Deevee didn’t know. “There is no record. It seems he simply wandered the galaxy. He dropped his first name, for by that time the Empire had spread the word that a Shi’ido named Mammon had wiped out an entire species.”
“Four years,” Tash muttered. “When Zak and I broke into Uncle Hoole’s personal records we found a period of four years that were totally blank.”
“Exactly,” the droid confirmed. “But I think Master Hoole realized he could not wallow in guilt forever. He decided to put his energies to good use. Knowing he could never change what had happened, he swore that never again would a civilization be lost. He became an anthropologist, traveling from star system to star system, gathering information about hundreds of cultures.”
Zak guessed the rest. “But he must have learned something about Gog, maybe that Gog was using the same technology they had developed to start new experiments. He tried to put a stop to it.” He looked at his sister. “That’s how all this got started.”
Tash felt tears well up in her eyes. “He was trying to make up for what he had done,” she concluded. “He’s been trying to make sure that no one ever misuses science again.”
Deevee nodded. “I would say that, rather than being a figure of evil, Master Hoole has acted quite bravely these last few months.”
“He’s been acting like a hero,” Zak agreed. “And we treated him like he was a criminal.”
“It won’t matter,” Tash said. “The wraiths are going to execute him. He may be dead already.”
CHAPTER 15
Deevee rocked back and forth in frustration. “If only we could get out of here and find him!”
“Would it matter?” Zak wondered. “When we left him, it seemed like he was ready to face whatever punishment the Kivans gave out. Even death.”
Deevee shook his head. “I know Master Hoole quite well, Zak. I’m sure that we can convince him his life is worthwhile. All we have to do is show him we believe in him.”
“All right, then,” Zak decided. “Let’s go find him.”
“And how exactly should we do that?” Tash scoffed. “Just ask the stormtroopers if we can go out for some fresh air? The door is locked, there are stormtroopers on guard outside, and then, of course, there’s the little matter of trying to walk out of an Imperial camp.”
Zak grinned at her. “The door is no problem. I can hot-wire it by borrowing a little power from Deevee’s internal power source… and this!” Zak held up two wires he had been connecting to Deevee’s circuits. He touched the wires together, igniting a shower of sparks.
“Oh, goodness!” Deevee said as the electrical feedback gave his systems a jolt.
“As for getting out of camp,” Zak continued, “we won’t walk. We’ll fly the Millennium Falcon!”
“Your brain’s in hyperspace,” Tash retorted.
“You always wanted to be a pilot, didn’t you? And I’ve always wanted to get another look at the Falcon’s engines. Together, I’m sure we can figure out how that ship works.”
“Okay. That’s two out of three,” Tash challenged. “But what about the stormtroopers?”
A gleam filled Zak’s eye. “That’s where you come in.” He explained the rest of his plan.
A few minutes later, Tash stood at a tiny round viewport in the middle of the locked door. Through the transparisteel, she could just see the two stormtroopers who guarded the cargo ship.
“I don’t think I can do this,” she whispered.
“Sure you can,” her brother encouraged. “Just have a little confidence.”
Tash shook her head. She didn’t need confidence. She needed
an instruction manual.
Zak’s plan called for Tash to use the Force to trick the
two stormtroopers. Tash had only recently learned that she had Force-powers. She still had no idea what those powers were, or how to use them.
“Here goes nothing,” she muttered.
Tash took a deep breath and tried to relax. She had read a lot about the Jedi, and all the books she’d read had said that the Force flowed around all things. It wasn’t a matter of making the Force do something. It was a matter of letting the Force do something. The Force was everywhere. All she had to do was give it a channel.
Focusing her mind, Tash looked at the two troopers and sent a single thought shooting into their brains.
Nothing happened.
She took another deep breath and kept focusing. Although no one had spoken, one of the stormtroopers looked at the other. “What did you say?”
The second stormtrooper grunted, “I didn’t say anything.”