Star Wars - [Galaxy Of Fear 05] - Ghost of the Jedi (by John Whitman)

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Star Wars

Galaxy of Fear

Ghost of the Jedi

by John Whitman

source : IRC

uploaded: 13.II.2006

PROLOGUE

The shuttle's door opened onto the gray landscape of a dead world. The

wind howled across the dry plain, whistling among sharp, jagged slabs of rock

that seemed to grow out of the ground like stone trees.

Borborygmus Gog stumbled out of the shuttle. He was frustrated.

His frustration turned to pure hatred when he saw who was waiting for him

on the planet's surface.

"What an unexpected pleasure," he sneered.

Darth Vader withstood the howling wind, stronger than the jagged rocks

around him. "I am here to fix Project Starscream."

Gog glared. "Project Starscream does not need to be fixed."

Vader tilted his head forward, looking down on the doctor. "Are you

certain? Hoole has proved himself to be a formidable enemy. I warned you

before not to be overconfident. Now Hoole has ruined the first four stages of

Star-scream, and he is still on the loose, thanks to your incompetence."

The skin on Gog's back rippled. He hated Vader, hated his power and his

arrogance. Gog wanted that power-more than anything he wanted to take Vader's

place beside the Emperor's throne. Gog was a Shi'ido, a shapechanger. He felt

the urge to transform into a wampa ice beast and rip out Vader's throat. He

eyed the lightsaber hanging from Vader's belt. He was sure he could reach

Vader before the Dark Lord drew his weapon.

But Vader also commanded the Force, and against that, Gog had no defense.

At least not yet.

He said, "The project is at a very important stage. The fifth experiment

is crucial. Besides, the Emperor himself put me in charge of Project

Starscream. It is my responsibility."

Vader's breath rasped through his face mask. "And the Emperor himself has

asked me to make sure it proceeds with no interference. I have already ordered

the deaths of Hoole and his family."

"No!" Gog blurted.

The Dark Lord's voice was threatening. "What?"

Gog recovered himself and said calmly, "That is, there is something

peculiar about Hoole's niece and nephew-especially the niece. They are worth

further study."

Vader scoffed. "You tried using them with your Nightmare Machine project

and failed. Now they threaten everything."

"But-"

"The order is given," Vader interrupted. "I have already sent an assassin

to find them."

With that, Vader whirled around and strode away. Somewhere out there, his

ship and his soldiers lurked.

Gog resisted the urge to draw his blaster and shoot Vader in the back.

The Dark Lord would know without turning around if he even reached for his

weapon. Vader had the Force.

The Force. If his plans were to succeed, Gog needed something to defeat

the Force.

A cold smile crept across Gog's lips. He had not told Vader why Hoole's

niece and nephew-especially the niece-interested him. And why the fifth

experiment was so important.

It had to do with the Force.

Gog knew he had to act fast if he was to beat Vader. He laughed to

himself. Vader wanted the Arrandas killed. Gog wanted them alive.

Hoole and his friends would be lucky if Vader's assassin found them

first.

CHAPTER 1

The laser blasts came close. Too close.

One of the energy bolts glanced off the side of the ship, and Tash and

Zak felt the Shroud buck under the blast. But the shields held. The Shroud was

a good ship.

"She'll hold together," Zak said. "I think."

As if determined to prove him wrong, another laser bolt struck the ship,

sending a shock wave from stem to stern.

"There are two more coming in," Deevee said.

"I see them," Uncle Hoole said tightly.

He banked the ship hard to the left. As the ship spun, Tash caught a

glimpse of one of the ships that was chasing them.

An Imperial Star Destroyer.

A dozen laser cannons sent energy beams streaking toward them. Luckily,

the Shroud was fast, and Hoole managed to slip away from most of them.

"We can't take another hit like that!" Zak said. "Quiet," Hoole ordered.

"I've almost loaded the coordinates for the hyperspace jump."

Tash tried not to think about the facts. Imperial Star Destroyers were

the most powerful ships in the galaxy. They were huge, and had hundreds of

weapons that could turn most other ships into space vapor. Despite their size,

they were also incredibly fast. Very few ships could outrun them. One Star

Destroyer could wipe out a fleet of smaller ships.

And four of them were chasing the Shroud.

They had been tailing Hoole and the Arrandas since their recent escape

from the Hologram Fun World. For awhile Hoole thought he had lost them, but

the Imperial ships had merely sent a signal to another fleet, and now they

were nearly surrounded.

A direct hit from a Star Destroyer's cannon made the ship groan. A

warning light flashed on the control panel.

"We've lost the main deflector shield!" Zak called out. "The next shot

will vaporize us!"

"Almost there," Hoole said to himself. His fingers flew frantically over

the controls.

"They're firing again!"

"There!" Hoole said. He pulled a large switch on the Shroud's control

panel. The ship lurched forward as though dragged by giant hands, and plunged

into the streaking white light of hyperspace.

A few hours later, the Shroud still hurtled through the swirling

whiteness of hyperspace. In the cockpit, four figures huddled over the control

console, their faces lit by the red glow of the instrument panel as the Shroud

traveled through the most desolate parts of the galaxy.

"Where are we?" asked Tash Arranda.

"I don't recognize any of these star charts," said her brother, Zak.

"If I'm not mistaken," said the droid DV-9, "these coordinates will take

us far into the Outer Rim. This is the least colonized part of the galaxy, and

the farthest away from the center of Imperial power."

"Correct, Deevee," replied Hoole curtly.

Tash and Zak exchanged glances. For the seven months they had known him,

Uncle Hoole had been close-mouthed and stiff-necked. They figured he was

constantly in a bad mood because he was a Shi'ido. The Shi'ido species tended

to be more serious than humans. But for the past several hours, Hoole had

burned with the intensity of a superlaser. He had not left the cockpit once as

he piloted the Shroud on a frantic starhopping course, taking them from one

star system to another, never stopping, never even slowing down.

Zak pointed to an indicator light that flashed an alarming shade of red.

"One of the power couplings is overheating."

"Ignore it," Hoole said.

Zak blinked. He had a mind for mechanics and knew what the warning light

meant. "If we don't let the engines cool, the power coupling could blow, and-"

"Ignore it," Hoole snapped again. "That is the least of our concerns."

Tash looked at her brother, who mouthed three words: This. Is. Bad.

Tash wondered how much worse things could get after their escape from the

Hologram Fun World. Zak and Tash had nearly been trapped there by an evil

scientist named Borborygmus Gog. They had been saved only by their own quick

thinking, the help of a good-hearted gambler named Lando Calrissian, and the

courage of Uncle Hoole. Like all Shi'ido, Hoole had the power to change his

shape. Disguised as an Imperial stormtrooper, he had freed Tash, Zak, and the

others, and they had slipped from Gog's clutches. But their escape did not

seem to ease Hoole's tension.

"Uncle Hoole," Tash asked gently, "can you tell us any more about what's

going on?"

Hoole clenched his jaw as he punched new coordinates into the Shroud's

navicomputer. "I know little more than you do, Tash. Gog is working on an

experiment called Project Starscream. The Imperial government is involved at

the highest levels. Not only have we made ourselves Gog's enemies, we may have

fallen under the eye of the Emperor himself."

Tash and Zak both swallowed hard. The Emperor? Tales of his power, and

his cruelty, were known throughout the galaxy.

When their adventures had begun, and Hoole had started to act so

strangely, Tash at first had thought her uncle was working for the Empire. He

always seemed to know what the Imperials were doing and where to find them.

But slowly Tash had realized that Hoole wasn't an Imperial. In fact, he seemed

to be working against the Empire.

A new thought crept into Tash's mind. Was Hoole a Rebel? Perhaps Hoole

was spying on Gog for the Rebels. Tash was pretty sure that Hoole knew some

Rebels. Once, they all had been rescued from one of Gog's experiments by an

odd group of travelers-two men, a woman, two droids, and a Wookiee. At the

time, Tash had thought their rescuers were Rebels. She still thought so.

Zak interrupted her thoughts. "If the whole Empire is after us, what are

we going to do?"

Tash looked directly at Uncle Hoole and said meaningfully, "Maybe we

should try to contact the Rebels."

Hoole said without hesitation, "That might work, Tash, if we knew how to

contact them."

"You mean, you don't know how?" she challenged.

Hoole raised an eyebrow. "Of course not. If the Rebels were that easy to

find, the Empire would have destroyed them long ago."

"Oh," she said, disappointed. "I just thought... I mean..."

Hoole almost smiled. "You thought I was a Rebel? No, Tash, I have no more

connection with the Rebel Alliance than you do."

"But, then how did you learn about Project Starscream? How do you know so

much about Gog, and why does he seem to know you?" Tash said. "Why were you

investigating his experiments?"

Hoole paused. "I have my reasons. But you've given me an idea, Tash.

Strap yourselves in."

Tash had no time to repeat her question as Hoole punched a new set of

commands into the navicomputer. She and Zak slipped into their crash webbing

and Deevee braced his mechanical body against the hull of the ship as the

Shroud groaned into an even higher speed. Gauges bleeped angrily and the

engines began to whine. Just when Zak and Tash thought the ship would burst at

the seams, Hoole pulled back on a lever and the white streaks of hyperspace

gave way to a brilliant starfield. In the distance they could see a bright

yellow planet.

"What's that?" Tash asked.

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