[Galaxy Of Fear] - 09

CHAPTER 1


HELLO.

ANYBODY OUT THERE?

ANYBODY AT ALL?

Thirteen-year-old Tash Arranda leaned back and stared at the words on her computer screen. She had been using the galaxy-wide communications network called the HoloNet. Most people used it to do research. Tash used it to chat with anyone else who was as bored and lonely as she was.

But no one answered.

Turning away from her computer, Tash looked for something else to do. She kept her cabin neat and usually put things away, so there wasn’t much in sight. But her eyes did find an object she hadn’t put away.

It was a red ball, about the size of her own head, made of a soft, flexible material. It was a little heavier than it looked, because there were a small computer and an engine built inside.

It was called a speed globe, and it was one of the few objects Tash treasured.

Speed globe was once Tash’s favorite game. In speed globe, two teams competed with each other, trying to chase down the fast-moving, computerized globe, which was programmed to avoid everyone. Once one team had caught it, they had to form a chain, handing the globe from one person to another, until they finally bounced it into the goal. The other team would try to stop them. Tash wasn’t the greatest athlete, so she was never the best player. But playing speed globe had been fun. She liked being with her friends, and being part of a team.

Sighing, Tash looked away. She didn’t play speed globe

anymore. Remembering her old friends was just too painful.

Tash clicked off her computer. She didn’t feel like talking to anyone, anyway. If that was all she wanted, she could step outside her cabin door. Her twelve-year-old brother, Zak, and their uncle Hoole were both with her on board their ship, the Shroud. The trouble was that Zak would jabber about the latest servo motor he had built, and Uncle Hoole would discuss the populations of planets she’d never heard of. They never wanted to talk about the things she wanted to talk about.

Besides, Tash didn’t just want company. She wanted to be part of a team, like when she’d played speed globe. She wanted to be with friends her own age. She wanted to feel connected to something.

Of course, it was tough to find another thirteen-year old girl who’d lost her parents and her friends when her homeworld of Alderaan blew up, been adopted by a Shi’ido uncle who was a shape-shifter, and then learned that she was sensitive to the power the old Jedi Knights called the Force.

She scowled at her reflection in the dark computer screen.

“No moping,” she said to herself. “Jedi Knights do not mope.”

Of course, she wasn’t even close to being a Jedi Knight. That took years of training, and there weren’t any Jedi left to teach her. They’d all been killed by the Empire. Just the way her parents and friends had been killed.

There was one person she thought might understand her feelings-a Rebel named Luke Skywalker. She’d met him twice, and she’d had the feeling that he understood the Force, too. But she had no way to contact him. Knowing that Luke was out there somewhere, but unreachable, made the cloud over Tash’s head grow darker.

“Aren’t you cheerful today,” she told her reflection sarcastically. “You need something to shake you out of this gloomy mood.”

Suddenly, a voice roared behind her: “Watch out for the hammerhead!”

She jumped up and spun around, just as something slammed at full speed right into her stomach. She cried out in surprise and hit the deck in a pile of arms and legs.

When she sat up, rubbing her stomach, she found Zak beside her, rubbing his head. “You okay?” he asked.

“I think so,” Tash replied. “You?”

“I’m prime,” Zak said, grinning. “Your stomach isn’t nearly as hard as the wall I ran into on the way here.”

“What in space are you doing?” she asked as they got to their feet.

Zak shrugged. “Uncle Hoole said we had to stop for supplies, and the closest planet is Ithor. He mentioned that the Ithorians are also called Hammerheads…”

. so you decided to ram everything on the ship,” Tash concluded. “Sometimes I can’t believe you and I are related.”

Zak pretended to be offended. “It beats boredom.”

And loneliness, Tash thought. “I take it back. We’re related after all.” She added, “Besides, Ithorians are about the last species that would go around ramming people in the stomach.”

Zak blinked. “Then why do they call them Hammerheads?”

“You will see momentarily,” said the stony voice of Hoole.

The tall Shi’ido seemed to materialize out of nowhere. Their uncle moved so quietly that he often surprised them. In his long robes, he seemed to float across the floor.