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By Root 212 0

door was closed, the controls were not passworded. Boman Thul worked the keys easily, sliding the long-silent airlock door open. The next corridor held more secure airtight interlocks. Thul operated door after door, until finally they entered a central hub, the core of the asteroid depot.

"This is the chamber of horrors," he said.

Jacen hovered near Tenel Ka's shoulder, gasping in awe as he stared through broad panels of transparisteel that looked down into the main room. Raynar remained beside Bornan Thul. Zekk and Jaina stood next to each other, while Lowie, taller than the rest, peered over their heads.

Behind the sealed windows, Jacen saw a vast room where row after row of tanks and cylinders stretched to the far side of the chamber: small canisters, large tubes, vats, gurgling spheres. Each was filled with bubbling, evil-looking liquid. Refrigeration racks full of tiny vials and flasks covered one entire wall, floor to ceiling. Every last container held a colorful mixture that was deadly to one species or another.

Jacen could hardly believe his eyes.

"There's enough contamination in there to wipe out every living creature in the galaxy!"

Lowie growled in agreement.

Em Teedee chirped, "I do believe you're right, Master Jacen. I could make a reasonably precise estimate, if you like. Given the rate at which the human plague organism spread on Gammalin, and assuming each of the plagues could as easily be passed from one member of a targeted life-form to another, I should venture to guess that-"

"We understand, Em Teedee," Jaina cut him off, but she could not tear her eyes away from the transparisteel window. "We understand all too well."

Doors marked with an ominous skull and DNA symbol to denote the deadly virus gave access to the chamber. The two-way intercom system would have allowed for communication between Imperial workers inside the sealed chamber and stormtrooper guards on the outside. But Boman Thul did not go near the entry.

"We shouldn't risk setting foot inside just yet," he said. "If any one of us were exposed to that human plague... we could all die before we have a chance to destroy anything."

Zekk frowned.

"No. We didn't come here to die. Any ideas on how to demolish the storehouse? The place looks pretty secure. Could we use blasters to break all of the cylinders?"

Boman Thul shook his head.

"No, that would merely spread the plague. We'll have to expose it to space."

"To accomplish that, we must turn this entire asteroid to dust," Tenel Ka said.

"Hey, sounds reasonable to me," Jacen said.

"Shouldn't we get started before Nolaa Tarkona arrives?"

"We don't know how much of a head start we have on her," Raynar pointed out. "We've got to hurry."

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Jaina said. "Any suggestions?"

Borran Thul raised his eyebrows.

"This is a weapons depot. The Emperor stored munitions here as well as biological weapons. The plague canisters are in this central chamber, but I'm fairly certain that some of the other bunker rooms contain thermal detonators, explosives, space mines, heavy demolitions equipment."

"Yeah... we could use stuff like that," Jaina said with a twinkle in her eye.

Jacen let out a low whistle. "Sounds just like what we saw Nolaa Tarkona hiding in the tunnels of Ryloth."

Tenel Ka gave him the faintest of smiles. "Those stockpiles produced rather gratifying explosions."

Jacen looked at her and flashed a grin, remembering how they had escaped from the ryll mines.

"If we wipe out every speck of this plague," Raynar said, "Nolaa won't pose much of a gallactic threat anymore."

Borran Thul strode to a side doorway, unsealed it, and led the way to a tangential corridor inside the asteroid. Jacen paused for one long moment, feeling a shiver down his spine as he looked at all the cylinders filled with the deadly plague, then turned to hurry after his companions.

Thul took them to where a heavy, blaster-shielded door blocked his way.

"I think this is one of the main weapons vaults," he said. "All the munitions should be in there, but..." His shoulders slumped.