Tash and Fandomar hurried through the forest as quickly and silently as possible. Around them, Tash knew, were half a dozen of the shy, planet-dwelling Ithorians. But they moved so stealthily that she never saw or heard them.
Fandomar had persuaded the Ithorians to help with a desperate plan. They knew that Spore would try to steal the next ship that came by, Imperial or not. Fandomar’s native friends would cause a distraction, then vanish into the forest. Meanwhile, Tash and Fandomar would sneak on board and steal the ship, or at least damage it so that Spore could not fly to a more populated area.
They reached the clearing where the Imperial shuttle had landed, and crept closer. From behind a Bafforr tree, Tash saw that the shuttle’s ramp was lowered. At the foot of the ramp stood Jerec himself. Facing him stood Spore, in Hodge’s body, with his victims crowding behind him. Zak and Hoole were among them.
Silently, Tash cursed herself for not taking the blaster from Fandomar. She had a clean shot at Spore. But she doubted that killing one of Spore’s victims would kill Spore itself. Besides, she had to admit, she wasn’t sure she could bring herself to shoot someone in cold blood.
“You were brave to come alone,” Spore said in a half dozen voices.
Jerec sneered. “I am not about to feed you any more victims, Spore.”
Spore laughed. The sight of her brother and uncle laughing with the others made Tash wince. “So you think you know what I am,” said Spore. “Let me give you a closer look!”
Spore and all his servants opened their eyes and mouths. A forest of vinelike tentacles shot toward the dark-cloaked Imperial.
Jerec raised one hand. Tash felt a ripple of dark-side power flow from his fingertips. When Spore’s tentacles met the dark-side energy, they withered and died in midair.
Jerec snorted. “Your power is hardly a match for the dark side of the Force.” He cast an evil grin at Spore. “However, you have your uses.”
“If you are so powerful,” Spore said, “what do you want with me?”
Jerec smoothed the band of black cloth that covered his eyes. “Your ability to control thousands of other beings is of use to me. I do not mean to be the Emperor’s servant forever. I have plans of my own, and to achieve my plans I need an army. Unfortunately, most Imperial soldiers are loyal to the Emperor himself. I want you to take control of the Imperial army and navy, so that, through you, the soldiers will follow my commands.”
“And you become the new Emperor,” Spore guessed.
“Exactly,” Jerec agreed.
Spore growled. “Why should I help you?”
Jerec smiled. He looked relaxed, but Tash could still feel the dark-side energy pulsing around him like a shield.
“I will give you a ship to take you off this planet.”
Spore scoffed. “I will have that anyway, soon enough. Before long all the herd ships will be part of me, and I will use them to spread across the galaxy.”
“Tedious work. Slow work,” Jerec said. “Imagine how much faster it would be if you had your own Star Destroyer.”
Spore seemed intrigued. He listened as Jerec explained. “My Star Destroyer, the Vengeance, is orbiting overhead. Its crew obeys my orders, but only because I serve the Emperor. I want them to obey me, not the Emperor. Do you understand?”
Spore nodded.
“Enslave them. Guarantee that they will do whatever I ask. Do that, and I will give you whole worlds to conquer. But we must leave immediately.”
There was a pause. All of Spore’s bodies-Hodge, Zak, Hoole, and the four Ithorians-stood absolutely still while the monster was deep in thought.
Then all the voices said at once, “Agreed.”
Fandomar’s friends chose that moment for their distraction. A shadowy figure flitted through the edge of the clearing. Then another, and another. Spore started toward them.
“Leave them!” Jerec ordered, following after. “Get aboard the shuttle. There’s no time.”
“No!” Spore shouted. “They’re mine! They will join me.”
“Remember-the ship! The entire crew! They are yours!” Jerec said.
Spore hesitated for a split second, then divided himself in two. The four captured Ithorians ran into the forest. Hodge, Zak, and Hoole went onto Jerec’s shuttle. Spore could control them all, from anywhere.
None of them had noticed, during the distraction, two figures scrambling aboard the empty shuttle.
Tash and Fandomar had barely crammed themselves into a small storage bay in the back of the shuttle before the ship lifted off.
Only after the shuttle had left the planet did Tash have time to consider what in the galaxy she was doing. She had just sneaked on board an Imperial shuttle that carried a master of the dark side of the Force and an evil parasite called Spore.