"When Lord Recinis brought Terrin's body down to the underlayers, he used something to preserve his body...

...and whatever in the Fates it was, it totally healed all the wounds which were inflicted upon his body. And not only that..."

She trailed, suddenly having chills at the truth of the matter, "Whatever it was made him look for all the Universe like he was alive, and merely sleeping. Could it be the magick within those preservation materials which truly made the re-animation of Terrin's body possible?"

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Panthar had a niggling thought that he just had to say.

“Hey, is this a one-sided game? Or maybe it is played against someone- or something – like maybe the Darker Realms?”

He shook his head.

“Anyway, sorry to jump in like that, Jharmeen.”

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Something was niggling, very deep in her mind, something she had experienced during her brief stay on Dagobah.

Suddenly she jerked up her head, stared at Shayla, at Phalomir, and then at Panthar.

"Life..."

Life. The expression of the Universe, of All That Is, the warp and weft of space and time and all that fills it with glory and splendor.

The Living All-ness....

A hand flew to her mouth, and she stared up at the hovering orbs.

"This-- this is your Place of Places, in All that is?" she asked them.

"Is this the place of Life, as was suggested? Is that how Terrin's body was kept from following the natural order, from decaying?"

An image of a place of wonder, of life eternal, shot through her mind... marred only by one blot:

An entire population fleeing from it. She gasped, and took a step backward, whispering through her fingers as she did so.

"Is it Koris'ian?"

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They came to a halt mere meters over her head, floated there, blinked.

"Point," the Voice boomed out.

He scratched again at his horns.

“Well, anyway, now that we know this, what do we do to make sure it doesn’t happen again? We can't blow up the planet, or keep people from coming here, can we? Or can we hide it somehow? Do they make shields that can hide a whole planet?”

[ 12-31-2004 12:47 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Panthar Dantares ]

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She turned to Panthar, once again waving off the coming Phalomir, who was undoubtedly yet concerned for her physical condition.

"Yes, there is such a shield which can make objects disappear from reality, or at least appear to. This is called a chronotic shield; what it does is produce a barrier about an object against which neither energy or matter can impact. Energy which strikes against it is immediately dissipated backwards and forwards along the timeflow...."

Strange that she hadn't noticed before, but so much of what the All allowed a user to command dealt with Time. Perhaps indeed there was no Time; all was a constant state of Now, with past and present mere quantities set aside from that Now for the moment. Perhaps the All worked by somehow bridging those quantities; though Lord Aelvedaar had taught her how to use her talents to bring such a thing about, he had never truly explained just how such a thing worked....

She jerked, embarrassed with the realization that she had drifted off into private musing. Clearing her throat, she went on.

"Matter which impacts this shield is immediately transformed into its energy equivalency--"

Galen, my dear sister, your eyes widen... Ahhh. You recall your physics, don't you?

"--and likewise dissipated along the currents of Time.

"These shields can be erected about anything, but the larger the object the more taxing it is to the user; My Dear-- that is, Lord Aelvedaar once emplaced one about Khar Delba, but he was unable to do anything else but maintain it while it covered the planet."

She paused a moment, reflecting back.

"But even then it was breached, but that is solely because Khar Delba generates a magnetic field, and an opening appeared in the shield directly over both magnetic poles."

She drifted into silence again, thinking, and all the while uncomfortably aware of how close she had come to lecturing. After chewing upon her lip a moment, she spoke up again.

"I don't believe this shield would achieve what we need to achieve, and that is the total elimination of this planet from the universe. That would involve great firepower.

"However, there is another barrier: I am afraid that my abilities, which might be able to destroy Koris'ian, would be fettered. There is Life here, and I am aware of that Life, and thus cannot use the All to destroy it."

She templed her fingers, placed them against her mouth, tapped against her teeth.

"Blowing up this planet would leave matter behind; what if this 'Life-Spot,' this nexus or whatever it is about this place, isn't simply the planet but the area in general?

"How does one remove space from spacetime?"

She turned to the others with a sigh, as she realized that the more she pondered as to their course of action, the more questions there were to rise up in resistance of it.

[ 12-31-2004 06:00 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Graysith ]

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How could space be removed from spacetime? Was this even possible?

There was, however, one thing which came to Shayla's mind. She had been a pilot for many years, and there was one phenomena in which time was thought to somehow slow and even stop.

"What if we somehow created a blackhole?" she queried, uncertain of how to do such a thing or if this was even a plausible idea.

[ 12-31-2004 08:15 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Shayla Stargazer Petrolu ]

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“Keep in mind that whatever is we do,” he said gravely, “it apparently must be done with time stopped. My lady, Korris’ian was moved here from its original location through Sith magick, was it not? If the planet itself if the Place of Places, then it most likely was at that time as well. This begs many more questions, which may or may not have bearing. However, if it is this space itself and not the planet, then the planet would move out of this space as it orbits the sun. I wonder if our friend is still with us to provide answers?”

Phalomir looked into the darkening sky and raised his voice to it.

“Is your place of places this planet itself?” he called out.

--------------------

...after all, that's what we were told just before we were released from below the Temple."

Pausing at that, she then turned inward a few minutes, once more pondering her idea of creating a black hole. Then she spoke once more. "The more I think of it, the more I really believe that creating a black hole would be the best way to protect this planet, and to achieve Resolution so Time can start ticking again. There would have to be some massive star nearby which could implode and create the black hole...

...and we would have to somehow be able to control that happening with the All." She turned to Graysith. "Could this be done?" she queried then fell silent, waiting.

--------------------

"No," she said with a little sigh. Taking a few steps forward toward the distant, western horizon, she then seemed to reach out directly to the setting sun.

"That would result in the destruction of this planet, and all life upon it. Some may believe me to be all-powerful, but I do have limitations placed upon me."

She turned back to Shayla.

"I cannot use the All to destroy this planet, or to create a situation where it would be destroyed. Hide it beneath a chronotic shield I can do, but there would be no guarantee that no one would ever stumble upon this place at sometime in the future."

She then turned to Phalomir.

"Yes, this planet was once a moon of Korriban, and was moved into an orbit of its own about the sun they share."

She waved a hand westward.

"This obviously took great power; Lord Phalomir, you are Dark Lord of the Armorers. Could this great deed have been accomplished solely through the magicks of the Sorcerers, or was some device used to move this planet?

"If that, would it be of any use to us in any manner, do you think?"

[ 01-01-2005 11:45 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Graysith ]

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"Hey, why don't we put it under a shield and then move it into the Darker Realms? Or just send it forward in time?"

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“I believe none of us would care to see that realm again,” Phalomir growled. “But perhaps that idea is not completely without merit. Let us keep that in mind for a moment.”

Phalomir looked to the western sky, then to temple that loomed directly behind them.

“Again, the planet was moved long before my time. But there is a legend of how this was accomplished. It did indeed require great Sith magick, but it required something else as well. A device was created, infused with all of the power the Sith armorers could call forth. It allowed tremendous magick to be channeled, and then they build a temple around it.”

[ 01-02-2005 07:12 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Phalomir ]

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[ 01-02-2005 07:25 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Phalomir ]

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Thoran chuckled to himself, then continued.

“For one, there is a transfer that should have taken place. Well, several, actually, but one that you apparently missed is the knowledge transfer. Usually there is this big ceremony of pomp and circumstance, and then you take the vow and touch the Shaldok. You didn’t touch the Shaldok, did you? Yeah, I can see by the blank stare that you didn’t.”

Thoran looked upwards, sighed, and turned to Jharmeen.

“Allright, before we go any further, I think we need to go into the temple and find the Shaldok. This is an ancient device – ok, all Sith stuff is ancient – but this one in particular is sort of like the library of the Armorer Clan. Sort of. When the Dark Lord touches it, it does both an upload and download, so all of the knowledge of the clan’s Lords is stored and shared with the next Dark Lord.”

Thoran looked at the stares he was getting.

“Hey, it’s true! Would I lie to you? Don’t answer that. But it really is true. Hey, I don’t want to be stuck here in timelessness any more than you do! If Phal touches the Shaldok, he will get the knowledge that will probably help us.”

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She paused, pursing her lips and thinking. "What if we moved the planet into Elseness? If people can live there...

...it would stand to reason a planet could thrive there as well."

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“As for the Elseness or the Darker Realms, I see no difference between the two, really. But there may be a way to hide the planet, or take it out of ‘reality’ somehow, without moving it. But, unless there are serious objections, I say we try the Temple. Perhaps our four-legged friend here knows where to find this Shaldok?”

[ 01-02-2005 09:05 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Phalomir ]

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A rough grunt came from the tuk’ata. It lifted itself to its full height and stared first at Panthar, then at Phalomir. It’s face tendrils moved smoothly, almost hypnotically, as it stared directly into Phalomir’s eyes. A low, mournful tone came low under its breath.

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“But I believe him,” he said. “And I believe this tuk’ata will lead us to the Shaldok. We have had our problems with Thoran, but let us consider what he has done since joining us. He is the one who restored Terrin, and he has not hindered us in any way. I am not sure why he chose to inhabit Terrin’s body, but even that has not shown to be malicious. Perhaps he has been truthful and was under control of the Master, and has indeed broken free of that? What do you all think?”

--------------------

At last... a direct question.

I let out a little puff of air, and fisted my hands on my hips.

"Well, to recap what has been suggested here, and to put in my two-credit's worth, I think we should give Thoran a chance."

I paused with an inward wince, waiting for the daggers I was sure were going to be thrown my way. Impossibly enough, that did not happen; if anyone thought what I had said was stupid beyond belief he was being remarkably capable in keeping that opinion veiled; shooting glances around our little circle, I went on.

"I think that this...er, Thing's Place of Places is this planet. Phal made a good point; if it was space itself the planet would have been moved from it, whether by being moved to its new orbit or simply by moving along its revolutionary path.

"Er, sorry Jharmeen."

She merely smiled; heartened, I went on.

"So, does anyone else make the link that this Place of Places happens to be the planet where great devices were created? I mean, this is the Planet of Armorers, right? We all know at least some of the things they made, stuff which really is beyond physics when you think of it."

I stopped again as images of Sith fighters and the Octahedron and that nasty Claw shot into my head; from the expressions on the faces of the others, I could tell they were thinking along these lines as well.

"So, there is some weird link here between the Place of Places, and the devices which have been created here; I agree that we really ought to rid the universe of this place if possible so no one can get here to make any others.

"Even though I think the Natural Order was broken by the dead being brought to life, which is opposite to how things are supposed to go."

Another pause; by now the looks I was receiving were beginning to slide from the "that's obvious, dingbat" variety directly into snide smugness. I hurried on.

"So yeah, if heading back into the heart of things, that Temple, is what we have to do so Phal here can get the knowledge he needs to figure out how to by-pass the restrictions on my sister, then I say let's do it."

Then I did something I never thought I'd ever do in my life. I walked a hesitant step forward, paused, then gritting my teeth hurried on until I had come up behind the great tuk'ata. That beast only turned it's eerie, pupilless eyes my way and yawned, displaying terrifying ten-inch fangs which gleamed like old ivory.

Which of course they were.

I placed a hand gingerly on it's flank.

"Let's give this critter the lead, and let it take us to where Thoran suggested."

I cast a quick glance around, coming to a stop with my husband, into whose eyes I now sent a deep look.

"And if he's simply trying to pull some stunt, I'm sure that Phal can somehow yank him out of you... and Sissy can turn him into a worrt or something."

[ 01-03-2005 06:46 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Galen ]

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“So, worrt or not, I’m in this with you. So, just to show you what a nice guy I am, Terrin, you take over now. But hey, Galen, I was only sort of kidding.”

Thoran winked, then allowed Terrin to resume control.

The tuk’ata glared at Thoran, then snorted and looked deeply at each member in the group. It finally paused on Shayla. After another snort it turned and trotted towards the temple.

[ 01-03-2005 07:31 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Thoran ]

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The soft look I had been giving Terrin immediately transformed into a glare of magmatic proportions; without conscious thought my hand shot out and I took him by the chin.

"No way am I letting you slide off now, slime-o; you're the one who brought this up, you're not going to slip off into LaLaLand and hide while we go out into a possible slugfest!

"Get your sorry excuse for a spirit back here and stay with the group, or I'll show you just how nasty an eternal moment in Time can be!"

Of course I really hadn't much of a working notion of how I would make good with that threat, but with all of Time at our disposal I'm sure I'd come up with something....

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Thoran resumed control, smiling widely.

“Why Galen,” he said smugly, “I didn’t know you cared so much. Of course I’ll stay with you, no need to beg. But, uh, we better hurry or our little friend will keep going without us.”

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