New Jedi Order Force Heretic I Remnant

PART THREE INTERVENTION

She stood on the rise of a dune staring into the swirling white dust, trying to.
make out the object in the distance. Behind her, not far away, the thing with her face continued to come after her. She knew she should keep moving, but she simply didn't have the energy to do so anymore. It felt hopeless. Sooner or later the thing would catch up with her. It was inevitable, so why even bother trying.
to run? She may as well just stop here and accept it.
She silently chided herself for the defeatist attitude. She knew she shouldn't.
be so fatalistic, but she couldn't help it. It was just that there was never going to.
be a time when this thing wasn't going to be after her; it would never rest until it had taken her. The only question was, would it get to her before the reptile got to it?
She peered again into the dust and found her eyes stinging from the effort. She.
blinked away some of the particles, straining to see the something in the distance, something that towered high above the ground. She was almost.
relieved when the dust cleared enough for her to see that the object was in fact an immobile AT-AT looming over the tops of the dunes.
Around the base of the vehicle she could make out several standing figures,.
their identities obscured by dust and distance. She knew them; that much she.
was sure of, even if she didn't know exactly who they were.
"Lowbacca?" she called. "Jacen?".
No one responded. It was as if they couldn't see her waving at them, and.
everything she yelled was carried away from their ears by the wind.
Suddenly she saw the head of the AT-AT swivel around to face her, the rusted.
metal groaning with the effort. It stopped with a resounding clank, its guns now.
trained upon her.
"No, wait!" she called. "It's me! Please!" It fired once, loudly, but there was no resulting explosion. Instead, from the.
weapons emerged a black ball that came toward her with slow precision, its edges shimmering. She watched helplessly as it approached, wondering what it might be that her friends had fired at her. There was nothing to do: she couldn't.
turn back, and she obviously couldn't go forward. This created in her a sense of hopelessness that made her cry. The tears fell from her cheeks into the dust, creating a sticky paste that collected about the soles of her feet.
"They think you are me," said a voice close to her ear.
She held her breath, afraid to look back to see who was standing behind her.
But in her heart she knew it to be the thing with her own face. And it was close, too; she could feel its breath on her neck.
She lifted a hand to touch her forehead, feeling the scars there. Then she.
looked down to see the fresh ones on her arms. She pressed her fingertips into the suppurating wounds, and was surprised at how soft and wet they were. When she raised her hand to look at what came away from the deep cuts, she saw blood dripping from her fingers like tiny, perfect tears. In each one was a reflection—.
although whether the scarred face she saw in it belonged to herself or the thing behind her, she couldn't tell.
"You do remember me, don't you?" said the voice at her shoulder. "You can't.
have forgotten me so soon. You left me just as you did him, didn't you?".
A recently scarred arm reached past her face, pointing in the direction of the.
AT-AT. She forced back the tears to look, and saw the figures still standing around the vehicle, in exactly the same position as they had been before—except.
now one of them was lying on the ground.
"I didn't leave him!" There was conflict in her thoughts, as memories clashed.
clumsily against one another. She was losing all hope of finding some purchase on reality. "Did I?".
"Remember me!" This time it wasn't a question, but a growled command,.
which effectively brought a name from the tangle of thoughts in her mind.
"Riina?" she said, still reluctant to look around. But there was no reply, only the distant roar of the reptile calling her name.
from somewhere far behind.
The sound of the AT-AT firing again dragged her attention back to her.
friends. The black sphere had arrived, and she could now see that it was a swarm of flitnats come to engulf her. She stood firmly in the face of the incoming wave.
of insects, determined not to turn away, but nevertheless feeling the weight of.
futility tugging at her very soul.
"Why can't the Force be with me for once?" she said. The words were.
whispered, and yet their echo boomed around the dunes.
Deciding that there was really nowhere else to go but to her friends, she threw.
herself forward. The task was made difficult, however, by the paste caked to her.
feet. No matter how fast she tried to run, she didn't seem to be making any progress; no matter how many dunes she scaled, her friends stayed the same distance away from her; no matter how much she wanted to shake it, the thing with her face remained at her shoulder, whispering words that nurtured the guilt.
and regret that she had kept buried deep inside.
She summoned what strength was left in her to move faster. The whining from.
the flitnats rose and fell in pitch as they continued to sweep past her ears ...
Tahiri woke with a jerk to the sounds of shouting and sirens. Her head spun.
dizzily when she sat up, and her vision was hazy.
"What's going on?" she asked anxiously. A golden blur appeared before her. "Oh, Mistress Tahiri. Thank goodness.
you've finally awoken!".
"Threepio?" The siren was joined by a voice booming for attention. She.
rubbed at her temples, wishing that everything would settle down long enough.
for her to at least get her bearings. "Is that you?".
"I wish it wasn't, Mistress Tahiri, given our circumstances," came the droid's.
fretful reply. "I'd much rather be anywhere else than—".
"Don't panic, Threepio," Tahiri said, forcing herself to sit upright.
"Everything's going to be fine, I'm sure.".
It seemed strange to be offering reassurances when she herself was in need of.
them. An explanation as to what was happening wouldn't have hurt, either. But she knew that she was going to need the protocol droid's help right now, so it.
was a priority to calm him down before worrying about anything else. Besides which, his fretting would only exacerbate her confusion.
"Help me stand, Threepio." The room swayed around her as the droid levered her upright, but she.
managed to remain on her feet with C-3PO's help. Outside the room she could hear voices arguing; focusing on these, she recognized Anakin's parents.
remonstrating with one of the Fia.
"I said, unlock this door!".
"I'm sorry, Captain Solo, but that won't be possible." There was no mistaking.
the wheedling tones of Assistant Primate Thrum. "We're in the middle of a state emergency and—".
"What sort of emergency?" Han's voice was rising sharply with each syllable.
uttered.
"As I have already stated, I really don't know what—".
"Then get someone down here who does know," Han bellowed. "Or so help.
me, I'm going to use your head as a batt—".
"Assistant Primate," Princess Leia cut in quickly over her husband's threat.
Her tone was soothing, but there was no mistaking the note of steel beneath.
"We are very concerned that we have lost contact with the rest of our mission. It seems that all communications from ground to orbit are being jammed—".
"That is part of the emergency!" the exasperated Fia said.
"We gathered that much," Han said. "But if you'll just let us get to the.
Falcon, we can—".
"That is not possible!" Thrum shot back, his frustration causing his voice to.
come across louder than he had probably intended. "I am not authorized!".
The voices were coming from the common area, through the door to her right.
Snatching her lightsaber from the cabinet beside her bed, Tahiri moved unsteadily toward the door.
"What's going on, Threepio?" she hissed.
"There was a terrible commotion," the droid said. "Mistress Jaina returned to.
inform us that the Yevetha have been destroyed! But at the same time as her return, a number of other ships also arrived in the system. And now it seems that our communications have been jammed and we can't—".
"Ships?" she asked. "What sort of ships? Were they Yuuzhan Vong?" "I believe so, Mistress," the droid said. "Although there was some uncertainty.
—".
"It's them," Tahiri said. "I know it is.".
A disconcerting feeling spread through her, like ice crystallizing. It had to be.
the Yuuzhan Vong. She was as sure of it as she was of her own name. They or.
their representatives had been on Galantos before—the totem of Yun-Yammka proved that. They had probably struck a deal with the Fia: protection from the.
Yevetha in exchange for resources. The Fia would have assumed that they meant the minerals brought to the surface of their planet by its restless crust—but.
Tahiri knew better. The Fia were going to learn the hard way that the resource the Yuuzhan Vong valued most was living tissue.
She took a deep breath to steady her nerves, then stepped through the doorway.
and into the common area. Thrum had positioned himself in front of the door leading from their suite. Leia gently restrained Han, who was towering angrily over the Fia. The Noghri guards stood nearby, silently overseeing the exchange.
"I'm sorry." The assistant primate was apologizing again to Anakin's parents.
He seemed to be in a state of almost absolute panic. "But there are no regulations.
to cover such circumstances!".
"We don't need your regulations," Tahiri said, influencing her words with the.
Force as she took a couple of steps toward the Fia. Leia and Han were as surprised to see her as Thrum. "Open the door and let us through.".
Something shifted behind Thrum's eyes, and for a moment it seemed as.
though he might concede to Tahiri's demand. But protocol, in this instance anyway, was stronger than Force suggestion.
"I cannot," he insisted, shaking his head violently as though to shake loose the.
unwanted thought. "I have already said that I don't have the authorization to—".
He trailed off in midsentence as Tahiri's lightsaber hissed to life, its bright.
blue blade reflecting in his wide and frightened eyes.
"This is all the authorization you require," she said, brandishing the weapon.
close to his face. "Now, please, open this door.".
"Why didn't you think of doing that, Leia?" she heard Han whisper to his.
wife.
"I would," Thrum said, flustered, "but—" Tahiri cocked her eyebrows. "But?" The soft features of the Fia looked as though they were about to melt from the.
heat of Tahiri's saber. "But there are guards—".
The crackle of blasterfire from the other side of the wall interrupted him.
There was a click, followed by the door sliding open. Han stepped forward with.
his own blaster at the ready, past Thrum and into the hallway outside. Tahiri could see the two guards who had been stationed outside lying dead across the.
entrance, one with a hole smoking in his back, the other with one in their chest. Han took one look at them and turned to face Tahiri.
"How did you do that?" he asked her. "It—it wasn't me," she stammered, too surprised by the sudden turn of events.
to realize that he was only joking.
She removed her thumb from the activation stud of her lightsaber,.
extinguishing the blade. Then she stepped over to the doorway to look outside. Apart from the bodies of the guards and Han standing over them, the corridor.
was empty. But there was a smell there that immediately caught her attention—.
and it wasn't just the tang of blasterfire, either. This was something else altogether ...
"There's no one here," Leia said as she came up beside her husband, the two.
of them glancing up and down the passageway. "So who shot them?".
Han shrugged. "Maybe they fell on their own blaster bolts.".
"It doesn't matter," Leia said. "We're out, and that's the main thing. We can.
worry about the hows and whys later. Let's just get off this planet before we become prisoners of Fian regulations again.".
Everyone made to move, except for Thrum, who held back within the room.
Leia stepped up to him and grabbed him by the arm.
"You're coming with us," she said, leading the quivering Fia firmly out of the.
room and into the corridor with the others.
"But ..." he started, shuffling forward on his big, flat feet. He quickly dropped.
his protests, however, when he realized that nobody was bothering to listen to him anymore.
Han led the way through the diplomatic section, with Thrum close behind.
Leia and her Noghri bodyguards followed him, while Tahiri brought up the rear.
She was still a little dizzy, but could feel her old self quickly returning.
The voice booming over the intercom continued to warn people to stay.
indoors and remain calm. The disruption was temporary, the voice assured, and.
would soon be sorted out. The howling of the sirens, however, contradicted this, and Tahiri could feel a great hysteria and dread lifting around her in the Force.
"I don't think this was a trap," she whispered to Leia. "They're as surprised as.
we are.".
"I agree," Leia responded. "The Fia didn't know in advance that we were.
coming, and no ships or transmissions have left the system since we arrived. But.
that doesn't mean they won't take advantage of us being here, now that something has happened. I'm sure that the life of a Jedi still has some currency.
with the Yuuzhan Vong.".
Tahiri nodded, firmly realizing that it was more likely her than Han and Leia.
that had resulted in them being locked up in their luxurious suites. The Fia would never downplay the roles Anakin's parents had in the liberation of the.
galaxy from the Empire, but as far as they knew, it was only the Jedi that the Yuuzhan Vong were interested in. If she hadn't been here, they might have been.
able to leave unobstructed.
As expected, when they reached the exit to the diplomatic quarters, they found.
a couple of guards stationed there. Han drew them all to a halt around a corner.
and turned his blaster on Thrum.
"Okay, flatfoot," he said, pushing the barrel of his weapon into the small of.
the Fia's back. "You're going to take us through here and to the landing field. Got it? We're your guests and they're just guards, so I'm sure regulations will cover it.".
"Y-yes, of course," Thrum said as he was nudged forward. Tahiri sent a command through the Force to give the nervous Fia the.
confidence he needed to pull off this simple task. She watched as in midstride the assistant primate seemed to summon a strength from within himself,.
straightening his clothes haughtily as he led the group forward.
Han holstered his blaster as they followed Thrum, while Tahiri hid the.
handgrip of her lightsaber in the folds of her clothes.
"I am taking the prisoners to interrogation!" Thrum announced loudly. Too.
loudly, Tahiri thought, realizing she might have overdone it with her Force command on the Fia.
"Interrogation?" one of the guards asked dubiously. He seemed a little taken.
back by Thrum's belligerence. "Where?".
"Section C," Thrum said curtly. "For how long?" the other guard asked. "Two hours.".
"And will you accompany them on your return?" "It doesn't matter," Thrum replied irritably. "It's not important. None of this.
is! All that matters is that I am authorized. I have jurisdiction here, and I will not have you questioning me like this!".
The guards, stunned by Thrum's uncustomary outburst, waved them through.
without further questioning.
"You know, that felt surprisingly good," Thrum said as they headed off down.
the corridor.
He seemed genuinely pleased with his performance, but Tahiri could tell that.
it had taken a lot out of him. His skin was moist and his hands were trembling.
almost uncontrollably.
"I'm proud of you," Han said, patting Thrum's sloping shoulder. "But you're.
not out of this yet.".
Assistant Primate Thrum faced Han as they walked, detecting the unstated.
threat in the man's tone.
"Wh-what do you mean?" he asked, his nervous disposition returning to the.
fore.
"I mean that you'd better hope no one's touched the Falcon," Han said.
"Because if they have, I'm going to take those long arms of yours and tie them in a bow around your head.".
Thrum shuddered noticeably as he turned imploringly to Leia, who simply.
rolled her eyes and shook her head at her husband's lack of diplomatic skills.
They made it almost as far as the landing field without being obstructed.
Whatever was going on above the planet seemed to have distracted the security forces on the surface to the point that the absence of their prisoners wasn't even.
noticed until they had almost escaped.
The slap of footfalls alerted Tahiri to the fact that they were being followed.
As Thrum pointed excitedly to the exit to the landing field, a squad of Fian.
security guards rounded the corner behind them. Seeing the fugitives, they began firing immediately. Their blasters were set for stun, but that only delayed their hostile intent. Tahiri ignited her lightsaber, effortlessly blocking the shots and sending them ricocheting back at the guards. Three fell immediately to the ground, causing the remaining guard to beat a hasty retreat around a corner. It.
was enough of a delay to allow everyone in her party to get safely through the exit.
Outside, the sky was uncannily blue. A tremor rocked the ground beneath her.
feet as they ran out onto the stressed ferrocrete—the first she had noticed since arriving on the unsteady planet. Either her senses were more highly attuned than before, or the city's stabilizers weren't being properly tended. With death about to rain down on the planet from above, she supposed that the usual perils of life.
on Galantos weren't as important right now.
The others ducked and ran for cover as another wave of blasterfire came from.
a building across the landing field. Tahiri sent a telekinetic punch to bring down a wall in front of the new threat, and their path was temporarily clear again.
"This way!" Han shouted, leading them from cover across the flat field. Tahiri noted that where it had been empty before, there were now several.
small spacefaring vessels in various stages of warming up. Ground crews watched nervously as they ran among the ships, fleeing new shouts from behind.
The occasional bolt of energy bounced off armored hulls, sending innocent bystanders diving for cover.
"This is all too much," C-3PO complained, the sound of the servomotors that.
moved his limbs a constant whine as he hurried to keep up.
Amid the confusion on the landing field, Tahiri's attention was drawn to one.
man who appeared to be pursuing them. A lean, vaguely nonhuman figure dressed in a dark blue flight suit, with a breath mask obscuring his face, he tagged them closely as Tahiri and the others dodged between the other vessels. He kept up with them easily enough, too, unencumbered as he was by the need to avoid pursuit or ambushes. He simply followed along, with his easy, loping.
strides, casually monitoring their progress.
When they were within a sprinting dash of the Falcon, Tahiri peeled away.
from the others to intercept their pursuer. She had no idea if he meant them harm or not, but she had no intentions of leaving her back exposed to him.
"Tahiri!" Leia called out. Han had the boarding ramp already lowered and.
they were all about to run in.
Tahiri ignored the calls; she had only about three minutes before the Falcon.
would be ready to launch, so every second counted.
The mysterious figure didn't run away as she approached. Quite the opposite,.
in fact. Waving, he indicated for her to join him behind the curved hull of a small yacht. She did so, realizing as she did what it was about him that had drawn her to him.
"It was you," she muttered breathlessly as a tingle of recognition ran through.
her, courtesy of the Force, first, then via her nose: his smell was strong and familiar. "You're the one who killed the guards and let us out!".
He nodded. "And one good turn deserves another, wouldn't you say?" Tahiri's eyes narrowed, wondering what he was getting at. "You want our.
help?".
"I've been looking for a way off this rock ever since the Fia made their deal.
with the Brigaders.".
"You want to come with us, is that it?".
"Not quite," he replied. He patted the hull of the yacht they were standing.
beside. "I want you to use your powers of persuasion to get the air lock of this.
thing open for me. After that, I can do the rest.".
Tahiri was naturally wary of using her Force powers to help a complete.
stranger steal a ship. "Why should I do that?".
"You're just going to have to trust me," the masked being said. "I'm one of.
the ones who brought you here. That must count for something.".
"Yeah, thanks a whole bunch." She glanced over her shoulder at where the.
Falcon was prepping up. Princess Leia called urgently to her from the ramp, an edge of something more than concern creeping into her voice.
"I can explain everything later," the stranger said, "if I survive. Right now.
there simply isn't any time.".
Tahiri vacillated only for a moment, curiosity warring with caution. Then she.
reached out through the Force, feeling for the yacht's pilot. It was a Fian woman, and she was rushing through her preflight checks with terrified haste. A quick glance, however, told Tahiri that the pilot had missed a crucial stage in her.
engine warm-ups; the first atmospheric punch would overload the yacht's repulsors and cripple them forever. With that in mind, she felt more reassured that intervening with the Force in this instance was acceptable. If it meant saving this pilot's life, then that had to be a positive thing, surely?
Tahiri implanted a thought in the pilot's mind; she had forgotten to secure the.
tail hatches and needed to do it manually, and the only way to do it was to unseal the air lock. Cursing, the pilot smacked her forehead and came through the yacht.
to fix the problem.
Tahiri faced her masked companion evenly. "The rest is up to you," she said. Her mystery man bowed slightly. "My thanks, Tahiri Veila." He moved.
around to the air lock, waiting for it to open.
"When—" she began.
"We will speak again when I reach orbit," he shouted, waving her away. There was no time to argue with the stranger; she could already hear the rising.
wail of the Falcon's engines. Han would be cursing her if she held them up any.
longer. Taking a deep breath, she gathered the Force around her like an invisible shield and braved the empty space between her and the unlikely-looking freighter. She ignited her lightsaber to build a wall of energy between her and the Fian security forces, moving the lightsaber in graceful, confident arcs around.
her, easily deflecting the blaster bolts as she backed her way toward the ramp. The joy of the fight rose within her, as she reveled in her skill with the blade and.
the failure of her enemies.
I am a Jedi Knight, she thought. I am invincible!
Then a strong hand grabbed her by the shoulder and dragged her onto the.
ramp just as the Falcon lifted from the ground. There was a rush of air around.
her as the ramp lifted.
She collapsed onto the metal decking, her lightsaber's energy beam retracting.
with a crackle.
"Tahiri," Leia said, edging aside her bodyguard and leaning over her. "Are.
you all right? What happened?".
"I had to help someone escape," Tahiri managed breathlessly, surprised just.
how quickly the feeling of invincibility gave way to exhaustion. "The person.
who helped us with the guards outside the room.".
Leia frowned dubiously. "Who was it?" "I'm not sure," she admitted with a shrug. "But you're sure it was the same person?" Leia asked. Tahiri nodded. Her confidence came more from gut instinct than anything.
else; she could feel that he was the one. And then there was the smell, although she still couldn't identify the source. "He said he would contact us from orbit.".
"That's fine, if we make it to orbit." Leia looked forward, concerned. "I'm.
going back to the cockpit. Are you sure you're okay?".
"Never been better," Tahiri said, pulling herself up to a sitting position. And it.
wasn't a lie. She had helped Anakin's family escape capture on Galantos. Whatever her other failings were, she could be proud of that, at least.
Leia nodded uncertainly as she made to leave. "I am all right, too, Princess Leia," C-3PO chirped as Leia passed him, his.
photoreceptor eyes watching her back as she hurried off to the cockpit. "In case you were wondering.".
The Noghri guards left to follow Leia, leaving Tahiri alone with C-3PO. The.
golden droid let her use him as a counterweight to help her get to her feet, then staggered back as some sort of energy weapon discharged against the ship's shields.
"Goodness," he exclaimed. "Will this fighting never end?" I hope not, part of her thought, but she was too frightened of what that meant.
to say it aloud.
Jaina brought her X-wing around in as tight a turn as it could manage.
Although charred by the self-destruction of the Yevetha's ship near N'zoth, her.
X-wing still had enough maneuverability to run down the alien fighter she had clipped on her first pass. Stuttering her lasers, she trusted her instincts to tell her.
when its dovin basals were close to overload. Then, with a flick of her wrist, she issued a proton torpedo to dispatch the Yuuzhan Vong ship along with its pilot to.
oblivion.
Fighting off exhaustion, she targeted another skip, this one daring to come in.
too close behind Twin Eleven. A dozen warning shots were enough to change its mind, although her follow-up torpedo failed to reach its mark. She gladly gave.
up the chase when her R2 unit warned that her stabilizers were overheating again and advised that she pull back for a while. The brief respite gave her a chance to observe the battle from a distance, a luxury she couldn't afford when she was down in the thick of it.
Twin Suns Squadron was outnumbered three to one, but holding well against.
an enemy that hadn't expected such determined—if indeed any—resistance in the system. Although both sides had been taken by surprise, Jaina was pleased to see that it was the Galactic Alliance and Chiss pilots who were adjusting the.
quickest. That made sense; with the Yuuzhan Vong's yammosk suffering attempts to jam it while it dealt with the unexpected development, the individual pilots weren't trained to think independently, and therefore floundered.
The two larger, circular ships were not designed for war, but they weren't.
easy picking, either. Their yorik coral shells were tough, and the five long tentacles that dangled from their sterns were strongly muscled, lashing out with surprising speed at anything that came within reach. At the end of each.
serpentine arm was a toothless maw that opened and closed in the vacuum as though attempting to suck in passing ships.
Although Jaina had never seen anything quite like them before, the sucking.
tentacles—each several meters across—put her in mind of something her father had described seeing at Ord Mantell. He and Droma, the Ryn who had served.
briefly as his copilot after Chewie's death, had almost been sucked into the mouth by just such a giant tentacle.
"Slaveships," she said, voicing her thoughts.
"Empty or full?" asked Todra Mayn on Selonia. The frigate was slowly.
breaking orbit to lend its twenty quad laser cannons to the task of knocking out the incoming coralskippers.
"They're heading in toward Galantos, so empty would be my bet," Jag said as.
he pulled his clawcraft out of a tight roll. "After all, you wouldn't send a household droid in to clean a place with its waste-storage bin already full,.
right?".
She had to agree that it made sense. There was a world full of Fia down on the.
planet that was barely in a position to defend itself. The entire planetary defense force consisted of five squadrons of old Y-wings, none of which had yet even.
managed to reach vacuum. But for Twin Suns Squadron and Selonia, the planet's major cities would already have been under attack. Once this line of.
defense was gone, the entire population would become easy targets for those slaveships.
"How many people do you think they'd fit in one of those things?" Twin.
Three asked, swooping around the back of the nearest slave freighter and.
peppering its trailing tentacles with laserfire.
"Hundreds of thousands, maybe more," Captain Mayn said grimly, "if they.
packed them in tight enough.".
"Enough for a disposable army," Jaina said, revolted by the thought. "If this is.
what came for the Yevetha, it's hardly surprising they decided to fight to the very end.".
Cappie bleeped to inform her that her stabilizers were back in working order.
Ramping her inertial compensators down another notch, to give her flagging reflexes as much information as she could, she immediately powered to join Three, whose insistent pounding of the slaveship had resulted in one of its.
tentacles being completely severed. She was doing her best to cut through a second, all the while avoiding the sucking maws of the others. It was like attempting to dodge three amphistaffs all at once.
There was no time for talking, then, as she concentrated on helping maim the.
slaveship. It was a cumbersome vessel, clearly relying on its escort for defense and not intended for combat. Although it was equipped with dovin basals capable of absorbing enemy fire, she suspected that the primary function of these was to enable the large mass of the ship to hover over a city while it ingested its.
prey. When it was full, it could return to wherever the slaves were being processed, dump its load, and head out for another.
It was a typically revolting biological solution to a problem she knew the.
Yuuzhan Vong were suffering from. They were short of warriors, and they needed replacements. No one had imagined that they had been preparing for a wave of mass enslavement for so long. They should have, though. It was exactly the sort of fate Tsavong Lah would have gleefully imposed on the infidels:.
divide and conquer had always been his modus operandi, closely followed by enslave and murder. That Lah was no longer around to see the results of his vile.
plan was little consolation.
A voice crackled over the open subspace link. "Anyone looking for.
reinforcements?".
"Dad?" Jaina peeled away from a wildly flailing tentacle, too tired to.
concentrate on two things simultaneously. "Is that you?".
"None other," he announced cockily. "Hey, I hope you've saved some of.
those Vong ships for us.".
Jaina felt a wave of relief wash a heavy weight from her shoulders as she.
spotted the battered, black disk of the Millennium Falcon rising rapidly from Galantos. She was suddenly battle-ready again as a new energy rushed through.
her.
"I'm glad you made it out okay," she said. "How did you swing it?" "We had a hand," he said simply. "Hang in there, kid. Help's on its way." A quick scan of her telemetry confirmed that there was still no sign of the.
Galantos defense force. There were a few hot spots on the planet indicating isolated launches, but these were mainly from the major cities. Private craft, she.
assumed, probably taking the rich and the prestigious away from the Yuuzhan Vong attack.
Like mynocks fleeing a disintegrating asteroid, she thought ruefully. There was one ship, however, that didn't immediately break orbit for the.
nearest hyperspace jump point. A small yacht of Corellian manufacture, it seemed to be hanging back as if waiting for something. The Falcon abruptly changed course to intercept it, and together they vanished around the back of the.
planet.
Odd, she thought. Jaina had no time to ponder it any further, though. The.
coralskippers were gradually getting themselves organized, and Selonia was still some distance away. Twin Suns Three was forced to withdraw from the slave freighter whose tentacles she was harassing, and Jaina found herself the target of.
a trio of determined skips. She ducked and wove through the wildly disorienting tangle of fighters, ion washes, and particulate debris, hoping that the slightest distraction to the skips would afford her some breathing space until some help.
arrived. But no matter what she did, they doggedly stuck to her tail, until soon her stabilizers were beginning to overheat again. Frustration and anger welled within her and she fought them as grimly as she fought the Yuuzhan Vong: being tired and uncomfortable was no excuse to give in to the dark side.
Her R2 unit squealed as two plasma volleys reduced her shields to dangerous.
levels. Just as she was seriously beginning to worry, a flurry of laserfire arced.
from behind her, scattering her three pursuers. Only one clung on after that, and the pilot who had saved her life soon dispatched it.
"Thanks," she said over the comlink as the coralskipper evaporated back to its.
component molecules. "I owe you one.".
"I'll hold you to that, Sticks," Jag said. She smiled to herself; she was so relieved to hear his voice that everything.
else assumed secondary importance. For a moment he came alongside her new XJ3, and she imagined that she could see him through the faceted visor of his.
clawcraft.
"Let me ask you a question," he said after a moment. "If you were the Fia and.
you'd done a deal with the Yuuzhan Vong, but we showed up and started.
fighting your allies, whose side would you fight on?".
"I don't know, Jag." She wiped sweat from her eyes with the back of her.
gloved hand. "Why? Does it matter?".
He paused slightly before answering. "Take a look at your telemetry," he said. She did so, and saw multiple launches from three locations across Galantos,.
followed by formations of ion engine signatures thrusting for space. She couldn't help it: she felt fatigued all over again.
"Whichever side they're on," said Jag, "here they come ...".
"Here they come!" Gilad Pellaeon heard the words a split second before he felt a vibration run.
through Widowmaker as the frigate's ion engines engaged. Powerful enough to.
override inertial dampers and communicated via the hull to the fluid in his bacta tank, the vibration made him feel as though the whole world was shaking. He reached out to steady himself against the transparent shell containing the healing fluid, trying to concentrate on the good things about his situation. Yes, his injured body was confined to a bacta tank on an ageing frigate during what.
might possibly be the most important battle he would ever fight, but at least he still had his faculties about him. His mind was clear; he needed nothing more than that, really.
"Enemy fleet concentrated in sectors three through eight," said the voice of.
Widowmaker's duty officer in his ear. He didn't need the running commentary, but he kept it going when he wasn't using the communicator in his breath mask to make sure he wasn't missing anything locally. The mask's modified visor.
showed him crisp, three-dimensional views of the action as it unfolded in the system, while sensor pads attached to his hands and wrists enabled him to switch.
views at will.
"Changing course to adopt primary position.".
Widowmaker swung about to put the planet of Borosk between itself and the.
incoming Yuuzhan Vong fleet. A relatively small world, it would have been.
entirely unremarkable but for its role in the defense of the Empire. A symbolic retention after numerous retreats, it had been heavily armed to ensure it wasn't.
retaken by the New Republic, which had in turn armed its own neighboring worlds in case Borosk turned out to be the beginning of another invasion. As a.
result, the planet was heavily stocked with partially automated planetary turbolasers, ion cannons, and shields, and surrounded by extensive rings of.
space-based ion mines, all in a constant state of battle readiness. The planet was,.
in its own way, better defended than Bastion had been—since, in a sane universe, no one would have attacked there first.
The Imperial Navy Fleet now gathered around Borosk had had just enough.
time to organize into new task forces and squadrons. The losses in Bastion had been high, and the shock enormous, but discipline was still strong among the.
corps. Once Flennic had started issuing orders in Pellaeon's name, all thoughts of dissolution had temporarily vanished, and the command chain had been quickly reestablished. There were enough Star Destroyers left to consolidate the defense around four distinct battle groups, designated by their command vessel.
names: Stalwart, which Pellaeon had not permitted Flennic to retain, had the vanguard of the defense; Relentless and Protector protected the flanks; and the rear was maintained by Right to Rule. There were five other Star Destroyers.
committed to the defense of Borosk, making nine altogether. The remainder of the navy had stayed with Flennic around Yaga Minor, just in case the Yuuzhan Vong attacked there anyway. Chimaera was there, too, undergoing repairs, having finally limped into Yaga Minor with a severely damaged hyperdrive and numerous other scars—but at least intact.
Despite the absence of his command vessel, Pellaeon felt an old excitement.
rise in him as he watched the battle groups deploy. That moment immediately prior to battle was simultaneously the most wonderful and the most terrifying.
Everything was in place: ships were at the peak of their performance, while pilots were at their sharpest; he could almost tell who was going to win before a single shot had been fired, simply based on the disposition of forces. Sometimes he wished victories could be awarded so easily, without lives lost or resources.
wasted, or grudges formed ...
This was not such a time. In this instance he wanted nothing more than to.
fight, to quash the enemy's attack, reduce them to their basic component molecules. And, watching the incoming fleets, he knew they desired the same.
for their enemy. The Yuuzhan Vong would never share in Gilad Pellaeon's wish for victory without loss. For them, sacrifice—glorious or otherwise—was.
fundamental to their belief system. Trying to imagine them without it was like trying to picture Coruscant without buildings.
Stalwart sent four TIE fighter squadrons to engage the lead ships while they.
were still recovering from the hyperspace jump. Pellaeon counted two enemy.
warships at the head of that particular attack—giant ovoids as long as a Star Destroyer with huge coral arms near the nose that sprouted coralskippers like.
pollen. There were three carrier analogs toward the rear, also branched and.
budded with coralskippers; these were accompanied by numerous gunships capable of spraying volleys of plasma at anything daring to come too close. There was one battleship analog at each of the two other attacking points, their ugly, misshapen appearance a blot against the stars. He counted five cruisers and destroyers holding back for the moment, waiting either to swing around the rear.
later or to provide reinforcements as needed.
Dozens of Yuuzhan Vong fighters launched to intercept the Imperial forces,.
spewing plasma. Led by Luke Skywalker in his XJ3 X-wing, the TIE squadrons were equipped only with lasers, so stutterfire was not possible. Instead they.
attacked two or three at a time, the multiple laserfire having a similar effect and overloading the dovin basals of the skips. Yammosk telemetry enabled them to target the central control ships.
Surprised, clearly expecting less efficient resistance, the Yuuzhan Vong.
warriors began to scatter, either destroyed outright or repulsed. It wasn't long, though, before the war coordinators in the capital ships reassessed the situation and increased the muscle behind the push into the system. Proton explosions blossomed like white flowers in the vacuum, while magma bolts cut red lines.
across the void.
"Fall back, Skywalker," Pellaeon ordered through the comlink in his breath.
mask. "I think you've made your point.".
"I'm going to stay out here a while longer, Gilad," came the reply. "Just you be careful, Luke," he heard Mara pipe up from the Jade Shadow,.
where she and Danni Quee waited on the sunward flank with Protector. The healer was on Widowmaker with the giant lizard and himself, a half-dead old.
man who was supposed to be running the show. If the situation hadn't been so serious, Pellaeon might have found the whole thing seriously amusing.
"How's Jacen coming along?" Luke asked. "He's getting results," Mara said. Her grim tone prompted Pellaeon to take a.
look.
Jacen Solo, the boy Jedi who had come so delightfully close to besting Moff.
Flennic, was on Right to Rule. In the hours since regrouping at Yaga Minor, thousands of MSE-6 mouse droids had been modified with the Yuuzhan Vong-.
detecting algorithms the Galactic Alliance had developed and sent scuttling from ship to ship throughout the fleet, identifying three Yuuzhan Vong infiltrators. In.
analyzing the communications these infiltrators had received from within the fleet, Jacen had been able to expose more than a dozen sympathizers. None had.
been confronted directly, but all had been posted to the Right to Rule and.
individually summoned to a "staffing meeting" with the intention of seeing their activities brought to an immediate end.
Jacen had set up the meeting in a conference room that looked perfectly.
innocent, but had in fact been heavily modified with some of the most sophisticated security devices the Empire had to offer, via which Pellaeon was.
able to follow the proceedings over the monitors set up in his room. Also, nearby, a squad of stormtroopers stood ready to rush in to Jacen's aid, should he require it. It was a risk, perhaps, to have such a concentration of the enemy in one area, but Jacen felt it was less of a risk than having the same enemy.
scattered throughout various ships when they were exposed. It would have been harder to coordinate their rounding up, whereas having them all contained in one room presented a controlled situation, more easily contained if something went.
wrong.
The traitors arrived one by one, staggered at two-minute intervals to ensure.
that they wouldn't meet in the corridor outside and suspect the trap they were walking into. Jacen sat patiently at the front of the room, saying nothing as each one entered.
The disguised aliens were the last to enter. The first came into the room a full.
five minutes after all the traitors had been seated. She breezed easily in, noting those seated around the large table in a single glance. Her expression was.
unreadable, and so human that Pellaeon could scarcely credit that it wasn't in fact her real face, but rather an example of the biotechnological masks the Yuuzhan Vong called ooglith masquers. She was, to all appearances, a tall, plain woman with long, gray hair tied back in a severe bun, with nothing remarkable.
about her at all.
But there was something in the way she hesitated slightly when she caught.
sight of her human sympathizers that convinced Pellaeon she wasn't all she appeared to be.
"Greetings, Fiula Blay," Jacen said from the front. He continued to lean.
against the podium as he spoke, his casual demeanor oozing disrespect. "Won't.
you take a seat while we wait on the arrival of the others?".
The woman glared at him, but did as she was asked without comment.
Pellaeon noticed the beginnings of fear in the eyes of four of the spies as they recognized the leader of their particular resistance cell.
"What's going on here?" one of them demanded. "You have no right to keep.
us here like this!".
"Keep you here?" Jacen repeated with an exaggerated frown. "You make it.
sound as though you were prisoners. Why should you think that?".
The man swallowed but said nothing more. "You've been called here so we can have a little chat," Jacen went on. "That's.
all.".
"Fine," another said sharply. This one wore the uniform of an intelligence.
coordinator. "Then let's get on with it, shall we?".
"When we're all here," Jacen said calmly. "We haven't got time for this," he went on angrily, making to stand. "In case.
you haven't noticed, there's a war going on out there!".
Jacen stood up straight and took a step forward. "That's precisely why we're.
here," he said, his eyes leveled evenly at the traitor.
The man returned to his seat with a grunt of complaint and fell silent.
"You could at least tell us who you are," said a third, a female security officer. "Can't you guess?" Jacen said. The door opened at this point, and the second of the Yuuzhan Vong entered,.
this time in the disguise of a portly corporal seconded from the Relentless. He, too, hesitated when he saw the group gathered before him, but like Fiula Blay he.
kept his expression tightly controlled.
"What is the meaning of this?" he asked. "What am I doing here? I should be.
out there, where I'm needed—".
"All will be explained," Jacen said, pointing to an empty seat. "Please, sit." The tension within the room mounted as everyone waited uncomfortably for.
the last of the infiltrators to arrive. Nothing was said, but the body language of those around the table spoke volumes. Pellaeon estimated that perhaps eight of.
the eleven sympathizers had already figured out what was happening, with the remaining three probably just having the beginnings of suspicion in their gut. It.
showed in their furtive eye movements, their flushed expressions, and the way they squirmed uneasily in their seats. The only ones who didn't flinch or show.
any concern were the two disguised Yuuzhan Vong. What was going on in their minds was anybody's guess.
Finally, the door hissed open and the third Yuuzhan Vong walked in. An.
enormous man with shoulders as wide as a Wookiee's, "Torvin Xyn" took in the.
scene instantly, his expression breaking into a snarl as soon as his eyes fell upon Jacen.
"Jeedai!" he hissed. "I can smell you!" A number of those seated started to stand as Torvin Xyn's skin peeled away.
from his face, revealing the scarred and snarling visage of the Yuuzhan Vong.
beneath. The skin covering his chest and arms rippled, and suddenly there was an amphistaff in his hands.
Jacen took a step back toward the podium. "There is no need for this," he said.
"Nobody need be harmed!".
But even as he spoke, the Yuuzhan Vong let loose an unintelligible roar and.
launched himself at Jacen. Almost inaudible beneath the alien's deafening war cry was the distinctive snap-hiss of Jacen's green-bladed lightsaber extending. He brought it up between them in a bright blur, sweeping in an arc to deflect the intended blow to his neck from the amphistaff. Then, shifting his weight back.
onto his right leg, he moved to one side, just enough to miss the charge of the giant alien. The Yuuzhan Vong swept his amphistaff down and around to cut at Jacen's legs as he passed but the Jedi Knight was already off the ground by that.
point, kicking outward with his left leg to knock the alien off balance. Amphistaff and lightsaber clashed again as the two other spies burst out of their disguises and joined the fray. Realizing they had been discovered, the human sympathizers fell about in a panic.
Any thought that the enemy still had the upper hand was soon dispelled when.
the door burst open and the squadron of stormtroopers filed in, the snouts of their blasters trained on the aliens. Security droids swooped in behind them. A quick succession of shots brought down two of the Yuuzhan Vong infiltrators.
Exposed without their vonduun crab armor, they died with their hideously scarred visages snarling. The final warrior fell when he raised his amphistaff high into the air in readiness to bring it down on Jacen's head, and the young Jedi proved to be too fast. Thrusting his own weapon up high, he managed to.
block the Yuuzhan Vong's strike when the warrior had barely started the downward swing, then seemingly effortlessly brought his lightsaber down onto.
the Yuuzhan Vong's torso. Such was the force of the blow that his weapon cut almost halfway through the alien's barrel chest before coming to a halt.
Jacen stepped back from the smoking corpse of "Torvin Xyn," wiping a.
forearm across his sweat-beaded face as he turned to the panic-stricken traitors.
clustered together away from all the fighting. A few were jabbering apologies and pleas for mercy, lost in the babble of so many people trying to speak at once.
"There's no point protesting your innocence," Jacen said loudly. When the.
noise settled he let his lightsaber fizz out, replacing the handgrip on his belt.
There was a look on the young Jedi's face that surprised Pellaeon, as though the fighting he'd just been involved in dismayed him. And yet, at the same time,.
there was a rock-steady certainty there, as well. "Your quarters have been.
searched and your movements monitored. Your guilt is beyond question. The only question remaining is whether there are any more of you that we should know about.".
The cold-eyed intelligence coordinator took a step forward. "Jedi scum," he.
said, spitting on the floor at Jacen's feet. "You've only delayed the inevitable.".
"Permanently, I hope," Jacen said, unflustered. He looked around the room.
"Anyone else have something to say?".
No one answered, but Pellaeon noted two who looked as though they might.
under different, more private circumstances. With a gesture from Jacen,.
stormtroopers took the prisoners away for interrogation.
The young Jedi sagged back into a chair when everyone had gone, pulling.
back the sleeve of his robe to speak into a wrist comlink.
"Mission accomplished," he announced tiredly. His voice came over the private link at the same time as Pellaeon heard it via.
the microphones in the dummy interview room.
"Well done, Jacen," Mara Skywalker said from Jade Shadow. "Are you all.
right?".
Pellaeon watched on as the Solo boy examined the back of his hand. "Just a.
nick," he said. "I'll be fine." He glanced around at the Yuuzhan Vong corpses. "This wasn't necessary. They had a chance to come peacefully.".
"Did you really think they would?" "You never know." He half smiled. "Maybe sending their most dangerous and.
aggressive warriors in to be killed by us will eventually reduce the gene pool, breed a more temperate Yuuzhan Vong.".
Pellaeon had never had occasion to laugh in a bacta tank before, but he.
couldn't help himself now. "Victory by natural selection? An interesting game.
plan, Solo.".
"Requesting permission to fall back behind the mine rings, Grand Admiral,".
Captain Yage interrupted.
Pellaeon had been keeping half an eye on the disposition of the battle while.
watching Jacen's handling of the spy situation. The Yuuzhan Vong fleets had engaged on all four fronts, with the fighting fiercest where they'd first entered.
the system.
"Permission granted," he said. As the frigate began to drop to a lower orbit.
around Borosk, Pellaeon switched to a general command channel. To the numerous generals, captains, and commanders to whom he entrusted the details.
of the battle, he said: "Commence fallback. Rule and Protector battle groups.
first, then Stalwart and Relentless. Orbital control, activate the mines as soon as the bulk of the enemy comes within range. Ground, make sure the targeting systems concentrate on the smaller ships, where possible; the shields and mines should keep the capital vessels at bay for us to deal with. And remember: we're playing a waiting game. The more we can bleed them, the more they'll hurt.".
A series of affirmatives returned over the line. With no Yuuzhan Vong.
infiltrators left among the Imperial forces, Pellaeon felt sure that the fallback of his fleet would appear as an unruly retreat to the rigid-minded warmaster behind the attack. He was confident that the fully charged turbolasers and cannons.
waiting for them down on Borosk below would convince the Yuuzhan Vong of their mistake.
Then, at last, the battle proper could truly begin.
Saba hissed as a slave carrier appeared on the edge of the scope, emerging.
from the planet's atmosphere. Her tail whacked agitatedly against the floor as the sight of it brought back the memory of the destruction of her own planet.
Captain Yage looked up. "What is it?" The Barabel pointed at the screen. The carrier had come out of hyperspace.
well back from the front and was lightly protected. Its tentacles whipped at vacuum like hungry space slugs snapping for food. Where it had been a flattened sphere before, it was now fatter.
Fuller, Saba thought. "They are confident of success," she said. A terrible hunger gnawed at her.
belly.
"Maybe they have cause to be confident," Yage said grimly. The solid woman.
turned aside for a moment to call instructions to the crew scattered throughout the ship. The bridge of Widowmaker was busy in a productive, controlled away,.
but still noisy to a Barabel's ears.
"This one can feel them," Saba said, closing her eyes and reaching out.
through the Force. Past the many nearby life-sources that comprised the planet of Borosk and the massed navy of the Empire, and beyond the empty gulf of the.
attacking Yuuzhan Vong, she felt a concentrated scar in the Force—a scar that itched from pain and fear. She sensed suffocation, imprisonment, claustrophobia,.
darkness—all the things she had failed to notice when her own people had been taken because of the emotions of anger and rage she had been unable to control.
The concentration of those feelings now was too intense to ignore—so intense, in fact, that her head reeled from it. But she would not turn away. She couldn't.
She needed to embrace this pain, share in it, in the hope that doing so would.
somehow alleviate some of the guilt she carried.
Hunt the moment... The people inside the carrier had been stuffed in like animals being taken.
away for slaughter. The chances were that many of them would die before they ever reached their destination. As appalling a thought as that was for Saba, she.
knew that from the Yuuzhan Vong's point of view it did make sense. To them, these beings were little more than animals, so what did it matter if a percentage of the stock was lost in transit, as long as enough survived to fill the armies at the front?
But Saba Sebatyne was a Jedi, and she could not stand by and allow it to.
happen. She had to do something—something that could make up for the deaths of all those Barabels she had killed.
How better could they be remembered? "This one would speak to Jade Shadow," she said to Yage. The captain.
frowned uncertainly, but made arrangements with her comm officer.
"Over there," she said, pointing to an empty comm station. Conscious of the eyes of the crew upon her—possibly the most obvious.
nonhumanoid many had seen up close for years—Saba moved to the station and spoke softly into the link: "Mara, this one haz a plan.".
There was a slight delay before Skywalker answered. "You have my attention,.
Hisser," she said. "Whatever you have in mind, it has to be better than taking potshots and watching Luke's retrothrusters.".
"Do you see the slave carrier? This iz the prize. If they lose this, the battle will.
be hollow for them.".
"You're saying we should take it out? Saba, we can't do that. It's full of—" "We do not destroy it," Saba cut in, then paused as she considered the.
audacity of what she was about to suggest. Her stomach rumbled. "This one wishez to liberate it.".
There was an even longer silence this time. "Wait a second," Mara eventually.
said. On the scope, Saba saw Jade Shadow disengage from the battle, closely.
followed by Master Skywalker's X-wing. "I'm going to patch you into the command ring.".
The holoprojectors flickered into life, revealing the faces of Mara and Grand.
Admiral Pellaeon. Saba moved to allow Captain Yage to take the seat.
"Did I just hear right?" Pellaeon asked. "Saba wants to free the people trapped in that slaveship," Mara said.
"And what do you think of that?" the Grand Admiral asked.
"I think that's a worthy objective," Mara said. "Which is not to say it's practical," Pellaeon countered. "No, but Saba makes a valid point. Taking that carrier ship might save a lot of.
lives, Admiral.".
The ageing Imperial nodded, sending wisps of thin white hair swaying in the.
fluid around him. His expression was mostly hidden behind the breath mask.
"So how would it be done?" he asked. "It's on the other side of the Yuuzhan.
Vong fleet.".
"Exactly," Saba said. "Attention iz forward, on the attack. The rear will be.
vulnerable.".
"We'd still have to get past their interdictors," Mara pointed out. "And it.
wouldn't stay vulnerable long. There are an awful lot of capital ships out there.
An assault party would soon find itself surrounded, Saba, a long, long way from backup.".
"And they won't bring it forward until they are certain we've lost," Luke said,.
inserting himself into the conversation via the comm unit.
"Could that be the way?" Pellaeon asked. "We're on the retreat, anyway.".
"Too risky," Yage said. "We'd have to basically give them Borosk before.
they'd believe us, and there's no guarantee we'd ever get it back.".
Pellaeon nodded again, and Saba received the distinct impression that he was.
treating the discussion more as a theoretical exercise than a serious proposal— although she also sensed that he would like someone to make it work.
"We require a sacrifice," she said. "And we muzt deliver it directly to the.
target.".
"I don't understand," Yage said, turning slightly to look up at the Barabel.
leaning over her. From so close, the woman's scent was pungent in Saba's.
nostrils, but not offensive.
"They will guess that we know what the slaveship iz. Perhapz that iz why they.
have produced it so early in the battle. They use it to enrage us, to challenge our honor. They are saying, You are slavez already. It'z only a matter of time.".
Saba's blunted claws unsheathed at the insult. Embarrassed by the reflexive action, she hid her hands behind her back. It seemed she could put the Jedi into.
the Barabel, but she couldn't always take the Barabel out of the Jedi. "We attack it, az they are daring us to.".
"But if they're daring us, then that means they'll be expecting us to respond,".
Mara said.
"Yez. And we will lose.".
"I think I'm beginning to follow you," Yage said. "We send in some sort of.
assault ship to take on the slave carrier. It gets knocked out of the picture, but not before acting as a diversion for another attack, right?".
"No," Saba said. "It iz the attack. If the ship iz not utterly destroyed, itz crew.
will be bounty. They will not waste it.".
Pellaeon chuckled through his breath mask. "Emperor's ears—are you.
suggesting what I think you're suggesting? You don't mean 'sacrifice': you mean bait.".
"From the inside," Saba said, nodding enthusiastically, "this one will be best.
placed to take over the ship. It iz not a warship, after all. It iz a glorified freighter. It will rely on otherz to defend it. At worst, disabling it will allow the cargo to be unloaded more easily.".
"That's the next problem," Yage said. "Where does that happen?" "Right there," Mara said. "When Saba has killed the ship's brain, it's just a.
matter of getting the captives somewhere safe.".
"This one iz thinking of an old trick played on Barab One," Saba said. "The.
best way to poison a bonecrusher iz to feed it live hka'ka that has eaten poisoned.
vsst. The bonecrusher doez not taste the poison until itz meal iz over—and then it iz already dead." She shrugged her heavy, scaled shoulders. "It iz not an honorable way to hunt, but sometimez it iz better than dying.".
The Grand Admiral's expression sobered. "If you succeed, it'll be the wildest.
stunt I've ever seen—and you'll seal the gratitude of the Empire forever. Turning my back on the people the Vong captured was one of the most soul- destroying things I've ever had to do. It's a burden I'll be happy to be rid of.".
"Luke?" "I presume you'll want to be involved, Mara," Master Skywalker said,.
ignoring the concerned whistle from R2-D2.
"Jade Shadow would make an ideal poisoned vsst," she said. "And it has a.
tractor beam that I know will come in handy.".
"You can count me in, too," said Danni, her head appearing over Mara's.
shoulder.
"Are you sure?" Mara asked, frowning slightly.
"Saba and I have worked together before," she said, "and this'll be another.
great opportunity to see Yuuzhan Vong biotechnology at work up close.".
"Too close for my liking," Yage muttered. "But it's your choice, I guess." Pellaeon's eyes were dancing behind the translucent shell of his visor. He was.
clearly seeing 3-D views hidden from those watching his hologram. "If we're.
going to do this, then let's get moving," he said. "Every minute delayed is another minute my pilots are out there getting killed. We have a lot to put in place in a very short time, and I think I might've found our—what was it, Saba?".
"Hka'ka," she supplied. "Yes," said Pellaeon. "You Jedi might be crazy, but those are Imperial lives.
you're saving. I don't want anything to go wrong. Is that understood?".
Remembering the recent massive and tragic losses of her own people, Saba.
could only nod solemnly.
Nom Anor woke to the sound of screams and the realization that, even in the.
depths of Yuuzhan'tar, he would never be safe.
Years of backstabbing—sometimes literally—his way toward the top had.
taught him to be a light sleeper. It was a habit that had served him well, saving his life more than once in the years before his exile. But even here, in the bowels of the planet, he slept with the coufee he had carved from a discarded flake of coral within reach at all times, and the socket containing his plaeryin bol always half open. If anyone was fool enough to attempt attacking him during the night,.
they would wind up dead within moments of intruding in his sleeping quarters.
This reflexive response had almost brought one of his new companions to an.
unfortunate end a week earlier. Quite unexpectedly, considering he had done.
nothing to curry her favor, he'd been visited in the dark hours by Niiriit Esh. In his usual semiconscious state he had sensed her presence and leapt from his sleeping mat, limbs instinctively adopting an attacking stance and his coufee whipping out to slash his attacker across the throat.
He had barely reined in the attack in time. The faintest of lambent glows had.
revealed the shock in her eyes—as well as the hurt. Silent in her mortification,.
she had hurried from the room, her simple shift swishing against the shell walls as she retreated to her chamber.
In the couple of heartbeats after she had fled, he realized with some.
embarrassment that she had almost certainly been unarmed, and that there had.
been no intentions of hostility in her actions. Far from it.
But that had been then; this awakening left nothing in doubt: he and the other.
Shamed Ones were under attack.
From the commotion outside, Nom Anor knew that the scream that had.
awoken him had been the sentry, Yus Sh'roth, being killed. It was a shame, he thought idly; the former shaper had been a vital member of this community of.
Shamed Ones. Nevertheless, Nom Anor neither had the time or the desire to.
grieve. The fact was, Sh'roth's death scream could mean life for the others, because it gave them time to ready themselves for the invaders—whoever they were.
Maybe, he thought, it was nothing more than a loner that had inadvertently.
stumbled upon the camp and been surprised by Sh'roth; or perhaps even just.
another band of Shamed Ones hoping to make a silent raid while the camp slept, trying to steal some food—.
But, no. He was fooling himself. The sound of amphistaffs cracking left no.
doubt in his mind that these attackers were warriors. Their camp was too deep to.
have been fallen upon by some passing patrol, which meant only one thing: these warriors, these trained killers, had been deliberately sent to wipe it out.
The certainty was more than enough to spur Nom Anor into action. He.
quickly gathered his things and left his humble dwelling, knowing as he did that it was unlikely he would ever return. Outside he was almost bowled over by someone dashing past in a wild panic, heading down the long, spiraling corridor that ran the length of the disused ventilation shaft. Probably I'pan, he thought, given the wily thief's knack for getting out of difficult situations.
Waiting in the shadows a second longer, Nom Anor listened carefully for the.
sound of anyone pursuing I'pan. But there was none. All he heard were distant footfalls and muffled cries. He didn't know how many warriors there were, but it.
was clear they had the upper hand. The cavern was quickly filling with the sound of the Shamed Ones' massacre.
Not this Shamed One, Nom Anor swore to himself, turning to follow I'pan.
down the corridor into the depths of the shaft where the chuk'a hibernated, and.
wishing his former companions speedy passages to the afterlife—if one awaited them. The Shamed Ones had, without question, saved him from what had been a.
very difficult situation when he'd fled Shimrra's wrath. He had lasted longer than expected by eating granite slugs, but eventually he would have succumbed.
to this alien environment and died—at the hands of a predator, or from something as simple and stupid as drinking poisoned water. He owed them his.
life and, thanks to their stories about the Jedi, there was every chance he owed them his future, too.
But what future would he have, he asked himself, if he were to charge up the.
corridor now and throw himself at a squad of fully armed warriors? He was just.
one against an unknown number.
He had owed a few people his life before. He owed no one a death.
With that in mind, he pulled a lambent from the wall and headed off down the.
gentle, curving slope in the direction I'pan had taken. Before he'd even taken a dozen steps, though, a high-pitched shriek brought him to a halt. He stood still for a moment, looking back in the direction of the scream, and knowing in his heart that it had come from Niiriit Esh. He hesitated for what seemed like an eternity, his newfound sense of responsibility causing within him a tremendous.
conflict. Niiriit might have been Shamed, but she was still a warrior, and she would never have run away from a battle. She would have fought to the death, for honor, for Yun-Yammka, for—.
He shook his head vigorously. This was all wrong, he told himself. He was.
still thinking of her in terms he knew from the world above. But she was no longer a warrior; she was a Shamed One. She wouldn't have given her life to Yun-Yammka, the Slayer; she would have sacrificed herself to save her friends,.
as the Jedi did. Her memory deserved the truth, even if it still felt wrong to him.
He turned and continued down the passage, practically smelling the blood lust.
of the killing squad chasing him into the darkness.
The hulking mass of an old Katana-class Dreadnaught lumbered out of.
Borosk's lower orbits, where it had been lurking unnoticed since the beginning of the battle. Saba was familiar with its type; she knew her history well. It was a survivor of the Dark Force fleet that Admiral Thrawn had used so effectively against the New Republic. Reclaimed and refitted with centrally computerized.
slave-rigging units, it operated with a bare minimum of crew. Even so, its sluggish hyperdrive and weak shields had left such vessels sorely outclassed by more recent ships, and Saba was surprised to see one still operating. She wasn't.
the only one.
"That heap of junk isn't going to get us very far," Mara had said upon seeing.
it.
"That's exactly what you're supposed to think," Pellaeon had replied over the.
comm. "And besides, it's not supposed to.".
By then, Saba had changed ships and changed into one of the brown, lightly.
armored jumpsuits that had become standard for Jedi Knights going into close combat with the Yuuzhan Vong ever since the mission to the worldship orbiting.
Myrkr. Danni Quee had also slipped into one and was sitting nervously with Saba as they listened in on the discussion about the ship that would ferry them.
into position. Saba's claws twitched in readiness, filled with a primal need to strike back at the ones that had taken her people from her.
How better could they be remembered? "I've been saving it for a suicide strike," the Grand Admiral had gone on to.
explain. "It's designed to die twice. The first time, what the enemy sees is selective field failures and shaped charges designed to make it look like the engines have failed. Then, when it looks like it's adrift in vacuum, it comes back to life and takes everyone by surprise.".
"You hope," Mara had put in wryly. Pellaeon had shrugged in his tank. "That's the plan, anyway. We've never had.
cause to use it before.".
"The difference between a fake death and a real one is slim," Mara had.
commented.
"I am aware of that," he'd said soberly. "That's why the crew complement has.
been reduced to the bare minimum. We found some old combat droid brains.
mothballed in storage. Emperor Palpatine recovered them when Governor Beltane's SD project fell in a heap, decades ago. Since there's never been an SD- Eleven and we needed every resource we've got, I figured we could combine the two and create something new. This ship is pretty much capable of flying itself to the target, maintaining a convincing semblance of attack, keeping its crew.
alive while the outer shell 'dies,' then commencing the second, covert operation in accordance with new instructions. There's plenty of room on the inside for stabilizers and inertial dampeners; it's basically just a hollow shell. Ordinarily.
we'd crew it with a squadron of TIE fighters and some troopers, blow the shell when surprise can be maximized, then retreat, if possible. But I'm sure we can make room for other cargo.".
On the way in, Saba knew, "other cargo" meant Jade Shadow and a reduced.
TIE fighter contingent. If all went according to plan, the Dreadnaught— originally Braxant Brave, but hastily renamed Braxant Bonecrusher in honor of.
her plan—would cram its empty heart with liberated slaves. A rapid repressurization unit had been installed at one end of the massive space; Jade.
Shadow's tractor beam would help capture the slave carrier and its contents; force fields would keep the air and cargo in long enough for the ship to jump to.
safety while Jade Shadow and the fighters covered its back.
That was the plan, anyway. It was, as Pellaeon had suggested, almost crazy.
enough to work. Saba kept her thoughts carefully away from what she would like to do to the Yuuzhan Vong if the chance arose. Instead she concentrated on.
the people in the slaveship. They were what mattered. Not her. Not what she had lost.
"All in place," came Jacen's voice over the secure comlink. "Ready for you to.
dock, Aunt Mara.".
Jade Shadow's thrusters fired to jockey it into the same orbit as Bonecrusher.
"All systems go?" Mara asked.
"Initial jump locked in; the drives are hot. We're ready when you are." Jacen had wanted to be involved in the mission as soon as he'd heard about it.
Pellaeon, however, had advised against it.
"You should stay behind," the Grand Admiral had said. "That's where a.
responsible leader belongs.".
Jacen had seemed mystified by this. "But I'm not leading anyone.".
"One day you will," Pellaeon had said, "and you owe it to those who follow.
you to be there for them, both during and after a campaign.".
The comments had been a compliment to Jacen's character, but it didn't seem.
to compensate for the idea of being left out of the mission. While he obviously appreciated the Grand Admiral's confidence in him, he still did not want to be left behind. In the end, he had eventually forced a compromise. He would be the human brain behind the droid minds during Bonecrusher's elaborate ruse, hidden away inside the Dreadnaught shell, where it was safe, and from where he.
was currently directing the operation. As sophisticated as the SD combat droids had been, they were no match for a Jedi, and Saba felt better knowing that she could trust the Dreadnaught to do what it was supposed to do with Jacen behind.
it. Once she and Danni were in the slaveship, she wanted to know that there would be somewhere to escape to on the way out.
Danni checked her pressure seals for what seemed like the thousandth time as.
Jade Shadow nudged its way into Bonecrusher's ordinary-looking flight deck.
They had enough air for six hours. If they weren't out by then, they would need to locate pressurized areas on the slaveship, or find alternate ways to breathe.
"It'z okay," Saba told Danni, who had moved from nervously checking her.
suit seals to rummaging through her instrument pack, making sure she'd not left.
anything behind. "Remember yammosk hunting.".
"That was easy compared to this." Danni looked much younger with her hair.
pulled back into the hood of the jumpsuit; at barely half Saba's mass, she wouldn't have even passed for a Barabel child. But Saba was under no illusion.
as to what the woman was capable of. She had survived the Yuuzhan Vong on numerous occasions. Some people had even joked that she was a good-luck.
charm. Saba didn't know about that, but she did know that the woman was Force-sensitive, and that had to work in their favor.
Her breaths came in long, deep waves, filling her with an energy she hadn't.
felt for months. The thought of the challenge was exciting and unnerving at the same time. She told herself that she was equal to it, but she knew that it didn't matter if she wasn't. She had to try. It was the only way she would ever be free.
A series of deep clangs announced that Jade Shadow had passed through the.
flight deck's fake inner hull and docked with the heavy grapnels designed to.
withstand the shaking the Dreadnaught would receive during the early stages of its mission. Over Mara's shoulder, Saba could see two rows of closely packed TIE fighters cradled in cushioning energy nets. The fake flight deck was filled with older TIE fighters piloted by less sophisticated droid brains, designed to act.
as decoys during the initial attack.
"Breaking orbit," Jacen said. The ship might have been old, but its inertial.
dampeners were first-rate. Saba felt nothing at all as its drives engaged.
"Heading for the jump point.".
"Fly well, Braxant Bonecrusher," came Grand Admiral Pellaeon's voice over.
the comm. "We'll keep them as busy as we can for you down here.".
"Thanks, Gilad," Mara said. "Just make sure you're still around to pick up our.
pieces afterward.".
"It will be my pleasure to return the favor." Saba felt a stirring through the Force as though Luke and his departing wife.
were communicating in private—and then there was nothing but the silence of.
hyperspace. Her connection with the living universe was gone. They were on their way.
"First jump engaged," Jacen said. "Trim optimal," interceded a droid voice, deep but with jarring, nasal.
overtones—the voice of the droid brains doing the job normally done by thousands of crew. "Projection optimal. All systems optimal.".
"ETA?" "Seven point five-three standard minutes," the droid replied. "Perfectly.
optimal.".
"I don't suppose above optimal is an option, is it?" Jacen asked.
"Good question," Mara said, pushing her hair back from her face as she.
leaned back into her molded flight seat. "If we could shave off a few seconds,.
that could only be a good thing.".
"Anything other than optimal would be wasteful," the droid replied.
Saba sissed slightly at the droid's annoying pragmatism. "I can't help wishing we had a few of Lando Calrissian's YVH droids here to.
lend us a hand," Danni said as she looked up from adjusting the webbing of her.
pack.
"You're not the only one," Mara said sourly. "They might show those SD.
brains that they've got more to worry about than being precisely on schedule. Obsolescence is a terrible thing for a droid, you know.".
Jacen chuckled, but the droid remained silent. Saba hissed again and settled.
back to wait, her claws retracted and tail relaxed, to all appearances a perfect example of Jedi patience. Only another Barabel would have recognized the signs of nervousness she was actually displaying: the slight stiffness to the scales down her back and the restless extension and retraction of her inner eyelids. Not.
even her Jedi training could completely remove her anxieties.
Hunt the moment ...
The tunnel extruded by the chuk'a ended in a complicated series of whorls.
and loops, all of them easily large enough to admit an adult. There were no rooms as such, just random chambers spawned like bubbles in blorash jelly where the chuk'a had meandered to a halt. The lambent Nom Anor held high in his hand sent strange colors and oily reflections dancing all around him. The.
going was difficult, and Nom Anor stepped carefully on the slippery surface, wary of sharp edges. He wasn't sure how far the torturous passages led; all he knew was that the top of the chuk'a itself was to be found at the very lowest.
point of the passage. There its soft tissues would be exposed and sensitive; there lay his means of escape.
As he wove through the basement of the place he had briefly called home, he.
became aware of the sound of breathing. At first he thought it might have been.
his own echoing back, but the faint thudding noise that accompanied it suggested otherwise. He smothered the lambent in his fingers, turning the light it cast a dull.
red, and followed the sounds to their source.
Creeping around a jagged hairpin bend, he saw a huddled figure crouching on.
the floor of a dead end, dressed in the familiar rags of a Shamed One. Nom Anor felt his body sag in relief as he exhaled heavily. For a moment he had feared it.
might be a warrior sent to cut off escape.
"I'pan, you fool," he said. "You almost—".
He stopped when the figure turned to face him. It wasn't I'pan at all. It was.
Kunra.
The disgraced warrior half rose to his feet, holding a chunk of yorik coral in.
his right hand. It was black-stained in the reddish light.
"What are you doing here?" Kunra asked, making no attempt to hide the.
bitterness he held for Nom Anor.
"I could ask you the same thing," Nom Anor said. "But I imagine we're both.
here for the same reason.".
The warrior looked down, then back up at Nom Anor. "That is the chuk'a cap, isn't it?" Nom Anor added, indicating the bloody.
patch by the warrior's feet.
With its job done, the shell-excreting chuk'a now blocked the rest of the shaft.
and acted as plug, keeping any subterranean dwellers from coming up from below—as well as preventing anyone from going down. Opening that plug.
would allow him, and Kunra, to get away before the warriors reached them, and with any luck they might not follow them down into the darkness.
But the creature's "cap" was anchored securely into the side of the shaft, and.
getting it to withdraw those anchors wasn't easy. There was a soft, spongy layer of flesh just below the hardened cap, and somewhere beneath that was the nerve connected to the creature's right ganglion network. Once that nerve was stimulated, the cap's multiple pincers that were thrust into the rock would retract defensively, causing the chuk'a to fall. From the blood on Kunra's hand and.
around his feet, Nom Anor guessed he hadn't had much success doing that.
Kunra nodded in response to Nom Anor's question. "But it's not responding. I.
can't reach it.".
"Let me try." Nom Anor moved forward, handing the lambent to the warrior.
and pulling the homemade coufee from his belt. He did this slowly, making sure Kunra had a chance to see the blade before stooping over to examine the fleshy portion of the shell-making beast. Then he set about digging for the nerve with.
the point of his coufee. It wasn't easy; he was distracted the whole time, constantly wondering whether Kunra would vent his dislike of the ex-executor.
by bringing the piece of yorik coral down on the back of his head.
"I can't see," he said. "Move the light over here.".
The light wobbled as Kunra shifted, then steadied at a more useful angle. Nom.
Anor breathed an internal sigh of relief. We are allies again, he thought. For.
now, anyway. But there are still things I need to know.
"Did you lead them here?" he asked without turning to face Kunra. "The.
warriors?".
"No!" The shock in Kunra's voice that such a thing could even be suggested.
left no doubt in Nom Anor's mind that the ex-warrior was telling the truth. "What would make you think such a thing?".
Nom Anor shrugged. "You and I were the only ones who got away, and I.
know I didn't call them." He glanced up. The ex-warrior's face was a mess of half-finished scars and internal anguish.
"It wasn't me," Kunra reasserted. "I don't know why they're here. I escaped.
because—" He hesitated for a second then forced out the words: "I was with Sh'roth when they came. While they fought him, I—I ran.".
Nom Anor studied Kunra a moment longer, then returned to his work with.
barely a nod of acknowledgment. I ran. That explained everything: why Kunra had been the only one given enough time to escape, and why he was Shamed in the first place. Warriors didn't run, no matter what the circumstances; judging by.
the look on Kunra's face, this clearly wasn't the first time he had displayed cowardly tendencies. He was probably lucky to have escaped the first time with just a Shaming.
"Then what brought them here, do you think?" he asked. He couldn't help but.
wonder if someone else had betrayed him to the authorities. If Shimrra had learned of his existence, sending such a band of warriors to finish him off in the dead of night was exactly the kind of thing he'd do.
"What else?" Kunra said, more animated after the change of subject. "The one.
thing the high castes are afraid of, of course: the heresy.".
Nom Anor admitted to himself that the idea made sense. The priests would.
tolerate the Jedi sect as much as Shimrra would the Jedi themselves, perhaps.
even less. The Shamed Ones preaching it would be the enemy within, and rooting them out would be a priority. But if that was the case, then why had he never heard of such cleansing raids through the underworld of Yuuzhan'tar before his fall from grace? He assumed the answer to that lay in the nebulous.
way the message spread: even if Shimrra captured a convert, that one would only lead him to two or three others, who would in turn lead him nowhere, or in.
circles. There was no clear trail—as Nom Anor himself could attest. He had tried to find it, and failed.
Perhaps his own inquiries had, for the first time, established a clear trail to.
follow. He might have brought premature death down upon his fellow Shamed.
Ones by trying to find a way to use their beliefs to his own end. If so, the irony wasn't lost on him. Without them—and without a way out of the bottom of the.
shaft—he might very well find himself caught in a trap he had inadvertently laid for himself.
Frustration made him stab deep into the chuk'a cap over and over again, until.
his right arm was buried in it up to his elbow, black with gore. Finally he felt the.
creature respond with a spasm, and knew he had to be close to the nerve. He.
twisted the blade deeper, and for his effort felt a tremor ripple through the chuk'a. Another twist and the tissue around his hand tightened like muscle pulling taut. Fearing his fingers might be broken—or worse, that he might lose the only weapon he had left—he hastily pulled the coufee from the cap. A spurt of dark blood followed it, and the shell around them shook even more.
Kunra looked relieved. "You've done this before?" he asked, the beginnings of a smile on his scarred.
lips.
Nom Anor was about to confess that in fact he had never done anything like.
this in his life, when the floor suddenly fell out from beneath them, consigning them both to the depths of the vent.
Not far from Jade Shadow, Jacen Solo's thoughts were very much focused on.
the present, not the future. In the minutes remaining till the end of jump, there was so much to do: systems to familiarize himself with, droid brains to program, decoy strategies to scrutinize, along with innumerable other checks to be made on an unfamiliar system. It was time-consuming, but necessary. Once he gave.
the order to jump, then the mission would truly be under way, and there wouldn't be time to make sure everything was in order.
Sealed in the cockpit of a flightless TIE fighter that was in turn wrapped in an.
energy web dense enough to stop a comet—all of it huddling inside the belly of Braxant Bonecrusher with Jade Shadow and numerous TIE fighters—he was electronically patched into the mind of the Dreadnaught and able to oversee its every move. He felt like a Phindian puppeteer, using tricks of light to cast.
shadows many times larger than himself onto a screen. Jacen only hoped the Yuuzhan Vong would be fooled by the illusion. If they weren't, the Dreadnaught.
wouldn't last long, and the mission would turn out to be very short indeed. It packed only the one surprise; once that was gone there would be nothing else.
All they'd have to rely upon then was luck. And while good fortune was one of the things his family was famous for, it was not something he wanted to base the.
success of this mission upon. The death of Anakin had proven once and for all that luck did not stay in one's favor indefinitely.
The seconds ticked by as he continued his last-minute checks. The chores.
were complicated, but they only occupied the analytical part of his brain.
Another part—the more intuitive section that he usually assigned to the understanding of his place in the Force—turned to Danni and Saba in Jade.
Shadow. As he observed them and their own preparations from a distance, he.
suddenly realized just how little he was really adding to the mission itself: he was there mainly just to double-check what the SD brains would be doing. Nevertheless, he still believed it was important for him to be around for at least part of the mission. And he believed it for reasons that, until now, he had kept hidden even from himself ...
Danni's nervousness touched him deeply. She didn't have a lightsaber or a.
full Jedi's training in the Force; she would essentially rely on Saba throughout this mission into the belly of the slaveship; but she was still going, and her courage made him like her even more. He vividly remembered the moment they.
had shared while waiting for Captain Yage to board Jade Shadow. There had been something there, a connection of some kind. Had that been the result of boredom? he wondered. Or was it evidence of larger, genuine feelings? There.
was no denying he'd had a mild, juvenile crush on her shortly after rescuing her from the Yuuzhan Vong on Helska 4, but that had been a fleeting and insignificant thing. He had put it down to mere emotions affected by circumstances, nothing more, and so had effectively buried the impulses. But now those feelings were back, and what troubled him more than anything else.
was how it had taken so little to rouse them.
When the mission was over, he would have to examine the situation more.
closely. And delicately, of course. He had proven himself as a pilot, a warrior,.
and—some would say—a Jedi, but when it came to matters of the heart, he was a definite novice.
"Jump complete," the droid brains announced, snapping him out of his.
reverie.
"Er—halfway there," Jacen said quickly to the others, worried that any.
hesitation might somehow reveal something of his thoughts. His fingers flew.
over the controls, calculating then laying in the second jump. The layout of the instruments in the TIE cockpit was different from what he was used to, but not.
radically dissimilar.
"That sounds just optimal," Mara said from the cockpit of Jade Shadow, not.
far from where he was sitting.
"Correct," the droid brain said. They hadn't been programmed to recognize.
sarcasm.
Jacen's course matched that of the droid brains. Unless the slaveship had.
radically altered position, they should come out practically on top of it.
He okayed the jump. According to the instruments, the drives surged back into.
life; thanks to the energy web, he felt as though they'd remained completely.
stationary.
"On our way," he informed the passengers of Jade Shadow. "We'll be there.
soon.".
"In seven point four-seven standard minutes," the droid brain informed them.
"Tactical circuits engaged. TIE decoys ready for launch. Shield generators.
programmed. Hull detonators primed.".
The droid brains cycled through their precombat checklist once every minute.
with no variation. Jacen found himself half hypnotized by the steady mantra, and his mind began to wander again. His thoughts turned to Danni once more, and he.
called up a view of Jade Shadow's cockpit, where she and Saba waited with Mara for the mission to truly begin. Her breathing became heavier as her tension increased. But there was an edge of excitement to that tension—and it was.
infectious, too. He could feel his own heart beating a little faster, and his palms began to sweat ...
He was thankful when the droid brain announced their imminent arrival. He.
busied himself with double and triple checks to Braxant Bonecrusher's systems, ensuring everything was locked down nice and tight—including himself.
"Here we go," he said over the comlink. "Hang on. This is going to be rough." "I'm sure you'll look after us, Jacen," his aunt said. He smiled uncomfortably.
at her confidence in him.
Not if I don't focus on what I'm doing, he thought to himself. "Five seconds," the droid brain announced. "Status: optimal. Three. Two.
One.".
The white of hyperspace streaked and became stars as the Dreadnaught.
barreled back into realspace with all the subtlety of an asteroid. Sensors swept the immediate area, searching for the slaveship. Once it was found—almost.
exactly where predicted—the Dreadnaught's cannons and batteries locked on and began firing at the tentacles. At the same time, the squadron of decoy TIE.
fighters launched from the flight deck and swooped in to attack.
This was a crucial phase in the operation, and Jacen couldn't help but feel.
anxious. The attack had to be stiff enough to convince the Yuuzhan Vong that it was a serious threat, but not so stiff that it would seriously damage the slaveship.
The last thing they wanted to do was burst it open and destroy its contents.
But there seemed to be little danger of doing that. The slave freighter was.
armored against attack, and its tentacles were tough. It wasn't equipped with plasma guns to defend itself, and its dovin basals weren't responding the same.
way as those on combat vessels, but coralskippers soon launched from nearby.
vessels and powered hard to intercept the attack. Jacen watched the views on the screens surrounding him with apprehension, fists clenching uneasily: it was impossible not to be nervous so deep in enemy territory, with so little standing between success and destruction.
But then, that was the point. They were pretending to be a suicide mission,.
and the Yuuzhan Vong would instinctively accept it as such. It fit perfectly into their philosophy. The arrogance of the species didn't allow them to learn from their mistakes, it seemed—or at least accept that others thought differently from them.
The droid brains were in their element here. Scattered throughout the ship but.
linked by a high-speed network, they fired turbolasers and bolstered shields while broadcasting objectives to the simpler TIE fighter brains. Their reports.
were uniformly flat-toned and perfectly objective. Even when a freak missile squeaked through the shields and took out one of their own, the pitch of reporting didn't vary. This was battle, Jacen thought, and losses were expected. The droids probably regarded the jolting and jarring of the Dreadnaught as an indication that they were doing their job properly.
Two TIE fighters were destroyed almost instantly when the skips arrived;.
another three fell within the following minute. The remainder of the fighters managed to cripple one of the slaveship's tentacles, while Bonecrusher.
dispatched three coralskippers using the random-stutter technique Jacen had programmed into the droid gunners. For a brief moment it looked like they might hold out longer than anticipated, but then fortune's tide turned and the TIE fighters were destroyed with deadly precision.
Within minutes, the last one had been picked out of the sky by two converging.
streams of plasma. Barely had the burning cloud of wreckage dissipated when.
the attack turned on the Dreadnaught itself, pounding it from every direction. The droid brains brought the craft about, as though intending to flee. Skips.
swooped around it, firing round after round into its shields. Explosions rocked the ship as one by one the shields were permitted to fail. Debris sprayed into.
space as one of the hyperdrive engines blew, rattling Jacen in his protected roost like he was nothing more than a die in a cup. Even through the hull of the.
Dreadnaught, the energy web, and the TIE cockpit shell, there was still enough leftover energy to give him a shake. The steady thrum of Bonecrusher's.
generators stuttered as the Dreadnaught's course began to twist back upon itself.
That was all the encouragement the Yuuzhan Vong needed. Sensing the kill,.
they sent streams of plasma fire into the weakened points along the hull. Quad.
batteries exploded; deflector shield projector bays burst into flames as air leaked out of decompressing decks; the Dreadnaught's rounded, almost beaked nose burst open as though its command decks had been breached. Artificial gravity failed along with the remaining drives. Then the reserve power generators took a direct hit, blowing an enormous hole in the side of the ship, venting air and even.
more debris into the vacuum.
Then it was over. Generators shut down and—since Jacen was there to bring.
them back when required—the SD droid brains shut down with them. Something groaned deep and long as the Dreadnaught settled into a state of inactivity. The.
clanking and rattling of debris escaping through gashes in the outer hull sounded like garbage being ground and mangled in a compactor.
Eventually total silence fell in the secret heart of the ship. Jacen unconsciously.
held his breath, sensing the TIE fighter pilots and his crewmates in Jade Shadow doing the same. This was the moment that would determine whether the mission failed or succeeded. If the Yuuzhan Vong didn't believe the ship to be truly dead, then they certainly soon would be.
To the rest of the universe, the Braxant Bonecrusher looked as though it had.
spent its fighters in a failed attack and been taken out itself. With everything powered down, there would be no reason to suspect that another squadron waited within for the word to launch, along with Jade Shadow, Jacen in his TIE.
cockpit, and the droid brains. Everything depended on this illusion remaining intact.
Jacen had only two holocams on the hull transmitting data back to him. He.
kept his eyes on the views—one above the breach in the Dreadnaught's back, the.
other from the stern, looking along the ship. Stars rotated around the Dreadnaught; the last explosion had given it a convincing tumble.
It was Mara who finally broke the silence. "Anything, Jacen?" She spoke in.
barely a whisper.
"Nothing conclusive yet," he returned equally as quietly. "They're not firing,.
which is a good thing, but the slaveship isn't visible at the moment, either.".
"This one iz convinced by the quiet," Saba said. Jacen listened. It was impossible to hear through a vacuum, so what the.
Yuuzhan Vong were doing would be impossible to detect aurally. But there was a quality to the silence that suggested Saba was right: the Yuuzhan Vong had.
called off the attack. What happened next was not yet known, but there was really only one possibility.
"Okay," he said. "Everyone take your positions. I'll click you when I have.
something definite.".
Jacen reached out into the Force. Good luck, he sent to Danni and Saba. If.
they received the thought, they were too busy to respond.
He picked up a slight electromagnetic hum as the yacht's air lock cycled.
through, but he doubted anyone outside the ship would notice. And if they did,.
they were likely to put it down to the wreckage settling. Ships took time to die all the way through. There might be pockets of mechanical life still ticking futilely away. There might even be survivors ...
A shadow moved across the screens in front of him. He stiffened, even though.
he knew what to expect. Braxant Bonecrusher's slow roll around its center of gravity brought the slaveship gradually back into view a minute later—and, sure enough, it was looming much larger than before.
Jacen clicked once to confirm that everything was going to plan. A second.
later, a powerful jolt ran through the Dreadnaught. For a second he thought that that one almost imperceptible click might have given them away, until he realized that what he'd in fact felt was the dovin basal of the slaveship grabbing on to Bonecrusher.
Everything's going according to plan, said Mara. His aunt had sent out a.
bubble of both encouragement and reassurance to everyone on board.
Another jolt followed, accompanied by the sound of twisting metal. He feared.
for the structural integrity of the ship; without the inertial dampeners, it wasn't used to such stresses on its frame. Thankfully, though, it held.
When everything settled down again, the stars were no longer moving as fast,.
and the slaveship was rotating, too, anchored to the hull of Bonecrusher by the.
Yuuzhan Vong's version of artificial gravity. It was coming at them tentacles- first, like something out of a nightmare.
He clicked again, this time speaking into the comm. "They've got us," he said. "And our friendly slaveship is moving in fast.".
"Any sign of the ships?" Mara asked. "I think it's safe to assume that most of them have gone back to their capital.
vessels," he answered. "They seem to have left just enough to—".
A voice over the comlink cut him off. Although not allowed to transmit, the.
Dreadnaught's receivers were still intact.
"This is Commander B'shith Vorrik," said an abrasive Yuuzhan Vong voice.
Jacen was initially nonplussed. The villips the Yuuzhan Vong used to communicate among themselves didn't transmit over electromagnetic.
frequencies, unless they were modified by an oggzil. The only reason they would.
use one of those would be to speak to the enemy—and that was confirmed with Vorrik's next words: "All infidels will surrender immediately, or be destroyed.".
Jacen's heart sank. The commander knew they were there. The plan had.
failed; it had all been for nothing!
Wait, Jacen, Mara sent, sensing the despair welling up inside of him.
"We have no intention of surrendering to become slaves," came another voice.
over the receiver.
The growled words came from Grand Admiral Gilad Pellaeon. Jacen almost.
laughed out loud in relief: the Yuuzhan Vong's ultimatum had been addressed to.
the Imperials, not Braxant Bonecrusher at all.
"Surrender the Jedi you harbor among you," Vorrik continued. Jacen chuckled grimly to himself. Clearly the tactics they had introduced to.
the Imperials hadn't gone unnoticed.
"Why should we turn on those who help us?" Pellaeon replied. "What good is the help if it results in your destruction?" Vorrik responded. "You attacked us without provocation," Pellaeon shot back. "It would seem.
our destruction was always your intention.".
"The presence of the Jedi is provocation enough," Vorrik growled. "Your.
resistance is provocation! Your very existence is provocation! Now, power down your weapons, infidel, and surrender.".
"I have a better idea," Pellaeon said evenly. "Leave the system now while.
you're still in a position to do so.".
Jacen knew that the Grand Admiral was playing for time—either that or he.
wanted to seem as if this was what he was doing. With the Dreadnaught powered.
down around him, there was no way of telling the disposition of the Imperial forces, but he assumed that Pellaeon was still working to the original plan: to.
make it appear as if they were in retreat. B'shith Vorrik's announcement was probably nothing more than an attempt to hurry things along.
The Yuuzhan Vong commander's laugh boomed out from the receivers. "If.
you were counting on the cowardly attack to our rear flanks to change the course.
of this battle," he said, "then you should know that it has failed. Your survival, now, fool, rests solely upon my goodwill.".
Grand Admiral Pellaeon hesitated just long enough to give the impression that.
this news had rattled him.
"I don't think there's an atom of goodwill in the entire Yuuzhan Vong.
culture," he said. There was a tremor in his voice. Jacen had to admit, the Grand.
Admiral was playing his role well. "We would sooner die than submit to you,.
Vorrik.".
"Then so be it," Vorrik said, laughing again. "And may Yun-Yammka devour.
your bodies as well as your souls.".
The Yuuzhan Vong commander added something more, but Jacen stopped.
listening. A faint click had indicated that Saba and Danni had arrived in position.
and were preparing to cross over to the slaveship.
Cross over ... Jacen shook his head. If that wasn't a euphemism, he didn't.
know what was. He felt Mara joining him in wishing Saba and Danni luck as somewhere on the damaged hull of Braxant Bonecrusher they prepared.
themselves for what they had to do.
He felt them leave, felt their rush of apprehension as the tentacles took them.
Then their Force-signatures were muffled among the many trapped in the belly.
of the slave freighter. They were completely out of his reach now, and the situation out of his control—as was Pellaeon's fight around Borosk. The only thing he could do from here on in was wait for a sign, and hope.
When the mouth of one of the slaveship's surviving tentacles came groping.
for her, Saba Sebatyne almost felt her courage desert her. A two-meter-wide, well-muscled sphincter nosing through the holes in the Dreadnaught's hull was enough to make anyone think twice.
Pellaeon's minions had appropriated a number of cadavers from the nearest.
Star Destroyer's morgue and scattered them around the intended blast hole. Saba felt dismay for the families of the dead soldiers, but she also knew it was necessary if they were to pull off this mission. A dead ship with no dead bodies.
might have aroused suspicions and put their plan in jeopardy.
The tentacles didn't waste time with the bodies, though, passing over the dead.
tissue to continue searching for something more useful. They poked deeper into the punctured hull, looking for anything alive—anything at all. Danni blanched.
behind her faceplate as one fumbled blindly closer, but she didn't back away.
Nor did Saba. Putting her faith in the Force, as well as her pressurized.
jumpsuit, she pushed out gently from her hiding place in the direction of one of the tentacles. With surprising speed, the tentacle noticed her and swung around.
to take her. Her body tensed as she remembered her people spilling out from the slaveship all those months ago, filling the void with six-pointed stars that drifted.
lifelessly from the ruptured wall of the ship. She closed her eyes and forced the memory down; now was not the time to be reliving such grief. She needed her wits about her; she needed to focus on the assignment at hand.
"For this one's home," she whispered. "For this one's people.".
She forced her muscles to relax as she was engulfed by the maw of the.
tentacle and swept along a slippery, ribbed tube toward the hold of the ship. Hold? Who am I kidding? It was the slaveship's belly, and right now she was being eaten by it, her body pummeled by every muscular surge of the tentacle.
The contractions around her grew stronger as she approached the end of the.
tentacle. She wondered briefly if Danni was following, but didn't have time to check; she was too caught up in the moment and what she was experiencing to sense anyone else. Still, she wanted to reach back and feel for Danni, just to be.
able to touch her and find some reassurance. Just to get a hand to her right now would have made the discomfort that much easier to deal with.
Then, abruptly, the ride was over, and she was spat into what felt like a thick.
mass of jelly. She was knocked repeatedly across the face and body by the large number of hard lumps in suspension, so much so that she feared for the integrity of her faceplate. But when she finally came to a halt, she was relieved to find it was still fully intact.
She gasped for air and felt a pain in her ribs. Nothing seemed to be broken,.
but she was definitely bruised. All around her was a uniform, infrared glow— unfortunately too diffuse or muffled to see by. She spread her legs to orient herself and felt objects pressing in all around her. Soft on the inside and firm in.
the middle, the objects felt strange to her touch. Her fingers sought purchase, but they kept slipping in the jelly.
Then something scrabbled at her faceplate, making her jerk backward. Her.
hands found the torch in her equipment pack and snapped it on. Just enough light.
came through the jelly to reveal that something leathery and star-shaped was trying to force its way across her face. She firmly brushed it aside and suddenly.
came face to face with a human.
She gasped with shock, then cursed herself. Of course. She was in a slaveship;.
what did she expect? The goop around her was probably a softer version of blorash jelly, used in combat to pin an opponent's limbs down. The thing.
flapping at her face might have been a gnullith, living breath masks for Yuuzhan Vong's pilots. The human floating upside down in front of her—just one of.
thousands trapped in the jelly—didn't have a gnullith and was, as her questioning hands determined, quite dead. The black-haired woman must have.
drowned before the gnulliths reached her—or worse, died during ingestion.
A pressure wave rolled through the jelly from above her, and Saba assumed.
that Danni had just arrived. She moved her powerful legs and arms to propel.
herself forward, attempting to swim for the outer shell of the belly, but it was impossible to tell if she was making any progress. And even if she was, she had no real idea of which direction she was in fact moving. It was like trying to swim through a sap pool while blindfolded.
She tried climbing instead of swimming, using the people around her for.
leverage. They all seemed to be in a state of drug-induced unconsciousness, and as such didn't respond when she grabbed hold of them. Again, she wasn't sure if she was making any real progress. For all she knew, she could have been simply pushing the bodies behind her rather than moving along them. Any sense of.
direction had abandoned her in her free fall. She wouldn't have minded so much had it not been for the gnulliths swimming through the jelly. Everywhere she turned she encountered their strange flapping motions as their slithering air tubes.
constantly groped for her mouth.
So she gave in and centered herself. Switching out the light and closing her.
eyes, she sought her innermost point, and then she reached out.
The people around her created a concentrated ball of life pressing in on all.
sides. She was deep within it, and had been heading deeper until she'd stopped.
Reorienting herself, keeping her claws carefully sheathed and her tail limp, she used the Force itself to move her through the resistant jelly.
The edge gradually came closer, and she found herself reaching for it well.
before it arrived. It was almost as though she was groping for breath from the bottom of a lake. All of the captives were unconscious, but many of them were fearful and suffering in their dreams; not even sleep could protect them from the trauma of what their bodies were undergoing. The overlapping nightmares were.
suffocating, and Saba found herself humming a childhood tune she hadn't thought of for years to keep them at bay. It worked, but only just.
When she finally hit the edge of the belly, she clutched tightly at it, allowing.
herself the time to regain her strength. The interior surface was ribbed, so.
movement along it wouldn't be difficult once she got going again. All she had to do was collect her thoughts, orient herself with respect to the ship around her,.
and then—.
Something clutched at her from out of the jelly. She pushed herself between a.
couple of the immense ribs, kicking out at what she thought to be another gnullith. But it came back, groping insistently for her. For a moment she.
panicked, completely flustered by the oppressive, grotesque environment. The same one the last of her people had endured, before ... She reached.
automatically for her lightsaber, even though she knew that lighting it would.
inevitably hurt the unconscious captives pressing in around her.
Then a light appeared out of the reddish murk. It grew brighter as whatever.
was grabbing at her found purchase, and pulled. Saba realized with a flood of relief that the thing that had taken hold of her equipment belt was a human hand —and that the hand belonged to Danni Quee.
The Barabel couldn't help it. She laughed at herself, amused by her mistake.
and buoyed by the fading of her intense but fleeting panic. Her sissing fit continued until Danni's faceplate pressed up against hers and she could see the human woman frowning in concern.
"Saba? Are you all right?" Danni's voice was muffled by the thickness of.
their masks. "You're shaking!".
"This one iz very glad to see you, Danni Quee," she said, forcing herself to be.
calm. Given their situation, uncontrolled laughter could be just as detrimental as panic. "How did you know where to look?".
"Through the Force," she said. "Can't you see me that way?" Saba shook her head. "There are too many people in here with us. I am.
drowning in their mindz.".
Danni removed her faceplate from Saba's and looked around. It was her turn.
to shiver.
"It's dark in here," she said upon turning back to face Saba. "I'm glad I've got.
this light.".
Saba nodded. "This one iz more glad that you found me." "Do you know where we are?" Saba concentrated again. She couldn't feel the alien ship or its Yuuzhan Vong.
crew, but she could sense the shape that the sac of imprisoned humans made, then work out where they were from that.
"We're past the halfway point," she said. "There iz a bulge that I suspect.
containz the ship's control centers. It'z not far from here—about a hundred.
meters or so.".
"Point me in the right direction, then, and let's go," Danni said with.
determination—although it obviously came with some effort. She was as uneasy about the whole thing as Saba was. "The sooner we're out of here, the better.".
Saba led the way, propelling herself along the wall by digging her claws into.
the ribbing and pulling herself forward. Danni followed, using Saba's tail as a.
guide. As before, Saba had to shoulder aside unconscious or dead bodies on her way, and the extra energy this required soon tired her.
Movement along the wall was certainly simpler than swimming through the.
jelly, but it still wasn't easy. The interior of the slaveship was muscular and slippery, the surface soft but resistant to her probing digits. The ridges, she decided, were formed by vast muscle fibers wrapped around the hold, keeping the pressure in and allowing it to flex when new additions arrived. It wasn't as tough as yorik coral, small plates of which she noticed had coated the exterior.
With the slaves kept unconscious—presumably by a compound delivered via the gnulliths, since contact with the blorash jelly hadn't affected Danni at all—it seemed obvious that the Yuuzhan Vong had ignored any threat from the inside. Saba felt reasonably confident that, if worse came to worst, they could cut.
through the inner layer and find a way out between the yorik coral plates. But that would mean risking explosive decompression, sending the contents of the belly out into hard vacuum ...
The image of six-pointed stars tumbling into space flashed through her mind.
She fought down the thought angrily.
I won't let that happen again! Time was passing quickly, so she forced herself to hurry. She didn't know.
how long the slaveship would hover around the Dreadnaught, sniffing for new.
captives. There had been a couple of small movements through the ship, suggestive of slight attitude adjustments, so she knew it hadn't made any dramatic moves yet. The moment it left, though, their job would become a.
thousand times more difficult.
When they reached the bulge, its dimensions became clearer. The bulge was.
shaped like a volcano, with a round lip surrounding a slight dimple at the top. Feeling her way to the dimple, she was disappointed to find that it wasn't an exit.
as she had imagined. It was, in fact, an entrance, but not one she could fit through. It was from here that fresh gnulliths were constantly pumped into the.
vast sac, riding on a gentle current of blorash jelly. Avoiding them proved difficult, and Saba pressed herself as flat as she could against the fleshy inner.
wall to present as small a target as possible.
Danni pressed her faceplate against Saba's. "This place is getting worse by the.
minute.".
"At least they don't seem to know we're here," Saba replied. "We seem safe.
enough.".
"For now," Danni added.
Danni reached awkwardly for her pack and slid a fat cylinder from it. Saba.
helped her unscrew its cap and clear away the jelly long enough to activate its.
contents. Six modified Mark VII scarab droids came to life at the touch of a.
switch on Danni's remote controller. Each had six legs as long as a human's index finger and two retractable injection fangs. They had high-gain photoreceptors and sensitive biodetectors that had been tuned to Yuuzhan Vong rhythms and pheromones. They didn't normally need remote operators, although their sensors could be accessed from a distance. These had been further modified.
to give Danni a measure of remote control—since the interior of the slaveship was a completely unknown environment—without jeopardizing their mission. Each scarab would lay a threadlike molecular wire behind it, virtually invisible to the naked eye, which would allow her to keep in touch without using comlink.
channels.
Heads-up displays in Danni's face mask allowed her to see what the scarabs.
saw. As she keyed a series of instructions into the tiny droids and sent them.
scuttling for the gnullith vent, Saba accessed the information and watched, too.
The droids soon found the vent and burrowed into its muscular sphincter. The.
view through infrared was little different from what Saba saw around her in the hold: lots of indistinct, warm blurs and not much else. But the scarabs slid between the folds of tissue for three meters, nudging gnulliths aside with ease.
along their way.
The moment the lead scarab began to detect light, it slowed its crawl through.
the vent. They had clearly reached the end of the narrow passage. Danni.
instructed the droid to carefully extend a photoreceptor out toward the light, and found a tank filled with clear fluid that was thicker than water and held bubbles in suspension like human saliva. Throughout, the tank was teeming with star- shaped creatures that twitched and writhed in the liquid. This was the source of.
the gnulliths.
The scarab didn't detect any nearby Yuuzhan Vong biorhythms, so the droid.
slipped free of the vent and swam awkwardly around the edge of the gnullith pool. Ignoring the scarab's presence, the flapping star-shaped organic masks.
continued to swim into the vent from the bottom of the pool where, presumably, they were grown. The other scarabs followed the lead out of the pool, fanning.
out to find different hiding spots. The remote-control view became a mess of six slightly different images of the same place, and Saba cut them back to only the.
lead droid to keep it simple. The scarab found a promising passage through the bony wall, leaving its siblings behind.
The view became nothing more than a series of close-ups of unpolished yorik.
coral at very close quarters as the scarab scurried along the narrow fissure.
Eventually it came to a dead end, then backtracked until it reached a turnoff it.
had ignored before and took that instead. That, too, led to a dead end, so the droid went back to another turning and tried that instead. After a few times of doing this, Saba began to feel frustrated. If they didn't find the equivalent of a control room soon, they were never going to be able to rescue the captives. And worse: they would end up captives themselves!
"Got 'em," Danni said suddenly, her voice low but excited. Saba snapped from her pessimism. "Where?" "Scarab Four." Saba selected the view and watched biorhythm readings.
glowing in many colors across a view of yet another narrow fissure. The scarab.
was moving stealthily closer to the end of the fissure, visible just around a turn up ahead. Bright light shone from around the corner, and Saba could hear the harsh sound of the Yuuzhan Vong language in her earplugs.
The scarab instinctively froze the moment it managed to get one of its.
photoreceptors around the corner for a look, finding itself at about shoulder height in a small control room containing two Yuuzhan Vong warriors. Brutally scarred, although not as extensively as some Saba had seen, they were elbow deep in the sort of organic controls typical for these vessels. On a strangely.
shaped screen before them, Saba saw something that she suspected represented the wreckage of the Dreadnaught at close quarters. It was hard to say for sure, though, because the biological display wasn't configured to frequencies her eyes.
were sensitive to.
Danni, however, was more certain. "That's Bonecrusher," she said. "At least.
we know we've still got a way off this thing.".
But for how long? Saba thought as she shifted in the blorash jelly, brushing to.
one side yet another gnullith.
"I'm going to send the other scarabs in to join Four," Danni said. "We'll get.
them to attack once they're all there, okay?".
Saba nodded. Given that they hadn't been able to find a way out of the hold.
from within, this had become the human woman's show. Nevertheless, she still had reservations. "Only two pilotz for a ship this big?" she asked dubiously.
Danni shrugged in the jelly. "We're not picking up any other readings," she.
said. "And the scarabs have covered seventy percent of the volume ahead of us.
It's not so unlikely, really. This would be dishonorable work in their eyes: there's no fighting, no victory; just picking up the pieces left behind by the true.
heroes.".
Saba nodded again, more reassured. If that was the case, the attack of Braxant.
Bonecrusher was probably the most exciting thing these pilots had seen for ages.
They would be relieved and cocky, and certainly not expecting an attack from within. Their appearance gave some credence to that notion: their armor was ragged, and one of them even had exposed skin showing through the vonduun crab shell.
One by one, the scarab viewpoints began to overlap again. They crowded.
together in the crack Scarab Four had found, making tiny clicking noises with their thin, metal legs as they watched the aliens going about their business.
"How far can these thingz jump?" Saba asked. "I'm not sure," Danni replied. "They have their own attack algorithms. I'd.
probably just get in the way if I told them what to do.".
"And you're sure the poison will work?" A range of anti-Yuuzhan Vong.
toxins had been identified by Master Cilghal; Pellaeon had instructed his.
security staff to fill the scarabs' poison reservoirs with it before they left.
"No." Danni smiled at Saba through the faceplate in an attempt to lighten the.
mood. "But we'll soon find out.".
She keyed a new series of instructions for the scarabs, and immediately four.
of them detached their monolinks and scurried from the hole. The fifth and sixth.
moved forward to report what happened.
Saba held herself still, despite every muscle yearning to strike, and strike fast.
For the time they scurried across the wall, the four hand-sized assassin droids.
remained invisible to them. Then Saba noticed one appear at the top of the display, cautiously creeping across the ceiling. A second one appeared to the right; a third to the left, slinking along the floor like a sinister insect. The fourth was still out of sight, and Saba found herself leaning slightly as if this would.
somehow afford her a better view.
The Yuuzhan Vong were still deep in conversation, totally oblivious to the.
scarabs making their way toward them. The scruffier of the pair leaned forward to adjust the trim, causing the scarabs on either side to momentarily freeze in.
their tracks. The one on the ceiling, however, kept moving, giving cause for Saba to hold her breath in nervous anticipation. What if they heard it? What if.
they looked up right now? The entire mission could be blown in an instant.
She watched as the scarab crept forward another body's length until it was.
positioned directly above the other alien. Then, turning ninety degrees and angling its head downward, it released its grip from the ceiling.
The Yuuzhan Vong howled in pain and surprise as the metal fangs of the.
scarab sank deep into his arm. He stood abruptly, snatching the tiny droid from.
his arm and smashing it viciously against the wall. The second warrior stood.
also, looking to see what the commotion from his comrade was all about. As he did, one of the other scarabs launched itself at him, taking him under the armpit where the vonduun crab armor was traditionally weakest, but the fangs didn't dig deep enough for the poison to be effective and the scarab was instantly swept aside.
At first the two warriors were startled by the attack and didn't seem to realize.
where it was coming from. But it only took a second to recover and get their bearings. Even though they were in what would have been regarded as a dishonorable position for warriors, they were both still formidable fighters,.
trained by years of torture and self-deprivation to respond instantly to any crisis.
They reached into their armor for weapons. One had only a coufee, but the.
other had an amphistaff that stirred and spat viciously in his hands. The second.
scarab droid tried another leap at the one it had attacked, but was easily batted out of the air by the warrior, and this time was destroyed. The third and fourth scarabs quickly joined the fray, one crawling up the uninjured Yuuzhan Vong's leg and trying to plant its fangs into his thigh, the other leaping for his face. The confined space barely seemed able to contain the sudden noise and movement as.
the amphistaff whirled and scarab fragments smashed against the walls.
Danni bit her lip as she ordered in the fifth assassin droid. It jumped on the.
back of the unbitten warrior, managing to get a decent purchase. Finding a gap in.
the vonduun crab armor, it emptied its reservoirs directly into the Yuuzhan Vong's bloodstream. He shouted in alarm as his partner disposed of it with a single, precise slash of his coufee. The strong, slender needles, however, remained embedded in the warrior's flesh. With seemingly little effort or.
discomfort, he twisted around and yanked them out. Wincing only slightly, he held them up to the light to see. All-too-alert eyes squinted malevolently at the.
tiny machine.
"The poison isn't working!" There was a nervous panic in Danni's voice.
"Grakh," the Yuuzhan Vong spat, throwing the needles aside. The other.
struck the biological console in front of him and shouted more angry words in.
their own tongue. Alarms began to wail as one of the warrior's hands went into the control sacs. A villip everted itself on the console and the head of a distant.
superior began to add more shouting to the racket.
The droids had failed and the alarm had gone out. Reinforcements would no.
doubt arrive soon. Saba's heart lurched into her throat as she felt a shudder roll through the ship and realized that the slaveship's drives had just fired at full.
thrust. In the organic screen, the strangely distorted shape of Braxant.
Bonecrusher began to shrink.
She gripped the flesh of the wall impotently as the crush of bodies seemed to.
tighten around her. There was nothing she could do but watch helplessly as her only hope of survival receded into the distance ...
The chuk'a was a simple creature, bred to turn the base compounds found in.
stone and dust into pearly building material, and when asked to rest its slumber was complete. There was a specific series of stimulations to be applied in order to bring it to life again; the ex-shaper Yus Sh'roth would have been able to tell.
Nom Anor what they were. He would also have warned against startling the chuk'a out of its hibernation because, under the circumstances, that could only mean disaster.
The dagger in its side wrenched the creature from its sleep, thrusting it into a.
world of pain—the shock of which triggered a defensive spasm that caused the chuk'a to retract its anchors from the sides of the shaft. The mass of the chuk'a was too great for the bottom of the structure it had built, and to which it was still attached. As a result, the shell on which Nom Anor and Kunra stood gave way,.
sending them hurtling downward, along with the creature.
Luckily—although it didn't feel so at the time—the slope of the vent provided.
enough friction to slow their fall. It also made the chuk'a and its attached chunk.
of shell tumble, sending its two passengers bouncing around inside the small space, smashing against hardened shell and occasionally slashing themselves against sharp edges. Nom Anor rolled himself into a ball to protect his stomach and head and tried to relax every muscle in his body. Kunra was somewhere.
nearby, howling in fear as they continued to plummet. Through the shell they could feel the chuk'a frantically scrabbling for a grip on the sides of the walls as.
they swept past. Its stubby limbs had no success, and fared badly against the unyielding surfaces. With shell to protect it on just one side, it was sorely.
battered by the tumble and fell silent and limp just moments before they reached the end of the vent.
Nom Anor and Kunra had no warning that it was coming. One moment they.
were bouncing off the ferrocrete walls; the next they were tumbling in free fall.
In its own way, that silent descent was worse than the crashing and bumping. It was impossible to know what awaited them at the bottom of their fall or how far.
it might be, and there was nothing to check their acceleration.
With a bone-jarring crunch followed by another brief moment of weightless.
spinning, then a second impact that seemed even more brutal than the first, the.
chuk'a reached the end of its downward journey. The sound of shell cracking was loud in Nom Anor's ears as the plug broke in two and fell in pieces around the body of the creature that had created it. His remaining momentum carried him several meters across the surface of what felt like a giant bowl. The refuse of centuries crunched and crackled under him as he groaned and rolled onto his.
side. Every centimeter of him was screaming with pain, as if his entire body had been pummeled by dozens of amphistaffs at once.
When silence had settled around him, Nom Anor struggled to sit upright. It.
hurt, but he refused to acknowledge it with a groan or a cry. He had learned over.
the years not to become a slave to unavoidable pain, but to use it as a goad.
With teeth clenched, he moved through the rubble on his hands and knees to.
where the lambent had fallen nearby, a lonely star in a world of darkness. He.
took it and examined the place where they had come to rest.
It was indeed a shallow bowl, but one made of some kind of metal and.
surrounded by a lip almost a meter high. That was all he could see; the bowl seemed to be hanging in a vast and empty space—a space so large that echoes off its distant walls and ceiling were smothered by the silent shadows. There was.
no sign of the bottom of the vent, nor of any other wreckage that had followed them down. That meant that the Shamed Ones' nest was still intact. Had it become detached from the vent walls and followed them down, the warriors.
riding along with it would have been the least of Nom Anor's worries.
The chuk'a itself appeared to be dead. Its mollusklike form had burst and.
splattered over a large area of the bowl, its body cushioning its passengers and their shell saddle from the bulk of the impact. Lumps of gray flesh oozed clear.
fluids everywhere he looked, while jagged fragments of shell lay among the organic wreckage, some still settling.
Suddenly, into the quiet, Kunra cried out in pain. Fearful of how far the sound.
would carry, Nom Anor quickly rose to his feet and circled the body of the.
chuk'a to where the ex-warrior lay. The Shamed One was on his back, one leg impaled on a chunk of shell. Trying to sit up, Kunra reached for the approaching.
lambent glow, but the movement was too much for him and he fell back down with another cry.
"Help me," he panted breathlessly when Nom Anor stood over him. "Why?" Nom Anor felt nothing but contempt for Kunra's pitiable whining in.
the face of pain.
"What?" the ex-warrior spat.
"Why should I help you?" Nom Anor repeated calmly.
"Because I'm bleeding to death!" Nom Anor directed the light from the lambent over Kunra's extensive injuries.
From the way the dark fluid was spurting from the leg wound, along with the alarmingly pale taint to Kunra's skin, it seemed likely that the ex-warrior's assessment of his condition was correct.
"You left your friends to die," Nom Anor said. "Do you think you deserve to.
live?".
"Do you?" It was clear from Kunra's expression that just talking was causing.
him a lot of discomfort.
"They weren't my friends." "Niiriit—" Kunra stopped, wincing from a pain that was both physical and.
mental.
Nom Anor crouched down beside the ex-warrior. "That's been bothering you.
since I came along—hasn't it, Kunra?" he said, grinning despite the terrible throbbing of his own injuries. "Once I arrived, she had no interest in you anymore. You were no one.".
Kunra winced and sucked air through clenched teeth. "You ruined.
everything," he managed to hiss out.
Nom Anor shook his head. "And you weren't even there for her at the end,.
were you?" he said. "If you had really cared—".
"All right!" Kunra gasped. The blue sacks under his eyes were growing as.
white as his scars. "I didn't care enough to die with her. Is that what you want to hear? I didn't care enough. Just help me. Please! I'll do anything. Don't let me die!".
Kunra's pleading became fragmented and confused. The pulsing from his leg.
had slowed to a trickle. Nom Anor waited until the ex-warrior had lapsed fully.
into unconsciousness before kneeling beside the injured man and reaching into the pack he had brought with him, removing the few medical provisions he had.
pilfered while on his upward excursions with I'pan.
The Shamed One's leg wasn't broken. That was lucky. Nom Anor had.
decided that he would expend the effort to deal with the wound, but there was a limit to what he could treat. He injected microscopic knuth bugs into the dying.
man's circulatory system to replace the lost blood. Clip beetles closed the wound, once the coral had been removed. A porrh wash kept harmful germs at.
bay and a neathlat covered the wound beneath a living bandage. There would be nothing for the pain, though; it wasn't the Yuuzhan Vong way. And even if he.
did have something, he would not have administered it. He wanted Kunra to be.
completely focused when he awoke. Focused and grateful.
While he waited for that moment to come, he explored his surroundings. The.
lip of the bowl wasn't uniform all the way around. There was an indentation at a point where a long, exceedingly massive arm led off into the darkness, presumably attaching the bowl to a wall in the distance. The top of the arm was.
flat and roughly two meters wide; he would have to walk across it, if there was anywhere to walk to. Below the bowl there was nothing to be seen at all, and he wasn't about to take a chance on another fall.
As he stood staring into the darkness, he realized that he had passed an.
important hurdle. He had not just endured the underworld of Yuuzhan'tar; he had endured an attack from his own kind. He was now most definitely a fugitive, and that hammered home the fact that mere survival was not enough. Any peace.
he found in the catacombs would always be an illusion, whether it was the heresy or his name that brought the warriors down upon him.
Kunra moaned. Nom Anor went over to him and pressed the coufee against.
the injured man's throat just as his eyes flickered open.
"Understand this," Nom Anor said. "I could have let you die. But do not allow.
the fact that you are alive deceive you into believing that I won't kill you out of hand, now or in the future.".
Kunra didn't appear frightened; he was probably too weak from his injuries to.
feel anything much apart from shock.
"I'm not fool enough to think that, Nom Anor," Kunra said. Fluid rattled in.
his lungs as he spoke; he coughed once to clear it, spitting the gray-green mucus into the dust at his side. Then, fixing his wavering eyes on Nom Anor again, he.
said "I am too aware of your reputation. You do nothing that doesn't benefit your own cause.".
"And what is my cause now, Kunra?" Nom Anor emphasized the question by.
applying increased pressure with the blade.
"You tell me," Kunra gasped. "I want many things, and in time I intend to get all of them. Your time, on the.
other hand, is decidedly limited. You can either agree to help me achieve these things, or I will kill you now. There is no other option.".
Kunra rolled his eyes and attempted to laugh, but the pain was obvious.
beneath the facade. "I don't suppose I could have a little time to think about it,.
could I?".
"You have already held me up enough," Nom Anor said coldly. "Choose now,.
or die indecisive. It matters not to me.".
The ex-warrior closed his eyes, then nodded once. "I guess I will help you,.
Nom Anor.".
"Good." He was satisfied that the answer was truthful. Kunra was a coward;.
he would do anything to save his life, even if it meant betraying himself. Such desperation would make of him a fine bodyguard, for a time. They would.
understand each other on that score, at least. "There are just two more things you need to know," he said, withdrawing his blade from Kunra's throat and sheathing it under his belt. "The first is that you will never question my instructions. Not more than once, anyway, for there will be never a second.
time.".
He paused to let the point sink in. Kunra nodded. "And the second?".
"You will never use my true name again," he said. "If it was my name that led.
Niiriit and the others to their deaths, then I would avoid something similar happening in the future.".
"What should I call you, then?" "I haven't decided upon a name yet," he said. "Amorrn will do for now—the.
name I used in the upper levels when I visited with I'pan. But I fear that even this might be recognized now. I shall let you know when I have chosen another.".
He held out a hand and helped Kunra to his feet. The ex-warrior's leg was.
tender, but he could walk, at least. Yuuzhan Vong biotechnology was more effective on living tissue than was the machinery of the infidel—or even, Nom Anor suspected, the nebulous Force of the Jedi.
"Where to now?" Kunra asked, standing in a position that favored his good.
leg.
"Up," Nom Anor stated flatly, glancing into the darkness overhead. "I have.
some business to attend to there.".
Saba's comlink clicked at the same time Danni said: "Wait, Saba! Look!" Through the remaining scarab's senses, Saba saw one of the Yuuzhan Vong.
warriors at the controls of the slaveship slip to his knees, then slowly slump over to one side. The second was having troubles of his own. Going to the aid of his.
fallen comrade, he lost his balance and fell forward, striking his head on the control console. He regained his footing just long enough to stand up again, then.
he, too, went down in a heap.
"The poison worked!" Danni's words were carried on a barely suppressed and.
incredulous laugh of relief. "It just took a little longer than we expected it to.".
"It doesn't change anything," Saba said soberly. "We're still drawing away.
from Bonecrusher.".
The Barabel drew her lightsaber at the same time she opened a comm channel.
There seemed no point maintaining a communications blackout any longer.
"Jacen, this iz Saba," she said urgently. "Our cover has been blown. Please.
acknowledge.".
His reply was muffled by the layers of the people and blorash jelly packed in.
around them. "I hear you, Hisser," he said. "And we already guessed as much. We have contacts closing in across the board, moving in to pick you up right.
now. Will you be able to get out okay?".
Danni's expression had quickly gone from elation to one of dismay. Like.
Saba, she knew the only way out would be to cut through the hull, and that.
would result in the almost certain deaths of all the captives they'd come to rescue.
But maybe there was a way, Saba thought. It was risky and went against.
virtually every spacer instinct in her body, but it just might work.
She had sworn not to let such a thing happen again ...
"Jacen, empty the flight deck," she said hurriedly. "Keep Jade Shadow in.
dock and tell Mara to have the tractor beam ready.".
Danni's eyes grew wide in the reddish darkness. "Saba, you're not—?".
"We truly have no other choice," Saba shot back sharply. "Now, hang on to.
something.".
Saba pressed the business end of her lightsaber flat against the fleshy wall of.
the slaveship interior. The sound it made on ignition was horrific as it boiled.
through flesh to the vacuum outside. The ship quivered as she dragged the blade along the wall, turning a hole into a slit one meter long, then two meters. The.
tissue resisted parting even when the lightsaber had moved on, cauterizing the edges and killing nerve endings. A great bulge developed as muscles pushed in.
from all sides, resisting the pressure differential by fighting to keep the lips of the hole together. But Saba kept cutting, bracing herself as best she could against.
the ribbed flesh, readying herself for the inevitable.
When the rent in the belly wall reached five meters, Saba felt the muscle.
tremble and give way. The slit peeled open, emptying the contents of the slaveship out into the vacuum in one thick stream.
"Saba, what are you doing?" The exclamation came from Mara. "Those.
people are going to freeze to death out here!".
"No they won't," Saba replied, fighting the current that was trying to pull her.
through the gap also. The people bumping into her as they were sucked through the hole only made her task that much harder. "The insulation from the blorash jelly should hold for several minutez—long enough for you to get them into the flight deck.".
"And what are they supposed to do for oxygen in the meantime?".
"The gnullithz, of course." "Saba, the gnulliths won't work in a vacuum!" "They won't be in a vacuum; they'll be in the blorash jelly—which iz where.
they've been getting the oxygen in the first place." She grunted heavily as a.
couple more bodies collided with her on their way out. "Trust this one, Mara. Get them to the flight deck az soon as possible and everything will be all right.".
I hope, she added silently to herself.
Mara chuckled nervously. "This is a crazy idea," she said. "One only a.
Barabel would attempt!".
Saba sissed softly to herself, taking Mara's words as the compliment they.
were intended to be. With both hands on the pommel of the lightsaber, she widened the hole as far as she dared—too much would send the slaves spraying.
across the sky in an arc too wide for Mara to catch them all; but too small a hole would mean the slaveship wouldn't empty fast enough, giving the Yuuzhan Vong reinforcements time to arrive. After a few moments she snapped off her.
lightsaber and crawled around the hole to where Danni was clinging desperately to the command bulge.
"Time to get out of here," Saba told her, wrapping around the woman's.
shoulders an arm that was almost as long as Danni was tall.
"About the only thing going for this plan of yours, Hisser," Danni said, "is.
that it can't be anywhere near as bad as the way we came in.".
"Here we come, Mara," Saba said over the comlink. Clutching Danni close to her chest, she let go and was instantly swept up by.
the current and sucked unceremoniously out into space. Limbs from the other captives continued to batter her as they flew out, so she tucked herself around.
Danni to protect her. Then the slight acceleration she had felt through the slaveship was gone and she was spinning in space, two living people in a clump.
of about forty held together by the blorash jelly. The stuff stiffened around her as though setting, keeping the pressure in.
"We're out," she said shortly. "Keep talking," Jacen said. "It'll give us a trace.".
"No—get—otherz—" But that was all Saba could manage. The blorash jelly.
was continuing to set, pressing at her chest and making it almost impossible to breathe, let alone talk.
Trapped and with little else to do but wait, she stared out through the.
translucent jelly at the galaxy spinning idly around her, wondering if this would be the last thing she ever saw. She thought back to how her own people had.
spilled from the slaveship above Barab I. Had any of them been conscious to ask similar questions? Or had they been like all the rest of the captives here, unconscious and oblivious to the danger they were in?
As she continued to drift through space, Saba noticed several lights that were.
brighter than the other stars. The biggest of these was Borosk's sun, spinning lazily around them, while others she imagined to be TIE fighters that had been launched by Bonecrusher to make room for the people rescued from the.
slaveship. As yet there was no sign of attack from the Yuuzhan Vong, which was fortunate.
"Beautiful," Danni ground through a clenched jaw, her eyes fixed on the view.
of the massive globules of solidifying jelly drifting nearby. The reddish spheres were glittering in the sunlight, spinning around them in a lengthening spiral with.
its starting point in the side of the rapidly deflating slaveship.
Saba didn't have the breath or the energy to comment. All she could do was.
stare, and morbidly wonder what would happen to them when the jelly set.
completely ...
But the thought was broken when the bubble that contained them jerked.
suddenly, bringing their gentle roll to a complete and abrupt halt. A sense of falling swept over her, and with immense relief Saba realized they had been.
picked up by Jade Shadow's tractor beam. Their bubble—along with a dozen or so others—was slowly being drawn down into hold of Bonecrusher.
"Got you," Jacen said. There was no hiding his relief. "Are you two okay in.
there?".
"I'm—here," Danni said with effort. "Not sure—about—Saba." Danni seemed to be coping with the solidification of the jelly better than Saba.
was. Maybe, Saba thought as the tightening across her chest worsened, it had something to do with the smaller lung capacity of humans. A Barabel would find.
it much harder to breathe in higher pressure since it took more energy to inflate the larger rib cage. Danni and the other humans, though, could survive more.
readily on small, rapid breaths.
Theorizing was all very well. Knowing the problem didn't help her find a.
solution—especially when she could feel darkness closing in around the edges of.
her vision. She closed her eyes so she didn't have to think about blacking out, concentrating instead on Jedi breathing techniques to conserve her energy.
This was disrupted when another rough jolt sent them tumbling end over end.
Saba thought she could hear Jacen talking, but he sounded far-off and vague. Soon she heard other voices, and she thought for a second that they might be the.
droid brains joining in on the discussion, but again she couldn't be sure. Everything was too hazy.
Flashes of light coincided with a faint and distant tapping sound, and she.
knew instinctively that Braxant Bonecrusher was taking hits to its reactivated.
shields. She should have felt relief that she had been rescued, but all she could think of was the other people in the blorash jelly. She just hoped they had been rescued before the Yuuzhan Vong had arrived.
A thrill of fear rushed through her when the flashing abruptly intensified.
Surely the Yuuzhan Vong couldn't be that close? But no, she thought numbly. These flashes were from laser light, not plasma.
With some effort, her eyes flickered open and she looked around to see what.
was going on.
"No, Saba," Danni panted from close by. "Keep them—shut. It won't—be.
long my—scaly friend.".
Despite Danni's reassurance, though, it was hard to maintain a Jedi calm with.
all the flashing going on, as well as the jelly solidifying around her like ferrocrete. But she tried to stay focused just the same.
Her ears detected a faint sizzling-crackling sound that gradually grew louder.
The mass of jelly shook violently. She felt the pressure across her body ease.
slightly, and then a few seconds later ease some more. Soon Danni was squirming out of her grip, and she realized with great relief that she could.
breathe properly again.
Saba opened her eyes and the world flooded back in. Between flashes of.
automatic cutting lasers and robot manipulators grabbing at her, she heard droid brains announcing that the release had been achieved with "optimal efficiency,".
while TIE fighters reported on the defense of the Dreadnaught. And there was Jacen standing above her, tearing chunks of jelly from Danni's jumpsuit, then.
helping Saba do the same. The Barabel's mind was still fuzzy, and her hands were stiff and unwieldy as circulation gradually returned. It took her several.
minutes before she could fully comprehend the scene around her.
She was on a landing deck. More than fifty rough spheres of solidified jelly.
filled the confined space almost to its limit. From the spheres protruded arms and.
legs, along with the occasional head of the unconscious human captives. Cutting lasers were beginning to work on several of the spheres, releasing the people so they could be treated. She could feel them through the Force: all would need medical attention to reverse the effects of the drugs supplied by the gnulliths, but it looked very much like the majority of them would live.
She laughed out loud as Jacen and Danni helped her to her feet. Danni threw.
her arms about the Barabel in a show of both relief and gratitude, while Jacen slapped her shoulder plates in a congratulatory gesture. An immense feeling of satisfaction rushed through Saba—so strong was it, in fact, that for a moment.
she was afraid that her legs would fold beneath her.
"Initial jump locked in," the droid brains announced over the pounding of.
turbolasers.
"Take us out of here," Jacen said as he turned away from Saba and Danni to.
return to his disabled TIE cockpit to oversee Bonecrusher's escape. Saba watched him go with a strong pounding in her chest. She could sense Jacen's pride in her. To him, this was what it meant to be a Jedi: to save lives, to protect freedom, to resist evil. She was glad, in a war with so many horrors, to have.
been able to give him—and herself—something to be proud of.
How better could they be remembered? Saba opened her mouth fully, sucking in a lungful of the sweetest air she had.
possibly ever tasted.
"This is Captain Syrtik of the Galantos Guard," announced the leader of the.
approaching Y-wings.
Blunt-nosed and older than Jag Fel by several decades, the clumsy fighters.
followed a strictly controlled flight path out of Galantos's gravity well. Their ion.
engines were outdated but still powerful enough to overtake Pride of Selonia on its way to reinforce Twin Suns Squadron. The frigate's turbolaser batteries.
tracked the Y-wings as they passed, ready for any sign of hostility.
"State your intentions, Captain Syrtik," said Captain Mayn.
"We're here to help." The leader of the incoming fighters sounded grimly.
determined. "Just tell us who to defer command to and we'll do whatever we.
can.".
"Councilor Jobath finally saw reason, eh?" Mayn said. There was a slight.
hesitation before Syrtik's reply: "Actually, Captain, I'm proceeding without orders.".
This time it was Mayn's turn to hesitate. "Very well," she said. There was no.
hiding her surprise. "Link up with Twin Suns Squadron for instructions. We'll.
be with you as soon as we can.".
"Captain Syrtik, this is Twin Suns Leader," Jag said over the comm a second.
later. "Switch to channel twenty-nine for those instructions.".
Jag closely surveyed the battle through his monitors. The two slaveships had.
closed together to make a smaller target while the reorganized coralskippers maintained a tight defense. The armored blastboat analog was still hanging back, protected by a trio of determined skips.
He changed to the new channel. "Our priority up to now has been to knock out.
the slaveships," he said. "But that situation has changed. Those scarheads are getting themselves together, so we're going to need to take out that last ship. Whatever's doing the thinking for them, it's in there.".
"A yammosk?" Jaina asked. "I think so," Jag said. Then, for the benefit of the newcomers, he added, "We.
have jammers in Selonia. Until they arrive, though, we'll have to make do on our own.".
He paused, frowning at the screen. He had noted the absence of the Falcon,.
but the significance of it hadn't sunk in at first. The battered freighter had quietly looped back to Galantos once the Y-wings had appeared, almost as though it had other business to attend to. It was probably nothing, but he couldn't help but feel.
uneasy about it. Tahiri was aboard the Falcon...
He pushed the thought down. He had enough to contend with as it was.
without adding more to his plate.
"We're going to divide you into three," he told their new allies. "One.
squadron will come with me to take out the rear ship. Twin Two has already made some progress on the slaveships so she'll keep that up, with help of the.
second squadron. The remainder will provide distractions as needed.".
"You have no specific instructions at this time?" asked a new, slightly.
tremulous voice.
Jag rolled his eyes as he remembered how precise and organized the Fia liked.
to be. He had assumed that the fighters would be piloted by species more suited to the interior of a Y-wing cockpit; presumably they had made substantial.
alterations to the standard couches to accommodate their bottom-heavy physiques.
"You'll be fine," he said. "Just follow our lead, okay? Right, now let's split.
up." He picked one of the squadrons at random from the rapidly approaching.
trio. "Blues, you're with me.".
"That's Indigo, actually," Captain Syrtik corrected him. "Sorry, Indigo. Twin Two will take Red." "Cerise." Jag shook his head irritably. "All right, then that leaves Green for—" "Reseda," he was corrected again.
"Okay, then that leaves Reseda Squadron for the general approach. Is.
everyone clear on their part?".
A chorus of affirmatives sounded out over the open line. "Right, Indigo Leader, switch to frequency seventeen and we'll begin our.
run.".
As the new arrivals swept into the battlefield, Jag took a second to reprogram.
the diagnostic displays in front of him. The number of ships had more than.
doubled, and without any idea of how well the Fia could fly, he needed all the technical backup he could get.
"Are you okay with this, Sticks?" he asked on a private channel. "A-okay," Jaina replied. Her X-wing peeled off to lead her new flock in a.
tight loop around the slaveships, herding a pair of cautious skips before her. "But.
let's hope this will be over soon.".
"I hear you," he said. "I'm afraid the Fia's pedantry might turn this into the.
longest melee we've ever been involved in.".
"Not what I was hoping to hear, Jag," Jaina said tiredly. The obvious fatigue in her voice concerned him. He still didn't know the full.
story of what had happened at N'zoth, but it would have to wait until the immediate problem was dealt with.
He guided his new wingmates around the slaveships and along a rolling strike.
path toward the blastboat analog. Skips immediately swooped in to deter them,.
dividing the Y-wing formation into quarters. Two of the old boats stayed with Jag, but they only managed to keep up because he showed restraint and kept his.
maneuvering to a minimum. As soon as the first of the skips appeared in his targeting reticle, however, he let his instincts take over.
The skip danced across his scopes, narrowly avoiding the stutterfire he sent.
arcing toward its coral-armored back. Dovin basals snatched energy out of the.
vacuum, greedily absorbing everything he threw at them. His two wingmates added to the barrage, but they hadn't yet picked up the new techniques. Their.
input was little more than a distraction. Nonetheless, he appreciated all the help he got.
"Like this, guys," he said, hugging tight to the skip's tail and sending pulses.
of energy waves at it, then quickly launched a proton torpedo down the throat of the overloaded dovin basal. The coralskipper exploded into highly energized dust particles that peppered his cockpit as he passed through the remains of the ship.
"Got it?" he said when he was sure there was nothing else on his tail.
"An ingenious technique," one pilot said. "But does the efficacy increase in.
direct proportion to the irregularity applied to the—?".
"We don't have time for that, Indigo Five," said another pilot. "We can.
discuss those kinds of details later.".
Jag breathed a sigh of relief as he sent a wave of laserfire arcing into the side.
of the blastboat. His wingmates did the same, dodging plasma bolts sent in return.
Around Borosk, triumphant battle reports from Fleet Group Relentless were.
more than overshadowed by the terrible losses endured by Protector and Stalwart. For every battle group that came close to the yammosk-bearing vessel identified by the Galactic Alliance, five more failed and were destroyed. It was a grueling, frustrating situation to watch, and Pellaeon couldn't help but wonder.
why this was the case. Was it because of an inherent mistrust of the Jedi who had brought these techniques to them, or simply an inability to follow new tactics quickly?
He continued to listen in from his bacta tank on the ongoing battle. "Blue Three, keep up that covering fire. I'm going in!" "Red Seven, watch your tail." "I have a strong lead in sector fourteen, White Leader.".
"On your right and above, Green Ten—on your right!" "I'm hit! Stabilizers failing! Going to—" Then silence, as another life fell to.
the aliens' plasma fire.
Listening to the babble on the open channel was doing little to ease Pellaeon's.
mind, but he maintained his vigil because it gave him a taste of the battle as a whole. He couldn't direct each component within it, but there was some value in.
viewing it from above. Were the frontline troops panicked, excited, reluctant, enraged? Such things could make an enormous difference in the outcome of a.
conflict, and a good commander was wise never to ignore it.
Overall, his gut feeling was that they were losing ground. The retreat back to.
Borosk's mine rings had been tactical at first, allowing him to concentrate Imperial forces around the planet and resist the enemy on more fronts.
simultaneously. He had seen secondhand what had happened on Coruscant when.
the Yuuzhan Vong had attacked there, and while Borosk wasn't facing as great a force, it also wasn't as well defended. He'd hoped he could hold the planet long enough for the Yuuzhan Vong to lose patience or for their resources to run low. But the navy was losing more than it was gaining. The persistence of the Yuuzhan Vong was quickly taking its toll on the morale of his soldiers, and that.
directly impacted upon their battle performance. He knew that if this wasn't turned around soon, it could cost them everything.
"Maintain shielding trios as ordered!" one pilot barked. "Who are we kidding?" another returned. "This is never going to work, and.
you know it.".
"Can it, Gray Four. We've got better things to do than listen to your whining." A shrill whistle cut across the open channel, requesting his attention on the.
private line. Pellaeon turned away from the battle and took the call.
"What is it?" he asked wearily. The voice of Captain Yage replaced the ambience of battle. She had become.
his de facto aide-de-camp during the fight for Borosk, deflecting unwanted inquiries and making sure only important ones got through.
"I have a report from Lieutenant Arber, sir," she reported crisply. "The GAM.
has been installed in Defiant and is ready for a test run.".
"Excellent." Pellaeon felt a grim satisfaction rise in him. Imperial ships didn't.
carry gravitic amplitude modulators as standard issue; indeed, such devices were rare and expensive. This one had been brought in from a neighboring system as a matter of urgency and reprogrammed by Imperial engineers according to the Galactic Alliance specifications. If all went well, and it jammed the Yuuzhan.
Vong war coordinator as Skywalker promised, it could prove to be the turning point in the battle.
"Instruct Lieutenant Arber to forgo the test run and proceed directly to a.
combat run," he ordered. "And inform Captain Essenton that she is to give Arber.
her full cooperation. She's a cranky old thing, but when she sees what the GAM can do, I'm sure she'll come around.".
Yage didn't question Pellaeon's opinion, although she knew as well as he did.
that no Imperial had actually seen a yammosk jammer in operation. Everything.
rested on the word of Skywalker and his Galactic Alliance. If they were wrong, the edge he needed to win the battle, if not the war, might not even eventuate.
He watched the Star Destroyer Defiant turn about and break from the.
defensive orbits the other capital vessels were maintaining below the ion mines.
A swarm of TIE fighters and blastboats accompanied it, fending off coralskipper.
attacks and cutting a path through to the cluster of Yuuzhan Vong capital vessels that had been identified as containing a yammosk. The enemy was taking great pains to ensure that this one was at all times defended against previous attempts to knock it out by Fleet Group Stalwart.
As before, the Yuuzhan Vong clustered around the yammosk ship like insects.
protecting their queen, swarming en masse to deflect the attack and stinging the assailants wherever possible. Defiant was hammered by streams of plasma bright enough to make the blazing of its ion engines look dim. Its shields were snatched at by dovin basals and attacked from every angle. It retaliated with fire from its.
turbolaser cannons, stuttering at the new frequencies as it removed entire flying groups of coralskippers out of the sky. The space around it became thick with debris, swirling nebulae of burning gas and fiery remnants flashing with.
discharging energy. Pellaeon admired Captain Essenton's skill and determination as she flew the Star Destroyer onward, into the enemy's ranks. Defiant was like a giant, poisoned dart plunging deep into the heart of the enemy.
As soon as it was in range, Lieutenant Arber activated the yammosk jammer.
Pellaeon knew roughly how it worked, even if the precise details were beyond him. The machine broadcast coded gravitic pulses designed to interfere with similar pulses used by the yammosk to communicate with the vessels under its.
command. Knocking out the yammosk had the effect of removing the mind behind the coralskipper attacks; jamming their signals was supposed to confuse them. Pellaeon thought again of the swarming-insects analogy, imagining the effect to be something like blowing smoke onto a hive to make the insects'.
movements sluggish.
The effects were obvious and instantaneous. What had been a deadly dance.
suddenly became clumsy and uncoordinated. The myriad coralskippers, lacking central direction, were forced to rely on their own judgment—and Pellaeon knew.
well how poor that could be for a single fighter caught in the middle of a large battle. Without access to central command, the battle devolved into hundreds of.
tiny skirmishes.
There were still flashes of order in places as the yammosk fought the jamming.
signals and briefly regained control of some of the battle groups under its influence. But through it all, the pointed hull of Defiant continued to stab, firing.
torpedoes and concussion missiles relentlessly, committing every spare fighter to a concentrated attack on the group of capital vessels protecting the central.
yammosk. The yammosk fought back as best it could. Even confused.
coralskippers found it hard to miss a target as large as a Star Destroyer. Laser banks were kept busy by a stream of suicide runs focused on the bridge tower; blastboats formed a primary defense around the besieged ship, forcing the attacks to concentrate on certain approach runs and picking off the skips as they came. The Yuuzhan Vong forces weren't directed enough to target the blastboats.
in response, so the tactic cut huge swaths through the coralskipper forces that were supposed to be defending the yammosk.
TIE fighters descended on the target ships, raining down energy upon them.
that no amount of dovin basals could absorb. At that point, the yammosk knew it.
was going to lose and began expending the nearby capital ships in fruitless attempts to divert the attack. But realizing that putting the yammosk out of action was in fact the way to ultimate victory, the Imperial forces remained.
focused, refusing to be distracted from their goal by any new tactics. Attack run after attack run peppered the core vessel until it began to list around the center of its mass, venting atmosphere and bodies from numerous holes in its hull. But still the yammosk fought, and the self-destruction of two of its sister vessels blew enough energy and matter across the battlefield to momentarily stall the.
Imperial attack. The shock wave swept space clean on all fronts, knocking TIE fighters out of control and overloading the targeting sensors of Defiant's turbolaser banks. Coralskippers tumbled and flickered like hot ash over a.
bonfire.
One TIE fighter pilot who was quicker to recover than most managed to score.
a direct hit on the yammosk's life-support tank, assigning the many-tentacled creature to the vacuum in a writhing ribbon of ice crystals. The Defiant turned.
about, taking out the remaining capital ships as it went and decimating the enemy remaining in the area.
Pellaeon couldn't help but be pleased with the outcome. It had been a bold.
and ultimately effective move, and it sent a clear message to the commander of.
the Yuuzhan Vong fleet: we can hurt you!
But the battle was far from over, and while the Defiant had been busy, a hole.
had been punched through the minefields that Right to Rule was only just beginning to clean up. The demand on planetary turbolasers and shields was.
increasing as more and more coralskipper attackers were approaching the ground. If there was another yammosk somewhere in the Yuuzhan Vong fleet, it.
would soon take over command of the attack.
Time. That's what it all came down to. Pellaeon didn't know how long the.
Yuuzhan Vong's Commander Vorrik could commit himself to smashing the.
Imperial Navy, but if his mission had been a simple strike to break the Empire's spirit, then he had gotten himself a much more protracted conflict than he had bargained for.
Captain Essenton of the Defiant reported that they had located a second.
yammosk. She requested permission to target it, and Pellaeon gave it to her.
Keeping the pressure on was the most important thing right now, even if it meant opening up the planetary defense to attack. And the more they destroyed, the better their chances were of success. He could feel that the battle was nearing a turning point of some kind. He just hoped it would be in their favor.
Almost in response to his thoughts, Luke Skywalker's voice suddenly came.
over the receiver. "Admiral, I thought you might like to know that Bonecrusher is on its way back.".
"And the mission?" he asked the Jedi Master hopefully. "A success, I'm assuming," came the reply. "I spoke only briefly to Mara.
before they made the jump to hyperspace, but she seemed satisfied.".
Skywalker, probably sensing the mood of the Imperial forces, had fallen back.
from the front line and docked his X-wing with Widowmaker. Watching from.
the bridge, he had had nothing but a calming effect on Yage's crew.
Pellaeon smiled. "In that case I imagine we'll soon be hearing from our.
Yuuzhan Vong friends.".
"It would be a mistake to become overconfident right now, Admiral,".
Skywalker cautioned. "The Yuuzhan Vong aren't inclined to retreat, even when the odds are against them.".
"They're not stupid, either," Pellaeon said. "If what you say is true, Shimrra.
simply can't afford to commit to a long campaign here, and Vorrik will know that. Disobeying orders may hurt him more in the long run than running away.
from a battle.".
The Jedi Master didn't say anything to that, but the silence itself was.
revealing.
"I know what you're thinking," Pellaeon said softly. "Jacen told Moff Flennic.
that the Empire is nothing compared to the Galactic Alliance; that we're just a distraction. He was right, and that means I am right, too. Shimrra wants to.
intimidate us, not destroy us, and from Vorrik's point of view he has already achieved that objective. He's flattened Bastion; he's forced us to retreat to.
Borosk; and he'll probably take a swipe at the shipyards on the way out. He can make a good case that he's done his job.".
Another whistle cut across the channel. "Broadcast from the enemy, sir,".
Captain Yage said.
"Put it over an open comm," Pellaeon said. "I want everyone to hear this." "—will but delay the inevitable," Vorrik was saying, spitting out the words.
with even more than his usual bile. "There will be no mercy. None of you will be spared. Your homes will be razed and your remains will be used as fertilizer for.
our crops! Your worlds will be absorbed into the glorious Yuuzhan Vong empire as it engulfs the galaxy whole. You will—".
"Maybe I'm missing something, Vorrik," Pellaeon interrupted. "But I'm not.
seeing any evidence of this great plan of yours. We're destroying your.
yammosks; we've killed your spies; we're taking back those you thought were captives. You don't have the muscle to take this planet, let alone the others. Your threats are as empty as your boasts are shallow.".
"You will eat those words when—" "Empty," Pellaeon repeated over the commander's renewed tirade. "—we turn your abominations into slag and—" "Empty!" "—grind every trace of you into the dust from which you were born!".
"Empty, Vorrik!" Pellaeon bellowed. The Yuuzhan Vong commander emitted.
a sound like that of a womp rat being strangled, but he didn't give him the chance to speak. "It's time for you to make good on your promises, Commander:.
either destroy us or get out!".
"By the gods of my people, infidel, I promise that you will choke on those.
words!".
"Maybe one day, Vorrik," Pellaeon said, "but not today. You really should.
have thought twice about this gambit of yours—especially if you didn't have the resources to pull it off in the first place." In the heartbeat between words he lost.
all hint of mockery and adopted a cold and serious tone. "We have no intentions of surrendering—not now, not ever. You may win the occasional battle against.
us, Vorrik, but the Empire will always strike back. That I promise you.".
Vorrik began another howl of abuse that Pellaeon ignored. "You tell Shimrra.
from me that if he wants to get the job done, then he's going to have to send a much bigger fleet—and a more competent commander to oversee it.".
He killed the line before Vorrik had the opportunity to say anything further,.
then relaxed into the soothing embrace of the bacta tank's fluids. He was happy.
with his handling of the Yuuzhan Vong commander, even if provoking Vorrik was a calculated risk. But his words had been as much for those in his own navy.
as for Vorrik. If the Yuuzhan Vong commander did decide to defy his orders and.
stay, Pellaeon wanted to make sure he had the entire navy behind him.
Thankfully, though, within moments of breaking contact, half of Vorrik's.
ships had begun to withdraw. The other half lay down a pattern of fire designed to deter the Imperial forces from taking advantage of the retreat. Pellaeon's commanders knew better than to jump right in, but they did make use of the.
opportunity to take the battle to the other side. Planetary turbolasers poured energy at the fleeing enemy, while the Defiant sent waves of confounding gravitational fluctuations into the mess of retreating ships. Squadron leaders, too, took advantage of every break in the rearguard action to sneak through and.
attack from behind.
Then the capital ships were entering hyperspace and the Yuuzhan Vong fleet.
was committed to withdrawal. The many views available through Pellaeon's.
breath mask showed Yuuzhan Vong vessels pouring out of the system in battle groups of various sizes. Some were as small as a cruiser analog with coralskippers firmly attached; others consisted of several capital ships flying in synchrony, coordinated by the yammosk still hiding in their midst.
Pellaeon watched them go with a feeling of relief that he knew he shouldn't.
indulge. He was no navigator, but he'd had plenty of experience at estimating the courses of ships entering hyperspace. Even without seeing the data, he could tell that the retreating fleet was heading to more than one destination.
"Where are they going?" he asked Yage. "Initial vectors suggest that two-thirds of the fleet is heading out of Imperial.
territory.".
"And the remaining third?".
"Are heading in the opposite direction," Yage said. "We can't obtain a precise.
fix, but we think they might be heading for—".
"Yaga Minor," he finished for her. "It would appear so, sir," Yage said. "He probably thinks he can get away.
with it while our forces are committed to mopping up here.".
Pellaeon considered this for a moment before saying, "Have Stalwart press the.
attack. I'd like to keep their evacuation as undignified as possible. And I want Relentless and Protector on their way to Yaga Minor immediately. Defiant and.
Peerless, too. Flennic is going to need all the help he can get to keep those shipyards safe.".
"What about Right to Rule, sir?" Responsible in part for guarding Widowmaker and other tactical Imperial.
vessels, the ageing Star Destroyer had seen little battle from its position in the.
inner orbits of Borosk.
"It stays," Pellaeon said. "I have other plans for the old boat." "Yes, sir." When Yage had gone, Pellaeon opened a private channel with Luke.
Skywalker. "Well, Jedi," he said, "we did it.".
"You did it," Skywalker came back. "I didn't do much more than watch,.
Admiral.".
"Which was precisely what was needed," the Grand Admiral countered. He.
had no intention of allowing the Jedi Master to underrate his own part in this.
victory. "While we may never take orders from you, Skywalker, I think you have proven today that sometimes it works to our advantage to accept your help.".
"The line between the two seems very fine, Admiral," Luke said.
Pellaeon smiled at the world-weary tone in the Jedi Master's voice. He was no.
stranger, either, to having to reconcile conflicting elements within his own people. Sometimes it took much more than a common enemy to bring old foes together—and although he had just won his first battle against the Yuuzhan Vong, he knew that the war was still waiting. The hardest part was yet to come.
"Indeed it does," he said somberly as he scanned overviews of the Yuuzhan.
Vong pullback. "Indeed it does.".
Another squawk signaled a new entrant to the private channel. Pellaeon.
accepted it and heard the voice of Skywalker's nephew.
"This is Braxant Bonecrusher," Jacen Solo said from the makeshift bridge of.
the Dreadnaught. "We have a hold full of people requiring urgent medical attention. Please advise.".
"Bonecrusher, this is Widowmaker," he heard Yage respond. "You are.
instructed to dock with medical supply platform Hale Return. Details to follow.".
As the battle computers on the two vessels exchanged data, Pellaeon studied.
the Dreadnaught via long-range scanner. Battered by two successive rounds of.
enemy fire, its hull was literally smoking in places from where it had been punctured. He knew that part of the plan had been for the ship to give this.
appearance, but he could tell by the way it moved that some of the damage it had sustained was very real indeed.
"You took some hits," he said. "No more than expected," said the young Jedi, playing down the severity of.
their condition. "The trick worked perfectly.".
"Well done, Jacen," Luke said. "You did well—all of you.".
There was a slight pause as Jacen examined the course data he had received.
and confirmed the battle droids' trajectory through the milling Imperial Navy.
"What happened to the war?" he asked, sounding both surprised and relieved. "It went away," Pellaeon said sardonically. "But not far," Luke added. "And not for long, either." "Don't worry," Pellaeon continued. "We'll be ready for it when it comes.
back. The Yuuzhan Vong will rue the day they dragged me into this.".
"Don't let your confidence over this one victory cloud your judgment,.
Admiral," Luke said. "The Yuuzhan Vong will not take this defeat lightly. This is just the beginning, I assure you.".
Pellaeon didn't need to be cautioned. "I think you're right, my friend," he.
said, nodding in the bacta tank. "The beginning of their end.".
The word quickly spread through the Fian squadrons, and despite their.
inexperience and a number of losses, the Y-wings were managing to score the occasional strike against the Yuuzhan Vong attackers. On one occasion, Jag barely had time to notice the skip on his tail before it was knocked out of the sky by a wave of fire from his port side.
"Nice shooting, Seven," he said in thanks, banking to warn off another skip.
that was trying to get on the Y-wing's own tail.
A barrage of weapons fire announced the arrival of Pride of Selonia,.
following on from a devastating pass over the nearest of the two empty slaveships that were making their way down to the planet to begin the harvesting of the Fian population. The bladder-shaped alien vessel had split along its back and burst like an overripe fruit, causing an ugly spillage of reddish fluid. Jag.
watched as thousands of tiny, flapping shapes—Yuuzhan Vong gnulliths— escaped from the massive rent in the slaveship, wriggling and dying in the.
vacuum like flash-frozen birds. Jaina and her Cerise Squadron friends sent a swarm of torpedoes arcing into the breach, then hurriedly retreated as the.
multiple explosions tore it to pieces.
"One down," she said triumphantly. It was good to hear the assertive tone.
return to her voice. "How're you doing, Jag?".
Jag returned his attention to the blastboat. It had turned about as though to.
withdraw, but he wasn't fooled. The Yuuzhan Vong weren't emotionally capable of accepting loss so gracefully. They were up to something, he was sure.
"It's got to be a ruse," he warned his wingmates. "Get too close and it'll—" The warning came too late, though, as three Y-wings came in tight to strafe.
the underside of the listless vessel. All of a sudden the blastboat's dovin basals.
unleashed their combined energy. The flash that followed was so bright it seemed to turn the blastboat transparent before blasting it into atoms. The resulting shock wave took out the three Y-wings and seriously rattled a further five nearby.
Jag sighed once the shock wave had fully dissipated. "Sorry, Indigo," he said.
"I should have warned you sooner.".
"Not your fault, Twin Leader," Indigo Five reassured him after a slight pause.
"We are sorely uneducated in the art of fighting Yuuzhan Vong. We have only ourselves to blame.".
A reduced Indigo Squadron swung in to help Jaina finish off the remaining.
slaveship, while the combined Twin Suns and Reseda Squadrons quickly disposed of the remaining skips. In no time at all, the battle was over, and Jag.
allowed his grip on the ship's controls to finally relax.
When his heart rate had slowed and he was sure there were no more.
coralskippers about, Jag contacted the leader of the Galantos Y-wings.
"So tell me, Captain Syrtik," he said, "what happens when you go back? Will.
you be court-martialed for this?".
"That depends," the stoic Fia said. "Our charter is to protect Galantos from.
attack, but we are under the direct command of the councilor and his primates. If they charge us with defying a direct order—".
"But is that what you did?" Jaina broke in. "Did they really tell you not to.
help us?".
Jag noted the dangerous edge to Jaina's voice and said nothing. Emotions.
often ran high in the wake of a battle.
"It depends on how you define order," Syrtik said. "I can't believe those space slugs," Jaina went on. "Here we are trying to save.
their skins and they have the nerve to—" The unfinished sentence resolved in a heavy sigh. "No, it can wait. But when Mom hears about this, there's going to be.
trouble.".
"I think there's going to be trouble anyway," Jag said. "After all, they did try.
to keep her prisoner on Galantos—and they may have even intended to trade her for amnesty when the slaveships arrived.".
There was nothing but silence down the line. Then on the scopes, Jag saw.
Jaina's battered X-wing empty its remaining torpedoes into the side of the single.
ruined slaveship, spraying its contents against the starry backdrop.
"Are you all right?" he sent to her along a private channel.
"No, I'm not all right," she snapped back. "I mean, why do we bother, Jag?
What's the point of trying to defend these people when they insist on stabbing us in the back? It just doesn't make any sense!".
"I'm sure Miza would ask the same question, Jaina." She was silent for a moment as the name of the dead Chiss pilot sunk in. "I'm.
acting like a child, aren't I?".
"Actually, you're acting like Jaina Solo—and that's nothing to be ashamed of,.
I assure you.".
She laughed softly. "Thanks, Jag." "Anytime." He glanced at his scopes. The Y-wing squadrons were already.
heading back to Galantos, their numbers reduced by roughly a quarter. Selonia was launching probe droids to investigate the wreckage of the slaveships while the remainder of Twin Suns Squadron was slipping one by one into its docking.
bays.
"We have a lot to catch up on," he said. "Maybe we should dock and debrief.
in person.".
She laughed again, and this time it seemed to come more naturally. "Why, that.
must be one of the most romantic things anyone has said to me in years.".
He smiled, glad to hear her sounding more like her old self. "Then it's a.
date?".
"Sure," she said as her X-wing swung around to match course with his. "Why.
not?".
On the far side of the planet, well away from the action, the Millennium.
Falcon was slipping into the same orbit as the small yacht that had followed.
them up from the surface. Tahiri watched on silently from behind Anakin's parents, uncomfortable with the obvious tension in the cockpit. Han was still.
rankling over being outvoted after Tahiri had suggested they should try to find the yacht so they could learn more about the mystery man who had saved them.
Han had wanted to go and join the battle with the others, and while Leia had said she would have liked to have done this also, she ultimately had sided with.
Tahiri.
"We're a diplomatic mission," she had argued in the face of Han's tight-.
lipped resistance. "And if diplomacy means retreating from a fight—or cowering around the back side of a planet, as you so eloquently put it—then that's what.
we have to do.".
"But they need our help," Han had protested. It was obvious he didn't have.
much of an argument. He just preferred the fighting to the diplomacy.
"Twin Suns Squadron and Captain Mayn are more than capable of dealing.
with a small contingent of Yuuzhan Vong," Leia said. Then, more softly and with a reassuring hand on her husband's shoulder, she added, "Besides, in a war, diplomacy can be just as important as aggression. You'd be surprised at just how many deals are done under circumstances like this.".
"I thought it was this very kind of thing that made you want to get out of.
politics," he said, glowering at the controls as he brought the Falcon around.
Leia sighed, tired of trying to make him see reason. "Only one of the reasons,.
Han," she returned.
Before he could respond, she had turned her attention back to the scanners.
Tahiri knew that the argument was over. Leia was a strong-willed individual, and she wasn't the kind to waste time bickering with her husband over.
something that, as far as she was concerned, had been resolved.
Noticing the growing tension in the cockpit, C-3PO had taken it upon himself.
at that moment to leave, dismissing himself with the flimsy excuse that his activators needed calibrating. Tahiri suspected, though, that this was a standard excuse the golden droid used whenever things got too uncomfortable between.
his human owners. Tahiri wished she had a similar excuse. If she hadn't been needed, she might have slipped off as well. Her senses were swimming disturbingly after the elation on the landing field and their escape. She felt light-.
headed, peculiar ...
Keep it together, she told herself, doing her best to concentrate on real things,.
not illusions.
Traffic over the planet was light, so finding the yacht wasn't going to prove.
too difficult. Ion trails led from a hundred or so launches to upper orbit. It was relatively easy to rule out the fighters and the large freighters. Only a handful.
remained in tight and low, waiting for rendezvous. Tahiri knew instinctively, through the Force, that the being who had rescued them would be waiting for.
them, as he'd said he would be. Although she didn't know what he had to say, his mention of the Peace Brigade had convinced her that he knew what he was.
talking about and that they should hear him out. The silver totem she had found in the diplomatic quarters was missing from her pocket, but it was proof that the.
Yuuzhan Vong had obviously been involved for a while. The arrival of the slaveships wasn't just a coincidence, she was sure.
The fact that she had responded so strongly to the totem still disturbed her. Its.
presence—or the past presence of its owner, at least—troubled her, nagging as it.
did at the back of her mind. It surprised her, too. She hadn't realized that she was.
so sensitive to echoes of the Yuuzhan Vong. Instead of fading away, as she had fervently hoped it would, the nagging was only getting stronger.
No, she told herself firmly, shaking her head and focusing on the task at hand.
Reaching out with the Force, she sought any sign of the person she had recognized on the Al'solib'minet'ri City landing field. Then ...
"There," she said, pointing. The small Corellian craft was hugging the upper.
atmosphere below. Shell-like in shape, with several small blister ports sprouting thrusters and rudimentary shield generators but no apparent armaments, its engines were silent. "That's it.".
"Are you sure?" Han asked. He still sounded moody. She nodded, feeling with the Force again. "As sure as I can be." "Millennium Falcon," crackled a voice out of the subspace communicator. It.
was the same voice Tahiri had heard back on the landing field. "Hailing Millennium Falcon.".
"Yeah, we hear you," Han said. "Mind telling us who you are?" "A friend," came the reply. "Let us be the ones to decide that.".
"Do we know you?" Leia asked. "We have never met, but you know my kind," the being said. That he wasn't.
human was becoming increasingly clear to Tahiri, although she couldn't quite.
pin down his species. There was a faint singsong quality to the voice that she'd heard before, although she couldn't for the life of her remember where.
"What kind is that?" Han asked. "I apologize for the reception you received on Galantos," the voice pressed.
on, ignoring the question. "There was nothing I could do to prevent it. I would have warned you when you arrived, had I known in advance you were coming,.
but by the time I found a way into the diplomatic rooms you were already imprisoned. I had to wait for an opportunity to help you more overtly and a time.
when it no longer mattered if my cover was blown.".
"You're a spy?" Leia asked.
"Not exactly," said the mystery voice. "But I can help you." "We're already in your debt," Tahiri said.
"Any debt you may have had with me, Tahiri Veila, was cleared when you.
helped me escape," he said. "And we hold the Solos in high regard for the many.
times they've helped us in the past. So no, there is no debt. I am simply glad to have met you—and to have made a difference.".
"What can you tell us about Galantos?" Leia asked. "Jaina says that the.
Yevetha are destroyed. Is that correct?".
"Fian probes to N'zoth confirmed that the Yevethan shipyards have been.
destroyed, but they didn't stick around to look any deeper. The Fia are deeply afraid of their neighbors; what happened here twelve years ago traumatized their culture. The Yevetha may have been routed almost to the last ship by the New.
Republic, but they were still there, in the cluster, and the Fia always knew that one day they would emerge to try again. Last time the Fia survived, thanks to the help of the New Republic; this time, however, the New Republic might not be able to defend them.".
"And the fear of the Yevetha returning would only have grown as the.
Yuuzhan Vong crisis deepened," Leia put in.
"Exactly. The Fia aren't by nature a warlike species, and they knew their.
feeble attempts to arm themselves would never be sufficient. If the New Republic lost, who would protect Galantos from the Koornacht Cluster? So when a group approached them a year ago, promising to end the Yevethan threat, you can imagine how very tempting an offer it was.".
"This is where the Peace Brigade comes in, right?" Tahiri asked, fighting the.
disorientation in her mind to concentrate on the conversation. "Resources in exchange for safety.".
"That's right. The Peace Brigade took minerals they needed for exchange with.
other parties, and N'zoth was destroyed—taken by surprise, thanks to the tactical information the Fia gave the Brigaders, who in turn passed it on to the Vong commanders. That way, the Fia hoped to ensure their own safety by dealing with the Peace Brigade. After all, they feared the Yevetha much more than they.
feared the Yuuzhan Vong, who have yet to make significant impact on this side of the galaxy. That seemed to be it. Galantos was safe at last.".
"All without our knowledge," Leia said. "Courtesy of the communications blackout.".
"Was that also part of the deal with the Peace Brigade? Galantos cutting itself.
off from the New Republic?".
"Yes." "But why?" Tahiri asked.
"For fear of reprisals," the stranger replied. "From the Peace Brigade?".
"From the New Republic. You don't take kindly to those who consort with the.
enemy.".
"With good reason," Han said. "I can't believe we spent so much energy.
trying to save a bunch of mass murderers from a fate they probably deserve. If we hadn't come along when we did, the Fia would be crated up in one of those slaveships right now and headed for one of the occupied worlds. We should have left them to it.".
"You don't mean that, Han," Leia said.
"Don't tell me you're going to forgive them for what they did." Han looked as.
though he couldn't believe what he was hearing. "The Yevetha don't know how to lose. They're as bad as the Vong in that respect—or were, anyway. They would've fought to the last, and the Fia knew it. That makes them as guilty of.
genocide as the Yuuzhan Vong.".
"The Fia were manipulated into it," Leia said. "The Yevetha would have quite.
happily destroyed the Fia—and all of us, too, for that matter—but I never once.
heard you advocate their slaughter. The Fia are as much victims in this as anyone else.".
"They sure would've been," Han said bitterly, "if we hadn't come by when we.
did.".
"People do stupid things, Han." Leia's lips were thin and white, as though she.
was keeping her own anger in check. "I'm not saying that I approve of the Fia and their actions, or that I'm not angry at how they treated us. It's just that I can understand them, their fear of losing everything. The Yuuzhan Vong wanted.
slaves and information on potential threats. The Fia gave them both by pointing out the Yevetha. They also set themselves up as a slave target by getting complacent and cutting themselves off from their allies. But that doesn't make them our enemy. No one deserves to be enslaved, no matter what they've done.
We're here to reopen communications and save lives, not here to cast judgment over who deserves to live or die.".
Han reluctantly acknowledged the point with a grunt. "Then we showed up," Tahiri said, made uncomfortable by the argument. She.
felt oddly threatened when Anakin's parents nagged at each other. "Tipped off by you, I presume. A message found its way into the Falcon's computers, telling.
us where to go.".
"Yes," said the voice on the other end of the line. "I had been trying to get.
word out of the system for some time, but there was no way to tell if I had succeeded. Obviously, I had, and it was acted on at your end. When you arrived,.
Councilor Jobath panicked and sent an underling to spare him the difficulty of meeting you face to face. Primate Persha also panicked and in turn lumbered you.
with an assistant. I'm sure Thrum would have liked to find someone else to palm.
you off onto, as well, but he was the bottom of the ladder, and he handled the situation accordingly. Because you were able to explore the city and seek vital clues, you were soon on the way to guessing the truth.".
"It also gave you the opportunity to get closer to us," Leia said. "That's right," he said. "At first I was able only to leave a note in your.
escort's flight computer, but I had limited time and I could not explain myself properly. Then when the Yuuzhan Vong arrived, security was tightened even more. The Fia thought the slaveship was just a freighter come to take more resources.".
"Except they were the resources," Han said with a shake of his head. "Yes." "I have to admit," Leia said, "it's a clever plan. The Yuuzhan Vong are.
stretched too thin to take this region by force. Instead, they rely upon factions within to do half their work for them. It's efficient and deadly—and I don't dare assume that this is the only place they've tried this tactic.".
"That would be an incorrect assumption, Princess." The voice over the comm.
was grimly serious. "There are numerous communications blackouts in place in.
this quarter of the galaxy. Your intelligence networks are aware of many of these —hence your mission. What is difficult to tell is which ones are innocent, and which ones are the work of the Peace Brigade and the Yuuzhan Vong. In some.
places, the answer is known after the fact, when it's too late. Rutan and its moon Senali, for instance, were politically divided by the Peace Brigade well over a year ago. A few months afterward, the Senali were wiped out by a Yuuzhan Vong force that subsequently turned its guns on the Rutanians and enslaved half.
the population.".
"Rutan was on our list," Leia said to Han.
"Is Belderone?" the pilot asked. "Yes, actually, it is," she answered.
"Well, thanks to the Yuuzhan Vong, the Firrerreos are now a dead species,".
he said. "And the Belderonians won't be far behind.".
"How could you possibly know all this?" Han asked. "If communications.
have been down in these places—not to mention here—I don't see how you.
could have the faintest idea of what's going on.".
"Don't you?" There was a distinct smile in the stranger's voice.
"You knew what our mission was without us telling you," Tahiri said. "And you were able to infiltrate the Falcon's computers on Mon Calamari,".
Leia added. "Who are you people?".
"If I tell you, you won't believe me. Not yet, anyway." "Try us," Han said, his voice pitched low to indicate that refusal wasn't an.
option.
The pilot of the yacht chuckled. "Suffice it to say that I'm part of a network.
We're not spies, but we do keep an eye on what goes on around us. We have a.
knack for getting into the places we need to be, and we tend not to be noticed. We don't work for anyone except ourselves, and we don't sell the information we collect; we don't, therefore, pose a threat to anyone except those who try to harm us. We simply gather knowledge.".
"But what are you in it for?" Han asked. "What do you stand to gain from it.
all, if you don't sell the information?".
"I'd be lying if I said that we stood to gain nothing but the satisfaction of.
helping others." Again, the hint of a smile. "The truth is, we do it to look out for ourselves. We aren't highly trained soldiers or professional warriors. We're not spies, as I've already said. We are, in fact, the sort who get caught between opposing armies, and are squashed as a result. That's partly how we can do the things that spies and soldiers can't do—like get information into and out of.
regions like this one, where all but the least likely are closely inspected. Neither you nor the Yuuzhan Vong notices us. We are invisible and everywhere. Not much gets by us that we want to hear.".
"So why are you helping us?" Han asked. "Because, at the moment, peace in the galaxy revolves around the health of.
your new Galactic Alliance. And because we're in a position now to actively help you. It's taken us some time to reach this point, but now that we have, you.
can feel free to assume that we are on your side.".
"For the moment," Han added.
"Yes, Captain Solo: for the moment. And as of this moment, I must make my.
way out of this system and file a report while you must choose your next.
destination.".
"Wait," Leia said. "Before you go, I don't suppose you'd be able to help us.
with that decision?...".
Han shot Leia a sharp look. He hadn't been happy about having the first leg of.
their journey determined by an anonymous note, and he obviously wasn't enamored with the idea of taking further instructions from cryptic strangers.
"You and your people helped us once before," Leia went on, ignoring her.
husband. "You've exposed an enemy tactic we hadn't identified before. If you.
have any more advice for us, we'd be glad to hear it.".
"Very well," said the pilot of the yacht. "Where were you thinking of going?" "We hadn't discussed it," Leia said. "I was considering Belsavis. There have.
been communications problems there in recent months, and it has a history of conflict that the Yuuzhan Vong could take advantage of.".
"The Senex and Juvex sectors would be prime targets, it's true, but it may.
already be too late there. There might be little else for you to do but clean up the mess. More good could be done by going somewhere in the early stages of corruption. That way, at least, you may be able to prevent the situation from developing into anything too serious.".
"That's if you're right," Han said. "But how do we know you aren't just.
sending us on some wild gundark hunt? I mean, you could be a member of the Peace Brigade yourself: you're a covert infiltrator; you're part of a galactic.
conspiracy. This could all just be some sort of elaborate scheme to put us off the scent. The next place you send us could be—".
"A thousand times worse than here," the pilot finished for him. "Yes, Captain.
Solo, it could be. And in fact it probably will be, for the place I'm suggesting you travel to is Bakura.".
"Bakura?" Han echoed. "Are you telling me—?" "I'm not telling you anything," the pilot cut in again. "In truth, I know little.
The information we have gathered there is scant, and many of my normal.
channels of information have been cut, along with the routes your spies would normally use. This makes us concerned. If the Ssi-ruuvi Imperium is active again, using this time of distraction to make a move on the life forces of the galaxy as it did once before, then it could be serious. They've had a long time to.
amass a new battle droid army, and to perfect their entechment technology.".
There was a moment's silence as those in the Falcon's crew contemplated the.
stranger's words. Tahiri was too young to remember the trouble with the Ssi- ruuk, but she'd certainly been taught about it. As xenophobic as the Yevetha,.
having evolved under similar circumstances in the heart of an isolated star cluster the reptilian aliens had only just been driven back by the New Republic.
with the unexpected assistance of the Chiss. Their techniques of mind control and entechment rivaled those of the Yuuzhan Vong in terms of horror and.
agony. The peaceful world of Bakura stood between the rest of the galaxy and the Ssi-ruuvi Imperium and had fallen afoul of the aliens once before.
Tahiri didn't know if the Yuuzhan Vong could surprise the Ssi-ruuk in.
sufficient force to wipe them out, as they had the Yevetha. The Ssi-ruuk had.
indeed had longer to recover, and had been stronger to start with. If the Ssi-ruuk.
were able to use entechment to fuel their ships with Yuuzhan Vong life force— or if the Yuuzhan Vong found a way to exploit the same technology ...
She shuddered. The question of whether the Yuuzhan Vong had a connection.
to the Force was still open, and she doubted that they would use any sort of machine in their quest for domination, but the idea of any sort of marriage.
between the two hate-filled species filled her with a terrible dread.
Keep it together, she reminded herself. Don't lose it now. "Thank you," Leia said eventually. She had gone slightly pale. "We're.
grateful for your assistance.".
"Yeah," Han added, his defensive skepticism firmly in place. "We'll take it.
under advisement.".
"Will there be someone there like you?" Tahiri asked.
"Someone will contact you," came the reply. "Who?" "Someone. Like I said, we are everywhere." Indices on the local space scopes began to flash; the yacht was warming up its.
ion drives, preparing to leave.
"Will you at least give us your name?" Tahiri asked. "Be patient, young Jedi," the stranger said. "We will sing your song one day.
soon.".
Before Tahiri could ask what he meant, the line went dead, and the yacht was.
heading out of the planet's gravity well.
Tahiri registered Han's snort of annoyance, but it was almost buried under a.
realization prompted by the stranger's farewell combined with the sound of his.
voice and the smell she had noted on the landing field. We will sing your song...
"He's a Ryn!" she exclaimed.
"A Ryn?" Han echoed incredulously. "He can't be." "He is. I swear it.".
"But what's one of them doing in the spy game? They'd stick out like sore.
thumbs!".
"I guess," said Leia, watching the retreating yacht as it accelerated and.
vanished into hyperspace, "we're just going to have to find out for ourselves...."