Star Wars_ Splinter of the Mind's Eye - Alan Dean Foster [58]
They walked on with more confidence, but their delight in the beauties of the underground wonderland was considerably diminished.
“Let’s hope we find that exit soon,” Luke commented.
But instead of turning sharply upward as they hoped, the path continued level. If anything, they seemed to be descending slightly. The tunnel continued to widen ahead of them. They turned a sharp bend, and emerged on a startling scene
A vast underground lake lay ahead of them. Despite the phosphorescent plant light, the lake was so wide that they could not see the far shore. The water was as black as the inside of the Emperor’s mind.
Their cleared path angled off to the left. It continued on to the water’s edge before disappearing into it about a meter from the wall.
“I guess this explains why we haven’t encountered any signs of Coways,” Luke mused. “This portion of the trail is underwater. It must rise and fall frequently, according to the rainfall on the surface.” He followed the trail into the water, waded out until it was up to his chest before returning.
“No good. It’s too deep.”
“But we have to go on, I suppose,” the Princess observed, not liking the look of the glassy black surface. “There’s nothing to be gained by going back.
“Are we still moving thirty-one east?”
Luke checked his tracom. “A little south of that. The trail probably curves back on the opposite shore. I hope. But in a way, the lake’s a good sign. Maybe it means that the ground on the other side starts to rise, because so much water collects here. I wonder how deep it is?”
“No telling,” the Princess mused. She walked into the water, bent over and felt a bit of the hidden bottom. “It slopes downward pretty steeply.”
Luke was looking past her. On the other side of the stream they’d been following grew a small forest of water plants, apparently stimulated by the steady flow of fresh nutrients here. The huge leafy pads floating on the black surface were a dull, yellow-brown color. They were round and pointed slightly at two ends where the upturned edges met.
“You can’t,” Leia commented, “be thinking of traveling on one of those.”
“I’m not swimming,” Luke told her, walking toward the forest. He hopped the stream, splashing through the opposite side. Leaning over, he saw signs of broken stems just beneath the surface.
“Looks like some of the pads have already been snapped off. Probably the Coway use them.”
“Or else they broke free naturally,” the Princess grumbled, so softly that Luke didn’t hear her. She moved to join him.
Tentatively, Luke stepped onto one of the flat pads. The one he was testing was two and a half meters in diameter. As he pushed down with his weight the yellow interior gave spongily. But it didn’t break and his foot didn’t push through.
Unsteadily he moved onto the pad. His knees sank into the surface, which held. His mouth firming, he jumped into the air and came down as hard as he could with both knees. The pad sank up to his hips in the water, rebounded solidly.
Convinced that the pad was lake-worthy, Luke rolled to its edge and looked over. There was enough light here for him to see the man-thick stem which secured the pad to the lake bottom.
“I’m going to cut this one loose,” he announced.
The Princess looked skeptical. “With what? Your saber? I didn’t know they operated under water.”
He gazed back at her solemnly. “They’d better.”
He slipped over the side, found himself treading cold water. Then he activated the saber and shoved it under the surface. Bubbles promptly broke the glassy water, but the hard blue light continued to gleam in the blackness, and there was no hint of a malfunction.
Taking a deep breath, he slid into darkness.
Fortunately the saber itself provided enough light to show him the stem. It took only a second or two to slice through the