AN: chapter 3 is here! Let me know what you think
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Chapter III: The Search Begins
"I will not stand for this!" Senator Organa snarled, each word firing straight through Hux; "The First Order has taken my son!"
Hux shrank back in his seat, cowed. Meanwhile, the rest of the room was tittering and whispering excitedly as they watched the pure spectacle before them. The entire situation was scandalous and was no doubt being leaked onto the HoloNet at that precise moment.
Hux's fellow officers gave him side-long looks. They didn't believe him. They'd all trained beside him and knew what he was like. None of them would expect any better of him. He'd been called the Leech, the Ambitious Armie, and every other nickname in the book. His reputation preceded him.
Only Captain Willuch was red in the face, clearly affronted.
"Preposterous! I will not tolerate such accusations! None of my officers have touched a single hair on your son's head!" Willuch barked.
"My son is missing!" Senator Organa hissed, standing up from her chair with fire in her eyes; "And I will find the one responsible, mark my words!"
Hux found himself pacing back and forth. It was a curious habit he'd picked up in his youth, brought on by long nights of study and research. Specifically, for situations where he was stumped. Only this wasn't a complicated calculus assignment but rather a fifteen-year old cold case.
Captain Phasma was sitting patiently, watching him meander aimlessly around his office.
"…you're not going to find Ben Organa any faster by wearing down the floorboards, you know." She pointed out, an amused smile on her lips.
"We are mere months away from our greatest achievement – and the Supreme Leader wants us to go on a wild goose chase." Hux said bitterly, barely restraining himself from punching the nearest wall. Yet another terrible habit of his.
"The Starkiller will be finished, whether you find the boy or not."
"The Starkiller is my achievement, I would see it completed at the very least." Hux said, voice getting louder; "But the Supreme Leader wants us chasing down fairy tales and dead children."
Like hell Hux would let anyone else take credit for it. Heaven forbid he become as unfortunate as the likes of Director Orson Krennic. Hux would rather die. He'd worked too hard, and come too far. Achieving rank of General at the age of thirty-four was no mean feat, after all.
"Perhaps you've been approaching this from the wrong angle." Phasma suggested.
"What do you mean?"
"You're an engineer – you can design a base, a ship, whatever you want. But you can't solve a mystery by yourself. You need a professional – a detective, or a bounty hunter."
"No bounty hunters. Besides our own officers should be more than capable." Hux said firmly, frowning at the mere thought of allowing a bunch of filthy scoundrels and money-grubbers on his ship. When hell froze over, was more likely.
Phasma folded her arms, displeased, "The disappearance of Ben Organa has been the talk of the New Republic for the last fifteen years, Hux. Don't you think everyone and their mother has tried to find him?"
"I know." Hux said, "But I haven't tried yet. And I was there."
Writing up a list of suspects, seemed as good as place to start as any.
Only, Hux had been pouring through the guest list for days now. It had been a large party, with many different political factions in attendance. Only that wasn't accounting for those who didn't attend, or additional guests like staff and party-crashers. It was giving Hux a headache. There were just so many goddamned variables.
Any of these people could have taken Ben Organa away, lured him from the party and done who knows what to him.
Hell, for all he knew, it could have been the First Order. There had been plenty of officers with Hux at the party, with enough reason to hate the Resistance and thus reason to hurt the Organa boy. Plenty of people still thought Hux was the culprit, which had thankfully never been proven. He was still the favourite suspect on all the gossip sites, many of which accused him of doing positively vile things to the boy and dumping the body.
Hux had done very questionable and downright terrible things, but murdering Ben Organa certainly wasn't one of them. But then why did he still feel so damn guilty…?
He shook his head, trying desperately to rid himself of such thoughts.
His nightmares had no place in this investigation. None.
Instead, he looked back down at the guest list. There had been Senator, or rather, General Organa's party, with Ben Organa himself, and no doubt quite a few Resistance members hidden amongst them. Hux would need to examine each one of them. It didn't matter that they were with him – they were all suspects.
Then there was the Trandoshans. They had been eager to secure the alliance, wanting new routes opened to improve trade and their own hunting activities. Such a deal would have benefited the First Order in the long run… the Trandoshans had never been exactly pleased with the Republic. Would they have hurt Ben Organa to secure those trade routes and to please the First Order?
The Gran were eager to ally themselves with the hosts, willing to do anything to uplift Malastare. Like the Trandoshans, they were just as interested in trade routes and pursuing their own interests. Was kidnapping or murder on their agenda too?
Thirdly, there had been at least two neutral parties, made up of colonised planets just like Reeah. No doubt they wanted to establish new trade routes with the hosts and new alliances to boot. Neutral parties were somewhat unpredictable. Mostly they remained pacifistic, and entirely unwilling to interact too much with the New Republic. What reason would they have to hurt the young Organa boy?
Then of course, there was the First Order. Like every other party there, the First Order had wanted a new alliance and new trade routes to play with. However, the First Order also carried with it an overwhelming amount of bitterness towards General Organa, the Resistance, and any next-of-kin. Every officer who had been in that deployment had had reason to hurt Ben Organa. Hux thoughtfully crossed himself, and Captain Willuch off the list. As their commanding officer, Willuch had known how important those negotiations had been. How much opportunity it would have given the First Order. He didn't seem a likely candidate.
As for himself, well he knew he was innocent. Even if everyone else seemed to doubt him.
Ultimately those negotiations had been important to the First Order. Any officer with a lick of sense would not have interfered. Which did not eliminate a whole lot of people. But it did not matter, the Ben Organa 'incident' had ruined the negotiation efforts and gotten them kicked off the planet anyway.
Lastly, the hosts themselves. A colony of Togruta that had taken up residence on Reeah only a mere few centuries beforehand, now far, far away from the Togruta home planet of Shili. Reeah was an out of the way sort of planet, lost to time, but it had become more involved in galactic politics as the Outer Rim continued to blossom. Thus, the perfect opportunity for trade routes, all which bypassed Reeah itself. The Togruta had been excited to bargain with their neighbours.
The big question was, if this was all a political brawl, why the hell would any of these parties hurt a seemingly insignificant boy? To curb the interests of General Organa and the Republic? Or to hurt the next generation of Jedi?
Or perhaps it had been an accident caused by a rogue party member, and all this fuss was now a cover-up. The political fallout from those all years ago had certainly hurt the First Order's chances at establishing meaningful ties with Reeah, and perhaps the real culprit had anticipated such a reaction. No one wanted to be blamed for the boy's disappearance, so now they were all remaining silent.
If Ben Organa's disappearance wasn't politically motivated, then what was it?
Hux wasn't sure.
Then, considering everything, Hux still wasn't certain whether or not they were hunting down a dead body. Sure, the galaxy was big, but someone like Ben Organa couldn't just disappear, could he?
Someone else would have had to have seen him.
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