Then he gets stopped by this dynamite lady… ok, maybe Faleen, but who cares? I could hear her asking about the explosion, and decided that maybe I should join in that conversation. I came up behind Yaoksi and was ready to gently slap him on the shoulder.

“Yaoksi, buddy!” I was about to say. But I never got the chance as he sidestepped the lady, said something about the authorities, and headed for the exit with the speed of a jawa at a droid sale.

I was left standing there, now facing the lady, with my hand extended in mid air. Well, never let it be said I don’t take advantage of situations when I can.

“Well, that was rude, now, “ I said. “Perhaps I can be of assistance. Captain Rico Riven at your service, ma’am.”

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

The mumbling and general noise subsided in the bar for a second, then resumed. Bon continued to call for help until he was thrown against a wall and had a weapon shoved in his gut.

Bon let out a shrill scream as Stern made his statements. Then he stopped, tensed, and looked around as if making sure no one was watching. He leaned in to Stern and spoke softly

He's left everything behind he thought. He'd never thought it'd be there again, that it was dead, just like them. "ANSWER ME YOU FLEABAG! YOU NO GOOD BALL OF FUR!"

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

Revolutionist. Rebel. Traitor.

"What do you mean would I join you? It's not possible- they-" but he couldn't find a way to say it, to believe it himself.

"Why? Why now?" He wondered. "Do you know where he is?"

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

“Well, that was rude, now, “ I said. “Perhaps I can be of assistance. Captain Rico Riven at your service, ma’am.” he stated. Though she could see in his eyes his fascination with her.

"Nice to meet you Captain Rico Riven. My name is Aelly Ssyn."

Letting her name sink into his skull for a biref moment to see if he has any kind of negative reaction. She continues.

"I was supposed to have a ship land here but due to the apparent incident it had to be rerouted. So I thought I would come see what the problem was."

Her deep lavender eyes looking his facial features over. Then giving him a smile.

[ 09-27-2005 09:42 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Aelly Ssyn ]

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Kia'ra hugged the little trembling girl, trying to calm her, something deep within her relating to the feelings she displayed.

She hoped it wasn't so, but it sounded like...

"Come on," Kia'ra said, standing and taking the little girl's hand. "Why don't you let me see your Granda, and maybe I can..."

A blaring announcement over the pleasure yacht's intercom interrupted her words.

All passengers, we are glad to inform you that we are currently finishing procedures to land in the docking bay on the other side of Priingsi, as the one we were going to land in has had minor...

...problems. We hope you've enjoyed your stay, and that the inconvenience does not hamper your further plans excessively. We are entering atmosphere now; landing will be complete in five standard minutes, thank you.

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

"He's still sleeping..." She whispered.

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

And it wasn't pretty.

My arms and legs looked normal. But they felt cold. So cold. They had all the appearance of flesh, but no, on the inside they were just machinery. This thing on my face? That was machinery too.

I knew after a bit more information my heart and lungs and my liver were operating on machinery, a large tract of my intestines were repaired as well.

There was however, they told me, a chance that one day I might have a full human body. If I could afford for a clone to be developed, apparently a brain transplant was quite possible.

This did give me a twinge of hope, but the cost of the proceedure was phenominal, if not unreachable.

Still, it was that I checked out of the ward, in black skin-suit, a small bag on my shoulder with a small emergency kit with basic supplies of living, clothes and a small cred-chit, a small temp cloak over my shoulders.

Before I had left, they had insisted upon making sure there was little traces of my old identity left, and had cropped my hair shorter, so it only reached about my neck, and dyed it a raven's black so that even now my gender was further questionable.

I sighed, the result being the sound of narrow exhalation from the thing over my mouth, and began strolling through the streets. Who knew, maybe this was for the best?

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

"Please excuse me for a moment Captain Rico."

She turns facing away from Rico and answers the coninual call.

"What is it?"

"Mistress there is a transport arriving in Priingsi." came the answer from the comm.

"Check the passenger list. See if there is anyone of importance aboard."

A brief moment passed by before a reply spat forth from the comm device.

"We've checked the list and found that there seem to be several passengers boarded as refugee's. Do you want us to have the port checked out Mistress?"

The question echoed in her mind as to whether it would be worth the effort.

"Yes get intouch with some of our contacts in that area and have them check things out. Get back to me if anything of interest is found."

"Yes Mistress."

Closing the device she turns back around with a smile on her face to Rico once more.

"Where were we?"

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

"Hello Link to Lowwarr are you there or is the landspeeder running without the pilote."

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

OK, so I ain’t no Prince Charming. And I ain’t that subtle, either. Yeah, this gal was a looker, and even without those wacky pheromones they give off she’d stir up feelings in me. But she had something that no other well-dressed, sophisticated green lady I ever met had, and that was something I prized above everything right now. She had a way off this rock.

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

With a turned up open palm she jestures to a human, a rodian, a noghri and a clawdite.

"Now where was it you were trying to get to? If I may ask. Are you on a business trip or pleasure cruise through the stars?"

She sipped her ale again and smiled at Rico. Then she looks around the place once more. Noting the wookie and the ryn together. Though the ryn seemed to be wondering if the wookie was paying attention.

[ 10-06-2005 11:15 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Aelly Ssyn ]

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...and that his chest did not rise and fall in the least as a person's naturally would as they slept.

Oh, dear gods...

Kiara swallowed, and knelt once more to look Arien in the eyes. "I-I don't know exactly why your Granda will not wake up."

Okay, so it was a half-truth. She was pretty sure she knew why he wasn't waking up. But she really didn't know why.

"We'll get the doctor on board to look at your Granda...

...and if he needs to go somewhere else we're landing, and he can go for better care on the planet," she continued, trying to be reassuring. "Are you on board with anyone else, Arien?" Kiara queried.

The little girl shook her head no, so Kiara decided to act upon her suggestion herself. "Come, let's go get the doctor, quickly."

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

Only a few minutes later, as the final procedures for the landing of the pleasure yacht ended in Priingsi, the doctor aboard took a look at Arien's Granda...

...and confirmed Kiara's suspicions. Once more she found herself looking Arien in the eyes, and she wasn't certain but somehow felt the young girl already knew the truth. "Your Granda..." she started. "Will not be waking up."

The little one shook her head, disbelief evident. "I'm sorry sweetheart...

...perhaps there is someone on Sullust we can contact? Or someone else elsewhere?"

Even as she asked this, Kiara walked the disbelieving child off the pleasure yacht and into the streets of Priingsi, keeping a firm hold of her hand as she then stopped and knelt once more to be on eye level with her.

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

As the Oasis glided back into realspace near Sullust, Aaron couldn't help but run a scan to see just how active space travel was in the system. Quite honestly, the planet was pretty hopping...

...and after all, it was known for its hot springs. Frowning a bit at the thought, Aaron open the communit, requested clearance to land in Priingsi...

...and waited. A little longer than perhaps Aaron would have liked, clearance came, and he took the measures to begin hitting atmosphere. As he did so, he reached for the communit once more, and keyed in the frequency he had for Yaoksi Joao. "Captain Joao, Kkhil, myself, and our repair team will be landing in approximately 10 standard minutes, in a docking bay not far outside of Priingsi. Where should we meet you?"

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

K'kihl was here, the ol Cricket! Was he ever going to be a sight for sore eyes... not to mention sore ship.

I hit the comm with the fleshy part of my fisted hand.

"Hey, this is Captain Joao here; so glad to hear you made it safely to Sullust! You'll probably be landing at the eastern edge; make sure you have your rebreathers with you since that's on the surface.

"I'll be meeting you shortly at the eastern gate; and hey, K'kihl ol buddy..."

I paused dramatically, smiling at the effect I was trying to make.

"I have a little surprise for ya. But you'll see it soon enough; Captain Yaoksi Joao, out."

With that I set the glass I was still holding down on the nearest table, grabbed up my hat, zoomed to a nearby tool cupboard from which I extricated a gleaming, brand spanking new hydrospanner, and left to meet my guests.

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

...and ended up pulling out two rebreathers. He commed to the back of the ship to tell the crewmen to get rebreathers from the equipment in the back of the ship as well; no one comes to Sullust without such items unless they intend to go absolutely nowhere but beneath the surface.

The Oasis came to a gentle landing, and Aaron began cooling her engines. He turned to Kkhil, cocking a brow. "Perhaps we should leave all of our equipment here, and see what the Devil will need before we start pulling things out?" he suggested, getting to his feet and slapping the hatch release, placing the rebreather over his nose and mouth as he did so.

As he exited the Oasis, the crewmen and Kkhil undobtedly behind him, Aaron had to wonder if the Verpine was really going to leave all the repair equipment behind until they knew what they were going to be up against...

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

In a dither, am I. For how the time to spare, to Oasis to return, when needed am I and these tools?

The insectoid biped stood for a moment, quietly clacking his mandibles together, which was all a Verpine could do to show emotional disarray, having no cheeks upon which to chew. He turned his shining eyes upon Barnes, one appendage reaching out to accept the profferred rebreather, which he just stood holding a moment.

"Lungs not have I," he finally said, giving the device a little toss.

"Tougher than we appear, are we Verpine."

With that he strode swiftly to the aft of the vessel, scooping up materiels and devices and powertools and spec-sheets, as much as he could manage with his twin pairs of arms.

He then turned and followed Barnes out the hatch and onto the formidible surface of Sullust, the last thing that he grabbed being his beloved hydrospanner.

[ 10-07-2005 10:01 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by K'kihl ]

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Just as he had suspected...

Then he turned back, looking at the perimeter of the docking area and spotting a man approaching, a grin on his face and what appeared to be a brand-spanking new hydrospanner in his hand.

Aaron knew before he ever pointed him out and began heading in that direction that the Verpine was already well aware of Joao's arrival.

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

She sipped her drink again as she looked him over.

"I'm sure you've had alot of excitement today and so you must have alot going through your mind."

[ 10-07-2005 10:59 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Aelly Ssyn ]

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"Look Lowwarr I am a busy Ryn I have some patience but you are testing it. I think you should find someone else to get a ride off this planet with."

With that I moved across the room to the bar itself and took a seat at the counter. From here I was able to hack myself into the holonet and leave a plain and simple message that most smugglers and underworld orginizations would be able to find. The message read "Link now taking job offers, Slicing, security breakins, ship and or cargo aquisition. Route responses to holonet account 132.67b.883 - 001.af0"

within moments the message would reach every smuggler, underworld orginization, or corperation. Most of these people had filters on the holonet to catch secret messages between rivals so sending a message like this proved her credentials as a slicer. The holonet account was also another credential as well. Anyone who would trace the account would soon discover that it would foward all the messages it recived through numerous companies, many legitimat before vanishing compleatly. After which the message was delivered to many different acounts Link could access with no suspition.

Now All link had to do was wait for the offers to come to her.

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

I spat the rebreather out and turned to welcome the pair more realistically.

"Aaron, thank you for coming," I began, now taking his hand into mine for a hearty handshake. "It is so good of you to come to my aide, I just don't trust anyone around here getting the job done as fast or professionally as you... and--

"K'kihl!" I beamed, turning to him then to wave the hydrospanner underneath his nose. He wavered fractionally, then exploded toward me.

"Mmph!" I grunted as, his obvious joy knowing no bounds, my Verpine buddy dropped his arms-load of materials and enveloped me in a bone-cracking embrace. And to be completely honest, I didn't know if the expression was due to seeing me again...

...or the hydrospanner.

Knowing K'kihl, it was probably the latter.

[ 10-19-2005 04:43 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Yaoksi Joao ]

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Oh gag. I hatred having to play nice, but she really was a looker, and I really did need a ship. It was either that or stay here and track down the stoop that set me up, and I didn’t really like guns.

“Maybe you and your goons—I mean, your escorts—would like another drink?”

I tapped the counter, the universal sign of thirst, and vaguely wondered how Stern was doing out there.

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

She glanced to the mentioned lot and noticed they were playing drinking games. She snaps her fingers and they immediately look to her as she shakes her head in disapproval.

"I'm sorry to hear that you lost your ship. What kind was it if i may ask? Were you heading anywhere specific?"

Smiling at him as she sips her drink once more.

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

"Consider coming to your aide a return for all the help you provided Terrin and Galen in times past," Aaron replied, his eyes defocusing in thought. "I know Terrin wouldn't have it any other way, and that he would have come himself if he were here."

Aaron paused at that pursing his lips. Then, with effort, Aaron refocused on the moment. "As it is I really needed a good break from running the company and a touch with reality. And, aside from talking to someone not so connected with EE and all of her affairs, having a good mug or two of Whyrene's Reserve is up on my list of things to do as well..."

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