ABOARD THE MILLENNIAL, INTERROGATION ROOM

Captain Starr, Perdante, and Zen reached the Interrogation Room aboard the Millennial with pounding hearts and suspicious minds. As far as any one of them were aware, only Mica and Pauel had been locked in that particular enclosure. No security droids, no cameras, nothing else was there to witness their confrontation--only four walls of steel, a table, and two merciless, hard-backed chairs. The Jedi Knight feared that the Apostle of Truth had been killed during his questioning, but she could not trust in hunches alone. Not even the Force could determine absolute proof of guilt. There had to be evidence of Mica's wrongdoing, and so far, there was absolutely none. Besides, why would he call a crash cart if he were guilty...

...except to throw them all off guard, including Captain Starr herself?

"Mica?" asked Perdante once she entered. "What happened here, and why?"

"This Khristoff may not be able to tell you exactly where his financiers are, but he may be able to point us nearer to the right direction."

Juhani thought for a moment and then nodded in agreement. She was about to respond when she suddenly felt a slight disturbance in the force coming from the direction of the Interrogation room.

"Do you feel that?" She asked Visas. "I think we should go to the interrogation room. I felt a small disturbance in the force coming from that area."

When they arrived, Pauel had been taken away by the medical personnel. But they had left only moments ago, which meant that Mica was still in the room, looking incredibly shaken.

"I-I have no idea!" he said, his face whiter than it really should have been. He kept playing with the cufflinks of his uniform jacket, turning one and then the other between his forefinger and thumb. "One minute I had him backed up against the wall, and the next he was unconscious on the floor! I...I don't even think he was breathing..."

Fara frowned. "Was there anything compromising in his medical status?"

"Nothing!" Mica answered, looking just as nonplused as the captain. "I read the whole report, cover-to-cover, and they guys that checked him out at booking found nothing."

ABOARD THE MILLENNIAL, INTERROGATION ROOM

Perdante Dareva's thin eyebrow furrowed. Pauel might have taken quite a beating back at Geeda's Cantina, thanks to Zen and his Sangheili warrior prowess, but something in Mica's eyes and face unnerved her. Mere fright, or possible guilt? Every Republic soldier I've ever known has faced battle bravely, including the aftermath. It seems rather out of character for Mica to be so scared after Pauel's sudden death. Surely he's killed people before--but maybe not in this fashion. Whatever the case may be, I don't trust the situation here. She turned to Mica, gazing into his eyes and sensing only anxiety.

"I'm not sure about all this," she said. "Maybe the ostanovium finally got to him. He's got to have tons of it embedded in his skin and bloodstream, and your communication skills might have been a little too much for Pauel's system. Whatever the case may be, I'm dying to see what the autopsy report says."

Zen was just as surprised as everyone else was about Pauel's death. He found it odd that Pauel would just pass out and die after talking to Mica. More importantly Zen hoped Mica was able to get some information out of Pauel before his death as Paul was their only lead.

He nodded his head at Perdante's suggestion of the ostanovium. That would back up what Mica had said about him just falling to the ground. He had seen that happen to many times that he could picture exactly what happened to Pauel.

"Perhaps it was the ostanovium that got to him. I am not too concerned with the body however." Zen turned to Mica after responding to Perdante. The human looked just a shocked as Captain Starr. "Mica, was Pauel able to tell you anything?"

Mica's nostrils flared at Perdante's last comment, and he advanced on her.

"Are you accusing me of killing an unarmed Republic prisoner??" he demanded of her, but before he could stand in front of the Jedi, Captain Starr stepped forward and put an arm out. Her arm caught him around the stomach, stopping his advance.

"No one is being accused of anything just yet, Mica, alright? Calm down." The captain said, and the communications officer stepped down. He gritted his teeth nonetheless, and turned his attention on the Sanghili. The lack of suspicion on the alien's part seemed only to calm him further, and his shoulders and fists relaxed. Mica looked pitifully at the floor.

"No." he said quietly, looking defeated and disappointed in himself. "I had only just begun speaking with him when he collapsed."

Fara's lips pressed themselves together into a thin line, but she put a comforting hand on Mica's shoulder. "It was an accident." she said quietly. "So there's no need to beat yourself up over it. Besides - Pauel's information was only to supplement what we already have. With your tracker on the Pauel's stolen ship, we'll still be able to find Khristoff."

ABOARD THE MILLENNIAL, INTERROGATION ROOM

Perdante swallowed hard, tasting precious little saliva in her throat. She had feared that Mica would attack her, from the fire in his eyes and the purplish veins that had begun to throb on his forehead! She was grateful to Captain Starr for acting as a living wall between herself and him. "I--I don't mean to accuse you," she continued, gazing at the Republic soldier with fearful eyes. "I was only afraid that somehow, the interrogation session had harmed him. From the state he was in when he was brought aboard, maybe he was already dying."

Turning to the Captain, she continued, "Excellent! I hope that those two Republic fugitives don't yet realize what hit them, or that Pauel's ship, which they've stolen, is now being tracked. If they have realized that, then all of us are up the river."

Zen was in complete disbelief of the current situation. Pauel was their ticket to finding Khristoff, and without that info they would never find him. How could he avenge all of those who had fallen if they couldn't even find the man responsible? Zen found his spirits raised when Captain Starr pointed out Mica had placed a tracker on Pauel's ship.

He then looked over at Perdante once she began speaking. It would seem it was he who was now getting blamed for what happened to Pauel.

"I would never do something so careless such as forgetting my own strength. It is against Sangheli code to kill someone who does not fight back." Zen was a little irritated that she would think he would do something like that. "Those fugitives have names, Dominic and Arai," Zen added in. He could feel his temper beginning to rise a bit.

((THREADMASTER: I'm finishing Counterplay so we can start the REAL "Check and Mate", the events of which take place immediately after this post.))

ABOARD THE MILLENNIAL, INTERROGATION ROOM

"Dominic and Arai, then," responded Perdante slowly. "They're our only link to Khristoff now, since Pauel has met an untimely end. I'm sorry he died, but I'm definitely not sorry that we tried to capture him. After all, would the Apostle of the Found, and Khristoff's right-hand man, have told us where his master was otherwise? I don't think so. He was our enemy, and now our enemy is of no value." She abruptly shivered. I sound like a Sith! "Anyway, I suggest we set a course for wherever Dominic and Arai are going. If we don't follow them, we're never going to find any answers to this mystery or defeat Khristoff once and for all. Onward, and may the Force be with us!"

Perdante stretched out her arm toward the middle of the interrogation room, and soon the others pressed their hands on top of hers. Win or lose, there was a corpse fast becoming cold, and neither the Jedi, nor the Sangheili, nor the Republic Captain and soldier would let his sacrifice be in vain...

THE END
9/14/10