"Move the ship!" Tash yelled.

  "I cannot!" Fandomar shouted back.

  The space slug stabbed at them again.

  But before it could reach them, the slug recoiled in pain as a streak of

  light punctured its skin.

  Laser beams!

  Someone was firing blaster bolts at the space slug.

  The slug hesitated. It seemed to be attracted by the rapid movements and

  flashing lights of three tiny yellow ships that crisscrossed and zigzagged

  around it. The ships were hardly bigger than a human being and they moved with

  incredible speed, flying circles around the giant slug. Laser beams flashed

  from the ships and penetrated the slug's skin like needles. As the three ships

  continued to pour fire onto the slug, the creature shut its mouth and coiled

  back into its hole.

  "Cargo ship, this is Starfly One," said a welcoming voice over Fandomar's

  comm. "Looks like you could use a little help."

  The three small craft formed a triangle around Fandomar's damaged cargo

  cruiser and locked onto it with tractor beams. One Starfly pulled them and the

  others pushed the cargo ship forward with their beams. Once they had the

  larger ship under control, they headed back toward the asteroid field.

  "We're not going back there, are we?" Tash gasped as a huge asteroid flew

  by.

  "Have no fear," Fandomar explained calmly. "The Starflies are

  specifically designed for flight through the asteroids. They're small and

  maneuverable enough to get around the rocks. Their tractor beams can push as

  well as pull. The miners use them to move space rocks out of their paths, but

  they'll work just as well at moving us. These miners know how to handle

  asteroids."

  She was right. The pilots seemed to have a sixth sense for where the

  space rocks would move. Even hauling the damaged cargo ship, they slipped

  easily through the gaps in the swarm of asteroids.

  In a few moments, the Starflies dropped toward an asteroid that was

  almost the size of a planet. Tash saw a small collection of buildings clinging

  to its rocky surface. The Starflies hauled their passengers into a docking

  bay. Tash, Zak, and Hoole waited until the docking-bay door had closed and

  oxygen had flooded into the chamber.

  They hopped out of their ship and hurried to the nearest Starfly.

  "Look how small these ships are!" Zak said appreciatively. "They're

  hardly bigger than a landspeeder. I can't believe they have enough room for

  life-support systems."

  "They do not," Fandomar answered. "The pilots must wear spacesuits while

  flying."

  Just then the Starfly's hatch broke open and a large human in a flight

  suit and helmet jumped out. He gave a few orders to his two companions, who

  hurried from the docking bay. As the big man removed his helmet, Tash saw

  short-cropped gray hair and a friendly smile. The man shook their hands and

  said, "Welcome to Mining Station Alpha. I'm the chief miner, but we're a small

  outfit here, only me and the other two, so just call me Hodge."

  Hoole bowed slightly. "We owe you our thanks. That slug would have

  swallowed us in moments."

  Hodge nodded. "The asteroid field's infested with them. I knew one of

  those giant worms would get Fandomar one of these days."

  "I was distracted," the Ithorian admitted, coming up behind.

  "So!" Hodge clapped his hands together eagerly. "We don't get many

  visitors out here. What can we do for you?"

  Hoole told Hodge the same story he'd told Fandomar, giving few details.

  "We need ethromite to power our ship."

  Hodge nodded. "We got plenty of that. It may cost you, though."

  Hoole nodded. "I am sure I have enough credits-"

  Hodge waved his hands and grinned. "Nope, don't need credits. We make

  plenty off the Ithorians here." He chuckled at Fandomar. "I'd rather make a

  trade. If you're an anthropologist, you may be able to answer a few questions.

  I'll give you all the ethromite you need if you help us solve a little

  mystery."

  Tash watched Hoole's expression. She could tell he wanted to get the

  ethromite as quickly as possible, but she also knew he loved to explore

  different cultures. "Very well. As long as it will put the children in no

  danger."

  "Naw!" the big miner laughed. "No danger. Just a little space walk is

  all."

  An hour later, Tash found herself walking on the surface of the asteroid.

  She was wearing a bulky spacesuit and a clear round fishbowl of a helmet. On

  her back she carried an oxygen tank and a small computer-the brains of the

  suit. The computer maintained a constant temperature inside the suit and

  pumped oxygen into her helmet.

  Tash's heart pounded against her ribs. She craned her neck forward and

  touched her nose to the plastiform faceplate of her helmet. Only a thin sheet

  of plastiform protected her from the icy cold vacuum of space. Only a few

  layers of protective fabric kept her from instant death.

  "Look up, Tash," Zak said. She heard his voice through the comlink

  speaker in her helmet.

  Tash looked up and immediately felt dizzy. The asteroid field was just as

  frightening as before. In fact, it was scarier. Rocks the size of mountains

  hurtled over their heads. She felt just like one of the space rocks herself-

  spinning around, hurtling alone through the dark vacuum.

  "There's no 'up' in space, laser brain," she told Zak irritably. "And

  there's no down, either. That's because there isn't any gravity."

  Tash stamped her feet slowly. Her thick boots kicked up a cloud of dust

  that hung over the ground. The boots were specially designed for use on

  asteroids with zero gravity. The usual gravity boots-the kind used in

  spaceships-were equipped with magnetic soles so that they would stick to the

  metal of the ship. But since the ground on an asteroid was nonmagnetic, the

  miners used boots equipped with mini-tractor beams instead of magnets. The

  tractor beams pulled her feet toward the ground. On the planet Ithor, she

  would hardly be able to lift these boots. But in the weightlessness of space,

  they all had to wear special gravboots to keep from floating right off the

  asteroid.

  They were marching along the asteroid's surface, with Hodge in the lead.

  Fandomar followed Hodge in a spacesuit specially designed to fit Ithorians'

  bodies. Then came Zak and Tash. Hoole brought up the rear.

  Hodge led them to the edge of a giant pit. Unlike the rough surface of

  the asteroid, the sides of the pit were very smooth, as if something had been

  sliding in and out of it for years.

  "A slug hole," Tash guessed.

  "Right," Hodge's voice crackled over the comlink. "But the slug's long

  gone."

  "How do we get down there?" Zak asked, peering down into the rocky

  tunnel.

  "Like this," the miner said.

  He jumped into the hole.

  Without gravity, he might have hung in empty space forever. But his gray-

  boots pulled him downward, and slowly he began to descend into the slug

  tunnel. Fandomar followed a moment later.

  Zak and Tash looked at Hoole, who gave the slightest nod.

  They all jumped.

  Tash fell in super slow motion. She had plenty of time for her eyes to

  adjust to the dark tunnel, and she watched the bottom slowly rise up to meet

  her. The tunnel wasn't very deep. It dropped straight down for a few dozen

  meters, then curved sharply to one side and leveled off. She landed at the

  curve with an easy bounce.

  Hodge had lit a bright glowrod and motioned for them to follow him.

  The cavern was huge. The slug that had filled the hole must have been a

  hundred meters thick.

  Tash slid her hand along the wall as they continued their hike. It was as

  smooth as glass. She could hardly believe that any creature lived in deep

  space. It was amazing that the slugs didn't need air to breathe or sunlight

  for warmth.

  Deep in thought, Tash didn't notice that the walls were closing in. The

  tunnel was tapering off. She didn't notice that the others had stopped moving

  until she bumped into something hard and gray standing in front of her. She

  looked up...

  ... into the face of an lthorian, standing there without a spacesuit, its

  two mouths twisted into a look of absolute terror.

  CHAPTER 4

  Tash let out a warning shout right into her comlink microphone. Everyone

  around her jumped as the sound of her voice blasted into their helmets.

  Zak put his gloved hands on the sides of his helmet as if he were trying

  to plug his ears. "Tash! Turn down the volume. It's only a-"

  A statue. She could see that now. It was a statue of an Ithorian. It was

  holding both hands up in a warning gesture. In the light of Hodge's glowrod,

  the statue's face looked both angry and frightened.

  "Curious," Hoole muttered. He was talking to himself, but they could all

  hear him as clearly as they'd heard Tash shout. The Shi'ido stepped past the

  statue. The tunnel ended just a few meters beyond. Set in the very end of the

  tunnel was a thick durasteel door.

  Hodge pointed up to a hole in the tunnel ceiling. A shaft had been dug

  down from the surface of the asteroid. The chief miner explained, "We were

  digging down from the surface, looking for minerals. Our laser drill broke

  through into this empty space. We knew it had to be a worm tunnel, so we found

  the tunnel opening and used it to get down here. We found this."

  "Fandomar," Hoole said after he'd examined the statue for a moment. "I

  was not aware that the Ithorians made statues like this. Most Ithorian artwork

  involves plants and animals. What do you make of this?"

  Fandomar raised her hands. "I couldn't say."

  Hodge held his glowrod up to the statue's face. "I've been around

  Ithorians enough to know their expressions. This one looks angry or

  frightened. Or both."

  "It's like a warning," Tash said.

  Zak scoffed. "There are a lot better ways to warn people," he said. "How

  about a holographic message? Warning beacons. Signs."

  Hodge answered. "All that kind of stuff was here. At least we think it

  was."

  He pointed to a section of the tunnel wall near the statue. Someone had

  cut an alcove into the smooth rock. In the alcove they saw the remains of a

  generator and a few strands of cable. The cable wires had been cut.

  "This is how we found it," the chief miner explained. "Me and my boys

  don't normally go into worm holes. But we got readings on a good supply of

  minerals down here, so we risked it and found this. That doorway is sealed

  shut. We didn't know what to make of it."

  "Maybe you should report it to the Ithorians," Tash suggested.

  "We did," Hodge said, nodding toward Fandomar.

  Fandomar blinked. "My people had no response."

  Hoole looked from the statue to the cut wires and back to the statue

  again. Finally, he said, "I believe the statue is a warning. I suspect it is

  some sort of fail-safe in case the power supply for the true warning device

  ever failed." Hoole pointed to the base of the statue. A long rectangular

  section of the stone looked discolored. "It looks like someone removed

  something from the statue. Probably there was a written warning carved into

  the stone."

  Tash bent down to examine the spot. There had been a sign there. She

  could see that part of it had broken when the mysterious intruders had snapped

  it off. Even if Tash could have read the language, only parts of the words

  were visible.

  "So who removed the warning?" Zak asked.

  "And who put it here in the first place?" Tash added.

  "Ithorians, obviously," Hoole decided. "I would guess that what lies

  behind that door is a tomb. But the question is: Why would Ithorians, who

  rarely leave their home planet, fly out to this barren asteroid field to bury

  someone, or something, in the bottom of a worm tunnel?"

  Hodge grunted. "I was hoping you could help, being an anthropologist and

  all. I guess there's only one way to find out what it is."

  Hoole shook his head. "I think we should get the permission of the

  Ithorians before doing anything here."

  The chief miner replied, "It's not really their call. Me and my men own

  this rock now. I've been itching to find out what's behind this door. Whether

  it's a tomb or not, I figure there must be something important down here for

  someone to go to so much trouble. Could be worth a lot of money. If you can't

  tell me, I know another way to find out."

  He strode past the statue toward the sealed door behind it. Tash noticed

  he had brought a long metal bar with him. It looked like a cross between an ax

  and a pry bar. With an expert thrust he jammed it into the door frame.

  "No!" Fandomar suddenly shouted. "Stop!"

  Hodge ignored her and pried at the door. The seal looked very old, but it

  held firm. He leaned his weight into his next push. A tiny crack appeared in

  the seal.

  At that moment, Tash heard a tremendous BOOM! from behind them, and the

  solid rock beneath their feet shook as though a groundquake had begun. A cloud

  of dust shot up and hung in the air like a curtain.

  When the dust cleared, they could sec that an enormous block of stone had

  dropped from the ceiling of the tunnel and crashed to the floor, closing off

  the way they had entered.

  They were trapped inside the asteroid.

  CHAPTER 5

  The five explorers hurried toward the stone and pushed. It wouldn't

  budge.

  "A trap," Hoole muttered into his comlink. "I should have suspected. This

  tomb, or whatever it is, was not meant to be opened."

  "I gotta agree with you now," Hodge said. "No more messing with the door.

  " He flipped a switch on his comlink. "Alpha Station, this is Hodge." He

  waited. "Alpha Station, this is Hodge. Do you copy?" The only answer he got

  was static. He grunted. "The signal's not getting through. The rock's too

  thick."

  "They'll come looking for us, won't they?" Tash asked.

  "Yeah," Hodge agreed. He checked the monitor attached to his wrist. "I

  hope our air holds out long enough."

  Tash looked at her own wrist. A small screen display showed how much air

  she had left in her tank. She had enough oxygen for another twenty minutes.

  After that, she would suffocate inside her spacesuit.

  "Uncle Hoole," she asked, "can't you... do something?"

  She wanted to say "Can't you shape-shift?" but she knew Hoole liked to

  keep his powers to himself if possible.

  Hoole shook his head and said simply, "No air."

  It took Tash a moment to realize what he meant. As far as she knew, her

  uncle could change into any living creature-even a creature like a Wookiee

  that was big and strong enough to lift the block of stone. But Wookiees had to

  breathe, and there was no air outside their spacesuits.

  Besides, Tash guessed, he might not be able to shape-shift while he's

  inside the suit.

  She glanced from face to face, hoping someone would have a suggestion.

  When her eyes fell on Fandomar, she realized that the Ithorian had said almost

  nothing. She was standing off to one side. She looked as if she were ready to

  stay in the tunnel forever.

  "I've got an idea," Hodge said. "But it might be dangerous."

  "Don't worry," Zak snorted. "We're getting used to danger."

  Hodge's plan was simple. The shaft the miners had dug into the tunnel

  went straight up to the surface of the asteroid. All they had to do was stand

 

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