A visit to a spice den on Tammar

Date: 050909
Planet: Tammar
Region: (not revealed)

Story: (Written by the Galactic News Agency, Ramona doesn't write IC).

Many of our readers may be familiar with the situation of the Outer Rim as it presents itself on Tatooine, due to the numerous reports we publish from that place. But the Outer Rim is much bigger than Tatooine or Lok. One of our reporters - his name is being witheld to protect him from reprisals - is currently touring the Outer Rim on a tramp freighter, and we just received his latest report.

"Tammar is a planet even worse off than Tatooine - no native water sources at all. Any water - needed by most life forms in the galaxy - has to be imported. What would motivate people to visit, much less live in such a place?

For some the answer is profit. Profit made by exploiting the lawless nature of the Rim, and the desperation of many of its residents. Profit such as is being made in what is commonly known as a spice den I recently visited on Tammar.

This particular and aptly named "Pit" is located in an abandoned mine shaft, and doesn't look like much from the outside - though the various ships parked outside may cause an observer to wonder what would attract such attention. A quick trip down the shaft - thanks to the elevator not much of an effort, but still a bit of a risk due to the walls that look like they could crumble any minute - answers this.

In the old mine shaft a devious entrepreneur has installed various venues catering to the weary spacer commonly found in the Outer Rim: A fighting ring, a bar, and a spice den with an integrated strip club. One can see that the owner of the place knows what his clients - mostly smugglers and worse criminals - expect. Not that it would be hard, with many of the visitors loudly asking for nude women and spice even before they reach the bar.

And both was found there aplenty. I fond sentients of all species with their minds fogged by various spices - Neutron Pixie was mentioned several times - watching unfortunate women undress themselves in cabins designed for such displays. If the women were slaves was not clear, but given the presence of several well-known slavers it's only too likely - who would want to work in such a place anyway?

Of course spice, alcohol and criminals combined usually means violence happens, and my expectations were not disappointed - during my short visit I saw an unfortunate man get shot in his knee, then dragged outside - probably left for whatever predators prowled the area at night, and a fight at the bar between two women, with half the room cheering them on, wanting to see more blood and clothes on the floor.

This reporter left the place at that point but such displays likely went on for the whole night, with no one thinking anthing wrong with it. For any civilized citizen of the Galactic Empire, a visit to such a place truly hammers home the need for a New Order, which will spread the protection of law even to such pitiful places.