Ok, here I am again!
This one is slightly longer than the previous chapters. I hope you don't mind.
(Of course you don't, do you?)
This chapter is the last that's based on my old story-files (mentioned in Ch.1).
It will probably take longer to write new stuff down, so be patient, please!
Of course I WILL finish this story. Don't worry, I promise.
I am very surprised and grateful that so many of you wonderful readers gave me
the honor to review my story. (Yes, I think 6 is many!)
To you six guys: You're the best, my motivation!
(Hope you're still reading this)
Robin: Well, I hope you like the following!
As long as you like it I keep on writing.
Vanessa: I hope I didn't overdo it! I'm not through with Thrawn, yet, you know...
I'd like to take the opportunity to thank the unknown fanficiton author who wrote
the Thrawn-gets-abducted-by-Zaarin-story I mentioned in Chaper 1.
(Must be a Thrawnatic like me...)
That was what gave me the idea to write this one.
Wherever you are: THANKS SO MUCH!
(I'd really like to know what he/she thinks about my work...)
So, enough of this for now, you guys want to know what's happening next I guess.
Enjoy!
DISCLAIMER:
I am not George Lucas, nor Tim Zahn. Thus Star Wars isn't mine.
(Sad, but true.)
"INTO ENEMY HANDS"
From Caius Julius
Chapter 4: The Message is underway
Inside the stern control center a screen began to light up, accompanied by a shrill
alarm klaxon.
The officer of the day did not believe his eyes. Who of all people was supposed to be
in the emergency-comm-room at this hour?
He activated his comlink.
"Attention! Alert in sector B2! A stormtrooper-squad to the emergency-comm-romm at once!"
Thrawn keyed the last characters in. Any moment now, the guards had to enter the room.
He was a little surprised they had not, already.
Finally, he pressed the last button. It didn't take long and he got an affirmation that his message was underway.
A thin smile played around his lips. He had succeeded.
Very abruptly, but not unexpected, the door opened, and four stormtroopers ran in,
their riffles pointed at him.
"Don't move!" one of them yelled. "Put your hands behind your head!"
Thrawn did as he was told. Any resistance was fultile. Besides, he had reached his goal.
A small victory, at least.
The stormtrooper stopped. "That's the Grand Admiral!" He sounded startled.
"Onto the floor! Lie down!"
Only when Thrawn was laying on the floor, his hands behind his head, the stormtroopers
came nearer.
They tied his arms at the small of his back and pulled him onto his feet again.
"What did you intend to do here?" the trooper asked with barely controlled anger.
Thrawn raised an eyebrow.
"What do you think a comm-room is for?" he replied in a sarcastic tone.
The answer was a punch to his stomach.
A butt hit his neck and everything went dark at once.
Commander Himo Trolls entered the cell in which the stormtroopers guarded the still unconcious prisoner.
After Trolls had given them a sign, they lifted Thrawn to his feet.
The commander took a few steps towards his prisoner and slapped him a few times in the face.
Finally, Thrawn came back to his senses.
"What did you send?" Trolls asked even before Thrawn had regained full conciousness.
"The message, what was its content? Tell me, now! We will know anyway."
Thrawn smiled faintly.
"I doubt that. You can try, of course."
Trolls face became grim.
"We'll see about this."
He nodded towards one of the troopers and the man punched Thrawn hard into his stomach.
Thrawn moaned and would have fallen to the floor if not for the guards.
"Well?" Trolls said.
"You can... beat me to death," Thrawn said, panting. "You won't... find out anything!"
The trooper stroke him with his fist in the face.
When Thrawn remained silent and Trolls once again nodded the trooper hit the prisoner
several times hard in the abdomen.
This time the guards let go of him and Thrawn fell to the floor.
His tormentor started to kick him. Again and again.
When he finally stopped, Trolls pulled Thrawn's head back, brutally.
"Now, is there anything you want to tell me?"
Thrawn's reply was drowned by his own groans.
Trolls raised to his feet and took a few steps back.
Two troopers knelt down and began to bind the prisoner.
They fettled the hands with binders onto his back and tied ankles and knee joints with
leather straps. Finally, they layed a chain around his neck and tied it to the other
shackles.
Moving became impossible, even if Thrawn had had the strenghth.
Trolls turned to the cruelly treated and bound prisoner at his feet.
"You'll have plenty of time to think, Thrawn. Maybe you want to tell Grand Admiral
Zaarin about your message tomorrow. He won't be as patient as I've been, you know?"
Thrawn didn't respond. Everything was a blur to him. The whole world seemed to
spin inside his head. One of his eyebrows was split, a lot of blood came out of
his mouth and nose. The pain inside his abdomen was so immense, he thought every
single organ was smashed.
Trolls laughed and gave him a mocking smile. Then he turned to the commanding stormtrooper.
"Have two of your men guard him. I'll send a medic down here. After that you can leave him alone."
He cast his eyes over Thrawn a last time and left the cell.
Some minutes later the medic entered.
It was the same man who had been present during Thrawn's previous torture.
"Sergeant," he spoke to one trooper. "I don't think the prisoner will be much of a threat.
You can leave now."
"As you wish," the man replied and mentioned his comrade to follow him.
Once the door had closed behind the troopers, Jonin Perolha - the medic - knelt down beside
Thrawn. He opened his bag and took out an injector.
Thrawn saw it and flinched immediately.
"Calm down," Perolha kept on and on at him gently. "The serum will help you. It's
far from beeing dangerous."
But as he raised the injector to Thrawn's arm, he cramped even more.
Perolha touched the prisoner gently on the shoulder and kept on trying to calm him down.
Very slowly, Thrawn eased up and the medic administered the serum.
Surprised, Thrawn noticed he felt indeed better. The big exhaustion seemed to leave him.
He tried to catch the medic's eyes while the man was cleaning his facial wounds.
"Why..." he asked almost to low to hear.
Perolha mentioned him not to speak.
"You shouldn't talk right now. Believe me: You'll need every bit of strenghth."
He turned to Thrawn's back to take care of the injuries he had recieved during the last
torture. Some of the wounds on his chest had become inflamed and he wanted to prevent other inflammations.
The chain that led from the prisoner's neck to his hands didn't make his work any easier.
Perolha noticed the bruises on Thrawn's wrists where the binders had cut deeply into the skin. He sighed.
"You... you don't deserve this, sir," he said.
Thrawn didn't believe his ears.
"What... do you mean?" he asked faintly.
"Well," Perolha replied hesitating. "To be treated like this." He mentioned to Thrawn's
shackles.
"Don't misunderstand me, admiral. You're the enemy. You are in command of the fleet
that has orders to hunt us down. When it became known you had been taken prisoner, I
was convinced Zaarin would have you executed. But this... I cannot understand.
I see the need of a death sentence for a highranking enemy like you but these tortures
do not fulfil a purpose. And they are unnecessesary cruel.
Zaarin wants to brake your mind and to humiliate you, just to satisfy his personal desires.
Our cause doesn't gain any advantage of this. On the contrary."
Perolha stopped.
"I'm doing more for you than I was told. He will you torture again - now, that you tried
to escape. You won't be able to stand firm long, considering your present state of
constitution. I just can't stand there and watch."
He finished his work at Thrawn's back and turned to the chest. Those wounds were much easier
to cure for the prisoner's hands were tied at his back.
"I will be present when he... I'am to make sure you survive, that you don't recieve
fatal injuries. If you want to live you've to summon all your strenghth left."
He took a second injector out of his bag and tested its content.
"You'll be able to sleep with this. I'am not allowed to administer any pain-killers
but this does something similar. The end is the same."
"Thanks," Thrawn whispered.
Perolha nodded and injected the serum.
Immediately, Thrawn noticed as everything around him began to spin. An overwhelming
heavyness came over him and he welcomed the dark with open arms.
"Sir?" the "Grey Wolf"'s communcations-officer called. "Commander Bren?"
Bren walked over to the young man.
"What is it Lieutenant? I hope it justifies your... unpatient behavior."
Lieutenant Maroon swallowed.
"Yes, sir. We've recieved a message, better: an interference."
Bren frowned.
"An interference? What is that supposed to mean, Lieutenant? How can an interference
be directed to us?"
Maroon hesitated.
"Well, it seems to be one, maybe parts of a message to a nearby star system. But...
it looks as if it was ment for the "Grey Wolf"."
"Well, then bring it onto the screen!" Bren ordered.
The Lieutenant pressad a few buttons and soon an incomprehensable flood of characters
and signs appeared on the screen.
"The source of this 'message'?" Bren asked, still frowning.
"Somewhere in the Orias-system, sir."
Bren hesitated. "There are no imperial ships in this system, are there?"
"No, sir."
"Was the computer able to read the message?"
"No, sir. It's no code, at least no known code. Like I said: an interference, strangely
directed to us."
Bren looked at the signs on the screen.
"Well, if the computer can't decode it its useless. I think we can delete it without
any danger."
"All right, sir."
Maroon keyed in an order.
"Finished, sir. The interference has been deleted."
Bren smiled. "Very good, Lieutenant!"
He left the comm-station, nodded to Commander Jovis - the First Officer - and left the
bridge.
Captain Parck, who had been secretly watching the converstion from the viewport, went to Lieutenant Maroon.
"And, Lieutenant?"
"Order carried out, Captain. He thinks I've deleted the messsage."
Parck's face showed a grim smile.
"Very good. That has to remain that way."
"I'll take care of it, sir."
Parck left the Lieutenant at his station and went to the bridge's main viewport.
Commander Jovis stepped at his side rather casualy.
"Shall I have him arrested?"
Parck stared out to the stars.
"No, not yet. He may tell Zaarin we have no evidence and no suspicion. No, on the
contrary: Bren is very important to us.
We will have finished our resuply in a few days. Hopefully by then we will have
decoded Thrawn's massege completely.
Lt. Commander Bren has to believe we are to go to Brentaal IV. If we'd eliminate him
now, Zaarin might know what we're up to and disappears. We'd never find the Grand Admiral.
No, Bren has to remain free and report to Zaarin."
Jovin nodded, approving.
"Understood, sir. It was wise to order the comm-personnel to report any strange
occurences to you only."
"It was a precaution which proved to be quite useful. I didn't believe in this
shuttle accident from the start. But I'd never guessed one of Zaarin's spies was
right under my nose. If the Grand Admiral hadn't send this message..."
Jovin snorted scornful.
"At least now we know how Zaarin had always been able to avoid our grasp.
The only question is: Is the Grand Admiral still alive?"
Parck looked his First Officer into the eyes.
"I hope so."
TBC...
Uff, that was much work!
I hope you liked it. And as always: If there's anything you want me to alter,
anything that doesn't fit in... TELL ME!
So much for now.
Caius Julius
This one is slightly longer than the previous chapters. I hope you don't mind.
(Of course you don't, do you?)
This chapter is the last that's based on my old story-files (mentioned in Ch.1).
It will probably take longer to write new stuff down, so be patient, please!
Of course I WILL finish this story. Don't worry, I promise.
I am very surprised and grateful that so many of you wonderful readers gave me
the honor to review my story. (Yes, I think 6 is many!)
To you six guys: You're the best, my motivation!
(Hope you're still reading this)
Robin: Well, I hope you like the following!
As long as you like it I keep on writing.
Vanessa: I hope I didn't overdo it! I'm not through with Thrawn, yet, you know...
I'd like to take the opportunity to thank the unknown fanficiton author who wrote
the Thrawn-gets-abducted-by-Zaarin-story I mentioned in Chaper 1.
(Must be a Thrawnatic like me...)
That was what gave me the idea to write this one.
Wherever you are: THANKS SO MUCH!
(I'd really like to know what he/she thinks about my work...)
So, enough of this for now, you guys want to know what's happening next I guess.
Enjoy!
DISCLAIMER:
I am not George Lucas, nor Tim Zahn. Thus Star Wars isn't mine.
(Sad, but true.)
"INTO ENEMY HANDS"
From Caius Julius
Chapter 4: The Message is underway
Inside the stern control center a screen began to light up, accompanied by a shrill
alarm klaxon.
The officer of the day did not believe his eyes. Who of all people was supposed to be
in the emergency-comm-room at this hour?
He activated his comlink.
"Attention! Alert in sector B2! A stormtrooper-squad to the emergency-comm-romm at once!"
Thrawn keyed the last characters in. Any moment now, the guards had to enter the room.
He was a little surprised they had not, already.
Finally, he pressed the last button. It didn't take long and he got an affirmation that his message was underway.
A thin smile played around his lips. He had succeeded.
Very abruptly, but not unexpected, the door opened, and four stormtroopers ran in,
their riffles pointed at him.
"Don't move!" one of them yelled. "Put your hands behind your head!"
Thrawn did as he was told. Any resistance was fultile. Besides, he had reached his goal.
A small victory, at least.
The stormtrooper stopped. "That's the Grand Admiral!" He sounded startled.
"Onto the floor! Lie down!"
Only when Thrawn was laying on the floor, his hands behind his head, the stormtroopers
came nearer.
They tied his arms at the small of his back and pulled him onto his feet again.
"What did you intend to do here?" the trooper asked with barely controlled anger.
Thrawn raised an eyebrow.
"What do you think a comm-room is for?" he replied in a sarcastic tone.
The answer was a punch to his stomach.
A butt hit his neck and everything went dark at once.
Commander Himo Trolls entered the cell in which the stormtroopers guarded the still unconcious prisoner.
After Trolls had given them a sign, they lifted Thrawn to his feet.
The commander took a few steps towards his prisoner and slapped him a few times in the face.
Finally, Thrawn came back to his senses.
"What did you send?" Trolls asked even before Thrawn had regained full conciousness.
"The message, what was its content? Tell me, now! We will know anyway."
Thrawn smiled faintly.
"I doubt that. You can try, of course."
Trolls face became grim.
"We'll see about this."
He nodded towards one of the troopers and the man punched Thrawn hard into his stomach.
Thrawn moaned and would have fallen to the floor if not for the guards.
"Well?" Trolls said.
"You can... beat me to death," Thrawn said, panting. "You won't... find out anything!"
The trooper stroke him with his fist in the face.
When Thrawn remained silent and Trolls once again nodded the trooper hit the prisoner
several times hard in the abdomen.
This time the guards let go of him and Thrawn fell to the floor.
His tormentor started to kick him. Again and again.
When he finally stopped, Trolls pulled Thrawn's head back, brutally.
"Now, is there anything you want to tell me?"
Thrawn's reply was drowned by his own groans.
Trolls raised to his feet and took a few steps back.
Two troopers knelt down and began to bind the prisoner.
They fettled the hands with binders onto his back and tied ankles and knee joints with
leather straps. Finally, they layed a chain around his neck and tied it to the other
shackles.
Moving became impossible, even if Thrawn had had the strenghth.
Trolls turned to the cruelly treated and bound prisoner at his feet.
"You'll have plenty of time to think, Thrawn. Maybe you want to tell Grand Admiral
Zaarin about your message tomorrow. He won't be as patient as I've been, you know?"
Thrawn didn't respond. Everything was a blur to him. The whole world seemed to
spin inside his head. One of his eyebrows was split, a lot of blood came out of
his mouth and nose. The pain inside his abdomen was so immense, he thought every
single organ was smashed.
Trolls laughed and gave him a mocking smile. Then he turned to the commanding stormtrooper.
"Have two of your men guard him. I'll send a medic down here. After that you can leave him alone."
He cast his eyes over Thrawn a last time and left the cell.
Some minutes later the medic entered.
It was the same man who had been present during Thrawn's previous torture.
"Sergeant," he spoke to one trooper. "I don't think the prisoner will be much of a threat.
You can leave now."
"As you wish," the man replied and mentioned his comrade to follow him.
Once the door had closed behind the troopers, Jonin Perolha - the medic - knelt down beside
Thrawn. He opened his bag and took out an injector.
Thrawn saw it and flinched immediately.
"Calm down," Perolha kept on and on at him gently. "The serum will help you. It's
far from beeing dangerous."
But as he raised the injector to Thrawn's arm, he cramped even more.
Perolha touched the prisoner gently on the shoulder and kept on trying to calm him down.
Very slowly, Thrawn eased up and the medic administered the serum.
Surprised, Thrawn noticed he felt indeed better. The big exhaustion seemed to leave him.
He tried to catch the medic's eyes while the man was cleaning his facial wounds.
"Why..." he asked almost to low to hear.
Perolha mentioned him not to speak.
"You shouldn't talk right now. Believe me: You'll need every bit of strenghth."
He turned to Thrawn's back to take care of the injuries he had recieved during the last
torture. Some of the wounds on his chest had become inflamed and he wanted to prevent other inflammations.
The chain that led from the prisoner's neck to his hands didn't make his work any easier.
Perolha noticed the bruises on Thrawn's wrists where the binders had cut deeply into the skin. He sighed.
"You... you don't deserve this, sir," he said.
Thrawn didn't believe his ears.
"What... do you mean?" he asked faintly.
"Well," Perolha replied hesitating. "To be treated like this." He mentioned to Thrawn's
shackles.
"Don't misunderstand me, admiral. You're the enemy. You are in command of the fleet
that has orders to hunt us down. When it became known you had been taken prisoner, I
was convinced Zaarin would have you executed. But this... I cannot understand.
I see the need of a death sentence for a highranking enemy like you but these tortures
do not fulfil a purpose. And they are unnecessesary cruel.
Zaarin wants to brake your mind and to humiliate you, just to satisfy his personal desires.
Our cause doesn't gain any advantage of this. On the contrary."
Perolha stopped.
"I'm doing more for you than I was told. He will you torture again - now, that you tried
to escape. You won't be able to stand firm long, considering your present state of
constitution. I just can't stand there and watch."
He finished his work at Thrawn's back and turned to the chest. Those wounds were much easier
to cure for the prisoner's hands were tied at his back.
"I will be present when he... I'am to make sure you survive, that you don't recieve
fatal injuries. If you want to live you've to summon all your strenghth left."
He took a second injector out of his bag and tested its content.
"You'll be able to sleep with this. I'am not allowed to administer any pain-killers
but this does something similar. The end is the same."
"Thanks," Thrawn whispered.
Perolha nodded and injected the serum.
Immediately, Thrawn noticed as everything around him began to spin. An overwhelming
heavyness came over him and he welcomed the dark with open arms.
"Sir?" the "Grey Wolf"'s communcations-officer called. "Commander Bren?"
Bren walked over to the young man.
"What is it Lieutenant? I hope it justifies your... unpatient behavior."
Lieutenant Maroon swallowed.
"Yes, sir. We've recieved a message, better: an interference."
Bren frowned.
"An interference? What is that supposed to mean, Lieutenant? How can an interference
be directed to us?"
Maroon hesitated.
"Well, it seems to be one, maybe parts of a message to a nearby star system. But...
it looks as if it was ment for the "Grey Wolf"."
"Well, then bring it onto the screen!" Bren ordered.
The Lieutenant pressad a few buttons and soon an incomprehensable flood of characters
and signs appeared on the screen.
"The source of this 'message'?" Bren asked, still frowning.
"Somewhere in the Orias-system, sir."
Bren hesitated. "There are no imperial ships in this system, are there?"
"No, sir."
"Was the computer able to read the message?"
"No, sir. It's no code, at least no known code. Like I said: an interference, strangely
directed to us."
Bren looked at the signs on the screen.
"Well, if the computer can't decode it its useless. I think we can delete it without
any danger."
"All right, sir."
Maroon keyed in an order.
"Finished, sir. The interference has been deleted."
Bren smiled. "Very good, Lieutenant!"
He left the comm-station, nodded to Commander Jovis - the First Officer - and left the
bridge.
Captain Parck, who had been secretly watching the converstion from the viewport, went to Lieutenant Maroon.
"And, Lieutenant?"
"Order carried out, Captain. He thinks I've deleted the messsage."
Parck's face showed a grim smile.
"Very good. That has to remain that way."
"I'll take care of it, sir."
Parck left the Lieutenant at his station and went to the bridge's main viewport.
Commander Jovis stepped at his side rather casualy.
"Shall I have him arrested?"
Parck stared out to the stars.
"No, not yet. He may tell Zaarin we have no evidence and no suspicion. No, on the
contrary: Bren is very important to us.
We will have finished our resuply in a few days. Hopefully by then we will have
decoded Thrawn's massege completely.
Lt. Commander Bren has to believe we are to go to Brentaal IV. If we'd eliminate him
now, Zaarin might know what we're up to and disappears. We'd never find the Grand Admiral.
No, Bren has to remain free and report to Zaarin."
Jovin nodded, approving.
"Understood, sir. It was wise to order the comm-personnel to report any strange
occurences to you only."
"It was a precaution which proved to be quite useful. I didn't believe in this
shuttle accident from the start. But I'd never guessed one of Zaarin's spies was
right under my nose. If the Grand Admiral hadn't send this message..."
Jovin snorted scornful.
"At least now we know how Zaarin had always been able to avoid our grasp.
The only question is: Is the Grand Admiral still alive?"
Parck looked his First Officer into the eyes.
"I hope so."
TBC...
Uff, that was much work!
I hope you liked it. And as always: If there's anything you want me to alter,
anything that doesn't fit in... TELL ME!
So much for now.
Caius Julius