The room Washuu had blithely referred to as a lounge could easily have been used as an auditorium, at least from the standpoint of sheer size. The room extended at least thirty meters to a side, with the ceiling arching far overhead. In the center of the room stood a small tree, and beneath the tree sat a cluster of park benches. Behind the tree, one of the many waterways which ran through the forward area of the lab burbled happily. In the bench closest to the tree sat Rianna, hands in her lap, slumped forward in what appeared to be deep introspection- and although Kris had learned long, long ago to distrust all appearances when inside the lab, he could feel the truth of this one. The young woman before him held on to composure only with an effort, and her confusion bled outward towards him like dye in a lake. "Hey, um, Ms. Santova," he called to her, careful to give her space and time to react. "What do you want?" Rianna barked, almost pouting. "Well..." Kris struggled to think of something to say. "I wanted to apologize for reacting so badly back there. I didn't mean to... well... hurt your feelings..." "My feelings are just fine," Rianna murmured angrily. "Like hell they are," Kris said. He sat beside her on the bench, a discreet space between them, and gently continued, "Now come over here and tell me what's really wrong. Please." Rianna shrunk away from him and said, "Give me a good reason why I should." "Well, that's a tough one," Kris said lightly. "Let me think about this," he smiled, ticking off points on his fingers: "This guy I run into out of nowhere, with delusions of being a Jedi, challenges me during a firefight, then bitches me out, and now he wants me to trust him. Hm...," he frowned, doing an deliberately bad job of acting serious. "Well, I could try using my irresistible charm... nononono," he smiled, trying to lure a smile from the young woman. It didn't work. Sighing, Kris slipped out of manic mode and said, "You want a good reason? All right, here's a good reason. I don't want anything from you, except maybe your trust. I'm willing to do anything I can to get you out of whatever this is you're in, no matter what. And, between one thing and another, I think I might just be able to help you more that you might think... especially considering how things have gone so far. How's that?" Rianna didn't answer; she focused her attention on an undefined point in the air, careful not to let her confusion show to this near-stranger. Part of her, the part that had been shouting against the darkness for the past week or more, wanted to trust the man, to accept his help, and just let the madness end. The darkness within her shouted back that she wanted to stay angry, she _had_ to stay angry... ... but this voice no longer overpowered her mind; instead, it seemed hardly louder or more overbearing than the first voice. Rianna could no longer tell which voice was her. The thought frightened her. For a moment she squeezed her eyes shut, and a tear escaped from one corner before she could do anything. Shaking her head violently, she grated: "I want to be alone right now." Kris reached out a hand and grasped Rianna's shoulder gently, saying, "It's all right. Let it go." Rianna struggled to maintain control, to stay angry, to keep the walls which protected her in place... The cracks grew larger, wider... and the walls collapsed, and she buried her face in her hands, sobbing quietly. Kris took the young horned woman in his arms and hugged her, feeling her pain flow over him, trying to comfort her. Then, the flow of emotions became something more; one by one, a series of images flowed through Red's mind, images of Mayl bouncing up and down with excitement; images of Ploovo Two-For-One with his pallid face and slimy grin; of the dozen or so Starchasers which had hounded them from the spaceport on Fenris; more and more, large and small, telling the story of how two women had managed to get into so much trouble. And the images flowed... The jeering voices were behind her. Her legs were tired, but she kept running. Why did it have to be like this? She turned a corner, her heart pounding in her ears, not quite loud enough to drown out the taunts of her pursuers. She didn't look back, only forward, ignoring the disdainful glances of the few adults who took one look at her and quickly found something else to hold their attention. She squeezed her eyes shut as she ran, trying to drown out the panic, trying to call on that power her Mother was teaching her about. Every lesson stressed caution, and preparation, and control, and a thousand other things that she either couldn't remember, couldn't pronounce, or didn't care about right now. Anger. Fear. Agression. She had plenty of the first and second one, and was tired of being the target of the third. Her panicked young mind screamed for power. None came. A soft spot in the ground caught her foot. The rhythm of her gallop broken, her eyes leaped open as she flailed and tumbled to the ground, skidding painfully on her forearms and knees. She moaned and scrabbled a bit, her feet slipping in some loose sand as she attempted to get back up, but a sudden weight on her back put her stomach to the ground. "Got you, Horny!" "Ow, lemme go, lemme go!" Her eyes teared up as she wiggled futilely. "Forget it, Horny!" "Yeah, we got you now!" The gang laughed and mocked, surrounding her with a wall of hurtful noise. "Here, lemme get 'er!" "OW!" One of the boys grabbed her by her curled horn -- it was small, but enough for a handhold and not yet very sturdy! "Oww, OWW!" "Hey, let's see if it comes off!" "OWW, lemme GO, OWW!" Her eyes were squeezed shut as she was led around blindly by the hand on her horn, dragging her around until more hands came and grabbed her roughly, holding her still. "Quit it, lemme GO, OWW!" "Hey!" The pull on her horn relaxed suddenly at the new voice's intrusion. "Knock it off, you little lee'vrmytes!" "Beat it, lady!" "Yeah, 's none'a your business!" "I'm -making- it my business! Leave that girl alone!" "Figures someone like you'd help someone like her!" "Yeah, freaks gotta stick together!" A brief moment of unkind laughter ensued. "WHY YOU LITTLE--" The laughter turned to impotent, angry panic as the voices of her tormentors became a hurricane around her, and she was dashed to the ground like a forgotten toy. She lay as still as she could, listening to the mob retreating, save for one lone, infuriated voice. "I KNOW WHERE TO FIND YOUR PARENTS YOU KOUR'IAT-BRAINED LITTLE PUGGS!" In the ensuing silence, she decided it was safe, and slowly righted herself, pushing up with her fingertips to avoid touching her raw, skinned palms to the ground. Now that the rush of fear and pain was over, she sobbed in frustration, sniffling through her nose and wiping at her cheeks with the backs of her hands. She wanted to get back to her Mother. She wanted to learn more about how to call on that power. Then she'd show them. She winced when she felt someone touch her. "It's okay." It was the newcomer -- the one who broke up the fight. "They're all gone now. It's okay." "Th-thanks," she mumbled between sniffles. She tried to look up, but her eyes were all teary and she only saw a large flesh-tone blur framed by a red blur. "Hey, no trouble ... now, what say we get you cleaned up?" "'m fine." Her arms stung, but she didn't want anyone's help, especially not someone as cheerful as this. "No, you're not. Look. Look at your arms." She blinked, wiped and looked down; her young eyes, finally able to see clearly, widened at the mass of red she found. The injury suddenly seemed to sting a lot more. "You got scraped up pretty badly. Must've been a nasty fall." "Yeah," she replied gently, still in a daze about the whole ordeal. "Come on, we'll go get you all washed up at the doctor's." The hands were lifting her now, pullling her up onto her feet. She was a little unsteady at first, but the newcomer didn't let her go until she was stable, and even then it was slowly. She lifted her gaze to her benefactor, and was greeted immediately by a pair of bright, cheerful blue eyes on a pretty, smiling face. Bright red hair filled out the edges of her vision, interrupted on either side by the long ears she'd come so accustomed to seeing here. "What's your name?" the girl asked. "R..." She was reluctant at first, but decided it was all right. "Rianna Santova." "Very nice to meet you, Rianna," the girl chirped happily. "I've met your mother. She's a very nice person, and I can see you're a lot like her. I'll take you back home after we've got you washed up, and got some clean bandages on those arms." The newcomer's cheerfulness was impossibly contagious, and Rianna smiled. "An' what's your name?" "I'm Mayl. Mayl Popp'fl." The solid blue of the clear skies began to change, fading to a deep purple which grew darker with each passing moment. A few points of sparkling light began to appear as the blue and purple melted into a thin halo following the curving horizon of the blue-green planet below, leaving inky blackness in their wake. Rianna stood up in the chair, her small hands resting on the console as she leaned forward, her eyes wide in fascination, as they had been ever since the shuttle had left Hyeruul's surface. She'd never been off the ground before, had always thought the sky was the ceiling of the world and the stars were decorations. Now she was above the sky, and the stars were even prettier than before. "wow..." she breathed. "It's pretty, isn't it?" said the deep, soothing voice of her father, who sat beside her. Rianna didn't answer, far too busy looking at the place she called home from a whole different perspective. Her father chuckled at the sight. "Let me show you something *really* pretty." The low rumble of the shuttle's engines grew louder, and the surface of the planet passed more quickly beneath them. Presently darkness creeped across the surface of the planet as the shuttle glided into Hyeruul's night side. A moment later the Hyelian sun vanished, and the spaceship grew dark, lit only by the distant stars. Her father's hands moved across the panel, bringing the shuttle to a relative stop. The interior lights dimmed and died, leaving only the light of the consoles to illumine the cockpit. Rianna felt herself being picked up, lifted into his lap. "Watch this," he grinned as he reached around her and touched a few more controls. Like a developing photograph, a sea of multicolored stars and nebulae, unlike anything Rianna had ever seen before, appeared before the little girl's enraptured eyes. Her jaw went slack, and she just stared and stared. It was one thing to hear bedtime stories about her parents' travels among the stars, about the things they'd seen, but to actually see them herself... "whoa....." the little girl breathed. "Pretty, isn't it?" her father asked softly. "uh-huh," she answered. "See that big yellow one?" his shadowed finger pointed towards one of the larger yellow stars. "That's where I live. Someday I'll take you there." "Really??" the girl turned excitedly to face her father, who was shrouded in darkness at the moment, but that didn't matter. All that mattered was it was her daddy. "Uh-huh," he answered. Rianna grinned widely. "Daddy, when I grow up I wanna be a *space pilot*, just like you!" she chirped. He chuckled, ruffling her hair. "Heh. You can do anything you want, sweetheart." Rianna wrapped her arms around him and hugged him as tightly as she could. "I love you, Daddy." "Love you too, hon," he said, encircling her with his own much bigger arms. "There's something here..." The words slipped from Rianna's mouth almost before she knew it. She and her mother had paused for a rest after a long and strenuous jog through the Kak'aryk'o Forest when she felt the disturbance, the sensation that something was fundamentally not right here. In the infamous 'Lost Woods' that was not unusual... but this was much different, and much darker. Rianna extended her senses, focusing on the source of the darkness. After a few moments, she found herself facing an ancient tree, old, huge and hoary, with a gaping hole large enough for an armored man to pass through in its front. The hole seemed to attract her, dark, deep, apparently bottomless; the darkness seemed to flow from it like a spring. She had heard of such places, gateways into the underground caves and passages crafted by the ancient Hyelians. The Underworld had been abandoned almost since the beginning of written history on Hyeruul, and it was now home only to the subterranean creatures of the realm. Hyelian children's stories, and a large part of Hyelian history, centered around these caves... And here was a real one. "I feel... darkness..." She turned to face her mother, a well-built blond woman with a prominent set of thick, curled horns. She looked youthful, but her sharp green eyes bespoke ages upon ages of life experience... and those eyes now regarded her with the gaze of a Master. "This place," she said quietly, "is strong with the Dark Side, a domain of great power." She cocked her head toward the tree. "Go inside." Rianna paused, looking toward the tree for a moment before turning to face her mother again. "... What's in there?" "Whatever you take with you," her mother answered evenly, and gestured toward the tree again. Steeling herself, Rianna approached. Wood and rock shaped themselves into rough steps which Rianna could find footing on. For a moment the steps seemed to lead down only into so much blackness, but as her eyes began to adjust, a faint blue glow, and a large open cavern, could be seen beneath her. The light, such as it was, came from bioluminescent mosses which clung to the walls, bathing the room in their eerie blue light. Sounds of dripping water and scuttling animals seemed to echo all around. A small b'hot slithered past on a nearby rock ledge, pausing to regard the young girl with shining red eyes before moving on. Rianna fought back a shiver, starting to feel as if a thousand pairs of those red eyes were on her. She felt herself being drawn forward, toward the center of the large cavern... >Horny!< Rianna jumped at the voice, which hissed out of nowhere, echoing in the darkness. >Got you, Horny!< Rianna looked around quickly, trying to ignore the way the shadows seemed to be shifting, the way the glowing red eyes seemed to glow brighter. >Little halfbreed freak!< They were acquiring definition and shape in her mind, taking the form of Hyelians, still dark except for those glowing red eyes. Rianna found herself wanting to back away, but suddenly realized she had no idea which way the escape was. Panic surged. She fought it down. >Aww, gonna cry?< They closed in, and now some of the shadows seemed to blend into one larger one, like an ogre, with a much bigger set of gleaming eyes...... Ghan'nyn. >Let's see if those horns come off, fellas.< She tried to back away, felt herself bump into a rock wall, felt the fear welling up and threatening to come flying out in a terrified scream...... Fear. Wait... ...Fear... ...'Control your fear. Release your anger.'... She remembered. >*You* go away, you little freak,< the jeering continued. >We don't want you on our world!< Rianna answered, her deep-seated anger at all the times she'd been wronged by cruel children coming toward the fore. Suddenly she felt as if the shadows were physically pressing against her, the evil red glow of the gleaming eyes... and was that the smell of foul breath?... right in her face. >You're gonna die, you little horned alien bitch.< she roared right back. <> Dead silence. An empty cave with glowing blue mosses on the walls... An illusion. It had been an illusion... As she reemerged into the brighter, warmer air of the surface world, she found her mother seated on a fallen log nearby, a long twig in her hand, with which she poked at the dirt, making random scrawls in the soil. Her mother said nothing, only looked at her for a moment, many thoughts obviously passing through her mind but which she chose not to share with Rianna. Then her mother's gaze went back to the ground. Gingerly Rianna sat on the fallen log next to her, not knowing what else to do, not knowing whether she'd passed or failed the test which she knew had just confronted her. Her mother would tell her sooner or later, of course. But right now she didn't know... The flood of images slowed and stabilized, becoming a rapport between the Jedi and the Sith. Kris and Rianna looked into each other's souls, to the innermost depths. Rianna's confusion and sadness flowed through Kris, forming words: <...everything my father did for me, prepared for me... gone in one moment of stupidity... i want to hate her for this... but she is too much my friend...> Kris returned a wave of compassion to Rianna, and through it words of his own: One by one, Kris sent his own images, of himself at the WDF Academy, of his mysterious tutor, of the experiment which had changed his life forever. Kris sent, Rianna sobbed mentally, frustrated, angry, and frightened. Quietly, the thought whispered, Kris sent firmly, Forcing the mindlink closed, he said aloud, "Rest here, please. I'll see what I can do about finding your attackers." With a final hug, he said, "You are perfectly safe here. Rest, and relax." Rianna nodded, not being capable of much else anyway. The fog of emotions was lifting, fading away... and with it, a lot of her strength. Rianna felt as if she were awakening from a nightmare... only the nightmare was real, and she was still here, with no idea what to do next. Slowly, the despair Rianna had held off since leaving Hyeruul returned, unchecked by the dark power which had protected Rianna, and almost destroyed her. Kris felt her sinking into self-pity, fear, and pain, withdrawing into a coocoon of misery, as her emotions faded from his senses. Sighing, Kris released her and left her to her misery. He'd done all he could here; now it was time to take care of the other half of the problem. The door opened as Washuu was finishing up the last bit of repair to several ligaments in Mayl's upper ankle. The man- Admiral Overstreet, Kris, whatever- seemed a bit tired, even sad, to Mayl, who wasn't feeling all that cheerful herself. "Washuu, can you leave us for a moment?" he asked quietly. "I need to talk for a moment with Miss Mayl." "Sure, Kris," Washuu smiled, putting the cellular stimulator away. "I'll just go check and see if my protiase cultures are ready." "Right..." Kris said as Washuu skipped off into the depths of the Lab. Once the mad scientist had vanished, Kris turned to face Mayl, looking at her with a stare Mayl hadn't seen since the time she'd tried feeding a cookie to a wild ok'to'ryk. "Now then," he said very quietly, "Mayl, do you know why I asked Washuu to leave?" Mayl cringed on the examination table. "...don't tell me you're mad at me, too," she moaned, ears drooping. Things just kept getting worse... and it seemed to be all her fault. "No, I'm not mad," Kris said, softening his gaze and laying a gentle hand on her shoulder. "And your friend isn't mad, either. But she is feeling pretty miserable right now." "Miserable?" Mayl asked. The cold feeling she'd had ever since they left Hyeruul suddenly exploded, like a iceberg appearing from nowhere in her gut. "Yep," Kris said. "She's sad, and scared, and lonely, and she needs a friend really bad about now." He smiled faintly. "You know any around here?" Mayl gaped at him in shock. "But... you can't mean me, she hates me now, I just make her angry and I can't do anything right and I keep messing up and I-" Kris touched a finger to her lips, and she watched mutely as he smiled a gentle, friendly smile. "Listen to me," he said very quietly. "Rianna needs a friend. And you are the best friend she has ever had, virtually the -only- friend from what... what she told me." For a moment, he seemed uncertain how to proceed. "Tell me," he said at last, "how do you feel right now?" "How do I feel?" Mayl bent her head and thought for a moment, finally saying, "Guilty. And stupid. Really stupid. No, first stupid, then guilty. Wait, no, stupid and guilty..." Mayl slumped, ears drooping almost straight down. "Oh, b'hots, I just ... I'm such a ... such a j'ttaten, krelb-eating ... khonk-headed dinn'gam'orf," she finished, mumbling into her lap. Kris gave her shoulder a reassuring squeeze and said, "Look, people make mistakes. You make some. She makes some. It happens. Right now, though, you need to go in there and work it out with her. She'll listen now... and she needs her partner." "Yes, sir," Mayl whispered. She trudged to the door and eased it open slowly, relaxing slightly when it failed to squeak. The immense room on the other side grabbed her attention, totally occupying her mind for a few moments. It took her dazzled eyes several seconds to find Rianna sitting on the bench beneath the tree, looking more miserable than Mayl had ever seen her. Rianna sat on the bench, head leaning on her folded arms, which in turn leaned on the elbows atop her legs. Her horns kept her hair from covering a face which contemplated her feet with severe dissapointment. The discipline and strength that Mayl associated with Rianna had totally deserted the Sith woman, replaced by misery and helplessness. Mayl quietly eased the door shut and leaned against it, keeping her eyes on Rianna all the time. She still couldn't believe that Rianna felt this bad. She just seemed... so totally miserable. Mayl stood and stared, unable to retreat and unable to step forward and face what she'd done to her best friend. Rianna. Strong, confident, indomitable Rianna. Mayl had spent her late adolescence watching fascinated as Rianna had grown from young childhood into womanhood almost overnight, at least by Hyelian standards. She'd shared Rianna's growing pains and awkward stages with no little joy, as Rianna's body had sprung up and out, finally surpassing hers in almost every way. She had smiled and watched as the alien girl, put-upon by children who had not yet learned to accept differences, grew both in courage and in maturity with the knowledge that, somewhere among the strange faces and pointed ears she had a friend who would always look out for her. As Rianna's mother had taught discipline, patience, and the ways of the Sith, Mayl had taught her advanced mischief-making (as if that needed to be taught), as well as her love for history and all things ancient. They'd dreamed together of leaving Hyeruul one day, seeing the galaxy they could only hear about at home, maybe even find the pieces of Rianna's heritage... ...and Mayl had gone and made a total disaster of it. Mayl finally stepped forward, ears drooping almost low enough to touch her shoulders. The gentle sound of her bootheels tapping the Lab floor caught Rianna's attention, bringing her eyes up to look at her. Mayl froze, stomach churning, as she saw the track of Rianna's tears still fresh on her face. She couldn't believe it. Rianna -never- cried. Never... except for now. After a long, tense moment, Rianna returned to examining her shoes, and Mayl found the nerve to continue walking, down the path and under the tree, beside the bench. Slowly, carefully, she turned and sat down beside Rianna- on the other side from where Kris had sat, although she had no way of knowing that. The subtle background hum of the Lab seemed to echo in Mayl's ears. Mayl wanted to whine and beg and plead and generally make a total infant of herself, but she managed to control herself. No begging, no whining. The Admiral had been nice enough to calm Rianna down, and she couldn't waste the opportunity he had given her. Unfortunately, she had no idea what to say, and after a long, uncomfortable wait, she sighed and moaned, "Rianna... I -really- by'phed it this time, didn't I?" Rianna glanced up at the elf, equally uncomfortable, and she answered the only way she could: honestly. "Yes, Mayl... you biffed it." "Stupid," Mayl huffed, pounding her fist on the bench beside her. "I was so -stupid.- First sign of even the kuffiest ship available and I act like that krelb-eater wants to hand me the Righteous Indignation. Khonk could only wish to be this stupid." Mayl folded her arms over her chest as she moaned, "Never think, just jump, just like the Queen tells me I shouldn't do... same as I always do." The corner of Rianna's mouth turned slightly upward. "Like that time you took me to visit the kour'iat pens?" Mayl glanced over at her friend, and her nose snorted a laugh that the rest of her failed to acknowledge. "Yeah ... and thought I could ride one of them out to show you how neat they were up close. I think I still have some bruises from that." Her eyes closed as she fell back into silence. "Or the time you wrapped up my horns in bandages because I was complaining about them hurting, when they were only going through another growth spurt?" Mayl nodded, still silent. "Or the time you wanted to show me the Heart of the Triforce, and the guards marched us right up to Tz'ldah's throne?" Mayl winced, but nodded agreement, unable to deny her own history, no matter how painful. "Just one thing after another," Rianna said softly. Mayl breathed a long, weary sigh, and turned to face her companion. "Ri ... Rianna ... I just want to say ... I'm sorry. For everything. For ... for being a pest ... getting you in all this trouble ... spending your money without even asking! ... I just..." She looked away again. "You saw your dream," Rianna stated quietly, into the brief pause. "You knew I'd want to be part of it, so you grabbed it." "Exactly! If I'd stop to j'ttating -think- once in a while we'd have a lot fewer bruises!" "And a lot less fun," Rianna said, smiling secretively to herself. "Maybe..." Mayl shrugged, not really believing it. "I don't know, maybe you'd be better off without me. There's nothing I'm good for but well-meaning screw-ups, and look where those get us -- Lyn'k knows how far from home, with a ship that barely works, a cargo that must be illegal in -some- way and everybody and his pet greppa trying to kill us..." Mayl felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked up to see Rianna sitting tall and straight, looking at her with eyes no longer clouded by tears. This was the Rianna Mayl remembered: confident, capable, and ready to take on the world. "But I'm doing it with my best friend," she replied, "helping her find her dream ... just as she would help me find mine." She chuckled for a moment, and noted softly, "if only I could have seen me now, a month ago..." Mayl slumped forward, propping her head up on her arms. "If I saw me a month ago, I'd slap me and tell me not to listen to greasy used-ship salesmen." Rianna snickered, then laughed, loud and long, as Mayl looked at her in astonishment. When Rianna finally managed to recover, she turned to face the elf, smiling as she said, "Mayl, listen... you've made some mistakes, but I'm willing to forgive you, on one condition -- from now on, -I- handle the money." Mayl stared blankly into Rianna's eyes, not understanding. Rianna held out her hand and said, "Deal?" At last, comprehension dawned in Mayl's mind. Her ears perked up, and her eyes began to sparkle as she smiled and took Rianna's hand with both of her own. "Deal." "So, this is the little object that has everyone hopping, hmm?" Washuu directed her question to the small object now lying before her on a table. Rianna had produced it from a pocket in her flightsuit, after mentioning she couldn't trust the Tarsus to not be burgled in her absence. The Egg seemed undamaged by its trip, except for a touch of lint along the inlays. "That's it," Rianna said. "Do you have any idea what it is?" Washuu stared at the Egg for a long, long moment. "Well... I haven't seen one of these little babies in a very, very long time." Carefully, she pressed one of the silver inlays and pushed gently inward on one tip. The top of the Egg popped open and flipped up to reveal a small display and keypad, labeled with faint, unfamiliar characters. Washuu tapped a few keys, and the display came to life, beeping cheerfully as a short scroll of the same strange characters rolled up the display screen. "And it still has power! Very interesting!" Washuu said, lost to curiosity, typing in commands as the others watched. Rianna mumbled, "Ah... I don't suppose you'd mind telling me what exactly that thing is?" Washuu snapped back to reality. "Oh! Sorry," she said. Gesturing to the egg, she said, "What we have here dates to the latter days of the ancient Mandalorian civilization. This is an extremely powerful military-grade decryptor. Very big-league stuff, only a few of this model were made before Mandalor vanished." Looking intently at the casing of the device, she whispered, "This may be the only example of its kind left in the galaxy!" Rianna whistled, impressed. Here and there, from world to world, legends arose of protective demons in ancient ruins, of magic weapons, of armor with incredible properties. At the heart of a lot of these legends lay the cast-off equipment of the most ancient star empire known to modern historians, Mandalor. A great deal of the secrets the Weaponsmiths of Mandalor had known were still mysteries to contemporary scientists. "Mandalorian, huh? Ten to one this thing would make every encryption code in the galaxy useless." "Well, you'd have to adapt this to modern communications systems..." Washuu sighed, "...but the Mandalorians were great at adapting." "Shit," Kris moaned. "No wonder you're getting chased. With this thing, a body could run roughshod through every security system in the galaxy as we know it?" "Not -every- system, but most of them," Washuu emphasized the qualifier. For a few minutes, the little group just stood and stared at the decryptor. Now and then, Washuu would look at its readout, nod, and punch in a new command. Finally, Rianna succumbed to curiosity. "Tell me, Dr. Washuu-" Washuu smiled slightly, not looking up from the decryptor. "Just call me Washuu." "Have you studied Santovasku artifacts?" Rianna asked, trying to keep any hint of eagerness out of her voice. "Do you know anything about them?" Washuu, still occupied with the decryptor, grinned widely. "I would think you knew more about the Santovasku than I did, being one yourself," she chuckled. "Besides, the Santovasku never really interested me. Too recent for my tastes." "Right, well, thanks anyway," Rianna mumbled. Washuu's answer didn't ring quite true in her ears. Strangely, though, she couldn't 'read' Washuu, like she could most people, to see if she was lying. In fact, trying to read this mad scientist's surface emotions, stray thoughts, anything, felt like a blind, deaf man trying to read a book by feeling the indentations left on the paper by the ink. If she knows anything, Rianna thought, she's not gonna tell me. Something to remember, I suppose. "Something bothering you?" Kris asked. Rianna jumped slightly. Not only was she not used to not being able to read a person, she wasn't used to people (besides her mother) who could read her back. Covering quickly, she grumbled, "I'd like to know who I was actually carrying this thing for. More to the point, who set us up?" "And I'd like to know where Mayl went." Washuu said, still checking out the decryptor. Kris and Rianna looked at each other. "Mayl?" they chorused. Sure enough, Mayl had vanished. Someone had stuffed a handkerchief in the crab chime above the lab door, silencing it- obviously so as not to disturb the others. "Aw, shit..." Kris groaned. "She has the most exceptional sense of timing sometimes..." Rianna grumbled. A placid stream of casual shoppers flowed idly through the corridors of one of the more organized sections of the Bazaar. The cobbled-together stalls of the smaller vendors, ubiquitous through the major traffic areas of the ship, gave way to tidy, well-ordered storefronts and illuminated signs as the corridor drew closer to the great central Promenade. The throng of casual shoppers, tourists, and galactic businesspeople parted slightly to allow a young woman in a loose-fitting flightsuit with long, bright red hair to pass, as she strode purposefully through the Bazzar along the path of least resistance. Her blue eyes darted to either side of the road, a gesture amplified by the movements of her long, elven ears as she scanned the storefronts for one crucial word. Donuts. "Reconciliation makes me hungry," she muttered under her breath as the shops' signs slid by her view at a fair clip. She didn't intend to eat them all herself, of course. Everyone else was busy back at Dr. Hakubi's lab, and they'd probably be about ready for something to nibble on by the time she was able to find a good pastry shop and get back. A strange sound amidst the background of mumbling, music and agressive salespeople stopped Mayl in her tracks. She turned her head and pricked up an ear, straining to identify whatever noise had startled her. The new sound, a deep, ominous muttering voice, seemed to be coming from nearby, and Mayl whirled to face the source of the voice just as its owner, a tallish man built like a kour'iat wrestler, turned to look at something across the corridor. She just barely caught a glimpse of a hand communicator as he slipped it into his trenchcoat. With a shrug, she continued on her way -- after all, if he wanted to shop, that was his business. She picked up her pace a bit, though, just in case. A few moments later, her eyes caught the friendly light from a Dunkin' Donuts sign, squeezed between a Biscuit Baron and Cyberware Etc. "Ah, finally!" she sighed. "I was beginning to wonder whether this place really was civilized." She took a quick glance behind herself as she walked through the door, and strangely enough there was that big man again, this time with a friend- maybe his brother, there was a strong family resemblance- and both were turning to look at the newest in GENOM's line of cyberplugs. Should I be worried about them? one part of her mind asked. I'm hungry, another replied. Everyone's waiting for these donuts, remember? And, with that issue settled, she ducked into the store. She settled on a moderately-diverse dozen -- three plain, three sugar, three glazed, three chocolate -- and a frosted raspberry danish for herself, which she held in her mouth. Juggling the box in an effort to find some way to carry it one-handed, she eased out the door and started walking back the way she had come. The hastily-assembled donut box bulged and sagged threateningly depending on where Mayl held it; if she held it by the side, the bottom threatened to fall out, and if she held it by the bottom, the ends hung down and the donuts threatened to erupt through the lid in a sugar-glazed Krakatoa. She began to entertain the prospect of walking all the way back to the lab foyer with the danish in her mouth. Naturally, with her mind absorbed by the physics of paper donut box engineering, she didn't notice the fellow standing in front of her until she'd walked right into him. "Mmf!" she muttered through a mouthful of danish, staggering backward a step and regaining her balance, somehow without dropping the box. "Mmh, efhuvv mmm," she tried to say, and then realized that she'd never be able to properly apologize with pastry on her tongue. She tried to make a one-moment-please gesture with the box, chewed as quickly as she could manage, and swallowed. "Whew!" she stated. "That's better. Look, I'm terribly--" "You're coming with us," the man replied flatly. Mayl blinked, and for the first time the sheer -bigness- of the man she'd run into registered in her mind. It was the same man she'd seen before, although at this range he seemed a lot bigger- he towered more than a full head over her own height, and the smeared raspberry and glaze on his barrel chest did nothing to soften his appearance. She glanced around, first with her eyes, then her head, and finally she spun her whole body around, looking for escape and finding only the goon and his four twin brothers. Everywhere she looked, the scenery of the New Orleans Bazaar had become wall-to-wall Neanderthal. She wished she'd taken her initial misgivings a little more seriously. She wished she had her sword with her. She wished Rianna were present. She wished she could have the rest of her danish back. And she realized, as the men started closing in around her, that she couldn't always get what she wished for. "um," she said weakly, "anybody here want a donut?" Rianna paced back and forth, worried, waiting for some word from Admiral Overstreet. A few hours ago, she could have killed the man for interfering; now she trusted him to bring her best friend back safely. Still, the waiting grated on her nerves, and she struggled to keep from rushing off to look for Mayl herself. Unfortunately, the Admiral's reasons for her staying put were sound: she didn't have the connections he had on and off the New Orleans. Also, if someone had captured Mayl, that made Rianna's safety top priority, at least until Mayl could be located. If Rianna were captured by the same people, the chances were neither woman would be heard from again. This left Rianna fretting the minutes away in the lab while Washuu attempted to track down records on the two goons Red had brought in. So far, a search of the Freespacer data base had revealed that both goons had been turned down for Freespacer nationalization, and that one had been ordered away from the fleet. Unfortunately, that was all that turned up; nothing existed to link the two goons to anyone higher up. Washuu refused to accept defeat, though, and she hacked into one law enforcement database after another, looking for clues. The crab-chime clattered as the Lab door opened to admit a worn-looking, frustrated Redneck. "Well, apparently Mayl went out to get some donuts," he said. "Problem is, she was last seen walking off down a corridor with a danish in her mouth. Nobody knows where she went after that." Rianna's face darkened again, this time with worry more than anger. "She would've come right back... something is not right here..." Washuu's terminal chose that moment to interrupt, beeping loudly over Rianna's words. Washuu quickly silenced the alarm, then called up a diagram of the interior of Rianna's Tarsus. Several thermal trails flowed in and out of the hold, but one reading, in the living quarters, remained motionless. "Hm... Ms. Santova, were you expecting someone in your ship?" "...no, I most assuredly wasn't," Rianna replied uncertainly. "Then it looks like there's a man who's making himself comfortable where he isn't wanted," Washuu said, punching keys and scrolling through data in three windows at a fantastic rate. "I read him as human, mid-30s, thirty or so pounds overweight. And he smokes cheap cigars." Rianna reached down and unclipped her lightsaber. How dare someone invade -her- ship. "I hate cheap cigars," she growled. "Calm down," Red said, "Washuu, we'll be back for the egg later. Rianna, would you mind if I accompanied you?" Rianna shrugged. "I expect I _could_ use the help, Admiral." Kris sighed, and Rianna caught a stray thought from him: "Please..." he said aloud, "call me Red." "Red." Somehow, it seemed to fit, even better than his given name. "Let's go. I want to know what the hells I'm jammed in the middle of, and I don't want my ship smelling like burned tobacco." "Lead the way," Kris said, following the angry Santovasku woman out the door. Neither one noticed the unpleasant look Washuu gave the back of Rianna's head as they left. The gangplank of the Tarsus lay open on the hangar deck, as did the larger cargo hatch in the rear, where supercargoes scurried around unloading the sausage-like tubes of monster blubber and stacking them on a cart. The hangar officer stood nearby, watching the proceedings but not interfering. Red made a mental note to himself to have the officer in question transferred to Maintenance; six months of keeping the 50% of the New Orleans which was classified as 'habitable' in condition should teach him to keep a closer eye on ship security. Meanwhile, Rianna eyed the workers uncertainly, trying to figure out exactly what was going on. she whispered mentally to Kris. Red reassured her. He blushed slightly as he realized the stray thought had bled through the rapport. For a moment, Rianna considered being offended... then, she shrugged it off. Unlike a lot of males she'd known on Hyeruul, Red actually meant it as a compliment rather than a come-on. He was actually trying to be objective. she sent at last, walking forward with slightly more sway than was strictly necessary. The increased embarrassment she felt through the link was more than ample reward. "Um, shall we...?" he said at last, following her across the hangar to the ship. "Certainly," Rianna replied, serious once more. She couldn't resist one last little tweak to Kris' prurience, though. she sent, winking. For a moment, Kris glowed a dull red to match his blush. Pulling his composure together, he mumbled, "Right. Here we go," and followed Rianna up the gangplank. The metallic thump of Rianna's and Kris' footsteps echoed in the close quarters inside the Tarsus, broken only by dull thumps from the cargo hold. A few steps took the pair into the small living area, where an average-looking man, sitting on the lower of the ship's twin bunks and smoking a foul-smelling cigar, awaited them. He stood as soon as they entered, automatically smoothing his short-cropped brown hair and impeccably-groomed beard before extending a hand in welcome. "Ah, good afternoon, Ms. Santova," he smiled amicably, barely flinching when she ignored his greeting. In turn, he held out his hand to Kris, saying, "And to you, good sir... I don't believe we've met..." "No, we haven't," Kris said icily. The man struggled to maintain his smile, ignoring the others' open hostility.. "Ah, well," he said nonchalantly, "in any case, my name is Riordan. I represent the interests of a certain respected businessman here in the Freespacer Home Fleet... and I was just by to take delivery of the cargo his agent on Fenris entrusted to you to deliver." Rianna's glare intensified. In a cool, controlled voice, she said, "Several people have been trying to take possession of my cargo in the last couple days, Mr. Riordan, not to mention destroy my ship and intimidate myself and my partner. I don't suppose you'd care to explain what's so special about this cargo." "Ah, well, you see my employer is a collector and broker in rare and curious things, particularly artifacts of the more ancient star empires." Riordan knocked a bit of ash off the end of his cigar, and Rianna glared at it as it drifted down into the small pile lying at Riordan's feet. Unperturbed by Rianna's glare, he continued, "In this case, he has already had several offers for the artifact in question, and he is quite anxious to see it delivered safely so that he may complete a deal." "Yes, I'm sure he is," Rianna said. "You haven't answered my question, though. Why am I being attacked by several different parties? Your boss seems to have quite a few enemies for an honest businessman. For that matter, I never did find out the man's name. Sandoval never mentioned it." Riordan's smile faltered. "Ah, well, I am afraid that there are several people whose motives are, shall we say, less than pure-" "The name, asswipe. Now." Kris barely shifted as he spoke, but the shift telegraphed a lot of messages, mostly promises of imminent pain, to the man smoking the stogie. "You don't have to be hostile about it," Riordan said, freezing his smile in place. "After all, anyone who bothered to track the manifest on your shipment would note that the shipment is on consignment for Roman Lynch Enterprises, Fenris Branch." "Roman Lynch..." Kris scowled deeply as he spat out the name. Rianna glanced in surprise at Kris as she felt the contempt and disgust he felt, along with a sense of... not fear, but caution. she thought to herself. Kris stepped forward and looked Riordan straight in the eyes. "Right, buddy, you can drop the respectable businessman crap right now. It was ludicrous in the 20th century, much less the 24th. Something tells me you're behind the attacks, and most especially behind this young lady's friend dissappearing. Care to offer any... suggestions?" Rianna bapped herself mentally as she considered how deeply she'd gotten herself into trouble. Riordan flustered, "My dear sir, I honestly don't know what you're-" ZRRRM. A beam of light extended from Kris' fist past a point roughly half an inch above Riordan's thyroid. "Cut the bullshit or learn to breathe through a tube," Kris growled. "I'm not angry yet, but you are REALLY pushing it, get a grip?" "Ah, well... that does put a slightly different- erk!" The energy blade edged closer to Riordan's neck. "Right..." <.....Nice,> Rianna sent to Kris, as she allowed a smile to flash across her lips. Riordan slowly slid back on the bunk, gaining a small bit of space from Red's blade. Rubbing his throat nervously, he said, "Well, I must admit- although not in court, mind- that the attempt on the lives of Ms. Santova and Ms. Popp'fl here on the ship was our doing. However, I am honestly unaware of any other attacks on your person." Rianna bristled at the obvious lie. <> she Voiced. "Well, there is a young woman upstart in the industry whom we suspect has been tracking you," Riordan answered automatically. "We last saw her shortly before you left Fenris, and about that time we lost our last agent there." Riordan shook his head in confusion as the compulsion ran its course. "Um, now then, shall we make arrangements for the-" <> Kris Voiced. "I'm afraid I don't know," Riordan shrugged. "Nobody knows for sure, we just call her the Black Queen." Rianna opened a full link to Kris. Kris sent back. Rianna closed the link and said aloud, "Well, Mr. Riordan, thank you very much for explaining the situation. I understand a lot better now, and I'll be happy to hand the artifact over -- provided I receive my commission at the same time. I don't have the artifact with me at the moment, so shall we arrange a meeting?" "Ah, certainly," Riordan smiled. "I shall await you at Fiorelli's Starship Repair Bay, Level 347. I do hope you will be prompt." "Fiorelli's, Level 347." Rianna paused to commit the location to memory. "Not to worry, Mr. Riordan. I pride myself on being prompt." "Very good, very good. I'll be waiting." "I trust you can find your own way out..." Kris stepped aside, flashing the energy blade meaningfully. "Um. Right." Riordan took the hint and left. Once the sound of footsteps faded from the gangplank, Rianna sniffed loudly and grimaced. "Guh... wonder what it'll cost to clean that smell out?" "I'd worry about the exterminator bill myself," Kris drolled. "You have to fumigate for roaches, y'know." Rianna smirked for a moment. "Yeah," she chuckled. Her smile faded as she slumped back onto the bunk, rubbing the bridge of her nose, and sighed. "I'm just now realizing just how deep this shit really is. If I still have my life after this is over, I'm checking every single deal out beforehand." Kris sat down beside her, unsure of what to say, what to do next. The silence began to stretch, moments, minutes passing by without a word. Finally, Kris muttered, "You realize of course that we'll be walking right into a trap." "Maybe so," Rianna said, "but we're not unarmed. And at the moment, I have very little to lose." Kris gripped her hand tightly, saying softly but firmly, "That ain't so." Rianna smiled slightly, and Kris felt her depression fade as she regained control.. "Maybe... maybe this was a test," she said at last. "Mom always said I had yet to really know the power of the Dark Side. Now I have... and I didn't handle it real well. I have to see this through to the end, Admi-- er, Red... whatever that end is. I let the Dark Side control me. Now I have to prove that I can still control it." Kris struggled to stifle his acute discomfort at the concept. "I understand," he said at last. "We'd better get ready, then." "Right," Rianna said, standing. "I think we need a plan, aside from walking down there and being ready for anything." Kris assumed a thoughtful pose. "Hm. Well, let's see. We don't know how many there are," he said, ticking the point off on his fingers. "We don't know how many sides there'll be. We don't know if there might be a hostage to consider or not. And, last of all, we don't know that we even want to give them the widget in the first place." Kris' irony was completely lost on Rianna, who was too absorbed in trying to plan an attack. "Hmm. Well, let's assume we're outnumbered, that there's at least two sides to worry about, that there is a hostage... and that none of these bozos should get that decryptor." Kris decided to let the matter go. "Right. Objectives: One- rescue Mayl. Two- get out alive. Three- make sure nobody ends up with the decryptor. Four- make sure all parties involved either decide to let you be... or are no longer in any condition to threaten you. Anything else?" "I think that pretty much covers it." "Hm." Kris paused in thought for five seconds, then shook his head firmly. "Sorry, no useful ideas here." "Let's get on with it, then," Rianna said. "Sooner this is over with, the happier I'll be." "Hm..." Kris' eyes lit up as an idea hit him. "Actually... there is -one- thing..."