by John Whitman
we never knew that he had done such a terrible thing."
Deevee's photoreceptors focused on her. "You should know that there's
more to the story than that. In fact, Master Hoole-"
Deevee was interrupted by an ear-shattering screech of static. The
Falcon's comm system had suddenly activated. After a few seconds of electronic
scratching, a voice poured through the speakers.
"Anybody there? Come in, somebody. Anyone copy?"
Zak recognized the voice. "That's Han Solo!" He rushed to the control
panel and flipped a switch.
"We read you, Han."
There was a pause. "Is that you, kid? Let me talk to one of the
commandos."
"They're all gone!" Tash yelled over her brother's shoulder. "We're the
only ones left."
They heard Han swear on the other end of the transmission. Then he said,
"Look, you have to get out of there. The Imperials are headed right for you!"
"But why?" Deevee wondered. "I thought they were after Master Skywalker."
"So did we," Han said through the speakers. "We tried to lead them away,
but the minute Vader realized you weren't with us, he broke off the attack and
headed for the ships. It looks like he's after you!"
Cold panic gripped Zak and Tash. Darth Vader was after them.
"What do you think we should do?" Tash asked hoarsely.
"Your only chance is to fly out of there," Han said.
"All right!" Zak cheered, eagerly scanning the Falcon's control board.
"But don't take the Falcon," Han added. "You'd never be able to fly her.
Go over to the cargo ship. I'll contact you there and tell you how to start
the engines."
"Blaster bolts," Zak spat. "I could so fly it."
"Copy. Falcon out," Tash replied.
She led her brother, Deevee, and Eppon out of the Falcon and over to the
other ship. Remembering how Meex had disappeared inside the ship and never
come out again, they entered cautiously. But they saw nothing. The ship was
empty. They hurried to the cockpit, where Han Solo's voice was already
filtering out of the speakers.
"We're here, Han," Tash said.
The speakers crackled. "Great. Here's what you do-"
They never heard his instructions. A blaster bolt flashed over their
shoulders and smashed into the control board, sending a shower of sparks into
the air.
Tash, Zak, and Deevee whirled around, expecting to see Imperial
stormtroopers behind them.
Instead they saw a face from beyond the grave. The face of a Shi'ido.
The face of Borborygmus Gog.
CHAPTER 13
"You're dead!" Zak blurted out.
Gog grinned an evil grin. His clothes were torn and stained with oil and
dirt. His face was covered in scratches and bruises. He was a Shi'ido like
Hoole, and the first time she had seen Gog, Tash had mistaken him for her
uncle. But any resemblance was now long gone.
"You're dead!" Zak repeated numbly. "We saw you fall into a pit."
The evil scientist shook his head. "You should have looked more closely.
I did not die." Gog's eyes burned like lasers. "But if I had died, I would
have come back from the grave just to get my revenge on you two interfering
brats!"
Angrily, Gog let loose another blaster bolt. This one sizzled past Zak's
cheek, destroying the ship's viewscreen behind him. The two Arrandas, Deevee,
and Eppon cringed as a shower of sparks rose into the air.
"This has got to be some kind of nightmare," Tash moaned.
Deevee said, "I would agree with you, if I were capable of nightmares,
Tash. How could Gog have followed us here?"
That seemed to make the Shi'ido even angrier. "Followed you here?
Followed you here?" he said in a shrill voice. "It is you who followed me
here. You and your pathetic uncle have dogged my steps from experiment to
experiment, ruining every stage of Project Starscream. And when I come back to
my own home, to save the last of my precious plans, what do I find? You have
taken that, too! It took me twenty years of work to develop my ultimate
weapon, and you have stolen it!"
Tash raised her eyebrows. Gog was ranting like a madman. "When we got to
your lab, it was deserted;" she said. "We didn't take anything."
Gog's face went blank for a moment. Then he started to chuckle. The
chuckle turned into a roaring laugh as his eyes burned into them. "Ha! You
mean you don't know? You haven't realized yet? Then you are greater fools than
I ever dreamed!" He jabbed one long, bony finger at them. "You had the
ultimate weapon in your hands and never knew it!"
Zak and Tash realized that he wasn't pointing at them. He was pointing at
Eppon.
"Come here!" Gog ordered.
Eppon took a step forward, then hesitated. He smiled at Zak and Tash, and
started toward them.
"No!" Gog snapped. "I said here! Obey!"
At Gog's second command Eppon hurried obediently to the scientist's side.
He crouched down at Gog's feet, and the Shi'ido put one hand on the boy's head
as if he were a tame pet.
Zak and Tash were stunned. "What have you done to him?"
Gog laughed again. "Done to him? Done to him? I made him. He is my
creation. He is the result of all my years of work. He is my ultimate weapon!"
"Eppon!" the boy repeated.
Eppon.
Weapon.
Zak and Tash exchanged a horrified glance. They realized that the little
boy had only been repeating the one word Gog had used to describe him.
"You nearly ruined everything," Gog growled to Zak, Tash, and Deevee.
"You let my living planet loose, you toppled my experiments with the undead.
You destroyed my virus experiments and my Nightmare Machine. At Nespis 8 you
used that accursed Force, the one power I cannot control, to defeat me. But I
still have my ultimate weapon."
"What is he?" Tash asked, horrified.
"He and others like him will help me conquer the galaxy. He is the first
soldier in my Army of Terror."
Tash looked worriedly at Eppon. "Why does he grow so quickly?"
Gog leered as he leveled his blaster. "You'll never know."
Zak and Tash looked around desperately, but there was nowhere to hide, no
way to escape. They tensed, waiting for the shots that would end their lives.
A second later, the sound of a blaster shot ripped through the air.
But it came from outside the ship.
It was followed by another, and another. Soon a storm of blaster bolts
was pounding the cargo ship, making it shake on its landing gear.
"Look!" Deevee pointed out the transparisteel viewport.
Dozens of Imperial stormtroopers were closing in on the ship. Amid the
crowds of white armor, the tall, dark figure of Darth Vader stood out.
"No!" Gog yelled. "No, no, no!"
The Shi'ido dashed toward the exit hatch with Eppon close behind him.
Zak, Tash, and Deevee looked at each other blankly.
"He's as frightened of Vader as we are," Zak guessed. "That makes no
sense," Deevee observed. "They are all Imperials."
"I guess that doesn't necessarily make them friends," Tash said.
They crept toward the exit hatch and found it open. Peeking around the
edge, they looked outside.
Gog was standing beside the ship, with Eppon squatting beside him. Darth
Vader stood a few meters away, a squad of stormtroopers at his back.
Vader's deep, rasping voice boomed across the distance between them.
"Give me the boy."
"He's mine!" Gog protested. "The Emperor put me in charge of Project
Starscream! He is my weapon."
Zak whispered, "It looks like Han was only part right. Vader wasn't after
the Rebels, but he wasn't really after us, either. He wants Eppon!"
"Poor Eppon," Tash said. "He's just a tool they're fighting over."
Vader took a menacing step toward the Shi'ido. "He belongs to the
Emperor. Give him to me."
"Never!"
Vader raised a gloved fist. Gog started to choke, clawing helplessly at
his throat. The Dark Lord intoned, "You are fortunate that the Emperor wants
you alive, Gog. Otherwise, I would make you feel the true power of the Force."
Vader dropped his hand, and Gog collapsed, gulping air.
"Take them both," Vader ordered.
The stormtroopers rushed forward.
"Looks like Gog finally met his match," Zak whispered. "At least he'll
never bother us again," Deevee sighed. Tash's eyes went wide. "Don't be so
sure!"
Still holding his half-crushed throat, Gog had managed to get to his
knees. He pointed at Eppon and, in a rasping voice, wheezed, "Defend me!
Defend me!"
Instantly, Eppon sprang at the advancing troopers. For a split second,
the two humans and the droid wondered what one unarmed teenage-sized boy could
do against the Emperor's toughest soldiers. In the next second, their question
was answered.
Eppon jumped on the nearest trooper and ripped his helmet off, exposing
the soldier's startled face. The moment Eppon's hands touched the trooper's
skin, the soldier screamed. What happened next was so unbelievable, so
horrifying, that even the battle-hardened stormtroopers cried out in terror.
The stormtrooper's face turned to jelly. Then, with a loud, wet slurping
sound, Eppon sucked the liquefied skin into himself. He simply absorbed the
trooper's face into his own body.
The rest of the stormtrooper quickly followed. Skin, bone, organs,
everything, simply turned to liquid and was absorbed into Eppon.
Tash and Zak both gagged.
The trooper's empty armor clattered to the ground as the other Imperials
stared in disbelief. Eppon took advantage of their shock and attacked another
trooper.
"I can't look." Tash shuddered.
"You have to," Zak whispered. "Eppon's growing!"
It was true. Absorbing the troopers made Eppon stronger. Before their
eyes, he had another growth spurt, becoming taller and older. But that wasn't
all. This final growth must have triggered some other mutation in his body.
As Eppon grew, the purple blotch on his forehead spread quickly down his
face and neck, covering his entire body in thick purplish scales. His head
grew huge, his hair fell out, and on his skull, thick veins popped out. His
arms, which had seemed human enough before, now grew long and crooked, with
thick muscles that tore through the seams in his borrowed jumpsuit. The skin
on his fingers cracked and thickened until his hands became claws. His eyes
filled with a hungry red fire.
All the stormtroopers had frozen in momentary horror. Only Vader was
unafraid. He raised his lightsaber and there was a sharp hum as he activated
the blade.
As their leader strode forward, the stormtroopers went into action, too.
A dozen blasters fired at once, and all of them struck Eppon.
The energy beams didn't slow him down, though. Eppon picked up another
trooper as though he weighed nothing, and hurled the armored soldier at the
rest of the troop. The stormtroopers stumbled backward in a clatter of armor,
crashing into Vader. The weight of a dozen men was not enough to move the Dark
Lord, but the confusion caused by the troopers gave Gog an opening.
"Take me to safety!" he ordered his creation.
Eppon obeyed with blinding speed. He picked Gog up in one arm and raced
away, moving so quickly that, by the time Vader had shrugged the troopers off,
his two opponents were nowhere in sight.
Vader growled through his breath mask. "You've just signed your death
warrant, Gog."
Still hiding just inside the cargo ship, Tash, Zak, and Deevee remained
utterly still.
"Maybe," Tash whispered as softly as she could, "he doesn't know we're
here. Maybe he'll go after Gog and forget about us."
It seemed as though her wish would be granted. Outside the ship, Vader
issued orders to his dazed stormtroopers. "Send a squad to search the
surrounding area. If Gog and his creature are nearby, I want them alive. Then
bring me a report on the location of those Rebels. I want to make sure they do
not escape either."
Yes, Zak and Tash thought at the same time. We're going to make it!
"But first," the Dark Lord said, turning and staring directly at the
cargo ship, "bring the two children and the droid to me. I plan to question
them. Personally."
CHAPTER 14
Darth Vader ignited his lightsaber and held it close to Zak's throat. The
energy sword hummed threateningly. "Do you know what this can do to human
flesh?"
Zak nodded.
Vader turned to Tash. "Do you understand that I have another, more
terrible weapon at my disposal?"
Tash knew that he meant the dark side of the Force, and she nodded, too.
Tash and Zak were sitting on the floor in the cockpit of the cargo ship.
The stormtroopers had dragged them out, searched them for weapons, then
thrown them back into the ship for questioning. They'd been locked into the
cockpit, where they had waited for almost half an hour while the troopers
plugged into Deevee's computer brain and scanned his memory banks. No one had
spoken to them. Finally, the door to the cockpit had opened, and Darth Vader
had entered.
"Excellent," Vader said. "Then you will cooperate completely."
Zak and Tash both nodded.
Vader's mere presence was enough to weaken even the bravest heart. He was
ruthless, and when he focused his terrible mind on them, Tash felt dark
ripples of the Force wash over her, threatening to drown her in pure evil.
Beside her, Zak felt Vader's cruel will like a shadow darker than anything the
wraiths could create.
They told him everything.
They told him about Hoole and his secret past, Vader seemed to know about
this already, and did not care much about the Shi'ido. They told him about the
Rebels, Luke Skywalker and Han Solo and Princess Leia. Vader was more
interested in them, but he already seemed to know more than they did, and he
quickly changed the subject.
They told him everything they knew about Gog, but again, the Dark Lord
already seemed far ahead of them, and dismissed their words.
They told him how they had first arrived on the planet D'vouran, and
discovered the first part of Gog's experiment. Vader seemed eager to hear
this, and ordered them to continue. He listened as their story wound its way
> through all the planets they had visited, all the discoveries they had made
about Gog and Project Starscream. Vader was intrigued by the details of each
experiment.
Tash and Zak guessed that Gog had kept the details hidden, hoping to keep
the experiments for himself. Vader now absorbed every bit of information they
could give him about the various sections of Project Starscream. Fearing for
their lives, Zak and Tash cooperated.
Except for one thing. Instinctively, neither Zak nor Tash mentioned
Tash's growing sensitivity to the Force. They did not mention her frequent
intuitions of approaching danger, and they certainly did not mention what had
occurred on the abandoned space station known as Nespis 8, where Tash had
finally become fully aware of her ability to use the Force.
Tash didn't know what made her leave out those details. Maybe it was the
Force itself. But she knew that Vader, once he suspected her awareness of the