Sympathy for the devil

by Bob DeFrank

Two Yuuzhan Vong learn from each other.

Sympathy for the devil

(I don't own Star Wars and I'm not making any money off this)

Author's note

I've been a Nom Anor fan since Vector Prime, even though I'm
the first to admit he hasn't been portrayed very well. Recently
someone pointed out that in Clash of Fates my characterization
of Nom Anor was inaccurate, so I got the urge to write about the
present day Executor and show it's not that big a stretch between
him and his young and somewhat idealistic counterpart of twenty
years past. Reading Conquest gave me the idea for the perfect
setting for this kind of story.

Sympathy for the devil is partly about my take on Nom Anor
and partly my speculation of how one NJO storyline may develop.
I debated whether or not to wait until Clash of Fates was
finished before writing something new, but because of the subject
matter I needed to finish and post this before Rebirth hit the
shelves. Also I remembered my promise to quit Star Wars after
Clash of Fates.

The title of this piece struck me as very fitting, but for deeper
significance, well, I invite the reader to give Nom as much or as
little sympathy as you think he deserves.

Spoilers: Vector Prime, Edge of Victory: Conquest, Agents of
Chaos: Hero's Trial







The worldship Endless Void
Outer Rim
several weeks after the events in Edge of Victory: Conquest

Brak watched the young shaper adept leave her chambers
and walk down the damutek corridor, the weaving feelers of her
headdress indicated contemplation, perhaps in her duties, but more
likely she was planning her next infraction.


The apprentice shaper waited a few minutes in case she
should return, then he grinned, stepped around the corridor and
casually walked to the self-sealing doorway. Brak blew a handful
of shaped pollen onto the door, which automatically opened in an
allergic reaction, a flaw in these older-generation worldships the
shapers had never gotten around to treating. He entered and
quickly retrieved five small, camoflauged sight-beatles from where
he had strategically placed them around the main room the day
before. He replaced them with five fresh beatles and left, closing
the door behind him. The reaction to the pollen would wear off in
less than an hour, leaving no traces.

He held the bottle-shell containing the five beatles as
tightly as though it contained drops of Yun Yuuzhan's sacred
blood: the images caught in the tiny crystal bodies, covered by
color and texture shifting carapaces, could very well mean
escalation for him. Once they were joined to a villip, one would
be able to view all that transpired in the shaper's room last night.

Not that it really mattered at this point, Brak already knew
of one protocol the adept had broken: the theft of living matter for
personal use with intent to shape such matter without a master's
permission or knowledge of the fact. Master Phaath now had
reason to request a full search of the adept's quarters and an
interrogation of the shaper herself. Even if no other evidence was
found, wasting valuable resources the aging worldship badly
needed was a serious crime in an of itself. When Yal Phaath heard
Brak's report he would probably make him an adept on the spot!

Wrapped up in his daydreams, Brak didn't notice the
shadow that followed his springing steps. He did take notice when
a coufee was rammed hilt-deep into his back, however.

The living blade bit deep into the youth's upper back, then
was withdrawn in an eyeblink. Brak stumbled a few steps forward
on feeling the impact, the shock nearly made him drop the bottle-
shell. He spun around, his mouth opening, but before he could call
for help the other Yuuzhan Vong casually whipped his amphistaff
at him with a flick of the wrist. The serpent's tail coiled around his
throat and constricted. The garrote effectively kept Brak's screams
from getting past his throat.

Brak dropped the bottle shell, which bounced and rolled
across the floor. He clutched the amphistaff with both hands, tried
to clutch anyway: suddenly there was no strength in his fingers, or
his legs, which folded up under him. His vision swam, dimmed,
and he fell full-length on the floor.

Brak's killer had stabbed him with an assassin's coufee.
The living blade released a series of chemicals including fast-
acting poison on piercing Brak's body, and the edges secreted an
enzyme that sealed the cut as the coufee was pulled free. Among
the chemicals released into the unfortunate shaper was an agent
that made his muscles clench in death. There would be no blood,
no discharge, nothing to worry about if this hallway were ever
investigated for signs of violence.

The other chemicals in the blade were already doing their
work. In moments all the fluids in the initiate's corpse would be a
solid, gelatinous mass, making the disposal of the body all too
easy.

The amphistaff pulled away from Brak's bruised neck and
coiled around the killer's arm and shoulders. He glanced down at
his stainless coufee: the thirsty blade had absorbed the shaper's
blood it had touched into itself. As if pleased by the meal, it
looked even shinier than before entering Brak. The Yuuzhan Vong
tucked the weapon into the folds of his clothing.


Less than an hour later a bundle wrapped in dead oozhith
skin, about the size of a small Yuuzhan Vong and no different in
appearance from the mountain of bags it was buried under, was
dumped into the gaping pit of a maw luur. The corrosive acid
made short work of the worldship's refuse, transforming the bags
and their contents of dead organic material into nutrients that the
capillaries in the bottom drained away and carried to needy
sections of the living ship.

*************************************
Nen Yim waved goodbye to her coworkers and walked
down the coral hallway leading to her chambers in the worldship's
damutek. Once she was alone she paused for a moment to rub her
eyes with the back of her hand, her original hand, not her enhanced
adept's hand. She'd become so used to her new appendage by now
that she occasionally forgot it wasn't the one she'd been born with,
which could lead to accidents: a small scar below her left eye
marked when she'd forgotten about the pincer-tip on her little
finger.

She suppressed a yawn and rubbed her forehead, temples
and the bluish sacks under her eyes until the worst of the weariness
left her. She'd been awake since the earliest hours of the day-
cycle, working with the other lower-ranking shapers on realigning
the klev membranes separating the worldship's digestive fluids.
She'd just turned down an offer to dine with her fellow adepts in
the communal area, saying she wanted to turn in early.

Nen Yim squashed a pang of guilt in the pit of her stomach
and told herself it was not a lie: she did want to turn in early. She
just wasn't going to.

She placed her hand over the door to her quarters, it
recognized her and irised open, then sealed shut behind her when
she entered. Inside, Nen Yim sighed and took off her headdress.
She set it on a table and ran a hand through her hair.

The shaper took in her chambers at a glance. A single
domed room with a few pieces of furniture, only two chairs, a
wall-niche to store clothing and personal effects and a few living
appliances. Her small library, composed of six villips, was lined
on a shelf and a cognition hood connected to a tap-node in the
corner gave her access to the worldship's information network and
database. Two closet-sized rooms, one for bathing and one for
sleeping, adjoined the main room. That was all she rated.

It reminded her, as did everything else, of how much she
missed the sectors deeper into this new galaxy. Everything was
more open out there, new and fresh. Also there was more space
available. In the Endless Void you had to wait in line for hours
before getting some time in any of the great vessel's contemplation
pools.

Not that I have hours to spend. She thought and ground
her teeth in frustration at an entire day wasted. During her work,
she had seen ways to complete the realignment in less than a
quarter of the time, using half the resources and still have the fluid
exchange process work out as efficiently as ever, if not more so,
yet she and the others had no other option but to follow the same
old protocols, never varying, never daring to try something new.


Well, there was nothing to be done now, so she told herself
as she opened a food storage unit, its interior lined with living
crystals that produced an endothermic reaction in the air around
them, which kept the contents of the coral box cold. She took out
a shell-bowl of gelb, a kind of soup, nutritious but tasteless: fancier
fare was in short supply on the Outer Rim. She peeled back the
shell's membrane cover and considered heating the soup up,
perhaps add some spices for flavoring, but decided it wasn't worth
the effort. What she was really interested in was a hot mug of
ze'xaj, a stimulating beverage similar to the caf the infidels drank,
but manufactured entirely by living creatures. That, she heated
and poured into a gel flagon with a coral handle.

Nen Yim had a long swallow before setting the meal on the
table and turning to the row of villips on the shelf. She moved the
second one from the left aside and reached behind it. The small
alcove she'd installed in the wall her first day here opened in
response to her pattern of finger-movements on its seal and she
took out the storage villip she had hidden there.

The shaper looked down at the leathery sphere in her
hands. She had lied when she?d told Tsavong Lah all of Mezhan
Kwaad's records had been lost on the jeedai moon called Yavin
IV: Nen Yim had been able to save this one storage villip from the
damutek during the confusion that followed the jeedai Tahiri's
escape and before the infidel bombardment. The adept had
managed to smuggle the storage organism with her on her trip to
the Endless Void.

It had been a risk, but one well worth taking: contained
within this villip were all her late master's 'heresies': records of
Mezhan Kwaad's experiments and the discoveries that resulted
from years modifying and going beyond the sacred protocols. It
was a wealth of knowledge that tantalized Nen Yim, the problem
was most of the information was encoded and the villip was
trained to respond only to Mezhan Kwaad.

During her weeks working in the old worldship, Nen Yim
had devoted every moment she could spare on unlocking these
secrets. She had to be careful: if the villip sensed anything out of
the ordinary it would destroy the precious information it contained.
Yet Nen Yim had managed to decode large portions of her
master's records despite that, and transfer copies of them to blank
storage villips of her own. Perhaps tonight she could coax a little
more out of the reticent villip before going to bed.

Nen Yim had tried to carry on her master's work as best she
could, occasionally she'd even been able to sneak into an unused
laboratory during night-hours and try to replicate and even build on
some of her experiments, but there was always a danger. Even the
suspicion of heresy could lead to a thorough investigation by the
masters, and if they discovered anything about her that could be
deemed ungodly...

She shivered, they might sacrifice her out of hand. Or, if
they decided she was too low even to warrant that, they could
decide to let her try and redeem herself through a lifetime of
penance.


That would be infinitely worse. Her mind and memories
utterly destroyed, she would be reduced to little more than a beast
of burden with wit enough only to perform whatever manual
drudgery her superiors assigned her.

I'll kill myself before I let that happen, she vowed, and
let Yun Yuuzhan and Yun Ne'Shell judge if what I've done is
heresy.

Nen Yim swallowed, but instead of fear she made herself
feel awe instead: awe of her late master, who had braved those
risks and accomplished all she had in spite of them. It will be a
long time, if ever, before I'm even half the shaper she was. It
would be easier if she didn't have to do all this alone...but letting
anyone get close to her, for any reason, was too dangerous. So she
told herself as she looked down at the table with its single setting.

Those thoughts turned the adept's mind to her other goal:
that of spreading Mezhan Kwaad's heresies to the other shapers.
She had been paying close attention to her colleagues and so far
had noticed three, two adepts and an initiate, who seemed as
dissatisfied as she. Nen Yim devoted some mental energy to
puzzling out a way to judge how receptive they would be to trying
new, unapproved-of methods.

The shaper thought she had a strategy.
During their off-hours tomorrow she would point out
how some things could be done better, not making any
suggestions, just casual observations, then watch them for
reactions and see which way the conversation turned. Then the
next day she could-

"Such a pity."

Nen Yim shot to her feet and spun in the direction of the
voice. A Yuuzhan Vong was leaning casually against a wall where
no one had been a second before and away from any door.

"Who are you?" She demanded, trying for a tone of cold
authority and dismayed at the high squeak she got instead. "How
did you get in here?" Had they come for her? Gods protect her,
was this it? She flexed her enhanced hand to stop it trembling.
She would need it steady: she'd already put some of Mezhan
Kwaad's experiments to work within her own implants. Although
her hand wasn't anywhere near as deadly and advanced as her
master's had been, it still hid a few surprises. She wouldn't be
taken without a fight!

"Who am I?" The Yuuzhan Vong cocked his head.
"Merely someone making an observation. As I said, such a pity."

"What?" Nen Yim asked, confused.

"You." The uninvited guest stepped away from the wall.
Nen Yim readied her hand, but he merely circled around to the
opposite side of the table, talking as he went. "Look at yourself,"
he appraised her with a quick glance from the top of her head to
the tips of her feet then back up to her eyes, "young, brilliant, but
surrounded by fools who cannot appreciate your greatness." He
nodded sympathetically. "I can relate."

He stopped and stood across the table from her. A
youngish male in nondescript dark clothing, his straight black hair
tied severely back from a spare, almost cadaverous face. He was
lean and, Nen Yim, practiced in knowing the inner workings of a
living creature, judged from his walk across the room, strong and
agile. His face was elaborately scarred and tattooed, one eye had
been removed and a leathery plaeryin bol set in its place.
Altogether, the stranger didn't have the kind of looks that
quickened a female's heartbeat with a glance, but there was
something compelling about him all the same.

"I will ask you again," she spoke in a measured, carefully
controlled voice. "Who are you? How dare you enter a shaper
damutek without invitation?"

"I do as I please." He answered the second question in a
voice that seemed to freeze the air molecules themselves. Nen
Yim fought a nervous swallow, but then the dangerous aura
vanished as quickly as it appeared. He smiled slightly and inclined
his head. "But you're right: I haven't introduced myself. I am Nom
Anor, and I bring you a proposition. One to our mutual advantage.
Sit down and I'll explain."

Nen Yim found herself sinking into the chair without being
conscious of her decision to obey. In a flash of anger she almost
stood back up for no other reason than spite. She sensed, however,
that this was no time to be stubborn. Whatever was going on, she
needed information and she needed it fast. This could be one of
those the high-ranking Yuuzhan Vong use to make certain
individuals...disappear. Say, in cases where it would be difficult or
potentially embarrassing to seize and formally charge a Yuuzhan
Vong, then that person would perhaps suffer a fatal accident. A
good deal for everyone: it helps the powers-that-be save face and
saves the offender an ignoble death.

"What kind of proposition?" She folded both hands in front
of her on the tabletop, prepared to strike at anything and
everything with her adept's hand. Nom Anor pulled the other chair
out and sat down across from her. Reflexively, Nen Yim pushed
the valuable storage villip toward her and to the left, in her sphere
of protection and out of the line of fire. Nom Anor rested his
elbows on the table and laced his fingers under his chin.

"You are a heretic." He said without preamble.

"You're mad!" Nen Yim half rose, sputtering, trying to
cover her dread with outrage and indignation. "Who is it that
slanders me? Who told you this?"

"You did." Nom Anor said. "It's something I and others,
some of whom you would rather they never knew you exist, have
suspected for some time, and you confirmed it the moment you
saw me. Any shaper, any good shaper with nothing to fear, would
have raised an alarm immediately. Unless of course the shaper in
question has something to hide. Something she wouldn't want the
authorities to know about."

"And what if I had raised the alarm?" She asked stiffly,
lowering herself to the chair again. Nom Anor merely shrugged.

"Anyone who came would have found you dead, and me
not at all." He said it so matter-of-factly that Nen Yim couldn't
help but believe him, yet her fear was swiftly dissipating. The
simple fact that Nom Anor had neither attempted to arrest nor kill
her by now suggested a few illicit motives on his part.

"Point taken." She considered going to get her headdress:
wearing the vestments of a shaper's authority might add to her
confidence. Unfortunately she could think of no way of retrieving
it without making her motive obvious. "What do you want?"

"To tell you you're wasting your time." His smile took on
an ironic twist. "What have you been doing with yourself these
last weeks? Studying scraps of heresy on your off-hours? Trying
to convert low-range adepts and initiates to your way of thinking?
Huh," he scoffed, "the only thing you'll accomplish is your own
discovery, arrest and death."

"I wont sit back and let our people decay!" Nen Yim
bristled. "And I wont let our potential be bound by superstition
and backward thinking!"

"Oh, bravo." Nom Anor lightly tapped his hands together a
few times in a mockery of applause. "It must be nice knowing you
have right on your side. But it's also meaningless. Do you really
think you'll change anything by playing with a few toys in a
laboratory or gossiping with ineffectual shapers? That's no way to
affect change."

"I might." She lifted her head. "Given a few more weeks
to find receptive shapers I could spread Mezhan Kwaad's ideals."

"Given a few more days you would be taken and killed out
of hand." The skin around his eyes crinkled.

"I'm not as big a fool as you seem to think." Nen Yim drew
herself up, tried to sound as regal as...as a shaper in her own
damutek. "I've been clever, I've taken no unnecessary chances, the
masters have no reason to suspect me and even if they did they
could do nothing without proof. I-" Nom Anor reached into his
pocket and casually tossed five tiny sight beatles onto the tabletop.
He folded his hands under his chin and smiled.

"This morning these were placed in your quarters by a
shaper initiate named Brak who was in the service of master
shaper Yal Phaath. You know him?"

Nen Yim looked at the spying beetles, unable to answer, it
seemed her vocal cords had frozen. Yes, she knew Brak: a
thoroughly unpleasant initiate of little skill and less imagination.
Oh, he could follow the protocols to the letter, but was unable to
look beyond or outside their bounds. Any advancement he would
ever receive would have less to do with skill than his ability to
toady up to his various masters. She forced herself to nod.

"And was there anything you've done in here that would
look suspicious to the masters?" That smug little smile irked her.
He gave a meaningful look at the villip on the table, his genuine
eye gleaming. Nen Yim grabbed the villip with her original hand
and held in the cradle of her arm. It was an instinctive reaction,
and she barely held off a grimace.

"Mezhan Kwaad is a figure of some controversy," Nom
Anor began, "but no one could deny she was brilliant. There are
those, such as myself, who suspect that she was capable of much,
much more than she let on: breakthroughs and innovations beyond
the average shaper's wildest dreams. I also believe that not all of
her secrets perished with her on Yavin IV. Perhaps they are
hidden, perhaps in the care of a trusted apprentice." He leaned
forward. "The results of years of experimentation, untold
advancements. They should not be wasted."

"Even if this were true," Nen Yim returned, "such
discoveries would be the result of heresy. What right-thinking
Yuuzhan Vong would make use of them?"

Nom Anor leaned back, chuckled and spread his hands.
"Now who's to say what is heresy and what isn't?" He mused.
Then he leaned forward, his gaze an arrow of ice. "I'm serious."
He snapped. "Who would say whether or not something is
heresy?"

"Supreme Overlord Shimmra." Nen Yim's reply was
immediate.

"And if questionable methods were put to practical and
effective use, such as would benefit the Yuuzhan Vong greatly, do
you think lord Shimmra would be inclined to call them heresies or
divinely inspired?" He finished smoothly.

"No!" Nen Yim held the villip tighter. "I wont let you take
it from me!" She stood and backed away, nearly knocking over her
chair. "I'll die first!" She blinked, and Nom Anor was out of his
chair and standing inches away when she opened her eyes again.
The adept yelped and tried to back away, but the wall stopped her.

"Wrong." He waved his claw-tipped finger under her eyes.
"Lesson the first: don't sacrifice your life for your dreams. Make
others sacrifice theirs." He stepped away and broke into a warm
smile again, but his eye never changed. "You have a lot to learn,
Nen Yim."

"Such as?" She wouldn't let her voice break.

"You have knowledge, but knowledge by itself isn't enough
to change anything." Nom Anor clenched his hand into a fist.
"You need power."

"And you have power?" Nen Yim raised her chin. For an
instant she thought she saw something like rage flash over Nom
Anor's face, then in was gone as quickly as a flash of lightning in
the storms she'd seen on Yavin IV.

"No," he admitted, and laughed a little, "no, I don't have
power. Not really. But I have a degree of autonomy, which I'm
willing to share with you. I have connections. I know social and
political structures, who holds wields power both among our own
people and the infidels. I know how your master's knowledge can
be used effectively." He inclined his head. "I am the means by
which you could acquire power."

"What are you talking about?" Nen Yim shook her head,
feeling like a particularly dull child all of a sudden.

"As useful as it would be to have Mezhan Kwaad's work,
one would still need an exceptional shaper to understand that work
and make it reality. Someone with an open mind and a close
understanding of how she thought, what methods she used." Nom
Anor turned toward her. "I'm currently running several missions in
the Inner Rim of this galaxy, and I came here looking for an able
shaper to accompany me back. You could be that shaper."

"You said I could acquire power," Nen Yim said warily,
"power for you, you mean."

"For us." Nom Anor corrected. "I'm offering you a way
out of...this," he made a disparaging gesture that took in the room
and the worldship beyond. "Your own laboratory, all the materials
you need and no supervision or interference by the master
shapers." He looked closely at her. "This is a great time, adept. A
new galaxy to take, and endless opportunities for those with the
will and the courage to seize their own destiny." His eye flashed
and his voice grew more animated with every word, weaving a
spell that caught Nen Yim for a second.

"But how can I explain this to my superiors? And what
about Brak? What will happen when he returns for the spy bugs?
He-"

"Brak has suffered an accident today." There was an icy
undertone to his voice. "He his no longer a factor. As for the rest,
I leave immediately. Will you be coming with me or not?" His
mouth twitched. "We could accomplish great things together."

Nen Yim stroked the villip like it was a beloved pet. This
man was insane, he had to be.

But he was clever too, very clever: he hadn't directly
threatening her once, yet he'd laid out her position in a way that
negated every option beside doing what he wanted. Her assistance
would be valued, but it was the villip she held that was all-
important. If she turned him down he would try to take it and kill
her for her troubles.

She flexed her enhanced hand, but didn't employ the
weapons hidden therein. Even if she overcame him, she had no
future here. Nom Anor had killed Brak. Sooner or later Yal
Phaath would notice his agent's disappearance and his suspicions
regarding Nen Yim would be confirmed. He would then take
lethal steps to deal with her.

Every route was blocked.

But would it be so bad? If she believed him, this could be a
chance to do what she wanted most. She had made a pledge to
continue her master's work, and certainly she had the best chance
of encoding the villip and understanding the full potential of
Mezhan Kwaad's discoveries.

If she believed him.

Did she?

Nen Yim met Nom Anor's gaze, trying in vain to see into
the mind behind that cool smile and that killer's stare. He was a
stranger, but one thing was clear: this was someone who would do
as he wished. Someone who wouldn't let his own fear or the
ignorance of others bind him. He had his own plans, and not the
masters or the ancient traditions would stop him. And gods help
anyone who got in his way.

She needed to think, to calmly analyze everything and
reach a logical conclusion, but without being conscious of making
a decision she found herself smiling slightly and speaking in a light
voice.

"When do we leave?"

************************************************
They were in hyperspace less than an hour later. Nom
Anor showed Nen Yim to her berth in the supply ship as it
departed the worldship on its course for the Inner Rim.

"Quarters are a little cramped, I know," he observed, "but
anonymity is best for now." He set down the bags holding the
adept's few personal effects and set his hands on his hips, turning a
critical eye to the shaper. Nen Yim, dressed in the clothing of a
common laborer, her shaper's hand hidden by flesh-colored gloves,
was peeling a patch of living skin off her forehead. The same
color and shade as her flesh, it obscured her domain-markings and
bore a symbol t hat identified her as a member of Domain Carr.
She looked at it with disgust and threw it at the narrow bed.

Nom Anor snatched the piece of ooglith in midair and
folded it into a nutrient shell. "You'll get used to it." He smiled,
and Nen Yim thought she saw a trace of sympathy in his face. "In
the course of my duties I've spent weeks at a time in the guise of
an infidel, how do you think I felt?" Nen Yim said nothing, but
she did feel a little creeper of guilt growing into her heart. He
had gotten her off the worldship and possibly saved her life and
her dreams if Master Phaath really had been closing in on her. A
little gratitude wouldn't hurt.

"Thank you." She didn't look at him, lavished great interest
on the storage villip as she took it from the bag and examined it for
injuries.

Nom Anor placed another villip on the outgrown platform
of coral that served as a table and a shelf. "Memorize the
information in this one." He tapped the top with a claw. "It's your
new name and history. We'll arrive at a major transit point for
Yuuzhan Vong supply and warships. The disappearance of two
shapers, even low-level ones like you and Brak, are sure to cause a
stir.

"Tomorrow at the latest Yal Phaath will hear of this and
assume you've learned of his suspicions, disposed of Brak and fled.
People will be looking out for a young female shaper of adept-
level, traveling alone, so you'll stay disguised awhile longer. We'll
lose any pursuit at our first stop, where we can go literally
anywhere in occupied space." He shrugged his shoulders. "I'll be
wearing a disguise as well, it's best no one is able to connect us."

Nen Yim looked at him with alarm. "That's
your plan?" She asked, incredulous, "there are constructs that can
sniff out a specific Yuuzhan Vong's chemical trail among
thousands even if it's been cold for days!" She resisted the urge
to stamp her feet in frustration. "They'll catch us both in less than
a day! You idiot!"

Nom Anor let her vent a little longer before snorting out a
laugh. "That outburst is hardly appropriate behavior for a shaper,
isn?t it?" He produced a small orb of chitin that expanded and
contracted in his palm, as if breathing. "Swallow this once we
arrive within minutes you'll have a different chemical signature. It
will last for about three days before you'll need to take another."
He smiled. "I'm already using mine: as far as anyone knows, Nom
Anor never came near the Endless Void."

Nen Yim snatched the pill from his hand, anger forgotten.
She examined it with bright-eyed interest, wishing she could pry
open the shell to see how if functioned. "I've never heard of
anything like this," she breathed, not bothering to disguise her
excitement.

"I'd be surprised if you had." Nom Anor crossed his arms.
"As I was saying, our destination is a supply depot in the Mid-Rim.
Lots of material to choose from, resources and equipment, and
negligible danger of discovery. You can go back to being a shaper
once we arrive, though one of a different name and domain."

"For how long?" She asked quickly. She unpacked her
headdress and set it on the table to let it breathe.

"Until your work is done and you've made a significant
contribution to the war against the infidels." His pale blue eye
gleamed. "Then if will be revealed that you've been in seclusion, working on
several secret projects for the Overlord." He chuckled. "It'll even
be true. You'll be something of a celebrity then, you'll probably
even be promoted to master status. Not bad, eh?"

Nom Anor turned toward the door, leaving her to digest all
this. My quarters are down the hall. If you have any more
questions-"

"Wait!" Nen Yim spun around to face him. "Yes, I do
have a question." She licked her lips. "Who do you-who do I-
work for now? The Praetorite Vong?"

"You'll never get them to admit it." Nom Anor grinned.
"There are layers upon layers of deniability here. Not even a
truthhearer could trace the strings on this web."

"Then why are you doing this? Why aid and support a
heretic?" Nom Anor considered a minute, at least if felt like a full
minute, before answering with a question of his own."

"Tell me, Adept Nen Yim, do you believe the Yuuzhan
Vong will win this war?"

"Of course!" She answered immediately. "The gods have
ordained it."

"Really." Nom Anor said dryly. "Well I don't think we'll
win. Even if the Jedi are exterminated down to the last apprentice
I believe we'll eventually lose. I'll tell you something else: a lot of
Yuuzhan Vong agree with me, some of whom occupy very high
places." He leaned forward slightly. "Do you want to know why?"

Nen Yim was suddenly numb, dry-mouthed and frozen.
What this man had just said went light years beyond mere heresy!
She made herself nod, only knowing she'd succeeded by the way
Nom Anor seemed to bob in front of her eyes.

"When the infidel encounters a new enemy or a problem
different from what they've faced before, they don't worry about
the will of the gods, they investigate both the situation and modify
their way of dealing with it according to whatever works best.
They do so because their 'science,' their art of shaping nonliving
matter, is completely divorced from any religion.

"That is the infidel's great strength Nen Yim, they adapt,
they grow stronger while we stay the same. If we are to claim this
galaxy we must adapt our technology as well, at a rate equal to the
speed with which they develop theirs, not simply wait for the gods
to show us better ways. The Yuuzhan Vong need people who
aren't afraid to seize their own destiny in both hands and shape it
the way they see fit!" He punctuated the speech by ramming his
fist into his open palm, hard.

For a long moment Nen Yim didn't know what to say or do.
She felt she should sit down on the long shelf of coral that served
as a bench, but at the same time she was too elated to get off her
feet. She was finally, truly serving her people, using her gods-
given skills to do something good and right and useful for the
Yuuzhan Vong! Her mind whirled, she wanted to ask another
question, simply to keep this wonderful conversation going, but
she couldn't think of one. Finally something triggered in her brain.

"I want to ask something else." She said. "How
did you suddenly appear out of nowhere in my quarters?"

For a response, Nom Anor grinned and touched his upper
sternum with one knuckle, pressed down on his chest through the
tunic and twisted his wrist. Before Nen Yim's eyes the fabric
rippled as if something was flowing beneath his clothing,
spreading up his chest and down to his legs. An ink-black
substance oozed up his neck and out of his sleeves to coat his head
and hands. Presumably the same was happening to his legs and
feet. The creature reminded Nen Yim of an ooglith cloaker, only it
covered Nom Anor's eyes, nose and mouth, something the normal
variety would never do.

But is she hadn't seen anything yet.

Once the body under his clothing was completely coated,
he seemed to shimmer, then before the shaper's eyes Nom Anor
faded into mirage of heat-haze.

"Where are you?" She gasped, and jumped when she
sensed someone moving past her.

"Right here," Nom Anor answered casually, the invisible
source of the voice moved across the room as he spoke, "and now
I'm here." A few seconds of silence, Nen Yim strained her ears to
hear the light footfalls, all but laughing in delight. She looked
around quickly. He was completely invisible when he stood still,
but when he moved she could glimpse the faint outline of his body
for a second or two.

"Why shaper," the air shimmered and the intendant
appeared inches away from her, "can't you see what's right under
your nose?" She gaped at the featureless black head, then the
creature detached itself from his face and withdrew down his shirt.
"I call it the omnis masquer," Nom Anor replied to her unvoiced
question. "When active, it produces an energy field about three
inches from its skin. A field that bends light around it. Unless a
being can see ultraviolet light, senses body heat or has an
unnaturally good sense of hearing or smell the wearer is
completely undetectable.

"It's something another eager young shaper came up with
when he encountered a most unusual denizen of this galaxy: a
being that called itself a defel, or a wraith as the race is known to
the infidels. After studying samples of the creature's flesh he
postulated a way to integrate the defel?s genetic materiel into the
masquer and cloaker shaping process to produce this effect."

"Will I meet this other shaper?" Nen Yim asked eagerly.

"No, unfortunately," Nom Anor's face fell, "I'm afraid he
crossed one too many lines in his research. He was taken as a
heretic and executed with disgrace a week ago. Luckily I obtained
some of his records before they were destroyed. After a few
modifications I was able to make this prototype." He patted the
creature under his tunic. "This is just the kind of behavior I was
telling you about. Imagine what our assassins and spies could do
with omnis masquers: they would never have to worry about
blending in with an infidel crowd again! Yet we were nearly
denied them because of the backwards thinking of those in power."

"Wait, wait," Nen Yim held up her hands, "backtrack a
second. You shaped this?"

"As I shaped the pill I gave you." Nom Anor nodded
briefly. "My mother was a shaper, she taught me a few tricks."

"Your mother," the adept's face slackened as she made the
connection, "I hadn't realized it could be the same...was she named
Lyrra Anor?"

Nom Anor swung his head around so fast she feared he'd
snap his own neck. For the first time since she'd known him he
looked completely taken aback. "You've heard of her?" He said.

"From my master's notes, those I'd uncovered from the
storage villip," Nen Yim nodded slowly. "She mentioned Lyrra
Anor a few times, one of the first shapers to touch this galaxy.
They met through a mutual acquaintance, Zeld Kwaad, a cousin of
my master who also had the honor of being among the first in this
galaxy."

"They corresponded for some time by villip over twenty
years ago, while my master was still an young apprentice on a
worldship bearing for the Outer Rim. Mezhan Kwaad said she?d
been honored, and a little shocked, that a master shaper would
even spare her a glance back then. She was also impressed with
Lyrra Anor, and the other way around. They were exchanging
ideas right up until her death." Exactly how she'd died wasn't
known to Nen Yim. "Mezhan Kwaad thought very highly of her.
She called Lyrra Anor an exceptional shaper."

Nom Anor's mouth twitched and he looked away for a
second before turning back to her. "I'd like to hear those notes
sometime." He said casually.

"Of course," Nen Yim laced her fingers to keep her hands
from shaking. She sensed this was a sensitive area, best change
the subject for now. "That new masquer is impressive," she
said, "but it would take more than 'a few tricks' to shape something
so complicated, even if most of the groundwork had already been
mapped out. It would demand real skill." She sat down on the
bench, realized he must be getting uncomfortable and motioned for
him to sit down as well.

Nom Anor smiled. "The hardest part was correcting
some notions about the integration process."

"Tell me about it."

From there they entered into a lengthy discussion wherein they both exchanged
their own theories about the shaping of masquers, cloakers, dovin
basals, villips and numerous other creatures. They discussed what
could be changed to make them more efficient. They even talked
about ideas for entirely new organic devices of various form and
function.

Nen Yim grew more animated with every passing moment,
and those moments seemed to fly and light speed. She finally had
someone she could talk freely with, someone who would listen to
and appreciate her ideas while offering up intriguing thoughts of
his own. She'd feared she would never experience that again after
losing Mezhan Kwaad.

What's more, it soon became apparent that Nom Anor not
only knew what he was talking about, he excelled at it. Nom Anor
kept up with the latest debates, discoveries and projects of the
master shapers and he understood all the techniques and jargon.
He could have been a shaper himself easily, and one of exceptional
skill at that. Though, Nen Yim noticed with some pride, not nearly
as good as her.

"Did you ever try to become a shaper?" She finally asked.

Nom Anor shook his head. "No. I have a passion for
shaping, but I find my work in the intendant caste
too...fulfilling...to give up."


"I can't imagine being anything except a shaper," was Nen
Yim's shocked protest. "There's nothing like it in creation."

"Not entirely true," Nom Anor raised a brow, "in fact, there
isn't that much difference between what you and I do." He
smirked at her confusion. "You seek to understand and control the
life around you so you can alter them to suit our purposes. I seek
to understand the people and events around me and alter them to suit our
purposes. In essence I shape reality itself."

This revelation had Nen Yim taken aback. Suddenly she
suspected something about the way he thought, how he saw
connections not immediately apparent.

"Nom Anor," she asked carefully, ?have you ever
experienced the vaa tumor?"

"Once," he answered, "a long time ago." And it had left its
mark on him.

They talked all through the voyage, and it didn't begin to
whet the adept's interest in her new work, and her new companion.

**********************************************
Rysoc, Yuuzhan Vong occupied world
Mid-Rim
Three weeks later


Nom Anor stretched his sweat-slicked body, reveling in the
ache of his sore muscles. He'd heard the rumors that circled
among the other castes about the shapers. About what they could
do with their intimate understanding of the body, and how some of
their implants had...inventive...alternative functions.

It had surprised him to no end when he'd learned those
rumors were true.

Nen Yim was curled up beside him. He could feel her
warmth against him, creeping into his flesh, into the frost-lined pit
that had once housed a soul. He had no desire to leave her quarters
in the damutek. He felt, in fact, as though he could lie here
forever. It was an odd sensation, a strange sense of complacency
that was entirely foreign to him and not entirely unwelcome.

Is this contentment? He turned his face to the back of
her head, inhaled, her heady, dark scent stirred his blood even as it
made his skin crawl. I never thought I could feel this way. I've
never even wanted to. He thought with consternation. For so
long he had worked at remaining cool, in control: how could he
control others if he couldn't govern himself. Thins like anger, hate
and fear were acceptable. He'd learned that those emotions,
properly controlled and channeled, could work as valued
motivators.

This...state of mind...was different. It was as though she
had stolen a piece of him and was carrying it around with her.


What is this woman doing to me? He thought
helplessly. And the one thing he absolutely despised was being
helpless. It made him angry. Made him want to break things, such
as other people's bones.

Nen Yim stirred beside him. "What are you thinking
about?" She turned on the bed and draped her left arm and leg
across his body.

"Hmmm?" He look at her and donned a genial and slightly
surprised expression.

"Your heartbeat increased." She ran a finger of her
enhanced hand down his chest. "And your body heat. What were
you thinking about?" Damn shaper implants.

"That I made a mistake when I first spoke to you." He
plucked the lie from thin air, spun it into something highly
believable without having to stop and think, then delivered it
flawlessly. It was one of his best talents. "I said you were young
and brilliant, I forgot to mention beautiful."

She grimaced. "And now you're lying." Nom Anor's face
froze for a fraction of a second.

"How do you know that?" He asked, on instinct, instead of
"why would you think that?" which he might have said. Getting
into and argument would be pointless and whatever the result
suspicion would take root in Nen Yim's brain. Best to minimize
the importance than have her think he was hiding something.

Besides, he was curious. How had she know he was
lying?

Nen Yim shrugged. "You do that thing with your face
when you lie."

"I do not!" Was his response. The outburst was immediate,
affronted and, to his horror, uncalculated. Lying and being
believed was his livelihood, after all, and he'd worked long and
hard to rid himself of all the facial expressions and body language
that gave a liar away. He would never telegraph a falsehood!

"Yes you do." She smiled the knowing, amused smile
females of every sentient species seemed to access when dealing
with males. In Nom Anor's opinion, backed up by no little
experience, most of those expressions were simple bluffs. It was a
basic strategy: to trick an opponent into revealing something by
pretending you know more than you do. Yet Nom Anor still felt
like the proverbial child caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

But he also felt anger coming on, a wrathful tide of fury.
He felt as if he'd been violated somehow, as if he were the
wronged party!

He banished the anger, slowed his heartbeat, kept his
breathing regular. Rage was a useful servant, but a poor master,
and he wasn't an animal to be ruled by hormones and chemicals.
Control, control was everything.

"Politics," Nom Anor made his smiled self-depreciating, "I
let my mind wander and wound up thinking of political troubles,"
idly, he traced the tattoos running up her leg and hip with a claw-
tipped finger, "decisions I disagreed with, that sort of thing.
Nothing a wanted to disturb you with." His sharp talon broke the
skin and a line of welled from the cut, trailing the path across her
skin. Nen Yim hissed in pleasure and her eyes lost some of their
focus.

The cut itself wasn't worth mentioning, the wound closed
almost immediately and it wouldn't even leave a scar, but the
warm, red blood was more than he could resist. He was moving
almost without thought, his eye bright and gleaming. His head
bent down as the line of blood continued running parallel to the
tattoos. His tongue flicked out, tasting. It tickled and Nen Yim
stifled a laugh.

"Stop it!" She snickered and lightly punched him on the
shoulder. Lightly meaning only hard enough to bruise: they were
Yuuzhan Vong and all their games were rough.

"What kind of troubles?" The shaper said when she
recovered. "Do they affect our work?" She wiped the blood with
her original hand and managed to get most with her first two
fingers. The shaper made to get up but Nom Anor's hand snapped
out and caught her wrist. He drew her hand down and licked the
still-warm blood from her fingers. Nen Yim shivered and
reluctantly stepped away from the bed when he released her.

"I keep my ears open for anything that might interfere with
you." Nom Anor said truthfully. "I don't think you have to worry
about being taken as a heretic."

Nen Yim nodded "We've come a long way, but we're still
just beginning." Nom Anor knew what she was talking about. Just
two days ago she had succeeded in breaking the last of Mezhan
Kwaad's codes, and all the marvels the heretic master had dreamed
of were open to them. They had both celebrated with heartfelt
enthusiasm: the future was now rich with possibilities.

And later, after Nen Yim had dosed off, Nom Anor had
copied the contents into a storage villip of his own.

"I think I see a way to shape those coralskipper mantles
Master Kwaad was theorizing," the adept went on, excited, "I'm
going to start the tests right after the meeting."

"I might join you in the lab." Nom Anor perked up at that.
She was referring to Mezhan Kwaad's plan to cover a coralskipper
with crystalline scales that would feed on energy bolts and use the
power to almost instantly regenerate damage caused by the energy
they couldn't assimilate. The idea had seemed farfetched to him,
but if it worked it would give coralskipper pilots an advantage in
speed and maneuverability in combat: coralskipper pilots would no
longer have to use their dovin basals as shields.


"I could use the help," Nen Yim admitted hesitantly as she
entered the adjoining washing room, Nom Anor got up and
followed her, "this work is exciting but," she stopped in front of
the water basin, uncertain, "it's more than one shaper can do." She
finished with a rush. "Especially for just an adept."

Nom Anor might not be able to hear Nen Yim's heartbeat
at close range or feel the synoptic flashes of her brain, but by now
he should know the paths her mind would take and the decisions
she would make, both consciously and subconsciously, better even
than she did. This had been the case with all his other allies: the
priest Harrar, Malik Carr, the foolish Red Knights of
Rhommamool and that idiotic would-be Emperor Xandel Carivus.

You had to get a quick and accurate feel for how people think
before you could manipulate them, and Nom Anor was a past
master of the art. He had convince a great many infidels to betray
their own kind, after all.

He knew she was feeling both guilty about making the
admission and intimidated by a job she felt might be too much for
her. She was also afraid of disappointing him: he had brought her
here and provided her with the means and the freedom to follow
her dream, and at considerable risk to himself.

It was just the reaction he wanted, yet he was surprised to
feel an uncomfortable twinge in his abdomen on seeing her
dejection and self-doubt.

"You're more than just an adept." He took her shoulders
and turned her around. "You're doing a master's work now, and
better than many I've seen." He tilted her chin up. "All we need
are a few working prototypes, just a few, to present to the Overlord
and he'll sanction your methods. You'll get the recognition you
deserve. You'll have an eight-fingered hand within the week and
your own damutek, staffed with adepts and initiates of your
choosing." He stared at her intently. "We just need some viable
results, can you do provide them?"

"Count on it." She whispered, and her whole face seemed
to glow. "And you haven't seen anything yet. Once I'm escalated
I'll fill my whole damutek with heretics, and we'll shape marvels
beyond anyone's dreams!" Her excitement was infectious, and
Nom Anor was taken with the idea of shaping without having to
conform or confine the experiments to the ancient protocols.

He was even more intrigued by the limitless power that kind of
shaping could bring to the one who controlled it. He reached for
her and she stopped, her face flushed, and only then remembered
their close proximity and unclothed state. Nom Anor's hands
traveled up her neck to run through her hair. His face lowered to
hers.

Nen Yim's hands pressed against his scarred chest and
gently shoved him back. "I have to get cleaned up and dressed,"
she said in a quiet but firm voice, "or I'll be late. That could raise
suspicions, and neither of us want that." She meant suspicions
regarding her real identity, not suspicions regarding the two of
them: most of the damutek knew that the new shaper was having
an ongoing tryst with Nom Anor. The shapers here were all
initiates and newly-raised adepts working on minor projects like
healing and maintaining the base's creatures. There wasn't a
master on the planet to disapprove of cross-caste relationships.

"The sacrifices we make for the Yuuzhan Vong." Nom
Anor intoned in an overly-mournful voice. They toyed with each
other awhile longer as she groomed and dressed. It was a constant
in every galaxy that no female will spend less than an hour
working on her appearance before going anywhere, and usually
Nen Yim was usually no exception. By necessity, however, a
Shaper's working garments were utilitarian so she readied herself
quickly. She lost all amusement, however, when she took out the
piece of skin with the domain symbol on the center and applied it
to her forehead.

"I think this is the best motivator I have." She murmured
while holding the skin in place. "The sooner I can make a
significant breakthrough, the sooner I can stop wearing this."
When the skin bonded seamlessly she took her hand away and
donned her headdress.

Nen Yim spread her arms and twirled once. "How do I
look?"

"Like you said, a marvel beyond my dreams." He shook his
head. "I'm tempted to try and touch it, just to make sure its real."
He made a mock-lunge in her direction...and nearly toppled to the
floor, unbalanced when white-hot pain spiked into his head. He
caught himself, barely, on the bedpost and clutched his head with
both hands.

"It's the vaa tumor, isn't it?" He heard Nen Yim's
concerned voice when the pain finally faded. "It has to come out."
She said firmly. "Today."

"Yes, yes you're right." Nom Anor wiped blood from his
nostrils. He blinked rapidly, trying to recapture the colors he'd
glimpsed during the flash. "It's just..." he swallowed, "it's been so
many years since I've felt Yun Ne'Shell's touch."

"I've just started, and I can't even imagine going without
for so long." Nen Yim reluctantly agreed. Nom Anor had
hesitated in asking her to implant him with the sacred creature of
the shapers: as per his wishes she had kept him conscious during
the insertion, but he was still helpless during the operation. His
life, his very mind, completely at the adept's mercy, but he couldn't
resist: the memory of those days more than twenty years ago when
he'd hosted a vaa tumor was still strong. He had to have it again.

And it would be removed today. To Nom Anor's surprise,
the shudder he'd expected to accompany the thought didn't come.
During the removal he would be as helpless as he was in the
insertion, yet he wasn't bothered.

Reassured that Nom Anor was fine for now and would
meet her in the laboratory later, the adept walked to the door. "I
really will be late if I don't go. You can let yourself out." Nom
Anor waited until she was two steps from the doorway...

"Nen Yim!" He barked sharply.


The shaper continued to the doorway without missing a
step. Nom Anor shouted her name once more in a tone of
command. This time she stopped and turned, an expression of
confusion on her features. "Excuse me?" The voice matched the
expression perfectly. "Are you speaking to me? I think you've
made a mistake." She indicated the domain mark on her forehead.

"Very good." Nom Anor smiled and saw her eyes glitter
with pride. "I'll meet you at the lab later." She nodded and left.
The door sealed behind her.

****************************************************
"A thing with my face?" Nom Anor muttered when he was
alone. "She practically advertises every thought she has and I
do a 'thing' with my 'face?'" His father would have beaten him
bloody on hearing that, then he would have put himself in the
Embrace of Pain for days without rest for failing to teach his son
better.

Nom Anor shook his head as he entered the washing area.
His thoughts were troubled, as they usually were of late, by the
shaper adept.

At first she had seemed perfectly suited for his purposes:
brilliant, inclined to obey authority and with just the right touch of
nativity. She had been too good to be true, better even than
Mezhan Kwaad.

He'd watched Mezhan Kwaad's activities for nearly a year
but had been reluctant to approach her, not when he knew the
master shaper was both highly intelligent and had ambitions of her
own. Nom Anor had kept tabs on her, though, until he could find a
way to gain some control over her. He thought he'd found
something too: evidence of her personal involvement in heresy,
just the leverage to make her cooperate with his plans.

Then she'd gone and gotten herself killed. Nom Anor had
been furious at first, but in retrospect it was all for the best. He'd
formulated a new plan, one focusing on Mezhan Kwaad's new
apprentice, Nen Yim.


Circumstances for recruiting her into his plans had been
perfect. His biggest worry had been that she'd give herself away as
a heretic in some inane martyr complex before he could arrange
for her disappearance, get to the Endless Void and make the
initial contact.

Once on the worldship, it had taken him less than a day of
observing her to assess the adept's situation and personality and
decide which approach would work best (not that anyone knew
Nom Anor was anywhere near the Endless Void around the time
of Nen Yim's flight: a combination of doctored I.D.s, use of the
omnis masquer and the sheer size of a worldship guaranteed he
would not be noticed).

It had been almost painful watching her attempts at
scheming and covert activity. Honestly, when it came to intrigue
the adept was like a pitten playing in traffic. Nom Anor would
never admit it, even to himself, but he'd felt an almost protective
urge to get her out of there before the little fool got herself killed, a
feeling that had nothing to do with her potential usefulness to him.
That wasn't supposed to be the case: she should have feelings for
him, not the other way around.

Seducing her had always been a part of his plan: it was one
more control he could have over her, a useful one. He needed her
willing cooperation since he didn't have the resources or personnel
to keep her prisoner, not in secret. Obeyers and restraint implants
were and remained an option, but she would get more and better
results working with a will and eagerness of her own.

Nom Anor had learned much about manipulation both as a
disciple of Yun Harla and from psychology texts he'd read during
his years studying the infidels. Nen Yim had a strong sense of duty
and was inclined to obey authority, so he had made sure her first
impression of him was of an authority figure. It was easy: a show
of confidence and a decisive attitude was all it took.

The next step was to make her like and trust him.
Revealing his interest in shaping and his views on the protocols
showed they had something in common and formed the basis of an
emotional connection.

His other steps were more subtle, like a master musician he
had to play with her emotions to get the behavior he wanted,
without her even realizing any manipulation was taking place. She
had a desire to rebel against the perceived injustices of her society,
yet she also craved the security and approval of that society. Nom
Anor had solved that by leading her to believe he was part of a
large group with members occupying the highest levels of
Yuuzhan Vong elite.

In reality, this project was composed of just three
conspirators: Nen Yim herself, Nom Anor and the High Prefect
Drathul, though Drathul's only contribution was to provide
resources and a cover story for Nom Anor's activities and
whereabouts. If charges of heresy ever came to light the Prefect
would vehemently deny any part in it. Co-opting Nen Yim had
been Nom Anor's idea and planning entirely.

Next he isolated her from her old life and gave her a new
identity, which created a sense of dependence on him. She didn't
know it, but there was no pressing danger of her being found out.
Neither Yal Phaath nor anyone else was looking for her: as far as
anyone knew, adept Nen Yim was three weeks dead.

Nom Anor had planned her escape quickly but thoroughly.
When their transport had landed, Nen Yim had used the scent-
masquer pill Nom Anor had devised to hide from the trackers, and
as soon as the transport docked a female dressed similarly to Nen
Yim swallowed a pill of her own, one that altered her chemical
trail to mach the errant shaper's.

The agent had then walked a circuit around the base, a
route planned by Nom Anor to give the trackers the impression of
nervousness and panic. The agent had then stowed away in the
hold of a departing transport ship.

Before the transport took off, Nom Anor saw to it that one
extra piece of cargo was loaded onboard: an unmarked container.

By chance, Nom Anor had been close to the Yavin system
when he'd heard of the smuggler attack that had wiped out the
occupation force. His arrival practically coincided with that of
Tsavong Lah's flagship, the Yammka, though Nen Yim didn't
know that. When the Executor heard of Mezhan Kwaad death and
her apprentice's survival the germ of a plan formed in his mind.

He'd gained access to the hold where the recovered bodies
of the dead shapers where stored, there he found the corpse of an
adept and harvested her implants and enhanced hand. That done,
he preserved the desired body parts and disposed of the rest in the
battleship's maw luur. He then altered the ship's records to show
that the body was never found, probably dragged off somewhere by
a jungle beast and eaten.

Nom Anor then paid a visit to the worldship Baanu Kor,
Nen Yim's birthplace. A worldship's archives house the preserved
genetic material of every Yuuzhan Vong born within it's shell,
taken from them as infants for identification purposes. Nom Anor
secretly gained access to those archives, located and removed
some of Nen Yim's and placed it in a growth vat. In a matter of
days he had enough skin, bone and blood cells to equal that of an
adult Yuuzhan Vong.

The container held that material and the dead shaper's
implants.

The transport took off, heading for a world at the border of
Yuuzhan Vong territory. The ship never made it, was intercepted
at the edge of the target system and destroyed by a vigilante fighter
squadron commanded by a Jedi Knight named Kyp Durron.

Nom Anor smiled and reminded himself to thank the Jedi
for his help if the opportunity ever arose.

Agents of the Peace Brigade, instructed by Nom Anor, had
leaked information about the transport's destination and arrival
time, hinting that it carried important cargo. In reality there was
nothing of real value onboard and its sacrifice was negligible in its
effect on the Yuuzhan Vong, but all-important to Nom Anor. The
agent who had stown away onboard doubtless would have been
overjoyed at the importance of her sacrifice. Not that she was
aware of it, or anything else for that matter: two days prior Nom
Anor had burned out her brain and implanted her with Obeyers
that would move her living-but-empty shell according to his
instructions.

The outcome went exactly as planned. The trackers had
followed the agent's trail, assuming it was Nen Yim's, to the
transport's cradle. Analysis of the charred and frozen wreckage
floating through the vacuum yielded a shaper adept's implants and
Nen Yim's genetic material.


The conclusion: obviously the fugitive had secreted herself
on the transport, hoping to reach the edge of Yuuzhan Vong-
controlled space and possibly to go beyond it, but had the bad luck
to be killed in an infidel ambush. The gods had seen her escaping
justice and punished her themselves. The 'heretic's' remains were
incinerated and the foul ashes returned to the cold embrace of the
vacuum. Case closed.

There was no suspicion of anything underhanded. Why
should there be? As far as the trackers knew Nen Yim had found
out she was being watched, had panicked and killed Brak, then
made an unplanned attempt to escape the authorities, perhaps even
to defect to the infidels. That was how the investigators saw it, so
that was what happened.

Nom Anor grinned. He'd told the truth when he described
his occupation to Nen Yim. He was a shaper of reality.

He chuckled as he stepped out of the wash room, pulled his
hair away from his face and tied it, then pulled his tunic on. Nen
Yim had never realized that it would be impossible to place her
anywhere as long as the masters thought she was alive: every
damutek would be on the alert for a fugitive heretic, and any newly
arrived shaper would come under suspicion. It amazed him
sometimes to think that such a brilliant shaper could be so
dense!

No, that wasn't fair. Nen Yim was getting better, getting
smarter, learning to apply the principles of observation an analysis
on the world outside the lab.

That was the problem: she was growing and learning, and
in so doing she became unpredictable. She was constantly
surprising him in little ways, he had to work to keep ahead of her,
at least until he had what he wanted.

Helping the Yuuzhan Vong win the war through superior
shaping, that was all well and good, but it took a backseat to Nom
Anor's true goals. He'd needed only one thing to achieve them:
Mezhan Kwaad's secret of turning a true-caste Yuuzhan Vong into
a shamed one at will.

That formula was what Nom Anor had been after all along,
and now that he possessed it he was making good use of that
power. In a few weeks several troublesome commanders would
show the ignominious signs and defects. It was the groundwork
for his plan, culminating in the death of Warmaster Tsavong Lah.
Ah, but it would be a glorious death, one that would inspire the
warriors to greater feats of bravery and make Tsavong Lah a
martyr for generations.

In more mundane terms, the warmaster's death would also
necessitate the Overlord choosing someone else to lead his army,
and with every possible successor reduced to shamed status (sure
portents from the gods of their unworthiness to follow in Tsavong
Lah's wake) who would the Overlord turn to? Only the Praetorite
Vong, and Nom Anor's influence in the Praetorite Vong grew
every day.

A wave of agony from the tumor overcame him, and this
time he didn?t bother to control his reaction at all. He cast himself
on the bed and writhed in joy and pain. He abandoned himself as
the vaa tumor expanded his mind until it seemed he held all
creation in his brain, that he was aware of the tiniest atoms and
their intersecting courses through space. He could create stars and
planets if he chose, or reduce the existing ones to clouds of fine
powder.

Eventually the tide of brilliance ebbed, leaving Nom Anor
panting and shivering on the bed. Again he wiped blood from his
nostrils and stood. Everything was in motion. All that remained
was to gather up the loose threads and draw them close - into a
noose around Tsavong Lah's neck.

Nom Anor quirked a smile. Prefect Drathul, his supposed
master, didn't know a tenth of the Executor's plans, though he'd
take advantage of an opportunity for power. Drathul was
ambitious, but he didn't go far enough: he dreamed of the day the
Praetorite Vong would be first in the Overlord's eyes. Nom Anor
dreamed of the day he would wear the Overlord's mantel himself.
And if Drathul proved an impediment to those plans, well, Prefects
could be eliminated as easily as warmasters.

Drathul and Nom Anor were the only survivors of the
secret cabal behind Da'Gara's pre-emptive incursion on Helska
Four, all the other conspirators had either perished with the
unfortunate Da'Gara or demoted and executed by the Warmaster.
Nom Anor's involvement was suspected, but Drathul's name was
clear: Nom Anor had made certain all suspicion fell on him.

It was a sound decision: it cast him in a bad light at
Shimmra's court, but keeping Drathul above reproach earned him
the powerful Prefect's support, protection and friendship, vital to
carrying out further schemes.

The good cheer evaporated. Nom Anor would be in control
of the invasion and well on his way to Shimmra's throne by now if
not for a group of Jedi and their last-minute interference to ruin his
plans.

A flash of hatred overcame Nom Anor. A sick, sour,
burning, bubbly hate in the pit of his belly. He took a moment to
indulge in a fantasy he'd originated and added to over the months.
He imagined the Solo children first. The arrogant, snotty brats
Who'd caused him to lose face at Shimmra's court to begin with.

He saw himself raising his tightly-clenched fists high over
his head and bringing them both down on those smooth, still-
maturing faces. He pounded them until blood sprayed, until he
could see red-smeared bone, until their heads were nothing more
than mush and bone-splinters.

Then he would fling their bodies one-by-one before their
parents and laugh at their anguished faces and debilitating
sentimentality before burning them both to ash with a fire-
breather.

He reserved his best torment, however, for Jedi Master
Luke Skywalker, the jumped-up farmboy who'd been responsible
for pulling the Jedi Order out of the dead past where it belonged.


"I've killed your wife." He would say to Skywalker, that
machine-hand freak, "she may be moving and speaking right now
but make no mistake: she's dead. You're going to watch as she
withers away before your eyes, Skywalker, and none of your
powers or your students or your tainted machines will save her.
You're going to watch her die and know that I, Nom Anor, did this
to her, and that I could cure her anytime, I could maker her well
and whole in a matter of moments. But I never will."

He had to stop then, otherwise he might get caught up in
more revenge fantasies, perhaps starring Nas Choka, the
overstuffed Supreme Commander and Tsavong Lah's right hand.
Nom Anor had often wondered how much pain that diminutive
numbskull could really embrace, increased in small increments
over a long period of time, before overflowing and reducing the
great warrior to a broken shell, bawling like an infant at Nom
Anor's feet.

The Executor smiled a bit before relapsing into anger. He
should have killed Leia Organa Solo, her space-happy spawn Jaina
and interfering sister-in-law Mara Jade Skywalker (and what
about this business with 'Organa-Solo' and 'Jade-Skywalker'
anyway? Couldn't these infidels even decided which domain they
belong to?) back on Rhommamool when he'd had the chance.

He should have wired the hallway, the whole building
even, and blown it all to hell with them inside and worried about
testing his damn coomb spores on some other Jedi. The act of
'terrorism' would have accomplished his objectives too: blowing
up himself (so the infidels would believe) and the New Republic
VIPs would have focused galactic attention to the backwater Core
worlds much more effectively than a petty civil war. The
demoralization effect alone would've been worth it!

So why had he let them and their chatty, gold-colored
abomination go? In retrospect it was idiotic. It was almost as if
he'd been some shock-character in a play written by an imbecile!

Jedi. If it hadn't been for the actions of a single Jedi over
twenty years ago Nom Anor's parents would be ruling the galaxy
right now and I, he thought bitterly, would be ruling with
them. His mother and father had been great people, with great
dreams, and the Jedi had destroyed them. It was small consolation
that the avian Jedi was dead and gone herself, now a part of that
'Force' she had worshiped.

Nom Anor had thought the Jedi were gone forever when
she had died and he'd heard that Darth Vader and the Emperor had
perished with their super-abomination, the 'Death Star,' only to
find the Order was being revived by Vader's spawn, with new
supercreatures springing up like weeds underfoot. Now wherever
he turned it seemed a Jedi stood in his way, frustrating him. From
Helska to Fondor to Duro, with every step forward he was pushed
three steps back. Well, no longer. He had the tools he needed.

Which led him back to the main question: what to do with
his latest ally?

Originally his plan was simple: he had arranged for her to
'die' with the intent that she never surface again, it left less loose
ends. Yet now that the time had come he felt a strange reluctance
to take that step.


He had grown...attached to her during their time together
and found himself hesitating to end their ties, or her life. It had
started the moment he made contact back in the Endless Void
and realized she wasn't quite as gullible as he'd first assumed.
Then he actually found himself enjoying spending time with her
here and during their trip. She was different from the reclusive,
unimaginative shapers he was familiar with, the type that knew
nothing of life outside the damutek and cared less about the state
of the universe beyond.

He admired her open mind, the way she was able to take on
complex problems and find quick and accurate solutions, how
could inventively apply her intelligence to different situations. She
never seemed discouraged by failure, but simply learned from the
experiment and looked for another route to her goal. Nom Anor
had experienced all those qualities firsthand while helping her in
the damutek labs.

He liked talking with her.

He liked working with her.

He really liked sleeping with her.

This was a problem. Odd feelings were moving through
him, disturbing his normally calm, rational plan: to shed his ally
once he had what he wanted. Did he want something else?
Need something else?

Ridiculous.

And yet he had an emotional connection with her, to the
point where he was actually beginning to feel guilty about using
her work without her knowledge or consent. For more than a
decade guilt had been something foreign to him. A sickness other
beings were preyed with. Nom Anor had no desire to experience it
again, nor to feel...to feel...

"Love." The word was acid in Nom Anor's mouth. He said
the same word in Basic and found it just as distasteful. Love was a
disease. It got under your defenses and chipped away at you from
the inside, warped your thinking and priorities, made you react
instead of think, allowed another to gain control over you. Love
made you vulnerable.

For a long time Nom Anor had been alone, and he had
never felt the need to be otherwise until now. To be able to stand
alone without depending on anyone, Yuuzhan Vong or the gods
they invented to give their lives meaning, that was the mark of a
superior being.

Mezhan Kwaad was a prime illustration of this point. For
all her cunning and intelligence the master shaper had shown she
was flawed: she had allowed herself to develop feeling for another,
this Vua Rapuung. She had shared herself and her plans with him,
and when he proved too blind and small-minded to appreciate her
viewpoint she didn't do the smart thing and kill the commander,
even though he was a threat to her.


Whatever her emotion-twisted motives for doing so,
sentimentality for what they'd shared or vindictiveness for
spurning her, she had let him live and sown the seeds of her own
destruction. It was because of Mezhan Kwaad's former lover that
Anakin Solo had been able to approach and penetrate the shaper
compound and steal away a powerful potential weapon in the
single captured Jedi student. Just as Nen Yim's sentimental
feeling over an old flame had gotten them both seized as heretics.

Nom Anor thought he'd grown past this after the troubles
He'd faced more than a decade ago, and what it had taken to
resolve them.

About fifteen years ago, in the early days of the New
Republic, there was a female named Ceis Grasm, someone Nom
Anor had been involved with. For a time it had seemed like
earthly paradise, then they had drifted apart. Following the
disastrous clash with Grand Admiral Thrawn Ceis Grasm, like
most of the few Yuuzhan Vong survivors, wanted to hide in the
remotest corners of this galaxy, pretend the infidels didn't exist and
wait for the coming of the Yuuzhan Vong jihad.

Not Nom Anor. He had gone out among the infidels,
determined to learn their ways and their weaknesses. He studied
their ways and histories, followed the currents of power and the
actions of the New Republic's founding members. As he grew
more sophisticated he began to doubt first the wisdom of the gods,
then their existence. But while Nom Anor had grown, his
paramour had stayed the same.

Ceis Grasm couldn't deal with this. She was devout,
unwilling to open her eyes. She had seen the Yuuzhan Vong
humbled and yet the subaltern refused to admit there were things
to be learned from the infidel. She wouldn't listen, no matter how
often he tried to convince her to join him on a foray to an infidel
world.

Eventually, she became convince his fascination with the
infidels was something unhealthy. The subaltern was going to
denounce him as sporting with heresy, but Nom Anor found out.
And he had taken action.

The Executor clenched his hand. Ceis Grasm had suffered
a fatal accident before she could voice her suspicions. Emotion
had made him careless around her, reluctant to do what had to be
done, but he had come to his senses and overcame that flaw. Nom
Anor had felt something for her, he really had, she had been his
gateway to manhood after all. He still felt some lingering affection
for her memory, but when it came to her or himself, he had chosen
himself and his ambitions.

So why was the idea of eliminating Nen Yim so difficult to
contemplate?


While he considered this another thought tugged at him: the
idea that she might love him in return. He had began the
partnership the same way he had all his other alliances, by
projecting the image of the kind of person the ally would best
respond to. Over the weeks, however, he found himself revealing
more and more of his true nature, though not his true plans of
course. By rights the adept should be repulsed at a glimpse of the
Executor's inner self, yet he didn't see any signs of abhorrence.
For more than a decade Nom Anor didn't think he could be
loved, he had resigned himself to the fact. If this wasn't so, then
one of his most fundamental beliefs about himself was wrong.

No, he shook his head, don't try and make this into
more than it is. He paced the room restlessly. This in
infatuation, nothing else. Yes, he was only feeling relief at
finally being able to put aside some of the masks he'd worn for so
long.

Well, he'd solved the side-issue, but the main one hadn't
been touched yet. What would he do with Nen Yim?

Nom Anor turned to leave, then looked back at the untidy
state of the room. He grimaced. Like any sensible plotter he liked
neatness, both in his environment and his plans: nothing was worse
than a loose end or a misplaced item. He took a moment to
straighten things up, and as he knelt to pick up a living coverlet
that had fallen off the bed an idea came to him.

Now supposing, just supposing, he actually kept his
promise and made Nen Yim a master shaper after his immediate
plans were complete and he and the Praetorite Vong ascended to
Shimmra's right hand? Keeping his word was a new concept for
him, but just think about it. Nom Anor always meant to use
Mezhan Kwaad's secrets, along with the shaper heresies he'd
collected and capitalized on himself, to help the Yuuzhan Vong
win the war (what good would it do to be Supreme Overlord of a
defeated people?). Who better to oversee the development and
application of those heresies than Nen Yim?

Yes, it could work, and Nen Yim would be a powerful ally
as a master shaper. He would do just that, not for any sentimental
reasons, but because it was a wise tactical move. So Nom Anor
thought to himself, ignoring the warm, light feeling in the pit of his
stomach when he imagined her face when she realized he had
made all her dreams come true.

*****************************************
Nom Anor's quarters
Two weeks later

"What?" Nom Anor stopped in his tracks and turned back
to Nen Yim. He was very good at controlling his emotions and
body language, but the adept sensed the spike of alarm her
statement triggered. Odd, how she hadn't paid this kind of
attention to Tsun, surely he was less practiced in deceit than Nom
Anor. Then again, she'd been lied to so often perhaps she was
beginning to recognize Yun Harla's face.

She observed the Executor closely while arranging her
features into a quizzical expression and repeating the statement
she'd thrown out in such an offhand way.


"I think I've found out how to cure Yuuzhan Vong of
shamed status." She smiled and paused a moment before
continuing. "All it would take is one quick treatment for every
newborn Yuuzhan Vong in its creche to guarantee they will never
know the affliction. I can't do anything about those already
afflicted, not without some shamed ones to experiment on.? A
wave of relief from Nom Anor. "But once my work is legitimized
I'm sure there will be no shortage of volunteers." She finished.

"That's wonderful," Nom Anor laughed, "I can't begin to
imagine what that will do for us."

Nen Yim listened, made herself smile. He was so sincere
she almost believed him. Almost. Now he'll tell me why it
shouldn't be done. I wonder what argument he'll use. Maybe he'll
say that since shamed ones were punished by the gods it would be
blasphemy to undo their work. She considered. No, he's built up
my trust by showing himself as forward-thinking. Probably
something about the impact on society.

"But I think we should wait and think through things before
looking any further." He went on. "We need to consider how the
end of the shamed ones will affect our society. Shamed status is
the most visible symbol of the divine wrath, so what will it do to
the average Yuuzhan Vong to find out that it can be prevented or
reversed?"

"Or inflicted." Nen Yim put in. "Aimed like a razorbug
and thrown at a victim." Nom Anor's face froze.

"What are you talking about?" He asked carefully.

"I'm talking about Mezhan Kwaad's formula for causing the
marks of shame to appear on a true caste, information we erased
from the storage villip the day after I broke Mezhan Kwaad's
codes. We agreed that it should never be used, remember?" She
stepped forward, eyes flashing. "I'm talking about five prominent
commanders, all afflicted with the gods' curse in the same week.
It's hard to miss such 'obvious' signs of the gods' displeasure. The
priests are searching everywhere for portents."


Outrage colored her voice. That her work would be used to
hurt or kill wasn't a new concept, but she had always understood
what she shaped would be used against infidels, not her own
people! "I agreed to this," she grimaced, "alliance, to help the
Yuuzhan Vong, not to dispose of your political enemies!"

"It's more complicated than you think, Nen Yim." Nom
Anor held up his hands, speaking quickly, reassuring. "I have a
plan and Mezhan Kwaad's formula plays a key role, but afterward
I, we will have more power than you can possibly imagine!" He
took by the shoulders. "That will be the time to develop and use
the cure."

"Yes, and what better testament to your regime could there
be than having the gods grant you the power to decide who is
shamed and who redeemed?" Nen Yim spoke in tones of disgust
and shoved him away. "But that can only work if the Yuuzhan
Vong are kept ignorant, and how could you do that except by
persecuting shapers who try to seek knowledge?"

Nom Anor licked his lips. "You would be free to pursue
knowledge however you like."

"And the other shapers?" She pressed in a cold, low voice.

"Surely you realize knowledge is most valuable if only a
few beings possess it." He frowned. "If you'll just sit down and
consider-"

"I'm leaving." She broke in.

"Leaving what?"

"You. The work. Everything!" She snapped. "I wont be a
part of this, and I wont have my work perverted."

Nom Anor slammed his fist against the wall. "Will you
listen to yourself?" He exploded. "I'm offering you the chance
to help shape the destiny of an entire galaxy and you're fussing
over some minor details."

"Minor details?" Nen Yim was astounded. "You lied to
me, betrayed my trust-"

"It was necessary at the time. Look, I have definite plans
that must be carried out and I couldn't afford to waste time
with a moral argument."

"And I don't have plans of my own?" She said coldly. "I
do. I want every shamed one restored to true caste, I want the
shapers free to use their talents and to have a say in how our work
is used.

I once asked you why you never became a shaper. I didn't
really understand your answer then, but I do now. You want
power, but shapers are essentially powerless. We shape what the
intendants, warriors and priests tell us to shape, when and how
they tell us, and if we disobey or go beyond our instructions we're
called heretics and killed out of hand. Well I want more, starting
with an end to the tyranny!"

"Those aren't plans." Nom Anor hissed. "You have
idealistic dreams but no practical way of accomplishing them." He
rolled his eyes. "I thought you'd grown past this unrealistic
nonsense. You want to end oppression?" He laughed out loud.
"Never. Rulers have always abused power and they always will. It
couldn't and shouldn't be stopped. Besides, the Yuuzhan Vong
crave a strong hand over them. You?ll never stop the abuse, so
the best thing to do is become the abusers!? He struck his chest
with a clenched fist.

"No," Nen Yim shook her head, "I've been oppressed, Nom
Anor, and I've lived in fear. I've seen friends seized as heretics
and killed without cause. I'll never become an oppressor." She
took her headdress from a shelf and donned it. "I'm leaving."

Nom Anor was stunned. "You can't go!" He shouted.
"You're a fugitive from justice, remember? You'll be taken and
executed!" Was that desperation she heard in his voice? No,
ignore it, she couldn't let him get to her.

"I don't think anyone is looking for me." She said with
forced calm. "I'm dead. You made sure of it." Nom Anor's mouth
worked, but no sound emerged. "I have learned, you see. I
observe and make deductions. I heard of a cargo transport that
was destroyed shortly after we made the first leg of our trip from
the Endless Void, and there's no search out for an adept of my
description. I take it I was on that transport, along with the crew?"

The Executor nodded. "It was the only way to save you."
He said earnestly. She felt an uncomfortable tug in her chest and
belly and averted her eyes briefly so he wouldn't see the affect he
was having on her.

"I know how to disguise myself, I can fool the sensors on
Yuuzhan Vong ships and bases, in essence I can go anywhere in
occupied space with impunity. I've even made myself an omnis
masquer." She finally said, "and no one is looking for me
anyway." She shook her head at Nom Anor's stunned expression.
"You've learned much from me, didn't you think I would learn
from you in turn?"

"This is ridiculous," Nom Anor pulled himself together,
"where will you go? What will you do? You need me!"

"I'm going to find a way to help our people, in my own
way." Her headdress twined in a resolute expression. "Maybe it is
foolish, and maybe I'll fail, but I can?t stay here." She turned to the
door.

"Nen Yim, wait." She kept walking. "Damn you I said
wait!" Nom Anor seized her arm and twisted her back around, she
tried to pull away but couldn't break his grip. "You don't just walk
away, you owe me more than this!" He dragged her away from the
door. "And just remember before you start on another self-
righteous tirade," he pulled her close, his face inches away from
hers, "where would you be right now without me? Dead as a
heretic or a beast working the fields, except when your keeper
calls you inside at night to warm his bed!" He spat.

The truth of his words twisted in her stomach, but she
couldn't let him get to her, she put on a mask of rage and contempt
and shot back, "Anything I owe you I've more than repaid by now.
I gave you my master's secrets, and that's the only reason you
helped me in the first place!" In spite of herself, real pain showed
in her voice and eyes. "You lied to me, and you used me."

Nom Anor breathed shallowly, only then becoming aware
of the crushing grip on her arm. He released her, and Nen Yim
didn't feel for the bruises she knew were present. She kept her
eyes on Nom Anor's face, could almost see the thoughts racing
behind his eye.

"Yes, I lied to you, but I didn't know you then. I know you
now, and I know something else: we're good together. You know
that. Tell me you don't. Tell me you don't feel it!" He ran a
hand along her jaw. "Think of everything we could do together.?
His voice was low, intense. "If you'll just see this my way-"


Nen Yim wasn't listening, she was thinking instead of some
notes she'd recently found in the storage villip. Not records of
experiments or theories this time, but a personal journal. For the
past few days she'd pored over her master's most intimate
thoughts. She had been surprised at what she'd found out.

She was warmed at Mezhan Kwaad's recent entries
concerning her, at how the master was beginning to see Nen Yim
as a sort of daughter-figure, and she'd been shocked at the earlier
entries, the ones concerning Vua Rapuung.

Outrage and raw, red fury had poured from the villip.
Mezhan Kwaad had cursed her lover, his narrow minded attitudes
and stubborn refusal to see things the way she did. The tirade ran
on about how she'd make him pay for rejecting her, how she would
turn all that he knew of his 'perfect society' against him, take away
everything he took pride in about himself. She would make him
crawl back to her on his belly.

Mezhan Kwaad would render everything he believed in
meaningless, and when Vua Rapuung saw she could perform the
acts of the gods he would know that she held the only truth, and
his only salvation.

Later entries were calmer, but in their own way more
horrible. Mezhan Kwaad rambled on in a way Nen Yim's
analytical, efficient master would have frowned on in anyone else.
In these entries she talked about how it was all for the best, really:
by shattering Vua Rapuung's preconceptions she opened his mind.
In essence she had infected him for his own good. And besides,
there was no lasting damage. He could be restored, and he would
be, once he admitted she was right. Then everything between
them would be just like it was before.

The entries went on in similar veins as she struggled to
justify what could never be justified, and all the arguments were
tinged with the guilt she refused to acknowledge. It chilled Nen
Yim to see love turn into something so monstrous, to see what it
could drive someone to do. Mezhan Kwaad had never stopped
believing she could get Vua Rapuung back. That was most likely
the reason she had held back from killing him when he and the
jeedai had attacked them, why she?d wanted him brought aboard
their escape craft.

It's the same, she thought, transfixed by Nom Anor's
gaze. What Mezhan Kwaad felt for Vua Rapuung, what Nom
Anor felt for her...what she felt for him.

"We can work this out," Nom Anor was insisting. "You
can't leave, I..." he swallowed, then forced the words out as if his
throat were lined with broken glass, "I love you." He steeled
himself. "You complete me, Nen Yim. When we're together I feel
invincible!"

The admission was like a spear driven into her heart. She
knew what it cost him to admit it. "Do you know something," tears
threatened to spill from her eyes, "I think if I stay with you long
enough I just might come to agree with you. That's why I have to
leave."

"I don't understand."

"I do love you, how couldn't I after everything we've shared, but
I love who you are, not what you are."

Nom Anor drew himself up. "And what am I?" He asked,
voice soft and dangerous.

"Evil." She said sadly, not condemning but consoling, as
though he had contracted a debilitating and incurable disease.
"You're missing something the rest of us have, call it a soul for
lack of a better word. Maybe you never had one, but I don't think
so. I think you brewed a solvent of bitterness and hate, and I think
you drank it down, slowly over the years, until it corroded you like
acid, until it ate away everything good inside you. Everything that
could care."

"I care for you." It was the only answer he could come up
with.

That was the worst part about all this: that he still had a
hair-thin shed of compassion left, and that she would be the one to
crush it.

"Nen Yim, listen to me. I have worked my entire life for
this moment, and thanks to you it's almost upon me. Give me a
few more weeks and you'll have everything you've ever dreamed
of and more. Freedom. Recognition. You'll be the one who
writes the protocols!? He clenched his fists. "I will lay the stars
themselves at your feet if you?ll just stay."

That moment of sincerity struck into her every cell. How
Couldn't it? He was offering her the thing he valued most: power.
She almost reconsidered. Almost. But what would happen then?
He would never change. Does he really think what he promises
holds any attraction for me? No, probably not, but it was all he
really understood, the only thing he had ever been able to offer.

"And if I don't agree?" She stepped away. "You're
thinking of restraint implants and Obeyers. I can tell." His wide
eyes proclaimed the guilt. "You'll implant me, but just for a little
while, right? Just to make sure I can't leave or threaten your plans.
Until you convince me to see things your way." She shook her
head. "Besides, it's for my own good anyway." She recited
Mezhan Kwaad?s self-justification and saw currents of shock
animate Nom Anor's face as she gave him his own thoughts.

"This has to end," tears were streaming down her face now,
"I love you," she said, "and I pity you. I'm afraid of you, I'm afraid
for you, but most of all I'm afraid of what I'll become if I stay
with you." Nen Yim wiped at her tears. "That's why I have to
leave now: I don't think I'll be able to later." She moved to the
door, was a step away from the seal when the Executor finally
spoke.

"No." Nom Anor forced the word through a constricted
throat. His eye burned with a thousand passions warring for
primacy. "I don't accept that." Without warning he surged
forward. "I wont let you go." He hissed through clenched teeth.
"How can you do this to me? I need you!" He bounded toward
her, eyes wide and burning. Nen Yim watched him sadly, let him
get within three steps of her, then gave an almost negligent flick of
her wrist.

The stinger dart that shot from her enhanced hand flew too
quickly to be seen. It struck home in Nom Anor's neck. He
stopped, blinked in surprise, and reached for his neck. He pulled
the needle out and looked at it, then at her. He dropped the dart
and staggered another step on wobbly legs, unable to accept having
his will thwarted, determined to shape reality into what he wished
it to be.

His legs buckled a second later as the lightning-fast venom
coursed through him. Nom Anor dropped to his knees, swaying
gently. With visible effort he forced his head to tilt upward. His
eye floated, unable to focus. He opened his mouth to speak, or
perhaps he just couldn't keep his jaw closed any longer. At any
rate, all that passed his lips was a low, gurgling sound. He reached
out for her with both hands, and to look at him, one would think
his shaking arms were durasteel weights.

When his arms were fully extended he was overbalanced
and fell forward. His hands struck the floor but his arms stayed
ridged for a moment. Nen Yim looked down at Nom Anor, on his
hands and knees before her, then the strength ran out of his limbs
and he dropped, prone, to the living floor.

Nen Yim knelt and gently turned him over, checked his
breathing and other vital signs with her hand. He was alive, but in
a deep sleep. In unconsciousness, the Executor's face gone slack
and smooth, he looked as though he was resting comfortably, but it
was a lie: Nom Anor would never rest.

The venom would keep him out for hours, long enough for
her to make good her escape. She would leave no tracks, no trail
for Nom Anor to follow: she had learned from the best. She could
also defend herself if necessary: the stinger darts were the least of
the defensive enhancements she'd made on her person.

She was packed and ready. There was no way for him to
follow, if he was able to look that is.

This was the time, now that he was helpless. She could
end his life right here. She should. She knew it. Nom Anor was
dangerous: he knew much of her work, and Master Kwaad's. He
was clever and he could build on that work, or co-opt a more
tractable shaper to do it for him. The damage he could do with
that knowledge was almost limitless.

She should kill him. It would be the smart thing to do, the
sensible thing. Mezhan Kwaad would tell her to do just that.

But Mezhan Kwaad hadn't been able to follow that advice
herself, not even when Vua Rapuung became a threat to her.

She tilted her head and brushed his face with her hand, then
stood and turned to the door. Sheer willpower kept new tears from
springing forth. She couldn't do it. She had become strong, but
she wasn't that strong. Not yet.

The shaper looked at him once more, over her shoulder as
she reached for the door. The feelers of her headdress bunched
tight against her skull. "I'll never forget you," she whispered. She
never would: he was her burden now, from this moment on she
was responsible for everything he did, everyone he hurt, because
she had spared his life today.

She bade the luminescent growths turn dormant as the door
irised open. Light from the coral hallway beyond splashed into the
room. Nen Yim stepped through and the door closed behind her,
leaving Nom Anor in the dark.

Alone.