When he was faced with a living, breathing man struggling right in front of him, Amir found it incredibly difficult to pull the trigger on his blaster.
It was nothing like shooting down a TIE fighter.
A ship's explosion was an abstract kind of death—just a flash of light and the knowledge that someone had died. It was easy to ignore.
But with a life writhing on the ground before him, Amir hesitated.
Even though Charles had just tried to kill him, and executing him now would be the most logical course of action.
Amir had been through a lot, but in all his battles, he had always aimed to neutralize his enemies without going for a kill shot. He hadn't yet killed as many people as, say, Veronica.
"Yes, Amir, let me go. I got greedy, that's all. And—" Charles coughed and grinned. "I saw it. In your backpack. Sorry, I was curious. I saw the lightsaber. You're a Jedi, aren't you? Heh… I know Jedi don't kill those who surrender."
Amir frowned. He'd left that recovered lightsaber in his backpack, which he'd left back in the ship's main hold. He hadn't expected Charles to go through his things.
He instinctively touched the bag with his left hand.
And in that exact moment, Charles rolled to the side and whipped his right hand out from under his coat, a blaster already aimed and firing.
Even though Amir hadn't let his guard down, the sudden attack caught him off guard. With no cover around, and at such close range, his only option was to draw and ignite the lightsaber hidden in his sleeve.
The green blade flared to life and intercepted the incoming blaster bolts. But the timing was too tight—Amir managed to deflect two of the shots, and had to twist his body to dodge the third.
Both reflected bolts shot back with searing flashes—and Charles collapsed, silent and still.
One of the deflected blasts had struck him in the head.
It was a reflex—a split-second reaction. But it revealed just how much Amir's training had sunk in.
He took a deep breath and shut off the saber, staring at Charles's corpse for a long time.
He had felt the entire process of a life fading away. The Force within Charles had darkened, twisted, spread—and then vanished.
Amir felt no guilt. The moment the blaster bolt was reflected, all hesitation had been burned away.
Nor did he feel hatred toward Charles. He understood that greed and betrayal were simply part of human nature.
There was only a faint sense of regret—but nothing deep.
Then Amir looked down at the backpack hanging by his side.
The blaster shot he hadn't blocked had struck it, leaving a scorched black hole in the outer shell.
A cold sweat ran down his back—he remembered that the bag held explosives.
He quickly opened it and checked the contents. Fortunately, he had packed the detonators on the inner side, closest to his body, and had layered the outer side with metal plates and food rations—just enough to absorb the impact.
But as he sifted through it, he pulled out the small signal jammer—and saw a round, burnt hole in it, sparks flickering weakly from the damaged device.
"No way…" Amir's eyes widened as he glanced toward the Traveler, and immediately broke into a run.
If the jammer was broken, any signals tracking him could've already leaked out.
And he was currently outside the ship's signal-jamming range.
Remembering his past experiences being hunted, Amir ran faster.
Back on the ship, he rushed to his workbench and began dismantling the jammer.
"Completely fried," he muttered, staring at the scattered, smoking parts.
"The ship's jamming radius wouldn't have covered this far out… I have to assume the worst."
He replaced the components and repaired the jammer, but didn't take off yet. Instead, he stepped out of the ship again and returned to the cave.
He wanted to open that sealed entrance and see what lay within. It shouldn't take too long.
BD-4 sensed his urgency and followed him.
If he found a way into the ruin, Amir planned to contact Ahsoka and explore it with her, just as they'd agreed long ago.
Activating the ice-cutter, Amir pressed it against the edge of the ice-sealed entrance. The wall of ice was completely solid—its color just slightly lighter than the surrounding ice—so the only way to breach it was to carve around the edges.
As he cut halfway through, the center of the ice face suddenly cracked inward. As he continued, more and more chunks began collapsing outward, speeding up the process.
Finally, the entire edge had been cut through, leaving a half-meter-deep recess. The ice inside was looser than the outer wall, mostly hanging in long stalactites.
A simple touch of the spear's tip shattered them to the floor.
The Traveler's lights didn't reach this far, so Amir activated a glowrod and clipped it to his belt.
He moved deeper, step by step. After about thirty meters, he entered a wide ice chamber.
At the far end of the chamber, he saw a layer of thin ice covering a smooth, tan-colored stone wall—he instantly recognized it as the outer shell of the ruin.
Like the outer platform, this chamber had clearly been carved by intelligent hands—but not for habitation. Holding up the glowrod and scanning the walls, Amir spotted symmetrical patterns etched into the stone beneath the ice.
The axis of symmetry aligned perfectly with the center of the far wall.
It was nearly four meters tall—a towering wall—and though there were no visible seams, Amir was certain it was a door.
"Finally, a clue. If there's a door, it must open somehow. The only question is whether it needs a key… or something else."
He approached the wall, drawn in by the elegant, simple carvings that seemed to hide secrets within their curves.
"BD-4, get over here."
The little droid had been poking around nearby, but now scampered over.
"Record these patterns."
BD-4 opened the recorder in its eye and scanned the entire wall.
This wasn't just a picture—it was a full holographic capture, down to the tiniest details of the carvings and indentations.
With that done, Amir sat cross-legged and reached out through the Force, trying to sense what might be hidden within this wall… or gate.
But it felt like ordinary stone.
No gaps. No mechanisms. The Force flowed through it, calm and unremarkable.
There was nothing unusual to detect.
Knowing he couldn't linger, Amir stood up. He would bring the recording to Ahsoka and Obi-Wan. Maybe they could spot something he couldn't.
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