When they came to a stop and Cora got off the now-parked speeder, Efret followed suit, but moved slowly due to her limited vision. She was just standing up when Nirrah landed on her shoulder. Their vision bond connected again and then the archeologist could see much more clearly.
But before leaving the bike, Efret unhook the canvas saddle bags from the bike's frame. She laid them out one above the other as a line over the seats, where she could more easily connect them into one backpack with the same straps that had just held them to the vehicle. With the pack fit over both of her shoulder, she followed Cora towards the vent and knelt alongside her.
"
They look like calcite crystals," she replied. "
Interesting." On Taris, Cora had seemed not necessarily uninterested but not well-versed in the geologic disciplines, so Efret now kept most of her initial interpretations to herself—something to research later. "
Calcite indicates limestone. That indicates sinkholes. Watch where you step."
Efret stood first after they crouched through the vent together and had meant to turn to offer a hand to Cora, but had gotten momentarily distracted by the fine stalactites that appeared to dip over a rocky ledge overhanging the entrance like melted wax on a candlestick. Nirrah could see well in the dark, so Efret could too at the moment. Their shared vision adjusted when Cora pulled out a glow rod. Likewise to the knight, Efret glanced into the rock shaft. It was only about a meter and a half in diameter here, but... Efret took a careful step closer to the edge for a closer look into the darkness before stepping back. Yes, the cavern tapered out wider a few meters down as she had assumed most of the ventilation shafts did. They had been made to refresh Deep Well's air supply with atmosphere at the surface. Each vent had to be able to transfer a sufficient volume of air or there would be grave consequences for the city's populace.
"
I do," she said to Cora's next question. "
Two sets even." She took one more step back from the edge, knelt down, and swung her backpack to the ground in front of her. She pulled one set from the upper bag and handed it to Cora. "
Find a sturdy anchor point and tie the free end of your rope there."
The second set came out of the lower bag. She found a boulder to use as her own anchor point and secured her rope to it. Then she took a few minutes to teach Cora about rappelling, if she wasn't already knowledgeable: how to wear a climbing harness, use a belay device, and tie into the rope. It was a complicated process but eventually it would become second nature if one went through it often enough. At the end of her lesson, if she gave it, she mentioned, "
I normally like to spot a rappeler for either up top or below, but we can go together. Since we have different lines, they won't be over capacity." This way, she could help Cora troubleshoot on the way down should something, Force forbid, go wrong. "
Want to watch me drop down first?"
They began descended slowly, more or less side-by-side and closely together at first, but the distance between their shoulders grew as they continued to rappel. The shaft continued to to widen, to two meters, then three, six, ten. At some point, Efret began to lag behind Cora, confident that she knew what to do now, and wanting to examine their surroundings a bit more closely.
Around a depth of 250 meters, a patch of soft light suddenly came into view, cutting through the darkness more effectively than Cora's glow rod. The angled surface below it seem to be distinct from the rock around it, as it jutted from the rest of the wall at an unexpected angle and appeared to be entirely smooth. Up from it, a much smaller tunnel that the one they were in terminated in the opposite shaft wall. Beams of light shined from that hole too.
"
Ah," Efret's vocoder echoed through the shaft. "
It's one of Deep Well's system of mirrors that bring sunlight from the surface to the underground crops."
Their decent continued for about 250 more meters, this leg of their journey being much brighter than the last thanks to the mirrors periodically nailed into the rock. The installations stopped when the shaft opened up further once more into a cavern wide as the eye could see. Supportive rock pillars obscured some of the view, but the cavern could still be seen to continue for a substantial distance. Wooden structures dotted the level, roofs getting closer as they themselves neared the ground. Carved canal channels for pooled groundwater cut paths through the neighborhoods.
"
Wow," the master commented while hanging. "
Look at that."
A few more meters on, Efret commented again, this time looking down instead of out. "
Oh no." Their landing place seemed to be situated in the small flower and herb garden kept on the side of a house. Plant Surge would come in handy after all. There was no way to avoid trampling something, but at least they could grow back what they did.
Nearby, a path laid with wooden planks to make for a levelled road surface was busy with foot, wheeled, and hoof traffic, but a majority paid no mind to the newcomers. A few children that had been weaving through the crowd, playing tag, however, stopped and ran instead to see the spectacle.
