Galaxy of Fear_ The Nightmare Machine Part 4

The baron administrator nodded. "Unfortunately you're right. The program isn't always consistent. The Nightmare Machine still has a few bugs to be worked out. That's why it's not open to the public yet."

"Excuse me, sir," Deevee said. "But did you say the program scans the brains of beings and records their worst fears? As far as I know, no one has the technology to read minds. Only certain telepathic beings can do that."

Fajji puffed up proudly. "We've broken that technology barrier."

"Really?" Lando said, intrigued.

"How does it work?" asked Zak. "Can we see the machinery?"

"No," Fajji replied quickly. "That's cla.s.sified information. We don't want anyone copying our inventions, you know."

"So once you're inside, how does the ride end?" Lando asked.

"There are only two ways," the baron administrator said. "The first is, you stay through to the end of the holograms. The Nightmare Machine will scan your brain and put you through a series of increasingly frightening scenes. If you can get to the last one-your own ultimate fear-then you win the game and it ends. If you can't take it, then all you have to do is say 'End simulation! ' and the program will end." He paused. "So, now that you know what you're getting into, do you want to go for another ride?"

Zak and Tash looked at each other. "Let's do it," Tash said.

"Sure," Zak replied reluctantly.

Danna Fajji escorted Zak and Tash into the building, with Lando and Deevee following behind them. "Enjoy yourselves," Fajji said with a smile, and guided the two Arrandas into the fearful room.

Zak had hardly taken his first step before the scene around him changed. The room vanished, and Zak found himself in the middle of a wide field, standing on his hovering skimboard. Tash was standing behind him, clinging to him to keep her balance on the narrow antigravity board.

Before Zak could speak, Lando and Deevee jumped onto the board as well.

"It's too heavy!" Zak said as the skimboard wobbled. "It's going to sink. "

"It better not!" Lando shouted. "Because we're being chased by Cyborrean battle dogs!'

Zak turned and saw a pack of ma.s.sive, thick-bodied dogs with wide jaws and short blood-red hair charging toward them. They howled viciously.

Instinctively Zak hit the skimboard's accelerator. But the hoverboard was slowed down by too much weight, and it lurched forward sluggishly.

"C'mon, Zak!" Tash yelled, "get this thing going before it-agh!"

Before Tash could finish her sentence, the first dog reached the skimboard. Its powerful jaws clamped down on the back of Tash's tunic, and one twist of its thick neck pulled her from the safety of the board.

"Tas.h.!.+" Zak yelled.

His sister hit the ground hard. She rolled to one side and tried to scramble to her feet. But it was too late. The battle dogs attacked, and Tash fell under a pile of bristling fur and sharp fangs.

"They're killing her!" Deevee wailed.

"Tas.h.!.+" Lando called out.

Zak knew he had to stop the battle dogs before they tore Tash apart. "End simulation!" he ordered. But the simulation did not end.

CHAPTER 7.

Tash could hardly be seen beneath the swarm of savage dogs.

"End simulation!" Zak cried out. Tears of fear and frustration burned in his eyes. "End simulation!"

It was no use. The program would not stop.

Without thinking, Zak leaped from the skimboard. He had been afraid of the invisible insects earlier, and he was afraid of the battle dogs now. But none of that compared to his fear of losing his sister. He charged into the dog pack, trying to pull them off Tash.

One of the dogs turned and growled, baring a mouth full of sharp fangs. It crouched down, ready to spring at Zak's throat.

"End simulation," Tash's calm voice stated.

The entire pack of battle dogs melted away. So did the field in which Zak stood. He was back inside The Nightmare Machine again. Tash was standing across the room from him.

"T-Tas.h.!.+" Zak sputtered, caught between fear and confusion. "You're okay! But... but I thought we were in the hologram together. You were being mauled by Cyborrean battle dogs."

"It wasn't me," his sister replied. "It must have been a hologram of me. There weren't any battle dogs in my hologram."

"Mine was terrible," Zak muttered. "I tried to end the simulation, but it wouldn't respond. I wonder if that's another bug that needs to be worked out."

"Well, we've spent enough time here, in any event," Lando concluded. "Let's tour the rest of the park, shall we?"

They left The Nightmare Machine and walked out into the artificial light of Fun World.

"I'd like to visit the lagoon again," Tash suggested.

"All right," Zak agreed. "It's over here." He turned to his left.

"No it's not," Tash laughed. "It's over here." She pointed to the right. Between two buildings, they could just see a thin blue strip of water.

Zak shook his head. "That's funny, I could have sworn I saw it over on this side."

Deevee tilted his head understandingly. "The large number of holographic projections in this s.p.a.ce could confuse a species. Unless, of course, one happens to be a droid of superior quality."

"Right, Deevee," Tash groaned. "Let's go."

But Zak wasn't listening. As he looked around to get his bearings, he caught a glimpse of something disturbingly familiar. A large, pale creature clung to the side of a wall, its double-jointed arms and legs twisted at bizarre angles. Zak saw the flas.h.i.+ng blood-red eyes and an enormous head. But by the time he'd turned to look directly at the thing, it was gone.

"What's wrong?" Tash asked.

"Did you see that?"

She looked around. "See what?"

Zak didn't respond. The creature had been clinging to the outside wall of the Hall of Reflection. Zak thought he'd seen it slip inside.

"Zak?" Tash prompted him.

"I think I saw it," he replied. "The creature I saw in The Nightmare Machine."

Deevee heaved an electronic sigh. "Zak, we've been through this already. That was merely a hologram."

"Maybe. Maybe not," Zak said. He started toward the building.

He didn't have time to argue. By the time he convinced them to follow, the creature would be long gone.

Zak reached the steps of the Hall of Reflection. The building looked basically the same as it did yesterday, yet somehow different. It was darker and more shadowy. Zak did not pause to dwell on the change. He plunged into the mirror maze.

Inside, there was no sign of the brain creature. But Zak decided to keep looking.

He saw his own image reflected dozens of times. Just as before, the reflections were distorted, but now they were even more hideous. Zak wasn't just reflected as a silly-looking troll. Now he looked like a monster. With each twist and turn that took him deeper into the hall of mirrors, Zak's reflection became more hideous.

Finally, as he reached what he guessed was the center of the maze, Zak saw an image that made him gag. He was looking at his own face, but his skin had melted and hung from his cheeks in sagging clumps. His eyes had sunk back into their sockets so that they looked like holes in his skull. His arms had grown twice as long. His knuckles dragged on the floor. His elbows reached down to his knees, which were now jointed in the opposite direction so that they pointed backward instead of forward.

"Agh!" he cried. He reached out to touch the gla.s.s that held his distorted image. His reflection jiggled as it moved and reached forward in the same motion. As Zak touched the gla.s.s, his reflection touched the gla.s.s at exactly the same point, and the whole image s.h.i.+mmered into a blur.

When the mirror cleared again, Zak was looking at a perfect image of his true self. He saw his own messy brown hair and his own face. His reflection was grinning wickedly. That was odd, because Zak didn't think he was smiling.

He tried to raise one hand to touch his face, but his arm felt heavy and awkward. With some effort he managed to lift his hand... only to find that it was as long and deformed as the horrible image he'd seen before.

He tried to step back from the mirror but stumbled. His own knees bent backward. Zak dragged his two clumsy hands up to his face, and felt the skin hanging limp and soft from his cheeks. He let out a wail. Zak had turned into a monster.

CHAPTER 8.

Zak tried to speak, but his words were garbled and lost in the folds of melted flesh around his lips.

"Zak?" Tash's voice drifted in from outside the Hall of Reflection.

"Zak, are you in here?"

Trying to balance on his backward legs, Zak staggered through the maze. The mirrors reflected his own hideous form back at him.

"Zak!" Tash called again. "I'm coming in to look for you!"

No! Zak thought. If Tash comes in here she'll be changed, too. Zak struggled to make his mouth work properly.

"Nnnaaa!" he bellowed. "Shtay bach!"

"Zak?" Tash's voice deepened with concern. "Is that you? You're scaring me!"

Zak could not stop slurring his words. "Don commm ind!"

He had to do something! Turning his head, Zak caught a glimpse of himself-his real self-in one of the mirrors.

"Gotja!" he mumbled. He reached out and touched the mirror. Just as before, the reflection s.h.i.+mmered. When it stopped, Zak looked down at his own hand. It looked normal.

"Zak!" Lando called out.

"I'm coming!" he replied in his own clear voice. "Don't touch the mirrors!"

Zak carefully wound his way back through the maze until he reached the exit where the others had stopped. "We're over here!" Tash called out. "What's going on?"

"M-My reflection!" he explained breathlessly. "The mirrors stole it. They changed me into a-a monster."

Lando raised an eyebrow. "Excuse me?"

"Zak, are you sure?" his sister asked.

"It seems unlikely," Deevee pointed out. "Molecular alteration is an extremely complex process. It would take a computer the size of-"

"It happened," Zak replied. "I'm telling you, something is wrong here."

"Zak, how could it have changed you?" Tash said. "And how could you have changed back so quickly? Maybe you just looked at one of these crazy reflections." She reached out to one of the nearest funhouse mirrors.

"Don't touch it!" Zak yelled.

Lando frowned. "Zak, if you're that concerned, maybe we should go back to see Danna Fajji. I'm sure he can explain all this, just as he explained The Nightmare Machine."

"Oh, that makes me feel a lot better," Zak said sarcastically. But he had no better ideas, and he followed as Lando led them back toward the administrative building.

"Welcome!" Danna Fajji called out as they entered his office. He stood up from behind a curved metallic desk, where he'd been working at a computer. "I trust you found Hologram Fun World to your liking. How was The Nightmare Machine?"

"Confusing, to say the least," Lando began diplomatically. "In fact, you could say that-"

"What's going on?" Zak interrupted Lando. "First you scare me with those horror holos in The Nightmare Machine, and then something happened to me in the Hall of Reflection. What is this place?"

"The Hall of Reflection," Fajji muttered, putting his hands together and touching his fingertips to his puffy lips. "My apologies. My hologram technicians have been experimenting with new programs. You may have discovered a glitch in the mirror room."

"A glitch!" Zak almost screamed.

"There, you see?" Deevee said, trying to calm Zak down. "The explanation is simple."

"I truly regret any inconvenience," Fajji insisted sincerely. "We take all complaints quite seriously, and I'll do anything I can to make your stay pleasant."

"Complaints?" Lando asked warily. "Have you gotten any other complaints? I hope they're not the kind that would concern a potential investor like me."

"Of course not! Of course not!" Fajji laughed. "In fact, I'm glad you're here, Master Calrissian. I wanted to show you some of these profit numbers..."