broke down. Wants to call for a lift from here."
"So he says," Evazan replied. "Let's see him."
Ponda punched at his own console and the picture on the screen
shifted to show a view of the sea gate area. A small ocean-going
repulsorlift craft sat at the castle's single dock. At the massive
gate stood a most impressive-looking human male.
He was quite large, with a strapping build, as was evidenced by
the body-hugging suit he wore. His chiseled features were
handsome, and a thatch of blond hair waved about his well-formed
head.
Evazan gazed with great interest upon the man, then he punched
console buttons, bringing Ponda's image back.
"Let him come up," he ordered. "But only into the foyer. Keep a
watch on him."
"Are you sure that's smart, Doc?" Ponda inquired.
"Just do it!" Evazan snapped the intercom off and turned to the
senator. "You may get to see more than you'd hoped," he said
excitedly. "Today could be the climax of my research!"
He rushed up from the laboratory, the nonplussed senator
following. They entered the castle's huge entrance hall. In the
wall beside its main door was set a control panel with a
surveillance screen. Ponda Baba was already there, staring at a
view of the room beyond the door.
In a small, bare antechamber to the entrance hall, their blond-
haired visitor stood waiting patiently.
Evazan peered over Ponda's shoulder at the man. His eyes lit
with an eager glow.
"This one will be perfect!" he said. "What a piece of
incredible luck!"
He reached past Ponda to flick a switch on the panel. From the
ceiling light in the anteroom a crimson beam shot down, striking
the blond man's head. He went limp instantly, crumpling to the
floor.
"You killed him?" the Andoan senator said, aghast.
"Just stunned him," the doctor replied. He looked to Ponda.
"Help me take him downstairs."
He took hold of the door handle, but a hairy paw came down on
his hand to stop him.
"Hold on, Doc," came Ponda's harsh voice. "You're gonna make
the transfer to him, aren't you?"
"He looks as good as any I've ever seen," Evazan admitted. "Why
not?"
"No, Doc," Ponda barked at him. "Me first!"
Evazan regarded his erstwhile partner. "What do you mean?"
"You promised I'd go first. You promised I'd get a body with a
good arm. I brought you to my planet, helped you set this up, kept
you alive for just that one thing. You cost me my arm on Tatooine.
You owe me. It's time to pay up."
"How can I do that, Ponda?" he reasoned. "My perfect subject
just showed up at my door. He's here right now!"
"We're both lucky then, Doc," Ponda answered. "You got yours.
I've got mine."
Realization dawned in the doctor's face. As one, both of them
turned toward the Aqualish senator.
The senator had listened to their dialogue with growing alarm.
As they looked to him, his expression grew taut with horror.
"He's not young," Evazan commented critically.
"He's one of the ruling class, though," Ponda replied. "I get
an arm, and I get power, too."
"You . . . you can't mean what I think," the senator gasped.
"We do," said the doctor, pulling out his blaster.
"Congratulations. You'll be helping to make a great step for
science." He gestured with the gun. "Get going, please."
"You can't do this!" the senator cried as they marched him
downstairs to the lab. "What about your financing? Your
protection?"
"I won't need either anymore," the doctor replied. "I'll
finally be able to acquire a whole new identity. Be free of this
scarred face. I can go out of here safe from bounty hunters, and
with a secret that can change the galaxy."
"That's what you intended from the start, isn't it?" the other
guessed. "Just to help yourself!"
"What else?" said Evazan, laughing cruelly. He shoved the
senator through the doorway into the lab. "Now, go get onto that
left table. Quick."
He and Ponda hustled the hapless senator to the table and
strapped him upon its top. Evazan pulled the left-hand boom down
closer, and fastened its dangling metal helmet over the dome of
the captive's head.
Ponda swiftly took a place on the other table. Evazan repeated
the process of buckling restraints and fitting the other Aqualish
with the second weird headpiece. Then he stepped away to a bank of
controls.
He pulled levers, rotated dials, and watched readout screens
indicating the surge of power. The machine sizzled loudl y now,
alive with enormous energy. The great pile of its parts shuddered
visibly, threatening to tumble down.
As the indicators showed he'd reached maximum power, he threw a
red double-handled switch. Blue-white sparks like tiny lightning
bolts flickered downward along the wires, into the metal helmets
on the two heads. The strapped-down bodies both jerked spas
modically.
Evazan watched a pair of dials right beneath the red switch. As
the indicator on the left moved one way, its counterpart on the
right moved the other. In only seconds the two needles had buried
themselves on opposite sides of their dials.
With a cackle of glee the doctor slapped the power levers to
Off. The flickering lights quickly faded, and the crackling of
energy died away.
"It's done! It's worked!" Evazan chortled, running to the table
holding the elder Andoan's body. "Ponda! I've done it!" he said,
undoing the straps. "How do you feel?"
But the Aqualish who had once been the senator lay quite still,
apparently unconscious.
"It's okay," Evazan assured, patting the being. "You'll be fine
soon. Just rest there. I've got to see to my own new body!"
He left the laboratory, all but running back up to the main
hall. His eyes gleamed with a wild look of nearly overwhelming
anticipation. He threw open the door to the anteroom and charged
in. His splendid specimen still lay motionless.
He knelt beside the man, gloating over his perfect body. "All
I've wanted," he said. "Youth, strength . . . and an unmarked
face! I hope he's unharmed."
He put out a hand to lay on the man's heart.
The hand vanished down through the massive chest as if the
flesh had opened to swallow it!
He jerked his hand back, staring in astonishment. "A
holoshroud!" he gasped.
His hand shot to grip the butt of his blaster. But the other
man sat suddenly upright, swiftly striking out. A fist thrust
forward to slam into Eva/an's face. The blow knocked him backward,
sprawling at full length, stunned.
Before the doctor could recover, the blond man was on his feet.
The image of his large form wavered, faded, and vanished
completely, revealing the figure of a thin and hawkfaced man of
dark complexion with a black mustache. One hand rested on the belt
control for the holographic disguise, the other hand he
ld the
grenadelike shape of a powerful thermal detonator. Its thumb guard
was already pushed back, and the man's thumb rested on the
detonator button.
"Toss the gun away, Evazan," the man grated out, "or we'll both
go up together."
Evazan drew out his blaster gingerly and heaved it far away.
"Who are you?" he demanded.
"Gurion's the name. I've been trying to get you for a long,
long time. Get on your feet."
"Pretty smart of you to use that disguise," Evazan told him,
climbing up. "You'd never have gotten in here otherwise."
"That's just what I figured. Now, get moving, you butchering
monster. Take me to the roof. Some friends'll be picking us up
there." Gurion gestured meaningfully with the bomb. "I said,
move!"
Evazan readily complied. They went into the main entry hall and
up a broad staircase.
As they turned the corner on the first landing to start up a
second flight, Evazan glanced down to see a shimmering first bit
of Rover ooze through a doorway into the hall below. He smiled to
himself.
"Look here," he told his captor, intent on keeping the man's
attention on him, "this is crazy. I'm going to be a very rich man.
I don't know how much bounty you're after, but I can pay you a lot
more."
"I'm not after bounty," Gurion shot back. "My family name is
Silizzar. Sound familiar?"
Evazan blanched at the name. "I-I may have had a-a patient or
two-" he stammered.
Gurion cut him off. "You treated my whole family. For a stomach
disorder caused by a poison you gave them as medicine! You gutted
them one by one like so many fish. Seven people! None of them
survived. No, I don't want money for you. This is purely for
revenge!"
Several flights higher they reached a small door that opened
onto a flat area of the roof. A brisk wind from the sea tugged
sharply at their clothes as they came out. The distant lightning
flickered eerily on the scene, and the deep growling of the far
thunder made a constant, ominous background sound.
Gurion directed Evazan around the roofs edge, close to the spot
where his backpack comlink was secured.
"Just stand there like stone," Gurion warned. He lifted the
bomb. "Remember, if I push this button, we've both only got a few
seconds to live. I'd rather take you back to stand trial for all
the other beings you've murdered. But I won't hesitate to finish
it right here!"
"I'm a statue," Evazan readily agreed.
Gurion fetched his backpack and crouched beside it to take out
the comlink's headset. He kept an eye on the doctor as he spoke
into the mouthpiece.
"Mother, it's Gurion. Do you still copy me?"
"Still here, my friend. What's happened?"
"I've got our baby here, alive. I'm up on the roof. Can you
come get us?"
"On our way!" the voice said jubilantly. "Mother out."
Out of the corner of one eye, Evazan saw the door onto the roof
push open. One bulb-tipped stalk poked cautiously out around it,
sensing the air ahead.
"There'll be a shuttle here for us in a few minutes," said
Gurion as he put his comlink headset away.
The doctor took a couple of casual steps around him to get
Gurion's back to the door.
"You've really got to listen to me," Evazan said pleadingly.
"I've got a secret. Right here. An invention. A very big thing.
Too valuable for anyone to turn down."
"Not for me," the other said flatly, his hard gaze fixed
unwaveringly on his foe.
The shining mass of Rover squeezed through the door. The
creature began to slither forward slowly, noiselessly. Flickering
lightning glinted from its gelatinous form.
"But with it I can make you live forever," the doctor argued
on. "Real immortality. Everybody wants that."
"Do you actually think giving me more lifetimes can make up for
all the lives you stole?" Gurion said in disbelief. "You're even
more demented than I thought."
Rover was now only meters behind the crouching man. The
creature began to hump up higher, its stalks shifting forward to
strike out.
In the tiny mirrors of Evazan's eyes Gurion saw the Meduza's
twin reflections as a brighter lightning flare gleamed from its
surface. He sprang upright, wheeling around to see the thing
nearly on him.
Rover struck just as he jumped back away from it. Only a single
bulb's tip managed to graze Gurion's knee with a sharp crackle of
power.
The man cried out at the stinging pain and staggered. The arm
holding the bomb dropped down.
Evazan leaped instantly for the arm. His two hands clenched
tight on Gurion's wrist and he shook hard. The untriggered
detonator came loose and bounced away across the flat roof, coming
to rest before the door.
With his captor disarmed, Evazan tried to break away to let
Rover finish things. But Gurion grappled tight with him, his hands
going for the doctor's throat.
"I'll kill you with my bare hands!" he snarled.
Evazan stumbled backward as he fought wildly to break loose.
Gurion hung on with a strength born of his rage.
The back of the doctor's foot hit the roofs edge. Desperately
he swung about, dragging Gurion off balance and out into space.
The man fell.
Gurion's own weight tore his hands free from the doctor's
throat. But the last downward jerk overbalanced Evazan also.
For a moment the doctor teetered on the brink, flailing out
with his arms for balance. When that failed, he twisted his body
violently around, grabbing out for the roofs edge as he went over
it.
His agility saved him. He hung on fiercely, dangling at arm's
length against the sheer stone face. Below him, Gurion's form
plunged downward, striking the jagged cliffs at several spots.
Evazan glanced down to see the body make the final crash into a
surging wave. He then turned his attention to ensuring his own
safety, but he quickly found this was not so easy a task. His arms
alone weren't strong enough to pull him up. His scrabbling feet
could find no holds in the smooth stone.
A noise came from above him. He looked up as the toes of boots
appeared over the edge just inches from his face. His gaze moved
on up the body to see that it was Ponda Baba who stood there,
staring down at him.
"P-Ponda!" he gasped out, at first with great relief. But a new
realization swiftly turned relief to surprise. "But . . . how! You
here? The-the transfer ... it didn't work?"
"Oh, it worked, Doctor," came a voice no longer like that of
his old friend. "But it worked backward."
"Backward?" he echoed.
"That's right. And so you've condemned me to the loathsome form
of one of my people's lowest breed of scum." The Aqualish lifted
the hairy arm that marked him as a social pariah on his own
planet. "You've destroyed my life as a senator, Doctor. So now I
am go
ing to destroy yours!"
The mechanical arm lifted. In its jointed fingers was clutched
the thermal detonator. The metal thumb rested on the triggering
button.
"No!" cried Evazan. "No, no, wait! You can't!"
"Good-bye, Doc!" the new Ponda Baba said simply.
He pushed the button, dropped the bomb, turned, and strode
away.
"No, no!" Evazan screamed out as the bomb's timer ticked down.
With the strength of desperation he hauled himself up. His eyes
cleared the edge. He glimpsed the ticking b omb, and just beyond it
the Meduza's form.
"Rover!" he shouted to it. "Hellllp meeee!"
Far above, a small shuttle skimmed down through the atmosphere,
flashing high across the waves. The rocky isle with the towering
castle lay straight ahead. Two men of Gurion's lean build and
swarthy complexion sat at the controls.
"There it is," one said. He looked to his companion. "Get ready
to hover above the roof, while I get out the boarding-"
A great flash of light from ahead interrupted him. An explosion
enveloped the entire castle top.
Both men stared with astonishment as the upper half of the
structure disintegrated in the initial blast. A cloud of fine
debris billowed up while larger pieces showered out and down. Then
the lower half of the shattered castle collapsed inward, becoming
in seconds a vast rubble pile.
"Poor Gurion," the first man said, looking down at the broken
remains as they soared overhead.
"That blast probably attracted Andoan security," said the
other. "We'd better get well away from here."
He turned the ship, heading upward again.
"At least Gurion got his revenge on that lunatic Evazan," the
first man said as they left the ruins behind ...
Far below, halfway down one rugged side of the castle's high
cliffs, a large bile-green mound of goo lay motionless on a ledge.
From its splattered edges a thick yellow oil ran, dripping in
greasy, fat globules over the edge.
Then the gellike mass heaved and quivered, bulging upward. Out
of the largest lump of its center an arm suddenly shot forth,
followed by another, and then by the head of Dr. Evazan. He took a
great shuddering breath as he broke the surface, like a swimmer
who'd been long under the sea.
With some difficulty he extricated himself from the blob that
had once been his pet. Though the loyal creature had saved him by
cushioning his fall, their hard impact together had squashed the
Star Wars - Tales From The Mos Eisley Cantina Page 37