One of the logs seems to point to the Old Lady's direct involvement on a FRift mission, as the 'whole galaxy hanging there' is one of her lines from the book, when she met Kahina:
"Finally fixed the drive, more monotony. Can't believe it's nearly six months since we set out from Riedquat. Did I say Riedquat? I meant Reorte. It's getting to me, this endless emptiness. The guys are showing the strain. Three more months before we can turn and head back. The stars are thinning out, you can the whole galaxy just hanging there..."
But if you look at the density of stars on the galaxy map, the FRift bases are right on the edge of where the stars start to thin out, they aren't in the 'dark zone'. So the logs may have been transmitted from ships much further out.
I was thinking along similar lines when I parked right in front of that comms station. What struck me was that the words regarding the galaxy hanging there aren't just roughly the same but they are exactly the same, verbatim.
Conclusion: TOW was part of the expedition. There is no doubt in my mind.
I imagine the story to go like this: TOW is part of the expedition. She logs the message, and back home she gets her memory erased. However, she somehow reclaims parts of her memory, she remembers the scenery and it evokes that expression from her, resulting in the same choice of words back home as it did out here.
Further: she could have recorded the message for Salome and Hassan while out here and the message found its way into the Imperial database. If so, it could also have been edited by the Imps, explaining in fact why THERE WERE NO COORDINATES AT THE END OF THE MESSAGE. Salome and Hassan were adventurous enough to go without the exact coordinates and just followed the RR line.
My other question would be: why would TOW as an Elite pilot choose to be part of that mission? Was she conscripted? Did whoever orchestrated the missions expect some form of threat which warranted taking military protection?
Also, the above explains why the message mentions both Reorte and Riedquat. It's not that the writer has them confused (he/she would have simply changed the words unless it was an audiolog). This is not just any writer, this is TOW writing. And she is not confused. She is laying breadcrumbs. Maybe she already suspects a later mindwipe. Maybe she has even agreed to it before the mission as part of a kind of NDA...
