Read Star Wars - 210 - Jedi Prince 01 - The Glove of Darth Vader for Free Online Page B

at a dizzying speed, while a huge door opened on the side of the Whaladon-hunting submarine. In a few moments Leviathor was sucked through the door and he vanished from sight.
    THUUUU-WHOMP!
    As the metal door slammed shut, claiming its prize catch, Luke could hear a dull thud pounding through the waves.
    "This is a very sad day for Calamari," said Ackbar, shuddering. "Without Leviathor the Whaladons haven’t a chance now."
    Luke’s mouth fell open as he saw another Whaladon trapped in the whirlpool. The Whaladon fell into the swirling hole, tumbling and twisting, then was quickly trapped inside another storage chamber.
    Then a third Whaladon was trapped.
    And a fourth.
    Ackbar abruptly pushed the steering lever to the left. Their Calamarian minisub turned sharply away, then picked up speed.
    "Surely there must be something we can do," said Threepio, nervously polishing his fingers. "Why, they’ve swallowed up four Whaladons in the last few minutes, including Leviathor."
    "It looks hopeless," said Ackbar sadly.
    Luke remembered all of the hopeless situations he had been in before. How many times in his life had he almost been ready to give up? But he never had. If there was any hope of saving the Whaladons, they couldn’t turn back now. So they kept following the Whaladon-hunting submarine as it went straight toward the dark Seascape Mountains.
    Luke squinted, almost losing sight of the huge vessel as the shadows of the undersea cliffs concealed it. But he could still just barely make it out in the darkening waters. It cruised toward a large passageway between two rugged underwater cliffs.
    "There are no Whaladons this way-destination unknown," said Admiral Ackbar, wondering where Captain Dunwell was headed.
    It was a dangerous journey through the jagged mountains that stretched across the bottom of the sea. There were hot currents that bubbled up and shook their Calamarian minisub, and there were falling rocks that tumbled through the water and almost crushed them. When they finally emerged from a hollow space that formed a natural tunnel in the mountain, they reached a valley unlike any that Luke had ever seen. It was bathed in the soft green light of a luminous, flowery vine forest. Every few moments there were glints of color sparkling through the water, glows from alien eel creatures that lived and thrived in the depths of the Calamarian ocean. He stared in wonder at the eels and at the huge gleaming pearls, hundreds of them, inside the open mouths of the giant oysters on the valley floor.
    Luke didn’t know what surprised him more-the number of oysters or their size. Any one of them was large enough to swallow him with one quick bite.
    But the pearls and slithering eel creatures weren’t all that was gleaming. There was a glint from jagged edges that seemed to be scraps of metal.
    Artoo’s domed top swiveled around and his little radar screen popped up as high as it could go. He tooted and whistled.
    "Tweeeeez bziiiiii!"
    "Well, I do believe you’re correct, Artoo," Threepio exclaimed. "It’s like a mine field. There are pieces of metal debris everywhere."
    "It looks like something exploded," said Admiral Ackbar. "Luke, can your Artoo unit examine a piece of metal and determine its atomic structure?"
    "fizoookch!" squawked Artoo.
    "Affirmative, sir," Threepio explained.
    "Let’s use the arm-scoop then," said Ackbar.
    Skillfully handling the control for the underwater arm-scoop, the admiral extended a long rod that had a metal claw at its end. The claw grabbed a small piece of scrap metal, then the rod was pulled back into their minisub.
    In a moment a narrow slot popped open on the floor near Luke’s right boot, revealing the piece of metal that the arm-scoop had just pulled out of the ocean. Luke reached for it. "Here you go, Artoo," he said, holding it in front of his little utility droid. "Take a quick reading on this."
    "I’m especially interested to know whether it contains any doonium or phobium," said