Katie had been minding her own business, fighting with a particularly vicious tangle of wires, when she noticed something odd. 'Odd' was not the freakishly aquatic Terryal, nor the fact that he was (apparently) molting pieces of glowing green all over the place. Neither was it the steady hum of conversation in foreign languages, or the constant static of 'secure' communications.
'Odd' was way Terryal seemed to be monitoring something on his screen, and taking detailed notes. Now, this would not have been half as interesting had the screen held some schematic or plan, but it instead seemed to be footage from one of the security tapes. Again, if the footage had only concerned some important place, such as the torture rooms. But it seemed to be from none other than Obi-wan's "office"… Obviously the camera had been installed hastily, the angle was horrible and it obscured everything that the Jedi was scribbling at so diligently.
Curious. Was this for some blackmail plot, perhaps? Voyeurism? She made a face at that possibility. The first step was determining whether Terryal was supposed to be doing this. If so, then Obi-wan was obviously suspicious enough to be monitored. If not, then the Main Control Room officer needed to be watched himself… and his reasons uncovered.
What was the easiest way to find out anything? Ask someone. So, while maybe not the best way, the easiest way of seeing whether Terryal was breaking a rule was to walk up and see if he acted suspicious. Mel would have frowned on such an obtuse, blunt way of going about it, but Mel wasn't there.
"Sorry to be interrupting, but which colors go to what again?" It wasn't entirely fabrication. The Empire obviously enjoyed making things difficult, as a blue end never matched a blue end. It might match a green or red, but never more than once.
Pulling up another screen, he simply shook his head at her. "It doesn't matter. Your time's up anyway." He then ushered he out of the room, nicely but firmly.
Katie wouldn't have thought much of it, as that was how he reacted normally, until she turned around partly down the hall to see a furtive-looking Obi-wan sliding through the doors.
Curiouser and curiouser.
- - -
As they finally left the frigid surface of the god-forsaken snowball, things looked like they might actually turn out all right. Of course, that could have been a complacent imagining, fueled more by a desire for peace than for the reality of it. Things may have managed to settle into a routine, however precarious and screwy, had not fate interfered. Fate, that is, and the recklessness of men with nothing to lose.
But they were not to know this. As it was, they all knew very little. Katie had not even noticed that they had even left the surface of Hoth until sometime that night. She'd slipped out of the room as usual (why? There was no need to, but it had gotten to be a way of life), and was walking down the hall until she came level with that window. It had been so very dark, so oppressively starless, for a moment she'd felt like she was drowning.