They explored for an hour or so without finding their way into the main rooms of the castle. They found nothing of interest down any of the smaller hallways, and after each exploration they were forced to return to the huge room from which they had started. Finally Tionne agreed to let the group split up, but only for a few minutes.
“Anakin and I will take this hallway,” she said, pointing to another small corridor. “Ikrit and Artoo will take the second one, and Uldir and Tahiri will search the next hallway over.” She looked at her wrist chronometer. “Don’t be gone long, though,” she said. “Everyone meet back here by the statue of Darth Vader and report what you’ve found in five minutes.”
“Okay,” Anakin said. ArtooDetoo beeped a “yes.”
Ikrit nodded his agreement.
“Fine with me,” Tahiri said.
Uldir flipped Tionne a playful salute.
“Yes, captain. We’ll see you here in five minutes.”
With no time to waste, each pair set off. In less than five minutes all six of them were assembled again in the large chamber to compare their findings.
Tahiri tugged at a strand of her pale yellow hair as she listened to the others’ reports.
“There were two storage rooms in our hallway,” Anakin said. “The first one was open and empty, but the second one was locked.”
Tionne nodded. “I managed to open it using my lightsaber.”
“The whole - storeroom was full of Imperial food rations,” Anakin finished. “They’re not very tasty, but we brought some along just in case we need them.”
Uldir made a gagging sound. “Well, it’ll have to be a real emergency before I eat any of those.”
Tionne passed out the rations, and the companions stuffed them into the equipment packs they carried on their backs.
Ikrit and Artoo gave their report next.
“Our hallway ended in a large circular room,” the Jedi Master said in a scratchy voice. “It was empty except for some ankle and wrist irons chained to the wall.”
ArtooDetoo gave a disapproving buzz.
“I believe it was a place to hold prisoners for a short while when they were brought into the fortress,” Ikrit said.
“Our hall was a bit nicer than that,” Tahiri said. “More useful, at least-don’t you think so, Uldir?”
The older boy nodded, and his face turned slightly red.
“We, um, found a few old refresher units. They haven’t been used in years, I guess, but they were clean and they worked just fine.”
After the other companions had made use of the refresher units, the groups split up again. This time the passage that Tahiri and Uldir took was wide and long. The smooth walls were unbroken by doorways, and the hall appeared to stretch out of sight ahead of them. Uldir picked up his speed.
“That’s a long way to go in five minutes,” he said.
Suddenly Tahiri stopped still.
“Wait,” she said. “Don’t go any farther. Something’s wrong.”
Uldir stopped and put his hands on his hips. “What now?” he asked.
“Something feels wrong,” she answered.
“Like what?”
“The stone beneath my feet… it looks the same, but it-it feels rough. It feels different.”
“That’s it?” Uldir groaned in exasperation. “We have to turn back to meet the others in less than two minutes and you’re worried about the floor being rough?”
“Yes. I mean no-I mean, it’s more than that,” Tahiri said. “Can’t you feel it?”
Uldir stopped and ran his hand along the floor, feeling the texture. On hands and knees he crept forward, one arm outstretched. Then, all of a sudden he cried out and scrambled backward a few steps. Tahiri rushed forward, afraid he was hurt.
“What is it? What’s wrong?”
Uldir was shaking and looking at his right hand.
“It-it disappeared!” he said. “Right there. I stuck my hand out ahead of me and it disappeared. Then I pulled it back, and there it was again.”
Tahiri sat beside him on the stone floor and looked at his hand. It seemed to be fine. She took the pack off her back, pulled out a heavy square packet of Imperial rations, and gingerly tossed it down the hallway ahead of them. It disappeared completely-swallowed up by the floor. Uldir threw a package of rations. The packet vanished. Then, a split second later, in a flash of sparks, the long hallway ahead of them disappeared as well. Instead of stretching into the distance, the passage came to a dead end at a flat metal wall.
Between Tahiri, Uldir, and the wall was a wide, deep pit.
“It was a hologram!” Uldir said.
“The whole hallway.”
Together they crept to the edge of the pit and looked down. Ten meters below, the bottom of the pit was lined with sharp spikes as tall as Tahiri herself. The floor was littered with bones, and a packet of Imperial rations was speared on the tip of one spike. Tahiri felt a little queasy. Uldir gulped and sat up.