Star Wars: Suspect the Suspicious

Ian didn't start asking questions straight away, but sat down and began thinking. "There has to be some kind of point to all this," he remarked, as he pondered over the purpose of the test.

There had to be a hidden meaning behind it all; this test that he needed to pass to learn Bogan, because simply finding a culprit --the supposed villain-- among the prisoners seemed a rather shallow and unrelated goal. How was finding the evildoer proof of someones ability to handle the dark side; while not becoming corrupted by it? No, it had to be something else...

Ian pondered over the rules. There were three questions that he could ask, that would be answered truthfully not accounting for the personal bias of those that he asked.

"If I really wanted too I could just ask all them to tell me their entire lives, in detail... a single question, but how long would that take? Is that the point, that patience is needed to learn the dark side?" Ian continued to verbalize his thoughts; it helped him think. "Shit! but I don't have the time to sit here and listen to everyone... F*ck, how does time even pass in this place anyway? System... System?"

The system didn't respond. All Ian could hear was the cadenced dripping of a leaky faucet, like the ticks of a clock counting down his limited time. How long would he have before the Junkers ran off; chasing after that corrupted being? How long until they fought? How long till they were all killed?

Exactly how much time did he have? There was no way for him to know, but influenced by the dripping sound, Ian felt like he was rapidly running out of it.

Taking his limited time as a factor, Ian couldn't ask any long-winded questions or questions that could be misleading due to the individual prisoner's bias. Such as asking them straight up if they were evil and expecting an objective, truthful answer. After all, how many 'evil' terrorists think that they're justified in their actions.

The first question that came to mind was: 'Do you enjoy the suffering of others'. It should give him a simple yes or no, answer, that would surely help him identify any sadistic psychopaths among the prisoners.

Ian went to the small human girl first, because she was, in his eyes, the most suspicious among the eight suspects. It was the classic twist, the innocent-looking girl being the most terrifying in a room full of aliens, grizzly looking men, and revolting monsters like the Hutt.

Like the rest of the prisoners, the girl was motionless, with her eyes closed, and she had a placid expression, similar to that of a dolls', painted upon her face.

"Do you enjoy the suffering of others?" Ian asked, but there was no response, and he was confused for a moment, before seeing that there was a name engraved on the floor, directly in front of the girl's table.

It read: Mia.

Ian soon realised that he needed to address the prisoners by their names, identifying who the question was for, so he restated the question, "Does watching others suffer make you happy... Mia?"

The second Ian said her name, the motionless and expressionless girl in front of him became animated, struggling against her bindings. Mia appeared frightened, sorrowful, desperate, and even more so... real. It shocked Ian, who had been expecting a more deadpan, robotic response.

With a litany of tears pouring out of her eyes, making them a puffy pink, and intermittent hiccups hindering her speech, Mia answered Ian's question, "hup, hup, no mister, other than when daddy hurts himself because it's funny, hup, hup... because daddy curses and laughs with Mi-Mi... Mi-Mi doesn't like watching others get hurt, hup..."

The second she finished answering, all the... personality, seemed to drain out of her, and she became like before, a husk; an empty shell.

"The F*ck was that!" Ian couldn't stop himself from shouting out, slightly terrified at Mia's response. Whatever that was it definitely wasn't the simple yes or no answer that he had been expecting.