Looking at the man writhing on the ice in front of him, Amir found it hard to pull the trigger of his blaster pistol.
This was different from destroying a TIE fighter.
Destroying a ship in space was abstract—just a flash of fire and the knowledge that someone had ceased to exist. He could easily ignore that kind of death.
However, when a life was struggling right before his eyes, Amir hesitated.
Even though Charles had tried to kill him, and silencing him was objectively the best choice, Amir wavered.
He had experienced many battles, but he had always avoided striking vital points, merely aiming to disrupt his enemies' actions. In terms of actual killing, he was far less experienced than Veronica.
"Yes, Amir, spare me. This time I was greedy. Besides, I saw your backpack. Forgive my curiosity, but I saw the lightsaber. You're a Jedi Knight, aren't you? I know that Jedi don't kill those who surrender."
Amir furrowed his brows. His backpack was in the main hold where he had kept the lightsaber he found. He hadn't expected Charles to sneak a peek inside.
The mention of the weapon made Amir instinctively reach toward his bag with his left hand.
But at that moment, Charles suddenly sidestepped. His right hand whipped up, revealing a hidden holdout blaster.
In the split second that Amir was distracted, Charles fired.
Although Amir hadn't let his guard down completely, the surprise attack was fast. With no cover nearby, he was exposed to the close-range fire.
He could only draw.
The lightsaber hidden in his sleeve snapped into his hand and ignited.
The green blade flashed, colliding directly with the incoming energy beams. However, the distance was too short. Despite swinging the lightsaber swiftly, he could only block two of the bolts. The third forced him to twist his body violently to dodge.
But the two deflected bolts found their mark.
After two blinding flashes, Charles lay motionless on the ground, no longer breathing. One of the deflected bolts had struck him squarely in the head.
It was an instinctive reaction—the result of Amir's training taking over.
He took a deep breath, deactivated the lightsaber, and stared at Charles's body for a long time.
He sensed the end of a life, feeling the Living Force within Charles gradually dissipate, spreading out to rejoin the Cosmic Force.
He felt no guilt; he had let go of all hesitation the moment he deflected the blaster fire. He also felt no hatred toward Charles, knowing that greed was simply a part of human nature.
There was only regret, though it wasn't deep.
At that moment, he lowered his head to look at the backpack hanging at his side.
The blaster bolt he had dodged had struck his backpack, leaving a scorching black hole in the outer fabric.
Amir felt a chill run down his spine. That backpack contained explosives.
He quickly opened it to check. Fortunately, he had packed the bombs on the inner side, closest to his body. He had placed metal scrap and food rations on the outer layer, which had absorbed the impact.
However, upon closer inspection, Amir pulled out the small signal jammer. A circular crack had appeared on its casing, and it was now emitting a dying hiss.
It can't be that coincidental, he thought, glancing at the spaceship in the distance.
He hurried back.
If the signal jammer was malfunctioning, the unknown tracking signal on his body might have already been transmitted. He was currently out of range of the Traveler's internal jamming field.
Recalling his previous experience of being hunted, Amir quickened his pace.
Upon entering the spacecraft, he rushed straight to the workbench and disassembled the portable jammer for inspection.
"It's definitely beyond repair," he said helplessly, looking at the fried circuitry.
"The ship's interference field couldn't cover me at that distance. We have to prepare for the worst now."
Amir quickly assembled a new jammer using spare parts. But instead of fleeing immediately, he walked back down the ramp toward the cave entrance.
He wanted to open that entrance and see what was inside. The process shouldn't take long.
BD-4 sensed Amir's urgency and followed closely behind.
If he found a way to enter the ruins inside the cave, he would contact Ahsoka as they had agreed, and they could explore it together.
He activated the vibro-cutter and pressed it against the edge of the cave opening. The ice here was completely sealed and slightly lighter in color than the surrounding wall. To break through, he would have to cut a circle around the edge.
When the cutter had sliced halfway through, the ice at the entrance suddenly cracked toward the center. As he continued to cut, the ice blocks in the middle shattered and fell outward, accelerating the work.
After cutting a full circle, the entrance revealed a tunnel with a depression about half a meter deep. The inner ice layers were less dense, filled with stalactites hanging from the ceiling.
Dealing with these ice columns was easy; a light tap with the vibro-cutter caused them to crash to the ground.
Since the floodlights from the Traveler couldn't reach deep inside the tunnel, Amir unclipped a glowrod from his belt and activated it.
He walked faster and faster. After advancing about thirty meters, the tunnel opened up into a spacious ice cavern.
Looking at the smooth, light brown rock layer covered by a thin sheen of ice at the far end of the cavern, Amir knew he was looking at the outer shell of the ruins.
Like the exterior platform, this cavern was likely man-made, but not for habitation. Amir raised the glowrod and scanned the surroundings. He noticed symmetrical patterns carved into the walls of the ruins.
The axis of symmetry for these patterns converged at the center of the cavern's far wall.
There stood a section of wall nearly four meters high. Though there were no visible gaps, Amir was certain that it was a door.
"Finally, a clue. If there's a door, it must open. I just don't know what the key is."
Holding the glowrod, Amir walked up to the wall.
The simple yet elegant patterns caught his attention first, as if they contained some ancient secret.
He called out to BD-4, who was peering around the cavern.
"BD, scan these patterns."
Upon hearing the command, BD-4 ran over. The droid activated its holoscanner, bathing the entire wall in a fan of blue light.
It captured not just a flat image, but the entire holographic structure of the wall, recording every minute detail in full 3D.
Amir then sat cross-legged on the ice, closing his eyes to sense the Force around him. He reached out, searching for guidance, trying to discover what the wall—or door—was hiding.
However, he found that the wall felt like ordinary stone. There were no hidden mechanisms or Kyber-powered locks. The Force flowed through it normally, revealing no abnormalities.
Finding no immediate answer, Amir decided they couldn't stay long. He took the recorded data from BD-4.
He would show it to Ahsoka and Obi-Wan. Perhaps the two of them would recognize something he had missed.
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