The Sound of Silence

Supreme Leader Snoke ordered me to confirm that the girl I had taken from the bath house was Force-sensitive. It was an easy enough task, and one that only I could complete. Hux was less than pleased with the fact that his desired prisoner had been killed in the raid, but I had possession of my prize.

I sat on a plush chair in the interrogation room, facing my prisoner’s still unconscious figure. It had been hours, and I had expected her to wake by this point. Perhaps she was injured more than I guessed when she smashed into the floor of the bath house. There hadn’t been any blood, so it couldn’t have been that terrible. She already looked a sight anyway: blood spattered up to her knees, clothes sullied with grim and blood. I felt my nose wrinkle in disgust now that I was seeing her more completely in the light.

After a while, her head lolled to one side and the groaned softly. Her eyes fluttered open, squinting in the harsh lighting. Once her sight adjusted, she seemed oddly…calm about waking up restrained in a strange location. She took several drawn out looks around the cell before finally setting her gaze upon me.

“I’m not dead?” She asked lamely.

I rolled my eyes, thankful for my helmet.

“Tell me what you know about the Resistance.” I commanded, allowing the Force to interlace my words, coercing the girl to speak the truth.

“The Resistance?” She said groggily. “Mistress would talk about them occasionally, guests even more so. But Mistress would always ensure us that it was none of our business, so I’m not entirely convinced they’re real.”

I raised an eyebrow in confusion at her statement. Was this girl really of such low status that she didn’t know of the Resistance. She kept talking.

“When I was cleaning the air vents a while ago,” She explained. “I overheard her talking about a map, and someone named Luke Skywalker.”

My chest tightened with excitement. Not only did we get someone who was Force-sensitive, we got someone who was privy to the information passed along by that vile Resistance sympathizer.
“But, he’s just a myth, isn’t he?” She asked me, looking up at me with her wide, innocent eyes. “All that stuff about a moon that could destroy planets, the Skywalkers, and Darth Vader? It’s all just stories made up by the Republic to garner support against the First Order. Only the First Order can destroy systems.”

I felt my fists clench in rage, and the girl flinched as I held her using the Force.

“Tell me what you know about Resistance,” I growled, releasing her. “Or I shall take the information from you by force.”

She seemed to clam up, fear wafting off her in waves. Her eyes grew wider, and she was recoiling away from me.

I forced my way into her mind, her memories laid bare before me. I sifted through what was important, following the sickly sweet aroma of the bath house as a guide. I saw flashes of the mistress of the bath house, followed by the more familiar sensation of searing white pain. Suddenly I was thrown out of her memories. I dropped my hand in frustration, my gaze falling to her shocked expression.

“How are you doing that?” She whispered angrily. “I’ve never met someone else who can do that.”

So she had already begun to explore her powers, and could reach into another’s mind already. My anger began to dissipate, replaced by a catlike smirk.

“Tell me everything you know about the mistress of the bath house,” I explained. “And I’ll teach you even more.”

She stared up at my mask, unsure. I watched the emotions play out on her face as she mulled over my offer. I couldn’t just torture and toss out this prisoner, she was important, though I felt my irritation rise the longer she took to answer.

“This is the First Order,” She said more as a statement than a question. “And you’re part of it. A leader.”

I nodded. Glad she was able to figure that much out, though the First Order was not exactly secretive.

“And when I tell you everything I know,” She continued. “Will you be sending me back to that place? Even with Mistress gone, they still will be looking…”

I was pleased she was going to comply, but returning her to the bath house was out of the question.

“That depends on what you have to say.” I replied cryptically.

She scowled more a moment, then closed her eyes, almost expectantly. I stared at her in angry silence. Was she going to speak or not?

“Go ahead,” She urged. “So you know I’m not with them. The Resistance. Take whatever you need. I won’t resist you.”

I jumped at the opportunity, reaching into the girl’s mind. Her entire body convulsed in response to my forced entry, but she did nothing to resist my probing, as promised. I had never accessed the thoughts and memories of another with such ease. I sifted through her most recent memories, seeing flashes of myself and my substitute saber in the darkness of the storage room in the bath house, the memory laced with fear.

“You are afraid,” I said aloud. “You fear what I am capable of doing to you.”

The memory I was viewing slipped away, being replaced by another. This one was a little older, but filled with deeper fear. A man had the girl pinned to a wall in a dark recess, unnoticed by those bathing just feet away. His lips skimmed along her neck as she fought desperately against him. His hands grabbed at her, covering her mouth and suppressing her screams. I backed out of the memory. Perhaps this was why she was so pleased with my killing of her ‘companion’. I pushed the thought away. I needed memories of the bath house mistress and information on the Resistance.

I dug deeper, using the Force to compel the girl to think of the bath house mistress. The memories began to bubble to the surface. The woman talking about the BB-8 droid, the scavenger, information that was either old or already known. I pressed harder, hearing the girl gasp in pain at my mental assault, but she maintained her promise. She never resisted. I saw flashes of Rey, apparently stopping at the bath house before rendezvousing with Skywalker. I felt my anger rising until one memory jumped out at me.

“-over half their fleet in the battle,” The mistress was saying quietly to another woman. “And without the support of the Republic, they are desperate for working ships and pilots.”

This, this is what I needed. The Resistance were searching for ships after losing most of theirs in the attack on Starkiller base. This was the key to tracking the Resistance’s next move.

“We should soon have the support of Luke Skywalker,” The mistress continued. “If Rey is successful in coaxing him out of exile. But we’re crippled without more ships.”

The mistress in the memory turned to face me, or the girl rather, and shouted.

“Fourteen! Who said you could be here?! Get out!”

I withdrew, satisfied with the information I gathered.

“Your name is Fourteen.” I said, taking in the shaking figure of my prisoner. Blood oozed from her nose, and I felt my stomach clench in uncharacteristic guilt. I lingered in her mind longer than I should have. But she shook her head.

“Jami Obarel.” She said a firmly as she could manage, and then she passed out again.

I sighed heavily, chastising myself for pushing an inferior mind so far so quickly. At least I had accomplished not only my objective for Snoke, since the girl obviously showed signs of Force sensitivity, but also Hux’s failed mission. We had news of the Resistance, and information we could use to track and cripple them. I was ready to report back to the Supreme Leader.

“Clean her up once she comes to,” I ordered the Troopers posted outside the cell. “But maintain constant surveillance over her, under the Supreme Leader’s orders.”

The Troopers saluted as I stalked away towards the meeting chamber. There, I would meet Hux and make contact with the Supreme Leader. I was confident he would be pleased to hear about Jami’s proclivity for Force manipulation, but that might be eclipsed by his disappointment in the scavenger’s progress with Skywalker. My stomach twisted nervously. Another one of my failings was causing the First Order troubles.

Hux was loitering outside the meeting chamber, looking as sour and constipated as ever. Hearing my approach, his face darkened further. General Hux, forever the sore loser. He was already on thin ice with the Supreme Leader after the complete and utter embarrassment hand delivered by the Resistance at the first Starkiller Base. Now, he had no prisoner of his own to present to Snoke, which left him dependent upon me and my acquisition. Hux did not take kindly to having his fate literally in my hands. I, frankly, enjoyed it immensely.

“General Hux.” I said flatly, not betraying my delight in seeing Hux so miserable.

“Your rat better have some kind of information we can use, Ren,” Hux spat venomously. “We lost the real and more reliable source of information because of your ineptness.”

I clenched my fists and tried to control myself. It wasn’t my fault that Hux’s target was ready and waiting for our raid, and decided that blowing her brains out was preferable to being captured. If anything, it’s Hux’s fault for parading his plans around like subtlety was a punishable offense. But I spoke nothing. My findings would speak for themselves in front of Snoke.

The doors opened, meaning Snoke was prepared to see us via the hologram projection. Hux and I walked in side-by-side, each of us kneeling before Snoke’s projection.

“What do you have to report, General, Ren?” Snoke rasped.

“The scavenger has already left in search of Skywalker,” I said darkly. “And the Resistance seems confident she will win his support.”

Snoke wasn’t pleased, but also wasn’t surprised. We had feared this to be the case, but Jami’s memories confirmed it. The scavenger had stopped at the bath house on her journey to Skywalker. Jami had seen her.

“However, the Resistance is in search of flyable ships to replenish their fleet,” I reported. “If we close in on dealers we will be able to surmise their location and strength.”

General Hux did not seem pleased by the new information.

“Are we trusting the word of a floor-scrubbing urchin now?” Hux complained.

I felt anger boil in my stomach.

“Are you questioning my interrogation methods?” I growled, my voice coming out angry despite my mask.

Hux squared his shoulders.

“You did fail to acquire the map to Skywalker from that girl recently,” Hux suggested haughtily. “It does bring your methods into question.”

If we were not in the presence of Supreme Leader Snoke, I would have had a harder time restraining my need to kill General Hux. Well, you did fail to protect and entire fucking planet from a couple dozen X-Wings. It does bring your competence into question.

“Supreme Leader,” Hux continued. “I humbly request that you allow my troopers to interrogate the prisoner, to see if Ren’s information holds up to more rigorous questioning.”

Leader Snoke looked at me poignantly, but obliged Hux. After leaving the chamber, I drew my saber and slashed at the wall with all the fury I held towards General Hux. How dare he question me in front of Snoke so frequently?! Hux had already left to assemble his interrogation team and was probably waiting in the command center to oversee their work. Jami would be in for a world of pain soon, and all I could do was sit back and wait for Hux to finish taking out his anger on her. Not that it mattered much to me. I just knew Snoke wouldn’t want to have to wait on Jami’s injuries to heal for an extended period. We needed her and we needed her training now.