Chapter 16: Lab Rat-Bats
"Where's a sky bison when you need one?"
Toph was getting sick of walking all day every day, sorely missing the big fuzz ball Appa now. It had taken months to travel across the Fire Nation on foot, the only breaks being boat rides from one island to another. That was no small thanks to the imperials restricting travel, stopping the big ships from sailing straight to the Earth Kingdom, requiring several smaller boat rides to reach the smallest and easternmost island. Now Toph was walking down a narrow dirt road, heading for a small port town for the last trip across water.
"I suppose your feet are getting pretty sore right around now."
Suki was walking right beside Toph, wearing plain red civilian clothes instead of her uniform, which she kept in a large bag strapped to her back. Before starting this little trek Suki had the remaining Kyoshi Warriors scatter, blending into the public and taking different routes back to the Earth Kingdom. At this point Suki figured she was well ahead of the others, given the various roadblocks she had encountered on this path and the greater obstacles to other routes. There was one more small boat ride left to take, and this journey would be halfway complete.
"It is just one more, right?" Toph asked. "There isn't another island between here and home is there?"
"Not unless a volcano went off underwater," Suki said. "We should be done with sailing by morning."
"Finally," Toph said, throwing her hands up. "Let's get this over with."
"It's not that bad," Suki said. She looked up at the sky, spotting some of those small imperial ships flying overhead. "It could always be worse."
Though she could not see them, Toph heard those ships in the distance. "That's the third time today."
"Good reason to stick to the low road," Suki said.
"Yeah," Toph grumbled, even if she didn't like it. "I bet Twinkletoes would enjoy riding those things."
"I still don't get that nickname," Suki admitted.
"It just seemed fitting for Aang," Toph answered. She thought about telling more, but then her feet saw something that interrupted the conversation. "Oh great, this again."
They had reached the threshold of the port town, really just a low wooden fence with a gate and not much else. The gate was open and people were passing through it, but there were a pair of stormtroopers standing guard. As they got closer Toph noticed more stormtroopers inside the town, but far fewer than in all the other towns she had passed through on her way here. They hadn't even bothered to establish a proper garrison here, instead operating out of a troop transport that landed just outside the town.
Toph and Suki got inside the town easily enough, but as they approached the port two stormtroopers got in their way. "Madams, identification please."
"Just a sec," Toph said, getting her passport out of her pocket. "Here, take it."
Suki already had hers out. "It's all here."
One stormtrooper examined the passports, checked the names on a small electronic device, and then handed Suki's back first. "This appears to be in order."
"What about mine?" Toph asked.
The stormtrooper hesitated, checked his device again, and then handed Toph's passport back. "Sorry Ma'am, we can't let you on the boat."
"What?!" Toph yelled. "Why not?!"
The stormtrooper checked his device one more time. "New orders from command: known earthbenders are to remain where they are until further notice."
"Figures," Suki grumbled. She glanced at Toph, then a boat in port, and then Toph again. "Well, I think you know what this means, right?"
Stretching her vibration sight to the limit, Toph saw sailors boarding the ship, and it seemed like they were getting ready to leave. Getting an idea, Toph cracked her knuckles and faced the stormtroopers. "Okay boys, good luck keeping this earthbender here!"
Toph punctuated that by raising both fists, which made slabs of rock rise up from beneath the stormtroopers and toss them away. Suki was already running for the boat, signaling to the sailors to get the thing moving sooner rather than later. The stormtroopers hit the ground, and Toph hurled mounds of dirt at them before they could get back up. Toph and Suki wasted no time running for the boat, getting up the entry ramp as the sailors were about to remove it. By then it was too late to delay departure, and the boat was moving before any of the sailors could do anything about it.
The land vanished from Toph's sight, and she kept one hand on a railing for balance. "I don't hear any blasters going off. Are they taking time to aim at us?"
Suki saw the stormtroopers digging themselves out of the dirt, already looking small as the boat took them away. "I don't think so."
Once they were out of the dirt, one stormtrooper turned toward the other. "Calling it in…"
"Don't bother," the other one interrupted. "Unless you want 'humiliated by a small girl' on our record."
"Point," the first stormtrooper conceded. There was a brief moment of quiet for them, until he looked at the other stormtrooper again. "Any chance there's an update on the Gaoling situation?"
Grand Admiral Thrawn was not pleased.
He was sitting in his office aboard the Executor, just finished reading the latest reports from the planet surface. There had been two substantial attacks on imperial assets within days of each other, both resulting in the loss of weapons and gear to the enemy. The first attack had stolen enough for a small battalion, while the second had settled for simply destroying a small stockpile. The locals didn't have the tech for instantaneous long-range communications, which meant that the two attacks had occurred independently of one another.
Clearly more precautions had to be taken to prevent more attacks from happening in the future. Thrawn gave the order for more stormtroopers to be deployed, along with more AT-STs and AT-ATs for ground support. More men and resources were sent planet side, so that the efforts to construct new garrisons could be completed on an accelerated schedule. It wouldn't do much to ward off resistance from determined individuals, but would certainly make it harder for them to accomplish anything of importance.
After making the last order Thrawn left his office, taking a stroll through the halls of the Executor. He took a turbolift to one of the lower decks, reaching a laboratory located not far from the brig. Inside he found imperial scientists working hard on their latest project, analyzing biological samples taken from the locals held captive aboard this ship. With enough time and study they hoped to deconstruct the supernatural abilities the locals possessed, decipher exactly how they operated, and possibly recreate them in loyal servants of the Empire.
The head scientist was in the middle of the lab, currently looking at a blood sample through an electron microscope. His short grey hair was disheveled from prolonged work, having buried himself in his research. The goatee he kept had unshaven stubble all around, which he occasionally scratched at when he had a free hand. Mismatched eyes gave away the extensive modifications this scientist made to his own biology, the left eye a normal yellow and the right eye large and black. That eye came with the green scales of a reptilian species, grafted onto his face to make use of that species form of sight.
Thrawn stopped on the opposite side of the scientist's table. "Have you made any progress, Cylo?"
"In the file," Cylo said, not even bothering to look up.
There was a computer terminal on the next table over, and Thrawn accessed it with his personal codes. He skimmed through the collected notes assembled so far. "You've been busy."
"It's a new field of study," Cylo said. He switched out the blood sample for a piece of bone from the same subject. "There's so much to learn, yet only so many hours in the day to learn it."
Thrawn looked at the notes again, and noticed something missing. "I see you haven't attempted to create a hypothesis yet."
"Insufficient data," Cylo said. He made some adjustments to the microscope. "It's been difficult to find evidence of the source for the locals' abilities. All the usual tests have been inconclusive."
"Perhaps you require more test subjects?" Thrawn proposed.
"Baseline locals would be much appreciated," Cylo said. He turned off the microscope and stood up straight, and he turned to look Thrawn in the eye. "The subjects we have all possess the abilities. My experiments are lacking proper controls."
"That can be arranged," Thrawn said.
"More variety would be nice as well," Cylo said. "I'm told there are four different powers, I only have two types to experiment on."
"Of course," Thrawn promised. "You'll have them before the day is out."
Toph didn't like snow.
Although the last boat ride was short and quick, the change in scenery was a drastic one. Unlike the ever warm Fire Nation islands, the Earth Kingdom continent was well into the cold grip of winter. The latest storm of the season had hit this northern colony, and everything was covered in several inches of fresh snow on top of the older snowpack. People were in front of their homes shoveling the snow away, and special vehicles were being deployed to clear the roads. The sidewalks were still covered in thick snow, and Toph did not enjoy walking through it.
"Come on, the boots look good on you," Suki said.
"Pretty sure that's a lie," Toph said. Then she shrugged and held her hands up. "But how would I know? These boots are screwing with my sight."
For the sake of avoiding frostbite on bare feet, Toph had reluctantly agreed to putting on a pair of boots, at least until they were out of the snow in the southern lands. The thick warm leather shielded her feet from the cold, but also buffered the vibrations she used to see. The world she saw was dulled and foggy, the finer details lost to her. So she stayed close to Suki, not wanting to lose sight of her only companion amidst a fuzzy crowd. Toph resigned herself to suffer through this, at least until they could reach southern and warmer climates.
Yet there was something unmistakable, even with Toph's senses dulled. "They're here too."
"Yup," Suki confirmed. "We've got stormtroopers."
Not far away a small group of them patrolled the streets, snow crunching under their hard boots. This colony was big enough to warrant a small barracks to house stormtroopers, but not big enough to construct a new building just for them. Suki saw another group exit a former town hall, ignoring the cold as if it wasn't there. And then she saw two more groups coming from another direction, and then another group up ahead and marching towards them. Suki and Toph quickened their pace through the streets, and the stormtroopers followed suit.
"They're coming for us," Toph said.
"They're coming for you," Suki corrected.
They reached the edge of the colony when the stormtroopers closed in, and underneath the snow was all the earth Toph could want. "Well then, come and get me."
Toph threw both arms up to earthbend, making a wave of dirt and rock bust through the snow, forming a curved wall that hid her and Suki from view. The stormtroopers opened fire, their blasters set to stun, and the wide blue rings impacted the wall to no effect. Suki placed her palm against the wall, Toph opened a small hole there, and Suki focused her energy to fire back. She took a few shots, put her hand somewhere else, and when a new hole opened she fired again. Working together Toph let Suki fire blasts in several directions, taking down stormtroopers all around the wall.
One stormtrooper threw a thermal detonator at the wall, the small explosive blowing open a wide hole in the rock. The other stormtroopers fired at that hole, their stun shots converging on the space inside. But then they discovered that no one was there, and they saw soft dirt mixed with snow. Toph had brought Suki underground, only a few feet beneath the stormtroopers stepping where they had just been. The stormtroopers aimed their blasters at the ground, expecting their target to emerge at any moment.
Suddenly a stormtrooper sank into the ground, ending up chest deep before getting stuck. Another stormtrooper followed suit, and soon half a dozen of them were half buried. The rest realized what was going on and took steps backward, and they dropped a few thermal detonators onto the spots they had been standing. The thermal detonators sank into the softened ground and then exploded, throwing up a shower of debris and leaving craters behind. With the stormtroopers fired their blasters into the craters, the wide blue rings impacting loose dirt and soil.
Several feet away Toph emerged from the ground bruised and bloody, feeling like someone had swung a sledgehammer into her head. She was holding onto Suki's arm and pulling her out of the ground, both of them bleeding in various places. Suki had been knocked out in the blasts, leaving her body limp as Toph pulled her from the soft dirt. Toph raised her free fist to make a new wall, and then grabbed Suki with both hands to fully pull her out. While the wall delayed the stormtroopers Toph raised a mound of earth beneath her, and she sent it forward to carry her and Suki away.
The stormtroopers got around the wall, and now they had a clear line of sight to aim at a moving target. Most of their shots missed of course, but some of the blue rings struck Toph in the back. She collapsed face first and her mound of earth broke apart, launching both Toph and Suki forward to tumble across the ground. Toph came to a stop amidst the debris from the earth mound, while Suki kept on sliding until she hit a snow covered boulder. The stormtroopers closed in on their target, keeping the blasters aimed at Toph even though she was out cold.
One of them nudged Toph with his boot just to be sure, and then he got on the radio. "Target secure, ready for pickup."
Suki started to come to, just in time to see the stormtroopers take Toph away. "No…"
Watching experiments on the locals was amusing, from a certain point of view.
It seemed that they were just as in the dark about the nature of their powers as the imperials were, having honest blank stares when asked about where their bending comes from. Sure they had myths and legends dating back to time immemorial, but the actual origins had been long lost to history. They knew the rules that governed how to use their gifts, but not how they operated in a scientific sense. So when the experiments were conducted the locals were confused as well as traumatized, unable to comprehend what could be learned through their suffering.
At the moment a deposed ruler was being studied, though Thrawn hadn't bothered to remember what that ruler's name was. It was the one that could create lightning with his bare hands, a gift that could be useful in just about any scenario. Today's experiment involved using mechanisms to force his arms through the correct motions, to see if he could be forced into creating lightning. It didn't seem to be working, but even failed experiment revealed new insights. In this case it was clear that the motions alone weren't enough, that the user had to be willing in order for the powers to manifest.
After making eye contact with the deposed ruler, Thrawn turned away and walked to another part of the lab. Behind several feet of polycarbonate glass was one of the hydrokinetics, the scrawny one that survived the failed insurrection aboard the Stalker. Water was being pumped in through the ceiling, and the waterbender was keeping the flow at bay. Slowly and steadily the water pressure was increased, requiring more and more effort for the waterbender to hold it back. He was certainly motivated to work as hard as he could, and while he avoided drowning he provided valuable data about his limits.
When he got bored Thrawn walked to a comm station. "Bridge, patch me through to the admiral."
"Acknowledged."
A moment later Thrawn heard Admiral Ozzel's voice. "Yes, what is it?"
"We're moving up the timetable," Thrawn ordered. "Begin recruitment in every substantial settlement on the planet, except for the ones that have experienced attacks. Use volunteers first where you can, then suitable candidates that can be coerced with nonviolent methods."
"Understood," Ozzel said. "I didn't realize we would be bringing the locals into the fold so soon."
"A necessary precaution," Thrawn said. "Resistance fighters will think twice if some of their own are enlisted as stormtroopers."
"Even if we continue to experiment on them?" Ozzel questioned.
"They do not need to know," Thrawn said. "Recruits can be trained aboard the Devastator. Captives will be moved to the Tyrant. The two never need to meet."
"As you command," Ozzel said. "Today's transports will be rerouted."
"Ugh… not this again…"
When Toph woke up she was feeling absolutely miserable, in just about every way she could think of. She was stuck inside a small metal box, which was inside a ship that might as well be another small metal box, and surely on her way to what she would call a larger metal box. The empty pit in her stomach had returned with a vengeance, somehow even worse than the first time she had gone up into space. Add to that the humiliation of being captured, and that she was trapped all alone, there wasn't much that could possibly make her feel even worse.
Toph knew the ship had landed when her view of the world suddenly expanded, discovering a hangar just like the one she had been in the last time. Stormtroopers unloaded the metal box and took it deeper into the Star Destroyer, and all Toph could do was sit there throughout the ride. She got a good look at the parts of the ship along the way, defeating the entire point of putting her in that metal box. Toph saw the labs and their captives within, subjected to all sorts of tests that she didn't want to think about.
She was released into a slightly larger chamber, one of its walls feeling like glass only far tougher. Toph also saw someone on the other side, a guy with metal parts embedded in his flesh and an eye that definitely wasn't human. "It's rude to stare mister Strange-Face."
"Riveting," Cylo muttered, carefully studying Toph's reactions. "You knew I was staring without looking at me. Your eyes appear to have cataracts, yet you carry yourself as someone with sight. Would I be wrong to assume that your other senses are heightened, likely from years of being blind?"
"Yeah, sure, let's go with that," Toph said.
Cylo tapped a few buttons on a control console. "I'm told that you possess power over earth. I'm curious to see exactly how much you can control."
A vent in the ceiling opened and started dumping sand into the chamber, slowly at first like the trickle inside an hourglass. The sand fell right on top of Toph's head, and after getting out of it she was shaking sand out of her hair. Already the sand on the floor was up to her shins, and in moments her knees were buried. Toph tried to stop the flow of sand by raising and clenching her fists, yet that simple move for earthbending accomplished absolutely nothing. While buried up to her waist Toph tried again, only for the flow of sand to continue onward.
At the push of a button the flow of sand increased, and Cylo waited for the girl to take control of it. She was buried up to her waist when she stopped attempting to earthbend, instead trying to dig herself out of the rising sand. Cylo was still waiting when the sand was up to Toph's shoulders, suspecting that she was stalling for some unfathomable reason. The sand was above Toph's head when Cylo thought differently, that the possibly existed that she couldn't use her abilities at this time. He couldn't see her when he pressed a different button, closing the ceiling vent and opening another in the floor.
It took a minute for all the sand to fall out, and Toph was left on her hands and knees gasping for air. "Get your sick jollies yet?"
Ignoring that remark Cylo used the console again, and a small screen showed footage recorded during Toph's capture. He watched the demonstration of earthbending, and then turned back to Toph. "I gave you an opportunity to fight, and you did not take it. Why is that?"
Toph didn't answer, instead just turning away from him.
However, the body language was enough for Cylo to make an educated guess. "You can't. Something is inhibiting your abilities, and you're ashamed to admit it."
Still, Toph refused to answer.
"Be that way," Cylo said. "We'll figure it out one way or another."
At the end of the day, Thrawn observed the first crop of new recruits.
That morning the recruitment call had been made across the planet, and several hundred locals had volunteered by evening. Most were from the Fire Nation and a few from the Earth Kingdom, none of them possessing any elemental abilities. All of them were from the lowest tiers of society, the kind of people that would rather serve in and benefit from a regime instead of remaining in their miserable lives. None were in ideal physical condition to be put to use any time soon, but that is what basic training was meant to correct.
Yet for a planet with nearly a billion inhabitants, getting mere hundreds of volunteers was very low turnout. The vast majority of locals were still distrustful of the Empire, and while that was to be expected the results of it were disappointing. It was going to take a lot more effort to bring substantial numbers of locals into the fold, especially if any resistance movements gained traction. These volunteers were being thoroughly examined for any signs of treachery, just in case any of them were here with ulterior motives.
The Devastator was equipped with state of the art training facilities, and the first fifty recruits to come aboard were lined up at one end of a shooting range. Thrawn watched from an observation balcony above the range, looking down on the recruits from behind the security of a force field. Stormtroopers were positioned all around the recruits, holding the blasters that each recruit wanted to wield one day. In front of the recruits Admiral Ozzel was pacing back and forth, observing the recruits and looking each and every one of them in the eye.
Ozzel stopped in the middle, hands behind his back while he addressed the recruits. "The following weeks will not be easy for any of you. The Empire expects the best that every world has to offer, and our training regimen will ensure that only the best remain.
"Expect yourselves to be strained to the breaking point. This training will be tougher than anything you have ever experienced before. Weakness will not be tolerated. You will either be ready to serve in the stormtrooper ranks, or you will wash out and be sent back in disgrace.
"If you have any doubts that you belong here, back out now. If you were expecting a quick ride into imperial service, do not waste our time. If any of you do not meet our standards, we will not hesitate to remove you.
"Success will be greatly rewarded. The best of you will be excellent servants of the Empire."
Stormtroopers saluted at the end of the speech, invigorating the recruits and motivating them to go above and beyond their potential. Ozzel turned and walked away from the recruits, leaving them to the business of starting their training regimen. He joined Thrawn on the observation balcony, and from there he could watch the recruits get to work. Ozzel delegated the task of training to one of his lieutenants, filling the role of a typical drill sergeant. That lieutenant had his work cut out for him, as Ozzel was sure most of the recruits would not make the cut.
"This isn't going to turn out well," Ozzel said. He looked at Thrawn on his left. "None of them strike me as stormtrooper material."
Thrawn nodded. "They only need to be pawns."
"True enough," Ozzel said.
They spent some time watching the recruits, getting a basic understanding of how well they might perform. But that time was interrupted by an incoming transmission, which Thrawn answered. "Yes."
The voice of Cylo came through the transmission. "Grand Admiral, I have a new experiment for our captives. It requires redeployment of the Tyrant. Please instruct Captain Lennox to comply with the itinerary I have sent."
"How long will you require the Tyrant elsewhere?" Thrawn asked.
"Only for a week," Cylo said. "I suspect visiting other planets will have an effect on the locals' abilities."
Toph didn't like that rumble in the floor.
Admittedly it was a very slight rumble, so small that most people wouldn't notice it. Toph only noticed because she was desperately searching for anything of use, looking for even the smallest of things that might help. The slight rumble had a resonance that synched with her vibration sight, adding a new level of clarity to the things that she could see. Toph could see that the experiments on the other captives had ceased, giving a respite to the firebenders and waterbender nearby. But she didn't like how the rumble suddenly appeared, like some signal of something about to happen.
Then Toph noticed someone on the other side of the glass, recognizing the strange things embedded in his flesh. "Come back to stare, Strange-Face?"
Cylo didn't react to that remark, instead using a console to contact the bridge. "Take us out."
"Acknowledged," the bridge officer reported. "Entering hyperspace in three… two… one…"
The Tyrant made the jump to hyperspace, and the effect was instantaneous. The waterbender and all the firebenders collapsed, most clutching their stomachs as if in physical pain. A few of them even passed out, falling face first into the floor. Sensors monitoring their health flashed red warning symbols, recording the symptoms they were experiencing. A few firebenders seemed to recognize the sensation, though not quite this bad. One dared to throw a punch to firebend, only to be horrified when nothing happened.
And yet Toph was not affected, and she had a good idea why. She had already gone through losing her bending, and she couldn't lose what she didn't have. Toph didn't know what the imperials had just done, but it severed the connection to the sun and the moon. She noticed the smirk on Cylo's face, certain that he would eventually figure out what was going on. Cylo compared the reaction here to what Toph had experienced, noting the similarities and looking for a common cause. He recorded the results of this experiment, and made adjustments for future experiments.
"Intriguing," Cylo said, continuing to examine the data. "Supernatural abilities fueled by external power sources. We will have to see how you all respond to different environments."
"Can't wait," Toph grumbled.
She was going to have to wait anyway, just as might as Cylo would have to wait. The Tyrant would not arrive at its destination for another few hours, heading well into imperial territory for further experimentation. Cylo left the lab to deal with business elsewhere, leaving the other researchers to their own devices. Toph was left alone with her thoughts, having nothing in there to occupy her time. Toph managed to get comfortable enough to take a nap, though she couldn't tell exactly how long she slept.
When she woke up Toph noticed something different, particularly someone else now sitting in the same chamber. "Huh… when did they get you?"
Bruised, beaten, and certainly broken, was Long Feng. His once formal robes were reduced to tatters, barely concealing the worst of the beating he had taken. His face had plenty of bruises and a black eye, and Toph could see a substantial amount of internal bleeding elsewhere. Toph could only imagine what Long Feng had gone through, and certainly didn't want to know the details. Long Feng didn't acknowledge Toph at first, wanting to be alone in his shame. But since neither come them could leave, Long Feng eventually had to humor Toph.
"Ba Sing Se," Long Feng muttered. "That's where they got me, after their forces wiped out mine. They brought me up here, took my bending away, and tortured me for information and amusement."
"They didn't take your bending, intentionally anyway," Toph said. "It will return when we are back on the ground. Believe me. I've gone through this twice now."
That didn't cheer up Long Feng, and he looked away from Toph. "It doesn't matter. Bending isn't enough to beat these invaders. We used every technique we had, and we still failed."
Toph leaned back against the wall. "So it's all over then, right?"
"Might as well be," Long Feng said. "Do you see a way to beat them? I don't."
Toph didn't have an answer to that, or at least not one that Long Feng would accept. "Something will turn up. It always does."
"Naïve," Long Feng muttered. "It's already over, you just haven't admitted it."
Given where they were, and what they had been through, Toph couldn't say anything to that.
Recovering under the care of a generous old farm couple, Suki was sitting in a chair and looking up at the night sky, wondering where Toph was now. "If anyone can escape them, it better be you."