The Emperor's Plague

24

Raynar pressed his face against the transparent barrier that separated him from his dying father. He pounded his fists against it in rage. As if imitating him, IG-88 continued pounding his powerful fists against the airtight door. The plague organism was free inside the vault—the plague that his father had hoped to destroy before it could ever be turned loose against human beings. Raynar wished he’d gone inside with his father. He might have been able to do something, use the Force to stop Rullak or Nolaa Tarkona. Or if not, at least he would be inside with his father to comfort him now in his last moments.

Raynar pressed his hands against the transparisteel, harder, harder, as if he might reach through it to his father if only he exerted enough force. At the edge of his awareness Raynar heard Zekk yell, “No, IG-88! If you open that door you’ll kill us.”

Lowie roared, but the assassin droid knocked the Wookiee aside again. Inside, Bornan Thul stumbled toward the upper observation window that separated him from Raynar. His skin had a grayish cast now, and Raynar could see how labored his breathing had become. Blotches of green and blue appeared on his skin. He crawled toward the controls of the two-way intercom system in the wall. Unable to tear his eyes away from his father’s agony, Raynar felt an imaginary band of durasteel clamping around his own heart, tighter, tighter, until it seemed impossible that it could go on beating.

“Go,” his father rasped into the speakers. “It is too late for me.”

IG-88 continued to batter at the door to the room. Lowie roared again, to no effect.

“I can’t!” Raynar cried in anguish. “Not now. I just found you again.”

“Never forget … how proud I am of you. My work … unfinished, though,” Bornan Thul gasped. “I leave it to you … to destroy this place—stop Nolaa.” Raynar briefly shifted his attention to the Twi’lek leader of the Diversity Alliance. She stood toward the back of the vault, vainly attempting to stamp some order into the chaos inside the trashed chamber. Rullak writhed on the floor in his death throes, succumbing to one of the deadly plagues his own blaster fire had released. Raynar knew his father was right. He could not simply give up now because of his grief. Millions of lives were at stake if Nolaa Tarkona put her plan into action. Raynar’s mother and uncle would die, and Master Skywalker, Jacen and Jaina, and everyone else he cared about. His mind railed against the injustice. It wasn’t fair. His vision grew blurred and distorted, as if he was looking at his father through a current of water. Something hot and wet burned its way down Raynar’s cheeks, and his throat constricted so tightly he could hardly breathe.

Suddenly Zekk was beside him yelling something to Bornan Thul.

“The assassin droid IG-88 is programmed to protect you—to bring you back alive. You’re the only one who can stop him from breaking down that door and releasing the plague right now! Tell him to stay away!”

Suddenly Raynar’s vision cleared and he focused on his father, who drew a shuddering breath.

“Stop,” Bornan Thul croaked. Though his voice came out as no more than a hoarse whisper, the powerful droid paused to listen. “IG-88, I order you to save the only part of me that can still be saved: my son. I am beyond help.”

With that, he fell against the wall beneath the transparisteel pane to which Raynar’s face was still pressed.

“I love you, Father,” was all Raynar had time to say before IG-88 clanked over to where he stood. His father nodded weakly as the assassin droid grabbed the young man and dragged him away from the chamber of death. A white mist formed across Raynar’s vision, and he could see nothing more.

All he knew was that IG-88 was leading him by one arm and that Zekk was holding his other.

Lowie loped ahead, his lightsaber drawn to guard against any other enemies. Zekk droned a steady litany of instructions to IG-88, explaining where their ship was and which direction they needed to go. Occasionally Zekk let go of him, and Raynar could hear some sort of safety interlock whoosh shut behind them. For all Raynar could tell, they might have hurried along like that for hours, but it must have been only minutes. When the droid released his arm, Raynar nearly collapsed. Zekk turned to IG-88.

“It’s not far to our ship now.” Em Teedee chirped, “Many thanks, IG-88. You are a credit to all droids.” As Raynar swayed to his feet again, the big assassin droid spun about and then marched back the way he had come, unable to escape his primary programming.

Zekk called to Raynar. “We have to get out of here before any more of those explosives blow and bring this place down around us.” Feeling leaden, Raynar followed Zekk and Lowie, not knowing what else he could do. He looked back the way they had come. The assassin droid vanished into the shadowy corridors, heading back toward the plague chamber to see if he could do any last thing for Bornan Thul.