The Unifying Force Read online

  "There is more, Lord," a second seer said. "Several enemy ships have outwitted our dovin basal voids and found their way to the surface of Yuuzhan'tar. Even now our primary landing field is threatened."

  Shimrra seemed to shake himself out of his daze. "Need I remind any of you that I have looked deeply into the eighth cortex, and conversed with Yun-Harla herself on these matters?"

  The chief seer nodded. "We bear that in mind, Great One, and ask only for elucidation. Could the ancient prophecies and revelations be wrong? Could they have been misinterpreted? Is it possible that the gods have not engineered the living vessels as an additional test, but i fact have aligned themselves with thcjeedafi"

  Shimrra's eyes flared like novas. "Heresy! Heresy—here in my very house!" He aimed the scepter at the seers. "You buffoons have ou lived your usefulness." He whirled to the slayers. "Rid me of them-

  A pair of slayers uncoiled their amphistaffs and advanced on

  . nuartet with deadly purpose. The seers offered no resistance, faces and extending their thin necks for the stiffened weapons. ,f>rs wasted no motions in decapitating them. One of the sev-

  11 "iii" Sl*-^ ' "

  h Js was still rolling across the floor when a herald entered the

  ••Great Lord, High Priest Jakan, Master Shaper Qelah Kwaad, and I , prefect Drathul request audience." Shimrra went to his throne and sat. "By all means bid them enter,

  herald-"

  The elite trio entered in a rush, but lost some of their momentum

  on seeing the four headless corpses.

  Shimrra smiled faintly. "They had the audacity to doubt my interpretation of the revelation." His expression darkened. "Be attentive to their present circumstance when you state your concerns."

  "We have no concerns, Dread Lord," Drathul said, clearly improvising. "On learning of the warmaster's report of living ships, we came to offer you praise for your foresight. The Yuuzhan Vong are escalated by the gods' willingness to present us with even greater challenges."

  "You hastened here to tell me that?" Shimrra asked.

  "One question, Lord," Jakan said. "Have the gods furnished these ships to the Alliance, or do the ships originate from the living world itself?"

  Shimrra gestured in an offhand way to Nom Anor. "Answer him, Prefect. Since you are our leading expert on Zonama Sekot."

  The object of Jakan and Qelah Kwaad's astonishment, Nom Anor, slouched. Taken off his guard, he had to swallow to find his voice.

  "Supreme One, I—I know only what I hear from spies among the

  etics. But I—I suspect that there are no living ships." He grew "nboldened as he continued. "Instead, I propose that our coral-skipper pilots have fallen victim to Jeedai mind tricks."

  Urathul gestured angrily to the villip-image of the living ship. Y°u dismiss that as a Jeedai mind trick?"

  himrra grinned maniacally. "Answer your superior, Prefect Nom

  Anor."

  thev

  Anor straightened his shoulders. "Why not? We know that y are capable of projecting false images and putting words in the

  mouths of those they would manipulate. We also know that thev h

  successfully confused our yammosks in the past." Xe

  Shimrra spoke before Drathul could argue the point, "p f

  ^iCpt

  Nom Anor is to be admired for his inventiveness. But, in fact vessel our villips show us is no mind trick. In answer to High P • ^ Jakan's question, the gods have tutored the living planet in the ation of these monstrosities. But the Jeedai are not responsible " tr paused, then said, "It is the heretics who have brought this latest t upon us. The gods have no desire to award us this galaxy wh'l heretics and Shamed Ones walk freely among us. They won't perm' us to deliver the poison vessel until we have brought Tuuzhan'tar into balance."

  Onimi shuffled to the center of the hall. "Great One," he began "Our skies breached, our land despoiled; these heretic ravings we can later foil—"

  "Enough of your insolent rhyming, Shamed One" Shimrra cut him off. "Only by my good graces have you been spared the life led by others of your kind. Do you, too, doubt me? Do you, too, harbor fears of defeat, and rally suddenly to the heretic cause?"

  Onimi fell on his face before the throne. "I remain your most abject servant, Lord."

  Shimrra ignored him. "The heretics must be eradicated!" He turned to the commander of the slayers. "Half the Citadel garrison of warriors is to be placed at the right hand of Prefect Nom Anor. He will lead them against the heretics and the Shamed Ones. Not one of them is to be left alive!"

  "Your will be done, Great Lord," the commander said. In unison, the slayers turned and snapped their fists in salute to Nom Anor.

  Drathul looked from Nom Anor to Shimrra in mounting bewilderment. "But what of Yuuzhan'tar, Lord? Our dovin basals are overwhelmed. The enemy has made a sieve of our sky—"

  "I will deal with those who would profane our soil." Shimrra s gaze fell in turn on Jakan, Qelah Kwaad, and Drathul. "Go to t Well of the World Brain. I will communicate with it, and prepare it r° your arrival."

  t, then?" Jakan asked. -By and by, priest."

  V'th a motion of his fingertips, Shimrra dismissed everyone, -Vie Onimi. As the elite were filing from the hall, Drathul Deluding togged Nom Anor aside.

  "We know that Commander Ekh'm Val brought a Sekotan ship to

  han'tar," he hissed. "You had the opportunity to say as much for

  •one to hear, and to put an end to Shimrra's charade. Whose ser-

  .'do vou do by concealing the truth now, with our future hanging

  in the balance?"

  "I serve myself," Nom Anor said evenly.

  Drathul shoved him back. "As ever. I would kill you now but for vour new legion of bodyguards. But you will die before this day is through, Nom Anor. If not by my hand, then by another's."

  Nom Anor glanced at Jakan, then at Qelah Kwaad, and finally at Onimi, who appeared to be watching him closely. "Stand in line, High Prefect," he said at last. "I've no lack of enemies."

  A human soldier rapped the knuckles of his gloved hand against the circular viewport of Jag's inverted clawcraft. "Hang on a minute,

  flyboy," he yelled.

  All at once the access hatch above—or under—Jag's head opened, and several pairs of hands were reaching inside the cockpit to release him from the crash webbing that secured him to the seat.

  "Down you go," the same one who had rapped on the viewport

  said.

  Jag allowed himself to descend into the upraised hands of his

  "escuers, and to continue to be supported by them while he was

  planted on his feet, with the world spinning around him and the

  ood that had gathered in his head draining back to where it

  >elonged. Someone removed Jag's helmet and put the mouth of a

  canteen to his lips.

  When the long moment of dizziness had passed, he saw that the vcrait—missing three of its sweeping talon-shaped solar array els had crashed upside down in a copse of tangled, fruit-bearing

  trees that rose from the middle of an oozy villip paddy. The s In-around him wore jet backpacks, holotransceiving helmets, and c biosuits. Seen through the snarl of branches overhead, Corm bruised sky was torn to ribbons with contrails, meteors, and cou ' dirtbound coralskippers and starfighters. Explosions strobed flashed in tiers behind scudding clouds of gray smoke.

  A haze of smoke lay over the rank-smelling paddy, as well from all directions came the reports of concussion missiles and torn does, the sizzle and hiss of laser beams, the roar of Yuuzhan Vo beasts, the bloodthirsty cries of warriors—all of it reverberating fro the sheer faces of yorik coral outcroppings and the digested facades of once-grand spacescrapers that studded the terrain.

  "Is he hurt?" someone asked, loud enough to be heard over the tumult.

  Jag recognized the lined face of Captain Judder Page under the camouflage cosmetic. Jag patted himself down. "I'm unharmed."
r />   Page swung to his communications aide. "Inform starfighter control on Right to Rule that Colonel Fel is groundside and back on his feet."

  "Incoming!" came a distant voice.

  Page and others dragged Jag to the ground an instant before a swarm of thud and razor bugs ripped through the gnarled trees, stripping leaves and oval-shaped fruits from the branches, and knocking down entire limbs. Two deafening explosions followed in succession and the storm of projectile biots abated.

  A flight of black-striped bright yellow X-wings streaked over the treetops, firing quad bursts at some unseen target. Page, Jag, and the others crouched, then slowly got to their feet. Combat droids armored with laminanium had formed a perimeter at the edge of the trees. Close to what remained of Jag's clawcraft, two medical droids were field-dressing wounds sustained by a couple of humans anc Bothans.

  Page stuck out his hand. "I'm Captain—

  "I know who you are," Jag said. "Thank you for coming to my aid."

  Page shrugged off the gratitude and motioned to the men o

  • j, of him. "Garik Loran," he said, naming the shaven-skulled

  "Kell Tainer," naming the one with the receding hairline. K V aith Squadron," Jag said, shaking hands with each of them. "I th of you on Borleias." He glanced at Page. "Just before my ft was hit, I saw number two transport crash." e nodded grimly. "Grutchins took it down and chewed their way -he hull We've sent a squad to search the canyon for survivors." through me "

  "Captain Page," a young Bothan interrupted. "We've made contact with the indigenous force."

  Tas Page, and the pair of Wraith Squadron Intelligence operatives d to see four Yuuzhan Vong males being ushered through the rimeter. The humanoids were scarcely scarred compared to most of rhe Yuuzhan Vong warriors Jag had seen, but all had pronounced deformities, some of the face, others of the limbs. Shamed Ones, he thought.

  The tallest and most deformed of the four executed a facsimile of an Alliance salute. "Take us to your leaders," he said in Basic, as if by

  rote.

  Garik Loran and Kell Tainer exchanged skeptical glances. "Who

  taught you to say that?" Loran asked.

  "I did," someone answered in a clipped Coruscanti accent, as the same Shamed One was pressing his forefinger to his ear, presumably to adjust the fit of a translating tizowyrm.

  A tall, lean, dark-haired human appeared from the trees, beaming

  at the two Wraiths.

  "Son of a blaster," Tainer said, smiling.

  Jag was familiar with the name Baljos Arnjak. Also a Wraith,

  Arnjak had remained behind on Coruscant following the combined

  faith/Jedi infiltration mission almost two years earlier. With him

  ked a thin but dashing-looking middle-aged man, with reddish

  > bright even teeth, and deeply tanned skin.

  Smiling broadly, Page immediately shook hands with the man, n Pulled him into a mutually back-slapping embrace. "I always fig-you'd survive," Page said when the two had stepped away from other. he handsome man motioned to the four Yuuzhan Vong.

  his battered freighter, Millennium Falcon, which, with Sekot's

  '^ ^ '

  was now Pafked on its landing disks and warming along-

  ission, vv<« ^~.- r

  tara Skywalker's Jade Shadow. Word of the conflagrations j'nfr across Yuuzhan'tar had come from Booster Terrik, the spreaui'-&

  Inmate link in a communications chain that began with the com-

  do team that had penetrated Yuuzhan'tar's defenses, and had included the giant warships Right to Rule and Mon

  a

  "Thanks to them, I did. Their heretic group rescued me and a K

  of others from what would have been some serious bloodlett'

  one of the temples." ^ at

  Page turned to Jag. "Fel, meet Major Pash Cracken." Jag nodded in greeting. Coruscant was suddenly starting to f like the Veterans' Home.

  "How long will it take us to reach Westport from here?" pae saying.

  "It would have taken about an hour, but we're too late." Crack beckoned for everyone to follow him to the perimeter. Once there h gestured to the northern horizon, which was a solid bank of billowin smoke.

  "The entire sacred precinct is up in flames," Cracken said. Page pressed a blaster into Jag's gloved right hand. "Welcome to the commandos, Colonel."

  "The fires are Shimrra's doing," Harrar said. "The Supreme Overlord has asked the World Brain to set Yuuzhan'tar ablaze—to prevent anyone from occupying it." The priest sounded despondent. "Shimrra wouldn't have done this unless he fears defeat. Either that or the proximity of Zonama Sekot has deranged him."

  "Whether he's desperate or mad, we have him on the run," Han said, elated.

  Harrar gazed at those around him. Judging by the nods of agreement, the always entertaining and sometimes perplexing Han Solo was expressing the sentiment of everyone gathered at the landing platform—his wife, Leia; Master Luke Skywalker and his wife, Mara; the twins Jacen and Jaina; Yuuzhan Vong-marked Tahiri; the military-minded Jedi Kenth Hamner; Zonama Sekot's Magister Jabitha; the two numerically named machine intelligences—droids—who sometimes seemed as alive as their makers and owners; and the pair Noghri, who appeared at once to be bodyguards, familiars, an friends.

  The rest of the Jedi had taken to the skies in the Sekotan ships, or had been lofted by shuttle to their orbiting war craft. Han J° had ridden up the gravity well with the Wild Knights, but only

  {othtna-

  "How could even Shimrra convince the dhuryam to do something

  harmful to Yuuzhan'tar?" Jacen asked.

  "All things Yuuzhan Vong answer to Shimrra," Harrar said. "The Hhuryam is responsible for integrating the activities of all our planet-haping biots. It is not a servant, but a partner—fully intelligent, fully aware, capable of making decisions based on information it receives from telepathically linked creatures, and from the Supreme Overlord himself. But Shimrra may have convinced the dhuryam that intense fires were needed to open latent seedpods, so that trees could grow to replace those lost during the recent landquakes. He may have suggested to the dhuryam that it fashion clearings in the forests, so that saplings might glean additional light, as well as nourishment from trees felled and reduced to ash by the fires."

  "All the more reason for us to get to Shimrra wow," Han said, pacing at the foot of the Millennium Fa-Icon's landing ramp. "If Page got his transports past the dovin basals, I know I can get the Falcon through."

  Harrar shook his head.

  "What now?" Han asked, planting his hands on his hips in a posture of impatience.

  "Capturing or killing Shimrra may not be enough to save the

  Planet. Actions taken by the World Brain are incontrovertible. Once

  asked, it cannot be swayed to alter its plan—even by Shimrra." Harrar

  §anced at the Skywalkers. "If you are to save your capital world, the

  rain, too, will have to be destroyed."

  'You can't do that, Harrar," Jacen snapped. Harrar looked at the young Jedi. "Then go to it, and persuade it otherwise."

  "That's our job," Han said suddenly, reaching for Lei ' hand. With the other Jedi, Magister Jabitha, and the pair V "^ gazing at him in sudden alarm, he added: "D'you think we ° going to give the rest of you a ride there?" He jerked his thur " JUst Millennium Falcon. "This ship ain't no air taxi." He snortec then grew solemn. "Besides, we started this together in thT( Rim, and we're going to end it together."

  "Or his name isn't Han Solo," Leia said, in a way that amusement and resignation.

  Han grinned in a lopsided fashion. "Took the words rieht my mouth."

  r

  hree

  hree hundred armored warriors borrowed from the Citadel garrison and on loan to Prefect Nom Anor raced through the squares and byways of the sacred precinct like an avenging army, putting coufee and amphistaff to every heretic and Shamed One who hadn't had sense enough to go into hiding—which turned out to be
<
br />   many.

  Hundreds. Thousands.

  Enraptured by the prophesied arrival of Zonama Sekot, certain that thousand-eyed Yun-Shuno would guarantee their passage to a beatific afterlife, exulting in their newfound freedom—however shortlived—confident that Shimrra and the elite would be overthrown, the heretics were fervent to martyr themselves. Ostracized because of Physiological defects rather than committed sins, forced to live in the shadow of the un-Shamed and under the scrutiny of merciless gods, "ty of trespasses they couldn't begin to imagine and would spend Le rest of their miserable lives attempting to understand, they had at st err>braced their peculiarities and cast their lot with the Jedi. There was simply no holding them back.

  Carried along by sheer exuberance, proclaiming their long-rdue equality and salvation for all to hear, they poured from their

  3B3

  the

  hidey-holes like ngdins at a sacrifice—and indeed thousands meter-long blood soakers followed them out into rapidly dark daylight, assured of more than the usual share of glossy black nu

  Yuuzhan'tar had become a feeding frenzy for warriors who h have known better, and for biots that were doing only what the been bred to do.

  Gazing down on the Place of Hierarchy, Nom Anor was st

  dumb by the butchery for which he was responsible thank

  Shimrra—and yet was powerless to thwart. He could no more c mand the warriors to desist than he could convince the Shamed O to flee. He was, as ever, caught in the middle, though placed there b his own schemes, lies, and masquerades.

  The realization made him desperate. The insatiable warrior pack had worked its way south from the Citadel, through Vistu and Numesh, across bridges and down alleyways, slaughtering wherever they fared, until they had entered the public place that of late had become the heretics' hallowed ground, owing to the many who already died there during demonstrations and riots.