| Lyman_Sturn | Date: Monday, 31 Aug 2015, 1:17 AM | Message # 1 |
 Trainee
Group: Users
Messages: 7
Status: Offline
| "Inquisitor, I want you to know that I'm following your orders under protest."
Sturn raised an eyebrow. Captain Romes stood in the Inquisitor's quarters aboard the Malefic, which sat incongruously on the well-manicured grounds of the local university. The spaceport in Raykell had been too small to accommodate her. Romes stood erect, chest-first and with his hat under his arm, but there was as much defiance in his voice as there was in his posture. Sturn, seated in a form chair, regarded the Captain with his cold, lifeless eyes. He sighed.
"Do you remember what I told you at Kirdo?"
"That 'I'm in the business of death,'" Romes answered at once, suspecting where the Inquisitor was going with this. "But these are non-combatants. They're innocent civilians who have done nothing wrong. Shooting one a day until Castor Vax shows himself on Darkknell? I simply cannot—"
Sturn produced a lightsaber from somewhere on his person, setting it gently on the arm of his chair for Romes to see. As was so often the case, the lightsaber was deadly to conversation. "Have you seen what a Jedi can do with a lightsaber, Captain Romes?"
Romes hesitated, a bead of sweat forming on his brow. But to his credit, he did not back down. "Yes, Inquisitor," he said simply. He had seen on the holonet the fate that had befallen Count Dooku and the other Separatist leaders—chopped quite literally to pieces. To say nothing of the dismembered corpses of Imperial personnel he and Sturn had seen at Kirdo III. Romes had been grateful to have the Jedi on their side of the Clone War, but equally grateful to be rid of them once the war was over. Or most of them, at least.
"Then you know the danger our Castor Vax poses to 'innocent civilians,' such as those we're now making an example of. It is... regrettable, certainly. You are perhaps familiar with the old proverb that 'to be cruel to others is to be cruel to oneself'? I feel their pain as if it were my own, but Castor Vax is a greater danger to a greater number of innocent civilians than we are. I am familiar with your record, Captain. Surely you know that sacrifice is as inevitable in war as it is necessary."
"But they're—"
"'Innocent'?" Sturn interrupted him, contempt in his voice. "Come now, Captain. Those we've shot thus far are inmates from the Raykell Penitentiary. The worst that Darkknell has to offer. They're hardly 'innocent.' And Castor Vax used far less discretion at Kirdo III than we are using here."
"'Those we've shot thus far'..."
Sturn waved a hand dismissively. "Oh, I'm sure Vax will show himself before the inmate population is totally depleted. But if it becomes necessary for us to make an example of the general population, you may sleep comfortably in the knowledge that, however regrettable may be the task, we are serving the greater good of the Empire. But," he put the lightsaber—a beautifully-crafted specimen with an Emori leather grip—away. "If you insist on carrying out my orders under protest, I will be disappointed, but so be it. As long as you carry them out."
"I... withdraw my protest for the time being, Inquisitor," Romes remarked. He was not convinced, but rather confused into acquiescence. This was just as well for Sturn's purposes, and he hadn't even had to use the Force on him. Sturn was partial to Romes, a well-meaning law-and-order man from Ralltiir who had remained loyal to the Empire when his homeworld rose in rebellion. But he hadn't done it out of ideology, but rather of duty. This character trait was quite apropos here on Darkknell.
"Good. You may go," Sturn said brusquely, closing his eyes as he prepared to resume the meditation that Romes had interrupted. The Captain bowed his head and turned to leave.
"But it's not 'one a day.'"
"Sir?" Romes glanced back over his shoulder.
"We're not shooting 'one a day,' Captain. We're shooting one today. Then 2 tomorrow, 3 the next day, and so on."
Despite the warmth of a pleasant Darkknell summer, Romes felt very cold. "Yes, Inquisitor," he said, replaced his hat on his head and left Sturn to his meditations.
Inquisitor Lyman Sturn
Former Jedi Master
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