by John Whitman
full-fledged groundquake. The Enzeen shouted in surprise. Trees started to
creak, and a few of them snapped and crashed to the ground. Tash was thrown
off her feet, coughing as the groundquake kicked up clouds of dust and dried
leaves. The sun seemed to vanish as the sky grew dark. Somewhere in the
distance Tash heard the loudest sound she would ever hear, a sound like two
mountains grinding together. The grinding, booming explosion seemed to come
from above and below. Later, thinking back, Tash imagined that if a planet
could speak, it would speak in a voice that loud.
The quake ended even faster than it had begun. There was a final boom,
like a giant door closing, and then the terrible noise just stopped. Tree
branches, shaken by the quake, continued to vibrate for a few seconds. Then
there was silence. Only the gloom remained. The day seemed to have gone from
midmorning to late afternoon in a few seconds. It was as though the ground-
quake had caused the planet to spin closer toward night.
Did I do that? she wondered in awe.
The groundquake had surprised the Enzeen as much as it surprised Tash.
They, too, had fallen to the ground. Tash saw her chance.
She ran.
This time she didn't look back. She ran as fast as she could, ignoring
the branches and twigs that scratched her. If she could just reach the
village, Hoole and the settlers would help her.
Tash did not hear anyone following her. The Enzeen had been too startled
by the tremors to chase her. She knew that wouldn't last, so she kept running.
She wouldn't stop until she was safe.
She saw the buildings of the village through the trees. Her heart leaped!
She was going to make it! She was going to be safe!
Tash broke through the trees into the village, shouting, "Uncle Hoole,
Uncle Hoole! Zak! Anybody!" No one answered.
She shouted it again and again, running from door to door. She ran down
the main street. She ran to the spaceport. She ran to the Don't Go Inn.
But the village was completely deserted.
CHAPTER 13
She was all alone.
Somehow every person in the village had vanished. Uncle Hoole was gone.
Zak was gone. Even Deevee was gone. Tash's worst nightmare had come true. She
had been abandoned.
She knew the Enzeen would find her soon. She didn't care. Her entire
family was gone. Her poor parents had been vaporized in the destruction of
Alderaan. Now Hoole and Zak had vanished, along with a village full of
settlers.
Then an even more terrible thought struck her. Had she caused it?
She had tried to call on the Force. Instead a ground-quake had erupted.
Had the groundquake swallowed the villagers-and Hoole and Zak? And had she
created the groundquake with the Force?
The thought pressed down upon her like the weight of a planet.
Weak and defeated, Tash walked to the spaceport. All the ships were still
there. No one had flown off the planet. But they were still gone.
Tash stopped in front of the Lightrunner. Briefly she considered trying
to fly it away, to escape from the Enzeen. But she knew she couldn't do it.
She could only pretend to be a pilot. She couldn't really fly a starship.
Dragging her feet, Tash stubbed her toe on something. It was a flat board
about a meter and a half long, with stick-strips across the top and thruster
vents on the back.
Zak's skimboard.
What was it doing here?
Next to it, Tash noticed a shattered glass bowl.. and amid the broken
glass were three or four small, slimy bodies. Eels. A bowl full of eels.
Smada the Hutt had been there. And so had Zak.
Tash tried to steady her beating heart. Maybe Zak hadn't vanished. Maybe
he had been kidnapped by Smada. Maybe Zak was right. Smada was behind all the
disappearances.
But then what about the Enzeen? What were they? And why had they wanted
to kill her?
Tash felt questions ricochet around in her head like blaster bolts. She
didn't know the answers. She only knew one thing, and that was that it
appeared that her brother had been captured by Smada.
Which meant he might still be alive.
Tash tucked the skimboard under her arm and left the spaceport. She
headed through the village looking for Smada's stronghold.
She did not notice something creeping slowly behind her.
Smada's stronghold was not difficult to find. As her uncle had told her,
it lay just inside the forest on the far side of the village. Two towers of
ugly brown stone rose up out of the trees. From a distance they looked like
misshapen giants. By Hutt standards it was a small place, more like a summer
cabin than a fortress, but to Tash it looked like a mansion.
It was nearly dark by the time Tash arrived there. Again she wondered
what had happened to the day. Was it just later than she thought? But, no, she
had only been awake for a few hours. Yet the day was all but gone.
She walked right up to the front door and knocked.
The Ganks let her in. They searched her thoroughly and made her leave the
skimboard beside the door. Beyond the door was a large audience hall, just big
enough to fit a Hutt's ego. There were six Gank bodyguards in the room. Smada
the Hutt lolled atop his hoversled, chuckling to himself. In one corner, in a
small cage, sat her brother.
"Tash!" he called out.
"Welcome," Smada said. "I've been expecting you."
"Let my brother go," Tash demanded.
The Ganks laughed.
"Certainly," Smada said. "As soon as you tell me where Hoole is."
Tash was stunned. "I don't know where he is. I thought you had captured
him."
"Me?" the Hutt replied. "Don't be a fool, girl. If I had your uncle
already, I wouldn't bother with you and your brother. You two are meaningless,
but Hoole's Shi'ido powers will make me millions!"
"Your millions won't mean anything if you're dead," she said defiantly.
"Do you have any idea what's going on around here? Didn't you feel the
groundquake?"
Smada shrugged. "A tremor. Nothing significant."
"Have you been to the village? Everyone's gone!"
Smada sniffed. "As I said, nothing significant. Those villagers don't
concern me. I wouldn't care if the ground opened up and swallowed them all. As
long as I get my Shi'ido."
Tash tried again to convince him. "You're in as much danger as we are,
Smada. People are disappearing. And the Enzeen are evil. They tried to kill
me."
Smada laughed. "I will kill you, if you don't tell me where your uncle
is. No, wait, I have a better idea."
He motioned to one of his Gank bodyguards. The enormous Gank plucked Zak
out of his cage and dragged him to Smada's hoversled. "Let go of me, you ugly-
"
"Silence," Smada growled threateningly. Zak glared at him but said
nothing.
Pointing his blaster at Zak, Smada turned to Tash. "Tell me where your
uncle is, or I will kill your brother."
CHAPTER 14
Tash didn't know what to say. How could she save Zak when she didn't know
the answer to Smada's question? But she had to say somethi
ng.
Tash opened her mouth to speak. And as she did an enormous roar blasted
through the chamber, echoing off the walls and deafening them all. Smada
dropped his blaster and tried to cover his ears with his flabby hands. Even
the ruthless Ganks shrieked and covered their ears. It was like nothing they
had ever heard.
Except Tash, who recognized it.
It was the sound of a krayt dragon roaring.
Deevee stood in the doorway. He was battered and dented, but he was
functioning. "Catch!" he called out, and slid something toward them.
It was Zak's skimboard. It clattered along the floor until Tash stopped
it with one foot. "Zak, come on!" She stepped on board and felt the stick-
strips cling to her feet. Zak was still a little disoriented, but he managed
to hop on board as well. "Brace yourself," he warned.
He activated the repulsors, and Tash felt her stomach drop out. They were
suddenly floating three meters in the air. "C-can't you fly any lower?"
Zak actually laughed. "Nope. This is the lowest setting."
"Get them!" Smada roared. The Hutt and his bodyguards had recovered
quickly from the shock of the dragon roar, but they were startled again to see
their two prisoners suddenly floating so high off the ground.
"Blast them!"
The Ganks opened fire.
Zak and Tash saw white-hot energy beams flash around them. They heard
blaster fire sizzle the air, and they smelled the acrid odor of ion burn.
But not a single shot touched them. "These guys are lousy shots!" Zak
laughed.
Tash remembered the gangsters' attack on Bebo. "It's not them, Zak. It's
this!" She pulled out the pendant she still wore. "This is what Bebo was
wearing. It protected him from disappearing. And I think it protected him from
the blasters!"
But there was no time to examine the device. The blaster bolts were
missing them, but they came awfully close. Zak kicked the skimboard into gear
and slashed toward the exit, where Deevee waited. Some of the Ganks continued
to fire, while others leaped up, trying to grab them out of the sky. Zak
twisted and turned the skimboard to dodge them.
"We have to get Deevee!" Tash said. "Are you sure this thing will lift
all three of us?" she asked.
"Are you kidding?" Zak replied. "The way it's supercharged, it could
carry a Hutt! But there isn't room for three people on board."
Tash yelled down to Deevee. "Grab hold of the bottom!"
Now that they were closer, Tash could see how badly damaged the droid
was. Wiring was exposed where his silver covering had been torn away. Every
inch of his body had been dented.
With a tremendous leap, the damaged droid launched himself upward and
grabbed hold of the skimboard. He was hanging on the underside of the
hoverboard, and the repulsors blasted him, but he held on.
"Can you make it, Deevee?" Tash called out.
"I don't seem to have much choice!" the droid replied. "Go!"
Zak hit the accelerator, and they zoomed out the open door. They were
going to escape!
"You're all useless fools!" Smada the Hutt snarled at his Gank
bodyguards.
He had not become a crime lord through ruthlessness alone-he had a
brilliant and devious mind. He knew it was impossible that all his Gank
bodyguards were missing their targets.
Smada picked up his blaster and took careful aim at the receding
skimboard. He squeezed the trigger twice.
The high-velocity energy bolts covered the distance in an eye-blink. The
first shot passed right over Deevee's head and between his arms. The second
shot creased the skimboard's underside, cutting off the propulsion that kept
the board aloft. The microengines whined once, then the skimboard bucked
wildly and dropped.
"Look out!" Tash cried. The hoverboard disappeared from beneath her feet
and she was falling through the darkness. The ground rushed up to meet her and
she struck it hard.
The wind had been knocked out of her, and she gasped. Next to her, she
heard Zak suddenly shriek, "Help! Help!" Instinctively she grabbed for him and
touched his arm. Instantly his shrieking stopped.
"What's wrong?" she yelled.
"I-I don't know," her brother said in utter confusion. "I felt something
grab me. Then when you touched me, it stopped."
"Did you see it?"
"Tash, I can barely see you! It's pitch black out here."
It was true. Night had fallen. Which was impossible... unless the planet
had begun to spin faster in space.
Tash stood up, and immediately Zak screamed again. Tash felt his hand
clutch desperately at her. "Don't let go! Don't let go of me again!" he
whimpered.
The fear in his voice terrified her. "What is it?"
Zak the daredevil, Zak the risk taker, was trembling with fright. "I
don't know. I don't want to know. But it's strong. And it will get me if you
let go!"
CHAPTER 15
"Deevee, can you see anything?" Tash asked. "Use your infrared."
"It's not functioning," the droid replied. "Most of my systems are
offline, thanks to that beating the Enzeen gave me. Thank goodness they left
me for scrap before the job was done!"
"The Enzeen?" Zak asked, bewildered. "They attacked you?"
Tash quickly told her brother about the laboratory. The groundquake. The
empty village. And that Hoole was missing.
Zak's voice was trembling as he said, "Great. What do we do? Smada's
behind us somewhere. The Enzeen are trying to kill you. Uncle Hoole's gone.
And there's something in this darkness that's after us!"
"Is the skimboard working?" Tash asked.
Deevee had a tiny glowrod hooked into his photoreceptors, still
functioning, which he lit for Zak. In the small beam of light, Zak examined
his board. A long black scar ran across the board's main repulsor vent. The
sharp smell of ozone lingered where Smada's shot had struck. "It's not going
anywhere now. The micro-alluvial damper's shot. But I think I can fix it if I
get a minute to rewire it."
"We'd better make a run for it then. Deevee, can you run?"
"No," the droid said matter-of-factly. "You'll have to leave me behind."
"Not this time," Tash said. She put one arm around his waist. Zak assumed
a similar position on the droid's other side.
"Which way?" Zak asked.
"Toward the spaceport. Maybe together we can fly the Lightrunner out of
here."
"I think not." A bright beam of light fell across them. Smada and his men
had found them already.
The Hutt sat atop his hoversled, with his six Ganks around him. He glared
at Zak and Tash through narrow slits. "Bring them here."
One of the Ganks lunged forward to grab them.
Then he vanished.
"Aiiiiiieeeeee!" A piercing scream sliced the air. "Help! Help me! It's
got me! Aiiiieee-!" It was suddenly cut off.
Smada shined his searchlight onto the spot where the thug had been. But
there was nothing there.
Not even a footprint.
"What is it?" Deevee cried. "What's going on?"
Out of the darkness, Smada answered. His voice was still powerful a
nd
commanding, but there was fear in it as well. "Something is out there." He
shouted to his guards. "Bring those brats to me and let's get out of here!"
Cautiously another Gank stepped forward, while the others kept their
blasters ready. This time Smada kept the searchlight trained on his henchman's
back.
And this time they saw it. In the blink of an eye, a hole opened right
under his feet and he dropped down. "Help!" the thug screamed.
The Gank threw his arms out wide as he was sucked downward, stopping his
fall at his shoulders. He tried to scramble out of the hole, but it snapped
shut around him like a jaw closing tight. The ground itself squeezed around
his chest and he grunted in pain.
By that time the other Ganks had reached him. They grabbed hold of his
hands and arms and tried to pull him out of the hole. But instead something
far, far stronger pulled him another inch into the ground.