He fell away with his voice, and ceased, hiding his arms under his cloak slightly, hiding the claws. "We could try to analyze it back at your ship, unless you have some form of equipment to test it." He said, looking into the bloodred vial.

Does that blood match the color of all that I have spilled in the past and my rampaging death? Is it only a small amount compared to what I have done?

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"I don't know; that's what I asked you," she said, then sighed. Closing her eyes, she made a quick mental countdown.

"Time is running out, my friend," she finally said, opening her eyes to look at Nefrai's terrifying visage.

"I think we're just going to have to take what we have and run with it; if it works, ir works; if it doesn't, it doesn't. Chances are this could be something promising, though; we sure didn't run across it on any other body."

She nodded, indicating that they should go but paused a final time. A look of longing came into her eyes, and she waved to the armor at their feet.

"Let's take this with us anyway," she said, stooping to pick up the helmet. As far as she was concerned, possession of a suit of Mandalorian armor would go a long way toward compensating her if the object they carried proved not to be the antidote.

If it doesn't fit me, maybe I can sell it; I bet it's worth forty thou, too....

Asking Nefrai to gather up the remainder, she then set off to where she had left her ship.

[ 12-01-2004 09:59 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Minna Manth ]

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He continued walking, and spoke again, trying to find an easy topic, one that many always seemed keen to talk about. "So what is your ship? I haven't seen it before, in gastral form, it's hard to see things."

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"She's a modified light assault cruiser," she said, a note of pride creeping into her voice as she bent down to avoid a particularly low overhang of seemingly pure thorns. "I've got her -- ugh."

The grunt was reflexive as a thorn reached out and tangled itself in her ear.

"Ow, ow, ow!"

Hunched over so as not to get too close to the thornbush's fellows, who seemed to have nothing but ambush on their minds, she poked gingerly at her ear. The thorn merely imbedded itself deeper, pulled there by tiny contractions of her muscles as they writhed with pain.

"Dammit!"

Shaking her head, she plopped the helmet on to protect her against any further attack. Then she went on, although in a somewhat more terse tone of voice.

"I've got her modified; she's got great armor and can turn on a credit and hand you the change. I could use a touch we more in the munitions department; that's what I'm hoping to buy with what I get for that antidote.

"If it's the antidote, that is."

She let some time pass in silence, struggling to see her way through the dark jungle, her vision narrowed by the T-visor of the helmet on her head. A stumble at one point sent her chin striking against a toggle; immediately the inside of the visor lit up in green night vision.

"Cool," she breathed, pausing to take a look around. Everything was suddenly very familiar; noting a comforting shape in the shadows ahead, she hurried on.

"There's my ship; soon you'll be able to see for yourself."

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"I look forwards to seeing it, if you feel uncomfortable with my presence, I would stay in the hold."

He looked at the ship. "Impressive." He muttered. Not the most impressive, but I can't complain. It is my ticket off this grasscovered rock.

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"I've seen worse," she commented lightly as, taking off the helmet she proceeded to enter her ship. Once aboard she plopped the helmet onto the nearest seat and hurried to her controls; they glittered and blinked, patiently awaiting her reappearance.

A massive noise told her Nefrai was aboard. She played with the controls, and the gangway slid up, becoming invisible in the bulkhead while the hatch sealed behind it.

She nodded to herself then, and took a seat, taking care to strap herself in tightly.

"Let's blow this popstand, shall we?" she said, then hit enable and was rewarded with the press of mighty hands that held her against the cushions while Forbiddance spread her wings and flew for the sky.

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"And so we left the ruins of the felled Mandalorians." He looked down at her.

"So, who is this man who hired you? I asume he was aboard the ship, but still."

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After all, in three days we'll be back; it wouldn't hurt to tell him a little bit.

She cleared her throat.

"I don't know who it was for, but a man by the name of Taylor Garrison aboard a ship named the Hornett put out an apb for anyone to bring him the antidote to the Mandalorian Temblor toxin. From what I understand, those afflicted don't have much more than a few weeks until they die; we need to be back to rendezvous with my client in..."

She cast a look to the nearest chrono.

"Holy cats, in less than three days! We'd better sky!"

With that she punched in the afterburners, and her ship slipped into the protective silence of hyperspace.

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He went down the hallways, searching without true purpose, and finally found a small empty room.

He opened it, and entered, closing it behind him. He crouched down in the darkness, and put his back to the cold durasteel wall, his thoughts seeming to come alive again.

He set down the small datapad recording device, and watched himself, not really seeing the image, decimate the Mandalorians again and again.

This carnage I had wrought, with glee and joy. Did I have a reason to kill them? Was there any excuse I could have created that might have explained myself? No, I merely came, saw, and killed them. I am a monster. He sat there for a long while, wandering in his thoughts.

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Minna spent the majority of those days glued to her seat, content to watch the translation of hyperspace as given to her by her forward screens. To actually view the reality of that dimensionless superrealm would have been to invite insanity; as it was, the chromatic smears of the quickly moving stars was enough to give her a headache.

But she put up with that, keeping most of it at bay with daydreams of what she would do with her reward... if she received it, that is.

I hope that we got the antidote, she thought to herself, shifting in her seat to get more comfortable.

If not, I hope Nefrai can do his weird lil ol thang, and fix up my client good as new....

She cut off her musings at that thought, smiling.

I called him by his name.

She didn't know which filled her with a greater sensation of warmth and well-being, the fact that she could indeed now refer to Nefrai Kesh as a being and not a thing, or just the simple fact that he seemed content enough to hang about with her as her companion.

Well, that remains to be seen....

Frowning a little, she grunted, and shoved that impertinent thought deeper away into her mind. There it niggled and wiggled, worrying her at a level she wasn't aware of, really, but there nevertheless.

A blinking sigil caught her eye, and she jerked into wakefulness. Her hands flashed out to play on her communications panel,
both inter- and extra-ship.

"We're coming out of hyperspace!" she called to Nefrai, then bent over the comm-mike.

"Hornett, this is Heaven's Forbiddance," she called out even as the hulking bulk of that mighty super star destroyer burst into view above them.

"Requesting permission to dock, and docking coordinates. I'd appreciate if if you'd tell Mr. Garrison I've arrived...

"With my companion."

((OOC: Please follow Minna and Nefrai into On a Wing and a Prayer in the "Empire" forums, thank you.))

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