Chapter Text
The silence was unsettling, it had to be. Something about an interrogation room filled most people with dread but you found it comforting. Maybe it’s what made you such a good intelligence officer, the way you could unnerve people with just your presence had them spilling everything to you.
The man sitting before you though, wasn’t crumbling. His hair was deep grey and long, his skin tanned and weather beaten from being on a desert planet for so long. He was wearing sand wrappings, they travelled up his arms and down legs, his tunic was long and loose fitting, the trousers he wore were tight against his body so the sand couldn’t get in.
His head hung down as he leaned against the binding that held his wrists behind the chair. You had asked for him to be freed, he couldn’t escape this room and he wouldn’t get very far if he did but Poe said it was for your safety. You let out a small sigh scrolling through the information that had been hacked from an old imperial terminal the technicians had managed to get some power to. Words lept out at you, Naval Intelligence, Commander, Nova Star, Emperor’s Will Medal, Admiral… The man was decorated by imperial standards. And he was supposed to be dead.
He was certainly silent enough to be a dead man, he hadn’t made a sound since he’d been dragged in from the sands of Jakku. Considering how old he was the man had kept up with training, his physique was thick and muscular you had no doubts he was dangerous, his deeds within the rule of the Empire were legendary. Palpatine’s right hand man, some even said the man before you ran the Empire in all but name.
“We know who you are.” You let a flicker of annoyance cross your features, this man had all sorts of information that could solidify facts on a growing darkness in the Unknown Regions. He had helped bring it to fruition but why he was still on Jakku you wished to find out. If only he would just speak. You’d been sitting here for five hours now and you actually wondered if he’d fallen asleep, his swathes of grey hair covered his face and you didn’t want to get any closer to him. Some of the intelligence agents you worked with adopted tougher methods but you very rarely found you needed them. General Organa said something about you having a trusting face and it caused them to spill to you. You didn’t believe her and Poe had teased you ever since she’d said it, but your thoughts were digressing. You stood abruptly hoping to drag even a flinch from him but the man was a damn statue. Snatching the tablet off the table you left the room hating that this one was testing your limits. Poe detached himself from the wall as you locked the door and followed you down the corridor.
“Well?”
“Nothing,” you snapped. Poe swore under his breath, dragging his hand through his curls except they just bounced back to where they were. He looked back the way you’d just come and you went to follow his gaze but he hastily wrapped an arm around your shoulders.
“Can I get you a drink Commander? Maybe go over a strategy that he might respond to?”
“I really should get back, I just needed to get out of the room for a moment.” He gave you that cocky flyboy grin, the one that had all the women on the base swooning, especially you. The frustration of the situation took over and you leaned into him, his hand sliding up the side of your face as he accepted your quick kiss.
“Is that a yes, sweetheart? Because he isn’t going to suddenly decide he wants to talk after five minutes.” He was right and you grinned with a quick roll of your eyes.
“Fine. Just one.” His deep brown eyes flashed mischievously and he began to guide you outside. Disembarking from the Corvette had you breathing the rich planet air deeply, spread before you were rows of X-Wings all having maintenance and being cleaned. The fleet recently had some new ones delivered from the New Republic, they trickled in slowly. The accounts had to be fixed so it didn’t look like the Republic were funding the Resistance outright but it seemed General Organa still had friends in high places. Or in the right places.
Poe guided you to a table in the small cantina disappearing for a minute only to return with a bottle of whiskey and a couple of cups. You groaned and rubbed a hand over your face.
“I thought you meant like a caf or tea or something, I should know you better huh?”
“You look like you need this,” he told you, pouring a hefty amount for you. “Besides, it might loosen up your trusting face.” You reached across the table and swatted him with your datapad where he made an exaggerated show of being hurt but already you felt yourself relaxing. Sipping the Corellian rocket fuel you fell into an easy conversation and soon some more of Poe’s team joined you. They were your little pocket of family in this vast bleak Galaxy, really they were all you had left.
Looking down at your datapad you saw time had flown by, knocking back the last of your drink, you told them you had to leave much to their dismay. Poe got up to kiss you goodbye, Snap whistled and Jess groaned at the show of affection but you loved it, giving Poe a grin before you walked away.
The corridor was empty as you approached your interrogation room which was odd because someone should be here at all times. Activating the lock on the door it whooshed open to reveal Rax still in the same position, leaning forward against his bindings, hair low and covering his hanging head.
“Alright Gallius time to give up this stoic act,” you demanded, placing the datapad on the table and crossing your arms. “We know who you are, we know what you did at the Battle of Jakku. We will use force to extract information from you about where they fled to.” Silence. Not your usual comforting silence, no this was deeper. As silent as the grave, you thought that was a term you’d heard. “Rax?” You uncrossed your arms and hesitantly moved towards him, your eyes skimming over his form. Instinctively you pressed a hand against his neck, swearing loudly. Activating your com you called for a medic but you already knew it was too late. You searched him but there was nothing to show he’d been shot, no blood so he wasn’t stabbed, this was something else.
You demanded a tox screen from Dr Kalonia wanting to know exactly what he died of and when. You left the ship, your steps firm and angry as you made your way to the command centre underground. Leia was in the middle, she was always in the middle directing everything. Her dark brown eyes lit up at your arrival but her expression fell when she saw no good news was written over your own face. She motioned for you to follow her into the private room at the back, closing out the bustle of the room she perched on the table.
“What happened?”
“He’s dead.” There was no point even sugar coating it, he was dead and your strongest lead for finding the Imperials was gone.
“Do we know why?” Leia asked.
“No. I left the room for an hour maximum just to get a break because he wasn’t fucking talking!” You paced otherwise you’d punch something. “The Doc is doing a tox screen…” your datapad bleeped and you accessed the report immediately. “Shit. Shit.”
“Commander…”
“Someone used a fucking lullaby on him.” You handed her the pad.
“One of ours?” She queried and you nodded. Someone had sneaked into your interrogation room, someone who had access and forced him to bite down on one of the suicide pills that the Resistance kept for their spies if they were caught. “This is bad news,” she murmured. “And an investigation I would rather not conduct right now.” You glared at her in disbelief.
“We have a traitor in our midst, possibly from the Imperials themselves or someone paid by them and you’re not willing to conduct an investigation?”
“Excuse me Commander but last I checked you were not in charge here,” the General’s tone changed and you knew she wasn’t going to move on this. “There are other ways to get intelligence, they can’t stay hidden for much longer and I do believe they will make their move soon. We just need to wait.” You almost snatched your datapad from her hands hating what you were hearing. You disagreed with everything that had just gone down and right now it just made you want to up and leave this whole organisation in the dust.
“We don’t have time to wait and they just made their move,” you pointed out jabbing your finger at the screen of your pad.
“We don’t have the resources to verify everyone on this base! As soon as we start they will run anyway. It’s a pointless endeavour Commander.” You sneered at her words, nodding in reluctant acceptance.
“Yes, General .” You activated the door barging your way through the room not caring who you knocked into and ignoring their aggravated cries as you took the stone steps two at a time. You saw Poe heading towards you but you were too livid to even acknowledge him, the question dying in his mouth as you carried on walking to your room.
What was she thinking? Since when did the Resistance let prisoners just die on their watch? You paced up and down the room you shared with Poe, your fists clenching but nothing helped the build up of anger in your chest. It filtered down your arms and before you knew it the datapad had left your grip and smashed against the far wall. The screen fractured, spiking from the point of impact like a web and already you could hear the berating you were going to get from Leia. These were expensive and the Resistance couldn’t afford to keep replacing them which was another thing that peeved you off.
The Resistance, apparently the good force within the Galaxy, had no time, no resources, little readily available funding, and no personnel. It was a joke. Most of them worked round the clock to the point of exhaustion, maxed out on stimulants just to keep up with the demands that Leia expected of them. Just because she seemed inhuman and able to survive off 2 hours asleep didn’t mean everyone else could.
With a sigh you picked up the datapad, yet again your temper had got the better of you and probably yet again it was going to get you in trouble. You honestly had no idea how you held onto your Commander rank most days. The pad screen flickered to life and a notification about a personal encrypted message popped up on the damaged screen. Frowning you tried to swipe it, eventually the programming kicked in and you saw it decoding the message. Most of you had a private messaging service on your datapads so you could message sources who wished to remain nameless, or each other and it not be picked up by random probes or whoever else was floating out there in the Galaxy. The programme finished quicker than normal which meant it was a small message, you had no agents in the field right now so you had no idea who was contacting you. It took a few attempts to get the screen to register your finger but when you clicked on the message your blood ran cold.
Just one word. One word you’d never dreamed of seeing on its own. One word that tipped your entire world upside down. One word that made your heart pound erratically. A word that changed your life forever:
RUN.