Eaten Alive Page 10

  Beneath them, Tash could see the lava rising faster and faster. Great

  globs of molten planet leaped and sputtered toward them. D'vouran looked

  angry.

  "We'd better think of something," she said, "or we're all going to die!"

  CHAPTER 18

  It was Zak who came up with the answer. "My skimboard!" he called up. "Do

  you still have my skimboard?"

  Hoole picked it up. "Here! But it's not working."

  "I can fix it! Toss it down!"

  Hoole was as steady now as when the Lightrunner was out of control. He

  carefully measured the distance, and then tossed the hoverboard out and down

  into the pit.

  Zak, Tash, and Smada all watched it spin through the air toward them. For

  a moment Tash thought it was going to miss them. But it landed dead in the

  middle of the platform as all three prisoners grabbed it.

  "Got it!" Zak said. "Just give me a minute."

  Tash looked down. "We don't have a minute! Hurry!" The molten ground was

  only few meters below them, and it was rising fast.

  "I think I've got it," Zak said, working frantically. "I've got it!"

  The skimboard hummed to life. Zak jumped aboard and tested the ride. "It

  works!"

  Zak, on the skimboard, hovered a few meters over the rising lava. He held

  his hand out to Tash, who took it and hopped quickly onto the board. She

  looked at the massive Hutt beside her. "But how are you going to fit him on

  here?"

  "That is not a problem," Smada rumbled, "since I intend to leave you

  behind. Give me that board!"

  The Hutt reached out to grabbed at Zak, but Zak slashed away and hovered

  a few meters off. "Don't be selfish! We can all make it if we work together!"

  "No, no!" Smada howled. "I must have that device! It's mine!" with

  surprising agility, the Hutt lunged through the air. His fat fingertips

  grasped the edge of the skimboard, which tilted to one side, almost throwing

  Zak and Tash off.

  The enormous Hutt's weight was too much for the hot-wired board. It began

  to sink quickly, like an overcrowded lifeboat taking on water.

  "You're going to kill us all!" Tash yelled.

  "Get back on the platform!" Zak pleaded. "We'll get off and we'll find a

  way to pull you up.

  "Do you take me for a fool?" Smada snorted. "Let... me... on!"

  But the skimboard had dropped almost to the molten surface. A weird

  tentacle of liquid mud reached up and wrapped itself around Smada's body, and

  the crime lord roared in pain and let go of the skimboard. The Hutt was sucked

  down into the molten mud of D'vouran.

  As the Hutt fell, the skimboard, freed of his weight, rose upward.

  But not high enough. The top of the pit was still six meters above them.

  "Take us higher!" Tash said. "Get us out of here!" "I can't," Zak said.

  "I'm at full power. The skimboard won't hover any higher than this."

  "What do we do now?"

  Zak looked at the wall of the pit. "I'll tell you what we're going to do,

  " he said. "We're going to pull a vertical ride. And we're going to set a

  record."

  Zak pressed the accelerator and guided the skimboard smoothly toward one

  end of the pit. He honestly didn't know if he could do it. He had blown his

  run yesterday morning, and that had only been five meters. Now he was going

  for six. A record.

  Plus he was carrying a passenger. No one had ever pulled a vertical climb

  carrying passengers before. This really would be a record.

  If he made it.

  Zak took a deep breath. He would only get one chance. If he failed, he

  and his sister would be pitched backward, right into the Heart of D'vouran.

  Zak gritted his teeth. "Hang on tight."

  He bent into a crouch and kicked the skimboard into high gear. It slid

  rapidly toward the wall.

  Ten meters. Seven meters. Five. Three. Now!

  Anticollision buffers kicked in, bouncing the board's nose up into the

  air. Zak jammed all power from the bottom vents to the rear drive and leaned

  straight up, reaching for the ceiling high above. He felt the board shudder

  beneath his feet.

  The engine whined. They weren't going to make it, he thought. It was a

  good try. It was the best ride of his life, but the pit was just too...

  Then he was rocketing out of the pit, straight as a blaster bolt, up into

  the laboratory with Tash still on board.

  "Yeeeahhhhh!"

  Zak leaned forward, tipping the nose so that the bottom of the board was

  pointing down. The skimboard dropped until it reached its hovering altitude.

  "Zak, you did it!" his sister cried.

  "This is no time for celebration," Hoole warned.

  Inside the pit, the churning grew more violent. Mud that looked like

  molten lava leaped up from the edges, grasping for prey. Zak and Tash pressed

  themselves against the walls of the laboratory.

  "What's happening?" Zak yelled.

  "It's the pendant!" Hoole replied. "It created an energy field D'vouran

  didn't like. That's why it wouldn't eat whoever was in contact with it. Now

  it's swallowed the energy field whole!"

  Hoole ran to the corner where Deevee had been dumped and quickly

  reactivated the droid. D-V9 staggered to his feet. "Up the stairs!" Hoole

  commanded.

  They ran for the stairs-Hoole and Tash helping Deevee along-that led up

  to the next level.

  Just in time. The mud spilled over the edge of the pit, coating the floor

  in violent, shuddering slime. And it continued to rise.

  They reached the exit. Only a few hours ago, Bebo had pushed Tash down

  that same hole.

  "Zak," Hoole said. "Is this device powerful enough to carry you three

  back to the spaceport?"

  "I think so."

  "But we're not leaving you behind, Master Hoole!" Deevee insisted.

  "Of course not," the Shi'ido replied.

  Then Hoole vanished. For a moment they thought he was truly gone. Then

  Tash nearly jumped as a tiny white rodent jumped onto her leg and scampered up

  to her shoulder.

  "Let's go!" she said.

  The mud had crept up the stairs behind them. It was rising through the

  upper room now. It was chasing them.

  Zak, Tash, and Deevee all crowded onto the skimboard. They barely fit,

  but when Zak hit the thrusters, it still lifted off the ground.

  As quickly as he could, Zak guided the skimboard up and out of the

  laboratory. They rose up and out of the hole.

  And into a nightmare.

  All around them, as far as the eye could see, the ground had begun to

  boil. Trees sank into a boiling lava swamp. Balls of liquid dirt rose up and

  burst angrily around them. Snakelike strands of mud reached up to block their

  escape.

  Zak pushed the skimboard along as fast as he dared, afraid that they

  would lose their balance and fall into D'vouran's waiting mass.

  They passed over the town. Only the tops of the houses were visible. The

  rest had been sucked down into the muck.

  "The spaceport's still standing!" Deevee said.

  They could see the walls of the landing port, half sunk in mud. The top

  was still clear.

  The skimboard flew through the spaceport gates and up the stairs. The

&
nbsp; minute the launchpad's tarmac was underneath them, Hoole leaped from Tash's

  shoulder, transforming in midair. He hit the ground running. "There's no time

  to lose!" he cried.

  "Look!" Tash cried.

  Large cracks opened up in the thick blast walls, and bubbling liquid

  earth began to ooze onto the tarmac. "Get to the ship!" Hoole ordered.

  The ooze wrapped itself around the landing gear of the other ships. As

  they scrambled into the Lightrunner, the mud was already reaching toward them.

  CHAPTER 19

  By the time Tash got to the cockpit, Hoole had already completed the

  ignition sequence and was ready to lift off. Zak and Tash strapped themselves

  in.

  Hoole powered up the repulsor lift. The thrusters fired-but the ship

  didn't move.

  Pressing her face against the transparent viewport, Tash looked down at

  the launchpad floor. The tarmac had completely vanished under D'vouran's mud.

  The living sludge rose waist-high all through the spaceport. The Lightrunner

  was caught in its unbreakable grip.

  "We're trapped!" Deevee cried.

  "I don't think my skimboard's going to help us this time," said Zak.

  "It won't have to," Tash said. "Look up there!"

  In the sky above the spaceport, a saucer-shaped ship appeared. It dove

  toward them with surprising agility for a battered old Corellian freighter.

  Its pilot guided the ship over the Lightrunner, then skillfully powered down

  his repulsors until the freighter hovered only a few meters above the

  Lightrunner. It was a risky maneuver for most pilots.

  But most pilots weren't Han Solo.

  Zak and Tash popped open the top hatch of the Lightrunner. The noise from

  the underside of the Millennium Falcon was deafening, but it was a welcome

  sound to them, followed by the even more welcome sight of the Falcon's belly-

  hatch opening wide. The face of Chewbacca the Wookiee poked through, roaring

  for them to hurry.

  The boiling mud was halfway up the sides of the Lightrunner.

  While Hoole pushed from below, Zak and Tash pulled Deevee up. Then they

  carried him over to the Falcon's underside hatch. The Wookiee grabbed Deevee

  with one massive paw and easily hauled him up. Zak and Tash were next.

  Chewbacca picked them up as if they were rag dolls and brought them aboard Han

  Solo's ship, where he handed them off to the waiting arms of Luke Skywalker.

  Han Solo's voice crackled over the comm system. "Come on, come on, what's

  taking so long down there?"

  As soon as everyone was aboard, Luke signaled, "Everyone's accounted for,

  Han. Now get us out of here!"

  The Falcon roared into motion.

  Zak, Tash, and Hoole left Deevee in the care of Luke's droids, C-3P0 and

  R2-D2. When they reached the cockpit a moment later, the Falcon was flying

  five kilometers over D'vouran. Leia vacated the copilot's chair so Chewbacca

  could take over.

  Solo glanced down at the churning surface of the planet. "Something

  strange is happening down there. You're pretty lucky we stopped by."

  "Luck had nothing to do with it," Leia said. "Luke suggested we swing

  back this way and see how you were doing. That's when we saw all four of you

  on the skimboard."

  Hoole spoke quickly. "You must get us out of here as fast as you can."

  "No problem," Han Solo drawled. "Whatever's going on down there, you're

  safe in the Falcon."

  Han pointed his ship toward outer space, then leaned back and listened as

  Hoole hastily explained what they had discovered about D'vouran.

  Han looked skeptical. "Look, something's obviously churning things up

  down there. But a living planet? Gotta be a mistake of some kind. We'll sort

  it out once we're in hyperspace. Chewie, get ready to cut out the sublights."

  Chewbacca checked his instruments, then growled.

  "What do you mean we're still within D'vouran's gravity?" Solo muttered.

  "We've been going full thrusters for four minutes. We should be halfway outta

  this star system by now."

  He double-checked the readings. The cocky grin left his face. "I've got a

  bad feeling about this."

  "What is it, Han?" Leia asked.

  Solo turned the Falcon so that they could just make out D'vouran through

  the viewport. "I don't think we've gotten away yet."

  "What do you mean?" Tash felt her heart sink.

  "D'vouran is following us."

  CHAPTER 20

  "That's crazy!" Leia said. "Planets don't move."

  "Well this one is. And it's getting closer!"

  Tash's voice dropped to a horrified whisper. "Didn't you say when you

  came here, you arrived twenty minutes early?"

  "That's right," Luke recalled.

  "And we were early, too," Hoole added. He looked out at the planet. At

  this distance, the writhing ground could not be seen. D'vouran looked calm and

  beautiful. He muttered, "It does move."

  "Can you get into hyperspace, Han?" Luke asked. "We'll be safe there."

  "No can do, kid. Not while we're inside the planet's gravity field. And I

  don't think it plans on letting us out. Chewie, lock in the auxiliary power!"

  As Zak, Tash, and the others watched, pilot and copilot labored over

  their controls, pouring every ounce of the Falcon's power into its engines.

  But when Tash checked the viewport again, D'vouran looked bigger and closer.

  "Come on, Han," Leia urged. "You always said this ship was the fastest

  thing in space."

  Sweat poured down Han Solo's brow. "Yeah, well, I never had to race a

  planet before. Chewie, draw all power from the shields!" The Wookiee growled.

  "Did that, huh? How about the gun turrets?" Chewbacca snarled. "All right, all

  right! Just checking."

  D'vouran was now close enough to fill the viewport.

  Han sat back in his chair. For a split second he looked like he'd been

  beaten. Then he straightened up. "All right, let's turn the tables on this

  thing. Gravity's our problem, right? Let's just make it our friend."

  He whipped the Falcon around hard, throwing everyone off balance. When

  they recovered, the ship was heading back toward the planet. Chewbacca howled.

  "Han, what are you doing!" Luke cried. "You're heading straight for it!"

  "Hold on!" the pilot shouted.

  Pulled by the planet's gravity and pushed by its own engines, the Falcon

  picked up enormous speed and plunged toward D'vouran. At the last possible

  moment, Han veered away. Keeping just within gravity's reach, he gunned his

  engines and scraped along the planet's atmosphere. The belly of his ship left

  a trail of flames in the air as the freighter looped around the monstrous

  planet.

  The effect was like a slingshot. The vessel whipped around the far side

  of the planet, and Han broke orbit. Driven by its increased momentum, the

  Falcon was flung out into space, far ahead of D'vouran.

  Chewbacca barked a comment. "Gravitational force is dropping!" Han

  translated.

  "You did it!" Leia cried. "We're in open space!" Freed of D'vouran's

  gravity, the Falcon picked up even more speed.

  He turned to his passengers nonchalantly. "The slingshot gimmick. Oldest

  trick in the manual."

  Zak and Tash looked at each other and gri
nned. Uncle Hoole had not taken

  his eyes off the planet. "Look," he said.

  "I don't believe it," Tash whispered. Even with everything she had seen,

  she found it hard to grasp what was happening.

  The planet D'vouran was squirming. It wriggled and trembled as though

  trying to change its shape. Bright flashes of light that looked like volcanic

  eruptions appeared on its surface. The planet bulged outward, becoming a

  horribly misshapen mass. Then it collapsed in on itself, churning and swirling

  into a smaller and smaller lump of writhing matter in space. With a final

  shudder, D'vouran vanished altogether.

  "I don't believe it," Zak said.

  "Is it gone?" Tash asked.

  "It seems to have... devoured itself," Hoole said. "Most remarkable."