Phalomir eyed the Master, trying to decipher the meaning behind his words, and the intentions. Why, now that he was here face to face, had the Master changed so suddenly? Just a few hours before, while communicating through the strange red crystal back in the Temple of the Armorers, the Master had shown the side of himself that truly belonged to the Darker Realms.

Yes, he truly did belong to the Darker Realms…

Yet he had mentioned unholy alliances between Aelvedaar and the Darker Realms, apparently beyond the alliance Aelvedaar had shared with the Master. Why would this bother him? Unless Aelvedaar had made allies of the beings that the Master had previous ties with? Beings that for some reason granted the Master great powers in exchange for…

For his son.

Aelvedaar has made the same deal, Phalomir thought. Aelvedaar can deliver to them what my father failed to deliver, and with Roan now gathering power in the Darker Realms, who knows what plans are being laid…

“I trust him,” he said, still staring at the Master. “Enough to not destroy him right now, anyway.”

He turned to Shayla, his face lightening a little.

“Let us investigate this alarm, together.”

He turned to the Master one more time. Then spread his palms in an open gesture, and walked through the door, hoping Shayla would trust him enough to understand for the time being.

[ 03-08-2005 08:35 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Phalomir ]

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“Well, that’s a relief,” I said to no one in particular, relishing how the words echoed off into the blessed sounds of silence. For the first thing I had done upon entrance there was to shut off that blasted alarm; how I knew just which sigil to tweak to do so was more than likely a purely unconscious function of the years I had spent flying hither and yon in one Sith vessel or another than actual recognition on my part.

The second thing I did was to try to determine just what in all the universe had set up all the ruckus to begin with. I began twiddling with various and sundry sigils, until at length the monitor in front of me obliged by producing an image.

I almost wished it hadn’t.

“Hey guys,” I offered with a frown. I pointed to the screen, and then turned round to face everyone who had gone to one spot or another within the bridge’s vast area.

“We’re in Sith space, right? I mean, we were in Koris’ian space, and now we’re en route to K’eel Doba, right?”

No one really said anything much but a series of affirmative nods and muttered replies filled the silence. My frown deepened and I tapped the monitor thoughtfully.

“Well, we’re not alone; there’s some sort of station out there— Phal, did you guys ever build any? I mean, is this something you recognize?”

Another insistent flash of gold caught my eye; I couldn’t help but gasp as I read what that particular sigil was trying to tell me.

“Ummm… guys,” I started in slowly.

“It seems this station is… powered up. There’s something over there….”

[ 03-08-2005 09:50 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Galen ]

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"I don't like this," she stated simply, furrowing her brow. Then she stretched out with the Force on instinct, and searched outward...

...and was almost immediately rewarded with the sense of a multitude of life signatures...

...or evidences of sentience, at least.

Her frown merely darkened, and her brows furrrowed further. "I'm picking up a lot of sentience from there..."

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A moment later, the automated voice had spoke again: "Two minutes until impact inevitable." We closed our eyes, and decided to embrace the peace that we hoped would come.

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“There is no station that I am aware of,” he said. Then he added “But again, I am not of this time, so it is difficult to say for sure. However, whatever it is, we appear to be on a collision course for it, and if it is populated then we have more than our own lives to save.”

[ 03-08-2005 10:54 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Phalomir ]

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...and investigate," she suggested, the information smuggler that was still buried deep within her intrigued. "I know it has nothing to do with our current plans...

...but then again, perhaps it does. If it is in fact populated, perhaps we should find out exactly why it's here, and whose aboard. After all, sometimes the best allies are the ones who simply fall into your path."

[ 03-08-2005 10:39 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Shayla Stargazer Petrolu ]

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He paused, eyes flicking from Shayla to Galen and back to Shayla. He sighed.

"Very well. Although not well built, this is still a Sith ship, it can alter its course in hyperspace. I suggest you do it now, or blasting the station will be unnecessary."

"Wait a minute, wait a minute..." I muttered under my breath, letting my fingers dance a tango on the controls until at length the starfield without the ship contracted back down into points of light. I couldn't help but quirk a corner of my mouth at that--

Bless that lil ol' Sithy technology; we had just blasted down from many times lightspeed to a mere crawl, relative to that weird station out there, and not a hint of inertia to mar our beautiful day...

...not to mention converting us into bug-splats against the surrounding bulkheads.

I drew in a breath, and sat back.

"Ok, we're okay now; no more ramming speed. I"ve matched the velocity of this station, which, by the way, seems to be rather strange. I mean--"

I paused a moment and checked a few dials and sigils. Yup, I had read them more than correctly the first time.

"Extrapolating backward from its current trajectory, I can tell you one thing."

I paused again, just for drama.

What the hell.

"This thing was not orbiting anywhere near Koris'ian, plus its trajectory indicates it as not so much coming into a planar orbit around the primary, but actually subtending an arc tangent to the equatorial z-axis..."

I twisted in my seat, only to meet faces full of blank stares.

"It looks to have been coming into this system from elsewhere, coming down from the 'top,' so to speak."

I turned back to the monitor, and tapped it with one finger. Meanwhile the hairs on the back of my neck began an insidious rise, in tandem with the small army of geese now starting to march up and down my back.

"I don't think it belongs to this sector of space at all. I think, if we go to investigate, we should implement; oh, what is it they say?

"All necessary and due caution."

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“Can we try to communicate with them?” he asked Galen. “I agree, this warrants investigation, but in light of recent events, and the urgency of returning home, let us not take too much time. Agreed?”

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"Hey, sounds good to me," I agreed, settling in the seat to await the final consensus of the others. Hey, ours was not a mission to boldly go, but to get our hineys back to K'eel Doba as fast as we could, and hopefully--

--if there is a god in all the universe--

Find Darra.

[ 03-08-2005 11:12 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Galen ]

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...we haven't got time for anything futher, and I'd like to make it to K'eel Doba in one piece."

He paused, looking to Galen. "There are things of much greater importance to investigate once we arrive there."

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“Uhhh…” he oozed.

The room began to swim around him, and his large Sith body rocked slowly back and forth. He struggled to focus, concentrating on his hand, and as the puffy red flesh poking out from the makeshift bandage came into view, all vestige of reality left him.

His eyes fluttered up into his head and the massive Sith fell backwards to the floor.

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"Computer, activate distress signal Alpha-9, create preasure leaks in sections B, D, and L. Jetison cargo units from previously stated sections." We knew if galactic law had not changed in our timeline, if this was a vessel we would ever wish to meet, they would respond to our distress signal immediately.

[ 03-09-2005 09:15 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Onidorei ]

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I stared at the sigil, then at a screen which began scrolling Sith characters at me.

My frown deepened, but the tiny hairs on the back of my neck refused to quiet.

"Hey guys," I announced, nodding to the viewscreen. I punched a button; the screen promptly and discomfortingly slewed from the rotating starfield -- ok, so I had matched velocity with the station; I hadn't done anything about our roll yet -- to show said station, which in turn yawed just enough to make my stomach jump until everything quieted down and the station remained...

Well... stationary.

At least at first notice. Now leaning forward, I peered at the screen, feeling as though my blood had suddenly turned to ice.

The damned thing was venting something; bits and pieces of flotsam began a stately dance around it, slowly moving away amidst the glitter of myriad ice crystals.

I turned to the others.

"I think the station is in trouble," I said. "It seems to have sprung a leak, which wouldn't be surprising if this is something that's just drifted here from who knows where and has been here since who knows when.

"But it's sending out a distress signal; I don't know if that's just an automated response to trouble, but do we have the moral fortitude to simply assume so and just go merrily on our way?"

I twisted further in my seat, letting my gaze travel across those behind me; then my eyes settled on the solid form of Panthar.

"Can you do anything for him?" I asked Shayla, then fell quiet, turning back again to the screen to watch the station and its expanding cloud of debris.

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He then regarded Panthar, passed out on the floor.

"How can you be so cold?" I finally asked, shaking my head. "I mean, yes, we should take care with how we proceed from here and use common sense, not to mention a healthy dose of weaponry as backup to that, but--"

I shook my head again.

"If thy hand offend thee, smite it off...."

I looked to him, my eyes narrowing just a bit.

"You know, buddy, you don't have any too great of a track record with us either. Maybe we should use common sense and blast you into atoms as well, just so as not to run the chance that you'd turn on us somewhere on down the road?"

I levelled a look at him but he didn't budge, just stood there, arms crossed, looking like the sandcat that ate the womprat.

I shook my head again, and now turned to Phal.

"Hey," I said, my tone brightening as an idea struck me.

"Does this ship have anything in the way of spy droids aboard? We could send a couple over to see what's going on in that ship; judging from the amount of debris, there's got to be a hull rupture large enough that one can sneak through and board the ship."

[ 03-10-2005 02:08 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Galen ]

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[ 03-10-2005 08:51 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Jasyn Lancaster ]

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"I'm going to put him into a healing trance," she said quietly as she worked, "He'll be out for a while, but the pain he's in should lessen substantially by the time he returns to us."

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“An excellent idea,” he said. “I would be very agreeable to boarding the station to investigate. If you are so inclined, I would gladly take Phalomir with me. If not, so be it, I shall perform your task regardless.”

“But you, my dear friend,” came a voice in Jasyn’s mind. “You are my special one-- my CHOSEN one. Your concern for my well-being has touched me, and I have given you a gift. Your life is tied to mine, you may draw upon my strength when you are in need. I will nurture you, help you. As you shall help me, for this gift is not entirely without strings. If anything happens to me, if my mind ceases to function, so will yours.”

But his offer to make good on Jasyn's dark suggestion just made the army of geese march all the faster up and down my back.

"No way," I said gruffly, staring at the Master. He suddenly looked entirely too smug for my liking; what did he know that we didn't? I cut a glance to Phalomir, hoping he'd leap in any time now, but no. He just stood there, silent.

I sighed, then glowered.

"Look, this is just too strange of a situation, if you ask me. I mean, yeah, I agree with what you said," I nodded to the Master.

"This station doesn't belong here. Yeah it's leaking, yeah it's sending out a distress signal, and yeah I think we should try to determine if there are any lives in danger here.

"But no, I don't think we should send any of us over there. I don't trust the situation; there's too much of a coincidence that we just find this thing, and then voila, it so suddenly develops a dangerous leak.

"I say we send something automated over; meanwhile, I'll see what I can do about scanning for the lifesigns that Shayla says she's sensing over there...."

With that I turned back to the console and set myself to task. Soon all the dark undercurrents washing about behind my back disappeared as I lost myself in the pursuit of what might just turn out to be yet another ghost.

Or, help us all, not.

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What has he done? he asked himself.

He probed with his magick, seeking out anything unusual about Jasyn. There was no Sith magick at work, nothing discernable anyway. But there was something, buried deeply, but he could not understand what had happened. There was an energy, definitely, somehow familiar, yet still totally alien. It was almost as if it were something he might have encountered some time ago, when he fought against the forces in…

”The Darker Realms!” he thought. “He has done something to Jasyn using powers from that evil place.”

Phalomir sneered, a low growl escaping his throat. He gathered his magick, the tattoo on his forehead flashing brightly for a split-second. He sent a tendril of energy into Jasyn, seeking out the source of the strange force he felt. Jasyn remained staring at the Master, almost as if entering a trance. Phalomir found the force, but as he tried to envelop it with his magick a strong blast sent his power reeling back to him. His eyes widened, and Jasyn shuddered. Phalomir jerked his head back to the Master, who continued to grin, but this time at Phalomir.

Phalomir pried his eyes away and turned to Galen, the surprise still on his face.

“Automated…” he managed, trying to hide his shock. “Yes, automated. I’m sure there is something. I will, um, look.”

[ 03-10-2005 11:40 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Phalomir ]

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...and the result was Jasyn, wide-eyed, as if in shock.

Now that wasn't typical Jasyn. This was the guy who could fire off a rebuttal faster than the orginal comment was finished. And now he suddenly wasn't saying anything...?

"Ummmm, Jasyn, you're usually good when it comes to technology, maybe you can help Phalomir out in finding something automated to send over to that station," he offered.

No verbal reply.

"Jasyn?" Terrin repeated, waiting for a response...

...and uncertain as to whether or not he would get one as the bad feeling he'd been having quite alot resurfaced.

[ 03-11-2005 11:27 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Terrin Danner ]

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He stood agape for an indeterminate amount of time, til he finally became aware that someone was actually speaking to him.

"He--he's done something to me, I can hear his voice in my head!!!" Jasyn finally exploded, his brown eyes snapping back to alertness. "You just look here, Master," he growled, "I might be a sarcastic asshole, but when it comes to my friends, I'll be more than happy to die right along with you if it becomes necessary and if it means that they'll be safe. And as far as the powers you offer...

...I don't want or need any of your stinkin' powers..."

[ 03-11-2005 11:28 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Jasyn Lancaster ]

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