Another s.p.a.ce slug had attacked from another angle. The Star Destroyer shook.

"You were saying?" Tash said.

The tractor beam dropped off. Tash hit the accelerator and slipped out of the asteroid cl.u.s.ter.

Behind her, the Vengeance tried to change course, but it was attacked again and again. The two s.p.a.ce slugs were too stubborn, or too stupid, to give up. And Tash doubted that Spore knew how to command the Star Destroyer. It moved sluggishly, slowly. The ship had been hit a dozen times before it managed to turn around.

By that time, its shields were failing, and with its shields gone, the Star Destroyer could not fend off the asteroids. And at nearly two kilometers long, it was a big target. s.p.a.ce rocks slammed into its hull at a hundred different points. Plumes of fire started lifting from its main deck. A moment later, the bridge exploded.

Tash saw a gaping hole open up the side of the star-ship. As she reached the edge of the asteroid field, she imagined the vacuum of s.p.a.ce rushing in to find Spore.

EPILOGUE.

"So I have an evil laugh, huh?" Zak asked. He gave a wicked-sounding chuckle.

"Not even close," Tash replied.

They were aboard the Tafanda Bay, lounging in one of the floating city's many parks. All of them seemed relieved except Fandomar, who sat with her eyes downcast and muttering to herself in sorrowful tones.

Her theory had been correct. When the hole had opened up in the side of the Star Destroyer, the air inside had escaped, just as it had at the mining facility. Spore and his minions had been unable to seal the damage, and soon the entire ship had been exposed to airless s.p.a.ce.

Spore had been neutralized.

Soon after the Vengeance had lost power and started drifting, Zak had fainted. When he came to his senses a few hours later, he had no memory of the time of his infection. Neither he nor Hoole had asked for details, which was fine with Tash. She still turned pale at the thought of the weird tentacles hurtling from their mouths and eyes. She didn't need to describe it.

Hoole walked up to them. "The Shroud is refueled," their uncle said. "It's time to go."

Tash put her hand on Fandomar's shoulder. "Will you be all right?"

Fandomar sighed. "I do not know. I have committed a crime far worse than my husband's," she said. "He gave up our secret technology to save the Bafforr trees. I betrayed the Law of Life and helped destroy all those people on the Star Destroyer."

"But you probably saved countless lives by doing so," Hoole replied.

"Besides," Tash argued, "you didn't do anything to those Imperials.

You were only following me."

Fandomar blinked. "I'm afraid my conscience may not be as forgiving as you are."

Tash got to her feet. "Please don't feel bad, Fandomar. You're a hero. I mean, Spore is dead, right?" she asked. "If Zak and Uncle Hoole and those four Ithorians have all returned to normal, Spore must have died."

Fandomar nodded. "I hope so."

On the outskirts of the asteroid field, Imperial salvage crews sorted through the wreckage of the Vengeance that floated around in s.p.a.ce. There wasn't much left to pick up, but they'd been ordered to scan the garbage with extra-fine sensors. The order had come from Jerec himself, who had survived the wreck by escaping aboard a Starfly moments before destruction.

The salvage crews grumbled, and swept the asteroid field again.

Hardly anything showed up on their scopes.

So far, a few small objects had escaped their attention. If they kept looking they might find, drifting in the debris, a few undamaged TIE fighters, the ship's computer core with all its Imperial secrets intact, and, nearby, a human body and a dark object the size of a human fist. It looked like a large seed.

The corpse was nothing important-just the body of someone named Hodge, who had once been chief partner of a mining station. He had died when the Star Destroyer lost its air.

Beside it, the small fist-sized object floated.

And waited. Eventually, someone would find it. Someone would pick it up.. .