The young officer eyed Jax appraisingly, then looked at one of the shock troopers. “Take them all into custody.”
Before anyone could raise their voice to protest, the ring of shock troopers collapsed on them. Rough, armored hands grabbed them, forcing their wrists into binders. The one-handed man tried to fight back and was rendered unconscious by the butt of an Imperial blaster carbine.
The officer removed a standard issue gPhone from his pocket. “Alert the brig. We’re sending up visitors.” He turned to Jax. “Who is aboard your ship?”
Jax straightened. “Droids... sir. If we’re going to be interrogated, may I ask that my ship be allowed to remain here on the planet? I can instruct the ship’s computer to upload the data you’ll want to check out.”
The man gave it some thought. “That will be fine, at least for now. I’ll leave a team here to watch over it.” He didn’t wait for Jax to say thank you or anything else. He turned and walked back to his transport. The troopers nudged everyone to fall in behind the officer.
* * *
The ride up to the Imperial patrol ship in orbit was silent. Kori had tried to get Jax and Naomi to talk about their time in Salma, but a trooper had stalked over, and with the help of his weapon, demanded silence. Twenty minutes later, the transport glided into the docking bay of the Imperial light cruiser and docked with a thunk.
As they walked through the hangar, Jax looked around. This ship was considerably smaller than the ship they’d recently been on and the one he had fled. The docking bay was still massive compared to the Osprey.
The port and starboard bulkheads of the cavernous space were adorned with banners for campaigns the ship had fought in and fighter squadrons based aboard it. Near the hatch they were heading for, he saw a banner with the stylized body of Zeus lying defeated at the feet of an anonymous, featureless warrior. The campaign banner of the last battle in the Unification War, the Battle of Zeus. The battle his parents had died hoping to avoid. The fleet they’d helped escape was meant to evacuate the Independent Planets Governing council. They were too slow. The battle on the surface lasted only slightly longer than the battle in orbit had. It was the end of the Independents; their fleet had been broken and scattered, their governing council eliminated. The surrender came less than a week after the Battle of Zeus.
When they arrived at the brig, the two gangsters were given one cell, and the crew of the Osprey went into a neighboring cell. A medic came in to tend to the one-handed man’s stump. The entire time he was being treated, he glared at Jax.
A junior officer walked in to the brig, tablet in hand. She looked down at it, then at the two groups in the cells. “Captain Caruso?” Jax stood up. She smiled. She could not have been more than a year or two out of the academy. “The Captain would like to see you.” She gestured to the trooper standing guard near the main hatch. The gray armored trooper opened the cell and stood back for Jax to exit, closing the door quickly behind him, lest any of his friends try to escape, or something.
The junior officer, who didn’t say anything to Jax during their walk from the brig to an interrogation room, closed the door behind Jax as he walked in. The room was plain, a rectangular table in the center, two chairs on either side. A camera was mounted in the corner near the ceiling, opposite the door.
He sat down facing the door. Thoughts of his parents drifted into his mind.
The Unification Wars had ended twenty years ago. Jax was five when the Independents surrendered. There weren’t very many left at that point. His parents were both upper level commanders. Both were dead. All the Independents’ senior leadership was, in fact, dead.
Thomas and Alison had been Indies from the moment the movement started, largely because of Thomas’ mother, Lucy. She was a founding member of the coop that had built Kelso Station and had been what Thomas had always jokingly referred to as a “space libertarian .” He wasn’t far off, and despite the joking, the apple hadn’t fallen far from the tree.
Captain Thomas Caruso had captained the Independent cruiser Washington from the moment the ship had sailed out of the Apollo Shipyards in orbit over Zeus to the moment she rammed the Imperial battlecruiser that was ripping the fleet he was leading to shreds. His sacrifice had allowed the remaining ships to get clear and escape.
Admiral Alison Caruso had commanded the Indie fleet first from the orbital command center over Zeus, then, after that facility was destroyed, from the flagship of the ragtag fleet, the Washington , until she rammed the Imperials, taking both Carusos with her.
The door to the interrogation room opened.