brushing himself off. "About time, Ponda," he told the new
arrival, stepping to the table to switch the lights back on.
The returning illumination revealed another Aqualish male
clutching a freshly fired blaster. But Ponda Baba's left hand was
the hairy, talon-fingered hand of one of the lesser Aqualish race.
The right hand and the forearm to which it was fixed were
artificial, and of a rather crude mechanical type, their skeletal
metal frame uncovered by bioflesh.
"You're lucky," Ponda replied in a growl, shoving his blaster
back into a holster. "I almost left you to take them all
yourself."
With that he turned and clomped out of the room.
The Andoan senator was just rising from beneath the dining
table. Evazan holstered his own weapon and looked to his guest
apologetically.
"Sorry. In the old days, Ponda Baba would have been in here
like a shot. A real team we were then."
"He ... ah ... works for you?" the senator said, still
recovering from shock.
"We were partners," the doctor tersely explained.
The senator seemed dismayed by that. "You know, he is of the
lowest caste here on Ando. Its people have dubious morals and most
violent habits. They are treated with so much contempt that few of
them stay on our planet. They go off and often become galactic
criminals."
"Well, Ponda couldn't have been a better pal to me," Evazan
said, pouring out stiff drinks for them both. "That is, until one
day on Tatooine. Had a run-in at the Mos Eisley Cantina there. An
old man "with a Jedi lightsaber took off Ponda's right arm for
helping me. After that we had a kind of falling-out."
"He's here now," the senator pointed out. "And it does seem he
just saved your life."
"Well, I still owe him an arm," the doctor explained. "He's had
trouble raising enough credits for a good bionic replacement. So
we've set up an uneasy alliance until I can help him out. I supply
an arm, he works as my bodyguard . . . supposedly." He took a deep
draft of his ale.
"What about them?" asked the senator, looking toward the downed
attackers.
"Them?" said Evazan, shrugging carelessly. "Just more bounty
hunters. Must have climbed all the way up here."
He set down his glass and walked toward one of the bodies. It
was clad in a gray jumpsuit and helmet, like the other two, with
an equipment belt around the waist. He rolled it over with a foot,
revealing the staring, slack-jawed face of a human male, swarthy
of complexion, lean and sharp of feature.
Evazan eyed a small device attached at the man's waist.
"They used individual field disrupters to get through the
screens," he said thoughtfully. "Looks like a new type. I'll have
to boost shield power." He looked around to the Aqualish, adding
testily, "Senator, I shouldn't have to worry about this kind of
thing at all. You're supposed to be protecting me, making sure no
one can even get near here with equipment like that."
"We can't screen and search everyone who comes to the planet,"
the senator said defensively. "The security we've provided for you
is already very great and incredibly expensive."
Evazan shook his head. "Still not enough. This is the third
attempt on my life here. They get better every time."
"We had rather assumed that hiding you in such a fortress on
such an isolated isle would be protection enough," the senator
returned with an indignant tone. "Of course, we didn't know then
that half the galaxy was trying to hunt you down."
Evazan stepped back toward him. "Are you saying I'm not worth
it?" he demanded.
"It is that very point about which I'm here," was the stern
reply.
"All right," the doctor assented. "We'll talk about it." He
waved at the dining table. "Do you want to finish our meal first?"
The senator looked at their plates still filled with food.
"Eat?" he said, then looked toward the bodies. "What about them?"
"Oh, Rover will take care of it," said Evazan.
The blob had already crawled up to one of the dead men. drawing
its viscous mass over the form, engulfing and hiding it. The
creature began to quiver in excitement and gave forth a slurping
noise.
"He cleans up all leftovers," Evazan said. "It's part of why
I've been able to train him with such ease. He's so well fed
here."
"I'm really not very hungry anymore," the Aqualish said. He sat
down and took a very deep gulp of ale. "Let's just get on to the
point of my visit, shall we? I don't want to ... I mean, I don't
have much time to stay here."
"Fine," said the doctor, taking a seat, too. "What's your
problem?"
"Credits," the senator replied bluntly. "This whole project has
gotten at of hand. Supplying this place and your laboratory
facilities was costly enough. And now there's security. This
incident only underscores the problem. It's costing our government
a fortune!"
"And well worth one," Evazan returned, leaning forward on the
table to speak with intensity. "For decades now you've been all
but slaves of the Empire, living by its orders. You've lost your
pride and your identity to survive. Just how much are you willing
to pay to get loose from your chains?"
Rover had finished ingesting the first body. Leaving only a man-
shaped wet spot on the stone, it crawled to a second form.
"No amount would be too great to be free of the Empire," the
senator admitted, trying not to watch the creature's grisly work.
"Still, my appropriations subcommittee needs reassurance to
continue your financing. Our present budget squeeze-"
"Your budget be scorched!" Evazan shouted. "When I finish my
research, you'll have a secret so valuable to the Empire that
they'll give you your freer dom and anything else you'd want."
"Yes, yes, so you assure us," the senator replied. "But we've
had little evidence of late to support your claims for some great
medical breakthrough. Perhaps if you give me some proofs of your
progress, something solid I can take back, then I can convince
them to go on."
"Fair enough," the doctor conceded. "I'll show you how very
close to total success I am. It's already been tested several
different ways. In fact, I only need one last thing to prove my
breakthrough works. I have to find a specimen of a human male-a
young, strong, healthy, perfectly formed one."
The senator's large eyes narrowed in curiosity. "Why?"
"You'll see for yourself." Evazan got to his feet. "I'll take
you down to the laboratory right now."
The senator looked up at him. "To your . . . laboratory?" he
said with clear misgivings. "Is that really necessary, Doctor?
Surely some other evidence would suffice. Research data, perhaps,
or-"
"I insist," Evazan said. "You have to see what I've done here
for yourself!"
The Aqualish sighed and, with great reluctance, got to his
fee
t.
"This way, Senator," said the doctor, ushering him from the
room.
Behind them the Meduza noisily finished its second meal and
moved on to the final course. The third dead man lay curled
halfway on his side. A small comlink unit attached to his belt was
partly visible. The tiny green "power on" indicator light was
aglow . . .
Outside the castle, not far above the windows, a single figure
clung to the sheer stone wall-a man of slender build and dark
complexion, with hawkish features, deep brown eyes, and a black
mustache. He was clad like the three dead men.
Both his feet and one hand were wedged in narrow cracks to hold
him in the precarious spot, his body pressed tight to the wall
against the tearing wind. His free hand held his own comlink close
to one ear.
He had listened in on the conversation between Evazan and the
senator. He had heard the two depart. Now he listened to the
grotesque squooshing sound as the creature enveloped his last
comrade.
With a crackling of shorted power the comlink channel went
dead, and the man's face tightened into a grim expression.
Hanging his comlink back on his belt, he clambered up the casde
wall with great dexterity, onto a slanting section of roof. A long-
range comlink unit in backpack form was fastened to the smooth
slate by suction-support webbing. Cramming his body into a corner
between the roof and a spire to secure himself against the wind,
he pulled the conlink headset from the pack and spoke urgently
into its mouthpiece.
"Hello, Mother? It's Gurion. Do you copy?" He looked up to the
clouded sky with some concern. "Are you still up there?"
"Still in orbit, Gur," came a reply. "What's the report?"
"All dead," Gurion answered bluntly. "All but me. Evazan must
have some heavy protection inside there. They were the best."
After a heavy silence, the voice came again, carrying a tone of
sorrow not fully masked. "That's it, then. You get off there, Gur.
Right now. We'll pick you up."
"No. Not me," he said firmly. "I'm going to go inside, get
close to him. It's the only way to be sure of nailing him."
"By yourself?" said the voice in surprise. "That's suicide!"
"If it has to be. I don't care," Gurion said fiercely. "I mean
to get to him, and I think I know how!"
Within the casde, Evazan and guest descended a long spiraling
stairway. The deeper they went into the mysterious lower sanctums
of the doctor's lair, the more apologetic the Andoan senator
became.
"For my part, there's never been a question of your integrity,"
the alien explained in a voice pitched ever higher by his rising
concern. "It's my Senate colleagues who have been picking up
rumors. Some are saying you have the death sentence on ten
systems."
"Twelve, actually," Evazan said carelessly. "It may be more by
now. I haven't checked."
"Really?" said the senator, his voice rising a bit more. "And
then there have been tales of some of your ... ah ... medical
practices."
"I won't deny there's some truth to them, too," the doctor
admitted. "I don't apologize for what I've done. It was all to a
good end."
They reached the bottom of the stairwell. Evazan unlocked and
opened a massive metal door. It creaked back on its hinges, and
they both passed through.
Beyond, a single space took up all the huge castle's basement
area. Squat pillars and heavy arches of stone held up the high
ceiling. Stretching into the far shadows, bank after bank of large
glass cylinders glowed faintly, filled with gold liquid . . . and
something else. The senator stepped forward, staring in shock.
Each cylinder appeared to contain some type of being.
He walked farther forward, looking down a row of creatures
floating in amber fluid. There were giant Wookiees and diminutive
Jawas, skeletonlike Givins and one-eyed Abbyssins. There were
horned humanoids from Devaron and insectlike creatures of the
Kibnon race, along with countless other species from planets all
across the galaxy.
"Are they . . . dead?" the senator nervously inquired, peering
into the cylinder of a reptilian Arcona wh o stared back with
blank, jewellike eyes.
"Unfortunately," said Evazan. "Preserved in my special
embalming fluid. They're some of my patients who didn't survive my
surgical attempts to help them. But the medical work I did on them
has still been of great value to me."
The senator looked at the corpses again, more closely. All had
been worked upon in a manner that might loosely have been termed
"surgical," though the word "butchery" might better have been
applied. Most were mutilated, their bodies slashed open, various
limb parts or organs missing. In some cases the beings' own
elements had been replaced with things quite clearly alien.
"I say they've helped me," Evazan went on, walking down a row
of his "patients." "Mostly by showing where my research had
reached a dead end" - he cast the senator a ghastly smile - "if
you'll pardon the expression."
"You experimented on them?" the senator said in horror.
Evazan waved the idea away. "Of course not. I meant to help
them through my creative techniques. I intended to give them
greater health and longer life. In theory, at least."
He touched the cylinder holding the eviscerated form of a
rodentlike Ranat. "I've devoted my whole life to helping others.
They've called me a madman, a criminal, for my pains. But no one's
understood. I was only using my skills to re-form life in various
ways, trying to create something better." He sighed and looked
back to the Aqualish. "But it wasn't enough."
The senator looked up and down the long ranks of the doctor's
victims. "Not enough?"
"Physical alteration wasn't enough."
The doctor moved on to the next cylinder. Within was a
particularly hideous specimen. It was a creature that had been
constructed of parts scavenged from dozens of different beings,
stitched and stapled together to form a patchwork monstrosity.
"As you see, even cutting and splicing together the best of the
galaxy's body parts couldn't achieve the effect I wanted." He
lifted a hand to touch the scarred right side of his skull. "No,
it was the mind that was the key. That's why my research took a
new direction. Come over here."
He led the way along the cylinder rows and into a large area in
the middle of the room. Here a complex assemblage of electronic
equipment towered to the ceiling in a rather precarious way. Its
various systems, rigged together with tangled festoons of wire,
crackled and sizzled uneasily even with the minimal power input
now running through them.
The key feature of this haphazard but high-tech pile was two
platforms set with operating tables. Straps clearly meant to
restrain subjects added to their sinister look. Above each an odd,
sievelike dev
ice dangled by a dozen wires from a pivoting boom.
More wires connected these to the central machine.
"This is my transfer instrument," Evazan said proudly. "The
main components were modified from advanced Imperial
transmogrification units originally intended to alter droid
programming. Ponda and I managed to 'liberate' this equipment from
an Imperial research facility. But I've adapted it to use on
living beings."
The senator had been staring with mixed awe and skepticism at
the dubious-appearing mass. Now he looked at Evazan in disbelief.
"Living beings?"
"Living brains also store their gained knowledge
electronically, much like a recording. That record can be altered,
erased ... or moved. The means to do it is now sitting before
you."
"To what end?"
"To have something no one has ever had before," said the doctor
grandly. "I'm finally on the brink of creating a practical form of
immortality!"
The senator's disbelieving look grew more pronounced. "You are
joking, Doctor."
"No joke at all," said the other. He moved closer, speaking
with sober intensity. "Just think of it! Not even the greatest of
the Jedi Masters with all their powers over matter have achieved a
real immortality. They may be able to prolong life to some extent,
but they still decay and die eventually. My method will transfer
the higher levels of a being's intelligence into a fresh, new body
whenever needed, just by the flick of a switch. Think how valuable
that would be to the Empire. Their greatest rulers, their finest
military minds could live on forever, gathering even more
knowledge with each lifetime."
"I suppose that is something the Empire would pay almost
anything for," said the Aqualish, but with grave misgivings in his
tone. "If the thing works."
"It'll work," Evazan said confidently, "and I'll soon be able
to prove it." He grinned in sardonic delight. "Ironic, isn't it,
that Evazan, the one they've called Dr. Death, will be the one to
create such eternal life!"
A nearby intercom console beeped an alert to an incoming
transmission. Evazan turned to see the face of Ponda Baba appear
in its tiny viewscreen as a voice came with some urgency from the
speaker.
"Evazan, someone is at our door!"
"Our door?" the doctor repeated.
"At the sea gate below the castle. Says his aqua-speeder just
Star Wars - Tales From The Mos Eisley Cantina Page 36
