Those Dusty Old Tomes

[Avdid Asm]

The lone sentient being for miles in any direction but up, Avdid hunched over, huddled under the meager protection offered by a slightly overhanging ledge. Rain fell in a steady downpour, soaking him to the bone. It always seemed to be raining down here, in the Coruscant Underworld. The small dry spot under the ledge was reserved for his computer.

Meanwhile, the Gran was drenched, his bright yellow and blue clothing sodden and clinging to him. A dark cloak lay a few feet away, forgotten. It had been useful for penetrating the outer security perimeter, patrolled by both stormtroopers and Coruscant Security Force officers, droid and human, but he was now in no-man's land. A rare blind spot in the suffocating security net offered him the barest feeling of safety. Above him rose the almost boundless walls of the great Jedi Temple. No light penetrated this far down. The only source of illumination was the feeble glow of his computer's screen.

If he was caught now, there would be no excuse that would save him and no escape. But if he got what he was looking for, it would all be worth it.

He tried to walk the line between confidence and arrogance. His slicing skills were being put to the test and he had to believe in his abilities. At the same time, he couldn't get cocky; the smallest mistep would bring disaster down on his head.

The minutes passed. Layer after layer of encryption were cracked. Firewall after firewall was bypassed. Just a few years past, he never would have been able to get this far, to get this close, but since Palpatine's death, the Empire saw safeguarding this location as a lesser concern. The security protocols that had been in place for centuries or even millenia had begun to degrade.

A remote monitor hanging from his belt began to buzz. It was hooked up to his computer, its sole function to monitor the network for any signs that his signal might be detected. Thankfully, it had remained silent for the past harrowing half hour. That it was sounding now was worrisome, but not yet a dealbreaker. Just because they had detected his signal didn't mean they had tracked his location. He still had time. Just a few more minutes and the secrets and history of the Jedi would be his to gorge himself on.

Just a few more minutes.

[Rossos Atrapes]

He wondered, at times, what the galaxy would have been like had the Empire not taken root at the end of the Clone Wars. Would the Jedi have survived?

Would he have become one of them?

He didn't often have time to think about unrealities, but the inclination crept on him at times, spurred by seemingly random and unrelated events, objects, words.

"Administrator." A voice echoed tinnily from the comm unit situated on his desk.

Atrapes turned from the viewport overlooking Imperial Centre in its twilit glory and frowned.

"What is it?" he asked.

"A slicer is attempting to access the Archives of the Jedi Temple."

If anything could grab his attention, it was that. The Archives had been moved to the Citadel some time in the past, almost immediately after the decimation of the Jedi at the Temple. But the fact that someone would have the audacity to try and slice into the Temple itself...

He thought a moment, reaching into the Force for inspiration.

"Send teams to the Temple, and sweep area. Double your efforts to find this slicer. Something feels different about this."

[Avdid Asm]

The monitor's buzzing increased in frequency. Time was running out. Avdid began to move more quickly: his mind was working furiously, and his fingers were flying across the screen. Sweat began running down his face, despite the chill in the air.

He'd reached the uppermost directory. Avdid tried to calm his heart as he scanned down the tree, looking for promising leads. He opened a few files, devouring the text at an astounding rate. A window monitoring background processes caught his eye, a stray entry running that wasn't there a moment ago. He should have caught it at once, but he'd been distracted by some names in a file. Oh dear. A socketguard.

The gran yanked the computer out of the interface so hard the momentum sent him tumbling backwards. He rolled away from the shelter of the overhang and was immediately drenched.

So close! He had been so very close. Had he kept his wits about him, he could have been sorting though the collected knowledge of the jedi right now. The anguish of it was almost too much to bear.

He buried his feelings. Now there was only one thing he had to do - make it out of here alive. With any luck, he had broken the connection before they'd narrowed down his location too precisely. If he moved quickly, he still had a chance to get beyond the security perimeter before they closed the net on him.

[Rossos Atrapes]

Atrapes attempted to get back to his former work, but the problem of the slicer continued to take up an inordinate amount of attention. After a moment of introspection, he dismissed the feelings as being borne of boredom and curiosity; he was not particularly unfond of the work he was doing now.

It had to be something working on a more instinctual level.

He stood, and left his office, moving toward the hangars. Serendipitously, his commlink chirped in a call for his attention.

"Inquisitor," the nameless agent bowed, and continued without waiting for a response. Some Inquisitors very much enjoyed their position. Atrapes did, but did not gain satisfaction from being reminded of it. "We have not found the slicer. We have triangulated his position to a square kilometer in the Undercity."

"Directly below the Temple," Atrapes ordered without preamble. "Start there. Set a cordon half a kilometer square around the Temple, and move in. Another two squads will descend directly beneath and move outwards. We want this slicer alive. Set blasters to stun."

"Yes, Inquisitor." The agent's holographic image blinked into nonexistence.

Atrapes reattached the commlink to his belt and strode into the hangar, nodding to the guards and ignoring the droid-technicians.

"Give me a speeder," he said. "I'm going to the Temple."

[Avdid Asm]

Avdid moved as fast as his short legs could carry him - unfortunately, his species was known neither for their speed nor their agility. He was again wrapped in the dark cloak. While it slowed him down, it offered some protection against detection. Not from the cameras, of course - he had long ago given up trying to stay out of the field of vision of the countless cameras monitoring the area around the Temple. Avdid could only hope that the security personnel might have a harder time spotting him.

His keen eyes spotted a pair of Stormtroopers rounding the corner of a building down the alley, their infrared signatures announcing their presence even before the stark white armor cut through the gloom. They turned and began to approach him.

Avdid skidded to a halt and threw himself against the wall. There was no way he could get past them and if he tried to backtrack, they would be on him in seconds. The gran retreated to the cover of a large upthrust conduit. The metal cylinder just barely concealed him and he was certain he'd be discovered as soon as they got within a few meters. A distorted voice rang out over the pitter patter of falling rain, "I'm sure I heard something, just up here...". Steady, measured footsteps grew louder. They were closing in. No more than 10 meters now...8 meters...5 meters.

"You can't see me. You can't see me. There's nothing here. Just shadows." Avdid chanted to himself, hoping to make his thoughts reality. He reached out with his thoughts and pictured the scene as he wished it were. He wasn't cowering behind the conduit. There was nothing but a stained, forgotten wall.

2 meters. The footsteps were on top of him now. Avdid had calmed himself completely. His heartbeat was slowed and his breathing deep and steady. He focused on his image until it was more real in his mind than reality.

The lead Stormtrooper stepped into view and cautiously looked behind the conduit, directly at the huddled figure...and then turned back to his partner.

"It was nothing. Continue on. Command places the intruder's position straight ahead, about a quarter kilometer."

[Rossos Atrapes]

The speeder touched down on the landing pad of the Inquisition's Undercity facility, and Inquisitor Atrapes nodded to the Agent who ran up to greet him.

"Inquisitor," he said, shutting the door of the speeder behind the Administrator for Imperial Centre. "The Troopers have not found the slicer yet, but the net is tightening."

"Send in Agents to the most likely areas. We have time, the slicer doesn't. Every nook and cranny of this area must be searched," Atrapes ordered without hesitation. The Agent paused, but nodded after a moment and jogged off to impart the Inquisitor's orders.

"Where are you, slicer?" the Inquisitor murmured to himself, looking out at the Undercity, and striding out to meet the Agent already having gathered five others and a small cadre of Inquisitorial Troopers. "I shall take a squad myself. You others will use scanning equipment to flush out our prey. When you find him, drive him to me."

"Yes Inquisitor," was their reply, followed by a salute; they left to obtain the scanning equipment and begin their search. Atrapes motioned for the squad of Troopers to follow him, and led them down a service hatch to the Undercity outside of the facility to begin their part of the manhunt.

[Avdid Asm]

Frustration was mounting.

By all rights he should be past the outer perimeter by now. He recognized landmarks; this was certainly where it had been established when he had made his way to the Temple in the first place. According to standard protocol, the troopers should have reinforced the outer perimeter and then made sweeps inward to trap any intruder within. The latter part had certainly been followed. Three more times Avdid had come closer than he would have thought possible to detection. Each time, through shear force of will, he was able to escape. But now he should be passed all that. He should be through the net.

But here he was, crouched in the second story shadows, looking down at a squad of strange troops. They weren't Stormtroopers. They weren't Coruscant Security Force. Who were they?

The squad passed under a feeble light and he caught sight of their insignia.

Oh damn. Oh damn oh damn oh damn. It was the Inquisitorius.

No scanning equipment yet, just spotlights. Even so, they were doing a very thorough visual scan of the area and it was only a manner of minutes before they turned his way. He paced around the second floor landing, finally stopping in front of an exhaust vent of some sort. It stank worse than the pits of the worst hell imaginable, but the bars serving as a grating were spaced a ridiculous distance apart, wide enough for him to squeeze through. Already scraped up from the ordeal of getting to the second floor landing in the first place, the gran gingerly edged his way between the bars. The space was too shallow to properly sit and too short to stand, so he was forced to squat awkwardly in the darkness. Using his cloak as a shield, he disappeared from sight.

[Rossos Atrapes]

"Inquisitor, we have completed our search in sector two. No sign of the slicer."

Atrapes thought for a moment, watching the squad of troopers file into a large pathway between the trunks of two huge buildings, almost like a vaulted cathedral of durasteel and shadows.

"Continue your search," he said finally into the commlink, "into sector three. Technicians will be placing scanners in sectors three, four, and five to cover any exit if this slicer has eluded you. Finish three, and remain there until ordered or the scanners alert you to our target's presence."

"Yes sir."

Atrapes frowned, his instincts telling him something was odd about this situation; but there was much odd about it to be sure, he couldn't tell what in fact was strange enough to cause him to dwell on it subconsciously or enough to have the Force react to it.

In any case, he needed to move on.

"Forward," he commanded. The sergeant saluted and motioned to the rest of the squad. They fanned out and continued their search through the ruins of the Undercity.

[Avdid Asm]

The pitter patter of the rain was quite soothing, really. There are a few times better for contemplating one's life and all the hundreds of decisions that lead to any particular moment than when dirty, wet, and huddled in an exhaust vent.

Bonus points for being hunted by a ruthless enemy.

Double bonus points for the melodramatic rain. All he needed now was a flock of white birds to take off in slow motion.

All he had wanted to do was find out about the jedi, to find out about the power that more and more every day he could feel. Problem was, it's not like you could go down to the local library and check out "Jedi 101: The Force and You." Still, in hindsight, trying to hack into the Jedi Archives had been a pretty stupid thing to do. Never mind the fact he'd tried to go in legitimately. Never mind the fact he hadn't been allowed within kilometers of the place for not being rich or human enough. It didn't matter. He was trapped now and he was going to get caught. Big risk, big reward.

Also: big consequences.

-----

The next thing he knew, he was jerking his head back. He hadn't been asleep long, maybe only seconds, but the near miss sent adrenaline pumping through his system, re-energizing him. He was filled anew with purpose. He wasn't going down like this. No way. No how.

Carefully, Avdid squeezed his way back through the grating. The spotlights were gone, but the troopers weren't. It was only a matter of time before they'd start the sensor sweep of the area. The window for his miraculous escape was closing quickly.

Speaking of miraculous windows - at the edge of his sight, beyond a squad of troopers idling in the alley, sat a speeder. Its window was down, it was unattended, it was obviously sent by some higher being as a sign. All he had to do was get there. If only "there" weren't two stories down and a good 100 meters away.

The soaking wet gran looked around for his escape avenue, finding it in the form of a slanted roof on the first floor of the neighboring building. He began to formulate his plan, picturing the steps clearly in his mind over and over again until they became like as vivid and real as could be. He would leap out across the narrow walkway between the two buildings; he would hit the slanted roof and slide down, causing plenty of noise in the process; the squad would come down the alley to investigate the noise; he would vault over the waist-high wall past the slanted roof; he would take his cloak and toss it over the wire passing over the nearby roof slanting towards the ground and use it as a zip-line; and finally, he would hit the ground with a roll, hop into the speeder, and be gone before the troopers even realized the source of the sound was no longer there. He just had to believe. It was no different than earlier, when he has simply willed to not be seen.

With a calming breath, he steeled his nerves, wound up with a step backwards, and then took off running. He reached the edge of the roof and threw his upper body forward with springing legs. He braced for impact, needing to hit the slanted roof lightly without breaking stride.

And, instead, he caught the edge of the roof right in the midsection. The air was forced from his lungs. He scrambled for purchase on the wet surface and hung there for a moment before his body mass and the treacherous force of gravity pulled him down to meet the pavement below.

[Rossos Atrapes]

"Inquisitor. Noises heard in sector 2. Going to check it out."

Atrapes perked up, marching through an old market area once used by one of the many gangs that had controlled the planet back during the war between the Sith Empire and the Galactic Republic.

"We will be arriving there soon. Capture and hold."

"Understood."

[Avdid Asm]

He could hear the clatter of approaching footsteps as the troopers moved to investigate.

What Avdid found himself at the bottom of couldn't even be called an alley. It was more like an expansion gap between the to neighboring buildings. Not even a meter wide, the narrow space had likely saved him from serious injury - instead of falling down and breaking a leg, he had careened back and forth between the two vertical surfaces, scuffing himself up but slowing his fall enough that he only had a twisted ankle. His shattered computer lay on the ground next to him.

To his right, the gap opened up into the trooper-controlled alley. To the left, it continued until it was lost in the gloom. Grimly, Avdid began sidling to the left, grimacing in pain every time he placed any weight on the injured ankle.

[Rossos Atrapes]

"Stop right there!" one of the Stormtroopers called. He motioned for the others to go ahead. "Hands up where we can see them."

The four other Stormtroopers marched forward, two making to go around the fugitive and cut off his escape into the darkness beyond, and two dropping their weapons to grab hold of his arms.

"Sir," the Stormtrooper said. "We have found a Gran, attempting to escape from the sector. It appears to have injured itself."

"Place binders on him. Another squad will pick up the search from your position for any accomplices this Gran may have had. I will be there shortly."

"Yes sir," the Stormtrooper answered, before powering down the commlink and placing it at his belt. "Binders, and bring it out of this alley."

[Avdid Asm]

"It?! Who are you calling 'it'?!"

Avdid twisted in the narrow confines. The two lead Stormtroopers, being unable to get into the gap side-by-side, had staggered themselves, one crouched down and reaching under the other's outstretched arm. As a result, neither had an especially good grip on him. He thought he had seen two others circle around the building, but he couldn't afford to worry about them at the moment. He lowered his head and gave a pull until he slipped out of the grasp of the Stormtroopers. For a moment he was stuck, held in place by his inside-out shirt, now stretched between his head and the Stormtroopers. With a pop, he came loose, leaving them holding an empty cloak and a bright yellow shirt. Now topless, Avdid scurried further away from his pursuers, deeper into the gap between the buildings.

[Rossos Atrapes]

The two stormtroopers that had circled the building came into sight, blocking off the Gran's avenue of escape.

"Hands up," one said, pointing his blaster. The other pulled out a pair of binders. Behind the Gran, the three stormtroopers he'd managed to break away from came up, and shoved him out of the narrow confines of the gap, following him through adroitly.

"Hands behind your back," came another command, this time from the stormtrooper still holding his weapon from behind. "Cuff him."

[Avdid Asm]

He stopped short. Two stormtroopers ahead of him, a few more behind. The only way out was straight up, and that simply wasn't an option for Avdid.

"Hands behind your back"

He was compressed neatly between the wall in front of him and the one at his back. Even if he wanted to obey the command (which he did, because he enjoyed breathing - a task that was becoming more and more difficult as the confines became tighter) there was no way a hand could be squeezed between his back and the wall. Instead, he could only lift his arms up slightly to either side. Hopefully showing his armpits was enough to signify to the troopers that he was finally defeated.