Vector Prime

by R. A. Salvatore

  “Do you understand the honor I offer you now?” Yomin Carr asked in all seriousness.

  Jerem didn’t respond.

  “I offer you a warrior’s death!” the Yuuzhan Vong cried. “Yun-Yammka!” He gave a sudden twist of his arms and shattered Jerem Cadmir’s neck bone.

  Yomin Carr let the limp man fall to the ground. He stood solemnly over Jerem for a long, long while, uttering prayer after prayer for the Slayer to accept this sacrifice. By Yomin Carr’s reckoning, he had indeed granted Jerem Cadmir a tremendous amount of respect this day; he even went somewhat against orders by not allowing the scientists to battle the plague unimpeded.

  But Yomin Carr could justify that. Jerem had seen too much of the plague and knew, and said as much, that they could not hope to battle it. Jerem would have prompted only a desperate flight attempt, and no real countering of the plague. The Yuuzhan Vong warrior nodded, agreeing with that reasoning, and reached down to inspect Jerem’s body, finding the three valuable items.

  He’d bring them back for inspection, allow the remaining six scientists to try to find some solution. That would satisfy his duties regarding the plague, for one of his goals here was to discern if the scientists could find some way to battle this powerful Yuuzhan Vong biological weapon.

  Completing that duty would justify his showing respect to Jerem Cadmir.

  Satisfied, the Yuuzhan Vong started back for the compound. All his rationales were in place, but he knew the truth in his heart.

  He had killed Jerem Cadmir, not simply out of respect, not simply because the man had deserved a warrior’s death, but also because he had wanted to, because he had enjoyed it. For too long, Yomin Carr had lived among the infidels, had spoken their language and accepted their strange and sacrilegious actions. Now the day of glory was almost upon him, the day of the Yuuzhan Vong, and he was eager, so eager.

  At first Danni thought she was dead, but as her consciousness gradually returned, before she even opened her eyes, she not only knew that she was very much alive, though painfully wounded, but also sensed somehow where she was, and that thought—that she was within the living mound she had seen from the Spacecaster’s viewscreen—filled her with dread.

  Her right shoulder, dislocated, throbbed; both of her arms were held out straight. She could feel strong hands gripping her wrists, and the light touch of a poncho about her bare shoulders, and a wet stickiness about her feet as if she was standing in a gooey pool of mud.

  She heard a gurgled cry, recognized the voice of Bensin Tomri, and forced open her eyes.

  She saw the multicolored, rough-face walls, the hulking men—no, not men, she instinctively understood, but some other humanoids—disfigured and covered with tattoos, holding her arms out to either side, out straight, and so tightly that she could not move. She saw Bensin off to the side, standing, but with his head pulled back, another hulking humanoid beside him. That tattooed warrior lifted one hand up high, clawed it like a bird’s talon, and drove it down into Bensin’s throat. The warriors let go, and Bensin fell limp, too limp, and Danni knew that he was dead.

  The hulking warrior, his hand still wet with Bensin’s blood, came over toward her slowly, deliberately. Danni tried to struggle, but the two humanoids holding her gave sudden jerks, and waves of pain overwhelmed her, rolling out from her dislocated shoulder as the joint snapped back into place. She nearly swooned and rolled her head, and then he was before her and she saw him clearly, and she recognized him from the impersonating creature that had invaded the Spacecaster.

  “Yomin Carr demand respect for Danni Quee,” Prefect Da’Gara stated. “Do you und-under—” He paused and crinkled his face, struggling for the word.

  “Understand,” the woman said through clenched teeth.

  Da’Gara nodded and smiled. “You understand the honor?”

  Danni looked at him helplessly.

  Then she felt the tingling pain, and the goo at her feet came alive and began to roll up her naked legs. Danni’s eyes widened with horror and pain as the creature began its attachment, rolling higher and higher to cover all of her body beneath the poncho. She struggled and flailed.

  Da’Gara slapped her across the face. “Do not dishonor Yomin Carr request,” he growled in her face. “Show courage or I put you out to die in empty air of surface!”

  That sobered Danni. She still squirmed—who could not as the creature attached itself, tendril by tendril into her pores?—but she bit down on her lip and stood firm, eyeing Da’Gara sternly.

  The prefect nodded his approval. “Glad I that Danni not dead, as was Cho Badeleg, when we bring you down,” Da’Gara said. “I expect to kill you myself and now, but honorably, this day.”

  Danni didn’t blink.

  “Reconsidered,” Da’Gara explained. “Perhaps it better you stand with me to see zhaetor-zhae—” He shook his head, recognizing that he was using the Yuuzhan Vong word. “To see glory of Praetorite Vong.”

  Danni shook her head, unable to comprehend what this was all about.

  “You like see galaxy die?” Da’Gara asked bluntly. “That made long ago, for you see us enter, worldship. The begin of end.”

  Danni crinkled her face; she was getting the gist of Da’Gara’s meaning, and the thought seemed absurd.

  “Yes,” the prefect said, and he brought his hand in and gently stroked Danni’s cheek, which repulsed her more than if he had clenched his fist and punched her. “You see with me, and you see truth, the zhaelor, the glory of Yuuzhan Vong. Might you come to see and believe, and you join. Might you hold viccae—anger in pride—and you die. No matter. In thinking, I make Yun-Yammka more happy.”

  Danni wanted to ask what or who Yun-Yammka might be, but she just shook her head, too overwhelmed by it all.

  Da’Gara turned away from the stunned woman and motioned to another warrior, who approached Danni holding a soft lump of star-shaped flesh. She recoiled instinctively, tried to fight with every ounce of her strength. But they were too strong, and the cry of her protest was muffled as the fleshy creature was put over her mouth. Her horror only intensified as its tendril snaked down her throat, gagging her at first, but then joining with her, becoming a part of her breathing system.

  Eyes wide with shock and pain, Danni was hauled through the chambers of the worldship, to a large room with a circular hole in the floor. The actual opening was larger than that, Danni understood, seeing the ice all about that hole, and she couldn’t understand why she wasn’t colder, why they weren’t all freezing.

  That thought flew away, though, in an instant of sheer terror, when Da’Gara walked up behind her and unceremoniously shoved her headlong into the hole and she fell down a long tubular worm to the watery depths below.

  The prefect jumped in after her.

  TEN

  Running the Belt

  “I wouldn’t have expected anything less of Lando,” Han remarked when the Millennium Falcon came out of hyperspace and into view of the planets Lando Calrissian had taken for home and office. All the region about the two planets looming before them was littered with spacecraft, everything from small starfighters to the huge freighters and even larger shieldships Lando had used to protect other vessels when he had been mining on Nkllon, a planet too close to its sun.

  “More traffic than at the Core,” Luke’s voice piped in over the comm as the Jade Sabre came out of hyperspace right beside the Falcon.

  That left only Jaina and the X-wing still to be counted, and Han glanced at his wife, noting her concern. The trip from Reecee had taken a week, and while that was no problem in the comfort of the Millennium Falcon or the Jade Sabre, such a journey could tax an X-wing pilot to her limits. To say nothing of supplies. Jedi going on long journeys usually slipped into a self-induced nearly comatose state, slowing their metabolism and, for all intents and purposes, sleeping through the journey. Jaina had learned the technique and had proven she could do it well, in her training with Mara.

  But doing it in a training room was very differe
nt from doing it in an X-wing on a long and lonely journey.

  Even Luke had questioned his wife repeatedly about whether Jaina was really ready for this or not. Mara had insisted that she was, and no one could doubt Jaina’s piloting prowess. Since Mara was Jaina’s official tutor, there could be no debate, not even from Leia and Han, neither of whom were especially thrilled about putting their daughter into any kind of danger.

  So Jaina had flown out here in the X-wing, same course, same destination, same speed, as the other two ships.

  Why wasn’t she out of hyperspace yet?

  That question hung palpably between Leia and Han, neither speaking it aloud, neither having to.

  “Let me guess which planet is Lando’s,” came Luke’s call, his tone dry and sarcastic. The answer was obvious. One of the planets before them was brown and appeared quite inhospitable, while the other was blue and green, with white clouds floating through its sky. The scene reminded both Leia and Mara of the two planets they had recently visited: hospitable Osarian and rugged Rhommamool.

  “Luke, where is Jaina?” Leia called, doing well to keep the concern out of her voice. She heard laughter from the other ship—Mara’s.

  “Why isn’t she out yet?” Leia pressed.

  “Because Mara fed Artoo the wrong coordinates,” Luke replied.

  “A little test,” Mara explained, coming on-line. “Jaina’s nearby, but far enough out of the system so that she’ll have few reference points to use in righting her course.”

  “She’s probably panicking,” Leia replied, and she could easily visualize the grin spreading on Mara’s pretty face.

  “For a while, no doubt,” Mara answered. “But all she needs to do is look inside herself, to seek out the Force and its connection between her and us, and particularly to Jacen, and she’ll fly in at any minute.”

  “And Artoo knows the real way in any case,” Luke quickly added.

  “You’ve got a mean streak in you,” Leia remarked with a helpless sigh.

  “Toward Jaina or toward you?” Luke asked, and again, Leia and Han could hear their sister-in-law laughing.

  “Yes!” Mara answered.

  Leia just sighed.

  “If anything happens to Mistress Jaina, I shall personally scold Artoo-Detoo,” a nervous C-3PO piped in. “Oh, he’s the real troublemaker, you know. I am sure that he is quite enjoying this.”

  Leia glanced at the golden protocol droid. “Not like Mara,” she muttered, and considering her present fears and feelings, she was only half kidding.

  “Jaina’s fine,” Luke remarked. “If you reach out with the Force, dear sister, you’ll feel her, very much alive and well.”

  Leia was about to do just that, but she didn’t have to, for the sensors on the Falcon’s panel beeped, and sure enough, Jaina’s X-wing streaked into view a moment later.

  “Took you long enough,” Mara called to her, and she left the channel open so that the folks on the Falcon could hear her, as well.

  “A little problem with Artoo,” Jaina remarked dryly, and they heard R2-D2 beep out his vehement protest.

  Mara bade Jaina to take them in, and she did just that, but in a roundabout manner, circling wide of Lando’s home planet of Dubrillion to take a look at the operations going on at the other planet, Destrillion. A stream of small ships flowed down to this planet, bringing raw minerals from the asteroids to the great processing plants Lando had set up. Another, smaller stream of larger ships flowed off world, heading for the huge freighters that were sitting in orbit.

  All of the onlookers, even Han, who was so familiar with Lando’s schemes, stared in disbelief. How could Lando have set up so complete and large an operation in so short an amount of time? He’d been out here for only a year, and yet it seemed as if his operations could supply half the galaxy!

  Contact from the surface of the blue-and-green planet welcomed them—all the more enthusiastically after the controller heard the names of the ships and their occupants—and gave them coordinates for landing, and as they descended through Dubrillion’s cloud cover, they saw that Lando’s current home was no less impressive than his mining operation. The city was tightly clustered, with tall towers and high groupings of many starports. Luke noted that most of those open bays were empty, leading to the speculation that Lando entertained many guests who were quick in and quick out.

  Like smugglers.

  As the Jade Sabre swooped along to its appointed dock, Luke also noted a pair of X-wings on one platform, XJ class, like his own, the latest version of the starfighter. There weren’t many of those advanced fighters flying about, and none at all outside the Star Destroyer and battle cruiser squadrons, with one notable exception. These fighters belonged to Jedi Knights.

  The three ships set down on three circular bays, high above the surface, with low clouds drifting by. The landing zones were separated by narrow walkways, leading to a central hub, and a fourth walkway went out from that hub to the connected tower.

  All of them disembarked and met at the central hub, with Jaina and R2-D2, who needed considerable help getting out of the X-wing, coming along last. The pair arrived just before Lando came sweeping out of the tower door, his huge welcoming smile, his eyes, as always, twinkling more than sparkling, giving the impression that there was something much more going on behind the man’s every gesture and expression.

  “Ha-ha!” he laughed, moving over to wrap Han in a great hug, and then put one over Leia—one that pointedly lasted a little bit longer, drawing a jealous scowl from Han. He went to Luke next, and then stood before Mara, shaking his head. “You look wonderful!” he said sincerely, bringing a smile to the woman, and Lando crushed her in a huge hug.

  “Not many people dare to hug me,” Mara remarked.

  “That leaves more of you for me, then!” Lando returned with a burst of laughter. He stopped abruptly and glanced over at Luke, but found the man nodding and smiling sincerely. Lando’s greeting of Mara could not have been more perfect.

  The man was much more reserved with Chewbacca, offered a salute to R2-D2 and C-3PO, and then turned his attention to the three kids.

  “How much bigger are you gonna get?” he asked, holding his arms out wide in disbelief. “It’s only been a year, but look at you! You’re all grown up.”

  The smiles that came back at him were polite, and obviously embarrassed.

  “What’re you doing here?” Lando asked, turning to Han. “And why didn’t you tell me you’d be coming? I could have prepared something.”

  “Somehow, I don’t think we’ll be bored,” Han remarked dryly.

  Lando chuckled, but stopped short, eyeing Han suspiciously, as if he didn’t know whether to take that as a compliment or an insult. His bright smile returned almost immediately, though, and with a flourish and a skip in his step, the vibrant Lando led them into the tower. He gave them the complete tour then, from the posh rooms in his guest suites, to the control rooms of the robotic processing plants on the other planet, detailing with great pride the volume of various minerals making their way up to the freighters and off to the Core. They ended the tour in the huge monitoring chamber at the center of his city, an oval-shaped room, its perimeter mimicking the orbital path of the asteroid belt, Lando’s Folly. The chamber walls were covered with one gigantic viewscreen, showing a real-time view of the asteroid belt. Lando led them to another large rectangular screen, set out from one wall, and the man at the control panel respectfully moved aside.

  Lando’s ensuing demonstration did not disappoint. He selected a section of the asteroid belt and magnified it on the rectangular screen to the point where they could see the small droid mining ships testing, drilling, and extracting, then hopping onto another asteroid.

  “How much can you get from them?” Han asked. “Really?”

  “Most asteroids aren’t profitable,” Lando admitted. “But every now and then . . . ,” he added slyly, rubbing his hands together, dark eyes twinkling.

  He continued the demonstration
a bit longer, answered questions about volume and costs of setup, then led them out of that tower to another, up, up, to an enclosed hangar that held several small craft, with single central pilot pods, wing pylons extending from either side, connecting solar array wings that featured a top third and bottom third angled at forty-five degrees back in toward the central pod.

  Lando’s guests, particularly the older ones, surely recognized the craft: TIE Advanced x1 fighters, the type favored by the elite of the old Empire, including Darth Vader. The sight of the distinctive fighters clearly affected both Luke and Leia, whose expressions drooped. Han looked at Lando and scowled.

  “Best design for our purposes,” Lando answered honestly.

  “These are your belt runners?” Luke asked.

  “It’s the adjustable shock couch,” Lando explained, leading the way to the nearest, and as they moved they noted similar, but larger, twin-pod craft, TIE bombers, farther back in the hangar. “Pilots in these things can take a real beating.”

  “Don’t we know that?” Han asked dryly.

  “So you fly these things through the asteroid belt?” Jaina asked, her expression and her tone showing that she was more than a little intrigued.

  “Along Lando’s Folly, not through,” Lando corrected. “Against the flow of the asteroids. We’ve got a couple of particularly nasty sections mapped out.” He stared at Jaina for a long moment, matching her eager expression. “You want to try?”

  She looked at her parents first, for just a moment, and then at Mara, and it was obvious that she was pleading for permission.

  The prep time seemed interminable to eager Jaina, but she paid attention as Lando’s technicians explained the basic differences in flying one of their modified TIE fighters. While the foot yokes and hand controls were easy enough to pick up, the adjustable shock couch, a pivoting, bouncing contraption, was very different from the stable cockpit of an X-wing or landspeeder. And the most important difference of all, Lando’s technician explained, concerned the inertial compensator. Unlike those on the X-wings and in most other craft, the ones on the modified TIE fighters could not be dialed down. The levels were preset, designed to give a pilot a good tactical feel of the craft, and often a wild ride, but would not allow the g’s to exceed safe limits.