Good Jedi Bad Jedi: Below the Temple

Ch. 7 Schoolyard Gossip: Part 1

Stepping out from the growing familiarity of the Sarlaac Pit, into the – well, what constituted "fresh air" for the underlevels, Master Arten began marching at his usual determined gait out of the short alley connecting Mel's place to the main thoroughfare. While he had begun to slow down somewhat for Calia's sake, she still found herself continually trailing just behind him, exaggerated by muscles sore and tired from her morning training.

The main street buzzed with activity. Beings moving up and down both sides of the street, divided by the narrow gap of a one-way skylane with only a waist high railing standing between you and a long, long, long fall. Earlier, Master Arten had warned her to be careful around any open skylanes, if you couldn't manage to catch the railing or other handhold before reaching terminal velocity, there would be no saving you. He had described how occasionally you'd hear a passing, terrified, blood-curdling scream for an instant as a being plummeted by. A person who knew they were already dead, who knew no one would ever find their body or learn what happened to them. As far as anyone on the underlevels could tell, they had just disappeared.

Calia shook herself from the disturbing thoughts, as her Master turned away from his parked speeder hovering in the skylane to move down the street along the stream of beings. She couldn't help but consider how accurate it was to consider the moving crowds like a flowing river. If you moved with the current you would find yourself almost carried along by the mass of bodies, but if you tried to fight against it, you risked being swept away like she had nearly been her first day in the underlevels.

Now somewhat accustomed to maneuvering through the crowds, she could finally see how drastically different this area of the 1442 was from where she had first met Master Arten or from the neighborhood around the safehouse. She surmised that the Sarlaac Pit must have been in the heart of the level's entertainment district. While many streets and alleys were poorly lit, with years between visits by maintenance staff if it was safe for them at all, illumination of every shade and color blazed all around them as they walked. Floating holo-signs, advertisement droids with placards draped over their hovering chassis, and beings of every stripe and size created an mural of movement and color to challenge any great artist. This was in the early morning hours too, Calia could only imagine what the area must have been like during the height of the district's revelries. With beings coming from every point between excitement and exhaustion in search of a few hours of pleasure before returning to their daily struggles and hardships. Now however, there was a certain tranquility. It was as if the Force itself had tired throughout the night, and was at rest while beings like Mel picked up the pieces preparing for the next night's crowds of revelers.

As Calia's thoughts drifted back towards the present, she remembered that Master Arten still hadn't explained to her where they were going or what they were doing. She hurried her pace, until she was just behind his right shoulder before asking, 'So uh, Master? What did you mean by, "going back to school?"'

'Hmm?' he grunted without slowing his pace in the slightest. 'Oh yeah, sorry,' he shook his head admonishing himself, 'We need to track down those duct-rats-'

'Sorry Master,' Calia interrupted, 'What is a duct-rat.' She remembered how he and Tuk had mentioned the term a few times, but she had no idea what they were referring to.

'Of course, ugh sorry, again,' Master Arten apologized, actually taking the time to turn to look over his shoulder at her. 'Thing is, down here there's a lot of younger kids who because their parents don't have the time, don't bother to take care of them, or are completely on their own, spend most of their time playing together in the air vents and piping that honeycombs the buildings and platforms between levels. You know, all the vents and CO scrubbers which recycle the air throughout the planet and make this rock habitable.'