Hajj nodded. Zak didn't say anything, but he couldn't help seeing Dash in a new light.

"So who is it then?" Tash asked.

Captain Hajj frowned. "It has to be someone on the inside. Someone reprogrammed all those droids, and you can only do that from the control room. "

Zak slapped himself on the side of the head. How could he have forgotten?

"Malik!"

They all looked at him. "It's got to be the technician, Malik," Zak said. Quickly, he explained what had happened on his visit to the control room. "Malik knew how to shut the whole ship down with just a few commands. I'm sure he could have reprogrammed the systems. And," he added, "he's the only one who understood SIM well enough to shut him down. That explains why SIM hasn't been able to make repairs."

"But why?" Tash asked.

"He's got Imperial connections, doesn't he?" Zak said, looking at Captain Hajj. "Maybe the Empire has some reason for destroying the ship."

"Then why not just have a Star Destroyer blast it?" Tash replied.

"Maybe they want to blame it on someone else," Zak guessed. "What other reason could there be for what he's doing?"

"Money," Dash answered. "Somebody could have bribed him to arrange the fake abandon ship order. Then he was supposed to just sit and wait for the pirates to show up."

"Except that we got in the way," Zak concluded. "So he programmed the droids to come after us, and rigged the turbolifts so we couldn't get to him."

Zak noticed his sister's frown. "You still don't buy it?"

Tash shrugged. "You met this Malik, Zak, and I didn't. But it just doesn't seem right to me. It's an awful lot of trouble to go to, just to steal a ship."

"Not just any ship," Dash said. "A cruise ship. Vessels this large aren't cheap. With enough work, the Star of Empire could be turned into a warship for someone's private army."

"Malik," Captain Hajj growled. "I'll make him sorry he ever boarded my ship."

Tash examined the sheet of metal, which was stuck to the window.

"Will it hold?"

"Not for long," the captain said. "The air pressure is holding it in place for now. Let's seal this room, then find the cable pipes."

They made sure the doors to the observation deck were sealed, so that the rest of the ship would be airtight. Then Hajj led them to a storeroom at the back of the deck.

"Look familiar to you guys?" Dash joked. The storeroom was just like the one in which they'd been locked.

In the corner of the storeroom was an enormous industrial pipe, twice as wide around as either Captain Hajj or Dash. "This pipe is big enough to carry tons of cable inside it," Captain Hajj explained. "We use cable pipe like this so that wires aren't running all over the place.

Pa.s.sengers would trip over them."

Drawing his blaster, the captain carefully aimed along the side of the pipe and blasted several holes in the metal, then kicked in more pieces until there was a hole wide enough for them to crawl through.

Zak stuck his head inside the wide pipe. Even with a bundle of rubber- coated cables running up it, there was a lot of room inside.

Once, on a dare, he'd crawled through some ancient sewer pipes back home on Alderaan. Some of them were almost big enough to stand in. This reminded him of the sewers, only the smell was different. Not better, just different. It smelled like hot engine oil and the kind of cleaning fluids that stung his eyes.

"This won't be as hard as it looks," the captain said encouragingly. "The cables are coated with protective rubber, so they won't cut you. It'll be sort of like climbing a wall covered with ivy."

"Oh, fine," Tash muttered sarcastically. "I do that all the time."

"Let's reverse the climbing order," Dash said. "I don't want to lose anyone else. If the kids fall, we'll catch them."

Hajj agreed. "Remember," he said to the two Arrandas, "just keep climbing. The pipe leads right to the comm station. And it's only two floors up."

Zak went first. The minute he'd gotten a grip on the cables, he knew that Hajj had been right. It wasn't a difficult climb. Many of the cables were just the right thickness for him to grab, and there were so many that it was easy to use his legs to boost himself up.

Reaching to pull himself higher, Zak felt something scratch his hand. He looked just in time to see one of the small, crablike maintenance droids scurry over his fingers. Another one followed the first, clicking its little repair claw as it ran.

"Crabs," Zak said, sticking out his tongue in a look of disgust.

"I've had enough of crabs for one day. Shoo!" He shook his hand and the two droids scampered away.

Tash had no trouble keeping up with him, and below them, the captain and Dash were climbing steadily.

"This is going to work!" Dash laughed after a few minutes. "Malik can't reach us in here. You'll have your hands on him in no time, Captain.... Captain?"

"Uhhn-uhhh!" The captain's response was a startled groan. They looked down.

Captain Hajj was covered with crab droids.

CHAPTER 13.

The crab-shaped droids scurried all over the captain's body. Their metal legs p.r.i.c.ked his skin. Their repair claws tore at his clothes and bit into his flesh. One of them was clinging to his face, covering his mouth and snapping at his eyes.

Captain Hajj let go of the cables with one hand and plucked the little droids off his body. But they were fast, and several of them scurried onto his back, out of his reach, jabbing and pinching him mercilessly.

Dash started to slide back down the cable. "Hang on, Captain, I'm coming. "

One of the maintenance droids scrambled from Hajj's back onto his shoulders, looking right into his face. A tiny spout rose from its back, and a jet of liquid shot into the captain's face. The liquid hissed as it struck his skin.

Hajj screamed. Instinctively, he scratched at his burning face with both hands, letting go of the cables.

Captain Hajj dropped down the cable pipe, leaving only the echo of his cries of pain.

The crablike droids turned to Dash, Zak, and Tash, and started scrambling up the cables.

"Time to move!" Dash ordered. "Climb, climb, climb!" Zak shinnied the bundle of cables like it was a tree. "Watch out for that stuff they squirt!" Dash called out.

"It's cleansing fluid. It burns like acid!"

"How much farther?" Tash cried.

"I don't know," Zak said, but at that moment his hand touched the end of the pipe. All the cables turned and went through a metal grate.

Through the grate, Zak could see a room full of technical equipment.

"We're there."

"Kick it in!" Dash said.

Gripping the cables tightly, Zak pulled his foot up and kicked the grate. It didn't budge. He kicked again and again. On the fourth kick, the grate popped open and he shoved his legs through, sliding into the room. Tash followed headfirst.

Dash was right behind her, gritting his teeth and muttering something Zak had never heard before. It was either a different language or a swear word or both. Dragging himself into the comm room, the pilot immediately turned and reached down for his foot. A crab droid had dug its pincer into his boot and was cutting at his toe. Dash scooped the small, droid up and hurled it against the wall where it shattered into a dozen pieces.

Zak shoved the grating back into place as the rest of the crab-droids tried to scuttle through. Only when the hole was sealed off did he let out a sigh of relief.

"Captain Hajj," Tash said, her voice almost a whisper. "He was a brave man."

"No time for that," Dash said coldly. "We're here. Let's do what needs to be done."

They were definitely in the communications section. Nearby was an open corridor leading to another bank of turbolifts-the way they would have arrived at the comm room if their plans hadn't been sabotaged. As Zak walked into the room, his eyes fell on the stacks of technical equipment.

Zak remembered machinery the way most people remembered faces, and he recognized the a.s.sorted equipment as HoloNet receivers, Commnet transmitters, and a variety of translation devices that must have served the hundreds of species that traveled aboard the Star of Empire.

"Where's the transmitter?" Dash said. "That's what we need to send a distress signal."

"And we need to find it fast before Malik finds something else to throw at us," Tash agreed.

"Down there!" Zak guessed.

At the far end of the room were two doors. One was open, leading to a hallway. The other was closed. "The transmitter must be in there."

A few long-legged strides carried Dash toward the door. As he approached, the door automatically slid open, and beyond they could see several empty chairs placed before a transmitting station. Dash stepped into the open doorway.

As he did, the heavy door slammed shut with the force of a rocket, crushing Dash against the door frame.

CHAPTER 14.

The door retracted again. As Dash fell, stunned, to the ground, the door closed again, smashing into his legs.

"Dash!" Zak and Tash cried together. They were already reaching for his legs. They yanked him to safety just as the door struck at him again.

Dash Rendar didn't move.

"Is he-?" Zak asked.

Tash touched his neck and felt a pulse. "No, I think he's just knocked out. What happened to that door?"

"Malik must have happened to it," Zak guessed. He remembered the security cams SIM had mentioned. If Malik had access to the droid programming and even the door programming, then he could surely be watching them through the security monitors. "He knows we're here."

Tash tried to lay Dash out on the floor as comfortably as possible.

"So now what? This is where we wanted to be."

Zak pointed to the door. It was open again, and very inviting. It may have been his imagination, but it seemed to be humming eagerly, waiting. "I don't think either one of us wants to try going through there. Let me get some advice."

As her brother headed for a nearby computer station, Tash shook her head. "Zak, are you sure that's safe? I mean, if Malik is controlling the ship, maybe he's controlling the computer as well."

"I don't think so," Zak replied as he typed. "Remember, SIM was damaged by the fake explosion, too. Lots of his systems went down. Malik probably had to dismantle SIM to take control of the ship. I'd say SIM's on our side."

While his sister watched over Dash, Zak punched through the program to reach SIM.

HI, ZAK. WOULD YOU LIKE TO PLAY A GAME.

"You've got to work on your sense of humor," Zak typed. "We need help."

I KNOW. I TOLD YOU TO GO TO THE CONTROL ROOM. YOU'VE ONLY WASTED.

TIME.

"I know," Zak agreed. "We need to get into the transmitter room, but the door is a trap. Can you fix it?" SIM replied: I HAVE NO CONTROL OVER DOOR FUNCTIONS AT THIS TIME. IF YOU HELP ME, I WILL BE ABLE TO TAKE.

OVER ALL SHIP'S FUNCTIONS, AND HELP YOU.

There was another pause. THERE IS NO OTHER WAY. IT'S YOUR BEST MOVE.

"Tash," Zak called out. "SIM says he wants me to go to the control room. There's no other way into the transmitter room."

"Are you sure?" his sister replied. "Because I was just looking down this hallway." She pointed to the second door, the one that led to a corridor. She continued, "It looks like we could walk down that hall to the other end. There might be another entrance to the transmitter there."

"But SIM said-"

"Zak," Tash replied. "People died trying to get to this room. It's too dangerous to go to another level. We should try to find another way to send a distress signal." She stood up. "Keep an eye on Dash. I think he'll come around soon."

She approached the second door a little nervously, not wanting it to slide shut on her as the other door had on Dash. With a quick jump she hopped through the door frame. It didn't budge.

"So far so good," she said. As she started down the hallway, the door slid quietly shut behind her.

Zak waited. Dash Rendar's eyes fluttered open for a moment, but Zak could see that his eyeb.a.l.l.s had rolled back up into his head and mostly the whites were showing. Then Dash closed his eyes, heaved a deep sigh, and was out again.

A moment later, Zak heard a tap on the door, and Tash's m.u.f.fled voice came through. "Um, Zak, the door at the other end is locked. Can you open this one?"