by Greg Keyes
The fields at Vrelnid were indeed vast, though Uldir wouldn't have really
called them fields, just a lower sort of jungle, rambling off from the base
of a small mountain range. The processing plant was mod-est, a few buildings
outside of a ring-walled Vratix village. Hesaw that the humanoid workers
were already assembled near
the landing pad.
'This bio-weapon,'' Xeshen Kra asked, as they circled in. 'Doyou know the
mode of delivery?''
'Not the primary mode, no,'' Klin-Fa said. 'It might be in somesort of
aerosol container. Once introduced, the plants themselvesbegin producing it
in the form of spores. The spores are not only
airborne but also self-motivated. They'll seek out the chemical sig-nature
of alazhi plants.''
'It would spread very quickly, then?'' The Vratix asked.
'Very,'' Bey said. 'That's why we need to catch the agent beforehe can begin
the introduction.''
The flier touched down and its landing ramp extended. The fourhumans and two
Vratixdescended to the packed brown earth.Three humans, a Twi'lek, and a
Neimoidian watched themapproach with puzzled expressions.
'What's this all about?'' One of the humans-a small woman withblond hair
asked.
'Yes,'' the Neimoidian said. 'Why is our time being wasted?''
'And why the security troops?''A second human-a sandy-haired man-said. 'We
aren't criminals.''
'We apologize for the inconvenience,'' Uldir said, 'but it's neces-sary. And
it won't take long. Klin-Fa? Bey?''
The two Jedi nodded and stepped forward.
'Really,'' the Neimoidian said. 'Aren't we even due an explanation?''
Xeshen Kra waved his hands. 'These Jedi believe there is a threat tothe
bacta. All will be explained in time.''
'He's not there,'' Klin-Fa said, pointing at the man who had just spoken.
Before the words left her mouth, the fellow was already in motion,leaping
straight for Uldir's throat, shouting something in the all-toorecognizable
Yuuzhan Vong language.
He was fast. Vega was faster. Her blaster rifle came up and whined.Uldir's
attacker snarled and staggered as a bolt struck him in the ster-num, but he
did not stop. Uldir raised his hands to defend himself andtired to step
back, but he bumped into Xeshen Kra. A fist slammed intohis guard and
through it, catching him hard on the side of the jaw. Thenthe hands were on
his head, and he felt his neck twist. He vaguely heardthe snap-hiss of a
lightsaber, and was suddenly free as the hands-andthe arms they were
attached to-fell away. Klin-Fa stood there, her yel-low lightsaber held at
guard. The man-Yuuzhan Vong, rather-fell tohis knees, gaping at the stumps
of his arms.
'Infidels,'' he snarled. 'You are too late. The hinges of this fortress
arealready weak. Our fleet sweeps through it like flame.''
'Fleet?'' Uldir said. 'The fleet we saw back at Yag'Dhul? It's staging foran
attack on Thyferra?'' He frowned at Klin-Fa.'Then why would they sendsomeone
to poison the bacta?''
'The bacta plague is a Shaper initiative,'' Klin-Fa said. 'Maybe they
didn'tknow about the military invasion-the warriors would plan that. Or
maybeit's a back up, in case the fleet is defeated atYag'Dhul.''
The kneeling Yuuzhan Vong collapsed, finally overcome by shock.
'Wait,'' Uldir said.'T hat means this guy isn't-''
'Where did Bey go?'' Vega asked.
'What?'' Uldir swung his head around, looking.
'Oh, no,'' Klin-Fa said. 'Oh, no.''
'Vaping Moffs,'' Uldir said. 'It's Bey, isn't it? He's the agent.''
'I-the Vong must have done something to him.''
'You suspected this?'' Vega snarled.
'No-I mean, I knew there was something wrong with him. He keptclosed to me.
But sometimes I felt-''
'Something dark,'' Uldir finished. 'It was him, not you.''
She closed her eyes. 'it must be true.''
'Question?'' Vega asked. 'Why are we still discussing this?''
'You're right. We have to find him, and fast.''
'The fields,'' Klin-Fa said. 'He can't have gone far.''
'Split up,'' Uldir commanded.
Klin-Fa had already started off at a dead run. Uldir chose anotherdirection,
but Vega tugged at his sleeve. 'You still trust her?'' sheasked. 'What if
she's just going to help him?''
'Then we're in very deep trouble,'' Uldir replied. 'Now go. And becareful.
If he is what I think he is-''
'Yeah.'' Vega started off, too.
Leaft woke in a foul mood. His head hurt, his nose itched-and,oh, yes-his
imbs were glued to a wall with some kind of goo.
Bloorashjelly, he figured, because that's what the Yuuzhan Vongused to hold
captives, and he was clearly still on the Yuuzhan Vong ship.
What had happened to the Boss and the others? Had they beencaptured? Had
they left him here? He yanked at the jelly until hislimbs started to spasm,
and then tried to quiet himself. It wasn'teasy, but he had to think.
He'd been in a coralskipper. He'd been falling into a black hole,and then
something hadgrabbed the 'skip, a counter-forcepulling it back-then nothing.
But he didn't think this was the slave transport either. It wasanother ship;
maybe the one Vook had been fighting.
'Where are you cowards?'' He shouted at the top of his lungs.
'Where are you, you brave Yuuzhan Vong? I've killed a thousandof your kind
and never seen one's face yet-'' he took wind for more air, '-because you're
always running the other way!''
Then hejerked at the jelly some more.
A few moments later, someone came into the room. He wasYuuzhan Vong, of
course. A black web tattoo covered his face, centered on the two holes that
passed for a nose. His ears had been sliced into three lobes, and he had
three holes in each cheek. He was rangy, almost wiry for a Yuuzhan Vong, and
tall.
'Pray,'' he said, in Basic.
'I'm not religious,'' Leaft informed him. 'But you ought to take your own
advice and ask your mangy, mother-beating coward-gods to have pity on you,
because once I'm free of this stuff-''
The Yuuzhan Vong smiled and raised some sort of staff. It spat at Leaft's
wrist and ankles, and the stuff holding him suddenly dissolved. With a yowl,
Leaft leapt at the Yuuzhan Vong, swinging up for a powerful kick.
But when his hand-feet got there, the enemy wasn't. He'd moved aside,
blindingly fast. Or, no, he wasn't there at all. Leaft turned this way and
that, snarling.
Then the wall punched him in the head so hard that for an instant he thought
that his eyes had been pushed together. He stumbled, and the Yuuzhan Vong
was there again, swinging, hitting him in his dorsal diaphragm so he
suddenly had hard vacuum in his lungs. A final kick sent him into the wall,
were all sorts of things seemed to snap.
Wheezing, Leaft tried feebly to rise.
'_Prey_, not pray, infidel,'' the Yuuzhan Vong said. 'You are my_prey,_
nothing more. I honored you by giving you the opportunity to attack me. It
was clearly more honor than you deserved:''
Leaft tried to retort, but he was still failing to breathe.
'I am Tsaa Qalu, a hunter,'' the Yuuzhan Vong
went on. 'Do you understand? I
have tracked you from Wayland. I am still tracking the rest of your pack.''
'Why?'' Leaft managed to cough out.
'Get up. I will show you.''
'I can't. You've broken one of my arms.''
'Ah. Is that so?'' He took a step closer and pointed. 'This one?''
'Yes.''
He kicked it, hard. Leaft screamed what he thought was a suitably loud
scream. It wasn't that difficult, since it really was broken.
'Embrace the pain, infidel, for you will never draw breath again without
it.''
'Eat mynock dung,'' Leaft suggested.
'Come.'' The Yuuzhan Vong grasped him by his good arm and yanked him up as
if he were made of pfith-thistle. He dragged him from the cell and into a
corridor, hustled him past a couple of coralskipper docks, though a dilating
membrane and into another hall. They passed one more door and entered what
Leaft recognized as a bridge. Another Yuuzhan Vong sat with a cognition hood
on his head.
Through a transparency, Leaft could see the curve of a large green-and-blue
planet.
'Your nestmates are down there,'' Tsaa Qalu said. 'They have with them one
who has seen the wisdom and rightness of our ways.''
'A traitor? The girl?''
The Yuuzhan Vong dismissed the question with the back of his hand against
Leaft's face. It stung, but next to his other pains, it was nothing.
'I am speaking, infidel. He has embraced the Truth. The Shapers sent him
here to do a thing, a thing that will hasten our victory. I do not know
what. I do not care.'' He snarled and clutched his hands behind his back.
'The Shapers did not bother to inform me of this thing. Two of you invaded
our territory on Wayland. I followed, sensing a good hunt. Only when I had
your ship in my claws did the Shapers tell me their plan, knowing that I
would spoil it by killing you all.'' He grimaced. 'Shapers. They know
nothing of honor. They should have given this task to me to carry out, but
they prefer to work in secret, to keep things from the other castes and even
other Shaper sects so they do not have to share the spoils of battle. Many
are heretics, as well.'' He shrugged. 'But no matter, the hunt was begun. I
merely altered the time of the kill. I had to stop you from plunging the
slave-ship into the singularity so that the Shaper agent would not die.''
'What are you talking about?'' Leaft muttered. 'I saved the trans-port.''
His arm was really hurting now. He was starting to worry he might black out.
'A near miracle,'' Tsaa Qalu said. 'I gave you the knowledge. The Shaper's
agent has a small villip implanted in his skull. Through it, I told him what
to do. And yet still you almost failed:''
The planet below was growing larger. 'So what now?'' Leaft asked, wearily.
'The agent's task is complete,'' Tsaa Qalu said. 'But he has been
dis-covered. So, I will now kill everyone who has learned of the Shaper
plan. According to the agent, most such are all in one place. It should not
be difficult to track those who remain. We will be there in a few moments.''
'Hah. You and this guy are going to beat the boss? Think again.''
'I won't fight them hand-to-hand, though that would be glorious. No, I must
be efficient and certain. I have weapons that can easily neutralize any
sentient in the area. It will be no trouble at all.''
'You forgot one thing,'' Leaft said.
'What's that?''
'You have to kill me first:''
And ignoring the pain, Leaft gathered his three functioning limbs and
sprang.
Uldir felt something in the Force: A shadow, but a familiar one. He was
certain it was the same dark presence he had sensed several times before. He
imagined if he had real Jedi potential it wouldn't be so intangible but like
a giant laser display pointing the way. As it was, it gave him only the
vaguest sense of direction. Bey could be a meter away, hidden in the
undergrowth, or half a kilometer away.
Was it Bey he sensed? The Jedi hadn't been on Bonadan, had he? Well, maybe
he had. How long ago had the Yuuzhan Vong broken him?
But the only Jedi he knew for sure had been on Bonodan was Klin-Fa. What if
Vega was right? What if they had both gone dark? It made a certain amount of
sense-if the Yuuzhan Vong
could break one of them, they could break both.
He heard something up ahead and moved even more cautiously.
The sound was gone, now, though. So was his sense of a dark presence.
Then he heard the hum of a lightsaber igniting, only a few footsteps away.
He whirled and saw Klin-Fa, her face set in grim lines. Her blade cut toward
him. With a yelp he dropped and rolled. She flew past, her blade shearing
through undergrowth. He came up on one knee, brought his blaster to bear-
-and saw her real target as her amber blade met Bey's crimson one in a shear
of sparks. Bey must have been hidden less than an arm's length from Uldir.
He pulled out his comlink with one hand and tried to draw a bead with his
blaster with the other.
'Vega, I found him. Hurry!''
Klin-Fa was a whirlwind. Bits of alazhi plants flew everywhere, and her
blade was an arcing blur. Bey seemed unconcerned, parrying easily and
returning blows that missed Klin-Fa by quantum increments. He was clear for
a moment, and Uldir snapped off a shot. The Jedi parried it without even
glancing his way, sending the bolt burning off through the underbrush.
'It's too late,'' Bey informed them. 'It's already done. The spores were in
me. They were released from my pores. It's all around you, now.''
Klin-Fa drew back to a guard position. Uldir could see tears streaming down
her face.
'What did they do to you, Bey? How did they turn you into-this?''
The redheaded Jedi laughed. 'You think the Yuuzhan Vong did this to me?''
'You were their captive for-''
He grinned. 'I was never their captive. You were.''
'What do you mean? We escaped, and then-''
'All part of the plan,'' he said. 'Everything that's happened up until now,
all planned.''
'I don't understand.''
'Well, I didn't understand you and Yabaley. What did you see in him? I was
always stronger, smarter. He didn't deserve you.''
'I loved him.''
'And not me. And in my whole life, that's all I ever really wanted. And I'll
never have it, will I? So I'll settle. I'll settle for helping the Yuuzhan
Vong burn this all down, and then maybe I'll kill them too. Or maybe I'll
rule them.''
'Wow,'' Uldir said. 'You have the most amazing mental image of yourself. Too
bad it has nothing to do with reality.''
'You're an insect'' Bey sighed. He flipped his hand casually, and a searing
pain struck Uldir between the eyes.
'No!'' he heard Klin-Fa shout. She leapt at Bey, blade cutting down. Through
a fog of pain, Uldir saw Bey parry, and then somehow Klin-Fa's weapon was
flipping end-over end through the air. She gasped in pain and clutched at
her right hand, which seemed to be missing several fin-gers. Bey had his
weapon cocked for the final cut. Klin-Fa drew her shoul-ders back and looked
him in the eye.<
br />
'I admired you once, Bey,'' she said. 'I thought you were the best of us.''
'I_am_ the best of you,'' he sneered. 'Goodbye, Klin-Fa.''
Uldir clutched for his blaster, but it wasn't near his hand.
The blade whipped out, and Uldir choked back a scream of frustration, but
the red blade went up in a parry, not an attack, and several blaster bolts
went searing off at odd angles.
Vega.
Taking advantage of the distraction, Klin-Fa spun to kick Bey. She
connected, and he staggered, turned, and clubbed her in the temple with the
butt of his saber. She dropped. Uldir grunted, stood, looking for the
blaster, but it was nowhere to be seen.
But a few meters away, smoke was rising.
Klin-Fa's lightsaber. He ran toward it.
He picked it up and turned in time to see Vega go down in a rain of stones
and branches propelled by the Force. The bushes were on fire, and he got a
