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“All right, have it your way, then,” Threepio said. “We’ll go to the control center and shut down all the holograms.”

Jacen and Jaina felt the slimy surface of the tunnel as they crawled downward. They had no idea where they were going, but they knew they had to find some other way home.

Jacen reached up, felt no close ceiling, and climbed to his feet. The twins could see nothing in the darkness, only a faint glow ahead. They made their way toward it—cautiously this time, afraid they might find another ogre. Jacen smelled sizzling meat, and he heard guttural words, the first human voices they had heard since deciding to go home without Threepio and Chewbacca.

Jacen started toward the light, but Jaina held on to his arm. “Careful,” she said. Jacen nodded and put a finger to his lips as a reminder. They inched forward, hearts hammering. They smelled the delicious scents of cooked food, heard the crackle of fire, the chattering voices.

They reached a corner and peered around it to see a large blasted-out room, a low-level reception area used thousands of years ago. Jacen and Jaina could see a bonfire, tattered figures moving between light and shadow, banks of dimly functioning glowcrystals, and a glimpse of blinking computer equipment. Then suddenly, from all sides, silent hands reached out to grab them.

Firm grips, wiry arms. Five sentries struck at once, snatching Jacen and Jaina and whisking them off their feet before they had a chance to struggle.

The sentries laughed even as the children squealed in terror. A cheer went up from the people around the bonfire as the sentries carried the twins out into the bright light.

Alarms pulsed and whooped in the control center of the Holographic Zoo. Red signals flashed; yellow lights blinked on and off in indecipherable patterns.

Threepio was impressed at the commotion he had managed to cause just by activating a few security systems.

The zoo’s control droid sat in the center of an octagonal computer bank. It had a spherical head encircled by optical sensors mounted every thirty-six degrees. From its central station the control droid sprouted eight segmented limbs that scrambled over the panels, pecking at the buttons in a blur of motion like fire-linked blaster cannons.

“Permission denied,” the control droid said to them.

Chewbacca roared, but the control droid merely spun its spherical head and ignored the Wookiee’s outburst.

“I feel required to warn you,” Threepio said to the other droid, “that when Wookiees lose their tempers they are known to rip limbs out of their sockets. I believe Chewbacca here is on the verge of losing his temper.”

Chewbacca leaned forward on one of the segmented control panels, gripped it with his hairy paws, and roared again into one set of the multiple eyes.

“Permission still denied,” the control droid said.

“But you don’t understand!” Threepio insisted. “There are two lost children inside your Holographic Zoo. If you would just shut down the image generators, we could search the habitats and find them.”

“Unacceptable,” the control droid said. “It would cause too great a disturbance among the other guests.”

Threepio indignantly propped his metallic arms on his hips. “But the zoo looked empty when we toured it. How many other patrons are currently using the facility?”

“Irrelevant,” the control droid said. “Such an action is strictly forbidden except in conditions of extreme emergency.”

Threepio waved his golden hands in the air. “But this is an emergency!”

Chewbacca had apparently had enough of formal requests. He bunched his fists together and brought them down on the first control bank, smashing the glossy black coverings and shattering circuit connections.

Sparks flew. The control droid’s head spun around like a planet knocked out of its orbit. “Excuse me,” the control droid said, “please don’t touch the controls,”

Chewbacca went to the second segment of the octagonal board and smashed it as well. The control droid flailed its eight articulated limbs, trying to bypass circuits in the remaining systems.