No.

The feelings.

--carried her up psychical anticline and down emotional syncline, bearing her upon a fierce whirlwind which simultaneously exploded from her in a fiery and sudden yet almost shy wonder that she was feeling what she was feeling, experiencing what she was, nearly stunned that this should descend upon her so quickly, so unexpectedly.

It was as if a floodgate within had burst asunder.

Every bit of love she ever had for any man relit the fires that had burned her earlier, filling her now with even greater heat.

Her dear, dear Dark Heart… who had in his insanity betrayed her, hurt her; out of that great flaming love had risen a phoenix of killing strength.

Lord Roan—oh yes, admit it in your wisdom, oh Chosen One; he too was the recipient, you loved him, did you not? You loved him with innocent deceit, and he too proved to be just as deceitful.

Recinis—the name brings a rush of pain now, does it not? What were you thinking, All-Bearer? Did you really believe that such a thing could be as tenderly plucked as one does a t’plkk fruit? As easily tossed aside as the bloodied remnants of the tiny lives you have yourself devoured? His love for you true… until challenged; how quickly did that undying love really die, if it ever truly existed.

What feel you now, Dark Lady of the Sith?

What feel you now, Jharmeen?

With a little gasp Graysith pulled her mouth from Phalomir’s, pulled her head back just the tiniest so her freed lips could freely move. Her hands, planted upon his broad chest to push him back, stopped.

Her mouth continued to work soundlessly, her push lessened bit by bit, altered altogether as her hands found themselves scrabbling about his back, digging into the richness of his robes, hugging him fiercely to her.

”I- I cannot bear to lose another love, don’t let me love you,” she whispered into the side of his cheek that no one else would hear, tears springing into her eyes as she gripped him with all her light strength.

The Glyph burst into glory against his flesh, and danced in unimpeded joy there.

--------------------

He gripped her back lightly but firmly, allowing his own tears to mingle with hers.

“But know, my lady, that you shall never lose this love.”

--------------------

Somewhere within, the final, fleeting feelings of loves won and lost, of vows defiantly, if unconsciously, made, all coiled together like a snake, reared up and ready to strike.

Somewhere within, images of eyes, eyes warm with emotion, cold with cunning, shark’s-eye dead with carefully presented truths, all danced a tarantella, coaxing her, teasing her, bidding her remember, to be strong, a Dark Lady of the Sith should be strong…

Somewhere within a choice was made.

As if it was the most natural thing in the world to be occurring on the floor of the bridge of a warship of the Sith in the sight of both friend and ally, Graysith turned her head back to look deeply into Phalomir’s eyes. Then her arms found themselves wrapping about his shoulders, his neck, her hands reaching up to run lightly along his horns as she drew him back to her and returned his kiss with a fervor born of nothing other than…

Truth, plain and simple.

And acceptance.

And yearning.

It was quite some time before her mind managed to pull away from the clouds into which it seemed to have plunged, to recall the words he had spoken of his lineage and the future which yet lay ahead.

Or could it?

Now she shuddered, sudden realization breaking through her growing love.

He had her now, did he not?

And did that now mean he would die?

She blinked, focused deep within his eyes, seeking the answer to that unspoken question, then slowly, as if being pulled against her will, turned her head to bring the others back into her personal realm of reality.

She was surprised to find the others in nearly the same stance they had been in earlier, seen but blurredly, when she was writhing in the throes of that awful vision. Mere moments only had passed, she realized with a sudden start, and not the eternity which had just seconds ago expanded all about her and the Sith Lord.

She turned back to Phalomir, gazed up into his suddenly oh-so very dear face. Reached out a hand once more to trace about the tattoo upon his forehead.

“And—where do we go from here, my Lord?” she asked him quietly enough, letting him be the one to bring her to her feet and the two of them back into the essence of their little group.

[ 01-19-2004 12:39 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Graysith ]

--------------------

“We go where life will take us, my lady,” he said quietly. “But we go there forearmed.”

He held a hand to her cheek and gently caressed the soft skin. Unspoken words shown in his eyes, the joy and concern focused into emerald points which betrayed the Dark Lord’s yearning to draw her near. With an effort he found his voice again.

“We have much to do, and it begins at the canyon. We shall locate your sister and bring her into our care.”

He turned his head to Shayla.

“How long until we arrive?”

--------------------

My smile broadens…

--------------------

Where in Hell’s Seven Circles am I?

Around me, blackness.

Nothingness.

Otherness.

Wha--?

Okay, now this is getting to be a bit much, really it is, honest to Khaandon but someone has a bantha-pile’s idea of a bad joke, and to tell the truth I’m getting a touch wee on the cranky side that it’s always being played on me.

Oh I suppose I ought to give this mystery someone credit for his abilities; cripes, if I had that kind of cunning and wherewithal I’d be out of the frying pan, clear past the fire, and sitting pretty in the fat of the land now, wouldn’t I be? I’d be happy somewhere, with Terrin, with little Darra; we’d be happy raising our daughter in our happy little house back on Daros IV; he wouldn’t have to be hot-footing all over hell and gone any longer, would he, he owns the company now, doesn’t he? So all we’d need to do is just be happy here together, just us three, and with dad coming to visit every weekend and take us all to Fireplay Falls, yessir that’s where I’d be if I had that kind of cunning.

But nope. Sad to say, guess I don’t. I’m lucky as it is to have ‘nuff hutzpah to get myself out of all the pitfalls and dark spots between rocks and hard places that I’ve managed to fall into way too many times over these past years. Not that I really mind it all, no indeed. For I wouldn’t have met Sorben, or Terrin; I wouldn’t have my little Darra—

Oh my little Darra! Where are you? What is this place? Where am I?

--I wouldn’t have met and made all the friends I have, and played what small part I managed to play in relieving this sorry universe of even sorrier blights upon it. So I guess that’s all worth a little more strangeness, a little more weirdness along the lines of, “Oh no. Here we go again.”

So, Galen ol’ kiddo, ol’ rock, you ol’ dog you, time now to just hunker down around your own brain cells and remember.

I froze as images came whirling in from absolutely nowhere: a blurring, pinwheeling kaleidoscope of quiet camp set upon that overlook, of the sound of something crying in the night, of rising to see what the noise was all about, rubbing my eyes, rubbing them again, now blinking, now widening, wider, ever wider, to match the square hole in my face which widens and strains and yearns to yell a warning of despair….

He was there.

He.

Him.

Oh dear Khaandon, no-o-oo….

Now madness ensues, pure and simple. Blurs rush by, coldness strikes my face, from a distance comes the sound of rock and scree slipping and scrabbling and sliding and falling and hurting in the night, no wait, that is me, it’s my feet, they are what is making that noise because I’m running, I’m running, in sheer animal panic I’m running and behind me I hear the great and awful bellowing laughter, the pure evil sliding around in it like decayed matter in a cesspool and dear Khaandon is he following me? Is he after me? I hear a cry of fear and a wet slurping sound and there is another terrible noise I do not want to hear, is this real? Is this happening? Is it a dream?

I blink again, and take another cautious look around.

No more a dream than this stark reality around me.

Stark, terrifyingly black, and horribly familiar reality.

I shudder again, now casting increasingly wild looks about me, seeking an egress, finding none.

I have been here before.

He has been here before.

“Rhua?” I question cautiously, whimpering into that awful, terrible nothing.

No answer.

I sink to my haunches, wrap my arms about my legs.

Isn’t this where you came in, Galen Jhin’Dar Danner?

I shake my head, and lay my cheek against my knee. Truly, I didn’t know the answer.

((OOC: Follow Galen now to Behind the Black River in the "Jedi/Sith" forums, thank you.))

[ 02-04-2004 05:06 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Graysith ]

--------------------

Galen’s scream sliced through the quiet night, opening his ears and his eyes and the doorway from sleep and dreams into the coldness of the sand-begotten desert.

He blinked, sat up, cast a fast look around with his large and limpid eyes, cocked his head.

From somewhere below there came the diminishing sounds of rock hitting rock, of scrabbling and grunts and the fading sound of wild breathing.

He sprang to his feet, and soon was upon the lip of the overlook, straining to see down into the inkiness within the inner gorge. Lit by the gibbous moons above, the rock took on a surreal blue color, banded with purple, shot through with charcoal…

Poised over black.

And from somewhere amidst those monotones came sounds that the scientist realized could be produced by no one or nothing other than his travelling companion.

“Galen?” he called down into the ominous depths.

Only the further clatter of sound came to his ears.

It stopped. Quiet reigned, interspersed with occasional clinks of settling rock.

Then, a piercing scream ripped into his ears.

Followed by the silence of the tomb.

He blinked, his weapon in his hand as if by magick. “Galen?” he called again, a bit louder, straining to see.

No answer.

He sighed, shivered, then straightened. Then after brushing off the bits of sand imbedded in his skin from where he had lain in sleep, he tightened his grip on his weapon and carefully began picking his way toward that chilling nothingness which yet roiled and writhed like a living nightmare in the bowels of this canyon from hell.

[ 02-04-2004 05:08 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Graysith ]

--------------------

...only to then be unterrupted by the insistent noise of a green sigil which was announcing imminent reentry into realspace.

"We'll be reverting in two standard minutes," she then spoke up, "Everyone better get strapped in while we approach."

That said, Shayla resumed her seat at the the pilot's station. Then she turned directly to Graysith, sending a meaningful look into her eyes as she continued. "Shall we land near the canyon and take it from there...

...or do you have plans for another approach?"

Even as Shayla fell silent and waited for Graysith's answer, the reversion clock began ticking down the seconds until reentry...

--------------------

“I don’t understand, Shayla,” Graysith stated as she peered over the young woman’s shoulder to decipher the meaning behind the flashing sigils and glyphs on the control panel. “We haven’t traveled long enough to have reached the Korriban system; I’m certain I keyed in the correct coordinates…”

Frowning more, she was in the act of reaching for the navigation log to check her input codes when the warship gave a strange little shudder, somehow seemed to yank sidewards through space, and with a jerk literally dropped away from the starstreaks though which it had been speeding. The rough motion sent Graysith careening into Shayla, who fell back against the pilot’s seat with the red-haired woman sprawled out on top of her. For a short moment they remained entangled thus, violet eyes meeting oceanic ones; then the Dark Lady pushed herself upright once again and quickly aided Shayla to her feet.

Both immediately turned to the controls… and then Graysith let out a gasp, pointing to the forward viewscreen. There, resplendent in all its nuclear fury, blazed a giant of a star, a star in the process of dying, a ballooned red giant that even as they watched seemed to swell a bit before lapsing back to its original state.

Graysith shook her head.

“This is not the correct system, Shayla,” she whispered. “Korriban and Koris’ian orbit a blue sun, not a red one,” she said worriedly. “Somehow, we seem to have gone off-course; unless I did not key in the correct coordinates, which I swear to S’slan I did…”

Her words were nipped in the bud as the strident ringing of a warning klaxon burst onto the bridge. She frowned again, looked to the navigation board, then whipped her face up to stare imminent death directly in its bloated and reddened eye.

“We are being flooded by neutrinos,” she began, only to be brought to a halt as her entire universe exploded in an eruption of pure white….

[ 01-20-2004 01:52 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Graysith ]

--------------------

"Supernova explosion!" she cried out in horror. "We've gotta get out of here...

...and fast!"

Saying that, her hands flew to the navboard as she began to plot a course anywhere but where they were. After all, they could get back on course after they got the Hell out of this predicament...

...but indeed, how did they get into it in the first place? Graysith had already said she was certain she'd plotted the right course to Korriban, and an exploding supernova wouldn't pull them out of hyperspace since its gravity had already been taken into account by the nav-brain of the warship.

So then, how did they get knocked out of hyperspace when their course had been accurately plotted and set? And right on top of an exploding supernova...

...an exploding supernova which conveniently exploded right as they were pulled out of hyperspace...

Shayla's eyes slitted and darkened measurably.

Foul play.

And that very conclusion was underscored by yet another damning fact. They weren't going anywhere.

"I can't plot a course!" Shayla growled, then adding her own thoughts as to just how they might have been yanked out of hyperspace right on top of an exploding supernova. "Someone is playing a dirty game," she said. "It's just entirely too convenient that we have come out of hyperspace right on top of a damn exploding star. Shayla turned momentarily to glance at Graysith before she continued, "And there's only one I can think of who would have the knowledge and capabilities to set us up this way."

Saying this, Shayla's eyes jerked back to the navboard. Once more her fingers played about it hurriedly, for she knew the urgency of the situation at hand. "Everyone make sure you're strapped in tight, we're about to get slammed, any moment now. Brace for im--"

Shayla's warning was cut short with a somewhat distorted explicative even as the universe turned topsy-turvy. "Kriffing HEEE---!!!"

[ 01-20-2004 11:16 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Shayla Stargazer Petrolu ]

--------------------

She yanked her eyes up to the screen even as the outfringes of the supernova began impacting the hull of the ship…

…and then forced herself into the best semblance of calm that she could. Closing her eyes, she rolled back her head, and reached out with her talents, ignoring the fact that it was becoming more difficult by the nanosecond to remain on her feet, let alone upright upon them. The Glyph added its radiant energies to those displayed upon the screen as, with a great and final sort of internal lunge, Graysith reached out with the All, right into the very maw of the ravening beast without…

The ship settled abruptly into normalcy. Graysith opened her eyes, letting the Glyph die down in inverse proportion to her wildly beating heart, which after a few moments more, moments in which she realized they were all yet alive, finally began to slow in turn.

“I have created a chronotic shield about us,” she whispered, albeit a bit hoarsely. “It should protect us from the radiation of that explosion…”

Her words died on her lips then as, with a sigh of fatigue she let herself drop into the nearest seat, laying her head back and closing her eyes as the after-effects of her efforts began to hit her.

[ 01-20-2004 11:42 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Graysith ]

--------------------

...he looked down to his other hand, finding out that he was in fact gripping a nice-enough looking bottle of Sith brandy.

Hey, no use in letting a good thing go to waste...

Popping the top which he had replaced earlier, Jasyn took a good drink of the liquor.

"Just when you think things can't get any worse," he growled under his breath but still where everyone in the ship could hear. Then he finally looked up, letting the hand which he had been holding his head with drop to the brandy bottle and join its mate. "I'm sure everyone else has already come to the same conclusion...

...but I'll be damned if we're not somehow being watched right now."

He glanced to Shayla. "And if you're right about someone knocking us out of hyperspace purposefully on top of that supernova...

...which I don't doubt...

...then it would appear we're getting in his way a little too much. So..."

He trailed a moment, taking another swig of brandy, his eyes then focusing on no one in particular. "What the kriffing hell do we do now...?"

Another sip of brandy, followed shortly thereafter by another explecative. "The gods be damned..."

[ 01-21-2004 07:39 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Jasyn Lancaster ]

--------------------

“Shayla,” he called out, “can you identify our location?”

He moved with surprising agility and positioned himself next to Jharmeen. He took her hand in his and placed his other hand gently upon her forehead.

“How long will this shield protect us?” he asked softly. “And what cost does it exact upon you?”

--------------------

“The shield is self-sustaining once implemented,” she replied, a stronger note now coming into her voice. “It will remain about us until I drop it.”

She sighed again, and placed her free hand behind herself to boost herself upright. The motion pushed her closer to the Sith Lord, who remained where he was, his hand still on her face.

She moved her hand from his grasp to lay it atop the one yet caressing her.

“Implementing such a shield saps me for a little bit,” she admitted with another smile. “But my strength is soon regained. And please, worry not for my sake in this regard; the safety of all takes much greater precedence than my physical well-being.”

She gave his hand a little squeeze then as, finally, she sat upright, feeling stronger and stronger by the moment. Then her smile lessened a degree or so.

"I would not expect that Shayla would be able to ascertain our current position," she revealed, much to Jasyn's apparent consternation. She turned her head to the man and nodded, the smile flickering a bit as she watched him take another hearty swig of brandy.

"Nothing can move through a chronotic shield, neither matter or energy. Thus we are safe from the radiation of the supernovae, but we cannot see out from our protected spot."

She leaned back against the seat again.

"We'll have to deduce when conditions are clear enough that the normal abilities of this ship will be able to withstand my dropping the shield."

[ 01-21-2004 03:57 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Graysith ]

--------------------

“I may be able to deduce something for us, my lady,” said Phalomir. “But tell me something, do you think this shield can prevent Sith magick from passing though it?”

--------------------

“I- I do not believe so,” she finally allowed, drawing in a deep breath. “I believe this shield protects us from any type of energy or material impact, at least in our universe. At least I certainly hope so.

“For if not—“

She trailed, pursing her lips a little before she finished with,

“For if not, then there is no place within this entire universe where we might be safe from the prying eyes and ears and abilities of the Dark Lord of the Sorcerers.”

Again she paused but this time to simply think, to try to remember to the best of her knowledge every instance when and where such a shield had been erected, and by whom, and against what. Finally she nodded, albeit somewhat slowly, as if she hadn’t quite convinced herself.

“I cannot recall a time when Sith magicks were actively used against a chronotic shield, but there have been a very few instances – at least, circumstances pointed to such things – when a- an inter-dimensional slippage of sorts did manage to… bypass the protection of the shield, or at least appeared to do so.”

Her voice firmed, grew louder, as if she was an instructor giving a lesson.

“Chronotic shields work with relative respect to our own universe, which we perceive in four dimensions: three spatial ones, and one of linear time. They send any energies which impact their boundaries forward and backward along the time line; any matter is converted into its equivalent energies and likewise sent forward and backward along the timeline, to harmlessly dissipate in either direction. But—“

Another quick pause to wet her suddenly dry lips.

“Certain past circumstances suggest that through inter- no; higher dimensional slips, matter and energy can indeed pass through the protection a chronotic shield offers us here, in our own universe. Remember though, while I suspect this, I have no real proof of it. It is not an event I have seen with my own eyes.

"There may yet be other, unknown mysteries at play.”

--------------------

“I have the ability,” he said, “through innate magick, to let my consciousness… wander. It was a mystery to me when I first discovered it, but it has proven useful in recent times. The physical world seems to have no influence upon me in this state, and I had thought perhaps I could ‘wander’ outside the ship to ascertain our status and position.”

Phalomir bit lightly on his upper lip and allowed his eyes to fall to the floor.

“However, I do not know what impact your shield would have upon this ability.”

--------------------

"I suggest that you do not try. There ought to be some far easier method in determining the extent of a supernova explosion than what you suggest."

She turned to face him, her face placid, but the message in her eyes ringing loud and clear.

"I have only just found you; I do not wish to risk losing you."

[ 01-21-2004 10:43 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Graysith ]

--------------------

...so to be safe, I'd say we should sit tight about two and a half to three days."

She quieted at that, glancing back to a scowling Jasyn Lancaster. She could almost literally hear his thoughts on all this just by the look on his face...

[ 01-22-2004 07:28 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Shayla Stargazer Petrolu ]

--------------------

"Two and a half to three damn days?!" he growled. "That's the best we can do? Come on, guys...

...you gotta know Aelvedaar did this to keep us from spoiling his plans, which he must obviously have in motion right now. If we just sit here...

...he wins. And who the hell knows what might happen when three days is up? Not that I'm thrilled with taking risks...

...but there are times when reasons for taking the risks outway reasons for playing it safe. Hell, we just can't sit around and do nothing..."

Falling silent at this, Jasyn merely raised the brandy bottle to his lips once more...

...and took yet another hearty drink from it. Pretty soon, he was going to have to find himself another bottle if he was going to continue...

[ 01-22-2004 07:26 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Jasyn Lancaster ]

--------------------

“If wait we must,” he said, “then wait we shall -- at least until we think of something more appealing. In the meantime, we should try to learn as much as we can of our situation. Shayla, can you run any type of diagnostics on the ship’s systems? Perhaps it was a malfunction of some type. Jasyn, perhaps you could find a storeroom if one exists. I should be able to create food if we need it, assuming the shield does not somehow interfere, but ship’s stores would be better. And Jasyn… I hope you are well, from earlier, I was not entirely in control.”

His gaze lingered on Jasyn for a moment, then Phalomir turned his attention back to Jharmeen.

“We shall find another way,” he said. “Between us, surely we will think of something. For now, I would like to peruse the navigational log.”

He gave her hand a light squeeze and let his eyes join with hers in a gaze that seemed to last for an eternity, yet was over too soon.

He stepped to the seat near the cubbyhole that held the log. He took it carefully from the nook and opened the cover. His eyes adjusted to reading in the dim light, but his annoyance soon won out as he absent-mindedly called upon his magick to increase the illumination around him. He read quickly, turning page after page, his mind eagerly devouring and analyzing the information. After a few moments he gasped and snapped his attention to the Dark Lady, his face set in a frown.

“Someone has tampered with this log,” he said, the magick light casting a soft glow around him. “The entry for Korriban matches an entry found earlier within, an entry for a giant red star.”

[ 01-22-2004 11:30 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Phalomir ]

--------------------

“While I really have no doubts as to who did this,” she said, coming over to where Phalomir sat now scowling at the log himself. “Another question arises.”

She paused, a hand on his shoulder now, and peered down to peruse the High Sith glyphs and sigils within the book in Phalomir’s hands. The pleasant glow from the magick light he had created softened her features, yet could not entirely mask the concern her expression conveyed.

She gave her head a shake, letting her hair toss about and free itself from the somewhat restricting confines of her cloak.

“While Lord Aelvedaar may indeed have been the one to alter this log, how would he have ascertained that we would be travelling to Korriban at this very time, when the sun would actually burst into supernova? There are too many unknowns in that scenario, I would think.

“Unless…”

She trailed off into silence, her eyes momentarily widening, first in horror, then anger.

“Unless he has been watching, and has himself somehow triggered this supernova to occur prematurely!"

For a moment she stood rock steady, her hand on Phalomir’s shoulder, as anger welled up to even greater heights within her.

“Phalomir,” she went on, now staring ahead into middle space. “You have read the log; you have discovered this terrible ruse. Did this sun have a planetary system?” The thought of millions, if not billions of innocent lives taken in that terrible blast was overwhelmingly heartbreaking. She closed her eyes at that thought, struggling to put emotional reaction away and focus on logic once more. Putting her mind to the task, she fought to recall some of the astronomy her father had taught Galen and her when they were younger. At length she hit mental paydirt.

“Indeed, not every red star ends its life in such a way, as I recall,” she said, opening her eyes. “Was this star meant to naturally explode at all? Shayla—“

Now she turned to the young woman.

“I believe this ship has data banks; see what you can find. Lord Phalomir can provide you with the coordinates of the star; perhaps if it wasn’t one destined to naturally end in a supernova explosion, the explosion itself would therefore be of a shorter duration. I cannot quite recall all my- my father taught me as a child, but I do know that only very, very large stars supernova.

“If it wasn’t destined for this, that means it wasn’t that large to begin with, or at least with respect to those other stars who do end up in a supernova. And if it wasn’t that large, then logic says it would have less stuff to throw out in that explosion; perhaps we won’t have to wait here as long as we believe.”

Then a scowl returned to her face, darkening exponentially as what she had just suggested struck her.

If that sun had a system, and this explosion was an artificial one, one not the natural destiny for that star…

Anger flooded her with raging heat; within the Beast leapt to its feet, growling and licking its great maw. The Glyph promptly burst into radiant offense upon her forehead; trembling to contain this rush of emotion, suddenly finding herself too hot, she shrugged off her cloak. Then she fell into the seat next to Phalomir and sat in a cloud of rage, silent, trying to keep herself under control.

[ 01-22-2004 01:58 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Graysith ]

--------------------

“The star had a system, my lady,” he said gently. “But according to the log only one planet was inhabitable, but it was long ago sent into ruin. It was of interest to the Sith historically, holding possible clues to ancient mysteries of many races, but at the time of the log entry it was used only by the occasional archeological survey team.”

He closed the book and placed it on his lap. Jharmeen seemed to relax a fraction, and Phalomir slumped in his seat. He exhaled a deep breath and allowed his head to gently come to rest upon her shoulder.

“However,” he said softly. “that log was written 4000 years ago. I knew of that planet, my lady, and in fact spent some time there in my early days of Lordship, dealing with the governor of the mining colonies that had been established there… 200 years before.”

He could feel the anger within the Dark Lady mixing with her agony, the same feelings he felt swirling within him.

“If this was indeed Aelvedaar, then he has taken the lives of possibly 4000 miners and their families, if the timelines coincide. He has also destroyed a potential link to the past… perhaps in an attempt to tie up several loose ends at once…”

[ 01-22-2004 02:34 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Phalomir ]

--------------------

Graysith stiffened at this, anger rushing upward once more. For in the long and the short of it, it truly didn’t matter if the lives lost were counted in the thousands, the millions or the billions. What did matter was that lives were lost, and for no other reason than the attempt to destroy those aboard this warship, and perhaps as was suggested, to hide certain pertinent information about the past.

She remained stiff, her eyes unfocused, unfeeling to the horns pressed against her arm and side as the Sith Lord laid his head against her shoulder. After a moment, she clenched her hands, and rose to her feet. Her mouth was a grim, tight line.

“Mr. Lancaster,” she announced in a surprisingly neutral voice. “I do applaud your enthusiasm concerning our predicament; indeed, events are rapidly dovetailing to where it is perhaps more and more crucial that we reach Korriban as soon as possible. But hard radiation is hard radiation; I know this ship is built to withstand ion fire and the like, but I do not know if it can withstand what an exploding star can fling upon its hull, and I do not wish to risk our lives in that determination.”

Not as some would risk innocent lives… She turned to Shayla, the look in her eye clearly stating that unspoken thought.

“Please, Shayla; hurry with the assessment. If my guess proves correct, perhaps we can depart fairly soon, within ten hours, for example, rather than days.”

Suddenly realizing that there was really nothing that could be done until the identity of the exploded sun had been verified, she stood in silence. Then, unable to withstand her bottled-up rage any longer, unable to remain standing motionless while her sense of helplessness grew and grew, she simply began to pace about the confines of the bridge of the ship. Images of laughing children filled her head.

4,000 families….

[ 01-22-2004 03:10 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Graysith ]

--------------------

But he had found his lady…

And together they were strong.

He reopened his eyes and looked long at the Dark Lady. Her grace, her strength, her beauty – they were as he remembered. He had died for her once, but this time nothing would take her away.

Nothing.

“Shayla, I am sure you shall find nothing wrong with the navigational system. Our coordinates should be that of the Corona Novadis system. Try plotting a course from K’eel Doba to Corona Novadis 3 and compare the time estimate to our actual travel time. I wonder if they are the same.”

He continued to gaze upon the Dark Lady, his heart heavy with concern. She too felt the grief of so many lives lost…

[ 01-22-2004 03:29 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Phalomir ]

--------------------