by John Whitman
always kept them out of reach, afraid he'd hurt himself. He always thought it
was funny that she worried so much about simple gardening tools.
Two more droids appeared.
All the droids rolled toward them.
The four droids slowed down. The tool droid rolled right up to Dash, and
its artificial voice stated, "Please keep off the grass."
Dash laughed. "You bet, as soon as we get outta here." He started
forward.
"Please keep off the grass," the droid replied. Then it slashed at him
with the laser shears.
CHAPTER 8
The laser shears whipped across Dash's stomach. With amazing reflexes,
the pilot jumped backward and only the tips of the shears touched him. But the
laser-powered cutting tool was still deadly enough to slice through his
clothes and cut his skin, leaving a thin line of blood across his stomach.
"Yow!" the pilot shouted. "These guys seem to take the park rules pretty
seriously."
The hole-headed droid rolled up to Zak, who took a step back even though
the droid didn't seem to have any weapons. "I'm not taking any chances, even
though you don't look very dangerous-"
His words were drowned by a torrent of water that gushed out of the holes
in the droid's head. The powerful jets of water struck Zak in the chest and
sent him sprawling onto the grass. He tried to get up, but the gush of water
continued, forcing him down and soaking him through. It felt to Zak like a
Wookiee was pummeling him with punches. When Zak could finally open his mouth
to catch his breath, water poured in, and he gagged.
Then someone was standing in front of him, blocking the water blast. Zak
caught a glimpse of Dash's face, the arrogant grin replaced by a grimace of
pain as the pilot took the brunt of the water on his back, giving Zak a chance
to scramble to his feet.
"Dash, look out!" Tash cried.
The tool droid had rolled forward and raised its vibrospade, about to
bring it down on the pilot's head. But at the last minute, Dash dove forward
and rolled across the grass, out of harm's way.
"They're trying to kill us!" Zak sputtered.
Dash grunted. "No gardening droid's gonna kill Dash Rendar. I'd never
live it down."
The pilot drew his blaster and fired at the waterspout droid. The blast
punched a hole in the droid's outer shell, and it slowed for a moment. Then it
started rolling forward again.
"Industrial-quality droids," the pilot grunted. "Gonna be tough to kill."
The droid's head swiveled as it sent another stream of water at them.
Dash blasted another hole in the droid's body, but the droid kept coming.
"Let's get out of here!" Zak shouted.
Dash scoffed. "Me run? From a droid?"
The tool droid's piston pounder-punched out, catching Dash on the
shoulder and spinning him around. Stunned, he would have been cut down by the
droid's sharp set of laser shears if Tash hadn't grabbed his arm and yanked
him out of reach.
"Hey, I've got an idea," the pilot said, backing away quickly. "Let's get
out of here."
All three turned to run. They were much faster than the four droids, but
the waterspout droid was incredibly powerful. Its spurted a jet of water at
them that was strong enough to knock them down. One after another, they fell
and scrambled up again as the droids rolled after them.
"How big is this Atrium, anyway?" Zak panted, trying to keep his footing
on the wet grass.
"The exit is that way!" Tash pointed to a row of shrubs. Some patient
gardener had trimmed and shaped the bushes to look like living creatures. Zak
saw human shapes, Twi'leks with two tentacles growing out of their heads, and
hammer-headed Ithorians. "The turbolifts are on the other side," Tash told
him.
But as she pointed, four shapes rolled out from the bushes.
More droids.
"I'm getting tired of these guys," Dash grumbled. Still running forward,
he raised his blaster and poured fire onto one of the heavy-duty droids. Zak
lost count of the blasterbolts, but he couldn't help being impressed. Every
shot hit the droid dead center.
Finally, the droid sputtered and stalled. Smoke rose from its joints and
blue sparks shot up from its head like tiny comets.
"You got one!" Tash cheered.
"One," Zak pointed out. "But there are seven more."
"And my blaster's hot as a supernova," Dash said, shifting the overheated
weapon from hand to hand.
"Duck!" Tash shouted. They hit the ground as a gush of water hit them
from behind. The droids who were chasing them were closing in. And ahead of
them, the three new droids fanned out and continued to advance.
The three humans crowded together, forming a tight circle. They were
surrounded.
"Tash," Zak said quietly, so only she could hear him, "if you learned any
new tricks with the Force, now would be a good time to use them."
Tash shook her head. "I don't know if the Force works on machines."
The droids had penned them in. Laser shears hummed to life, and piston-
pounders thump-thumped in anticipation. The waterspout droid was gurgling,
building up pressure for another blast.
A tool droid charged at Zak, waving all its weapons at once. He ducked,
and felt the laser shears clip at the top of his head, cutting off a hunk of
hair. The vibro-spade came crashing down. He tried to dodge, and managed to
avoid the sharp blade of the digging tool, but the droid's mechanical arm
slammed into him, sending him to the ground.
He looked up to see all the tool droid's arms looming over him. For one
frozen moment, the droid stood, all its arms held high, ready to come crashing
down on him.
CHAPTER 9
The next thing Zak knew, the droid exploded in a storm of blaster fire.
The final moments of the strange battle were lost in smoke and the
swishing sound of laser beams as the other droids were blasted to pieces or
melted into slag.
Tash and Dash helped Zak to his feet, and together they watched as seven
figures stepped through the smoke. Six were crew members of the Star of
Empire, and all carried heavy blaster rifles. The seventh, carrying a hand
blaster, Zak knew by name.
"Captain Hajj!" he shouted.
The gray-haired captain scanned the area to make sure there were no more
droids. "You folks all right?"
"Dash was cut," Tash said.
The pilot shrugged and held his slashed shirt closed with one hand. "Just
a scratch."
Once Captain Hajj was sure they weren't badly injured, he eyed them all
suspiciously. "Why didn't you folks leave the ship?"
"We got stuck, and the life pods left without us," Dash answered for all
of them. Zak noticed how smoothly the pilot lumped himself in with Zak and
Tash. Dash hadn't gotten stuck-he'd remained on board on purpose.
Hajj nodded. "I'm surprised there weren't more people stranded.
Everything happened in such a rush. No warning at all."
"Why are you still here, Captain?" Tash asked.
Hajj stood a little straighter. "The captain is always the last to leave
his sh
ip. Me and some volunteers"-he pointed to the six crew members behind
him-"stayed until the last minute, trying to shut the engines down. We thought
we were all space dust, then the alarms just shut themselves off quicker than
a Hutt hurrying to breakfast."
"Captain, what's going on?" Zak asked. "Why was there a false alarm? Why
did those droids attack us?"
The captain shook his head. "I don't know the answer to any of those
questions, but I plan to find out. Me and my crew have encountered several
violent droids. It's as if someone has reprogrammed them all to be killers.
You folks will have to stick with us. You'll be safer that way."
"Well," Dash said. "We were doing all right on our own."
Yeah, right, Zak thought, rubbing his arm where the droid had hit him.
"Besides," added Dash, "I don't take orders from anyone."
Captain Hajj glowered at Dash. "I'm the captain of this ship and you'll
follow my lead."
Dash bristled and seemed about to fight when Tash had stepped in between
them. "Where do you want us to go, Captain?"
Hajj kept his eye on Dash as he told Tash, "We're headed for the
communications room. First priority is to send a distress signal."
Tash nodded. "That's where we were headed anyway. Let's all go."
Zak hid a smile. Sometimes he had to admire his sister. Maybe that's what
the Jedi mean by "action through inaction," he thought.
Dash Rendar scratched his head and grumbled. "Well, all right, just as
long as everyone knows I'm not following. I'm just headed in the same
direction."
Captain Hajj led them through the row of hedges and into another corridor
to the turbolifts.
"We're on deck thirteen," the captain explained as they reached the
lifts. "The communications room is up on deck twenty."
Captain Hajj punched the turbolift call button, but the indicator didn't
light up. "Lift malfunction," he said.
The captain pulled a code key out of his uniform pocket, and opened a
locked panel next to the turbolifts. Inside was a computer terminal. He
pressed some buttons on the panel, then paused. "I can't access the turbolift
program." He entered more commands. "Blast! I can't access SIM, either. Does
anything work on this bucket of bolts?"
"I think I can help," Zak offered. He stepped up to the computer, called
up the game file, chose TIE Fighter, and waited.
HELLO ZAK
"There's SIM," Zak said proudly.
The captain was impressed. "You seem to know what you're doing. Get SIM
to reactivate the turbolifts."
Zak typed in the request. "I know you're damaged, SIM. But can you
reactivate the turbolifts?"
OF COURSE I CAN, the computer responded. THEY'RE ON THE WAY.
"The turbolifts are on the way," Zak repeated out loud. Everyone else
turned away from the computer to wait for the lifts, but Zak continued to look
at the screen.
ZAK
"Yes?" he typed in.
IT IS VITAL THAT YOU GET TO THE CONTROL ROOM. THE COMMUNICATIONS STATION
IS NOT SO IMPORTANT AS EVERYONE BELIEVES.
Zak frowned. "I tried to tell them that before. I could try again."
NO! YOU MUST BO TO THE CONTROL ROOM YOURSELF. I HEED ONLY YOU. I DON'T
WANT YOU TO TELL THE OTHERS BECAUSE...
There was a delay before more words appeared.
... BECAUSE I THINK A SABOTEUR IS AMONG YOUR GROUP!
"Who?" Zak asked, but he already knew the answer. He wasn't surprised at
the two words that appeared on-screen:
DASH RENDAR.
A moment later, a picture of Dash appeared on the screen, then just as
quickly disappeared.
SIM explained: ALL PASSENGER SHIPS ARE REQUIRED TO CARRY FILES ON WANTED
CRIMINALS. DASH RENDAR REGISTERED UNDER A FALSE NAME, BUT I WAS ABLE TO MATCH
HIS FACE TO THIS PICTURE STORED IN MY MEMORY
"Match his face?" Zak asked. "You mean you can see?"
OF COURSE I CAN. SECURITY HOLOCAMS ALL OVER THE SHIP FEED IMAGES INTO MY
COMPUTER MAINFRAME. I CAN SEE YOU RIGHT NOW. DOES YOUR ARM STILL HURT?
Zak suddenly realized that he had been rubbing his sore arm. Looking
around, he spotted a security cam mounted on the wall over the turbolifts.
HELLO ZAK. SMILE FOR THE HOLOCAM.
Zak almost laughed out loud. SIM was trying to be funny. Zak couldn't
believe the computer could actually see!
SIM was showing him Dash's records. Zak could hardly believe his eyes.
Dash Rendar was wanted by the Empire for every serious crime imaginable except
murder. The files claimed he was a mercenary, a smuggler, and a ship-stealing
pirate.
"I knew that guy couldn't be trusted," Zak whispered.
THE TURBOLIFTS HAVE ARRIVED, SIM said. REMEMBER, MAKE YOUR WAY TO THE
CONTROL ROOM QUICKLY. THEN I CAN REPAIR THE SHIP, AND FOIL DASH RENDAR'S PLAN.
SIM's words and Dash's records wiped themselves off the screen just as
two loud dings! signaled the arrival of the turbolifts.
Captain Hajj sent four of his crew into one lift. He instructed Dash,
Zak, and Tash to accompany him and the remaining two crew members in the
other.
Zak was the last to step on. The door slid closed behind him. "Zak, push
deck twenty, please," the captain requested. Zak pushed the button, expecting
to feel the usual lurch as the lift started up.
Instead, the turbolift dropped out from beneath their feet!
CHAPTER 10
Zak felt his stomach fly up into his throat and almost out of his mouth.
One second the turbolift was strong and steady beneath their feet. The next it
was dropping like a stone down a black hole.
"Freefall!" Dash called out. They could barely hear him. The fast-falling
turbolift was screaming like a bomb being dropped.
At first Zak was convinced his brain had left his body along with his
heart and stomach. He couldn't think. He couldn't move. He couldn't hear
anything but the screech of the lift falling down its tube.
Then he became aware of someone shouting in his ear, trying to push past
him to the controls. It was Captain Hajj. "Manual override!" the captain was
shouting. "Emergency brake!"
Zak nodded and reached out. He opened a small box marked EMERGENCY and
flipped the switch inside. Nothing happened.
"Blast!" he heard the captain growl.
Then a strong pair of hands shoved both the captain and Zak aside. Dash
Rendar coolly pulled his blaster from its holster. Holding it by the barrel,
he smashed the emergency control box, exposing a nest of wires. Dropping his
blaster, he fumbled with the tangled wires until he found two that he seemed
to like. He touched them together.
Sparks flew.
Zak heard a loud thunk! as the turbolift's powerful emergency brakes
locked into place.
The turbolift slowed.
In seconds, they were at normal turbolift speed. A moment later, they
came to a complete stop.
Everyone on the lift exhaled at once. Zak clutched his hand to his chest,
hoping to hold his frantically pounding heart in place.
Captain Hajj regained his composure and clapped a hand on Dash's
shoulder. "Nice work."
Skreeee!
The right
side of the turbolift suddenly dropped down, causing all the
passengers to stagger.
"The emergency brakes are giving out!" Captain Hajj cried.
"Time to get off this ride," Zak suggested hastily. Dash, Captain Hajj,
and the two crewmen forced their fingers between the doors of the turbolift
and pried them open. They saw that the turbolift had stopped between floors.
Instead of being at their feet, the nearest floor was actually at the level of
Zak's shoulders.
Dash and Hajj forced open the doors onto the floor. The taller men then
gave Zak and Tash a boost up, and the two Arrandas slipped out into the safety
of the hallway. They held the doors open as one by one the others followed.
Captain Hajj was the last to exit. Dash Rendar pulled him out just as the
turbolift groaned again. The captain was barely in the clear when the
turbolift dropped away. They heard it smash against the bottom of the tube a