Imperial Garrison - Triadon
The steady battering of the rain against the transparisteel window acted like a spur to Maija's edginess. She'd had a funny feeling all day, but perhaps it was because of the weather. The wind always seemed alien to her here. She watched the droplets race themselves across the viewport in an erratic game, their directions chosen for them by the wind. Maija rested her hand lightly on the transparent surface and watched as her fingerprints appeared. It wasn't home. A stray memory of a hot clear day round Bestine Township on Tatooine flitted easily into her mind. Random images of her mother running across the desert sands being chased by her father and a very small Maija sinking to her knees against a sand dune.
"Maija!" her father's voice echoed loud in her mind.
"Make shapes in the sand." Her parents had looked at each other. "No sweetheart - not like that." The young Maija's first impulse had been to stretch out a chubby finger and draw. "Do it by thinking about it." Her father had instructed. She didn't mind - it was a good game.
"Okay." She'd answered, sticking her tongue between her teeth in steady concentration. "I can do a flower." She'd never seen a real flower until she'd moved from Tatooine. Flowers were only for the wealthy. The sand had risen and for an instant the childish vision of a flower hovered in the air before vanishing and the grains of golden sand dropped to the desert floor.
"Good girl," her mother approved. "That was longer than last time."
Maija beamed happily into her father's face. With a chuckle he ruffled her untidy windblown hair, but the look he sent his wife above his child's head, was worried.
"Petros, we have to see Obi Wan."
"He won't be happy. He doesn't know I'm doing this. I have no Force talent."
"He will know."
"I suppose so."
"Will grandfather be angry?"
"No, little jawa. No one could ever be angry with you." He picked his daughter up and swung her onto his shoulders as they returned to their speeder. "She has to be able to protect herself."
"Against what?" Jerna asked.
"I don't know. My father is a fugitive, hiding from I'm not sure what." He lifted Maija down and placed her in the back of the speeder.
"Or whom." Jerna's voice was knowing.
"Or whom."
"Why is grandfather hiding?" Maija piped up from the back.
"He likes the quiet, but we can't mention your Grandfather and he's not hiding. Jerna - now is not the time…"
There had never been time after that. She knew not to mention the old man at all and when her parents died she was old enough to understand.
********************************************************
"Lieutenant!"
Commander Fariu's voice echoed through the com.
"Yes, sir."
"Any sign of the Governor?"
"Not yet, sir. I'll let you know as soon as he arrives."
Maija glanced longingly at the uninspiring view again before returning to the paperwork. Columns of figures blurred in front of her eyes. It didn't matter how many times she read them. They all added up to one thing. The industrial output from the Triadon factories was well down. Bad news for Commander Fariu and the Empire or very good news for the Rebel Alliance - take your pick. She stifled a small, satisfied smile. It was as it should be, but now was not the time to get careless. Labour shortages, power failures, equipment malfunctions - you name it, Maija had arranged for it to happen. 'I know the rules,' she told herself, 'but I need to do more. This is not enough. Triadon is a major producer of durasteel but I need to make it really hurt and not get caught.'
That was going to be her problem. How to turn up the heat without the finger of suspicion pointing in her direction. This waiting patiently wasn't enough - things had to get done yesterday.
Her com beeped.
"The Governor has arrived, Lieutenant."
"Thank you." Maija pressed a button on her console. "Send him up."
Maija slipped her hand under her desk and brought out a small cylinder. Unscrewing the lid carefully she placed two small items on her desk. It was a good job the holocamms in the office had failed weeks ago - with a little encouragement. The recording rod was no thicker than the spines on a Corellian needle rat and carefully she pushed it up the sleeve of her uniform. The other item she held in her closed fist. Pressing the chime on the connecting door, she waited for her summons.
"Enter."
"Commander Fariu, sir - Governor Markieer has arrived."
"Thank you, Lieutenant."
The Commander was a tall thin and miserable individual. He couldn't work out what had gone so wrong with the Imperial operation on Triadon, but he was determined to find out. He glanced sourly at his assistant. She was one of several and they changed at various times during the week. They were all efficient and anonymous. It didn't help him if he was demoted and no doubt they'd all be demoted with him if he was unlucky enough.
"Are you ready for your transfer to a backwater world?"
"Sir?" Maija looked a little startled. "I don't understand."
"If we cannot find the source of these problems we will all suffer. To work for the best you must be the best and we have not performed well. Things are bad, Lieutenant. Production is down and we are the ones that will be punished." He stood up and walked to the viewport.
Maija said nothing and ducked her head in a manner that made her commanding officer think that she was worried about her future. In reality Maija hid her expression because in her opinion the ones that were suffering were mining the ore which made the durasteel, or working in the hellish conditions of their factories.
"But we've done our best, sir." Maija opened her fingers and the object she had held there for safety flew upward and attached itself unnoticed to the ceiling. The fly-eye had its limitations but unless there were sensor jammers in the room, which there was not, she should get a clear picture. Unfortunately the fly-eye wasn't big enough to carry data to make it record sound as well, so the recording rod slipped from her sleeve and rested innocuously in a vase of fake flowers. They were supposed to give the Commander's room something of a lift, but these flowers had long past their best and like everything else on Triadon stood as silent grey spectators to everything that occurred within these walls.
"When the Governor arrives, I don't want to be disturbed. I'll alert you if anything is required."
"Of course, sir," Maija muttered dutifully. His pathetic air of doom was almost comical. The Governor had the final word on most issues including who was in overall charge of the Imperial Garrison. He held the Imperial power in his hands on Triadon. Moving through to her desk she picked up what looked like a perfectly ordinary data card reader and slotted a card into it. Immediately a picture appeared. Maija smiled to herself. She set the machine to record and hid it in her desk drawer.
The two tone chime of the approaching turbolift echoed down the corridor and Maija stood to attention as the Governor's party exited the lift and marched in perfect formation along the corridor.
"If you would come this way, Governor," Maija gave a smart salute and ushered the Governor into the commander's office. He gave her a thin-lipped smile which did nothing to lighten his sharp almost skeletal features.
"You have a bioscan unit installed in the doorway of the outer office?" Markieer ran his eyes thoughtfully over the equipment.
"It's a standard feature now in all Imperial facilities, sir. Is there a problem?"
"No - I will want to take a look at the readings later on."
"Yes, sir." Maija gave Fariu a puzzled glance, but he just shrugged before adding. "I believe it was to neutralise any threat from non-humans who might be trying to infiltrate the Empire."
"Good." Markieer turned to his two escorts. "Wait outside."
With a sharp salute the two men retreated to wait outside Maija's domain. The door to the Commander's office slid shut and Maija was left on her own as much as she could be with two guards outside her office.
Returning to her figures she slipped a card into a real data reader this time and connected it to the larger screen in front of her. The figures scrolled over and over and engrossed she was unaware of anything but what was in front of her until a long finger tapped her on the nose. The shorter of the Governor's two escorts stood leaning on her desk - his grey eyes intently watching her. Maija looked at the bioscan indicators and found they were blank.
"Page!" she mouthed in shock.
"Meet me later. We need to talk."
"Hey, Chaptor!" the other escort called carefully. "We're supposed to stay out here."
Maija's eyebrows rose. "Chaptor?"
"It's my name."
"Ohh!" she drawled. "Not paragraph or sentence?"
"Cute." He said and shuffled to sit on the desk.
"There's a lady in here." Page called back easily.
"Is that all you think about?"
"No, I think about Imperial glory too. That way I know I survive to meet the ladies."
Maija shook her head, marvelling at Page's chameleon like ability to adapt himself to any situation. 'I should ask him for lessons.' It was uncanny.
"Don't get excited, Nerano. They could be in there for hours yet."
"Nerano?" Maija echoed questioningly. "Franjeer?"
The tall man clad in an imperial lieutenant's uniform like Maija and Page, sidled cautiously into the office at the mention of his name. For a moment he gazed at the slim female until recognition struck.
"Little Darklighter?"
"Less of the little please." A quick sideways glance at Page showed he was none the wiser about this meeting and obviously Nerano hadn't connected 'Chaptor' with the visit of Tonan Cram all those years ago. Franjeer was a nice man, much too nice to be an Imperial soldier, but that was what he had wanted and he'd worked to achieve it too. It had been nearly three years since they'd last seen each other, but it was her former friend all right. Time hadn't changed him much. He was still as huge and his jaw was still as square.
"You two know each other?" Page questioned casually.
"Lieutenant Nerano and I were at the Raithal Academy together."
"I went to Carida, but Raithal is one of the hardest ones to get into."
"Darklighter here, helped me with those awful art classes."
"He was never going to be a connoisseur." Maija added, "But he worked really hard."
"So you knew this lovely lady already and you didn't tell me."
"I didn't know," Nerano protested studying Maija. Time had changed her. She was still poised and the air of solitary detachment she held around herself remained. Still slender with the pale face and dark eyes. Not pretty exactly, but she had something. "You're taller," he blurted out.
"So I should hope," she returned briskly.
"I made it." He offered seriously.
"So I see." Her eyes hardened, but he must have been mistaken about the coldness in her steady stare. It was nothing, merely a trick of the light.
"I'm going to help the Governor root out those rebels that are destroying the Imperial family. These terrorists don't realise what they're doing to so many innocent people."
Maija and Page shared a look that Nerano failed to see.
"Yeah," Page drawled slowly. "These rebels are everywhere."
Maija smothered her chuckle at its source. It wasn't really funny.
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"Goodnight, sir," Maija murmured softly as the Commander left the office. The Governor had gone several hours previously and Fariu had been exceedingly withdrawn ever since. It was possible he might tell her, but with Fariu you had to wait and see what his mood was. It didn't matter in any case, she would find out first. She wasn't too keen on surprises. Most of them in her view were unpleasant.
First a quick twitch of the holocamms in Fariu's office and she was able to retrieve the fly-eye. With a whisper of its metallic wings it settled on its miniature landing pad held in her outstretched palm. Collecting the recording rod from the vase of fake flowers she slipped it into the cylinder along with the fly-eye and attached it to the inside of her Imperially issued utility belt, which she'd modified a little. Together these little gadgets would give her some clues to what the governor would be looking out for. She doubted Markieer had a personality that could be described as pleasant.
The office door slid shut behind her and she turned to make her own exit when she came face to face with the man standing inches from her.
"Busy, Lieutenant?" the close proximity of the figure and the voice so loud in the quiet confines of her office made her gasp.
"Page!" Maija hissed angrily between clenched teeth. "If I'd been armed…"
"I'd have been singed. I know."
"Why are you here? What do you want me to do? If it's anything big it will be difficult. We're being monitored very closely just now. Too many things have been going wrong here."
"Questions, questions." He perched on the edge of her desk. "Is it safe to talk here?"
"I hope so, or we'd both be in a holding cell in the detention centre this very minute. I hope you're not normally so careless." Maija's tone was disapproving and Page checked the retort that sprang to his lips. The child was right. He had assumed she would have dealt with most of the hardware in her working environment. It was a mistake he could not afford to repeat.
"
"Remind me."
"I never answer questions in a room…."
"You've bugged yourself," he finished. "So this room is clean and next door?"
"It's okay for the moment, but I can't leave it that way. I've fixed the data stream from the holocamms to show the same picture. This is fine when the room is empty as it is now, but it can't remain that way."
"So what kind of things have been going wrong?"
"The usual - labour shortages, power cuts things going missing, wrong quantities being assembled for various orders. Big glitches in the computer systems…."
"So you've been busy."
"Not just me, sir. There was a rebel cell here after all."
"I know. I told them to get in touch with you."
"I've done what I can
"That's why we must do what we can to lessen the Empire's grip on the galaxy. Some places have it even worse." Page rubbed his eyes and Maija noticed for the first time how thin and drawn he was. The air of good humour was just that - a cover.
"The sector governor arrived and the Commander has gone into a depression
"Is that why you are alone just now?" Page asked curiously.
"No, there are usually two of us in this office, but my colleague came down with some kind of viral infection last week and is still in the infirmary. There are holocamms…"
Page twisted his head to look at them.
"But they're not working at the moment."
"You fixed them." He sounded definite.
"Me? Whatever gave you that idea? Besides - two steps down that hallway there is a permanently manned command centre with at least twenty people working there, even at this time of night. Why am I telling you this - you know how many troops are stationed here."
"Just checking up on your general knowledge."
"You're tired aren't you? How on Tatooine did you manage to end up as the Governor's escorts?"
"Luck and a lot of internal manoeuvring on the part of Alliance Intelligence."
"Cracken's good, isn't he?"
"Yes - he's one of the best. The Empire didn't know what they let loose upon them when they alienated the General."
"I've never met him, but I can see the results of his handiwork all around me, especially when I hack into some of the more secure reports. Things may not be good for the Rebellion just now, but our agents are still causing problems where and when they can."
"You'll meet him one day."
"I hope so. By the Force, I hope so."
Page paused at her words. She was a rebel agent but had never been with others of her kind. She'd been working from within the Empire, yet she talked as if she knew what the Force was. This was not a subject mentioned on Imperially held worlds. It was possible her parents had educated her about such things, but there could be more to it. Perhaps her background rated further investigation at some point, but not just now. Not when the Empire had them running from base to base. If they didn't find somewhere safe soon there might be no rebellion for Maija Darklighter to defect to.
Maija looked at him sympathetically. "Come on, sir. My shift is over. I'll buy you supper."
"Very kind, kid, but I need to see what you have on the internal working of this place. We need you to divert more raw materials our way."
"I thought that might be the case." She handed over several data cards. "Current codes and once I've sorted it out I can give you a copy of the meeting between the Commander and the Governor."
"That would be good, but I have to leave in twenty-four hours. I have to meet an Alliance convoy…." He hesitated. "I can't tell you where."
"I understand. What I don't know they can't torture out of me, right?"
Page gave a heavy sigh. "Right. Can't you just give me what you have and I'll get Alliance techs to deal with it?"
"I suppose I could, but I would like to know what I have to deal with."
"Copy it."
Maija dug into her desk drawer and pulled out a data card copier. With a careful look at her chrono, she slid the cards and the needle like recording rod into their correct slots.
"Is this new?" Page asked fingering the recording rod.
Maija nodded. "Brand new. I developed it myself only last month. It is so slim it can go anywhere - well nearly anywhere. I want to develop this into something smaller, but I can't get access to the parts."
"If you can get an accurate reading from something this slender and you think you can fine tune it further. I'll get you the parts."
Maija lifted her head and gave Page an intent look. "There are a couple of things you might want to know, unless the Intelligence service has ferreted this out already
"Go on."
"There's a really big shipment going out in the next week, heading for the Kuat shipyards. The Executor is getting a big refit just now. It's been very busy of late. Lord Vader is stepping up his hunt for any Rebel activity, especially concerning Skywalker."
"Where did you learn this?" Page's voice sounded tense.
"Most of it on the infonet, but the part about Skywalker was in a secure report. He's using probe droids. Hundreds and hundreds of them - possibly thousands. Vader will search every system until he finds the boy and he wants him alive."
"I didn't want to know that, kid. Tell me I didn't."
***********************************************************
Nerano had been watching them for a few moments. Maija was digging into her desk drawer while his colleague was sitting on the desk casually chatting. But their moves were furtive and their voices hushed. For two people who had only met today, they had an awful lot to talk about.
