"You can not be serious."
It was an unfortunate reality of the Empire's command structure that led to a number of officers thinking that they stood on equal enough footing to question him. He had yet to curb such tendencies among those aboard his flagship. This officer in particular was new to command and somewhat drunk on the authority that came with the newly granted rank.
No doubt the other commanding officers aboard were equally displease. This one had simply been the most bold of them - Vargin was the name, he recalled. Not one of the one he had appointed, but someone foisted on him by necessity. The pips adorning the rank plaque pinned to the officer's uniform declared the held rank to be that of Brigadier General, though that mattered little to him.
"It was a breach of protocol to even allow her on board," Vargin continued. "And you want to not only induct her, but jump ranks by placing her as an officer? The very suggestion is unacceptable!"
For now, he ignored these rantings. They stood in an observation room attached to one of the holding cells usually reserved for the questioning and processing of prisoners. There was a window, tinted so as to allow him to see into the other room. No one within would be able to see out, as the exterior surface was opaque and blended perfectly with the wall.
At the lone table inside the room sat the girl, devoid of her pack and rifle - they had been confiscated upon arrival. Prior to being placed in the room, she had been given access to a washroom and provided with a spare jumpsuit. It appeared whoever had been in charge of supplying said jumpsuit had guessed one size too big, for it looked far too baggy on her frame.
"Are you even listening?"
He turned from the window to glance at Vargin, who was red faced and wearing an indignant expression.
"Your concerns have been noted."
"Concerns? These are more than just concerns! We are a military organization, not a charity!"
The half choked gasp that emanated from Vargin's throat a moment later was only somewhat satisfying. A minute exertion in the Force, precise enough as to cause discomfort but not enough to kill the man.
"You forget," he said as the general's hands scrabbled madly in a futile attempt to thwart his grasp. "You were placed under my command, not I under yours."
He released Vargin, who fell to the ground coughing and gasping for air. Point sufficiently made, he turned back to the window, ignoring the sound of the door as the general stumbled out.
No doubt the Emperor would be hearing of this transgression, though not until they had completed their current mission. There was to be no comm chatter core-wards until the Jedi he had been hunting was found and eliminated. That had been the order and should the general breach it, he would find no mercy from the Emperor no matter the reason.
In the other room an admittance clerk had entered to sit across from the girl, datapad and stylus in hand. The girl eyed each movement with a wary alertness.
"Alright, let's get this over with" the clerk said, tone one of disinterest. "Name?"
"Ven."
The clerk sighed at this.
"Full name."
"Maven Nyrakis."
She watched as the clerk tapped this information into the datapad.
"Age."
"Don't know," she responded, a very slight frown crossing her face. "What year is it?"
The clerk looked somewhat perplexed by this question for a moment, before grudgingly relaying the date. The girl's frown deepened, the expression shifting into thoughtful.
"Twenty."
The clerk jotted that down and continued with several more questions. He turned away from the window - the rest of the questions he cared little for. They were formalities needed to establish her a place within the Empire, however temporary that might be. A name was all that was needed to perform his own search.
His flagship was connected to the main holonet servers. So long as they were within range of a comm buoy, he could call up whatever data was needed from the Empire's archives. He moved to a nearby data terminal. It took only few moments to input the parameters and narrow down the search - the results filtering out onto the screen. The information displayed corroborated much of what the girl had told him.
She had been born on the self-same derelict freighter now rusting away on that storm plagued planet, to a human mother and an absent father. A notation in an old medical file stated that her parents had been separated months previous. She had grown up travelling planet to planet, raised by the ones now residing in the haphazard cairns he had spotted in their trek from the crash site to the mercenary compound.
The last recorded upload of the ship's log neglected to include a route or destination, though that told him very little. Freighters travelling through the outer rim in that time period rarely kept accurate records, for fear of pirates slicing the net. There were no notations concerning Toyn or the jedi master's intentions, though he had hardly expected any to begin with. The Jedi Order had not kept many records on Force potentials beyond a certain age. As Toyn had been acting in defiance of the Council's orders he had no doubt that every effort had been made to act discreetly.
Fortunate, as it made it easier to hide the girl's abilities. She was already adept at suppressing it, though he had to wonder if that was innate or the result of an outside influence. In the end it mattered little - either she'd be able to hide it from the Emperor or she would fail.
