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"You don't remember?" Parc repeated.

Phanan shrugged helplessly, an innocent expression on his face. "Nope."

Parc covered his eyes with one hand and shook his head. "How does a moron like you get to be a doctor?" he demanded.

Darillian gave a rather hiccuppy laugh.

Ton shrugged again. "It has something to do with a Plass Growler."

"I think - hic! - you've had - hic! - one too many - hic! - drinks," Darillian told Phanan.

He looked at his hand, which was holding a smoking blue drink. How did that get there? he wondered. I gave my drink to Darillian!

At their computers, the Authors snicker.

Parc was glaring at him. "Look, are you going to tell me what's going on? Because I can't help you unless you tell me what you need."

Ton pointed towards the other table with the hand that wasn't holding the drink. "Ask them," he said unsteadily.

Parc looked over and a dreamy haze came over him. "It's her!" he cried. "She's come back!" Ton groaned. Before he could stop him, Parc was making his way to the table where the girls were sitting with Daniel. "Kat!" he called. "Kat, it's me!"

Kat looked up from Daniel's blue, blue eyes. Her own eyes widened. "Esra!" she cried, horrified. Hey, why am I so surprised? she thought suddenly. I knew we were looking for him.

Parc went down on one knee in front of her. "Kat, love, my life has not been complete since you left me. I have continued on purely in the hopes of finding you again. And here you are, darling. We can be together again."

Kat blushed, and she wasn't even faking it. Mish was snickering into her hand. Bryn was watching with interest, and Daniel was examining his nails. At the other table, Darillian had passed out and Ton was staring at them, a betrayed expression in his natural eye. She stared back at him pleadingly.

"Uh - Kat?" Parc asked. Kat looked down. She had forgotten he was there. "This isn't the most comfortable of positions, so… whaddya say?"

"Well… um…" Kat racked her brain for a diversion so that she could think about what to do. Parc was a nice guy, but she didn't want to be with him… but she had to get the information about Dr. Cimex out of him somehow. What to do, what to do…

"Kat!" Mish stood up suddenly. "Come on. We have to go to the refresher."

She almost protested, then realised this would give her a couple minutes to think. "Sorry, Esra, this'll just take a sec."

When Kat and Mish had left, Parc got up from his kneeling position. "Why do girls always go to the 'fresher in groups?" he asked randomly.

Daniel shrugged and Bryn looked affronted. Darillian was still passed out and Phanan looked mournful. Parc sighed.

"Kat, what are you going to do?" Mish asked in the Spitting Vornskr's dingy ladies room.

"I don't know! Help me!" she cried.

"Well, you need to find out some way of turning Parc down nicely so that he'll tell us what we want to know, right?"

"Thanks, I had that figured out myself," Kat replied dryly.

"Well… what could you do to make him not be in love with you anymore?"

She shrugged. "If I knew how to let guys down easily, there'd be way fewer after me."

"You always manage to turn Ton down easily," Mish commented.

Kat frowned. "That's different. Ton's not serious about any of that."

"That's what you think."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Oh, nothing, nothing."

"Mish! Tell me! What has Ton said to you about me? Mish, come on! Please?"

Mish's only response was to leave the ladies' room.

Kat followed her out after pasting a Tragic-Heroine look on her face. Parc, who has sat down at Danny's table, stood up and walked over to her and took her hands. "Well, dearest?"

She took a deep breath. "Esra, our love is true and pure, but there are some things even love cannot overcome. I… I'm married."

Parc's jaw dropped. "Wh-wh-what?" he asked, on the verge of blubbering.

"I'm married," Kat repeated. "To Ton."

Ton's jaw dropped too. "Wh-wh-what?" he asked, wondering if he'd heard right.

Kat cursed mentally. The stupid man couldn't just go along with it. "Yes. We've been married for months but we didn't tell anyone about it because…" She racked her brain. "Because we knew if Mish found out, she'd become jealous and suicidal!" she finished triumphantly.

Mish glared at her, indignance written as plainly on her face as if someone had taken a permanent marker and written "indignance" across her forehead.

Ton passed out beside Darillian.

"You're married?" Parc looked devastated.

"Yes. But it's you I truly love," she said in the voice that matched her Tragic-Heroine look. "And if I'm ever free, I'll seek you out. But I'm not free. And Ton is dying of grief, for his Glass Prowler is ill. The only one who can help is Dr. Vitrum Cimex, and we are unable to find her." Kat collapsed beside Daniel, pushing him closer to Bryn, who looked grateful.

Parc bit his lip. "I… I know where Dr. Cimex is," he said reluctantly.

Kat sat up, her expression hopeful yet still tragic. "You do? Esra, love, please. Where is she?"

"On… on Storinal," he said after a long pause.

Kat stood up again. "Thank you. You've done more than you'll ever know." Figuring he'd deserved it, she gave him a quick kiss on the lips. He passed out beside Ton and Darillian.

Mish rolled her eyes. "Come on, let's haul these guys back to the ship so we can get on our way."

Kat agreed and knelt down beside Ton. "Yo, wake up," she said, slapping his face.

Mish knelt down beside Darillian and did the same. When shaking him didn't work, she sighed and kissed him. His eyes opened.

Kat chuckled and started singing, "Someday my prince will come…" under her breath. Mish glared.

"Damn foreshadowing," she muttered.

"They do that to you too?" Kat asked conversationally.

"All the time," Mish told her. "Does it piss you off as much as it does me?"

"More." Kat's tone was grim. "I'm going to have to kiss Ton, aren't I."

"Probably," Mish agreed. "This is quite the kissy chapter, isn't it? I figure the Authors must be living vicariously through us."

Kat laughed. "Ouch! Burn!" she called out to thin air.

A guy burst into the bar with a Redemptor in each hand. "Nobody move!"

"Umm… sorry," Mish called to the air. "I didn't mean it."

"Oh, wait, wrong bar. Sorry." The guy with the Redemptors left.

"But only Face has Redemptors…" Kat muttered.

The guy stepped back in.

"Sorry!" she called.

"Does anyone know the way to the Spacer's Revenge?" the guy asked.

"Hey, I don't get it." Mish said, "I thought Face was supposed to be Fa- Darill- Um." She looked awfully confused.

 Kat shrugged. "Haven't you noticed the complete lack ot continuity or coherence lately?"

"I have. I think the Author's must have lost the plot somewhere... Hey, Author?" Mish looked into the air expectantly.

Suddenly a HUGE ink pen appeared in the sky.

"And they're typing this, aren't they?" Mish continued.

The ink pen dissapeared.

"Thank YOU."

"That was rather surreal," Kat commented.

Mish shrugged. "We've already determined that the authors are bizarre, Kat. Just go with it."

"Do we get to leave this cantina place yet?" Darillian asked. "I haven't been paying attention, due to sleeping." He almost lapsed back into slurring again, but Mish elbowed him.

"We're walking to the ship, if you hadn't noticed," Kat told him, gesturing to the filthy landscape of Nar Shaddaa.

Darillian looked around as the cantina melted away, and was replaced by 'the filthy landscape of Nar Shaddaa'. "Oh yeah… well, how was I supposed to know when it wasn't mentioned before?"

"You were supposed to get it from the context of the last chapter," Mish told him irritably.

"I thought we were still in the bar." Ton said, frowning as the drink in his hand dissapeared. "Damn! Ah well. Are that archaeologist and Bryn still with us?"

"No, we left them in the bar," Mish explained. She turned to Kat. "Why are we the only ones who have a clue what's going on here?"

 "I have no idea." Kat said. "I think we should just skip to the next chapter ASAP."

"Where're we going, then?" Mish replied, "Where's this Cimex woman. And you won't get jealous, will you?" She winked, "It looks like TPC might be finished soon."

"The TPC will never be finished!" Kat cried. "That's what sequels are for. And we're going to Storinal. Nicely coincidental, don't you think?"

"Oh yes. Isn't that where Ton got the Prowler from anyway? I think so!" Mish exclaimed.

Ton muttered, "Doesn't 'The TPC' translate as 'The The Phanan Chronicles'? The The? That's really bad grammar."

Mish ignored this aspect of Ton's superior intellect, and looked around. "Where's the fade-out for the next chapter already?"

None came.

Mish looked quite annoyed at one particular author who also just happened to share her namesake. "Fine."

The group entered the ship.

"Do you think it was wise leaving Bryn with Danny-boy?" Mish asked Kat, as she entered the co-ordinates for Stornial into the nav-comp. "OH SITH!" She then exclaimed, "Back in five shakes of a small see-through insect's abdomen..." She ran out of the ship, and returned minutes later, with . . . Yep . . . A hat that looked suspiciously like it had just come off the Indiana Jones set.

"Nice, Mish. Nice!"

"Thanks Kat!" Mish replied, grinning as the chapter faded out.