Isard's Grip
Jun. 20th, 2005 09:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
athersgeoStar Wars has finally dragged me into its fandomy embrace. This is very, very much a rough draft of a prologue to something longer which I'm posting mainly for feedback.
If you've never read the Rogue Squadron books, this will make NO sense...heck, it may not make too much in the way of sense having read the books! See what you think.
Isard's Grip
The room was harsh and bright. White tiled walls and ceiling all gleamed under the strong lighting. Strapped to a med-couch in the middle of the room, Tycho couldn't see the floor, but he was willing to bet the floor was tiled too and that there was a drain somewhere there, so's the room could simply be hosed down after use.
From behind him, he heard the hiss of a door sliding open and clipped footsteps, heralding the arrival of someone. His torturer? His keeper? His executioner? Tycho wasn't sure what label to put on the woman who came into his line of sight. Her mis-matched eyes blazed down, one furious red the other icy blue, dissecting him. She had already interrogated him, digging down through the layers of his mind and dragging out data his mother must have forgotten while she was carrying him. The question was, what did she want now?
"Captain Celchu," she hissed softly, "I find myself in curious position." She put a finger to her lips in a gesture that should have looked pensive and instead looked sinister. "I could simply have you executed; I can get no further information from you, and what I have extracted is of little use. You knew nothing of the operation you were working for beyond your own tiny role. You know nothing of the Rebellion fleet's locations or current operations. In fact I find you singularly uninformed. Most unhelpful." She tapped her lip. "But I did expend a certain amount of energy in capturing you and I cannot abide waste." She smiled and inwardly, Tycho cringed. "So, since you know nothing, I shall have to find other ways to make you useful."
At a gesture he barely saw, Tycho heard more footsteps. A technician appeared in his field of vision all dressed in surgical clothing. The woman with the mis-matched eyes gave a nod.
"You will be mine, Captain Celchu," she promised.
The technician stepped forwards, an injector held out. Tycho tried to flinch away from it, but there was nowhere he could move to. It stung against his neck, emptying its contents into his bloodstream. Between one heartbeat and the next, the drug circulated. His veins felt as if they were on fire; as if what had been injected was pure acid and it was melting his body from the inside out. The white room began to grey and blur.
"You will be mine."
With a shout and a gasp, Tycho flung himself upright, awake but barely. His heart racing a mile a minute, it took him several moments before he could even recognise the Spartan quarters he'd been given on landing on Coruscant. As those details filtered through the remnants of sleep and nightmare, his heartbeat began to slow.
It had been a nightmare. Isard was dead. He'd been the one to fire the shot. As for the white room, he'd been out of there two years. More. And with the Lusankya in Alliance hands, that part of his life was over in every sense of the word.
He flung the bedding back and got up. For a moment, the adrenaline still surging through his system made him feel unsteady but then his balance returned. He padded across to the 'fresher and turned the light. It was bright and it hurt his eyes but it helped to remind him that he was awake.
Tycho groped for the faucet and ran some cold water into the basin. Leaning over, he splashed it over his face, the coolness finishing what waking up had begun.
It had just been a nightmare. A bad dream from a place of bad dreams.
But, as he straightened and looked at himself in the mirror, for just a fraction of a second, it wasn't his face that stared back. It was hers. The illusion was gone almost before he'd seen it, but it left him feeling unsettled.
Isard was dead.
Why was she still haunting him?
If you've never read the Rogue Squadron books, this will make NO sense...heck, it may not make too much in the way of sense having read the books! See what you think.
The room was harsh and bright. White tiled walls and ceiling all gleamed under the strong lighting. Strapped to a med-couch in the middle of the room, Tycho couldn't see the floor, but he was willing to bet the floor was tiled too and that there was a drain somewhere there, so's the room could simply be hosed down after use.
From behind him, he heard the hiss of a door sliding open and clipped footsteps, heralding the arrival of someone. His torturer? His keeper? His executioner? Tycho wasn't sure what label to put on the woman who came into his line of sight. Her mis-matched eyes blazed down, one furious red the other icy blue, dissecting him. She had already interrogated him, digging down through the layers of his mind and dragging out data his mother must have forgotten while she was carrying him. The question was, what did she want now?
"Captain Celchu," she hissed softly, "I find myself in curious position." She put a finger to her lips in a gesture that should have looked pensive and instead looked sinister. "I could simply have you executed; I can get no further information from you, and what I have extracted is of little use. You knew nothing of the operation you were working for beyond your own tiny role. You know nothing of the Rebellion fleet's locations or current operations. In fact I find you singularly uninformed. Most unhelpful." She tapped her lip. "But I did expend a certain amount of energy in capturing you and I cannot abide waste." She smiled and inwardly, Tycho cringed. "So, since you know nothing, I shall have to find other ways to make you useful."
At a gesture he barely saw, Tycho heard more footsteps. A technician appeared in his field of vision all dressed in surgical clothing. The woman with the mis-matched eyes gave a nod.
"You will be mine, Captain Celchu," she promised.
The technician stepped forwards, an injector held out. Tycho tried to flinch away from it, but there was nowhere he could move to. It stung against his neck, emptying its contents into his bloodstream. Between one heartbeat and the next, the drug circulated. His veins felt as if they were on fire; as if what had been injected was pure acid and it was melting his body from the inside out. The white room began to grey and blur.
"You will be mine."
With a shout and a gasp, Tycho flung himself upright, awake but barely. His heart racing a mile a minute, it took him several moments before he could even recognise the Spartan quarters he'd been given on landing on Coruscant. As those details filtered through the remnants of sleep and nightmare, his heartbeat began to slow.
It had been a nightmare. Isard was dead. He'd been the one to fire the shot. As for the white room, he'd been out of there two years. More. And with the Lusankya in Alliance hands, that part of his life was over in every sense of the word.
He flung the bedding back and got up. For a moment, the adrenaline still surging through his system made him feel unsteady but then his balance returned. He padded across to the 'fresher and turned the light. It was bright and it hurt his eyes but it helped to remind him that he was awake.
Tycho groped for the faucet and ran some cold water into the basin. Leaning over, he splashed it over his face, the coolness finishing what waking up had begun.
It had just been a nightmare. A bad dream from a place of bad dreams.
But, as he straightened and looked at himself in the mirror, for just a fraction of a second, it wasn't his face that stared back. It was hers. The illusion was gone almost before he'd seen it, but it left him feeling unsettled.
Isard was dead.
Why was she still haunting him?
(no subject)
Date: 2005-06-20 08:52 pm (UTC)I'll give it a better read-through once I'm home, but you'd better believe I want more of it :)
(no subject)
Date: 2005-06-21 04:09 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-06-22 01:25 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-06-20 09:04 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-06-21 04:06 pm (UTC)Rogue Squadron!
Date: 2005-06-21 12:39 am (UTC)I like?
(Sorry not coherent, and it's been awhile since I read those books.)
Re: Rogue Squadron!
Date: 2005-06-21 02:34 pm (UTC)Glad you like - to say I was nervous about posting this was an understatement. I've read the books almost to the point of memorising them, but I still wasn't sure about posting.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-06-21 06:55 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-06-22 06:21 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-10-17 06:49 pm (UTC)I thought I'd be nosy and follow the links from your home page!!
This is EXCELLENT and fuels a desire in me to re-collect all the star wars books again! Hey it must be cheaper than CS books right?
Is there more of this?
HannahX