He paused then, pursing his lips and considering. "I'd better give him a comm..."

Then, reaching for his wristcomm, Jasyn did just that. "Aaron, buddy, I've got something here concerning the Empire's "troops" that you'll really want to take a look at; something Galen has stumbled upon. We need to get together and discuss this, and soon. Are you available, and if not, when?"

Jasyn paused then, leaving the channel open as he waited for a response. In only a few moments the reply came across the way. "I'm in my office," it said. "Bring whatever it is you have."

Nodding then, Jasyn headed for the door to his office, waiting for Galen to join him there before proceeding to the corridors of the Hornett and winding through them til at length he made his way to Aaron's office door. He knocked but once before it slid obligingly open, and without preamble Jasyn stepped inside, Galen right behind him.

Aaron turned from his computer to quirk a curious brow in their direction. "What's up?" he queried then.

"We've got some computer files you will want to look at," Jasyn said, then nodding towards Aaron's computer.

"Go right ahead," the other man replied, moving out of the way long enough for Jasyn to call up the files in EE's system before he stepped back so Aaron could have a look.

As Aaron flipped through the files himself, his eyes grew wide. "Holy sithspit..." he muttered, looking up towards Jasyn and Galen, clearly at a loss for words.

"We were thinking perhaps we could use this information to get past the Reborn gaurds and to JhinDarra...

...but that requires us to have a means to block the Force after smuggling ourselves into Coruscant. I still have some of my ysalamiri...

...that should cover the Force-blocking issue...but smuggling ourselves into Coruscant might take some work. We still have a host of Krenoff's access codes in Terrin's computer files...

...but there's no garantee that they are still acceptable. I want something a bit more sure fire...

...got anything in mind?"

[ 04-25-2003 09:56 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Jasyn Lancaster ]

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"All I can say is that she is cute, but don't tell her I said that."

When we got too Alexis door I stopped Dash from knocking.

"Before you knock answer my question first."

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As she entered the computer room, a glance at her watch informed her that she had approximately 2 standard hours of shift left. She sighed and sat down at her computer, beginning her routine system scans once again.

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"Watch over the young one, for you will I," he chittered at length.

Then without so much as waiting for a reply he turned, pocketing the glowstick in amidst his graduated set of hydrospanners, and headed back to the engine room. There he went to the computer station which served as the Twi'lek's post; he came up beside her and for a moment simply stood there in awkward silence. Finally he took the glowstick from his tool belt, and poked it at her.

"For you this is, to hold you may, if in assistance to me you would be," he offerred, then fell into expectant silence.

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"Main power cable, rethreading is needing. Someone to... the glowstick hold, and otherwise assist I am needing. Returning of power, that too in tandem is doing...."

Now he leaned in close, almost conspiratorially.

"Others here there are, efficient rethreaders they are not, I am thinking...."

He trailed off then into another light series of clacks.

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I knocked on ALEXIS's door. "Alexis, you there? It's me Dash. Your brother is with me as well. you wanna go grab a bite to eat with me, or something?"

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...but that didn't mean they should be parading about a damn SSD. Not to mention the fact the ship was absolutely monstorous, there were also just some places that some people shouldn't go.

And engine rooms where one of those places.

Matt placed his hand under his chin for a moment, then reached for his keypad, calling up a mapping of all the quarters and guest suites onboard the Hornett, scanning through them to then see which ones were occupied by whom. At length Matt finally came across a listing for some guests of Galen Danner. Nodding to himself then, he reached for his comm-link, and notified the security in that area. "This is Matt Stanza requesting that the occupants of guest suites R 551, 553, and 555 are all restricted to their quarters til further notice."

The line crackled silent for a moment, and then a security officer replied. "Yes sir."

In the hallway of Red Level...

The security officer, after placing his commlink back on his belt and motioning his 4-man squad to follow him, took a short walk down the corridors towards the specified rooms. As he approached, the words of one of the two men standing at the entrance to one of the three rooms wafted into his ears.

"Alexis, you there? It's me Dash. Your brother is with me as well. you wanna go grab a bite to eat with me, or something?"

The security officer cleared his voice so as to gain the man's attention, his look stern. "I'm sorry sir, but all occupants of rooms R551, 553, and 555 have been restricted to their quarters. You will find adequate nourishment in your suites' kitchenette til such time as your... hostess can meet with you once again."

Then the security officer fell silent, not budging an inch...

...and clearly not intending to as his squad stayed on the alert behind him.

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...something inconspicous. As for the ysalamiri...yes, that would work. But the second they are unable to sense you, those reborn will be searchng you up and down to figure out exactly why, so maybe that's not the best approach. I still suggest something very common, something very inconspicuous.

"And as for what to do with the Valley of the Jedi...I think we'd better sit on it a bit while we consider. Attacking the place will only draw further attention to it...

...so maybe we're gonna have to consider some stealth on that as well..." He trailed a moment, his eyes defocusing a bit. Then they snapped alert once more. "But first things first," he commented, looking over to Galen, "You and Jasyn need to get into Stargazer Corporations identity files and set yourself up so you can sneak on into Coruscant...

...unless, of course, you might have a better idea..."

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[ 04-26-2003 10:15 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Sularre Rynnll'tan ]

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"Such words, inappropriate are, in duty hours," he admonished lightly, refraining from going so far as to actually shake an appendage in her face. Somehow, although his face was absolutely expressionless -- indeed, incapable of showing a lick of such -- he somehow fairly oozed forth the impression that he was scowling blackly.

"On ship, thoughts should be. On duty, thoughts should be. Mind on your task, is where it should be... on wandering strangers not."

He paused dramatically, then turned and kept walking. And just as he approached the door to the dark and noisy engine room, his clackery voice came one more time into Sularre's ears:

"Indeed, trouble plenty, the two are in. Banished from the ship, will be. Spaced more than likely."

He then strode into the engine room, not so much as a chittery clack escaping him as he headed for the main power line transfer pod and proceeded to open it up.

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With an effort, she pushed thoughts of Dash and Jebbua out of her mind as she began walking at a quicker pace to catch up to K'kihl. Finding nothing else to say, she kept her head down and remained silent.

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How to such a position, one so young did achieve? he thought to himself as he carefully set the transformer pod's cover gently off to one side. He then reached into the opening he had created, seeking the emergency power circuit breaker.

Incorrect procedures create very dead Verpines, he mused as he came in contact with the sought-after switch. Although there wasn't any indication around him that a circuit had indeed been broken, he seemed to sigh in relief.

Unusual power outages unusual power reinstatements can often be!

This he remembered with a vengeance from one of the myriad tales his lineman grandsire had spoken to him and his broodmates. How well he recalled his grandsires decrepit look, the cracked and permanently scorched carapace, the missing appendage, the twisted antenna...

...all because protocol had not been adhered to, assumptions had been made, along with nearly deadly error.

Now K'kihl rocked back a bit, waving to Sularre that she light the interior of the pod. Keeping smugly to himself the fact that he really didn't need this light at all, he kept reaching inward, following the powerline, hunting for the main jacket conduit from whence he could begin stripping procedures....

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She glanced briefly at the watch on her spare hand after moving it a bit closer to the light source in her other hand. According to her watch, she still had plenty of time before her shift was over. Still, she couldn't help but worry--for she had little else to do but worry--that she wouldn't finish in time. Of course, K'kihl could always explain, but judging by how no one was too pleased with her after what happened today, she could be certain that even excused tardiness would lead to severe castigation.

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I turned to acknowledge him. He proceeded to tell us that we were confined to our quarters.

"What is the reason for this Quarrantine??? I'll obey your wishes, but could I requset that we all converge in ONE room. At least then we won't have to sit all alone with noone to talk to. Could you COM your supervisor and place my request?"

[ 04-27-2003 05:19 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Dash Kelderon ]

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I leaned forward, injecting myself into the flow of thought, and said as much.

"Remember the earthquake scenario," I said briefly. "I'd bet crdits to andris that the planet is sewed up tighter than a Toydarian's cashbox right about now; if we would plan to come in as simple traders or peasants we'd probably get DNA checked or something, and then that would be traced back five generations just to make certain we were who we said we were."

I fell silent for a moment, pursing my lips as a couple other thoughts crossed my mind.

"You know... there were a couple other Jedi who came here with me; they-- they helped me get Loban off-Sullust...." I trailed for a moment, blinking back rising images; gathering up my self control, I continued.

"Do you think they might be induced into assisting us? Because, no matter how you look at it, the only thing I can think of that blocks the Force on a large scale is that weird power my sister has, and her ships as well, and they're back in the Khar Delban system, and to even come close to getting in there we might need some help, don't you think?

"Assuming we go there to try to, ummm... appropriate a Sith ship, that is."

There. I said it.

I fell silent, waiting to see what kind of reaction would follow.

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...and the probability of it leading to another encounter with the Sith.

Shaking himself from these thoughts to focus on the moment, Jasyn had to admit the idea at did make quite alot of good sense. And it wouldn't be the first time they'd gone to the Khar Delban system to appropriate something from the Sith. But...

"Getting our hands on a Sith fighter would strenghten our chances, I'll admit that," Jasyn commented, still quasi-thoughtful. "And we have managed to appropriate things from the Sith before..."

He trailed a moment, images and memories flashing of another day in time when they'd made a trek to Khar Delba to appropriate another something. "...but we've got about 2 million more problems to deal with now, coming in the form of the Sith. We're gonna have to plan our entrance carefully...

...cause I sure as hell would like to get in and out of there as quickly as possible..."

[ 04-27-2003 08:32 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Jasyn Lancaster ]

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With that the officer fell silent then, waiting to see just what this visitor to the Hornett might choose to do.

[ 04-27-2003 08:52 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Terrin's Crew ]

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When I finshed speaking Alexis opened the door and looked at the 6 men outside her room.

"Can I help you all?" She said.

[ 04-27-2003 08:56 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Jebbua Dahutt ]

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K'kihl smiled inwardly, nodding to himself as his keen eyes took note of that.

Steady hands, has this one, he thought briefly, then returned his concentration to the task at hand.

At length the tunnel they were crawling through came to stop, intersecting with a large vertical shaft. The bundled power cable dog-legged in two directions, now running up and down one side of the shaft like a pipeline in a diamond mine, hugging one side of the shaft. Across from the cable was a ladder, positioned about fifty centimeters from the opening into the tunnel in which they now were.

The Verpine stuck his head into the shaft, twisted it and peered upward. The ladder ascended into darkness; he knew there were branch-offs to each level of the great super star destroyer. While each branching tributary would not be holding the broken place he was hunting for, it could be anywhere in the main cable itself.

He twisted his head, now straining to see down the vertical shaft. For a moment he remained quiet; then he pulled back into the tunnel. Reaching into his tool belt, he pulled out a small sensing device and aimed it at the power cable. A small screen lit up bright orange, but otherwise remained noninformative.

He sighed.

"To the main power generators, go we must," he announced in his chittery voice. "Then from there every centimeter examine we must, the source of break in cable to find."

The tunnel was a touch confining, so he couldn't turn and look at Sularre to guage her actual reaction to his words. He then merely reached into the shaft, forward appendages yet leading the way, curving his body until his hands came in contact with the waiting ladder. Now he pushed his body forward, "walking" his hands up the ladder until his waist cleared the lip of the tunnel opening; at that point he pulled mightily with his arms, pulling his body entirely out. His lower half swung a few seconds before his feet found a rung.

Then he calmly proceeded to climb down into the darkness below.

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"The frontal advance has never worked well with Jharmeen," I said, my thoughts now flashing back to when we were kids on Garos IV. Even then, whenever I wanted to request she do something for me, or wanted to borrow something of hers, just coming out and asking usually resulted in her reverting into the role of the demi-goddess: the act where, "I-have-it-and-I-don't-need-it-but-you-want-it-so-you-won't-get-it" routine. Having her as a sister hadn't been the easiest happenstance in my life, but it did go a long way toward teaching me the art of diplomacy: to get Jharmeen to see things my way I had to persuade her into believing it was her idea to begin with.

However, the circumstances had been clearly altered. If it were just Jharmeen... er, rather, Graysith, as she now went by... I could really see no problem in stroking her ego and thus coaxing her into assisting us. But now there was a matter of the Sith....

The Sith, of which there were now millions in existence, I reminded myself, frowning a little. I turned a cautious look Aaron's way.

"Any ideas?" I asked, and followed with, "I just can't see us sneaking in to Ch'arlingua and grabbing a fighter, even though I do have this to help."

I fell silent, my hand straying to the light bending device on the Sith belt I wore.

[ 04-30-2003 11:26 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Graysith ]

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With nothing more than that, the officer then took his commlink from his belt and commed Matt Stanza. "Sir, this is Security on Red Level, block R5. The guests restricted to quarters R551, 3, and 5 are requesting permission to converge into one room to discuss their 'matters'."

At his desk in his office, Matt leaned back as the comm came streaming through, and frowned. Just who were these people, and what matters did they have to discuss? He leaned forward, pressed the send button on his comm unit, then spoke into the speaker. "That request, for the moment, is denied. Please inquire about to the nature of their business aboard the Hornett, because at the moment I see them doing little else than enjoying some free time."

Immediately the security officer looked to the guests he was speaking with. "Your request is being denied. However, my boss would like to know the nature of your business here, if in fact you have any."

Then he quieted, waiting.

[ 04-29-2003 10:30 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Terrin's Crew ]

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"We came here with a friend. Her name is Galen and we were planning on discussing our departaure, because we wouldn't want to get in your way, but I see that we have to go to are own rooms, so we'll just have to stay longer." I said as I started to walk off.

I turned my head over my shoulder seeing if my reverse physcologoy had worked.

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