Zak knelt down and sifted through the piles of objects they had overturned earlier. He pulled aside a large plant, and found it connected by wires to a small digital device-the device Vroon had used to measure the plant’s reactions.
He stared at the device so long and hard that Tash finally asked him, “You find something we can use?”
“No,” he replied. “But I think I have an idea.”
He held up the plant, wires and all. “You know, we’re going about this the wrong way. This is Vroon’s workshop. He spent a whole year destroying shreevs so his drog beetles could survive. We’re not going to find anything here that will do them any harm. He would have gotten rid of it long ago.”
“Right,” Tash said, dropping a vial of water she’d hoped was some more dangerous chemical. “So what do we do?”
“We don’t hurt the beetles, or scare them off,” Zak said. “We try to communicate with them.”
Tash shook her head and jabbed a finger at the wired plant Zak was holding. “You can’t talk to all those beetles with this instrument.”
“Not with this,” Zak said. “With those!”
He pointed at Sh’shak. At Sh’shak’s wings.
The three adults stopped their work. Sh’shak fluttered his wings gently, filling the room with a questioning skrrrr sound. “Pardon me?”
“We saw Vroon do it!” Zak said excitedly. “Vroon sat here with beetles all over his body. But they were calm.
None of them bit him, they didn’t suffocate him. They weren’t aggressive at all.”
“I remind you,” Thrawn insisted disdainfully, “that you are suggesting we follow the example of someone who has recently been eaten alive.”
A wide, thin piece of plastoid that had been fastened across one of the windows cracked and bent inward. A hundred insects slipped into the room before Hoole pushed another piece of broken tabletop across the hole.
Just as he sealed the opening, something groaned overhead.
“The roof,” Thrawn said. “The wood is sagging under the weight of the beetles.”
They all looked up. The wooden beams creaked. No one spoke, but everyone imagined what would happen if the ceiling collapsed, dropping an avalanche of beetles onto their heads.
“Clearly, we cannot wait forever,” Hoole said. “And I, too, saw Vroon’s experiment. For a short time, he did have control over the beetles. The trouble was that it did not last. And against such a large, aggressive, swarm, I suspect it would work for an even shorter amount of time.” He paused. “It is evident that the S’krrr evolved out of creatures very much like the beetles we see here. Therefore, it is possible that Vroon was actually communicating with them through wingsong.”
Reluctantly, Thrawn added, “You may be correct. When I first began studying the garden, I noticed several patterns in the arrangement of its various segments. At first I assumed that these patterns were random. But since then I’ve learned more. The patterns in the garden very closely match the patterns of the beetles when they’re swarming.”
“What do you mean?” Zak asked.
“I mean that, in a very simple way, the beetles and the S’krrr think alike,” Thrawn concluded.
“You mean Vroon was right?” Tash asked. “The drog beetles really are the S’krrrs’ ancestors?”
Hoole nodded in agreement. “Yes. In the same way a particular squid is the ancestor of the Calamari, and a certain tree-climber is the ancestor of the Wookiees.” He turned to Sh’shak. “More importantly, it means that you may be able to communicate with them.”
“I will try,” Sh’shak agreed. “But I doubt I can make my wingsong heard over the droning of the swarm.”
“You’ll have help,” Hoole said. The skin shivered over his bones, and he transformed into a S’krrr. His wings fluttered as he said in a S’krrr’s soft voice, “I don’t know your language, but I can copy whatever sound you make.”
“What will we do once the swarm is calmed down?” Zak asked.
“Simple,” Hoole replied. “While we are communicating with the beetles, you and Tash will walk quickly and quietly down the path to the Shroud. The ship is almost fixed. You will finish the repairs and fly the ship back here to save us.”
“You want us to what?” Tash gasped.
“Walk out there?” Zak echoed. He looked down at the shell that had once been Vroon. He wondered if the beetles would gnaw at his skeleton.
“Zak, Tash,” Hoole said. He looked down at them understandingly. “I cannot-I would not-make you do this. But you may be our only chance. If I stay here to help Sh’shak, you are the only ones who can fix the ship.”