DXUN, 40 YEARS ABE:
The tunnels of the lower level were narrower, although the ceilings were still high. Han wondered if this structure had been built by creatures taller than the average human or if the higher ceilings had served an architectural purpose, perhaps by providing better airflow. Given that the place had presumably been constructed some four thousand years ago, he doubted he would ever meet one of the builders to ask.
He hoped he would never meet one of the builders to ask.
There were larger carvings on these walls too, although they were concentrated in individual blocks of stone rather than continuing the continuous sequence of images that had decorated the walls of the ramp. Some appeared to have been deliberately defaced, with chunks hacked out. Some of the vandalism appeared to have been done by blades or maybe claws; others were clearly the work of lightsabers.
Narrow halls stretched off into deeper shadows in between the carved sections, many of them obscured by stone doors. Some appeared to have been blocked-off by permanent stonework while others were buried beneath loose rubble.
For now, Leia and Han ignored the branching passages. They were probably lesser tombs or treasure rooms and would need to be searched eventually-but for now, they wanted to see where the main tunnel led.
At one point their progress was impeded by a tumble of stone that had fallen from the ceiling; a jagged black hole gaped in the stone above, its edges charred and blackened. Some of the rubble looked like it had half-melted.
Leia and Han exchanged a look. "Force Lightning," Leia said. "Probably."
"You think someone was trying to block the passage on purpose, or was it just a spat between Sith Lords that got out of hand?"
Leia shook her head. "No reason it couldn't be both," she said.
Han grimaced in agreement and holstered his blaster so they could help one another clamber over the tumble of stone. Neither one of them commented on the thick dust that coated the rocks, but they were both glad to see it. That meant that whoever had taken the chunk out of the ceiling had been here-and, hopefully, had left-a long time ago.
The passage on the other side presented them with a sharp corner but no branching paths. The floor past the turn was clear, and they continued on for several meters in tense silence. They could see that the tunnel came to an end up ahead and after a few more steps towards it they slowed, then stopped. They seemed to be walking into a great weight, as though the dust in the air had somehow coalesced to form a barrier ahead of them. Even the light seemed to be having a hard time getting through, the shadows at the end of the tunnel growing increasingly thick despite the glowrods in their hands. It was almost as though the pillar at the end and the dark, glittering pyramid atop it were somehow exuding tangible shadows.
Leia and Han exchanged a look. If something was trying to keep them out, to keep them away, there was only one thing to do.
Moving almost in unison, the former princess and the onetime smuggler pushed their way forward.
The closer they got, the harder it was to keep moving; the heavier the weight they pressed against. Until, suddenly, they were through. It was like breaching a magcon shield or the surface of a bubble, an invisible yet abrupt sense of openness waiting for them on the other side.
Leia actually staggered a little as the weight evaporated and they both stood blinking in the thin light of their glowrods. Slowly, the Organa-Solos' eyes turned back to the pillar and the small, eerie object that rested atop it. It was a holocron. They could both recognize that much from the Jedi Archives that Luke had spent decades painstakingly assembling from scraps and fragments-but it wasn't like any holocron either of them had ever seen.
This one seemed sharp, somehow. Sharp and dangerous, its intricate metal framework twisting in on itself and then turning back to sprout curls and coils like thorns that criss-crossed the faintly pulsing, almost translucent panels beneath which swirled vague shapes and whispers.
"Well." Han licked suddenly dry lips. He realized that his blaster was in his hand again, although he couldn't remember drawing it. He decided not to put it away just yet. Instead he gestured toward the holocron with the barrel, as though his DL-44 had transformed into a teacher's pointing tool. "Go on and grab it, then."
His wife didn't respond. He glanced sideways and saw that Leia was staring, pale-cheeked and wide-eyed, at the holocron. She looked wobbly, transfixed.
"Leia?"
Leia didn't move.
"Come on, princess," Han said. He was starting to sweat now, nervous in the stuffy air and the slanting shadows. "We came all this way for that thing, right? Let's grab it and get out of here."
Slowly, she shook her head. "It's not for the likes of us to take," Leia said softly.
"The 'likes of us'?" Han repeated, his incredulous voice ringing out with irreverent volume against the sepulchral weight of the dusty stones. "Hey, we're the Organa-Solos. Who's that lump of rock to tell us what we are and aren't supposed to do, huh?"
"It's watching," Leia said. Her voice was hollow, distant. "It knows."
Han shivered. "Honey, it's a rock. It doesn't know anything."
Leia shook her head again, moving even more slowly this time, never taking her eyes off the holocron. Her eyes, if anything, grew wider-darker, as though great wells of night were opening up behind her lids and spilling forth from distant galaxies.
"This was not made for the Light."
Han stared at her, his own eyes widening with a fear that he could feel but could not explain, could not understand-then shaking himself, he holstered his blaster with a decisive quickness and turned to look at the cluttered floor. He bent and set his glowrod down carefully on a level patch of stone. Han glanced up sideways at the holocron, weighing it from the corner of his eye rather than facing it head-on again, and chose a likely-looking chunk of stone from the rubble.
Moving with an almost defiant casualness, he stepped up to the grim holocron and paused long enough to take a long, deep breath that did not do as much to steady his nerves or his hands as he had hoped. Then he lunged forward, grabbing the holocron from the pillar with one hand at the same time that he replaced it with the stone in his other.
He stepped back, anxious, holding his breath-and nothing happened.
Han breathed a sigh of relief and turned back to his wife with a cocky grin. "There, see?" he said. "Not so hard."
Leia seemed to sag, as though suddenly cut-loose from something, and blinked herself away from whatever distant point in space or time into which she had been staring. "Oh, Han," she said, and the fond exasperation lacing her voice was as ordinary and familiar as this ruined citadel was strange.
Han held the holocron up toward her like he was offering a great treasure.
Leia shook her head and snatched it, grimacing at the cold and slimy feel of the metal before dropping it into one of the sturdy pouches belted at her waist. The tunnel seemed to lighten, as though a weighty shadow had been removed, and when Han bent to retrieve his glowrod the cheerful beam stretched easily across the stony walls-
And then there came a great, grinding sound, somewhere far above them.
Han and Leia stared at each other.
"Aw hell," said Han.
Leia shouted, "RUN!"
They ran.