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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 2679412" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 294: More Cold...Things were never as easy to do as they first seemed. This was, of course, something that everyone in the galaxy experienced, but Jyren had reached the point where he was wondering whether or not the things he ran into were even farther off than they should have been. It wasn’t fair, but considering that he knew life wasn’t fair anyway, that shouldn’t have been a problem. But lately, things were becoming just plain mean.    The two human figures had approached the large, metal doorway without running into any trouble, at least. And since they hadn’t run into any trouble walking up to it, there was an odd sense of safety while they carefully examined the very closed door, which it definitely was. Because, really, Jyren was still plainly wearing the bright orange flight suit, and if that didn’t get anyone’s attention, nothing short of turbolaser fire would on a planet like Hoth.     But once reaching the huge door, they had begun the obvious search for either a way to open it or another way in. These both proved to be far more annoying than they should have been, mostly because of Shadow’s aversion to reaching up and brushing off any of the ice and snow for fear of touching it...despite the fact that she had the heavy, black gloves from the other flight suit on. It meant Jyren was having to do twice the work, while trying to understand her orders that were being growled out in a shivering voice from underneath at least three layers of heavy cloth.    So far, they’d found nothing at all.    “Jrrn.”    Jyren paused from cleaning up the section of durasteel in front of him to think about that. Not only was Shadow’s voice as a human small, but those extra layers did no good at helping her voice travel. After finally managing to interpret what she’d said, he looked over his shoulder to the shivering Shadow and asked, “What is it?”    A portion of cloth near where Shadow’s right arm was probably at raised up and ‘pointed’ off to a section Jyren hadn’t yet gotten to. Considering just how big the huge doors were, that wasn’t a surprise. He turned and looked at the direction she’d aimed him in. Through the ice and snow that was stuck on the durasteel, there was a green blinking light. Jyren quickly moved over to it and cleared the ice(carefully) to find a small console. But this was still close to the middle of the door...and on the outside. There was no way that was a control panel. Then what were the buttons for...?    A black-gloved hand appeared in front of Jyren as Shadow pressed the top button. She didn’t have to explain her reasoning. One of them was going to give in to either curiosity or the simple fact that it might be worth trying sooner or later...and with this cold, Shadow preferred sooner. When pressed, the blinking green light went out. Then, nothing happened for a long few seconds, but suddenly a blue light appeared. It didn’t blink, but it sat there disturbingly bright against the boring grey and endless whites.     When nothing else happened, the two of them exchanged careful looks. Eyes met(considering that everything else was covered, they were all they could meet) and the link raced with ideas and thoughts. Only a few second passed before Shadow shrugged and pressed a second button. This time, there was a beep. It was soft, but loud considering the general silence around them if one ignored the wind. The blue light blinked twice, then went dead. Off far to the left, there was a hiss.    Both of them spun to look that direction, seeing a hole in the ice that had not been there before.    Another quick glance was exchanged.    Then, they decided it was worth a try, and carefully walked to the new opening. Reaching it, they looked in to see a small corridor that looked like it came straight out of a Corellian starship. An old one, Jyren though to himself, noting that the entire thing was whiter than the snow outside, and rounded at the edges instead of flat corners where the walls met. At the end of the short corridor was a what was clearly a door. White, slightly ridged in places, and with a small panel in its center.    One of them sighed, and Shadow led the way in. Jyren was right behind her, and was also smart enough to keep an eye out for, and hit, the switch to close the other door behind them. When it hissed shut, Shadow pulled the layers of cloth off her face and then whimpered, “Still cold in here!!”    Jyren did the same, but it was only one layer, and tried to ignore the fact that it wasn’t any warmer, “At least the wind isn’t in here.”    Shadow managed a nod, which caused her short, black hair to fall everywhere it shouldn’t and add one more thing to annoy her with. She glared at it, then through it, and then at Jyren, “Go figure that door out!”    That was not a voice to argue with...however, “No one puts a lock on their door on the outside.”    “We’ll worry about that when we’re inside,” Shadow growled at him, an arm shooting out and pointing angrily at the opposite door.    Jyren sighed, dusted a little snow off of his shoulders, then stepped past her and to the panel. It was much the same as the one on the outside...except without the blinking green. So, Jyren decided to press the top button. A green light appeared and started to blink. After staring at it a moment, Jyren asked over his shoulder, “Which one did you press outside first?”    “Second from bottom,” Shadow mumbled while rubbing her still-gloved hands together frantically.    He found it, and pressed it. The green light went away, and a blue one appeared. The next button to press he remembered. But as he reached for it, Shadow’s hand shot out and grabbed his wrist suddenly. Surprised at this, Jyren turned to look back(and down) at her, “What?”    “Something important,” she said quickly, with the shiver of could still in her voice, “No morphing.”    “Huh?”    Despite the cold, Shadow rolled her eyes in her usual way as if nothing was at all different, “No matter what happens...no morphing. Not even to fix a cut. Knowing our luck its just as cold in the whole damned place.”    Those sentences seemed to have been placed in the wrong order, but Jyren was willing to not point this out considering the cold. There was a question, of course, “Why not?”    “Just don’t,” Shadow said flatly, finally letting go of his wrist and waiting for him to press the last button in hopes the door would open, “Trust me.”    On matters like that, and with such a stern tone to her voice, Jyren was willing to trust her.</blockquote>

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