Chapter 18: Alderaan Again
A lone figure stood at the bow of the Star Destroyer Bitter Heart.
"Commander Horn." A petty officer called from below him. "The prisoner is awaiting your arrival, sir."
Horn appeared unmoved by and indifferent to the starfield around him, focused on the sternward doors. He was dressed not in Imperial uniform but simple black, and against regulations wore a thin yellow beard. The glimmer of the Force was in him, if you were one who could heed to those senses.
The big rear doors opened. The being led in by stormtroopers was, to Horn's eyes, quasi-intelligent or bestial, and not worthy of much consideration. Its many arms were tied, and the golden wings were tucked close to the furry body and shivered slightly, as if a muscle relaxant had been used on them.
Admiral Horn signaled for the troopers to bring the prisoner beside him on the bridge. "Ready the Death Star."
Changes were made down below, and the viewport morphed to an angle where the Death Star floated beside a blue and brown-white planet. The prisoner made a sound that might have been speech, and Admiral Horn absently said; "What?" At this very moment shielded personnel were switching and clicking the controls that would activate the Death Star's killing laser.
"You can not do this." Paqs Patra said.
"Quiet." Horn had no reservations about destroying that planet. It was an uninhabited rock to him, or even as an insect crushed under one's shoe.
"You can't do this." Paqs Patra said, all calmness and humanity. "We did nothing to the Empire. We got what you wanted. Darth Vader altered the agreement. My people are innocent of crime."
Horn didn't know exactly where respiration occurred on this type of being, but he put a Force hold on its long neck and seemed to get the desired result-it shut up.
"The Death Star is awaiting your orders, Commander."
"Fire when ready."
The prisoner's strangling head lashed, the golden wings hunched and shook, and a wild keening like a mynock's filled the bridge, though its beak was closed. Human heads raised throughout the bridge, unsure of the meaning of this new alarm.
Outside the viewport, a myriad of green lasers sprouted from the Death Star's side and then combined. The beam sprayed rubble from the planet, burned into its heart, and red light and a rumbling spread out into the vacuum.
Horn felt the deaths as flak sprayed out and against the Bitter Heart's shields. He felt it and took it into himself, shivered with the raw power of the Empire over the life of its subjects, and tightened his twist on the prisoner's throat. The beak opened as if panting before Horn's curled hands.
The keening stopped, and eerie silence echoed around the long room