Chapter 16: Hurt
Omega slithered through the vents as swiftly as she could go. Cold panic was swishing around in her stomach as she struggled against the ever-growing headache.
She wriggled faster, not knowing why she was so certain of where Sullo Pria had taken Tech, crawling on towards the medical room.
A crackling beep on her wrist comm made her freeze, and she instinctively slapped a hand over the speaker to hush the sound.
"-mega? Omega, are you there?"
"Echo! Echo, where are you? Hunter! Wrecker, please hurry! Tech's in trouble!"
"WE GOT YOUR MESSAGE, KID! - - fizzzzz - - - -ecker, shut up for a minute! Omega!"
"Hunter!" Omega bit her lip, but it quivered all the more, and two large tears fell from her eyes and splashed onto the comm. "Hunter, hurry! She's got Tech!"
"Who's got Tech?"
"That Kaminoan...!" sniff
"What Kaminoan?"
Omega smashed a hand against her eye and rubbed hard. "Tech said her name - Sullo Pria."
The comm went deathly silent. "Hunter...?"
"Omega, where are you?"
"I'm in the vents. Tech told me to stay in them and not come out, but she's got him! Hunter, she's going to hurt him!
"Omega, you need to listen to me."
Omega swallowed and nodded, focusing as hard as she could on Hunter's voice, trying to take some comfort in its familiarity.
"We've got a lock on your comm signal now, and we're on our way. See if you can locate Tech, but stay in the vents. It's very important."
"But what if she's hurting him?"
There was a low sigh. Omega could tell that Hunter was rubbing at the back of his neck again.
"Omega - "
She straightened at the seriousness of his tone.
"Sullo Pria is going to hurt him. That's...what she does. We need to locate him so we can get him out of there. But you can't show yourself."
"But why? Tech will be hurt! He needs help!"
"Omega!" Hunter sounded scared now, too. "Because Sullo Pria is the kind of person who will hurt you in order to hurt Tech more. Please, find Tech; but stay hidden. You'll just...have to be brave a little longer."
"Okay...Okay, Hunter."
"And, Omega? This is nothing Tech or any of us would like you to see. If you can help it...please don't look."
"Copy that," said Omega, and clicked off the comm. Determination filled her chest and she started off again towards the medical room.
Somewhere from up ahead, Omega heard a low murmuring. Then silence.
She gulped and scurried on, rounding the corner to the shaft above the medical room, slowing momentarily to a halt.
She crept forward, hot fear swimming in her stomach, and peeked over the edge of the grating, trembling at what she might see...
Tech was flat on his back, strapped to the examination table. His fingers were twitching slightly, the blindfold over his eyes once more.
Sullo Pria was slowly circling the table, silent except for the soft crackle of electricity that burst into life down the length of a vibrostaff.
"Remember this?" she said, and hovered the tip over Tech's face. Tech stiffened. "I will question you and you will answer. Correctly."
She tapped the staff against his arm and Tech jolted with a gasp. Sullo Pria gazed impassively down at him before baring her teeth and striking him on the leg.
Omega gritted her teeth.
"I shall continue to question you," the Kaminoan went on, "until I have all the information needed. You're cooperation will determine your state at the end of this exercise."
Omega could see that Tech's pulse was racing. Sullo Pria stabbed the baton into his shoulder.
Tech shuddered violently and gasped aloud.
"Wrong answer," the Kaminoan snarled and slammed the rod against his stomach.
Omega hid her face.
She had located Tech, mission accomplished. Now she just had to wait.
"Hurry, Hunter," she pleaded, sickening anguish crushing her heart as she tried to block the snapping electricity and Tech's cries. Eventually the sounds stopped altogether.
Omega lay huddled in the maintenance shaft, her headache pounding, the nausea from before returning until she drifted into an uneasy doze...
"...bounty hunters tied up in the other room. They were getting in the way...a child...datapad with all those recordings...were going to execute me for damaging Kaminoan property, but I escaped...all alone here..."
A sleepy understanding dawned on Omega in the back of her brain. Bane gave me too much sedative...didn't drug Tech...Sullo Pria gave Tech something else before...
She knew she should wake up. But she couldn't. All she could do was lie there and listen to Sullo Pria's abominable voice, catching only brief snippets of the Kaminoan's words. She sounded angry, hateful, dangerous...
Omega jolted awake at a loud clatter.
She unconsciously dragged herself to the grate, an unknown urgency compelling her to look. She was too afraid, she needed to see that Tech was still there and that she was not alone...
The medical room was in shambles. Tools and instruments were scattered about the floor, and one of the small tables had been overturned.
Tech, where are you?!
There was a loud shout followed by a crash, and then two figures struggled into view.
The technician staggered and collapsed in a heap. Sullo Pria struck him with her rod, screaming for him to be silent, then flung her weapon aside and seized Tech by his arms, dragging him onto the examination table.
There was a feral glint in the Kaminoan's eyes as she wrestled Tech into motionless resistance and bound him down with the restraints.
"I have one more lesson for you," she snarled.
Omega wanted to hide her face in her hands, but horror and a terrified fascination swept all her control away. The realization of this cruelty crashed into her heart, suffocating her.
Tech was being tortured, and she could only sit and watch. It was as if Omega was on that table instead of Tech. How she wished it were so! But it couldn't be, so she would stay with him, even if he couldn't see her. She would - and could - be brave.
Tech's eyes were squeezed shut, eyebrows knit in pain.
Omega slammed her hands against the metal floor of the access hatch at his choking gasps, but Sullo Pria didn't appear to notice the sound.
She struck at Tech repeatedly, raging and shouting in loud tones of unsuppressed anger.
Tech's terror frightened Omega and she slammed her hands on the vent once more.
She had to do something. Sullo Pria was going to kill Tech!
Sullo Pria flung her baton aside and gripped Tech's right hand in her long fingers. She unclasped the restraint about his wrist and hovered the hand over Tech's half-closed eyes.
"You never passed this..." she hissed.
She took hold of Tech's forefinger in her left hand.
Tech stared in horror, then shut his eyes tightly.
Omega tried to do the same but found herself rooted in place.
"Look, Tech..." the Kaminoan ordered softly. Tech only squeezed his eyes shut tighter. "You will look," Sullo Pria snarled. "Or would you like me to break every bone in your pathetic body after I'm done? There are over two-hundred for me to snap or crush as you well know."
Slowly, Tech opened his eyes and watched dazedly as Sullo Pria lifted his hand above his face and leant down, applying pressure on Tech's index finger...
CT-9904 leaned against the railing of one of Kamino's outdoor walkways. Admiral Rampart had been engaged in business of his own for the last two hours, but CT-9904 had been ordered to wait. So wait he did.
He chewed grimly on a toothpick, rolling the now soggy wood between his teeth. He wished Rampart would hurry it up and give him his next set of orders.
Ever since he had begun his wait, CT-9904 had felt a steadily growing strain in his gut. Something...was wrong.
He shook his head and pressed a hand briefly to his right temple, brushing his fingers over the newly formed scar.
There was...something he should be...remembering. Someone, perhaps...
He scowled at the churning whitecaps below. They pounded against the support pillars, swirling in powerful waves that matched so well the utter confusion in his mind.
Something was wrong with someone he... There was a connection to something that tugged at him. Pushing at him, that much he knew.
But he couldn't catch the reason for this strange sense of urgency in his scopes...