"Got it!" exclaimed Chloe, looking up at her companion triumphantly.
Obi-Wan strode around the large study table to peer over her shoulder.
"I knew I'd seen it somewhere," she continued, waving her hand at the screen. "The Sinsu algorithms have been studied before, but only in specialist journals."
Obi-Wan frowned at the list of formulae on the display. "Well, none of that makes much sense to me." He rubbed his chin. "Send it to me anyway, I'll get Anakin to take a look."
"Sure," Chloe said quietly, a little disappointed in his reaction after she'd spent the best part of an hour searching for that particular article.
Obi-Wan looked down at her and smiled. "Sorry. I'm sure I wouldn't have been able to find this without you." He frowned. "I just hope we can interpret it before it's too late."
Chloe bit her lip. This might be her only chance.
"I can help," she blurted out, before she could change her mind.
Obi-Wan raised an eyebrow, quizzically.
"If... I mean... I know it's not my job," she continued, "but if you need some extra help, I could... I've studied this sort of thing for years. I probably know more about it than anyone else on Coruscant."
Surprised, Obi-Wan straightened up, folding his arms across his chest. "You do? What exactly are you studying at the Academy?"
"Information theory and cryptography."
"Level?"
"Masters."
"And do you have any operational experience?"
"Not much. Although I did work on a consultancy project with my professor last year. Do you remember the JK-thirteen incident on Ord Cestus?"
Obi-Wan nodded. "Of course. The Jedi Killers. I was involved with that mission myself."
"Well, the Intelligence Corps requested a targeted virus to disable the droids remotely. It was a security policy, just in case the mission failed and the droids were reproduced in vast numbers as everyone feared."
"But I thought the JK-thirteens were immune?"
Chloe smiled. "So everyone at I.C. thought. That's why they came to us."
"So your professor managed to design a virus?"
"No," Chloe said, turning back to her screen. "I did."
"Hmm," Obi-Wan said. "I don't remember anything about a virus…"
Chloe shrugged, tapping at her keyboard. "They didn't need it. While we were working on the development we discovered the droids were incapable of mass-murder. As you may remember, their biological component couldn't stand it. Problem solved."
Obi-Wan chuckled, muttering something under his breath. Chloe thought she caught the words "impudent" and "pretty".
"Pardon?"
"Oh, nothing."
So, would you like my help on this one?" Chloe struggled to contain her excitement. Hopefully, she didn't sound too desperate.
"Well, it would be highly irregular…" Obi-Wan said, running a finger and thumb lightly over his moustache. "But, possible, I suppose, if the Council approve. I tell you what, if Anakin can't decipher it, I'll make a request to the Council tomorrow morning, asking if we may involve you."
"Great! I mean, sure. Thank you. Sir."
Chloe noticed just the hint of a smile at the corner of Obi-Wan's mouth as she followed his gaze back to the screen. "Just keep it to yourself for now," he said. "This may need to be done off record."
She nodded, quickly tapped a few keys to send him the file.
Obi-Wan made himself busy clearing up the numerous datapads and flimsy sheets strewn across the table. Chloe finished what she was doing, powered off the machine and pushed her chair back, feeling shaky and a little unsteady as she stood up too quickly.
Obi-Wan looked up. "Thanks for your help tonight, Chloe."
Something about the soft timbre of his voice sent a flush of warmth over her skin, and Chloe swayed dizzily.
She glimpsed Obi-Wan's concerned expression for only a moment before the world turned grey and her legs gave way.
He was around the table and catching her before she could hit the floor.
"Hmm...mmm..." she managed, looking up at him drowsily. The room was still spinning.
"Easy… When exactly did you last have something to eat?" he asked, checking her pulse as he lowered her gently to the floor. Chloe remembered her desperate craving for dinner... that would have been about three hours ago.
She sat and rubbed her eyes with the thumb and forefinger of one hand, trying to get rid of the grey splotches in her vision. "Erm... breakfast?" she ventured, sheepishly, with half a smile.
"Dear me." He shook his head. "Then I think we'd better get you some food. Do you think you can stand up?"
Chloe nodded. He helped her up, slowly.
"Still okay?" She nodded again, trying not to think about the fact his arm was wrapped securely around her waist, and instead trying to focus her attention on getting her feet to move. She barely noticed where they were going as he manoeuvred her out of the office, across the corridor and into a turbolift.
"Nearly there..." he glanced down at her and Chloe managed a weak smile as she faintly detected the swoosh of a door opening over the sound of blood pounding in her ears. Just moments later, he was helping her to sit on a soft, very comfortable couch.
"I'll just be a moment," he said, as she flopped back into the cushions and closed her eyes.
"Here, drink a little of this." Chloe sipped the liquid from the cup he held to her lips. It was cool and sweet and seemed to ease her aching head and trembling hands in a few moments. She managed to take the cup and drink some more, then open her eyes slowly and sit up a little.
Obi-Wan was crouching in front of her.
"Oolong flower tea". He said, pouring some more into her cup from an earthenware jug. "It has excellent healing properties."
Chloe drained the rest of the tea.
"Thank you, General Kenobi," Chloe said, weakly, offering him back the cup. Her strength was beginning to return, along with the beginnings of embarrassment over what had just happened.
"Obi-Wan," he said, in a voice so quiet it was almost a whisper, his eyes focused intently on hers, his fingers lingering on her skin as he took the cup.
Time seemed to slow down. For a moment, Chloe was certain he would kiss her. She felt light-headed, and every nerve in her body seemed to be concentrated on the point of contact with his hand. Her eyes were still locked with his, glittering indigo in the subdued lighting of the room. She started to sway forwards as she noticed his lips parted slightly, his breath on her cheek…
Abruptly, Obi-Wan stood up, took a step backwards and turned away.
Chloe was still trying to work out what just happened, and trying to remember how to breathe, when she heard the hiss of the door activation, and a tall young man strode into the apartment.
"I thought I'd better bring you some dinner, Master," he said, patting the brown paper bag under his arm, before stopping as he spotted Chloe.
"Hello," the young man said, with a smile, "what's going on here?" He threw a questioning glance to Obi-Wan.
"Hello," Chloe said simply, vaguely enjoying the sight of Obi-Wan looking every so slightly flustered. He cleared his throat.
"Ah yes. Anakin, have you met Miss O'Brian from the library? She's been helping me with some research."
"A pleasure," said Anakin, striding over to the couch to shake her hand. "I've just brought Master Kenobi some dinner. I try to make a habit of it when he's working on something new. You know sometimes, he'll go for a whole day and forget to eat?"
Anakin dumped the bag on the small table in front of the couch and opened it, taking out various cartons and boxes.
"Really?" Chloe smiled, turning to glance up at Obi-Wan, who simply raised his eyebrows at her. Then the aroma of the food hit her nostrils and she realised just how hungry she was.
"There's plenty," said Anakin, taking a piece of some sort of savoury pie out of one of the boxes and tucking in. "Please help yourself," he gestured, with a mouthful of food.
"So uncivilised..." Obi-Wan muttered, shaking his head, handing Chloe a plate and cutlery. "Thank you, Anakin. This looks delicious."
Chloe relaxed and enjoyed the meal, entertained by the friendly banter slung between her two companions. Once almost everything had been consumed, she helped Obi-Wan clear away the empty packaging and plates. Anakin was busy finishing off an anecdote from their latest mission.
"And so, that was the fifth time I had to rescue Obi-Wan. If he'd just let me take on the bounty hunter at the start, we would have been fine, and I wouldn't have sprained my hand." He peered at his ungloved hand with a frown, flexing his fingers slowly.
"Possibly..." said Obi-Wan. "But the time resting will have done you good. Which reminds me. We have a booking for the training room at eight tomorrow."
"Excellent" replied Anakin, popping a piece of fruit into his mouth. "I can't wait to spar with you again Master, it's been too long."
"Now," said Obi-Wan, heading back to the small kitchen. "Who's for tea?"
While Obi-Wan brewed the tea, Anakin chatted to Chloe about the research she'd been working on with his master.
"Anakin, can you tell Miss O'Brian a little about the background to the Onori problem?" Obi-Wan called from the kitchen.
"It's a bit of a mystery," said Anakin, crossing the room to a terminal unit on a small desk and flicking on the screen. "We retrieved this data chip from the Onori system last week." He picked up a small clear box from the desk and passed it to Chloe. She could just make out a tiny metallic chip mounted inside.
"It was inside a maintenance droid," he continued. "A maintenance droid that tried to kill us."
"Not that that itself is unusual," interrupted Obi-Wan, with a grimace, setting a teapot and three glass cups on the table. "But the technology is completely alien to the Onori system."
"We've reason to believe that the Separatists planted this chip, infecting the droid with a virus that enables them to control it." Anakin continued. "Unfortunately, we've no idea how many droids, and potentially, how many systems, are affected."
"A contact of mine identified the chip as originating from the Dakoda system," said Obi-Wan, "and we've managed to retrieve some data from it, but our encryption programs can't crack it."
Chloe finally realised their dilemma.
"And you can't get the tech droids to do it, " she interrupted, "because you can't rule out them being infected too."
Obi-Wan smiled and poured the tea. "Which is why I needed information on the Sensu algorithms, in the hope that Anakin use them to decipher the chip."
Anakin was frowning at the screen of the terminal, scrutinizing the document Chloe found earlier.
"It's going to take me a while to figure this out," he said, tapping on the keyboard to scroll through the pages, "I understand parts but there's so much of it, so much detail..."
"It's easy," Chloe replied, crossing to Anakin's side. "The algorithm is recursive. You just need to run a test program on the data you have and then encode the results into a binary matrix."
Anakin looked at her blankly.
"I can code the test in about five minutes," Chloe said, "but it will take several hours to run."
Anakin pulled the chair out for her. "Be my guest," he said, with a grin and a flourish of his arm, waiting for her to sit down before walking back to join Obi-Wan in the seating area.
Chloe was distantly aware of the start of their conversation, something about battle manoeuvres, was it, or tactical formations? Quickly she became absorbed in the task at hand. She work rapidly, her fingers moving efficiently over the keyboard.
After a few minutes the code was finished, and Chloe set the program running.
"All done," she said, getting up and moving back to the couch, taking the cup that Obi-Wan offered her. "It will probably need until morning to complete. Once we have the results, we'll know the details and I'll be able to design an antedote to the virus." Chloe sipped the tea. This time it was warm and fragrant with a pleasant and soothing aroma.
"Excellent," said Obi-Wan. "I'll request a meeting with the Council tomorrow, and formally recommend you to act as special advisor until this is resolved."
Chloe smiled. "Yes sir, General Kenobi, sir," she replied sleepily, thinking it was probably inappropriate to tease him like that, realising exactly how tired she was as she relaxed back onto the squashy cushions.
Chloe closed her eyes and let her mind drift as Anakin and Obi-Wan resumed their conversation. Their voices were pleasant, washing over her, as she drifted... She'd just rest here, just for a minute…