He watched Aeylmaar, Jasyn, and Matt depart with Shayla and Galen, the latter of which he now held much concerned for. He had seen something in her eyes a few moments before, outside of the temple, that troubled him. His flicked his eyes to Terrin, who was watching Galen walk away. Something in his body language troubled Panthar as well, and he glanced down to Jharmeen who lay sleeping.

The mystery of Galen’s daughter was solved, but now the aftermath could play out worse than he anticipated. His vow to Galen was now moot. He owed much to Phalomir, and now Panthar found himself standing guard over Phalomir’s only love -- perhaps the Dark Lord’s only reason for living at the moment. He thought of the terrors that Phalomir must be going through, and raised his eyes to Terrin, who was staring at Jharmeen from a distance.

Panthar caught Terrin’s gaze, and the two lingered for a moment before Terrin turned and walked to stand alone and look down at the pines that blanketed the slope. Panthar sighed and threw another stick on the fire. Erik had resumed his gathering of wood and dropped an armload next to Panthar.

Panthar looked up and thought he saw an echo of his own feelings reflecting back from Erik. Panthar nodded to him and resumed his watch on Jharmeen.

“It could be a long night,” he whispered to himself.

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

Realizing it was quiet, but important that the lady Graysith regained her rest, we lowered our vocabulator levels before spekaing. "May we ask you all to fill us in further upon the people... and events that we have found ourselves connected too? We would rather be less confused in the future, and hence be able to grow in usefullness."

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

A sudden rumbling thunder gave the young adept pause; head cocked, poised for whatever flight he could manage, he froze in place as a great frothy mass of white pounded by a mere fifteen meters to their left. Eternity seemed to be nothing but the treacherous roar of the avalanche; but as with all things, eternity finally faded and passed away.

Ayelmaar heaved a sigh of relief in its wake, turning to the others, his amber eyes wide and nervous, like a young colt.

"We cannot be away from here soon enough to suit me," he said softly before nodding his head and leading the group toward a nearby stand of trees. Entering the fringe, the party walked for another five or six meters before the trees thinned to reveal a hidden little clearing. Sitting in the middle of the clearing was something greeny-golden and extremely difficult to look upon...

Aeylmaar waved his hand in a peculiar manner. Immediately the greeny-gold of the hull was breached by a rectangle of black.

"Shall we enter? Ch'arlingua is scarcely one hundred kilometers from here; with luck we should be back with a larger vessel before the sun sets.

"Shayla--" He now cast a look at the young Jedi woman. For a moment he fidgeted, recalling the last words he had said to her when she had come to Khar Delba months ago.

"Would you do us the honor of piloting us to the spaceport?"

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

thank you," she then replied softly, simply...

...and without any further prompting headed aboard the little fighter, the others behind her. As she began warming the ship, Shayla could hear the rustle of materials and feet as Aeylmaar assisted Jasyn and Matt in finding some supplies to take back to the campsite.

"Hopefully this will not be a long trip," Shayla stated in seeming non sequieter to Galen, who was close by. "I don't want to leave the others out there too long."

Finalizing the warming procedures for the little Sith fighter, Shayla felt her piloting senses come to bear in the forefront of her mind, ready and out of use for far too long once again. She felt as though she were on the edge of her seat...

...but she didn't have to wait long. In only a few minutes she could hear the almost inaudible sound of the fighter's hatch closing, and Aeylmaar gracefully stepped to the front of the ship and took a seat beside her. Shayla spared a brief look in his direction as he settled himself, her greeny-blue eyes utterly calm, and her mind completely focused on the task.

"Allright," she said then to all present in the cabin, Galen included, "Let's sky our way out of here."

And, her fingers now moving to dance upon the navboard of the little sith fighter, Shayla helped her open her wings and smoothly soar into the K'eel Doban sky and on her way to their destination: the Char'lingua spaceport.

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

"Hey guys, I'm turning on the invisibility shield."

Without waiting for anyone to make a reply I did so, the motion swift and sure.

"There," I commented as I settled back into my seat, toggling the switch on my belt so the shield extended just far enough to cover the ship.

"I don't think it's such a hot idea to just land in Ch'arlingua and troop out with a grand howdy-do, ya know. I mean, where's the Sith in charge--"

I paused to send Ayelmaar an apologetic glance.

"I mean the warrior Sith; look, Shayla. Why don't you set us down a little bit outside of the spaceport. We can walk the rest of the way and sneak into a ship under cover of the shield.

"I think we can then skedaddle before anyone really knows what's going on; if we're lucky it will be sunset, and we might have a little cover to boot."

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

Shayla trailed, frowning a moment, then turned and tweaked their destination coordinates a few degrees on the navboard. "There," she then stated aloud, "We'll come in close, but hopefully not too close to attract possible unwanted attention."

Pausing once more then, Shayla keyed something else in, knowing the ship's uncanny and fascinating abilities. "I'm going to stay in realspace," she then continued with, "But with the speed this baby can maintain even in what most would refer to as sublight engines...

...our ETA is approximately fifteen minutes."

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

"Kriffing hell," he muttered, "Could it be any colder?!? I hate the cold...."

Matt eyed him, and smirked. "It could be worse. You could be wearing a Sith robe."

Jasyn scowled even more, "I don't want deal with a Sith anything right now, let alone wear one of their robes."

As they approached the campsite, Jasyn's temperature seemed to go down another degree as he dropped what few supplies Aeylmaar had been able to provide from his fighter.

"I swear to all the Universe it's getting colder," he growled. "But then, we have a small ration box here, so just maybe..."

He trailed, and began tearing through the box Aeylmaar had given them anxiously. "Oh HELL!!!!!!!!! Jasyn growled, discovering the contents of the box, "No brandy?!?"

His look turned impossibly blacker as he pulled out what looked to be the Sith equivalent of a ration bar from the box. "I hate ration bars..."

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

She's got this baby on low-speed cruise...

I mean, an airspeed of nearly 406 kilometers per hour is pretty fast, but wasn't anything close to what I'd found these little fighters were capable of. However, when one thought about it, it really wasn't going to be doing us any good getting into the spaceport before we even had time to draw a breath...

Ok. So I was drawing my second breath when a little chime sounded and Shayla announced our imminent descent. It wasn't long thereafter but we were grounded, just beyond a little copse of trees which hid us from the direct view of anyone in the spaceport. Khaandon be with us that we hadn't triggered any low ground radar or anything; hopefully the guys running things were following the status quo, which from what I could observe was...

Nada.

I frowned.

Now, that was strange, that there weren't any ships moving in or out. A spaceport ought to be bustling; come to think of it, it wasn't too hopping when we first arrived, either...

I shook this thought from my head, then double-checked to make certain the device was working.

"Ok, guys, here we go.

"Round two..."

I stood up with that, leaned over in front of Shayla with a look of apology for getting into her space, and then slapped a peculiar little sigil. Behind me there came the weird sigh of the hatch opening; I stepped away from my seat and headed to the exit.

For a moment I just stood there, observing the distant spaceport through our cover of trees. Then I hurried down the gangway, smiling to hear the sound of my two companions in pursuit, and headed off through the waving stalks of grass which covered the field that lay between us and Ch'arlingua.

Now I really hope no one is watching! I thought to myself, keenly aware of the swath we were plowing through the tall grass.

That's got to look strange...

But the goddess of luck who watches over spacefarers and fools like me was apparently on duty; we gained the edge of the Ch'arlingua tarmac in good time, not to mention without running into any difficulty.

I paused to scan our options, which weren't the greatest. I had never seen a better collection of ancient junk; indeed, if I hadn't before believed that the Sith had been brought back from 4,000 years in the past, I did now.

Those ships are OLD, and in remarkably good shape! I marveled; then I shook my head, focusing once more on the issue at hand.

Then I saw it, sitting there in all it's weirdly beautiful strangeness. Another Sith fighter, just ripe for the taking. Where it came from, I hadn't a clue; I knew there weren't that many of these babies out there, but I gave silent thanks to Khaandon that one of the chosen few happened to be sitting right under our noses.

I nudged Shayla.

"How about we go in two ships," I whispered, knowing that if we did so I would be able to pilot one. And oh how I missed flying those wonderful, wonderful fighters.

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

"I don't know," he said a bit uncertainly. "I am not much of one for ships and things, having been an acting apprentice to Lord Aelvedaar for most of my life. But I do know the same thing that we all should at this point, having just arrived here in a ship similar to that one."

He nodded to what could only be Chosen One, abeit unbeknownst to them.

"The eight of us would find ourselves hard pressed for space inside a fighter; what about that one?"

One hand slipped out to point toward a precursor to a modern Corellian yacht. It hunkered on the tarmac close to the perimeter, a bit chunkier than those yachts they were accustomed to, but sleek nevertheless. Of greater importance, it looked as if it could travel, too.

Aeylmaar turned to Galen with a slight smile, clearly reading the yearning look on her face.

"You may pilot my ship, if you wish," he said. "I do not know the fighting capabilities of this other one; having a watchdog to travel with us to Khar Delba would be good, not to mention having an apparent Sith guard to escort us into our airspace. We might look more believable this way, and may find it easier getting into Choyapenthe to find my Father."

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

Shayla quietly spoke her thoughts aloud, then added. "I'm certain I can fly her though. Looks almost like a Starwind-class yacht; if the design is anything similiar to what I suspect she may or may not have any defenses, depending upon what her owner had done to her. So the idea regarding a Sith fighter transport would definitely be believable. Now, if you can give me some invisibility cover long enough to get the ship," she continued, looking to Galen, "I'll warm her fast, and we can buzz out of here."

The red-headed woman nodded, and as a unit, they quietly headed to the perimeter of the tarmac where the Corellian yacht was berthed. Shayla found it strange that they were able to proceed with such ease and without any detection...

...but for the moment, she wasn't going to concern herself too much regarding it. Maybe the Fates were simply watching out for them. As they approached the ship, Shayla could only hope that they were. After all, anyone who had berthed a ship in a strange spaceport would have secured it...

...and that meant she was going to have to spend a precious few moments using her Force abilities to pop the hatch. As she had suspected, the ship was locked down...

...so Shayla stretched out, familiar enough with this variety of ship to know where the hatch release would be just inside. She used the Force to move it...

...and shortly had success as the hatch gracefully yawned open.

She spared a moment to turn to Aeylmaar and Galen. "Unless you, for some reason, would prefer to travel with me," she stated, looking to Aeylmaar, "I'll meet you back at the campsite."

Then, hoping to waste no time now that their presence would be readily obvious to anyone in sight, Shayla hurried onboard into the luxurious cabin of the older yacht, warming her engines as fast as she could. In moments, already somewhat familiar with the navboard now in front of her, Shayla would be ready to take off...

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

Panthar stood and met them, far enough from Jharmeen so their conversation would not wake her, yet close enough to keep a watch on her and be at her side very quickly should the need arise.

“What do we have?” he whispered.

Jasyn lowered his box to the ground and opened the top. Inside was a small first-aid kit, something that might have been a laser knife, a flare, a candle and lighter, a bottle of water, a thermal blanket, a light, and a bag of rations. Matt began looking through his box, pulling out a roll of white tissue.

“Well,” smiled Panthar. “The Sith like their comfort, even if lost in the wild. I wonder if the temple here has a latrine… you know, on second thought, I don’t want to see what kind of dark things it amplifies there.

Matt quietly named off items he discovered in his box, including a small self-heating pot, a multi-utensil, a compass, and a very small tent. Meanwhile, Panthar pulled out the knife and held it out, sliding the switch forward. A beam of about 6 inches sprang out from the end.

“Whoa,” he said. “It’s like a little mini-light saber thing. Nifty!”

He turned it off and dropped it in a pocket of his tunic. He patted Jasyn on the shoulder.

“No brandy, though, darn it,” he sympathized. “Unless there is a tiny bottle of it down at the bottom or something. How about you show Terrin what we have, I’m going to go back and sit, and wrap my hand.”

Panthar took a roll of tape from the first-aid kit and moved back to the log. He sat and began to gently wrap the wounded hand.

[ 08-26-2005 10:26 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Panthar Dantares ]

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

"Maybe you'd better go with her," I said, nodding toward the open hatch.

"After all, that's a kinda old rattletrap of a ship; she might be able to use the Force, but you've got Sith magick on your side. Don't worry about me; I have this--"

I indicated the Sith belt I wore.

"--so I'll be ok here. Now, hurry and get aboard; I'll extend this out and give you a bubble of maybe 100 feet to skedaddle in, then you're on your own.

"Tell her."

Nodding, I made shoo-ing motions with my hands and finally, after bestowing me with more than one hesitant look, the Sith began to move reluctantly toward the yacht.

I waited until the hatch closed behind him before I moved back to a safer distance. There I stood, watching the few Sith who wandered about the tarmac react in shock and astonishment, and yeah, even a bit of anger, I bet, as suddenly they were buffeted by the winds of the ship's sudden take-off.

I counted to fifty, then moved silently away, and soon was lost in the field of grass we had just plowed through.

It wouldn't be long before I was aboard that wonderful little fighter; I closed my eyes as I moved throught the waving blades, envisioning the little marvel's feel beneath my hands.

I could hardly wait.

[ 08-26-2005 10:43 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Galen ]

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

Ok, definitely not bad. Not a Sith fighter though...

Even as this thought crossed Shayla's mind, she focused her eyes on the skies ahead of her, knowing that--no matter how fast she may be able to make this ship move--Galen's little Sith fighter would beat them to the punch despite her later departure. And indeed, it was probably less than a minute before Shayla saw the spec of black hit the skies, its motion graceful yet undoubtedly fast as the speck became smaller and smaller.

Allright, so the Sith ship was faster, but this ship would do. So, now knowing the coordinates for the Temple of S'slan, Shayla made a few quick calculations...

...and keyed them, along with the S'slan coordinates, directly into the navcomputer. With a little groan and a very slight jerk, the ship oriented herself towards the campsite.

Shayla finally shifted her gaze from the navboard to Aeylmaar. "So, it's not as graceful as we'd like, but at least she flies pretty smoothly once she gets going," Shayla observed. "At least it'll give Erik something to play around with while we travel, as well as the EE guys. By the way...

...our ETA near the Temple of S'slan is approximately..."

She trailed, looking to the navboard again before returning her gaze to Aeylmaar. "...thirty minutes."

[ 08-28-2005 03:12 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Shayla Stargazer Petrolu ]

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

Dammit, but he just wanted to get out of here...

...and soon. How much longer would it take Aeylmaar, Shayla, and Galen to get back?

He resisted the urge to look at his wrist chrono. Nothing funny better happen in the meantime...

"Uhhh, boss?" Came Jasyn's voice in the midst of his thoughts. Terrin stopped, and turned to the dark-headed man, who had just set down a box somewhere close by. "Panthar thinks we should look through this. As far as I can tell, it's mostly medical supplies, some water, and a tent."

Terrin frowned. "You know," he answered, "We shouldn't be going through all that and getting too comfortable until we know how long we're staying. I suspect we're going to be out of here very soon."

Or at least, I hope.

"Why don't we lug that box back over to where everyone else is?"

Jasyn nodded and picked the box back up, muttering something about it having no brandy. Terrin couldn't help a momentary grin. Then he sobered, and joined Jasyn back with the others. Panthar looked up at him...

...and Terrin didn't know if he liked the way the guy was looking at him. He folded his arms, shielding himself from the cold as best as he could in a burial robe. Then he repeated his statement to Jasyn about not getting too comfortable just yet to the others.

"The sooner we get out of here," Terrin then continued, "The sooner we can get things in motion."

And the sooner you can get away from some of these people, popped up the errant thought as he eyed the still-sleeping Graysith.

"Hopefully the others will be back with a ship in just a little while," he said instead, his gaze returning to the skies. Even as he did so, Terrin could swear he saw a hint of a black speck up there...

...and he sincerely hoped it was what he thought and that its arrival meant they would be on their way very soon...

[ 08-28-2005 04:04 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Terrin Danner ]

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

Panthar did not intend to have to find out. He would stay here and watch, to make sure nothing happened that someone would later regret.

“You think it will be that soon?” he asked, earnestly. “I hope they don’t run into any trouble.”

He looked at Terrin’s clothing, noticing for the first time just how thin the robe he wore must be.

“Holy rats, Terrin, wrap yourself in that thermal blanket. It’s in the other box, on top. Then have a seat by the fire, we can talk.”

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

He rummaged through the box, found the blanket, and wrapped up. Terrin really hadn't been aware of just how cold he was until he realized how much warmer he was with the blanket. He sat by the fire, warmed his hands a bit...

...but his eyes again wandered to the skies. "I dunno how quickly they will be back," Terrin then responded to Panthar, "But I do know those Sith vessels can fly fast. And I don't want to pack up more than necessary to get out of here."

As he spoke, Terrin could hear Jasyn groan in the background, then curse. Terrin looked over to him and quirked an eyebrow. Jasyn was holding something that looked alot like a ration bar, scowling at it.

"That bad?" Terrin queried. Still scowling, Jasyn tossed one of the things to Terrin then one to Panthar. The look on his face all but read, "See for yourself" as he took another bite into the bar in his hand, his scowl only growing further.

As Terrin took a bite, he barely noticed the taste. All he could do was to continue and watch the skies...

...and keep his eye on the quiet goings-on nearby.

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

“Sounds reasonable,” he said. “But if they aren’t back by dark then we had get a camp set up. Hopefully we won’t need it.”

We shifted and gazed down, then looked up at Terrin

“I know that what Jharmeen did was horrible and inexcusable,” he said quietly. He glanced at Jharmeen, who was sound asleep and sighing softly. “But there will be time to find out her motives and see what we can do from there. You know that must wait, don’t you? There is something big going on here, and it might put everyone – including Galen’s daughter – in danger. We have to figure out what it is going on with the Master and Aelvedaar and that Finger thing, and we need Jharmeen for that. I know you are mad as hell, and I know I caught a vision of bloody murder in Galen’s eye. I’m not tell you how to feel, but I’m asking you to hold on for a while before going full-scale on her.”

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

...the topic was the subject of discussion once before. I don't really give a damn about the motives behind what was done...

...what I do give a damn about was what Galen wanted. As I do about her safety and Darra's. Believe me, I know something bigger is going on here...

...and I'm well aware of the threat to Galen's safety as well as Darra's safety."

That is why we're here now, came the mental addendum in Terrin's head.

Clamming up at that, his blue eyes turned a bit distant as he continued to eat the ration bar in his hand.

[ 08-29-2005 05:34 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Terrin Danner ]

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

"Panthar. We wish to understand... to better aid the group in general. It is pointless to have no knowledge and hence have our functions be useless."

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

“What?” he said, startled, turning to face the strange being. Terrin, Erik, and the others had also turned to look at Onidorei. “You know, maybe now is not the time to be asking about—”

Panthar glanced at Jasyn and Matt, and realized he didn’t really know much about them to tell.

“You know, on second thought, hang on there, Uno.”

Panthar turned back to Terrin.

“I didn’t know that this had been discussed. Sheesh, that’s weird. But at any rate, right now I’m just concerned for all of us, so please don’t take that the wrong way. If it comes down to throwing Gray and Galen in a locked room together, then so be it. As long as we’re all together enough now, we need everyone watching everyone else’s back. Sorry to come off as pissy.”

Panthar sat back, let himself slide off the log and onto the ground. He propped his back with the log and picked up a small stick to play with the fire.

“So, Uno, you want to know about us? Well, let me start with a real improbable story. I’m an archeologist. I come from a little planet way off in the distance, doesn’t seem to matter where now. I was out digging in a site, an ancient temple that I thought could have been used by this mythical race I was trying to prove the existence of. I opened up a sealed room, found a few skeletons, and picked up a relic. It was a round crystal, about yay big, beautiful. Next thing I know I got the spirit of two of these ancient mythical people in my head. One is insane, one is confused and doesn’t remember much except he is the son of some wizard who was killed for his research in trying to control this All Force. The son and his servant were preserved in the crystal for like, 2000 years. Then one thing leads to another and now I am stuck in a Sith body, Phal is in the Darker Realms, and Thoran is who-knows-where. Oh, and the whole wizard thing turned out to be a crock, too. Phal is the son of the Master… oh, I think I’m confusing him, sorry, Uno.”

[ 08-29-2005 09:45 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Panthar Dantares ]

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

"Reviewing, you were once... human? Like us you have somehow found yourself in another body, and were once host too Phalomir and another being who has long since disappeared. Phalomir is in these "darker realms" and it is our objective to recover him. Tell us, you were an archeologist... well, it is unimportant for now, perhaps later you can tell us of your studies. Please continue for the informing."

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

...the more you might be used for information later on if, again, you get into the wrong hands. It's enough you know about Phalomir and the Master. And as far as the "discussion" regarding Darra's age being advanced..."

He trailed, his look turning vague once more, "It wasn't much of one. Lord Aelvedaar--I think it was him--wanted it done. Galen said no. That was as far as it went at the time...

...and it should have never gone any further than that."

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

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

Panthar leaned his head back to look upwards.

“Got it?”

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

We reached out from the seemingly shifting robes of the alloy and held out a cold replica hand towards Panthar. "We thank you, for the information, and for your trust in us."

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