Agent Dallows? Agent Tawney, internal investigations. We are looking into the incident on Scarif, and your Commanding Officer has indicated that you may be able to provide us with some critical intelligence. You worked with Doctor Galen Erso, on Project Celestial Power, yes? Could you describe your relationship with Doctor Erso? Were you close? What of his character? Did Doctor Erso ever exhibit any suspicious or unusual behaviors?
"Agent Tawney - salutations. I did work alongside Doctor Erso for a time on Eadu, that is correct."
"However, whilst I did make significant contributions to Project Celestial Power, I never held a formal position on the project team lead by Doctor Erso. If necessary, Director Kelbier of the IDMR will be able to corroborate that assertion.
I had already been serving under DT-ARC-77 for some time when I heard news of the weapons test on the moon of Jedha... Please don't look so unsettled, I assure you that I don't have access to information beyond my clearance level. It'was always abundantly clear from the grainy news vids the blast crater couldn't have been the result of a mining disaster.
Besides, it wouldn't even be possible to procure the quantity of mining-grade high explosive one would to create a crater even a fractionally the size of the one pictured without such attempts being flagged up by Imperial arms monitoring.
I digress... Suffice to say, I wasn't present for the waning months of Doctor Erso's tenure, nor the rebel assault which devastated the facility and it's staff. I lost many good friends and colleagues that day, those feelings are a private matter, and I would be grateful if we did not discuss them further.
As for Doctor Erso? We were acquaintances. Good ones, at that, but not quite friends. He was a very quiet man, softly spoken, confident in his abilities but entirely absent of arrogance. He never raised his voice, even when he would've been justified in doing so.
His research, of which I'm sure you're familiar, spoke for itself. As such he was respected. He cared deeply for his colleagues, and was well liked.
We often shared a table in the canteen, he stayed on late as did I, just sitting with someone was often the only thing that helped you forget that dark, rainy world beyond the dimly lit durasteel box of the facility. It helped we were members of different teams, no accusations of favoritism or impropriety, we were each seperate enough from each other's affairs that we could discuss things purely academically without disagreement affecting morale.
I did most of the talking, as I previously mentioned he was an intensely timid soul. He did confide in me that he lost his family in a friendly fire incident may years prior. He was crushed by it, he lost his wife and a young daughter. It ate away at him. He told me he was responsible, that he let them get in harm's way. I can't imagine what that does to a man. His work, his passion for kyber seemed to be the one thing that gave him a reason to live.
You couldn't help but feel for him.
Suspicious Behaviors? Not at all. He, did everything by the book, and arguably was the most reliable of all us. He often was distracted, though, in his grief, and with the immense pressure Director Krennic put on his shoulders to deliver the project. He made, what we felt at the time, were many mistakes. Small miscalculations, but nothing malignant or untoward. His brilliance and his genius outshone these a thousand fold.
I have complete confidence in saying that without Doctor Erso, the project would never have progressed beyond the hypothetical. He made leaps and bounds in the field of Kyber Substrate Analysis, and, had our work not been secret, he would've been lauded by the galactic scientific community."
