Concussion, he thought. You have a concussion, that must be it. You’ll be all right soon, just get to a place to rest…

“Wait,” he said, his voice heavy with fatigue. “Rykounagin, you don’t remember anything that happened? We went through the portal, and ended up on Endor…”

And then your magick was gone, Phalomir. And you experienced a temporary insanity or some such mental ailment brought on by that loss of powers. So really, what do YOU remember of that?

“Something is wrong here,” he said. “Shayla and Panthar, out there… And you in here… I will get back to you.”

Phalomir trailed off, looking back to towards the cockpit. He stepped backwards and followed the hallway, leaving the door open to ShaRhylla’s appropriated quarters. He stumbled into the cockpit and sat – no, plopped – into the pilot’s seat. The stars around them were streaming as they would in hyperspace, but something was not quite right. The ship seemed to be somehow spinning. He strained his eyes to focus on the console and finally clicked the button next to the flashing red light. The stars slowed and then stopped, and in an instant the normal view of a starfield appeared in the viewscreen.

But it was not a view that Phalomir immediately recognized.

Hyperspace was a mystery only partially understood by sentient beings, just enough to take advantage of the spatial distortions to ease space travel. But inside that strange state of existence, when something went wrong it usually went VERY wrong.

And the unfamiliar stars before Phalomir told him that something had indeed gone very, very wrong.

[ 01-14-2010 12:11 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Phalomir ]

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

"How do you feel?" she queried anxiously, staring deeply into his eyes again, searching to see if anything in those mysterious depths seemed amiss. But she couldn't tell a thing, other than the feelings he had for her; cursing inwardly for her lack of powers, she pressed on.

"Is there anything you need, my love? Are you injured? Perhaps I should go seek--"

She paused a moment, floundering. After all, this wasn't her ship, no matter how haughtily she behaved toward it and its mistress. Truth be known, she hadn't a clue where to find whatever medicines or medical supplies Rykounagin might be needing.

"--Shayla," she finished, albeit with a tiny growl. It wasn't that she had anything against the young human, not really; it's just that it gnawed at her to find herself actually needing to rely on somebody else, even in so apparently trivial a matter as finding a bandage or pain-killer.

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

He blinked rapidly as if that would clear his mind. Slowly the world around him came back into focus and he managed to stand. He looked down at the bed to see if Phalomir was all right, and made an audible squawk at the sight of Shayla. He stepped forward and placed a large, gentle hand on her forehead. He brushed away the blond hair from her eyes and checked her breathing.

“Looks like she was knocked out,” he said. “Like me.”

He rubbed the back of his head where a nagging pain was prickling his skin, then thought to check Shayla. He lifted her head gently and checked for blood. There was none, but a bump was definitely forming back there.

But where was Phalomir? And what had happened, anyway?

Panthar gently touched Shayla's forehead again and then peered out into the hall. He shrugged and headed out, pausing when he noticed the hulking Sith sitting in the pilot's seat, staring out at the stars with a look of concern and confusion.

A shuffling sound caught his ear and he looked to the right. A door was open, and he stepped forward quietly to check the sound.

“Oh,” he said as he peered into the room. “ShaRhylla.”

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

"What must I do--!"

She was on her feet, whirling toward the door, fists clenched, fangs bared in anger as despite her lack of powers she reacted in the instinctive manner so uniquely hers. But then--

"Oh. It is you."

It took some effort on her part to flatten her ruffled feathers, more effort yet to halt her momentum and keep from flying fists-first at Panthar. She managed, however, and slowly brought herself under a modicum of control.

For a moment.

"What do you want? Why are you here? And what has happened, do you know? My husband-to-be appears to have been knocked out by a dreadful shaking; is the ship in one piece?

"What is going on?"

The words tumbled from her lips, unstoppable. Of the fact that she herself had been knocked unconscious, she made no mention.

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

"We've exited hyperspace." I say with a quiet realization, feeling that the small vibration to the ship that accompanies such motion has vanished.

"We can't be there yet." I manage to right myself, trying my best to ignore the spinning in my head. "I'll be fine." I say to ShaRhylla, recalling her distinct distaste for weakness or frailty.

"Panthar, is Shayla at the helm?" I ask, wondering if we're all up or if the woman is the only one down, having seen the two Sith at this point.

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

"Uh," he began. "No?"

Not unless she'd turned red and grew a few feet in size.

"But we're not in hyperspace anymore, that's for sure. Um, hey, does anyone know what is going on? And Phal is awake, too, and looking a little confused. Why did we come out of hyperspace?"

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

"Such idle talk serves no purpose," she stated, repeating her thoughts aloud. She cast a look toward Rykounagin, who appeared steady enough on his feet.

Good. My love is strong, fit to rule the Sith! she exulted inwardly before turning away from him to take matters into her own hands.

"I mean to find answers."

Riding firmly atop her royal high horse, she stomped out of the quarters and quickly gained the corridor without. Recalling enough of the ship's layout to at least find the cockpit, she headed in that direction. There she entered without announcement or hesitation, being taken only somewhat aback at the sight of Phalomir sitting in the pilot's chair. In front of him the viewport showed a starfield, thus confirming both Rykounagin's and Panthar's statements that they had dropped from hyperspace.

Coming to a halt a couple meters behind the silent Sith, she drew herself up, crossed her arms in front of herself.

"What has happened, do you know?" she asked, the tone of her voice converting the simple question into a demand for an answer.

"Where is Shayla?"

[ 01-15-2010 09:15 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by ShaRhylla ]

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"I assume," he began, "that we must have somehow collided with some object within hyperspace and were thrown into a spin. The nav computer is down at the moment, and I do not recognize this star pattern. As for Shayla, she was knocked unconscious and is asleep on the bed in the sick bay."

Phalomir then turned the seat to fully face ShaRhylla, his hands still pressed together in front of his chin. His senses had returned somewhat but he was still feeling like he could go to sleep at any moment. Still he did not know exactly what had happened her or what led to his waking up aboard the ship. He thought it wise to take on a different demeanor.

"I believe I may have experienced a concussion, but such trivialities shall pass. In the meantime, we need to ascertain our position and commence what repairs we can. I think Panthar has some knowledge in this area, and can at least begin an analysis while we wait for Shalya to regain consciousness."

Phalomir began to turn the seat back to the viewscreen, then paused.

Aelvedaar... where was he?

"Who all is aboard, and is anyone seriously injured?"

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

But if the Pretender was unable to implement what was needed to get them on their way, at least he knew something of what should be done. Which, actually, was more than she herself knew.

She struggled a moment with herself, then fought down her hatred and dislike and general annoyance. A time and place for everything; now was the time to throw up a disguising mask, to not only keep him off-guard from her but unaware of the fact this was happening. So she let a bit of her hauteur shine through, just enough to show him that she was still ShaRhylla, and still didn't really care one whit for him.

"Panthar and Shayla, and Rykounagin and myself," she replied flatly before heading for the nearest seat to plop unceremoniously into it.

"What are we going to do if Shayla doesn't wake up? Maybe Rykounagin--"

She broke off, showing uncharacteristic restraing in her unwillingness to speak for her betrothed. The fact that she believed he had the ability to pilot them out of their predicament was his choice and honor to offer, not hers.

But this still left them with the added little predicament of repairing their quite possibly damaged ship...

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

"Yes, Rykounagin may be able to help. He is a bright boy with great potential. I can pilot the ship if needed, but the nav computer is another matter."

Phalomir watched ShaRhylla's face. She was trying hard not to show emotion or give away her thoughts. He smiled inwardly at this for she was basking in the thrill of political intrigue.

"You also have great potential," he said. "Once we return home I will suggest to your mother that you begin learning the business of ruling. You will find it is much more than barking orders, and the Sith will need strong, level headed leaders in the next generation."

Movement caught his eye in the corridor. It was Panthar, his back turned towards the cockpit, moving back into the sick bay. Hopefully to check on Shayla.

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

...but a nagging red flag in the corner of her mind threatened to disrupt her blissful rest.

Hey...weren't you going...somewhere? Piloting a ship to the Sith worlds? Where was Graysith? Was Erik piloting?

Erik. Yes, yes, he had to be piloting. Carrying their baby had really taken its toll on her, particularly after all that Loban had done...

This memory, displaced as it was, was enough to jerk Shayla into wakefulness.

Was he still on the ship?

Shayla bolted upright, her hand going to her belly. her shock heightened to feel a firm, flat abdomen.

And then she remembered. She had the baby, and he was on Khar Delba in an incubator. They had been sent away...

At this thought, sorrow filled Shayla. She stretched out with the Force to comfort herself...

...and encountered another jolt. The Force...it just wasn't there. Memory registered once again, along with more pain and anguish.

Powers were gone, the baby was dead, and she just couldn't stand being with her husband any longer. He just didn't understand. Graysith, she wanted to be back with Graysith...

Getting control of her raging emotions, Shayla got to her feet, ignoring pain in her side and the throbbing of her head, ignoring that the world around her was spinning slightly. She had no time for sorrows, and no time for assessment of her condition. Her pilot senses told her that the ship was not in hyperspace any longer as she finally recalled what she had been doing...

...at least mostly: Piloting her ship back to K'eel Doba to find Graysith. With effort, she stumbled her way towards the cabin of the Preon, her vision yet swimming. She paused just outside, needing a moment before who and what she was seeing finally registered in her brain.

ShaRhylla, Phalomir, and Panthar. Huh...?

More of the puzzle of where she was and what she had been doing fell into place. The universe was spinning a little less rapidly and enough of her usual aplomb was back to realize that Phalomir was seated in the pilot's chair of her ship, and she really had no idea why or how she had been knocked unconscious. All she knew was that she didn't trust him and she had suddenly been taken down...

...and he was at the controls.

Her eyes locked unsteadily on his form as he turned in her direction, likely having heard her approach. "What have you done..?" she growled, approaching the controls and gaining more balance. She turned with effort in ShaRhylla's direction and paused, her piloting senses telling her more regarding the ship's condition. "Something has damaged the navcomputer," she stated, "And it feels like the sublight engine may be as well, we are not flying smoothly. We may need to land and get repairs."

Shayla frowned, her eyes defocusing a bit. Then they snapped back alert, although she still had some difficulty looking steadily back at Phalomir, who still sat in her pilot's chair.

"I do not know what he did," Here she shifted gaze back to ShaRhylla. "I was watching him one moment, and down the next," she explained darkly. She jerked her eyes back into Phalomir's green pair. "I need to assess the damages to my ship. Get away from the navboard...

... Now."

[ 01-17-2010 11:36 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Shayla Stargazer Petrolu ]

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

His face softened a bit.

"I place you in the cot, you have a bump on your head but I think you will be all right."

Phalomir stood, his hulking form taking up much of the pilot's area. He then placed a hand on Shayla's shoulder and moved past to make room for her in the pilot's seat.

"The nav computer is indeed an imperative. Look at the stars, Shayla, and see if you can make any sense of where we are. The are not enough signposts, nothing I can readily recognize for certain. We may be beyond the outer rims -- way beyond."

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

She didn't know diddly about navigation or for stars in general, but even to her untrained eye the image looked to be a bit on the strange side. The odd thing was that even in its strangeness, it seemed oddly familiar.

She reached out a slender hand, placed a dainty claw on the middle left of the screen and slowly drew it horizontally to the other side.

"Look," she observed, for the moment dropping all pretense of hauteur. Her hand came to the end of its little trajectory; with a slight nod of her head, she repeated the gesture.

"The stars, they are all in a band. They're not everywhere, as in the night sky."

Sure enough, the image was exactly that. While they couldn't be certain of what lay behind the ship, at least in front of it were stars. But stars that had somehow arranged themselves in a band-like formation, as if they had taken on a sphere-like shape that had been impossibly drawn out. Above and below this band, the void of space remained dark, although a tiny, sugar-crystal-like sprinkling revealed the presence of some stars forming a dim cloud very close to the band's upper and lower edges.

She drew back, and stared at the others.

"I've seen something of this look, when I was outside the Temple, after the lights of Phrinnchatka had been darkened for the night. The sky looked something like this: there was a band of stars going across the entire sky. The only difference was that in the night sky there were other stars all over the sky, but here there is just the band.

"What could this mean? Could it be we are near K'eel Doba? Maybe we can find our location by looking about ourselves too?"

She cast a sidelong look Shayla's way, watched closely as the young woman simply nodded in agreement and manipulated a particular set of buttons on the board. The image in front of them immediately began to slew, eerily folowing along the mid-plane of the band of stars until those stars seemed in themselves to dim, to grow fainter and fainter until they disappeared altogether.

The entire viewscreen had gone completely black.

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

As part of my training as a child, I was taught to fly ships, to navigate hyperspace. But I'd never gone so far as to memorize star clusters; my interest had been restricted to the bare essentials of transit and combat flight.

"Actions, not words." I finally say, pushing away from the door frame I'd been leaning against.

"This is Shayla's ship. Regardless of our thoughts towards our current predicament, I doubt any of us have the knowledge to make the repairs, save perhaps for her. In the meantime, perhaps we, the well tossed salad of the ship, should take some seats and try to recover."

I look out at the screen, then look back to the party.

"When Shayla knows more about the damage, and what has happened exactly, I'm sure she'll inform us."

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

"True," he said. "But ShaRhylla has noticed a very important fact about the positioning of the stars and we need to be prepared for the news that I believe the nav computer is going to confirm. As ShaRhylla astutely observed, the stars are banded together. My fear -- and I hope I am wrong -- is that we are very far from the Sith worlds. In fact, we are very far from anywhere familiar."

Phalomir sighed, looking around at the others.

"I do not know how I came to be aboard this ship nor the circumstances of why we were all unconscious. That is not as important as the fact that we are still alive and in relatively good health. But I do know that when I awoke, the ship was spinning wildly and still in hyperspace. Since I do not know how long we were in that state, or how badly we were initially knocked off course, it is indeed possible that we have been thrown to the edge of the galaxy."

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

Relatively speaking, of course... ))

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

"If this is true, then-- then how will we get back? Do we need to know where we are, so that we might navigate back to where we want to be?

"Who knows of such things?" For of all those aboard Preon, she was the one least familiar with the workings of and navigation through the starlanes.

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

“We will return home,” he said, without a hint of doubt. “It may take some time, but we will return. Shayla will let us know when the nav computer is functional and with it we will compute our location and plot a course for home.”

Shayla had already begun working on the nav computer. He held little hope that she could repair it quickly, but kept that hidden. He knew very little of repairing such devices, though he knew well how to pilot and navigate. That was a fact that most likely was known only to Jharmeen.

Jharmeen…

By the gods, how am I to get back to Jharmeen? K’Kihl, I wish there was a way to know what is happening, is she safe – is she well? If anything should happen to her…

No. She is well, I feel it. I must focus on the situation at hand and find a way to get everyone back.

“ In the meantime we should ascertain the other damage to the ship,” he continued. “Panthar knows how to operate the damage control systems, can anyone assist him?”

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

“I’ll take any help you might be able to give,” he said, looking at Rykounagin. “I know the systems but there’s a lot we need to go over. Especially hull integrity and the status of the hyperdrive. Plus, I’d like to run a bunch of probability scenarios and try to figure out what happened to us. If we can figure it out, then maybe we can reverse our steps somehow and get home that much faster.”

With that, Panthar turned back towards the hall.

“I’ll be in the control room,” he said, half smiling, “or whatever they call it these days.”

Panthar paused, then turned his head back.

“And I think I’ll do some charting, probably won’t have a chance to be out here like this again. Hey, do you think we should put out a distress call? Or would that be silly?”

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

Much as she might dislike the idea.

She scrunched her brows, trying to remember anything, anything at all that she might have learned from her parents, something that might come in useful somehow. Something mentioned once popped into her head, something that had trickled into it from her human grandsire via her mother.

"I don't think sending a distress call will do us any good," she blurted, turning away from Rykounagin. "Mother once told me that messages sent while in a ship travel on some kind of-- of wave-? and cannot go into hyperspace. Or something. The wave has a limited speed; if we are outside of our galaxy, won't it take too long for anyone inside to receive it?

"But I am not adept in such things. Maybe I am wr-- that is, maybe I mis-heard Mother."

She took a small step in Panthar's direction.

"I don't know what I can do, but I can at least try to help."

To her amazement, she found it quite easy to suppress the wrinkle of her nose this offer of assistance would otherwise have brought to her face. She merely sniffed and kept moving forward until she was next to Panthar, hoping inwardly that Rykounagin would likewise offer his talents to the group.

But once they were back in the home field, then business could continue as usual; that was the way she was rapidly beginning to view things.

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

I nod, inwardly chuckling at my love's inability to admit she could be wrong. At least openly.

"I agree. A distress signal would be useless in attempting to address anything within the normal space of the galaxy, and as for whatever could be out here, I'd rather avoid the attention of such."

I look out the door of the cockpit at Panthar.

"As I implied before, I know little of the workings other than bare essentials, though I am adept at operating in zero-G conditions if someone is needed to examine the hull."
Provided we have a suit for such.

"We do need to ascertain if any surface damage occurred. Shayla, do your instruments show anything?"

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

"If the hull was damaged, wouldn't we be dead by now?" she queried, turning back toward Rykounagin with a lift of one brow. "And if our sensors had been damaged, would it not be impossible to sense where we are-- or rather, where we are not?"

She turned back to Panthar for a moment.

"Maybe we should look about out there again, just to make sure of such things? Where we are, umm... are not," she finished somewhat confusedly. But she was not one whit angered or embarrassed with herself for harboring such confusion, for indeed if any situation warranted such, it was the one they now found themselves in.

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

"That is actually a very sound suggestion," said Phalomir, not waiting for Panthar. "But I wanted to run a hull and systems check to locate any type of damage, hoping that it might help explain what exactly happened to us. You just do not run into things in hyperspace -- at least you do not and survive. We must have been hit by some type of energy, and if it was a weapon then there should be scarring on the hull. If it was a more natural type of energy, then perhaps there are residual readings in the sensors. Either way, I think it would be worthwhile to run a systems check. And, I am sorry, Rykounagin, but if you would not mind suiting up...? I leave that to you, but you may be able to find scarring."

Phalomir then turned to ShaRhylla.

"If you do not mind, then I wold be happy to join you in looking at the view screen and see if we can make any determination of where we are."

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

"If we had been damaged, we would be feeling the effect of this now," she repeated her former point. "As for what in particular that it was, does it truly matter now? We are where we are by whatever it was that happened to us; it is still more important to find out where we were thrown.

"Perhaps we can get a better view of it from the outside of the ship... but how can anyone get outside safely? When I left the ship on Endor, I only passed through one doorway. Mother did teach me that there is no air in space; won't our air disappear outside if we open the ship's door?"

She looked up at Phalomir, then moved to Shayla. The young woman had remained remarkably silent through all of this, undoubtedly too engrossed in checking out Preon's systems to join in the speculative conversation going on behind her. But the fact that she was taking such a length of time, and had not announced anything, brought a glimmer of hope. Perhaps she was silent because there was nothing yet to report.

ShaRhylla paused only a moment before pushing past Shayla to get to the position on the boards holding the controls to the viewscreen. Mimicking Shayla, she managed to get the exterior cams moving: the image on the screen promptly slewed wildly into an angle, cutting the viewscreen across diagonally. Cursing under her breath, she fiddled more, bumping her shoulder into Shayla when the woman moved to assist: this was her little project, and she was going to finish it!

At length she had the controls determined, and the image on the screen righted itself. Once again it appeared to remain steady, presenting them with the sight of a band of stars smeared across the width of the screen. But this band grew gradually brighter as the cam continued its slew, then began to dim again, finally fading away altogether.

The image left in its wake was entirely black, showing absolutely nothing as the cam continued its movement, until at length a dim splatter of light came into view. That splatter resolved itself bit by bit into a band, which once again gradually began to brighten.

ShaRhylla removed her hand from the control, and straightened up.

"There are stars in a band, which dim into nothing. Then there is nothing, then stars light up again," she announced unnecessarily. "I don't see anything out there other than that.. wait.

"What is that?"

She pointed to a light on the console which had suddenly sprung into life, blinking a fiery, furious red, its color and the rapidity of its flashes demanding immediate attention.

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

“It is a proximity alert,” he said. “I set it when I was studying the stars a few moments ago. There is another object within a hundred thousand kilometers of us that registers an ion signature. Let us see if we can find it…”

Phalomir looked at the control that ShaRhylla had commanded just a moment before, realizing he would have to push her out of the way to reach it.

“Perhaps you could swing the sensors back around to the aft, and then we could…”

His attention was drawn to a small dot of light that drifted onto the view screen from the top left. It was small, still quite far away, but very noticeable on the dark curtain of night that stretched out before them.

“Do you see what I am seeing? How is this possible?”

Phalomir blinked, then looked to ShaRhylla.

“Can you zoom in on that?”

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