“Hey, I’m a pretty fine pilot myself,” Anja objected as they reached the dock where the minisub was tethered.
“Zekk is an excellent choice,” Tenel Ka interrupted. “I believe he is the finest pilot among us.”
“Besides,” Zekk muttered to Anja, “you’re not going to pilot anything until I get my ship back.” She clamped her lips shut and folded her arms across her chest. “I’m sure Cilghal will help me pilot the sub, since I’m in unfamiliar waters.”
The treelike harbormaster opened the hatch with one branchy hand and helped the young Jedi climb down into the submersible. “And you, Ambassador,” the Yarin said as he helped Cilghal down, “are probably most familiar with Calamarian oceangoing craft. I trust you will be able to handle any emergencies that might arise?”
Cilghal gave him a stately nod.
“We’ll take good care of your little sub,” Zekk assured him. “Does it have a name?”
The Yarin gave a wheeze that Zekk figured must have been a chuckle and said, “I call her the Elfa. Among my people, it is a word that means fish-so-small-that-it-is-not-worth-catching.”
“We can’t thank you enough, Harbormaster,” Cilghal said. “We will take good care of your Elfa.”
The ocean beneath the arctic ice was beautiful. The blue-green glow of water-filtered daylight transformed every creature, sea plant, or chunk of ice into a thing of magic. Particulates suspended in the water sparkled like gold dust. The Elfa was smaller by far than the Lightning Rod, and less maneuver-able because it was in water, but Zekk enjoyed every moment of piloting it.
“The transponder signal’s getting stronger,” Anja announced in a ragged voice. “We’re almost to the spice stash.” Her breath seemed labored. Zekk wondered if she had a fear of enclosed places and disliked the unusual feeling of being deep under water. Either that, he decided, or she was going through spice withdrawal again.
“Just let me know if I need to make any course adjustments,” Zekk said.
Over the past two hours, Cilghal had shown him how to use most of the systems on the tiny submersible, and he now felt as comfortable with the Elfa as he had ever felt with any ship besides the Lightning Rod.
“Over there. Is that it?” Jacen asked, pointing.
“I believe so. You have excellent eyes,” Tenel Ka said.
“Thanks. You have pretty nice eyes, too,” Jacen teased.
“The signal’s strong and clear,” Anja said, ignoring the banter. “Do you see it?”
“Got it,” Zekk said, already making the course correction.
In less than five minutes he had maneuvered them into position beside the cache, which had been tucked away beneath blocks of free-floating arctic ice. The four separate containers were sealed, armored cases, quickly stashed there for safekeeping, anchored to the ice.
Anja crowded close to the windowport, looking over Zekk’s shoulder to get a better view. Her face was flushed, her breathing ragged, her hair damp with perspiration.
“Okay, now what?” Zekk asked.
“Now we destroy them, just as we all agreed,” Anja said.
“Hey, I hate to mention this, but those containers look like they’re pretty well armored. How do you expect to get rid of them?”
“I believe I can be of assistance there,” Cilghal said. She set to work at the controls of the two grappling arms attached to the minisub, maneuvering until one of the sealed containers was in her grasp. Then she squeezed with the claw mechanism until one of the claws pierced the armor and the buoyant container began to fill with water.
“Should we just let it sink?” Zekk asked.
“No, that’s not good enough!” Anja snapped. She calmed herself and lowered her voice. “Czethros’s people would still be able to locate it by the transponder and retrieve the spice. This is valuable stuff, remember.”
“In that case, perhaps this will work,” Cilghal said, reaching out with the other claw-arm to grasp a second heavy cargo container. She swung them both outward and then back together again to smash them into each other. The already-punctured storage bin burst at the impact and a flood of tiny sealed ampoules cascaded from the container. Some of the vials shattered; others just drifted free and then slowly began to sink into the frigid depths of the ocean.
“Is this an acceptable solution?” Tenel Ka asked Anja.
Anja was silent for a full minute, just staring at the shimmering ampoules in the water around them and panting. Zekk wondered if she regretted her decision to destroy them, but a moment later Anja answered.
She raised a triumphant fist. “Yesss!” She gave a weak laugh. “Even if Czethros’s men manage to find the transponder signal now, I’d like to see them all searching several square kilometers of ocean floor and trying to collect all of those tiny little ampoules—one by one.”
Zekk gave a satisfied nod. “As Jaina would say, what are we waiting for? Let’s smash the other ones.”
Still leaning over his shoulder, Anja whispered, “Two down, two to go.”
While Zekk handled the minisub’s piloting controls, Cilghal deftly maneuvered the pincer claws, grasping the final sealed container of andris spice with one of them. To Jacen’s surprise, the Jedi ambassador stopped and blinked her huge fishy eyes. “Something is not right.”
The submersible’s lights seemed to have attracted something in the murky, ice-clogged water … something large and dangerous and seeking prey.
“What’s that?” Jacen leaned toward a thick transparisteel porthole. “There’s a shadow out there, something … swimming.” He let his eyes fall halfway closed, reached out with the Force. “Uh-oh.”
As he stood, stretching his thoughts into the dark water, a giant yellow eye flashed in front of the window, its pupil as large as Jacen’s head. His eyelids snapped up, and for a fraction of a second, he froze, pinned by its cold and angry gaze.
“Jacen, my friend, do you have a ‘bad feeling’ about this?” Tenel Ka asked.
He nodded. The creature swam forward. Its eye was followed by a mouth filled with huge fangs, each one seemingly large enough to crush an X-wing starfighter.
“Look out!” Jacen cried.
Zekk and the Calamarian ambassador grappled with the sub’s controls. The minisub rocked back and forth under the water as the startled sea beast moved closer to look at the curious thing.
A huge tentacle the size of a space-station docking tether whipped across their front field of view, slithering, probing.
Though the creature felt hungry to Jacen, it remained cautious as it approached its new victim. The minisub turned about, its propellers whirring in the water, pushing them ever so slowly toward safety.
The giant sea creature swam past again like an immense underwater ship, not attacking yet. Its scaly hide rippled as it cruised by. More tentacles streamed out in all directions.
Jacen gave a low whistle. “It’s awfully big. Do you know what it is, Cilghal?”
The Mon Calamarian shook her large head. “There are many things deep in the oceans of my world that have never been named, or even seen, by living creatures.”
“We might not qualify as living creatures for long, if that thing decides to go for us,” Anja said.
The current from the beast’s passage stirred the waters, making the minisub buck and sway. Zekk grasped the controls more tightly. Jacen pressed his face against the cold porthole, observing the armored hide, the long neck, the huge head with its mouth that could swallow the largest of fish. And tentacles everywhere.
A thick, sinuous arm struck the side of the minisub. Not hard—just an exploratory tap—but it sent them careening end over end beneath the water. Bubbles burst out all around the submersible.