Vision of the future

'What are you going to do?' Luke asked, frowning, as she pulled out her lightsaber and ignited it.

'Like I said: get a closer look,' she said. Holding the lightsaber out in front of her, she caught it with a Force grip and started it spinning slowly. Still spinning, it floated off to their left, keeping close in to the wall. It approached one of the holes...

And with a flash of light and the multiple crunch of shattered rock, it vanished into the hole. Mara Jade! Child Of Wings gasped. Your weapon-claw—

'It's all right,' Luke calmed him. He kept his eyes on the hole, not daring to look at Mara. If she'd miscalculated...

And then, with a second loud crumbling of rock, a long sluglike creature sagged out of the hole, covered with pink blood still oozing from a half-dozen deep cuts across its body. Moving in an almost grotesque slow-motion, it slid down the mossy wall and came to a stop against a stone on the ground. A coiled tongue rolled loosely out of the slack mouth, followed by Mara's lightsaber. There was a gasp from one of the Qom Jha. So that is what they are like, Keeper Of Promises said.

'You hadn't seen one before?' Luke asked.

No, the Qom Jha replied. We did not encounter them until thirty seasons ago. Luke cocked an eyebrow. 'Really. Weren't they here before that, or had you just not run into them?'

I cannot properly answer that question, Keeper Of Promises said. Only rarely have the Qom Jha ever come into this part of the cavern.

'Trouble?' Mara asked as she reached out with the Force to retrieve her lightsaber.

'There seems to be some question as to whether this room was like this up until thirty years ago,' Luke told her.

'Interesting,' Mara said, looking at her now bloodied lightsaber with distaste. Easing it around the corner into the chamber, she wiped it off on an edge of the white moss. 'Could be someone moved into the High Tower about then and wanted to discourage casual tourism.'

'That's one possibility,' Luke agreed.

'Well, I did mine,' Mara said, inspecting her lightsaber again. 'You can do the next—what, about thirty of them?'

'About that,' Luke confirmed, doing a quick estimate of the number of holes in the cavern's walls.

'You think they might be smart enough to realize we're too big to eat?'

'I'd hate to count on it,' Mara said. 'There's more than enough speed and muscle behind those tongues to break bone.'

'Agreed,' Luke said. 'I don't suppose there would be any path across that would be out of their range.'

'Wouldn't want to count on that, either,' Mara said. 'Anyway, it seems straightforward enough. We hug one wall and slice up each of them from the side as we get to it.' Luke grimaced. Straightforward enough, certainly, but rather bloody. The creatures were nonsentient, of course, and it was vitally important that he and Mara get past them. But he still didn't relish the idea of so much wholesale slaughter.

But maybe there was another way. 'Keeper Of Promises, you've obviously run into these things before,' he said, looking back over his shoulder. 'What do they eat?' Keeper Of Promises fluttered his wings. There are migrations of insects at the beginning and closing of each season.

'Hmm?' Mara asked.

'Migrating insects,' Luke translated.

'Ah,' Mara said. 'Except when they can get fresh Qom Jha, I suppose.' Splitter Of Stones ruffled his wings warningly. Do not be insulting, Jaded Of Mara.

'Of course, that doesn't explain what they're eating right now,' Mara went on. 'Not much in the way of insects down here at the moment.'

'At least not any visible ones,' Luke said. Closing down his lightsaber, he eased into the chamber, keeping close to the wall. Extending his lightsaber handle out as far as he could, he gave the moss a sharp whack.

There was a sudden rumbling buzz; and abruptly a dozen large insects burst from unseen cavities in the moss,