by John Whitman
Then they all saw it. On the planet's surface, something glowed with
sudden brightness. It was tiny, but clearly visible even hundreds of
kilometers above the surface.
A sensor alarm bleeped. "Energy readings just went off the scale," Zak
yelped.
"Something's attacking us!" Tash cried.
"Taking evasive action," Hoole responded, banking the Shroud hard to the
right.
Too late.
An enormous energy beam streaked toward them, slamming into the ship with
the light of a dozen suns. The Shroud spun to the right, and continued to spin
even after the bright light vanished. Tash felt her stomach leap into her
throat. They were falling. The ship lurched into a nosedive, and Tash was
slammed against a wall. Through the spinning viewport, she could see the
planet spiraling upward toward them.
"What's happening?" she yelled.
"No power," Hoole said. He was straining forward in the pilot's seat,
trying to regain control of the ship. "We're out of control. We're going to
crash!"
CHAPTER 3
We're going to die. That same thought gripped both Tash's and Zak's minds
at the same time.
Neither one of them could speak. Their mouths and throats had gone dry,
and all they could do was watch the surface of the planet grow closer by the
second.
Zak knew there were procedures to regain ship control. There were steps
to follow. But he was too terrified to remember them. Then he heard a calm
voice speak over the sound of the atmosphere rushing past the ship's hull.
"Restarting repulsor engines," Hoole said aloud. "No response. Main
circuits are off-line."
The planet's surface was very near now, but Hoole's voice was utterly
calm. "Switching to backup circuit board." Zak heard something click. But it
was too late. The planet rushed up to crush them. "Circuits are on-line.
Restarting repulsor engines again."
A low groan rumbled through the ship. "Brace yourselves!" Hoole warned.
"Engaging thrusters."
The ship's forward repulsors fired up, breaking against the overwhelming
pull of gravity. Tash and Zak were thrown forward, slamming into the Shroud's
main console.
"By the Maker!" Deevee cried as he toppled over the copilot's chair. "I
just put myself back together!"
The ship continued to fall, but it also began to slow down as Hoole
gained more control.
"We're going to make it!" Tash cried.
"Not quite," Hoole said grimly. "Hold on."
Try as he would, he couldn't pull the ship out of its dive. All he could
do was adjust the angle of their fall so they wouldn't slam right into the
ground. The Shroud hit the surface of Kiva like a rock thrown across the
surface of a lake-skipping once, twice, three times-then plowing over a rocky
field as parts of the hull were torn off the ship's frame. The ship scraped
across jagged mounds of stone that gouged long cuts into the tough metal.
Inside, the four passengers were thrown around. The room was filled with
flying debris as equipment, datachips, holodisks, and everything else not tied
down suddenly leaped into the air. Tash felt a datachip bounce off her
forehead with the force of a small rocket. A moment later she blinked as a
trickle of blood dripped into her left eye.
Finally, the ship came to rest.
Before Tash and Zak could climb to their feet, Hoole was standing over
them. "No broken bones, no serious wounds," he said to each of them, then
pressed a piece of cloth against Tash's cut. "Can you stand?"
They both nodded and the Shi'ido helped them up, then quickly turned to
Deevee. "Are you functioning?"
Servos whined as the droid climbed to his feet. "It seems to defy the
laws of physics," Deevee said, "but I'm still operational."
"Good," Hoole said, as though they hadn't just had a very close brush
with death. "Please go check the engines for damage."
With that, Hoole began to check the cockpit equipment. Tash held the
cloth against her forehead and watched her uncle. She had to admire his calm.
Her hands were still shaking from the crash, but Hoole was steady as a rock,
running checks on all the systems.
"Oh, this is not prime," she heard Zak mutter.
Zak was looking at the floor just outside the cockpit. There was a gaping
hole in the metal floorboards. It was so wide and deep that they could see
straight through to the gray rock of the planet's surface. "I think this ship
just found its permanent home," Zak said. "It sure isn't going to fly anywhere
soon."
"I am afraid Zak is right," Hoole confirmed. "There are at least four
major holes in the hull too big to repair. The crash took out almost every
system, including the navicomputer. Even if the engines worked, we could not
fly. This ship is dead."
They were marooned.
A short while later, Zak, Tash, Deevee, and Hoole stood outside what was
left of the Shroud. Each of them carried a small supply of food and water
salvaged from the ship's galley, and Hoole pulled an emergency crash kit out
of the wreckage. It contained two small tents and a cooking unit.
Zak had also insisted on bringing along as many of the ship's datachips
as possible. The Shroud's computer banks had been full of interesting
information.
"It was a good ship," Zak sighed. "It got us through a lot of scrapes."
"Funny," Tash added. "This ship started out as part of Gog's plan. Now
it's as if we've brought it home to him." Zak nodded unhappily at the memory
of how they found the ship. The Shroud had belonged to one of Gog's henchman,
another evil scientist named Evazan.
Hoole said, "Come. It's not a long walk, but we should start at once."
"Where are we going?" Zak asked.
"Just follow me," Hoole said.
The direction Hoole chose seemed no better or worse than any other. In
fact, every direction looked the same. Kiva was absolutely dead, made up of
kilometer after kilometer of dark gray rock under a roof of dark gray sky.
Even the sun looked gray. The light was dim, but strong enough for huge,
jagged pillars of rock to cast long shadows on the dry ground.
Zak stood next to one rock that was taller than he was. "These things
look like giant teeth."
"Or frozen people," Tash added. "They're all over the place. Like
millions of people, turned into rock."
"Be silent," Hoole warned sharply. Tash and Zak looked at each other and
shrugged.
There was no sound, other than a sad wind that moaned through the rocks.
Zak looked around. Something bothered him. But what was it? Then it hit him.
"No life," he muttered. He crouched down and stared at the ground,
looking for the tiniest sign of growing things, a weed, or even a thorn.
"There's nothing here. Not even a blade of grass."
"You're right, Zak," his sister replied. "This place makes Tatooine seem
like a garden paradise."
"Well I hope there's something here," Zak said. "If we don't get help, or
a ship, we're going to end up just like this place. Lifeless."
Tash pointed at Hoole, striding ahead
of them. The Shi'ido had been
traveling along at a steady pace since they stepped off the ship. "Well, he
seems to think there's something here. How does he even know where we're
going?"
Neither of them could answer that question.
Although Hoole had ordered them to be silent, Deevee chattered happily.
"Master Hoole, this is a rare opportunity indeed!" the droid said as they
hiked. "Why, you must know that there has been no serious study of the planet
Kiva. Although I did read a paper once by an anthropologist from Circarpous 4.
."
Tash stopped listening. A motion caught her eye. It was small-but on a
planet with absolutely no life, she noticed it right away. She thought she'd
seen something step from behind one of the rocks. But when she turned to get a
better look, all she saw was the rock's own shadow. She shrugged.
"... and according to the articles I've read," Deevee went on, "the
Kivans may have left behind entire cities in the aftermath of Mammon's
disaster..."
"I believe that is enough background, Deevee," Hoole said shortly.
"But, Master Hoole, surely you appreciate how interesting this planet
must be to an anthropologist! It's a dead civilization."
"I know. I am an anthropologist," Hoole snapped. But he said nothing
more.
A moment later something caught Tash's eye again. But when she turned
again to look, there was nothing but shadows. For a moment, she thought she
could see the shadows stretching toward them. But then she realized it was
only the setting sun, making the shadows grow longer on the ground. Still,
something had caught her eye...
"Uncle Hoole," she asked, "is it possible that there's still something
alive here?"
"No," Hoole said definitely. "Every living thing on Kiva died."
"But I thought I saw something-"
"A trick of the light," the Shi'ido interrupted.
"But something fired at us," Zak said. "There's got to be someone here."
"Not someone. Something," Hoole said as they came to the top of a small
hill. "Look."
On the other side of the hill, nestled in a small, barren valley, stood a
large tower. An ion cannon was mounted atop the tower, its tip pointing up
into the gray sky. The tower hummed with energy as it swiveled automatically
on its base.
They walked down into the valley. Here, the shadows were even thicker.
"It is a computerized defense system," Hoole explained. "It's fully
automated."
"How did you know that?" Tash asked.
Hoole shrugged. "The sensors picked it up just before we were hit." The
Shi'ido looked at his niece and nephew. "So, as you can see, we are quite
alone on this planet."
Uncle Hoole always has an explanation for everything, thought Tash, as
she wandered away from him and Zak. She picked her way through the maze of
toothlike rocks toward the ion tower. It's so much darker here in the valley-
Tash couldn't believe how fast the shadows moved here. As
Zak's and Hoole's voices faded in the distance, Tash stood still, looking
all around her, trying to see just how the rocks cast such weird, fast-moving
shadows.
Suddenly, Tash screamed. Something had grabbed her by both wrists-she was
being attacked!
CHAPTER 4
"Help!" Tash cried out.
Zak, Hoole, and Deevee ran toward the sound of her voice. But once they
found her, all they could see were shadows cast by the rocks and Tash
struggling with something invisible.
"Get it off me!" Tash yelled.
"What?" Deevee asked.
"The shad-!" she began. Then she was sucked into the darkness.
"Tash!" Zak yelled. He started forward, but stumbled. His foot.had caught
on something. Looking down, he saw that as he'd rushed forward, he had stepped
into a shadow. Now his foot was stuck.
Hoole and Deevee had charged toward Tash, too, but seeing Zak, they
stopped. "What's wrong, Zak?" Hoole asked.
"I don't know," Zak said. He tugged at his foot, but it wouldn't budge.
"Something's got me." He tugged again. This time, something tugged back.
Zak was dragged forward into the shadow. In an instant, day turned into
night. It wasn't the pitch-blackness of late night, but more like the darkness
of evening, just after sunset. Zak could see the ground, he could see the sky,
he could even see Hoole and Deevee, but everything lay under a shadowy shroud.
His uncle and Deevee were moving their arms frantically, and they seemed to be
shouting, but Zak couldn't hear them. He called out to them, but he could tell
that they couldn't hear him either. It was as if a dark, heavy curtain had
dropped between them.
Mammon!
The word was whispered close to him, so close he felt something brush
against his ear. Turning quickly, Zak saw only more shadows.
Mammon!
A second voice moaned in his other ear.
Zak turned again, and again saw nothing but shadows around him. A little
farther away, deeper in the strange bubble of darkness, he saw his sister
lying huddled on the ground. Zak started toward her, but every step took
immense effort. It was like walking through a thick goo. It felt as though
many hands were pushing against him, keeping him from getting near Tash.
"Tash!" he called out.
Tash lifted her head slowly.
"Zak...," she said weakly.
Mammonmammonmammonmammonmammon!
Angry voices swirled around Zak like a moaning wind, all of them
repeating that same name over and over.
"Stop it!" Zak shouted, plugging his ears. "Leave us alone!"
Murderer! the voices cried.
"What?" Zak wasn't sure he had heard right.
Murderermurderermurderermurderermurderer!
"Who are you? What do you want?" he called out.
To his surprise, Tash answered him. She had managed to sit up and look at
him through the fog. "They're angry, Zak," she mumbled. "They're so angry."
"Who?" he asked.
Something hard and sharp lashed out at Zak from the darkness, shredding
the front of his tunic and just missing his skin. Something had attacked him
from the darkness. No, not something from the darkness, he realized. The
darkness itself had attacked him!
"Help!" he shouted in panic. "Help!"
A moment later Hoole charged forward. As he did, the Shi'ido changed
shape. The flesh crawled across his bones and an instant later Hoole had
vanished, replaced by a huge, hairy bantha, its four legs pounding the ground
and its sharp tusks raking the air as it charged.
The bantha crashed into the wall of darkness, storming straight at Zak.
The bantha reared up, searching for enemies to strike.
But all that could be seen was darkness, and all that could be heard were
the whispering voices as they moaned more ferociously than ever.
Mammon! Murderer! Mammon! Murderer! M-U-RD-E-R-E-R!
The bantha paused. Its front feet came crashing down to the ground. It
shivered violently, and a moment later Hoole returned to his normal shape. But
he kept shaking, as though he were freezing cold.
"Uncle Hoole?" Zak called out. "Are you all right?"
hands. "Oh, no," Zak heard his uncle mutter. "Oh... no."
Hoole's entrance into the ring of shadows had triggered something in the
darkness. The shadows began to take a more solid shape. Zak could make out
vaguely humanoid figures. He saw heads and arms the color of shadow, with
bodies that melted into the darkness. They swarmed around Hoole and the two
Arrandas, snarling the same words over and over.
Mammon!
Murderer!
"We've got to get out of here!" Zak yelled to his sister and uncle.
Neither of them responded.
The creatures closed in. Through the gloom, Zak thought he saw dark claws
reach out to grab Hoole's throat. He expected Hoole to shapeshift into
something large and fierce that could tear the weird creatures to shreds, but
Hoole didn't even move.
Dark claws clutched at the Shi'ido's throat.