"I wanted to show Darra some of the controls on the ship, and show her how to use the sensor array while we wait; Lord Aelvedaar is regaining his strength," he said in Galen's direction. "Darra suggested that we try to use the sensor array to see if we can get at least some idea of where Kartan is, if we're close enough."

Motioning for Darra to then take a seat in the copilot's chair while Galen continued to keep the ship steady, he showed her the location of the sensor array, how to activate it, and how to tell it to search for a specific type and class of being. Then he showed her a few other major controls on the navboard; the hyperdrive lever, the navcomputer, controls that maintained and changed the pitch of their flight path, and so on.

Then, taking a slight step back, he waited to see if the sensor array search would produce anything that would possibly be useful for finding the missing Kartan.

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

Immediately a screen on the console in front of her lit up.

"Does this mean anything?" she asked, looking from Galen to Terrin and back again.

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He paused. "Once you've got that set, we can tell the sensors to search as far out in all directions as it possibly can. At that point you'll be almost ready to initiate the search."

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That look was not only ignored but went entirely unnoticed, so glued was Galen to the task of flying the ship.

Now her blue eyes slid back to Terrin, myriad questions darkening within. He too remained quiet, his arms crossed, but nodded at her in an encouraging manner.

It suddenly hit her then.

These are my parents; they handle this ship as I handled the embroidery the Nurses were teaching me to do--

Is it in their blood?

A moment's distraction as her thoughts side-tracked to an impossible memory, one where something within her had burst out in glorious splendor to assist them in a time of trouble...

That is in my blood too; yet I am not Sith. From where comes this magick then?

The tiny frown wrinkled further along her brow as she cocked her head, still pinning Terrin with a querying look. But then she straightened, allowing her expression to segue into one of determination.

They have this in their blood; she is my Mother; I therefore can do this as well...

Turning away now she bent more closely over the panel, scrutinizing it, studying it, allowing every dial and switch, every blinking color upon it to burn into her mind. Then she straightened, reached out, flipped one switch while pulling down upon yet another lever. The screen Terrin had pointed to flipped to another, one filled with strange looking words and characters...

...but beside each was, blessedly enough, a representative image.

Smiling, she scrolled down further until she found an image most closely representing human. Touching that image resulted in another blank screen popping up, one however which boasted a series of ascending coordinates running up the Y- and across the X- axes. In the corner was a blinking, red dot.

She pushed it, and the light turned a steady blue as other dials began blinking on and off in what appeared to be a random pattern.

"I hope--" she began, then forced herself to stop.

"I believe we shall soon discern what other humans are on this part of the planet, other than those immediately with us," she said before falling silent to concentrate upon the panel once again.

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

He paused then, pursing his lips a bit as he watched the lights flash on the navboard. "I don't know how far out this ship can scan though, nor how far out Kartan is, so it might take a while, if we can pick him up at all." He paused. "Maybe if we can't find him this way he has a commlink or something..."

Terrin trailed as some numerals began scrolling across the screen, first indicating the humanoids within the ship, then to Shawn...

...and nothing else, for the moment. Still, the scanners continued their search. If they were going to pick up Erik at all, the looks of things indicated he was some distance away from them at the moment.

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

"I-- I don't know, but..."

She paused, her frown deepening as she studied the blips and blinks glittering on the screens in front of her. Then, the move as swift as a dianoga's strike, she reached out and flipped a switch.

Abruptly the screen segued into something with lines that criss-crossed. Off to one side was a blinking blue dot, beneath which strange sigils scrolled.

"Have I found anything, Father?" she asked, not daring to take her eyes from the screen in fear that by doing so the signal she had happened upon would disappear.

"What does this mean?"

[ 02-14-2007 11:31 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by JhinDarra ]

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...and it seems to be remaining stationary. That could very well be Erik, and I'm certain Shawn could verify if it is him...

...that is, once we get to Shawn. But in the meantime, we need to save those coordinates. If you click on them, the ship's computer should ask you if you would like to save them to the navcomputer."

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"Does this mean we're getting closer to whatever this is?" she queried, indicating the screen.

"Why don't we go see what or who it is, or is it too far away. After all, Lord Aelvedaar seems to be in meditation still."

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He paused, turning then to Galen. "What do you think? Whatever or whomever we are picking up doesn't seem to have any more humanoid lifeforms surrounding it. Which means that if it's Kartan...

...he's alone."

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"Yup, whatever it is, or rather I should say whoever it is-- for sure as Khaandon made lil green worrts it's human-- it's not moving at all."

I frowned, reached up a hand to scratch my nose. The motion was really nothing more than an affectation, for obligation had already risen up in all it's glory to holler in my ear.

"Yeah, we already know that Shawn's okay, if only a little uncomfortable being stuck away in some caverns. But he's got light and he's relatively warm, and he's in contact with us. This person--"

I nodded to the screen, then raised my eyes back up to Terrin.

"Is... well, awfully still. But we are picking up a lifeform reading, and it's blinking; that means that he or she is still alive.

"I say we go find out what the scoop is before that little variable changes altogether--"

Something that could alter all to quickly on this Khaandon-forsaken swamp!

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

He trailed, turning over his shoulder. "Hey guys...we're on the move, hopefully to pick up Erik Kartan," he called over his shoulder. "Hang tight."

Then, taking a seat himself, Terrin flipped the message switch on his comm. "Hey Shawn, I think we've got a coordinate lock on Erik. We're gonna go investigate, hopefully pick him up, and then we'll be back."

As he sent this message off, Galen needed no further cue...

...but proceeded to easily guide their ship away from the scarp face and towards the coordinates that were indicated on the monitor. On screen, a blip appeared that indicated the ship and its proximity to the indicated lifeform. After only a short trip the original blue blip merged with the ship's orange blip and the newly created blip remained solid and steady.

Sitting too far behind the viewscreen to see anything outside the ship, Terrin leaned forward just a bit. "See anything or anyone yet?" he queried, knowing that there was in fact someone below them.

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

"Hell if I see anything other than green stuff!" I muttered, now flipping the screen to it's actual viewport option. Immediately the images as seen through a lens segued into the real McCoy, and I bent closer, straining to see anything that might be our missing companion.

I sat back in my seat with a sigh.

"Just green stuff, and swampland, and vines and mosses and Khaandon knows what else. Damned if I can figure this out; sensors show there's someone right below us!"

I snorted, then whirled back to the controls.

"This is crazy," I muttered to myself as with no further ado I arced us downward until a bump more jarring than what I was normally wont to produce announced our arrival on Dagoban soil

Or swamp. Whichever.

"Ok, guys," I said as I flipped everything into standby. The ship quieted, but continued a deep and almost subliminal hum, one that my ears were keenly attuned to for it told me she was ready to leap to the skies again at the slightest of provocations.

"Here we are. I'll stay put and mind the ship; go on out and see what you can find. Don't forget to take sensors."

I smiled at Terrin, motioned that Darra get off her hiney and go help with the search.

"Luck to you all!"

[ 02-19-2007 04:58 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Galen ]

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As Galen popped the hatch they headed out, finding themselves surrounded by vines and mosses. And damned if the life sensor wasn't showing a lifeform reading not more than 30 feet in front of them.

Terrin frowned, surveying the area, seeing not a soul...

...but quickly focusing his attention on a rather unnatural looking growth of vines. "What the kriffing hell is that?" he whispered hesitantly, unsure as to whether or not to approach it, keenly aware that it was also in approximately the right location to contain the single lifeform reading that they had been tracking.

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

She turned back to her father.

"I-- I don't know what this is," she said as she straightened up, drawing in a deep breath before returning her focus to the greenery. It sat there before her like a verdant stone lump, small leaves upon it wiffling in the light breeze now brushing against her face.

Another frown traced her features, and she reached out once more and grabbed one of the vines. Small fingers clenching as tightly as she could get them, she then placed a foot against the base and hauled back.

Something seemed to groan.

Abruptly she lost her grip... not to mention her balance. Before she knew it, she was sitting rather unelegantly upon the portion of her anatomy that suits such things best.

"Oh... spit!" she blurted out, puffing away a stray tendril of hair which had come flying into her face as she fell.

[ 02-19-2007 10:54 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by JhinDarra ]

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His muscles registered a jolt, and responded painfully. He groaned, a sudden thought springing forth to taunt him.

Here you are completely immobile. So if [i]something made this thing you've been imprisoned in move...

...it wasn't you. Objects at rest tend to stay at rest, and all that.[/i]

Wondering then if he was to be the dinner of some swamp animal, Erik couldn't help but stretch out with the Force...

...and was immediately impacted with sentient life forms that were so close he couldn't miss them.

And they were familar too.

Help! I'm stuck in here and I can't move..." he called out hoarsely between dry lips. "Who's there?"

[ 02-20-2007 09:52 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Erik Kartan ]

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"It's him; he's in there but he's trapped!"

So saying she scrabbled to her feet, returned to the place where she had grasped the vine and flattened herself against the greenery. For the longest moment all she could hear was the thumping of her heart in her ears; then--

"Yes!" she smiled happily, drawing back.

"It really is Erik--" She paused fractionally, catching herself in her own assumption, then continued. "I mean, I think it's him; he didn't say who he was, but whoever he is he's alive but says he's stuck--"

She sobered and turned slowly round to face the others.

"Does anybody have a knife?" she asked.

[ 02-20-2007 11:22 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by JhinDarra ]

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... somebody didn't want him to get out on his own, if at all. And with the creatures on this planet..."

He trailed, leaving his thought incomplete, knowing others would understand. "I wounder who did this to him."

Pausing a moment then, he considered Darra's qestion. "Maybe there is a knife on the ship," he suggested, trailing then as the obvious dawned upon him. "The Sith warrior can help us with that," he said, correctng himself. "But now that Panthar isn't here I'm not sure how we're going to relate what we need to him other than gesturing and hoping he'll follow one of us here," he added thoughtfully.

A thought struck then. He almost dismissed it as improbable, but the truth was he didn't really know what Darra had been doing before they found her on K'eel Doba. Which basically meant anything, at this point, could be possible.

"You haven't happened to have learned any Sith?"

Cocking his brow in Darra's direction for a moment, he then turned back to the tangle of vines once again. "It's going to take a long time to get him out of there like that, but without knowing exactly where he is inside, that's probably the safest option unless someone comes up with another idea."

[ 02-22-2007 09:43 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Terrin Danner ]

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Yes, I speak Sith; I was taught this so as to speak with everyone in Phrinnchatka; it is a matter of course. But-- there are those who speak otherwise, who easily speak in the language of my mother and father; Lords Aelvedaar and Phalomir speak this, as does Lord Phalomir's companion Thoran--

She paused in mid-thought, her eyes widening.

"Father," she blurted in seeming non sequiteur. "It is Thoran; what has happened to him? Is he with Shawn? Do you remember that he spoke of blaster fire before he left Lord Aelvedaar's chambers on Khar Delba? Have you or has anybody heard from him?"

She turned back to the mound, started circling it.

"You don't suppose he's in here along with Mr. Erik, do you?" she said in a soft voice as once more she took hold of a tendril and tugged. It pulled out the barest bit, but the tension it held prevented her from moving it more than a couple of centimeters.

Biting her lip, she let it go, contemplated it as it twanged back against it's fellows. It was only then, when she was standing head down in thought, that she noticed something in the muddy ground about the perimeter of the mound.

A footprint. Or rather, several footprints.

"Look," she stated, beginning to cast about the moist ground.

"These belong to one-- no, to two different beings."

She cut a glance to Terrin, smiled to see the mix of confusion and startlement now crossing his features.

"Being raised among warriors, one learns of these things," she said softly as she motioned not only to him but to the other men, asking that they follow where her finger pointed. And once the men's eyes were directed to the correct places, the tracks were obvious.

Some small, dainty, seeming to be feminine. Another set large, obviously Sith in origin.

Her eyes raised to the mound, then travelled back again to the sets of tracks. She stood silently a moment longer, pondering upon the story they were trying to tell her, then turned to the others again.

"A small-footed person stood here, walked about a little." She pointed to the mound.

"And afterward, a large-footed person, presumably Sith by the size and shape of the track, came here. This person then went off--"

She cast about once again, leaving the others now to nose about in the increasingly swampy ground. While most of the trail had long been lost to the riotous overgrowth of the planet, there were yet enough showing to give at least an indication of what direction their owner had gone off in.

She raised her eyes, stared off into the gloom of the surrounding swamp.

"I wonder if they belong to Thoran," she mused aloud before turning back to Terrin. "But--

"Wasn't he in some kind of bar?"

She stopped a moment, frowning her confusion, then went on.

"Yes, I speak Sith. I shall go back to the ship, and request the warrior lend us whatever he has that is sharp about his person, and hope that this will be enough to release Mr. Erik, or whoever is inside that mound, from his prison."

[ 02-23-2007 08:19 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by JhinDarra ]

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Finally he looked up to the others. "If Thoran followed Stargazer, or Jharmeen, or whoever...

...then he might have gotten himself into trouble."

Pausing again, Jasyn's frown only got deeper. "Maybe we should scan the area for other life forms, just in case, Boss?" he queried in Terrin's direction.

Getting a nod of affirmation in response to that question, Jasyn turned towards JhinDarra's departing figure, and headed off after her. "We need to scan the area for other life forms," he explained simply as he approached her and they neared the hatch of the ship. "Gods know I hate surprises..."

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

"We found Kartan...

...and two sets of tracks heading off in a particular direction. One of those sets of tracks appears to be Sith, the other belonging to someone very small," he explained. "We'd like to scan the area to see if anyone is... lurking. Meanwhile, we're going to have to cut Kartan out of his current predicament; he's stuck in a rather well-made prison of vines. Had to come back on board to get a knife...

...and perhaps some other equipment."

Pausing at that, Jasyn pursed his lips in thought. "We'll comm you and let you know of our progress; this could take some time."

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

"Ahh-- vines, did you say?"

I turned in my seat to cast a somewhat incredulous look Jasyn's way. This all sounded too, too strange-- but what was beginning to really worry me was that it was sounding too, too gut-wrenchingly familiar.

How in Hell's Seven Circles did Erik get himself wrapped up in a tangle of vines, vines apparently so tight and thick that the men had to come get something stronger than bare hands to free him from them?

I said as much to Jasyn, ending with--

"These smaller footprints; they wouldn't happen to be human, would they?"

A ghostly vision of dear ol' Sissypoops and her uncanny powers rose up in the back of my head, sending me diving into a pool of rising fear so deep I didn't know if I'd ever be able to swim out of it again.

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

When he turned to her she immediately lowered her head, speaking rapidly in Sith, explaining the situation. He merely nodded, rose to his feet with a slight grunt, and came up to her. He did not pause to speak further, but passed her and moved forward, heading toward the hatch which was close to the command cabin of the ship.

As Darra followed on his heels, she couldn't help but overhear the conversation going on inside between her mother and Jasyn. Her brows raising, she hastened a bit faster until she was able to touch the warrior slightly upon his back, slowing him down as he turned his head to cast a sidelong glance in her direction.

Quickly, she explained in Sith, leaving out any speculation, just giving him the facts. His face immediately creased into a frown; clearly, magicks of some sort were in play here, and magick was something that the warriors, although possessing some knowledge of it, did not as a rule employ much. His voice was flat as he barked this to Darra; she respectfully answered him, and nodded toward the cabin door.

He stared at her a long moment, his chromatic eyes darkening; then without so much as knocking he pushed the hatch to the command cabin open and strode inside. Once again Darra had to hurry to keep up, for the warrior's stride was lengthy... even though it only took him a couple said strides to enter into the area.

She hurried off to one side of him, flashed a quick smile at Galen and Jasyn.

"I explained to him," she began without preamble. "This warrior feels that there are magicks at play. He says it is doubtful whether his spearhead will be able to break through the vines."

She indicated the towering warrior, who shifted slightly and clutched his remaining weapon all the more tightly, with a swift but precise wave of one hand.

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

...and he was determined he wasn't going to leave here without her. Apparently someone was equally as determined that he wasn't going to leave here with her either. The question remains who that particular someone was. After all, Stargazer did threaten all of us not to follow her on Tatooine. So what if she made good on that promise?"

Jasyn frowned and shook his head. "I guess we really won't know unless we ask Erik, when we get him out. Darra is talking to the Sith warrior about using his knife to help; seems like the best option at the moment..."

Jasyn's explanation was truncated then as Darra entered with the Sith warrior. He frowned at the warrior's summation that perhaps magicks were involved.

"And what if the magicks involved were nothing more than a Force-users ability to move things around with her mind?" he queried. "I mean, we can't just leave Kartan stuck; what other options do we have?"

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

"With all due respect to our representative of the Sith world..." I turned to the hulking warrior, gave him a respectful nod of my head as I had seen others do.

"Seems you'll know whether the spear will cut the vines when you try it."

I turned to Darra and raised a brow. She in turn looked sheepish and quickly spoke in what sounded like gibberish. Apparently said gibberish was Sith; the warrior barked something back, frowned, glanced at his spear, then held it out toward Jasyn.

Now I aimed that cocked brow in his direction.

"Seems you're up, pal," I observed wryly.

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[ 03-06-2007 09:25 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Shayla Stargazer Petrolu ]

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