Irini stopped before the last cell. “I was held here for three days, then moved to the reclassification area. I was a prisoner for a total of six months.”
“Why were you arrested?” Obi-Wan asked. Since Irini was a tour guide, he assumed it would be all right to ask such a question.
“In addition to my job in the tech sector, I ran a Worker newspaper,” Irini said. “We wrote about change through peaceful protest. Our venture was not illegal, but the Absolutes accused us of advocating violence. The charges were false. They were afraid of our influence with the other Workers. Technically the Workers were allowed freedom of expression, but in actuality the Absolutes tried to control what we could say or do.”
“Could you vote?” Obi-Wan asked curiously.
“Again, technically yes. But the Civilized Authority - which is what our United Legislature used to be called - placed the oldest voting systems in the Worker Sector. Often the systems broke down, or Workers could not register. Votes were not counted. Demands for recounts were refused. Soon we saw that to effect change, we had to take more dramatic means.”
“Sabotage,” Qui-Gon said.
She nodded. “Yes, that was the principal strategy. When I was released from this place, I joined this movement. We were high-tech workers sending goods out to the galaxy. If the goods were defective, profits would fall. The Civilized were worried about profits above all. Eventually they saw that they had no choice but to negotiate with us. It was a long, hard struggle. Let me show you how hard. Come this way to the torture rooms.”
Irini led them through room after room, each one designed for a different kind of detainment or torture. Some rooms were bleakly empty of equipment, yet the thick walls and doors spoke more eloquently than any device of what had been done there. One room held a single object, a coffin like device made of durasteel and plastoid materials. There was a narrow slit at the top.
“This is a sensory deprivation containment device,” Irini said quietly. “All of them were destroyed except for this one, which we keep as a reminder of what went on here. Some were kept in the device so long that they went mad. Others were given paralyzing drugs and died inside it.”
She led them into another chamber with screens along one wall. Behind them a projector lens protruded from the back wall. “But this is what we feared the most. Here we were forced to watch the torture of others. Sometimes it was people we knew, friends, family. The Absolutes used probe droids largely to monitor the Workers. They kept the vital statistics of all of us on file for easy tracking. They could find anyone if they needed to.” Irini stared at the blank screens. “They found out I was engaged to be married and found my fiancŠ.”
Obi-Wan drew in his breath. He could not imagine the kind of mind that would devise such a torture. This time, he did not feel he could ask Irini what had happened.
Irini glanced at him. “What they did not realize, the Absolutes, was that for the one being tortured it somehow helped to know others were watching. The Absolutes thought only of the pain they could inflict - the double pain of the victim and the watcher, you see. But the victims took courage from the idea that they would be brave for those who knew and loved them. They would withstand anything for love. Probe droids are illegal on New Apsolon now. No one wants to bring back those days again.”
She looked back at the screens again. “There were many days in this place that I said goodbye to life. Yet I did manage to survive.”
“It must be difficult for you to return,” Qui-Gon said. “And yet here you are, giving tours to others.”
“Remembering is most important,” Irini said. In the dim light, she held up her twisted hand. “I considered myself lucky to leave with only one hand damaged. They broke my hand in order to prevent me from working in the tech sector again. But what they stupidly did not know was that I am left-handed. I was just as fast a worker when I got out. Maybe faster. I had no trouble getting another job.” Her smile was unexpectedly brilliant, lighting up her tense, drawn face. “I had a cause to work for.”
“Have all the Absolutes been arrested?” Qui-Gon asked.
Irini shook her head as she led them down a catwalk to a lower level, past another row of cells, these with low ceilings so that an adult could not stand upright. They had to duck their heads as she led them inside. Her tunic gaped slightly as she bent, and Obi-Wan saw a small slender chain with a silver emblem around her neck. The delicacy of the jewelry seemed at odds with her brusque manner and severe clothing.
“Not by any means. Many of the former Absolutes went underground. Some were protected by powerful allies among the Civilized. Recently secret records of the Absolutes were found. The government sealed them. That is one thing the Workers are still fighting. We want the records opened so that we can know who our enemies were.”