Quinlan moved cautiously to the edge of the dark shaft, dropped to his hands and knees next to Crosshair, and peered into the depths. Nothing useful could be seen. Actually, nothing at all could be seen. He pulled out his electrobinoculars and tried again. "Wow . . . I can't see where this ends even with night vision. How far down would you say you are, Tech?"

"Currently, the floor of this tunnel is fifteen point five four meters below the surface."

"Fifteen meters, huh?" Quinlan swiped absently at the blood dripping down his face and said, "Crosshair, is it just me, or does this shaft go a lot farther down than that?"

The sniper shook his head. "Not just you."

"Nuts." He cast a quick glance over his shoulder at the door leading into the previous room. The statue was still visible. "See, normally I'd say 'good', but . . ."

Well, announcing that the statue was creeping him out probably wasn't useful, even though the statue and its staring golden eyes were, in fact, creeping him out. Yeah. . . Very Jedi-like sentiment.

Blood trickled down his chin, and Quinlan gave an exasperated huff and reached for the supply pack on his belt. He'd spent only a few seconds poking around for a piece of bandage-worthy material when Wrecker held out a bacta strip.

"Try this."

"Oh – thanks." He opened it, slapped it over the cut, and stuffed the wrapper in his pocket. "Hunter? How are things on your end?"

"We're still headed towards you. Can anyone see where our tunnel comes out?"

Crosshair flipped his rangefinder down over his visor and leaned dangerously far forward. "I'm not seeing any openings at twenty meters or above. Can't see further than that."

"That does not make sense," said Tech. "As far as I can tell, we are on a direct course for your position. There is nowhere else for our tunnel to come out, unless it goes around the shaft or descends. But why would an escape route lead deeper underground?"

"I couldn't tell you, Tech," said Quinlan. "But I don't like it."

"Yeah," said Hunter. "That makes two of us."

"Three of us, actually," interjected Tech. There was a very long pause, and then he added, in a lower voice "In fact, if these readings are correct, that will make six of us . . ."

"Why?" demanded Crosshair, pressing two fingers to his earpiece.

"Well, as far as my newest sensor readings are concerned, this tunnel leads to a dead end."

Crosshair froze. He was so still that Quinlan had to wonder if he was even breathing.

"A dead end?" Hunter asked. "Are you sure?"

"Technically, I cannot be sure until we actually reach the end of the tunnel; but yes, I am fairly certain."

"Okay. Let me talk to Vythia."

Crosshair continued to stand motionless, fingers still pressed to his earpiece.

After watching him for a moment, Quinlan jostled him with an elbow. "Hey. We've got explosives. If worst comes to worst, we can blast our way into the tunnel with the others."

Wrecker let out a surprised laugh. "I like that idea!"

"You would." Crosshair lowered his hand stiffly and stepped away from Quinlan.

"We're going to continue to the end of the tunnel," Hunter reported. "Vythia says there might be a hidden door."

"Okay." Quinlan sat down and dangled his legs over the shaft's edge. "Let's see how far down this goes. We might have to climb, and I want to make sure we have enough cable for that."

"Climb?" repeated Wrecker nervously. He shoved his helmet back on his head and moved even farther from the shaft's edge. "Down to Hunter, you mean?"

"If Vythia's right, and I have to enter the labyrinth through the tunnel in order to locate the stupid artifact. . . Yeah. Pass me the lantern, would you?"

Crosshair removed a flare from his pack, brushed past Wrecker, and handed it to Quinlan. "Use this. Easier to handle."

"Right." Quinlan unclipped a spool of thin cable from his belt and tied one end around the flare, then snapped it in the middle to activate it. The bright yellow glow felt warm and friendly, compared to the white light of the lantern, and he said so.

Crosshair gave an impatient sigh. "Just throw it in the shaft already."

"Yeah, yeah . . ." Quinlan slipped the roll of cable from around the spool, wound the free end around his fingers, and tossed the flare over the edge.

Crosshair knelt beside him, and they peered down into the chasm while Wrecker hovered just behind them.

When the flare jerked, signaling the end of its fall, Quinlan shifted the cable back and forth, trying to keep its momentum going. "That's thirty meters of cable. See anything yet?"

"Negative." Crosshair flipped his rangefinder down over his visor again. "I'm not picking up any heat signatures, either."

"We are likely not close enough for that," said Tech. "We are beneath the temple now, but –"

"That means I should be able to see you." Crosshair leaned over to swipe Quinlan's binoculars. "You're close enough."

"Not necessarily. Stone does an excellent job of distorting signals."

Crosshair ignored him and adjusted the binocular's range. "Vos, drop the flare."

"Okay. Give me a sec." Quinlan pulled the cable back up, removed the flare from it, and tossed it again. This time, all three of them watched silently as the bright object fell away into the darkness, growing smaller and smaller. Four heartbeats later, the flare hit the ground, bounced twice, and rolled to a halt.

The Jedi leaned carefully back on his hands, feeling a bit lightheaded. "That's gotta be a hundred meters."

"A hundred meters?" Wrecker rested a heavy hand on Quinlan's shoulder as he leaned forward to see. "Oh, man . . . I don't think I can climb down that."

"Hopefully, we won't need to go that far down." Quinlan twisted his mouth to one side, then shrugged. "If it makes you feel any better, I have a good head for heights. Usually."

"Usually?" repeated Hunter.

Quinlan glanced in mild surprise at his comm, wondering how he'd forgotten it was still transmitting. "Yeah. You know, usually."

Tech let out an impatient-sounding huff. "I assume you are still suffering residual vertigo from the stormbeast's sonic attack."

Quinlan rolled his eyes. Thanks, Tech.

Aloud, he said, "It's not a problem. We'll just be rappelling down anyway."

"Not much point," Crosshair said. "I still can't find a tunnel opening."

"You might have missed it," offered Tech, who was being rather talkative even by his normal standards. "Dropping a flare would have given you only a fraction of a second to notice anything on any given area of the chasm wall. And remember, Vythia mentioned the possibility of a hidden door."

Quinlan's comm blinked, indicating a transmission on his secondary channel. He and the other two switched channels together.

"I see the end of the tunnel," Vythia said. "We are still approximately fifteen meters below ground level."

"Okay. What do you want us to do?"

"Stay put for the moment."

"Right." Quinlan stared at the speck of light far below them. Lowering his shields the slightest bit, he waited. A faint nudge from the Force made him look down again. Maybe he'd missed something . . . "Wait. Cross?"

When he leaned further out, Wrecker grabbed him by the back of his tunic. "Careful, you're going to fall!"

"I won't fall," said Quinlan distractedly. "Crosshair, is it just me, or is there some sort of opening directly below us?"

Crosshair dropped to his stomach, shifted until one knee was over the edge of the chasm, adjusted the rangefinder on his helmet, and looked carefully down. "There's an opening," he said. "Too narrow to be a door. It's directly across from the tunnel you're in, Hunter."

"Okay," said Hunter. "There might have been a bridge leading from the end of our tunnel to the beginning of the next."

"There's no bridge now," said Quinlan. "But . . . we could probably rappel down there if we had to."

"Speak for yourself," grumbled Wrecker. "I'm not jumping off this ledge with nothing but a flimsy cable to hang on to!"

"It'll be fine," said Hunter. "Vythia, how are those runes coming?"

"A moment," she said in the background. "They are hard to make out."

Quinlan shut off his commlink and glanced at his two companions. "Guess we might as well get down there while we wait."

Crosshair, who had already clipped his cable attachment to his rifle, shut off his own commlink. "Suppose there's nothing down there but another dead end. How will we get back up then?"

"We'll figure something out." Quinlan cast a wary look at the motionless gold-eyed statue in the room behind them. "I'd rather do that than hang around here."

"Yeah." Wrecker turned away from the chasm and lowered his voice to a whisper. "You think that statue thing is . . . watching us?"

Quinlan shrugged uneasily. "All I know is, it feels like it."

A shifting, grinding sound from below made them all look down again. Even Wrecker crowded toward the edge to see. Sixteen meters below them, a door swung open in the apparently seamless surface of the chasm wall, and a glimmer of light showed through.

Vythia's silhouette appeared in the doorway, and the others joined her, the light brightening as Tech moved forward.

The Nautolan woman peered up at them and called, "You were right, Quinlan – there is a door across from us. Perhaps we should explore in that direction before you attempt to locate the artifact by re-entering the labyrinth."

Quinlan checked the statue, which still hadn't moved, and mumbled, "Perhaps we should leave." Then he cleared his throat and called back, "Vythia? I'm not so sure that artifact was in the labyrinth after all. I can't, uh, sense anything."

"Then we shall proceed across the chasm," she replied, stepping cautiously to the edge of the shaft.

"At least that way's open," said Wrecker with a glance at Crosshair. "If the second tunnel's got nothing in it, we can just head back through the first one!"

Crosshair tilted his head in a way that meant he was rolling his eyes, but he fired his cable into the ceiling and tested it without hesitation. "Let's get out of here."

Quinlan ejected his own cable into the rock a meter from Crosshair's. "Hunter? I'll head down first and check it out."

"Okay," said Hunter. "I'll keep an eye out from here."

Clipping the cable to his belt, Quinlan tested it with a sharp tug before stepping back off the edge of the chasm. He had to make a conscious effort not to draw on the Force and slow his speed, as he so often did, which meant he swung to a sharper-than-normal halt. Still, he didn't break his legs when he hit the wall, so that was good.

He kicked off again, more gently this time, and came to a halt directly above the narrow opening. "It's another door, all right," he called up. "But it's only partway open, and it looks . . . stuck."

Lowering himself a bit more, he kicked against the edge of the door itself. "Yeah . . . it's stuck. I suppose I could swing through, but I'm not so sure I'll fit."

"Crosshair?" called Hunter. "You're up."

There was a quick rush of movement as Crosshair slowed to a halt beside the Jedi. He eyed the opening for a moment – it was too far away for him to simply step into the doorway.

Normally, Quinlan could have used the Force to give him a slight push, but with Vythia watching he didn't dare. If he was careful, though, he could cling to the cable with one hand and give Crosshair a shove with the other. "Need some help?"

"Not likely." Gripping the cable above his head, he climbed a meter up and dropped back down, throwing his weight forward as he did so. Quinlan waited, ready to step in if necessary, as Crosshair swung back and forth a few times, increasing his speed. Then he reached for the cable attachment on his belt.

"Wait." Quinlan reached forward. "You are not seriously –"

Crosshair reached the apex of his cable's arc, disconnected the cable, and twisted sideways. His momentum carried him straight through the narrow opening, and Quinlan heard him stumble to a halt on the opposite side.

Just as Quinlan was about to ask if he'd landed wrong, Crosshair reappeared and shoved against the door, which didn't open.

"Crosshair!" Vythia's voice floated across the chasm. "In our tunnel, there was a hidden control. Are there runes above the door?"

The sniper vanished into the shadows, and Quinlan adjusted his weight and kept a tight grip on his slowly rotating cable.

"No runes," Crosshair called back. "Just a carving of a skull."

"Ah! Then press the eyes."

A moment later, the narrow opening widened silently. This door did not swing out, as the other had, but vanished into the wall.

Quinlan kicked himself off the rock, out and sideways, and released his cable as Crosshair had done. He somersaulted to a halt, bracing himself with one hand resting on the gritty floor.

"Wrecker," said Crosshair into his comm. "Vos made it. Get down here."

"Uh . . . I'm not so sure this is a good idea!"

Quinlan glanced across to Hunter, who'd already stepped to the very edge of his tunnel and was looking up. "Come on, Wrecker!" the sergeant called encouragingly. "We can't move out until you're down there."

Wrecker did not immediately respond.

"You can do it!" Hunter went on.

Crosshair tilted his head and leaned to the edge of the chasm to yell, "No, he can't!"

"Aw, shut up, Cross. . ." There was a very long pause, but then Wrecker zoomed down his cable and swung through the opening. He did not come smoothly to a halt, as the others had, but stumbled straight into the wall.

Quinlan winced. "Ow."

"Yeah," Wrecker grumbled, putting a hand to his helmet. "Hope we don't have to do that again."

"Are we clear?" Hunter shouted.

"Yeah," Quinlan answered absently, staring into the depths of the tunnel. "Come on over. The more the merrier, and all that . . ."

Crosshair let out an exasperated sigh and took off his helmet. "He says you're clear to move!"

"That's what I said," Quinlan huffed, rolling his eyes as the sniper moved to the edge of the shaft.

Vythia swung over first, coming to a graceful and uncannily controlled halt without needing help, after which she disconnected the cable attachment and swung it back to the waiting clones.

Tech came across next, landed badly, and almost lost his grip. Crosshair grabbed his arm and pulled him sharply into the tunnel. Hunter came across last, detaching the cable as he landed. At the very moment he straightened, another grinding sound of stone against stone made them look back.

The door to the tunnel the others had just left was closed.

Quinlan took a slow breath, trying to keep from betraying his sudden fright. Crosshair's left hand was clenched at his side, while his right gripped the edge of the door, and everyone else – even Vythia – looked startled.

". . . How'd that happen?" Wrecker asked finally.

"Uncertain," Tech said, finally looking down at his datapad. He tapped a few controls and shook his head. Perhaps the door functions like that statue. We will have trouble getting back now."

"Don't be so concerned," Vythia told him, setting off down the tunnel. "I suspect that if the road closes off behind us, we will find another way forward. As you said, it does not make sense for a tunnel to go nowhere."

"Exactly." Hunter moved to the front of the group, nudging Crosshair reassuringly on his way by. "Quinlan? Any idea which way we're headed?"

"I'm still not sensing . . . Wait a sec." Quinlan closed his eyes and almost let out an exasperated groan. Blasted Sith artifacts and their weird protections. "Vythia? I think that artifact's below us now."

"Surely not in the chasm?"

"No. Closer. Maybe a hundred meters ahead and to the right. Hopefully this one isn't another false lead."

"Well, we shall find out soon enough." Vythia hurried down the featureless tunnel, and the others fell in behind her.

Crosshair hesitated several times, glancing over one shoulder as though he expected the mouth of the tunnel to seal itself at any moment.

It didn't – at least, it hadn't so far – but Quinlan was more than a little concerned himself. "Vythia, shouldn't we blow the door or something first?"

"Not here," Vythia replied. "I am increasingly concerned that the temple will know it is under attack."

"How can this temple 'know' anything?" Tech inquired. "It is a building."

"It's a Sith building," Quinlan told him. "It probably 'knows' we're here the same way that statue 'knew' we went past it."

"Well, yes," said Tech. "But there still must be some form of sensor. . ."

"Yeah, maybe. Not electronic, though, not after four thousand years. It's got to be something else."

"I agree." Vythia hummed. "Perhaps you have a theory, Quinlan."

I've got a theory, all right. It's the Dark Side . . . or something channeling it. He shrugged. "Well . . . maybe it's similar to how I can feel those artifacts, or sense them, or whatever. Didn't your records have anything useful?"

"Not about this kind of thing." Vythia moved forward steadily, keeping one hand on the hilt of her lightwhip and the other stretched out before her, as though she were attempting to keep distance between herself and whatever she might come up against.

"You said you knew something about the statue," Hunter commented.

Vythia paused mid-step, barely enough for Quinlan to notice. "There are other, identical, statues in existence," she said. "If I am correct, they were all made by the same Sith alchemist."

"Hm," said Tech. "And this alchemist programmed – no, of course not. The statues could not be functioning according to programming. As Quinlan said, it is incredibly unlikely that the statue would still have a source of power after four thousand years."

Vythia's sudden laugh rang in the tunnel. "Source of power? Oh, Tech . . . What an odd and yet apt way to put it. There is nothing here but power for the creations of the Sith alchemists."

Hunter turned to Quinlan, head tilted in questioning concern.

The Jedi folded his arms to ward off a sudden chill. "I have literally no idea," he whispered to the sergeant. "And with the way these Sith seem to have operated, I really don't want to."

"Eh . . . good point." Hunter turned to the others. "Anything yet, Tech?"

"No." Tech gave his datapad a critical look, then clipped it to his belt. Judging by the odd looks the others gave him, that in itself was fairly unusual. "The sensors are giving inaccurate readings. They change constantly. All I know for certain is that we must be out from beneath the temple by now."

"Yes," said Vythia. "We are closer to the river than before."

"The river?" asked Wrecker. "Hey . . . Do you suppose that's what the chasm was for, Quinlan?"

"What, you mean letting the river into the temple?"

"Well – yeah." Wrecker paused to scuff a boot against the stone. "If the tunnel flooded or somethin', there would have to be somewhere for the water to go, right?"

Everyone was silent for a long minute.
Vythia finally answered. "I think it may have been the other way around. Perhaps the chasm is where the water came up from, and from there it made its way to the river."

"Either seems likely," Tech added.

"Indeed." Vythia trailed off thoughtfully.

The conversation died after that, and the group walked in silence for several minutes without seeing anything apart from the light glinting off the smooth walls, the rock dust on the floor, and their own shadows.

Quinlan wondered what this place had been like when it was first built. Was this particular tunnel in use, or was it only kept as a backup, in case some enemy should invade the mansion? Had the temple itself been in frequent use, or was it entered only at intervals of every month, or maybe once a year? How many times were victims sacrificed here?

Honestly, I'd probably be happier never knowing, he thought, trying to shove the mental images away. Sith alchemy almost always involved the sacrifice of sentient beings. He sighed.

Tech glanced at him, but said nothing. Then Vythia stopped, giving a curious hum, and Quinlan noticed another split in the tunnel. One fork went straight on, towards the riverbed – and the Havoc Marauder. The second tunnel transformed into a staircase, which wound downward for a long way.

"I think the staircase is the most likely choice," Vythia mused. "Quinlan?"

"Umm." He closed his eyes. "Oh, not again. Blast it. Vythia, the position is shifting. It feels like the artifact isn't where it was when I first sensed it. Now it feels like it's nearer the riverbed."

"Ah." She blinked slowly. "Then it wants us to go to the riverbed, which means . . . yes, I believe we should take the staircase instead."

As she moved down the stairs, Hunter paused and dropped to one knee, pressing the palm of his hand against the floor. A moment later, he shook his head, got up, and hurried after Vythia.

They reached the bottom of the stairs and gathered outside the dark opening that led into another room. Hunter might not have been Force-sensitive, but he was definitely feeling something. The room ahead of them seemed almost threatening, despite the lack of sensory information that would normally make him think such a thing. Hunter drew his knife and flipped it in his hand.

Vythia entered the room almost casually, pausing a meter inside. "No traps were triggered," she said. "I believe it is safe for you to follow."

Hunter led the others in after her. Wrecker and Quinlan lifted the lanterns and moved out to either side, and then everyone paused for a long moment.

"Whoa," said Wrecker nervously. "What . . ."

Directly to one side stood a statue of a tall Zabrak. One of his arms was stretched upward in a gesture of triumph, and his long cloak swirled behind and around him as he pointed the other hand at a group of people crowded against the far wall. These people, all statues, were cowering and cringing away from him, some on their knees, some covering their faces with their hands, others doubled over – all of the faces that were visible wore expressions of utter fear and pain.

"What happened here?" Hunter asked softly.

Vythia, busy studying the Zabrak man, made no reply.

"It looks . . ." Tech slipped through the group of statues, then knelt between a crying Twi'lek woman and a human man. He touched the wall. "I believe they are in front of a door."

Crosshair removed his helmet. "That Zabrak used them to block a door?"

"Looks like it," mumbled Wrecker. "Vythia? What do you think?"

"I think we have found Lord Lothal," she answered.