______It was nearing twilight as they made their way to the temple, the last traces of daylight clinging tenaciously to one corner of the sky. The planet Yavin hung low in the sky behind them, and the gas giant's red glow painted its tint on everything around them.
______The jungle had grown thick and ominous, the leaves a mixture of red and black, tint and shadow, against a darkening sky. Aeon loved it. It set the mood wonderfully for an expedition to a haunted chamber. For more practical purposes, it made them more difficult to see. Dusk was the most difficult time to make out any detail on the surface because of the contrast to the light in the sky. With the planet Yavin at their backs, they would be practically invisible.
______"Aeon," Cammie said, "maybe we should wait until morning."
______"We'll be fine," Aeon assured her. She was afraid they might lose their nerve. They seemed unsure of themselves when they reunited earlier and made their reports.
______Their missions went well. Tam and Cammie met with limited success, uncovering a few more rumors. One of Tam's pilot friends had a friend who had a friend-and so forth-who had gotten curious about what had everyone so spooked. He switched duties with one of the guards assigned to that temple-who was quite happy to oblige-and snuck down to a chamber that was under the temple itself. He saw a large crystal obelisk that resonated with energy. But something had happened. The guard wouldn't say what, but he swore he'd never go in that room again.
______Or so Tam's friend had said. Stories tend to grow as they get passed along, and it was just like those pilots to try and have a little fun with Tam and scare him a bit.
______It had worked, especially in Cammie's case. But Aeon assured them that everything would be okay, and that the pilots were just saying that to have some fun with them.
______Aeon's thoughts on the matter were clear: why hadn't she been told about this before now? Haunted chambers, and now huge obelisks that radiated strange, possibly mystical and/or haunted, energy? This was getting better by the minute. There was no way she could wait until morning.
______As she had guessed, four hundred meters through the jungle was taxing, and it took them more time than she had thought. It was noticeably darker than when they had set out.
______As they approached the temple, they could see the haze from the perimeter lights. Due to the moisture in the air it hung like an aura above the tree line. They were using that as their navigational beacon, having lost sight of their destination-and their origin-once they got into the thick of the foliage. They were getting closer.
______The fourth temple in the complex was as unremarkable as the other three: a gray step pyramid in the shape of an inverted ziggurat. The pattern of these temples appeared to be modeled after a four star constellation that stood just below the center of Yavin's celestial night. Three of the stars formed an arc lying in close proximity to each other. The fourth star was set off from the others by quite a distance, but it shone the brightest.
______She peered through the leaves, and could see the fourth pyramid plainly. It was large, measurably larger than the other temples in the complex. The perimeter lights gave her a good view of the temple, and she was amazed at the width of its base. At first she thought it strange that the Alliance hadn't chosen this one as their main headquarters, but she reasoned that three temples close together were more useful.
______There weren't any sentries in plain sight, but that didn't mean they weren't there. Sentry droids, possibly? She scolded herself for not checking that before they left. Her father had that kind of information, and it would have been a simple matter for her to have a discreet 'look'. Instead, she spent the afternoon daydreaming.
______Always thinking about the future, or the past, her father would scold her. Never the present.
______Quiet, Father.
______On the side of the pyramid there was a steep staircase that ascended the height of the structure to an altar at its summit. This was unique, at least to the temples in their complex. She wondered at what its purpose had been. Ceremonial sacrifices? Of what: animals? Humans?
______It was certainly possible. They knew nothing about the Massassi. Aeon knew that it was dangerous for an historian to romanticize a culture, but she felt somehow that these people were very similar to her own. Not that she considered herself an historian, but she had learned enough from questioning Lom Kavolo to consider herself an amateur historian. Still, she could almost hear Kavolo chastising herself for assigning the Massassi attributes without any basis in fact. It was common for people to idealize the past, and ennoble an ancient culture with higher ideals, but it was a fatal flaw for an historian. One always had to be on guard against anthropomorphizing, Kavolo would tell her.
______Admittedly, she had no way of knowing whether the Massassi were a noble people, or a motley collection of savage tribes bent on bloodletting and human sacrifice.
______On the flip side of anthropomorphizing, making the leap to human sacrifice was just as erroneous. The temple could have had an entirely different purpose. It was obvious that these people had a complex knowledge of the stars in the sky. Perhaps it was an observatory?
______Often, it struck her that the temples hadn't been occupied for thousands of years-at least not by their original owners.
______Thousands. Having only experienced seventeen, she had difficulty conceptualizing thousands of years.
______She wondered how many people really tried. Most of the people went about their day to day business never giving a though to the people who built these structures.
______It was just another planet to them-the same as Dantooine, Solace, or any one of the dozens of worlds the Alliance had made a temporary home. This one, conveniently enough, had pre-existing barracks and headquarters that could house the soldiers, technicians, and officers of the Rebellion.
______How many of them walked the stone corridors and never once thought about who or what may have walked that same path ten millennia ago?
______But people built these structures. They may not have looked the same, or spoke the same language, but she was sure they shared at least one basic goal: survival.
______It was the base instinct of all living creatures, and, somehow, it had gotten the better of the Massassi.
______Her mind wandered, and her conscious self loosened its grip on the moment. In tandem, her fingers relaxed their hold on a living tree branch, holding on just enough to maintain friction.
______She felt the life force of the tree branch rushing just beneath the surface of the bark. It made the tips of her fingers tingle.
______She closed her eyes. No, that wasn't right-she merely chose to stop seeing through them. Her consciousness was dominated by a new sense, one that she was unaware she possessed.
______Something happened. Her fingers sank slowly through the viscous membrane of the wood's surface, experiencing something else.
______She felt them elongate, seeping deeper and deeper into the living tree. The sensation was strange at first, and then frightening.
______Abruptly she panicked, trying to separate herself from the sensation. Her fingers snapped back into place, and she pulled her hands from the branch with a motion that startled the others.
______"Are you okay?" Tam asked. Aeon couldn't answer, and simply stared at her fingers as she flexed them slowly. They seemed normal.
______ "The Fingers again?" Cammie asked. Aeon nodded. This had happened to her before, once or twice. She described it to the others, and it was Cammie who had given the phenomenon its dubious, if not appropriate, name.
______Aeon looked at the branch for a moment. "I don't remember it ever being that bad, though," she told them. She touched the tree branch-tentatively snaking out to tap it, and then placing her hand firmly upon it. Nothing. It was just a branch again.
______She looked up, and saw the faces of the others. They were looking at her very strangely, and seemed very concerned. She almost laughed aloud at their somber expressions. "I'm all right," she smiled. "Really."
______"Are you sure?" Tam asked. She nodded.
______"C'mon," she said. "We can talk about all that later. Let's focus on the present, as my Father always says." The others smiled at that. They knew her Father, too.
______She shook out her hands one last time, and made a quick sweep of the area. Once convinced that there were no guards, she started toward the temple. Immediately, she felt herself being yanked back by her shirt, and almost choked as the collar dug into her throat.
______It was Tam pulling her by the shirt, and she glared at him. He put his finger to his lips, and then pointed over her shoulder.
______There was a surveillance camera on a tree not four feet in front of her. She looked at Tam apologetically. Talk about not focusing on the present. She almost walked right in its path.
______"Can you disable it?" she whispered to him.
______"I don't know," he replied. "I wish we'd brought a droid with us."
______"They'd have never made it through the jungle," Aeon replied. "You can do it. I know you can." Tam grinned proudly, and produced his electronics kit.
______He approached the tree, and walked around to the camera's mount. He inspected it for a moment.
______"I think I can make it go down for about fifteen seconds," he said. "That should give us time to get to the temple, and I don't think they'll notice it much." That made sense. In this humidity, the equipment malfunctioned frequently. A camera going out for a few seconds would hardly raise an eyebrow. Aeon nodded, and Tam started to work.
______A few seconds later the camera dropped a few degrees from its axis. It looked like it was playing dead. "C'mon!" Aeon said, and they moved quickly toward the temple's entrance.
______Getting inside proved easier than she thought, and that only made her more nervous. Perhaps they caught the guards between shifts. Possibly, and since this wasn't the most popular place to patrol, they may take their sweet time getting back. Perhaps, but perhaps not.
______"Where are the guards?" Tam asked, echoing her thoughts.
______"I was wondering the same thing," she whispered. "We'll have to hurry."
______It grew dark quickly. What little light shone faintly from the perimeter lighting outside dimmed within a few steps inside. Aeon had her portable light, but was apprehensive to use it. If there were any guards in the temple, it would be a dead giveaway.
______So far they'd heard nothing, so she took a chance. She switched the light on to its lowest setting, and a pale fluorescent glow illuminated their faces.
______Now where? Their choices were limited to two side passages that-if the other temples were any indication-circumnavigated the structure, or a central passage.
______She crouched on the floor, and shone her light on the floor of the central passage. She studied it carefully.
______"What is it?" Gates asked.
______"I'm not sure..." her voice trailed off. She fished in her pocket for her comm-link. It was a small cylinder with a smooth finish. She set it sideways on the passage, and lifted her fingers.
______Almost immediately, it began to roll further into the passage. She snatched it up before it went too far.
______"It slopes," Cammie realized. Aeon rose to her feet, and nodded to her friend. The guard had mentioned the chamber was down-under the temple. The haunted chamber was that way.
______She aimed the light into the dark of the passageway, and the feeble beam was engulfed in the abyss. She started down the corridor, the others following close behind her.
______She was feeling apprehensive herself. It had never occurred to her-at least until now, unfortunately-that if grown men were afraid of this chamber, then it logically followed that perhaps there might be a reason for her to be afraid of it as well.
______They walked for what seemed like a long time, and Aeon remembered how large the temple's base seemed from the outside. The incline of the corridor was more pronounced here, and she guessed that they were actually underground at this point.
______"Look!" Gates pointed. They followed the imaginary line drawn by his finger to the floor ahead of them. There was a faint blue glow on the stone.
______"I wonder what that is," Aeon wondered aloud. She looked at the others. Tam swallowed visibly, but he nodded to her bravely.
______She started down the corridor, and the blue light cascaded on the stones of the hallway. As they descended the slanted corridor, the lip of the ceiling lifted to reveal the opening to a large chamber beyond.
______Whatever illuminated that chamber spilled over into the corridor, and Aeon switched off her light, only vaguely aware of doing so. She was entranced, suspended in the moment, and absolutely enthralled by the possibility of what was waiting for her inside that chamber.
______She walked slowly toward the door, making it last as long as possible. This was her favorite moment, being on the cusp of discovery.
______Although young, she was mature enough to realize that, often, the anticipation of the event far outweighed the excitement of the event itself. That would most likely be the case here, but for now there existed a universe of possibilities.
______She walked slowly toward the entrance to the chamber, and felt the excitement rushing through her. She put her hand against the wall to steady her, and was pleasantly surprised to feel the stone warm to the touch.
______She caressed it with her bare hand, running it across the rough surface lightly. It seemed to pulse with energy, as if current were running just beneath the surface-almost like the tree branch. As if it were alive, she thought in passing.
______Her fear ebbed as her excitement grew. She could see it on the faces of the others too. They hadn't had this much fun since they discovered the network of secret tunnels. Exploring was what ignited her imagination. Discovering new territory.
______Her eyes took in the details of the chamber as they stepped into it. Its dimensions were vast, and save for the chamber where Princess Leia had awarded Luke Skywalker and Han Solo, the largest she'd seen. The walls of the chamber sloped toward one another, and the ceiling-at least twenty meters high-must have reached above the level of the surface. Along the top of the wall there was a series of long, thin windows that allowed the glow of the perimeter lights to permeate into the chamber.
______What caught Aeon's attention immediately were three large obelisks placed equidistant from one another along the room's axis. All three had the same conical shape-a wide round base that tapered to a point at least ten or fifteen meters above the chamber floor.
______She realized that the degree at which the walls were angled matched almost perfectly the slope of the pillars.
______The obelisks closest and farthest from her were made of what appeared to be common stone, not unlike the stone that composed the temple's structure. The main difference is that this stone had been worked until it was flawlessly smooth and polished.
______She paid the nearest obelisk no more than a cursory glance upon seeing the middle one. It, too, was made of stone, but it sat in a metal base that maintained its conical shape. The stone itself was a translucent, deep blue, and radiated light that illuminated and defined the interior of the chamber.
______"Wow," she said. She stared at the crystal, mesmerized.
______"No guards?" Tam asked. She looked, and he was systematically searching out the corners. Truth to tell, she became preoccupied with the obelisks and forgot to look. They didn't see any, so she got lucky that time.
______The others milled into the room slowly. They spread apart, and began looking around. Aeon became dimly aware of a sound, like howling wind. But she felt no draft, and couldn't place the source.
______It was possible that a storm had picked up outside. The monsoons on Yavin IV could appear out of nowhere, and last for hours. Great, she thought to herself. There was no way they could get back to the main temple, not if the winds were blowing that fiercely. They would have to call for a ride, and then her father would know they had been here.
______In that case, she reasoned, they had better make the most of this expedition, because it would probably be their last.
______"Don't touch that!" she heard, and spun around. Cammie had her hand within a breath of the surface of one of the stone obelisks. She was looking over her shoulder at Gates, who had scolded her. "It might be dangerous," he added. Cammie heeded his advice, and moved her hand.
______Aeon had felt that same admonition, but she couldn't put a finger on why. Maybe just being naturally cautious. But, as many would attest, being cautious wasn't natural to her. There was something else-a feeling. She tried to specify it, but it eluded her.
______Aeon proceeded deeper into the chamber toward the crystal obelisk. The others seemed content to mill around the entrance.
______Deep within the heart of the stone there were shapes, shadows deep within. If judging a normal gemstone, this one would be considered to have imperfections. But the shadows were not flaws. They were there by design. She walked around in orbit around the structure, and watched the shadows shimmer inside.
______Interesting. No matter which way she faced, she saw the same image.
______Aeon became aware that she could hear the dim howling of the wind clearer than before, which made little sense since she was standing deeper in the temple. Unless...
______Unless it wasn't the wind.
______Goose pimples raised the hairs on her arms, and she felt a chill traverse the length of her spine. Now she was starting to understand why the guards avoided this place. Maybe they should go, she thought, and then chided herself for her cowardice. They came all this way, didn't they?
______Aeon stared at the shapes within the crystal, and tried to form a picture of some sort. She took a few steps back, and tilted her head to one side. She tried to get a look at the whole.
______Slowly, an image began to form. Familiar shapes started to arrange themselves. There were two dark wells within the structure near each other that she had stared at for some time. When she stepped back, she locked on them right away. They seemed to stare right back at her.
______Her pulse quickened. Her mind raced-half against her will-to complete the picture. With recognizable landmarks, the whole started to fill itself in quickly. She could make out the vague shape of a face: the cheeks, and nose, the forehead above the eyes.
______The mouth was a long round shape. It hung open, elongated beyond proportion. It stared at her, agape.
______No, that wasn't right. It wasn't looking at her at all. Surprise wasn't the emotion that she saw on this face. It was fear. It was sorrow.
______Suffering-that's what she saw in the heart of the obelisk. The ghost inside the crystal wailed in pain and horror, and with white panic she suddenly knew with certainty the origin of the howling.
______Aeon stepped back from the obelisk. Terror washed over her, threatening to overwhelm her. She had never felt a sensation like this before, and for a moment she felt like she might black out. She closed her eyes, centering herself, and pulled herself back from the tempting abyss of unconsciousness.
______She summoned her courage, and met the gaze of the crystal's haunted spirit. Rationality came back to her, thankfully. She reasoned that none of them had been hurt, and she hadn't heard of anyone else being hurt here either. There was just that feeling, the anxiety that incited her to panic and flee. But as she fought it, it gradually subsided.
______She also owed that to her father, the ability to face her fear.
______Her natural curiosity was returning, although her heart was still beating hard enough for her to feel it ringing in her ears. She regained her composure, and, as she looked at the obelisk, the image of the face didn't seem as obvious as before. She could still make it out, but it was more difficult, and it didn't alarm her like it did before.
______Perhaps the crystal was more than it appeared to be. Could the fear response be a mechanism of the machine, she wondered? A defense mechanism with which to protect itself, and to deter the curious?
______Was this device actively guarding its secrets? And if so, what secrets did it possess?
______Aeon's mind began to work quickly. She weighed the evidence, and reasoned the obelisks must have been built by the Massassi. A chamber of this size and shape-that was atypical for them. Even the coronation chamber, which was in the third temple of the complex, was better integrated into the design of the whole structure. The slope of this chamber matched almost exactly the angle of the crystal.
______It was possible that another race could have built the crystals after the Massassi had died out, but unlikely. Why would the Massassi have built this central chamber with such unusual dimensions? And it was evident that this chamber was part of the original design of the complex by the same architectural signatures that marked the other temples. All the temples in this group were built at the same time.
______So the obelisk was the only artifact that they had from the long dead race, possibly the only thing that remained of them.
______Aeon felt an urge to touch it. She wanted to feel it so that she could be somehow connected to those that fashioned it. To have a link to the past, to those that labored to lift it into place, and to those that crafted and finished the stone with loving hands. To know something of the souls of those people dead ten thousand years. She raised her hand toward it.
______"Someone's coming!" Cammie said. Aeon froze in place, and looked around. She saw an entrance to a corridor on the center of the opposite wall from which they entered. She hadn't even noticed that other entrance. On the floor at the edge of the chamber was a spot of light that danced jerkily, and she could just make out the clicking of heels on stone. Someone was descending the sloping corridor on the other side.
______Aeon looked back at the others. They were close to the entrance of the room, and Aeon waved them off. She knew that she could never make it to the door without being seen, but they could.
______Aeon looked around quickly. The walls stopped about a foot above the surface of the floor, creating a sunken cul-de-sac that ran the length of the floor. That seemed to be her best bet at the moment, although she wouldn't know how deep of a niche there was until she was trying to stuff herself in it.
______That was unusual architecture for the Massassi, she thought to herself. She had seen the same style of design only once before: the massive chamber where they had awarded the heroes of the Alliance.
______Not now, Aeon, she chided herself. She could think about architecture later.
______"Aeon!" she heard whispered too loudly, and turned to see Tam remaining at the entrance. He was motioning her to follow them. She shook her head 'no', and pointed to the indentation in the wall.
______The footsteps were very audible, and it would only be a few moments before the guard saw them. "Go," she mouthed silently, and implored him with her eyes.
______He frowned, and turned up the corridor quietly. She could hear his footsteps lightly, but with any luck the guard might think it was an echo of his own footsteps. Aeon turned her attention to herself, and where she would hide. She crouched down, and tried to keep the obelisk between the guard and herself as she made her way to the indentation in the wall.
______To her delight, the niche ran at least a meter under the wall. She had ample space to conceal herself. She hunched up on an elbow, and searched for the guard.
______She spotted him as he walked between the obelisks. He gave them wide clearance, hugging the opposite wall. She may have imagined it, but it seemed as if he was averting his eyes from looking at them. She wondered if he, too, had experienced the fear mechanism she had theorized. Regardless, it worked out for her. He seemed perfectly content to go through the motions and not the least bit interested about making a thorough search of the chamber.
______She didn't recognize him, which meant that even if he did catch her, he would probably just tell her to leave, and her father would be none the wiser.
______He waved his light around the corners of the room, and headed back up the entrance that Tam and the others exited from. Hopefully they didn't wait around for her, otherwise he might nail them. Well, she would find out eventually.
______She pulled herself out of the cul-de-sac. Given the speed with which the guard had completed his patrol, she doubted he would come back down here any time soon.
______But how to get out? He went out the entrance that she had intended to use. She could go out the other way, but then would have to get around the inside of the entire temple, and she would be bound to run into more guards.
______She stopped for a moment, and thoughts of leaving faded entirely. She looked at the crystal. It shone blue and radiant in the center of the chamber, and she was held captive by its beauty. She had been in the middle of something when the guard interrupted her.
______She walked toward the crystal slowly. She could hear the howling again, but it no longer frightened her. She could feel the energy from it, the heat. Being near it made her clothes tingle with static electricity. Rogue strands of her hair gravitated toward it.
______As she raised her hands slowly, she was aware of the blue tint to her skin. The tiny hairs on her arms danced along the surface of her skin. She could hear and feel a humming emanating from the crystal. It was calming to her, reaching out to her.
______She was no longer afraid. The connection she felt to this planet and to the Massassi seemed to embody itself in this moment. Gently she touched the surface of the crystal. First the tips of her fingers caressed the smooth surface, then slid outward to allow the palms of her hands to press against it. She felt the warmth and energy rushing just beneath the surface, just as it had in the stone, only multiplied exponentially.
______She felt it pour through her, awash in the raw power. The rhythmic humming drowned out all other sound. It was deafening, and yet caused her no pain. She was a part of this structure, the crystal, and the entire temple. The entire planet: somewhere a red insect flew off the serrated edge of a green leaf. The leaf swayed gently in the breeze, and she felt it. In that moment, she was both the insect and the leaf. She was every living thing on the planet.
______She saw the face in the crystal again, only this time it was it did not frighten her. It was turning on its side-the entire crystal was. She couldn't figure out why, and then-only dimly-did it occur to her that it wasn't the crystal at all that was turning. It was she. She was falling, floating. She felt her arms tugging at her. They wanted to let go of the crystal, but she fought to hold on. She never wanted to lose this feeling. But she couldn't help it. She was floating away. Floating, falling, awash in the warmth that was even now becoming difficult to remember.
______Dimly, she wondered what was this thing the Massassi had created. Her mind struggled to ask questions, but none came. As she slipped away, she wondered vaguely about the fate of the Massassi, and her own. She felt-no, she somehow knew-that in some way they were intertwined, and she wanted to know how.
______Before reaching any satisfactory conclusions, she blacked out.
|