Star Wars_ Young Jedi Knights 14_ Crisis at Crystal Reef - Kevin J. Anderson [34]
And the Force was with them all.
6iven the undersea monster's enormous body mass, the powerful spice worked more quickly than Zekk could possibly have imagined. He gripped the controls and tried to maneuver the minisub away with all possible speed, but they gained only a minimal distance-nowhere near enough.
After swallowing the prodigious amount of andris, the beast fl?tiled briefly, then began darting from left to right, its tentacles thrashing, grabbing, jittering, as if from seizures and convulsions.
Jacen rubbed his temples, concentrating, then gave a sigh of exasperation. "There's no way I can get through to it now. It's got a storm going through its brain!"
Cilghal released the useless grasper controls of the sub's remaining mechanical claw and threw herself into helping Zekk. He pushed the minisub's engines beyond their maximum recommended levels, heading higher into the inverted canyons of iceberg roots, toward the blocky mass of the polar cap and away from the thrashing beast.
"Maybe he won't notice us," Zekk muttered.
"Yeah, and maybe Han Solo's on his way to rescue us at this very moment,"
Anja said with clear scorn. Her face was flushed, her forehead sweating-but she seemed to be fighting internal battles beyond simple fear for their survival. "Face it, Zekk-we're in trouble."
The leviathan's flailings became even more frenzied. It spun about, tentacles waving like handfuls of bullwhips. Finally, it focused its energy on a single target: the minisub. The creature turned its long head on its sinuous neck, its glowing yellow eyes flaring with a brighter light as the monster dove in to attack.
Cilghal uttered a wordless sound as she jammed the throttles from the copilot's stition. Zekk let her maneuver, since she was more familiar with oceangoing vessels. The sub's propellers and bubbles swirled behind its main body as they shot off through the frigid water.
The sea monster followed, reaching forward, stretching, trying to grasp.
The tip of one tentacle brushed against the main propeller on the rear of the sub, which sheared it off. The creature drew back, but seconds later the maddened monster resumed the chase, frothing the water behind it. Its sharp silver-fanged jaws clocked together, as if prepared to cut through the metal hull.
With a rapid sideways motion, a tentacle slammed into the directional fin that guarded one engine. The inner compartment of the minisub rang like a heavy bell from the blow. The engines squealed and groaned, spilling smoke, but they continued to work-just barely.
Zekk and Cilghal took the sub higher, closer to the ice-locked surface.
Zekk's ears popped with the pressure difference.
Outside, drifting slabs of ice smashed against the hull with loud thunks and bangs that reverberated through the chamber. Cilghal swerved the minisub's rudder, and Zekk tilted the craft to avoid a knotted underwater cliff that dangled beneath a heavy iceberg.
By grasping the rough ice with its tentacles, the sea creature hauled itself forward. Closer and closer.
"Up there!" Zekk said, pointing to a fissure in the ice. "It's too small for the creature to follow us inside." Cilghal saw and nodded.
Anja frowned, covering her fear with her usual show of skepticism.
She seemed to be exceedingly tense and appeared to be shivering. "I doubt even the sub could get in there."
The creature lashed out with its sharp-ended tentacles and slapped the ice. Large blue-white chunks broke off and drifted around them, like boulders rising and falling in slow motion. The minisub ducked below a jagged ceiling of frozen ice and accelerated as the gap widened, spewing bubbles. The sea creature charged after them, thrashing, groping with its tentacles. One of the long whiplike appendages finally fastened on to the rear of the sub, somehow gaining purchase with its suckers on the smooth hull.
Inside, Jacen was tossed into Anja. Her breathing