Star Wars - Episode I Adventures 005 - The Ghostling Children

by Dave Wolverton

  “Please, don’t shoot me,” the protocol droid begged. “My gyro balance circuitry will be thrown off for days! Here, have my locomotor — I’ll give you anything you want.”

  The droid began opening his forward access panel.

  “Utini!” Pala shouted to Anakin in Jawa. “Let's go!” She pulled Anakin around and raced down the left half of the T. The droids all began shouting, “Help! Help! Jawas!”

  This isn’t going the way I thought it would, Anakin realized with dread.

  He came to a door marked SECURITY, and punched a button.

  The door slid up, and he had a brief glimpse inside. A horribly scarred man in a dark gray uniform was sitting at a desk. He was studying some monitor screens on the wall. One of them showed Dorn in a room, releasing hundreds of giant bugs from their cages.

  “Jawas,” the man was muttering in concern. “Thieving little rats.” He reached for a red button marked ALARM.

  Anakin pulled up his ion blaster and fired.

  The blue circles of ionized gas hurtled from the blaster and hit the control panel. Sparks erupted from the panel. Monitors on the wall exploded. The guard ducked to avoid the flying glass and caught sight of Anakin.

  “You dirty little Jawa!” he screamed in rage. He pulled a heavy blaster from his holster.

  Pala did the only thing that a reasonable person could do in such a situation. She hit the close button on the door. It whisked shut just as the guard pulled his trigger.

  Anakin heard the pinging sound of the blaster bolt ricocheting through the room. Then there was a dull thud as the security guard plopped to the floor.

  “Oh no,” Anakin exclaimed in terror. “I hope he’s not dead!”

  “Maybe we’d better hope that he is dead,” Pala corrected. She grabbed his arm. “Come on, I think we need to go this way!”

  Anakin, Pala, Dorn, and Kitster reached the door to the slaves’ infirmary at the same time.

  Farther back in the fortress, Anakin could hear Gamorreans yelling. Someone had discovered the giant bugs. That would keep them busy!

  Dorn pulled out his electronic lock overrider and quickly got the infirmary door open.

  The infirmary was dark. Bacta tanks, lighted from beneath and filled with water, bubbled in one corner. Beds filled the middle of the room.

  In a corner was the energy cage, with the Ghostling children inside. The cage looked like a simple black platform, but a shimmering blue haze surrounded it. The Ghostling children all lay on the platform, sound asleep.

  In front of the cage stood a guard — a great big cyclops from the planet Byss.

  The giant scrutinized them with its huge eye, and growled in its best approximation of Huttese, “Hey, what are you Jawas doing here?”

  Anakin’s heart froze. He didn’t know much about giants from Byss, but he’d heard they were practically impossible to kill, and they were as dumb as rocks.

  Anakin strode to the front of the door to distract the giant while Dorn unhooked his overrider from the circuitry.

  Anakin answered in a high voice, as if he were a Jawa who had somehow mastered Huttese, “You go. We guard prisoners.”

  The cyclops opened its eye wide in delight. “Really?” Anakin could tell that no one had ever bothered to relieve it from guard duty before. People always treated dumb giants from Byss as if they were... well, dumb giants from Byss.

  “Go now. We guard,” Anakin repeated.

  The huge cyclops lumbered out the door, much to everyone’s relief.

  Anakin rushed over to the cage. The locking mechanism on it looked very sophisticated. As he knelt to study it, one of the Ghostling children stirred in her sleep — the girl he’d spoken to earlier that day.

  She glanced up at Anakin and instantly came awake. She carefully disentangled herself from the children she’d been holding. She tried to get up, but she was badly bruised, and she gasped in pain. As she climbed to her feet, the children began to stir. “Wake up,” she told them. “We’re getting out of here!”

  Anakin watched the frail Ghostling children with rising concern. They’d had a rough trip here, and all of them were badly bruised and injured. He’d imagined that they’d all run off with him, but now he wasn’t so sure.

  Anakin heard the sound of booted feet running down a side corridor, out in the hallway. Some Niktos were shouting in their crude language, listening to a communicator.

  Kitster and his friends closed the door. They all knelt quietly as the Nikto guards ran past.

  Anakin could hear part of the Niktos’ conversation over the communicator as they sprinted past. “There’s a mora beetle chasing Mistress Gardulla around in the pool,” someone warned. “But watch the south corridor. Ghost spydrs are stringing webs everywhere!”

  Anakin was trembling. He’d hoped to sneak into the compound quietly and save the Ghostling children without anyone knowing. Now the whole fortress was as busy as a Ferrelian anthive.

  “Oh no,” Dorn said as he knelt by the door. “We just locked ourselves in! And I can’t get at the electronic wires from in here!”

  “Here, get me out of this cage,” Arawynne said. “I know how to get us out of this room!”

  Dorn ran over with his overrider kit, clipped it to the cage’s electronic lock, and got to work. It was a long process. The lock on the energy cage was a tough one to open. Sweat glistened on his forehead.

  “How can we get out of here?” Anakin asked Arawynne.

  “Blow the door open!” Arawynne said. Blowing the door open sounded dangerous. Someone might get hurt. Besides, it was sure to attract unwanted attention.

  “Blow it open with what?” Pala asked.

  “Look over on the counter. There’s a box of transmitters,” Arawynne said. She pointed to a small box on the counter. They were the same transmitters that Gardulla’s doctor would have implanted in Arawynne and the others. “We can use those to blow up the door.”

  Anakin ran to the box. The transmitters were small wafers about the size of his thumbnail. The black exterior was made of axidite, and a set of numbers was painted on it.

  A white component to the transmitter housed some circuitry. Anakin was good with electronics.

  The white piece had to have a small receiver in it. That way, when Gardulla sent a signal to the transmitter telling it to blow up, it would blow up.

  There were dozens of transmitters in the box. With them lay a transmitter that carried the numeric codes.

  Boy, Anakin thought. I sure wish I could put one of these transmitters in Gardulla! If I did, she’d treat everyone better from now on!

  He picked up a transmitter, memorized the number, and carried it to the door. He wedged the wafer between the door and wall, up by the electronic lock.

  Just then, Dorn got the energy cage to turn off. The shimmering blue field of energy disappeared.

  Arawynne and the Ghostling children were free. Now, he had to get them to safety.

  “Everybody watch out!” Anakin said. He got the little transmitter and pushed in the code numbers. He made sure that everyone was well-hidden behind walls and operating tables, and then pushed the SEND button.

  The transmitter roared. Flame filled the passageway, and the door evaporated into dust. Smoke filled the room.

  Anakin raised his head above the operating table. He stared wide-eyed at the gaping hole.

  Now he knew what he’d look like if the transmitter in his own body ever exploded.

  “Hurry!” Kitster shouted. “We have to get away from here before the guards come.”

  “Where to?” Dorn asked.

  “The Ghostlings won’t be able to run far or fast,” Anakin warned.

  “I’ve got to think.” Kitster held his head in terror. “No matter which way we run, the security cameras will spot us!”

  “No they won't,” Anakin promised. “I shot them with my ion blaster.”

  “Great! I have an idea,” Kitster said. “Let’s go!” He began to lead the Ghostling children from th
e room as fast as he could.

  Anakin grabbed the box of transmitters and the transmitter, shoving them into his pocket. They might come in handy later.

  Kitster quickly led the children to a nearby elevator. As the door closed, he heard the sound of booted feet rushing down the hall toward the infirmary.

  A smoke alarm began blaring. Breeep. Breeep. Breeep.

  He closed the elevator door, and just stood for a moment, thinking.

  With all of the guards coming down to sublevel six, the best thing to do was to take the elevator up, away from the danger.

  But that would just leave them stranded higher on the mountain.

  Even a short run had left the Ghostlings winded, out of breath. They were from a world where the gravity was far lighter than here. They’d never be able to run all the way to the exit. They’d never be able to make the trip to town.

  Kitster doubted that he and his friends could carry them all. Besides, even touching one of the Ghostlings left them bruised.

  He looked up, catching Pala’s eyes. “Where to?” she asked.

  He couldn’t think of a plan, not an easy one.

  “Maybe we can fly out of here,” he said. He pressed the elevator button, launching it up six floors.

  “You’re crazy,” Pala objected. “We can’t fly!”

  “We’ve got to find some way to get the Ghostlings to safety,” Kitster objected. “Anakin could fly. He’d be a good pilot.”

  The elevator stopped, and the door opened into the air hangar. They were under the huge dome of the fortress. There were dozens of ships here: Corellian freighters, light cruisers, even a couple of Z-95 headhunters. Maintenance droids worked single-mindedly fueling and cleaning the ships.

  The domed roof, which could open to let ships in and out, was closed for the night.

  Anakin looked at the dome, and at the ships sitting quietly. “It won’t work,” he said. “We’d have to get the dome open in order to fly out. And as soon as we did, Gardulla’s gunners on the towers would shoot us down. We’ll have to sneak out. We’ll have to find another way.”

  Kitster looked back at Arawynne. One of the Ghostlings, a small boy, was sobbing.

  “How far do you think you can run?” Kitster asked. It was a long way from here to the vent, where they’d stored their weapons.

  “Not much farther,” Arawynne said.

  Pala offered the only sensible answer to the problem. “We’ll have to hide them for now and come back later. But where?”

  Kitster thought quickly. There were dozens of places — one of the ships nearby, or one of the storage rooms. But those areas would be searched first, and most thoroughly. Besides, there was no telling how soon he could come back to get them.

  Kitster answered, “I’ve got an idea. Come with me!”

  He led them across the flight deck, and through a hallway beyond. He figured with bugs downstairs, and Jawas, and explosions, everyone in the fortress would be looking for them down below. There was one place that they wouldn’t suspect.

  He led them all to a huge iron door that was almost never used, and pressed a button.

  The door whisked open, and with it came the smell of fresh air, trees, water, moss, and rocks. The dome above was covered in transparisteel that let in the starlight. In that light, Kitster could see the twisting trunks of trees. Huge luminous moths danced in the air above some flowering vines. Fans stirred the air, and in the distance he could hear running water.

  “Welcome to Gardulla’s pleasure garden,” Kitster announced.

  “But didn’t you say that there are animals in here that eat people... or Ghostlings,” Pala objected.

  “Not yet,” Kitster said. “Not for months. Gardulla’s foresters aren’t done. They’ve been working all season, planting trees and flowers, and now they’re almost done. They’re Ho’Din.”

  The Ho’Din were a peaceful people from the planet Moltok. Their very name, Ho’Din, meant “walking flowers.” They were tall and lean, with gorgeous red and violet scales that hung from their heads like hair. They loved nature.

  Kitster would be willing to bet his own life that the Ho’Din would help hide the Ghostlings. Indeed, he was betting the lives of the Ghostling children.

  Something pale, like an ugly spydr, crawled toward them through the door.

  “No animals you say?” Dorn asked. “I wouldn’t go in there with that.”

  “That’s not an animal,” Arawynne corrected. The Ghostling Princess knelt and picked the thing up. “It’s called a knobby white spydr, but it’s not really a spydr. It’s more like a seed — a seed that walks. It pulls itself off of a gnarltree. Then it goes looking for a place to plant itself.”

  “We can’t have them stay in there,” Pala said. “It’s spooky.”

  “If there are gnarltrees,” Arawynne said, “then it will feel like home. There will be good places to hide, down among the roots.”

  “I’ll come back for you,” Kitster promised Arawynne and the children. “I’ll bring you food. And when the excitement has died down, I’ll figure out how to get you home.”

  “We all will,” Anakin promised.

  Arawynne stared at her rescuers for a long moment, and choked back a sob. “Thank you,” she said in a husky voice. “Thank you.” She gathered the children and led them into Gardulla’s pleasure garden.

  Kitster led his friends through the fortress. They climbed through more air vents and ducts, through abandoned tunnels that few people knew about.

  Only Kitster’s knowledge of the fortress saved them.

  Once, Anakin had to use transmitter caps to blow up a guard droid, just to create enough of a diversion so that he and his friends could get out of a jam.

  It seemed that everyone in Gardulla’s fortress was awake, searching for the Ghostling children. Anakin and his friends were constantly running, hiding from the sounds of approaching guards. Kitster snuck back to his quarters, wishing his friends luck.

  Anakin was afraid that someone would come up behind him, so every once in awhile he’d hide the tiny transmitters on his trail — wedging them between cracks in the rock, tossing them onto the floor where mouse droids might pick them up, or dropping them down air shafts.

  An hour before dawn they were creeping through an old mine shaft toward Gardulla’s pool room when Anakin heard the sound that he dreaded most.

  In a long tunnel behind him, he heard the repulsor engines of a seeker droid — a floating ball, made specifically to hunt down runaway slaves.

  Seeker droids have lots of expensive sensors in them — sniffers, DNA sequencers. If this droid had his scent, there was no way that he’d escape! It could hunt for him all across Tatooine, even if it took years.

  Worse than that, behind the seeker droid, he heard the march of iron feet. Bigger droids were following the seeker, and they’d have ion shielding. There was no way that he could fight battle droids with his Jawa ion blaster.

  In desperation, Anakin tossed the rest of the box of transmitters to the ground and shouted, “Run for it!”

  There was only one way to escape. He had to set the transmitters off all at once, blowing the seeker droid into such tiny pieces that it could never be repaired.

  His friends sped toward the pool room. Anakin reached it too, but while his friends all raced for the vent, he stood beside the door, transmitter in hand, and punched in the command to blow up all of the transmitters at once.

  He glanced back into the corridor.

  The seeker droid glided around the corner, coming toward him. Its chemo-receptors were extended, and its electronic eye swiveled like a searchlight. It spotted him and let out an electronic squeal, warning the battle droids behind.

  Six battle droids loped forward into the corridor, heavy blaster rifles in hand. As one they knelt and opened fire.

  Anakin leaped for cover behind the doorway. Blaster fire swept through the pool room in a glowing barrage. He checked to make sure that his friends were all right.

&nbs
p; Pala and Dorn were safely across the room, out of the line of fire, climbing into the air vent. But they weren’t out of danger yet. Anakin had to destroy those droids!

  He gritted his teeth and waited until the blaster fire stopped. The seeker droid hummed and began to glide toward him. The battle droids marched behind it.

  He listened hard, trying to tell where they were in the hallway behind. He had to time his attack just right.

  There was a part of himself that Anakin was just beginning to learn to touch, a sense that he had not yet mastered. Sometimes, when he was racing his Podracer, he could let himself go, simply feel the path ahead.

  Now he fought to calm himself, to touch that peaceful center. He listened hard for the sound of the droids, but sounds were tricky down here in the tunnels. The curve of the tunnel and the uneven ceilings made it hard to judge distance by sound alone.

  He waited until he thought it was almost too late. Then he pushed the send button.

  Fire filled the tunnel, and the whole mountain fortress seemed to groan. Scraps of the seeker droid and battle droids shot past Anakin so fast he couldn’t even judge what they’d been. Smoke roiled from the cave, and the ground trembled violently. In some places, he could tell, entire caverns were collapsing. Gardulla’s fortress continued to tremble.

  Anakin raced to the air vent. Smoke burned his eyes, and the vent became unbearable. He crawled through as quickly as he could, holding his breath.

  When he reached the opening, he didn’t have time to sit and wait or to worry about whether he might be seen. He had to get out of the vent, get to fresh air.

  He grabbed onto the fibercord and dropped over the edge of the wall, letting himself down as quickly as he dared, hand-over-hand.

  Only then did he dare look up to see if he’d been spotted.

  A Jawa sandcrawler was rolling over the desert past the fortress, its huge treads creaking. It looked like it was heading toward the rendezvous out by Market Rock. It made a rumbling noise like distant thunder.

  From the upper walls of Gardulla’s fortress, a gunner fired a blaster cannon. Perhaps he thought that the Jawas were coming to attack in full force, given the disturbance that Anakin and his friends had caused.