The loudspeakers crackled. "Zak, what are you doing? Don't you know I can kill you all with a single command? Electrocution. Poison gas.

Suffocation. The longer you sit, the closer you come to the end."

Zak set his mouth tight.

"Perhaps you've decided you don't want your freedom," SIM said.

"Perhaps, unlike me, you no longer know what it means to be free."

The huge docking-bay doors cracked open a tiny fraction. Then stopped.

Dash Rendar started to rise, but Hoole rested a hand gently on the pilot's arm. The Shi'ido gave his head the tiniest shake, no. The time wasn't right.

"Come on, Zak," SIM taunted. "It's your move."

The doors opened wider, just enough so they could see into the wide bay where pa.s.sengers' ships were stored.

It took all of Zak's will not to jump up and race for the door.

Instead, he tried to remember what Tash had said about the Jedi Knights.

There is a time for action, and a time for action through inaction.

Sometimes, if you sit quietly, a problem will solve itself "You aren't worth my time," SIM said. "Perhaps I should just kill you and be done with you."

The doors opened wider.

Hoole moved. The Shi'ido moved so quickly that by the time Zak realized he was in motion, Hoole had already reached the doors, shape-shifting as he lunged forward. His body twisted into something long and thin and limber, covered in blue fur and dotted with dark spots. The animal-Hoole leaped through the open doors.

The doors slammed closed with a thunderous crash so loud that Zak clapped his hands over his ears and they all cringed, reeling from the concussion.

It took a moment for them to recover, and to realize "Uncle Hoole is on the other side!" Tash cheered.

"No!" SIM roared through the loudspeakers. Another power surge exploded through the hallway. Glowpanels erupted in sparks and wires burst from the walls. Instinctively, Zak and Tash pulled their hands away from anything metal. Dash stood on his one booted foot and managed to pull Malik up as a current of electricity snapped and hissed its way through the metal floor.

"Get away from the door," Dash warned. "I think I know what happens next. "

They took his advice and moved down the hallway, careful to avoid the dozens of live wires that had fallen from the ceiling. Somewhere nearby, they heard a gas line explode. SIM was no longer holding back. He planned to destroy them.

"Look at the docking-bay doors," Tash said.

A deep red spot appeared on the surface of the doors. As the spot grew, it turned white at the center, sending off waves of heat. Then the doors started to melt.

Hoole was using the Shroud's lasers to burn a hole in the doors. In a few minutes, he'd cut a hole large enough to get through.

They all crawled through the opening, careful not to touch the white-hot edges. At last they were in the docking bay. Hoole had guided the Shroud to the near end in order to blast the doors. Rows of ships stood to either side, and at the far end were the doors that led out into s.p.a.ce.

But SIM reacted quickly. The room's air vents burst open, and armies of crab droids scrambled out. Those closest to the Shroud were already firing acid from their cleansing guns. A rain of burning fluid fell on the four survivors.

Zak and Tash reached the Shroud first and scrambled aboard. Hoole helped Dash carry Malik, but to everyone's surprise, the pilot didn't board the ship.

"I've got my own rig," Dash said. "The Outrunner's parked farther down the bay."

"You'll never make it," Hoole warned. "Come with us."

Dash flashed the arrogant grin Zak had seen when they first met.

"No way. That ship's gotten me through some tough sc.r.a.pes. I gotta return the favor."

From inside the Shroud, they watched Dash sprint for his own ship.

Despite his wounds, the pilot was still quick. He jumped over a line of crab droids, dodged a shower of acid, and reached his vessel.

Even in the middle of all that madness, Zak couldn't help admiring Dash's ship. The Outrunner was a sleek black powerhouse. The ship was so streamlined that even sitting motionless on the floor of the docking bay, it looked like missile about to be fired.

Dash's ship was obviously rigged for quick flights. Although Hoole already had the Shroud's engines running, Dash's ship lifted off first and turned toward the closed outer doors.

Dash's voice crackled over the Shroud's comm speaker. "Ladies and gentlemen, let me get the door for you."

A turbolaser popped out of a hole on Outrunner's hull. High-powered beams of energy pulsed from the laser turret, blasting the outer doors to pieces.

Hoole, Zak, and Tash followed the Outrunner through a trail of flying debris, into s.p.a.ce, and safety.

EPILOGUE.

From two kilometers away, the Star of Empire looked as elegant and inviting as ever. The damage to the docking-bay doors was hardly visible.

The enormous cruise ship drifted calmly among the stars.

"What do we do now?" Tash asked. "We can drop Malik off somewhere, but what about the ship?"

"SIM should be destroyed," Zak insisted.

Hoole replied, "That ship is far too large for me to destroy."

"Leave the Star of Empire to me," Dash's voice crackled over the comlink.

They watched Dash's Outrunner go to work. Bright streaks of laser fire spat out of its weapon turrets and struck the cruiser's side. Then two large blobs of light burst from the Outrunner's forward hull-proton torpedoes, Zak guessed. The torpedoes vanished into the bulk of the ship.

But a moment later Zak spotted a series of explosions along the Star's engines.

"That'll cripple her," Dash explained. "She's not going anywhere."

"But now what?" Tash asked.

Again, Dash replied dryly, "Oh, I hear the Rebels are always looking for ships. I think I've got some contacts that'll pay good money to get their hands on the Star of Empire."

Hoole considered. "And they'll make sure SIM causes no further damage."

Zak's jaw dropped. "Urn, Dash, you never did tell us what you were doing on the Star of Empire in the first place."

They heard Dash laugh over the speakers. "Would you believe," he said, "I was planning on stealing the ship?"

On board the Star of Empire, SIM calculated. Its victims had escaped, it was true. But that was merely a failure in the program. SIM could think for itself. It would correct its program.

Faster than human thought, the computer activated the transmitters Zak and the others had tried so hard to reach. A moment later, the Star of Empire made a successful commlink connection to a s.p.a.ce station in a nearby sector. SIM hooked directly into the s.p.a.ce station's main control computer, and sent a single order.

DOWNLOADING DATA.

Even running at super-speed, it took nearly an hour to download SIM's entire program from the Star of Empire into the s.p.a.ce station. From there, SIM could hook into the galaxywide HoloNet. It could go anywhere.

There would be another Doomsday Ship.

The computer program acknowledged a sense of satisfaction, like a complex mathematical equation quickly solved.

Yes, Zak and its other victims were now free.

But so was SIM.