Tash couldn’t help thinking the worst. “But what happens if this virus actually likes the heat?”
Kavafi raised his eyebrows in surprise. “Well, that is a very interesting scenario. It would cause great problems for the victim, I think. Let’s just hope you never encounter a virus like that.”
Hoole asked, “Kavafi, is there anything else we can do?”
The doctor shook his head. “No. He will sleep for a while now. We will need to run some tests on Zak to make sure there is nothing else wrong. My best advice is for you to go out and refresh yourselves. His sedative should wear off in about an hour.”
“I’m not leaving,” Tash said. “What if he wakes up early?”
“I will stay with him,” Uncle Hoole decided. “Tash, I want you and Deevee to find a cantina and get something to eat.”
“I’m not hungry,” Tash replied.
“Then at least go for a walk,” the Shi’ido insisted. “Zak will be fine.”
“I will take you back down,” Kavafi offered. “I have business below, myself.”
Tash didn’t want to leave her brother, but Hoole would hear no argument. Finally she and Deevee followed Kavafi out of the room and back to the lifts. They got in and Kavafi said, “Lobby.”
“Does this lift go down into the ziggurat itself?” Deevee asked excitedly.
“No, no,” the doctor replied. “As I said before, some of the ziggurats have no rooms or chambers. This is one of them. I’m afraid it’s just an enormous mountain of stone.”
The turbolift descended with a soft whoosh, and the doors opened onto the Infirmary lobby. Tash and Deevee stepped off, but Kavafi stayed behind.
“Aren’t you getting off?” Tash asked. “This is the bottom floor, isn’t it?”
Kavafi paused. “Oh, of course. But I forgot my datapad upstairs. I will have to go back and get it.” The doors closed.
Tash and Deevee walked out of the lobby to the edge of the ziggurat and looked down. The sides of the tower stuck out below them in jagged steps that were eventually lost in hazy clouds. Nearby, they saw a footbridge connecting this ziggurat to several others. It seemed stable, and soon they were walking along the path, hundreds of meters above the ground.
Deevee had begun a lecture on the number of lost civilizations in the galaxy, including the Massassi of Yavin Four and the Ysanna of Ossus, but Tash wasn’t listening. Her eye had fallen on a shape on the bridge ahead of them. As they closed the distance, she expected its shape to become clearer… but even as close as ten meters away it looked like a blob. Its center appeared hard and somewhat firm, but around the edges, the greenish shape oozed and pulsed. Although it was lying fairly flat, the blob was slightly larger than a human being, and it had spread across the bridge in a pile of steaming ooze.
“What’s that?” she asked. “Is it alive?”
Deevee didn’t answer. He didn’t have to.
The blob surged toward them.
CHAPTER 6
Tash and Deevee both scrambled backward as the blob lunged forward and landed heavily on the spot where they had been standing. The impact caused the creature to flatten out briefly, but then it gathered itself up for another spring. Rolls of squishy green gel rippled across its surface.
“Deevee, what is it?” Tash cried.
“I’m familiar with more than fifteen billion forms of life in the galaxy, ” the droid replied with a hint of panic in his electronic voice, “but I’ve never seen anything like it.
The blob made no sound, except for the slimy slap of its wriggling, fatty skin on the surface of the bridge. Then it sprang again. Tash jumped backward, but this time Deevee was too slow. The oozing creature landed heavily against his legs, sending the droid clattering to the floor of the bridge.
“Help! Help!” Deevee tried to pry himself loose as the blob began to creep up his silver legs.
“Get off him!” Tash yelled.
Tash never knew where the man came from. He seemed to appear out of nowhere. His flight suit was clean but worn, and he wore pilot’s gloves that were frayed around the edges. His features were sharp and his face looked young but very serious. The man wore a blaster at his hip, but he kept it holstered. Without saying a word he kicked the blob with his booted foot. The blob did not react, but the man’s boot sank into the wriggling skin up to the ankle. He grunted and pried himself free.
“Use your blaster!” Tash suggested.
“Don’t hit me!” Deevee added.
The man ignored them both. He grabbed the upper edge of the blob in his gloved hands and yanked hard. The ooze peeled away from Deevee’s metallic surface. But that only seemed to make the blob angry. It let go of its sticky grip on the droid and turned on their rescuer. Two squishy ropes of ooze-almost like arms-suddenly grabbed hold of the man.