740. Omicron Delta Facility - Trychon

Dianna stared at the video in silence as Raezyr, Trychon and Rhox all waited for her reaction.  She was silent for several moments after shutting it off.  She could see expectation, hesitation, and anticipation in the faces she found when she finally turned around.  They were all unsure how she'd react, and rightfully so.  She wasn't sure how she wanted to react herself.

Dianna found it odd that in the moments of her greatest crisis ever, both personal and professional, and while feeling completely lost... she found herself able to read her companions so easily.

Raezyr kept glancing over at his brother, likely hoping that he knew better than to fire off one of his smart remarks, or even a joke hoping to cheer everyone up.  Her lover was truly sorry for the losses that she'd had and for letting her down.

Trychon, for his part, was mostly staring at the ground and not saying a word.  As much as he got on everyone's nerves with his poorly timed jokes, and for the bad taste they often showed... he too felt hurt and guilt over what had happened, and did not seem to be in the mood to joke.  Even if he was, the hidden care and intelligence in him held him in check.

Rhox had a look of simple concern for her friend and boss.  She knew she'd probably already thrown in too many comments and looks with 'I told you so' behind them to add anything of the sort at this point.  Now she simply was with the Sith that she largely reviled, in wishing she could help the pain disappear.

Dianna looked back to her lover, Raezyr.  This wasn't his fault.  Rather, it was partly his fault though he would never intentionally hurt her or those close to her.  He had tried to help her in the ways he knew how best.  Yet, she wasn't sure how things would have turned out for her without him.  Part of her never wanted to leave his side, and the other part wished that they'd never met and had a chance to fall in love.

Since the latter wish was impossible, she really was tempted to give up control and just follow him.  Give up control, she nearly laughed at the thought of her, Dianna Kingsdoom giving up control.  Yet though she never wanted to find herself in this horrible situation, here she was.  What made more sense than to go with a man who would always love her, always protect her, and always do his best to ensure that she was taken care of.  She'd probably never have to work another day in her life, if she could allow herself to relax that far.

Yet, she was still torn.  She felt as though everything and nothing was suddenly clear to her at once.  She loved the man underneath the mask, but no longer knew if that kind of safety was truly safe.

She was reminded of a story her father used to tell her.

A solayan scorpion once came out of the desert to the banks of The Great River, whereupon he accosted a drocodane. "My dear chap," he said to the drocodane, "could we form an alliance to get to the other side of the The Great River?"

The drocodane answered, "Do you think I am stupid? I would be at your complete mercy. You could sting me and kill me at any time during the crossing."

"Of course not," said the scorpion. "I could not sting you, because if I did, I would drown."

The drocodane thought for a second and then agreed this made sense and took the scorpion on his back. 

About midstream, the scorpion became agitated and stung the drocodane.

As the two were about to go under, the drocodane turned to the scorpion and said, "Why did you do that? Now we will both die."

"I cannot help it," said the scorpion, "It is my nature."

Was Raezyr like the solayan scorpion?  Would he bring nothing but death and destruction to even those closest to him, simply because it was in his nature?  In her heart she did not feel that it was so, but in her head, she was unsure.

In the end, that was what settled it for her.  She was unsure what to do... but she knew she couldn't really come to a decision when she was around him.  She opened her eyes, only half aware that she'd closed them.

"We're done here."  She spoke firmly.  "We have nothing else to stay here for."

She could see the continued hope in Raezyr's eyes.  She knew what he wanted, and she knew she couldn't give it to him now.  "I have a few things I'd like to fix and clean up here before we leave, but you should go."

Everyone in the room knew who the 'you' referred to.  "I'll walk you both to the airlock."

Dianna did not wait for acknowledgement from either of the Sith as she walked past them and towards the docking area.  She could hear them following her.  The clanking of boots behind her was the only sound for the next minute.

Finally she turned around and locked gazes with Raezyr, her friend, her confidant, her lover.

Trychon also looked to Raezyr, who nodded ever so slightly to show that they were indeed going to acquiesce to her demands.

Raezyr and Dianna stood there while Trychon entered the airlock and began putting on his airtight helmet to give them some privacy.

"When..." The Sith began to ask her, but stopped knowing that she knew his question, and would not answer.

"Don't write, don't call, don't try to find me."  She told him, tears now streaming from her eyes as though a dam had broken.  "I can't tell you where I'm going or for how long because I don't know."

"I..."  He started, as a million things he wanted to say raced through his mind.

"I love you, Raezyr."  She finished for him.

She wrapped her arms around his neck and embraced him as she buried her lips on his.  It was as passionate and meaningful kiss as they'd ever shared.  It was too long and too short.  It threatened to break her resolve, so she pulled away.

Raezyr took a step back into the airlock.  She reached into her knapsack and retrieved a small package for him.  She tossed it to him and hit the button on the wall, shutting the airlock and beginning the cycle of the air release.  Raezyr fumbled to get his helmet secured before the atmosphere was gone entirely.

Dianna walked away.

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

Both Sith pretended to be all business as they flew the Jet Razor away from the secret Omicron Delta Facility.  Sensors and computers beeped, sometimes on their own and sometimes in response to the typing of programs and coordinates that Trychon was entering.

"We're about ready...." Trychon began.

"Just do it."  Raezyr responded as he reached out and touched his hand to the transparisteel viewport, reaching out towards Dianna one last time.

As the stars stretched into lines and the distance grew exponentially between the Sith and the secret base, Raezyr looked at the parcel in his lap and finally decided to open it rather than wait until he had a private moment.

As he opened it, he felt a soft cloth covering something much harder.  Withdrawing it from its container, he recognized the cloth immediately and its contents were obvious.  Still, he had to finish uncovering it and see with his own eyes.

He unfolded the dark velvet liner and saw the only thing it could have been, though not exactly as he'd expected it.

Dianna Kingsdoom had returned to him the Tingel Governor's Blade he'd given her.  His heart finally broke as he searched the parcel for the missing piece.  It was not there.  She'd returned the blade to him, but she'd kept the sheath.

She had given back to him the object and the promise that went with it that was greatest between them.  Yet she had kept a part of it.

Trychon had tried to provide privacy, but he could not help but glance over.  Immediately, the customary meaning was as clear to him as it was to his brother.  More uncertainty.

Announcement - Things Change

We apologize for not having a post ready for today.  There's one that's nearly finished that will post next week.

After this, we will be changing how we do things for a short while.  We have come to a stopping point of sorts in our story, and we will be making a jump forward in time.  We will be taking a break from our main story in the meantime while we work on really preparing to continue the story.

In the interim, we will continue to post some short stories just to keep the blog active and give our readers something to read.  We won't necessarily be following our regular Monday, Wednesday, Friday schedule but we will try to keep updates fairly often.  Some of the stories we post will be related slightly to our own universe, but for the most part we plan on spreading our wings a little and doing a bit more general fanfic style stories... not even necessarily in the same timeline as our own characters.

We are doing this in hopes of really outlining our plans and giving ourselves a bit more direction.  Our hope is that by doing this, we can improve our story, our writing, our experience, and of course the experience of our readers.

Originally we'd hoped to do this without taking a significant break, but time constraints have made that hard, and we feel that the temporary break will be worth the final product.

Thanks for sticking with us!

Erik and Rex

739. Omicron Delta Facility - Raezyr

Dianna wasn't sure she wanted to examine the ship, afraid of what she might find, so Rhox came out to help Raezyr and Trychon. They moved carefully about the interior of the Twi'lek's ship. She had been an assassin, and as such, was prone to being wary of intruders. It didn't appear as though she had left any traps, or hadn't set them if they were present.

They found two bodies in the med bay. It appeared that Teera and Dek had spent the last few moments using the medical oxygen tanks.

"Frakking Republic bastards," Trychon muttered inside his enviro-suit as the three looked down on the bodies of their friends.

"What was that?" Raezyr asked, not quite catching what he had said.

"Nevermind," he said brusquely before turning to his brother. "Raez, can you get their remains inside the base? I need to check the computers and figure out what happened here."

At that moment, their suit comms crackled to life. "Guys, I'm in the engine room. Come take a look," Rhox said.


They both arrived a moment later. The blackened mess had melted almost everything in the room. Raezyr ran his fingers across the back soot and examined it closely, noticing a crystalline structure to it. "Plasma fire... burned up all the Oh-two and destroyed the oxy-scrubbers as well."


"Can you tell what caused it?" Rhox asked.


"No, but maybe there's something in the logs," Raezyr said and looked at his brother.


"It was probably the kriffing Si..." Trychon started to mumble before catching himself and the glares headed in his direction.  "I'm on it," He said and headed for the cockpit.

It only took him a few minutes to access the proper logs, most of which was spent decrypting his own algorithms.  Seconds thereafter, his datapad had analyzed the data.

"Hmmm."  He said to himself before keying the comm.  "Alright... I've got the results.  Nothing surprising, for what it's worth.  You can come take a look though."

Rhox and Raezyr arrived seconds apart.  Trychon didn't look up immediately, but continued his work as he held up a hand gesturing for them to wait.

"What's the deal?  I thought you had it already."  Rhox tapped her foot impatiently.

"Hang on to your tauntaun.... I'm going to do even better.  I hope."

As if he had timed it on purpose, the display nearest him began playing back a video log.

The screen showed nothing but static at first, but the audio had alarm klaxons as well as the static.  As the picture began to resolve, they could make out a shadow of what seemed to be a humanoid in front of the camera.  They began to hear coughing and muted cursing over the blaring computer warnings. 

Slowly the video began to focus.  It was still dark and grainy, but they could make out Dek's face obscured by an oxygen mask.

"Finally..."  He gasped, breaking into another coughing fit.  "I'm not sure how long I have now, so I'll get to the point.  We're not doing so hot."  He paused to continue trying to clear his lungs.  "We got hit as we made our jump out of the system.  We tried to feign compliance and get out without any further damage, but it didn't work."

"The hyperdrive took some damage, but our first jump was locked in.  When we came out of hyperspace, the alarms... only got worse with the wear and tear.  We knew we were taking a risk... by making the second jump, but with the Republic possibly right on our tail, and the course already locked in... we were risking more by staying.  We couldn't risk everyone else."

"When the fire started, I was able to lock it into the engine room and contain... it.  I don't know how the drive survived to keep us going, but it all happened... so quick.  I think my lungs are..."  His eyes began to water and he went into a long coughing fit.  "I think they're scarred.  My lungs.  Teera took a nasty hit on the head and has been unconscious.  Probably for the best, because her air just may last her long enough.  I'm... wasting mine at least twice as much as I should.  Not... not for long though."

"Di.  I'm sorry.  I'm sorry... about... Teera.  I'm sorry about everyone else."  His eyes began pouring out water, and it was more evident that it was emotional, not physical damage that was causing it now.  He was holding in his sobs as best he could.  "I don't... know why they did this.  Why... did they do this to us?  I didn't do anything to... to them.  Not... my fault.  Please... please... save Teera if you... can.  Save yourselves."

"Good...bye."

With his last words spent, he unhooked the oxygen canister from his own mask and walked over to Teera's unconscious form on the table behind him.  Barely able to hold himself up, he connected what oxygen he had left to the secondary input on her mask before collapsing.

738. Omicron Delta Facility - Raezyr

Dianna struggled to remain calm, fighting the panic that threatened to overwhelm her as she and Raezyr made their way to the control room. The big Sith was walking briskly, and it was all she could do to keep from breaking out into a run. The fear that the Republic had found them here was all to real, and she was sure that someone had been followed or tracked somehow.

Yet somewhere deep down inside, despite whatever this turned out to be, she was thankful that she had been able to get out of her discussion with the man she loved, because she wasn't sure she could give him the answers he wanted. She wasn't even sure what the answer even was yet.

After what seemed like an eternity, but was in reality only a few moments, they arrived. She spoke before the door had even whooshed closed behind her. "Is it the Republic? Were you followed?"

Trychon was seated at the control terminal with Rhox leaning over his shoulder, looking intently at some readout on one of the display screens. The Sith slicer turned his head and spoke over his other shoulder. "Ship entered the system, and it's markings match that of the Arctic Seduction," he explained, referring to the single ship which had slipped through the Republic's grasp, escaping to hyperspace just before the Twilight Stalker had succumbed to it's wounds.

"That's Teera's ship," Dianna stated. "Why are you calling me up here for that?"

"She don't appear to have any power to her ion drive. Your Sith maintenance guy here," Rhox said, indicating Trychon with a jerk of her thumb, which was met with a brief glare from the aforementioned," managed to get the communications array up and running. We attempted to hail them on the Kingsmen's emergency comm frequency, but haven't gotten any answer."

"Something's wrong," Dianna surmised.

"Excellent deduction, Captain Obvious," Trychon said with a chuckle. His joke was met with glares all around.

Not the time, Raezyr thought to his brother, who returned a silent acknowledgement.

Trychon cleared his throat. "Uh... Di... um, you want Raez and I to go tow them in?" the older brother suggested, attempting to get past the awkward silence.

"That's probably a good idea," the pirate captain answered. "Don't try to get in, just tow them in."

The Sith brothers headed for the door simultaneously, and the women watched them go. Once gone, Rhox turned to her captain. "Everything okay, boss?" In reality, she had begun to think of the red-haired woman as much more than an employer, rather a friend, and a close one at that.

The reverse was true as well. Dianna collapsed into the chair, and looked up at her friend. "I don't know, Rhox. I just have a bad feeling about this."

"About the Seduction?"

"About everything."

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

As soon as the control room doors had closed behind them, Trychon asked what he'd been dying to ask in the room. "How'd the talk go?"

"Shut up, Trych," Raezyr growled.

"Whatever, man," the older Sith replied. "Just remember that I'm on your side. There's no call to snap at me."

The two were silent for a few moments, their sound of their boots contacting the durasteel walkway echoing down the corridor. Finally Raezyr spoke. "You're right. Tensions are high, but our priorities haven't wavered. Dianna is going to do whatever she needs to do. I want that to be coming with us to Den Var, but right now she's messed up, Trych. She's lost everything, including her focus on what's important. She may need a few days to clear her mind."

Trychon thought about it for a moment. "She'll come to us. It's not like she has any other options at this point, right?"

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

The Jet Razor drifted closer to the other vessel as it tumbled on it's slow roll.

"Sensor readings are inconclusive, showing minimal power readings although it could be enough to sustain the life support systems, but all power to the drives is out," Trychon was saying into the comm, "and we can't see any lights in the cockpit either." He didn't need to extrapolate on what that indicated. The person on the other end of the transmission knew very well that the probability of anyone being alive was next to nil.

"And they're not answering your comm?" Rhox's voice replied over the speaker.

"No, and we've tried flashing landing lights at them in Standard Galactic Communication Patterns but there's been no reply either," Trychon said.

Rhox clicked back on. "Captain says to bring it in if you can."

"Roger that," the Sith said, then turned to his younger brother. "I'll use the tractor beam to stabilize the Seduction's roll while you suit up." The tractor beam aboard the Jet Razor was only a small one, useful for hauling in small objects or rescuing a being who's tether had snapped while outside the ship. Trychon was going to see if he could use it to alter the other ship's course enough so they could clamp on with their landing claw and piggy back the ship in.

Of course, that would mean someone had to go out there and make sure it was secure.  It'd be a nightmare if the landing claw slipped and the ships came unhooked at the wrong time.

Raezyr nodded and headed toward the cargo area where they stored the space suits. It'd been a while since he'd been out on a "walk." Zero-G wasn't something he was particularly fond of, but his old Master had made him practice a lot of Zero-G sports, and he'd been good at them.

Donning an enviro-suit and going outside of a space ship was a much different prospect than playing grav-ball. Grav-ball was in a controlled environment with an arena and plenty of breathable air. A little tear in your exercise close wouldn't wouldn't kill you. Out here, there wasn't much besides some being-made materials between you and death, and beings were plenty fallible.

The big Sith shrugged into his suit, double checked the seals, and ran a self-diagnostic on the power cell and air system. All systems reported nominal, with green indicator lights showing on the forearm display readout of his suit.

After getting the "go" signal from his brother, indicating that he had indeed stabilized the trajectory of the other ship, Raezyr cycled the airlock.

The outer door opened to reveal the brilliant view of a nearby planet devoid of any life, the milky glow of the galactic disk could be seen beyond. He took it in for only a brief moment before he pushed out into the black void.

His comm inside his suit crackled to life. "I'm picking you up on sensors and I've got a visual as well," his brother's voice said into his ear.

It didn't take long for Raezyr to cross the expanse. He took his time and even tried to peek into the view ports of the cock pit, but the interior was dark and he was unable to make out any details.

Once he had guided his brother in, and secured the landing claw, he crossed back over to his own ship, happy to be back inside and not having the invisible weight of the expanse surrounding him.

They were already underway when he slid into the seat next to Trychon. "How'd it look?" his brother asked.

"I couldn't get a good look inside. Everything is dark."

"I couldn't sense any thing living on board," Trychon said flatly. His thoughts drifted back to that last night back on Hoth, to the party and the excitement, and to Teera, the owner of the Arctic Seduction. Deep inside he didn't know whether he wanted to find her inside the ship or not. Not finding her meant she had been one of the ones captured while trying to escape the King's Lair, and as far as he was concerned, death was probably preferable to that.

"Neither could I," Raezyr responded.

737. Omicron Delta Facility - Raezyr

Raezyr's face went red. All his training told him to release his anger, lash out, destroy, but this was Dianna. He strained to keep his emotions in check despite everything he had been taught, because patience was also a quality a Sith was supposed to possess.

All he could manage to say was a single word. "Why?"

"Do you mean, aside from the fact that you punched me in the face and then convinced my second in command to do the very thing that you knew I didn't want? Do you mean, 'why,' aside from that?" She said coldly and calmly.

"You never would have gone willingly, and had you not, you'd probably be dead right now, or worse: in a Republic prison cell awaiting trial," the big man said. Her words had robbed him of a lot of his indignant anger. He had stupidly assumed that she'd get over the physical assault once she came to and realized that this was best, but he should have known better.

"Look, this way the Kingsmen can carry on. You can set up here or somewhere else and start over again," Raezyr reasoned. "But without you, it's over."

"It's over anyway," she said.

"Trych and I can help you out," Raezyr offered. "Our investments on Den Var were sound and they're flourishing like mad. You'll never believe how well they're doing. We can stake you again."

"No, I still owe you two more credits than I can ever repay now," she said sadly. "It's over."

"It's not over," the big man insisted. "Forget about those credits you owe..."

"You're not getting it, Raez!" Dianna exclaimed. "It's over. Not because I don't have money. Not because I already owe massive debts, it's over because of you. It's over because of Trychon. In the end, it's over because of me."

Raezyr opened his mouth to speak but she interrupted. "I failed in my judgement. I never should have allowed the Sith to stay at my base. Since then there's been nothing but trouble with the Republic and the Jedi. You've been the only redeeming aspect of that failure."

The Sith's eyes grew cold. "Now you're sounding like Rhox."

"Yeah, well I trust her judgement, and she's had you Sith pegged as trouble makers from the start!"

"So did Zanz," Raezyr retorted. "Where did trusting him get you?"

Dianna turned her back to Raezyr but said nothing.

"Look, babe. Just come to Den Var with Trych and I," Raezyr said calmly. "This whole thing was a major blow to all of us, and we're all upset right now." He stepped forward and put his hands on her shoulders.

She shrugged away from his touch. "Just go, Raez. I need time to sort this out."

"Absolutely," he agreed. "Take a few days, then come and meet us in Den Var. Things will look better once you've been able to get some perspective."

She spun around to face him again. "You're not hearing what I'm saying, Raez. I need time. Not a few days. Not even a few weeks. I need to sort my life out. I need to figure my future out, and I have no idea how long that will take."

Raezyr nodded slowly. "Take as long as you need, just promise that you'll come to me on Den Var when it's all over."

Dianna closed her eyes tightly in a wince for a moment, then looked up into her lover's eyes before she began. "Raez... I..."

Suddenly she was interrupted by the squawking of the comm box on the wall. "Di, Raez, you two better come up to Main Control. A ship just popped into the system."