Tahl stretched her fingers restlessly. It was awfully boring in the sensory deprivation device. Being deprived of her senses, slowly deprived of her strength...
...Wait a minute. If she was in the sensory deprivation device and stretching her fingers... you weren't supposed to be able to effortlessly stretch your fingers. Not this far into containment. That could mean two things: she was just damn good at keeping her strength, or the sensory deprivation device didn't work and Balog didn't know it. She was pretty sure it was the latter of the options. Why kidnap her and 'lock' her away in a faulty torture device?
She was free. Well, she was about to be free. She wouldn't waste time wondering if she was free. It was time to act. She stretched out her senses like a net, using the Force to cast them. Balog was in the room. So was one other person-undoubtedly a measly guard. And she was stuck in the room with them in this... this torture device. Tahl felt a surge of frustration. Ah, yes, all was happy and glad on the other side of the torture chamber. She was on display for entertainment. They may as well have dressed her in a golden bikini and changed her to a chair.
Revulsion rose in her throat. Balog was the human equivalent of a Hutt. Well, he wouldn't be much longer. Not when she was done with him.
"Hyah!" she screamed, kicking down the device's door. She sprang out, crouching in a fighting stance. But Balog was too flabbergasted to react, and the guard was simply a grunt who took orders.
"Wow! They don't even have locks on those things?" the guard remarked.
"Of course they don't! Not on the inside! The victim is too weak to kick the door in!"
"That's good ol' endurance for ya," Tahl shrugged, privately giving thanks to the Force.
"But-but-you've been in there for days! Haven't you been tortured enough?" Balog choked out through his splutters.
The guard gave him a funny look. "Dude-er, sir- that's just a prototype, you know. All it will do is bore you to death."
Balog gaped at him, a disbelieving squeaky noise coming from the back of his throat. "But this is the only sensory deprivation device out there!"
"No. The only sensory deprivation chamber out there is in a museum."
"This is the one from the museum!" Balog was on the brink of pulling out his hair.
"This is the prototype from the museum. They kept a model out 'cause it can't harm you."
"Until it bores you to death," Tahl chimed in.
"That makes no sense! And what about those strength-draining injections?" Balog demanded.
"Huh? Oh, those are models, too. Just a mild sleep serum," the guard yawned.
"I was drowsy," Tahl shrugged, relaxing a bit. It was one lean and fit woman against two fat lazy men. Her blind eyes drifted around, pretending to take in everything. She caught the faintest whiff of alcohol from Balog; he had probably been drinking a glass of wine to celebrate his success. "Now…" she fumbled for an invisible blaster behind her back. "We can do this the easy way or the hard way."
"Hey, easy lady," the guard said smoothly, sneaking up behind her and slipping a pair of electroshock cuffs around her wrists. "We'll have you properly sensory deprived in no time. I just sent word out." The guard sounded awfully proud that he had taken matters into his own hands. "The real device is on it's way!"
Tahl sighed. Just when you think you had them…
That's that. It was written at three o'clock in the morning on the second day of summer… earlier that evening, I had fallen off my bike. I was barefoot. My right leg is in pain; let's leave it at that. I 'spose you could say I now advocate for everyone to wear shoes while riding bikes. Thanks for reading.