...and it would be simpler."

...and keep getting some rest. We'll keep you updated on what's going on."

Without any further word than that, Terrin left Erik in the medbay and returned to the galley where Galen was finding some food for herself.

"Well," he opened with, "Kartan says he could link up with Shawn, but admits that this wouldn't be any more helpful than reading our schematic map over a commlink to him. I vote for giving those schematics a good looking into, as you suggested...

...or else this could take simply forever. Even with a guide on the other side reading the map to Shawn, the way out we have determined would still be somewhat a hunt and peck venture for Shawn, who won't actually see the map for himself."

Pursing his lips, Terrin took a seat at the galley table, rubbing his chin a bit. "Kartan said it was too bad we couldn't somehow get the readout of the schematics map to Shawn." He shrugged. "I don't see any way that would be possible...

"I haven't a clue how to do what you are implying, Flyboy," I remarked, stabbing at another piece of food with my fork.

"That's all in the realms of computers and stuff; I'm just a simple pilot, after all. Besides, the schematics are visual data files and the commlink reads out audio ones; I have no idea whatsoever how to turn one kind into another, and besides...

"How could Shawn read a map by how it sounds? And besides, how can we even comm him to begin with? The only reason we could before was because Panthar and I were down in the system with more of a direct line for the waves to carry. Remember how the rock prevented the ship from contacting him?"

I shoved the food into my mouth and chewed, trying to think of something useful I could contribute. But try as I might, I seemed to keep coming to the same dead end.

He trailed then, frowning as an idea struck. "Hey, how good was your reception of Shawn down in that hole? I mean, if the rock is preventing us from comming Shawn from the ship, then there must have been less rock between you and Shawn in that hole, like you said. What if there is another doorway out of Shawn's location through that hole Panthar stumbled into after all?"

Standing then, Terrin motioned towards the cabin of the ship. "I'm gonna go get a print-out of those schematics," he then explained, "And get Jasyn and Matt and anyone else willing to get their heads in on this. There simply has to be a solution that we've missed...

...and some way to contact Shawn."

"Allright," Terrin opened with, taking a seat himself and putting the datapadd on the table. "We have a few complications, to say the least, now that Lord Aelvedaar is out of the picture. First and foremost, we're probably going to need a way to communicate with Shawn. From where we are, unless we drill a hole or something into the rock that is blocking us from sending him comms, that doesn't see likely.

Again.

That's what you get for trusting peoples you don't really know! a shoulder devil popped up and snorted. And aside from that being yet another irritating thing, the devil had a point.

A good one.

"Hey, Boss," Jasyn said, sitting forward. "Maybe we are approaching this the wrong way. I mean, we're centered on what we do have here, which is all well and good...

...but what if we don't have all the resources here we need to get Shawn out, and safely? What would we do then?"

He fell silent then, leaving the question hanging as if he expected at least one or more people could come up with the answer on their own.

"We are in the Outer Rim, and we know that the Hornett generally stays in this area of the galaxy as well," he pointed out. "The Hornett has bigger guns, better technology, and far more people and minds than we have to contend with here. Why not contact them and see where they are...

"Yeah," I agreed, swallowing. "This ship doesn't have the biggest or newest of equipment aboard her; we're lucky to have sensed out the cave system at all, as a matter of fact."

I lifted the pink thing to my lips, eyed it speculatively, then tossed it on my plate. After taking a sip of the Rygellian sparkling water I had found -- ugh -- I pressed on.

"Hornett is big, bold and sassy, and if nothing else would have the simple manpower to investigate that system. I mean, good gravy, there's simply got to be more entrances, more passageways... in fact--"

I leaned over and eyed the datapadd Terrin was holding. Nodding, I jabbed a finger out.

"Look, here's a line bisecting the horizontal line of the surface... and here's another, and there another!" I smiled, pointing to the three tiny squiggles that managed to stand out amidst the womprat's nest of scrawls and lines representing the system itself.

"Now, I can't make hide nor hair of what else those three lines attach too, let alone if they would eventually lead to where Shawn is. The schematic is just too scrambled; there's overlay on top of overlay, not the best equipment on this ship, remember."

I paused, cocking my head to one side as I thought further.

"But if we get enough men in there, with commlinks and explosives or hand-drills or something, maybe we'd be able to at least get close enough to Shawn before he becomes old and gray, and cut him the hell outta there!

Then he frowned a bit, "There is the ahhh...

... small issue that everyone on the Hornett and throughout Eagle Enterprises thinks I'm dead. I'm going to have to produce some pretty substantial evidence that I am who I say I am, and even with the code clearances I have...

...which I doubt anyone else has changed, that could be difficult. EE employees are blessedly suspicious, after all, and short of an EE bigwig, it's going to take the owner of that ship to move her."

He paused, eyeing Galen. "You are her sole inheritress, you know."

"Honest though, I think this is our best option; any further thought from anyone?"

I fell silent, waiting for all to input what they might have to say before heading back to the controls in order to take us away from this cursed planet.

"Meanwhile, if Kartan could somehow contact Shawn, or maybe if we went back to where we could communicate with him, I think it would be a good idea to let him in on what's going on, too. And who knows?

"Maybe he might think of something we're overlooking."

"I think this is the best move too," he agreed. "As for communication..."

"I dunno," I said doubtfully, shaking my head a little.

"I mean, like I said I know there are three places where openings bisect the top of this mesa. However, we're looking at the system from a side view; to find the entrances we'd have to scout around the topside. Cave entrances aren't always bedecked with neon signs and automatic doors; in fact, most of the caves that Dad stumbled upon in his search for the ancient Sith he did so by exactly that: he stumbled upon them. Literally.

"That's a pretty big mesa we're sitting on top of; it's gonna take a lot of stumbling to find those openings, which could be awfully tiny ya know. However, we do know where we were, as well as we know for a fact that we could contact Shawn from there.

"I say return to that point, I crawl back down into the hole, initiate contact with Shawn, and let him know what's happening. Then you guys haul me back up, and we skedaddle back to Hornett. Once we get back here, with what she's got on her we'll be able to find those entrances much easier and faster than I ever could using the stuff this ancient crate has got."

...and we can pray to the Fates that she's not too far away. After that we can get moving back to where we were, shoot a comm off to Shawn to let him know what's going on and get his thoughts and..."

Terrin stopped midsentence, his frown turning concerned. "..wait, wasn't there some sort of... Thing down in that hole...?"

But no matter.

"Well, we'll just have to chance that they won't be nearby; it shouldn't take me long to send off a quick message to Shawn. I'm sure he's not going to drag his feet about a reply, either, and should those nasty canastas try anything funny, well...

"This time I'm gonna bring the big guns with me!"

I nodded emphatically, knowing the boys had uncovered a storage locker full of weaponry when they had been rummaging around this ship, way back when I was still down that hole with Panthar Dantares.

"I'm betting there's a blaster rifle around-abouts, am I right?"

And with that, he was off, and Terrin turned to Galen. "Allright, let's shoot a transmission off to the Hornett and mark her as urgent for the Captain. If Aaron doesn't pick it up, then his second Taylor Garrison should, pretty quickly. Besides, I have little doubt that anyone on the Hornett will dismiss a transmission from Degobah, of all places."

He smiled a bit at that. "Have fun explaining that to them."

"I'm with you, Flyboy; now if someone would just be so kind as to deal with that-"

I waved in the general direction of my plate, for I was already in the doorway and heading forward.

If there's anything I hate worse than helmet-hair, it's doing dishes!

Terrin slowed a step or two just long enough for me to catch up, and we entered the little bridge of the ship side-by-side.

"Ok, here we go," I said, quickly bringing up communications and keying in a message to Hornett:

"Hornett, this is Galen Danner aboard-- er--"

I paused, embarrassed.

"Terrin, what in the name of all the treasure on Roon did I christen this silly ship?" I burst out, annoyed to have forgotten this slight triviality.

Ahh well--

I shook my head, and continued.

"Galen Danner calling Hornett, Galen Danner calling Hornett; we are departing from Dagobah and requesting vector to return home soonest. Request assistance with freeing Jedi Knight Shawn Petrolu from cave system; also, am bringing home a surprise package."

I paused again, shooting a gentle smile Terrin's way before finishing.

"Please advise rendezvous point, time is of the essence as Jedi Petrolu has been in the cave for days without food or water.

"This is Galen Danner aboard-- ahh, Galen Danner, out."

Finished, I sat back and turned to Terrin.

"There, now you just plug in the directional frequency and we'll send 'er off!" I stated brightly.

"You know," he said, typing between his words, "I haven't a kriffing clue what you named the ship either..."

He trailed, keying in a few more commands, and promptly squirting the transmission off to the Commander of the Hornett.

Then he suddenly rose a finger in the air "Ahh, she's the Rescue One. Quite fitting...

...but she's seen her day. Having ships with a bit more oomph to them at our fingertips will make this task easier alone."

(((OCC: Terrin's transmission will be received in In the Shadow of Doubt in the Empire and New Republic.)))

"This is Commander Taylor Garrison, acting Captain of the Hornett. It is good to hear your voice and to know that you are safe. We are currently in orbit around Sullust after completing a business transaction. We should be able to reach your current location significantly quicker than you may be able to reach ours."

"Approximate travel time is 12 standard hours. Meet me in orbit around the system at that time; the cammand deck will notify you of our presence on your current frequency upon our arrival. Until that time, Commander Taylor Garrison, out."

I smiled, and whipped off a quick acknowledgement, confirming our rendezvous time.

"Now, let's go tell Shawn the good news!" I continued to chirp as now grasping the controls I sent a quick little burst to our belly thrusters. Soon the ship was hovering several tens of meters above the tabletop.

Grinning like three kinds of fool I whirled her about her z-axis and took off, heading back to the spot where indeed we had first discovered the craft. Since the vegetation there was already trampled by her weight, and now singed by her take-off thrusters, I planned on putting her down where we had found her.

"It's not too great of a walk to the edge of that swamp where we found the hole," I said by way of explanation as we hummed along. "If falling into it is how you define the term, found!"

The grin plastered across my face grew a touch more sober as my thoughts now turned to our former companion.

He frowned. "And there's another thing. JhinDarra is really frustrated with the power she has that she can't seem to control; extremely frustrated. You and I both know that no Jedi will be able to teach her how to use those powers...

...and she says she wants to learn how to use them to do good. There are only a couple of individuals who could help her do that and they all live in the Sith worlds."

"Yeah," I agreed wholeheartedly.

"Looks like we're destined to go there, if only we could just figure out how. I'm not thrilled with the aspect of crashing an Imperial blockade, especially when I don't have one of those lovely Sith fighters at my disposal."

My vision grew vague then as my thoughts flashed back to the two Jesters I had flown in the past.

Ahh, now those were ships. If only we had one now, getting Shawn out of his predicament would be like taking a stroll in the proverbial park!

A small beeping sound interrupted my reverie, and I refocused on the board in front of me. We were coming up on our eta; taking in a deep breath I gripped the controls with both hands and gently guided her to a feather-light landing exactly where she had started from.

There, she might not be a Sith fighter, but that doesn't mean I can't treat her like one! I thought as I powered her down to stand-by. I cast a quick glance at the chrono.

Really nice, in fact. When the hell has anyone slept around here?!?

Terrin pushed that thought to the side for the moment, and then began to head towards the hatch, where Jasyn met them with a nice looking blaster rifle, a glowstick, and the rope they had used previously to first lower Galen into the hole after Panthar. Jasyn gave the first two items to Galen, and the last one he hung onto.

"A commlink?" Terrin queried towards Jasyn then, quirking a brow.

Jasyn quickly removed his own wristcomm. "This one should be easier than anything aboardship," he then explained. "Hands free on the way down."

With no further ado I departed the ship, and led the others to the spot where Panthar had discovered the hidden hole in the ground. The vegetation on Dagobah is obviously pernicious; it had been covered over by grasses and various types of bladderworts, but one vicious shove of a foot and the opening was freed.

I raised my hands so Terrin could secure the rope around my waist, and checked to make certain the wristcomm was fastened and that the battery was charged and ready. No use struggling down that blasted hole to discover the thing wouldn't work!

"Here's looking at you, sweetie," I said, giving Terrin a long look that said, Hey. Don't worry, I'll be back!

Then I started scaling the crevasse, inching and sweating, and sidling and twisting about inside the narrow confines, thanking the gods that Actar had stuck me in that horrid mental box so long ago. For if ever there would be a good candidate to inspire claustrophobia, this crack in the ground was it!

That mental box had been worse, however; in no time I found myself standing on solid ground. Sneezing a bit from the dust and dirt my descent had loosened, I gazed upward toward the dim speck of light above me. Then, not wishing to waste the comm's juice, I simply gave the rope a couple of good tugs, and snapped on the glowstick.

I glanced around, finding the tracks we had made in this little underground dungeon. These I followed, until I came to where the largest of them came to an abrupt halt.

"This must be the place," I told myself, then quickly dialed the wristcomm to Petrolu's frequency.

"Shawn, this is Galen. Do you copy?" I asked.

"Nope, better yet," I replied. "We've found Hornett, and she's due here in about, oh, ten hours or so. We've got a somewhat scrambled map of the system you're stuck in; with the technology Hornett's got we'll find you in no time.

"They've got the manpower and the simple power to boot to get you outta there, so hang tight!"

As if he really had any other place to go...

"Yes, we did," I finally replied. "He was, er, well... wrapped up in some vines, all hidden away. We were lucky to find him; he got a little injured during his removal from the trap he was in--" I winced again "-- but is recovering nicely in our little sickbay.

"He'll be taken better care of once we get him aboard Hornett, as will you, Shawn."

I paused a moment longer, weighing the need for rest against his obvious need to hear a human voice.

Hell with it.

...but meditation seems to hold me over the best. I hope Erik is doing some meditating himself; I worry more about his mental state than his physical one."

He paused then, considering all that Galen had said, troubled by the condition they had found his brother-in-law in.

Shayla, what have you done?

He left it though, knowing that worrying would do him little good. "It'll be good to see you all, hopefully sooner than later," Shawn then continued with, stretching out with the Force. "I'm truly grateful for your persistence."

I hadn't a clue what it meant, but I knew it was Shawn, and that in this manner he was telling me that he was all right. I was still smiling when I raised the wristcomm to my lips.

"Ok then; I think I'll get back to the ship so I can rest up a bit before we make rendezvous with Hornett. I'll contact you when she's here, and when we have more of an idea of what we're doing; oh, my daughter has been nursing Erik, so he's in good hands."

Willing ones, if not entirely skilled. Ah well, it's the thought that often counts more.

"Unless there's anything more that you feel I should know, I'm signing off and going back to the others.

But the warm fuzzies relaxed me enough that my body was able to almost flow around the offending projections, and with the aid of whatever hands were upstairs tugging I soon found myself being hauled out into the greenery once again.

"He's all right," I grunted as I clambered to my feet, then stooping to brush myself off.

"He also said he was worried about Erik's mental condition, and considering all that he's been through I'd say he has good reason to be. It's a good thing we've come up with this plan; I don't know if it would be good to impose this kind of pressure on him, not now, now while he's still healing and especially not now after what Shawn said."

I paused, wiping grimy hands upon my thighs, while behind me someone was busy freeing me from the rope.

...for once. He was first to the galley to pull out the Whyrene's Reserve and distribute it.

"Ahhh, nothing like a good Correllian drink," he practically purred. "But something a little strongesr would be nice."

We WERE going to get him out of that cave, I just KNEW it, I could FEEL it... and without the use of magick or mumbo-jumbo, just good, honest sweat and diligence.

I raised a lazy glass on high.

"To friends, who always stick together," I announced, then lowered my glass and took a big ol' swig.

...and love ones that had gone the distance to bring him back from the dead. Literally.

Which says a whole kriffing hell alot about the calibar of friends and loved ones that they are.

Smiling a bit to himself then, Terrin yawned. "Allright, I'm up for some sleep. Not sure how much bunk space this ship has though...

"Sleep sounds good; any ol' where will do," I said, my voice low and mumbly now for suddenly I felt as if I'd gone to the ends of the earth and back again. Well, I had in a way, not quite the ends, but down a bit into the bowels, just enough to wear me out right down to my very bones.

I stretched again, then handed off my glass to an eager Jasyn.

"Finish this for me, wouldja? I don't need any more than the one toast, not if I'm going to be flying us out of here in a few hours."

I stood up, put my hands on the small of my back and stretched backward. A cricking noise reminded me that I had been more tense than I thought, and now with that tension suddenly relieved I was little more than a pile of wet noodles.

"I think there's some bunks in the aft section, and there's a small cargo area, and there's always the galley floor..."

Before I knew it I had plopped back down in my seat, which suddenly had taken on the unexpected comfort of a queen's bed.

"I'll go check in a li'l bit--" I drowsed, even as my body slumped down and my cheek hit the tabletop, of which I was completely unaware.

"I'll get her somewhere more comfortable than that," he said simply then, getting to his feet and taking Galen in his tired but somehow still capable arms. Only after he'd deposited her in one of the said bunks in the aft and tucked her in did he fall into one himself.

Absently, he raised his wristcomm to his lips and fingered a frequency in. "Hey Matt," he said, hoping to the fates he'd dialed the right frequency. "Tell everyone to get...sleep...for about 8 hours."

Still over a standard hour to go; I'm wide awake, but Flyboy is sleeping like a baby...

Softly so as not to awaken him, I crept from my bunk and tiptoed forward. Once I'd gained my seat I spent the next half hour going over all the systems, and otherwise readying the ship to depart from this soggy rock and climb into orbit. I gave everything three thorough pre-flight checks, and then another one for good measure... and still found myself with hang time on my hands.

Oh blast it all anyway, no use just sitting here waiting for something to come along and try to eat the ship--!

With that I engaged thrusters and, pulling back on the control column sent Rescue One up into the atmosphere. As soon as I lifted above the canopy a blast of light rushed into the ship; squinting against the brilliant morning light -- which so rarely can worm completely though the trees to strike the ground-- I continued steadily upward, and soon the robin's egg blue darkened to royal, then navy, and finally to the deepest of midnight blues.

And that was what finally brought him back to the universe as it was known. Cracking an eye open a bit reluctantly at first, Terrin eyeballed his chrono...

...and realized just how close it was to their rendezvous time with the Hornett.

And that woke him up completely. Sitting up, Terrin looked across the way, knowing that Galen was already doing one of the things she did best, and that she wasn't there. With a final stretch, Terrin got to his feet and headed towards the cabin, stopping briefly for a couple of mugs of caf in the galley, where Jasyn and Matt were already lurking.

Then to the cabin, he offered Galen one of the two mugs of caf, took a seat at the copilot's station, a smile creeping on his face as he did so.

"Sleep well?" he queried, cocking a brow slightly in her direction...

"60 seconds to reversion, sir," said a voice as it broke into the otherwise normal sounds that filled the command deck.

"Very good," Taylor replied. "Everyone stay at posts and keep your eyes open."

A few moments of quiet.

"30 seconds, sir."

Taylor remained where he was, his eyes glued to the viewport. Generally he didn't go to the deck for reversion procedures...

...but this time was different. He realized with a start that he hadn't any idea what sort of craft Galen would be piloting.

"10 seconds sir."

The countdown had begun. Taylor idly wondered when the last time was that a Star Destroyer reverted into space near Degobah, if ever. But then the time for such musings were cut short as the Hornett burst forth from hyperspace into realspace and established orbit around a decidly green and brown planet.

"Sir, there's a small freighter in orbit around the planet," an officer on deck anounced.

"Good, send her a hail," Taylor commanded. "If it is Ms. Danner, she should respond."

"Sir, there's a small freighter in orbit around the planet," reported an officer.

I nearly fell onto the floor.

But nanoseconds later I was beaming a big ol' smile, gleaming teeth and all as my dear ex was wont to say, and quickly scrabbled to respond to the hail which followed.

"Hey, Hornett, this is Galen on Rescue One. Are we ever happy to see you!"

"Open a commlink frequency, please," he said to the officer stationed there. The officer quickly complied, then nodded to Taylor.

"Galen, you have clearance to land in the main hangar, platform 1138. I will meet you there with one other person I have selected to work on your team. See you shortly."

After finishing the message, Taylor nodded once to the officer to proceed. Within moments the message was sent on its way to Rescue One. Only then did Taylor turn to Rathal.

For a split second I wavered, recalling my promise to Shawn that I'd notify him when the ship arrived. Then I shrugged.

No sense landing again and risking injury skinnying down that blasted crevasse, I told myself as I plugged in the coordinates Hornett had sent.

That would just take more time; he'll be a far happier camper for the fact that the next time he hears from us, it's when we tell him that peeps are there and working to get him out.

After once more sending out a quick shipwide announcement that we were docking with Terrin's ship--

No. Our ship!

--I punched enable and settled down to drive. Moments later we were free from Dagobah's soggy atmosphere, and out into the crisp cleanliness of open space. Light from myriad suns burned steadily, sending their chromatic greetings as we buzzed along; then gradually a peculiarly shaped grouping of them seemed to black out, to disappear.

I smiled again, knowing we were approaching Eagle Enterprise's flagship. And that smile was still planted firmly on my puss when I brought us in to dock, touching the old freighter down with all the respect I could possibly show her. For what we would have done without her, I just didn't want to think about.

When Rescue One finally settled down to vent and degas I powered her down, letting the ol' girl indulge herself with a good nap. Then I turned on shipwide communication for the final time.

"Hey guys, we're here!" I announced before opening a hail to Hornett in order to request permission to disembark.

Heading towards the assigned landing platform, Taylor didn't have to walk very far until he came upon it. The ship that was landed there definitely had seen its day.

So many similiar arrivals aboard this ship, so many different outcomes...

The feeling was bittersweet, for not every arrival had followed with happiness. But then, the ones that had...

Terrin smiled a bit to himself at that, turning to Galen. "It's been so long," he said simply, cocking a brow torwards the hatch, his meaning clear. Then he his smile turned a bit lopsided and sentimental at the same time. "I seem to remember a time when I was the one bringing you as the new introducee here." He paused, turning a bit more serious then. "Thank the gods for the changes that day made in my life."

Ever. After all, he was supposed to be dead.

"Galen, Jasyn, Matt, it is good to see you are all well," he managed, still taken totally aback as his eyes locked on Terrin.

He paused a moment. At least, not anymore...

"Galen and the guys went to great lengths to...

... find me."

Pausing again, he cast a brief thankful look in the other's direction, his eyes falling last in Galen's brown pair and remaing there for a moment before he returned his attention to Garrison.

"But before we celebrate any homecomings, we have some concerns. Aboard this freighter is a man we rescued on the planet below who needs medical attention. And we need to access the Hornett's sensors to scan the surface of the planet and get a better picture of what we're getting into, and how to find Shawn in the most efficient and timely way.

"Jedi Shawn Petrolu has become stranded inside a rather large cave system; we've mapped the system out, and know his approximate location. Unfortunately he's in too deeply for our ship's radio to reach him; so far the only place to communicate with him has been within a crevasse some distance away. For some reason comm-links work there."

I paused for a moment as the worrisome question of why they worked there, so much farther away from his known position, brought to mind the uncomfortable possibility that perhaps he was in more deeply than we first thought, although probably closer to the crevasse where Panthar and I had first spoken to him. The idea of one crack in the rock being the only crack in the rock was simply ludicrous...

And cracks meant rock that was inherently more unstable than rock that was solid. At least I believed so.

I shook myself and continued. "At any rate, we have an approximation of his position; we just can't figure out a way to get to him, and hope that Hornett will have the resources to do so."

"If we go to the Captain's office and ready room, we should have access to what the Hornettk has on hand." He paused a moment, thinking. "Perhaps there is some ship or another that has been acquired which may have something we can use; unless things have changed Aaron was always up on novelties and unique features as much as I was."

He trailed again, frowning. Where the hell was Aaron?

"Anyway," he continued, shaking himself from the thought for a moment, "The computer in the ready room should give us access to all that information. We might find a ship specifically designed for mining or something of that nature, I hope."

Finishing those thoughts, he quirked a brow Garrison way. "I'm assuming the Captain's ready room has been in order and in use?"

Garrison nodded.

Garrison knew it wouldn't be long until the news was out. And he knew that the crew would be overjoyed. He'd heard the rumors floating around, although he pretended not to.

"You'll find that most of the codes to your personal things have not been changed," he then spoke up in Terrin's direction. "Cap-errr--Commander Barnes tended to remain in his own office, and left yours in place."

Garrison fell silent for a moment at that as they headed to a turbolift and entered. He keyed in the destination, and the door slid closed after everyone got inside.

Frowing to himself as he realized something, Garrison spoke once more.

"Ahhh...you said there was someone aboard your ship with injuries?" he queried rhetorically, keying something in to his wrist comm. Someone from the medical wing answered the call, and he directed them to removed the injured party from the ship on the specified landing platform.

About this time, the turbolift stopped and opened, revealing another, more secluded, corridor. Garrison allowed Danner to take the lead, stepping back a bit. As they approached the Captain's office, Garrison spoke up one final time, still staying somewhat behind. "The entry code is still the same, Captain Danner. Commander Barnes never changed it, and was one of the few even in this office since your...

...and recalled his access code. He punched it in, and the metal door slid obligingly open, revealing things just as he had remembered them from a couple of years before. He couldn't help the nostalgic feeling that swept over him. Turning back to the others, he nodded for them to follow him inside, and headed for the computer console at the desk.

"I'm going to pull up a listing of all the ships that are here," he then stated, beginning to key some things in. "And I'm going to have our sensors map out the planet..."

He trailed a moment, pursing his lips thougutfully. "We need the coordinates for Shawn from the map you made so that the Hornett's sensors will have a guide to make its own map, or else she'll try and map out the entire planet," Terrin said to Galen. "Do you remember the coordinates for his location, or should we ask the medical team that is going for our injured friend to pick that map up while they are there?"

His eyes flicked from Garrison to Captain Danner, whom he was still fairly certain ought to be dead. Indeed, he had heard repeated several times rumors to this effect. Rumors which had come from somewhat credible sources. Not hearing any immediate responses, he went on.

"If... ah... we're not able to get exact co-ordinates for Sha-- er... the person in question, then it might be a good idea to divide the planet's surface up into smaller sectors and have it surveyed by several smaller craft. Their sensors can map their individual areas more efficiently than a single large vessel. They can relay the information back here, saving some time and also garaunteeing that there will be someone in close proximity to the er... missing person, when he is located. I believe thats ah.. the standered New Republic Fleet... search and rescue protocol. Er.. Not that this is a Republic vessel... and ah.. provided we have the nessecary vessels..."

Provided we have the necessary ships? Who was "we"? Was this guy an employee?

Still, the suggestion was a good one. A very good one in fact. "We should have the ships necessary on board the Hornett," Terrin spoke up, arching one brow a bit. "And we should also have Shawn's coordinates. Still, taking down a smaller ship with more sophisticated sensors than that hunk of junk we came here on down closer to his location should do the trick."

He paused then, pursing his lips, his eyes suddenly lighting up as an idea came to mind. He quirked a brow Galen's way. "Hey, the Eagle had some fairly sophisticated sensors on her, I had them put in myself," he said. "Maybe we could use her to scope out the Degobah surface if she is still around here somewhere."

Another brief pause. Then, returning to his former musings about who this new guy was, he turned his direction. "Oh, and your name was...?"

I felt another set of muscles loosen; with a little grunt, I shifted and sat upright.

"Well, sheesh, I thought we pretty much had Shawn's location pinpointed. I mean, I know we're not positively, absolutely certain of his on-the-dot coordinates, but we do have a general location for him.

"The problem isn't so much a matter of finding him, but how in the world are we going to get him out?"

Thus it was that I found myself in an increasingly muzzy state, you know, the kind of state where you're not quite connected with reality, where your subconscious isn't quite released yet not totally squelched, the state of being where everything within you and without simply starts to flow together into one big, overwhelming now...

And that's when this seeming inoffensive employee's words truly struck home.

Jonovar Rathal. Hmmm, it's triggering something, sounds awful familiar... wait... wait...

JONOVAR RATHAL?!?

What in Hell's Seven Circles was that sorry excuse for a bounty hunter doing aboard Hornett, hanging over the shoulder of those who ran her?

THIS WAS THE GUY WHO LET SORBEN TAKE ME... oh yeah, when I fled his sorry hiney way back after he'd taken me to Kashyykk... Ok, so yeah, this Rathal helped me out then. But he sure changed his little ratty mind when Mr. Tarnus chased us down again at Khar Delba, making plans to take down Sorben under the facade of letting him have me?

Yeah right! Whatever had possessed me at that time to believe him? I mean, c'mon Galen, you know Sorben, you used to run with him, you loved him and had his daughter, fer crying out loud--

Whatever gave you the feeble notion that anyone in the galaxy could outfox him? He's even managed to wriggle himself into Actar's good graces, now right up there with the REALLY Big Boys...

I shifted in my seat, suddenly awake, and started to open my mouth when it suddenly struck me that the little slime-o was apparently thinking I didn't recognize him. And that put me in a pretty good position, sure as there's Treasure on Roon!

Had he hired this guy? What the kriffing hell was he doing trailing along with Garrison?

What did he do on the Hornett or for EE?

Terrin never liked trusting just any old Tom or Dick. He was fairly certain he'd never laid eyes on this guy in his life. Certainly not the type he would hire...

If there was anything that he could do to help just let him know?

Had Aaron hired this guy? Where was Aaron?

"Ahhh, yeah," Terrin replied suddenly, furrowing his brow at Rathal. "But I think what we're really going to need is to dispatch some ships down to the surface first to get the mapping so we can determine just how the hell to get to Shawn," he added, beginning to key orders to do just that into the computer. "Orders are going out now to have that done within the next two standard hours. Then we can go from there."

He paused then, considering Rathal further. "And what is it you do aboard the Hornett exactly, Rathal? There are alot of faces, and it's been a while since I've been here. Which leads me to another question," he continued, then looking Garrison's way.

He trailed. A very long time.

He glanced to Galen for a moment, recalling he owed the man a TIE-fighter still, wondering what had happened to link him with Aaron and bring him back to the Hornett. And hoping like hell that the both of them were safe, wherever it was that they were.

"Sounds like, from what you are saying, that they either went to Khar Delba or K'eel Doba. Unfortunately, I don't think they went to Khar Delba unless they arrived after we went to Degobah...

...which means they may have gone to K'eel Doba. And who knows what kind of reception they received there."

He paused then, frowning, and glancing at his chrono. "We should start getting data on the planet from the scouting ships below," he said, keying something else into the computer. "The sooner we can find Shawn, the sooner we can get out of here and find Aaron and Captain Joao."

I shuddered a little at that thought. We did have rebreathers aboard somewhere, at least I assumed we did, but I for one certainly did not relish the prospect of running headlong into the waterdragon that had snatched the intrepid jedi in the first place.

Although it certainly would be easier to fight it than it had that thing which ripped off Terrin's arm, for example...

I couldn't help the last thought; the mention of Yaoksi Joao naturally brought it up. After the latent creepy-crawlies had finally crept away, I found myself still frowning, my thoughts suddenly switched to pondering upon the possible fate of said Captain.

We owe him a ship...

Another uncomfortable thought followed that apparent mental non sequiteur: an image of me placing that awful, awful Nar Kelba aboard his little TIE fighter and sending it off into the star that I had.

Oh yeah, we owe him a ship... And more than just another TIE fighter, too.

I nodded slightly to myself, making a note to bring this up to Terrin at some not-too-future time, hopefully when and if we found Captain Joao. Then I sighed, realizing where my thoughts had suddenly taken me.

What are we, the Cosmic Rescue and Aid Society?

I shook off that ridiculous thought, shot another glance at the shrinking Rathal, and then looked to Terrin.

"I mapped out the cave system; what else do you need? Was there something else I could have done, or that you need me to do? Remember we do have a coordinate where we can make live contact with Shawn; do you need me to go back there and skinny down that hole again?"

I couldn't help but shoot another glance back at Rathal at this. While he was no pansy, he wasn't the bulkiest of men; perhaps he could fit down said hole? But then, did I really trust him to do that for us, alone?

He paused then, pursing his lips a bit. Still, Shawn's been down there too long without any food or water. You're right...

...we need to at least take what we do have and get moving."

At this, Terrin turned to Taylor. "We're going to need a mining ship, a ship with the best sensors possible, some rope, some weapons, some explosives, and anything else anyone can think of that might help us get to Shawn."

He stood. "I'd request what we need myself, but that'll open up more than we have time to deal with just yet. We need to get moving. I'm assuming we have what we'll need, at least in some form and fashion?" he queried, cocking a brow at Garrison, who nodded.

Moving away from the desk, Terrin motioned for him to take a seat, knowing the younger man would understand. Garrison quickly did presicely that and began requesting the needed supplies.

"I don't think you're going to need me as far as my piloting skills go," I piped up, glancing around at the others, none of whom had come forth with what to me was the most obvious requirement we needed.

"But I do have some caving skills; what you need to find Shawn is a good spelunking team."

I paused a moment, giving the others time to consider this.

"We've already got more than most true spelunkers have, too," I pressed on, my thoughts flashing back to the days out hunting for artifacts with Dad, and the myriad caves we'd had to venture into without any guidance other than a sense of "space" around us... sprinkled liberally with the good ol common variety and a super heightened sense of self-preservation.

"We've already got a map of the system. All we have to do is find a means of entering into that system, and then perhaps by laying a line of radio transmitters as we move along we can search for Shawn without losing contact with each other inside the rock--"

I let my words drift a little as I then considered them myself. At length I let my eyes refocus, bringing the others' faces back into my field of view, which was interrupted in a steady rhythmic manner by some kind of obstruction. With a start, I realized I was tapping my fingers upon my cheek and nose; coughing slightly I straightened, and let the offending members drop away.

"That bat managed to find entry," I said at last. "Seems to me that all we have to do is find the hole it used, or perhaps another one. Take a gander at the map I've already traced out; hell, any opening intercepting that scarp face should be showing anyway, 'cuz that's where any corridors leading out to the open simply end by touching the scarp face on the schematic.

"Find the opening closest to where we think Shawn is, or at least the one that is the apparently widest corridor -- those should be presented as darker lines on the map of the system -- and see if we can simply enter there or if we have to blast our way in. Personally, I don't thnik we should continually blast our way along, though. That would be too dangerous; too much risk of destabilizing or weakening the rock, which is already mazed by this system. But hopefully we'll find a natural way in that goes fairly deep; then we might have to blast an opening between one corridor to another -- maybe more than once! -- but these a shorter tunnels shouldn't present the same threat of weakening the system as would our having to continually widen our way all the way along."

I stopped, now receiving somewhat doubting looks here and there. In some cases, I could see figurative fingers being raised; before anyone could interject, I continued.

"Yeah, I know miners widen out tunnels all the time by blasting and whatnot, but that takes forever. They have to shore up as they go along, and all that. Besides, as I said, we have something on our side:

"A map, and the fact that not only did a tiny bat reach Shawn's position but something as huge as a dragonsnake almost did as well. I mean, he had to have gotten where he is by going through corridors large enough to accommodate him, and since he was brought somewhere into that sytem by the dragonsnake, we can deduce the tunnel used by it to be really big."

I stopped again, thinking.

"You know, we did have to go hunting for Cella Poliani in the Kessel caves, so we aren't totally inexperienced either. And I was just thinking..."

He trailed, chewing his lip thoughtfully. "We've got a good map, like we did then...

...and we know there have to be multiple entry points. Back on Kessel, I recalibrated our biosensor to read air pressure and temperature to get us all out of the caves. Maybe we could do the same to help guide our downward as based on Shawn's mapped location?"

He paused for another moment. "And if we are talking about entering the way the dragonsnake possibly does, we're talking about going through water. Which means we'll need some supplies for that too."

He paused, typing something else in. "If there is anything futher that you need, just say the word. If not, I assume you all will be going on your way and will let me know if you need anything futher once you get to the surface."

He trailed, again cocking a brow at Garrison, who nodded. "Following you in to assist," he said briefly.

"Good. So let's get down to the ship and get to the map Galen generated so we can plot a course to Shawn and get started. This could take us quite a while, and the sooner we get on it...

...the better."

Terrin turned and motioned the others to follow him inside, taking the lead then and stepping into the well-kept ship. Once inside he spoke to everyone with him. "We should head to the cabin and pull up Galen's map. From there we can decide our approach."

with that he headed for the cabin, the others following closely behind. Taking a seat at the navboard, he keyed in a few commands until the desired maps were displayed on a monitor in the center of the navboard.

Terrin chewed his lower lip thoughtfully. "I don't see any place for a large ship or body of any sort to get to Shawn's indicated location other than this one, "he stated then, pointing to an area on the map. "Looks like there might be alot of water there, however..."

He quieted again, considering the map further. "Shawn did say he heard dripping water, and as we've already noted, he came to his present location via a dragonsnake. But..."

Pausing a moment, Terrin considered the map again, looking at it from a different angle than their initial approach. "We might be able to come at him from above here," he said, pointing elsewhere. "Either way, there is no way we are taking a ship in all the way to reach him, I'm afraid, and I'm not sure an approach from above is safe, with the sounds of dripping water present. Makes it sound like the cave may still be in formation where he is, as Galen has already indicated. So unless someone has any better ideas...

I opened my mouth reflexively, then thought again. After all, he hadn't been the one down in that crevasse; that had been yours truly here, along with the intrepid Mr. Dantares-in-Sith-form. And unless Terrin had the kind of map reading skills only experience can bring, of course he might be seeing something utterly different in his mind's eye than what the map of the system actually represented.

"Umm..." I began softly, leaning forward and laying a finger on top of one of the spidery lines. This one appeared to wander hither and yon for some time before intercepting the scarp face itself. I tapped it meaningfully.

"There's no way to get a mining ship into the maze; it would be way too big. Besides, aren't these things built primarily for ore processing?"

I didn't let that question hang too long, not wanting to make anyone unnecessarily uncomfortable. Then I realized it was making me uncomfortable as well, for silly moi, I had overlooked the obvious.

The ship we were going to use couldn't be one of the large ore processing ones; it would be HUGE, possibly even too huge to have aboard Hornett. I mean, those puppies were built to accommodate loads and loads of mined rock, and then process the rough into usable stuff en route to whatever its primary destination was...

"Ok, so maybe it's not a big mining ship; maybe it's a mobile driller. I dunno, haven't seen it yet, actually. But whatever it is, too large or not, we still need it for all the equipment I'm sure it has, equipment we need to dig into rock. Drills, explosives, all that...

"If it's necessary at all, that is."

That time I let things hang a moment, so everyone could assimilate what I was trying to say. I tapped the corridor again.

"I said we were going to need a spelunking team, maybe more than two if we want to make the most efficient use of our time. We have the map, all we need to do is take teams and survival gear, and just start hunting. Shawn's a Jedi, right? And he's got a comm-link on him right?

"Seems he'd be able to sense when anyone might be getting fairly close to him, and could then let us know. Then if we have to drill or blast our way to where he actually is, we do it.

"Otherwise, it's find the opening the dragonsnake when through, go in that way ourselves, and hope it's not a popular hangout with beasts and other critters."

With that I leaned forward, this time to punch a particular button on the console. Immediately the image of the system turned into a contoured and three-dimensional one, and began revolving: first about it's X-axis, then Y-axis, and finally the zed. Each time presented the viewer with several places where the wavery lines touched those straighter ones which represented surface features.

"It looks like there are several possible ways into the system: here, here..." I peered more closely. "Here, here and here." With each utterance I tapped the screen in the correct place, noting from the countour lines that one of the lines seemed to head downward for quite some distance, ending at a straight plane perfectly perpendicular to where it touched. I had no doubt in my mind that was the underwater entrance into the system; grimacing, I looked to the other lines. For truth be told, I'd much rather wriggle and squirm through claustrophobic passageways than run the risk of meeting up with that dragonsnake.

Or worse.

I straightened, placed my hands in the small of my back and cricked it. "Ok, boys, we've got choices. I say we determine teams, try each possibility, and see if we can get to Shawn without having to try and retrace his actual footsteps."

"Yeah, footsteps," Jasyn's voice broke into the silence. "Or rather watermarks."

At that statement, Terrin turned and cocked a brow Jasyn's way, frowning. Then he returned his attention to the map. "We need teams of three or more poeple, and everyone outfitted with appropriate gear, obviously," he said, thinking aloud. "We should probably take a ship down for each entrance we attempt to go through as well..."

He paused again, chewing his lip more, wishing this was all as easy as his original reading of the map had made things out to be.

Should have known better, you pirate. You were raised on Coruscant. Not alot of map reading involving complex terrains there. So leave it to the experts.

"Let's see, we have at least four or five possible entry points," he continued. "Which means we'll need at least three other teams. Looks like we could at least split ourselves into two groups here; Galen's got experience with caves, so she should probably head up one. And Jasyn has some survival knowledge, so he'd be good helping in another. Maybe you can help Jasyn out," he said, pointing back to Matt and Rathal, "And Galen and I can try another..."

He paused, frowning. "Sure would be nice if our Sith warrior companion could help out on this too," he said thoughtfully. "Is there anything else I'm forgetting...

"Heh, maybe the Sith is looking for some bran..." Jasyn trailed as all eyes swiveled to him, some in mild irritation, others with little surpise at the direction of his thoughts.

Matt cleared his throat to redirect the attention to his next words. "I don't think the warrior left the ship when we docked here," he pointed out. "He may feel out of place or otherwise."

As Shayla stepped through the portal into the live, moving swamplands she immediately stood still, closing her eyes and drawing the Force to herself, remaining motionless as she quite literally became nothing more than a small part of that Force, and of more than even just that, keenly aware that the Force was but a small piece of the All. Through that joining with the life around her she then sought out a signature not much unlike her own, one that shared many of the same building blocks...

...her one sibling, her twin. At first all she could sense was the teeming life of the place as well as the death, but then her senses grew more attuned as she zeroed in on the familiar, quite literally. For some time she stretched and felt through the fabric of life in that place, and at length like found like, and connected in harmony.

Stretching out through that link, Shayla whispered a thought.

You are not alone.

...and shocked him for the very fact it was so familiar. Even at some distance, he knew the source of the touch...

...and he was keenly aware of emotions that ebbed and flowed through the genetic link the two of them shared. What was there was not at all what he believed, at least not by initial appearances.

Shayla?

Opening his eyes, Shawn fidgeted with the wristcomm he still had, uncertain as to whether anyone was present to receive his message. But he sent it out anyway, along a general frequency.

"Terrin, Galen, if anyone is out there...

Pausing then, Terrin got to his feet. "I'm not sure this would be the greatest ship to head back down in; Jaysn, Matt, and Rathal, why don't you head out in the Falcon? Galen and I and whoever else can go down in the Eagle, that is if she's still around here."

Aaron, along with his fellow Portal travellers, had just stepped through the Portal when, quite suddenly, an eerie schluurpppt sound rang in his ears. And something about the entire thing seemed strangely familiar, for he felt as though he had just been pushed through the Portal by some unseen force. Now completely disturbed by all of this, Aaron all but ignored whatever it was Stargazer was doing and turned to look to the source of the sound, behind him.

The Portal they had all just stepped through was gone entirely. Aaron looked about himself to see if everyone was present and at once realized the obvious.

"What happened to Aelvedaar?" he asked to no one in particular, frowning darkly. "I don't know what just happened...

...but I swear to the gods that it was like something just shoved me through that Portal. Troubling thing about that is I had a very similiar experience on Ko'rrisan and ended up losing K'khil and our two kids, who were right behind me, for quite some time..."

“Maybe he had something come up?” he asked, unsure. “That does seem really strange, doesn’t it? Well, we can chalk it up to one more strange occurrence in a long string of strange occurrences. Now we need to figure out what to do, wait here for Aelvedaar to show up or try to find the others.”

Panthar looked around, taking in the swamp and jungle.

“Well,” he said. “I know this pretty much looks like any other place on this planet, but I think this is where Galen and I got pulled out of the hole in the ground. Considering that vine there is part of the rope you guys made, Aaron, I think. Doesn’t seem to be anyone around here, though. Anyone have a com link?”

He paused then, pursing his lips. "We probably ought to get in touch with them and see what they're planning; otherwise we're just stuck here too, with no real clue of where Petrolu is other than what Stargazer feels. Which isn't going to get us very far without able bodies and some gear."

With that, Aaron raised his commlink to his lips after keying in a specific frequency. "Taylor, this is Captain Barnes. It's a long story, but I'm on Degobah, here with some assistance for a search some other members aboard your ship are probably on. My cohorts and I have followed the trail of Captain Danner, his wife, and some others to this planet, and then with some help back to the Hornett. In the process, we discovered Jedi Petrolu was also lost on the planet."

He paused, considering the best next words. "His sister, who has a blood Force-link with him or something to that effect, is here to assist after coming through a difficult situation herself. A Lord Aelvedaar of the Sith was also coming to asist us, but did not follow us here as we originally thought he was going to. Please respond to this transmission and forward it to Captain Danner and the others if possible.

Barnes out."

But of course, not quite as much as he had trusted that peculiar little ship. He mentally cursed himself for losing it, and continued leading on til at length he stopped in front of three adjacent docking platforms. On each platform sat a pristine, top-of-the-line, lambda-class transport. He cocked his head a bit, cosidering the names emblazoned on each of their sides.

The Eagle II, Raptor II, and Falcon II.

Raising an eyebrow at that then mentally shrugging, he turned to the others, first looking to Taylor Garrison. "These ships are all fully equipped and armed?" he queried.

Garrison nodded.

"Copies of any maps our teams have made and Galen's map have been downloaded to their computers?" he continued.

Garrison reached down to his commlink, keyed a few things in, then looked up, nodding again. "Done."

Then he looked to everyone else. "I suggest Matt, Jasyn, and Rathal take the Falcon II. Galen, myself, the Sith warrior, and Darra can head out in the Eagle II."

He paused, pursing his lips. "Let's get aboardship, get warmed up, and look the map. Before we head out we need to decide who is going to take which possible entry point to Shawn.

And then we can get going. So let's do it," he ended with, motioning towards the ships and then heading towards Eagle II as Matt, Jasyn, and the others headed towards Falcon II and boarded her. Popping the hatch, he headed for the cabin, took a seat at the navboard, and began warming her, taking a good look at her capabilities as he did so.

Fully loaded, just like her original counterpart.

He then pulled up the map of the cave system below to check that it was loaded successfully on the navcomputer and to take a look at the possible entries Galen had pointed out once more.

"Guess we can take this entry here," he said, pointing to one area, "And the others can try this one," he said, indicating another and then marking them on the map and sending that data out to Matt's comm frequency.

It was instead perhaps the last person he would have suspected. At least, almost.

Taylor, this is Captain Barnes. It's a long story, but I'm on Degobah, here with some assistance for a search some other members aboard your ship are probably on. My cohorts and I have followed the trail of Captain Danner, his wife, and some others to this planet, and then with some help back to the Hornett. In the process, we discovered Jedi Petrolu was also lost on the planet. His sister, who has a blood Force-link with him or something to that effect, is here to assist after coming through a difficult situation herself. A Lord Aelvedaar of the Sith was also coming to asist us, but did not follow us here as we originally thought he was going to. Please respond to this transmission and forward it to Captain Danner and the others if possible.

He at once pressed the reply button. "Captain Barnes, your message has been received. Captain Danner and the others are currently preparing for departure from the Hornett back to the planet to assess some possible entry points to Jedi Petrolu's current location. I will transfer your message to Captain Danner now. Garrison out."

Sending out the reply, Taylor then keyed in another command on his wrist comm, sending Aaron's original message to Eagle II's comm freuency.

But ours now, oh lucky us, looked to be a "mere" fifteen meters below the lip of the mesa; at least the scraggly line that represented the cave corridor looked as if it totally broke through the rock and out into the open. Which meant we'd at least have an entry into the system... maybe... hopefully...assuming it was large enough for us to worm our way into, that is. After we'd managed to climb down to it... hoping the scarp face didn't overhang anywhere along the way...

I reached out and punched a command into the computer and the image immediately rotated, zooming in to show us our entry from a forward view. Then I let out a disgusted puff of air; there wasn't any way to tell just what we were going to face until we actually got there and were staring directly at it.

"I hope we've got plenty of rope and other rapeling gear onboard; this isn't going to be--"

My words were truncated by the comm's announcement of an incoming message. I reached over and flipped the channel open, then sat back in a bit of surprise as Taylor's words came through loud and clear.

Pausing, he furrowed his brow. "Surprised to see her back here, willing to help out in finding Shawn after she lamblasted us all and left us stranded on Tatooine. And what's this with Lord Aelvedaar disappearing now?"

He shook his head. "Too many peculiarities. Granted, Shayla has a link with Shawn that nobody else can match and could be useful. But how the kriffing hell do we trust her now?"

Even as he finished saying this, clearance for departure came through and he began the process of taking Eagle II into flight and down to the surface of Degobah.

"I agree, this is too strange," I whispered, then went quickly on. "She's been hanging with my dear ol sis; maybe she's learned some of the strange stuff that she knows, like how to manipulate things and get into your head, just to name two..."

I blinked and turned to face Terrin fully.

"Maybe it's another trap. Maybe she's here to finish the job; hell, maybe they're both down there, and Aelvedaar with them as well. We really haven't had too great of a batting average with the Sith, remember; I don't know now if we can truly believe anything they say to us.

Too many oddities here. WAY too many. When did these people ever pick a side and just stick with it? Or did they just pick the most convenient one in the moment?

And that final thought did it. Terrin flipped the comm switch to send a message back to Taylor. "Commander, send no reply to the message."

He paused, knowing Taylor wouldn't understand. "We're addressing it."

Squirting the reply off then, he keyed in one final thing on the navboard, then turned to Galen. "If that's really them down there and they're really out to help us...

...then well, they're going to have to prove it before I'm interested in meeting up with any of them. I'm going to give this ship a quick look-over and make sure all of the supplies we need are here before we head out completely. She's warmed and has a nice system of upgrades, better than even her predecessor..."

He paused a moment, "...I'm certain what's aft won't disappoint either. But I've gotta look. Why don't you take over?" he finished with, getting up then and heading to the back of the ship, quickly looking through all the supplies and weapons onboard, making certain to check for the specific supplies Galen had mentioned. As he predicted, the ship didn't disappoint.

He headed back to the cabin. "We're fully loaded," he announced then. "I hope her christening flight with us results in a little less ding than her sister ship did..."

"That will depend upon circumstances below, don'tcha think?" I asked, a bit guardedly. For the more I thought about it, the less I liked the way events were transpiring.

"I don't know how we can determine truth from possible lies," I went on. "I mean, what if the comm is truly fabricated? What if Aaron is somehow being manipulated? Not only will we not find out the true lay of the land until we actually get there...

"But what are we going to do if we end up with the worst-case scenario? I know this ship has firepower to her, but I don't think it's gonna mean squat against some of the stuff I've seen sissy do. And there's no telling how much her little stooge might have picked up.

"Hell's bells, we don't even know if Sis isn't down there right now, just waiting. Any suggestions, sweets?"

He trailed as the obvious presented itself, "...but then again we're dealing with people who know how to block such things, I'm sure."

He shook his head. "If Aaron is down there and is being manipulated, that means there's one more party down there thawt needs to be rescued from dire straits..."

Trailing again, Terrin pursed his lips. "We can determine how likely it is that Aaron is the one who commed the Hornett. Unless he has for some reason lost it, the Hornett should have record that he commed from his own personal frequency, have some way to triangulate just how far of a distance he commed from...

...and whether or not he used priority secure frequencies and encryption codes to deliver his message. But then, that'll only tell us if Aaron is down there...

"Here!" I announced brightly, and pulled from one of the various and mysteriously deep pockets a small object. I held it out to Terrin.

"It's a portable Force Cage," I explained, then went on as his brows began climbing off the top of his head. "Suffice it to say that Sorben's guild developed them; he--" I stumbled slightly, then went on in a burst of words.

"He gave one to me, long ago. I remember when we first met, we were being chased by Sissy and he whammied her with one of these. Kept her stuck inside like a womprat in its den, too. Now I know that was back when she was new to all her powers, and maybe didn't know how to get herself out of it. But I'm thinking that maybe Shayla might be at the same level of training, so to speak. Maybe this will hold her, too, if we need some run time."

I stopped, cocked my head to one side and lifted a brow.

"How's your arm, Flyboy?" I ended as I held the shining little ball out to him.

He quieted a few moments then, still looking the device over. Then he turned his attentions to the commswitch, dialing in Taylor's frequency and inquired whether or not Aaron's comm came from his personal fequency to a priority, encrypted channel. Each question was answered in the affirmative.

Terrin turned back to Galen. "It's either him down there...

...or Stargazer has done some amazing information smuggling. No way she would have any access to those frequencies."

Panthar realized he was asking a lot of questions and stopped, looking up at the canopy of trees that crowded over them.

He paused, cocking his head a bit. "Or at least, I'm assuming she can't do that."

Nothing. Oh, they reported lifeforms all right... about a bajillion of 'em as a matter of fact. This was Dagobah, after all. But human readings seemed to be a bit on the scarce side... I frowned.

"You typed in the correct original coordinates to where that big ol' plateau or mesa or whatever is?" I queried, swiveling back to face Terrin again. "'Cuz I'm not picking up any human readings on this side of the planet.

"Which is more than extremely weird, if you ask me!"

With that I turned back to navigation and altered our present course, which was formerly a rather steep angle down. Putting the little craft into a gentler curving approach, I guided her through Dagobah's upper atmosphere, watching as the limb of the planet approached, then rolled beneath us.

Nothing but greenery, tons and tons of greenery, and water, and..

"There!" I pointed as the sensor array began to bleep at us.

"There's human-- or at least humanoid -- life-readings. I'm counting three blips, and they seem to be smack in the middle of some kind of hillock in the middle of the biggest swamp this boggy planet has."

I turned back to Terrin, relief segueing into concern when I saw the same appearing in his own blue eyes.

"I'm assuming that there's some mineral in the rock, that might be masking Shawn's readings?" I ventured. "But don't worry, we have the readings taken with the older ship, as well as the map of that cave system; maybe Eagle II, as wonderful as she is, still doesn't have the sensor power to her that a larger ship might have?"

I turned back to the controls, chewing on my lip a little as I did so.

"Well, at least we seem to have located Aaron and the others. Now all we have to do is figure out a way to determine if he's ok or if this is some kind of trap being laid for us. Be sure to keep that portable Force Cage handy, 'cuz I'm gonna be landing us in close proximity to where they are. I don't think I should land anywhere else than on this little 'island,' since there's no real guarantee we could slog over to them. Who but Khaandon knows how deep the swamp waters are that surround them, sure as there's Treasure on Roon!"

With that I brought the sleek little ship to a soft landing on the grass-laden ground of the hillock, momentarily concerned as she seemed to actually sink down a bit. But the sinking sensation soon stopped, and I knew we were on relatively stable soil.

I powered down, putting all systems on stand-by, and turned to Terrin, the sounds of metal creaking and the hiss of de-gassing filling the otherwise silence of the ship's interior.

"They're about half a kilometer due NNW," I said as I rose from my seat. "So, shall we?"

With that I opened the hatch, and the wild and overbearing sounds of Dagoban life washed over us, along with the wonderful odor only stagnant swamp-water can bring.

She shrugged. "And as to them all being suspicious of me...

...but Matt and Jasyn should have theirs. I'll try Stanza, and see what we get."

Pausing then, Aaron dialed a frequency into his commlink, and began recording a message.

Matt, this is Captain Barnes, trying to reach you and eveyrone else. We are on Degobah, here to help find Shawn and have transmitted a message to you via Taylor Garrison earlier with no reply from you. Is everything allright and was the message received? Please respond.

...not that Matt could blame him. He zeroed in on the area where he and Jasyn would begin their search and quickly realized an immediate problem. "Landing this baby on the mesa is going to take some careful piloting he observed. "And it looks like we have a nice long scale downward. Hope you're in shape for this, pal, because I'm not even sure how much I am."

Quieting for a moment then, Matt concentrated on landing the ship on the top of the mesa, truthfully a bit concerned as to the stability of the landing site. He gauged the terrain for a long time until he finally found a place about a kilometer west of the termination of the passageway. He began the landing procedure, carefully. "We're in for a walk as well. There is no way we can manuever our way directly beside the opening...

...and we're going to have to climb up a bit before we can get moving downward."

Just as he finished this statement, his commlink chirped, indicating receipt of a message. Matt accepted it, and received Aaron's comm. He quirked a brow at a suddenly very suspicious looking Jasyn. "Interesting," was all Matt said, however, "But there is no way we're turning back from where we are now. Terrin and the others should know about this, however."

With that he dialed Terrin's commlink frequency in and sent a message of his own.

Terrin, I'm getting messages from Aaron saying he's on planet with some others to help look for Shawn. I don't know what to make of it, but Jasyn and I are already in place to begin heading through our assigned passageway. I don't want to back out of here now. Let me know what you are going to do, and how you are all faring. Stanza out.

Sending the message off to its intended recipient, Matt began powering down Falcon II. "Jas, I think you'd better head aft and get some ropes and climbing gear...

...a couple of blasters, a med kit, some water and rations, and some markers to keep a handle on our trail. We'll also need some glowsticks, obviously. I'll get our map and some portable lifesign scanners, which I'm assuming are here somewhere as well."

“I think I should point out,” he said matter-of-factly, “that this is kinda like the area that I went falling through. We should be really careful here.”

Just as he said the last word, Shayla’s foot gave way and her foot slipped into the ground. Panthar was immediately grabbing her around the waist, although she had only slipped a few centimeters. He smiled awkwardly and helped her out of the hole.

“See?” he said. “I, think maybe we ought to hold that piece of vine back there, so if one of us falls then the others can hold. Or we can lock hands together, but maybe the vine is easier? Just until we reach more solid ground, you know?”

His commlink.

"Hell!" he growled under his breath, quickly silencing the chirp and gripping the portable Force cage. "I hope it can wait..."

Quieting then, he continued to move along, getting the strangest sensation that something was watching them. He uncociously reached for his blaster, and with effort managed to think enough to back off it a bit.

No need to draw extra attention to yourself until you've got a pretty good idea of what is going on.

But he couldn't shake the feeling...

...and became aware of a strange rustling sound to his far left. Now, to hell with it all, he gripped his blaster in one hand, the Force cage remaining in the other. The rustling continued, and the hairs began to stand on the back of his neck. Neaby Galen seemed to be noticing the same noises, seeming to become a bit more wide-eyed and alert herself.

But that's when, out of nowhere, something went up above their heads then swooped down and across both of them. Instinct took over, and Terrin dropped to the ground, reaching out and pulling Galen uncerimonously along with him, aiming his blaster up at the thing which had so suddenly swooped in on them...

...and realizing with even more alarm that whatever it was had disappeared entirely.

Which I did, with a vengeance, shoving off the whatever-it-was that was pinning me down--

Oh. Terrin's arm!

--and letting a mighty sneeze erupt from me.

"Wh-what in Hell's Seven Circles was that?"

The words burst out in an exasperated torrent, smack dab on the heels of the sneeze. They weren't followed by anything else, however, for any further comment on my part was frozen in place by the fading, raucous and somehow sinister screech which now assailed my ears from parts unknown... though suspiciously sounding like parts nearby.

I gulped and remained frozen in place, all except for my hand which began patting stealthily about my person for a weapon. Finding a blaster, I raised it to join Terrin's, which I now took the time to notice he had out and aimed upward.

Then his eyes trailed upward again, and his look darkened. Then he spoke up just enough for his words to be audible to just Galen. "A raptor?"

Whether the statement was an observation or a query wasn't quite clear, but the hairs on the back of Terrin's neck were all but standing on end. The eerie call resounded, this time at a closer proximity.

Terrin gulped, quietly. How he did that, exactly, he didn't know. Nor did he care. "We're being hunted," he then observed, mouthing again.

And just as quickly as it had come before, something winged, dark and fast appeared with lightning speed, its claws extended, and flew downward.

Shayla paused, frowning not so much in surprise to the lack of response but rather to the fact that she was the one who was responsible for it. "We might as well also decide what sorts of items we may need if we don't make contact with anyone else. I mean, I can sense Shawn, but without a map we could end up just as lost as he is."

She quieted again, her eyes growing distant. "We have to assume that the others have a plan they feel fairly confident in as well. Perhaps it would serve us better to simply head towards where I feel Shawn most closely, within reason...

Seconds later when I raised my head it was with a sense of some kind of shadow falling over me. To my utter horror, the thing was quickly rising upward, a struggling Terrin held within its wicked claws. With equal rapidity it was also growing smaller as it headed off over the boggy waters.

"Terrin!" I screamed again, this time louder, desperate. Scrabbling to my feet I came to a wide stance, aimed the blaster toward the thing-- but again wavered a precious second, afraid to fire.

What if I hit Terrin? I didn't dare hit Terrin...

The fact that the horrid shadow was growing smaller by the minute, accompanied by a distant splash as our intrepid warrior came from nowhere to leap into the swamp, spurred me into action. I gave myself one more precious second, steadied my shaking arms, took aim...

...and hit one of the thing's flapping wings.

It screeched in anger and pain, reeling in mid-flight, its shock apparent for those nasty claws thankfully opened and released Terrin. From the proverbial frying pan into the fire; from where I stood I could only watch in horror as he fell about twenty feet and disappeared into the murky waters of the surrounding swamp.

Said swamp which seemed to come to immediate, seething life for all the mysterious bumps and humps now peeping out from its surface, all on a straight bee-line to the spot where Terrin had gone under.

“As much as I hate to say it,” he began, “I get the feeling this is going to be a tough sell. Maybe you’re right, if we at least try to find Shawn and--”

Panthar’s words were interrupted by the squawk of some large thing in the distance, perhaps an enormous bird or horrible lizard. He looked in that direction but could not see through the jungle. He was about to take a guess as to what made the sound when another noise caught his attention.

“What-- Hey, was that a blaster?”

Panthar listened for another blast, but all that followed was the scream of the animal.

“There is some action going on that way, that’s for sure! Why don’t we start in that direction?”

Now without a blaster for the fact he'd dropped it when he was picked up by the raptor, Terrin had little else to defend himself with. Granted, he still had the portable Force-cage Galen had given him, but he'd carefully stowed that in a pocket when the thing in the sky had first attacked.

Terrin... I don't know what to do. If that warrior couldn't get to you...

Hell's Seven Circles. Pacing and moaning and hand-wringing wasn't going to get him. Neither was the Sith warrior, obviously.

I secured the blaster against my hip, and taking a deep breath I flipped the invisibility device on my Sith belt. Protected at least from the keen vision of any predators, I waded unsteadily into the swampwater and kicked out as quietly yet quickly as I could.

I hope they don't hunt by motion detection or sensing electrical impulses...

I couldn't repress the thought no matter how hard I tried, for now red flags were waving in logical and urgent warning, pointing out the murkiness of the waters and asking patiently what on earth could a predator see in the pea-soup I was swimming in?

Darra's cry rang through the dense air of the swamp, propelled by fear and a strange sort of anticipatory anguish. Stumbling over the matted, soggy plantlife she managed to follow where Galen had trod, coming to a halt at the edge of the greenish-gray water to peer out over it in horrified anxiety. One arm reached out, as if the motion alone would bring back not only her mother, but stepfather and the warrior as well.

But nothing happened. She knew there was something within her, but it was still something she couldn't control. She closed her eyes, tried to reach out, straining against invisible forces which were, in reality, nothing but her own fears and self-depreciations... but which were obviously quite enough to hold back the mysterious ability she had been born with.

"Mother," she moaned, and could do nothing more than just stand there, one arm reaching out, unable to even sweat for the oppressing humidity in the air.

Galen and Darra are still up there, a little voice whispered.

And that did it. Terrin's fight or flight instinct got its second wind, and he began to struggle once more, wishing more than anything that he still had his blaster to maybe fight back with. Still, that may not have even worked once submerged in swamp water.

All he could truly rely on was his own body.

Realizing this, Terrin reached around with both of his arms, and felt about his torso where the tighness existed, unable to see clearly. At length he finally made contact with the tentacle of the creature which held him...

...and clawed it with all of his fingers, fiercely, not lettng go despite his body's urgent warning that he didn't have much energy left to push himself further before falling unconscious. This action, fortunately--or perhaps unfortunately--did not take much to grab the attention of the diagona. Suddenly the creature pulled him inward to itself, the noise of its growl audible even in the murky waters. Still, Terrin didn't let go. He couldn't see what the thing was or where he was going...

...and it was a good thing, for he was headed directly for the creature's mouth. The angry dianoga, no doubt intent upon stopping the pain Terrin was now inflicting upon it, clamped down on the arm now closest to its mouth--his prosthetic arm. And while Terrin had been quite thankful the arm was fitted completely with neural processors...

...at this point in time, he wasn't particularly so, for pain shot through it, pain very reminiscent to the time when he'd lost his real arm. Suddenly, however, the dianoga let go of his arm and then his body...

...and simply disappeared entirely.

A female’s voice, indistinct, shouted something in the distance ahead. This was followed by a splash, and another female voice shouting “Mother!” very clearly.

“Galen?” said Panthar, glancing back at the others. His eyes hesitated on Aaron, then flicked to Shayla. He immediately dropped the vine and shot off towards the sounds.

He ran through the wooded area, and came quickly to a clearing. He stopped short here, seeing that the ground before him was increasingly wet, and just a few yards more the grasses gave way to a marsh. He scanned the area, seeing how the marsh opened into a deeper lake to the right, and on the shore of that lake knelt the red-headed lady he had met back on K’eel Doba. Jharmeen’s daughter.

“No,” he muttered, “Galen’s.”

He cupped his hands to his mouth and shouted.

Terrin's head.

The sight was enough to change my gasps into those of joy; I was about to hail him when I noticed that although he had surfaced, there still were other ominous lumps and mounds circling about. Every so often one would glide in more closely to him before moving away again, as if checking him out, testing to see what danger he presented. Obviously these creatures weren't often induced to letting go of their cuisine, and they seemed to want to know why.

Before moving in for the kill again? Get moving, girl; we're not out of the water yet!

"Mother and father; they're out there, in the water! With those things!" she cried, desperate.

She pointed toward the swampwaters yet again, where far out a tiny blob showed a touch of pink against the prevailing greenish-gray: the mysteriously released Terrin, raising his face from the murky water. Galen was nowhere in sight, but an equally mysterious wake originating at a strangely distorted spot revealed her position, a not-quite-empty point that was slowly arrowing toward Terrin. All about him, other humps and blobs surfaced and submerged, and every now and then one would head off toward Galen's position, as if to investigate.

Darra gasped again.

And for her, the solution was quite nearly child's play.

Stretching out with her abilities and innate talents, Shayla sensed and probed through all of the nearby life forces, particularly those swarming about in the swamp waters until two familiar entities registered in her mind's eyes. Closing her greeny-blue eyes then, she kept a firm mental lock on those two essences--those of Galen's and Terrin's--and levitated both directly out of the swamp waters, pulling them away from the dangers of the humps and bumps bubbling about them. In literally seconds, both were on dry ground...

Well... relatively dry land, that is.

I blinked, coughing and spitting up water my instinctive gasp of shock and surprise had drawn into my throat, then rolled onto my back and hit the light-bending button. Immediately I popped into the view of-- well, whoever might happen to be standing nearby.

As did Terrin.

"Terrin!" I exclaimed happily as I threw myself against him, wrapping my arms around him in a joyful hug. That only prompted him to spit up swampwater; as he got to his hands and knees, head hanging, to relieve himself of the rest of the nasty stuff I took the opportunity to clamber unsteadily to my feet. My eyes darted anxiously about.

"Wha--? Who--? How--?" I spluttered, waving my arms in a combination of excitement and haplessness. Coming at a run was Big Red, and standing quietly off to one side was..

Dear ol' Sissypoops little cohort.

"Did you do this? Was that something my sister taught you?" I gasped, those occasional coughs still coming from my body unable to eradicate the growing distrust radiated by every other aspect of my body language.

"Levitation is a Force ability I have had strength in since I was a small child," she answered simply. Then she directed her eyes to where Terrin still sat on his hands and knees, coughing up the remainder of swamp water in his system. Her instincts were to assist with her healing abilities...

"Your Force-abilities worked out handily for you back on Tatooine as well," he sputtered, ignoring the pain in his shoulders and ribcage. The dianoga might have broken a rib or two in the process of squeezing him, but Terrin certainly wasn't going to let on about it at this point. He considered the portable Force-cage which remained hidden on his person. "Stay right there," he then continued, yet breathing in gasps of air, a hand wandering now towards his side.

"You swap sides too much." Unable to say anything further, Terrin remained on his knees, continuing to just breath...

...yet preparing to make as fast a move as possible to the hidden cage if need be.

...and wondering just what he should say, glad just to see that both Terrin and Galen were allright...

...and instinct taking over. He moved nearby both Terrin and Galen. "Thank the Fates you are both allright," he then stated sincerely, getting to the ground nearby Terrin. "I can't say how good it is to see you...

...alive." He trailed for a moment, considering the final word. "You should get some medical attention...

...but I'm assuming you won't do so until we find Shawn, which is why we are here."

"NO!

The word burst from my lips before I could think to stop it.

"A damned powerful Sith warrior was killed just now! By a miracle Terrin was returned to me after being killed by a tuk'ata. I almost lost him again, just now, and in the pursuit of what?"

I glared at Shayla.

"In the pursuit of rescuing your dear brother!"

I stumbled over the wealth of words that now tried to escape me all in a bunch; it was only after taking a deep breath and forcing myself to calm down -- at least a little -- that I was able to continue at all.

"He's a Jedi, some big hotshot level of a Jedi, from what I recall, right? Well, am I right or not? And after seeing how easy it was for you to do what you just did, it only makes me wonder what in Hell's Seven Circles kind of a Jedi your brother is, that he can't get himself out of a much less dangerous situation!

"He's a Jedi; they're supposed to be able to take care of themselves! So he'd just better start taking care of himself right now! Terrin was almost dinner for not one, but two creatures; who knows what else we'll maybe run into. That dragonsnake, oh yeah, forgot about that... no way, sister!

"I'm not risking Terrin again; go save your brother yourself!"

With that I turned back to Terrin, draping his arm around my neck to support him as I began dragging my wounded warrior back to the safety of our ship.

I was that fed up. And as far as I could see, there wasn't anyone or anything that was going to change my mind about this.

“Hey!” cried Panthar, pulling up to walk along the pair. “Looks like you could both use a hand back to the ship. You all right? I could probably carry both of you.”

A smile tried to make its way out, but it stopped just short as the weight of the moment caught up.

“It’s good to see you both, I’m sorry about the timing. Crap has been going down all over the place and I got a lot to tell you. Like Shayla there, she was taken over by the same icky black stuff that got into me a while back, and same with Gray. It’s gone now, and she’s trying to make up for the stuff she’s done. I know you don’t trust her, but I think somehow I’d know if it was still in her, ya know?”

"Thanks, Big Red. Be careful; I think that thing actually hurt him. If anything, Blondie back there was right in that he needs medical attention."

Ye gods. Nothing like stating the obvious! For the flying thing that had first snatched him had been up fairly high when induced by my blaster to drop him; hitting water from that altitude simply had to hurt at the very least, and more than likely had broken something somewhere on his person. Said break overlooked, undoubtedly, for the fresh pain inflicted by the second creepy-crawly; I shuddered at what almost happened, then realized the anger I was feeling was still dancing in my eyes.

I softened the look I was sending to the big guy.

"Thanks," I said simply then drew to a halt, still doing my best to support Terrin.

“I know what you mean,” he said. “But let’s get Terrin somewhere before we worry too much about it. After that, there’s some other things to worry about now, too. Phal and Gray are back together, and you know that whenever that happens something big usually happens. And this time, that something is this Darkness thing. It has Phal—sort of. It has a clone of him, and apparently has possessed it and is off to cause all sorts of problems. Even Aelvedaar is worried. To make it worse, the Empire blockade that was around the Sith system got zapped by your sister. Well, it was the Darkness, too, but it doesn’t matter. She and Phal went off to talk to that Tarnus guy, to try to make nice with the Empire and see if we can all work together against the Darkness – oh, did I mention it has something to do with the Vong, too?”

Panthar stopped talking and sighed.

“See? I told you there was a lot of crap to tell you. And I know you’ve both done more than you ever needed to, but there was something I needed your help with. Nothing to do with swamps, this is technical pilot stuff. But that can wait, Terrin needs help, and soon.”

Panthar glanced ahead, pointing with his nose.

"Thanks, but I'm a little old to be playing piggy-back! C'mon."

With that I just went on, continuing back the way we had come as fast as I could, so we could get to the ship and then up to Hornett before anything untoward happened to us again.

...but I can't leave Petrolu down here to who knows what. He might be a Jedi, but the last I knew that didn't make them invincible. Caves are big and loaded with mazes; I don't know how he could just find his way out of one on his own without some help."

Pausing at this, Aaron considered, recalling how Stargazer had switched from a seeming "good guy" to a "bad guy" and back again. Maybe it was being back around Terrin that did it, but his own trust in her was wavering. "You all go back to the ship and get medical help. I'll stay here with Stargazer...

"Matt and Jasyn are already searching in the caves," he said quietly to Aaron. "Stay in contact...and be careful."

Trailing then, Terrin took a few deep breaths, coughing a bit. "Petrolu has been too much of a friend to leave no one but Shayla to find him...

...especially when we can't trust her. I mean. We saw what she did to her own husband..."

Quieting then with a deep breath, various pains occurring on and off throughout his person, Terrin waited for anyone to throw their two credits in before they headed off, realizing with sudden clarity that they weren't walking out of all this by far.

...and remembering exactly who was being tended to in the Hornett's medial bay already.

"We ought to change the company name from Eagle Enterprises to Eagle Rescuers," he growled, pausing to take a breath, practically hanging from the rope. "You're sure we've got enough line to get down?"

Matt shrugged in response, which didn't go very far towards comforting Jasyn. Not venturing to take the question any further, however, Jasyn began climbing down once again. Around him, occasional rocks and pebbles fell, sometimes hitting them on their way downward, leaving scrapes and scratches. At length, however, Jasyn thought he could see some ground...

...but then paused, frowning, for the ground seemed to be moving.

"Ummm...Matt?" he said over in the other man's direction. "Is it my imagination, or is that water down below us?"

Matt looked down and assessed their surroundings, using a glowstick to get a better look. That only confirmed Jasyn's suspicions.

"Kriffing hell," he said then, "I'm not getting in that water; we know what kinds of things dwell in those waters."

Pausing then, he looked around for an alternative. as Matt contiued to search the area with the glowstick.

"Hey," Matt then piped up, shining the stick in a specific direction below them but to their left approximately 100 meters. "There's an opening."

"Oh, wonderful," Jasyn responded a bit blackly. "I always look forward to a little unplanned adventure."

As he said this, he reached for his commlink and fingered it on to a general frequency, unable to dial a specific one while hanging on to the rope. "Hey Petrolu, this is Jasyn Lancaster. Do you read me?"

"Since when does being supposedly invincible preclude the application of a little common sense?" I spat, becoming more and more disgusted as my thoughts moved along to one simple and logical conclusion.

"He got where he is somehow, right? Yeah, cave systems can have large winding connecting passageways, but most I've ever been to didn't! Big corridors that you can just saunter along are rare; if he's in a place that big right now, and had gotten there to begin with, why in Hell's Seven Circles can't he just go on back the way he got in?!

"Some Jedi!"

I snorted, turned my back and returned to Big Red, who had stopped a moment, Terrin in his arms, the most uncomfortable look on his broad face.

"Sorry guys; let's get out of here," I muttered as I pushed past, and kept on walking.

"Let's..." he started, glancing Galen's direction. "But let's keep in contact."

He paused then, frowning a bit. "That Jedi back there is the only one I trust."

He trailed then, assessing the pains running thorughout his body once more, taking note of the fact that, despite them, he felt pretty lucid. His leg, which he had already injured earlier while trekking through trees to save what's-his-name aboard the Hornett, wasn't feeling so good, however. His shoulders and ribcage continued to throb as well.

"Please don't back out on my brother because of his association with me," she spoke up, stepping away from her previous location and forward towards the departing group. "At least let us have any information connected on his whereabouts; even with the Force skills both he and I have we can't simply work our way through a maze such as these caves without a hint as to their design.

"And as for him going back the way he came...

...I'm certain there is a reason he hasn't done so."

She trailed then, considering offering her help in healing Terrin but fairly certain that offer would only be taken as a way to further harm the group. She hesitated a moment longer with this, but couldn't avoid her natural instincts. "I can heal Terrin, to save you a trip back to the Hornett...

...and then you can do whatever with me you wish once I find my brother."

"You don't get it, Blondie!" I hissed as I stopped in mid-track and stomped over to her. I came right up, close and personal, and stuck my face smack into hers.

"I'm not risking myself or Terrin any more; ye gods, he already died once and nearly got eaten twice! You two have some kind of blood-link together, then fine. Use it. Talk to him with your Jedi Force-jabber; I've had enough of magickal hocus-pocus to last me a lifetime.

"He got where he is, he can get himself out, or else the other guys can find him. But as for Terrin and me, count us out!"

I turned to go, then paused.

"Our medical facilities are just fine and dandy, so you can take your little healing razzmatazz and go fix your brother's ego. I imagine it's pretty wounded by now, for all he's been sitting around on his thumbs waiting for someone to come charging up on a white steed to rescue him. And silly me, here I thought it was Jedi who normally did the rescuing!

"Maybe it's a good thing they're practically all gone!"

Nor was he going to point out the fact that the opening might not even bring them close to Petrolu.

"I'm going to slide inside and see if this looks like it might go anywhere," he then explained, holding out a lifesign reader to check and see what might be ahead. "Im not picking up any immediate life forms."

Pausing at that, Matt looked over towards Jasyn soon enough to see the scowl. "Hey, this is why we brought blasters."

Jasyn scowled further. "Fat lot of good it'll do us hanging..."

Jasyn trailed then, cut off by Matt's look. Matt then began working his legs into the opening, secured on the practically vertical wall they'd been climbing on by the rope around his waist and nothing else. After a few minutes of struggling, he managed to get his body in the opening. Only then did he realize that the opening wasn't the horizontal variety he initially thought it was for the simple fact that he began sliding downward towards...

...somewhere. He gripped onto the rope he was still hanging on and cursed loudly as he began continued to slide, trying his best to slow his body with his feet. The only thing that stopped him was the rope itself, which finally must have come to its complete length. He jerked to a stop, still hanging, feet first. He couldn't see a damn thing.

"I'd point out I mentioned this was a bad idea," he commented then, trying to make light of the situation, "But then, if whatever is ahead is drier than what is behind us, I'm going that way."

He paused, nodding in the direction away from the opening they'd entered. "I took a look at the map while you were skidding your way here, and I think there is cave ground about 10 meters below you. I guess I could be wrong, it's been a while since I read a cave map...

...but I'm fairly certain. I'm gonna help you get turned about so you can take a look, since your feet are in the way of our view..."

Matt managed to work his head around to shake his head at Jasyn. "And if there's water below too?"

"Then I guess we'll go back the way we came, huh? And what awaits us there?"

Matt nodded, conceding the point. "Help me out," he then said to Jasyn. They promptly got to work on pulling Matt up just enough so that he could turn and look the other way, being as careful as possible to not put him in too much of a precarious position should he need to back out quickly. After several minutes, Matt was around enough to shine his glowstick below.

"We can go down," he replied to the unvoiced question. "There's ground below. Help get me untied..."

Jasyn nodded, and began helping Matt unbind himself from the rope they'd been using to climb downwards. TAking it on faith then that he would land on his feet, Matt let go and relaxed, knowing that any extra tension he put on his body would only make things worse. He landed on the cave floor with enough force that he was knocked off his feet, but was otherwise unscathed. Shining a glowstick, he began checking out their new surroundings as Jasyn entered the area in the same fashion he had moments before.

A strange humming nose began to fill his ears, and he frowned, shining the glowstick around more.

He didn't see anything. He hated to admit that the hairs on the back of his neck were standing.

"What is that?" Jasyn queried half under his breath.

"I don't know," Matt responded, "But it's no lightsaber hum, I'll give you that."

He trailed then, still shining his glowstick...

“Hey,” he said, his Sith legs taking him quickly to her side, even with Terrin in tow. Next to her, he could speak quietly. “Li’l Red, hang on. I know you’re upset, and with good reason. I’m not going to ask you to help with the Jedi dude any more than you guys have already done, which is lot. But I am going to ask that you listen to me for a few minutes, without going all red-headed on me, and make a decision. I really need some help, and some advice, and someone to listen, who hasn’t been possessed by darkness or anything. And sorry about that red-head line, I’ve been around your sister too much lately.”

Panthar looked behind, and saw Shayla still standing. Dara was now walking towards him, looking confused.

"Then you go off and be knight in shining armor!" I spat, my hand instinctively clenching by my sides.

"I've had it up to here with all this we gotta save the Universe, nobody else can do it, poo-doo; all it's done is gotten too many people I care about hurt or killed, including my own father!

"You just trot off and be the Big Hero; me? I just want a little corner of the galaxy to call my own, where Terrin and Darra and I can hole up together and spend the rest of our days as family! So go on, go help the helpless Jedi and see who gets broken up next...

"But before you do put Terrin down, like he asked. His body is already bruised; he doesn't need that happening to his ego."

With that I whirled back around and stomped off, heading to the ship. Nothing and nobody was gonna stop me.

“If I was knight in shining armor,” he called out, “I wouldn’t need help. The fact is that we don’t have any knights, all we have are a few people who know a little bit about what’s going on and a big dark secret that wants to bring our lives crashing in around us. I’m not going to just sit by and let that happen, not if there’s anything at all I can do about it.”

Panthar stopped, realizing that they had reached the ship already. He put Terrin down gently, listening to the gasp of pain escape from him.

I paused at the open hatchway, nodding to a wide-eyed Darra who had followed like some blue-eyed wraith in our wake. She merely shot a strange sort of look my way, then toward Big Red, and finally cast a glance at Terrin before seeming to sigh. Silent she brushed lightly past me, and entered Eagle II.

It was as if that mere act of having her safely aboard triggered something within me, for suddenly my shoulders slumped. Once more I found myself facing Big Red, this time in a far less angry manner.

"No more," I said quietly. "Look, we're just people, ordinary, run-of-the-mill people. For far, far too long we've been separated; now we're finally back together as a family. I don't want to risk anything -- anything -- happening to that; as you said, there's people more powerful than us out there, people with all kinds of weirdness and abilities, not to mention sheer firepower..."

Yeah, I hadn't forgotten about my dear ex-love, nope not one bit!

"...who are more than capable in defending us against this big bad whatever or whoever it is that's threatening. And anyway, just who in Hell's Seven Circles came down the pike with all this sudden information?

Suddenly he couldn't fathom why anyone thought this was a good moment to be trying to reason with either of them about saving the universe. And Galen was right, she and Terrin had been dealing with this for a long time. Now wasn't the time to be pushing either of them.

"Hey," he then spoke up, breaking the exchange back and forth between Panthar and Galen, "Why don't we help them get aboard ship and then look for the guys and Shawn? This obviously isn't the time or place for this sort of conversation."

He paused then, now having everyone's attention. "Shawn is lost, and for whatever reason he can't seem to get himself out. I'm willing to help, and they need to go get medical attention and some rest," he commented, nodding towards Galen and Terrin. "It is their business what they do from there; give it a rest."

"You can go make your plans with Blondie back there, or you're welcome aboard."

With that I turned and hastened into the ship, hurrying to assist Aaron as Terrin was obviously slumping more and more with each unsteady step.

"Maybe I should have let Big Red carry him aboard," I said, shooting a grateful look into Aaron's eyes as I grasped Terrin on his non-supported side. "But--

"Thank you for what you said back there."

Aaron trailed, trying to make as much light of the situation as possible as he cocked a brow Terrin's way, helping him then lay down on the cot in the alcove. "There should be some painkillers here," he then said, rummaging about in a nearby cabinet. "That should at least help some while you get back to the Hornett."

He paused then, pursing his lips then looking Galen's way. "Could you do me one small favor when you get back to the Hornett? I could really use a ship, some small frieghter or something, for when we hopefully find Shawn and the boys. Someone aboard the Hornett can fly one down, and it would help prevent anyone else who might be injured from being stranded here."

"I'll send one as soon as I get Terrin squared away; no--"

I paused a moment before amending the statement.

"I think I can manage to do two things at once, after all I've been through!"

I smiled, and Aaron returned it before turning around to depart from Eagle II.

"Don't forget to get Panthar to back up a bit; I wouldn't want to fry him on take-off!" I called as he disappeared from view. After dispensing some painkillers to Terrin and harnessing him securely, I hurried to the open hatch, there to watch as Aaron and Big Red moved safely out of the range of our thrusters. I waved...

Then closed the hatch. Brushing past an extremely quiet Darra, who was standing unmoving against the small companionway, I made my way to the tiny bridge area. Seating myself there, I kicked her into full warm-up, and after waiting but a few moments longer to make certain the other two were indeed safely away from our thrusters, let 'er rip.

"Hornett, this is Eagle II, departing Dagobah for low orbit prep to reuniting. Request approach vector and docking coordinates."

Then, with nothing else to do for the time being but try to relax, I blew out a puff of air, slumping back in my seat. A small movement caught my eye: I glanced idly down to contemplate my hands, which had removed themselves for the moment from the controls for the little craft was on autopilot.

They were hardly laying still and serene in my lap.

I frowned and clenched them; then leaning my head back against my seat I just closed my eyes, listening to the quiet thrum of the ship as I waited for a reply from Hornett.

"Eagle II this is Hornett responding," the communications officer stated into the comm unit. "Approach vector anbd docking coordinates are incoming."

Sending that message back to the Eagle II, the comm officer immediately confered with those responsible for such figures, and quickly got said coordinates. In a matter of no more than a standard minute, he received the coordinates and then sent them to Eagle II.

"We have an eye out for your arrival. Please let us know if you need anything further. Communications, out."

"Hornett, this is Eagle II. Confirm receipt of vector and docking coordinates; am planning an ETA of--"

I paused fractionally, now turning my attention to the navigational computer.

"--approximately four and one half standard minutes. As far as needing anything..."

I paused again, glancing backward over my shoulder toward the alcove where Terrin lay quietly. His seeming silence did not necessarily mean he was resting peacefully, for every so often a slight grunt would worm its way from his lips.

"I am in need of a medical crew asap upon docking; don't worry, it's not serious, but Terrin has been injured. And then--"

My words were suddenly truncated as a slight cough came to my ears. It was not, however, coming from Terrin.

"And then I shall be offloading my daughter into the collective and quite capable hands of ship and crew. I believe it would be best for her to remain with her-- father."

Another fraction of a moment passed, one in which I discovered to be filled with the sudden blink of the proximity light. Even though my conversation had been short, it couldn't compete with the velocity at which we were traveling. I grasped the controls now, taking her off auto to manually dock with the massive SSD.

"Entering docking bay... now," I sent, then applied myself to the tricky job of doing just that. Moments later, and a slight whump brought home the fact that I had safely brought Terrin and Darra home.

"Opening hatch," I sent, then did exactly that, keeping the ship on standby as I turned to send a meaningful look Darra's way.

"Are-- are you coming, Mother?"

A little frill coursed through her veins at the look she received in turn, which more than adequately answered her. Now letting a tiny smile cross her face, she merely blinked once and left the ship, moving quickly and gracefully past the team of men who came pounding up the gangway. At the foot of the gangway she stopped, waiting for them to reappear so she could follow them to the medbay and there do exactly as her mother had said:

For, I now suddenly realized. I wasn't blowing up at Blondie and Big Red -- ok, at Big Red -- because I was mad at them.

I was blowing up because I was mad at the circumstances I suddenly had found myself in.

The simple truth was that I was worried to death about the safety of Terrin and Darra. After so long a hunt, so many trials and tribulations, I had finally found them. Now Red was asking us to blithely trot off into the face of death... again.

I'd been there enough, Khaandon only knows! With Sorben, with Flac, with Loban... the list had grown a bit over the years. I knew I could take care of myself... but I didn't want to risk the more than likely fact that my husband and daughter couldn't do the same.

And it was that dilemma that had me by the horns, so to speak. I had been forced to place my fear for them smack against a promise I had made.

"Aaron said he needed a ship; I'm gonna bring him one," I said tersely, gripping the controls more tightly.

"So unless you wanna come along as Second, you'd better get your hiney off my ship!"

...but please be careful, and keep in contact. The Captain, if he's anything like he used to be, will have my head if you get hurt and he knows I let you go on your own."

He paused then, still concerned, not liking this one bit but knowing by the look in Galen's eye he didn't have any other choice.

"In the meantime, however, we'll be up here, waiting. Hurry back."

Saying nothing further than that, the crewman hesitantly complied with Galen's request and departed from the hatch to head after the crew now taking Terrin to the medcenter, JhinDarra following along as well.

"Hornett, this is Eagle II" I called out as my hands flew over the controls.

"It seems I've left some unfinished business down on Dagobah, and as representative of EE and my husband, I feel dutifully responsible to attend to it. Please vacate docking bay and depressurize; I'm departing in T-minus twenty seconds.

"19... 18... 17..."

I stared out the forward view, willing the docking bay doors to open... which of course they did before my countdown reached fifteen. Grinning at this tiny, if grim, victory I waited out the remainder, then shot out of Hornett's underbelly like a scalded womprat.

Soon I was heading down into the boggy green mists of the swamp world, following the exact trajectory I had used to depart from it only moments before. The planet seemed to turn beneath me as I descended in one graceful, swooping arc, and it wasn't long before the green-enshrouded, swamp-surrounded hillock upon which I had formerly landed rolled into view:

Murky shadows, sinister plantlife, a trio of bipedal specks and all.

Panthar looked at Shayla, who was nearing him and Aaron.

“I have a really bad feeling about this,” he said, flatly. “Let’s get the heck out of this swamp area and get your brother, then find a way back to the Sith. I was really hoping to have Galen with us, but I guess you reach your limit sometimes, eh?”

Panthar let out a sigh and scanned the area beyond where the ship had been.

“My Sith communicator was able to cut through the rock last time and get to Shawn. When we get closer I’ll try it again. Any idea where to go?”

Panthar's attention was then drawn by the glint of something in the sky. He peered upwards, trying to make it out.

Pausing then, he cocked a brow at Panthar. "And as for this communicator that cuts through rock...

But my pilot's eye spotted brown and tan amidst the greenery, places where underlaying rock of some sort, or at least drier soil, poked through. A relatively "large" spot of this, in conjunction with a slight upward bulge of the terrain, lent credence to the belief that I could very well land practically on top of them.

Which I did.

I couldn't help but smile as I strutted my stuff; it had been quite a while since I'd been able to flex my piloting muscles. Visions of my cowboy-ish retreat from Ambria flicked across my mind as I now came in, swooping in a half-roll before turning about my Z-axis in order to keep the propulsion thrusters away from them. I couldn't do anything about the shock wave, though; although Red was massive enough to withstand the onslaught, and Aaron had taken refuge behind him, Blondie was taken a bit by surprise. I caught a fast glimpse of her stumbling backward, her hair whipping in my artificially created breeze, before the positioning of the ship took her out of view.

Gotcha, Blondie! I couldn't help smirking; then I let all childishness drop from me. There was much to do, and nobody wanted it done any faster than yours truly here.

Quickly I powered down, then slapped open the hatch. I was on top of the gangway even as it began to descend.

"I hear somebody ordered a ship; well, here she is. Now before we all go flying off all jolly and nice, shall we get back to the business of finding this poor excuse of a jedi? I wanna get back before supper."

Then he turned to Panthar. "We were just discussing this communicator thing that Panthar has," he then said, filling Galen in. "Maybe that, along with her Force abilities," he continued, pointing towards Stargazer, who had just recently regained her footing, "And your maps, we can get everyone the kriffing hell off this rock, as Terrin would say."

“Good to see ya, Red,” he beamed. “Now by the kriffin’ treasures on Roon, whatever the hell that means, let’s get out of this swamp!”

Panthar walked forward and up to the ship. He pulled out the Sith device from his pocket and looked it over.

"Kriffing hell, I HATE bats!" HE growled, reaching for his side to unholster his blaster. Before Matt could object--not that he could see Jasyn's moves anyway--he pointed the weapon upward and fired. The resulting blast caused the bats to disappate...

...save one bat that perched on Jasyn's shoulder. Jasyn sat up, scowling, and reached his opposite hand up to flick the creature off. The bat, annoyingly enough, flew off and then returned to sit right back on Jasyn's shoulder. He scowled, and Matt, now shining the glowstick his direction, began to smirk.

But then he paused, pointing toto something the bat was carrying in his mouth:

A piece of blue cloth.

Jasyn removed it from the nightbird's mouth, looking over it. "Allright, so it might be a piece of Shawn's clothing," he observed, "But that doesn't do us a fat lot of good. Unless..."

He trailed, cocking his head at the bat. "Allright, I don't suppose you know the location of the owner of this?" he queried, waving the piece of cloth about, not expecting to get a response of any type.

"Yeah," I finally agreed with all in general.

"But the first thing we need to do, I would think, in order to receive those frequencies, is to get back to the same place where we picked them up in the first place. And that's down that blasted crevass, which..."

I trailed, waving one hand around.

"Sure as there's Treasure on Roon is not on this miserable little hill! So my question is, where is the connection back to the mainland, if you can call anything on this boggy world land... or did you all just swim over when Terrin and I first got here?"

I gave my flightsuit a discening tug.

"Let's do it, then!"

With no further ado I turned away from the others and headed off in the direction Shayla pointed toward. It didn't take long before I came upon the little passage she had spoken of. It wasn't much, just a soggy lump stretching from where we were, out across the murky water, to segue seamlessly into the riot of greenery there on the opposite side.

I eyed the lump, not without some trepidation, for it didn't even look to be a meter in width.

"Y-you guys came over this?" I gulped before getting hold of myself.

"Well, so be it!"

Again I set off, staring straight ahead. For sure as Khaandon made little green worrts if I cast so much as a peep at the sinister waters about me it would more than likely bring the biggest, hungriest, and most dangerous critter running for dinner.

After a few moments of such aerodynamics it straightened it's flightpath, and beelined down the passage directly ahead of the two men. Said passage whose floor gradually raised, until at length there was scarcely room enough for a man to wriggle through. The little nightbat had no such issues, and soon disappeared completely, following the claustrophobically tightening passageway, the occasional squeaks it emitted leaving a faintly audible, and very much ghostly, trail in its wake.

..and hope it means something and not nothing. After all...

He trailed then, his scowl turning into a look of concern, "...for all we know he might have just found this scrape of cloth somewhere, and Shawn might not be there at all."

Not. Quite. Utterly. Black.

For from the darkness something collected, something roiled, and gathered unto itself. And from the growing resolution there came a faint shimmer of periwinkle... of silver.

Something not quite a voice echoed in the otherwise pitch black, filling both men's heads with something akin to that one finds there immediately upon awakening from a nightmare.

You have a... Get Out of Jail Free card... it may be used in this Game but once...

Use it with wisdom, for by it are you judged.

The whisper of something beyond reality vanished, taking the ghostly echo of light with it. And with its disappearance, a blackness deeper than that punched out by solar totality descended upon the two men, in all its bone-chilling, shadow-swift glory.

Blink.

I instinctively froze, for in that fraction of time my entire surroundings utterly changed: one minute being a greeny-gray soggy mess, and the next...

Utter nightmare.

The bland, moisture filled atmosphere altered dramatically, being filled with roiling black clouds, heavy with something that I knew in my heart of hearts simply wasn't rain. The greenness turned ashen and sere, the swampwaters from cloudy to...

Something that wasn't quite water.

My heart ceased beating... but whether from sheer terror or the fact that Time itself had stopped who could tell. Certainly not me...

...for all of a sudden I found myself reinserted into reality again, standing on the edge of the mainland proper, not really knowing how in Hell's Seven Circles I'd managed to propel myself there. All around me, everything was green and gray and boggy once again. Everything, that is, except the image which stubbornly refused to leave my mind.

I'd seen that sky before...

This was all too, too familiar. Back on K'eel Doba when they were caught in the maze...

A twinge of terror raced up and down Jasyn's spine along with the tingling sensation, and he fumbled around the ground at first unsuccessfully to find the glowstick, unable to see. In a small space of time, however, he was able to find it, and flicked the light back on, his eyes wide. Next to him Matt Stanza stared at the vanished sight quizzically, never having seen it before.

"Kriffing hell!" Jasyn finally sputtered, in no specific direction. "It's that All That Was and Is stuff back to haunt us, like Phal said."

Matt furrowed his brows in question.

"We encountered it on K'eel Doba, not long after Terrin came back to life," he explained further. "What it wants with us now...

...I don't know."

He paused then, scowling, his look darkening. "A "get out of Jail Free Card? What the hell?" With that, he raised his arm and fumbled for a general freequency on his wristcomm, hoping that the radio markers they had planted would give them a link to someone, anyone else.

Anyone human or at least somewhat humanoid, that is. "Hey, if anyone can read me, this is Jasyn Lancaster. We have a problem...

...Ole Googly Eyes has appeared here."

Squirting the message off, he then turned to Matt once more. "Well," he then said, "I guess we follow the bat...

...and hope that whatever a Get out of Jail Free Card is, it'll be something we can use. But I don't know if I'd count on it..."

...before straightening its course and arrowing straight back into the darkness of the passageway once again.

"I am no expert on animal behavior," he then stated, "But I'm pretty sure the first thing we can assume as a certainty is that the bat wants us to follow."

Turning to Jasyn then with an arched eyebrow, Matt ignored the darkening look in Jasyn's eyes.

"Hey, you asked the bat if he knew the owner of the cloth. Stranger things have happened to us than the possibility that the bat is answering said question. Much stranger things."

Jasyn scowled further, then sighed and shrugged, beginning to head in the direction the bat had flown. The passageway, annoyingly enough, began to constrict, the floor becoming more and more raised with each step.

Matt shook his head in frustration as he had to duck further and further, his lack of height actually becoming somewhat an advantage, for Jasyn was practically on his knees by this point.

...when the entire system seemed to shake, as if driven by a deep earthquake, a movement which caused the opening ahead to widen a bit further...

...through which the distinct sound of the nightbat's meeping was heard, although strangely magnified, as if echoed by distant walls.

"If we find Petrolu, he definitely owes me a..."

He stopped midsentence as the bat disappeared into an opening, and a strange shaking seemed to course through the entire cave system. "Oh, kriffing hell," Jasyn muttered, unmoving, hoping that they weren't going to simply end up bugsplat on the rocks of the cave. But the shaking subsided...

...and the opening looked as though they could still physically fit through, despite the bad feeling he had about it. Jasyn inched up just a bit more and shined his glowstick out to get a good look at what migh tbe awaiting them inside the opening...

...and froze there. "Oh, hell," he growled, seeing the bat circling around in a strangely open area of the caves as if to taunt him. "The ground...if it is there like I think it is...

No sooner had it disappeared than the system shook...

...and a section of wall spalled off, crashing into deafening rubble thirty feet below. But it left behind a convenient "path" carved into the wall, the bottom "edge" where the gigantic chunk had once seamlessly rested.

Pausing for a moment then, Jasyn frowned a bit. "I would mention that these sorts of good things never happen to us without a price, but I don't suppose that now is a good time."

Saying nothing further than that, however, Jasyn began to work his way out of the hole and to the convenient pathway, Matt behind him. They worked their way up the rock, remarkably easily, and arrived at the opening. Jasyn shined his glowstick through to see what awaited...

...and found a fairly narrow, but passable, entry point. Jasyn scooted inside, once more followed by Matt, the bat just ahead of them. He had to remain on his knees to fit, but began to work his way through, once more following the nightbat. As he did, an occassional rumbling sound began to pervade his senses, and Jasyn began to wonder if the sound was a quake in the works once more...

At length the nightbat let forth another meep; suddenly changing its trajectory, it turned tail and flew back, swooping over Matt and Jasyn to disappear behind them, only to return moments later. It performed this strange maneuver three more times, before finally bearing straight ahead, now following a tiny side-passage which after about twenty feet made a right angle, slithered about a boulder long fallen and held in place by its own sheer weight...

...and opened up onto yet another passage, one perhaps eight easily scalable feet beneath the opening. The bat flew for a length of time along this passage, now in absolute silence, coming at last to a distant, quiet, and apparently meditating form...

"Well, I hope this bat knows where he is going," Jasyn observed, pursing his lips a bit. "And I hope Terrin and Galen are doing allright as well. He never replied to your comm earlier, did he?" Jasyn queried.

Matt shook his head,then shrugged, motioning for Jasyn to keep following the trail of the bat. Jasyn sighed and did just that, finding that they had to walk quite a while before arriving anywhere at all. Jasyn was surprised at that the cavern remained remarkably passable, and wondered how they had managed to come upon such a place in caves. His meanderings were cut forth, however, as he shined his glowstick ahead and finally saw the shadow of a quiet form, cross-legged on the cave floor, the bat perched on his shoulder.

"Hey, Matt, it is Petrolu!" Jasyn exclaimed, hurrying to the meditating Jedi's side. He knelt there as Matt rummaged through a supply backpack for some water and a ration bar.

"Hey, Petrolu, snap out of it!" Jasyn interjected, patting the Jedi on the shoulder.

No response.

"Awww, damn, what's the matter with him?" Jasyn queried in Matt's direction even as the other man came over with the open water container, his green eyes radiating concern.

For a long moment it simply stared at the tableau, its wings outspread, its eyes unfathomably dark. Then those eyes appeared to grow, to brighten, to take on immense proportions... until at last they completely encompassed the spot upon which the bat rested, bat and all.

Small indeed for them... but for the understanding of the tiny.

That Which Was merely contemplated the men. Then the shadows within the passageway grew even darker, pressed ever more closely, as the great periwinkle and silver eyes blinked.

Once.

"To that end, for the sake of one, is it seen the easiest path has been chosen. As has it always been done thoughout the Game.

"No point given here, but lost point may at length be earned."

With that enigmatic statement they disappeared entirely...

...taking with them every lick of magick, every connection to anything touching on the super or supranatural, every last touch of hocus-pocus which living entities had been allowed throughout the millennia.

Magicians, Cult assassins, Force adepts, All users...

Everything.

...and the connection he was feeling with his sister snapped entirely. The meditation he was locked in disappated as well, and his body went limp. The only reason he did not collapse on the cave floor were two supportive hands which rested on both of his shoulders. He finally began to register that something wet was being poured down his throat, slowly.

His greeny-blue eyes snapped open, he gasped, and then coughed and sputtered a bit before realizing that two people were with him. Still, he was disturbed by a strange sensation which held him, one which told him that something was missing. He tried to stretch out with the Force to ascertain what was going on...

...but came up entirely short. There was nothing. Nada.

"Hell," I knew this was too easy," he growled, still supporting Petrolu yet looking around anxiously. "We've gotta get out of here," he then spoke up, looking back towards Shawn and Matt. "And I bet you big credits our sweet little bat friend isn't going to be around to help us this time."

...but nothing. Her greeny-blue eyes clouded a bit. "I... I've lost Shawn's Force signature," she said aloud, clearly worried. Everyone turned back to her, a question in their eyes. She read what she thought it might be, and stretched out to sense the EE men, whose signatures she was also familiar with...

...but nothing. Frowning at that, Shayla then realized that it wasn't just that she couldn't sense these people. She couldn't sense anything. At all.

"M--my abilities..."

It had been so long ago, when there was just nothing to worry about but he and Shayla. The last time he could really remember it being that way was when they had first gotten married and they were on whatever planet that was, enjoying some time together, truly happy...

...when little Zackary had made his presence known.

Erik's brown eyes glinted with even more pain at that thought, recalling what had happened to their child. He remembered the pained look in Shayla's eyes when they had lost him and had to leave him on Khar Delba.

He wasn't sure if she had really been the same ever since that event.

...but he never liked such assumptions, because that was what typically got them into trouble. He opened bleary eyes to then see the familiar bulkheads of the Eclipse-class SSD, and sighed. That only prompted a more pronounced stab of pain through his ribcage, and he grunted slightly, turning his head.

To that side, there was absolutely nothing but a sickbay wall. Even so, Terrin heard the rustle of someone moving beside him, and slowly turned his head the other way.

The person he saw was not necessarily the person he anticipated, but Terrin didn't find anything particularly unusual about this at the moment. He managed a half-smile and began to reach out a hand...

...then frowned a bit, just then really realizing the disaster of a prosthetic he now had, some circuits and wires protruding from damanged it had sustained from his tenure with the swamp-thing. He swallowed a bit to wet his mouth.

"I guess your mother is still powering down the ship," he commented absently towards Darra to keep his mind off his arm, wincing a bit as another pain shot through him.

"No," she softened the word with a little smile.

"No!" he managed, ignoring any pain which threatened to bother him. "I promised her...we'd face things together..."

He trailed, the worry evident in his eyes. He tried to hold it at bay as much as possible, however, not wanting to alarm Darra.

"I've gotta get down there..."

"She'll be all right," she said softly. "If she was in any danger, I would feel it. Don't ask me how I would know, I just would.

"And I don't feel she has come to any harm. I'm sure she and the others will soon find the one they are seeking, and all will be back aboard the Hornett with us, safe and sound."

...but a wealth of memories splayed forth in his mind's eye of days when he'd been stupid and sat back while Galen went off and fought battles on her own. Days when he should have taken the initiative to at least be with her, to fight with her. For a long moment he stared at the bulkhead of the ship, quietly, his own blue eyes still cloudy with concern and not just a bit of regret at his past mistakes.

With effort he turned to Darra, softening that look. "I know that you will know," he said quietly then. "But I hate being down while she's out there, with everyone else, facing who knows what." He paused then, annoyed with himself for getting injured so quickly, as if he could have really done a thing about it. Truth be told, he knew deep down that the same thing could have happened to anyone else.

"I trust in her abilities...

...Gods, she's got through so many things on her own in the past...

"Ummm... there's not much I can ask," she said at length, raising her face to look Terrin straight in the eye.

"I think we can get to know each other better just by... talking, and living together as a family.

“What do you mean, gone?” he asked, concern in his expression. “Like your force-stuff?”

Panthar looked to Aaron, then back to Shayla. While he waited for her to reply he noticed the thrumming device in his hand was suddenly no longer thrumming.

“Umm... Oh hell...”

"That's all she's ever wanted," he said then, his blue eyes now meeting Darra's. "She loves you very much," he then said, pursing his lips a bit. "Seeing the two of you together, finally..."

"It will be good that we all can be together," she said, her voice scarcely above a whisper. "But it will be better if you rest now. Mother will be angry with me, and say I bothered you when you should be doing whatever it is the doctor said to do.

"Which, I am certain, does not mean spending too much time talking."

She smiled again, and began to inch toward the door.

"I'm going to--" She paused. She had been about to say "her room," when it suddenly dawned on her that she didn't even have one. For when they had first come aboard Hornett all their time had been spent in discussing the logistics of rescue; then they had turned tail and returned to Dagobah.

"There are some quarters your Mother stayed in once, when we first met," he said. waving a medic over and making his request known that Darra be taken to said quarters, on Red Level and anywhere else she requested to go, for that matter. "Feel free to move about the ship as well...

She had never seen so many people in one place in her life, despite her time in the Temple of Warriors. It seemed the corridors she passed through were filled with the rush and bustle of people going somewhere, hurrying to get there in order to do something. What that "something" could possibly be, she hadn't the slightest idea.

Then they arrived at the room assigned -- no, given to her, and her jaw about hit the floor. It was far larger, and far more well appointed than she thought she deserved... until she remembered just who exactly her mother truly was to these people.

Not to mention her adoptive father!

She smiled at the little luxuries afforded to her, bid the orderly a gracious thank you, and entered her rooms. After finding and making use of the shower -- real water! -- she then rummaged in the room's wardrobe and came up with a creamy set of flowing trousers with matching silky tunic, both delicately embroidered and chased with tiny krayt-dragon pearls. She knew it was probably some kind of elegant evening wear, far too fancy for what she had in mind, but after everything she had just experienced...

Nothing. "I can't track Shawn now...

...I can't even feel anyone's Force signature here."

she frowned, keenly aware that something other had to be going on. "If we are going to find Shawn, we're going to have to do so on logic and maps and comm signals. Which means, like Galen suggested, we may need to go down that crevasse you fell into to get started."

Trying to ignore the wispy hairs which were still standing straight up on the back of my neck, I went to the water's edge and cupped my hands to my mouth.

"Are you guys gonna stand there all day and chit-chat, or are we going to go rescue Shawn?" I hollered.

And what in Hell's Seven Circles--! Didn't you see what just happened... or was it just me? I couldn't help but add silently to myself.

“Hey, quiet down, we’ll be right over,” he called over. “Don’t get eaten.”

He looked at Shayla, then placed a hand on her forehead.

“No fever,” he said. “But I believe that something weird is happening. Let’s go catch up with Galen.”

And with that, he walked along the damp narrow path and up to Galen.

"Look," I said, deciding to get right to the point.

"Panthar just said you, Blondie, lost all your Force-whoosis. I dunno what you guys experienced, but do you guys remember ol' Googly Eyes? Well, it came back, and the hairs on the back of my neck are explaining to me in very great detail that it's up to something...

Again."

I paused a moment, waiting for Aaron to play catch-up, for I knew this was all new and stranger than hell to him.

"I'm betting nothing out of the ordinary works, after what happened last time; so, it looks like we're going to have to do things the old fashioned way.

"We return to the crevasse, we skinny down it again --" Oh, joy; somebody please, hold me back "-- and we comm Shawn and, and--"

I paused, floundering.

"We go from there; I have a map," I finished, somewhat lamely. Guess I hadn't realized how much I really had been relying on Blondie's force stuff, or Big Red's humming thingy, to help us out.

Maybe I wouldn't be back in time for supper after all...

"Who the kriffing hell knows!" I finally spat, now beginning to get good and honestly mad at the thought that the weirdness who used people as pawns was back for more fun and games.

"But standing here wondering isn't going to do anything; Aaron, if you have the other guys' comm frequency, why don't you give then a jingle and see if Google struck them, too. And hell, for all we know they found Shawn, and we won't have to go down that blasted hole again!"

For to tell the truth, I didn't much relish the thought.

Matt, this is Aaron. We're wondering what sort of progress you have made in finding Shawn. We've had some strange events occur here with some sort of Eyes or something, and Shayla has lost her powers. Have you had any problems of this sort? Please let us know your current status so we'll know where to begin helping out here. Barnes out.

Aaron...wondering...you...finding...strange...Eyes...lost...status...helping...

Matt pursed his lips, only able to make a bit out of an otherwise staticky message from Aaron. Shrugging to himself and to the others, he hit the response button.

This is Matt Stanza. We've found Shawn. Repeat, found Shawn. Strange events here. Repeat, strange events, disembodied Eyes, talking out of thin air and assisting in our search only to then vanish with strange messages. We have found Shawn, and are coming out of the caves. Repeat, found Shawn and are on our way back out of the caves. Stanza out.

Squirting the message off then, he turned to Jasyn and Petrolu. "Well, I'm not quite sure what their message was about, but hopefully they will get some of ours with all the repetition. Sounds like they may have seen the Eyes too?"

He paused, frowning. "I'm not very experienced in this area, but I'm assuming that what the disembodied voice said somehow affected you?"

Stanza...Shawn. ...events...desembodied. Thin...strange...Eyes. ...talking...search...vanish...messages. ...Found...out. Shawn...back...caves. ...Out.

As the message ended, only a few words of it intelligible, Aaron furrowed his brows, trying to decide what it was he thought Matt was trying to tell them.

"Well," he then said to the others, "I can't tell if they've found Shawn or not, but it sounds like he's talking about disembodied Eyes. I think our "Friend" has made its presence known where they are too."

"I duuno," I finally said. "If you want to trudge here and there through all this mess--"

Here I waved a hand about, indicating the riotous growth surrounding us.

"That's your choice. But I don't think us moving any closer is going to do diddly; these are good transmitters and receivers. Our messages to each other are probably being broken up because they're not out in the clear yet. We'll more than likely hear them much better once they're out of the caves, but until then..."

I trailed again, snd sidled yet a step further from the murky water.

"Since we know ol Googly is up and running, I'd just as soon not risk making it/him/them mad. So far we seem to be okay right where we are; in fact, I'm all for returning to the ship and hitting orbit. We can wait there and see if the guys need any more help, but it sounds like they've got things under wraps for now."

And that was what mattered to Erik at that particular moment.

"I appreciate your hospitality to me here," he opened with. "And while i am not fully recovered, I do have an important request involving something that I must see to, and soon. I do not feel that it is necessary for me to go into all the details and reasons why...

He paused then, chewing his lip thoughtfully. "I hope they aren't in too deep; I'd really like to get away from this place with all this strange events. With any luck, perhaps the strangeness is not any more widespread than on this planet. But then...

...I'm not very knowledgable about such things."

“I’m for taking off, too. But if you can figure out anything about Googly, then please tell me too,” he said. “I remember being back in his ‘place of places’ trying to figure out his riddles and not liking it a whole lot. It seems that he is playing some sort of game, or more to the point, we are playing a game and he is somehow playing the role of referee. Except he changes the rules! I mean, to me, he called a foul on things that were already in existence. If he is in charge of things, you know, then maybe those things shouldn’t have existed in the first place?”

Panthar stopped in his tracks, silently thinking.

She paused then, pursing her lips thoughtfully, considering Panthar's observations. "At the moment, however, the hows and whys aren't the most important thing. What is important is that we get everybody back together and see if this phenomenon is widespread. After all, That Which Is called Kori'san it's Place of Places. Which to me implies it may have more than one Place it haunts."

She paused then, becoming convinced that That Which Is was truly Everywhere, and that each place, for its own specified reason, perhaps had special characteristics associated with the Grand Game.

She shivered a bit, her lack of Foce senses quite literally making her feel blind.

Back to relying on the good things that everyone has, and not anything specialized. Makes you realize just how much you take things for granted...

"At any rate, let's get to Galen's ship, and away from here. If this place is for some reason special, she's got a point. Staying here any longer may only provoke That Which Is further."

Damn, but in that brief blink there had been one UGLY sky, and it was like the one which had once led to events even uglier...

--and placed my hands on my hips.

"Look, you guys are starting to presume an awful lot. I mean, sure, it's been a rough go getting to Shawn, but now it sounds like he's been found and the guys are heading out with him. They have a ship; the only think that this little Red Hen is gonna presume is that they're going to use it!"

I stopped a minute, glancing around a bit uncertainly, just waiting for a pair of enormous eyes to materialize. But nothing happened; I heaved out the breath I'd been holding and starting heading back to the little connecting strip of land.

"All we have was a garbled message; when we're all back aboard Hornett then we can debrief and find out what in Hell's Seven Circles is actually going on. I mean, we didn't get the entirety of the message, and it seems we're fleshing out a bit much without anything solid to go by. But anyway, that aside, I really think we should just...

Go."

And without waiting to see whether anyone else was coming, that's exactly what I did.

"Well, it's a good thing none of us have eaten anything substantial in a while," Jasyn commented, scowling. Then, with some effort, he wriggled his way back into the opening, followed by the others, and began to work his way back to where their rope remained hanging and waiting for them. Scowling as he was scraped with rocks and jagged edges in the cave walls, Jasyn continued to scoot, at times able to move a bit more than others. At length, after crawling and skinning and working altogether more than Jasyn thought they all had in a long, long time, they arrived back in the original space where they had found that stupid bat to begin with.

He scowled a bit, gazing up at the original opening they had jumped from, perhaps ten meters up. While it was entirely plausible that they could climb back up to the opening to get to their rope, Jasyn was tired of climbing and working.

He turned and arched an eyebrow Shawn's way, unaware of what had just happened back when the Eyes had disappeared.

...left me without any way to touch the Force."

Lancaster's look became decidedly dark, and a touch annoyed as well.

"We're going to have to do it the way you would be doing it if I weren't here. Climb."

Saying nothing futher than that, Shawn just motioned for the other two men to follow, trying not to make too much, for the moment, of his loss of connection with the Force. After all, until they got out of these caves and to a place where they could sit down and think, it wasn't going to do much good to get into it. So he followed the men up the wall of a decidedly inclined but not impossible cavern wall. From there they made their way to some ropes that the men had used to make their way down to begin with, and began working their way through the final opening and back up the way Jasyn and Matt had initially come. After some length of time they finally made it back to the initial point of decent, pausing as they one by one climbed up onto solid ground and out of the cave system entirely.

Each took respective breaths of relief...

There I plopped into my seat, and began to nervously tap my fingers, first along the control board to warm the baby up, and then out of impatience while I waited for the others to get here. My brow furrowed as I filled the time with inner-lid images, ones that came from my own imagination, true, but were based in history.

A short green, clownish looking individual. One very powerful, very wise, for all his outward appearance. One who once called this world his home, who had a special connection of some sort here.

Yoda.

My brow wrinkled further.

Oh ye gods, don't tell me Ol Google Eyes is gonna jump this claim, too...

Noises sounded behind me, shaking me from my reverie and I opened my eyes.

Probably not.

He waved a concerned looking medic over.

"I want to know the status of the parties on planet," he said simply. "Please request that Commander Garrison update me."

She nodded at this request, hurrying off to do just that. And Terrin waited impatiently, drifting ever so slightly...

After a second he looked around slyly and saw Shayla and Aaron were already strapping themselves in.

He paused, considering, "--It is no longer my place to make a final call on any ship that would be sold from this larger vessel," he explained, motioning around him to indicate the bulk of the Hornett. "And it would not be my place to begin with as I am not the owner. However, the owner is on board, and I can inform him of your request."

He paused as a medic stepped up to him. "Sir," the medic said quietly. "Captain Danner has a request."

"I will speak with him," Taylor responded to the medic. "And I will let him know about your request, sir, and get back with you."

"I suppose we should let everyone know we've made it out...

...and hope they all get the message."

Saying nothing further than that, Matt keyed in a general frequency. "Hornett, Eagle II, and all others receiving: This is Matt Stanza reporting return to Falcon II with Jasyn Lancaster and Shawn Petrolu. We are enroute to the [i]Hornett and request an update on everyone else's status. Stanza out."

"Sir, I have been visiting with an Erik Kartan who rests in the sickbay. He is requesting a ship to depart from here and address concerns of his own...

Terrin frowned a bit, shifting to relief some pressure on his side. "I want a status report on everyone who is still down on the surface," he said simply, the look in his eye broaching no argument on the matter.

He might be out of comission, but that by no means meant he should remain out of the loop.

"As for Mr. Kartan, he can buy a ship from here...

...but only after he has been released from the medical facilities. Then he can come talk to me about his wishes himself. Until then...

"This is Commander Garrison. Captain Danner is requesting a full update on everyone's progress. Please respond ASAP."

Sending off the direct message then to all intended recepients, Taylor turned his attention back to the Captain. "I will see to it that your prosthetic is done is short order so that you can comm on your own as you desire," he commented, knowing that his temporary handicap was the only reason he hadn't requested a status update himself. "And I will let Mr. Kartan know your decision. For the moment, however, you probably should be..."

He trailed, cut off by the look in Danner's eye. The Captain motioned him to stay, so Taylor complied, sensing the concern eminating from the other man.

"Buckle up, everbody. We're soon to be history!" I called out and was about to make good on those words when communications politely announced there was an incoming message. I delayed our departure a moment to see who it was.

"Eagle II," I announced, then nodded as a general update request came through.

"Hornett, this is Eagle II," I then replied. "All personnel are aboard, and we are departing Dagoban soil in approximately--" I fiddled quickly with the control board. "--fifteen standard seconds. We should be back aboard within the half hour; please pass on to Captain Danner my relief that he is well enough to be the mother hen, and that this Big Girl surely appreciates that!

"Eagle II, out."

With that I pulled back on the throttle, and let 'er rip. As Dagobah shrank in the rear viewscreen, I couldn't help but heave a huge sigh of relief. For if I ever stepped foot on that boggy mess of a planet again, it would be entirely too soon, sure as there's Treasure on Roon!

That vow was only cemented more firmly as for a moment some of the local cloud and mist cover were were soaring through seemed to part, sending twin beams of rare sunlight arrowing down to momentarily glint and sparkle upon two mossy ponds far beneath us.

For all the world they took on the appearance of a pair of great eyes, watching with a certain degree of ominous solemnity as our little mote of a ship flew ever up, farther and farther away...

I shuddered and closed my eyes, and when I opened them again it was to see nothing but the exhaustingly boring gray of the Dagoban clouds filling every view. That monotony was relieved soon enough, though, as with an almost audible cry of delight our little lamby came out at last into the crystal clear coldness of star-studded space. Far in the distance there lurked an unseen shadow that blanked out the stars behind it.

I aimed for it and settled back on autopilot with a sigh. Then something Panthar had tried to tell me leaped into my head; clearing my throat I loosened my harness and turned in my seat so as to peer at him over the top of it.

"You said something about having something important to ask me?" I opened, cocking my head with curiosity.

“Yeah,” he said at length. “There is a lot of stuff going down, as you can probably figure out for yourself. But before this business with Googly eyes, it seemed a lot simpler. Ya see, hmm… let me start from a while back, fill yo in on some things first.”

Panthar looked over at Shayla and Aaron, with an apologetic look.

“Shayla was possessed, we figure with the same black ick that was in me that one time. I know how it was, it’s like you are in control of your actions but you’re not really. It really gets in your head, makes you believe things. It was in your sister, too. To make a long story short, we were coming here to help you guys, through a portal opened by Gray. But she sent us to Korris’ian instead, and we had a heck of a time getting back to Khar Delba. During that time, though, we found a whole bunch of Phalomir clones. It was weird, let me tell ya. But Phal took them out, except for one, who was awake. The Master came to call and stole that one and took it to the Darker Realms.”

Panthar paused, scratching his head.

“With me so far? No? Well, let me go on. Apparently the whole reason the Master was after Phal was so he could give him to the tar-thing that lives in the Darker Realms. Shayla and Gray, they, um, were there when the tar-thing took over the clone and it took off. Anyway, quick version is that Gray and Shayla are no longer possessed, but this clone of Phal has the tar-thing in him. The Master disappeared, too, nobody knows where to.”

“The other bad thing that happened is that while she was possessed, Gray apparently let loose with a huge nasty blast that destroyed the Empire’s blockade. She had that one guy, Sorben Tarnus, locked away in the dungeon at the time. When we were all back together on Khar Delba, we made plans to get things figured out and regroup. Phal and Gray went to free Tarnus and Thoran, they were on K’eel Doba. We all came here with Aelvedaar to help you – except we never saw him come through the portal he opened for us.”

"Why do I think she is telling you to get some rest without really telling you to?"

He paused then, letting the little bit of humor fill the room before he turned serious. "And really, you ought to get some rest. The medics say you've got a three broken ribs and a broken leg. Time to recoup a bit...

...and I'll go let Kartan know what you said and let the command deck know to prep for their return. And since I haven't had the time to say so yet sir...

...it is good to have you back on the ship."

I'd seen that brief change of atmosphere, and I remembered all too well the last time I'd seen something similar. But here Panthar was, casually dismissing the very maker of all that was; no. The possible embodiment of all that was, the Ultimate Game Master, if you will, for the sake of something as simple as a little demonic possession?

I shut my mouth in disbelief, cleared my throat, took in a deep breath, and started in.

"Ahh-- look, pal. I don't know if you quite get the gist of what might be going on here, but don't you remember our big-eyed friend back there? Don't you remember what happened last time he, or she, or it, or they, whatever in Hell's Seven Circles pronoun one's supposed to use, sheesh; don't you recall what went down then?"

I stopped a minute or two and chewed on my cheek a moment while I tried to collect my thoughts.

"Ok, look. We already know the Master isn't to be trusted as far as you can toss a rancor. We know he's been babbling on and on about some dire threat to the galaxy, and how he needs his son or apparently even clone thereof, to save it. Well.

"If he's got what he wants, why not let him do his thing? Personally, I'd be a little more concerned about Ol' Googly; I mean, what in all the known universe did he pop up here for? If what the Master is doing is so big and bad and against the way destiny is supposed to unfold or whatever, then why doesn't Big Eyes go harrass him?"

I stopped again, aware that I was more just talking aloud than giving Panthar any solid answer. I sighed.

"Look, I don't suppose it's going to hurt anything to read some Sith logs for you, although I'm kinda interested in knowing just what this 'ancient Sith planet' you're talking about is. I thought the Sith worlds were K'eel Doba, Khar Delba, Korriban and Koris'sian...?"

All of which I'd set foot on at least once during the last several, and most hectic, years of my life...

Then I put all the weirdness and strangeness aside and turned to the more serious of the quandaries to which he referred.

"But sheesh, blowing up an entire Impy blockade-- wow, I didn't know Sissypoops had it in her. Er, ok, so she had It in her, and probably shot the Imps to hell and gone under duress or something. But that's not going to make one whit of difference to Actar. Or his Top Guns."

I frowned, wondering if I still held any sway, if only the tiniest bit, toward a certain one of said Top Guns. I sure hoped so.

He breathed another sigh of relief...

...and quickly alerted the proper officials of the Falcon II's imminent return. Then he sent a response back to Matt Stanza.

No matter how much he had accepted it, to some extent it was still an extremely peculiar feeling that part of his body was a part, and not flesh and blood.

As the final dettachments were made, a medic turned to him. "Sir, we have a bacta tank prepped for you. This will help mend the broken bones you've got and relieve pain."

Terrin nodded, sitting up slightly and wincing in pain as moving reminded him that things were not functioning properly. "Yeah, relieving pain," he responded with a grunt as a med stretcher was brought in to carry him to the tank. "Remind me to avoid Degobah...

...in the future."

Quieting then, Terrin let them carry him off to the tank, noting with less than fond memories that that he would probably be "hanging out" in there for at least a standard hour or two.
Oh joy. Kriffing swamp creatures...

The villip on Kori'san...

Suddenly a realization slammed home.

"Wait," Shayla spoke up suddenly, drawing the attention of the others. "Maybe That Which Is isn't just playing games with us," she began, chewing her lip a bit, her eyes growing only darker. "The Master had the plan to use Phalomir, or his clone, to defeat the Vong with assistance from the Darkness...

...only I know for a fact that the Darkness is somehow aligned with the Vong as well."

She paused again, trailing for a minute before saying anything else. "I saw... him... the Vong that captured Jharmeen then held me in her place...through a villip on Kori'san, one which I was led to via the Darkness within me at the time. It called me part of the Nexus...

...as did he. He said there were plans for Jharmeen and I."

Her eyes defocused, and she wasn't really seeing anyone in the cabin any longer, but something else far and distant. Thoughts whirled in her mind as she tried to make sense of something that seemed just beyond her reach, dangling there tauntingly.

"If the Darkness has declared war through Jharmeen, so have the Vong. The Darkness is either playing the Master, playing the Vong...

...or both. For total domination over the living...

...and the dead."

"Suppose you're right," I finally said, now shooting an equally discomforting glance around the little group. "Suppose there is another Game Master at work here."

I blinked a moment at the looks that term brought my way; quickly then, I recalled to the others the strangeness we had experienced on Koris'sian when That Which Is came and, in it's oblique manner, revealed just who we all were in the Natural Order of Things.

Yeah. I didn't like feeling like a pawn either.

Swallowing my instinctively rising pride, which had more than once gotten me in dire straits and lordy knows what kind it would get me into now so I squelched it, I went on.

...and unsure whether or not there even was one. "I don't know, I get the feeling that That Which Is is everywhere...

...and just has a special preference for Kori'san due to its...

... unique characteristics of which we are all mostly aware. I mean, how many places can you bring someone back from the de..."

Shayla stopped mid-sentence, frowning more deeply, that something dangling annoyingly nearby once more. "That Which Is stopped the game then because rules had been broken. I don't know how or when...

"What rules were broken this time?" I finally wondered aloud.

"Has anything happened that maybe we don't know about? I mean, to be truthful, all I saw down there was that weird sky that popped up out of nowhere, the same sky that also popped up on Koris'sian, remember? But I didn't see anything else... wait.

"The other guys; they said the Eyes came at them. And Panthar, back there you speculated something about Ol' Googly not liking unnatural things, and perhaps it was back to remove even more, ahh, talents -- although I agree that doing so doesn't make much sense. But Blondie's brother is a Jedi; I wonder--"

I whirled around, and immediately opened a channel to Falcon II.

"Falcon II, this is Eagle II, Galen Danner at the comm. We're, ahh-- we're having a little discussion over here, and the subject of O' Goo- I mean, giant, unknown eyes came up. We've seen 'em before, you said something about them, but your transmission was breaking up. Is there anything further you'd like to enlighten us with, or would you rather wait until we're all aboard Hornett?

"Over."

"Oh, we were working on getting to Shawn when out of nowhere some kriffing bat came and led us to him. We were getting him alert and all that when out of no where the Eyeballs popped up and spouted something about the easiest path being used for the good of one person or some such podoo. I mean, at least if we are going to be offered the help of a Higher Power, it'd be nice if we then didn't get whammied for taking it."

He paused, his scowl only growing. "The bat disappeared and we worked our way out of there, and that was the last of it. Oh, excepting the fact that now Petrolu can't seem to sense the Force. I knew this was all too easy, higher powers swooping in and all. Kinda makes me miss the less than good ole' days when we just toughed it out and figured things out for ourselves."

Finishing with that, Jasyn sent the message along its way, still scowling...

...and totally irritated with the hand said Higher Powers seemed to be dealing them.

"The good of one person...

...over the Greater Good," she said, in seeming non sequiter. "Maybe that's it. I mean, if the guys were given tips from That Which Is to find Shawn, they used power to find him when perhaps they could have found him on their own. I don't know...

...maybe there was something else there on Degobah that That Which Is was trying to direct the guys towards."

She paused then, considering the very troubling fact that both she and Shawn seemed to be lacking Force sensitivity. "Maybe That Which Is decided to take away something that has been taken for granted. Such things aren't supposed to be easily manipulated by many...

...and at least used to be difficult to wield by those who had mastered it. Opening portals and moving from world to world was at some point a taxing task, even for Jharmeen and Aelvedaar. Now we've stepped into worlds in the Elseness and into entirely different Realms of Darkness with ease."

She quieted then, pursing her lips. "It has become all too easy, Lancaster is right."

I shuddered a little, then straightened up in my seat.

"And maybe that bat wasn't sent to help, but to test," I figured. "Looks like the guys blew whatever the hell test it was, although I think we are on the right track here. Which means--"

I stopped suddenly as the enormity of it all hit me, squarely in the face.

"And if what Red and Blond- I mean, Shayla said about the Vong is true, then we're in a world of hurt," I whispered, forcing a swallow down my suddenly dry throat. "'Cuz if there's anything you can say about the Vong, besides their absolutely bloodthirsty nature, it's that they're three hundred percent natural. And that's a fact, sure as there's Treasure on Roon!"

With each word that passed from my lips I could feel my spirits sink exponentially, until as I finished they were dragging somewhere in the vicinity of my toes. For a couple more moments nothing but a thick miasma of gloom seemed to blanket us; then I brightened as a thought suddenly flashed home.

"Well, at least we shouldn't have to worry about whatever is going on in the Darker Realms." I shuddered at the mere thought of that horrific place beyond hell.

"If everything unnatural or otherwise out of the norm has been removed from reality, then that means it's stuck in its own dimension now and there's no possible way we can cross into it, or any of those damned imps into ours."

And that was a tiny fact, I was certain, that we all could take comfort in even as we marched slowly but inexorably, as I viewed it, to our doom...

As this thought struck me it likewise entered my mind that the comm-link to Falcon II was still open. I pursed my lips, then leaned forward to speak more directly to our fellow ship.

"All right, Falcon II, it looks like we've got plenty to chew on..."

Not to mention how in Hell's Seven Circles we were going to track down Yaoksi now!

"...but I think said chewing should wait until we're all back aboard Hornett. Which for this little red hen and company should be in about--"

I fiddled at the control panel.

"--ten standard minutes. I'll see you aboard. Eagle II, out."

With that I switched frequencies, and sent a standard hail to our enormous mother ship. A docking destination with appropriate approach vector was promptly sent back, and it wasn't much longer before I found myself putting everything horrible and dire and end-of-the-universe-as-we-know-it-ish out of mind, concentrating instead upon the task of bringing us safely home to roost.

Which I did, with my usual flair.

...but Matt tended to his job of getting them back to the Hornett, requesting docking bay coordinates and receiving them fairly quickly. "You know," he mused then while keying in information on the navboard. "That Which Is did say that no point was given...

...but something could be earned back." He paused, frowning. "I think this is all still a test."

Petrolu pursed his lips at this, nodding in agreeement. Jasyn just sighed. Choosing to leave his observation with nothing futher, matt finished commands to begin the landing procedure and docked Falcon II back in her berth on Hornett.

Powering down, he turned to Petrolu. "We need to get to the medbay and have you checked out," he commented, "And then get you hydrated. You've been days without food or water."

Panthar leaned back and sighed again.

“Oh, yeah, and not that it matters anymore, but that Sith world I was talking about earlier. I was doing lots of research in my former life, about this ancient civilization. Turns out it was the Sith, actually. But some of my research led to this remote, desolate planet – I don’t recall the coordinates, but they’re in my notes. I discovered a site, an underground lab of some kind. It’s where I found Phal. Well, sort of. Anyway, there was a lot of technology and stuff there, but when Phal – well, possessed me, I don’t remember anything until waking up on Sullust. All my notes, all that, are back on that planet.”

Panther leaned forward, scratching his ear.

“Well, they were. Aelvedaar located my notes in that crystal thing of his. Some blue fuzzball was carrying them, walking with a bunch of spacer looking people, and I think they were on an Imperial ship. Now, I encoded that stuff really well, and without the key it’s going to be hard to figure things out. But anyway, there are things on that planet the Sith need – hell, if we’re going to fight the Vong now, we all need it. If the Empire gets there first, they will shut everyone else out and waste valuable time trying to figure it out.”

Panthar leaned back once again.

"So you think that maybe there's something on that planet which might actually work, and more importantly, work against the Vong?" I asked, pinning Panthar with a steady look. "I mean, something better than blasters and ion cannons and all the usual stuff which didn't help too awful much against them the last time they came."

I trailed a little, frowning now as I tried to remember the recent history I learned in school. That had never been my forte; Khaandon knows I was always one for numbers and facing forward, not looking back. But now I did look back, and turned my gaze toward Blondie.

"You said you and Sis were stuck aboard the in-coming Vong ship?" I queried, raising my brows and nodding toward her to let her know this was more of an affirmation to my understanding of her words rather than a direct question.

"I'd think you and Jharmeen will be valuable assets; you might know stuff about the Vong that could prove just as useful as Panthar's mystery planet."

I paused a moment, turning back to the control panel to finish putting Eagle II back into electronic slumber. When I had finished, I rose from my seat, stretched creakily.

"I'd say we have our work cut out for us; let's get aboard Hornett and see if we can some up with a workable battle plan."

I raised an arm in the direction of the now open hatch, waited until all had disembarked, and then followed them onto the deck of the SSD's enormous docking bay. I wanted to see how Terrin fared as well, so I'm sure they all pardoned me as I hastened past them, nodding in general to the crew who staffed the bay, and headed off to find which medical facility he had been stashed in.

Meanwhile Matt Stanza frowned, already sensing Jasyn's agitation as he picked up speed to catch up with Galen. No doubt he had noted what Matt had observed as well.

"Hey, where's the Boss? Is everything allright" Jasyn queried in Galen's general direction in concern, not quite having caught up with her but the gap between them lessening.

Somewhere nearby, an officer from the docking staff began to approach, no doubt noticing everyone's sudden need to get...

...somewhere.

"Can I help you?" he queried.

“So,” he said, “Where and when do we meet with her and the rest of the gang? I mean, we should probably get cleaned up and get checked for wounds and biohazards and such, right? And I suppose we should check up on Shawn.”

Panthar cast a quick look towards Shayla.

"Yeah," I said, straightening a bit to snag back a bit of my lost composure.

"You can take me to whatever medical facility Terrin Danner is in."

I raised a hand to block the torrent of questions I knew were soon to spout forth from Jasyn's lips, and turned to him.

"Don't worry, he's ok. He got a little banged up by some of the water critters on Dagobah -- ok, a flying dude, too -- but he's ok. I mean, he was walking--"

Sorta...

"--and talking--"

Cursing and complaining, more's the pity...

"--when we brought him back aboard to check him out. He's been in good hands during the time I took to bring the ship back to you, so don't fret."

Which made him conclude that he had to at least be well enough to poke his nose around and start finding out if everyone had made it back aboardship just fine. He began to sit up...

...and realized with a start that he was trying to sit up using an arm that wasn't there. Frowning a bit at that, he decided instead to solve this problem by rocking to the side of his flesh and blood arm, effectively sitting half-way up before the slightest pain in his side gave him pause.

But a pause was all he allowed for this as he then reached out to the commlink which had been left at his bedside, no doubt the commlink which he had been wearing when he arrived. He keyed in Taylor Garrison's frequency. "Garrison, this is Captain Danner. Can you give me an update on the teams from Degobah?"

...I"ll make sure that everyone is given some quarters to do that. But first, we'd better head to med facilities."

"Captain, everyone just got back aboard," he responded, pausing for a moment to decide just what else to say, quite honestly not knowing if he had the sort of relationship with the Captain to tell him that he was being quite the impossible patient.

I don't suppose you are going to listen to anyone who says you need to get some rest, was his instinctive reply.

He decided to smooth it over, knowing that in all likelyhood he wouldn't be listened to either way. "You should get some rest, I'm certain someone will be there to update you on everything that happened shortly. I'm headed their way already to see that everyone is taken care of. Garrison out."

Sending the message off, Taylor began heading towards the approaching docking bay once more, eventually meeting paths with the officer that was leading Galen Danner and the others. He unconcsiously breathed a sigh of relief and dismissed the altogether too excited looking officer.

"Thank the gods you are all back," he then said, looking at each to make certain everyone seemed to be for the most part hale and whole. "Captain Danner is fit to be tied and refuses to comply with any requests to get some rest; I don't think he'll believe me that everyone is safely aboard unless he sees for himself....

...and asidefrom that you all probably need some med scans just to make sure everyone is healthy after being down there on Degobah."

...and in her mind's eye she recalled just how she had left him there, on Degobah, to die.

"I don't think he'll want to see me after the way I left him," Shayla said quietly in response to Panthar, her greeny-blue eyes growing even more distant. "I left him to die there, you know," she finished with softly, looking down to the bulkhead of the ship to avoid eye contact with anyone.

“It wasn’t all you,” he said. “I had that stuff inside of me, too, I know what it does. It will make you see things in a certain way, then the next thing you know you’re doing stuff you’d never ever do and think it was all your idea. Give him more credit than that, Shayla, once things are explained to him, and see what he does. If he really loves you, and really trusts you, then this should pass into history. If not, well…”

Panthar regretted saying that last part, and quickly moved his hand to give her back a quick pat.

“It will be all right,” he said. “I’m sure of it. And I’ll back you up as much as I can, and as much as you want me to.”

He moved his hand away, wishing he could have a chance to speak with Erik first. But he also felt that could be a bad idea.

...but trust has been broken. He has the right to be wary until that trust has been renewed, as does anyone else here...

Panthar flashed a quick smile to Shayla and touched her shoulder again.

“So stop focusing on the bad, please, and think ahead. You’re acting like it was you that did those things to him, and it wasn’t. He’ll see that.”

And if he doesn’t, Panthar thought, Then it’s probably better that he leaves you. But damn, I just want to see you happy for a change.

By dint of great effort, I kept my mouth shut.

It's his job, I told myself as, a forced smile replacing the frown, I followed along in apparent meekness.

Let him do it.

That smile segued into a genuine one, however, when we were led into a medical facility... one already occupied by several familiar faces. One face in particular I was hungry to see, even though I had a feeling I was going to be in for a scolding.

Terrin didn't see us as we quietly entered; he seemed somewhat engaged in overly-loud conversation with an aide who was only trying to do his job. I bit my lips to keep from laughing aloud, then holding a quieting hand up I sidled up to his bedside.

"Oh thank gods you're allright," he opened with.unable to reach out to her for the annoying fact that he was still minus an arm and still somewhat sore. "I mean, with all the damn wildlife on that planet..."

He trailed then, frowning a bit. "Not that I'm not perfectly aware of your capabilities to handle yourself in such situations, but you said you were going to let everyone else take care of things," he added, wincing a bit as he fought with his wounded ego...

The medic nodded calmly, needing no more request than this because the blonde woman was with Captain Barnes and no one objected.

"Hey, love, it wasn't your fault one or two of the locals down there wanted to bring you home for dinner," I quipped, leaning over to give him a light kiss on the top of his head.

"You can't help it that you're irresistible!"

I straightened, smiling and reaching out to lay a hand on his truncated arm. Then I sobered.

"Kinda good that this happened, eh?" I asked, now cocking my head. "I mean, obviously the critter doesn't like plastisteel... to my everlasting gratitude."

Terrin hitched over a little in bed, giving me room to sit beside him. Still smiling, I perched beside him, leaning into his solid warmth. A few preciously shared moments ticked quietly by; then--

"All hell is going to be breaking loose, love," I said out of the blue, staring off at a little spot floating out there just beyond my focal point. "From what Panthar is saying, the Yuuzhan Vong are coming back, and we have reason to believe that Jedi powers -- and others, for that matter -- are gone."

I shook myself, turned now to look into his eyes.

"As much as I want to let others take care of things, I'm afraid now I can't. We can't. With what I know, with what you have, it just wouldn't be right. Those giant eyes have come back."

...well, brought back?" He paused then, frowning. "And the Yuuzhan Vong approaching with no one having any special powers that we all have come so dependent on..."

He trailed, realizing the deep truth in the words he had just spoken, becoming increasingly worried about the fate of those closest to him with the incoming threats, perhaps more so than he had ever been even dealing with the majority of the Sith.

Excepting perhaps one Sith, of course. "I've got big ships, and lots of resources...

...but even all the firepower in the galaxy may not be enough, especially not without Force abilities and so forth," he admitted worriedly. "What're we going to do?"

(((OCC: This thread continues in Dark Shadows Rising in this same forum.)))