Another day on Dathomir, Hines thought to himself, resigned. He hated it here. He hated the trees, the rain, the rancors, and he hated that every day was the same as every other day. There were times when he wished he hadn't accepted the promotion into the detention services—wished, in fact, that he were still commanding stormtroopers on the front lines on New Plympto. Never thought I would want to be there again, he thought to himself with some grim amusement that soon subsided as he looked out the reinforced transparisteel viewport of his office upon the prison yard and, beyond it, the landing platform and, beyond that, the wilds of Dathomir. Yes, he hated this place. More than he had ever hated anything, even the Nosaurians whose horns he had taken as souvenirs that now adorned the desk in his office. In the distance, a rancor could be heard roaring triumphantly over the body of some prey it had, no doubt, just killed. Hines had tried to make a sport of hunting rancors here once, but when, in one incident, three members of his hunting party—his subordinates—were killed, Imperial Center had admonished him for having to send more officers to Dathomir to replace them. He turned away from his viewport, preferring not to think about it. He was in a pensive mood, and glanced about his office. His gaze came to rest on the various weapons he had in display cases throughout the room; mostly knives and hunting rifles, but a few weapons of sentimental value as well, including his pride and joy—a functioning reproduction of an antique Tystel Mark III blaster pistol, with a gold trim. He wished he could use it. He wished he had reason to. But no, every day on Dathomir was the same as every other day.
He sighed, sat down at his bulky durasteel desk, and went to work on the day's business.
* * *
Warden Hines may have been hostile to Dathomir, but Dathomir returned the favor to him and, indeed, to most forms of life. It was a difficult place to reside, with many predatory species. In this respect, it was an ideal location for Detention Facility O6-5. The prison was as hostile to intruders as the planet was—the only "reasonable" way in, as Trask and his clone co-conspirator would know, was a vertical ventilation shaft about three meters across that led from the roof of the prison all the way into its lower depths. It was a "reasonable" way in only insofar as spinning blades and a number of reptavians who had made the shaft their home. It was for these reasons, and the fact that it was a straight climb up, that the Imperials never expected anyone to escape through the shaft. As a result, it wasn't closely monitored. But they never expected anyone to come in through the shaft either.
Air ducts from throughout the prison connected to the ventilation shaft all up and down its length, but, anticipating possible escape attempts, the ducts were all far too small for most beings to fit through. The shaft, then, led eventually down into a maintenance bay that was usually empty, except when the fans were being serviced or there was a shift change. For the time being, it was empty. Getting there would be no small feat for the would-be intruders, however.
Added (02 Jan 2011, 3:45 PM)
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* * *
A large amount of time having passed, the guards, by now, had all changed shifts and patrolmen began their regular sweep of the detention center's perimeter, traveling in pairs and covering the areas around the prison complex as well as inside it, to disperse any bolmas or other animals that might draw the ever-problematic rancors to the complex. There had also been a fight between a number of Barabel and Verpine prisoners during recreation time, and as a result of this, Hines had ordered his security to be especially vigilant. Once the word was out among the prisoners, one fight could lead to another, then another, then another. Hines had no tolerance for disorder in his facility. The prisoners, thus, were confined to their cells for the rest of the day.
Each block of cells—resembling the design seen on the Death Star, among other Imperial detention centers--consisted of a pair of hexagonal corridors, side-by-side. Unlike the Death Star design, however, the corridors were short; the length of only three cells, or six cells total per corridor. This design was repeated vertically, so that one floor would have 12 cells, the next floor would have 12, and so on. Each floor had its own dedicated command area which controlled the cells on that floor. In other words, each floor looking rather like this:
_______________
[C]| |[C][C]| |[C]
[C]| |[C][C]| |[C]
[C]| |[C][C]| |[C]
o o
(Control Area)
|T/lift|
Meanwhile, the longer that the unidentified ship remained in orbit, the closer it would come to being detected by the detention center. Travel to Dathomir was uncommon, and Hines wasn't expecting any shipments of supplies or prisoners today. If it was detected, it would surely rouse the suspicions of the Imperials.
