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As he continued to orbit the planet, he wondered if the city had suffered a massive power outage. Or maybe this was standard procedure here; a colony strapped for resources and credits might shut down all power every night as an austerity measure.

Zekk noted the position of the town on the edge of the planet's night side. The local time would be almost morning. In the absence of any direct communication from the surface, he began a conservative standard descent, confident that all his questions would soon be answered. - - he would see for himself.

Gammalin was dry and rocky. Zekk's instruments indicated a strong breeze that gusted regularly, moving the dust around.

As the Lightning Rod cruised over the frontier town, dawn began to break.

The sun spilled yellow-gold light across the silent settlement.

Instead of a bustling colony, though, Zekk found only death.

Clusters of weathered prefab buildings lined streets laid out on a precise grid.

He spotted no movement, no lights, not even the flicker of candles or torches... though he did see several blocks that must have been gutted by a fire raging out of control. It had burned itself out, but there was no evidence that anyone had even tried to stop the fire.

He powered up his comm system and broadcast repeatedly: "Gammalin Colony, this is the Lightning Rodinplease respond."

A tingle ran down his back, echoes of the Force warning him to be cautious. This place did not look right. Did not feel right.

Had it been abandoned? Entirely evacuated?

And if so, why had no one left a beacon?

As he came in lower, Zekk saw the first body lying facedown in the street. Fine dust obscured most of the body, but there was no mistaking that the person was dead.

Now, knowing what to look for, he distinguished other human forms sprawled about, arms and legs akimbo, completely covered by the perpetually blowing dust.

Zekk couldn't believe what he was seeing.

He used his scanners as he flew over the entire city, and still detected no signs of life. "Are they all dead?" he muttered to himself. Had Fonterrat come here and been killed by whatever had wiped out the rest of this human colony? Maybe there was nothing wrong with the sensors after all.

This was beyond anything in Zekk's previous experience. He set the Lightning Rod down in a clearing and prepared to investigate the disaster, feeling compelled to do so. He'd come here merely to find another scavenger--one who might provide a clue to the location of Bornan Thul--and to fulfill his first assignment as a bounty hunter, but now he had one more mystery to solve.

Could Grammalin have been attacked and wiped out by pirates or marauders, perhaps even some leftover Imperial fleet?

He didn't think so. He saw no collateral damage no blasted buildings, no explosion craters only the section of burned homes, which could well have been an accidental fire from some heat source left untended.

He shut down the Lightning Rod's engines, but kept them primed just in case he had to leave in great haste. He paused at the exit hatch before unsealing it, afraid of the stench of death he was sure awaited his first breath outside--if the entire population had died, then no one was left to dispose of the bodies.

Zekk froze with his finger on the hatch controls. Wait.t What if this was a virus or bacteria of some kind? That could explain how everyone had been struck down, why all the buildings seemed abandoned, why no one answered the comm signals. A plague, spreading like wildfire with a hundred percent mortality rate. Zekk shuddered. A disease so horrible it killed everyone... and he had almost opened the Lightning Rod and breathed in the air!

Zekk went to a supply locker and found an intact environment suit.

The Lightning Rod's decontamination systems were still operating efficiently--or at least he hoped so. Peckhum had never known when he might need to sterilize a cargo for transport from one planet to another.

Zekk suited up, tied back his long dark hair, and double-checked the seals on his gloves, on his boots, and around