Too late for Volun. With the negotiations for the day having broken down, apparently with some hositlity, he has stormed angrily back to the Sanctuary. Skorzeny is looking more stressed than ever.
Not even remotely like a lightsabre, Jelena!
-
On Spiridos, the two of you settle down, peacefully.
On the far side, Gallagher, you snoozily shift to one side. You are by the window at one of of the roon, and through that you can see another window opposite the corridor outside, where you can see into some kind of treatment room. You stop, somewhat sluggishly, surprised by what you see inside.
There is a man in there, stripped to the waist. But he is restrained in a way you are not at all certain is medically suitable- his limbs splayed out into an x-shape. He shakes with obvious discomfort... and you feel fear and anxiety.
A pulse of shock rushes through you. You cannot see him well from this angle- you are seeing him from behind and to the right- but you can sense it immediately... he is the man you saw being killed in your Dream!
And then stepping out in front of him... is Father Varm
Varm operates a control to one side, and a medical instrument comes arcing down over the restrained man and comes to rest near his back, where is starts to power up.
No, wait... that's not a medical instrument. That's... some kind of industrial laser lance! No!
Suddenly, aggressively, Varm forces a wooden gag into the struggling man's mouth...
Your body doesn't seem to respond. Distracted, you have not noticed the increasing effecy of the anaesthesia.
Varm casually presses another control... and the laser activates.
You feel a terrible spike of pain through the Force as the man starts to scream in intense agony with all the breath he can muster, muffled by the gag. The laser protudes mere inches, where it burns and fries anf frazzles away the flesh on his back; you can see the skin blistering and boiling and burning and steaming as it is exposed to the very bone, working its way slowly, left to right, up and down. The man thrashes violenty from side to side, trying to escape his bonds, but there is no release.
Varm steps forwards- you think you detect the hint of a smile- and then forces his hand down upon the gag, pushing the man's head back as he does so, making sure it cannot come free.
You cannot muster even the power to do that. But someone DOES come past- Hasina.
"Oh dear," he says. "You shouldn't be distressing yourself seeing things like that." She closes the blinds on the windows, obscuring the scene from your sight but not your mind. "Looks like you are all ready," he says. "Rest now..." And she cloes the lid on the deprivation pod, as if it were a coffin.
Darkness...
‘NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!’ comes the scream of agony, merging into a hundred different sounds…
You stand inside Balek’s base on Droben. All around you, people move with certainty. But not you. You stand hesitant. In front of you is a dead body. You killed him. You, a man of pacifism and wisdom.
It’s never as easy as it seems, to kill a man, even with such a powerful tool of death as you carry.
“You knew this would happen, Gallagher.”
You give a start, and turn around. Now the battle rages in the control centre. Balek, dead, his figure scarred horribly by the molten lead he fell into, somehow fights on. More dead bodies are around. Some by your hand. Now it gets easier. Easy to kill in the heat of battle. Does it KEEP getting easier?
“It happens to us all.”
Whilst Roan looks to tear out the heart of it all, Jelena fights, cutting down at all around her, trying to grasp something she cannot quite see.
“It’s easy for her. Look.”
The man is unarmed and beaten. Without mercy, Jelena cleaves him in two. She cannot see it, but not far away, the corpse is sliced in two, again and again and again.
An innocent man, dead? But who is innocent? A soldier on a battlefield might have to accept an unfair death.
“Is that how you would justify it?”
You stand upon the top of a tall tower atop a mighty citadel. A city can be seen all around you beneath an orange sky. Your friends. Your friends are near and must help! But the body beneath you has died at your hands, just as Jelena killed hers- unarmed, without possibility of harm, screaming for mercy. No! No no no, why?
“Why did you let them kill me?” comes a voice. You turn, and see the man you saw being tortured, his back on fire. Behind him stand… more people than you can imagine. Thin, gaunt, and dying, because the man in front of you is dead. “Why did you let them all die?”
Why? Why did this happen? WHY?
In a dark room lies a baby, mewling and gasping at the world around it. A teenaged boy stands near him, a blaster slung on his belt.
“You must protect him,” says a voice, unseen.
“The Jedi can do it far better than I,” he says. You know that voice! You recognize that boy!
“They will not know. The burden will be yours.”
Where is it going?
In a dark place, unseen by all, a cowled figure plots the Jedi’s destruction. His tendrils snare around the Republic, but you cannot see the figure’s features… it defeats even you.
At the command of a female’s voice, a man turns his weapon upon himself, and dies. The voice carries death.
In the depths far below, with ancient texts lining you either side, you stalk through the shelves to find your prey. And there lies Roan, kneeling down to look at something solid that has fallen. As you raise your gun against him, you see that your hand is pale, and covered in strange tattoos.
Varm’s laughter surrounds you, as you return again atop the high tower. A woman joins the laughter as well, you turn and see another figure laughing at you from the far side. And the scream of pain returns; you turn again and there stands the tortured man once more, forced to his knees by the sheer agony.
You can’t protect him! You will fail! They will all die!
And the scream again, the long lingering scream… but this time the voice is yours, and you are surrounded by blackness, unable to see, feel or hear anything, choking with panic.
And then, light, as the top of the deprivation pod is torn away by Zaland, his blaster, the same blaster, in his hand. You are screaming for real.
“Gallagher!” he cries, his voice full of concern. Your scream stops, and everything is in deadly silence.
Four hours have passed.
"I...I saw...before I slept..." Gallagher says, then regains control of himself, pushing the great terror of the dream from his mind. He rests on his knees for a moment, before getting up, and describing what he saw to Zaland.
"And...I had another dream..." Gallagher says, his features pale. "I saw you...I think..."
"The Jedi always said your talent might affect you like that sometimes," he says. "The past, the present, the future, yes? And I have never been far.
"But what could Varm be doing? Why in a hospital? I don't see what it has to do with drugs. Don't take this the wrong way, but are you sure it was actually happening? I'm not saying you imagined it," he adds, hastily, though you are unconvinced he means that, "but maybe it already happened? Or is going to?"
It was all getting a bit mixed up by then, was the thing, Gallagher. The fire seems to be torture rather then death, though.
"My my, what IS all this?" says Hasina, running over, concerned. "All this noise! Mr. Klinge-Faust, your biometric readings are off the scale! My word, this is most unusual! Are you ok?" She sounds concerned.
Carlea is just waking you from your pod, Andro. You feel absolutely great! Very relaxing indeed; you feel strong and ready to take everything on.