With a hurried, "I'll get back to ya, Dash," I flicked off the channel between us and Scimitar and turned my full focus upon Lo Ban.

I didn't like at all what I was reading in his face, or seeing in his eyes.

Or at least thought I was seeing.

Suddenly full of trepidation, I trembled, the white hot bolts of electricity shooting up from my hand where he was caressing it not helping the matter much at all.

"I-- I--" I stammered, trying to find words.

"I'm not afraid of any ol' bounty hunter, love," I finally settled with. Khaandon knows I've dealt with way worse in my day.

His eyes grew into impossible blue pools in front of me; gulping I lowered my head from that look.

Dammit, Galen, not now....

I couldn't help it. I just knew what he was going to ask of me, and I just couldn't bear it. Not now. Not so soon, not when this wonderfulness was just beginning to blossom.

Averting my gaze so he wouldn't see the tears welling up in my eyes, I spoke to the deck of the shuttle.

"I- I'd rather you stayed and helped me find Darra, but if you want to go I won't stop you--"

I trailed abruptly off with that, unable to go on.

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

"How are things over your way? My ship seems untouched. What the hell is going on here anyway? Who did we 'SAVE'??? It all seemed a little too easy to me! In fact, I was wondering why we wven went there in the first place?!?" I said with a little tone of annoyance in my voice.

"And as for the BOUNTY HUNTER... There are a lot of missing pieces in my memory about my past. I think I learn a little more each day. But I swear to you I don't remember doing anything worthy of haveing a bounty placed on my head!!! It actually worries me a little, why was I attacked on SULLUST??? What prompted that??? I have so many questions that need answering! I'm sorry for directing them all at you."

I suddenly had a vision. A vision of my crash on the moon above ORD CARTEL.

I guess my vision lasted a few minutes as I snapped out of it to hear GALEN yelling my name into the com-link.

"Sorry, I must have blanked out for a minute there. I have to go to the moon of ORD CARTEL. There is something there I need to investigate. Will you guys come with me?"

I had made up my mind as to where I must go. I know that GALEN and LOBAN certainly don't OWE me anything, But deep down I hoped they would come with me!

[ 03-08-2003 10:23 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Dash Kelderon ]

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What if this bounty hunter is the first of many??

I'll... we'll meet the bridge when it's time to face that one...

This redhead seems fiery, under all of that beauty and sweetness she shows toward me...

Lo Ban took his free hand, turning Galen's face to him...

Whipping a free tear from her rosie cheek,"...you had me at I'd rather you stayed.. and stay I will, babe... I'll never leave your side... you're strong, I know you can handle it alone... you fill the void within myself... I love you..."

He leaned into her, once again... kissing her soaked cheek, he simply waited for affirmation...

[ 03-08-2003 10:42 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Loban ]

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"Better yet, why don't you tell me everything you know about one... Galen Danner..." She said next, dead seriousness in her voice...

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

My mouth fell open a little as I just stared up into Lo Ban's face, staring at it as though seeing it clearly for the first time. Days past came drifting up, swelling from my memories, days when we were on K'eel Doba, when Terrin and I were staying there--

oh so briefly happy there!

--and then Lo Ban's arrival... and I remembered seeing him there, but never until now did I really look at him.

Not until now...

He must have loved me then, somehow, crazy as it sounds; this can't just happen that fast, he didn't just mysteriously "pop up" on Sullust, he's got force strength, he's able to track, sheesh Galen, how long has he loved you?

I read the answer in his eyes. Read his worry for me and Darra, the fear of putting us in danger...

...that same excuse I'd used time and time again myself. How wrong it was.

I blinked. Time passed. The comm link blinked impatiently.

I didn't care. He wasn't leaving.

I just reached out and grabbed him, pulling him to me, letting him read my answer in actions... and later, when the time came for the words to be spoken....

He'd hear them from me as well.

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

The warning before he went to Sullust regarding the bounty hunter looking for Galen when Aaron went to Ord Mantell, whose stolen ship had been emitting a distress signal...

...and then upon Jasyn's and Galen's departure from the Hornett had disappeared as well...

Cartina's appearance on Sullust to Jasyn in the Blue Asteroid...

...her reappearance on Kamino, her suggestion to use the transmitter to emit a distress signal on a world like Kamino, that rarely had visitors...

Jasyn's brown's hardened a bit. She KNEW someone was out there in Kaminoan space all along. She's been USING you...

...and you were so lonely, you let her...

In a move almost faster than lightning itself, Jasyn whirled to the hunter, jerking her helmet off her head before she could so much as blink, purposefully knocking a button on the navboard programmed to open a secure channel with the Eagle as he did so. He then used his other hand to cup the hunters chin, and jerk her face to his. His brown eyes bored into hers. “You can go ahead and kill me,” he spat, anger rising at being so easily used, ”I’m not going to tell you one single thing concerning Galen Danner...” he continued, his voice firm, his grip on Cartina’s chin even more so, all the while hoping that someone on the Eagle was getting the message.

Get the kriffing Hell out of here Galen, while you still can...

[ 03-08-2003 11:20 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Jasyn Lancaster ]

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Happy she was not, expected this was...

"Anything further you speak?"

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

If he wasn't going to give her any answers, he certainly wasn't going to recieve any from her either...

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

I smile at that, satisfied... I would stand there, overpowering her in stature... not until she gave me the information I seek, would she be released... we stood there, at a crossroads...

Stalemate...

[ 03-08-2003 11:43 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by MasterTyberius ]

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I pulled out of Lo Ban's embrace to the annoying squawk of an incoming transmission. With a sigh, I reached out to silence it--

"I said I'd get back to ya, Dash..."

--and froze when the actual words being spoken came crashing into my ears.

That wasn't Dash. The transmission wasn't from "Scimitar," it was from "Raptor..."

...and that was Jasyn's voice, sirens and warning bells and four-alarm fires fairly screaming in it.

I quietly turned to Lo Ban.

"Guess we know who that huntress is chasing now, don't we?" I finally said.

Then my own hand flashed to the side, and Eagle flashed away herself, lost in the starlines of hyperspace.

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

No more...

She sat there in Jasyn's hand, the waterworks started to flood her beautiful face...

She had never had someone treat her this way...

In this manor... never since her father would scold her over spilt Nerf milk...

her Father...

These were the tears of grief... grief over her Father's death, nearly 4 years ago...

That had been her reason for Hunting, to keep pain at arms length... but, now she didn't know why she did it...

She went limp, unable to shut off her flow of tears...

It had been too long...

[ 03-08-2003 11:54 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Cartina ]

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Ok, far enough.

...and then reached out and flicked a switch. Eagle dropped smoothly out of hyperspace, about fifty parsecs from Kamino.

I grinned like a sand-panther cornering its dinner, and played a song on the console.

"Watch this, love," I smiled at him, sending us shooting back into hyperspace toward the planet we had just left.

And just before we reverted back to realspace, I reached a hand slyly down to the belt of my Sith flightsuit, and hit a particular button on it.

To an outside observer, nothing had happened... but then we were still in hyperspace. The Eagle fluttered her wings and slackened her pace, and we popped back amongst the stars once again on the edge of Kaminoan space.

Only this time no one could see us, for I had enabled that wonderful Sith light-bending device.

I manipulated the controls, sending us soaring back to the worldwide ocean of its surface, and came to a silent landing on our original landing site.

All seemed absolutely quiet, or at least as quiet as it could with all the rain and thunder and wind.

I turned to Lo Ban, determination firing in my eyes.

"Ok, look," I said. "I'm going in there, and I'm not coming back out until I have Darra. She's here someplace, and I'm just not going to leave without her.

"But you'll have to space the moment I leave; this field--" I pointed to the belt about my waist "--only reaches so far."

I moved up to him then, slipped my hands about his neck, sidled my body close, taking in the wonderfully clean scent of him in great draughts.

"You're a jedi; you will know when we're back out, love," I whispered, reaching up and catching his lips between my teeth. I then let that segue into a deep and meaningful kiss before finally -- and reluctantly -- pulling away.

"I'm depending on you. We, Darra and I, are depending on you..."

Then before he could protest the move I slapped open the hatch and disappeared into the rain. There was a little door that had caught my eye, and sure as Khaandon made lil green worrts I was gonna get into that city without anyone's help but my own.

But knowing full well I needed Lo Ban's help getting out.

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

...or anything else but to have her begin to sob, the tears very geniune for all that he could tell. He slackened his grip on her chin a bit but remained there, letting the tears trickle over his hand and in between his fingers as he continued to simply gaze into her brown eyes...

...her pain-filled brown eyes at that. Still, Jasyn didn’t know what to do. He couldn’t tell her what she so obviously wanted to know...he couldn’t, and he wouldn’t. Nor did he know if this was yet simply a play to get him to give in to her wishes or if his actions alone had been what triggered the sudden crying. But he’d always hated to see a lady cry...

Suddenly, Cartina went totally limp, beginning to slip from her chair. Before he was consciously aware of his response to that, Jasyn found himself on the deck of the lamby, supporting Cartina in his arms as she yet continued to cry.

He couldn’t tear his eyes away from hers.

”I can’t and won’t tell you what you want to know regarding Galen,” he reiterated, his voce this time soft but still very firm in the matter. Then he reached out a hand once more, moving it to lay along the side of her face, bringing her eyes to his once more. ”Please don’t cry anymore...”

[ 03-09-2003 12:23 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Jasyn Lancaster ]

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She was indeed a strong spirit...

Not waiting for Galen to enter the city, the Eagle lifted off...

Taking the same route Galen had used for stealth, along the waters edge, he took the ship back into a low orbit around Kamino...

He sat in silence, attuned himself to the force...

He could feel Galen, and would anticipate her every move...

Most likely he would be waiting for her, on that very same pad...

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

I was hoping someone would come rushing out as before to investigate... and was rewarded when the door slid open to reveal a couple more of the stocky Kaminoan goons. The took step out on the landing platform, blasters raised toward the departing shuttle, and stood there in the rain as she fled. Then then muttered something to each other, and went back inside, closing the door behind them.

Of course I had entered the moment they were out on the platform....

Now I found myself creeping along familiar passageways, for I had been to this city before. Soon I was at the entrance leading to the Greeter's private apartments, where I proceeded to take up sentry without, making myself into a ghost of an idea of somebody's dream there against the wall....

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

She couldn't help herself, she wanted any sort of companionship...

For she too had been lonely for so long...

She tried her best to break free of Jasyn's gaze, and simply hug him...

To let every tear run dry...

She accomplished the embrace, the rest would be up to him...

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

He lost focus, when he noticed his robes were intoxicated with her delight...

Lo Ban couldn't help but lose himself in the fragrance...

He licked his lips... she was there, too...

The lips tasted like strawberries, as he now felt her heat... as if she were there, pressed against him...

He had already reached as close as a Force user and non user could ever hope to, he just wondered if Galen could feel the same things he was experiencing...

And, if she did, hopefully it wasn't affecting her mission...

[ 03-09-2003 12:44 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Loban ]

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I scowled, shifting as silently as I could. My wait had seemed interminable, even though logic said it probably wasn't much over an hour or so. But an hour of standing in absolute silence, utterly still, can seem an eternity, and it was.

I almost cried aloud when the door finally opened, and the ethereal form of the Greeter came out. She then proceeded to nearly jump out of her skin when unseen hands clasped her about her thin and elegant neck.

"Just take me to the Prime Minister of this city, and you'll live," I growled, trying to sound fierce... and for the most part thinking I was quite successful. The Greeter garbled something unintelligible... then, logical scientist that she was, gave way before my tightening fingers and started walking down the corridor, albeit a bit stiffly.

Soon we came to another door I recognized... which she opened at the touch of an unseen trigger. It slid smoothly upward, revealing another tall and lissome figure sitting within.

We walked in, the door closing behind me. I opened my mouth to speak...

"I have been awaiting your coming, Mrs. Danner," the Prime Minister said smoothly, standing and waving an impossibly slender hand toward a spoon-like chair which came sliding in from nowhere. "Truly this device you have is a remarkable one; I should like to let my scientist have a look at it.

"Now if you would be so kind as to unhand my Greeter, perhaps we can talk like two civilized beings...."

You could have dropped me with a feather. I froze, wondering how in Hell's Seven Circles he had found me out... then decided stealth was no longer a necessary facade to keep up. A flick of one finger, and I popped into being as the light-bending device extinguished itself.

"You have my daughter, a baby girl, red hair, blue eyes..." I began when he lifted a hand against anything else I might say.

"Yes, indeed, and interesting project that one," he said smoothly, all coolness and logic, not a lick of guile in the tone of his voice. "We were to terminate her, but found ourselves unable to follow through with it.

"You'll be happy to know that she is quite safe, Mrs. Danner... even though I regret to inform you that she is no longer gracing our presence here on Kamino."

It was only an inexplicable sensation of love and warmth, almost as if being tenderly and quite physically cherished on the spot, that kept me from screaming like an animal and lunging for the Prime Minister.

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

But, a great trace of despair and disappointment greeted him as well...

Feeling this was the time to re-enter the atmosphere, he did so...

Shortly after, landing on the pad, he waited for his love to promptly exit the doors...

One thing he was certain of, she'd be alone...

Although, not certain if he'd be able to visually spot her, he opened the hatch to the Lambda...

Waiting...

[ 03-09-2003 01:07 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Loban ]

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...as well as he knew that he had been alone...

...and that Cartina was here right now, sobbing in his arms, embracing him...

...and possibly seeking someone to comfort her...?

He knew there was much yet to deal with, somewhere in the back of his mind. But for now...

...he returned the embrace and didn’t let go, kissing her lightly on the forehead. He then did nothing more except remain right there with her, solid and sure, waiting for her to calm...

...and waiting for whatever she might do next.

[ 03-09-2003 01:14 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Jasyn Lancaster ]

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"You wonder how it is we know of your device," he went on out of the blue. Indeed, those words alone -- well, ok, not only; a rushing sensation of-- of-- well, of something before which I suddenly was finding it of the greatest difficulty to keep angry regarding the Prime Minister -- gave me pause, stopped me smack in the middle of the questions I was trying to form.

He went blithely on, as if unaware of the rising struggle within me.

"This place has attracted a great many in its history, Mrs. Danner... a great many. Many races, of many and exotic planets have come unto us, seeking our skills, for we are simply the best at what we do. In turn for the honor, and rewards, we gain in assisting those coming to us, we of course promise nothing but the greatest discretion. And in turn, we learn a great many new things."

Now he leaned forward. His black eyes clamped hungrily on my belt.

"I could be most discreet about your presence here, Mrs. Danner," he went on, the barest catch in his voice indicating his rising hunger about my Sith belt. It only gave me more determination to hold back on him; I scowled, took a step back, and crossed my arms.

"Big jumping opees," I snorted. "So you don't tell peeps I came here. Or you do; I'm shaking in my boots."

Then I stepped forward.

"Tell me where Darra is." I stated flatly. I then shut up.

The Prime Minister's eyes widened.

"Oh my goodness, no, I couldn't do that. That would be breach of contract, a most regrettable loss of discretion on our part. We like our privacy here; we do not need living under threats...."

He then fell silent, his eyes growing flat, as if suddenly realizing he had spoken too much. Then his eyes grew somehow... vague, as if he was listening to someone very far away....

A ripple shot up and down my spine, and it wasn't the nice kind. I suddenly knew down to my very boots that I had quite overstayed my welcome, and if I didn't leave now I just might not ever get away at all.

Those goonies....

I didn't say another word. My hand shot to my belt... and I blinked from sight. A bare half second later, and I was slamming my hand about the doorway, seeking the trigger, finally releasing something... the door slid smoothly upward and I was through it before it had gone halfway. I raced down the corridor then, at length coming to the doorway out onto the landing pad.

Slapped my hand there, and the door opened... to reveal the blessed sight of Eagle perched there in the rain, waiting for me.

I barrelled aboard her, my eyes watery and finding it hard to see, although whether from rain or tears I simply couldn't tell.

The hatch slid closed as I flopped to the deck, hitting the belt and popping into view again even as Lo Ban's sure hands brought the shuttle into departure vector once again... and Khaandon help us but I hoped the final time.

"She- she wasn't there..." I whispered from the deck where I still sat, a lump of sheer despair beginning to rise up and overpower the warmth and love still spreading within me....

[ 03-09-2003 01:12 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Galen ]

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Will they never learn...

The Endeavor was completely submerged, Shayla was taken to the highest hatch, and pitched out the side...

Only 10 meters below the water's crest, she'd live... until the icy waters took away that very life...

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

Then it hit him, literally, as he felt Shayla's presence near...

For, she was the one that had placed the Kamino ideal into his mind... and he had sensed she was telling the truth...

And, to her knowledge she was...

Back to the hear and now, as Lo Ban reached out... easily finding Shayla atop the waves...

"We're going down, babe, hold on..." He took the ship dangerously close to the watery grave that could be waiting them all...

"Open the hatch love, I've gotta keep this thing level..." Expert pilot that he was, he waited until Shayla was safely aboard...

Hitting the thrusters, they left the atmosphere completely...

"Where to?" He asked simply, wanting more than anything to leave this damned system asap...

[ 03-09-2003 01:40 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Loban ]

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...nor was she quite able to focus her mind enough to call upon the Force to heal her. So she remained there, shivering, til at length exhaustion took hold of her and she simply passed out...

[ 03-09-2003 01:47 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Shayla Stargazer Petrolu ]

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No. This wasn't happening, this just COULDN'T be happening....

Of all the people in the universe to suddenly get bailed off of Kamino, it was her.

Her. The one who hangs with my.. my ex-sister. The one who hangs with the Sith.

HER.

I didn't know I was growling. I hadn't a clue that my lip actually curled. If I had fangs they would be bared.

All I knew was that what I needed was time with Lo Ban, time to vent my despair in his love, to seek succor in him for the loss of Darra, to let myself go in simple need before we put our heads together again to try to figure where she was...

AND HE PULLS THIS.

"NO!!!" I shrieked even as I flew to my feet, launching myself at her as if I was a predator and she my walking lunch.

"You're with them! You know about this! She's gone, where did you take her!

"WAKE UP YOU BITCH AND TELL ME!"

Then I couldn't speak anymore for the sheer rage which took over me and my hands clamped about her throat and I was squeezing even as my momentum bore us in a single rolling ball about cold metal of the deck.

[ 03-09-2003 01:50 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Galen ]

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