"But of course," he replied with the easy grace inherent to his race. "This is a simple procedure that in fact any child could easily accomplish."

[ 11-05-2011 01:27 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Rhua Ki ]

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“We may yet find a use for this thing,” he said. “If you are willing.”

He then turned to her and placed a hand on her shoulder. The dark cold glare that had bore into the Kaminoan now turned soft, almost caring.

A vision, one of Graysith stepping off a cliff with a babe, the look in her eyes dead and despairing, briefly flashed in Shayla's mind.

Shayla wondered, for the barest of moments, why she would be reminded of this. It might have been obvious to some, but for the moment, it wasn't to her. All that rested in her mind were thoughts of Power, of Balance. And of the Greater Good. Or at least, this was what she thought. For while she could help Kieran create an heir for the Darker Realms, a new and potentially powerful race...

...there was something that she could not recreate that was true of the destroyed child before them. Or at least, maybe not...

"Yes," she replied plainly as the room fell into an eerie and damning silence.

[ 11-05-2011 01:54 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Shayla Stargazer Petrolu ]

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“Then we have work to do,” he said. He reached his hand to her face and ran his palm over her smooth cheek, lifting her head to the right. He gazed upon her beauty and smiled wider, his eyes widening with almost maniacal expression. Then he snapped his head to the Kaminoan, who started at the unnatural speed with which the dark one’s attention came.

“You will make this happen,” he said. “And it shall be a male – strong and healthy, Sith and human, dark and powerful.”

"Oh, not much, really," he began as he took out a padd from his belt pouch and activated it. His slender fingers fairly flew across the keyboard as he brought up page after page of what would undoubtedly appear as nothing more than sheer gobbledegook to the Sith and the human. But to him it was sheer magick, soothing and real. The very foundation of reality, so easily at his fingertips...

He shut off the padd with a defining click.

"Not much," he repeated. "Just gametes. I need to collect the germ cells from both of you, that their individual DNA patterns might be augmented to create the strongest alleles, those that you desire. While I can do this with samples from the both of you, it is, of course, best to have a viable embryo to work with, one as young as possible.

"While the initial fusion of the germ cell pair is not difficult, the trickiest part of this procedure is creating a new, genetically augmented entity. While I can do this clinically, the success rate using our standard procedures of augmenting the haploid DNA and then fusing the pair together is only 93%.

"But augmenting the DNA of a viable embryo, produced in the natural womb?"

He paused a moment, then blinked his limpid black eyes.

"One hundred percent effective," he finished with a graceful nod of his head.

[ 11-07-2011 11:30 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Rhua Ki ]

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“If you mean to impregnate my queen with your alien flesh, then I shall kill you where you stand.” Kieran felt a tremor rise up from the base of his spine. It shot slowly up his arching back, making his shoulders push upward. He caught himself, though, before it went further. What was this strange feeling?

He looked back to Shayla. Her eyes were splendid, even in the artificial light of this cold barren room. He suddenly longed for the dark light of the Darker Realms, to see Shayla’s full splendor under the shadowed black sun.

Then it was gone as soon as it appeared.

Are you being viewed as one who is special, or even as an equal, Shayla Stargazer? Or are you merely a means to an end? an annoying voice repeated in her head. Shayla chose to ignore it. At least, mostly.

"It was merely a suggestion," Shayla then said to Kieran, the look in her eyes darkening. "It is not worth your time to worry about, my Dear." She paused, her eyes darkening further to the hue of the sea before a storm. "After all, we have work to do."

[ 11-08-2011 08:53 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Shayla Stargazer Petrolu ]

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"Oh, NO Sir! You misunderstand--" he had started when Shayla turned to the red-skinned being and interjected. Though not meant to be on his behalf -- he was quite certain of that-- he grasped at her words as a lifeline extended out to him.

"W-work?" he stammered, then paused to gather up his wits once more. Mere seconds later, and he was back to his former self.

He clasped his slender fingers afront himself, and bowed his head.

"If you would be so kind as to detail again exactly what it is you wish, Madam and Sir, I will make certain the results you crave are achieved.

"To the best of our ability," he hastily amended before silencing himself altogether to wait and see exactly what work would lie ahead of him...

If any.

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...but she didn't know if she necessariy knew all the details. He remained obstinately silent, as though he was waffling over something...

...or perhaps just to keep the Kaminoan on edge. Shayla decided to pay this no mind for the moment, and instead turned back to the awaiting Rhua Ki.

"You said you could augment the DNA of a viable embryo produced by the natural womb," she said, restating Rhua's earlier explanation. She fell silent a moment, something only perhaps a mother who had lost a child could relate to passing over her features for a brief moment before it disappeared and her look became mostly unreadable once more.

"I'm assuming this means that were the Lord and I to have a child together, you could augment the DNA?"

She paused a moment, her greeny-blue eyes now resting intently upon the Kaminoan, her attentions for the moment mostly off Kieran.

But not entirely.

She pinned Rhua with a look of something much more than just passing curiousity. "In what ways?"

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"Why, we can augment whatever natural traits that are carried in the chromosomes donated by the mating pair," he said smoothly, now letting a small smile of satisfaction cross his delicate features at the prospect ahead of him. If there was anything he loved more than cloning, it was augmenting. There weren't all that many Kaminoan scientists who had mastered this artform; he took great pride in his past achievements in the field.

Indeed, art form it is, he thought briefly before continuing.

"Genes dictating body strength, visual acuity, hearing, stress resistance... the range is wide and varied. But these abilities and traits exist within every living entity, how they express themselves in the phenotype is determined by everything from the strength of the initial allele to intra-uterine factors.

"I can make certain such traits would develop to their highest degree in the child, who would of course be a Sith-human hybrid. While I have some expertise with human traits, I am a bit naive as to those inherent to the Sith race.

"If there are certain traits exclusive to your people that you wish augmented, you will have to specify these."

He nodded toward Keiran as he spoke the last words, then turned back to Shayla.

"And yes, a viable embryo created and developed within the womb would have an augmentation success rate of 100%. When dealing with the individual gametes, the rate drops a bit. There is no guarantee that what I would achieve within each one would combine completely; there are some things that must be left up to Nature, after all."

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The coolness of it, the reliability...

He drew himself up until he seemed taller than he actually was, and allowed himself to give voice to that inward sniff of derision.

"Of course," he droned, falling into lecture mode. "If that is all you need, than it shall be done quickly, and with a good promise of success. Of course the best results come from the manipulation of the genetic code of a viable embryo; if this is manner through which your ends are to be reached, I can perform this in vitro..."

He paused, his large eyes seeming to gleam in the bright white of the laboratory surrounding them.

"Or you may do so in vivo. If the latter, may I direct you to a more, ahhh... private room..."

[ 11-23-2011 11:57 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Rhua Ki ]

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Unacceptable.

"What of my human strengths, of my Force abilities and healing capabilities? Or do you think so little of these natural proclivities that you would dismiss them as being nothing than merely human?" she asked darkly, her eyes pinned on Kieran as she became extremely emboldened.

[ 11-23-2011 11:12 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Shayla Stargazer Petrolu ]

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But he stayed his hand. Something she had said in her backtalk, it suddenly interested him.

"It's an energy field that surrounds all life in my universe," she then stated. "Only certain people are able to act upon it and use it; I and my brother are both Force senstive."

She paused, leaving out the fact that she and her brother were twins entirely. "It is an asset in many ways; in my case I am a healer and have attuned telekenetic abilities. I can also use the Force to amplify my senses."

She quieted again, the look in her eyes growing unreadable. "If this is going to be our child, truly, it should have my strengths as well as yours. After all, I am also one of the few humans who has been able to manipuate the Sith's All in any way, shape, or form..."

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"The methodology is not difficult," he offered at length.

"I can take the gametes from the two of you, and combine them in vitro. Or, if you wish a more reliable effect, you may create the young one naturally. I will then take a speciman of this beings genetic makeup, and enhance whatever it is that it carries, to whatever end you desire.

"Be aware that I cannot add abilities that are not within the genome of the being you bring to life," he admonished, before falling silent to wait until he was informed as to what exactly he was needed to do for the odd pair.

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“You do not need to add abilities,” he said. “My queen is strong, she was chosen by the Realms itself. I now see why, not only is she beautiful and strong, she carries with her the knowledge that has eluded our kind. I should have known.”

He brought his hand to her face, now gently.

It couldn't be. How could she have missed it? Maybe after all that Kieran believed her to be, they had failed.

She had, after all, never carried an infant to term. In fact, she had lost him early, at the hands of Dark Lord Roan. And what that perhaps had done to her...

Shayla closed her eyes, sensing down deep, something hidden within her quaking in fear of failure..and at the same time, in fear of success. Little of her was what she once was, but even so...

...there was still something there, buried deep within, something of deep and despairing pain of loss...

...and of what focusing upon the needs of the one instead of the needs of the many could in turn cause as well. For the moment, however, Shayla didn't have time to anayze this, however. All she could search for was that small speck of something in her iinner being, something that was part her, and part something else. At first she found nothing...

...but at length one small, very small life, hiddenly safely in her womb, caught her attentions. And perhaps another...

...but no. One. She was certain.

Shayla's eyes snapped open and met Kieran's awaiting pair. "Yes. I can feel..."

She trailed, uncertain. "...him," she finished, placating Kieran's obvious desire for a male, but truthfully uncertain.

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"If this is factual -- which I can quite easily verify -- then all that needs be done to the embryo is to augment it's natural tendencies. I can take a small tissue sample and examine it to determine what genetic markers it carries, which in turn would indicate it's normal physical development. You may then decide which physical traits you wish enhanced, and which ones to be left alone."

He paused a heartbeat.

"Of course this does come at a price."

Bowing his head briefly, he named a rather hefty sum. Then he clasped his hands afront himself and quietly waited for permission to continue. But inside, he was beginning to quiver a little with unease.

Demons?

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You will do as you are told! There will be no price negotations!" she snarled, her eyes the only thing pinning Rhua Ki in place.

Then she simply fell silent yet unmoving, her greeny blue eyes growing even icier.

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But in his head, memories surfaced.

There was another time, he well remembered. That other red-skinned, horned, and highly dangerous being. The one who had come to them, twice as he recalled, commanding services somewhat similar to what was being demanded of him here.

The first commission had been the trickiest one, for that youngling had some of the strangest DNA he had ever seen, even when the towering Sith had deigned to give him a sample of his own by which to compare its structure. But the second, later task was much less intricate, that being to artificially age a simple human being...

That one had not paid so much as a single credit either. But that was all right, as far as the scientist was concerned. There was much sweeter payment to be had than mere credits, although most of his peers would think him crazy for allowing this.

Pushing himself from the wall, he regained his balance and assumed his natural demeanor of cool aplomb: standing tall, hands clasped in front of him, his feet spaced slightly less than shoulder width apart.

"As you wish, Lady," he said smoothly with a slight bow of his head in Shayla's direction. He flicked his gaze in Keiran's direction, waiting to see if that worthy would agree with his fiery mate. But that one only seemed to curl his lip, sneering in what could either be seen as satisfaction with how Shayla had handled things, or in readiness to strike.

The scientist could only wait to see in which direction the suddenly stormy winds about him were about to blow.

[ 12-06-2011 11:34 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Rhua Ki ]

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His son, the finest specimen of physical beauty and strength, adept at everything… Ruling the night, the day, all that stood before him... His voice alone would command the Realms. His power would be unimaginable.

His power would be greater than Kieran’s own.

That gave him pause.

“There shall be no enhancements,” he said.

He paid no attention to the reaction of the Kaminoan, and turned to Shayla.

“You are strong, we need no aid from this one and his artificial craft. However, we still have a question to ask of it.”

"Did I not already state who this was?" he queried simply, "It was Lord Phalomir who came and ordered this being's genome be experimented with, at least as far as I can recall. Here, let me check our records."

Not waiting for permission, for indeed wasn't this his laboratory? -- he moved gracefully away to access the nearest computer terminal. His long fingers played a silent staccato upon the virtual keyboard that popped into thin air at his command; soon columns of data were scrolling in a rainbow of light that seemed to originate somewhere in the shadows of the ceiling that arced over their heads only to spill out upon the antiseptic white floor upon which they stood.

Rhua Ki let those data waterfall for a few moments longer before his hand stabbed out, quenching the light. Clasping his hands in front of himself, he returned to face the odd pair who were impatiently waiting behind him.

"Yes," he said, as by that one word he reaffirmed his earlier statement. "It appears this being appeared from nowhere in an embryonic state. In fact, it literally fell into existence at the very feet of one of our top geneticists, who hastened to place it within one of our incubators. It was then aged, so we could begin to ascertain who it was, and so understand the curious circumstances under which it came into our hands.

"It wasn't until some time later that another of your race, one who called himself Dark Lord Phalomir, came along and requested we begin, ahh... playing with it's genes, and I was placed in charge of his development.

"Why do you wish to know this?"

[ 12-06-2011 10:19 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Rhua Ki ]

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Kieran’s hand instinctively went upward, blue light tracing across his fingers. But before he let loose with the blast that would have sent the scientist flying into the wall, he hesitated.

He watched the eyes of the tall creature. They were alive with a mix of confusion and certainty, showing the confidence of one who trusted his information totally yet struggled with the slightest doubt that it could be wrong.

What if the creature was telling the truth? Surely by now it would know the consequence of lying, it had tasted the power of his queen and had already seen the terrible retribution bestowed to its kin crumpled on the floor.

What if this Phalomir existed? How would have known of the child? Why would he want it reverted to a human? If it were true, then this Phalomir would suffer more than any living creature had ever suffered.

“My queen,” he said inquisitively. “You have spent time with these Sith. Have you ever heard of or seen this Phalomir? Does he truly exist?”

She smiled sweetly. Entirely too sweetly. "And there are others like you." With this statement, she tilted her head towards the Kaminoan in an unspoken suggestion.

With an arched eyebrow she fell silent, awaited Kieran's response.

[ 12-19-2011 03:54 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Shayla Stargazer Petrolu ]

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