Star Wars logs

[dakota]

Since Juicer and I have enjoyed this game for two years now, I figured I might as well post a log for everyone to enjoy

[dakota]

He sat down with a grunt on a nearby power relay module, nursing his wounded arm. "Couldn't sleep. If I hadn't have busted it up, I might never have been around you again. I wasn't about to let that happen, and you know me."

He looked at the damaged swoop with regret. "Shame I had to muss up the paint job, she's a real [beauty]." He cracked his neck. "Those bounty-hunter scum were cheap hire. Saw the real deal back on Taris once; scary as all [Hell], and had the moxy to back up their attitude too. That might be good for us; they might have been idiots who thought they got lucky. Are Vaig and the family going to be safe, though?"

He paused, and looked grim. "Different, killing up close. In space, it's sort of...impersonal. It's different when you kill up close. Never did get used to it."

" They'll be fine, Vaig and Shooter know how to look after themselves." Karena replied, her dark mood far from improving. " Those kriffing amateurs weren't bounty hunters, more like opportunists who thought they could turn a quick credit."

Looking at the list she'd compiled on a sheet of flimsi of parts she needed to repair the swoop, turned back to the bike and picked up a hydrospanner. " Ralj, you know my feelings for you, but after all the damage you caused rescuing me, you're lucky you were hurt." She threatened as she began to remove a coil pack that beneath the engine cowling was melted into a unique shape. She looked it over in disgust and hurled it over her shoulder and, remarkibly, made an impossible shot into a scrap parts bin aside Ralj's makeshift seat. " There's a thousand credits alone for another Loronar high ratioed X-83. Bet the sithspit throttle motivators are siezed too..." her voice seemed to trail off, yet he could still hear her plain as could be, " at least the thrust actuator is still in one piece. Cost another thousand to get a new one milled to fit." She continued to ramble on, checking what was and was not damaged.

When she spoke aloud again, it seemed as though she was shouting at Ralj," Well, if your just gonna sit there, pass me a torque driver so I can get this turbo manifold off and survey the rest of the damage, would you?"

"Sure thing, just don't shout so loud." He said with a wince as he picked up the toolbox. "Those meds really kicked me in the head."

He handed her the spanner, looking mildly stricken. "Hey, if it was that bad, I'd have been more careful. I'd trade you for the greatest swoop bike in the Galaxy anyday." He thought. "Maybe. Look, I have some pay saved up, I'll pay for the replacement parts."

He growled. "Sorry. Just...had a lot on my mind at the time."

" It's not your fault, and you know I won't take your credits." Karena admitted as she took the tool from him. " This thing is designed strictly for racing. It needs a long warm up cycle. Just jumping on it and going wide open was never in the game plan.If you had eased into it, you would have gotten another fourty or fifty clicks out of it top end, and never would have gotten winged by a lucky shot." She smirked, the first time her lips had moved as she explained.

From behind them, Vaig interupted from where he had eavesdropped on the whole exchange. " I knew it wasn't just Lesa like you tried to tell me, Kar." He looked at Ralj. " She doesn't have to speak for you to hear her, does she? " He picked up the power driver he had come in after, and left with a betrayed look.

" Vaig wait a micron..." Kar said as she turned to go after him.
"Huh? What do you mean, doesn't need to...hey! Wait a micron!" Raljar stood abruptly, the motion causing him to bang his shin on the tool rack and jar his wounded arm at the same time. Cursing in Catharese, he made to follow the pair.
When Karena finally caught up to Vaig, he was already back to the Familiar . Before Kar could say anything, Vaig started in on her. " You lied Karena. Before your sister died, the pair of you told me it was just something the two of you had done since you were kid, and I bought it." He glared at her, as if daring her to speak. " Then after I started to hear her half-speak, you convinced me that it had been Lesa all along. " He shot a look at Raljar. " You heard her, didn't you?"

" Cool your jets, Vaig. I never lied." Kar responded. " I thought it was Lesa, we both did. Sihtspit Vaig, I didn't even know I was doing it." she looked at Ralj," and obviously Ralj have even realized if you hadn't come in. I never would have kept it from you if I'd known." She placed a comforting hand on her brother-in-law's shoulder," Vaig, even when Lesa and I were little, we thought it was her gift. She always initiatived the conversations when we didn't want anyone to hear. Then when you started to hear Lesa after you'd been together for a while, we both assumedwe'd been right all along."

She half smiled as she stole a look at the confusion on Raljar's face." I guess I was never close enough with anyone before to use whatever it is until now. " She looked at Ralj for a long moment as she tossed him a clean rag, before shaking her head. " and it's obviously something I can't control enough to use all the time. I was trying to tell you that you're bleeding all over Vaig's floor." she pointed at his knees where he'd struck the toolbox.

"Daddy, why are you and aunt Renie shouting?" Came a timid voice from the doorway.

Go outside and play, Kammie. This is grown up talk." Vaig waited until his son left before answering. " Sorry Kar, you just really blindsided me with this one. But you know what it is, and now the same people that were after Lesa will be after you too when they find out you can touch the force too."

Kar merely rolled her eyes.
Raljar grabbed the towel midair, then looked down at his knees to the trickling blood from the thin, vicious slices. He hadn't even noticed. Cursing quietly, he wiped at the blood with the cloth, staining the rough material a deep red.

"Are you telling me..." He muttered, as he dabbed at the wounds, "that Karena has the same...gifts...as commander Skywalker?"

He stood, the thin fur at his knees sticky and matted with clotting blood. He appeared to be giving the pain no mind. His face, though, was darkly thoughtful. After a moment, he nodded slowly. "Huh. Yeah...I suppose I should have seen it sooner, if all the stories we've heard are true. Either that, or I've learned to hear minds. And there's enough waste in my own."

He stroked his chin thoughtfully with forefinger and thumb claws. "Perhaps you'd better start at the beginning, Kar. I'm hearing stuff about my [mate] here that might be fairly important, by my guess."

His eyes never left hers, intense and gleaming with emotion. Even a glance, however, told her that whatever she spoke of now, her Cathar partner would support her, would take her wing. He stepped up behind her and faced Vaig, resting his uninjured hand on her shoulder. Not a challenge, but a reassuring, solid presence. Typically Cathar...and typically Raljar.
" No, nothing like the commanders." Karena replied, but Vaig quickly cut in," Yes Kar, like Skywalker. Though nothing of the scale that the rumors I've heard."

" You're not helping." She scowled at her brother-in-law, much to his delight as he started working on his ship. She turned back to Ralj, " I don't know what else to tell you. I have'nt used this halfspeak thing except with Lesa when we were growing up. And maybe it explains my inuition. " She grinned warmly at him, " It would answer alot of questions considering how many times it's gotten us out of trouble, or into it in some cases. Like that little incident with the mynock."

Kar shrugged." I don't know when I'm doing the things you call powers, I've always just done them. You've got a better chance of recognizing when I do something abnormal." She placed a hand atop his resting on her shoulder. " This is just between us, at least for now, okay? Besides Vaig, no one else needs to know. Not yet anyways. We don't need that kind of greif."

" You better explain it to him, Kar." Vaig interjected.

" would you stop eavesdropping?"

" It's my barn."

" No it's not, your sister just let's you use it." Kar sniped back. Her eyes never left Ralj's. " People may not think too highly of me if they find out. My great uncle was a jedi before the Clone Wars. Ibraheim fell out of the order and did some pretty nasty things on Contruum before the jedi tracked him down and took care of him. the whole family was blamed by society and it took a long time for them to forget. Last thing I want is to drag that back up. Not to mention, the Imps already put money on my capture. Just imagine if the Emperor caught wind of this.?" she shuddered," Or worse, Vader."
"They won't." Raljar ran his hand through her hair, brushing it back from her face. "Fate willing, they won't. And if they do, they will take both of us. Not one."

He shook his head. "Able to touch the Force...I shoulda seen it all along. Too deep in the blood and soul, Karena Therez, your skill and intuition; your magnetism. When I first became aware of my true feelings for you, it was as if you drew me like a Juuvian fire-moth to a plasma flame. I couldn't believe no other male, especially Human, could see it...could...feel it."

He tenderly ran his finger down her cheek, his own eyes glimmering. "It's...strange. It's as if I always knew...have always known. I don't feel any different about you; like the idea was always there, all along. Only know, it's been given voice and shown to me." He smiled the fierce smile of all Cathar. "Karena Therez, child of the Jedi."

He chuckled then, a deep, liquid rumble of amusement. "And sheerest pain in the rump." He sobered a little, but the twinkle still shone deep in his amber eyes. "Seriously, if this is true...it's going to bust some heads if it gets out." With a grunt, he lowered himself to a workbench, stretching out his injured leg with a grunt. "As well as busting up poor, obligated Cathar males."
His flattery made Karena blush slightly, but it was short lived when he blindsided her with the smart remarks and she scowled. " I'm no jedi child or for that matter, a jedi wannabe or anything like that. I just have a gift, or...," she chuckled a bit, maybe the nickname has been right for all the wrong reasons. Alot of people would agree this is a curse."

Once he was seated, she turned and started for the door. " If all you're going to do is whine every time you get a bump or scrape, maybe you should stop taking those meds you brought back from Cathar. Then you could be a stay at home mom. We all know who wears the pants in this relationship anyways."

She laughed as she walked looking over her shoulder at Raljar, but she froze in step as Cammie shouted from out in the yard. " Dad! There's a white hovertruck coming down the drive!" Fear struck her as what was transpiring slammed into her mind. Vaig working in the barn. Cammie playing in the yard. A white hovertruck approaching.

" It wasn't just a nightmare." she managed to mumble.

[dakota]

"Hrrmph." He grinned at Vaig, and jerked his thumb at Karena's rear as she walked towards the door. "And they say Humans don't have claws. That female is *all* sharp edges."

He turned to make an obscene pilot's gesture to her, but her rigid posture as Cammie shouted made his eyes narrow. He could almost feel her agitation. Rising, he called out, "Karena? What's wrong? What is it?"

The whine of the hovertruck reached his ears, and he hauled himself to his feet with a worried look at Vaig.
Frozen with fear, Karena managed to repeat herself. " It wasn't a nightmare." Her head snapped to Raljar. " That's why the dreams stopped. Something drew me.. us here because of what's happening." She drew her heavy blaster as the hovertruck's whine drew closer.

" What's going on, Kar?" Vaig demanded.

" Just get Cammie out of sight. Now!" She ordered with an icy edge.

Vaig left the bay without another word, but almost at the same time, the hovertruck came to a halt. A voice ordered, " Vaig Rencid, by order of Governor Jan Argyles , you are to turn over custody of Cameron Therez."

Kar peeked outside, trying to hold back her emotions as Cammie began to cry. She could feel Ralj press close to look as well as she watched a squad of stormtroopers acompanying a trio of bureaucrats trying to take custody of her nephew. Her flaring temper made her miss that a pair of the stormtroopers hanging back from the others. One of them spotted Ralj and Kar, and nudged his companion who also looked. But then oddly, the second stormie made hand gesture that Ralj had seen Kar make many times.

On your mark

Karena completely missed all of it as she focused on the suits trying to abduct Cammie.
Raljar eyed the troopers narrowly, then whispered into Karena's ear, "two at the back, might be friendlies. Back me up here."

With that he strode, bold as brass, into the open, his blaster pistol raised and sighting along his firing arm. It'd probably have looked more impressive if he didn't look like a hovertruck accident victim who had just gone legs-first through a shop glass-steel window, he was willing to admit.

"Alright, [kittens], drop the cub and the blasters. Don't make me say it twice, or one of you is going home in a body-sack. Think about it; you really wanna be that one unfortunate who catches it in the face?"

As time flowed lazily, he realized that, once again, he had dived headfirst into a situation on gut instinct and balls. If it blew up in his face...well, he hoped he'd make a pretty corpse.
" Friendlies?" Karena snapped back to reality before calling after Ralj and tried to snag his arm to pull him back as she whisper-shouted after him. " Ralj! You're gonna get us vaped!" shaking her head, she fell in step behind him and took his flank.

The stormtroopers were the first to react, bringing their blaster rifles to bear, but when two of their own raised their own weapons against the the rest of the squad, they lowered them and let them drop to the ground. The bureaucrats never even drew their weapons. The leader of his group scowled as Vaig stuck the barrel of his heavy blaster in his face. " What is the meaning of this? We are here by the governor's authority to recover the child."

" He's my son. He's not going anywheres." Vaig snarled, Cammie clasped to his one leg.

" It's your show, [partner]." Karena whispered to Ralj when her eyes trained on the pair of turncoat troopers, her gaze focused on the snub nosed blasters they carried that were normally preferred by scouts. And pilots. " Cam?" She mumbled, staring at the pair.

Behind them, Shooter stepped up with his Tradoshan mortar gun drawn. " Tisha's up in the Pridescope's turret just in case."

Karena replied with a nod and began removing the troopers stun cuffs from their utility belts and putting them to good use. She started with the one Ralj had indicated to speak with, and gave him a boot towards Ralj while Vaig ushered Cammie past towards the house.

" This is perposterous!" The speaker (his i.d. badge read Assistant Lutz) barked. " We are not here to kidnap the child! We have orders from the governor to recover the child so that he can be returned to family. I was in the governor's office when the request came through from Consular Maric Therez from Co..."

Karena cut him off." Are you kidding me? My father sent you to?"

Lutz looked at Karena for a moment, before nodding." Yes, he has concerns about his grandson and felt he would be better raised on Imperial Center than amongst this rabble."

Karena looked about to say something as she cuffed the last trooper, then gave out a shocked " Hey!" and spun, decking one of the two troopers that had helped them with a solid elbow to the helmet. While the other trooper nearly fell over laughing, Kar looked down in annoyance," Keep your hands to yourself!"

The trooper on the ground, his helmet knocked clear, looked up at Karena. " Same old Kurse Therez."

A wash of surprise crossed Kar's face. " I knew it was you, Cam." She smiled and helped from the ground and held him in a tight embrace while his companion lost his own helmet. " We should have known you'd show up here."

The other troopers might have had thoughts of attempting something, but the muzzle of Shooter's rifle was enough of a deterrent.

Friendly. His hunch had been correct. Ralj shook his head slightly, and fixed a baleful eye on Lutz.

"Alright, since this is a family matter, we'd better take you inside. So we can talk. Casual and friendly, of course. Take 'em into the barn."

He looked at Karena as Shooter prodded the cuffed group into the building with his Trandoshan artillery piece. "Alright, light of my life, less groping the trooper wannabe's and more quesitoning "papa's" envoy over there." He grinned sourly, and gave a rough nod to the two false Stormtroopers. "Glad to see you know each other. We'll get introduced in a little while. In the meantime, we got grilling to do."
" Light of my life?" The one Karena had called Cam questioned," You mean the stories about you and a Bothan are true?"

" He's Cathar, you moron." His companion cut in.

" Uh, I knew that Deke." Cam replied as he helped herd the other Imperials into the barn.

Kar moved close to Ralj and answered the question she knew had to be on Raljar's mind. " They're old friends. Deke Warst and the other one is the other pilot I tried to get to defect with me, Cameron Ridgechaser. We can trust them." Withour speaking, she added, Cameron is little Cammie's real father. Vaig raised him. Don't bring it up okay? She looked at him as if she didn't realize she'd stopped speaking aloud.
"Huh," Raljar nodded. Then he frowned. "Wait, stories? What stories? Karena..." He headed inside after her.

Inside, Shooter had covered the Imperial group with his Trandoshan cannon. Raljar closed the door to the prefabricated structure, and leaned against the wall, grunting as th weight eased off his injured arm. His eyes gleamed, and the pistol cradled in his makeshift splint pointedly declared what would happen if theeir guests tried anything foolish.

Of the Imperials, Lutz seemed to be the most vocal and the least amused.

"Of all the indignities...this will not be tolerated! We are here on Imperial authority, under direct orders from Governor Therez himself. Interfering with Imperial business is a serious offence. Under what authority are we being held, I demand to know!"

"Frontier law." Replied Shooter, unperturbed. "You're lucky this ain't the Outer Rim, or you'd already be dead for trying a stunt like what you just tried to pull. On Rodia? It wouldn't be nearly as merciful."

Lutz appeared to ignore that, instead fixing a baleful glare on Cam and Deke. "And you. Impersonating an Imperial soldier is a crime that carries the strictest penalties. Surrender now, and the Emperor's Justice may yet be lenient."

Cam rolled his eyes. Deke said nothing. Neither looked particularly co-operative to Lutz' eyes.

Raljar patted Karena on the shoulder, murmuring "This is your show, [partner], since "papa" is involved. Go get 'em."
" Ralj dear, they are," Kar spoke softly as she eyed her old friends," or were Imperial pilots." she looked at the two of them suspiciously. " What are you doing here?"

" You were always trying to tell us we were on the wrong side." Cam admitted. " We finally came to our senses. Deke hacked into the system after we were 'officially' lost in a shuttle accident. He came acrossed Lutz's orders and we joined in."

" Dumb farmboys always make things sound so simple." Deke cut in." Is wasn't that simple, but he covered the basis Kar. We figured Vaig would have some way to get ahold of you to make contact with the Alliance for us, not to mention Cam had an alterior motive."

Cam shrugged. " Plan worked, didn't it?"

" Shut up, Cam." Deke replied flatly.

Karena looked at Ralj, shaking her head. " They'll never change. My show? You started this little party, how come I have to clean up the mess?" She sputtered and stalked over to Lutz. she grabbed him by the ear and dragged him away from the others. " Come on, you and I are going to have a little chat in private." she said over his whined protests.

Removing their stormtrooper uniforms, Cam and Deke approached Ralj. Deke sputtered. " I almost feel bad for Lutz."

Cam nodded. " Me too." He looked at Ralj." So where's Iceman? I expected Kar and Hoskels to be joi...," he stopped at the look on Ralj's face.

" I think you swallowed the whole boot this time, Cam." Deke chimed in.

Raljar's face darkened like a thundercloud, and his teeth glinted as he ground out, "Hoskels...don't mention that name in my presence again. I should have skinned the [creature] when I had the chance. My failure doomed an entire ship and its crew to his treachery. Should I ever cross paths with him again, I will extract the blood-price for every single life lost from his living organs, chunk by bleeding chunk."

Though perhaps coloured by his natural temper, Raljar's voice held a terrible weight to it, and he flexed the fingers of his uninjured hand, something he did only when he was sore distressed or angry, a nervous habit picked up long ago, under murky circumstances.

He leaned against the wall once more, the thin slices across his shins feeling like thin lines of fire. "Sorry. Just...don't. Don't bring it up. And don't bring it up with Karena. Hoskels tore her up more than he did me, him I didn't know. He betrayed my [Mate] directly, and for that alone..." He waved a hand in a blood-chilling gesture.

It wasn't turning out to be his day. Maybe he should have hit those calmers harder
Wide eyed, Cam nodded while ditching his stormtrooper armor. " No problem. forget I brought it up."

Deke chuckled," Bravest wingman I ever had your not, farmboy."

After a few minutes, Karena returned with a triumphant grin on her face as she led a defeated Lutz back to the other captives. " Well, at least we know he was on the level.Dad really did send him to try to take his grandson home. He never expected any resis... oh sithspit." She looked at the stormtroopers, all still with their helmet's on. she pointed her blaster at Lutz. " did you have a backup squad?"

" Two actually. " He replied smugly.

Deke looked at Cam. " That other Lambda. We should have known."

" Too late now. Tisha, if they move, shoot all of them." Karena replied as she pulled out her commlink. " Vaig , we gotta go. More company on the way." she then looked at Cam and Deke." You two had a plan?"

" Nothing solid. You know us. We were making it up as we go." Cam replied.

" Fine. Go with Shooter and Tisha. They'll get you to the fleet. If you can get someone to contact Tycho, you shouldn't have too many problems." she explained, ushering Ralj towards the Familiar [ /i]. " Sorry, but this isn't much of a vacation. I'll make it up to you, I promise."

" Your not going with us, Kar?" Cam questioned.

" No, we have to go to Taris. We'll see you back at the fleet."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Khoshobys System, Lobas Cluster, Wild Space

The Super Star Destroyer Belligerence hung silently in high orbit above the planet Cebus. On her bridge, Kaivun Tosk's robed figure stood alone on the observation deck, staring at the planet and the relatively smaller vessel that was in orbit between them and the planet. The door slid open with a hiss and Grand Admiral hoursk strode in. He did not acknowledge Tosk as he thumbed a comm switch. " Contact the Empress. They may begin the demonstratrion."

" Yes sir." A voiced replied as Hoursk moved to stand next to the inquisitor. Tosk acknowledge his arrival with a sinister grin. " The Emperor will be pleased when we present him with Engineer Haiburr's creation."

" Provided it works of course." Hoursk pointed out.

" Of course."

The hull of the Empress began to grow dark as the Victory Star Destroyer angled itself to face the planet. The deep channels that ran along the ships hull began to glow green, faintly at first but intensifying to a brilliant hue. The glow then seemed to drain forward to the nose of the ship until a brief beam of unimaginable power leapt from the Empress' bow and struck the lone continent on the facing side of the planet.

Hoursk keyed a holodisplay that was fed from orbiting satellites. the image displayed the land mass being split apart, and superheated gases and magma erupting from the rift the blast had caused and began to billow into the sky. Soon the satellite feed was blotted out as ash began to spread and block out the skies of Cebus. But before it did, the feed showed that the continent had been almost totally destroyed.

Tosk turned to Hoursk. " It may not have the power of the Death Star, but it is a formidible weapon to be sure. the Emperor will be pleased. We can return to base."

The Grand Admiral nodded and keyed the comm. " Pass our congratulations to the crew of the Empress. Then signal the fleet to regroup and set course to return to Xarbareth. "

" Yes sir." The voice replied.

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[dakota]

In the cockpit of the Familiar, Raljar eased himself into the co-pilot's chair with a grunt, clenching his eyes shut and gritting his teeth as his blaster wound bumped the padding. "Remind me again why we're going to Taris?"

The engines glowed to life and Vaig, Cammie, and the family made for their own escape plans with Cam and Deke. The bureaucrats and Stormtroopers had been left tied-up in the grazer sheds; hardly the most pleasant place to be, but they'd live. All thatw as injured was their pride.

Raljar glanced sideways as the repulsors whined, and the Familiar began to lift. "This anything to do with that that nerf-herder back there told you, or is this another sightseeing trip?"

The scope began dual-toning, and he tapped the screen. "Two Lambda-class shuttles, coming in from the west. Eighteen standard seconds to intercept. Huh." He smiled grimly. "By the time they get here, we'll be long gone. Punch it!"

The Familiar rose and shot skywards with a disappearing glow of its engines.
Karena shook her head." Nothing to do with Lutz." she pulled out the flimsi printoff of the message Vaig had sent her and pointed to the section about Ralj. " We saved my family, I've got a feeling that the other Cathar Vaig met was your missing sister."

She looked at her chrono and grinned. " We've got eight days before we're due back, and another 48 before we're listed as AWOL. That's more than enough time to turn the galaxy upside down."

In the pilot's seat, Vaig shook his head. " I'm glad I sent Cammie with the others..."

" Shut up, Vaig." Kar replied," Now lets fix up this arm."
Raljar was unusually sombre, the rest of the trip to Taris. Though functional, productive and his typical brash self, his mood gradually became more pensive and brooding the closer the Familiar drew to the planet of his birth.

Karena recalled a distant conversation.

"You're serious?"

"How could I not be? I wouldn't joke about something like that, you know that."

"A slave...Siraea...oh [Ancestors], don't...don't let it be her..."

He had withdrawn for a time, then. When he emerged, nothing seemed untowards, but for an aching, haunted look about his eyes.

"I'm fine" he had insisted, but he couldn't hide his true feelings from her for long, and nor did he care to try. And as Taris grew closer, the hollow became something more serious, more focused. More...

...Raljar.

"Karena..."

"It's not a place I'd ever hoped I'd have to come back to," he had admitted to her one evening as they shared a bunk in Karena's cabin aboard the Familiar. As always her company had soothed the emotions churning about him, softening them to a less intense flow. "But...[Damn], if she's here, I pity the poor slug who got her."

He had tried to chuckle, but it came out as a choked sound. The thought of his sister as a slave had wounded and angered him terribly, to the point that Vaig had been avoiding him...

"Karena..."

Too many old wounds for both of them lay on the planet below. What would-?

"Karena!"

Raljar's hand touched her arm. "We're coming up on Taris. You okay?" His amber eyes narrowed a little, his frown lifting a touch in concern. "You look like you jettisoned your mind somewhere back in hyperspace. Somethin' wrong?"
Startled awake, Kar sat up with a sharp " I'm up, I'm up!" knee jerk response. As her senses rejoined her, she replied more like herself," I'm fine, Ralj. I must have..., I don't know, (shrugs) had a bad dream or something." she quickly added, " Nothing like the nightmares from before."

She swung over the edge of the bunk and began to get dressed, changing the subject. " We're going to have to keep a low profile while we're here. You're old hutt buddy made me promise you'd never come back. No offense, but the sooner we get finished here the better."
-----

Somewhere near Taris' equator, in an old spaceport that overlooked the edge of the world-city onto one of the few dust-clouded, arid deserts left on the once-lush world, the Familiar nestled in a primitive docking cradle in an equally primitive hangar, a place of girders and pipes and refractive artificial crystal panes to keep out the burning sun. Gleaming lights in the dark, like eyes in jewel tones of ruby and emerald and amber, turned the place into a technological womb, defiant and steadfast even though time and wear had taken its toll. This was a busy spaceport, a place of industrial ships and furtive figures on furtive business, not a place tourists or casual sightseers ever came...unless they were young, or arrogant, or foolish.

Or all three.

"She's berthed, though the son of a Gamorrean wanted triple the going rate for "security"." Vaig growled, his clothing overlaid with an all-weather cloak to keep out the dust and heat. "Can't find any dock monkey who'll take an honest bribe these days, nah, it's all about squeezing all they can kriffing well get..."

"Thanks, Vaig." Said Raljar. The Cathar's broad frame was draped in an all-weather cloak also, but the addition of a hood concealed his features, his thick silvery-blond hair spilling into his chest; he had noted Karena's warning over Yogga the Hutt's threats, having remembered them well himself. The slug's reach was long, and he wasn't taking too many chances.

Ralj pulled out a primitive datapad, one with actual manual controls and a touch-screen, and squinted at the globe on its dusty display. "I had a few words with some old acquaintances who owed me a few credits from way back. They've managed to get us omni-rail passes, in exchange for me letting the debt drop, o' course." His smile was predatory, and Karena recognized the eye-glint of a Cathar who had just cornered the grazer...and bargained away its horns.

"The omni-rail's a relic of Taris' past, from back before planetary shuttles were cheap an' feasible." He tapped the readout, and a network of glowing lines spread over the gridmap globe of the Taris World-City. "It's limited in where it can go, but it's *big*. They use it to carry cargo and commuters en-masse now. It's slow, so it'll take us a day or so to reach our destination. The advantage of it," He sniffed, and snuffed some dust out of his nose, "-is there's too much metal and meat cargo to bother keeping tabs on for local security forces. Which means ol' Yogga won't be worryin' himself over us being back here. With luck."

He glanced at Vaig. "That data you rustled up better be right, Vaig. These passes ain't gonna take us everywhere."

The old man grinned, and tapped the side of his head in the old pilot's "Check" gesture. "Trust me, kid, I was runnin' this kinda thing back when you were still at your momma's teat. You ain't the only one with contacts." He sighed. "Shame some o' the old faces ain't here anymore. But the drink...that ain't changed a bit."

He looked at the pair of young Rebel's expressions, and roared with laughter. "Dust and engine coolant, puts hairs on your chest!"

"And lips." Ralj muttered, eyeing Vaig with a sour smile and stowing the datapad away in the folds of his garments. "If anyone offers you a drink around here, Kar, that ain't purified water, jus' say "no." I don't want a vegetable for a [Mate] for the rest of my days."

He checked his wrist chrono. "We got...two standard hours to hit the Omni-Rail terminal. Plenty of time. Let's grab what we can and get ready for a *really* uncomfortable ride." He looked out to the bustling industrial zone-city beyond the docking bay portal. "And in the meantime, fill me in what we know. All of it."
Fidgeting with the ill fitting overcoat, Karena was only half paying attention to the banter between her companions. Something had been bothering her since they dropped from hyperspace, and neither Ralj or Vaig seemed to believe her when she told them she didn't know what it was. All she knew is that there was a constant distraction in the back of her mind that she couldn't shake. finally she gave up and decided to trade a little protection from the elements for quicker access to her blaster.

Vaig shrugged a bit. " I told Kar the jist of it in my letter. I met the guy in Truii Bans bar, the Washdown near the city's main landing bays. I don't remember his name, just that he had a Cathar female with him. I'd say the way they talked, Truii knew him, so that might be a place to start. Wait a minute." He ran back aboard the Familiar, returning a few minutes later with a box wrapped in cloth. He opened it up," Best bribe you can get for an Arconan, pure Mon Cal sea salt." He revealed a pair of white cubes the size or thermal detonators.

" I'm not going to ask why you carry that." Karena smiled suspiciously.

Vaig merely winked with a smirk.
The Omni-Rail: A network of ancient repulsion-lift tracks extending across the surface of the planet TARIS. Considered antique by accepted Galactic standards in technology, the Omni-Rail represents a triumph of early innovation in large-scale crago transportation.
Connected to each of TARIS' Sectors in a neverending planet-circling loop, each Omni-Rail Train" craft is 25 Standard Meters wide by 750 Standard Metres long. Composed of modular carts suitable for ferrying a vast array of materials and products, the Omni-Rail has lost much of its original purpose with the advent of commercially feasible intra-planetary shuttle and transport flights. It is kept running by numerous legal and extralegal concerns for the expediature of moving bulk goods with little interference, and if one can find a safe and privately guarded cart as part of one of the numerous and intricately synchronized Omni-Rail transports, then the risk and danger of a poorly-maintained and hazardous vehicle will pale into insignificance in the wonder and nostalgia of a truely ancient epic-scale technological experience!

PRICE: TWO out of FIVE: Cheap and accessible for any Galactic Citizen of good standing and moderate means.
HAZARD: THREE out of FIVE: A risky proposition for the unprepared, as the presence of unwashed Xeno's and criminal of all descriptions abound. Yek! Pack a holdout blaster and a strong bottle of Coruscant's Finest.
EXPERIENCE: FOUR out of FIVE: A truely exotic encounter with ancient technology! Enthusiasts will recieve their credits' worth here!

-Excerpt from A VISITOR'S GUIDE to TARIS, by Breij Leanno, Imperial Script Publishing Inc., Coruscant. Price: 2 Credits from Reputable Chip-Dealers Everywhere.

"I gotta ask...what's with the salt?"

Raljar leaned back against the metal packing-crates, his muscular frame lounging on a pile of soft plasti-packing like an oversized Corellian sand-panther lying in the sun...if the sun was fume-stained glow-strip. The packed transport car was cavernous enough that the malfunctioning lights penetrated only a degree into the gloom, creating pools of light admidst looming and eerie mounds of nameless cargo and mysterious machinery. Of the hundred or so sentients occupying Car 38-/_\-1, many preferred to stick to their islands of light, with the eyes of those who preferred the seclusion of darkness occasionally glinting in the darkness. Few spoke, and the wail of a child of indeterminate species broke the roaring rumble of the Omni-Train's passage through the cavernous, womb-like tunnels of Taris' technological skeleton. The chill air smelled of lubricant and burned wiring.

The Cathar rubbed his cheek, a short smear of grease staining his smooth cream-coloured fur, adding another stripe to the faint beige ones that touched his cheekbones. Unlike a primitive galactic feline's, the Cathar had evolved only rudimentary nightvision; like all sentient races touched by the Force, they had discarded much of their animal ancestry to carry the blessings and burdens of intelligence, and the gift to strive for something greater. His amber eyes did not glow, though he could undoubtedly see better than a Human in the murky gloom.

Whether that was an advantage in that place was up for debate.

He cracked his neck, and opened a small case. A wisp of chill fog rolled out as he extracted a moisture-dewed bottle and some metal mugs. "Orryxian Catsblood. Gotta go down better than salt." He groaned, and rubbed his eyes. "Twelve more hours. Help yourselves, it'll blot out the stench. Only rode on this thing once, back when I was a cub. Smell hasn't got any better, that's for sure."

He took his own mug and draped his free arm around Karena, resting his head atop hers as he saluted Vaig with the mug and an ironic smile. The musty smell of unwashed Cathar met Karena's nose; much more tolerable than Human body-odour, but not amongst Cathar themselves. Bathing seemed a thing of the past, even though they had been in the cart only sixteen hours. On the bright side, his presence was comfortingly familiar...and at least he was warmer than the air. "So...c'mon. Before we hit C-Sector, and probably wind up on the wrong end of a blaster-wielding psychopath, tell us why salt is gonna buy us some info."
Vaig chuckled as he accepted the drink from Ralj. " Didn't you teach the kid anything, Kar?"

Only half paying attention with her mind elsewhere, Karena came to attention with a start. " Huh? Vaig, don't start. Just because he doesn't know about Arconans." She turned up her nose at the sight of his drink. " How you can stomach that vile stuff is beyond me, it doesn't even look appealing. Salt is a narcotic to Arconans, a very addictive one. That little gift is worth it's weight in glitterstim to a hooked Arconan, and enough to earn a trip to Kessel if you tried to smuggle it onto Arcona. The best part is you can tell an addicted Arconan by the color of their eyes. They turn golden when they are on salt."

Vaig added as he wiped some of the red liquor from the cornor of his mouth. " And Truii's eyes glowed brighter than Tatooine's twin suns at midday. We can get whatever you want to know out of him for this."

" Hopefully he's free coming with the info too," Karena added, fidgeting with her Czerka 411 holdout blaster that seemed to suddenly appear in her hands as she cleaned the miniture blaster. " There'll be too many other people around to try to force him to talk. And we are on a fairly limited schedule. I'd hate to have to explain to Tycho why we were AWOL after sending him Cam and Deke. Might be too much temptation for him."

Vaig motioned towards Kar with his mug. " Speaking of your gun toting maniacs..."

With a sigh, she leaned her head back against Ralj's shoulder," Are you going to just sit there and let him talk to me like that?" It was the first time since they had left Tresn that Karena had sounded like herself.
Raljar chuckled, shifting his shoulder to allow Karena to rest more comfortably. "Kar, I'd love to skin Vaig and make a present of his hide for ya, but...that'd mean inhaling more of this grease than I can handle. Besides," he indicated Vaig with the mug. "As he says, you're the one with the gun."

Perhaps it was a function of the telepathy that now seemed to operate between them, or perhaps it was simple understanding of the other half of their partnership; but Karena could feel a great deal in their contact, even as Ralj leaned over to rest his cheek against her hair. There was conflict in her Cathar partner, and a worry buried so deep in his Cathar psyche that she doubted he himself could feel it.

Siraea, his blood-sister, was the last Raljar had in his family, other than his lost and unlamented sire; his reminisces about her when they were alone or at ease off-duty painted an image of a person cast from Raljar's very same mould, a fiery, passionate and fearless woman...for she was his twin, a mere ten Standard Minutes younger than her elder brother, and a young woman in her own right now. She had been the brains to Raljar's brawn when they were small, and they had raised innocent Hell together. Raljar's memories were filled with nothing but love and exasperation for his sister, for she was his mirror image. He could not endure the thought of losing her too...or of her caged, chained like an animal against her will, a concern now reflected in Karena's own mind as water reflects light.

Vaig made a face. "More 'n' one pirce of Bantha chip has tried to skin me, boy. Came close a few times, mind you..."

"Share a few of 'em?" Ralj asked.

The Omni-Train ploughed on into the gloom, its hulk eating the miles at an amazing rate. The hours would pass slowly, lubricated by Vaig's tales of derring-do and adventure in the space-lanes, but at least trouble was not yet forthcoming
On route, Raljar wrapped the all-weather cloak around the two of them, so that they could snatch some sleep. And his smile as the pair dozed the dark, draughty, noisome hours away spoke volumes. A glimpse of Karena as she was, rather than what she had suffered, warmed his heart and reinforced his knowledge that he was the luckiest damn male this side of the Galactic Centre.

"I love you, Kar." She heard him murmur, his arm drawing her closer in the nest of discarded, crinkling plasti-wrapping. "And soon, I'll keep that promise to you, as well..."

A moment of romance, dimmed perhaps by the rumbling roar of the Omni-Train, the flickering of the greasy lights, and the thunderous snores of Vaig, capable of competing with a ceramic-edged chainsaw for sheer metal-cutting ability. Beside her, Ralj had fully dozed off, his breath warm on her ear.
Karena nestled her head against Raljar's collarbone, his body warmth her only respite against the ausault on her senses from their surroundings. Though she had dozed in and out a few times, sleep eluded her. Her latest interruption had put a smile on her face, but Ralj has nodded off before she could come to her senses enough to reply. Inside though, she was anything but smiling. Worry teased at her that she gotten them involved in a fool's errand, and her well meaning attempt to find Ralj's sister was nothing more than a wild ranat chase. And then there was the other sensation. It was nothing like the visions she had mistaken for nightmares. This was more like a pressure at the back of her mind, a minor annoyance that gave her a feeling that something was brewing. something bigger than all of them combined.

once she was certain he was asleep, Kar raised her head and gave Ralj a kiss on the cheek and whispered, " I love you too," before snuggling back down and wasting her time trying to sleep once again.


-----

Xarbareth System, Lobas Cluster, outskirts of Wild Space

The Belligerence winked back to real space on the edge of the homesystem of the Grand Admiral's Battle Group. Easily in view, the lone planet of Xarbareth hung ahead of them surrounded by spacedocks and defense platforms, most of them bristling with activity. Beyond all of them orbited what might have been mistaken for a moon. From the command pit, a communication officer salled up to the Grand admiral as he studied the scene ahead of them. " Sir, sentinel ship Minion is hailing us. Would you prefer anything other than the standard reply?"

Hoursk shook his head slightly as he studied the Torpedo Sphere as it circled the planet. " Standard reply, Corporal. I'm in no mood today for the shennanigans of Captain Nestal. And then contact Admiral Keevz and inform him that the fleet may stand down, we will not be joining Lord Vader's task force after all. Inform him I will brief him and Governor Tarcic personally in due time."

"Yessir." The corporal replied and set about his duties. Housk gaze never turned from his newest ships under construction, a slight smirk of satisfaction reflected in the transparasteel.
-----

[dakota]

The landscape hadn't changed much that Karena could recall. The plate of the Upper City replaced the sky, the mind-numbingly huge support pillars that ran between the Loew and Upper cities dotted with millions of lights that glinted like tiny jewels in the hazy gloom. The Washdown itself was built into a support column, a seedy-looking establishment advertized with a damaged holo-sign above its open door. Through the stained windows, shapes could be seen moving in the murk, and a synthesized Outer Rim rhythm that echoed in the blood and brain bled through the outer walls and into the street.

Raljar had been quiet since they had departed the enormous, heaving, barely-legal Omni-Rail terminal only a couple of kilometres from the Washdown; a mixture of nostalgia, caution, and an "awakening" of instincts not used for over two years. Vaig seemed considerably more at ease, the veteran spacer having long ago lost his "shore legs" and trepidation of seedy cantinas. The trio were grubby, unkempt, unwashed, hungry, thirsty, and exhausted.

They'd fit right in.

"Huh." Ralj smiled, his mirthless smirk visible under his hood. "Everything feels the same...yet different. I must be crazy to pull a stunt like this."

"Your choice, kid." Vaig rubbed his stubble, and Raljar snorted.

"You think I'd have it any other way, old man?" Vaig chuckled, and crumpled the wrapper of a cheap synthetic nutrient bar. Of the three, he had been the only one able or willing to stomach the extruded nourishment, Raljar muttering about "suspect origins of nameless foods in this kinda place."

Inside, the Washdown was a typical spacer cantina; looking half like a factory, pipes and conduits and cables of the pillar's internal workings were left glaringly bare. Holographic screens and advertisements lit the gloom in a myriad of soft and harsh glowing colours. Circular metal tables were tucked out the way, under machinery and air vents, dark places for drinkers to be undisturbed. A pair of ramps around the bar at irregular places led to an upper area, from where the music seemed to be flowing. A variety of species crowded the establishment; none looked particularly savoury, co-operative, or friendly.

Raljar's sub-hood smile showed a glint of fangs. This was his territory, his environment. Karena felt him relax slightly under his cloak; he was in tune with places like this.

At the circular bar annex, an Arconan in battered spacer garb and a synthetic apron greeted the trio as they shouldered through the crowd, a few mutters and growls barely audiable through the synthesized trash-music. His axe-shaped head regarded them with first one eye, then the other; Karena could see clearly that under the glowstrips, the Arconan's eyes were a faint, gleaming shade of gold.

"Truii?" Vaig growled, leaning on the bar. Ralj stood to the side a little, resting his elbows on the glowing, drink-stained surface as the Arconan Truii turned to look at him.

" Vaig my old friend. It has been a long time." Truii replied, focusing his attention on them and ignoring another patron that was demanding a refill.

" Don't give me that," Vaig replied with a scowl. " Otherwise you wouldn't have been surpried to see me walk in. I saw your doubletake. I need some information. Or rather my companion does."

"Sorry, I serve drinks. You are looking for an information kiosk" The Arconan replied and started to slide down the bar, only to stop as Vaig set one of the globes of pure Mon Cal sea salt on the counter. Truii's eyes grew wide and his lip quivered as he stared at the salt. " Prehaps I can be of some assistance afterall." He reached for the cube, but Vaig pulled it away and handed it off to Raljar.

Karena watched the crowd, half listening to the others bribing the barkeep. As she did, her gaze kept passing a group on young men at the far end of the bat. At first she thought they were more bounty hunters that had recognized that she was a big payday. But carefully studying them made her deduce that they had not been focused on her, but on Ralj. Then she recognized the leather jackets and 'colors' as they seemed to be studying them.

"Ralj, I hate to interrupt, but I think some of your old friends are onto you. " She warned, motioning towards the swoopers
Ralj glanced at the table before turning back to the salt cube, whispering into Karena's ear as he did so, "Scumback Vipers They make big creds scum-racing the pollution tunnels and purifiers. All muscle, not smart. Don't attract their attention, they might not have holo'd on."

He motioned towards Truii, and the Arconan complied, leaning closer and waving away the complaining customer as he did so. "Two sentients, male Human and female Cathar. Vaig here says they've been here before, the male spoke to you. Their names, and location, both cubes are yours, no more questions asked."

Truii looked about, a tic creasing the muscles of his smooth reptillian eye socket. He licked his lips, his breath cracking like his mouth had dried suddenly. "No tricks?"

"No tricks. Both cubes." Raljar opened the small box an edge, showing the gleaming white mineral cubes. Truii rubbed his mouth hard.

Behind them, one of the Vipers had leaned over to whisper into the ear of a scarred hulk of muscle that was of indeterminate species due to massive scarring and piercings. Their synthetic leathers all bore a similar heraldry, a patch of ragged green fabric over the right shoulder. All carried the same low, menacing stare that Karena had first seen in Raljar's eyes more than two years ago, when they had met for the very first time. The look of predators in an entirely artificial jungle, clad in the garish and revealing garb of swoop rats.
" Uh, didn't you used to be one of those scumracers when we first met?" Karena asked lightly with a slight smirk.

Truii was quick coming with his answers. " Only female I've ever had come in here was with that slaver Markez, don't know if it's his first or last name. He bragged he might keep her because she was such wildcat." He looked Ralj in the eyes," Pardon, his words, not mine. He has an apartment upside somewheres near the city landing pads. That's all I know, is that enough?" He asked, his hands sliding towards the cubes.

Because the three were listening to Truii, no one saw the Viper's approach until a firm hand of a Shivestian Wolfman spun Ralj around to face the five of them," You're supposed to be dead." He growled.

The bar around the group quieted down, heads turning their way as the moment froze in the air. Raljar stared into the Shivestian's snarling muzzle, and nodded sharply. "Really?"

Karena could almost sense it a moment before it happened. Raljar slammed his forehead into the Shivestian's nose, the wolfman howling and sprawling backwards, taking a table and several drinks down with him in an enormous crashing clatter. Vaig tossed back a shot and turned to deliver a right hook to a Trandoshan as it reached for him. The brutal blow knocked the Viper flying, it's form sprawling across the barfront like a sack of wet root mulch.

"Time to go," he growled, shaking his hand painfully.

Truii, sensing which way the wind was blowing, carefully picked up the precious salt box and secreted himself behind the protection of the bar.

"GO!" Raljar roared as he caught the wrist of a Human Viper making a spirited attempt to drive a vibro-shiv into his face, hissing sharply as the humming blade cleaved a narrow gash into his eyebrow. Blood flowed into his eye, blinding his left side as he twisted his hand sharply. The swoop rat choked on an agonized shriek as his wrist snapped with an eye-watering *crunch!*. Still gripping the upraised arm, Raljar followed through and nailed the thug in the ribs with his free hand. The Viper's breath left him with a rush as he doubled over Raljar's fist and collapsed, the fight driven out of him. The Cathar let him drop.

Pure Alliance combat training, Karena recognized, brutal and quick. As the trio made for the door through shouting customers, an enraged roar behind them accompanied a blaster bolt that blew a flaming chunk from the doorframe. Patrons screamed and dived for cover as the scarred behemoth bellowed invectives, a few remaining Vipers having drawn holdouts.

"You're dead, you hear me Silver?! DEAD! Yogga'll hear about 'dis! He'll hear! Ain't nowhere for you to hide! NOWHERE!!"

They ran, the curses following them, dodging hover-traffic and yelling pedestrians as the vanished into the murk of the Middle City. Ducking down a shadowed alleyway between atmosphere processor towers, Vaig rubbed his knuckles, chuckling between gasps for breath. "You've been in cantina brawls before, Cathar. You know 'em?" He jerked his thumb in the direction of the Washdown.

"A few, and only by reputation." Something about his voice made Karena wonder if that was entirely true. Raljar wiped away the blood flowing into his eye with the back of his hand, smearing his jawbone with the clotting fluid; their flight had streaked his face and neck with it. He winced as he touched the wet lips of the shallow wound. "They knew my face, [Ancestors] take the luck it'd be other swoopers."

He muttered in Catharese, examining the sticky, rust-red stain on his fingers as the blood trickled back into his vision. "Rubbin' Truii's bribe in the wound is the fact that the Viper's are the last sub-scum out of any of the old gangs in the smarts race. They make up for it with muscle...and tenacity." He exhaled sharply. "I've put you both at risk. Too [damn] sure of myself."

"What's done is done, kiddo. Life's too damn short for regrets." Vaig glanced at the wound, his eyes narrowing at the flow. "Speakin' of which, mynocks nicked you but good, eh?" He reached for his cloak as Raljar grunted and waved off the older man's help. "I'll be fine, looks worse than it is. The Ronto just got a lucky shot in. Might wake me up; if it does, I'll owe him a drink." He grinned and licked the blood from his wrist as he glanced at Karena. "You okay, [Partner]?"
As soon as Ralj had responded to the Wolfman's challenge, she knew who things would digress before the headbutt found it's mark. She went for her blaster, but one of the Vipers, a Brubb, caught her with a fierce backhand that knocked her from her feet. A coppery taste touched her taste buds, but it was the warm tender spot on the back of her head where she had struck the edge of the bar during her fall that concerned her. Things blurred slightly, but she shook it off as her attacker stepped close. Leaving himself open, she delivered a viscious uppercut that brought the Brubb to his knees with a whimper a split second after the crook of her elbow smashed heavily into his manhood.

She got to her feet shakily at Ralj's bellow and started for the door in Vaig's footsteps, only to duck as the blasterbolt rained plasterbits on their escape but she never slowed. The running seemed to help fend off the fogginess that seemed to want to creep in, and when they finally stopped, she was glad it stayed at bay. She tested her lip with her tongue, and wasn't surprised when she found it swollen and split from the blow. She ran her hand acrossed the back of her head and her fingers got snarled in the clotted tangle her curls had matted into. Beneath them was tender to touch, but she sighed in releif when she discovered no deformitiy. It came as no surprise that when she brought her hand away, it was blood stained. She gave it a concerned look, but quickly wiped it away on her overcoat while listening to Vaig and Ralj talk, but not really hearing them. It took a moment to register when Ralj was speaking to her.

Her response came out slow and measured, totally uncharacteristic. " Bit of a bump on the head, and a fat lip, but I feel better than you look." she tried to grin, but the swelling resisted and she ended up looking more like a snarl. Without thinking, she stepped up to Ralj and took a rag from her pocket, shook the dust from it and pressed it to his cut eyebrow. " You you like nexu bait. This is going to need to be sutured."

With her back to him, Vaig got an eyefull of her head, and winced slightly. Silently, he motioned to get Ralj's attention, motioning first at Kar then to the back of his back. His point was emphasised by the concerned look on his face. " Kar, did you get hit in the head?"

" I hit the bar when I fell, but I'm be fine. Bleeding has stopped already" she replied as she tended to Ralj.
Noting Karena's injuries and Vaig's worried look, Raljar took Karena's hand in his, his eyes narrowing with concern of his own. "Hold still, Kar." Ignoring any forthcoming protests, he gently brushed his hand around the back of her head, under her hair. His eyes widened as he drew his hand back, her blood mingling fresh with his own on his fingers.

"Karena...curse it, what did they do to you?" Anger and worry edged his voice as he motioned to Vaig, who nodded and pulled out a small medical kit from the folds of his cloak, the same one that Raljar had declined. Brushing a few strands of hair away from Karena's face, he looked into her eyes, watching and searching. "Can you hear me alright? Any dizziness?"

Vaig pulled out a few odds and ends from the small kit as he watched the two young sentients fumble over each others wounds. Despite the seriousness of their situation, he couldn't help but smile and roll his eyes. "Alright, lovebirds, ease off. The pair of you look like mopek, so sit still and let me do my thing. Don't want you messin' things up more than they are."

Raljar knelt, brushing his hand over Karena's swollen lip. He winced, the flashing anger and concern in his eyes almost a panacea on its own. "I'm goin' back. I'll skin the ranat-"

"Sit down," said Vaig without preamble as he tended to the back of Karena's head. Examining the wound, he grunted. "Mm. This don't look too bad, Kar, but it's gonna need bacta...and keeping an eye on. You got lucky; another inch or so, it woulda been a lot worse."

Raljar swallowed heavily, his brow lowering like thunderclouds. For a fleeting moment, Karena wondered what would happen to the Brubb if her mate ever found him again. She wondered if the Brubb would be able to run; he had folded up pretty neatly when her elbow had found its mark.

"At least we have some information to go on." Vaig dabbed at the wound with a medicated probe, the small kit making beeping noises. "Just hope it was worth it. If you kids keep getting injured like this every step of the damned way, I'll be retired by the time we're done." His gruff cheer took some of the edge away, for both of them.
"It's worse than it... , I mean it looks worse than it it" Karena corrected herself as she protested, her tone still deliberate sounding. " I bumped the bar when I went down is all. I'll be fine soon as this headache clears." She left out the part about nearly blacking out when she'd hit to try to calm Ralj's concerns. " You'll do no such thing, I made sure that Brubb will never forget me, and he won't look at another female for a while I'm willing to bet." She smirked despite the swelling and winked. "Beside, the only reason we go the worst of it was because they took it easy on the old guy."

When Vaig grumbled, Kar chuckled as she added, sounding more fluid," I can get a bacta treatment when we get back to the fleet. We don't have time for it, and we'd never be able to afford it here. Not to mention Yogga probably knows we're here alreadyand I'm not in the mood to visit the old slug."

"You and me both." Ralj smirked, despite his concern, giving her hand a squeeze. "And don't take too many liberties with a man's age when he's got a probe stuck in the back of your head, ah? Ancient Cathar wisdom, that."

"The kid's got a wise head on him," said Vaig as he rubbed a medi-patch over the back of Karena's head. "He'll go far."

Ralj chuckled, and brushed a few strands of hair away from Karena's face as Vaig began packing away the little medi-kit. "Listen, we've got a bit of information, and you need to rest that skull of yours. I don't want those scary and beautiful brains of yours falling out on us at the worst possible time, which is any time from now." He shook his head. "The Viper's are goin' to raise [Hell] over what just happened, and like it or not, Yogga'll be clued in within the next Standard hour, bet your flight badge on it."

He stood, helping Karena to her feet. The bleeding on his brow had stopped; as messy and frightful as the blood on his face appeared, it wasn't bad, as Karena had guessed; beyond some medical attention, it would pose no danger. He nodded at Vaig. "We should get some rest. The Middle City's a big place, and I know how far Yogga will go to get his eyes on our sixes."

He rumbled low in his throat, and looked at Karena. "I...I need to know if that slaver scum really does have Siraea." He sighed, and smiled sourly at her. "Hrr...some of my life's light has been rubbin' off on me. We're in no condition right now to go bargin' in anywhere, and Kar needs rest and food. There's a "safe-pad" near here, the Krayts used to use it when one of us..." He coughed. "Ah, let's just leave it at that. We'll crash for a few hours. I can root out some old contacts. Reliable contacts. It'll cost a few credits, but..." He shrugged. "Not everyone likes workin' for a Hutt."

Vaig nodded slowly.

Raljar exhaled, and pulled his hood up. "Come on. Let's get outta here."
Karena didn't like the safehouse idea, but she knew they were both right. She needed some recoup time as the foggyness of a concussion held on to the edges of her consciousness. " Trust me, nothing is going to start falling out of my head, the rocks are packed far to tight." She deleayed replting until after Ralj had help her up. She tested her balance by taking a few steps towards Vaig.

Sure of her footing, she looked at Ralj and smirked," No Sullustan cuisine this time, okay? And if the hutt's goons find us taking a break, you are so going to hear 'I told you so's' for a long time to come." she waggled her finger at him.

" No matter how bad she gets hurt, same old Renie..." Vaig started to mutter, but Karena cut him off by spinning on her heels and glaring blaster bolt at him. She held the glare long enough to make sure she wouldn't lose her balance from the quick turn, before replying with a deep hateful tone, the likes Raljar had never heard from her. " Never call me that again. Cammie is the only one who can get away with it. Got it?"

Vaig nodded, sounding apologetic. " Alright Kar. Won't happen again."

Her mood lightened as he agreed and she looked back at Ralj. " Lead the way [partner]."
"What the [Hell] was that about?"

"Can't say, kiddo. Ask her yourself, if you really wanna know."

The Krayt safe house was undisturbed, dusty...and in a most unusual place.

Slipway 56-A, a six-lane repulsorcraft transit route through the Sector-C Middle City Business District. Loud and crowded, the Business District was a riot of neon holo-signs, sentient life both legitimate and shadowy in their intents, tall mind-numbingly huge support pillars housing thousands of people and businesses, and driving, hovering, and flying craft of all descriptions. Above Slipway 56-A, tall technological arches supported holo-displays for various products and services, homebrewed and corporate. And within one of many such arches, about a hundred feet above the slipway, was a small cluster of rooms. Once a part of the arch framework, they had been reconverted to a crash-pad; buried within the (mercifully) soundproof structure of the angular arch, it contained beds, a freezer of dried synthetic meals, a fresher, a pirated and retrofitted holo-link, and a holo-player. Nothing else, the glaring brilliance of the holo-display outside visible through windows that had been covered with retractable shielding long ago.

The climb through the drop-shafts and laddered catwalks to get to the safe-house had been a dangerous one, but somehow they had made it, despite a few close calls...

"The Krayts hollowed out these old store-rooms years ago," Raljar explained as they entered after a quick check on the door seals. "Used to contain redundant computer equipment. Since the systems outsourced years back, they were just forgotten and rotting. So we made it our own." He smiled in misty nostalgia, and rubbed his short, sharp, non-retracticle claw-nails over the gang symbol las-burned into the wall beside the mag-sealed door. "Funny how things change, ah?"

Vaig patted Ralj on the shoulder, and after a poignant pause, the trio made their way inside. The air was stale, and dust lingered, but apart from that, the place was inhabitable. Karena could sense, even through the muzzy aftereffects of the concussion, the wounds in Raljar that still lingered over the fate of his "family."

"Fresher's in there, holoplayer's bust." Raljar shook his head. "Hort never did get 'round to fixing it. It might not be a Core Worlds hotel, but..." He spread his arms. "It's secure, and warm enough when the air filters ain't blowing on full. Let's get our heads down for a while."

He sniffed. "Age before beauty, you two. We could all use a fresher run; you're beginnin' to get ripe on the downwind side." He rubbed a hand through his tangled and dirty mane, and shook it out. "Not that I'm any more night-blossom fresh. That's the thing about the Middle City; the dirt, no matter where you go, gets everywhere."
Karena had been quiet since her outburst at Vaig, except for the occasional reply to let the others know she was okay for the hundredth time. By the time they'd reached the hideout, she was starting to drag and paused only long enough to drop her overcoat before flopping on what turned out to be a less than comfortable bed. " Go ahead Vaig, I need to crash first." She said, looking up at the ceiling while trying to kick off her boots. The fog eating at her consciousness seemed to ebb as she relaxed, only to be replaced with vertigo. Kar squeezed her eyes shut and gulped hard to keep from being sick, knowing full well she hadn't eaten enough to accomidate it.

Finally she sat up , happily trading a bit of lightheadedness for the spins. Vaig had already disappeared off to the fresher, and the look she was getting from Ralj was becoming far too familiar. " I'll be fine." she said, trying to convince him. " It's not like I plowed into a moon or something." She forced a grin as she slipped of her flight jacket . She started to lay it on her pillow, but stopped before she dropped it on the blood stain she'd made. Instictively, she ran her hand through her hair and found that Vaig's treatment was still in place, and the stain was merely from her hair. She sighed in releif before attempting to lay back again, keeping one foot on the floor to fend off the spin. When she was sure it was working, she dared to close her eyes. She didn't need to see Raljar to feel his grief, she could almost feel it.

" You need a rest too, we all do." She said without opening her eyes. In his head, her voice added Brings back alot of memories I bet

"It does," he replied quietly.

She couldn't see him, but felt the weight of him settling on the less-than-perfect bed next to her a few moments later. The back of his hand brushed her cheek tenderly. "It's worse seeing you like this, though. At least the guys...they don't hurt where they are now." He brushed her hair back from her forehead, his gentle touch cool and comforting. Only when he was with her did he show such a gentle side; from what she had seen on Cathar, Karena could surmise that such an attitude was far from uncommon amongst Cathar, whose mates were so important to them. Aggressive and direct they might be, but with their loved ones, they channeled that passion into a protectiveness that burned just as bright, if much more quietly.

At least, the true ones did. She remembered Raljar's sire again, and guessed that not all Cathar matings were picturebook-perfect, just like any other species' pairing rituals.

His lips touched hers then, and he kissed her. "You need to rest, [partner], to rest and to eat. Don't worry about this whole thing, just leave it to me. I shouldn't have put you at risk like this." She felt the weight of his cloak covering her, warm from his body and still smelling of him. "Sleep now, Vaig'll be here."

She didn't realize when she drifted away, the vertigo receding and the fog fading away into the quiet non-space of sleep. When she awoke, the room was dark, lit only by the multicoloured gleam from important touch-panels, the shutters down and the lights off.

[dakota]

"Easy, Kar." Vaig's voice floated from the darkness. "You've been asleep for a while." She heard him cross the room, and a cold compress was laid to her forehead. "Raljar's been gone a few hours now. Told me to tell you not to worry about things." The old spacer's voice wasn't entirely approving, she could tell, but neither was he unduly worried. The air carried a distinct chill; without the cloak, she would have been uncomfortably cold. A distant roar indicated that the air system was active and running high.

"Keepin' the lights off. Don't want anything unneccessary leakin' out." There was a clattering of containers, and the gleam from the cold-storage units control panel. "Gotta say, those old friends of your parter did a fair job on this place. It's not comfortable, but as bolt-holes go..." He ripped a package open with a grunt. "I've seen worse." After a few moments, she felt the touch of a drinking tube cold against her lips. "Here, you need to drink. Water." He paused. "If you're hungry, we got synthetic nutri-bars. Flavouring...well, it tastes like it sounds, that's all I'll say." She could picture his face.

There was a pause. After a moment, he spoke again. "Kar?" He sighed, and moved away from the bed, leaving the water tube in her hand. "Listen, about what I said earlier...I'm sorry."

Karena's first instinct was to look at her chrono while trying to quell the anger she felt building at Ralj for going alone. but it was concern that leeched into her voice when she finally spoke," A few hours? Vaig, the better part of a day is gone."

Sitting up, a touch of lightheadedness returned, but it dissipated quickly. She drank the water and set the tube on the rickety table that served as a nightstand, and quoted one of Ralj's sayings. " Dust in the thrusters, Vaig, just caught me off guard. Kammie is the only one to call me that since I left home. Even Lesa stopped calling me that because she knew how much I hated it, except when she wanted to get me wound up. I only let him get away with it because, well, you remember how he used to say my name when he was little." She smiled in the darkness.

She was about to reach for her boots, and her hand found the butt of her blaster. Not remembering taking it off, she assumed Ralj had removed her gunbelt. " Stang, I must have been out." she commented as her stomach reminded her how long it was since her last meal, but the slight smell she realized was her made her decide to head for the fresher first.

" Let me clean up and grab a bite and I'll be ready to go." she told Vaig as she passed him, barely making him out in the faint light. She slid the door shut daring to turn on the glowpanels. Kar shook her head in disbeleif when she saw went to turn on the shower, mumbling to herself," A water shower. This thing must be an antique." She stripped down and stepped into the pulsing jets, their spray much more relaxing than the modern sonic showers.

After what seemed like an eternity, Kar returned to the common room, feeling refreshed despite the grime of her dust filled clothes. She picked up the nutri-bar and another tube of water Vaig had set out for her, sitting down acrossed from him. After a mouthful of the less than appetizing bar, she looked at her brother-in-law. " So did Ralj leave instructions where to meet up with him? I'll be ready in five minutes."
"Just told to wait for him." Vaig replied, chewing on his own chunk of extruded protein. "Seemed more worried about that knock on your head than his own hide." He swallowed with a disgusted sound. "What rotting chunk of animal hide did they grow this mopek out of?"

He swallowed a shot of water, to clear the taste. "Don't worry about him, Kar. He'll be fine. Xeno's as hardheaded as you are." He patted her shoulder. "I'm amazed you two can be in the same room for more than five minutes without trying to kill each other."

He was about to say something else, when the door hissed open. Vaig went for his blaster, but the hooded figure that entered waved a hand against the light, before sealing the door behind them.

"Nice welcome, Vaig. Next time I'll paint a bullseye on my face." Raljar's voice was unmistakable, and the lack of tension in it relaxed Vaig visibly.

"Everything's laid out, as best as we could hope for." Ralj shrugged off his cloak, and ruffled his manelike hair. Karena could see in the dimness that he was as clean as could be expected, and free of blood. A small strip of dermapatch was plastered above his eye. "Mendez is still topside; seems he's a bit of a figure in certain circles down here. He's not goin' anywhere soon. Yogga knows, of course; but for now we should be safe. The old slug's annoyed, but he's got bigger things to worry about with the swoop racing coming up. The bounty's small enough that we should be able to slip by un-noticed, if we're careful. Just because we're not top of his list doesn't mean he won't want to see us chained on the nearest bulkhead as trophies. I know that Hutt, and his vindictive streak is as wide as his belly."

He paused, and smiled at Karena, holding his arms open. "Well, [Partner]? Did you miss me?"
" How else could anyone be with me, Vaig?" Karena replied. Her reaction to the door opening had been delayed, to the point that it could have been deadly. she cursed herself as she withdrew a hand from the butt of her blaster, but her mood lightened at the sound of Raljar's voice. She squinted as her eyes readjusted to the low light levels. Setting her less than appealing meal aside, she met his open arms with a long kiss to answer his question. When they parted, her voice was low and stern." You know better than to go sneaking off without me, your home planet or not." She wrapped her arms around the back of his neck, pulling his forehead down to rest against hers so she could stare in his eyes before releasing him.

" So what you're saying is this place has gotten boring in your absense?" Her question sounded more like a statement as mischeif danced in her eyes. " I know how to fix that. Vaig, do you have and detonators back on the Familiar?"

Vaig gave a concerned look," Yeah, there a few in the weapons locker,why?"

" Last time I was here that was all I needed to stir up the Imperials." She smirked," Everyone else is looking for us, I might as well let them know I'm back. After we see Mendez of course."

Vaig slumped back in his chair and looked at Ralj," How do you put up with that?"

"Practice and hard effort." Ralj smirked, his eyes following Karena as she moved. "I think she likes me on a short leash. She was the one complaining of Cathar house-mates, too. I smell hypocrisy." He spread his hands in a gesture of mock-helplessness. "I'd say something, I really would, but I like sleeping with my [Mate], Vaig. The floor isn't as comfortable, or warm."

He crossed to the cooler, grabbing himself a tube of refigerated water and taking a long, deep draught. Gasping, he wiped the moisture from his lips. "*Uff*, I needed that." Slumping down into one of the chairs across from Vaig, he eyed Karena. "I know that look, [Partner]. You blew up the place last time you were here. Planning on leaving another signature exit sign?"

Vaig coughed to hide the chuckle, and Raljar smiled as he drained the refrigerated water. "Okay. Here' what we've got so far." Nailing the trash disposal system dead-on with the thrown empty tube, he leaned forwards, resting his elbows on his knees. "Mendez runs a slavery shipment business in the Upper City. Place ain't doing so badly for itself, either. Seems the scum is in friendly with a few of the local ministers and security chiefs. He's turning a good credit, but hasn't made many friends in the undercities; seems he likes to gamble, and talks big, but doesn't pay up if he feels he can get away with it..and he backs that up with hired muscle. That's rubbed a few of the local operators up the wrong way."

He sat back, rubbing his cheek and chin, eyes narrow. "I haven't been topside yet; I wanted you both with me on that one. His business runs out of an old moisture collection plant he's refitted for-" He spat. "'Livestock' maintenance. That Cathar female, no-one's really seen her enough to give me something to go on, but he keeps her well-hidden. Brags about her when he can, though, by all accounts; seems to consider her the high-point of his "collection"."

The look in his eyes suggested that, regardless of whether it should it turn out to be his sister, Mendez would be well served enjoying the time he had with his Cathar slave. It might not last much longer.
" You know better than that." Karena smirked at Raljar." How often do I plan anything and stick to it? " She considered moving to sit with Ralj, but his chair didn't look sturdy enough for the two of them so she retook her seat and listened to the reconned information. " Sounds like an orbital bombardment would be too good for this guy. At least she's still here and not shipped out with one of his shipments." That was Kar's biggest concern, hopscotching around the galaxy looking for his sister. That and whatever the nagging feeling that something big was brewing.

" Well, let's go have a look then. I doubt he'll have the place too heavily guarded if he's got the local sec men in his back pocket. Maybe a few goons hired on, but nothing heavy." Kar commented " I wonder if it might be a good idea if Vaig brought the Familiar here in case we need to make a quick getaway?"

" You want me to ride that train back?" Vaig cut in, a bit of hesitation in his tone.

" Did I say take the omni-train?" Kar replied mockingly. " It would be alot quicker to take a speeder or a swoop though, provided you remember how to fly solo."

" One of these days,Therez," he shook his fist at her playfully before motioning to Ralj, " he won't be around to protect you."

" Whatever old man, but I seem to remember you on your back in Cruin's bar back home after a comment like that." Karena reminded him.

" No wonder," Vaig scoffed," you blindsided me with the stun baton from behind the bar."

Karena shrugged with an impish grin. " No such thing as fighting dirty. So when do you want to leave, [partner]?"
"As soon as possible. We're one step away from Yogga right now. I'll rest when we're out of the Kiltik nest..."

[dakota]

-----
Taris upper city, near the Sector C docking bays.

It had taken them a while to get topside, taking the roundabout route provided by one of Raljar's shadowy "contacts." It at least avoided the majority of the security checkpoints, Imperial and otherwise, and lubricated their passage through those that could not be evaded. Vaig had departed for the equatorial sectors, to obtain the Familiar, leaving Karena and Raljar to approach Mendez.

The sky was a bright blue, flecked with white-pink clouds, the artifical breeze warm and fresh over the soaring towers of the World-City sector as Raljar chewed on a meat patty. Across from their small alcove, a line of businesses backed onto a large processing station, the whole area prosperious and clean. The holo-sign above a structure that was clearly once part of the larger facility nearby flashed "SAERNYK IMPOUND Inc."

"That's the place", said Raljar as he swallowed the last bite of the spiced meat. Karena was well aware that her partner had not slept properly for nearly 36 standard hours. "Saernyk is the business name. Come on, you can't grab the eggs without opening the nest. And you do the talking." He glanced at her, his hood ruffling in the wind. A few of the well-dressed pedestrians nearby cast them suspicious, curious, and vaguely offended glances, but little else. "I'm liable to rip things out. I'll follow your lead; show me that Human touch you apply with such finesse. Let's see if we can grab a few info-packets before I start tearing things up; security around here has no sense of humour."

He blinked, and rubbed his eyes. The feeling of fatigue coming from him hovered at the edge of Karena's awareness like a leaden, hot-eyed blanket, but the edge of Cathar pseudo-adrenaline was keeping him going. She knew he wanted nothing more than to kick the door down and tear the information out of the unsuspecting, a bad choice in the security-concious Upper City. He was exhausted, no matter what reserves he was running on in his Cathar frame, and exhausted sentients made mistakes. He needed her smarts now, as his own were impaired and edged with a fraying, rage-induced temper.
" Me do the talking? Do you remember what happens when I do the talking?" Karena started to protest, but she knew Ralj was in no condition to take the lead on this one. " Fine, just calm down before you spook them. Let's do a probe. Wait here."

She walked around to behind the compound, just past one the lone noticable entrance and stopped, sitting down next to the building in plain sight of the building security holocams. Within minutes, the door slid open and a human male accompanied by a Gamorrean stepped out. The human spoke gruffly, " Hey you, shove off. Get back downside where you belong." The Gamorrean snorted something unintelligible, but Karena got the point, with warning alarms going off in her head.

She circled back around to meet Raljar. she shook her head," Security is quick to react, but I think we have bigger problems. He's using Gamorreans, and that gives me a feeling Yogga has a hand in this."

Raljar pinched the bridge of his flattened nose. "Great. Gamorreans. The smell's bad enough." He exhaled. "Yogga runs a bevy of 'em on shifts. The old slug likes their style; all muscle, no brains, no backtalk. Perfect underlings for any Hutt with half an ego." And that meant any Hutt, Karena knew. "No Gamorrean would be up here without a good reason, and that reason is usually a fake work permit. Those are hard to get downside...unless you're being hired out by those in a position to get said permits." He rubbed his nose. "Okay. No messing around. This is not a time for subtlety."

He crossed the broadwalk, the double mag-doors sliding smoothly open ahead of him. Within, the reception area was a restful shade of cream, with holographic signs promoting offers and special deals, along with price lists, ordering services, and species information. The female recpetionist, a prim-looking Chiss with gleaming red eyes, looked up from her semicircular datadesk. Her eyes took in his ragged appearance, his unfocused eyes, his slight odour of oil and recycled air and Cathar, and wrinkled her nose.

"Yess? Can we help yous?" Her accent was cultured upper-class Core, with a touch of the Chiss sibilancy. Her bun hairstyle and dark-green clothing made her look like some kind of terrible Imperial recruiter, an effect spoiled only by the tasteful jewelery on her wrists and throat.

"Yeah. We're here to see Mr. Mendez." Raljar responded affably.

"I'm sorry, we do not offers jobs to...vagrants. Sadly, I also doubts you will finds any of our products to be within your price range or-"

"It's about a bad sale. My mistress was treated poorly by your security staff and instructed me to approach you."

"Your mistress?" The Chiss looked in surprise at Karena, and she caught Raljar's sidelong look. It was the cunning look of the Devil himself as Karena realized that she had just been neatly sandbagged by her exhausted partner.

Mistress? You wish Karena's voice popped in Raljar's head and she shot him a look that could have burned laser holes through him., but it was quickly replaced when she spoke with a subservient tone, one that he wouldn't have known it was her if she wasn't standing next to him. " Please don't make a scene. Remember Lord Yogga recommended we bring our business here after what happened in the lower levels."

The Chiss receptionist eyed them suspiciously, but did check her terminal. " Mr. Mendez is unavailable due to a client meeting, but I will page one of his associates. Please have a seat."

Before Ralj could protest, Karena smiled and offered a " Thank You" as she led him to a bench in the waiting area. " It's a foot in the door." She whispered to him as they sat."
]
Within moments, a prune faced Dresselian male dressed in an offensive green business suit walked up to them. " Greetings, gentlebeings. my name is Tramarakta. Please come with me and we'll try to work out your situation." His wrinkly face contorted to a smile as he beckoned them to follow him. Reminds me of a bad used speeder salesman Raljar overheard Karena thinking. Tramarakta led them down a corridor into a small office that had all the taste of his suit, only in tones of deep browns. He took a seat behind his desk and motioned for the pair to sit. Once they had, the door slid shut behind them and he asked, " So, tell me what you're problem is and I'll try to work things out."
Raljar smiled affably, an expression that didn't quite touch his eyes. "We're here about a mix-up on behalf of a client."

"A mix-up?" Tramarakta looked surprised. "Sir...madam...I can assure you both that we keep the strictest records on our stock and transactions. Any problem you may have experienced would be vanishingly rare, and can be detected and corrected in but a few moments." He smiled brightly at the pair, before turning his attention to the holoscreen on his desk. "Now, to business! We use the name of the stock here at Saernyk, along with an ID numbering system, of course, so! If you can give me one or the other..."

"Siraea," said Raljar with quiet intensity.

Tramarakta opened his mouth to speak, then his eyes went wide slightly. A moment, his eyes blinking, then snapping to Raljar. Karena saw the colour drain slowly from his bulbous head and neck, the mearest twitch of muscles in his eyes as he glanced with shock and growing fear at the pair. Raljar saw it too, and she felt the tide of savage exultation rise from his dimmed conciousness like a terrible undersea beast.

"I...I'm not sure I-" The Dresselian turned to the holoscreen.

"Don't," said Raljar, the full force of his voice carried in a single word no louder than a murmur. It chilled Karena's blood, who had never heard her partner talk in such a manner. The teal-shaded blood drained totally from Tramalakta's face as he glanced down to the DL-44 that had appeared in Raljar's hand.

"You knew. You [Damned] well knew." Raljar's voice was edged with anguish. "Don't try and hide it. Get away from that terminal, or I swear on my [Ancestors] I'll skin you alive..."

Karena heard the dangerous wobble in Raljar's voice, saw the barrel of the blaster shift slightly as anger and exhaustion made his nerves jump like startled grazers. A very dangerous combination, his better sense struggling against a savage impulse to tear open the building for answers, starting with their host. Tramalakta had raised his hands, mute fear in his pleading expression making his lip tremble slightly.

"It's you," he said. "It's her...I mean you...I mean...p-please, don't shoot..." His voice was piteous. She felt the conflict in her mate as he struggled to ease his finger from the trigger.

"K-Kar..." he grated through clenched teeth, his words slurring around his incisors as the revelation shocked his fatigued system. "B-before I do something I-I'll regret..." was all he could manage, the words almost incoherent around the savagery in his mind and his exhaustion, turning the plea into a half-mumbled, desperate thing, a shred of Raljar clinging to emotions threating to explode out of control.
Karena placed a calming hand on Raljar's blaster arm, using gentle pressure to push the weapon down. " I know Ralj, but I need you thinking straight before you put us in more danger than we can handle." she hoped his bonding instincts would be enough to overcome his feral needs to exact vengenge for his sister. He had never put her in danger before, and hoped he would gain control before it was too late.

" Now, before I let my partner flay your sorry hide, tell us where his sister is ." Kar's voice slid to her more imperialistic command tone. " Otherwise, we'll tear this place apart."

The Dresselian's voice trembled. " I don't know where she is. Mendez got attached and kept her for himself. I swear it's the truth."

" Where is he?" Kar demanded.

" In a meeting. Yogga has him brokering a deal to supply labor for a Black Sun project." Tramarakta answered quickly. " He can't be disturbed."

Karena's eyes narrowed," That's what you think. " she turned to Ralj, knowing he was more than capable to get through this despite his emotions. " How do you want to play this?"
"I'm all right, Kar." He muttered. She was right; the moment had passed, his nerves fragile and taut. He had no stomach for cold-blooded murder, or to make the situation worse for both of them. His cheek tic'd; he was terribly tired.

The blaster remained trained on Tramarakta as Ralj inhaled deeply, trying to relieve the fog of exhaustion clouding the edges of his vision. The muscles of his forearm were like steel cables beneath Karena's fingers, raw tension and twinges of fatigue. "Dressalian, I'm going to level with you. Mendez has my sister, and I want her back, period. If I have to tear open things to do that, I will, but I'd rather walk out of here without too much fuss. You'll find co-operating with us much, much easier than not. Are you reading me?"

Tramarakta nodded, his eyes never leaving the DL-44's wicked snub-nose. Despite his working for a slaver house, there seemed to be no real harm in him. "I never knew..."

He shook himself, and looked up into Raljar's narrowed eyes. To his credit, he didn't flinch. "I...I suppose I can see that, yes. You look so like her. I'm amazed I didn't see it before, but I'm afraid I'm not very good at telling the differences between non-Dressalians-"

The desk terminal beeped, and he glanced at it. He looked back to them both. The voice on the commlink spoke, female, Chiss, and nasal. <"Tramarakta, security has reported that the sensors picked up a disturbance in your offices. Is there a problems?">

To both their surprise, he waved a conspirital hand motion and reached for the terminal button. Raljar's finger tightened dangerously on the trigger as the Dressalian cleared his throat. "No, Threnn, no problem. Just a bit of an accident with a water tube. I'll be finished in here very soon; is my mid-afternoon...uh...appointment ready?"

A pause, then; <"It is. I will prepare the paperwork as normal. Sorry for the interruptions."> The commlink beeped off, and Tramalakta sighed.

Raljar shook his head. "I ain't scanning well. Why the change of heart?" He sounded deeply suspicious.

The Dressalian wrung his hands slightly. "I..." He sighed again, and to Karena he suddenly looked old, and tired. "I never much liked Mr. Mendez, you understand. The Cathar...Siraea, yes, that's her...she was brought into our company, oh, it must be a standard year ago now. Mr. Mendez seemed very proud of her, and showed her off whenever he could. Insufferable man." He sniffed. "She seemed so...so sad. Angry, and sad. Very passionate, yes. Mendez seemed to like that; he liked to flaunt his dominance over her in front of us. It drove her wild at first, but there was nothing she could do. She tried, believe me; she tried, but when she got too close, he would have those brutes of his stun her. Then he would...crush her, before us. He seemed to enjoy it."

He bit his lip, scratching the bald dome of his head. "After a while, we saw less and less of her. Mendez was keeping her at his home. Then we heard how he was treating her...what he was doing to her. Just stories, rumours-"

"What do you-?" Raljar nearly started up from the chair, fear and anger rising in his voice once more as Tramarakta held up his hands, pleading. "Please, none of us could do anything! It was a minor company issue! He...he had made her his concubine. Not an uncommon thing, in the business you understand, but he would gloat so about...about breaking her. How she had become compliant." He rubbed his mouth. "I remembered the first time I saw her, and she seemed so...proud, so defiant. I didn't like to think about how he had forced her to...oh, what is the phrase..."tow the cable"?"

He looked at a framed holo on his desk. "My own partner is expecting our first child." He smiled, and his yellow eyes looked around the small office. He shuddered. "I was planning on retiring soon." He looked at Raljar. "it's funny, isn't it? How your conscience will return to haunt you, no matter how long you ignore it? My work never bothered me; we treat our stock well, I'd like to think. But as...as I approach fatherhood, it...and now you come here. It's..."

He broke off, and rubbed his temples, and was silent for a very long minute. Then he spoke, fear and a sense of...relief...in his voice. "You won't find her here. Mendez keeps her behind closed doors at his quarters further in-sector. Yes, I lied to you." He spread his hands. "Guns can do that...as can Mendez. He is a dangerous man to cross. I can give you a location and a pass-code, perhaps some help...yes, some help getting inside. The rest I will have to leave up to you."

Raljar's mouth wasn't hanging open, precisely, but it was shocked. Then his eyes narrowed. "It's a [Damned] trap-"

"No." The Dressalian cut him off sharply, his voice strong and filled with conviction. "No trap. I am about to become a father, Cathar. I will have children of my own. How..." His voice fell. "How could I tell them that I turned away and left another's child in slavery in the one moment I could have helped them be free?" He looked into Karena's eyes, then. "I don't want to have to answer that question, I think. Just for once...just for once, I want to do something. Something right."
Karena stared at the Dresselian long and hard. Once he had finished, she heard herself say, " I beleive him. Don't ask me why, but I do." She looked at Ralj to make sure he was still with her. She looked back at Tramarakta." Give us the passcodes and address. But I'm warning you, if you're setting us up, we'll be back with a couple squadrons of snubfighters."

She didn't get a chance to finish her threat when Tramarakta began writing the infomation on a peice of flimsy. " no tricks, but be quick. Mendez often goes home for a few hours midday to..." He stopped, looking at Raljar and gulping hard. He quickly changed the subject. " Mendez has a security droid just inside the door. The security override is Coruscant . There should be no one else there except Siraea."

" If you're lucky, we won't be back." Kar warned as she ushered Ralj towards the door. " And I suggest a career change."

The Dresselian nodded as she closed the door behind them. She regained her subservient ruse as they passed the prying gaze of the receptionist and out into the street.

Once they were a few blocks away and sure they were not followed, she hailed a robotaxi to take them within walking distance of address on the flimsi. The quiet trip was uncomfortable despite Kar's efforts to comfort Raljar. She knew he was tenser than she had ever seen, almost to the point it worried her. Once they arrived, Kar forced Ralj to wait long enough to check for pursuit despite how it seemed to eat at him. A brisk walk brought them to the address. She keyed in the passcode and the lock chimed open. Inside was a darkened anteroom with another door.

Out of the darkness boomed a metallic challenge. " Halt! Unidentified intruders detected! Entering defensive mode!" A security droid hovered into view towards the, it's short pseudo arms with it's built in blasters leveled. " Coruscant!" Karena said quickly, and the droid lowered it's arms. " Defensive mode deactivated." It announced as it floated back out of view. Kar reached for the outside locking doorcontrols and keyed it open. She looked at Ralj with a knowing light smile and said softly. " You better go first. She doesn't know me."
Inside, the darkened room was attired tastefully in furniture imported from a variety of worlds; Karena could tell at a glance that the cost of harmonizing the room alone would have cost a small fortune. Primarily dark woods and red fabrics, little light penetrated the place; low and dim.

Moodlit, she suddenly realized.

Raljar stepped inside, not daring to breathe. In the darkness, a shape stirred, and flowed smoothly to its feet. Karena recognized the same liquid grace Raljar possessed.

It stepped forwards, into the light, and a sound escaped Raljar. Not a loud sound, not a powerful sound, but a sound like an Imperial Secret Service torturer had sliced thinly into his soul with a las-scalpel.

"Master," Siraea said.

Her gaze was lowered, her silvery hair flowing like a waterfall to her shoulderblades, held back with a delicate golden tiara. She was barely clothed at all; a gossamer loincloth of shimmering silk held in place with thin gold chains that rode her hips. Her breasts were covered, barely, by an intricate metal contrivance similar to a bikini; and at her throat and wrists, gold collar and cuffs, the same metal, a chain manacling her wrists together loosely. All very well-crafted, all very well wrought. The stun-cuff implants in them were barely obvious

The symbology was appallingly apparent.

She stood, graceful and silent, her head still lowered. When no sound was forthcoming, she rose her gaze slowly, questions in her golden eyes.

"Sirea," was all Raljar was able to choke out.

She stood silent, her slit pupils contracting to thin slivers. She was Raljar, shockingly so, cast in a female mould; Karena could see it immediately. She was curved where Raljar was broad, but the pose, the sleekly powerful musculature, even her expressions were the very mirror of her brother.

She stepped closer, her feet whisper-soft on the wooden floor, her eyes never leaving Raljar, unblinking and gleaming. She stepped up to him, and he stood frozen, helpless; unable to utter word.

She stared into his eyes for a long moment, then raised her clasped fists together and brought them round savagely, striking him across the mouth. The blow echoed through the room, whipping his head around. A streak of hot blood splashed across the satin drapes.

Then she began to shake, and with a blur of motion, she rose from her crouch and clung to him. His arms went around her, blood trickling from his mouth as hot tears poured from his eyes. For a moment she couldn't utter a sound, shaking violently; then she cried out, a sound of raw tearing agony. She gulped air and gasped, her face buried in her brother's, his own agony mingling with hers as her hands looped around his neck, clutched at his back. Her sharp claw-like nails dug so hard that Karena saw blood well from the grip and pour down Raljar's back, but he made no effort to pull away. The words came out, a chaotic, agonized rush of Catharese, anger and pain and terror mingling in a terrible union.

["Sirea...oh Ancestors, Sirea, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry-"]

["Raljar...he...I...where did you go?! Why did you leave me?!"]

["Sister, don't, please don't...what did he do to you, what-?"]

["Hurt...he hurt me, Raljar! He CHAINED me! I...I thought I'd die in here-and you left-you LEFT-"]

They clung to each other as though to let go would kill them both, neither able to stand as they sank to their knees.

The security droid hovered back into view behind Karena. <"Identify cause of disturbance.">
" Droid, unless you want an immediate memory wipe scheduled, go power down somewheres." Karena threatened the security droid as she watched the reunion. Though she didn't understand enough Catharese to catch the entire exchange, she knew it was not happy reuniting. Pangs of jealousy tugged at her, but she quickly pushed them from her mind. She knew full well that if she ever tried to contact any of her family, at very least she'd be arrested and tried as a traitor to the Empire. She'd made her decision to shear all ties when she defected from the Imperial Navy.

Except Lesa..... Stang what I wouldn't give to have you shouting at me for screwing up again, Lessie She thought, wiping at the corner of her eye before folding her arms. She cleared her throat to remind Raljar he had not come alone before speaking, " [Partner], I hate to interrupt the reunion, but we need to get moving before the tin can out here realizes we aren't what it thinks we are." She immediately regretted her choice of words, but it was too late to change them.

Siraea released her grasp enough to look at the human who had spoke to Raljar, then looked at him with a confused look,"[ This human calls you partner? Does she have any idea what that means?]"
"[She does.]" He clasped her hands in his. "[We will speak later, Siraea, when this pit is behind us.]" He was so tired, he suspected he had gone beyond fatigue. Everything seemed edged in crystal and energy. The wounds of his sister's claws burned like fire, the resentment and fierce pain in her eyes burned like ice. He was poetic. He was never poetic. He didn't even know what it really meant.

His inner pain flared when he saw the bruises on the muscles of his sister's forearms and thighs. The anger and betrayal he could feel in her, along with a desperate hope. He glanced at Karena. "Come on, Kar. We...we have to get Siraea out of here."

He gripped the chain between her wrists, and twisted it until the fragile decorative metal snapped. Siraea flexed her fingers, and gripped his face between her hands; she was barely an inch shorter than her brother. He felt his own blood wetting his cheeks as she stared into his eyes, pupils flickering. She began to shake.

"[It really is you. You're here.]" She whispered. "[I'm not dreaming. Not this time. Ancestors...it's you.]" She gasped air, explosive tension leaving her lips as she began to shake. "[Take me out of here, brother. Please. Take me out.]"

He gripped her wrists then, as her eyes filled. She was shaking violently, and he held her to him. "Kar, we need transport. We're not being chased down like ranats, not now! I'll deal with that [Damned] droid." He looked apt to commit murder, blood and tears staining his cheeks and mane.
" Right now I doubt you could deal with an angry Jawa, let alone the droid." Karena sniped with a caring grin. " And you look like a trash compactor malfunction, furball. Guess that means I'll get to drive for a change." she grinned mischeviously as she gave her flight jacket to Siraea," I know it's a little small, but at least it'll cover enough to keep us from drawing too much attention."

Siraea Looked at Raljar [She talks to you like no one I have ever heard dare, not even father. You have alot to tell me.]

The driod had indeed powered down as they passed through the alcove and stepped into the street. Kar led the way, only yto halt suddenly as she walked into the barrel of a waiting slugthower. Two muscle bound Aqualish flanked Mendez as he pointed the weapon in Kar's face. " Well isn't this a surprise. You're right Sir, your brother does look alot like you. Tell you what, since he was good enough to bring me a good trade, you're free Siraea. I can get enough out of Miss Therez here to buy a pair of Twi'lek pleasurers and still pay Yogga his monthly cut. What, you didn't think I knew you were in my building? That worm Tramarakta didn't have to sqeal on you, I never trusted him so I bugged his office."

He motioned to the Aqualish, " Take their weapons before they walk, just in case either of them get any bright ideas." The duo grunted a response and approached, both of them looking like they were looking for an excuse for violence.

[dakota]

Karena would later realize that she never actually heard anything, in the few moments before the violence. No sound but for the wind blowing about the cities towers, the sounds of repulsorcraft and people and life, and the grunting of the Aqualish intruded onto the standoff. At the time, she heard and felt something from Raljar. Something small, and sharp.

Something very much like a snap.

Something inside his mind broke.

Raljar would later remember nothing of the incident. The last thing he would conciously and coherently recall was the red that coated his narrowed vision. To him, he swore, everything looked like it was filmed over with a thin sheen of blood.

It all happened so quickly.

The Aqualish reached for Karena and Siraea, the Cathar placing herself between Karena and Mendez, sputtering curses in Catharese and flexing her fingers dangerously. The second reached for Raljar.

There was a sound like steak being thuped on a slab, and Mendezs eyes went wide as his elbow sunk deeply into the Aqualish' torso where the floating ribs would be on a human. There was a sound like gristle being crushed. Karena saw her mate's eyes; they were gleaming, narrowed, coherent, and sane.

Far, far too sane.

The second Aqualish reached for Raljar, squealing like an enraged Walrus as its partner doubled up over Raljar's arm. Siraea roared, a sound between a scream and a snarl, and barreled the Aqualish to the road. Mendez' eyes were wild as he swung the blaster dangerously.

His mouth dropped like a Mon Cal sand-eel when Raljar hefted his attacked over his head like a log. His muscles flexed and bulged, cords stood out on his neck, and his teeth gleamed as he hefted the Aqualish above his head like some ancient legend about a being which held up the world.

With an ear-splitting roar of utter fury, he threw the Aqualish at Mendez at almost the precise same moment that the slaver pulled the trigger. The brute crashed into his employer with an agonised squeal, the pair crashing to the plasticrete. The air left Mendez' lungs with a *whump!*

The second Aqualish threw Siraea off with a rowling grunting, its left eye swollen shut and bruises welling over its face and neck, along with deep and bloody scratches. Raljar's sister dove, rolled, and flowed to her feet, shaking her hair out of her eyes. The Aqualish looked a lot less confident as it rose, clearly favouring one arm.

Siraea wiped a thin sliver of blood from her lip and licked it from the back of her hand. Karena could feel a long-delayed thrashing in the works. In that respect, she most certainly shared something in common with her brother.

Seeing Ralj this way frightened Karena, a response she didn't know he was capable of. she had seen how lethal in unarmed combat he was, but this was different. Almost primal. And Siraea putting herself in harm's way for her merely added to her being taken off guard. The pop of the slugthrower snapped her back to reality.

The Aqualish honked something unintelligle at Siraea as she got to her feet, but his head snapped to Karena as she whistled, is narrowed eyes growing wide as her heavy blaster announced itself. A blackened hole appeared in the henchman's chest and he slumped lifelessly to the ground. Karena smirked when she could see the protest burning in the Cathar's eyes. " Look, we're on a tight schedule, sisari, and I don't do hand to hand well. Now I think Mendez needs to see his little lovekitten one last time."

Siraea glared hatred at Karena at first, but she soon recognized the human was intentionaly antagonizing her and she shifted her focus to her former keeper who was slow in his attempt to clear the unconscious form of his remaining aqualish. Karena started to look away as too many months of unimaginable torture was paid back in full by Siraea's wrath, but something made her look at the object in his hand. Mendez's thumb was already on the caller's single button as Karena ran towards Siraea as she shouted at Ralj. " Droid!"

Despite the Cathar's height and build advantage was enough to knock her aside as Karena caught her sharply with a bodycheck, a shot of pain lancing her arm as she brought her other hand up and her blaster into play. she squeezed off three quick blasts that hammered the security droid as it hovered into the doorway. It managed to return only one shot before dropping to the floor in a shower of sparks. The blast went just high enough it singed Kar's hair as it passed overhead, but it would have caught Siraea squarely in the back of the head. The fact was not lost on the cathar as she stared at the human that had just risked her life for her yet again. Before she could speak, Karena motioned towards Mendez, " Stop teasing and finish him or I shoot this one too. I want to go home."

Holstering the blaster, Kar turned away from Siraea's ausault on the hapless slave dealer and raised her shirt to see what the pain was from. A bright red crease ran straight acrossed her ribs at the breast line. Puzzled, she pulled her shirt back down and was about to ask Raljar if he knew what could have caused it when she saw a perfect hole in her shirt. She pulled it around enough that she could the back and found a matching hole.

The color drained from her face and she fought the urge to throw up as the truth dawned on her. Mendez's slug. It missed my heart by less than ten centimetres and I never knew it . The realization hit her like a hammer and she had to sit down as her knees wobbled and threatened to give out.

[dakota]

Mendez rolled over and looked up as he made to rise. His eyes widened in horror as Siraea descended on him, teeth bared and fist leading. Much violence ensued, his howled invectives mixing with her sputtering curses as she delivered back on him the humiliation, the pain, and the suffering she had endured threefold. Raljar started for Mendez also, his eyes gleaming with a terrible purpose...when all of a sudden, Raljar himself returned. He looked around crazed for a second, then collapsed to the plasticrete pavement with a whump. After a moment, he pushed himself up on his elbows with a groan of agony.

Ancestors, he felt like he had been used as a launchpad for freighters; the mass-lift kind. His entire body ached like fire, and his shoulders were screaming utter damned murder. His mind was mostly blank, and failing to answer his demands for information.

"Uaaargh, DAMN IT-" He rubbed the back of his head, mane spilling about his face. His mouth tasted coppery, and a uncomfortable feeling like an overcharged power conduit was buzzing at the back of his skull.

Slowly, Raljar rolled onto his back, staring at the blue sky of Taris as his muscles settled with agonizing pangs. Everything was spinning. What the Hell had just hit him he didn't know, but whatever it was must have been heavy. The sounds of violence persisted, and he had a half-crazed urge to tell them both to go at it quietly. That Gamorrean's punch had felt like this, but all concentrated on his face. Not like this, he though dimly.

What the [Hell] was he doing out here?

Spying Karena, he raised his head. He squinted his eyes as he spied the blood. "[Partner]? You okay?" He hauled himself to his hands, then his feet. It was slow, agonizing. Why the Hell the road felt so comfortable, he didn't really know. He just wanted to lie down, but his partner was wounded, and that demanded that he get up NOW, dammit, and stop acting like a wounded Gundark with a hangover. He staggered to Karena, half-collapsing onto one knee.

He squinted at her wound. "What happened?" He pressed his hand to her ribs, under her wraps. "Don't worry, I'm not trying for a..." He looked at her, frowning through the muzzy body-level protesting, worry creeping into his voice as Mendez lost his fight with Siraea by a majority run. By the looks of things, she had only taken his right eye rather than killed him.

"Kar? Why are you looking at me like that?" He looked down, squinting with the effort of recollection, then back at her. "What he [Hell] just happened?" He looked back over his shoulder, where Siraea stood over the prone, mewling form of her former tormentor, and back to Karena. She felt the confusion in him as he jerked his thumb at his sister. "Where did the imminent violence go? Why's everybody lying down?"

" I'm okay," Karena finally managed, ignoring the stink of her burnt hair from the driod's near miss." It's just a graze. Mendez's slug..." She finished by showing Raljar the hole through her shirt. The color started to return to her face and she clutched herself tight to his chest. " I was so entranced by your rage, I lost sight of what was going on. I didn't even know how close... Oh Ralj, why can't this force thing go away?" She started to sob," I could feel your hatred when you snapped. It was so dark and cold, yet it let me see your every move before you made them. This whole thing scares me." she finished, her voice fading to a whisper as she buried her tears in his chest.

Proud of how she had left Mendez as an unrecognizible clump of meat, Siraea soon loomed over her brother " This human of yours is odd. She pushed me out of the way of the droid's fire and nearly gave her life to save mine, a very noble thing. Now she blubbers like a scolded child in your arms. There is no time for this, we have to leave. " She swatted down beside the pair, switching to basic, " You do have a plan to get out of here, correct?"

"She's not "my" Human, Siraera." Said Ralj, softly. His eyes closed as he held Karena close, feeling her tears wetting his chest. "She's her own. I'm just her mate." He smiled then, wincing as Karena's embrace pressed torn muscles. The Aqualish had weighed a good deal more than him, even though he wasn't exactly an ectomorph, by any species standards, and his body was now demanding payment for what his rage had borrowed.

Mate. The word meant so much to him, and that his unthinking anger had scared her wounded him deeply. Truth be told, it kinda scared him as well. He smelled the singed hair where the blaster had nearly hit her, and suppressed a wave of nausea. To take his mind off his beloved's near-miss, he glanced at his sister, his lips curling in a wry smile. "A plan? Huh. You know me, sis. Always off the stun-cuff and [Ancestors] take the risk." Siraea's eyes went wide, and she cuffed her brother across the ear.

"Hey, ow!"

"Not a time for jokes!" She smiled through her adrenaline, but caught sight of her bloodstained hands and clenched them into fists, hiding them from her sight. She looked her Karena and Raljar together, and her expression shifted to something unreadable.

Ralj pulled Karena to her feet then. "Come on, light of my life. I need to get you two somewhere safe, before Siraea freezes to death." He touched her cheek with his fingers, his voice soft and his eyes pained. Ancestors, how he wanted to take her fear and pain away. "I know...I know it's not easy for you. Believe me, I do."

Mendez twitched. Siraea had all but peeled him, bloody gouges raked across the gaping, raw socket where his right eye had been. His breath was ragged and laboured, but he was alive. Siraea had broken his wrist where he had held the slugthrower, and his hand was twisted at a strange angle. Raljar glared at the slaver, but even in his anger he had to look away after a few moments.

"Please, brother. Let's go." Siraea looked away from her handiwork. The pride she had expressed moments ago was fading with her rage, the aftermath of battle that both Rebel Officers knew the sting of. When the anger and hatred and righteous fury fled, leaving a cold and empty vacuum where the guilt came to dwell. She shivered, and Raljar draped his cloak about her shoulders. Cathar fur was too fine and short to provide much in the way of any insulation. Raljar had wondered why Karena had expressed shock when she found he could get goosebumps.

"*****..." wheezed Mendez, as the trio left. Raljar glanced over his shoulder, then kept walking, herding his two loved ones with a grim expression. They had wasted enough effort on the filth, Karena could clearly read in his thoughts. Siraea raised her chin, her expression defiant, filled with clear purpose and the loss of a terrible weight.

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

As they left, Mendez grimaced through bloody teeth. He was wounded near to death, but the kernal of rage in his heart flared with steady heat. The pain of his shredded body was nothing compared to his torn pride. The Cathar xeno who had submitted to him, and Karena Therez, who would have netted him a fortune beyond his wildest dreams, both floated and blended and taunted him in his deranged psyche as the Cathar male, Siraea's brother, raged and snarled and exploded into a bloody whirlwind. His remaining eye was wild with shock and pain and bloodloss...and the glimmerings of a terrible hunger for vengeance.

"*****...xeno whore...*cough* *cough* hrrlgh...you...h-how...dare you...you'll...you'll all pay...for this...for doing this to meeeee..."

He crawled to the hoverspeeder, leaving a bloody trail. He collapsed in the open cockpit as emergency droids raced towards the vehicle, along with horrified pedestrians and an emergency response team summoned by terrified passersby. As the first droid injected him with a green fluid, his hand slid off the comm link, leaving a bloody print over a name on the screen.

Yogga.
----------

Karena's training helped bring her back to her senses as Raljar got them moving. she quickly suggested returning to hideout until Vaig contacted them. After only a few blocks, she spied something in an alleyway and shot down it, returning moments later with a damp overshirt that was several sizes too big for Siraea from a clothesline. " It's better than your near naked lovekitten outfit." Kar had ended any discussion when Siraea scoffed at the idea of wearing it. The shirt went on and they continued.

The 'quick as their bodies would take' paced trek through the streets of Taris was fairly uneventful, interrupted only whenthey had to switch streets because Raljar had recognized one of Yogga's men in a cafe before he had spotted them. Though much slower than any of them would have liked, they reached the hideaway and slipped in unseen. Kar didn't argue when Siraea wanted to shower first. she watched Raljar, reading his exhaustion like a book, and as she went for a tube of water, hipchecked her mate onto one of the beds. She sat next to him, caressing her fingers along his mane as he lay there until Siraea returned and lay on the other bed with a sigh.

" My turn." Kar announced as she stood. She leaned in to whisper in her mate's ear," If you have the strength, you could always join me." There was a teasing edge to her whisper. She stood and walked to the fresher, closing the door but not locking it. Once she had turned the water on, she hung her gunbelt on the back of the door and stripped off. She slipped quickly into the pulsing spray of the fresher, letting the water wash away her fatigue.

"Hunnnh." Raljar had groaned, with a grin. The touch of his partner's fingers against his mane had soothed him, his mind snapping and flashing with flares of pure exhaustion. Siraea was asleep across from him; only knowing that allowed him to relax, the tension unwinding from his bruised form like steam from a kettle, leaving him drained in every sense of the word. He barely had the strength to pull off his jacket and boots.

The sounds of the fresher brought back memories that he was deeply fond of. Ever since their first coupling, that night in Karena's quarters on the frozen half-barren moon...was that one or two lifetimes ago? Ever since then, his experience of sex had surpassed the experiences of his ganger life and then some. The closeness he shared with Karena...a thing he was still utterly amazed over, given their rocky beginnings and improbable partnership...had held an emotional significance for him that no previous casual partnering had. Live fast, die young and, if possible, rich; that kind of life had left no room for deep attachments. When he mated with Kar, though...that was different. A lot deeper, a lot more sensual, a damn sight more satisfying. A lot more...

...valuable.

"Huh." He rubbed a forearm over his eyes. "Thinkin' with my [crotch] again." He grinned to the darkness, the mental image of his partner running through mental channels fogged with static. Ancestors, she drove him wild. When it was just her and him...he recalled fondly and mildly derangedly their first time together, the feel of her smooth skin under his hands, the scent of sweat in her hair. The feel of her hands clutching his back, thighs around his hips, and as for other places...not even that Twi'lek from the Red Cable had managed to make him feel like that before, and she was, word on the street had had it, a real pro.

At the moment, the though of her gripping his back just brought him pain. He wondered muzzily if other Cathar had ever fallen for Humans before. Maybe he was just a deviant? But then, there was his younger cousin. Half Cathar, and he looked it. Since no young setient popped fully-formed out of an idea, some form of physical docking would have had to have occured. Can't transfer the data without the card in the slot, after all.

Kar would have belted him if he'd said that out loud. He'd probably deserve it.

He wondered how his cousin's parents had met; whether they had fallen for each other, or been forced to survive together, or any of the million and one situations that could have forged love together. The Cathar had felt strongly enough when his Human mate had died in childbirth that he had lost his life trying to flee his grief and emotional torment. He'd gathered that a bloodhunt that ended in death was one that Cathar sought out only when uncontrollable emotion drove them there. Ancestors only knew what kind of beast the man had gone hunting. He wondered how his cousin was doing. He hoped the Old Man was looking after him well, he really did.

The thought that relationships could cross the gulf between species warmed him curiously, inside. Maybe the Force philosophy was right; that all sentients were one and the same, at their very deepest core.

Not that he'd ever be caught banging a Rodian, mind you. Though Shooter's wife obviously found something in her green and proboscise'd mate that had transcended appearances. Maybe the same way he felt about Karena.

Yeah, no doubt about it; it was a screwed up galaxy alright. The Empire considered that kind of thing hideous. He idly wondered how Karena's Imperial family would take to her having found a partner in the arms of a near-Human. Not a relationship he probably wanted penned into his Clan history...

"I'm comin', Kar." He murmured. His mind had turned those ideas over and over without actually waking him up. "Just gonna...rest my eyes for a few moments."

The bed embraced him in all its lumpy, badly-padded comfort. The pillow under his head had been ripped from a detention cell; yet it felt like it was spun from the softest Core World down taken from some rare and fantastic creature. His mate and sister were both safe, safe and hidden away from those who would harm them.

"Just a few..."

That was the last he remembered, descending into the fitful, hallucinogenic dreams of the terminally exhausted. He dreamed of Karena and Siraea and Vaig and Mendez and Tramarakta and the unformed, mocking figure of Hejeet in the crazy, nonsensical world that he ran through as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

His snores echoed through the hideout; dreamworld or not, they were quite real.

" Green Nine, where are you?"

Karena pulled up hard on the stick." Right here, Lead. Took a bit of a kicking, but shields are holding." She left out the flashing warning indicators.

" Good. Pair off with Six and try to draw some of the fire off those B-Wings lining up on that VicStar. "

" Gotcha Boss. Watch out for that wingman of yours for me." She replied as she looped around, taking one last look at Tycho and Raljar streaking to rendezvous with the Millenium Falcon and her escorts. She turned to look ahead as the solar array of a TIE blotted out her view. she tried to veer as proximity alrms warbled and...

Something cold on Karena's back brought her back to reality. It took her a moment to realize that she was still in the refresher, the hot water used up and the cold was causing goosebumps to form. She quickly turned the water off and toweled herself dry. she slipped her clothes back on, feeling dejected that Ralj hadn't shown. As she returned to the main room and the feelings faded as she saw why. She smiled warmly at his snoring, trying not to chuckle that brother and sister even snored alike. Her smiled dropped and she scrambled to muffle the page of an incoming comlink message. She knew only Vaig knew her frequency, so she quickly ducked outside to answer the call.

She frowned slightly as she keyed the comm, making note that it wasn't from a secured source. " Hello?"

" About time someone answered there. I'm gonna be tied up here at the port a while longer than I planned. Some uniformed inspectors want to have a word with me." Vaig said.

Kar instantly recognized the code for Imperials at the port and why he had used an open channel, it would be monitored anyways. " That's okay, the kids are taking a nap right now anyways. We can take them to the zoo after supper. You will be home by then I take it?"

" Should be. Depends on what the hold up is. See you when I get home."

"Okay, Love you." Kar replied and disconnected, turning to return inside and give Ralj the news. Instead she nearly walked into a pair of rough looking characters. As a tattooed human nearly as broad acrossed the shoulders looked around for trouble, a snarling Dug jabbed a finger at Kar. " You ain't supposed to be in there. I don't see no bikes, so either you're swatting on my turf or you're hiding from something."

Before Kar could reply, the human cut in. " Let's get off the street before a patrol picks us up. I don't want to see the inside of another cell for a long time."

The Dug shrugged and lit up a yakka laced cigar. " Yeah, never break out that easy a second time. Inside toots." The Dug shoved Kar, which only made her scowl as the three stepped into the hideaway.

" Well by the sith, look what we got here." The Dug grinned as his eyes adjusted to the darkness. " We ain't the last ones, Jassu."

[dakota]

It wasn't the most impressive reunion; Raljar was utterly unconcious, his rumbling snoring a distant sibilancy in the cool room.

The Dug took a drag, and blew a cloud of lung-killing Yakka smoke into the air. "Well, I'll be sold on Kessel. Silver 'imself. And his sister, hehehe -" *hack!* *cough!* *hgggaaarghck!*

The Dug convulsed with an explosive, phlegmy coughing fit as the tattooed Jassu swatted him on the back so hard it sent the Dug to the floor. "I told you not to smoke those things."

"You ain't the boss of me," the Dug growled as he hauled himself to his hands, poking Karena in the ribs with a toe. "An' what are YOU lookin' at, toots?" The Dug's pride was spoiling for a fight after that little display. Jassu rolled his eyes, and barreled the Dug inside further before hitting the door switch.

The Dug grumbled and loped over to Siraea, grinning like a lecher as he prodded a toe over her sleeping form. "She always was a looker, heheheh-" *cough!* *cough!*

"Noolta!"

The Dug jerked, gave Jessu a sour look, and loped off to the cooler bin muttering as Jassu loomed over Karena. "Okay, lady. You got some explainin' to do. Where did you pick up the ghosts of the dead, huh?" He jerked a finger at her. "You ain't no Krayt, that's for sure. Not that there would be. We're all dead now." He grinned, not entirely pleasantly

Karena glared at Noolta, but tried to keep her feeling buried. She never liked Dugs, and the filthy little beings comments mixed with the narcotic effect of the yakka smoke toying with the constant slight headache she had from the concussion didn't help. " Let them sleep. They've been through alot and deserve it." She snapped and turned to Jessu. " I don't have to explain anything to either of you."

" Touchy there, Toots" Noolta warned, shaking a toe at Kar. She took a deep breath, fighting back the tone she wanted to use. " Don't point that thing at me, Dug, unless your looking to have it relocated."

" Big talk for a poodoo human. Almost sounds Imperial if you asked me." The Dug said coyly.

Kar stiffened at the insult. " Why you miserable..." Her hand started to slide towards her blaster, but never made it as Jessu's vise like grip caught her arm. " Take it outside, Noolta." Jessu released his grip as the Dug wandered outside, voicing his complaint colorfully in huttese as he went. " He's all mouth unless you bait him. Now answer the question."

Sizing up the tattooed human, she nodded. " No, I'm not a Krayt. Ralj and I look out for one another ever since the gang got wiped out. In fact he would have been there when the stormtroopers moved in if he hadn't been helping me." She purposely left out the details about him joining the Rebel Alliance, and just how strong her relationship to Raljar was. " He'd tell you himself, but he's a little wiped from his last little caper. Piece of mopek slaver named Mendez had taken his sister a while back. We helped her end a bad relationship and came here to rest."

Jessu listened. After a pause, he said. " Sounds like Silver, stepping in one pile of poodoo after another, but he always meant well in his own way. What about the call we overheard?"

Karena shrugged." Code. My ride telling me that the spaceport is crawling Imps right now, and I have no desire to run into any for a while."

" ride?" The Krayt raised an eyebrow suspiciously.

" Off planet." She replied. " After the massacre, we left Taris. We only came back when we got a tip on Siraea's whereabouts. Now, can we stop the interrogation before we wake these two up? They need there sleep."

Jessu laughed. " You got him aboard a starship? That's a good one, toots."

Karena cut in, correcting him," It's Karena, not toots. And yes, he's been offplanet. Now would you keep it down before you wake them?"

Jessu gave her a dirty look before sweeping Kar out the door. Outside, Noolta was nowheres in sight. "" Go figure, hopefully he doesn't lead security back here."

Kar nodded," What do you expect from a Dug?"

The tattooed Krayt let her comment slide. " Now, explain to me why Raljar left Taris? " Karena started at the beginning and told Jessu some of their adventures, intentionally leaving out the parts involving their relationship. Jessu didn't interupt, but Kar could read something bothered him right from the get go. The Krayt took a long time to reply.

" So you're telling me Silver is a rebel pilot?" Jessu laughed again, but there was nothing humorous in his eyes. " The kid used to get airsick if you took him too high in a speeder in the upper city. He'd need a barf bucket on his lap."

Kar remembered how ill Ralj had been when they had first left what seemed like a lifetime together ago. " He got over it in a big hurry. Now he's one of the best snubfighter pilots I know."

The sound of a distant siren grabbed Jessu's attention for a moment. Once he was sure it wasn't approaching, he answered. " So he turned his back on his family?"

"What family?" Kar retorted." His siter was missing and he hates..."

" Not them. Us." The Krayt cut him off. " You don't just walk away from the Krayts."

" What the sith are you talking about? The Krayt are gone, massacred by the Imps." Kar was starting to get annoyed, her sharp tongue coming unsheathed. " Ralj moved on and found a new family."

" Funny, I don't feel massacred..." Jessu spread his arms and looked down at himself, then back at Karena. " The Krayt are still here. Just need to regroup. Silver wants out, he's gonna have to explain it to me himself. A real reason, not just running away because the clubhouse got hammered." He started for the door.

" What are you doing?" Kar demanded.

" Shut it, Toots. The kid can speak for himself." Jessu replied and stomped over to Raljar's bed. He loomed over it and gave it a solid kick. " Wake up Silver, you've got some explaining to do."

Karena tried to get Jessu away from the sleeping Cathar, but he shoved her away hard, causing her to lose her balance when she tangled with a chair and crash to the floor in a heap.

Jessu loomed over Karena, his form a hulking shadow in the dimness. Only the left side of his face was illuminated by the light from the panels.

"Don't try something like that again, whore." His teeth shone whitely in a grimaced snarl. Behind the hulking brute of a man, Karena caught sight of a shadow rising from Raljar's bed.

"I don't know who the Mopek you think you are." Jessu spat. The man was clearly controlling a great deal of anger, his gritted teeth virtually clamping every word under a spray of spittle. "This ain't none of your business, you filthy-"

The shadow behind Jessue stepped forwards, and a familiar muscular forearm wrapped around Jessu's throat, cutting off his invective with a gagging choke. The big Krayt's equally meaty forearms flew to his throat, trying to pry off the vicelike grip. Raljar's teeth shone from between the flowing strands of his tousled mane as he whispered harshly into Jessu's ear.

"Jessu. I thought you were dead."

"Sil-*ghg!* Silver, gerroff!" Jessu struggled, half-choking. The two males were equally matched in size, the tattoed Human making up for in additional bulk what he lacked in Raljar's grace. Both, it seemed, were equally strong.

His eyes still foggy from sleep, the Cathar hissed into his former gangmate's ear with the sibilant harshness of a Corellian Sand-Panther's growl. "Touch her again, Jessu, and you will die. Of all the bottom-dwelling trash that had to survive from our [Family], bruthari, the Fates had to make it you."

The Cathar unwrapped his forearm from Jessu's throat, the big Krayt staggering forwards and half-collapsing against wall. He sucked in ragged, wheezing gasps, coughing violently as Raljar's hand took Karena's and helped her to her feet.

Jessu rolled his glaring eyes at the pair as he swallowed heavily. "Silver, you Bantha turd. You grab me like that-"

"I'll do more than choke you next time." The Kathar snapped in a low, sharp voice. "I'll break your worthless neck. Now sit down and shut that gaping trap of yours. My sisari is asleep."

Jessu cracked his jaw and rubbed his throat, eyeing the two with bad grace and a faint hint of a snarl. "Mopek son of a..." *cough*

"Water's in there." Raljar seemed to relent a touch, jerking his clawed thumb over his shoulder. Jessu lumbered through to fetch a chilled tube. Raljar's hand touched Karena's shoulder. "You okay?"

Karena didn't bother lying as she got to her feet, stepping past Ralj to put herself between him and the tattooed Krayt. " No," she spat in a low and unnaturally calm voice, " I'm tired, I'm sore and my head feels like it wants to implode." Her eyes locked on Jessu, dancing with rage. Yet Karena seemed in control. " This kriffing di'kut thinks you can't leave the Krayts. Last I looked, the Krayts I saw were either smart enough to see it was over, or locked away with the rest of the mopek."

Jessu nearly choked on his water, Karena's cold words striking a nerve but he never made a move. Kar caught that his eyes had shifted to something else. " Toots, *hack,hack*, you one dumb bint" Noolta snarled as he snuck in unnoticed, a shiv in his hand.

Kar never lost her gaze at Jessu, but she reacted to Noolta's arrival with an outstretched arm that her blaster seemed to leap into. She didn't know how, but she had felt Noolta's approach and reacted. She strung off a speil of huttese that made the Dug's eyes go wide as he stopped and dropped the knife. In her other hand appeared her holdout in response to a halfstep made by Jessu. She took a step back press her back against Ralj. She said nothing as her words flowed into his mind with a cold burst of energy, clearer and stronger than ever before. I need to know where you stand. If you're still a Krayt then I'll understand if you want to go with these two. She had to force herself not to react to movement as Siraea stirred and Kar started to back towards the door.

" No one pulls a blaster on me." Noolta threatened as Kar neared him as she approached the door.

" Baay shfat, Dug. I just did. " Kar replied in the same tone, her eyes shifted to Raljar. Either way, I'm leaving before I kill them, with or without you, partner. The bond between them was strong, but something stronger flowed in Kar's every word. She stopped at the door, giving Ralj chance to decide.

-----

" Admiral, do we have any forces still on Taris?" Inquisitor Tosk asked as he interrupted Hoursk's conversation with Captain Pomoran.

Hoursk nodded. " The garrison is still there."

" Good. Inform them that my prize is there." tosk grinned. " I felt her through the force."

As Hoursk raised an eyebrow and gave the order to Pomoran, the inquisitor chucked," Lt. Therez has touched the dark side, and she seemed to like it."

----------

Groggily, Siraea broke the tension in the room. " Raljar, what's going on?"

Without breaking his glare at Kar, Jessu added, " Yeah Ralj. How about you explain to all of us why you'd jump a brother to protect a human and then let her pull a blaster on not one but two of your old running mates?"

" Maybe he's gotten soft without around to keep him in line." Noolta piped in, sounding relaxed as the door slid shut. Karena was gone. " That's one crazy female."


Outside, Karena quickly holstered her weapons and walked just out of sight of the door, taking a seat against the wall. Whatever had come over here was fading, and she felt drained as it ebbed from her. She rested her head on her knees and breathed heavily. " How do I explain this one to him? I don't even know what came over me." She said to herself as she clasped her hands over her head to press it harder against her knees.

[dakota]

A minute later, Karena heard the door to the apartment hiss open. Bootsteps on the metal flooring, and a gruff "I said, not a word."

Noolta's "What th' stang d' ya mean, not-" before the door hissed closed again, and Karena felt a momentary pause, before a familiar presence approached her.

Ralj leaned against the wall, arms folded as he regarded his lover. After a moment of contemplation, he looked down. "Are you...uh, gonna be using those ranat stabbers?"

When she shook her head, he exhaled and knelt down next to her. She felt a strong and familiar hand on her shoulder, the warmth of his breath. "Kar, what the [Hell] possessed you back there? What happened?"

When she didn't respond, he lowered himself to sit next to her, grunting as the tears in his back flexed. He stretched a boot out before himself, the other knee drawn up, and took her chin in his hand. "Hey. Look at me, wouldja?"

His amber eyes met hers, fuzzy from sleep but glittering and full of so, so many questions. "What happened, Grex got your tongue?" He grinned, but she could feel the worry...and the mild touch of fear...within him. "Never figured you for the type to pull a gun like that. Though...I won't say they don't deserve it." He cupped her cheeks in his hands, his eyes searching a moment. The tips of his clawlike nails were cool against her temples. "It's back again, isn't it? Something happened. Never seen you like that before, Kar. What's goin' on?"

Karena drifted back to reality at the sound of Raljar's voice. It was muffled and distant as it drew her from where ever her mind went whenn her visions overtook her. Once she felt coherrent enough to speak, she finally managed a reply on the third try. " I wish I knew." Her hands slid up to back of his, not bothering to hide the slight tremble. " Something just came over me." A tear ran down her cheek. " Stang it Ralj, I wanted to kill them for nothing at all. I could have vaped your friends without a second thought. I mean the big guy did hit me and I've never liked Dugs, but nothing to deserve that. And I had to catch myself from turning my blaster on Siraea when she stirred."

She paused, pulling his hands down from her face as she shook her head. " I just helped you free your sister and I nearly vaped her. And it felt right at the time." She stood up, wiping her eyes and snuffed hard. " Look at me, I'm supposed to be an officer and set an example, and I end up nearly blubbering like a toddler just minutes after having what had to be a psychotic episode. Guess I don't have to worry about my visions coming true this time, Tycho's gonna ground me as soon as he sees this report."

She looked at the door and the muffled sounds of the Krayt members inside, then back at Raljar. " I understand if you want to stay here, now that you have some of your swooper buddies left after all to rebuild the Krayts, and found your sister to have your family again." She swallowed hard. " I won't hold you back, and you won't be breaking your bond to me. We never made it official with a [bonding ceremony], so you're still a free man." She smirked, but it was obviously forced. " Gotta admit though, it's been a hell of a ride."

Raljar was silent for a long few moments. His eyes flickered, trying to read hers, then a half-disbelieving exclamation escaped his lips; a curious mixture of laugh, exhalation, and horrified choke.

"What?"

His jaw dropped slightly. Karena could feel his incredulity, as though someone had just suggested he grow gills and swim like a fish.

"You're serious?" Raljar's hands slid from where they held her cheeks to grip her shoulders, harder than was comfortable. His eyes narrowed. "You're serious, aren't you?"

The Cathar stared into his mate's eyes, looking for any form of hidden humour, a spark of a joke that he couldn't see. "Kar...you..." He all but snarled. "What...leave? leave the Rebellion? leave YOU? For them?"

He choked back an invective, and shook her slightly. "You think the oath I took...the patch I wear, are worth nothing? That I would...leave my life, my calling, my chosen mate, to try and resurrect the ashes of a life that died with..." Raljar shook Karena again. "Those...pair, Noolta...Jessu...they're supposed to be DEAD, Kar! And of the Krayts, those two are ones I wouldn't miss! Jessu's a convicted drug runner and legbreaker, Noolta...[Ancestors] only knows what that filthy pervert did before he wormed his way into the Krayts..."

He broke off, aware suddenly that he was starting to rant. He stared into Karena's eyes again, feeling old wounds reaffirm as he spoke. "Kar, I left the Krayts when they died. I swore revenge; I didn't swear to bring them back. The Krayt Gang is gone; those pair of lowlifes couldn't resurrect that legacy if they had Yogga kissin' their feet. They aren't worthy of it, they aren't up to it, and they aren't capable of it." His voice was low, intense, every syllable clipped and sharp as the vibro-shiv she carried.

"I am a Rebel officer, sworn to uphold the principles of the New Republic. I have fought, willingly risked myself whilst friends and comrades around me died. I do it because you showed me that a galaxy that we can call free is worth more than stewin' away the pain in cheap booze and alien whores. More than swoop tournies and medals and the adulation of the [Damned] mob. You did that. I'd be a first rate swoop jock, second rate ganger, and third rate scum-sucker if you hadn't been there do drag me up by my suit straps and damn well show me that there was more out there than my own hide!"

He broke off. He cupped her face in his hands again, his breath hot on her lips. "I chose you, Karena Therez, over every other female in this Galaxy. And you made me the happiest, luckiest [Damned] male. You chose me. I...can't tell you...can't explain...just how deep that goes. I couldn't...wouldn't...leave you for anything. Not anything. The only thing in this Galaxy, that can force me away from you...is you. And I'd do it in a heartbeat if you willed it. You've taken a piece of me, Kar, and replaced it with a part of you. I can feel it, as sure as I'm going crazy I swear it's true!" He ran his claws over her temples, eyes flickering as he searched her face. "And you think...I'd give you up? I can't, Kar. The [Bonding Ceremony] be [Damned], ever since the day I stared into my heart and saw you there, you've owned me. Body and soul, partner, from the blasterfights to the drunken brawls, the arguments, and everything in between."

He pulled her to him, his lips meeting hers and their tongues mingling as the Cathar kissed her passionately. For well over a minute, they clung to each other. When at last they broke apart, they were gasping for breath. He grinned down at her, and bit her lightly on the chin. "I'll forgive the myriad insults, Kar. [Ancestors] know, I've done it before. This is the first time you've tried to get me to desert, though." He punched her lightly across the jaw, in an affectionate pilot's gesture.

"I'm not leaving. I'm not going anywhere. Siraea needs me, now. And so do you." He kissed her again. "Understand, lieutenant? Your wingmate, long-suffering sidekick, and sexy male [love toy] is not leaving. Someone needs to keep an eye on you." He brushed a finger over her eye, his grin wry, sarcastic, and comfortingly Raljar. "Besides, there isn't an ass like yours anywhere else in the galaxy. Where would I find glory like that again, ah? Ah, the loss if you pushed me away."

Karena felt the remaining tendrils of whatever had taken hold of her inside ebb away, replaced by a warm glow inside brought on by Raljar. " I wasn't trying to insult or get rid of you, I just wanted to know where we stood, I mean ....," she stopped and shook her head, " Fierfek, why am I explaining to you? You understand me better than I understand myself alot of the time and still come back for more abuse. Can't beleive I thought for a second I could drop you with the rest of that trash you left inside with your sister." She smirked a bit. " Was that really a good idea?"

She traced her finger along his jawbone beneath his mane. " I can't go back in there with those two. I'll wait here while you get Siraea. We have to get back to the fleet soon." She intentionally left out what she had seen in her visions, she didn't think he was ready for what she had seen in the second one no matter how much it had bothered her.

Karena sighed, looking Raljar in the face. she knew that look too well. " Okay, so I'm sure that was all some kind of force adrenaline surge or something. When we get back, I'll track down Commander Skywalker and talk to him about it. He's probably the only person besides you that can help me through this."

She looked down at the ground. " And I had another of those dreams. Twice now, the first time in the shower. We're caught up in a pretty good furball. I have to wait until it comes again, but I know no matter what happens, you have to stay on Tycho. Otherwise.... " she shook her head," I ... I dunno.... just promise me you'll cover Commander Celchu." She took his head in her hands. " Promise me so you can get inside and save your sister before she ends up having Dug kittens." she curled up her nose at that prospect.

He pecked her briefly on the forehead. "Wait here."

When he re-entered the room, he found Siraea staring at Noolta with something approaching loathing. Jessu looked mildly ill, and Noolta seemed to be hacking, coughing, and laughing at the same time. Raljar could almost smell the filthy comment in the air that he had, probably for the best, missed out on.

He glanced at Noolta, who died down a little with a shifty look. Jessu rubbed his face, trying to remain out of the conversation. After a long, cold glance at the Dug, he nodded to his sister. "Siraea, be ready. We're leaving now."

She paused, then nodded and retreated into the sleeping chamber. Jessu sputtered, aghast, as Noolta did a double take. "What?" Jessu sounded horrified.

"We're leaving." At Raljar's response, the big Human's expression shifted from disbelief to anger.

"The mopek you're leaving, Silver." He sputtered. "We used to be buddies! Gang-mates! How can you just turn your back on the Krayts, on us...like that." He snapped his fingers, spitting the last word.

Raljar glanced away a moment, then his chin rose. "Because I'm not a Krayt any more, Jessu. I haven't been for a long time now."

Jessu's jaw closed with a snap.

"Now me, my sister, and my [partner] are leaving." He looked Jessu in the eye. "An' It'd be best for us all if we leave without incident. You read me?"

Jessu stared a moment, then rubbed his bristled face with a grunting laugh. "Awww, sith on a skewer. Jus' when we'd figured that somethin' good had fallen our way." He looked up at Raljar, face red with mirth. "You got some balls, Silver, I'll give you that. I should burn your face off..."

Raljar's hand twitched towards his hip holster, and Jessu's smile faded. "...but I ain't. Where you go after this, don't expect-"

"That..." *cough* *hack!* Noolta spat a lump of something unmentionable into the corner. "Ain't gonna be an issue, pretty boy."

Raljar's head snapped to the Dug, a crawling feeling prickling his spine. "What do you-" He broke off, staring at the Dug's smug leer as a dawning realization began to grow in his horrified mind. Jessu's eyes narrowed. "Noolta, what you talkin' about-?"

Out in the corridor, Karena felt the approach of the thugs before she saw them. Swathed in wraps and cloaks, faces covered by an eclectic combinaiton of wraps and breath masks, a group of lowlifes burst in through the access hatch, shouting and bellowing. With them were a pair of the largest, most foul-smelling Gamorreans Karena had ever been in the presence of. The variety of weapons on display, at a glance, was crude and exceedingly vicious. Tension and violence ran thick and electric in the air as they advanced, shouting in various languages for her to surrender. There were many of them.

Perhaps too many.

Ralj! Karena called out as she backed towards the door. She cursed herself for being caught off guard. Her heavy blaster seemed to leap into her hand as she drew so fast, snapping off a couple of blasts at the advancing horde. Ashower of bolts answered her challenge, though most of them missed wide but still close enough to make her dive in the door.

Not noticing the scene inside, Kar used the door as a shield as she exchanged shots with the group, who had been slowed by her fire. " Hey partner, next time I'll look after accomidations okay? " She flinched as a blast slamed the door casing over her head. " tell me you and your friends have a back door out of this place." She glanced over, with a furrowed brow. " What's going on ?" She flinched as another shot hammered above her.

Ralj ducked as the blaster bolts slammed into the doorframe, and drew his own blaster. "CLOSE THE DOOR!"

As the door slammed down, he spun on Noolta, but a powerful blow from the Dug's arm sent him catapulting into the sleeping chamber. He tumbled over the bed and came up gasping and choking as Siraea shrieked in outrage and startlement.

"Noolta, what...HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND?!" Jessu roared. "What have you done, you stupid-?!"

*Hack!* "Stow it, Jessu!" The Dug coughed, wiping his straggly chin. "You got any idea just how many-" *gag!* *hwaaaark!* "-credits these flesh-piles are worth to Yogga? We're rich, Jessu! Filthy rich!"

"Why you-" Jessu's face screwed up in anger as he made for the Dug, but a vibro-shiv in Noolta's hand made him stop short.

"Ah ah ah..." *hwagh!* "None of that!" The Dug choked and gargled, coughing thickly. "They'll be through the door any second. You wanna be rich or-"

Raljar scooped up his blaster just as the door crumpled inwards and superheated. He fired at Noolta through the door but the Dug leaped sideways, the fates seemingly showing him kindness as he and Jessu collapsed together with a startled yelp.

"KARENA! COME ON!" He roared, as he hit the shutter release on one of the narrow vision slits overlooking the hoverway far below. It slid open, and he helped Siraea slip her lithe form through the gap.

"COME ON, THEY'LL-" The door crashed halway off its runners in a wave of heat as hands clutching blasters fired through the gap, the shouts deafening.

Karena never thought twice. Jessu flinched as the energy bolt sizzled passed him and slammed Noolta's corpse against the wall even as they struggled. " Up to you. Stay or go." She said as she ran passed him and hopped through the escape route. The random blaster shots never came near her, but they were enough of a motivator as she redrew the holdout blaster and offered it to Siraea with one hand as she snapped off a couple delaying blasts with the heavy blaster in the other.

" Told you I don't like Dugs." Karena smirked at Raljar with a wink, adding mentally " Celchu is never going to let us go anywhere together again when he gets this report. She watched as the door was about to give and shouted. " Jessu! Decide"

" Ralj, we need a ride."
Raljar hauled Karena through the window and shouted through the slot, "Jessu! COME ON!"

The big man stared at Noolta's body, and stared up at Ralj with wide eyes. "He-"

"COME ON!!" Ralj shouted, but Jessu's reply was cut off as the door exploded inwards in a shower of sparks. The huge man was thrown sideways, collapsing against the wall in a concussed heap beneath the clattering remains of the door as flaring metal rained down and shapes poured through the glowing-hot portal, shouting in a barrage of Basic and native tongues. Ralj cursed and snapped off a couple of shots, before the armoured shutter closed with snap-jaw speed and a *THUNK*

High above the hoverway, the city was a sea of glittering lights in the murk, the huge support pillars soaring roofwards for many hundreds of feet. The wind howled and moaned, polluted and frigid around Karena as her partner blasted a power conduit next to the shutter. It exploded with a shower of sparks.

"That oughta hold 'em for a while." Next to her, karena was aware of Siraea staring downwards to the hoverway, obscured by the brilliant neon holosigns that light them up like figures from a bad holonet drama. Raljar's sister stared straight ahead then, and leaned a little more heavily on the reassuringly solid wall behind them. The support catwalk was narrow, nothing more than a ledge admidst power conduits, cables, pipes, and holographic emitters, the whole structure windblown and greasy from years of accumulated pollution.

His mane whipping around his face, Ralj nudged his two loved ones along urgently. "Hurry, there's a service duct on the other side of the frame's power coupling. Those mynocks are packin' thermal charges, the shutters won't last long. Move!"

Her first step slipping in the decades of grime built up on the ledge, Karena caught her balance with a fistful of slimy pipe. Her nose curled in disgust as she brushed her hair from her face with her other hand before starting in the direction Raljar directed them. She concentrated as she moved, focused her steps as fast as she dared on the trecherous walkway, and thought she was barely moving until Siraea's voice distracted her, " Slow down. Escaping them inside is pointless if we fall to our deaths."

Karena heard the challenging tone in Siraea's voice as clearly as her words. She had gotten the impression from the beginning that Ralj's twin did not agree with his choice and knew that this wasn't the time for a confrontation. But Karena took the bait regardless. " Maybe lying around Mendez's apartment has made you soft. I bet the only exercise you got was playing hide and go f..."

Siraea's snarl cut her off. " Watch your tongue, or I'll rip it out and feed it to you."

" You better bring friends." Kar replied, ducking past a conduit feeding the power coupling. She stopped halfway past, looking around quickly. " Ralj, they've got a speeder coming up to meet us. No, two." she looked over the edge, trying to spot where the attack would come from. " There." She said after a brief moment, pointing at two distant specks heading towards them.

[How does she know this?] Siraea asked over her shoulder as she continued at a hutt's pace, using native Cathese to hide her puzzlement, [there is no way a human could have seen or heard those speeders at this distance, if they are even with the ones we just escaped.]

" Hurry up you two." Kar shouted as she stood next to the service duct. " That shutter won't hold much..."

Before she finished, the shutter buckled from the blast inside. Luckily it didn't shake the building too hard.

"Mopek, not now you two!" Ralj roared as the shutter blew outwards, the bulging molten metal splitting like a burst sore as the glowing tide ran over the lip of the service and fell into the subterranean air. "Kar, sight those speeders" He spat into the freezing wind. "That's all we need. Move it!"

They continued precariously, Raljar cursing as his boots slipped and slid on the treacherous, greasy muck underfoot. Within seconds, the two specks resolved into the sleek patchwork shapes of speeders. The pilots whooped and howled through their face wraps as they swooped in, just as a boiling knot of thugs clambered out of the blown-out shutter.

The first lost his balance, clutching at the one behind him as they fell over the edge, their screams swallowed up by the roar of the wind. Raljar grabbed at a support strut for balance as the speeders made their first pass, blaster bolts making Siraea shriek and grab for cover. He flinched as a blaster bolt zipped by. "Karena! Get Siraea moving, we're sitting ranats out here!" He flinched back again as another blaster bolt shot past and blew a chunk out of the support frame. With a curse, he drew his own blaster, shaking his snapping mane out of his eyes savagely.

Further along the walkway, the looming mouth of the service duct was illuminated only by glowing strip-lights set in the walls and descending into darkness. Siraea pulled out her holdout, one hand pressed hard against the wall behind them. The neon emitters of the holo's shifted and glowed, turning everything into a surreal patchwork of light and shape.

The sound of blaster fire filled the walkway behind her. Crouched as much as he could behind an out-jutting pylon, her partner was making a spirited attempt to exhaust his blaster gas cell. He pulled back abruptly with a shout as brilliant red bolts blew flaming metal from the superstructure around him. He glanced over his shoulder, teeth bared. "GO!"

[Ancestors], he realized he still hadn't had a wink of sleep. He slapped a fresh cell into the grip of his Blastech.

Above the moaning howl of the wind, the whine of the speeder engines grew louder...

"Siraea! Come on!" Kar shouted from the widened edgings just outside the service duct. She took careful aim towards the remains of the shutter, using the scope to line up her shot as she listened to whine of the speeders as they looped around for another pass. As the female Cathar started to move towards her, she found her shot and fired, catching a Nikto in the arm before he could shoot at Raljar. While her victim spun and knocked the human next to him off balance before falling from the walkway, Kar began to line up her next victim. She squeezed the trigger just as Siraea got to her, which caused her to miss a Weequay by nearly a half meter. " Sithspit." she sputtered as Siraea passed her.

" They're coming back." Siraea announced, pointing towards the pair of speeders. Karena nodded as she had already heard the pitch of the Aratech's repulsors change pitch. " Come on Ralj! Stop showing off for your sister and get your furry butt down that duct! I'll cover you!"

The heavy slam of the speeder's heavy blasters was close enough to Kar that she lost her footing as she was peppered by pieces of duracrete blown free of the building. She ended up sitting in sludge too close to the end than she liked and snapped off a shot at the speeder responsible, content when her hitting it's fuselage even if little damage was done. One of the hoard trying to pursue them snapped off a shot at her with his blaster, only missing because she lost her balance. " NoW Ralj!" She ordered, struggling back to her feet.

Kar looked up in time to look down the barrel of a Klatoonian's concussion rifle barrel. The report of the rifle sounded just as she felt Siraea's claws lock onto her shoulders and pull her backwards out of the way. The shockwave of the impact knocked them both towards the service duct, which they discovered too late travelled at a downward angle. The pair slid wildly through the duct until the bottom gave way and it opened into a runoof collection vat. The two women flailed and shouted uselessly until they splashed into the putrid water.

Kar broke the surface with a gasp, and almost wished she hadn't as the stench hit her. Siraea laughed as Kar gagged, pulling herself over the edge of the vat. she offered a hand," Are you hurt?"

" Only my pride," she replied as the Cathar pulled her from the water, her eyes not leaving the shoot exit. After a pause, she said," He's okay, but I don't think he's following us."

" How can you know that?" siraea questioned, with doubt in her eyes.

Karena scowled. " I don't know how to explain it. Your brother and I are bonded, and because of it we have a connection. He can here me sometimes without me saying stuff out loud, and sometimes I get a sense of where he is. I also had nightmares that come true when something bad a couple times."

" So you really have Jedi powers?"

" No." Kar replied quickly." Not jedi, but I guess I'm what they call force sensitive. It runs in my family. I didn't see it until Ralj made me. He brought it to the sufface after I had buried it for a long time. " she trailed off as she tried to connect with Ralj. After a couple of tries, she slammed her fist against the wall. " If only I could controll it."

Siraea looked at her in disbeleif. " Prehaps with practice it will come."

"Maybe. any idea where we are?"

Siraea nodded." Yes. We are down several levels, but we are actually closer to the starport."

" There's a bonus." Kar said as she pulled out her comlink, a quick look telling her it was damaged. She keyed it regardless. " Vaig, you listening?"

"..'m.....Kar. are y..." The comlink crackled.

" I can't copy you. We're on our way, but we've got slug troubles."

" ..py. Lots..... troop..at...port." Vaig replied brokenly.

" Gotcha. Call in when we're closer." She changed the transmit code. " Ralj, sweetie. I can't receive, but if you can here me, we're okay. we're going to stick to the plan. Call Vaig if you need help.." She put the comlink away and tried again to reach out to Ralj again, projecting an image of the Familiar.

" We should get going. " Siraea stated, and started to lead the way.

[dakota]

Siraea led the pair of them out onto the street. Seemingly in the clear, they started make their way to the port. Siraea asked, " What does my brother see in you?"

" Nothing like getting to the point." Kar sputtered," You ever hear of Keeper's syndrome?"

" You mean where to people who never would have met get thrown together in a bad situation?" siraea cocked a brow.

" Something like that. Ralj and I have been in nothing but tight spots since his gang boss stuck him helping me. And, " she shrugged," we just got so used to driving each other crazy that we fell for one another."

Siraea scoffed," So it was a mistake."

That comment set something off in Kar as she glared, spinning the Cathar to face her. " Listen, you may not approve, but I don't give a mopek. It was his choice. Which is better than what you ended up with. at least he doesn't need to get me specail bracelets like you had."

Kar never saw the backhand coming until her head was spinning. siraea's breath was hot as she bared her fangs at Kar, " That is twice you have implied I had any choice. There won't be a third."

Trying to clear her head, Kar temper made her blurt out, " You're really making me regret I told your brother where you were."

" How did.." The expression dropped from Sir's face. " You found me?"

" No, I just knew it was you when my brother in law mentioned Mendez having a Cathar slave." Kar answered, fighting the urge to strike Siraea back. Instead, she looked up at a shout to see several obvious hutt goons running towards them. " Time to go."

As they broke into a run, Kar said, " How did they find... do you have anything left from when we found you?"

"No"

"Then he must have given you a tracking implant." she looked at Sir, ducking a blaster shot slamming overhead. " We gotta get it out."

" How?"

" How do you think? Sithspit, Ralj must be the smart one." Kar answered, pointing back at their pursuers with her blaster and snapping off a pair of shots.

" You are not cutting into me." Sir replied as they rounded a corner.

Kar stopped, using a crate for cover. " Let's deal with these guys first, then we can argue about it. Keep going up around that warehouse. when you hear me shooting, come back and we'll catch them in a crossfire. "

" Very well." siraea continued on. " just remember who you are supposed to be shooting at."

Kar felt her temper flaring as she checked her blaster charge. Her focus suddenly seemed to clear, and she knew just where to aim before the hutt troops arrived. In the back of her mind, it worried her, as she recalled one of her grandmother's jedi bedtime stories about a jedi who let his emotions rule him eventually fell to the dark side. She shuddered My abilities always seem to come easier when I get mad. does that mean...

Her train of thought was disturbed as five pursuers past her without notice. One of them, holding a tracker, pointed towards Siraea's corner. " They've stopped up ahead." at that note, Kar snapped off careful shots. Two of them fell to her shots before they knew what hit them, and a third dropped before Sir joined in with the holdout blaster. Once Sir had dropped the fourth, the last one, a Rodian, tried to give up. Kar stood and merely shot him in the stomach.

siraea picked up a blaster from one of the fallen, tossing the holdout back to Kar," He tried to give up. that was cold blooded."

" no, it was being practical. If we let him live, he would have brought reinforcements." Kar replied, picking up the tracker one of the humans had carried, trying not to let her words sink in. she offered the tracker and her vibro shiv. " Here, you need to lose that tracker. Unless you want me to do it."

Siraea sputtered something in Cathese Kar didn't understand.

----------

The ringing in his ears was deafening.

Not good...

Somewhere in the back of his mind, Raljar knew that the concussion wave had battered him halfway-senseless. Distantly, he could still hear the moaning wind, though it sounded to him like he was hearing it underwater. His entire body felt like it was constricted by an incredible pressure; it hurt just to breathe.

Distant shouts and hollering in strange languages brought back to him dim recollections of the concussion blast that had shattered most of the walkway. He remembered hitting the wall like a helpless rag doll. That would explain the Star Destroyer-sized headache, and the iron taste in his mouth, for sure.

His arm ached like [Hell].

Wincing, Raljar opened his eyes, murmuring a curse through lips that wouldn't respond and a tongue that felt six times its normal size before chancing a look down.

Below his boots, the howling wind descended into light-spattered darkness.

The jolt of horror was like a bucket of ice water. Ralj squeezed his eyes shut against a wave of nausea as the reality of his situation began to dawn on him.

***

The speeder rounded the structure then, its engines whining. Wrapped in dirty red material, the gunner pointed ahead and yelled excitedly to the pilot. There, on the frame, dangled one of their marks, clinging on by one hand.

***

"Sithspit." Raljar growled as he felt for the blaster at his hip. The crunch of his broken shoulder brought him up sharp, and he stifled a scream through his lips as bone ground on shattered bone. It came out as a vicious, agonized hiss. He nearly blacked out.

His holster was empty anyway. Must've dropped it...

***

"He's going to fall," hooted the gunner, hopping down into the speeder and causing the small craft to rock.

"What do you care?" The pilot shrugged, his oversized belly pressing against the controls. The tattoo'd Human was sick of the chase. "Yogga's already goin' to be pissed. We lost too many on this one."

"So what?" The gunner pulled out a wicked-looking gun. His pride and joy, it was a compressed gas gun that used nitrogen cells to fire it's load; a hideously slim and barbed rusty metal harpoon. "The bounty still stands, and I mean to collect. Now..." He hopped back onto the bonnet of the repulsor craft, crouching against the wind. "Hold 'er steady!"

***

Ralj heard the voices, and glared through narrowed eyes over his shoulder at the speeder. Above, the shouting was getting louder. Talk about being caught between a rock and a thermal detonator...

His claws screeched on duracrete. Couple hundred feet down, I figure. Not going to be much left. He could feel his mate and sister were alive. He clung to that a moment.

"Kar, wherever you are now, look after Siraea." He murmured. "I love you."

His claws slipped another inch. His arm felt like it was coming out of its socket.

"[**** you], Yogga." He glared in agony, eyes wild as he clung as hard as he could. "I hope I land on your worthless, bloated hide!"

***

"He's slippin'" sputtered the pilot. He knew how much even one of the scum were worth to their boss. "Yogga don't want 'em dead."

"I got it. Hold on, kitty." The gunner licked his cracked lips under his muffle, and sighted on the Cathar. "Just you stay there..."

His finger tightened on the trigger.

The *whump!* of compressed gas rocked the speeder as the recoil sent him tumbling back into the speeder pit. The wicked harpoon sailed through the stinking void. With a screech of duracrete splitting, it drove through Ralj's hand and into the frame of the holo-flyover.

***

The pain didn't come at first. Just the numb, cold disorientation of shock. Then Raljar shrieked, pain lancing through his body as hot wetness pooled under his palm and flowed wetly down the frame. Flesh and muscle tore as his weight fell on the shaft.

***

"Got him!" The gunner crowed. "You wretches leave it alone!" he screamed to the gaggle of thugs on the walkway. "He's ours! The bounty is OURS, witnessed and done!" He nearly danced for joy as he scrambled up to the bonnet once more. "Hurry, you idiot! Get us under him!"

***

The speeder whined underneath Raljar as he gasped like a beached fish through his teeth. His limbs felt like ice; nausea raged behind his eyes. Desperately trying to ease his weight off his impaled hand, he kicked and struggled with his legs. His boots caught on the framework and, for a brief moment, the pain eased just a little.

Then his broken shoulder separated with a sickeningly soft click. Raljar didn't even hear himself howl as everything went crystal clear before he blacked out completely.

----------

" Sithspit, aren't you done yet?" Karena sputtered at Siraea, drumming her fingers on her ribs as she folded her arms, watching the Cathar trying to fish the tracer from a scar on her hip. With a sickening plop, the vibro shiv blade popped the cred coin sized tracker into her hand.

" There, got it. You can stop complaining now.." Siraea replied, tossing the device at Kar, who caught it with one hand. she studied it while Sir bandaged her wound. " What about this lot?"

" Who cares." Karena shrugged, looking at the corpses. " I'm sure something will find them eventually.

"[Ancestors], how could Raljar get mixed up with a cold blooded creature like you? I pray he was drunk." Sir hissed.

Karena glared, " Kriff off, fleabait or I'lll..." Kar stiffened and went pale as she stopped speaked midthreat as a sensation came over her. Finally, she said lowly," He's in trouble. I can feel it."

" Where?"

" It doesn't work like that. " Kar sputtered as the sensation began ebb. " but I know where he's headed."

Sir razed an eyebrow. " How can you know that?"

" Because the big slug will want to gloat when he finds out his goons caught Ralj. They'll take him right to Yogga to collect the bounty on his head." Kar explained, her face grim," We need to get there, fast."

Karena turned and glared murderously at Siraea when she didn't move right away. with a low threatening tone, she asked, " what are you waiting for?"

Siraea folded her arms," We can't just stomp in there and demand him back. We need a plan. One that includes your head on straight."

" What are you talking about?" Kar replied, insulted. " My head is on straight. We need to go find your Ralj before it's too late."

" We will, but you need to control yourself. Raljar said you have an affinity for the force. Our mother used to tell us many stories about the ancient jedi. You need to gain control and stop letting your emotions rule or you'll fall to the dark side." Siraea paused before continuing," And then you won't be able to help any one."

The words struck too close to a nerve than Kar liked, but she didn't let it show as she scoffed," You don't trust me?"

" No," Sir replied flatly," and Raljar would not either if he was not letting his emotions rule."

That sentiment hurt, especially when Kar realized she was right. Slowly, she nodded, " Okay, so what do we do? It's not like I can call my friends from the Alliance for air support to cover us."

" That is not what I had in mind." Siraea replied, raising an eyebrow at the grin growing on Karena's face. " Now is not the time for humour."

Kar couldn't help but chuckle. " I should have thought of it sooner. The Imperials are looking for Ralj and me. So what do you think will happen if they get an anomynous tip that the local Hutt crimelord is harboring rebels? Especially when I still remember how to put out an emergency Imp broadcast."

Siraea was wide eyed. " You're insane. The place will be crawling with stormtroopers in no time."

" Then we better get moving." Kar said as she pulled her commlink from her pocket and began adjusting the frequency. As she did, she changed the topic," So why do they call your brother Silver? Never heard him called that before."

Siraea cocked her head, then huffed and turned aside. "Huh. A small thing, nothing more. It's the colour of his hair." She shook her own silvery mane, letting it fall down her back. "Amongst Cathar, it is a popular colour. Some consider it very attractive."

She shook her head. "When my brother first took to hanging out with those...underdwellers..." she let the word hang, a grimace of distaste on her face. "...some of his companions saw fit to use it. When his prowess took my brother to the swoop tracks and beyond? It passed into more popular use."

Raljar's sister stepped over the smoking corpse of one of the Hutt's goons, testing her weight on her injured hip. Karena couldn't tell if the scowl on her face was from the pain, or from the acrid stench of blaster-scorched flesh that still hung in the air.

The affirmative came over the comm-link at that moment, and Siraea's eyes narrowed. "I assume you have a plan for retrieving my brother intact? Supposing you do care for him." Her body language was aggressive and forthright, but the mention of her brother tightened her voice.

----------

How long had it been?

"Silver..."

Ralj heard the words slowly, and at a great distance. They swam through his conciousness like it was thick treacle; light suffused his awareness with all the speed of a drunken bantha.

He heard laughter.

Ralj squinted violently as he opened one eye a crack. His entire body ached like dull fire. Every muscle, every tendon in his body felt like it was collapsing, exhaustion and pain twanging them painfully. He was dimly aware he had no feeling at all from his shoulders.

A yellow-eyed male Twi'lek floated into view, an inch from his face. Pasty white with diseased blue-flecked lekku, the being grinned a vicious grin through pointed teeth.

"AGH!" Chains rattled as he jerked, casting about in growing alarm as he realized he couldn't move more than a few inches before...

He was manacled, chained to a block of black plas-steel in a large metal chamber, his body still smelling of Bacta and antiseptic. Burning torches reeked and sputtered in metal sconces, the mingled laughter and conversation and other nameless sounds of hundreds of sentients surrounded him like a sea. When he moved and growled, a cheer arose, mocking and reverberating off distant walls.

"Awake it is, master!" The Twi'lek tutted is mock-sympathy and leaned down close to Raljar's own grimace. Ralj bared his teeth, then grunted and jerked violently as the Twi'lek held up a blood-stained primitive hypo-needle between them, and touched the point to his chin.

"Molook?" Ralj's toungue felt thick and heavy, the words coming slurred and drawled, like he was hungover. Disgust mingled with fear on his face as he searched the eyes before him...and saw only madness. A terrible weight pressed down on his chest, forcing him to gulp for air. "Wh...where am-" He rattled the chains, and summoned a surge of anger from somewhere as he jerked forwards, restrained by the manacles. "What the [Hell] is this?!"

Despite his dull bravado, Ralj knew he was in a very bad situation. Molook was famous amongst the undercity inhabitants, for all the wrong reasons. He was a ghoul, a thing of childhood nightmares. Not many people saw Molook; he was a torturer and psychopath who valued his privacy...and his power. Frigidly coherent, he was an excellent administrator as well as a sociopathic monster, and he worked only for...

A deep, booming laugh came from shadows in front of Ralj, as suddenly the torches flared. The shadows melted back, and admidst the sea of terrible and dangerous faces that leered and gibbered and shouted and laughed, he knew why he recognized the room.

"Yogga!"

A spotlight shone down on the slab, the centrepiece of Yogga the Hutt's throne room. Yogga himself was revealed with a second spotlamp, basking like the bloated slug he was on a richly adorned, powered repulsor-divan. The colossal chamber housed the entirety of Yogga's court. Raljar himself had been here before, as a guest.

The bright light seared his eyes, too long closed, and he cried out. Squeezing his watering eyes shut, Ralj grimaced as laughter and derision echoed around him.

"~Silver, my boy.~" The Hutt gestured a pudgy hand towards the spreadeagled Cathar. "~You return to us.~"

"Y...Yogga..." Ralj inhaled desperately for air, then half-laughed as the sheer horror of his situation combined with his natural showmanship. "Yogga! It's all been...all of this...it's all been a big misunderstanding, I-"

"~Raljar.~" The Hutt made a disapproving noise. "~My prodigal boy. There is no misunderstanding. You were the best, my boy. Everything I offered you...money, fame...you took from me. Then you left, in such a difficult manner. You put me in a difficult position, boy. Me! Your old master!" Yogga 's eyes flexed and contracted in the torchlight, his bulk glistening. "~If you had known what was good for you would not have come back.~"

Raljar swallowed heavily. He couldn't get enough air. "You...you were never-"

The Hutt laughed then, a deep gargling belly laugh that turned Raljar's stomach. "~You cost me a great deal of money, Cathar. A great deal of credibility. That I cannot forgive in an underling...as all assembled here know!~" He waved a pudgy arm awkwardly, and the crowd cheered. A sense of inevitability settled over Raljar, as he shook his head to clear it. Clouded vision, headache, he had done enough of them in his youth to recognize the aftereffects of a bad drug hangover. What had Molook-?

"~But do not worry.~" Yogga gloated. "~I have been offered repiration on your insult...and your debt. You will settle what you owe me, your old master. Doesn't that make you pleased?~"

A shadowy figure seated beside the throne watched Ralj with a glittering, implacable eye. It's opposite was missing.

"Always the showman." Raljar mumbled, but no-one heard him. He knew he was dead, if he didn't think his way out of this. He prayed silently that Karena had taken his sister to safety. Around him, the crowd thrummed with suppressed expectation. There was a carnival touch, a party feel to the atmosphere.

Somehow, he wasn't feeling the spirit.

"~My poor, obstinate boy.~" Yogga gestured to Molook. "~See to it that he is given much to loosen that mammilian tongue of his, for tonight...Silver, my waward boy...~"

Musicians struck up a pounding synthetic beat, as dancing girls of several species cartwheeled and tumbled into the court's central floor to a delighted cheer from Yogga's guests.

Two Farghul females danced slowly around Raljar's slab as Yogga spoke, looking up at him with slanted eyes as Molook bowed and ran a filled hypo down Raljars chin, the cords of his neck, between his pectorals, to his armpit. He barely felt the sting of the injection as growing anger and fear and confusion vied for place in his conciousness. He twisted his head to stare wide-eyed at the empty hypo Molook held up before his eyes, the Twi'lek's insane grin morphed by the glass into a thing from a nightmare. The music was getting louder, and he felt himself becoming dizzy, so very dizzy...

"~...is the STAR...ATTRACTION!~" Yogga bellowed as the crowed went wild, and the slab rotated. The two barely-clothed Farghul flowed and slinked obscenely around him, joined by other dancers as Ralj stared at the crowd, terror mingling with powerful hallucinogens as the scene became something from a madman's worst dreams. A showpiece, a display in a crimelords court for the entertainment of the mob, and a warning of the price of crossing Yogga the Hutt.

The crowd always loves the fall of a star.

He twisted his head, eyes glazed as the party threw into full swing. Fighting to stop himself from gibbering, he jerked and croaked as the irridescent green eyes of one of the Farghul filled his vision, hypnotic and shimmering.

His drugged limbs wouldn't respond as he gasped for air, felt small fingers reach up to trace his eyebrows, his shoulders, his chest, then the muscles of his stomach. As she loosened his belt, the Farghul swayed and undulated in a ritualistic dance that inflamed and delighted the hooting, ribald onlookers to a frenzy.

Ralj felt his mind swallowed by the fog of powerful hallucinogens even as his perceptions began to twist and shatter into patterns he could never have imagined. The tempo of the music pounding like a heartbeat into his blood and sinew. Everything around him began to melt, nerves flaring with myriad sensations heightened to unbearable intensity by Molook's cocktail as it boiled through his bloodstream.

Before his mind was lost utterly to the drugs, something inside him stirred.

A ripple, crossing infinity to a being with whom he shared a bond deeper than mere blood.

"Karena!"

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

Kar merely scowled at Siraea for a moment before responding sarcastically," No, I thought I'd just find the pieces after the Imps bombarded it flat." She scoffed," Of course I've got a plan. It's just that my plans are always a work in progress."

When the imperial monitoring the channel acknowledged her call, she seemed to be a different person. " Authorization Keldor Alpha Malastare 736 Rancor, requesting a standby for possible location of local dissidents in lower city."

A different voice came over the commlink," 736Rancor, this is an old code, request authenticitysubcode."

" Gamma Phi Alderaan, Blue 86 Coruscant."

A long pause. " Authenticity approved. Will you require immediate response if location confirmed?"

Karena smiled," Affirmative. Dissidents are known to have rebel contacts, unknown at this time if they are operating together at this time."

" Copy that, 736Rancor," the controller replied smugly," Two companies of stormtroopers have been put on standby and awaiting your report in in."

Karena tucked the commlink away, grinning," See how easy that was to set up? All I had to..." Karena staggered slightly as Raljar's voice hamered into her mind, his calling her name almost sounding like a plea for help. Not knowing how or why she had heard it, she looked at Siraea. " We have to hurry. Ralj is in trouble."

"You keep saying that!" Siraea fumed. "How can we expect to find my brother if all we are doing is sitting here?!"

She tossed her head as she leaned on a nearby packing crate to ease her injured leg. "I lost my brother once. He returned for me, and I shall not lose him again. Bonds of blood tie us stronger than a Human could know."

Siraea growled in her throat, and glared at Karena with hateful eyes. "What does your species know of family, anyway?"

She looked away then, letting out a shuddering breath. Without words, Karena knew; Cathar passion rapidly turned to anger, and needing a target. Distressed and angered by her own worry, Siraea's emotions were boiling over.

Indeed, after a moment, the Cathar turned her head aside. "I...apologize. That was beneath me. I am sorry."

She looked Karena squarely in the eye, a look Kar knew well from Raljar. When she spoke, Siraea's voice was firm. "We cannot bring my brother back, you and I, if we cannot work together. My brother is all I have left in this galaxy." She closed her eyes then, her frown turning to one of pain. "Raljar claimed you were his mate, his Chosen. If you have any idea what that means...no."

Siraea opened her eyes then, her expression one of quiet sorrow mirrored by her voice. "No. You must know. My brother has many shortcomings, but he is no fool. He would not choose his...his life-partner lightly." She looked at Karena again, with haunted eyes. "You must be special indeed, Therr-ez..." She slipped on the pronunciation, shortly rolling her R's like Raljar did. "...for my brother to take you as his life-mate. Honour that. Help me bring him back, I am no warrior. I have only the clothes on my back...and these."

She flexed her claws and tapped them on the plascrete container. "Mendez took everything else from me, curse his worthless hide." Her anger flared again. "We must plan. Your Imperial hounds are on a tight leash, you say. Very well, what must be done in the meantime?"

" They aren't my friends." Kar corrected. " And you don't understand. It must be a combination of my bond with Ralj and this force thing that's reared it's head, but I just heard Raljar call out my name as if he was right here. And I've never heard him sound scared like this." She didn't bother to try to hide her concern.

" Right now we need to get a ride to the Hutt's lair. I'll call in the calvary once we get there to create a diversion so we can get in and get out." She placed a hand on Sir's shoulder. " I don't care if you like me or not, but your brother means as much to me as he does to you, so you're right. We have to do this together." She smirked, " And if it makes you feel any better, Ralj and I fought worse than this when we first met. Alot worse in fact, though he never hit me. Probably wanted to a few times though."

She led the way to a busy street before picking a mark. Pointing at a sporty model speeder, she motioned wordlessly for Siraea to follow her as she casually strolled over to it and hopped in, quickly beginning to hotwire it. A burly male walked to close to the parked speeder and happened to see what Kar was doing. " Hey, what are you doing?"

Flatly, Kar replied," Stealing, what's it look like?" as the engine purred to life and she pulled the speeder away. Once they were in the skylanes, she took Siraea's directions and blended in with traffic. She finally broke the tension with," When this is over and we get off this sithforsaken planet for good, we'll help you get a new start. I know a guy with a cute kid that will be willing to put you up until you decide what you want to do. "

[dakota]

----------

" Major, we just received one of the codes you flagged. how do you want us to respond?"

The recently promoted Carney Hoskels turned and looked at the corporal for a moment. " Have four squads ready to mobilize once we have a location. Grand Admiral Hoursk wants the sender captured alive. Anyone with her or in our way are considered targets of opportunity. Understood?"

The corporal nodded and saluted. " Yes sir." and returned to his station." Carney grinned to himself, tracing a barely visible scar along his cheek. " Sorry Kar, this ends now."

----------

"I...I cannot consider that far ahead right now." Siraea had made no protest at Karena's improptu but entirely neccessary theft. "I...thank you, for the offer, but let us concentrate on retrieving my brother."

The speeder flew through the packed hoverlanes of the Lower City, neon lights and soaring pillars punctuating the glowing murk. "If Yogga the Hutt has him, my brother will be held at Yogga's court." Siraea's nose wrinkled, and her teeth glinted slightly with her grimace. "Everyone down here knows of Yogga's propensity for making examples of those that cross him. He has almost an entire subsector to himself and his criminal empire. No-one who is sensible goes there if they can help it; there, Yogga's word is law."

Siraea leaned back, her silvery mane whipping and snapping in the polluted breeze. "If we are to rescue Raljar, we must get inside Yogga's palace. It will be dangerous, but..." She glanced at Karena.

" Sisari, everything your brother and I do ends up being dangerous." Karena cut in with a sly look. Her determination and confidence flowed on her every word. And I promise you this," she looked over at Siraea," you think I've touched the dark side already, but I'd willingly embrace it to tear the worm's world apart with my bare hands to save my [partner]."

She turned back to the skylane ahead, the strange energies she'd felt before, nibbling at the edges of her consciousness. She concentrated to keep them at bay, knowing full well that she couldn't embrace them unless absolutely necessary. Not and live with herself at any rate.

To ease her mind, she tried to talk out a plan. " So if we have to get in, we'll need a diversion to distract the guards." she grinned evilly, more talking to herself than to Siraea," Got it. We need to make a speeder bomb." Glancing to the center console, she pulled out the speeders caller unit. She held it for Sir to see. " This works like an auto pilot, the speeder will come right to it when the signal is sent. My sister once told me that if you slave a commlink to the caller, you can remote pilot anywheres you want. We just need...," she rummaged the compartment until she came up with the speeder owner's commlink," perfect. Now all I need is...," she looked at Siraea," can you fly so I can work?"

"You're insane." Siraea murmured as she shifted seats, taking the speeder controls with a practiced hand and giving Karena space to work.

"Even if we succeed in distracting Yogga's thugs, what do we do then?" Siraea's golden eyes glanced at Karena, the speeder curving to follow the traffic lanes. "Even if you are a Force user, even if you are an inheritor to the legendary legacy of the Jedi, we are only two beings. We cannot fight a subsector full of villains, murderers and scum."

Without looking up from her work, Karena sighed as she replied," Okay, I'll say it again in small words..."

"We."
"Don't"
"Have"
"To"

Taking a moment to let Siraea stew, Kar continued." The Imperials garrisoned here obviously know Yogga's strength and will respond appropriately when we call them in. And the scum the Hutt surrounds himself will do one of two things, either be stupid and fight or turn tail and run. They aren't going to worry about the likes of us. And if we do have a run in, the speeder trick will be our ace in the hole."

She looked at the cobbled device merger in her hands. " There, that'll do it." She held it up. " We hide this where want the speeder to hit, and then use the commlink like a remote. So simple even a stubborn Cathar female could use it." She smirked at she watched for a response, adding," And that's the second part of the plan. You'll carry this because I want you to offer to exchange me for Ralj if we get to Yogga. I don't know what the Hutt wants with him, but I'm sure the slug blames me for losing Raljar in the first place, not to mention I'm worth a lot of credits to the Imperials." She began rummaging around the storage compartment, muttering," Guess there's not much chance they kept a set of stun cuffs in here..."

Siraea muttered a response as the speeder flew on over the Lower City. Neon glimmers in green and blue resolved through the murk into lines of repulsorcraft entering and exiting an array of colossal tunnels that would lead them to far-flung sectors. The repulsorcraft whined down one of the main passages for a time, before turning off and heading down an access tunnel that was in considerably worse repair than the main artery line. The distant floor of the offshoot tunnel was coated with trash, and Karena recognized the same smell she had endured all those years ago with Ralj, when the Thing hidden in the trash had come writhing and squirming for them both.

The same neo lights blurred past then as the speeder emerges into another sector of the Undercity, joining the traffic lanes as they entered the fire-lit, gaudy, and industrial heartland of Yogga the Hutt's crime empire.

----------

"Get in there!"

A stained metal door hissed open, a prissy little Human gesturing to the Gamorrean supporting the figure of Raljar over one shoulder. The Gamorrean heaved its massive bulk, and Ralj hit the floor of the stinking, damp little cell.

"Party's still goin'. Shame he didn't make the distance."

Distant laughter receded as the door hissed closed. Lit only by the rotating light of a fan-vent in the ceiling, the Cathar struggled feebly to rise. His mane and pelt were filthy, his battered body scored and scarred, marked by claws and thin slices, blood and stains.

With tremendous effort, he managed to raise his head. Glassy eyes took in the damp and chill, the squeaking, rustling, tiny creatures with jewel-like eyes in the darkness before he collapsed once more, and didn't stir.

----------

" I wish we'd found some stun cuffs, that plan would have made this easier." Karena sputtered once Siraea brought the speeder to a halt and got out. " But we'll have to make due. Once we get in through the door, we should be okay." She pulled her blaster from it's holster and checked the charge before returning it.

" Oh, almost forgot," Kar reached in her pocket and pulled out a small silver orb with a switch on top and toss it to Siraea. " Pocketed this from that Krayt hideout while you and Raljar were asleep. Feels to light to be live, but the thumb switch lights up if you toggle it. May come in handy. " She smirked slightly, looking at the thermal detonator then Siraea," Your brother doesn't like it when I play with explosives."

Once they neared a large doorway, an observer droid extended from a portal, it's eyestalk pivoting to try to see them both. "{ What do you want?}"

"{ we have information on what happen to one of his Excellencies' slave masters,}" Karena replied. "{Mendez}"

Kar waited for a reaction from Siraea as the droid retracted into the wall. after what seemed like an eternity, the large door began to open. Kar thumbed the commlink in her pocket that sent the mayday call on the imperial frequency as they stepped into through the door, and muttered here we go."

----------

" We have received the signal, sir." The corporal informed, looking up from his console."

" Good" Hoskels replied smiling sadistically," Whatever Therez is up to won't work. Send in the Floating Fortresses now, I'll lead the ground troops myself."

"Yessir." The corporal sent the orders and the four massive hover vehicles that many compared to urban AT-ATs began to depart, with three hover transportsawaiting behind them, beginning to fill with stormtroopers.

----------

The glare of the outside light filled the dark, dank corridor, revealing a Twi'lek hurrying to meet them. Two heavy-set Gamorreans flanking the corridor grunted and drooled, and Siraea's lip curled in barely-controlled disgust, her fangs glinting. The air stank of coolant and spice.

"Welcome, visitors." The Twi'lek gestured with manicured, cracked, sharp nails. His eyes were a disconcerting shade of yellow, staring through pinprick pupils at the two females. "We are informed you have information for his Excellency Yogga the Hutt, yess?" He gestured with his fingers to the two Gamorreans, who shuffled back into the shadows.

Without waiting for a reponse, he stroked the tip of one of his lekku and gestured. "This way!" With a sweep of torn robes, he turned back the way he had arrived. In the distance, dimly, Karena could feel a great deal of emotion...

----------

Dripping water tapped rhythmically onto Raljar's mane.

With a groan, the Cathar rolled over, wincing as the filthy fluid spattered onto his face. His stomach rebelled suddenly, and with a gagging roar he dry-heaved violently.

For minutes, his growls filled the tiny cell as he hunched and clenched, convulsive spasms gripping his stomach. When at last they subsided, he collapsed, coughing and snarling.

The drugs had left him with a violent hangover and a dry mouth. His muscles felt weak, trembling. The pain, however, was fading. His body was already healing, restoring itself; he thanked his ancestry that had given the Cathar their recuperative abilities, greater than most other sentient species.

He lay there for a time, finding a spot to quench the nausea flowing and roiling through his body. Cold water pressed against his cheek.

At least they had left his pants. Without those and his fur, he'd have probably frozen by now.

His strength was returning gradually. Even his shoulders were responding.

One of the jewel-eyed little rat-things had scampered a bit closer as he lay there. It sat, regarding him through myriad insect-like eyes. His stomach growled audiably, the nausea mingling with gnawing hunger.

He flexed his claws.

----------

[dakota]

Karena closed her eyes, trying to feel the emotions that fed into her, but they gave no indication of direction. She ground her teeth in frustration, but kept her calm. With lightning reflexes, she drew her blaster and snapped off a stun blast at the Gammoreans, the muzzle already shifting towards the Twi'lek before the guards slumped to the floor. " I have a better idea. Where is Yogga keeping the other Cathar?" she snarled, thumbing the blaster's selector switch from stun to kill.

The look in the twi'lek's eyes made her cut off his pleas for mercy as she stepped in closer to jab him with the barrel. " don't bother begging. Just pray I shoot you before my friend here decides to eviserate you for not co-operating." Kar could feel the twinges of the strange energies nibbling at her surging emotions, but she focused on Ralj instead of giving in.

Through the whirling, surging morass of emotions ran threads of anger, ecstasy, cruelty, malice, enjoyment...the essence of Yogga's party. Over the Twi'lek's babbling, Karena's senses felt the strange energy grow a little stronger here, a little more insistent.

"Cathar? Cathar? His Excellency entertains a Cathar tonight, he's the guest of...honour..." The Twi'lek eyed the gun, then spread his lips in a desperate, fanged grin. "You wants to see him, yess? I can help you with that! Just...please. Think before you shoot, yes..."

Through the emotional energy of the Palace, Karena felt a glimmering touch, a spark a little brighter and more insistent even than the Dark Side energy feeding from the wild revelry within. It felt...golden, warm. Familiar. And for a moment, the scent of Raljar's sun-warmed mane touched her senses.

The Twi'lek eyed the two females warily. Siraea rubbed her nose with a muttered invective, disgusted by the stench of the place. The downed Gamorreans twitched and snorted in porcine torpor

----------

Raljar collapsed back against the wall.

His chest and claws were wet with blood, the sticky fluid concealing around his mouth. The creature had died with barely a squeak, but it was...bloody, to say the least. His belly was full, but the taste was foul. he wiped his mouth with his forearm, smearing the fur there, and he grunted in disgust. Small bones, stained with ragged flesh and blood, steamed in the chill air.

Reduced to eating vermin. If Yogga had planned that, he wouldn't be surprised. He was still weak, and his situation was bad, but he wouldn't starve. How to get out was another matter.

Then he blinked. For a second, he felt Karena in the cell with him, as tangible as though she were standing next to him.

"Kar?"

----------

Ralj calling her name, took Karena by surprise, distracting her enough that she nearly missed that the Twi'lek was stalling them. She twisted her blaster hand inwards and followed through with a lightning fast elbow that struck the Twi'lek solidly in the mouth. though he was a head taller than Kar, she could see it had rattled Yogga's thug much more than the jab of pain where one or more of his sharp teeth had raked her forearm in the impact. She brought the blaster back into play, the urges to lose control seemingly growing inside her.

" Quit stalling or I'll find someone else to take us to him." She threatened, letting the warmth of the contact from Ralj seep in and push the other energies away. Twice she tried to reach out to Ralj with her mind and tell him they were coming, but both times it failed. " Of course it doesn't work when I want it to." She said under her breath before pointing down a corridor. " I know he's that way. I can feel him, and you know what happenend to the last Hutt that tried to mess around with the Rebellion."

The Twi'lek rubbed his mouth, sputtering in agony as alien blood pooled and congealed. He eyed Karena and Sirarea warily, then rubbed his forearm, spitting blood to the side; when he glanced back, his expression was less false joviality, more calculating and pained caution.

"You...you know, I see. No tricks. I do not wish to die." He gestured with a sharp, blood-smeared nail to the pistols both females carried. "I know where the Cathar is, yes. You are correct." His eyes narrowed momentarily. "Know much you do of our arrangements."

"Enough." Spat Siraea. "Take us to my brother, I won't spend a moment here longer than I must." She shivered, rubbing her bicep absently. "Something here feels...wrong. Cold."

She eyed the darkened tunnel. "Predatory."

----------

"Oh, no, no, NO..."

Would she be that insane? Had she come back for him? Raljar paced and tossed his head, urgency gripping his heart with a tight fist. He had no doubt his lover had come back for him, no doubt she would be that foolish...or that loyal. Wouldn't he do the same for her?

He stopped, and swiped his claws across the wall with a snarl of frustration. Sparks screeched and glittered along the scratches.

"[Think, furball, think.]" He muttered in Catharese, pounding a clenched fist on the wall. Karena was in more danger here than she knew, as a shuddering memory of a ghoulish one-eyed spectre haunted his still-fragile recollections even now. He wasn't about to lie down and wait for his mate to get herself captured or worse trying to rescue him.

He squatted in the corner of the cell, frowing in concentration as he thought back to his Alliance combat training. The first rule of the battlefield, his drill instructor had pounded into his head, was always utilize your surroundings.

He cast about the dripping hole, looking for some inspiration. His gaze was drawn to a tiny box attached by cables to the upper corner of the wall, next to dripping piping. The cables ran into the wall near the door.

Better than nothing. No knowin what the box was, but...second rule; what-if's are a dozen a credit, but they don't tell you anything and they don't help when action is required.

His eyes narrowed. The box was small, secure. A small object would be required to probe its innards. Small, slim, and long...

His gaze alighted on the blood-stained ribs bones of the rat-creature.

----------

Karena nodded. She had the same feeling as the Hutt's lackey led the way down a corridor in the direction she could sense Raljar. She let Siraea go first simply because in her opinion, her training made her better to provide cover if needed. The Twi'lek made no attempt to mislead them as they delved into the bowels of the complex as far as she could tell. Then something struck her as they passed through another doorway. Hutts generally had dozens, if not more minions and lackeys, yet they had passed no one in their trek.

She was about to comment when the strangeness of the room they were in. Their footfalls seemed to echo, indicating a large room. It was humid and dark, and a strange odor hung in the air. When Siraea looked back at her with her nosed wrinkled, Kar nodded with her brow furrowed in confusion. The Twi'Lek never faltered as he crossed the room and opened the at the far end and stepped through. warning bells went off in Kar's head as the twi'lek sttepped through, but before she could get the word," Trap!" out of her mouth, the door slammed shut, immediately followed by the one they'd entered.

The booming laughter of a Hutt echoed through the chamber. Kar cursed as blast doors built into the ceiling slipped open, exposing the chamber to Yogga's throne room. Kar looked around in horror as she realized they were on a catwalk. Below, the light didn't penetrate, but the glinting of ambient light off the eyes of pair of creatures stirring and growling. The Hutt bellowed, and behind it a droid translated." Our esteemed lord Yogga has determined that because of financial losses you have endured to his empire, he has decided that you are not worth the price the Imperials have placed on your head and will instead be fed to the Nexu. It also pleases him that your deaths will torture his latest prize to no end and that his only regret is that Raljar will not witness your demise. but rest assured that your screams will echo into his cell and hopefully never leave his nightmares."

Kar thought about taking a shot at Yogga, but figured the plexisteel would be blastproof. I'm sorry Ralj went through her mind as the catwalk began to retract, causing the creatures below stir even more. she looked at Siraea and muttered. " Where are those Imperials?"

[dakota]

*****
Raljar cursed, brushing his thick mane back from his eyes with a hand as the rib-bone slipped and slid, obstinately refusing to catch on the small conduits maintenance cover. The Cathar was hanging from a slick cluster of pipes drilled into the ceiling, his boots braced against the two walls.

"[Sith take it all!]" He jabbed and prodded at the scarred little box, the cracked remains of rib bones below a mute testament to the difficulty of the procedure. He was on his fourth rib-bone already; Ancestors, he didn't want to have to eat another of the cursed things.

"Haaah!" He hissed in triumph as his rising temper seemed to prod the bone into co-operating. The sharded tip wedged in the maintenance cover catch, and he prised the squealing metal open with a grunt. The bone snapped halfway-enough for him to hook a finger round.

He paused, staring into the distance with mute horror as Yogga's echoing proclamation reached the cell complex. With an invective of frustrated horror, he punched a claw into the box and twisted. Hard.

The box flashed and snapped, and Raljar fell from the corner with a howl as the energy contained within the conduit belted him good. He curled up, twitching and hissing through teeth clenched in pain as his arm jerked and refused to co-operate; the barbequed flesh and fur of two of the fingers on his right hand stung his eyes and nose.

The light on the door lock, however, had turned off.

Forcing himself upright, Ralj cradled his injured hand against his chest, braced himself against the doorframe, and threw his weight against the door. His muscles bunched and his thighs ached; painful convulsions cramped a knee twisted from the fall, as he gritted his teeth and screwed his eyes shut and cords stood out in sharp relief on his neck and torso. He threw every ounce of power he could muster against the unyielding portal's hydraulics.

Slowly, groaning with age and frozen by poor maintenance, the door began to move.

***

The catwalk retracted slowly, the cheering and jeering of Yogga's minions roaring around them as the two females parted ways, their respective sides of the catwalk distancing themselves from each other.

Siraea stared down into the darkness, and looked up at Karena with wide eyes. "I think they're hungry, [Sister]."

Below, the Nexy jibbered and chittered and shrieked as the scene above goaded them into a starving frenzy. Siraea cocked her blaster pistol. "Think these will scratch them? Because I am fresh out of ideas."

The catwalks had only six feet left to retract.

***

Above the palace complex, through the murk, heavy transports descended unseen through the polluted, cold air towards their target. Rows of stormtroopers checked their blaster rifles and equipment. Between the rows of seats, a Stormtrooper commander strode, patting his men on the shoulder and issuing orders before jogging up a ramp to the command module. Leaning over the pilot's shoulder, he tapped the commlink. The pilot nodded, and as the trooper retreated, he keyed in his battle comm.

"<Task Force Hammer, this is Hammer Lead. All transports, commence assault. I say again, all transports commence assault.>"

Below in the compound, criminals and lackeys stared upwards at the incoming lights. The transports loomed large, their jack turrets swinging into firing position with deadly purpose.

*****

Alarms began to buzz throughout the compound as Kar focused her attention on the beasts below. " I think all we'd do is tick them off. Wait a minute," she looked up in revalation, " that sounds like the Imps took the bait after all." Her attention turned to the door control next to her. She focused her attention on door controls now that the veiwing gallery seemed to be in chaos. A rythmic thumping seemed to echo through Yogga's palace along with the klaxons as Kar managed to beat the controls open with the butt of her blaster. She looked at the controls, tracing the wires that led to the different keys. she pulled a couple of them out after her quick study and twisted them frayed ends together.

The walkway halted, much to the disappointed sounding growls from beneath, a mere two feet from total retraction on either end. " Quiet you, I'm sure someone will feed you later." She said as she tried to find the right key to open the door. She tried one, but the wrong door opened behind Siraea." Better than nothing. If that starts to close, go through and find Ralj."

She fiddled with the controls again, and the door did open, but not from her doings. A Weequay looked at Kar with surprise, and immediately swung his mace at Kar, catching her off guard. She caught the edge of the walkway and hung on as the Nexu began to get more excited, circling below , leaping up, their claws mere inches from hooking her dangling feet. She looked up at the Weequay as he stepped closer, trying to hide her panic.

Ralj! where are you? Flashed through her mind to his without thinking about it.

******

The Weequay cackled in triumph, and raised his mace. The sharp retort of Siraea's blaster accomanied his gargling scream as he staggered and plunged into the Nexu pit. The frenzied snarls and screams were accompanied with the crunching of bone as Siraea performed a graceful leap, clearing the gap with inches to spare. She knelt and extended a hand to Karena as the cracking noises below grew wetter.

"Come on, [sister]. We haven't come this far to see ourselves turned into nexu feed. Pull!"

The Cathar pulled Karena clear of the messy feast below. She cocked an eyebrow as they cleared the open doorway, leaving the shadowed scene of blood and chaos behind.

"You know, Therez, you're attractive when you're flustered. Come on, we had best be anywhere but here. Your Imperial hounds have arrived."

***

The Aqualish staggered backwards, slumping against the sodden wall and twitching as Raljar rounded the corner, clutching a Gamorrean axe and flexing his knuckles. Karena's scream had echoed in his mind, and he had followed the direction ever since. A few guards were unconcious...or worse...and those few he had encountered had fled rather than face the Cathar's uncertain wrath.

Above, the echoing retorts of blaster fire and explosions rocked the compound.

***

Yogga waved his arms frantically and enragedly at his minions as his repulsor-divan slid back into the security of the wall. Mendez rounded on the crome boss, his one remaining eye glittering as harshly as his naked cybernetic one. "You said they would suffer! They were to both die! Curse you and your overstuffed sense of pantomime, you-"

~"Enough!"~ Bellowed Yogga. ~"There will be time later. Hurry, you worthless piles of reeking Rekk dung! Ready my personal shuttle!"~

~"Count yourself lucky you're too valuable to lose."~ The Hutt grumbled at the fuming Mendez as the floor sank on gravity tracks. ~"There will be time later for this. Contingencies are in place."~

Mendez glared and twitched, his venom spitting and snarling, but he held his tongue.

***

"Pull back! There's too-AAGH!"

Another criminal fell to the flashing blaster bolts as his companions abandoned the access way, fleeing back down the tunnel as stormtroopers advanced, laying down a withering barrage of blaster fire. The Palace complex shook and rumbled as a transport swept past on another strafing run, the chatter of E-Webs echoing in the distance.

Carney Hoskels, clad head to foot in environmental blast armour, descended the drop ramp of a landed transport where he was met by a stormtrooper squad leader and contingent in battle-stained armour. "Report?"

<"Little resistance, sir. Squads three and eleven have secured the landing complex, and we expect the perimiter defences to fall shortly.">

"Excellent. And our primary objective?"

"<No sign of her yet, sir. The squads are checking female prisoners and corpses, as per your orders.>"

"Make sure she isn't a corpse, trooper. Our orders are quite specific." Hoskels snapped coldly. "You and your squad, follow me."

<"Yes, sir.">

The unit advanced across the plasticrete, the glittering red flashes of blaster fire in the distance...
*****

Karena scowled at Siraea slightly before realizing it was a joke. " You sound more like your brother as I spend time with you." she reached down and stuck her hand in an empty holster. Lokoking down to confirm it, she cursed." Must have dropped when I fell off the platform. And my holdout's drained. Looks like you get to..." She stopped mid sentence as she push Siraea out of the way of a laser blast.

Coming up with her vibro Shiv, Kar activated it as she threw it at their attacker, catching the Quarren threw his tentacles and embedding in his wind pipe. Before the fresh corpse slumped to the floor, Kar was on it, removing her knife and claiming the DH-17 he had carried. That's better." she said, checking the weapon's charge.

As they followed the corridors of Yogga's palace towards where she had felt Raljar, movement down a side corridor grabbed her attention as a figure passed the other end. She knew who it was without a second glance. "RALJ!" she shouted and beckoned Siraea to follow. She charged down the corridor and rounded the corner, throwing herself in his arms. With her head buried in his chest, she spoke muffledly, " You had me worried, furball."

*****

~ Sir, I've located the female.~

Carney smiled as he spoke into his commlink. " Is she alone?"

~ Negative. she's with a pair... bothans, I think. she's embraced one at the moment~

The smile faded as he ground his teeth," Perfect. Keep them under observation. I'll deal with them personally. Do not engage."

~ Copy that, sir.~

Hoskels pointed at a squad of stormtroopers. " Follow me. We have them."

*****

"Kar." Raljar held her close to his chest, his eyes closed. The pain ebbed a little. He could have killed her, but the feel of her against his chest dulled the aching in his body and bones.

"You foolish [*****], both of you." He murmured. "You could have gotten yourselves kiled. I told you to run."

Siraea snorted. "Like you have ever been able to fend for yourself, brother. Besides, your Human here was pining for you. I cannot stand remaining with maudlin aliens." Despite her harsh words, Siraea's voice choked a little as Raljar twisted Karena's face to his and kissed her deeply. He tasted and smelled of blood and musk and bacta.

He pressed Karena close to his chest with his free arm as he regarded both of them. He looked exhausted. "Yogga?"

"Gone," replied Siraea. "The slug fled when the Imperials landed."

Raljar nodded wordlessly. "Mendez?"

"Mendez?!" Siraea's jaw dropped, then her teeth bared, her eyes bright with hatred and fear. "You are joking?!"

"No" He sighed, wincing as he hefted the axe. "Come one. I'll explain on the way."

***

<"They're moving, sir.">

"Copy." Hoskels checked the charge on his blaster rifle as he and his men marched through the carnage, sparing not a glance for the dead and dying. The air reeked of ozone and carbon scoring.

<"Therez and one of the non-Humans appear to have a relationship, sir. You information checks out.">

"Of course it does. Trace their passage, we'll be there shortly." Hoskels keyed his commlink, finger pressed against his helmet. "I want them taken alive."

<"Sir,"> said the troopers as one.

Hoskels smiled beneath his mask. He had been waiting for this for some time.

******

" Hey, we didn't even get to blow up the hovercar," Karena said to Siraea, mocking dissappointment. She couldn't help but chuckle at the look on Sir's face, and used it to hide her concern for Raljar's injuries. He was tough, but she could see past his bravado trying to hide them. she took the caller from her pocket and handed it to Siraea," Here, we'll have to use it to escape."

Siraea's brow rose in concern, " But you said you rigged it to blow up on impact?"

Kar smirked," Then don't hit anything. Come on, we don't have much time. and Vaig must be going nuts waiting for us at ...," Kar turned and looked at a sound behind them. " Did you hear that? you two keep going, I'll cover the rear." Before either Cathar could protest, Karena dropped back behind them stopping to look down an adjoining corridor they'd just past.

The sounds of a scuffle drew attention behind and time seemed to stand still. By the time Raljar and Siraea had turned, a stormtrooper had grabbed Karena and pulled her close, his blaster rifle jammed deep in her stomach. "Carney?" She asked as the blaster went off, causing her to slump into the trooper's arms before dropping to the floor, a dollop of blood trickling from her nose. The trooper looked down at her lifeless body on the floor as two more troopers joined him.

The lead trooper removed his helmet, looking down at her on the floor, " Sorry Kurse, not taking any chances with you." Major Carney Hoskels looked up at Raljar and Siraea, " You creatures have no idea how long I've wanted to do this. Kill them." He ordered as he flicked his own rifle from stun to full power. The other pair started to bring their own weapons to bear."