"' He gagged and shouted, "How long can you stay L afloat?" "Awhile," Tash said shakily. "But my head is killing me. I don't feel well." "I am equipped with internal air pockets," Deevee ' Informed Zak. "I can remain buoyant for extended periods. But my circuits will short out rather quickly in this water, I'm afraid." "I don't think we'll be around that long," Zak groaned, pointing toward shore. The rancor came nearer. The water had risen above its snarling jaws now, making Zak realize just how far from shore they were. All they could see were two beady black eyes and a bony ridge atop its head as it waded toward its prey. Then it sank below the surface. "Where is it?" Zak called out, thrashing around in the water. "Astounding," Deevee said, weirdly calm. "It's going to strike from below." Zak thought he felt a cold current of water rush beneath his feet, as though something large had passed through the water beneath him. He looked around frantically. Farther out on the ocean, bubbles rose to the surface. Something was out there. "Could it have passed us?" Tash wondered aloud. No one had time to answer. More air bubbles burst through the surface, and then a huge gray shape rose into the air, shedding an enormous tent of water. The gray shape was at least twenty meters off, but still it loomed over the two Arrandas and their droid. Zak saw one enormous blue eye focus on him. "The Whaladon!" "It will give us a ride," Deevee stated. "No kidding!" shouted Zak. Zak began to swim, then stopped. Something else had appeared near the Whaladon. He thought he saw two flashing red eyes just beneath the water's surface. Then the salt spray made him blink, and the image was gone. The Whaladon, meanwhile, loomed closer. The Arrandas had ridden the Whaladon two days ago by swimming out into the lagoon, where the sea creature patiently waited as they scrambled onto its back. This time the Whaladon did not seem to be waiting. With a swipe of its massive tail, the giant fish shot forward straight toward them. Tash stopped swimming. "What's it doing?" A line formed along the Whaladon's jaw. The line turned into an opening, and the opening grew into a gargantuan gaping mouth. The lower part of the jaw "was filled with churning ocean water. The top of the jaw ten meters a over the water's surface reached toward the sky. "Look out!" Zak cried. But it was too late. They were swept into the giant mouth just as the jaws snapped shut. The Whaladon had swallowed them whole. Zak felt only water and darkness and heat and noise. For a moment he thought he had died. But when the rumbling did not stop, and the heat continued to press down on him like an enormous wet cloak, he knew that he was still alive. Inside the Whaladon. Zak was lying on something moist but solid, squishy but immensely strong. The spongy surface twitched, and Zak bounced into the hot, dark air, then landed with a wet splat. I'm lying on the 8%aladon's tongue, he thought. A chill of disgust ran through him.

  A tiny noise reached his ears over the sounds of the haladon's body. He heard it again "Zak!" and squirmed toward the sound. "Here!" he called into the pitch darkness. A hand reached out and grabbed the collar of his tunic, pulling him easily along the Whaladon's slick tongue until he felt himself lying next to his sister. She , was clinging to something hard and rough and pointed. "Are you all right?" Tash shouted. "I don't know," Zak said. "Deevee?" "Here." Two dim round lights presented themselves. They were the glow from Deevee's photoreceptors. "We are inside the Whaladon's mouth." Beneath them, the Whaladon's tongue surged and curled back away from the teeth. "Hold on!" Deevee said. Zak felt a powerful force drag him backward, toward the creature's throat and stomach. He grabbed on to one of the Whaladon's teeth so hard that he felt his fingernails scrape its sides. Just as Zak felt he could hold on no longer, the tongue rolled back toward them, and Zak collapsed against the sea monster's gums. "Hold tight," Deevee's voice warned from the dark- ness. "The Whaladon is sure to swallow again soon." "I can't stand it!" Tash shouted. There was panic in her voice, the same terror Zak felt swelling in his own chest. "Why didn't it just swallow us and finish this?" "Tash!" Zak yelled. "Don't give up! We've got to find a way out of here!" "Why?" she said in despair. "What's the use? Things will only get worse." Zak was worried. It wasn't like Tash to give up. Despite the thick heat, the darkness, and the droning sound of the Whaladon's body and lungs, Zak tried to calm his own fear and think clearly. "Don't think that way, Tash," he began. "You can't." "What difference does it make?" she said weakly. "It makes a difference to me!" he argued. "C'mon, Tash! You're all I have left. And I'm all you have left. We've always helped one another. You can't quit now!" "Watch out!" Deevee called. Once again, the massive tongue rolled back. Zak hugged the hard, slippery tooth to keep from being pulled down the monster's throat. Beside him he heard Tash sob. Then she cried out. Then she was gone. "Tash!" Zak yelled. "Are you there?" No answer. "Tash!" Under the roar of the Whaladon's noisy innards,

  Zak heard a faint moan. Tash had lost her grip on the Whaladon tooth and was lying somewhere on the monster's huge tongue. When the Whaladon swallowed again, she would be lost forever. Zak did not want to give up his secure hold. But he did not want to lose his sister either. Releasing his grip, Zak let himself slide blindly back along the giant, wriggling tongue. He thrashed his arms about until one hand brushed along Tash's jacket, and he grabbed hold. Tash let out a short cry as they both slid another meter, then stopped. "Come on!" he ordered. He got to his knees and, still holding Tash's jacket, pulled her back toward what he thought was the front of the Whaladon's mouth. Finally his free hand touched something hard, and he clung to the Whaladon's tooth. "Now," he gasped, "we've got to get out of here." "I believe I can help." As Zak and Tash turned toward Deevee's voice, the droid was suddenly illuminated by the glow of a small laser torch. Its orange light reflected off the water drops dripping down Deevee's wet metallic body. "Where did you get that?" Zak asked. "I equipped myself with a laser torch recently to effect personal repairs," the droid replied. "It seems to have been a fortunate addition." "Why didn't you tell us before?" Tash snapped. Deevee explained, "It would not have done any good. The Whaladon had submerged. We would have escaped its mouth only to drown in deep water. But my sensors tell me the creature has surfaced again. Brace yourselves." In the light of the torch, Zak and Tash watched Deevee aim the cutting tool toward the roof of the Whaladon's cavernous mouth and press the trigger. A thin beam of superheated energy shot through the murky air and punctured the top of the creature's mouth. A deep, roaring sound of distress rolled through the cavern. The tongue slapped upward, nearly tearing Tash and Zak from their perch, then slammed down- ward onto the base of the giant mouth. Warm, slimy saliva splashed over their bodies. The Whaladon bellowed. Deevee fired again, and the creature shook once more. This time, it let out a low-pitched moan and opened its wounded mouth. Sunlight and saltwater sprayed into the cavern in a rush of wind. Over the white foam, Zak saw the clear blue waters of the ho- lographic ocean. "Jump to the side!" Deevee yelled. Zak and Tash pulled themselves atop the massive tooth and jumped into the water to one side of the Whaladon. Deevee jumped to the other side just as the - mighty jaws closed again. The roar of rushing water filled Zak's ears, and the cold sea covered him. Holding his breath, he tumbled underwater for a few panicked seconds in the Whaladon's wake, not knowing which way was up or . down. He tried to calm himself, and relaxed, knowing that gravity would tell him where to go. His lungs started to burn from lack of oxygen. After a moment, he felt himself bob upward, and he kicked in that di- rection. Zak's head broke the surface and he gasped, filling his lungs with air. He wiped saltwater from his eyes. He floated on the ocean's surface, bobbing wildly in the wake of the sea monster. In moments, the fast- moving Whaladon was little more than a gray lump on the horizon. "Tash! Deevee!" he called out. No one replied, but Zak saw a patch of blondish hair fly up over the swell- ing water and he swam for it. He reached his sister, who gasped and coughed out saltwater. Her eyes were half-open but dazed. There was no sign of Deevee. He can't drown, Zak thought to himself. Maybe he got pulled along by the current. Tash would soon sink if she didn't snap out of it. Using one hand to keep her afloat, Zak started to swim toward the shore. Zak had done plenty of swimming on Alderaan. He swam steadily but slowly, to save his strength, and after fifteen minutes they were near enough to see the shoreline clearly. There was no sign of the rancor. Exhausted and soaking wet, Zak crawled onto the wet sand, hauling his sister behind him. "I've never swum so far in my whole life," he panted. Beside him Tash let out a huge gasp. Still only half- conscious, she muttered, "One of us must die. One of us must die..." Zak grabbed her shoulders. "Tash? What are you saying?" Tash let out a sudden, violent cough, clearing more water from her lungs. Her eyes Aew open. "Zak!" She looked around. "We're we're on dry land!" "Yeah," he sighed wearily. "What were you saying just now? You were muttering again. Are you sick?" "I don't know." She rubbed her temples. "I don't remember saying anything. But my head is killing me. What did I say?" Zak decided not to tell her. "Forget it. You were just delirious."

  Tash shivered in her wet clothes. "We've got to find help," Zak said. "We've got to '" find out what's going on here. How could that rancor have eaten Lando? Wasn't it a hologram?" Tash didn't answer. She still seemed lost in her own world. Zak answered his own question. "I don't know. I : told you something's wrong here. It's like the Hall of Reflection. I really felt like I had been transformed, not just tricked by an illusion." He pointed to the near- est building, a long, low structure at the edge of the lagoon. "Whatever that rancor is, I don't want it to find us. Let's stay out of the open. We should head for that building over there." Slowly Tash and Zak made their way toward a build- ing surrounded by small kiosks. The kiosks contained arts and crafts from across the galaxy woven baskets spun from the grass fields of Worru'du, magnificent animated storytelling puppets from the planet Zhann, and delicate figurines made from seashells on the many-tiered world of K'ath. The objects in the kiosks were beautiful, but all Zak and Tash noticed was that all the people were gone. "Maybe they were all holograms," Tash offered hopefully. "Maybe they were just accidentally erased, like the other day." "Or maybe," Zak returned darkly, "they were real. Maybe everything is real now. Otherwise how could that rancor have eaten Lando?" He swallowed. "Everything in Fun World has come to life." The building beyond the kiosks was topped by a sign

  that read, THE MAKER S WORKSHOP.

  "Do you think this place is safe'?" Tash asked. "I don't know," her brother answered. "But it can't be worse than anyplace else in Fun World. Besides, maybe we'll find Deevee here. It sounds like the kind of place a droid would like." Inside The Maker's Workshop, they found a long hall. On each side of the hall was a workbench, and another long table ran down the middle of the room. "Prime!" Zak exclaimed when he saw the tables. The tables, shelves, and even parts of the floor were covered with mechanical parts and tools. Servos, circuits, hydrospanners, the arms and legs and heads of disassembled droids, even engine parts, lay scattered everywhere. It was a tinkerer's paradise. "Imagine what I could do with all this stuff," he murmured to himself. He walked down one row of parts. "There's enough spare equipment in this room to build a dozen droids, a T-71 skyhopper maybe even a small starship!"

  "Don't get any ideas, Zak," Tash warned. "This isn't the time to " She stopped. In the middle of the central table, resting on a small pedestal of polished stone, was a gleam- ' ing cylinder that Tash recognized instantly. It was the weapon of a Jedi Knight. It was a lightsaber. Tash had only seen one lightsaber before with her own eyes. It had been worn on the hip of a young man ' named Luke Skywalker who, along with his friends, had saved them from the flesh-eating planet D'vouran. Tash exhaled slowly. A lightsaber. Only the Jedi knew how to build them. Only the Jedi knew how to use them properly. Where had it come from? How had it gotten here? It's probably just a hologram, she thought. But then, the rancor was supposed to be a hologram, wasn't it? Maybe the lightsaber would prove to be just as real. With a lightsaber, Tash felt she would be one step closer to becoming a Jedi Knight. With one of those powerful laser swords in her hand, there was nothing she couldn't do. She could be a hero. Nearby, Zak stood before a table full of droid parts, his eyes jumping from one piece to another. In his mind he had already designed his own hyperdrive, built a personal droid with antigravity repulsors and long- range sensors for detecting angry adults, and a stream- lined skimboard that could go vertical and climb the sides of even the highest buildings. But Zak found the biggest prize of all a few meters down the line. Sitting uncfer a bright light was a droid head, but not just any droid head. "A BT-2000," Zak whistled under his breath. "That's the most advanced droidwork in the galaxy. The computer brain in that droid could run all the functions on a Star Destroyer. I'd love to see what makes it tick." Zak reached out his hands and picked up the droid head. Tash reached out and picked up the lightsaber. Before Zak, the droid's photoreceptors blazed with light. The head swiveled in his hands, and a booming voice exploded from the mouthspeaker. "WHO DISTURBS THE MAKER'S SLEEP?" Zak stumbled back in shock, dropping the head. Startled by her brother, Tash instinctively pressed the lightsaber's activation switch. It burst into fire and light. The droid's burning eyes continued to glare at Zak.

  CRAFI' OF THE MAKER IS FORBIDDEN ' TO THE LIVING! INTRUDERS, PREPARE TO MEET YOUR DOOM!" The light in the droid's eyes faded. For a moment, the room was silent except for the hiss of the lightsaber in Tash's hand. Then every object in the workshop came to life.

  Gears whirred and gyros spun as dozens of machines turned to face Zak. Then they attacked. bfe and was boring its way toward his forehead. He ducked, and the hydrospanner buried itself in the wall. All around him, ragtag pieces of metal, odds and ends of junk, were combining to form misshapen mechanical monsters with wires for hair, glow rods for eyes, and multiple arms made of whatever material lay at hand. "This can't be happening!" Zak shouted. "But it is," said a gravelly voice. Zak saw the droid head still resting on the table. Its eyes were once more staring at Zak. "You are the little tinkerer," the droid spoke. "You like to experiment with techno -

  The Maker's Workshop had turned into a hurricane of flying metal parts and electronic wires. Cogwheels collided with hydropistons; mechanical arms attached themselves to wheels. Zak saw two droid arms without bodies fuse themselves to a pair of tractor treads and start rolling toward Zak and Tash. "This is impossible," he said out loud. "Impossible!" Gadgets could not put themselves together! he wanted to shout. Machines did not turn themselves on. Technology would not turn on living beings! He jumped out of the way as the mechanical droid arms clutched at him. But dodging the arms only put him within reach of a hydrospanner that had come to close. You like to take things apart. How do you feel now that technology is going to take you apart? Destroy him!" Zak was so terrified he couldn't move. This was worse than a nightmare it was a fear that he did not even know he had, something buried deep in his brain. He was terrified, and he could only think of one thing. Where was Tash?

  Tash was paralyzed, too. She saw the mechanical junk come to life. She heard the droid head threaten Zak. She felt the lightsaber quivering in her hand, waiting to be used. But she couldn't move. Here was her chance to prove her Jedi potential. All she had to do was charge into the crowd of whirling machines and robots, cutting through them with her unstoppable lightsaber. She could save her brother us- ing a Jedi weapon. She could be a Jedi. But what if I fail? The thought froze her muscles. What if she found out, after all this time, that she really didn't have the Force? That she couldn't use a lightsaber? That all her hopes and dreams were just a fantasy? She was terrified. "Tash! Help!" Zak called. The machines were clos- ing in. Most had attached tools to the ends of their mechanical arms. As they came closer, needles, blades, and saws began to whir. "Tash!" Zak repeated. His back was to the wall. He was trapped. "Use the lightsaber!" Tash could not do it. She wanted to be a Jedi Knight more than anything else in the galaxy. But she was afraid to fail. "I'm I'm sorry, Zak," she whispered. She deactivated the lightsaber and dropped it to the floor. "Tash!" Zak groaned. But to the surprise of both Arrandas, the moment Tash shut down the energy blade, all the machines flyed apart in cascades of metal scraps. In seconds, the floor was once more littered with lifeless junk. Zak gaped at the semicircle of harmless scrap at his feet. "How did you do that?" he asked. "I didn't do anything," his sister said, nearly in ' tears. Zak didn't waste any time. "Well, whatever. It worked. Let's get out of here." They hurried out of The Maker's Workshop and into , the empty streets of Hologram Fun World. There was still no one in sight. "Maybe we should get out of here," Zak suggested. "We should find Deevee. Find someplace where the holograms aren't working." "You're the technobrain," his sister replied wearily. "Where would that be?" Zak considered. "The airlock. We didn't see any holograms until we left the airlock. Let's go." They hurried in the direction of the space dock and down some distant street. Each time, they froze in their tracks and waited until its ground-shaking foot- steps faded away. Tash had been silent. Zak looked over at her. She was muttering something under her breath. .. one of us must

  "... one of us must die...

  die..." she breathed. "Tash!" Zak yelled. He shook her shoulders. "Quit it! What does that mean?" Tash blinked and her eyes focused on him. "Wh-What?" "You said it again. 'One of us must die.' What does that mean?" His sister shook her head. "I'm sorry, Zak. I don't know. I don't even know I'm doing it. It must be important, but I just don't know." "All right, just forget it. Look, here's the airlock." They had arrived at a heavy steel portal set in the massive dome. Beyond the door was a room that led to another door. And that door led to the space dock. "We'll just wait in the airlock for now, until we can figure out what to do. The holograms won't work there," said Zak. "Okay," Tash said, reaching to press the switch that activated the automatic door. Zak was distracted by a movement in the other direction. Four spidery limbs crawled into his line of sight. This time he whipped his head around and caught full sight of the brain creature. Its long arms and legs clung to the side of the space dome as its enormous head bobbed back and forth, red eyes burning bright. Two flailing tentacles flapped out of its open mouth. It looked bigger. "Tash, wait!" Zak warned. Too late. The door opened. For a fraction of a sec- 'ood, Zak and Tash were able to look out the door a door that opened into the icy-cold vacuum of space. Then Tash was sucked out into the void. Zak just barely managed to grab Tash's arm before she was pulled into deep space. Air from inside the dome began rushing out into empty space, dragging Tash and Zak along with it. Zak held Tash with one hand and clung to the edge of the doorway with the other. He had seen deep space and stars before, of course, but always from the safety of a starship viewport. Now he was looking at the eternal night with his naked eye. He didn't like it. "Pull me back!" Tash gasped over the rushing wind. "I can't!" he said, gritting his teeth. "Pull yourself!" Tash tried to use Zak's arm as a rope to pull herself back into Fun World. But the escaping air dragged at her face and clothes. "I can't!" she yelled. "You have to!" Zak demanded. He had already lost - his parents and friends. His uncle was away, and now even Deevee was gone. He could not lose his only sister, the only family he had left. "Try!" Tash gritted her teeth. Hand over hand, she pulled herself to safety. Centimeter by centimeter, she fought the wind that sucked her into space, until she was back inside the dome. Zak slapped the Close switch. The minute the heavy door slid back into place, the powerful suction force stopped, and Tash collapsed to the ground. For a moment the two Arrandas lay next to each other, gasping for breath. "Wh-What is this place?" Tash nearly sobbed. "It's like a giant death trap." "I don't know," Zak panted. "Everything's wrong here. I don't know why this is happening." "I do." Standing before them was Uncle Hoole! Both Arrandas got to their feet and threw their arms around him with relief. Hoole returned their hugs awkwardly. The stern expression never left his face. "Uncle Hoole, we've got to get out of here," Zak explained in one hurried breath. "The holograms are alive and they're killing people. They killed Lando, a gambler we met, and Deevee's missing. And The Nightmare Machine creature is lurking about, I don't know what it is, but we've got to " "Remain calm," Hoole said steadily. "I have already discovered the cause of the occurrences. I assure you, everything is under control. Now follow me." Zak and Tash were so relieved to see their uncle, so calm and in control, that they followed him willingly. This time when Zak spied a movement out of the cor- ner of his eye, he ignored it. Whatever the creature from The Nightmare Machine was, Hoole would deal with it. But the Shi'ido led them straight to the administra- tion building at the heart of Hologram Fun World. "Wait!" Zak almost shouted. "We can't go back there!" Hoole didn't even pause. "The answers to your questions are within." Tash and Zak looked at one another. They had no choice but to follow their uncle. Like the rest of Fun World, the administration building seemed deserted. The silence made Zak even more nervous. Alone, the three rode a turbolift to the top of the building and entered Danna Fajji's office. The aron administrator sat at his desk with his hands folded neatly in his lap. "Welcome, welcome," Fajji said. "I understand -you've had quite a day here at Hologram Fun World." "Quite a day!" Tash snapped. "Your holograms killed our friend! They almost killed us!" Fajji chuckled. "Oh, no, no, no. I assure you no one has been killed. At least, not yet." With startling quickness, the smile fell away from Fajji's face. Then Fajji's face itself fell away. The baron administrator's skin crawled across his frame, and in two blinks of an eye he had changed shape. Tash and Zak were looking at another Shi'ido. "Gog!" Zak cried. But the presence of the evil scientist was not nearly as terrifying as what happened next. Gog turned to Uncle Hoole and nodded satisfactorily. "Excellent work, Dr. Hoole." Hoole shrugged. "It was quite simple. They are trusting." "You can't be working with him!" Tash insisted in a panic. "He's your enemy." "He's your enemy," Hoole replied. "Gog and I have been working together since the beginning of Project Starscream." Zak shook his head. "It can't be true!" "It is," Gog said. "And now we'll prove it. Hoole, destroy these two interlopers." A blaster appeared in Uncle Hoole's hand. He put it right between Zak's eyes.