His Mistress was in trouble, and he could not stand in the way. But he knew her plan, and he knew that he could at least complete one task for her, acting only if and when the circumstances required.

The tunnel wasn't so bad. Dark, but dry and cool. Although there was an odd cinnamonlike smell about them that she couldn't quite place...

Cella inhaled deeply, and the world seemed to explode around her. She could feel every thread in her clothing, almost every wrinkle on her skin. She saw in a thousand spectra, heard the sounds of the birthing of the galaxy.

At least that's what the glitterstim filaments she'd inhaled made her think.

With that Rean took his lightsaber returning it to his weapons belt, awaiting their reply.

[ 02-16-2002 11:43 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Master Rean ]

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Even so, leaving right away might be a good idea. But they still had to consider the fact that they would have a very pregnant woman on ship. They might need just a little bit more than the smaller freighters Shayla used to pilot around.

Time to call on some favors of your own, buddy.

"Allright, we'll go. But I'm not too thrilled about using Shayla's ship, and I can get my hands on something in moments that is quite a bit more sufficient than the smaller ships she frequently uses; you don't sell ships for a living without earning a few favors. Besides, using a Shayla's ship doesn't exactly thrill me since I don't know what surprises might be on board. I have at my disposal a nice enough yacht that the company just bought in hopes of selling it. Since I made the contact, the ship is still here, waiting for someone to retreive her. I say we take advantage, retreive the ship, and get the Hell off this rock. To the Bounty Hunter's world we go..."

[ 02-16-2002 11:52 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Terrin Danner ]

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I reached down to my belt where a luminary hung, and flipped the little light on. It wasn't a big one, as these things go, since in the course of my career I really had never planned on going spelunking or as a matter of fact anywhere that a larger one would ever be needed. I did realize however that such devices were often useful should some emergency situation arise; while I didn't quite categorize our current one as that, it did come close. I lifted the little light from my belt, and peered nervously into the dimness ahead of us.

The tunnel loomed like the mouth of some great beast waiting to devour us. That thought sent a shiver down my spine, and my grip on my blaster tightened. I cut a sideways glance to Matt who, if as nervous as I was, was doing a great job of not showing it. My estimation of him rose by another power of ten; sheesh, did anything ever rattle this guy?

"You positive she's down there somewhere?" I asked yet again. He didn't even bother to reply; the sigh that came wafting into my ears was more than eloquent enough. I sighed back. "OK, let's go then."

Taking care to remain as silent as we could, we tiptoed stealthily yet steadily into the maw of dark. Bit by bit the tunnel entrance waned behind us, and bit by bit the encroaching sunlight fell further and further behind. Soon we were only illuminated by the dim blue glows of our carrylights, which managed to be enough to reveal broken wiring and light fixtures hanging from overhead. I sniffed a touch ruefully; sure would have been nice it they were operable....

That thought was abruptly truncated as a darker shadow dropped suddenly down in front of us, crouching in a threatening manner. I couldn't help but take a step back, brushing against Matt as I did so and nearly dropping my light in the process. Before my startled wits could ascertain the thing for what it was, a ray of ruby flared out from my partner. The looming shadow emitted a grating screech, and collapsed to the tunnel floor.

Now Matt stomped ahead, stopping at the black mound to look down upon it. He aimed his light; the outlines of a rather nasty looking multi-legged creature shown a dim blue. "Energy spider," he snorted disdainfully. "They're pretty dangerous, but stupid. Don't know what this one is doing here; I don't see any webbing anywhere nearby...."

His words trailed off and he raised his light and shown it around him. I came up beside him, my lips curling in distaste at the sight of the nasty creature who thank the Fates lay dead before us, and added my light to his. Their joined glow revealed nothing other than rock, rock and more rock, yet more defunct lighting wires and fixtures...

...and a barred cage waiting silently for us some ten meters ahead.

I cut my eyes to Matt again, raising my brows. "Miner's cage?" I offered with a sarcastic grin. He merely nodded.

"Well," I continued as we stepped past the dead energy spider and headed for the cage. "I sure hope you know where we're going. I'm beginning to get a baaaad feeling about all this."

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My grip on Terrin's hand tightened as I sensed the concern that flooded him. He was doing the best job he could, fighting against the waffling "trust/don't-you-DARE-trust" emotions which tore at him regarding this Master Jedi, and I can't say that I could blame him. Khaandon knows I'd be smack dab back into the Distrust Department myself, if the conjoining link the man had opened between himself, me, and the Sith Adept hadn't told me otherwise. I had known before he returned to us that the Sith had turned with unwarranted viciousness on their own. I was also aware that Master Rean was likewise informed of our conversation regarding travelling to Seus's world of the Bounty Hunter's Guild.

I had just been so enthralled by the events which had unfolded so rapidly that all I did was sit there, my eyes seeing an image elsewhere than the kitchen in which I sat, feeling the almost palpable confines of the Lioness' bulkheads about me as Master Rean had entered within, sensing curiosity combined with a, quite frankly, refreshing naivety which emanated from the young woman who so boldly, and as it turned out disastrously, confronted the easy power of the All-User who had come from the Council to aid us.

Or perhaps not. Maybe he hadn't been sent from the newly developing Jedi Council which rumor had spread was trying to put itself back together on Coruscant. Maybe it would be wise to check that out as well.

Now I turned a somewhat rueful look into the eyes of my love. "I- I'm sorry, Terrin," I stammered a bit. "It's ok. I've been aware of what's been going on; it's just that I... well, I guess I kind of got wrapped up in things."

Now I got awkwardly to my feet. Placing my hands on the table, I leaned over it a bit and addressed both Rean and Terrin together. "Ok then, it's settled. We'll go to Terrin's ship and head off to Seus. Khaandon be with us that he has my Jester II, but if he doesn't, that's ok too." I gave them a mysterious little grin, and refrained from elucidating. I'd tell Terrin later.

Master Rean nodded, apparently relieved. He was about to say something but was paused by my pointing finger before the words were able to leave his mouth.

"You had to get here somehow," I announced suddenly, trying to keep my tone from wafting back into one sounding accusatory. "I think our strength may be in numbers. Why don't Terrin and Jasyn and I go in Terrin's yacht, and you shadow us in yours. And as for this-"

I held up the Claw, then turned my eyes into Terrin's blue ones. "Who's going to be responsible for this?"

I stood there in silence then, ready then and there to go out the door and get the hell off this ball of volcanism that called itself a planet, and waited to see what anyone else had to say about it.

Khaandon be with us, me being so very pregnant or no, we'd be off-Sullust and on our way to Seus within the hour.

[ 04-26-2002 06:58 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Graysith ]

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Who was going to keep a watch on that thing? Did he dare give it to this Master Jedi who he still didn't have complete trust in, or keep it on the ship that he and the others would travel on?

As he thought this through, his blue eyes shifted to another time and place, and he knew he was no longer really seeing what was in front of him but instead what happened in the past...

Khar Delba. His removing that THING from HER finger. Then a shift to the trip to Sullust, when that Demon from Hell had taken his arm...

...then to that horrible day on Sullust. A time that was supposed to be joyous, ripped from the very pages of time by the cruelty of one very demonic Sith...

Sucking in a breath, Terrin knew that neither option he had presented the safety he'd desired for them.

But they just had to, absolutely HAD TO, get off this damn rock. And they had to make a decision concerning who should take care of the weapon.

While they could just simply give the weapon to Rean, the distrust Terrin still had for the guy, regardless of how he might WANT to trust him, put a stop to that idea. By the same token, having the thing on their ship without Rean to protect was a horrible idea.

The way those damnable demons just pop up...

...but they could pop up without Rean being there regardless of whether they had the weapon or he did. In fact, if Terrin knew how these creatures acted, that'd be just what they would do.

There had to be an alternative. There had to be something that could both protect them and keep the weapon in their sights...

"It's staying with us," Terrin said at last, forcing himself to refocus on the situation at hand. "But I want the ship protected if that...thing is going to be aboard."

Then, turning an electric gaze to Rean, Terrin made his request. Or rather, his demand. "I want you to Force shield...or All shield...whatever the hell you want to call it...our ship. With you trailing us, that will be the best safety mechanism for us. I want to keep an eye on the device for reasons of my own, you'll just have to trust me on that. And understand that I'm putting my trust in you to protect us regardless of my concerns, so it goes both ways."

Standing, he took Galen's hand in his, but his eyes never left Master Rean's. "We are getting off this blasted planet, and I mean right now."

[ 02-16-2002 02:42 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Terrin Danner ]

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[ 02-18-2002 12:32 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Graysith ]

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Finally reaching the miner's cage, he and Yaoksi entered and slowly headed down. As the cage hit the ground, Matt stepped out, Yaoski behind him. As he did so, the hint of a strangely sweet smell wafted through his rebreather. He frowned, and turned to Yaoksi. "Glitterstim," he said, more as a statement than as a question.

Yaoksi nodded, then cocked a brow. As if hearing the question the other man hadn't even spoken, Matt looked to his controls once more, then pointed. "She's that way," he said. "I'm 99.999999 percent positive. Let's just hope we don't run into anymore of our energy buddies. And let's hope that the smell of glitterstim isn't wafting from that particular direction, or else we are going to have a seriously intoxicated Jedi on our hands when we do find her..."

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"Okey day, pal. If that's where you say she is, then let's go get her and get back to the surface. I don't do very well underground, in case you were wondering."

The look Matt shot my way in response to those words only spoke his unvoiced opinion that he had already figured that out about me. Hey, some might call me cowardly when it comes to things like that, but I never had been one for confined spots, other than those within a good, fast ship. Give me wide open spaces... or the eternal openness of Space itself. That I can handle. Creeping about in the dark far beneath the light of day smacked too closely of those things that go bump-in-the-night; suppressing a little shudder, I hoisted my blaster and proceeded down the corridor, trying not to tiptoe, much to the obvious amusement of my companion.

As I moved along, I could hear him snorting to himself as he tried to be polite and choke back his laughter. I grumbled a little to myself when I heard that. Fates knew he was probably trying to lighten the situation a bit, but at the moment it seemed otherwise. Seeing gremlins where they didn't exist, I turned to give him a sharply defensive retort, and thus missed seeing the very real "gremlin" which suddenly came at us out of the dark. The beam from my luminary shot upward, splaying itself against the rock of the corridor, sending little reflective sparkles shining from the crystals imbedded in the matrix there. My arm shot out as I flailed to maintain my balance, but I was already halfway to the stone beneath my feet. I came to a crashing finale against the wall of the tunnel, my luminary now leaving my hand as though possessed, and for a moment I wondered why I was still able to see that which had tripped me. Then I realized it was Matt's light which was shining down toward the floor of the tunnel, where it dimly but clearly illuminated the huddled form of Cella Poliani.

The wide and startled eyes which she turned in our direction held anything but the token Jedi calm which normally shone in them. In fact, to my unbelieving eyes she looked to be quite mad.

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But then, just when you think things can't get any worse, that's usually when they do.

After pulling along a highly unstable and untrusting Cella Poliani to the miner's cage, which had been a hard enough task in itself with the rocky and uneven surfaces and the anxious energy spiders, Matt discovered what their next bitter dish would be. Stepping into the miner's cage and waiting til his companions had also made it in safely, Matt pulled the lever that would trigger the cage to begin its ascension. The lever didn't respond, so he gave it another pull...to no avail.

"Uhhh...I think we're in trouble," he muttered at last, not daring to glance over at Yaoksi to see the look he knew would be planted there. Then he gave the lever another yank. As if to mock the situation, the damned thing came clean out of its track on this pull, ending up in Matt's hand.

"Okay, now I know we are in trouble." Glancing over at Yaoksi with the first look of concern he'd probably evidenced during this whole trip, Matt asked the only thing he could think of. "Got any suggestions how we are going to get out of this one?"

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It's reedy little beam lost itself to enveloping darkness about 50 meters over our heads, dimmed considerably by dust and other aerial jetsam along the way. I turned to Matt with a sigh.

"Well," I began, trying not to sound too discouraged. "It looks like we're going to have to climb for it, I suppose. If that's even possible. This shaft looks pretty smooth; obviously it wasn't meant for anything other than raising and lowering that Cage."

My shoulders slumped in a momentary fugue of perplexity. Then another thought struck me, and I brightened. "Unless you can raise the ship; maybe Nassy and K'kihl can do something to help.

"If-" I raised a hand, nodding in a preemptive manner to ward off a possible responding protest. "If the signal can get through all this rock; we're down fairly deep; umm..." I made a quick calculation in my head. "Maybe, ah, one and a half, two kilometers?"

Now I took another couple steps away from the Cage, shining my light all about me. The tunnels which bisected this central locale ran away in all directions like sandrat warrens; it didn't take a rocket scientist to realize that a "hunt-and-peck" bid for freedom would probably take a long time. A very long time. One quite possibly altogether too long in fact.

Repressing yet another shudder at the thought of dragging Cella hither and yon, seeking an as-yet-unknown pathway to the surface...

Dammit! There HAD to be one! What did the Impys do when their systems broke down?

OK, ok, so you don't really wanna go there, pal.

...I turned to Matt, waiting to hear what he had to say. All the time Cella's eyes bored into me with laser intensity, as the Jedi leaned loosely against the wall of the Cage, silent as the kilometers of stone over our heads.

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Scratch that idea.

Problem was, the only ways out were by trying to hunt their way back or by going up somehow. So what were their assets?

A couple of rebreathers, a broken mining cage, a commlink, and a biosensor.

...A biosensor...

Matt bit his lip, deep in thought. The biosensor had lead them to Poliani well enough. Generally speaking, the device was fairly decent at picking out human body signatures over animals.

But then again, some animals...rather unpleasant ones at that...had body signatures very similiar to humans, and they could really muck up sensor readings.

And counting on the biosensor alone might lead them right to one of those sorts of creatures.

Of course, Matt didn't think they'd likely find too many creatures in a mine. Aside from the energy spiders, which were unpleasant enough, there wasn't much here. For that matter, there wasn't anything human to track either, aside from them.

Scratch that idea.

Yep. Only one alternative. Raise the ship and pray to the Maker that you get through.

Or else hope that you come up with some brilliant escape route...soon...

Sighing, Matt finally shook himself from his musings. "I'm thinking as fast as I can," he said. "But we don't seem to have alot of options...

...Unless..."

Here he paused, glancing at the Jedi.

Maybe she could find the way out...

Then he dismissed the idea altogether, realizing that if she'd had the ability to get out of the place, she probably would have done that to begin with.

At least, he would think that she would have if she could have...

Waving a hand, he continued, "Nevermind. Had an idea, but it won't work either." Then reaching for his commlink, he sighed. "Everybody pray this gets through to the Devil-May-Care..."

Then, pressing the send button, he said, "Matt Stanza to the [i]Devil-May-Care, Matt Stanza to the Devil-May-Care, Dear gods we need your help down here..."

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I opened my mouth to suggest this, then thought better of it. Something told me that Matt might be more than a little bit affronted by the suggestion that his equipment might be leaving something to be desired; turning that unvoiced comment rapidly into another, I cleared my throat.

"Well buddy, it looks like something is jamming up the transmission. Maybe scattering it; Fates know what kind of ores are in the rock around here." I flashed my luminary around, pausing only momentarily as its beam limned Cella in its bright glow. The Jedi still remained mute, her eyes now having turned inward in appearance as though trying to divulge the answer to a question only she could hear. I shuddered briefly when I saw her...would she ever be back to her old self again? I wondered, then grimaced as logic immediately presented me with an answer.

As long as we remain down here, and she is constantly breathing the glitterstim we now knew was invisibly clouding the air, no. Matt and I had only the two rebreathers among us, and didn't dare risk incapacitating either one of us by giving her one of ours. Jedi powers or no, it was up to our brute strength and mental prowess... such as that is! - I laughed grimly ...to get us out of the predicament we now found ourselves in.

I straightened up with a sigh. "Maybe if we just start heading along one of those those tunnels we might find one leading upward. If we get closer to the surface, maybe our transmission can get through more clearly."

I didn't bother to mention the myriad "...or maybe nots!" that followed on the heels of that suggestion. Heading over to where Cella's stood in frozen silence, I paused and turned once more to Matt.

"Now, if your electronic wizardry could somehow recalibrate those sensors of yours to detect air pressure, or temperature, or something useful like that, we just might be able to figure out when we're getting closer to the surface or when we're going off in the wrong direction. Assuming any of these tunnels leads up and down at all, that is.

"Any further suggestions, Matt?"

I reached out and lightly grasped Cella by the upper arm. Before taking off willy-nilly, I wanted to hear what other wonders Matt might have up his sleeve.

[ 02-27-2002 11:55 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Yaoksi Joao ]

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"Matt Stanza to the Devil-May-Care, Matt Stanza to the Devil-May-Care, Dear gods we need your help down here..."

All due haste and from my duties am I retrieved. To comm unit I go, and reply is flashing sending.

"Devil-May-Care replies, this is Devil-May-Care." My response is flashed back in hurried pulses. "Come in ground; Yaoksi and Matt, recieving you I am."
Moments pass, no answer comes. Concerned I am growing, again I try. "Devil-May-Care replies, this is Devil-May-Care" once more I transmit, then quiet as expectantly await an answer do I. None is coming, concern for my captain and friend is now growing.

What to do, what to do? What would Galen have had me do?

Galen....

Now outward send I once again, fiddling with band-widths to send out broadscale. Hoping am I that Terrin receives this; far from Sullust are we now, and time we now must not waste. Concerned am I that no reply to my response has yet to come, concern I send along the ether to those yet behind.

"K'kihl on Devil-May-Care, this is K'kihl on Devil-May-Care. Captain Danner, receiving this are you? Trouble is here on Kessel where we are, assistance we are needing. With all due haste, please respond and hail to us.

"K'kihl on Devil-May-Care, this is K'kihl on Devil-May-Care. Captain Danner, receiving this are you? Trouble is here on Kessel where we are, assistance we are needing...."

Hopeful am I that transmission will be received. Hail I over and over into suddenly lonely space.

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