ALL NOVEL Chapter 49: Felucia
Summary: They have to go in...where exactly to get to the Star Temple? This does not seem sanitary...
Warning! Chapters 48-51 were all published back-to-back! Make sure you don't miss any of the new chapters!
Chapter 49: Felucia
"Are you sure the Force is telling us to go there?"
Izuku voice might have been a little incredulous. Slipping the Commerce Guild's frankly shit and extremely limited net around the planet had been easy enough, the Wandering Fate having long ago been modified for some degree of sensor stealth. It was what they'd found after that as Aayla communed with the planet and the Force both that was causing his incredulity.
Izuku was the next best thing to useless for that part. In fact, he was finding the entire planet disconcerting. His unique connection to the Force was very nearly a direct plug in to the Unifying Force, but he had virtually no connection at all to the Living Force in turn. As this planet was unquestionably the domain of the Living Force, he was nearly blind in the Force here. Which was incredibly disconcerting after years of training to leverage his unique connection. Thankfully, he could access the Living Force, at least a little, through his bond to Aayla. But his understanding was so limited it wasn't good for much beyond immediate warnings of danger in the 'now.'
"It's where the Force is directing me, Izu! Besides, it makes a sort of sense, doesn't it?"
Izuku frowned at that, even as Mei hummed cheerfully and prepped the hoverbikes behind them. There hadn't been a landing site near where they needed to go. Worse, there was what seemed to be nearly a city worth of the natives, the usually quite hostile set of natives, around the site they'd been drawn too. Which still wasn't the main concern, bizarrely enough.
"Aayla, how does 'inside the largest Sarlacc ever recorded' make sense as the location for a Star Temple?!"
Much to his annoyance, Aayla's lips quirked as she clearly suppressed laughter.
"Izu, dear, you're forgetting that the Dathomir temple had biological guardians. Dozens of Whuffa Worms, some of which were up to 250 meters long. What on earth made you think that other Star Temples wouldn't have their own guardians? In fact, I wouldn't be at all surprised to discover that this Sarlacc is the original. A biological creation of the Kwa, with the others around the galaxy only offshoots caused by people transplanting spores from this one. The Rancors, too. Those were seemingly native to Dathomir, and there is a variant here on Felucia now…as well as found on a few other worlds that have Sarlaccs, come to think of it."
Izuku considered it for a moment, then groaned, bringing one hand up to his faced to literally facepalm. That made way too much sense. Aayla was openly grinning now, as she reached over to pat him on the shoulder.
"Don't worry, Izuku! After all, the Whuffa Worms responded to the 'key' that Celeste got from the Blue Mountain People. Since we stopped off to get that key from her, there's a good chance the Sarlacc won't even try to kill us! And our armor should be plenty resistant to Sarlacc acid, even if it doesn't!"
Izuku sighed. At least that last part was true. And they'd even had time to get Mei a set of their specialty armor. The flora and fauna of Felucia was aggressive enough that he hadn't been willing to chance letting her come along without said armor, and they did need her to help with the Infinity Gate. He was admittedly a little concerned about the random assortment of other bits Mei had enthusiastically added on top of the armor when they'd stopped by one of the IES systems to generate it. But at least she'd be protected, and probably wasn't carrying any man-portable weapons of mass destruction.
Probably.
"Finnnnne. This is still insane. But I admit it is the Force Nonsense sort of insane. So I suppose it makes sense. If we get eaten by a Sarlacc and die horribly, I'm blaming both you and the Force though, just so you know. I'll make sure to find a way to haunt the Force itself as the more guilty party."
Aayla only laughed. Which was not particularly encouraging to Izuku's state of mind…
... ...
Izuku stared in utter disbelief as it finally computed just what he was seeing. He'd been so focused, initially, on the settlement of Felucians, that he hadn't quite processed just where that settlement was located. The Sarlacc they'd scanned from a distance was, apparently, big enough that an entire city of the native population had come to exist between its teeth and gums. The city stretched for four kilometers around the enormous creature and, in a way, Izuku had to admire the sheer brass balls and ingenuity of the idea. The creature couldn't quite reach the natives where they were…and even the most vicious predators on the planet were far too terrified of the Sarlacc itself to come near. Meaning that the locals had, by sheer audacity, carved out a city that was safe from the worse this crazy planet could throw at them.
"Okay, never mind how staggeringly ridiculous this is. How, exactly, are we supposed to bypass the city? Also, how are we supposed to enter the Sarlacc without it, you know, eating us?"
Izuku felt those were both completely valid questions, thank you very much. The locals were noted to be Force Sensitive and hostile to outsiders, and the Sarlacc would totally eat them if given a chance. Sadly for his sanity, Aayla seemed unconcerned.
"The Sarlacc isn't an issue, surprisingly. I already connected to it and, while it isn't fully sentient, it recognized the 'key' I fed it. I'm guessing the Kwa must have literally programmed that key into its base genetics, so it would recognized it no matter how many eons of time separated the Sarlacc's creation and the key's use. It's acknowledged all three of us and will let us pass through it to the Star Temple it's guarding."
Izuku really wanted to protest. But apparently this was his life now. At least their armor would reduce the ick factor of what he suspected 'passing through' the Sarlacc would be like. He was absolutely not getting back in their ship without plasma blasting the armor first, though. Just…ew.
"And the locals?"
Aayla again didn't seem nearly as bothered as she should have been, in his totally unbiased and logical opinion.
"I think we can just talk to them. I checked the Jedi database remotely, since information on Felucia isn't secure enough to trip any alerts or anything. According to the Jedi who have been here before, the Jungle Felucians react reasonably well to Jedi, so long as those Jedi are connected to the Living Force of the planet. They should recognize that I'm doing that and leave us alone."
Izuku pointed out the flaw in that.
"I'm not connected to the planet, and Mei isn't even Force Sensitive."
Aayla turned her gaze on Mei, who was waving a scanner around from inside her pink armor. Seeming to enjoy the oddness of the environment entirely too much. It seemed to agree with her Mad Scientist Energy in a way that Izuku was most definitely not having fuzzy thoughts about. Hopefully, he didn't have to talk her out of making horrifying chemical or biological weapons again. Arguing about those the first time had been hard enough, when she could easily point out that Quirks like Midnight's were effectively biological weapons on two legs.
"Hmmm, I don't actually think it's going to be an issue. You might currently be feeling half crippled, but your connection through me is enough to make you feel like a weakish Force Sensitive, echoing with the planet's connection. Mei, meanwhile, curiously is connected to the planet. Though not consciously. I couldn't tell before now, since I've never been around her in a Force-dense setting, but she's drawing in ambient Living Force. Not very much. But I'm betting that draw is what powers her Quirk."
Izuku blinked, brain doing a proverbial record scratch as his understanding of reality adjusted itself. Given what they suspected about Quirks based on his own, that made an interesting amount of sense. It's not like anyone back in their home reality had properly figured out what was powering Quirks, after all. If the vast majority of Quirks were effectively hard-coded Force abilities, with Quirks like his own being a different sort of 'experiment' from the Force, they suddenly made a lot of sense.
He could name any number of Quirks that had Force ability equivalents, and even most Jedi acknowledged that there were a lot of esoteric uses for the Force that weren't commonly studied. Things like plant manipulation, teleportation, and matter phasing, which were known to individual Jedi but not commonly reproduced. With that in mind, actually…
"Mei? Is your Quirk doing anything weird?"
Mei, despite having been distracted by the scanning, was quick to perk up at her name.
"Yep! It's totally wigging out! That's why I'm scanning things! I totally want to know why I suddenly have X-ray vision! Being able to look at Aayla boobs and your boy bits whenever I wanted would be nice!"
Izuku groaned, and even Aayla half-snorted a laugh. It took both of them a few moments to process Mei's comment and get control of their instinctive reactions. When they did, Aayla managed to drag the conversation back on track, even if her voice was still rife with amusement.
"So, where your Quirk acts as a bridge to the Unifying Force, mutation Quirks like Mei's draw on the Living Force to power themselves constantly in the 'now.' And being on a planet with a super-charged amount of the Living Force has equally super-charged Mei's Quirk. Good deduction…and one that brings me back to the main point. Mei's intrinsically connected to the planet and its Living Force just by standing there. The locals might be even more at ease around her than me. At least until she tries to dissect one or something."
Izuku snorted.
"Thankfully, she prefers mechanical things, not biological things. Aside from, apparently, your boobs and my 'boy bits.'"
Aayla giggled at his positively dry tone, but then reached out and grabbed Mei by the arm to tow her along.
"Well, come on then! Time to meet the locals!"
... ...
There had been entirely too many spears and other pointy things directed at the trio for Izuku to be entirely happy with how their exchange with the 'locals' had gone. Despite that, the moment one of the local shamans had ambled up and barked an order, the weapons had been stowed away and Aayla had been invited in to speak with said shaman. Aside from a blatantly curious look at Mei, who apparently really did feel strange to the shaman, the odd looking being had focused entirely on Aayla. Which was just fine with Izuku, given that the being didn't seem to speak basic. Aayla was using the Force to translate, and sending the words to Izuku, but in his currently limited state Izuku couldn't have performed the same trick. Nor could he have made it work the other way around, projecting a translation for the native.
Instead, as Aayla talked to the very confused native who was baffled by the idea they wanted to go inside the Sarlacc, Izuku studied the being. He, she, or it wasn't quite the oddest sentient Izuku had encountered thus far. But he certainly made the top twenty or so. His face looked more like a mass of vines than anything, and the four fingers of his hands were arranged in an odd way, with each digit being the side of a square of sorts, with webbing between the fingers to form that square. It was almost like he had four thumbs, two sets opposing each other, and with the webbing likely marking his species as amphibious.
Thankfully, despite being utterly baffled that they wanted to 'feed themselves to the Abyss,' the being wasn't hostile. Far from it, in fact, as it tried to actively talk Aayla out of her apparent insanity, explaining that the only ones that entered the Sarlacc were those among their kind that turned to the Dark Side. Which actually explained a bit about why this settlement was here and apparently led by a shaman. With their entire species being Force Sensitive to greater or lesser extents, they must have enough individuals 'fall' that they'd needed a scary punishment to discourage it. A punishment like being thrown into a Sarlacc to be devoured…
... ...
Ultimately, due to the shaman trying to talk them out of their insane idea, it took almost an hour to get permission to enter inside the Sarlacc. Frankly, as they found their way inside, Izuku was wishing that the shaman had been able to talk Aayla out of this. Sadly, the only thing he'd been able to do is convince her to at least use an alternate entrance to the creature. Which had led to them passing through some sort of breathing-gill-sphincter-thing. Izuku was very much grossed out at the moment, despite the creature willingly curling all its internal tendrils away from them so they could pass. He very much wanted to have words with the Force about sending them here. Though, strictly speaking, he supposed it had sent them to Tython, and they themselves had chosen the route…
That didn't exactly make him feel better.
If it turned out there was a stable hyperlane to Tython, he was going to be pissed.
Thankfully, their armor at least kept them physically isolated from the disturbing mix of every horror movie and dark tentacle hentai they were traveling through as they progressed through the insides of the ancient Sarlacc. The creature was so massive that said insides were almost disorientingly easy to pass through. He had to imagine that other parts of the creature must be more compressed, if it was functionally able to digest anything smaller than a rancor, but the bits of its interior that Aayla guided them through were large enough they didn't even have to duck. It was frankly absurd, but certainly made the idea that this was possibly the first Sarlacc to have ever existed, and that it might have been artificially grown as a guardian, a heck of a lot more believable. A believability that only skyrocketed when they eventually transitioned from disturbingly squishy flesh to artificial construction.
Said artificial construction was, at first, in significantly rougher shape than the recordings Mei had taken during her adventure with Celeste. That, Izuku figured, was honestly fair enough. Even the Kwa couldn't have quite accounted for 25,000 plus years of potent acid damage, after all. Despite that, the acid-etching hadn't destroyed all of the metal and stone, which was very telling about just how durable the Kwa had built things. A truth that had a completely unflustered Mei scanning everything and even taking some samples of broken off material, wanting to know just how they'd made something that had held up so well. Personally, Izuku was just glad when the acid-etching eventually vanished, the last evidence of being inside a Sarlacc disappearing with it.
"So…are we still inside the Sarlacc? Or have we passed out an exit, to a complex it was guarding?"
His question broke the silence that had slowly fallen, previously interrupted only by a few murmurs of interest from Mei. Aayla hummed for a moment, her eyes half closing, before she answered.
"That's a little difficult to say. The Sarlacc's Living Force is so dense that it blankets the entire area, making it hard to feel out where it starts and ends. My guess would be that it's the latter. That we've left the Sarlacc behind and passed through into a Star Temple complex. Mei and Celeste's description of the Infinity Gates had them as large enough for a sizable star ship, a cruiser at least, to pass through. As enormous as that Sarlacc is, I don't think a complex of that size could rest entirely inside it."
That was…reassuring, honestly. Despite the creature's tentacles actively pulling away from them at every turn so they could pass, the entire experience had been disturbing in a way that made Izuku fear developing claustrophobia. Despite his lessened connection to the Force here, the weight of the Force pressing down on them had added something extra to the experience of physically being inside a predator species that was, itself, considered something of a galactic horror.
"Yeah. Still not unsealing my helmet until I get a bath in plasma or something."
Aayla chuckled at his weak joke, even as they came to the first outright door in the structure.
"Well, look alive everyone. We can hope that the traps here were disarmed by the key I provided, but there's a good chance they weren't. And they may not be in the same places at the complex on Dathomir had them. We might well have the most dangerous part of this excursion yet ahead of us!"
Izuku was about to groan at that when Mei darted forward and pulled Aayla backward…just in time to prevent her from being bathed in a jet of plasma so strong that Izuku doubted their armor could shrug it off. Even just the backwash likely wiped away the contamination Izuku was afraid of, as the interior of their suits spiked to uncomfortable levels of heat despite their climate control systems. Aayla and Izuku just stared, then shifted to look at Mei.
"I scanned the other Star Temple's traps! That was a super common one! We should be careful!"
Slumping at the realization that this wasn't going to be smooth or easy, combined with Mei's cheerfulness despite their near-death experience, Izuku wanted to whimper. Aayla was startled for an entirely different reason, which she voiced a moment later.
"Why didn't the Force warn me?"
She sounded confused and betrayed, but Izuku's expression twisted as he almost instantly provided a logical answer.
"Because the Kwa used the Force in their construction, obviously. Or something very like the Force, at least. They might have called what fueled the Gates the 'Power of the Cosmos,' but I'd bet credits to bantha shit that 'Power of the Cosmos' was just their name for the Force. Same with all the grandiose mentions of the 'Power of Infinity.' I'd place my wager firmly on all of their tech being Force based or Force infused. I mean, look at the worlds they exist on. Dathomir? Felucia? Tython? All Force heavy…"
Aayla groaned as she followed the same train of logic Izuku had.
"And if they understood the Force deeply enough to open what amounts to Force teleportation portals through space time, then they also would have understood how to block someone from sensing a trap with the Force."
Izuku nodded, sighing into the comm.
"Yep. Particularly given that these traps of theirs managed to keep out the Rakata. Who, from what we know, were also a civilization that used the Force heavily in their tech."
There was silence for a moment before Mei's cheerful voice broke the heavy realization.
"Yep! That all totally makes sense! Good thing their scanner tech was the same way, though! They totally didn't count on completely mundane developments in modern scanner tech! I can easily see all the traps, since I have good scans from the other Star Temple to work from. So long as we're careful, we should be able to get through quite easily!"
That…made sense. It was also simultaneously reassuring and very much not so at the same time. It meant, after all, that the only reason that the Nightsisters hadn't gotten into the main Star Temple on Dathomir was their primitive tech level and over reliance on the Force. It also, unfortunately, meant there was a very good chance the other Star Temples still active around the galaxy were vulnerable to penetration by treasure hunters and the like. Mei had locked down the network during her adventure with Celeste, but what could a group like the Nightsisters learn from simply studying the Gates and other Kwa Force-Tech? Mentally noting that they were going to have to add quietly securing the remaining temples to their priority list, Izuku braced himself for the coming chaos and bit the bullet.
"Okay, Mei. You take the lead…and be careful."
Mei's cheer at that was not entirely reassuring…
... ...
They were all a little bit singed and battered from near-misses by the time they finally reached the actual control center of the Felucian Star Temple. Frankly, that was pretty much par for the course anytime Mei was put into a leadership position, so Izuku figured they were doing okay. Aayla, who hadn't previously experienced Mei's version of 'leadership' up close and personal, was a fair bit less sanguine about it all. But, given that she'd been the one that was sanguine about walking casually through a Sarlacc's insides, and possibly out its asshole or something, Izuku wasn't overly sympathetic about her current irritated twitchiness. Karma really seemed like it could be a Force thing to Izuku, after all.
Thankfully, the fact that Mei was the one to transfer authority over the entire Infinity Gate network to Felucia meant that she was able to disable the failsafe traps on the control center at least. It would have been nice if she'd been able to remotely access said control center to disable the internal traps of the rest of the Star Temple, but the simple truth was that their technology was too incompatible for that. Mei had needed physical access to the terminal outside the control center to authenticate themselves, meaning she'd been able to give them authority over the facility only after they'd already run the gauntlet of traps. A few of which had been different enough from the ones on Dathomir to catch them out, despite Mei's scanners identifying them.
Still, they were alive, and now in control of the Star Temple.
"So, Mei, what's the verdict? Is the Gate functional enough to use?"
He and Aayla, having taken the brunt of the traps despite Mei leading, had been more than willing to rest as Mei went over the hardware with a translator and a great deal of enthusiasm. That said, Izuku was also well aware of Mei's tells, and had noticed when she seemed to finish her main task. He'd given her a few more minutes before verbally poking her, knowing if he let her she'd fall into studying the systems here until one of her alerts reminded her that getting food and sleeping were things she was supposed to do.
"Hmmm? Oh, yes. They needed a bit of calibration to account for how much the galaxy has shifted since they were last used, but that process started automatically when I transferred control. It had only just finished a few days ago, in fact! We got lucky to arrive when we did! All I had to do was finalize it and run a systems check to make sure everything was still in working order."
Luck. Riiiiiggghhhtt. Izuku suspected luck had pretty much nothing to do with that. He seriously wanted to have words with the Force at some point. Even if he knew that wasn't really how things worked. And he supposed it was technically looking out for them this time. Even if it had resulted in them crawling out a Sarlacc's asshole and through a bunch of dangerous traps they couldn't sense with the Force.
"So how does it work? Is there a version that people can just walk through? Or do we need to figure out some way to get the Wandering Fate down here. Which…would probably be sort of impossible unless there's another entrance."
Mei shook her head, then stabbed a button with one finger. In response, one entire wall of the control center lit up with a massive display. The view from which made Aayla and Izuku sit up and pay attention. It wasn't every day, after all, that you saw a giant shimmering portal which appeared suspended in an empty void. A void that had no stars but did seem to shimmer and twist in a way that was perceived mentally, more than physically.
"Technically, the Gates can generate a smaller portal that a person can pass through. But I wouldn't trust the hardware to do that, not without a lot more extensive testing. Better to pass through the primary Infinity Gate at this location. Which, as you can see, is suspended in its own pocket dimension. Besides, this way we can take our ship with us. There's no way to be certain the Tython facility is in as good of shape as this one. We might be stuck there making repairs for a while in the worst case. Better to have supplies."
Aayla, whose galactic travels with Quinlin Vos had exposed to her a far greater degree of weird shit than Izuku had yet to encounter, was able to wrench her attention away from the view first.
"Uh, Mei? If it's in a pocket dimension, how exactly are we supposed to get the Fate in there?"
Mei grinned at her, cracked her knuckles, and then tapped a few commands on the console in front of her. Nodding in satisfaction, she leaned back and waved at the wall display.
"Like this!"
Aayla was quick to follow the gesture back to the display, which Izuku was still staring at anyway. For a moment, it wasn't obvious what Mei meant…but then a stream of energy shot away from the Gate into the near-distance, seeming to connect to something. Less than a second after it did, what it had connected to became apparent, as the Wandering Fate blinked into existence, being pulled along the thread of energy until it came to rest hovering before the Infinity Gate. Before Aayla could get over her momentary speechlessness, Mei cheered and spoke up again.
"Yay! It worked flawlessly! Now we can be sure the Gate really is in working order!"
Izuku groaned and managed to speak up before Aayla.
"Mei, did you just risk destroying our ship to test that?"
Mei coughed in a way that could only be described as sheepish.
"Uh…only a little? The odds were really good, and it was better to test it on the ship before we tried to travel through the Gate ourselves? And now we know it works!"
Izuku sighed, not quite able to argue against that logic. He'd have preferred she try it on something else first, instead of their ship. But that was better than just trying it on them without asking. So, for Mei, this was honestly a reasonable degree of restraint.
"Okay. Fine. Now…how do we get out to the ship?"
Mei straightened, obviously glad she wasn't about to get a lecture over being reckless…again. She quickly explained, before Izuku could change his mind about that.
"There are travel pods in a hangar below us! Technically, we could have used them to transit the Gate. But they aren't hyperspace capable and don't have all our stuff. So we'll just use one to move over to the Fate, instead. We can even store the pod in the hold so I can study how it works later!"
Aayla and Izuku looked at each other, considering if that was a good idea. A normal freighter couldn't have done it at all, without some preparation work being done to secure everything in the hold. But one of the many modifications Mei had given the ship over the years had been giving the cargo hold its own magcon shield generator. Something which meant it could hold atmosphere with the cargo doors open. Technically, that trick allowed them to carry a couple of starfighters, even if they'd rarely made use of it by doing so.
The question, of course, was if it was a good idea to trust a magcon shield in an unknown environment like the pocket dimension. For that matter, taking unknown Force-Infused tech along with them might not be the smartest idea either. Though it certainly wouldn't be the first time they'd done that. Ultimately, Aayla shrugged and Izuku sighed.
"Fine. Assuming any of the pods are in good enough condition we can trust them, we'll both use them to move to the ship…and you can take it with you."
Izuku smiled, despite the risks, as Mei cheered and did a little happy dance…
... ...
In the end, after a thorough check over the best-looking trio of travel pods, they'd determined which one seemed to be in the best shape. Frankly, all three of them were serviceable, yet another testament to their builders' skill at building to last. Of course, even more pods hadn't been in working condition, with only seven out of two dozen being capable of powering on. That was still a ridiculous success rate after 25,000 plus years with no maintenance, which honestly made Aayla and Izuku feel better about letting Mei take one along. While it might end up being impossible for her to replicate fully without the Force, there was every chance that Mei might learn something useful for studying the pod. Along with, of course, the copious data she'd insisted on copying from the control center.
That had been a trial in and of itself, since there was no shared data structure. Mei had ended up having to set several of the control consoles to stream purely visual data of the files while she pointed cameras at them to take the data in. Even leaving a half dozen console and camera setups doing that had only resulted in getting half a percent of the total database, which frustrated Mei. They'd ended up leaving some of their security droids behind to watch over the system as more was copied, with orders to destroy the files if anyone other than them came to get them in the future.
That had been enough to satisfy Mei, barely. Though that was likely only the case because they were letting her take the travel pod with them, which would give her something more practical to tear apart and study. The pod itself was only a touch over 5 meters long, designed to seat eight people and two pilots. It was space capable, from what they could tell, having apparently been designed to traverse to either the handful of Infinity Gates that were not planet side, or for when you wanted to use the advanced travel method Mei had used to grab the Wandering Fate. Used in reverse, that system would allow you to take a pod directly into orbit of a world with an Infinity Gate. Useful if your destination was a space station, or a moon that you could reach with the Pod after it made the initial transit.
Thankfully, the pod proved to hold up just fine for their transfer to the Fate, though piloting it had been an interesting experience. Aayla and Izuku had needed to work together to pull it off, as the controls weren't even vaguely similar to a modern setup, and half of them needed Force input, or provided feedback to the pilots via the Force. Thankfully, inside the pocket dimension, the overwhelming Living Force presence of Felucia had completely vanished.
In fact, once inside the pocket dimension, Izuku's connection to the Unifying Force had become stronger than ever before. Enough so for them to theorize that the pocket dimension itself was, for all intents and purposes, a small pocket of reality inside the sea of the Unifying Force. Izuku had needed to desperately clamp down on his shields to keep the deluge of information caused by that fact to something that was manageable…and even that 'manageable' level had given him crystal clear information on the travel pod's controls. He'd been distracted enough that he'd have been unable to use the information himself. But by feeding just that information over his bond to Aayla, she had been able to use the data to fly the pod. At least for the short hop to get them into the Wandering Fate's cargo hold.
"Okay so…we just fly into the Gate?"
All three of them were now in the cockpit of the Fate. After Izuku insisted on a through decontamination of their armor, they'd stripped off the outer layers, but hadn't taken the time to change into anything else. The underlayers of the armor were quite brief and very skintight…but none of them were particularly bothered by that. Mei, sitting behind Aayla and Izuku, strapped into an extra jumpseat at the rear of the cockpit, was quick to answer the question.
"Yep! I set the Primary Gate's destination to the Tython Gate's pocket dimension. All we need to do is fly through, and we'll come out on Tython! Or, well, at least the pocket dimension associated with the Infinity Gate on Tython!"
Izuku looked over at Aayla, only for his lover to shrug. He shrugged back and waved forward out the viewport.
"Well, now or never, I guess. Take it slow, I assume, and deflectors to full. We don't know what the conditions are like on the other side of the Gate."
Aayla nodded and nudged the throttle of the ship forward, having already brought the ship up from standby to full readiness. With an incredibly subtle lurch, more sensed than felt, the ship began to move, the Infinity Gate rapidly looming large. Aayla and Izuku tensed just as they crossed the threshold…and then blinked as they came out into a very similar space without any fanfare?
"Wait? Did we go anywhere? Also, does anyone else taste some sort of weird berry flavor?"
Mei bounced entirely out of her seat, somehow having already undone her harness.
"Tifible berries! No idea what they are, but I set the Gate to leave that taste when we went through! That means it worked! This is the Tython Pocket Dimension!"
Aayla and Izuku blinked, then turned to gape at Mei.
"…What?"
Their simultaneous question was ignored completely as Mei eagerly used a secondary console to bring up the ship's sensors…
... ... ... ... ... ...
A/N: The bits about Felucia in THIS chapter, however, are a mix mash of EU and original-to-me. The giant Sarlacc being present there is from the video game Force Unleashed, which I also took cues from with its interior, as there is in fact a level where you transit through its lungs (ew). The idea of it being a Guardian for a Star Temple, however, is entirely my own concept. I think it fits rather well, though! The Wuffa Worms that guarded the Dathomir Star Temple were crazy big too, apparently. Like the size of a small capital ship big. So...yeah, I think it fits.