Abyss by Troy Denning Read Free Book Online Page B

don’t know.” Luke admitted. He shook his helmet and started up the corridor again. “But I intend to find out.”
    A few steps later, the next section of lighting activated and they found themselves facing the curved bulkhead of the station’s central sphere. Their way forward was blocked by a translucent membrane bulging out toward them. Luke touched his gloved fingertips to it, then pressed lightly and felt it yield.
    “That’s air pressure,” Ben observed. “It must be an emergency bulkhead seal.”
    “Probably,” Luke agreed.
    Luke activated his wristlamp and shone it through the center of the membrane. The view beyond was blurry, but he could see enough to find himself struggling to reorient his sense of direction. They seemed to be looking down into a dome-shaped chamber, with themselves and the membrane located near the top and a bit off to one side. A shoulder-high rail ran down the curving wall to the dome’s circular floor, which had a ring of hatches running along its outer edge. Some of the hatches seemed to be open, but it was impossible to see more than that.
    Luke reached out with the Force again and felt the Presence somewhere beyond the chamber. It was clear and strong and as large as a cloud, concentrated in the darkness ahead. But it was floating everywhere around them, too, above and below and behind. He felt it snaking up inside him, a growing hunger that longed only for his touch.
    A shudder of danger sense raced up his back. Luke deactivated his wristlamp and stepped away from the membrane.
    “You feel it, too?” Ben asked.
    Luke nodded. “And it feels
us.
”
    “Yeah.” Ben looked away, then activated his headlamp and shone it up an intersecting corridor. “So which way to an air lock?”
    Luke was concentrating too hard to smile, but he was glad to hear his son sounding so determined. It didn’t mean Ben was ready to face every demon from his past, but it did suggest he understood the necessity.
    When Luke didn’t respond right away, Ben swung his helmet lamp back around and said, “Right. Trust the Force.”
    “Always a good idea,” Luke said, “but I had something else in mind.”
    He turned his hand vertical and began to push his fingertips against the membrane.
    “You think it’s a Killik pressure seal?” Ben asked.
    “Something like that.” Luke continued to push, stretching the membrane so far that it swallowed his arm to the elbow. “We know they were here, so it seems likely they would have adapted their own construction techniques from this technology.”
    By now Luke had pushed in his arm to the shoulder. He stepped forward, inserting his whole flank. The membrane continued to stretch. A lamp panel activated, flooding the room with white light, but his view of the chamber grew even blurrier. With nothing beneath him except a steep, curving wall, it felt like stepping off a cliff into a fog bank. He grabbed one of the rails he had seen earlier and brought his other foot across.
    Luke started to slide down the wall, the membrane slowing his descent as it gathered behind him in a long, hollow tail. He was about halfway down when the tail closed, forming a new seal and bringing him to a sharp halt. He tried to pull free, but where the membrane had come together, it had grown rigid and unyielding. Releasing the rail, he unclipped his lightsaber and twisted around to cut himself free—then nearly fell when the tail of membrane suddenly snapped and sent him spinning.
    He danced down the curving wall, fighting to keep his balance as changes in both the apparent gravity and his apparent attitude challenged even his Jedi reflexes. By the time he reached the bottom of the chamber, gravity had increased to about half normal, and he felt like he was standing on the wall he had just slid down.
    Ben’s voice came over the suit comm. “Dad, you okay down there?”
    “Fine.” Luke raised a hand to wipe his faceplate clear, only to discover that the membrane was dissolving