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whatawasteMaya Hannis was born 13 BBY on the planet of Coruscant. Her parents, Tyr Hannis and Gemma Ryder, owned a small apartment unit that they shared with Gemma's father, Gale Ryder. With Gemma working as a planetside ferry pilot and Tyr working in a local diner, it was Gale who became Maya's primary caretaker. An old veteran of the Clone Wars, he was, perhaps, not the best suited to take care of a small child. No one, not even Gemma, knew exactly what he'd done during the wars, but they'd left him scarred and bitter, irritated at all things political. Maya spent much of her childhood in her grandfather's workshop, fetching and carrying tools and equipment for him while he fixed up old droids and small vehicles. Fixing things seemed to be some kind of escape for him, and on the rare occasion when he was in a decent mood, he would explain his work to Maya, showing her how to use his tools.
Despite dealing with a gruff, slightly vacant grandfather, Maya's childhood was more or less a happy and normal one. She excelled in her studies and kept out of trouble for the most part. Still, there were times when she would somehow know things that she couldn't possibly know. And while Tyr and Gemma were content to dismiss her as simply being a very intuitive child, her abrupt and unexpected outbursts of knowledge would upset Gale, more and more with each passing year.
No one in the family voiced any opinions about the Galactic Civil War, besides Gale. Everyone was, in fact, quite content to stay quietly under the radar. Staying under the radar, however, proved difficult following what Maya would always refer to as The Incident.
At the age of thirteen, Maya grew fond of smashball. She and her friends would often play, sometimes getting more than a little aggressive. It happened that a ball went hurtling right at Maya's face only to suddenly stop in midair. It hovered there for a moment, before falling harmlessly to the ground. The children were frightened and baffled by the event. When Maya told her family of it that evening, Gale flew into a rage. He grabbed Maya by the collar and shook her, shouting out nonsense about the Force and how it wasn't safe for Maya to stay on Coruscant. It took both of her parents to extract the sobbing Maya from her grandfather's clutches.
Following The Incident, Gemma and Tyr didn't know what to make Gale's outburst, but they grew concerned for Maya's safety. Eventually, they decided to send her to Alderaan, to stay with some cousins on Tyr's side of the family, while Gale was taken in for psychiatric evaluation. Maya was actually quite excited at the prospect of taking her first trip off world. The departure was bittersweet, however. The last Maya saw of her family was her grandfather raving at her to 'never let anyone see, never let anyone know' as she boarded the transport.
The trip to Alderaan was cut short rather abruptly. News reached the pilots of the transport that there no longer was an Alderaan. It had been completely decimated by what Maya would eventually learn was the first Death Star. The ship turned tail and ended up docking on Corellia. There were no cousins waiting for Maya when she arrived, but in all the chaos and commotion that was accompanying the destruction of Alderaan and the Battle of Yavin that followed, she more or less fell between the cracks. After all, it wasn't the pilot's responsibility to take care of his underaged passenger. Terrified at the notion of returning home to her mad grandfather who seemed afraid of her, Maya grew determined to make her own way. The transport company put all the passengers up for a week in a Corellian inn. When the week was up, rather than accepting the offer of a ride home, Maya wandered out into the city alone.
She found a variety of odd jobs over the next few years, mostly simple positions that involved a lot of fetching and carrying, sometimes working with tools. Many of the skills that her grandfather taught her served her well. And Maya was astonished to see that she had a talent for 'convincing' people to give her odd jobs, in spite of her age and appearance. But as the Galactic Civil War raged on, though, work became a little harder for her to find.
At the age of fifteen, she met a local pimp named Pryce, who ran a nightclub called 'Fantasii.' It featured dancing girls, mostly Twi'lek, along with a few ridiculous comedy acts. For an extra fee, Imperial officers could take one of the girls into a back room for the night. Pryce, who was human, took a liking to Maya and offered her a job serving drinks. She became popular among the regulars, many of them human and interested in a pretty human face. So by the time she was sixteen, Maya was allowed to start going up on the stage and dancing. It was a humiliating job, but it paid much better than anything else she'd done. And Maya was athletic, incorporating gymnastic feats into her routines. She became something of a star attraction, exotic among the Twi'lek girls.
Her new position was hard on her. On stage, she was frequently bombarded with the emotions of the audience. They were rarely wholesome. She had no training with her Force abilities, and so she couldn't block everything out, sometimes getting completely overwhelmed. Maya turned to alcohol to try to numb the pain. And she struggled with addiction for some time, especially when Imperial officers began paying the extra fee to take her into a back room. Rankweed cigarettes and Gree spice made the indignity of it all bearable.
Despite her many problems, Maya was never alone. Pryce's employees were like a family to her. Pryce, although a sleazy businessman, looked out for everyone, as long as it didn't affect his bottom line. There was Iphiginia, a large Twi'lek man who did a drag routine. Memei, a Twi'lek who'd worked for Pryce for many years with a popular anti-gravity dance and who became a big sister to Maya. Vette, a Rodian girl, who taught Maya the art of seduction. Hin Tan, one of Maya's regular customers who treated her like a person instead of a transaction. And Kem, a young human girl that Pryce hired after Maya proved to be a popular attraction. Kem was much younger than any of the other girls and Maya started looking after her.
Pryce's girls also shared a secret. One day, they discovered a local urchin boy named Yuri, living in the alley behind the nightclub. The immediately girls started taking care of him. The boy was a mute and seemingly human. Almost right away, he took a shine to Maya in particular, preferring her presence to anyone else. And she soon realized that he was trying to communicate to her through his mind. Untrained and undisciplined, Maya found telepathy difficult to even understand, much less master. But practicing with Yuri, she learned how to convey sentiments to him and vice versa. Yuri often sent her images, but when she asked about his past, all she saw was a swirling gray abyss of nothingness.
Things were uneasy as the Battle of Endor approached. Business was fading as fewer and fewer Imperial officers had the time or leave to visit the club. Pryce came up with any number of schemes to raise interest, but things were looking bleak. To make matters worse, Kem had gotten pregnant from one of her regular customers, a man named Sergeant Crys Baro of the Imperial army. Right before she gave birth, her family came looking for her. A cousin found her in the club one morning, after business hours. Seeing that she was pregnant--a shame to the family--he drew a weapon on her. Maya heard the commotion and came down, grabbing a blaster from behind the bar. Her presence distracted him long enough for Kem to grab a knife from one of the tables and stab him to death. Both girls were shocked at the turn of events, as was Pryce when he heard the commotion and saw what had happened.
It was Pryce who ended up hiding the body, trying to bury the whole incident. Kem, meanwhile, gave birth to her child that night. She knew she could find no way to take care of the baby--a boy--by herself, and became determined to find his father. Maya knew interplanetary travel was going to be dangerous, but nothing she could say could talk Kem out of her plans to leave for the space station where Baro served as an officer. Pryce, whose business was suffering, learned of the scheme and smelled profit. He agreed to fund the trip for Kem and her baby. Maya didn't trust him as far as she could throw him, so she invited herself along. And Yuri, who wouldn't leave her side, had to be brought as well.
Tightened security made travel more difficult than usual for the group, especially given the fact that Yuri had no identification whatsoever. Maya contacted Hin Tan, who'd since left the Imperial army, for help determining the best route to take. He was only too happy to help, although he cautioned them against the whole ordeal. And he was right. They were quickly detained, but as fate would have it, Baro was passing through the detention center on a standard inspection. He managed to get them transferred to an outpost on Ryloth. There, Kem learned the terrible truth. Her lover was a happily married man. Depressed and dejected, Kem killed herself. Baro took custody of his son, but Maya, Pryce, and Yuri were left in lockup. Maya was able to pick up a few stray thoughts from the troops stationed in the center. She realized that it was Yuri they were interested in, but she couldn't quite figure out why.
Instinct took over. Maya used her latent abilities to get out of the cell, tricking the guards into unlocking the door. Pryce was shocked by her secret, but didn't question it. She sent him off in one direction and then, grabbing Yuri, she took off running in the other. And the two of them have been on the run ever since...
Despite dealing with a gruff, slightly vacant grandfather, Maya's childhood was more or less a happy and normal one. She excelled in her studies and kept out of trouble for the most part. Still, there were times when she would somehow know things that she couldn't possibly know. And while Tyr and Gemma were content to dismiss her as simply being a very intuitive child, her abrupt and unexpected outbursts of knowledge would upset Gale, more and more with each passing year.
No one in the family voiced any opinions about the Galactic Civil War, besides Gale. Everyone was, in fact, quite content to stay quietly under the radar. Staying under the radar, however, proved difficult following what Maya would always refer to as The Incident.
At the age of thirteen, Maya grew fond of smashball. She and her friends would often play, sometimes getting more than a little aggressive. It happened that a ball went hurtling right at Maya's face only to suddenly stop in midair. It hovered there for a moment, before falling harmlessly to the ground. The children were frightened and baffled by the event. When Maya told her family of it that evening, Gale flew into a rage. He grabbed Maya by the collar and shook her, shouting out nonsense about the Force and how it wasn't safe for Maya to stay on Coruscant. It took both of her parents to extract the sobbing Maya from her grandfather's clutches.
Following The Incident, Gemma and Tyr didn't know what to make Gale's outburst, but they grew concerned for Maya's safety. Eventually, they decided to send her to Alderaan, to stay with some cousins on Tyr's side of the family, while Gale was taken in for psychiatric evaluation. Maya was actually quite excited at the prospect of taking her first trip off world. The departure was bittersweet, however. The last Maya saw of her family was her grandfather raving at her to 'never let anyone see, never let anyone know' as she boarded the transport.
The trip to Alderaan was cut short rather abruptly. News reached the pilots of the transport that there no longer was an Alderaan. It had been completely decimated by what Maya would eventually learn was the first Death Star. The ship turned tail and ended up docking on Corellia. There were no cousins waiting for Maya when she arrived, but in all the chaos and commotion that was accompanying the destruction of Alderaan and the Battle of Yavin that followed, she more or less fell between the cracks. After all, it wasn't the pilot's responsibility to take care of his underaged passenger. Terrified at the notion of returning home to her mad grandfather who seemed afraid of her, Maya grew determined to make her own way. The transport company put all the passengers up for a week in a Corellian inn. When the week was up, rather than accepting the offer of a ride home, Maya wandered out into the city alone.
She found a variety of odd jobs over the next few years, mostly simple positions that involved a lot of fetching and carrying, sometimes working with tools. Many of the skills that her grandfather taught her served her well. And Maya was astonished to see that she had a talent for 'convincing' people to give her odd jobs, in spite of her age and appearance. But as the Galactic Civil War raged on, though, work became a little harder for her to find.
At the age of fifteen, she met a local pimp named Pryce, who ran a nightclub called 'Fantasii.' It featured dancing girls, mostly Twi'lek, along with a few ridiculous comedy acts. For an extra fee, Imperial officers could take one of the girls into a back room for the night. Pryce, who was human, took a liking to Maya and offered her a job serving drinks. She became popular among the regulars, many of them human and interested in a pretty human face. So by the time she was sixteen, Maya was allowed to start going up on the stage and dancing. It was a humiliating job, but it paid much better than anything else she'd done. And Maya was athletic, incorporating gymnastic feats into her routines. She became something of a star attraction, exotic among the Twi'lek girls.
Her new position was hard on her. On stage, she was frequently bombarded with the emotions of the audience. They were rarely wholesome. She had no training with her Force abilities, and so she couldn't block everything out, sometimes getting completely overwhelmed. Maya turned to alcohol to try to numb the pain. And she struggled with addiction for some time, especially when Imperial officers began paying the extra fee to take her into a back room. Rankweed cigarettes and Gree spice made the indignity of it all bearable.
Despite her many problems, Maya was never alone. Pryce's employees were like a family to her. Pryce, although a sleazy businessman, looked out for everyone, as long as it didn't affect his bottom line. There was Iphiginia, a large Twi'lek man who did a drag routine. Memei, a Twi'lek who'd worked for Pryce for many years with a popular anti-gravity dance and who became a big sister to Maya. Vette, a Rodian girl, who taught Maya the art of seduction. Hin Tan, one of Maya's regular customers who treated her like a person instead of a transaction. And Kem, a young human girl that Pryce hired after Maya proved to be a popular attraction. Kem was much younger than any of the other girls and Maya started looking after her.
Pryce's girls also shared a secret. One day, they discovered a local urchin boy named Yuri, living in the alley behind the nightclub. The immediately girls started taking care of him. The boy was a mute and seemingly human. Almost right away, he took a shine to Maya in particular, preferring her presence to anyone else. And she soon realized that he was trying to communicate to her through his mind. Untrained and undisciplined, Maya found telepathy difficult to even understand, much less master. But practicing with Yuri, she learned how to convey sentiments to him and vice versa. Yuri often sent her images, but when she asked about his past, all she saw was a swirling gray abyss of nothingness.
Things were uneasy as the Battle of Endor approached. Business was fading as fewer and fewer Imperial officers had the time or leave to visit the club. Pryce came up with any number of schemes to raise interest, but things were looking bleak. To make matters worse, Kem had gotten pregnant from one of her regular customers, a man named Sergeant Crys Baro of the Imperial army. Right before she gave birth, her family came looking for her. A cousin found her in the club one morning, after business hours. Seeing that she was pregnant--a shame to the family--he drew a weapon on her. Maya heard the commotion and came down, grabbing a blaster from behind the bar. Her presence distracted him long enough for Kem to grab a knife from one of the tables and stab him to death. Both girls were shocked at the turn of events, as was Pryce when he heard the commotion and saw what had happened.
It was Pryce who ended up hiding the body, trying to bury the whole incident. Kem, meanwhile, gave birth to her child that night. She knew she could find no way to take care of the baby--a boy--by herself, and became determined to find his father. Maya knew interplanetary travel was going to be dangerous, but nothing she could say could talk Kem out of her plans to leave for the space station where Baro served as an officer. Pryce, whose business was suffering, learned of the scheme and smelled profit. He agreed to fund the trip for Kem and her baby. Maya didn't trust him as far as she could throw him, so she invited herself along. And Yuri, who wouldn't leave her side, had to be brought as well.
Tightened security made travel more difficult than usual for the group, especially given the fact that Yuri had no identification whatsoever. Maya contacted Hin Tan, who'd since left the Imperial army, for help determining the best route to take. He was only too happy to help, although he cautioned them against the whole ordeal. And he was right. They were quickly detained, but as fate would have it, Baro was passing through the detention center on a standard inspection. He managed to get them transferred to an outpost on Ryloth. There, Kem learned the terrible truth. Her lover was a happily married man. Depressed and dejected, Kem killed herself. Baro took custody of his son, but Maya, Pryce, and Yuri were left in lockup. Maya was able to pick up a few stray thoughts from the troops stationed in the center. She realized that it was Yuri they were interested in, but she couldn't quite figure out why.
Instinct took over. Maya used her latent abilities to get out of the cell, tricking the guards into unlocking the door. Pryce was shocked by her secret, but didn't question it. She sent him off in one direction and then, grabbing Yuri, she took off running in the other. And the two of them have been on the run ever since...
