***
“You, cadet.”
Jane turned around and saw the Imperial officer, that probably had the highest rank of everybody and was introduced as Lieutenant Colonel Kepti Eglos, staring at her. He motioned her to come to him.
“Y.. yes sir.”, she said nervously and walked towards the man.
“Get more in the light, let me have a look at you.”
She gulped quietly, for some reason she felt a lot of coldness inside of her, it was like she recognized the man..
“I know this girl.”, he said with a cold voice, while staring into her eyes, “And it wasn’t from a pleasant encounter.”
Jane felt pretty uncomfortable, even a bit scared. What was he talking about?
“Cadet Doe, get back.”, the trooper in charge ordered and she backed off from the man.
She saw the trooper in charge walking towards the officer and quietly he talked with the man, they both glanced at her briefly sometimes. She knew they were talking about her, it was obvious. Then they left, probably to talk in private or something?
With a sigh she turned around and looked at the other Imperials, feeling pretty confused. Suddenly somebody whispered in her ear.
“I didn’t forget about yesterday, I hope you didn’t too. We will have a talk with each other soon.. Doe!”
She span around and had to keep herself from gasping when
she saw dr. Roseward standing behind her, showing a brief grin and then walking
away from her quickly. Yes.. the
deal..
She remembered the email that she had sent to the doctor yesterday, after she had stolen her droid. The doctor apparently had received it, and since Jane hadn’t been put in a cell yet, she apparently hadn’t informed command yet.
She sighed and stared at the other people, and the shiny marble floor, stairs and walls. There were a lot of troopers and Imperial officers, on the stairs she saw the queen of Naboo standing with one of her servants. They were on audience with the queen.
One of the troopers was Andy, she didn’t know which one. With a sigh she leaned at the balustrade, looking down at all the marble.
The palace was huge and Naboo was beautiful. She wished that she could live here instead of Tatooine. At least here were plants and trees and a lot of.. water. The buildings looked more elegant too. On Tatooine it was just boring bare stone or metal..
She felt sad and all alone, but she didn’t want to speak with the others. What would she be chatting about? The usual dull chit-chat that didn’t interest her for a bit? She heard the others chit-chatting on the background. Where are you from? I’m from Detachment Epsilon.. and you? I’m from 336th Sentinel Company. Exciting..
She turned around and stared at the queen, that was standing up the stairs, alone. Would she dare to speak with the highness, like most of the others? No she felt too shy. She sighed as she saw another man talking to her, after that she inhaled slowly and slowly approached the queen.
The queen looked at her dignified, Jane made a deep bow.
“Your majesty..”, she said, blushing.
The queen nodded at her.
“Cadet.”
They looked each other in the eyes.
“What do you want to speak me about?”, the queen then asked.
Jane blushed more.
“Euh.. I wanted to greet you, show you my respect and wish you all the good in life.”, she stammered.
The queen smiled at her friendly. Then she bowed to Jane slightly.
“I always think of war as a man’s sport.. tell me your thoughts.”, she said quietly.
Jane felt a bit confused. What did she think of the war? She hadn’t thought about that yet. After a brief period of silence she answered, a bit sad and also quietly: “Your highness.. in a war.. whether you are male or female.. whether you are human or alien.. it doesn’t matter because when a blast pierces your heart you will die anyway.”
The queen stared at her.
“Peculiar but interesting answer..”, she then said.
Then somebody else, an officer, approached and attracted the queen’s attention. Jane bowed to her and then saluted the officer.
It was like some brick hit her forehead.. that face. She gulped quietly.. this man he looked very familiar. He nodded at her.
“Dismissed.”, he said.
Confused she walked away from him, glancing at him sometimes. She almost had to cry. Her memories, they had never come back. They were destroyed. She knew this was a side effect of the treatment that cured her mind and that this maybe was the best thing as a lot of memories would have been bad and sad, but still..
She stared at the man, that was talking with Kepti Eglos now.
Then the wookie walked in. Everybody stared at it with a disgusted face. How did it get in.. it hurried away before they would kill it, but she would have liked that. Wookies were supposed to be in slavery, this was probably a slave from the palace. She wondered how the queen could bear such a stinking creature in her palace. After the wookie was gone, everybody complained about it.
“Now everything has to be disinfected, bah.”, one of the officers complained.
“My clothes smell bad now..”, another said with a disgusted face.
And more of these remarks.
“Why didn’t we just.. shoot it.”, Jane herself muttered.
Then one of the troopers started talking to her.
“Look at all the marble..”, he said with a filtered voice.
She nodded.
“Yup..”
“It’s me, Andy.”, he then said.
She turned to him and felt a bit happier.. although she would prefer him without armor. She smiled at him.
“I hope I can become a trooper soon too.”, she said to him quietly, “Then I can recognize you.”
He nodded at her.
“You will be soon, Jane.”, he said.
“You didn’t forget your appointment tomorrow did you?”, a snobby voice said, and she turned towards dr. Roseward that was looking at her.
“Tomorrow? Euh of course not.”, she stammered.
“Honestly, you have a mind like Theed cheese.”, the woman sighed, “Who knows, next you might get some idea to steal someone’s droid and go gallivanting through the desert.”
Then she chuckled at the gasping Jane.
“Eheh.. who knows.”, she said back casually and chuckled back, after which she turned back to the balustrade.
Then another trooper ordered Jane to go back to Tatooine right now.
“Right now sir?”, she asked.
“Yes, on the double!”
“Yes sir, right away sir!”, she exclaimed and saluted.
She knew that Andy was standing next to him and smiled at the trooper, after which she ran away. Leaving the palace, leaving the shiny marble, the queen.. running through the city, the colorful city. Back to the dust, the heat.. the depressing yellowish stone and metal..