Star Wars_ Rebel Force 03_ Renegade - Alex Wheeler [30]
And then:
"This is taking far too long!" an angry voice raged. "You know the punishment for failure."
"I have a lead," said another voice, strangely familiar. "Only a little more time and Skywalker is mine."
Though he knew the stormtroopers were tearing the station apart searching for him, and any delay could mean his life, Han froze.
One of the voices belonged to a stranger.
The other—it made no sense, but Han had no doubt it belonged to someone he knew and trusted. More to the point, someone Luke knew and trusted. It belonged to Tobin Elad.
X-f0 7 couldn't avert his eyes from the screen. The Commander was terrifying in his rage. His narrow, pinched face remained palely inexpressive. But X-f0 7
knew well the anger that roiled behind his steely eyes.
" You think you can escape? " the Commander roars.
X-f0 7, who once thought himself a man without fear, cowers in the corner. A large borrat scampers toward him and begins gnawing at the flesh of his hand.
X-f0 7 ignores it. Locked in the dark for endless days, he has become used to the borrats.
" There is no escape from me, " the Commander says, quiet now. Dangerous.
X-f0 7 no longer knows how long he has been in the training facility. He no longer remembers how he came to be there. And he no longer knows who he once was.
But he knows he was someone .
Before they cleansed his brain, before they turned him into a machine to do their bidding, before he belonged to the Commander, he belonged to himself . He remembers that.
Which is why he killed the guards, scaled the walls, escaped.
Until the Commander's men dragged him back and threw him into the dark.
" You thought you'd succeeded, didn't you? " the Commander asks. He laughs. " I let you try. Wanted to see whether you'd make it. "
X-f0 7 is afraid to speak. He doesn't want to say anything that might make the Commander leave him alone again, in the silent dark. Any longer, and he fears he may go mad.
The Commander crosses the room, strokes X-f0 7 gently across the forehead.
X-f0 7 shivers at the touch of another human, the confirmation that he is not alone in the galaxy. " This has been very hard for you, " the Commander says softly. " I know. And you have a long road still to walk, my young friend. But at the end of it, you will emerge strong. I will make you strong. You want that, don't you? "
X-f0 7 nods. He wants whatever the Commander wants. Because the Commander holds the keys to the door. The Commander can let him out of the dark.
" You're not going to try to escape again, are you? " the Commander asks.
" You've learned your lesson, haven't you? "
X-f0 7 nods again. He means it. But the Commander frowns. " No, you haven't, " he says. " But you will. We'll make sure that you don't want to be anywhere else than here. That you don't want to do anything else but serve me, Only that will make you happy. You'd like that, wouldn't you? " he asks. " To be happy? "
X-f0 7 nods.
" Speak, boy, " the Commander snaps.
" Yes, " X-f0 7 says, hesitantly, his voice dry and raspy. It has been so long since he's spoken. " I want to be happy. "
" And only one person can make you happy, " the Commander says. " Do you know who that is? "
" You, " X-f0 7 whispers.
" That's good, " the Commander says. He kneels down, eye to eye with X-f0 7.
He brings his face close enough that, in the dim light filtering through the open door, X-f0 7 can see the rage in his eyes. The Commander pulls out a vibroblade, the light glinting off its razor edge. He presses it to the soft flesh beneath X-f0 7's jaw. " Now then, " the Commander grits, bearing down. " Let's teach you how to be happy. "
X-f0 7 recoiled from the rage in the Commander's gaze, glad that several light-years separated him from his master.
"Where is Skywalker?" the Commander asked, as he had been asking for the last several days. Each time, his voice grew quieter and tighter,