Chapter 7
Trial
The three made their way through the caves. Occasionally the clicks and clacks of chitinous legs could be heard, but with the echoes in the cave system it was hard to tell which way they came from.
"It's hard to tell, but I think we're moving away from the crystals," Ahsoka said. "We may have to turn back."
"I'd rather not have to visit giant bugtown if I don't have to," replied Jyssa. "Regular spiders give me the creeps. Giant ones who can take down a Mandalorian kinda scare me. A little."
"Hold on a second... there are three of them up ahead."
Jyssa backed up a bit and took aim with her pistol. "How can you tell?"
Arc held out his own pistol over Ahsoka's shoulder. "She's a Jedi. That's how."
"I think I can scare them off." Ahsoka kneeled down and set her glow rod down. "I just need to concentrate."
Jyssa said, "Yeah, I can scare them off too. But I'll need my pistol to do it."
Ahsoka's head bowed down and she closed her eyes. She could feel the creatures in the Force. Now all she had to do was to connect with them. "These creatures... they've been touched by the Force. They're not intelligent enough to use it, or even feel it really. I think I can reach their minds..."
Clan. Safe. Patrol. Graze. Food. Food. Scent? No. Patrol.
"They're so... simple. I think they use pheromones to tell friend from foe. If I can just turn them away..."
Enemy? Enemy! Wrong musk! Attack! Defend the eggs! Save the eggs!
A trio of shrieks could be heard echoing down the corridor, and the sudden clacking of spindly legs against stone could be heard disappearing into the distance. Ahsoka opened her eyes. "Oh boy... this could be trouble."
"What is it?" asked Arc. "It sounds like you scared them off."
"There's a reason why the kinrath have stayed in these caves all this time. They've developed some kind of symbiotic connection to the Force enhanced crystals in this cave. I don't know if the crystals form in the eggs, or if they just lay eggs on the crystals... but that's where the crystals are. In kinrath eggs."
"So, how about we avoid their nesting ground and try to find an old one," suggested Jyssa, "Preferably one that's been abandoned. For a very long time."
"Let me just check my map, then." Ahsoka smiled up at Jyssa, then stood up and dusted off her knees.
"Sure, but I'm getting hungry. Can we stop for some endwa first?"
"I don't know if there's a Corellian restaurant on this route. But I'll keep an eye out." Ahsoka glanced over at Arc, expecting him to say something witty.
"Sorry. I don't have any comradely banter right now." He looked down the rocky corridor, seemingly in thought. "I could go for a kruffy pie right about now, though."
"Sorry Arc, that'll have to wait until we get back to the ship." Ahsoka continued along the passageway. "I think I can feel a concentration of crystals that isn't near too many kinrath. I'll try to head that way."
Ahsoka led the way, with one hand in held out in front of her, trusting the Force to guide her. The further into the caves they walked, the deeper into concentration she fell. Through the Force, she could feel the rocks, the walls, the kinrath... and the faint points of light that twinkled throughout the caves.
Left, then another left, then right. Jyssa was starting to lose track of which directions they had turned. She murmured to Arc, "Are we going to find our way back out once we're done?"
He nodded, "Sure we will. I've got every turn we've made memorized. And I'm sure Ahsoka does too. I may not have perfect recall, like some of the specialized clones do. But I'm still a soldier. This is the sort of thing I'm trained for."
Before Jyssa could respond, Ahsoka gasped, "I think... I can feel it. A crystal. Just ahead. It feels just like my old lightsaber crystal!" She broke into a run and dashed ahead. Jyssa and Arc tried to keep up, but Ahsoka was faster than both of them.
The tunnel widened into a larger chamber, studded with crystal formations and large pod-like eggs scattered throughout the chamber. A large mass of rock and crystal took up most of the center of the room, with old egg shell remnants stuck to its surface at random angles.
"It's just on the other side of the room!" Ahsoka said, excitedly. She darted around the left side of the rock formation, and skidded to a halt. "Oh boy..."
Jyssa and Arc went around the right side, and saw what had caught Ahsoka's eye. A huge kinrath, as tall as a man and with a hugely swollen abdomen, sat on top of another crystal formation. It crouched, protectively, over several fresh eggs.
"Grife, that's a matriarch!" yelled Jyssa, "Let's get out of here before it calls for help!"
"Too late," said Ahsoka. Skittering sounds came from the passageway, and started getting louder. "They're almost here already."
Kinrath started pouring into the room, climbing over each other. Their fangs glistened with venom in the reflected crystal light. En masse, they chittered and squealed, arraying themselves out across the room.
"Got a plan, kid?" asked Arc, sounding oddly casual.
"Yeah... I grab the gem, use the Force to make a path, and we get out of here. Now!"
Ahsoka leapt, using the Force to enhance her spring. She sailed across the chamber and grabbed onto a crystal that jutted out of the wall right next to the matriarch. The crystal she was looking for gleamed in the Force, just beyond the matriarch!
Jyssa and Arc slowly backpedaled towards Ahsoka and the matriarch. A clacking sound came from a hole in the wall between them. Jyssa spun around, pointing her blaster at the hole. "Uh... Arc..."
"I see it." Several more kinrath crawled out of the hole, cutting them off from the matriarch and Ahsoka. One of them lunged, and Jyssa shot it, point blank. It fell, but another crawled over its corpse and lunged at her calf. She yelped, and fired twice more.
The larger group started running towards the two, and Arc fired six times. Shrill kinrath squeals filled the air, and Arc yelled over the noise, "Kid, we've got to get out of here!" Over the sounds of the kinrath, Arc could hear the whine of his pistol recharging. It was best used to fire slow, single shots. Several shots in rapid succession could drain the battery for a few seconds.
Ahsoka could see her perfect crystal, just beyond the matriarch. It would be easy to grab. The matriarch was huddling down, protecting her eggs. She wouldn't attack.
But the young togruta could hear the whine of Arc's pistol recharging, and she could sense the wave of kinrath, all scrabbling towards her friends.
Author's note – Thanks for all the reads, reviews, likes, and follows! Knowing that people are reading and interested in the story is really helping inspire me to write more. A few hardcore nerds may have noticed that I updated several chapters to fix misspellings. It's hard to do a spell check on fictional nouns. :) Somehow I managed to misremember tibanna gas as having an e in it, and I put an extra L in Ilum. There were a few other fixes here and there, but I don't remember what they were offhand. I also fixed some punctuation errors in the dialogue.
I hope you guys enjoy this story, this is one of my first attempts at doing a mostly character driven story. It's a bit easier for me to do it in the Star Wars universe than in any of my own worlds, since with Star Wars I don't have to make up the world and background events as I go along. Also, I hope that after the initial depression of the shock of Order 66, Ahsoka will perk back up again and become her usual upbeat self that so many fans are used to.
Thanks for reading!
- Tirade