Emissary of the Void Page 8

  '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.''