Part 3 (1/2)

Platt shrugged. ”Think anything you want.”

Zak frowned. ”Do you ever work for the Empire?”

The smuggler laughed. ”I might, if the price was right. But mostly I carry stuff the Empire says is illegal to people who want it anyway. So I guess you could say I work for the other side.”

Zak's eyes brightened. ”Do you ever work for the Rebellion?”

”Sometimes. I don't mind doing a job for them now and then, when they can pay. I consider it a bonus to be able to stick it to the Imps.”

”Imps?” he asked.

”Imperials,” Platt said. ”I don't really take sides, but if I had my way, all the Imps could jump into hypers.p.a.ce and never jump back.”

That was good enough for Zak.

Platt, the Twi'lek called Tru'eb, and the rest of their gang were trying to set up a new base of operations. Because of all the Imperial activity in every corner of s.p.a.ce, not to mention compet.i.tion from other smugglers, they wanted to find someplace unknown to the rest of the galaxy. Platt had heard of the information stored at the Research Academy and decided to make use of it.

Tash and Hoole had been reviewing information about Dagobah. They found Zak and Platt and brought them up to date on what they had learned.

”Dagobah is covered by swamps,” Tash said. ”The research team that went to study it never returned. We found only a few of their recorded entries. It looks like they started having trouble after a couple of months on the planet. They sent out a distress signal, but no one answered it, at least not by the time they made their last entry.

”It appears that the automatic distress signal was picked up years later by a pa.s.sing freighter,” Hoole said. ”They recovered the team's research logs, but found no survivors.”

Zak's jaw dropped. ”And this is where we're going? It sounds dangerous.”

Platt yawned. ”Relax, kid. Those science teams are usually a bunch of pinheads who spend all their time looking at bugs and not watching where they're going. Besides, I want someplace no one else wants to go.”

”So do we,” said Tash.

”Yeah, well, I've been meaning to ask you,” the smuggler said. ”Why are you looking for a deserted planet? Are you in some kind of trouble?”

Hoole answered her question. ”We need to avoid the Imperials. Let's leave it at that.”

”So you're on the run,” Platt said. ”You're welcome to come with us to Dagobah for now. Once we've laid low for a while and checked the place out, we can think about what to do next.”

Zak knew Hoole would accept Platt's terms. What choice did they have? They didn't have a s.h.i.+p of their own anymore.

”Very well,” Hoole said.

The trip to Dagobah took less than a standard day. The planet was fairly close to normal s.p.a.ce routes-it was just that no one ever bothered to stop there.

The Last Chance dropped out of hypers.p.a.ce, and Platt made one orbit around the planet, scanning it with the s.h.i.+p's sensors. ”I'm getting major life-form readings,” she said. ”There's something alive down there.”

”A lot of somethings,” Zak said. Platt had allowed her pa.s.sengers to sit in the c.o.c.kpit during the landing. Zak stared through the viewscreen at the glowing green ball that was Dagobah.

Tash, who had been studying the planet intently, suddenly whispered, ”There's something weird there.”

”What was that, Tash?” Hoole asked.

Tash blinked as though coming out of a trance. ”I... I don't know.

I just got a feeling.”

”Perhaps we should reconsider landing here,” Hoole said to Platt.

The smuggler laughed. ”What, because your niece has a case of nerves? Happens to kids during s.p.a.ce travel sometimes. Forget it.”

”We have learned to trust Tash's feelings,” Hoole explained. ”They have saved our lives several times.”

”Is it a bad feeling, Tash?” Zak asked, wis.h.i.+ng he had her intuition. She always seemed to know what was going to happen before it did.

Tash shrugged. ”No, not a bad feeling. A good feeling. Well, no, not exactly good either . . .”

”Well, no matter what you're feeling, we're landing now, so strap yourselves in,” Platt said.

The ride down into Dagobah's atmosphere rattled their bones. The s.h.i.+p's frame groaned and squealed. Platt and Tru'eb had to scramble to keep from crash-landing. As it was, their s.h.i.+p hit the ground a little too fast and plunged into the swampy surface of Dagobah.

”Everyone all right?” Platt called out.

”I feel like all my teeth got knocked loose,” Zak said.

Platt grinned. ”First rule of piloting: If your pa.s.sengers can answer the question, then the landing was good. Let's see the sights.”

She popped out of her crashwebbing and hurried to the hatch. Tru'eb and the rest of the smugglers followed. Zak, Tash, and Hoole brought up the rear of the small party.

The moment Platt opened the hatch, a thick odor flooded into the s.h.i.+p from outside.

”Ugh!” Zak almost gagged. ”It smells like rotting leaves.”

”Rotting something, anyway,” Platt said, wrinkling her nose. ”Come on, let's go.”

Zak, Tash, Uncle Hoole, and the smugglers stepped out onto the world called Dagobah.

The atmosphere was dark and wet. The ground was covered with pools of water, sometimes ankle-deep, sometimes much deeper. Even the higher ground was muddy and squished under their boots. Gigantic gnarled trees rose up all around them, reaching into a dark roof of branches and leaves so thick they blocked out the sun.

”They're called gnarltrees,” Tash said, pointing to the trees.

”That's what the records say.”

Zak grimaced, irritated that, as usual, Tash knew more than he did.

”Whatever they're called, they sure make it dark down here.”

”We've got glowrods,” Platt said. She pulled a short tube from a pack on her shoulder and activated it. The other smugglers lit more glowrods, casting a circle of pale yellow light around them.

Mist drifted through the trees. Unseen creatures skittered across branches or splashed in puddles. They could hear distant shrieks and calls, whistles, and long, spooky moans. Zak heard something flap its wings over his head, but by the time he looked up, it was gone.