by John Whitman
"I cannot help you," Aidan sighed. "I lost my power long ago, when I
failed to defeat Vader. I am no longer a Jedi."
"But you were able to touch me. You shoved me through a doorway!" Tash
cried.
Gog raised an eyebrow. He followed Tash's gaze, but all he saw was empty
air. "I will give you to the count of three," the evil Shi'ido threatened. "If
you do not open the book, I'll blast you to atoms. I promise you, the Essence
Stealer is far less painful."
Aidan frowned at Tash. "I was able to touch you because we are connected
by the Force. I drew on your link with the Force to become more solid, just as
I draw on it now to become visible to you. But that's all I can do. I tried to
be a hero once, Tash, and I failed."
Tash realized that Aidan sounded just like her. She had thought one
failure meant the end of all her hopes. She had sulked. She had given up her
dreams of becoming a Jedi until Aidan told her that she had the Force. She had
just needed someone to tell her what she already knew in her heart.
Maybe that's what Aidan needed too.
Gog heard none of this. He began to count. "One."
"Aidan!" she begged. "You're only a failure if you think you are."
The ghost whispered, "I wish I could believe that, Tash. But the Force is
no longer with me."
"But you said we were connected by the Force! That means we both have to
have it! Please!"
"Pretending to be' insane won't help you," Gog said. "Open the book. Two!
" His finger tightened on the trigger.
"But I'm too weak," the ghost said.
"Try!" she begged. "If we're connected, maybe we can do it together."
There was flicker of light in the ghost's eyes. "I'll try. Tash, focus on
the blaster. Use the Force to pull it from his hand."
Tash turned to Gog. As she did, time seemed to slow down. She saw the
black weapon gleam in Gog's hand. She felt her connection to the Force.
Focusing all her willpower, she imagined the Force reaching out. Beside her,
she knew that Aidan was doing the same.
For a second, just a brief instant in time, she felt something surge out
of her.
"Three," Gog said. He fired.
Tash's Force-power was too weak to pull the blaster from Gog's grip. But
something made his hand jerk downward and his shot went awry. The blaster bolt
shattered the floor at his feet and sent up a shower of sparks. For a moment,
the Shi'ido was lost in a cloud of smoke.
"Run!" Aidan urged.
Dropping the book, Tash slipped past Gog and raced up the hallway. The
Jedi ghost was right beside her, gliding smoothly along the floor.
"He is coming," Aidan warned.
Tash could already hear Gog's footsteps pounding after her.
"I've got to get to the morgue," she said. "Zak and Uncle Hoole are still
alive!"
Aidan tried to help. "The fastest way is to go down the ventilation shaft
and-"
"I'm not going to go that way," Tash interrupted. Maybe it was the Force,
or maybe it was just hope, but a clear plan suddenly formed in her mind. "I've
got a better idea."
Reaching the end of the hallway, Tash found herself in the gallery where
they had discovered Mangol's body. She turned around to face the six
maintenance tunnels. She'd just come out of the fifth one. Now she plunged
into the first.
"Running is useless!" Gog roared behind her. "There is no place to hide
from me!"
It was a long way to the end of the tunnel, but Tash refused to slow
down. She would not give up. She reached the end of the corridor and found the
garbage chute she and Zak had used before. She dove in.
The ride was as slick and smooth as before, and she smelled the stench of
garbage before she flew out into the pit and dropped into the slimy pool. The
loud splash she made caught the attention of the room's occupant.
Uuuhhhhhrrrrrr.
Aidan melted through the walls. "Tash, have you forgotten? The dianoga is
here!"
"I know," she replied, wading toward the exit door. She heard Gog's voice
echo down the garbage chute, and she knew that he was following her down.
Tash forced herself to slow down, taking small steps, making as little
splash as possible. She knew the dianoga could not see well. It would have to
rely on splashes in the water.
But I'm not going to make any, she thought.
Gog could not say the same. The Shi'ido plunged feet first into the
cesspool, landing ten meters away with a loud splash. He held up a glow rod,
and Tash saw his angry face. "I told you, you could not hide from me!" he
growled.
"You haven't caught me yet," she retorted.
Roaring, Gog charged forward, splashing his way toward her. But before
he'd covered half the distance, the Shi'ido stumbled and gasped.
A thick tentacle had wrapped itself around his waist. "No!" Gog yelled.
Then he was pulled under the surface of the slimy pool.
Tash didn't wait to celebrate her victory. She hurried to the exit hatch
and dragged her sopping body out of the garbage pit.
Following the cold air, Tash found herself once more in the morgue. She
shivered-and not just from the cold. She knew that the bodies in the
containers were still alive, their life force trapped in Gog's machinery. Tash
saw that there were two new containers in the room. She rubbed frost away from
the transparent covering... and saw her brother's face. In the next container
lay Uncle Hoole.
"Tash!" a familiar voice called. Deevee stepped from behind one of the
two containers.
Tash was delighted. She had almost forgotten that she'd sent Deevee down
to the morgue. The droid pointed to the two containers. "I have spent several
minutes examining this equipment. If I'm not mistaken, there is some
possibility that these victims are still alive-"
"They are!" Tash said. "Their life essences are trapped in that crystal
globe. We have to reverse the process."
Deevee's mechanical shoulders slumped. "As you know, my computer brain is
quite powerful, but I'm afraid this technology is too complex, and that
knowledge is beyond me. I don't know how."
"I do."
Tash looked at Aidan. The flicker she had seen in the ghost's eyes had
grown to a steady light. "You do?" she asked.
"I've spent years watching Gog set up his experiments here and trap
people. I was helpless to stop him, but I know how his equipment works."
"Lead the way," she replied.
"Tash, to whom are you speaking?" Deevee asked.
Tash smiled. "I'll tell you later."
Aidan guided them to the computer panels beneath the crystal globe. Tash
watched the glowing, swirling mass inside. Somewhere, trapped in that globe,
were Zak and Uncle Hoole.
Aidan quickly guided Tash through a series of controls. When she was
done, he pointed to a large red lever. "There. Just activate this energy
transformer. It should cause feedback through the life-stealing device and
reverse the process. The life forces within the crystal should return to the
proper bodies in the containers."
As Tash reached for the lever, a
blaster bolt struck the ground beside
her. She jumped back, startled.
"Get away from the lever!" said a commanding voice. Tash and Deevee spun
around.
There stood Gog. His clothes were half torn, and a terrible scar ran down
the side of his face. But he was still holding the blaster in his hand.
CHAPTER 19
Gog's body trembled with anger. He looked exhausted from his fight with
the dianoga, and he leaned against one of the tanks for support. But the
blaster was steady in his hand. "The Essence Stealer would have been
unpleasant, but not too painful," he said in a voice as sharp as a vibroblade.
"But a blaster set on heavy stun will leave you sick for days. Of course, by
the time you come around, I'll have picked your Force-sensitive brain clean."
Gog fired his blaster.
Tash winced, but the bolt never struck her. It was intercepted in mid-
flight by Deevee. The energy bolt shattered his chest plate and sent him
clattering to the floor in a shower of wires and sparks. For a moment, both
Tash and Gog stared down in surprise at the heroic droid.
Then Tash dove for the lever.
She pulled it before Gog could fire again.
The results were immediate. Energy seemed to stream from the crystal
globe, crackling and sparking along the pipes, flashing toward the containers.
Circuits began to pop, and smoke began to rise from every container touched by
the energy surge. In seconds, all of them were aglow.
"No!" Gog shouted.
He raised his blaster to fire again just as the power surge reached the
container where he stood. A fountain of sparks burst from the container's
circuits, bathing Gog in a shower of electricity. The force of the small
explosion hurled the Shi'ido backward, his clothes smoldering. The blaster
flew from his hand and clattered to the ground a few meters away. It had
melted into a lump of metal.
Gog struggled to his knees. The hand that had held the blaster was
blackened from the explosion, and other burns streaked his face and body. The
evil Shi'ido swore a curse in a language Tash didn't know, and he ran.
"We can't let him get away!" Tash said.
"He's heading for the secret passage," Aidan replied.
Tash looked around. There was no one to help her. Zak and Hoole were
stirring, but in no condition to walk, much less run after Gog. Deevee looked
terribly damaged. She saw a glow rod lying near one of the freezing chambers
and snatched it up.
"Come on," she said.
She started after Gog, with the Jedi ghost drifting beside her.
Hurrying up the secret passageway, Tash heard the clanging echo of her
boots on the metal flooring. But even louder than her own movements, she heard
the struggling gasps and wheezes of Gog as he tried to escape. She could tell
he was badly wounded, and every step caused him pain.
She gained steadily, and soon she could see him laboring at the edge of
her light. He was a crazy sight. Every five or ten steps, the Shi'ido tried to
change shape. One moment she was chasing after a lizard-like tauntaun, the
next she was after a scrambling runyip, and the next she was chasing a
shambling nerf. But each shape-change seemed to cause the wounded scientist
terrible agony, and finally with a cry he shifted back into his own form.
She reached the end of the passage and the huge ventilation shaft. The
light from her glow rod revealed the scientist's twisted face. Beyond him hung
the open air and darkness of the wide pit. At the edge of the pit was the
ladder Zak and Tash had climbed earlier.
"Gog!" she yelled.
The Shi'ido turned. "Vader was right. I should have killed you when I had
the chance. But that time will come, I swear it!"
Gog turned to grab the ladder.
"Don't!" Tash called. "You're too badly hurt. You'll never make it!"
Gog ignored her. His blackened hands clutched the rails, and for a
moment, Tash thought he would get away. But as he started to climb, his
wounded hands failed him. He started to slip. Tash lunged forward, but she was
too late.
Gog flashed past her as he fell. In a desperate attempt to save himself,
the Shi'ido was shapeshifting into every form he could think of. But nothing
could save him. With a wordless cry, Gog fell away from the ladder and Tash
watched his gray form shrink into the void.
"No one's ever found the bottom," she said, remembering the words of the
man she thought was ForceFlow.
Aidan peered down the great shaft. "There is a bottom," he said, "but
it's a long, long way down."
Tash and Aidan hurried back to the morgue. As they arrived, the occupants
of the freezing chambers had begun to stir. Those who had been trapped the
shortest time-the treasure hunters, Zak, and Uncle Hoole-rose first,
staggering out of their containers and looking around in amazement.
Tash dropped the blaster and ran to her brother, who was running his
hands through his tousled hair like someone who had awakened with a headache.
"Zak, you're alive!" Tash yelled.
"Are you sure?" he groaned. "I don't feel like it."
Hoole looked around, taking in the machinery, the crystal globe, and Tash
all at once. "You must tell us what happened, Tash," Hoole said, "but please
begin by explaining what has happened to my droid."
"Deevee! He saved my life," Tash started. She ran and knelt at his side.
"Deevee, are you all right? Can you function?"
Live wires still sparked and burned around Deevees' chest plate. He
looked heavily damaged. "I will need replacement parts," he said. He stared
sadly at the hole in his chest plate and heaved an electronic sigh. "One would
think that, with a brain as powerful as mine, I would have come up with a
better plan."
"You saved my life, Deevee," Tash said, wrapping her arms around the
metallic hero's shoulders. "Thanks."
As quickly and clearly as she could, Tash told them what had happened.
Hoole listened intently. "Are you sure Gog is gone?"
"I saw him fall. No one could have survived that."
Hoole nodded, then pointed to the many people struggling to crawl out of
their freezing chambers. They looked dazed and confused. "Zak, Tash, help free
these people. I need to examine this equipment." Without waiting for their
answer, Hoole turned and began to study the equipment Gog had left behind. A
look of deep concern settled over his face.
Zak and Tash did as they were told, quickly pulling Gog's victims from
their small prisons and assuring them they were all right now. Tash helped
Mangol crawl from his chamber and plop down on the floor, rubbing his temples.
"You're all right," she assured him. "Everything's going to be okay."
The fortune-seeker barely heard her. He was delirious, and kept mumbling,
"I found it though. The library. I found it, it's all mine. Heh, heh. All
mine."
Tash shook her head and muttered to herself, "You're welcome to it,"
before moving on to help someone else.
Tash and Zak had just gathered the prisoners together, and done their
best to explain what had happened, when Hoole turned away from the Essence
Stealer. "This equipment is very technical. I'm not sure I understand all of
it. But if I'm right, Gog was trying to manipulate the Force."
Tash looked at Aidan, who nodded. "That's right," she said.
Hoole shook his head, and Tash heard him mutter, "He has been tampering
with power that could destroy the galaxy itself. This time he has gone too
far."
"Well, at least he's been stopped, once and for all," she said.
Hoole raised an eyebrow. He seemed surprised that she'd heard him.
"Perhaps," he said. "Perhaps."
EPILOGUE
Tash, Zak, and Hoole helped Gog's prisoners back to the docking bay.
There were several ships left on Nespis 8. At least one of them, they guessed,
had belonged to Domisari. Another belonged to Mangol. As soon as Hoole was
sure that the ships and the rescued prisoners were fit to fly, he turned his
attention away from them and back to his own ship.
"They can all get off Nespis 8. Now it's time we did. And fast."
Hoole and Zak carried Deevee onboard the Shroud. Tash stayed behind a