[Galaxy Of Fear] - 12(13)

Platt gritted her teeth. “Are you telling me what I think you are?”

“Yep,” the other smuggler said grimly. “We’re stuck here.”





CHAPTER 7


A short while later, Zak, Tash, and Hoole sat inside one of the primitive shelters. Platt had gone back to the starship with the rest of her crew, hoping to find a way to free it from the swamp.

Hoole and the Arrandas, meanwhile, had offered to talk with the survivors-the Children, as they called themselves. Hoole hoped that Galt and the others might have salvaged more equipment from their parents. Maybe there was something that could be used to break the ship out of the muck.

Before discussion began, one of the other Children came to offer them some food-a few thin strips of meat. It looked disgusting and smelled worse. Galt looked delighted when they turned it down, and he gobbled their portions eagerly. Once Galt had eaten, Hoole and the Children started to talk.

But Hoole was disappointed to learn that whatever technology had been left behind had been discarded. The survivors had no way to power up the equipment, and they tossed each piece into the swamp as soon as it died. The survivors had almost no mechanical knowledge.

“Didn’t your parents explain how the equipment worked?” Zak asked Galt.

The man blinked. “Almost all the parents died when we were young. I’m the oldest of the Children. The last parent died when I was seven.”

“What killed them?” Hoole asked.

“Different things,” Galt answered. “Dragonsnakes. Insect bites. Swamp fever killed many. It was the worst.”

“But it didn’t kill you,” Tash said.

Galt nodded. “All the Children caught the fever, but none of us died. Only the parents died.”

“Sometimes children can be more resistant to disease than adults,” Hoole said. “Your bodies probably adjusted to Dagobah’s environment better than theirs did.”

“Well, I can’t wait to get off this planet and go somewhere else,” Zak said.

Galt looked confused. “What is ‘somewhere else’?”

“Another planet,” Zak said. When Galt looked even more confused, he added, “There are other planets out in space. Out among the stars.”

“What are ‘stars’?” Galt asked.

Zak’s jaw dropped. Then he realized that the Children could never have seen the stars. The canopy of trees was so thick that it hid the sky completely. They had never felt the sun on their skin, either.

“Galt, how have you Children survived all this time?” Hoole asked, changing the subject. “How did you avoid the swamp creatures? What do you eat?”

“Eat.” Galt whispered the word as if it were a secret, magic spell. His eyes bore into Zak but seemed to look through him. “We eat what we can. We eat when we can. Always hungry. Always,” he said. Then he licked his lips. “Mostly we eat fungus.”

No wonder they’re so thin, Zak thought. “What was that meat you just ate?” he asked.

“That was … ,” Galt said slowly, “that was a lucky find.” Then he added, “Will your friends bring food?”

Hoole told him that Platt had promised to bring food from the ship. That news made an eager light burn in the eyes of all the Children.

“Can’t you hunt animals?” Tash asked.

“It is dangerous to hunt,” Galt answered. “There are the spiders. And dragonsnakes. And the imp.”

“Imp?” Zak asked, remembering his conversation with Platt. “Do you mean Imperials?”

“I don’t know that word,” Galt said. “The imp lives out there. In the swamp. It has strange powers.”

Hoole said, “Galt, have you ever seen this imp? Is it human?”

Galt shook his head. “I never saw it. But the parents told us. It’s out there. Somewhere.”

“All right, I’ve got good news, and bad news, and more bad news,” Platt announced when she returned from the ship.

Zak, Tash, Hoole, and the Children had met the returning smugglers in the center of the little village.

“The good news is, we can use the ship’s repulsor lift to break free of the muck.”

“Great!” Zak exclaimed.

“The bad news is it’s going to take us a couple of days to rig the repulsors up to do it.”

Hoole looked concerned. “I am relieved we will be able to leave. But this is a rather inhospitable environment. This may be a long two days.”

“What’s the other bad news?” Zak asked.

Platt frowned. “We were carting the food supply back here when two of my men slipped. The food containers ended up in the swamp. Before we could get to them, some sort of scavenger creatures swarmed over them. There was nothing we could do.”