Seus.

Terrin didn't honestly think Seus didn't want to help him out. But Seus seemed strangely...wary of telling him anything. And although Seus explained that this was because he couldn't betray members of his own Guild and of his own field, there was still something that just didn't fit.

If it had been Sorben instead trying to find Galen, would Seus have helped him out more?

Terrin frowned at this thought.

"I can tell you nothing more than this, Captain Danner. And that is that we have not heard hide nor hair of Sorben Tarnus for over a year, a year in which much of... interest has come into our eyes and ears concerning your fiance and her new... lifestyle.

"All accounts he has had here with us have been mysteriously... and sadly to say, untraceably... liquidated. He seems to have fallen into a veritable black hole; even his best friend, Master Quee, cannot discern his whereabouts.

"When you showed up with Galen, I thought--
I thought that time had reversed itself, and all was back as it should be once again. But it's not. Indeed, it most certainly is not...."

Suddenly a thought slammed into Terrin's brain. Accounts untraceably liquidated?

That was followed immediately by rememberance of Seus's strange and actually somewhat random mention of the empty Sith site.

They knew about a Sith site with relics. Most likely EXPENSIVE relics. Relics which they were probably counting on to sell...

...Galen's new lifestyle...

Did they think she and he had gotten to the ships before them? Did they think Eagle Enterprises had emptied the site? Did Tarnus perhaps think that?

Was he now calling the presumed debt?

Oh dear gods. They hadn't sold those ships. They'd never laid eyes on them.

His stomach churning and his mind full of concerns, Terrin turned to Shawn, who was hovering behind him. "I think I have an idea of what might be going on here..."

Then, Terrin proceeded to relate his concerns to the other two men in the cabin.

[ 05-14-2002 09:13 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Terrin Danner ]

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"So," Jasyn interjected, "If he left the Guild World, where's he going? I mean, if the Guild is the one interested in recovering the funds they thought they'd make on this Sith stuff, then why would Tarnus kidnap Galen then leave?"

"What if Tarnus had already promised the sell of those ships to someone before they reached the site and found it empty? What if he'd already somehow made money on those ships?" Shawn questioned.

"You think someone called the debt on him first," Terrin observed. "So in kidnapping Galen and taking her to this mystery person Sorben hopes to either get the money back from her..."

"...or you," Jasyn finished. "They just have to know you'll go after her."

Shawn nodded once. "A trap of sorts."

"And..." Terrin added, his eyes defocusing, "Who's to say they don't want to do more than just call the debt. I mean, if these guys really think Eagle Enterprises sold those Sith ships..."

"One thing at a time, Terrin," Shawn reminded. "We were looking at the facts. Of which we seem to not have too many."

Terrin turned to regard the short man, his look betraying not just a hint of concern. "Time is wasting. Right now all we have is a name. If we even had a ship name or something we could get somewhere..."

Terrin's eyes bored into Shawn's. He knew he didn't have to say the words to get his point across.

"Stargazer Corporation."

"Erik Kartan has gone missing, and Shayla has long been away with the Sith," Terrin reasoned. "By rights you are the one sole person who can control that corporation. And we could certainly use some information right about now."

Shawn looked a bit thoughtful for a moment, then simply nodded. "True enough. I'll see what words of wisdom the information smugglers can deliver."

[ 05-14-2002 09:43 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Shawn Petrolu ]

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I, in turn, refused to oblige him.

My eyes narrowed as I lowered myself to a cross-legged position in the middle of the confining cage, my eyes never leaving the twin spots upon his lenses behind which I knew lay his own icy blue ones.

A couple light-years or so flitted by; then he shifted against a nearby bulkhead, settling back on one foot, his other one crossing over the other at the ankle. His voice broke the silence, remarkably gentle.

"This is all your fault you know, babes," he commented, shifting his weight now to the other foot.

Now that little disclosure was the straw that broke the bantha's back. I scrambled to my feet, my eyes blazing, all the hurt I had been subjected to magickally funnelling itself into pure outrage.

"How in Hell's Seven Circles do you figure that?" I seethed, my hands fisting at my sides as sent him a glare that would melt Hoth.

He only chuckled, righting himself and reaching up now in a surprising move to remove his helmet. "You don't know how much I've missed that, babes," he said as he laid the helmet down carefully on the metal decking and approached the fringes of the Force Cage. His features became less watery in appearance the closer he came... uncomfortably less so.

My stomach wrenched up into a little knot as those damnable icy blues of his suddenly trapped my own eyes. I gulped a bit, and took a hesitant step back.

Oh, he couldn't be....

He was.

There was a very brief shimmer and the Cage dropped its shielding about me, not for a long moment but one lengthy enough to allow Sorben to enter into the Cage with me. My jaws clenched with my fists, and I forced myself not to tremble or step backward as he came right up to me, now gazing down into my face. It was all I could do to keep my features utterly emotionless.

Something he wasn't in the least bit worried about maintaining himself. Something...familiar rose up in his eyes, and his hand dared to reach out and touch my cheek. He stood there, his breath warm on my face as for a moment he just looked at me.

"You shouldn't have left me, babes," he suddenly whispered. "Why did you leave me?"

Then before I could so much as gather my wildly scattered thoughts together into one coherent response his arms flashed out and drew me to him in a iron-gloved grip. Before I even knew it was happening, his lips descended on mine with a passion that sought to devour me alive. A few breathless moments passed... and he finally drew back, now closing his eyes as he laid his cheek atop my head.

He gripped me with an almost desperate strength. With great effort, I refrained from grunting but stood in silent shock, quietly bearing an embrace which I thought would break a rib or two if it continued much longer.

Now I felt his lips moving against my hair. "I don't want to do this, babes... I don't have to...we don't have to...."

He fell silent with a little sigh, still gripping my body to his hard-muscled and armored one...

...never once noticing the little gleam that was slowly coming into my eye....

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What the Hell kind of person goes after the person that they claim they used to love?

Before the question completely formed in his mind, the answer hit him square between the eyes. You should know. YOU did it too. Granted, you were reacting out of a bit of hurt and were being manipulated by someone higher up.

But you did it too. So don't play the saint in this one buddy. You can sympathize with Sorben Tarnus, even if he is wrong in what he is doing. Cause you were wrong too.

Losing someone you think you might love is never easy, regardless of whether the love was ever really there or not. People tend to react in strange ways when that happens.

And here you and Galen have settled together, and Tarnus COULD HAVE BEEN looking for her all along. Only to find her with someone else.

Sound sorta familiar, pal? Like when you hauled the Starlight onto the Hornett all that time ago, only to find instead of just confronting Shayla, you would confront her and someone who quite obviously cared a great deal about her?

Suddenly, that thought melded with something else. You didn't want to go after her even then. Your Moff buddy used that as an excuse to pin you for HIS failure and send you after Shayla.

Could someone have done the same with Tarnus? Someone, who quite possibly wanted their money back, cornered a heartbroken Sorben and demanded that he pay up. He did so...funds liquidated...but not completely. Galen had spent some of those funds probably when she was still with him.

Oh yeah buddy, Tarnus is calling the debt. But does he truly realize what greater expense he's accruing in doing so? To possibly further jepordize his own child? And is this, truly, what he wants in the first place...to get even with Galen for "misleading" him to believe there were Sith relics where there weren't?

Or is he, like you once did, also reacting out of sheer hurt iced with jealousy?

Suddenly, Terrin slammed a fist on the navboard, causing Jasyn to jump. "We've gotta find her!" he growled. "A man reacting out of perceived loss is not one to be tangled with."

Jasyn arched an eyebrow as Terrin finally realized he was talking aloud. He removed his fist from the navboard. "S--sorry."

"It's allright. Oddly enough, I think I know what you are getting at. Guess we need to find out what parties in the Universe are really interested in buying Sith relics from a Bounty Hunter."

Now THERE was a peculiar statement. But how true indeed.

"Yes, I suppose that's truly what we need to do. And the sooner, the better..."

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"They are looking to see if they have any information. They told me they'd send anything they had."

"Good," Terrin said. Then he turned back to the navboard, gazing at the controls thoughtfully. After a moment of introspection and consideration, he began to key some things in, beginning to get the feel of the little yacht that up to this point only his fiance had piloted.

His fiance. Someday they'd REALLY have to act on that promise of his. Someday hopefully sooner than later.

"What're you doing?" Jasyn asked.

"Keying up coordinates for hyperspace. I have an idea..."

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My thoughts full of another man, I put everything I could into my voice to persuade this one they were really concentrated on him. Hesitantly, I snaked my hands up behind his neck, running the fingers up the back of his nearly smoothly-shaven scalp.

"I-- I didn't know what to do, Sorben!" I wavered, burying my face against his chest in what I hoped to Khaandon was a convincing manner. "I was so afraid for you, and when she came and took me from my-- from our bed...and then I accidentally caused the death of her baby...."

I let the sentence snag in my throat and tried to dig through his chest armor with my nose. Unfortunately, he would have none of that; his gloved finger found my chin and forced my face up to meet his. For a long moment he simply stared down at me, assessing me, what I was saying...

...and dear gods hopefully hearing what he wanted to hear in my voice.

I pretended an onslaught of stereotypical femininity, and jerked my face away from his touch, burying it against his armor again.

C'mon, c'mon... this is getting hard on the nose, not to mention cold....

His arms tightened about me even as his muscles loosened a fraction. I felt his lips on the top of my head again.

"I've never stopped loving you, babes," the words came quietly into my ears, his warm breath moving the tiny hairs on the top of my head. Then he pushed me from him, and held me at arm's length.

"Say you'll come with me now, Galen," he suddenly offerred. "I-- we can just up and go; this ship is good and fast and I've got plenty of friends in the Galaxy. He-- we'll never be found if we don't want to be; it will be just like old times! Remember how we used to lam out from Wicked and Dark all the time?"

He paused, his blue eyes peering into my own, looking to see if he would yet find what he had lost lurking in their depths. I did my damnedest to put it there.

The tiniest of frowns crossed his features. Uh-ohh....

I forced myself to soften further, imagining Terrin's dear face and luscious blue eyes peering back into my own. Funny how I never noticed how... cold a blue that Sorben's were. Terrin's were more like the clear warmth of a sunny day....

The face of my love swimming before me, I reached up and laced my hands behind Sorben's head. "Does this answer your question?" I murmured as I slowly drew his head down and guided his lips to rest upon mine.

[ 05-14-2002 11:21 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Galen ]

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It was as if she had never left. I could feel her yielding beneath my touch....

I drew her even more tightly against me, now wanting to shelter her, to protect her, to never let her go, never let her disappear from me again. Even through my Mandalorian armor I could feel the wetness of the tears standing in her eyes.

Now I drew her outward from me a bit, removing my hands from her, removing my gloves so I could feel her smooth skin beneath my fingertips as I now cupped her face in my hands and stared deeply into those phenomenally wonderful brown eyes.

Oh how I missed looking into those brown eyes of hers. And quite suddenly I didn't want a certain somebody else to come anywhere close to them.

"I love you, babes. I have always loved you, and I will never stop loving you. After you left me, during all the time I spent hunting for you, all I could do was beat myself for never telling you that enough. I was afraid to admit it then... and now I'm afraid to not let you know.

"I won't make that mistake again. Believe me, I've loved you since you first came screaming out of nowhere with that little ship of yours and snatched K'kihl and I from Wicked; I just didn't know how to deal with it at the time.

"But now I do. And I realize something else."

I paused in my soliloquy, gazing down into her eyes, swimming with her in the tears I saw growing there which welled up and began dripping down her cheek. I reached down and did my best to kiss them away. Then I pulled back again, searching deeply into her face, looking to see all the different Galen faces I had seen throughout our past together but never really had let hit me in all that time we had together.

Now I lent myself to them in joy of the moment.

I kissed her softly on her nose. "I am not going to take you to Desolist, babes," I whispered. "I just... can't. I have friends, I have some credits, favors to call in... there are places we can go together.

"I want to go with you, not back to Dark. I know what Desolist has in mind for you... it ain't pretty, babes. No way am I going to let him near you... or find our daughter."

I drew back at her expression; obviously she didn't know I knew about this.

"Yes, babes, I know what happened. My... employer was only to happy to keep me appraised of the situation. Thought he could keep me under his thumb because of it, I guess.

"But it isn't going to work. No way in Hell's Seven Circles! We'll find her, babes." I smiled, repeating one of her favorite epithets. Then I let the smile fade into seriousness, cupping her face once more and gazing deeply into her eyes.

"All through... what I was going through to find you, all I could think was how much I love you. That's all I had to keep me going... that and the time to plan our escape. We can escape, Galen; it's all figured out. All set to go into motion. All you have to do is say the word, babes. Tell me now that you love me still...

"...and that you'll marry me."

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Oh Khaandon, oh Khaandon, oh dear, dear Khaandon...! Desolist?!?

I couldn't hold back the shudder which racked my frame, setting loose even more tears which began cascading down my face. The very thought of facing that piece of slime was enough to set up this reaction in me; Khaandon only knew what awfulness he had in store for me.

And he knew about little JhinDarra??? Did he know where she was? Could this be turned some way into my favor after all?

Oh dear gods, Terrin....

Now I was crying openly, not caring what Sorben might be thinking of me. JhinDarra!

For an ageless moment he just stood there, his hands now moving around my body in support as he held me against himself and just let me cry. Every so often I felt the touch of his lips in the hair on the top of my head; I was too stunned and grief-stricken to even try to pull away from him.

At length my emotions spent themselves, and logic raised its weary head and tried to take over once more. The gears in my head began spinning as I frantically thought how I could somehow take the best of all that was happening to me here, find my daughter, and get back to Terrin...

...the latter two items of note not necessarily in order of importance.

Sniffing, I turned my gaze up into Sorben's icy blues, trying to figure out a stalling maneuver. I opened my mouth to speak the usual, "this is so sudden," when I stopped.

Was it my imagination, or was there something rock-hard lurking in those glacial depths, a dark erratic waiting to either rise up and crush me or sink back into the ice and disappear?

I couldn't chance it. I had left him once... This is a second and only chance, stupid! that annoying little voice of logic now screamed at me in an even more annoying manner. Annoying because I knew it to be correct.

If I dared turn him down now....

I blinked away the tears in my eyes, my mouth suddenly very dry, my skin as icy now as the blue of Sorben's eyes. If he noticed this or not I couldn't tell; he was one of the best sabaac players I had ever known, after all. I blinked again, then looked him right in the eye.

"Yes, I'll marry you Sorben," I said in a quiet voice, then was forced into silence as his lips descended once again onto mine. Behind his back, I quietly removed the ring Terrin had given me, hiding it in one fisted hand, clutching it with all the strength I possessed as if it were a lifeline to which I would never, ever really and truly let go.

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