General Dodonna's personal transport, the Liberty, hung in orbit around the uninhabited world of Caamas. The planet had once been home to a thriving population of Caamasi, a people beloved by everybody in the galaxy.
Except one group of people had hated them enough to completely and utterly destroy them. After a 'malfunction' of Caamas' planetary shield generators, a huge battle group had swooped down and lain waste to the planet, singing the atmosphere so badly that it was no longer breathable, and forcing the survivors of the bombardment to flee the planet.
And so now both the planet and the area of space around it were completely deserted, making it another excellent place for a discreet rendezvous.
The transport, on the possibility that Car'das would betray them and tell the Empire of Dodonna's location, had already calculated a jump to hyperspace, and could be gone in five seconds time if a fleet of Star Destroyers suddenly appeared from hyperspace.
But, as it turned out, Car'das had decided to come. He was welcomed aboard the transport, along with a contingent of bodyguards-neither side particularly trusted the other-and was ushered to the conference room. After the handshakes and pleasantries, the meeting began.
Far away, in a dank, dark room in the very back of the brig of the Star Destroyer Merciless, a man was being tortured.
After the simple methods of sleep deprivation and starvation had failed, General Cody had progressed to a newer, more unorthodox form of torture-sensory deprivation.
The technology was surprisingly simple. The subject, a human male in his 30s, had been stunned and, while unconscious, placed in a sub-aqua suit with a mask that had been painted over. He had then been lowered into a tank of water, the salt content of which had been carefully calculated so that its visitor floated exactly in the middle.
Upon awaking, the man had immediately noticed that he couldn't feel anything, not even his own skin. He slapped the place where he though his chest was, but the thick cushioning of the wetsuit absorbed the blow. He couldn't see a thing. He screamed, but a device that Cody didn't completely understand the workings of blacked that out too. He could smell nothing-the air inside his helmet was completely odorless. He could taste nothing but his own saliva.
The process was a slow one. The victim required time to attempt to come to terms with this new development. However, even if he had known what was happening to him, he still would have eventually succumbed to the necessity of sensory information. The longest record for resisting this form of torture was 18 hours. On a stormtrooper volunteer who had known exactly what was happening to him.
However, the man who was currently in the tank had neither the determination of a stormtrooper nor the knowledge of what was happening to him.
When the physician running the 'operation' identified the subject as in the final phase of desperation, he activated a microphone in the man's helmet. After being asked, the man immediately told the physician everything. The physician immediately contacted General Cody.
The Emperor himself needed to hear about this.