Sewers

The ladder led about a hundred meters straight down. The grate walkway was wide enough for a vehicle. Mission told me that there were half a dozen other ways down, and the sewer workers used small wheeled vehicles in the newer sections. This section however was much older, and while it was wide enough for the vehicles, none of the entryways that now existed would allow them.

We came to a door, and stopped. A mine had been laid there, and Mission walked up gently and disarmed then put the mine in her pack. "This is how I make some eating money." She said. "The villagers can use these in the areas where the walls are getting bad."

I won't go over the entire hell of that journey. Rakghouls wandered the halls, and bodies lay where they had been killed. Some had been gnawed to the bone, blasters or blades had killed others. It was an egalitarian mixture. Outcasts, gang members of the Bek and Vulkar, the occasional sewer worker. One body dead less than a day intrigued me. The man had been an outcast, a collar still encircled his neck, and his hands were locked in it in death, as if he had been clawing it off.

"Slave collar." Carth identified it. "When you try to run they hit you with an electrical charge. They also have a proximity setting. The farther you run, the higher the charge."

I hissed in anger.

We opened a door, and I started forward. Carth and Mission followed behind, eyes on the area as we paced on.

"Carth, you're a star-pilot for the Republic?"

"Uh huh."

"You've been all over the Galaxy, I bet."

"I've seen a few planets, yeah."

"So how does Taris rate compared to other worlds you've seen?"

"To be honest, Mission Taris would rate pretty low. The prejudice, the rich living high and well while everyone else is crushed below them. It's not a pretty picture."

"But it was better before the Sith arrived..." She sighed. "All right, it was still pretty bad. Maybe Taris is pretty bad."

"Trust me on this, Mission, There are much better worlds. Then again, there are a lot that are as bad if not worse. This is not the kind of place a kid should grow up in, even with a Wookiee to watch her back."

"Hey, I watch out for Big Z too, ya-know. He's my friend, not my baby-sitter!" She turned to watch her section again. "Geez, ask a simple question and get a lecture. I don't need this crap."

"Don't you snap at me missy! You want a lecture? Here's one for you. Only bratty children fly off the handle because of a simple statement!"

They were starting to shout, and I spun, hissing in a whisper. "Settle down, both of you!"

Mission however was on a roll. "I don't have to take this crap from you, Carth! You ain't my father, though you're old enough to be his father! So keep your lectures in that withered old head of yours."

The next hour passed in dead frigid silence.

We stopped, and Mission waved at the door ahead of us. "From here the Gamorreans have sealed their own area. The pen they installed last time was right down the way about thirty meters on the right." I nodded, and keyed the door. I walked in, and there, right in front of the door she had mentioned was a Gamorrean.

You've seen them before, two meters or more tall, heavily built, the Gamorreans have just one use as far as Galactic society is concerned. That is in the role of bodyguard, soldier, bouncer, or slave taker. Anything simple where brutality is the norm. They are brutal creatures that hadn't even developed a meager technology beyond crude hand weapons before the Republic found their world.

This was a male, what is called a boar. Somewhere nearby there would be a sow. If they operate in groups, a Sow is required just to stop the internecine feuding. She guides them in what must be done, and does all negotiating.

The boar snuffled, and spread his arms wide and rushed toward me. His axe, a massive weapon almost a meter long just at the blade still hung on his belt. Obviously he hadn't seen Carth and Mission. He thought he just had a new prize for the pen.

I cut upward, and his eyes widened in shock even as he fell. Another cut slashed his throat, and his death scream came out as a whistling sound.

There was another door on the left before the door Mission had earmarked as their pen, and I opened it. A mine lay there on the grating, and beyond it a badly decomposed body.

After Mission had disarmed and picked up this mine, I checked the body. It had been an outcast, and had been dead from my estimate for almost eighty years. I pulled a grimy journal from the pack. "Marosi." I breathed. "One of the people Malya was looking for." In his hand was yet another journal. I looked past him at the door that was there. The lock was an antique, at least a century out of date. "Mission." I pointed at the door.

She went over, working on it. "Haven't seen one this old before. I've been everywhere down here, and never even seen this door." She hummed as she worked, then with a groan, the door opened. It led into darkness. Mission was still crouched, and she pointed at the ground. "Now that is surprising."

I knelt beside her, looking at the track that led off into darkness. "What is it?"

"You know the mass trans system they have up in the Uppercity? This looks like a spur line. But why would they have built one down here?"

I shook my head. "Most cities are just built on top of themselves, Mission. Maybe it led to another section of the city."

"No way." She pointed down the tunnel. "That way only goes to the sea. As far down as this section is, and the slope of the tunnel suggests that it comes out under the ocean." She tapped a button, yelping as the door slammed closed. Then they opened on an passenger car.

We left the mystery for someone else to explore, and after closing the door, we went back into the hall. We were just at the door when I heard a roar of pain and anger from within.

"Big Z!" Mission screamed, and she ran up, punching the door code in frantic haste. I brushed her aside, and spun to face a Gamorrean sow . There isn't much to tell them apart to someone who isn't a zenobiologist. But I knew it was a she from the box she held in her hand, a device that had been given to them. A male would have smashed it into uselessness by now. She grunted, and reached for me. I heard a blaster behind me, either Carth or Mission joining the fray.

I chopped into her, and she tried to block the blow with her arm. The box sizzled, and if anything Zaalbar's screams grew even more frantic.

Another, a male came at me, and I killed him. Two other had been in the room, but both were dead. One had a neat hole in his forehead, and I glanced at Mission. But she was running across the room toward another door. This had a manual lock, and she worked at it frantically. The door hissed open, and we saw Zaalbar curled up, clutching at the collar around his neck.

"They must have been punishing him for something!" Mission cried, running to her friend. "Find the control box!"

I looked at the box that the Sow still held, but it fell apart as I tried to pry it free. "It's damaged! I can't shut it off!"

Mission screamed wordlessly, trying to find the lock to pick it. "I don't have anything that will work!" She shouted. "Zaalbar, hang in there!"

I looked at him, knowing there was nothing we could do. Except... "Carth, Mission, hold him!"

"What?"

"Sit him up and grab his head! Pull it down on his chest!"

They tried, but Zaalbar was in a world of his own pain. He flailed, sending Mission flying like a twig.

I drew the vibroblade, and set it for it's finest setting. "Zaalbar." I called. "You have to sit still for this to work!"

He ignored me.

Then from the depths of my mind, I found something to use. I roared at him in his own language and he froze, then leaned forward into Carth.

"What are you-"

I swing the vibroblade, trusting in my skill at something I had heard of, practiced, but had never actually done.

It's called Fybylka, or the 'fly cut' among the Echani. A cut that is supposed to cut just the upper layers of the flesh, yet not deep enough to cripple. It isn't meant to kill you enemy or even to wound him seriously. It is meant to shame him. To leave a mark that others laugh at.

It got its name because of the way it is practiced. You practice on smaller and smaller targets until finally you can cut one fly out a swarm without touching another.

There was no resistance. Anything lighter than body armor would be cut by that blade, and it was over before anyone even knew what I planned.

There was a flash of a burned out power pack, and Zaalbar threw the collar from him. I suddenly felt cold.

When I had first seen him, something hadn't looked right. Now, staring at that horrible collar, I knew what had been missing.

Every Wookiee I had ever seen had a collar just like it!

They had been slaves.

Zaalbar rolled over. Mission came back, wincing, and hugged his neck. Those massive arms closed in a curiously gentle embrace, the claws retracted so they wouldn't injure her. "Where is the Wookiee?" He gasped out.

"What Wookiee?"

"The one who shouted 'sit still you fool' in Shyriiwook? My own language?"

Carth pointed wordlessly at me. Zaalbar just stared in astonishment.

I reached back into whatever well I had dragged those words, and added, in the same language, "Have the children of Bacca grown deaf?"

He grinned at that. Then suddenly grew solemn. "You have saved me from a death in life of slavery. You did this without being asked. There is only one way I can repay such a debt. I will swear a life debt to you."

"Zaalbar, are you serious?" Mission was stunned. "You know how important that is!"

"Mission, I must." He grunted.

"A life debt? What is that?" I asked

Zaalbar looked at me as if he was surprised. "You speak my language but don't know what a life debt is?"

"I don't know where I learned your language, Zaalbar. I honestly don't know what a life debt is."

"Most would not." He glared at the bodies of the Gamorreans. "They are like most of your kind. They see our great physical strength. The cunning use of our claws, and see just workers or guards. Since we do not feel comfortable among your kind we cannot be hired, so they must take us as slaves.

"When they captured me, I could see no end to my misery, I would have forced them to kill me rather than submit. A lot of my people do."

"A life debt is like the most solemn vow a Wookiee can give." Mission burst in. "It means that wherever you go, even into death, he has to follow you."

"In the presence of you all, I Zaalbar, son of Freyyr, son of Shoorii, swear to follow you through life, through pain, through suffering, through death itself if need be." He knelt, reaching out as if a child asking for a parent to comfort him. "My oath will endure. Like the Kash vines that entrap, and the Wroshyr that root our world."

Instinctively, I took the hand. "Zaalbar, son of Freyyr, son of Shoorii, I accept this burden. I swear in return never to put you in danger that I myself do not face."

He stood. "Somewhere you learned of this. Whatever your memory of it is. You answered well."

I shrugged helplessly. Then I looked at him. The Gamorreans had treated him roughly, and he bore wounds still. "Right now you need medical care, and we can't stop. Mission, you said there was a way up from here?"

"Yeah. She pointed down the hall outside. "Down there about a hundred meters. Can you climb Big Z?"

"I can do what I must, Mission."

We walked down the hall, Mission and Carth helping him along. They reached a section of paneling, and Mission popped it out in a practiced manner. "I'm going with him up until he reaches the Lowercity. But I made a promise, and I will be back."

Carth

I had watched in amazement as Danika had charged four Gamorreans as if they were nothing. I was even more astonished that she spoke the Wookiee language. The people I knew that could were few enough to count on one hand with fingers left over.

Now she was trusting that little squirt to come back. I almost screamed at her. We didn't have time for this!

Danika leaned into the wall, seemingly lost in patient thought. But once the sound faded from the others, she suddenly spoke. "We need to talk."

"Sounds fair. I don't like having to hope Mission is going to come back-"

"We wait for her." It was an order, and I bristled. "That isn't what I meant. "I mean this problem you seem to have with me."

I sighed. "I knew you wouldn't understand where I was coming from. Let me try to explain. Even with the mystery of your life before I met you, I still respect you. When it comes to fighting, even negotiating you're one of the most skilled women I have ever met. You've saved not only my butt but a lot of people on this mud ball right down to rescuing that guy Hendar. I'm lucky to have you here helping me.

"That said, there is no way I'm going to stop watching you, and being wary. I'm just not built that way, period."

"Not built that way? You sound like a droid in a feedback loop."

Maybe so. But I have been betrayed by people I trusted before. Let's just say that is never happening again."

"What, you want an oath on it? A guarantee?"

"I don't know that you'll betray me. But even an oath would mean nothing. There are no guarantees, from you, from me, from anyone. But you don't have to take it personally."

"I wonder how anyone can live trusting no one."

"I live just fine thank you so very much."

She looked at me, and I could see the pain in her eyes. "Are you sure you don't want to talk about it?

"Why! Why is it so damned important whether I trust you or not? Why do you even care?"

"I do care." She whispered.

"We don't have time for this." I cocked my head, I could hear someone climbing back down the tube. "Let's just drop it for now, Okay? We have a mission." As I said that, Mission popped out of the tube, and replaced the panel. "And we have a Mission among us." I tried to lighten the mood. Danika still looked worried, and Mission glared at me. "All right, I'll shut up." I groused.

Mission

That Nerf-herder tried to make a joke, but I wasn't having any of it.

I had wanted to stay up there with Zaalbar, he had been pretty banged up. But when he heard of my promise to that woman he had told me he'd never speak to me again if I didn't follow through.

"Since Zaalbar swore a life debt, that means you're stuck with me too. I almost lost him once, and I'm not letting him go anywhere without me along."

"Glad to have you aboard, Mission." The woman said.

"Well I owe you one back door into the Vulkar's base. Don't worry I know the best way in, because no one in their right mind would use it." I started off down the tunnel at a jog.

"Why not?" The woman was in armor, and it had to be heavy, but she moved like it didn't weigh anything.

"Because there's a Rancor nest in that section of the tunnels."

"A Rancor? Who in the hell shipped a Rancor here?" She asked

I shrugged. "I don't know. Where do they come from anyway?"

"No one knows, and except for idiots that buy the damn things, no one cares." Carth growled. "Thanks to them you find them in a lot of places."

"Well this one is huge. It eats anything it can get it's claws into, and most people are smart enough to stay away from it."

"Unlike us." Danika commented.

"Hey, a rancor may be big, but it's as dumb as a Vulkar. We can get by it, no problem."

I found the path, and opened the door. A force field lit the hall with a hellish light. "That's the way." I said, moving to the console of a computer. "It's coded, but a Black Vulkar had a little too much to drink a week or so ago, and I sorta went through his pockets. Gadon was happy, and sent someone to check it out, but they haven't come back." I keyed in, and the force-field died. "Let's roll."

"That was pretty good, Mission." Carth said. "Better than anyone I've seen."

I felt like crap. Now he was trying to make nice, but I was still mad.

"Can we talk Carth?"

His face went from animated to cold. The guy must have been hell at a Pazaak table. "Is it going to a civil discussion? Or am I in for another tantrum?"

"Tantrum! Why you Nerf-herding slime beast, I'm trying to apologize!" I shook my head. "It's just, I've been treated like a kid all my life! I'm just sick of it."

Carth sighed, and he shook his head. "Yeah, I know. I'm sorry for what I said too. I've been on edge lately." He snorted. "Not surprising. But I shouldn't be taking it out on you."

"It's about time you two made up." Danika said. Carth looked at her, and there was something between them there.

"Mission, no matter what I said, you're not on a free ride here. If it wasn't for you we wouldn't have found this place, gotten by the force field or known about the rancor. We needed you."

"You mean that, don't you?" I felt my heart lift. "No one ever told me they needed me. Not even Zaalbar. He might think it, but he's not much for talking as you might have noticed."

"Ah, you know how it is. Sometimes you just need a few words of encouragement. Kids are like that."

"Kids! Why you..." I sputtered down as I saw his grin. "Oh you old geezer!"

We chuckled together. Danika led off. It was more of the same tunnels, except the Vulkars had tagged these. We came to a ramp, and down at the bottom I saw an arm laying on the grate. Danika ignored it, pausing to open the door. She froze, then waved for us to step up.

The rancor was big all right. Bigger than it had been the last time I saw it. Problem was, it was standing right by the door that led into the Vulkar base. I almost asked why it was, but the door opened, and someone was shoved through it. I think it was one of the merchants I knew from the Lowercity.

Whoever he was, he'd just become dinner. The rancor snatched him up, and stuffed him into its mouth. The scream died as the teeth slammed down, then it sucked the rest of him in.

Danika looked at this impassively. "Let me guess, that is the way we have to go, right?"

I nodded wordlessly. She shrugged, then went back to the arm that lay there. The tunnel we were in was too small for the Rancor to wedge itself into. Whoever had lot the arm must have tripped trying to escape, and grabbed the grating. It hadn't helped obviously. She took a pad from under the hand, and scanned it. "Do you know a Hala Thrombo?"

"Sure, he's like the best Scout the Beks have!" She held up the arm wordlessly. I looked at it, reality dawning. "Oh."

"Carth see if there's a canister of some kind around here. The pad made mention of some kind of scent marker."

He looked around, then came back shaking his head.

"Hala used to carry knives and stuff up his sleeve." I offered. Danika reached into the tight sleeve, and drew out a small flat box containing three vials.

"What is that?"

"The Beks contacted someone in the Exchange, and they sold them some rancor lure." She held up the vial. "One whiff of this and the damn thing would follow us all the way back to the Uppercity." She nibbled her lip, then reached up to a slotted section of her vest. A grenade popped into her hand, and she folded the hand of the severed arm over it. Then she stuffed a vial of the stink-stuff into the sleeve. She crushed the vial, armed the grenade and threw the arm out into the room where the rancor was.

I had never smelled anything as bad as that before. Not even Zaalbar's breath could compare. The rancor spun around, looking toward us, then it sniffed. To him it was some kinda desert! He thundered over to the arm, sniffed it again, then picked it up and stuffed it in his mouth.

He had just swallowed when there was a muffled boom, and smoke shot out of its mouth. It clawed at its neck, then staggered. Dropping to one knee, it whimpered, and for a moment I felt sorry for it. Then I looked at the pile of skeletons out there, and the pity died. With a final gasp, it collapsed and died.

Danika moved toward the door, then motioned for us to get ready.

Danika

I centered myself. The stink of both the Rancor and the scent that had led it to its death was there. Suddenly I felt puckish. Instead of opening it, I reached out and tapped on the door. Not the slam of a rancor hoping it will fall, but a hesitant knock. Nothing happened, and I was going to knock again when it opened. A Vulkar stood there, staring at me in amazement.

He fell as I cut into him with my ritual brand, and I was moving past him before he hit the ground. Another Vulkar was standing at the other end of the hall, and his stunned expression was still there as he pawed at his holster. I cut him down, then looked back. Carth and Mission were right behind me.

I shrugged opened the elevator and keyed it. I stepped into a hall, and spun. A droid was walking down the hall, head turning to watch for any movement. I leaped into a charge, and as it turned, brought the brand down, cutting into the carapace. The droid squealed, and fell.

"Hey." Carth walked over to me then tapped me on the head as if he were trying to make a recalcitrant droid operate correctly. "Try not to charge in."

I shook my head, crossed the hall, and opened another door. A Vulkar looked up when I entered, amazed. Being unarmed we tied him up. A girl with a slave collar occupied the next room. She squeaked as I motioned for silence. "Please, don't kill me! I'm just a slave. I don't know anything."

I shushed her again. "Mission?"

She moved around behind the girl. "Local slave collar knock-off. This one I can handle." Mission said.

"I need some answers if you have them." I said, sitting the girl down as Mission worked.

"I don't know a lot." She admitted.

"There's another prisoner. A woman named Bastila."

"That must be that Republic officer. Brejik had her taken to a safe location. I don't know where."

"The Vulkars stole a prototype swoop accelerator. Where is that?"

"I don't know. There's a lower level accessible by the other elevator. I'm told there's a garage down there. I'm only allowed up here." She shook her head. "You'd best get your friend out fast. The swoop race is tomorrow, and they'll move her to the Race concourse. If she ends up with the Vulkars after that she'll be lucky if they just sell her. A lot of the Vulkars are mad because Brejik won't let them play with her, like they do me." I looked at the scars and bruises she displayed on arms and legs.

"Got it." Mission unsnapped the collar, and the girl pulled it away, staring at it in shock.

"Can you get out of here?"

"Not if the Vulkars are still in the main room." She pointed out the door. "But if they aren't I can outrun anything I have to just to get free."

"Wait here." I said. The door opened into another hall. I sprinted down it. A Vulkar was coming out of the hall to my left and I cut him down before he even knew I was there. I signaled to Carth, and he sent the girl toward me. She grasped my hand without a word, and ran out the door into the Lowercity.

There were a couple more droids, but we dispatched them efficiently. Mission ran to a console, and hummed wordlessly. "There's a lot of guards over there." She motioned toward our left. "Looks like a barracks to me." She keyed in a sequence, then grinned. "There were guards I should say. I just blew the lot of them with an access panel." She handed me a pad. "I opened all the security doors except for that one." She tapped the map. "We need a key card for it. I also shut down all of the blaster turrets they have in the elevator room."

I started toward the barracks she had earmarked, and a Twi-lek suddenly appeared ahead of me. He took one look, and fell to his knees. "Please!"

I approached him. "Do you know him?" I asked Mission.

"I recognize him, though I don't know the name. One of the old Vulkars."

"As if the new are better." He snarled in Twi-lek.

"What do you mean?" I asked him in his own language.

"Brejik thinks being insane will earn him respect. Anyone like me that tries to talk him out of it gets stuck in the lower ranks. I used to be one of the top men in the gang. Now I'm just a flunky who's supposed to stare at the monitor."

I bit my lip. Could I trust him?

"I'd say it's about time for you to take a break at the cantina." I suggested. He stared at me in hope, then ran toward the Lowercity entrance.

"You trust the wrong people, you can end up dead." Carth said.

"Trust no one, and you end up alone." I snapped back. There was a belt from some Sith armor on the table, and I found an injector filled with a clear serum. The pad beside it identified it as a sample of the rakghoul serum. From the reading, there were six doses. I pocketed it, and motioned toward the barracks.

The panel had blasted free inside, and everyone lay dead. We ransacked the bodies, and I found the key card we needed.

The door opened smoothly, and I gulped at the turrets that faced us. Not as heavy as the one's at the entrance to the Undercity, only three of them. But enough to put all of us on slabs if we hadn't been careful.

The elevator took us up, and onto the garage level. A few bikes sat there, opened up as if they were being worked on. We moved past them into another hall. Two mines were laid, and Mission took them both down, putting them in her pack. "Hey these are collector's items! Mines from inside the Black Vulkar base!"

I shook my head. Carth smothered a laugh. A Vulkar saw me, and shouted. I charged him, hearing shots as Mission and Carth took out the others. A door opened, and a pair of Twi-lek stared at us.

"What do we have here?" The male asked. He looked at the woman, and spoke in his own language. "Fools that were hired to steal Brejik's new toy."

"Can I kill them now, Kandon?" She asked in the same language.

I stood, keeping my face impassive. "You could at least speak something I understand."

Kandon looked at me. "So the little human fool doesn't even speak Twi-leki." He mused. "That makes it easier." Then he spoke in Basic. "So you've come to steal Brejik's swoop engine?"

Mission shouted "He stole it from the Beks, you space slug!"

Kandon looked at her pityingly. "It doesn't matter who made it, or who it belongs to. We have it now, and it will remain here." He looked Carth and I over. "You're obviously not Beks, you don't look stupid enough. Since you're not a member of that pathetic old man's gang, I can do business with you."

"You're right, I am not a Bek." I said.

"Then you must be a mercenary down on her luck. Luck I can change with a word." He looked at my face, thinking perhaps that I was considering his offer. "Gadon is old news. He is blind in more ways than one. Brejik is a visionary. He has plans. Once the swoop gangs are his, the Uppercity is next on his agenda. The Sith won't be here forever. He has something they want. He has this woman Bastila."

"So he's going to trade her for what? Title to the planet?"

"That is simplistic, but accurate. The Sith are offering a reward of four thousand credits up above even now. If he doesn't succeed, he can still finance the war with that much money."

I shook my head. "Not interested."

"Can I kill them now, Kandon?" The female asked again.

"I think so, my pet."

"Think again." I said in Twi-leki. As they had spoken, I had thumbed out an ion grenade. I flicked it to their feet even as I charged forward.

I felt the shockwave hit me. The woman drew a sword, and I cut her down, spinning to block an attack by Kandon. I kicked him in the chest, feeling ribs give, and cut him down as he tried to breath.

"Remind me never to play Pazaak with you." Mission said.

"Can't stand the game. Life has risks enough without gambling." I walked past the bodies to a safe in the wall. The accelerator was a lump the size of my fists. I slid it into Mission's pack.

"Where are you going?" Carth asked as I headed back the way we came instead of the Lowercity entrance.

I held up the rakghoul serum. "With this Zelka Forn can make enough to stop the rakghoul disease. Besides, I promised to return the journal from Malya."

He shook his head, and followed.

Undercity

We came out at the same place we entered the sewers. We moved toward the village. The gate opened at my shout, and I walked into the village. A couple of people were idling nearby, and I could almost feel the greed they felt for our weapons. But a single glare from Carth sent them packing.

I heard a wail of pain and terror, and looked to the side. Another gate was set there, with a woman standing outside. She shook her head, and walked to the fire she maintained. Something drew me and I walked over to look through the same gate.

Several people were walking aimlessly around in there. They were shivering from fear more than any illness I could see. I started to open it, and the woman leaped up, shouting. "Wait Upworlder! Only a fool would go in there right now!" I lowered my hand, looking at her. "Those are our own people infected with the Rakghoul disease. If they survive it as humans, we let them out, if they do not..." She waved a hand helplessly.

A gong rang, and a few men wandered toward us. They were armed with spears and bows. "This is when I chose for them." The healer said bitterly. "Three are on the edge of the change, and two others could be there by morning." Her face was heartbroken. For a healer to chose the moment of a patient's death!

I fingered my pouch, and drew out the injector of serum. If I could get this to Zelka Forn, I would save thousands, perhaps millions in time.

But they weren't here.

"We took this out of the sewer. A Sith injector with rakghoul serum."

Her eyes widened, and she reached out, taking the device from me. It was made for an emergency injection, and all that was need was to slap it against a leg. She fingered it delicately, then handed it back. "You offer is kind, but too late for them.

"You're just going to let them die?"

"Only a fool would enter that cage right now! If they change while you are in there, you have seconds before the bloodlust!"

I stared at her coldly, and marched to the gate. She caught up with me, trying to hold me back. "Please, listen!" I stopped and her hands dropped. "I see you are a fool, albeit a brave one. Hurry once inside. If one has already begun the change, you might not have those seconds!"

I keyed the door and stepped inside. There were five people in the cage, all in their own world of misery. I walked up to each, and the injector hissed. As I came up to the last, She spun, growling. Her skin had grayed with the disease, and pustules had formed across her face. She gave a howl, and leaped at me.

I fell backwards, my feet pushing into her stomach, and threw her over me. I rolled up, dropping the injector, and drew. She charged back, and I thrust through her chest. Her hands touched the shaft as if she didn't believe it, then she looked at me with a glimmer understanding in her eyes. "Thank you." She whispered, falling back dead.

As I walked toward the door one of the first I had injected was staggering toward me. I went on guard, but she fell to her knees. "The drug you gave me. I can feel it burning the disease away!" She looked at me with wonder. "Thank you!"

The crowd standing outside the cage was silent as I stepped back out. The healer came to me, tears in her eyes. I patted her on the shoulder. The crowd broke leaving me a path to walk out. Hands reached out tentatively, touching my arm or shoulder. A man held his child up as if it were a parade.

Rukil was seated by his fire, eating a bowl of stew. My stomach roiled at the thoughts of what they had to use as ingredients. He saw me and stopped chewing, his mouth open in astonishment. "You have returned Upworlder. Did you find my apprentice?"

Silently I drew out the notebook. "Malya died before she could reach the sewers."

He looked destroyed by that simple statement. "It was as I feared. She has joined those that have searched for the way to the Promised Land." He looked at me. "But even her death now gives me hope. For you went out of your way to find her, and out of your way to tell me." He caught my hand. "You are the one foretold. You are to be the beacon that guides our path to the Promised Land!"

"I don't even know what is it let alone where!" I growled in exasperation.

"Listen then, guiding spirit. Above us is the city of Taris, so great that it covers the entire continent! There is no land to grow food on; every morsel comes from the sea. Kelp, fish, even plankton feed the people above.

"But man is foolish. They dumped their sewage and waste into that ocean. A century ago, the rising levels of pollution caused a great famine. The mighty in their towers quaked, because the city is so vast, the population is only a day from starvation at the best of times. "In their terror, the rich hoarded, and the poor starved. Men ate men to live."

"From what I have seen of Taris, things haven't changed that much." Carth said. "Just now the people of the Uppercity are almost as bad off as the poor were then."

Rukil nodded. "But the poor rose up in their masses, and civil war engulfed the world. Millions died. Whole sections of the city were laid waste as people fought just for the food that would go into their mouths!

"The rich were victorious in the end. Thousands were captured, but the jails could not hold them all, and people were sickened by the death toll. The leaders then decided to remove the problem by banishing those survivors to the Undercity." He waved at the few remaining people. "And that practice continues to this day. Many brave people were cast out, among them my grandfather Orol and my father Marosi. Along with them went their families to the youngest child."

"Not surprising." Mission snorted. "Those nobles would stuff their own mothers down here if it meant more for them."

"But not long after our exile, a man came. He was not banished, was not sent, but fled to us. He spoke with my grandfather and father, telling them a secret so great that his very life would have been forfeit if he had told it up above. He had been the head of a project on a distant island. A wiser man among the rich had funded a settlement using wiser and more efficient ways of producing food. There were few people, and droids had been built to work the fields and tend the vines. Contact had been lost during the war, and the wise rich man had died telling no one. The wise man had assured that the settlement would be unnoticeable, so it had survived untouched.

"But it's existence was discovered. The rich had merely seen it as more for them to take. They took the project head and tortured him to reveal the way to this Eden, but they had failed. After terrible tortures, the project head had escaped and come down here. He had given my grandfather Orol information, but the rakghoul disease was rampant then, and the walls did not yet exist. He was killed in an attack, leaving them with hope, a few clues, and nothing else.

"They began searching the Undercity for the way, for the man had sworn it was in this area before his death. Gendar's grandfather started the construction of the walls that now surround us, calling for all to forget about the visions of a madman, and try to live as best we can.

"One day Orol did not return, and my father Malosi despaired, but he taught me all he knew, and soon went to follow. That was eighty years ago."

"Sounds like a myth to me." Carth said apologetically. "Something to give people hope to balance the despair."

Rukil bowed his head. "That may be true. But I gathered clues. My legs were badly broken when I was still young and they never set correctly. " He waved toward Mission. "I had to make do with apprentices, children willing to risk their lives to try to find the journals of my family. My journal has clues, but theirs had much more. With them, I could find the way. So I sent them into the darkness, and they didn't return. Malya was the last. I know Shaleena would have been willing if she were not so sickly. Soon I shall die, and the journals of those lost will never be recovered."

I reached into my pack and drew out the notebooks. He stared at me as I set them in his withered hands.

He opened one to the back, then flipped a dozen pages forward. He read avidly, then set it down and picked up the other, repeating the process. "The answer! An tram line leading to a passage. A way that no one had even imagined! But how can we find the entrance?"

"We already did." Mission said. She tapped one book. "We found this ledger right outside the door."

Rukil looked around. Gendar, I must get this to Gendar."

I looked around. Gendar was a distance away. "Carth, help me carry him."

I found I didn't need his assistance. Rukil was old and frail, and weighed not much more than a child. I held him in my arms, and we walked across the encampment.

Gendar grunted at our approach, but as Rukil showed him what the books said, Mission showed him the map of the Sewers, he became excited. "It will take us weeks, even months to get there! But it is a better place than this. You." He pointed at Carth. "Find Shaleena, tell her to get the council together. You." He pointed at Mission. "Bring Kudra the healer. You." He pointed at me. "Get Igear and bring him. We must see what we have to start with." He looked at Rukil. "You have saved us, old man." He said gently. "As many times as I have called you fool, as many times as father and grandfather did, you have saved us anyway." He patted the old man, and ran off.

I went to roust Igear from his tent. He grumbled at being woken up, but when I told him why, his complaints faded.

We returned to the tent, where Rukil still sat with his eyes closed. He had a curiously satisfied expression on his face. I bent down and touched him.

"I don't know why this is so important, Gendar." A large man growled as they came back. "If Rukil is telling tales again, I'll kill him."

"Too late for that." I answered. They looked at the body with dismay. "He gave his life to keep the story alive. His grandfather his father his apprentices, gave their lives to find the way to this promised land, and you complain about your sleep?" I glared at them. "What good was their sacrifice if the going may be too hard on you? Stay here for all I care, rot in this hell with no way out. Or take the one offered!"

The man dug his toe into the ground in embarrassment. He was large but at the moment, he was a child being lectured by his mother.

"She's right. If a good life is too much for your sleep to bear, then go." Gendar said.

He grumbled, but didn't leave. I lifted Rukil's corpse.

"Where are you going with him?" Someone asked.

"Gather wood."