Star Wars: The Ancient Force

C H A P T E R . 2 -- Interrogations

DISTANT HONKING IS NEARLY DROWNED by the bustling of the Rebel shipyard and the corridors that lie beyond. While soldiers unload and disperse, groups of orphans are escorted by guards. The older ones: handcuffed, heading to another ship. The younger ones: get loaded into transport vehicles.

The honking races quickly through the corridors, the source's vehicle carrying two men: the driver and a man in black.

—HONK HONK—"LOOKOUT HERE WE COME!" the driver yells as he jerks around the corner.

The jostle breaks Luke's anxious over-concentration—fortunately—and he manages to stop himself from fiddling with his hands. He closes his eyes to meditate, to calm himself so he can—hopefully—think clearly about the danger at hand.

Another Jedi. Undercover. Killed a Sith Lord and a kid. A strange feeling. Female. A woman—no, I can't let—

—HONK HONK—"MOVE PLEASE! LUKE SKYWALKER HERE! PLEASE MOVE!"

"Please don't use my name," Luke politely groans the reprimand with a mix of guilt and unease. "It makes me sound like royalty."

"But you are, Sir. You are to us," says the driver, nervously looking back and forth between Luke and their path.

"Just don't please," not surprised, but otherwise bothered by such admiration.

"But it worked loads better than just honking and yelling."

.

Luke rushes through a door that is guarded by a dozen Rebel soldiers with unreasonably large blasters. He enters a small industrial cargo bay with more of the same guards surrounding his sister. She's too focused on speaking to eye Luke, but her large sigh and loosening joints helps to confirm that she felt his presence. He stands behind her guards where he could see who she was talking to.

A woman dressed in black sits handcuffed in a cage with semitransparent walls of a glowing pinkish-yellow substance. She sits on the floor looking at Leia peacefully, with a faint smile of optimistic invincibility.

"No, there are always options, with time, and you have no right to now," Leia berates her.

"I had no choice," she says softly, "it goes higher than laws or what I wanted, and again I didn't know your law until I felt your shock," the woman replies. Her tone maintains a stable range between monotone and politely informing, with only a hint of frustration. "He assigned me to his orphan training facilities because of such a thing. He didn't want to destroy potential soldiers any more than I did."

The guards open just slightly to let Luke in Leia's circle. He stands next to her as they each put an arm around the other in unison. From here on, they never really stop making physical contact in some way, whether supportive or casual, whether standing arm to arm, or a hand casually on the back or shoulder. A natural closeness of being so bonded.

Leia sighs. She finds it hard to take her eyes from their prisoner, but equally as hard to take her eyes off her brother, so she alternates between the two. "Luke, I haven't been able to interrogate her for very long, I'm so glad you made it here quickly, I don't have much time before I'm required at a very important reconnaissance meeting, I haven't been able to get much of a real feeling of her because I need to keep her in this Plasma Carriage—it's made out of the same stuff that barrier was that we couldn't use our power through to push buttons—"

"Right, she might use her powers on us too," giving a look into Leia's eyes to remind her he could read her. Over the years, it was becoming easier to read Leia's specific thoughts due to them both training in the Force.