The Brain Spiders Read online

  More' tentacles started to wriggle upward. The Sarlacc pulled again, dragging Tash closer to its mouth and pulling Zak as well. As he slid down the sandy slope, Zak felt something scratch his stomach. At first he ignored it... he had to hold on to Tash! But when the Sarlacc pulled again, the scratch became unbearable. As quickly as he could, Zak reached down to brush the sharp object away. His hand touched something in his pocket. Grabbing it, he pulled the object into view. He was holding the rusty knife he'd found in the dun- geon. "Hang on, Tash," he urged her. "I've got an idea." Letting go of her hand, Zak carefully eased himself down beside her. He had to move slowly to keep from slipping too far down the pit. The Sarlacc's tentacle had wrapped itself twice around Tash's ankle. The brownish-green tentacle looked tough. "Not as tough as stone," Zak told himself. He plunged the knife into the Sarlacc's flesh. Deep beneath them, buried under tons of sand, the Sarlacc roared. The ground trembled, causing little rivers of sand to pour down the slope and into the monster's mouth. Still, the tentacle held. The Sarlacc refused to give up its meal. Zak raised the knife and brought it down again. This time the blade sank deep. The tentacle slipped free, taking the knife with it, and slithered back into the Sarlacc's mouth. Zak and Tash scrambled up the slope until they reached the top of the pit and safety. Zak climbed to his feet, brushing sand off his clothes as he turned to grin at Tash. She wasn't smiling. "You stupid nerfherder!" she yelled. Zak was stunned. "You could have gotten me killed!" she fumed. "I just saved your life!" he protested. "I didn't need saving until you showed up! I wasn't in any trouble until you made me slip. And by the way, you let the Sarlacc know I was there when you yelled." Zak tried to argue. "But " "Oh, never mind!" she said, stomping oA through the sand. "Just stop following me around like a.little lost bantha cub!" Zak made his own way back to Jabba's palace. All he had wanted to do was make sure Tash was safe. Wasn't that the job of a brother? Wasn't that the job of a friend? Moping through the palace, Zak reached their rooms just as Hoole arrived. "Zak!" the Shi'ido sighed. "Where have you been? Where is Tash?" " Just... around," Zak replied. He'd already made her mad enough. He didn't want to get her in trouble with Uncle Hoole. Zak let out a deep breath. "Uncle Hoole, can I talk to you? "I don't understand Tash," Zak said, once they'd seated

  themselves in Hoole's room. "We've always been pretty close. Especially after Mom and Dad died. I mean, we get into little fights, but we've always been friends first. Now she treats me like I'm a little kid. It's like she doesn't want to be friends anymore." Zak felt his face redden. He even felt like a little kid saying it. Hoole's face softened more than Zak had ever seen. The hard lines vanished. Although they'd been together for al- most a year now, Zak and Hoole had never had a serious talk. "Zak," Hoole said gently. "You know I do not have much experience as a parent, or even an uncle. I have al- ways been too busy with my research. So it would be wrong for me to try to sound like a parent now. "But," he continued, "I think I can help you by telling you what I have noticed as an anthropologist. Humans of Tash's age need to feel grown up. They want to find new friends and new ways to have fun. They change." Hoole pointed at Zak, then at himself. "I have always found it very strange, the changes humans go through dur- ing their lives. We Shi'ido do not do that. Our personalities never change. Humans never change their shape, but their personalities are always changing sometimes happy, sometimes sad, always finding new interests. Shi'ido, how- ever, change shape all the time, but our personalities remain the same from the day we are born. That is what makes us what we are." Zak was amazed. Hoole had never spoken to him about " anything this personal. Hoole continued. "But there is an old saying among the Shi'ido: 'No matter how many times we change our shape, we always look like ourselves to those who know us.' It means that whatever shape I choose, my true friends will recognize me." He put a hand on Zak's shoulder. "What is true for my appearance is true for Tash's personality. I am sure that if you look closely, you will find the Tash you always knew." Zak could hardly believe his ears. Hoole had always tried to protect his niece and nephew several times he'd even risked his own life to save theirs. But Zak always thought Hoole was doing what he had to do, not what he wanted to do. Realizing that Hoole really did care for him, Zak took his words to heart. Maybe Hoole was right about Tash. And if he was right, then their friendship could last, whatever Tash was going through. Excusing himself, Zak went to look for his sister. He had a feeling he knew where to find her. He caught up with her in the monks' tunnels. "Hey," he said. "Hey," she replied. "I thought you'd be with Grimpen," he said, trying not to sound annoyed. She shrugged. "I can't find him. I guess he's off medi- tating somewhere."

  Zak took a deep breath. "Look, Tash. I want to apologize for getting on your nerves. I know you want to do other things, without me. It's just hard. You've always been my best friend even if you are my sister."

  They both laughed. "Anyway," he continued, "it's kind of hard for me to sit back and watch you go off somewhere else. But if it's what you want, I can get used to it, I guess." Tash nodded. "I'm sorry for oalling you names before." Then she smiled. "You know, I should be mad at you." "Why?" Zak asked. "Because here I am trying to be so mature, and you come along acting more like a grown-up than me!" Now they really laughed the way neither of them had laughed in many months. When he caught his breath, Zak said, "Just promise me that no matter how old we get, we'll still be friends." "You bet," his sister answered. "We're family, Zak. We can get through anything." Together, they turned to go. Together, they froze in sheer terror. Together, they realized that they were surrounded by brain spiders.

  A dozen brain spiders shufHed forward, crowding the hall- way. Their metal forelegs rose up, waving in the air, snatch- ing at Zak and Tash. The two Arrandas leaped backward, and the brain spiders charged. "I think we can outrun them!" Zak said. "Why should we run?" Tash asked. "They're just B'omarr monks. I mean, the brains of B'omarr monks. They're enlightened, remember? They're not going to hurt us. They're friendly. Watch." She started in the direction of Grimpen's cell. But a brain spider leaped into her path, its front legs slashing. Zak grabbed his sister's shirt and pulled her back just in time. "If that's friendly," Zak said, "I'd hate to see them get upset."

  Tash cast a confused look at the brain spiders. "I don't get it," she said to the brain inside the mechanical creature. "I thought you were supposed to be Hey!" The spider had slashed at her again, nearly slicing a gash in the front of her shirt. "Zak, maybe you're right." "Come on!" he replied. He and Tash turned and sprinted down the hallway, hoping to put distance between them- selves and the mechanical monsters. Ahead, three shapes with spindly legs scuttled from around a corner. More brain spiders. "This way!" Tash suggested, turning down another cor- ridor. "Do you know where you're going?" Zak gasped be- tween breaths. "No," Tash panted in reply, "but I'll take any place where those things aren't!" But the brain spiders seemed to be everywhere. They scurried on their giant legs to cut ofF every exit. They'scut- tled down hallways, trying to trap the two Arrandas. The spiders had spent far more time in the tunnels than Zak and

  Tash. They knew every inch of the underground complex. There was no escape.

  Twice, Zak and Tash passed small groups of B'omarr monks. Each time, Zak and Tash begged them for help, pleading for them to make the brain spiders stop. The monks ignored them.

  "They won't act," Tash gasped. "Grimpen told me that they just don't care about the everyday world. It's like we don't exist to them." The monks even ignored the brain spiders that scurried into their midst, forcing Zak and Tash to run once more. No escape. The Arrandas managed to evade the mechanical spiders for a few more minutes, but finally, they made a wrong turn. They faced a stone wall. "Dead end," Zak groaned. "Let's go back," Tash urged. They turned, but it was too late. The hallway behind them was filled with brain spiders. Click-click-click! A dozen sets of metal legs scraped the tile as they charged forward. Zak and Tash tensed, expecting to be torn to ribbons. At the last moment, a blur of grayish brown appeared in the corridor. Whatever it
was, it moved fast, and it was so tall its head nearly scraped the ceiling of the tunnel. When it finally slowed enough to be seen clearly, Zak and Tash were staring at the last thing they expected to see in the tunnels beneath the desert planet. It was a tauntaun a gi- ant snow lizard, a creature that could not have survived for more than few minutes on the surface of Tatooine. The tauntaun crashed into the brain spiders, knocking the legs out from under them with huge swipes of its powerful tail. When the brain spiders continued to press in, the

  tauntaun suddenly shape-shifted into a thick, muscled hu- manoid called a Gank. The broad-shouldered Gank lifted the spiders and tossed them against the walls. The brain spiders retreated. In moments, the hallway was clear. The Gank turned to look at Zak and Tash. Its skin crawled across its bones, and a moment later it had changed into the shape of a Shi'ido. "It is a good thing I came to look for you," Hoole said. "I did not think brain spiders acted in that fashion." "I told you one of them chased me," Zak said. "Are either of you hurt?" Hoole asked. Both humans held out their hands and arms to show that they hadn't been cut. "They never really touched us," Tash explained. "It was more like they were herding us some- where. They were trying to trap us." "Intriguing," Hoole said. "But it does not matter. We won't be here much longer."

  "Did you finish translating those B'omarr documents?" Tash asked.

  Hoole shook his head. "Not completely. But I have de- cided not to accept Jabba's oA'er. I simply cannot take on a new identity." Zak knew the reason, but Tash asked, "Why not?" Hoole explained, "To a Shi'ido like me, identity is ev- erything. I must always remember who I am. Otherwise, with all the shape-changing I do, I am in danger of forget- ting who I really am." "You mean, if you shape-shiAed into a Gank, you might forget you weren't really a Gank?" Tash asked. "Exactly." The Shi'ido suddenly morphed with such blinding speed that Tash and Zak caught only glimpses of wings, and fur, and claws, and tails, and beaks, and teeth in a blur of motion. For a moment, Hoole paused, settling on the form of a vornskr, a furry four-legged predator with a poison tail. The fierce creature nipped at Zak and Tash, then changed shape again. When the morphing stopped, Hoole stood before them. "It's important always to remember ex- actly who you are." "So we're leaving now?" Tash asked. "But...

  .. I

  don't think I'm ready."

  "Not ready'?" Zak replied in disbelief. "After what just- happened?" "Well, it's not like I want to see brain spiders again, but Grimpen was teaching me so much. I can't leave without saying good-bye." Hoole considered. "Very well. It is too late to leave to- night anyway. Jabba woulg be insulted if I didn't say good- bye properly. But I want to make sure nothing else happens to you, Tash." "I'll be safe," she explained. "The tunnel to Grimpen's meditation chamber is just down that way, and there's a bed of hot coals that the brain spiders can't cross." "Yes, they can," Zak scoffed, remembering Hoole's comment about the lume rocks. "Remind me to tell you

  qbout those so-called hot coals sometime. They wouldn't g$Op a brain spider for a second." Tash shrugged. "Well, whether they can or can't, I know that they don 't cross it. They absolutely refuse. So I'll be safe." She hurried down the tunnel, with Hoole watching until she was out of sight. He seemed about to change his mind and go aAer her, when a loud noise drifted down the tun- nels. Hoole and Zak heard music and cheering. Something big was happening in Jabba's audience chamber. Glancing back at Tash, Hoole turned up the hall to inves- tigate. They reached the audience chamber a few minutes later to find all of Jabba's henchmen gathered around his throne, accompanied by the Imperial officer Commander Fuzzel and a squad of stormtroopers. Fuzzel shouted over the noise, "Jabba! You promised me the criminal! What are we waiting for?" Jabba blinked his huge eyes. "Patience, Commander, pa- tience. There is merely a short delay in fetching the body. It will arrive any moment now." The stormtroopers looked around nervously. They were uncomfortable being surrounded by so many gangsters. As Hoole and Zak watched, Jabba kept them waiting for nearly a quarter of an hour loager. Just as Zak was starting to grow bored, a murmur swept through the crowd. Bib Fortuna pushed his way through the mob, guiding a small hoversled. On the hoversled lay a body wrapped in sheets. Jabba boomed, "As I promised you, Commander Fuzzel, I have delivered the body of the galaxy's most wanted killer. Here is all that remains of Karkas!" The mob cackled and cheered. Fuzzel stepped forward and pulled back the sheet, revealing a massive head with one crushed eye. "This is Karkas, all right," Fuzzel said, shaking his head. "That makes five criminals you've turned in this month. You've started up a whole new line of work, Jabba." "Indeed I have," the Hutt gurgled. At the edge of the crowd, Zak whispered to Hoole, "I don't get it. When I saw Jabba talking with Karkas yester- day, they were the best of friends. Jabba even promised to help him escape from the Imperials." "Never trust the promise of a Hutt," Hoole whispered back. "Especially when that Hutt is Jabba." As the cheering died down, Commander Fuzzel asked, "Just one question, Jabba. What happened to his head?" "What?" the crime lord rumbled. Commander Fuzzel pointed down at the bo+ of Karkas. "What happened to his head?" The Hutt sputtered, "Karkas had one crushed eye. Ev- eryone knows that. He's had it for years." "Not that," the Imperial said. "This!" He pointed down to a long scar on the side of the killer's

  head. It looked as if someone had slashed him with a vibroblade, except that the cut was very thin and clean. Jabba shrugged his thick, meaty shoulders. "Karkas must have sustained some injuries when my men took him down. Nothing to worry about. Now, about my money?" Fuzzel replied, "Yes, yes, you'll get the reward. But I'll tell you this," the Imperial of5cer added as his men carted the body away, "Karkas is lucky you found him first. If I'd gotten my hands on him, I'd have given him a lot worse than a cut on the back of the skull!" Jabba's henchmen howled with laughter at the thought of this fat Imperial official trying to take down a killer like Karkas. "Come along, Zak," Hoole said, "this is not the time to speak with Jabba. I'll say good-bye in the morning. Let's make sure Tash is all right." Returning to their rooms, Zak saw that his door was open. Tash was inside, stuffing her few belongings into her pack. "Wouldn't you know it," Zak said. "We don't leave till morning and you're already packed~ "

  Tash hardly looked at him. "Yeah. Just like me." Zak shrugged. "I'm not going to pack until later. You want to do something?" "No," Tash replied. "Come on," he urged. "We can even do something you want to do. Something grown up, like reading in the monks' library." Tash snorted. "Why in the name of all the black holes in the galaxy would I wanna hang out with a bunch of frag- eating monks?" Zak's jaw dropped. "What?" Tash paused. "Um... nothing. Just mind your own business, kid." " 'Kid'?" Zak snapped. "Why are you back to calling me kid again?" He stepped closer to her and looked over her shoulder. "Are you feeling all right?" "Sure I am," Tash muttered. "Now, get your nose outta my business." Zak wrinkled his brow. "Why are you talking so funny? Hey, I thought we just made friends again. Why don't you look at me?" He grabbed her arm. Tash's reaction was sudden and violent. She whirled around, grabbed Zak by the collar of his tunic, and drove him backward, slamming him against the wall. "Listen, I ain't got no friends," Tash growled. "What- ever I said before, I was just being nice. I didn't mean it. And if you ever touch me again, I'll eat you for breakfast."

  That night, Zak lay on his bed, drifting in and out of sleep. He and Tash had not said a word to each other after her outburst, and soon after that Tash had muttered something about feeling like a herd of banthas were stomping through her head. She had crawled into bed and fallen into a dead sleep. Zak had lain awake for several hours, until a fitful sleep took him. But still his mind replayed the earlier scene over and over. Why had Tash acted like that? She 's been acting strange. for days, he reminded him- self. But not like this. Not violent. She 's just going through changes, he replied to his doubts. Well, if these are the changes, I don 't like them. Remember what Uncle Hoole said. Look for the real Tash. She 's in there somewhere. Zak thought about it, but he couldn't find anything. The Tash he knew was nothing like this one. The sheets on the bed across
the room suddenly billowed up. Zak froze. Tash sat up and stared at him for a moment, as though making sure he was asleep. Zak did his best to breathe regularly, the way a sleeping person did. Tash got out of bed and quietly pulled on her flight suit. Then, a moment later, she slipped out the door. 8'hat is she doing? As quickly and quietly as he could, Zak followed her. Jabba's palace was as quiet as a graveyard. Zak walked on tiptoes as he trailed his sister, who hurried through the many halls of the fortress. She soon reached a section of the palace where neither she nor Zak had been, yet she seemed to know it well. Without missing a step, she went straight through a door that led into an enormous docking bay. On one side of the chamber sat an enormous sail barge, a float- ing yacht that Jabba used to cruise the desert sand. Beside it, Jabba's hirelings had parked rows of smaller land- speeders and hovercraft. In one corner, in a stall, two dewbacks shufAed. They snorted wearily as they heard peo- ple approach. It was far too late to be ridden. Tash walked straight to one of the landspeeders, hopped inside, and started the repulsor engines. She 's stealing a speeder! Zak was stunned.

  A moment later, Tash guided the speeder toward the exit doors, which slid back. "Tash, wait!" Zak suddenly yelled. "Where are you go- ing?" She didn't hear him. His voice was drowned out by the whine of the speeder as it roared away. Zak thought about going back to get Uncle Hoole. But if he did, he would lose Tash's trail. Instead, he ran his eyes over the speeders parked in the docking bay. He didn't know how to Ay any of them. "Now's a good time to learn," he said, hopping into the driver's seat of the nearest speeder. How hard can it be~ he thought as he powered up the small hovercar. He was an expert on his skimboard, and once, with Tash's help, he'd even flown Han Solo's Millen- nium Falcon. Besides, he was no stranger to machines like this he could take apart this speeder's engine and put it back together in a flash.