...but he never liked such assumptions, because that was what typically got them into trouble. He opened bleary eyes to then see the familiar bulkheads of the Eclipse-class SSD, and sighed. That only prompted a more pronounced stab of pain through his ribcage, and he grunted slightly, turning his head.

To that side, there was absolutely nothing but a sickbay wall. Even so, Terrin heard the rustle of someone moving beside him, and slowly turned his head the other way.

The person he saw was not necessarily the person he anticipated, but Terrin didn't find anything particularly unusual about this at the moment. He managed a half-smile and began to reach out a hand...

...then frowned a bit, just then really realizing the disaster of a prosthetic he now had, some circuits and wires protruding from damanged it had sustained from his tenure with the swamp-thing. He swallowed a bit to wet his mouth.

"I guess your mother is still powering down the ship," he commented absently towards Darra to keep his mind off his arm, wincing a bit as another pain shot through him.

[ 11-16-2007 08:36 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Terrin Danner ]

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"No," she softened the word with a little smile.

"Mother is not powering down the ship... well, perhaps by now she has, actually. You see, Captain Barnes said he needed a ship down on the planet, so Mother left awhile ago to take ours back to him."

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"No!" he managed, ignoring any pain which threatened to bother him. "I promised her...we'd face things together..."

He trailed, the worry evident in his eyes. He tried to hold it at bay as much as possible, however, not wanting to alarm Darra.

"I've gotta get down there..."

[ 11-16-2007 09:10 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Terrin Danner ]

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"She'll be all right," she said softly. "If she was in any danger, I would feel it. Don't ask me how I would know, I just would.

"And I don't feel she has come to any harm. I'm sure she and the others will soon find the one they are seeking, and all will be back aboard the Hornett with us, safe and sound."

[ 11-16-2007 09:14 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by JhinDarra ]

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...but a wealth of memories splayed forth in his mind's eye of days when he'd been stupid and sat back while Galen went off and fought battles on her own. Days when he should have taken the initiative to at least be with her, to fight with her. For a long moment he stared at the bulkhead of the ship, quietly, his own blue eyes still cloudy with concern and not just a bit of regret at his past mistakes.

With effort he turned to Darra, softening that look. "I know that you will know," he said quietly then. "But I hate being down while she's out there, with everyone else, facing who knows what." He paused then, annoyed with himself for getting injured so quickly, as if he could have really done a thing about it. Truth be told, he knew deep down that the same thing could have happened to anyone else.

"I trust in her abilities...

...Gods, she's got through so many things on her own in the past...

...but I should have been more careful down there to be with her if she needed me."

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"You can probably help Mother best by taking care of yourself now, and healing, so when she returns you can be out of here that much sooner and be with her," she said, a twinkle forming in her eye.

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"Ummm... there's not much I can ask," she said at length, raising her face to look Terrin straight in the eye.

"I think we can get to know each other better just by... talking, and living together as a family.

"Which is really all that Mother wants, isn't it?"

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“What do you mean, gone?” he asked, concern in his expression. “Like your force-stuff?”

Panthar looked to Aaron, then back to Shayla. While he waited for her to reply he noticed the thrumming device in his hand was suddenly no longer thrumming.

“Umm... Oh hell...”

[ 11-16-2007 11:53 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Panthar Dantares ]

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"That's all she's ever wanted," he said then, his blue eyes now meeting Darra's. "She loves you very much," he then said, pursing his lips a bit. "Seeing the two of you together, finally..."

He trailed, memories coming again, the look in eyes finishing off the statement.

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"It will be good that we all can be together," she said, her voice scarcely above a whisper. "But it will be better if you rest now. Mother will be angry with me, and say I bothered you when you should be doing whatever it is the doctor said to do.

"Which, I am certain, does not mean spending too much time talking."

She smiled again, and began to inch toward the door.

"I'm going to--" She paused. She had been about to say "her room," when it suddenly dawned on her that she didn't even have one. For when they had first come aboard Hornett all their time had been spent in discussing the logistics of rescue; then they had turned tail and returned to Dagobah.

"I- I don't know where I'm going to go," she finished, a little droop coming to her shoulders and tingeing her voice just the tiniest bit.

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"There are some quarters your Mother stayed in once, when we first met," he said. waving a medic over and making his request known that Darra be taken to said quarters, on Red Level and anywhere else she requested to go, for that matter. "Feel free to move about the ship as well...

...and make yourself at home."

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She had never seen so many people in one place in her life, despite her time in the Temple of Warriors. It seemed the corridors she passed through were filled with the rush and bustle of people going somewhere, hurrying to get there in order to do something. What that "something" could possibly be, she hadn't the slightest idea.

Then they arrived at the room assigned -- no, given to her, and her jaw about hit the floor. It was far larger, and far more well appointed than she thought she deserved... until she remembered just who exactly her mother truly was to these people.

Not to mention her adoptive father!

She smiled at the little luxuries afforded to her, bid the orderly a gracious thank you, and entered her rooms. After finding and making use of the shower -- real water! -- she then rummaged in the room's wardrobe and came up with a creamy set of flowing trousers with matching silky tunic, both delicately embroidered and chased with tiny krayt-dragon pearls. She knew it was probably some kind of elegant evening wear, far too fancy for what she had in mind, but after everything she had just experienced...

Well... it just felt somehow right... as did the spacious bed the room contained, which moments later held her slender and entirely over-dressed form, as she took Terrin's example and followed him into slumber.

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Nothing. "I can't track Shawn now...

...I can't even feel anyone's Force signature here."

she frowned, keenly aware that something other had to be going on. "If we are going to find Shawn, we're going to have to do so on logic and maps and comm signals. Which means, like Galen suggested, we may need to go down that crevasse you fell into to get started."

[ 11-17-2007 12:09 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Shayla Stargazer Petrolu ]

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Trying to ignore the wispy hairs which were still standing straight up on the back of my neck, I went to the water's edge and cupped my hands to my mouth.

"Are you guys gonna stand there all day and chit-chat, or are we going to go rescue Shawn?" I hollered.

And what in Hell's Seven Circles--! Didn't you see what just happened... or was it just me? I couldn't help but add silently to myself.

[ 11-17-2007 12:02 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Galen ]

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“Hey, quiet down, we’ll be right over,” he called over. “Don’t get eaten.”

He looked at Shayla, then placed a hand on her forehead.

“No fever,” he said. “But I believe that something weird is happening. Let’s go catch up with Galen.”

And with that, he walked along the damp narrow path and up to Galen.

“There’s something wrong,” he said, approaching. “Shayla’s force power things are gone, and my device here isn’t working. This can’t be good.”

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"Look," I said, deciding to get right to the point.

"Panthar just said you, Blondie, lost all your Force-whoosis. I dunno what you guys experienced, but do you guys remember ol' Googly Eyes? Well, it came back, and the hairs on the back of my neck are explaining to me in very great detail that it's up to something...

Again."

I paused a moment, waiting for Aaron to play catch-up, for I knew this was all new and stranger than hell to him.

"I'm betting nothing out of the ordinary works, after what happened last time; so, it looks like we're going to have to do things the old fashioned way.

"We return to the crevasse, we skinny down it again --" Oh, joy; somebody please, hold me back "-- and we comm Shawn and, and--"

I paused, floundering.

"We go from there; I have a map," I finished, somewhat lamely. Guess I hadn't realized how much I really had been relying on Blondie's force stuff, or Big Red's humming thingy, to help us out.

Maybe I wouldn't be back in time for supper after all...

[ 11-17-2007 12:22 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Galen ]

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He paused then, frowning. "But where is this crevasse you are referring to?"

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"Who the kriffing hell knows!" I finally spat, now beginning to get good and honestly mad at the thought that the weirdness who used people as pawns was back for more fun and games.

"But standing here wondering isn't going to do anything; Aaron, if you have the other guys' comm frequency, why don't you give then a jingle and see if Google struck them, too. And hell, for all we know they found Shawn, and we won't have to go down that blasted hole again!"

For to tell the truth, I didn't much relish the thought.

[ 11-17-2007 12:34 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Galen ]

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Matt, this is Aaron. We're wondering what sort of progress you have made in finding Shawn. We've had some strange events occur here with some sort of Eyes or something, and Shayla has lost her powers. Have you had any problems of this sort? Please let us know your current status so we'll know where to begin helping out here. Barnes out.

Sending the message off then, Aaron could do nothing but wait.

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Aaron...wondering...you...finding...strange...Eyes...lost...status...helping...

Matt pursed his lips, only able to make a bit out of an otherwise staticky message from Aaron. Shrugging to himself and to the others, he hit the response button.

This is Matt Stanza. We've found Shawn. Repeat, found Shawn. Strange events here. Repeat, strange events, disembodied Eyes, talking out of thin air and assisting in our search only to then vanish with strange messages. We have found Shawn, and are coming out of the caves. Repeat, found Shawn and are on our way back out of the caves. Stanza out.

Squirting the message off then, he turned to Jasyn and Petrolu. "Well, I'm not quite sure what their message was about, but hopefully they will get some of ours with all the repetition. Sounds like they may have seen the Eyes too?"

He paused, frowning. "I'm not very experienced in this area, but I'm assuming that what the disembodied voice said somehow affected you?"

Here he quieted, turning with an arched eyebrow to Shawn.

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Stanza...Shawn. ...events...desembodied. Thin...strange...Eyes. ...talking...search...vanish...messages. ...Found...out. Shawn...back...caves. ...Out.

As the message ended, only a few words of it intelligible, Aaron furrowed his brows, trying to decide what it was he thought Matt was trying to tell them.

"Well," he then said to the others, "I can't tell if they've found Shawn or not, but it sounds like he's talking about disembodied Eyes. I think our "Friend" has made its presence known where they are too."

He paused then, thinking. "We are at least getting somewhat of a signal from them. Maybe if we move closer to their location we can get an even better one and try to comm again so we can clarify the messages that are coming and going?"

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"I duuno," I finally said. "If you want to trudge here and there through all this mess--"

Here I waved a hand about, indicating the riotous growth surrounding us.

"That's your choice. But I don't think us moving any closer is going to do diddly; these are good transmitters and receivers. Our messages to each other are probably being broken up because they're not out in the clear yet. We'll more than likely hear them much better once they're out of the caves, but until then..."

I trailed again, snd sidled yet a step further from the murky water.

"Since we know ol Googly is up and running, I'd just as soon not risk making it/him/them mad. So far we seem to be okay right where we are; in fact, I'm all for returning to the ship and hitting orbit. We can wait there and see if the guys need any more help, but it sounds like they've got things under wraps for now."

[ 11-21-2007 07:21 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Galen ]

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