Saga The Light. (Short investigation story featuring Shaak Ti.) [Complete - English / German)]

The Light

Jedi Shaak Ti went into the Underground. Into the dark passages of the areas beneath the surface of Coruscant which were known as The Shadows.

With her went a human, about her size (not counting her horns), carrying some devices attached to his belts and held in some bags which were attached to his belts, too. One of them was a life-form scanner.

They moved in a way one could assume they had been working like a team before.

They were searching for something.

Going down a long, wide and broad flight of steps, with numerous paintings - some dull, some more eccentric, some mere signs, other carefully made as pictures, some glowing, some not, some even only visible in the infrared area, above other paintings and signs, they heard the shuffling, squeaking, sniffing, murmuring of different unseen animals. Everything smelled musty.
Even people lived here, people who were used to the absence of sunlight and were adopted to living in such tunnels and halls. Elom, for example.

The task was to retrieve something. A Wookiee senator had reported the loss of a small ferry - the investigations assumed that it might have crashed somewhere in this area. Surprisingly (or not, depending on the view), this wasn?t the only ferry which had crashed here : Investigations of Republic Guards had shown that another ferry which was thought to be part of a crime cartel had crashed here days before, too.

They went into the underground, leaving the daylights behind.

?Do you feel anything ?? the man asked Ti. ?No, not here. But far ahead?. ?I think I should put on my glasses.? the man replied. ?Yes, do so. But keep them off as long as you can manage. They need a lot of energy we simply cannot afford. Remember, Energy of any kind might lead us to some unwanted predators.? ?Okay.? the man replied without a change of his face or his tone. He rummaged in one of his numerous bags, then drew his ?glasses? as he called them out of it. They were a device enabling humans to use the infrared area and the ultraviolet area of the light, if needed. This device used a lot of energy, so it couldn?t be used all of the time.

The dripping of water filled the next hallway. It came from above (naturally), but what actually was there, above of them, couldn?t be said. A factory ? A water basin ? A part of the sewers ? They didn?t know.
What they knew was that it attracted many, many slimy slugs, which were feeding on the moss-like things that were growing there.

A spiral of stairs even led further into the depth, into the darkness.
The exit of this spiral was just another passage, a passage without light, apart from some glowing fungus.

Shaak Ti stopped. The human behind her moved close to her. ? I can feel it now.? she said. ?They are not far away.?
?How far away ?? the human asked. ?Well ... difficult to estimate. Something between a mile or two. But something else is even closer by. I don?t know what it is.? ?That?s enough. I?ll turn the glasses on.? He said.

Looking through the thing, he noticed that the passage they were in ended not very far ahead ... but the exit looked somewhat strange. Something was different there. He turned the ?thing? off.

?There?s something weird over there - the exit doesn?t look like ?normal? ? he whispered to the female Jedi.
?Okay, let?s approach it, then.? she said.

Slowly they stepped nearer, while Shaak Ti felt the presence of a life-form coming nearer and nearer as they went forwards.

The exit of the hallway was partly barred. Something big was there.

- ENTRY BEGINNING-
We reached something that looked like a very crude made ?door?. It consisted of several materials. We stepped out - and came into an enormous hall. Few light was there, but what we could see, was the wreckage of a small ferry lying in this gigantic hall. On second look, we noticed ancient paintings and symbols on the huge walls.
The only light that came into this hall came through a great hole ... the way the ferry had taken while crashing into this building. The fact that it still was there told us tha

 

The Light

Das Licht

Jedi Shaak Ti ging in den Untergrund. In die Passagen der Gebiete unterhalb der Oberfläche von Coruscant, bekannt als Die Schatten.

Mit ihr ging ein Mensch, ungefähr ihre Größe, (ihre Hörner nicht mitgezählt), der eine Menge Geräte mit sich führte, die an Gürteln und Umhängen angebracht waren, und die in Taschen mitgeführt wurden. Eines dieser Geräte war ein Lebensform-Scanner.

Sie bewegten sich in einer Art und Weise, daß man annehmen könnte, sie seien schon vorher als Team unterwegs gewesen.

Sie suchten nach etwas.

Während sie lange, weite und breite Treppenfluchten hinunterstiegen, die an den Wänden mit vielerlei Wandgemälden verziert waren - einige einfach, andere mehr exzentrisch, einige einfach Zeichen, andere wiederum so vorsichtig gemacht, wie Gemälde, einige im Dunkeln glühend, andere wiederum nur sichtbar im Infrarot-Bereich gemalt über anderen Gemälden und Zeichen, hörten sie ein Schnuffeln, Schnüffeln Wühlen, Quieken, Murmeln von verschiedenen, nicht sichtbaren Tieren, hier im Untergrund. Alles roch muffig.
Sogar Leute lebten hier, Leute, die an solches Leben fern vom Licht und in Tunneln und Hallen angepaßt waren. Elom, zum Beispiel.

Die Aufgabe bestand darin, etwas wiederzufinden. Ein Wookiee-Senator gab den Verlust einer kleinen Fähre bekannt. Die Untersuchungen nahmen an, daß es etwa in diesem Gebiet abgestürzt sei. Überraschenderweise (oder auch nicht, je nach Sichtweise), war das nicht die einzige Fähre, die hier abgestürzt war : Untersuchungen der republikanischen Wächter hatten ergeben, daß eine andere Fähre, von der man vermutete, sie gehöre zu einem Kriminal-Kartell ebenfalls hier abgestürzt war.

Sie gingen in den Untergrund, das Licht des Tages hinter sich lassend.

?Fühlst du irgendetwas ?? fragte der Mann die Jedi. ?Nein, nicht hier. Aber viel weiter vorne.? ?Ich denke, ich sollte die Brille aufsetzen.? antwortete der Mann. ?Ja, tu das. Aber laß sie solange ausgeschaltet, wie es irgend geht. Sie verbraucht eine Menge Energie - Energie, die wir uns nicht erlauben können, nutzlos zu verbrauchen. Dazu ist sie zu kostbar. Und denk auch daran, daß Energie jeder Art unwillkommene Jäger anziehen könnte.? ?Okay.? antwortete der Mann, ohne seinen Gesichtsausdruck oder seine Gestik zu verändern. Er wühlte in einer seiner vielen Taschen herum und zog schließlich seine ?Brille? - wie er sie nannte . Es war ein Gerät, das Menschen befähigte, den Infraroten oder auch Ultravioletten Bereich des Lichtes wahrzunehmen, falls sich das als notwendig erweisen sollte. Das Gerät brauchte allerdings eine Menge Energie, folglich konnte es nicht die ganze Zeit benutzt werden.

Das Tropfen von Wasser erfüllte den nächsten Hallengang. Es kam von oben (natürlich), aber was es nun tatsächlich auslöste, was eigentlich über ihnen war, blieb unklar. Eine Fabrik ? Ein Wasserbecken ? Ein Teil der Kanalisation ? Sie wußten es nicht.
Was sie aber wußten, war, daß es viele schleimige Schnecken anzog, die sich von dem moosartigen Zeugs ernährten, was dort wuchs.

Ein spiralförmiger Treppenabgang führte noch weiter in die Tiefe, in die Dunkelheit.
Der Ausgang der Wendeltreppe war eine weitere Passage, eine Passage ohne Licht, abgesehen von einigen leuchtenden Pilzen.

Shaak Ti stoppte. Der Mensch hinter ihr bewegte sich nahe an sie heran. ?Ich kann es jetzt fühlen.? sagte sie, ohne ihn zu sehen. Ihr Blick war nach vorne gerichtet. ?Sie sind nicht weit weg.?
?Wie weit weg ?? fragte der Mensch. ?Schwer zu bestimmen. Irgendetwas zwischen einer der zwei Meilen. Aber etwas anderes ist näher. Ich weiß nicht, was es ist.? ?Das reicht mir, Ich werde die Brille anschalten.? sagte er.

Als er durch das Ding hindurchschaute, stellte er fest, daß sich das Ende der Passage in der Tat nicht sehr weit weg befand ... aber der Ausgang sah etwas ... seltsam aus. Etwas war anders dort. Er macht das ?Ding? aus.

?Etwas ist seltsam dort drüben - der Ausgang sieht nicht ?normal? aus.? flüsterte er der Jedi zu.
?Okay, laß uns dann gehen.? sagte sie.

Langsam schritten sie näher, während Shaak

 

Alrik, as I promised (or warned ) you, I'd like to post a couple of comments on this story.

I thought this was a good, straight-forward story of a rescue mission with a bit of mystery and adventure thrown in. I didn?t think the battle scenes were bad at all. I can?t read the German version, but the English version sounded all right. I had no trouble figuring out what was happening during the battles, so those sequences worked for me.

In addition to the light, could the pillar also emit some sort of electronic signal that causes the navigational equipment to malfunction, or that serves as a homing beacon and draws the craft in? Maybe one of your scientific researchers might discover that?

You might want to toy with the idea of making the entire story a series of journal entries by the same three or four characters: Neelan, Sel, Niowarro, and Shaak Ti?s human friend (do we ever learn his name? I can?t remember it from the other story.) (I hate getting old! ). The format you used here, switching back and forth between narration and journal entries, works just fine, but I thought I'd just throw this idea out as another possibility.

Help me out, here -- I don't remember what a Cthon or a Jenet looks like ? none of them have been used as major characters in any of the movies, have they? I realize that in this story they're just background characters, but I'm having a problem forming a mental picture of either of them.

I can see you?ve done some homework ? I remember the giant mutant rats entry from The Wildlife of Star Wars, one of my all-time favorite reference books. What's a Taozin, though? (Sorry to sound so clueless here.)

I enjoyed this one as much as "In Love with a Jedi", and I'm always happy to see Shaak Ti make an appearance in your stories. If you need someone to beta-read English versions of stories for you, drop me a PM, okay?

 

Thanks for your reply.

A Taozin ... I know this from the "Star Wars Fact Files" series; I think I should translte what's there into the Writer's Help and Information thread.

The other species ... I know them from my "aliens book", but I guess descriptions of them might be found elsewhere, too.

I might add links to descriptions of them, if I find any.

Alrik.

P.S.: Currently I'm toying around with the idea of an unusual story about Jedi Master Fay.

 

Well done on this story. I like the darker underground aspect of Coruscant a lot. The imagery of light was well described, and I enjoyed the mutant rats sections.

(I collect the factfiles too by the way)