The Supernova glided smoothly from hyperspace and achieved a graceful and quick orbit around K'eel Doba under Shayla Stargazer Kartan's touch. Immediately thereafter, she stretched sensors out...

...both those of her ship and those of her own mind...

...to access the nearby area. The Supernova reported a large massing of ships on the outskirts of the system, and Shayla frowned, consciously aware of the implications in this. Likewise, Shayla easily sensed her husband nearby...

...but it was not this all-too-easy find which grabbed Shayla's attention. Something of despair...

...and hope...

...crept into Shayla's very being, as that oh-so-familiar little tremor prodded her Force-senses.

Could it be true...?

Shayla couldn't help herself. Hoping that her very own senses were not decieving her, and consciously admitting a need to know and a longing to find...

...Shayla stretched out along a Force-link she'd established after the All had been removed from her.

Graysith, is that you? she thought quietly and hopefully, finding a possible silver lining in the dark cloud which had been enveloping her very soul since she'd discovered the truth regarding her son...

[ 03-19-2003 01:04 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Shayla Stargazer Petrolu ]

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"Shayla Kartan," he mused as with a quick flick of one finger he returned the monitor to standard operations mode.

Owner of the "Supernova," recently purchased on cash basis in Piriingisi. YT-2000, standard armament and shielding, sleek and fast...

...and suddenly coming in from nowhere to arrow down upon the K'eel Doban surface.

The Captain sniffed, scratched his nose idly.

Never heard of her. But her presence here bodes no good, that's a certainty....

"Shall I deploy a wing to destroy, Captain?"

Landarian started from his reverie, now turning to the lieutenant who was standing at a stiff attention at his side. He blinked, then shook his head.

"Negative pursuit, Lieutenant," he replied. "We have strict orders to maintain at station-keeping only. But send a transmission to Lt. General Tarnus; I'm certain he will find this bit of information most interesting."

He returned the lieutenant's snappy salute, then paused him as he turned to carry out the order.

"Lieutenant... if that ship or any other tries to depart this system, tractor it in."

Then he turned back from the younger officer and settled himself in his captain's chair.

What in blazes was happening out here in the boonies? And how in all the universe would anyone know of a planetary system long lost in myth and rumor, a system he himself could find little information about, in spite of the literary wealth the Empire held in its hand?

He shook himself yet again, and settled down to doing what Imperial ship's captains do best, when they're not actively fighting.

Waiting.

[ 03-19-2003 01:39 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by The Empire ]

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She blinked. The Glyph ravened.

Shayla--

With insidious ease her All-talents created a careful block, that nothing would return to the young woman other than what she herself chose to return... in this case that return being a carefully maintained feeling of surprise touched with happiness. Behind that block, her thoughts whirled.

How easy to simply block this feeble Force-link altogether, she mused. But then--

Smiling now, she allowed a feather-light touch to return along the link.

Shayla, you have found me, here on K'eel Doba. But... I sense sorrow....

Tightening her grip about ShaRhylla's shoulders, she continued to look out into the steadily deepening light of the capital city of Phrinnchatka.

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

I thought you might have been dead...

...the Sith warship was called back to Khar Delba with my husband still aboard...

...and my little boy...

Her thoughts broke at this for a moment, and tears began to flow once more. I was drugged by Master Tyberius...

...and my son no loner responds to me...

[ 03-19-2003 09:03 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Shayla Stargazer Petrolu ]

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She cut her gaze abruptly downward to where Lord Roan was standing strong and lordly among the lesser Sith, condescending now and then to comment or acknowledge some comment given in turn to him. With eerie cognition, he turned up his head, his turquoise eyes now flaring upward directly into Graysith's violet pair.

Unspoken communication danced along that connection. Graysith tightened her grip about Sha Rhylla's shoulders.

Then--

"Where are you now, Shayla?" she purred smoothly, allowing just the right touch of relief to escape with her words along that trembling link she still allowed her adept to maintain with her.

[ 03-20-2003 11:54 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Graysith ]

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I am currently orbiting K'eel Doba, came the reply. I came with the intent to then go after my husband...

...and by chance also found you...

That little tremor that was insisting that this whole situation with Erik could be a trap kept going. Shayla frowned, acknowledging it. Could the fact that the Sith warship was returned to Khar Delba with Erik still aboard be a trap of some sort? she thought out, unable to escape the possibility for its logic. After all, one had to logically assume that, with Erik stranded on Khar Delba, that in time his wife would come after him...

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

Now none may enter save those who know how to trigger this lock, he mused to himself, nodding his horned head in satisfaction of his work. Indeed, his apprenticeship in the ways of Sith sorcery had grown in leaps and bounds under the careful tutelage of Lord Aelvedaar; his discovery that the one claiming to be heir to the Rean title was no more than imposter had prompted the Dark Lord of the Sorcerers to allow him to create his own means of preventing anyone from entering into the warship.

It is safe, even from other Sith, Ayelmaar mused, now reaching the chambers where Lord Aelvedaar waited. Holding his horns low in respect, he entered, pausing at the door to bow. Waved on, he went forward and came to a stop beside his adopted father.

"It is done," he said simply, falling silent then as he had nothing more to say at that moment. A particular look from Aelvedaar spurred him on, however; gathering courage to question the Dark Lord, he went on:

"The pilot of the ship?"

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

Once. Slowly.

"He is inconsequential, and Khar Delba a large planet," he stated flatly, the words uttered softly yet somehow ringing about his chambers.

Shrugging as though to emphasize the statement, he turned away, and proceeded to go about the business with which he had formerly been occupied.

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

"You come here, to K'eel Doba, rather than Khar Delba?" she then wondered. "You choose not to go to the side of your husband, yet come here to the place from which we had fled?

"Such loyalty.... Come to Ch'arlingua."

Pulling herself into the reality of her immediate surroundings, she now tilted her head to her daughter.

"Remain here, ShaRhylla," she said simply; then letting her arm drop from the young woman's shoulders Graysith turned and left, heading for the courtyard and the festivities she had so recently left.

[ 03-20-2003 12:46 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Graysith ]

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...but still this troubled her. Wasn't it all too convenient, too easy?

Even at that, a small portion of Shayla's mind was cognizant of the fact that she was dreading admitting to her husband that their son had been harmed due to her own daring mission...

...a mission which he had not wanted her to fullfill on her own. She frowned even as the spaceport began to come into view in the viewport of her YT-2000.

She couldn't simply abandon him and not be honest with him...

...it wasn't fair after all the trust he'd placed in her.

But Shayla needed someone who could understand the motherly loss she was feeling as well...

...and that was something Erik couldn't do for her...

...and something that Shayla unconsciously knew Graysith could. And there was only one person in the Universe Shayla trusted aside from her husband...

...and that was her chosen sister.

Jerking herself from her thoughts, Shayla gracefully landed the Supernova and let her engines cool. Then, standing, she made her way out of the ship and locked it, making certain to carefully hide the lightsaber in the fabrics of her purple cloak as she began to head towards that sense that was Graysith. As she followed that link, along another forged in love yet felt she thought out:

Erik, I'm going to come for you. But first I'm getting some help...

...and perhaps some answers as well...

[ 03-20-2003 01:06 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Shayla Stargazer Petrolu ]

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Graysith's brows rose as Shayla approached her. She blinked her violet eyes, sweeping Shayla with all her senses, then stared directly into Shayla's greeny-blue pair.

"You come to me armed. I find this... unsettling, to say the least..."

[ 03-20-2003 01:29 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Graysith ]

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She cut herself off at that, her eyes growing momentarily vague as she recalled a seemingly distant memory of when she had made her own lightsaber disentegrate into the mere molecules it was made of.

In time you will have no use for such toys...

Shayla blinked to clear the sudden mist in her eyes. Then she refocused her gaze on Graysith, pulled her husband’s lightsaber from her belt, and simply dropped it, letting it fall with a dull thud upon the ground.

How she wished it would simply disentegrate now. For even with the possible protection it provided her, it hadn’t stopped her husband from being taken by force to Khar Delba, and it wouldn’t have stopped the drugging which in turn scarred her little child, possibly for life...

Tears began to cloud Shayla’s vision once more as she waited for Graysith’s response...

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

"Perhaps then you should not let your weapon from your side, Shayla," she said smoothly, holding it out to her to take.

"Come with me to Phrinnchatka."

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

As they turned and proceeded to do just that, a little tremor in the Force along a very cherished link spurred her to suddenly pause mid-step. She reached out a hand and placed it on Graysith's, then allowed her greeny-blues to fall into that violet pair again.

"My husband...?" she queried worriedly then.

Her son was already lost. She didn't want to lose her husband too...

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

"This much you know as do I, that he is on Khar Delba and to my knowledge perfectly safe. Why should you feel he has come to harm in any manner?"

She paused, casting a quick look upon Shayla. Then she turned forward again, entering into the little Sith tunnel transport and waiting until the younger woman followed her in.

Soon they were humming through the underground passages en route to the capital city of the Sith.

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

...how can I be certain that he will remain safe? He's stranded," she said with emphasis, "And I haven't told him about the baby..."

Shayla trailed a moment, but kept her cool. "I want to come with you to Prinn'chatka...

...but I need him safely with me as well. It's important to me that he is..."

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

In very short time it stopped, the door sliding noiselessly open. Graysith stepped out upon the tarmac at the edge of the Ch'arlingua spaceport, once more holding her hand out.

"There is your ship, Shayla. You have the freedom to go. If you are that concerned for the welfare of your husband, why, then I can see no person better to retrieve him than you, his wife."

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

You know you need Graysith in your life still...but have you ever once considered that perhaps she needs you as well? a little quiet voice whispered.

Shayla reached out a steady hand and laid it on Graysith’s arm, pushing all her own worries and emotions to the side for the moment. “I need my husband in my life...

...but I also need you, Graysith—Jharmeen. There are some things he simply can’t understand, and some places he simply can’t fill. You claimed me as a sister, and as my sister I love you. Once I’ve retrieved my husband I will return, for I know that there are enemies who yet remain in our path...and I wish to do everything I can to help you defeat them. Even now there are Imperial forces massing on the outskirts of the system...

...and I have more than ample reason to believe Master Tyberius is a threat to us.”

Shayla paused a moment. Then, “I will return as quickly as possible,” she reiterated, “You have my word, as your friend...and as your sister.”

With that Shayla said nothing more, but simply fell silent, her greeny-blues still swimming in Graysith’s violet eyes. Then suddenly, the move purely instinctive and utterly genuine, Shayla wrapped her arms about Graysith in a sisterly hug. Then she stepped back, taking one more moment to regard Graysith before she hurried about her mission to retrieve her husband and then return to this planet of K’eel Doba.

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

She stood quietly, her hands clasped together upon her thrimm, the Claw of S'slan glittering as it reflected the lights of the spaceport, watching as the slim form returned to the freighter, fired it up and took off. Graysith tilted her head back, her neck arching gracefully as she watched that freighter climb higher and higher in the K'eel Doban skies until all that was visible was the distant light of its engines. Then that too dwindled until it appeared to be no more than another star in the deepening night.

Her lips curled.

Then she turned and re-entered the transport, and hurried back to the capital city.

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

Shayla halted at that, pursing her lips as the atmosphere of K'eel Doba faded into stars.

I'll be there in thirty minutes.

With nothing more than that, simply feeling the acknowledgement of her husband on that other end of the Force-link, Shayla turned her attentions to the navboard of the Supernova, did a little bit of careful calculating...

...and programmed the coordinates for Khar Delba into the hyperdrive as well as an accurate timer for the hit and fade jump, which would only last about five minutes.

Then she pulled the hyperspace lever and sat back in the pilot's seat, her senses keenly attuned to ship and her surroundings.

[ 03-21-2003 08:10 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Shayla Stargazer Petrolu ]

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I'm ready and waiting, he thought back to her, still keenly aware that something had been upsetting her...

...and very much in the dark as to what that something was. But he sat back and relaxed as much as he could amongst the regrowing life on khar Delba, knowing that soon enough, he would probably find out...

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

...but she still felt it was her fault.

Had she only LISTENED to him...

The proximity indicator was the only thing that could jolt her from these thoughts. It began glowing a steady red and bleeping the tune of imminent reversion, and Shayla reached for the hyperspace lever, kept steady greeny-blue eyes on the count-down, and pulled the lever right as it hit zero. Starlines faded into Khar Delban space as she achieved orbit around the planet, and quickly located her husband through her Force senses.

Better make this quick, she thought to herself.

As soon as she had mentally pinpointed her husband, Shayla broke orbit, and headed for the surface towards his Force-signature. As the ship began to slow and Khar Delban sunrise began to glint the cabin of the frieghter, Shayla locked onto that Force-signature, and began her landing cycle, making her landing coordinates so precise that Erik wouldn't have more than a three-minute walk to the Supernova.

The little frieghter continued its decent, and landed gently upon the Khar Delban surface under Shayla's piloting. Then, without even cooling the ship's engines, Shayla stretched out towards her husband, prompted him to hurry up...

...then simply sat back and waited, her mind returning to the thundercloud looming ominously over her head.

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

"Nice ship," he opened with, taking the few steps necessary to close the gap between them and pulling her into his embrace. "I missed you."

Shayla didn't say anything, but merely wrapped her own arms about him and buried her face in his chest, her dark-blonde hair falling to completely cover her face. Her muscles seemed to go limp as her grip about him tightened, and suddenly a wracking sob rocked her, and she shuddered in his arms.

Erik's brown eyes grew almost vague with concern, and he didn't even bother to break the embrace he had about his wife, but rather thought out through the Force: What's wrong?

Shayla's grip about him only seemed to grow, and for a long moment she didn't respond. Then quietly, her body again trembling with sobs, she replied, The baby...

Suddenly her despair seemed to become a part of him as, with no more prompting necessary, Erik reached out along a paternal link to his son...

...only to be hit with a wall of utter silence rather than the lively mischievousness he'd encountered when he'd reached out to his little child before. He tried it again and again as Shayla remained completely silent, still trembling a bit but no longer sobbing. At length he reached out through that Force-link he shared with her, the two words he thought to her exceedingly gentle. What happened?

Again a long moment of complete silence fell upon them, the clicks and whirs of the cabin of the freighter all but unheard. Then, I was drugged...by Tyberius...

...it’s my fault for not listening to you...

Shayla’s thoughts surprised Erik. He was angry...

...but not at her. Rather, his anger was directed at someone else entirely, someone who had chosen to drug the woman who had willingly come to talk with him: Tyberius.

Only at that did Erik pull back from his embrace, keeping one arm around Shayla in support as he reached out with his other to take her chin in his hand and draw those desparing greeny-blue eyes of hers to his, feeling that actual words were needed here. “This is not your fault,” he said aloud, allowing his brown eyes to lock upon hers for emphasis. After a moment he took the hand under her chin and reached behind her head, pulling her gently to himself again, the cabin again falling completely silent for a moment that seemed frozen in time. In that moment, Erik found his anger only growing.

What I would LOVE to do to that bastard...

[ 03-22-2003 11:00 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Erik Kartan ]

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“There might be a chance for that,” she said quietly.

He arched a quizzical brow in her direction, so she continued on in clarification.

“Just trust me, we have to get back to K'eel Doba,” she explained a bit vaguely, allowing her eyes to do the rest of the talking as she let them mirror the urgency in her heart.

Erik didn't ask for any further explanation, but the look in his eye all but read Well let’s get going then, as though he somehow knew what Shayla did...

...and perhaps he did at that, through the Force-link he shared with her. He moved to the navboard, an arm still about her, and she only slipped from that embrace as she sat in the copilot’s chair, allowing him to take control of the ship.

Which he did. Needing no more than a moment to familiarize himself with the controls, Erik took the Supernova back to the skies and plotted a hyperspace vector, keenly aware of the urgency of the situation. In moments the Supernova faded from something visible into starlines, her arrival at K’eel Doba imminent due to the hit and fade piloting being utilized.

I’m on my way, Shayla thought out along that link Jharmeen still allowed her to maintain, keenly aware that her despair was slowly but surely fading its way to mirror the anger which she sensed within her husband even then.

[ 03-22-2003 11:26 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Shayla Stargazer Petrolu ]

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A pair of Sith warriors appeared from the shadows and bowed from the waist. "M'lady," the aquamarine-eyed one of the pair acknowledged her presence, straightening up to stand in silent expectation.

"Set guards about the temple, and your best pair at the Heir's chambers," she said stonily. Her own eyes darkened a bit before she continued.

"It would appear that there is more amiss regarding our presence here, and this very representation of that which we are --" now she spread her hands out to either side of her -- "must be maintained. No one is to enter freely herein, save Lord Roan and myself; the temple staff are to remain within its walls, and any newcomers denied entry.

"You are warrior of the Sith, are you not -- Salandaar?" she finished, tilting her head to one side as the warrior's name flicked into her mind from his.

Salandaar flicked his eyes briefly to the brilliant orange ones of his companion. Then he returned to Graysith and bowed, this time more deeply than before.

"It shall be as you command, M'lady," he intoned, but when he arose to face her it was to find that she had already gone.

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