Obtainer of Rare Antiquities
Valery Noble
Soundtrack: John Williams - In the Jungle
Night was falling fast on the planet Mimban. Too fast.
On a remote corner of the planet-wide swamp, far from the settlements of the native Mimbanese - far from any trace of civilization, for that matter - Ren Sogan stood on the edge of a landmass adjacent to a murky, plant-choked body of water. Though one could still see the vibrant emerald hues that riddled the slough, hues that formed a strangely pleasing contrast to the dreary blackness of the water, his focus was more on what lay above. His head was angled up to view the overcast sky, which was steadily darkening the longer he stood there.
After a brief moment, the Jedi Knight swiveled right 90 degrees to inspect the path that lay ahead, a path he had been following for the past several hours. A vexed sigh came muffled through a cloth garment that covered his lower face - a garment to protect him from the grimy elements, though it did little to conceal his distinctive Duros features. His conical blue head turned in every direction to follow the winding sandstone road as it curved through a massive patch of foliage, his glowing red eyes squinting as he searched tiredly for his destination.
Still nothing. Just dirt, and stone, and mud, and trees, and grass.
The explorer raised his right hand and glared at the watch on his wrist, adjusted to the 21-hour day cycle of the planet. 15:45. From the rate at which light was leaving the sky, he estimated he would only have an hour or so before night would fall, after which the explorer would be left in total darkness. But an educated guess told him it would only be a little ways off before he reached his destination. 20 minutes or so.
Great, he thought. I’ll only have to stumble around blind on the way back to my ship.
Pushing such pessimistic thoughts away, the Jedi resumed his trudge through the thick, ankle-deep mire before him. The sandstone path was barely noticeable, covered in saturated dirt and mold and grime, the stone chipped away through tens of thousands of years of wind and horrid weather. But he refused to let himself get lost. Where the path had become totally obscured, he had let the Force guide him.
He wouldn’t let this one get away. If this didn’t turn out to be a wild Bantha chase, Ren Sogan would make history.
It was only a week before Sogan would be stationed in the Coruscant Temple of the New Jedi Order, and if everything would go according to plan, he would make quite the first impression. He hoped to waltz into the Great Hall holding the first collection of lightsaber crystals to be found on the world of Mimban. Only months prior, a team of anthropologists had discovered an ancient Threllan manuscript discussing ritual practices, ceremonies involving precious gemstones and interactions with a “cosmic power.” It was the first piece of evidence found for force sensitivity among the culture, and for a society still shrouded in such mystery, it was a delightfully promising lead. Months of literary analysis (and finagling with dreadfully ancient, faded maps) yielded a potential repository for these gems, what Ren believed to be Adegan crystals, stuffed away in one of the many deep wells the Threllans had built. How the Threllans were able to acquire such crystals on a world which seemed devoid of any Force-reactive gems was beyond him. But that was, of course, the joy of archaeology: every discovery seemed to yield more questions than answers.
If, indeed, there was a discovery to be made. There might not be any crystals in the well. There might have never been. The entrance to the well could have been destroyed, leaving behind only the desecrated remains of ritually-marked stone. He even could have interpreted the map incorrectly, and been going in the entirely wrong direction. But this was always the case. Any one of the countless expeditions he had undertaken had the risk of being failures, leading to dead-ends. But Ren was, above all, a risk-taker. And while such failures had happened once or twice, his intuition for these matters rarely came up short.
So, of course, he would keep going. But something about this journey made him feel…uneasy. Something wasn’t right. Throughout the 4 or so hours he had spent wading through water, brushing through thick branches and patches of grass, there had been brief moments where he could sense past the vast web of life that inhabited the planet, and catch an instant’s glimpse of something else…someone else. Someone strong in the Force. Someone near him.
But it was only for brief moments, moments that got lost in the sea of life that swarmed his perceptions. And it could have very well been nothing. His senses were still not perfectly attuned, and his focus on the mission could have clouded them further. Still, it kept him on edge. The slightest sounds, the movement of animals, even the wind would occasionally make him reach for his lightsaber…only for him to realize that it was nothing.
So far, at least.
He looked again to his watch after a while of tired stomping through the swampland. Ten more minutes had passed. It was easy to lose oneself in one’s thoughts on these long, arduous journeys. But these worries were unbefitting for such a promising expedition. He stopped for a moment, closing his eyes. Taking a deep breath. Attempting to center himself.
But that just made things worse.
Nearby, he sensed something. Not the being he had sensed before, but something else entirely. Something horribly monstrous, lying in wait, off in the distance.
Something hunting him.
At that moment, a deep, ear-piercing, guttural growl rang out from the patch of trees off to his right. In an instant, Ren reached for his lightsaber, clutching it tightly in his gloved hands and igniting its bright yellow blade. But in only a few moments, Sogan realized the weapon wouldn’t do much good for him. Out of the sea of green, a massive head raised itself up from the ground, its mouth prying open to reveal a toothy void much, much larger than the Jedi. Its creamy skin was dotted with a handful of pitch black eyes...eyes that had all been centered on Ren. It was a wandrella. An impossibly large, worm-like creature that prowled the swamps of Mimban, mindlessly hunting for prey to seize and tear to shreds with its hundreds of razor-sharp, needle-thin teeth. Sogan wasn’t sure how long it had been hunting him, watching for the perfect moment to strike. And in truth, it didn’t much matter. It had caught him. It had him in its sights and in its reach. And in an instant, it had pounced at him.
But Sogan was no longer there to be caught. Operating on pure instinct, on the unfiltered commands of the Force, he had dashed forward, sprinting along the road with blinding, inhuman speed. He crashed through leaning branches and harsh bushes, his brown leather jacket ripping and tearing every which way. Still, it didn’t seem to be enough. Though momentarily shaken by the sudden escape of its prey, the wandrella quickly recovered and gave chase. Its slimy, veiny body fired out of its hiding spot, spinning and whirling every which way as it oriented itself through the winding path.
The panicked instincts of Ren gave him hardly any time to catch up with his thoughts. But ahead in the distance, up the steady incline that the path was taking, he caught sight of something that made his terrified mind soar with abounding hope: the Threllan well he had been searching for. It was intact, waiting for him.
His thick boots beat against the weathered path as he desperately made his way up the hill. Though foliage partially obscured his view, he could see the massive well slowly but surely coming closer in his sights. But the worm did not relent. The distance between the two steadily narrowed, the predator coming ever closer to its prey, until it was close enough to snap at the back of the Duros, its teeth sinking into the thick leather of his jacket.
Ren acted once more on instinct. Converting his forward momentum into a great, Force-assisted leap, he bounded away from the creature, his jacket easily ripping as he soared toward the outskirts of the well and crashed face-first near its edge. Pain from the impact began to flood through him, though his adrenaline largely negated its full extent. Indeed, he had no time to fully register the pain, no time for anything but to quickly hop up onto his feet, about-facing and peering down the hill to see the status of the worm.
It kept coming with surprising speed. The considerable distance that Ren had afforded himself was rapidly narrowing with each second the worm zoomed forward. Its massive presence slammed into trees and bushes, knocking them over with full force.
Ren swiveled around once more and peered down the depths. Pure darkness. No bottom in sight. It could be miles. There was one rusty ladder. Broken - only the top of it was left. Damn!
He could hear the worm. It was close. Closer. Right behind him.
It was life or death.
Ren moved without thinking, though waves of fear shot through every fiber of his body. He made a desperate leap into the shadows below. If he screamed, he didn’t notice. He was flung straight down, into depths untouched for centuries…
