by Greg Keyes
Yuuzhan Vong buttoned
up the system."
"Oh, indeed they did," Kyp replied. "And for anyone besides someone
trained as a pilot and a Jedi, I would say it was nearly impossible. But I'm
the guy who guided your father through the Maw, using nothing but the most
rudimentary command of the Force, and I've come a long way since then.
Fluctuations in gravity are always squirreling little hy-perspace entry
points in and out of existence, spalled off larger ones. The Sernpidal
system has been unstable since they destroyed the planet, which is how
Darklighter got in. The Yuuzhan Vong have mostly corrected their earlier
mistakes, but they can't cover all of them, especially those near the
primary-and also when they're creating their own
gravitic anomalies."
"Maybe because they think no one would be stupid
enough to jump that close to a star?"
"Stupid or not, it worked. Despite that they very nearly
interdicted me. I lost a wingmate and made a jump out that nearly
shredded me near a neutron star." He grinned again. "But it was worth it. I
got a good, close look." "You know what it is?"
"Yes. The whole thing isn't on-line yet, but they were putting some of
its systems through trials while we were there."
"So what is it?" "A gravitic weapon." "Like a dovin basal?"
Kyp laughed. "Dovin basals, the big ones, can pull down a moon. They
can generate anomalies that resemble quantum black holes. This thing could
collapse a star."
"How do you know that's what it is? Why haven't we seen something like
this before?"
"It's taken them a long time to grow it, Jaina. They couldn't grow one
out there in the void between the galaxies, could they? And maybe not just
any planet will do-maybe there was something special about Sernpidal. But
remember, this was one of the first things they did when they began the
invasion of our galaxy."
"There is some evidence they've been out on the Rim for at least fifty
years," Jaina pointed out.
"I've seen a little evidence of that, too. But they weren't ready to
invade, then. Blowing up a planet might have attracted someone's attention."
He held up his hands. "I don't know. I only know one thing-that thing has to
be stopped, now, before it's operational."
"I still don't understand how you can know what it is," Jaina said.
"You've never been shy about jumping to conclusions."
Kyp tapped the holo console again. The view zoomed out.
"This is time lapse," he said softly. "Remember that
Sernpidal was a hundred and fifteen thousand kilometers from its
primary, which is still the approximate position of this weapon."
Jaina watched, at first not understanding what she was seeing. From the
primary's corona, a small flare erupted,
something she had seen happen on numerous occasions around numerous
stars.
But the flare kept going, first a full solar diameter, then two. And as
it grew longer, it gathered strength rather than diminishing, became a
ribbon of superheated hydrogen and helium, dimming and cooling as it went
but still clearly visible. In the artificial quickness of time lapse, it was
only moments before the streamer reached the gigantic Yuuzhan Vong
construction.
"Emperor's black bones," Jaina breathed.
"You see?" Kyp said. "Extrapolate. Only about an eighth of its systems
seem to be 'alive,' yet it can generate a gravity well powerful enough and
focused enough to pull enormous quantities of solar atmosphere over a
hundred thousand kilometers. The dovin basal on Sernpidai pales to absolute
insignificance next to that. Think of the size of the singularities it can
create-big enough to swallow a ship? A planet"? If we let them take that
thing out, nothing can stop them."
Speechless, Jaina could only nod in horrified agreement.
FOURTEEN
"Oh, my goodness," C-3PO bleated as the Falcon dropped out of
hyperspace with a sort of flat thud that sent them all a centimeter into the
air. "It's another one of those terrible Yuuzhan Vong interdictors!"
"Relax, Threepio," Han said, his voice so dry he sounded almost bored.
"The inertial dampeners are just being a little cranky, that's all. Lando's
so-called technicians were a little less than thorough."
"More likely they didn't understand the extent to which this ship is
put together with chewstim and wishful thinking," Leia joked. "No one else
has ever been able to repair this thing except-"
She broke off, and Han knew why. The unfinished thought, except you and
Chewbacca, was true. He and Chewie had made the Falcon galaxy-famous for
doing the impossible, but it had almost always involved the Wookiee and him
improvising circuits even as their shields were failing.
"You can say it," he told her.
"Look, Han," Leia said softly. "He can never be replaced-"
"No," he replied, more sharply than intended. "Not with Droma, not with
you." His voice softened. "But he could never have replaced you, either,
Leia. Let's leave it at that, huh? Hike my new copilot just fine."
"Thank you. That means a lot to me."
"I mean, she's a little mouthy for my taste, and kinda snooty, but at
least she's easy enough on the eyes-even with the new hairdo."
Leia's tender expression was metamorphosing into something less benign
when the mass detector bleeped and C-3PO I cried, "I told you! I absolutely
told you!"
"Threepio," Han snapped, "have you ever been fired from a concussion
missile tube?"
"No, sir. Of course, I did nearly fall out of the garbage-ejection tube
a short time ago, which I must admit was terrifying, simply terrifying. I-"
"Threepio!" Han shouted.
C-3PO cocked his head and put one golden finger to the slit that
implied his mouth. "Perhaps I should go see what Artoo is doing," "Yes, do
that."
Meanwhile, Leia had been analyzing whatever it was that had come out of
hyperspace right behind them. "It's a freighter," she said. "A freighter?
Here?" They were in occupied space, not
far fromTynna.
Leia brought up the profile, revealing a blocky drive married to a long
series of detachable storage pods headed up by a narrow habitation
compartment. "Kuat Drive Yards Marl-class heavy freighter," Leia confirmed.
"Out /?ere?" Han repeated incredulously. "She'll be easy pickings for
the first Yuuzhan Vong ship she runs into. And where could she be going?
Hutt space?"
"Maybe it's a relief vessel," Leia said. "Or a smuggler running weapons
to the Hutts."
"That thing's got no legs," Han said. "Any smuggler worth his spice
would know better."
"Well, there it is," Leia said.
"I can see that." He set his lips. "I just had an unpleasant
thought."
Leia nodded grimly, "I just had the same thought."
"Yeah. Have they seen us yet?" "I doubt it."
"Let's keep it that way. Run silent and let them pass, We'll see for
sure where they're going." "Why don't we just ask them?" Han gave her a
brief open-mouthed stare. "Boy, do you
/> have a lot to learn. Let me handle this, willya? I know what I'm
doing."
"Right. I've heard that a time or two. I've usually had cause to regret
it."
"At least you always lived to regret it, sweetheart."
When the Falcon powered down, Jacen was deep in meditation. He'd spent
hours coaxing his wants, needs, and expectations into corners of his mind
far from the conscious, surrendering himself into the silent flow of the
Force.
He tuned out the sensations of the Force around him: his mother, the
lesser voices of his father and the Noghri, the faint impressions of the
droids and the ship itself. He wasn't searching for anything at all, merely
trying to become a part of the living Force, detached from the particulars
of it. Just to feel it ebbing and flowing through him, not even seeking
understanding, for in seeking one often missed what was sought, or came to
an understanding tainted by desire.
Desire, like fear and anger, had to be released.
For a brief moment he almost found that center he was searching for,
the universe spreading out in its entirety, and in that instant he saw again
a vision of the galaxy tipping, of a fundamental imbalance waiting to
happen.
There, memory and desire betrayed him. He saw himself facing Warmaster
Tsavong Lah, his mother bleeding at his feet. He saw his brother, Anakin,
confident and cocky after his escape from Yavin 4. He saw himself, only days
before, slaying the two living coralskippers and their pilots.
The death of one diminishes us all. Surely that had to be the case with
the Yuuzhan Vong as well, though they didn't appear in the Force.
Which was impossible, if the Force was what the old Jedi Masters said
it was.
He actually wished Anakin were here, so they could have one of their
arguments. Anakin now held that what they knew as the Force was only a
manifestation of something greater, more overarching, something Jedi could
only
glimpse. To Jacen that felt utterly wrong, and yet it was hard to
dispute that it fit the facts as they stood now.
Anakin also thought of the Force as little more than an energy source,
something with which the Jedi worked their wills. That also felt wrong, and
yet Jacen now seriously questioned the opposing view, that the Force had a
will of its own, and that the proper role of the Jedi was to understand that
will and work through it.
Neither extreme felt right in Jacen's gut, and yet he had no answer of
his own. He had abandoned his vow not to use the Force, but it had given him
no more certainty about when or how it ought to be used, or what a Jedi
ought to do. Again, Anakin's certainty was both enviable and worrisome.
Anakin was determined to oppose evil, and just as determined that he could
know what evil was, even without the Force to enlighten him.
Maybe Anakin was right. Jacen knew that he couldn't just stand by and
do nothing. He had been given gifts and learned to use them, and it was
incumbent on him that he find the proper way to do so. But how was he to
judge? Who was he to judge?
Maybe he had been wrong to strike out on his own, to leave the
apprenticeship of Master Skywalker. But somehow, he knew, Uncle Luke's path
could not be his, no more than Anakin's could be.
As it was, he took each situation as he found it. He'd hated killing
the Yuuzhan Vong, but the situation hadn't suggested or allowed for any
alternative other than the death or capture of his family. It may have been
a bad choice, but at the time it was the only one he was capable of making.
He tried to untangle himself from this internal dialogue, but the more
he tried, the more frustrated he became, and he was on the verge of
admitting failure anyway when something changed around him.
He came back, bringing the near world into focus, and found everything
off but emergency lights.
"Dear me!" C-3PO moaned. "I knew it!"
"Threepio?"
"Master Jacen! You're conscious!"
"What's going on, Threepio? How long have we been powered down?"
"Ever since that mass came out of hyperspace," C-3PO said. "I wanted to
help, but Captain Solo was quite unpleasant."
"I'm sure it's not you he was mad at, Threepio," Jacen assured the
droid. "I'll go see what's going on."
"Look there," his father was saying as Jacen entered the cockpit.
"I see," Leia breathed. "Yuuzhan Vong."
Jacen studied the long-range scanner readouts. "They're attacking that
freighter?" he asked.
"No," Han said. "They ain't attacking it, kid. They're escorting it."
"Escorting? Where are we?"
"One jump from the Cha Raaba system," Han replied.
"Cha Raaba? That's where Ylesia is, right?" .
"Kid gets a gold epaulet," Han murmured.
"And Ylesia is where the Peace Brigade is headquartered," Leia added.
"So that ship-"
"Supplies for the Brigade and the Vong," Han concluded. "Couldn't have
figured it better myself. Looks like Lando was right, only if the Peace
Brigade is moving stuff inside Yuuzhan Vong space, someone must be moving it
to them from outside."
"Well, we have to stop them!" Leia said.
"What?" Jacen asked. "Why? They haven't attacked us. They don't even
see us."
"True enough," Han said. "Gives us a nice advantage."
"But-I thought this mission was about setting up networks for refugees
and intelligence. No one said anything about taking the fight to the enemy."
"Hey, Jacen," Han said, "it's not as if we're going out of our way to
harass collaborationist shipping, though why the thought of doing so should
upset you I can't imagine. But there they are, and here we are--"
"Can we just disable them?" Jacen asked.
"Jacen," Han said, turning to face him, his eyebrows lifting. "Jacen,
in case you didn't notice, there's a war on. Now, I know you've gotten all
mystical on me lately, and I'm trying to be understanding, but if you expect
the rest of us to go along with your philosophy of the day, think again. You
stick with the Force and let me deal with this. Anyway, for all you know
that freighter could be full of slaves and sacrifices. You really want to
leave them to the mercy of the Vong?"
"I don't feel anything like that in the Force," Jacen said firmly.
"Jacen," Leia chimed in. "You know I respect what you're trying to do,
but you have to understand something-"
"I understand," Jacen interrupted. "I understand that you told me this
mission was about something I could get on board with, and now in the middle
of the flight you're changing the coordinates. I'm not trying to tell you
what to believe. But when you brought me along on this trip-
"When I brought you along on this trip," Han roared, "I never said you
could be captain, and I didn't tell you this is a democracy. Jacen, I love
you. But sit down, shut up, and do
as you're told."
Jacen was so stunned by his father's anger that it did not, at that
moment, even occur to him to continue the argument.
"Great," Han said. "So here's what we're going
to do. We're going to
take out that Yuuzhan Vong escort, and then we're going to make the
freighter an offer."
"Offer?" Leia said.
"Yep. We'll offer not to blow her open if she surrenders quietly." He
checked his panel. "Power in five minutes. Jacen, get down to the
turbolaser."
Jacen hesitated, a painful, sickening knot growing in his gut. "Okay."
"And I want you to use it if needed."
"I will. Sir." And with that he stalked out of the cockpit.
FIFTEEN
The villip squirmed, stretching itself to its limits in an attempt to
portray the fine mass of tendrils that composed the living headdress of
Master Tjulan Kwaad. It did not entirely succeed, but did so sufficiently
well that Nen Yim was able to tell that the senior master of her domain was
agitated.
"Why disturb me over such a question?" Tjulan Kwaad asked. "You have
access to the Qang qahsa, do you not?"
"I do indeed, Master Kwaad," Nen Yim replied. "However, the qahsa does
not grant a mere adept entry to protocols beyond the fifth cortex."
"Nor should it. Adepts are not ready for such secrets. Especially
adepts such as yourself. You and your deceased master disgraced our domain."
"That is true," Nen Yim said carefully. "However, War-master Tsavong
Lah chose to pardon me and . . . reward me with a chance to further serve
the glorious Yun-Yuuzhan. I should think my domain would do as much."
"Do not presume what your domain would do," Tjulan Kwaad replied
testily. "Even the Yim creche would not do as much. The warmaster is a
warrior, covered in glory and more than ample as a warrior. But he is not a
shaper, and he does not know how dangerous your heresies are."
"Those were the heresies of my master, not mine," Nen Yirn lied.
"Yet you did not report her."
Yun-Harla aid me, Nen Yim prayed. The mistress of trickery loved lies
as much as Yun-Yammka loved battle. "How could discipline be maintained if
every adept felt free to question her master?"
"You could have reported her to me," Tjulan Kwaad roared. "You owe
fealty to me as lord of your domain. Mezhan Kwaad was as much my subordinate
as you. That you neglected that relationship will never be forgotten!"
"My judgment failed, Master. That does not change the fact that this
ship is dying, and I need your help."
