Chapter 26
Archeology
Mirian looked at the rubble. "Master, is there anything here that we could actually find?"
"I don't know, Padawan. I can sense faint traces of the dark side of the Force in this place. It is not pleasant." Master Shadaarwin raised her hand and closed her eyes. "There is life inside, but I do not sense anything intelligent. Still, be on your guard. Any being that chooses to lair inside a place strong with the dark side of the Force is unlikely to be friendly."
Master Shadaarwin weaved through chunks of ancient stone and masonry, and slipped inside an opening that Mirian hadn't even seen until her Master disappeared into it. Now that they were closer, Mirian could feel the taint of darkness that hung in the air. She hesitated, but dutifully followed her Master.
Once she was inside, it took a moment for her eyes to adjust. Master Shadaarwin was already several meters ahead, following an air pocket that was created by one wall that hadn't collapsed over time. "This way, Mirian."
"Coming, Master." Mirian followed, stumbling over bits of rubble that she couldn't see in the dark. She pulled a glow rod from her belt pocket and turned it on. Several small multi-legged creatures scuttled away from the light. "Eww. I hope we don't run into any more of those."
"Stay alert. There could be things far worse than rachnids in here."
The two threaded their way through the ruins. After several turns, they found themselves in an open cave. The two could hear the faint sound of voices talking on the other side of the cave. Master Shadaarwin stepped forward and ignited her lightsaber.
Sitting cross-legged on the other side of the cave was a green-skinned Nikto, holding a pyramid shaped holocron. He looked up, and the holocron went dark. "What are you doing here? Jedi don't belong here!"
"Master Kree, I presume. Odd that you are here, when you went missing during the Finoa offensive, several parsecs from here." Master Shadaarwin's voice betrayed no emotion. Mirian swallowed nervously, sensing the strong dark energy from across the room. Showing no fear, Tarya-Lotell Shadaarwin strode across the room, and her apprentice followed her a moment later.
"Leave now, Jedi. This is your only warning." Kree's eyes narrowed, and he slipped the holocron into a belt pouch.
Master Shadaarwin's green bladed lightsaber lit up. "I am sorry, Kree. But it is clear that something has happened to you, and you are not yourself. I will have to take you in and bring you to the Jedi council."
Kree sneered at her and raised a hand, "I gave you a chance, Jedi. If you survive this, remember that."
Mirian heard a loud squench sound from behind her, and she whirled around. "Master..."
Master Shadaarwin had been right. There were things much worse than a few little rachnids in this cave.
Behind the two Jedi was a giant rachnid, its fangs almost a meter long. Its pale, fuzzy, stubby legs twitched as it grasped the ground. Pale, sticky ichor dripped from the ceiling. Mirian spared a glance upwards and saw that the entire ceiling was coated with a sticky webbing-like substance made of dried rachnid ichor, which seemed to be emanating from the giant, bulbous, squishy abdomen that stretched out behind the rachnid's fuzzy torso.
Six milky-white eyes focused on Master Shadaarwin, and then the beast lunged. Mirian watched in horror as the sticky ichor-covered abdomen stuck to the ground for a moment before the momentum from the creature's lunge peeled it off. A loud tearing sound filled the chamber as the sticky layer around the abdomen separated, leaving a gooey portion of it on the floor. Master Shadaarwin's lightsaber struck, knocking the creature's head aside, but not penetrating the creature's skin.
"This is no natural beast!" shouted Shadaarwin as she batted at the head again with her blade.
Mirian lit her shimmering silver lightsaber and slashed at the only weak spot she could see, the creature's eyes. It flinched and one of its forelegs blocked her lightsaber. "How do we kill it?"
The foreleg shoved her back, and the creature lunged at Shadaarwin again. This time the Jedi changed tactics, and attempted to stab the blade into a soft spot between the palps that housed the rachnid's fangs. At the last moment, the creature turned its head, and once again the saber blade merely skimmed off the creature's skin.
But it had moved forward again, and now Mirian was in a position to strike its abdomen. Hoping that the abdomen would be less well armored, she slashed the silver blade at the rachnid's bloated rear end. Instead of splitting the soft abdomen open, as she had hoped, her blade merely evaporated a line of the ichor off of it.
Before she could react, the rachnid pulled the legs on its left side over and pushed off the ground with the legs on its right side. It rolled over Mirian, and she was stuck against the creature's soft underside. She tried to scream for her Master to help, but found that her face was covered with ichor, and she couldn't breathe.
Stick against the disgusting, pulsing mass, she tried to fall back to her Jedi training. A Jedi acts when she is calm, at peace.
She could feel the creature moving, still lunging at and dueling with Master Shadaarwin, who Mirian couldn't see. But what she could see was the lumpy skin of the creature. And as the creature secreted more of the ichor, she could see pores opening up to release it. Pores that, on a normal sized rachnid, would have been microscopic.
Reaching into the Force, she pulled at her lightsaber. Bit by bit, it pulled free of the ichor. When the nearest pore opened up again to allow more of the ooze out, she used the Force to activate her lightsaber. The creature reared back, in silent pain, as the blade cut through its delicate innards. The creature panicked and turned as far as it could. A spray of a noxious-smelling liquid came from between its palps, and Mirian suddenly fell from the creature's side. Whatever the liquid was, it was melting the ichor.
Mirian deactivated her lightsaber and pulled it back to herself. Favoring one side, the creature scuttled backwards, desperate to get away from the two smaller beings who had hurt it. It climbed back up the wall, and scuttled into a cave opening a few meters above ground level.
"What a wonderful smell you've discovered, Padawan," said Master Shadaarwin, "I'm afraid we don't have time to clean you off properly. We need to catch up to Master Kree."
"Of course, Master. Priorities," said Mirian.
"Still, good work on finding a weak point. Especially under duress."
Despite feeling more disgusting than she'd ever felt before in her life, Mirian smiled. Compliments from her Master weren't easy to earn.
Author's note: Yes, I absolutely had to reuse the quote from Episode IV. Sometimes a joke is right in front of you, and you just can't say no to it. :) I hope everyone was sufficiently grossed out by the giant rachnid. I tried to think of how I could make a giant spider grosser than normal. Sticky slime, near invulnerability, and a giant squishy, sticky abdomen seemed to do the job. And speaking of other creepy stuff, I just posted the second chapter and audio chapter of my serial, Saving Christmas: Slay Bells, on JukePop. Please follow the link in my profile, I could certainly use the fans and upvotes!