Planet Plague Read online

  "Over there! " she yelled to Kavafi, pointing to one corner of the room as she ran to the other. Using the visor, she could see where the virus clouds were falling, and where the vents did not reach. Kavafi ran where she pointed. But he was right under a virus cloud that slowly sank toward his head. "To your right! To your right!" she yelled. He stepped to the right, and the virus wafted to the

  ground beside him. Tash could see the tiny creatures, like eels with bulbous, jagged heads, swimming through the air, trying to get to her or Kavafi. Tash turned in one direction, and then another, but the virus clouds had fallen like a curtain over her. She had nowhere to go. "What is happening?" Kavafi yelled. "I'm trapped," Tash said. It was true. The virus was all around her. Sooner or later, one of the particles would touch her skin, and she would be infected. She could only wait in terror as the invisible death settled over her. Tash remembered the Rodian turning into a blob in his cell, and shivered uncontrollably.

  "Is there any way to fight this virus? Isn't there a cure?" she yelled.

  Kavafi replied wearily, "No. All I can tell you is that it depends on body temperature and chemistry." Tash watched the virus come closer. The urge to run was almost unbearable, but there was nowhere to go.Kavafi went on. "Your body has a certain temperature, and usually it creates certain kinds of chemicals in your blood, your brain, and all the diAerent parts of your body. But when your body changes as when you are angry, or sad, or when you are sick your body temperature changes, and your brain sends signals to produce different chemicals. Somehow this virus affects those signals and feeds off of them. But I don't know how." The blood-red virus clouds were billowing closer. The doctor was still surrounded by a safe pocket of clean air, but the area around Tash was filling up with the virus by the second. A moment later the last of the uninfected air vanished. The virus clouds descended upon Tash. She could see her skin crawling with millions of virus particles, searching for ways into her body. She gagged. "What is it?" Kavafi called. "The virus," she said. "It's all over me!" Tash stared at the millions upon millions of tiny red viruses landing light1y on her arms. She could not feel them. But with her enhanced vision she could see that her arms had become blood-red. But a strange thing happened. None of the virus parti- cles wriggled under her skin. The virus was on her, but it wasn't getting inside. It wasn't infecting her! She described what she saw to Kavafi. "It is possible,"

  he said. "Some species may be immune. But I thought all humans were affected." Tash shrugged. She knew what she saw. She wasn't getting infected! Filled with sudden hope, she looked around the locked chamber. The blast shield made the control room unreachable. The ceiling vents were too high. But some of the wall vents looked low enough. Tash plunged through a red wall of virus. "What are you doing?" Kavafi yelled. "Going for help!" Tash replied. She stretched and grabbed hold of the vent. Because it had been built into the old rock of the ziggurat, it came away easily in her hand. She looked back at Kavafi. He was still safe in a little pocket of uninfected air. "Don't move," she said. "I'll be back as soon as I can." Tash scrambled up the moss-covered stones and into the ventilator shaA. It was like swimming through a sea of tiny sharks. The vents were still blowing the airborne virus, and wave after wave of the deadly creatures poured over her. Not long after she'd begun her crawl, Tash heard a loud throbbing sound. She reached a point where the vent branched oA' in two directions. One branch was open, and virus clouds poured out of it. The other branch was blocked by a small energy screen, probably, Tash thought, to keep the virus from spreading into other areas of the ziggurat. The field was strong enough to hold back electroscopic creatures, but not nearly powerful enough to stop her. She pushed her way into the energy field, ignoring the tingling she felt as she passed through it. On the far side of the screen, the vent narrowed, and Tash had to squeeze her way through the tight space. The throbbing noise grew louder. Reaching the end of the shaft, Tash wriggled toward a durasteel grate. It popped off easily, and Tash dropped down into a new chamber. She was in the pump room. Like the other chamber, this one was round. Most of the space was occupied by an enormous mechanism made of gleaming durasteel. A pipe, twice as wide as Tash was tall, rose up from the machine, straight up through the thick stones of the ziggu- rat. This must be what the Shi'ido planned to use to pump the virus into the Gobindi atmosphere. Still wearing the visor, Tash looked at her arms. The virus had stopped wriggling and had begun to drop off her skin. Both Dr. Kavafi and the evil Shi'ido had said the virus could only live a short time unless it found a host, and these seemed to have died. Taking off the visor, Tash walked around the pump, looking for an exit. She spotted a plexiform cell similar to those she'd seen before, set into the wall of the chamber. She recognized the figure inside. "Uncle Hoole!"

  The Shi'ido pounded on the thick plexiform and yelled, but Tash could not hear him. Haole's skin started to wrin- kle, and Tash assumed he would change into something large, like a Wookiee or a gundark, and break down the transparent barrier. Instead, Hoole suddenly became a rat- like Ranat. Then a tiny crystal snake. Then he transformed into a large Gank, and then again into Hoole. Pausing only to take a deep breath, Hoole began another series of changes so rapid that Tash could hardly tell what he looked like as the transformations became a blur. What was he doing? Then Tash saw the vent in his cell wall. She put on her visor. A virus stream poured into Hoole's cell. The walls and floor were covered. Even Hoole's skin was covered Tash could see millions of the little wriggling organisms work- ing their way along his skin, trying to work their way into his flesh. But thc minute Hoole changed shape, the virus lost its hold. As long as Hoole kept changing shape, he was safe from the virus. "Surprising, isn't it?" said a malicious voice. Tash knew it was the evil Shi'ido before she turned around. He was standing behind her wearing an oxygen mask. He pointed at Hoole. "Perpetual metamorphosis. He changes shape too quickly for the virus to establish itself. Ingenious, I have to admit. But I expect that from

  Hoole." His voice was mufHed by the oxygen mask. "You know, he proved difBcult to infect from the start. I tried using an injection, and it didn't work at all," He looked at Tash. "I should have known you would be resourceful enough to escape the hot chamber," he said. Tash backed away from him. "That's not all. I also seem to be immune to your virus! It's not infecting me." She expected the Shi'ido to look stunned. Instead he only snifted. "Nonsense. The reason the virus particles are not infecting you now is that you have been infected since the day you arrived. I did it to you myself." At that moment, Tash felt the lump on her arm expand. Greenish-brown ooze leaked through her sleeve and began to spread along her arm. Tash pulled back her sleeve and saw that the bump was the size of her palm. She was infected. And the virus was growing.

  The Shi'ido smiled. "You see, you are not immune." Tash felt her left arm grow heavy. She staggered and fell to her knees.

  The false Dr. Kavafi had infected her with a shot in the arm that first day in the Infirmary. "You... said it was an antivirus to protect me," she said weakly. "I lied." The Shi'ido stood over her. "I must say, you intrigue me," he admitted. "It has taken longer for the virus to begin replicating itself in you than in any other subject I experimented on." He studied Tash as if she were a slab of meat. "I won- der why? You might be worth studying, but I suppose we will never know now." When Tash looked at the quivering ooze on her arm, she gagged. To keep from staring at it, she focused on the Shi'ido. "You're killing people." "I have my reasons," the Shi'ido replied. "But then you already have an inkling, don't you? At least, you know its name." Project Starscream. The code words that had gotten her into the ziggurat. The code words they had discovered on board the ship. Project Starscream. Tash had no doubt that she was looking at its mastermind. Tash felt her anger, long held inside, spew out. "You vicious " she started to yell. The virus was quickly growing, up her arm to her shoulder. She could feel slime slowly sliding down her back. The ooze wasn't on her skin it was growing out of her skin. She fell to her knees and struggled to keep from fainting. Tash cou
ld feel the virus starting to control her move- ments. She tried to stand up, but her muscles didn't re- spond. Something was fighting for control of her body. The virus was taking over. "Please...," she said. "Help me." "And ruin all my hard work?" the Shi'ido said mock- ingly. Tash had never encountered anyone so absolutely evil. The Shi'ido smiled. "No, I think I will leave you here instead. In a little while you will be just another mindless blob spreading my virus around the planet."

  Tash tried to speak. Her jaw felt heavy. "Wh-Why?" She could barely get the word out. The Shi'ido leered down at her. "Why? With this virus at my command, I will have a biological weapon capable of wiping out entire planets! Think of it, a virus that over- whelms its host, not killing it, but feeding off it, and spreading the virus again and again. Each victim becomes another virus bomb. This virus is a weapon that never runs out of ammunition." Tash struggled to make her words clear. "Why... St-Star..." "What is Project Starscream all about? Is that what you are asking?" the Shi'ido taunted. He laughed a muf8ed laugh behind his oxygen mask. "I don't think I will tell you. Now excuse me once again, this time permanently. The pump is about to vent the virus into the atmosphere, and I think I will have the best view from orbit." The Shi'ido looked at Hoole one last time, grinning triumphantly before turning and leaving. Tash's fear gave way to outrage. He had no right to do this! It was horrible beyond understanding. Tash heard the word echo in her head. Hate. She hated the Shi'ido. Hoole pounded on the plexiform. Tash looked up and saw her uncle point to the side of the cell. There was a small control panel set into the wall. She could free him! If she could reach him. Gritting her teeth, Tash struggled to her feet. Anger and sheer stubbornness allowed her to stand. The weight of the virus blob on her shoulders made her feel as though she were carrying another person. All she had to do was walk ten m.eters. But her muscles seized up. The virus took hold of them, and she stumbled to her knees again. Tash refused to give up. She felt driven by a powerful force: revenge. The Shi'ido had toyed with her and terri- fied her. He had injected her with a deadly virus and fooled her into thinking her uncle was a villain. Tash staggered up the first step. Revenge. She took another step, and another. Revenge. Revenge. She would resist the virus. Her anger was stronger than the infection. She would win! She would have her revenge on the Empire and the mysterious Shi'ido. In his cell Hoole pounded on the glass. Tash was halfway to the control panel when the virus blossomed. Thick tendrils of ooze burst from the center of the blob on her shoulder and wrapped themselves around her waist and legs, dragging Tash down to her knees. The virus had grown stronger. Tash stopped struggling. She couldn't defeat it. The an- grier she got, the stronger the virus became. She couldn't fight against it.

  She was only five meters from the control panel, but she knew she couldn't go any farther. She shuddered and blinked hot tears away. She was losing. Soon she would become another blob. She had lost. At that moment Tash remembered what Dr. Kavafi said. Strong emotions changed the body, and the virus fed off of those changes. Strong emotions like anger. And thinking of that, Tash remembered what Wedge had told her about the Jedi Knights: They didn 't get angry. They didn 't hate their opponents. The Jedi always kept their minds more on what they were fighting for than what they werepghting against. Tash realized that she had been fighting against the vi- rus, against the evil Shi'ido, against the Empire. She had been filled with anger and a desire for revenge. That wasn't the Jedi way. Tash stopped struggling. She turned her mind away from the virus. She forgot about her hatred for the Empire. She forgot her desire for revenge on the Shi'ido. Instead she thought about what she was fighting for. She thought about the home she'd had on Alderaan. She thought about Uncle Hoole, who had taken her in when she was orphane'd, and about Deevee. Tash felt her heart rate slow. Her breathing grew steady. She tried to remain calm. The anger drained out of her. And the virus started to lose its grip. Tash felt the slimy tentacles drop away from her legs.She took a step forward, leaving a thin trail of melting ooze on the stone behind her. The weight on her back felt lighter. Tash thought about her brother, Zak, who would stand by her through a meteor storm. More ooze dripped away from her body. She stood up straight. She did not hurry. She stayed calm, the way she imagined a Jedi would be. She thought about her parents. She thought about how much she had loved them. All the Imperial warships in the galaxy could not take that away from her. She felt her muscles free up. The disgusting ooze still covered her arm and shoulders, but she was free to move. She took one step toward the control panel, and then another. In another moment she was there. She pushed her hand wearily against the control panel, and the plexiform barrier slid back. With unbelievable speed Hoole jumped out of the cell and closed the door again. "Tash!" Hoole said. For the first time since she'd known him, Tash saw the stern Shi'ido's face break into ... well, almost a smile.

  Hoole located the controls and easily shut down the pump mechanism; then, with a shimmer of his gray skin, he transformed into a Wookiee. One swipe of his paw smashed the control panel, ruining the device. No virus clouds would fall on Mah Dala. Then he returned to Tash, shrinking back into his own form as he did. "Uncle Hoole," Tash said weakly. "I thought you were working with the Empire. I thought you were behind this virus plot. I was stupid." Hoole shook his head. "I allowed that Shi*ido to fool me. He was waiting for us. He allowed us to land on this planet in the first place. I walked into his trap, and I ex- posed you and Zak to danger." "Am I... am I cured?" she asked. She could still feel the ooze sticking to her shoulders and see it on her arms. "I'm not sure," her uncle confessed. "We will find out as soon as we get out of here." "Dr. Kavafi," Tash said. "The real Dr. Kavafi. We have to get him." "He is here?" Hoole started. "Where?" Supported by Hoole, Tash brought her uncle down the passageway that led out of the pump room. The tunnel was deserted the Shi'ido and whoever worked for him did not want to be on Gobindi when the plague virus flooded the atmosphere. After several twists and turns, Tash and Hoole found the virus chamber, where the battered Kavafi still waited. "Hoole!" Kavafi shouted when he saw them. Taking the electroscope from Tash, Hoole confirmed that the virus clouds no longer floated in the room. The virus still did cover much of the walls and floor, but with Hoole as his guide, Kavafi was able to make his way to the door. "Hoole! I can't believe " the doctor began. "We have no time for conversation, Doctor," Hoole said. "We must get out of this place." "They tried the tunnel that led to the turbolifts, but the path was blocked. Dozens of the virus blobs now filled the corridor the evil Shi'ido's way of ensuring that no one came down through the lifts to discover his hidden cham- bers. Hoole, wearing the electroscope, led the others on a twisting, turning route through the ziggurat's tunnels. They passed the virus chamber, and the pump room, and finally found a tunnel that led away from those chambers. Following this passageway, they came to a door, and Hoole quickly triggered the opening. Tash found herself staring at the backs of Zak, Deevee, and the two Rebels.

  "Tash! What happened!" Zak cried, seeing the coating of slime that covered Tash's arm. "There is no time to explain," Hoole said. "We must leave." Wedge fired his blaster at the blobs again. The blaster bolt left a tiny burn mark on the blobs' flesh. "Good idea... but I don't think it's what these blobs have in mind." Hoole looked up at the high wall above them. "Hold on," he said to Tash. To the others he said, "Please make room." His skin crawled across his bones as Hoole changed shape. He had become a mammoth frog, a creature Tash had seen in the galactic encyclopedia. She clung to its bumpy skin. The mammoth frog braced itself, then sprang into the air, just catching hold of the top of the wall. guickly Hoole repeated the act until all seven of them were on the wall, just as the blobs converged on the spot where they had stood. Only when they were all safe did Hoole say, "Dr. Kavafi, we need a cure for Tash." The doctor shook his head sadly. "I wish I could help. I do not know of one." Zak and Deevee exchanged glances, recalling the writ- ing carved into the stones over the ziggurat door. "We doI" Hoole made the trip up the ziggurat in seconds flat, his body a blur as he transformed i
nto a flying, batlike crea- ture called a rawwk. A few moments later they heard the whine of engines as he returned, piloting the Shmud. The others scrambled aboard. "What now?'* Wedge asked. "Even if we do make it back to the top we'll have stormtroopers to deal with." "I think not,*' Hoole replied. "The landing bays were nearly empty when I reached the ship. The Empire ex- pected this city to be full of the plague virus. I suspect we will find that the Infirmary is deserted." Hoole was right. He piloted the ship to the top of the ziggurat and landed in the shadow of the Infirmary. The gray tower had been abandoned. Hoole pointed to the In- firmary. "Doctor Kavafi, I'm sure you will find everything you need to make an antidote in there."

  An hour later Tash lay in her bed, unconscious. Zak wiped perspiration from her forehead with a cloth. "Are you sure she's all right?" he asked. Dr. Kavafi nodded. "She is sweating out the last of the virus. This antidote is strong. It should return the victims to their normal state." Wedge was anxious. "We shouldn't stay long. Eventu- ally the Empire will send someone down to check on the progress of the virus." "We'll leave shortly," Hoole replied. "But we may have an Imperial blockade to deal with." Wedge grinned. "I can help. I have some experience running blockades." The pilot looked down at Tash. "So these ziggurats that we thought were buildings were actually just giant con- tainers for viruses? It's a good thing the Gobindi were smart enough to leave the antidotes carved on the out- side." Tash stirred. Then with a gasp, she opened her eyes and saw six concerned faces staring down at her. "Am I... is it gone?" she asked. "It seems to be," Dr. Kavafi said. "How do you feel?" Tash took a deep breath. She shuddered, remembering the feeling of the virus crawling over her. "I need a vaca- tion." Everyone chuckled. Except Hoole, whose face was set in deep contemplation; "Master Hoole, is something bothering you?" Deevee inquired. Hoole nodded. "Indeed. I was just thinking the Gobindi civilization vanished. If they could contain this virus, terrible as it is, imagine the power of the virus that eventually destroyed them." Deevee's circuits shivered at the thought. "Let's just hope, wherever it is, it remains hidden forever."