Spore, page 4
beneath it, deactivate their gravity boots, and float right up to the surface.
"Only problem is," the chief miner ended, "the shaft's too narrow for
anyone but the kids."
"No problem," Zak said. "I'm on my way."
Tash hesitated for a moment. She thought she ought to volunteer ahead of
her younger brother. But the thought of being alone on the asteroid's surface
scared her. She decided to let Zak take the lead.
Hodge, however, disagreed. "Sorry, son, but I think your shoulders are a
little too wide." The miner held his hands up to Zak's shoulders. "Yep, you're
wider than our laser drill." Hodge kept his hands the same distance apart and
measured Tash's shoulders. "But you can make it."
Tash was shocked. Since when was Zak bigger than she was? She stared at
her younger brother. She was still taller than he was. But Zak had started to
fill out. Tash shook her head. She really was out of touch. She hadn't even
noticed her own little brother growing up.
She took a deep breath. "Okay." Hoole stepped between her and Hodge.
"Tash-" he started to say; then he stopped. The gray-faced Shi'ido looked
around as though he were trying to find another solution. When he couldn't
find one, he looked back at Tash. An expression of concern flickered across
his face; then he said, "Be careful."
Hodge led Tash to a spot a few meters away from the statue. Looking up,
she saw the mineshaft disappear into the darkness. "Remember," she heard Hodge
say, "be sure to reactivate your boots the moment you clear the tunnel."
She nodded. Then she reached down and pressed a button on the heel of
each shoe.
Immediately, Tash felt herself become weightless. Her feet were still
touching the rocky floor, but she didn't feel connected to it anymore.
Taking a deep breath, she jumped upward and began to slowly rise toward
the ceiling. Or was the ceiling dropping down to meet her? She couldn't tell.
She touched the tunnel with her gloved hands and guided herself straight
into the mineshaft. Her space helmet and shoulders just barely fit into the
hole.
It got dark very, very quickly.
"Good job, Tash!" she heard Zak cheer.
"Well done," Hoole's voice added.
She thought she heard someone else speak, but the voice was cut off by
static. The thick rock interfered with their short-range comlinks.
She was alone in the dark.
With no sound and no light and the strange feeling that she was hardly
even moving, Tash felt really alone.
It must have only been a few minutes, but it felt as if she'd been
floating for hours.
Just when she started to panic, her head suddenly cleared the tunnel. She
had reached the surface! Starlight glittered on the dusty asteroid. A shower
of asteroids rushed by overhead. After the darkness of the tunnel, all the
movement made her dizzy and she forgot what she was supposed to do next. She
was floating ten meters above the surface before she remembered to reactivate
her boots.
The tractor beams kicked in. She felt as if something had grabbed hold of
her ankles. She settled gently onto the surface.
Bounding across the zero-gravity terrain, she made a quick trip back to
the mining colony. She was so eager to find help, she didn't notice that three
additional Star-flies had suddenly appeared inside the docking bay. As she
entered the air-filled halls of the colony, she pulled off her helmet and
shouted, "Help! Somebody help us!"
"Why, whatever can I do for you, my dear?" said a voice as thin and sharp
as a razor blade.
As Tash turned toward the voice, a wave of sheer terror overwhelmed her.
She recognized the feeling. It was the dark side of the Force. She had felt it
only once before, in the presence of Darth Vader! She felt it again now, like
an ice-cold blast of air all around her.
It was going to freeze her heart.
CHAPTER 6
The man who had spoken was tall, and thin like a skeleton. He was dressed
entirely in black. His head was bald and his skin was dark. Tattoos covered
the lower part of his face. Strangest of all, he wore a band of black cloth
over both eyes.
If he even has eves, Tash thought. But he had to be able to see. He was
staring right at her, and when he took a step closer, he moved easily across
the room.
How does he see? she wondered.
Then she felt another wave of dark-side energy crash against her. The man
was reaching out with the dark side of the Force, using it the way insects
used their antennae to feel their way around.
The tattooed man's dark-side energy wasn't quite as powerful as the
feeling she'd gotten from Darth Vader months ago. This man wasn't as strong as
Vader. But he was almost as evil.
Behind him, Tash saw the other two miners sitting quietly and nervously.
Two stormtroopers stood at attention on either side of them, blasters in hand.
The Empire. If they knew who Tash was, then she, Zak, and Hoole were
doomed.
"Who-?" she started to ask.
"Never mind," the man in black replied. "Where are the others?"
Tash told him. The man clenched his jaw. "Have they opened the door?"
"No, sir," she replied. Her mouth was dry.
He relaxed a bit. A slight smile crossed his face, wrinkling the weird
tattoos on his jaw. "Then they may yet live."
The members of the exploring party were back in the mining colony,
removing their suits just as the last of their oxygen was used up.
The man in black had sent his two stormtroopers with Tash. They had found
a mechanism that lifted the block of stone from the outside, and had easily
freed the prisoners. The troopers had then marched them back to the mining
colony at gunpoint. Now Zak, Tash, Hoole, and Fandomar sat in the main hall of
the mining facility with Hodge and the other two miners.
"My name," the man in black began, "is Jerec. I am a servant of His
Imperial Majesty, the Emperor."
Tash felt Hoole tense beside her. If Jerec knew who they were, they'd
have to fight their way out of the room.
But if Jerec had heard of these three criminals, he wasn't interested.
"That tunnel and its contents are now the property of the Empire," he
declared. "Entry is forbidden."
"But we own the deed to that mine!" Hodge protested. "It belongs to-"
"You may discuss it," Jerec said in a voice like a vibroblade, "with the
Emperor. I can arrange a personal interview."
The way he said "interview" made it sound more like "torture." Hodge said
nothing.
Hoole filled the silence. "I feel you should know that, whatever is
buried down there, the Ithorians seem sure that it should not be dug up."
"What the Ithorians want is no concern of mine," Jerec snapped.
"But...," Fandomar began. It was the first time she'd spoken in over an
hour. "But it could be... dangerous."
Jerec turned toward Fandomar. Again, even though his eyes were hidden
behind the black band, Tash felt that he was seeing something. The presence of
the dark side grew stronger. This man definitely knew how to use the Force-for
evil.
"You are Fandomar," Jerec stated. "Your husband is Momaw Nadon, the
Ithorian in exile."
"Yes," she confessed.
"Then I would be quiet, if I were you," Jerec said threateningly. "Unless
you want me to tell your people your husband's last little secret."
Fandomar closed both her mouths.
Jerec turned to Hodge. "You will take me to this tunnel, and there you
will tell me everything you know about it. Now."
Hodge hesitated. "I don't think this is a good time."
Jerec snapped his fingers and one of the stormtroopers put a blaster to
Hodge's head. "You will take me to this tunnel now, or your friends will wipe
your remains off the floor."
Hodge's face turned pale. "Whatever you say. It's just that this is prime
hunting time for the space slugs. They'll be more alert than usual, and you
never know when a slug's asteroid will pass right overhead. It would be better
to wait a few hours until they calm down again."
For a moment, Jerec did not move. Tash felt her skin crawl as waves of
dark-side power passed through her again. She knew that Jerec was trying to
tell whether Hodge was being honest.
"Very well," Jerec said. He turned to his storm-troopers. "Disable this
station's comlink antenna. No one is allowed to send messages from this
lifeless rock. Then stand guard over all the ships." He smiled cruelly. "No
one is allowed on or off this asteroid until I have examined that tunnel.''
"What do you think he wants?" Zak whispered to Tash.
They were sitting in what must have been the mining facility's
entertainment room. There was a hologame board, several vidscreens, and
shelves full of holodisks. Tash and Zak hadn't touched any of them. Instead,
they'd settled in front of a small computer. Tash was riffling through its
files.
None of the Imperials were in the room. Jerec had accepted Uncle Hoole's
story, which was mostly true anyway, that they'd been on their way to the
planet Bespin when they'd stopped at Ithor for supplies. The Imperial had
seemed more interested in relaying messages to his Star Destroyer, which was
hovering just outside the asteroid field. With his mind focused on other
things, Jerec had hardly paid any attention to them at all.
Even though no Imperials were in sight, Tash whispered anyway. "I don't
know. He talks like he knows what's behind that door. And he wants it."
"Then it can't be good," her brother said.
"I agree," Hoole said. The Shi'ido had sneaked up on them again, giving
Zak and Tash a start.
"Uncle Hoole!" Zak said, clutching his heart. "You know, you're almost as
scary as that Jerec."
"Do you know anything about him?" Tash asked. "I mean, is he human? Why
does he wear that black band over his eyes?"
"And those tattoos on his face," Zak said. "Are they natural, or did
someone put them there?"
Hoole shook his head. "I'm afraid I'm unfamiliar with Jerec. He appears
human, but I suspect he is not. My guess is that blindness is natural to his
species. However, this is no time to question him about his origin."
Hoole pointed to the screen. "Besides, I came to ask questions, not
answer them. I thought I would find you at a computer, Tash. Have you had any
luck finding information?"
Tash sighed and admitted, "No. The miners did a lot of research about
Ithor when they built this place. The records go back thousands of years.
There are records for almost every herd ship, every day, for two thousand
years. I can tell you almost anything you would want to know about Ithor. But
there's nothing about this asteroid."
"Do you get the feeling Fandomar knows more than she's saying?" Zak
asked. "She was awfully quiet while we were trying to figure out how to get
out of the tunnel."
Tash nodded. "Yeah, I noticed that, too. But I don't think she knew about
the trap. There's no way she'd do anything to hurt us."
"Why not?" Zak asked.
"The Law of Life, remember? Fandomar wouldn't hurt a Circarpousian swamp
fly, let alone another sentient being," Tash said.
"Maybe she's decided to break the law," Zak suggested. "Her husband's an
outlaw, after all."
Hoole nodded. "Jerec mentioned Fandomar's husband, Momaw Nadon. She said
he was exiled from Ithor. Can you find out what he did?"
Tash nodded. "Already did. According to the records, the Ithorians know a
lot about gene-splicing."
"Is that like making clones?" Zak asked.
"Not exactly," Hoole replied. "Clones are exact copies. In gene-splicing,
scientists combine the genes of many different life-forms to make a new one."
Tash continued, "Apparently the Ithorians kept their knowledge to
themselves. Momaw Nadon was a High Priest, so he knew all about that stuff.
Some Imperial wanted this secret knowledge and forced Momaw to tell him. Even
though Momaw did it to save lives, the Ithorians banished him for revealing
their secrets.'' '
"That is not prime," Zak muttered. "Gene-splicing. Imperials," Hoole
muttered. He wrinkled his dark brow. He looked as if he were trying to put
together the pieces of a puzzle. "Tash, you said there was a record for almost
every day. Is something missing?"
His niece nodded. "There's a gap in the records. For almost a hundred
years, nothing is recorded. Then the records start again without mentioning
the missing time."
"Curious," Hoole mused. "Perhaps-"
But he was interrupted by one of the stormtroopers, who stomped into the
room and growled, "Time to go."
In the docking bay, under the stormtrooper's watchful eye, Hoole and the
two Arrandas slipped into their spacesuits. Jerec, already dressed in a
protective suit, waited impatiently.
The other stormtrooper marched into the docking bay with one of the
miners and reported. "I could only find this man. Hodge and the other miner
are missing."
"Where are they?" Jerec demanded.
"Here I am!" said Hodge. He came trotting into the docking bay already
dressed in his flight suit. He smiled, but his eyes flitted nervously from
person to person. He seemed to be looking for something.
"Where is your companion?" Jerec demanded. Hodge hesitated for a fraction
of a second. "He went ahead to make sure it was safe."
Tash could tell that Jerec was suspicious. He ordered one of his
stormtroopers to remain behind and guard the Starflies to make sure no one
left the asteroid. Then he led the way out onto the surface, with the others
following. The second stormtrooper brought up the rear. Tash couldn't help
noticing that his blaster was set to kill.
They marched along, back toward the slug tunnel. The asteroid was as
lifeless as before-except for one change. In the distance, near the tunnel
entrance, they could see a small, white figure. As they got nearer, they saw
that it was a man in a spacesuit.
"There he is," Hodge said. "I told you he was just making sure it's safe.
"
They continued toward him. The man did not move. He stood there, waiting
for them.
They drew nearer, and still the figure didn't move. He stood perfectly
still. Even from a distance, Tash could tell there was something strange about
the way he was standing. As they came within a few dozen meters, she realized
what it was. He was holding both hands above his head.
He had been holding them above his head the whole time.
They reached the mine. The figure still hadn't taken a single step, and
his arms were still reaching over his head.
Tash blinked. His arms weren't reaching. They were floating.
Inside his space helmet, the miner's face was frozen in an expression of
horror.
Even though he was standing on his feet, the man in the spacesuit was
obviously dead.
CHAPTER 7
By the look on the miner's face, whatever had killed him had filled him
with surprise and terror.
It reminded her of the look on the face of the Ithorian statue.
"But if he's dead, how is he still... standing there?" she whispered.
"Gravboots," Jerec said. He pointed at the miner's feet. The mini-tractor
