[Galaxy Of Fear] - 11(27)

“No,” said the other. “I took it from him. I am the real Hoole.”

“What do we do?” Zak asked. “How do we tell them apart?”

Tash stared at them both. The two Hooles looked exactly alike, their long, gray faces staring at her with dark, stern eyes. She knew that the mindscan would have given the clone Hoole most, if not all, of the real Hoole’s memories, so she couldn’t test him that way.

A large figure loomed behind her. Tash’s heart skipped a beat, thinking one of the Vaders was after her. When she turned, however, she saw the bruised figure of Maga. “I must free my people,” he said weakly.

“They’re locked in the computer room,” Zak said. “We heard the clones talk about it. It’s the building closest to the bridge.”

Maga gave a faint nod and staggered toward the door.

“Wait!” Tash said. She recalled how Maga had stared at her, judging her. “Maga, please. Help us. Which Hoole is the real one?”

Maga shrugged. “You are the garoo of your tribe,” he said to Tash. “Learn to see. Learn to hear.” He limped out of the room.

“Tash, we are wasting time,” one of the Hooles said. “Give me the blaster. Then we can get the remote activator and leave this place.”

“Shoot him, Tash,” said the other. “The Vaders will not keep each other busy for long.”

The two Vaders were still fighting. It was as if a storm had erupted inside the room. Both were using the dark side to hurl empty cargo containers, pieces of equipment, even parts of the ship, at one another. The force of their battle would soon bring the building down. The fight wouldn’t last much longer.

Tash remembered the two clones of herself that she’d met. Both had known everything she had known. But they were still different from her. One had been angry, almost evil. The other had appeared frightened and defeated. The real Tash had been bothered by the sense of the dark side, but the first clone must have been totally absorbed by it. Later, Tash had been frightened by the army of clones, but the second clone had been petrified.

So they weren’t exactly like her. They couldn’t have the same feelings. They hadn’t had the same experiences, just memories of those experiences. The feelings attached to them were absent.

“There’s no way to tell you apart,” she said, raising the blaster. “I’ll just have to shoot you both.”

“What?” one of the Hooles shouted. “No!”

That Hoole lunged forward, and Tash fired. On Vader’s orders, the troopers had set their blasters on stun, and the stunbolt slammed into that Hoole, dropping him to the ground.

The other Hoole raised an eyebrow.

Tash grinned. “Uncle Hoole?”

“Of course,” he said. He bent down and picked up the remote activator still clutched in the other Hoole’s hands. Zak was impressed. “How did you know?”

Tash shrugged. “Clones don’t really understand feelings that well. The real Hoole would have known I couldn’t shoot him, but the clone wouldn’t know that. I knew he would believe my threat, and try to stop me.”

Thrrummm!

Behind them, a lightsaber had activated. Tash turned in time to see the two Vaders locked together, their hands grappling with the hilt of a single lightsaber. Muscles strained. Vibrations of the Force swirled around them like wind in a thunderstorm. Suddenly, one of the Vaders twisted, throwing the other off his feet. The standing Vader raised the lightsaber and stalked forward.

“Let’s get out of here,” Tash said.

They left the room just as the triumphant Darth Vader brought his saber crashing down.