They pa.s.sed through one of the ship's restaurants. A few chairs were overturned, and here and there napkins had fluttered to the floor, dropped in the panic to reach the lifepods. Obviously, the restaurant had been hosting a party. An electronic banner over the door read HAPPY LIFE DAY, BOBRINGI MAFUSA. YOU'RE ONE FINE MON CALAMARI. One huge table was covered with desserts that had gone uneaten... until Zak spotted them.

He scooped up a handful of pastries with cream-filling. "I wouldn't do that," Dash warned him.

"Well, you're not me," Zak replied with a smile as he bit into the pastry.

His smile vanished as dozens of small, wiggly legs squirmed out from behind his teeth and scrambled across his lips.

"I'm glad I'm not you," Dash laughed.

Zak gagged and wiped the wriggling things off his face. Looking down at his hand, he saw six or seven tiny crabs scurrying up his forearm. He sent them flying with a flick of his wrist, then spat out the pastry.

Dash watched the little crabs run under a table. "The Mon Calamari live on a water-covered world. One of their favorite desserts is crab-stuffed creampuffs. With live crabs."

Zak felt himself blush. He decided not to reply.

On the far side of the restaurant was a wall made entirely of crystal. It looked out onto a park.

"Hey, I was in that park," Tash said. "It's called the Atrium.

There's a huge bank of turbolifts on the far side. I bet we can get to the communications room from there."

"That would be prime," Zak noted, "but how do we get through that wall? There aren't any doors."

"Then we'll make one," Dash said. He reached down to his side.

For the first time, Zak wondered why the pilot carried a weapon on a luxury liner. But the question was literally blown out of his thoughts when Dash fired at the crystal wall, turning it into a billion tiny shards that fell to the ground like rain.

"There's your door. Let's go," the pilot said casually.

They crunched across the shattered crystal and out into the Atrium.

Tash, who was most familiar with the park, led the way.

They followed a path that wound through a small menagerie. There were eight cages, but instead of metal bars, the walls of the cages were made of force fields. That kept the animals safe inside, but gave the ship's pa.s.sengers a perfect view.

Zak saw several creatures he recognized. Five were exotic but harmless plant-eating species. But there was also a divto, a three-headed snake whose bite was poisonous. In another cage, a vornskr snarled at them. It was large, four-legged, and thick with muscles, and its long tail ended in sharp spikes. Next to the vornskr prowled a yayak, a dark-furred feline creature that moved so smoothly it seemed to be made of liquid. It hissed at them as they pa.s.sed.

"Nice pets," Zak said sarcastically.

Dash shrugged. "Exotic animals are big attractions. Pa.s.sengers on cruise ships eat this stuff up."

At the end of the menagerie, Tash veered off the walkway and stepped onto a field of carefully tended gra.s.s.

She laughed. "When I was here before, they had droids stationed all over the place, telling people not to walk on the gra.s.s."

"There's one now." Zak pointed. A gardening droid rolled out from behind a tree. It was about a meter tall and moved on two treads like a tank. Its head was shaped like a mushroom full of holes the size of Zak's eyeball. He wondered what the holes were for.

"And there's another," Dash added as another droid appeared. This one didn't have the hole-filled head, but it was equipped with four arms, each of which ended in a collection of work tools. The Arrandas had had a small garden on Alderaan, so Zak recognized the tools: a vibro-spade for digging, a piston- pounder for driving seeds into the ground, laser shears, and many other devices. Zak remembered them because, when he was a baby, his mother had always kept them out of reach, afraid he'd hurt himself. He always thought it was funny that she worried so much about simple gardening tools.

Two more droids appeared.

All the droids rolled toward them.

The four droids slowed down. The tool droid rolled right up to Dash, and its artificial voice stated, "Please keep off the gra.s.s."

Dash laughed. "You bet, as soon as we get outta here." He started forward.

"Please keep off the gra.s.s," the droid replied. Then it slashed at him with the laser shears.

CHAPTER 8.

The laser shears whipped across Dash's stomach. With amazing reflexes, the pilot jumped backward and only the tips of the shears touched him. But the laser-powered cutting tool was still deadly enough to slice through his clothes and cut his skin, leaving a thin line of blood across his stomach.

"Yow!" the pilot shouted. "These guys seem to take the park rules pretty seriously."

The hole-headed droid rolled up to Zak, who took a step back even though the droid didn't seem to have any weapons. "I'm not taking any chances, even though you don't look very dangerous-"

His words were drowned by a torrent of water that gushed out of the holes in the droid's head. The powerful jets of water struck Zak in the chest and sent him sprawling onto the gra.s.s. He tried to get up, but the gush of water continued, forcing him down and soaking him through. It felt to Zak like a Wookiee was pummeling him with punches. When Zak could finally open his mouth to catch his breath, water poured in, and he gagged.

Then someone was standing in front of him, blocking the water blast. Zak caught a glimpse of Dash's face, the arrogant grin replaced by a grimace of pain as the pilot took the brunt of the water on his back, giving Zak a chance to scramble to his feet.

"Dash, look out!" Tash cried.

The tool droid had rolled forward and raised its vibrospade, about to bring it down on the pilot's head. But at the last minute, Dash dove forward and rolled across the gra.s.s, out of harm's way.

"They're trying to kill us!" Zak sputtered.

Dash grunted. "No gardening droid's gonna kill Dash Rendar. I'd never live it down."

The pilot drew his blaster and fired at the waterspout droid. The blast punched a hole in the droid's outer sh.e.l.l, and it slowed for a moment. Then it started rolling forward again.

"Industrial-quality droids," the pilot grunted. "Gonna be tough to kill."

The droid's head swiveled as it sent another stream of water at them. Dash blasted another hole in the droid's body, but the droid kept coming.

"Let's get out of here!" Zak shouted.

Dash scoffed. "Me run? From a droid?"

The tool droid's piston pounder-punched out, catching Dash on the shoulder and spinning him around. Stunned, he would have been cut down by the droid's sharp set of laser shears if Tash hadn't grabbed his arm and yanked him out of reach.

"Hey, I've got an idea," the pilot said, backing away quickly.

"Let's get out of here."

All three turned to run. They were much faster than the four droids, but the waterspout droid was incredibly powerful. Its spurted a jet of water at them that was strong enough to knock them down. One after another, they fell and scrambled up again as the droids rolled after them.

"How big is this Atrium, anyway?" Zak panted, trying to keep his footing on the wet gra.s.s.

"The exit is that way!" Tash pointed to a row of shrubs. Some patient gardener had trimmed and shaped the bushes to look like living creatures. Zak saw human shapes, Twi'leks with two tentacles growing out of their heads, and hammer-headed Ithorians. "The turbolifts are on the other side," Tash told him.

But as she pointed, four shapes rolled out from the bushes.

More droids.

"I'm getting tired of these guys," Dash grumbled. Still running forward, he raised his blaster and poured fire onto one of the heavy-duty droids. Zak lost count of the blasterbolts, but he couldn't help being impressed. Every shot hit the droid dead center.

Finally, the droid sputtered and stalled. Smoke rose from its joints and blue sparks shot up from its head like tiny comets.

"You got one!" Tash cheered.

"One," Zak pointed out. "But there are seven more."

"And my blaster's hot as a supernova," Dash said, shifting the overheated weapon from hand to hand.

"Duck!" Tash shouted. They hit the ground as a gush of water hit them from behind. The droids who were chasing them were closing in. And ahead of them, the three new droids fanned out and continued to advance.

The three humans crowded together, forming a tight circle. They were surrounded.

"Tash," Zak said quietly, so only she could hear him, "if you learned any new tricks with the Force, now would be a good time to use them."

Tash shook her head. "I don't know if the Force works on machines."

The droids had penned them in. Laser shears hummed to life, and piston- pounders thump-thumped in antic.i.p.ation. The waterspout droid was gurgling, building up pressure for another blast.

A tool droid charged at Zak, waving all its weapons at once. He ducked, and felt the laser shears clip at the top of his head, cutting off a hunk of hair. The vibro-spade came crashing down. He tried to dodge, and managed to avoid the sharp blade of the digging tool, but the droid's mechanical arm slammed into him, sending him to the ground.

He looked up to see all the tool droid's arms looming over him. For one frozen moment, the droid stood, all its arms held high, ready to come crashing down on him.

CHAPTER 9.

The next thing Zak knew, the droid exploded in a storm of blaster fire.

The final moments of the strange battle were lost in smoke and the swishing sound of laser beams as the other droids were blasted to pieces or melted into slag.

Tash and Dash helped Zak to his feet, and together they watched as seven figures stepped through the smoke. Six were crew members of the Star of Empire, and all carried heavy blaster rifles. The seventh, carrying a hand blaster, Zak knew by name.

"Captain Hajj!" he shouted.

The gray-haired captain scanned the area to make sure there were no more droids. "You folks all right?"

"Dash was cut," Tash said.

The pilot shrugged and held his slashed shirt closed with one hand.

"Just a scratch."

Once Captain Hajj was sure they weren't badly injured, he eyed them all suspiciously. "Why didn't you folks leave the ship?"

"We got stuck, and the life pods left without us," Dash answered for all of them. Zak noticed how smoothly the pilot lumped himself in with Zak and Tash. Dash hadn't gotten stuck-he'd remained on board on purpose.

Hajj nodded. "I'm surprised there weren't more people stranded. Everything happened in such a rush. No warning at all."

"Why are you still here, Captain?" Tash asked.

Hajj stood a little straighter. "The captain is always the last to leave his ship. Me and some volunteers"-he pointed to the six crew members behind him-"stayed until the last minute, trying to shut the engines down. We thought we were all s.p.a.ce dust, then the alarms just shut themselves off quicker than a Hutt hurrying to breakfast."

"Captain, what's going on?" Zak asked. "Why was there a false alarm? Why did those droids attack us?"

The captain shook his head. "I don't know the answer to any of those questions, but I plan to find out. Me and my crew have encountered several violent droids. It's as if someone has reprogrammed them all to be killers. You folks will have to stick with us. You'll be safer that way."

"Well," Dash said. "We were doing all right on our own."

Yeah, right, Zak thought, rubbing his arm where the droid had hit him.

"Besides," added Dash, "I don't take orders from anyone."

Captain Hajj glowered at Dash. "I'm the captain of this ship and you'll follow my lead."

Dash bristled and seemed about to fight when Tash had stepped in between them. "Where do you want us to go, Captain?"

Hajj kept his eye on Dash as he told Tash, "We're headed for the communications room. First priority is to send a distress signal."

Tash nodded. "That's where we were headed anyway. Let's all go."

Zak hid a smile. Sometimes he had to admire his sister. Maybe that's what the Jedi mean by "action through inaction," he thought.

Dash Rendar scratched his head and grumbled. "Well, all right, just as long as everyone knows I'm not following. I'm just headed in the same direction."

Captain Hajj led them through the row of hedges and into another corridor to the turbolifts.

"We're on deck thirteen," the captain explained as they reached the lifts. "The communications room is up on deck twenty."

Captain Hajj punched the turbolift call b.u.t.ton, but the indicator didn't light up. "Lift malfunction," he said.

The captain pulled a code key out of his uniform pocket, and opened a locked panel next to the turbolifts. Inside was a computer terminal. He pressed some b.u.t.tons on the panel, then paused. "I can't access the turbolift program." He entered more commands. "Blast! I can't access SIM, either. Does anything work on this bucket of bolts?"