New Threat by Elizabeth Hand

the curved durasteel walls, pale silvery fronds and stems waved like dead fingers. There was a smell of scorched metal—and a faint, ceaseless
thrum
as if
some unimaginably vast machine heart was beating somewhere out of sight.
    Boba took a deep breath. Then, with every bit of courage he could command, he stepped forward—
    Into the citadel of Wat Tambor.

CHAPTER NINETEEN
    It took several minutes for Boba’s eyes to adjust to the dimness.
    Yet it was not completely dark. An eerie greenish haze hung over everything. Glowing orbs appeared to be set into the fortress’s curved, metallic walls. When Boba drew close to one, he saw
that it was not an orb, but a mushroom—a luminous mushroom. Wat Tambor had bioengeneered the fungus to merge with metal and plasteel circuitry. Phosphorescent bacteria made it gleam. When
Boba touched it, glowing pale green slime stuck to his glove.
    “Ugh.” Hastily Boba wiped it off. He didn’t want to be any more noticeable than he already was!
    He began walking down the hallway. The walls were smooth and metallic and curved, as was the ceiling. They were covered by a film of squishy, violet fungus that squelched beneath his feet. But
there were other things in the walls, too. Blinking chips and miniature monitors, shining crimson threads of circuitry like blood vessels.
    Wat Tambor’s genius had not been content with changing the malvil-trees’ genetic code. He had developed all kinds of nanotechnology. This had enabled him to fuse computer
intelligence into the fungus citadel as well.
    Yet the monitors did not seem to be alert to Boba’s presence. He stopped in front of one, holding his breath: nothing.
    The power surge from the ramship blast must have scrambled their circuits, he thought. But that won’t last long…better hurry!
    Boba moved as quickly and stealthily as he could. He watched for droids but saw none. Now and then another curving passage would join the central tunnel. Boba peered down these.
    What he saw made him content to stay in the main passage. The walls in those tunnels had strange, lumpy shapes in them. Shapes that sometimes moved or kicked or flailed. Boba wasn’t
certain what they were.
    But he had a pretty good idea—he remembered the last ARC troopers Glynn-Beti had spoken of.
    And Xeran’s people—the Xamsters who had struggled against the evil Separatist. Boba gritted his teeth. He thought of the gentle malvil-trees. He thought of the gentle Xeran, forced
to take up arms against Wat Tambor. Boba’s hatred of Wat Tambor grew.
I will show no mercy,
he thought fiercely.
Xeran’s people can no longer avenge themselves. I will take
vengeance for them!
    And, of course, I’ll get Jabba’s bounty, too.
    The passage began to climb slowly upward. As it did, it curved, as though Boba were climbing some gigantic spiral staircase. He passed shimmering walls where monitors flickered yellow and green
and red. He passed a room like the hollow chamber of a human heart, pulsing slowly in and out. He passed tube-shaped openings that gave him a fragmented view of the battle below.
    But he passed no droids. He passed no clones. As far as Boba could tell, he was the only thing that walked inside of Mazariyan.
    And that made him nervous.
    Could Wat Tambor have left? Could he have somehow escaped before Boba arrived here to capture him?
    Boba frowned.
I sure hope not.
    Things had been bad enough outside, with the citadel under siege. He suspected they could get much worse if he was found inside by Wat Tambor’s troops—or the Republic’s.
    He continued his journey, in and up. The air grew thick and heavy. Boba made sure his helmet’s intake filter was working. He thought of the violet haze of spores that surrounded this
planet. He could only imagine what kind of disgusting, protective spores were produced inside Mazariyan.
    Sometimes an unpleasant thought would work its way through Boba like a splinter.
    What if I never find him? What if I can’t find my way