"I had the same look on my face when I first saw him," Tarkin joked as Vader halted a few steps into the interrogation room.

Vader ignored the taunt, resisting the urge to rid himself of Tarkin once and for all. He stepped closer to the interrogation table, looking the restrained occupant up and down and admiring the prehensile tail that was restrained as well. With the thick black hood covering his face, Vader couldn't determine the species, but given that there were millions of species known to inhabit the galaxy and an unknown number with tails, he couldn't be entirely sure.

Vader walked around the table, slowly taking in the features of the subject before him. Besides the tail, he or she had three fingers on each hand and two toes and each feet and his skin, a fine layer a fur was a dark midnight blue.

"What species is he?" Vader asked, turning to Tarkin.

"We haven't been able to determine the genome. It doesn't exist anywhere in our database," Tarkin replied. "Though, it does bear remarkable similarities to our own. Imperial geneticists have noted that a few of its DNA base pairs have certain mutations that they have never seen before."

"So he's human?"

"In a word, yes, but that is not the only remarkable thing about him." Tarkin said. "Besides from the mutations in his DNA, we also noticed another mutation in his cells. Midi-chlorians, with a base reading of over ten thousand per cell."

"He's force sensitive?" Vader said, reacting instantly to the news.

"So it would appear, but not in the traditional sense."

"What do you mean?"

"See for yourself," Tarkin said, indicating to one of the monitors behind him where monitors and medical equipment lined the wall from end to end. "I couldn't quite believe what I was seeing when I first saw it for myself."

Joining Tarkin at the monitor, Vader crossed his arms across his chest, looking up at the monitor. On the screen was a security recording of one of the Death Star's many and innumerous corridors. Stormtroopers and Imperial Officers alike walked through, undertaking their various tasks as they went about their daily duties. But then, a brief and blinding flash illuminated the corridor, blinding the camera for a moment, and as it subsided, the subject on the table behind him appeared, almost out of nowhere.

"What happened?" He demanded.

"That still remains to be seen." Tarkin replied. "But keep watching. The best part is coming up."

The man stood up, slightly disoriented as he tried to get his bearings. The Stormtroopers and Imperial Officers were just as disoriented, slow to react to the event as they tried to adjust after the blinding flash. As they noticed the man standing amongst them, their hands found their guns instantly. The end result of drills upon drills that honed their senses to react to such situations.

"Halt!"

"On your knees!"

"Don't move!"

"Hands in the air!"

Orders upon orders were shouted as the Stormtroopers and Imperial Officers cornered the man, his back flat against the wall behind him. With blaster rifles and pistols pointed at him, the blue man did the unexpected, something which took even Vader by surprise. He disappeared in a black wisp of smoke.

If Vader had eyebrows, they most definitely furrowed.

The man rematerialized again, further up the corridor.

"I told you." Tarkin interjected.

In their customary fashion, the red blasts of plasma missing the man as he ran for it, but in this regard it wasn't for lack of trying. The blue man continued to disappear and reappear at random, evading capture and escaping through adjoining corridors as the security camera views continuously changed to keep up with him. Continuing to dodge and teleport out of harm's way, he often took down the Stormtroopers and Officers with expert hand to hand combat. Though it didn't last for long. One of the Stormtroopers got off a lucky stun shot as he was thrown to the floor.

Tarkin stopped the recording there.

"Interesting," Vader said, turning back to blue man on the table.

"That's one word for it," Tarkin replied. "We had trouble restraining the prisoner after that. Once he was conscious he teleported again. He's put seven Stormtroopers and three Officers in the morgue and twice that many in the infirmary."

"He has an extremely rare gift," Vader said. "Jedi and Sith alike have spent their entire lives in pursuit of the ability, but none have succeeded."

"Perhaps a gift for the Emperor," Tarkin suggested.

"Don't be absurd." Vader replied, "He's a security threat and shall be treated as such. What have you managed to learn from him?"

"Verbally?" Tarkin replied, bemused. "Nothing of course. He keeps attempting to escape."

Vader watched the blue man carefully, and then he turned back to the security console. "Play it back. There is something that I wish to see."

He watched it at least three times to make sure that his assumptions were correct. Several points of the video caught his attention, and he played them back several times too.

"What is it?" Tarkin asked, giving Vader some time and space.

"Wake the prisoner," He ordered, looking past Tarkin at one of the medical droids standing idle at the interrogation table's side.

"I would advise you against such action, Vader." Tarkin said.

"You've had your chance, Tarkin. You've had this prisoner for two days and have learnt nothing of importance. Come to think of it, you've learnt nothing at all." Vader replied, towering over Tarkin. "Now it's my turn."

The medical droid, a standard 2-1B that was the most common and more reliable of its class, injected the man with a serum to counteract the heavy sedative that had kept him unconscious. The affect was almost instantaneous. It flushed it out of his system upon its injection, and his head, beneath the black hood, stirred, turning slightly to his left.

There was an inaudible murmur from him as the drugs wore off, and his movements became ever more erratic as he slowly came to the realization of his situation. The straps at his wrists, ankles and across his chest and neck held him down easily enough and Tarkin's brow furrowed as he watched. "He's usually gone by now." He said, bemused.

"During his previous restraints, was the subject hooded?" Vader asked.

"No." Tarkin replied. "Why?"

"Teleportation usually requires a situational awareness of the surrounding space. To put it simply, you need to visualize where you wish to reappear. Otherwise you never know where you will end up. Hence the hood."

"I see," Tarkin said, kicking himself that he didn't see it.

"Wh... where am I?" The man called out, giving up on freeing himself.

"Ah, he speaks at last," Tarkin said. "And Galactic Basic as well."

"And it seems that I have learnt more in ten seconds than you have in two days," Vader replied, smugly.

"Who are you?"

"Where am I?"

"What do you want with me?"

"How did I get here?"

Vader chose not to reply, yet. He was waiting for something. Waiting to see if the man would try to escape, blindly. It was a dangerous thing to do, but the man attempted no such thing, something in which Vader was certain of. Self-preservation was a trait in which all species shared. Even he wouldn't have attempted it.

"I'll be asking the questions here," Vader finally said, "What is your name?"

"Kurt," He replied, his voice quavering. He didn't like the sound of Vader, and especially with his breathing. It was too threatening, slightly mechanical in a way that sent a shiver up his spine. "Kurt Wagner." He said, with a strong German accent.

"And what species are you?"

"I am human," He replied.

"But that's not entirely true, is it?" Tarkin said, tapping Kurt's tail.

"No," Kurt replied, honestly. He knew there was no way out. Security was becoming even tighter with every escape, and he was practically being shot down the moment he got out the door. So he figured he had no choice. This wasn't the strangest place he had been to, and the last few months had been very peculiar indeed. "Where I come from, I am known as a mutant."

"Well, that explains a lot," Tarkin said.

"Tell me of your world," Vader asked. "Is it part of the Empire?"

"What Empire?"

Tarkin opened his mouth to speak, but Vader lifted his hand, cutting him off, more out of pleasure than anything else. "Your planet, has it made contact with species from other worlds?"

"What?" Kurt replied, aghast. "No."

"Do all the people from your world share the same traits and abilities as you?" Vader asked.

"Not all, no," Kurt replied. "Each of our abilities are unique. I inherited mine from my mother and my father."

"They both share your ability?" Tarkin asked, perplexed.

"My father yes, but my mother was a metamorph, able to take on the shape and form of any person."

"These other abilities, tell me of them." Vader asked.

Tarkin stepped in. "I believe there are more pertinent questions that we need answering first, Vader." He said, ignoring Vader's attempt to cut him off again. "The first being the manner in which you came to board this station."

Vader ceded to Tarkin's insistence. It was true that he was intrigued by this man, Kurt's ability, and the possibility of others with unique abilities from his world, but Tarkin was right in a way. The secrecy of the Death Star was something that could not be broken. If the Rebel Alliance were to find out about the station and its destructive power, god knows what repercussions the Empire would face. The Rebel Alliance would gain more support than they could ever have imagined and the Empire would come tumbling down around the Emperor. That could not happen.

"I don't know, truly I don't." Kurt replied. "I was travelling as I usually do. Well, running away to tell the truth. People like me are hunted on my world. People fear our powers, and there have been terrible battles and attacks, of which I have been involved."

"People fear what they do not know." Vader said in response.

"Honestly, you couldn't imagine what I have been through myself, what I have been forced to do, unwillingly I might add." Kurt replied, his tone dejected.

"So you were teleporting, and then you mysteriously materialized on this station," Tarkin said. "I find that highly unlikely."

"I never intended to teleport onto your station. I was only running away from some people who were chasing me. As I tried to teleport, I found myself in this strange place, with light coming from all around me." Kurt replied.

"And then you appeared on this station?" Tarkin asked.

"No, I thought I had landed somewhere on my own world, until I saw something that was truly horrifying." Kurt replied, fear and disgust running through him as he remembered the ghastly sight.

"What was this horrible thing that you saw?" Tarkin asked

"Not long after I had passed through the light, I came upon something that made me truly sick. I witnessed rotting corpses feeding on a living person." Kurt replied, his nauseated feeling continuing to build. The sound of the man's screams ringing through his head.

Tarkin turns to Vader and speaks quietly to him. "His story is completely fabricated." Tarkin stated, irritation in his voice.

"It is plausible," Vader responded. "The Emperor has told me about how his former master was able to bring back to life anyone he wished. Someone must have made the same attempt, but it seems as if something went wrong."

Tarkin turns back to Kurt. "How long were you on this world?"

"Weeks, months possibly, there was no way for me to keep track of the days that passed by. I survived by staying away from the people, out of fear that they would also consider me to be a monster. I teleported my way around until I eventually found myself surrounded by the mysterious light again. Hopefully this one would take me back home. Unfortunately, I found another world filled with monsters."

"What type of 'monsters' did you encounter there?" Tarkin asked, wondering how long this would take for him to finish.

"They were disfigured and horribly ugly, gray skinned creatures that referred to themselves as Orcs. More like demons if you ask me. This particular group traveled at night with what they called a troll. A giant creature that had to hide in caves during the day. I followed them so that I could sneak away some of their food." Kurt replied.

"How long did you spend on that world?" Tarkin asked.

"It was as long as the last place. Until I was taken in by the light for a final time and ended up here." Kurt replied, hoping they would believe him, hoping he would be set free.

Tarkin turns to Vader once more. "Do you actually believe this story of his has any credibility?"

"It is a possibility." Vader responds. "The light that he has traveled through could possibly be wormholes."

"I thought that wormholes were only a theoretical possibility?" Tarkin asked.

"Well here is your proof of their existence." Vader said.

Tarkin gives a quick look to Kurt, then turns back to Vader. "Let alone the fact that he doesn't have any technology to create one, how is it possible that he survived. All study into the matter suggests that he should have been liquefied without any proper protection."

Vader paused for a moment, considering all that has transpired. "He had exactly what he needed."

Now Tarkin is befuddled. "What are you talking about?"

"He is a Force-sensitive." Vader replied. "That is the only plausible explanation for his ability to open the wormholes and survive his journey through." Vader looks towards Kurt.

"Tell us more about the other mutants from your world." Vader commanded him, not wishing to wait any longer.

Kurt couldn't say anything about his friends. Even telling these people about his enemies would run the risk of putting them in danger. "No"

Vader's patience has run its course. "Then you are no longer useful to us." Vader raises his hand, and with the Force, snaps Kurt's neck.

Tarkin looks at Vader, unamused. This was not the first time he had killed someone in this manner. "Why did you do that?" Tarkin asked. "We could have studied him further."

Vader lowers his hand. "He would have posed to great a risk to keep around." Vader turns around and walks out the door, with Tarkin right next to him. "Take me to the place where he first appeared.