[Galaxy Of Fear] - 06(20)

“What do you think we should do?” Tash asked hoarsely.

“Your only chance is to fly out of there,” Han said.

“All right!” Zak cheered, eagerly scanning the Falcon’s control board.

“But don’t take the Falcon,” Han added. “You’d never be able to fly her. Go over to the cargo ship. I’ll contact you there and tell you how to start the engines.”

“Blaster bolts,” Zak spat. “I could so fly it.”

“Copy. Falcon out,” Tash replied.

She led her brother, Deevee, and Eppon out of the Falcon and over to the other ship. Remembering how Meex had disappeared inside the ship and never come out again, they entered cautiously. But they saw nothing. The ship was empty. They hurried to the cockpit, where Han Solo’s voice was already filtering out of the speakers.

“We’re here, Han,” Tash said.

The speakers crackled. “Great. Here’s what you do-“

They never heard his instructions. A blaster bolt flashed over their shoulders and smashed into the control board, sending a shower of sparks into the air.

Tash, Zak, and Deevee whirled around, expecting to see

Imperial stormtroopers behind them.

Instead they saw a face from beyond the grave. The face of a Shi’ido.

The face of Borborygmus Gog.





CHAPTER 13


“You’re dead!” Zak blurted out.

Gog grinned an evil grin. His clothes were torn and stained with oil and dirt. His face was covered in scratches and bruises. He was a Shi’ido like Hoole, and the first time she had seen Gog, Tash had mistaken him for her uncle. But any resemblance was now long gone.

“You’re dead!” Zak repeated numbly. “We saw you fall into a pit.”

The evil scientist shook his head. “You should have looked more closely. I did not die.” Gog’s eyes burned like lasers. “But if I had died, I would have come back from the grave just to get my revenge on you two interfering brats!”

Angrily, Gog let loose another blaster bolt. This one sizzled past Zak’s cheek, destroying the ship’s viewscreen behind him. The two Arrandas, Deevee, and Eppon cringed as a shower of sparks rose into the air.

“This has got to be some kind of nightmare,” Tash moaned.

Deevee said, “I would agree with you, if I were capable of nightmares, Tash. How could Gog have followed us here?”

That seemed to make the Shi’ido even angrier. “Followed you here? Followed you here?” he said in a shrill voice. “It is you who followed me here. You and your pathetic uncle have dogged my steps from experiment to experiment, ruining every stage of Project Starscream. And when I come back to my own home, to save the last of my precious plans, what do I find? You have taken that, too! It took me twenty years of work to develop my ultimate weapon, and you have stolen it!”

Tash raised her eyebrows. Gog was ranting like a madman. “When we got to your lab, it was deserted;” she said. “We didn’t take anything.”

Gog’s face went blank for a moment. Then he started to chuckle. The chuckle turned into a roaring laugh as his eyes burned into them. “Ha! You mean you don’t know? You haven’t realized yet? Then you are greater fools than I ever dreamed!” He jabbed one long, bony finger at them. “You had the ultimate weapon in your hands and never knew it!”

Zak and Tash realized that he wasn’t pointing at them. He was pointing at Eppon.

“Come here!” Gog ordered.

Eppon took a step forward, then hesitated. He smiled at Zak and Tash, and started toward them.

“No!” Gog snapped. “I said here! Obey!”

At Gog’s second command Eppon hurried obediently to the scientist’s side. He crouched down at Gog’s feet, and the Shi’ido put one hand on the boy’s head as if he were a tame pet.

Zak and Tash were stunned. “What have you done to him?”

Gog laughed again. “Done to him? Done to him? I made him. He is my creation. He is the result of all my years of work. He is my ultimate weapon!”

“Eppon!” the boy repeated.

Eppon.

Weapon.

Zak and Tash exchanged a horrified glance. They realized that the little boy had only been repeating the one word Gog had used to describe him.

“You nearly ruined everything,” Gog growled to Zak, Tash, and Deevee. “You let my living planet loose, you toppled my experiments with the undead. You destroyed my virus experiments and my Nightmare Machine. At Nespis 8 you used that accursed Force, the one power I cannot control, to defeat me. But I still have my ultimate weapon.”

“What is he?” Tash asked, horrified.

“He and others like him will help me conquer the galaxy. He is the first soldier in my Army of Terror.”