He trailed a moment, almost cringing at the word choice, "...before she decided to go back to the Praxeum and finish her training as a Jedi. She and I ran it together at the time...

...and we might still be had I not sold the Corporation off to Aaron over there so I could trade the money in to save Shayla from a csertain Moff," he explained, shooting Terrin a somewhat unreadable look. "The money is still laying about, seeing as we've been living off different people here and there...

...but yeah, Shayla and Stargazer Corporation are connected." He paused, chewing his lip a bit. "Would be awfully interesting to see how things are going and what information they might have on the Vong, cause I'm pretty sure there is some there. I'm just not sure how much use that information might be."

He paused another moment. "Unless things have changed, I am very familiar with their systems."

[ 12-29-2007 10:15 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Erik Kartan ]

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

Maybe that will help get other things off your mind, too, buddy

“Where do we go, who do we see, what do we bring to drink?”

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

He paused, a somewhat bemused look crossing his face, "I have a nice stash of Whyrene's...amongst other things...back in my quarters. That'll give us some room to work and think."

Pausing then,Aaron looked over to Shawn Petrolu. "And you know, while we're at it, we could take a look at any Jedi info, if you can connect us to it. We may not be able to use any powers on these guys, but still, the Jedi should have some good information on them."

Shawn nodded, taking a final drink of his own before standing, along with Panthar and Erik. Aaron nodded politely to the remaining parties in at the table. "We'll make a datapadd with all the info we pull up so that we can all take a look at it later."

Finishing then, Aaron turned to the other three men, motioned for them to follow, and led them out of Red Level dining and directly to his quarters, where an unoccupied and secure computer unit was waiting.

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

He paused then, chewing his lip a bit. "I don't suppose any Sith ships will be in order after whatever Googly did?"

Trailing one final time, Terrin sighed a bit, concern managing to creep through at what they were facing. "At least our enemies are facing the same lack of abilities that we are."

[ 01-06-2008 08:54 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Terrin Danner ]

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"I'm not certain," I finally replied slowly. "I mean, I don't think those little fighters use Sith magicks... or at least if they do, it's not their sole means of operation. After all, I sure as there's Treasure on Roon don't know diddly about magick, and once I figured out the controls I didn't have any problems flying Jester or Jester II."

I paused a moment to consider further.

"Unless it's just inherent to the ship itself, and is self-maintaining or something. Or, that whatever it is that seems to pop out in me every so ofter -- or rather, used to -- just unconsciously linked with the ship so it would fly. Maybe that's why I was able to fly it..."

I trailed, shaking my head. Too many questions, not enough answers.

"The only way to find out is to try to fly one, assuming of course that I'll ever be able to get inside one again."

Little did I know that, due to the strange bionic subsystems of the Sith fighters, which coordinated directly into their more mundane mechanical -- and possibly magickal -- nature, these little ships might very well prove a first-line defense against creatures who abhorred anything that was not entirely natural...

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

Panthar turned to look at Erik, a wry grin on his face.

“I would like to get a look at what Stargazer Corporation might have,” he said. “I mean, the information in here is stuff we could find about anywhere with the war records. But if this company deals in information, then there might be some inside scoop on something that could be useful.”

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

Erik cocked a brow at the indicated collector of the data files, not really surprised. "The last entry here was made by Shayla," he observed in apparent non-sequiter. "Expect at least some info on their ship techologies...

...and maybe some things regarding the Jedi and the Vong. Those would be her usual sorts of interests."

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

“I remember her saying she was aboard one of those ships,” he said. “It was probably one of the ships on its way here. I’d like to know more about it from Shayla, she doesn’t say much here about what she saw in that encounter, probably was very traumatic… or else this happened after she made this entry. Either way, I’d like to know more because the Vong who survived the first invasion were stripped of all implements of war and sent out of the galaxy on their living homeworld. If this is the same group, or another one, I don’t know. But I think it’s important that we find out.”

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

He paused, shrugging. "Still, there aren't alot of Sith fighters out there, or at least I'm supposing there aren't. Even if their technologies can protect us, we're going to need alot of ships."

He frowned more deeply. "I wonder if we can figure out what makes them tick and replicate the technology? I mean, if a Sith ship can withstand the blast ofan SSD, fly at unimaginable speeds...

...and do that without magick, surely it can help us against the Vong. Assuming, of course,that they are still flyable now. Guess that'll have to be on our list of priorities."

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

He paused, frowning a bit. "Still, Shayla did say she found a villip while we were on Kori'san, which poses an interesting question...

...how did it get there? And how did it know who Shayla was, because she said it responded specifically to her. I'd like to know more about what that villip said...

..and about the Vong she saw through the villip."

Pausing once more, Erik pursed his lips. "This is all really mere speculation, for the moment. What we need is some hard facts-how the Vong were defeated, particularly by people who didn't have Force abilities or any other special gifts."

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

“You know,” he said, “now that you mention it, the whole thing seems really strange. I mean, we’re all going on the ramblings of Phalomir’s dear old dad that the Vong are even coming this way. Well, I guess Phal is pretty dang sure, too, but that’s assuming he isn’t whacked in the head and delusional about coming from the future. But, all right, I’m game and I’ll assume those two sources are solid.”

Panthar choked back a laugh, realizing for the first time just how absurd the whole unlikely story of Phalomir really was. For the first time since his old body was hijacked, a shadow of doubt crept into his mind about who Phalomir really was.

“But anyway,” he continued. “The Vong were defeated soundly when they invaded here. The ones who survived were disarmed and sent away on a living planet of some sort. If the Vong are once again on their way here to invade, then who the heck are they and where did they come from? If it’s the old remnant army, then they sure rebuilt pretty damn fast! And if it’s not the leftovers from the first invasion, then who is it?”

Panthar leaned forward, growing more intense.

“Which leads us back to Erik’s very valid points. If there was a villip on Kori’sian, then it either was there before the planet was placed into the Elseness, or it was put there after. With all the coming and going, I really doubt it was there before. Which means someone – probably with the All – put it there. And how does it all tie with those clones of Phal?”

Blowing out a puff of air, Panthar leaned back once more and crossed his hands together.

“All right, call me cynical about all of this, but if I were to look at this from a historical perspective,” he said, “I’d really look at what stratagem could be in play. The great civilizations all had great leaders, and they all thought several steps ahead of everyone around them. Think about it, what better place to grow a bunch of clones in secret than someplace that was removed from reality? And if you were to keep in touch with your client, you’d certainly need to arrange for a way to easily communicate with them, which could answer why the villip was there AND how the heck it was able to actually work from inside the Elseness.

“But what troubles me is the lead-up to that bit. Moving the planet into the Elseness was very hard, especially on all of the ladies. In fact, I don’t know who else could have done it, and even that was only possible with the help of the ship that only the Dark Lord of the Armorers could know about. But there hadn’t been a Dark Lord for many years. So, let me rattle off a little plan of mine, for taking over the galaxy:

I need clones, and I need them grown in secret so not even the Kaminoans know about it. Not just clones, but clones of the Dark Lord of the Armorers, because the knowledge of the Armorers is passed directly into memory. Only thing is, there isn’t a Dark Lord.

So, let’s make one! Phal has brushes with Roan, and events leading from those scrapes take him to Kori’sian where he becomes Dark Lord and gains all of the knowledge of the Armorers. Wow, that was cool.

Great, now I have a clone source. Now let’s have a fall guy so that I can stay clean, so I’ll have Phal’s daddy do the work for me. He’ll keep Phal locked away in that tower doing who knows what, just long enough to get what he needs. Then I can come in as a bunch of tar and take over daddy for a while.

So, back to this secret place to grow these things. Well, the Darker Realms won’t work, because people keep going in and out of there. Wait, maybe I can use the ghost of Roan to keep people out. And I’ll put someone I can control in charge, like maybe Phal’s daddy!

Heck, this is getting too hard to keep tabs on the other side, I better have someone else in my pocket there, a spy, like maybe Aelvedaar himself. Well, can’t do that, so I’ll make a doppelganger.

Well, my spy reports that Phal, Gray, and company are making progress in figuring some things out. I better move my operations to an even more secret place. Hey! I’ve been eyeing that Armorer planet, it has a certain power and all that cool Sith magic stuff in it. Let’s move it out of reality! But it’s a big job, I better get help. Well, it’s really nice that Phal knows how, and the ladies have the power to do it, but they need a reason to want to do it. Hey, I control Roan, let’s have him dredge up Terrin’s spirit. Then when Terrin gets brought back to life, I’ll tell them that was a big no-no and instead of taking him back, I’ll just make them move the planet out of reality.”

Panthar stopped then, his cynical voice lowering.

“And now that I have my own place set aside from that real galaxy, I’ll take away the connection to magic from everything real… and maybe the only place where all that still works is inside the Elseness….”

His eyes darted around at the strange looks he was getting. “Well, that’d be my plan for taking over. I don’t know why I’d need the Vong, though, unless I was somehow forbidden to use violence. But then that doesn’t seem like the tar-man darkness thing, does it? That almost sounds more like Mr. Googley…”

Panthar paused again, his eyes going wide.

“Oh crap… do ya think?”

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

My eyes widened, my jaw loosened.

"Ol' Googly once said something about the Game," I whispered, now playing my fingers along my lower lip. "Well... if all of this--"

My arm dropped to wave about in a somewhat vague yet all-encompassing manner.

"--is just some kind of game to whoever the hell It is... well... ya gotta have an opponent, right? Putting aside for the moment how distasteful this all sounds, the question becomes: who is the opponent, assuming It has one? Another Googly-Eye? If that's what It really is, and not just some goofy manifestation of something or someone else. Or is there only Googly, and It's setting reality up against itself just to get some strange kick out of it? Kinda like some kind of awful cosmic solitaire?"

I paused a moment to rub my hand down my face, unconsciously shaking my head. That idea seemed too far-fetched to me, even in the light of all the odd things we had experienced in one manner or another throughout the years. And besides, the thought of being nothing but some omnipotent being's gamepiece just didn't sit well on my plate. It didn't make sense, we all had our own thoughts, our own ideas, our own little plans and desires; it would be impossible to manipulate every living thing in reality just to win a game...

My eyes widened further.

"Ya know, maybe Ol' Googly isn't what we think it is," I finally said. "I mean, I don't really think it's the Big, Bad, quasi-god we are all probably thinking It is, way in the back of our heads, that it is.

"What if instead it's a means of expression that someone is using to frighten the hell out of us? Someone who is very powerful, someone who knows how to get into our heads and make us scurry around like little ants.

"Now, let's think back: does this remind you of anybody in particular?"

I pinned Terrin's eyes with an intense look, smiling grimly to myself to see the initial surprise which had been planted on his face now begin to segue into thoughtfulness. Hopefully that expression would spark into the reflection of epiphany; in the meantime, since I already was fairly certain of who this unknown might possibly be, I simply kept my mouth shut about it and went on in another vein.

"We need to talk with someone about magick, find out more about it," I said in apparent non sequiteur. "How does it work? I mean, is it a true physical hocus-pocus kind of thing, you know, something truly objective on the part of the one who uses it?"

I fumbled a moment, trying to gather my thoughts on something I really hadn't any clue about.

"What I'm trying to say is, is part of how it works due to someone believing that it works? I know there are some goofy things on certain planets I've visited, where shamans can put a whammy on an enemy using a little doll or something, and I've read where this usually wouldn't work unless the enemy finds out he's being whammied.

"Maybe the loss of any powers we have is because we only think we can't use them?"

I settled back in my seat, nodding to myself as my input melded together into what to me was an undeniable conclusion.

"Someone has some super-duper powers, Terrin; someone is able to get into our heads as well as into our heads when we aren't aware of it. Someone maybe has found a way to take magick to a whole new level...

"But for some reason this someone can't just up and physically whammy everyone like he/she/it seems to want to do so badly. Almost like that someone is weaker than a gleeberfly larva when it comes to physicality..."

I paused again, finally shutting up for good to wait and see if any of this was making sense, giving Terrin the time to assimilate what undoubtedly sounded as improbable as the idea of me winning the Boonta Eve Pod Race on foot.

[ 01-20-2008 02:24 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Galen ]

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...I'd assume said someone would have to have significant prowess in magick, to say the very least. There's Roan, who had significant physical ability, but I don't recall him ever using anything particularly magickal...

...for the most part. But now he's dead, in the Darker Realms, and can't technically cross that line unless we do. So he's a possibility, I suppose. We know the Master is a Sorceror, and has that potential. Hell, he got his son in the past from the future...

...and he's insistent that the Vong are coming and he has the answers. So I suppose he's a possibility too. But..."

Terrin trailed, his eyes defocusing, his look darkening. "If we're talking about those who have had penchant for sneaking into minds and manipulating us in the past so that we're terrified, I can only think of two individuals, and neither are here with us. Lord Aelvedaar definitely has the abilities, we've seen him at work. And your sister, well...

...we've seen her work too as far as manipulating minds and making us fearful for our lives. I will never forget what she did to you here, seemingly so long ago, when I'd first met you and we were running from her. She had you so confused you didn't know what year it was, let alone who I was or where you were. But with the Vong enroute to our galaxy, and the whole turmoil with Phalomir in the Darker Realms as well as the Master, I wonder...

...why would they do this, and how? Were they on Degobah, and we just didn't know it? Are they tricking us to keep us close at hand, or to tap our resources? Or are we just being entirely paranoid...

...and the enemy of Ole Googly is somehow found not in us, but instead in the combined forces of the Darker Realms and the Vong?"

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

"But why would an incorporeal thing need control of the universe when it controls every power known? Why would it need clones, and a Dark Lord, and all of that?"

He paused, chwing his lip a bit. "If this Thing supposedly has control of everything, or at least of all powers...

...then what could harm it other than another powerful incorporeal Thing that is tampering with, or perhaps trying to gain, control of said powers? Force users believe in a good and dark side, All users believe in two sides of a coin, religions frequently believe in Higher beings, some of whom are good and some who are bad."

Pausing another time, Shawn's eyes defocused a bit. "What if there is a "good" and a "bad" incorporeal Being, and Googly is one. Which leads to the next question: if this is so...

...which of the two is Googly?"

[ 01-20-2008 10:50 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Shawn Petrolu ]

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"I don't know," I finally replied. "But what I do know is that this scares me more than I'd like to admit. It's more than that, it's terrifying, like being the unwilling brunt of a sinister joke or something.

"Maybe we should toss this out on the table whenever Panthar and Erik get back. Erik might have some kind of jedi insight, and as for Panthar? Well, he's been around; maybe he might know something, or might have seen something, or uncovered something that might help. Maybe there's something on that planet he was telling us about."

I sighed inwardly, my heart sinking as Terrin's speculations about who could be responsible for what hit home. For in my heart of hearts, I couldn't help but feel that maybe he was right:

Maybe it was the Dark Lord of the Sorcerers and Sissypoops who were puppeteering matters behind a careful facade; what was it he called her anyway? His "Chosen Daughter" or something?

I shivered, and plopped an elbow on the table, resting my cheek against a fisted hand while further such unsavory thoughts continued to roil around in my head.

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

Panthar scratched his head and reached for the datapad that he had been saving information to. He took it in his hand and looked at the screen.

“I think I have all of the information I need to get a good report on the Vong,” he said. “I still have a lot of questions, like I said before, but it should help us in the immediate timeframe. Some of these other questions, though, I think merit more discussion with the others. How about we share our good cheer with them?”

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

Saying nothing further than that, Aaron began to lead the way back out of his personal quarters and to a reverse route back towards where they had left everyon else. In only a few minutes they were reentering the dining area where they had been with the others only a short while before.

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

...how kriffin'" wonderful," he growled. "I sure hope Ole' Googly whammied them good...

...after all, it's them that use this power and that to get what they want done."

Pausing then, he glanced at his empty mug, and waved the server over. "I need another," he said, handing her his empty mug just in time to see Aaron and the others return. His scowl only grew. "Oh boy, I have the feeling we're in for more good news..."

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

“Well,” he said. “With help from Erik and Aaron, I was able to get the data we wanted on the Vong. It raises some interesting questions, though, about who these Vong actually are and why they are coming here. I mean, the remaining forces that were driven out of the galaxy were decimated and disarmed, and sent packing. I find it hard to believe that they would be re-armed to the extent that they could mount an invasion of an entire galaxy already.”

Panthar looked at the other two men who had joined him in the curious discussion a few minutes earlier. He sighed and continued.

“And it led to some speculation as to how this all meshes with the more-weird-than-usual things that have been happening to us and those around us. I mean, for one thing, it seems all too convenient in retrospect that Korris’ian had to be moved into the Elseness – a place outside of reality – yet all of this weird crap is still going on there, in secret, and not effected by the things in this realm. I mean, we got Phal clones, a Vong communication thingie, people being brought back to life… well, OK, that happened first, but it sure ended up being a convenient excuse to send the planet to the Elseness. Then there is the whole Googley thing about taking away the powers and magic and stuff. I mean, why?”

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

"Why?" Jasyn suddenly blurted then. "Because we take the easy way all the time and choose to help one person at a time instead of...

...well, something. Because we need to appreciate the His Majesty Mr. Googly for bestowing us with said powers."

He paused then, his glare turning into a scowl. "I suppose asking for a break here or there is too much to ask. But Googly did say we could re-earn the lost point. How, I don't know."

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

Panthar sighed and leaned back in his seat.

“I don’t know,” he puffed. “It’s just all so… I don’t know, convenient? I mean, like I told the guys, there is something very special about Korris’ian that makes this thing stop time… STOP TIME… How can we fight that?”

Panthar sat up, his hand hitting the table and making it jump.

“But you know what? If he is all powerful enough to do that, then why didn’t he do something about the planet himself? It makes we wonder, ya know. Did he really stop time, or just make it seem like it? Did he really remove magic and the Force and the All, or just somehow block our connection to it? I mean, according to Phal, Sith magick is really just about a collective belief and channeling that energy, or something. And the Force is about some bacteria or something, isn’t it? Or did I hear that wrong? And the All... well, Shayla can tell us more about that, but I know she talked about needing some kind of knowledge to use the power. Seems a lot easier to block the conduit than to just take away the whole thing entirely. Are we really dealing with a God here, or just a really crafty pain in the ass? Maybe the rules of this game he is playing forbid him to do something unless it's in response to something we do, so he sets us up to fail? Maybe Aelvedaar could tell us, he was kidnapped by somebody, right? Maybe it was Googly? Or one of his opponents in this cosmic game?”

[ 01-23-2008 08:42 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Panthar Dantares ]

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"That's just what I was telling everyone else here!" I exclaimed, sticking a thumb over my shoulder to indicate Terrin, et. al. "It just doesn't make any kind of sense. Why would a Thing powerful enough to stop time itself have to worry about such measly things as magick and the Force and the power Sissypoops has? Unless..."

I paused for effect.

"Unless it's just a manifestation of someone, a means by which someone who's maybe not all that powerful is trying to convince us that he/she/it is. Someone who obviously wants as many cards as he can hold held back from the table until that table is good and cleared.

"And then the Big Whammy starts. But by who?"

I paused for real now, my earlier enthusiasm waning beneath a fresh bout of concern.

[ 01-24-2008 09:00 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Galen ]

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"Sitting here speculating about magick this and Googly that is all very well and good, but when push comes to shove it's really not getting us anyplace. Personally I think this is all coming out from the Darker Realms somehow. With that in mind, does anyone here have an honest-to-Khaandon battle plan? A solid idea of what in Hell's Seven Circles we can do? That is if there's anything at all we can; taking a bigger look at things, there's not really very many of us. Even though it would seem that for some reason, whenever we do something to make Mr. Peepers mad something nasty seems to follow. Which kinda makes all this grandiose stuff a touch wee on the personal side, doesn't it? Which brings me round to my former thought: maybe this thing isn't as big and bad as we think it is. It's not really a big ol universal thing; I can't help but think it's someone or something in the Darker Realms, like I said.

"If we can piss him off and make him retaliatory, maybe there is something we really can do against him, or it, or whatever. Think about it, he gets pissy, but we just don't seem to get overtly attacked or killed or anything, do we?

"Now, in that regard, what are our options to fighting this, or settling things, or hell, even finding out if the Vong thing is really true or not? Where do we go from here, other than just talking about it all?"

I shut up again and motioned for the waiter to bring me another glass of something strong. I had a feeling it was going to be that kind of a day.

[ 01-29-2008 12:53 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Galen ]

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First of all, if it is really the manifestation of something, for some reason it wants to hide behind and scare us into doing things without really knowing who is behind the demands. But if it really is incorporeal...

...it probably really needs our physical bodies, for some reason,to do its will. In either case, what if we just flat out refuse to do as it demands? Might that force the creator of the manifestation out of hiding or force the incorporeal thing to act?"

He paused, shruggging. "It sounds risky either way. But as for the likelyhood of the Vong incoming...

...what about things that have happened in the past connected with that? What about the time Graysith and Shayla were prisoners on a Vong ship? Is that enogh evidence to believe the Vong are incoming?"

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

"On the surface you'd think that, yeah," I agreed as I set the glass down upon the table. "But think about this, too; just because they were aboard a Vong ship doesn't necessarily mean that ship was incoming. I mean, all we have to go on is the fact that both were sent there with the use of the power Sissy and Lord Aelvedaar have, and both were kept prisoner. Now, stop a minute and think of all we've been saying throughout all of this: doesn't that weird power manipulate Time? Isn't that what Aelvedaar did too, when he reached out and found my sister?

"Couldn't they have been placed aboard a Vong ship back during sometime when the Vong originally attacked? How do we know otherwise?"

I lifted my glass and lifted my brows, waggling them at everyone over the rim. Then I took another drink. Funny, but you'd think the room would be starting to tip by now, but it wasn't. I sighed, longing for that warm fuzzy feeling which was remaining obstinately distant, and continued.

"Whatever Ol' Googly is, it appears to like games. Ok, so perhaps this is some kind of game. Haven't a clue as to what purpose... nor do I have a clue how to refuse it whatever it wants, when you consider that we haven't even ben requested to do anything yet."

I thought a minute then went slowly on.

"Maybe we should worry more about things closer to us, like finding Captain Joao and Lord Aelvedaar and then meeting up with Sissypoops and Phal. I think we need more brainpower applied to this problem...

"If, come to think of it, it truly is a problem at all. Could just be so much hot air."

With that I tossed down the remainder of my glass, raising a hand to beckon the waiter to come and refill it.

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