Before - Legends What Matters Most (Short Story. OCs. Drama.) Update: 9/8/08

Title: What Matters Most
Author: Alley_Skywalker
Genre: Drama
Characters: OCs
Summary: Fedia Dmitriov is on his way home after a one year stay at Solsages ? the gambling capital of the Outer Rim-- where he attempted to make enough money to help pay his sister's medical bills. On the ship he meets a child who was kidnapped into slavery. Fedia surprises himself by becoming attached to the boy and suddenly finds himself facing a choice he never thought he would have such a hard time making.
Notes: Update schedual -- once every 10 days. this fic was formally named "Destiny?s Gift"







Part One




The mid-way space port between Avada and Torren was a small, grimy place with only ten launch pads, contrasting miserably to the usual hundred of even a small-level port, located on-orbit of Mira-Day, a beautiful but poor Mid-Rim world. This port was usually used for cheep-fare transfers from the Mid-Rim to the Outer-Rim. Most ships departing from said port were cargo ships, with the exception of those docking on the two pads in a cut off section, molded and shaped to fit nothing larger than a fighter. These pads were usually booked ahead of time by wealthy customers, most of them pirates, slavers, or shady businessmen, usually in the dealing field, who arrived in their small, agile, silent ships in order to make an unseen transfer. They would come and leave within an hour, having settled their business in one of the back rooms. The next thing the HoloNet would report would be the coordinated attack of a passenger ship, or the kidnapping of a child from a wealthy family by suspected slavers. This was a new trend: kidnapping children from aristocratic families not for ransom but to be sold into the ?pleasure? field of slavery.

The waiting areas teemed with passengers who would later be crammed into small rooms, usually four people per room ? a couple per room was rare and private rooms were usually too expensive for anyone traveling in this manner ? and shipped off to whatever their next destination was. It was no secret that the few private rooms that did exist on board these ships were usually occupied by slavers; their slaves stored below in the cargo hold where they would be counted as another bag carried on board rather than a passenger. They were harder to trace for authorities this way.

The thirteen year old boy crowding in line for a transport with the rest of the dirty, odorous, cursing beings was a strange sight. He stood as though isolated from the on-going chaos with his traveling bag hanging over his shoulder, dressed in a tightly fitted black jacket ? it was well kept but somewhat worn, mostly noticeable by the faded color of once-shiny silver buttons ? blue denim pants, also somewhat worn, and long necked boots which were new but cheep. He was clutching his ticket and identification documents in one hand and holding a newspaper in the other. He scanned the headlines: murder, assassination attempt, peace conference, sports? latest, kidnapping... The boy?s eyes stopped on the kidnapping headline and he was about to start reading but was interrupted by a shrill voice calling for the next batch of passengers to come through the tourniquets into the boarding area. The boy rolled up the newspaper and stuffed it into his bag.

?Ticket and identifications documents,? the large oaf of a Fuatt, a close cousin of the Tatooine Hutts, demanded, eyeing the thirteen-year-old with a predatory kind of suspicion and contempt.

?Fedia Dmitriov. Destination: Torren. Traveling privately,? the boy intoned flatly but not without a defiant self-assurance glinting in icy blue eyes.

The Fuatt looked over the documents with a cursory, disinterested glance ? no one in this port cared much about forgeries or ?borrowed? papers ? and looked up sharply when he heard that the boy was traveling ?privately.? A sickeningly sugary smile pasted itself on the Fuatt?s face. ?Will there be cargo, young gentleman??

Fedia grimaced at the implication. ?No.?

?Ve

 

Wonderful. I loved him talking about his travels and his complete weariness and his worries for Gale.

Please let me know when you update?

 

Any word I know is inferior to this, this is more than amzing.
Now I'm going to see what else you've written.

tapping fish
bleach is not bleak, there's a difference

 

mujapple-juicey: I?m glad you liked it Tell me if you wanna be on the PM list and I?ll let you know when I update.

LadyofAThousandDays: Yea, Fedia gets angsty pretty easily, heh. Oh, and I?ve put you on the list

 

I'd love to be on the list, but real life is getting REALLY real and I have to leave these boards for quite a while.
There are chandes of me still reading everything (I've been seeing your stuff, but so far I've only found a fe locked ones) but rarely posting.
Ech to real life sometimes.

 

Whaddaya know! Mesa back!

 

Part Two



Fedia drifted in a pleasant state of drowsiness, somewhere between sleep and wakefulness, where everything was soft, warm, and comforting. He had dreamed of home, of the sun, of being happy. Wakefulness was blissfully slow to come, allowing him time to linger in the dream, to salvage the imaginary warmth of a phantom sun against his face, to soak up what last bits of comforting slumber remained.

The sudden beeping of his comlink had Fedia instinctively reaching for the blaster under his pillow before his groggy mind identified the sound for what it was. Cursing softly under his breathe, he reached over and hit the reception button. A blue-tinted, scaled hologram of his mother unfolded before his eyes.

?Mama?? Fedia breathed in surprise. He had asked her not to comm him while he was away. He sent her encrypted holo messages through a roundabout HoloNet network once a month to tell her how he was doing. She, in turn, would send a short encrypted message back to him, using the instructions he had left her before leaving, informing him of how things were at home.

?Fedia, darling, don?t be mad, but I knew that you were already on your way back??

?Mama, there are reasons as for why I asked you not to comm me. Money, yes ? don?t roll your eyes at me, Ma! ? but also security.?

The middle-aged woman ? plainly dressed, her brown hair in a loose bun ? watched her son with sad eyes that shone with adoration and a yearning to see him safe home again. ?I couldn?t wait any longer, Fedia, I simply could not.?

?Oh, Mama, we?ve spoken about this. I am the man in this family, am I not? Now, can we drop this nonsense? Tell me how you are. How is Gale? May I speak with her?? Fedia?s heart jumped at the opportunity. After all this time he longed to see his sister, to make sure her cheeks were still rosy and her eyes were still bright.

?Ah, thinking of your sister. Force bless?? Anna Dmitriov smiled faintly, one hand unconsciously laid over her heart. ?Yes, you may speak with her. Gale! Gale, come, your brother is on the comm.?

From out of sight a young girl?s voice cried out in exuberant excitement. :?Fedia!? There was a sound of small feet pattering over a wooden floor and a little girl came into sight as she jumped into her mother?s arms. ?Fedia!? Gale waved happily at her brother and he grinned back at her. The girl had brownish-blonde hair and large, velvety green-brown eyes that had a wisdom in them far beyond the child?s years. Her hair was braided into a long, thin braid which lay over her shoulder. She was gaunt and pale with only a faint, ghostly blush in her cheeks. But ? Fedia noticed with relief ? despite the reflection of her day to day struggles with her illness, her eyes were bright and eager.

?Hey, kid. I missed your eight birthday. I?m sorry. I?ll make sure to buy you a big present for your ninth. Ok??

Gale giggle happily. Then, suddenly, she grew quiet and pensive.

?What?s wrong?? Fedia asked in genuine alarm, searching his sister?s face for any sign of pain.

?Are you coming home??

The question somehow surprised him. ?Of course I?m coming home, Gale. I?ll be home in a couple of weeks. Maybe we?ll even go to the zoo; would you like that? You can see all the big banthas, remember??

Gale nodded but her expression didn?t change or brighten much. She fiddled with the frills on her dress sleeves for a few moments before raising a hand to her mouth and holding one small fist against her lips. It was a nervous gesture from childhood that she never got rid of. ?I miss you,? Gale whispered so softly that Fedia almost couldn?t hear her.

Fedia could take a lot but he couldn?t take that childishly sad, innocent, almost frightened look on his little sister?s face. ?I miss you too, Gale? but I?ll?I?ll?? Fedia cut himself off, feeling the lump in his throat grow and the sharp sting of tears begin to irritate his eyes. He wiped a hand across his eyes and swallowed several times to try to regain control of his voice. ?I?ll be back soon, little one. Now come, gi

 

Dink, those cards and snakewater talk are confusing like usual.
Gosh, how does anyone enjoy that life.
Poor Gale.
I should snaggle his mom with a balloon.
Go Fedia.
Looking forward to more.
Hey, cool. First dibbles.

tapping fish

 

mujapple-juicey: Thanks for your comment







Part Three




The codes were easy enough to obtain and Fedia soon found himself in front of cargo hold three punching in the sequence. The heave metal door slid open and the large, dark mouth of the hold yawned before him. Fedia shivered at the lack of warmth in the space. The main ship was heated and isolated well but the cargo holds were meant for inanimate objects and the cold seeped in ? the heating units on the ceiling a sad, rusty, breaking-down excuse for a heating system. On one side, luggage ? bags, suitcases, etc ? were stacked in high columns and long rows. On the other were several stalls, each stall separated from the other by a high, almost ceiling-high divider. These were usually used for the ?live cargo.? The slaves would be changed to the wall, usually one per stall with rare, custom exceptions. The dividers were there as an attempt to diminish contact between the slaves. Fedia slid the door shut behind him and snapped on the flickering ceiling lighting. There was just barely enough light to see.

Fedia pulled his jacket closer around him and started down the row of stalls. Most were empty but some had slaves. Fedia tried not to look but a genuine curiosity overpowered him and made him throw glances at the people who were chained against the wall. In one of the stalls there was a woman sitting on the floor with a baby in her arms.

The child will die in this cold! How do woman of their lot even dare to have children? Fedia thought with a cold, bitter anger festering just beneath the surface.

Fedia thought he had seen it all until he passed the one stall that made him stop. A young boy ? a child of seven or eight ? lay curled up on the floor in a single silk shirt which was torn in a few places, and dark pants. His shoes were gone though somehow, for some odd reason, he had managed to retain his socks. The boy was trembling and shivering, dark strands of hair fell over half-closed eyes. Blood trickled from a gash on his temple. Fedia recognized him as the child he had seen brought in before the departure ? the one making all the noise. Fedia had at first thought that maybe the boy had been sold separately from his mother at auction but he had been putting up too much of a fight for someone use to slave life and the clothes? Those weren?t the clothes of a slave boy, especially whose master was so desperately poor that he had to sell his slaves at auction unconditionally.

The boy must have felt Fedia?s gaze on him because he looked up with frightened eyes, red from crying. The child lifted a hand to his forehead to brush away a strand of hair that was tickling his nose and it came away splotched with bright-red blood.

Dear Force! Hasn?t his master seen this? Hell, he probably doesn?t even care the jack? Agh! Who buys a kid anyways?

Fedia took several slow steps forward. The child only whimpered and curled in on himself even more. Fedia came to his side and knelt down next to him. ?Hey, hey, it?s ok, I?m not gonna hurt you.? He reached out to the child but the boy flinched away and only peered at Fedia from under long strands of hair with large, frightened eyes. The boy reminded Fedia of a wild animal that hid in a bush and peered out with its glowing, watchful eyes but never dared to venture too close, its instincts telling it that hiding would be a much safer thing to do. Fedia had to admit to having a weakness for children, especially hurt or sick children. As all weaknesses, he shoved it aside, buried it, pretended it didn?t exist, replaced it with harshness and ? or ? apathy. However, something about this child, something about his dark, mournful eyes, about the way he peered out in that frightened way? Fedia felt inexplicably drawn to him. ?I?m Fedia. What?s your name??

The boy didn?t answer and when Fedia tried to brush back a strand of his hair the boy flinched away from his touch.

Fedia bit down on his frustration. The kid needed to be cleaned up at the very least. ?Don?t

 

Wow.
So much pain and confusion...
Yegods, poor everyone.
Great job, uh, Master?

 

Unlocking and upping for the sake of visibility due to awards and intended updating in near future

 

Yay Master!

By the by, did this win anything yet?