Chapter Text
Leida’s knuckles went white as she readjusted her grip on the blaster. Trying to steady the barrel's haphazard arc as it wavered across the door to floor and back to ceiling as she waited for the door to hiss open.
The screams and shouts on the other side died away and the blasters went silent. Leida’s breath stopped and the muzzle shook as the seals around the door hissed.
Leida sat in a small white room, with only a table, two chairs and a mirror. She felt alone and forgotten by the world, even though she knew she had never been watched more closely and for so long in her life. That just beyond the mirror there were surely cameras and ISB officers watching her every little move. But in here alone, there might as well be no else in the galaxy.
Just as the isolation was about to reach unbearable levels it was interrupted by the only thing worse. An imperial officer clad in a white uniform sat in front of her, datapad in hand and a small smile on her face. “Are you ready to cooperate?”
She bared her teeth before responding. “I have been.” Maybe a little reluctantly, but that was her right when they took her from bed the day before her fourteenth birthday, and two before her wedding.
And now she didn’t know if she was missing her birthday, her wedding, or if she left now it wouldn’t yet be the night of the day they took her. All she knew is that she had cried twice since getting here.
“Very well then Miss Mothma. Let’s try this again. Where is your mother, Mon Mothma?”
“Like I told you before. She was late leaving the senate like always.” Leida repeated for what had to be the thousand and first time.
“Data logs from the senate building show the opposite.” The officer turned the datapad around to show the timestamp and video of her mother leaving the senate chambers. “She left quite a bit earlier than usual. Where did she go?”
“I’m not sure. But she mentioned something about a pickup at an antiques gallery.”
“Which one.”
“The one run by Luthen.” She wanted to shrink when the officer leaned in and showed her a holo of the proprietor.
“Is this the owner you are referring to?”
“Yes!” She sighed in exasperation.
“What does he do?”
“I already told you. Antiques. Dealer. Selling old antiques from different planets. My mother goes to buy gifts there regularly. Usually for my dad. And before you ask again she didn’t tell me why she was going this time. But she hinted it might be a traditional piece of Chandrilan jewelry for my wedding. And no, I didn't ask to go with her. I thought it was supposed to be a bit of a surprise.”
“So your theory is that your mother had important business to attend to all night at an antiques gallery? You really want me to believe that?”
Leida shrunk in her chair, before whispering, “No.”
“Then give me a reasonable answer.”
“Maybe Tay.” It was the first time she had mentioned his name, and her cheeks burned as she said it.
The officer sat up a bit straighter. “Tay who?”
“Tay Kolma, a Chandrilan banker. Mothers boyfriend.” Leida's eyes grew wide and moist when she said it.
“Very well.” The woman turned around and walked away. Leaving Leida to scream at her back. “Can I leave? See my father? Have something to eat? Drink?” And many other permutations she repeated many other times. And she wished that she wasn’t so alone.
They kept on questioning her. And she kept on asking to be let out. She no longer knew how many times she had cried, let alone how long she had been there. All she could do was sit as Empire’s officers came to ask her questions.
“We question your commitment to the Empire.” Her interrogator told her. He was a new one, clad in a gray uniform instead of white.
Leida just shrugged and laid her head in her hands.
“You can change that.”
“How?”
“Sign this contract to the Imperial Army.”
She glanced at the first few lines of words. Years of service, a number she didn’t care about, in exchange for distance from this affair.
“I’m supposed to be married.” Her voice was hollow and her heart ached.
“That can’t be allowed to happen.”
“Why?”
“Use of cultural practices in order to cover up anti-Imperial activities is considered a class one offense.”
“But it's just a wedding. Not rebel cover.” Leida scrunched her eyebrows together, trying to figure out the new accusation they were making.
The interrogator let out a bark of laughter then got serious when she looked at him in befuddlement. “Do you really not know?” When she didn’t say anything he continued. “Why do you think your parents arranged that wedding? Your happiness? Stupidly naive.” Leida let out a gasp as he continued, feeling her whole world getting ripped away from her. “It was so that they could use Sculdens to launder funds for the Rebellion. You were just the collateral. But the Empire can be merciful. If you sign the contract, like Stekan already has, you won’t spend the rest of your life in prison like Davo is.”
“My dad-” A lump in her throat choked off the question.
“You really don’t want to end up like him.” The officer's lips twisted in a cruel imitation of a smile. “But your life doesn’t need to be forfeit for their treason.” He pushed the datapad closer to her and held out a stylus.
“Okay.” Taking the stylus she signed her life away. She didn’t even care when she was on a transport to places unknown. Leaving behind her home, father, and betrothed.
Leida groaned as she heard the wake up klaxon sound in the room. She stuffed her head in the pillow and tried to ignore it, having gotten very little sleep. The same dream that had been haunting her since she left the ISB integration room months ago. In the dream she was chained and bound, with a number tattooed across her forehead while others bid on her, somewhere behind her stood the Empire and her Mom and Dad. She was unsure of whether her going price was in credits or years of her life.
“Get up!” A punch was thrown into her shoulder and she grunted. The room leader, Jaina the oldest amongst them at age nineteen, stood in front of her. “We aren’t going to miss first meal because you had another crying fit last night. So get in line.” She felt herself yanked from her bed and she caught herself before face planting into the ground.
She fought the urge to be deliberately slow in getting dressed as the twenty three other girls that called room B4A25 their, no not home, sleeping quarters glared at her. She was the youngest of them all, and they were all strangers to her and each other because socializing was strictly prohibited.
Once in line they filed out to the mess hall for one of their two daily meals. Already the tables were filled with men and women eating, with their barracks being the last to make it to first meal.
The girls glared at her in line as they filed towards the counter. When she went to pick up her tray the room leader stopped her. “What are you doing?”
“Getting food.” Leida rolled her eyes at the stupid question.
“Not today. Secure our table. Snap to.” Leida tried to stare her down. But Jaina gripped her arm and whispered in her ear, “don’t be a fucking rebel” before tossing her towards the last table available.
She stood at a halfhearted position of attention while suppressing a yawn as she watched her fellow roommates eat. Today was another day of a heavy barely edible biscuit and a gray slurry of some sort of meat gravy stew that would settle to one's stomach like a rock. At least not eating meant she missed another opportunity for the empire's cooks to try and poison her.
One of the other younger girls tossed her a chunk of the bread as they were lining up to go to their next post. She got a couple of quick bites in before she was forced to toss it in the trash before leaving the mess hall. After all, food was for the mess, and wo be to them if they thought it could be eaten anywhere else.
Leida relieved the girl on the other shift and they muttered as they pushed themselves up from the consoles of the intergalactic communications board so that they could take their turn in the mess hall. On the far side of the room she saw Jaina get pulled aside by an officer who was red in the face. When she pointed over towards her Leida turned her work and acted busy as she put on her headset.
There was a loud buzzing noise filling her headset. “Crshshsh- hel- crshshshs- read me- crshshsh’. The lights showed that the radio was operating as it should. So she went to the panel and adjusted the sliders until the voice came in a bit clearer.
“Uhh- this- crshshsh- Rix Shif. Do you read me operator.”
“Sorry Rix, we have some uh- interference on our end. But it’s sorted now. Go ahead.”
“As I was saying, I would like- crshshsh- call to Star Sector Base EB-2, to Bela Beren.” Looking down tried to clear up the last bit of static..
“Is it love?” Leida switched to put the call through as she looked over her shoulder and hissed as the officer approach her.
“That’s, uh- none of your -crsh- business.”
“Very well. You have eight minutes of time.” She made the final adjustment to her system. Before she was able to start troubleshooting the problem the officer hit the pause button on her console.
“Stand up and follow me.” The officer's voice did not give any room for question.
“But, I have-” Leida tried to object.
“Follow me, or your disciplinary situation will be worse than it is.”
Leida stood up and attempted to smooth out her crumpled uniform as she followed him through the base, until they got to his office. The room was small and cramped. The desk was covered in paperwork and the walls were unadorned. He grabbed a datapad and started looking through it. His brow creased together as he read it. She tried to relax a little before he snapped at her to stand at attention.
Finally the officer lowered the datapad and glared at her. “You fancy yourself a trouble maker. Says here that you are cited for disciplinary actions, 27 times. That's a record for such a short time. Are you proud of it?”
Leida gulped as he paced around her like a predator stalking its meal. “No sir.”
“Really? Not trying to impress your family. Says here your mother is a rebel leader. A traitor to the Empire from the inside. Wouldn’t she be proud that her daughter is a little rebel too?”
“I don’t think she ever appreciated it.” Leida couldn’t stop herself from smirking.
“Don’t get smart with me. When I am through with-” The entire station shook. Leida steadied herself by breaking her position of attention, while the officer grabbed his desk for support. The lights in the room flickered out for a brief moment before turning on.
He grabbed a phone off his desk and barked into it, and cursed when he got no reply. Looking down she saw the lights on the phone were dark. “Did I tell you to break attention?”
“No sir.” Yet she didn’t form the position.
“You insolent brat. Get back to your post.” She walked out of the room while he sat at his phone trying to get it working. A hallway away from the officers office she heard some more faint bangs. Turning the corner she was caught wide eyed as she looked on at a dozen rebels clad in dirty brown uniforms with their blasters raised bounded down the hall.
She got yanked down as a red bolt of blaster fire was shot towards the rebels. Looking up she saw a young man clad in an Imperial Army uniform shooting. With his hand frantically reaching for his radio. “Does anyone read me? I repeat, Rebels are in the-” his face turned a ghastly red as a dozen bolts of blaster fire struck him in the chest, neck and torso, leaving him a blackened smoldering mess as he fell lifelessly to the floor.
Leida gulped as she tried to shove herself into a small outcove, grabbing the soldier's blaster and holding it close to herself. She heard the rebels talking about where she was and how to eliminate herself. A tear slid down her face as she asked the force to spare her.
She winced as she heard a volley of blaster fire. She opened her eyes expecting to see her death, to instead see a routine security patrol getting caught in the open. Two were already lying dead, the others were either firing or trying to yell into their radios. One of them motioned for her to run at them.
Taking a few gulping breaths, she sprung from her cover and ran towards the imperial soldiers. Feet beating against the floor in a panic as the world turned red as the soldiers started firing haphazardly at the rebels to keep their heads down.
A second before she turned the corner into safety she let out a yelp of pain and fell face first into the floor. Looking down she saw one of the pant legs of her uniform singed with the skin underneath raised in a painful red blister. Gracefully just a grazing shot, but painful nonetheless.
Standing to make it back to her station she wobbled slightly, then wretched up some bile as the relief of not having died washed over her. Looking back with horror she saw another soldier fall dead as he was struck by fire.
Limping through the base she made it back to the communications center. Her hands shook as she was ready to enter her identification code when it hissed open on its own.
Inside the girls were all responding to the chaos differently. Some were still trying to get their consoles working as if nothing else mattered. Others have taken to huddling in the corners ready to avoid calamity at any second. Others merely stood wide eyed not knowing what to do.
Jaina was standing above the ones who hid and ordering them back to work. “Get up! The day just started, it was- What?” Turning around, Jaina turned to grow wide eyed as she saw Leida standing in the doorway, with soot on her uniform and a blaster in her hands. “Where did you get that?” Her voice quivered and her eyes grew wide.
“Rebels- Rebels inside the base.” Jaina took a step back, her face going blank, before the station shook again and the consoles flickered off. In the absence of the noise of the machines whirling and buzzing distant blaster fire could be heard. Then as the machines turned on one by one it could almost be ignored again, if it weren't for the fact that it was getting louder.
All of the girls that were now trying to squeeze themselves between the machines or placing something large and hopefully blaster proof between themselves and the door. Frantic sobs could be heard from the other girls who were now getting fully consumed by the panic. Some were trying to comfort the ones crying while others just sat and stared.
“Are you- with them?” Jaina face was white and her hands shook.
Leida shook her head no.
“Okay. Uh.” Jaina slouched down and started crying herself.
Leida squatted in front of her. And nudged her. “Keep it together. Can you lock the door?”
Jaina shook her head and curled up to make herself as small as possible. “Only the officers can do that. Lock down should lock them as well.”
Leida turned her back to them so she could watch the door and raised the blaster.
“What are you doing?”
Leida gave a sigh. “We aren’t in lock down. Rebels must have jammed our communications. So the doors wont get locked.”
“Let’s hope they kill us quickly.” Jaina muttered loud enough so everyone could hear her. Leida closed her eyes and heard the other girls cry louder at their leader's word. Behind her she heard scooching of feet as they all tried to shove themselves deeper into the spaces they found. As if by any hope the first volley of rebel fire would miss them and allow them to hide amongst the dead.
“Do you even know how to shoot?” Jaina croaked out.
“Just pull the trigger.” Leida said with feigned nonchalance, for the first time she looked at the blaster with all its different buttons and levers and wondered what they all actually did. At least she knew what the trigger did.
Soon the blaster fire got louder and louder until it felt like it was just beyond the door. The walls would vibrate with soft ping noise every so often from what can only be guessed to be hits direct hits to them. They heard the muffled screams and shouts from those dying just beyond their walls.
Leida’s knuckles went white as she readjusted her grip on the blaster. Trying to steady the barrel's haphazard arc as it wavered across the door to floor and back to ceiling as she waited for the door to hiss open.
The screams and shouts on the other side died away and the blaster went silent. Leida’s breath stopped and the muzzle shook as the seals around the door hissed.