Scene XIV

The trip back to Voss seemed to be taking even longer than the last time. No one was getting much sleep and their routine never seemed to waiver from hour to hour. Raina and Kaliyo rotated shifts in the cockpit, working meals and some sleep into the schedule. Lokin spent most of his time in the med lab, tinkering with the holo matrix and running analysis on the membrosia that Vector had given to him. Phi-ton alternated between the galley and meeting room, mostly absorbed in thought wherever he happened to be. Vector isolated himself in the cargo bay. He spent time with the nest, sharpened his weapon with a refined spitcrete whetstone, oiled his armor and pushed his body to its limits.

Raina's voice came over the intercom, "Only 10 hours to go."

"Let us know when it is four, Raina. We should all convene in the meeting room at that time."

"Will do Vector."

Rey'elle was dreaming; Voss, Phi-ton, crushing, rising, reaching, rumbling, needing. Someone was clasping her shoulders, shaking her, "Wake up agent. You must wake up now."

She forced herself up and out of the dream to open her eyes and look into the face of the med tech from earlier in the day. She felt a needle being inserted into a vein in her arm and watched as the tech removed blood. She saw him perform a scan with a portable med scanner and frown as he watched the data flow past.

"What's going on? Why all the medical work at this stage of the game?"

The tech handed the phial of blood to his assistant and asked her to leave the room. He offered a glass of water to Rey'elle and helped her to sit up on the bed. They were in a small room with only the bed, a cabinet and metal chair.

"I need you to listen carefully and answer as best you can. I have discovered an illness in your body, one I cannot identify. When I examined you earlier I assumed you had a few weeks, now I see it progresses faster than the data first indicated. The fever is the catalyst and once it starts, your cells will start to degrade at an ever increasing rate. The additional stress put on your body plus the deprivation of food and fluids has not helped your condition. Perhaps with kinder treatment you would have longer, but I fear I have made a terrible miscalculation. The kolto has healed your leg and shoulder but had no effect on this disease. Can you tell me anything?"

Rey'elle looked at him as she would an insect. "And why should I help you? I do not care what happens to me or how quickly it comes. It would be wondrously ironic if I were to die before Serevin can use me for his plans. But to answer you, I don't know. Perhaps on Corellia. Maybe I was exposed to some military pathogen. Honestly, I have no way to answer what you ask. Now a question for you. How will this progress? My head is already screaming like a Wookie Opera."

The tech looked into her face with something akin to pity. "You will grow weaker. Your fever will spike dangerously high. Your organs will begin to fail and then it will be over. I thought you might have weeks, but your fever has already increased a half degree in the last three hours. It will go up then hold for a time, then go up again. I would say a week, maybe two at the most, no more. I can give you stims to keep you going, but their effect will wear off quickly. Darth Serevin will kill me if you die too soon."

"Ah, so the truth comes out at last. Fearing for your own skin like any good little imperial. Tell me, do you have any family? A wife? Kids?"

"I have a wife and two children back on Dromund Kaas."

She reached over and patted his cheek. "Give me the stims, make them strong, I will hold on as long as I can, but not for you. I do this for your children."

"My own special brew," he said as he injected the stim into her neck. "They will come for you soon. I am sorry agent, and thank you."

The tech left and she got out of bed and began to pace. Her thoughts were milling around in her brain. One or two weeks, huh, one or two days was more likely. So be it. She heard the door open and one of the guards entered, "Follow us agent."

Four guards again, two in back, two flanking. They walked to the elevator and emerged in a corridor that led to a hangar bay. As they walked toward the shuttle, she saw Darth Serevin waiting at the ramp. "Do hurry up agent. We have places to be."

She was escorted up the ramp and forced to sit on the floor in the rear compartment as her leg was shackled to the frame. Two of the guards stayed with her and Serevin took his familiar place in the forward compartment. She felt the shuttle lift off as the first chills wriggled down her spine.

During the flight to the surface of Voss, Rey'elle let her mind drift back to Vector. She replayed again the scene in the bunker, she saw his perfect body fall, saw the blood on his lips, saw Kaliyo cry. Saw Kaliyo cry, but Kaliyo never cries. Kaliyo cried, Kaliyo cried.

"Oh Rey'elle, what a stupid, stupid woman you are. The image of Kaliyo crying had kept haunting her thoughts because it was so out of character. It was all a ruse, a trick for Serevin's benefit. Vector was alive and now she was dying. If she could measure laughter and tears at this moment, they would both weigh the same. I will see his face again. He will come for me and I will survive long enough to touch his wonderful, beautiful face."

She sat silently, hugging her knees to her chest and shivering slightly, but was finally at peace.

Rey'elle could feel when the shuttle hit the atmosphere and heard the retros fire as they were landing. When the ramp was lowered, Darth Serevin walked past her and signaled the guards, with his hand, to bring her along. They unchained her and walked her out into the golden haze of Voss. The air was crisp and cool just like she remembered. The trees were shades of russet, bronze, crimson and amber and in the distance she could see a pride of nexu.

The guards directed her toward a cave entrance cut into the mountain range, but she had no idea where on Voss they were. It did not have the gloom of the nightmare lands, it must be somewhere around Gorma-koss, but how close she could not ascertain. She was led into a passageway that was lit at intervals by transparisteel globes and, in the distance, she could hear the steady hum of a generator. The sides were shored up, here and there, by girders indicating that this may be an unfinished bunker of some sort.

They had walked for some minutes when the passage emptied out into a large cavern with tributary tunnels branching off at various locations. Several tents and camp areas were scattered around and she saw imperial troops as well as Gormak walking about, although each group stayed to themselves.

As they neared the back of the cavern she noticed an alcove carved out of the rock. It was maybe six feet square and had rings and pulleys imbedded into the rock. Dark stains splattered the walls of the alcove and this is appeared to be the destination.

Darth Serevin and one of the Gormak stood to the side of the alcove talking but stopped their conversation as she and her entourage approached. "Cipher, welcome to your new and final home. I didn't have time to decorate properly but it should serve well enough. I apologize for the lack of amenities but time is always a factor in such matters.

"I would like for you to meet Rotann Nor. He is a comrade, leader of this band of warriors and quite prepared to stave off any advances of Voss into Gormak territory. He does not believe in the peace initiative and will use any opportunity to break the treaty. Inspiring and convenient, don't you think?"

Rey'elle looked calmly up into their faces and then stepped into the alcove. "Rotann Nor, this path will lead to ruin. In a thousand years this planet will be dust and decay. Voss and Gormak will fade into history and in ten thousand years, no one will remember you at all. Please do not do this."

The Gormak snorted at her and replied in broken basic, "You are small and stupid, woman. We remain, Voss will bow or die. Gormak will go to stars, many worlds will be ours."

Rey'elle merely shook her head and sat down on the hard ground while a guard locked the other end of her shackles to a ring in the wall.

Serevin looked down at her, his face intent like he was trying to solve a puzzle. "Something has changed in you Cipher. I can feel it. Ah well, just another mystery to solve as I peel away the layers."

Raina's voice interrupted Vector as he practiced with his staff. "Four hours to Voss, Vector. You said you wanted me to let you know. I will get the others and meet you in the conference room."

He put his weapon in the corner and responded, "we will be right there. Thank you Raina." He wiped the sweat from his face and chest and slipped on a clean shirt then made his way to the meeting room where the others had already started to gather.

When everyone was seated, Vector turned to Phi-ton first. "This is your planet and your people, so, given the unique circumstances what is our first step. We are going to assume that Serevin will give you some direction to where he has hidden Rey'elle and will probably contact us soon."

Phi-ton glanced down at his hands. "Our first step will be to get an audience with the Three. The treaty with the Gormak is tenuous at best and we must see if anything has changed. Regardless of the outcome of the meeting, I still have friends in my commando unit that I may be able to sway to our aid. At this point, I feel we are going in blind and we are at a definite disadvantage where information is concerned."

Scorpio interjected, "I have been trying to monitor planetary chatter but there is not much that hits the frequencies on Voss. There could be another player that we are unaware of, the only constant we know is Serevin. I will continue to monitor, but doubt there will be any further knowledge to glean until we are planetside."

Vector sat quiet for a few moments and finally spoke, "Raina, we will need you to stay on the shuttle. We do not like leaving you behind, but Kaliyo, Scorpio and Lokin are our better fighters and we feel that we will need Dr. Lokin's very special talents. It goes without saying that Phi-ton must be there and we...I must hide from all eyes until our plan is formed. No one can know that we are still alive which means that Phi-ton and Lokin must attend the meeting with the Three alone. We will require a disguise."

"The agent has an old Jawa Cloak that was given to her on Tatooine. You could use that, Vector. Only a hood will hide those eyes of yours, and I will even go fetch it for you," offered Kaliyo.

"No need Kaliyo, we will get the cloak , we know the one you mean. One way or another it will end here and we can no longer avoid the demons of our memories. Does anyone else have something to add?"

Dr. Lokin cleared his throat. "We cannot make a battle plan until we know her location. There are bound to be several guards and possibly choke points and we have to be sure of our final numbers before we attempt any rescue. This one will not be as simple as the bunker on Hoth. We need to be as clear as possible about what we are walking into."

"Agreed. Does everyone still have their earbuds?" Vector looked from face to face as each one nodded in turn. "Good, we doubt there will be time for handhelds even though we should each take one. We need to get our gear together and prepare to disembark at a moment's notice, but for now we wait for word from Serevin."

As each of the crew went to their respective quarters, Vector walked down the hallway to face the closed door of the cabin he shared with Rey'elle. He placed his hands on either side of the door and stood there leaning forward against the frame with his eyes closed. He steeled himself for what lay beyond, opened his eyes and pressed the door control. The panel slowly slid open and the scent of her hit him like a fist as though it were a physical thing. He swayed for a moment, then stepped into the room and reached for the light switch on the wall. The sheets were still crumpled from the last night they had spent together and he could taste her essence on his tongue but, her aura was gone. He quickened his steps over to the locker and found the cloak hanging in its place then turned and hastened back toward the entry, hitting the light switch as he exited and closing the door behind him.

He felt winded as if he had run a great distance and his heart pounded as he walked back to the cargo bay to gather his gear. He dreaded the thought of putting the cloak on, he feared any distraction. He reached down to that tiny ice shard lying in the depths of his being and pulled the cold around him like a shield.