[Galaxy Of Fear] - 09(21)

Tash used a jagged piece of metal from Fandomar’s helmet to tear strips of cloth from the Ithorian’s spacesuit. She used these to bandage Fandomar’s leg wound. Then she used the rest of the suit as a blanket to cover the Hammerhead’s body. That was the best she could do.

She needed to find Hoole and Zak and make sure they were all right. Then maybe they could find a way to contact the Tafanda Bay.

Tash staggered through the forest of Bafforr trees. She had to stop every ten meters or so to catch her breath and let the ringing in her ears quiet down. Every time she rested against a Bafforr’s trunk, she waited for that same tingle of energy. But it never came, even when Tash heard loud rustling in the bushes nearby.

Tash braced herself and waited. Something big and heavy-footed pushed its way through the bushes before her.

A tall gray figure stepped into view.

“Uncle Hoole!” Tash shouted in pure joy. She threw herself at the Shi’ido, who almost lost his footing. Tash saw a deep cut on his forehead.

“Are you injured?” he asked.

She wasn’t sure. “I’m one big bruise and my ears are ringing, but I’m okay. Is your cut bad?”

Hoole touched the gash delicately. “I will live.” The stern Shi’ido tried to look as light hearted as his stony face could manage. “It was not my best landing, but all things considered, I would say it wasn’t my worst.”

Tash grimaced. Hoole never joked. The fact that he was trying to probably meant he felt worse than he looked. “Fandomar is back there in the forest. She’s hurt. Do you think the Ithorians saw the crash on their scanners? Will they send a rescue party?”

“I think the answer is yes,” said Zak as he slipped between the branches of a sapling tree. Tash couldn’t see any cuts or bruises, but her brother’s knees were wobbly. He hugged Tash and Hoole as he said, “I saw a ship fly overhead. The crash site’s just on the other side of these trees. They’ll probably land there.”

Zak was right. The three survivors helped each other through the trees and into a clearing. The twisted wreckage of the cargo ship lay piled at the end of a long gouged-out trail it had dug into the ground.

Tash looked back, trying to guess how far she’d walked, and silently thanked the Force. She’d been thrown an incredible distance from the ship. Flow had she survived? That moss had been soft, but not soft enough to save her from cracking her skull after being launched a hundred meters.

A look of wonder and suspicion crossed her face. She’d been thrown through a grove of Bafforr trees. Had the trees somehow-?

Tash shook her head. Force or no Force, she couldn’t believe that the trees had saved her.

Thoughts of a miraculous rescue were driven out as real rescuers appeared. A small medical shuttle dropped down almost at their feet, and four Ithorians carrying medipacs jumped out of the hatch. In seconds they were examining all three survivors, treating Hoole’s head wound, and testing Tash to make sure she didn’t have a concussion from her fall.

“You’ve got to help Fandomar,” Tash insisted. “She’s back there, through the trees.”

One of the medics nodded. “Let us make sure you are well first, then you can lead us to her.”

“I’m fine!” Tash insisted. But she didn’t feel fine. Her ears had stopped ringing, but that sensation had been replaced by another. It was as if a long-range sensor had triggered a warning inside her head.

Something was wrong.

“Hey, I could use some help, too!” said a gruff voice.

Hodge stepped out of the shade of a Bafforr tree. He had shed his spacesuit and helmet and walked forward wearing only a miner’s jumpsuit and a wide grin. There wasn’t a scratch on him.

“Fandomar needs help badly,” Tash said. “I left her back there. Her back may be injured, and I think she’s delirious. She kept saying something about everyone being doomed. And she mentioned Spore.”

All four Ithorians froze. In a frightened whisper, one of them said, “What?”

The fear in their eyes made Tash shiver. “I said she talked about Spore. What does that mean?”

None of the lthorians answered. Hodge laughed coldly. “I’m afraid that what she means,” he said, “is me!”

In the next instant, Hodge turned on the closest person-an Ithorian doctor who had started to examine him. What happened then was beyond Tash’s imagination.

Hodge’s eyes seemed to explode with thin, dark, vinelike tentacles. More dark vines burst from his open mouth. They lashed out violently, wrapping themselves around the doctor and sinking right into the Ithorian’s skin!