Last time: Oppie journeyed further into the temple and Cien learned of Dracul's plan.

Now; Sasha, Viran, and Kyr arrive to the next planet.

Chapter 6- The Desert World

After leaving that frozen rock of a planet, Sasha, Viran, and Kyr had traveled to another system that Tac had calculated for them that matched all the requirements they needed to hopefully find the planet with the constellation and a temple. The second planet they visited was a dud. There was literally nothing there, but rocks and craters. It had looked like a planet that had suffered many asteroid collisions in its time. It had the constellation, but no temple. So they moved on to the next planet Tac had calculated up back on the frozen wasteland.

This planet reminded Sasha a lot of Tatooine. Okay, to be fair, she had never visited Tatooine before, but she had seen holo-images of the dunes that consisted on the planet. And the planet they arrived at was nothing but sand dunes for as far as the eye could see. As they had pulled into the system, Sasha didn't sense anything matching the temple's signature in the Force. She definitely sensed the lifeforms that most likely lived in the sands, but nothing screamed out to her that this was the right system. However, she did consider the possibility that the temple was buried in sand, but the thought of how far they would possibly have to dig for it made Sasha tired.

Kyr and Viran brought the ship in towards the dunes. As they did that, an outcropping of rocks and stones jutted out from under the sand. From the looks of it it almost looked like the top of the temple.

"That might be our target," Kyr surmised as he pulled the ship closer.

"I don't know," Sasha mumbled. "I still don't sense anything. It feels like with each planet I've been having a Force block."

"Is that even a thing?" Kyr asked while glancing behind him to look at her.

"Depends," Sasha responded plainly.

Tac then squawked a warning at them.

"Yeah, Tac, you're right," Kyr said as he flipped a switch, placing them in hover. "We need to find somewhere else to land."

"But according to these readouts, this entire planet is a sandbox," Viran pointed out. "There isn't any solid land mass to set the Shadow down on."

"So what do we do then?" Sasha asked. "We can't just leave this ship in hover for the next few hours." She was right after all. Nightfall on this side of the planet wasn't for a few hours and with those rocks looking like the place they need, it was going to be a long wait.

"No, we can't. So it looks like we are getting dropped off here kids," Kyr said. "Tac can fly the ship into orbit and keep her there until we are done."

"I'll go grab our gear," Sasha said as she stood from her seat. As she reached the lounge where she kept what they needed, Sasha started gathering them from their place on top of a crate. However, she suddenly noticed that her data pad with all of her notes was missing. "Guys!" She called back towards the cockpit as she started searching around for the data pad.

"Yeah?" Kyr said, coming around the corner after the hand off to Tac. Viran was right behind him.

Sasha was now on her hands and knees looking under everything she could for the datapad. "Have you guys seen my datapad that was full of notes? It was sitting on this crate like not even ten minutes ago. And now, I can't find it." She said with a hint of annoyance in her tone.

"I haven't seen it since you were using it this morning," Viran responded. "Did you check under the sweater pile? Maybe Tac knocked it over into them." He said, moving to inspect the pile of knitwear. Kyr continued around the corner into the armory, leaving the kids to look for the missing datapad.

"No I haven't checked there yet," Sasha said as she was now looking behind the crates and the couch. She was looking in every nook and cranny that was near that crate.

Viran carefully searched through the sweaters and found nothing that even resembled a datapad. He did, however, almost stab himself on Tac's knitting needles. "Nothing here." He said, stepping back and putting his hands on his hips as he looked around the room in confusion.

After another moment or two, Sasha groaned in defeat and rested on the floor against the couch. "Kriff, where the hell is it?"

"Do you have a backup copy, or was that the only one?" He asked, worriedly, knowing how much time she had invested in the notes she stored on there.

She sighed. "Yeah, I snagged the one I made you off of the nightstand before we left as a just in case," Sasha said then pulled out the mini holoprojector she had on her belt. "And thankfully, I still have my holoboard on me. But damn, that data pad had the program and everything on it." She put the holoprojector back and rubbed her face in frustration.

"I'm sure it'll turn up eventually." Viran said, taking one last annoyed look around the room.

Kyr walked in at that moment. "Hey, you guys think I should bring the DLT or should the T1 be good enough?" He asked, hefting the two rifles, trying to decide.

Sasha glared up at the Mando from between her fingers. Viran looked over to Kyr and had a thoughtful look as he considered the question for the moment.

"Go with the DLT." Viran suggested.

"Ugh, you two are no help," Sasha groaned as she pulled herself from the floor and stomped over to her travel bag that contained the other datapad.

Kyr gave her a confused look and looked over at Viran. "Thanks." He then went to go put the T1 away.

With that, Viran headed toward the ramp, followed shortly by Kyr. Sasha met them at the ramp with the second datapad and the rest of the gear they needed at hand. Kyr pressed the switch and the ramp lowered immediately letting in the dry, hot air. Sasha and Viran groaned as it was a comfortable temperature aboard the Shadow, and this… was really hot. Like opening an oven and feeling the heat come out. Kyr moved toward the edge of the ramp and hopped down onto the sand, just before the rocks. He had somehow managed to keep his balance, but his still healing body was not thrilled with the sudden impact he made with the not so solid ground. He released an uncomfortable moan as he straightened up in the sand, but also quietly grateful that Sasha didn't catch his reaction.

Viran hopped down next and was the only one to land with a sense of grace into sand. He did, however, start to sink slightly which caused sand to start sneaking into his boots. That brought up the interesting thought that there might be more to these rocks under the sand then meets the eye. Sasha hopped down last onto the sand next to the rocks. However, the sand did not hold her up like it did her friends. Her feet made contact on the loose gravel and it suddenly shifted from under her, sending her sliding down the dune into the lower portion of it on her front.

"Ow…" she moaned as she slid to a halt.

"Are you okay?" Viran asked from the top of the dune.

Sasha pushed herself up while spitting out sand and gave them a hand sign that signified she was okay, but the look of annoyance of the situation was clearly written across her face. She then started dusting herself off and attempting to shake the sand out of her clothes. She then stomped up the hill towards them.

"I have sand in places that should not have sand," Sasha retorted with an irritated tone before spitting out more sand.

"You okay?" Kyr asked.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm fine," Sasha grumbled as she continued to wipe sand off her body. "First the datapad, now this." She grumbled more to herself than the others.

Kyr snickered at her as he gave Tac the all clear to take off. The Shadow Runner pulled away from the surface which caused sand to be blown everywhere. The trio covered their faces as the ship made a dust cloud around them. They all glared up at the ship as it flew away.

Once Tac and the Shadow were out of sight, they made a small camp at the top of the dune that had the rocks jutting out of it as it was the flattest piece and it would position them right under the constellation. Sitting on blankets they had grabbed from the ship, they sat in the direct sunlight of the afternoon, patiently waiting for the night. Viran was positively dying in this heat as he was sitting in the minimal shade that one of the rocks provided. The blanket draped over him and the rock to make almost a shade like structure that was being held up by the Force. However, the heat was trapping itself in the blanket with him, so he was purely miserable. Sasha was warm and actually ended up striping down a couple layers to the under tank top she wore under her tunic, allowing her skin to tan in the sun.

"How are you not dying?" Viran asked with a groan towards Kyr, who was lounging comfortably on the side of the dune.

"Air conditioned suit," Kyr said as he tugged at his armored vest.

Sasha and Viran gaped at him.

"Seriously?!" Viran asked. "Does that mean you have A/C in your helmet too?"

"Yeah, why?" Kyr answered.

"Man… that sounds so nice…" Viran moaned as daydreamed of being in the cool air of the ship again. "I miss the cold…"

"Sorry, Vir," Sasha apologized. "Night time will be here soon."

"It better," he hissed more at the heat and the sun than her.

After another couple hours, the sun completely vanished and with it, so did the heat. Viran was finally comfortable on the planet as the sun was gone and desert night time brought colder air with it. Even Kyr was enjoying himself. Sasha had put her top layers back on as her bare shoulders and arms were now chilled in the cooler weather. As they sat there under the stars, Sasha pulled out the camera droid again and let it get to work. It scanned the starry sky and soon they had an incoming call from Tac.

"Whatcha got buddy?" Kyr responded through his buckets comm.

Tac made a warbling sound on the other end.

"Did I hear that right?" Sasha questioned. "Did he just say he found six more systems?"

"You're kidding?" Viran gasped.

Tac responded with the beep that proved he was not kidding.

Kyr sighed then looked to Sasha. "So now what?"

"We check out the list and go to the next one," Sasha said with a shrug.

"Alright Tac, time for a pick up," Kyr said through his bucket.

Tac chirpped in response before cutting off the call. After about twenty minutes, the Shadow Runner reached the surface and ramp lowered to let him on board. They climbed aboard the ship, sand dragging behind them, as the ramp closed.

"I'm going to go get us out of here," Kyr said as he made his way towards the cockpit.

"And I'm going to go use the refresher," Sasha claimed as she started towards the passenger compartment.

"Can I use it first, Sash? I'm so sticky and gross from sweating my ass off down there," Viran said as he pulled at his clothes.

"I would normally say yes, but I still have sand in places that I didn't know could get sand," Sasha argued. "So I call dibs. Sorry, hun."

Viran pouted at her. She placed a kiss to his cheek then proceeded towards the refresher to rid herself of all of the freaking sand.

REVIEW!