Crimson Tides: Wandering Stars

[Jorshal Vuntana]

"Oh hell..." He muttered as his vision returned in fuzzy splotches.

The past days events took no time to come back to him. From the Force Hunters to Sarin, it all was too real. Taking in a deep inhale the scent of something putrid filled his nostrils. It came from a bucket filled with, he leaned over, apparently vomit. Crimson and violet vomit. Did that come from him? It must of, side effects of the poison perhaps, his body's reaction to the microscopic invader. But the colors were so... unusual. What in his body could produce something like that? He set aside his curiosity and observed the rest of the scene.

His long distance vision failed him. But from what he could see nearby, the room was entirely made up of durasteel. Perhaps he was on a ship, military base maybe? Hopefully a sick bay. He picked up a large nondescript bottle, removed the cork and peered inside. He couldn't see much other than some blue dust, but its scent pricked his nose and gave him a sensation like a horridly powerful horseradish. Was this what they were feeding him?

"Careful, too much of that will pull your innards out through your mouth."

He looked up at the fuzzy multicolored blob in the distance. It was a woman with a scratchy old voice, he should have picked that up through the Force, but strangely... he couldn't feel it.

"My Force power?" He asked as the realization struck him. "What's happened?"

"Ysalamiri, boy." She said but didn't move. "One does not allow a Sith Master to simply walk in her home, sick or not."

He pursed his lips and strained to see her face. The voice was barely recognizable, he felt as if he's heard it once before but now it was so different than before. More tricks then. Their attacker had captured them, then.

"Why did you attack us?" He blurted.

"Don't be so brash." She said as she casually failed to regard his question.

He sat in silence without any more answers and no desire to vocally ask any more questions though they stormed in his brain. At the Palace they departed the Elder's Vision for an ascape pod. It could jettison them to space, but where did they go? He recalled being in the capsule with Tarsis, then he gave coordinates before passing out. Coordinates? What would inspire him to give coordinates that he didn't know?

He instinctively reached out with the Force to find his apprentice, but quickly was reminded that the Force was not his ally anymore.

"And Tarsis?" He hated to deal with this old crone any longer, but without the Force she was his only lead.

"Oh he's about." She said. "Shall I fetch him for you?"

At least she wasn't hostile, anyone who would felt comfortable enough to let that behemoth wander 'about' had to be a friend. Likely one of Tarsis' friends, though as far as he could recall Tarsis had no family... why would he befriend an old crone, especially one with connections strong enough to obtain Ysalamiri. Assuming Tarsis followed Jorshal's coordinates how would he know the people here?

"Who are you?" He asked at last.

She hesitated. "A friend apparently. Though I can hardly say I know either of you."

[Tarsis]

"Wake up sleepy head..."

There was no reply.

"I said, wake up sleepy head!"

Slowly rolling over with a few grunts and moans, Tarsis persisted on staying asleep. But not giving up, the stranger continued to try and wake the giant beast. Poking him in the side, she said, "If you don't wake up the easy way, you're going to hate me for a very long time. Actually, come to think about it, you might actually hate me! Wouldn't that be swell? Besides, you’re a man, and we don't like men, do we Des?"

A deep, booming voice filled the room in reply, "No, we don't."

"We'll do it the hard way!" The shrill voice said with pure excitement.

And suddenly, as if a rain cloud appeared out of thin air, water began to pour down on Tarsis like one of the many waterfalls of Naboo. Quickly hopping up out of bed and out of harms way, Tarsis quickly searched for the source of his torment. Eyeing a young girl, probably somewhere between the age of 14 to 15, Tarsis extended his hand and began calling upon the Force to strangle the life out of her, but before he could even fix his concentration upon the girls pale while neck, a giant hand wrapped around his throat and slammed him up against the dura-steel wall with a loud clang.

With the tables now turned, Tarsis fought to hold on to consciousness. His eye sight going in out of focus, he strained to hear the deep words being spoke to him. "Don't EVER attempt something like that again! Do you understand me, boy! Gilthy, go and wait outside." Once the door shut, the source of the voice leaned in close to Tarsis' face and continued. "You’re alive because the Mistress of this boat says so. Try anything like that again and I'll make sure your stay here is..." But before Tarsis could make out the rest of what was being said, he passed out due to lack of oxygen.


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After what seemed like days, Tarsis finally woke up. He had dreamt he was back on Korriban fighting along side the other Sith against the Force Hunters and just as he was getting ready to cut down the last one, a giant brown hand came out of no where and began squeezing the life out of him. Just as he was about to draw his last breath, he woke up.

Sitting up, Tarsis rubbed the base of his neck. It felt as if something or someone had dropped a 50 ton ship on his throat and left it there. It then dawned on him that he wasn't alone. Turning his attention to the only chair in the room, Tarsis realized it was the girl from earlier. Filled with a sudden rage, Tarsis lashed out at the girl with the Force but nothing happened. He tried again, but to no avail. What was going on? What had they done? He could remember filling the dark side of the Force filling his lungs with pure hate as he attempted to use the Force on this girl before, but now it was as if someone had build a wall around him, suffocating him as it cut off his precious life support, the Force.

Before Tarsis could say anything, the young girl smiled and said, “Hi! My name's Gilthy. I wouldn't try to talk right now. You're actually quite lucky Des didn't crush your voice box which he would have if I hadn't come back in and stopped him." Tarsis was at a loss for words. "Oh, and I believe the answer your looking for as to why your 'powers' aren't working right is, Ysalamiri."

Ysalamiri..., why did that term sound so familiar? Tarsis was sure he had heard it more than once while on Korriban but for the life of him he couldn't remember what it did. Then, with a deep sigh, as if he saying, "Tarsis, you fool" it hit him. Ysalamiri was able to inhibit the flow of the Force to its user; very rare, but very powerful. If could bring even the most powerful of Sith to their knees.

"Where...am I?" Tarsis asked as he gasped for air in-between words.

"Welcome aboard the Bandit’s Glaive. You see, we found you and your buddy floating out in space in an escape pod. Finding it odd that you were just floating out here with no sign of a ship or anything else, we towed you in. Now, that’s all the history lesson you are going to get for right now.” She said as he stood up out of the chair. “I'm going to take you to see your buddy and the Captain of this here ship, so be on your best behavior or I'll tell Des you tried to hurt me again."

[Jorshal Vuntana]

Jorshal stood up on his shaky legs. He stared blankly ahead, his mind in deep debate over whether he might vomit all over the woman's floor. No, he felt he could handle it. Taking a step he realized how fragile that assumption was.

"Did you drug me?" He asked.

"No, you came drugged. I'm fixing you." She said.

He glanced at the potent jar that he had smelled earlier. "Is that what you call medicine?" he asked.

"You're a bright one. Yes it is, Kamitto extract if you'd like to know." She said.

"Right." He sighed. If it did the trick in preserving his life, how could he refute it? "And where is it exactly I am?"

"The Bandit's Glaive." Glithy said as she appeared followed by Tarsis and something huge that Jorshal couldn't quite place in his knowledge of species. "We should put up a sign in here: 'you are on the Bandit's Glaive.' I just got done telling your friend, so..." She trailed off once Jorshal's interest became blatantly absent.

"Tarsis." He said somberly. While he was glad to see the acolyte was present and in seemingly good health, the mystery surrounding the change of scene was still overwhelming.

"How are you?" He asked hoping to get more than a health status, perhaps the acolyte gathered more information than Jorshal had.

[Tarsis]

First thing that crossed Tarsis' vision was Des standing outside his room, which Tarsis assumed was the med bay, as he followed Gilthy out. Now that he could see the man clearly, he was easily a foot taller than Tarsis with the muscular build to match. His dark skin only added to his features as it glistened in the light, showing off the mans well-developed curves as he flexed and relaxed. If Tarsis had to guess he would say Des was at least 7'4", maybe 7'5", but size didn't matter much. Like the old saying goes, 'The bigger they are, the harder they fall' and Tarsis would defiantly see that man fall and beg for his life before this trip was over.

Rubbing his throat as Gilthy led the way; Tarsis could hear the sound of voices ahead of them. Rounding a corner and shoved through the door in front of him by Des, Tarsis was greeted by the site of women and Jorshal, who sat towards the back of the room.

"Tarsis, how are you?" Jorshal had asked, clearly implying he wanted to know if he had gathered any information.

Attempting to reach out through the Force to communicate with his Master so to keep what was said between the two of them, Tarsis was quickly reminded of the Ysalamiri and its affects. Sighing, he cleared his throat and said, "I've... been better."

[Jorshal Vuntana]

He stood up, slightly shaky though he did his best to hide it. Again looking at the old woman he said, "You told me we had freedom to roam the ship if we liked, correct? I feel like I might need to move around a bit."

She nodded her head, though Glithy shook hers in disbelief. "Though I don't recommend that you walk around too much. You need your energy to fight off that awful poison that woman put inside you."

Jorshal mumbled something unimportant and headed for the nearest door, motioning for Tarsis to follow. The poison that woman had put inside him. Jorshal couldn't recall saying anything about Sarin, though maybe the old woman could have figured the poison out herself she shouldn't know anything about the attack.

At last they passed through a door that shut them away from everyone else on the ship. A long corridor stretched before them. Doors on each side and a ladder going up and down in the middle. It distressed him to think Tarsis and him couldn't simply communicate through the Force and expedite things.

"What does a ship or its crew have to gain from keeping a zoo of ysalamiri on board?" He asked though had a few ideas himself.

[Tarsis]

Following Jorshal out the door Tarsis was forced to control himself as he passed by Des. Right now he was vulnerable and Tarsis didn't like it one bit. But the opportunity would present itself soon when Tarsis would be free of the Ysalamiri and Des' strength will fall to the might of Tarsis' choke hold. All he had to do was wait.

Rounding the corner, Tarsis took in his surroundings; noting the long stretch of corridor before them, the doors shooting off to the right and left, and the latter going up and down in the middle of the hallway. If things were going to go bad, then Tarsis wanted to at least have a good escape plan to fall back on if he and Jorshal were still unable to use the Force. With Jorshal spinning on his heels in front of him, Tarsis stopped and looked at his Master and it was clear that they were both thinking the same thing: I wish I could use the force right about now.

"What does a ship or its crew have to gain from keeping a zoo of ysalamiri on board?"

Rubbing his throat for a second, Tarsis replied, "Several answers come to mind, but more then half of those would require a larger crew and someone with a lot of guts. To take a force user, especially one that you’ve never been able to size up, takes guts. Personally, I’m more interested in knowing how they knew we were force users. Aren’t you?”