[Galaxy Of Fear] - 08(23)

“We cannot stay here!” Sh’shak cried out. “We’ll be buried alive!”

“Agreed,” Thrawn grunted. “This shuttle has become a death trap.”

“What about your ship?” Sh’shak asked the Arrandas as he slapped more beetles out of the air.

“Same problem,” Zak replied, trying not to open his mouth too wide. “The air vents will be open. And we need to make a few more repairs.”

Thrawn snatched up a second cushion and tried to stuff it against the air vent. “That leaves only Vroon’s workshop.”

“Bad idea!” Tash said. She shuddered as she felt a large beetle crawl across her neck. She managed to grab it before it scrambled down the back of her shirt. “There’s no transparasteel in the windows.”

“But the walls are made of stone,” Thrawn countered. “And I think the wooden roof will hold for a while. There are workbenches and tables we can use to seal up the window openings.”

Zak killed another beetle, but it was like slapping at the ocean-more beetles just filled the vacant space. “It can’t be any worse than staying here!”

As a group they retreated toward the hatchway again. Outside, they could still hear thousands and thousands of beetles bump against the hull as they swirled around the shuttle.

Zak caught Sh’shak and Thrawn speaking warrior-to warrior. “You know,” Sh’shak observed, “the odds of survival are not good.”

Thrawn nodded. “But I prefer to die trying. Let’s go.”

Since the power was out, Thrawn used a manual control switch to lower the ramp. Once it was lowered, it could not be raised again until the ship was repaired. “There’s no turning back,” he said. Then he plunged into the storm of insects.

Sh’shak followed, and then Zak and Tash. Taking a deep breath so he wouldn’t have to open his mouth to breathe for at least a few moments, Zak charged down the ramp, expecting to run into a swirling wall of beetles.

To his surprise, he felt nothing. The beetles had turned their attention to the shuttle, and because the ramp was built on the bottom of the craft, they were actually running beneath the swarm. Momentarily free of the crawling, scratching bugs, Zak ran so fast that he almost caught up with Sh’shak and Thrawn. Tash was only a half-step behind.

But the movement of four figures on the ground caught the attention of the hungry swarm. A few hundred drog beetles massed together had become aggressive enough to attack a human. Now a few million whirred overhead, ready to attack anything that moved. The cloud plunged like a giant buzzing spear toward the four runners.

“We’re… not going… to make it,” Zak panted.

“Wait!” Tash cried. “Look!”

Another dark cloud appeared. This one was ahead of them and closing in fast. For a second Zak thought he saw even more beetles, but then he realized that this cloud was different. Within the cloud he could see the flapping of hundreds of wings, and instead of droning angrily, this dark shadow shrieked as it moved across the sky.

It was flock of shreevs.

They came by the hundreds, shrieking and diving into the swarm of beetles. The two dark clouds collided, and the shreevs broke through the wall of beetles like a battering ram. The beetle swarm shivered, and suddenly came apart. Smaller clouds veered this way and that, fleeing the shreevs that tried to eat them.

One of the shreevs broke off from the main flock and streaked toward Zak and Tash. At the last possible moment, the shreev pulled out of a steep dive and landed on the ground. Then before their eyes the shreev’s body quivered and expanded outward, until it had changed into the figure of Uncle Hoole.





CHAPTER 16


Tash and Zak threw their arms around their uncle. “Are we glad to see you!” Zak cried.

Thrawn nodded admiringly. “A fine strategy. How did you think of it?”

Hoole shrugged. “It became apparent that one shreev would not halt the swarm for long, so I flew off in search of other shreevs. I hoped that by rousing them, I could get them to hunt.”

Sh’shak watched the skies. Shreevs swooped and dove in all directions, feasting on the thick, helpless clouds of beetles. “They seem to be making the most of their meal.”

“They are welcome to it,” Hoole said. A look of mild disgust crossed his face as he wiped his mouth. “Believe me, I have eaten my fill.”

Tash explained what had happened aboard the shuttle, but Zak was no longer paying attention. He stared at the sky. There were still plenty of shreevs hunting the beetles, but something Sh’shak had said bothered him. He hardly listened as Tash explained that Thrawn’s ship had been damaged by the beetle infestation, and that they were making their way to Vroon’s workshop.