"Ngg!" Luke was again writhing in his chains as his muscles spasmed under the assault. As much as he hated it there seemed to be a certain rhythm to things now. Almost like she had settled into a special schedule he could practically time how long she would keep up the lighting, and how much talking he would have a chance to do with her before she turned the lighting back on again and finally turned it off, letting him heal. It was both frustrating and liberating to know roughly how much she would torture him before she let him rest.
"So how about it, Skywalker? Do you still not want to admit to the Empire's greatness?" She sounded almost cheerful, Luke thought, as she turned off the lighting.
And of course she had gone back to talking about the Empire's greatness, something Luke did not agree with. He lifted his head to look into her eyes. He hadn't given up on getting through to her and get her to accept the truth, mostly because it was his only option and hope for freedom. If he couldn't break through to her then he knew she would sooner or later kill him. He couldn't count on the New Republic finding and rescuing him. They hadn't so far.
For a moment they just looked at each other while Luke got his tongue back under control.
"Why are you so sure the Empire was great? They suppressed, enslaved and tortured billions." He rattled his chains a bit to underscore his point. "That is hardly the mark of greatness."
She looked at him almost bemused. "The Empire stand for order and stability. Something you rebels don't have. All those many species all having equal representation, all of them having the right to speak all the time. It's chaos and bugs things down in bureaucracy."
Luke lifted an eyebrow despite doing so hurt a muscle in his face. "Are you really telling me the Empire wasn't full of bureaucracy and bureaucrats?"
She waved a hand in the air as if his point was inconsequential. "Every government will have some bureaucracy, that is unavoidable. But Palpatine's Empire had order and decisions could be made swiftly."
Luke laughed mirthlessly. "Yes, I've seen the Empire's swift decisions. That's how Alderaan was destroyed. Do you really think an entire planet, even one that was pacifistic and didn't have any weapons, could ever be such a threat to the Empire that destroying it could ever be justified?"
Luke noticed the amusement was gone now. "That was Tarkin's decision, and I think you and your rebel friends paid him back. And they were rebels."
Ah, so Alderaan's destruction doesn't sit well with her either. Luke raised an eyebrow again. "All of them? Even the animals and plants? Even the children?"
Luke thought he saw a flicker in her eyes, but she smoothed her features and it was gone again in an instant.
"Tarkin might have been a bit overzealous in his methods, but it worked as an effective reminder."
"A reminder of the Empire's cruelty when they could destroy an entire peaceful planet like that."
"Shut up." Her expression hadn't changed, but there was an angry glint to her eyes.
"Or what?" Luke countered. "We both know you will turn on that lighting regardless of what I say, so why shouldn't I speak the truth? You know very well that what happened to Alderaan can never be justified. It was, pure and simple, evil and not the sign of a great Empire."
She looked at him hard for a long moment. Here it comes. Conversation is over for today.
"You seem to be a bit too well, jedi. Let's chance that." And with that she turned on the lighting again. Luke just had time to take a deep breath before it hit him and he started spasming again.
§
Skywalker was frustrating to talk with, but it was necessary if she were to turn him around. So far, unfortunately, he had proved a lot harder to break than she had hoped. And today he had decided to bring up Alderaan.
Mara looked at herself in the mirror. Her pale face looked back. She hadn't left this cave either for all the time she'd had Skywalker holed up here, except to send the holovids.
Alderaan ... Even being a hardliner Imperialist Mara had to admit that one had been a bit over the top. Of course the animals couldn't have been rebels, neither could the plants. Those weren't fully sentient or, in the case of the plants, not sentient at all. The children ... well, certainly they could have been. She was raised a loyal Imperial and had worked for Palpatine since she was a girl. So yes, the children could have been rebels, too. At least the older ones. Not the infants. Infants didn't really do anything as far as Mara was concerned. And maybe not the toddlers either. Still pretty small and ... innocent.
But it was a well known fact that the planet had been full of Rebel sympathizers. Pacifistic sympathizers, but sympathizers nonetheless.
She made a face. Okay, so the damn jedi had a point. Alderaan had been taking things too far, but it had been Tarkin's decision, not hers and not Palpatine's either. Of course, Palpatine had been behind the Death Star and had appointed Tarkin to it ...
Mara shook her head decisively. The Force-damned jedi was putting things in her head again. She would have to be more careful not to let him under her skin.
She smiled slightly. Speaking of which it was time to pay the jedi a little visit and let a certain part of him under her skin.
§ §
"Welcome back, Captain."
"Thank you, Admiral." Palan saluted him and held it until Ackbar returned the salute.
Artoo bipped his own greetings and Ackbar nodded at the droid.
"Come along, Captain. General Cracken has prepared a room for a full debriefing of both of you."
Palan nodded curtly and fell into step next to Ackbar with Artoo rolling along behind them. He wanted to apologize for his failure in finding Jedi Skywalker, but wasn't really sure how to begin. He was well aware that the failure to find conclusive evidence of Skywalker's whereabouts could result in the man's death if he was even still alive. Now he could just hope that Skywalker's X-wing might reveal some clue as to who his captor was or where they might have come from.
He cleared his throat. "I'm sorry that my mission wasn't more successful, Admiral."
Ackbar nodded, but waved a webbed hand in dismissal. "You did your best and you did well, Captain. You found the X-wing and gave us a new lead thanks to the recordings of Artoo. If Artoo and the X-wing hadn't been found we would have even less to go on."
Palan nodded his understanding. "I know, sir. Even so I had hoped the recordings would have lead us to the attacker. Any news from the team?"
Ackbar shook his head. "Not last I talked with General Cracken about it. But I know he has several teams out checking up on potential leads and suspects."
"So it is a waiting game now."
Ackbar nodded. "Yes, Captain, it very much is. Everything is in the hands of the NRI now, at least until they have something that fits into our area again. Here we are," he added as they reached the door into the room Cracken had secured for the debriefing.
"General," Ackbar greeted.
"General Cracken." Palan snapped a salute.
"Admiral, Captain." Cracken nodded to each of them in turn. "Sit down and let us begin. Artoo, please plug in and join the debriefing."
Artoo whistled in reply and rolled over next to General Cracken and plugged in to the dataport there.
Palan still hadn't quite gotten used to speaking to an astromech droid as if it were a living being, but he tried not to let it affect him.
Cracken turned his attention on Palan. "So, Captain, we have gotten your preliminary reports and one fuller report after finding the X-wing, but we would like a thorough report from start to finish now. Don't leave anything out, not even the smallest detail. It could prove to be the missing piece of the puzzle."
Palan nodded, a serious expression on his face. "I used the time on the return trip to gather my report and make it ready for your viewing." He pulled two datacards out of his breast pocket and slid one over the table to General Cracken and to Admiral Ackbar. "It should have all the details of the mission. The single most eventful part of the mission was the finding of Skywalker's X-wing and droid."
Artoo bipped and the translation appeared on the screens in front of the three men. CONTACT WAS MADE 9 DAYS, 8 HOURS, 23 MINUTES AND 46 SECONDS AFTER THE EXPLOSION.
Ackbar and Cracken nodded.
"At least we know exactly when the attack took place, and we know where. But we still need to find out where they went after that." Cracken realized this also meant they knew how long Skywalker had been under torture or at least knew the maximum time he had been under torture. It wasn't a pleasant thought.
"Any news from the team I met up with?"
Cracken shook his head. "So far they haven't been able to get anything new in system. Sadly, the visual records had already been deleted and the ship is so nondescript that the written records haven't proved helpful. But as far as they have been able to determine the ship didn't land, just changed vector and left again."
Palan nodded. "What about the data Skywalker's droid sent you?"
"We're still analyzing it. So far nothing definitive have showed up. We're hoping a careful analysis of the X-wing might give us new leads to follow."
Again Palan nodded. It made sense; the NRI people wanted to analyze every little detail and then compare them hoping to catch some clue left behind by the attackers.
"I don't suppose you have a suspect?"
Cracken smiled grimly at him. "We have too many. A lot of them we have managed to rule out for one reason or another, but we still have too many to investigate."
Ackbar swiveled his eyes towards Palan. "Captain, we want everything your people have found during the initial analysis on the way back. Have your technicians report in to NRI and work with them on further examination of Skywalker's X-wing."
"Yes, sir."
"If we have any further questions once we have read your full report then we will call you in."
"Otherwise take a break once you have given the technicians their orders."
"Yes, sirs."
Cracken looked at Artoo. "I will keep the droid with the NRI and see what help it can be."
Palan nodded to both of them and rose to leave the room. He knew the Admiral and General would be reading his report very carefully, but he doubted it would tell them anything new. It was all about the droid and X-wing now; therein lay their best hope for new leads and clues to Jedi Skywalker's whereabouts.
§
"Iella Wessiri?"
Iella woke with a start and sat bolt upright, banging her head against her table. She rubbed at the sore sport and squinted in the direction of the voice. "Yes?" She had just been enjoying a short rest after another intense round of research that had left her with a headache.
"Sorry to disturb you, but I wanted to talk with you."
Iella got onto her feet as she looked her visitor over. Elegant, white hair, Alderaanian accent ... must be Organa's assistant, Winter.
"What can I do for you?" She plopped into her chair and waved a hand towards a free chair. I need a cup of caf ...
The smell of caf reached her nostrils as Winter held a cup forward to her.
"Ah, thanks." She sipped the hot caf gratefully.
Winter smiled mildly at her and took the proffered chair. "You can help me by sharing your most recent research. I have learned that you have taken a closer look at the court."
"How did you – no, nevermind. You have clearance to this information as Councilor Organa's assistant, don't you?"
Winter nodded. "That and from my old Intelligence clearance from the days of the Alliance." Once again she smiled mildly at the other woman.
That piqued Iella's interest. She had forgotten the other woman had worked with Intelligence before, but then again she hadn't been part of the Alliance; she had come along later after leaving CorSec and Corellia behind. But she knew this wasn't the time to ask questions about that and the vague memories stirring in her head.
"So what exactly do you want to know?"
"I want a look at who you are looking into and the data you have on them so I can compare it with my own data."
Iella swung her chair towards the screen and started pulling up the information. "I didn't know you were part of the research team," she said casually.
"I'm not," Winter answered. "At least not officially. But I have my own methods of finding information and I'm hoping your data might prove helpful."
Iella glanced at her, but just nodded. She didn't think the other woman the type to take all the credit for herself and even if she did Iella wouldn't really mind if it lead to finding the woman who held Skywalker prisoner.
"Okay, as you probably know I've been investigating some of the women who frequented Palpatine's court. Four of them I have ruled out, but I'm still working on two of them." She pulled their pictures and data up on the screen. Winter leaned in to read.
"The brunette was an escort, who only went with the rich and powerful. As far as I've been able to tell she left Coruscant not too long after the battle of Endor, but I haven't found out where she went yet or what happened to her."
"She went to Commenor and married a wealthy businessman. Assumed a new identity and now lives a life of luxury there." Winter looked at Iella. "Her hair is black these days."
Iella blinked. She hadn't expected Winter to have any information on the woman, but if that was true ... "Then it sounds like she's a very unlikely suspect."
Winter nodded her agreement. "I checked her, too, due to her military connections, but she's still on Commenor playing the role of doting wife. Seems like she had enough of court life."
Iella sighed. "Well, then I can scratch her." She crossed her out on her screen. "That leaves me with the red-haired palace dancer, who I haven't been able to find much info on."
Winter nodded, frowning slightly and reached for a datapad in her pocket. "I have not been able to gather much information about her either," she said as she turned it on and showed the screen to Iella. "There's surprisingly little about her in any of the old records and nothing at all after Endor. It is as if she just vanished."
Iella frowned at Winter's datapad. "Who's the other woman?"
"I don't know. But I was hoping you might have had some information on her. She doesn't really appear much at court itself, but she does appear around the palace."
Iella studied the image. The woman looked beautiful with her black hair and slender frame, but there was something haughty about her face and almost arrogant in the set of her shoulders.
"So these are our current palace suspects? A palace dancer and someone we don't have a clue about?"
"I think that sums it up, yes."
Iella waved at her computer. "Well, we might as well hook you up to my terminal and get our data synced. Then perhaps we can see if we can't find some more information about those two together."
Winter nodded her agreement. "That does sound like a good arrangement."
Iella felt her spirits lift a little. Winter was clearly a good researcher with the information she had found on the former escort, and it would be nice having some company even if mostly silent while they worked. Hopefully they would soon have something more concrete to present to General Cracken.