The ship took off and he reported back to his base with a succinct synopsis of the events:

Objective failed, target not aboard the ship. Further information has been acquired, time is needed to review. Troopers were attacked, five injured, no deaths. One captive aboard, female, human, early 20's. Captive is cooperative, in need of questioning.

He would file a much, much more detailed report upon their return, but questioning the woman was priority. He was still unsure of her – she seemed to be an ally, but the extent of her trustworthiness was questionable.

Further, her… abilities called for deep investigation. He had a difficult time believing she would be able to do everything she did without raising a finger.

He found her sitting on the edge of a medical cot, with Sebbie inspecting her eyes using some sort of tool. There was only one other cot in the small ship's med bay, which was occupied by the trooper who had been most severely injured. He was sedated, and according to Sebbie would make a full recovery.

Hux nodded to the woman, "What can you tell me about her eyes, Commander Arim?"

"Well… If I can be blunt, sir, bionics are not my specialty. She'll need to be examined further when we reach the base. There will be people there with the proper knowledge to help her."

"What about the redness? Does she have an infection?"

"You do both know I'm not deaf, right?"

Hux ignored the comment.

Sebbie laughed, "Very sorry, I should include you on this conversation. The redness isn't from an infection. My guess is it's a sort of skin irritation. From what I can tell, the implants aren't particularly high quality." He paused. "No offense."

"None taken. Slavers do tend to be quite cheap."

"Do they bother you? Any sort of itchiness, pain, irritation, anything like that?"

"Mm… they do feel odd from time to time. I can't really explain it. Maybe they're not quite the right size for my head?"

"That is possible." He went to a stack of narrow drawers and started digging through them, "I believe I have some drops that will help, at least until we return to the base. I think a cool compress might help as well." He pulled a few items from the drawer and returned to her side, pressing a small bottle of drops into her hand. "Here, those are the drops, use them as often as you feel like you need them. They should have a numbing effect, and help with any dryness." He paused. "Are you going to be able to do them yourself? Or do you need me to help?"

She twisted the bottle in her fingers, wrinkling her nose, "I don't know, it may be difficult for me to locate my eyes if I can't see them."

Sebbie snorted, covering as much of his laugh as he could. "Point taken." He set a few plastic-wrapped cooling pads on her lap. "Take the drops, and then put one of these over your eyes for awhile. Got it?"

She nodded, "Ay, sir."

He shook his head, still trying to cover his laugh. "Good." He looked at Hux, "You need to speak with her privately, I assume?"

"Yes, I do."

"I'm afraid he can't leave," He jerked a thumb to the unconscious one. "So you will need to speak with her elsewhere."

"We can speak in my office."

The medic nodded, then looked back at her. "One last thing. Your wrists and ankles."

"Oh?" She rubbed at them gingerly. The cuffs were still there, but the skin underneath was a raw, red color.

"I'm going to see if we can't find something on board to remove the cuffs. Until then, there's not much I can do for the skin beneath. I imagine we can find something that will work to remove them."

She smiled, "I would appreciate that. Thank you."

Sebbie nodded to him and disappeared, off to see what he could find for the bindings.

"My office is just down the hallway. It's a short walk." He didn't particularly want to be seen guiding her down the hallway, but he supposed he has no other option at the moment. "How detailed is your vision?"

"Mm… not good compared to yours, I suppose. I see vague heat signatures, but no details." She stood, "I memorized the layout of the room as we were coming in. As long as no furniture has moved, I will be fine."

"Right… well let's be on our way then."

He was notably impressed with her confidence and with her memory – she did know exactly how to get from the bed to the door. She paused at the exit. "Left or right?"

"Left."

She turned and walked next to him, her fingers trailing on the wall to keep herself oriented.

"It's the second door," He mentioned it, not wanting her to turn into the first - a storage closet.

"Ah. Thank you."

She paused again when she reached the second door. "I'm afraid you'll have to help me a little from here."

He put a hand on her shoulder and guided her in, closing the door quickly behind them. She took the guest seat and he took his usual seat, behind the desk.

Her eyes whirred again.

"So… Oni. Explain to me, from your point of view, what exactly happened back there on that ship."

"Well, to be blunt, I used you and your crew to escape. But to be fair, most of your men would have died in the ambush without my help." She squinted. "I think it was a fair exchange."

"Elaborate, please."

"Well… I was the tech controller of the ship. It's really a rather awful setup, I think, having someone in control of your security systems and not treating them well. They're not very kind to any of us."

"How long have you been a controller for them?"

"Far too long. I spent many years thinking of escape methods, and formulated this plan to blow them all to hell. I knew I could pull it off, but the issue arose that I'd have no way off the ship if my plan succeeded. Actually, I'd have no way out of that chair."

"So you bided your time waiting for someone to appear that could help you?"

She fell silent, blinking a few times. "Honestly, I wish I could say I was that hopeful. The chance of the ship ever being boarded by someone who might be willing to offer me help was so incredibly small. I pushed the idea to the back of my mind and tried to come up with other plans." She shrugged, "I wish I could say it was genus planning, but I feel like I mostly was very lucky."

"I don't think those two things are necessarily mutually exclusive."

A sort of cocky smirk twitched across her lips, "It was a pretty good idea."

"It was. I still can't figure out how you managed it." A little flattery never hurt anyone. He needed her to be as open with him as possible.

"When I found your troops boarding the ship, I knew I needed to… tailor my plan a little. I hadn't ever expected the ship to be boarded by a military force. But I also knew that I had something working in my favor – you'd never just trust me, but if I were to save you and your men from the pending ambush… well that might be enough to convince you that you should help me a little. So I put a message for you through a vocal distorting program and sent it to your ship…"

"I… I'm sorry, i understand your eyes have computing abilities, but do they have recording devices in them as well?"

She laughed –he wasn't sure what was funny. It may have sounded a little bazaar, but it wouldn't be impossible to engineer.

"No. The message you received was entirely synthetic. I guessed that you didn't know your troopers well enough to be able to recognize a voice that didn't belong to one of them."

He frowned at the comment.

She waved a hand, "I do not mean that as an insult."

It was insulting. And correct. "Continue."

"Right. Well, I needed you in the room, because I needed your vocals to send a message to all your troops."

"Why didn't you just tell me upfront? It seems it would have been much easier…"

"Would you have trusted me?" She tilted her head to the side. "I do not assume anyone is stupid before I know them. It would have taken me so much time to convince you that all your men would have been killed. Just look how long this conversation is taking."

He considered the situation. She was right.

"So," she continued without his permission, "The room we were in, it does have a recording device. They keep it on to monitor me at all times. I took the data from your vocal recordings and manipulated it to send a message to your men."

"That would be incredibly difficult, not to mention time consuming. You're really telling me that you managed that all in less than 15 minutes? And while we were having a conversation?"

"Well, I was short with you, wasn't I?"

"You were, but that would still be difficult."

She, for the first time, frowned at him. "I gave you the respect of not assuming you were stupid. It might be polite of you to extend the same courtesy."

"I'm not questioning your intelligence."

"Just my competence."

He was quite happy she couldn't see his face. He didn't know how he would manage through this entire conversation.

She sat with her arms crossed, empty eyes staring holes through him.

"I did not mean to offend you by questioning your abilities. It's simply that what you're saying you did… it would take a good slicer at least an hour to do it well enough to pass. And you're saying you did it in 15 minutes."

She didn't reply. He assumed this was her way of throwing a fit. He couldn't stand this kind of incompetent behavior, even in the face of being insulted, or whatever it is she thought he'd done wrong.

One corner of her frown turned upward to an asymmetrical smirk. She leaned forward, resting her elbows on his desk. "Armitage."

Again, he was quite happy she couldn't see his face. "How do you know my first name?"

"That's really an interesting name. I don't know that I've ever heard it before. It has a very… regal tone to it." Her smirk grew increasingly condescending.

"You're in my personnel file?"

She beamed, "Yes. Let's see… oh. You're 25? Really? Is that a typo?"

He felt like he shouldn't answer, but he did. "No. It's not."

"You're 25 and you're a Commander? Is this a military of babies?"

The fact that she appeared to find great humor in her own off-color comments was almost as insulting as the comments themselves. "No. I'm the youngest of my peers, by several years."

"Ah… yes, I see you received quite good marks at academy… Except that linguistics class." She pouted at him, "Did your professor not like you?"

In truth, he'd always been awful with languages. They were maddeningly difficult for him to pick up on, and he didn't quite see the point of wasting his brain power on them anyway. Translation programs existed for a very good reason.

She laughed when he didn't reply. "Well you must be very smart. Let's see… what else is in here?"

He considered stopping her, then thought better of it. Officers were not allowed access to their own profiles. It couldn't hurt for him to take advantage of the situation a little.

"Hm… I could rifle through your entire medical history. That does sound terribly boring though, and I'd probably find something I don't want to know. Ah! Your parents! Brendol… he's in your organization as well?"

"He is. I think this is quite enough, you've proven your point." He changed his mind quickly. The last thing he wanted some stranger rifling through was his parentage.

"Have I? Or would you like me to do more tricks?"

"Yes, you have made your point. Let's return to what happened aboard the ship. So you manipulated my vocals and got my men to join us. What about the explosion?"

"Ah, well the oxygen tanks on the ship were, for obvious reasons, not controlled by me. However, I did control the door to them. That part was really the simplest. I just had to override the controls of a droid and get it to light a match a little too close and… boom. The explosion was a little bigger than I was expecting, admittedly."

He scratched his nose, considering the details of her story. "You seem educated."

"Thank you. I'm really mostly self-taught. I suppose I always had a knack for tech-related things, ever since I was quite young. They recognized that, after they took me from my family. That's why they gave me the eyes."

"How old were you when you were taken?"

"Five."

"Where are you from?"

"A little moon called Nivo. Have you heard of it?"

"I'm afraid I haven't." He noted the name for his report.

"It's a lovely little moon. Very cold and snowy with lots of mountains. I do miss it. It has been many years since I've been off any ship."

He nodded, "I believe I may be able to help you return to your home planet, if that's what you'd like."

"Oh? Really? Thank you… But I don't think that is the right thing for me to do."

"Why is that?"

She looked uncomfortable, "I… I would rather not speak of the matter. It is quite personal."

He nodded slowly, "Alright… where would you like to go, then?"

She chewed on her lower lip. "I… I do not know. I never really thought I would make it off that ship, so I never gave further plans much thought."

It did strike him as a little sad. It would be a terribly confusing situation, caught between being overjoyed with her newfound freedom and not knowing what the next step was. He stood from his desk, "I think that answers all the questions I have at the moment. Take some time to consider your options. I will do what I can to help you get wherever you want to go. You saved our lives; I owe you that much."

She smiled, "Thank you. You and your crew are… well you're terribly kind."

He tried to remember if anyone had ever used that word to describe him before. "You should return to the med bay. Arim may have found a way to get your bindings off."

Her smile widened, "Oh, yes!" She stood and hesitated for just a moment before making her way to the door.

He went with her to make sure she didn't turn into the wrong room. Sebbie was waiting with another trooper and some sort of cutting tool. He smiled at them, "You're in luck. I think we can get those bindings off."

"Really?" She paused, seeming to vibrate with excitement.

Sebbie grabbed her arm and pulled her over to a table, telling her to sit. "You're going to have to hold very still," he warned. "I might cut you if you move."

She put her right arm on the table, and he got to work. The cuff was just loose enough he was able to slip a protective layer between it and her skin. The pen-like tool got incredibly hot, so much that the tip glowed white, and he very carefully drug it over the clasp of the cuff, slicing slightly deeper with each run. It took several minutes, but the cuff finally fell loose.

As soon as he permitted her, she jerked her arm away with a huge grin, moving her wrist freely and massaging the severely red skin.

Sebbie laughed at her, "If that feels good you should let me do the other one."

She gladly offered her other wrist, and in a few more moments it was freed as well. She rolled her wrists and massaged the reddened skin while the medic worked on her ankles.

When they were both freed, she threw her arms around Sebbie, "Thank you… Thank you so much…"

He smiled, then glanced half nervously to Hux. Such displays were unacceptable in their professional environment. Hux looked away quickly, wondering why he was still standing there watching.

Sebbie patted her on the head and pulled away, "My job tends to get a little bleak at times. It's nice to be able to do something like this. Let me see your wrist."

She offered it to him and he examined the red flesh. "Were you chained like that all day? Every day?"

"Well, I had the cuffs on, yes. But they did let me out of the chair… I was only kept there for 6 hours or so before someone would come let me move around for a bit."

The medic's frown mimicked Hux's.

"I suppose that's something at least… I want to make sure you don't have any joint damage from being held in one position for too long. You said they never took the cuffs off you?"

"Ah… no. I even bathed with them."

"When did they put them on you?"

"Mmm…" She thought for a moment. "They were actually put on by the man who kept me before. I… I can't remember the last time I didn't have them on. Five years ago? Maybe six?"

Sebastian rubbed his face, looking slightly disturbed by the situation. "Okay. So… I don't know how much we can do for the redness."

"Oh? Is it scarred? The skin does feel very tender."

"Yes. The scarring is deep, it will be incredibly difficult to heal entirely. We'll do what we can, but just know… you'll probably always have some scarring there."

"You've forgotten, I can't see it." She smiled at him, "I'm not worried."

He chuckled a little and put a hand on her shoulder, "Let's get you through a shower and I'll finish up the rest of your exam. I'll see what I can do about your wrists and ankles."

"Oi… a shower sounds fantastic. Do you have hot water?"

A smile twitched on his lips and he looked at Hux again. "I think we have just enough to share some with you."

She made a small, joyful noise.

Sebbie looked at him, "Sir, can I speak with you privately for a moment?"

Hux gave a short nod and the medic followed him out into the hallway.

Hehesitated for a moment. "I'm sorry, this may be completely out of line for me to ask, sir, but… your quarters have the only private bathing facility on the ship." He shrugged, "I'm sorry if it's out of line, but she evidently hasn't even had a warm bath in some time."

For as much as he liked Sebbie, this was really his biggest flaw. He was unabashedly kindhearted. It was probably what made him so effective at his job – his patients really felt he cared about them. Under other circumstances, Hux would have flat out refused. But she did just save his life.

He shook his head quickly, "Yes. Yes, of course. Just… make sure to send the cleaning droid through there afterward."

When the ship suddenly jolted, Hux was momentarily unsure what was happening. His men seemed equally confused, checking various reports on the ship's status. One finally looked at him, half confused, half terrified looking. "Sir… someone is boarding our ship."

"What? That doesn't even make sense…"

"It appears to be a stealth ship... we can expect to be boarded any minute."

"It's them…" Hux almost didn't recognize the girl when she strode into the room, her blank eyes were huge. It'd been several hours since he last saw her, but clearly the shower did her well. Her previously frizzy hair had a fresh bounce to it and her skin seemed almost luminescent. For some reason she kind of reminded him of a cloud. "It's Noonga. You need to… You need…" She seemed to almost buzz with panic.

"How do you know it's him?" Hux snapped at her, wishing she'd stop panicking. Panicking wouldn't serve any of them well. It was too hard to focus with her buzzing.

"I can pick up the communications going out from the ship that just attached… Ah… no. No… they have you surrounded…"

"That's impossible; we would have picked up their presence." He nodded to one of the co-pilots, who confirmed there was nothing on their radar.

"They have a cloaking program."

"There's not a cloaking program available that could…"

"Yes, yes there is." She waved a hand dismissively, "Trust me, I made it. Your radar is wrong. Uh… Oh no. Uh… Three ships. There are three of them, positioned to the sides and rear."

"You made… what? You're not making sense. We'd pick up on something…"

"No." She waved again, more aggressively this time, "You're not listening. Your radar is wrong. The ships aren't really cloaked; your radar isn't functioning correctly."

"You built a virus for them? How the hell did it infect my ship?"

"I don't know… Oh…" She sounded terribly distressed. "Hide. Hide. You all need to hide."

"I'm not even sure I can believe you…"

"Please trust me… please. They will not show you mercy, they will slaughter every last one of you for taking me. Get all your men into rooms and seal off the doors. They want me. If I make it too difficult for them to reach you, you might have a shot…"

Hux frowned, "You think we're going to just hide and hope they don't blow us all to hell?"

She made a pathetic humming noise, closing her eyes and digging her fingers into the bushy hair around her temples. "No. No… If you can tell where they are, can you take them out?"

"Well, yes. But we're not going to hide while…" Hux trailed off when he noticed one of the screens on the control panel going haywire.

"I can fix it… I can fix it… The virus trashes your detection systems but I think I can undo it."

The screen flashed wildly.

She was suddenly making her way out the door to the hallway. He followed after her quickly, grabbing her. "You need to tell me your plan. Now."

"Eeeeh… no time. Seal the door. I think… I think I can fix it, I… need time."

"How long do you need?"

"Don't know. It's bad."

He frowned. "If they take you before you can fix it?"

"Same plan."

He blinked. She'd essentially just told him to kill her if she couldn't fix it in time. "You're certain?"

She gave a high pitched hum of agreement, her eyes still closed tight.

"Fix it in time."

"I don't know…"

He felt his frown twitch. "No. Fix it."

He was about to close the door when she grasped at his arm. "Armitage."

"What?" If they were on such a tight timeline, what the hell else could she possibly need to add? Further, why the hell was she using his first name in front of his troopers?

He was caught completely off guard when she leaned in quickly, her lips catching the edge of his mouth.

"Bye."

She shoved him into the room and the door sealed off immediately.

He stumbled back a few steps, his mouth hanging open in shock, before gathering himself quickly and turning to his men. They looked suspiciously unaware of what just happened. He was certain they'd all seen.

He would have to deal with that later.

"Do we have a camera out there? Audio? Anything?"

"Yes, sir. Just visual." One of the copilots brought the view up on the large screen.

She was crouched on the floor, her face buried in her knees. Down the entire hallway, all the doors were sealed.

Seconds later, a few men came into view. From their looks, Hux was willing to guess they were bounty hunters. They were all wearing armor, and heavily armed.

One cut to the lead and went to her. She didn't move. He took his helmet off and crouched down in front of her. He said something.

With no audio Hux couldn't be certain, but she seemed to be making no response whatsoever. She remained on the floor, hugging her knees tightly.

The screen on the panel continued to flash. He watched it for a moment, wondering how she could possibly be working so quickly. He could barely keep up with the screen changes. When he looked back to the holo feed, the man was trying to pry her face upright. She resisted stubbornly, attempting to buy as much time as possible.

The man grew visibly frustrated and finally grabbed a handful of her hair, pulling her hard enough to drag her across the floor. Hux winced. It looked terribly painful.

He forced her upright, though it took him a few tries. She was hardly cooperative and completely refused to use her legs. He finally dropped her to the floor and cuffed her arms behind her back, then picked her up and threw her over his shoulder.

The screen was still flashing away.

"She needs more time… Do we have control of the doors?"

"Yes, sir."

"Good." He went to the door. "You all hide."

They looked at him, confused.

"Just do it." He hissed.

They moved quickly, hiding themselves the best they could.

Hux drew the blaster from his hip and glanced at the holo, memorizing exactly where they were, then opened the door and took fire, narrowly missing the one in charge by a few inches.

The intruders were quick, and one managed to clip his shoulder before he could fire again.

The leader gave a disgusted sigh and tossed the girl to one of his men. He appeared to be in his late 30's, with a scar running through one eyebrow. He frowned at Hux. "An officer? You all do tend to have awful aim."

A few snickers came from the men behind him.

Hux sincerely wished he could let the man know he had purposefully missed. He glanced to her, slung over another man's shoulder. Her eyes were still closed tightly.

"So tell me…" The man's eyes scanned his uniform and caught his rank. "Commander? You must be wearing someone else's uniform; you're way too young for a Commander."

"No, that is my rank."

The man looked amused. "Right. Well, then… where are the rest of your men, Commander?" He used the title in the most condescending tone possible.

"You won't find them."

He rolled his eyes, "See, that part doesn't really matter. We'll annihilate your entire ship, whether or not we find out where your men are."

He looked down his nose at the man. "You think I'd give up my own crew to a band of thieves?"

He laughed. "Ah… you're sorely mistaken if that's what you think we are."

"Well you seem to have taken something of ours…"

He glanced back to her and saw her eyes were still shut tight, with fat tears dripping awkwardly off her eyelashes and into her hair.

The man looked smug, "Enjoy the last few moments of your life, Major. There's not much left." He picked up Hux's blaster from the floor and turned, walking away.

"What do you want with the girl?"

The man froze at the question.

"What makes some tech controller slave girl so important that your people would go to this extent to retrieve her?"

He glanced back to Hux, "That, I'm afraid is none of your business."

"DONE!" Hux felt as shocked as the leader of the thieves looked when she cried out. Her eyes were open now, and she was gasping like she hadn't taken a breath in several minutes. The sound of the ship firing suddenly flooded his ears. The doors all flew open.

The man ripped her from his subordinate's shoulders, throwing her to the floor, "What have you done?"

Hux tackled him as he took aim at the girl, then pulled her into the opposite room as his troopers emerged from the rooms, firing on the intruders. The door sealed off, leaving the two of them locked in the small room alone.

They were both breathing heavily. Hux's shoulder wasn't hurt too badly – he couldn't move it at the moment but he imagined Sebbie would be able to fix. She was sprawled on her back on the floor, with tears running down her face.

He stood quickly, "You need to let me out, my troopers need help. They'll make it back to their ship before we can…"

She laughed, an almost wild, unfiltered noise, "They won't. Their ship is gone."

"Wha… What?"

"It's gone. I detached it."

Her laughter quickly dissolved to a sob and she covered her mouth. She pushed herself to a sitting position and buried her face in her knees once more. He could see her shoulders shaking – he wasn't sure if it was laughter or tears. Possibly both.

The firing from the ship died down and someone banged on the door. "Sir! Hux! It's clear!"

The door fell open at his trooper's call and a few rushed in, including Sebbie, who went straight to Hux. "How's your shoulder?"

"It should be fine; the shot barely clipped it…"

There was a loud sob from the girl. "Fucking idiot… got shot…"

Sebbie winced a little at her wording. "I think she's a little… overwhelmed."

Under normal circumstances, she would have been completely out of line. Hux shook his head, "No. I understand."

"I told you to hide…" She was so quiet he barely heard her say it. He imagined nobody else was able to.