For Your Photoreceptors Only/Chapter 6

For Your Photoreceptors Only

Chapter 6

The Box Forest on Kashyyyk was named for it's squared shape. It was a forest of wroshyr trees that stretched for miles in all directions. It's borders were almost straight and it's corners were nearly right angles. It wasn't exactly a perfect square-shape but it was pretty close.

Gruu Funkistann and his padawan Acura Krill had just arrived here and were trying to communicate with the Wookiees, but to no avail.

QUAD suddenly shimmered into existence. Just in time.

The Wookiees were startled to see a large droid appear out of nowhere. They drew their weapons but Gruu put out his hands as if to stop them. "Wait, wait! Him-sa is wit' me-sa."

QUAD proceeded to speak in the language of the Wookiees. The Wookiees responded. QUAD said something back and the Wookiees responded again.

"What are dey sayin'?" Gruu asked.

"I have informed them that we are here to investigate Noah's lab in the Shadowlands," QUAD said. "But they say it's too dangerous down there, especially for Jedi."

"We-sa know da Shadowlands are on da ground level of da forests, but why specifically is it dangerous for Jedi?"

"There are creatures that dwell down there called Terentatek. They particularly like feeding on the blood of Force-users. And they don't get many Jedi down there, so it's sort of a delicacy for them."

A Jedi-eating creature? Acura swallowed hard.

Gruu put his hand on her shoulder to comfort her. "It'll be fine. Just remember you-sa training."

"Yes, Master," Acura responded, nodding.

Turning back to QUAD, Gruu said, "Tell dem we-sa will take our chances."

QUAD added, "But they also said they destroyed the old lab years ago. It's nothing but rubble...according to them."

"We-sa are still gonna go down to check it out."

- - - - - - - - - -

Three Wookiees accompanied Gruu, Acura and QUAD on the wooden lift platform down to the Shadowlands. During the descent, Acura turned to QUAD and asked, "You speak their language? Is that something MI5 programmed you with?"

"Indeed, Ms. Krill," QUAD answered. "Q'u Branch programmed me with over 6 million forms of communication. So I can translate just as well as a protocol droid."

As they moved further down, Gruu could feel the air get cooler and more moist. It felt good on his amphibious Gungan skin. Moments later, they reached the ground level. Stepping out on to the soggy dirt, they realized that the sun doesn't reach down this far, hence the name "Shadowlands". But that also meant that the ground never dried out. It was also quite dark. Some ambient light filtered through from above, but QUAD ended up popping open his shoulder lights again anyway.

The Wookiees led the MI5 agents to the location of the old lab. All that appeared to remain was rubble overgrown with moss and some other flora.

One of the Wookiees groaned something that QUAD translated as "See? There's nothing left."

Gruu looked at the large mound. "Me-sa would have figured da lab would be a muy muy large structure." He expected something much wider. The pile of remains didn't look that wide at all.

QUAD said, "When I was on Ord Mantell with Agent Moonreaper, we found a turbolift that went deeper into the ground. There may be more to the lab further down."

Gruu looked to Acura. "Ready to put you-sa telekinesis skills to da test?"

"Of course, Master," the young Human responded.

The two Jedi closed their eyes, concentrated on their connection with the Force, and reached their arms out toward the pile of rubble. Slowly, almost magically, large chunks of rubble levitated off the ground. Soggy dirt fell from the underside of the chunks as moss stretched and tore. It took a few moments for the Jedi to move the large chunks.

With much of the rubble now resting at the base of a line of trees, they all started brushing away the dirt where the rubble used to be. They soon found metal.

Gruu activated his lightsaber, a green blade appearing. He stuck it into the metal floor and carved a circle. When it was completed, the circular piece of metal, slid downward into a darkened shaft below the metal floor. It took several seconds before they heard it hit bottom.

"This metal floor we're currently standing on," QUAD started, "is probably a lift."

Looking down into the darkness in the new hole, Gruu asked, "Is there a way we-sa can build a make-shift platform to get down there?"

QUAD said, "The repulsors in my feet can lower us down there. But I can only carry two of you. So the Wookiees may have to stay here."

"Let's do it," Gruu said.

- - - - - - - - - -

While Gruu, Acura and QUAD were preparing to lower themselves down into the underground lab on Kashyyyk, Europa Kapanen was disembarking the MI5 vessel Durasteel Rancor on Jakku. The coordinates pointed her to nothing but desert wastelands. There were two small settlements nearby, but that was all. Could this be right? Was there really a laboratory out here somewhere?

The time-traveling QUAD suddenly shimmered into existence right in front of her. She jumped, not expecting that. "Whoa!"

"Sorry," QUAD said. "It appears I have a tendency to do that."

Europa quickly noticed that the chest-plate on QUAD was damaged. It looked as though there were giant claw marks that slashed open the metal. "What happened to you? Are you alright?" She rushed over and ran her hands across the damaged metal.

"Oh, yes. I'm quite alright," QUAD responded. "Agent Funkistann, his padawan and I encountered some indigenous creatures on Kashyyyk. Well, technically it hasn't happened yet in real time. But it will happen very soon."

Ignoring the confusing time travel talk, Europa asked, "Are Gruu and Acura okay?"

"A few scrapes and most likely some pulled muscles...but, yes, they are okay as well. Sadly, three Wookiees perished in the encounter. Er, actually, will perish, since it has not yet occurred."

Just as QUAD finished that sentence, they noticed movement around them. Mounds of sand popped up and Europa and QUAD spun around to see five sand-covered Humans surrounding them. Two men and three young women, all aiming blasters at the MI5 operatives. "Don't move, scavengers," one of the women said.

With her arms up, Europa said, "We're not scavengers, and we're not here to harm you. We're with MI5, conducting an investigation."

"What could MI5 possibly be investigating way out here on this remote planet?" the woman spoke again.

"We're looking for an old laboratory that used to be owned by a man named Noah," Europa said.

The woman hesitated and looked to her female companions.

"You may be able to help us," Europa added. "Do you know where it is?"

The woman slowly lowered her blaster. "Yeah. I know where it is. But it's been gutted. There's nothing left."

"Would you mind taking us there?"

"That...might be difficult." The woman relaxed and motioned for the others to lower their weapons. "What's left of it is controlled by a settlement that happens to be our enemy."

Europa lowered her arms. "If you can get us to the lab, we may be able to help you against this enemy."

The woman said, "We'll head back to Orca, our settlement. I'll explain everything there. I'm Melina Shatterstar. These are my younger sisters Danica and Isabella."

"It's a pleasure. I'm Europa Kapanen and this big guy is called QUAD."

"How do you do," QUAD said.

Melina ordered the two men to stay and guard the MI5 ship. "You don't want scavengers to take it apart," she said. Then they headed off further into the sandy desert.

Chapters: Prologue | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | Epilogue