Aaron Barnes sat at his desk aboard the Hornett, frowning to himself as he finished up his latest ship deal with an unlikely client. Truthfully, he was growing osmewhat tired of running Eagle Enterprises without his partner, who seemed to be coming and going as he wished even more within the past few years.

Granted, a couple of those years are accounted for by the fact that he was dead at the time, a shoulder angel pointed out in Terrin's defense.

Aaron shook his head at the thought. While he was glad that whatever circles Terrin found himself in had resulted in bringing him back to life, Aaron certainly wished he'd take some time to sell a ship or two while he was doing whatever it was he was doing.

But the truth was, even though he wasn't doing anything to sell any ships, Terrin really didn't need the money.

Must have been nice.

Aaron shook his head and turned to the next pile of papers on his desk, unable to keep one corner of his lip from turning upward into a lopsided smile as he read the client's name. He wondered if Fate had known what he was thinking, for they wouldn't be fortunate enough to have this particular prominent client were it not for Terrin's business dealings.

Aaron began keying in the familiar ocmm frequency. He was certain he would have a ship to suit the request in front of him.

And a private message, at that. After all, few had his personal comm frequency. So that meant whatever this was, it was probably important.

Pausing from his work, Aaron pressed the accept button and Terrin's message played. Aaron frowned a bit, not liking the idea of moving the Hornett near to the Sith worlds...

...but she was Terrin's ship as well as the main base for EE dealings. And aside from that, Terrin was saying someone they knew was imprisoned on the Sith worlds.

Sheesh, Terrin, I hope you are going to fill me in sooner than later...

Aaron shook his head a bit, then keyed in the frequency for navigation. Once the techs were busy scanning the system for the needed coordinates, Aaron was going to reply to Terrin and get some more information...

...but to go back to a much overused phrase Aaron had a bad feeling about whatever was going on now.

...a rather graceful maneuver for a ship so very large...

...and finally spread out her enormous wings to fly smoothly into the lightspeed of hyperspace. Aaron knew all this was happening without so much as looking, for he was more than a mere ship salesman, but a spacefarer. How he marveled over the workings of ships, what made them move...

...and how he missed being the partner who worked more on ship mechanics and repairs and less on simply marketing them.

He turned to his personal wristcomm, and dialed in Terrin's frequency.

"The Hornett is enroute to a location just outside of the Sith worlds, Terrin."

He paused briefly, frowning to himself. "Please fill me in on what is going on soon; I'd like to know what we're facing here."

Aaron ended with that, sending off the message.

And I'd like to know exactly what sort of danger we're getting into now, came a final mental addendum.

Hey, Aaron, Jasyn Lancaster reporting in. I'm on Bespin, and I need a few connections. I know we have several clients in Tibannopolis, and was wondering if you could hook me up with someone who might be in need of some equipment...

...and might in turn be a useful connection for me as I am looking for ahhh....

He paused, not wanting to say the word Graysith in the crowded city and raise unwanted alarm, and not certain if Aaron knew her as Jharmeen or not.

"Jasyn, I'm sending you information on a few contacts that may be able to help you on Bespin. A couple are miners in Tibiannaopolis, one is a resort owner in Cloud city, and the last is a delegate fromt he government there. All are good clients and have requests for various ships; I'm sending you detials regarding some ships we have that may suit each of them. If you can help them out, I am certain that they will in turn help you. Let me know if you need anything else."

Terrin took several minutes to look through galaxy maps, and although the navcomputer certainly did not have any of the Sith Worlds on its charts Terrin knew the coordinates. He eventually came upon a decision as to the best location to redirect the Hornett, both for Darra's safety and for the good of Eagle Enterprises.

He keyed Aaron's frequency into his wristcomm, cringing as he realized this meant that he was yet again requesting his partner to relocate not only his ship but one of their primary bases of operation. Nevertheless, he reminded himself the Hornett was his ship, and EE would continue business in a wealth of locations regardless of the ship's location.

And Terrin had a feeling Aaron was going to like the Hornett's new destination.

In only a few more mintues, after a brief yet positive discussion with Aaron, the ship's destination was easily rerouted to Bakura, a planet far enough in the Outer Rim that help wouldn't be long coming yet far enough away from the Sith worlds that Darra wouldn't be in the direct line of danger.

And all that aside, Bakura was noted for production and export of repulsorlift coils and strategic metals, both of which had significant value to EE.