Star Wars_ Darth Maul 02_ Shadow Hunter - Michael Reaves [70]
I-Five turned his photoreceptors up a few notches brighter and aimed them down at the bridge.
Several large ropes, gray and dusty with age, stretched out from the end of the tunnel beyond the limited light put out by the droid. Across the ropes had been laid an odd assortment of flat objects: boards, pieces of sheet metal, and other odds and ends. About the only thing they had in common was that they were all more or less flat and laid out in the direction the group wanted to go.
Lorn stepped out and jumped on one of the ropes. His balance was excellent, she noted, and he seemed to have a natural grace as he leapt. He saw her watching and pushed off extra hard on the last bounce, doing a quick somersault in midair.
“Ropes seem strong enough to me,” he said, landing in a perfect double-foot plant. He waited a moment before answering her unasked question. “I used to dabble in zero-g sports when I, uh, had a better lifestyle.”
The droid broke in. “If you two are finished playing primitive mating games, maybe we could see about traversing this bridge. There may be a Sith pursuing us, if you recall.”
“Excuse me?” Lorn said. “Mating games?”
Darsha felt indignant as well. “Your droid has a point. We need to keep moving.” Mating games, indeed, she thought as she stepped onto the bridge. Not likely.
Lorn wished he had a weapon.
Ahead of him, I-Five was armed with his finger blasters, as well as a few other tricks, and behind him Darsha had her lightsaber.
It wasn’t that he felt they were in any particular danger at the moment, but a weapon—any weapon—would have given him a better sense of control over his own safety. While it was true that being unarmed did make him very alert, that didn’t count for much with a sensor-equipped droid and a Force-sensitive Jedi for companions. Lorn felt he might as well be blind compared to them.
The going was slow; there were no handrails on the bridge, and it didn’t look like the planks, lids, and other objects they were walking on had been attached very firmly to the support ropes. Indeed, he got the opinion that they had been added after the trestle had been formed. By the Cthons, perhaps? It was impossible to say. The bridge, Lorn noted, was of a very strange construction. In addition to the thick support cables that ran along either side of the odd planks they walked on, there were vertical cables every few meters, some coming from the roof of the cavern, as might be expected, but others stretching from the bridge supports down into the darkness below.
What could all this be for?
He voiced the question.
“Based on the depth of the excavation,” I-Five said, “I postulate that this could have been used as an access point for the underground oceans.”
Possible, Lorn thought. Most of Coruscant, except for a few park areas, was built-over landmass. The water had to go somewhere.
“But why this bridge? I mean, it’s a pretty primitive construction. Why not have a better way of getting around?”
The droid paused and looked over its shoulder, photoreceptors gleaming. “Perhaps the Cthons are responsible. Why can’t you just be grateful that it’s here where and when we need it?” I-Five resumed his progress forward.
Lorn raised an eyebrow. “Who pissed in your power supply?” he muttered.
He heard a chuckle from behind him. Great. Shot down by his own droid, and a Jedi got the laugh.
“I’ve got to ask,” Darsha said. “How did you two wind up working together?”
“I’m impressed. You managed to come up with a topic even less interesting than his,” I-Five said.
“Perhaps you aren’t in need of a distraction,” Darsha said, “but I sure could use one after the last few hours.”
The woman had a point. Lorn, somewhat to his surprise, was the one who answered.
“I acquired I-Five a few years back when I first got started selling information. He was a protocol droid belonging to a rich