The X’Ting’s eyes sparked. "Yes. Of course. "

Obi-Wan didn’t trust that answer. Might Jesson turn the eggs over to the X’Ting who lurked in the lower hive? And if he did, how should he, Obi-Wan, respond?

One step at a time, he thought. They had much to overcome before that became an issue.

The tunnel came to an end at a massive metal door, bolted and barred, and so rusted that it seemed almost a part of the natural wall.

Jesson traced his hands over its surface. "This is the back way into the vault. We must go through the Hall of Heroes, where the old X’Ting still live. Many years ago they erected this door to seal out the plague. To seal us out of their lives. " He looked back at Obi-Wan. "We will have to open the door. "

"This I can do, " Obi-Wan said. He drew his lightsaber and triggered its emerald beam.

Then he took a deep breath and slowly began to press his blade into the door. The hissing sound filled the darkness. Liquid metal sizzled into steam. Within a few moments he’d burned a fist-size hole in the door. Obi-Wan stopped and peered through. Nothing but darkness beyond. He listened. Nothing.

No. Not nothing. Something scuttled on the other side of the door. But it was something distant. Claws on metal and stone. Other than that, silence.

The fingers of Jesson’s secondary arms twined with tension.

"Is there anything you’re not telling me? " Obi-Wan asked.

"There are stories, " Jesson admitted. "Five years ago when we tried to free the eggs, one of my brothers went through another opening. I know he made it as far as the Hall of Heroes. But after that . . . " He shrugged. "We lost communication. "

"I see. " Obi-Wan didn’t like the sound of that. It could imply entirely too many things.

He widened the hole, then waited for the metal to cool so that they could wiggle through.

"I’ll go first, " he said. The mold in the next chamber was just barely bright enough to reveal a large empty space with a rock floor. The room was perhaps twenty meters across, with gently convex walls. "Looks clear, " he said, and then slipped through, instantly alert.

By the glow of his lightsaber he saw that the floor of the roughly spherical chamber was of level stone. In the center was a descending stone stairway. Obi-Wan supposed that it led to another chamber below them.

Jesson crawled through the burned hole nimbly and stood, holding up his glowlight.

"You’ve never been in here? " Obi-Wan asked.

"Never. And neither has any living member of the upper hive, " he said. "I believe we are now inside the largest statue in the X’Ting Hall of Heroes. "