[Galaxy Of Fear] - 09(15)

“See anything, Uncle Hook?” Tash asked.

Hoole studied the remaining symbols a moment longer. “I am not sure. Someone has gone to a great deal of trouble to remove any clues as to the nature of this tomb. But I suspect that there was never any treasure here. There are no indications that there were any containers or devices in here. If there was nothing valuable, why would anyone hide this room? Yet someone obviously thought it was important enough to kill for. For once,” the Shi’ido admitted, “I seem to have more questions than answers.”

“Speaking of questions,” Zak added, “I have one. Has anyone else noticed the door?”

They all turned. Zak pointed at the heavy durasteel door that had sealed the tomb. Zak explained, “Look. The door opens outward, into the tunnel. But don’t swinging doors usually open in, especially when they’re locked?”

“Right!” Tash agreed. “Like in a house, the door opens in so that the people inside can lock it and keep strangers out.”

Zak nodded furiously. “But this door opened into the tunnel. Which means that it wasn’t designed to keep people out-“

“It was designed to keep something in,” Tash said. Her face turned pale.

Hoole frowned. “And whatever it is, it is now free.” Tash felt a cold shadow pass over her and realized that Jerec was standing behind her. She shuddered, wondering if he could sense her tiny Force power the way she could feel his dark side.

“Your detective work bores me,” the Imperial sneered. “And it is not needed here. I suggest you end it. Or I shall end it for you.”

The stormtrooper fingered his blaster, leaving no doubt in Tash’s mind just how Jerec would end things.

Jerec led them back to the mining facility at a rapid pace. Again, the stormtrooper brought up the rear… but this time Tash felt sure he was waiting eagerly for Jerec’s order to shoot them all in the back.

They passed the body of the miner, still held in place by his gray-boots. Hodge and the other miner wanted to take the body with them, but Jerec refused to let them stop.

Tash stared straight ahead, fixing her eyes on the mining colony in the distance. It was the only safe place to look. She dared not glance up, where the storm of asteroids continued to spin crazily in the darkness of space. Looking to either side, all she could see was the lifeless rock of the asteroid. And behind her marched Jerec’s stormtrooper.

She found herself wishing she were back on Ithor. The forest had been so beautiful, so full of life. Remembering her brief experience with the Bafforr trees, she felt a warm glow spread through her, right down to her fingertips. She suddenly felt stifled inside the bulky spacesuit. She felt trapped. She wanted to get out of this place. Everything would be all right if she could just get off the asteroid.

But until then, the closest thing to safety was the mining colony. Then they could take the cargo ship back to Ithor. If Jerec didn’t kill them outright, or discover who they were first.

Finally they reached the airlock that led into the miners’ outpost. Jerec’s other stormtrooper was waiting there. By the time Tash stepped through the airlock, Jerec, Hoole, and Zak were already inside the docking bay. Although they all still had their space helmets on, Zak had removed his gray-boots.

“I always wondered what it was like to fly!” he joked. He kicked his feet off the ground and floated toward the ceiling. “This is prime!”

“I’m repressurizing the airlock,” Hodge said, once everyone was inside. He pulled a large handle. There was soft click, a rush of air…

… and an enormous explosion.





CHAPTER 9


Tash and the others were thrown to the floor as a loud BOOM! echoed inside their space helmets. The deafening sound seemed to go on forever.

Then Tash realized that the sound she heard wasn’t a continuing explosion-it was the howling of air rushing out of the airlock. The explosion had blown a hole through the airlock door, and the sealed atmosphere of the mining facility was now being sucked into space.

“Helmets on!” Hoole commanded. Tash had just started to remove hers, and had barely snapped it back into place before the wind tried to tear it right off her head.

The howling wind tugged at her, but she quickly grabbed hold of a metal rail along the wall. The combination of her tight grip and the gray-boots held her in place. The others, too, grabbed hold of the closest thing they could find to keep from being sucked out of the airlock.

Zak was not so lucky.

He had still been floating in the zero-gravity room without his boots when the explosion happened. He hovered in the air long enough to make eye contact with his sister before the wind grabbed him with great force and sent him tumbling through the hole in the wall.