Private What Wars Left Buried

[Meri Vale]

Meri glanced up at him as he defended himself, the faint amusement already lingering in her expression becoming slightly more visible now that the situation was threatening to validate his ridiculous theory.

"Mm. Naturally," she replied with perfectly dry seriousness. "You merely coincidentally predicted the existence of a hidden chamber moments before evidence supporting it appeared."

As Novac crouched beside her to inspect the dust patterns himself, Meri shifted her flashlight lower across the shelf and surrounding floor. The difference became clearer under direct light. Most of the room bore the same untouched accumulation of dust and age, but this particular section showed subtle inconsistencies: faint abrasions near the base, cleaner edges where particles had failed to settle evenly, and tiny disturbances too deliberate to be the result of simple structural shifting.

Her fingers brushed lightly along the side of the shelf before she carefully pressed against it. Nothing moved. Still, her attention sharpened further rather than fading.

"I am not yet prepared to endorse fictional adventure logic completely," she informed him, "but something about this section is different from the rest of the room."

She leaned slightly closer, studying the narrow gaps between the shelf and wall.

"Look here." Her flashlight angled toward the floor beside the shelf, illuminating a faint, curved scrape partially hidden beneath accumulated dust. "This was moved at some point." The statement carried quiet certainty now. "Not recently, but more recently than the surrounding structure."

For a moment, she fell silent again, mentally reconstructing the room around the anomaly while Novac hovered nearby with increasingly obvious excitement.

Then, without looking away from the shelf, she added in the same calm tone:

"If this actually opens because you pull a random object dramatically, I may become deeply irritated with reality as a concept." Despite the dryness of the remark, the growing fascination in her eyes betrayed her completely.

Very carefully now, Meri reached toward one of the less dust-covered binders near the center of the shelf, pausing just before touching it as though fully expecting the ruin itself to decide whether it wanted to cooperate.

Novac Lyrikal

 

[Novac Lyrikal]

raising back up novac couldnt help but smile at the fact his joke might become reality. "if it really does im very going to forget it." he said with a half smile. as she was looking at the shelf and book he quietly said more to himself then her, "though if i did that i'd probably make it to where you have to pull all the books at once, like with the force or something. eh but then would you be able to take them off the self. and how would it work anyway if it was some sort of magnet trickery then you wouldnt have to pull all of them at once just in general. would be neat to have a secret room on my frigate like that though, not needed but fun." he realized he was quietly thinking out loud. "oh uh my bad." he said a tad embarrassed

a sudden thought occurred to him. "wait, if it was moved recently then whatever was back there, if anything, might be gone. though there may be enough to learn what the room was for. again if theres one. that alone would be nice. though perhaps if there is a room back there that might be where a trap or hostile droid would be instead of this room."

 

[Meri Vale]

Meri remained crouched beside the shelf while Novac spiraled steadily deeper into increasingly elaborate theories regarding magnetic mechanisms, simultaneous book removal, and the architectural necessity of secret rooms aboard his frigate. At first she tried to remain focused on the shelf itself, but somewhere around his quiet debate with himself about whether the books would even remain removable under such a system, the corner of her mouth began betraying her again.

By the time he awkwardly realized he had been thinking aloud, she was already looking at him with unmistakable amusement lingering behind her otherwise composed expression.

"You realize most people do not casually workshop hidden passage engineering while standing inside potentially dangerous ruins," she informed him dryly.

Still, despite the teasing tone, there was warmth beneath it now. Novac's enthusiasm had a strangely infectious quality to it, especially because none of it seemed motivated by greed or ego. He genuinely loved places like this. The mysteries. The stories. The possibility that forgotten things still existed waiting quietly beneath dust and stone.

When he pointed out that whatever had been hidden might already be gone, however, Meri's attention shifted back toward the shelf immediately.

"Possibly," she admitted thoughtfully, her fingers brushing lightly along the edge of the shelving again. "But hidden rooms are usually designed to conceal more than valuables. Even if something was removed, there may still be records, structural clues, or evidence explaining why the room existed in the first place."

She paused briefly before adding:

"Though your theory about hostile droids is unfortunately much more plausible than I would prefer."

The faint humor faded slightly as she considered the implications more seriously. If someone had intentionally returned here long after the facility was abandoned, then whatever lay beyond the shelf had mattered enough to revisit despite the instability of the ruins surrounding it. That thought alone made her increasingly certain they were standing in the correct room.

Then Novac casually muttered his comment about using the Force to pull all the books simultaneously, and Meri froze instantly.

The shift wasn't dramatic, but it was absolute, her hand halting mid-motion along the shelf as her entire expression tightened into sudden, visible confusion. Slowly, she turned her head to look up at him properly, her gray eyes narrowing as she replayed his sentence mentally to ensure she hadn't misheard.

"I am not that well tr…" The words cut off abruptly when the full realization caught up to her, trailing off into a heavy, lingering silence. "…hold on."

Meri straightened slowly from beside the shelf, rising to her full height while staring at him with an analytical suspicion that rapidly replaced any lingering amusement. "How do you know I can use the Force?" The question remained perfectly calm, but a sharp, undeniable edge arrived beneath it instantly because, as far as her memory served, she had absolutely never told him.

Novac Lyrikal

 

[Novac Lyrikal]

novac stopped froze for a moment, she could use the force? was she a jedi, sith, or nonaffiliated. "i uh...i meant myself, as in if i where to make my own i'd think it'd be neat to only be able to access it with the force. i did not mean you as in you. i didnt realise i was thinking out loud and was under the assumption i was thinking "what if you had to" as like to myself or like...hm how do i explain. sometimes when im thinking is think thing as if im talking to someone else you know. kind of just a way of thinking. i've done it while working on my frigate before when i first got it, well inherited from my old master. like i'd be working on a room and think, "oh what if i do this so you could do whatever" i didn't mean you...huh well uh " he said rushing through some words, clearly a bit nervous at the understanding mistake. "i should probably mention i am a jedi, though not like super strict to the code or whatever, i mean im here after all most jedi wouldn't. they'd just wanting to stay in the temples or wherever. you probably already knew of course since i used the force and have a lightsaber." he said awkwardly.

 

[Meri Vale]

Meri stared at him for several long seconds while he hurried through the explanation, his increasingly tangled clarification somehow managing to become both more suspicious and more believable simultaneously the longer he spoke. By the time he reached the part about accidentally thinking in second person while repairing his frigate, the sharpness in her expression had softened into visible confusion mixed with reluctant amusement, not because the explanation was particularly convincing, but because it sounded exactly like the sort of oddly specific thing someone would only invent while panicking.

When Novac finally admitted he was a Jedi, however, Meri's attention sharpened again immediately. Her eyes flicked briefly toward the lightsaber concealed beneath his cloak before returning to him with the quiet intensity of someone rapidly reorganizing several earlier observations all at once. The calm around dangerous ruins, the casual references to the Force, and the complete lack of surprise at hidden mechanisms responding to intention all now settled together with uncomfortable efficiency. Still, despite the realization, she did not recoil or react with alarm; if anything, she looked more intellectually intrigued than anything else.

"You know," she said slowly after a moment, "the explanation somehow became both less and more reassuring simultaneously."

The dryness beneath the remark softened what otherwise might have sounded accusatory. She straightened fully beside the shelf now, folding her arms lightly while studying him with renewed analytical focus.

"Though in fairness," she continued thoughtfully, "your tendency to verbally workshop theoretical engineering problems while exploring ancient ruins does support your claim rather convincingly."

A faint trace of amusement touched the corner of her mouth again before fading into something more curious.

"Also, I had already begun suspecting you were Force-sensitive somewhere around the point where you floated a lightsaber through the doorway to check for traps," she stated with complete seriousness, adding after a brief pause, "Admittedly, that was a fairly significant clue."

The tension between them eased considerably after that. Meri glanced briefly back toward the suspicious shelf before returning her attention to him again.

"For the record, I am still relatively new to all of this," she admitted more quietly now. "So if I accidentally demonstrate alarming ignorance regarding Jedi customs or Force-related assumptions, that is unfortunately genuine and not strategic deception."

A faint crease appeared between her brows as another thought occurred to her.

"Also, most Jedi I have met so far seem deeply attracted to dangerous ruins," she observed thoughtfully, the completely serious way she said it making the remark considerably more amusing than she seemed to realize herself. "So I am beginning to suspect the Order may have a collective structural preservation problem."

Then her gaze drifted back toward the shelf once more, curiosity immediately reclaiming dominance over the conversation.

"Now," she said calmly, crouching again beside the disturbed section, "before we uncover either ancient financial records or a homicidal security system, would you like to attempt the dramatically symbolic bookshelf method first, or should we continue pretending this is a rational archaeological investigation?"

Novac Lyrikal

 

[Novac Lyrikal]

good she seemed to still be calm "yeah i realise that explanation probably didnt make much sense. amd yea you probably could have guessed from that" he said with a slight smile.

her being able to use the force was oddly comforting in a way, though he couldnt place why.

"not all are one form ruins. usually its just to look for old jedi artifacts. so not these kind of ruins."

when she asked if he wanted to try the bookshelf he couldnt help but smile. "absolutely," he said as he stood back a bit. holding all 4 of his hands up he felt the force flow over each datapad. they felt the same. before he pulled he made sure to also feel his lightsabers and blasters incase he needed them at a moments notice. turning his hands palm to himself he pulled every datapad, all put one came of the self and floated next to him. novac couldn't believe it but the shelf started to slide to the side. carefully setting the datapads down he simply stared.

"... ...no way that actually worked," he said with amusement. carefully peaking in it was a staircase again, a much shorter one, only about 10 steps. the dust was much thinner here then it was everywhere else.

"well..down we go?" he said as he grabbed his saber in his right hand, not igniting it but getting ready for if there was anything down there.

 

[Meri Vale]

For several seconds after the shelf ground sideways, Meri simply stared. It wasn't fear that kept her silent, but the sheer absurdity of the situation. The heavy mechanism groaned beneath the floor, disturbing decades of dust and revealing a narrow, hidden staircase.

Beside her, Novac looked just as stunned by his own success.

That was what finally broke her composure. A quiet, genuine laugh escaped her.

"I cannot decide whether this validates your investigative methods or catastrophically encourages them," she admitted, her gray eyes drifting back to the floating datapads he had set aside. "Though I am admittedly concerned by how emotionally satisfying that was to witness."

Leaning closer to the opening, her academic curiosity quickly overtook her amusement. The dust on these steps was notably thinner than in the rooms above.

"The dust distribution confirms repeated movement," she noted, shifting seamlessly back into analysis. "Recent enough to disturb the original settlement patterns. Which means either someone found this place independently after the collapse, or whoever sealed the room continued returning long after the facility was abandoned."

Neither thought was particularly comforting.

When Novac drew an unignited lightsaber, the atmosphere shifted. The academic excitement gave way to a heavier, more deliberate tension. They were no longer just exploring forgotten infrastructure; they were intruding on something intentionally hidden.

Meri rose, adjusting her grip on her flashlight and casting a dry look his way.

"You realize that if there is actually an ancient hidden chamber containing dangerous secrets behind a movable bookshelf, your confidence for the remainder of this expedition is going to become unbearable."

The humor lingered, but her expression focused as she stepped toward the descent.

"But yes," she murmured, shining her light down into the dark. "Down we go."

Instinctively, she lowered her voice, acutely aware that they were stepping into a secret that had been kept for a reason.

Novac Lyrikal

 

[Novac Lyrikal]

"validate or catastrophically encourages? why not a bit of both" he said with a sligyt chuckle. to be honest, he was nervous, what was worth hiding down here. the planet was used for making droids, what would be worth hiding other then credits and blueprints?
as the reached the bottom novac slowly moved his flashlight from one side to the other. if he'd turn his light off it'd be pitch black down here.
before the two of them was a large rectangular room going forward. on the left side of the room where smaller cells with a glass viewing wall. on the right was multiple old terminals.
"weeell...this is..slightly unnerving. the hell would they have down here?" he said quietly to meri. the air was uncomfortably still, dust laid thicker near the edges of the room, thinnee in the middle. adding even more proof to the fact someone was here not long after the place was abandoned.
Meri Vale

 

[Meri Vale]

Meri followed Novac carefully down the final steps, her flashlight angled low as the concealed chamber gradually revealed itself beneath layers of dust and darkness. The air changed immediately upon entering; unlike the upper levels of the ruin, which carried the dry instability of collapse and abandonment, this room felt sealed too long, preserving a stillness that was almost oppressive in its completeness. At Novac's suggestion that the discovery both validated and catastrophically encouraged his methods, the corner of her mouth lifted faintly despite the tension creeping steadily through the space.

"That is unfortunately becoming the leading hypothesis," she admitted quietly.

Then her attention shifted fully toward the chamber itself. The flashlight beam swept slowly across the rectangular space ahead of them, illuminating thick layers of dust gathered heavily along the outer walls while the center pathways appeared subtly more disturbed—not recently, but enough to confirm movement had occurred here long after the facility above was abandoned.

What truly caught her attention, however, were the glass-fronted cells lining the left side of the room. Meri slowed almost immediately as she realized the architecture no longer resembled offices or administrative storage; it resembled containment. Her gaze moved carefully from the cells toward the old terminals opposite them, as a faint unease settled visibly in her expression.

"…I do not think this was built for droid production oversight," she said softly after several seconds.

The realization came gradually as she pieced together the room's structure, noting the observation windows, reinforced spacing, and centralized monitoring terminals positioned to maintain simultaneous visual coverage of every enclosure. Someone had needed to watch whatever occupied those rooms, and the silence pressing against the chamber suddenly felt much heavier.

When Novac quietly asked what the hell they would have hidden down here, Meri did not answer immediately. Instead, she stepped farther into the room with careful, measured movements while her flashlight traced slowly across the nearest cell wall. The glass itself appeared thicker than standard partitioning, revealing faint scratches along portions of its surface where something had repeatedly struck or scraped it over time.

That detail caused her to stop, her voice changing and growing more cautious as she spoke. "…Novac."

The flashlight beam settled lower against the reinforced floor near the nearest enclosure, illuminating deep, repeated scoring marks partially hidden beneath accumulated dust. They were not random damage, but looked like claws or metal.

"I think this room was designed to hold something."

The understatement somehow made the conclusion more unsettling. Slowly, her light drifted back toward the terminals lining the opposite wall.

"The observation stations suggest active monitoring rather than storage," she continued thoughtfully, though her voice remained quieter now as if instinctively unwilling to disturb the room too much. "And the reinforced viewing panels imply whoever built this expected containment failure to be possible."

A faint crease appeared between her brows as her gaze shifted again toward the cells. "Which means either biological specimens… or prototypes unstable enough they did not trust them outside controlled conditions."

Neither possibility reassured her. The deeper she looked into the chamber, the less abandoned it felt—not active, not inhabited, but preserved in the unsettling way dangerous things sometimes were, where the absence of movement somehow felt temporary rather than permanent.

Then, after another long silence, Meri glanced sideways toward Novac again.

"I would like to formally revise my earlier opinion," she informed him quietly. "Your dramatic hidden-bookshelf instincts are becoming increasingly concerning."

Novac Lyrikal

 

[Novac Lyrikal]

When she said her name he quickly came over, seeing the marks ln the glass and floor. as he bent down to look closer, "hmm, seems like they where made by metal..or extremely strong claws. Reminds me a bit of damage seen in junkyard due to brute junk droids. Their more animal like droids made of stuff in junkyards. Of course they wouldnt have junk droids here, just makes me think it might be droid damage rather then biological."

raising back up, "This place was used to make droids for the sith...it'd make sense they'd have dangerous prototypes, but in a room like this? Let's see...they made at-st's and some ship blasters i believe, as well as SD-6 battle droids, SD-9 battle droids, SD-10 battle droids, and x-1 viper droids..they where all larger then humans and fairly strong. But they wouldn't keep any of them in room like this."

He started to slowly go down the hall looking into the room, each empty and dusty, "the most concerning thing is the fact someone felt the need to come back here, likely to check on whatever was in here, and the fact that the rooms are now empty.." His grib tightened on his saber a little, he couldn't feel anything out of the ordinary, no stay heat, nothing to detect with the force. The calmness was growing more and more uncomfortable by the second.

 

[Meri Vale]

Meri listened carefully as Novac worked through the possibilities, her flashlight lingering on the uniform floor gouges. "His mechanical theory makes sense structurally, but the architecture itself is what keeps troubling me," she admitted quietly, her gaze drifting across the reinforced observation windows. "If this facility already produced military droids on a large scale, why build an isolated, private containment wing separate from the primary manufacturing chains? Whoever used this section wanted absolute observation without interference from the rest of the facility."

Stepping past the empty cells, Meri studied the faint traces of movement left behind in the decades of dust. "I am not sure the empty rooms are the most concerning part anymore," she said, her voice dropping lower into the heavy, expectant silence. "If someone returned after the facility was abandoned, they either came to retrieve something…or they came to verify that something was still gone."

Forcing her attention back toward something tangible, she gestured toward the consoles lining the opposite wall. "The terminals may tell us more than the cells. If there are surviving observation logs or maintenance records, they should explain why this section existed." She then glanced briefly at Novac, a trace of dry humor breaking through the tension. "Though I would like to note that your hidden-bookshelf theory has progressed from mildly entertaining to deeply concerning. I am becoming increasingly worried that you were right for all the wrong reasons."

Novac Lyrikal

 

[Novac Lyrikal]

(ooc, so sorry for taking so long lifes been hectic lately sorry)
As novac looked at the cells more, trying to figure out what may have been housed in them he said, "or they came ro make sure it was still here, but whatever it was wasnt. Thats the worse outcome." He'd almost forgotten about the consoles until she'd said something.


Going over to them he turned on one and dusted the screen off, he found it odd it still had power after all this time. Even weirder was it didn't need a password, perhaps the owner didn't think anyone would be here. As he looked through he shook his tail a little, all the dust they'd been going over was starting to gather on his tail to much.


While still going through what was left on the console he said, "Well, there's clearly a lot that had been deleted...From what i see so far this was used for prototype droids, not sure for who or what they where. Hmm there are files for other droids that the factory made, nothing for this room though." As novac continued to look through he found a map of the sector they where in, of course not showing the room they where currently in. He pulled out a small device and plugged it in. "Well, at least we got a map of this sector."
at meri's comment he glanced over, "I very much agree with you on that. Well it was a bit more then mildly entertaining but your point still stands."

Meri Vale

 

[Meri Vale]

Meri remained near the damaged cells while Novac worked through the console, her flashlight tracing slowly across the deep gouges carved into the transparisteel and floor. The marks seemed more unsettling the longer she studied them, presenting undeniable evidence of violence, confinement, and a hasty departure, yet offering no clue as to what had actually been kept here. "I dislike that possibility considerably more," she admitted as Novac suggested someone might have returned only to find the occupant missing. "An abandoned containment chamber is concerning. An empty containment chamber that someone later came back to check on, particularly if they expected to find something still here, is significantly more concerning."

Crossing the room toward the terminals, she stopped beside Novac to analyze the gaps in the surviving files rather than the remaining data itself. "The deletions may be more useful than whatever remains," she observed, leaning slightly closer to the screen with a thoughtful frown. "Someone removed specific information while leaving the rest intact. That suggests they considered those files important enough to hide but not important enough to destroy the entire system, meaning whoever did it either needed to work quickly, expected nobody would ever reach this location, or wanted the surrounding records preserved."

When Novac mentioned prototype droids, Meri's gaze drifted back toward the confinement rooms, firmly noting a distinction that felt entirely wrong. "Prototype droids would explain the facility, but it does not explain the containment rooms. Most droids do not require cells designed to restrain them after production; they require storage. These were designed to hold something, not store it." The heavy realization hung in the still air, pointing to a subject far more volatile than mere machinery.

Yet, as Novac proudly announced the recovery of a sector map, Meri's academic focus shifted seamlessly back to the silver linings of their exploration, her expression softening. "That does qualify as a successful expedition outcome," she added, a faint trace of her dry humor touching her voice. "We have acquired a map, discovered a hidden section, confirmed evidence of deleted records, and found a deeply unsettling mystery. From an archaeological perspective, this has been an extremely productive day."

Novac Lyrikal

 

[Novac Lyrikal]

As Meri Vale made a comment about his thought being concerning Novac looked over saying "It is, a possibility but one I'd really rather not be the case"

She was right about the lack of information being useful as well, thought novac didn't like it. He'd of course worked with lack of information plenty of times, but those times where with old droids found broken in junkyards that didnt have much or any blueprints left to figure out what needed fixed or replaced, not what dangerous thing was kept secret.

"well, what if they where working on something special? There have been plenty of highly intelligent droids, like say the t series tactical droids. Droids made to replace commanders, to come up with attack formations or predict enemy movement and attacks. I wouldn't be surprised if they attempted to make a highly intelligent battle droid, probably commissioned by the sith back in the day. You know now that i say that out loud is kind of horrifying, a highly intelligent, possibly murderous droid, also possibly on the loose. With the number of cells it would suggest more then one, possibly all different or all the same but with slight differences in their "brain". Don't know which is worse to be honest."

Novac started to realize he should stop talking, once already something he:d say came to be. Granted that was a joke about a secret room behind a bookcase, not murderous droids.

"Well, might as well take a look around the rest of this place, especially since we got a map of the sector now." he said turning away from the console, heading back to the stairs.

 

[Meri Vale]

Meri listened as Novac expanded upon his theory, her expression growing steadily more thoughtful as he reached the possibility of highly intelligent battle droids with independent personalities. Staring back toward the empty, gouged containment cells with renewed discomfort, she admitted with a trace of dry humor, "I am beginning to regret asking reasonable questions." Yet, she couldn't deny that his horrifying hypothesis fit the evidence perfectly; the cells suggested confinement rather than storage, the deleted records suggested secrecy, and the later visitors pointed to a continued, dangerous interest.

"For what it is worth," she added, adjusting her satchel as she followed him away from the console, "I think the truly horrifying part is not the idea of an intelligent battle droid. It is the idea that someone may have successfully built one." While a failed experiment would explain the heavy reinforcement of the cells, a successful one perfectly explained the missing occupant. It left her wondering if there was a point at which a theory became too unpleasant to pursue, though she knew archaeology rarely allowed for such comfort.

As they crossed back toward the stairs, the empty chambers and erased files felt significantly more ominous than they had when they first entered. Still, the pull of the unknown won out, and she conceded to the next steps. "I do agree with continuing. We have a map, a hidden section, and enough unanswered questions to justify further investigation."

Falling into step beside him, her flashlight swept across the corridor ahead as she offered one final, characteristic caveat: "Although if we discover evidence that your increasingly concerning theories are correct, I reserve the right to be extremely dissatisfied about it." Her words were light, but her mind remained locked on the missing records, fully aware that the mystery of whatever had once been held here was far from finished.

Novac Lyrikal

 

[Novac Lyrikal]

Meri Vale

As they walked out of the room novac tried his best to not look nervous or tense and put his sager away. "well, lets see, theres the other room on the opposite side of this hall, then that other hallway going off towards more rooms and halls. Oh! hey hand me your datapad I'll copy the map to it."

"Don't worry, I'll be extremely dissatisfied about running into a intelligent murder droid to" he said looking back over his should at her. going across the hall he went to open the door carefully, before open though he could sense a small, faint heat source. "wait. somethings in there." he said as he waved for her to move to the side as he did. Pulling his blaster out and holding it to the side he opend the door as he was at its side... nothing happened. Quickly moving into the doorframe and pointing his blaster he saw what was producing the faint heat, a small clump of wires sticking out of the ceiling. "Oh, thats what the heat was, just some wear and tear"

The room was the same as the other, novac thought for a moment and then tried the bookshelf again, lucky nothing happened this time. Well all that was left was to go down the hall and see the rooms it leads to.

 

[Meri Vale]

Meri handed over her datapad without protest, though the gesture was accompanied by a faintly apprehensive expression, as if surrendering an irreplaceable research tool. She remained close enough to closely observe the transfer process, her attention fixed entirely on the screen rather than the corridor around them. It wasn't that she distrusted Novac, exactly, but there was a meaningful distinction between basic trust and wanting to ensure several months of academic notes remained precisely where they belonged.

"I am choosing to interpret that statement as reassuring," she informed him as he promised to be equally dissatisfied by murderous intelligent droids, the corner of her mouth twitching faintly. "Although I suspect our dissatisfaction would manifest somewhat differently." While Novac's reaction would likely involve blaster fire, Meri's would probably manifest as strongly worded observations and a growing sense of academic irritation. Her eyes remained locked on the device as he worked, prompting her to add with complete sincerity, "Please be careful with the archaeology folders. And the architectural surveys. And the translation notes. Actually, please be careful with all of it."

When Novac suddenly paused and announced that something was inside the next room, Meri immediately stepped aside, her hand drifting instinctively toward her blaster. The movement lacked the practiced confidence of a trained soldier, but the weight of the weapon was no longer entirely unfamiliar to her. She watched silently as he cleared the doorway, only to discover a harmless bundle of overheated wiring sticking out of the ceiling. As the sudden tension drained from the situation, a slow breath escaped her. "Good. I was beginning to think your increasingly alarming theories were attempting to become reality."

The room beyond proved to be disappointingly ordinary, devoid of hidden chambers, escaped prototypes, or any evidence that the universe had decided to reward Novac's imagination. Meri stepped inside long enough to verify that it perfectly matched the layout of the previous room before returning to the corridor. "That is almost reassuring," she murmured, though the hidden section across the hall, the deleted records, and the empty containment cells still lingered heavily in her thoughts. When Novac subsequently tested the bookshelf to no avail, she found herself oddly relieved, noting, "I think it is probably for the best that every bookshelf in this facility is not connected to a secret passage."

Her gray eyes drifted toward the hallway stretching deeper into the complex, where the darkness seemed thicker, less explored, and far more uncertain. Unfortunately, that meant it was exactly where the real answers were likely to be found. "The corridor, then," she said, adjusting her satchel and accepting her datapad back, quickly verifying that her precious files still existed before looking up at him. "And if we do encounter an intelligent murder droid, I would like it formally noted that I opposed the possibility from the beginning." With that recorded, she started down the hallway beside him, her flashlight sweeping slowly across the unyielding walls ahead.

Novac Lyrikal

 

[Novac Lyrikal]

When he was copying the map to her datapad he made sure to not touch any of her files, "Doht worry, I'd never mess with some elses work."

Novac smiled as she talked. "Hey, had to test, already had one extremely unlikely thing happen, who know what else might...for better or worse."

He'd have to remind himself to come back and download the files from the other room before they left, might be some neat stuff in there. Going down the hall it was clear that this section wasn't visited since the place was abandoned, good sign at least.

It was quiet, a lot more then novac would like. Trying to fill the silence he asked Meri Vale "Sooo, guessing you've been to a lot of ruins. Got a favorite one you've been to? Either for the scenery, history, interesting architecture, or things to learn about the place." In truth it wasn't just the fill the silence but also genuine curiosity.

 

[Meri Vale]

The corridor stretched ahead of them in silence, broken only by the sound of their footsteps and the occasional sweep of flashlight beams across ancient walls. Meri found she did not entirely mind the quiet; ruins often had their own sort of conversation if one paid attention long enough. At Novac's question, however, she paused for a moment to think. There had been many ruins, many discoveries, and many places that had seemed important at the time, yet one came to mind immediately above all the others.

"I think my favorite was a Jedi ruin beneath Naboo," she said, a faint smile touching her expression. "Not because it was the largest or the most impressive. In fact, much of it had already collapsed. I was exploring it with someone named Vex Drakkon when we found evidence that sections of the structure had been intentionally concealed. Not hidden behind walls exactly, but designed so that you had to understand the place before it would reveal itself."

Even now, the memory seemed to pull at her. Her flashlight drifted across the corridor ahead as they walked.

"The deeper chambers felt different from the rest of the ruin. The acoustics changed, the airflow changed, and everything about it suggested there was more there than we were seeing. Most people would probably describe that as intuition, but I spent several hours trying to prove it with measurements." She offered the admission with a trace of dry humor before her voice softened slightly. "Eventually, we discovered a hidden chamber. Inside was a lightsaber hilt."

For a moment, she fell quiet, adjusting the strap of her satchel.

"What made it interesting was not the artifact itself," she continued, knowing the statement would probably sound strange to most. "The chamber felt deliberate. It had not been designed to keep people away; it had been designed so that the right person could eventually find it. That idea stayed with me. Later, I traveled to Ilum and discovered the hilt was still functional. The crystal chose me."

She spoke with the same matter-of-fact tone someone else might use when discussing standard survey equipment. As the corridor curved gently ahead, the corner of her mouth twitched.

"I spent considerably more time trying to understand why than most Jedi probably would have. Which, now that I say it out loud, may explain why it remains my favorite ruin."

Her gray eyes shifted down the dark hallway, stretching deeper into the facility, watching the shadows recede before her light.

"Although if this place contains hidden archives, mysterious prototypes, escaped droids, and secret research facilities, it may eventually become competitive."

Novac Lyrikal

 

[Novac Lyrikal]

What Meri Vale told him sounded wonderful to him. He couldn't help himself from imaging what she described. "I can see why that would be. Now I could be one to say the force guided you to the lightsaber but I wont. Never really understood the whole "the force sill guide you, the force brought you here" stuff. My old master said the force guided her to me. But i say it was luck, I mean i was on a world kept secret...I should probably give context, It's a world called butler's cove, it was kept secret to let the ssither, which I'm half, safe and regain their population. More context is needed for that i guess. Basically our species faced two near extinction events, and where moved to the planet to live there. Anyway, my master landed there due to low supplies and ended up finding me in my late teens."

He remember this old little turtle like jedi coming up to him, claiming he was force sensitive and that she would be the one to teach him. She was..odd to say the least, definitely straightforward and stubborn though.

As the reach a bend in the hall novac looked at the map. "hmm seems theres a large room on the left of the next hall. Could be storage, or maybe a...you know what I probably shouldn't guess anything, already had one thing I said come true, hopefully the guess about an escaped intelligent murder bot doesn't become true. I'll let you look in first considering my luck."