Star Wars: Life During Wartime

Claustrophobia, part 3

Raena woke sluggishly. Her wrists were pinned to a plasteel chair by heavy binders. Cold fluid drained through a plastic tube into the back of her right hand. That, she suspected, was the mind-dampening chemical. When she tried to switch the hair out of her face, she felt the tug of something taped to her scalp. That chilled her more than anything else.

Thallian reached into her field of vision to train a lock of hair out of her eyes, tucking it gently back behind her ear. "You deserve better accommodations, my dear, but you rejected those you had."

Fear blackened Raena's vision. Then a searing, nuclear-bright flash exploded in her brain, sweeping thoughts and breath out of its path. Raena felt her body spasm. Her muscles protested when she tried to control the convulsions. Tears of shame melted down her face.

"No mind drugs for you, my love," Thallian whispered as the torture burned itself out. "The Emperor does not want you stupid and senseless when he asks why you betrayed us."

She ignored his bitterness and swallowed hard, trying to control her voice. "What's in the tube?"

"Nourishment. Those shocks will drain you, but you're not to have food or sleep until we reach the Emperor's flagship."

"Prisoners of war get better treatment than this," Raena observed.

"Mere prisoners of war have not been tutored in the use of the Force," he reminded her.

"Whose order was that?"

"Mine, of course." He brushed the tears from her eyes with the thumbs of his velvet gloves. "I'm surprised you have to ask."

Silver blinded her. Again her thoughts were shattered in the attack. This time no tears escaped. Hatred stronger than she could have imagined allowed her to hold her head upright so she could stare at him throughout the shock.

He held her gaze with a smile that revealed his sharpened teeth.

"How this must amuse you," Raena said. Her only hope was that she could seduce him into releasing her from the chair, from the shocks.

"You have no idea how much I'm enjoying this," he answered. "I wish I could enjoy it more. For now, though, I'll leave you here to consider what you've done and how you might make amends. That is, if you have respite long enough to consider anything at all." The hatch slid open behind him and he slithered out.

Raena stared after him as if her gaze could melt the cell door. Around her, the room measured a scant two meters square. That bastard knew she hated small rooms. In fact, he knew more than enough to destroy her.

A brilliant flash demolished those thoughts but only stoked her hatred.

*

Some uncountable time later, Thallian returned to gloat. "How have you occupied yourself, my dear?"

Raena stared at his perfect black beard and imagined slitting the shockingly white throat beneath. "There are forty-eight electrodes threaded through my scalp."

"Very good." He trailed a gloved finger across her lips, daring her to bite him. When she did not, he pouted. "I do care for you, my dear. I designed this machine to give you no pain. The shock merely disrupts your brain waves. It does no physical damage. Your body harms itself as it fights the machine."

"So generous of you," she mocked. Knowing that the pain was self-inflicted made the next wave easier to bear. It rolled off of her, leaving only a residual ache in her muscles.

"In theory, you will never be allowed long enough to attempt escape, but I am curious to see if the voltage will indeed prevent you." Thallian bent closer to her. "Do you regret abandoning your post?"

"Not for an instant, my lord."

Thallian grabbed her jaw. His kiss tasted like carrion, like everything venomous and rotten. She felt his hand slide down to caress her windpipe.

Another shock blotted out whatever happened next. When she was able to focus again, Thallian leaned against the door, his smile so self-satisfied she yearned to slap it from his face. "If the Emperor takes you away, he will return you to me in due time. I'll have you yet, Raena, and then you won't have this chair to protect you."

Time passed, but Raena had no way to measure it, no meals or sleep to break the monotony. Left alone, her mind played tricks. Sometimes the walls crept inward, though she watched to keep them at bay.

For entertainment, she imagined the things she might do to Thallian, given a chance. Perhaps she would castrate him a millimeter at a time with a slow-burn blaster. Or she would mutilate his face with her knives. She hated herself while she hated him, because she had believed she loved him once.

Sometimes a med tech would come to check the needle in her hand. It occurred to her to beg them to help her overdose and escape him, but she decided against it and held her tongue. With her thoughts scrambled, Thallian could out-guess her every move. When he finally suggested the techs as an escape route, Raena only laughed at him. Her acceptance of her fate confused, then enraged, Thallian. Luckily, he grew bored with her after a while.

To be continued...