The Emperor's Plague

12

The young Jedi Knights emerged from the munitions bunker, each carrying a pack that held enough explosives to blow up a substantial portion of the depot. As they’d realized what they were about to do, their lighthearted camaraderie had turned to grim determination. When Bornan Thul narrowed his eyes, inspecting the companions, Jacen was worried the man might dismiss them as a bunch of kids caught in a dangerous situation. But instead, Raynar’s father saw bravery there, and a dedication to purpose. He obviously considered them all, including his own son, to be real Jedi Knights. Jaina dug in her pack to take inventory of the explosives, the detonators, and the space mines she had stashed there.

“We’ll have to find strategically vulnerable areas on the asteroid. It’ll take plenty of explosives, carefully positioned at specific structural weak points, to bring this place down.”

“We will find the weaknesses,” Tenel Ka said.

“Let’s split up into teams,” Zekk suggested. “We can go off in different directions and plant more explosives in less time. I want to slag this depot and get out of here before anything goes wrong.”

“If anything does go wrong, though,” Jacen said, “we’d better agree to rendezvous in our ships out in space.”

“An excellent suggestion, Master Jacen,” Em Teedee said at Lowie’s side. “I, for one, will be glad to have this Diversity Alliance business over with so that we can get on with more pleasant pursuits.”

Lowie patted the little translating droid as if in commiseration. He barked and chuffed an alarming suggestion, which Em Teedee passed along.

“Master Lowbacca suggests that since he is the only nonhuman in this group, he should be the one to plant explosives inside the plague chamber.” Jaina exclaimed, “We can’t let you go in there by yourself, Lowie!”

“Lowbacca is correct,” Tenel Ka said. “If the rest of us are exposed, we are doomed. He may be immune because he is not human.”

“Hey, I think we’ll all encounter sufficient dangers in setting our own explosives,” Jacen said, understanding the grim truth behind Lowie’s realization. Somberly, they went in separate directions, carrying their explosives. Lowie trudged toward the central plague chamber, Em Teedee clipped to his belt. Zekk and Raynar stayed with Bornan Thul, who was still loading up at the munitions storage room, while Jacen, Jaina, and Tenel Ka went off to disperse their detonators at structural weak points in the domes and tunnel junctures.

As they hurried, Jaina scrutinized the tunnel walls, corridor intersections, and pressurized domes. She hesitated outside the doorway to one of the overhead domes, unslung her pack, and withdrew a heavy disk, a space limpet mine. Holding the mine against one of the metal walls, she pushed a button to activate its magnetic seal. With a clank, the mine attached itself to the wall. She looked over at her brother and Tenel Ka, raising an eyebrow.

“These limpet mines used to be sent out like a cloud into space. If one attached itself to the hull, it could blow up an entire Corellian corvette.”

Tenel Ka grunted in appreciation. “Devastating,” she said. “The only problem was, they clung to anything metal in the vicinity. They used no discrimination routines, and several Victory-class Star Destroyers ended up victims of their own space mines.”

“Serves them right,” Jacen said.

“It is always tragic when warfare causes unintended casualties,” Tenel Ka pointed out. “Even Imperial ones.”

“Well, if we destroy this depot, the Emperor won’t cause any more casualties,” Jaina said. She activated the space mine, and its lights winked green: READY FOR DETONATION. She went farther down the wall of the dome and planted another mine on the opposite wall. “That should take care of this dome,” she said.

“Now let’s move on to the next one.” Jacen followed, planting detonators at the branchpoints of corridors.

Once they set off all this destruction, nothing would remain of the asteroid but a rock as dead as it had been before the Empire set foot on it.

Lowbacca hesitated outside the doorway to the central plague chamber. This airtight room contained more death than he had ever seen in one place: sealed transparent cylinders filled with multicolored liquids, vials of plague solutions, nutrient baths teeming with virulent organisms. It was his responsibility to destroy them all, and he carried high-temperature incinerating explosives to do the job. It wouldn’t do just to crack open the vials and disperse the liquids. He had to make sure the explosion was hot enough, with incandescent heat from a dozen thermal detonators, to annihilate the virus that had been created to kill human beings.

“Well, Master Lowbacca, it does no good to wait,” Em Teedee scolded. “It’s high time we went inside and plant the detonators. The others are counting on us.”

Lowie growled something, and Em Teedee huffed.

“I am not being impatient. Just because I’m a droid and can’t get a plague doesn’t mean I don’t understand the dangers. I can well imagine computer viruses, you know.” Rather than endure more of the droid’s talk, Lowie worked the airlock controls, assisted by Em Teedee’s rapport with the computer systems. The air within the pressurized chamber was kept sterile, and backup systems and fail-safes prevented any possible leaks. Lowie stepped inside, his fur bristling with apprehension. The metal floor felt cold against his feet, and the air smelled harsh and disinfected. He looked around at the tubes and spheres of deadly solution and planned his strategy. He left the pressure door open behind him, not relishing the prospect of being trapped inside the lethal chamber.

Then he cautiously walked in among the towering cylindrical tanks. He moved slowly, carefully, until he finally snapped himself out of his daze and removed the thermal detonators from his pack. He was a Jedi Knight, and he had a threat to wipe out. He placed his first set of heat explosives under the largest of the bubbling tanks in the center of the room; then he spiralled outward, ducking down, moving like a machine as he planted one detonator after another.

He didn’t want to think about the swarming virus behind the thin walls of transparisteel. He didn’t want to smell the reprocessed air. He just wanted to be out of here and destroy it all behind him. As he planted another set of detonators, though, he noticed a marking near the base of the tube labeling the solution inside—KRYTOS PLAGUE, MULTIPLE SPECIES, SLOW-ACTING.

Lowie stiffened, recognizing this disease that had harmed so many aliens, including Wookiees, just after the fall of the Empire. So … this plague storehouse held far more than just the human-killing plague after all! Lowie now turned his attention to the other tanks and vials, inspecting their labels. The colored solutions contained numerous deadly agents. Label after label made his blood run cold. GAMORREAN, SLOW-ACTING. QUARREN, FAST-ACTING. WOOKIEE, SLOW-ACTING. TWI’LEK/CALAMARIAN, VARIABLE VIRULENCE.

Lowie realized that if Nolaa Tarkona got her hands on all of this, not only could she destroy humans, but she could also threaten every other race in the galaxy! The leader of the Diversity Alliance could assert her power over any species in a way that even the Emperor had not dared to do. Lowie planted his remaining detonators as fast as he could, then rigged up a central explosive controller, which he placed near the main containers in the middle of the room. He would be very glad to get out of this place.

Not even he was safe in here.

After the other young Jedi Knights went on their way, Raynar stayed beside his father inside the munitions bunker. Zekk put his hands on his hips and looked up at the remaining explosives, blasters, and detonators. “Still plenty left here to cause quite a bit of destruction,” he said.

Bornan Thul went to work opening cases and linking detonators, preparing to trigger the remaining explosives.

“If we set off all these,” Thul said, “we’ll put this entire asteroid into a spin.”

“I’d rather not be here when that happens,” Raynar said.

His father looked down at him with an understanding smile. “We won’t be, Raynar,” he said. “I’ll make sure you get out of here safely.”

Bornan Thul worked hard to arrange boxes, linking up blast points for sympathetic explosions. His son dutifully opened more cases, while Zekk moved from one to another, making connections, checking timers, and setting the stage for the biggest explosion he could imagine.

“If Jaina can find enough structural weak points to booby-trap, then this should take care of the weapons depot once and for all,” Zekk said, confident in his friend’s abilities.

Bornan sighed. “I should have found a way to do this myself a long time ago.”

“We’re finished here,” Zekk said, impatient to get moving again. He grabbed several explosive packs to take with him. “We’ll plant these along the way,” he said, “then pick up Lowbacca back at the central chamber.”