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The small ship floated in deep space, in a system far from the Amaxine Space Station, where the vengeful Emperor had crushed the ship’s lone occupant’s attempt at ending the Sith. Qi’ra was slouched in a seat, alone, she gave no attempt at keeping an appearance of confidence or certainty, she had lost and there was no other word for it. She had gathered everything to throw at the Sith, all her ships, all her men, gathered the Spark Eternal, the Knights of Ren, all with the intent of trapping the Emperor and Vader forever within the Fermata Cage. But she had been betrayed, the Knights of Ren had turned on her, the Emperor and Vader escaped her trap, and Crimson Dawn was destroyed by Death Squadron.
Now she was alone, she had given all her remaining resources to Cadeliah in the hopes the girl might be able to build a better life for herself, an attempt to do some good. It also eliminated the chance that those credits might be used to track Qi’ra and the girl had some allies who could protect her if needed. So she had no money, no soldiers or agents of Crimson Dawn left, nothing besides the clothes she wore and the small ship she had used to escape with the entire Empire likely out to get her now.
“I just, I just need someplace I can hide out until the Emperor gets distracted from me, then I can focus on rebuilding and trying again,” She said to herself.
But the question is where she could hide, Crimson Dawn’s bases would likely be all raided and watched by the Empire, no way could hide there now. Going to the Hutts was out of the question now that Jabba was the undisputed ruler of the Hutt Clans, she doubted he was too happy with her right now and had his own alliances with the Empire. The Pykes were untrustworthy; they would sell her out to the Empire in a second if it meant a better deal between them and that Spice-huffing Grand Admiral. And Black Sun had their own bad dealings with the Empire after Prince Xizor made his own failed attempt and was killed.
“That leaves just the Crymorah,” She said out loud, pulling up her most recent records on the Syndicate. They weren’t a great option right now either, either. The main syndicate itself was falling apart thanks to some raids by the Empire, a gang war between two leading families of the Syndicate Qi’ra might have had a hand in and the separation of the Droid Gotra from the Syndicate.
The Droid Gotra, that was an intriguing possibility, they’d been around for a while, since the end of the Clone Wars, but for the last two decades they had served as the main enforcement branch of the Crymorah Syndicate. Around the time the infighting kicked off there were some new leading members of the Gotra which led to them breaking off to become their own fully independent crime syndicate. Last Qi’ra checked they had already been scooping up much of the Crymorah Syndicate’s territory. What’s more she’d not interacted with them much so they had no reason to be immediately hostile towards her, and she knew they’d worked with organics in the past.
A small problem was that their main base was on Coruscant and there was no way Qi’ra could be within a hundred light-years of the Imperial Central right now. No, she’d need to go to one of their branches for safe harbor. Eshan was also out given how Palpatine liked to recruit from the Six Sisters and was still a bit too close to the Core for her liking.
Which left…
Qi’ra punched the coordinates into the navicomputer. She went to get a little rest on the way to her destination, after the day she’d had she could really use it. Not that she got much, her rest was just staring up at the ceiling, going over all the ways she’d messed everything up again and that she was once more on the run. Just like Corellia, only this time there wasn’t even the idea of Han being out there looking for her to hold onto this time.
The ship came out of Hyperspace above the desert world of Cantontica, a world far in the Outer Rim in the Corporate Sector. The Corporate Sector was an ally of the Empire but largely kept to itself and Cantonica itself was a planet of where the wealthy and criminal powers came to avoid Imperial restriction. For the longest time all of the Five Crime Syndicates kept branches of their operations on Cantonica and the casino city of Canto Bight, but now only one of the original Five had any interests with the Gotra having taken over Crymorah’s branch on the planet.
Qi’ra transmitted the secure priority codes she had as the leader of Crimson Dawn down to the Droid Gotra branch on the planet.
She didn’t need to wait long for a response.
“Priority Codes acknowledged, what brings the Crimson Dawn leader to Cantonica this day,” A droid voice came over the coms system.
“This is Lady Qi’ra, I seek asylum with the Droid Gotra under the Truce of the Five,” Qi’ra replied.
“The Truce was between the Crimson Dawn and the Crymorah. Crimson Dawn is disbanded and the Gotra’s involvement with the Crymorah has been terminated,” The droid countered.
“I still represent the Dawn and have secrets that could be of value to the Gotra in exchange for asylum.”
The other end was silent. The Droid would be conferring before they let her in, they wouldn’t be able to resist an opportunity that could be valuable to them, it would be against their programming.
“Your offer is accepted. Proceed to landing coordinates, a representative of the Gotra will guide you to our operations center.”
“Can always count on Droids to be predictable,” Qi’ra said once she turned off the comm, sliding a datadisk into her tunic, along with her staff, just in case they tried anything.
It was no trouble getting into Canto Bight, almost a tradition to avoid any official entry into the city, flying to the hangar the droids had sent directions to. A protocol droid with a pair of security droids was waiting for her when the ramp lowered, its red eyes scanning her over before turning around.
“This way, Lady Qi’ra,” The droid said without another word.
She fell into step between the hulking IG security droids, pulling a hood up over her head. “Lead on.”
Canto Bight was always full of gamblers, bodyguards, and those there just to enjoy the scenery of the city. It was an easy place to disappear into and never be seen again, one of the best hiding spots really from the Empire, at least normally.
“Has there been any increase in Imperial activity recently?” She asked her guide.
“No, in fact there have been fewer Imperial ships seen recently than average,” The droid said, not stopping or looking behind at Qi’ra.
“Less, that’s interesting,” Qi’ra wondered. The Emperor must be plotting something that required a lot of troops if even the few Imperials in the area were being pulled away.
The protocol droid led Qi’ra to a large complex not far from the city center, a prime spot for a Crime Syndicate to have their base. She could see other security droids of various designs patrolling the complex walls and through windows. A gatekeeper droid popped out of the wall, giving them all a lookover before the doors slid open and she was led inside.
Inside the complex around the main common area were even more droids of various models, more security droids, along with mouse droids, service droids, astromechs, protocol droids, even some probe droids and old separatist battle droids. Many turned their receptors towards her, giving her looks as the protocol droid led her deeper into Gotra’s base. Qi’ra herself kept an eye on the droids, especially the probe droids, not entirely trusting that there wasn’t one secretly reprogrammed by the Empire to infiltrate the Gotra. Tugging the hood a little closer around her she kept pace with the protocol droid.
They stopped in a small chamber with a ring of security droids flanking the walls. Across from Qi’ra was an old T-series Tactical droid.
“Before we begin, the secrets you promised the Gotra,” The Tactical Droid held out a hand to Qi’ra.
She hesitated then took out the data disk, her last bargaining chip till she could get back on her feet. “This a record of Crimson Dawns bases and supply catches, most have probably been raided by now by the Empire, but there is also a list of individuals we had been courting but hadn’t secured yet, wouldn’t take them much to become allies of the Gotra.”
“The base information is of little use to the Gotra if it has already been discovered by the Empire, a list of acquisitions on the other hand, has promise. Protection of the Gotra will be extended to you.”
Qi’ra kept herself from openly sighing in relief, at least that was one thing going her way, now to see if she could go even further. “Great, then perhaps we can talk options now.”
“Options?”
“Yes, I have no intention of staying down for long, Crimson Dawn built itself up once and it can do so again, it wouldn’t take much help from the Gotra to get started again. I can promise a premium alliance once I have a self-sustaining operation,” Qi’ra proposed.
“Negative, the revival of Crimson Dawn would bring increased pressure of the Empire upon the Gotra operations,” The Tactical droid shot down.
“The Empire wouldn’t even know, I have gotten very good at keeping agents hidden from them,” Qi’ra assured them.
“That statement is questionable, furthermore a returned Crimson Dawn would have the potential to become a rival to the Droid Gotra once we have finished removing the last of the Crymorah Syndicate and fully taken their place among the Five Crime Syndicates.”
Well that wasn’t too unexpected, they would of course look after their own and given her recent history would be a bit wary of her gaining power again. But they had offered her protection so she could still use that.
She stood. “That is fine then, I can seek other investors and not bring any more risk to the Gotra besides my protection.
Qi’ra moved to leave only for two droids to block her exit.
“That is not possible, activity beyond this complex would present a risk of detection, should the Empire learn of our protection to you we would become a target.”
“So what, you just want me to sit around here until the Empire is no longer so interested in me?” Qi’ra asked, her temper rising a little, being told what to do by droids of all things.
“Of course not, along with our protection you have become an acquisition of the Gotra, and tasks will be given to you within the complex.”
“What tasks?” Qi’ra almost demanded.
“You shall see,” The Tactical Droid nodded.
Before Qi’ra could react the floor below lit up with electricity, not enough to damage the droids, but it coursed through Qi’ra. She screamed in a mix of shock and pain as it ran through her, until she collapsed, barely able to keep her eyes open. The Tactical Droid walked over, staring down at her.
“Quite the acquisition indeed.”
When Qi’ra next woke she was alone, lying on her side, in a small room that was barely more than just a bed cut into a wall with only a small space she could see between the bed and a door. She tried to demand what was going on but no words came out, only a groaning noise and a feeling of something in her mouth, a gag had been fastened around her. Further inspection and she also found her hands had been bound behind her back and her legs had also been bound and that whatever had been used to bind her was too strong for her to break despite giving enough to let her move her feet a bit.
The door opened and a hovering interrogation droid floated in causing a brief feeling of panic in Qi’ra that the Gotra might have handed her to the Empire until she noticed that this one didn’t have the usual torture instruments and that it then spoke to her, so one of the Gotra’s droids.
“Good, you are awake,” The droid said. “Then you are able to start your work.”
Qi’ra’s muffled protests got no response from the droid so with little choice she stood, nearly falling when heeled shoes she had not been wearing before hit the ground. Looking down her noises became more heated when she saw that they had not only changed her shoes but also her whole outfit. Gone were her expensive robes and insignia as the leader of Crimson Dawn along with all her hidden weapons, in their place she’d been stuffed into a maids’ white dress, a corset that pressed her chest up, an apron and an extremely short skirt, and no pants, feeling a draft up her rear.
The reprogrammed interrogator droid floated around her and started pushing her out of the tiny chamber. “Go on, your supervisor will give you your tasks, I have others to awaken for their own tasks.”
Qi’ra shuffled out, the give in the restraints not allowing much more movement than that, blushing furiously at this humiliation. A humiliation furthered when she saw other women similarly dressed to her shuffling down the hallway. She had no desire to follow them but if she was going to get out of this she needed to speak with one of the droids, if they would take the gag out of her mouth.
So to her shame, she shuffled down the hall, falling into line between a Twi’lek and another Human. Most of the others had a resigned look of acceptance and muted embarrassment like this was something they had been doing for a long time. Maybe they had, she didn’t know the Droid Gotra had been doing anything with organic captives. The shuffle suddenly stopped and then started again, slowly moving forward towards a waiting droid holding a datapad; another blockish droid was next to it. From what Qi’ra could see from her place in line the droid with the datapad would give the girl in line an instruction and then the girl would turn around and get something from the blockish droid before shuffling out of the hallway and into the complex.
She tried to stand tall and show confidence as she got closer to the front of the line, hard to do given her current situation and the unknown about it all but she tried.
“Ah the new acquisition, Qi’ra,” The droid with the datapad said when she got to the front.
Qi’ra tried to demand to be released and that she was to be called Lady Qi’ra but all that came out was more muffled moans behind the gag.
“You are tasked with cleaning, turn around,” The droid instructed. Qi’ra was not going to just do what it said and remained still, the droid shrugged and gripped her shoulder and forced her around. The blockish droid next to it ejected something and pressed it into her bound and clasped hands. Craning her neck she saw it was a feather duster, the datapad droid then shoved her out of the hallway and back into the main common area of the complex, only it was a bit different than it was before.
Now there were several females moving around the common area, some with dusters like Qi’ra, others with polishers, cleaning the droids or the counters. A couple had nothing in their hands, one was being led around on a leash by a droid and another was standing in a corner with her panties pulled up over her head.
“Hey organic, that astromech needs some cleaning,” A battle droid told her pointing down at an astromech that had rolled up next to her chirping expectantly.
Qi’ra shook her head, refusing to demean herself by catering to droids, she shuffled in the direction of where she came before. She would just go to the Tactical Droid and demand her release, they couldn’t keep her here like the rest of these maids, she had risen to the top of Crimson Dawn the most powerful criminal syndicate in the galaxy, she didn’t clean droids in a maid outfit!
“Guess she needs some training,” She heard the battle droid heading in her direction, she shuffled a little faster, not sure what that droid meant by training. A hard smack came down on her exposed rear getting a squeal from Qi’ra, but that was just the beginning. Another droid got in front of her and scooped her up over its shoulder. She squirmed but could do nothing as it held her steady, a third droid walking around her, her eyes widening when she saw the paddle in its hands. She squealed and groaned against the gag, demanding that they release her, that she must see the Tactical Droid, that they had no right to treat her this way, none of that came through, not that it would have changed anything.
The droid rained spanks down on the former Crime Lord’s rear, turning the soft cheeks bright red and throbbing until Qi’ra stopped resisting. When the droid finally let her down the astromech came rolling back up to her again, chirping expectantly. Under the gaze of the droids Qi’ra turned around and started dusting the droid.
She spent much of the day doing this and similar demanding tasks with short breaks for rest and food. When what she guessed the day came to an end she was led back to the chamber she’d woke in and locked inside to sleep for the next day that promised to be the same as today. Qi’ra hated all of it, she burned with rage and embarrassment but at the same time couldn’t deny there was nothing she could do and even if she did get out the Empire would still be hunting for her. At least here they would never think to look for her, so for now she’d just do what they wanted, when the heat was off then she could think of an escape plan.
But how long that would be she had no idea, after all, it wasn’t likely Palpatine was going anywhere anytime soon.