Chapter 91

"Do you have the key to open these doors, Trevor?" She said mockingly, "or have you lost it when you were hurrying to the entrance."

Darth Golluth who was holding his rod again, could hardly suppress his ire and wrath. Liane saw him grabbing the staff more tightly. She turned to the double doors, raised her hand and the doors swung open nearly crushing the two droids who seems to stand guard on the inside. Darth Golluth forgot his annoyance for a moment.

"Did your father taught you to do this. I never saw you doing did on Morantan?"

"If you mean Anakin Skywalker; no he didn't taught me this, his son taught me how the Force could help me to move heavy objects." She answered.

"So your brother took over your education after the Rebel Alliance had killed the Emperor and your father."

Darth Golluth made an slight inviting gesture. Liane nodded seemingly polite and entered the main cave. Doran Whain followed the two opponents. Liane looked around at the lavish furniture that decorate the space.

"You've made yourself a comfortable living here, Trevor. Much better than the sober officers quarters on Morantan."

"I needed a more comfortable environment to work out my plan for the future of the galaxy."

"Yes, you furnished this space on expense of the Quelan people you send into exile, didn't you?" Liane remarked with some disgust in her voice.

"Just an indigenous tribe of simple people. They left as soon as I had arrived here."

"Involuntarily, Trevor. You used imperial stormtroopers to threaten them. That reminds me, what happened to those stormtroopers. I haven't seen any of them in Ribana. A group of ten droids took me prisoner instead. Your advisor ordered them to put those binders and a blindfold on me. Very inconvenient I have to admit."

Darth Golluth turned to Doran Whain.

"So, indeed you ordered the droids to bind her," He said on an angry tone and wanted to point his staff at Doran, but again the staff flew out of his hand and crashed against the cave wall.

"I told you, Trevor, to refrain from using your Force Pike as long as you can't wield in a proper way. Master Whain ordered your droids to bind me and prevented that they would beat and torture me," Liane said, walking over to the dais.

"I see you have made yourself a kind of throne, Trevor. So this cave is your audience chamber, where you are going to issue your future order to your lackeys and sycophants, but Master Whain seems the only other human being around here at the moment. The guards behind the doors are also droids."

"Droids are more obedient than humans, Liane. You do remember the commander on Morantan, he refused to hand over the command to me after your father had left the domains and put you in command of all his men. I was an admiral and out-ranking the commander, but he opposed me and remain loyal to you, an eighteen old girl whose command was based on fear and control, based on the knowledge of the Sith. The Rebel Alliance had no trouble with you when they invaded the imperial domains."

Meanwhile Liane had reached the armchair on the dais and sat down, looking down on Darth Golluth who stood at the foot of the three steps.

"This suits me, Trevor. Maybe I still like to be in control."

She rose and walked down the steps, standing in front of her adversary.

"Where is Luke Skywalker, Trevor? I want to see him. Even if he has died I have to investigate what happened to him. That's what the Supreme Chancellor asked me. She send me here because she's worried about the well-being of her favorite Jedi Master."

"What if I have buried that famous friend of yours outside these caves, Liane? Maybe I have ordered some droids to drag him up to the highest summit of the mountain ridge and throw him down at the other side."

Liane reached out to the Force while she pondered on Darth Golluth's words. She sighed reassured as she became aware of Luke through the Living Force. The tremors were vague, but she knew he was inside one of the caves and still alive.

"You haven't, Trevor. You're still hiding Luke Skywalker inside these caves, so stop telling me your phantasies and bring me to the place where Luke is," She said.

Darth Golluth looked at her.

"I want you, Liane Vader, for you possess knowledge I need to become the next Emperor. I don't have any need of a dead Jedi Knight, I need a Sith lady to tell me all she knows about the Dark Side of the Force."

Darth Golluth turned to Doran Whain.

"Colonel, show Lady Vader the caves which will be her private quarters," He ordered and walked up the steps to his chair. He sat down with a gloomy annoyed face. Doran walked over to Liane and beckoned her to follow him. Liane looked at Darth Golluth and made a slight arrogant nod.

'Wedge, where are you?' Leia asked her friend.

'I'm inside Trevor's cave system.' Wedge answered.

'And Liane?' Leia asked tense.

'Inside too. Doran Whain has brought her to the entrance where she met with Trevor Matrik. Shortly afterwards I noticed her presence inside one of the larger caves.'

'Has she managed to wake up Luke from his hibernation?'

'No, I sense Luke's presence through the Force, but those tremors are still vague, but he is doing well. I'm waiting for Doran Whain to bring me further inside the cave system to a place where I can stay out of sight of Trevor, but where I can give Shaayla-Car support immediately.'

'Thanks, Wedge. Listen I have send Chati, Ian and Yarmod inside the underground riverbed, pretending those three will place explosives balls in the fissures in the last wall after which they would return to the campsite, but Ian and Yarmod are going to widen those fissures and are going to explore the cave system behind the wall. Chati is accompanying them, for she knows most of the layout of the cave system Trevor has occupied.'

'As soon as I notice their presence, Leia, I will join them. It will be difficult for Trevor to resist a confrontation with five Jedi Knights, even he would release another bunch of killer droids. '

'I'm sure that you, Luke and Ian will protect Liane.' Leia said.

Wedge started to laugh.

'Liane doesn't need so much protection, Leia. We had a fight with ten killer droids in Ribana and Liane showed herself a more than excellent fighter, believing in her skills as a Jedi Knight. You shouldn't worry about her, but I will stay with her as long as we haven't eliminated Trevor Matrik one way or the other.'

'Hide Chati, Wedge. She is vulnerable. Trevor might sense her connection with the Force and exploit her instead of Liane.'

'He won't, Leia. Shaayla-Car and I found out that Trevor isn't a threat to any Jedi, Quelan or other human anylonger. You will hear more details when I meet you again. His killer droids are of more concern to me, because Doran couldn't be sure that he had been able to re-program all of them.'

Wedge sensed Leia's wonder about his words, but she asked him anything more.

'May the Force with you, Wedge.'She said and their Force connection vanished.

Wedge Antilles hurried back along the unused hidden cave system and rushed down the steps to the lower cave. He went outside and used the Force to stay out of sight of the main entrance. Quickly he recorded a message for general Madine and connected his infocom with the Tychorion. He transmitted his message and went back inside the cave system.

'This it it, Ian,' Yarmod said through the Force to his friend and hooked his lightsaber from his belt. Ian has already ignited his Jedi's weapon and stepped to the walk. He pointed at some cracks near the bottom, before he looked up to Yarmod and Chati. Chati nodded.

'Let's see if we can widen these cracks without raising an alert,' He answered his friend.

The two friends stepped close to the fissures and held their lightsabers at the edge of the cracks. The rock started to glow and small wisps of smoke rose, then the glowing rock began to meld and the fissure widened. Ian and Yarmod stepped aside and switched of their lightsabers. They looked at each other.

'Looks good. Let's get on with it.' Ian said.

They ignited their lightsabers again and let the laser beam slide along the fissure's edge, but Chati tapped Yarmod on his shoulder.

'I saw master Luke push this weapon against the rock before he switched it on. He did that e few times and then the rock started to grumble. Chati said, while seeking connection through the Force with Yarmod. The young Jedi turned around and grinned.

'You're getting better and better talking this way, Chati. So Luke pressed the lightsaber at the rock and then he switch it on. Like this.'

Yarmod had switched off his weapon and now pressed the disk again the edge of the fissure, than he pressed the button to ignite the lightsaber. Immediately the rock around his lightsaber began to meld. He switched off again and pressed it at another spot. After having done so at some five different places the rock began to crack and crumbled. The fissure had changed to a hole in the wall. Yarmod nodded at Ian and both Jedi started to work the same way deeper inside the hole. They steadily worked through the whole fissure and suddenly a last part of the rock gave way.

'We're through. If we widen it a bit further it will be larger enough to let us pass. Now we'd better fix those explosives at the other cracks in the wall.'Ian said.

Chati took the strings of rope and carefully the two Jedi fitted the explosives balls inside the nets. Taking care not to touch the balls they fixed the strings with the duraflex tape at the wall. After they had attached three strings Yarmod held back Chati's next rope.

'That's fifteen explosive ball. I guess that's enough to have the wall collapse without endangering the ceiling. We'll put some extra holes near each of the strings to weaken the rock around them.' He said.

'What will we do with the remaining explosives?' Chati asked.

'We'll attach them inside the cave behind the wall. The first strings will cause the explosives to break the wall. The second set at the other side will exploded shortly after the wall gave way and strengthen the power of the water flow.' Ian said.

They resumed to work to widen the fissure further so they could pass it to the other side. The work took some time, for they stopped a few times to avoid that the crumbling rock might attract unwanted attention. Finally Ian crawled through the hole to the other side.

'This will do, Yarmod. Chati is much smaller than we are. Tell her to follow me.'

Yarmod grabbed Chati's arm and pointed to the hole. Chati nodded and crawled through the hole on her hands and knees. Yarmod followed her. When they were on the other side they looked at each other with a big grin.

'We did it.' Chati said and activated a datapad. She tapped at the screen and a rough kind of map appeared. Chati pointed at a spot and looked up at her two friends.

'We're here.' She said and moved with her finger over the screen. 'We have to get over there. That's the large cave which leads to the entrance above Ribana. I have to find out if we safely can move onward. While I'm away you two stay where I left you. I'll come back to guide you further inside without trouble.'

Amazed the two Jedi had heard Chati's explanation through the Force. Chati pointed to a dark spot at the other end of the cave. She walked over and suddenly seemed to vanished. Yarmod and Ian looked at each other.

'While she's away let's fix the other ropes with explosives somewhere inside this cave.' Yarmod said.

'We also need to tell Leia that we've entered Trevor's cave system.' Ian commented.

Yarmod nodded and they started to fix the remaining ropes with the explosives balls at the bottom of the cave leading them to the dark spot where Chati had vanished. When they had finished they walked to the dark spot which turned out to be a passageway to an adjacent cave. Yarmod and Ian leaned at the wall and started to wait for Chati. They didn't seem to notice that the young Quelan woman passed them unseen, but suddenly Ian looked back to cave and saw Chati looking for them. Immediately he pulled Yarmod with him.

'We're here, Chati.' He said.

Chati turned around and beckoned them.

'I know where we've entered the cave system. Follow me. This part is safe to proceed. Did you warn master Leia that we've finished our work.'

'We will do that on our next hiding place.'Yarmod said.

Chati walked over to the passageway and beckoned them to follow her.