by John Whitman
Star Wars
Galaxy of Fear
05
Ghost of the Jedi
by John Whitman
source : IRC
uploaded: 13.II.2006
PROLOGUE
The shuttle's door opened onto the gray landscape of a dead world. The
wind howled across the dry plain, whistling among sharp, jagged slabs of rock
that seemed to grow out of the ground like stone trees.
Borborygmus Gog stumbled out of the shuttle. He was frustrated.
His frustration turned to pure hatred when he saw who was waiting for him
on the planet's surface.
"What an unexpected pleasure," he sneered.
Darth Vader withstood the howling wind, stronger than the jagged rocks
around him. "I am here to fix Project Starscream."
Gog glared. "Project Starscream does not need to be fixed."
Vader tilted his head forward, looking down on the doctor. "Are you
certain? Hoole has proved himself to be a formidable enemy. I warned you
before not to be overconfident. Now Hoole has ruined the first four stages of
Star-scream, and he is still on the loose, thanks to your incompetence."
The skin on Gog's back rippled. He hated Vader, hated his power and his
arrogance. Gog wanted that power-more than anything he wanted to take Vader's
place beside the Emperor's throne. Gog was a Shi'ido, a shapechanger. He felt
the urge to transform into a wampa ice beast and rip out Vader's throat. He
eyed the lightsaber hanging from Vader's belt. He was sure he could reach
Vader before the Dark Lord drew his weapon.
But Vader also commanded the Force, and against that, Gog had no defense.
At least not yet.
He said, "The project is at a very important stage. The fifth experiment
is crucial. Besides, the Emperor himself put me in charge of Project
Starscream. It is my responsibility."
Vader's breath rasped through his face mask. "And the Emperor himself has
asked me to make sure it proceeds with no interference. I have already ordered
the deaths of Hoole and his family."
"No!" Gog blurted.
The Dark Lord's voice was threatening. "What?"
Gog recovered himself and said calmly, "That is, there is something
peculiar about Hoole's niece and nephew-especially the niece. They are worth
further study."
Vader scoffed. "You tried using them with your Nightmare Machine project
and failed. Now they threaten everything."
"But-"
"The order is given," Vader interrupted. "I have already sent an assassin
to find them."
With that, Vader whirled around and strode away. Somewhere out there, his
ship and his soldiers lurked.
Gog resisted the urge to draw his blaster and shoot Vader in the back.
The Dark Lord would know without turning around if he even reached for his
weapon. Vader had the Force.
The Force. If his plans were to succeed, Gog needed something to defeat
the Force.
A cold smile crept across Gog's lips. He had not told Vader why Hoole's
niece and nephew-especially the niece-interested him. And why the fifth
experiment was so important.
It had to do with the Force.
Gog knew he had to act fast if he was to beat Vader. He laughed to
himself. Vader wanted the Arrandas killed. Gog wanted them alive.
Hoole and his friends would be lucky if Vader's assassin found them
first.
CHAPTER 1
The laser blasts came close. Too close.
One of the energy bolts glanced off the side of the ship, and Tash and
Zak felt the Shroud buck under the blast. But the shields held. The Shroud was
a good ship.
"She'll hold together," Zak said. "I think."
As if determined to prove him wrong, another laser bolt struck the ship,
sending a shock wave from stem to stern.
"There are two more coming in," Deevee said.
"I see them," Uncle Hoole said tightly.
He banked the ship hard to the left. As the ship spun, Tash caught a
glimpse of one of the ships that was chasing them.
An Imperial Star Destroyer.
A dozen laser cannons sent energy beams streaking toward them. Luckily,
the Shroud was fast, and Hoole managed to slip away from most of them.
"We can't take another hit like that!" Zak said. "Quiet," Hoole ordered.
"I've almost loaded the coordinates for the hyperspace jump."
Tash tried not to think about the facts. Imperial Star Destroyers were
the most powerful ships in the galaxy. They were huge, and had hundreds of
weapons that could turn most other ships into space vapor. Despite their size,
they were also incredibly fast. Very few ships could outrun them. One Star
Destroyer could wipe out a fleet of smaller ships.
And four of them were chasing the Shroud.
They had been tailing Hoole and the Arrandas since their recent escape
from the Hologram Fun World. For awhile Hoole thought he had lost them, but
the Imperial ships had merely sent a signal to another fleet, and now they
were nearly surrounded.
A direct hit from a Star Destroyer's cannon made the ship groan. A
warning light flashed on the control panel.
"We've lost the main deflector shield!" Zak called out. "The next shot
will vaporize us!"
"Almost there," Hoole said to himself. His fingers flew frantically over
the controls.
"They're firing again!"
"There!" Hoole said. He pulled a large switch on the Shroud's control
panel. The ship lurched forward as though dragged by giant hands, and plunged
into the streaking white light of hyperspace.
A few hours later, the Shroud still hurtled through the swirling
whiteness of hyperspace. In the cockpit, four figures huddled over the control
console, their faces lit by the red glow of the instrument panel as the Shroud
traveled through the most desolate parts of the galaxy.
"Where are we?" asked Tash Arranda.
"I don't recognize any of these star charts," said her brother, Zak.
"If I'm not mistaken," said the droid DV-9, "these coordinates will take
us far into the Outer Rim. This is the least colonized part of the galaxy, and
the farthest away from the center of Imperial power."
"Correct, Deevee," replied Hoole curtly.
Tash and Zak exchanged glances. For the seven months they had known him,
Uncle Hoole had been close-mouthed and stiff-necked. They figured he was
constantly in a bad mood because he was a Shi'ido. The Shi'ido species tended
to be more serious than humans. But for the past several hours, Hoole had
burned with the intensity of a superlaser. He had not left the cockpit once as
he piloted the Shroud on a frantic starhopping course, taking them from one
star system to another, never stopping, never even slowing down.
Zak pointed to an indicator light that flashed an alarming shade of red.
"One of the power couplings is overheating."
"Ignore it," Hoole said.
Zak blinked. He had a mind for mechanics and knew what the warn
ing light
meant. "If we don't let the engines cool, the power coupling could blow, and-"
"Ignore it," Hoole snapped again. "That is the least of our concerns."
Tash looked at her brother, who mouthed three words: This. Is. Bad.
Tash wondered how much worse things could get after their escape from the
Hologram Fun World. Zak and Tash had nearly been trapped there by an evil
scientist named Borborygmus Gog. They had been saved only by their own quick
thinking, the help of a good-hearted gambler named Lando Calrissian, and the
courage of Uncle Hoole. Like all Shi'ido, Hoole had the power to change his
shape. Disguised as an Imperial stormtrooper, he had freed Tash, Zak, and the
others, and they had slipped from Gog's clutches. But their escape did not
seem to ease Hoole's tension.
"Uncle Hoole," Tash asked gently, "can you tell us any more about what's
going on?"
Hoole clenched his jaw as he punched new coordinates into the Shroud's
navicomputer. "I know little more than you do, Tash. Gog is working on an
experiment called Project Starscream. The Imperial government is involved at
the highest levels. Not only have we made ourselves Gog's enemies, we may have
fallen under the eye of the Emperor himself."
Tash and Zak both swallowed hard. The Emperor? Tales of his power, and
his cruelty, were known throughout the galaxy.
When their adventures had begun, and Hoole had started to act so
strangely, Tash at first had thought her uncle was working for the Empire. He
always seemed to know what the Imperials were doing and where to find them.
But slowly Tash had realized that Hoole wasn't an Imperial. In fact, he seemed
to be working against the Empire.
A new thought crept into Tash's mind. Was Hoole a Rebel? Perhaps Hoole
was spying on Gog for the Rebels. Tash was pretty sure that Hoole knew some
Rebels. Once, they all had been rescued from one of Gog's experiments by an
odd group of travelers-two men, a woman, two droids, and a Wookiee. At the
time, Tash had thought their rescuers were Rebels. She still thought so.
Zak interrupted her thoughts. "If the whole Empire is after us, what are
we going to do?"
Tash looked directly at Uncle Hoole and said meaningfully, "Maybe we
should try to contact the Rebels."
Hoole said without hesitation, "That might work, Tash, if we knew how to
contact them."
"You mean, you don't know how?" she challenged.
Hoole raised an eyebrow. "Of course not. If the Rebels were that easy to
find, the Empire would have destroyed them long ago."
"Oh," she said, disappointed. "I just thought... I mean..."
Hoole almost smiled. "You thought I was a Rebel? No, Tash, I have no more
connection with the Rebel Alliance than you do."
"But, then how did you learn about Project Starscream? How do you know so
much about Gog, and why does he seem to know you?" Tash said. "Why were you
investigating his experiments?"
Hoole paused. "I have my reasons. But you've given me an idea, Tash.
Strap yourselves in."
Tash had no time to repeat her question as Hoole punched a new set of
commands into the navicomputer. She and Zak slipped into their crash webbing
and Deevee braced his mechanical body against the hull of the ship as the
Shroud groaned into an even higher speed. Gauges bleeped angrily and the
engines began to whine. Just when Zak and Tash thought the ship would burst at
the seams, Hoole pulled back on a lever and the white streaks of hyperspace
gave way to a brilliant starfield. In the distance they could see a bright
yellow planet.
"What's that?" Tash asked.
Hoole guided the ship toward the growing yellow sphere. "It is a place
far from Imperial eyes. With luck, it's also where we'll find out how to
contact the Rebels."
"Thank goodness we've found someplace safe," Deevee sighed.
Hoole turned his dark eyes on the droid and the two young humans. "I did
not say we were safe. We are entering a wretched hive of scum and villainy."
The Shroud rocketed planetside. It settled almost unnoticed into a fleet
of old freighters docked on the outskirts of a small town that baked under the
heat of two blazing suns. They climbed from their ship and Hoole led them to a
dusty lot, where a tall insectoid creature rented and sold transport vehicles.
After some haggling, Hoole rented a creaking landspeeder that barely managed
to hover off the ground. The landspeeder's repulsors whined as Zak, Tash, and
Deevee clambered aboard.
Moments later, the landspeeder carried them away from the settlement and
out into a wide, flat desert.
Tash stared at the horizon, where yellow sand met a clear blue sky. "I
think this whole planet is made of sand," she muttered.
"That is correct," Hoole replied. "This place is called Tatooine. I did
research here once. It is an dry, unpleasant planet. I was happy to leave it."
"Then what are we doing here?" Zak asked.
"You will see," Hoole answered.
Hoole guided the landspeeder far out into the empty desert. The terrain
was so barren and lifeless that Tash thought Hoole had made a mistake. But
just when she was convinced that they were lost, a massive fortress appeared
on the horizon, squatting like a toad at the foot of a large, rocky mountain.
Hoole pulled the landspeeder up to the gates of the structure and jumped
out. As he approached the doors, a large electronic eye popped out of a hatch
and scanned him. Then it asked a question in a language neither Zak nor Tash
understood.
"I wish to see your master," Hoole replied in Basic, the galaxy's
universal language. "Tell him Hoole is here."
The sentry eye retreated through the hatch. A moment later a deep rumble
shook the ground, and the great gates opened to admit them. Beyond the gates,
a hallway led into darkness like a passage into the underworld.
"Stay close to me," Hoole ordered.
He didn't have to tell them twice. Zak and Tash clung to his blue robe as
they followed him down the hallway.
Tash heard a sharp, steady click-click sound from the shadows. Turning,
she saw a large mechanical spider stalk slowly past them, its metal legs
scratching against the floor. A large, transparent globe bulged from its
belly. Inside the globe floated a living brain.
"Disgusting," Tash gagged.
"A brain spider," Deevee noted. "Fascinating. I had heard of such things,
but I'd never seen one."
"Well, I hope I never see another one," Zak added with a shudder.
A moment later they were halted by two pig-like Gamorrean guards. Once
again Hoole stated his name, and the guards let him pass.
Where is he taking us? Tash thought to herself. Then something occurred
to her that was more frightening than a brain spider: Uncle Hoole was known in
this place.
As they approached the end of a hall, Tash heard the sound of music and
voices drifting up from below. And as soon as they started down the wide
stairway, Tash's senses were assaulted by the loudest, strongest, most
sickening collection of noises, smells, and sights they had ever encountered.
"Oh, my," Deevee gasped.
In a wide audience hall, crowds of aliens laughed, ate, drank, and
fought. A gang of Gamorreans wrestled on three low benches and tables. Six
multi-legged creatures were playing a dice game in one corner, while in
another, an alien band played a frantic tune. The entire chamber was a riot of
activity, except for one curious corner where a quiet man sat observing the
madness.
In the center of the large room, a space had been cleared where four
humans were tormenting a small, rodent-like Ranat. The Ranat had been
blindfolded and his ears plugged with wax. The poor creature squealed and
stumbled around, completely blind and deaf. The humans dodged away from the
Ranat, laughing at their cruel game of tag.
In the middle of this chaos, on a high platform, sat a large, slug-like
Hutt, smacking his lips as he stuffed live eels into his mouth with loud
slurps. The Hutt laughed as the blind and deaf Ranat fell to his knees.
Hoole descended into the craziness and strode up to the platform. As if