Good! a deep part of me sighed. Then... we step forth on this journey of exploration together.

I don't know if I said the words aloud or not; I might have, to judge from the expression which came from nowhere to transform Lo Ban's face.

I had never seen anyone so suddenly serious in my life.

Now it was my turn to tremble, the smile falling from my lips as I knelt there, holding his hands like a lifeline, allowing myself the luxury of drowning in the twin blue seas of his eyes.

[ 03-11-2003 11:24 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Galen ]

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"I do know one thing... above all, I want to make you happy... and I plan on doing exactly that..." He stood, taking her up with him...

His seriousness continued,"There is a time and place babe, now is the time to reclaim your daughter..." He stopped at that, waiting for Galen to speak her mind before he went any further...

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

Then I turned my own thoughts to my daughter. He was right, there was a time and a place for everything. Later we would explore the place we were beginning to find for each other within ourselves, but now....

A shadow flickered through the happiness within, something began niggling deep in the back of my head.

Darra... with Sorben, and the Empire... or, at least she was with Sorben... or....

My eyes widened, and I began trembling again, although for an entirely different reason. A terrible thought came sailing in from nowhere, hitting me square between the eyes.

All I knew was that Sorben had taken Darra from Kamino; the Prime Minister at least indicated that she was with him. But whether she was safe with him was something that was entirely unknown.

Didn't he "kill" us when we had gone to Quee's hideaway, where I had gone to ascertain just what kind of a threat he really would be to us? Hadn't that told me everything?

Did I think he was so stupid as to not realize that the pair he had killed were clones? And now, oh dear Khaandon... he had Darra, the genuine article.

After he had assassinated what he thought to be the genuine article, not to mention me. What would he now do?

I swallowed as this hit me, suddenly swaying. I couldn't begin to form any words with which to speak a building suspicion too terrible to be considered....

[ 03-12-2003 12:04 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Galen ]

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"The first approach should be the most direct, kindly ask for Darra to be placed in the hands of her Mother... that would require a trip to Coruscant, we can figure out the rest later..." He hoped his words would spring some action from Galen... if not, at least convince her Darra belonged with her, not the Daddy...

[ 03-12-2003 12:07 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Loban ]

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"If--" I gulped, choking back tears. They started flooding anyway, brimming in my eyes.

"If she's still alive," I finally whispered.

Then I sagged against him, reaching up, placing my hands on his chest as in a terrible whisper I told him the story of how Sorben shot what he thought at the time to be me and Darra, how I had purchased the clones from the Kaminoans, how I had felt myself so smug and safe after that...

...and how I didn't really know now if I was safe from him, or whoever had hired him to kill me and our daughter.

I trailed to a stop, cursing inwardly between sobs.

How could this wonderful morning have so quickly turned so awful?

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

To think he had helped heal him on Kee'l Doba, before these events took place...

This was part his fault...

Guilt, anger, hatred... visions of the old Lo Ban began to spring...

His hold on Galen now tightened, he would protect her and Darra... WHEN, not if, he took her from that bastard on Coruscant...

Having problems expressing his strong emotions, he did the only thing that felt right... in that moment...

Lo Ban brought Galen's face within view, lowering to wipe each tear on her cheek within his lips carreses...

Making his way to her forehead, where he finished with a prolonged imprint...

Lo Ban slid a hand onto the silk undersuit Galen adorned, placing it in the middle of her chest...

"..but for now, right now... this is all I want..." He said, placing a soft kiss upon Galen's lips...

[ 03-12-2003 01:03 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Loban ]

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I couldn't believe what he had just said... especially after the heartachingly awful fears I had just disclosed to him.

I just wouldn't believe it.

"Wha--?"

[ 03-12-2003 10:07 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Galen ]

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He didn't know what was expected from him, let alone what he should do...

Rejected... denied... you try to heal her pain, and you fail miserably...

He couldn't stay in the room any longer...

Lo Ban quickly strode to the door, with great purpose and determination...

Before closing the door, half way into the hallway, Lo Ban gave Galen a look of confused rage...

The door closed, as Lo Ban found himself nearly running to the Spaceport...

He'd retrieve Darra, or die trying...

Perhaps this act would express his feelings, where his words could not...

Spaceport

The Raptor made it's final descent, docking in bay one...

Lo Ban, searching for a pilot to contract, found himself eyeing that same damned bounty hunter from Kamino...

The hunter was alone, seeming to make a visual check up on the ship...

With the hilt of his lightsaber, and the stealth of a Jedi, Lo Ban knocked the bounty hunter down for the count with one blow...

The ship was his to commandeer, and take where he pleased...

The obvious was Coruscant, as he brought the engines back to life, The Raptor roared through the Sullustian atmosphere and entered hyperspace...

Lo Ban heard a low rustling from the Bathroom of all places...

The door was under great stress, as Lo Ban reached a hand to open it... this was to be explained as the door all but collapsed at Lo Ban's touch, flooding the cabin with enough water to fill the bathroom three quarters to full...

In it's wake was one very tired Jasyn Lancaster gasping for air...

"Thirsty?" Lo Ban said, holding back the laughter he knew would most likely transform into conscious cognition of what he'd just done to his new found love...

At this point would cause him to take his rage out on the bound man before him...

Lo Ban waited for any reply, before he would free the man...

[ 03-12-2003 10:51 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Loban ]

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...although it certainly seemed to go hand in hand with that comment he made now, didn't it Galen?

I couldn't move; in the space of but mere moments I had gone from the soaring heights of bliss plummeting down into the depths of nothing less than sheer anger and hurt.

Well... that just figures now, doesn't it! I told myself as with a grimace I tore the orchid from my hair and flung it to the floor of the room Lo Ban had so hastily departed, grinding it under my bare foot with a painful sort of glee.

Face it. You're just not meant to find happiness in this universe, are you? At least not on a permanent basis; oh, the fickle finger of fate is more than certain to come along here and there, dangling the proverbial treat before your nose... just to yank it away the moment you let your guard down to reach for it.

Something a cross between a sob and a growl tore from my chest as I whirled and fled back into my own room, trying to avoid the admission that Lo Ban appeared to be just like any other guy after all, out for one thing, saying all the right things, making all the right moves, coaxing me into vulnerability so he could....

I stopped in my tracks, and found great satisfaction in slamming the door shut with a kick of my heel. Then I whirled and nailed it with my fist, drilling a neat hole into the shining wood.

Let Mr. Moneybags pay for it! I seethed through the fog of rage which quite effectively masked the growing hurt I felt in response to Lo Ban's apparently tom-cattish actions. Then a wrenching sob erupted from my very toes, flinging itself through my lips, flinging me from my feet as I sank down to the floor, there to just sit and cry.

And finally, as with all things, the tears came to a stop and I turned my thoughts away from those of myself. I sighed and hiccupped, suddenly realizing that I was back to square one regarding Darra, and I really didn't have a clue in hell as to how I was going to get her.

If--

I pushed that thought away before it formed, forcing the fresh flood of tears to repress themselves, to coil up and direct their tightly wound energies into something useful, something I could depend on in order to find my daughter.

Which I planned on doing just as soon as I got my act together.

[ 03-12-2003 11:11 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Galen ]

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Knowing of a nearby hotel, she decided to clean herself up before finding way off planet... back to her ship on Kamino...

The Azure Planetoid

The oil adorned hunter purchased an hours use of room 12...

Room 12...

Faint whimpering of distant cries came from the room separated by a wall, and a thin locked door...

In Cartina's vulnerable situation, she couldn't help but fear the worst had happened on the opposite side of that door...

Now cleaned up, she decided to knock on the door adjoining room 14 and the hallway Cartina waited in...

A hand at her waist, where she had placed the blaster rifle from The Raptor...

Just in case...

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

I froze, immediately suspicious.

Who in Hell's Seven Circles would be knocking?

I paused, leaning forward a bit toward the door, curious but suspicious as hell. Then--

The way your luck is going lately, you'd best not, Galen ol girl. If that's Lo Ban, well...

He's got the Force. He'll find you. If he doesn't....

My eyes darkened with a mixture of painful and angry tears.

I hesitated no longer, but hurriedly donned my flightsuit, opened the door back into Room 16, tiptoed through it and peeped that door open to glance up the hall.

There outside my door was that damned bounty hunter again!

I froze again, and just as quietly closed the door. The lock turned with a barely perceptible snick... but I wasn't stupid. Sorben had been the best of the best in that unenviable profession; I learned a lot from him. One thing being the wide assortment of devices they had, including sound amplification receivers.

Hurriedly I moved across the room to the balcony, which opened up over that same pool my room on the fourth floor had overlooked. It didn't take me long to vault over the edge, hitting the light-bending device as I went.

The early-bird spa users were shocked to find a spiralling fountain of spray vortex upward as my invisible form hit the drink. But I didn't stay there long... I was out and running, my feet quickly drying as did the few tracks I made.

Now I knew I was being hunted....

Oh gods, Lo Ban...!

...and all I could do was make as quick an escape from Sullust as I could.

I ran through the streets, avoiding people where I could, running beyond the few looks of fear when I accidentally -- and invisibly -- caromed off of someone or another, and soon came to the tunnels leading to the spaceport where Eagle was berthed and waiting for me. I literally flung myself at her, slapping my hand against the hatch release, climbed aboard as that hatch opened, flinging myself at the controls and firing up the systems even as I called in a request for emergency departure.

And even as I sat there waiting for my clearance vector, it was all I could do to push away memories of the happy moments I had spent within her bulkheads the last time I was in her, memories which persisted in haunting me.

My clearance came in... and I hit the enable switch. Eagle launched herself into the fire-laden skies of Sullust, taking me to....

Taking me who the hell knew where. All I knew, after the initial rush of adrenalin had faded, was that it was, again, alone.

[ 03-13-2003 12:12 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Galen ]

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For a bounty hunter, a locked hotel room door was a minor hindrance...

Once within room 14, Cartina found the door leading to room 16 slightly ajar...

Carefully entering the next room, she noticed the only way out had been the open balcony...

Coming to look down upon the crowd, she found confusion amongst it...

Leapt, into the water below??

A mystery to unfold on its own accord...

Cartina made way for the spaceport, to buy passage to Kamino...

[ 03-13-2003 12:36 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Cartina ]

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[ 03-13-2003 10:51 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Jasyn Lancaster ]

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I came to from the deep fugue in which I had been enveloped to find myself hunkered in the pilot's seat, my feet drawn up on the rich navy blue upholstery, my arms hugging my knees. Around me Eagle clicked and muttered and blinked to herself, utterly content to continue on as she was in the mysteries of hyperspace, no real destination beckoning other than the knowledge that it was a mighty big universe and she could go on and on and never find the end of it.

Kinda like me.

I jerked as that little thought arose, blinking in surprise at the connection my subconscious mind had made.

Is this indeed your destiny, Galen? To go on and on, caught upon a Mobius loop of repeating situations, a wild roller-coaster ride through the hazards of the undiscovered country that is the future, only to never find the happy ending within it that you seek?

Undiscovered....

Now I didn't even attempt to blink away the tears which came to my eyes. I just let them flood, which they did, easily forming and spilling and wetting my cheeks.

Lo Ban had returned my toast with that very word.

Now I lowered my forehead to my knees. A little series of shudders raced through me as my thoughts flew back to that awful scene in his room.

Oh Lo Ban, how could you....

I sniffed, reviewing every moment of it, trying to find a meaning, a reason for the sudden change in his attitude. What had sparked it. Dammit, it hurts to find out one is being used, and sure as there's treasure on Roon I was going to find why, if only to make myself feel better. But look as I might, nothing made logical sense. It was as if a sleeping lion had gotten abruptly to its feet and roared; one moment he was holding me, his grip tightening, his actions expressing what I thought was caring but actions utterly belied by the simple sentence he had uttered as he had placed his warm hand on my chest, the statement and the motion seeming to place Darra and my fears for her into the nearest waste receptacle.

It didn't make sense.

Tears stopped, standing in my eyes as I raised my head and frowned.

That whole scenario didn't make one lick of sense... if I were to judge it from the basis of the short history I had already had with him. He had professed his feelings... he had vowed to help find Darra... why that action then? Why the sudden turnaround...?

I blinked, considering another possibility.

Galen, are you misjudging? He is a Jedi... and Khaandon knows jedi are known for their abilities to control their feelings, for their ability to be subtle where subtlety is needed.

Was he trying to get something across to me but had been tiptoing like a whiff of a breeze about me, because I was in such a delicate emotional state at the moment?

Did I misinterpret an action of giving as its more selfish counterpart?

Remember that look he shot you, the confusion... the rage... rage perhaps not against me, but Sorben--? Hadn't I just told him what Sorben had done?

My thoughts whirled, and with a start I found my hand had raised up to lay upon the exact spot where Lo Ban's had. Focusing, I could clearly feel my heart pounding beneath it, it's wild beating suddenly accelerating as a trio of realizations struck in rapid sequence:

I had indeed misinterpreted.

He wanted my heart, Darra and pain and all, and oh Khaandon somewhere along the line it had already been given.

And, sudden fear that I had pushed away too hard... and I'd never see him again.

I would have laughed aloud at the awful serendipity of it all had I not felt so miserable. I just lowered my head against my knees again, and let Eagle mutter and click on her way, not caring where we were going for the moment, just trying to adjust to this new burst of pain now dwelling in my heart.

[ 03-13-2003 01:45 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Galen ]

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Pursing my lips, I reached out a remarkably steady hand, and toggled a control. Eagle obliged by spreading her wings to brake herself, dropping from hyperspace with smooth efficiency and in the middle of the blanketing beauty of billions of stars came to a quiet halt, awaiting new direction. I keyed in the command quickly; then sat back with another great intake of breath.

Eagle whirled about on her z-axis as her port jets flared for the turn, muttered a bit, then shot off into hyperspace once more. Destination:

Sullust.

I leaned back against the pilot's chair, letting one leg loosen to dangle while I clasped my hands around the other raised knee. Ahead of me, a particular path emerged as if from the tangled overgrowth of uncertainy, remarkably clear if a narrow one.

I had to find Darra. And I just couldn't do it alone. I had options to follow, though they might take a bit of time to do so. And even while my arms were screaming to hold her, logic told me quietly that in either event, time was indeed one of the options I did in fact have.

For if Sorben had indeed killed Darra as I feared he might... then racing there pell-mell, unthinking, would do no good whatsoever. And if not... then by logical deduction she was safe, deeply safe, in the arms of the Empire.

I had time, the time I needed, to turn around and for once instead of running away start running toward.

I sighed, letting my vision grow dim as I starting wondering where in all the universe Lo Ban had gone. I hadn't a clue, and it was indeed a mighty big universe.

But I'd find him. I had to... for I had already admitted that I wanted him in my life, and there was no greater a need than the one I was now reaching for: his strength by me to assist in finding my daughter.

And from that point, the exploration of the aformentioned undiscovered country.

If he still wanted to.

I pursed my lips, and busied myself with checking the ETA on Sullust.

He had to still want that.

He simply had to....

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

A pleasantly smiling concierge came up to me, blinking his limpid black eyes.

"Yes, Madam?" he inquired politely enough. "Seeking a room? We have some available...."

I waved him off.

"My name is Galen Danner; a companion and I had just been here, rooms 14 and 16. I-- I was called away momentarily; has Lo Ban Kenobi checked out of room 16 yet?"

I held my breath-- then did everything I could to prevent my shoulders from slumping when after a brief check the answer came back in the affirmative. Taking a disappointed breath, I went on.

"Would you please give him this, should he return?"

I held out the card that had been in the bouquet, upon the back of which I had scribbled the words,

"Neither do I. Still waiting for morning...."

Then with a little sigh, I turned away, and walked back out into the buried streets of Piriingisi.

Ok, Galen; where do we go from here?

I hadn't a clue.

[ 03-13-2003 05:17 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Galen ]

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...yet the memory of things which had so recently occurred hadn't yet resurfaced. Not even opening her eyes just yet, she unconsciously reached for that little lifeform growing within her as she did with each morning...

...only to slam into utter silence. That jolted her memory at once, and she trembled a bit, and pulled the covers over her head, curling into a little ball and simply aching. Tears began to flow once more...

...and Shayla couldn't help but notice how very, very lonely she was. That prompted a need for something else...or rather someone else. Again, Shayla stretched out into the Force, pining for her husband's warm presence...

...only to find him further away than she had expected.

Shayla sat bolt upright in the bed, tears streaming down her cheeks, her eyes wide with sudden worry. She turned them to the chronometer in her room, and frowned darkly at the time displayed on it.

Shouldn't Erik have been here by now, considering the capabilities of that warship?

She sent a message along the energies of her link with her husband. Where are you...?

As she waited for the reply hopefully, Shayla couldn't help but think that something just was not right...

[ 03-13-2003 08:46 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Shayla Stargazer Petrolu ]

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I whirled, a smile on my lips as the ghostly echo came into my ears... and then I realized that it wasn't my ears that had actually registered them. Even so I couldn't help but look quickly about myself, searching the thronging crowd which went about its business there in the capital city of Sullust, seeking the owner of that voice, for yet I hoped to find him there.

It was only after the fourth attempt at fruitless searching had passed that I paused to consider... and in the pausing suddenly felt...

Him. It was him. Sure as Khaandon made lil green worrts, I knew it was him; how could I forget the sensation of that ephemeral psychic touch on my being?

Never, I never would.

Recognizing it as such, an immediate response welled up within me. I just closed my eyes, there on the busy street, and with all my being strove to repeat that time I was locked in Gravin Dark's ship, when I reached out as hard as I could to Quee that he and Sorben could follow the link. I was no force user myself, but Quee was a strong enough Master, and he had keyed in upon it.

My very heart knew that Lo Ban would as well.

So I just stood there, letting myself seem to rise up on my tiptoes, letting every lick of feeling I was so rapidly discovering that I had for Lo Ban rush up from my soul and wing its way out of my body, following that ethereal link and hopefully arrowing back into his heart.

Lo Ban, I am so sorry. Please find me. I love you....

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

Lo Ban, I am so sorry. Please find me. I love you....

The Raptor came to a controlled stop in the same hanger it had left a few hours before...

Galen was strong, as was her modesty in the ways of the Force... or Lo Ban's talents exceeded his own confidence...

In any case, he easily found Galen among the crowded streets of Piriingisi, leaving The Raptor behind... not aware if Jasyn had followed him, Lo Ban had one thought running through his mind...

He smiled as he spotted Galen's dorsal, the short red hair giving her away... with Jedi stealth, Lo Ban crept up within millimeters of her left ear:

"Love... is never having to say you're sorry..." he whispered...

[ 03-13-2003 10:20 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Loban ]

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I really HATE this kriffing planet... he thought to himself smugly as he made great strides to catch up with Loban Kenobi...

...then stopped dead in his tracks as he recognized the person that Loban had approached so steathily, relieved that the bounty hunter hadn't found her...at least for the moment. But then he frowned, sensing something else between Loban and Galen...

Suddenly feeling like nothing more than a third wheel, not wanting to intrude on anything, Jasyn just tried to blend in with his surroundings, and waited for someone to either greet him or tell him to simply go the hell away.

[ 03-13-2003 10:27 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Jasyn Lancaster ]

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Much, much stronger.

I smiled, my eyes still closed, reaching out harder yet...

...and in that reaching pausing once again to feel... only this time what I felt was the tickle of warm breath in my ear.

My eyes flew open at that, and I whirled about, only to see the most electric blue eyes I'd ever hope to see mere inches from my own. I blinked, just to make certain.

They were still there.

"Lo Ban..." I whispered, then stopped, knowing there was nothing further which needed to be said at the moment. I just threw my arms around him and held him, pulling his face down to mine with a ferocity that surprised me, vowing to never, ever let him go from me again.

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

...but I will.

In but a moment, she was on her feet, shoving her own despair aside as worry for her husband's safety took precedence. She headed to the 'fresher, washed her face, then hurried from the room altogether. In moments she was again on the streets of Priingisi, and within an hour's time she had purchased a sweet little YT-2000. No way would she leave Erik stranded on Khar Delba, no matter how much her heart was aching...

Taking her newly-purchased ship to the skies after recieving initial clearance, Shayla keyed in some familiar coordinates, oriented the ship towards her hyperspace vector, then pulled they hyperspace lever. Stars formed into starlines, and her new ship, as-of-yet unnamed, carved a course bound for K'eel Doba...

(((OCC: Follow Shayla to Shall We Dance? in the Sith Temple and Jedi Praxeum forums. Thank you.)))

[ 03-13-2003 10:55 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Shayla Stargazer Petrolu ]

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He had been going to try to get Darra for me... but he had come back....

With great effort I pulled back from him a little further, now reaching up to cup his face in my hands. The bustling street in which we stood promptly disappeared; all that existed for me at that moment was him, and the trembling beginnings of an us.

"Together, Lo Ban," I murmured, sending my soul to his through my gaze. "Whatever comes from this moment on, I want it to be together. I didn't know how badly I wanted this until you left--"

I paused at that, wetting my lips as that last, lingering little pain of when I thought I'd never see him again was finally laid to rest at my feet. For now I held the certainty of its defeat in my very hands.

"I need to be a part of your life, Lo Ban... if you will have me in it. I need you in mine. Please don't ever leave me.

"I love you, Lo Ban--"

I fell silent as there simply were no words which would adequately express my feelings any better than those very feelings themselves... which even yet were flowing from me and into his heart through the force link he had set up between us.

I trembled, waiting to hear his response, still cupping his face in my hands.

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