[Galaxy Of Fear] - 09(19)

Hoole drew a blaster from the pouch in his spacesuit. Briefly, Tash wondered where he’d gotten it. Her uncle almost never used weapons. He usually relied on his incredible shape-shifting ability in time of need. But she guessed that his power was as limited here as it had been near the asteroid tomb.

“Do not move,” the Shi’ido said, his voice like hard stone.

Fandomar hardly looked at the blaster. “He’ll be fine, he’ll be fine!” she said, almost to herself. “He’s got enough oxygen in his tank to last almost twenty-four hours. We can send a rescue ship out to get him as soon as we reach the planet.”

This took Tash totally by surprise. She could see that it had shocked her uncle, too. “If you want to rescue him, why throw him off the ship in the first place?” Hoole asked.

“Oooohhhhh.”

A low moan came from the floor near their feet. Tash saw that Hodge lay in the corner. Moving awkwardly in his bulky spacesuit, the chief miner staggered to his feet. He shook his head and muttered, “S-Somebody dropped sleeping gas into my air tank.”

Tash felt her face turn red, and a hot tear welled up in her eye. She didn’t know whether to be embarrassed or horrified or angry or all three at once. “You were going to kill Hodge, too,” she whispered. “Were we next?”

Fandomar shook her head. She was crying. The sobbing from her twin throats was pitifully sad. “I-I haven’t killed anyone. And I wouldn’t have touched you, Tash. I knew it couldn’t be any of you. You were in the mining facility the whole time.”

“What whole time?” Zak asked.

Hoole kept his blaster steady on the Ithorian. “Fandomar, I think it is time you told us what is happening here.”

Fandomar’s two mouths trembled. “It’s Spore,” she whispered.

A soft alarm sounded.

“It is nothing,” Hoole said, sparing a quick glance at the instrument panel. “We are entering the Ithorian atmosphere.”

The instant he looked away, Fandomar bolted for the cockpit.

“Uncle Hoole!” Tash warned.

Hoole pointed his blaster at Fandomar’s back. But he didn’t fire. Tash knew her uncle couldn’t shoot anyone in the back.

They were only a few steps behind her, but in those few seconds Fandomar slammed into the controls, tearing at the control stick and smashing the scanner screens with her gloved hands. The ship’s nose tilted up and everyone tumbled forward against the console as the cargo carrier went into a steep dive.

Tash and Zak grabbed Fandomar’s arms, trying to drag her back from the controls. Hodge staggered up behind them and grabbed the back of Fandomar’s spacesuit. Much stronger than the two Arrandas, he was able to haul Fandomar away from the pilot’s seat.

Instantly, Hoole took her place. He pulled back on the control stick, but the ship responded sluggishly. Fandomar had damaged the flight-control system.

On the viewscreen, they could see the nose of the ship plunge out of dark space into the blue sky of Ithor. The green planet rushed up to meet them.

Hoole worked like a machine, running through every option. He tried the thrusters. He worked the repulsor engines. He diverted power from the ship’s deflector shields. Nothing worked. The ship barely responded to his commands.

The front of the falling cargo ship turned white-hot. They were falling so fast, they had caught fire.

Tash couldn’t even scream-her heart was pounding in her throat. “Seats!” she heard her uncle rasp. For a second she didn’t know what he meant. Then she realized she wasn’t buckled in to anything. Frantically, she let go of Fandomar, dropped into the nearest chair, and strapped herself into the crashwebbing. Beside her, Zak had done the same thing.

Something bumped against Tash’s leg. The speed globe. She picked it up and nervously held the soft globe tight as the ship continued to fall.

Tash told herself they would be all right. Hoole would never give up. He was too calm, too capable to give up. The Shi’ido always found a way out of the most desperate situation.

She watched Hoole work until the last second, hoping he would find some trick that would bring the ship out of its dive. Then her heart sank. Hoole removed his hands from the controls and covered his head. “Brace yourselves,” he said. “We’re going to crash!”

The cargo ship slammed into the dense forest of Ithor.





CHAPTER 12


Tash felt something soft and warm beneath her. It felt like a mattress.

I’m lying on a bed, she thought. I must be in my cabin. This has all been a dream.

She rolled over onto her other side and felt her face bump against a piece of sharp metal. “Ow!” she muttered drowsily. She opened her eyes.