Galaxy Of Fear_ The Hunger Part 2

His gray skin seemed to wriggle across his bones for a moment-and then Hoole was gone, replaced by a very average-looking human with brown hair and brown eyes.

"Excellent," Deevee said. "I wouldn't want anyone to recognize you with all the stormtroopers about."

"Stormtroopers!" Hoole said through his new shape. "There have never been stormtroopers on Koaan."

"There are now," the droid said with a hint of sadness in his mechanical voice. "Ever since the Rebellion, the Empire has sent military forces to control every scientific facility it owns, no matter how small.

But they shouldn't trouble us."

Deevee was right. The Galactic Research Academy was a place of learning and a storehouse of information gathered by scientists and scholars from across the galaxy. Because it contained no military secrets and stayed out of politics, it wasn't considered very important by the Empire or the Rebellion. As long as the Academy didn't break any Imperial rules, it didn't get much attention. The few Imperials on the planet were there to make sure no one spread any information that would show the Empire in a bad light.

Although Hoole's familiar face might have caused a stir, the sight of a droid escorting one human adult and two human children made no impression at all.

Deevee led them through a courtyard where a few scholars, mostly human, hurried here and there on Academy business. They then followed Deevee into a large building several stories tall.

"All the floors above us contain the main library," the droid explained as they reached a bank of turbolifts. "It's one of the most complete records of galactic knowledge anywhere. But we are going down."

A turbolift arrived and they entered. The lift descended with a gentle hum. A moment later the door opened and they found themselves facing a sour-looking man in an Imperial uniform. His skin was pale and sickly from sitting in a dingy office belowground every day.

Zak tensed on seeing the Imperial uniform, but Deevee merely shuffled out of the turbolift, leaned forward, and spoke so that his voice would be picked up by a microphone on the Imperial's desk.

"Greetings, Deputy Strey. D-V9 requesting access to raw data files. I have three researchers from offplanet with me."

The Imperial, Deputy Strey, glanced at a screen. "Voice authorization confirmed. Go ahead," the Imperial said.

Deputy Strey didn't even look at them again as they continued down a dimly lit hallway, past several unmarked doors. To Zak, all the doors looked alike. But Deevee knew where he was going. He opened one of the doors and stepped inside.

They were in a large room lined with rows of shelves. Each shelf was piled high with containers, and each container held hundreds of datadisks. In the corner was a computer terminal.

"This place is some thrill," Zak said sarcastically.

"It may look boring to you, Zak," said Hoole. "But every one of those disks contains the records of a team that discovered and explored an uncharted planet. Who knows what dangers they faced, or what treasures they discovered?"

"Well, no one knows," Deevee answered. "These records have been sitting here for years."

"Why?" Tash asked, staring wide-eyed at the galaxy of information around her. Tash was a reader, and the thought of all that knowledge made her head spin.

"Everything we record has to be approved by the Empire first," the droid explained. "All these disks are just copies. The originals are on Coruscant, the Imperial capital. Once a file is approved, we can send it upstairs to the main library. Luckily for us, with nothing else to do, the Academy scholars have been copying and cross-referencing the files into this computer. Thus, we don't need to search through the disks themselves."

Zak looked at the stacks of datadisks that reached the ceiling.

"Good. There are enough disks here to smother a bantha."

As Deevee activated the computer terminal, Hoole, who had shifted back into his own shape, said, "Go back years, Deevee. Look for something that was discovered before the Empire took over."

"Why?" Tash asked her uncle.

"If a planet was discovered under the Empire, it was probably discovered by Imperials. We do not want to go anywhere they have been. We want a place that was discovered a long time ago, and then forgotten."

"I think I've found just the planet," Deevee said, after a short search. "This planet was discovered by an exploration team almost forty years ago. It-"

The door hissed open behind them. Startled by the intrusion, they all whirled around to see Deputy Strey standing in the doorway. His pale face had gone even whiter. He looked like death itself.

Deputy Strey gagged, as if trying to speak. Then he fell face first into the room and did not move again.

CHAPTER 4.

While Zak and the others were staring down at Strey, eight beings charged into the room, stepping over the Imperial's body. The first was a woman with long, thick hair, a blaster in her hand. Behind her came a Twi'lek with two thick tentacles growing out of the back of his head.

They were wrapped around his shoulders like a scarf. Four men followed, all dressed in sloppy flight uniforms, all heavily armed.

The woman glared at Hoole, Zak, and Tash. Then she pointed her blaster at them. "Who are you?" she demanded.

Hoole returned her gaze calmly. "We could ask you the same question. What have you done to that man?"

The Twi'lek looked at the woman and said, "We don't have time for this, Platt."

The woman, Platt, looked at the motionless Imperial and answered Hoole's question. "He'll live. He's just stunned." Platt raised an eyebrow. "Two human kids, a Shi'ido, and a droid. I'm just making a guess here-you aren't the local stormtrooper patrol, are you?"

"We are not Imperials," Hoole admitted. "You can put away your blaster. We are simply here to gather some information; then we will be on our way."

"Us too," Platt said. She holstered her blaster, and her companions put theirs away as well. "You, droid," she said to Deevee. "You work here?"

Deevee said, "I am a research a.s.sistant to the-"

"Good. This is what we need," Platt interrupted. "I've heard you've got billions of data bits of information on unregistered planets. We need one. Now."

Hoole raised an eyebrow. "Curious. We are here for a similar reason."

By this time Platt had already moved to the computer terminal. She scanned the information on the screen and muttered, "Yeah . . . yeah . .

. this'll do fine. This is perfect."

"You can't have that planet," Zak said. "That one's ours!"

Platt laughed. "Look, no offense, kid, but we're in kind of a hurry. We think someone spotted us breaking into this place, and if we don't get out fast, we'll-"

"Freeze!" someone yelled.

Every eye in the room turned toward the door, where a white-armored stormtrooper stood, a blaster rifle in his hands.

Platt didn't freeze. She drew her blaster at lightspeed and fired from the hip. The bolt struck the trooper in the chest and sent him staggering backward.

"They got here faster than I expected," Platt muttered.

"What do we do, Platt?" the Twi'lek asked.

"Guard the door while I download the information," she replied.

Platt's companions went to the door, blasters at the ready.

"I'm afraid you can't just barge in here like this," Deevee insisted. "There are regulations!"

Platt shook her head. "Something tells me you four aren't too concerned about regulations." She connected a small handheld datapad to the computer and downloaded the information on the planet Deevee had found.

"Stop that!" Zak insisted. "We don't want anyone to know about that planet!"

"That makes two of us," Platt said. She finished downloading the information, then punched in a command on the computer. The information Deevee had found vanished, replaced by the words "File Deleted."

The sound of heavy blaster fire filled the hallway outside. They could hear more stormtroopers calling for them to surrender.

"Platt, we can't hold them off for long!" the Twi'lek shouted.

Platt looked at Deevee. "Is there another way out of here?"

Deevee pointed to a cargo door at the back of the room. "That leads to a freight turbolift used for heavy items. But I'm afraid I don't have the access code that-"

"No problem," Platt snapped. Out came her blaster again, and she poured energy bolts into the door until it burst into pieces. The turbolift was visible on the other side.

"Come on, Tru'eb!" the woman yelled to her Twi'lek friend. "We're taking the back door!"

"Wait," Hoole said firmly. "You will have to take us with you."

The woman paused. "Says who?"

Hoole met her gaze evenly. "You've just stolen information we went to great trouble to get, and you have attracted Imperial attention that we do not want. If you leave, the stormtroopers will throw us into a detention block."

Platt shrugged. "That's your problem."

"And it would be most unfortunate," Hoole continued, "if we were forced to tell the Imperials where you were going."

Platt scowled. She knew she was stuck. "Come on then. Just don't slow us down."

Zak, Tash, and Hoole started for the turbolift, then realized that Deevee hadn't moved. "Deevee," Zak asked, "aren't you coming?"

The droid shook his head. "I'm afraid not, Zak. My place is here now."

"But the stormtroopers will turn you into sc.r.a.p!" Tash said.

"Why should they? I work here. I've done nothing wrong."

"But-" Zak started to protest.

"Zak," the droid broke in, "I am not programmed for philosophy, but I've seen enough to know that you and Tash are in for more excitement than my circuitry can handle. I belong here."

"Very well, old friend," Hoole said. "Thank you for your help."

"Come on, or get left behind!" Platt shouted from the turbolift.

Her companions were still at the door, firing their blasters down the now-smoking hallway. One by one, they backed away from the door and broke for the turbolift.

As the sound of blaster fire grew deafening, Hoole and the two Arrandas hurried into the lift with the last of the mysterious intruders.

The turbolift rose out of sight just as the stormtroopers charged into the room.

A short time later, nothing remained in the bas.e.m.e.nt computer room but a thin cloud of smoke from the earlier blaster fight, and the smell of metal burned by energy beams.

Boba Fett slipped quietly into the room.

He had already learned from the stormtroopers what had happened. He knew that a group of unknown intruders had broken into the Galactic Research Academy and accessed information from the computer. They had then slipped away from a squad of stormtroopers, reached a waiting ship, and blasted their way into s.p.a.ce. That was all the stormtroopers knew.

Boba Fett knew more. He knew that his targets had been here, too, and that they had left with the mysterious intruders. He knew that the droid had helped them, but he didn't tell that to the authorities. Let them do their own dirty work.

All Fett cared about was the job.

The bounty hunter went to the computer terminal and removed a small device from his belt. The device had cost him thousands of credits, but it helped him do his job, so it was worth the price. Once it was attached to a computer, the device began to search the files for anything that had been erased. If used quickly enough, the device could recover data that had been deleted.

After a moment, the device beeped and began to collect information that had been erased.

Fett had found what he was looking for. He studied the data for a moment and nodded in satisfaction. Now he knew where they were going.

They were headed for a swamp planet called Dagobah.

The hunt was on.

CHAPTER 5.

Zak, Tash, and Hoole were on board Platt's starship, the Last Chance. Since the Imperial presence on Koaan was very small, they'd had no difficulty reaching her ship, and once they were in deep s.p.a.ce, there was no way for the local authorities to follow them.

It wasn't long before a few questions and a few guesses gave Zak and Tash a pretty good idea of who their new acquaintance was.

Her name was Platt Okeefe and she was a smuggler. Zak always thought of smugglers as crude, unlikeable characters who worked for gangsters like Jabba the Hutt. But Platt seemed friendly enough. She laughed when she noticed Zak giving her a suspicious glance.

"You've got a problem with me, kid?" she asked.

Zak shrugged. "You're a smuggler. What am I supposed to think?"