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Desert Twins: part 9

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Bentu goes back to her routine: Jabba's dancer by day, the slaves singer by night. But not every night. Some nights, she goes to see Quinlan Vos, who didn't go by Quinlan Vos anywhere except with her. She talks to him, and learns from him.

Though the desert tells her to trust him, she keeps her distance. She doesn't tell him the slave stories, doesn't breath a word of slave secrets. Eventually, she tells him her full name: she is Bentu, yes. She is Bentu Skywalker. Her brother left with the Jedi.

"Would you like to talk to him?" Asks Quinlan Vos.

"It does not matter what I want," she tells him. "He was sold on, twice over. It is unlikely that I will ever see him again."

"More likely than you think."

The next time they spoke, Quinlan Vos tells her a Truth. He is a Jedi, he tells her. He talked with his friend, who is Anakin's Teacher. He has a com, if she wanted to speak to him. He puts the com in front of her, and leaves the area.

She takes the com. Anakin's blue figure flickers in the air in front of her. "Upanda," she whispers.

"Ikkali," he says, his voice thick.

They share a whispered conversation. She tells him that their mother is still with Watto, who, though angry that he lost Anakin, has not sold her off yet. She told him that they finished the designs for Anakin's scanner, that they are freeing the people.

"Ekkreth," he laughs, cries, whispers. "My trickster sister."

She tells him of Jabba's cruelty. Tells him that there are days she wishes she had left when she had the chance. Tells him that she hates herself for thinking that.

"You shouldn't," he tells her. "They could do this without you. If you left, there is nothing you need to feel guilty for."

She shakes her head. "I need to stay," she says. "I need to see this through."

"I'm here for you," he tells her. "Say the word, and I will be there."

She shakes her head. "Not yet."

Now when Quinlan Vos comes back, she tells him a story. A story about a slave who told an outsider slave secrets, and how the slaves regretted it greatly. And Quinlan Vos listens, and promises to remember.

The next time they meet, their work will begin.

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Desert Twins: part 11

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REVOLUTION!!!

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The last of the surgeries were happening. Dancers and pleasure slaves were brought to the four Singers, and Bentu worked until it was her turn. Obi-Wan did this surgery; how can you cut into someone you love, no matter how good it is for them?

Finally, very slave on Tatooine is secretly free. There were some bumps along the way; some depurs detonated the chips before Bentu or Quinlan had a chance to remove them. Some depurs detonated the chips of slaves who had been freed, but had the chips on them for just this reason. And for every death, Bentu's guilt increased. Would it have been better for the slaves to simply run to freedom after the surgery? Eighteen, that was the number of freed slaves who had died because of her plan. She knew that if the freed slaves had simply run, the depurs would have suspected something, and simply killed every slave on the planet to keep their power.

That knowledge didn't ease her guilt.

But for better or worse, the plan had led them to this day. The slaves gathered some chips and placed them in the middle of shrapnel bombs. If the depur detonated the chips, the shrapnel increased the blast radius enough that throwing the bombs would increase their chances of killing their targets.

A large number of the chips went to the barges and palaces of the Hutts. Gardulla and Jabba in particular had chips stuck on their thrones, with the hope that it would at least cripple, if not kill the leaders of the Hutt slave empire.

The three Jedi on Tatooine each went to a different location. Quinlan stayed near Jabba's palace, so if (when) the Hutt sent the bounty hunters out, he would be waiting for them. Anakin went to Gardulla, wanting to make sure that this scourge of Tatooine would also be killed. Obi-Wan stayed close to his Padawan, hoping to cool Anakin's temper should it rise.

Bentu was chained to Jabba that day. On her neck was a collar, and a chain leashing her to Jabba's throne. The chain was specially made for Jabba's dancers, with alternating sharp links, so as to better cut the dancers.

Now, I would ask that you, dear reader, assume that the freed slaves took great care to synchronise their watches, taking time-zones into account to ensure that the slavers would not get any warning about their revolution.

For Bentu, it was noon when the freed slaves struck. The more nimble ones grabbed blasters from nearby bounty hunters and shot at the nearest masters. A sandstorm rose around the settlement: Lukka, freedom and justice and fury.

Now the depurs triggered the detonators. But the other slaves had already rolled their little bombs towards the approaching bounty hunters.

Jabba and Gardulla, dazed from the chips under their thrones, ordered the bounty hunters in the palace to quell the uprising. But the Jedi were waiting for this order.

Bentu had also grabbed a gun, and now, was shooting at Jabba. He pulled on the chain, intending to drop her into the pit with his pet Rancor.

But Bentu planned to live. Now she was enraged, and, with her arms wrapped around the chains on her neck, she leapt towards Jabba and began to choke him. The chains dug into her arms, and she bled, but she held on tight until the Hutt died. She was the Krayt. She was Ekkreth's daughter. She was Leia.

Miles away, Anakin had his lightsaber out. He deflected blaster bolts as he closed in on Gardulla, immersing himself deeper into the force than he had allowed himself to before. And when he got to Gardulla, he was quick. He didn't prolong it. He wasn't looking for revenge, just freedom.

The fights were quick. It felt like mere minutes, to those who fought. Breathing heavily, they gathered the surviving slavers in what remained of Jabba's Palace. The Skywalker siblings embraced once more, knowing that the planet was free.

Anakin cried; his family, his home, his people were finally free. And as Anakin cried, the sandstorms calmed, and rain crashed down on Tatooine. Ar-Amu cried, for her children were now free.

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Desert Twins: part 10

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Now there are two force sensitives doing the surgeries. Quinlan Vos is free, and so he can do more surgeries, but the Amatakka don't trust him yet. They have no reason to trust him, Jedi though he may be. They remember the last Jedi that came to Tatooine - they won a single child, and left, never to return. So any surgeries he does are under heavy supervision.

He bears their mistrust, knowing that the Jedi have earned this. What happened to being protectors, he wondered. When did the senate's will matter more than the people's suffering?

Bentu tells Quinlan Vos slave stories. She teaches him to hide as a slave does - seen, but not noticed. In return, he teaches her about the Jedi. A history for a history.

With his help, the revolution grows ever closer. It would take even less time than she had first estimated to free all the slaves. A year passed, and two, and Bentu and Quinlan learnt from each other. The Amatakka learnt to trust the Jedi knight, and the Jedi learnt secrets. Wherever he went, he knew he would have help, so long as he never betrayed them.

And the surgeries kept happening. The revolution was imminent; it would happen inside of a year. Then Quinlan Vos talked about bringing her brother and his Teacher. She does not know how he convinced the core-worlders to send the Hedi to the rim, but she was grateful that he did.

Anakin and Obi-Wan came in a derelict ship, with their lightsabers hidden. Bentu almost faltered in her dance. Upanda, she whispers through their bond.

Ikkali, he calls back in relief. I'm here, I'm here, I love you, I'm here. Bentu tears her mind to the present, but still reaching for her brother's mind. She has had the Amatakka, and Quinlan Vos, and her mother, but she had a deep, aching loneliness that she hadn't allowed herself to feel until that moment.

In the dead of night, the desert twins reunite. The slaves wait patiently for the Skywalkers to come together, give them time to simply be. Though their names are powerful and Bentu has taken on the mantle of Trickster, they know that the twins are still children.

After the reunion, the four force sensitives start the surgeries. Now, instead of a year, the revolution could happen in months. Two Skywalkers and two core-worlders, and the revolution begins.

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Desert Twins: part 7

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Bentu spends her days as a dancer on Jabba’s chain. Nights she spends among Jabba’s slaves, listening to stories of Ekkreth, of trickery, of freedom and slavery. Her mother still can’t visit her, but the other slaves make sure that the Skywalkers hear from each other. And one day, not long after she becomes Jabba’s her mother sends her a half-built scanner – Anakin’s design, from before he had to leave with the Jedi.

Bentu works on it night after night, understanding Anakin’s designs and trying to finish it. And one day, she scans her body, and finds the chip. I imagine that it is near her collarbone. Detonation would be lethal.

Another slave offers to perform the surgery on her, let her escape Jabba’s clutches. For a long moment, she is tempted to take the offer. But she has an idea, and the desert whispers to her, do it. Take the chance. So she explains her idea.

We start with the quieter slaves, she says; the ones who are least likely to be blown up by the depurs. We take out the chip, and we sow a small pocket in their clothes, near where the chip used to be. If the chip is detonated, the masters won’t suspect that their slaves were trying to all escape. We will need to heal the scar, so the depur will not suspect anything if they spot the scar. And we do this for everyone, one by one. The dancers and those slaves whose skin is usually exposed, for those for whom making a pocket would be difficult, these slaves we save for last.

We save me for last, she says.

A quiet revolution. A game the Trickster would approve of.

Word spreads among the slaves. The depur never hear about it; the amatakka know how to keep secrets. Soon, they manage to make a healing device - micro sutures, something that would heal without visible scars.

And they got to it. One by one, they crept to a singers hut, where Bentu waited with the scanner and the medkit. The surgeries went smoothly, until one night, when the desert screamed d a n g e r and she took the scalpel from the singer, and let the desert guide her hand to do the surgery herself.

Later, they asked her why she did it. Later, she told them of the desert’s voice. And now, she does all the surgeries. The singers heal, still; there aren’t nearly enough healers on Tatooine. But now, every surgery is successful. The desert protects her children.

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TBC

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#31 A slave revolution: the successful one (Part 2)

We are on Haiti, which is still the French colony Saint Domingue in 1794. Slavery is abolished, courtesy of a deal that promised slaves freedom in exchange for their military support against the British and Spanish.

It’s time to talk about one man: Toussaint Louverture. Louverture is a freed slave, a landowner himself and an enlightenment thinker. He sees that slavery and oppression at odds with the ideals of an enlightened society, particularly one that has already declared the equality of men.

Louverture becomes an important leader in the slave revolution, mostly allied with the Spanish. He proves himself to be an excellent military leader and learns both guerilla warfare and modern European warfare. Then, he suddenly allies himself with the French. He ends Spanish influence, holds the British at bay and gains power on the island, giving nominal support to the French.

Come 1801, and Louverture declares himself governor-general for life.

Remember that Saint Domingue was France’s most valuable colony. Napoleon is hence unwilling to yield control of the island. At this point, he has already been reinstating slavery in other Caribbean colonies (even though this goes against the French constitution). Louverture struggles against Napoleon’s forces for some time before agreeing to an armstice in 1802. The French break the armstice and imprison Louverture in France, where he dies due to the atrocious conditions he is held in.

Here comes the truly incredible part. After Louverture’s imprisonment, two men take it upon themselves to lead a black army against the French amongst rumours that they aim to reinstate slavery on the island. And they win. They win. An army of former slaves against one of Europe’s greatest armies. Right here, this is how a slave rebellion turns into the first, and only, successful slave revolution, ever.

In 1804, Saint Domingue became the independent country of Haiti. A country ravaged by war, its soils destroyed by agricultural exploitation, its trees cut down for wood. Paying extortionate “indemnities” to France for the next 50 years. Neighbouring countries unwilling to trade with Haiti, fearing the imancipation of their own slaves and oppressed coloured peoples. A population of uneducated former slaves.

Add to that natural disasters, disease, corruption and crime, and you have today’s Haiti: One of the poorest countries on earth, and the only slave republic our world has ever seen. A soaring success story to tell for generations but also a bitter story that is causing pain to this day.

#Haiti #Revolution #History #Slavery #Slave Revolution #What is productivity?