Star Wars: Before the Awakening Read Free

immediate and marked improvement.”
    Zeroes drew himself even higher. “Yes, Captain.”
    The shiny helmet shifted almost imperceptibly to the left. It was another thing that 2187 had noticed about their captain; you never knew exactly who or what she was looking at. He thought it wasSlip, but she spoke to Nines, instead.
    “FN-2199, biosensors noted your heart rate eight percent above acceptable range, with an additional twenty-second delay in reverting from strong exertion to resting pulse. Your weight is up two percent, without corresponding gain in muscle mass. Your meals are being modified, and you will begin additional physical training tomorrow, second detail.”
    “Yes,Captain,” Nines said.
    Phasma didn’t move, not even the slightest shift in the angle of her helmet, yet FN-2187 was absolutely positive she was now looking at Slip. She didn’t speak. The silence stretched, and as it went on it changed, and FN-2187 could see Slip growing more and more nervous, fighting the urge to say something. Still the silence grew, and then 2187 could feel it, too, found himselfsilently urging Slip to stay silent, to wait it out, somehow knowing that if Slip should speak it would be a mistake and that another mistake was exactly what Captain Phasma wanted him to make.
    At last she said, “FN-2187, your targeting was exemplary. According to the simulation, you fired your weapon only thirty-six times, scoring kills with thirty-five of those. You deployed one explosive,which resulted in the achieving of the objective and another six enemies killed.”
    Now they could all see her head move as she looked them over in turn.
    “All of you should take your example from FN-2187,” Captain Phasma said. “You are dismissed. FN-2187, stay.”
    The others collected their helmets and headed for the door. Slip shot him a last glance before it sealed shut again. FN-2187 remainedstanding.
    “Why did you go back for FN-2003?” Phasma asked.
    “He’s one of us,” FN-2187 said.
    “This is not the first time you’ve helped him. Your instructors have noted multiple occasions where you’ve been seen assisting him in various duties. Why are you doing this?”
    “We’re only as strong as our weakest link, Captain.”
    “I agree.”
    “Thank you, Captain.”
    “I want it to stop.”
    He blinked, surprised.“Captain?”
    “We are only as strong as our weakest link, FN-2187. While you believe you are attempting to strengthen that weak link, I assure you that is not what you are actually doing. Rather than fixing the problem, you are allowing it to persist. As a result you are, in fact, weakening the whole. Further, you are weakening
yourself
.”
    FN-2187 frowned, brow furrowing. “Captain Phasma, I don’t—”

    “You have great potential, 2187. You are officer corps material. Your duty is to the First Order above everything. Nothing else comes before that. FN-2003 must stand or fall on his own. If he stands, the Order is strengthened. If he falls, the Order is spared his weakness. Am I understood?”
    “Yes, Captain.”
    “I sense hesitation.”
    “No, Captain. None.”
    “Then it will stop.”
    He swallowed, thennodded. “Yes, Captain.”
    “Then that is all. You are dismissed.”
    It took a couple of days after his success in the simulation—and the warning from Captain Phasma—for FN-2187 to realize that something had changed. Activity in the base, in their training, seemed on the uptick—a new, quiet urgency pervading everything they did, everything they were expected to do. Instruction seemed suddenly moreintense. Their classwork and lectures, which until then had focused primarily on their duties as stormtroopers—on small-unit tactics, weapons maintenance, military structure and integration—gave way to more discussions on particular deployments, stormtrooper specializations, and localized scenarios using named, known locations. For the better part of a week, they studied and were repeatedly testedon different