Galaxy Of Fear_ Planet Plague Part 10

"Surprising, isn't it?" said a malicious voice.

Tash knew it was the evil s.h.i.+'ido before she turned around. He was standing behind her wearing an oxygen mask. He pointed at Hoole.

"Perpetual metamorphosis. He changes shape too quickly for the virus to establish itself Ingenious, I have to admit. But I expect that from Hoole." His voice was m.u.f.fled by the oxygen mask. "You know, he proved difficult to infect from the start. I tried using an injection, and it didn't work at all."

He looked at Tash. "I should have known you would be resourceful enough to escape the hot chamber," he said.

Tash backed away from him. "That's not all. I also seem to be immune to your virus! It's not infecting me."

She expected the s.h.i.+'ido to look stunned. Instead he only sniffed.

"Nonsense. The reason the virus particles are not infecting you now is that you have been infected since the day you arrived. I did it to you myself."

At that moment, Tash felt the lump on her arm expand. Greenish-brown ooze leaked through her sleeve and began to spread along her arm.

Tash pulled back her sleeve and saw that the b.u.mp was the size of her palm.

She was infected. And the virus was growing.

CHAPTER 18.

The s.h.i.+'ido smiled. "You see, you are not immune."

Tash felt her left arm grow heavy. She staggered and fell to her knees.

The false Dr. Kavafi had infected her with a shot in the arm that first day in the Infirmary. "You... said it was an antivirus to protect me," she said weakly.

"I lied." The s.h.i.+'ido stood over her. "I must say, you intrigue me," he admitted. "It has taken longer for the virus to begin replicating itself in you than in any other subject I experimented on."

He studied Tash as if she were a slab of meat. "I wonder why? You might be worth studying, but I suppose we will never know now."

When Tash looked at the quivering ooze on her arm, she gagged. To keep from staring at it, she focused on the s.h.i.+'ido. "You're killing people."

"I have my reasons," the s.h.i.+'ido replied. "But then you already have an inkling, don't you? At least, you know its name."

Project Starscream. The code words that had gotten her into the ziggurat. The code words they had discovered on board the s.h.i.+p.

Project Starscream. Tash had no doubt that she was looking at its mastermind.

Tash felt her anger, long held inside, spew out. "You vicious-" she started to yell.

The virus was quickly growing, up her arm to her shoulder. She could feel slime slowly sliding down her back. The ooze wasn't on her skin-it was growing out of her skin. She fell to her knees and struggled to keep from fainting.

Tash could feel the virus starting to control her movements. She tried to stand up, but her muscles didn't respond. Something was fighting for control of her body.

The virus was taking over.

"Please...," she said. "Help me."

"And ruin all my hard work?" the s.h.i.+'ido said mockingly.

Tash had never encountered anyone so absolutely evil.

The s.h.i.+'ido smiled. "No, I think I will leave you here instead. In a little while you will be just another mindless blob spreading my virus around the planet."

Tash tried to speak. Her jaw felt heavy. "Wh-Why?" She could barely get the word out.

The s.h.i.+'ido leered down at her. "Why? With this virus at my command, I will have a biological weapon capable of wiping out entire planets! Think of it, a virus that overwhelms its host, not killing it, but feeding off it, and spreading the virus again and again. Each victim becomes another virus bomb. This virus is a weapon that never runs out of ammunition."

Tash struggled to make her words clear. "Why... St-Star. ."

"What is Project Starscream all about? Is that what you are asking?" the s.h.i.+'ido taunted. He laughed a m.u.f.fled laugh behind his oxygen mask. "I don't think I will tell you. Now excuse me once again, this time permanently. The pump is about to vent the virus into the atmosphere, and I think I will have the best view from orbit."

The s.h.i.+'ido looked at Hoole one last time, grinning triumphantly before turning and leaving.

Tash's fear gave way to outrage. He had no right to do this! It was horrible beyond understanding. Tash heard the word echo in her head.

Hate.

She hated the s.h.i.+'ido.

Hoole pounded on the plexiform. Tash looked up and saw her uncle point to the side of the cell. There was a small control panel set into the wall. She could free him!

If she could reach him.

Gritting her teeth, Tash struggled to her feet. Anger and sheer stubbornness allowed her to stand. The weight of the virus blob on her shoulders made her feel as though she were carrying another person.

All she had to do was walk ten meters.

But her muscles seized up. The virus took hold of them, and she stumbled to her knees again.

Tash refused to give up. She felt driven by a powerful force: revenge. The s.h.i.+'ido had toyed with her and terrified her. He had injected her with a deadly virus and fooled her into thinking her uncle was a villain.

Tash staggered up the first step.

Revenge.

She took another step, and another.

Revenge. Revenge.

She would resist the virus. Her anger was stronger than the infection. She would win! She would have her revenge on the Empire and the mysterious s.h.i.+'ido.

In his cell Hoole pounded on the gla.s.s.

Tash was halfway to the control panel when the virus blossomed.

Thick tendrils of ooze burst from the center of the blob on her shoulder and wrapped themselves around her waist and legs, dragging Tash down to her knees.

The virus had grown stronger.

Tash stopped struggling. She couldn't defeat it. The angrier she got, the stronger the virus became. She couldn't fight against it.

She was only five meters from the control panel, but she knew she couldn't go any farther. She shuddered and blinked hot tears away. She was losing. Soon she would become another blob. She had lost.

At that moment Tash remembered what Dr. Kavafi said. Strong emotions changed the body, and the virus fed off of those changes. Strong emotions like anger.

And thinking of that, Tash remembered what Wedge had told her about the Jedi Knights: They didn't get angry. They didn't hate their opponents. The Jedi always kept their minds more on what they were fighting for than what they were fighting against.

Tash realized that she had been fighting against the virus, against the evil s.h.i.+'ido, against the Empire. She had been filled with anger and a desire for revenge. That wasn't the Jedi way.

Tash stopped struggling. She turned her mind away from the virus.

She forgot about her hatred for the Empire. She forgot her desire for revenge on the s.h.i.+'ido.

Instead she thought about what she was fighting for. She thought about the home she'd had on Alderaan. She thought about Uncle Hoole, who had taken her in when she was orphaned, and about Deevee.

Tash felt her heart rate slow. Her breathing grew steady. She tried to remain calm. The anger drained out of her. And the virus started to lose its grip.

Tash felt the slimy tentacles drop away from her legs.

She took a step forward, leaving a thin trail of melting ooze on the stone behind her. The weight on her back felt lighter.

Tash thought about her brother, Zak, who would stand by her through a meteor storm.

More ooze dripped away from her body. She stood up straight. She did not hurry. She stayed calm, the way she imagined a Jedi would be.

She thought about her parents. She thought about how much she had loved them. All the Imperial wars.h.i.+ps in the galaxy could not take that away from her.

She felt her muscles free up. The disgusting ooze still covered her arm and shoulders, but she was free to move.

She took one step toward the control panel, and then another. In another moment she was there. She pushed her hand wearily against the control panel, and the plexiform barrier slid back.

With unbelievable speed Hoole jumped out of the cell and closed the door again.

"Tas.h.!.+" Hoole said. For the first time since she'd known him, Tash saw the stern s.h.i.+'ido's face break into... well, almost a smile.

Hoole located the controls and easily shut down the pump mechanism; then, with a s.h.i.+mmer of his gray skin, he transformed into a Wookiee. One swipe of his paw smashed the control panel, ruining the device. No virus clouds would fall on Mah Dala. Then he returned to Tash, shrinking back into his own form as he did.

"Uncle Hoole," Tash said weakly. "I thought you were working with the Empire. I thought you were behind this virus plot. I was stupid."

Hoole shook his head. "I allowed that s.h.i.+'ido to fool me. He was waiting for us. He allowed us to land on this planet in the first place.

I walked into his trap, and I exposed you and Zak to danger."

"Am I... am I cured?" she asked. She could still feel the ooze sticking to her shoulders and see it on her arms.

"I'm not sure," her uncle confessed. "We will find out as soon as we get out of here."

"Dr. Kavafi," Tash said. "The real Dr. Kavafi. We have to get him."

"He is here?" Hoole started. "Where?"

Supported by Hoole, Tash brought her uncle down the pa.s.sageway that led out of the pump room. The tunnel was deserted-the s.h.i.+'ido and whoever worked for him did not want to be on Gobindi when the plague virus flooded the atmosphere. After several twists and turns, Tash and Hoole found the virus chamber, where the battered Kavafi still waited. "Hoole!"

Kavafi shouted when he saw them.

Taking the electroscope from Tash, Hoole confirmed that the virus clouds no longer floated in the room. The virus still did cover much of the walls and floor, but with Hoole as his guide, Kavafi was able to make his way to the door.

"Hoole! I can't believe-" the doctor began.

"We have no time for conversation, Doctor," Hoole said. "We must get out of this place."

They tried the tunnel that led to the turbolifts, but the path was blocked. Dozens of the virus blobs now filled the corridor-the evil s.h.i.+'ido's way of ensuring that no one came down through the lifts to discover his hidden chambers.

Hoole, wearing the electroscope, led the others on a twisting, turning route through the ziggurat's tunnels. They pa.s.sed the virus chamber, and the pump room, and finally found a tunnel that led away from those chambers. Following this pa.s.sageway, they came to a door, and Hoole quickly triggered the opening.

Tash found herself staring at the backs of Zak, Deevee, and the two Rebels.

CHAPTER 19.

"Tas.h.!.+ What happened!" Zak cried, seeing the coating of slime that covered Tash's arm.

"There is no time to explain," Hoole said. "We must leave."

Wedge fired his blaster at the blobs again. The blaster bolt left a tiny b.u.m mark on the blobs' flesh. "Good idea... but I don't think it's what these blobs have in mind."

Hoole looked up at the high wall above them. "Hold on," he said to Tash. To the others he said, "Please make room."

His skin crawled across his bones as Hoole changed shape. He had become a mammoth frog, a creature Tash had seen in the galactic encyclopedia. She clung to its b.u.mpy skin. The mammoth frog braced itself, then sprang into the air, just catching hold of the top of the wall.

Quickly Hoole repeated the act until all seven of them were on the wall, just as the blobs converged on the spot where they had stood. Only when they were all safe did Hoole say, "Dr. Kavafi, we need a cure for Tash."

The doctor shook his head sadly. "I wish I could help. I do not know of one."

Zak and Deevee exchanged glances, recalling the writing carved into the stones over the ziggurat door. "We do!"