"I don' need no kriffin' Sith."

That said, he actaully managed to struggle to his feet...

...but not very steadily. He was suddenly feeling so sleepy...

And that was about the time the mild healing trance took full effect, and Jasyn fell forward into the depths of slumber. Somewhere nearby him, Matt had already given in and slipped off.
What a ride indeed...

[ 09-18-2004 05:28 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Jasyn Lancaster ]

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

She paused, eyeing the two EE men. "I'll get Lancaster and levitate him. ou take his red-headed buddy, Matt Stanza."

That said, Shayla followed through on her words and got a lock on Jasyn in the Force, levitating him.

Allright, she then thought out to th Eye, What now? What is this which has happened to Galen?

Then, reaching out to Galen, she stretched out with this thought: Galen, can you tell me what is happening with you? I know that you aren't in shock, and that you are mentally with us...

...so maybe if we can get a picture of what has happened, we can figure out exactly what to do about it...

Then, keeping her senses open for a reply from both the Eye and Galen, Shayla redirected her gaze on Panthar, who had hoisted Matt Stanza onto his other shoulder. "Okay," she said, "Let's go."

[ 09-22-2004 02:28 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Shayla Stargazer Petrolu ]

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

...but there was still the little matter of how to prove those words were true.

She turned to Phalomir, her lips pursed, every red flag of warning still waving within her being.

"What think you?" she asked. "Do you think--

"Wait."

She interrupted own words, drawing herself upright as a slight smile began to curl about her features. Reaching out once again, she flipped open the channel between the two ships.

"Very well, I choose the place where Aeylmaar and I were to meet. If you would be so kind as to verify the fact that he did indeed send you in his stead by stating just where that meeting was to be held, I would be more than happy to then meet you there."

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

He turned to his scanners, and began scanning the surface. A few moments later, it brought up results. Interesting, a party of humanoids in a group nearby a sith fighter. But, over here, a single life signature. Aelmaar possibly? But it would take to long to find the name of the place. That whole planet is named, almost every rock has a name given to it.

Raelgosh brought up a geographical readout of the planet, and set a marker around the place where the single life signature had been. Then he paused, and placed another marker where the party of signatures was.

He began a search for the name of the place, while he sent the data and a transmission. "We were to meet here, but as a note, we have found something of interest here." The readout would bring up the location of the lifeforms. "Humanoid lifeforms are here, they may be our enemies, but we should be able to avoid them if we meet at the location quickly."

The readout had almost found the name, it had eliminated 9,805,000 locations down to 4,536 and going down. If that is Aelmaar, we'll have to push him to the side, or kill all three of them. After all, if he's betraying Aelvedaar, I doubt he'll mind.

[ 09-22-2004 02:45 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Cult Master Raelgosh ]

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Graysith remained silent, her lip beginning to curl more and more as it seemed her suspicions would be justified.

"This one takes an inordinate amount of time to reply to us, do you not agree, Phalomir?"

She snickered, tossing her head a touch, knowing in her heart of hearts that the one trying to contact her was not who he claimed to be.

And perhaps the very one Aeylmaar was trying to warn them of?

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

“Indeed, my lady,” he said. “They show us coordinates. But why would they not speak the name instead? One set of coordinates is the same as another to me on this planet, I am unfamiliar with its geography. It was not – inhabited – in my day.”

Phalomir worked the controls on the sensors.

“There is a humanoid at that location, my lady. But not Sith. If we meet there, and it turns out to be a deception, then we are alone far away from anyone.”

Phalomir turned from the controls.

“Perhaps we should meet our friend aboard the ship, but it would not hurt to first know who and what else is on the surface. There is another group of humanoids far from that location, and…”

A blip from the sensors interrupted Phalomir. He turned to it.

“And they seem to have with them a very powerful energy source.”

[ 09-22-2004 03:01 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Phalomir ]

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"Can you tell what this energy source is?" she asked Phalomir, now turning herself to focus the ship's scanners more precisely. They revealed nothing more than a glare of white noise, which in effect simply stated that yes, there was an energy source at that location and yes, it appeared to be a powerful one.

Her frown deepened, then she sighed.

"All is a mystery, indeed," she finally admitted. "Lifeforms where none should be, an unexpected guest claiming to come from the only living soul we should expect to find here...

"...and he in turn not putting in an appearance as of yet."

She chewed her lip a moment, then looked up into Phalomir's eyes.

"Reach out," she coaxed. "Perhaps your magicks will reveal what it is upon the surface? Or should I reach out with the All to determine if it is safe to approach this group... if anyone at all, who yet remain as a mystery on the planet below."

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

“Allright, I’m right behind you.”

As Shayla turned to walk, the small lump in her robe seem to twitch and then cast out a bright red light, shining briefly through the fabric and then settling back to nothing. Panthar’s eyebrows raised.

“Hey, um, Shayla? You’re pocket is glowing…”

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

[ 09-22-2004 03:09 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Shayla Stargazer Petrolu ]

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Phalomir took a deep breath and allowed his body to relax.

He whispered as he exhaled, “Only please do not send my spirit into the Darker Realms this time.”

His spirit drifted, leaving his body and floating into the cabin of the ship. Though this was invisible to the eye, the Dark Lady would still be able to sense him. His body slumped slightly in the chair and became motionless.

He floated for a moment, then darted for the hull of the ship. He passed through it and into space, and soared towards the planet’s surface.

“It is fortunate that spirits carry no mass,” he thought.

Within a heartbeat his spirit was skimming the sand and rocks, and as he approached the enormous valley he suddenly remembered the vivid scenes from his childhood terrors. He paused, regrouped, then scanned around. A small cloud of dust over the rocks caught his attention and he shot through the stone and out the other side.

There he saw a small procession of travelers, instantly recognizing Shayla. In front of her was hovering an unconscious figure, and behind was a large Sith carrying what appeared to be Galen and another male. Phalomir vaguely recalled the features of the drunken Jasyn, the hovering figure.

Satisfied, he sent his spirit upwards once again and back to his body.

He sat up with a gasp, then proceeded to suck in a deep breath.

“My lady,” he panted. “The group with the power source… it is Shayla.”

He finally caught his breath.

“She has with her the lost men, and Panthar. He is in a Sith body, yet he did not register at all on the sensors. And, my lady, she has Galen.”

[ 09-22-2004 03:23 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Phalomir ]

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

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

...and spur him into action. He barely even thought about the fact he'd be interrupting whatever Phalomir might have yet to tell Graysith as he pushed his way into the forefront of Phalomir's mind so that he could take control of his body.

All he knew for the moment was that Galen was down there on that horrible planet.

"This is Terrin," he said briefly, at least bothering to identify himself although he knew that his next words would have probably done so anyway, "We need to get the kriffing hell to the surface of this planet. Those men...my men and my friends, have been down there for a very long time, possibly without food and water. And I don't know how long Galen has been down there...

...but I do know that the last time I saw her Dark Lord Roan had her. There's no telling what has happened to her since then..."

He trailed, worry evident in his voice and the demeanor Phalomir now took on.

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

"I agree, Mr. Danner," she said simply, nodding in Phalomir's direction.

"Your wife, my sister, is after all the reason we began this hunt so long ago. But with the end of our quest in sight, we must not now hurry forward in haste, heeding not the very real danger yet present with us."

She focused deeply into the green eyes in front of her, then spoke again.

"Phalomir, do you not find it strange that while a Sith is present in that group, none registered in our scanners?"

Her lip struggled as she fought to keep it from curling upward once more.

"Perhaps Aeylmaar is on the surface yet waiting for us to arrive..."

She trailed a moment, thinking, then opened the connection with the lurking Sith fighter once again.

"Thank you so much for the information which you have divulged to us, my friend," she said smoothly into the mike. "I believe being forewarned is being forearmed; we should be able to take care of whatever adversary Fate would deign to throw our way. This is, after all, as you can so plainly see, a Sith warship, and we have other... defense maneuvers at our disposal.

"You need not remain here longer; pray, go from this place before these enemies of which you speak find you here. I shall have no difficulty in protecting myself, my crew and this ship."

With that she closed the connection, and turned once again to Phalomir.

"Shall we go join our friends?" she asked simply, then turned toward the controls and set into motion the procedures to make it exactly so.

[ 09-22-2004 04:14 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Graysith ]

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She is suffering the effects of the All. She stepped partially within a loop, established by a user of that force. In time she will be once again fully in our time. Her mind is active, her body is not yet.

"Very well. Use the information well, though if we get the chance, we will insist on giving you the tablet."

Raelgosh pressed the sending sigil, and turned to the controls, setting a course towards the location where the mass of people were. I doubt Aelmaar would go alone, it is most likely himself and his entorage at the location.

As their fighter turned towards the location, and began moving for the surface, he could imagine the warships guns turning to blow them to oblivion. However, they did not, and they slipped toward the surface.

All to soon, the traitor would pay.

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

But before she told anyone else what the Eye had said, she had yet one more question for it.

The Ghost? she queried. Are you speaking of Phalomir?

Then she spoke up to the others, voicing her very real concerns. "The Eye says that Galen is suffering from the effects of the All, and has stepped partially into some sort of time loop," she said, virtually repeating the Eye's explanation. "The effects should wear off eventually...

...which is a relief, even if it takes a little time. I am, however, very worried about the possibility of an All-user nearby. After all, if that tuk'ata back there is in a time loop, someone who has usage of the All was nearby to do this. And the Eye is telling me that it senses someone, someone it calls 'the Ghost.' I don't know what this all means...

...but something is certainly up, and we are not alone here..."

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

"Well Raegolosh, how about letting me have a chance now?" Sa'kal'ishaalas spoke as he prepared for a long journy ahead, "this will definatly be fun."

They glided towards the atmosphere, it's flames licking at the cloaked ships frame. They suddenly burst through the cloud layers. As they approached the surface at bone crushing speed, shapes began to come to them.

The shapes that Raelgosh, believed to be Aelmaars entorage. Aelmaar and his companions will soon learn the price of failure.

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

My dearest Dark Heart was an exemplary teacher, she thought in idle retrospect as her hands danced along the console in front of her.

I do not recall him actually teaching me how to pilot such a ship, nor how to land one of this size. His teachings must have--

Her thoughts were broken into as a sensor bleeped for attention. Frowning at the intrusion, she reached for it, studied the Sith characters scrolling along its accompanying screen.

Which then went abruptly blank.

She whirled in alarm to Phalomir.

"My Lord!" she gasped, her eyes wide with concern.

"Sensors have just indicated that Sith fighter in apparent short-range approach to the very coordinates toward which we are heading, coordinates where Shayla and Galen and their companions are located!"

Alarm filled every cell of her being... along with a niggling little question of why exactly it was that she should be feeling such alarm regarding the safety of this "Shayla," whom she had never heard of in her life....

She brushed that quandary aside like a gnat, and stared at the screen again. It took awhile for what it showed her to sink into her awareness.

"My Lord!"

Again, a deeply buried niggle, an inner question raised:

Why do you address this one thus? He is no Lord to you....

She shook her head, blinked, and hurried on.

"The readouts of the Sith fighter have-- have disappeared. But their last known trajectory still places them on the prior heading coinciding with the location of Galen and her companions, where we are heading.

"I only fear the worst... brace yourself, my Lord."

With that she turned back to the console, let her fingers perform a tarantelle upon it. She was immediately rewarded by the thunderous cacophony of groaning metal and creaking joints as the ship shuddered, picking up its own inertia and placing it aside so it could make a high-speed trajectory change at what a normal pilot would consider as far, far too acute of an angle.

The great warship roared in anger when, finally sighting its targets on the passing surface below, it turned tail to the sky and dove down upon them like a stooping hawk.

Within, Graysith stood completely unaffected by the battle physics was engaging in without the ship. She bit her lip, and accelerated the ship, knowing by some subtle intuition that the group was in terrible danger, knowing she had to at least land, if not before, than at the same time the fighter did.

Seconds stretched by... and all went suddenly quiet. Graysith shot Phalomir a peculiar glance, then touched a particular sigil. The bridge emergency escape hatch popped open; without hesitation she hurried through, and soon found herself upon the strange greeny-golden surface of the ship, her feet tingling from it's strange molecular arrangement, Phalomir appearing like magick at her side.

A lift of one hand, and the air molecules beneath their feet gathered together, becoming more dense, and swirling about in an invisible dance of their own then formed a platform down which they quickly descended. Moments later, the tingling sensation was replaced by the gritty feel of sand beneath their feet.

"Come, let us hurry!" she said, hastening toward a group some hundred meters ahead of them. A wayward ray of the setting sun touched off a glint of gold.

Shayla! she thought, without understanding why or how. But understanding that alacrity was of the essence.

Behind her, the warship disappeared into a shroud of dark as, almost as an afterthought, she created a protective chronotic shield about it, that nothing and no one would disturb it during their brief -- at least she hoped so -- absence.

[ 09-24-2004 02:11 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Graysith ]

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...and it wasn't necessarily because of the words the Eye had directed her way.

"Something's wrong," she breathed simply as the others around her turned and stared quizzically. "Something's wrong, and..."

She paused, something else tremoring from within the Force as she reached out her senses to investigate, something familiar and something terribly inviting...

...or rather, someone.

"...I think I know what to do."

Even as the words escaped her lips, a couple of figures appeared on the horizon.

"We need to go that way," she said, pointing and indicating the figures ahead, "Trust me."

Then, without another word, her feet took wings and she proceeded onward, Jasyn Lancaster still in tow.

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

"They must have noticed us heading this way," Sa'kal'ishaalas told Raelgosh as they exited the ship. "We're going to have to be quick."

Gathering the magicks in him, Sa'kal'ishaalas prepared to run the short distance in a very short period of time. Although they were only a short distance away, if Graysith had seen them land, it would be a short matter of time until she attempted to get to the group. It would have to be very quick indeed.

"Come on, lets go."

...that being two of his employees and closest friends looking very much immobile, and, and...

His thought processes simply stopped when his mind registered what Phalomir's eyes were seeing.

Someone, who looked very much like Galen, the one person he would die a thousand deaths for, slung over the shoulder of a Sith...

...and very much motionless as well.

Instinct simply took over...

...and Terrin pushed to the forefront of Phalomir's mind once more for control. He gained it...

...and the urgency in his heart of hearts gave wings to Phalomir's feet.

"Galen!!!!" he cried out, even as he neared the group.

Completely forgetting then what and whose body he was in, something very deeply rooted and very real taking over, he approached Shayla Stargazer and the Sith.

"Are they going to be allright?" he queried, indicating his two friends. Then, looking to Galen, his heart aching with worry and concern, "Is she...?"

[ 09-24-2004 02:46 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Terrin Danner ]

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But something deep inside her made her want to reach out and touch--

She jerked, snorting at herself. Her eyes shadowed, and she cast a quick glance around.

"My friends," she said in a low voice.

"Something is coming. Someone. I believe it to be the occupant of a Sith ship who tried to gain access to our ship.

"We must be wary."

Stretching out with her talents as taught to her in the early days, she quested about, sending out ribbons of white and black Force that writhed about their little group like a nest of dianogas.

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