The energy spider skittered around in its custom cage. The rocks where transported from Kessel, the tunnel system it lived in was almost same as where Luk had captured it, at least stylistically, cameras had been set up to monitor the creatures movement and lifestyle, but so far it seemed to be slowly dying. It no longer hunted the tunnels or even attack the clear viewing portal it seemed to have withdrawn into itself and no longer wanted to continue.
Luk was watching it using night visor goggles, through the screen, its multiple multifaceted eyes seemed almost vacant. He wondered about the colony on the planet, was there some other creature that was telepathically linked to the smaller spiders like a brain bug or some other controller. It had only been in the facility six days. It had ignored the dead meat and plant matter that had been sent in, and Luk had pointed out that the spike that it shot into people was most like its method of gathering nutrients. So it was arranged for some live animals to be released to it. They had been killed and eaten at first as Luk had predicted but that had also stopped. Currently wandering around aimlessly in the pen was some cattle creature, looked like a miniature cow but it had six legs.
"Any change?" It was Saina, she had stepped up behind him. He hadn't heard her approach so was mildly surprised when he heard her voice, but he did not react.
"None" His gruff voice came out slightly harsh, he had just come out of his train of thought regarding the creature. "Sorry, that was not meant to come out like that."
"No offense taken. It's gone off its food." She said, Saina was trying to make conversation with him. She could tell he was missing the rest of his team and that he stayed behind with the task of getting them home.
"Yep." He said with a nod. "I at first thought it was something to do with those glowing orbs we saw in tunnels, as if they were its primary food source and humanoids came in second or as a chance meal. But, they exist on Ryloth and I haven't read of anything like them on the planet." Luk was letting his thought process out to his boss, he also knew she would most likely be able to correct him.
"When I lived there I wasn't that close to where the spice mines were so I wouldn't know. But, what few miners I did meet never mentioned it." Saina moved a little closer to him, she could feel the heat radiating, something about him she found very comforting, not because of his size but, she thought possibly his dedication to the task, and maybe, that dedication extended to the people around him.
"Hmm..." Luk had entered into his own mind again.
"Have you made any progress with the spice itself?" Saina asked. She needed some details for her heads of department report. He'd already sent in a official report but it was bland and had lack of progress something that did not go will in the facility.
"Sam is working on that, but it hasn't yielded any new information in regards to how it works. The energy output is exponential and there is no difference between what we have harvested here and what was brought from mines separately. These spiders are here in your galaxy and within my own. Or, at least a creature that has evolved something similar."
"So, we don't have to keep this alive if we can just use the normally mined spice. The volume we need to create the working gate is where your priority will most likely be moving on. I have a meeting to go to." She lightly touched him on the elbow to let Luk know she was leaving.
"Ok, I'll get to that." he went back to staring at the spider. He knew it wanted something, but what? what was it missing?
***
Sam was asleep at his desk. the young nervous boy was having a dream of dark tunnels and blue crystals spears. He could see the stormtroopers life being drained from him, there was no Luk, blasting away to save him, he was on his own. The gun jammed, the stormtroopers blaster didn't work, the spiders were coming closer to him. Then suddenly a spike shot towards him. He snapped awake and fell back off his chair.
The rest of the research team stifled a laugh as they watched him slowly pick himself up from the floor and get back to looking at the data. The spider was strange. The strand it fired must have been some for of feeding. But why would it let out such an energy release to create sustenance? Sam looked at the data in front of him again, he felt his eyelids get heavy again. He'd not been sleeping well, ever since coming back he had been plagued with nightmares about the spiders attacking. Sometimes he survived long enough to get to the top of the mine but there was always one waiting for him. Waiting... In the dark... Waiting to strike. His eyelids closed and he suddenly jolted awake again. Sam decide to himself that if there was anymore adventures into dark caves, he'll let Luk do it on his own.
***
"In conclusion, the gateway project is moving forwards and the new fuel avenue with the spice spiders does show a method to create the required energy outputs, but as yet we still have to find a mechanism to channel the energy and find out exactly how the spice conducts the energy output so that there is a method for cheaper duplication in multiple locations." Saina spoke to the head of operations. Her project was far behind the Death Star team whose prototype was completed and the primary station was about to become operational, the sunkiller project was almost completed, there were other projects that had not progressed as far as hers had and no longer existed, and she was lagging behind.
"You have a week. To get a functional gate working or your teams project will be terminated." He didn't even look up from the report she had handed him. "Dismissed".
Saina, didn't reply. She turned and left. As much as she could blame the team for destroying their first gate. Finding out the solution for the power jump gap had helped. But a week. It would take longer than that to just rebuild the original gate. Let alone make the modifications required to start any form of new testing.
***
"Lets go over this one more time" Luk spoke to Sam. They were in the dining hall eating on a table on their own. The rest of the team avoided them. They were in charge of creating the new power source and method of it delivery. The rest were working frantically to rebuild a gate. A large one now as well, big enough for a speeder was the request.
"The crystal we call spice is used as a method to capture prey. It seems to be both traps and a spike to kill." Sam hesitated over the last word.
"Thats right. But, what if the traps are just left over feeding spikes. What are they hunting?" Luk asked.
"People." Sam replied with a shiver.
"Not people. Think about it. Those spiders have evolved their. People, aliens, hominid's whatever are recent, technology allowing them to breath recent. What else is there for them?" Luk asked.
"I have no idea." Sam replied.
"Me neither. You know what that means?" Luk asked.
"I don't want to know."
"I have to go back."
"That's insane. You nearly died last time." Sam said.
"No, you nearly died I was doing fine. And if those stormtroopers had brought the rifles I had said we have been doing better. I think I can make it further down and find out what's really happening there." Luk said thoughtfully.
"You're crazy." Sam replied.
"If you'd have seen what I used to deal with. You would understand how I don't see your spiders as much of a threat."
"You'll have to get it past Saina." Sam smiled. He liked Saina not just because of her looks but because she was friendly to him. Like Luk, it was a weird sort of parental care she offered to him while the other researchers found him a bit of a joke.
"I'll get down there again." Luk said with a smile.
***
"What do you mean when Tatooine freezes over?" Luk exclaimed back to Saina.
"Simply put never. Not only do I say no to a member of my team going down there once more to risk there life. No matter how capable they are. But, Grand Moff Tarkin has already stated not again. you can have as much glitterstem as you want from the surface but you are not investigating those tunnels unless you can prove a reason for it, aside from curiosity." Saina was furious that he had even suggested going back down there after everything that had happened. She understood he was a soldier and that there were acceptable risks but this was madness.
"Fine. If those are the orders." Luk said indignantly.
"Luk..." Saina spoke softly, she moved around her desk to speak with him. "I say this not as an officer or as a boss but as a friend. You don't need to go down there. We have as much as we need for testing. Please. Just work the problem and delivery system. One step at a time. Lets get the bosses first request completed." She stepped closer looking up at him and he looked down.
"I understand. Our heads will literally roll if we don't get this done." Luk smiled. He had the urge of kissing her but knew full well that would be highly inpatriate.
"More like a blaster bolt but yeah." She replied.
Luk nodded and turned and left. When the door closed Saina let out a sigh, she had a huge urge to kiss him just then and was finding hit hard to resist. She was glad he had decided to leave in that moment.
***
They day of the test was there. The new gate had been completed. It wasn't big enough for the original Lamda shuttle request or even the downgrade request of a speeder to fit through but a compromise of a speeder bike had been arranged. Luk looked at the mess of metal with cables and tubing feeding in to it. It wasn't elegant, it didn't even seem to be that well designed but he had looked over the schematic and in theory it worked in a similar way to the gate that had brought him here.
Luk looked over at Sam who was making the final adjustments to the spice's delivery system. They had managed to created a method of grinding it into a find powder and suspending it into a solution that only removed five percent of the effective power from the spice. Luk thought it would be enough. The liquid would be sprayed from multiple jets at the same time as the light was flashed causing the power increase to surge back into the machine. Then the gate would form from the various additives sent back along the jest of liquid spice as the power was rediverted back. reaching the center and collapsing space time to create a wormhole to the next gate. Luk wondered for a moment why they had not yet devised a name for the energy that was being created, why they just called it power. He shrugged his shoulders and thought it was most likely down to them not having time to think up such frivolities.
"Let the test commence." A voice came over the loud speaker.
The room went pitch black, everyone was wearing night vision goggles that were helping them see the control panels with their dully illuminated keys.
The machine began to whirl. The jets began and a single pulse of bright light shone at the center of the device. The energy crackled and sparked in the center to and fro multiple times building up.
"Now." Saina called.
There was a sudden flash of light and then there was a purple glow in the room. They all looked over at the center of the machine. The was a swirl of purple and mauve spiraling together into a pin prick void.
"Bring in the test subject." The loud speaker boomed again.
A door opened to one side of the room and the soft hum of a repulsor engine could be heard as a stormtrooper pushed in a speeder bike. Luk thought for a moment that he saw the swirl change slightly as the speeder entered the room but he wasn't sure. Trooper got onto the bike, he looked up at the observation window and loosed the engine. He flew at high speed to the gateway and disappeared within. There was no sound as he entered only the instant disappearance of him and the sound of the bike.
"I take it he's not coming back here," Luk said.
"He should have arrived at the receiving gate." Sam said. The rest of the researchers were at the other side. Any variations or changes here would have repeated on the other side. A minute passed in silence. Then two.
"He's arrived. But, unconscious." The speaker boomed. There were cheers all around. Luk smiled. He was a single step closer to being home. He needed to let Thorne know.