by Greg Keyes
'We fight them,'' Txer said firmly. 'And if you lie, we fight you too. We
fight until offworlders all gone, or until we all die. Sleep now. Tomorrow
we enter Cut-Up territory, and then no sleep.''
Uldir spent a restless night trying not to worry about his crew, hoping they
were still alive and had managed to find a hiding place. He did not think
Klin-Fa Gi would stop to sleep, and he felt her drawing ahead of him, and
that made him even more anxious.
When he did sleep, his mind built dreams whose architecture was darker than
the night.
* * *
'The jungle looks sick,'' Uldir remarked the next morning. The upper canopy
looked ragged and skeletal, and the lower was covered with what looked like
a fine mold or dust.
'Yes. Will get sicker,'' Txer assured him.
It did. Soon they were walking through only the memory of a forest; the
mighty trunks were still there, but no hint of green or color of blossoms
was anywhere in evidence -- only a drab, charcoal gray.
'What did this?'' Uldir asked.
Txer rubbed his mouth. 'Not know. No one living has seen what does it. No
one dead talks about it.''
A kilometer later the trees became charred stumps, obviously scorched by
some high heat. The burned zone went off to his left and right for as far as
he could see.
Two kilometers later, even the stumps were gone, and they stood on a high
ridge looking across a shallow valley at what remained of Mount Tantiss.
Under force of the seismic disruption, the peak had shuddered and collapsed.
This side of the mountain had slumped and become a rolling, churned slope of
talus. On this vast jumble of basalt, at about the same level he now stood
on, grew the Yuuzhan Vong base.
Five of the living compounds looked to be star-shaped, or at least radially
symmetrical. This sort of structure Uldir had seen before, in records taken
by an erstwhile smuggler named Talon Kaarde. Called damuteks, the Yuuzhan
Vong had grown some on the ruins of the Jedi academy when they'd captured
the Yavin system a few months earlier. Uldir's old friend Anakin Solo had
fought his way through a damutek and had reported a lot of useful
information about them.
'I think those are Shaper compounds,'' Uldir told Txer.
'Shapers?''
'Yes. The Yuuzhan Vong are divided into castes. The Shapers are the ones who
make their biotech -- ah, who twist life into the shapes they want. You
understand?''
'Yes. Have seen -- not as cut-up as those who fight. Have hair like nest of
brvol-snakes.''
'Shapers, right. Those compounds are their laboratories. But what's that
thing?'' He indicated something that resembled a squat cylindrical tower,
albeit a crooked one. It was huge, at least a hundred meters high and nearly
that in diameter. Like the damuteks, it looked as if it were made of coral.
Unlike them, its upper surface seemed to be perforated with hundreds of
openings, each of which must be a meter or so in diameter.
Uldir lifted his macrobinoculars and examined the base of the thing more
closely, but he couldn't tell much else except -- yes, it seemed to be
slowly rotating, as if boring into or out of the ground.
'It's a drill,'' he muttered.
'Makes holes,'' Txer said. 'We think, anyway.''
'A big hole. That's some kind of giant worm, I'd guess, or was before their
Shapers got hold of it.''
'But one thing we never reckon,'' Txer said. 'If digging, where puts-it
rock?''
Uldir looked at Txer, reminding himself that primitive didn't mean stupid.
'That's a good question,'' he replied. 'I guess it digests the rock,
somehow, breaks it down. He shrugged. 'Doesn't matter. But look, see those
capillaries connecting the mine to the rayed compounds?''
'Yes.''
'Those must be ways down into the mines the worm is digging. If they find
anything, they'll bring them up through there. Which means I'll find Klin-Fa
Gi either in the mines or in one of those compounds.'' He sighed. 'In other
words, she could be almost anywhere down there.''
He moved the macrobinoculars down, and the multitudes of figures moving
amongst the compounds resolved into recognizably Yuuzhan Vong shapes, but
there were plenty of Myneyrshi -- the tall spindly race -- and Psadans, the
armored ones -- as well. There were also more than a few humans, of which
Txer's band also included a number -- the descendants of a long-lost colony,
if he understood their story correctly.
He focused on the nearest group, who seemed to be tending some sort of
plants that grew on slope, just above where the burned zone ended. They were
about a hundred meters away, and Uldir saw no Yuuzhan Vong guards.
'Maybe I can pass for one of them,'' Uldir speculated. 'If they've caught
Klin-Fa, there ought to be talk about it. If they haven't, there might be
talk about that too.''
But looking up at the complex, he didn't feel much hope. He didn't have the
leisure time to insinuate himself into the Yuuzhan Vong camp the way Anakin
Solo had done on Yavin 4 -- Vega and the rest were out there, possibly
fighting for their lives, waiting for him to finish his mission here and get
back into space. Every second he spent here was a risk not just to his own
life but to his crew's, and for that matter to everyone he and his crew
might have rescued if they weren't here chasing one rogue Jedi.
'Jedi,'' he murmured, and Txer narrowed his eyes.
'What Jedi?'' He asked, suspiciously. 'You Jedi?''
'No, I'm not. The one I chase.''
Uldir closed his eyes and concentrated, trying to ignore his body, his
thoughts, his immediate surroundings, to feel through the living Force
around him. To search for Klin-Fa Gi. She was probably the only living Jedi
on Wayland, and the Yuuzhan Vong did not appear in the Force at all. Klin-Fa
ought to stand out like a Wookiee at a Tintinna wedding, even to his
less-than attuned senses.
The sounds around him faded thin and were forgotten. In the outward-reaching
eye of his mind, he was a sphere, expanding, not so much taking in all that
he touched, but reminding himself that he was already a part of it.
He felt the belt of sickly life behind him, growing stronger as it marched
away from the Yuuzhan Vong settlement. He felt the verge of death and pain
he stood on, and the odd blankness of the Yuuzhan Vong themselves. He felt
the fractured stones of Mount Tantisss.
Part of him was excited. He'd never commanded this sort of clarity in the
Force, even on his best day at the academy.
And yes, better still, there, a flicker, he felt Klin-Fa Gi, and it seemed
she was near. He felt her heart pounding, sensed danger, a goal reached,
something desired found . . .
Then a black spike of anger and despair struck him between the eyes, and a
shriek of hatred that was somehow more the taste of salt and bitter Jiqui
peels than a sound.
His tenuous hold on the Force snapped, replaced by another sensation, a sort
of burring in his bones.
It took him a moment to understand the feeling was com
ing from beneath him,
up through his feet, that it was the ground trembling. And it was growing
stronger. He opened his eyes, gazing at the ruined mountain, at the terrible
Vong-thing growing into it.
Something was different, but it took him a moment to place it. Then he saw,
but still didn't understand. The tower was larger, puffy, bloated looking.
'Txer,'' he said, 'Run. Now.'' He bolted down the hill, across the blasted
landscape toward the Yuuzhan Vong settlement.
'Why?'' Txer shouted from behind him.
'Just do it!'' He didn't have time to explain that he wasn't quite sure why,
but that if he waited to think it through they would all be dead.
A glance behind him showed Txer and his Free People still hesitating. 'Come
on!'' he howled.
Txer started forward. After that, Uldir kept all of his attention on the
rocky path and the rumbling in the planet that grew stronger with each
footfall. He ran, hoping the Free People followed -- hoping his luck hadn't
betrayed him at last.
He'd reached the bottom of the foothill they'd stood upon and just started
up the slope toward the damuteks when he heard shouts from the sentients
behind him. The Psadan, who were basically armored spheres, were mostly
rolling down the hill. The Myneyrshi were having a bit more trouble with
their delicate looking legs. As they started uphill, however, their
positions were reversed. The Myneyrshi pulled themselves gracefully up the
slope with their six limbs, while the Psadan began to lag behind. It was
Txer who first shouted and exclaimed, and Uldir followed the direction the
fellow indicated with his gaze. The vibration in the ground was rattling his
teeth, now.
The tower bristled. From each of the hundreds of openings on its upper
surface, a snaky tube emerged and lengthened, arcing in unison out over the
valley and toward the foothills in what looked like slow motion, but which,
given the distances involved, was probably quite fast. Each of the tubes was
headed for a slightly different destination. Many of them seemed to be
coming straight toward Uldir.
Uldir quickened his pace.
'What is?'' Txer asked.
'We have to make it out of the burned zone!'' Uldir shouted. 'To the first
of the Yuuzhan Vong gardens.''
He glanced up, and could see the dark mouths of the tubes facing down now,
like cave worms coming to take a bite out of him. How low did they have to
get? The sky was full of the arcing shafts now, some aimed far beyond the
ridge. It might have been curiously pretty if he didn't remember the
perimeter of destruction, if the burned zone didn't fit so well with the
geometry of what he was seeing.
They were about to find out what the drilling-worm digested rock into, and
he didn't think they were going to enjoy the enlightenment.
The end of the scorch-zone was just ahead, but the Psadans weren't doing so
well. One stumbled, and Txer supported him. Another slipped back near Uldir.
He bit his lip. If he paused to help the Psadan, he might die, which was one
thing, but then he would fail his mission, which was altogether another. He
couldn't . . .
No. Whatever else his mission was, first and foremost it was to help his
fellow being in need.
He put a shoulder under the Psadan's stout arm, and together they struggled
toward the strip of green ahead. They had maybe thirty meters to go -- some
of the Myneyrshi had already reached it.
The sky was a vault of black cords now, and an opening wide enough to
swallow Uldir was dropping swiftly toward him. He didn't think it would
swallow him, though. He wondered, in fact, if he would feel much of
anything.
The smaller rocks on the hillside were actually rattling now, from the
pressure building below them. Any moment now . . .
Uldir's foot struck a rock wrong, and he slipped down, his ankle twisting
painfully as the Psadan's weight fell disproportionally on him. Grunting
apologetically, the Psadan tried to lift him into a carry.
'Too late,'' Uldir muttered.
He didn't see the yellow-and-black clad figure until she was beside him,
until her strength had flowed into him and he and the Psadan were
practically carried forward to the edge of the Yuuzhan Vong fields by the
power of the Force.
'You're an idiot, Uldir Lochett,'' Klin-Fa-Gi informed him.
The Free People shouted as one, as out and across the valley the hundreds of
tubes coughed out a fluorescent orange haze. The smell was lightning against
stone, hot copper hitting water. The haze collected in low spots, cooling to
blood red and then nearly black, rolling over the hills in an expanding
torus which left the Yuuzhan Vong base and gardens -- and thankfully, Uldir
Lochett -- untouched in the center.
'What is it?'' Txer asked, waving at the terrifying sight.
'Mining vents,'' Klin-Fa Gi said, briskly. The Chom-Vrone chews up rocks and
digests into a state of semi-plasma in a process a lot like the weapons
their skips use. When it has a full load, it spews it in a perimeter around
their settlement, as you see. Keeps things clear and undesirables out.''
'Yeah,'' Uldir grunted. 'Or almost all of them, anyway.'' He noticed that
she had a few new wounds, though none of them looked serious. She also had
something strapped to her back, something wrapped in layers of what seemed
to be living tissue.
'What's that you've got?''
'Never mind that now,'' Klin Fa said. 'We've other troubles.'' She pointed.
Coming down in a wave from the settlement above were dozens of Yuuzhan Vong
warriors. Behind Uldir, the curtain of superheated rock vapor was still
spreading. They could face the warriors or fry.
'Well,'' Uldir grunted. 'At least we have our backs to a wall.''
To Be Continued in Insider #62. . .
Greg Keyes is the author of Star Wars: The New Jedi Order -- Edge of Victory
I: Conquest and Star Wars: The New Jedi Order -- Edge of Victory II:
Rebirth.
*IV: Relic of Ruin*
*V: A Perilous Plan*
AS THE_NO LUCK REQUIRED_ TUMBLEDlaconically though the void, Vook Gehu
watched the stars drift across his view, remembering a Duro maxim older than
some species.
_If a star should but blink, it would miss all of our history._
The stars did not care who won this war. They did not care if Vook was
freeze-dried in vacuum or blasted into vapor. That he would die without
companions did not trouble them.
Vook found an odd comfort in that.
He checked to make sure the emergency transponder was working properly. It
was, pulsing a steady distress call. He hoped it would be answered soon, or
this would all be moot.
He needn't have worried. Five minutes later, a response came, and Vook's
blood seemed to drop to the temperature of surrounding space. He searched
the stars a few more moments before he found the newcomer-an irregular
darkness that was not a distant nebula, but something much nearer.
Something that-unlike the stars-did indeed take an interest in what happened
to Vook.
In this
, he took no comfort at all. His mind wandered back to the
conversation-only an hour or so before-that had crashed him into this
situation, and he sighed.
He answered the hail.
'This is Vook Gehu of the_No Luck Required._ I need help. The rest of the
crew is dead, and I am injured. My sensor grid is down and my ship is badly
damaged. I am in great need of assistance.''
The comm unit sputtered and clucked, then spoke to him in a harsh, nasal
baritone.
'You have found your assistance, infidel,'' the reply came. 'I am Vintul Cat
of the Yuuzhan Vong. Shut down all of your auxiliary systems and prepare to
be boarded.''
Vook vented another sigh and keyed the return. 'Hello, Yuuzhan Vong,'' he
said. 'So runs my luck-I hoped to attract a friendly ship, but I see my
gamble has failed.''
'There is no luck,'' Qat replied. 'There are only the gods and what they
will.''
'Yes? Then you may tell your gods I will not be boarded, Vintul Qat, not by
you or any other of your despicable kind. I shall die before surrendering.''
'By your own admission you have no sensors,'' Qat replied. 'Your ship is
losing atmosphere.''
