The elevator slid open to reveal the detention deck of the Challenger. Curiously just one Stormtrooper –a Sergeant according to his white pauldron– awaited them.
"Identify the corpses and take the prisoner to the interrogation room. Tell Creed he can already start, I'll be with you in a moment," Vas ordered to the men who had helped him arrest the informant in the small mining colony.
The Twi'lek stared daggers and growled as he was led past. Then a Stormtrooper pushed him in the back, and he struggled to get his feet back under him with his hands tied behind his back.
Vas turned to the Stormtrooper who was still waiting at attention and suddenly remembered something.
"You are TK-4747, correct?"
"Yes, sir. You requested my presence."
"Correct but then I had to deal with this one. How did you know I would be here?"
"My superior officer informed me you had been assigned an arrest squad. I figured you would turn up here at some point."
"Good thinking, soldier. Follow me, I want to talk to you," Vas said and entered the adjacent room to look in on their unfriendly prisoner. He was currently yelling profanities at the dozen Stormtroopers in the room, chaining him to the central table.
Vas sighed. Recently he spent definitely too much time locked away in these rooms, having a lot of maddeningly similar conversations. And in the end, they all talked regardless of how tough they acted in the beginning.
As Creed entered the room followed by the floating interrogation droid even the Stormtroopers looked uncomfortable and avoided his gaze. The prisoner looked scared for the first time. The black Deathtrooper armour usually had that effect.
"Everyone, out," Creed ordered and the troopers complied without question. Even TK-4747 made a move for the door but Vas held him back.
"I still want to talk to you."
"I do not have the security clearance to take part in this interrogation."
"We still need to talk. I requested you to be here, so don't worry about it."
"I was not informed what you wanted to talk to me about."
"Take off your helmet, I want to see your face."
Vas turned to look the man straight in the eyes. He had an angular face with short stubbles on his chin and similarly short blond hair. His brown eyes darted around nervously, inspecting every part of Vas' face.
"Why are you so nervous? Do you have something to hide? Something I should know?"
It was surprising how often this trick worked. Criminals who confessed to a dozen previously unknown crimes in hopes of a lenient sentence.
"No, sir. I … there are a lot of stories told about the ISB and I'm not sure what to believe now. This …" He pointed at the interrogation room on the other side of the mirror where the interrogation droid was injecting a toxin into the Twi'lek's neck. It seemed Creed had no patience today either and had skipped the friendly questioning phase entirely.
"This looks exactly like the stories but you don't seem to fit that image. You look different."
"Too young and inexperienced?"
"No, that's not at all what I meant." A bead of sweat trickled down his forehead until it got caught in his eyebrows. His eyes were jumping around even quicker now. "You look almost nice."
"Wow, that's the best compliment I have gotten in a while."
The Stormtrooper's face reddened but he knew better than to say anything more so he wouldn't make it even worse.
"Don't worry, I'm just testing you. You are not in trouble. As a matter of fact, there might be an opportunity for a promotion. However, it would be outside the Stormtrooper Corps."
"You want me to become part of the ISB?" the man said with honest surprise.
"Yes, you got excellent recommendations from your superiors. So good indeed that I'm wondering where the catch is."
"Catch, Sir?"
"What is your flaw? Your secret? Do you have a corpse hidden away somewhere?"
Wisely the Stormtrooper said nothing and looked straight ahead at the progressing interrogation.
"It also wouldn't be a promotion in the strictest sense. You would start with the rank of a constable. The lowest officer rank in the ISB. If you're worried about the pay, it isn't exactly a downgrade. But are you fine with being at the bottom of the food chain again? Every ISB officer will outrank you. Now that you're used to giving commands, can you still follow orders?"
"I assure you I have no problem with following orders. Stormtrooper Sergeant isn't exactly a post with a lot of opportunities for independent command."
"Good, in your new post you would be required to analyse the comm records saved on the Challenger. A program can help you sift through the immense volume but in the end I need a human to evaluate."
"You want me to play snitch on my comrades?"
"Correct. But I don't care about troopers talking on the job or even some idle thoughts. I want to find the traitors in our midst. Those who accept bribes and in other ways break the law while on duty. I don't suspect you will have to snitch a lot on your fellow Stormtroopers but the local garrison is most likely not aware that they are patched into the same comm system. This is an excellent opportunity."
"As you command."
Vas looked at the Trooper but his face was unreadable. "This is no order and it will not be held against you in any way if you refuse this post. If you want, you can return to your old rank and you will –hopefully– never hear from me again."
"I'm not quite comfortable with overhearing my comrades but I see where you're coming from."
"You should never be comfortable with it. It is an incredible intimate intrusion into another person's privacy. But sometimes we have to do these things for the greater good and be aware every person you bring to my attention will have a hell of a time. Maybe they'll end up just like our little informant over there, so you have to be sure the person is guilty before you destroy his or her life."
"Understood," he said, staring at the proceedingly gruesome interrogation in the other room.
"You have to decide by the end of the day. Until then you can help me sift through the first logs that were flagged by the program," Vas said and handed over headphones and a datapad.
The soldier reached for the items but Vas didn't let go.
"What's your name? TK-4747 won't do now. I need a real name."
"Dalle, Sir."
"Very well, Dalle. Work your way through the flagged records, starting with the oldest. If there are officers over the rank of Sergeant involved, forward them to me."
Creed joined them several times to get new equipment or discuss the lack of results. The Twi'lek was incredibly stubborn but Creed had broken everyone yet and this wouldn't be the exception.
Right after Creed had left again –his chrono showed somewhere around midnight–, Dalle took off his headphones and looked at the Twi'lek in the other room.
"Won't this scare off any other informants?"
It took Vas several seconds to understand the implied meaning after listening to mind-numbing conversations for so long.
"If someone knew he was an informant, you would be correct. His call went from the Comms Officer right up to the Captain, so almost no one is involved. I have already altered the records. They now show that through a stroke of luck, we found this … Boc'seca in a routine search and brought him in for questioning. No talk about mistreated informants, only about the efficiency of the ISB."
"That can't be possible all the time."
"No, we have the occasional informant who has too solid connections to touch him or the case already has a too high public profile. Then we usually reward them in some kind of publicity stunt to make it more attractive for informants. The Empire's official record for informants is quite impressive."
"And this way we get all the information an informant has. Even those he doesn't want to spill."
"Correct. For example, our Twi'lek here is most likely an old member of that rebel cell who got into a disagreement with the other members and now wants to take revenge. Meaning he has a lot more information than just the location of one of their hideouts."
Dalle wanted to reply something when Vas' commlink buzzed.
"Agent Flennic," he took the call.
"Captain Setaro here. Our garrison on Eriss was just attacked."
"Eriss? The mining colony where I picked up the informant?"
"Indeed. Only a few hours after you left, a group of at least twenty rebels attacked the small garrison and even managed to destroy one of the walkers."
"Any survivors?"
"We're not sure at the moment. But shortly after the attack, our scanners picked up a B-7 light freighter leaving the atmosphere. They hid somewhere in the nearby asteroid belt and I have deployed two squadrons of TIE-Fighters including a Gozanti escort to root them out."
"Might I suggest sending some troops to the mining colony?"
"They are already en route. I want to see the rebels try dealing with four AT-ATs and a legion of army troopers. Let them feel the full might of the Imperial Army. We will find these traitors and this freighter will also not slip through our defences."
"I think I need to put more pressure on our informant. This can't be a coincidence. Thanks for keeping me informed."
"You are welcome, we're working for the same team after all."
Vas put the commlink away and rose to his feet.
"I know this probably isn't the best time but…" Dalle said.
"Speak up but make it quick."
The man got to his feet as well, straightened and gave Vas a perfect salute.
"I would be honoured to be your snitch, Sir."
Vas smiled. They would get along well.
"Good choice, Constable … What's your last name?"
"I have none. Once I joined the academy I was introduced to that concept, we didn't have any on my homeworld."
"Well, Constable Dalle it is then. Take the rest of the night off, I have kept you long enough anyway."
"Don't you need my help with this," he asked, pointing at the interrogation room. "They killed our men. I want to help."
"That is very admirable but I need you on surveillance duty for now. Prove yourself and I have the feeling you will quickly rise through the ranks."
Dalle rose and headed for the door.
"Oh and pick up your new uniform. You are not part of the Stormtrooper Corps anymore. From now on you are part of the ISB and I expect you to represent it at every waking hour with a clean appearance."
Dalle saluted and for the last time put on the iconic Stormtrooper helmet. Vas turned back to his biggest problem at hand and touched the intercom, "Creed, stop being so nice. We need some answers now."