Eaten Alive

by John Whitman

"Yeah, well we're not sticking around to admire it," said Han. "Chewie,

  get ready to make the jump. Now!"

  The pilot grabbed a large lever and pulled down hard. Zak and Tash were

  thrown backward as the Falcon ripped through the fabric of realspace.

  EPILOGUE

  In the Falcon's common area, Tash sat across from Uncle Hoole.

  "I thought I had been left alone," Tash said. "I thought everyone had

  been killed. Like my parents."

  There was the slightest crack in Hoole's usually grim expression. "I'm

  sorry, Tash. While you were gone, I saw my chance to spy on the Enzeen. So I

  became one of them."

  "But why did you wait so long to help us?" she demanded. "We could have

  been killed."

  The Shi'ido explained, "I needed to know what was going on. I couldn't

  find out until Chood spoke to you. I helped you as soon as I could."

  "What did you find out?" Princess Leia asked. "What was that thing?"

  Hoole said, "I didn't find out much more than Tash did. But my best guess

  would be this: D'vouran was some kind of scientific experiment that went

  wrong. The Empire is always experimenting with mutations and biological

  weapons. They lost control of this one. The pendant was some kind of

  protective shield. The technology in that small device must have been amazing.

  I wish I'd been able to study it."

  "Well, it couldn't have worked too well," Zak pointed out. "The

  scientists were all gone. They must have been eaten."

  "Were they?" Hoole wondered. "It's just as likely that the creators

  simply abandoned their project and left it to fend for itself. They may still

  be out there somewhere."

  Tash remembered Chood's evil grin. "And the Enzeen'?"

  "Parasites, just as you and Deevee guessed. They fed off of D'vouran, and

  D'vouran allowed them to survive as long as they attracted more food."

  "How did they get there?" Zak wondered.

  "Maybe they crash-landed like Bebo," Tash suggested, "but the planet

  didn't like the taste of them."

  "Perhaps," Hoole mused. "But I fear the worst. I think whoever is

  responsible for creating D'vouran also created the Enzeen to watch over and

  feed the planet. Someone is using science to create mutants."

  Luke Skywalker asked the question on everyone's mind. "But whoever is

  behind these experiments-what are they trying to do?"

  "I can't be sure," Hoole replied. "But I intend to find them."

  Yet again, Tash remembered Smada's words, and she wondered why Hoole

  wanted to find these mysterious scientists-to catch them, or join them? She

  decided to watch him closely.

  Aloud, she said gratefully, "Well, whoever it was, at least his

  experiment is over. D'vouran is gone, and it will never bother anyone again."

  Light-years away, in the far reaches of the Outer Rim, in an area of

  space ignored by both the Empire and the Rebel Alliance, a commuter starship

  chugged through hyperspace, carrying miners from an asteroid field back to

  their home planet.

  To the pilot's surprise, his passenger ship suddenly dropped out of

  hyperspace with a jolt. The pilot checked his instruments, and once he was

  sure his ship was undamaged, he realized that his vessel had fallen into orbit

  around a beautiful blue-green planet.

  "That's odd," he muttered. "I've never seen that on the charts before..."