"Child protective services. How can I assist you?"
Lux grips the comlink. "I'm calling to report an abused child in prison," he says. "She's being starved, frozen, and drugged."
"Sir, are you talking about Commander Torrance's facility?"
"Yes. You need to hurry. The girl is a human sixteen-year-old with dark hair, and she doesn't have much time."
…
"There must be some mistake." Tor says, keeping pace with the CPS agents. "Some of my employees bring their kids here after school, and we have teenage interns. The men were playing a birthday prank on one of the boys and it got a little loud. That must have been it."
The female CPS agent doesn't believe it. "Our tip specified a girl," she says "If you wouldn't mind opening the cells…"
"Of course," Tor concedes, hand inching toward the controller for the siren.
The female agent walks toward Sierra's cell, and Tor shuts off the siren. No doubt the brat is staring at the ceiling in confusion, wondering why he stopped the noise.
Unless she's collapsed from stress and exhaustion.
The male agent looks at Tor with a raised eyebrow.
"Just had to shut off the deadbolt so she can open the door." He lies. "Ma'am, I'd be wary before doing that. These prisoners are very-."
The woman opens the door.
"Maxwell!"
…..
"Who is she?" The male agent, Maxwell, barks, helping his partner lift Sierra out of the cell.
Having realized it's time for Plan B, Tor grabs Sierra's chart from the wall.
"Her name is Annie Bennet." He lies. "She's in here for fraud."
The girl's exhausted, her coordination is poor, and Tor knows she can't walk. He hands the chart to the female agent and takes Sierra. "I'll handle her. She's in my facility after all."
As he carries Sierra, he presses his lips to her ear.
"Wake up. Do you see what I have here?"
In his hand is a driver's license for someone named Cesar Garrity. And it has Lux's picture.
"There are more just like this one. You tell these agents anything, and he's cooked."
…
Sierra will give Tor one thing: he's a very good actor.
"How could something like this happen?" he asks emphatically.
"Kids freeze faster, especially the little ones." The CPS woman says. "Her core temperature is very, very low. How long has she been in?"
"A day and a half."
A day and a half? That's it? It feels like years.
Maxwell the CPS agent glances down at the thermometer readout. "She's rebounding. Kids are resilient like that. All she needs is some warmth and sleep."
Sleep? Did I actually sleep? She can still hear the siren screaming in her head.
"You! Find out what's wrong with the heat." Tor orders someone. "I want this girl in the Med Bay. Who could have done this?"
She hates him. She hates him for using her craft against her. She hates him for what he did to her dad, to Ahsoka three years ago, and what he's doing to her right now. How Child Protective Services managed to find her is nothing less than a miracle. If she had to guess, she'd say Dad's spirit is at work.
The female agent presses her hand against Sierra's. "She's not so terribly cold now. Annie, can you hear me?"
Is she talking to me?
"Annie? Annie Bennet! Wake up, sweetheart."
Annie Bennet? That's the first alias Hutch made for her, when they rigged an auction to steal their ship! Of course Tor would register her under an alias.
Of course he would.
"She's back," Maxwell announces. "That must have brought her around."
The woman looks at him and while his gaze is diverted, Tor flashes Lux's Cesar Garrity ID.
"Good," she says. "Annie, Max and I are from Child Protective Services. We received a tip saying you were in trouble. How do you feel?"
She shudders.
"Maxwell, get the kid a blanket, will you? And is that food tray here yet?"
Tor opens a cupboard and tosses a white blanket to the female agent. "We can arrange to have her nourished through an IV." He suggests.
"She's strong enough to swallow. Hot food will do her good." The CPS woman says. "Commander Torrance, who was responsible for her?"
"Some guards who will soon be facing disciplinary action." Tor says, "I assure you, this will be fixed. I'm transferring her to my personal supervision as soon as she's done here."
Maxwell lays the blanket over Sierra. "Annie, is that all right with you?"
My name isn't Annie! And Tor is the one doing this to me. Please, please figure out that Tor is the one doing this, that if you don't stop him he's going to kill me!
What do Imperials do to kids like her? They put them in orphanages.
Please take me to an orphanage. There, I at least stand a chance. Just get me out of here!
But she can still see that ID in Tor's fingers, the same one that came off the printer in the ship and Rex held up to the red lightbulb to see if it was done.
"Yes," she says numbly.
Tor slides the ID up his jacket sleeve, smiling at her.
"All right, Annie. Just sleep now. We'll bring you your food in a minute."
Three years ago, Tor walked down to the cell blocks to check on Ahsoka Tano's well-being. John Bonteri had gone home for the day, but Cooper was kneeling before the girl, spoon feeding her a cup of warm water.
"Cooper, what is this?" Tor demanded. "We do not spoon feed prisoners!"
Cooper froze and looked at Tor incredulously. "Sir, she is sick, sir."
"We're guards, not babysitters! You bring the tray in, you take it out if they don't touch it. Understood?"
"Understood," Cooper said glumly, muttering "You're a jerk" under his breath.
"WHAT?" Tor roared, a vein nearly popping out of his forehead.
"SIR YES SIR!"
He can't help but remember it while he watches a nurse spoon feed Sierra. Initially she was supposed to feed herself, but she almost dropped the spoon and tray.
Tor glances at her vital signs. They may be better but if he had to hazard a guess, she's still very cold and shaky. The cooling system works wonders when one removes the safety shutoff.
"Annie, is something wrong?"
It would be so much easier if these Child Protective Services agents weren't so nosy. Or if they directed questions at him, and not at Sierra.
Sierra swallows hard. "My chest feels strange."
The nurse glances up at the monitor, then sticks several pads onto the left side of Sierra's chest, under her shirt.
"Hang on, honey." She says, tweaking a few controls on a datapad. An EKG pops up on the holoscreen.
"Low blood sugar's messing with her heart. A meal should fix it but we should take her into the Med Bay just to be safe, since she can feel it."
"Of course," Tor says through gritted teeth, trying his hardest to ignore the ghost of triumph on Sierra's face.
Ugh. He should have known better: the girl's job is fraud, she'd know how to lie.
He follows as they wheel her into the med bay, put her back in bed, hook her up to monitors and feed her. Every moment she's pampered, it undoes some of what he's worked so hard for.
The second CPS leaves, he's going to make her wish she was never born.
….
Sierra stalls for as long as she can, but when her scans and bloodwork come back clear the medical droid writes her a clean bill of health.
"I think that closes our business here," Maxwell says. "Annie, is there anything else you'd like to say?"
Sierra is emboldened, and Tor knows it. He makes sure she can see the flash of the ID again.
"No," she says, scared into submission again.
"Take care of her, Commander Torrance," the female agent says. "Goodbye, Annie."
Tor escorts them to the door.
"I have a place prepared for her already. I don't think you'll be getting any more calls." He says as they walk through the door. "Have a nice day."
When their speeder pulls out, he raises his comlink.
"Get the girl in interrogation!"
Tor opens the interrogation room door, greeted with the sight of Sierra Bonteri secured to the chair with a sneer on her face.
"Annie Bennet, huh?"
"We have to keep those nosy agents out of our business somehow, don't we?" he snaps. "Speaking of agents…"
Tor leans over her. "How did you manage to call them?"
Sierra swallows hard. "I didn't. I don't know how they found out I was here."
Tor pulls his lips back in a ghost of a smile.
"I know you didn't, my dear. Your friends certainly are resourceful, finding someone else to take care of you while they went off to take care of their own business." He steps back and sits in his desk chair, far more comfortable than the one she's strapped to.
"Three hundred thousand. That's a lot of credits." He says. "Enough to make anyone abandon a rescue mission."
The flicker of doubt in her face tells him he's picked the right chord to play.
Children are filled with fear, after all. Especially someone whose parents were taken and whose brother has left her alone twice so he could join a terrorist group and a rebellion.
Tor picks up a vibroblade from the table, then sets it down.
There are other ways to torment her.
Much, much better ones.