4 The Epic: Jungle Flashback

She had only her fingers to comb out the tangles in her hair. Eva would lie awake in the dark, drenched in her own sweat, the lumps of a pair of work gloves under her back. She had to sleep on them so they would not be stolen. If there was a single thing pleasant about the jungle, it was the exotic night chorus floating past the canvas walls.

Shafts of orange light were beginning to ease over the tent. Cranking machinery and voices replaced night sounds. Eva took a shallow painful breath. She dropped a leg on the bare ground to balance herself and picked her stiff body off the cot, as did the group of nine females housed with her. Day forty seven in the Imperial hard labor camp.

Eva would stand too long in the shade. She gathered the loose branches too slow to their satisfaction, as she didn't want to be stung by the mungus that made their nests under the leaves. It wasn't certain death, but…

On the other hand, a few days in a sick ward could actually be an improvement.

A guard lowered his electrostaff and zapped her, to her fellow prisoner's amusement. And before her head cleared and the numbing pain subsided, the guard was poking Eva with aforementioned weapon to get going. While others gathered logs and tossed foliage into the collection bins, one closely watched inmate was allowed to handle a laser-saw to cut the larger felled trees. In exactly forty two days, that inmate would be having his way with the saw and the guards.

A stormtrooper had come to single out three human women to march off to the Lieutenant Colonel's private quarters. Once there, Tuggs eventually appeared and paced slowly around them. When he came to Eva, she met his aloof gaze and considered what she could do with her new training if they were left alone. She was just the sort of desperate that odds didn't matter anymore. But again, if she took him, she probably wouldn't even be punished for it. Eva tried her best to suppress a deranged smile. Tuggs asked a guard to take the other women away.

Only one stormtrooper remaining.

The Lieutenant Colonel was still taking stock of her and seeming slightly less self-assured, when he crossed the room and opened an adjoining door. Motioning Eva to enter, he simply added, "Put on the scout trooper's helmet and uniform. Lord Vader wants to see you."

Then it was Lord Vader who was taking stock of her, in the cool, dry air of the Executor. Eva was filthy and thin. Her hands were still badly lacerated though she had possession of the work gloves full time. The Mandalorian she had shared them with every other day, had been mauled by a raspavoure when she went off to relive herself behind a palm. Eva begged off Vader's attempts to jump into refresher training. 'Just a day, so I can sleep- How could he possibly think, she hadn't the opportunity to practice her combat skills?.'

But only a couple of standard days later, Eva's appearance had quickly improved. Vader realized he was going to have to cut the exercise short and have her smuggled back down to the detention center. Eva was desperate to know how much longer- when would the rebels be coming to free their brethren?

"You need to appear as though you've been Lieutenant Colonel Tugg's plaything. Do you understand what I'm going to do to you?" Eva froze when it sunk in. Two blows to her face, a third was intended. An involuntary gasp escaped her swelling lips. Flushed, she had returned to her upright, proud stance- quiet, still and cringing. Vader was concerned her morale would plummet, when the main objective of the leave was to reinforce it. But there was something else, completely alien to his being, a hesitancy borne of compassion. In self-loathing and shock, he quickly drove home the third blow.

They told her over and over, nothing she heard or saw would be spoken of outside the circle of Greater Courtiers. They never mentioned the advice she felt most important; 'be careful what you think around the Emperor.'

Aloo was looking out the viewport at the newly arrived Executor, slightly aggravated how closely Vader's ship had come out of hyperspace next to the Emperor's. This was a pissing contest that would never subside, he silently determined. He returned his attention to Eva and Marius seated across the conference table. "Our Emperor won't be sleeping." He was surprised at the slight hesitancy to tell Eva. He didn't mean the Emperor would be tossing and turning in his rest. He meant that the Emperor would not retire, even if it were for days, while Vader was near. Extra staff would need to be scheduled.

Eva looked down at her commlink. Vader was trying to reach her. Let's move things along. "You want me to give up my time off? Am I going to get it back later?" Eva was only a Greater Courtier understudy. Why were they asking this of her?

"I doubt it. Our Emperor's aunt is rather ill. For two days, he will visit Naboo." Eva was to drop her Lesser Courtier duties of vetting the Emperor's outside visitors.

"I'm being fast tracked again?"

"You needn't worry. You'll have much oversite."

Eva met Lord Vader at the docking bay and walked along side as he made his way to the Emperor's sector. He'd have to slow his gait, to make up for her small stride. From his transpirator, his breath flowed long and relaxed.

When she had first sent word of the Courtier nomination, Vader only responded that he would contact her later. He was now explaining the rebuff. "If you felt I could have offered advice, I don't see that you had any choice in the appointment… Eva, you should now assume your communications, even verbal within your personal suites, to be compromised." He turned his head towards her, his mask as inscrutable as ever. "Has the Emperor treated you well?"

Eva suppressed her smile. "He vacillates between cold formality to occasionally toying. He appears to enjoy knocking me off balance, seeing what clever repartee I can manage. It's not even fair. My hands are tied with protocol… He's savagely intelligent. But of course, you all are." She wondered again, how and why she got here. But now she could feel Vader beginning to distance himself. Must be the company she was keeping.

Somewhere along the way of the whole adventure, Vader's threatening her to do his bidding, had become her wanting to do his bidding. He had realized that intimate encouragement brought the best results, and in turn, he was somewhat receptive to her closeness. So many leaps of faith she had made for him, and every one had worked thus far…

"You want to do what?"

"It's worked before, on one other person. Look, this is a recording of the kind of images we can get." The medical technician had indicated a screen with blurred moving footage- the vantage point from someone's eye. The sound was recorded too. Eva could clearly hear the person speaking out loud, though it resonated in a way that reminded her of talking with hands over her ears.

"It's sending sound to the subject that's the hardest part. The receiver planted in the brain picks up the signals well, but the brain has trouble deciphering them. They aren't close enough to the kind of signals that come from the nerves in your ear. It's going to take practice."

"Wouldn't the Rebels be able to detect this whole system?"

"The parts are nano-components, made of natural materials that sacredly show up on scanners. We're fine tuning the cloaking too…The scars would be under your hair line."

And in the end, the reticence of going it alone, was greater than the fear of being cut into. There would be five others like her outfitted the same and put into play. But only Eva had brought Vader to Luke's doorstep.

And if the Emperor saw to it to suddenly reverse his approach as Vader had done, he might have Eva in the palm of his hand too...

"Do you believe there is more to this appointment … I mean, beyond appearances?" Eva deliberated.

Vader had his suspicions. Probably Palpatine was toying with him as well, by taking his subordinate for himself. "When is anything… what it seems?"

Eva badly wanted to know if in accepting the position, did Vader expect her to relay relevant information? But she was holding her silence, hoping that her allegiance to either the Emperor or Vader need never be chosen. She'd just have to deal with things on a case by case basis. She'd also have to consider that she could be used to relay misinformation. Eva lowered her voice to an inaudible whisper, knowing Vader's helmet contained amplification. "How will I reach you if it's important?"

And Vader paused and leaned over her, to whisper a way.