The Unifying Force

by James Luceno

  h the launchers were far from depleted, they refused to fire. a that something had changed, the skip pilots began to harry

  ^ •flS'C'

  nth plasma fire. With maneuverability lost, only the organic

  h i 1 1^ , -elds vere keeping the ship from being destroyed.

  '

  Kyp's first instinct was to blame himself. His ego had crept back the fight, and he had lost his rapport with the ship as a result. Or •be he had been doing too much thinking. The frequent updates ' do, the comm chatter with Corran and the other Jedi, the sur^e in the savagery of the fighting since word of the poisoned

  ship had been received . . .

  Then Kyp realized that it wasn't only his ship that had powered

  down.

  Throughout the fire-fractured sky other Sekotan ships were abbre-

  viating their duels. The comlink grew noisy with reports from Corran, Zekk, Lowbacca, and Saba, confirming that their fighters, too, were

  no longer responding.

  Chased by the same pair of coralskippers, Kyp swooped through evasive turns that took him over a sawtoothed mountain range just south of the Middle Distance, which had been responsible for some of the heaviest outpourings of defensive fire. Now, though, even some of those summit weapons were beginning to fall silent. Above Kyp, flights of emboldened skips were plunging deeper into the gravity

  well.

  "The craft Lando reported seeing at Caluula could have been a decoy," Corran said to Kyp over the comlink. "The Alpha Red vessel could have already crashed on the surface."

  "That would explain why no one's been able to communicate with Sekot," Kyp said. "The planet's already poisoned."

  "Then the war is lost for everyone."

  Kyp gritted his teeth. "I'm not about to see another world die,

  Corran."

  "You and me both,"

  r

  Mm he:

  he final curve of the Citadel stairway terminated in a immense interior space with a convex ceiling of yorik coral as jagged as the hulls of Yuuzhan Vong war vessels. A wide circular aperture at the ceiling's lowest point was the mouth of the turbolift analog chute Jacen had detected with his Vongsense. Bioluminescent wall lichen projected a pool of green on the floor directly below the opening. Jacen was certain that the chute accessed the crown of Shimrra's holy mountain, but the dovin basal that controlled the chute was either malfunctioning or refusing to admit anyone other than Yuuzhan Vong, because nothing happened when Luke positioned himself in the shaft of olive light.

  "I guess we climb," he told his niece and nephew.

  Abandoning the watch for Yuuzhan Vong warriors, they turned to see Luke spring high into the chute. At the apex of his leap he pressed his back to the curved wall and his feet opposite. Then he began t< chimney himself along.

  Jaina and Jacen followed, recognizing that they were in sorr sense leaving the Citadel itself and entering an enormous esca] vessel, much like the one Jacen had described as encompassing World Brain. Ascending through an outer shell of yorik coral, tl passed through a layer of metal-bearing nacelles, wrapped around

  s organisms that had created them. Next came a layer of

  capillaries, then one of musculature and tendons. Ultimately

  merged in an antechamber with a vaulted ceiling and great

  walls the innermost of which contained a large but

  curving

  domed osmotic membrane.

  cen wasn't surprised to find the antechamber unoccupied. -Shimrra's expecting us," he said.

  liina tightened her ringed grip on the pommel of her lightsaber.

  "We should at least announce ourselves," Luke said

  He aimed the tip of his lightsaber at the membrane. Jacen and

  T ina brought their lightsabers close to his, and the three of them

  ushed the glowing blades through. A rancid smell permeated the

  antechamber, and the thick membrane began to melt. Finally the lock

  retracted with an audible pop!

  Luke gestured for Jaina and Jacen to withdraw to either side of the opening, and not a second later a shower of thud bugs whizzed out into the antechamber, caroming off the walls, ceiling, and floor. The three Jedi raised their blades, deflecting some of the winged creatures back through the portal, stunning others, and killing the few

  that remained.

  While Jaina was dispatching the last of them, Luke whirled and leapt through the opening. Landing in a crouch five meters from the membrane, he held the lightsaber in a one-handed grip extended to his right and slightly behind him. Jacen was the next through, assuming a bent-legged forward stance, with his blade held straight out in front of him. Then Jaina came through, moving swiftly but vigilantly to Luke's left side, with her blade raised over her right shoulder.

  Though the floor was level, the walls of Shimrra's circular, high-:uinged lair were curved. A simple throne occupied the center of a used dais that was encircled by a shallow moat flowing with what ght have been diluted Yuuzhan Vong blood. The far wall contained much more elaborate entry portal, and to the right of the throne a climbed into the summit of the Citadel, presumably to the ftmand and control areas of the escape vessel itself. Between the moat and the Jedi stood fifteen warriors of modest

  43O

  stature, arrayed in a semicircle and armed with hissing amply They affected no armor, but their burnished and blood-smeared n looked as impenetrable as vonduun crab topshells.

  Luke recognized them from Han and Leia's descriptf examples of the specially engineered warriors they had fac Caluula, and against whom even Kyp had failed. The slayers pre a daunting obstacle, but they were surpassed by the one they deployed to protect.

  When Luke had been brought before the Emperor, Palpat' > visage had been familiar to him from images that had reached ev remote Tatooine, and his inherent power was immediately evide The Supreme Overlord, however, was a void Luke could not fathom He wasn't a shell of a human in a hooded cloak, more energy than flesh. Nor was his face that of a Sith Master, prematurely wizened by years of calling on dark power. Instead, Shimrra was very much alive and all the more intimidating for it. In him was concentrated the combined strength of the Yuuzhan Vong species, and if he couldn't be defeated, then all that Luke had done to reach this point would amount to nothing.

  He was the largest Yuuzhan Vong Luke had ever seen, with lean limbs, a massive head, and an upper body so thoroughly branded and tattooed it was impossible to distinguish flesh from garment. Widely placed, his slightly slanted eyes gleamed in shifting colors. He wore a ceremonial cape made of tanned hide. Curled sedately around his left forearm was a thick-bodied amphistaff with an intricately patterned head. Only in his bemusement was Shimrra similar to the enemy Luke had confronted at Endor, on the incomplete Death Star. Much as the Emperor had trusted in the power of the dark side of the Force, the Supreme Overlord trusted entirely in the power of the gods. And similar to that pivotal moment in the Galactic Civil War, a battle was raging in the skies. But Shimrra's lair permitted no view of the coi test; only the muffled sounds of distant explosions infiltrated sealed space.

  If Luke was at all worried about Jaina and Jacen, if he had • regrets about having brought them to the very heart of the war,

  h's concerns so deeply to himself that they could not be felt by rtres even through the Force. The strength of their meld was

  !ii>* CH" £?

  hat the three might have been sharing the same mind, and that

  tine! was the Force itself.

  uke had no doubt that what they were doing was necessary, and harmony with the will of the Force.

  Shimrra'5 warriors were no less committed to the moment. A

  at to all the Yuuzhan Vong held sacred, the Jedi were driven by a

  . , anci incomprehensible power that flew in opposition to the divine

  diets of Yun-Yuuzhan and the other gods. No more than did those of

  rhe Jedi, the marked faces of the slayers d
isplayed neither anger nor

  tear-—only the full measure of their intent to protect their god-king at

  all costs.

  "The Master and the twins," Shimrra murmured from the throne,

  in passable Basic. "How long we have anticipated this meeting." "As we have," Luke answered.

  Shimrra beckoned with the fingers of his left hand. "Then come forward and show your respect, Master Jeeri-ai"

  Luke stayed put—and yet something began to move him forward. Just short of the moat, and much to the amusement of the slayers, he dropped to his knees, and bent at the waist. His extended left arm shook as it fought to prevent him from pressing his face to the floor, and the lightsaber was nearly yanked from his grip. Ifs not Shimrra, Jacen said through the Force. A dovin basal, Luke guessed.

  He sensed Jacen abandon the meld momentarily, presumably to

  call on his Vongsense to disable the gravitic powers of the biot. Luke

  began to feel as if he were shedding weight by the second. Gradually,

  >e raised his face to Shimrra, then—and as if defying gravity—he drew

  himself erect with a proud air.

  Incredulity almost raised Shimrra out of his throne. For a split :cond his glowing eyes fell on Jacen, who by then had returned to

  the Force-meld.

  Jaina and Jacen sidestepped away from Luke to create three sepa-' fronts. Then Luke did something neither twin had ever seen him

  do. Shifting his stance, he called the lightsaber into his left Abandoning form, he encouraged the warriors to attack him

  In swift response the fifteen divided themselves into three of four, four, and seven. The quartets began to square off with 1 and Jacen, while the larger group formed up opposite Jaina. Se that Luke and Jacen were the stronger fighters, the slayers I decided to reserve most of their might for the Jedi they perceiv H being the weakest, guessing that Luke and Jacen would always P Jaina's aid before attempting to reach Shimrra.

  No one moved.

  Just when it seemed that the moment would be forever frozen ' time, the slayers charged, some with amphistaffs stiffened, other unfurling them like whips, and still others prompting their weapons to spit venom. There were no attempts to engage Luke, Jacen, or Jaina in single combat for personal glory, as had happened on Yag'Dhul and other worlds. The war had gone on too long. All that mattered now was that the conflict be decided, and that there be winners and losers.

  Luke's lightsaber was a blur of pure energy as he parried a four-pronged attack. His blade found exposed flesh time and again, but the slayers sustained each searing blow without surrendering ground. The amphistaffs hammered at the lightsaber with such force that flashes of blinding radiance filled the room, projecting giant silhouettes up along the curved walls. In an attempt to forge a united front, and despite battling warriors on three sides, Luke and Jaina began to move toward one another. For a moment, several slayers found themselves trapped between the two Jedi and the lashing movements of their comrades' amphistaffs. Pierced simultaneously from either side, one warrior dropped to the floor; then a second.

  Luke vaulted through a half-twisting front flip that landed him back to back with Jaina, killing a third warrior on the way down, witl a strike to the top of the head. With some effort, Luke saw Jacer through the Force, pressed hard by the four slayers who had dedica e themselves to him. Again Luke leapt, swinging his blade through air and cleaving the neck of the most formidable of the slay attacking his nephew. Two slender amphistaffs shot for Luke s

  ue managed to jump over both, as if skipping rope, then decapi-

  , ^g slower amphistaff before it could withdraw.

  A coufee swooshed through the air millimeters from his right ear.

  -hing, he extended one foot and pivoted on the other, knocking

  feet out from under the knife wielder, then amputating the war-

  • 's left foot with a return swing of the lightsaber. Seeing an

  mm? Luke made a move for Shimrra—only to be dragged down

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  • the dovin basal. Immediately, he rolled to one side, toppling two
  Jacen leapt to Jaina's side of the bunker, and the two of them began working in concert to drive a trio of warriors back toward the moat that encircled Shimrra's throne. One of the slayers nearly stumbled into the flow, but caught himself in time. Surging after him, Jacen swung his blade through a backhanded crosscut, which the warrior parried, then answered with a fast chop aimed at Jacen's left knee. Jacen jumped straight up, but not quickly enough, and the amphistaff struck him on the ankle. Landing off balance, he staggered into the wall. Two warriors hurried after him, but made it only halfway when the entire bunker tipped to the right.

  The unexpected movement sent everyone, slayers and Jedi alike, scurrying, sailing, and tumbling into the opposite wall. As if mounted on gimbals, the bunker tipped again, this time in the direction of the ruined osmotic membrane, bunching everyone against that wall.

  Guessing that Shimrra was responsible, Luke spared a glance at the throne. The Supreme Overlord's clawed hands were indeed in motion, but the expression on Shimrra's face was one of benign bafflement. The dhuryum, Jacen sent through the Force. Luke understood.

  The World Brain, joining the Shamed Ones in revolt, was causing

  the entire Citadel to shake, perhaps by rocking the cradle to which it

  XUs wed, or by some means beyond Luke's imagining. Self-contained,

  the bunker was attempting to keep itself level. But cut off from the

  dhuryam, it couldn't anticipate the Citadel's behavior. Shimrra's hand

  tovements were just that—the idle flutters of a god-king who was

  lrced to accept that he had lost his most powerful ally and weapon.

  Without the dhuryam's cooperation, Coruscant could nev Yuuzhan'tar. Even if victorious in the war, the Yuuzhan Vone have failed to re-create their ancestral homeworld.

  And yet there was a look in Shimrra's blazing eves that nr

  prort^j^pj

  Luke he had not seen the last of the Supreme Overlord's r • Shimrra was concealing something—a secret of such power th enabled him to remain seated on his throne, even with his world tering around him.

  Luke noticed then, for the first time, that Shimrra wasn't alone the dais. Behind the throne crouched another Yuuzhan Vong who asymmetrically swollen head and downcast features identified him as Shamed One. Aware that he had been glimpsed, the Shamed One withdrew into the shadow cast by the throne, as if in an attempt to make himself small and unnoticeable.

  But Luke had no time to think further about Shimrra's companion.

  The bunker was suddenly in motion again.

  The Yuuzhan Vong armada had suffered grievous losses at Mus-cave, but not nearly to the extent the Alliance had suffered. Molten blobs that had been starfighters and frigates drifted aimlessly against the distant backdrop of stars. The hulks of Alliance warships, nim-bused by escape pods, languished. The battle would go down in history as second only to the epic confrontation that ended the Cremlevian War. And the name Nas Choka would join the revered ranks of Yo'gand and other legendary warriors.

  The warmaster left the command chamber's blister transparency to stand before the villip visages of the six Supreme Commanders he had tasked with defeating Zonama Sekot.

  "The surface-based weapons have fallen silent," Supreme Commander Tiwik reported. "The living ships it threw into its sky have lost their wings and are going to ground like a flock of exhaust birds. Fearsome One, the planet is beaten."

  Nas Choka's expression betrayed neither satisfaction nor dou "Press the attack," he said evenly. "The mataloks of Domains TiWi

  Tsun will escort the dying craft to the surface. All other vessels ithdraw to avoid contagion. The pilots of any coralskippers •nine; in tne atmosphere of the living world after the poison has delivered are commanded to drive themselves into the planet and , themselves. No vessel th
at has had close contact with the . craft can be permitted to survive." "Your will be done, Warmaster." •'May our deaths serve to harden your victory," Supreme Com-

  nunderSla Tsun added.

  Nas Choka nodded his head in salute. "Rrush'hok ichnar nnim'bokl Die well, brave warrior!" Then he turned to his tactician, whose restlessness bespoke an uncommon urgency.

  "Communication with Yuuzhan'tar has become garbled, Warmaster, but we have learned that Alliance warriors and several Jeedai have penetrated the Citadel."

  Nas Choka folded his arms across his chest. "Give no thought to Shimrra's capture or death. The gods would never permit it— especially on bearing witness to our victory at Zonama Sekot. Our mettle has been tested, and we have prevailed." He regarded the tactician for a long moment, then said, "My words provide so little

  consolation?"

  The tactician frowned. "Warmaster, Yuuzhan'tar has grown as serene as Zonama Sekot. Our weapons are silent, our beasts slumber, the fires are contained. Shamed Ones and renegade warriors hold sway over much of the sacred precinct. Supreme Overlord Shimrra would not have permitted this. Our fear is that the World Brain has been

  killed."

  "Then it will be the duty of the shapers to train a new dhuryam. With the enemy defeated, we need be in no rush to give Yuuzhan'tar Proper shape." Again, Nas Choka appraised his subordinate. "The last

  of it, tactician."

  ".Ra/r0u had hoped to witness the death of Zonama Sekot, but—"

  Nas Choka waved him silent. "Zonama Sekot's death does not Depend on my presence."

  "On Kre'fey's heels, then?"

  The warmaster nodded. "Place his vessel in our sights."

  Buried under half a dozen blood-smeared bodies when the h shifted, Jaina used what little maneu