The Gap, 9 ABY
Republic Science Officer Sai Teng leaned back in his chair as the data pad displayed the latest readings from the swirling maelstroms surrounding the space station. The disruptor fields had proved effective so far, as the data indicated a recession of the volatile gases impinging upon the gap that the astrophysicists and engineers had created. It had taken the better part of four years to get to this point following their charter from the Republic Senate, and in spite of the clinical, analytical strain of thought that dominated his consciousness, Teng allowed himself an ounce of excitement and joy. The Republic had successfully created, established, and expanded a gap in the barrier walling off the Unknown Regions – a feat previously thought to be impossible. Soon, the Republic would enter the Unknown Regions, dispatching numerous scouting expeditions deep into space in the hopes of charting the third of the galaxy that had lain unexplored and unknown throughout the Republic's history.
Teng's relentlessly analytical mind overrode the joy, bringing the various problems back into clearer focus. There was still the matter of how to navigate the Unknown Regions without star charts, and there was the question of what sorts of civilizations and forces they might expect to encounter. The detractors to the program had been vociferous about the dangers of opening up a locked chest whose contents they could not know in advance. Teng had long noted his own apprehensions about the program, but the engineers – especially the Mandalorian - who constructed and established the backbone of the program had insisted that there was more to be gained from exploring and knowing than from doing nothing.
Teng turned his mind away from that question and directed his laser-like focus to the issue of navigating through the space beyond the maelstroms. Scouting operations had penetrated and charted a course beyond the maelstroms, but beyond that, space was wild and open. It could take decades to properly chart, and it was possible that they would only be scratching the surface by the time he had aged out of effective scientific inquiry. Such is science, he reminded himself.
"Sir?" spoke a concerned voice from the commlink.
"What is it, Captain?" Teng said absently without taking his focus away from the data pad.
"Are you reading this?" Captain Nicoll asked.
Teng's focus was so myopic that he failed to note the apprehension in the Captain's voice. "Captain Nicoll, it's my job to worry about interstellar anomalies and questions about. . ."
The abrupt shift from Nicoll's voice stirred Teng out of his study violently, as the man shouted, "Incoming craft in Sector 4! All pilots to your –"
An angry burst of static cut through the Captain's voice before trailing into silence. Teng dropped the data pad and leaned forward. He jammed his finger into the commlink's call button, but the channel was dead.
"Captain?" Teng called, but the commlink did not initialize. The return feed remained silent. Teng turned to look out the window and watched a line of brilliant green energy shoot through space. A flash followed, and Teng raced to the window on the other side of the office. The Meridian-class battle station's right-upper quadrant erupted in flames. A handful of X-wing fighters trickled out of the station before a second and third green blast slammed into the launch bay. The erupting, superheated gasses from inside the ship shot out, bursting into flame before the vacuum of space squelched the fire. Teng raced back to the other window to see a familiar triangular shape displacing orange and red gasses as it entered the empty gap of space the Republic science engineers had created.
Teng jammed the commlink button and shouted, "Imperial Star Destroyer emerging in Sector 4!"
Silence greeted his declaration, and Teng realized belatedly that the Star Destroyer was jamming their communications. His mind refusing to connect to the reality of the situation, he attempted the long range communicator, saying, "Commodore Antilles! This is Science Officer Sai Teng! We are under attack from an Imperial Star Destroyer!"
More silence followed, and Teng turned his gaze toward the Star Destroyer. The two X-wings that had managed to escape the Meridian's destruction streaked toward the ship, and both vaporized under the onslaught of green turbolaser blasts before they were even in range to fire a shot.
Teng paced his office, aware that there was little armament on the ship. What was here would likely do little good against a concerted attack by Imperial soldiers and stormtroopers. As Teng turned indecisively from the window to the locked cupboard where they kept a compliment of welding tools, the commlink sputtered back into life, and the hard, precise voice of a military commander said, "Unidentified space station, this is Commodore Brandt of the Imperial Navy. Your defenses have been destroyed, and your communications systems have been disabled. Prepare for boarding. Any attempts at self-defense will lead to your demise."
Imperials? Star Destroyers? Of all of the things that the program's detractors had expected to emerge from the Unknown Regions, Teng noted that a solitary Star Destroyer was the last thing on the list. Nobody could have foreseen – Teng stopped the thought as a stray memory arose. The Mandalorian had. She alone seemed preoccupied with the possibility. The Republic scientists and especially the politician had dismissed the concern, saying that there was just as little chance of encountering an Imperial remnant cell in the Unknown Regions than there was discovering a Rebellion cell that still thought the Civil War was raging. The poor Mandalorian had been dismissed as absurd.
As Teng recalled what was now an obvious folly, he tracked Imperial shuttles gliding from the Star Destroyer's hangar bay, accompanied by TIE fighters. Teng looked closer at the Star Destroyer, and he saw that it was not the pristine fighting machine of his adolescent memories. This one appeared dilapidated and held together haphazardly, as if it had undergone a lot of maintenance without the appropriate materials and equipment. Still, with the ship now aimed directly at the science station, the ship's haphazard appearance gave him little comfort.
The shuttles reached the ship, and Teng heard a distant clank. Muffled blaster fire followed shortly afterward, and the fire quickly ceased. Teng concluded that some of the scientists had attempted a defense, and he cringed as he considered his colleagues dead on the floor of the hangar bay. The lights shuttered briefly, and the flashing red lights subsided soon thereafter. Teng glanced again at the compliment of welding equipment, realizing it would do little good against a stormtrooper. He raced over to his partner's desk and rummaged through the drawers. There, in the bottom drawer buried beneath old reports, he found a small blaster. He picked up the blaster and crouched behind the door. He looked at the blaster stupidly, then realized he did not know how to remove the safety.
The door to the office slid open, and Teng cringed as he realized that he had not even thought to lock it. Two stormtroopers rushed into the room, shouting, "Freeze!"
Teng held his hands up, and the stormtrooper barked an order. "Drop the weapon!"
Teng set the weapon down on the desk then lifted his hands back into the air. One of the stormtroopers came around the desk and jerked him roughly back toward the chair he had been occupying. The trooper turned the chair around to face the entrance, and the other stormtrooper by the door said, "All clear."
Moments later, Teng watched as a man with immaculately coifed black-blue hair framing the red eyes and blue skin of his chiseled face entered the room. Teng shrank back in his chair, more alarmed by the man's appearance than he was by the stormtroopers. The man glanced at Teng, then swept his gaze around the room, before turning back to Teng.
"Who are you?" the man asked, his voice quiet and cold.
"Republic Science Officer Sai Teng," Teng replied, his voice quivering. "I'm the Director of this operation."
"Republic?" the man said, and Teng had a momentary sense of the man's surprise and disquiet. The impression did not last long, and the man added, "Fascinating." He turned to the stormtrooper and said, "Bring Officer Teng to the ship and prepare him for interrogation."
"You won't get away with this," Teng said. He had intended to shout it defiantly, but his voice still quivered.
The man smiled tightly, then nodded to the stormtrooper. The trooper slammed the butt of his rifle into Teng's head, and his vision went black as he plunged into unconsciousness.
Sai Teng awoke with a jolt. With the jolt came panic, and as he attempted to stretch his limbs, he met metallic restraints binding him to a chair. He gazed wildly around him at the darkened, cold clinical confines of an Imperial interrogation room, and his panic mounted as his mind belatedly comprehended his situation.
"Mr. Teng, no need to worry," spoke a mild, affable voice.
Teng turned his head to the speaker, and he saw a human in a white coat leaning over a bench, preparing something. Teng looked away from the man and saw the humanoid with the blue skin and the black hair seated in the shadows, his legs crossed and his fingers steepled together.
Teng writhed against the restrains, and the other human said, "Please, Mr. Teng. You'll injure yourself. All of your questions will be answered in just one moment."
Teng turned his gaze back to the human, and the human turned around carrying a metallic tray. He walked slowly toward the chair confining Teng and set the tray down on a table behind the chair. Teng strained to see what was on the tray, but the restraints binding his body limited his range of motion. The man set the tray down with a soft clink, and he walked around to the front of the restraining chair. He pulled up a chair of his own and sat down across from Teng.
The man smiled congenially and said, "Forgive our lapse in manners. I thought we had at least another minute of sedation. My name is Lieutenant Torris. I'm the Chimaera's chief medical officer, and I'm also the chief science officer." Torris paused his explanation, then added, "I must say, it feels lovely to be among fellow scientists again. Aside from the Grand Admiral, there's a paucity of intellectual thought on an Imperial Star Destroyer."
"What do you want from me?" Teng asked, his voice hoarse with fear.
Torris sighed, and Teng had the fleeting sense that he was disappointed. "Well, we want information. And after that – well, we'll get to that."
Torris studied Teng, noticing the man's courage making a feeble attempt to overcome his fear. "Officer Teng, before you think about resisting our questioning, first let me tell you what we already know. We've already spoken with many of your colleagues, and we've learned that, five years ago, a Rebel fleet won a decisive battle at Endor. The Emperor and his agents are all dead, and the Rebellion christened itself the 'New Republic.' Following a decisive battle at Jakku, the remnants of the Empire surrendered, thus ending nearly a decade of Civil War. We know that Mon Mothma now calls herself Chancellor, and we know that there's an election underway."
Teng glanced to the Grand Admiral and back to Torris. As his panic ebbed slightly, his own curiosity surfaced. "Who are you?"
"Lieutenant Torris," Lieutenant Torris repeated affably, and he turned to his superior and said, "This is my commanding officer, Grand Admiral Thrawn."
"That can't be," Teng gasped.
"You believe that the Grand Admiral and this ship vanished at the Battle of Lothal. This is, of course, correct. It took us nine years and a lot of fascinating science that would have excited you to no end," Torris said. He added, "But here we are."
"Lieutenant?" the Grand Admiral said in his quiet, raspy voice.
"Forgive me, Grand Admiral," Torris replied. He straightened up and adopted a more business-like tone. "So, in summary, we know generally the state of the galaxy. However, there were a few items of interest which we could not obtain from your colleagues." Torris rose from his chair and walked around to the tray behind Teng's chair. Torris continued speaking from behind Teng, and Teng heard muffled clinking and rustling as Torris worked quietly.
"We understand your aims in creating a gap between the known Galaxy and the Unknown Regions, the engineering, and the science, etcetera. Where we have questions is centered around who initiated all of this and who designed some of the hardware. Your colleagues genuinely did not know," Torris said. "They all seemed to think you'd know the most about that. And since we saved you for last. . ."
Teng squirmed again, but the restraints did not budge. Torris moved around to Teng's front and set a tray with a syringe down on a chair. Teng jerked his body again futilely, and Torris shook his head sadly.
"Please, Officer Teng," Torris said, his voice laced with detached concern. "Your entire crew has received precious little exercise, and your bone densities have all atrophied." He paused, then added, "Who is responsible for commissioning the Outbound Project?"
Teng blinked away the sweat pouring down his forehead, and he glanced back and forth between Torris and the Grand Admiral.
"No?" Torris asked, mildly disappointed. "Let's try – who's responsible for the engineering that has created and sustained the gap?"
Teng shook his head, and he turned away from Torris.
"Please, Mr. Teng. If this gap remains open, it allows a horde of ravenous marauders to invade the galaxy. Whatever you think of us, we wish to avoid that as much as the Republic. We have already disabled the devices sustaining the gap, but our calculations show it will take at least two years before the gap closes itself. We don't have the capacity to reverse engineer the devices, and we need to find somebody who can do so – lest all the scary monsters invade the galaxy," Torris said, smiling encouragingly.
"Go to hell," Teng said, finding his courage.
Torris sighed disappointedly, and he arose to his feet again carrying the tray with the syringe. "Oh well," Torris said. He set the tray down and held the syringe up to the light, checking the dose. "I know it goes against the established ethics on experimentation, but I'm afraid this science is too important to hobble with moral considerations. We've already tested on Zelphinians, a Rodian, several humans, and a Wookie. The Toydarian was most interesting; I never expected them to have such a high tolerance."
Torris walked toward Teng and placed the syringe between his teeth. With his free hands, he ripped open the sleeve of Teng's shirt, exposing his tan arm. "We know that Mirialan physiology differs in mostly superficial ways from that of humans, but we wouldn't want a small sample size to hinder our learnings, now would we?"
"What are you doing?" Teng panted.
"This miraculous substance," Teng said, holding the vial to the light. Teng noticed the purple-blue liquid shimmering in the dim light. "Is Third Sight. It's a potent psychoactive drug with the unique ability to open one's perception to the Force."
Teng's eyes went wide, and Torris laughed softly. "I know, right? It's remarkable. For the first time, non-Force wielding beings have experienced a direct connection to the Force."
Torris's face fell slightly, and with a note of detached sorrow, he said, "Pity that the side-effects lead to hallucinations, crippling migraines, and madness." Torris jammed the needle into Teng's arm, and Teng screamed in pain.
The pain subsided rapidly as Teng felt a veil part. As the veil parted, he stared ahead, his mind awash in wonder as he felt the awakening. It was beyond the well-worn paths of reason, logic, and deduction. It hinted at a truth that went beyond data and knowledge – something so deep, primordial, and profound that crude tools like measurement and language could never come close to encapsulating.
"Marvelous, isn't it?" Torris remarked wistfully. "The first moments are marked by euphoria and awakening. However, the high does not last long – especially with how I've modified the dose."
Teng felt a twinge of pain shoot up his right side, and the pain seeped into his skull. A small patch of scintillating light appeared on the left side of his field of vision, and pressure grew in his temples.
"By now, you should be getting the aura and the first inklings of pain," Torris explained with a detached curiosity as he monitored the veracity of his hypothesis.
Teng clenched his fists as his body wrenched against the restraints under the onslaught of agony surging through his nervous system. He grunted and panted, holding back the building scream.
"That does hurt, doesn't it?" Torris said as he restrained Teng's arm and worked an IV push into the vein on his forearm. "If left untreated, that pain will mount to a point where your nervous system will go into a feedback loop, which will short-circuit your consciousness and fracture your mind."
"But – one little push," Torris injected a small amount of the purple liquid into Teng's veins. Teng felt an immediate sense of relief coupled by the euphoria again, although the euphoria felt muted and tainted by the associated pain. "There you go. One little push, and you get relief." Torris leaned forward, shining a light in Teng's eyes. He called out, "Grand Admiral, as you suspected, the effects are slightly muted in Mirialans, but it also appears that the withdrawal is heightened."
"Indeed," whispered the Grand Admiral.
"Now," Torris said. "Answer correctly, and the drug keeps flowing. Resist, and the drug stops. Simple enough."
"I – go to hell!" Teng spat, and the room quivered slightly as his emotions rippled gently through the Force.
"Pity," Torris said, and he withdrew his hands from the syringe feeding the IV. Teng felt the aura returning, obscuring his vision, and the pain grew from a small seed, blossoming rapidly into a sapling as if filmed in time lapse. He grunted against the restraints, and as the pain mounted, he cried out, his screams filling the small room.
"The choice is yours, Mr. Teng," Torris said, shaking his head in sympathy.
Teng thrashed against the restraints, and as his mind began to dissociate, he called out, "Wren!"
Torris pushed a dose of the drug, and Teng's body relaxed. The euphoria was not there, but neither was the pain. His psychological dissociation stalled, and Teng breathed raggedly. Torris leaned forward and smiled. "Tell me more."
"Sabine Wren – the Mandalorian," Teng panted. "After the war, she went looking for something. She couldn't find it. She came back to the Republic and insisted that we start this project."
Teng tensed against the mounting pain, and Torris said gently as he administered another microunit, "It's okay, Mr. Teng. Here you go." As Teng's relief became evident, Torris added, "And the engineer?"
"Mainly Wren. She's a genius with engineering. She worked with my team for years to get the stasis mechanisms functioning," Teng said.
"And where is Ms. Wren now?" Grand Admiral Thrawn interjected.
"I'm not sure. She said she wanted to help Mandalore," Teng said.
Torris turned to Thrawn and said, "Would she be able to solve the range and amplification problems?"
"Possibly," Thrawn affirmed.
Torris pushed another dose, and Teng's body relaxed. He turned back to the Grand Admiral and said, "Any other questions, Sir?"
The Grand Admiral sighed and said, "Not at this time. Conclude when you are ready, Lieutenant." The Admiral rose from his chair and left the room. A flash of light from outside flooded in, but it vanished as the door slid shut.
"Very well," Torris said. "There's about 100 microunits remaining here. I'll give you the rest, and then our session will be complete."
"Wait – the rest?" Teng said, panic breaking through his.
"That's right," Torris said. "We have limited supplies. I estimate you have about twelve minutes left before the dose wears off."
"And then?" Teng asked, his panic rising.
"Well, I guess we'll see," Torris said, smiling affably as he rose to his feet.
"You'll forgive me. Despite my commitment to science, this can be hard to watch. We will film- for research purposes, of course." Torris turned and walked away. As he reached the door, he turned back to the panicking scientist and said, "Best regards, Officer Teng."
The door slid open and Teng screamed, "No wait! Come back!"
But Torris was gone before the last word left his lips. The door shut, leaving the room in darkness.
Grand Admiral Thrawn stood before the viewport of the Chimaera, gazing upon the window of cold black space framed by swirling orange gasses. The percussive footfalls of boots approached, and Thrawn listened as Commodore Brant came to a rest beside him.
"Your report, Commodore?" Thrawn requested.
"Sir, our men have left behind the armor and the corpses of the Grysk that we recovered from the skirmish. Our men have staged the deaths of the science crew to appear as murder by combat. The Republic is unlikely to suspect us," Brandt reported.
"Very good," Thrawn acknowledged.
"What orders, Sir?" Brandt asked, and Thrawn noted the subtle undercurrent of uncertainty in his voice.
"What troubles you, Commodore?" Thrawn asked quietly.
"The Republic, Sir," Commodore Brandt admitted. "It's not what I expected."
"Indeed. There is much to process," Thrawn said. "And much to consider."
"I speak on behalf of the men – and for myself. What do we do now?" Brandt asked.
"The specifics will depend on what we learn from this point. But take heart, Commodore – it would have been unthinkable to say such things before, but perhaps with the Emperor dead, an opportunity presents itself," Thrawn explained.
"Sir?" Commodore Brandt said, frowning.
"Consider what we have learned, Commodore. The Emperor insisted on allocating vast amounts of resources on the Death Star, and the Rebels promptly destroyed it. The Emperor again insisted on sinking even more resources into a second one, and the Rebels destroyed that as well. Powerful though he was, the Emperor placed too much confidence in his infallibility, and not enough confidence in those around him – all of whom he perceived as potential threats to his power," Thrawn explained, continuing to gaze forward.
"But without the Emperor-" Commodore Brandt said, but he cut himself off.
"There is no Empire," Thrawn said, completing the thought. "But why does there need to be an Empire? A government is merely a vehicle for marshaling resources. And do not forget that the Emperor's power came from the Force. By now, your experience with our erstwhile Jedi will have taught you the perils of relying on one who wields such power."
"Quite," Commodore Brandt said, still uneasy at talking so openly about the Emperor's fallibility.
"Let us learn what we can and discover what allies await. Soon, we will return to a place where we can consider our next moves," Thrawn said. He turned and looked directly at Commodore Brandt and a thin smile stretched across his lips. "Have faith, Commodore. A band of determined Rebels brought down the Empire. Imagine what we could do to the Republic."
"Yes sir," Commodore Brandt said, and for the first time since they encountered the Rebel outpost, the Commodore allowed himself a measure of hope.
"Prepare to jump to hyperspace," Thrawn ordered.
"At your command" Commodore Brandt said, snapping into attention.
Thrawn listened to the man turn and issue orders, and he heard the bustle of activity as the crew snapped into attention. Thrawn brought his hand to his chin, pondering the many. Skywalker, he thought to himself. Wren. Mon Mothma. There were more questions than answers at this moment.
"But not for long," he whispered to himself as the Chimaera drifted out of the maelstrom.
Once clear of the gasses, the Chimaera shot forward, vanishing into space. With the ship gone, the gasses swirled serenely around the now dormant stasis containment arcs. Detritus and debris drifted through the gap, and the darkened science station rotated in the darkness.
Outside the gap, a beacon activated, emerging from dormancy after years of silence. The red light atop the beacon began to flash, blinking quietly in the vacuum of space.