Chapter 53: Entering the Mine
When I next woke up, it was to the unfortunate sensation of someone kicking me in the side.
The deep, full-body ache from being stunned by his controller was still causing problems within my body, with a few pings of pain when I used certain parts of my body.
My so-called jailor then began speaking.
"Wake the fuck up before I electrocute you. Wake up the Lady Senator beside you and prepare to leave the ship." He said before walking away.
And with that a few voices sounded over the comms, using codes the Zabrak Bounty Hunter assigned different bounty hunters to prisoners.
I had somewhat recognized the ship as a Pelta-Class Frigate, my best guess was that it was hijacked and customized to maintain a large crew and jail cells.
Soon enough I sensed the familiar change in the ship as we landed, followed by the Zabrak Bounty Hunter and a Rodian Bounty Hunter appearing within my eyesight.
By now Padme had stood up beside me, she was woken by the voice of me being kicked in the side of my stomach.
"Listen to what they say Padme, this is not the time to strike." I whispered to her as the doors to every cell opened with a resounding 'swoosh'
"Come on, walk." The Zabrak Male said as the Zabrak walked in front of us and the Rodian at our back.
Soon enough others joined behind us as the Zabrak Bounty Hunter, which I now assumed was the leader led us out of the ship.
As we stepped onto the landing pad, a foul smell assaulted my nose and mouth, pushing into my body as oxygen and finally beginning to burn my lungs.
However, I quickly managed to gather myself and only stumbled 2 steps to the side by the initial assault.
However, Padme wasn't as lucky as I saw her stumble straight towards the ground.
However I caught her and held her up, I could see her arms moving in reflex and her mouth opened.
"Do not cough, it will make it worse." I said, recognizing the easy symptoms of coughing.
Padme gathered herself and fought to push the cough back down into her lungs. And she stabilized herself.
All around me, I could see the Bounty Hunters having already equipped themselves with Masks, the Zabrak looking at us with a malicious look, enjoying our misfortune.
I also spotted every other prisoner being in a similar state but worse, however, I also recognized that a few species suffered more than others, and humans seemed to be struggling the most.
That's when a speeder approached us, it was similar to the future speeder used by the Empire, it included multiple standing areas on the hull of the ship, where one could stand before being enveloped by a mechanism. Making an escape near impossible.
However the guy driving it quickly stepped up to the bounty hunters, and I could see it on his face. He was furious.
"You trying to kill the miners before they get to mine?" He said with spite before 4 of his guards approached us with masks.
I quickly took on my mask, it was a half-face breathed, it was extremely old and I wouldn't be shocked if a few of them were dated to before the Ruusan Reformation.
I also realized the guards didn't have one uniform, but instead was a mix of individual gear, armor, and clothes. There were also different species.
"Get your asses onto the speeder." The same man who had just given us masks said as he pointed to the speeder.
The Bounty Hunters surrounded us as we approached the speeders, but a problem quickly arose, we were 16, but the speeder only had 4 prison holders on each side, a total of 8.
"I will give you a quick briefing of your situation. You are currently on Magravia, a spice mine owned by the Corporate Alliance." He said before waving his arms around. "The surface does not have breathable oxygen and you will die after 5 minutes of continuous inhaling of said Oxygen."
"The spice mines are within bubbles of Oxygen, they will allow you to work without your mask but also function as an enforcement device. The thing around your neck will kill you if you step out of the bubble, so once you go in you can never go out." He said while pointing to our collar thing.
"If you're lucky you might get to experience the other variables and uses of the prison collar." He said before ending his debriefing.
"You are assigned to Mine B, Branch L, now get into the speeder. 2 per holding." He said as he left us to head into the speeder.
His 4 Guards followed him while the remaining 15 bounty hunters hurried us into the speeder.
I and Padme were hurried into one holding, we couldn't even choose ourselves. Although I doubt either of us would want to be with anyone else.
As the holding tightened, enveloping both me and Padme I could feel her being pressed against me.
Due to the Bounty Hunter's hurry, I had been pushed backward onto the holding, but Padme was fast enough to turn around, so she didn't smash her back foot into the metal before getting on.
That kind of hurts.
However that put us in an awkward position, Padme's chest pressing down on mine, I could see her blush and I could feel my little brother getting a bit harder, that wouldn't do.
I focused on other things, eventually managing to stop its growth.
It was a bit awkward, but before the Bounty Hunters could fully close the holding Padme managed to barely turn around, her back facing towards my stomach.
However now I had her ass positioned straight at my Little Brother, and let me tell you she somehow packed a big punch there as well, she also had a crazy hourglass figure.
However, I was broken out of my musings by Padme.
"Put your arms around me so we get more space." She said although I could feel her body heat beginning to rise a bit.
She was correct, at this time my hands were hurting due to being pressed into the sides, I had kept them at my sides as I didn't want to intrude on her personal space.
But with her acknowledgment, I put my arms around her, mainly her stomach.
And shockingly enough she leaned back onto my chest, I didn't know if she did it due to wanting more space, or certain other reasons.
But I responded by tightening my arms around her.
"It's going to be okay, Padme. Just stick to me." I whispered into her ears, slightly shocking her before regaining her composure.
"I'll entrust my life to you then, Thalron." She managed to say before the speeder sped off, ending any attempt at communication.
It was quite comfy actually, although my back ached a bit.
But I knew the other prisoners had it worse due to being with a complete stranger, and it was also a bit cold due to the speed and us being outside the hull.
However, we managed to hold a lot of warmth due to our closeness.
Soon enough, after flying past a single large mining facility, we entered the second one. What I presumed to be Mine B.
We flew up to an entrance leading underground as the holdings were opened.
Many of the others fell or stumbled out due to leaning on the holding doors, but me and Padme remained still due to not even touching the outer parts.
But we then jumped down.
10 guards welcomed us as the 4 guards and the 1 leader approached us.
"Greetings, I am Foreman Saaw, you will refer to me as 'Foreman', I oversee branch L of Mine B. The more spice you mine, the better benefits you get, simple. Now get your asses into the mine." He said as we were led under the ground.
The first room split us into Ladies and Gentlemen, or Women and Men, there we were ordered to take off our clothes before being handed simple Orange jumpsuits with a number on them.
My number was BL-081109, BL for Mine B, Branch L. And the numbers were just numbers.
After we were done we were directed into the next room where we waited for everyone to be done, as the last left we were brought even further, through multiple checkpoints, command structures, and other areas before finally after a 5-minute walk we reached the mine.
As we entered I realized we were on an elevated platform, it was made out of a stone which had the color of red.
There was an elevator leading down to the Mine.
"Alright, this is where you'll spend most of your time. Equipment is under us, and the elevator is the only way up. Now get down there." The Foreman said before ushering us down.
I felt Padme hold onto me as we were pushed onto the first elevator, and as it was filled it traveled down 20 meters to reach the mine.
The Mine was just a large hole in the ground, some places were wider than others, sometimes longer, and all around me stood men with resonance grinders and other tools.
Padme followed me as we walked up onto an equipment area, and we both took our tools and equipment before heading to stand beside someone who obviously looked veteran.
The process of mining out the spice veins was simple but grueling. According to Azy, the female Rodian working beside us. We would mine into the stone, following the lines of mediari until they ran out. When a layer is clear, they come in with large machines and carve forward, pushing deeper into the spice vein. We would have to load up the crushed rock, as well as any carvings we pull free now. Luckily we had managed to arrive just after the last major carving, meaning we had a few days of easier work ahead of us.
I then began working, not extremely hard but also not slow, aiming to maintain as much of my stamina as possible.
After 1 hour of repeating these simple instructions, after I had dumped my last hours of work into a mine cart, I began feeling slight stinging in my fingertips.
I asked Padme and she informed me that she had the same problem, that was when the Rodian cleared the questions.
"It's the spice, when it comes into contact with your sweat making it caustic, it's a slow process but you'll likely have blisters tonight, eventually you'll get immune. But the species who doesn't sweat or has a natural immunity towards it therefore usually performs better the first few days." The Rodian said and I nodded at him, thankful for the information he had given us.
Although I guess we would eventually find out how it worked.
After another 3 hours of working a few speeders filled with water tanks entered the mine and began handing out water.
However, my initial assumption of it being water was wrong as I noticed there was something else in it.
Of course, we turned towards the Rodian for answers.
"What is in the water?" Padme asked and I looked at the rodian, anxious for answers.
"Naturalizer, It's impossible to keep the mediari from spreading, so the neutralizer keeps it from burning your insides." Rodian said and my eyes shot wide open, well that sucked.
After another 3 hours of work, the Foreman's voice entered the speakers as he informed us of work time being over.
We had to drag our carts to the entrance before giving our carts and identification numbers to the Guards.
After that, everyone was herded into a massive cleaning room, both men and women.
We were then sprayed down by a blue foamy neutralizing agent, and once that was done we were led into the barracks.
And shockingly enough they were not split into women and men sections. I thought as I looked at the massive barrack.
I would need to protect Padme.
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