Reflections: A Star Wars Fan Fiction Novella

Chapter 18

My name is Cryus Reu, I was supposed to die today. Her name was Fyra Chro, she was supposed to live. She had not committed any crime which they could legally kill her for, so why had she been shot? This felt so unreal, this couldn't be real.

"Careful, you might hurt her, don't move your chair."

"What did you do! You fracking frelling son of a murglak, what did you do?"

"Hold still." I felt the restraints release me. I immediately dived to embrace her. I felt her pulse through her neck, and I could feel her breath when I brought my ear to her nostrils. She was alive, and I didn't care about the other person in the room anymore.

It was pitch black, I couldn't see a thing.

"This room we are in is completely soundproof. They can't hear a thing." That was when I heard the gas come on. I brought my head up short and thumped it on the table above me. I collapsed on top of her from the pain, struggling not to crush her.

"Relax, take a deep breath." Was he utterly insane? Then the lights came on, red lights reserved for low power settings. I could hear the airburst generated by an ear-splitting alarm which had appeared.

One of the guards that had been posted outside slammed at full force into the glass. Her face was contorted horrifically, as she pounded on the glass with her right fist. She slowly sunk to the floor, her body riddled with convulsions.

"Interesting that they don't lay down first. I've heard doing so is the least painful way to lose consciousness."

I turned to face my tormentor. "What is going on? What did you do?"

"Your lover refused to leave your side, and she had to be stunned. Your execution had begun, but there was a problem with the system. It seems that the New Republic made a serious mistake in its alien integration policy. You see, the aliens which handled supplying this facility hadn't noticed the change in suppliers to atmospheric control.

"Turns out the oxygen vials had been replaced with T-289, and when they reloaded them at the time of your execution, as both times happening to align was an unfortunate coincidence, the emergency power system activated. This caused your execution to be interrupted half-way and you were suffering. I made a judgement call, entered the chamber, and mercifully shot you point blank, like this."

His blaster rang out and I was afraid he had actually done it. No, turns out he had only fired in the direction of my now-empty chair. A smoldering blaster burn had hit the glass behind it, which I now realized was transparisteel. Of course it was.

"Luckily, I had brought along a rebreather, unlike our friend out there. This allowed me to drag your gassed corpse over to the incinerator and cremate you. Your execution was the first one scheduled for all of the war criminals held at this facility.

"The High Tribunal felt like sending a message to the lower courts that dissent would not be tolerated by executing you first and accidentally leaking the footage. These New Republicans can be quite ruthless when they believe they are acting in the right.

"I do believe the gas has dissipated, please follow me outside."

"No! What about her?" I didn't know what was going on, but we were still both breathing so something must have been going right.

"That's right, she suffered horribly from the effects of the T-289. Thankfully, victims commonly report disorientation and hallucinations when they succumb."

The door to this glass cage swung open and he waved me on. Wrapping Fyra in my arms, I carefully maneuvered her out the door.

"Hmm, I guess I set her over there before I gassed you. Put her over there, make it look painful." I wanted to shake him and get the truth out of him, but I didn't.