He paused then, thoughtful once more as inspiration struck. "You wouldn't happen to have one of those ships with a remote homing device, so you can call it to yourself...?"

Then a realization jolted him. The Raptor has that tracking device, you idiot. Aaron knows where you probably are. All you've gotta do is let him know that you're in trouble, and he has enough information about the significance of Kamino to put the puzzle pieces together...

He told Cartina as much, then quieted a moment, frowning as the drawback to this idea presented itself. "Of course that won't help us if he's far away and the Kaminoans aren't planning on keeping us around too long..."

He paused another moment, considering. "If we try this I could rewire the transmitter back and we could continue to send an open distress signal...

...but then that opens us up to being found out again..."

Jasyn quieted then, simply frowning. Then he spoke one final thing. "I wonder what these Kaminoans have to hide anyway, that they would throw us in a cell the moment we arrive?"

He trailed, folding his arms and still frowning thoughtfully...

...and wondering if he knew more about what the Kaminoans were hiding than he thought.

[ 03-06-2003 11:36 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Jasyn Lancaster ]

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I came up to where Lo Ban stood loose and easy, watching the momentary madness brought on by the jittering actions of the little jawa. His gorgeous blue eyes flicked into mine, stayed there as one eyebrow crooked.

I was afraid he would say that....

"Ummm... do we have a plan yet?" I went on, gazing hopefully into those electric pools of his, fighting a sudden impulse to space the passengers so I could have the lamby to myself and my new love; ok, Malf can stay and stand guard, but these damned pheromones just keep sneaking up on me and what's a gal gonna do, and if I catch that little thief in my equipment again I really am gonna space him....

I jerked from the free-flow of thought and forced myself to focus on Lo Ban again... and this time just the body language.

Avoid the eyes, Galen ol' girl; remember what daddy used to say....

Another reality check... and my brain finally cleared enough to read the answer in Lo Ban's expression.

I sighed.

"Ok, so back we go, to see who needs help; maybe we can devise some kind of strategy in the, oh.... what? Four? Five minutes until we hit Kaminoan atmosphere again?"

I grinned shakily and proceeded to my pilot's seat, where I proceeded to turn us around and head back once more to Kamino.

Sheesh. Maybe the third time's the charm....

--------------------

He placed his hands loosely on her hips "Strategy, ey? saddle up, lock and load... that's strategy for ya..."

A grin came to his face,"by the way, do you have any heavy firepower... We can't have Malf weaponless..."

He let out a small laugh, as the contradiction hit him square in the face...

Weaponless, indeed...

--------------------

"How long until we get back to KAMINO?" I interupted.

LOBAN, startled, pointed to the view screen...

"Oh, we're there already. At least this time we can do this as a GROUP! Maybe I won't get hurt as bad this time." I winced at the pain as I moved my left shoulder just a little too quickly.

"Have you learned any more about that distress call? I have a BAD feeling about this..."

--------------------

But if they don't want MY help...

I sat there tinkering with my MAGNETO RAY trying to cut down on the recharge time. I made some minor adjustments, and now it only takes 2 minutes to charge instead of 10. Hope this little thing helps. I know Dash is glad I had it!!!

Dash yelled back to me that we were almost ready to enter the atmosphere of KAMINO. So I ran up to stand with the rest of this mis-matched group of individuals. GALEN, the strong, proud woman that she is. LOBAN a JEDI ready for his trials, but lacking the confidence to take them. MALF, well enough said. Myself, the inventor of NON-lethal weaponry. And of course DASH, we really don't know about DASH, he surprised me in the last fight, there may yet be more to him than meets the eye.
We may all be different and have our own special talents, but I am sure we will make a great team! Let's do this! "OOO-TEE-DEE!!!" I yelled!

--------------------

Warning bells went off within Cartina's helmet...

Might as well milk this for all it's worth... but, it will have to wait until we get out of this mess...

"I'm not much for coming up with ideas, so whatever you think would help..." Cartina said, drenching ignorance on each word...

She finally took her helmet off, handing Jasyn the transmitter...

Might as well use everything at her advantage...

--------------------

Sheesh, that damned jawa will have every goon out there down our throats at the rate he's squawking....

Then I shut up myself, snuggling a bit in Lo Ban's hold, then devoted my energies to getting us through the wicked weather of Kamino and safely down. I had brought us in over the middle of the vast ocean of which this world was now comprised, barely skimming over the crests of the lashing waves and thus hoping to keep beneath whatever sensors they might be using. The moment we touched down on the landing pad I switched off the engines in the further hope that her heat signature wasn't noticed.

I climbed to my feet then, turning to face the group, a portable tracking device in my hand. A little blue light blinked merrily away upon it.

I cast a glance toward it, then to the group.

"They're in this city," I said unnecessarily, flicking my gaze into each set of eyes before me, but stopping at Lo Ban. I raised my brows meaningfully.

"There are blasters and such in that cabinet to the back," I finally replied to his earlier question, shooting yet another glare to the jawa for it was that particular cabinet that I had caught him with his little testy fingers in.

I nodded to all, then turned back to Lo Ban.

"Into the fray?" I questioned, indicating the open hatch of the lambda with a wave of one hand.

[ 03-08-2003 02:12 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Galen ]

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Tossing one each to Malf and Dash, he came promptly came back to the open hatch...

"Out of the frying pan..." Lo Ban led the group out of the Lambda, his own blaster ready for action...

A padawan he was, yet the blaster seemed appropriate for the situation...

They entered the city doors, welcomed by quiet nothingness...

Galen came to the front, leading them to the weakening signal...

There were no guards, only an unlocked door that held it's prisoners within...

The door opened, revealing a man and a woman clad in body armor...

But, not just any woman...

Cartina?!

Lo Ban's face was red as the Tattooine sun... for he saw a ghost in front of him...

his wife...

--------------------

Inside, a bounty hunter... female. Mandalorian armor-clad arm held out...

Shades of Sorben! Do they ALL have to wear Mandalorian armor?

...handing what looked like a fully functional transmitter to Jasyn Lancaster.

......

JASYN LANCASTER?

It was a good thing we weren't followed, for I just stopped in my tracks and stood on my jaw.

We came to rescue a bounty hunter and Jasyn Lancaster????

And why in Hell's Seven Circles was that bounty hunter looking at Lo Ban as if she'd seen a ghost...?

For that matter, why was the look mirrored perfectly on his face?

I immediately crouched, my blaster up, although not aimed anywhere in particular. A little chill rippled up and down my spine.

Me and my hunches... but I suddenly had a bad feeling about this....

[ 03-08-2003 02:44 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Galen ]

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Cartina knew she couldn't show her true self with so many around...

Lo Ban was quite surprised, yet relieved, as seemingly this woman simply had a likeness to his once wife...

He knew that to be impossible, since she had been dead for years now...

Also, certainly wouldn't be in this mess... dressed like a bounty hunter...

Although, Lo Ban realized he and Galen would need to have a talk about such things once... once she had Darra back...

Lo Ban spoke up, finding new strength,"C'mon, lets get out of here..."

We'd figure things out in the saftey net of space....

[ 03-08-2003 02:46 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Loban ]

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And it was telling me that all wasn't kittles n' spit here.

Finally I swallowed, and spoke up.

"You know, that lamby is gonna be a touch wee crowded," I interjected into the little glances being flung around which in turn were battling mightily against the undercurrents I was sensing.

"Dash's ship is still here on Kamino, and it's a bigger one than mine. Why don't we take everyone there, so they can stretch their legs..."

...while we're running away. I still wanted to get off this giant raindrop long enough to think how in the universe we were going to find Darra, and I needed space and quiet to think....

--------------------

Cartina stood near the back of the shuttle, next to Jasyn...

"Thanks for not giving me away back there, this business will kill me..." She whispered to Jasyn, through her masculine helmet...

With the death of her father by the hands of the Hutts, and seemingly her own, she had grown vengeful...

She had already come to terms with never seeing Lo Ban again, that part of her had died long ago...

The Lambda made a short leap to another city, landing on the pad... Dash's and Jasyn's ships waiting, they exited the Lambda... heading for their own ships...

Cartina followed behind Jasyn, who was nearly half way to the Raptor...

"Give a lady a lift?"

I've always had a weakness for gentlemen, let's just see if he surprises me by being one...

[ 03-08-2003 03:17 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Cartina ]

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He waited for input from the somewhat distant Galen...

[ 03-08-2003 03:22 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Loban ]

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But I had to pause and watch the two. And just as they were entering into Raptor, I hollered out, waving a hand.

"Jasyn!" The name rang out sharply through the driving rain. He paused, turned his head in my direction. Our eyes met across the distance, through the flickering haze.

"You never met me here, ok?"

There was a long moment's pause, and then I simply turned and entered my ship. I fired her up, waiting for Lo Ban to enter so we could get off this miserable excuse of a world and into the cleanliness of space.

From the odd tone of his voice, and the clenching of my stomach, I just knew we had something to talk about, and it wasn't just the logistics of how to find and rescue my daughter....

[ 03-08-2003 03:28 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Galen ]

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"That bounty hunter seemed familiar..." He started with, pausing for a few brief moments...

"...I think it was that bounty hunter from the restaurant, on Sullust..." He said at length, wondering just what she was doing on Kamino to begin with...

Also, knowing in the back of his mind that he'd have to explain his past to Galen...

Sooner or later...

--------------------

Ruhatt directed the ship torwards a landing pad and started to land.

"I hope we can get in and out." Ruhatt said.

"I don't know. I sense something is going on down there." Jebbua said.

Ruhatt landed the craft and stepped out.

Do you have an extra blaster?" Jebbua asked him.

"Here take mine." Ruhatt replied giving his blaster to him.

"Ok lets go." Jebbua put the blaster in his hoslter and walked torwards the door from the landing pad.
hmm. no welcomeing party. Ruhatt thought.

--------------------

He was right. It had been the bounty hunter sitting quietly by herself in "Azure Planetoid."

And now she was here, on Kamino....

I gulped at the implications, not liking any of them. Then the weird frozen moment thawed, and I leaped inside the ship, slamming my hand on the control to the door even as I flung myself into the pilot's seat and forced her into an emergency warm-up.

Little things like temperature control can take care of themselves once we're spaceborne, I thought to myself as the lamby groaned in surprise and jumped off the pad even as the door to the city was sliding open, two stocky Kaminoans framed against the dazzlingly white light of the foyer behind them. The lamby shifted and rolled as storm winds buffeted her; in my haste to depart I had chosen the quickest vector, and that had been the one we had last followed coming in to the planet for the third time. So we flew scarce centimeters over the lashing waves, the wind and rain and occasional bolt of lightning rocking us as though the goons had somehow taken control of the elements themselves to block our escape.

Soon, however, our trajectory steepened, and the shuttle aimed heavenward. Bit by bit the gloom was overtaken by the more brilliant sparkle of the stars, which steadied into a million shining motes about us as we finally tore through the thermosphere and into the freedom of space.

Proximity sensors bleeped for attention, informing me that the others in our party had likewise gained safety. I sighed, slouching in my seat a moment until the wild beating of my heart slowed enough for me to think...

...and thinking brought forward Lo Ban's last words to me again.

My heart accelerated again.

That bounty hunter...?

I shifted in my seat and turned to face him. The shuttle ticked and hummed quietly all about; even Malf's interjecting yowls were not present, for he had joined another ship's complement in our haste to depart.

I sent a questioning look into Lo Ban's damnably blue eyes, and just waited, something of the coldness of the surrounding space beginning to ice in my veins.

--------------------

The guilt building up with each passing moment of silence...

"There's something more..." He dryly began with, now turning to face Galen's loving features...

It was difficult for him to carry on the eye contact, the unjustified shame was great...

Yet, this bounty hunter wasn't his wife... all he was doing was giving Galen an insight to his past, why did he feel so terrible??

He continued,"...there are some things you need to know about my past... before... we go any further..."

He looked deeply into her lovable, and hopefully forgiving, brown eyes...

A new found strength, Lo Ban went on to inform his new love of his once old love on Tattooine...

How they were married there, years ago... and, how she had been slain by the Hutts as was her father...

He explained how he'd never loved another woman... until now...

He couldn't help but lose the eye contact, as he prepared for the last part he must tell Galen...

"and... that bounty hunter bore a resemblance to Cartina... I tell you all, my love... please forgive this situation, for the hunter is not my wife..."

He dared to pin his eyes to Galen's browns, waiting for her reaction to these events...

[ 03-08-2003 01:28 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Loban ]

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Married? He was married before... and he thought I wouldn't understand?

I paused in disbelief; then shadows of my past own rose up in quiet accusation. I thought back to Sullust, to when I was spilling my soul to him in turn....

Had I told him everything as well?

I couldn't remember; all I knew was that at the time I needed him to know the depth of possible danger involving oneself with me could lead one to; I know I went on about the Sith and Jharmeen....

I swallowed, and reached a hand out to his face. Cupping it gently, I returned his gaze with a strong one of my own.

"Lo Ban, what's past is past," I began, suddenly knowing that I had some background of my own to spill here and now, if only to refresh his memory in the event it had already been spoken. For a moment my lips trembled; then I surged onward.

"If you recall, you're not the only one to have been married; sheesh Lo Ban, did you think I plucked Darra off a tree somewhere? Have you forgotten K'eel Doba?"

How could anyone forget K'eel Doba...?

Removing myself from the physical reaction those particular images evoked, I went into greater detail of my own past, revealing to him that the then-bounty hunter, Sorben Tarnus, was the father of Darra... leading into Terrin's untimely death, torn from me by the cruel predations of a tuk'ata on a remote and uncharted planet of the Sith. Told him how my love for Sorben, rocky enough as it was, had now settled down into something which was a cross between fear and disgust; the man did "murder" me and his daughter, after all. Went on into what I felt for Terrin...

...and even now was still feeling.

I paused at that, lingering over it, debating. Stared deeply into myself where this sudden new emotion, this slowly growing feeling for another was flailing about within my heart, suddenly under the axe itself.

What I would reveal could endanger its growth indeed, even as Lo Ban had so obviously thought the revelation of his own past might result in the very same thing.

But he deserved honesty from me as well. So I took a breath and went on, hoping he'd understand how I still loved Terrin and probably always would...

Perhaps as much as he still loved his own slain wife?

...then dwindled into silence, keenly aware that the tensions in the shuttle had somehow shifted subtly and that it was now I who sat waiting for the verdict to come down against the judge's podium....

[ 03-08-2003 02:16 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Galen ]

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"So much for ghosts in the closet... I understand how you feel toward your late husband, as I am a widower..." He stopped at that, leaning into Galen...

They shared a deep, slow kiss... not of passion, but of shared pain...

No words could overcome this pain, only this act of love... and pain... bonded these two...

[ 03-08-2003 02:12 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Loban ]

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I really didn't want to, damn circumstances anyway....

"Lo Ban, back to that bounty hunter," I whispered, closing my eyes even as he moved his head and kissed my nose.

"What on earth was she doing on Kamino?! And with a member of Eagle Enterprises?"

I braced myself then, wanting nothing more than to stop the universe so I could more closely inspect this new level into which our relationship had advanced, but knowing to my chagrine that this clearly wasn't the time for it. Our associates waited our hails, judging from the way that our receiver was striving to gain my attention; and as for said bounty hunter and Mr. Lancaster....

I simply hadn't a clue about that particularly strange situation. All I knew was that bounty hunters as a rule bode no good for anyone, and it was just a touch wee too coincidental that that particular one had been on both worlds our party had recently trod upon.

Logic, ever the smirking beastie that it was, raised a hand and punched me in my virtual side.

Which one of you is she after, Galen? it purred silkily even as I waited for Lo Ban's speculations regarding the same.

And of greater importance...

Why?

[ 03-08-2003 02:29 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Galen ]

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"Hey Dash, Galen here," I announced my safe departure -- yet again -- from Kamino. "Sorry for all the rush, but... ahh, well there was a certain somebody we just, er felt it best to remove ourselves from for the moment. And speaking of her...

"Any input as to that bounty hunter down there?"

My unvoiced question of course clearly stating,

Anyone you know of out for your blood?

--------------------

Damned pretty looking bounty hunter at that, a shoulder angel--

--or was that a devil?--

--pointed out. Funny how much more of an impression she's made now that you are sober for once...

...or is it simply the fact that you feel alone? And why else would you have given a ride to someone you barely know, a bounty hunter no less, except for the possibility of some real human contact for once?

Jasyn jerked himself from these thoughts, for the first time in a few minutes realizing he was staring into those blackened lenses across the way.

That moment of clarity was long enough for logic to surface as well. A bounty hunter, who approached you on Sullust in a cantina has now been thrown into a holding cell with you on KAMINO of all places and has now asked you for a lift...

...now what's wrong with this picture?

Jasyn knew the likely answer to that. He just didn't want to face it, nor did he want to believe it for some reason unbeknownst to him. Maybe it was just coincidence...

...however unlikely that was.

He jerked himself from those thoughts again. "You never told me, what brought you to Kamino, of all places in the galaxy?"

Quieting at that, his brown eyes genuinely curious and nothing more than that just yet, he waited.

Oh PLEASE don't tell me that the Empire DOES have a bounty on my head after Terrin and I disappeared from the cell on Coruscant...

His thoughts darkened and shifted a bit at that as something else flowed from them. He had to fight with himself to keep from frowning as another puzzle piece presented itself for consideration: Galen, here near Kamino? The obvious then followed:

Maybe it's not YOU the hunter is following...

[ 03-08-2003 10:59 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Jasyn Lancaster ]

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Like she had told him, there's a time and place for everything...

He considered her question, sitting upright in his seat...

Somehow finding strength to keep his hands, and lips off the redheaded Goddess...

Well, at least long enough to answer...

"Odds are, she's after me... she followed me out of that restaurant..."

He paused, knowing his presence there might be a costly one...

"I don't know why, but we either we deal with the hunter... or... or I find somewhere where I won't be interfering with the retrieval of your daughter..."

His face turned even redder than when he'd first seen what he thought was the ghost of his dead wife...

"Listen, babe... maybe, maybe this isn't the best time for..." Lo Ban reached out for one of Galen's hands, atop the controls...

He lightly squeezed it,"...for this..."

Lo Ban held his hand there, caressing her back hand with his thumb, he turned and waited for his gaze to be met by those damned irresistable browns...

--------------------

The Endeavor came out of hyperspace on the outskirts of the Kamino system... completely ignoring the three ships in deep orbit...

As a shooting star, it entered the Kamino atmosphere, crashing into the seas with great fury...

[ 03-08-2003 10:06 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by MasterTyberius ]

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