"Matt Stanza to the Devil-May-Care, Matt Stanza to the Devil-May-Care, Dear gods we need your help down here..."

All due haste and from my duties am I retrieved. To comm unit I go, and reply is flashing sending.

"Devil-May-Care replies, this is Devil-May-Care" my response is flashed back in hurried pulses. "Come in ground; Yaoksi and Matt, recieving you I am."

Moments pass, no answer comes. Concerned I am growing, again I try. "Devil-May-Care replies, this is Devil-May-Care" once more I transmit, then quiet as expectantly await an answer do I. None is coming, concern for my captain and friend is now growing.

What to do, what to do? What would Galen have had me do?

Galen....

Now outward send I once again, fiddling with band-widths to send out broadscale. Hoping am I that Terrin receives this; far from Sullust are we now, and time we now must not waste. Concerned am I that no reply to my response has yet to come, concern I send along the ether to those yet behind.

"K'kihl on Devil-May-Care, this is K'kihl on Devil-May-Care. Captain Danner, receiving this are you? Trouble is here on Kessel where we are, assistance we are needing. With all due haste, please respond and hail to us.

"K'kihl on Devil-May-Care, this is K'kihl on Devil-May-Care. Captain Danner, receiving this are you? Trouble is here on Kessel where we are, assistance we are needing...."

"K'kihl on Devil-May-Care, this is K'kihl on Devil-May-Care. Captain Danner, receiving this are you? Trouble is here on Kessel where we are, assistance we are needing...."

Oh, this was sounding so wonderful already...

Suddenly, the tide of the Force shifts, and I feel the sane half of my mind gaining the upper hand. I quickly try to dispel the glitterstim clouding my consciousness, but it's useless--I'm breathing more in every second. I turn to Yaoksi, determined to speak to him, at least while I was in control of my thoughts.

Scratch the idea that Poliani is going to be any help. Sheesh, this is ten times worse than putting up with Jasyn when he's drunk. We've gotta get her out of here. She's really starting to seem more than just intoxicated...more like hooked. A Jedi with a glitterstim habit, now that's a pleasant thought.

"Errr..." Matt started, looking a bit blankly at Cella for a moment before returning his gaze to Yaoksi. "Maybe we can do a little recalibrating on our lifeform detector here. I'm pretty sure I could get it to detect temperature change...I'm not sure about pressure changes though. And we still have to deal with the fact that these mining tunnels will be unpredictable. We could go down then back up, or just get stuck going down, or get all the way up only to find no exit. I'm just not too sure I like this idea of trial and error, even with special devices.

"There might be one other option. If we figure out what in the assembly on the miner's cage is broken, we just might be able to hotwire the thing and get it going back up. Might be kinda difficult, but that just might be our best shot..."

"Cella-?" I began carefully, grasping her as gently as one would a dragon-pearl, for I was well aware of the heightened sensory input one suffered under the influence of glitterstim. "Can you hear me? It's me, Yaoksi." I paused a moment, searching her face for any indication of returning sanity. It was there, somewhat, but clearly under direct threat of being completely overwhelmed again.

I spoke up quickly, before that last glimmering of reality fled from her. "Listen to me if you can, Cella," I began sotto voce. "We are not going to leave you behind. But we are in a bit of a bind; it's going to take some time to get back up to the surface and then to the ship and away from this miserable hunk of rock."

I squeezed her arms ever so lightly, trying to help her focus. "But there is absolutely no way - no way! - we are going to leave you behind. We came here to bring you back, and bring you back we will."

And somehow we'll get you cured of this blasted glitterstim, Fates be with us....

I straightened up a bit, now sliding one arm about Cella's shoulders in the hope that the touch of humanity would keep her linked with us and reality. Fighting against an upwelling sense of futility, I turned to Matt.

"Hate to break it to ya, pal, but I really don't think we're gonna have the time to figure out how to repair the mechanics of the Cage; not to mention I don't think even you are wizard enough to do it without necessary tools. But we have to do something...."

My voice trailed off into the gloom surrounding us as I considered. Then the obvious struck me.

"You know, these Impys couldn't have relied solely on that Cage to get up and down. I mean, what did they do in the even that it - heh - broke down?" I paused, the tiniest of smiles trembling on my lips as I listened to my own words. Remarkably, they were actually beginning to sound good. I continued on with them.

"You'd think there would be an emergency shaft or something, somewhere, and I'm all for trying to find it. Imps were a lazy sort, military grunts that they were or no. I wouldn't imagine it was hidden too awfully far away from here.

But then, even if the route was not well hidden, the fact did remain that they had to find it still.

And judging from the looks of Cella, they needed to find it fast.

Too bad there wouldn't be a big red sign overhead that said EXIT when they found it...

But then...

Maybe...just maybe...

If there was an exit nearby that lead back up to the surface, wouldn't his commlink start getting a better signal as they approached it?

Could they, combined with a little recalibration of his biosensor to detect the surrounding temperature, use the commlink signal to find their way out of this hole?

"Devil-May-Care, this is Jasyn Lancaster on the ZZ'Shzq, I copy. What's the trouble? And furthermore, how can we help you?"

Clack my mandibles now do I, in semblance of smile Yaoksi would be saying. Into comm device answer I am making, all the time in wonder of silence of the Twi'lek.

That one, into the maw of unknown has she disappeared, I am thinking. Wonderment to me is this; look into this after immediate concern.

My mouth-parts clack in finality.

"ZZ'Shzq, hail of yours is fine in-coming," I affirm briefly. Then to problem at hand I turn.

"Loss of communication between ground-party and ship has occurred. No way to determine whether ship transmission is being received. Party long overdue for rendezvous at landing coordinates. Help we are seeking."

Now into silence am I falling, suddenly helpless feeling am I. New friend, to lose so quickly, I wish not. Nor harm to others befall.

Concern is coming. The Twi'lek this commboard should be attending, where has she gone? To find her I shall. The ship I should in attendance be, perhaps the down-course transmission increased in intensity can be made. Study this I must, I am thinking.

To ZZ'Shzq make I now a reply.

"In compliance with suggestion I shall be. Frequency increase to ground I shall be making. In meantime, awaiting your arrival shall we be."

"Devil-May-Care out."

In no time, I was in the hold of the ship running a diagnostic on the weapons console. Toolkit in hand, I took out a hydrospanner and did a little minor maintenance on the laser cannons and concussion missile launchers. I couldn't help but fiddle with the guns a little bit; still, it was nothing compared to what I could do. I resolved to ask Yaoksi's permission to do more intensive work when he came back. I wondered absently when he and Matt would come back. They had been gone longer than I expected...

The unmistakable click of the Verpine's claws on the deck brought my thoughts into focus. I crawled out from under the gunnery computer and wiped my hands on a rag as I walked down the companionway to meet him.

Hydrospanner. Has a hydrospanner, does she. Wanted a hydrospanner, did I, needed hydrospanner....

My head I am shaking, and mandibles clacking, my thoughts into focus am bringing. Silly to pause longer; engines my finesse are still needing. Jump right into the swamp, do I, no time to not do so.

"Captain Joao and friend has long been gone. Has been long gone too long, I am not liking. Sent transmission to Captain Danner, did I... and he did I catch."

Pause I; uncomfortable I am becoming. Never much for such talk am I, prefer I the cool hum of engines smoothly working...

Continue on. "Their ship is in-coming here, to our help are they coming. I the engines must calibrate for optimum efficiency. You--" Point I appendage at this one standing so quiet now. "You the commboard can man maybe, I am thinking? Constant monitoring of situation is at hand."

Pause I now, concern in her eyes I am seeing. My shoulders shrug. The word has given been.

"I think I've done just about all I can with this," he said at length. "We should be able to get some temperature readings now. And some air pressure readings as well."

Looking a moment at Cella Poliani, Matt wondered if they'd already taken far too long. He wondered if she'd ever recover from this. For a moment, he felt a tinge of guilt. Here she'd come to help them, and instead she'd been sent away. And now even their best efforts didn't seem to be enough to help her out in return.

She must be terrified.

Walking hurriedly up to the ship's comm center, my stomach churned. Gone too long? Precious gods, why hadn't K'kihl let me know that Matt and Yaoksi might be in trouble, to say nothing of Cella? They were my friends too, and I might have been able to help. Cricket hadn't had to call Jasyn and Terrin!

I sat down behind the commboard, thoughts swirling in my head. Maybe it was better for me to man the ship with K'kihl...but my first impulse was to run out onto the barren surface of the planet, screaming Yaoksi's name. The old Naisra'len would have done that, the one with no sense of responsibility and the good of the group.

However, it might be nice to stick that Sith lady in here...and that Rean character as well...

Cella shut her eyes to try to stop the sensory overload, but it didn't work. Each new breath brought more glitterstim into her body, and as soon as she used the Force to bring herself some respite, she had to breathe and the cycle started all over again. She didn't give in to the drug however. The sane part of her mind warned her that if she gave up trying to purge herself of the glitterstim, it would saturate her tissues and she would be absolutely addicted.

"Terrin, we've just come out of hyperspace. We are at Kessel." A bit of hesitation. "Everything allright?"

"No. We've...gotta talk. I'll be to the cabin in a bit. Hail the Devil-May-Care and let K'kihl know we're here. And keep your eye out for Shawn Petrolu."

Jasyn didn't ask questions. "Got it boss."

With that, Jasyn was off. Still not able to actually form words about what had just happened, Terrin continued to gaze at Galen, something akin to anger starting to niggle in the corners of his mind.

WHERE WAS LITTLE JHINDARRA???

He couldn't read a thing about it in the Force. What the Heck?

Hesitantly, Shawn reached for his commboard and hailed the sleek little yacht. "Zz'Shzq, this is the Starlight, Jedi Shawn Petrolu captaining."

"This is Jasyn Lancaster. I hope you are here to help."

Okay, so what was up with this? Something was amiss...Shawn knew even without a Force lock on the ship. Confusion and fear arose as emotions from a planet that should be devoid of life. "Please let Captain Danner know that I have arrived. In te meantime, is there anything I can do for you?"

"We seem to have a Noghri stowaway onboard. I've been able to seal him off aft, but I think we'd really like to get rid of him. He's one of the Sith's little lackeys, that's almost certainly a given. I'd deal with him myself but I don't want him running amok aboard the ship."

Shawn seemed to consider. "Well...your ship has the most peculiar quality. I can't get a Force lock on it. The only way I can help you out is if I'm onboard the ship. Then I just might be able to peacefully rid you of your little critter."

"Think you can dock your freighter with our ship?" Jasyn asked.

Shawn replied in the affirmative.

"Allright then. We'll see just what you can do."

Then, punching a switch aboard the comm unit, Jasyn hailed the Devil-May-Care. "This is Jasyn Lancaster, Switchboard Operator of the ZZ'Shzq," he said a bit disgustedly. "K'kihl or Naisra'len, do you read me?"

"Lousy Jedi pilots!" he grumbled.

Then, unsealing the cabin doors and aiming a blaster in front of him for good measure, Jasyn proceeded to the hatch. Signals confirmed that the Starlight had docked. He released the airlock, and in minutes, Shawn Petrolu, blue Jedi robes streaming down his person, entered the ship.

Jasyn cocked his head at Petrolu and frowned. "You could have docked a little more softly, you know."

The shorter man shot him a piercing blue-green look. "Sorry," he said. "Piloting isn't one of those things I'm better at."

Before Jasyn could get a reply in, the Jedi suddenly turned dead serious, looking somewhere past Jasyn. "There is trouble here."

Jasyn rolled his brown eyes. "Damn skippy," he muttered. "Noghri and all, I'd say there's a good chance we have trouble."

Petrolu just shook his head, still looking right through Jasyn. "No...it's not that. There is mischief afoot."

Jasyn merely arched an eyebrow. "Are you here to prophesize or actually do something?"

"Well, you might like to know your Noghri buddy just took an escape pod out of here."

"Yeah right!" Jasyn blurted. "And I'm the bloody ghost of Khaandon!"

Petrolu was unphased by the sarcasm. "Look at your indicators for yourself."

"Fine," Jasyn mutter irritably. "Stinkin' Jedi."

As he mumbled and turned for the cabin, Shawn close on his heels, he missed the bemused look the Jedi gave him altogether. Keying up a few things on the navboard, Jasyn found Shawn's observations to be accurate. He whirled to face the Jedi.

"How do you do that?!"

Shawn merely grinned. "Trick of the trade. Though we have to wonder why this Noghri elected to board your ship, then left without doing a thing." Petrolu paused, considering. "Run a systems check."

"Done," Jasyn said. "Everything is clear."

"Allright. then I guess we'll wait til your friends reply to your comm and Captain Danner is available to talk."

Jasyn didn't even want to know how the Jedi knew about the comm. "Yeah," Then switching to the ship-wide comm, Jasyn announced, "Terrin, Jedi Petrolu is here. And I'm still waiting for K'kihl or Naisra'len to answer my hail..."

"No." The single word escaped my lips in a softly uttered breath of air. My mouth closed with a momentary clenching of teeth as I struggled to keep that awful darkness with its even more awful images at bay. All the blood seemed to rush from my extremities at the effort this took; my eyes clouded inward, glaring, daring the darkness to win.

It would not. I wouldn't let it.

For if I did, how could I come to the aid of my child?

Oh yes, that JhinDarra was alive and well was evident to me. I was as sure of this as though I had her in my arms. I didn't know exactly what gave me that assurity, but assumed it had something to do with the strength she had given me that awful day on Khar Delba, when I thought that Terrin was dead.

Be that as it may, I knew she was alive as well as I knew just whose child it was I had carried. I shuddered briefly, as the atrocity that awful Sith had perpetrated upon my body was suddenly given new meaning. Don't as me how I knew, I just did.

And I'd never tell Terrin. Just the mere possibility of what I was thinking would be enough to bring too much pain to bear on him, let alone what hell he'd go through if my suspicions were correct.

I now sat up, drew in a deep breath, then slowly exhaled. The action helped focus my thoughts, and caused a blessed blanket of calm to suddenly descend upon me. But that I wasn't as calm as I appeared showed in my eyes: I knew they were blazing.

I turned them now to the pain-filled ones of my love, whose deep blue was deepening with his own slowly developing anger.

"She's alive, Terrin. I know...know this is true. They've got her on Khar Delba, I'm just sure of it."

I paused once more as the mere mention of that awful place brought a fresh onslaught of anger and fear; blinking back tears I managed to roll off the bed upon which I had just brought a child into the world, and grasped Terrin's hand.

Kessel, this is one strong lady! the thought erupted as her nails threatened to break through my clothing and into the flesh of my arm. I reached with my free hand and placed it atop hers, patting it gently, always maintaining that physical link with her I somehow knew she needed.

But was she strong enough to fend off the effects of this damned glitterstim?

That thought brought another wince, and brought forth an involuntary flood of other rumors I had heard throughout my years of traipsing through the Galaxy. Rumors of days past, when the Hutts had dealt one way or another with the old Empire, and had their slimy fingers into glitterstim mining themselves; days when entire villages were known to just up and disappear... to be put into forced labor in the glitterstim mines; days when, it was rumored, slaves would likewise disappear from those mines when their exposure to glitterstim was lengthy enough to finally overcome their meager protective clothing and rebreathers they were grudgingly allotted by the Hutts, and they were then deigned as of use to no one, least of all to themselves.

And this Jedi lady didn't have so much as a rebreather on her....

I turned a glance full of worry to Matt, who was still fiddling with his biosensor, then hauled myself to my feet.

"I hope you're right about that last," I agreed with him as I pulled Cella up onto her own two feet as well. "Because pal, whether or not you're ready, we have to go. This lady here can't take much more of the crap we're wading through down here."

I gave my head a final nod, and patted Cella's hand once more. Then I took it upon myself to put words into action. Basically choosing a direction at random, I set off, dragging the limply stumbling Jedi in my wake. After a few seconds, I heard the sound of Matt's following footsteps.

Kessel, but I hope the Fates are with us....

The eyes on that kid...

...turquoise with violet rings...

...and, horns?

Just like that...

...

Unconsciously Terrin bit his lip, hard.

Damn the Sith. Damn them to Hell!

Terrin didn't know how, but somehow he knew that something else had happened back on that horrible day when the horned-Sith had assaulted Galen.

But then, what had happened to Galen's baby?

As the horror of not having any idea what had happened to the baby slammed into Terrin full-force, Galen's words answered his thoughts as if on cue.

"She's alive, Terrin. I know...know this is true. They've got her on Khar Delba, I'm just sure of it."

Khar Delba?

What the hell did the Sith need their baby for if they had one of their own?

Did they intend to try to kill her?

They damned well better not lay a finger on her.

Grasping onto his arm, Galen stood. He wrapped his other arm about her, steadying her as she whispered, "Terrin, we've got to go back there."

Terrin nodded once, rather solemnly. "We'll find her," he said simply. "I think we should take Shawn Petrolu's help. Something tells me we are going to need him."

Mentally, Terrin added, I hope he's ready for what he's getting himself into...

The voice issuing from the commboard woke me up from a sound sleep. I hastily wiped a droplet of drool from my chin and tucked the dream I'd just had into my memory. Nice dream too...me and Yaoksi on a white sand beach, sun shining, wind blowing...oh, what I wouldn't give for a nice normal vacation like that.

Lancaster out."

With that, Jasyn clicked the comm off and eyed Shawn again. "Can you find them?"

Shawn looked a bit beyond himself for a moment, then nodded. "Yes. It's impossible to tell from this ship with the weird Force-blanket around it...I don't know how that happened or where it is coming from...but last I could feel they were trapped," he said. "And moving."

"Allright. I'll let Terrin know, then we'll be on our way. I think it's gonna be you and me, pal, so get your gear ready." Then he added, smugly, "I hope they teach you some hiking and survival tips in those Jedi schools."

Then, switching the comm once more, Jasyn opened the ship-wide channel, "Terrin, Petrolu says he can lead us to the group. He insists they are trapped. I'm thinking he and I should go scouting the surface. Your thoughts?"

With a couple of people aboard the Devil and a couple of people still aboard the ZZ'Shzq, they might give themselves a higher survival rate if another group got stuck. Always best to have a few men (and women) out of the fire in case someone gets burned. But then, might splitting up further cause more chaos? And what if someone was injured and they needed more than a couple of people to help them out?

Maybe they needed to land the ZZ'Shzq on the surface of Kessel, send Jasyn and Shawn out, then the rest of them act as a sort of back up?

This needed to get done quickly and efficiently. They absolutely HAD to get to Khar Delba. Not a moment could be wasted.

"Jasyn, take ZZ'Shzq down on the surface," Terrin replied at last. "I think it's a good idea for you and Shawn to go after the group, but I don't want you stranded out there with everyone else in the sky. Let Shawn lead you to everyone. If it takes you too long, we'll transmit back to the Devil for more help. Once we get everyone accounted for...we'll talk about what's coming next."

Jasyn hesitated at that. "Allright. I'll tell K'kihl and Nassy to keep their eyes and ears open. Meanwhile, everybody grab a hold of something. We're gong down."

With that, the comm went silent again, and Terrin returned his gaze to Galen, whom he was still holding steady.

"As soon as we find our missing friends, we're going to Khar Delba, regardless of who decides to go or stay. Hopefully our Jedi friends will stick around. At any rate," he continued, "You know I'm in this for the long haul, sweetheart.

"But," he ended, striving to bring a lightness to the situation that he didn't truly feel, "We'd better hang onto something while we land. After all, Jasyn is at the helm..."

And this guy complains about MY piloting?

Keeping that thought to himself, Shawn merely waited. And while he waited, he stretched out his Force-senses to further understand the distress which clearly was coming from others aboard the ship. Something akin to anger...most definitely anger...was running rampant throughout the ship. Considering that those aboard should have been experiencing joy at the birth of a child, a red flag was clearly waving in his mental line of sight.

And Shawn somehow knew that the child that should be here was not. There should have been the Force-signature of FOUR people on board when he entered, plus a stoway. Yet there had been 3 people, and no stowaway.

And the Force-signatures of those on board clearly indicated that all adults were present.

A departing stowaway. A missing child.

A coincidence?

Probably not.

"Hey Jedi," Jasyn said, breaking Shawn's thoughts, "You ready? ETA five minutes."

Shawn snapped from his musings, only then noticing that they were breaking into the atmosphere.

"Yes," Shawn replied simply. "Captain Danner and Galen will be watching the comm?"

Jasyn arched an eyebrow, "Yeah. Hopefully they won't have anything to worry about. I think they both need their rest."

Shawn nodded. "We'll find your friends, you have my word."

"Allright then, pal, I hope you follow through on that."

"Oh Damn," he muttered, thinking something was wrong. Then, glancing at the controls, he was pleased to find that everything was operational.

And that the maps were in.

After hitting a switch on the consol, the first of several maps appeared on the monitor. "My, my the Fates are with us! And I have a lock on a ship about the size of the Bee. I think if we land near it we'll be close to the correct mine."

Starting the landing cycle and punching a button to get a print-out of the maps, Jasyn keyed the comm again.

"Terrin, I we're in the landing cycle. And we have the maps of the mines. It's now or never. Soon as we touch ground, you and Galen will be in charge of the comm, and we'll be on our way."

A pause, then a reply. "Be careful. And hurry. We'll keep an ear out and stay in contact with the Devil.

"Gotcha boss," he answered. Then, wondering, "Terrin?"

"Yes?"

"Is...Galen and the baby allright?"

A hesitation. "Galen's fine. The baby...she's on Khar Delba."

Jasyn couldn't help but frown at the thought of the kid being at that place.

What the hell had happened that the baby was THERE?

Well, I guess you know what the next assignment will be. Gotta get the kid away from that Hellhole.

Does it EVER end?

"Sorry to hear that. We'll make it as quick as possible so we can be on our way. In the meantime, you two get some rest. Lancaster out."

Then, turning to Shawn as the ship hit ground, Jasyn tilted his head towards the cabin door. "Shall we?"

Shawn nodded. "Yes. And the sooner, the better."

Each step brought me closer and closer to erupting. Each step held me further and further away from my daughter.

Finally I came to a halt, my fists at my sides. I was trembling with emotion just barely held in check.

"Look!" I finally burst out, whirling to face Terrin. "We just can't stay here like this! You know how hideous that awful Khar Delba was... is..." I corrected myself in mid-sentence. "Each second we stay away from Darra is one second more something terrible might happen to her!"

Biting my lip, I began pacing again. Even though every sense I possessed was informing me that while, yes, though our daughter was in the home of those terrible Sith she was as yet unharmed, I couldn't bear the wait. I just had to get to her, and quickly. I came to another halt in front of Terrin, and pinned his blue eyes with my own.

"We have enough ships; why don't we go on to Khar Delba? If that Jedi finds Yaoksi and Matt and Cella, he and Jasyn can just come along to Khar Delba in Yaoksi's ship."

He was making the right decision in waiting, right? Didn't they need Shawn? Then again, the Jedi hadn't been of much assistance before.

But then they were talking about themselves. Now they were talking about a baby girl.

Did the Jedi understand the importance? Did Shawn?

And what did it matter anyway? She was only a little girl...

...If something happened to her while they waited...

Shuddering at the thought, Terrin tried his best to think logically. If they were to take off now, on their own, how would they approach this Temple? And what if Shawn COULDN'T find the group?

But then, what if something did happen to little Darra while they waited?

The pain of having to choose between his friends and his daughter was almost too much to bear.

She DID come first, but he still had to think about what scenario would provide THE BEST way for them to find her and save her. Going now, and acting on his impulse, or going in with a plan and with a group of people?

Saftey in numbers.

Terrin sighed heavily, taking Galen's chin in his hand and waiting til her eyes were focused on his. "Running after little Darra without a plan and without back up won't help her, love. We're going in, and we are going in as soon as possible. But I want to be more than damned sure we are ready. And yes, I think we need Shawn Petrolu. I know our experience with Jedi has been less than desirable. But this guy..."

Terrin paused, searching for the words to explain it, "I know from experience that he doesn't go back on his word and doesn't give up. You've gotta know this isn't an easy decision for me to make," he continued, looking down.

"I'll never forgive myself if something happens to her..."

"Then let me go to her!" I whispered, putting every ounce of persuasive power I could into that short demand. My eyes remained glued to his, willing him to concede... but I never received an answer. His visage swam suddenly out of focus as, my hands now falling limply to my sides I swayed even more upon my feet...

...and then, embarrassingly enough, fainted dead away.

A child. Not THEIR child.

Between the actual labor and the trauma after, it was really a wonder she'd been able to function as long as she had.

As he laid her on the bed and took up a protective position next to her, Terrin's thoughts drifted inward again.

No. He'd never forgive himself if something happened to their little girl. But then, he couldn't give into the worry and let it ruin any possible attempt to get her back.

They WOULD get her back. And it would probably take everything they had. But they would, he'd make sure of that.

Unconsciously fiddling with the commlink that had been sitting on the nightstand next to him, Terrin hoped to goodness that Shawn Petrolu could find Yaoksi and the others quickly.

Time was ticking.

As he placed the commlink back on the nightstand, Terrin tried to clear his mind and gave himself up to simply waiting and trusting the Jedi.

Not an easy task for someone who tended to distrust everyone til proven otherwise.

And slowly, without his even truly being aware of it, exhaustion took over and his vision clouded, and he drifted off to sleep...

If we ever... EVER--! get out of this place, I'm going to buy myself the biggest kriffing luminary this side of the Core! I swore to myself as I continued on down the corridor of silence and stone. I've learned my lesson: always be prepared. One never knows--

That thought was truncated by a strangely sibilant hiss, which was accompanied by an equally strange and somehow liquid motion in the darkness ahead of us. My nerves were stretched tighter than the lock on a Toydarian's cashbox; I triggered my blaster without even thinking about it and was promptly rewarded by a high-pitched series of descending squeals. The sound echoed down the corridor into a silence broken only by Matt's terse comment.

"Damn energy spiders."

I nodded, even though it was doubtful Matt even saw me, then hesitantly moved forward. I didn't get far.

Directly ahead of us stretched the massive web of the hideous creature I had so recently sent to its demise. The web completely blocked the corridor; with a little sigh, I stopped and turned to Matt.

"Looks like a dead end this way, pal," I said with a nod of my head as I shone my light on the web. In the distance behind it I could barely make out the intricate lace of yet another one. I didn't want to think what lay beyond that one; two in visual sight of each other was enough for me.

"Guess all we can do is go back and try another tunnel. C'mon."

Giving Cella's shoulders a little squeeze, if only to remind her that we were still with her, I turned us around and began carefully picking my way along the path we had just traversed. I tried to keep my step light and my expression bland, but I couldn't help but be filled with more and more trepidation. Each wrong step kept Cella under the influence of glitterstim.

I didn't even want to think what her life would be like if she was exposed to so much that she could never be cleansed of it.

He was practically slammed with an aura so radiating with emotions barely held in check that he took in a quick breath. Jasyn looked up from his map.

"What?" he quizzed, arching an eyebrow.

"We'd better move. Someone's in a lot of trouble."

"Hurt?" Jasyn asked, looking very concerned.

Shawn frowned, searching deeper. "No...not exactly. I'm not sure what it is. But someone is radiating through the Force like a newborn who is unable to control emotions."

"Glitterstim," Jasyn said simply.

It was Shawn's turn to arch an eyebrow. "What?"

"Oh come on, you Jedi have certainly heard of it."

"Yes, but what has glitterstim got to do with it?"

Jasyn shot Shawn a quizzical look mingled with a bit of amusement. "You must have been living under a rock. Kessel is famous...or rather infamous for its glitterstim mines. And considering the lack of emotional control you are describing, I'd think someone has gotten himself or herself schnokered up real good. I wonder if everyone in the group had a rebreather..."

"I'm thinking not," Shawn said. "We really just need to get going."

"Which mine, pal? There are at least three options here," he said, indicating the map.

Shawn looked down at the map, then glanced up, his look turning vague. Then he looked back at the map and pointed. "That one."

"Allright, then that's the way we go. You're in the lead here pal, so you'd better be sure. We can coordinate our search with my map, but you've gotta be sure of what you are doing for this to work."

Shawn merely nodded. "I know."

Then, without further word, Shawn stepped forward, assuming that Jasyn would simply follow. Grimacing, Jasyn fell in right behind the Jedi.

What gives with Terrin trusting this guy? Jedi are so self-absorbed, so self-righteous...

...how do we know Petrolu is going to be any different?

"That way," Shawn said, interrupting Jasyn's musings as he pointed towards a path.

"There should be a miner's cage in that direction, according to the map," Jasyn explained, using a luminary to light the paper in his hands.

Shawn nodded as per his usual, and proceeded ahead without a word.

You know, if you told me when we are about to move things might run more smoothly, Jasyn thought blackly as he stumbled onward behind the Jedi, nearly flying over a rough spot in the floor of the mine as he walked.

They continued trudging down the same path for quite a while, when a strange hissing noise interrupted Shawn's concentration and Jasyn's grumbling.

"I think we took a wrong turn," Jasyn growled. "Are you sure you know what you are doing? There doesn't even seem to be anyone here..."

As the strange whining sound began to grow louder, Shawn seemed to completely ignore Jasyn's comments. Jasyn was about to complain about this, when out of the darkness something swooped.

"Sithspawn!" he hissed, going for his blaster. Only a split second before he could fire, Shawn had ignited the green blade of his lightsaber, slicing once. The energy spider crumpled to the ground, its body steaming from the contact it had made with the lightsaber blade.

"I hate energy spiders," Jasyn grumbled, keeping his blaster in his hands as he scanned the area nervously with the luminary in his other hand. Above them a web hung. "Not my idea of a nice vacation spot," he added. Then looking back to Shawn. "Are you positive this is where they went?"

Shawn nodded, managing to hide his amusement pretty well in the darkness of the mine.

Jasyn just snorted and began to follow the Jedi as he got on the move once again.

"The miner's cage should be up the way," Shawn said.

"You mean we are going down?" Jasyn whined.

Shawn nodded.

Jasyn shot his luminary out in the distance, then frowned. "I see the shaft," he said, "But there's just one problem."

Shawn turned a moment to regard his companion. "Oh?" Then he proceeded on closer to the shaft, Jasyn on his heels.

Jasyn approached and halted near the shaft, casting his luminary around the area. His suspicions were suddenly and quite disturbingly confirmed. "So much for our miner's cage," he said disgustedly. "If we are going down...we're going to have to find another way..."

Jasyn actually managed half a smile in the darkness at the comment, but then his look darkened again. "Allright then," he said, moving his luminary to light the map as best as he could. "Looks like it's time to find an Impy emergency route."

Shawn stepped near Jasyn to gaze at the map himself. "I'm sensing that they are somewhere around here," he indicated, pointing at the map.

Jasyn nodded in response, biting his lip in thought. "Damn Impys. Don't even label emergency routes clearly on the maps. You'd think they didn't even trust themselves," he mused.

"Well, what do you expect," Shawn said, "They were Imperials after all."

Shawn couldn't make out the look in the gaze Jasyn gave him in response to the comment, but he thought that maybe he'd struck a chord of agreement.

Good. Maybe you will come to learn that Jedi aren't that different from the general populace. That is, if they are the Jedi that they should be.

Then, returning his attentions to the map, Shawn looked deeper. "What about that?" he said, indicating yet something else.

Jasyn considered for a moment. "Well, it's not labeled as an emergency shaft per se, but it certainly looks like it just might be..."

"So, what do you say?" Shawn asked.

Jasyn looked up with a somewhat startled look on his face. "You're asking me?"

"Yeah. Two heads are better than one."

"I'm thinking it's definitely worth a shot. Let's head that way and hope we're right."

"Yes, let's. The waves of emotion are only getting more pronounced with every moment. I fear that time is running short..."

Something different about this guy...

...in comparison to most Jedi anyway...

He pushed the thought aside as Shawn suddenly halted.

"Don't do that!" Jasyn growled, stumbling a bit as he stopped.

"Sorry," Shawn said as he cast his luminary to gaze at a rift in the wall of the mine.

"What are you looking for?" Jasyn asked curiously.

For a moment Shawn was silent. "Let me see that map again, and maybe I can tell you."

"Allright..." Jasyn replied hesitantly, opening the map. Shawn looked over it, searching for something.

Not the time for sudden exploration, buddy, Jasyn thought sarcastically.

"Just as I thought," the Jedi said at last.

"You mind sharing this with the rest of the group?" Jasyn questioned, looking at the map himself.

"An emergency route," Shawn said simply. "Look at the figure right here on the map."

Jasyn frowned as he surveyed the area of the map which Shawn's pointing finger had indicated.

"I don't see..." He stopped, midsentence, taking an even closer look. "Well I'll be Kesseled..."

"Not the best choice of wording," Shawn interjected sarcastically.

"Yeah, I suppose not," Jasyn conceded. Then, frowning again, he asked the one question that was now niggling in the corners of his brain. "So what exactly is this emergency route? A miner's cage that is hidden behind this rift? What? And how do we get to it?"

"One step at a time, my friend," Shawn replied.

Jasyn frowned even more darkly at the comment, beginning to walk behind Shawn as he again started to move, this time towards the rift in the wall. "How did I know you were going to say something like that..."

He sliced his now-activated lightsaber blade upward. The energy spider skittered to the side, still latching onto its web, its fangs smacking together unpleasantly.

Shawn paid this no mind. He simply reached out with the Force to gauge the intentions of the critter a second before they occurred. After a bit of swooping and ducking, the spider, like the other, was crumpled on the ground.

Then Shawn turned his attentions to his companion, who was clutching his shoulder for dear life. Even without a light, Shawn knew he'd been bit.

He reached out a hand and touched the shoulder. Jasyn winced. "OUCH DAMNIT!!! STAY AWAY FROM ME!"

Jasyn stumbled back as he tried to get away from the Jedi, the glitterstim poison already taking its effect. Shawn knew if he couldn't get his companion to sit still for a burst of Force-healing, the glitterstim would pervade his bloodstream and in no time he'd be a human vegetable. Or worse. So Shawn did the one Jedi thing he HATED to ever do. He reached out and touched Jasyn's already glitterstim-fevered brain and willed him to freeze in place. Jasyn lurched as he made a last-ditch effort to move back away from him, then crumpled to the ground.

Shawn reached a hand out to place it on the man's shoulder. The bite itself would have to be healed later. It was the poison flowing through Jasyn's blood that Shawn was more concerned about for the moment.

"Rest easy friend," he said, understanding Jasyn's primal fear. Glitterstim has an odd way of making people very sensitive to every single thing around them. Especially if it is driven right through the bloodstream as it is in the energy spider's bite.

An hour later, after vigilant Force-channeling, Shawn had managed to clear Jasyn's bloodstream of the poison for the most part. The haze began to slowly fade from Jasyn's eyes. Blinking, he winced. "I think I'm gonna die..." he moaned, his voice hoarse.

Shawn grinned as he cast the luminary which he had recovered onto the other's face. "That's the best thing I've ever heard. You'd better get back on your feet."

Jasyn frowned. "You gotta be kidding me," he muttered. "Give me a day or two and some heavy drugs..."

"After the glitterstim burst you just had I don't forsee that as a good plan," Shawn replied, lending Jasyn a hand as he began to sit up.

Jasyn reached up to clutch his shoulder. "Can't you at least fix this?" he growled.

"No time," Shawn said. "The group is moving this way below us, and there's an emergency miner's cage just ahead. We'd better move before they pass us."

Slowly Jasyn managed to shove himself standing. A bout of pain washed over him, and he doubled over. Shawn was there in a moment to stop him from toppling back over. "Are you sure I'm not going to die?" he winced.

Shawn shook his head. "Not today, anyway."

Jasyn grimaced as he began to walk next to Shawn, who made sure to keep near him. "Thanks for the encouragement, pal," he said sarcastically. "Just do me one favor?"

"What's that?" Shawn asked, glancing over to Jasyn as he approached the hidden miner's cage and hit the switch to open the door, leading Jasyn in.

"Remind me to never come back to Kessel..."

"Can't we just...take a break? A little one?" he said, drawing in a quick breath as a surge of pain washed over him.

Shawn paused a moment. "Not a good idea. The glitterstim is out of your system mostly, but I didn't have time to completely cleanse your bloodstream. If we stop and take a break the remaining glitterstim will just take hold of you again."

Jasyn nodded, feeling a bit disoriented. "Allright. Just...stay close. I'm feeling a touch strange."

"That's not uncommon," Shawn said. "Just hang in there. As soon as we get out of this you'll have some travel time to get yourself back in shape." Then, turning his attentions to the wall in front of them, Shawn considered their next problem. "Okay, we are down, but we've gotta get through the wall. No wonder the others haven't found this way out, it's not visible from the other
side, especially not with the lack of lighting."

"Well, then I hope we can find it when we are on the other side."

"It's in my mind now. We'll find it."

Jasyn managed a somewhat bemused look. "Thanks. I feel so much better about it now."

Shawn chose to ignore the comment. "There's gotta be...a lever or something..." he said, feeling the wall with his hand. Nothing seemed to trigger any movement, however.

"Knock on the wall," Jasyn finally said.

Shawn turned and arched an eyebrow. "Wha--?"

"You are looking for a hollow space in the wall. The release or lever will be right above that."

Shawn considered then nodded, turning again to face the wall and trace its surface with his hand, this time knocking every couple of hand widths. After a few minutes of this, he was about to give up when suddenly the wall shifted.

"Push," Jasyn instructed. Shawn didn't argue, but just pushed the wall. It yielded and, as though they were standing on some sort of pivot, the floor beneath them moved with the door, and they spun around. After a one-eighty degree turn, the wall snapped back into place, looking for all the
universe to be a normal part of the miner's cave wall.

Shawn grinned. "Whoa, I'm impressed."

"Usual trap door. Not very original. Don't count on...the Impy's to be otherwise," he ended, gasping at a new surge of pain. "Please tell me this will be over soon."

"Actually," Shawn interjected, motioning Jasyn to follow as he began to move again. "I think we are in luck. They aren't far."

"Good. Even hyperspace travel is sounding better than this."

Time seemed to pass slowly as Jasyn followed the Jedi, his mind still under the influence of the remainder of glitterstim in his system. Maybe minutes had passed, maybe hours, when Shawn suddenly halted in front of him. Jasyn didn't react quite as quickly to this as he usually would have and therefore bumped into the Jedi, causing a new jolt of pain to wash over him. He moaned in spite of himself.

"Somebody there?" a familiar voice asked, wafting from somewhere about fifty meters ahead. At least one luminary flashed in their direction, and Jasyn blinked as the light shined in his eyes and nearly overwhelmed him.

As the sound waves bounced around in his throbbing head, Jasyn realized something else. He knew the voice. "Matt?"

A shuffling/dragging of footsteps answered his call. Shawn remained near him, clearly analyzing whether these were friends or foes approaching. At last he whispered to Jasyn. "We've found them," he said.

Jasyn was about to respond that this was a good thing and that it was time they proceeded the hell out of the mine, when the luminary again flashed in his direction and he could make out the fuzzy image of three people...two men and one not-so-well looking female who looked a hell of alot like
their Cella Poliani. "Whoa, what the hell happened to you guys?" he asked, looking down to avoid the glare of the luminary.

Matt answered. "Lack of rebreather to combat glitterstim. What the hell happened to you?" he asked in return.

Jasyn managed to look up into the luminary long enough to meet his green-eyed friend's gaze. "Energy spider thought I looked like a nice dessert. Thank goodness for our Jedi friend here."

Matt shot the luminary over in Shawn's direction, looking very surprised. "Shawn Petrolu? What happened to Rean? How did you get here...?"

Jasyn cut him off. "Look pal, no time to discuss this with committee. If she feels anything like she looks," he explained, motioning to the listless Jedi with his uninjured arm, "I'd say we better
get the hell out of here."

Shawn nodded in agreement. "Everything will be explained, after we reach the surface and get on our way."

Matt nodded, and motioned to his companions. "Any objections?"

Yaoksi shook his head. The female Jedi...well, no one was quite sure if she responded at all.

"Allright, there's a hidden miner's cage back a way," Shawn explained, beginning to lead everyone along.

Suddenly Matt stepped near Jasyn and asked the question that had been burning in his mind. "On our way to where?"

Jasyn shook his head, trying to clear a bit of fog as well as in response to Matt. "Don't even ask pal. You'll know all too soon enough."

...not the Sith's child. Little Darra.

The buzzing laughter pervaded Terrin's mind as he floated somewhere between sleep and wakefulness, unaware that his auditory perceptions were fueling his waking-nightmare.

A pair of innocent, pleading blue eyes...

...blue eyes? Where had that come from?

"Mine, mine!" the damned creature hissed.

Terrin's eyes at last snapped open, the visions of his dream fully imprinted in his memory. As he tried to shove the nightmare away into the far corners of his mind, something disturbingly familiar broke his reeverie.

Beeping.

Suddenly he sat straight up. Oh damn, the comlink!

Terrin rolled out of the bed, scooping up the comlink and hurrying out of the room. He blinked for a moment as his eyes adjusted to the light, then he answered the call. "Terrin Danner."

"Well, it's about kriffing time," a familiar voice groaned.

Terrin grinned. "You sound like hell, Jasyn. How is the search going?"

"Found everyone. And we are mostly in one piece." Then Jasyn winced a bit. "Mostly. Better have the sickbay ready for one glitterstimmed Jedi Poliani and one energy spider bite," Jasyn explained, wincing again.

"Allright. Thanks for letting me know something. We'll be ready and waiting for your return."

"You'd better be waiting better than you were for the comm," Jasyn replied smugly. "Lancaster out."

As the comm channel snapped closed, Terrin wandered back to the room and sat on the edge of the bed, the images from his dream again coming to the forefront of his mind. He leaned forward and sat his elbows on his knees, laying his head in his hands.

He hoped the images haunting him were merely the stuff nightmares were made of...

Of course, this could have been partially due to the fact that Jasyn had been so on edge after being bitten, his senses still on overdrive from the glitterstim, that he had shot down pretty much anything that might be an energy spider.

Shawn covered his bemused grin fairly well as everyone drudged on behind him, most of them still readjusting to the light of the sun as they emerged at last from the mine.

The female Jedi that the group had in tow had at least some of Shawn's attention. She was practically living on glitterstim in her bloodvessels instead of blood itself. The vibes he got from her were disturbingly...lose. The only cure he could think of was for her to go into a hibernation trance. That he knew she wouldn't do this on her own was a given. He'd have to help her out. But then he had to wonder...on the influence of glitterstim, would she trust him to do that?

She'd have to. She just couldn't keep going like this. She was barely going as it was.

Finally he came to a halt, turning to face everyone who had been following him.

"Don't tell me you forgot something," Jasyn interjected sarcastically.

Shawn couldn't help but reply. "I'm glad to see you are feeling good enough to start with your sarcasm again."

Jasyn's eyes widened. He was clearly surprised that a Jedi would fire off such a comment.

Again, my friend, you assume that Jedi are different from everyone else.

Jasyn didn't reply, but just glared.

"Actually, I think this is the part where we decide who's going on what ship. Poliani needs a healing trance," here he motioned to the other Jedi, "And Jasyn could use a good dose of bacta patches..."

"And a good bottle of Whyrene's Reserve," Jasyn grumbled under his breath.

"Now, I know you have a ship here on the surface," Shawn continued, looking over to the man whose name was Yaoksi. "We've also brought the ZZ'Shzq down. And I know that you'll be wanting to get back to your ship as well. But you all have something very important to talk about with Captain Danner and Galen, and it just can't wait any longer. I'll let them tell you what is going on and what they need, but the long and short of it is that the time is now.

"We could load your ship the Bee on the ZZ'Shzq, have a little talk, then you could head on over to your ship. That's the best solution I can come up with at the moment.

"Excuse me," Cella half-whispered, her voice scratchy in her throat. She took a deep breath, glorying in the air that was free of glitterstim residues. "I thank you all for your aid...but I need the help of another Jedi." She focused her hazel eyes on Shawn in a glance bright with desperation. "Unless he helps me into a healing trance now, the damage may become...permanent."

"She's right," he said at length, gazing into her hazel eyes, "This has to be done now." Then, placing his hand atop one of hers, Shawn looked serenely at her, then closed his eyes. No one said a word, and Shawn was completely oblivious to anything or anyone around him aside from this one who had asked for his help. In only a few minutes, her body slowly relaxed, and she went limp...but her friends did not let her fall.

Damn glitterstim. Still has me on edge, I suppose.

That thought was quickly followed by, Now why the hell is someone sending me a comm? I've talked to Terrin, and the K'kihl and Naisra'len...

...wouldn't know what the hell is going on unless Terrin notified them. Terrin must certainly be worn out if that were the case, that wasn't his usual.

And the only other alternative would be that something had gone wrong. Now THAT wouldn't be a first.

Terrin hadn't intended upon falling asleep again. He had intended to stay up and wait for any further comms. He was going to be up and ready when the group returned from the mines to get on the problem of heading back to Khar Delba once again to rescue his and Galen's daughter.

But, when his communit beeped with Naisra'len's message, he never heard it. At a certain point a person becomes so tired that, no matter how he tries, sleep just takes over.

And that's precisely what it had done.

He had failed. The risk was too great, and the mission was too important to stay at the even greater risk of discovery and capture. Or worse. Death. Reinforcements were needed...to Khar Delba he must go.

Returning to Sullust before going back to Khar Delba might have seemed a strange move, but Leev knew the importance of the little purple and silver droid that had been left there, as well as the importance of cleaning up the evidence of the destroyed freighter.

Unnecessary mischief.

Mischief that may cost them more than it was truly worth.

The purple and silver droid, who had been left in the wreckage that once was the Lioness, bleeped irritably at the Noghri as he entered.

"Ready to depaaaaaaaart, are you?" he queried in the droid's direction.

Izzy bleeped an affirmative. Then she returned a question to the Noghri in a slow crescendo.

"Mistrrrrress's safety, I do not know of."

The droid bleeped mournfully.

"Leave immmmediately, we must," Leev said at length.

That got Izzy's attention. She bleeped a string of queries.

"To Khar Deeeeeelba," he replied. "We go now."

Healing would take some time, but Shawn was now certain she would recover. He'd have to give her a little extra boost of Force-healing when they reached the ship, just to speed up the process a bit more.

As he continued to keep a mental gauge on her healing, Jasyn took the lead of the group, now close enough to the ZZ'Shzq to know that the ship's systems were on low-power, and to know that the engine was not running.

"Ten credits says no one is awake when we board," Jasyn quipped.

"The need for rest is warranted," Shawn said simply.

Jasyn nodded. "It is. It really is. And with what's ahead, we should all be getting as much rest as we can."

Shawn nodded once again, and Matt frowned. "Are you going to share this little secret with the rest of the group or what?"

"Galen had the baby," Jasyn replied, leaving it at that.

Matt's frown only darkened. "Why do I get the distinct suspicion that there is more to it than that?"

"Because there is," Jasyn responded.

Shawn arched an eyebrow at Jasyn's back as he neared the ship. Then he turned to the others. "You might as well know the truth. The baby...is on Khar Delba."

Shawn didn't miss the looks ranging from surprise to horror as he turned back to Jasyn, who was just about on top of the ZZ'Shzq by then. As they continued their approach, the group remained silent in the face of the bombshell he had just dropped.

Well guys, Shawn thought to himself, if you thought that was bad, just wait til you find out some of the things I know about the disappearing Master Rean...

She's in a trance, she's going to be ok... Nassy will be able to add the feminine touch once I get her aboard the "Devil..." Then I'll be able to sit back and finally relax as we head to our new destination...

KHAR DELBA? What in the name of all that exists are we going to Khar Delba for? Galen's baby???

That intruding thought brought me to a screeching halt. I blinked, pushing back the budding joy of being aboard Bee, and ran the conversation between the Jedi and Matt through my thought processes again. Nope, same answer... or so I thought. Hoping against hope that I had misheard, I finally spoke up:

"Uhh, guys... did you say we're going to Khar Delba because Galen's baby is there?" I let any other comment die in my throat at the incongruity of that question.

How could Galen's baby be on Khar Delba if she just had given birth to it aboard the "Devil-May-Care?'

That question brought with it a responding flood of likely solutions, and I didn't like any of them. Thoughts of that blasted thing that, although I had never seen, I had heard plenty about ran rampant in my imagination, vying for contention there with the information I had accrued about that awful Sith... not to mention old memories of a certain Sith casually ripping into my own mind and altering my own perceptions as easily as I would run a hand through my hair. I gulped, and cast an uncertain glance to the wobbling Cella who I was still hugging supportively to me, then turned a questioning look to the others. But before I received the confirmation a little bird was insistently telling me I was going to get, another thought struck me. An entirely new ocean of concerns was hauled along in its wake.

"Uhh... another thought just hit me, pals." I cast a sidelong glance to the lady jedi, who although deep in whatever mysterious ministrations this new jedi had emplaced within her had her eyes disconcertingly open. They shone moist and bright in the dim light surrounding us, uncomfortably similar to those of the blasted energy spiders Jasyn had taken personal bounty upon. I shook that thought from me, and continued.

"Don't you think we ought to decide who goes where from here? I mean now? I mean, does anyone but me feel some inherent danger in putting both our jedi together in the same ship? It's always more difficult to hit multiple targets than one.

"And yes, ahh-- Shawn is it? Shawn-- I am fully aware that we are probably heading into the direst of circumstances, and ought to stick together. Strength in numbers and all that. But with the power of whatever it is that seems to be dogging us, I'd like to present as many numbers as I can.

"I know this lady needs care beyond the capabilities of my medbay. But, I do have a lady aboard who is really good dealing with things on an emotional level; seems to me that's what glitterstim is all about, isn't it? Loosening emotions and increasing psi powers and all?

"Hmmm..." Now I hesitated, having talked myself into an apparent circle. Yes, we needed to keep separate, that was a certainty I felt deep into the very core of my being. But Cella might need more psychic attentions... and all the while there was a baby to rescue.

I risked taking one hand from around Cella's shoulders and wiped my face with it, careful to avoid hitting the rebreather. "You're right," I finally conceded simply. "We do need to talk. But not here; somewhere that all of us can implement a face-to-face. Every one of us.

Two pinpoints.

Blood-red light.

I grimaced, shifting carefully so as not to disturb the still sleeping Terrin, my dark thoughts expanding now to encompass all that had happened to me in the short years since my sister had killed our father. My frowned darkened as those thoughts played themselves out upon the screen of my inner vision, culminating in the fact that I had given birth to...someone... who was quite probably the offspring of my sister and that terribly powerful Sith who had taken me on Sullust.

It had to be. There was no getting around those eyes... nor the smugly cackling comment that thing from hell had chortled in my face:

"Not yours!"

Cleansing, righteous anger welled up in me as I forced myself to scrutinize those horrific moments in the hotspring. The reason for the attack, at first finally being accepted as a casual and warning display of power, now took on an entirely new meaning:

That infant had to have deliberately been placed in me. Which meant little Jhin had been somehow removed.

Which was what I based my reasoning upon when I stated to Terrin that I knew she was now on Khar Delba... but where in fact I hoped to Khaandon she was still alive.

I frowned again, blinking back a sudden upwelling of angered tears. I hated having to have lied to Terrin, but something had told me that if I hadn't told him that I knew our daughter was alive and well, something would break inside him beyond hope of repair. I already felt guilty enough having brought all this to him; wasn't it precisely in response to reasons that had unfolded that I had voluntarily fled from Sorben? To now admit to him that I really hadn't a clue if Jhin'Darra was indeed on that hideous Sith stronghold, let alone alive, was something I couldn't bear doing.

Not to mention the fact that if I did, there would be no logical reason to endanger everyone by going there. And go there I must... I had to.... There was a certain sweet revenge I was planning, and nothing would keep me from it.

Not Jharmeen. Not her hellhound. Not her laughing imp, or her demonic soulmate. Not fear for my life, or for that of the others.

Nothing.

Fortified with an upsurge of commitment, I tried to relax. I needed to be in tiptop condition for the upcoming confrontation; closing my eyes I forced my thoughts from my head and tried to go back to sleep. But one final vow remained firmly planted in my very soul of souls.

"I see the logic," Shawn finally reasoned. "And I'm also considering that it might be wise for Matt to stay with you. What do you think, Matt?"

The short green-eyed man seemed to mull this over. "I think I know what you're thinking. Keep the Eagle Enterprises guys seperate, keeping that target dispersed as well."

"Yes. You think Captain Danner would argue the logic?"

"Probably not. I'll go back with Yaoksi--if Terrin has objections, we can rearrange this wherever we meet to discuss whatever is coming next."

Shawn nodded. Then he frowned. "So uhh...where are we going to meet? I mean, I'm a Jedi, but I don't exactly think the Praxeum is the best place for a pow-wow. While there are some Jedi there, it's mostly students, and I don't think it'd offer us that much protection."

Matt was thinking of something, Shawn could tell it by the look in his eyes. "Matt? You have an idea?"

Jasyn turned to his fellow employee, cocking his head.

Sheesh. Nothing like being out of the know, Shawn thought.

"What about the Hornett?"

Shawn's jaw practically fell to the ground. "Terrin still has her?"

Matt merely nodded. Jasyn began to shake his head. "Terrin is gonna kill you."

"Well," Matt said, "Do you honestly have anything better for a safe parley than a Super Star Destroyer? I mean, I know these Sith pop up everywhere, but there's nowhere else we are going to find as many warm bodies. And as many possible helpers if we need them. It's a good safe place to get ourselves together."

"Allright, allright, the logic stands," Jasyn admitted. "But only Terrin and Aaron know where she is."

"So we leave it that way," Matt said. "Terrin can get us all there. And I think he'd agree with the logic. It's really the only safe, bug-free place I can think of," he reiterated, turning to Shawn.

"Doesn't matter one way or another to me, friends," I called over my shoulder as I carefully guided Cella along. "All I know is that I'm getting off of this blasted planet, and I'm getting off of it now."

All the while I couldn't help but think to myself: These guys have a Super Star Destroyer, and they need me?

"Well... the ol' Devil's got a few surprises in her," I muttered to myself as though to keep an overwhelming feeling of awe at bay. "There's something to be said about being inconspicuous... and fast. Not to mention armed to the teeth."

That thought brought forth one of my gunner; hadn't she once intimated to me that she had some ideas as to how to upgrade the Devil from her already immaculate stature? Suddenly all I wanted was to sit down with her over a nice cup of Corellian wine and just discuss matters.

I tightened my grip around Cella, and hurried on to the Bee. A soft footfall told me that someone was following; I assumed that was Matt. Coming up to my little infiltrator at last, I popped the hatch in her tail and in no time had Cella safely strapped in aft. I then set about warming her systems, the sooner to depart from this hole in the corner of the universe. I didn't know for certain where we were immediately going from here - I figured someone would hail me with coordinates - but I did know one thing.

He sat up, trying to be logical.

It was the guys and Shawn and maybe Yaoksi and Poliani.

The illogical, however, won out.

Slipping from the bed, making absolutely sure to remain as stealthy as possible, he reached for his blaster and held it pointed towards the floor but ready for a quick shot.

Like this would help with their luck.

But that didn't matter either. He stepped out into the corridor of the ship, and crept forward towards the hatch, all the while keeping his hand steady and his senses on full alert.

Footsteps. Coming in his direction.

He aimed.

About that time, Jasyn rounded the corner. His eyes widened, and he held up both his arms, with the injured one significantly lower than the other. "Good gods, DON'T SHOOT!" he yelled. "I've had my share for the day."

Oops.

"Sorry..." Terrin muttered. "I guess I'm a bit jumpy."

"A bit?" Shawn, who had been following Jasyn, quipped.

Terrin just shrugged it off. He wasn't in the mood. "Hello, Shawn," he said simply. "Sorry I wasn't around earlier when you arrived."

"Understandable," the Jedi replied.

"So, where is everyone else?"

"Headed for the Devil," Jasyn said.

Terrin cocked a brow. "I assume we are meeting somewhere?"

Jasyn seemed to hesitate. "Matt suggested that we meet on the Hornett."

That got a frown. "And exactly why does he think that is such a swell idea? Why don't we just paint a red "X" on her and let the Empire and the Sith come get us?"

"I kinda figured you wouldn't go for that idea."

Terrin nodded. "Allright, you go get yourself some bacta patches for that bite. I'll comm Matt. Shawn...don't go too far."

The three men parted ways, and Terrin reached for his comm to talk to Matt.

"Matt Stanza," the voice on the other end of the frequency answered.

"Matt, this is Terrin."

"Oh, hi. Are you going to give us some cooridinates?"

"Yeah, but not for where you think we should go."

"But where else is there to go?"

"Not to my Star Destroyer, I'll give you that much," Terrin answered. "I just don't think it's a good idea--it's too risky. That's why she's been hidden, and why we've been keeping a low profile. I'm not going to compromise that, and I won't compromise US that way. I want to make damned sure everyone is together when the time comes for us to go after the baby. I won't sacrifice helping her to make us all feel safe and secure. It's just too obvious, and it won't keep the Sith away from us or help us get to them. Trust me, I know."

"Allright, it's your call. But then, where are we going to go?"

Terrin considered a moment. "I think we should go where we were headed to begin with...the Bounty Hunter's Guild world."

"We are getting off this dustball of a planet. I need a copilot."

Jasyn, who was sitting on a med table looking fairly glum with some bacta patches sitting next to him, started to get to his feet.

Terrin shook his head. "You, rest. I think Shawn and I can handle this."

"Fine..." Jasyn muttered as Terrin turned, not bothering to look back a second time to see if the Jedi was following him or not.

In minutes he was in the cabin, warming up the ship. "This is when I miss my lamby," Terrin muttered, mostly to himself. "I haven't flown a yacht in over a year, so...here's hoping this isn't going to be too bumpy."

Shawn remained fairly quiet, letting Terrin ramble. At length, Terrin turned to him, quirking a brow. "You sure you're up for this?"

"I suppose you are thinking of the fact that this might involve Shayla."

"Yes, that concerns me, I won't lie about it. The baby comes first, absolutely first, regardless of your sister's status. Shayla made her choice. My kid...she didn't have a choice in the matter. I'd love nothing more than to take my SSD in and blow up all those horrid Sith where they stand, if that would help matters. So don't think that if Shayla stands in the way she won't get the same," Terrin explained, more than merely a hint of his anger with the whole situation showing in his facial expressions. Shawn remained virtually impassive, so Terrin continued on.

"I know that sounds alot like the Terrin you used to know, but there is a big difference here, and that's an innocent little girl. Nothing...nothing!...can stand in the way of getting to her. Do you copy?"

Somehow, Shawn didn't seem all too surprised by Terrin's words. Somehow Terrin suspected he'd already thought this through before he ever offered his assistance.

Good.

"I copy," came the simple and honest reply. "I know the baby is important Terrin, to you as well as to the Jedi. You have my word that her rescue and safety will come first and foremost."

Terrin simply nodded, and turned his attentions back to the navboard. "Allright then. It's time we saw some sky."

"Bee, this is Naisra'len on the Devil-May-Care, and am I ever glad to know you're safe! Head on back to the ship because I think we have a lot to talk about, flyboy. Over."

"Nassy, ol girl, is it ever good to hear you!" I began on a buoyant burst. "I assume the ol Devil is shipshape and you and the Cricket have everything under control...." I trailed off, wondering exactly what was prompting me to fill the void with such mindless blatherings. Clearing my throat, I cast a quick glance over my shoulder to where Cella sat in a glitterstim fog.

"I've got someone here who might be needing your special, ah... ministrations," I went on, still grinning. "Hope you can figure out the best approach for a glitterstim besotted Jedi. But we'll talk about this when I dock..."

...among other things, I finished the sentence under my breath. Amazing how being trapped kilometers beneath the surface and at the whim of rampaging poisonous creatures can suddenly set your priorities straight. Reaching to the navboard now, I fiddled with a control or two. "Get the docking bay ready; we're gonna be home in about 15 cycles. Oh yeah, Matt's along for the ride, too, so break out the Whyrene's if we got it.

Chasing after the lovely images forming in my inner eye was the discomfiting knowledge that I hadn't peeped one word of this to Terrin. I frowned to myself; surely he had every right to know my thoughts in this terrible matter before us. Then why was I keeping mum about it?

The answer to that immediately reared its ugly little head and laughed scornfully at me. Maybe you don't want Terrin to know about this dark little part of your personality, it taunted in a sighing whisper. Maybe you're afraid that if he finds out, he'll hotfoot it away from you as fast as his buddies can drag him....

I shook my head at myself and got to my feet. No, it wasn't that.

It's the fact that this isn't like you, that this is how your dearest ex-sister has come to be... and it's not just that you don't want him to see you acting in any way, shape or form in a similar manner to her.

Galen, ol gal, the answer is simple: you're running away from yourself.

I sighed with the realization, shaking my head once again as I headed off to the 'fresher to clean up and dress myself, fighting to keep my shoulders from slumping. For now that the underlying reason for my deep-rooted desire to murder my own sister had finally presented itself to me, all that I could respond with was the ensuing rush of depression I had up until now kept at bay. It fought to overwhelm me; I fought to push it back into realistic proportions.

It was no use; there was no way I could wage this inner battle alone without sinking back into the morass I had floundered in after that horrid Sith had had his way with me. A spark of warmth and light weaseled into my psyche with the further realization that I suddenly found myself needing Terrin more than I realized I did. I might pride myself on my independence, on the fact that I had gone through seven Hells in the few short years since Dad had been killed and had managed to come out on top in the wake of each event, finding myself stronger than ever, but--

But.

But a fact I thought I had already understood now truly came ramming home to me on a purely gut level. I was so tired of battling alone. I needed to share with someone, and surprise, surprise: I needed to share myself with a Mr. Terrin Danner.

What a strange time to find out, not that I loved him, but how deeply I did so.

It was as if a ronto's weight had suddenly been lifted from my shoulders. Hurriedly dressing myself, I fairly flew from our quarters, rushing along until I found myself at the bridge. There I found my love battling with the controls, and sitting next to a young Jedi who was trying not to smile too broadly.

Coming up behind Terrin, I wrapped my arms around him and lightly kissed his ear. "Looking for someone to fly this jalopy?" I whispered, then laid my cheek against the top of his head as I waited to hear his reply.

Terrin quieted with that and gazed into her eyes for a long moment, sensing something therein. He knew she was worried. Beyond worried.

Who wouldn't be, in light of all that had transpired?

Somehow Terrin knew, as he looked into her eyes, that she really needed him. It was no surprise to find that he needed her to need him, but there was simply something sacred about knowing that someone with Galen's strength needed someone like him.

And that was how the circle between the two of them completed itself. He needed her; she needed him. They needed each other. Anyone could do the math and STILL get the wrong answer if they didn't understand the variables. One plus one in this case didn't make two, but one. And that one something was far more valuable than all the riches in the Universe. Even in adversity.

Terrin leaned down a bit and planted a kiss on her lips that was more of a reassurance than anything else.

"We'll find her," he said softly. Then, turning to Shawn, who was patiently waiting, Terrin waved a hand in the Jedi's direction. "This is Jedi Shawn Petrolu. He will be assisting us."

The Shawn simply nodded solemnly, his greeny-blue eyes radiating obvious concern at the mention of the task now at hand.

As Galen seated herself, Shawn looked to Terrin, standing and motioning to the copilot's chair as he did so. "She's your ship, and I'm no copilot, as you have found out."

Terrin smiled just a little. "Yes, indeed," he said. Still looking to Shawn as he took the seat the Jedi had vacated, he asked, "What do you intend on doing with the Starlight? No way are we taking that ship with the possible modifications Shayla might have on it."

"We could just leave it in orbit and let one of the Stargazer Corporation employees pick it up. The freighter rightfully belongs with them anyway, and there isn't ever a time when no one is available to do reconnasiance."

"Allright," Terrin said, nodding as he turned. "We need to make sure that they have the coordinates to our destination on the Devil-May-Care, then we'll be on our way."

What he had begun he would now finish. Those aboard Devil-May-Care would need the protection of a fully-conscious and functioning Jedi.

Though Cella had only been in a trance for a small span of time, Shawn knew this was his gift. He had it, and his sister had it, and unlike some other talents Jedi might have, this was one gift he was never wary to use.

Stretching out, he touched the glitterstim-fevered mind of one Cella Poliani.

Still in a bit of a daze, she attempted to get her bearings. She appeared to be strapped into the passenger seat of the Bee, and she could see the back of Matt and Yaoksi's heads from where she sat. Smiling to herself, she decided to conceal her consciousness just a moment longer.

Reaching out to the Jedi who had healed her, she sent a wordless message of humble gratitude. Thank you. And then, almost as an afterthought, Who are you? She had felt that presence somewhere, she was certain, but she was also certain that she had never met this man in her life.

Who are you?

Somehow he knew this would come up sooner or later. He and his sister, because they were twins, shared an extra special link between each other that was fairly obvious to anyone sensitive to the Force.

At least, they used to have that link. Now he wasn't so sure.

Returning his thoughts to the question asked, Shawn decided the best thing to do would be to be direct and straight to the point.

I'm Shawn Petrolu. Shayla Petrolu was...is my twin sister.

Unconsciously Shawn closed his eyes as a small bit of hurt crept through his otherwise serene Jedi presence.

Shayla. His one and only sibling, the one he'd grown up with and spent years at the Praxeum with after their parents had been killed. The one he'd begged to stay with him there...

...and the one who he ultimately was able to convince to return.

But to what end?

Maybe he'd pushed her too far. He'd been so certain that Jedihood was her destiny that he could never give up hope of her becoming a Jedi even when she had.

And Shayla had always wanted to please everyone. Maybe at the cost of being unhappy she'd hoped returning to the Praxeum would please him?

And now, she was gone.

An uncontrollable little sigh escaped him as Shawn opened his eyes once more, his clear blue-green eyes refocusing on some nameless point in the space before him.

Shayla was a grown woman. She'd made this choice of her own volition, and he'd have to accept that. He could only hope that someday that link between him and his sister would be enough to bring her back...

In truth, the bemused smile had absolutely nothing to do with Whyrene's Reserve. Rather, it had everything to do with what his perceptive eyes and ears were witnessing. He wondered if Yaoksi was aware of this yet, or if he was merely not ready to admit it.

At any rate, the fact that the smuggler and the Twi'lek were at least interested in each other was more than apparent to him. And it was all Matt could do to keep his trap shut.

However, he couldn't help but let a small tendril of his musings creep forward in his next uttered statement. "Didn't think we'd make it back to see the Devil for a while there, or K'kihl and ummm...Nassy for that matter, huh?"

Then he let the question fall dead in the air, hoping to goodness he hadn't overstepped some sort of secretive line. But sheesh, if he'd learned anything in all this, it was never to take anything for granted.

And he wouldn't stand by and let a friend take something of this significance for granted either.

Knowing I had a few seconds to spare before final docking procedures would start taking up all my time and available limbs, I let a breath whoosh out between my lips. "Yeah buddy," I smiled back at Matt, lacing my fingers behind my head and stretching to unkink my shoulders. "It was looking pretty grim for a bit back there. Thank the Fates that this Shawn fellow happened along to help us out.

"And yeah," I switched rontos in midstream. "Whyrene's is going to go a long way toward getting out the dregs of glitterstim. You and I and a bottle are going to have to get into a serious discussion about this."

I shot a quick glance over my shoulder at the mention of glitterstim; her head limp to one side and her eyes closed, Cella appeared to still be sleeping. I couldn't help but sigh a little. Sure hope Nassy can mend her as well as she did Galen, I mused, now reaching out with both hands and my entire focus as the growing hangar bay door began hollering for me to get down to the business of coming aboard my ship in one piece.

For a moment I forgot about Cella and glitterstim and Matt and Galen and all the rest, lost in the pure joy of manually docking an infiltrator without any guiding system but my own eyes and gut. Matt appeared to realize we weren't utilizing a tractor beam; my grin broadened in direct proportion to the degree he raised up in his seat as we came closer and closer to the Devil. Just when I thought he was going to levitate off his seat entirely, Bee stuck out her figurative tongue and blew him some ionic raspberries, settling herself in her docking port with a dainty little shiver. All was momentarily silent, save for the clicks and wheezes as she outgassed and checked herself over for any aberrations I might have unwittingly dealt her. Inspection passed with flying colors: like oiled water her hatch slid open, revealing the interior of my hangar bay and a hovering insectoid.

"Hey K'kihl, ol Cricket!" I flashed a happy smile his way as I clambered out of the Bee. I gave his carapace a friendly fist, then shook it, along with the momentary discomfort the motion had caused. I jerked my thumb over my shoulder.

"Good to see ya, buddy, but there's something we have to take care of first. Know where Nassy is?"

The Verpine cocked his head to one side and opened his mandibles to speak, but I cut him short. "Never mind, I'll use shipwide comm. We need her here, and fast!" I said as I began moving to the nearest bulkhead.

"Do we?" came the chatter of my engineer. "And for why, I am asking?"

"Because we have a lady jedi who is in dire need of Nassy's nursing skills, that's why!" I growled, punching the comm into life. "Nassy, this is Captain Joao! Get your lekku to the docking bay-- no, make that the medbay. I'm going to be needing your assistance. Joao out."

From behind me came a funny-sounding chitter. It seemed half concerned, half perplexed... and 100 percent amused. "Boss Yaoksi," K'kihl's clackery voice announced itself. "Ummm... why needing the medbay are you?" His voice trailed off into silence, into which I whirled.

"I just told you--" I began as I turned, then cut myself short, my finger up in the air waving about somewhat stupidly. Standing at the hatch to Bee was Matt, and beside him a very much awake and totally sane Cella.

I gave my short locks a quick toss, and laid my hands on the controls of the splendid little yacht. Even though I hadn't flown one of this line before, she felt as natural beneath my hands as does air beneath the wings of a Bespin cloud-dancer. I smiled, and just for a moment let all the worries and fears and even darker emotions I was harboring be overwhelmed by a briefly intense upsurge of joy.

We were going to get Jester II. Oh, sure as there's Treasure on Roon Terrin's gonna be in for a surprise when I show him my little ship! And once we get our hands on her....

The grin darkened for a split second; I masked it with a quick intake of breath. Then, after dredging the coordinates to the Bounty Hunter's Guild world from some dark recess of my memory, I reached out and flipped the ship-to-ship con switch. In no time I had sent those coordinates to Captain Yaoksi's sleek and deadly corvette where they were received by Nassy. After a short conversation, I closed the link and turned to Terrin.

"Captain Joao just came aboard with Matt, love," I grinned into his blue eyes. "They have the coordinates; what d'ya say we blow this dustball and go get us some teeth?"

Some of my old vim and sparkle radiated from me; I could see it in Terrin's baby blues. I flashed him my most devastating grin, turned back to the navboard, and in no time had us in hyperdrive.

Our destination: the secret world of the Bounty Hunters Guild. I wondered if Seus would remember me, or if any of my old cohorts were still about. I even managed to wonder about Sorben; my grin spread further when I realized that all of a sudden I could think about him in the same vein as I thought of K'kihl.

Which was as it should be, after all....

Way, way too personally into my space....

An immediate war began raging inside me. Part of me wanted nothing more than to reciprocate, to sweep her up, to then bask in the knowledge that I was finally holding her in my arms as I had imagined doing from the first day I saw her sitting in the Blue Asteroid. The urge was so strong that I found my hands rising up of their own accord.

I couldn't help it. Neither could I help but feel the intense look my engineer was shooting in my direction... not to mention the one of surprise and something else shining in Matt's eyes. My hands, recalcitrant beasties that they were, rose upward, gliding up Cella's taut form, reaching her elbows, following them now to her shoulders, there to reach around behind her...

...where they patted her awkwardly, almost clumsily, on her back but only after first - and finally! - giving her a quick and almost embarrassed little hug.

I cleared my throat, removing my hands from her as I took a step back. Her hands seemed to clutch briefly at the back of my collar, then fell gracefully to each side of her as she too took a step back. I didn't know exactly what had passed between us; indeed, I really didn't have the faintest notion if there had been something there or not. Fates knew I had imagined this for so long, and to be honest I was a bit taken aback by my own reaction to what on the surface appeared to be a simple little embrace between friends.

For some odd reason her skin kept segueing into a glorious shade of green, her hair thickening and coiling like living vines, her eyes darkening into twin pools of liquid night....

I stood there in the expanding cloud of silence, working my jaw as words tried to escape me. Nothing seemed like the right thing to say; every usual flippant response seemed vapid and wan and inconsequential.

I didn't really know how I wanted Cella to feel toward me, but it certainly wasn't inconsequentially....

At last I settled on the only thing I really could say. "Any time, lady."

Then, before I could embarrass myself any further, I turned from her glowing eyes and headed out of the docking bay, uncaring as to how rude this act might appear to be. I suddenly had an overwhelming desire to see my gunner...

...or rather completely eradicated.

Shawn took in a quick sharp breath as the shock hit him.

Far too many lives had just been squelched. Possibly far more would suffer the same if whatever had just happened was allowed to continue...

...and who or what was behind all the turmoil he couldn't tell.

Nevertheless, suddenly the importance of rescuing this child had possibly tripled logarhytmically.

Shawn only hoped that they could get to her soon enough.

Remind me to have K'kihl look into that, a little voice popped into my head from thin air. Then it was squelched as the doors finally yawned wide, allowing me entrance into the gleaming medbay which they guarded. I strode forcefully in, only to come to yet another halt at the sight of my gunner. There she stood by a recently prepared med-bed, bio-sensor in hand and wearing her most "concerned nurse" look. Her eyes seemed to widen in puzzlement to see me come into the room in such a manner, and so obviously alone. She strained her head a bit to one side, as though seeking to find the others who I'm sure she thought were right on my heels, bearing the unconscious jedi into her care.

For a moment I stood in the doorway, my mind filled with myriad images of the events I had so recently been subjected to, images superimposed upon a backdrop of silkily glowing green skin and radiant dark eyes. Then I jerked myself back to the realization that Nassy was still standing beside the med-bed, those very eyes filled with confusion. Berating myself under my breath for acting like a schoolboy, I finally spoke up. "Cella's all right," I said softly, now taking a little step toward her. "She's been healed."

I didn't think it was possible, but her dark eyes managed to widen even further. Damn, but I suddenly wanted to drown in them.... I took another little step toward her, hesitantly, as though expecting her to suddenly drop the medical device and hotfoot it back to her quarters.

She didn't. She stood there in silence, watching me approach. Her eyes widened further and her lekku seemed to tremble as, with a little clang the sensor slipped from her fingers and dropped to the deck. She didn't pay it one lick of attention; I did, however, and paused awkwardly.

Dammit, dammit, dammit! I didn't want her to think the wrong thing here... she looked like an ikopi caught in headlights, ready to run at the slightest provocation....

Then conscious thought melted into sudden assurance. Right or wrong: for the moment at least this felt so very, very right.

"Terrin!" the man blurted, drawing looks of startlement from everyone in the cabin, "Something is seriously going wrong."

Terrin frowned, then cocked a brow, signaling Jasyn to continue.

"I was on the computer...trying to waste some time and get some rest and mainframes connected with Eagle Enterprises suddenly started going down everywhere..."

Terrin couldn't hide the look of alarm. Force sensitive or not, he had a really bad feeling about this. "It's not a computer glitch?"

"Terrin, it's not just Eagle Enterprises," Jasyn said, nearly whispering. "the Datanet, the Holonet...it's everywhere...everywhere..."

A moment of complete and utter silence passed in the cabin, and all eyes turned to the one person who could possibly explain any of this.

Shawn remained irritatingly calm. But if someone looked carefully enough, they could tell he was working hard to remain thus. "I sense much devestation..." he said, his own voice trailing. "And it's widespread. I don't know what the source is, but there's something terribly dark about all of this..."

Terrin could feel a block of rock-solid ice form in his stomach.

The Sith...?

"For some reason...I don't think it's the Sith. I...don't sense my sister as part of whatever this is...not that I've had a wonderful track record with keeping tabs on her lately...

...but this is just...something else."

Terrin's frown darkened more as he realized that Shawn had just answered a question he'd only thought. "Stay out of my mind, Petrolu," he growled, pointing a finger for emphasis. Then, turning to Jasyn, Terrin said, "Contact Aaron, if you can via the scrambling frequency to avoid being traced. Tell him to implement operation Eagle. He'll know what that means, and that's enough to keep the company and her ships secure and close ties with other computer systems should this continue."

Once smuggler, always smuggler. He only wished he could keep his friends and those he loved as safe and secure.

As Jasyn nodded and headed back aft, Terrin turned again to stare blankly at the lines of hyperspace, millions of horrible conclusions flooding his mind. Then his gaze shifted over to Galen, and he allowed himself a moment to swim in the depths of her deep brown eyes. Reaching out a hand to place atop hers, he said the only thing that was coming to his mind at the time. "I hope this thing is fast..."

Suddenly thoughtful, I drew back and looked into his eyes with a smile. This was so completely different from the way I'd felt about him in Dalius City. Then, I'd wanted just to get him into my bed.

Now, I wanted to get him into my life. Preferably for a long time. And I wanted him to see that I'd changed, to see that my intentions were good. I wished I could tell him all the things I was thinking at the moment. But I could only gaze at him in astonished bliss and murmur, "It's good to have you back, Yaoksi. I missed you."

Didn't think you'd see another one of these babies for a while, did ya?

Despite this humor, Matt's senses were still keyed into the quiet Jedi who sat across the table from him drinking a glass of blue pale-water. Taking his eyes from the blessed bottle of liquor, he looked at Cella a bit curiously.

Wonder what all that was about back in the docking bay just a bit ago? Does this Jedi lady have some sort of interest in Yaoksi?

Though they'd been together for several months now, with Galen's recuperation and pregnancy at the forefront of everyone's concerns, Matt hadn't really noticed if there was any true interest between the smuggler and the Jedi before.

A smuggler and a Jedi? Egads, that was like...

...like...

Terrin and Shayla.

Matt couldn't help but smirk a bit at the thought. He remembered Terrin and Shayla together; that had been a match made in Hell. Neither one of those two ever trusted the other, and while Shayla was a strong woman, Terrin needed someone who was strong yet still needed him. Shayla would have just as soon kissed a wookie as she would admit she needed someone.

And the more Shayla remained stubbornly independent, the further Terrin would step back. Prone to distrusting people from his smuggler's background, Terrin was unable to trust someone who wouldn't trust him.

And there were always Shayla's religioso ways. Completely Jedi or not, she always clung to those Jedi standards, as though she thought that was what she should do. And when you are a smuggler who is true to form, you always look out for your own interests and that of those who maintain your inner circle, regardless of what value system you are breaking.

And that was where the smuggler and the Near-Jedi had truly fallen short of ever possibly having a relationship. Terrin looked out for his own interests and the interests of those in his inner circle regardless of whether it seemed right or wrong to anyone else. Shayla, on the other hand, stuck fast to the things she believed in, never bending even when Terrin felt he had a perfectly good reason for doing things as he did.

Matt shook his head unconsciously, unheeding to if Cella noticed or not. A smuggler and a Jedi were NOT a match. A smuggler needed someone strong yet secure enough in herself to need him as well. A Jedi needed...well, quite possibly a Jedi needed a Jedi.

Matt refocused his gaze on the female Jedi again, somewhat irritated that she was mantaining that ever-annoying Jedi calm of hers. He never quite understood the logic behind this, but chose to ignore that for the moment.

"It's good that we have Shawn Petrolu here to assist us now," Matt said out of seemingly nowhere to her. Then, not really expecting a reply, Matt waited nevertheless.

"Yes, it is good to have the company of a Jedi, and I hope my path will cross Shawn Petrolu's again. I'd like to express my gratitude in person." Cella realized how sleazy that must sound and cursed herself. Instead of correcting her mistake, she reached for the bottle of Whyren's Reserve. "Hand me a glass, will you Matt?"

Shawn. He brought someone else to Cella's mind, someone that had been distressingly far from it over the past months. Jeroc had been long out of touch, and as much as Cella tried to deny it to herself, she was angry at him for it. She missed the long talks, the easy mental bond they had once had. He had given her freedom to follow her own path, but he hardly seemed to miss her at all...

Cella didn't at least sense something wrong around here? What gives? Aren't Jedi supposed to be able to do that?

"From what I know, which isn't much since Jasyn and Shawn only just recently dropped the bomb on me concerning the baby, she is on Khar Delba by some strange twist of Fate. We've gotta go back..."

Before he could finish, Matt was cut off by his wristcomm. "Matt Stanza here."

"It's Jasyn. We have a situation here."

Matt frowned. "A situation?"

"Something's amuck in the New Republic. Computer systems are going down."

"Are we going Operation Eagle?"

"Yes. Could be anything. Shawn doesn't think it's Sith though."

Matt nodded to himself glumly. "Allright, I'll take all precautions, and we'll meet you on the Guild World as soon as possible. We have lots to discuss, I am thinking."

"You got that right. But for now, I gotta find me some Whyren's Reserve. I had a bottle stashed somewhere around here..."

Matt couldn't help but laugh a bit at that.

Jasyn's voice went sour at that. "Oh...please tell me that you didn't..."

This only made Matt laugh even more. "You are down a couple of bottles, my friend," he finally said.

"Oh just you wait," Jasyn said "I'm sure when we get to the Guild World I can turn you in to a Bounty Hunter for thieving liquor."

...then drew back from her luscious lips with a sigh. Logic had managed to insert itself into my overactive id and beat it into momentary submission. Holding Nassy in a firm embrace, I leaned my forehead against hers, letting my gaze fall deeply into her own.

"Guess I'd better see what that's all about," I murmured softly as my lips strayed to kiss her nose. "It could be something important..."

I let my words trail off as I turned to the comm with a great inhalation of breath. Damn Skippy it had best be important! I scowled to no one in particular as I slammed the back of my fist and cowed the unit into finally silencing itself.

"Yaoksi here." My gaze wandered back to Nassy, who was approaching me; it began to grow vague....

"Successful insertion into hyperdrive, I am announcing," the comm unit chirped brightly. "ETA to World of Bounty Hunters, approximately 14 cycles, I am calculating."

"Thank you, K'kihl," I responded, my hand raising to click off the comm unit. Sounds like everything was under control; perhaps Nassy wouldn't mind sitting down over some nicely vintaged wine and... discussing matters. My fist was about to make contact with the unit...

"Hydrospanner." The wall comm chipped back to life. "On World of Bounty Hunters, this can be found, I am thinking."

I sighed in exasperation, turning my back to the wall and leaning against it now. "Yes K'kihl," I replied with another sigh. "Just remind me when--"

"Reminding you now I am," he clacked impertinently. "Once before hydrospanner you promised, did hydrospanner I receive?"

This was getting annoying, to put it mildly. I pursed my lips, my attention becoming drawn more and more away from that of my gunner, who was beginning to snicker a bit. Not that I could blame her.

"Look pal, I'm sorry that I didn't get you that hydrospanner at the time, but I promise..."

"Hydrospanner I am needing, if hyperdrive motivator to keep in peak operative mode I am achieving."

That little bombshell exploded in my ears into a thousand and one "what ifs" and "oh no's..." I frowned into the unit.

"Are you saying there's something wrong with the hyperdrive motivator that I should know about?" This could be serious; the thought of falling involuntarily from hyperspace in the middle of Kessel space was something I'd rather not contemplate at the moment. I had "been there, done that" once before; limping off to Honoghr in so ignominious a manner was something I did not wish to repeat... nor did I want to repeat my earlier performance hanging around their world while they chased down the necessary materials to repair the unit. I cringed at the memory.

The wall comm chittered back to life. "Hyperdrive motivator currently at 97% efficiency," the Verpine asserted with a shudder of embarrassment I could hear through the comm device. I knew he kept the ship running about 20-30 percent over one hundred; this was simply intolerable to him. Now I was beginning to snicker myself.

"Sounds like you have things under control, pal," I replied. "Look; when we get to our destination, the first thing we'll do when off-ship is go get that hydrospanner. Hell, we'll get two. But for now... is there anything else you have to report that I ought to know about?"

I waited... and the wall unit waited as well, blessedly silent. I nodded as though K'kihl could see me.

"All right then, let me know when we're about an hour or two from ETA. Yaoksi out."

The grin on my face turned serious then as, turning from the wall comm I found a certain Twi'lek repeating a lady Jedi's earlier tactic of invading my personal space...

Better let everyone else know what's up. This whole computer thing was weird. And it wasn't like Terrin to go operation Eagle unless he was really concerned about something. Even though he tended to stay on the suspicious side, he was used to running the business on the fringes. That was the benefit of having a smuggler as one of the owner's of the company.

Sighing to himself, Matt hit the communit switch, somehow unconcsiously aware that he would be disturbing a reunion of sorts with this unpleasant announcement.

Buzzing into the medbay, he awaited an answer. The comm switched on, and a somewhat annoyed voice answered.

"K'KHIL, I told you that..."

Matt cut him off before he finished. "This is Matt."

"Uhh...sorry."

Matt grinned a bit to himself, then sobered. "Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but we have a problem here. Jasyn commed and said lots of major computer systems have gone down. We should be on high alert, I don't think this is a sign of anything good about to happen, although Shawn at least has said he doesn't think this has to do with any of our Sith pals."

Then, having nothing else to add, Matt simply waited.

He had been following this ship at a distance for some time now, not concerned about its mission or its purpose, Veren was only concerned about killing the Jedi he senced aboard it. He was intent on pleasing his master by taking a Jedi's life before he left his master's guidance and thats all that mattered but if he thought that the ship's buisness could be stopped in a way that could benefit him, then he would do it.

He took the ship out of a silent follow and brought the ship closer so it was at a good enough range to hit the port stabelizer and retreat to watch the ship flail about as it dropped out of hyperspace before destorying it, Darth Veren always did love to torture his victims.

"now then Jedi, lets see how you and your friends fare against a REAL threat!" he snarled to himself as he brushed his hands over the hologromatic controls setting everything read to attack.

"now its time to kill my first Jedi, my master will be pleased!"

he placed his hand on a red spehere in the floating holo-controls eagerly and a beeping siren sounded as the energy built up on the ship's miniture Ion cannon, ready to fire 3 shots at the Devil-May-Care...

"What in the name of all the Fates was that?" I hollered, hoping someone had the wits about them to have been keeping tabs on things even though we had -- and I do say had-- been in hyperspace. At first nothing came over the medbay speaker except garbled and staticky babble. At length this segued into K'kihl's chittery voice, a voice not too much easier to understand.

"Hit we have been," he announced in a relative calm tone of voice. "Unknown this adversary is, but back into normal space we are. Port stabilizer is paralyzed and taken offline has been." Then, almost as an after thought: "Hyperdrive motivator now disfunctional and offline has it also has been removed.

"Told you a hydrospanner we needed...." His voice trailed off into an almost audible sigh of something that came disconcertingly close to regret that was tinged with not a little spot of despair. It was clear he obviously thought our opee was cooked.

Well, not this ship! I snarled to myself. She's got a few surprises aboard her yet!

I yelled at the comm unit even as I was taking off through the door to run to the bridge. "Contact the others, K'kihl, and set out a warning buoy. Find who or what it is that can knock a ship out of hyperspace like this! Then I want you to shift manual control of the Devil over to me on my mark, and I domean on my mark, so look smart!

"And find that Jedi! We're gonna be needing her!"

Without another thought but to get to the bridge with my gunner and fight back, I was out the door and running, praying to every entity I knew that the others were safely away from whatever it was that had hit us in so cowardly and unexpected a manner.

The action of jumping into the gunners chair made it spin out of control and the rapid firing blasters fired beserkly in every direction like a blinded soilder in the middle of a battle, by the time he got it into position the Devil wouldhave had ample time to come about and get ready to fight.

"the games are over! its now time for a REAL fight!" Veren snarled as a hideous laugh erupted from his throat while leaning close to the targeting array getting ready to swing the Devil into his sights...

"Get to the topside proton emitter...now!" I gritted through my teeth as I scanned to see what options we had. "Whoever this is doesn't play by the book; if we need to go down fighting, we're gonna be going in a big way!" I fell silent, my heart leaping into my throat as my eyes told my brain the sorry tale: indeed the hyperdrive motivator was offline, so a quick escape back into hyperspace was a moot point. And K'kihl had been remarkably taciturn in his relation of the port stabilizer; I think it was hanging onto the hull by not much more than wishful thinking.

I heaved in a great breath, then followed that with a hard look of determination.

OK, Mr. Hit-and Hide, let's go for broke. I may not have a port stabilizer... so be it.

Before my brain could scream out the potential folly of my next move, I had reached out and turned off the starboard stabilizer. Now we were pretty much subject to the whims of whatever energy would strike our shielding; even an indirect hit would send us tumbling. But at least until that happened we could fly straight.

And... they're gonna have to hit us first.... I thought to myself as I took hold of the controls in either of my hands. Now we'll see what kind of engineer I have recruited....

"Hang on to whatever you got!" I hollered at the top of my lungs as with a vicious shove I sent the Devil-May-Care from sedate into a surprisingly enhanced impulse speed. Devil-May-Care has always been a fast ship... and then K'kihl took her into his loving Verpine claws. We took off like the proverbial mynock-out-of-hell, hopefully taking our unknown adversary by complete surprise.

Hate to be hit and run, but I'm not one to fight something I don't even have a clue about. My Marauder-class corvette shot from her position like a podracer from the gate, and by deft manipulation of the port and starboard jets I managed to throw a couple escape-loop maneuvers into our sudden exit.

But where on Kessel are we going to go? This guy can't possibly be taken by surprise too much longer....

Then a thought struck me, and I let it take command of my body. My hands flew of their own accord as I barrel-rolled and side-slipped through Kessel space in order to evade any enemy fire... and in but moments had gained entry into the comparative safety of the Maw.

Now the fun was really going to begin....

He swung the gun seat round and stared into the targeting array with blood hungry eyes, his hands rested on the fire controls being totally still but only for an instence before he let rip a deadly volley of shots from his custom blasters but non hit because of the bezzar manovers this pilot was taking.

"hold still and face death!" he growled under his breath as he lent over in the chair making it sway this way and that trying to get one good hit to destroy the ship.

"you're not going to make this easy are you...?" he muttered to himself before deciding to take a differant course of action, his enraged amber orbs closed and he let the force speak to him before a solution poped into his head.

He quickly made a few ajustments to the control consoles around him and made the new target the shields thinking that hitting an unstablized craft's shields would knock it dead, his fingers hit the trigger eagerly letting fly several more shots.

He didn't bother with the comm unit. No use asking what was already apparent.

Attack.

Stumbling and tripping his way to the cabin, Matt punched in a comm frequency number on his scrambling wrist comm. No one would ever trace the call this way.

Matt's voice erupted from the unit. "ZZ'Shzq, Devil under surprise attack...repeat...Devil under surprise attack..."

Terrin's blue eyes went wide with shock. He slapped the reply button on the communit. "Matt, where the Hell are you?"

"Were in transit to next location when knocked out of hyperspace by unknown enemy. Currently...under..."

The line went dead. Terrin frowned, his mind spinning solutions as fast as it could. They didn't have the abilities to assist effectively on their own, but...

I gripped the controls and at the last possible moment let the Devil upend herself gracefully on her side, sleekly avoiding the volley of ions this unknown person was letting loose in our direction. No sooner had that deadly group flashed beside us than I had to swing her over the other way... if only to avoid the dead and highly cratered moonlet which loomed up in our face. We shot by that with bare kilometers to spare; as we entered the fringes of a nearby black hole's gravity well a cold sweat had pretty much taken control of my features.

"Nassy, what are ya, asleep up there?!" I yelled, straining to simultaneously keep a note of hysteria from creeping into my voice as I threw the controls in yet another direction. Devil-May-Care shuddered briefly as we came entirely too close for comfort to the black hole's event horizon; at length she settled into a more normal routine of swoop and duck, cut and run. I gripped the controls harder.

"Nassy!" I hollered again at the top of my lungs.

This time I was rewarded as a magnesium-bright flare shot out from the topside of my corvette. It headed in a deadly beeline in a direct line to our back... then burst into a swarm of smaller but equally bright sparkles as the proton warhead exploded and laid down a deadly restraining curtain behind us. I gritted my teeth again.

Now or never....

Concentrating with every ounce of brainpower I possessed, I aimed directly toward yet another moonlet which caromed into our path. A particularly large crater pockmarked it like a giant bull'seye; from the looks of the size of that crater, I knew that whatever had created it had come darn close to destroying the moonlet altogether.

Time to finish the job, perhaps...?

I didn't dare even blink as I aimed my ship on a direct collision course with the moonlet. Even as we approached and entered into the outreaches of its tiny gravitational field, I shoved the thrusters into full-bore ahead.

"Now, Nassy!" I screamed... and closed my eyes. I just had to....

There was a terrific bloom of light which pierced my lids enough to make my eyes water. But when I managed to open them, it was to find a morass of chunks of leftover moon flying in every direction, spraying out in an expanding sphere in our wake, heading toward our pursuer and forcing him to either avert his attack on us and alter his course... or commit suicide.

At least it used to be his pride and joy. Now he rarely used the thing. Rather, he merely kept it in top shape just in case he should ever need it. And for this reason, Terrin had the ship trailing them ever since the smaller group had left Sullust.

"Captain Barnes," the communit officer called. Aaron turned in his direction.

"A comm from the ZZ'Shzq. Captain Danner, says it's urgent."

Aaron frowned at the officer a moment, wondering why in the world he'd even ASKED if he should put Terrin through. "Well, put him through," Aaron growled.

"Aaron, revert to realspace. The Devil is under attack by an unknown source. Blow 'em outta the water. Nobody's gonna gang up on friends of mine like that without getting what they are asking for."

Aaron nodded to himself. "Gotcha, buddy, on my way."

The comm clicked off, and Aaron nodded to the officers on deck. Calculations for reversion?"

A moment or two passed. "Ready, Captain."

"Reversion in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, mark."

Hyperspace slowly stretched into realspace.

"Sir, meteor shower in our flight path."

"Ok," Aaron said, nodding. "Have you gotten a lock on the Devil-May-Care?"

"Yes, sir. She's in the maw."

"And the attacking ship?"

"Sector 271, we have a lock on it. Orders?"

"Initialize gravity well projectors. Follow the target."

"Sir, target firing. Minimal damage to hull."

"Well, you give the target some damage to his hull!" Aaron growled.

"Firing sir. Enemy received direct hit starboard. Possibly making calculations to jump."

"How are those gravity wells?"

Maximum power in one standard minutes sir."

"Think you can jam the transmission? I don't want that schmuck following us."

"I'm on it," someone on deck replied.

"Transmission jammed sir. Gravity well up and at maximum power."

"Good work. Dial up Matt Stanza's comm frequency."

"Matt Stanza here in the cabin of the Devil. I sure as hell hope this is Aaron on the Hornett that I'm talking to."

"You bet it is. Would you be liking a bit of help there while your buddy here is unavoidably detained?"

I took the time to inhale, and dragged my eyes off my navboard and onto Matt. When on earth he had come up to the bridge I hadn't a clue, but if in doing so he had managed to drag an Eclipse-class SSD out of his back pocket, then he was welcome here anytime.

I just didn't believe it. Then I remembered an earlier conversation. "I- I take it that's the SSD you were referring to?" I stammered as I slowed our pell-mell pace through the devil's backyard, swerving to avoid a small cometary body idling loosely along.

Matt merely smiled. And it was then that I let out the breath I hadn't known I was holding. I opened my mouth to say something appropriate when the comm unit chittered into indignant life.

Yeesh. K'kihl....

I almost cringed to answer, already knowing what he was going to say. My hand poised above the comm, I turned to Matt.

"You think there's room aboard your lifesaver for us to find berth and repair droids?" I queried, although I really knew better about the latter. No way was the Verpine gonna let a mere droid near his precious engines.

Then I smiled and hit the comm, Matt's answering smile all I needed to see. "K'kihl ol Cricket, hold your mandibles. We're going aboard the- the Hornett, is it-?" I raised my eyes to Matt, who merely nodded in a pleased-with-himself manner. "That honking big ol Eclipse-class SSD that just saved our hineys," I finished. "So hold your thought until we can talk about it over some Whyrene's or lubricating oil, whichever the case might be!"

With that I flicked the comm into silence, and took hold of the controls once more. Ducking around the remnants of the moonlet Nassy had blasted into oblivion, we retraced our steps, and were soon heartened by the sight of the ominously sleek destroyer which grew larger and larger in our screens. A rather small and strange ship was affixed just to her fore at about ten-o'-clock; I couldn't help a victorious waggle of my airfoils as we sailed majestically past our erstwhile pursuer.

"Back to hyperspace, ASAP. Coordinates set?"

"Yes sir."

"Alright then!" Aaron said, his eye suddenly straying to the ship floating helplessly in their gravity well. "Ohhhhhhhhh..." he muttered mostly to himself, pondering the current dilemma of his catch.

Ah. Just a little more fun before we go.

"Weapons, target the enemy's main engine with salvo of turbolaser fire."

"Sir?" the startled officer on deck gasped.

Aaron whirled to face him. "You question the order? I want that ship one-hundred percent crippled. You heard Captain Danner's request. Blow 'em out of the water!"

The deck officer actually smirked in response. "I sense a return to the Captain's info smuggling tactics."

Aaron knew the deck officer was referring to Terrin has he began his shots. In only a few moments, the engine on the little ship, dwarfed by the looming Super Star destroyer, was quite literally useless.

"Hyperspace on my mark," Aaron said without even flinching at the sight of the crippled ship. "5, 4, 3, 2, 1...mark."

Hyperspace. To who knows where. Not that following an Eclipse-class Star Destroyer would be in anyone's best interests. Especially not when that person was the owner of a severely crippled ship.

"Commander Jaylen," Aaron said, turning addressing someone on the deck, "You have control of the deck til I return. I think it's time for some discussion and some Whyren's Reserve with our new guests."

He hated not knowing what was going on. He hoped everything would be allright. And he hoped like Hell this didn't have anything to do with the Sith.

At that thought, Terrin turned to eye the Jedi who stood behind him once again. "I sense Darkness..." Shawn started.

Terrin's frown blackened further. "Don't even tell me that..."

Shawn raised a hand to ward of the rest of the comment that was coming. "It's not who you think it is...I think..."

Terrin quirked a brow. "You aren't making me feel any better about this, you know."

About this time, Jasyn returned to the cabin. He read the looks on the faces in the cabin at once. "Now what?" he muttered.

"The Devil is under attack," Terrin explained simply. "But big help is on the way. I just hope she gets there soon enough."

Jasyn cocked a brow. "You mean...?"

"Yeah, the Hornett. It's time having big guns did us a little bit of good...provided this isn't our Sith pals."

"They're safe," Shawn said, interrupting.

Then, as if on cue, the commboard came to life. Terrin looked over at Galen a moment, simply thankful that she was there with him. Placing a hand atop one of hers, he switched the communit on with his other hand. "Captain Terrin Danner, talk to me."

Dear gods let this be good news.

"Terrin, it's Aaron. Your friends are safe aboard the Hornett. We'll be getting on repairs for their ship ASAP. Just thought you'd like to know, and thought you should know that the attacker's ship is severly crippled and floating helplessly in realspace. How long before you reach your destination?"

Terrin looked to Galen in question. "The sooner the better, I am thinking."

"Probably so buddy, probably so. We'll keep watching your back."

Biting his lip, Terrin nodded, mostly to himself. "Please do. And tell Yaoksi and the others to make themselves at home aboard the Hornett. They can consider it just a little payback for all the help they've given us over the past few months."

"Allright. You be careful out there, and let me know if you need anything else."

"We will, on both counts. Danner out."

A docking bay had never looked so good to him in his life. Somehow he knew Terrin would pull the Hornett from somewhere for the occasion.

But then, that's why he was Terrin's assistant to begin with.

As the others walked down the ramp of the corvette, Matt turned and waved a hand expansively. "Welcome to the Hornett," he said grinning. "I'm thinking we should hang out--"

Matt stopped mid-speech as a dark-haired man approached them, a grin crossing his own face as he spotted the short red-headed man. "Matt ole' buddy, what trouble have you all gotten into now?"

Under normal circumstances, Matt might have grinned at this seemingly innocent comment. But suddenly all the trouble of the past few months flashed before his eyes, and he realized just how close a call they'd just experienced yet again. "You don't wanna know," he replied, surprisingly glumly for someone who tended to stay on the lighter side of life. "I think I need a good dose of Whyren's Reserve to cure all ills." Then, waving a hand to the others, Matt said, "Meet Captain Yaoksi Joao, owner of the Devil, Naisra'len, Yaoksi's gunner, Cella Poliani, Jedi Knight, and..."

Suddenly Matt looked around, noticing K'Kihl was nowhere in site. This did manage to get an amused grin from him, "I'd introduce you to K'kihl, but I think he's probably protecting his engines from the onslaught of repair droids. Better get the Verpine a hydrospanner before he gets his mandibles in a wad.

"And then we can get to that lovely Whyren's Reserve I know you have stashed here and discuss just who this attacker of ours might be..."

"DAMNIT!!!" he cried as a volley of shots hit his starbored side sending him in a wild spin.

It took him a while to stabalize it again but what was this? the ship wouldn't move!
his ship was stuck in the SSD's gravity well and was trapped but not out of ideas, he knew that their next course of action would be to cripple him, time for the escape pod....

by the time he was ready they had flown past him and where ready to hyperspace but just as they fired to disable him he fired the escape pod towards the SSD.

"time to see if i got my money's worth." he mumbled with a mix of anger and excitment at trying out his new toy.

just before the SSD jumped into hyperspace 4 claws came out of the front of the escape pod and clamped onto the SSD's side pulling the ship inuntil it was connected, just in time, both the pod and the SSD shot into hyper space.

He waited a while for them to go off aleart, letting them think that had gotten rid of him before pressing a green button next to the door, a shower of sparks came from the edges of the door as the pod cut a door in the ship. within minutes he was inside the SSD and no one would be any the wiser unless they searched for the escape pod.

"you are mine NOW jedi!"

I sent out another silent prayer of thanks. Then I released Terrin's hand and went for the controls. "Matt, why don't you send Hornett a scrambled and coded transmission and give Captain Joao my thanks for all the help he's given us, as well as my regards and relief that he and his crew are all in one piece. If it weren't for me..."

I trailed off into momentary silence, then firmed. And if regrets were mynocks there wouldn't be enough energy in the entire universe to light a single glowstick.

"Just... remind him of our rendezvous on the World of the Bounty Hunters, and tell him we'll hope to see him there. But if repairs take too long, well... he'll know where we're going from there. We'd sure be appreciating his company."

I turned and let my gaze fall briefly into Terrin's devastating blue one, pursing my lips in a little smile as I thought of what yet lay ahead of us. Then I turned back to the navboard.

"ETA is approximately 18 standard hours, love," I announced as rather a non sequiteur. One more look into Terrin's eyes and I proceeded to implement our mutual and unvoiced agreement. I reached out and twiddled a control.

"Make that seven hours," I amended, then sat back and watched the stars smear themselves into even longer streaks and disappear behind us, pointing the way to where we had been while remaining obstinately silent about where our path would lead.

"Captain Aaron Barnes," he answered.

"Sir, ship systems idicate a hull breech...small but significant enough to demand attention."

"Sooo...why haven't you sealed off the breach and sent a crew down to fix it before a significant amount of air leaks out?" Aaron asked, arching an eyebrow.

Hesitation. "The breech has been sealed by an unknown source."

Red flags.

"When exactly was this breech detected, according to the ship's systems?"

"Sometime afer we went to hyperspace."

Maybe they had been hit by a chunk of the destroyed moon in their hyperspace vector? Maybe they had been hit by some sort of uncharted meteor shower? No, that wouldn't be enough to create a hull breach--Super Star Destroyers were famed for their extremely strong hull. The hull was so strong that, back in the days of Palpatine himself, Eclipses were known to ram enemy vessels head on and sustain little damage.

No way something random breeched the hull. Besides, now something was sealing it, and that just didn't happen by chance.

Aaron looked to Matt, who was frowning to himself. Aaron knew that Matt had probably put the pieces together himself, and he wanted Matt's gut instinct from those days of smuggling.

"I think we're in trouble," Matt said as if knowing what Aaron was thinking.

Finally realizing he hadn't replied to the comm-officer's last report, Aaron spoke into his wrist comm again. "Seal off the entire floor where the breech is. Seal off the one above and below as well. I don't know what's going on, but I have a bad feeling about this. Inform me if anything changes," Aaron finished, glancing over at the silent Jedi with the group.

Weren't Jedi supposed to sense danger? Well, he sure wished if she knew something she'd inform the rest of them.

"Well, my friends," Aaron said, scanning the little group he was with. "Let's see just who this uninvited friend of yours was..."

"they must know i'm aboard, they've sealed off the lower floors-" just as he said that a door shot down infront of him and behind him trapping him.

"damn it you fool, you should have senced this!" he scourned himself, he drew his light sabre and examined the door for a minute and then he engaged the searing blade, he slid the amber beam into the door with minimal difficulty and slowly traced a door for himself before slamming a high strength foot into the melted metal sending it flying down the coridor and causing it to clang against the lift door.

moments later he had hot wired the lift and was on his way to the upper levels following the burning excitment he felt in his cold heart as he neared the Jedi, he couldn't wait, his first Jedi kill was so close. "the bridge...i'll try there first." he was still young and his skills with the force let him know that the Jedi was close but not exactly where they where.

The lift started to slow and then came to a full stop and his fingers held the light sabre tight, ready to fight as soon as he got onto the bridge.

"Commander Jaylen," a deck officer spoke up. "The Hornett is reporting electrical damage to turbolift 784. It's coming up, destination unknown."

"Oh lovely. I don't know what will be worse. Reporting to Captain Barnes we have some sort of intruder, or reporting to Captain Danner that someone boarded his ship and caused damage. Report to Captain Barnes of this latest development. Meanwhile try to reestablish control of the turbolift and alert all staff of possible threat," he ordered.

Then, after thinking a moment, he added, "And tell Matt Stanza if he has anything he can pull from his bag of technological tricks now would be a really good time."

"I'm on it," a deck officer called. "And FYI, turbolift 784 has just halted on level 5--near the main docking bay."

"Allright, I don't know what this intruder intends, but have everyone on high alert. I don't like the sounds of this..."

"WHERES THE JEDI!!!!!" he hollared bearing his fangs, a man ran up to him with a blaster but with a quick hand gesture the man's neck broke with a sickening crack before falling to the floor.

This... thing was after Cella?

I shot a worried glance over to where my gunner and Cella sat incommunicado. Nassy's eyes were wide and moist with what I took to be great concern laced with more than a little rising fear; her hand snaked under the table to latch onto mine. I squeezed back, contemplating Cella. That esteemed lady merely sat in absolute silence, her visage blanked out in the annoying calm way jedis have about them.

I gulped. Ye gods, woman, aren't you going to do something? I thought to myself, willing Cella to offer a suggestion, rise up from her seat, whip out her lightsaber...anything to assist the group of people who had gone to such great lengths to rescue her, first from the Kessel spice mines, and now from this rampaging and unknown marauder.

My jaw worked. What in the name of all that runs the Universe did this person want with us? Didn't Cella sense anything? Why was she being so taciturn?

That thought sparked a touch of anger; I clenched my teeth, then quietly turned to Captain Barnes. The look on his face confirmed my first suspicions about him: No way would I take a bet against the man being a master at sabaac.

"Looks like that Whyrene's is going to have to wait," I finally broke the rapidly escalating tension, still fuming inwardly. Then I firmed. "But if there's anything that my crew and I can do--"

Well, at least some of my crew, that is!

"...just say the word. You hauled our hineys out of the fire back there; we'll do what it takes to pay back the favor."

After a minute or two the lift slammed to a sudden stop and Veren was left dazed on the floor of the lift with one white knuckled hand still holding onto the now bent side bar.

"someone will pay for this...." he cursed as he stumbled to his feet dizzily, the doors of the lift opened and he could already hear the sounds of a security team heading towards him but luckily they hadn't seen him yet.

He had slipped out of the lift and was now hiding among the giant metal boxes in the docking bay which wasn’t very becoming of a fledgling Sith lord.

from his vantage point on top of the crates he could see the large security team searching the lift, if he hadn't have left when he had he would either be dead or captured, neither of which would aid in the killing of the on board Jedi he thought to himself.

The cargo bay was massive and to hold so many ships it covered several decks and in the middle there was the giant pit like area where the ships where docked, hearing the patrol coming towards his direction he took off his cloak and dashed towards the docking pit with the insane speed given to him by his racial heritage and jumped off the edge hurtling down several floors but this is where his plan faltered, he hadn't taken the time to consider what to do to prevent injury, it was to late, he slammed into the metal floor hard sustaining little injury but he was now unconscious....this couldn't be good...

She took a deep breath. "I'll try to challenge him to a one-on-one, though Force knows I'm in no way ready to do combat." She had never been an exceptional fighter, and in her condition, she was unlikely to perform at top flight. However, it would be preferable to seeing her companions killed. "Sorry I wasn't much help in the firefight back there...but believe me, I'm going to make up for it."

My eyes widened at Cella's words. Great, another Sith! I didn't know much about this Force business. I did know, however, that if he got any closer to me and my friends, I'd fill him so full of holes he wouldn't hold water. The hand that wasn't in Yaoksi's coolly came to rest on the butt of my trusty blaster. I might have learned a thing or two about shooting first, but this guy, whoever he was, had definitely put us on the defensive.

Veren inspected what lay outside the door of his cell through the grubby little window and with a quick gesture of his hand a crate flew over and smashed the door controls sending the door shooting open, his light sabre flew to his hand and before the guard had realized the mistake of firing their blasters their shots had been reflected back at them and they both lay dead on the floor with smoking burns on them.

Veren still felt drained from his body having to repair the damage from the fall and he had aquired a limp to his anoyance, he sat meditating as the turbo lift zipped around as he randomly hit the controls.

His eyes opened into an evil stare into nothingness as he heard Cella's message and grinned.

"your wish is my command Jedi...." he whispered to himself finally knowing where she was, the turbo lift skidded to a stop before heading towards the jedi, he would have his pray still this day...

In my arms a new hydrospanner I am cradling as I wait for the lift to come and back to the docking bay take me. Now soon Devil-May-Care will back beneath my tender touch be, and in no time off to join others we will go!

But what is this-??

The door to the lift whooshes open in front of me. There before me, a wild-eyed being, snarling and frothing and certainly boding no good will toward man nor Verpine.

This will never do. Of the utmost importance is calm environment, or the ship entrusted to my care in top operational condition will never be.

Being is staring at me as if dirt beneath his feet I am. Or under his rather long tail; that is to my liking not.

No harm to others nor my ship. None.

And... very fast are Verpines... something which is to other people always overlooked.

A sudden heft. An indomitable swing, the force behind it more so for the determination which drives it. A brand-spanking new hydrospanner gives its life in defense of ship and crew, colliding against the skull of threatening creature and dropping him like a stone.

I kick the thing with one clawed foot, not wanting my poor new hydrospanner to see. Then to comm unit go I, and call out to others I do.

"Come to lift 287, section 13-A; near docking bay corridor C-12." Turn I now to unconscious and rather strange-looking creature, holding aloft remains of 'spanner; into my large eye a glint now comes. I reach down...
I believe this is called a lightsaber, but a strange one indeed it is....

Now come the others, who secure this being and hustle him back to the docking bay. Not near Devil! I shout into my mind, but no. Away go they with listless burden and into an escape pod they hustle him. A hatch closes, and POOF.

Away he goes as out of hyperdrive we slide. A momentary lurch...

He hated being the Captain of the ship when things were amok.

"Barnes here."

"Captain, we are rid of our intruder. We have a really fast and intelligent Verpine to thank for stopping him before he caused further damage. We have also just recovered the modified escapepod which he used to board our ship. Staff is taking a look at it--might give us a clue as to who we are dealing with. In the meantime, we've also inherited his lightsaber, thanks to our Verpine pal again."

"K'kihl," Matt mouthed to Aaron, knowing he was probably the only Verpine aboard the Hornett at the moment.

"Well, I'll have to give K'kihl my personal thanks," Aaron said. "Meanwhile I'd actually like to take a look at that escapepod myself," he commented. "I'll be down with a few friends who will be very interested in looking at a piece of this puzzle in just a few minutes."

Once he saw his crippled ship from the viewing screen infront of him he tried to curse outloud but little more that a croak and a trickle of blood came from his throat. With a slow hand he tapped in the commands to the pod and headed for his ship.

Once the pod docked with his ship he had gotten some strength back, he knew his ship wouldn't be able to go anywhere, its engine was smashed but the hyper drive was working but with was to risky to use on his damaged ship....but on a strengthened escape pod....

After a few hours he had completed a task that would take minutes if he was un injured but what seemed like a simple hit from a hydro spanner had affected him much worse because of his species's soft skin and bone.

the escape pod filled with suplies was now ready and Veren set for the pod to go to his home planet where he would heal himself so he could fight another day...

"damn.....you....jeddaih...."

OOC: gone to http://forums.escapepod.net/cgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=20&t=000027 (wish you where there)

Sure as there's Treasure on Roon, we didn't want to appear to be sneaking up on this particular world!

Settling back a bit in my seat at navigation, I flashed a hopeful grin toward Terrin. "Well, here we go, love," I spoke into a silence which quite suddenly began looming as greatly as did the planetary surface in our forward viewscreen. "I sure hope that Seus remembers me, because--"

My words were abruptly cut off as our bridge speaker squawked into life.

"Incoming vessel, state identification, Captain and destination." The tone of that staticky voice brooked no room for deception; I shot Terrin one final loving look -- in case it would be the last one ever shared between us -- and took a deep breath.

"Ground control, this is Galen Jhin'Dar piloting ZZ'shzq," I began formally. "Captain Terrin Danner wishes to extend--"

Once again my words were cut off as a loud squawk filled the bridge. There was a moment of silence; then over a mechanical sort of rustle a vaguely familiar voice was now heard.

"Galen Jhin'Dar?" it queried thoughtfully, then brightened by several degrees. "Galen! How on Kessel are ya, gal? It's me, remember? Zarkon." The speakers quieted to more staticky chatter, then his voice came through loud and clear.

"Follow docking procedures Alpha-14 to padd 74D; I'm sure you remember from the last time you were here." More static, somehow muffled as though someone were trying to block the mouthpiece on the other end. Then: "You'll be met there, and welcome back!"

I turned to Terrin with a shrug, my eyes wide. "In for a credit..."

ZZ'shzq made a graceful swoop, entered the planet's outer atmosphere, and headed down to dock upon the mysterious and hidden world of the Bounty Hunter's Guild.

To any casual observer who didn't know too much about ships, the four claws which had apparently been clinging to the Hornett's hull when they blasted off into hyperspace was enough to prove this wasn't your average pod.

"Strange, wonder who makes this model," Matt said, cocking his head at the salvaged escapepod.

"It's a good bet no Imperial source," Aaron observed.

Matt simply nodded. "Probably not. Who wants to make an escapepod that can cut a hole into their primarily used ships?"

"Some sort of small time dealer then," Aaron reasoned.

"Probably so," Matt agreed. "Some company that sells to bounty hunters and smugglers and the like for the majority of their profits. Think we can find the seller of this thing?"

Aaron frowned thoughtfully, scanning the looks of the others with him. Yaoksi was looking pretty intrigued, but then Aaron wasn't too sure he wasn't more interested in the Twi'lek standing next to him, trying to inconspicuously lean her head against his shoulder. The Jedi seemed troubled even by standards of typical Jedi calm.

Sheesh, this was a WHOLE LOT of fun.

"Maybe we can," Aaron said at last, finally answering Matt's question. "But I don't think that'll help us figure out who this guy was unless we can somehow talk someone into telling us if any Dark Jedi have made purchases lately. How successful THAT will be is debatable."

"I know," the red-headed man said, frowning down at the escapepod once more. "But then, I'd like to take a chance and figure out just who this guy is in case he strikes again..."

"I'm curious too," she continued. "I'm positive this Dark One wasn't connected with our 'friends' on Khar Delba," she said rather dryly, "and I don't know of any other possible places where this homicidal maniac would have come from. I'd like to find out who he is and where he came from...before he and his friends find us."

Naisra'len cocked her head, lekku waving. "I don't know as much about ships as I do about weaponry, but that pod looks like a custom job to me. I only know of a few manufacturers who'd make something like that, and they're not telling who their buyers are. I'm thinking it's time for a little hacking, eh?"

""Ahh-- er...Nice fleet..."

The smile shifted to a frown as they approached the opening in the belly of the ship that would lead them into the main hanger.

"So what's our next move?" Jasyn queried into the quietness, his voice actually tinged with a bit of concern.

Hell, the guy could gripe and complain and be completely annoying, but when it came down to it he was loyal and would go the extra parsec without being asked. And the guys rather liked Galen...

Terrin sighed. "Our next move is to get the information we need to make a sensible move, as quickly as we can. This is rather difficult; as we've discussed we have alot of speculation and little fact. I want the solid data. And I'm really counting on Stargazer Corporation to get what I need. We need to go information fishing and find out just who might have had a certain interest in Sith relics. That might be a challenging task, but then, that's what information smugglers do best. And I think it just might give us a lead."

Terrin's words cut off as he devoted his full attention to landing the ZZ'Shzq safely in the hanger. In only a few minutes, the ship was down and systems were cooling. The three men made their way out of the little yacht, Terrin way in the lead.

He only stopped a moment to look at a damaged Devil-May-Care. As he stood there wondering who delivered that sort of damage to Yaoksi's ship, Aaron approached.

"Terrin, it's good to see you. We weren't expect--" Aaron frowned. "What's wrong?"

"It's a long story, but I'll fill you in as we walk to my office. To put it simply though, we have a bounty hunter to find, fast. Galen's been snagged, again."

"What the hell happened here, really?" he asked, turning a quizzical eye to his partner. About this time they were joined by the rest of the crew of the Devil-May-Care and Matt, who had been in a cargo hold just off the main docking bay.

"The ship was attacked by some sort of Dark Jedi who managed to try to blow the Devil into oblivion and then latch an escapepod onto the side of the Hornett. Thus the tear in the hull."

Terrin stopped dead in his tracks, bringing everyone who had started trailing behind him to a stop as well.

What the hell was the Universe coming to?

"What happened to this Dark Jedi?" he asked instead, suddenly eyeing Cella Poliani curiously.

"Actually, K'kihl ran into him and managed to knock him senseless so that we could jetison him in an escapepod and get going again. We haven't seen the cricket since. We've been looking about for him everywhere."

Terrin grinned a bit at that. The verpine was probably trying to keep a low profile. And get a new hydrospanner. The damage done to the Devil-May-Care was probably driving him crazy.

Now...a Dark Jedi aboard his SSD...THAT was a bit disturbing. But this quite obviously was NOT the Sith. Not with the unsuccessful attack tactics. Not with the ease at getting rid of him. They'd figure out what was up with this guy later. Right after...

"Terrin, where's Galen?" Matt suddenly quizzed out of seemingly nowhere.

"A bounty hunter by the name of Sorben Tarnus grabbed her on the Guild World and managed to outsmart us all. She's...with him..."

Terrin's words cut off as his eyes defocused. "I haven't a clue where to start on this, but we've gotta make some sort of move, soon. We don't have enough solid information to know where to go next, but we do have some ideas. We all need to talk, and I need as many heads on this as possible. Yaoksi," here he paused, his blue eyes meeting the ones of the smuggler, "We might be needing K'kihl's brain too, and I know he'd want to be informed of Galen's kidnapping."

After all, Galen HAD said the Verpine had saved her life before. Sheesh, here the Verpine had been with them for months and he STILL didn't know the story behind that. And he didn't know how Galen and the Verpine knew each other to begin with.

But at the moment, that was probably an inconsequential bit of information.

Sheesh, I thought to myself as I dialed up the Cricket's personal comm frequency. I sure hope nothing terrible is happening to her. That lil gal has already been through so much hell--

My voiceless thoughts were interrupted as K'kihl's chittery voice came over my comm in a burst of static. "K'kihl this is," he said simply. I raised my wrist to my lips.

"Hey buddy, there's a meeting coming up you, umm... don't want to be missing out on." I paused, floundering, knowing that nothing but the truth would drag the Verpine from the Devil, but unwilling to say the only words which would accomplish that task. I chewed my lip a second, a second in which his voice piped up again.

"Have for me a hydrospanner found... again?" He sounded remarkably calm for the one who had managed to offhandedly save the Hornett and her crew some major damage at least, not to mention man-hours away from our original plan of action in dealing with the shoddy Dark One who had tried to create havoc with my ship and this one.

I couldn't help but grin at that. "Ahh... no.

"But I'm sure I we could scrounge one up for you." Here I quirked my brows to Captain Danner, and mouthed a silent query. Then I turned back to the comm.

"Just get your carapace up to Captain Barnes' --er, Captain Danner's ready room--" I hastily amended. There was no getting around it; I could hear the silence on the other end lengthening out into a well of negation. I took in a deep breath, and then let the words shoot out all at once.

"Captain Danner's fiancee has been kidnapped, buddy, and he needs every capable mind on this... now. So just get up there; I'll explain more when you arrive."

Without going into any more detail than that, I slammed off my comm unit and took Nassy's hand in mine.

"Let's get this show on the road," I said, then turning from the strangely adapted little pod and averting my eyes from my poor Devil-May-Care, I stepped out to follow the others who turned as one and left the docking bay.

What is happening to Galen? I am wondering as hurry I do away from the poor ship which into my care has been entrusted.

Frown I again deeper.

Really, hydrospanner I must get. Hydrospanner I am needing....

A sigh I am making now as hurrier I go, and soon at the door to the ready room I am finding myself. Other crew members hurrying are as the door ahead of me opens and into the room, with familiar faces is crowded, I now go.

To Captain Joao I am turning my gaze, and to his side I am going. "Here am I," my presence I am announcing... then into sudden quiet I am falling.

Everyone so dark and angered is looking....

Then he turned first to K'kihl, who probably was waiting for someone to fill him in on why he'd been disturbed from repairing his ship.

Terrin got straight to the point. "K'kihl, when we were on the Bounty Hunter's Guild World looking for a sith ship Galen used to pilot we were jumped by a bounty hunter named Sorben Tarnus. He has taken her." Now he turned to the whole group. "And that's about all we know, excepting that once upon a time Galen and Sorben worked together and that they'd related to the Guild that Galen knew about a site with Sith ships. From what this Seus fellow, who is the leader of one of the guilds said, that certain site was found to be empty, and that Tarnus's accounts were completed liquidated. I'm wondering if he might have sold some of the Sith ships he thought he had, only to find out they weren't there. When his buyer found out that there were no ships, the buyer wanted his or her money back. Either Tarnus had to pay the debt and now wants his money back, or something even more complex is going on involving the fact that Galen was the person who located the ships to begin with.

Of course, this is all speculation, and won't get us anywhere towards finding her," Terrin commented, looking rather wistful. He sighed. There might be something else here they all needed to know. "Sorben and Galen were...romantically involved for sometime. In fact, her baby is his. I'm concerned that..." Terrin paused another moment, frowning at his own thoughts, "...that Tarnus has been looking for her for some time now, and found out she was with me. He did manage to imply he'd be back for me before he knocked me out. Not that I'm concerned about myself," Terrin continued. "I'm more concerned about how Sorben will react to Galen if he has been angered by this. I've been in his shoes before, and I know how much finding out someone you loved, or at least thought you loved, can affect you. I know how I reacted. Thank goodness I ran into Galen when I did, or else there's no telling where I might be now."

Terrin quieted at that, searching inwardly for that one spark of inspiration on how to find Galen before something did happen. Nothing was coming at the moment.

"I guess I just don't know where to go with this. We've gotta help Galen find the baby, but we just can't do that without her. And I love her too much to just leave her hanging, especially when I know how worried about her little girl she is. I need suggestions, so anything you've got will be of help here."

Then, Terrin simply clammed up at that and waited for someone to say something.

Blink would I, could I.

Oh Boss Sorben, into what troubles have you yourself fallen...?

Eyes to me are looking, searching, I am realizing. Gulping am I; no great orator have I ever found myself. But--

From Boss Yaoksi's to Captain Terrin's eyes am I now looking. Open mandibles I am... closing them not.

Words coming not.

Difficult-- my partner for so long he has been.... Boss Sorben, what dark path tread you now?

Again I try.

"Know well I this bounty hunter of which you speak." Words crashing into stunned silence like crystal waves on hard-rock shore. "Worked with him many years, have I. Partner to him for years have I been.

"Saved him and this poor Verpine from Dark One called Wicked, did Galen. Saved us with Sith ship, did she."

Now silent I am falling.... My head with minutia is filled, but the words to my mandibles come not. So difficult is this....

My shoulders now are slumping, my voice now sighing. Like small and soft creature coiling for the night, it as well is coiling into whisper.

"For some time together they were, pursued by Wicked, and other Dark Ones as well. Gravin Dark, Darth Desolist..." Ticking them off on manipulatory appendages now pause I for doing. Then I am continuing.

"Rescued Varsala, wife of Jedi Master Quee, did they. But at risk of Boss Sorben, who taken to Wicked was. Later discovered we that Wicked there was not, and taken to Sith Lady Graysith was instead."

Pause I again. Oh, silence, silence so dear is now to me beckoning....

On, push I. "In frightful panic was Galen. Loved Sorben very much, did she. Loved her much as well he did, although at time admitted it not. Later married I thought they would be... To Seus with "bounty" she went, returning Lady Varsala to Guild. Later Guild to Quee Varsala gave, I am deducing." Pause I for shrug; hurry on, before words too cold are growing.

"Agreed, did Seus, a ship to Galen give. But at knowledge of our destination in payment... to this did Galen agree, and then to the place of Death did we go."

Yet again I am pausing. My head to one side is cocking; Devil-May-Care to me is calling, is crying....

Onward.

"There did we find that which seeking she was. Sith ship liberated we from rock... and off to Khar Delba we go. There to surface Galen departed... lost contact with her did I. Back to Seus was only my hope... to us in mystery later were they returned.

"Adventure with Desolist then did we find... and end up in Dalius City together did we. With child did Galen discover herself-- and one night in more mystery did she leave us there."

Now longer I am pausing, my head is bowing before the weight of words inside. Visions in my eyes are arising, I am liking them not. My voice quieter grows.

"A year... a year sought Sorben and I, his love and his child to find. A year... away from Seus did he turn. No more jobs did he have, money to hunt soon running out... then one day, money did we have and on the hunt again did we go.

"But in vain. No Galen did we find. Back to Dalius City did we then go, another trail to there pick up maybe. But there did Boss Sorben push this poor Verpine away... and there did I Captain Joao meet and join.

"Other than this, nothing else do I know. Except... that when pushing away, stated Boss-Sorben that too dangerous for this Verpine it would be, to assist further with hunt for love and child... and that Devil-May-Care from negligence is crying. No more have I to say, I am knowing. To my charge I must go...."

Stop I now, to Boss Yaoksi am I looking. Pleading crashes into wide green pools which his eyes have become.

Now I know I watched too many holovid space operas as a kid...!

I opened my mouth, flapped it like an opee out of water for a bit before words finally escaped my lips. I didn't know to which of the two I should address my opening statement, so I just let it fly into the middle distance between them.

"Buddy, are you telling me that Sorben Tarnus is the guy who took Galen?!?"

No one answered that rather stupid remark. Terrin just cut his eyes to me for a quick moment and then focused them back on the Verpine. K'kihl just worked his mandibles with a little clack.

I managed to get myself under more semblance of control, but I couldn't help the one hand which sneaked up to massage my throat at the mere memory of how I had met the my engineer in the Blue Asteroid on Dalius City's seamier side of town. For a moment I just stood there. Then--

"We're going to have to be cautious, friends," I suggested, letting my hand drop. "This Sorben Tarnus is smart, fast, unbelievably strong... and probably a very dangerous kinda guy altogether."

I then dropped into silence, releasing my squirming engineer back to the Devil with a nod as I gave Nassy's hand a reassuring squeeze and just stood there waiting to hear what would be spoken next.

He hadn't known that K'kihl was Sorben's partner, and apparently good friend. He hadn't known...

He stared rather blankly at the departing verpine, trying to avoid the fact that all eyes had basically turned in his direction and were evaluating him quizzically.

Suddenly he would have liked nothing more than to crawl under the table. He figured they were probably all wondering how in the Universe it was that Galen had loved Sorben so much yet was now with him.

And what if Tarnus HAD been really angered when he'd discovered that Galen had found another?

Somehow Terrin knew that Sorben just had to have known about he and Galen. How else could he have ever found her on the Guild World anyway?

And just who had tipped him off to their whereabouts to begin with?

And what were Sorben Tarnus's intentions?

Trying to hide the expression of complete dread that was probably crossing his face, Terrin turned and walked to the viewscreen and stared at and past it blankly, trying to figure out just where to begin when he finally knew what it was he was going to say after these revelations.

Oh gods, but he hoped Tarnus didn't hurt her...

...she'd already been through so much. Couldn't Sorben see that? Shouldn't he KNOW that, even if he'd been hurt that Galen was with someone else?

And didn't the bounty hunter see something at all wrong with the fact that Galen had obviously delivered a baby, yet there was no baby in sight? What was he thinking?

"We've gotta go after her, despite the possible risks," Terrin said at length, still not turning around to face the others. "I'm truly, deeply concerned about her saftey," he added, finally turning, his blue eyes still distant with worry. "If Tarnus has been seeking Galen out all this time, I wonder if he could have bumped into someone who was interested in finding Galen as well. Maybe, with his loss of credits, Sorben resorted to working for whomever this person was to help find her. Or perhaps he's been using this person's funding all along in an effort to find her for himself, not ever intending to follow through with presenting her to his employer if he did find her.

Terrin frowned again, the sickening feeling of being completely oblivious as where to find Galen nearly overwhelming him. "But at least we do know he's been looking for her relentlessly, to the point of losing his own job. Yet somehow he's managed to get the funding to continue his search. I feel something terrible is going to happen if we don't get on this right away. Shawn?"

The Jedi, who had been standing quietly in the corner taking in everything, nodded and focused his blue-green eyes on Terrin. "Have you contacted Stargazer Corporation?"

Shawn nodded in the affirmative. "I've been waiting to see what they can dig up."

"Well, please, call them again and encourage them to dig faster. Time is of essence."

"I'll be right on it Terrin. And I'll see if I can get a Force-lock on her again."

Terrin nodded once in approval. "Thank you."

"Jedi Shawn Petrolu requesting to speak to Katrina Mandraff."

"Speaking," a female replied. "We have some information you might find of interest."

"Okay, spill."

"Back not too long after Shayla first disappeared and Erik was looking for her himself, we stumbled upon some information about this Tarnus fellow working for some sort of Sith or Dark Jedi named Gravin Dark. We thought there might be a link for a while, but we never really got any trace on the bounty hunter or his employers. Dark's name has come up again recently however in connection with an Imperial take over of the Galaxy that has been lead by an Imperial Admiral by the name of Actar. That's all we've got though."

Shawn frowned to himself. "Thanks Katrina. And keep digging."

"No problem. You be careful out there, Shawn."

"I will. Petrolu out."

As Shawn mulled through this new information, he couldn't avoid the worry creeping up inside him. He'd known there was something evil and dark spreading through the Galaxy...and apparently a Sith or Dark Jedi had been behind it. And he could bet big credits this Sith knew about Galen's baby. How convenient for him to have hired the father of the child to get to her. Chances were that Tarnus had been given certain "conditions" to work for this guy to begin with.

In a few minutes, Shawn returned to Terrin's ready room and related what info he'd been given.

Terrin, as well as the others in the room, were postively gaping. But none so much as Terrin. The emotions rolling off him borderlined on complete horror. Shawn shot a greeny-blue gaze at the taller man, a suspicion creeping up in his mind.

Terrin knew something about all of this...

But then he thought of her, alone with Tarnus, who was possibly working for someone really evil...

Terrin tried to get far enough away from his own horror to say something that seemed coherent. Shawn was looking at him oddly, but then Shawn didn't know Terrin knew of Actar, and probably didn't think he had any regrets about working for the Moff.

"Look!" Terrin suddenly blurted. "That Admiral Actar has been after Galen and snagged her at least twice that I know of. He's got an itch to bring the Empire back, and he's been really wanting to get a hold of Galen's baby. He's never been all that effective, but this Dark guy..."
Where had Terrin heard Galen mention Dark before??? He knew she had...

Then it hit him. "If Gravin Dark is somehow linked with an Imperial takeover, we are simply in deep bantha doo-doo. Not only had he been after Sorben and Galen, he'd been searching for a weapon called the Nar Khelba--which could kill the soul of a Force user--and that we once had in our possession til..."

here he paused and shuddered a moment. "...til I lost my arm in an attack by one of the Sith's creatures. I don't recall if Galen told me, but I'm pretty sure Gravin was somehow linked with the Sith. And if that's who Sorben is working for and planning to take her to now...

...she and the baby, as well as Sorben Tarnus, are all in considerable danger...even if Tarnus doesn't think so."