Galaxy Of Fear_ Planet Plague Part 7

The technician turned back to his examination. "I don't know. I suggest you wait for him in the waiting room near the turbolifts."

Tash stared at the technician's back for a moment, but he did not turn around again. She could feel the blood pounding in her head. She felt angry. Too angry, she thought. Suddenly everything was aggravating her.

Tash tried to calm down and think clearly. Deevee had come to see Zak, and now Zak was gone. But Deevee followed Uncle Hoole's instructions. Had Hoole ordered the droid to do something with Zak? Or-Tash shuddered-do something to him?

Tash looked at the computer terminal she had used before.

Everything she needed to know was locked inside it. And Tash had the key: the name Starscream.

But before she could reach the terminal, the medical technician appeared behind her. "I thought I told you to go to the waiting room.

This is an Imperial facility. We don't allow people to simply wander around."

Tash thought up a quick lie. "Um, I know. But I was supposed to meet with Dr. Kavafi, too. I thought he was at the bacta tanks." She could only hope that the technician recognized her from before.

The technician said, "There are tanks at the other end of the hall as well. You might try there."

"Thanks," Tash said, hurrying on.

She wiped a drop of perspiration from her forehead. Had something happened to the climate controls? The building seemed especially hot. Her eyes clouded over for a moment, and the hallway seemed to tilt dizzily.

Tash panicked. Had she caught Zak's illness?

But the feeling quickly pa.s.sed, and Tash hurried on.

She would worry about herself as soon as she had found Zak and discovered what her uncle was plotting.

At the other end of the hall Tash found the other set of bacta tanks, and to her relief, an unoccupied computer terminal. Someone had obviously just finished working at this station-it was cluttered with datadisks, an electroscope, and the leftovers of someone's lunch. Tash pushed them out of the way and was about to start typing.

"Still looking for Dr. Kavafi?" asked an accusing voice.

Tash whirled around. The technician had followed her. She was caught.

CHAPTER 13.

At that moment, Zak and Deevee were making their way toward the landing bay.

"I still don't understand," Zak said to his droid companion. "I didn't mind getting out of the bacta tank early. Believe me, it was getting pretty boring in there. But why did we have to leave the Infirmary so soon? Why couldn't we wait for Tash?"

"I'm afraid I don't know," the droid responded. "I am simply following Master Hoole's orders, and those orders are to get you back to the Shroud as soon as possible. Tash should be waiting for us there."

But when they reached the landing bay, they found the ship empty.

"I can't understand it," Deevee said. "I told her to wait."

"Yeah," Zak replied, poking his head into Tash's room. "It's not like her to - Yech!"

Zak felt his boot sink into something soft and squishy on the floor. Lifting his foot, he saw long, sticky strings of ooze stretch between the bottom of his boot and a thin streak of slime on the deck of the Shroud. "What is this stuff?"

Deevee recognized it instantly. "It appears to be the same material that those blobs were composed of. Tash and I encountered one when we first arrived." The droid quickly described for Zak the blob's attack and explained how he and Tash were rescued by the mysterious man named Wedge.

Zak's eyes lit up in alarm. "One of those things might have gotten Tash!"

"Zak-" the droid started to say. But Zak had already jumped out the hatchway and was searching the ground for more signs of the blob.

By the time the droid had caught up to him, Zak had reached the edge of the ziggurat that the landing bay was on.

"That thing left a slime trail," Zak said. "After it left the ship I think it crawled down the side of the ziggurat." He pointed down the steep slope of the pyramid, which vanished into the jungle steam far below.

"Unfortunately the side of this ziggurat is far too smooth for either of us to negotiate," Deevee commented. "I suggest we wait for Master Hoole to-"

"There's no time!" Zak insisted. "And there are stairs right over here. I think they go all the way to the bottom." Zak hurried for the stairs on the side of the ziggurat, without waiting.

"Tending human children," Deevee muttered to himself. "I would rather herd a shipload of Gamorrean slime cats."

He descended in pursuit of Zak.

He did not see the two shapes that came out from the shadow of a nearby ship and follow them down the stairs.

Tash found herself growing uncomfortable under the Infirmary technician's suspicious glare.

"I thought you said you were looking for Dr. Kavafi," the technician growled after a moment of silence.

Tash thought quickly. "I thought he'd be here," she said. "I was supposed to bring him this electroscope," she added, picking up the electronic visor.

The story sounded lame. She felt a drop of moisture trickle down her back.

The technician studied her a moment longer, and then said slowly, "Let's see if I can locate the doctor for you."

He put one hand on Tash's arm and used the other to call up some information on the computer terminal. "There you go," he said. "Dr.

Kavafi is in a meeting on the twentieth floor. You can wait for him up there."

"Great," Tash said. "Thanks."

But this time the technician did not leave her. He escorted her back to the turbolifts and waited until one of the cars arrived. When it did, he watched Tash step aboard; then he leaned in and said, "Droid, take this young lady straight to the twentieth floor."

The door closed on his irritating smirk.

"Laser burn," Tash muttered as the turbolift shot up to the twentieth floor.

Maybe she could find a computer terminal there.

Still holding the electroscope, Tash stepped out onto the top floor of the Infirmary. The corridor was empty and quiet, lit by a few glowpanels and the light from a bank of viewports that looked out over the steamy floor of the planet. The hallway was lined with doors on either side, and the corridor curved away from her to the right and to the left, with no signs indicating where a computer terminal might be located. Tash guessed that this floor must be reserved for administrative offices. She had just decided to go left, when she heard a familiar voice approaching from that direction.

"I can't thank you enough for letting me in on your secret, Kavafi," she heard Uncle Hoole say. Tash had never heard her uncle sound so friendly or relaxed. "I'm sure it is a worthwhile endeavor."

"Think nothing of it, Hoole," Kavafi replied from around the corner. "There is no one I'd rather show my work to than you."

Tash scurried down the hallway to the right until she was out of sight. She listened as Hoole and Kavafi reached the lifts.

"How do we get there?" Hoole was asking.

"Right this way," Kavafi said.

She heard them step onto the turbolift. Just before the doors closed, she heard Kavafi say, "Bottom floor."

Quick as lightspeed Tash dashed for the turbolifts. Reading the indicator lights, she saw which lift Kavafi and Hoole had taken. It was moving fast.

Tash jumped inside another turbolift.

"Bottom floor," she said.

A mechanical voice issued from a small speaker. "Access limited.

Pa.s.sword required."

"What?" Tash couldn't believe it. Access limited?

"Incorrect. Correct pa.s.sword required," said the voice.

Tash thought quickly. There must be a floor beneath the lobby-a secret floor. One that requires a pa.s.sword to enter. "Pa.s.sword required,"

the mechanical voice repeated.

Tash braced herself. "Starscream."

The turbolift began to descend.

The lift moved at top speed, but the ride was very long. Tash felt the small chamber grow hotter, as if she was heading down toward the source of Gobindi's humid climate.

Finally the turbolift stopped. The doors opened, and Tash peered out. There was a long hallway outside, but it looked nothing like the Infirmary. The walls and floor were made of ma.s.sive stones packed tightly together. Moss grew in thick patches on the walls. The air was heavy and so moist that puddles had formed on the floor.

She was inside the ziggurat.

Cautiously she crept forward. There didn't seem to be any guards or sentries.

Tash's heart was pounding. The hallway was dim, lit only by small glowpanels placed far apart. She wondered how far she was inside the ziggurat. She guessed that she must be close to the bottom.

Tash heard a soft, squishing sound echo faintly behind her. She quickly glanced over her shoulder.

No one was there.

She took a few more steps, and heard the squish again. She looked back. The hallway was still empty. Then, Tash looked up.

Over her head hung several oozing blobs, ready to drop.

CHAPTER 14.

Tash turned to run back to the turbolift, but one of the blobs released its grip on the ceiling and dropped. She jumped away, and the blob splattered to the floor. It shuffled toward her, and Tash backed up a few steps down the hallway.

Tash knew she had to get to the lifts. She should never have come down here alone.

Maybe I can jump over it, she thought.

She never got the chance. A small slurp above her gave Tash just enough warning, and she scrambled out of the way as another blob dropped from the ceiling. And then another, and another. In moments the hallway floor was covered with blobs. Tash stifled a scream and ran down the hallway as the blobs oozed toward her.

She had no choice now. She turned and ran, knowing that the blobs were too slow to catch her. After a few moments the creatures lost interest in her and began to wriggle their way back up the walls.

But they'd be waiting for her if she tried to go back to the lifts.

She would have to face whatever else awaited inside the ziggurat.

The hallway did not branch off, so Tash knew Hoole and Kavafi must have come this way. She crept along, trying to keep to the shadows and watching the ceiling for any more of the slimeb.a.l.l.s.

Tash's clothes were soaked with sweat. They stuck to her arms and legs like wet bandages. Her arm had begun to throb more violently.

Peeling back her wet sleeve, Tash looked down at the lump that had grown on her arm. It was darker now, a dirty brown color that seemed to be spilling onto the rest of her arm.

It seemed like hours, but finally Tash saw a brighter light up ahead. The corridor became a wide plaza with many channels branching in different directions. Although the plaza was empty, Tash could hear m.u.f.fled voices and the sound of machinery coming from the hallways.

Tash didn't feel safe, out in the open under the bright glowpanels of the plaza. The place could be crawling with stormtroopers, and she wasn't supposed to be there. But she had nowhere else to go. All she wanted to do now was get out of the ziggurat alive.

Keeping to the walls, Tash reached the nearest hallway and slipped quietly inside. Like the tunnel from the turbolift, it was dark, and she felt less exposed in the shadows.

Now if only the hallway led to an exit.

Up ahead, Tash could see that the stone walls of the tunnel had been replaced by a series of transparent plexiform panels. As she approached, Tash peeked cautiously around the edge of the nearest panel.

Through it she could see a small bare room with white walls, floor, and ceiling. There was no furniture in the room, and no access panels for comlinks or vidcams. It looked like a cell. In the center of it lay one of the blobs. Checking to make sure no one was nearby, Tash stepped in front of the plexiform panel.

The blob sprang at her. It thudded against the transparent barrier and slowly slid down it toward the floor. It was huge.

The blob launched itself at Tash again.

Tash continued down the hall. She pa.s.sed six or seven more of the transparent panels, each one looking into an identical room containing a blob.