"Now, before we go throwing you to the wolves, I felt it would be best to torture you first." Obi-wan was looking more forced cheerful than usual, probably at their expense. "See, there are going to be all sorts of painfully pointless formal occasions you'll be going to. So you'll be stuck taking dance lessons first."

Mel looked interested in learning what constituted as a 'dance', but Katie looked slightly stricken. She had never been very graceful, and lack of a sense of rhythm made the situation worse. "But, why now?" She asked, wanting to prolong the experience.

"Because I said so. And because our next stop is on a planet that has its own self-declared aristocracy, and they demand all sorts of formal parties." Not that it would be that bad. He actually liked Hoth, though mostly for its deceptive skill. It was the hotbed of the resistance, yet managed to come off as the useless sycophant more often than not. The only problem was that it was cold. Much too cold for his taste, not that he'd show it.

"So where are we going? What's it like?" Mel inquired, curious. She was throwing herself into this much more readily than her friend was, gung-ho for any change of scene.

"Cold. Very much so. Just a sort of icy desert, a huge cold one. Believe me, your Antarctic had nothing on this." He would have liked to answer her questions more in depth, but he was still being plagued by doubt. He'd agreed to something he was deeply regretting, and had taken that he agreed in the first place to mean he was slipping even further. It was far too easy for it to go wrong, and horribly so. It was also a very low sort of scheme, one that even Vader looked uncomfortable about having to go through with. But the Emperor got what he wanted, regardless.

- - -

The music was a badly done sort of techno waltz-thing, or at least that's what it seemed like to Katie. More likely it was being played right, and this was just what was considered music. She didn't like it.

Mel, as usual, was getting into things. She was swaying to the beat, and watching the 'instructor' intently as though she was actually enjoying the experience. More likely, she was getting her mind off of the red dress.

Though they had been identical except for coloring when they'd tried them one, there were now subtle differences. Katie's had a fuller, more ballroom type skirt the better to disguise her pear shape. Mel's was a bit less daring in its cleavage, though it was more because she'd seemed uncomfortable than because she was lacking.

The dance was similar to the waltz that they were used to, though it had an element of spontaneity that they weren't used to. There were twirls and spins that seemed utterly random, but apparently had some huge pattern behind them depending on all these other variables. But thankfully they didn't have to worry about those, as they wouldn't be leading anyway.

Once she felt that she'd gotten a hold of it, Mel looked over to see what her friend was thinking about. Katie was standing awkwardly, arms crossed and lips pursed. She didn't look like she was paying attention so much as spacing off, soaking up the general atmosphere of the room. She also looked dark, contemplative, and more than willing to kill not to be there.

- - -

The actual departure from Corsucant was uneventful. The stabilizers had finally been replaced, put in in the first place, or repaired, so there was no massive lurch in any direction. Because of this Katie did not realize they had actually left until she happened to pass by a window.

Things were beginning to fall together into a bit of a pattern, now that they'd been in the swing of things for quite sometime. It was almost impossible to figure out how long they'd been there, or what month it was. Most systems used different methods of time keeping, so there was no need for the ship to have any sort of calendar of its own. With no weekends, the weeks blended together as did the days.

As their own home planet was on an outer rim, the journey from it to Corsucant had been very long. This next jaunt was not, as the two planets were relatively close together. Of course, had the ship not been so immensely large hyperspace could have gotten them there in a matter of minutes instead of days, but the displacement of space would have been too large. This would have caused some sort of dreadful effect on the planet they were leaving, or so Obi-wan had said. Sometimes it was difficult to tell when he was being serious and when he was not.

It was difficult not to feel alone, despite the large number of people aboard. Most were rather busy doing whatever it was that they did, and even the ones that were not did not connect easy with others. Things had been lukewarm between Katie and Mel, as neither was particularly happy nor particularly angry with the other. It was a doldrums of mediocrity, a boring neutrality that seemed determined to squash all emotion of any kind.

Most of the more interesting activity had been suspended until their arrival, and there was more a sense of waiting than anything else pervading the ship. Even the little better than disastrous 'dancing' lessons had ended, at last, with a mutual agreement that there would be no attempts at dancing at all.

The only thing that had gotten anymore interesting was the Force lessons, as they began tackling the thorny issue of mind control. It was an exceedingly useful talent, though the moral implications were numerous and inconclusive. With a wave of your hand you could help save someone's life, or you could make him or her do whatever you wanted.

But as they were pretty much forbidden to use them on each other, or on anyone else important, it was rather useless on the ship. Of course there would be helpless bystanders on the planet once they got there, but Obi-wan had made it obvious that they wouldn't be allowed anywhere unaccompanied. And as he was the only one he deemed worthy of being an accompaniment, that was the end of that idea.

Of course, not everyone found their boredom amusing. As the ship's kitchen had picked up a large load of shellfish while in port (to satisfy those of a more aquatic bent), they were put to work de-shelling them.

Thrilling, eh?