The Sabacc Shift

"No," she whispered. "Let me take care of you, this time."

"Yes, ma'am." What else could I say?

Ayana soon took my engorged cock back into her pussy. Her movements weren't fast or frantic, but slow and sensual. Every crease of her silky tunnel blew my mind, and with the way she started kissing my neck and chest, I was pretty much powerless. Then again, she did say she wanted to take care of me. Why not let her? Our lazy fucking lasted a good long time, at least a half hour. Ayana's such a little sweetheart, and damn, did she ever know how to get me going. And those perky breasts of hers? Well, let's just say it's even better when her hard nipples rubbed against my chest as we went. After a while, her leg muscles were close to giving out, so she rotated into sitting cross-legged on top of me and pulled me to sit up straight with her. All it took was a little more sucking on her nipples to send us both over the edge. The last thing I remember before passing out again was Ayana collapsing onto my chest and nuzzling my face with hers.

*****

The next time I awoke, my eyes hurt from the sunlight streaming in through the nearby window. I blinked a few times and reached for Ayana, but she didn't move an inch; she was still out cold from last night. I kissed her cheek and gave her cute little ass a squeeze to wake her up.

"Morning, beautiful."

"Mmm... good morning," she purred. "What time is it?"

"0800 hours," I said, checking the clock on my nightstand.

"Good. I don't have to report until noon. Care for another round?"

"As much as I'd love that, I really need to get going," I said regretfully.

"Perfectly fine. I understand." Before I could slip out of bed, though, she lunged forward and kissed me once more. "Kyp, thank you for such a wonderful evening. It was my genuine pleasure to take care of you."

"Same here, gorgeous." I then exited the bed and made for the bathroom. "Feel free to lounge a bit longer, if you want. Sounds like they gave you a relaxing morning."

"I think I'll do just that, thank you," Ayana grinned, pulling the covers over her face.

After catching a quick shower, I dressed for the day and headed out the door, ready to leave as soon as possible. But on my way out, I noticed the door to the room next to mine was open. Daring a peek inside, I saw no sign of Tali. Worse, her room was ransacked, like there had been a fight of some sort. Though the smart move might have been to leave and ask no questions, something was nagging in the back of my mind. Sighing, I went back into my room.

"Forget something?" Ayana asked, still naked in bed.

"What happened to Tali?" I asked.

Ayana cocked her head. "Whatever do you mean?"

"I know Tali was sleeping in the room next door. When I just went out there, the door was open and the room was a mess, like there was a fight or something. Any idea what happened?"

Ayana paused for a split second. Even before she answered, the look in her eyes told me everything.

"I'm quite sure I don't know. I'm only a slave, after all. It didn't concern me."

"Bantha fodder," I shot back. "I can see it in your eyes. You know something."

A tear rolled down Ayana's face. "Please, don't do this. I'm not even supposed to know anything. My master will kill us both."

"Ayana, if Tali gets hurt, that's on you."

She buried her face in her pillow at this, bawling at what had to be a massive inner conflict. Maybe it wasn't fair for me to ask this of her, but all I had to go on was my gut instinct. It'd never steered me wrong.

"I overheard Krah last night," Ayana finally said. "He discovered that Tali is a Rebel spy, sent to obtain the hyperdrive unit. The Hutts have a nonaggression pact with the Empire, but aiding a Rebel like this, even unknowingly, would have risked nullifying that pact. Krah was dispatched to capture her and make an example. I... can only assume she is now my master's prisoner. Perhaps even a member of his harem."

As Ayana continued to cry, I walked over and kissed her forehead. "Thank you. You did the right thing."

"Kyp, please promise me-"

"Nobody will ever know this conversation happened," I promised. "Word of honor. That is, if you promise the same."

"Of course," she replied, looking up at me with her beautiful brown eyes. "I would never wish any harm on you, Kyp." As I turned to leave, she asked, "What do you plan to do?"

I pursed my lips at that question. "Dunno. Still working on that. Anyway, take care of yourself, Ayana."

*****

"Leecam, how're things looking?" I asked as I boarded the Fool's Errand.

"The hyperdrive unit has been installed and all systems are green. We may depart whenever you wish. Shall I initiate takeoff procedures?"

"No, not yet," I replied, still working things out in my head.

"Sir, is something wrong?" Leecam asked.

"Uh... not sure. Leecam, were you watching the tournament last night?"

"Of course, sir. A brilliant showing on your part."

"Thanks. Remember Tali? The female Zeltron I was up against?"

"Yes. She was quite the player," Leecam remarked.

"Yeah. Well, I think she may have gotten herself into some trouble," I said, recounting the events of this morning.

"My, my... that is quite unsettling," Leecam replied once I finished. "The Hutts are known to keep their female slaves on a very tight leash, sometimes in the literal sense. And if this Tali is indeed a Rebel spy, I can only imagine the harsh treatment she would receive before being turned over to the Empire."

"Exactly," I nodded. "I know what my basic survival instincts are saying, move on, this isn't my fight. But..."

"Sir, I am only a droid. I have no ability to comprehend morality within my programming, however, I must say that I have never seen you so indecisive. If you are having such trouble leaving at this time, could it perhaps be because you already know what you wish to do?"

"Yeah, I know what I should do. But doing it? That's a different question. I'm putting my neck on the line for this girl I barely know. Shit... ok, if I'm doing this, I'm gonna need your help, Leecam. Here's what I'm thinking..."

*****

Once I exited the Fool's Errand, Leecam initiated takeoff, leaving me in the hangar. Across the way, I saw Krah keeping an eye on things. He had a confused look on his face, as I expected he would.

"Is everything all right, Mr. Grant?" he asked as I approached.

"Yeah, we just needed some supplies before we head off-world," I answered casually.

"I see... yet, you are still here?"

Nodding, I lowered my voice and said, "I, um, also wanted to make sure I thanked my host personally before I left. His hospitality has been overwhelming... especially the company last night."

Krah's eyes lit up as he got it. "Of course. As it so happens, the mighty Beelma has no other guests today. Come, I shall escort you so you may thank him in person."

"I appreciate it," I said with a smile.

My mind was running a parsec a minute as I followed Krah through the dim hallways. This was a dangerous gambit, and I might not even have a chance to do anything. I decided that if Tali wasn't with Beelma in his throne room, there was nothing more I could do to help her and I'd gracefully exit. But I knew I had to try.

Soon, we arrived at Beelma's audience chamber. It was so different from how it had been the day before. Where yesterday it was teaming with guests and entertainment, it now only had Beelma, a few of his female slaves, and four Gamorrean guards. I locked eyes with Ayana for a moment. She gave me a sweet smile, and I returned her look with a subtle wink. But as I looked around the room, I at last saw Tali. She now wore a metal bikini and a sour expression on her face, no doubt from Beelma chaining her to his platform. Chauvinistic as it may be, I had to admit her new attire suited her quite well. Damn...

"Kyp Grant... I'm a bit surprised to see you again so soon," Beelma said in Huttese as I stepped forward.

I replied, "I'll be leaving soon, but I couldn't go without coming to thank you in person for your hospitality. I was especially floored by your generosity last night."

Beelma grunted at this. "Ah... I take it that you enjoyed the company of my Ayana? You found her... satisfactory?"

"More than satisfactory. She's a little sweetheart," I said with a smile.

"I quite agree!" Beelma said with a hearty laugh.

Taking a deep breath, I then glanced at Tali. "Well, what happened to you? You lose a bet or something?" I asked with a smartass grin on my face.

"Shut up," Tali sneered.

"Ooh! This one's got some bite!" I said.

"Indeed, she does," replied Beelma. "I found out this little troublemaker is a spy for the Rebellion. She thought she could pull one over on old Beelma and endanger our truce with the Empire in the process. Stupid girl!"

"Not a smart move," I said, earning another glare from Tali. "If I may ask, what do you plan to do with her? I mean, I'm sure the Empire would pay well for a Rebel spy, but she's also a Zeltron. She might be more valuable as... another sort of commodity."

"Indeed, and that is why I intend to keep her. Zeltrons are known for their beauty, but they are also known to rarely keep to any one person; monogamy is not in their nature. Who else could possibly hope to tame such a wild beauty for himself except a great Hutt like me? This girl will be the crown jewel of my harem for years to come."

"You'll be certain to make every man in the galaxy jealous. Hell, I already am." After a pause, I continued, "If I may, I remember her carrying a blaster, a Bryar pistol, if I'm not mistaken. If you happen to still have it, I'd love to buy it from you. It'd make for a great backup weapon for me."

Beelma nodded. "Krah, you still have the Zeltron's weapon, yes?"

"I do, Master."

Krah stepped forward and handed me the pistol. As in inspected it, I could tell the blaster was in excellent condition. Tali clearly took good care of her weapons, which made sense if she was a Rebel. But as I looked the gun over, I also glanced around the room and marked the positions of all potential hostiles. Only four guards, each with axes; that made Krah the only other person in the room armed with a blaster. Beelma was different; I wouldn't be able to attack him directly, since most blaster fire couldn't penetrate a Hutt's thick skin. Still, the tub of lard was unarmed, and if I acted quick enough, this should work out in my favor.

"Very nice," I said. "I'll pay... five-hundred credits. How's that sound?"

"Done," Krah replied.

I then reached into my backpack, pretending to look for the money, but instead took hold of my own DL-18 blaster, which I had previously hidden in there. Before anyone else had a chance to react, I took one blaster in each hand and opened fire. Krah was dead before anyone knew what had happened. The two closest Gamorreans were still reaching for their axes by the time I blasted each in the face. Finally, the last two charged me, but in their eagerness, tripped over each other, allowing me to finish them with ease. The entire exchange lasted less than five seconds. As Beelma and his slaves were still in shock, I had a perfect opening to turn and blast Tali's chain.

"Come on!" I shouted, tossing Tali's blaster to her.

Now, I saw it. Where everyone else in the room was still processing the situation, Tali had a look of sheer determination on her face. In spite of her youth, she was clearly a seasoned warrior who had encountered many dangerous situations in service to the Rebellion. She knew this was our chance, but only if we were fast. She caught her blaster without even a second look and had it ready in an instant, jumping off Beelma's platform with incredible agility.

"NO!!!" Beelma roared.

We were so close, but the wily old Hutt was faster than I had expected he would be, and he managed to mash the button near his throne just as we turned to run. Beelma laughed that belly laugh all Hutts were famous for as we tumbled down the chute and into his krayt dragon pit.

"Oof!" Tali grunted, landing on top of me for good measure.

"You're welcome," I said with a smartass grin.

"For what? Getting me eaten alive?" she fired back, more than a little pissed.

"Hey, at least we've got blasters," I pointed out.

The krayt dragon pit was bigger than I expected, essentially a rocky arena. We both turned at the sound of a gate creaking open, revealing the monstrous beast intent on eating us. It was bigger than I thought, standing twice as tall as me, even on all fours. The big lizard crawled toward us, drooling and snarling at what I'm sure it presumed would be its next meal. And if those fangs or claws got hold of me, I would be. At least I had activated my tracker when we fell down here. Now, we just had to survive...

"I have a bad feeling about this," Tali muttered.

"Die!" I heard Beelma bellow, laughing with glee.

I dared a quick glance above, seeing that Beelma had opened the entire floor of his throne room, rather than watch on a viewscreen. Poor Ayana was fighting back tears as she watched. In the nick of time, a feral hiss from the dragon snapped me back to the task at hand. I rolled out of the way, avoiding the dragon's opening lunge. After giving a bit of ground, Tali and I ended up on either side of the beast and fired on it with our blasters. The creature growled in pain, but appeared no worse for the wear; there were only a couple of burn marks on its thick, scaly hide.

"You got a backup plan?" Tali asked, the fear now apparent on her face.

"This is the backup plan," I replied.

The dragon then turned to attack Tali, who fired off a hipshot to try and keep the beast at bay. Thankfully, the blast struck inside the dragon's mouth, forcing it to back off for a second as it hissed in pain.

"Looks like that did something," I offered.

"Yeah, it did something: it pissed it off!" Tali replied.

Sure enough, the dragon lunged again for Tali, shrugging off her blasts and keeping up with every dodge she made. I shot back to try and distract it as best I could, but nothing was working. The dragon had figured out our game of divide and conquer, meaning it knew it had to focus on one of us at a time. Pretty soon, Tali was backed into a corner. Worse, she tripped on a rock and dropped her blaster, leaving her defenseless. The krayt dragon inched closer until it was just inches from Tali. I had to think of something, and fast. That was when I remembered that this was a canyon krayt dragon.

"AWOOOOOOOOH!"

To my surprise, it actually worked. The canyon krayt, despite its fearsome strength, isn't the top predator on Tatooine. That title belongs to its much larger cousin, the greater krayt dragon. The greater krayt is the only thing a canyon krayt fears. Hell, greater krayts were even known to prey on the occasional sarlacc! My dead-on imitation of the greater krayt dragon's mating cry was enough to stop the canyon krayt in its tracks.

"AWOOOOOOOOH!"

I continued my dragon call, distracting the canyon krayt and allowing Tali to retrieve her weapon. After a few seconds, she picked up on what I was doing and started to join in, causing the beast to back up in fear. Pretty soon, it retreated back into its pen. Even though the gate was still open, the fact that we had gotten it to retreat for the moment was nothing short of miraculous.

"That was impressive," Tali said with a grin. "Where'd you learn that?"

"I've done some survival training in the past. Never know when it'll come in handy."

At that moment, the entire pit was rocked by a sudden explosion from behind us. While Tali dove to the ground in a panic, I knew exactly what had happened. I smiled as I saw the Fool's Errand appear from the smoke and dust, landing on the floor of the krayt dragon pit.

"Here's our ride," I said to Tali, helping her to her feet.

"What the hell? You planned this?!" Tali asked.

"Yep, my droid was waiting on the canyon floor for my signal," I replied. "Leecam, weapons hot?" I then asked into my com.

"Yes, sir. Cannons are ready, concussion missiles are loaded and armed."

"Great. Keep us covered."

While we sprinted for the boarding ramp, I noticed the hole Leecam had blasted in the canyon wall was directly below Beelma's throne. After a few seconds, the rocks began to give way, and Beelma himself soon fell from the throne room above and down into the pit. Tali and I paid him no mind and scampered up the boarding ramp.

Once in the cockpit, I was treated to the magnificent sight of the dragon reemerging from its pen. Gone were to two humanoids it had expected to eat, but it now spied a much larger meal. Even from inside the Fool's Errand, we could hear Beelma screaming in rage and terror as the krayt dragon latched its jaws around the Hutt's tail and shook him in every direction. The resulting whiplash was more than enough to disorient Beelma, who didn't even realize he was being eaten until he was halfway down the dragon's throat.

"Ugh... still an awful way to go," I remarked.

"Yeah, but couldn't have happened to a nicer guy," Tali replied with a satisfied smile on her lips.

"Leecam, get us out of here."

"Yes, sir. Where to?"

"Any safe port. We just need out of this system."

"Understood, sir."

Tali's grin just got bigger, I noticed. "Looks like your droid has things in hand," she said. "Come on, let me treat that cut you got back there."

Before I could even ask what cut Tali was talking about, she grabbed my arm and pulled me from the cockpit. After closing the door, she had me pinned against the wall and forced her tongue down my throat. I enjoyed it, of course, but her sudden actions meant I could barely breathe, forcing me to push her off for a moment.

"Shit, girl! You don't waste any time, do ya?" I chuckled as I caught my breath.

A second later, her lips were on mine again. Between kisses, she managed, "Take me... your bed... now."

Getting lucky with a Twi'lek and a Zeltron? In the same day?! Yeah, poor me. Anyway, we were only a few feet away from my quarters, but it was quite the struggle to get there with Tali wrapped around me. Again, not complaining, mind you. Once inside, Tali immediately pushed me, maybe even threw me, onto my bed, landing me on my back. She stood for a few seconds more, locking the door and straightening her hair a bit. Damn, every move she made was so fucking hot. Still, I knew better than to make any assumptions.

"Tali, please believe me when I say I really, really want to do this, but I don't want you to feel like you have to," I said. "I mean-"

"Kyp, let me ask you something," she interrupted, her eyes still aflame with what I could only assume was lust. "Have you ever had make-up sex?"

"You mean, like, after a big argument? Yeah," I nodded.

"Well, multiply that by about fifty times over, and you've got rescue sex. And you're about to get a serious dose of just that."

With that, Tali dove onto the bed and locked lips with me once again. As she started to kiss her way down my body, unbuttoning my shirt as she went, I could tell she was secreting her pheromones. But while I had worked to resist them yesterday, I was more than happy to give in to them today. Holy shit, she was a fucking goddess, especially in that metal bikini.

I took a sharp breath in as Tali arrived at my crotch. She went straight to work, yanking off my pants in record time and exposing my throbbing erection. She stared at it for a few seconds with hungry eyes, licking her lips for good measure. But just when I thought she might be teasing me, she took my cock into her mouth with no hesitation. Fuck, the sensations were intense! Combine Tali's expert ministrations with that sexy little outfit of hers, and it's a wonder I didn't blow my top right there. Hell, my time with Ayana last night was the only thing that let me keep it in check for a while longer.