Nar Shaddaa

Hala smoothed her hair and straightened her uniform's tunic before flipping on her connection to the HoloNet and placing the call to Palose Serrus, the unfortunate Alderanean noble she had yet to directly speak with.

"This is Palose of House Serrus." He blinked and looked at the woman. "What is the meaning of this? Did you change your mind about my daughter's return?"

"No, Lord Serrus. I wanted to call and inform you that the recordings of your daughter's.... indiscretions..... have been taken care of," the colonel answered lightly. She leaned forward and touched her console and two images transmitted. The first, a stack of holotapes, data disks, and assorted recording equipment in a dingy apartment. The second, the same apartment and table but now heavily scorched and charred by blaster fire.

"Then you are here for your money?" He shook his head. "Fine. I should be glad you have not decided to use that evidence against me."

Hala tapped out a routing number and transmitted it. Once she had a confirmation, she returned her attention to the screen.

"Oh? What would have happened had I wished to do that?" she asked in the same tone of voice.

"I would not pay you," he stated plainly, "I do not have the money to afford the full amount of blackmail. That is why I placed a bounty on the man whom first placed it.'

"He is dead...." she mentioned, "It was unfortunate, but he resisted."

"An unfortunate end to a man who wished to take advantage of an even more unfortunate man." Lord Serrus sighed. "Will that be all?"

"Yes, I wished to inform you that due to the man's death, Tweede Erdo, I was unable to obtain from him whether or not he had any co-conspirators or whether other copies had been made. Please inform me if you have any further difficulties and I would be glad to work with Senator Seir'oto to resolve any lingering issues from your daughters indiscretions," the colonel answered calmly.

A pause. The nobleman sighed and shook his head. "Very well. Thank you for the warning."

"Of course my lord. Is there anything else I may do to be of assistance?" she asked, maintaining her polite and level tone of voice with discipline.

"Send my daughter my regards," he said in a solemn voice, "Farewell. Lord Serrus, signing off."

"Have you not spoken with her? I could route you to the duty officer and have him transfer you to see her if you like? Or I could invite her in if you stayed on the line so you could speak with her sooner," Hala offered, lifting a hand to signal for him to stop before be broke the connection.

"I have not been in contact with my daughter," he admitted, "I know she is unharmed because I asked her friends about her well-being."

"Why don't I go get her for you, if you would please hold?" Hala offered. She turned off her audio and without ending the connection then called up the duty officer. Visibly pulling out a commlink, she called the desk sergeant and asked him to send a trooper to escort Lady Celna to her quarters. In the minutes between, she organized her desk, clearing and locking away anything of a potentially sensitive nature. Finally there was a chime at her door and it opened to reveal the man's daughter flanked by an unarmored private. She nodded at the guard, dismissing him to wait outside, and motioned for the girl to come forward. She reactivated her audio and spoke up again.

"Are you still there Lord Serrus? Lady Celna is here to speak with you.... my dear, why didn't you call your father? I told you you could from your room when you wanted but he said he hadn't heard from you."

Lady Celna crossed her arms. "Really? I thought you weren't going to torture me."

"Young lady, you have embarrassed u-"

"Colonel, could you please hang up the call?"

"I had to call your father about a separate but related matter and he asked. I did not realize, my apologies. Of course I'm not going to torture you," she said diplomatically.

Hala gave Celna an amused look and then reached over with her left arm and dropped the call.

"Thank you. Father can be insufferable and this whole affair would only make it worse." She let out a long sigh. "Not that he is completely in the wrong. Something could have happened to me if I stayed out longer." The noblewoman shook her head. "But I would rather not divulge my life tragedies to you, Colonel. May I return to my quarters?"

"Of course, dear," she said, paging the private at the door.

"But please feel free to speak to me if you want or need to. If there's something I can do to make your life easier, I'd be glad to."

"If I think of anything, I will inform you," she said with a faint smile. When she was about to leave the door, she turned about. "I would request you torture my father less. It will only come back to bother me later."

"I will keep that in mind Lady Celna. I certainly don't intend to cause him needless concern. I'm not sure why I'd want to torture him, either," she said reassuringly.

"Have a good evening, my lady."

"Good evening, Colonel," Lady Celna said before trotting off.

She watched the Alderaanean noble walk down the corridor. When she disappeared around the corner, the Watcher stepped back into her quarters. Opening up her bag, she pulled out a small trove of data tapes and holo recordings. Slotting them one by one into her console, she sent them over the internal holonet to a Fixer for processing and final release to Watcher-5 to leverage in the course of the negotiations.