by John Whitman
"To the docking bay. We have to reach the Shroud and get off this ship."
"But the docking bay doors are locked," Dash protested.
"If you have a better idea, you can tell me on the way," the Shi'ido said
as he spun around and strode toward the turbolift.
"How did you get on the ship?" Dash asked, dragging Malik onto his
shoulder again and following him. "Maybe we can get out that way."
Hoole's brow wrinkled as he told his story. "I'm afraid that wouldn't
work. When the life pods ejected, I thought Zak and Tash were already on
board. It took me only a few moments to realize they weren't in the crowd. I
shape-shifted into a mynock, slipped out an air vent, and flew back toward the
Star of Empire."
Zak had seen the dark, winged space creatures called mynocks before.
"Mynocks can live in deep space, so you weren't in any danger."
"Precisely," Hoole said. He set Tash gently on her feet. "But I did not
count on the ship starting to move. Instead of exploding, the sublight engines
activated, and the Star of Empire started to move off. I had to chase it."
"You chased a ship?" Dash said incredulously. "I don't think I've ever
heard of that before."
"You get used to things like that around us," Zak said grimly.
"In any case," Hoole continued. "I was fortunate. Had the ship gone into
hyperdrive, I would have lost you forever. Instead, the vessel merely
continued to cruise in normal space."
Zak guessed, "SIM probably didn't have access to the hyperdrive controls.
At least not until now."
Hoole finished his story. "Reaching the ship, I found an open vent and
slipped inside. That led to an airlock, which I opened."
Dash asked, "But how did you manage to open the air‑lock, get inside, and
then close it, all in the shape of a mynock?"
A troubled look crossed Hoole's face, then vanished. "With great
difficulty," he admitted. "But once I was aboard, I had no trouble finding
you."
"How?"
Hoole blinked. "SIM led me right to you. And told me what it was. It
seems interested in keeping us all together. For what purpose, I do not know."
The turbolift slowed to a halt. When the doors opened, Zak saw that they
had returned to the Atrium level. The park spread out before them. The air
down here was cooler and more pleasant. Whatever SIM had done to heat up the
atmosphere, it started at the top of the ship and was working its way down.
"This is perfect. This is the same level as the docking bay," Dash said.
"Watch out for the gardening droids," Zak warned.
But the gardening droids were nowhere in sight. "We need to go across
this grassy area," Tash said. "That leads to the menagerie. Past the
menagerie, we can go through the restaurant to the docking bay."
"Let's hurry," Dash grunted, hefting Malik a little higher onto his
shoulder. "This guy's getting heavy."
In the middle of the Atrium they passed the remains of the droids Dash
and the crew had blasted. There was no other sign of trouble.
"Something's wrong," Zak said. He looked down at the hulk of the
waterspout droid that had attacked him earlier. "This is too easy."
"Hey, don't close the door on a Hutt when he's holding a gift in his
hand," Dash replied, quoting an old saying.
"I'd trust a Hutt," Zak answered, "before I'd trust that computer."
Tash managed a thin smile. "Is that my brother talking? The guy who
wanted to avoid living beings and spend all his time with his computer?"
"That was before the computer tried to drop me down a turbolift shaft and
bake me inside a spaceship."
They reached the end of the grassy field and started through the
menagerie. The animals yowled at them as they passed. The vornskr lashed its
spiked tail back and forth. The yayak flexed its claws, put its ears back and
growled deep in its throat. The divto's three heads swayed back and forth
threateningly.
It occurred to Zak that on their first trip through the Atrium, they'd
been lucky. SIM had sent the gardening droids after them, but as dangerous as
they were, the gardening droids hadn't been designed to kill. These creatures,
however, were predators. If SIM had released them...
Of course, Zak thought, SIM probably didn't have access to the force
field cages then.
Then Zak thought, But now he does!
"Run!" he shouted.
The warning came too late.
All at once, the force fields vanished.
The predators were free.
CHAPTER 19
Five of the caged creatures bolted for freedom and vanished into the
park. But the three predators spotted Zak and the others, their sharp eyes
focusing on their prey.
The vornskr charged. The spike-tailed creature seemed to pick up Tash's
scent and made right for her. Weak from her near-suffocation and paralyzed
with fear, Tash stood staring as the vornskr leaped into the air to bring her
down.
Hoole moved to protect his niece, but Dash Rendar was quicker. With
hyperspeed, he let Malik fall to the ground, drew his blaster, and fired from
the hip. The bolt hit the vornskr square in the chest, knocking it backward.
It landed on its feet, shook its head, and roared.
Dash looked down at his blaster in disgust. "The energy cell in this
blaster is almost drained. This isn't going to protect us for long."
"Uncle Hoole, can you-?" Zak started to ask.
"Not all of them," Hoole said. His eyes moved from the three-headed divto
snake, to the yayak, to the vornskr. "If I shape-shift and attack one, the
others will close in. We need to keep our distance."
Distance, Zak thought, remembering his last adventure in the Atrium.
"I've got an idea! Tash-help me!" He dashed back toward the grassy field.
The yayak saw him and started to pursue. Dash fired another shot to ward
it off-one of the last shots left in his weapon. But it was enough to startle
the yayak, which backed off with a hiss.
Zak reached the site of their earlier battle and bent down next to the
waterspout droid. Tash came up behind him. "What's the idea?"
"We've got a weapon," he explained. "Not much, but it'll do." He popped
off the droid's waterspout head. Below the head was a hose. Tearing open the
droid's already damaged body, Zak revealed a large water tank. "Ugh, this is
heavy," he gasped. He handed the nozzle to Tash. "You aim, I'll carry this."
Together, they managed to lug the water tank closer to the menagerie. As
soon as Hoole and Dash saw what they were doing, Hoole retreated and took the
water tank from Zak.
"I think it's only about half full," Zak said.
"It will do," the Shi'ido agreed.
"I could use some help here!" Dash shouted.
The divto slithered forward. Dash pulled the trigger, but his blaster
fizzled. The power cell was drained. He leaped back as one of the divto's
three heads struck the spot where he'd been standing.
Hoole aimed the nozzle on the waterspout and fired. A jet of water
blasted the divto right where the three heads joined and sent the creature
skidding backwards. Its heads twisted and writhed around each other, hissing
angrily.
"Nice shot!" Zak cheered.
The yayak was next. Larger and heavier than the divto, it wasn't blown
backward by the water jet, but it seemed to dislike being sprayed. It bared
its fangs, and backed away.
Only the vornskr was left. Hoole kept the water jet aimed at the snarling
creature as the group circled around it, then started backing toward the
restaurant. Once or twice the predator trotted forward, but each time Hoole
shot it with the water cannon. It followed them warily.
Their retreat through the menagerie was tense. Zak thought they would
never reach the end. But finally he felt his boot crunch on broken glass.
They'd reached the window Dash had shattered.
With a final heave, Hoole hurled the nearly empty water tank at the
vornskr, and the four ran inside the restaurant.
Tash shouted directions. "Through the restaurant door, out into the
hallway, and down to the docking bay!"
Zak and Tash reached the hallway first. Looking both ways, they saw no
sign of trouble. Hoole came up behind them. Dash, still carrying Malik,
reached it last.
He stepped out into the hallway, just as they had done.
And screamed.
CHAPTER 20
Bolts of electric blue shot up Dash's leg. His eyes went wide. For a
moment, his hair seemed to stand on end.
Hoole lunged forward and sent his shoulder into Dash, knocking the pilot
and Malik back into the restaurant. The minute Dash lost contact with the
hallway floor, the electrical sparks stopped.
When they reached Dash, they saw that he was awake, but his hands were
trembling, and there was smoke rising from his left boot.
"F-Floor," he stammered. "Elec-Electrified f-floor."
"But why didn't it shock us all?" Zak asked.
Dash pointed a trembling finger at Zak's feet, then his own. They both
wore boots, and like most boots worn by space travelers, they were insulated
against electricity. But Dash's left boot had a big chunk taken out where the
crab droid had attacked him. The naked skin of Dash's foot had touched the
electrified floor.
A loudspeaker somewhere nearby crackled to life. "I was wondering when
you would discover my latest trick. I didn't think you'd get here this soon,"
SIM said. "But, of course, I also calculated that you would have only a one in
one million, seven hundred fifty-two thousand, three hundred forty-six chance
of surviving the menagerie."
"Let us go!" Zak shouted.
"No," the computer replied, and clicked off.
Hoole took Malik from Dash. The techie was still unconscious, but
stirring and muttering. Some of the electricity had flowed through Dash and
into Malik, probably saving Dash's life and stirring Malik out of his stupor.
"Can you move?" Hoole asked the pilot.
Dash nodded. He stepped out into the hallway, carefully to walk on the
side of his boot.
"Don't touch anything metal," Hoole warned. "Stick to the middle of the
hallway. Move carefully and slowly."
Suddenly, SIM sent a power surge through the hallway. Glowpanels
exploded. Power lines burst. A gas line running along the ceiling snapped in
two, and a foul-smelling green vapor flooded into the hallway.
"Forget my earlier suggestion," Hoole snapped. "Run!"
They ran. Zak caught a lungful of the green vapor as they raced past the
broken pipes. It burned his lungs and brought tears to his eyes, but he kept
going. Soon they were through the vapor cloud, and Zak saw the docking-bay
doors loom up before them.
On the other side of those doors lay their ship, the Shroud, and safety.
All they had to do was get through the doors.
This section of floor no longer seemed electrified. Hoole set Malik down
against the wall opposite the sealed doors. The techie groaned.
"We're so close," Tash said.
"And yet so far," Zak said. "How do we get through those doors?"
"We'll find a way," Dash said, trying to sound confident. "I've been in
worse places than this and gotten out. We just have to outthink the computer."
"But SIM is a cold, calculating machine," Zak said. "There's no way we're
going to outthink it."
Dash scowled. "Okay, kid. What's your idea?"
Zak shut his mouth. The truth was, he didn't have one. SIM had played him
for a fool from the first moment they'd made contact through the computer
Dejarik game. SIM obviously planned ahead-it had schemed to get Zak into the
control room while killing almost everyone else who might have interfered. SIM
thought faster than he did. And SIM had control of the ship.
Malik stirred again. Zak knelt down next to him and shook the techie's
shoulder gently. "Malik, we need your help."
Malik's eyes fluttered, then opened. But his look was distant. Zak wasn't
sure Malik could even see him, but he kept talking. "You know SIM better than
anyone. How can we beat him?"
Malik shook his head. "Can't be beaten," the techie whispered. "Problem-
solver. Adapts too quickly."
It was true. When Zak and the others had gone through the Atrium, SIM had
taken control of the gardening droids. Then it had outsmarted them at the
turbolifts. And then at the gangway. And even when they thought they were safe
in the cable pipe, SIM had found a way to reach them. For every step they
took, SIM took two. For every move they made, SIM had a countermove that made
their situation worse.
Suddenly Zak recalled watching the computer screen in his uncle's room,
with the Dejarik game displayed and the words flashing on the screen: Your
move... your move... your move... over and over.
It occurred to Zak that SIM was waiting for them to make the next move.
"I think I know what to do," he said at last.
Hoole turned from studying the door. "What, Zak?"
"Nothing."
Dash snorted. "There's a great plan."
"I mean it," Zak retorted. "Everything SIM has done has been in response
to something we've done."
"Not true," Dash said. "SIM started this whole party with the false alarm
that cleared the ship."
"But even that was in response to Malik's original orders to infiltrate
the ship. SIM was designed to think for itself-but it's still a computer. It
responds to input!"
Zak felt a tingle of excitement. He knew he was on to something. "Even a
large artificial intelligence like SIM isn't that different from the computer
that runs a Dejarik game. The computer is presented with a problem and tries
to solve it." He remembered some of the words SIM had used in their
conversation: fun... entertaining... best move... all game-related terms. SIM
was treating them as a game, a challenge.
"It could have killed us at any time," Zak said aloud. "But it didn't. It
wants to solve problems. It wants us to keep trying to escape."
"So your solution is to do nothing," Hoole clarified.
Zak nodded. "Make no move at all. 'Action,' " he said, looking at Tash, "
'through inaction.' "
Hoole paused, then nodded. "At this point we have nothing to lose."
"Except our lives," Dash muttered.
They sat dow
n. They weren't exactly comfortable. The hallway floor was
hard, and the superheating trick that SIM had pulled was finally reaching the
lower levels. They felt a current of warm air blow down the hall.
Sweat broke out on Zak's forehead.
They waited.
Hoole sat cross-legged, staring at the door. He was as still as stone.
Dash sat with his legs pulled up, his arms folded across his knees.
Malik lay still. When he moved, it was to mutter something they couldn't
understand. After hours of torment by SIM, and the stun bolt from Dash's
blaster, he was down for the count.
Zak tried to keep still, but the knot that earlier had tightened in his
stomach returned, and every moment seemed to add another twist. What if he was
wrong? What if sitting there just gave SIM time to plan their painful,
horrible end?
Just when he thought he would burst, Zak felt Tash's hand on his
shoulder. She smiled at her brother and said, "Patience can be a very powerful