"You say what?" It was a typical Katie statement, eloquent in the extreme.
"I did not say what. I said that you will now be assigned various chores around the ship. As you obviously can't be trusted on your free time, I need to make sure you don't have any." Obi-wan replied, as sarcastic as ever. "And for that, I'm putting you down for cleaning my bathroom." Chuckling to himself, he watched her face fall. "No, sadly not really. You're going to be untangling wires in the main control room."
Mel chuckled herself, amused at the most interesting expression on her friend's face, as Katie struggled with mixed emotions.
"As for you, you the fun job…" He waited for her face to light up a bit. "Cleaning all the air vents."
Mel shrugged. That actually didn't sound too bad, she'd learn a new way of getting around at least. Which could be useful. She'd gotten off so very lightly after the window business, so why not see what else she could get away with? She had enough time on her hands, as it was.
She just wished she wasn't allergic to dust.
Katie muttered something intelligible (not a first for her) under her breath, glaring at the ball on tangled wires that was larger than her head. It was impossible to tell where the ends where, or if there even were ends to the mess. I really should be nicer to him in the future… she thought to herself. But then again, it probably won't make much of a difference. Sighing, she got to work, burying her fingers in the tangle.
"Boo!"
"Ah!" Katie screamed, whirling around wildly and falling off of her chair. Mel was hanging out of the air vent that had been right behind her, and was grinning maniacally. "What the hell was that for?"
"So I could see you do that." Was the smug reply. She'd really only been looking for a small reaction, a face or something, so now she was feeling quite happy. "I mean, how often do I get a scream out of you?"
Katie made a face at her friend, getting back into her chair and picking up the half-untangled mass that had also gone flying. "If you ever do that again…" she paused, trying to think up of a threat awful enough.
"You'll kill me?" Mel prompted, jovially.
"Slowly. Hanging drawing and quartering. Lots of hot pointy things." Katie added, imaginatively.
"Where are you going to get the horses?"
"Starvation first. Dunking. And I'll hang you with this damned electrical wire."
"I still want to know where you're going to get the horses."
"Fine. I won't draw and quarter. I'll just put you through the garbage disposal."
"Do they have one?"
"Your home planet must be a very scary place if it can produce such inventively violent young ladies." Commented one of the usually anonymous, yet ubiquitous technical staff. He was youngish, probably in his late twenties, but rather average looking albeit for a greenish tinge around his face. And, of course, for his ears. They were bizarrely greenish as well, and fin-shaped. Obviously, he had some sort of aquatic creature in his bloodline.
"It is… believe me." Mel commented, overriding Katie's protest that they were nothing. "And she hasn't even gotten past the garbage disposal yet."
Katie made a face at Mel. "She's just lucky I'm not serious. I know where she sleeps, after all."
He looked a tad puzzled, obviously unused to their brand of sarcasm. "But don't you share a room?"
She sighed. "That's sort of what I had meant… But anyway. You obviously know who we are… but who are you?"
He puffed himself up a bit, obviously feeling important. "I am Terryal, head of the Main Control Room, and at your service."
"What do you do, though?" Mel inquired, looking around at the various futuristic and overly-complicated looking 'computer' terminals that filled the room.
"The usual things… nothing special." He replied, shrugging off the question. It also helped that what he had just said was a boldfaced lie. There was nothing routine (as they knew it, that is) or 'usual' about the Main Control Room. That's why it gets to be capitalized every time it's mentioned. Besides, what sort of nice person would he be if he weren't harboring some huge, dark secret?
"How about we do something different?" Usually during Katie's 'private sessions' they worked on force + saber techniques, until she'd actually become rather good at it (of course, not quite as good as her friend. Melissa was a 'natural').
She shrugged. "Sure." Its not like she actually had a choice or anything.
He seemed almost excited or at least somewhere halfway to happy. It was unusual, but then again she didn't know him very well. "You know that heat is just particles moving faster, correct?" He waved a hand over the blank papers lying on the table.
She nodded, wondering what this fact had to do with anything.
"So, logically, if you make the particles move faster, then they'll get hotter. If they get hot enough, they combust." While he was talking, the paper directly in front of him had begun shaking violently. After a few seconds the trembling at increased in speed, but the paper was now just vibrating fast. The movement spread to the actual particles of the fibers that made it, until the trembling was no longer visible.
As a sort of anti-climax, the edges promptly burst into flame as he finished speaking.
Katie's eyes widened. That could be quite a useful thing to know how to do, and rather fun as well. She liked fire, not to the extent that a pyromaniac does, but enough that she usually went through a box of matches every month or so. Then again, learning how to make things spontaneously combust was probably much too much of a temptation.
"Generally this is one of the more maligned powers, as most Jedi see it much too borderline Sith. Which makes no sense. After all, nothing is inherently evil, nor is anything inherently good. Good and evil are points of view, and so can only be attributed to those using the power. And even then they are subjective, varying from person to person, situation to situation. Obi-wan would disagree with me here and say that there is a code of morals, and that these define good and evil. Again, the points of view." Pointless philosophizing perhaps, but he wanted to get her on his side. So blurring that line was imperative. Besides, it had been ages since someone had actually listened, and not just because they had to. "But who decided this code? There are always situations that are loopholes of a kind, however unlikely. Again, Obi-wan would disagree and say that such a perfect setup was impossible. But how many Catch-22s should there be, and how often do you run into them?"
She nodded again, putting her head into her hand. He made sense, it was true, and most of what he said she had thought more than once. But surely she shouldn't be thinking so, as wouldn't that be 'fraternizing with the enemy' or something as inane? Who was in the right anyway? Mel wholeheartedly went with Obi-wan's style of thought, but then she'd had her own code of honor for years now. Katie still wasn't sure. She disliked codes and rules in general, though she understood that they were necessary to keep the peace. She'd always enjoyed thinking of herself as neutral. Never actually answering set questions and finding ways to get around black-and-whites was sort of a hobby for her, but what if this time there was no middle ground?
With a mental note to think this over further, she applied herself back to the task at hand.
Fire wouldn't ask her any stupid questions, or make her decide anything. It was her friend.
"You know… for once, I don't think I have the energy to taunt you properly. So why don't you two just spar? I'll sit here and watch, and you get to do all the work." Obi-wan commented lightly. He seemed to be in a better mood than usual, but the circles under his eyes were deeper and darker than the day before.
"Grounded?" Katie sounded a bit disappointed. Grounded had been his term for non-force, as in relying solely on saber technique.
"How about not. After all, we need to give you a fighting chance." Settling himself on the tabletop, he began tuning them out. It wasn't so much not paying attention, as entering a relaxed half-meditative state.
Mel looked a bit wary at the news, but Katie seemed happy enough. They'd recently graduated to into using the actual, live lightsabers instead of wooden or inactive copies, which added a fun danger element to the whole affair. Mel's was the same light blue that Obi-wan's was, but Katie's tended towards a mystifying green.
It started out slowly enough, as they looked for easy openings in each other's guard. It was Mel that threw a curveball first; jumping in with a strike that was a blur of purpose.
Katie jumped back, until she was nearly under one of the platform things. "So when is this over?"
"First blood, usually," He commented dryly, without seeming to be actually looking at either of them.
"Ah." Deciding that the ground was too dangerous, Katie abandoned it in favor of leaping to said platform. "I've got the high ground now." Her lightsaber tip was now roughly level with the other's forehead.
"Doesn't help much." Mel slashed at her knees, which were unguarded.
Leaning forward, Katie 'fell' off of the platform, though the dive was finished off with an entirely graceful (for once) somersault to her feet.
By now the fight has gotten serious, as it speed up and become more of a contest than a simple spar. Who could go faster, jump higher, block fastest, and cut closest.
For once, they were rather evenly matched. Mel had the sabercraft down pat, executing some jazzy new moves and flashy sequences where she was nothing more than a tan and blue streak. Katie leaned more towards the opposite end of the spectrum, uneasy with the actual thing in her hand but instinctive with the use of the otherworldly.
The little battle had just been out to take a lovely epic spin as they dashed around the 'arena', when Katie tripped over a protruding floor tile. She'd been jumping backwards, and it caught her totally off guard. Flying backwards, she slid four feet across the floor on her back.
As they'd been locked hilt-to-hilt moments before, Mel also fell forwards. Her saber, more on instinct than any thought to injure, snapped to the front as well. This meant that the edge dragged along the inside of Katie's left forearm, and leaving a long, shallow cut.
The unique thing about a lightsaber is that there is an edge of sorts, though it is made of the laser light-beam thing. This meant that any cuts by one both bleed profusely, and burnt the edges into a nice, long-lasting scar.
Hissing an obscenity to herself, Katie tossed the lightsaber to the side and clutched at her arm.
Mel's eyes widened. She hadn't really been trying to hurt anyone, and she hadn't been thinking about what she was doing at the time. "Are you all right?"
"As all right as anyone who's bleeding, I suppose." Katie didn't sound annoyed, just like she was gritting her teeth.
Obi-wan was devoid of emotion as he directed them, Mel to put the sabers away and Katie as to how to properly staunch the wound.
As her friend was directed off towards the medical droid room at the other end of the ship, a rather letdown Mel was left to clean the blood off of the spotless white flooring.