Authoress's notes: The following story takes place during the events depicted in the New Jedi Order book
Dark Journey
, on board the Yuuzhan Vong frigate analog
Ksstarr
, which the Jedi strike team has stolen and Jaina Solo has renamed
Trickster
. . .
Star Wars: BDSM aboard the
Trickster
Still numb from the pain of Anakin's death, Tahiri scanned the room with a sense of inevitability. Before she had even left the bridge, she had somehow known what she was looking for, and that she would find it somewhere on the ship. Before she had even opened the hatch sphincter, she had somehow known that it was here. Eventually, her eyes settled on a rack-like contraption of straps and sharp, jagged yorik coral. The core of the. . . creature, was attached to the ceiling, but the straps reached down nearly to her knees. Tahiri knew from experience that they would retract up to the yorik coral rack once they had wrapped themselves around their victim.
For nearly a minute, Tahiri gazed up at the Embrace of Pain, mentally debating whether or not to go through with it. Either way, she had to have something to take her mind off the crushing emotional pain of losing Anakin.
Finally, Tahiri unfastened her gun belt, and dropped it, lightsaber and all, to the floor. The rest of her clothes quickly followed.
The now naked Jedi slowly approached the Embrace. On Yavin 4 she had spent days entwined in its torturous clutches. Now, she voluntarily reached out, and let the sinewy strap wrap itself around her wrist. Almost instantly, hundreds of tiny barbs embedded themselves into her skin, and the strap pulled her arm up above her head.
Tahiri stood there a moment, relishing the pain. Then she stepped farther into the Embrace, and felt its living straps wrap themselves around her limbs and torso, pulling her up into it. A few seconds later, Tahiri was hanging face down in agony; her legs held higher than her head. The barbed straps were holding her tightly in more than a dozen places across her body.
A few minutes later, Tahiri suddenly felt something different touch the back of her neck. She glanced back, and caught site of a long, slender, light-brown tail. For an instant, she panicked, recognizing the provoker spineray, the mind-control creature that Master Shaper Mezhan Kwaad and Adept Nen Yim had used on her on Yavin 4.
Unfortunately, when she twisted her neck to see what was touching her, the Embrace of Pain interpreted the movement as her trying to escape, and immediately increased the already great amount of pain it was inflicting on the girl.
Tahiri realized her helplessness as the Embrace pulled her taut with the straps. She was vaguely aware of the provoker spineray settling onto the back of her neck, and piercing her skin. Eventually the Embrace of Pain returned to its normal level of torture, and Tahiri quickly lost herself in the agony of the Embrace.
The provoker spineray was specially shaped for the pain chamber of the ship. For the next several hours, as the Embrace caused the pain, the insidious spineray caused Tahiri to enjoy the pain. Since her previous shaping, Tahiri was already inclined towards pain, so the spineray simply enhanced these tendencies, while her unconscious mind embraced the lessons willingly.
~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~
Alema Rar scanned the room in astonishment. She couldn't be one-hundred-percent sure what the scarheads used all this stuff for, but it sure looked like a bondage dungeon to her. After several seconds she stepped over and picked up a circular ring of rough yellowish-green yorik coral, about the size of a collar, and weighing a little less than a kilo.
From numerous briefings and her own experience, the Twi'lek Jedi knew the yorik coral was actually a living rock-like material. She couldn't feel anything from it through the Force, thoughβjust like the rest of the ship.
The inside of the collar was covered with sharp, needle-like spikes, a few millimeters long. The restraint was actually two pieces of yorik coral, connected by a flexible, tendon-like material. Almost on auto-pilot, Alema Rar raised the seven-centimeter wide collar to her throat and closed it around her neck. She heard subtle clicking noises from the collar, and knew that it wouldn't be coming off easily.
The collar fit almost perfectly. The spikes bit into her skin, but not enough to hurt too much. As a slave, Alema Rar had been forced to wear collars like this one, but more painful, for punishment.
Next, Alema Rar stripped out of the gun belt, boots, and brown combat jumpsuit she was wearing. Her bright red bra and thong also came off. Then she picked up a wrist-sized piece of yorik coral, and closed it around her wrist. After the subtle clicking noises, a matching piece went around her other wrist.
The wrist cuffs had the same needle-like spikes around the inside as the collar. So did the ankle, thigh, and bicep cuffs. All were the same width as the collar, about seven centimeters wide.
As she examined them, Alema Rar felt the restraints slowly tightening, conforming themselves to her body. The tendon-like material seemed to have disappeared into the yorik coral, leaving a perfectly rigid cuff with no visible seams. The needle-like spikes in the cuffs and collar also kept adjusting themselves, keeping her in a constant state of irritation.
Then Alema Rar saw what looked like the scarhead equivalent of a harness gag hanging on the wall.
As it was, Alema Rar wasn't sure how she was going to get the collar and cuffs off. With the gag in, she wouldn't even be able to call for help, if it came to that. She wasn't sure if it was the Force or something else, but she felt like she should put the gag on. With a deep breath, she lifted the mass of straps and yorik coral to her head.