Hello folks!
I wrote an very exhausting exam yesterday. But it went well, so I decided to spend
my free time writing the next chapter! It get used to it by now!
Now for my reviwing friends:
SilverWolf: Thanks again for the review (did you get my e-mail?)!
I'm glad you like it.
(As I said before I won't tell the end right now, though I have it
all in my head. Just this: You have to go through a litte more.)
Crystal: Thanks for putting my humble little piece of work on your favorite-list.
You're the first to ever do this!!!
Of course a warm thank you to everyone who is still with me!
All right, so far nobody wanted me to alter/change things, so I keep on as intended.
Hope you like it.
The story continues... NOW!
"INTO ENEMY HANDS"
From Caius Iulius
Chapter 3: Desperation
Finally, Thrawn was alone. Now he had time to think - more than he wanted to.
But concentrating was difficult. The after-effects of the long torture were too
painful.
He had to reach Parck. Somehow.
He knew already in which part of the ship he was - clearly an advantage.
If he was able to get into the near emergency-comm-room and send a message...
Maybe not everything was lost, yet.
But how was he to accomplish that?
The troopers hadn't seen it fit to bind him as they had dragged him back to his
cell. If they decided to be that careless again, he would get the one chance
he needed. IF he was still able to do it, then.
Zaarin still sat at his desk and watched the holos the droid had made of Thrawn's
torture. His prisoner's mind was nothing to break easily. Zaarin had known
that before. But finally he would succeed. And then he would kill Thrawn.
Or...
A new thought entered his mind and a cruel smile played around his lips.
It didn't matter how long he torured Thrawn. His execution would mark the end.
The fun would be over.
Unless he didn't execute him at all.
To let him LIVE was so much more painful than death - however slow and cruel it
might be.
Once Thrawn's mind was finally broken, he would let him live...
as his - Zaarin's - personal slave.
Yes, that was fitting for that inferior alien.
He laughed aloud.
After he had controled himself again, he began to think about what to do with
Thrawn next.
The thought of his beloathed enemy beeing locked safely away inside this very ship
made him feel satisfied.
There were many ways of torment and Zaarin had all the time in the world to try
every single one on Thrawn.
Maybe he should test how that despicable blue skin reacted on red-hot metal?
Captain Voss Parck was more than concerned.
Since he had been notified Thrawn wasn't aboard anymore, a whole day had passed and still
he didn't have a clue were the admiral might be.
A shuttle was missing, too, two pilots as well.
Everything obviously led to the thought Thrawn had left the "Grey Wolf" on his own -
maybe for some secret mission - without seeing it fit to inform his captain.
Parck simply couldn't believe this. Thrawn wasn't only his superior but his longlime
friend. He was convinced the admiral would have left some sort of message, IF he really
had gone for a mission alone.
But the facts were only too clear. No signs of infiltration from outside the ship.
That was what Parck had looked for first.
No ship, neither fighter nor freighter, had left the "Grey Wolf" without permission.
And none had landed.
But one shuttle - the missing one - had indeed left during the night of Thrawn's
disappearence.
Parck was lost in thoughts when his comm-officer called for him.
"Sir, a message from flight 3."
Parck went to the officer's station.
Flight 3 was one of the reconaissance ships he had send to find the missing shuttle.
"This is captain Parck," he identified himself, "what do you have?"
"Sir, this is flight 3..." the pilot hesitated.
Parck began to loose his patience.
"Did you find something, flight 3, or not?"
"Well, yes, sir. I found the shuttle... what's left of it. It seems it exploded after
re-entering sub-space. No escape pods or life signs in the area."
The captain just stared in silence. No, it could not be.
"Are you absolutely sure about this, flight 3?"
"Yes, sir. The computer identifies the debries perfectly well. It is from the missing
shuttle."
"All right. Collect some of it and return as fast as you can!"
"Understood, sir! Flight 3 out."
Slowly, Parck went back to the viewport.
It MUST not be... But was there an other explanation?
A missing Grand Admiral.
One missing shuttle.
Two missing pilots.
Not a trace of enemy interventions...
Despite those overwhelming indications Parck refused to accept the seemingly obvious
truth. He had to keep on looking. He had to find other indications that showed
Thrawn hadn't been inside that shuttle.
But if not there... where else?
The hot iron burned deep into the blue skin and left an ugly blue-black mark, similar
to the others, which were all over Thrawn's back by now.
Like the other day Zaarin was watching his prisoner closely.
Thrawn still seemed to be exhausted from the previous torture, for his constitution
became worse, rapidly. Maybe it wouldn't take as long as he had thought to break him?
As the droid tortured its victim once again with the red-hot metal, Thrawn reacted only
with a painfull groan.
Zaarin mentioned the droid to stop and called the medic, who had been standing nearby,
to check Thrawn's "health".
The man looked at Zaarin and shook his head.
"Sir, I strongly suggest you stop now. If you continue I cannot garanty his survival.
It would at least take some days to restore him in the sick bay. If you want to avoid
that - don't torture him any further."
Zaarin thought about it for some time.
That clearly wasn't what he had wanted to hear but what he less wanted was for Thrawn
to die now.
He sighed and told the guards to free the prisoner from the chains.
He would continue tomorrow.
The two stormtroopers dragged Thrawn out of the interrogation chamber onto the long
walkway which led to his cell. No one was to be seen.
When they were only a few steps away, Thrawn summoned all his strenghth and attacked.
The troopers were caught completely off guard and that advantage was enough for Thrawn
to overwhelm them. With difficulty, he dragged them behind himself into his cell.
He hadn't feigned his exhaustion, though. In fact, he was only short of losing
conciousness. But if he hadn't seemed more injured than he actually was, if Zaarin had tortured him any further, he had never got the chance to warn Parck.
The first part of his plan had succeeded. Now followed the much more difficult one.
Carefully, Thrawn creeped to the comm-room. It was late at night and he didn't expect
to see anyone. Still, he wouldn't allow himself to be careless.
He reached his destination undetected and slipped inside the dark room.
He looked at the consoles - the access was of course denied. Not that this was really
a problem. But he knew he would start an alarm as soon as he got into the system.
He had to be absolutely sure what to send captain Parck. And most importantly: How.
A simple messange surely would do its duty but then Zaarin would knew exactly what Thrawn
had send. That had to be avoided at all costs.
To code the message didn't make sense, either. Zaarin would find out anyway.
One had to disguise it...
An idea occurred to Thrawn. When he had been a cadet a long time age, he and his
friends used to call each other with a slightly malfunctional comm-unit.
Everyone not in the know had to think of the strange, undecodable messages as
comm-malfunctions...
If he was able to alter the frequency of this comm unit to make it look like interference
he could probably fool Zaarin.
But would Parck understand? Thrawn knew his friend and knew as well that he had to
take that risk.
He opened the maintanance lid and started to bridge the security codes.
TBC...
Are you not entertained? (Ok, I loved GLADIATOR!)
So, what do you think? As always: REVIEW PLEASE!
I'll post the naxt chapter soon and it would really help and motivate me
if I knew there was someone reading this (let me know).
Write an e-mail if you like (caius.julius@usa.net).
Next chapter: Will Thrawn send the message and will it reach Parck?
And what about the traitor Bren?
(I think he's in the next one.)
Caius Julius
I wrote an very exhausting exam yesterday. But it went well, so I decided to spend
my free time writing the next chapter! It get used to it by now!
Now for my reviwing friends:
SilverWolf: Thanks again for the review (did you get my e-mail?)!
I'm glad you like it.
(As I said before I won't tell the end right now, though I have it
all in my head. Just this: You have to go through a litte more.)
Crystal: Thanks for putting my humble little piece of work on your favorite-list.
You're the first to ever do this!!!
Of course a warm thank you to everyone who is still with me!
All right, so far nobody wanted me to alter/change things, so I keep on as intended.
Hope you like it.
The story continues... NOW!
"INTO ENEMY HANDS"
From Caius Iulius
Chapter 3: Desperation
Finally, Thrawn was alone. Now he had time to think - more than he wanted to.
But concentrating was difficult. The after-effects of the long torture were too
painful.
He had to reach Parck. Somehow.
He knew already in which part of the ship he was - clearly an advantage.
If he was able to get into the near emergency-comm-room and send a message...
Maybe not everything was lost, yet.
But how was he to accomplish that?
The troopers hadn't seen it fit to bind him as they had dragged him back to his
cell. If they decided to be that careless again, he would get the one chance
he needed. IF he was still able to do it, then.
Zaarin still sat at his desk and watched the holos the droid had made of Thrawn's
torture. His prisoner's mind was nothing to break easily. Zaarin had known
that before. But finally he would succeed. And then he would kill Thrawn.
Or...
A new thought entered his mind and a cruel smile played around his lips.
It didn't matter how long he torured Thrawn. His execution would mark the end.
The fun would be over.
Unless he didn't execute him at all.
To let him LIVE was so much more painful than death - however slow and cruel it
might be.
Once Thrawn's mind was finally broken, he would let him live...
as his - Zaarin's - personal slave.
Yes, that was fitting for that inferior alien.
He laughed aloud.
After he had controled himself again, he began to think about what to do with
Thrawn next.
The thought of his beloathed enemy beeing locked safely away inside this very ship
made him feel satisfied.
There were many ways of torment and Zaarin had all the time in the world to try
every single one on Thrawn.
Maybe he should test how that despicable blue skin reacted on red-hot metal?
Captain Voss Parck was more than concerned.
Since he had been notified Thrawn wasn't aboard anymore, a whole day had passed and still
he didn't have a clue were the admiral might be.
A shuttle was missing, too, two pilots as well.
Everything obviously led to the thought Thrawn had left the "Grey Wolf" on his own -
maybe for some secret mission - without seeing it fit to inform his captain.
Parck simply couldn't believe this. Thrawn wasn't only his superior but his longlime
friend. He was convinced the admiral would have left some sort of message, IF he really
had gone for a mission alone.
But the facts were only too clear. No signs of infiltration from outside the ship.
That was what Parck had looked for first.
No ship, neither fighter nor freighter, had left the "Grey Wolf" without permission.
And none had landed.
But one shuttle - the missing one - had indeed left during the night of Thrawn's
disappearence.
Parck was lost in thoughts when his comm-officer called for him.
"Sir, a message from flight 3."
Parck went to the officer's station.
Flight 3 was one of the reconaissance ships he had send to find the missing shuttle.
"This is captain Parck," he identified himself, "what do you have?"
"Sir, this is flight 3..." the pilot hesitated.
Parck began to loose his patience.
"Did you find something, flight 3, or not?"
"Well, yes, sir. I found the shuttle... what's left of it. It seems it exploded after
re-entering sub-space. No escape pods or life signs in the area."
The captain just stared in silence. No, it could not be.
"Are you absolutely sure about this, flight 3?"
"Yes, sir. The computer identifies the debries perfectly well. It is from the missing
shuttle."
"All right. Collect some of it and return as fast as you can!"
"Understood, sir! Flight 3 out."
Slowly, Parck went back to the viewport.
It MUST not be... But was there an other explanation?
A missing Grand Admiral.
One missing shuttle.
Two missing pilots.
Not a trace of enemy interventions...
Despite those overwhelming indications Parck refused to accept the seemingly obvious
truth. He had to keep on looking. He had to find other indications that showed
Thrawn hadn't been inside that shuttle.
But if not there... where else?
The hot iron burned deep into the blue skin and left an ugly blue-black mark, similar
to the others, which were all over Thrawn's back by now.
Like the other day Zaarin was watching his prisoner closely.
Thrawn still seemed to be exhausted from the previous torture, for his constitution
became worse, rapidly. Maybe it wouldn't take as long as he had thought to break him?
As the droid tortured its victim once again with the red-hot metal, Thrawn reacted only
with a painfull groan.
Zaarin mentioned the droid to stop and called the medic, who had been standing nearby,
to check Thrawn's "health".
The man looked at Zaarin and shook his head.
"Sir, I strongly suggest you stop now. If you continue I cannot garanty his survival.
It would at least take some days to restore him in the sick bay. If you want to avoid
that - don't torture him any further."
Zaarin thought about it for some time.
That clearly wasn't what he had wanted to hear but what he less wanted was for Thrawn
to die now.
He sighed and told the guards to free the prisoner from the chains.
He would continue tomorrow.
The two stormtroopers dragged Thrawn out of the interrogation chamber onto the long
walkway which led to his cell. No one was to be seen.
When they were only a few steps away, Thrawn summoned all his strenghth and attacked.
The troopers were caught completely off guard and that advantage was enough for Thrawn
to overwhelm them. With difficulty, he dragged them behind himself into his cell.
He hadn't feigned his exhaustion, though. In fact, he was only short of losing
conciousness. But if he hadn't seemed more injured than he actually was, if Zaarin had tortured him any further, he had never got the chance to warn Parck.
The first part of his plan had succeeded. Now followed the much more difficult one.
Carefully, Thrawn creeped to the comm-room. It was late at night and he didn't expect
to see anyone. Still, he wouldn't allow himself to be careless.
He reached his destination undetected and slipped inside the dark room.
He looked at the consoles - the access was of course denied. Not that this was really
a problem. But he knew he would start an alarm as soon as he got into the system.
He had to be absolutely sure what to send captain Parck. And most importantly: How.
A simple messange surely would do its duty but then Zaarin would knew exactly what Thrawn
had send. That had to be avoided at all costs.
To code the message didn't make sense, either. Zaarin would find out anyway.
One had to disguise it...
An idea occurred to Thrawn. When he had been a cadet a long time age, he and his
friends used to call each other with a slightly malfunctional comm-unit.
Everyone not in the know had to think of the strange, undecodable messages as
comm-malfunctions...
If he was able to alter the frequency of this comm unit to make it look like interference
he could probably fool Zaarin.
But would Parck understand? Thrawn knew his friend and knew as well that he had to
take that risk.
He opened the maintanance lid and started to bridge the security codes.
TBC...
Are you not entertained? (Ok, I loved GLADIATOR!)
So, what do you think? As always: REVIEW PLEASE!
I'll post the naxt chapter soon and it would really help and motivate me
if I knew there was someone reading this (let me know).
Write an e-mail if you like (caius.julius@usa.net).
Next chapter: Will Thrawn send the message and will it reach Parck?
And what about the traitor Bren?
(I think he's in the next one.)
Caius Julius