Chapter Nine

Han slowly took in his surroundings. To his utter surprise, despite the fact he'd lost his glowrod on the 'ride' down, he realized he was no longer in total darkness. The cave was increasingly growing lighter and lighter. Above his head were long stalactites, hanging off the cave roof in shimmering, undulating sheets that started out bright white at the ceiling, then slowly changing colors as they lengthened. At the tip of many of the stalactites were incandescent crystals. The floor of the cave was filled with those same glowing crystal shards that seemed, somehow, to pulsate with a living warmth. It was obvious that the crystals somehow grew from the stalactites, dropping off like jeweled dewdrops.

That wasn't all, however. The crystals on the floor were set in a distinctive pattern. From the far end on the left side of the cave the crystals were all pale yellow, before the color slowly shifted to a darker, richer gold, then moved to a light green, then to medium greens, followed by shades of teals and then, finally, darker and darker shades of blue running all the way to the opposite side of this amazing room. Without warning the colors suddenly changed, and the blues became yellow, and the yellows turned to blue, like a shifting, ocean wave of color. It was stunningly beautiful; like finding the end of a undulating rainbow, minus the oranges and reds.

Despite the pain radiating from his ribs, Han stood up and carefully wandered through the crystals. Not only were they glowing, they also seemed to softly hum. He'd been in other caves in his life and knew from experience they were rather on the cool side. In fact, the spider-made tunnels had been quite chilly. This place, however, was pleasantly warm. What's more, the longer he stood and gazed at the beauty of the crystals, the more at peace he felt. Everything and everyone seemed to be fading away from his awareness.

I want to stay here forever...

The kinraths rounded the final corner, coming fang to face with the Jedi Master and Leia, who may have not yet have become a full Jedi, but still strong in the Force.

The huge creatures, looking part spider and part mantis, reared back, waving their dangerous front legs at the intruders before lashing out. Although they were blind, they could sense heat, and the lightsabers signaled danger to them.

Luke swiped his saber forward, removing the front claws of the closest creature, who hissed and drew back from the weapon before turning and running away. "Don't let the appendage coming from the mouth touch you, Leia," he yelled in warning. "Poison!"

"Yes, you already told me about the poison," Leia replied as another spider took the place of its fallen comrade. Although not nearly as adept as Luke, the Princess held her own and cut a large line down the front throat region of the beast and it slumped down, quite dead.

The twins were then faced with another type of assault. Two of the kinraths spit out webbing in their direction, temporarily covering both of them with a thin layer of very sticky, fine threads. Struggling against the binding, Leia and Luke spun around, pulling their sabers in a complete circle and removing the majority of the web, barely in time to prevent the kinraths from sinking the poisonous barbed fangs into their flesh.

With the skill of a Jedi Master, Luke leapt over the two remaining creatures, beheading one as he twisted in mid-air before landing on the opposite side. The one remaining, confused now that heat was radiating from both its front and back, hesitated where to strike. That hesitation was all Leia needed, and she stuck her lightsaber into its torso and drew the blade up sharply. The kinrath let out a death rattle, then fell over and died.

Gasping for breath, Leia couldn't help but give a shaky laugh. "We did it."

Luke nodded, feeling a bit winded himself. "Yes, we did." He pointed to the pile of eggs. "I think we'd be doing Dantooine a favor by getting rid of this particular clutch of eggs, don't you?"

The Jedi pushed his saber into an egg, watching as a stream of sickly green slime oozed out of the brown oval sack and repressed the urge to gag.

"Yuck," Leia complained. "That smells even worse than their droppings."

"Less kinraths, less droppings," Luke said, waving at Leia to assist him. "The faster we take care of these things, the faster we can locate Han."

At the mention of Han, Leia looked stricken. "What if the kinraths got to him? I can't mentally communicate with him anymore."

"He's not dead," Luke told her firmly. "He's..."

"He's what?"

"Mentally being cut off, somehow," Luke said, sounding a bit baffled as he continued his chore of destroying the hive. "Something is happening to him, but I'm not sure exactly what."

"Hurry up, Luke," Leia said, no longer caring about the odor from the destroyed eggs, and only thinking about how close to death they'd found Han, not very long ago in the interrogation room at Fountain Palace. "We have to find him."

Brother and sister hurried back the way they'd come, stopping at the first 'Y' in the tunnel.

"He was right behind me up until this turn," Leia said, chewing her lower lip as she shined the glowrod down the corridor. "I still can't sense him."

"Point your rod it down," the Jedi said, pointing to the ground. There, in the slime, were obvious marks, where something or someone had attempted to make a fast stop. Luke reached down, picking up a discarded glowrod and flipping it on. "This is the glowrod Han was carrying."

Leia moved her glowrod, following the line in the slime toward the edge of the tunnel. "Luke? It looks like something crashed through the wall."

Luke stuck his lightsaber through the hole near the ground, then stuck his head down to peer inside. He drew back, not knowing whether to frown in concern, or smile with relief. "I can hear some sounds coming from down there, but it doesn't sound like kinraths. It's a soft noise, like chimes. Something down in that cave is glowing."

"Glowing?"

Luke nodded. "I believe we've found the crystals." Leading the way, Luke once again shifted himself to squeeze into the opening, then waited for Leia to join him. "Be careful," Luke warned. "The angle down this slope is steep, and there are a lot of loose stones and gravel."

Using the Force to steady himself and Leia, they made their way cautiously down the embankment and futher toward the pleasant humming noise and the soothing illumination.

Once they reached the bottom Luke gave a soft whistle. "I've never seen this many crystals. The combination of all of them must be so powerful they're blocking everything else, including our comlink signals."

"It's beautiful down here," Leia said, shutting her eyes in bliss. "And very peaceful."

The Jedi Master gave his head a shake, trying to clear his mind. The cumulative impact of so many kyber crystals was creating a kind of Force-induced fugue state. He gave Leia a gentle shake. "You need to focus, Leia. This area is so overwhelmingly alive with the Force we need to block the effects or we'll never leave here."

Her eyes snapped open, and Luke saw her struggling to come back inside her mind. Finally she blinked hard, and focused on his face. "You're right. This place acts like a type of mental drug."

Luke shifted his gaze and quickly saw Han, sitting on the ground with his back toward them near the stunning, rippling kyber display. "Han's over there," Luke said, but the Princess had already spotted him and was swiftly moving to Solo's side.

"Han!" Leia shouted, grabbing his shoulder and giving it a quick shake. When he didn't respond, Leia shook his shoulder harder. "HAN!"

Luke moved in front of the Corellian and crouched down. "Han?" The Jedi looked up at his sister. "He's bleeding and he's not looking at me. I'm not sure he knows we're even here."

"Bleeding?" The Princess dropped to her knees, and pulled Han's torn shirt up as she inspected the injury. "Something must have sliced him when he was falling down that hill. It's a pretty deep cut, but it doesn't look like there's enough blood loss to have caused him to go into shock." She reached up and turned his face away from the crystals, forcing him to look in her direction. "Han? You need to come back to us now." She glanced at Luke and snapped, "Do something! Help him!"

The Jedi shifted forward and placed both hands on either side of Han's temples. "Han... wake up. Now!"

The Corellian took a sharp intake of breath, and drew back from Luke's grasp. "Wha...what?" He looked around in confusion, appearing surprised at his surroundings. "Where are we?"

"Welcome back to the kinrath cave," Leia said with a shaky laugh. "We were getting a bit worried that we'd lost you to the kyber crystals siren song, Flyboy."

"It looks like you did a better job of finding the location of the crystals than I did," Luke said jokingly. "Didn't I tell you that you had the makings of a Jedi?"

"Yeah, right. I slipped on the disgusting goo and careened through a wall," Han grumbled. "If that's what you consider using the Force, then apparently I was using it even back when I was still in my former, Force-deprived body." He winced as he put his hand on his injury. "If every time I use the Force - or the Force decides to use me, - I have to get hurt, then I'm for sure not takin' up becoming a Jedi. It's way too painful."

Leia was overjoyed at locating him alive and in relatively one piece, so her focus changed from locating the kyber crystals to Han's well being. She looked to her brother. "We need to get him back to the ship and get him patched up."

"He's not in any immediate danger," Luke said, taking a closer look at the wound. It was open, raw and nasty looking and still oozing blood, but it was obvious that the worst of the bleeding had eased and no major arteries had been severed. "I know he needs some medical attention, but we're already here. You two can pick out your lightsaber crystals, and then we'll head back to the surface. We'll contact Chewie to have him move the ship closer so Han doesn't have to hike as far back."

The Princess and Luke helped Han to his feet. "So we just grab one and go?" Han asked. "Tell me what size it has to be, 'cuz I'm not gonna be too fussy. They all look the same to me."

"It doesn't work that way," Luke told his friend. "You have to look around, find one that's about eight centimeters in length and not too wide. It had to fit inside the handle of a lightsaber. And it had to speak to you."

Han slowly turned his incredulous stare at the Jedi. "Speak to me? A rock has to speak to me? What, exactly, is it supposed to be saying? Hi, I'm a rock and I wanna come home with you? Or does it tell me its name and say we really have to stop meetin' like this?"

Luke shook his head, wondering if Han would ever take his training seriously. "Just let the Force guide you." He pointed toward Leia, who was slowly wandering among the crystals. "Once you pick one, you won't know what color your lighsaber will be until you build it and turn it on. It could be any color at all, but the crystal you pick will know and understand who you are, and it will give you the appropriate color."

The Jedi was watching Solo's expression. The Corellian didn't appear to actually believe what Luke was saying, but he continued explaining anyway, "Light blue represents bravery. It was my father's lightsaber. Green, the lightsaber I built, represents harmony. Yellow means diplomacy. Teal means trustworthiness. But all colors work equally well, it's just that the crystal seems to sense what color the builder and owner should have."

The Princess was already on her way back to the two men. "The Force drew me to this one," she said, holding it up. It was no longer shifting colors, like the ones on the ground. Instead, it had turned clear and sparkled with a strange inner glow.

"Well, as long as it ain't gonna turn pink, then I guess I don't care," Han said, looking at the crystals on the ground. Since none of the stones seemed to be 'speaking' to him, he reached down to pick up the closest crystal that was the correct length and width. Before he could grasp it, a slightly smaller crystal a few meters away shifted, then suddenly skittered across the ground toward Han, immediately sticking itself to his fingers. Frowning in consternation, Han gave his hand a quick shake. The crystal didn't budge. "Uh, Luke?"

"Yes?"

"Why the hell is this rock stickin' to me? Does it have some kinrath webbing on it that I can't see?" He shook his hand again, harder this time, to no effect.

Luke moved forward and pulled the crystal from the back of Han's fingers and inspected the rock more closely. "I don't see any sticky web on it." Before Luke could place it back on the ground, the rock jumped from his hand and clung to Solo's wrist.

"What the fuck?" Han griped, trying to yank it off. "What's the matter with this thing?"

"Is it hurting you?" Leia asked in genuine concern. Her rock wasn't doing anything of the sort. Although it felt warm and pleasant in her hand, it certainly wasn't behaving like it was demented or that it had a mind of its own.

"No, it doesn't hurt," Han said, shaking his head. "I just want it to get off me."

"Maybe it's just a really big fan of yours," Leia said, trying not to laugh. Since it didn't appear the crystal was harming him, it was rather amusing to watch Han trying to dislodge the stubborn rock.

Han glared at Leia. "Very funny, Princess."

"I don't know what it's doing," Luke admitted. "This might be the first time ever that a crystal has picked the Force sensitive rather than the other way around."

"Great," Han groused at the crystal leapt from his wrist to above the open end of his low shirt collar, directly over his heart and against his bare chest. For some reason, it reminded him of that little Ewok tightly hugging his leg back on Endor. "Just what I always wanted. A pet rock."