Perhaps there is a clue to what has occurred on Rak's vessel, I shall conduct a quick search.Turning on his personal communicator,"Aayla, I want you to keep the other students occupied for the time being. Make use of the other padawans as necessary, I think it best if we continue with the students training. This will allow us some time to investigate this unimpeded by other questions.
After that Sylara will attempt to search Rak's ship for any clues.
Tyren listens attentively to Master Atharias; when the Master finishes speaking Tyren says ...
I see, Master.
As the lift doors open and Master Atharias steps out, Tyren says May the Force be with you, Master he then stays in the lift. He surveys what he can of the situation. Seeing only wisps and shades through the fog and wind, he pulls out his communicator once again ...
Jillian, where are you?
After ascertaining Jillian's whereabouts Tyren will go to her and try to understand this new situation. Assuming he does find her, he will ask ...
What's going on here Jillian? Tell me everything that happened.
Sensing Nor's emotions, Atharias looks up at the young pilot. "Do not feel troubled, my friend. Rak had clearly suffered some very serious internal injuries. The fact that he held on for so long is a testment to his close ties to the Force."
"It is strange," Atharias muses. "His organs have been crushed--but there's not a mark on his skin. I cannot fathom what power could have done this to him...
Nor nods but says quietly back to Altharias with a sigh, "That is strange. But, if only I had been a bit sooner then maybe... Well, that is that then." He gets up as if brushing the matter aside, but his eys are troubled.
He shakes his head as if to clear sleep, and then looks at Sylara and nods at his intent to search Rak's ship. I will be over later to check computer records and so on, but first lets get things in order on the War Pig. . ."
nonamazing said:
Nor's students respond to his call quickly. Vassa is in Sylara's office and reluctantly agrees to head to the ship, pausing only to ask if she should bring Bri and 'his weapons' along with her. Derryl seems out of breath, but indicates his intention to rush to the ship as soon as possible. Roos is in the control center one level below and hurries to join Nor as soon as he recieves the message. Threesa, unfortunately, is all the way down on level 12, in the Deeprunner, and it will take her a few minutes to reach the surface.
Nor takes Roos briefly aside and quietly and says, "Wait by the gang plank and send Threesa, Vassa and Derryl in as soon as they get here with instructions from me to search the ship from stem to stern twice over. looking for anything amiss. It will keep Vassa and Derryl busy and with everything that has happened here, may even turn something up I fear. Once they have all arrived have Threesa look over Timone, he may be glitched, but not until I dump his recording memory. He may be glitched."
Roos replies, "Hmmm all right, but it will be troublesome, and having Derryl and Vassa onboard will not help the search. . ."
Nor just smiles to Roos and then he replies to Vassa via com, "Your own weapons should suffice, but if you wish... Then you can ask if Bri and her arsenal want to tag along." And, then moves back to the stowaways. . .
nonamazing said:
After dealing with his own students, Nor turns to his three little stowaways: young Pa'hu and the mischevious twins. The twins seem reluctant to talk, but poor Pa'hu is on the verge of tears, rambling almost incoherantly. "i'm so sorry we came to help bri 'cause he wanted to fix timone and then timone ran off and bri ran off after him and i wanted to go too but then tai said he wanted to look around or maybe it was rai and then there was this pig and i just wanted to...wanted to..."
Rai suddenly steps forward. "It's not her fault, Master Nor!" "Yeah," says Tai, "She just hadn't seen anything like Puumba before, and she was curious." Both of the trouble-making twins appear surprisingly defensive of little Pa'hu.
Nor sighs an holds up his comunicator and points it as he says gently, "You all do have one of these? So next time please use it first. There may be dangerous things on the War Pig that I would not want you to risk harm from accidentally. For example, what if I left a rpari half done in an emrgency, and some live conduit was exposed? Hrm? Even if you saw, it what about Pumba?"
"In any event, why don't you come with me and take a minute to explain how you got on War Pig in the first place and why you thought Timone was broken... Oh, and if you like I would be happy to give you all a free ride around the system after all this clears up."
Nor heads into the ship with Timone to check current and recorded sensor readings both internally and off the ship just on the off chance that they will show anything rotten in Denmark, or Blue, as the case my be.
OOC: Diplomacy +10 again on them to calm them down some more and get some sensible time line of events...
"Is there not still the matter of meeting towards the bottom level? I feel we should at least try to explain what this is all about. No doubt my students are all assembled already. If anyone wishes, I can take other students with me." After stating so, Milius approaches his student slowly, as not to startle her.
"Come along now Pa'hu. We will discuss your actions later. No one is in any trouble. I'm simply glad that you are safe. Now, Please come with me. I have no interest in staying any longer than we have to, and we have some students to meet. Lets work towards putting this all behind us." Milius does his best to calm the child, though he is not very good at doing more than giving some words of encouragement.
Milius will throw one more glance at the downed Jedi, wondering what may have happened to him, though trying not to betray any emotions through his face.
He will then send a message to Atharias via telepathy of the disturbing absence in the force, so that no others hear.
[Sblock]"Master Atharias, I realize that you must know this by now... but whatever did this to Rak was unnatural, even by our standards... there is an absence... I will not worry about it, but it is on my mind. May we talk about it later?"[/Sblock]
Tolark taps into the Force in an instant. As his senses spread outward, he senses first Jilian's iirgular heartbeat, then life essence of Gimto heading down in the lift, and finally Hale and Treela, frightened but slowly being cooled and calmed by Jett's quiet words. Beyond even that, the ever-flowing currents of the endless ocean, the teeming life that surrounds and envelops the Academy at all times. And even further, Master Atharias and the other instructors, out in the storm, cold and tense.
At first, all seems right with the Force. The web of life is connected--all energy flows into the Force, and all life flows from it. But after a few seconds...the disturbance is very subtle, merely a series of tiny cracks where the Force appears to be absent. No, not cracks--wounds. The scars in the Force throb with pain that echoes across the minds and emotions of almost everyone.
Tolark strains his senses to their very limit, reaching out to try and find the source of this attack. Beyond the water, beyond the air and the clouds, beyond the planet itself...something out there, twisting in alien pain, rushing toward the tiny jewel of life below it--
At just that moment, Jilian's communicator springs to life, disrupting Tolark's trance:
Jilian's eyes grow wide and she fumbles with her wrist communicator for a couple of seconds before regaining her composure. "Uh...master. We are getting things under control here. I apologize for the delay. Do you still wish for me to go to Deck twelve?"
Jilian then passes the communicator to Tolark. "Perhaps you should speak to him, Master Tolark...I'm not entirely sure what's going on..."
* * *
Sylara walks carefully up the inclined ramp leading into Rak's massive grey and red ship. The ship's main lighting has been disabled somehow. Soft orange emergency lights give the ship an eerie, unearthly appearance. Rak's astromech droid lays on its side nearby, its legs twitching back and forth as it emits a number of disturbing screeching noises.
As Sylara makes his way through the ship, he notices that the central systems have been damaged in several ways: the main computer is off-line, the power core is heavily drained, and the life support systems are nearly non-existent.
The most disturbing part of all this, however, is that the ship has no external damage whatsoever--the hull is completely whole and unbroken (though it does have some scorch marks and scars from earlier conflicts). There's no clear indicator of what caused the severe damage the ship is suffering from.
* * *
Roos and Derryl begin carefully searching the War Pig under Nor's orders. Vassa arrives with a handful of lightsabers and two virbro axes from Sylara's office. She tells Nor that Bri took the rest of the weapons down to Deck 12, having been told to do so by Master Sylara.
When Threesa arrives, she finds a small toolkit and begins opening up Timone's casing, much to the irritation of the little droid. "Master Nor?," she says, after a few moments of work. "You'd better have a look at this..."
Timone's central processors have been heavily and messily re-wired, and his sensors have been bizarrely modified: what appears to be a large chunk of black glass has been fused directly into his system.
* * *
Milius said:
"Master Atharias, I realize that you must know this by now... but whatever did this to Rak was unnatural, even by our standards... there is an absence... I will not worry about it, but it is on my mind. May we talk about it later?"
Atharias seems startled when Milius' thoughts reach him. He shakes his head. "That...that can not be, young instructor." Atharias says, speaking softly so that only Milius can hear him. "At least..." Atharias breaks off, looking up into the sky. "...not here."
"Milius...I am worried. Something is blocking my senses, my perceptions."
* * *
Rai and Tai, now quite a bit calmer, do their best to explain things to Nor. "Bri said that he had an idea for an experiment he wanted to try." "But he needed to get to Timone," Tai continues, "and since Rai and I are good at getting into places..." "...we decided to help him out." "This was all about twenty or so minutes ago, I guess..." "...and that other ship wasn't there when we broke...er went into the War Pig," Rai finishes.
"Where did Bri get that black crystal?" The twins look at one another and shrug. "We dunno."
OOC (Nor):
When you check your ship's sensors, you detect no asteroids at all heading toward the planet.
Tolark accepts the communicator from Jillian with a slight nod. "Master Tyren, I have news about the approaching object. I can feel its pain, and that pain is causing wounds in the force. I suspect, as a side effect, it has been causing emotional fluxuations in some of our students. It is also the source of the resistance I have been feeling."
Tyren takes a few moments to understand what Master Tolark has just told him and then says ...
I see. Master Tolark, will you meet me on the 12th level? I think this is something that the students need to know. After they are made aware they will be more alert, and hopefully, more successful in guarding themselves from it; wouldn't you agree? Afterwards, we can gather the other Masters to pool our knowledge and attain the current will of the Force. Master Jodan is with the students on the 12th level now so they should be fine, but I will go there now to make sure all is well. If there are any problems with this plan or any changes, let me know how I can help.
Tyren hits the lift button for level 12 and then calls Master Nor.
Master Nor, this is Master Tyren. Master Tolark has informed me that he has felt "wounds" in the Force that seem to be eminating from the object that is coming towards Blue. It seems that this is having an affect on the behavior of some of the students. I'm going to the 12th level now to join Master Jodan with the students. I'd like to gather the Masters to pool our knowledge. What is the situation on the landing pad? Is everything alright? Can you gather everyone back to the 12th level?
Tersh shrugs his shoulders.
"To tell you the truth, I really don't understand what is going on. I see no reason for the students to remain cooped up anywhere, though I think they deserve a rest after today's excitement. I feel somewhat at a loss. I was expecting to defend the academy, and after finding no enemy to defeat, I find myself at a loss. And my other area of expertise, history, is not exactly going to help us right now." Hed turns to Verena.
"Go back to your room, I will send for you after all this commotion has died down."
