N-11: Null and Void

"You're frakkin' welcome."

Ordo grunted his thanks and then cut the link, turning back to glance at the prisoner.

She looked rather shaken.

Good.

He made the jump to hyperspace. As soon as the stars blurred his eyes, he stood and took his blaster from its holster again. He looked at it resting in the grip of his palm for a moment, silent, until heavy breathing - not his - distracted him. A flare of irritation shot through his chest and his fist clenched around the blaster's grip with a creak of his gloves.

He stepped closer and he heard her struggle against her binds. A small whimper escaped the gag across her mouth, and he stared down at her wild, fear-filled eyes. He felt nothing. No pity.

No remorse.

He considered for a moment, and then knelt to remove her gag. The rip of tape felt loud in the small cabin, and immediately she began gasping as though he'd been suffocating her. He almost rolled his eyes, but settled for walking the length of the room to relieve his annoyance.

He paused in the shadows, turning his head to assess her frightened form. His glance was enough to silence her. She looked at him with terror in her eyes.

"Don't bother screaming." He ran a hand along the barrel of the blaster. "I promise you, no one will hear you."

She appeared to swallow a reply. Satisfied he was in control, he turned to face her and leaned against the bulkhead, making sure the blaster was in plain sight. He needed to keep her scared. He regarded her casually; for a government spy she was somewhat...soft. But then he doubted she had ever planned on coming up against this. He doubted she thought she would have been caught.

Or ratted out.

Amateur.

She took a trembling breath. "W-who are you? What do you want?"

He stared at her for a moment and then looked away. His lip curled. "I am nothing. A shadow."

She seemed to be waiting for him to elaborate, but he stayed silent, fingers clicking the safety catch on his blaster. She swallowed again and took the same shaky breath, straightening her spine and lifting her chin.

"I'm not going to talk."

The attempt at defiance disgusted him. His fist slammed into the bulkhead with a loud bang and she flinched away from him in terror. He marched up to her and stood over her with the blaster aimed between her eyes, nostrils flaring with suppressed rage he didn't know he'd been holding. She closed her eyes and her lips trembled, but to her credit she did not cry.

He held the blaster steady.

"W-what do y-you-?"

"You still don't understand, do you?" The words were out before he could stop them.

Silence.

His fingers tightened around the blaster. "You're nothing. You're expendable."

I'm not. That's the difference between you and I. I will be missed.

She shook her head; the minutest of movements as if she was afraid it would be the death of her. "M-my people – they'll be looking for me. They'll pick up where I left off." Her voice was barely a whisper. "They'll find you, you know."

He looked at her, completely void of any feeling. He noticed she didn't make any reference to a family. How could she be so stupid? He'd thought spooks were supposed to be the ones with all the information.

"Your people won't miss you."

She sniffed. "I won't talk. You can't make me."

"Chakaar," he spat. "You don't get it, do you? I don't need you to talk." He scowled and the hand holding the blaster began to shake. "Your spook friends already did that for you."

Her brow wrinkled in confusion, and he pressed the blaster up to her forehead, letting out an exasperated snarl. She looked up at him with wide eyes filled with pure fear.

"They…?"

He didn't say anything.

He watched with a sense of satisfaction as realisation dawn in her bruised eyes. Disappointment flashed across them, and then anger furrowed her brow. And then she began to tremble, and broke down into sobs.

"They used you." He didn't move. "You're nothing but an empty shadow to be filled by the next one in line." She shook her head, but he knew she didn't believe her own convictions. His job was done. He pulled back the catch and the blaster whirred, charging.

She snapped out of it, panic seizing her. "P-please…I'll do anything!" she gasped, "I can become someone else, I can- I can live a different life," she pleaded, a single desperate tear spilling down her face. "I promise you, I-I'll…I'll disappear-!"

"Yes," he said, "You will."

Then he pulled the trigger.

The silence after the shot was sudden, slamming into him like a permabrick wall. He stared down at her crumpled form and felt absolutely nothing, just the simple satisfaction of having completed a necessary task. He wondered for a brief moment if he should feel something, but he was more concerned with disposal details.

He would have to dump her body out of the airlock. She would disappear into the cold void of space and no one would ever know what had happened to her. Even her death was meaningless; shot in hyperspace. She died nowhere, as a nobody. Just another shadow in the darkness of this galaxy.

He realised he didn't even know her name.

He almost reached for her jacket to look for identification, and then decided he didn't care enough. He had too many named horrors in his nightmares. He took one last look at her empty shell of a body and then returned to the cockpit, chasing off the dark void of his thoughts. He thought he might call Besany. Or Kal'buir, perhaps.

He sat in the pilot's seat and stared out at the streaking tunnel of hyperspace, and eventually it slowed to static dots of light as he arrived out of travel. He went back into the cargo hold where his demons awaited him.

A few minutes later he was watching the body spin listlessly in zero gravity as he left it behind. Satisfied, he opened his comlink. She answered on the first ring.

"Ordo," he heard the smile in her voice and the knot in his chest loosened. "How are you?"

He glanced at the pale limbs that waved him goodbye, the only white in the darkness at the back of his mind.

He didn't falter. "I'm fine, cyar'ika. I'm just fine."

Five out of six done! As you can see this one starts where Jaing's piece left off. Let me know what you thought of this one, I had a lot of fun with parallels. :) Please leave a review if you liked! Thank you to JainDo for having a glance at it all those weeks ago ;)

Thanks for reading! Kom'rk is on the way.

~Light