We knew we were going to be freed, it was inevitable, but how long would it be? We had recieved the transmisison, heard clearly against the laws of sonic energy when they passed through liquid, but never-the-less it was painful to know we could not walk once again.

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“Of course,” he said, almost startled at the discovery of a thought. “Sith magick. Great gods, have I been so wrapped in politics to forget even the simplest of my abilities? I shall return shortly.”

Phalomir’s face went blank as he leaned back against the hull. Inside, his spirit was already freeing itself from the confines of his physical form. His Sith magick dissolved the threads that bound the two, and within seconds his spirit was floating freely in the room. He focused on finding the energy beam that anchored the strange pod to the ship, and shot his spirit towards it. He followed it, through the bizarre realm of hyperspace, and into the pod.

Phalomir was taken aback, even in spirit form, by the sight within the pod. He studied it for several seconds, then shot backwards into the ship. With a gasp his body woke, his spirit rejoined.

Wide-eyed, he stood and looked to the others.

“There is something in the pod, something alive… I think. It appears to be humanoid, but almost… combined… with the machinery.”

Phalomir trailed off and stared into space, trying to make sense of what he saw.

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I stated the obvious, judging by the startled looks plastered upon everyone else's face. My companions stood about with their mouths hanging as stupidly open as mine probably was.

I closed it a moment, frowning as I pondered this latest development.

"Part.. machine?" I asked Phalomir, directing a look into his eyes. Something I saw there made me shiver; trying to ignore this, I pressed on.

"What is it, some kind of bot or high-tech droid or something? And if so, what in Hell's Seven Circles would it want to dock with us for? And--"

Another thought struck me, and I wrapped my arms about myself, pressing closer to Terrin as the incongruity of it carried a sudden warning into my brain.

"Why the cry for help? Robots don't need life support, even one in a bacta tank. They're programmed, for pity's sake;

"I wonder who programmed this one?"

I paused to gather my scattering thoughts in order to apply them to this mystery.

"What would a robot be doing in a bacta tank anyway?"

I looked to all, but let my gaze end upon the Dark Lord. For he most of anyone would have some semblance of an answer; he had, after all, actually seen this thing.

[ 04-11-2005 02:21 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Galen ]

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He turned to Shayla, who was still with Panther.

“Is there any way for you or your husband to sense it’s intentions?”

[ 04-13-2005 09:04 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Phalomir ]

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At any rate, I'll give it a try."

Saying nothing more than this, Shayla closed her eyes and stretched outward towards that "sentience" nearby them, certain she was connecting with whatever what nearby them. Again she was flooded with the sense of many lifeforces...

...and she had to take a moment to make sense of all the life-energy she was touching with before she could continue. Then she sent out a silent yet very distinct "Force niggle" as if to say "Who are you, and what is it you want?" without saying it at all. For indeed, that was precisely what she was feeling within herself as she quietly awaited an answer...

...if there was to be one at all.

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We spent a few moments trying to ascertain the meaning of the "contact" and felt the "gist" of it. "We are the Onidorei, we want nothing more than freedom. We mean no harm, and have no capacity to give it." Was our mental chorus as we fought with all mental capacity to respond to this presense."

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...for something. She also sensed no ill-intent.

"I sense nothing that would lead me to believe this thing intends to harm us, and no deception. Rather, I sense a longing or desire for something..."

She paused at this, frowning and sensing and questing outward once more. "...a longing for release of some kind, I think..."

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"I'm sure my dear sister was longing for release just as much, that day on K'eel Doba when we put her into a force cage."

I sent a briefly apologetic smile Phalomir's way, and was beginning to settle back in my seat when the obvious cricket noises ratcheting about the ship captured my attention. I blinked up into the blank looks everyone was giving me.

"She was hell-bent to kill me then, you know."

With that I shut up, letting my hand drift down to my belt, where it toyed unconsciously with the invisibility device I yet possessed.

[ 04-11-2005 10:16 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Galen ]

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He trailed, already having noticed Galen's hand on the invisibility device. "...has that been activated?" he asked, motioning towards the device. "I have no problem dropping off whatever is out there to the Imps...

...but I sure as Hell don't want to pay them a visit as well while we're at it. We've already had enough lost time as it is."

[ 04-12-2005 09:53 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Terrin Danner ]

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Phalomir lowered his head and backed to the wall, taking in deep breaths.

"Allow me a moment to prepare," he added, closing his eyes.

Using the same technique he had within the halls of the Library of the Sith, a time which seemed so very long ago, he again allowed his spirit to leave his body. His massive frame leaned quietly against the wall, his breathing slowed to nearly a stop, his face as pale as the red of his skin would allow. To the observer he might appear to be sleeping, but to anyone who knew him he approached the countenance of a dying man.

His spirit, however, strong and true, floated invisibly in the room above the staring comrades. Phalomir focused his energies and again sailed through the physical bonds that tethered the strange object to the even stranger ship, and found himself hovering in the tight confines of the pod. As in the Library, he diffused his thoughts and entered the very machinery.

It took a moment to comprehend the enormity of what he was trying to accomplish, for in the Library there had been Sith magick to help in the translation. But this was a buzzing of electrons completely foreign to Phalomir. But yet there was something else, something he could comprehend. In fact, he felt many of the something else, as if a mass of individual consciousnesses were swirling together somewhere in the maddening whirl.

He focused once again, and called to them.

“I am Phalomir, hear me, I beg.”

[ 04-14-2005 08:16 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Phalomir ]

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"We are the Onidorei, we hear and speak with you Phalomir. What is it that you wish of us?" We asked, eagerly but tonelessly responding to his speech.

[ 04-14-2005 08:23 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Onidorei ]

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“I greet you, Onidorei, from the ship that now tethers you. I seek to know you, to understand why you have come to me. Who are you, why do you seek me?”

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We paused in our speech, then continued. "Who is it that makes companionship with you? We know of two others, one who spoke mechanically to us through the physical means provided, and another did not speak, but seemed to communicate some how. Are there more?"

[ 04-14-2005 08:38 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Onidorei ]

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“There are others, and in time perhaps you shall meet them. But before that may happen, I must know more of you. Please understand, you are a wonder to us, an unknown. We are not at heart mistrusting people, but we must take certain precautions. If you heard my companion’s voice through mechanical means, could you not reply through those same means? Until we all are assured of your intent, we cannot risk bringing you aboard. Can you speak with us through the communication device?”

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We ceased conversation to command the pods small computer to immediately accept electronic attempts at contact, then continued. "We would be quite glad to continue this conversation by normal means if you were to extend the communication. We will answer all questions given."

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“Then I shall return, and extend such communication. You are well met, may our further communications be as pleasant.”

Phalomir slid back out of the machinery, glad to be free of the flowing electrons. His spirit flew back along the tethers, reentering his body with a jolt. In an instant, the nearly lifeless giant body rocked to life. His knees extended his torso up the wall until his massive body stood erect, his eyes jerked open, and his voice boomed as if he had been alert all along.

“You speak true, Shayla,” he said. “There are many entities, or the consciousness of such, sharing their existence there. They spoke to me as one, their thoughts running light years at a time. They are hungry for companionship, and will speak with us via the communication channels when we extend the invitation. They call themselves ‘Onidorei’. They seemed sincere, but I have not always been the best judge of character.”

He shot a daggered look to the Master, who smirked in the back of the room, then returned to his friends.

“What do you think?”

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"Is it too much to ask, or even wonder, for that matter, why a bunch of consciousnesses... er, consciousness... ahhh, well... why in Hell's Seven Circles a bunch of what makes sentients sentient happens to be sharing a body, one that is oh-so-hungry for companionship?

"Is it just me, or isn't this striking anybody else as a little bit on the odd side? This yearning for companionship, I mean.

"I mean..."

I stopped and drew in a breath while I tried to harness all the wild hunches that were niggling up and down my back to logical speech.

"Why would something like that be way the heck out here in the boonies, unless it was put here by someone? Now, there could be two different reasons as to why, if this is the case, but do we dare dally around with this thing when there is at least a fifty percent chance that doing so just might not be in our best interests?"

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"Why bother?" I countered, raising my face to stare him straight in the eye.

"I mean, to what purpose? To pass the time? To gain, oh wonders, data about something new and unknown?"

I stopped, letting my words ring out into the hollow silence everyone else was providing.

"We're not scientists," I finished with a definite nod, letting my hands drop more definitely to my sides. I leaned back against the side of my seat at the navigation console.

"Why not just leave the thing here, and report it to whoever we should? Obviously there is no real life support threat; we can easily squirt the coordinates to the powers that be and leave it at that."

If there even is such an agency anymore, I scowled to myself as I then shut my mouth, waiting to hear the input of the others.

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"And why are you so hell-bent to take up with every Tom, Dick and Jabba to come down the pike?" I flared back, matching his calm stare with a disproportionately reddened glare of my own.

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“Because I am a Dark Lord of a dying people, a people I hold above all else. There are forces in motion set to destroy it all, wrongs which must be righted, and pockets of darkness in our worlds that must be set to light. And I do not know who or what is on which side, or who or what will help or hinder. So I look, I hear, I ask. I do not assume. We have all experienced That Which Is, now does everything else in your life pale in comparison to the point of shutting yourself away from learning new things?”

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"Look!" I began, gritting my teeth with the effort to keep from hollering at the top of my lungs.

"I don't really care, do you understand? Your people don't seem to be dying to me, seems the last time I looked they were bright-eyed and bushy tailed, straight from the Right Hand of the Dead, if I remember what the Universe really had been all about at one time.

"But as far as what you and your people and my misguided sister do, I really don't care! All I want is to get my daughter and take her and my husband and go somewhere that we might have a ghost's chance of living the rest of our lives in some kind of semblance of normalcy.

"Automatically applying some kind of dire necessity-to-our-supposed-needs to every stranger we come across just seems like so much more of a hindrance; Khaandon!

"Let Aelvedaar rule as he will, I don't give a womprat's hiney--

"I just want to get to K'eel Doba in a straightforward and unimpeded manner, and find Darra! Why in Hell's Seven Circles can't you see that?"

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The roar from the back of the room caught everyone off guard, making even Phalomir jump and snap his head to the Master.

“If I had known I had taken in with such a bunch of slug-headed do-nothings, I would have stayed in Aelvedaar’s trap. What a sorry group of whining, sniveling, self-centered egotistical brats you are! I have watched you do wondrous things from my little room, indeed. You have moved solar systems, awoke the dead, tamed the untamed, walked the Darker Realms and fought back the hordes of the Bastard God Roan. And yet you squabble over communicating with a flippin’ stupid lifepod?! Don’t you see, this goes beyond your puny selfish wants, beyond your desires to find your kin. I can tell you everything you want to know, and I have never been asked! I say hold your words, take your actions and let us be on our way!”

With that, the Master waved his hand. He staggered, his eyes closing, but the space before him shimmered and thinned, and a portal opened before him. With lightning speed he pulled forward with his other hand, motioning as if pulling a rope. The life pod swam through the portal and fell to the floor, taking up a good portion of the back of the room. The Master grunted, the portal closed, and he fell to the floor himself, breathing heavily.

“There,” he rasped, propping himself on an elbow. “Aelvedaar thought he could take it all from me, but not all of it… not all.”

Before anyone could respond to this latest stunt I rushed over to Shayla, figuring she would be the first to do something to this weird thing that had just been handed to us on a silver, if tarnished, platter.

"Don't even think it!" I growled, then turned to where the self-imposed Master stood hacking up blood. I raised a hand, by that one action letting the others know just what I felt about coming to his aide.

Not that anyone would, I growled to myself.

At least not any of our people.

I cut another glare to Phalomir.

"Thanks, buddy, oh so much, you've been just wonderful, and did I ever say what a wonderful dad you've got?"

Not waiting to hear any inane reply he might make I turned away, keeping one wary eye on the pod while the other began searching to see if anyone had anything better than a silly Sith sword with which to protect ourselves.

Nada.

I sighed in frustration, then further ignoring Phalomir spoke up to the others.

"I say we space this thing, along with Phal's dear old dad, wouldn't you guys say?"

Really, I don't know what was coming over me of late, but suddenly I wanted nothing more to do with anything that remotely had the slightest semblance of anything to do with the Sith--

--and that included the sudden appearance of a thing one Sith in particular seemed overly determined to befriend.

[ 04-14-2005 10:50 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Galen ]

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