Vision of the future

wanted.

And in the process played the role of informal ambassadors and information gatherers? Possibly. Something to remember if and when the New Republic decided to make official contact with them. Beside him, Mara cleared her throat. 'Is any of this no doubt fascinating conversation helping us get inside the High Tower?'

'Not really,' Luke agreed, pushing the glimpse into Qom Qae social structure aside for now. Stepping to the yellow wall beneath where Splitter Of Stones was sitting, he ran an exploring hand across the surface. If there was a hidden door there, it was very well hidden. 'You think we should look for a release, or open it the easy way?'

Mara's answer was the snap-hiss of her lightsaber. 'Get out of the way,' she said. 'You, too, Qom Jha.'

Splitter Of Stones fluttered hastily to one of the wall sconces. Three quick slashes, and Mara had a man-sized opening cut in the wall. Lightsaber held ready, she jumped into the gap and ducked to her right. Luke was right behind her, ducking to the left.

They were in a narrow passageway, no more than a meter and a half across, which like the room behind them extended to the right beyond the range of their glow rods. In the other direction, the passageway ended in a wall only a few meters away.

And leading up over their heads from that end was a set of stairs.

'Over here, Mara,' Luke called quietly over his shoulder as he headed that direction. The stairs were narrow, and like the passageway itself extended past the range of his glow rod beam. Overhead to the left he could see just the hint of an angled and rising ceiling: another flight of steps, he decided, probably connecting with this set at some unseen landing ahead. Rising vertically along the inside edge of the stairway were a series of thick cylinders that ran from below the level of the passageway up into the darkness above.

'That's our way up, all right,' Mara said from his side. 'Uh-oh.'

'What?' Luke asked, frowning as he stretched out with the Force. There was no danger he could detect.

'The stairs,' Mara said, her glow rod shining downward on the lowest steps. 'Now that looks like Hijarna building material.'

Luke frowned down at it. 'Any way to tell for sure?'

'A couple of blaster bolts ought to do it,' she said. 'But the noise would probably travel farther than we'd like. Anyway, at the moment it's irrelevant—we're not launching a full-scale assault on the place.'

'Right—we're trying to sneak in,' Luke agreed. 'Looks like we'll have to go single file.'

'I think we're all used to that by now,' Mara said, playing her glow rod up and down the steps.

'Reminds me of that secret passageway Palpatine had in the Imperial palace.'

'Reminds me of the service shaft in Ilic on New Cov,' Luke said, remembering that long walk he and Han had taken up those stairs to a landing area crawling with Imperials.

'You'd think just one of these secret-stair-builders would have the courtesy to install a turbolift,' Mara said, shaking her head. 'Or at least a droid carrier.'

'It would be nice,' Luke agreed. 'Well, nothing for it but to start climbing. Let's go.'

* * *

With the narrow but relatively open area ahead and above them, Luke decided to let Splitter Of Stones and his cadre of Qom Jha take the point, flying up and ahead of them. Luke went next, carrying the droid for a change, leaving Mara and Child Of Winds to bring up the rear. Mara had groused a little about that, arguing that she wasn't tired and could handle the droid just fine. But Luke had declared the staircase safe enough for him to take droid duty, and had ignored her complaints.

Not that she'd complained too hard or too long. The droid had been getting heavier and heavier lately, and she was just as glad to be rid of the burden for a while.

'Any idea what these are?' she asked Luke, running her fingertips across the first of the thick vertical cylinders as she passed it. From this position on the stairs she could now see to the first landing, and a quick count showed there were twenty of the cylinders rising through the gap. 'They don't look like ventilation shafts.'

The droid warbled. 'Artoo says they're power lines,' Luke told her. 'Probably bringing energy to the High Tower from that big power source he picked up.'

'That's one blazing lot of capacity,' Mara said, eyeing the cylinders uneasily. 'Are all twenty of them pulling power?'