“We saw you go down the stairs,” the Bothan replied, never taking his eyes off the blobs. “We knew you’d need help.”
“Thanks!” Zak shouted over the scream of blaster fire.
“Don’t thank us,” Wedge said. “Just get us off this planet! You can start by finding a way up this ziggurat.”
“But there aren’t any stairs!” Zak said.
Wedge poured blaster fire onto a bold blob that had charged toward them. “These ziggurats must have served some purpose. Look for a door!”
Deevee turned back to the wall. It was damp and overgrown with moss and fungus. The droid adjusted his photoreceptors to their sharpest focus and scanned the wall. He could see that deep grooves had been carved into it. Most of the grooves were covered with lichen and moss.
“I found something,” he announced. With Zak’s help, the droid peeled away layers of thick growth until the outline of a hatchway appeared. It was designed to blend into the stone wall, but they could see the thin seams that would let the door slide open. Zak located a small control panel and pushed several buttons, with no response.
“It’s locked,” he groaned.
Deevee’s sensors had been drawn to a series of grooves carved over the hatchway. They were set in regular rows and marked through with curved lines.
“What is it?” Zak asked.
“It is written in the Gobindi language. But it is an extremely curious message.”
“What does it say?”
Deevee pointed at the squiggly lines. “It is a chemistry equation. It appears to be medical in nature. I think it is the antidote to some sort of infection.”
“That’s not going to help us at the moment!” Wedge snapped.
The blobs were creeping closer, ignoring the storm of energy Wedge and his companion shot at them.
“There’s more here,” Zak said. He peeled off more of the fungus that covered the wall.
Deevee’s photoreceptors darkened. “Zak, if my interpreter program is working correctly, I’m afraid I know exactly what it says. And I know why this door is locked.”
“Why?”
Deevee paused. “It is a warning not to disturb this building. It marks the spot where a deadly virus was sealed up for eternity.”
CHAPTER 16
Inside the ziggurat Tash turned away as the Rodian finished his transformation into a blob. She had seen the Imperial stormtroopers arrest the Rodian, claiming he was a pirate. They had probably infected him with the virus on purpose, and then locked him in this cell inside the ziggurat. And the virus had slowly taken over his entire body.
A second thought made Tash shiver from head to toe as she remembered Wedge’s warning. Was this the fate that awaited Zak? Had Dr. Kavafi infected Zak with the virus?
And what was Uncle Hoole’s involvement? How could he allow Zak to be harmed?
Unanswered questions swarmed about in Tash’s head like buzzing grass flies. But they were overshadowed by a sudden, uncontrollable anger. Tash had never felt violent rage before, but she guessed that it must be something like this. The Empire had killed her parents. And now they had infected her brother with a virus! She was sure of it. She wanted to tear the Infirmary apart with her bare hands.
The lump on her arm throbbed as her muscles clenched. At the end of this hallway there was a door. Tash pressed her ear against it, listening for any sound. Hearing nothing, she pressed the Open button. The hiss of the sliding door sounded loud in her ears, but there was no one in the room to hear it.
Tash stepped into a wide, round chamber. The room was covered in fungus from the floor all the way up to the ceiling high above. The stone floor beneath her feet was slippery with moisture, and the air reminded her of a sauna.
But worse than the heat was the fear that fell over Tash like a wall of durasteel. Something evil was in this room. Her skin crawled. She felt a million eyes staring at her.
Tash scanned the room, but saw nothing. Still, the feeling of being watched would not go away.
She considered going back… but to where? For all she knew, every other room in the ziggurat was crowded with Imperial scientists. No matter what she was feeling, she knew there were no Imperial soldiers in this room.
She stepped forward, and the door whispered shut behind her. Then, with a click, it locked tight. Tash threw herself at the door, but the durasteel portal was several centimeters thick, and there was no way she could force it open.
“This,” boomed an ominous voice over a hidden loudspeaker, “is the final test of the Gobindi virus.”
At the far end of the chamber another door slid open. Several stormtroopers shoved a human man into the chamber just before the door slid closed again. The man wore an Imperial medical uniform, but it was torn and caked with mud. His face looked drawn and thin, and his hair was dirty and matted against his head. Despite all this Tash recognized him instantly.