Chapter 4: Amazing Discoveries

Ben and Joseph continued down the stairway in the Jedi temple. Ben could tell that going this deep gave his friend the creeps. Ben didn't like it either, but he could feel the pull stronger than ever. He had to find out what was pulling him here.

Joseph tapped his shoulder. "Come on, Ben. We have been down here and hour and an half. If you haven't reached the place now, you probably won't." He turned to face him. "If you want go back you can. But I am going to find out what is dragging me down here, no matter how long it takes." He turned back and continued down the stairs. Joseph gave a grunt and continued on as well.

Ben smiled. When it came down to it, Joseph would always follow him. This is why Joseph is his best friend. Ever since they were born they have always been the best of buds. For some reason, Ben stopped at a door. He opened it and went into the next room. As Ben searched the walls, he found what he needed.

"Look, Joseph." He pointed to the turbolift. "This will take us straight to whatever force is calling me." "How do you know this?" Ben turned to his friend, "the Force told me it will." "That's good enough for me." They stepped into the lift and it headed down automatically.

Joseph turned to Ben, "What button did you push?" "I didn't. It went all by itself." "Uh-oh," Joseph replied. They headed deeper into the lower parts of the Temple. "Man, Ben. The Force is everywhere down here. And it is very strong," said Joseph. Ben nodded in agreement. "Yeah. I can feel it to," Ben agreed. The Force has a very strong existence down here.

Soon the lift stopped. The two friends, stepped out. The pull and the Force presence was getting stronger. There is no doubt in his mind that the Force was calling him to this place. They were in a long hallway. At the end were a pair of double doors. Ben turned to face Joseph.

"Lets go through."

"Do we have to?"

"Me, yes. You? Your choice."

"Fine, fine."

They started towards the doors. They were locked. "All well," Joseph said, "it's locked. We better go back." "Not yet." Over to the right was a DNA scanner. Ben decided it was worth a try. He put his hand on the scanner. A voice came out and made them jump back. "DNA confirmed. You may enter." Ben looked at Joseph and he shrugged his shoulders. He wouldn't find out if he didn't enter.

When they went through the doors, there was a second pair on the other side. The same voice came on, "Please, enter access code." "See. This isn't meant to be. Lets go." As Joseph turned to leave the code, suddenly, came to Ben's mind. "Skywalker, code number three-six-two-five-seven." "Code accepted. You may enter." Joseph looked over at Ben with a scared look on his face. "Ben, you are beginning to scare me." "I'm beginning to be scared to, Joseph. But I have to go on."

When Ben and Joseph entered the room they turned on the light switch. Their mouths dropped to the floor when the saw what was in the room. The room they were in was huge. There were desks with computers, hologram screens, battle screens, and a storage case with enough weapons to last a few wars. Joseph kept looking around with a shocked look on his face. "Wow. This place is awesome." "You got that right," agreed Ben. "I wonder who used this place?" Joseph headed farther into the room. "Lets check this place out."

They spent half an hour searching the room, when they decided that they would need help.

"Lets go tell your father and the rest of the Council about this."

"Not yet, Joseph."

"Why not?"

"I can still feel the pull. There has to be more to this place."

"What else is there to search? We need the others."

"Lets check the walls before we tell the other."

They spent forty-five minutes checking the walls. When they reached the back wall, Ben found what he was looking for.

"Look here, Joseph. Someone tried to hide this door." With Joseph's help, Ben was able to move the cabinet. Where the cabinet was is a door with a palm reader. "Whoa. This is getting better and better. Is this where the pull is coming from?" Joseph asked. Ben nodded. "Yes, it is. Come on. I want to find out what dragged us down here." When Ben put his hand on the reader, the same voice came out. "Correct palm print. You may enter, Paladin Ben Skywalker." Ben and Joseph looked at each other with shocked looks. Ben was the first to speak.

"This is getting freaky."

"Tell me about it. How does it know you? And what does 'Paladin' mean?"

"I have no idea to both questions. We'll never find out just by standing here. Lets check out the next room."

Ben opened the door and stepped through. The room they stepped into looked like an office. There was a desk with personal effects, papers, data disks and readers, and other stuff. There were file cabinets and other stuff in the office. Ben spoke up first. "This must be the Commanding Officer's office." "Yeah." On the desk he saw a manual about the office elevator. He decided to grab it.

On the wall to the right were two more doors There were also palm readers near them. Joseph shook his head. "Sith. How many doors are there? And with all this security? The guy must be major paranoid." Ben chuckled. "Yeah, tell me about it. Come on. Lets check these doors." "Which one? Door number one or door number two?" "Both." Ben walked over and activated both palm readers. There was no voice this time. "Good, no voice," said Joseph, "it was getting annoying." One door had a tubolift the other had stairs.

"This must be the office elevator that this elevator talks about. Lets take the lift, Joseph." "No problem." It took only a minute or two to reach the bottom. During the drop Ben checked out the manual he grabbed from the office. "Joseph, look. This elevator goes to three floors. One is the office. The second is a floor with only two rooms. It doesn't say what is in it. The third is room the has speeder bikes, fighter ships, ships for evacuation, and battleships."

"Whoa. This must have been a serious military base."

"Yeah, and right under the New Republics nose this whole time. Kind of pathetic when you think about it."

"Tell me about it. Lets check out the ships first."

When the doors stopped on the 3rd floor they were shocked beyond belief. There were thousands of bikes, ships, ships to evacuate people, and battleships. Just like the manual said. "No, Ben. This is really pathetic. Sith. All this equipment could have saved the New Republic a lot of resources during the war with the Yuuzhan Vong." "You got that right. Lets check out the second floor. On the way up, Ben was wandering how he was going to tell his parents and the Council about all this. Suddenly, the lift stopped.

The first room was small with a door on the other side with another palm reader. Joseph waved his arm at the read and dropped it back to his arm. "Like I said, paranoia on the brains." "This is where the pull is coming from. Lets see what this is all about." Ben walked over and palmed the reader. He heard the lock unlock. Ben took a deep breathe, opened the door, and stepped through.