Disclaimer: I own Jack Swallow, Taivas, Carron, and Aerik. That's it. Everything else is George Lucas and Steven Spielburg's. Now go away.
Notes to the oh so faithful reviewers:
Anonymous: sorry mate. See author's note below. It took me like forever to get this chapter out. thanks for reviewing.
Aoi Dragon: HUZZAH FOR NEW REVIEWER!! Thanks for loving all my characters, I love them too. Thanks for the review and I hope you stick around.
Azral: HUZZAH FOR NEW REVIEWER!! I'm not sure if Taivas could fight against a lightsaber…hmmm…something to think about. Yes, Jack rocks. Thanks for reviewing!
CrystalSkywalker: HUZZAH FOR NEW REVIEWER!! Thanks for reviewing my story MORE THAN ONCE!! I'm glad that you like this!
Fflur Cadwgawn (formerly Mercedes Whitefox): YAY! YOU'RE BACK!! Yeah, well, I ran out of ways to hide clues and Gilgamesh is one of the best poems to hide letters in. And it gives Indy something to think about when he's not puzzle solving or pining for Marion. Thanks for the review and I hope to see you around.
Han-Skywalker: Yeah, I do enjoy making his life miserable. (evil laughter) what "made up" words are you talking about? As for that description of what's coming…well…you'll just have to wait and see…thanks for the review by the way…
Hope's Tears: HUZZAH FOR NEW REVIEWER!! Ah, the wonderful world of crossovers…where I am, effectively, the omnipotent DarkX, master and commander of all that I see…(EVIL LAUGH!!) uhm…yes…ignore that…as for all the, uh, grammar, well, yes, I am a math person, so…thanks for the review and I do hope you stick around.
Iccle Fairy: Thanks so much for the review. I really enjoy writing it and I'm glad that you like reading it.
Jedi X-Man: Thanks for reviewing! PLEASE update A New Mope, I can't wait to read more.
Kitsune no Shiobu: HUZZAH FOR NEW REVIEWER!! Thanks for the review and I hope you stick around.
Marine Major: HUZZAH FOR NEW REVIEWER!! Thanks for the very kind review and I hope you stick around.
Obi's Second Cousin: Thanks for the review. And yes, I do torture Han so much (evil laughter).
Senator Elizabeth Organa: Glad to see you back in action. Thanks for the very kind review. Han and Leia have always (and will always) have a weird relationship: their both too headstrong for their own good. I try to keep their relationship cannon, but I don't write romance (see my profile) so I usually end up emphasizing the more…shall we say…snippy side, I suppose. But I incorporated a little mush in this chapter so…next: Taivas. Taivas is the cat-lady, cyborg, thief, with anger issues, who works for Darth Nyeri (Carron) along with three other cyborgs, and was recently sent on a secret mission to track down the gang. As for how she fits into the story, well…read on.
Super Tinfoil Man Part 2: Yeah, I really hope that I finish this before I graduate next year. Fifteen chapters…one year…I'm gonna have to write a boatload. No, earth is not entirely out of the picture yet, I mean, Indy's gotta go home SOMETIME in the near future…I'm glad that you're enjoying it and thanks for the review!
Twisterblake: Thanks for the review, mate.
A/N: Okay, so after two bouts of flu, mid-terms, finals, projects, tests, papers, paperwork, loss of creativity, several weeks of writers block, AND my computer breaking, I have FINALLY finished all nineteen pages of chapter 34. That's right, NINE-TEEN-PAGES. So, I'll shut up and you all read.
Chapter 34
m0r3 num63r5
Taivas dropped out of hyperspace far enough away so that she could get the lay of the land, so to speak. It was a skill that had been drilled into her head since she was a kitten: know your surroundings. Know the geographic area: where are the hiding places, the ambush places, the escape routes. What's the fastest way from point A to point B if enemies are at point C and the quarry's at point D? Sitting just outside the system's pull gave her the few moments of familiarity with the star, planets, and moons that would spell the difference between a successful mission and ending up dead. She paused and scanned the system looking for movement of any kind; seeing none, Taivas grasped the controls and gently guided her ship in.
The third moon hung still and silent around the gas giant. Its surface reflected the light of both the sun and stars to make a silvery mirror in the dead space. She flew low in orbit, scanning the surface for anything of interest; particularly the monument that Jones and his team first went to. A blip of granite came up in the northern hemisphere that had high levels of carbon dioxide and monoxide, indicative of humanoid presence and spent rocket fuel. Twisting in her flight path, Taivas slid towards the granite blip, descending slowly as she drew near. There was obvious disturbance from what looked like a modified YT-1300 freighter and several small shuttles. Taivas set her ship off a ways so as to not disturb the precious landscape. There was the possibility of valuable clues in the dust that she was no where near foolish enough to cover.
Snagging a respirator and a small toolkit, Taivas slid out onto the moon's surface.
DXVJKE
Considering the amount of alcohol he had consumed, the levels of dehydration he was suffering from due to the near incessant vomit, and the number of pirates that might still be outside and ready to destroy his ship, Han's day started off pretty well. No serious headache, though there was a dull pounding somewhere down the back of his neck. No wounds, though his right fist was aching slightly. And, based on the gentle humming coming from the general direction of the engine room, no problems with the Falcon, though he knew for a fact that that never really lasted. Still, all in all, not a bad start for the day.
The only possible thing that really bothered him (beyond finding where he threw his boots without having to bend over and really look for them) was the long stretches of blackness that dominated his memory whenever he tried to think about the last two (was it really only two?) days. Trying to recapture exactly what happened made the dull ache in the back of his neck swell and spread to other areas of his head that made thinking incessantly difficult. Eventually he gave up and focused on finding, and then putting on, his boots. He lumbered down the hallway and slid into the living area with the hope of scrounging up something edible. He didn't even notice the room was occupied until he was mostly through the door. Not that the other occupant had even noticed him.
"Hey Indy." The archeologist snapped his head up from the data screen where he had been sitting for the last few hours.
"Hey, Han. How are you feeling?" Indy carefully looked for any sign of the drunken fervor that had gripped the pirate the day before.
"Okay, I guess." Other than a thinness through his cheeks and a touch of darkness under his eyes, Indy had to agree.
"Dizzy?"
"No. Hungry…and kinda…" Han trailed off.
"Kind a what?"
"Confused? I don't know. I—I can't really rem
ember anything after sitting down in front of Jack Swallow and thinking that this was an incredibly bad idea. It's just all kind of…blank. I don't even know if we won or not." Han plopped down on the couch with a slump of defeat hanging around his shoulders.
"We won," Indy replied, matter-of-factly.
Han looked up: "Really?"
"Yeah. Got the next piece of the puzzle. Decoded it. Found the next location and we're on route now."
"Where?"
"Isosis."
"Iso—the moon with the grave on it? Where the ARC's attacked? Why the Sith are we going back there?"
"Because 1) that's where the clue told us to go. And 2), the ARC's haven't shown up since Corescant. You and Luke either shot them all to hell or they lost us when I was recuperating. Either way, we're going to Isosis."
"Well, seeming how you've got everything under control, maybe I should just go back to bed."
"YYNNNRrrrrroonnnnnnn aauuhnnn eeRRRnnnnn," Chewbacca stated, quite forcefully, as he entered the room.
"Yeah, well, the evidence says otherwise," Han growled, gesturing towards Indy, who, still unable to speak Wookie, had gone back to his research.
"HHoowwwUURRRnnnn Ehhhhhttttttttttrr nnnnnnnhhhhhhh." Chewie moved towards the holo-chess-set and lightly clipped his friend on the back of his head.
"Watch it, fuzz brains, I've still got a headache, ya know." Chewie merely grunted in reply and began a game against himself. Left to debate whether it was worth the effort to move to the replicators for some kind of food, Han stared off into space for a bit before something caught his eye.
"Hey, Indy? You, um…you've got some dirt or something on your face."
"snodrd," Indy mumbled, absentmindedly, still engrossed in his research.
"What?"
"I said it's not dirt. It's a bruise. From where you hit me."
"I hi—I hit you?" Han sat back and rubbed his jaw as if he could feel the impact. "So how come you didn't hit me back?"
"You were drunk."
"And?"
"I wasn't."
"…And?"
"And…I'm not going to hit a guy who's dead-on-his-feet-drunk when I'm mostly sober. Come on, I do have SOME sense of civility." Han looked like he was going to refute that when his eyes locked on the doorway at a sound he had been aching to hear since he sat down.
"Hey Indy, is—" Leia strode into the living area and paused as she realized that the object of her query was staring at her. Redirecting her address, she leaned up against doorway and playfully glared at Han: "Well, look who finally decided to get up."
"Boy, are you a sight for sore eyes," Han replied, first beckoning and then gently pulling her down next to him on the couch. "You're not mad at me, are you?"
"Now, why would I be mad at you?"
"Because, apparently I went around slugging people yesterday and I was worried that you were one of those people…" he looked up at her sheepishly, prompting a decidedly wicked glance from Leia.
"Han, if you had hit me yesterday, you wouldn't be alive right now, mkay?" She leaned in and pecked him lightly on the cheek. "You feeling better?" her voice changing from ice-cold-deadly-princess to gentle-and-very-worried-girlfriend.
Indy cut in before Han had the chance to reply: "Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute. Don't give him sympathy. He's the one who decked me, remember?"
"Yeah," Han said, turning briefly from Leia, "Because you had the brilliant idea to change places right before we go waltzing back onto the Black which, wait a minute, was you're idea too."
"Well, just consider it payback for that stunt you pulled on Tattooine. Do you have ANY idea how hard it is to appear to hold an intelligent conversation with a walking carpet?"
"Aarraauuuh errna—" the Wookie started before Indy cut him off with a I-know-exactly-what-you're-saying-even-though-I-technically-can't-speak-the-language-so-don't-start-look.
"Yeah, but you didn't get drunk because of it," Han snapped back.
"No, I only got shot at, chased down, shot at some more, and, you nearly lost my hat."
"Your HAT? I played drinking games with one of most notorious pirates in the galaxy, who would probably not hesitate to KILL us all and you're worried about losing your HAT? You said you had some sense of civility."
"I DO! I'm …extremely civil toward that hat."
"THAT MAKES NO—!"
"Uh, guys?" Luke stuck his head through the doorway. "Hate to break up this scintillating conversation, but we're here."
DXVJKE
The moon's surface was utterly barren, undisturbed since the last visitors had left. The tracks leading to and from the YT-1300 were obvious, easily followed, and completely validated the report that Taivas had. There were five different sets, with the fifth multiplied by at least eight. Those, Taivas immediately dismissed as the ARC's, but, as their return trip carried with it set number four, it gave her some clue as to what Jones's shoes looked like. Of the other three, set one was ridiculously light and little, which meant they belonged to the female, Organa. Set two were smooth-soled, with a poised and collected gait, a dead giveaway for the Jedi. Set three by from the process of elimination must belong to Solo. They were military fashioned boots, old and well-worn, not that distinguished except that the gait, the way pressure was favored on the inside of his right foot and the left turned out ever so slightly, and the force he put into each step was exactly identical to Jones's footprints. Taivas carefully scanned, analyzed, rescanned and reanalyzed both sets of tracks to make sure that this was not an error. The sets of tracks were identical except for the shoe worn. Both men had the same way of walking, which made their physical similarities all the more eerie. Jones and his people headed directly to the large stone set up ahead of her and, as there was nothing else to look at in the dust, Taivas followed slightly off to the side so that she wouldn't disturb their footprints.
The monolith did not in any way justify the notion that this was their target until Taivas rounded it and saw the stone's face. The intricate, perfect, masterfully done carvings that rose up from smooth, polished stone, were stunning. She scanned over, recognized, and translated the poem trying to puzzle through its meaning. For the most part, it seemed like the kind of epitaph that most humans would write: forlorn, flowery, entirely too showy for its own good. But, the last stanza was certainly not typical; it was a warning and, to one who knew the aftermath of what happened here, it was a clue. There was something very curious, and thus worth investigating, about this grave, and that warranted a closer investigation.
One of the only things that Nyeri had ever been good for would have to have been her eyepiece. Nyeri had replaced her left eye with an ocular scanner that had more settings than an average person would know what to do with. Taivas, though, was certainly not average and she knew exactly which settings were useful in which situation and would use them appropriately. Take now, for example. The monolith, to the unassisted eye, was simply some large, carved, grave marker that had been sitting on a dead moon for millennia. Taivas's eye saw more. She saw that, along the base of the stone, there was a hairline crack between the grave marker and a piece of metal beneath it, which should not exist if the stone was simply thrust into the earth. She saw that the normal collection of dust that accumulated in the various crevices of the letters had, in some places, been disturbed in places that corresponded to a person of average height running his fingers across the surface. And, she saw that those same finger-brush marks were up at the top of the stone where the perfect surface had been shorn away at a decidedly sharp angle.
A corner was missing. And it was not missing by any natural causes. I should have noticed that earlier. Taivas snapped her eye back to "normal" vision, reached up to grasp the top of the boulder and swiftly pulled herself up on top of it. Straddling the top she peered closely to the broken corner and noticed something very, very interesting. The contours of the hewn-off edge had very, very thin lines running around and between them, crisscrossing like a spider web, and making the corner look less like an accident and more like a very sensitive pressure lock. She pulled out her canteen and poured water slowly across the top of the corner, the eyepiece tracking which cracks sucked the water down and which let it flow off. She then pulled out a very tiny set of picks, ranging from needle thick to hair thick, and began to gently apply pressure to the cracks that allowed the water in. Nothing happened. Frowning, Taivas was about to pull her picks out of the rock and try a different approach when a sharp crack sounded from beneath her. She watched in amazement as the metal base she noticed earlier swung downwards to reveal a conical shaped room.
DXVJKE
"So, where exactly are we going to land?" Han asked when the group moved into the bridge. "The grave?"
"No," Indy replied, matter-of-factly, "The Jedi wouldn't have hidden two clues in the same location for fear of someone finding them out of order. Besides, the pedestal and the North Star were the only mechanical devices in that room, there was no other place to put anything."
"And again, I ask where are we going?" Han slowed the Falcon's descent as they neared the grave.
"Can you scan beneath the planet's surface?"
"Depends. What are we looking for?"
"Any kind of cavern, tunnel, hollow space, something like that."
"You think it's underground?" Leia asked.
"Has to be. There aren't any structures above ground or we would have seen them the first time we were here."
"Scanning an entire planet's gonna take a long time," Han grumped. "Any idea where we should start?"
"My guess would be the moon, and then scan in bands between the two poles."
"Great."
DXVJKE
It was the proximity alert that snapped her out of scanning the room. Taivas had meticulously gone over every square inch of the rounded cavern, examining the intricate carvings for any kind of pattern that would explain where Jones had gone next. The pedestal, with its open top, had yielded no clues at all, beyond the soft feathery strokes that came from a brush of some kind and the slight knife marks on the hatch top. Now, standing on the north side of the cave, a soft buzzing sound emanated from her work bag. Taivas didn't even attempt to look at the tiny device connected to her ship's navigational systems. She knew exactly why it was buzzing, and without a moment's hesitation leapt out of the cavern and scaled the top of the monolith. She carefully reversed her override, closing the cavern mouth, and bolted to her ship.
The proximity alert was a device she added to her arsenal long before meeting Nyeri. It was a thin, black, finger-sized, off-site computer stick that could easily be hardwired to any ship's (or building's) scanners. When the scanners picked up any energy readings, life signs, or movement of any kind, all of which are ruinous to a thief, the stick would vibrate and Taivas would book it. She had no idea how many of those alerts had saved her hide, or how many were utterly false alarms that wasted valuable snitching time, but she didn't care. The stick worked, and that's all that mattered.
Now, safe in the confines of her ship, she had the opportunity to investigate just what had set off the stick. And what she saw just about blew her mind.
DXVJKE
Han absolutely hated scanning. It was boring, dull, boring, slow, boring, tedious, boring, time consuming, boring, stupid, and boring. There was nothing to do but scan and wait and scan and wait and scan and wait some more; Chewie did most of the scanning anyways, which left him with nothing to do. At all. The Wookie usually could make the best of such a tedious situation, but his being so engrossed in the process of scanning and waiting reduced any conversation to a series of non-committal grunts.
BORING
Hour two rolled by and Han was ready to shoot himself if only to having something to think about other than scanning and waiting. He had never had so much free time before and had no idea what to do with it. Usually when they had dead time it was because something broke, they couldn't move, and every precious second was spent furiously trying to fix whatever the hell was wrong before whoever the hell was chasing them found them and blew them into however the hell many pieces it took to coat the galaxy in a fine layer of Falcon dust. Now, there was no pressing time factor, no enemies breathing down their throats, and nothing was broken. Not even the hyperdrive.
The hyperdrive. Han sat up, his brain suddenly alive with the prospect of something to do. "Chewie, keep me posted, I'll be down in the engine room." A non-committal grunt sounded, but Han didn't care. He had the chance to actually do something.
The engine room looked like the contents of a pack-rat's garage coated in silly string. The engines themselves, long, torpedo shaped, canisters, were walled in on all sides by huge computer processors that balanced an controlled the reactions needed to guide the Falcon in and out of hyperspace. Strung between the computers and engines, snaking along the floors, dripping off the walls, and tangled in skeins everywhere else were a myriad of cables and wires. These transferred energy, control commands, information, and data from and to every part in the engine room and then to every part of the ship.
And, it was from these cables that all the Falcon's problems emanated. They were constantly popping loose, snapping, corroding, and generally failing to do their job. "Fixing the hyperdrive" was shorthand for climbing across a spider's web of wires to find the one stinker that wasn't working. Han was doing this now, but with a more general purpose: to test the power and data flow of each cable, shore up the connectors, and lock them in place so they Sith-blasted things wouldn't move. It was a good plan with a good purpose that went quickly down the drain at cable number 12.
Because it was at cable number 12 that Han electrocuted himself.
DXVJKE
The Falcon's flight path was so low that they had to be looking for something on the moon's surface. Trailing them would waste power and possibly lead to her detection. Waiting here and tracking them via scanners is the most logical option tactically. So why the kreth did she want to follow them so bad?
Taivas balled her hands into fists to tight with frustration that she nearly cut her palms. She had been sitting patiently inside the cockpit of her small ship in the hopes that the Falcon would rocket off somewhere, or at least stop for a while, or do something other than fly in low orbits around the moon's surface. Now, two hours after the proximity alert went off, she was beginning to wonder if there was any merit in staying inside the ship. It was getting a little too close for comfort inside the cockpit. With nowhere to go. And nothing to do. She began carving intricate patterns in the armrests and trying not to think about the walls closing in.
Why the hell is a master-thief born claustrophobic anyway?
DXVJKE
Han woke up to the hazy, swirling world that almost convinced him that he was drunk again. Drunk and caught in an earthquake because something kept shaking him again and again and again.
"Ahnnnugh eorah mnnnnn?"
"Chewie?" he slurred. His eyes finally began to focus on the fur-covered face of his closest friend, who was gently shaking him awake. "What the Sith was I drinking?"
"Gnnnnn oren auuHGAnnn. Aura INNNnnnn eoHAnn ddhn gnarrrrraaaAAA."
"Electrocuted?" Well that explains why everything's numb. "How long was I out?" He tried sitting up only to be held down by too-strong-to-mess-with hands.
"Ahnnnn ennAHN uh innnnn ornen. E gNNhh fwahh HHHHHggg. Ore e gnnnH DDhn ureFF hwaug?" Han slowly curled his fingers into fists as requested and tried to rehash what had happened. He had hit the bulkhead. Hard. Something had flung him back with the force of a freighter moving at Mach 2. Something that made every nerve cry out in absolute agony and mercilessly yanked the air from his lungs.
"There was a power surge through the number twelve cable…" he muttered at last.
"Ara, mnnn uhD GNHd ehth fuuurRREEnnn." Chewie sounded almost sheepish as he checked Han for signs of a concussion or broken bones.
Han looked up sharply: "Since when do the scanners pull through 12?"
"IIIreth kn dhukFF hnn e TQUrekkkkk ahhhnd."
"Oh." Han slowly tried to sit up again, almost shocked that the Wookie let him, and instantly regretted it as a rush of blood pounded through his still-sore head. "Ohh…I think I'm gonna puke."
"Shturnn e arrrrrrNHH agg d knn, huh huh huh." Han grinned up at his friend.
"I could always get Luke to clean it up."
"Eornn uuth Fhf thnaf eh agg e NNHnn durutH uh. Eorah nnnHHng thut e Ahnnn, ahhDDha unn." The Wookie helped the pirate slowly get off the ground and regain his balance.
"Thanks. So, how's the sca—?"
"Han?" the intercom systems carried Luke's voice down from the bridge.
"Yeah Luke, what's up?"
"You might wanna get up here. There's something you gotta see."
"Right. On our way."
DXVJKE
"Ice caves," Luke said, gesturing to the topographical map that the computer's scanners had made. "Or what's left of them at least. We aren't getting any traces of water at all, so these must have melted and dried out years ago."
"Try millennia ago," Indy countered. The Falcon had landed a few minutes after Han got up to the bridge. The team was seated in the living area, discussing the terrain and bringing Han and Chewie up to speed on what they found. "The kind of ice needed to make this kind of tunnel would be so thick that melting it all would take tens of thousands of years. The glaciers were probably leftovers from the formation of this planet…but I'm not a geologist. The point is, the caves are old enough to fit our timeline."
"And they're the only subterranean structure we found," Leia summed it up. "I propose we explore them."
"Agreed," Han stood to go gather their gear.
"R2, 3PO, the terrain'll be too rocky for you to come," Luke explained to the droids.
"That's quite all right, Master Luke. I assure you I had no intention of spelunking through those caves."
Luke grinned: "Just keep a light on for us." He followed the others down to the cargo bay area. Han was checking the respirators while Chewie handed out tool kits. Rope, grappling hooks, lights, gloves, water, emergency rations, and blasters were doled out. Indy added it all to his already stocked bag, accompanying his journal, brush set, revolver, and a large piece of oilcloth to wrap their soon-to-be-found clue in. Respirator set securely on his face, Han opened the cargo door and the group proceeded to the cave entrance.
The cave was less like a cave and more like someone had poked an angular hole in the ground with an auger. It was funnel shaped, gently sloping downwards and inwards until the team had to walk single file (and Chewie had to duck low) in order to continue. Flashlights bounced and reflected off of the crystalline cave-walls, worn irregular and smooth by the intense and constant glacial pressure.
There was absolutely nothing of note: no carvings, no marks, no traces that anyone had ever been down here at all. And after nearly one solid hour of walking, Han was beginning to doubt whether this was what they were looking for. But, being at the rear, he had very little say in anything. The only good thing about this dull monotony of walking was that it had finally loosened up all his sore muscles, nearly erasing the damage caused by being flung into an unyielding bulkhead. Unfortunately, it also dulled his responsiveness and he slammed into Chewie.
DXVJKE
They stopped? Taivas leaned forward to check her scanners. But they only continued to show the Falcon as landed near the northernmost pole of the moon. She slowly clicked a claw against the helm, thinking.
Why did they stop? It could have been for any number of reasons. Maybe there's some kind of problem with their ship. Maybe they're planning their next move. Maybe they're going to sleep.
Maybe they found something? Maybe.
But what? The next clue? Or it could be a dead end. Or an old pirate base…they have been rumored to hang out in this sector of the galaxy. Or it could be another one of those grave sites. The important thing is, what do I do now?
If I move, they may see me.
If I stay, I may lose them.
If I wait, I'm going to go crazy. She stopped the slow clicking and stared incessantly at the little dot on the screen. Why did they stop?
DXVJKE
"Ow! What the hell—Indy? Why'd we stop?" Han massaged the bridge of his nose and seriously considered the possibility of trying to maneuver around the giant, squished, uncomfortable, and now irritable Wookie to get up near the front of the group. It was not a pleasant prospect, but it was better than hanging back here. He couldn't get any information back here. Why am I back here in the first place?
"Found something," Indy's voice drifted back.
"Found what?" Han hollered.
"Come up and see."
"Easier said than done," he muttered, squeezing by Chewbacca's furry mass to get up closer to Indy and the others. The tunnel looked like it had for the past two hours: smooth, slightly shiny, too-narrow for comfort, walls, floor and ceiling, nothing that should cause such an abrupt stop. Until Han got closer to where Indy was standing and saw the tunnels. In essence, they were just holes in the wall, two on the left wall, two on the right. The way that the holes branched off the main shoot, it would have been entirely too easy to miss them. Good thing Indy's paying attention, he thought. I would have missed these and then we really would be plodding around here forever.
"They look manmade," Indy commented, stooping to examine one of them.
"What do you mean?" Luke asked, leaning slightly over the archeologist.
"If this had been carved by a glacier, the corners would have been worn as smooth as a river stone, like the rest of this tunnel. These edges are sharp, hard, like they were cut by something. And the way that they almost blend in with the rest of the tunnel suggests that they were carved in such a way to be unnoticeable."
"You think that Corban or one of the others made these?"
Indy looked up at the Jedi: "It's possible. Or they could have been carved by smugglers or pirates or refuges or soldiers or they were part of some weird religious…" he waved his hand ambiguously about, "Whatever. The point is, it's not natural and worth checking out." He turned back to examining the walls near the floor, practically ignoring the others.
Han, tired from two hours of slogging through never ending tunnels, took this opportunity to slump against the wall. The respirator mask itched. His lower back and feet hurt. He was sure that half the moon's mass in dust had wormed its way into his boots, and he was bored. And, he was still suffering, albeit very slightly, from the hangover's aftereffects. Sighing, he rolled his neck and happened to glance up at the ceiling for one brief moment. Blinking rapidly, Han clicked on his torch and shone it up at the tunnel roof and stared at it for a long minute.
"Hey, Leigh?" The princess turned around to face her ceiling-gazing boyfriend.
"Yeah?"
"Now, maybe my eyes are playing tricks on me, but…isn't that that language? The one the other clues were written in?" Every head jerked up to the ceiling where, sure enough, a few wispy lines of carving could be clearly distinguished in Han's torchbeam.
"Can you read it?" Luke asked.
"Yes…" she turned. "Han could you point your beam to go straight at it? The shadows are throwing me off." Han obliged, scooting forward so that the light hit the letters dead on. Indy whipped out his journal and was preparing to write when Luke nearly shouted.
"Look! There are carvings just inside each of the tunnel mouths." Leia leaned over to see what Luke was pointing out and deciphered the glyphs.
"That's the symbol for the number 1." She moved over to the next tunnel on the left side. "Number three…and on the right are seven and eight." She turned around to face further down the main tunnel. "This says zero, up here."
"Odd assortment of numbers," Han commented from the floor.
"Yes, but they kind of make sense based on the clue in the middle."
"Which is?" Indy prompted.
"What digit is the most frequent between the numbers one and one thousand?"
DXVJKE
There is a saying on Kamino that, when one expects a gentle breeze, there comes a hurricane; but when one is prepared for the hurricane, a drought is eminent. Dibbs was mulling over this proverb as he stood before Jack Swallow and wondered whether, before entering the Captain's quarters, he had been expecting the breeze or the hurricane. There was next to no reaction from the Captain to Dibbs's news that the rum was gone, and that was unsettling the first mate. No anger, no sorrow, no curses, no…no nothing. He just sat there, head in hands, staring down at the desktop, not even acknowledging that Dibbs had said anything.
"Cap'n? Y'awl right, sair?" No response. "Um…well, Aye'll uh…Aye'll be on the bridge, sair…iffen ye don't mind…" Still no response came from the Captain, not even movement. Dibbs slowly began to back out the door, keeping his eyes on Swallow, just in case he decided to…react…somehow…at all. He slid out the door, closed it quietly, and heaved a sigh of relief. He had just delivered the worst news in the universe to the most deadly pirate in the universe and had somehow managed to escape with his life. He had barely taken one step when the Captain finally erupted.
"MISTER DIIIIIII-HHHHHHHIIIIIIIIIIBBBBBBBBBBSSSSS!!" Flinching slightly, Dibbs returned to the door.
"A-Aye, sair?"
Apparently, he had forgotten the second portion of that particular proverb: there are no droughts on Kamino.
DXVJKE
"Another number puzzle?" Han groaned. "I thought that we were done with those."
"Apparently not," Leia said. "I guess that the answer to the puzzle is the number tunnel that we take."
"Makes sense," Luke agreed. "But which number?"
"Huh," Han grumphed, "Suddenly, I wish the droids were here…"
"Oh, come on, Han, we can figure out a little number puzzle. We did the last time, right?"
"We had the droids last time."
"Han—"
"Guys!" Luke cut in. "Puzzle. Need's solving. Suggestions?"
"Eeeeerrr auurrrUUUUnnnn Ihhhhnnnn dhhhkkkkKKKnnnnnn?" Chewie started.
"Translation?" Indy asked.
"He said we should start writing out the numbers, count out which digits are used the most," Han answered.
"That would take forever," Luke groaned.
"It's a start. We can at least look for a pattern if we had some numbers to work with." Indy turned to a new page in his journal and started listing out numbers while the others sat and stared, trying to come up with the answer before Indy hit 1,000.
In retrospect, it did not take forever to arrive at the answer. In fact, it took roughly fifteen minutes, mostly because Indy started complaining of a cramped hand and, taking a break, passed the task of writing to Leia.
"Where did you stop?" she asked, staring at the long lists of symbols ten columns wide.
"Here, at three hundred sixty-two," he pointed at the last number at the bottom of column ten.
"What number system are you using? This isn't what we use in the Republic."
"It's what we use on Earth," Indy sighed. He took the pen from her and pointed to the top of the first column. "This is one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, and so on."
"Huh. So eleven is here."
"Yeah, one ten and one one. Twelve is here with one ten and two ones."
"Thirteen is one ten and three ones?"
"You got it. Basic place value system on a base ten." Leia began to copy down the numbers, finishing column ten and beginning column eleven when she paused.
"Hey, Indy?"
The archeologist grunted in reply.
"Each of these symbols is used an equal number of times until the next digits place."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, between one and nine, each digit is used once. At ten, one is used a second time and zero is used once. Eleven gives us four ones, twelve is five ones and the second time two is used, thirteen is the sixth one and the second three, fourteen is the seventh one and the second four. When you get to twenty, there's the third two and the second zero. Twenty-one is the fourth two and the…thirteenth one and the fifth two. Twenty-two is the sixth and seventh two. Twenty-three is the eighth two and the third three. Each time one of the original digits is used in the tens place, they're used an equal number of times as the one was used in the ten's place. The same holds true for the hundreds."
"So you're saying that every single digit is used the same number of times between all the others?"
"Right. Between one and ninety-nine, one is used twenty times, two is used twenty times, three is used twenty times, and so on. But, at one hundred, because it's a new place, one gets used a twenty-first time. It restarts the cycle."
"But if the same pattern is used, then between one hundred and nine hundred ninety-nine, every single digit would get used the same number of times."
"Right again. But, then you get to one thousand, and one gets used one more time than all the other digits."
"And then the cycle would repeat again."
"Yes, but the riddle doesn't go past one thousand," Leia retorted, triumph shining in her eyes. Indy froze and then slowly grinned.
"Leia, you are an absolute genius."
"Why, thank you."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold up a minute," Han said, standing. "Go over that again?"
"One is the number we're looking for," Leia answered, also standing. She checked the symbols on the ceiling again and said "This way," striding confidently down the second tunnel on the left. Luke and Chewie followed, leaving Indy and Han at the far back.
"Your lady's brilliant, you know," Indy commented, sliding his journal back into his bag. Han gave him a sidelong glance, trying to find any kind of romantic undertones in that compliment.
"I know," he finally answered.
DXVJKE
Reasons still escaped her, but now she had decided on a course of action. Taivas turned on her flight computer and began to skim along the surface of the moon. She used the moon's gravitational and magnetic fields to mask her ship's engines and came up relatively close to where the Falcon landed. Her scanners indicated that there were no life forms on board, but there were energy readings, which could mean anything. The droids could still be on the Falcon, the scanners could still be active, there could be some kind of homing beacon, or someone could have left a lamp on, she didn't know. And not knowing required extra caution.
Surreptitiously, she began a scan of the area, trying to find just where Jones and his party had gotten to, or what they were looking for. After nearly ten minutes of moon dust, moon dust, moon dust, and oh look, more moon dust, the scanners pinged out the entrance to a system of caves with an entrance not twenty feet from where the Falcon was now resting. Getting past the Falcon, and whatever was on inside the vessel, to investigate the caves would be difficult, but not impossible.
With a goal firmly fixed in her mind, and all thoughts of claustrophobia dissolving in the background, Taivas opened up a very specific set of computer commands and began typing away.
DXVJKE
It was nearly twenty minutes of walking before the tunnel stopped. No doors, no side tunnels, no markings, no explanation, just no more tunnel. That made Leia, still somewhat triumphant in her discovery, very frustrated. And that made Han, still somewhat worried that Indy was trying to steal his girl, very edgy.
"I just don't get it," Leia vented for the eleventh time as the group investigated the abrupt wall. "The answer to the riddle from earlier had to be one, and this is tunnel number one. So why isn't the clue here?"
"I don't know, Leigh," Han conciliated for the eleventh time. "I'm sure you got the right answer. There must have been a cave in or something."
Indy and Luke, studiously ignoring every spoken word for the eleventh time, were meticulously examining the tunnel. It had slowly widened roughly a hundred yards back in a narrow funnel shape, resulting in the cave they were standing in. The cave was, at its widest point, roughly twenty feet long ten feet high (much to the pleasure of Chewbacca, who could finally stand erect), and slowly bowed at one point to look like a very large bulb. On the right side of the cave, when one was standing at the entrance, was a large rock pile, which supported Han's cave-in theory. On the left side was an odd looking nub roughly five feet off the cavern floor, and it was this that Indy was examining, while Luke sifted through the debris on the right side. The nub was the size of his fist with a slight dip where it met the wall so that it looked like a worn, cupped hand. Indy pulled out his brush and began to remove the build up of dust so as to examine the nub closer.
"Hey, Indy?" the Jedi called over the still venting Leia. The archeologist left the nub and came to join Luke at the rock pile. "Look at this." He was pointing to a small section of the rocks he had been excavating. Pressed against the cavern floor was a black rod, definitely metallic, some two inches in diameter. There was only about a hand's breadth of it exposed, with the rest buried under the rubble.
"A pole?" Indy queried. "Can you get it out?"
"I can try," Luke said. He cupped his right hand around the exposed part of the pole, closed his eyes, and centered himself in the Force. With a high pitched grating/screeching sound that reminded Indy of fingernails on a chalkboard, the pole began to shift out from under the rocks. The grating sound echoed through the cavern until, with a final grumble, it slid out. Luke exhaled sharply and Indy picked up the five-foot long pole. Quickly dusting off the rod, he revealed the now familiar glyphs.
"Leia, you're on," he said, handing over the rod to the now silent, now staring, princess. She fingered the script, silently translating, and frowned.
"What is it?" Han asked.
"Another riddle," she scrunched her nose, "Ready?" Indy nodded in reply, pen poised over journal. "Which is heavier: a pound of feathers or a pound of iron?"
Indy stopped writing: "That's it? What kind of riddle is that? A five year old could answer that."
"So what is it?" Luke asked, confusion on his face.
"Neither. A pound of feathers and a pound of iron both weigh the same: one pound." Glances were exchanged.
"That's the answer?" Han asked, voicing the collective thoughts of everybody else.
"I know, ridiculously easy, right?"
"…Um, yeah…easy…sooo…now what?"
"There has to be some way to activate whatever hidden doorway is in here using the answer. And I'm pretty sure that this rod has something to do with the activation or they would have carved the riddle on the wall or ceiling like before."
"Okay," Luke said, standing up off the floor. "So if this rod is the key or part of the key, we're looking for a lock that it fits in, right?"
"Something like that," Indy said.
"Any idea what it would look like?" Leia asked.
"I have no idea. It could be a whole that the pole fits inside. It could be a crack or a fissure that we're supposed to widen using the pole. It could be anything, anywhere."
"So, we look for anything that's out of the ordinary," she summed up and began giving orders. "Chewie, you've got the best view of the ceiling, so look up there. Luke, keep sorting through the rocks, something might be buried here. Han, take the empty wall, opposite the doorway we came through. Indy, you go back to the wall you were looking at earlier, and I'll search the floor."
DXVJKE
It took some twenty minutes for Taivas to complete her set of commands, gather the gear she needed, and then activate the routine. She used the time to record the strange energy reading that was emanating from the Falcon and save a copy of it to her ships sensor network. When the system she designed activated it, it would take this copy and relay it back to the Falcon through a piggybacked signal. In essence, the Falcon's computers would be reading the exact same thing, i.e., nothing at all, no matter what really happened on the ground outside.
The Falcon was now blind, giving the thief all the time, and freedom of movement, that she needed to set up phase two of her little trap.
DXVJKE
Stooped over the large floor, Leia was regretting her choice of inquiry. Her back hurt when she leaned over, her knees hurt if she knelt; she was dirty, tired, dirty, thirsty, dirty, dusty, cramped, aching, and dirty. And what did she have to show for all her work? Nothing. There was absolutely nothing on the floor. No scratches, no marks, no chunks missing, no holes, no glyphs, no nothing. Leia had covered the majority of the floor that didn't have someone standing on it. She worked around Chewie and Han and Indy and Luke (and the large chunk of floor that was currently under the rock pile Luke was working on), even moved around some of the rocks that had spilled over from the ruined wall, still nothing.
Han was pretty much in the same boat. He had tried to be as systematic as he possibly could, scouring the wall for any possible scratch or mark that could have some use in solving the riddle. But the problem with walls carved by water is that there were no marks to speak of. The walls were smooth, the marks, if there were any, were so smooth they were indistinguishable from the walls, and they smoothly sloped down to meet the floor. There was nothing, nothing at all, and Han was growing in frustration by the second.
Luke was sitting in front of land-slid wall, eyes closed, trying to keep his frustration down so as to remain centered in the Force. He had given up trying to move the rocks after unearthing the rod, not from physical exhaustion, but from fear of causing an even bigger landslide by tugging at the wrong rock. His original intention of trying to find which stones were not load bearing led to trying to find out if there was anything behind them. What he found was solid rock. No doors, no levers, no glyphs, nothing but one wall of unbroken rock with another wall made of broken pieces sitting in front of it. Sighing, Luke tried to expand beyond the wall right in front of him to the other walls, floor, and ceiling.
The ceiling was giving Chewie a very sore neck. Yes, he was the tallest and, yes, that gave him an advantage because he would be able to examine the ceiling closer, but that didn't negate the fact that he still had to tilt his head in order to see the bloody thing and that gave him a very sore neck. But, that sore neck actually produced results. Running around in a complete circle, some six feet in diameter, was a thin, hairline, fracture. Chewie had been examining it, to see if it did make a complete circle before he discovered a second set of hairline fractures. These slid in s-curves, at sixty-degree increments, from the outer edge of the circle until they connected at the center. Deciding that, though this was nothing like what Indy said to look for, this must be important, Chewie started to announce his discovery.
"Hey guys, I found it." Heads turned over towards Indy, who, stepping away from the hand-shaped nub, beckoned the others over. "There's a thin crack around this rock, I think it's supposed to move."
"So push on it," Han suggested, moving over to them.
"Nuh-uh. This is very delicate crystallized sandstone: too much pressure and it'll snap."
"Then how do we activate it?"
"The rod," Luke said, holding it up. "We have to balance it on the rock. That's how the riddle answer fits in. Equality between the weights, balance."
"HHHHHAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRR!! UHRnnnnnnnnuuuu hhhhhhhhhdddddddkkk huuuuuddddhhhhyNNNNNNNN ooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhkkkk wuuuurrrhhhh."
"Wha'dhe say?" Indy asked.
"Stand back from the center of the room," Han translated, "He says there's a set of cracks in the ceiling that could the door this thing opens." Leia looked up nervously and quickly stepped to the edge of the room. Luke pulled the rod over and placed its middle very, very gently on top of the rock, where the cupped part met the wall. The metal rod tipped back and forth slightly before finally coming to rest on a perfectly straight horizon. The sandstone dipped down with a soft click, followed by a very loud grinding coming from the ceiling. Six stone triangles slid back to create a three-foot opening in the ceiling.
Luke walked over to stand under it. His narrow torch-beam revealed another cavern some ten feet above the original opening. He crouched and Force-leapt up, snagging the rim of the ceiling/floor, to hoist himself inside. The others could see his beam jumping off the ceiling and reflecting off the walls, before Luke leaned over again. "Floor's sturdy. Come on." Han cupped his hands together and motioned Leia to step up. Smiling, she placed her hands on his shoulders, stepped up and grabbed her brother's offered hand.
"You next, Indy." The archeologist repeated the step up and also got pulled in through the hole. Han turned to the Wookie: "You okay staying down here?"
"Wwwaaaarrrrraaahhh ahnnn huuuuuuuuuNNNNNhhhhhh."
"Good, 'cause I'm not giving you a leg up."
"Huh huh huh huh, ahnnn uuuurrrrrrrr aahhhhAAAHHHhh dddhhhKKKKkkk uuuunnnn, huh huh huh."
"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up fuzz-ball."
"You coming?" Luke called down. Chewie held out two huge paws for the pirate to step into and practically lifted Han through the ceiling's hole. The room was four sided, with actual corners, sloping up to the curved ceiling. Each side had a large medallion set in bas-relief from the actual wall with a different carving on each stone face; on the ceiling was a very small line of glyphs.
"Leia?" Indy asked, shining his torch on the glyphs. The princess studied it for a moment before replying.
"It says 'Composite'."
"That's it?"
"That's it."
"Are there any numerical glyphs anywhere in the room? On the medallions?" Leia scanned briefly over the cavern before shaking her head.
"No, this is the only writing of any kind. I think it's the only clue we get."
"You'd think that after all the riddles they've had us answer," Han said, wearily, "They'd come up with something more elaborate than 'composite'."
"No, there's gotta be something else," Indy replied. He moved over to one of the medallions to examine the carving. It looked like an elongated, upside down, kite, some five inches in length, one inch wide. No other marks were on the medallion, no lines around the outside, and no cracks on the inside. The medallion on his right was exactly the same, except that it had two of the kite-shaped carvings, one upside down and the other right side up, touching at the short ends' vertices. The next one on the right had three of the carvings, two in the same pattern as the one he just looked at and the third kite positioned so that the two short sides were butting up against the short sides of the other two kites. The last medallion had four kites positioned to make a four pointed star, short ends to the center and long points sticking outwards. He stopped to make a few notes in his journal. "It's a arithmetic progression…"
"A what?" Luke asked, overhearing the archeologist's muttering.
"The carvings, they're an arithmetic progression: a growing pattern. Each carving has one more point than the one to the left: One point, two points, three points, four points. What I can't figure out is what an arithmetic progression has to do with composition."
"Maybe it has nothing to do with a pattern," Han spoke up. "Maybe it's just four choices."
"Then why not just give four random choices? Why put them in a pattern? And why make the end result a star shape?" Indy frustratingly spouted.
"What's the point? The answer is going to be the same no matter how they make the choices. That," Han declared, pointing at the completed star, "Is the one we want."
"You sure?" Leia asked.
"Sure, I'm sure. Four's the only composite number here. They could have done glyphs or dots or lines or anything to represent a number, but the numbers would have been the same. One, two and three are all prime numbers, four isn't. So that's the one we want."
"Wait," Indy said, "A composite number? That's what they want us to look for?"
"What else could it be?" Han countered.
"What's a composite number?" Luke asked.
"Nobody teach you basic number theory on Tatooine? A composite number is a number that has factors other than one and itself. One, two and three are all primes, non-composites. Their only factors, the only numbers that multiply together to make one, two or three are one and the number itself. Three's only factors are one and three. Two's only factors are one and two. One's only—"
"We get it, Han," Leia cut in.
"Right, four's factors are one, four, and two. It has a factor other than one and itself, that makes it composite, so that's the one we want," he finished and pointed at the four-pointed star.
"Okay," Indy agreed, walking over to the medallion in question. He snapped out his knife blade and began to gently scrape along the edges of the star, searching for any kind of crack he couldn't see. At the tip of the fourth point, his blade dipped inward ever so slightly. Indy slowly applied pressure to the newfound fissure until there was a very soft click. The medallion itself gave way, almost clattering on the floor, before Indy caught it.
Behind the outer medallion was an interior one, roughly the same size, but, rather than having a star on it, it held a ruby. The deep-red stone was about the size of a silver dollar and ringed in the familiar ancient text. Putting the capstone on the floor, Indy slid his blade around the outer edge of the rock, sliding it free of its prison. He then put the capstone back in place, and folded the next clue up in oilcloth before sliding it in its bag.
"See, Han," Leia said, triumphantly, "You're great at this type of thing." The pirate grinned sheepishly and walked back over to the center whole.
"Can we go now?"
DXVJKE
The walk back always seems faster than the walk over. Partially because they were passing through now familiar territory, partially because they weren't paying such close attention to their surroundings, and partially because they were tired of being in the cave. But in any case, the group was moving quickly through the caverns, heading back towards the Falcon.
They had put Indy, who insisted on carrying the new tablet, in the middle of the line so as to protect both him and the clue from anything in the caverns that they may have missed the first time through. Chewie was still at the back, Leia and Luke were flanking Indy, leaving Han at the very front. This was perfectly all right with him as he was the most anxious to get out of the caves and back to his baby. Silently mulling over all the possible things that C3PO could have done (and all the possible things Han would do the protocol droid if anything were awry), Han was pretty much on auto-pilot as he stomped back through the caves, and practically ignored everything going on behind him.
"But if I have a section to work on now," Leia was protesting, "Then it'll take even less time to translate when we get back to the ship."
"Leigh," her brother protested right back, "If we have to stop for Indy to dig out, unwrap, clean off, and then hand over to you that big hunk of rock, the time we save when we get back to the Falcon will be completely eaten up."
"So why can't he just unwrap, clean, and all that while we're walking?"
"Because, he," Indy cut in, "Is sick and tired of all these caves and wants to get back to the Falcon ASAP."
Leia started walking backwards, puzzlement on her face: "Ayhsapp? What's ayhsapp?"
"Sorry, Earth expression. It's an acronym for As Soon As Possible, A. S. A. P., ASAP."
"I'm all for ASAP, too," Luke put in.
"I still don't see how—"
"SHHH!" Han hissed. He was frozen up ahead, blaster in hand, crouching behind a bend in the tunnel with head cocked as though trying to hear something.
"Han?" Leia turned back around, "What is—"
"SHHHHHHH!!" He turned back over his shoulder and beckoned with his left hand for them to move closer. The others quietly crept up to stand in a tight line behind him. Suddenly, do to the acoustics of the cave walls, they could hear what had Han all up in arms.
Someone was moving around near the entrance of the cave.
DXVJKE
"Nyeri, I want to know what the krething drekk happened to Taivas, and I want to know RIGHT NOW!" Carron swiveled his chair from the starfield to face the red-headed Herisson, who was currently storming through the study with a look that could kill.
"You seem a bit agitated, Aerik, whatever is the matter?" Aerik leaned on the large desk and glared pure, unmitigated, hatred at the Sith.
"Where. Is. Taivas?" he snapped out each syllable with a deadly bite. Carron leaned back to study the Jägenkov a moment before answering.
"I sent her on a mission."
"Without us?" Hatred turned to outrage.
"Yes, without you," Carron answered, taking the tone of patient-parent-who-has-to-deal-with-an-unruly-uncivil-riled-and-emotional-teenager. "She conveyed to me in no uncertain terms that she wanted to do something or leave. So I let her do something and then leave."
Outrage turned to shock: "She's no longer Jägenkov?"
"Oh, I wouldn't say that. Not yet at least. Taivas is still working for me, albeit covertly. I gave her one mission to do and then she is free to go about her own life."
"What mission?"
"It's none of your concern."
"IT IS OF MY CONCERN! If she's still Jägenkov, then her wellbeing is damn well my concern. Now, what mission did you send her on?" Carron stared at the Herisson, weighing the pros and cons of telling him before giving the slightest sigh.
"I sent her to do some reconnaissance for me. Her mission was to find and attach herself to Jones's party as long as they are searching for the Lost Valley of the Jedi. Once they find it, she is to contact me, give me their location, and then she's free to go."
"You sent her to spy? She's a thief not a—"
"I know she's a thief, Aerik. And I'm using that ability for her, and my, own advantage." His lips curled into the slightest bit of a smile. "She's stealing their trust."
DXVJKE
Han whipped around the corner, blaster leveled, and barked out "DON'T MOVE!" The figure at the cave's mouth spun around, dropping a large crate on the floor in surprise. Chewie leveled his crossbow at the intruder and Luke swung his torchbeam to show them who they were aiming at. The figure flinched away from the bright beam, holding up a hand to block the light, but they got a good look at their adversary.
She was female, that much was obvious, and she was tall. Dressed in an olive-toned jumpsuit, she had orange skin and braided amber hair from which two curved cat-ears protruded. Half her face was covered with a black metallic mask, the other half was scrunched up in a squint from the light.
"Would you please get that thing out of my eyes?" she half-growled in what Indy could only describe as an Oxford accent.
"Drop your weapons," Han barked back. In a very begrudging movement, she unholstered a standard looking blaster and dropped it on the floor.
"There, happy?"
"Who are you and what are you doing here?" Luke asked, calmly.
"My name is Taivas, and I think it's obvious what I'm doing here." She gestured to the crates on the floor.
"Since when are Macskians in the smuggling business?" Han growled.
"Does it matter? Apparently, I'm not in it for very long, so just take the stuff and go, already."
"We're not here for stolen goods," Leia huffed.
"Then why are you in an abandoned cave, on an abandoned moon, circling an abandoned planet, in the middle of pirate territory?"
"One could ask the same question of you."
"Um, hello? Smuggling hold?"
"And that's the only reason you're here?" Han demanded.
"Why else would I be here?" she looked around at the four humans and one Wookie who were just standing there. "So…are you going to take the stuff or not?"
"Oh, I intend t'take the stuff, luv." Jack Swallow, surrounded by some thirty pirates, walked into to cave, pushing past the confused looking Macskian. "An' den, I intend t'shoot Dr. Jones there so full o'holes that every last drop o'rum 'e stole just leaks outta'im."
DXVJKE
So…Jack's back. Taivas is, apparently, a smuggler with a mission. Han can do math. Chewie is…Chewie… Leia is, obviously, brilliant. Luke…Luke didn't do a great deal of stuff… and…Indy rocks. Speaking of Indy, has anyone seen the new movie yet? I haven't. going away to a conference this weekend so I won't be able to watch the new movie until next Friday (AAAAUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGG!!) but. On the bright side, Sci-Fi, TNT, FX, AMC, TBS, and FMC have all been running back to back Indiana Jones movies and Spike ran all six episodes of Star Wars so I've been getting my Harrison Ford fix as of late.
Yeah…so…summer's here. My computer's fixed. And I have a job. Yay movie money! But it means that writing time will be down. So…no idea when the next chapter is coming. But I'll tell you for sure that there's going to be a pretty flippingly cool firefight. So…anyway. Have a fantastic summer. Go see the new Indy movie. Give geezer-Indy some luvvvvv. Later dudes,
DarkX