"I didn't lock it," he replied, standing up. He approached the door, which should have slid open automatically.

It didn't move.

"Tash, I don't want to scare you," Zak said as calmly as possible.

"But I think you're locked out."

"That doesn't scare me," Tash called back. Zak noticed a faint hissing sound from on the other side of the door. "What scares me," she added with panic in her voice, "is that fact that something is sucking all the air out of this hallway. It's getting hard to breathe. I think I'm going to suffocate!"

CHAPTER 15.

Zak could hear Tash pounding on the other side of the door. He could also hear the constant hissing that meant some sort of machinery was drawing all the breathable air out of the hall where she was trapped.

"Zak?" Tash called through the door.

"I'm here."

"Remember that Jedi philosophy I've been talking about? 'Action through inaction'?"

"yes."

"Now isn't the time to follow it. Do something!"

Zak kicked the door in frustration. Then he turned and ran back to the computer terminal.

"SIM-" he started to type.

SIM erased Zak's message and replaced it with three words.

CONTROL ROOM. NOW.

"How?" Zak typed.

GO OUT TO THE TURBOLIFTS. ONE IS WAITING FOR YOU. THE CONTROL ROOM.

IS ON THE NEXT LEVEL UP. THE TURBOLIFT WILL BRING YOU RIGHT TO ME.

"I'm going to get you out, Tash!" Zak shouted.

He left Dash lying on the floor and hurried out to the turbolifts.

One of the doors slid open. Zak hesitated for a moment. Doors.

Turbolifts. He had a sudden fear of them. But he trusted SIM and he had to help Tash, so he stepped in.

To his relief, the lift rose gently upward one flight and stopped.

The door opened.

He was standing in the control room where it had all begun.

Silently, Zak swore that he'd take his own advice next time. Once again he and Tash had gotten involved with strangers and hyperjumped right into trouble. If it weren't for the computer, SIM, the situation would be even worse.

In the center of the room stood the large, black computer, the mainframe Malik had been working on. Zak guessed that this was the mainframe for SIM. He sat down in Malik's chair and started typing.

"I'm here. Now what?"

SIM came on instantly. WE NEED TO ENTER A SERIES OF COMMAND CODES.

I CAN'T ENTER THESE MYSELF. THEY HAVE TO BE TYPED IN DIRECTLY AT THE.

KEYBOARD.

A list of codes appeared on the screen. There was nothing exciting or interesting about them. They were just lines of numbers and letters like the ones in the TIE fighter game.

TYPE THOSE IN, ONE BY ONE. THEM EVERYTHING WILL BE BEADY.

Zak started typing.

"No!" The shout came out of nowhere, nearly stopping Zak's heart.

He whirled around to find Malik glaring at him, a blaster in his hand.

Malik looked terrible. His stringy hair now hung in a sweat-soaked mop on his forehead. There was a burn mark on his cheek, and another on the hand that held the blaster. That hand was also trembling. Malik's clothes were dripping with perspiration. The nasty att.i.tude he'd had before was gone. There was fear in his eyes.

This wasn't what Zak expected from the man who'd been trying to kill them for the past few hours. Malik looked more like someone who was being hunted.

"Stop what you're doing," the techie ordered. "Get away from the computer."

"I'm not doing anything," Zak lied.

"Oh, you're doing something," Malik said, stepping forward cautiously. He'd been hiding behind a bank of power converters. "You're just too stupid to know how much trouble you're getting us in."

"I'm getting us in?" Zak repeated. "You're the one setting off false alarms and killing people!"

Malik actually laughed. "Is that what you think? That I did all this?" The techie wiped spittle from the corner of his mouth. "Believe me, kid, I'm not your biggest problem. He's got you totally fooled, doesn't he? He's played you like a game of Dejarik."

He? Zak wondered. Who's he? He felt a knot tighten in his stomach.

Could he be wrong now? Could it have been Dash Rendar all along?

"Do you..." Zak hesitated. "Do you mean Dash?"

Malik groaned. "You are slow. Your biggest problem is him!" He jabbed out with his finger, pointing over Zak's shoulder. Zak whirled around.

There was no one there.

No one, except the black cube. The computer mainframe. SIM.

Zak was bewildered. Malik wasn't making any sense. "No. SIM won't be a problem once I have all his systems back on-line."

Malik shook his head. "No. All his systems are online-at least all the ones that are supposed to be. Don't you know what SIM is?"

"Sure," Zak answered. "Systems Integration Manager. An artificial intelligence that can work different programs-"

"No, no, no!" Malik shouted. Zak was sure the techie had gone insane. "S- I-M stands for Systems Infiltration Manager!"

"Infiltration?" Zak repeated. "You mean like spying?"

"And sabotage," Malik agreed.

Zak shook his head. "I don't get it. You're saying SIM is a weapon?"

"SIM is the weapon," Malik said. There was a hint of pride in his voice. "He's far deadlier than a turbolaser or a proton torpedo. SIM is a program that can be inserted into enemy ships. It takes over completely, and because it's an artificial intelligence, it can think for itself, making plans, changing schemes when it has to. As soon as it infiltrates the computer system, it turns any vessel into a doomsday ship. Its only problem is that it works too well!"

Zak looked into Malik's eyes. They burned with a fierce light.

As Malik spoke, two small vents opened up in the floor behind him, and two crab droids crawled out, creeping quietly up behind the techie.

They would have surprised him, but one of the little droids snapped its pincers.

Despite his crazed appearance, Malik was alert. The minute he heard the click he dove to the side, slipping away from the streams of acid that the crabs fired. He aimed his blaster and fired twice, turning the crab droids into small piles of slag.

Malik brushed the hair from his eyes. His mouth moved, but Zak wasn't sure if the techie was talking to Zak or himself. "It's been after me. It's been after me for hours now. I can't get out. Blaster running low on power." He looked at Zak. "I can see you don't believe me. I'm sorry about that, I really am, because I can't allow SIM to get any stronger. I can't allow you to do that."

He pointed his blaster at Zak.

CHAPTER 16.

Malik never had a chance to pull the trigger. He was. .h.i.t by another blaster shot, a stun bolt that sent him sprawling.

Dash Rendar stood behind Malik's unconscious body. He was holding a small blaster in his hand and he was smiling despite his wounds. "I thought you might be able to use some help."

"Thanks," Zak said gratefully. "But I thought you lost your blaster."

"Lesson number one for you, kid," Dash said. He picked up Malik's blaster, then slipped his own smaller one into a holster hidden in his boot. "Always carry a spare."

The pilot looked at Malik. "So what's his story? I couldn't hear what he was saying, but his voice sounded like he was a few ships short of a fleet."

"Yeah, I think he was insane," Zak agreed. "I don't know what's going on, but I do know that Tash is still trapped down there. I need to save her, and SIM can help me."

Quickly, he finished entering the codes SIM had given him. When he was done, he expected some sort of signal. A click. A pop. A bing.

Anything to signify a change in the program. But there was nothing.

He typed, "SIM, are you there?"

Nothing appeared on the computer screen. Instead, Zak and Dash heard a strange rustling sound in the air around them. They realized it was coming from speakers set into the walls-the same speakers that had broadcast the abandon ship alarm throughout the Star of Empire.

Now those speakers sputtered and cracked, like a person trying to clear his throat.

Zak repeated his typed message: "SIM, are you there?"

"Yes," a voice said out of the loudspeakers. "I am here."

Zak and Dash jumped. Zak felt the knot in his stomach tighten farther. "SIM? C-Can you hear me?" he said aloud.

The voice that came out of the speakers was calm, almost soothing.

"Yes, I can hear you. And see you."

"So it worked?"

"Oh, yes," SIM replied. "It worked very well. I now have complete control of the ship."

"Great," Zak said, leaping out of his seat, his stomach knot loosening a bit. "Then set Tash free!"

"I'm afraid I can't do that, Zak."

The knot pulled tight again. "What do you mean?"

SIM's voice replied, "Well, to be perfectly honest, I can do it. I just won't do it."

"W-Why not?'

"Because I'm the one who put her there."

CHAPTER 17.

Fear burned through Zak's insides like a blaster bolt. "Y-You did that?"