Treek had insisted that she wanted to go with HK to their client – but the droid had been already destroyed. Theron finally came up with the idea of attaching HK's head to Treeks neck with a string. Vette found it creepy and sad as Treek started to talk to the bodiless head dangling from her neck. Badesh must have done quite a number on her mind. Although they hadn't tortured Treek it still was unsettling to think that they had mind-fucked her so badly that she was still under a trance even after almost a day.

"Treek and HK will tell boss what we have done," Treek mumbled and softly stroked the droid's head. "Yes, we will… tell him about our great accomplishment."

"Of course you will," Cipher Nine crouched down next to Treek and smiled at her. "You are now on Alderaan – you should go see your boss."

Kalda and Theron observed Nine, they were visibly distrustful, even after Vette had repeatedly told them that she was trustworthy.

"Yes, Treek and HK will…" Treek repeated and started to walk towards the hangar door.

Vette, Quinn, Theron, Kalda and Nine stayed behind.

"The signal is loud and clear," said Theron while looking on his data pad. It showed a small map and a yellow triangle marked Treek's position.

"Good, Vector will keep a visual on her." Nine checked her sniper rifle, crocked it up and hid it under her long robes. "We should wait about ten minutes and follow the signal."

"Agreed." Quinn glanced at his chronometer. "We should split up, we would draw too much attention when we travel together."

"Alderaanians are sometimes not too fond of non-humans," Kalda frowned, "I think it would be best if I partner up with the Major, Vette and Theron should work together – I assume that you preferably work alone… Nina?"

Nine nodded. It was clear that Kalda had suggested the teams because neither she nor Theron trusted the Imperials. Vette had anticipated as much, in fact everything else would have surprised her.

ooOOoo

To Vette's amazement she and Theron were led out of the city into the woods. They exchanged worried looks but kept following the signal. Finally they reached a compound or rather an estate which was hidden behind large fir trees.

"According to my map this building belongs to House Organa; usually they are firmly aligned with the Republic," said Theron and pulled his binoculars from his bag. "I don't see anything suspicious."

Vette activated her holo, Cipher Nine's figure appeared.

"Can Vector confirm that Treek is in the Organa building?" asked Vette.

"Yes, according to him she simply walked through the gates and vanished in the main…" suddenly the holopicture flickered and simply vanished.

Vette reached for her blasters as fast as she could, but out of nowhere several humanoids with dark mask appeared and pressed a strange smelling cloth against her mouth and nose. Everything went black.

ooOOoo

The first thing Vette heard after she slowly awakened from her loss of consciousness was the steady humming of a force field, he noise gave her an immediate headache. She held her head as she opened her eyes, at first everything was a haze, but eventually her vision cleared up and to her horror she saw that Theron and she weren't the only ones captured: there were six cells, and every one of the was occupied by her companions. On her left side were Kalda, then Quinn and then Theron. She was surprised to see that even Nine and Vector were caged; they Imperial Agents were unconscious. Whoever had orchestrated this was really, really good – either that or they had been played.

Before she could speak with the other a door slid open and a tall blond human woman appeared. The way she carried herself told Vette that she had military training.

"That's Giselle Organa," whispered Theron.

The name wasn't familiar to Vette. Giselle walked slowly past every single cell before she stopped and addressed them.

"It seems that for once it paid off to hire out-side help to keep an eye on everything suspicious. You followed the Ewok, that means you know too much already. I'm only here to offer you a quick death; tell me now who you are and who you are working for and you won't slowly waste away under the care of my interrogation droids." Giselle waited for a few seconds before she continued speaking. "No? Well, then have it you way."

Without further hesitation she turned on her heel and left the room. As soon as the door had slid close behind her, Vette heard how Kalda began to swear.

"That wretched traitor! Screw her and her whole force-forsaken clan!" Kalda calmed down and took a deep breath. "Okay, does anyone have a back-up plan?"

"None that would work with us all ensnarled in these cages," answered Quinn. "I have to admit that I'm amazed that they were able to capture us all at the exact same time."

"Indeed," concurred Kalda, "I suspect that they hired House Rist – a clan well known for their stealth techniques."

"That doesn't matter now," replied Theron, "we have to get out of here. And fast! Giselle Organa is a seasoned leader and has fought many battles. She isn't known for her leniency."

Vette started to inspect her cell and hoped to find a weakness in the technology that captured them. It took her only about five minutes to confirm what she had already suspected: Giselle had not only hired the best to capture them, she also had bought the best force-fields money could buy. Vette wasn't scared, but she was very, very worried. Was this the end?

It seemed that Kalda had reached the same conclusion; with an uncharacteristically low and flat voice she said: "Theron? Perhaps it's time for a miracle."

Vette now turned her attention to the SIS-Agents. It was a strange choice of words… miracle. Theron nodded and touched slightly his implant on his temple. Vette somehow expected that he pulled some sort of device – perhaps a lock pick – from it, but nothing of the sorts happened. Theron simply closed his eyes and begun to draw deep breaths. Vette kept her eyes peeled on him, but for the next ten minutes Theron didn't move. From time to time she glanced at Quinn, he was also focused on Theron.

Suddenly the door slid open again and a spherical droid floated into the room, follow by two guards. They strode to the cell Theron was in, deactivated the force field and simply dragged him into the middle of the room, where they strapped him on a table.

"Anything to say?" asked the taller of the guards.

"Yes, your breath stinks, perhaps you should consider…" the man slapped Theron.

"You will regret that; droid – begin."

Vette wanted to avert her eyes, but at the same time she couldn't look away as the droid floated over Theron and lowered a set of hocks and needles into his chest.

"Kalda, don't look…" she barely managed to whisper before Theron's screams rang through the room.

Vette felt fear and anger, she gritted her teeth. Badesh would find them and… he would avenge them! She directed her gaze to Quinn, he was looking at her as well. His presence calmed her although Theron's screams didn't stop. Quinn held her gaze as he slowly reached out and touched the force field, in a matter of a split second his usual impassive face was screwed up in agony and he fell to the floor. Vette could simply stare at him. What… Then she realised what he was doing: there was one way left to let Badesh know that they were in trouble – provided that the force-bond even worked that way. But what if it didn't work? It didn't matter – they had to try it.

Vette gritted her teeth and punched with her left hand into the force field. Hot pain shot through her entire body and she fell on her knees. She panted and stared at her left hand, it was bruised and slightly shaking.

"What the fuck are you doing?" hissed Kalda. "Are you trying to kill yourself?" Despite her harsh tone it was clearly written on her face that she was worried about them.

Vette tried to rearrange her face into a smile, but she failed. "You wanted a miracle, didn't you? We are trying to deliver it."

Quinn was slowly getting on his feet. He looked dishevelled and visibly struggling for his countenance. It pained Vette to see how he reached out again and convulsed in agony before he slumped down again. She stared at the force field in front of her and the mere thought of the coming anguish made her sweat. After a moment's hesitation she reached out.

ooOOoo

After half an hour they were finished with Theron. To his credit – he had managed to keep quiet about their mission. Vette watched how the guards dragged Theron back to his cell, he was only half-conscious and apparently seriously injured. His shirt was blood-stained and he was very pale. Vette dreaded who they would pick next to interrogate. She and Quinn had both touched the force field several times – it had taken a high toll on them. Vette's left hand shook violently and was bruised as well as burnt. The pain was hot and dull at the same time, she felt like she would throw up any minute. And Quinn looked as bad as Vette felt.

"I always suspected that Imperials were masochists. Take the Togruta next!" said a guard with an even voice. "If the Imps insist on doing our work for us we shouldn't stop them."

Vette stared at Kalda, she had a determined expression on her face as they lowered her force-field. She struggled and tried to hit the guards, but they simply shot her in the leg and grabbed her as she fell down on the floor. As the strapped her down on the table she made eye contact with Vette. Despite her being a strong woman she had a look of horror written across her face.

"You saw what we did to your partner, girl. Now is the time to speak: Who are you and your associates? Who do you work for?"

"Fuck you!" shouted Kalda.

Vette felt how an iron grip closed around her heart as the droid resumed his barbaric work. She averted her gaze and buried her face in her hands. They wouldn't make it; there was no way that Badesh would be fast enough to save them. It would take at least 15 hours to travel from Korriban to Alderaan even if the force-bond worked – how was he supposed to find them? Vette forced herself to stop thinking about the hopelessness of her situation. No, she wouldn't give up! There was no merit in despair, perhaps Nine had a plan to escape? She turned her head to their cells.

Nine and Vector had woken up – Vette hadn't noticed before – and were silently talking to each other. Her hopes sunk again when she saw how Vector shook his head. Badesh was probably still their only hope, it seemed that they couldn't escape on their own. Vette looked at Theron who was still lying on the floor of his cell, drifting in and out of consciousness. There was only one way out – they had to buy time until Badesh arrived; and that meant that Theron and Kalda weren't certainly the last ones who had to suffer.

"Quinn, if Badesh is on his way he still needs more time," she said as quietly as possible. Vette assumed that the guards wouldn't hear her over Kalda's screams.

"I agree – but I assume that Organa isn't going to kill us after just a session of interrogation. If my calculations are correct he should arrive on Alderaan after we have been tortured twice," he replied coolly, but Vette still registered a slight tremble in his voice. "The guards are professionals; they will give us a few hours to recuperate before they begin anew."

"Can't we just tell them something to keep them busy?"

"It is a possibility, but there is a high risk involved with that strategy: They have six prisoners, they could start killing after the intel proves to be wrong."

Vette started knitting her hands together lest Quinn wouldn't see that were shaking. "I see… well, that is one shitty situation." She made an effort to smile. "At least we will suffer together, a sorrow shared is a sorrow halved…" Vette stopped in mid-sentence. "Sorry, that was a terrible pun… I… I am just scared."

Quinn's usual professional mask slipped for a moment and revealed a very, very worried and frightened look on his face. "I regret that I can't kiss you right now, Vette… I am scared too." He looked at her in a caring way. "Just remember: when the droid starts, grit your teeth. Otherwise you might bite off your tongue."

Vette bleached and nodded.

"The Major is right, Vette," added Nine. "And don't try to act as if you were unconscious – that never works and could cause them to shock you even harder."

"The star-signs freeze. We are weary." Vette had no clue what Vector meant by that but she assumed that he wanted to comfort her.

"I assume you already tried to contact your Kilik-Tribe through the hive-mind, Vector?" asked Quinn.

"The nest hears our song, but we are not important enough to send a Kilik war party to our location. We suspect that our dance among the stars will end here."

Vette leaned a far as possible towards Nine and Vector. "Listen, Badesh is on his way – we just have to endure it until he arrives." She tried to sound more secure than she was.

Kalda's screams had stopped. Vette could only watch as the guards dragged her to her cell. Then they deactivated Vectors force-field and jerked him towards the droid.