Log Date:
	2/27/97, 3/4/97, 3/23/97, 3/24/97

Log Cast:
	Tance, Kesya

Log Intro:
	Tance and Kesya's last foray into the Ranges had less success
than either of them had hoped; wanting to encourage Tance to take more
initiative in their work in the Ranges, Kesya had allowed herself to
hang back and let Tance choose some of the claim sites they would cut
-- and reluctantly, she also allowed him to cut some of them by himself.
But Tance has gotten himself battered with several injuries, in
addition to nearly losing himself in thrall over a green claim from
which Kesya has had to rescue him. Now, the exhausted Tance has collapsed
in his suite, trying to regather his crystal-scattered memories, aware
that there is something important he needs to remember....

----------
You hear a soft chime and an electronic voice announces that Kesya is in 
  Ocher Quadrant and is knocking on Tance's Suite.
(To respond: '+answer Out=<message>')

To Ocher Quadrant, Tance answers, but only after a time, and in a voice full 
  of exhaustion, "'Mhere..."

Kesya steps in from the hall.
Kesya has arrived.

Tance is sprawled, face down, on the couch you bequeathed him; his right knee, 
  the one closest to the room, is propped on a pillow.

Kesya steps lightly in, stopping just for a moment in surprise as she sees the 
  older singer's slim form sprawled face down on the couch. "Tance, you okay?" 
  She moves towards you, kneeling by your head. One hand smooths down 
  grey-touched tousled hair as she speaks softly. "Thought I'd come see how 
  you're doing."

Tance lifts his head drowsily, and murmurs, "Mrmmrm? Jade..."

Kesya gently shushes you, those green fingers patting your head back down. 
  "Rest, you look exhausted. I didn't mean to wake you up."

Tance fumbles a hand at you, looking up at you plaintively. "Missed yah, 
  Jade," he slurs. His moving hand subliminally tingles with resonance.

Kesya chuckles at that response, leaning forward just enough to plant a kiss 
  on your cheek. "I missed you too. Are you feeling any better?"

Tance rolls over on his back, grimacing a little at his still-stiff knee, and 
  tells you, "I ache, girlie, but mostly just 'cause I'm tired, now..."

Kesya arches a brow sardonically at the other singer. "And your moving around 
  now isn't helping /that/ any. I should probably leave so you can get a good 
  few hours rest."

"No... please...?" Tance's brown gaze fixes plaintively on your face. "Don't 
  go... I..."

Kesya, however, doesn't move, her left hand still idly fiddling with your hair.
Kesya straightens at your words, leaning against the edge of the couch as she 
  tilts her head to see your eyes better. "I won't go," she reassures you. 
  "You can rest, and I'll stay here." Her pale eyes seem a bit troubled, 
  unsure as to why you seem distraught.

Tance tells you fretfully, "You gotta... " The words turn to a plea, then. 
  "Help me forget about the green, Jade?" He lifts a hand, scrubbing it across 
  his face. "Can't get it out of my head..."

Kesya nods then, letting you sit up a bit as she takes a seat on the couch, 
  then lets you rest back, your head cradled in her lap. "Okay," she begins. 
  "We can talk about something else to help you forget about it." She thinks 
  for a moment, fingers gently stroking your hair. "Would you like to talk 
  about Syrine?"

"Yeah..." Tance breathes. "I... my head got foggy with all that green we kept 
  findin', girlie..."

Kesya chuckles softly, though there is a bit of a strained look to her eyes as 
  she glances away. It'd be easy to imagine the stress she'd gone through, 
  trying to keep you from all that green. "Well, we /have/ put off the trip 
  quite a bit, it's probably good to muse over it again," she says. Her 
  fingers ceaselessly play with your hair, soothing. "We could actually go 
  anytime, as my duties with this class are pretty much done. Just think... 
  we'll stay at the best hotels, and go sailing, and tour around... find out 
  about your parents..."

Tance's brow crinkles under your feather-light fingertips, and he murmurs in 
  hopeful agreement, seizing on your last few words, "My... parents? Yeah... 
  I... I had somethin'. In my head. Somethin' about my parents..."

Kesya's soft voice is lulling, and it may occur to you that she's trying to 
  sooth you back to sleepiness. "About your mother, and the pendant maybe?"

Tance frowns, vaguely, one hand lifting as if involuntarily, towards his 
  breastbone. "Pendant?" he repeats.

Kesya nods faintly, her left hand covering yours on your chest. "Yes, you told 
  me you had mentioned a pendant in your old voice records," she reminds you. 
  "Do you remember?"

You can feel Tance's hand draw together, as if trying to clasp something that 
  isn't there. His face flickers with struggle, though. "I... almost. Wh-what 
  did I say, girlie?"

Kesya squeezes your hand reassuringly, though she blinks a few times as she 
  looks up and away from you. _Again, he doesn't remember._ Pressing her lips 
  together, she frowns resolutely and tells you what she recalls. "You had 
  promised your Mother you wouldn't forget something, but you didn't mention 
  what it was in the files. I think you said the pendant was given you by your 
  Father, who you never knew as a child. And you said you told Meguey about 
  it."

Tance takes all this in, eyes crinkling at their weathered corners. Finally he 
  breathes out slowly, "Yeah... yeah, I remember that, now...."

Kesya lets out a relieved sigh even as you do, squeezing your hand. "I'm 
  glad," she murmurs. "Just needed a little reminder, I guess." She leans down 
  to plant a soft kiss on your forehead, perhaps a more apt indication of how 
  relieved she does feel at your remembering those small details.

Tance smiles lopsidedly at you, embarrassedly. "You sure I don't tork you off, 
  Jade? Holes in my head and all?"

Kesya blinks quizically at you for a moment, then laughs aloud. "Tork me off? 
  Er, no. Hon, you're you, and you're perfect the way you are." She runs one 
  green hand through your hair, thoughtful. "I just worry, sometimes."

Tance meets your blue eyes with his brown, still looking vaguely sheepish. "I 
  do, too... I mean... I think I do, now that I can remember long enough to..."

Kesya chuckles softly under her breath, her smile turning bemused. "What, 
  worry 'bout you, or about me?"

"Both," admits the man who's become your lover, shyly.
Tance's expression grows tender as he looks up at you -- a look he's given you 
  before, but now different, for his eyes are more alert, more knowing, and 
  somehow, all the more gentle for it.

Kesya smooths your hair back, her face creasing a moment as she frowns. "Well, 
  you leave the worrying to me. You have enough to deal with, what with 
  looking through those files of yours."

"The files... yeah. I gotta find something about the pendant..." He pauses, as 
  if considering getting up -- but he doesn't move, with that soft look still 
  focused on you.

Kesya doesn't seem all that eager to let you get up either, as she seems 
  perfectly content sitting here on the couch with your head pillowed in her 
  lap. "There's plenty of time," she murmurs. "But... you will tell me when 
  you feel ready to go to Syrine, right?"

Tance lifts a hand to your face. "You're... gonna get to come, wontcha, Jade?"

Kesya lets her head drop to your hand a bit as you pillow her cheek, and her 
  eyes close for the briefest of moments. But then, her voice sounds, sly and 
  teasing. "If you think I'm going to let you go to Syrine without me, you 
  *are* a crazy ol' karker!"

Tance gives you a sudden broad smile. "Jes'... wonderin' when I get a claim in 
  on our time, away from all them young pups, girlie..."

Kesya's pale eyes gleam with fond amusement as she gazes down at you, and she 
  wrinkles her nose in response to your teasing. "You always have first dibs, 
  Tance. And I don't have anything left to do this class, and there's time 
  before 2024. We can head off anytime you like."

Tance's face shifts a little, half eager, half nervous. "I'm... scared," he 
  confesses gruffly.

Kesya nods just a bit, her pale eyes on your brown ones. "I know... I'm a 
  little nervous myself, and I don't have any history there. But it'll be 
  good, to explore it."

Tance gazes up at you, tenderly, one hand still lifted to your cheek, and 
  brushing it with his thumb. "Gotta... get my head together again. Enough to 
  do this."

Kesya looks at you for a long moment, letting her cheek rest against your 
  fingers. "Anything I can do to help?" she asks softly.

He ponders this, gravely, then asks, "Help me search my files? For anything 
  about the pendant? You sound like I was... talking about it like it was 
  important...?"

Kesya lets one hand brush against your hair, and she nods slowly. "I can 
  probably help save a little time too," she comments helpfully. "I remember 
  you telling me that groups of files had nothing in them, while one or two 
  you didn't expect, did. It'll help us weed out the less useful stuff."

Tance starts to sit up, grunting a bit as he does, and smiles lopsidedly to 
  you. "The way my attention drifts off, girlie, that'll help a lot."

Kesya lets out a low chuckle as she leans against the couch back to let you 
  up, and finishes by giving you a soft kiss. "Won't be a problem. We'll just 
  mark the ones that say anything relevant."

With a touch of confidence in his movements, Tance returns the kiss, and 
  smiles at you crookedly a moment as he pulls back. "'Kay. C'mon..." He gets 
  up, and after an instant's consideration drapes an arm around you.

Kesya loops her arm around your waist, stiffling a rueful smile. "You don't 
  waste any time, do you?"

"I gotta do stuff while I remember, Jade," Tance replies cheerfully. He leads 
  you off into the den where his computer has been set up.

Kesya follows you into the dim room, and after blankly asking the computer to 
  raise the lights, takes a seat in one of the chairs facing the terminal.

[And later....]

Hours later, you have searched through a half-century's worth of files on 
  Tance's terminal; Tance has grown drowsy, and he has slumped over in a 
  battered chair you'd had placed in the corner of his den. The room is mostly 
  dark, lit only by the faint glow from the terminal's screen.

Kesya is now leaning tiredly on one arm, her gaze fixed drowsily on the screen 
  before her. She can be heard muttering to herself as she scrolls through 
  bits and pieces of files, and her trill, when her words are distinguishable, 
  is thick. Biting her lip, she shakes her head at yet another dead end and 
  calls up the next file on her list.

The terminal is in text-only output mode at the moment, so as not to wake 
  Tance; it tells you now, in whitely glowing letters, that you're looking at 
  a file from Tance's datapad from about 60 years following his joining of the 
  Guild. And the first few sentences of the entry appear in a small preview 
  window, reading:

        I don't know why I'm even bothering to record this. Maybe because
        I'm afraid that if I _don't_ record it, I'll forget it... I feel like
        I'm betraying Mother somehow to put it down where someone can read it

... and the words are cut off by the bottom of the panel.

Kesya almost misses the brightly-light words as she nods a bit at the desk, 
  but after a moment the words her eyes are resting on sink in to her, and she 
  straightens. Shaking her head to clear it, she leans closer and re-reads 
  those few lines, eyes narrowing. Once done, she takes another glance at the 
  sleeping Tance and then presses the button to continue scrolling the next 
  few lines of text.

        ... and maybe someday use it against me. But if I forget, does that
        guarantee my safety? Or just that I won't be able to handle it if
        they do come looking for me? It's too important for me
        to forget.

Kesya muddles over these lines for a few moments, brows creasing as she frowns 
  at the screen. At this point evidently, she's come to the conclusion that 
  this isn't just some false trail, and one hand reaches out to gently pat 
  Tance's knee. "Tance... Tance? Wake up hon, I think I found something."

Tance stirs groggily, and mumbles, "Wha? What time is it? Do I gotta soak, 
  doctor?"

Kesya surpresses a smile, but the urgency in her tone can't be missed -- she 
  pats your leg again, and gestures to the screen. "No Tance, it's the files. 
  I think this one might be important. You want to see, right?"

Tance blinks owlishly, then sits up. "Screen. Files? Oh... whatcha got?" He 
  shoves a hand through his hair and blinks again at you, then at the terminal.

Kesya waves a hand vaguely at the glowing screen, the other rubbing at one eye 
  as she talks. "Well, you talk about not being sure why you're talking about 
  this, and saying that if you do forget, maybe that'll protect you better... 
  but that it's too important not to forget. Here, I'll turn it audio." She 
  reaches forward then, flicking a button on the terminal. "Let's see what 
  it's about."

Tance listens to his own voice speaking the words you've just read on the 
  screen, and he frowns; that frown deepens as his younger voice continues:

        I guess it's on my mind because this is the day Mother died. Haven't
        managed to forget _that_, yet. Guess it's hard to forget seeing your
        mother shot, even after so many decades, huh?

Tance freezes, going white of face.

Kesya's hand reaches for yours, her dark fingers curling reassuringly about 
  your pale ones. She doesn't speak though, merely swallowing as she listens 
  to the recording.

Tance's younger voice speaks almost dispassionately, but with a husky edge to 
  it that suggests he's fighting with his own self-control:

        So I've got to keep Father's pendant. It's all I've got of her. I
        need it, to help me remember. To keep watch.

And with that, the entry ends.

Kesya squeezes your hand, breath caught as she looks carefully at you. 
  "What... do you think?"

Tance breathes, "I... don't remember that..." He sounds wounded. And horrified.

Kesya slides one arm around your shoulders, drawing you in for a comforting 
  hug. "Of course not Tance," she murmurs softly. "Can't expect to remember 
  things from that long ago, no matter how important. But that's why you were 
  smart enough to record it, right?" She withdraws just enough to look at you, 
  pale blue eyes looking into your soft brown ones.

Tance's gaze is a stricken one -- not surprising, for a man who's just 
  listened to himself relay that his mother had been murdered. "My... my 
  m-mother was shot..."

Kesya nods slowly, her gaze never leaving yours. "Um hmm. And the pendant was 
  your Father's." Pressing her lips together, she regards you thoughtfully 
  before giving your hands a gentle squeeze. "We need to figure out how it 
  happened. You might go on in your files and explain... but the news files 
  from Syrene at that time would surely have the story."

"N-no... wouldn't... wouldn't be in there..." Tance's hands shake in your 
  slenderer ones. "Kesya, I... I-I can almost see her, I remember a blaster 
  firing, I..."

Kesya's grasp tightens on your hands even as her eyes widen in surprise, and 
  she stares at you in bewilderment for a moment. Whether she's more 
  astonished at your pulling up a memory from so deep in your past or at your 
  being convinced the Syrine files wouldn't show a trace of the incident is 
  hard to tell -- but after a long moment, she clears her throat and speaks 
  up. "Are... are you suggesting there was some sort of coverup involving your 
  mother's death?"

"It just... it wouldn't... it wouldn't be in there," Tance pants out, as he 
  wraps an awkward arm around you and pulls you close. "I-I dunno why I know 
  that, Jade!"

Kesya takes a moment to absorb all this, her brows knitting, her lean frame 
  folding against you as you pull her close. "Okay... okay. We can still 
  figure this out." Abruptly, she straightens, and turns toward you with a 
  searching gaze. "You say you remembered a blaster firing?"

Tance nods, unsteadily.

Kesya's voice is a bare whisper as she murmurs, "That means you were there."
Kesya lets out her breath in a sigh, and circles your shoulders with one arm. 
  "Shards, Tance..." Her voice trails off as she gazes again at the computer 
  screen. "I don't suppose you remember anything else about it? Like if anyone 
  else was there?"

Clearly badly shaken, Tance crushes you to him; you can feel him shake his 
  head over and over. "I... I don't remember, I just see the shot..."

Kesya silently wraps her arms about you, burying her head in your shoulder as 
  she holds you for several minutes. When she finally speaks up again, it's 
  with a question: "You might have more in there about it... but... would you 
  rather take a break for now?" Her head raises, to give you a soft kiss on 
  your chin. "This is a lot to take in."

Tance's trembling subsides as you hold him -- at least mostly. When he answers 
  your question it's in a voice gone husky and plaintive. "I... I don't have a 
  pendant, girlie..."

Kesya's pale eyes remain on you, and she nods, not appearing to know what to 
  say to that. "I know hon," she begins. "But there's a chance... maybe.. that 
  we'll find out what happened to it as we go through the files. You seemed 
  never to take it off, back then. But then, a lot of time has passed." She 
  gives a helpless shrug.

"It... it was my father's?" It's a question, though Tance seems to direct it 
  more into the air, than to you. And his face falls, his expression beginning 
  to tinge with shame. "I-I... don't even remember it... him..."

Kesya's fingers rub at your shoulders soothingly, and she gives you a firm 
  shake of her head. "No, don't start feeling bad about that on me. That was a 
  /long/ time ago, and you impressed the heck outta me just by remembering 
  that part about your mother. Ask any Singer who's been here more than a 
  handful of decades and they won't be able to tell you anything about their 
  families. C'mon now... just because crystal made you forget, doesn't mean 
  you betrayed them."

Tance lifts a hand again in that unconscious gesture you've seen him making as 
  of late -- as if to reach for something that isn't there hanging from his 
  neck. Something in your words makes him wince, though, and he mumbles 
  abashedly, "But... but I ain't got it... I ain't got it. The pendant. It's 
  gone..."

Kesya's voice is soft, imploring as her fingers gently touch your chin, 
  turning your gaze to hers. "But Tance... you might not have been able to 
  help that. You can't go berating yourself until we find out more, okay?"

You can see him swallow hard, and there's anguish there in his brown gaze, 
  along with his usual bafflement. With difficulty, he nods. "R-right...."

Kesya repeats your gesture, nodding decisively. "Right. Now... before we 
  decide what to do next, do you want to put anything in your datapad?"

He blinks at that, momentarily puzzled... then he nods again, tremblingly.
  "Datapad... I-I better put it in the pad...." His big rough hands fumble 
  into his pockets, to pull the datapad out, to shakily turn it on.
As he makes his newest entry in the datapad, recording the discoveries of the 
  evening, Tance begins to shake again in both voice and body -- particularly 
  as he informs the little black device that his mother, apparently, was 
  murdered. He hesitates, though, as he tries to force out the remembrance of 
  a blaster shot for the datapad's impersonal microphone.

Kesya gives your shoulder a reassuring squeeze, and stands to lean against the 
  doorframe, seeming deep in thought. Casting you a wan smile, she disappears 
  from sight and you can hear the beeping of the catering unit in the room 
  beyond.

[To be continued....]