The room Lt. Beren found herself in was cold, literally and figuratively, it was a sterile environment that clearly existed for a single purpose alone, to extract information for the most unwilling participant. As her record would most assuredly reflect, she was no stranger to these rooms and these situations. Especially after the aforementioned incident on the Wookie homeworld. Having logged the answer to her question away in the depths of her mind, Marienna sat as instructed. She sat tall with impeccable posture, as she had been trained to do. Her gloved hands were folding ever so perfectly atop the small table. There was an unnatural quality to Agent Cross' stare, or perhaps a supernatural quality. She was the kind of woman who could stare into the very depths of her target's soul. It was clear that Agent Cross wanted to make sure Marienna was as uncomfortable as possible, the feeling of eyes constantly on you may be enough to crack some people. Marienna was not some people, she was strong and filled with determination.
For every moment that Agent Cross stared at her, she stared back. Marienna had the good fortune, or perhaps great misfortune of having large eyes that could easily in conjunction with the rest of her delicate features appear dead. In fact, she was reminded of comments made by others, at times the woman could look like a corpse, or more accurately a kind of porcelain doll. A cold unfeeling stare accompanied by an utterly neutral facial expression. She would not let herself become undone in the presence of a glorified interrogator.
When asked to recount the events of the day Marienna did so without hesitation or the appearance of any emotion. Agent Cross, who appeared to be rather good at her job demanded she be thorough and so thorough she was. Marienna listed every last detail her memory brought her, the smell of burnt flesh and armor, the screams of absolute agony from those she helped pull to safety. She matter of factly complimented Lt. Fischer for his decisive action and heroic bravery that undoubtedly saved lives. Normally, Marienna would do this because it was the proper thing to do. The Empire stood behind their own mostly, and it would be expected that she be complimentary of her superior officer. However, this time was different, she genuinely noted Corwin's actions. She brought them forward because he deserved credit for his good work. Marienna even went so far as to note the incident in the hallway with the confused trooper who had seen her elsewhere while in fact, she was out in the field. She offered no commentary on the fact that a shapeshifter had clearly taken her form.
Then of course, came the unexpected. Agent Cross had mentioned her previous run of bad luck. This did, for a moment catch Marienna off guard. There was a slight, almost imperceptible change in her demeanor if only for a fraction of a second. To her mind now, Agent Cross was playing games. The very nature of the question was incendiary. Did she hope Marienna would slip up and just blurt out Kashyyyk? A name now cast aside and nearly forbidden? Marienna, now without missing a beat or taking her eyes off of Agent Cross answered.
"Planet Wookiee C, ma'am. Former designations include G5-623, Edean, and Kashyyyk." Marienna considered offering a small smile, but she declined. She had been determined to include the proper name of the planet in her response. The name the proud Wookiees had given to their planet with its boundless great wroshyr trees. Despite her own near death experience, Marienna personally commended the Wookiees for their efforts, she deeply sympathized with their profound hatred of the Empire though she would not say that, at least not publicly.
"Though I fail to see how that event has any relevance to this morning's tragedy." Marienna now, feeling slightly emboldened offered her commentary on the nature of the question, having answered it without hesitation. Perhaps you would care to enlighten me, ma'am?" She spoke without grave inflection just as she often did. Perhaps she should have been more concerned about her own fate.
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