Dark Tide 1: Onslaught

by Michael A. Stackpole

  “Thank you, Madam Speaker.” Leia, herself wearing a dark flowing robe whose only decoration was a wave motif embroidered at hem, collar, and cuffs, approached the podium. She nodded solemnly to the men and women seated before her.

  “I thank you all for allowing me to address you. Before I begin, I want to identify those people I’ve brought with me. Elegos A’Kla is a Republic senator conducting a fact-finding mission here in the Outer Rim. Next to him is my daughter, Jaina, who has firsthand knowledge of the problem we face. And last is Danni Quee. She was stationed at ExGal-4, based on Belkadan, when the Yuuzhan Vong invaded and held her captive.”

  Leia rested her hands on the podium. “The Agamarian history of service to the New Republic is well known. I have no doubt that if not for the courage of Keyan Farlander, I certainly would not be standing here before you. I know that what I will present to you here, what you will have downloaded into your datapads, will be rather astounding, and yet, because it has been reduced to clinical analysis and data, it will be easy to dismiss. To do that would be the sort of error that will hurt Agamar and the New Republic. Please, hear what Danni has to say, read over the information, and listen to what I would like you to do. I hate to say that, once again, the New Republic is relying upon you, but it is.”

  She waved Danni forward, and the scientist coughed into her hand before beginning. “Please forgive me, I don’t often address important people. I think that if I took to this sort of thing, I would not have become a scientist. In my work at ExGal, I was involved in looking outside the galaxy, where it was supposed nothing existed. Maybe I looked outside because looking back in meant I would face crowds, and that scares me more than a little.”

  A mild bit of good-natured chuckling greeted Danni’s overture and seemed to put her more at ease. “What scares me more, now, is a combination of two things. One is the fact that there is something from beyond the galaxy. I know the stories you’ve all heard, the theories that have been taught, that a disturbance in hyperspace makes travel outside the galaxy impossible. That’s a wonderful theory, but those who advanced it didn’t think scientifically about it. A storm that lasts an hour for us would have been a lifetime of storm for an insect. Just because that disturbance has existed for as long as we’ve been able to measure it doesn’t mean that it always did, or always will.

  “And it doesn’t mean someone else couldn’t find a way through it or past it or around it. And they have.” Danni’s chin came up. “They are the Yuuzhan Vong. They are humanoid and capable of mimicking humans well enough that I never penetrated the disguise of Yomin Carr, the Yuuzhan Vong agent who infiltrated our team on Belkadan. I see some of you looking around at your fellows, wondering, perhaps, if they are Yuuzhan Vong. I don’t think so. I hope not, but I do know the Yuuzhan Vong will be coming, and when they arrive, you will not like it at all.”

  Danni took in a deep breath, then let it go out slowly. “I was taken prisoner by the Yuuzhan Vong. I watched them torture another captive, a Jedi Knight. They sought to break his spirit and mind. I know that if they had subjected me to the same tortures, I would have just . . . fallen apart. Miko Reglia resisted and sacrificed his life so I could escape.”

  She pressed her hand to her mouth for a second, then blinked and continued. “The Yuuzhan Vong are a cruel people who employ biological devices the way we use machines. The reports you have will fill you in on the details. Some of it may seem silly, like having starfighters grown out of coral, but the fact remains that these ships had capabilities we’ve not faced before and have no easy way to counter.

  “Perhaps worst of all, we are unclear as to the Yuuzhan Vong motive for invading our galaxy. We don’t know if they will listen to reason, if they will negotiate some sort of peace. They showed no evidence of that when I was in their power. They told me I wouldn’t be sacrificed, which tells me others were and will be, if they are not stopped.”

  Danni looked over at Leia and nodded. Leia approached and ran her hand down Danni’s back. Leia glanced at her daughter, and Jaina came forward to direct Danni back to her place next to her. Danni’s retreat took place to the accompaniment of murmurs from the council members, though that hubbub tailed off as Leia returned to the podium.

  “As you already know, I am not here as a speaker for the New Republic government. In fact, I am certain that you will all find waiting for you messages from the local Republic envoy reminding you of this fact. I have no official standing with the New Republic. I went to Coruscant to ask for help for Dubrillion and other Rim worlds that will bear the brunt of this onslaught. I was sent away, so I have come here, with my daughter and friends, to alert you to the threat and to ask your help in dealing with it.”

  Leia frowned. “As I said before, I am well aware of all Agamar has done in the past for causes I espouse. You have always been friends of the New Republic, and now, I am afraid, the New Republic will abrogate its responsibilities to you. The worlds of the Rim must look to themselves to deal with this threat. In being driven away from Coruscant, I am now, like you, a citizen of the Rim. Please remember that as you consider what I am going to say.

  “The Rim worlds need to band together and muster their military might to fight against the Yuuzhan Vong. We don’t know where they will strike next, but we must all be ready to devote forces to that battle. Every victory we allow them will make them stronger. I know that asking you to do this will cost you greatly, both in money and, potentially, in the blood of your men and women. These are not sacrifices I ask you to make lightly.”

  As Leia looked out over the assembly she began to sense growing resistance to her words. This did not surprise her, but it did cut at her spirit. She had hoped that if she could get Agamar to take the lead against the Yuuzhan Vong, other worlds could be convinced to follow their example. Perhaps Elegos is right—they’ve carried their burden as far as they can.

  She shifted her approach. “Regardless of your ability to contribute forces to any military effort, as a neighbor, I urge you to prepare for what the Yuuzhan Vong invasion will cause. Refugees will likely be coming this way, fleeing in small ships and large. I know the Agamarian people will not turn them away, but the burden of caring for people who have been driven from their homes is not one to be undertaken without preparation. Gather resources, establish plans, do whatever you must to help those who will be helpless.”

  Leia hesitated for a moment, then nodded slowly. “I know I am asking a lot of you. I know you will do what you can, and even more than that. In the name of the countless people who share the Rim with you, I thank you. We will be heading deeper into the Rim, back toward Dubrillion, to face the Yuuzhan Vong. Knowing that you, the people of Agamar, are here, supporting us, will brighten the darkest hour and lighten the heaviest load.”

  She took a single step back from the podium, then lifted her chin and clasped her hands behind her back. She waited for questions or comments, steeling herself for the sort of snide accusations she’d faced on Coruscant, but none came. Here and there, starting at the back of the room, but quickly moving to the front, council members stood and began to applaud. Currents of sympathy and pride flowed through the chamber, swirling around her, and sweeping past to embrace Danni, as well.

  The council speaker stepped over to Leia and shook her hand. “You have made an honest presentation to us, and we will give it all due consideration—more consideration than Coruscant offered. I cannot tell you what the outcome of our debate will be. I do not know what we can offer you, since there are those who do want to rebuild Agamar, and those individuals do hold a considerable amount of power.”

  Leia nodded. “I understand.”

  “Well, understand this, too. We, the people of Agamar, have prospered by helping each other. Your refugees will find safe passage through our system, and assistance. More than that I cannot say, but less than that would be unthinkable.”

  Leia shook the older woman’s hand solemnly. “Well, then, the fight to stop the Yuuzhan Vong begins here. If o
ther worlds are as brave as Agamar, perhaps the fight will stop out there, beyond the Rim, and the peace we’ve all earned will never again be threatened.”

  CHAPTER TEN

  The freighter Dalliance reverted from hyperspace smoothly and began a long arc in toward Bimmiel. Corran Horn liked how easily the freighter handled. It was nothing like an X-wing, but it didn’t feel as if he was driving a planetoid either. “Estimated time of arrival is thirty minutes.”

  Ganner barely grunted an acknowledgment of Corran’s comment. He stared intently at a trio of overlapping holographically projected data windows. One showed Bimmiel as a khaki ball with slender stripes of blue radiating out from a large ocean in the southern hemisphere. Ice caps covered either pole, with the one in the south extending out into the ocean. Atmospheric readings and other data filled the space around the world. A second window showed a group of images of flora and fauna native to the world. Third and final—and the window Ganner was studying hardest—was the image of a communications relay satellite that appeared, to Corran, to have lost its antenna array.

  “The satellite is damaged. The pulsar would make communications difficult under the best of circumstances. Without the satellite, though, messages aren’t going to get out.”

  Corran nodded. “Do we have the codes needed to interrogate the satellite and dump its message cache to us?”

  The other Jedi punched a button on the communications console, then shook his head. “Either the codes don’t work, or without the antenna the satellite can’t hear us. We could recover it. I can use the Force to load it into a cargo bay. From there we can run a wire in and make direct contact.”

  “Not that important at the moment.” Corran glanced at his navigational data. “The satellite was placed in a geosynchronous orbit over their base camp, wasn’t it?”

  “Right. They’re down there, below it, on the northern continent.”

  “What does the weather look like down there?”

  Ganner frowned. “Tail end of sandgales. The air will be full of dust, but definitely breathable, provided we use filtration.”

  “Not like Belkadan?”

  “No indication of any atmospheric changes that are out of the ordinary. Bimmiel has an elliptical orbit, and we’re on the outward leg now. The Imp survey came on the inbound leg, so we’re not sure what to expect. The Imps reported very little in the way of life down there, but I can feel a fair amount, can’t you?”

  “I can, yes.”

  “I get no evidence that the Yuuzhan Vong are down there.” Ganner peered at him ice-eyed through the satellite image. “And, before you ask, no indications if the damage to the satellite was caused by some coralskipper’s plasma blast or just a micrometeorite hitting the antenna.”

  Corran took Ganner’s cautionary comment in stride. “I know, not all trouble can be or should be attributed to the Yuuzhan Vong. We don’t know if they are here or not.” Of course, since we can’t feel them through the Force, the only way we’ll know if they are is when we see them. I’m not looking forward to any such encounter. “Our mission is to find the academics and get them out.”

  “Simple.”

  “Unless we make it complicated.” Corran glanced at the forward viewport. “I’ll take the ship in and try to land as close to their camp as is prudent.”

  The freighter, which was a modified Corellian YT-1210, had a flat disk shape that enabled Corran to slide it into the Bimmiel atmosphere without a lot of difficulty. The freighter’s mass meant the dying storms didn’t bounce it around too much. Corran had dialed the inertial compensator down to 90 percent, just to give him a better feel for how the Dalliance flew. The storm did manage to bump and drop the freighter a little, but Corran didn’t mind.

  The fact that the turbulence made Ganner a bit gray also worked for Corran. The trip out from Yavin 4 had taken a few days, and his relationship with Ganner had become more cordial as the garnant bites faded from the larger man’s flesh. Even so, it was readily apparent to Corran that Ganner wasn’t going to back away from what he saw as the right method for projecting a powerful Jedi image, and Corran, on the other hand, wasn’t going to embrace using fear as a tool to coerce cooperation from people.

  As they got closer to reversion and landing, Ganner had begun to tighten up again. He’d donned his blue and black robes, polished his lightsaber, and been very precise in combing his hair and trimming his beard. Corran did have to admit that the man looked every millimeter a recruiter’s dream and that, physically, the man was very impressive. He’s overconfident, overbearing, and abrasive, but he looks the perfect example of a Jedi.

  Corran flicked a switch, lowering the freighter’s landing gear. He glanced at the altimeter and cut in the repulsorlift coils to settle the ship down easily. He got a bump four meters above where he felt the ship should have touched down, then the Dalliance continued to descend. It sank until the bottom hull pressed against the ground.

  Wind-whipped sand hissed a tan curtain over the viewport. The sand slid away, providing a brief glimpse of a distant horizon, then another layer coated the transparisteel. Darker shadows loomed nearby, but the shifting sand gave Corran no chance to see what they were.

  “Looks like we’ve sunk into the sand, so we’re not going out through the landing ramp.” Corran pointed a finger up toward the ceiling. “Topside hatch.”

  Ganner nodded and handed Corran a pair of goggles and a rebreather that had a comlink built into it. “There are sensor readings to the west, about a hundred meters off. Probably their camp.”

  “No life?”

  “Life, yes. Human, no.” Ganner closed his eyes for a moment, then nodded. “Fairly small life-forms. Nothing to worry about.”

  “Thanks.” Corran rolled his eyes as he stepped past Ganner and into the companionway that gave him access to the top hatch tube. He mounted the ladder, disengaged the interlocks, and shoved up on the round hatch.

  A brown curtain of sand poured down over him. Corran reflexively ducked his face away and felt a kilo of dirt stream down the back of his tunic, to be trapped at his waist by his belt. Because the rebreather filtered only the airborne sand, he could still smell the dry scent in the air. What surprised him about the wind was how cool it was. Moving away from the sun has this world cooling off, so it won’t be hot like Tatooine, just dirty. So much for Ganner’s wardrobe.

  Corran glanced down to see what sort of a mess the sand had made of Ganner, but all he saw was sand around his feet, as if he was standing in a rapidly filling hole. He reached out with the Force and discovered the shield Ganner had erected with the Force to trap the sand in the tube. Oh, very cute.

  He scrambled up the ladder, then watched the sand rise behind him and slide off the Force dome that rose to cap the tube. Ganner expanded it as he came up, but did not extend it to cover Corran. As he emerged, the bubble shrank, covering Ganner like a cloak. While Corran admired Ganner’s control with the Force, he found employing it like an umbrella to be almost as bad as what Valin had done to Ganner with the garnants.

  Corran walked to the edge of the freighter and looked down at the sand piling up against the craft’s port hull. Beyond it, barely visible, he caught a hint of color—a small reddish pyramid—which he assumed marked the university camp. He crouched and let a handful of sand dribble out through his fingers.

  Ganner stood above him. “Not that far down.”

  “Be my guest.” Corran tugged his tunic from his trouser waistband and let sand pour out. “Show me how it’s done.”

  The younger Jedi leapt from the ship’s hull and immediately sank to his waist in the sand. His fists clenched for a moment, then he leapt up and rose serenely from the sand and returned to the freighter’s hull. His boots and trousers were coated with dust.

  “Little further down than it looks, isn’t it?”

  Ganner snorted. “Shall we break out the speeder bikes?”

  “Nope. Dust is too fine for the engine filters to pull out of the air, so they’ll just st
all.”

  “Then how do we get over there?”

  “We walk.”

  “But . . .”

  Corran leapt out from the freighter and landed in a crouch. He sank to ankles and wrists in a trough between two little sand dunes. Rising up a bit, he started walking toward the university camp.

  “How did you . . . You don’t have enough ability in the Force to . . .”

  Corran looked back at Ganner and waved him forward. “Move through the troughs. The lighter particles blow around, the heavier ones sink and are more compact. Still slow going, but it’s going.”

  He heard Ganner crunch down behind him, but a gust of wind raised a cloud that obscured the younger man. Corran spread his senses into the Force and found Ganner easily. All around them he found other hot spots of life, ranging from small insects to more complex creatures. Fist-size mammals were most numerous, and something larger lurked at the fringes of his awareness.

  He pushed on toward the camp and reached it with relative ease after a several-minute trek. A couple of rocky outcroppings defined the western edge of the camp. Long, dark-gray plinths thrust up through the sand like the fingers on a drowning man’s hand. Below them were scraps of fabric that had once been part of tents. They flapped, red, blue, and green, from tent structural supports that were almost entirely buried in shifting sand.

  Reaching out through the Force, Corran searched for life beneath the sand. Again he found insects and the small mammals—with many of the latter huddled together deep in a crevasse in the rocks. Others were moving through the sand, into one of the tents and back out again. Their course was so regular that Corran assumed they were moving along a tunnel and raiding a food store of some sort.

  He looked at Ganner. “Aside from you, I get nothing very big.”