"He should be conscious in a moment sir." I heard a synthesized voice intone.
I felt cold hard durasteel under my body. I was in a seating position. My eyes opened. The light was harsh and blinding in my face. I squinted at the two figures behind the light. I was seated at a table. My hands in magnetic cuffs that were secured to the durasteel table in front of me.
The feeling of failure overwhelmed me. I felt the stinging of tears building in the corners of my eyes. I was a failure. Everything in my life ended in failure. They got me. These are my final moments.
I'm going to end up just where all the other traitors do. I'm not going to go out crying though. I will die just like the people that raised me.
"Now that you are awake, we can begin." Said a male voice in a drawling inner-core accent. "I am Arbiter Spry of the south-west district of the of Imperial Center. This is the trial of.. Whats your name, kid?" he asked quickly.
My heart leaps into my throat. They don't recognize me as a Jedi?
What came out of my mouth was a wheezing moan. I couldn't feel my tongue or lips.
"Oh yes, You took a stun-bolt to the mouth a couple of hours ago. You won't be talking any time soon. Type your name here." The Arbiter thrust a datapad within reach of my fingers.
With my head pounding with the pulsing of my heartbeat, I typed the first thing I could think of. Sweaty trembling fingers typed in the letters awkwardly.
The datapad was jerked back by the man. I saw his figure through the lights lean toward the droid and mumble something i could not hear.
"Nellos Pyk, you are charged of one count of unlicensed joyriding. One count of reckless piloting. One count of obstructing justice. One count of resisting arrest. Twenty four counts of reckless endangerment. Two hundred and eighty three thousand credits in damages from the three collisions your idiotic joyriding has caused. And lastly, one count of disorderly conduct for your mouthing off to the traffic official over the com. How do you plead?"
The datapad that I had used to give the fake name was thrust back within reach of my fingers.
None of those crimes were punishable by firing squad. I wasn't going to die a traitor's death here and now. It made the 'GUILTY' I typed that much easier.
"These are very serious charges. By all rights, you should be on your way to the Kessel penal colony. But this is an Empire of laws. Laws meant to punish, and protect. Your medical scan puts your age at 16 and as such you are considered a juvenile here on Imperial Center. A few weeks ago the Emperor passed a law to help young misguided humans like you."
I looked at him with worried eyes.
Did they know I was Jedi?
"You will be remanded to the Imperial Military Academy of Cardia until graduation. You will sign this enlistment contract or you will serve ten years in the mines of Kessel."
I signed the enlistment datapad with relief.
Kessel would have been the better choice...
