***28 March 2005 – The Emperor’s mercy

 

Nervously Aaricia walked to one of the big Imperial flags, while looking at the holocamera.

“Yes there, go stand there. That’s a good spot.”, the man behind the camera said to her with an emotionless voice.

Aaricia saw the Imperial officer smiling at her.

“You can do it Aaricia. Just show them your feelings.”, he said to her with a friendly voice.

Tell them how I feel..

She didn’t feel a thing. What would she be saying? She twiddled her thumbs while staring into the lens of the camera. Well this was of course the least that they could be asking of her, she realized.

“Sir.. w.. what do I say?”, she asked with a trembling voice.

“Just look at the screen on your left Aaricia.”, the officer answered to her.

She stared at the screen that was placed left of the holocamera and saw that a text had appeared on it. So it wasn’t that difficult, she only had to read this aloud.

“3.. 2.. 1.. ACTION!”

She cleared her throat and started talking, while trying to look as much as possible into the lens of the camera instead of the screen.

“Some of you may know me as ‘Mathilda Moonshine’ or ‘Salmia Lanark’. A lot of you will probably not recognize my face, but actually my name is Aaricia Silverstar. A number of weeks ago the Empire captured me as I attempted to protect my freedom and infiltrate an Imperial Database, but instead of executing me they showed their boundless mercy and have given me a beautiful gift. A new life.” Aaricia felt the nervousness sliding off her as she continued talking. “They have also opened my eyes. Shown me the error of my ways, and shown me the lies that I believed to be truth. My mind, that was for so long sick, has now been healed..”

 

 

After this some cadets arrived to escort her to what they told her was a safe place.

After only a day in Bestine she already left the city to go back to Mos Entha. She felt pretty uncomfortable after they landed in Mos Entha Starport. There was this man.. he seemed to be some security guy, he was staring at her all the time. Like he knew her or something, but she didn’t recognize him. Ah maybe it was just some weird guy.

Aaricia felt paranoia in the city. The rebels could try to abduct her and then torture her to punish her for being away for a while, they would probably kill her too. Maybe that security guy was a rebel? But nothing happened.. on foot they arrived in the Imperial base that she recognized from before.

“Take the girl to the living quarters.”, a stormtrooper in the base ordered, “She will be sleeping in the spare bed in the lance corporal’s barracks until we receive further orders.”

They turned left and walked to a big building. Vaguely she recognized it..

Inside of the building there was a room with a lot of couches and a big holoscreen. It all looked familiar but she couldn’t place it. Maybe it looked like another building or something that she had been in.. or maybe.. maybe she had been here sometime but the memory had gone too, like a lot of other memories. She sighed while staring at the screen.

“This is the entertainment room.”, one of the cadets explained to her.

“Go to the mess hall and get some food first.”, she heard a filtered voice behind her and turned around, “You too.. Silverstar.”

“Ok sir.”, she said neutrally.

They entered some cantina and Aaricia did the same as everybody else: get a ration of food and a drink. She took a bottle of water. Feeling a bit uncomfortable she sat down on one of the chairs. There were wanted posters on the walls, big ones. On some of them there were rebels that she knew about, like Leia Organa Solo. The cadet that was sitting in front of her smiled at her. Everybody seemed to be relaxed, but there was some feeling inside of Aaricia.. like there was something wrong. Very wrong.. the feeling grew stronger it felt like it was trying to consume her..

Successfully she repressed her emotions. She was happy that she was able to do this. What were emotions good for? Nothing.. emotions created chaos and hence were a serious threat to order. Emotions were nothing but a hassle, they had no function at all.

While she ate and drank she watched the troops. One of them was a stormtrooper, his helmet put on the table in front of him. She saw a man, a normal man. He looked like he was very much on himself, his attention consumed by the food or something else. Everybody was silent although some people asked for Aaricia’s name and told her their names.

After a while a woman in black Imperial officer uniform entered the room and took a seat next to Aaricia.

“Who are you?”, she asked.

“Aaricia Silverstar.”, she answered as emotionless as possible.

“Aha.. and what for are you here?”

“I don’t know, I.. I just arrived. I don’t know what I will do here.”, she answered earnestly.

The woman stared at her for a while then ate her own meal.

After another few minutes of silence, while Aaricia was staring at her empty plate as she already finished her meal, waiting for what would happen now for what the others would do, the woman got up.

“Have you finished cadets?”, she asked, “It is time for training..”

Then she looked at Aaricia.

“Silverstar.. command has just asked me to include you in the training.”, she said to her, “Just to observe.”

“Ok.”, Aaricia answered. She put the empty plate and bottle back on the counter and followed the officer and cadets.

They went to another building and into a room with a lot of chairs and a huge screen in front of them. While walking towards this room Aaricia saw signs above several closed doors like ‘Imperial legislation and law training’ and ‘Detention and interrogation training area’. The latter made her shudder.

“Sit down.”, the woman ordered with an emotionless voice and they took place in the chairs, “For the people that are new.. my name is corporal Duke. Over the next week or so I will take you through four stages of training that will complete your tests and qualify you as stormtroopers.”

Again Aaricia felt this bad feeling, she started feeling nauseous.. no don’t give into it. After another fight in her head she managed to get it under control then she listened to the corporal again.

The training took a long time, a long time of talking. A lot of things kinda sounded familiar to Aaricia somehow, she would probably have heard these things with the terrorists too. Aaricia had to step forward and ‘play’ a civilian that got ID checked, searched and such. After she sat back on her chair the corporal started talking about detention and interrogations.

“Never tell anybody who is in our cells.”, the corporal said.

Why, Aaricia wondered, feeling confused.

“Interrogations are necessary for the safety of the Empire and freedom of the people.. some people miss fingers.. some leave in a box.”, Duke continued.

A sweat drop crawled over Aaricia’s forehead, instinctively she stared at her left hand. Again she felt the pain.. again she saw the vague silhouette in white and felt the knife that was slowly cutting off her left pink. Again she heard herself screaming..

Then finally the training was over.

“You are Imperial soldiers.. nothing or no one is as important to you as the Emperor!”, the corporal said with a fanatic voice.. “Dismissed!”

Aaricia and the cadets nodded. She saw the others saluting the officer and did the same. Also this felt very familiar to her.

Still feeling a bit nauseous she followed the others to outside, she sighed in relief.

“Are you alright?”, one of the cadets asked her.
”Yes I’m fine.”, she said briefly with a soft voice.

They walked back towards the big barrack building, when suddenly three armored people walked towards them. One of them looked very familiar to her, but she couldn’t remember from where or when.

“Master.. here are some people! You.. cadets! We have to talk to your superiors!”, one of them said with an angry voice.

“For what?”, one of the cadets asked, while Aaricia saw the other talking into his commlink.

Then corporal Duke arrived, also looking quite angry.

“You have no authority here.. leave the base!”, she said with a fierce voice.

“I’m warning you.. you will DIE here!”, one of the three, dressed in some red armor, said angrily.

Aaricia stared at the man with the familiar face.. then she remembered. When the Imperials had taken her to Dathomir prison, he had been one of the cadets..!

“I remember you!”, she said, pointing at him, “From Dathomir.. so you seem to have left this garrison..?”

Then suddenly one of the other two kicked Aaricia on the ground, it happened before she could react well. She heard gunshots.. what was happening? She felt frightened and hoped they were not actually rebels that wanted to kidnap her so that they could torture and kill her. With all her energy she tried to crawl away from the scenery, panting and bleeding. Then the man with the familiar face walked towards her.

“I’m sorry.”, he said and quickly he applied some bacta on her. Then he left.

Troops arrived and after some minutes Aaricia got herself standing again. Also one of the cadets looked wounded, more than her. But despite of this he proposed to carry her if necessary.

“Na it’s ok.”, she said with a grin.

The three men were beaten and cuffed they were lying in the sand.

“Deserter!”, one of the stormtroopers shouted at the ex cadet and he kicked him in the ribs.

Aaricia stared at the man.. the ex cadet had been a nice guy, but she didn’t feel a thing while watching him being beaten up.

“Come Silverstar.”, one of the cadets took her to the medical bay, “Sit on the bed.”

She sat on one of the beds.. then suddenly she got a flashback again.

She saw herself lying on this same bed, staring at the ceiling..

We will cure her mind of those ideas and make her happy again, a voice echoed in her head.

 

Suddenly Aaricia had to cry, she fought against the tears.

“Are you alright Silverstar?”, the cadet, that had brought her here, asked with an emotionless voice.

She nodded and lied back on the bed, hiding her face. Tears crawled over her cheeks, she dried her cheeks with the cushion. She heard another person stumbling inside and from the corner of her left eye she recognized the other, wounded cadet. Andy, she recalled how he introduced himself. That was in the mess hall, when they were having the meal.

“I wanna see the ones that hurt you burn!”, he said angrily, “Attacking a defenseless woman.”

“It’s ok.”, Aaricia said.

“No it’s not! They attacked a woman! You were totally defenseless!”, he fumed in rage.

Aaricia remembered how she had beaten up several men in Dathomir prison, but she didn’t bother telling him that. She grinned in herself.

After only half an hour or so Andy already got up.

“I have to go on patrol. You rest some more.. stay as long as it takes for you to feel better.”, he said to her with a cold voice, then showed her a smile.

“Ok”, Aaricia said to him emotionless, and sat back on the bed.

He left the medical bay, feeling a bit nervous Aaricia fiddled her thumbs. A bit unease she stared at the camera that was hanging in the left back corner and seemed to follow every move of her.