Star Wars: Galaxy of Fear 10: The Doomsday Ship by John Whitman

Author:John Whitman
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Space ships, Action & Adventure, Juvenile Fiction, Fantasy & Magic, Fiction, Science fiction, Horror & Ghost Stories, General
ISBN: 9780553486407
Publisher: Bantam Books
Published: 1998-05-11T07:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 10

Zak felt his stomach fly up into his throat and almost out of his mouth. One second the turbolift was strong and steady beneath their feet.

The next it was dropping like a stone down a black hole.

"Freefall!" Dash called out. They could barely hear him. The fast-falling turbolift was screaming like a bomb being dropped.

At first Zak was convinced his brain had left his body along with his heart and stomach. He couldn't think. He couldn't move. He couldn't hear anything but the screech of the lift falling down its tube.

Then he became aware of someone shouting in his ear, trying to push past him to the controls. It was Captain Hajj. "Manual override!" the captain was shouting. "Emergency brake!"

Zak nodded and reached out. He opened a small box marked EMERGENCY

and flipped the switch inside. Nothing happened.

"Blast!" he heard the captain growl.

Then a strong pair of hands shoved both the captain and Zak aside.

Dash Rendar coolly pulled his blaster from its holster. Holding it by the barrel, he smashed the emergency control box, exposing a nest of wires.

Dropping his blaster, he fumbled with the tangled wires until he found two that he seemed to like. He touched them together.

Sparks flew.

Zak heard a loud thunk! as the turbolift's powerful emergency brakes locked into place.

The turbolift slowed.

In seconds, they were at normal turbolift speed. A moment later, they came to a complete stop.

Everyone on the lift exhaled at once. Zak clutched his hand to his chest, hoping to hold his frantically pounding heart in place.

Captain Hajj regained his composure and clapped a hand on Dash's shoulder. "Nice work."

Skreeee!

The right side of the turbolift suddenly dropped down, causing all the passengers to stagger.

"The emergency brakes are giving out!" Captain Hajj cried.

"Time to get off this ride," Zak suggested hastily. Dash, Captain Hajj, and the two crewmen forced their fingers between the doors of the turbolift and pried them open. They saw that the turbolift had stopped between floors. Instead of being at their feet, the nearest floor was actually at the level of Zak's shoulders.

Dash and Hajj forced open the doors onto the floor. The taller men then gave Zak and Tash a boost up, and the two Arrandas slipped out into the safety of the hallway. They held the doors open as one by one the others followed. Captain Hajj was the last to exit. Dash Rendar pulled him out just as the turbolift groaned again. The captain was barely in the clear when the turbolift dropped away. They heard it smash against the bottom of the tube a moment later.

Captain Hajj didn't bother to look back. He was already heading for the other turbolift, the one his crew members had taken. He checked the indicator light to see where the lift was. If the lift had worked properly, the light should show the twentieth floor.

Instead, the indicator light showed that the other turbolift, too, had gone down instead of up. The light indicated the very lowest level.

Hajj and his crewmen worked together to pry the doors open.

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