Tash noticed that all the activity revolved around one building in the center. As they approached, the Rebels all stopped and stared-except for one Sullustan, who trotted toward them. He was shorter than Tash and had large dark eyes and even larger ears.
“Eyal,” he said in a thick accent. “Who are the strangers?”
“Hello, Dr’uun,” Eyal replied. “I found them wandering in the old ruins. I thought our leader should meet them right away.”
“You’re right,” Dr’uun said. “But he’s away at the moment.”
Eyal considered. “Should we wait?”
The Sullustan shook his head. “The leader wouldn’t want any delays. If these people can help us, we should get started immediately.”
Tash had no idea what they were talking about, and she could see that Zak was just as confused. She wanted to ask questions, but Hoole spoke first. “We would be happy to help in any way possible. But I do not know what we can do for you.”
“Come with us.”
Eyal and Dr’uun led them toward the central building. There were more stares, and a small crowd began to follow them until Eyal called out, “I know you’re excited, but you all have duties to perform. Get back to work until our leader returns. He’ll tell you everything you need to know about the new arrivals.”
At the mention of their leader, the crowd of Rebels nodded, muttered, and returned to their duties, which seemed to involve scurrying around the base for no obvious reason.
Whatever it had been before, the central building had been turned into a giant aircraft hangar. The roof was high and the inside of the building totally hollowed out, making one enormous space. It wasn’t empty, though.
Squatting in the middle was a spaceship. Or at least, what might have been a spaceship, if spaceships were made out of old scrap metal, bilba tree wood, and patches of woven grass. It was like a giant model of a star freighter, several times larger than their own ship, the Shroud. It was the kind of thing children might build in their backyard, only on a much bigger scale. It obviously wasn’t real. So what Eyal said next caught the three newcomers by surprise.
“You can help us with this,” Eyal said. “Can you get our spaceship to fly?”
CHAPTER 7
Tash waited for Eyal to laugh-he had to be joking. But the Rebel continued to look at them seriously. Hoole raised an eyebrow-it was as close as her stone-faced uncle would ever get to looking surprised.
“That will not fly,” Hoole told Eyal.
“That’s true,” Dr’uun said. “Especially if I don’t get back to work. Eyal, make our visitors welcome, and come see me after you’ve talked.” The Sullustan hurried toward the ridiculous starship and disappeared inside.
Eyal sighed. “I’m afraid you’re right. We had several dismantled ships, and we put all the parts together. But we don’t have a working repulsor unit to get the ship off the ground. And we couldn’t get very far in deep space anyway, because we don’t have a hyperdrive motivator.”
Zak couldn’t contain himself any longer. “Yeah, not to mention that your ship is made of wood and grass!” Eyal blinked.
He didn’t seem to understand Zak’s point.
A hint of suspicion entered Hoole’s eye. “You are trying to leave the planet?”
“Of course,” Eyal said. “We’ve been stranded here for a long time. Our leader says we need to get off Dantooine right away.”
“Can’t others in the Rebellion pick you up?” Tash asked. “Don’t they know you’re here?”
“Apparently not,” Eyal admitted. “We have no communications equipment, and no one has arrived on Dantooine except you.”
“How did you get here?” Tash asked.
Eyal blinked. He looked, Tash realized, as if he’d never considered the question before. “We were… we were left here.”
“You mean when the rest of the Rebels abandoned the base?” Zak asked.
Again Eyal paused. “Yes.”
Hoole considered. Tash could sense that he was bothered by the strange behavior of these Rebels. But he didn’t seem to think they were a threat. Finally, Hoole said, “If you need to get off the planet, we can help. We have a ship. It’s far too small to accommodate everyone. But we could take a few of you, and-“
“You have a ship!” Eyal shouted. “That’s perfect! Where is it?”
“In hiding,” Hoole explained. “We didn’t want to frighten the Dantari.”
“Could we reach it quickly?” Eyal asked.
“There is no need to go to it,” Hoole said. He pulled a small device from the folds of his robe. It was a flat, black rectangle with several buttons. “I can summon the ship with this remote. The autopilot is programmed to fly slowly and safely, but the ship could reach us in”-he paused to check the readout on the small remote’s computer screen-“in a little over a standard hour.”