The fifteen hours of hyperspace travel aboard the Allegiant had passed by with the speed of a snail; Shayla's heart was growing heavy with thoughts of failure despite her best efforts to keep her feelings at bay. Memories of things throughout the past year swam through her mind, yet she could not utilize all that knowledge, she could not summon the All. She felt as though she had simply lost an entire year of self-development and self-discovery, yet the true roots of her despair were not simply due to the fact she had lost the usage of the All.

She had quite honestly lost her purpose in general. She had been removed from the one person who had chosen her, Shayla Petrolu, as not just a student and adept, but as a Sister.

She sighed to herself with these thoughts as the proximity indicator on the navboard began to bleep, signaling their approach to Khomm, a well-known world of beings who cloned themselves simply because they believed they had achieved perfection. Gently Shayla guided her freighter out of hyperspace into realspace, and continued with procedures to land. Upon entering atmosphere..Shayla was shocked to find not the green and healthy world she beleived Khomm to be, but instead a barren world with only splotches of sickly looking green here and there. She was given clearance to land in a small docking area, so Shayla proceeded to the docking bay the Khommite official had instructed her to land upon. All the while she couldn't help but wonder what had happened to this once green world, and to species who lived upon it, who had believed they had found perfection in their simple lives.

Shayla turned to Freedon Naad. "Well," she said quietly, "I could be wrong, but Khomm might not have been such a grand idea..."

[ 11-22-2002 01:17 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Mara1Jade ]

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"We did not come here for the view, or to relax." he said to the girl, "we came here to get me a body, let us focus on this perpose."

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Not the typical Sith trait, so far as she had seen. At least, not typical of MOST Sith...

Instead of giving in to her wish however, she simple replied with a somewhat short "Well fine then," and stood after making sure the Allegiant's engines where completely at rest. Then, Erik taking the lead, she headed towards the hatch of the freighter, a grumbling Freedon Naad no doubt not too far behind them. No sooner had they left the ship secured and walked not even 50 meters when they were approached by a Khommite official.

"May I direct you to a hostel? Somewhere to eat?"

Shayla answered. "We're looking for your cloning facilities."

The Khommite looked her over rather skeptically and very suspiciously, and proceeded to do much the same to Erik. Naad however he eyed even longer than any of them.

"As you may or may not know," he started, "Our peoples are not particularly fond of those who walk a different life from the one we have developed for ourselves here. And especially not after what the Imperials did to our planet..."

He hesitated, shooting them all another suspicious look. "We currently only have three functioning cloning facilities on planet, and Khommites come first. You might as well leave now."

With that he quieted, as if he were simply waiting for them to do exactly that. Shayla, meanwhile, folded her arms and snorted, a lock of hair which had been wildly hanging across her eye flying up then falling.

She shot a look to Freedon Naad as if to say I told you so, and waited to see what he might try to do.

[ 11-24-2002 10:06 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Shayla Stargazer Petrolu ]

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At least, the Sorceror BETTER give her that information he'd promised if they managed to get him what he wanted. And they would manage it...

Erik reached into a pocket, drawing a surprised look from the Khommite. He looked as though he expected Erik to draw a blaster on him. Instead, Erik took something from his pocket and waved it enticingly in the air. That got the official's attention, especially when it registered that it was money, and not just a little. Call it a hunch, but Erik suspected the Khommite, though distrusting of outsiders, might be a little more willing to assist them with a little financial encouragement, especially considering the current condition of his planet.

Money DOES talk.

"I am prepared to pay you and the cloners who assist us substantially if you take us to them and keep this quiet," Erik said to the official.

The Khommite seemed to hesitate, but the fact that he'd just been promised money, in the hard and cold form, seemed to be giving him reason to get over his apparent prejudices. He sighed, then extended a hand. "I think something can be arranged after all," he said, as if he was trying to appear the most cordial of hosts. "Follow me."

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Naad nodded, they were paying him well for the information he had promised them. He frowned, he only hoped what he could tell them would be of use. He looked at his hands. either way he had to get out of this body before it's influence on him became to strong. He followed the Khommite.

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It was a small matter. But it cost a pretty penny to say the least.

After the Khommites were certain the money was in their hot little hands, the one of them in charge of the facility turned to them and spoke. "Where is the material sample so that we may begin?"

Then he waited, clearly ready to do what he must in return for the payment he and his commrade had just received. At that Shayla shrugged, and pointed to Freedon Naad. "Ask him," she said pointedly, curious as to how Naad was going to pull this off. Then she couldn't help but add one final thought, the look in her eye a bit mischievous. "After all, I'm just the transport pilot..."

[ 11-26-2002 04:36 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Mara1Jade ]

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Okay. This was getting REALLY OLD.

She turned and looked to the still-waiting Khommite. "Use whatever you have on hand," she said, managing not to scowl at Naad as she turned to regard him. Then she went with a gut instinct. "Preferrably something domicle."

The Khommite frowned, then opened his mouth as if to object. Then he slammed it shut, no doubt thinking of the money in his pocket. "Well, we don't generally clone anything but Khommites," he explained, "This is a unique circumstance. I'm sure we have some...other tissue samples available however."

Shayla nodded just once. "That'll do. We'll wait here til the procedure is complete."

Then with that the Khommite turned to leave and Shayla folded her arms and waited to see if Freedon would object or simply go along. Either way, it would appear that the time for that was running short.

[ 11-28-2002 02:31 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Mara1Jade ]

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One Rodian male, made somewhat docile per request, ready for them.

The clone was given over to them, and they were promptly sent away back to their ship where they were instructed, not so kindly, to leave the planet, as though they were a blot on the face of the Universe. Shayla didn't really feel any need to argue but handed the Rodian clone over to Naad so that he could do whatever he must, taking her own care to get the Allegiant ready for takeoff, Erik once again in the copilot's seat beside her. In no time flat they had taken to the stars once more.

"Where are we going?" Erik queried, then added, "Don't we need Freedon to give us some tips, now that we've done as he asked?"

Shayla turned her greeny-blue gaze in Erik's direction. "We'll wait to see what he says soon enough."

Then, turning outward, Shayla was quiet for a long moment, her eyes distant and somewhat vague as she sensed for something that she had been longing for. She did in fact get an indication of something; a little niggle prodded her along in a direction she wasn't entirely planning on heading.

At least, not exactly.

She listened to that Force-sense once more, attuning herself even more keenly to it, just now realizing that after being so attuned to using the All, she really hadn't been paying attention to those Force-senses she yet possessed.

Until now.

Typing in a command on the navboard which resulted in a leap safely into hyperspace, Shayla turned to her husband. "We're going back to K'eel Doba," she said, at last finally responding to the call of the Force in her heart.

(((OCC: Follow Shayla, Erik, and Naad back to The End of the Hunt in the Jedi Praxeum/Sith Temple forum. Thank you.)))

[ 12-02-2002 12:27 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Shayla Stargazer Petrolu ]

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