“Tash!” Uncle Hoole called from outside the ship. “Hurry!”
Hesitantly Tash powered down her computer. The message faded away.
STAY AWAY FROM GOBINDI!
Whatever ForceFlow’s message meant, it had come too late.
Moments later the medishuttle zoomed smoothly across the level tops of Mah Dala’s pyramidlike stone buildings.
Tash sat at her brother’s side, pressing a cool, damp cloth to his forehead. Hoole and Deevee stayed to one side, quietly talking.
Tash spared a glance away from her brother. Over Hoole’s shoulder, she looked out the shuttle’s viewport. Structures made of enormous stone tables, each one slightly smaller than the one beneath it, climbed into the sky. The sides of the buildings looked like massive steps, and she imagined giants using the buildings as stairways to space.
The bridges connecting the pyramids looked like tiny threads that held the stone giants together. Tash guessed that the highest of the bridges were suspended three hundred meters above the ground.
“Magnificent, aren’t they?” Dr. Kavafi said with a smile. “They are called ziggurats. The Gobindi were obviously powerful builders.”
“Impressive,” Hoole said. “Kavafi, once we are sure Zak is recovering, I would like to make arrangements to study these ruins.”
Tash felt anger prick her insides. Was Hoole planning to do anthropological research while he was here? Didn’t he care about Zak?
“Indeed,” Deevee added, eager to join any conversation about ancient civilizations. “I have done only preliminary work on Gobindi, but I understand that the natives built these towers so that they could escape the thick jungles below. Dr. Kavafi, is it true they only lived in the highest levels of the ziggurats?”
Tash wished they would all be quiet. She had no interest in lost civilizations or architecture. All she wanted was for Zak to get better.
Beside her, Kavafi shrugged at the droid’s question. “Anthropology is Hoole’s area, not mine. But that seems to be the case. However some of the ziggurats have no inner chambers at all. They are just artificial mountains. The tops of others contain many rooms and hallways, but below those levels they are mostly solid rock. There is nowhere to live down near the bottom. Apparently the jungle is too thick, and the wildlife is not always harmless.”
“The Gobindi must have been quite highly advanced scientifically, to build-“
“I’m sorry,” Kavafi said, still monitoring Zak’s vital signs. “Perhaps we should wait until Zak here can join the conversation.”
The droid stopped talking. Tash looked at Kavafi out of the corner of her eye. That comment almost made her like him, even if he was an Imperial.
“Ah, here we are,” Kavafi said.
Dr. Kavafi pointed out the window of the shuttle. Following his gaze, Tash found herself staring at the biggest building she had ever seen. It was shaped like the other ziggurats, but it was almost twice as large as any of the buildings around it. At the very top, Imperial engineers had built a modern steelcrete tower. The tower must have been twenty stories high, but it looked like little more than a small cap sitting atop the enormous ziggurat.
“That newer structure is the Infirmary,” Kavafi explained. “Below it are the ruins of the oldest and largest ziggurat on Gobindi.”
The shuttle banked smoothly and landed on top of the ziggurat. Tash stood at Zak’s side as the two assistants guided the hover-gurney out of the shuttle and immediately headed toward the Infirmary.
When Tash stepped out of the shuttle, she felt as though she’d walked right into a steam bath. The air was moist and hot, and so thick she could almost taste it as she breathed in. In moments she and Hoole were both sweating from the heat, but because the air was so moist, their perspiration didn’t dry. Their clothing soon stuck to their skin. Even Deevee appeared uncomfortable as they hurried across the top of the ziggurat to the Infirmary.
“This humidity is extraordinary,” the droid said. “I can already feel my outer covering starting to rust.”
Kavafi nodded. “And this is a good day. Most days are hotter and wetter than this.”
Tash ignored the heat, searching for signs of danger. But only the wide flat surface of the ziggurat stretched out before them, with the gray tower rising above. What had ForceFlow’s message meant? Was he warning her about Imperials? Was there some other danger?
Suddenly Zak moaned in his sleep. “Mom.” Tash bit her lip. Zak’s face was still bloodless and even in sleep, he looked miserable.
“Halt!”
Tash looked up.
They were surrounded by Imperial stormtroopers.
CHAPTER 5
There were at least two squads of stormtroopers in white armor standing at the wide doorways to the Infirmary. The blank masks of their helmets looked as terrifying and impersonal as the Empire itself.