Arielle Shimano peeked through the curtains of the stage as the owner of Fantasia Moons, Plein Vakko walked up to her. "Looks like another sell-out crowd tonight, Arielle" he said with a smile ashe glanced through the hole in the curtains she had created. The people in the audience were taking their seats. "I still can't believe they're here to see me," she said, shaking her head."I didn't think I was a very good singer," she added, closing the curtain. "Nonsense, babe. Your a fountain of talent! Otherwise you wouldn't pack 'emin the way you do!" he said, placing a reassuring hand on her shoulder. She had to admit he was right as old memories drifted back. Several monthsago, she had decided she didn't want to go through with the prearrangedwedding her parents had planned. Even though her husband-to-be was wealthy,she wanted nothing to do with him. She wanted to explore the galaxy andtravel to the different worlds she had heard her parents speak of. She was sick and tired of being completely sheltered from everything going outside the confines of her city. She longed for adventure, and she was in for one hell of a surprise. On the eve of her 18th birthday, as soon as she was sure everyone in thehousehold was asleep, she crept out of her house and made a beeline for thelocal spaceport hoping to put Verbanda behind her forever. Once there, she ran into a kindly old spacer named Pekkum. He was instantly suprised at her sudden appearance. "What are you doing out here?" he asked. "Dont you know everyone is out looking for you? Your family is worried sick!" He shook his head. "How could they know I was gone already?" she wondered. Then he offererd to take her anywhere in the galaxy. She looked at his ship.The LIGHTNING ROD was an old ship that looked like it could fall apart at any second. At first she was reluctant to accept, but when he offered to give her all the credits he had to take any other transport she wanted, she decided to take a chance. As they lifted off, he asked her if she was sure she wanted to run off like this. She assured him that she was. She told him she just couldn'tdeal with the pressure she was under any longer, so she decided to leave. They talked briefly on the short flight from Verbenda to Cedris, but uponlanding she begged him not to tell her parents where she was. She wanted nothing to do what so ever with her former life. What was really strange was how he acted torwards her from the very beginning when she introduced herself. He gave her a strange look, then smiled and nodded. As they parted company, he asked he asked her once more if she was sure this was what she really wanted to do. She assured him it was, and he surprised her by giving her a quick hug. Then he dug down into one of his pockets,pulled out huge wad of credits and handed it to her. She looked at the money and told him she couldn't accept it. He only smiled and waved his hand, saying she was gonna need to find a place to stay andthat she needed to eat. She began to wonder why he was being so nice to her. Then he said something really weird: "May The force Be With You" He turnedto leave, promising to not say a word about her location to anyone. 'The force?' she thought. 'Whats the force?' She decided to leave it alone and set off on her new life. With all her belongings on her back she wandered for many hours until she came to a large building with a holo of apink and blue moon. Looking at the window she noticed a Help Wanted sign. she knew she would have to find a job soon, so she decided to take a chance and walked in. Once inside she saw a dimly-lit but rather nice looking bar, with several patrons milling about. A few were sitting at the bar or at tables infront of the stage. As she walked further into the place, she could see a much larger section off her to left where the tables faced the stage. A tall man with green scaly skin, light green hair and red eyes, wearing abright orange suit walked up to her introduced himself as Plein Vakko, the owner of the Fantasia Moon and asked if there was something he could help her with. She asked about the sign in the window, wondering if he still looking to hire people. He told her he was looking for a waitress, but he then commented that she would be better off as a singer and asked if she had any talent. She smiled and asked if him if he would like to hear something. He smiled warmly and pulled up a chair as she walked up on stage. The band members were tuning their instruments under the only bright light in the place. The band leader smiled and asked what song she would like to sing. She told him of one of her favorite ones was Starry Eyes. The band knew that one well, and it suddenly occured to Arielle that she hadn't been as sheltered as she was lead to belive. As she began to sing, several people sat down next to Plein, awestruck by the girl and commenting on what a wonderful singing voice she had. As she finished the song, applause swept through the club like wildfire as everyone gave Arielle a standing ovation. With a warm smile, Plein walked up and put his arm around her. "Baby you are SO hired!" The next couple of weeks seemed to go by rather quickly. Arielle did 2 shows a day, ALWAYS to a packed room. Between shows she would hop around the many shopping centers and resteraunts. Everywhere she went, people stopped her and asked for her autograph or to have a holo taken with them. When she went to eat she would be served almost instantly and most of the time the managers would refuse to accept her money, claiming it was an honor to have her there.She was getting the Star treatment and she was loving every moment of it! Soon after putting her Holo up outside, more and more poeple came to see Arielle sing. A lot of people kept mentioning a Jaina Solo-girl, jokingly asking if she had seen her, and knew where where she was. She had abosolutely no idea who this girl was, or why so many people were asking about her. One night, she was in the dressing room with some of the other girls who worked at the Fantasia Moon listening to the galaxy net news. They had a feature on Jaina Solo, telling the viewers all they knew about the young jedi, plus the fact that a Hutt had openly declared a bounty of 10 million credits to ANYONE who had information leading to the capture of Jaina Solo. All the girls but Arielle sat glued to the monitor. When the newscast flashed a Holo of Jaina on the screen, the other girls couldn't believe their eyes. They looked over at Arielle, then back to the screen, then looked at each other and shook their heads. They firmly believed they were sitting mere meters from Ten million credits! Arielle hadnt seen the Holo of Jaina. She was too busy getting ready for her adoring fans as Plein walked in and said "5 minutes, kiddo." Now, as she looked out into the crowd she saw several unsavory characters walk in and begin to leer at her as the others cheered when she walked out on stage. 'I gotta talk to Plein about my wardrobe. Or lack there of,' she thought,looking down at the shimmering purple mini dress that she wore. "THERE SHE IS, GET HER!" yelled one of the sleazy looking guys, pulling out a huge blaster rifle. "RUN ARIELLE!!" was all she heard. She didn't take the time to find out who said it. She ran as fast she could in her high heels, thinking it was some deranged fan coming after her. Blaster fire suddenly erupted all around her,as Plein sat at the bar shaking his head. He knew full-well that sooner or later this day would come. She ran back stage and dodged two more people who tried to grab her. She managed to get the back door open and ran into the alley, where she came face to face with a green skinned rodian with a huge blaster. An arc of blue energy screamed toward her and everything went black. Hours passed. When she woke up, she tried to open her eyes, but could see nothing but darkness. She felt something stuffed into her mouth, making all speech impossible. The corners of her mouth ached as did the back of her neck. Trying to move, she found that her arms and legs would not respond. She was in deep trouble. She struggled for what seemed an eternity, but the bonds that held her wouldn't budge. Beneath her, she could feel the low-pitched rumbling of an engine. When she realized she was on a ship, many thoughts flew through her mind. 'Who were those people? What's going on? Where am I being taken and why the hell am I trussed up like a Solstice Criznok?' She heard a hatch open and heard footsteps approaching her and suddenly her blindfold was removed. She squinted, letting her eyes adjust to to the light as she saw the Rodian from the alley looking down at her. "You make me very rich," it said in broken Basic. 'What did it mean by that?' she wondered. 'Is he gonna sell me?' She looked around the best she could. She saw a picture hanging on the cabin wall and wiggled her way closer. It was a Wanted poster. 'Hey that girl looks like ME!' she thought. Her body went completely numb as she read the name.'THAT'S WHY EVERYONE WAS TREATING ME SO NICE! THEY THINK I'M JAINA SOLO!' Suddenly it all be came so clear. All this time people thought they were coming to see Jaina Solo perform, not Arielle Shimano. This thing was trying claim the bounty on her! "MMMMMMPH!" she uttered. The rodian looked her, his head tilting to one side. "Take this thing out of my mouth and untie me this instant you idiot!" Well, that's what she attemped to say, but it came out in such a way not even a protocol droid could understand her. The Rodian knealt down switched on a palm-sized Orb. It began blinking on and off, then he knelt down and removed her gag. "PHeeewACk! Ah, thats better," she utterd as it was removed. "I'm not who you think I am. So you should just let me go this instant." "Oh me think not, Solo. You stay with Zork," the Rodian replied. "I am not Jaina Solo. You have the wrong girl. My name is Arielle Shimano,"she stated. "Nice try, Solo." The Rodian replied, kneeling down and patting her on the shoulder. "But your Jedi mind tricks no work on Zork. I came prepared," he said, certain that he had the Jedi completely helpless as he patted the small blinking orb to Arielle's left. "I AM NOT JAINA SOLO!" she screamed, thrashing about as tears began to well up. "YOU HAVE THE WRONG GIRL! I ONLY LOOK LIKE HER! MY NAME IS ARIELLE SHIMANO!!" she screamed once more. "Why you scream, Solo? No one can hear you. You totally helpless while I have Jedi capture becon activated. Your powers no work. Hehehehehehe" he chuckled. "Listen to me. My name is Arielle Shimano," she repeated, trying to calm down. "I'm telling you, you have the wrong girl. I don't even know what a Jedi is!" "You think Zork that brainless?" he said, pointing a sucker tipped finger at her. "Try all you want Solo but your mind tricks won't work. Zork too smart to let you try that," he said with a nod. "OK," she sighed. 'Come on, think Arielle,' she said to herself. 'If this Jaina girl is wanted that badly, she must have done something to REALLY tick someone off. Not to mention her parents must be either really important OR really bad news.' Even though she hardly knew a thing about Jaina, she figured she had nothing to lose so she decided to take a gamble. "Ok, you win," she said. "Whatever you're gonna do to me, you better do it fast," she snarled, looking up at the Rodian. "Cause when MY father gets ahold of you, he's gonna rip you apart!" she added. "Han Solo no scare Zork. He lightyears from Nal Hutta," he replied. "Is that where your taking me? To your Hutt friend so you can collect your money? Am I right?" she asked, looking up at him. "That right Solo. Once Zork turn you over to Zurga the Hutt, Zork be rich you see." "Uh huh, then let me ask you this, Zork. Are you sure, are you REALLY sure my father is light years away?" she asked. "If YOU found me, how far away do you really think HE is? How do you know he's not tracking you right now HMMMMMMMM?" she added. She could see this was really begining to scare Zork. Who ever this Han Solo was, this idiot wanted to light years away from him. "Han SSSSSSSolo nnnnoo scare ZZZZZorrk, we be at Lorddd Zurrrga's soon Hee ppprottecct Zorkkk" the Rodian stammered. 'Jackpot,' she thought giving him a grin. 'Ok, so far so good. Lets see if I can press this a little farther!' she thought. "I see," she replied. "So you really think this Hutt person will protect you? I'm sure you know what happend to the LAST Hutt my father tangled with." She hoped Zork would know what she was talking about, even though she had no idea. It seemed to be scaring the hell out of the idiot, so it must be working. "At least untie me. Like you said, I'm not going anywhere." She stated looking up at him. "It will go ALOT earier on you if my father doesn't find me like this, cause if he does, there won't be enough of you to fill a shot glass when he gets through with you!" The Rodian nodded and pulled out a small vibroblade. He cut the rope that connected her hands to her ankles. With a gasp of relief she let her legs fall to the deck. "Thank you," she sighed, finally able to roll on to her side and sit up."Hey what about my hands?" she asked, showing the Rodian her still bound wrists. "Dont push it, Solo. Be happy Zork free you that much! Come sit with me in the cockpit so I can watch you." He said, grabbing her by the arm and pulling her to her feet. As they entered the cockpit several lights began flashing, indicating they were about to exit Hyperspace. Zork eased the ship back into real Space and suddenly got the shock of his life! They both gasped at the sight of a Victory Class Star Destroyer heading directly for them. This was by far the largest ship Arielle had ever seen in her life. She looked over at Zork, who seemed to be a lighter shade of green, and smiled. "OH look there's my father now!"
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