Kas listened intently. He is past memory recalled the name of the Aiki, a very strong force sect as he remembered it.
"Thank you for answering. One last question; What did you feel about this planet that bade you to come here. I have felt ripples in the force, or rather, my past has while I have been unaware. Can you explain what brought you here?"

Aboard the Free Wind orbiting Vandelheim

The second in command was quite nervous about the situation. He had the founder and leader of the Vinda Corperation onboard, and had for the last two days. His captain had never been that late. He had been contimplating sending down a strike team to search, but the rest of the bridge crew thought it wasn't such a hot idea.

He sat in his quarters, reviewing paperwork, the tension building.

Tension. It ate away at his mind like a Gnkat slug at a fiberous rope. It streached his emotions to a wire. He reviewed the situation.

Tension.
Two days late.
Hasn't been back to his hotel in two day's.
More than usual flood of strangers heading out in the same direction that his commander had last been spotted.
Seth Vinda aboard to go back to Brental.

It was enough to make him loose his mind. If he sent out a strike team, the locals may get very mad, and Mr. Vinda had plans for this planet. If he waited his commander may die.

Tension

Decisions

Tension

Decisions

Tension

Slapping the comm unit on his desk, he requested Mr. Vinda be put on the holo.

Tension

Decisions.

He should have been a doctor.

"...Yes Captain?..."


Came the familiar, but slightly annoyed voice via the holo-feed...
The seated figure of Vinda in his quarters met the eyes of the indecisive Captain.

Staring at him blankly, Vinda listened half-bemused, half irritated, as the man explained to him the dilemma.
Once finished, the Captain seemed to look up to him expectantly, but was met with silence, as Vinda seemed to take it all in.

"...so...you are telling me the reason why I am late for my meeting on Brentaal...is because my new Admiral has promptly decided to take an extra couple of days off without telling anyone...."

...probably drunk in a bar somewhere...

The Captain shifted awkwardly under Vinda's glare...

"...if he thinks he's going to get paid for these extra curricular activities he's got another thing coming..."

Vinda sighed and muttered under his breath, as he realised he was going to have to cancel his business rendezvous at Brentaal...

"...bloody Admirals..."

He stiffened, as he thought about the lucrative potential that Vandelheim indeed had, then responded curtly...

"...ok Captain , I'll go down there myself, ready my shuttle, and alert Achinta...."

... always something!...

As the Captain acknowledged, and his image fizzled away, Vinda, agitated, drummed his fingers on the table, thinking of the many possible reasons for Kas's absence.
Despite his beligerant mood, deep down he hoped he was ok, after all it wasn't like Kas to disappear and to not give word.
Still annoyed from having to cancel his meeting, he opened his desk drawer, and reached for his Cigarra's....


...He'd better be in trouble....



...or he will be when I get down there...

On impulse, and impulse alone, Pu’ti waved his hand at this Observer Jedi.
She slumped instantly.
“Sleep well Jedi, because of your rashness I must now count the wounded of my people. But it isn’t entirely your fault.”

Pu’ti motioned to the two guards. “Put her in a secure room, with a good bed. Two guards outside the door, and a note inside telling her to please not leave.
If she does leave, just have them follow her. No aggression.”

They nodded, and walked off with the Jedi floating between them.

Pu’ti stood, frowning. Why had he done that? Something had sprung up inside him. Something slightly familiar…

The part of him that was Kas Katta was slowly melding into oblivion. It’s memories stored with the rest of his memories. They were the most recent ones though, and still had that fresh feel to them. Pu’ti searched his mind for …

“Vinda…”

Vinda was here. It all flooded back now. He was supposed to meet his ship days ago!

He may be Pu’ti, but he sure couldn’t break arrangements just for personal reasons…

The past day had gone even worse for Tem. He was fast becoming tired of this hunt.
It seemed that no one had seen Admiral Kas Katta. But one. And that man was missing.

His eyes narrowed. "Stupid Admiral had to go on a hike. Couldn't stay in his cooled hotel like a normal person either."

He stepped into the office ahead of him, letting a body slide from his hands as he did so.

The office door closed. The tinted glass read “Vandelhiem Guest Tracking, Main Office”

Twelve people lay dead in various positions all about the large room. Five security cameras, blown. Dead.

And no sign of any alarms going off.

Narcissus

Vandelheim Spaceport



As the Chrome vessel gingerly touched down upon the landing pad, Vinda observed through the window the bustling throng of different species...

"...better put this on sir..."

Vinda looked up to see an aide offering him a small Gas-mask, and as he threw him a puzzled expression, the aide explained..

"...hlor4, the air has high traces of it, breathe it in and you'll have your own purple haze..."

Nodding slightly, Vinda grimaced as he slipped the mask on, it only really covered both his nose and mouth...

The engines from the ship whined down, The Narcissus's engines had a very distinctive sound, and those who knew it , knew instantly Vinda had arrived. With a small rush of air and a hiss, the air-lock opened and the gantry extended.

As Vinda stepped down it, he glanced up to see Achinta already waiting for him at the bottom, Vinda nodded in acknowledgement.

"...We have reservations at the same hotel Mr Katta stayed in, I have already spoken to the manager, they say our Admiral checked out days ago, and they haven't seen him since...we have found his shuttle however....its empty"

Vinda's face frowned upon hearing the HRD's words..

"..well we'll have to check and see any of the locals has seen him..."

(he prodded Achinta)

"..you can do that.."

Achinta simply nodded..

"..I'll go back to the hotel, I assume they have security footage, yes?, maybe something there, worth checking anyhow..."

As they walked out of the parking bay,he glanced down and pointed at a crude drawing upon the floor...

"..what the frell is that?..."

Achinta smirked..

"..thats a picture of a Mynock sir..."

The CEO paused, cocked his head to one side and shook his head , as they both slowly walked away, he muttered under his breath...


"...doesn't look like a Mynock to me..."

Kas strode down the Gallery to a side door that you wouldn’t have know was there unless you lived here. He pushed the door open, and descended into a small, constricting chamber. The door closed, and the chamber darkened.

It was totally dark inside the chamber. So dark you couldn’t see your own hand. Kas closed his eyes, and focused. The distant memories remended him what to do…
Lurch
..
..

Luuuurch

Slowly but surly the chamber began to move. It certainly wasn’t a smooth ride, lurching up every now and then. The occupant of the chamber could feel the gravety of the planet increase ever so slightly.

A thought sprang to mind… back at the hotel the turbo-lift operator had asked…

“Going Up?”

It was not the phrase its self that had stuck in Kas’ mind, but the way the man said it… with a twist of his lip, and a smile…

“Going up?… why yes!”

Kas smiled at his impression of the man. Probably not as good as it could have been.

---------- ------------- -----------

Rubble. Complete rubble. Rocks everywhere, with hardly enough room to move amongst them. A narrow pathway did wind between all of the rocks, but it wasn’t used much.

The Droid C4 was standing amongst the rubble, scanning the area. He and his comrades had managed to gather together twenty three of these strange humanoids. His sensors assured him that there were more amongst the rubble, yet they were troublesome to locate efficiently. Perhaps his detection programming needed to be modified.

Behind him a rock shudder slightly, and a loud squeal was heard. C4 whirled in time to see the rock fold in half, and another humanoid step out.

*Halt. Identify yourself.*

“Kas Katta, Admiral of the Vinda Corporation. You should know me well enough C4.” The voice was similar to Admiral Katta’s, yet changed somewhat. But it was not changed enough for his voice pattern recondition program to scan and identify.

*Your identity is confirmed. Please come this way.*

Sahrah banked left into a turn and buzzed the tower at the spaceport once more before punching her engines up to get clear. Seth was down and everything was fine for now.

She was about to set down somewhere not too far away to stay on call but a nagging feeling kept her airborne. Kas was missing and it wasn't like him so something had to be up. Had some rival company taken him hostage in the hopes of dangling him as some ransom bait for Vinda?

<span style="color:red;">If he were here I'd probably joke about how they couldn't get more'n a cred to sell him off</span>, she thought to herself and smiled.

She slid her visor up and turned on her long-range scanners to do a quick reconnaissance of her surroundings. Nothing special: average ship traffic, a few patrols, a familiar signature, a few cargo shi---a familiar ship?!?! Sahrah's blue eyes squinted carefully at the flashing green blip...it wasn't Vinda's.

<span style="color:red;">Helloooo my little blinking friend...and who might you be?</span> she said to herself as she called up a quick display about the ship.

The screen lit up with a colorful presentation and a lovely spinning picture of a Yt-1300 - its weapons systems highlighted in blue for quick reference and admiration.

<span style="color:red;">Just give me a name you piece of crap!</span> Sahrah rolled her eyes in frustration and proceeded examine the text next to the spinning craft.

She flipped on her communications almost instantly. "Hey, sir, I have a birthday present for you," she pushed a button and her A-wing's computer sent a small flood of data to Vinda.

There had been talk about town. Talk that the Vinda Corporation leader himself had arrived, and was on the planet. That ment that Admiral Katta’s disappearance had caused concern.
It also meant time was running out for the hit man, time he didn’t really have.
The talk about town also said that two ships had left the spaceport, and had flown north. Of course, this kind of talk had been extracted from a spaceport official with the aid of a hot knife, but that meant little to Satare.

His hand waved, and a paid transport began to slow. Ten seconds later a body lurched out the open door, and the transport left in a cloud of dust, heading north.

As the door slid shut behind him with a rush of air, Vinda removed his face mask he had been given, and looked around the lobby, curious as to why it seemed so deserted.

Striding up to the reception, the CEO's shoes echoed around the lobby, he couldn't help but feel that something wasn't quite right...
Murmuring under his breath, he retreived a small blaster from within his suit pocket...

...he had to pick this hotel....

Glancing around as he approached the reception, he pressed his finger upon the customer waiting alarm on the off chance someone would answer..
He frowned slightly as a small chime sounded , but no-one answered.

Sighing to himself, Vinda walked to the other side of the desk , and scanned the database for Kas's records...

...Aha!....

His eyes narrowed in annoyance as he saw Kas had checked out days ago, but had yet to check back in.

Regardless of this , Vinda made his way to Kas's room in the hope of finding something that might shed some light on his sudden disappearence, as he thought about this briefly, he stopped abruptly , noticing that Kas's door had been left wide open.

Gripping tighter onto his blaster he peered cautiously into the room from the hallway, and gingerly stepped in. Vinda couldn't shake the feeling he was walking out of the frying pan, and into the fire as he glanced around the trashed hotel room.
Smashed furniture, broken mirrors, the whole place was a mess, almost as if someone had been searching for something...

...either he's had one hell of a party.... or...

A sudden vibrating in his pocket, interrupted his thoughts and made him jump ...

"..in the name of!..."

Vinda stopped short as he realised his comms-unit was on silent alert, taking a moment to catch his breath, he listened to Sahrah's message

"...Hey, sir, I have a birthday present for you..."

Switching his data-pad on , his eyes scanned the information transmitted to him, and nodded to himself..

He replied, though with his voice still showing traces of annoyance...

"...excellent work Sahrah...I'll contact Achinta, stay where you are he might make his way back to it...."

He sighed heavily as looked around the room once more, confused more now than to begin with...


....its not my Birthday...

Thoughts ran though the now changed man’s head. I have changed… will they still accept me? New memories crowded his brain, screaming for attention. The momentary control that he had had over his newly remembered power was fading quickly.

Walking down the mountain next to C4, Kas worked hard on staying obtuse to the ground. Every time he tripped, or began to loose his balance, rocks on the opposite side of his trajectory lurched, or began a rolling slide down the hillside. He was grasping at straws, trying to hold on to his control. Can’t…… let ……. them ……. know…….

Trip.

Unable to keep his balance this time, Kas Katta, Admiral, began a very undignified rolling fall down the mountain. His body seemed to hit every single rock, and slide down every drop. Bruises would be many, and uninjured places few. One hundred yards down from his falling point, the now very dirty, and bloody body stopped it’s trip. Consciousness eluded Kas, and one thought drifted through his mind. must not let them know must not let them know must not let them know must not let them know must not let them know must not let them know

Darkness closed in completely once again.