LUX BONTERI

As Lux and Ahsoka reached the end of the corridor, Lux slowed his sprint to a jog, and led Ahsoka down to its very end. But she didn’t understand. They had passed the elevator by already. This was a dead end!

“Lux, this is a dead end! We need to go back!” Ahsoka said, trying to pull him in the other direction.

“No, wait. Look at this.” He walked over to the far wall, and pushed on a section that was slightly lighter than the rest. There was a mechanical hum, then a hatch popped open.

“What? How did you know it was there?”

“I spent a little more time here than you did when the construction started on the Temple. This was a hatch that the workers used to put the wiring and some of the smaller pipes. I found it, so before they closed it up, I had Semm make it into a door, in case we ever needed it. Looks like we did,” he replied.

Semm was one of the original padawans, a Cerean, who she had rescued from the Temple during the Jedi Purge across the galaxy. He had developed a talent for working with technology and machines a little while after their arrival on Cialone. And even though he was only sixteen now, he was the best mechanic the New Jedi Order had. Even better than Ahsoka herself.

She nodded, understanding, but then another question entered her mind. “But how would we get down to the shield generators? We’re a full six floors away!”

“The bottom is smooth enough to slide on, and the angle is just right so that we’d get there quickly.” Lux smiled, despite the stress, and she found his smiled to be contagious. It seemed like only danger really brought them together like this.

“Let’s go, then,” she said, and jumped into the tunnel. Lux followed, and soon they were sliding at top speed down towards the rooms that housed the generators.

“Wheeeeee!” Lux heard Ahsoka yell, followed quickly by a laugh. He grinned, because he knew that she worked so hard to keep everything running smoothly in the New Jedi Order, sometimes at the cost of her own wants and needs. That included having fun.

“Get ready!” he yelled down to her after a few minutes. “This is our stop!”

She looked up at him and nodded, probably having seen the little round trap door a little while down the tunnel. She put her arms out to slow her descent, and he did the same. Holding onto the pipes and wires around them, they stopped a few feet above it. Then they scrambled down and inside.

Lux pushed a button and the hatch slid open. There were some surprised looks from the padawans on duty, but he knew that their thoughts were on the accident that had just blown half of the shield generator to bits.

“Master Tano!” came a yell from the other side of the cavernous room. Both of them turned to see who it was, but he had recognized the voice even before she saw its owner: Semm.

“Semm, what’s going on here? I want a full report,” Ahsoka said calmly, with a ring of command in her voice. She looked every bit as regal and wise and knowledgeable as she sounded.

“Master, the system’s gone haywire! I can’t get anything to work!” The padawan ran up to her, covered in bits of grease and on the borderline of panic.

Ahsoka took one of his trembling hands in hers, in a gesture of comfort. “Semm. Calm down Take deep breaths.” The boy stopped shivering, and did as she suggested. “There. Now tell me what happened.”

“It was terrible! All I know is that suddenly the lights started flickering. You know how the generators are supposed to be kept cool so they don’t explode, right?”

She nodded patiently, and waited for him to continue. “Well, there was a loss of power at one of the cooling terminals, and when there’s a loss at one, all of them are compromised. I wasn’t really nearby, but unless they were on the top floors of the Temple I doubt anyone didn’t hear the explosion.”

Semm paused, as if trying not to relive what had happened. There wasn’t time to think about it at the moment, but it wasn’t improbable that a few people had died, or been severely injured. It was likely that he had come across some of these sights, and it was clear that it really had shaken him.

“Go on, Semm.”

“I ran back inside, and everything was burning and smoking. It was hard for me to breath properly. I evaluated the damage level, then ran back here. And I’d say that it would take at least three days to repair it, unless we get a new one.”

Clearly Semm didn’t know about the eminent meteor shower. Lux hung his head, discouraged. Any hope of getting it repaired in time was now gone. Things weren’t looking good.

Things were not looking good at all.