such behaviour before.
Viscos raised his hand in the air to silence his boisterous subordinates.
“All right everyone, I’m sure you’ve been through this enough times to know how it works by now. Tarmok, take a couple of good men and clean out the ship. The rest of you wait here. Sign up for bidding will begin shortly.”
A cheer ran through the assembled pirates, and Viscos turned to Rasha with a hungry look.
“Go put her in one of the prisoner cells for the time being. And don’t you dare try anything with her –if she gets damaged you or whoever else is responsible will be put to death.”
”Yes sir.”
The pirate who the orders had been given to took a firm grip on Rasha’s arm and began leading her deeper into the base. Realising that she was being led away from her target, Rasha began to panic.
“What are you going to do with me?” she asked, genuinely afraid rather then just acting. She’d been counting on a chance to get close to Viscos so that she could capture him.
The pirate laughed.
“I don’t know yet. Depends who puts in the highest bid on you.”
“Highest bid?” Rasha asked.
“Yeah. You’re going to be auctioned off. That’s the way we do things here. We started out with a system of shares, but that didn’t work too well, so now we only use that when the group as a whole sells something and we need to divide the profits. The rest of the stuff gets auctioned off to the highest bidder.”
The pirate grinned
“I have to admit, we’ve never auctioned off a twi’lek before. The Boss himself may even put in a bid for you.”
Rasha grimaced, but for entirely different reasons then one might have expected.
I certainly hope so, she thought to herself as she was escorted to her cell. After all, she had a purpose for being there…
***
The bidding process took a surprisingly long time to complete, courtesy of the fact that everyone in Viscos’ group was entitled to a chance to bid and the fact that in general not everyone in the group was present at the same time. At several points during this lengthy process Rasha was brought out of her cell and put on display in front of groups of potential bidders, and each of these times she was expected to dance for them. At these times she was thankful she still practised her old trade on occasion, as she had after all disguised herself as a professional dancer for this mission.
Finally the bidding process was over and the winning bidder came to claim his prize.
Sitting up as she saw Viscos and one of his guards approach the barred front of her cell, Rasha waited nervously as the guard unlocked the cell door and stepped in. Was this finally the end of the process? Was she finally going to get a chance to strike at her target?
“She’s all yours, boss,” the guard informed Viscos as he stood aside, allowing the higher ranking pirate to pass. Viscos simply nodded and surveyed Rasha for a few moments.
“Come with me,” he ordered. Rasha stood up and allowed herself to be led from her cell towards wherever Viscos was taking her. Her heart began to beat a bit faster as she realised that things might soon be coming down to the wire.
Viscos’ quarters were well appointed, and surprisingly enough were not part of the base itself. In fact, they were aboard a captured space yacht that was parked in one of the hangar bays. From Rasha’s point of view, this was actually a good thing, as it increased her chances of being able to slip away with Viscos without anyone realising she had taken the pirate leader prisoner...
Rasha could practically smell Viscos’ eagerness as the pirate led her into his cabin, and it seriously disturbed her. Eyes darting around the cabin, she looked for anything she could use against the larger twi’lek, and her gaze fell upon a shelf of small art pieces.
“What is this?” she asked, picking up one of the heavier looking pieces. Surprised by Rasha’s boldness, Viscos shrugged his shoulders.
“It’s something I got off one of the freighters we captured. I don’t know entirely what it is, but it’s obviously very valuable.”
“I see,” Rasha replied, feigning interest, “It’s very beautiful.”
“Yes,” Viscos answered as he approached her from behind. “I-”
Whatever the pirate was about to say was cut off abruptly as Rasha turned around and swung the art piece as hard as she could towards his head. The larger twi’lek’s face didn’t even have time to register surprise before he was out cold.
Standing over her fallen foe as she tried to calm her racing heartbeat, Rasha’s eyes flickered from Viscos to the art piece and back again. She shook her head.
That was almost too easy, she thought to herself. Then, shrugging her shoulders, the twi’lek straightened up and set to work. She had a few things she needed to do before her captive woke up.