Suggested Listening:
Giza Port - Jerry Goldsmith (from The Mummy) | ...surprise surprise
Rhonda With Graboid - Ernest Troost (from Tremors)| ...flick of a flare gun
Mall Chase - John Powell (from Evolution!) | ...escape from the cage, escape from the cave
The Confession - James Horner (from The Mask of Zorro) | ...you're bleeding
Rattlesnake Ridge - Joel McNeely (from A Million Ways to Die in the West) | ...looking in the mirror
Finding Dory (Main Title) - Thomas Newman (from Finding Dory) | ...the hologramIt turned out that, surprise surprise, a volcanic planet had a hell of a lot of volcanoes on it.
"I never thought I'd wish I was on Tatooine..." I muttered to myself, squinting at Cara's coordinate tracker's tiny screen. "At least I can tell one sand dune from the other out there."
I whacked the side of the coordinate tracker and it went blank, emitting a sad little hum as it powered down. I made a mental note to tell Greef Karga to sacrifice a solid gold column or two to put a little more money into Nevarro law enforcement's equipment budget.
The Yarga Fissure, she had said. That should be easy enough to find, but the device couldn't calibrate all the way out here in the boondocks and every big giant hole in the ground was frustratingly devoid of nefarious cult-members.
I swallowed, straining through the dryness of my throat and mouth. It had been hours. My stomach twisted at the thought of Din kidnapped, incapacitated... who knew what horrible things he had been put through at this point — if he was even still alive.
Don't think that, I scolded myself silently, ignoring my shaking hands. That helps no one. Keep moving.
I scanned the jagged, rocky terrain until something caught my eye — an almost imperceptible billow of smoke slithering into the air up at the top of one of the ridges.
Looks like a fissure to me, I thought, and began climbing toward the twenty-something foot high peak as stealthily as I could. As I reached the crest, I crouched down and slowly peered over the edge. The crack in the rock smelled like putrid sulfur and I held my breath as I glanced down into the cavern, only to find... nothing. It was just a narrow corridor of volcanic slate with gasses brewing at the bottom.
"Dank Farrik!" I turned around to sit and kicked my heel against the rock in frustration. As I recoiled in pain and cussed a little more, a small boulder came loose and rolled gently down the slope. It tumbled faster and faster until it crashed into the coordinate tracker with a loud thwack.
"Perfect," I muttered.
Suddenly, the tracker emitted an upbeat series of beeps and the screen came to life. My eyes widened and I scrambled to my feet, scuffing down the side of the knoll and snatching the device up off the ground.
Sure enough, it was working — and pointing me west, less than a mile away.
I slowed the speeder to a silent creep as I came around the corner of a hill and saw it — the cave entrance to the caverns beneath the Yarga Fissure. This particular big hole in the ground was a little harder to miss — it reached up toward the smoggy sky in a massive peak, it's inner-workings quaking the ground beneath my feet. I knew right away that I'd found the right place — the opening of the cave had crude wooden scaffolding, like the entrance to a mine. If I listened very hard, through the steady, low rumble of the volcano, I could hear the faintest echo of voices.
My breath caught in my throat as two figures appeared out of the corner of my eye — two cloaked figures of disparate heights and shapes, walking out of the hills toward the entrance, carrying bags of supplies. Cara was right — these two were definitely not the same species, though they spoke the same language, something I couldn't understand. As they disappeared into the cave, I narrowed my eyes... and finalized my plan.
Ten minutes later, everything was in place. I settled into the shadows of a tight crevasse near the opening of the cave and with the flick of a flare gun, I put things in motion.
There was a red burst in the rock of a hillside, and it was enough to draw a few of the Ja'Holi's out of the cave, scurrying over warily to investigate the mysterious explosion. I slid into the dark behind them. I snuck down the tunnel, stopping when I was about to pass an opening to a small room lit with a low fire. There must have been fifteen figures, all looking different in shape underneath the shrouding of their cloaks. They were speaking in a low fervor, the contents of which I couldn't make out, but I could only imagine it wasn't good. In the flicker of the fire I caught a glimpse of masks covering their faces — fiery, dragon-like masks that made my chest constrict in fear. I kept moving.
After some stealthy dodges, close calls, and stops to plant some of Cara's mines that I'd found in the armory, I rounded a corner and found myself in what looked like the belly of the beast — a wide, cavernous opening filled with orange light that radiated from the loud, bubbling pool of active lava at the center. Suspended above it, in what looked like a shoddily constructed, human-sized birdcage, was Din. My heart leapt in relief. He was facing away from me on his knees, and still in his armor and helmet — I thought they would've stripped him of it before caging him, but they must have planned to sink him into the lava and retrieve the Beskar when it came back up... without him inside it. I shuddered at the thought.
He was struggling, trying to break from the cuffs that held his hands tightly behind his back. I approached quietly, my eye snagged by a pile of metal on a nearby rock. They had relieved him of his weapons — at least all they could find on him, the man was a walking arsenal — and hoarded them to one side. I hurriedly moved a few blasters to the side before I found a tool that would actually be helpful.
"Hey," I hissed.
"Holy—" he exclaimed in alarm, wheeling around to face me.
"Are you okay?" I whispered urgently.
"I'm fine," he hissed back, catching his breath. "They must've tranqued me, got me in the neck or something — I woke up in here."
I eyed the thick chain holding up the cage, and followed it's reach all the way to a massive crank in the corner of the room.
"I think they're planning on lowering me into the lava," Din said, as though reading my mind.
"Not gonna happen. Put your hands through the bars," I instructed.
He did so immediately, craning his neck over his shoulder to see what I was going to do.
"Catch this," I ordered, tossing him an end of the rope I'd brought with me. By some miracle, he caught it on the first try and I yanked as hard as I could, pulling his cage close enough for me to grab onto the bars and swing back to the center with him. The lava bubbled beneath us.
"Careful," he warned. I gripped tightly to the side of the cage and found my footing on the edge of it's floor. He turned around to face me on his knees, and I smiled at him through the bars.
"Hi," I breathed.
"Hi," he said, sounding relieved to see me.
The Ja'holi's angry, confused shouts echoed down the hall. I held up my hand and showed Din the remote detonator before pressing my thumb down on the big red button. A massive boom shook the walls of the cave, sending dust and pebbles skittering down from the ceiling.
"Cave in," I smiled, a little proud. "It'll take them a minute to get through the rubble, that buys us the time we need."
"I don't know about a key or anything, I can't even find a gate in this thing—"