Knowing the speed at which his two companions could travel on foot, Ren utilized the full extent of his command over the Force to accelerate his movements. He whipped over the soft moss with preternatural velocity, the salty air whipping at his face. Neeka and Cathock kept pace with him, Neeka with smooth, liquid strides, and Cathock with powerful bounds that launched his thick body several meters with every explosive stride.

They came to an opening in the dark rock that protruded from a particularly large mossy hill. The cave mouth was about five meters wide by Ren's best judgment and at least four meters tall. Ren disliked such environments. His true talents were not as a close range melee fighter and even though this cave tunnel did not seem to be incredibly cramped, it was tight enough to make close quarters combat a difficult thing to avoid. Still, he had fought and survived in such circumstances before, and he had Neeka and Cathock with him.

He looked at his companions and said: "Let me go first."

"Are we still being observed?" said Cathock.

"Yes," Ren said.

"Can you conceal us from their senses?" said Neeka.

"Perhaps, but – " Ren searched his feelings, "I don't think I am supposed to."

"What does that mean?" said Cathock.

"I don't know yet," said Ren. "But these people already know of our existence and I don't think they see us as enemies yet. If I cloak us, that might change. We are going to encounter them either way."

"I see," said Neeka. "Better not to make them suspicious then."

"I suppose I agree," said Cathock, though there was little certainty in his voice.

Ren nodded and then turned back toward the cave. Without any further words he entered. There was a sulfuric scent that assaulted his nose as soon as stepped into the darkness. The air was warm and somehow felt alive. The cave floor, which was made up mostly of stone and hard packed dirt, steeped rather quickly into a descent, the extent of which Ren could not decipher, but almost immediately as he moved down it he saw in its depths, a faint glow of light.

"Do you see that?!" Neeka hissed.

"Quiet," Cathock whispered.

Ren gazed around as they moved further and further down. The light ahead was a dim blue that was growing steadily in intensity. Looking at it was strange – calming somehow – though Ren couldn't say why. They moved what he judged to be at least forty meters below the planet's surface before the details of the light began to clarify, and when they did Neeka let out a tiny gasp.

The walls of the cave themselves were producing the light, or at least they seemed to be. As Ren drew closer to the illumination he realized that the glow was coming from tiny filaments within the rock, and that these filaments somehow burned with Force energy. Ren leaned in to inspect a patch of stone on the wall that shined with particular brilliance when his senses alerted him suddenly to an alien presence. Instinctively he dropped down and slipped his right hand around the hilt of his light saber. A fraction of a second later both Neeka and Cathock had followed suit, their weapons out and aimed at the darkness toward which Ren was staring.

"Hello," a raspy voice whispered, speaking in galactic basic, but in an accent Ren had never heard.

Ren sensed no weapons of any kind on this being, whoever it was, but he remained cautious. "If you want to talk, show yourself," he said.

A cloaked, shadowy figure of normal human height emerged from the darkness of the cave's depths very slowly. When its outline was fully formed it stretched out a very long fingered hand and made a slow gesture upward, and Ren felt a small surge in the Force. The filaments in the rock all around them grew brighter and brighteruntil the being's features became apparent.

The alien had ashen gray skin that contrasted with a white, bushy beard that hung down from his chin in front of his simple robes. His head was entirely bald and it was marked with strange intricate designs that encircled his scalp. The irises of his eyes shined like polished metal, reflecting so much of the light of the cave that they almost seemed like small mirrors. The man stood upright and was tall and broad shouldered, but he looked very ancient.

The silver eyes focused on Ren for a moment, and then the old face curled into a smile. "Yes-s-s, the Force flows around you like a great storm," he said.

Ren felt the old man's mind attempt to psychically probe his own. He threw up a wall around his consciousness and said: "Stop that, or we shall become enemies."

"My apologies," said the alien. "It is difficult to resist. We know so little about the universe outside of this simple world."

Ren was surprised both by the fact that this being spoke perfect galactic basic and that it was aware of the unique circumstances of its own planet. The words seemed to indicate that it was a native of this odd world and had developed an intelligent curiosity toward the rest of the universe.

"Is he Sith or Jedi?" Cathock asked. He was still tense and ready to kill.

"Neither, and not a threat," said Ren, and he reached over and gently pushed down on the tip of Cathock's weapon. Cathock allowed this, but Ren sensed that he was not at ease.

"No, we are certainly not a threat," said the old alien. "We are of peace." He raised his hands slightly into the air and shut his eyes and whispered: "Narak fas corodai nij vahass."

The words seemed to Ren to be of the ancient Sith tongue, but in a dialect far older and more archaic than his education encompassed. Still, he knew how to deal with alien languages. Through the Force he reached into the being's mind and willed enough of the linguistic knowledge into his own consciousness to decipher the meaning. "We are created to serve," he said.

"Yes-s-s-s," said the old man, eying Ren with new fascination. He took a step forward and said: "I am Satral, and it is my most esteemed pleasure to meet you." His eyes were fixed on Ren with such intensity that it seemed that Cathock and Neeka did not exist in his mind. He was about to say something else when Ren became aware of the presence of a second sentient being. Whoever it was moved very quickly, and Ren sensed the presence of a weapon.

"What are you doing?" a feminine voice hissed from the darkness, sounding furious. A female of the gray species appeared from the shadows with what looked like a very old blaster rifle in her hands. She was much younger than the old man – close to Neeka's age in appearance at least – with smooth gray skin and shoulder length hair of a very deep blue color. She appeared furious. "Who are these visitors?!" she growled. She dropped to her knees a few paces back from the old man and took aim at Ren's chest.

Ren sensed both Neeka's and Cathock's weapons raise from behind him, and he said to them in a quiet whisper that only they could hear, not mouthing the words with his lips: "Wait."

"Do not attack them, Zashri," the old man said. He sounded only vaguely concerned.

"Old fool!" she said, not taking her eyes off Ren. Her voice dropped to a low hiss and she said: "Savage ne samboca vek doria – des macki no vena" which Ren translated into: "These visitors are our enemies!" She pressed her eye to the scope of her weapon.

Ren felt Neeka and Cathock tense behind him. They were both poised to kill in an instant. His impressions of the girl were similar to those of the old man: she was not an enemy – or at least she wouldn't be if she survived the situation. Ren decided to act.

He made a swift gesture with his right hand, willing the Force into a burst focused on the female alien's weapon. It ripped very suddenly from her hands and flew into the cave wall where it bounced. The girl let out a shriek of surprise, but before she could react Ren yanked her toward him with the Force. Her body sailed the seven or so meters between them in less than a second and Ren reached out and caught her by the throat, stopping her momentum in the air as soon as they touched.

The girl was paralyzed with shock. Rend didn't squeeze hard on her throat. There was no need. He held her body immobile with the Force and she could not move unless he allowed it.

To Ren's surprise, the girl whose name he had heard as Zashri, mastered her fear rather quickly and glared up at him. "Visitors bring death to my world!" she snarled. "I am not afraid of you! I won't beg for my life, beast!"

"Please, forgive her," Satral said, "she does not know who you are."

"And who am I?" he said, looking up at this elder alien. "What do you know about me?"

Satral smiled, bearing a yellowed set of teeth. "You are the chosen one."

The words struck Ren speechless for a brief instant. He gazed into the reflective eyes of the old one and said: "What are you talking about?"

"There is a Sith lord, and for the first time in several hundred years a Jedi master, but you are the one. I am certain of it."

"Old fool!" the Zashri hissed back at the elder. "You worry about some silly prophecy when people are dying?"

Ren gazed down into the girl's fierce, silver eyes and said: "Who's dying?"

"People in the next tribe," she said. "Men from your galaxy are there with rifles, executing them."

Dalvin's voice came crackling through on Ren's wrist computer, saying: "I can confirm that. The mandalorians have descended into the caves. Communications indicate that they have killed several of these aliens in order to scare out information."

Zashri's face contorted in hatred. "Your kind always come here and murder us looking for treasure!" She tried to spit, but Ren froze her lips shut before she could.

He looked at the old man. "How do your people communicate with one another?"

"We have some technology," the old one said. "Always when visitors come we inherit their devices."

"What do you mean inherit?" said Neeka

Ren's eyes shifted to the blaster rifle he had ripped from the girl's hands. "What do you think?" he said. "The portal has opened to visitors every fifteen years for over two eons, and no one has ever come back with the treasure. What does that suggest?"

"That everyone who has come here has died," said Cathock.

Dalvin's voice crackled through all three of their wrist computers in unison: "Well, that was at least obvious from the start. I do find it fascinating that these people have appropriated technology from dead Sith over the centuries. I wonder how much of our science they actually understand. Not much I venture, else they would be able to construct defenses adequate to deal with a small mandalorian Force." There was a pause, and then Dalvin said: "Oh dear. It seems that the mandalorians are going to begin executing children in a few moments."

Ren felt Neeka and Cathock's minds burn hot with rage at this and he gazed down to see Zashri grunt fiercely through lips he was still willing shut with the Force. He himself felt a vague moralistic tug to help the children, but he was not angry as the others were. He was more concerned with analysis. As soon as Dalvin had mentioned the children an impression had formed in Ren's mind of them. He could feel their fear, and the fear of their family members, and through that connection he could perceive other things.

"Where is this other tribe?" Cathock growled at the old man.

The elder looked not at Cathock but at Ren and said: "Take my knowledge of the caves."

Without hesitation Ren reached into old man's mind again. He met no psychic resistance whatsoever as he delved into specific areas of consciousness and memory – on the contrary, it seemed as if the old man were guiding him. Ren sifted through bits and pieces of knowledge, taking them in without reflecting until he came upon the geographic information. There, Ren perceived a vast and incredibly complicated system of interconnected tunnels with twists and turns that stretched around the entire world. Then he sensed the locations of other tribes – hundreds of them. But more than that, he gleaned an understanding of what the light filaments in the stone were: they were as living veins of the Force, alive and flowing with energy. Ren could see in his mind's eye a wonderfully complex branching web of filaments stretching in all directions. That network of fibers, once understood, was as precise and perfect a means of navigation through the caves as the finest planetary positioning systems in the galaxy.

"Yes-s-s, you see," said Satral.

Ren looked down the tunnel behind the old alien, knowing exactly where to go. Then he gazed into the inscrutable silver eyes and said: "I'm going to go, but I will come back."

"You have questions," said Satral.

"Yes. Will you answer them?"

"To the best of my ability."

"Alright," said Ren. He gazed back over his shoulder to Cathock and Neeka and said: "Follow me." With that, he released Zashri from his hold on her, summoned the Force into his flesh, and whipped down the tunnel at top speed, with Cathock and Neeka following close behind.

Remarkably, the filaments in the rock around Ren responded to his movements, continuously lighting the way just in front of him even at the speed at which he was moving. Though he felt he could manipulate the light deliberately if he chose, it was subconscious control he was exercising. It was fascinating to see the patterns of rock itself as they sped through corridor after corridor. The tunnels split often, sometimes going left or right, sometimes up or down, and sometimes in many directions, but Ren moved without hesitation, the way feeling so natural that much of his mind was free to stop and gaze at the strange markings that began to appear in places – intricate patterns and letters that were, like the archaic language Satral had spoken, Sith in origin.

It was perhaps twenty standard minutes before Ren sensed it was time to dissipate the light. He gave a silent, mental command and the cave suddenly went very dim around them, and as he did he whispered: "quiet." Neeka and Cathock slowed their paces immediately and moved quietly up a steeply ascending path to a great open space in the tunnels. Ren stopped short just at the tunnel mouth and gazed around in wonder. He saw a small city. There were numerous freestanding wooden structures of simple design, some of them stretching several stories upward. Yet far greater in number than these were small caves carved into the rock, some of them shallow, some very deep, many with curtains or wooden doors built in to them to block them off, all of which were now open. These were the homes of the gray skinned aliens, Ren could see. Families of them were huddled together upon what looked like circular mats or mattresses of some kind. It was very simple to see what they were terrified of. Outside of these countless stone homes, a troop of fifteen or so mandalorians moved about the cave floor, weapons aimed, personal shields raised. Around them, several gray skinned dead bodies lay on the ground, some still smoking from blaster fire.

"They have hostages," Neeka said, the rage evident even in her suppressed whisper. She gestured through the darkness to a mass of figures very close to one another. Ren had to squint to see them, though his senses told him who they were: children tied together. There were perhaps twenty of them, all very small. Ren could feel their terror like a beacon in the darkness.

"You all have one standard minute more before I kill the first child," one of the mandalorians said, pacing slowly around the young ones. His voice was amplified electronically so that it echoed all around the inside of the cave. "It's really a very simple question: where is Kalethian's treasure? Just tell us and we'll let you all go back to your lives."

"We don't know!" a woman screamed. She ran up to him and fell on her knees. She was a thin, particularly dark skinned alien clothed in a purple dress with metallic pins on the shoulders that Ren sensed marked her as an authority figure of some sort. "Your people always come here looking for the treasure. We've never seen it. I swear. Please don't hurt our children!"

"I don't want to," the man said, though not a trace of sympathy could be found in his tone. "I just want what I came here for."

"Please, you have to believe me, I would tell you if I knew," the old woman said. She was terrified and furious at the same time.

"Ren, if you can use your powers to sneak over to those children, Cathock and I can kill most of these bastards in a few seconds," Neeka hissed. She already had her guns drawn.

Ren was about to agree when he felt a strange pulse in the Force unlike anything he had ever encountered before. "Wait," he whispered, holding his hand up. "Someone is coming – someone trained in the Force."

"Is it a Sith?" Cathock said.

Ren shut his eyes, concentrating. Never had he felt the Force being focused in this way before. It sent a strange thrill through him. "No, not a Sith," he said, "it is a Jedi."

Ren's eyes shifted instinctively to the far left corner of the cave, where a blue skinned face appeared rather suddenly. He watched in silence as a twi'lek female crept out from the shadows. She was clothed in simple white robes and she looked to be fairly young – perhaps a few years younger than Ren himself.

The Jedi crept around in the cave, darting with brilliant speed from hiding place to hiding place. She used the buildings and jutting rocks as cover, making her way closer and closer to the children. Then she made a move that surprised Ren. When she was within five yards of the hostages she whipped through the air to the mandalorian who had made the verbal threats. She grabbed him suddenly and from behind, drew and switched on a yellow lightsaber, and put her blazing weapon to the man's throat.

"Tell your men to stand down," she shouted almost before anyone but the leader realized she was there.