Reflections: A Star Wars Fan Fiction Novella

Chapter 9

I survived an encounter with the enemy. By the time I had been released from the medbay, he was already gone. I was assigned a therapist, and told that it was mandatory that I deal with the trauma incurred by my hostage situation. I tried to set the record straight, but any other way made me sound like a schoon or a crazy schutta. I knew there was nothing wrong with me, and I had to speak to him again. Ultimately, he had given me back my freedom at the cost of his own.

Finding him was nearly impossible. The New Republic could speak about ethics until they were blue in the face, but bureaucracy never changed. Not that I have anything against Pantorans, obviously. Several bribes later, thanks to Frisk's winning streaks I had finally identified Cryus' location.

The others thought I was crazy, and Frisk was the only one willing to go with me. I could tell he didn't like the idea at the start, but he was willing to support a friend. He also wanted to see a member of Titan Squadron's face, but I made him promise to behave. Afterall, we were the humane ones with justice on our side, weren't we?

Coruscant. Even the New Republic wanted to leave the core-slime alone. Sure, move the Senate on vacation every so many years around the galaxy. Most of the institutions here would never leave, no matter who controlled the galaxy, the Galactic Courts of Justice included. Now they were under new management, the New Republic Judiciary, but most of us didn't buy too much into it.

I remember exiting the air taxi with Frisk, entering the Central Detention Center. Last month most of the prisoners, which had been political ones at that, were released by the Senate. Today it contained those that committed a single type of crime.

War crimes. Only Imperials were held in this facility now. Due to their unique status as both prisoners of war and extradited criminals, the New Republic could violate most of their own goals and standards on rehabilitation. It was rare for a Senator to have the guts to dare to mention the hypocrisy growing here.

We were greeted by a member of the New Republic Correctional Corps, who was surprised to see the two of us, we made quite a pair. His smile at seeing the 5'4" human woman faded noticeably when he saw the 6'7" albino Trandoshan male approaching. We were told to wait as the prisoner was prepped for visitation, of course, because we hadn't scheduled beforehand with them in-person, it was going to be a couple days.

A few hundred credits, here and there, cut our wait time down to a few hours. By the time we were finally escorted to the room I was nearly dying with anxiety. Frisk noticed this.

"You know, I could talk to him for you, if you want."

That thought had manifested itself earlier, but hearing him suggest it out loud flagged it as foolish. I shook my head, "No, but I do want you to come in with me."

We were led down a hallway by an armed droid, which proceeded to unlock one of the corridor's doors via keycard. The door slid open and a blinding white room unfolded itself in front of us. There was another sealed door, at the back of the room, and in the center was a table with three chairs. One faced us, the other two facing the single occupied chair. Occupied by him.

The look on his face when he saw us changed quicker than I could recall. I remember seeing glimpses of several different emotions: surprise, fear, dread. What else should I have expected, considering who and where he was.

Frisk helped push my chair forward and then tried to circle the table to get a better look at our guest. As he did, a golden forcefield manifested itself between us. He barely noticed it in time, before he stumbled backwards. Later we learned that it was on a lower power setting, so the shock would have likely incapaciated Frisk rather than electrocuted him. This incident brought some light back into Cryus' eyes.