It had been about a week and half, nearly halfway through their three week vacation. Anakin, Mom, and Slarena had all gone to swim in the ocean for the first time together. And while much more frightening than the pool had been, they ended up having a good time at the beach doing all of the other ‘recommended experiences’ that the hotel pamphlet had suggested that they do.

  When they returned from the day’s activities, they’d found themselves spending time with Creo and his family and even going out to meals together.

  Anakin found himself being teased mercilessly by Slarena and his mother behind closed doors as Creo’s daughter Elara kept sitting close to him and touching him whenever she could when they came over. She was nineteen while he was eighteen, nineteen in a few months, but she seemed far more confident than him when it came to expressing her interest in him. Even though they were practically the same age.

  He wasn’t quite sure how to handle it except bumbling through as best as he could without totally panicking when she ‘innocently’ put a hand on his shoulder or laughed at one of his jokes that hadn’t really deserved that kind of reaction.

  Although the way she looked at him sometimes awakened something in him that he hadn’t even known lay dormant before and suddenly things became much more stressful yet rewarding whenever Elara was around.

  He felt a little sad as the day of Elara and Creo’s family’s departure grew closer, at the end of the week. Elara had ‘jokingly’ swapped numbers with Anakin a few days ago, and Anakin had heard Creo and his wife invite Anakin’s family to come visit them on their world sometime and promise to not lose contact with each other.

  But still, it was possible that Anakin would never see Elara again after they went back home again. And right when he started getting a little more comfortable around her…

  “Where are we going tonight?” Anakin asked the group, “Do you know, Elara? Slarena told me the place, but I don’t think she ever said what the actual event was…”

  “Dad said something about the comedy club? Apparently the comedian there is famous in this galactic sector. A real celebrity, Dad's obsessed with him. I don't think he's too bad either honestly. But I think he said we’re going there for dinner too. Surprised you could afford tickets with how popular it’s going to be.”

  Anakin glanced at her.

  “No offense I mean! It’s just your parents are running a general store in what seems like a small town. I just would feel bad if they’re feeling pressured because Dad was so excited about going together.”

  “We can afford it. I have a job at the Techno-Union too.”

  “Whaaaaaattttt? You do? What do you do there?”

  “I work in research at the planetary headquarters.”

  “What kind of research?”

  “I can’t tell you, it’s a secret.”

  “Oh C’mon. I promise I won’t tell anyone.”

  “Sorry, it actually is secret. Technically I wasn’t even supposed to tell you that I work there.”

  “Well, Mr. Super secret, keep your secrets then. So they pay you well enough for a vacation like this? How’d you get a job that good at seventeen?”

  “Just lucky I guess,” Anakin said with a shrug, “And pay’s good. So yeah, no need to feel guilty. We can afford the tickets if my mom said so. She’s the one who handles our finances for the household so she would know.”

  “Huh. I wouldn’t have figured her as the accounting type. Although with Slarena around, I’d see why she’d have to end up doing it.”

  “Hey! I heard that, you little jerk!” Slarena called out from across the room, distracted from her conversation with Creo’s wife, Mrs. Arscata, “I resent that that’s completely true!”

  Elara smirked and Slarena made an exaggerated angry face back at her before turning around and resuming her previous conversation again across the room.

  “Do you have a job?” Anakin asked Elara, suddenly realizing that he didn’t know. She immediately frowned and he instinctively knew that he’d just said something wrong.

  “Just some things to help out at Dad’s shipping company. Nothing like whatever amazing opportunity you have at the Techno-Union.”

  “That sounds fine,” Anakin said, trying to be encouraging, “I like helping out at Slarena and Mom’s shop when I can.”

  “Yeah, it was nice of Dad to let me work on some real stuff early so I could learn some things I guess,” Elara mused thoughtfully before refocusing on Anakin.

  “Anyway! I was reading on the hotel website about these natural waterfalls that we could go see if we took a spaceship to travel there. Here, check it out…”

  She leaned forward and picked up a holopad and started showing Anakin different views of the waterfalls and excitedly talking about the plan she’d worked out so that they could go there.

  “You only planned to reserve two tickets,” Anakin noticed as he saw her flipping through the plans and screens of the places that they could go.

  “Er, uhm. Yeah, that’s just a mistake,” she said and suddenly blushed for some reason, “Should be seven actually if we’re all going…”

  “Sounds fun,” Anakin said, “We should do it on your last day. A big event to end things off with.”

  “Uh huh. That sounds great, Anakin. Yeah, that’s way better than another day at the beach. With all of us together and things…” Elara said, trailing off slightly at the end.

  Time passed and eventually it was time to go to the comedy club. They all went back to their rooms and put on their fancier clothes. Anakin had a fancy black business suit from when his Techno-Union ‘managers’ had come to visit the lab and Anakin had to look impressive for them when Count Dooku presented him as the leader of the lab despite his age.

  Mom wore a long orange dress that ran to her ankles and a V shaped collar that showed a bit of her cleavage. The burn scars covering the right half of her face ran down her neck until sinking below her collar. She always told him that the burn scars didn’t bother her anymore, but seeing her dressed up so fancy and at complete ease hit a cord in him. She wasn't even a little nervous about what people would think of her burns. It really was just part of her now. She hadn’t even put on any makeup on it, just let the burns remain there out in the open for the whole galaxy to see.

  Slarena wore a dress much like Mom except hers was blue and the collar was rounded and more modest than Mom’s. For some reason she seemed even more nervous than Mom as her two lekku on her head twitched from nerves occasionally as they walked over to the comedy club.

  “Are you okay, Slarena?” he asked, “What’s got you so nervous?”

  “Huh?” Slarena snapped out of it and glanced at Anakin, “Oh, no. I’m fine. I had a terrible thought, not important. Just… Nevermind.”

  “We don’t have to go if you don’t want to,” Mom said, “It’s just for fun. I’m sure that the others will understand.”

  “No, really it’s nothing. We’re going,” Slarena said forcefully as they reached the doors to the building and walked inside after scanning their tickets with the droid standing at the door.

  “Well just let us know if you want to leave,” Mom said before letting the matter drop as they approached their table where Elara and Mrs. Arscata already sat. Slarena calmed down and seemed to relax as the three of them sat down at the table and started talking with the two women.

  Creo returned after a few minutes as the room started becoming more crowded as more people made their way inside and sat at their tables. It was a combo of a meal with the comedy show as the entertainment before the meal.

  Creo looked incredibly pleased with himself, with a smug smile as he sat down next to his wife and kissed her on the cheek quickly before sitting back in his chair again.

  “Oh? Someone’s happy. What did you do now, Dad?” Elara asked.

  “It’s a special surprise during the upcoming show,” Creo said with a smile, “Just wait. It’ll be worth it, I’m telling you.”

  Despite being interrogated, Creo stayed strong and refused to expose whatever the surprise was, just wearing that self satisfied smile the whole time and seeming to almost laugh at everyone’s efforts to pull the secret out of him.

  Time passed as the tables around them gradually filled with people as the time before the scheduled time for the comedy show drew closer.

  Eventually, the lights dimmed and the lights on the flat stage up front in the large dining room and the conversation slowly died down.

  The famous comedian came out and everyone started cheering and clapping as he smiled and waved as he held the microphone in his hand. He was a human male in his forties with a large black bushy beard and a bald head.

  “Hey, hey there everybody. How y’all feeling tonight?” There was some muttering and a few shouts of ‘Good!’ that came out of the crowd.

  “C’mon folks! That was weak, y’all! Let me hear ya! How we feeling tonight everybody?”

  “Good!” the crowd said enthusiastically, including the Arscatas and especially Creo.

  “That’s more like it! Much more like it,” the man started pacing around the stage, his eyes scanning the crowd, “Y’know, a few weeks ago I was in the spaceport. There in front of me was this Rodian. He was trying to order the tickets from the counter, but his translator was on the fritz. You know they can’t speak the same way as humans. Speaking Basic properly is nearly impossible for them. So there the poor fellow was, his translator spitting out some garbage. I mean when I said hello a few minutes earlier, the Rhodian didn’t even recognize me? I mean, me of all people right? I knew it must be broken. The man at the ticket window didn’t understand the poor creature at all. So being my gracious self, I gave up my place in line. I spotted another one of their kind a few hundred meters away, and went to retrieve them so they could come translate and help my poor Rhodian brother out! So I went to this Rhodian who was about to leave on their own flight and…”

  The story continued as the man told his story at the spaceport as he tried to track down a Rodian to translate for the one he first met. The whole room was laughing at the story, but Anakin didn’t think it was all that funny. All the Rodian had needed was another universal translator. The Rodian hadn’t even asked the comedian for help, the man had just wandered off to bother other nearby Rodians, assuming that they all spoke the same language. Anakin knew that there were at least eight major Rhodian languages in active use, so even if the comedian had found somebody without a translator, the two Rodians might not have been able to understand each other either way.

  Plus, the Rodians probably all understood Basic even if it was hard for them to speak it with their biology. The target of the whole story had probably understood everything the comedian had said in the beginning but just ignored him as he kept trying to buy his ticket.

  But the rest of the crowd of mostly humans were laughing uproariously at the jokes, even as Anakin, Slarena, and mom mostly just sat there confused and a little uncomfortable. The Arscatas were all laughing, Creo so hard that there were nearly tears at the corners of his eyes.

  Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

  “Anyway,” the comedian finished after the long winded story, “After all of that and running halfway across the spaceport and getting in trouble with security, turns out that the Rodian managed to order his ticket after all! He was long gone by the time I returned, his ship having left nearly as soon as Iran off. Unfortunately the ship he wanted to get on was the same one that I was supposed to leave on too! So there I was, with sore throat, trying to get another flight. Trouble speaking louder than a whisper because of all of that shouting that I’d been doing this whole time. And you know what happened?”

  He paused for effect, “The woman behind me stepped in to help me order my ticket!”

  The room laughed and the comedian raised his hands as the room clapped for him, “Alright, alright, Thank you, thank you everyone. Just a recent experience that I thought I would share with y’all. Alright for my next act I’ll need a volunteer. Any takers?”

  The light on the crowd brightened slightly so they all were more visible as plenty of people raised their hands eagerly for a chance to be picked by the man.

  Creo and both of the Arscata women included.

  The comedian’s eyes stopped on their table and the Arscata’s grew more excited as the comedian pointed at them. A light from above swiveled over to them and lit up their table in a bright spotlight amongst the darkness of the rest of the room.

  “How about you? The lovely Twi’lek there?” the comedian said as his finger drifted to the side slightly to point at Slarena who had her hands under the table.

  Everyone at the table was shocked, including her as she sat there frozen as the whole room’s eyes turned on her.

  She silently shook her head, her lekku thrashing wildly on her head from the stress as she sat there with a stiff back.

  “C’mon, don’t be shy now,” the comedian said, “It’s nothing too difficult. Just a few questions. Helps me set up my next act.”

  Slarena stiffly stood to her feet, her chair scraping back as she stood there with a look of Anakin could only describe as horror on her face as she stood in a beam of light in the otherwise dark space where the audience sat.

  “Now where are you from, my lovely lady? I know people from around the galaxy. I bet that I know somebody from almost any planet that you could name. Got near half of their names saved up here in my mind too! Comedian’s guarantee!”

  “I— I—” Slarena stammered, her eyes darting around the room to the dark faces of the rest of the crowd staring at her. She reached down to her thigh and pawed at the spot where her blaster usually would be holstered, only for her fingers to dig into the soft fabric of her dress instead.

  “Nervous?” the comedian said, seeing her stress and seeming to pivot as Slarena didn’t answer him, “You know that’s alright, that’s alright. Happens to everybody sometimes. You know my first time doing a comedy show, it was in this dingy outer rim bar. I had to dodge blaster fire when people didn’t like my jokes! Well, the bars I went to weren’t quite that seedy, but they were close!”

  The light focused on their table faded away and Anakin caught one last look of Creo’s annoyed face as he stared at Slarena before turning to glare at the comedian on stage just as he turned into a blurred shadow in the darkness.

  Anakin heard a loud clunk and some muttered curses from near where Slarena had been standing.

  “Slarena? Slarena, are you okay? Where are you going?” Mom whispered loudly as Anakin realized that the person fleeing from their table was Slarena trying to leave even in the darkness.

  There were some thunks and muttered curses as Slarena moved through the dim tables towards the exit doors at the back of the room. The Arscatas had made sure to get seats right towards the front.

  Anakin took in a deep breath and stood up and pushed back his seat as he did so.

  “Anakin? What are you doing?” Mom asked, “Should we go?”

  “Just stay here mom,” Anakin whispered back, “I’ll go after her. You’ll just go tripping over everybody on the way out. Just enjoy the show.”

  “Well… alright. But if you two aren’t back in a few minutes then I’m coming after you. I don’t know what happened with her…”

  “It’s fine. Just stay here with the Arcatas, I’ll talk with her,” Anakin assured mom before he flared his life sense to the maximum and suddenly knew exactly where every living person in the room was. He carefully navigated to the exit through the darkness, using his lifesense to avoid bumping into any people and tables on his way out.

  He exited outside and looked around as he stood there in his fancy suit. He looked around and Slarena was nowhere in sight. He flared his lifesense again as wide as he could and immediately started walking to the side as he felt a stationary lifesign around the corner of the building.

  He walked around and found Slarena sitting there hugging her knees as she leaned against the side wall of the building. To the side of the building was a carefully cultivated lawn and park that was empty given the nighttime with only a few streetlights scattered around to let them see.

  Slarena’s face was buried in her knees even as her two lekku on the back of her head thrashed wildly.

  Anakin silently walked over and slid down the wall until he was sitting next to her. He heard her sniffling a little, so he hesitantly reached out and patted her shoulder and rubbed little circles in her back like she had after he’d first killed those pirates.

  Eventually she calmed down and wiped her face with her forearm, her body uncurling slightly. Her lekku’s wild thrashing calmed down, only the occasional twitch left in them for now.

  “You okay?” he asked.

  “I’m… Fine. Sorry, this is so embarrassing. Everyone’s lucky that I didn’t bring my blaster. Good work, Shmi. She probably saved me from a prison sentence just now. Just about blasted that guy out of reflex,” Slarena muttered as she sat up and leaned against the hard wall of the building.

  “Do you want to… talk about it? You don’t have to, but…”

  “No, no you’re right. It’s not fair to you, to either of you,” Slarena muttered, “I just… I thought I was good, you know? Having you and your mom in my life, it made everything better. Good. That I was strong. But here I am crying over a bunch of strangers staring at me. I don’t want you to think that I’m weak or something…”

  “Hey, if there’s one thing that I know it’s that you’re not weak.”

  Anakin grabbed one of her hands and held it in two of his own as she looked at him, her face shrouded in the darkness of the side of the building.

  She squeezed his hand back silently.

  “Thanks,” she said eventually, “Just now, it brought back some… bad memories from when I was a slave. I knew my mom and dad, you know. Most slaves born into it don’t get to. Most children get sold off to new owners. More valuable than the parents are, most of the time, and so the kids get sold off for cash when they’re a year or two old.”

  “But not you, you knew your parents?” Anakin said while still holding her hand.

  “Yeah. We were all slaves, and our mistress was a cruel woman. But my parents still did their best, by the Force. I was happy, I didn’t know anything else except to act timid around our cruel master so she wouldn’t punish me or my parents. But she had many slaves, so most of the time we didn’t have to deal with her. Things were… not good. I just didn’t know anything different. But I was happy most of the time when the mistress wasn’t nearby. She was like a passing storm. You endured her for a while and hunkered down and waited for her to move on and go back to your normal life. Just a fact of life, that's what she was.”

  “What happened?”

  “I… grew older. Prettier. I was one of the mistresses' most beautiful slaves by the time I was sixteen. I had to wear skimpy outfits and serve her tea whenever she had visitors... Show off my body. A show of wealth, to prove how refined the mistress was to own such a beautiful slave. I hated it. I hated it so much.”

  Anakin squeezed her hand in sympathy but didn’t interrupt her.

  “Then the day came. My mistress had too many debts. Too many bills to pay to let her keep all of her slaves and her massive villa that we worked at. It was time for us to be sold off at the markets. The Mistress was desperate for money, and she needed to sell all of us fast. And I was her greatest hope. The prettiest of her slaves, the one that would get the best price.”

  She took a shuddering breath.

  “I was being auctioned off on that raised platform. I had to smile, strike poses, perform for the crowd wearing nothing but a few small scraps of cloth that barely even counted as clothing. All of them staring at me and calling out higher and higher prices as I was there. I was so scared about which of them would end up buying me. What they might do.”

  She reached out her free hand as if to grasp something invisible in front of her.

  “I even… I studied their faces. As I had to smile for the crowd and pretend to be happy. Would this one be kind? Would this one want me to stand behind him to look pretty? To work at the counter of one of their businesses? Would this one want to…”

  She glanced at Anakin for a moment before looking away again.

  “Anyway. I was so helpless. I couldn’t do anything at all. It was horrible.”

  “I’m sorry,” Anakin said, growing a little emotional himself, “I’m so sorry.”

  “There was a fight,” Slarena continued as if she hadn’t heard him, “One gang challenging the other one that controlled the markets that I was being sold at. The attacking gang came in guns blazing, just killing everyone they could find. Customer, guard, slave, they didn’t care. They went around killing everyone except for me. Their leader just laughed and told me to dance to entertain them as they rounded up everyone in the lobby and started killing them one by one. Even the slaves… My parents. My world didn’t have the implants for the slaves like Tatooine did. Just the slave catchers ready to punish anyone who tried to run. Reinforcements came in from the other slaver's allies before the first gang finished killing the remaining slaves. In the chaos, everybody forgot about me. I stole a blaster and shot the bastard that killed my parents right through the eyes before anyone could stop me… And then I ran, and managed to get off world somehow. And I kept running and running because I didn’t know how to do anything else until the day we met.”

  “Your parents…? Why… Why the slaves too?” Anakin asked softly, “Why would they do that?”

  Slarena let out a humorless laugh, “Who knows? Sending a message, their leader said. Like slavers ever need a reason to cruel…”

  “So… So just now, standing under the light in the club…”

  Slarena let out a huff of air through her nose, “Yeah. Just a reminder of it all. I thought I was past it. Even Shmi can wear all those sexy bathing suits and be so casual, and I can’t even handle something like this.”

  “It’s okay,” Anakin said and squeezed Slarena’s hand before relaxing his grip again, “She’s just practicing her pickup lines for Ricktor when we get back home. And building her confidence for the big moment. You know that.”

  Slarena laughed and wiped at her eyes again, “I know. I don’t know what she’s so worried about. She could have slept with at least ten guys by now if she wanted to. It doesn’t matter how lame those lines she used were. Or that she's middle aged. The guys didn’t even care. And if anything her burns made her even more interesting to them.”

  “Ugh.”

  “Whatever. She didn’t actually do it, you get my point. Riktor would be crazy to turn her down.”

  “Yeah. He would.”

  They both sat in silence for a bit holding hands and leaning against the wall together.

  “I’m glad I got on that ship,” Slarena said, “I can’t imagine living without you two.”

  “Me either. I… I… Love you both so much.”

  “I love you too, Anakin. No matter how those old Jedi tried to convince you that love is wrong… I didn’t want you or Shmi to have to worry about any of this. I’m sorry I wasn’t brave enough to tell either of you without this happening to me. I promise, no more secrets from now on. I’ll tell the both of you everything, like I should have from the start.”

  Anakin felt a pang in his heart as she looked at him in seemingly relief at the declaration.

  “No more secrets. I promise too,” he said after a moment and making his decision, “I have something too I need to tell the both of you when we get back home.”

  “Huh? You do? But… It has to be back home?”

  “Yes. I’ve never told anyone else my secret before. It’s too important to say out here. But no more secrets, I promise too. From any of us. Not mom’s secret boyfriend, not you needing to talk to us about your feelings, and not me with my thing. Deal?”

  “...Deal. You’re a good kid, Anakin. Anyone ever tell you that? The Jedi don’t know what they gave up.”

  “Thanks.”

  They sat there in silence just holding hands, not talking after that. Eventually after who knows how long the door to the comedy club opened.

  “Ani?! Slarena? Are you out here?” Mom called out, sounding worried. After sharing a glance with Slarena, Anakin let go of her hand and stood up and walked over around the corner.

  “Over here Mom. With Slarena too.”

  Mom turned as she spotted him.

  “What’s going on?” she asked as she rushed over, “Is Slarena okay? I’ve been looking all over for you two.”

  “She’s… Okay now,” Anakin said, “She has something that she wants to tell you.”

  Anakin led mom back around the corner of the building and sat her down next to Slarena as Anakin sat on the twi’lek’s other side and held her hand.

  “Tell her, Slarena,” Anakin said, “Unless you want me to do it if it’s too hard? I can do that if…”

  “No… No, I’ll do it. Shmi should hear it from me,” Slarena said as she turned to mom. Mom grabbed Slarena’s hand, so Anakin held Slarena’s left while mom held her right. Mom seemed to sense the seriousness of what Slarena was about to say so she remained quiet.

  “Shmi,” Slarena began after a long sigh, “I’ve always been quiet about my past. I didn’t… I thought it would hurt you and Ani if you knew. Or that you’d see me differently.”

  “Slarena, after how long we’ve been together?” Mom said, “Sisters until the end, remember? Weren’t you the one who insisted we swear that silly oath back then?”

  “I… Mostly did that as a joke,” Slarena said.

  “Well I still think it counts. You can tell me anything.”

  “Okay. It’s about my time as a slave. And what happened before I met you and Anakin…”

  There was much crying and hugging to be had by the end of Slarena’s story. Mom had actually gotten so upset that she could barely speak at points as she sobbed into Slarena’s neck after she reached the worst parts of the story. Slarena looked a little shocked at the intensity of mom’s reaction to the story.

  “I’m so sorry you had to go through that.” Mom muttered as she kept Slarena pinned to the wall with a backbreaking hug and weight of her body, “It’s just… That someone would do that to you…”

  She started sobbing again as Slarena endured, too worn out by her confession to Anakin and crying along with mom’s earlier outbursts to do anything more.

  “Let’s go back to the hotel,” Slarena whispered, “I think we’re all tired.”

  They stood to their feet and mom had to lean on Slarena for a bit as she composed herself before standing up again.

  Then they all went back to the hotel and collapsed into their respective beds, completely exhausted and wrung out from the sudden emotional rollercoaster that they’d all been subjected to.