Shayla turned to look at Erik, who was scowling at the navboard of the warship as she stood, clearly not happy with the latest "plans" she had decided upon.

"You've gotta stay and watch the ship," she said calmly and reassuringly. He opened his mouth to say something in objection to this, but she stood and put her right index finger to his lips. "We can't lose this baby," she explained, waving her left hand expansively to indicate the warship, "and I want some back up..."

Erik quirked a brow then, taking her right in his left, and pointing with his other free hand towards her slightly-buldging stomach. "Don't forget about this baby either," he said pointedly, concern very evident on his features.

"All the more reason for you to stay behind, so you can cover me," she replied, kissing him lightly on the forehead.

He simply sighed, and returned the kiss. "I don't like it..."

She sent him an understanding look. "I know. I'll hurry back, and stay in contact with you...

...you have my word. Now escort me to my TIE like a gentlemen," she continued, grinning as he stood, wrapping an arm about her waist, and leading her on to docking bay of the warship...

Only a little while later

After berthing her "appropriated" TIE-fighter in a public landing area, Shayla wasted no time in making her way to the Blue Asteroid, where she sat down and ordered a pale water.

Then she sat back and scanned the crowd, hoping she hadn't missed her contact...

"You want something else, or are you gonna stick with the water?" His way of saying buy something else, or get out...

The bartender might have seemed familiar to her, yet Master Tyberius had altered his appearance slightly from their last encounter...

Allright buster, have it your way, cause this is my rendezvous point...

"Allright, give me some blue milk..." she said, looking then to the bartender as if to say Will that be allright with you?

All the while Shayla couldn't help but continue to wonder just why this guy seemed familiar...

He brought her drink to her promptly...

Well, for a planet whose people who are supposed to be friendly and peaceable, this guy's sure an exception to that rule...

She took another sip then, glancing about the Blue Asteroid to find anyone who looked like they were waiting for someone...

...or watching her.

Nobody.

She continued to drink, her hopes dimming at finding Tyberius...

...and some answers...

...with every passing moment...

Two men, clad in robed attire, came behind Shayla... seeming to help a drunk out of a bar, even though they took her through the back exit in doing so...

Not many saw, or would have seen, much of Shayla's abduction...

She was carried to a small strange transport...

Hours later, opposing side of Chandrilla...

They approached the cloaked Endeavor, the transport gracefully entered a lower docking bay...

When Shayla awoke, she'd find herself with no choice but to answer every question...

Without haste, the cloaked ship exited Chandrillan space...

...but a warning jolt prompted her to the awareness that something just wasn't right.

She stretched out in the Force, drawing its energies to herself to dull the achy feeling and bring herself fully to consciousness, trying to figure out just what had happened, knowing that panicking wouldn't help her at all.

Lessee, you were somewhere...

the Blue Asteroid...that's it...

...waiting for someone...

...but who...?

Shayla struggled a moment to recall, her mind still a little fuzzy. Then it came.

Tyberius. Last thing you remember you were sitting there drinking something-or-other...

...and now you are here...

Another moment of brief and clouded confusion passed, then reality struck. If the last thing you remember was sitting there drinking...and now you are here groggy and confused...

...DRUGGED! YOU WERE DRUGGED!

Shayla sat bolt upright on the decking of some ship which was vaguely familiar, questing out now in the Force for two very important lives.

Erik...gone....

little Zack...

Shayla quested a bit harder, her senses stretching to the babe that slept within her. She nudged him gently through the Force, which usually sparked a reply of some sort from him...

...and came up with absolutely nothing. He just slept right on...

Shayla frowned, sending healing energies in the little ones direction, fearing that he had been adversely affected by whatever had knocked her out...

...but then she realized she was not alone. She turned her greeny-blues in the direction of a shadowy-looking figure, and finally realized just why this place seemed so very familiar...

Tatooine and Tyberius's ship...

"What is it you wish to discuss?" Tyberius asked, as he stopped...

...you pursued me, a padawan 'abducted' by a Sith, and then you urged that ShaRhylla Roan be killed..."

She paused, once, biting her lip slightly in thought. "Did you do that because you feared ShaRhylla becoming like her Father, a Warrior Lord of the Sith...

...or because you feared her being used in a scheme designed by Lord Aelvedaar?"

Shayla fell silent at that, her greeny-blues penetrating the only vaguely shadowed figure before her as she waited to hear just what the reply might be...

I start to speak,"Where is the child now? and the other... JhinDarra..."

I ignore her questions, for answers I knew not... I fear this bluff will soon run its course...

For now, all I truly knew...

The Children must die...

Which wasn't saying very much.

The only person she trusted right now...

...aside from her own husband...

...might be dead for all she knew...

Shayla jerked herself from that thought, not showing a speck of it but inside deeply angered that Tyberius would even think she would speak of such things so freely when she had no basis to trust him yet. "Why should I tell you this...

...why would I tell you this...

...when I know so little of you thusfar...

...and are refusing to tell me. I am not foolish enough to simply hand out to you the information you seek if you can't be totally honest with me...and even at that, I don't promise to tell you such things."

Shayla folded her arms, her eyes defocusing, her anger in check regarding the shiftiness of this individual. "Apparently you, Emmissary, are just like them..."

"Then..."

I Stride to her sitting form, taking her by the arm, I slowly lead her from the seat...

"...the truth will stay in shadow..."

An aid comes to Shayla's side, I waive for he to wait... I walk with my back to them, crossing back to the darker side of light and shadow...

"...may mercy be shown to all, if and when the sith are reborn..." My departing back said to the young... Jedi...

Shayla's mind was spinning.

He knows something. It's apparent by the way he speaks...

...but apparently he does not know the obvious. Foolish that one so concerned about the return of the Sith hasn't been keeping better tabs on the situation than this...

Shayla's look darkened, then, "Know you not the very obvious?" she whispered, an edge in her voice. "It has happened..."

"So, it has begun..." I say under my breath, turning my head to one side... considering...

I turn forward, briskly exiting the room...

Within the vastness of my quarters, I look upon the magics of the orb that adorned the emptiness...

It had begun... I inform the bridge deck to change course...

...as well as his unannounced depature from the room in seeming haste upon the revelation that the Sith had, in fact, returned.

Shayla stood once more, balling her fists at her side. "What it is you fear of them?!" she cried aloud, not moving an inch, remaining seemingly frozen in place. Whether she was expecting a response or would even get one at that was a mystery...

Now, they seek me out... for reasons uncertain, yet it is my destiny to fulfill...

((OOC: Please follow all, but Erik, to 'A Civilization Stirs' in this forum... thank you...))

She was gone...

...the link they shared was gone...

He paced the length of the Sith ship, over and over and over again. He didn’t need to go to the surface to analyze whether Shayla was there or not...

...he just knew that she wasn’t. Furthermore, he was fairly certain that she had been taken, had walked right into a trap, and all because she simply wanted some answers.

But now what was he going to do? He didn’t know where she had been taken, didn’t have a Force-sense of her to track her...

...had absolutely NOTHING, aside from the fairly reasonable conclusion that she had been taken by Tyberius. After all, this had happened before...

He paced the length of the shp a few more times, wishing like Hell he at least knew where Graysith was. She would help Shayla...she could find her...

...but then she too was gone, missing in action...

...and Erik somehow knew Shayla feared she was possibly dead.

So what are you going to do, Mr. Kartan? Your wife and son are at stake here, and every second you waste trying to figure this out is one more second they’re missing and probably in a lot of danger.

He paced the length of the Sith ship one more time...

...then froze at the navboard, staring at the glyphs and sigils as the only possibility with any hope of success wormed its way to the forefront of his mind. His look darkened...more so than it had already, anyway...as he considered.

Was this really the only possibility worth pursing? There were so many unknowns regarding it...

...but perhaps this was indeed the only way. And if the past year or so truly meant ANYTHING in the grand spectrum of things...

Erik jerked himself from these thoughts, and seated himself at the navboard, his hands going to work as he set the coordinates for his intended destination. All the while his heart was heavy with worry, and his mind full of thoughts.

He was so very scared of losing them...

...and was even more afraid that the one person he could reach who might be able to help her would not.

But if he didn’t even try, Erik Kartan knew he would fail before he had ever begun.

Certain that the coordinates were programmed, Erik all but “gently tapped” the hyperspace sigil, and the warship responded immediately by gliding off into the security of hyperspace, starlines and all, headed for the Sith world of Khar Delba...