The Ruins of Dantooine (22 page)

“Only option I saw left. Our blasters just weren’t bringing the voritor down. They’re notorious for incredibly tough hides. In fact, no one is even sure
how long these creatures live. It could be hundreds, maybe even thousands of years,” she explained.

Finn’s stern face lost some of its resolve. He gradually smiled at Dusque, whose ears were no longer ringing as badly as they had been. Shaking his head, he said, “Leave it to you to give me a dissertation on the life span of a killer lizard right after you nearly blew us to bits along with it.” And then he laughed.

“Well,” she replied somewhat sheepishly, “I couldn’t think of any other way to stop it.”

He limped closer to her and gave her a brief hug. “Hey, we’re alive, so who am I to complain?”

“You’re hurt,” she commented.

“Not bad … probably just a bruise from that thing’s tail. I’ll be fine.”

She was unconvinced. “I’ve got a small medkit with me.”

“Don’t worry. I just need to keep moving, so it doesn’t stiffen up,” he told her. “I’ll be fine.”

“All right,” she replied. “Are we close?”

“Just over the next ridge, if these coordinates are accurate.”

Even as they started to climb the hill, Dusque saw smaller scavengers move in to finish up what remained of the dead lizard. Nothing went to waste on the harsh world; something was always waiting in the shadows to take advantage of the situation. That was life everywhere, she reflected. She was saddened by the thought that civilized beings seemed bound by the same laws of nature—Empire
and Rebels alike, in a way. Except she was more convinced than ever that if hope lay anywhere, it lay with the Rebels.

There was a roaring in her ears. She shook her head slightly. She thought her hearing had cleared, but the roaring seemed to be growing in intensity rather than diminishing. When she reached the top of the hill, just behind Finn, she realized that the roaring had been not residual damage to her ears, but a massive waterfall some sixty meters away. It spilled out from a steep, treeless ridge. Still, it was what was in front of the waterfall that caused Dusque to catch her breath. As a moon struggled to peek out from behind some clouds, she could see from that weak light that there was a huge arch not too far away, as well as other crumbled relics of structures: the Jedi ruins.

“We’re here,” Finn whispered.

Dusque followed as he walked carefully down from their vantage point into the ruins themselves. She felt awed, though she wasn’t sure why. Not much remained—just a huge foundation of what must have been a large building back in some distant time.

“What used to be here?” she asked Finn.

“I don’t know. Supposedly a Jedi Master established a training center here some four millennia ago, but I think these were ruins even then,” he told her uncertainly.

Dusque found herself drawn to a grand staircase that led up to the remains of a tower. She marched upward and almost didn’t see that there was a break in the stone stairs. She caught herself at the last moment, arms pinwheeling madly as she regained her balance. She stood looking at the gap in the staircase and contemplated trying to make the jump, curiously attracted to the yawning darkness
above. All that remained of the tower seemed to be its foundation, but she wanted to see it.

“Dusque,” she heard Finn call.

She debated for a moment, but then turned and cautiously descended the ancient stone steps. Below, she saw Finn standing closer to another foundation, this one perhaps a quarter of the size of the one Dusque had been investigating. He had pulled out his portable scanner and was turning slowly in a circle.

“What are you doing?” she asked curiously.

“The holocron would have been tagged; I’m hoping to pick up a signal from the sensor,” he told her. He continued to turn, and then stopped. “I think I’ve found it,” he whispered. She could sense the suppressed excitement in his tone and stance.

“Where?”

He put down the instrument and faced the powerful waterfall. Dusque knew what he was going to say before he opened his mouth.

“Behind that waterfall,” he told her.

“More water,” she said.

“The last time,” he promised her.

As they marched across the ruined courtyard in front of the tower, Dusque glanced at the large archway forty meters or so away. She thought she saw a strange, greenish blue flicker in the night.

“Did you see that?” she asked Finn, pointing. “It almost looked like a fire. But a strange one.”

He looked over, then shrugged. “I don’t see it,”
he said, and she was reminded of his similar comments on the shuttle.

As though reading her mind again, Finn added, “That doesn’t mean there’s nothing there. We’ll look into it after we retrieve our prize, okay?”

“All right,” she agreed, somewhat mollified that he was at least considering it.

Their footsteps echoed strangely on the deserted courtyard, and Dusque wondered how many feet had tread on the same stones over the generations. She found herself looking over her shoulder more than once. The place, though obviously deserted, seemed to possess some kind of spirit.

As they moved onto the ground behind the large foundation, Finn turned and looked at her. “Do you feel something?” he asked.

She nodded. “Since we entered those ruins. It was like someone was watching us. And something else … like something I felt once in a dream.” She felt chills race up and down her spine.

“I just felt uneasy,” Finn said. He didn’t add anything more, but looked at her strangely. Then he turned without another word and waded into the water. Dusque steeled herself and followed after him.

The icy cold of the water had a sobering effect on Dusque. She no longer felt as though eyes were on her, and she was grateful that she could focus on the task at hand. Swimming close behind Finn, she swallowed hard when she saw that she was going to have to go right through the pounding water. She started to call out to him to wait, but his dark form
disappeared under the rush of the waterfall. She realized she was going to have to force herself through.

She squeezed her eyes shut, took a deep breath, and plunged in. The sound was deafening, and she felt herself batted down by the sheer force. She pushed herself up and opened her eyes when she felt her head was out of the water. Then she saw that they had reached a ledge—part of an intricate cave system. Finn was standing only a few meters away, watching her. Uncertain whether to be proud that he wasn’t helping her, or annoyed, she slung her leg onto the ledge and pulled herself up. She checked to make sure her pack was intact and then wrung out her wet hair. Flinging the tangled mane behind her, she caught up to Finn.

“How far down is it?” she asked.

“I’m not sure,” he admitted. “The portable scanner seems to have shorted out.”

Dusque saw that the small device did seem to have stopped functioning. She thought that the water might have caused it, although this type of scanner was designed to last a long time and withstand extremely harsh environments.

“May I take a look?” she asked, having used similar devices over the years.

Finn handed it over easily. Dusque popped open the back panel and studied the circuitry by the light of her halo lamp. It appeared as though a connection had come loose. She attempted to reconnect it, then flipped the device around and tried to recheck
the coordinates. But the device only sputtered and flashed.

“You’re right,” she told Finn. “Looks like the connectors are fried.” She laid the device down on the ground. “No use carrying the excess baggage.”

“Because of the short, I’m not sure when I was able to last take a reliable reading, but it seemed that the holocron was probably no more than a couple of hundred meters down,” he told her.

Dusque walked past him to look at the tunnels that lay before them. “Doesn’t look like they descend very steeply, does it? What may only be a short distance down may take a little while longer to get to, if the slope stays gentle.”

“We’d better get started,” he told her.

“Hold on,” she said. “Let me check one thing.”

Finn waited patiently while Dusque rummaged through her pack. Buried under power packs and stimpaks, there was something she hoped she had brought. She smiled triumphantly when her fingers brushed against two small aerosol canisters. She pulled them out and handed one to Finn.

“What is this?” he asked, examining the container.

“I noticed there were a few on the shuttle. I just couldn’t remember if I had taken them or not. I got a little turned around after the stormtroopers boarded the ship,” she said. “Spray the entire contents all over yourself. It’ll help mask your scent.”

She started spraying herself, and after watching her dubiously for a moment, Finn did likewise. When he was through, he raised his arm up close to
his nose and sniffed at himself. “I don’t smell anything,” he said, baffled.

“That’s the idea. Hopefully, nothing else will either.”

Dusque dropped her travel cloak in a heap by the malfunctioning scanner, afraid that its flowing material might catch on the rough tunnel walls. She turned to Finn and signaled that she was ready. Following her example, he had shed his outer garments and readjusted his weapons so that they were all accessible. He motioned for her to go, and she started down the tunnel, surprised that he had her take the lead.

As they suspected, the path descended very gradually. They both scanned the walls and recesses of the tunnel, not certain where the holocron might have been secreted or even how it might have been hidden. They walked slowly, trying to minimize the echoes of their footfalls. As the roar of the waterfall grew more distant, Dusque realized that there was moisture farther down as she heard the telltale patter of drips hitting the rock floor.

Of course there would be water, she told herself. How else could the tunnels have been formed? But the rock looked rough, as though it had been hewn by something, not smooth, as it would have been if water had worn it away.

She had just adjusted her halo lamp to give her as wide a view as possible when she heard the drips come from a surprising location. She and Finn were on a narrow bridge of sorts, something having
eroded sections of the cave away. The view from either edge was dizzying, and she felt a moment of vertigo. Since the rock walls all looked identical, she momentarily couldn’t tell which way was up or down, and she lost her center of balance.

Closing her eyes, she took several, long deep breaths and wrapped her arms tightly about herself. That helped ground her so that when she reopened her eyes, she no longer felt disoriented.

“Dizzying, isn’t it?” Finn whispered.

“Yes,” Dusque admitted, glad she wasn’t the only one who had felt it. She moved to the edge of the natural bridge and peered over the side. The cave was honeycombed with tunnels, and she thought she caught sight of something skittering off deeper down. They continued on until the tunnel split into two divergent paths.

“What do you think?” Finn asked her quietly.

Dusque chewed her lip thoughtfully and glanced in both directions. “I think we should split up,” she finally announced.

“
What?
” He sounded shocked.

“You were right earlier about time running out. We need to make up for lost time now,” she declared. “This is our last chance to do that.”

“Are you sure?” He certainly didn’t sound convinced.

“Yes, I am. We’ve got the comlinks if we get into trouble, or if we find the holocron.”

“Let’s check and make sure the comlinks still
work,” Finn suggested. “After all, if the scanner could short out …”

“Good idea,” Dusque agreed and they checked their communicators. Both were still in working order.

“I’ll go left,” she told him. “And be careful, I think there’s something down here.”

“You be careful, too. Don’t take any unnecessary chances,” he warned. “I mean it.”

“You should have told me that back on Corellia,” she retorted, then winked at him. He flashed her a smile in return, and Dusque was startled by how his teeth gleamed back at her in the gloom, like those of some predator.

She moved slowly down the dark tunnel and felt a shiver. It had been easy enough while Finn stood next to her to tell him that they needed to split up, but now that she was engulfed in the darkness of the cave, she felt very alone and vulnerable. She had a moment of regret at her decision but still knew in her heart it had been the right one to make. And then she realized something: Finn had let her make the call. In fact, pretty much since they had left the abandoned Rebel base, he’d turned over the leadership reins to her. She didn’t know what surprised her more: that he had done it, or that she had accepted it so naturally.

So much had changed, she mused. And although it felt like a lifetime, it had really only been a few days.

She shook her head in wonder and then froze as she heard something. At first, she tried to tell herself
that it was just the water, but the sound was not rhythmic or predictable like the drips that echoed softly through the tunnel system. Swallowing hard, she slipped her hand down to draw her blaster. She felt only marginally better with the cold metal in her hand. But she still saw nothing.

As she walked deeper into the tunnels, she thought the path she had chosen was splitting again, but it turned out that it had simply widened, forming a natural pocket in the tunnel. When she directed her light into it, something glinted back at her. She felt a rush of excitement, thinking that she had discovered the holocron. It was a perfect place to hide it, she thought, off the main track as it was. She moved closer to investigate.

Her elation changed to disappointment and concern when the shining object turned out to be a humanoid skull. As she scanned the area, she saw a mostly intact skeleton stretched out and picked clean. Although not what she had hoped to find, it did confirm that there might be something else in the caves with them. She grabbed her comlink and signaled Finn.

“Did you find it?” Coming from the small speaker, his voice sounded tinny.

“No,” she replied, “but I did find some humanoid remains. Keep your guard up.”