Chapter 9

I feel like I'm going insane, thought the Zeltron as he relaxed back in the lounge chair and closed his eyes, feeling his hormones churn through his body as he allowed pheromones to naturally let loose, trying to absorb the feelings of the other three individuals as they all sat quietly in the ship's lounge, each staring off into the space in front of them, each in their own set of thoughts.

Peri was feeling disturbed and frustrated, his mind like an island of chaos within a sea of calm. Gosell's mind was quite the opposite, an island of peace within a sea of chaos. She seemed extremely focused on something, however she held her emotions reined in, feeling buffeted by what seemed like a flood of uncertainty.

Thera's mind seemed to exhibit the most amount of turmoil. She seemed lost – that was the only word that fit what he sensed from her – almost like an orphan. He couldn't make out any particular image of her as she was filled with sadness, hope, and darkness, determination and hopelessness – wait, that doesn't make any sense; she doesn't make any sense... interesting....

He opened his eyes and slowly wandered them toward Thera. Her physique was impressively easy to gaze at; he couldn't imagine she had a single bad angle to look at; females like Gosell have to array themselves to look as good, he thought. Typically he would melt his thoughts into fantasies of females he encountered that he hoped to achieve by utilizing his pheromones. With all that had happened, though, his imagination didn't have access to override his sense of... what do you call this? I've never gone this way before; respect... Gosell's voice broke his train of thought.

"I would like to know where we are going," she said looking around at everyone.

"Roon," Peri said with a sigh.

"And from there," the Zeltron added, almost to himself, "a badly needed vacation, location to be determined." He was trying to offset her focused mind in case she was using any strategy hoping to uncover whatever it was she was so focused on.

"May I ask what you plan to do with me?" she asked.

Peri broke his infinite gaze to look at the Zeltron, stretched his face a little and said, "That vacation may have to be on full hiatus," he indicated the two females with a less than subtle nod, "what with all the turns of events recently."

A confused look made its way onto Gosell's face, "Roon? I've never heard of such a place." She shuffled through her many business contacts in her mind, having conducted much business all across the Rim territories of the galaxy. "Are we headed for the Core?" she asked.

Peri looked upward, recalling the star charts he had to go through to find Roon. He had almost given in to asking Thera for help finding it, when, on a whim, he began digging through older files he'd procured earlier in his investigation of the Sith, finally stumbling onto its location in a random archive file, something about a... nevermind.

"It's on the other side of Hutt Space, in the Outer Rim. Getting there is not a straight shot, so we'll be making a few more hyperspace jumps once we get nearer," he said.

"Why are we going through so much trouble to get to this place, Roon?" asked Gosell.

"They're getting rid of me," spoke Thera, seemingly without warning, maintaining her infinite gaze as she spoke, "to drop me off, as we bargained," she added.

"Ah, now, when you say it like that it sounds bad," interjected the Zeltron, looking sour.

Gosell ignored him, "But why Roon?" she asked narrowing her eyes at Thera.

"That's my home," she said, still staring. "My destiny through the Force is to return to Roon," she continued, beginning to sound cryptic. She broke her gaze finally and locked eyes with Gosell. Peri started to say something, but the Zeltron gestured with his fingers to wait.

"I was born there," said Thera, "raised and trained to become a Sith. I was recruited by the Sith there. My family had either been taken away to fight with the Sith or killed. I have nothing to return to, but for some reason, I need to go back."

"A Sith," Gosell repeated quietly with a mix of awe, fear and contempt.

"No more than an apprentice, actually," Thera corrected. She sighed and looked down at her hands in her lap.

Gosell considered for a moment, looking uncertain, then turned back to Peri and asked, "Just drop her off and go? What is your plan afterwards? What am I to you now, leverage for something else?"

Peri sat speechless for a moment.

"We had a plan," began the Zeltron, "but as Peri said earlier, circumstances changed quite a bit, faster than any of us thought possible."

Peri continued, "We were planning to utilize the travel we needed to further our operations. Now all our operations are on hold."

Gosell smiled in a mixture of shock and amusement. "You've stumbled into a lylek's den," she said quietly.

Lyleks were dangerous predators indigenous to her homeworld of Ryloth. She lost most of her family including her mother to one of them when she was a child. She was sold later by her father into a crime organization that consumed her life. She learned to be very calculating and distrustful, and gradually learned how to manipulate a perception toward her own advantage, which eventually landed her in her current role in the crime organization known as The Ring.

She had maintained a healthy dose of fear in her life since that day with the lylek for things she couldn't control. She knew all too well the reputation of the Sith, along with their involvement with The Ring. She would never admit to a few instances that she could vividly recall where she witnessed first-hand the cunning of the Sith in all their glory, and thus vowed to steer clear of ever crossing paths with them directly. Now she pieced together the gravity of her predicament – their predicament – and realized she had been finally forced across that line she had so carefully avoided all of her life with The Ring.

She stood, straightened her wrinkled jersey-blouse, primped her lekku and sighed. "Well, if you need me any further, I will be in my airlock," she said, as if formally dismissing a committee meeting. She turned gracefully and disappeared aft toward the cargo compartment.

The Zeltron sat up slowly and fixed a heavy look at Peri. "She's right, you know. If we don't make some sort of plan, this trip may very well end completely once we drop off Thera."

"But we don't even know what to expect; she doesn't even know what to expect!" he gestured. "She's just operating on her destiny with the Force, which somehow has miraculously kept us alive, albeit barely so, since all of this started!"

"Okay, but what about little things, like..."

Peri cut him off, "I already have the transponder for our arrival, made up fresh so it has no traceable history, and I have all of the jumps mapped out to get us there. I wasn't originally intending to land – I was just going to send her down in an escape pod – but now I need to make a repair stop to collect some parts after our little pirate bout at Bogden, and then we might as well drop off Lady Gosell in a nearby sector somewhere, hang up our operations, purchase a new ship and retire to that vacation you proposed earlier."

"We'll need to disappear, I agree," said the Zeltron. He glanced over at Thera who sat quietly with her eyes closed. I guess this wasn't meant to be. I'd sure love to vacation with her somewhere, like back at Zeltros; but then I hear Alderaan has nice beaches...

"Your thoughts betray you," said Thera, keeping her eyes closed, but allowing a grin to cross her face. "You should be more concerned with getting your strength back."

"Are you offering your services?" he asked suggestively.

"No."

"Some sort of hopeful proposal then?"

"Perhaps. I remember where a tavern is on Roon near where I grew up. It offered decent medical treatment for a fair fee."

"That'll add time to our stay; it's risky," said Peri.

Her eyes still closed, Thera asked, "Wouldn't it be worth the extra available hands? You're talking about losing Gosell and I, and T3 was adequate as long as you were alone."

"She's right; I'll be dead weight unless I can get my strength back."

Peri lowered his head, not sure if this even better judgment or not, "Alright, we'll make the stop."