1.
Jaina Kavos was tired. The interrogation was well into its second hour, and she needed a break. Of course, the Imperial officer in front of her would never have known that as she drove her boot into his ribs again.

"Tell me what I want to know." Her voice was cool and calm, belying her fatigue.

"Go to hell," came the reply, and she kicked him once more. He grunted but didn't cry out, even though she knew he was in a considerable amount of pain. He was stronger than most of the others, she had to give him that. She knelt in front of him and grabbed his face in her hand, forcing him to look at her.

"You're going to tell me, whether you like it not," she said coolly. "The only choice you have is how painful this is going to get before that happens."

"Go to hell," he growled again and then spat in her face. White-hot anger flared inside her, but she showed no reaction, not wanting to give him the satisfaction. She calmly stood back up, staring at him for a second before driving her boot into his face as hard as she could. His head snapped back, and he instantly grew still. Wiping her face on her sleeve, she straightened her tunic and walked out of the room.

"Get him up and secured to the chair," she told the two stormtroopers standing guard. "I'll be back shortly."

"Yes, ma'am," the troopers replied in unison. They immediately turned and entered the room to carry out her request.

Lieutenant Horn fell into step beside her as she headed towards her quarters, handing her a datapad loaded with the notes she had taken so far. "How much more do you think he can take ma'am?"

Jaina frowned. Horn was the junior officer assigned to assist her while she was here on Garel. She didn't much care for an assistant; operating alone was normal in her line of work. Still, it had its benefits. For one, she didn't have to take her own notes, which would make closing this investigation and filing the report that much easier. She just needed to make sure Horn didn't get too curious about the methods she used to coerce the eventual confession.

"Ma'am?" Horn's voice broke into her train of thought.

"We will know what he knows by the end of the day," she said flatly. She suppressed a sigh as she saw the garrison commander approaching them, a vaguely familiar armor-clad woman with him.

"Loyalty Officer Kavos," he said cordially as she stopped in front of him. "We were just coming to check on your progress with Commander Volk."

She inclined her head slightly to him. "He has revealed nothing yet, but I'm confident that will change by the end of the day. Hopefully, the small reprieve he's currently receiving will help convince him that talking would be in his best interest."

"Very good," he replied. "You'll keep me informed of your progress and any information you receive from him then?"

"Yes, sir, of course. You will be notified once I have his confession." She glanced at the woman, who was still standing there silently. She was regarding Jaina thoughtfully, and Jaina had to fight the urge to shudder. Something about her made her nervous.

"Excellent. I look forward to it," he said. Jaina inclined her head once more and waited for the commander and the woman to continue walking before she continued on.

"An Inquisitor?" Horn muttered under her breath after they were out of earshot. "That's odd. I wonder what she's doing here."

So that's why the woman had looked familiar. The last time Jaina had seen an Inquisitor was back in her Academy days, having accidentally run into one at the wrong time and in the wrong place. A small chill ran up her back as the memory flashed in her mind. Something told her to turn around, and she chanced a glance behind her, seeing with some unease that the Inquisitor was watching her as she walked away.

Another chill hit her and this time she did shudder. After that first encounter at the academy, she'd looked into who and what the Inquisitorius was. "Jedi Hunters" was what she'd found. Supposedly, they reported directly to Lord Vader himself, though she couldn't find anything that supported that rumor. She scoffed to herself. The Jedi had long since died out, everyone knew that. If they had even existed at all.

No, the Inquisitors were more likely just another way in which the Emperor ensured complete loyalty and obedience amongst those who worked for him. Much like herself and all the other loyalty officers of the Imperial Security Bureau.

They arrived at her quarters and Jaina handed the datapad back to Horn. "I'll be just a minute." Horn nodded her acknowledgment and Jaina entered her room. The first thing she noticed was the message light on her comm blinking, and she sighed heavily. She didn't even need to listen to it to know what it was.

She crossed the room and splashed water on her face, washing off the remains of the saliva and blood from Commander Volk. Anger flared once again when she noticed he'd left specks of blood on her tunic. She quickly changed into a new one, checking herself in the mirror after she was done. Her blue eyes looked as tired as she felt. Smoothing back the strands of blonde hair that had fallen out, she took one last look and turned to play the message.

"Loyalty Officer Kavos." Colonel Reedland's voice filled the room. "I need you to finish your investigation on Garel as quickly as possible. I have another assignment for you, an urgent one, needing to be resolved immediately. Please contact me once you are finished there, and I will send you the location, along with the information packet once you are en route."

The message ended and she sighed again. All the assignments were urgent these days. But, as one of the top loyalty officers the ISB had to offer, her services were currently in high demand as the growing rebel movement gained steam. Lately, it had seemed that every interrogation she'd done had ended with another rebel spy being uncovered. And as these successful interrogations grew in number, so did the ISB High Command's demand of her.

She had hoped to put off the special part of her interrogations until later, but because High Command needed her to wrap things up, it had to be done now. This wasn't the way she preferred to do things. Rushing meant she was more prone to mistakes, mistakes that could easily cost her her job, and possibly her life. But High Command needed results, and she was determined to be the one to get them.

She quickly strode from her room, her mind focused on the upcoming task. The two stormtroopers were still standing guard outside the door once they arrived back at the interrogation room. Jaina could feel the anxiety coming from inside and she smiled to herself. Giving him a little time to think seemed to have softened him up.

"Is he awake?" she asked the two troopers.

"Yes, ma'am," one of them replied. "We secured him to the chair, just as you ordered. He's ready for you."

"Good." She turned to Lieutenant Horn. "Wait out here." A confused look passed across Horn's face, but she didn't argue, and a thought crossed Jaina's mind. "While I'm in there, I need you to coordinate with the stormtrooper commander to get at least two search teams ready. Traitors like him will usually have non-Imperial locations they use, and I'd like to be able to search those immediately, once we know where they're located."

Jaina could sense Horn's confusion was now gone, and she nodded. "Yes, ma'am, right away," came the determined response. Jaina watched her head off in the opposite direction, relieved she'd taken care of that potential problem. She turned back to the door and stepped inside.

She stopped just inside the room to assess her subject. Commander Volk had been the garrison's stormtrooper commander until he was arrested yesterday, that is. He liked to use his position to intimidate everyone who came in contact with him, but to Jaina, he was just another traitor who would be begging for her mercy in the next few minutes.

"Let's try this again," she said, "and this time, I expect a little more cooperation from you."

"I have nothing to say to you," he sneered.

"Your former position as the commander of the stormtrooper company stationed here gave you access to all kinds of information, correct?" She watched his body language as she spoke, her trained eye waiting to catch any discomfort or indication of a lie.

He didn't answer. "I checked," she continued. "You had access to all the information you wanted about troop movements and deployments across this sector." She raised her eyebrows at him. "That kind of information could be very valuable in the hands of, oh let's say, a rebel cell. And very damaging to the Empire."

Again, he said nothing, and she clicked her tongue. "You've betrayed the Empire, commander. You know it. I know it. So why don't you save yourself the trouble and just tell me the truth?"

He regarded her with a malicious look, but she could feel the anxiety roiling inside him. "Like I said before. Go. To. Hell."

"Okay then," she said, shrugging. She walked over to the panel on the wall that controlled the cameras and punched a button, turning them off, but leaving the audio on. She felt his anxiety level surge as he watched her.

"What're you doing?" he said, his voice an octave higher as his anxiety bled into it.

"I already told you," she said coldly. "You're going to give me the information I want, whether you like it or not."

She sat down opposite him, watching as he started to squirm against his restraints. The bravado he'd had just moments ago was gone, anxiety and fear now ruling his emotions. Jaina could feel all of it. For as long as she could remember, she'd been able to feel the emotions of others. She had no idea how, or where it came from, but she had learned to use it to her advantage, both in the academy and in her job.

The fear, anger, anxiety; every emotion that ran through a subject during an interrogation, she felt. And it fueled her, particularly the anger and fear. Those emotions were always present, and they helped give her the focus she needed to perform the most delicate part of every interrogation. The part no one could know about. The part she knew would be deemed unnatural by Imperial standards if anyone found out.

She gave him a small smile, then bowed her head and closed her eyes. She reached out and touched his mind, seeing the thoughts swirling inside. Again, for as long as she could remember, this had been something she'd been able to do, the how or why of it completely unknown to her. As a young child, it had been completely involuntary; though luckily for her and everyone else around her, she'd been too young to understand what she was seeing.

The strength of it had waned as she'd gotten older, eventually fading to the point where it wasn't involuntary anymore. She'd rediscovered it by accident at the academy and taught herself how to use it to her advantage. So far, High Command had never questioned why her success rate was so high, and she knew as long as she could keep giving them the results they wanted, they probably never would.

She forced her way inside, feeling his mind recoil at her intrusion. He let out an audible gasp as the first wave of pain hit him. She had an idea of what she was looking for, and she pushed aside anything that wasn't of any use as she went deeper into his thoughts.

He grunted as the pain in his head worsened. "What is this?" His voice was another shade higher and tinted with the rising panic she could feel. She ignored him and continue to push deeper into his mind, searching for anything that would give him away. His breathing quickened as the pain increased.

"Tell me about the warehouse, Commander," she said, finally finding something useful.

"I don't know what you're—" his automatic response was suddenly cut off as he cried out in response to another wave of pain.

"You do, and you're going to tell me right now," she said calmly. She increased the pressure again, and again he cried out. His thoughts were becoming clearer now, meshing together into one memory. She already had the information she needed, but she needed him to say it, out loud, for the audio recorders to hear. She increased the pressure once more, knowing he was about to break.

"Okay, okay!" he cried. "I'll tell you! Just make it stop!" She backed off slightly, to see if he was telling the truth.

"The warehouse, Commander. Where is it?" She gave him a few seconds to respond, and when he didn't, she ratcheted up the pressure to an even higher level.

He let out a guttural yell, but she didn't relent. "The warehouse is in the central district!" She smiled to herself and eased back on the pressure ever so slightly.

"Where in the central district?" This time, he responded right away.

"Near the old Clone Wars storage facility! Two blocks off the main road, by the cantina that's run by the old Mirialan guy." His breathing was coming out in ragged gasps, but she didn't back off, not yet. He needed to tell her everything.

"What were you using the warehouse for?" She kept her voice even, even though the strain on her own mind was starting to make itself known.

"Storage. Communications. I set up a long-range transmitter. I used the transmitter to send reports of troop movements in this sector to a rebel cell on Lothal." She could see he was telling the truth, but there was one more piece of information she needed before she could release him.

"And how long have you been spying for the rebels, Commander?" He didn't want to tell her, knowing it would sign his death warrant, so she increased the pressure one last time.

"Ah, okay, okay! I've been sending them reports for a year now!" And there it was. She had everything she needed to wrap this investigation up and move onto the next one.

She backed out of his mind, hearing him gasp again as she released him. He was staring at her, a mixture of shock and fear written on his face. She gave him another half-smile and stood up.

"Thank you for your cooperation, Commander." She turned and headed for the door, fighting the exhaustion that was always brought on whenever she finished with that part of her interrogations.

"What will happen to me now?" The defeat was evident in his voice, and only a very small part of her felt sorry for him.

"That is up to my superiors," she replied, without even turning around. "For now, you'll be put in confinement to await their decision."

She exited the room and nodded to the two troopers, who entered behind her to escort Commander Volk to his prison cell. Lieutenant Horn was waiting for her, an eager look on her face.

"Has a search team been dispatched to that warehouse?" she asked Horn, taking the datapad from her.

"Yes, ma'am. I sent them as soon as he gave the location." Jaina nodded slowly as she studied the datapad.

"Good," she said. "Send another team to his quarters and have them search that as well. There's probably nothing in there, but I want to know for sure. Have both teams seize any evidence they find and bring it back here immediately. Let me know when they return."

"Yes, ma'am," Horn replied, stiffening to attention before quickly heading off to coordinate with the search teams. Jaina watched her go, shaking her head in amusement. She remembered when she'd been that young and eager to please her superiors. It seemed like a lifetime ago.

She reviewed the interrogation notes Horn had taken on her way back to her quarters. Everything seemed to be in order, and the junior officer had given no indication that she suspected anything out of the ordinary. Turning the cameras off was always a risk, but so was leaving them on, and having Horn start asking questions no one couldn't answer.

She'd half-expected to run into the garrison commander and the Inquisitor on her way back, but luckily, they were nowhere to be found. Horn's musings as to why the Inquisitor was there echoed in her mind, and she found herself wondering the same thing. They'd seemed to be interested in her interrogation of the commander, but she couldn't come up with a feasible reason as to why. She pushed it out of her mind, needing to focus on getting the report written and sent up as soon as possible. Colonel Reedland was not a patient man, and she wasn't about to make him wait any longer than she needed to.

Settling in at her desk, she immediately got to work. The hours ticked by, and she idly wondered how long it was going to take those search teams to get back with the evidence. She resisted an urge to go find Lieutenant Horn for an update, deciding instead to trust the junior officer to let her know when it was ready. Horn seemed competent enough, even if she was overly eager to prove herself.

The report slowly started coming together as she typed away into the late evening. This was the part she hated most about her job. All the paperwork that inevitably followed every interrogation. It was tedious and boring, and she found herself thanking whoever it was that had invented caf on more than one occasion.

This time was no different than all the others, save for one minor annoyance: The Inquisitor. No matter how hard she tried to concentrate, the image of her wriggled its way to the forefront of her mind, along with the question of why. Why was she here, on Garel? Why was she interested in her investigation?

She knew the answer was most likely connected to Commander Volk and his obvious treason, but something told her that wasn't quite it. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't get the image nor the question to leave her alone. The fact that she had no solid answers only added to her growing unease about the whole thing.

On top of that, the Inquisitor herself made Jaina nervous. There was something about the way she felt that was not right. Always being aware of the emotions around her was an annoying and sometimes useful ability, however, the Inquisitor had felt different than everyone else. Because Jaina hadn't felt anything from her. It was like a dark cloud surrounded her. It unnerved her, and even just thinking about it made her shudder.

She continued to work on the report, determined to finish it as fast as possible so she could leave. Her instincts about certain things had always been pretty good, and she usually listened to them when they started nagging her like they were now. There was a reason that woman had come to Garel, but Jaina wasn't going to stick around long enough to find out why.

Once her report was finished and the investigation closed, she would be gone; moving on to the next assignment, uncovering the next traitor trying to take the Empire down.