FIRST STORY- Feel free to contribute. ANYONE MAY PLAY

"Only because I really need a ship that size, but I'd rather have a fully operational shuttle". The Merchant looked at the red ship in a slight disgust.
"I'll give you a good price." Shareth replied with a sly smile.
The bearded merchant turned around and rubbed his chin. "A good price from a Hutt? Don't maker me laugh."
Shareth smile disappeared and she looked at the merchant with anger. He just looked back at her sharply. Then Shareth began to laugh loudly, her bulky wormlike body shaking. "Okay, okay, 10.000, because you have guts. But...." she suddenly looked serious again, "that IS my last offer."
The merchant turned back to the ship, looked at it and then turned lower his shoulders. "Allright then," he said in a sigh. "It's a deal. Well, for you it is."

Gun looked up at RC as he returned to the console. "There's still no sign of him," she said, standing stiffly. "We're still low enough to avoid detection by the skynet in Marakith, but your fuel is running out." She didn't bother adding that she also knew her lung was filling with blood as she had coughed it up twice now. "There's a republic cruiser just off-world where you can re-fuel. Just drop down here long enough to let me out...I'm gonna keep looking for Ush."

Gun knew RC was right, but it grated her badly to leave Ushgarak behind. "I don't want to leave him, RC," she said, sliding slowly back into her seat. Her attempts to use the Force alternately between controlling her pain and trying to communicate with the missing Jedi were failing. She closed her eyes, seeing a vision of Qui-Gon's funeral pyre, awash in flame, flash through her mind. Her sabre slipped from her hand and she idly wondered if she was dying....

"Stay with me Gundy, Ushgarak is only temporarily lost and I have no intention of loosing you!"

Pushing the throttle hard, RC accelerated the yacht as much as the thinning atmosphere would allow. At last the broke the barrier to free space and he was able to fully open the sublight engines to circumvent the planet.

On the scopes a large green blob, for want of a better description hung in space about 5 million klicks out. RC hit the inertial thrusters to bring the ship about; the short hop would take no more than 5 minutes.

“Republic Cruiser Varidiam, the is the Republic Vessel [b]Jade Ruby[b], I have injured personnel and one MIA. Permission to dock?”

##This is Varidiam, who is this?##

Irritated, but understanding their caution RC replies. "This is Jedi Knight RC, I have onboard Jedi Master Gundark and Knight Phinney. Our MIA is Jedi Master Ushgarak.

"Gundark is severly wounded and requires urgent medical attention. We also need to take on fuel in order to undertake a search for Ushgarak."

##How did these injuries occur?##

"Look! We don't have time for this, we were involved in a skirmish with those fighters that you must have seen hightailing it out of the system not 2 hours ago. They forced Gundark, Ushgarak and Phinney down, I was more fortunate.

"Now you can either give us clearance or I can make you give us clearance, I don't have time to argue!" RC hated to threaten the man who was, after all, doing his job but Gundarks condition was getting critical, a look told him that without having to refer to scanners.

After a long silence, ##Permission granted, we will have a medical team standing by.##

“Thank you.” RC closed the connection.

Gundark felt the throb of the engines through the bottom of her feet, knowing RC was pressing them to their limit. She involuntarily wrapped her arms around her midsection, trying to contain the horrible pain that gripped her body, still thinking only of saving her missing companion. Ush.....we'll find you...hang on.... she reached out with the Force, once again got no response in return. She felt the remains of her strength trickle away and RC's voice beside her grew distant and faint.....

The Ruby tore into the hanger, just barely under full thrust. Throwing the emergency air-breaks into full reverse RC brought the ship down within 10 feet of the waiting medical team.

Sprinting to the boarding ramp he wildly beckoned the team into the ship. “This way! She’s in the cockpit.”

“What about him?” The medtech pointed towards Phinney.

“He’s fine, deal with her first.”

As the meds gingerly place Gundark on a repulsorlift guerney, she reaches out with a last effort and grasps RC's arm. "Find him...."

"No Way! You're in no condition to play hide come seek with Ush. You need to be on that Cruiser getting some real medical attention, not my amature efforts."

RC can see the blood still oozing through the dressings and spreading a deep, crimson disk on the shirt Gundark now wore.

"If I let you down now, you'll be dead before I clear the atmosphere. I know you want to help Ushgarak, but you're no good to him as a corpse."

Settling into the second console chair, RC pulls back on the stick and angles the craft for blue/black merridian between planet and space. Grimly he sends out a message to Ushgarak through the Force.

~We'll be back friend, May the Force be with You.~

RC has no doubt that Gundark will not thank him for this, but deep in his heart he is sure this is the right decision.

RC looked down, into the deep, soulful wells that we Gundarks eye." We'll find him together" he answered quietly.

Turning to the Medtech. "Can you fix her up to travel? I won't be able to find Yshgarak without her. Their bond is a strong one."

"We'll do our best" the tech replied.

"You do that" RC sesponed dryly." I'll be back in an hour he told Gundark. "Just let these guys do what they need to get you fixed up."

As Ushgarak's red cloured ship manouvres into the crevice of Ulva's uninhabited moutain region, the merchant ripped off his beard revealing queeq's face. With perfect control he lands the ship in the narrow canyon next to his Cloakshaped Fighter. AK is already waiting with a fully assembled swoop bike.

Gundark was in a wonderful place. She was having breakfast with her parents and she was five years old again. "Kellan," her mother began, using her birth name. "There is a man coming to see you today. A nice man. A Jedi Knight." Kellan's eyes got as round as saucers. "A Jedi Knight ? Coming to see me ?" She was excited, then suddenly inquisitive. "Why ? Why does he want to see me?" she asked curiously. Her parents exchanged glances over her head and her mother looked away. "Well, you're going to go and stay with him for awhile," her father told her carefully. Kellan's eyes moved to her mother. "Mother?" she said in a small voice. "Why do I have to go with him?" Menna turned and embraced her child. "Because of all those special things you can do, he's going to teach you how to use them, to become a Jedi Knight too." She didn't know what else to say. Menna had found long ago that honesty was the approach that worked with her daughter, her only child, who, as it had turned out, was a force-sensitive being born of force-blind parents. Identified by the Jedi Council and who would now leave her homeworld to begin the life forever tied to that of a Jedi. Hot tears ran from beneath Gundark's closed eyes, remembering the last time she saw her parents alive. The vision blurred, but the name of her birth she now heard again as queeq whispered it in her ear during their most intimate moments of lovemaking. She had the briefest sense of him, somewhere, but as she reached for it, it eluded her and slipped away.

Gundark had been heavily drugged and now RC's bandaged efforts had been cut away and the surgeon droid worked tirelessly on the damage to the Jedi's flesh and bone, finally stopping the internal bleeding. She lay unconscious in the medical suite, using the Force to regain her strength, visions running rampant through her mind. She pulled herself into the present, the crash, the escape from the exploding ship, Ushgarak's disappearance. Wait. Ushgarak. That was it, they had to find him. Without thought, Gun reached for her sabre, got a handful of blanket. She forced her eyelids open in time to see the surgeon droid pulling a respirator tube out of her throat. She coughed and took a shaky breath. "You must rest now, " the droid intoned authoritively. "I'll rest later. Promise," Gun told him in a raspy voice. Realizing she was completely naked under the blanket and that there was a human surgeon approaching her bed with a disapproving look on his face, she thought better of trying to make a slip-out-the-door-quietly-and-nobody-will-see-me escape. She sighed and laid back against the pillow.

"Stay quiet," said the Man in White. "I need to concentrate."

"Why would I make things easy on you?" said Ushgarak

"Worry about yourself, not me."

"How much is Shareth paying you for this?"

"Maybe I did it for nothing," said the Man in White. "How does that make you feel?"

"I... I sense a lot of hatred... what did I ever do to you?"

"That's something you should think about..." said the Man in White.

"You are a fool. My friends will come looking for me."

"I'm counting on it," said the Man in White. He was running through some calculations. "That's not a bad Midi-Chlorian count, my friend... but I've seen higher. MUCH higher, These are strange times."

"I don't understand," said Ushgarak.

"You aren't meant to. But you should be glad I am here. If it wasn't for me, my erstwhile Master Finti would have picked up you and your friends. And you would have liked that FAR less..."

"Who is Finti?" asked Ushgarak

"He is the one you are looking for..."

"And you work for him? Or Shareth... wait. How may people THINK you are working for them?"

The Man in White smiled. "Oh, a fair few..."

Ushgarak looked around for an escape route. His sabre had been taken, and there were guards in yellow everywhere. The Man In White was no fool. Weapons eveywhere were strapped and secure; Ushgarak could not pull them away. This would need careful planning... but not yet. Ushgarak had tomfind out more first.

Some time later....

"What do you mean? He only had minor injuries, why must he spend a week in the bacta tacks?" RC was stupified. Apparently Phinney6 had sustained a major injury to his heart and lungs.

"He stays or he will certainly die." The 21B droid replied.

"Ok, ok," RC signed. "What about the Girl, Gundark? Is she fit enough to travel?"

"She is." The droid replied simply. "However, I would not recommend it."

"You tell her!" RC grinned. "I need to see her."

"Certainly, this way."

The droid turned and RC followed, he took him into a private chamber beyond the main medical bay. Gundark was laying on a bed, a simple sheet covered her body, maintaining her modesty, her eyes were open. RC smiled as he approached the bed.

She gave him a grin as he approached. "At last. The reinforcements have arrived," she said with relief. Lowering her voice, she continued. "RC, short of using the mind trick on this surgeon, I've tried everything to convince him that I'm okay now. He won't be back for a couple of hours. Think you could dig around in that locker and find me a flight suit, anything, that I can throw on so we can get out of here ?"

"He didn't let you leave cos I told him not to." RC smiled, "but now you have you papers and are ready to fly. Doctor boy should be back any moment with your clothes."

Gun frowned. "YOU told him not to ? Who made you chief med officer ? We're loosing time. No telling whats happened to Ushgarak." She quelled the urge to get truly angry with him. "You have my sabre?"

"Here." RC thrust the weapon into her hand. "You would have been no help to Ushgarak if you had died before you found him. "He said flatly.

"All right," she sighed. "You made your point. How's Phinney ?"

"Worse than be thought, they've placed him into Bacta."

"For how long?" she asked worriedly. Before RC could answer, the doctor entered, looking stern as ever. He turned to RC. "Out. Five minutes and I'll turn her loose," he ordered.