A long trek to an undisclosed location...

In any other situation, this stroll through the mountains would have been quite the tourist attraction. However, the last few days of marching were not a plesent as they could have been. No food, no water, and most importantly... No talking. This I learned the hard way. I still had the lump to prove it too.

For a Jedi, not having food and water for several days is not as drastic as it would be for a normal human. We have survival techniques that noone else posseses.

The fact that I could no longer sense Matt or anyone else had me more than a little worried. I kwpt telling myself, that I must be in one of those "force resistant bubbles", but I knew deep down that this was not true, because I was somehow able to use the force to keep my metabolism low to keep up my strength. My only hope was that everyone else was in a "dead zone" and I just couldn't sense them.

We reached the peak of what seemed to be the last mountain on the range. For below us there was a lush valley. A city could be seen in the distance. Not very large, like the one we set out from a few days ago. But large enough to get lost in.

The leader of my escort pointed to one particular building. I assumed that it was to be our destination. I couldn't help but notice that it had a great spire attached to the side of it.

From all of my adventures in the past, and from reading ancient tales from various planets, I knew that a building woth a large spire on it was generally not a good place to visit. But I lacked options. I would have to go where ever they took me.

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

I could not sense anything within the city. Another of those force dead zones surrounded it's walls.

We breached the outer perimiter of the dead zone. With the Force no longer working for me, I collapsed on the spot.

I sparcely remember being carried by two of the larger Sith. One at my shoulders and one at my aching feet.

Blackness.....

I could sense my slip into unconsciousness had been complete.

From the center of my minds eye I caled out uselessly to my friends. Jebbua, Alexis, Jasyn, Matt, and even Galen. I hoped that Jasyn and the others had found her by now.
And hopefully got themselves away from this system of mysterios planets alltogether.

My fate was in my own hands. I knew I had to go back to the reality that faced me. But it was so hard.

Days had passed, my ascent into consciousness was a slow one. Especially in my weakened condition.

I tried to cry out to anyone who would hear me, but my voice came out as barely a whisper. Dehydration had my tounge to swollen to talk. "Where am I?" I croaked from a parched mouth. "Is there anyone there?"

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

Salandaar had waited long outside the door behind which the young lord Jharu had sequestered himself. But even though he broke the expanding silence several times over the ensuing hours with a knock on that door, that silence merely continued. Jharu remained aloof, not responding to his politely called out requests as to his comfort and well being. At length the warrior captain decided he had waited long enough, and turned from that door to attend to other tasks. There was the question of the other newcomer, the blue one, who had come in with the others but had not left due to the onset of something Salandaar could put down to nothing else but sudden illness.

After pacing the labyrinthine corridors of the temple for about five standard minutes, he approached another ornately carved door. This one, however, stood open, a small cadre of Sith attendants hovering outside the entrance and just inside the room. Salandaar nodded to them as he approached, his lips lifting in a smile to see how they bowed over crossed arms to him before backing quickly out of his path that he might enter without lessening his pace. He hastened on, and came to a stop at the bedside of the Blue One who had come to K’eel Doba with the other humans.

The Blue One was moaning something; Salandaar frowned his concern, and laid a cool, clawed hand on his forehead. He lifted his aquamarine eyes up into those of a female nurse who hovered nearby with a warm towel; she had beads of sweat upon her brow and seemed to be shaking, as if afflicted by an unknown ague.

Salandaar smiled, and nodded her dismissal. She didn’t hesitate, but departed after a quick and respectful bow, relief obvious on her graceful features.

Salandaar waited until she had left, then dismissed the others with one wave of his hand. They bowed in turn and departed as well, closing the door as they did so.

Now the expression on the warrior’s face segued into an admixture of concern and speculation. Cocking his head a bit to one side, he reached out and shook the Blue One’s shoulder.

“I am here to see to your well being, stranger,” he announced at length, giving Dash yet another shake in the attempt to fully revive him.

“Awaken, and attend. Your comrades have left; do you wish to join with them, or remain here until they return from their trip to the Outer World of Korriban?”

I forced myself into a state of semi-consciousness.

A clawed hand lay above my brow. I heard a vaguely heard a gruff voice over me.

“Awaken, ... ...end. .... comrades .... .... do ... wish .. .... .... them, .. remain here .... .... ...... .... .... .... to ... Outer ..... ... ....iban?”
Comrades!

I was shocked into full alertness at the mention of this word.

"Wh-who are you? What am I doing here?" my voice weak from lack of water. "Where are my friends?"

[ 03-10-2004 10:26 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Dash Kelderon ]

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

“I am Salandaar, Charge to the Dark Lady of the Warriors and in command of her warriors, given command of this Temple during her absence,” he replied formally. Then he relaxed in turn, and reaching out again laid a clawed hand atop Dash’s feverish brow.

“You have been ill for some time, friend,” he opened with, wiping off sweat with one swift movement and then flinging it from him as if it was something poisonous. “You came here under the protection of my soldiers, you and your comrades.”

He paused a moment, crossing his arms again.

“They have left this place with the Dark Lady and her entourage; I believe their destination was one of the outer Sith worlds. There used to be so many of them…”

He stopped abruptly, snipping off the sentence with a nearly audible clip. Then he smiled.

“Be that as it may, it should not concern you. What is of concern to you is, of course, your own well-being and that of your friends. I can assure you that they are quite safe, traveling with the Dark Lady as they are; you too have a haven here in Phrinnchatka for as long as you need one. This is in accordance to the desires of the Dark Lady. But—“

He blinked slowly, his eyes darkening just a touch at the thought of what he was about to say. Then, the motion smooth as oiled silk, he turned briefly from Dash’s bedside to where a gleaming golden pitcher stood quietly upon a nearby table. Pouring a greenish liquid from the pitcher into a heavily jeweled goblet, he turned back to the recuperating jedi, and offered him a drink.

"Thank you, may I have another?" My voice was much clearer now having been wetted by the dark liquid.

"I wish to take you up on the offer of joining my comrades. Will you make the arrangements to leave in one standard hour? I need to build up my strenght a bit before attempting to walk."

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

"I was wondering if I might be able to purchase some items from you?" I proceeded to list off everything I would need to produce a new Lightsaber, even the special crystal that was required. "I expect that you will have all but the required crystal here." I looked at himm pleadingly. "Any assistance you could give me would bbe greatly appreciated!"

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

“Lightsaber?” he queried, his eyes turning to lapis. His mouthed worked in silence a bit, while his obvious discomfort was displayed by the white-knuckled clenching of his fists.

At length he managed to gain some semblance of self-control, and let out a breath of air.

“Apparently you are unaware of our recent history, my friend,” he began carefully, eyeing Dash much more closely than before. One slender clawed hand strayed to his baldric, there to finger lightly about the hilt of his killing sword. Only the fact that the Blue One remained quiet, blatant confusion crossing his face, kept Salandaar from drawing that sword and attacking him where he stood.

Jedi!

Salandaar let out another breath and tried to relax.

“We have no materials to construct such a weapon, as we rely upon our physical prowess with sword and spear along with our inherent Sith magicks for defense,” he finally stated.

“I am afraid there is not one Sith in all of K’eel Doba who would allow a Jedi—“

He struggled to not show his anger and distaste the word brought into his mouth.

“—who would allow a Jedi the means of constructing that very weapon that chased an entire civilization from one of our worlds unto another.”

He quieted again, eye narrowed, and waited, conflicting emotions tearing at his heart. For this one was placed into his care by the very words of the Dark Lady, yet he was of the kind who, 4,000 years in the past, was beginning to usher in what may have become the demise of the entire Sith race.

Unbeknownst to the warrior, in another untruncated timeline that event did indeed occur; from Salandaar's memories, the mysterious jedi had gained a good beginning toward that end by their victory on the planet of Kori’sian.

Frowning a bit, he waited.

"Fear me not friend. I mean no harm to anyone on your beautiful planet. I knew not the history of your race, for this is the first time I have been to this system. I did not mean to alarm you."

Salandaar seemed to ease up a little, but still did not remove his hand from the hilt of his sword.

"See, there are 2 types of Jedi, those us us who fight for justice and truth, and unfortunately, there are those who become corrupted from having special skills that others do not possess. I have faced such individuals before, and struck them down for the cause of goodness and light. You need not fear me, for you have been nothing but kind and just with me to this point."

The look of sincerity I shot at him, could have melted the mounds of snow on Hoth.

"I truely did not mean to offend anyone. I apologize. Perhaps it would be best if I just left the planet at this point. Will you take me to the ship now?"

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

“No offense is taken, stranger,” he said, letting a modicum of warmth come to his voice in response to the puppy-nek eyes the blue one was tossing his way. “One can hardly expect you to know the issues we have faced, considering those issues occurred 4,000 years before your time. If what you say is true, am I to believe that there are two kinds of jedi, and it was the darker one who attacked us without provocation and drove our people from Koris’ian to Khar Delba?”

He reached a hand out to Dash, and clamped it upon his shoulder.

“It is a rare day indeed when the Dark Lady is in error; if she commanded you into my charge, then she must trust you. Therefore, so do I. I shall take you to a ship, that you may be taken to Korriban where She and her entourage are.

“Come.”

Saying no more the Sith warrior dropped his hand, turned and led the way out of the chambers, not even turning to see if Dash was following along or not. After some time of winding through the myriad corridors of the mighty Temple of the Warriors, he came at length to the courtyard, from where he paused in front of a nondescript door.

“This is a shortcut to the transport tunnels, through which we may travel unimpeded to Ch’arlingua, our spaceport. A ship has been called for, and should be ready to depart at your desire.

“Please remember that once you join your comrades there, this ship is ordered home to Phrinnchatka; we cannot afford to have too many of our ships out and about in so conspicuous a manner as when in orbit about a planet, as remote as that planet may be. This, too, is an order of the Dark Lady of the Warriors.”

We continued on in silence to the hangar. I was quickly boarded on a truely exotic vessel. The pilot spoke not a word, as we left the hangar and entered the atmosphere.

"How long until we reach the rendezvous? I need to do some meditating."

The pilot replied short but sweet, "I'll get you when we are about to arrive."

With that I set to work on making contact with Alexis. How long had it been? How I hoped she was safe!Alexis

[ 03-12-2004 08:45 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Dash Kelderon ]

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

It was Jebbua.

Telepathically I spoke to him. Jebbua I can here you. Where in the galaxy are you? Have you seen Alexis lately? I can't seem to reach her. I'm on my way to meet the rest of the group. I got left behind. So I'll contact you when I reach the others.

[ 03-15-2004 07:56 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Dash Kelderon ]

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

I was relaxing in the ship’s version of a Sullustan hot spring when the call came crackling in over the intership speakers.

”Sir, sorry to interrupt, but sensors indicate a ship departing from K’eel Doba. From her signature, she’s one of those strange ones; we think she’s Sith, sir. Your orders?”

I sighed, and moved the glass of Walk’nFall I was just raising to my lips. To tell the truth, I hadn’t touched the stuff since… well, since I really can’t remember, actually. This tangential mission had kept me plenty busy; it isn’t easy keeping tabs on two planets at once, no matter how efficient and modern and large a fleet one has at one’s disposal. My thoughts then strayed to the departure of another ship, not too long ago, or at least something we thought had been a ship. That one was far more expertly shielded than this one apparently; we had barely caught a whiff of something that might have been a ghost of a signature when it simply disappeared. All had been quiet as the proverbial tomb ever since.

Here I thought everything had finally settled down to mundane observation and waiting, I sighed to myself once again.

Go figure.

“Hail her,” I said tersely, setting the glass down on the edge of the spa and rising. "Perhaps she'll know somethng about that sensor ghost we picked up earlier."

Water, a precious commodity on a starship of any kind, dripped from my body, the gentle noises it made quietly accentuating the position to which I had risen. That offhanded thought was immediately followed by another.

I haven’t heard from Actar in months; one wouldn’t suppose that he managed to get himself assassinated or something…

A grin split my face, rippling the scar that ran from my left brow nearly to my jawline.

That would place me as Second; it would just be a matter of—

I put all pleasantries from my mind as the loudspeakers interrupted me with a squawk.

”Hailing her, Sir. Shall we block her trajectory?”

“Negative on that,” I replied as I stood up, reaching for a towel. No namby-pamby hot air blowers for me; I liked the feel of good ol plant-fibre scrubbing against my body.

“Let us see if she will respond to our hails first. Transmit what that reply would be to me in here.”

”Aye, Sir,” the loudspeaker stated, then crackled into hopefully momentary silence. The grin on my face lessened a bit as, toweling finished, I grabbed my Mandalorian armor and began dressing myself. The last item to be put on was, of course, my helmet. I held it a moment, staring into the enigma that was its T-shaped visor.

You’ve come a long way, Sorben ol’ buddy, I told myself before putting it on. Then I straightened, clasping armor-gloved hands in front of myself, and waited to hear if the strange ship would respond to our hails.

[ 03-16-2004 03:42 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Sorben Tarnus ]

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

As I ended my mental communication, I noticed that there was a peculiar light flashing on a console.

"What is that flashing?" I asked the pilot.

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

"There appears to be a heavy blockade about our world," he said simply, as if such things were quite natural and not anything to take real notice of.

"The ships appear heavily armed, and have K'eel Doba surrounded in a tractor-beam net; this is easily avoided, if you wish. They are hailing us; what do you desire to do?"

"Respond to thier hails, and inform them that you are retuning a fallen comrad to his home world. When they scan the ship, they will only detect your lifesigns. If they refuse passage.... Break through the blockade, using whatever means neccessary, without putting yourself in any danger. Please come and retreive me when we are past the blockade."

I instantly fell to the floor, and used the Jedi hibernation thechnique to slow my lifesigns to a virtual standstill.

The last thing I was conscious of was the pilot responding to the hail...

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

"Interesting," I said to no one in particular. Indeed I found this to be of the greatest interest, for as far as the vast majority of the galaxy was concerned these worlds not only didn't exist...

...but they never had.

I thought a moment longer, then sent my order up to the bridge.

"Allow them passage, but express our deepest sympathies for their fallen comrade. Out of respect to them, we are sending an escort to make certain they are not bothered by anyone during their voyage to lay this fellow to rest; this sector is full of pirates and smugglers, as they should very well know."

Or be informed of, I finished to myself.

Welcome to the future, my friends.

"I want constant reports of their progress, and the coordinates of the planet they are taking this so-called fallen comrade to.

"Lt. General Tarnus, out."

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

This was of no concern to the Sith, for he knew he could easily elude the fighters at any given moment. All he wished to do was to continue on his way to Korriban; somewhere along the way their little tag-alongs could be reckoned with.

The Dark Lady may have given the Blue One into his charge, but she said nothing about any other interference. No one treated the Sith in such a manner; those who had tried to prove their superiority did not live long enough to regret that rash decision.

The lights of the ships interior grew brighter as I slowly awakened.

I rose to my feet quietly, and padded my way up to the contol pod to speak with the pilot.

"What is going on here? Are we being followed?"

Before the sith pilot had a chance to answer, I heard a familliar voice in my head. It was Jebbua.
I don't know where in space I am right now, all I know is that I'm being taken to the others in a sith spacecraft. I have to find out what is going on before I can tell you any more. I'll contact you as soon as I can.

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

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

"We seem to have picked up a small escort; I am diverting slowly from a straight-line to parabolic trajectory; then I plan upon dropping into real space and destroying these gnats, before resuming our former course to Korriban."

He paused, and let a dark smile smear across his face.

"As I said, nothing that should concern you, sir. Take your ease."

Alexis.I thought.

I turned to the Sith pilot.

"Is it possible to change courses? Something has happened. And changes are happening. I fear nothing i do will be able to help Galen and the others, I am needed elsewhere." I quieted as quickly as i had spoken and waited to see what the Sith pilot would say.

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

"Sir--" he began after a carefully measured pause.

"You are to be transported to Korriban, and there are to join with your comrades. I am to then return this ship to K'eel Doba.

"I cannot-- no. I would not defy the Dark Lady by going against her Number One in this."

In the non-reality of hyperspace, it was indeed a relative thing. While on the "outside" some weeks had slid past, from the viewpoint of those aboard the Sith ship a mere fourteen hours had passed since they had departed from their origin.

Taking Dash quite by surprise, the otherwise stoic Sith, who had quieted after his last determined comment and refused to say anything further or stray one millimeter from his path, reached out and touched a sigil.

A ball of mauve and sand and neutral browns and grays popped into the forward viewscreen.

"Korriban," the pilot said with a dark smile, his eyes gleaming in the dim light of the ship. He turned in his seat to address the blue-skinned jedi, even as his one hand stretched out to nonchalantly flip an ominously gleaming green light.

Behind the little fighter, the TIE escorts suddenly disappeared as a strange greeny-golden beam lashed out and simply touched them.

The pilot didn't even bat an eye as he continued speaking to Dash.

"Enjoy your stay on our world. There is refreshment for the body, and excitement for the mind, if one knows where to look for it...

"...or is lucky enough to be found by it."

Visions of the planet's legendary tuk'ata flashed into his mind as he turned back to his controls, taking them firmly in hand once again. Moments later, and the little ship was on the surface of the dead planet of the Sith.

"My task is half over; I have every intention on completing it."

This announcement came with the simultaneous opening of the hatch. The pilot underscored the obvious by a pointedly waving hand.

"Have a good day, Sir," he said politely as he watched Dash rise to his feet and leave the ship.

Moments later, and Korriban was fast turning into a memory. The pilot smiled to himself; he had clearly picked up the distinct traces of lifeforms...

On the opposite side of the planet on which he had dumped his unwanted passenger.

Let the tuk'ata have him; Korriban belongs to the Sith!

A flick of a clawed finger, and stars stretched out into the improbable smears of hyperspace. The pilot yawned and stretched, and settled back to enjoy the return trip to K'eel Doba.

"What do you mean, we've lost contact with the TIES...?

Again!"

Everything within me wanted to just leap up and storm from my ready room, to pound out upon the bridge and shake everyone in it for inefficiency.

"What happened to our tracking droids? Our augmentary HAPs? I thought those things were foolproof. I was at least told they were!"

I clipped further vocalizations into silence, letting my anger and degree thereof inherent in that last statement seep into Landarian's brain.

Not that it was his fault, of course. Heaven only knows I knew what those weird ships were capable of, and how tough it was to break into their secrets. The Empire's top-of-the-line engineers were still working on the one I had managed to snag back from Seus; the last I heard, they had managed to find a substance able to impact the hull without dying in a burst of electrons gone wild. The result were HAPs, hull-affixing-probes, by which we could at least track the things should we ever need to.

Which of course we did, and I had implemented the moment those TIES had set out on their mission to escort the ship to its destination.

Landarian returned my look with a calm one of his own.

"Sir, the HAPs are working flawlessly; the TIES managed to adhere one upon the escorted ship. That still does not explain why they are incommunicado; it only explains that they finally reached their destination and have reverted to realspace once again.

"Or at least the odd ship has."

He quieted, letting me mull that over. After a pregnant pause for thought, I finally raised my head and spoke.

"See my ship is ready, and have the last known coordinates of that Sith ship coded into my navigational computer. I'm going to go see what in Hell's Seven Circles is going on here.

"You're in charge in my absence, Captain."

He smiled, and saluted, then whirled to carry out my final order on the subject.

My men were as efficient as usual. It wasn't long until I was back aboard my ship, and safely ensconced in the starstreaks of hyperspace as I headed off toward...

Korriban?

I frowned behind my visor, and let the ship carry me to whatever I might find there.

[ 09-01-2004 07:09 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Sorben Tarnus ]

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