Fighting with Monsters
Star Wars: The Bergeron Chronicles, Part 2
a fanfic by Sisiutil
Chapter 8
When the Nomad dropped out of hyperspace deep inside the Azitchen system, Axel's attention was wholly focused on his ship's sensors, watching for other ships lying in wait. He fully expected to be ambushed--not because Kilu had any evidence that her pursuers knew where she'd been headed, but because it would be typical of their luck. He already had a course to another star system preset for the navicomputer so they could make a quick escape. The Nomad, after all, was a freighter. Unlike other YT-1300s--such as the legendary Millennium Falcon--neither Axel nor his father had seen fit to outfit her with heavy armaments or additional shielding. Thus, the wisest course of action for him was to run from a fight, not stick it out, which he was thoroughly prepared to do. Fortunately, that appeared unnecessary.
"Nothing," he said after scanning the sensor displays. "No ships in the vicinity, including in orbit. That doesn't mean there aren't any down on the surface, camouflaged or something." He turned from the sensor displays to glance at Kilu, who was seated in the co-pilot's chair. She was staring at the planet intently. "What's wrong?"
"I'm... not sure," she said.
"Something in the Force?"
"No," she replied. "Not really--it's something else. If I had to put a name to it, I'd say it was... déjà vu." She tore her eyes away from the planet to look at Axel. "I feel like I've been here before." She looked away from him and shook her head, silently telling him that she couldn't remember when, if ever, she had actually visited Cetachuya before.
Axel frowned. He wasn't sure how to interpret Kilu's feelings about the planet, and evidently she couldn't either. He decided that unless she--through the Force--or the sensors indicated a definite danger, it didn't affect their mission.
"I'm going to set us down near that structure identified by your data chip," he said.
A few minutes later, the Nomad had landed on a relatively flat area a few hundred meters from the structure in question. Axel and Kilu approached the boarding ramp, which had not yet been lowered. Axel checked the external environmental display on the boarding ramp's control panel.
"Breathable atmosphere," he said, then he grunted and pulled his jacket off, hanging it from an equipment hook on the wall. He glanced at Kilu. "You're not going to want to wear that Jedi robe," he told her. "It's forty-six centigrade out there, and the humidity is ninety-two percent."
Kilu's eyes widened a little. "I've been in saunas that were cooler," she said, then shrugged out of her long black robe and handed it to Axel so he could hang it up next to his jacket.
Axel tapped the command console, and the boarding ramp lowered. As soon as it opened, the hot, wet fetid air of the jungle planet rushed in, washing over the two humans and making both of them feel like they needed a shower. They hadn't even taken a step, and already they were both starting to sweat. They glanced at one another ruefully, and then started removing additional layers of clothing. Axel pulled off his shirt so all he wore was wide-necked sleeveless white undershirt. Kilu removed her wrap-around tunic, then the simple long-sleeved shirt she wore under that, so her torso was covered by nothing more than a sleeveless undershirt similar to Axel's. The freighter pilot couldn't help noticing how nicely she filled out that undershirt, but by exerting considerable amount of self-control, he managed to pull his eyes away from her body. He strapped an equipment belt around his waist so he now carried a flashlight, a commlink, several meters of rope, a rudimentary medical kit, a knife and a bottle of water. Kilu wore her own belt, from which hung her lightsaber. Together they walked down the ramp towards the steaming jungle.
"Arf," Axel said over his shoulder to his agromech droid, "watch the sensors. If any ship appears overhead, I want to know about it." He tapped the commlink on his belt as he reached the bottom of the ramp as R4-E6 warbled an agreement. "Okay, close her up." Arf closed the door behind them, as instructed; Axel didn't relish the idea of getting back to the ship only to find it populated by poisonous reptiles or some temperamental local carnivore.
The ground felt damp and springy beneath their feet; instead of dirt, they walked upon a thick ground coating of moss, rotting vegetation, and tree roots. Colorful birds watched them from the broad-leafed trees, cocking their heads to one side to study the newcomers, then flying off and making loud, hooting cries. Legless reptiles slithered away into the undergrowth, eager to get out of their way as they walked. The air was redolent with the malodorous scent of rotting plant material and stagnant water. Insects buzzed around them.
"Watch out for sink holes," Axel cautioned her.
"There aren't any," Kilu replied.
Axel stopped dead in his tracks and turned to look at her, a surprised frown on his face. "How do you know that?" he asked.
"Because I have been here before," she said quietly.
Kilu had stopped walking as well, but her dark brown eyes were roaming over the landscape, especially at the stone structure ahead of them, which they now saw was a tall step pyramid. It had a slightly rectangular base, about five hundred meters wide one the broad side facing them, approximately four hundred meters on the other two. The stones climbed bulkily towards the sky; they had been carefully carved to fit together, it appeared, and consisted of eight levels that shrunk in width and depth, though not height, on a three hundred meter climb towards the sky. The pyramid was heavily overgrown with vegetation--vines snaked over its stones, moss filled the many cracks in the structure, and ferns sprouted here and there on the stern grey stone facade. Directly ahead of them was a high archway; evidently the pyramid was hollow inside, which was remarkable, given its overall bulk and evident mass.
"I lived here when I was a little girl," Kilu said, her gaze never wandering from the step pyramid that sat before them in the jungle.
"You did?" Axel asked incredulously.
"Yes," Kilu replied. "I was very young. I didn't remember until I looked at the temple," she said, pointing at the step pyramid. "At least, my mother called it a temple. We lived in a survival pod about a kilometer that way," she said, pointing east of the temple, as she called it.
"What in the stars were you doing here?" Axel asked her. He raised one hand to wipe the copious sweat from his forehead. Already, his clothes were soaked with perspiration, as were Kilu's. He couldn't fathom it. The jungle planet, with its oppressive heat and humidity, was far from being comfortable or hospitable, and it was well off the hyperspace lanes out in the furthest reaches of galactic space--the proverbial middle of nowhere. It was no place to raise a child, that much he was sure of. He began to move forward again, towards that doorway in the step pyramid. Kilu followed, though she seemed to be half in a trance.
"We were hiding."
"From what?"
"From the Empire, of course," she told him. "We weren't Jedi, but some in the family used to be. My mother was Force-sensitive, and she knew that I was too. The Emperor and Vader would likely have either enslaved us or killed us if we'd been found."
Axel couldn't suppress a shudder that ran down his back, despite the oppressive heat. He didn't like the idea of either fate for Kilu, and was glad she'd avoided them. Maybe bringing a child to this inhospitable world wasn't such a bad idea after all, under the circumstances. Even so, he didn't want to stay any longer than they absolutely had to. The heat and humidity were bad enough, but it wasn't just that. All around them was evidence of a civilization that had thrived and then inexplicably died. He couldn't help imagining the spirits of those beings rising up to confront them for trespassing on their property. Now that he'd seen the place he was no longer surprised regarding all the smugglers' tales describing the planet as haunted. The place gave him the feeling that most sentient species in the galaxy described as "the creeps".
They were less than one hundred meters from the step pyramid when Kilu stopped moving again. She was staring at the huge stone structure intensely. She inhaled deeply, quickly--almost a gasp.
"Is there something wrong?" Axel asked her. He's been carrying his blaster in his left hand since they'd left the ship. Its grip was now slick with his sweat, but he had a strap that fastened the weapon to his wrist so he wouldn't lose it in a fight. He pointed the blaster ahead of them, his eyes searching for danger in any form.
"The dark side is strong here," Kilu said in a strained voice. "My mother told me to stay away from the place, and I had no problem obeying." She shuddered. "Come on. Let's go find this missing Jedi data and get out of here. These aren't exactly my favourite childhood memories to relive."
"Sure thing," Axel agreed.
He wanted to reach out and place a reassuring hand on her shoulder, but he thought she probably wouldn't appreciate it, so he held back. He knew that Kilu had more than just the usual Jedi wariness of the dark side; she'd once told him that her great aunt had been a Jedi who'd crossed over to the dark side of the Force. Kilu, he knew, had a fear that her ancestor's susceptibility to the dark side ran in the family.
The large doorway into the step pyramid was about four meters high and five meters wide. As they stepped inside, they were momentarily blinded by the relative darkness, but only momentarily. Their eyes did not take long to adjust, because the inside of the structure was lit--not by windows or openings in the stone, nor by electronic means, but by huge, long strips of some sort of phosphorescent material that had been applied to the walls to provide illumination, and still did, even centuries after its initial application. As their eyes adjusted to the level of light, they both gasped softly. Contrary to its external appearance, which was heavy and blocky, inside the step pyramid was hollow, the ceiling soaring to a dizzying height in a jagged fashion, an inverse of the steps on the exterior.
The jungle, however, had intruded into the structure; vines ran everywhere, and various forms of fungi were taking over the floor. In the middle of the structure was what must once have been a building within the building, a rectangular stone structure about two stories in height. But its roof had collapsed and its crumbling walls threatened to do the same. Nevertheless, they both surmised that if someone was going to hide any data storage units in the place, it would be within that ruined structure.
They moved apart a few meters in order to search independently and cover more ground. Something on the floor caught Axel's eye and he moved towards it to investigate. Kilu, meanwhile, took a breath and reached out with the Force. In a heartbeat, her eyes opened wide and she gasped loudly.
"What?" Axel exclaimed, spinning around to look at her. She looked shocked: her eyes were open wide, staring wildly about her, her mouth had dropped open, and she was gulping down breaths. Axel looked around quickly, scanning for a source of danger, his blaster drawn and ready. Then he realized she hadn't drawn her lightsaber. "What is it?"
"It's... not possible!" she whispered hoarsely.
"My dear Kilu," a deep male voice suddenly said from the darkness behind one of the nearly-collapsed walls of the inner building, "surely you remember what I often told you: that once you have eliminated the impossible, then whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth."
Axel whirled around towards the sound of the voice, pointing his blaster at it. There--in the shadow of a crumbling stone wall, he discerned the silhouette of a tall humanoid. He was tempted to fire at the figure, but restrained himself, remembering he had a Jedi with him who was far more capable than he was at handling threats. And if this mysterious newcomer had any information that would help Kilu on her quest, then they wanted him alive. Or so he hoped; there was something about this stranger that was making the hairs on the back of his neck stand up, despite how soaked they were with sweat.
"I've got a bad feeling about this," Axel muttered to himself. Then Kilu's next words astonished him.
"Master!" Kilu exclaimed. "Master, you're alive!"
As Axel watched, Kilu's face lit up suddenly, her delight and relief readily apparent on her lovely features. She took a step towards the figure in the dark... then stopped abruptly, as if someone or something had slapped her in the face. Her expression of joy disappeared, replaced by one of confusion, then growing apprehension. "No..." she murmured.
"A very bad feeling," Axel muttered, returning his gaze--and the barrel of his blaster--to the mysterious figure a few meters away.
The man stepped out from his place of concealment beside the inner structure's crumbling wall. As he did so, the eerie bluish phosphorescent light illuminated his features, and Axel felt his gut twist into an anxious knot. He was human, tall, with short jet-black hair, dark almond-shaped eyes, and a formidable build covered by a loose midnight black tunic and equally dark pants. Those details were unremarkable. The unsettling thing was the elaborate red and black tattoos that covered every square centimetre of his exposed skin--that and the lightsaber hanging from his belt.
"Cylus Vax..." Kilu whispered, half in reverence, half in disbelief. Her former Jedi Master. Supposedly killed several months ago, just before she'd met Axel for the first time. Now, apparently, very much alive. And very much a Sith.