I closed my eyes, an involuntary shudder tremoring through my body as I remembered my past experiences on that awful planet. The fear and despair I went through, the pain. All at the expense of my "dear" sister, and the rebel Noghri at her command at the time.

He knows her from Khar Delba?

My eyes flew open, and resolve firmed within me. I carefully set the t'plyyk fruit back into the bowl, carefully straightened yet one more small wrinkle in the dress. Then I leaned across the table and pinned this man, this admiral, this person... whatever and whoever he really was... with my eyes.

"You know I'm going to do everything in my power to fight you, and to get away from this place," I said softly. "If you don't seem to worry about my sister, even after somehow knowing her as you do, then you are far more dangerous than I first thought."

I smiled sweetly at him, wondering how he would react to my boldness.

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

He stood up, drank the rest of the wine in his glass and walked straight out the door, not turning back to see her reaction. He was somewhat disappointed in what she had to say. He was hoping she would trust him, after all he had given her, including saving her life, twice! He could have left her to die with that madwoman Gouyen Chee, or better yet, left her with the Jedi, only to have Graysith come and more than likely kill them all, including her. He was simply pissed off at the nerve of that woman. Run from this? All the protection someone could ever wish for? And a beautiful suite with things she had probably never dreamt of owning in it. Whatta bitch....

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

"Oh shut up!" I muttered, getting to my feet. I began pacing about, red anger beginning to build within me.

"Don't count on it, babe..." Don't count on it, babe!?!

The thought that he had entered my mind with such ease, so unexpectedly, and planted that small statement there was totally unbearable. I stalked to the balcony, looked out over the city's lights.

"Damn him anyway!" I seethed to myself. I threw the fruit over the rail for good measure. "What in Hell's Seven Circles does he expect from me anyway? What does he want from me... gratitude?!"

I whirled and stormed back into the room, kicking over the chair he had been sitting in as I passed it, just for the sheer pleasure of it. Reaching my door, I rattled the knob.

Surprisingly, it obligingly turned. I yanked it open, and totally disregarding the plains-clothed guard stationed outside, stomped out into the hall. I glared at the guard; he actually stepped back a step in utter surprise.

I turned to see the admiral disappearing down the hall.

"You- you...!" I raged. I couldn't even get the words out of my mouth. Likewise I couldn't even figure out why in the Galaxy I was out in the hall, hollering after him like a fishwife.

I stopped myself, biting off the words rising in my throat. Like three kinds of fool, I just stood there, and for a moment merely watched his retreating back.

Suddenly I could contain the words no longer. "Why in Hell's Seven Circles are you being so nice to me, anyway?"

The words flung from between my lips echoed down the hall, terminating with a loud "WHOMP!" as, blind anger fully in control now, my fist collided with and broke a hole into the wall of the grand Imperial Headquarters I was being kept in. I withdrew my fist, scarcely noticing the pain throbbing in it, and just stood there, almost totally oblivious to the hands of the guard which were now being placed about my shoulders.

Wasn't he even gonna turn around?!

[ 06-22-2001 02:02 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Galen ]

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

He turned around, more calm now, and walked back to her and got right in her face and whispered, "I don't know, and since we both don't know I would think you would watch what you say and do for fear of being sent to the detention area, where you belong, instead fo this grand suite." He turned around and left, without giving her a chance to reply to what he had said.

[ 06-22-2001 02:13 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Admiral Actar ]

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

There I sat on the bed, unheeding to the small "click" as the lock to the door was turned this time.

Watch it? I'd better watch it?

I sat there, letting the rage fill me again. Oh no, Admiral. You'd better watch it. You'd better, or....

The thought broke off before it reached completion, as the utter futility of it sank into me. Or... what?

I fell backwards onto the bed, rubbing my face with my throbbing hand. Dry-eyed, I stared up at the ceiling of my beautiful and oh so well appointed prison.

Or what, Galen ol' girl? What for all the treasure on Roon do you really think you're gonna do? This guy has some kind of power; sheesh, does everyone in the entire Galaxy have it but me?

Oh Khaandon, if only Sorben were here; he'd think of something...

I bit that thought off in the bud, knowing full well I'd never see him again, that from now on I was on my own.

And that, my girl, is the real crux of the matter, isn't it? You're alone... even here. You insist on it, you wallow in this pity...

...here this guy really did rescue you from that black-eyed hellcat, and you tell him you're gonna fight him... My eyes widened as this thought struck me. I hadn't considered it before; indeed, that witch was not one I wanted to ever run across again in my life; the fact that this man had indeed snatched me from her clutches perhaps did in turn warrant a little gratitude from me.

But- but he wants the baby, doesn't he? Well... doesn't he? I considered that thought, thinking hard. Never once had he made any indication that was what he was after. Never. I had been operating on pure assumption.

I sighed, running both hands through my hair. Before my eyes, the ornately designed ceiling blurred a bit. Hell's Seven Circles, I moped miserably. I've probably blown it all sky high now. I'll probably be sent off to rot in some Impy detention cell now, and I'll never get to tell him I'm sorry.

My eyes widened again, as I wondered why I felt such a need to apologize.

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

Well, ol girl, I thought to myself. Not too much you can do about events right now. If he's mad at you, then he's mad at you... and if you're lucky you might get a chance to apologize.

If, on the other hand, he's not... well, then you won't need to, will you?

No need to be so down in the face; ok, he's gone. But dinner isn't.

I got to my feet, and walked out onto the balcony again. I seated myself at the table set for two, looked out across the twinkling lights of Bim Renna. For a long moment I merely contemplated them, trying to lose myself in them, making myself believe they were indeed stars that had fallen to earth, and once again I was out among them.

That's where you're happiest now, isn't it Galen?

The question was an unsettling one, all the more so coming on the wake of the suspicion that I might very well be grounded for some time to come.

I sighed again, wondering what in Hell's Seven Circles I was gonna do during that downtime. Then slowly, woodenly, I finished the dinner in front of me.

I sat there, staring at the lights and seeing everything and nothing, for a long time afterward. Suddenly it took entirely too much energy to even get up and change for bed. I lost all sense of time....

[ 06-24-2001 01:23 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Galen ]

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

There was an eerie silence in the room. Admiral Swatzi was the first to speak, ".....so, what's wrong?"

Actar, turned his head to face his friend and replied, "Oh, nothing of any real importance.

"I don't believe you..."
"Well, good, because I was lying," Actar said as he stood up, "you wanna know what we're in for?"
"I'm not sure, I'm not too keen on bad news, and I'm guessing that's what it will be."
"As always my friend..." He said with a small grin.
"Then go ahead, tell me..."
"Well," he sighed, "The woman I brought here, her sister, she's bad news. And I think she's coming here. And to add to that, I don't know why the hell I brought her here. In all honesty, I'd be better off just killing her, and giving no chance of her child living."
"What's so important about her child?"
Admiral Actar walked out onto the balcony, "Her child......it's strong in the force." Admiral Swatzi followed him onto the balcony, "and could cause considerable damage to whoever doesn't get ahold of it, and it just seems safer to not let anyone have it. We could give it to the Jedi, let them teach it, but you know how I feel about them."
Admiral Swatzi couldn't believe what he was hearing. How could a child become such a threat to the galaxy? "Why don't we keep it, and use it to our advantage then?"

Actar closed his eyes, in deep thought, and opened again and said, "I don't know." He turned to face Swatzi, "I'm going to bed, I'll see you in the morning."
"Alright.....do you mind if I go up and talk to her?"
"Do what you wish."
And with that, Swatzi left Admiral Actar to sleep.....

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

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

It was the sound of the door being unlocked from the outside, followed quickly by a barely perceptible sigh as it moved open.

I blinked again, continuing to stare at the ceiling. Then I drew in a deep breath. Only one man would enter my room without preamble, remaining silent. My eyes remained fixed on the intricate designs above me, as I collected my demeanor and carefully began to choose my words.

"Admiral," I finally began a bit hesitantly. "I- I want to apologize for my behavior at dinner. It was rude and totally inacceptable, and I just want you to know that I do appreciate your help in getting me away from... who ever in Hell's Seventh Circle that witch was. I'm afraid I've been mistrusting you for no really good reason, and I want to say I'm sorry.

"It's just that..." I began to go off in a new direction, suddenly wanting to explain everything to this man. Maybe he could help me even more than he had already.

I rolled from my back to my side in order to face Admiral Actar directly...

...only it wasn't Actar at all who stood in the entryway, a slightly bemused look on his face. It was that other military-type Actar had debriefed when we first arrived.

I froze like a gundar in headlights.

Sheesh, ol girl! When the heck are ya ever gonna learn to look before you leap...?

[ 07-16-2001 08:40 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Galen ]

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

So Terrin resorted to the most annoying thing he possibly could to get a hold of Actar...and made his way to the Admiral's suite.

Rather brazenly, he knocked on the door. The Admiral was probably asleep. But he didn't care. When no one answered, Terrin knocked again, even more loudly.

At last, the door lock snapped open and a face peered out. A rather angry-looking face.

Terrin figured he'd better explain himself before the Admiral slammed the door in his face. "I'm Terrin Danner. I'm here to inquire about Jedi Praxeum prisoner that you might have information on."

Although he still clearly looked put out about being awakened at this hour, the Admiral seemed to consider what Terrin had just told him, and furthermore he looked a little confused...maybe even a little worried.

Terrin decided he'd take this as a good sign. "Can we talk?"

[ 07-18-2001 03:19 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Terrin Danner ]

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

"Come in," he said still staring into his eyes. He stepped back, opening the door. Terrin stepped inside and the door was closed, and locked behind him. "So," he said, "how can I help you?"

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

"I'm Admiral Swatzi...we met earlier but were never properly introduced," he said, "I hope you like your room, it's one of our best suites...."

He waited for a reply....

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

Thank Khaandon I'm still dressed, I thought to myself, fingering the silky Kaladorian spider-silk I was wearing. The way my mind has been wandering I might have changed into sleeping garb without realizing it...

I snapped my gaze up again, straight into those still slightly bemused eyes.

I cleared my throat.

"Can I ask what in Hell's Seven Circles you're doing here, and do you always enter a lady's room without knocking?" I shot out all in one breath.

I glared at the man, then calmed down a little as common courtesy slowly wormed it's way into my head. I sighed a little.

Sheesh, ol girl, there you go again. Wonderful string of friends you're going to end up leaving in your wake the way you're going...

"Excuse me," I began again, my tone of voice more civil. "It's just that you- startled me. I really didn't mean to be so abrupt."

I paused a bit, gritting my teeth, very much conscious of how shallow the words I was spouting were sounding. I tried again.

"Um- these rooms are, well, more than I ever expected," I said. "If you ever run into that Admiral Actar friend of yours, would you please tell him that I'm really grateful for being here and not... well, for being here?

"And now, can I ask why you're here yourself?" I finished, quietly sitting back on the bed, my fingers working the rich fabric of the spread upon which I sat.

[ 07-18-2001 11:29 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Galen ]

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

Years might have passed in the "normal" spacetime continuum as the Chosen Daughter hunkered in her hidden orbit above Ambria, idly waiting for the correct moment to either reach out into that eerie less than void, or travel out into the real one. Or- perhaps only fleeting seconds had ensued since she had hidden herself thus. Even with all the Powers she carried and commanded, Graysith really had no clear sense of the passage of time outside the sphere of elseness in which she had hidden her ship.

What she was fully aware of, however, was the fact that no matter how "timeless" she felt in the elseness in which she lingered, the being named Shayla was experiencing something far worse. For that being had no idea there was even a possibility of the existence of the the strange non-space between seconds, much less that it was able to be penetrated by living flesh.

The null-ness of it must have been terrifying.

Graysith smiled as she contemplated the juicy picture that thought conjured in her mind. She yawned and stretched; then, idly giving M'wonBo'o's muscular neck a playful tweak, she sent forth a tendril of her mind once again, following the path she had broken there, seeking the mind she planned likewise to break.

Her smile deepened to blackened evil as she encountered the depth of the terror Shayla was battling with. As insidious as a Stennes shifter, the tendril easily breached what feeble mental barriers Shayla still managed to maintain, and wormed icily into the deepest recesses of her being. It's camoflague blended seamlessly with the growing terrors and inner demons which danced in Shayla's mind as, probing with almost gentle persistence, it sought even more fuel for the fire Graysith intended to ignite.

That fuel was found with ease. Erik....

The Chosen Daughter inspected the sudden flare of warmth associated with this deeply hidden image, uncomfortably aware of the likeness this bore to a turquoise-eyed image she once had hidden away deeply within her own psyche, and as jealously guarded.

For a moment longer she stopped there, a small part of her own being showing a surprising gentleness in wanting to back away from that hoarded image, to leave it alone to the woman who hoarded it, recalling the welcomed warmth of that similar kernel once hoarded within her own soul.

Then the fading turquoise was overwhelmed by onrushing crimson, the lingering warmth she yet might have been holding yielded to flames more intense than coronal plasmas. Filled with fire and fury, she reached into Shayla's mind with all the care of a stampeding ronto, grasped the image of the one called Erik, and played with it.

Twisted it into pure grief, and with that image implanted securely into Shayla's mind the certainty that her love knew she was dead, and sought her no longer.

A vaccuum is not a dense enough medium to carry sound, but Graysith clearly heard the despairing moan suddenly emanating from Shayla with the clarity of a bell.

They seek you not... she whispered quietly into Shayla's trembling mind. HE seeks you no longer. To them you are dead; they have other tasks with which to occupy themselves.

And look.... An image of Erik with another woman crept into Shayla's mind with silent certainty, someone known to Shayla, one named... Cella....

...look. Already he has found another, you are forgotten as a fleeting thought on the wind.

I, however, I do not forget you, nor do I forsake you. I can give you surcease of the pain you feel. I can end your terrors.

Feel, my... sister....

With masterful timing, Graysith sent a flash of warmth and comfort flooding into Shayla, offerring a lifeline for her to grasp. Her own image floated to the front of Shayla's mind, her violet eyes calm and beckoning, her smile genuine, her hand offered in comradely sistership. Something close to but not quite akin to love likewise flooded Shayla, attempting to fill the little void beginning to grow around that image of Erik.

The choice is yours to make. I will not force you.

Aboard her ship, Graysith shifted her weight in her navseat, lounging more deeply and comfortably therein, as she waited to feel how the young woman would respond.

[ 07-19-2001 11:25 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Graysith ]

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

No Erik! I'm here! I'm here and you cannot reach me...cannot find me...

"I, however, I do not forget you, nor do I forsake you. I can give you surcease of the pain you feel. I can end your terrors," the woman from what seemed so long ago said to her...the woman who was in her head...

Shayla almost succumbed to her terror again, longing for his touch, and longing to be away from this awful nothingness. Then logic began to seep through.

If I can see things from the past in this void, things that have already happened and cannot possibly be happening again, then what is to say that what I'm seeing now, in my head, is no more than a vision of what COULD come, and not absolute truth?

And how she longed to be back to reality. More than anyone could possibly know, except one....

POTENTIAL...TRUE POTENTIAL... If only she'd trust in herself...

Time to face reality, Shayla, she thought to herself. You are stuck here so long as you continue with these ridiculous emotional battles. These emotions, the ones you have been so desperately seeking, are doing you little good unless you learn to control them. And that will take time, time you don't have to be sitting here in absolute nothingness fighting a battle you cannot win.

POTENTIAL, TRUE POTENTIAL...

Shayla's mind was made up. She had to trust herself on this one, and she needed reality now more than ever. All she had to do was surrender and accept the hand this woman had offered. That was all...

Although the possible outcomes of this move could prove disastrous, there was no reason to worry about what might happen in the future just yet, for it was all in motion. For the present, Shayla knew she needed this woman's help, and if she wanted out of the void, accept it she would.

And at last, with only a moment's hesitatation, she reached out to the link that had been opened between her and the woman, and accepted the hand...

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

From deep within his hidden Temple, Aelvedaar, her Sith Sorcerer mentor and love, reached out across the parsecs, and with almost offhand ease pierced the barrier separating the elseness from the spacetime continuum. His flaming eyes glowed in her mind, filling her heart with their flames as he sent forth his approval and and simultaneous warning.

"My love," his deep bass voice rumbled through Graysith like a stormcloud. "In what thou art attempting, thou art to be commended. But take care, my sweet. All may not be as it seems. It has been said by more than one that always in motion the future is; take care in thy cementing of this Being's."

Graysith bowed her head in deference to her Lord, and sent forth a somewhat terse reply. "This one shall join with me in our Quest, my love," she shot back smoothly. "A useful Tool she could prove to be.

"If not, she shall be discarded as superfluous."

The powerful image of the horned Sorcerer nodded in approval, and sent forth a final rush of something akin to love, with which to fill and sustain the woman he had chosen. Then he closed the link, and faded from her essence.

That final sensation created a responding flare in Graysith, and her hand tightened even more about the small one she was holding. A smile creased her pale features as she directed her full attention to Shayla once again.

"A wise decision this is, my sister-to-be." She sent the words probing smoothly into Shayla's mind, where they coiled like twining vines and took root. Her smiled broadened as, searching further, she encountered no lingering resistance to them there. "I look forward greatly to the closeness we shall have. It has been long since I have had One to call sister...."

For a brief moment she paused, as an image of another woman brushed fleetingly to the forefront of her thoughts. One dressed in warrior black, her eyes matching her garb, her hair a raven's-wing plait cascading down the side of her head to her waist. Gouyen Chee... somehow, Graysith knew her blood-bonded sister would approve of what she was doing. She smiled as she remembered her, and allowed herself a short moment to hope their paths would once more cross one day.

Then she firmed, and directed her full concentration upon Shayla. Upon her brow, the Glyph ignited, shooting rapidly up the electromagnetic spectrum into the range of immense energy, flooding the bridge of her ship with it's icy fire. Beside her, M'wonBo'o leapt to his feet, startled. He threw back his head, his howl reverberating through the bridge like the onslaught of an avalanche.

Graysith gave an imperceptible pull... and with stunning rapidity Shayla was extricated from null-ness into a world of fire and ice and thunder. The Chosen Daughter smiled as she viewed Shayla's arrival upon her ship.

"Welcome, my sister," she purred, her violet eyes boring deeply into Shayla's. "It is good that you have joined me."

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

And she also felt terror creeping up in her mind again.

She'd wanted out of the void of her mind, and she had decided to do whatever it took to get out. But had she made the right choice?

Shayla reminded herself that the future is always in motion, and that she was ultimately in control of her own actions.

Be logical, Shayla she thought to herself.

The woman before her seemed pleased to see her, nd her words confirmed that.

"It is good that you have joined me..."

Was it, now?

Shayla reminded herself that she needed, for the moment, to push her emotions to the background. They were jumbled, weren't making sense, and were getting in her way. She didn't have time for that right now.

So she decided to choose her words carefully.

"I thank you for returning me to reality," she said, staying very calm and lucid. Truthfully, her head was still spinning and she felt faint and shakey. "I..." she started the sentence, intending to ask for a place where she might rest for a time. But her physical body finally took over and demanded what it needed...sleep. The adreline that had been coursing through her veins, along with what little sleep she'd actually had during the whole time, had finally run out.

And the world before her again went black...

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

The Admiral seemed willing enough to listen, so Terrin figured he'd play nice.

"Well, my sources tell me that you have recently been to Yavin IV, and until recently when you arrived here on Ambria were being trailed by a shuttle that has disappeared from our scopes. That shuttle is holding hostage a woman named Shayla Stargazer Petrolu, a student at the Jedi Praxeum."

Terrin stopped here momentarily to observe the Admiral's reaction to what he was telling him. Actar remained pretty impassive, but he was at least hearing Terrin out.

"I was wondering," Terrin continued, "if you might have any leads on who is following you, and who might be interested in taking a mere Jedi in training. And furthermore, I was wondering if you might be able to explain to me how to find this shuttle," he finished.

Actar seemed to be looking straight through him at this point, and Terrin didn't know if that was a good sign. Actar might not know what was going on with Shayla, but he out to know that he should be damned concerned about a stray shuttle following him from Yavin into Ambria.

Terrin waited for the Admiral's response, hoping for the best he could get...

[ 07-20-2001 01:11 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Terrin Danner ]

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

Have I made the correct choice with this One, my love? The thought sped silkily out into the void, seeking the mind of Aelvedaar so very distant, and so very quiet. Graysith knew she would get no reply to this question; it was up to her to see if she had chosen wisely or not.

But now was not the time. Now was the time to give this woman the space to heal, and to show her that her intentions were sincere. There was plenty of time to come in which the Chosen Daughter could divine whether the now-loosened grasp Shayla had placed upon her hand was genuine or not.

She smiled a quick little smile, and tightened her hold on the limp body she held in her arms. Then her voice lifted in a quiet command.

"M'wonBo'o," she called. "Your assistance."

From where he was laying, finally quiet, the massive tuk'ata lifted his sleek head, his pupilless eyes questing, his face-tendrils sensing. In one fluid movement he rose to his feet, and claws clicking, moved to the side of his blood-hunt companion and mistress. He shoved his head against her side, and made no growl or complaint as Graysith carefully lowered the unconscious Shayla onto his back.

"Let us take this one to her quarters that she might rest," she commanded gently, one hand reaching down to smooth the sweat-slicked hair from Shayla's face. "There is time anon to make our plans for... or with... this woman."

Together they carried Shayla from the bridge of Graysith's ship, the tuk'ata's thoughts full of unvoiced queries, and the Chosen Daughter's full of equally unvoiced designs.

[ 07-20-2001 01:30 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Graysith ]

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

Then she remembered. She had been in a void, when she finally had decided to no longer succumb to her emotions, and had been yanked from the void back into reality...to here, on a shuttle with a woman she did not know, and a being that she did not understand.

With her eyes half open, Shayla attempted to sit up, and found that her head was still spinning, and felt a wave of nausea threaten to take hold of her.

Fine, she thought to herself. She laid back on the pillow and moved both hands to her face, rubbing her eyes. Slowly, she opened her eyes fully, and scanned her dim surroundings.

She found herself on a bed in a small room with white walls and no decoration. To her right she noticed a refresher station, which looked rather inviting. If only I could stop this confounded spinning in my head.

Then something else occurred to her. She was in the room alone. Knowing it would be impossible for the woman to trust her just yet, she figured that she had been locked in. She'd have investigate that later, when she felt more up to it.

Shayla wondered what exactly this woman wanted with her, and what she had planned. And she was also curious as to how much of her Force capablilties she could still use, after all the turmoil. She stretched out to the Force, and discovered it indeed was there, and that the woman was nearby, possibly in the room next to her. However, beyond the shuttle, nothing else seemed to exist.

Fine again, Shayla thought. If no one else out there knows whether I exist or not, I'll just have to take care of myself.

Determined to get up and visit the 'fresher, Shayla attempted sitting up again. The nausea threatened to return, but this time she fought it, using her will and a little bit of Force-channeling to shove it off.

Swinging her legs over the side of the bed, she stood up a little hastily, and felt them buckle. She caught the side of the bed and pulled herself back up, this time taking care to rise more easily. Slowly and carefully, she headed for the refresher.

[ 07-20-2001 10:50 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Shayla Stargazer Petrolu ]

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

Then he spoke, "The shuttle following me is occupied by someone you don't want to mess with," he paused, "It will turn up in due time, stick around....and If I'm not mistaken, you are interested in taking a Jedi in training, may I ask why? And who is that you're working for?"

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

"I'm working for Moff Krenoff. We are after a woman named Shayla Stargazer, who has currently left her information broking agency to complete some training as a Jedi that she started when she was younger. Her corporation uncovered some nasty information on Krenoff that should have been kept underground, and the Moff desires her back so that he can do a little bargaining with her," Terrin explained pausing.

He intended to pretty much stop with that, but he felt it necessary to add a little more detail to the threat Shayla could possibly pose. "Shayla has many sources for information, and to make matters worse she is able to use her untrained Force abilities very well to get what she wants. We need to find her, soon."

With that, Terrin again waited for the Admiral's next reply.

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

Ambria. Somewhere upon its surface, that infuriating Admiral had taken her sister. What he had planned doing with her did not concern her; what did was the simple fact that Galen was her prey, and she had been cheated of it. Her violet eyes narrowed as the Glyph flared her momentary fury; then she calmed.

Galen was below. The newcomer chosen by the Chosen Daughter was here. Yet there was something else intruding within this rather simplistic triangle, something which niggled around the edges of her senses like a the fluttering wings of a Toydarian.

She closed her eyes, concentrating on the slight disturbance she was sensing. Gradually there came into her thoughts the image of a man, a tall young man standing before one decked in military finery...

...a man who called himself Terrin, and who was after...

Shayla.

Graysith's eyes snapped open as she turned this new bit of information around in her head. She turned halfway around, her mental gaze piercing through the very bulwarks of her ship, zeroing in upon the young woman who even now was shakily beginning to regain her strength.

The strength of the emotion which roiled up from her soul regarding this triangle surprised her. For although she had planned upon luring Shayla to her side just to use her for her own ends, she suddenly found that she didn't want anything to happen to her. There was something about the young padawan that beckoned to her; she felt a possessive surge rise through her with sudden heat.

Pursing her lips in determination, she turned back to the viewport, firming. So be it. The plan would be altered.

She would let no harm come to her new "sister."

But Khaandon help her blood one...

Closing her eyes, she raised her arms, the Glyph bursting forth with powerful energies, electromagnetic essences which reached out into the very nullness in which they were hidden, and broke open a brief gateway. Her arms still upraised, the Chosen Daughter opened her eyes, seeing the image of a small but glittering city on the other side of the portal she had created.

A deadly smile upon her face, she gracefully stepped through.

Behind her, M'wonBo'o raised his head to watch his Mistress as she faded from view. Then he padded to the entryway to the bridge, there to curl into a knotted mass of claw and fang and muscle. None would be allowed passage until his beloved Companion returned.

He laid his slim head down upon his massive paws, and began his wait.

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

Though he knew the jist of what was going on, he wanted to hear it from her....

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

This guy was interested in me? Who in the name of Khaandon was he anyway, that he was interested in me?

And more importantly, why?

For a brief moment I considered the wisdom of clamming up and playing dumb, but I had a feeling he could see right through me if I tried anything along that line. That same little feeling was hollering at me that that was something I definitely did not want to happen.

I chewed my lip thoughtfully, trying to figure how to condense the last few months of my life into mere sentences. At length I decided that most of it didn't matter; not to me anymore, and certainly not to him.

I cleared my throat. "I'm running from my sister," I announced simply. "She's...uh- she's trying to kill me."

I paused a little uncomfortably, well aware of how melodramatic that sounded. Perhaps with a little clarification....

"For the baby," I finished. "She wants to take my baby, and kill me afterward.

"And as for me," I added hurriedly. "I am, or rather was, after her. She killed our father, and she needs to pay for that.

"But I don't think there's any way I'm going to bring her in, or change her back..."

I bit that last sentence off with a quick snap of my mouth, keenly aware that I had let slip a bit more than I really intended. My eyes wide, I looked at this new Admiral, suddenly anxious to see how he responded.

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