[Galaxy Of Fear] - 04(24)
“You didn’t blow it, Tash,” Zak said. “I think you saved us by dropping the lightsaber. It didn’t matter that you were afraid.”
Something about his own words pricked Zak’s memory, but before he could follow the thought, a new solar system came rushing through the void at them.
“Zak!” Tash started. “Do you know what system that is?”
“You’re the one who does all the studying.”
“It’s Alderaan!”
She was right. He recognized the planets of the Alderaan system-including the hologram of their own blue-green planet. The system swept toward them and then slowed down, hovering a few meters away.
Zak swallowed. “I never thought I’d see home again, even in a hologram.”
Then a single sphere appeared in the darkness. It was silver, and cold, and as it approached, they saw the thousands of laser towers on its surface. The approaching globe was pocked by one single indentation, like an eye, that slowly rotated toward the planet Alderaan.
It was the Death Star.
“No!” Zak and Tash yelled together.
The Death Star’s eye began to glow as the massive battle station powered up its superlaser. There was a blinding flash. A powerful energy beam streaked through the holographic darkness and punctured Alderaan. A second later, nothing remained of the planet but a cloud of debris spreading out through space.
Tash and Zak’s despair turned to fear when the Death Star rotated to face them.
“I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” Zak warned, backpedaling away. “Where’s the door?”
Tash scanned the room, but saw only the whirling planets of the galaxy. “I don’t see it.”
“Here!” a voice called out.
Tash and Zak recognized the sound immediately. “Deevee!”
“Over here!” the droid called again.
They ran toward the sound, dodging in and out of a dozen star systems, running from one end of the galaxy to the other, outrunning even the holographic Death Star.
Deevee stood in a square of light framed by the doorway, holding out one beckoning hand. Sprinting past him, they burst out of the galaxy and back into Fun World.
“Thank goodness I found you!” Deevee started. “I’ve been all over this holographic madhouse-“
“Never mind that!” Zak snapped. “We need a place to hide. This entire place is a killing machine. And I think Uncle Hoole is involved.”
The droid’s circuits whirred. “Master Hoole? You must be mistaken-“
His sentence was cut off by a blaster bolt that sizzled through the space between the droid and the boy. Hoole had found them.
“This way!” the droid said. “I know where we can hide.”
Zak and Tash followed their caretaker droid, who hurried down a few twisting, turning lanes past the Volcano Slide and the Hall of Reflection.
Although Hoole was out of sight in a few moments, Deevee kept up the pace. Tash, however, could go no farther. “My head-I have to rest,” she said. She staggered over to a small stone bench and sat down.
“We can’t stop!” Deevee cried.
“No,” Zak replied. “We can’t go any farther now anyway.”
“It’s not safe here!” Deevee nearly screeched.
“It’s too much, Deevee,” Tash gasped, trying to clear her head. “Everything that’s happened. It’s like our worst nightmares come true.”
His sister’s words struck Zak like a blow to the head. It’s like our worst nightmares come true.
“Tash, that’s it!”
Everything came into focus like a steamed mirror suddenly clearing. “That’s why we keep stumbling across all these terrible scenes. That’s how the rancor killed Lando. And why I was attacked by technology. And why you blew your chance to be a Jedi.”
Tash didn’t understand. “Zak, what are you-“
Zak interrupted his sister. “Yes! That’s why Uncle Hoole betrayed us-because you and I have both been afraid that the one adult willing to take us in might turn out to be evil. And we were both forced to confront our worst fear-the destruction of Alderaan!” He looked at his sister. “We’ve gone through our worst nightmares because it’s part of the program.
“We’re still inside The Nightmare Machine!”
CHAPTER 16
“Nonsense,” Deevee said flatly.
Tash blinked. “We left The Nightmare Machine, remember, Zak? We haven’t been inside it since yesterday.”
“Exactly,” the droid added.
“Exactly wrong,” Zak almost shouted. “We never left. Everything that has happened since then has happened inside The Nightmare Machine. Remember that creature I saw the first time I went in? It’s the same one I’ve been seeing ever since. Fajji said that the program read people’s minds to discover their fears. But Deevee said that no machine could read minds-only certain living beings.”