Star Wars_ Darth Bane 03_ Dynasty of Evil - Drew Karpyshyn [85]
Zannah brought the shuttle in low, skimming less than twenty meters above the ground to stay below the radar of the royal estate perched nearly five kilometers above them.
The Victory was picking up hundreds of life-forms when she scanned the column, but they were all concentrated in the buildings of the plateau. There was no evidence of life inside the pillar, but that was to be expected. The scanners wouldn’t be able to penetrate the mountain of stone.
Reaching out with the Force, however, presented Zannah with a very different picture. She could feel something dark and powerful pulsing at the heart of the column. She recognized the presence of her Master, though from this distance it was impossible to get anything more than a vague sense that he was hidden somewhere inside.
“There should be hidden landing ports for the prison about halfway up the column,” Set assured her. “They’ll probably look like small caves. Easy to miss.”
The Victory was less than a hundred meters from the pillar when Zannah angled its nose sharply upward. The ship reacted instantly, arching into a steep ascent, the g-forces pinning the two passengers back in their seats. The shuttle steadied in a perfectly vertical climb less than ten meters from the rock wall, running parallel to its contours as Zannah looked for a place to land.
It was too dark for a visual, but the ship’s sensors provided her with a digital topography of the pillar’s surface racing beneath the hull. What from a distance had looked smooth and sheer was, in fact, rough and irregular. Wind and erosion had sculpted grooves and channels in the rock, and the face was pockmarked with thousands of small, irregularly shaped openings. Most were nooks or fissures that went less than ten meters deep. Others were actual tunnels that extended deeper into the rock. Only a handful were large enough to accommodate a shuttle, however.
“Hold on,” Zannah warned an instant before pulling hard back on the stick.
The Victory peeled away from the column into a backward loop. At the same time Zannah sent them into a half-barrel roll so that they finished right-side up, with the nose of the vessel pointed toward the opening she’d chosen. The landing thrusters fired at full force as the shuttle’s momentum sent them rocketing into the mouth of the cavern, braking hard before settling into a perfect three-point landing.
Set didn’t say anything, but Zannah saw him raise a brow in appreciation. She could have chosen a less dramatic maneuver to reach her destination, but she knew her would-be apprentice preferred doing things with a certain stylistic flair. Impressing him with her piloting skills was just one more small way to secure his respect and loyalty.
Through the cockpit window Zannah could see only darkness. She flicked on the Victory’s external lights, illuminating the cavern. The rock walls surrounding them were sharp and jagged, but the floor was smooth and even. A single passage led off to one side, the tunnel too perfectly straight to have been shaped by nature.
“There are probably about a dozen other landing bays like this one,” Set informed her as they exited the shuttle. “Each one with a passage leading into the lower levels of the complex.”
“It’s too bad you weren’t able to find any holomaps of the layout,” she commented, not wanting him to get too cocky.
“Maybe we should split up,” Set suggested. “With two of us searching we’ll have a better chance of finding him.”
“I’m going in alone,” Zannah informed him. “You’re going to stay here and guard the ship.”
“Guard the ship? From whom?”
“Whoever took Bane might have someone patrolling the entrances. If they find our ship undefended they can disable it, cutting off our only method of escape.”
“Fine,” Set replied curtly after a moment’s consideration. “I’ll sit here and watch the shuttle like your personal Cyborrean battle dog.”
“I assume you’ll be able to handle anyone who stumbles across this landing bay