Clones

by John Whitman

  stepped into the room. Once more, Tash felt as if she were being watched. The

  hair on the back of her neck stood on end. Something was here.

  Tash was focused on her feelings now-on her sensitivity to the dark side.

  As she concentrated on the Force, she began to relax. But then

  Wham! Someone struck her from behind.

  Tash fell forward, sprawling on the dusty stone floor of the room.

  Whirling around, she looked up and saw a teenage girl with blue eyes and blond

  hair pulled back in a neat braid.

  She looked into the face of her attacker.

  It was her own face.

  CHAPTER 9

  Tash couldn't believe her eyes. It was her. For a moment she couldn't

  accept it. It had to be her imagination. Or maybe a hologram.

  But the hologram was holding a rock in both hands. The other girl-the

  other Tash-raised the rock over her head and brought it crashing down.

  At the last moment Tash rolled out of the way and the rock broke against

  the hard floor.

  Her twin was trying to kill her!

  Tash tried to scramble to her feet, but her twin was already attacking.

  The other girl shoved her backward, pinning her against the curved wall of the

  round room. The other Tash's fingers curled around her throat and started to

  squeeze.

  Tash gagged as her air was cut off. She clutched at her attacker's hands,

  but the other Tash only squeezed harder. Desperately, Tash curled her hand

  into a fist and punched. She felt her fist make contact. The other Tash

  grunted and let go.

  Tash slid along the wall, trying to stay out of reach of her attacker.

  "Who-Who are you?" she gasped.

  The other girl touched her jaw where Tash had hit her. Then she grinned.

  Although she was an identical copy, Tash had already seen a difference between

  herself and her mysterious twin. The other girl had a wicked gleam in her eye.

  She started toward Tash again without answering.

  "Stay back!" Tash said. She didn't know what to do. "I don't want to

  fight. I need to know what's going on."

  The other Tash laughed. "You won't need to know once you're dead!"

  She lunged at Tash again. Tash jumped away and ran for the exit. Whoever,

  whatever this other Tash was, she fought like an animal. Tash needed to put

  some distance between them.

  She ran down one of the passages between the ruined buildings, hoping to

  lose the other Tash in the maze of stone blocks. But she soon heard footsteps

  behind her. Whichever way she turned, the other Tash followed.

  Tash kept cutting corners and running around the huge stone blocks. But

  instead of escaping her pursuer, she made a wrong turn.

  A dead end rose up in front of her. One of the stone building blocks had

  fallen, blocking the path. It was too high to climb over. So were the walls on

  either side of the passage.

  Tash whirled around to turn back, but found herself looking at her mirror

  image once again.

  "Ha!" her twin laughed. "Nowhere to run."

  "Who are you?" Tash demanded.

  Her twin laughed again. "Don't you know, Tash? I'm you."

  "You're not me," Tash replied. "Whatever you are, you're not me."

  "Oh, I'm you," the other Tash said, stalking forward. "I'm the dark side

  you don't want to let out. We're the same right down to the last gene. But

  there isn't room in this life for both of us. And since I'm stronger-you'll

  just have to go."

  The evil Tash looked around and picked up another large rock. It was

  twice the size of her fist. She hefted it and smiled.

  Tash knew this other Tash would kill her. It was willing to kill; it even

  wanted to kill. Tash was no match for that. She couldn't fight that way.

  Time seemed to slow down as the other Tash inched forward. Tash thought

  about the words her evil twin had spoken. I'm the dark side you don't want to

  let out. Was that true? Was there something about the Jedi ruins that had

  shown Tash a reflection of her own dark side?

  Tash glanced at the stones around her. She remembered her earlier

  amazement at the stones. Someone-a Jedi? - had used the Force to move these

  giant stones. Someone had used the Force to build this entire fortress. This

  evil Tash might be vicious and strong, but the real Tash had the Force, and

  the Force was stronger.

  Tash took a deep breath. She called on the Force. Immediately she felt

  the touch of the dark side. It was waiting, willing to help her. She sensed

  that with the dark side she could wipe this impostor off the planet, erase her

  from the world in the blink of an eye.

  No, Tash thought. I'm not like that. I won't be.

  Tash pushed all thoughts of using the Force as a weapon from her mind.

  Instead, she thought of the Force as a shield. She had done this once before

  against a creature called Spore. Tash tried again now, imagining a protective

  screen like a ship's deflector shield all around her body. She felt the Force

  flow around her, and she knew it was working.

  But the other Tash only smiled. Her eyelids fluttered up and down, and

  her eyes rolled back into her head. Tash wondered what she was doing.

  Then she felt the dark side.

  It smashed into her like a crashing wave. The dark-side power broke

  through her imaginary shield and struck her, throwing her off balance. Tash

  stumbled backward until she felt her back against the stone wall. She stared

  at her evil twin in disbelief.

  The other Tash controlled the dark side of the Force, and she was

  stronger.

  "Now," the evil twin said, "you will die."

  CHAPTER 10

  Quick as a light beam, the evil Tash hurled the stone.

  Something-an instinct, or maybe even the Force-pulled Tash out of the

  way, and the rock cracked against the stone wall behind her. The evil twin

  reached out to grab Tash's throat, but Tash ducked and slipped past her

  attacker.

  Tash bolted out of the dead-end passageway.

  "You can't run!" the other Tash yelled. "I'll find you!"

  Tash didn't listen. She ran as fast as she could, not thinking, not

  caring where she went as long as it was away from this evil creature.

  This time, desperation and blind panic saved her. She ran so fast and so

  far through the ruins that the other Tash seemed to lose her. Tash could hear

  the evil twin yelling at her, but she was nowhere in sight.

  Tash looked for an exit from the ruins. She had to tell Hoole and Zak.

  They had to leave this place immediately. She just had to get out of the ruins

  and run for the Rebel base.

  Tash saw an opening in the crumbling walls and raced through it. But she

  was on the wrong side. Instead of the wide blue river and the bridge, Tash was

  looking at the prairie. She was on the far side of the ruins, the side where

  she'd come in earlier.

  She paused. Going back through the ruins was out of the question. What

  about going around? That would take too much time.

  That only left one direction: forward.

  At least, Tash thought, I know where I can find some help.

  As fast as her feet would carry her, she ran for the Dantari camp.

  The camp was in shambles.

  Tents had collap
sed. Cooking pots had been overturned, contents spilled

  on the dusty ground. Near the center of the camp one of the Dantari had set up

  a wooden frame, a drying rack for animal skins. Now it lay broken, shattered

  in several pieces as though trampled by a panicked crowd.

  There was not a single Dantari in sight.

  "Hello?" Tash called out. But it was useless. There was no place to hide

  on the open prairie. If anyone had been around, she would have seen them.

  "What happened here?" she said out loud.

  Nearby, a flock of startled fabools flapped their way heavily into the

  air. Otherwise, there was no sound.

  Tash had once watched some Dantari on a hunting party. She remembered how

  they tracked their quarry by its footprints, studying the tracks of various

  animals until they had chosen the one they wanted, then figuring out in which

  direction it had gone. She looked down at the ground, trying to study the

  footprints. At first it seemed useless. There were dozens, maybe hundreds, of

  prints of bare feet crisscrossing each other. That would be the Dantari. She

  spotted a few of her own, and the print of a boot she guessed was Zak's.

  Then she spotted another bootprint. This one was much larger, at least

  the size of someone like Uncle Hoole. But Hoole didn't wear boots, which meant

  someone else had been in the camp.

  One of the Rebels?

  Tash walked around, looking for more clues, but found nothing. She could

  make no sense of what happened. She was still walking around, staring at the

  ground, when a huge figure rose up out of the grass in front of her. She

  stifled a cry.

  It was Maga.

  The Dantari pointed a thick finger at Tash. "You are to blame!"

  CHAPTER 11

  Tash was too exhausted and bewildered to respond. She had no idea what

  Maga meant. All she knew was that he had tried to kill her-or at least he had

  hoped she would become lost or injured in the Jedi ruins. Since then, her

  entire world seemed to have turned upside down. Tash wanted to scream and yell

  at Maga.

  She held back. She knew it wouldn't do any good. Maga would not

  understand. Besides, there was a wild look in his eyes and she didn't want him

  to become violent.

  As calmly as she could, she said, "What are you talking about?"

  "You came here!" Maga thundered. "You brought the other humans. You

  brought the man with no face!" Man with no face? What was Maga talking about?

  She wanted to sit down in the dust and cry, but she couldn't. She had to stay

  focused.

  "I haven't been back to camp since I went into the ruins, Maga," she said

  firmly.

  "You lie. With my own eyes I saw you. You brought the man with no face.

  The elders welcomed him because he was with you. Then he took them all

  prisoner!"

  Tash swallowed. "Someone took all the Dantari prisoner?"

  "Your friends! The other humans and the dark man with no face."

  Tash groaned. If Maga said that one more time she was going to scream.

  "It wasn't me, I swear," she said as calmly as she could. "Maga, you told

  Zak there was something strange about those Jedi ruins."

  "The place of fallen rocks," the Dantari said.

  "Right, the place of fallen rocks," she agreed. "Well, things have been

  strange ever since we went in there. I was attacked by someone who looks just

  like me. That must be the person who helped kidnap your people." She blinked.

  "Why weren't you captured?"

  Maga scoffed. "I am the garoo, wise man of my people. It is my job to

  know things. I did not trust the others from the beginning. But no one would

  listen to me. They believed only you." He spat that last word like a curse.

  "It wasn't me," Tash repeated. Her voice was almost a whisper.

  Once, in school, Tash had been accused of cheating on an exam. She knew

  she was innocent, but her teacher had been so sure of her guilt that Tash had

  almost begun to doubt herself.

  She had that feeling again now, only it was worse, because someone who

  looked like her actually was committing these acts.

  Tash felt a pang of guilt. Even if her mysterious evil twin was causing

  the trouble, Tash knew she was partly to blame. Because of Tash and her uncle,

  the Dantari had stopped respecting their tribal wise man.

  "When the elders would not hear my warning, I left camp in anger," Maga

  explained. "Then I saw the strangers attack. The dark man with no face, he had

  power. Greater than a garoo. Greater than you or Hoole. He captured many."

  "Where did they go?" Tash asked.

  "Some of my people fled. The strangers chase them. Hunt them." Maga's

  brow wrinkled. "You ask like you do not know. You were here."

  "I wasn't here," she insisted. "You have to believe me, Maga," she

  pleaded. "You told Zak there was something dangerous about the Jedi ruins.

  What do you know?"

  Maga's eyes narrowed in suspicion. "I know many things. Wisdom passed

  down from garoo to garoo. This keeps my people safe."

  "Please tell me," she said again. "What do your garoo ancestors tell you

  about those ruins?"

  Maga stared at her as though his dark eyes could see right into her mind.

  For the second time, Tash saw past the anger that had built up between them.

  This time she saw why he had been chosen as garoo. She could see his mind at

  work, judging her words, judging her expression, reaching an intelligent

  decision. He wasn't using the Force or any other power, but he was probing her

  just the same, using only his wits. She realized that she had to stop thinking

  of him as less intelligent just because his people wore skins and hunted with

  primitive weapons.

  "Garoo learn to see," Maga said. "Learn to judge truth by looking at

  eyes, hearing words. I think you are telling the truth."

  He paused a moment to gather himself.

  "Long ago," he began, "in the time of the garoo four before me,

  offworlders came here in flying machines."

  "Was that when the Rebels built their base?" she asked.

  "No, before. Many seasons before that. Then there was only place of

  fallen rocks. These offworlders flew there. They had great power. Like you,

  only greater. They searched. They went away. After that, strange things

  happen."

  "What things?" she asked.

  Maga shook his head. "The garoo stories are not clear. Sometimes Dantari

  vanish in the place of fallen rocks. Sometimes one Dantari enters, but two

  leave."

  Tash's eyes widened. So the ruins did have something to do with her evil

  twin!

  Maga continued. "After several seasons, these strange things do not

  happen. But the garoo forbid Dantari to enter the fallen rocks again. Our

  tribe camped away from fallen rocks. Then no bad things happen. Even when

  other offworlders came to build their stone camp, the place of fallen rocks

  was silent. But then, last season, when the Dantari camped here, it happened

  again." He pointed to the sky. "Ships came down. They landed at the place of

  fallen rocks: And after that, all was different."

  "How?" Tash asked.

  "No Dantari go to rocks anymore, so nothing like before," Maga answered.

  "But soon,
offworlders appear in old stone camp."

  "You mean at the Rebel base? People flew there?" Maga shook his head.

  "No. No ships come. But offworlders appeared. Where from? Even the garoo does

  not know. The man with no face came first. He tried to trap the Dantari, but

  Dantari escape into fields where he cannot find us. Then other strangers

  appear."

  Tash took a moment to sort things out. The Jedi ruins were thousands of

  years old. But some time in the more recent past, people with "great power"-

  Tash knew they must have been Jedi-carne to the ruins for a while, then left.

  After that, the Rebels came and went. And then, less than a year ago, more

  offworlders had come. Soon after that, Rebels started filling the old base

  again.

  Obviously, activity near the ruins triggered something-Tash didn't know

  if it was the Force or some hidden technology-that was causing these weird

  happenings. But what? And why?

  "I need Uncle Hoole," she said. "Maga, will you come with me to the Rebel