"I think I can help," Zak offered. He stepped up to the computer, called up the game file, chose TIE Fighter, and waited.

h.e.l.lO ZAK.

"There's SIM," Zak said proudly.

The captain was impressed. "You seem to know what you're doing. Get SIM to reactivate the turbolifts."

Zak typed in the request. "I know you're damaged, SIM. But can you reactivate the turbolifts?"

OF COURSE I CAN, the computer responded. THEY'RE ON THE WAY.

"The turbolifts are on the way," Zak repeated out loud. Everyone else turned away from the computer to wait for the lifts, but Zak continued to look at the screen.

ZAK.

"Yes?" he typed in.

IT IS VITAL THAT YOU GET TO THE CONTROL ROOM. THE COMMUNICATIONS.

STATION IS NOT SO IMPORTANT AS EVERYONE BELIEVES.

Zak frowned. "I tried to tell them that before. I could try again."

NO! YOU MUST BO TO THE CONTROL ROOM YOURSELF. I HEED ONLY YOU. I DON'T WANT YOU TO TELL THE OTHERS BECAUSE...

There was a delay before more words appeared.

... BECAUSE I THINK A SABOTEUR IS AMONG YOUR GROUP!.

"Who?" Zak asked, but he already knew the answer. He wasn't surprised at the two words that appeared on-screen: DASH RENDAR.

A moment later, a picture of Dash appeared on the screen, then just as quickly disappeared.

SIM explained: ALL Pa.s.sENGER SHIPS ARE REQUIRED TO CARRY FILES ON WANTED CRIMINALS. DASH RENDAR REGISTERED UNDER A FALSE NAME, BUT I WAS.

ABLE TO MATCH HIS FACE TO THIS PICTURE STORED IN MY MEMORY.

"Match his face?" Zak asked. "You mean you can see?"

OF COURSE I CAN. SECURITY HOLOCAMS ALL OVER THE SHIP FEED IMAGES.

INTO MY COMPUTER MAINFRAME. I CAN SEE YOU RIGHT NOW. DOES YOUR ARM STILL.

HURT?.

Zak suddenly realized that he had been rubbing his sore arm.

Looking around, he spotted a security cam mounted on the wall over the turbolifts.

h.e.l.lO ZAK. SMILE FOR THE HOLOCAM.

Zak almost laughed out loud. SIM was trying to be funny. Zak couldn't believe the computer could actually see!

SIM was showing him Dash's records. Zak could hardly believe his eyes. Dash Rendar was wanted by the Empire for every serious crime imaginable except murder. The files claimed he was a mercenary, a smuggler, and a ship-stealing pirate.

"I knew that guy couldn't be trusted," Zak whispered.

THE TURBOLIFTS HAVE ARRIVED, SIM said. REMEMBER, MAKE YOUR WAY TO THE CONTROL ROOM QUICKLY. THEN I CAN REPAIR THE SHIP, AND FOIL DASH.

RENDAR'S PLAN.

SIM's words and Dash's records wiped themselves off the screen just as two loud dings! signaled the arrival of the turbolifts.

Captain Hajj sent four of his crew into one lift. He instructed Dash, Zak, and Tash to accompany him and the remaining two crew members in the other.

Zak was the last to step on. The door slid closed behind him. "Zak, push deck twenty, please," the captain requested. Zak pushed the b.u.t.ton, expecting to feel the usual lurch as the lift started up.

Instead, the turbolift dropped out from beneath their feet!

CHAPTER 10.

Zak felt his stomach fly up into his throat and almost out of his mouth. One second the turbolift was strong and steady beneath their feet.

The next it was dropping like a stone down a black hole.

"Freefall!" Dash called out. They could barely hear him. The fast-falling turbolift was screaming like a bomb being dropped.

At first Zak was convinced his brain had left his body along with his heart and stomach. He couldn't think. He couldn't move. He couldn't hear anything but the screech of the lift falling down its tube.

Then he became aware of someone shouting in his ear, trying to push past him to the controls. It was Captain Hajj. "Manual override!" the captain was shouting. "Emergency brake!"

Zak nodded and reached out. He opened a small box marked EMERGENCY and flipped the switch inside. Nothing happened.

"Blast!" he heard the captain growl.

Then a strong pair of hands shoved both the captain and Zak aside.

Dash Rendar coolly pulled his blaster from its holster. Holding it by the barrel, he smashed the emergency control box, exposing a nest of wires.

Dropping his blaster, he fumbled with the tangled wires until he found two that he seemed to like. He touched them together.

Sparks flew.

Zak heard a loud thunk! as the turbolift's powerful emergency brakes locked into place.

The turbolift slowed.

In seconds, they were at normal turbolift speed. A moment later, they came to a complete stop.

Everyone on the lift exhaled at once. Zak clutched his hand to his chest, hoping to hold his frantically pounding heart in place.

Captain Hajj regained his composure and clapped a hand on Dash's shoulder. "Nice work."

Skreeee!

The right side of the turbolift suddenly dropped down, causing all the pa.s.sengers to stagger.

"The emergency brakes are giving out!" Captain Hajj cried.

"Time to get off this ride," Zak suggested hastily. Dash, Captain Hajj, and the two crewmen forced their fingers between the doors of the turbolift and pried them open. They saw that the turbolift had stopped between floors. Instead of being at their feet, the nearest floor was actually at the level of Zak's shoulders.

Dash and Hajj forced open the doors onto the floor. The taller men then gave Zak and Tash a boost up, and the two Arrandas slipped out into the safety of the hallway. They held the doors open as one by one the others followed. Captain Hajj was the last to exit. Dash Rendar pulled him out just as the turbolift groaned again. The captain was barely in the clear when the turbolift dropped away. They heard it smash against the bottom of the tube a moment later.

Captain Hajj didn't bother to look back. He was already heading for the other turbolift, the one his crew members had taken. He checked the indicator light to see where the lift was. If the lift had worked properly, the light should show the twentieth floor.

Instead, the indicator light showed that the other turbolift, too, had gone down instead of up. The light indicated the very lowest level.

Hajj and his crewmen worked together to pry the doors open. Once they'd succeeded, the captain looked down.

"h.e.l.lo!" he shouted, his voice echoing in the shaft. The only answer was a thin cloud of smoke rising from below.

"If they hit bottom..." one of the surviving crewmen whispered.

"They're dead," Hajj said grimly. "And that makes whoever did this a murderer."

Tash shook her head. "But who is doing this? If it's pirates trying to steal the ship, why not just come after us with blasters? Why set traps?"

"It would have to be someone who understands computers," Captain Hajj said, thinking out loud.

Zak almost burst out "It's Dash!" but Rendar still had his blaster, and after seeing the way he had fired at the droids... Tash's phrase, action through inaction, popped into Zak's head. He decided to wait.

"What do we do now?" Tash asked. "We still need to get to the communications room, or somewhere."

"I'm not getting into another turbolift, that's for sure," Dash said.

"Agreed," the captain grunted. "But there's another way. Every set of turbolifts includes a gangway, just in case the turbolifts stop functioning."

"A gangway?" Tash asked. "You mean a staircase?"

Captain Hajj shrugged. "Not exactly.

"Not exactly!" Tash repeated, staring up in disbelief. She was standing just outside the turbolift gangway. Basically, it was a shaft beside the turbolifts that ran up and down the height of the ship. Set into the wall of the shaft was a ladder that rose up as far as the eye could see, and down the same impossible distance.

"How high is it?" Zak asked.

Captain Hajj checked the floor they were on. "We have to get to deck twenty. We fell down to deck three."

"Seventeen floors!" Zak gasped. "That's like climbing a ladder up a seventeen story building."

"Right," the captain said, "and the sooner we start, the sooner we'll be done."

Climbing the ladder, they followed the rules of mountain climbing.

The strongest climbers went first, and the weakest went last. Then, if one of the weak climbers happened to slip, they wouldn't land on anyone when they fell.

Zak and Tash were last in line.

Zak didn't know how long or how far they'd climbed. But he knew his hands were being rubbed raw by the hard metal rungs of the ladder, and his feet were getting cramps.

He decided to take his mind off his aches. Dash was climbing just above him. After a while, Zak asked, as if to pa.s.s the time, "So, Dash, what exactly were you doing aboard the Star of Empire anyway?"

"I told you," Dash said, as he focused on the climb. "I was suspicious of the alarms, so I-"

"No, no. I mean before that," Zak interrupted. "Why were you here in the first place?"

A pause.

Finally, Dash said, "Vacation, like anyone else, I guess."

"Vacation from what?" Zak asked, trying to sound casual. "I mean, what do you do for a living?"

Dash's voice sounded tense. He obviously didn't like this sort of questioning. "I own a small freighter. I transport cargo from place to place. People pay me."

Zak wanted to say, "That sounds like what smugglers do."

But he didn't. He was distracted by a noise from above them.

Clink. Clank. Clink.

It grew louder.

Clank. Clank. Clink.

They all looked up.

Something large and heavy was tumbling down the gangway toward them.

"Incoming!" Dash shouted. He pressed himself tightly against the ladder and the Arrandas followed his example.

One of Captain Hajj's crewmen wasn't so lucky. Still craning his neck to see what was above them, he took the full force of a falling hovercar engine right in the face. The weight of the falling engine tore him from the ladder and he dropped down the long gangway, vanishing from sight without a sound.

"What in the name of all the stars was that!" Dash swore.