Lines of code began to fill the screen. Norrin began to sink into his seat. “Wait, wait just a moment,” Dad said, adjusting his glasses and looking closer at the holo display hovering in the air above the table.
“Norrin!” Dad whispered, “that’s my reseach! Do you realize how much trouble you’ve gotten yourself into?”
“Further,” said Vere, his crisp voice taking over from Dad’s as another dotted arrow moved from the lines of code to the next corner of the screen, where a stylized drawing of an Imperial Star Destroyer lay.
“Norrin proved an axiom that Imperial coders know from the beginning, but need to keep reminding themselves: security is designed by people. A key, however complexly designed, is ultimately designed by a person and therefore can be copied by a person. As a result, a person can theoretically break any code that we create to keep people out. Norrin, after looking over your work, found where that research was being sent. We still don’t quite know exactly how you managed to hack your way into my ship’s commissary computer, Norrin. But there are still some enlisted men on my ship who grumble about the prank dinner you assigned them that evening. Something more on the nutritional needs of a Mon Calamari, as I recall, is what they were all assigned to eat that night in the cafeteria.
“In any case, when nearly a quarter of the enlisted men cannot report for their shifts and the ones that do cannot perform up to Imperial standards, I have to get involved. I was assigned to conduct an investigation, which has led me to this living room. And, I suspect, Norrin’s backpack where he keeps his personal datapad. Would I be correct, Norrin?”
Norrin looked at Vere. The captain looked back at Norrin with a steady eye. The Imperial officer looked impeccable. Though he looked only slightly above average in build, Norrin didn’t doubt he could break Norrin in half if he wanted to. And right now, Norrin had none of his improvised gadgets or commandeered droids to help him out. Norrin’s parents were researchers. Military researchers, but researchers nonetheless. They only knew the Empire by reputation, really. This was the first time any of them had seen an Imperial officer up close at all. Norrin now wondered if he was going to become one of those urban legends that cropped up now and again in class, about people who accidentally angered, upset or said the wrong thing to an Imperial official and somehow...disappeared...
Norrin looked at his parents. They seemed worried, too. Since they worked for the Imperial government, had they heard the same stories the Norrin did?
“Norrin,” Vere was speaking again, staring at Norrin. His warm, relaxed demeanor now gone and suddenly replaced by an attitude of cold efficiency. “Norrin, I am on a tight schedule here, so I’ll get to my next point. You’ve broken into your school’s computer. That could get you punished, perhaps expelled. But then you viewed sensitive data, data about weapons made for Imperial use. That could get you...removed from your environment. Relocated to a different place for your own safety, until the data is no longer sensitive.”
Mom’s eyes widened, looking even larger behind the lenses of her glasses. She started taking deep breaths, and Dad went to hold her.
“But the most serious concern we have is that you trespassed into the systems of an Imperial Star Destroyer, Norrin. Do you know what the penalties for that typically are?”
“Prison?” Norrin said weakly, suddenly feeling very, very small and helpless. “I didn’t know! I didn’t know! I thought- I thought it was some kind of business, or maybe another school! All I did was mess with the menu! Mom, Dad, tell him! I’m not a spy or anything!”
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“Norrin, I have just...” Vere looked at his wrist, “twenty and one-half minutes now to make a decision regarding what course of action will be taken.” His voice was very quiet now, as he focused on Norrin with his hands folded. “Do you realize, Norrin, that if I deem the risk great enough, I can have the Predator, my ship in orbit, rain a storm of energy bolts down upon this house, the school, and the entire town around it? Nothing would be said of it, and I would face no penalties for doing so. Do you understand that? That’s the gravity of the offense you have committed.”
Norrin tried to keep a cool exterior, but inside he was beginning to panic. He’d been trained by years of bullying not to show fear or any other emotion when someone was trying to intimidate him, but it was becoming harder by the second. This was no simple school bully that would pound him in the stomach and leave him throwing up on the bathroom floor! This man could destroy his parents, his home, and maybe half of the planet at the touch of a few buttons.
“Of course, your son did manage to be quite creative. I don’t know if you’re quite aware, Mr. and Mrs. Mek, just how much your son apparently disdains the school he is currently enrolled in. If indeed, he’d had his way, a different disaster would have befallen the school each day. First a number of rabid Chutas from the Qurlyn system would have been delivered and released in the headmaster’s office. The next day, the cafeteria was scheduled to have a rather exotic dish, stewed Bantha meatcubes as the main delicacy. Mass murderer convicts from the local penal colony dropped in by shuttle to explain the nature of their crimes, allegedly to ‘have the young people learn from their errors.’ The security droids reprogrammed to shoot on sight anyone in full uniform, and then a delivery of fertilizer, about three tons of it, to be deposited in the library. I’ll leave that to your imagination just what kind of statement he was trying to make there.
“But what truly drew young Norrin to my attention was what was supposed to be his coup-de-grace, his finishing stroke against the school through the attempted reprogramming of my Star Destroyer’s orders, and leaving a trail that led, not to your home, but the school. Quite the clever lad, aren’t we, Norrin?”
Norrin was still silent. He’d played this game before: stay in the hall, let the instructor chew you out a bit more, and then go back to class and let things go back to normal.
“Mr. and Mrs. Mek, may I have your permission to explore your property with Norrin for a few minutes? I have one other thing I’d like to discuss with him.”
Norrin’s parents looked at each other uneasily. “Will he...will you...”
Vere chuckled. “Mrs. Mek, let me assure you that any rumors you’ve heard about troopers showing up in the middle of the night, dragging people from their beds and shooting them in the woods is pure fiction. Boogeymen created by corrupt local officials to scare their populations into compliance. The Empire is not in the business of ruling by the use of fear. The promise of peace and order, the kind that the space station your husband is working on, will do so much more than simple fear ever will. No, I want to give your son a wonderful opportunity, and you can trust he’ll return to you, alive and undamaged in any way.”
Dad was holding Mom’s hand as they sat, still looking shaken. Why did they look so worried? Vere seemed like a nice fellow. Well, nice as a military officer could look, anyway. Dad looked again at mom, and then back at Vere and nodded his head. “Go with him, Norrin,” Dad said. But be careful Norrin all but heard the words in his father’s voice.
Silly people, Norrin thought. What could any of us do?
Vere smiled, and as a gesture of good faith took his small blaster out of his belt and laid it on the table. “To help you relax. We won’t be long.”
They left, and Vere led Norrin through the nearby woods and down a path Norrin had seen every day since they’d moved here, but never traveled along.
“Norrin,” said Vere, “would you believe that an Imperial officer knows what it’s like to be bullied, and tormented?”
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TO BE CONTINUED...