[Present]

Nico rubbed her wrists against her constraints uncomfortably. The inside of the transport was cold and it felt so lifeless. The only other being within view was a singular guard who sat next to Nico with his blaster rifle lowered but always ready. Nico glanced over at him a few times, still trying to find some way to use him to get out of the situation, but it was far too late at this point.

The transport left the hangar of the harrower, continuing its descent down to the planet of Manda. As the light of the atmosphere started to come into view, Nico was immediately made aware of a viewport on the other side of the transport. She looked back at the guard again for a moment, but he just nodded for her to have a look. Nico pushed herself to her feet and quickly walked over to the viewport. She knelt down on the seat in front of it, pushing her head to the edge so that she could see out of it.

Nico could only see a sprawling city beneath her with no signs of greenery getting closer with each passing moment. There was no telling how far the city stretched. The transport continued to descend further toward the city, but it kept its path forward to a location that Nico couldn’t see from the view port. As the city got closer and closer, Nico started to question why the transport wasn’t slowing for a landing. Just when it felt like the transport might crash into the ground, Nico was instead greeted by the sight of a massive metal wall. It quickly covered her view entirely, and the city became a distant memory. The wall was covered in pipes and grates and vents that gave it a rough and uneven texture. Nico raised her head up to try and get a view down, but she only saw more wall. The transport continued further and further and further down and the pit in Nico’s stomach grew deeper and deeper in accordance with her understanding of the pit that surrounded her. Eventually, the light of the sky faded away entirely, being replaced with bright fluorescent lights instead.

It felt like it had been multiple minutes before the transport finally started to slow. Nico quickly twisted around and sat back down in her seat to prepare herself for the inevitability of landing on solid ground. Nico could hear the sound of the landing gear touching down on metal as the transport came to a complete stop. The exit ramp started spraying gas around the edges as the hydraulics screeched and pushed the ramp down toward the ground. Nico peered out of the ramp to see a collection of guards already waiting with blaster rifles resting on their chests.

The guard that had been sitting next to Nico stood up and motioned for her to get up. Nico complied and stepped forward in front of him before starting to walk down the ramp. All of the air exited her lungs as she stopped and stared upwards. The transport had descended down the largest metal chasm that Nico had ever seen in her life. She had never been so deep in a city-planet, even on Nar Shaddaa. The sky had completely disappeared from view and was replaced with only darkness.

The guard behind her pushed her forward with his rifle. “Move.”

Nico pulled herself back to reality and nodded as she continued her path down the ramp. The group of guards surrounded her and led her inside of the compound, which had been carved out of the wall of the chasm. The landing pad she stood on was the only part that stretched out of the wall. The guards led her through the bleak, soulless facility, guiding her through the endless gray corridors toward the processing area. The prison was sleek and perfect, a reflection of the Empire that it served.

She was pushed through processing quickly and aggressively. It was immediately clear that the guards cared very little about Nico’s wellbeing. In fact, they seemed annoyed to be dealing with a new prisoner in the first place. Every guard seemed to regard her with disgust.

Over the course of the process, Nico was forced into a gray jumpsuit. The guards took away her clothes and possessions, tossing them into a locker nearby that was on a wall of other lockers. Nico darted her eyes toward them, watching as they put in the code “1 7 0 8 9.”

Nico was immediately pushed forward again and rushed through the rest of the intake process. She was then guided back through the halls until they reached a large set of doors with a couple of guards stationed just outside. They conversed around a desk where an observation officer sat with a bored and exhausted look on his face. The doors opened and Nico was guided into a small hallway with another set of doors on the other side. The door closed behind them before the next set of doors opened and Nico was pushed into the work bay.

The first thing Nico saw as she entered was the loading bay. A bunch of the other prisoners were already hard at work loading big boxes into cargo ships. Nico turned to look along the path of the cargo ships, seeing a huge hole in the side of the wall where ships could travel in and out. It was a huge hangar.

“Get to work,” the guard said to her before backing up just as the door closed behind her.

Nico turned to look at the closed door, raising her eyebrows at it. As she turned, however, she immediately caught a glimpse of what lay beside it. There was a huge blaster turret sticking out of the ground, pointing into the work bay. Nico turned to the other side of the door to see one more. She gulped before stepping forward.

Before she could be confused for too long, a woman stepped forward with a datapad in her hand. “You! New blood?”

Nico turned toward her, looking her over for a moment before shrugging. The woman seemed tired and disheveled, but she walked with confidence. Her hair was messy and matted from lack of a proper wash.

“Right. Come on. I’ll get you started.” She beckoned for Nico to follow her before stepping into the work bay.

Nico followed closely behind her as her eyes constantly darted around. She wanted to take in her surroundings, but she also hoped she could find some sort of weakness. Any hope of a location outside of the view of cameras was quickly squashed when she noticed the surveillance droids floating around. They were old, and clearly cheaper than most surveillance droids that the empire had employed. They were bright red and they looked like huge floating cameras with claw arms that raised and lowered in continuous movement. Nico cursed under her breath as she kept following the woman further.

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The woman led Nico to an assembly line at the other end of the work bay that extended almost endlessly in front of them. “Here.” The woman pointed to an empty spot further down the line as they arrived at it. “This will be your station. You will have only one job. This job will never change, got that?” She raised an eyebrow at Nico before motioning for her to stand next to the line.

Nico walked up to it and nodded as she peered further down the line. They were building something small and mechanical, but it was difficult to tell exactly what it was. Each person on the line had one simple task that they would repeat each couple of seconds as a new object replaced the one they had finished with. “What are we making?”

“Doesn’t matter. Just do your job.” The woman nodded as she started to step away. “We work fourteen hour shifts every day. You will get one ten minute break after seven hours. I suggest you use it to fill up on nutrient paste so you don’t pass out on the line. Jastin, get her up to speed.”

As the woman walked off, the man next to Nico on the line turned to her and started showing her how to do her part of the job. Nico followed his instructions closely, but she kept occasionally looking around the room. It didn’t take her long to get the hang of the simple work.

Nico’s gaze eventually wandered over toward the loaders once again while she worked. She looked for only a few seconds, but that was enough for her to notice a familiar head of greasy black hair. Her heart dropped as she watched Vynn turn around holding a crate with cargo loaders. Nico quickly turned back to the work that she was doing.

Nico could barely focus now that she knew he was here. It felt almost impossible. Everything around her faded from existence until she finally heard a loud monotone voice signal that it was time for their break. Everyone around Nico backed away from their workstation and started walking toward a collection of kiosks on the wall to receive their meal.

Nico tapped her thumb against her leg as she stood up. She took in a deep breath before turning and darting over toward Vynn. “Hey!”

Vynn turned to her with a look of confusion as she addressed him. He looked around for a moment to see if she was talking to him before responding. “Hey…? You’re the new kid, right?”

Nico cocked her head to the side as he spoke, furrowing her brow in her own look of confusion. “You don’t… remember me?”

“Should I?” He sat back on one of the crates as he inspected her. “Sorry sweetheart, I don’t remember every pretty girl I come across. Let me guess, you’re mad that I disappeared after our night together?”

“What? No!” Nico scoffed in frustration. “How do you not remember me?” She crossed her arms, waiting for an answer that would never come. She eventually shook her head. “Ventano. Nine years ago. You taught me how to steal, remember?”

Vynn looked her over once again as he pursed his lips, trying to pull the memories out of the recesses of his mind. “Ohhh, kark. I remember now! Yeah you were that little kid. Ah… uhm… what… was it again?”

Nico raised her eyebrows at him as he spoke. At first, she was offended by his lack of memory of her name. Then, she let out a sigh of relief. “Sneena. Valco.”

“Sneena! That’s right!” He chuckled and shook his head. “Sorry about that. It’s been so long, and you’ve grown up quite a bit since then. You can’t hold that against me, right?”

“You left me. Do you remember that? You promised you would take me with you and then you left me.” Nico’s voice cracked as she tried to control her anger.

“Hey, hey. Ok, I get it, that probably hurt. But you were a kid! You wouldn’t have understood. I mean come on. Think about it, right? Can you blame me?” He shook his head casually. “I sure as kriff wasn’t ready for a kid. You probably just would have ended up here sooner.”

Nico gritted her teeth and clenched her fist. She wanted to punch him more than anything. “You’re… you….” As she tried to find the words that she had practiced so frequently, she turned to look at the room around them. Her gaze rested on the turrets for a moment before shifting to look out at the chasm. She took a deep breath and shook her head. “Whatever.” She turned back to him. “How long have you been here?”

He shrugged lightly as he bobbed his head back and forth. “I dunno. Year maybe? You lose count eventually.”

Nico took a step forward to speak under her breath. “Anyone tried to escape?”

He raised an eyebrow at her before rolling his eyes. “Everyone talks about escape first. Kark, I did too when I first got here. But if you wanna survive, you gotta squash that hope right now.”

Nico looked at him in shock. “What? Seriously? You’ve given up already?”

He stood up and motioned for her to follow. “We all have. Take a look.” He stepped up to the very edge of the chasm. “If ]this by itself isn’t enough, let me paint you a little picture, kid.” He then pointed up at the other side of the wall.

Nico followed his finger, looking up at the other side. Far above them, she could make out the outline of another hangar door. She squinted as she looked up at it. “What is that?”

“Ship. Belongs to some rich scudsucker from the surface. He keeps it down here to keep it safe. The empire could have asked him to move it, right? Keep it out of view of us. But they haven’t. You know why?” He watched Nico shake her head before continuing. “It gave some of us hope at one point. A way out that is that close. But it’s impossible.” He pointed at the wall before it. “The climb itself is hard enough. You’d have to be crazy to try it. But some people are that crazy.” He then pointed above him. “So they’ve got cameras and a blaster turret up there. The second someone makes it across they’re space dust. Now, even if you somehow manage to survive all of that, which would only be possible if you’re the luckiest person in the galaxy or if you’re some kriffing jedi, you’ve got to deal with that big imperial ship in orbit. For anyone to leave Manda, they need launch codes that are given out by the empire to ensure they pass through safely. They’re easy to get for any Manda citizen. Not for us.” He finally stepped back into the work bay, away from the chasm. “Tons of idiots have tried it. More than I can count. And now every single one of their bodies are lying in a heap at the bottom of that chasm. It’s impossible. You can’t get out through the back door or the front door.” He pointed over toward the turrets that Nico had noticed when she walked in. “When enough people fail and die in front of you, you’ll give up too.” He turned to face her, giving her a serious look that Nico had never seen from him. “Just be careful you don’t wind up being one of them.”

Nico walked behind him, following his finger whenever he pointed. She crossed her arms and slumped over. Every escape plan she had formulated since she had gotten there was effortlessly squashed in that moment. “So… that’s it then? What am I supposed to do?” She posed the last question more to herself than Vynn.

“Get to work,” Vynn answered as he walked back toward the cargo ship.

Shortly after, a loud alarm rang to inform the inmates that it was time to get back to work. It was enough to rouse Nico before she could get lost in her thoughts. She meandered over to her workstation to continue where she had left off.