T: ELLIN! ELLIN! ELLIN! RED ALERT!

E: Yes, Taia?

T: RED ALERT! RED ALERT! WE NEED TO GET OUT OF HERE!

E: Wait a minute, I need to get my hand out of FX-9967 first.

T: OKAY!

E: …

T: …

E: So, why do we run? Did you stab someone?

T: WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME THAT COMUNICATIONS OFFICER WAS AN EUPHEMISM FOR TORTURER?

E: Oh. I didn't know that. So that's why they wanted your psychological profile.

T: OH SHIT, I'LL NEED TO HURT PEOPLE. WHAT IF THEY MAKE ME TORTURE A KITTEN?

E: I heard they captured Mittens, the Resistance spy cat.

T: NOOOOO- wait, you're making fun of me. This is serious! I can't do that!

E: Maybe it's therapeutic. Tell them that you're perfectly happy pushing some buttons in the command center.

T: Oh, holy mother of the sacred Force!

E: What happened now?

T: I think I just fell in love... ABANDON PLAN TO ABANDON SHIP!

E: With Mittens?

T: I don't think his name is Mittens. He doesn't look like a Mittens.

E: Send his image over. I'm on break now.

Ellin's eyes glazed over, blind to the world in front of her so to see through Taia's eyes.

The dramatic swirl of black robes and a broad back was all she saw before her world came back and she was staring at her steaming mug again.

E: You fell in love with a possessed towel?

T: He's my commander.

E: That's one way to get a promotion...

T: Hey! You're the one with a crush on the General!

E: Well…He's THE GENERAL.

T: That is not a valid reason.

E: It damned bloody fucking well is. A good valid perfect reason. He was made to be loved by the masses. Fuck your opinion.

T: Stop prescribing yourself narcotics. That can't be healthy.

E: Heh.

Ellin was busy. In fact, too busy to entertain Taia with a simple conversation. Which was weird. Ellin was never too busy for that.
She'd been silent all day through their connection. Not in an alarming way silent though, because she could feel that Ellin was alright on the other end – just – too busy.
Taia imagined it like trying to listen in on a conversation through a wall or closed door; she couldn't hear any words or distinct thoughts, just a quiet murmur if she tried really hard.

If they wanted the other to hear their thoughts, they had to actively send them, which was great for privacy reasons and annoying when trying to figure out what the heck was going on.
Why was Ellin so caught up with work? Hadn't she suggested to 'fuck off' as soon as they'd received enough credits to continue their quest to become Jedi?
She'd punch me for putting it like that. "We're no jedi bla bla something something I stopped listening". That brat.

Taia sighed and checked her data pad for the third time in ten minutes.
Still no new assignments. It had been a slow day and Orin had snatched away her 'interview partner' as soon as he'd arrived, directly from the battlefield, apparently. He'd come in, still wearing his dirty body armor, his black, slicked back hair in disarray, in an obvious hurry to get as much information as fast as possible out of his target.
She'd describe him as handsome if he wasn't such a huge pain in the ass. With his dark blue eyes, straight nose and great chin. All the perfect alignment of genes couldn't make up for his shit, mean and spiteful character.
And the fucking arrogance. Please, someone shoot him.

As soon as her initial training was over, Taia, too, would be allowed to go directly on site to do some field work… With Commander Ren.
Taia had seen him twice more after her first sighting of him, which wasn't a lot.
But we never intended to stay long enough to finish training and yet…Ellin doesn't budge.

She thought about doing actual work to reorganize and categorize the testimonies, to translate some of them, sit and type all day like the others but she didn't care for it and it bored her out of her mind. She tried to suppress a snort. She literally preferred torturing people over actual paperwork.

Her coworkers were overly eager to do all the work for her anyways, always afraid that Ren would appear and breathe down their necks. Which he never did.
This doesn't interest him. Paperwork is beneath the Commander.
She tried to imagine the tall robed figure sitting on a desk and checking if his officers had done their homework and couldn't.
He's occupied with Force business.
She already felt the goosebumps rising on her skin as soon as she thought about it. She'd been delighted and terrified when she'd been told that Kylo Ren was one of the legendary Force wielders, apprentice to their Supreme Leader.
It made Taia feel connected to him, dreading and at the same time hoping he would discover – sense – her and Ellin's connection to the Force.
Ellin had dismissed that almost immediately: The troopers are just scared, I've heard them talking. He's probably just especially good at torturing people, that whole get up is probably just to hide some hideous scars. The General isn't afraid of him.

Taia tried to check on Ellin again, tapping into their connection to see if she was available for conversation now.

Hello? Answer me, bananaface.

Still nothing. Not even an annoyed "shut up" or a mental shove. She'd actually have to send her a message via communicator. How barbaric.

"Officer Jaxx, your system is offline. Tech support is on it."

Taia would have preferred something less polite but her department was responsible for regular intercom-checks and she didn't want to get caught by a co-worker. That would be embarrassing.

"Everything is in order, Officer Versio. System is intentionally offline to avoid static."

"Fine, do whatever you want, idiot", Taia said to herself and stood up to make her way to the Detention Center. She'd made friends with one of the Stormtrooper guards. TK-339? Or 399? There were nines and threes involved.
After her first week, a Junior Officer named Jo Espon informed her that if she'd ask any Stormtrooper about "case CC59" it was an open invitation to gossip.
Jo Espon was her friend now. She'd named her torture droid 'Stephen' and had a bottle of distilled muja fruit in her drawer.
Ellin had been her usual distrustful self and claimed it was a test to see if she was dedicated enough for the First Order and whatnot.
Of course, there's gossip on this ship. Probably more than on any New Republic ship. They don't have a dark, mysterious Force user floating around choking people.

Taia was determined to smuggle her own bottle of Kyrf into her desk if she found any. Maybe she could order it with the same service which she ordered her cosmetics with.

The detention center was right next to the offices of her and her fellow Communication's (torture) staff, with only a very soundproof durasteel door in-between them.
She stood in front of the control panel, back straight and heels snapping together to announce herself to the three stormtroopers who were supervising the prisoners. "Soldier." She didn't risk getting their names wrong, so she waited until they stood attention before she continued.
Your fault, guys, if you all look the same.
"I want a report on case CC59." Their rigid poses eased right away, two of them returned to work while TK-whatever walked around the panel he was standing in front of and bumped her shoulder in a companionable way.
"You are my favorite Stormtrooper", she said, grinning and bumping him back. He laughed; his voice distorted through the modulator in his helmet.
"What about TK-933? Wasn't he your favorite stormtrooper yesterday?"
Oh, shit.
His tone suggested that he was joking with her, but it didn't make her feel any less of an asshole.
I shouldn't feel guilty. They all look the same and they know it.

"Yes, but all of you are adorable sweethearts. Everyone is my favorite."

"Even Phasma?"

"Especially Phasma." Who the fuck is Phasma?

Now even some of the other stormtroopers laughed, standing a few paces back behind their consoles. Taia laughed as if she understood the joke.
Okay, so I'm guessing Phasma is definitely not a sweetheart.

"Sooo…who did the fucking-up today?"

"A medic nearly decapitated herself with one of the security-doors."

A medic? Please don't let it be Ellin, please don't let it be Ellin, please don't let it be Ellin…

"Haha…which poor soul was that stupid? Aren't there any sensors on them?"

The stormtrooper laughed, shaking his head. "No clue Officer, apparently it's one of the newbies…no offense to you. She's in medbay now with a mild concussion. Apparently, there was a delay in the sensor mechanism, and she was too slow to get out of the way."

Oh fuck, it is her. That's why she isn't answering. She's probably high on painkillers. Again.

"Haha. What a moron. Anything else?"

The stormtrooper, not-TK933, shrugged. "Apparently, we're not to drop off Commander Ren somewhere, in favor of bombing the Resistance."

"Great!" More time to stare inappropriately at Kylo Ren.

The blank faced helmet stared at her, with what she imagined a straight face underneath the black-white bucket. "What?" Due to the voice distortion of the helmet she couldn't tell if he sounded shocked or confused.

"Not great? Resistance bombing?"

After a second the stormtrooper shook his head and started to laugh. "I'm just messing with you, Versio. We're all looking forward to some action after that whole Starkiller disaster. Even with Ren haunting our halls. I was hoping for a respite."
He clapped her shoulder, probably dislocating it in the process from the force of it. "Ha-ha, ow, oh yes. Him. Don't mind him, let him float around menacingly."

At the stormtrooper's stunned silence, Taia patted him lightly on the shoulder and turned around, back to her office where she conjured up a valid reason to go to the medbay to look for Ellin.

"Sooo... How in the shit did you manage to nearly lose your head?"

"How do you know that? What in the name of the glorious General are you doing here? I mean Hux by the way. Glorious."

Taia shrugged, slowly walking over to where Ellin was sitting behind her desk, holding an ice pack to the left side of her face.
Glorious General?
 "You're easy to find and I'm bored. Congrats, by the way, you're the center of town gossip now, well, ship-gossip."

"Wow. Word travels fast here. What a bunch of blabber mouths. We're in the middle of a war! Don't they have anything better to do than discussing my head?"

Taia just raised an eyebrow. "They are discussing your intelligence, Officer. Did Hux walk by and short-circuit your brain?" She started to laugh but as soon as she saw Ellin's visible eye twitching she stopped. Oh no.

"N-No. I just wasn't paying attention."

"Oh wow, sister, you're in deep shit."

"I said no! And I'm not. In any shit."

"I have diagnosed an unhealthy crush on the Hux."

Ellin rolled her eyes (eye) and threw her ice pack at Taia with a frustrated groan. "Oh, shut up. I'm the medic. And I just slightly admire the General's physique. And regal face. And hair. And accent. Have you smelled him?"

Taia paused for a moment just to stare at her with emphasis.

"I got it, I got it. Keep that daydreaming to yourself."

A massive, black and purple bruise was adorning Ellin's left cheek and Taia hissed sympathetically. "Isn't there any fancy medicine to heal that right away?"

"Oh, it just looks bad. It'll be gone soon anyways."

"At least you're aware of it."

"Oh, shut up, you freak of nature."

"Are you referring to my height? Or my unequaled beauty?"

"You make me cringe on inhuman levels. Is that how you torture your…torturees?

"We go by their cell number, normally."