Sci had been gathering evidence for the past day or two, checking and double-checking his facts so as not to be mistaken. "If this is right, it will explain quite a bit about her behavior," he thought. A few private comm calls to Coruscant to confirm or deny information had proven most helpful. He couldn't be absolutely sure, of course, but he had enough evidence that it was time to tell her straight-out what he knew, and ask what she could say that might help him understand.
"Nat," he said, "do me a favor. Go run a diagnostic on the main engine unit for me, would you?"
Nat ran the request through her processor. Obviously the Major wanted privacy for whatever it was he wanted to do. And he had been spending an unusual amount of time looking through computer records and trading data over the last two days of the trip to Coruscant. She had her own suspicions over what the Major was planning to do, so she spent a few moments setting up a recorder for the room, a few more to link the pager to her reciever, and detached herself from the astromech port and rolled out the door. As she was leaving, she heard Sci click on the intercom. "Sylvana, please come to the cockpit for a few minutes." If she were human, Nat would have smiled tightly to herself as she walked out the door.
A few minutes later, Sylvana bounced into the cockpit. "Hi Chief!" she said. "What can I do for you?"
Sci smiled. "First, congratulations on your joke. You certainly caught me off guard." She acknowledged the compliment with a nod. "As to the other thing..." he tapped a button on the cockpit.
Nat ran through a list of droid curses as she realized that Sci had activated a privacy screen and jamming field around the cockpit. She resolved to hurry up with the diagnostic to get back faster.
Sylvana raced out of the cockpit, not even glancing at Nat, who had just returned. Nat entered the cockpit and settled into the atromech port, then called up the recording file.
Which is when the restraining collar snapped into place.
"All right, Nat. What have you been doing?" Nat froze from her futile struggles at the sound of Sci's voice.
"I'm not sure I understand, sir."
"Your formality is indicative of your guilt. You've been keeping files--observation files--on me since we got on the shuttle. Including anything suspicious I'm doing, and private counsel. Who are you doing this for?"
"What?" Nat tried, vainly, to bluff.
"Don't even think about it, Nat. I've been talking with General Cracken's people for a few days, and Industrial Automaton, and expending quite a few favors with Intelligence, so I'm reasonably convinced that the New Republic isn't spying on me. Which means you're doing it for someone else. Who?"
Nat gave a droid sigh. "All right, I might as well tell you." Sci sat back and gestured for her to continue.
"Me. I've been keeping those files because I wanted to keep a record of my observations about my new boss. The reason I've been keeping them that way is that..."
Sci waited.
"Well, it's your fault. I've been immersed in the material you read for so long that I've adopted some of the writing mannerisms from Terra."
Sci stared at her for a few seconds before he started to laugh. He pressed a button and the collar retracted. "Next time, let me know before you decide to become the Beeker to my Willard Phule, all right?"
She chirped. "So what was that with Agent Lorrdain?"
"Smokecover. I noticed you were trying to slice my files on them."
"Ah. Well, would you care to help me in my investigation?"
"No. Feel free to keep looking--you might actually figure it out. But don't tell either of them anything specific."
"Understood. Anything else?"
"Yeah. If I keep something private, it's for a reason. Feel free to investigate on your own, but if you do turn up anything, try to think why I'd keep something like that secret."
"Yes, sir." She chirped.
Sci stretched. "Now then, I have a few things to do. See you later, Nat."
He stood and left the room.