Finding a niche — the call of the Force

[Sorel Crieff]

When Sorel returned to the depot a lean alien was sitting in a chair on the porch, cleaning a long, boxy-looking blaster rifle. As the young Jedi approached, the alien lifted his head - and Sorel took a reflexive step backward.

She saw no visible eyes or mouth, just four segmented plates of chitin, the largest at the top. Small bristles lined the gaps between the plates, waving slightly. The rest of the alien's head was hidden beneath a battered old helmet of metal. Black tubes ran from the helmet's cheeks to a control box strapped to the alien's chest, tucked between bandoliers with bulging pockets. From the control box, two more tubes extended back over his shoulders.

The alien's forearms were covered with chitinous plates resembling the ones on his head, and studded with wispy hairs. He wore a torn cape over his left shoulder, and mismatched armour protected his left forearm and right shoulder.

Sorel couldn't remember seeing an alien of his species before. She wondered what purpose the control box and tubes served. Were they breathing tubes? Did this species even breathe?

The alien finished inspecting the rifle and cocked his head at the new arrival. Despite his lack of eyes, Sorel had the feeling she was being scrutinised - and not particularly favourably.

"You're the outlander who wants to go on a pikhron hunt."

The words emerged from a vocoder grill at the helmet's chin. It was a statement rather than a question. The voice was deep and low, like the rumble of an approaching storm.

"I'm not a hunter, but I want to hire a guide, yes. Are you available?”

The blank face seemed to regard Sorel, and the cilia between the plates vibrated feverishly. "I'll take you into the jungle. For the right price."

Sorel felt a strange current rippling in the Force.

"All of the other guides said no," she said. "Why are you different?"

"Because I don't listen to tall tales about ghosts and sorcerers. And because I have my own gear and mounts. So there's nothing they can do about it."

That feeling in the Force was still there, like a bad taste in Sorel’s mouth. He didn't know if it was connected to the guide, or something else. But even if it was a warning about the alien, what could she do? No other guides were available. It was either go with him or risk the journey on her own. And she had a mission to get back to.

"Very well," Sorel said, wondering if she was making a mistake - and if so, what price she would pay for it.

 

[Sorel Crieff]

Two hours later, Sorel came down from her room with Kaytoo to find the guide outside the depot with a pair of massive creatures. They had grey flesh, broad flat noses, and beady black eyes that were almost invisible in their wrinkled faces. Their forelegs were stubby, ending in broad feet, while the back legs were longer and powerful-looking.

The guide cinched a large saddle over one of the beast's shoulders and tightened it. The creature grunted in protest, and the guide aimed a kick at its head, causing it to open a broad gash of a mouth filled with flat yellow teeth. It snapped at the alien, stomping each foot in turn.

"The happabores don't eat flesh," the alien said. "Or metal. Just stay away from their mouths. And feet."

Sorel tied Kaytoo to the beast, and tugged on the ropes to make sure the astromech was secure, and Kaytoo hooted unhappily, rotating his dome to fix his single electronic eye reproachfully on Sorel.

"I know you don't like it," Sorel said, patting the droid's side. "I don't like it, either. We'll get you down from there as soon as possible."

As the guide secured a pair of hunting rifles to the lead happabore's howdah, Jane came charging around the corner of the depot. She stopped short, mouth a shocked ‘O’, and then balled her hands into fists.

"Uh-oh," Sorel said.

 

[Sorel Crieff]

"So it's true, then," she said. "I didn't want to believe it! You're actually going into the woods with the Scavenger!"

"You know I don't like that name," the alien growled. "Or kids telling tales."

"Tales about what?" Jane asked. "Your customers who don't come back?"

She turned to Sorel, eyes pleading.

"He's a wicked creature - don't go with him! I'm begging you!"

Sorel put her hands on Jane’s shoulders.

"I'll be careful," she said quietly. "Remember, I've got a trick or two up my sleeve."

"So does he," Jane said. Tears started in her eyes and she wiped at them. Then she ran off.

"Time to go," the alien said, stepping on a stubby horn behind the happabore's eye and swinging himself up onto the howdah's forward seat.

Sorel looked sadly in the direction Jane had gone, then put her hands uncertainly on the happabore's shoulder. The grey flesh was thick and tough, but warm to the touch. Bracing herself, she clambered up onto the howdah's rear seat, her cloak flapping open as the structure swayed beneath her.

"I have a bad feeling about this," Sorel muttered as the alien jabbed a prod into the side of the happabore's head and the huge beasts picked their way down the narrow path that led past the massive spire looming over the settlement and into the jungle.

 

[Sorel Crieff]

It took a few minutes for Sorel to get used to the jolting gait of the happabores and take a real look at the jungle surrounding them. It was cool beneath the towering trees, with bird cries punctuating the rising and falling thrum of insects calling to one another. The happabores clambered over tangles of massive tree roots, their tiny eyes peering out at the trail ahead.

Kaytoo offered a quiet beep from his place atop the rear happabore.

"Peaceful?" Sorel replied. “Maybe,” Sorel said, then sensed something nearby. She peered into the jungle, trying to make sense of the rippling patterns of colour and shade.

"Wait," she said, putting her hand on the guide’s shoulder. The alien shook it off, but tapped his mount with his prod. The happabore halted, its pinkish snout quivering, and gave a low moan that sounded like it was in pain.

"What is it?"

"I'm not sure…it was a feeling I had."

Sorel exhaled, trying to reach out not just with her senses, but also with her feelings.

"There," she said, pointing deeper into the jungle.

Through a stand of trees she saw four grey shapes, dappled in shadow. One moved slightly, and the shapes resolved themselves into sturdy legs, broad backs, and stubby heads crowned with curling horns.

They weren't happabores but rather the creatures Sorel had seen in her vision. They'd stood nearby while she faced the remotes with her lightsaber.

"Pikhrons," the guide grunted. "You have keen senses for an outlander."

He handed one of the long-barreled blaster rifles to Sorel, then raised his own bulky weapon.

 

[Sorel Crieff]

"No," Sorel said, pushing the guide’s rifle down.

"What? Why not?"

Sorel shook her head. She realised she could feel the pikhrons in the Force - the comfort they took in one another and the pleasure they felt in the shade of their glen. He could also feel their wariness about the intruders atop the happabores and their urge to flee, which was warring with their instinct to remain still and silent.

"You're taking away a good payday, outlander," the alien objected.

"I'll pay you whatever you would have earned from the skins," Sorel said. "But we're leaving the pikhrons alone."

The guide shrugged, returned the rifles to their slings, and jabbed the happabore with the prod. As the beasts resumed their journey through the jungle, Sorel looked back to see the pikhrons ambling away through the trees.

"Did you grow up in these woods?" she asked her guide.

“No. But this is home now. I only go into town when it's necessary. They don't like me there. They never have."

"I'm sorry."

The alien just grunted.

“Do you remember the days before the hunts," Sorel said. "When the villagers followed the old ways."

The bristles on Sarco's arms quivered briefly.

"The old ways were sentimental nonsense. Animals are a resource, like everything else in the galaxy."

"But the people here lived in harmony with the pikhrons for generations."

The alien shrugged.

"Besides, resources can be used up if we're not careful," Sorel said.

"An entire galaxy's worth? Impossible. What's the point of caring about a few pikhrons? Or any of it?"

Sorel looked sadly at the stately trees, wondering what had happened to her guide that he cared so little for his surroundings. He couldn't have been born that way — no one was. Something had warped and twisted him, turned him bitter and withdrawn.

"Besides," the alien muttered, "it's a better life traveling the jungle taking what you need than scratching at dirt with a plow."

 

[Sorel Crieff]

"You're a busy young woman. Y-wing, eh? If you want to sell, I know people who'll pay good credits."

"What kind of people?" Sorel asked, wondering how he knew about the Y-wing, but figured in a place like this, secrets only lasted so long. But she was intrigued to know how connected he was.

The alien shrugged.

"I find things," he said. "As long as people pay good credits, what they do with those things isn't my business."

"Well, my ship isn't for sale."

"What about the droid, then?"

“He’s not for sale, either," she said. "But I've got a way you can make some easy credits. Take me to the forbidden area.”

“It’s called forbidden for a reason.”

Kaytoo blatted derisively, and the guide turned in his seat.

"What did it say?"

Sorel smiled. "He said he thought you didn't believe in ghosts."

"You should shut that droid off," the alien said.

"Actually, I was thinking the same thing as Kaytoo," Sorel said. "What are you afraid of?"

"Nothing. But there's a difference between brave and stupid. Ghosts aren't the danger."

"What is, then?" Sorel asked. "Look, I just want to see the place - I won't go inside. I'm... interested in old sites."

 

[Sorel Crieff]

The alien turned to regard Sorel.

"First you're a scout, now you're some kind of historian. Is that why you carry that antique laser sword? Out of historical interest?"

Sorel hesitated, wondering when the alien had detected her lightsaber. She cursed herself for not being more careful.

"Yes," she said. "That's it exactly. I'm interested in old sites, and relics."

"So am I," he said, then cocked his head left and right. "So you carry a Jedi weapon, but you can't use it."

Sorel forced herself to choke back her pride.

"It's still a useful tool," she said. "And before you ask, no, it's not for sale."

The alien’s cilia quivered in a way that made Sorel uneasy. But then the alien turned away.

"Very well," he said. "I'll take you to the barrier. For an additional price, of course."

 

[Sorel Crieff]

The alien brought the happabores to a halt a few meters away from the edge of the jungle. He and Sorel dismounted and peered out across a plateau dotted with copses of towering trees and overgrown with vines as thick around as Sorel’s leg. A stone road, cracked and almost entirely reclaimed by vegetation, led across the plateau to the shattered towers that Luke had seen from the air.

"No closer," the guide warned, pointing ahead of them.

Sorel noticed white spines sticking up from the ground. They were sensors, she realised - and they stretched in a perimeter between the edge of the jungle and the temple.

Her heart sank. There was no way he could reach the temple without being detected. She could deactivate them one at a time but the odds on managing them all without tripping some sort of self-defence? Negligible to none, she estimated.

Kaytoo whistled for their attention.

“Kaytoo says he's willing to deactivate the sensors," Sorel said, “But it's too risky - and we can't afford to get caught."

The alien cocked his head at Sorel, then turned his head so the chitinous mask faced the droid.

"I can take you somewhere else," he said, his electronically modulated voice curiously soft. "A place reserved for my best customers."

"What's there?"

The alien cocked his head one way, then the other.

"It's a secret."

An image flashed into Sorel’s mind - a gloomy depression carpeted with moss, the jagged ends of old bones sticking out of the dirt and leaves.

She shook her head and took a step away from her guide, her fingers creeping subconsciously toward one of her lightsabers.

"I'm not interested in your secrets," she said firmly. "Is there any spot that gets us closer to the temple?"

The alien’s cilia fluttered and he waved his hands at the ring of sensors.

"Are you blind, girl? You can see for yourself that there's no way in."

 

[Sorel Crieff]

"The lake, then," Sorel said, thinking back to her vision of swimming beneath the planet’s moons. "The one that's nearby."

The guide stood stock-still for a moment, and Sorel thought the alien seemed puzzled.

"There's no lake near here. Just the river and the old dam destroyed centuries ago. But there's nothing there - the valuable equipment was picked over long ago."

A dam? Sorel realised what she'd seen in her dream wasn't a lake at all, but an artificial reservoir.

"The old dam? Is it outside the sensor barrier?"

"Yes. But I told you, outlander - there's nothing there."

"We'll see about that," Sorel said.

 

[Sorel Crieff]

The river had shrunk to a knee-deep channel meandering down the centre of a bowl-shaped valley strewn with rock - her guide said most of the water had been diverted for projects upstream.

Sorel stared at the cliffs on the far side of the valley, looking for something she recognised from her vision, while the alien kicked at the rocks. The old riverbed was littered with rusted droid parts and broken pieces of armour that had once been white but had turned a sickly yellow from so many years of exposure to the sun.

"Garbage," her guide muttered, stooping to pick up the angular head of a droid. "Nothing worth taking."

He flung the head through the air to land near Kaytoo. The droid whistled and continued to follow Sorel.

She scanned the cliffs above until she could see the remnants of the braces that had once held the dam in place. They were little more than twisted wreckage now, but they told her where the top of the dam had been — and indeed, she could see a dark line on the rock that indicated the old waterline.

She looked below that line, telling herself to relax, to use the Force to direct her eyes.

There.

"Do you have macrobinoculars?" she asked hesitantly, thinking it was a ridiculous question to ask an alien who didn't have eyes.

A burst of static that Sorel decided was derisive laughter emerged from the alien’s vocoder. He opened a pouch on his bandolier and handed over a small but expensive pair of macrobinoculars.

"For customers," he explained.

Sorel nodded, then focused in on the spot she'd seen and grinned.

"There's a cave up there," she said. "Maybe a kilometre upriver. It's about ten meters above the valley floor."

The alien turned to face that way, then cocked his head at Sorel.

"Your species can barely see the cave even with amplification. How did you know it was there?"

"I had a feeling it would be," Sorel said, not wanting to explain further.

The guide cocked his head left, then right.

"Impressive," he said. "But can you get up to it?"

"I think so," Sorel said, eyes already tracing a way up the cliff.

 

[Sorel Crieff]

Half an hour later she scrambled into the damp, cool cave, having come close to plummeting down the cliff face only once. She activated one of her lightsabers, the brilliant gold blade emerging from its hilt with a familiar snap and hiss.

She closed her eyes, enjoying the weight of the hilt in her hand. Then she opened them and held up her weapon, illuminating the walls of the cave. As in her vision, stone steps led up into the gloom. She followed them, thinking it was strange to find herself familiar with a place she'd never been — yet she was slowly coming accustomed to her visions.

After a few meters the tunnel curved sharply to the right. Sorel feared it would end in a solid wall, or a tumble of impassable rock, and thought about how discouraging it would be to have to ride back through the jungle with the alien.

Don't centre on your anxieties, she reminded herself, and peered around the corner.

The tunnel ran straight through the rock, as far as the illumination of her lightsaber reached. She tried to estimate which direction the tunnel headed, then stopped. She already knew where it led - straight into the temple. She knew because the Force was tugging at her, its message blessedly clear. This was what it had wanted her to find.

Getting the droid up the cliff took the better part of an hour and required haggling with the alien over the use of his block and tackle. He had brought the equipment for hoisting a dead pikhron so the beast could be skinned; Sorel was glad to use it for some other purpose.

Kaytoo suffered being hauled up to the cave with his dignity relatively intact, beeping encouragingly at Sorel each time she caught her breath and considered about how easy it would be to lift the droids through the air using the Force. But she daren’t blow her cover - especially not now, having come so close.

"We'll be inside for a few days at least," Sorel called down. "I'll raise you on the comlink when we're ready to return."

The alien raised his head from where he stood in the riverbed, arranging his equipment on his shoulders.

"If you come out of there alive," he said.

 

[Sorel Crieff]

Sorel hesitated. She didn't believe in ghosts, but she was aware of the power of the dark side of the Force - it had corrupted many a Padawan. What if it was behind the stories of spirits in the temple? What if some malevolent energy still lingered there and tempted her in though the vision? She knew that Sith Holocrons were known to corrupt Jedi, so she knew she had to be cautious now.

"I can take care of myself," she told her guide, scanning the forested cliffs across the river. For a moment she thought he'd seen something glinting in the sun.

"You'll get more credits, if that's what you're worrying about," she added.

The alien cocked his head back and forth in that strange, vaguely clockwork habit he had.

"We'll meet again," he said, and strode off across the rocky valley to where the happabores were waiting.

Kaytoo bleeped.

“He can be tiresome but I kind of feel sorry for him," Sorel said. "But look, he got us this far, didn't he? Wherever that may be. So let's find out the answer."

 

[Sorel Crieff]

She walked for longer than half an hour, footsteps echoing in the close confines of the tunnel.

As she walked, a sense of calm settled over Sorel. Her lightsaber felt like an extension of her hand, and her senses were quick to register each chip and divot in the tunnel, each slight current of air. She was aware of her breathing in and out, and of the unhurried beat of her heart.

It's the Force, she realised. It's getting stronger. Stronger...or perhaps I'm feeling a deeper connection with it?

 

[Sorel Crieff]

Something gleamed in the pale golden light of her saber. Sorel held up her hand for Kaytoo to stop.

There were pieces of stone scattered across the floor. Beyond them, the passageway sloped upward but was blocked by fallen rocks. Sorel advanced cautiously, clambering up the pile and peering through the tumbled stones.

“It’s OK, Kaytoo, it's mostly loose stone," Sorel said. "I can feel fresh air, in fact."

Kaytoo rolled to the edge of the pile. He extended a utility arm and plucked a small stone out of the tumble, then turned and rolled away with his prize, whistling cheerfully.

"Well, that's a help," Sorel said, smiling.

She shoved the loose rock aside, and Sorel began carving away at some of the bigger blocks with her saber, careful not to let the liquefied rock burn her.

Sorel then climbed to the top of the pile, pushed at a slab of stone with her shoulder, and was rewarded when it slid aside and then toppled out of sight, landing with a crash.

"We're almost there," she said. "If I get the big pieces moved you should be able to get through."

She pushed her head through the gap she'd created, then her shoulders, saber raised to illuminate her surroundings. What she saw made her heart catch in his throat.

"I'm going to take a quick look around," Sorel said. "I'll be back in a couple of minutes."

Kaytoo whistled, supportively.

 

[Sorel Crieff]

Sorel scrambled through the gap and found herself on the edge of what once had been an enormous hall, lit by the light of late afternoon.

Much of the roof had tumbled down, columns were shorn off or toppled, and the floor was covered with drifts of leaves that had blown in through shattered windows. The centre of the floor was a crater, surrounded by rubble. Something screeched in the shadows, the noise of its scrambling retreat echoing around her. She whirled in a circle, brandishing her lightsaber in front of her, then forced herself to take a deep breath.

It's not a demon or dark-side ghosts - just jungle creatures, she thought. You've invaded their home, that's all.

She raised her saber high and saw two statues at the far end of the hall, their faces bubbled and blackened, their arms ending in cauterised stumps. The temple had been bombed and then vandalised with heavy energy weapons - someone had worked hard to erase any sign of beauty that had escaped the initial spasm of violence.

The Empire, Sorel thought, or maybe the First Order, or the Sith — in truth the list was endless. The purpose of the attack was to ruin this place and eradicate what it stood for. What it meant to people.

She nearly tripped over the stone hand on the floor. It had come to lie on its side, atop a pile of rubble. The wrist was blackened where it had been sheared away, but the hand itself was intact, as if stretched out toward her in welcome. The stonework was beautiful, she thought, running her hand over the fingers, appreciating the detail some lost artisan had created over untold hours. Her eyes jumped to the statues looming above, and he saw where the hand had been attached.

 

[Sorel Crieff]

She deactivated her lightsaber and hung it on her belt. He pushed the stone hand aside and sifted through the rubble beneath it. Here was the upper part of a face, with an eye captured in swift, confident strokes, the eyebrow arched in good humour. There was a chin, bearded, and above it a smile.

Her apprehension drained from her, to be replaced by a quiet joy. Whoever had tried to erase everything that had been beautiful there had failed. She could still see that beauty, just as she could feel the power of the Force surrounding her.

At the end of the grand hall, the remains of massive double doors hung from their hinges. The entrance was filled with rubble higher than Sorel’s head, and the wind had mounded up leaves in the corners. She started toward the doors, then decided against it - there may be other safeguards against intrusion, in addition to the perimeter sensors. She turned the other way instead, passing corridors choked with wreckage, and found a series of arches leading to an open space overgrown with trees.

She squeezed between two tumbled slabs and found herself in a circular courtyard created from the space between the two ruined towers and the rubble of smaller buildings that had been part of the temple complex. Once manicured, the courtyard was now wild. Impact craters had opened yawning pits in the ground, through which Sorel could barely make out tumbled stone in the gloom far below. The bowl of a ruined fountain occupied the centre of the space, with water bubbling up from inside and spilling out over flagstones covered with grass, forming a shallow pool. Faceless, limbless statues, much smaller than the ones in the great hall, formed a perimeter around the fountain.

Sorel looked around in mingled disbelief and joy. It was the place she'd seen in her vision - the fountain, the statues, the grass and trees. Somehow its disheveled state made it even lovelier than she imagined it had been when carefully groomed and tended.

 

[Sorel Crieff]

Something made a low sound nearby, and Sorel saw pikhrons standing quietly among the trees on the far side of the courtyard, watching her warily. An old matriarch tossed her head, and the group pushed its way through the trees, peering at Sorel with small black eyes. They climbed a low mound of rubble, all that remained of one wing of the temple, and were gone.

They feel safe here, Sorel thought. They know the hunters don't come inside the perimeter.

“Sorel… "

She turned in surprise, looking for the source of the voice he'd heard.

 

[Sorel Crieff]

"This place is strong with the Force," a voice said in Sorel’s head. "It was the will of the Force that guided you to this place. Here you will learn to open yourself to the Force, guiding its possibilities and obeying its commands - to learn what must be learned. And passing its tests. May the Force be with you."

Sorel sat down on the rim of the fountain, in one of the long shadows the statues cast across the glen. She could feel the power around her - power and a sense of peace. This was the place the Force had shown her, and where it had brought him.

She heard a mournful whistle.

That hadn't been in her head. Sorel looked up and saw Kaytoo standing in one of the archways to the great hall.

"Over here, Kaytoo. Sorry for leaving you behind.”

Artoo let out a torrent of beeps.

“What is it, what have you found?”

More beeps followed.

“A damaged frieze? Let's see what you've got," Sorel said, following the droid back into the ruined hall, to a section in deep shadow.

 

[Sorel Crieff]

Kaytoo activated a spotlight on his dome and traced it along the wall. Sorel leaned forward, hands on her knees. The sculpted figures on the wall were as damaged as the statues, the scenes interrupted by craters left by blaster fire. But Sorel could make out children in Jedi robes, lightsabers raised in front of them as an instructor demonstrated the proper defensive stance.

Farther down the wall, Sorel saw fragments of scenes in which Jedi fought warriors wearing spiked armor and masks. Even frozen in stone, the Jedi looked like deadly dancers, captured in the act of leaping and tumbling, their lightsabers like extensions of their bodies.

The frieze ended in shattered stone, and Kaytoo shut off his light.

"I'm glad I got to see that," Sorel said. "But everything here took place a long time ago. This place is important because of the present, not the past. The Force told me so."

She returned to the glade, which was filled with birdsong, and looked around the courtyard again. Her gaze lingered on a stone pillar whose surface was broken by a lever extending from the stone two-thirds of the way to the top, metres above her head.

"Unless the Jedi who lived here were very tall, that was designed to be opened with the Force," she said.

Sorel unbuckled her belt and holster and set it down on a tumbled slab of rock next to Kaytoo. Holding her deactivated lightsaber in one hand, she walked over and stood beneath the pillar, its surface turned orange by the setting sun. She breathed deeply, tuning out any distracting thoughts crowding her head.

Keep your concentration here and now. But she knew she was tired and so decided to wait until the morning to find out what the lever had in store.

 

[Sorel Crieff]

Jane had watched through her macrobinoculars as Sorel disappeared into the cave, gasping when she seemed to look straight at her for a moment. She'd observed the alien as he trudged back across the rocky valley and scrambled up to where his beasts waited. She was about a hundred meters away from him, crouched behind a thick tree trunk, her pack beast staked nearby.

She expected him to climb atop one of the mounts and start back toward the settlement. But instead the faceless alien set up a campsite not far from the edge of the cliff, across the river valley from the cave.

He's waiting, she thought. Waiting for Sorel.

Jane knew better than to think the alien was waiting in case he might be of help. She knew what he really wanted - a chance to loot the sorcerers' temple without attracting unwanted attention. And Sorel’s presence wouldn't be enough to dissuade him. The alien’s customers had a way of meeting accidents in the jungle. Most of the missing were wealthy but eccentric old hunters without people who would report them as missing or come looking for them.

She didn't know what had happened to them, but she could guess. And if the alien decided Sorel was in his way, it would happen to her, too.