Emissary of the Void

by Greg Keyes

  discuss with you.'' There was something deeply grudging in his voice.

  'I am in the middle of battle.''

  'Break off immediately, in that case. I must speak to you_now._ ''

  'Very well,'' Qalu said, trying to keep his own rancor from showing. He

  changed the vector to take him farther from the infidel, firing a few

  parting shots. The ship did not follow but instead moved back toward the

  doomed slave transport.

  'Leave us, Laph Rapuung,'' he said.

  Uldir watched waxing nothingness with a growing sense of helplessness.

  'Any ideas, people?'' He asked. 'Speak up.''

  'There is a possibility,'' the red-haired croaked. They werethe first words

  he had spoken.

  'I'm sorry,'' Uldir said. 'You are...?''

  Knowing full well whom it must be, the way he and Klin-Fa were playing cozy.

  'Bey Gandan. A Jedi, like Klin-Fa.''

  _Right._'Y''ou know some way to fly this ship?''

  'I think so.'' He said. He winced and closed his eyes for a moment.

  'Well, don't keep us in suspense,'' Vega said.

  'He's hurt,'' Klin-Fa snapped. 'Can't you see that? Give him a minute.''

  _Nope,_Uldir thought,_I do not like this guy._ He looked frankly at Bey. 'No

  offense, but I thought you were in a coma,'' he said.

  'He was,'' Klin-Fa explained. 'I snapped him out of it with the Force. Do

  you want to survive, Uldir?''

  'Please,'' Bey said. 'Don't argue. I may pass out again, and I have to tell

  you this while I'm still coherent.''

  'Let him talk, Boss,'' Vega said. 'It can't hurt at this point.''

  'Go on,'' Uldir said, vaguely ashamed of his attitude. But this guy had been

  rubbin him the wrong way_before_ they met, and now...

  'The coralskippers also have cognition hoods,'' Bey said. 'They're linked,

  networked with the central control of this ship. If there's still a `skip on

  board, you ought to be able to pilot the transport from there-remotely, so

  to speak.''

  'That's stupid,'' Leaft snapped. 'Any coralskipper pilot can take over the

  ship any time?''

  Bey shook his head. 'No, not if someone is under the central hood. But if

  it's out of commission, then yes, I believe so.''

  'Urr.'' Leaft bared his teeth. 'And how is it you know so much about

  piloting Vong ships?''

  'I've been their captive for a while,'' Bey said, mildly. 'And I'm still

  only guessing. But I think it's the best shot that you've got.''

  'It's worth a try,'' Uldir had to admit.

  'Where are the `skipper bays?'' Vega asked. 'I'll do it.''

  'They should be along the outer hull access corridor,'' Klin-Fa said. 'Go

  back to the axial corridor and take any major artery away from the center.''

  'Fine,'' Vega said. 'Wish me luck.'' She turned to leave.

  'No,'' Leaft growled. '_I'll_try it. And if it doesn't work...''

  'If it doesn't work, you'll think uncharitable thoughts for a few seconds,

  at best,'' Klin-Fa said.

  'Don't tempt me, Jedi,'' Leaft returned, glaring.

  Klin-Fa returned the angry stare dispassionately.

  'Go, Leaft, if you're going,'' Uldir said. 'And may the Force be with you.''

  Leaft rolled his eyes and without another word loped out of the chamber.

  'Are you sure it's wise to entrust him with this?'' Klin-Fa asked, once the

  Dug was out of earshot.

  Uldir studied the young Jedi. He noticed she was gripping Bey, almost as if

  she was afraid he might leave her again.

  'You think you can fly better than Leaft?'' He asked.

  'No. But I think you can. And his anger-''

  'The Yuuzhan Vong are pretty angry,'' Uldir said. 'I don't think that will

  confuse this ship any.''

  'Six minutes, boss-boy,'' Vega said. 'Then it doesn't matter_who_ is flyin

  the ship-we'll be too deep in the gravity well to ever climb ou.''

  Uldir nodded and returned his gaze to the transparency. Leaft had been

  right-hey couldn't see the black hole and they never would. But as he'd

  said, you could see where it wasn't-a corona of luminescent gas and iron

  particles surrounded it in a bluish nimbus. It looked like the pupil of a

  giant large enough to swallow a star system.

  He noticed Vega had edged a little closer. 'You think he can do it?'' she

  whispered.

  It sounded weird, coming from Vega. Vega never flinched. He had never

  imagined she even gave death a second thought. But then-like Leaft-she was

  used to facing down danger with a blaster. It was different to falling

  helplessly into nothingness. It was why he'd let Leaft be the one to make

  the attempt-another few seconds and the Dug would have made his own.

  Leaft snarled and spat to himself as he ran through the living corridors of

  theYuuzhan Vong ship. His anger beat in him like one of the old_Y'sd_ drums

  of the thorp elders, like an ancient Gran-killing song. Like sonic boom

  after sonic boom.

  The boss had gone mad; there was no doubt about that. As revolting as the

  human female was, she had still managed to drive him mad-whether the cause

  was pheromones or the so-called Force, he did not know. And Vega, she was

  acting stupid too, like someone had taken her wilf-skimmer. If she wanted

  the boss, why didn't she just puff out her skin and_take_ him? She was

  strong enough.

  Not that Leaft ever,_ever_ wanted to see a human female_or_ male puff out

  their skin.

  Of course, they didn't do that, did they? No inflating for them. No decent,

  straightforward announcement of a desire to mate. Instead, they drove each

  other crazy wit words and then pulled idiotic stunts to impress one another.

  It was as if nature had turned on humans, favoring procreation of the

  foolish over selection of the fittest.

  And, yes, maybe there was some sort of threat to the galaxy, or whatever.

  Did that justify this kind of behavior?

  Even if he managed to pull them out of this-like he had back at Wayland,

  when he'd thought to go out and hook up the fuel line to that old ship-even

  if he did that, in under a standard hour they'd been deep in some_other_

  sarlacc pit, because every human on the ship was swept up in this_mating_

  frenzy.

  He stopped, whipping around. Where were the stupid coral-skippers? He

  thought he was in the right corridor. They were on the outside of the ship,

  but there had to be some way in to them from here, some docking mechanism.

  He started pounding on the walls. How much time did he have left anyway?

  Maybe it wasn't the boss who was stupid. Maybe_he_ was. Maybe he should have

  gotten better instructions.

  'Where are you?'' He howled. He bounced farther down the corridor. Nothing.

  In sheer frustration, he yanked out his blasters and started firing. Shreds

  of mycoluminescent bulkhead filled the air, along with a smell like burning

  meat and seaweed.

  Panting, he sank onto his hands. They'd had it.

  And then, quite silently, holes opened in the walls, each about a meter

  wide.

  'Don't know what I'm about, eh?'' Leaft snarled. 'I'll show them.''

  The holes were the mouths of tubes. Most didn't go very far and ended in

  opacity-after all, the transport had launched most of its skips to fight

  the_No Luck Required._ But aft
er a frantic footfall of seconds, he found one

  that went back into a little grotto. He hastened down it and found something

  like a cross between the inside of a starfighter and the rotting carcass of

  a rancor. There was a seat, though, and he hopped in. The cognition hood

  dangled above him, and he grabbed it and pushed it down over his ears and

  head.

  And it started talking to him. In Yuuzhan Vong.

  He felt his ears flatten back. He wanted to yank the thing off, get those

  voices out of his head, but he had to do this, to prove-

  Prove nothing. He was Leaft, a Dug, a warrior. He had nothing to prove. He

  just had to_do_ this, save the boss, save Vega.

  He remembered hearing it was a lot easier to fly one of these things

  if you knew the language, but it had been done before without that

  knowledge, and by a human. For him it should be no trouble at all. He closed

  his eyes.

  'Fly!'' he said. 'Reverse engines!''

  Nothing happened, except his legs felt funny and the voice was

  growing louder in his head. 'Fly, you stupid thing!''

  Nothing.

  Frustrated, he stamped his foot.

  G-forces smashed him back into the couch, and suddenly he saw stars- and the

  transport, receding.

  That was a start. The wrong start.

  'No!'' He yelled at the hood. 'Not the 'skip, the transport!''

  He fought down panic. The circle of nothingness was very near.

  But then he understood. The 'skip wasn't obeying his thoughts-it couldn't

  understand them. But it understood his body, his voluntary nerve impulses.

  He closed his eyes again, flexed his manipulating digits, and the 'skip went

  into a spin. He grunted happily. He could control the 'skip. But how to take

  control of the transport?

  'Well,'' he mused aloud, 'If the 'skip is like my body, what's the transport

  to me?''

  _Another__body?_Right. And that voice. The one trying to talk to him-that

  would be the coordinating device or whatever they called it.

  He focused on the voice, and began talking to it, reaching for it,

  stretching .. .

  He touched something, but it slipped away. Biting back another yowl of

  frustration, he reached again

  And got it. Suddenly his body seemed bigger, and he could feel himself

  pushing, pushing toward the black hole, because the last pilot had left the

  drive on.

  So Leaft needed to push away.

  So he did, and agony tore at him. The momentum was too great to simply

  check, even with the Yuuzhan Vong gravity drive. It would tear him-the

  transport-apart.

  Of course, he was a pilot-he ought to know he couldn't just reverse his way

  out of a black hole. So he had to angle, keep going toward the hole but

  angle, just keep above the event horizon, stay away from where space curved

  into a perfect circle.

  He was panting. At this range, even a small course change was hard. But it

  was happening, it was happening, but fast enough? He wasn't sure.

  The sick thing was, he was starting to enjoy flying the thing. Controls

  couldn't move a ship like this, couldn't make it respond they way your very

  muscles would. He felt like he was running down a funnel, already so fast

  that if he tried to stop he would fall over himself and plunge to where the

  deepening slope of the funnel became a sheer drop. He had to run so his

  momentum carried him along the wall of the funnel, not down it. That would

  be an orbit.

  He managed it, his muscles screaming, but it wasn't enough to simply orbit.

  He had to get away, to go back up to the rim, and over itwithout all of his

  limbs tearing from their sockets.

  Gravity clenched at him, and he heard the dovin basal's silent scream of

  protest as they slowed, slowed

  And sped up again.

  Leaft howled with pain and joy. He howled at the dead star that could not

  beat him. He howled to live.

  And because he had done it.

  He relaxed, and his body felt small again. For a long moment he sat there,

  blinking and confused, because the black hole was still there, larger than

  ever. The transport wasn't there any more, though. Well, no, there it was,

  accelerating away ...

  'Oh, flupp,'' Leaft groaned.

  His mother had been right, after all.

  'He did it!'' Vega shouted.'We're out! We're clear!''

  Uldir realized he was shouting, too, and that his fingers had gone to sleep

  they'd been clenched so tight. He slapped Vega on the back, and in a woozy

  instant realized it had somehow turned into a hug.

  Vega realized it too, and she stepped back, her eyes avoided his. 'Let's not

  get carried away, huh?''

  'Yeah.'' He cast a glance at Klin-Fa and Bey. He was sitting down, now, in

  one of the chair-things, and Klin-Fa stood by herself, her face flushed,

  relieved-and something else. Again, Uldir felt movement in the Force,

  something so big even his diminished senses could sense it.

  Something_wrong_ .

  'What was that?'' He asked, before he thought better of it.

  'What was what?''

  'Something in the Force.''

  'I didn't feel anything.''

  Uldir stared at her for a moment. 'I guess I was wrong,'' he mur-mured.

  'Must just have been the relief.''

  'I thought the ship would pull apart for a while there,'' Bey said. 'But I

  have to admit, your guy did it:''

  'He couldn't have managed it off without your help,'' Uldir said.

  'Thank you.''

  The Jedi smiled faintly. 'I hoped it would work. I felt it would.''

  'Before this love fest goes to far, we ought to check on Vook,'' Vega

  reminded them.

  I Oh, right,'' Uldir pulled out his comlink.

  'Vook, you there?''

  'Here, captain,'' Vook promptly replied.

  'How's your situation?''

  'Not bad. The enemy craft retreated a few moments ago. We've taken only

  minor damage. I see you got the transport working.''

  'Yep. Leaft's flying it. Can you meet us? '

  'Yes, sir, I have you on scope. Distance-555,892 kilometers.''

  'I'll have Leaft alter course to meet you.''

  'Very good, sir.''

  'Leaft, you copy that?''

  But from the Dug's comlink, there was no signal whatever.

  'Boss, give it up,'' Vega said, her voice as soft as it ever got.

  Uldir blinked his eyes at the stars. 'It's only been a few hours. He could

  be anywhere.''

  'It looks like the coralskipper he was in launched. Boss-Uldir- no way a

  'skip had the power to escape the gravity well at that range.''

  Uldir felt his jaw lock. 'I should have done it.''

  'That's stupid, and you know it. He got the job done. The same would have

  probably have happened with any of us, except that if you had done it, it

  would have left me in charge. That wouldn't be any good at all.''

  'You did fine when you were in charge back in the Wayland system.''

  'Maybe, but I hated it. I don't like command.''

  'Really?'' Uldir said, feeling very cold. 'Well, neither do I. I like

  flying. I like the job. But being responsible ...'' He gasped, fighting the

  tears back. 'I am responsible, Vega. I have to be. I'm in charge. I brought

  us here.
''

  'Leaft was responsible too. He knew that. We all know it. Come on, Boss. Is

  this really the first crewmember you've lost? The first friend?''

  'No. No. Not by a long shot. I even had to kill one once-at least I thought

  he was my friend. But that was his choice. Leaft died because of my

  choices.'' He swung on her. 'And they've all been wrong, haven't they? Every

  decision I've made since meeting Klin-Fa Gi has been wrong.''

  'No.''

  'What? You've disagreed with me every step of the way.''

  'Yeah. But you were right, I was wrong. You've been so torn up about Leaft

  you haven't looked at what the Jedi found on Wayland. It's bad, and we have