"Th- that's just the alarm telling us the hatch is open," I managed as, with a final push I extricated myself from the giant hairball's enthusiastic grasp. I patted his arm a bit, then turned away.

"I'll go shut it down; it's nothing but a nuisance anyway. Sheesh, like we haven't the intelligence to take off without buttoning up the hatches...."

My mutters were cut abruptly off as I approached the bridge, carefully skirting the round plaque on the floor with its attendant connections dangling overhead. For off to one side was something else, something I didn't recognize. Another digital display was glowing a steady and rather ominous yellow-orange.

I frowned, wondering what in Hell's Seven Circles DJ was trying to tell us. After turning off the alarm and considering that light, I finally decided to take the plunge.

Maybe its a message from the ship or a proximity alert sensor. Maybe someone is coming... better check it out....

My hand descended lightly on the digi-pad.

And all hell suddenly broke loose.

The hatch abruptly slammed closed, and the lights in the bridge went from normal to the dimness of red alert. Somewhere a miniature klaxon begain to wail, which prompted a returning wail from Malf. He raised his hairy arms and criss-crossed them over his head, hollering like a rancor who couldn't get his claws to his lunch.

I barely had time to whirl around and shoot a worried glance at Jasyn when DJ fired herself up, and with no further ado sprang from the surface of K'eel Doba... and taking us along with her like gleeberflies caught in a web. I shivered with the sudden realization that, not having the weird flight suit any longer, I had absolutely no control over her.

Khaandon help us if this is some sort of automatic homing response... for this ship only answers to lady pilots! Just who is waiting on the other end of that directive?

Unless it was Flac... but how could that be possible?

With nothing better to do at the moment but wait, and not having a chair to sit it, I let my knees loosen, sinking down on the spot to hunker on the deck of the bridge. That ominous orangey-yellow light still glowed, like a fierce and tiny sun reaching out to engulf us all. But suddenly it wasn't quite as threatening as I first supposed it to be.

Not that I was known for being correct in my assessments one hundred percent of the time....

((OOC: Follow me, Jasyn and Malf to Knight Takes Queen, Check in the "CSWU" forms, thank you.))

[ 12-24-2002 12:25 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Galen ]

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And mostly a disappointment to herself.

Graysith is right. What good are your apologies? They will do nothing to repair any damage you might cause by reacting hastily. Only your actions in the future, based on what you are even now still learning, will prove whether you are sorry at all.

As if on cue to that, something moved outside in the corner of her eye. Shayla turned to analyze what that something was when Erik blurted, pointing wide-eyed at the viewport, "Shayla, the other ship!"

She spotted what he was pointing at just in time to see the last traces of the weird little ship Galen and Jasyn had headed for in K'eel Doban sky. She glanced at Erik but once, then hurried to the navboard and tapped a sigil that she knew would open a general comm frequency. In the same motion, she used her other hand to point towards the back of the ship. "Go tell Graysith what just happened," she indicated, turning again to the navboard and sending out a message, hoping it would work but not knowing the workings of the other ship. She vaguely heard her husband's departing footsteps as she did so.

"Galen, Jasyn, this is Shayla, do you read me?" she asked hopefully.

Oh please let everything be allright...

[ 12-24-2002 04:20 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Shayla Stargazer Petrolu ]

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"The ship Jasyn Lancaster and Galen are on just shot off into space," he said briefly. "Shayla's trying to get in contact with them at this moment, but as far as I know she has not yet been successful."

Erik fell silent at that, waiting, stretching out to his link with Shayla to sense that she was growing more and more concerned with every passing moment of quiet. Then he added a question as he continued to communicate through his link with Shayla, "Should we follow them?"

[ 12-24-2002 07:10 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Erik Kartan ]

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His eyes stared through the little viewing screen, as if to take in everything... Which he truly wished to do, it was such a wonderful sight, the streams of stars being seen through hyperspace, so pure, so infinate...

He looked down then at the ever faithful Ghrr, who sat at his side with a little feeler wrapped around his ankle...

He smiled and reached down to give his companion a little scratch, before turnign his gaze to the viewscreen once more, wondering at how vast the universe really was...

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Had they gone to hyperspace?

She sent the information regarding the ship's apparent disappearance along two Force-links she was maintaining; one with Erik and another with Graysith. All the while something else also niggled along a link she usually didn't feel too much from; she frowned even more darkly at the urgency of that little niggle, sensing an inner chill and reflexively drawing her cloak about herself.

Shawn...?

But staying yet alert to the problem immediately at hand, Shayla's hands hovered over the navboard of the warship, ready to take off or do whatever she was instructed just as soon as she received confirmation from Graysith, in the meantime staying attuned to the Force and remaining by all outward appearances completely calm...

[ 12-27-2002 12:27 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Shayla Stargazer Petrolu ]

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"The ship's navigational computer is already programmed to follow Roan's ship," she said at last, her outward demeanor calm but each word acting like a tiny blade to rip and tear at her heart.

"We dare not risk losing my niece, Mr. Kartan. We shall follow that course."

With that she nodded his dismissal from her door, and when he had left departed herself to find Recinis and inform him of this latest and most unsettling development. She found him at not too lengthy a distance from the ship; quickly she approached him and informed him of the unexpected departure of the ship Galen had once piloted to K'eel Doba.

"Perhaps she has a plan of her own, my love," she finished her briefing as together they hurriedly boarded the warship. Without waiting for Lord Recinis's reply, she continued on to the bridge, there to implement their immediate departure from K'eel Doba.

En route she sent a directive along the Link she maintained with Jharu:

Follow us, my son.

Follow.

[ 12-29-2002 02:36 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Graysith ]

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Somewhere within the hidden shadows of the Temple, there came a sigh to mimic the wind. It was not of aeolian origin, however.

Into the dim lighting where the Kaminoan lab lay in shattered ruins, there stepped a form. It was female, who looked to be in her early twenties. It was soon joined by another form, and then yet another, the latter being male. Outside of the variance in their gender, they otherwise bore a striking -- but not identical -- similarity to each other.

The hair of all waved in flames upon their heads. The eyes with which the females viewed the ruined lab, calm with dispassion, were turquoise; the male's, violet. They all stood approximately two meters tall, alive with shining health and vigor.

All three sets of eyes glowed with... something.

One of the young females spoke up in the darkness.

"Shall we follow?" she asked pointedly.

The male shook his head. "We are to remain here until called for," he replied, his voice the sighing of the wind.

The third being merely nodded her flaming head; then, linking her arms into those of the other two, she began moving, pressing them back into the shadows from whence they had come.

Outside the Temple of S'slan, the keening wind howled its warning... but there was no one there to heed it.

No one at all.

((OOC: Follow into The Darker Side of Midnight in the "Jedi Praxeum/Sith Empire" forums, thank you.))

[ 01-05-2003 10:28 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Graysith ]

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