The Emperor's Plague

10

The Emperor’s old weapons depot was a labyrinth of pressurized domes, tunnels, and sealed chambers where unimaginable mechanisms of death lay stored. Since the isolated asteroid station had, as far as they knew, no large docks or entrance points, the Rock Dragon and the Lightning Rod were forced to dock against separate domes. The cargo hatches sealed against the airlocks, and the seven companions gathered inside the silent, abandoned station. Low rock ceilings and tunnels plated with metal made the confined chambers feel like a prison. Jacen looked all around, sniffing the air, which was none too fresh. Other than the scavenger Fonterrat and Bornan Thul, he guessed that no one had set foot here for decades.

Now Thul looked sickened. “I wish Fonterrat had never stumbled on this place.”

Raynar stood close to his father. “I wish the Emperor had never even thought of making this asteroid into a weapons storehouse.”

The older man looked down at him with a sympathetic smile.

“Well, what are we gonna do about it?” Jaina asked.

Zekk stood next to her, his face grim. “We’ll destroy the depot, of course. Isn’t that why we’re here? Nolaa Tarkona’s probably on her way already.”

“First, we must find where the plague itself is stored,” Tenel Ka said. “Then we can neutralize it.”

Jacen nodded vigorously to show that he agreed with the warrior girl. But then, he usually did. Bornan Thul took a step forward, placing himself in the lead. “Follow me. I found it before, but I couldn’t get inside.” He swallowed hard. “At the time, there didn’t seem much chance Nolaa Tarkona would ever get here. I thought there might be another solution.”

“We’re here to help you this time,” Raynar said consolingly. “We can solve this problem if we work together.”

Squaring his shoulders with determination, he marched beside his father through the enclosed corridors. The artificial gravity generators still functioned on the tiny rock in space. The companions passed through a central complex where curved transparisteel domes overhead showed a sprawling view of an endless starfield, studded with the occasional floating mountains of asteroids in space around them. At one time, Jacen knew, Star Destroyers had come here to stock up on weapons. They carried stormtroopers and munitions to oppressed worlds so that the Empire could squeeze its iron fist even tighter. Here in this station, Evir Derricote had tested and stored his most deadly creations, diseases against which no blaster could defend. Derricote had released the Krytos plague on Coruscant just after the capital world had fallen to the Rebels. Because the disease struck only nonhumans, its spread caused a great deal of friction among the member races in the Rebel Alliance.

Now, in a frightening turnabout, it seemed the opposite was about to happen. In order to get her revenge against humans, Nolaa Tarkona wanted to release the ultimate plague—a disease even the Emperor had considered too terrible to use—so she could strike down all of humanity. But the young Jedi Knights would never let that happen. Jacen picked up his pace.

After hesitating at an intersection of corridors, where half-open bulkheads seemed ready to crash down on them, Bornan Thul said, “This way to the central chamber.”

He led them through another dome to a large blast-shielded airlock that blocked their way. Though the door was closed, the controls were not passworded. Bornan Thul worked the keys easily, sliding the long-silent airlock door open. The next corridor held more secure airtight interlocks. Thul operated door after door, until finally they entered a central hub, the core of the asteroid depot.

“This is the chamber of horrors,” he said.

Jacen hovered near Tenel Ka’s shoulder, gasping in awe as he stared through broad panels of transparisteel that looked down into the main room. Raynar remained beside Bornan Thul. Zekk and Jaina stood next to each other, while Lowie, taller than the rest, peered over their heads. Behind the sealed windows, Jacen saw a vast room where row after row of tanks and cylinders stretched to the far side of the chamber: small canisters, large tubes, vats, gurgling spheres. Each was filled with bubbling, evil-looking liquid. Refrigeration racks full of tiny vials and flasks covered one entire wall, floor to ceiling. Every last container held a colorful mixture that was deadly to one species or another.

Jacen could hardly believe his eyes.

“There’s enough contamination in there to wipe out every living creature in the galaxy!”

Lowie growled in agreement.

Em Teedee chirped, “I do believe you’re right, Master Jacen. I could make a reasonably precise estimate, if you like. Given the rate at which the human plague organism spread on Gammalin, and assuming each of the plagues could as easily be passed from one member of a targeted life-form to another, I should venture to guess that—”

“We understand, Em Teedee,” Jaina cut him off, but she could not tear her eyes away from the transparisteel window. “We understand all too well.”

Doors marked with an ominous skull and DNA symbol to denote the deadly virus gave access to the chamber. The two-way intercom system would have allowed for communication between Imperial workers inside the sealed chamber and stormtrooper guards on the outside. But Bornan Thul did not go near the entry.

“We shouldn’t risk setting foot inside just yet,” he said. “If any one of us were exposed to that human plague … we could all die before we have a chance to destroy anything.”

Zekk frowned. “No. We didn’t come here to die. Any ideas on how to demolish the storehouse? The place looks pretty secure. Could we use blasters to break all of the cylinders?”

Bornan Thul shook his head. “No, that would merely spread the plague. We’ll have to expose it to space.”

“To accomplish that, we must turn this entire asteroid to dust,” Tenel Ka said.

“Hey, sounds reasonable to me,” Jacen said. “Shouldn’t we get started before Nolaa Tarkona arrives?”

“We don’t know how much of a head start we have on her,” Raynar pointed out. “We’ve got to hurry.”

“Well, what are we waiting for?” Jaina said. “Any suggestions?”

Bornan Thul raised his eyebrows. “This is a weapons depot. The Emperor stored munitions here as well as biological weapons. The plague canisters are in this central chamber, but I’m fairly certain that some of the other bunker rooms contain thermal detonators, explosives, space mines, heavy demolitions equipment.”

“Yeah … we could use stuff like that,” Jaina said with a twinkle in her eye.

Jacen let out a low whistle. “Sounds just like what we saw Nolaa Tarkona hiding in the tunnels of Ryloth.”

Tenel Ka gave him the faintest of smiles. “Those stockpiles produced rather gratifying explosions.”

Jacen looked at her and flashed a grin, remembering how they had escaped from the ryll mines.

“If we wipe out every speck of this plague,” Raynar said, “Nolaa won’t pose much of a galactic threat anymore.”

Bornan Thul strode to a side doorway, unsealed it, and led the way to a tangential corridor inside the asteroid. Jacen paused for one long moment, feeling a shiver down his spine as he looked at all the cylinders filled with the deadly plague, then turned to hurry after his companions. Thul took them to where a heavy, blaster-shielded door blocked his way.

“I think this is one of the main weapons vaults,” he said. “All the munitions should be in there, but…” His shoulders slumped. “Unfortunately this one has security coding. I was never able to get in to see if I was correct.”

Tenel Ka snatched at her lightsaber handle and flicked on the turquoise energy blade. “A Jedi Knight could find a way in.”

“Excuse me,” Em Teedee said quickly, “but perhaps I could manage the code? I have had some experience with Imperial systems.”

Jacen paused, his hand on his lightsaber handle. “Let him try, Tenel Ka. We can always use our lightsabers later.”

The warrior girl agreed. “I will save my weapon for the real battle.”

Jaina hooked up the leads in Em Teedee’s case to the door control systems. The little droid’s golden optical sensors glowed and pulsed as his computer brain worked through the encryption levels. With a thunk and a hum, the locks unsealed themselves and the door slid open.

“Quite masterful, if I do say so myself,” Em Teedee stated, sounding insufferably pleased with himself. The young Jedi Knights drew together. Bornan Thul and Zekk moved closer as they gazed into a room filled with explosives, detonation packs, sonic grenades, and every form of compact destruction Jacen had ever heard of. The shelves of demolition equipment seemed to go on and on.

“I think that’ll be quite enough firepower,” Zekk said, crossing his wiry arms over his chest. Tenel Ka nodded and whispered, “This is a fact.”