Galaxy of Fear_ The Nightmare Machine Part 9

"Thank goodness I found you!" Deevee started. "I've been all over this holographic madhouse-"

"Never mind that!" Zak snapped. "We need a place to hide. This entire place is a killing machine. And I think Uncle Hoole is involved."

The droid's circuits whirred. "Master Hoole? You must be mistaken-"

His sentence was cut off by a blaster bolt that sizzled through the s.p.a.ce between the droid and the boy. Hoole had found them.

"This way!" the droid said. "I know where we can hide."

Zak and Tash followed their caretaker droid, who hurried down a few twisting, turning lanes past the Volcano Slide and the Hall of Reflection.

Although Hoole was out of sight in a few moments, Deevee kept up the pace. Tash, however, could go no farther. "My head-I have to rest,"

she said. She staggered over to a small stone bench and sat down.

"We can't stop!" Deevee cried.

"No," Zak replied. "We can't go any farther now anyway."

"It's not safe here!" Deevee nearly screeched.

"It's too much, Deevee," Tash gasped, trying to clear her head.

"Everything that's happened. It's like our worst nightmares come true."

His sister's words struck Zak like a blow to the head. It's like our worst nightmares come true.

"Tash, that's it!"

Everything came into focus like a steamed mirror suddenly clearing.

"That's why we keep stumbling across all these terrible scenes. That's how the rancor killed Lando. And why I was attacked by technology. And why you blew your chance to be a Jedi."

Tash didn't understand. "Zak, what are you-"

Zak interrupted his sister. "Yes! That's why Uncle Hoole betrayed us- because you and I have both been afraid that the one adult willing to take us in might turn out to be evil. And we were both forced to confront our worst fear-the destruction of Alderaan!" He looked at his sister.

"We've gone through our worst nightmares because it's part of the program.

"We're still inside The Nightmare Machine!"

CHAPTER 16.

"Nonsense," Deevee said flatly.

Tash blinked. "We left The Nightmare Machine, remember, Zak? We haven't been inside it since yesterday."

"Exactly," the droid added.

"Exactly wrong," Zak almost shouted. "We never left. Everything that has happened since then has happened inside The Nightmare Machine.

Remember that creature I saw the first time I went in? It's the same one I've been seeing ever since. Fajji said that the program read people's minds to discover their fears. But Deevee said that no machine could read minds-only certain living beings."

Deevee admitted, "Actually, Zak, on further consideration, I think I may have erred. It might be possible-"

"Besides," Tash interjected, "Fajji said they'd invented new technology."

"He was lying!" her brother insisted. "That brain creature must read minds and create the illusions. I really did see it. And we both just saw Gog. If Gog's here now, that means he could have been here before-and I could have actually seen him experimenting on those two kids! We're in big trouble here!"

He leaped to his feet. "We've got to get back to The Nightmare Machine. That's the only way out."

"That wouldn't be wise," Deevee quickly countered. "We should stay here."

Zak furrowed his brow. "A minute ago you wanted us to find a hiding place. Now you want us to stay here?"

To Tash, Zak's argument sounded unbelievable. She was willing to believe that hidden machines created the illusion of a rancor or another person next to her-but what machine could make her think an entire s.p.a.ce station like Fun World was real, and keep up the illusion for two days?

"Zak, if Gog were behind this, why wouldn't he have just killed us? He's had the chance."

"I don't know," her brother said. "Maybe he's testing out The Nightmare Machine creature. Think about it. It's the fear we were put through, never the real danger. Every time we were about to actually get killed, we were saved by-" Zak stopped cold. He looked at Deevee. "We were saved by you."

The droid stiffened indignantly. "I was merely doing my duty."

Zak did not respond at first. He could not. He remembered how fast Deevee had run from the rancor. How Deevee had suddenly produced a laser torch to open the Whaladon's mouth. How Deevee had appeared just as the Death Star was about to disintegrate them.

"You've been reacting to the holograms," Zak said, his voice barely above a whisper.

"What?" Tash asked.

"Deevee's been reacting to the holograms. The rancor. The Whaladon.

The Death Star. He's been treating them like they're real. But he said he couldn't do that, remember?"

The droid huffed. "Zak Arranda, I was merely doing my duty as your caretaker, as I have in the past."

"If your opponent's acting normal under unusual circ.u.mstances, you can bet he's bluffing," Zak recited Lando's lesson.

He looked at his sister. "Tash. Deevee is a hologram, too."

As the words left Zak's mouth, Deevee emitted a roar of supreme rage. His body began to change. Small hatches opened up in his metal plating, producing laser weapons and vibroblades. His face changed into a gruesome metallic war mask.

Deevee had transformed into a battle droid.

Zak stumbled backward and tripped over the stone bench, barely dodging a slas.h.i.+ng vibroblade as Tash scrambled out of the way. The battle droid that had once been Deevee hesitated a moment, unsure which target to pursue. Seeing his chance, Zak broke into a run, circling around the droid and joining up with his sister. Together they ran.

"D-Do we need to run?" Tash gasped. "I mean, if it's just a hologram..."

"Ask Lando," Zak sputtered in reply. "Whatever's happening here, it's real enough to kill if we let it. We have to find a way out. We have to get back to The Nightmare Machine."

Zak turned down a street he thought led back toward the center of Fun World. But the nightmarish landscape had fooled him. Instead of heading toward The Nightmare Machine, Zak and Tash found themselves on the green gem path they'd followed when they first arrived at Hologram Fun World. Before they knew it, they were standing at the door to the airlock.

"Blaster shot!" Zak swore. "How do we get back to The Nightmare Machine?"

"If we're already inside The Nightmare Machine, I'm not sure that would help, or that we could," Tash guessed. "How did Fajji say to end the game?"

"Of course!" Zak said. He yelled at the top of his lungs, "End simulation!"

Nothing happened.

He yelled it again and again. Each time nothing happened-except that his voice drew the battle droid to them. The droid appeared at the far end of the path, stomping toward them.

"It's not working," Zak groaned.

"What's the other way?" Tash tried to think. "Fajji said there was another way."

Zak remembered. "To win the game, you have to face your worst fear.

Maybe that's what we have to do!"

"But we already have! We've lost our uncle! We lost Deevee! I lost the power I thought was the Force! What more could happen?"

Zak knew. He knew it as surely as he knew his own name, and he said it quickly. "We could lose each other."

The battle droid was closing in on them. "My worst fear isn't being attacked by technology, or eaten by a rancor, or even losing Uncle Hoole.

Tash, my worst fear is losing you! My sister!"

The battle droid was almost upon them.

"Don't you see? We haven't faced our worst fear yet because we're still together!"

Zak's urgent words cut through Tash's brain like a laser. In the time it took to think a thought, she realized: "My intuition. It has been working all along. It's been trying to tell me, Zak. 'One of us must die!' Get it?"

A blaster bolt melted the gems in the path at their feet.

Zak looked around, and his eye settled on the airlock door. He pushed open the first door, and stepped into the airtight room beyond.

Now just one thick door separated him from the lifeless void. He pointed.

"Should we go together?"

Tash shook her head. "I think we have to separate. That's the fear.

Being apart. Losing each other."

He nodded and reached for the b.u.t.ton that would open the second door. "Zak!" Tash burst out. "Listen, I tease you a lot, but you're my brother, and- "

"Yeah," he said, happy to interrupt his sister for once in a conversation. "Me too."

Zak put his hand on the b.u.t.ton and looked hack. The battle droid was almost in reach of Tash. At the last moment, he hesitated. A new fear chilled his heart. What if Tash were a hologram, too? What if she were an illusion designed to trick him into destroying himself?

He shrugged. That was just another fear he was going to have to face.

He pushed the b.u.t.ton.

Zak felt like the hands of an invisible giant had thrown him out of Fun World. Head over heels, he found himself spinning out into...

nothing. It wasn't air, it wasn't water. It was the void, and it was so cold that his hones turned instantly brittle.

Everything went black.

CHAPTER 17.

Zak woke with a jolt, as though his mind had suddenly slammed back into his body. He was lying on cold metal. For a moment, he could not move. His body felt heavy. His arms and legs were numb. He felt like he'd been sleeping for many hours. He could not open his eyes.

Straining with his ears, Zak heard a soft, wet, squis.h.i.+ng sound, like the sound of liquid pa.s.sing through a suction tube. The sound was very close. He listened carefully.

The sound was coming from right between his own eyes.

Because he was blind, his other senses sharpened, and Zak felt the skin on his forehead.

Something was stuck to the skin of his head. Something was stuck into the skin of his head.

Gathering all his strength, Zak forced his eyes to open. He was staring into a bright light and he blinked once, twice, three times, before his vision cleared.

He was lying down, looking up at the ceiling of The Nightmare Machine.

Between him and the ceiling, on a pedestal, crouched the brain creature. It screeched angrily at him. Zak managed to sit up.

Tash was lying on a table next to him, and she, too, was waking up.

Beyond her was another table, and still another, where other victims lay unconscious. Each of them had a thick, wet tentacle attached to their foreheads. The strings of flesh stretched from each victim back to the fearsome creature's gaping mouth.

Zak's stomach turned when he realized that he, too, had a tentacle attached to his head. Gagging, he grabbed at the tendril. It ripped away from his skin with a sickening squish, and The Nightmare Machine creature wailed. Beside him, Tash freed herself the same way.

The creature squealed in pain and rose up to its full height. Its weird spindly arms thrashed through the air.