743. The Accidental Escape Pt. 2 - Raezyr

The time at the landing site was mid-morning, and the clone trooper set the shuttle down in a grassy clearing near the top of a large hill. All around were small, but steep mountains with deep valleys in between. The steepness was softened a bit by the jungle that covered almost everything the eye could see, making everything seem a bit more even.

Zan Jonas went back to the cargo bay and began putting together the equipment he would need to capture and transport the specimens, as well as checking over the cryostasis pods. If those weren't in working order, there wasn't much use trekking out into the jungle.

He hoped it wouldn't take more than a couple days to meet the quota they had given him. On Republic affiliated worlds, he tried to stay in hostels and inns as often as possible, but a trip like this would force the Jedi to camp out, especially if he wasn't able to make it back to the ship for the night.

He glanced over as the clone trooper entered the cargo bay and began going over his equipment. Mostly weapons, Jonas noted. "I doubt you'll need all that hardware, Corporal," he said, voicing his thoughts.

"Never hurts to be prepared for the unexpected, sir," the clone said, continuing his preparations. He finished his packing and began donning his green and brown mottled armor.

When they had finished, they pushed the control button which dropped the whole cargo bay to the ground under the fuselage of the shuttle and stepped out. Already the heat and humidity was oppressive and Jonas had to resort to Force techniques to compensate. He wondered briefly how the corporal could stand wearing that helmet and armor without passing out.

"I won't tell if you want to leave that armor here at the ship," he said, trying to give the clone a way to be a bit more comfortable in this climate.

He laughed underneath his helmet. "Good one, sir."

Apparently he thought it had been a joke.

Jonas shrugged and closed his eyes. He stretched out with the Force, ranging farther and farther, concentrating on the insects he was looking for. Generally, the smaller and less intelligent the creature, the harder it was to sense with the Force. Right now, all he was getting was a vague sense that he out to travel in a Northerly direction.

"That way, Corporal," he said, pointing the way he wanted to go, and they both strode out.

The going wasn't easy, and often the Scout Clone Trooper had to pull out his machete, or Jonas had to use his lightsaber to clear the underbrush to make a path. It was the most use the Jedi weapon had seen in a long time.

By mid-afternoon, the pair stopped at the top of a tall steep hill to take a breather and for Jonas to get his bearings. He had yet to come across anything but faint sensations and his hopes of finding the insects quickly were growing dimmer by the minute.

The Jedi stood there on the edge with his eyes closed, sensing that he should still move forward. He opened his eyes and looked down, calculating the possibility of navigating straight down. It was even steeper than he had imagined at first, but there were enough saplings and underbrush that it might be possible. One misstep and that would be it, though.

He was also taking into consideration the fact they'd eventually have to come back up, and wondering if an easier way down might be close by when it dawned on him that the trooper standing just a couple meters to his side was talking.

Jonas looked over and realized the soldier was getting some sort of a communique through the comm in his helmet.

"I copy you. Order 66. Roger that. CC1558, out," was all Jonas was able to catch.

"Something up, Corporal?" Jonas asked.

Time slowed to a crawl for the Jedi. Several things registered at almost the same instant, and his brain processed it nearly as fast. First, he sensed in the Force a sudden aggressive feeling from his escort. Second, he felt the Force trying to warn him of imminent danger, and third, he saw the corporal grasp his carbine and begin to swing it up in Jonas' direction.

Jonas' first thought was that the trooper was going to shoot him, but just as quickly he dismissed that as ridiculous. The clones were allies of the Republic and the Jedi worked side by side with them, commanding them and fighting with them. That assessment of the situation just wasn't possible.

Jonas' second thought seemed to be the correct one. Some dangerous beast had come up behind Jonas when he had been concentrating on finding the insect, and the trooper was attempting to do his duty and protect the Jedi.

Time seemed to speed back up as the Jedi acted on instinct, spinning to face the danger and drawing his lightsaber at the same time.

As he spun, a rock rolled under his foot, throwing the Jedi off balance and to the ground. The only problem was that at the point in time when he expected his body to hit the dirt, he kept falling instead.

Two things he noticed then. One, he had fallen down the hill, and two, the clone trooper had swung the barrel of the carbine once again in his direction and was sending a salvo of blaster fire his way.

As he hit and bounced for the first of many times, the only thought running through Jonas' mind was that the trooper really was trying to kill him.

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

How much time had passed, Jonas didn't know. He opened his eyes and tried to look around and his head screamed. He forced himself to sit up and assess his situation. He was pretty sure his arm was broken, as was a leg and several ribs, and he guessed he probably had a concussion, from the his head felt and the waves of blackness that kept threatening to wash over him.

He had to remind himself that if it weren't for the clumsy tumble down the hill, he'd be dead right now, although he wasn't sure that death wasn't preferable to his current situation.

Jonas looked down in his hand and was surprised to see himself clutching a familiar metal cylinder, and then he vaguely remembered doing his best as he fell to try and cushion himself using the Force and concentrating on holding on to that lightsaber.

At the same time he flicked it on to see if it would still work, he noticed a crack running down the side of the hilt. He tried to flick it back off, but it was too late. A high pitch whine began to build, getting louder and louder. The core of the powercell had been damaged and it was going to blow.

Jonas tossed the tube as far as he could and gathered the Force around him to once again protect himself from the concussive impact.

The explosion was huge, and the Jedi suspected that if not for the Force, he'd have been killed despite the toss.

Suddenly it dawned on him, that through the Force, he had felt... something... die. A big something.

He began to crawl as best he could toward the site of the explosion. He started to crawl over a log, then stopped.

It wasn't a log. Rather, it was the charred remains of a human.

No, not a human.

A clone.

742. The Accidental Escape Pt. 1 - Raezyr

Zan Jonas sat in the passenger compartment of the small shuttle and dozed. He wasn't at all happy. Master Yoda had insisted that he take along an armed escort. The little green Jedi Master had explained that the war between the Republic and the Trade Federation led Confederation of Independent Systems had spread far beyond imaginable reach, and a lone Jedi on a planet in hostile territory was not safe, no matter how remote the world was, or how peaceful the mission of the Jedi was.

Who knew that collecting some rare herb samples for scientific study could turn out to be such a hassle?

Jonas sighed to himself and absentmindedly fingered the metal cylinder clipped to his belt. It had been years since he'd activated the standard weapon of the Jedi, and he'd never killed anyone with it. It wasn't that he'd been inept, although at times he wished he had been, he'd just spent most of his time with his nose in the books, studying. Had his lightsaber skills been deemed "lacking," he would have been delegated to the Jedi Service Corps or Educational Corps by the Council of Reassignment, which was really what he had hoped might happen.

Still, his role was a useful one. Often, as was the case now, samples needed to be collected from some remote, yet dangerous world and those in the Educational Corps would come to him for an escort, or to go retrieve the items or specimens himself.

Normally he liked to bring the academics along for some intelligent conversation, but this time all he had was a clone trooper. Jonas couldn't remember exactly what his designation was. CC15 something or other. The clone was a corporal in rank, so that's what Jonas had been calling him.

He had tried to talk to the... being (he wasn't sure a clone classified as a person)... in the beginning of the trip, but the clone wasn't inclined to idle chit chat, and even when Jonas had gotten him to open up, all he talked about was field stripping his DC-15S and other mundane military topics. The Jedi soon stopped trying to engage him in any meaningful conversation.

Jonas looked down at the lightsaber again. He tried to think back to the last time he'd even turned it on.  One of these days he'd have to practice with it... on the off chance he actually needed to use it.

Of course, he doubted he'd need it on this mission. All he had to do was capture several insect specimens that were only found in the tropical forests on SaDarval, a remote world which was about half water and half land, and had a vast array of climates and terrain, ranging from dry and rocky to wet and icy, from flatlands to tropics, to mountains, to deserts.

He'd have to put them into the cryostasis containers that he had brought along and stored in the cargo bay as nobody had successfully transported live specimens off planet, as far as anyone knew anyway.

He still didn't understand why he needed a clone trooper. There was nothing on SaDarval that was particularly dangerous. Most of the native species of plant and animal life were no more dangerous than anywhere else. There were no gundarks or rancors to watch out for, and as long as he stayed away from the human settlers, he should have no trouble at all.

The comm crackled to life bringing the Jedi's thoughts to the present and the corporal's voice came across. "Sir, we've just exited hyperspace."

"Thankyou Corporal. I'll be right up," Jonas replied. He shut off the comm and sighed as he got out of his seat. He looked down at the paunch that had accumulated around his mid-section and decided that maybe he should attempt to lose that one of these days.

Yoda as well as his old Master had always stressed that being physically fit directly correlated to one's mental capabilities. Jonas always meant to exercise, but somehow seemed to be too busy doing other things all the time.

He pushed the button on the door and entered the cockpit. He slid into the co-pilot's couch wordlessly and pulled up a surface map of SaDarval without even glancing at the bluish-green orb hanging in the blackness ahead.

Finally Jonas found what he was looking for: a remote tropical forest, big enough to possibly contain the insect specimens he was looking for, but far enough away from any settlements so as to avoid any contact with locals who might take a disliking to a Republic shuttle landing on their CIS affiliated world. He transferred the coordinates to the navcomp, and pointed it out to the clone trooper.

"Here's a good spot," he said. "See if you can find a decent place to put down around there, Corporal."

"Roger that, sir," the trooper responded.

Zan Jonas sighed.

741. Night Flight - Raezyr

The young blonde haired boy looked around the corner quietly. He listened carefully to the even breathing coming from within the room, indicating its occupants were fast asleep. The boy breathed a sigh of relief and slipped stealthily toward the garage.

Once securely seated and strapped into the cockpit of the Incom T-16 Skyhopper, the nine year old Luke Skywalker began the preliminary engine run-up. Thankfully, the hangar was sound proofed and he knew he didn't have to worry about waking up his guardians. Luke was sure that Uncle Owen would skin him alive if he knew what Luke was about to do.

Still dark, the boy piloted the air speeder across the desert sands to the outskirts of Tosche Station. Luke cautiously peered out the door and into the darkness. A figure emerged from the shadow of a building.

"So," the person said, "you did have the guts to show up."

"Of course I did, Biggs," Luke replied to the older boy. "Hurry up and get in. Uncle Owen will have a fit if I'm not back before he wakes up."

The dark haired 14 year old climbed up and into the ship and they both sat down in the cockpit. "Let's see what this old hunk of junk can do," Biggs Darklighter said. Despite their difference in age, the two boys had become great friends, fueled by their extreme competitiveness when it came to piloting.

So far in their lives, they had primarily been limited to landspeeders like the beat up old X-34 SoroSuub landspeeder which he often matched against Biggs' XP-38. Tonight was different, however. For the first time they were going to make a few time trial runs in an airspeeder through the easiest part of Beggar's Canyon.

Biggs had goaded the younger boy into "borrowing" his uncle's T-16, rather than run the risk of getting himslef in trouble for borrowing one of his father's. He grinned to himself, wondering just how much trouble Luke was going to get into when he got home.

As the young blond-haired pilot approached Beggar's Canyon, he slowed up and began a high fly-over of the area.

"What's the matter, Luke?" Biggs taunted goodnaturedly. "You getting cold feet?"

"No way," he said. "I'm just makin' sure I get a good look at the first part of the run."

The two boys stared intently at the scanner readouts, depicting the entire canyon. The canyon itself had been formed millennia ago by the junction of three rivers, back when Tatooine had been covered with plenty of water and vegetation. Near the end of the canyon lay a rock formation that was known as the Stone Needle. It was a jagged hole in the rocks at the top of a spire which was just wide enough to allow swoops and speeders to pass. All the older kids talked about threading the needle, but only the craziest and bravest pilots ever attempted it during a race. Every couple of years some hotshot young pilot would get killed trying to pass through it.

Biggs and Luke checked out the deadly formation on the scanner as they passed near. "One day I'll thread the needle," Biggs boasted.

"Can I have your swoop after you try?" Luke ribbed him back.

The dark haired boy ignored the comment. Instead he grinned. "Quit stalling, farm-boy. Time to make your run."

They had agreed on running the first leg, since it was night time and up until the first junction the canyon was a bit wider and the turns not quite as sharp. The one with the fastest time would get bragging rights.

Someday they'd run the whole thing, but not now, not at night.

Luke Skywalker flipped his shaggy blond hair out of his face as he strapped into the pilot's couch. He noticed Biggs do the same, and Luke gripped the controls.

"Here we go... aaaand, START!" Luke yelled and punched throttle the same instant the Darklighter boy started the timer.

He dropped low, mere meters from the bottom of the canyon, as sweat began beading on his forehead. It was nearly all instrument flying as it was a pitch black night and not even the moonlight reached the bottom of the canyon.

Suddenly a small signature appeared on the scopes, clinging to the wall of the canyon. Luke recognized what it was instantly and dropped his cross heirs on the object which was barely 2 meters in size. He squeezed off a shot from the T-16's blaster cannon and the energy bolts struck true, obliterating the womp rat.

"Bullseye!" Biggs yelled from his seat. He looked over to see a grin spread across the face of his younger friend despite being locked in concentration on the manuevers.

The blond boy banked hard around corners, increased his throttle coming out and slowed up just enough to make the next tight corner. Finally as he came up on the junction, he slowed and pulled up out of the canyon. He exhaled long and hard, realizing he must have forgotten to breathe as he manuevered the course.

"Not bad, kid, not bad," Biggs said looking at the timer, "but now it's time for me to show you how it's done."

"Yeah, yeah," Luke replied. "It's all talk until you've made your run." Luke set the air ship to auto pilot and the youths switched seats, with Biggs taking over the controls.

The dark haired youth flew back to the start and gave his friend the signal to start the timer as he began his run.

Immediately Biggs saw another womp rat on his scopes and he tried to replicate Luke's shot but missed wide to the right, but not by much.

"Oh, man," Luke said with sincerity. "Almost."

Biggs said nothing but continued to concentrate on flying the best course he could. Although the two were competitive, they were still friends and enjoyed cheering each other on and seeing each other do well.

Finally, the elder boy came around the final corner and pulled up as he reached the junction. They both looked down at the timer.

"Yeehaw!" Biggs yelled. "Beat you by two and a half seconds!"

Luke crossed his arms across his chest. "It's not fair! You got to see me do it first and learn from my mistakes!"

"Oh, quit whining, Farm-boy," Biggs said haughtily. "I beat you fair and square."

Luke suddenly grinned. "But you missed that womp rat by a mile, while I bullseye'd it!"

Biggs conveniently ignored the comment, but looked at his wrist chrono. "Oh, dang, Luke. We gotta get home!"

Luke looked down at his own chrono. They had been out much later than they had planned. "Boy, am I gonna get it!"

Luke dropped his friend off at Tosche Station, hovering just long enough for Biggs to jump to the sand below and run for his land speeder before taking off for home.

Skywalker set the T-16 down in the small hangar and shut all the systems down. Hopefully his aunt and uncle hadn't awakened and he could slip back into bed. He exited the ship and slipped as quietly as he could back into the house.

As he tip-toed silently through the main living area toward his bedroom, the lights flickered on.

"Do you mind explaining where you've been  for the last 3 hours?" came the stern voice of Luke's uncle, Owen Lars.

Luke's shoulders sagged and he hung his head as he turned to face his uncle, the man who had raised him for as long as he could remember. "I took the air speeder out for a night flight," he admitted, not wanting to lie, yet feeling it was probably better not to reveal the full truth that he had flown Beggar's Canyon.

Luke's aunt, Beru Lars, came into the living room, cinching the tie around her robe. "Luke, we were so worried about you. It's dangerous to fly at night, you know that."

"I know," Luke admitted.

"Then why the hell were you out there, if you knew?" Owen barked.

"I just wanted to have some fun, a little excitement, I didn't think you'd even notice," Luke replied.

"Damn it, Luke," his uncle continued, "you've got your head in the clouds. What if you had wrecked? Even had you survived, how do you think we would have replaced that speeder? It wouldn't fix itself, you know."

"I know," the boy said. "I'm sorry."

"Damn right, you're sorry," the moisture farmer finished. "Now, get cleaned up for breakfast," he added in a lighter tone.

Luke trotted out of the room and down the hall.

Once the boy was out of ear shot, Owen walked over and put his arm around his wife. "I just don't know what we're going to do with that boy."

"Luke's just not a farmer, Owen," the dark haired, middle aged woman said. "He has too much of his father in him."

Owen scratched his thin beard, thinking, then kissed his wife on the top of her head. "That's what I'm worried about."

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."

736. Omicron Delta Facility - Raezyr

Rhox Vegha stood with her hands on her hips and a determined set to her jaw.

Raezyr ignored her and continued to remove his eviro-suit. "Nice to see you again too, Rhox," the big warrior said sarcastically.

"I mean it," she said. "You're not welcome here." Her hand moved almost imperceptibly closer to her M-45 blaster pistol in it's drop holster at her hip. Still it was enough for Raezyr and Trychon to notice.

Their movements became slow and deliberate as they removed the last pieces of their bulky space-wear. Raezyr stepped closer to her, testing her. He wanted to see just how serious she was.

"Go ahead, Rhox," Raezyr said carefully. "Jerk that plasma wagon and see what happens."

For a tense moment, both the Sith thought she might actually be foolhardy enough to go through with her unspoken threat, but in the end she relaxed, her shoulders slumping just slightly and she moved her hand away from her pistol.

"Captain Kingsdoom said she didn't want to see you," Rhox said, the defeat evident in her voice.

Raezyr pushed on passed the security officer. "Then she can tell me that to my face."

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

Rhox followed a few steps behind Raezyr without speaking. Despite his lack of familiarity with the enormous facility, he didn't need anyone to guide him. There was only one other life force in the complex and it called to him.

Initially Trychon had considered just loading up the supplies and staying out of the way, but with the probability of entertainment at his half-brother's expense, there was no way he was going to miss it.

The three finally found the former pirate captain on her knees and up to her elbows in wiring in a room filled with various outdated electronic equipment. All of it was covered in a thick layer of dust just like everything else in the base.

Despite being the second person into the room, Rhox was the first one to speak. "Captain, they insisted on seeing you."

Dianna stood up, brushed her dusty hands off on her fatigue pants and pushed a stray strand of hair back behind her ear. "I see you made it," she said flatly.

Raezyr ignored the comment. "What's this about not wanting to see us?" the big man demanded.

"Well, that's not exactly what I said," Dianna said. Raezyr detected a coldness in her tone, but why it was there he wasn't exactly sure.

"Then what exactly did you say?"

Dianna looked into Raezyr's eyes for a moment, then looked away. When she spoke, it was to the other people in the room. "Trych, there's something wrong with the comm system, can you see if you can get it working?"

"Uh, sure," Trychon said, a little disappointed, and walked out the door, headed to the main control deck of the complex.

"Rhox, can you go see if he needs help?" the red haired woman added.

Rhox Vegha hesitated. She wasn't sure she should leave her captain alone in what appeared to her as a volatile situation. Finally she decided that she'd do as she was told. Still, she glanced one last time over her shoulder before she left the room.

When her security officer was finally gone, Dianna turned her eyes back to that of her lover. "Rhox might have gotten a bit zealous, Raez."

"But did you tell her we weren't welcome here?" the Sith pushed for an answer. "Did you tell her that I wasn't welcome here?"

Dianna looked Raezyr straight in the eye, her jaw set. "Your stay here needs to be as brief possible."

735. Omicron Delta Facility - Raezyr

"Rendezvous Point Omicron Delta" was actually a deserted asteroid mining facility which Dianna's father had purchased many years ago for emergency purposes, such as this. In the past several years the facility hadn't been touched and had probably been forgotten by even the original mining corporation which had built the facility, if it was even still in existence.

Dianna's father had purchased the facility through a front corporation under a fake name, and then let the "company" go out of business. For all intents and purposes the facility was abandoned, unowned, and forgotten about years ago.

The chances of it even being discovered was slim as the system it was located in was not only off the beaten path, but contained no habitable planets, or at least not habitable to any known sentient life form. The system didn't even have a name, only an alpha-numeric designation for mapping purposes. There was no imaginable reason a ship might exit hyperspace here, but here was the Jet Razor, cruising along the edge of the unamed system's asteroid belt as it had been for several hours now.

"Omicron Delta, this is Jet Razor. Do you copy?" Raezyr spoke into the comm for what seemed like the hundredth time, but had yet to receive an answer. The Sith brothers had never really bothered to get an exact location of the facility. They had never really ever expected to have a reason to stop there.

Raezyr tapped the ship comm again, but instead of transmitting out into the black void, his voice traveled to a maintenance tube within the ship. "Hey, you get that sensor adjusted yet?"

His brother's voice came back across the speaker. "No, and I won't get it done any time soon if I have to keep answering that question every five minutes. Just keep your tunic on. You're as jittery as a Kowakian monkey-lizard."

Raezyr ignored the jab and continued. "Something may have happened to them. We have to find that old mining base. If they didn't make it, we need to know that so we can get looking for them."

"You've said that already. You're starting to sound like a shorted out holo-recording," Trychon retorted with a chuckle. The click that followed told Raezyr his brother had shut off the comm, essentially ending the conversation.

For the next thirty minutes, Raezyr continued to send out his hail across a wide range of frequencies in case for some reason they were having trouble monitoring their usual frequency, but to no avail. Finally Trychon stepped through and sat down on the co-pilot's couch and began to fiddle with the sensor knobs.

"Is it working? Did you make the adjustments?" Raezyr asked excitedly. He'd been going crazy not knowing what had happened. They had been forced to take a longer route to get here, and despite the fact the Jet Razor could make point five past light speed, the other ships should have arrived here long before now.

"Patience, my young apprentice," Trychon said. Raezyr could hear the grin in the words even though his half-brother's face was turned away from him and chose to ignore the comment.

The older brother continued to fiddle with the controls until he finally leaned back, a look of satisfaction on his face. "Alright, it's working. If there's a power source big enough to light up a glow stick anywhere within half a million kilometers, we'll know about it."

Trychon had spent the last few hours turning the sensitivity up on the sensors. It had required him to spend most of the time crawling around in cramped access tunnels rewiring power converters and bypassing filters. He'd even had to suit up and crawl around the hull for an hour, slicing into the sensor array.

Normally, sensors were geared only to pick up large power sources such as ships, satellites and planetary settlements, but they had failed to record any signs of a facility after two slow orbits around the entire asteroid ring.

Fearing the worst, Trychon had amped up the sensitivity beyond anything they would normally be capable of. They'd have to turn it down before they left the system, though. If they flew into an inhabited system where ships and other sources of power were common, it'd blow the fuses. It'd be the electronic equivalent of a concussion grenade going off next to someone's ear.

Raezyr flew slowly, hoping the improvised sensor upgrade was really working. Even a powered down ship still had trace amounts of power flowing through it. If Rhox and Dianna had crashed, hopefully it'd pick it up, or at the very least, be able to pick up the minute traces of power that the dormant mining facility would use.

Suddenly Trychon notified Raezyr there was a faint signal on the edge of the sensor. Instantly Raezyer gunned it toward the source, quickly closing in on a huge asteroid nearly 400 kilometers in diameter on the edge of the dangerous belt of  space rocks.

They consulted the sensor readouts the closer they came, and located the source of the reading in what looked like a cave in a large crater. Upon closer inspection, the opening was too uniform in size and shape to be naturally occurring, and as they drifted slowly inside on repulsor lifts, they saw the Ice Spectre sitting on a landing pad inside and looked to be in perfect shape.

As Raezyr was setting down, Trychon leaned forward and looked through the transparisteel view ports. "There's equipment set up for a mag-con field, but it doesn't appear to be on," he surmised. "We'd better suit up. If it really is off, then there's no atmo between us and the airlock to the base."

It took Raezyr a bit longer to pull on his Enviro-suit as Trychon had already done it once already today, but they were both ready rather quickly. Neither spoke. They didn't want to think about why Dianna's ship was sitting in the landing bay and appeared to be in good condition.

When they were ready, Trychon mashed the button which activated the ship's airlock. Once it cycled through, purging the oxygen and equalizing the pressure to that of the outside, the loading ramp lowered and they plodded slowly down and toward the main entrance to the mining facility.

They lumbered on in the suits like two huge, ungainly beasts, moving slower than Raezyr would have liked, although they finally made it. He punched in Dianna's standard access code given to all her crew members and the lights on the airlock control panel lit up, indicating it was cycling. Finally the doors slid open silently in the vacuum and they stepped in.

Once again, Raezyr activated the controls and cycle began again, this time in reverse, air filling the airlock and equalizing to the air pressure in the base. They took it as a good sign that there even was air pressure in the base.

Still, anything could be wrong, and they waited until the inner doors had opened, and the indicators built into the wrists of the their enviro-suits told them the air was safe to breath before they began to remove the bulky suits.

The helmets popped open with a hiss, one after the other. They pulled them off and tucked them under an arm as they heard footsteps clanking on the durasteel floor grates coming from down the corridor and around the bend.

Raezyr reached out with the Force, sensing the approaching lifeform. It wasn't who he had hoped. Still he pressed his senses out further, deeper and deeper into the asteroid facility and finally sensed the mind he sought. He sighed in relief.

Rhox Vegha came marching around the corner, a stern look on her face. "Don't even take those off, Sith," she began with a near snarl. "You can fuel up and grab some emergency supplies if you need them, then get out. The captain doesn't want you here."