Chapter Four
Vergere stared, open-mouthed, at the intruder before
switching of her lightsaber. "What in the name of the Force are
you doing here?"
Oin shrugged half-heartedly. "It was a long trip, I thought
I'd have a snack."
"You know what I'm talking about!" She snapped.
"Why did you stow away on my ship? And for that matter where
were you hiding?" They were speaking the Nesz tongue, but Oin
could speak excellent Basic as well.
"I hid in that little room you use to sit and think in." The
storage closet she used to meditate. "I thought a Nesz
should be here to help save the Nesz. And," he looked sheepish,
"I was curious too, about other worlds than what I know."
"Well," She looked around as if an answer would pop out
of the walls, what would her Master do right now? "There's
nothing to do about it now. I need to leave the ship, I want you to
stay here and out of trouble."
Oin jumped up. "But I can't! That is, ah, you might need
help. Where are we by the way? Which of those other worlds you
talked about? Is this were we will find help driving off the
Yuuzhan Vong?" Questions were coming hard and fast
"Listen to me, Oin. You're very brave, but you've never
been off your own world before. You know nothing of the galaxy.
The best way to help me is to stay here."
Oin protested weakly and hung his head as Verger packed
some food and went to the airlock. Somehow she had to speak to
the commander of the Imperial Fleet. Just in case Oin's agreement
was less than sincere, she locked the door on her way out with a
simple code. Now no one would be
getting in or out.
"Sorry Oin," she murmured, "but you're one variable I can't
afford to have running loose. May the Force be with us all if I
fail."
*************************************
Oin went to the airlock door, waited a few minutes, then
sniffed at the buttons on the side panel. Vergere's sweat-smell
lingered on four of the buttons, and he tried those until he found
the pattern to open the door.
"Sorry Vergere." he muttered as the airlock sealed itself
behind him and he crept down the landing cradle's rampway. He
would have liked to obey the Jedi, but was under orders from a
much higher authority.
He was amazed long before his clawed feet touched the
pavement. The spaceport was crowded with ships, many of them
much larger and more imposing than the Loon, as Vergere
called her old freighter. Flying and rolling and walking around
them were the port's droids, which serviced the vessels for a price.
Oin knew what droids were, of course, he had seen pictures and
holograms during Vergere's stay on his planet, she even kept a
small cleaning and service droid onboard, but dozens of the
mobile, metal beings, mere inches away from one's snout, was
another thing entirely.
And of course, there were the aliens. Beings that crawled,
flew, floated on repulsor couches and breathed through filters and
masks. He saw hair, scales, gills and feathers, sometimes all on
the same creature!
That was all tolerable, but what truly shocked Oin's Nesz
sensibilities was the haste and business around him. Everyone
pushing and shoving one another, all talking at once and eager to
finish what they were doing and move on to something else.
Nesz were generally a people who took life slow and
managed to find some joy or value in whatever task was at hand.
They didn't run headlong and helter-skelter like these beings, and
they certainly were never so discourteous. It occurred to him for
the first time that these creatures were separate from one
another. One being didn't feel another's pain or joy as the Nesz
did. Excluding the Yuuzhan Vong, Vergere was the only
offworlder he'd met, and the Jedi was so in tune with the life-
energy she was almost a Nesz herself. These people were
different. They frightened him.
Instinctively he kept low to the ground and inconspicuous
as he made his way out of the spaceport. He tried to follow
Vergere's scent at first, but it was soon lost in the tangle of smells,
body odor and machine oil. Running from the madness, he made
for a place he sensed was less hectic.
The tapcaf near the spaceport was noisy, but at least beings
seemed at ease here and the dark, cool and dimly lit common room
was better than the harsh glare of the sun. He made his way to a
darkened corner and sat down. He could sit and think awhile, at
least, while he planned his next move.
As he thought, he reached for the thick bandolier he wore,
many pockets were sewn into it, but it was the one on the inside of
the belt that he tapped for reassurance. The small wrapped bundle
hidden there was the only hope for the Nesz survival. So the
Eternal had said. They had charged Oin with this mission,
entrusted him with this all-important object. It was his duty to
make use of it, but only at the proper place. That place was
obviously not here.
But where to go? And how to get there?
A high pitched gurgling directed at him caught Oin's
attention. He looked up and at the glistening creature standing
over him, if 'standing' was the right word. The thing was a mass of
thick, ever-squirming tentacles that obscured its body. Some of
the feelers ended in bulbus eyes, others in toothless sucker-mouths,
but most were simply organs of manipulation.
It stood on a single wide foot. On either side of the
Miashku was a burly alien and a tripod protocol droid was near at
hand. It gurgled at Oin again and the Nesz stood up on his short
legs.
"Um, hello?" He said tenativly in his own language. One
of the aliens, a stupid-looking Barabel, snorted derisively and said
something to the other. Both chuckled. Oin belatedly realized the
aliens wouldn't know his tongue. He switched to the Basic he'd
learned from Vergere and the Vong. "Is there any trouble?"
Some of the Miashku's tentacles reared back and spoke to
the droid. "You speak the human tongue?" The machine asked in
Basic.
"Yes." Oin said.
"This illustrious fellow is with the port authorities, you are
to come with us." One of the aliens offered him a wafer with a
sweet but artifical smell, a treat of some kind. Both were edging
towards him.
While reason might tell Oin to obey the local authorities,
his instincts screamed danger warnings. In a case like this, the
Nesz was inclined to follow instinct. He made as if to take the
sweet, then slid past the Barabel with the fluid speed of his kind.
While the droid yelled commands in Basic for him to stop, the Miashku
slapped the aliens with whiplike feelers, sending them after the
Nesz.
Music was blaring in the tapcaf to the movements of a
holographic band. Oin dropped to all fours and slithered around
and among the tables. Passing underneath one on which a sabacc
game was being played, his tail brushed a female human's shins.
She jumped, spilled the cards in her hand and a few up her sleeve.
The game quickly became a brawl.
The Barabel hurried to block the door while the other, a red-
furred biped, pushed past the patrons in Oin's pursuit. The
Miashku was moving as fast as it could also, which was much
slower than the others.
Oin jumped on a stool, then onto the bar itself. He ran
across the stained surface and aliens either picked their drinks up
in time or got them spilled. The barfight had grown to include the
surrounding tables and the small, five-armed bartender shouted for
the bouncers.
The Nesz jumped to an empty table that broke under his
weight and sent him to the floor. He bounded up, saw the other
pursuer nearly on top of him and swung his tail at a chair. The
alien's feet tangled in the chair legs and sent him sprawling, where
he was trampled by the brawlers.
The bouncers, two eight foot tall aliens with thick slabs of
bone grown over various body parts, appeared from the back room.
Both had stun blasters but in most cases could end a fight with
their simple presence. One of them saw the Barabel blocking the
door and roared at him to move. The alien, his eyes on the
Nesz, palmed a small blaster from his sleeve and aimed it at Oin.
The bouncer, seeing this and knowing no weapons were allowed in
the tapcaf, wasted no time in closing the distance between them
and slapping the blaster out of the Barabel's hand. He then simply
picked the lackey up and hurled him into the mess of fighters.
Oin ran out the doorway and into the bright sunlight, glad
to be back in the busy atmosphere he had fled only moments
before. His joy was short-lived as a tentacle snaked around his
ankle and tripped him.
His long, flexible neck bent around and he saw the
Miashku, tentacle stretched to its limit, pulling him back as its
single foot inched it through the door. A few months ago Oin
wouldn't have known what to do, but experience with the Yuuzhan
Vong had educated him. His claws slashed the feeler and it
released him. More tentacles whipped at him, clutched at him, but
Oin had strong jaws and sharp teeth as well as claws and the
Miashku reared back, afraid of losing 'fingers' to this snapping
monster.
Oin was about to run, then he noticed something dangling
from one of the alien's feelers. He looked down and felt his
shoulder, then back at the Miashku: it had taken his bandolier!
"Give that back!" He snapped in his own language. The
Miashku was sliding away, however, tentacles squirming. Oin saw
red. Fear forgotten, he charged the mass of tentacles.
*******************************
Vergere left her ship, paid the standardized berthing fee
that would keep the vessel from being impounded for three days,
then went to one of public consoles and paid for ten minutes'
access to the planet's information network. She learned all she
could about the Imperial presence before her ten minutes were up
and she was cut off. She managed to learn about the public
announcement that Miashku would seek membership in the
Empire, and about the official ceremony to be held in a few hours
at the Inner Ring where the commander himself, whose name was
Grand Admiral Thrawn, would make a personal appearance.
"That makes things simpler, at least." Vergere muttered as
she walked to the edge of the spaceport. "All I need to do is get
past a few hundred stormtroopers inclined to shoot first and ask
questions later and convince one of the Emperor's top people to
listen to a Jedi."
With all this on her mind, the last thing she expected to see
was her young stowaway attacking a Miashku port official outside
a very tacky looking tapcaf. The Miashku was backing away as
quickly as it could and trying not to be mauled by the reptile-man.
"Stop this!" Vergere seized Oin's shoulder and held him
back. The alien's tentacles writhed and sputtered in its own
language. "What's this about?" She snapped at Oin. "I told you to
stay on the ship!" The Nesz was almost unrecognizable in his fury.
"He took my...my bandolier!" He hissed and Vergere saw
the belt hanging from one of the feelers. She used the Force to
give it a slight pull that made it drop to the ground. Oin broke
away, moving with more speed than Vergere had ever seen in him,
and caught it before it touched the ferocrete before darting back to her
side.
"Madame, this creature has assaulted a Miashku spaceport
security agent!" A protocol droid exclaimed as it rolled out the
door. The alien gurgled at them. "My master wished to inform
you of the penalties for such an act." The alien's feelers writhed
with apparent indignation, but through the Force Vergere felt fear
and unease emanating from it. She could get nothing clearer as
she was unfamiliar with this race's thought patterns, but a quick
look into Oin's surface thoughts cleared things up.
"Very well, lets go report this to the Portmaster. I'm sure it
will be only to happy to investigate things." She spoke in Basic, as
her own language was unknown here. The tentacles twitched in
surprise, then quickly spoke.
"My master does not think that necessary." The droid
translated. "It believes settling this privately will be more
convenient to all parties."
"I can imagine." She said sarcastically. "Fine, here's my
offer: stay away from me, my friend and my ship and I forget about
this."
The Miashku considered this while focusing a pair of eyes
on her and Oin, noting how poorly the Jedi was clothed: she wore a
homespun robe over simple but serviceable clothes. Obviously she
had little in the way of money.
On the other hand she and the little reptile might be worth
something together. She would be easy to take: she was small and
slight, only half a head taller than the short reptile. Besides the
money it could make from them there was the matter of her ship, it
would get a share of the profits once it was impounded and sold
after the owner disappeared. The Miashku's hired thugs were
being shown out of the tapcaf along with the other brawlers and it
was about to order them to seize the two offworlders.
It didn't give the order. This Miashku made a living on
reading other beings and there was something subtlety dangerous
about her, and it already knew the reptile was vicious. Its instincts
warned it off and it was inclined to agree. In any case they were
moving away from it by now and the opportunity had passed.
"Why did you leave the ship?" Vergere demanded. "And
how did you get out in the first place?"
"What did they want with me?" Oin asked after explaining.
"That Miashku must have seen you sneaking off the ship.
It thought you were a slave or a pet. It wanted to sell you."
"Why would it think that?"
"You're not wearing clothes." She answered. "No one
knows all the different races out here, and which ones are sentient.
If a being doesn't have the trappings of civilization then it's
generally considered nonsentient. It either thought you were an
animal or too weak to defend yourself." She shook her head.
"You see why I didn't want you here? This part of the galaxy is
wild space, Oin. There are no laws and no sure protection for
anyone but the strong and the rich."
"But you threatened to tell its elder, this Portmaster, what
it was doing."
"What it was doing was trying to kidnap and sell a traveler
without giving the Portmaster a share in the profits. The Miashku
in charge of this spaceport probably runs everything that goes on
here, and nothing is legal or illegal."
Oin suppressed a shudder, how could people live like that?
"Are you going to stay in the ship now?" Vergere pressed.
Oin only shook his head. "Blast it, I thought you had sense!" She
snapped.
"Sense enough to know even a Jedi will need help here."
Vergere closed her eyes and took a calming breath. "So be
it then."
They approached the Inner Ring, were Grand Admiral
Thrawn was scheduled to appear. Oin was amazed at what he saw
as they neared the edge of the Inner Ring. The capital of the planet
was literally half a mile above the surface.
A forest of white pillars thicker, it seemed, than mountains supported a
city of glittering towers crisscrossed by small, personal craft.
Gangs had sprayed the bases of the towers with graffiti, which
several hundred droids were busily cleaning.
"Those are the repulserlifts," Vergere pointed to the
floating platforms, large enough to hold a dozen beings at once,
"they are one of the two ways into the Inner Ring. We wont be
using them." Her cloak swirled around her as she approached one
of the outer pillars. Oin saw that there was a spiraling stairway
built into the side. "This way is better: it's free and we wont be
noticed."
There was a guard stationed at the pillar and he started to
block the Jedi's way, but she merely looked at him for a few
seconds and he stepped back to his post, face clear of hostility.
Oin followed Vergere, confused.
"Why don't you want to be seen?" He asked her. "And
what planet is this? Is it were we'll find help to free my people?"
"It's were we'll find help to fight the Yuuzhan Vong." She
answered, seeing the Star Destroyer in her mind's eye. "The
Miashku planet is a major trade center for this sector." She went
on as they climbed. "Considered neutral ground by every power,
until now at any rate. Now the Empire is moving to add this planet
to its territory. I came here to speak to the Imperial commander.
They're the only ones strong enough to fight the Vong."
After an eternity of climbing they came up at the edge of
the Inner Ring. There were small spaceports up there as well,
where private yachts of the wealthy were berthed. There were
towers of glass and mirrors, shining architectural masterpieces
with vaulting spires and overhangs. The homes and business
centers of the elite.
"We need to get to the Capital Marketplace. That's where
the commander is scheduled to appear." She said softly.
"Why not just go to one of his soldiers and ask to be taken
to him?" Oin inquired.
"The Empire and the Jedi are not on the best of terms."
She whispered in the Nesz tongue, there were many beings on the
street and she didn't dare risk being overheard. That was easy:
their poor clothing and Vergere's subtle use of the Force
guaranteed they would go unnoticed. "They would be inclined to
shoot first and talk afterwards-" She trailed off, seeing for the first
time that not all the Imperials on shore leave were human.
Yes, she had seen a great many Chiss since entering the
upper city, but it hadn't registered that they wore Imperial
uniforms. Aliens serving in the Imperial fleet?
Oin noticed her surprise, but before he could ask her what
was wrong a hologram appeared a nearby street corner, one of the
methods used for public announcements. A hologram of a
Miashku High Councilor began to talk and the speakers on several
nearby streetlamp poles blared the words in several different
languages: Miashku, Chiss and the tongues of a few other
influential races. A small crowd was gathering and the Jedi and
Nesz stayed close together.
It took a few minutes for them to find a speaker translating
into Basic, and when they did many of the words were blotted out
by the others. Oin caught the words "Empire" and "signing," and,
with significance attached to it, "Grand Admiral Thrawn." Vergere
jerked in shock as the hologram switched to another figure. That
of an aristocratic Chiss in the white uniform of a Grand Admiral.
He tried to get her attention but her violet eyes were riveted on
the image.
Vergere stared at the Chiss face, willing herself to be
mistaken but knowing she was not. This was the man from her
dream, the one who fought Sang Anor and, along with him,
destroyed the Nesz.
*************************************
"-and move forward into a new and brighter future."
Thrawn finished and the hologram broadcast switched off. "Is my
shuttle ready?" He asked Parck.
"Yes sir, and all other preparations are as you specified."
"Good. I will embark for the planet in one hour." He sat at
his command chair, activated a console and bent his attention on it.
"I wish you'd let me go with you." Parck bit out.
"No Captain, if anything should go wrong I will need you
up here to coordinate things. Not that I expect anything of the
kind." He smiled slightly. "And if I am wrong, we will simply
have to improvise."
*************************************
They saw more Miashku and many more Imperials the
closer they came to the center of the city. Vergere and Oin
retreated into an alleyway near the capital building. "I need an
opportunity to somehow speak with Thrawn alone." She still had
trouble believing the Emperor would make a Chiss one of his
Grand Admirals.
In any case, she had enough evidence to convince even the
most skeptical of Imperials of the threat Sang Anor posed. The
datacard in her robe's pocket had detailed images of their works on
Sevac III, along with a carefully compiled report on what to expect
from them. She had begun that report in her mind over thirty years
ago, when she had surrendered to the Yuuzhan Vong task force in
order to save the inhabitants of Zonama Sekot, the most amazing
inhabitant being the planet itself!
She couldn't help the sigh that escaped her: she had seen
neither her Master nor any other Jedi since then, but she had felt
them as they died. Thracia most of all. Now it seemed she must
make a choice between the Sith and the Empire they had built and
the Yuuzhan Vong vision of the future, with the lives of innocents
caught in between.
But at least with the Empire there was hope, a chance for
rebellion. The Vong would change more than the government
under which the people lived, they would change the people
themselves. There would be no escape, and the Jedi would never
again rise: Sang Anor would cut the beings of this galaxy off from
the Force itself.
"Come on, we need to get a closer look at the
Marketplace." She started to leave the alley, Oin beside her.
Suddenly the Nesz's eyes widened and his clawed hands grabbed
Vergere. He pulled her back just before she would have run right
into a passing Imperial. Vergere jumbled back and pressed herself
against the wall. Her eyes were wide with terror. The human was
tall, broad shouldered and strong looking, but that wasn't what
frightened her.
She hadn't sensed him approaching through the Force, nor
did she now, though she bent all her will on the figure. Her senses
told her nothing was there. She knew what that meant.
Oin's eyes were narrow slits, his nostrils quivered. He
Couldn't sense the Force but he had a sensitive nose, and he
recognized the 'human's' lean but broad-shouldered shape, the
deadly grace of movement and the ingrained arrogance that made
him seem to stalk and swagger at the same time.
"One of them!" He hissed.
"Yes." Vergere nodded slowly. A Yuuzhan Vong in
human guise, and in the uniform of an Imperial. This complicated
things, especially as both she and the Nesz race were known to
them. "And not just one if I know Sang Anor. It's more important
than ever that I talk to Thrawn."
*************************************
Nom Anor paused after passing the alleyway. He had seen
something out of the corner of his eye. Movement: a small, slight
figure in a cloak and a slightly shorter but much broader creature.
Probably nothing, some of this world's criminal vermin, but
something tugged at his memory and made him uneasy.
Something about the cloaked one. He half turned and reached into
the pocket of his stolen uniform, ignoring the blaster, that
perverted machine at his side, in favor of a long-bladed coufee
strapped to his thigh under the uniform.
"Are you coming yet, or does the scenery interest you?"
The speech was Basic, but the voice and tone were unmistakable.
His lips tight and angry under his second skin, Nom Anor turned
back and hurried toward the Vong warrior.
The Vong full warrior, who regarded him with cold
contempt, then looked over and around him as if he were a
smashed bug. "Warrior," he said softly, "I saw something-"
"I expect total obedience from you, feenir." He overrode
Nom Anor. "Do not get distracted from your duties again." He
turned on his heel and stalked towards the Marketplace, Nom Anor
followed, seething inside. The curt dismissal said it all: the
warrior's contempt for him, that Nom Anor was nothing in his
eyes, a stripling who was here only because of his father's power
and importance.
So be it then. He would simply have to prove them all
wrong.
They met with the other three covert warriors at a small
restaurant. They sat at an outdoor table and gave their reports to
Hren Silra. The Vong commander nodded and told them each
what positions to take.
"You will have the honor of striking the death blow." He
said to the senior warrior. He bowed his head, pride and disgust
mingling on his face: he would, of course, be required to use the
blaster at his side. A machine.
"Think of the irony, warrior." Hren Silra smiled. "To use
the machine-mens' own weapons against them. May Yun Harla
hide us and guide our hands."
They all bowed their heads in prayer. Nom Anor couldn't
wait until this was over. He felt suffocated in these machine made
clothes and objects. The sooner the Chiss admiral was dead, the
better.
Yet he couldn't help that nagging unease...
*************************************
Grand Admiral Thrawn's shuttle set down at a landing pad
near the edge of the city. Stormtroopers had already disembarked
and assembled and a vehicle was waiting for Thrawn himself. The
Chiss admiral ascended the steps to the railed platform atop the
hovercar and the parade began.
Ranks of stormtroopers marched behind the vehicle as it
moved down the street. Hovering camera droids darted around and
reporters spoke into comm-broadcasters. Citizens, merchants,
Miashku leaders and powerful traders lined the street, watching to
see how the balance of economic power in this sector was shifting
and how they could take advantage of it.
Overhead, wings of TIE fighters streaked across the sky,
showing incredible precision in the high speed maneuvers.
Quickly but majestically, the Imperials made their way to the
center of the city where an ornate platform with a long table had
been set up. The High Councilors were assembled behind it, their
bejeweled tentacles flashed in the bright sunlight.
"Quite a spectacle." Vergere murmured. Her violet eyes
flashed from the depths of her hood as she scanned the
marketplace as she moved, using the Force to project an aura of
inconspicuousness. She cast out her senses in a wide net and
searched for people who didn't register in the Force. Ah yes, she
could see Sang Anor's hand in this. The Executor was devious,
and this was an opportunity he couldn't resist: to break up the
alliance that was giving the Empire so many advantages in the
Unknown Regions without revealing himself at all.
The Imperials were in sight now as well as on the public
viewscreens, moving to the dais. Vergere fisted her hands in
frustration, it was no good: there were just too many minds here to
zero in on a few blank spots. She would have to wait until Sang
Anor's agents made their move.
"Here," she handed Oin a small hold-out blaster, "take this
and stay beside me." The weapon was small enough for the Nesz
to conceal in his palm. She had let him fire a similar weapon a
few times before on his homeworld. He'd never killed anyone and
he wasn't anything resembling a good marksman, but he knew how
to use the thing. He could hopefully defend himself.
"We need to find someplace we can see what's happening,
preferably at the edge of the crowd." She discounted a sniper or a
bomb would be used: it was essential to Sang Anor's plans that the
assassin be visible when he struck, that there be no doubt that
human hands killed the Grand Admiral.
The Chiss walked up the steps to the dais, the Councilors
bent the top parts of their bodies in imitation of a bow and Thrawn
inclined his head in response. He was flanked by two Royal
Guardsmen, their blood-red capes contrasting sharply with
Thrawn's white uniform.
"My friends," amplifiers carried Thrawn's voice throughout
the square, "you bear witness to the future this day. A future where
beings will no longer live in fear for their lives and property. A
future where the rule of law will replace the rule of force. Order
will replace chaos and all will be free to work and prosper in peace
under the benevolence of the Emperor."
*************************************
Hren Silra followed Thrawn with his eyes, a tight smile on
his face. Yes, almost, but not quite yet. He fingered one of the
small but powerful grenades hidden in his clothes, as they were
concealed in the clothing of the other three Vong situated
throughout the square. The chaos they would create would aid in
the assassin's escape after he struck.
Thrawn's brief but stirring speech was coming to a close,
along with his life. Hren Silra's smile widened a fraction as he
imagined how pleased the Executor would be with his success.
*************************************
"-and the future begins today!" Thrawn concluded
triumphantly. Applause roared in the square as he took up the
golden datapad and pressed his thumb to the scanner to read his
print. He had charisma, Vergere had to admit. She jumped onto
one of the news hovervans broadcasting the signing, grabbed the
roof with her hands, swung her legs over and lay flat on the roof.
Searching, searching...there!
A human fleet trooper, half a head taller than those around
him, moving through the ranks of stormtroopers to the foot of the
dais, not so much pushing his way past as flowing through them
with deadly grace. Quick as a hunting cat he mounted the first two
steps. His hand gripped the blaster at his side, intense
concentration on his face. She bent her will on him, probed him
with the Force. As she though, nothing. This was it!
*************************************
On the bridge of the Admonitor, Captain Parck watched
the signing on the main viewscreen. So far, everything was going
smoothly...wait!
A fleet trooper walking up the steps behind Thrawn,
drawing a blaster and aiming it. Turn around! he screamed
silently to the Royal Guards on either side of the Admiral, the
Emperor's precious elite soldiers, useless!
*************************************
Despite herself, Vergere had to admire Sang Anor's
cunning. Thrawn would be on guard against an attack, but from
his own people? Never!
She pulled a vibroblade from her robe, rose to her knees
and cocked back her arm. I am saving the life of one of the
Emperor's warlords, she thought, saving him so he can help
destroy the Nesz, who are guiltless of anything. The 'human'
pointed his blaster between the two Guardsmen, at the back of the
admiral's head. She threw, the blade spun...
And the Yuuzhan Vong dropped the blaster and clutched
his throat, where the hilt of a vibroblade suddenly sprouted. He
fell backwards onto the stairs.
*************************************
Thrawn's head twisted around to look at the fallen man,
then snapped back, eyes wide and glowing crimson. He dropped
into a defensive crouch and the Royal Guardsmen belatedly moved
to shield him with their bodies and usher him into the ranks of
stormtroopers.
The Grand Admiral shoved their red-guantleted hands away
and pushed past them to look in the direction the throw had come
from. Looking past the writhing tentacles of the panicked High
Councilors, he saw a small figure in a robe jumped to its feet and
stand atop a broadcast vehicle.
*************************************
On the bridge of the Admonitor Captain Parck bolted up
from the command chair. On the main viewscreen the camera eye
focused on the dead Imperial, then zipped to the knife-thrower. A
sharp hiss of relief escaped through his clenched teeth: the Admiral
was safe, for the moment at least.
Only now did he become aware of the talking on the
bridge, that many of the crewers had stood and left their stations.
"Order!" He barked. "Order on the bridge! Back to your
stations!" His hands fisted helplessly: there was nothing he could
do about the events planetside, but by Vader's teeth he would keep
things together up here! If whoever was behind this tried an attack
on the Admonitor, they wouldn't find the Star Destroyer off its
guard.
*************************************
"You!" A stormtrooper aimed a blaster rifle at Vergere, by
the melodious quality of the voice, even in issuing a sharp
command, she guessed there was a blue face under the white
helmet. "Freeze!" Two more leveled their weapons at the small,
brown-robed alien.
Vergere raised her hands and the long sleeves fell away
from her bare arms. Her hands in plain sight, she pulled back her
hood. She silently and ironically thanked Sang Anor: he had given
her the perfect opportunity to speak to the Imperial commander.
Now he would certainly listen to what she and Oin had to say, and
with her datacard and a Yuuzhan Vong body to back up her story-
"Jedi!" A scream of the purest hate. A man pushed
through to the foot of the van, shoved beings away like rag dolls.
A 'man' who didn't register in the Force. The Vong's face was a
twisted mask in every sense, his lips peeled back to show jagged
fangs. The same one who had passed them in the alley, Vergere
was sure of it, and his enraged voice was familiar.
"A filthy Jedi!" Nom Anor pulled the blaster free and
opened fire, not caring if it was a machine he was using.
Verger moved faster than the eye could follow. Her
lightsaber was in her hand and blazing violet before anyone knew
what was happening. Almost of its own volition, the blade moved
to block Nom Anor's blasterfire.
But that was only the beginning. The stormtroopers around
the van were shooting at her, too many to deflect. She jumped and
backflipped through the air. Stormtroopers and the mercenary
police force tried to converge on her when she landed, but the
lightsaber gave her breathing space and deflected the blaster bolts
back into the shooters. Men screamed and fell, wounded by their
own fire, and those that got too close were soon missing half a
blaster. Or a hand. Nom Anor tried to push to the front but the
numbers rushing past him for even a Yuuzhan Vong to overcome.
"Oin, where are you?" The Nesz appeared beside her.
"Come on!" She slashed her lightsaber and one of the poles fell,
bisected. A shove with the force sent the pole, lengthwise and at
knee-level, into the advancing troopers. Stormtroopers tripped and
fell by the dozen and Vergere turned and ran.
*************************************
Thrawn saw the violet blade of what was unmistakably a
lightsaber and his breath caught in his throat. He'd been in close
contact with Lord Vader and the Emperor often enough to know
what a Jedi was capable of, and he was uneasy about anything that
could look inside his mind, that could see his plans and
understand how he thought.
But if this Jedi was here to kill him, as one would logically
conclude, then why wasn't he dead? The Jedi evaded the
stormtroopers with ease and disappeared into the crowd, a short,
lizardlike alien beside him.
A blur of red on either side of him-the Royal Guardsmen
bounded past him and vaulted over the railing like twin waterfalls
of blood. Thrawn activated the comm link at his collar, keyed to
the receivers built into the Guardsmens' helmets.
"Guardsmen!" He snapped. "I order you to capture that
Jedi! Bring him to me alive!"
"We serve the Emperor, not you." The answering voice
was a cold, harsh rasp in Thrawn's ear. "His Majesty's standing
orders are for the termination of all Jedi." The signal cut off.
They were working their way rapidly through the crowd, beings
got out of the way or were shoved aside.
Thrawn bit out a curse in his own language, then turned the
comm to a different frequency. "Major," he spoke to the
commander of the stormtrooper companies, "have your men take
control of the Inner Ring spaceports, lifts and stairways. No one
enters or leaves this city!" There were definite advantages to being
half a mile up in the air. "I want a search pattern carried out, set
weapons for stun only. I repeat, stun only!" He turned to some
nearby stormtroopers.
"Take that to my shuttle." He pointed to the corpse, then
turned to the panicked Councilors: he had to salvage this situation
if he wanted to keep their alliegence.
*************************************
Vergere and Oin hurried down the street, she ducked inside
a store and pulled Oin with her just as a group of stormtroopers
turned a corner.
The Miashku shopkeeper lashed its tentacles in alarm as
the two fugitives ran through the store toward the back entrance,
knocking over crystal plates and goblets. The stormtroopers must
have seen them because white-armored men crowded through the
doorway, and to Vergere's surprise stun bolts, not lethal fire,
blazed through the air. She ducked and rolled through the door
while Oin sidestepped and dove after her. The shopkeep tried to
back away, was caught by a stun bolt and collapsed on its broken
wares.
"We've found them!" She heard a stormtrooper say into
his comm link as she slammed the door and jammed the lock with
the Force.
"You still in one piece?" She asked Oin.
"Yes," he clutched the bandolier to his chest to reassure
him it was still there, "I think I've seen enough of 'civilization' to
last three lifetimes!"
"I agree." They ran past a dumpster and startled a nest of
ranats. "If we live through this I might consider a long vacation in
a swamp planet, or maybe a desert." They took a shortcut through
a park of sculpted gardens, making for the edge of the Ring.
"How will we get down?" Oin panted.
"I have a plan-" blaster bolts burned through the air, seared
the elaborate trees and hedges. Clouds of bright, multicolored
songbirds flew from their perches in panicked waves as a dozen
stormtroopers tromped after the Jedi. Bad, but not nearly as bad as
what appeared around the corner of a domed building in the park.
An AT-ST Walker trotted into sight on its bent-back
chicken legs. The boxlike head swiveled, the chin-mounted
blasters aimed...
Blaster bolts dug twin craters in the path were Oin and
Vergere once stood. Vergere had jumped to the right while Oin
headed left. The Jedi looked back but couldn't see her friend, and
the Force was too disturbed to focus on a single being. The
stormtroopers were shooting and the Walker stalked a few more
steps before taking aim.
With no other option, Vergere ran and hoped Oin would
fare decently.
*************************************
Concealed in the boughs of the tree he'd swung up into,
Oin watched the Imperials chase Vergere and leave him alone. He
breathed a sigh of relief, followed immediately by a grimace of
shame. The Jedi had been right, he had no place here: the worlds
above his own sky were insane!
The allies Vergere sought were as intent on destroying
them as the Vong, and Oin had made no progress on his mission
from the Eternals. He dropped to the scorched ground and went in
the same direction as the white-armored warriors. One thing was
clear: Vergere was his friend, more than that, she was his only
chance. No one else in this greedy, violent universe cared a wit
about the plight of the Nesz, no one else would help Oin.
He still had the blaster she'd given him. He knew how to
use it, but to kill...unthinkable! And yet, if there was no other
course...
*************************************
The four surviving Yuuzhan Vong met in the restroom of a
small luncheonette in the Marketplace. They barricaded the door
with a machine that dispensed small packets of tentacle lubricant
then had a calm assessment of the situation.
"A disaster!" One warrior hissed. "We have shown our
hand and achieved nothing-" he was silenced by a lash from Hren
Silra's fist.
"You were not given leave to speak." He snarled and
shoved him to the floor. Enraged, the Vong tried to bound up, but found
Hren Silra's foot pressed down on his neck. "And if I did not need
your help I'd rip your spine out for this display." He turned on them
all. "Do you forget who you are? We are Yuuzhan Vong! This
mission can yet be salvaged." He released the warrior and glared
at them all from the eye-openings of his ooglith masquer.
"How?" Another whispered.
"Where you see failure, I see opportunities. We will try
again, and this time we will succeed." He grinned. "If anything, I
believe we can accomplish more than the Executor ever expected!"
He told them his plan and sent two of the warriors to their local
base-the hotel Hren Silra had rented-ordering them to change into
Chiss ooglith masquers and bring a few other items along as well.
"But destroy everything else, even the ooglith masquers you
now wear. Turn the ruaswyrms on them and then meet us at the
east spaceport in one quarter of an hour." After they left he turned
to Nom Anor.
"That was quick thinking." He said. "The Jedi nearly
ruined everything, but the chaos you caused kept her from
speaking with Thrawn, and then our mission here would have
failed. Your actions gave us the chance to rectify the situation."
His eyes gleamed. "Having a disgruntled human-supremacist from
the Empire's own ranks kill Thrawn would have sufficed-but when
Thrawn is found gutted onboard his own Star Destroyer, killed by
those red guards of obviously acting under the Emperor's
orders, then this neat little alliance will dissolve into a bloodbath!"
Nom Anor listened, but his eyes burned with a different
fire. "Master, I wish to go after the Jedi." He bit out with all the
respect he could muster.
"Under no circumstances. You will be needed to complete
our mission."
"This is a blood-debt, Master, a matter of honor for all
Domain Anor!" He ground his teeth and began to lower himself to
his knees. "I beg you-"
"I said no!" Hren Silra's hand shot out, gripped Nom
Anor's shoulder and pulled him to his feet. "This mission is all
important, it comes before all familial obligations. He shook the
feenir. "Remember who you are, Nom Anor, and cool your
blood. I know what this Jedi did to you and the Executor before
her escape, but now is not the time."
Nom Anor straightened and bowed his head. "I will obey."
He followed Hren Silra out the door.
*************************************
Vergere pressed herself against a wall and took a few deep
breathes. She had lost her pursuers, at least for the moment, but
she had also lost Oin.
She was in a parking basement under one of the office
buildings. Spacious, dimly lit and almost empty but for a few
hovercars. She sank down and buried her face in her hands.
Things had not gone well at all. She had a tenuous plan for getting
back to her ship, but that would mean leaving Oin to fend for
himself. Also she still hadn't spoken to Thrawn, her entire reason
for coming here.
There was another way to make the Empire aware of Sang
Anor: she could simply broadcast her message via her ship's
comm-either contact the Admonitor directly or make the
announcement on an open, broad-band. She had wished to avoid
that: it would start a panic and Sang Anor would know for certain
he'd been discovered. It seemed that was the only way, though.
Unfortunately that would mean leaving Oin. The young
Nesz was her responsibility, never mind that he had stowed away
and followed her: she had still misled him about where she was
going, about how hostile the other planets were, of course he
would believe they would be seeking friends who would help
them. She had led them to believe just that, to ensure the Nesz
would cooperate with her in gathering information on Sang Anor's
activities.
She took a deep breath and stood. There were times the
Jedi had to be absolutely ruthless. It would hurt her to leave Oin
behind, but unless they ran into each other again she could see no
other way. She would get to her ship and contact the Imperials,
then do her best to track down Oin when the search cooled. In any
case, her vision had assured her that Oin would live. Long enough
to see the destruction of his world and people at any rate. The
memory of that suffering face and those grieving eyes returned. Yes,
Oin would be the last of the Nesz, the future was always in motion,
but some things were inevitable.
Vergere pushed away from the wall and walked past one of
the many thick support pillars. Only a tingling through the Force
warned her of the attack.
A tall, bright red figure leapt from behind the pillar, a force
pike whirled in his hands and his cloak billowed around him in a
crimson cloud. The Royal Guardsman aimed his slash at her knees
but the Jedi jumped, somersaulted over his head to land behind
him. He spun on his heel and launched another attack, but
Vergere's lightsaber was out and blazing by then. She swung the
weapon and the Imperial's staff was neatly cut in two.
She struck again but the Guardsman jumped back, twirling
a half of the pike in either hand like twin short swords. The Jedi made
to attack again, but was warned by the Force just in time to drop
and roll as the second Guardsman charged, coming within a hair of
decapitating her.
By a feather, she amended, seeing a few of her crest-
feathers drifting down to the floor.
Quickly she sized up the situation. Both the towering men
were much taller than her and heavily armed. More, they were the
Emperor's own elite guard, intensely trained and in prime
condition. She was a Jedi Knight, the greatest of the galaxy's
warriors, but she was also exhausted while they were fresh.
"Listen," she said as the Guardsmen separated and moved
to circle her, "I have information your master will want-" she tried
to buy time while she swept the barren lot with a mental probe,
searched for any loose item light enough to levitate and throw at
them. No good, the lot was meticulously clean and the Red
Guards weren't interesting in listening or talking.
The one with the whole force pike pulled a blaster from
under his robes and shot at her. The lightsaber moved, deflected
the bolts back at him. Or where he used to be, he was moving as
he shot, and when she turned to block the shots the other Imperial
attacked her from behind. She bounded at the shooter, inches
away from having her spine sliced by half a force pike. A slash of
the energy blade cut the blaster in half, but the shooter simply
dropped it and swung his pike under her guard with intent to
disembowel.
She sidestepped backward, moving out of the pike's range
and spinning to meet the one with the forcepike halves, but he
moved with more agility than one would believe of such a tall and
heavily armored man and dodged her saber even as his partner
made a lance-strike at her head.
Now their strategy was clear: attack her from two sides at
once, she couldn't defend effectively or launch a counterattack
against one because the other would move against her while she
was occupied. She tried to use some of the mind tricks Thracia,
her Master, had taught: instilling a sense of fear or overconfidence,
confusing the senses so that one would see or hear things not
present, and that always-handy trick of switching her image with
that of his partner in the Red Guard's mind. To her surprise none
of it worked. The Emperor must have trained his bodyguards
against such things. She could receive emotions from them,
anticipate what they would do, but she couldn't affect their minds.
In any case, she had no time to concentrate on a mental
assault as one of the Guardsmen charged her. She backpeddled as
he drove her toward a parked hovercar with his pike. The Jedi
jumped, landed on the car's hood and jumped again when the
Imperial aimed a slash at her legs. She timed her landing,
however, so that her she was able to ram her heel onto the
staff. His weapon trapped, the Guardsman pulled a long
vibroblade from his robes and stabbed at her. Vergere wasted no
time in swinging her lightsaber in an arc that would have
decapitated the man had he been any slower at ducking.
The instant she took the initiative the other Guardsman
moved in and threw a vibroblade of his own. The lightsaber swept
up to cut the knife in two while Vergere kicked the first
Guardsman's blade out of his hand. This was getting her nowhere:
one at a time she could take them easily, but eventually they would
wear her down. They worked too well together, were too much in
sync. She had to take one out, and quickly.
The knife-thrower was drawing a small blaster while the
other tried to free his trapped pike. Vergere moved faster than
could be believed, a kick to the first one's face sent him staggering
back: even though his face was protected by his face mask the
impact was painful.
Quickly, the Jedi gathered herself up and sprang at the
other Guardsman, the one with the pike halves. She closed the
distance between them in a few bounds. He fired his weapon with
deadly accuracy, but her lightsaber was everywhere at once,
blocking every shot. Before the Red Guard could take a half-step
back and delay her until his partner could help him the Jedi had
brought herself within striking range and the blaster, as well as the
man's smoking hand, tumbled across the floor.
Incredibly, the Guardsman's only reaction was to stab at her with
his pike half. With a flick of her wrist she amputated his other arm
up to the elbow. In a single, fluid movement she spun around,
reversed her lightsaber and stabbed backward into the Guardsman.
The blade pierced his armor, skin, bones, lung and heart.
She deactivated the blade and heard the body drop to the
floor as she held the handle in front of her and snapped the blade
on again to face the warrior who would be closing behind her.
The Guardsman wasn't there.
Vergere twisted her body just in time to avoid the blade of
a force pike. She couldn't avoid the guantleted fist that impacted
the side of her head. A kick knocked her feet out from under her
and she fell to the floor. She let go of the lightsaber, which died as
soon as it left her hand. The handled rolled across the floor.
She shook her head, dazed. She looked up and her eyes
focused on the blood-red Guardsman towering over her. Vergere
opened her hand and her lightsaber switched on and flew at the
Imperial's back like a burning arrow.
The Guardsman pivoted, the saber shot past him and his
hand lashed out to grab the handle. The next second her own
lightsaber was at her throat.
Vergere felt the cold, controlled rage emanating from the
mind behind the mask. Fury at his brother Guardsman's death. He
would kill her, now, with her own weapon.
But how? She had seen the Imperials attacking the
Yuuzhan Vong in her vision-dream, how could that come to pass if
she died before talking to Thrawn? Perhaps when they searched
her robes they would find the datacard. Perhaps they would
capture Oin and he would reveal all under interrogation. Her
vision did not specify that she would live to see the Nesz
slaughter, only that Oin would. Devious is the future, Yoda had
once said.
When a bright light seared through the darkness she
thought he'd killed her. But then she felt the Guardsman's shock
as well. The starburst became a vehicle's headlight and a hovercar
lifted off from its landing pad and flew at top speed a few
handwidths over the floor. It flew straight at the Guardsman.
Agility and fast reflexes let him survive. He jumped, rolled
over the hood, hit the transparisteel windshield with his shoulder
and bounced off. He landed on the floor and tried to get up again.
The car jerked to a stop in front of Vergere, then swivelled
sideways. The passenger-side door slid open and a welcome voice
called:
"Come on!"
Vergere called to her lightsaber and the weapon flew into
her hand. She clipped it to her belt and jumped into the backseat.
A very frightened human male in a business suit was at the
controls. Oin was on the seat beside him, pressing a blaster to the
side of his head.
"Make it go!" Oin ordered in Basic and snapped his jaws
together. The human squeaked and turned up the accelerator. The
speed pressed Vergere back against her seat. They shot through
the parking garage at top speed, she was only grateful it was nearly
empty, else the terrified driver would have crashed for sure.
Looking out the rear window, she saw a receding red-robed figure
stumbling upright.
"Slow down." Vergere said calmly, reinforcing the
command with the Force. So that the driver decelerated without
thinking as they left the garage. They entered the flow of traffic,
which was being held up by stormtroopers and Walkers searching
the Inner Ring for her.
She turned to Oin. "How did you find me?" Evening was
fast approaching, not that the Inner Ring was ever dark. The
streetlamps and building fairly glowed with luminance. If that
wasn't enough, the bright searchlights atop the Walkers splashed
pools of artificial light wherever they looked.
"Easy, I saw the red robes and followed them into the
under-place. They're good fighters, but easy to spot dressed up
like that." Oin lowered his blaster and their captive breathed a sigh
of relief. "I was too late to warn you, but I saw this man leaving
one of the moving rooms and grabbed him, made him take us to
his vehicle." Vergere knew the rest. Oin had been very lucky it
was a human he encountered: he only spoke two languages, his
own and Basic, which was simply the human language out here.
An alien wouldn't have understood what he'd wanted.
"Hey, um, guys?" The driver spoke up. "Listen I'm sure
you got the wrong guy, I'm just, like, some accountant. I'm not
one of the big fish around here, I was just working late. I'm-? he
looked back at Vergere. "Hey! I saw you on the vidscreen at
work, you're the one who tried to take out the Grand Admiral-" he
turned white. "Not that I have anything against that. Empire's got
no business out here. Hey, I'm with you." His eyes darted from
her to Oin frantically.
"How reassuring." She said dryly. "Calm down," she
patted him on the shoulder, letting calmness flow into him, "your
involvement in this is over. Tell me, is this vehicle insured against
theft?" At his wooded nod she smiled. "Then you have nothing to
worry about. Open the door and get out."
The man wasted no time in sliding out of his seat and
running down the sidewalk. Vergere climbed into the driver's seat
and shut the door. Stormtroopers were walking along the row of
hovercars, looking inside. The trick of not being noticed wouldn't
work with so many on their guard. "Fasten your safety straps."
She said, then had to show her friend what and how to do that.
"This is a bumpy ride." She pulled out of the flow of traffic and
onto the sidewalk, then sped parallel to the road.
Stormtroopers and Walkers wasted no time in opening fire,
but Vergere handled the bulky hovercar like a speeder. With the
acceleration on high, they were soon past the holdup and in normal
traffic. She swerved and shot past slower vehicles, driving almost
double the speed limit and avoiding wrecks by bare inches.
The comm system sputtered to life. "This is ground-traffic
control," a protocol droid said in Basic, the vehicle was registered
to a human, after all, "you are in transgression of twelve major and
minor violations of Miashku vehicular law: speeding, reckless
endangerment-" there was a buzz as the signal was cut off. "Jedi,"
the authoritative tone screamed 'stormtrooper,' "in the name of the
Emperor, stop the vehicle or be terminated!" Vergere's response
was to shove her vibroblade into the comm speaker.
"That's one distraction we don't need."
"I hope you have a plan." Oin's eyes were squeezed shut
and his clawed hands sank and tore into the cushioned seat.
"Don't worry." She kept her eyes on the road. Walkers
appeared and stalked down the road. Searchlight beams sought
them and bolts of blasterfire speared out whenever they were
caught in the beams. A Walker stepped out onto the road in front
of them, and several cars swerved and crashed. With blaster bolts
following them from behind, Vergere drove right into the
approaching Walker. Quick adjustments on the controls and the
blaster bolts sprayed harmlessly around them.
As the passed the Walker, Vergere took her lightsaber,
stuck her arm out the window and switched on the blade. They
passed close, the blade burned through the durasteel, and the
Walker toppled and fell behind them.
"We're almost there." She said as she pulled the lightsaber
back and deactivated it. She had abandoned her earlier plan in
favor of an idea she'd had seconds ago. She preferred to call it the
guidance of the Force. They were driving with their lights off so to
be less conspicuous, but the Imperials already knew their position
and the sensors on a TIE fighter didn't need light.
Bolts of energy strafed the road across them. "And they've
called in the fighters." Vergere said grimly. Low flying craft sped
overhead and rained bolts down on the street. Cars crashed and
pedestrians fled in screaming panic as their capitol was
transformed into a war zone.
Then at last they came to their destination: the edge of the
Inner Ring. Stormtroopers had control of the transports and stairs,
but the hovercar flew past them, heading for the edge of the Ring
itself.
"What are you doing?" Oin screeched.
"Trust me." The stormtroopers opened fire and scorch
marks appeared in the rear of the vehicle, but it didn't matter.
There was a waist high railing around the edge of the Ring, where
citizens could look out across the fertile plains, or occasionally
down at the less attractive Outer Ring. The hovercar plowed
through the barrier and was plunging through midair. Vergere
turned the repulsers to their maximum setting, but knew that
wouldn't cushion the fall. It was merely to help her slow their
decent.
She closed her eyes, not seeing the things around her but
the way the Force flowed between them. With the calm of a
trained Jedi, she willed the energy to gather around the metal shell.
If she could levitate small objects then she could do the same with
the hovercar. Size matters not.
And so they plunged toward the dubious safety of the Outer
Ring.
Vergere stared, open-mouthed, at the intruder before
switching of her lightsaber. "What in the name of the Force are
you doing here?"
Oin shrugged half-heartedly. "It was a long trip, I thought
I'd have a snack."
"You know what I'm talking about!" She snapped.
"Why did you stow away on my ship? And for that matter where
were you hiding?" They were speaking the Nesz tongue, but Oin
could speak excellent Basic as well.
"I hid in that little room you use to sit and think in." The
storage closet she used to meditate. "I thought a Nesz
should be here to help save the Nesz. And," he looked sheepish,
"I was curious too, about other worlds than what I know."
"Well," She looked around as if an answer would pop out
of the walls, what would her Master do right now? "There's
nothing to do about it now. I need to leave the ship, I want you to
stay here and out of trouble."
Oin jumped up. "But I can't! That is, ah, you might need
help. Where are we by the way? Which of those other worlds you
talked about? Is this were we will find help driving off the
Yuuzhan Vong?" Questions were coming hard and fast
"Listen to me, Oin. You're very brave, but you've never
been off your own world before. You know nothing of the galaxy.
The best way to help me is to stay here."
Oin protested weakly and hung his head as Verger packed
some food and went to the airlock. Somehow she had to speak to
the commander of the Imperial Fleet. Just in case Oin's agreement
was less than sincere, she locked the door on her way out with a
simple code. Now no one would be
getting in or out.
"Sorry Oin," she murmured, "but you're one variable I can't
afford to have running loose. May the Force be with us all if I
fail."
*************************************
Oin went to the airlock door, waited a few minutes, then
sniffed at the buttons on the side panel. Vergere's sweat-smell
lingered on four of the buttons, and he tried those until he found
the pattern to open the door.
"Sorry Vergere." he muttered as the airlock sealed itself
behind him and he crept down the landing cradle's rampway. He
would have liked to obey the Jedi, but was under orders from a
much higher authority.
He was amazed long before his clawed feet touched the
pavement. The spaceport was crowded with ships, many of them
much larger and more imposing than the Loon, as Vergere
called her old freighter. Flying and rolling and walking around
them were the port's droids, which serviced the vessels for a price.
Oin knew what droids were, of course, he had seen pictures and
holograms during Vergere's stay on his planet, she even kept a
small cleaning and service droid onboard, but dozens of the
mobile, metal beings, mere inches away from one's snout, was
another thing entirely.
And of course, there were the aliens. Beings that crawled,
flew, floated on repulsor couches and breathed through filters and
masks. He saw hair, scales, gills and feathers, sometimes all on
the same creature!
That was all tolerable, but what truly shocked Oin's Nesz
sensibilities was the haste and business around him. Everyone
pushing and shoving one another, all talking at once and eager to
finish what they were doing and move on to something else.
Nesz were generally a people who took life slow and
managed to find some joy or value in whatever task was at hand.
They didn't run headlong and helter-skelter like these beings, and
they certainly were never so discourteous. It occurred to him for
the first time that these creatures were separate from one
another. One being didn't feel another's pain or joy as the Nesz
did. Excluding the Yuuzhan Vong, Vergere was the only
offworlder he'd met, and the Jedi was so in tune with the life-
energy she was almost a Nesz herself. These people were
different. They frightened him.
Instinctively he kept low to the ground and inconspicuous
as he made his way out of the spaceport. He tried to follow
Vergere's scent at first, but it was soon lost in the tangle of smells,
body odor and machine oil. Running from the madness, he made
for a place he sensed was less hectic.
The tapcaf near the spaceport was noisy, but at least beings
seemed at ease here and the dark, cool and dimly lit common room
was better than the harsh glare of the sun. He made his way to a
darkened corner and sat down. He could sit and think awhile, at
least, while he planned his next move.
As he thought, he reached for the thick bandolier he wore,
many pockets were sewn into it, but it was the one on the inside of
the belt that he tapped for reassurance. The small wrapped bundle
hidden there was the only hope for the Nesz survival. So the
Eternal had said. They had charged Oin with this mission,
entrusted him with this all-important object. It was his duty to
make use of it, but only at the proper place. That place was
obviously not here.
But where to go? And how to get there?
A high pitched gurgling directed at him caught Oin's
attention. He looked up and at the glistening creature standing
over him, if 'standing' was the right word. The thing was a mass of
thick, ever-squirming tentacles that obscured its body. Some of
the feelers ended in bulbus eyes, others in toothless sucker-mouths,
but most were simply organs of manipulation.
It stood on a single wide foot. On either side of the
Miashku was a burly alien and a tripod protocol droid was near at
hand. It gurgled at Oin again and the Nesz stood up on his short
legs.
"Um, hello?" He said tenativly in his own language. One
of the aliens, a stupid-looking Barabel, snorted derisively and said
something to the other. Both chuckled. Oin belatedly realized the
aliens wouldn't know his tongue. He switched to the Basic he'd
learned from Vergere and the Vong. "Is there any trouble?"
Some of the Miashku's tentacles reared back and spoke to
the droid. "You speak the human tongue?" The machine asked in
Basic.
"Yes." Oin said.
"This illustrious fellow is with the port authorities, you are
to come with us." One of the aliens offered him a wafer with a
sweet but artifical smell, a treat of some kind. Both were edging
towards him.
While reason might tell Oin to obey the local authorities,
his instincts screamed danger warnings. In a case like this, the
Nesz was inclined to follow instinct. He made as if to take the
sweet, then slid past the Barabel with the fluid speed of his kind.
While the droid yelled commands in Basic for him to stop, the Miashku
slapped the aliens with whiplike feelers, sending them after the
Nesz.
Music was blaring in the tapcaf to the movements of a
holographic band. Oin dropped to all fours and slithered around
and among the tables. Passing underneath one on which a sabacc
game was being played, his tail brushed a female human's shins.
She jumped, spilled the cards in her hand and a few up her sleeve.
The game quickly became a brawl.
The Barabel hurried to block the door while the other, a red-
furred biped, pushed past the patrons in Oin's pursuit. The
Miashku was moving as fast as it could also, which was much
slower than the others.
Oin jumped on a stool, then onto the bar itself. He ran
across the stained surface and aliens either picked their drinks up
in time or got them spilled. The barfight had grown to include the
surrounding tables and the small, five-armed bartender shouted for
the bouncers.
The Nesz jumped to an empty table that broke under his
weight and sent him to the floor. He bounded up, saw the other
pursuer nearly on top of him and swung his tail at a chair. The
alien's feet tangled in the chair legs and sent him sprawling, where
he was trampled by the brawlers.
The bouncers, two eight foot tall aliens with thick slabs of
bone grown over various body parts, appeared from the back room.
Both had stun blasters but in most cases could end a fight with
their simple presence. One of them saw the Barabel blocking the
door and roared at him to move. The alien, his eyes on the
Nesz, palmed a small blaster from his sleeve and aimed it at Oin.
The bouncer, seeing this and knowing no weapons were allowed in
the tapcaf, wasted no time in closing the distance between them
and slapping the blaster out of the Barabel's hand. He then simply
picked the lackey up and hurled him into the mess of fighters.
Oin ran out the doorway and into the bright sunlight, glad
to be back in the busy atmosphere he had fled only moments
before. His joy was short-lived as a tentacle snaked around his
ankle and tripped him.
His long, flexible neck bent around and he saw the
Miashku, tentacle stretched to its limit, pulling him back as its
single foot inched it through the door. A few months ago Oin
wouldn't have known what to do, but experience with the Yuuzhan
Vong had educated him. His claws slashed the feeler and it
released him. More tentacles whipped at him, clutched at him, but
Oin had strong jaws and sharp teeth as well as claws and the
Miashku reared back, afraid of losing 'fingers' to this snapping
monster.
Oin was about to run, then he noticed something dangling
from one of the alien's feelers. He looked down and felt his
shoulder, then back at the Miashku: it had taken his bandolier!
"Give that back!" He snapped in his own language. The
Miashku was sliding away, however, tentacles squirming. Oin saw
red. Fear forgotten, he charged the mass of tentacles.
*******************************
Vergere left her ship, paid the standardized berthing fee
that would keep the vessel from being impounded for three days,
then went to one of public consoles and paid for ten minutes'
access to the planet's information network. She learned all she
could about the Imperial presence before her ten minutes were up
and she was cut off. She managed to learn about the public
announcement that Miashku would seek membership in the
Empire, and about the official ceremony to be held in a few hours
at the Inner Ring where the commander himself, whose name was
Grand Admiral Thrawn, would make a personal appearance.
"That makes things simpler, at least." Vergere muttered as
she walked to the edge of the spaceport. "All I need to do is get
past a few hundred stormtroopers inclined to shoot first and ask
questions later and convince one of the Emperor's top people to
listen to a Jedi."
With all this on her mind, the last thing she expected to see
was her young stowaway attacking a Miashku port official outside
a very tacky looking tapcaf. The Miashku was backing away as
quickly as it could and trying not to be mauled by the reptile-man.
"Stop this!" Vergere seized Oin's shoulder and held him
back. The alien's tentacles writhed and sputtered in its own
language. "What's this about?" She snapped at Oin. "I told you to
stay on the ship!" The Nesz was almost unrecognizable in his fury.
"He took my...my bandolier!" He hissed and Vergere saw
the belt hanging from one of the feelers. She used the Force to
give it a slight pull that made it drop to the ground. Oin broke
away, moving with more speed than Vergere had ever seen in him,
and caught it before it touched the ferocrete before darting back to her
side.
"Madame, this creature has assaulted a Miashku spaceport
security agent!" A protocol droid exclaimed as it rolled out the
door. The alien gurgled at them. "My master wished to inform
you of the penalties for such an act." The alien's feelers writhed
with apparent indignation, but through the Force Vergere felt fear
and unease emanating from it. She could get nothing clearer as
she was unfamiliar with this race's thought patterns, but a quick
look into Oin's surface thoughts cleared things up.
"Very well, lets go report this to the Portmaster. I'm sure it
will be only to happy to investigate things." She spoke in Basic, as
her own language was unknown here. The tentacles twitched in
surprise, then quickly spoke.
"My master does not think that necessary." The droid
translated. "It believes settling this privately will be more
convenient to all parties."
"I can imagine." She said sarcastically. "Fine, here's my
offer: stay away from me, my friend and my ship and I forget about
this."
The Miashku considered this while focusing a pair of eyes
on her and Oin, noting how poorly the Jedi was clothed: she wore a
homespun robe over simple but serviceable clothes. Obviously she
had little in the way of money.
On the other hand she and the little reptile might be worth
something together. She would be easy to take: she was small and
slight, only half a head taller than the short reptile. Besides the
money it could make from them there was the matter of her ship, it
would get a share of the profits once it was impounded and sold
after the owner disappeared. The Miashku's hired thugs were
being shown out of the tapcaf along with the other brawlers and it
was about to order them to seize the two offworlders.
It didn't give the order. This Miashku made a living on
reading other beings and there was something subtlety dangerous
about her, and it already knew the reptile was vicious. Its instincts
warned it off and it was inclined to agree. In any case they were
moving away from it by now and the opportunity had passed.
"Why did you leave the ship?" Vergere demanded. "And
how did you get out in the first place?"
"What did they want with me?" Oin asked after explaining.
"That Miashku must have seen you sneaking off the ship.
It thought you were a slave or a pet. It wanted to sell you."
"Why would it think that?"
"You're not wearing clothes." She answered. "No one
knows all the different races out here, and which ones are sentient.
If a being doesn't have the trappings of civilization then it's
generally considered nonsentient. It either thought you were an
animal or too weak to defend yourself." She shook her head.
"You see why I didn't want you here? This part of the galaxy is
wild space, Oin. There are no laws and no sure protection for
anyone but the strong and the rich."
"But you threatened to tell its elder, this Portmaster, what
it was doing."
"What it was doing was trying to kidnap and sell a traveler
without giving the Portmaster a share in the profits. The Miashku
in charge of this spaceport probably runs everything that goes on
here, and nothing is legal or illegal."
Oin suppressed a shudder, how could people live like that?
"Are you going to stay in the ship now?" Vergere pressed.
Oin only shook his head. "Blast it, I thought you had sense!" She
snapped.
"Sense enough to know even a Jedi will need help here."
Vergere closed her eyes and took a calming breath. "So be
it then."
They approached the Inner Ring, were Grand Admiral
Thrawn was scheduled to appear. Oin was amazed at what he saw
as they neared the edge of the Inner Ring. The capital of the planet
was literally half a mile above the surface.
A forest of white pillars thicker, it seemed, than mountains supported a
city of glittering towers crisscrossed by small, personal craft.
Gangs had sprayed the bases of the towers with graffiti, which
several hundred droids were busily cleaning.
"Those are the repulserlifts," Vergere pointed to the
floating platforms, large enough to hold a dozen beings at once,
"they are one of the two ways into the Inner Ring. We wont be
using them." Her cloak swirled around her as she approached one
of the outer pillars. Oin saw that there was a spiraling stairway
built into the side. "This way is better: it's free and we wont be
noticed."
There was a guard stationed at the pillar and he started to
block the Jedi's way, but she merely looked at him for a few
seconds and he stepped back to his post, face clear of hostility.
Oin followed Vergere, confused.
"Why don't you want to be seen?" He asked her. "And
what planet is this? Is it were we'll find help to free my people?"
"It's were we'll find help to fight the Yuuzhan Vong." She
answered, seeing the Star Destroyer in her mind's eye. "The
Miashku planet is a major trade center for this sector." She went
on as they climbed. "Considered neutral ground by every power,
until now at any rate. Now the Empire is moving to add this planet
to its territory. I came here to speak to the Imperial commander.
They're the only ones strong enough to fight the Vong."
After an eternity of climbing they came up at the edge of
the Inner Ring. There were small spaceports up there as well,
where private yachts of the wealthy were berthed. There were
towers of glass and mirrors, shining architectural masterpieces
with vaulting spires and overhangs. The homes and business
centers of the elite.
"We need to get to the Capital Marketplace. That's where
the commander is scheduled to appear." She said softly.
"Why not just go to one of his soldiers and ask to be taken
to him?" Oin inquired.
"The Empire and the Jedi are not on the best of terms."
She whispered in the Nesz tongue, there were many beings on the
street and she didn't dare risk being overheard. That was easy:
their poor clothing and Vergere's subtle use of the Force
guaranteed they would go unnoticed. "They would be inclined to
shoot first and talk afterwards-" She trailed off, seeing for the first
time that not all the Imperials on shore leave were human.
Yes, she had seen a great many Chiss since entering the
upper city, but it hadn't registered that they wore Imperial
uniforms. Aliens serving in the Imperial fleet?
Oin noticed her surprise, but before he could ask her what
was wrong a hologram appeared a nearby street corner, one of the
methods used for public announcements. A hologram of a
Miashku High Councilor began to talk and the speakers on several
nearby streetlamp poles blared the words in several different
languages: Miashku, Chiss and the tongues of a few other
influential races. A small crowd was gathering and the Jedi and
Nesz stayed close together.
It took a few minutes for them to find a speaker translating
into Basic, and when they did many of the words were blotted out
by the others. Oin caught the words "Empire" and "signing," and,
with significance attached to it, "Grand Admiral Thrawn." Vergere
jerked in shock as the hologram switched to another figure. That
of an aristocratic Chiss in the white uniform of a Grand Admiral.
He tried to get her attention but her violet eyes were riveted on
the image.
Vergere stared at the Chiss face, willing herself to be
mistaken but knowing she was not. This was the man from her
dream, the one who fought Sang Anor and, along with him,
destroyed the Nesz.
*************************************
"-and move forward into a new and brighter future."
Thrawn finished and the hologram broadcast switched off. "Is my
shuttle ready?" He asked Parck.
"Yes sir, and all other preparations are as you specified."
"Good. I will embark for the planet in one hour." He sat at
his command chair, activated a console and bent his attention on it.
"I wish you'd let me go with you." Parck bit out.
"No Captain, if anything should go wrong I will need you
up here to coordinate things. Not that I expect anything of the
kind." He smiled slightly. "And if I am wrong, we will simply
have to improvise."
*************************************
They saw more Miashku and many more Imperials the
closer they came to the center of the city. Vergere and Oin
retreated into an alleyway near the capital building. "I need an
opportunity to somehow speak with Thrawn alone." She still had
trouble believing the Emperor would make a Chiss one of his
Grand Admirals.
In any case, she had enough evidence to convince even the
most skeptical of Imperials of the threat Sang Anor posed. The
datacard in her robe's pocket had detailed images of their works on
Sevac III, along with a carefully compiled report on what to expect
from them. She had begun that report in her mind over thirty years
ago, when she had surrendered to the Yuuzhan Vong task force in
order to save the inhabitants of Zonama Sekot, the most amazing
inhabitant being the planet itself!
She couldn't help the sigh that escaped her: she had seen
neither her Master nor any other Jedi since then, but she had felt
them as they died. Thracia most of all. Now it seemed she must
make a choice between the Sith and the Empire they had built and
the Yuuzhan Vong vision of the future, with the lives of innocents
caught in between.
But at least with the Empire there was hope, a chance for
rebellion. The Vong would change more than the government
under which the people lived, they would change the people
themselves. There would be no escape, and the Jedi would never
again rise: Sang Anor would cut the beings of this galaxy off from
the Force itself.
"Come on, we need to get a closer look at the
Marketplace." She started to leave the alley, Oin beside her.
Suddenly the Nesz's eyes widened and his clawed hands grabbed
Vergere. He pulled her back just before she would have run right
into a passing Imperial. Vergere jumbled back and pressed herself
against the wall. Her eyes were wide with terror. The human was
tall, broad shouldered and strong looking, but that wasn't what
frightened her.
She hadn't sensed him approaching through the Force, nor
did she now, though she bent all her will on the figure. Her senses
told her nothing was there. She knew what that meant.
Oin's eyes were narrow slits, his nostrils quivered. He
Couldn't sense the Force but he had a sensitive nose, and he
recognized the 'human's' lean but broad-shouldered shape, the
deadly grace of movement and the ingrained arrogance that made
him seem to stalk and swagger at the same time.
"One of them!" He hissed.
"Yes." Vergere nodded slowly. A Yuuzhan Vong in
human guise, and in the uniform of an Imperial. This complicated
things, especially as both she and the Nesz race were known to
them. "And not just one if I know Sang Anor. It's more important
than ever that I talk to Thrawn."
*************************************
Nom Anor paused after passing the alleyway. He had seen
something out of the corner of his eye. Movement: a small, slight
figure in a cloak and a slightly shorter but much broader creature.
Probably nothing, some of this world's criminal vermin, but
something tugged at his memory and made him uneasy.
Something about the cloaked one. He half turned and reached into
the pocket of his stolen uniform, ignoring the blaster, that
perverted machine at his side, in favor of a long-bladed coufee
strapped to his thigh under the uniform.
"Are you coming yet, or does the scenery interest you?"
The speech was Basic, but the voice and tone were unmistakable.
His lips tight and angry under his second skin, Nom Anor turned
back and hurried toward the Vong warrior.
The Vong full warrior, who regarded him with cold
contempt, then looked over and around him as if he were a
smashed bug. "Warrior," he said softly, "I saw something-"
"I expect total obedience from you, feenir." He overrode
Nom Anor. "Do not get distracted from your duties again." He
turned on his heel and stalked towards the Marketplace, Nom Anor
followed, seething inside. The curt dismissal said it all: the
warrior's contempt for him, that Nom Anor was nothing in his
eyes, a stripling who was here only because of his father's power
and importance.
So be it then. He would simply have to prove them all
wrong.
They met with the other three covert warriors at a small
restaurant. They sat at an outdoor table and gave their reports to
Hren Silra. The Vong commander nodded and told them each
what positions to take.
"You will have the honor of striking the death blow." He
said to the senior warrior. He bowed his head, pride and disgust
mingling on his face: he would, of course, be required to use the
blaster at his side. A machine.
"Think of the irony, warrior." Hren Silra smiled. "To use
the machine-mens' own weapons against them. May Yun Harla
hide us and guide our hands."
They all bowed their heads in prayer. Nom Anor couldn't
wait until this was over. He felt suffocated in these machine made
clothes and objects. The sooner the Chiss admiral was dead, the
better.
Yet he couldn't help that nagging unease...
*************************************
Grand Admiral Thrawn's shuttle set down at a landing pad
near the edge of the city. Stormtroopers had already disembarked
and assembled and a vehicle was waiting for Thrawn himself. The
Chiss admiral ascended the steps to the railed platform atop the
hovercar and the parade began.
Ranks of stormtroopers marched behind the vehicle as it
moved down the street. Hovering camera droids darted around and
reporters spoke into comm-broadcasters. Citizens, merchants,
Miashku leaders and powerful traders lined the street, watching to
see how the balance of economic power in this sector was shifting
and how they could take advantage of it.
Overhead, wings of TIE fighters streaked across the sky,
showing incredible precision in the high speed maneuvers.
Quickly but majestically, the Imperials made their way to the
center of the city where an ornate platform with a long table had
been set up. The High Councilors were assembled behind it, their
bejeweled tentacles flashed in the bright sunlight.
"Quite a spectacle." Vergere murmured. Her violet eyes
flashed from the depths of her hood as she scanned the
marketplace as she moved, using the Force to project an aura of
inconspicuousness. She cast out her senses in a wide net and
searched for people who didn't register in the Force. Ah yes, she
could see Sang Anor's hand in this. The Executor was devious,
and this was an opportunity he couldn't resist: to break up the
alliance that was giving the Empire so many advantages in the
Unknown Regions without revealing himself at all.
The Imperials were in sight now as well as on the public
viewscreens, moving to the dais. Vergere fisted her hands in
frustration, it was no good: there were just too many minds here to
zero in on a few blank spots. She would have to wait until Sang
Anor's agents made their move.
"Here," she handed Oin a small hold-out blaster, "take this
and stay beside me." The weapon was small enough for the Nesz
to conceal in his palm. She had let him fire a similar weapon a
few times before on his homeworld. He'd never killed anyone and
he wasn't anything resembling a good marksman, but he knew how
to use the thing. He could hopefully defend himself.
"We need to find someplace we can see what's happening,
preferably at the edge of the crowd." She discounted a sniper or a
bomb would be used: it was essential to Sang Anor's plans that the
assassin be visible when he struck, that there be no doubt that
human hands killed the Grand Admiral.
The Chiss walked up the steps to the dais, the Councilors
bent the top parts of their bodies in imitation of a bow and Thrawn
inclined his head in response. He was flanked by two Royal
Guardsmen, their blood-red capes contrasting sharply with
Thrawn's white uniform.
"My friends," amplifiers carried Thrawn's voice throughout
the square, "you bear witness to the future this day. A future where
beings will no longer live in fear for their lives and property. A
future where the rule of law will replace the rule of force. Order
will replace chaos and all will be free to work and prosper in peace
under the benevolence of the Emperor."
*************************************
Hren Silra followed Thrawn with his eyes, a tight smile on
his face. Yes, almost, but not quite yet. He fingered one of the
small but powerful grenades hidden in his clothes, as they were
concealed in the clothing of the other three Vong situated
throughout the square. The chaos they would create would aid in
the assassin's escape after he struck.
Thrawn's brief but stirring speech was coming to a close,
along with his life. Hren Silra's smile widened a fraction as he
imagined how pleased the Executor would be with his success.
*************************************
"-and the future begins today!" Thrawn concluded
triumphantly. Applause roared in the square as he took up the
golden datapad and pressed his thumb to the scanner to read his
print. He had charisma, Vergere had to admit. She jumped onto
one of the news hovervans broadcasting the signing, grabbed the
roof with her hands, swung her legs over and lay flat on the roof.
Searching, searching...there!
A human fleet trooper, half a head taller than those around
him, moving through the ranks of stormtroopers to the foot of the
dais, not so much pushing his way past as flowing through them
with deadly grace. Quick as a hunting cat he mounted the first two
steps. His hand gripped the blaster at his side, intense
concentration on his face. She bent her will on him, probed him
with the Force. As she though, nothing. This was it!
*************************************
On the bridge of the Admonitor, Captain Parck watched
the signing on the main viewscreen. So far, everything was going
smoothly...wait!
A fleet trooper walking up the steps behind Thrawn,
drawing a blaster and aiming it. Turn around! he screamed
silently to the Royal Guards on either side of the Admiral, the
Emperor's precious elite soldiers, useless!
*************************************
Despite herself, Vergere had to admire Sang Anor's
cunning. Thrawn would be on guard against an attack, but from
his own people? Never!
She pulled a vibroblade from her robe, rose to her knees
and cocked back her arm. I am saving the life of one of the
Emperor's warlords, she thought, saving him so he can help
destroy the Nesz, who are guiltless of anything. The 'human'
pointed his blaster between the two Guardsmen, at the back of the
admiral's head. She threw, the blade spun...
And the Yuuzhan Vong dropped the blaster and clutched
his throat, where the hilt of a vibroblade suddenly sprouted. He
fell backwards onto the stairs.
*************************************
Thrawn's head twisted around to look at the fallen man,
then snapped back, eyes wide and glowing crimson. He dropped
into a defensive crouch and the Royal Guardsmen belatedly moved
to shield him with their bodies and usher him into the ranks of
stormtroopers.
The Grand Admiral shoved their red-guantleted hands away
and pushed past them to look in the direction the throw had come
from. Looking past the writhing tentacles of the panicked High
Councilors, he saw a small figure in a robe jumped to its feet and
stand atop a broadcast vehicle.
*************************************
On the bridge of the Admonitor Captain Parck bolted up
from the command chair. On the main viewscreen the camera eye
focused on the dead Imperial, then zipped to the knife-thrower. A
sharp hiss of relief escaped through his clenched teeth: the Admiral
was safe, for the moment at least.
Only now did he become aware of the talking on the
bridge, that many of the crewers had stood and left their stations.
"Order!" He barked. "Order on the bridge! Back to your
stations!" His hands fisted helplessly: there was nothing he could
do about the events planetside, but by Vader's teeth he would keep
things together up here! If whoever was behind this tried an attack
on the Admonitor, they wouldn't find the Star Destroyer off its
guard.
*************************************
"You!" A stormtrooper aimed a blaster rifle at Vergere, by
the melodious quality of the voice, even in issuing a sharp
command, she guessed there was a blue face under the white
helmet. "Freeze!" Two more leveled their weapons at the small,
brown-robed alien.
Vergere raised her hands and the long sleeves fell away
from her bare arms. Her hands in plain sight, she pulled back her
hood. She silently and ironically thanked Sang Anor: he had given
her the perfect opportunity to speak to the Imperial commander.
Now he would certainly listen to what she and Oin had to say, and
with her datacard and a Yuuzhan Vong body to back up her story-
"Jedi!" A scream of the purest hate. A man pushed
through to the foot of the van, shoved beings away like rag dolls.
A 'man' who didn't register in the Force. The Vong's face was a
twisted mask in every sense, his lips peeled back to show jagged
fangs. The same one who had passed them in the alley, Vergere
was sure of it, and his enraged voice was familiar.
"A filthy Jedi!" Nom Anor pulled the blaster free and
opened fire, not caring if it was a machine he was using.
Verger moved faster than the eye could follow. Her
lightsaber was in her hand and blazing violet before anyone knew
what was happening. Almost of its own volition, the blade moved
to block Nom Anor's blasterfire.
But that was only the beginning. The stormtroopers around
the van were shooting at her, too many to deflect. She jumped and
backflipped through the air. Stormtroopers and the mercenary
police force tried to converge on her when she landed, but the
lightsaber gave her breathing space and deflected the blaster bolts
back into the shooters. Men screamed and fell, wounded by their
own fire, and those that got too close were soon missing half a
blaster. Or a hand. Nom Anor tried to push to the front but the
numbers rushing past him for even a Yuuzhan Vong to overcome.
"Oin, where are you?" The Nesz appeared beside her.
"Come on!" She slashed her lightsaber and one of the poles fell,
bisected. A shove with the force sent the pole, lengthwise and at
knee-level, into the advancing troopers. Stormtroopers tripped and
fell by the dozen and Vergere turned and ran.
*************************************
Thrawn saw the violet blade of what was unmistakably a
lightsaber and his breath caught in his throat. He'd been in close
contact with Lord Vader and the Emperor often enough to know
what a Jedi was capable of, and he was uneasy about anything that
could look inside his mind, that could see his plans and
understand how he thought.
But if this Jedi was here to kill him, as one would logically
conclude, then why wasn't he dead? The Jedi evaded the
stormtroopers with ease and disappeared into the crowd, a short,
lizardlike alien beside him.
A blur of red on either side of him-the Royal Guardsmen
bounded past him and vaulted over the railing like twin waterfalls
of blood. Thrawn activated the comm link at his collar, keyed to
the receivers built into the Guardsmens' helmets.
"Guardsmen!" He snapped. "I order you to capture that
Jedi! Bring him to me alive!"
"We serve the Emperor, not you." The answering voice
was a cold, harsh rasp in Thrawn's ear. "His Majesty's standing
orders are for the termination of all Jedi." The signal cut off.
They were working their way rapidly through the crowd, beings
got out of the way or were shoved aside.
Thrawn bit out a curse in his own language, then turned the
comm to a different frequency. "Major," he spoke to the
commander of the stormtrooper companies, "have your men take
control of the Inner Ring spaceports, lifts and stairways. No one
enters or leaves this city!" There were definite advantages to being
half a mile up in the air. "I want a search pattern carried out, set
weapons for stun only. I repeat, stun only!" He turned to some
nearby stormtroopers.
"Take that to my shuttle." He pointed to the corpse, then
turned to the panicked Councilors: he had to salvage this situation
if he wanted to keep their alliegence.
*************************************
Vergere and Oin hurried down the street, she ducked inside
a store and pulled Oin with her just as a group of stormtroopers
turned a corner.
The Miashku shopkeeper lashed its tentacles in alarm as
the two fugitives ran through the store toward the back entrance,
knocking over crystal plates and goblets. The stormtroopers must
have seen them because white-armored men crowded through the
doorway, and to Vergere's surprise stun bolts, not lethal fire,
blazed through the air. She ducked and rolled through the door
while Oin sidestepped and dove after her. The shopkeep tried to
back away, was caught by a stun bolt and collapsed on its broken
wares.
"We've found them!" She heard a stormtrooper say into
his comm link as she slammed the door and jammed the lock with
the Force.
"You still in one piece?" She asked Oin.
"Yes," he clutched the bandolier to his chest to reassure
him it was still there, "I think I've seen enough of 'civilization' to
last three lifetimes!"
"I agree." They ran past a dumpster and startled a nest of
ranats. "If we live through this I might consider a long vacation in
a swamp planet, or maybe a desert." They took a shortcut through
a park of sculpted gardens, making for the edge of the Ring.
"How will we get down?" Oin panted.
"I have a plan-" blaster bolts burned through the air, seared
the elaborate trees and hedges. Clouds of bright, multicolored
songbirds flew from their perches in panicked waves as a dozen
stormtroopers tromped after the Jedi. Bad, but not nearly as bad as
what appeared around the corner of a domed building in the park.
An AT-ST Walker trotted into sight on its bent-back
chicken legs. The boxlike head swiveled, the chin-mounted
blasters aimed...
Blaster bolts dug twin craters in the path were Oin and
Vergere once stood. Vergere had jumped to the right while Oin
headed left. The Jedi looked back but couldn't see her friend, and
the Force was too disturbed to focus on a single being. The
stormtroopers were shooting and the Walker stalked a few more
steps before taking aim.
With no other option, Vergere ran and hoped Oin would
fare decently.
*************************************
Concealed in the boughs of the tree he'd swung up into,
Oin watched the Imperials chase Vergere and leave him alone. He
breathed a sigh of relief, followed immediately by a grimace of
shame. The Jedi had been right, he had no place here: the worlds
above his own sky were insane!
The allies Vergere sought were as intent on destroying
them as the Vong, and Oin had made no progress on his mission
from the Eternals. He dropped to the scorched ground and went in
the same direction as the white-armored warriors. One thing was
clear: Vergere was his friend, more than that, she was his only
chance. No one else in this greedy, violent universe cared a wit
about the plight of the Nesz, no one else would help Oin.
He still had the blaster she'd given him. He knew how to
use it, but to kill...unthinkable! And yet, if there was no other
course...
*************************************
The four surviving Yuuzhan Vong met in the restroom of a
small luncheonette in the Marketplace. They barricaded the door
with a machine that dispensed small packets of tentacle lubricant
then had a calm assessment of the situation.
"A disaster!" One warrior hissed. "We have shown our
hand and achieved nothing-" he was silenced by a lash from Hren
Silra's fist.
"You were not given leave to speak." He snarled and
shoved him to the floor. Enraged, the Vong tried to bound up, but found
Hren Silra's foot pressed down on his neck. "And if I did not need
your help I'd rip your spine out for this display." He turned on them
all. "Do you forget who you are? We are Yuuzhan Vong! This
mission can yet be salvaged." He released the warrior and glared
at them all from the eye-openings of his ooglith masquer.
"How?" Another whispered.
"Where you see failure, I see opportunities. We will try
again, and this time we will succeed." He grinned. "If anything, I
believe we can accomplish more than the Executor ever expected!"
He told them his plan and sent two of the warriors to their local
base-the hotel Hren Silra had rented-ordering them to change into
Chiss ooglith masquers and bring a few other items along as well.
"But destroy everything else, even the ooglith masquers you
now wear. Turn the ruaswyrms on them and then meet us at the
east spaceport in one quarter of an hour." After they left he turned
to Nom Anor.
"That was quick thinking." He said. "The Jedi nearly
ruined everything, but the chaos you caused kept her from
speaking with Thrawn, and then our mission here would have
failed. Your actions gave us the chance to rectify the situation."
His eyes gleamed. "Having a disgruntled human-supremacist from
the Empire's own ranks kill Thrawn would have sufficed-but when
Thrawn is found gutted onboard his own Star Destroyer, killed by
those red guards of obviously acting under the Emperor's
orders, then this neat little alliance will dissolve into a bloodbath!"
Nom Anor listened, but his eyes burned with a different
fire. "Master, I wish to go after the Jedi." He bit out with all the
respect he could muster.
"Under no circumstances. You will be needed to complete
our mission."
"This is a blood-debt, Master, a matter of honor for all
Domain Anor!" He ground his teeth and began to lower himself to
his knees. "I beg you-"
"I said no!" Hren Silra's hand shot out, gripped Nom
Anor's shoulder and pulled him to his feet. "This mission is all
important, it comes before all familial obligations. He shook the
feenir. "Remember who you are, Nom Anor, and cool your
blood. I know what this Jedi did to you and the Executor before
her escape, but now is not the time."
Nom Anor straightened and bowed his head. "I will obey."
He followed Hren Silra out the door.
*************************************
Vergere pressed herself against a wall and took a few deep
breathes. She had lost her pursuers, at least for the moment, but
she had also lost Oin.
She was in a parking basement under one of the office
buildings. Spacious, dimly lit and almost empty but for a few
hovercars. She sank down and buried her face in her hands.
Things had not gone well at all. She had a tenuous plan for getting
back to her ship, but that would mean leaving Oin to fend for
himself. Also she still hadn't spoken to Thrawn, her entire reason
for coming here.
There was another way to make the Empire aware of Sang
Anor: she could simply broadcast her message via her ship's
comm-either contact the Admonitor directly or make the
announcement on an open, broad-band. She had wished to avoid
that: it would start a panic and Sang Anor would know for certain
he'd been discovered. It seemed that was the only way, though.
Unfortunately that would mean leaving Oin. The young
Nesz was her responsibility, never mind that he had stowed away
and followed her: she had still misled him about where she was
going, about how hostile the other planets were, of course he
would believe they would be seeking friends who would help
them. She had led them to believe just that, to ensure the Nesz
would cooperate with her in gathering information on Sang Anor's
activities.
She took a deep breath and stood. There were times the
Jedi had to be absolutely ruthless. It would hurt her to leave Oin
behind, but unless they ran into each other again she could see no
other way. She would get to her ship and contact the Imperials,
then do her best to track down Oin when the search cooled. In any
case, her vision had assured her that Oin would live. Long enough
to see the destruction of his world and people at any rate. The
memory of that suffering face and those grieving eyes returned. Yes,
Oin would be the last of the Nesz, the future was always in motion,
but some things were inevitable.
Vergere pushed away from the wall and walked past one of
the many thick support pillars. Only a tingling through the Force
warned her of the attack.
A tall, bright red figure leapt from behind the pillar, a force
pike whirled in his hands and his cloak billowed around him in a
crimson cloud. The Royal Guardsman aimed his slash at her knees
but the Jedi jumped, somersaulted over his head to land behind
him. He spun on his heel and launched another attack, but
Vergere's lightsaber was out and blazing by then. She swung the
weapon and the Imperial's staff was neatly cut in two.
She struck again but the Guardsman jumped back, twirling
a half of the pike in either hand like twin short swords. The Jedi made
to attack again, but was warned by the Force just in time to drop
and roll as the second Guardsman charged, coming within a hair of
decapitating her.
By a feather, she amended, seeing a few of her crest-
feathers drifting down to the floor.
Quickly she sized up the situation. Both the towering men
were much taller than her and heavily armed. More, they were the
Emperor's own elite guard, intensely trained and in prime
condition. She was a Jedi Knight, the greatest of the galaxy's
warriors, but she was also exhausted while they were fresh.
"Listen," she said as the Guardsmen separated and moved
to circle her, "I have information your master will want-" she tried
to buy time while she swept the barren lot with a mental probe,
searched for any loose item light enough to levitate and throw at
them. No good, the lot was meticulously clean and the Red
Guards weren't interesting in listening or talking.
The one with the whole force pike pulled a blaster from
under his robes and shot at her. The lightsaber moved, deflected
the bolts back at him. Or where he used to be, he was moving as
he shot, and when she turned to block the shots the other Imperial
attacked her from behind. She bounded at the shooter, inches
away from having her spine sliced by half a force pike. A slash of
the energy blade cut the blaster in half, but the shooter simply
dropped it and swung his pike under her guard with intent to
disembowel.
She sidestepped backward, moving out of the pike's range
and spinning to meet the one with the forcepike halves, but he
moved with more agility than one would believe of such a tall and
heavily armored man and dodged her saber even as his partner
made a lance-strike at her head.
Now their strategy was clear: attack her from two sides at
once, she couldn't defend effectively or launch a counterattack
against one because the other would move against her while she
was occupied. She tried to use some of the mind tricks Thracia,
her Master, had taught: instilling a sense of fear or overconfidence,
confusing the senses so that one would see or hear things not
present, and that always-handy trick of switching her image with
that of his partner in the Red Guard's mind. To her surprise none
of it worked. The Emperor must have trained his bodyguards
against such things. She could receive emotions from them,
anticipate what they would do, but she couldn't affect their minds.
In any case, she had no time to concentrate on a mental
assault as one of the Guardsmen charged her. She backpeddled as
he drove her toward a parked hovercar with his pike. The Jedi
jumped, landed on the car's hood and jumped again when the
Imperial aimed a slash at her legs. She timed her landing,
however, so that her she was able to ram her heel onto the
staff. His weapon trapped, the Guardsman pulled a long
vibroblade from his robes and stabbed at her. Vergere wasted no
time in swinging her lightsaber in an arc that would have
decapitated the man had he been any slower at ducking.
The instant she took the initiative the other Guardsman
moved in and threw a vibroblade of his own. The lightsaber swept
up to cut the knife in two while Vergere kicked the first
Guardsman's blade out of his hand. This was getting her nowhere:
one at a time she could take them easily, but eventually they would
wear her down. They worked too well together, were too much in
sync. She had to take one out, and quickly.
The knife-thrower was drawing a small blaster while the
other tried to free his trapped pike. Vergere moved faster than
could be believed, a kick to the first one's face sent him staggering
back: even though his face was protected by his face mask the
impact was painful.
Quickly, the Jedi gathered herself up and sprang at the
other Guardsman, the one with the pike halves. She closed the
distance between them in a few bounds. He fired his weapon with
deadly accuracy, but her lightsaber was everywhere at once,
blocking every shot. Before the Red Guard could take a half-step
back and delay her until his partner could help him the Jedi had
brought herself within striking range and the blaster, as well as the
man's smoking hand, tumbled across the floor.
Incredibly, the Guardsman's only reaction was to stab at her with
his pike half. With a flick of her wrist she amputated his other arm
up to the elbow. In a single, fluid movement she spun around,
reversed her lightsaber and stabbed backward into the Guardsman.
The blade pierced his armor, skin, bones, lung and heart.
She deactivated the blade and heard the body drop to the
floor as she held the handle in front of her and snapped the blade
on again to face the warrior who would be closing behind her.
The Guardsman wasn't there.
Vergere twisted her body just in time to avoid the blade of
a force pike. She couldn't avoid the guantleted fist that impacted
the side of her head. A kick knocked her feet out from under her
and she fell to the floor. She let go of the lightsaber, which died as
soon as it left her hand. The handled rolled across the floor.
She shook her head, dazed. She looked up and her eyes
focused on the blood-red Guardsman towering over her. Vergere
opened her hand and her lightsaber switched on and flew at the
Imperial's back like a burning arrow.
The Guardsman pivoted, the saber shot past him and his
hand lashed out to grab the handle. The next second her own
lightsaber was at her throat.
Vergere felt the cold, controlled rage emanating from the
mind behind the mask. Fury at his brother Guardsman's death. He
would kill her, now, with her own weapon.
But how? She had seen the Imperials attacking the
Yuuzhan Vong in her vision-dream, how could that come to pass if
she died before talking to Thrawn? Perhaps when they searched
her robes they would find the datacard. Perhaps they would
capture Oin and he would reveal all under interrogation. Her
vision did not specify that she would live to see the Nesz
slaughter, only that Oin would. Devious is the future, Yoda had
once said.
When a bright light seared through the darkness she
thought he'd killed her. But then she felt the Guardsman's shock
as well. The starburst became a vehicle's headlight and a hovercar
lifted off from its landing pad and flew at top speed a few
handwidths over the floor. It flew straight at the Guardsman.
Agility and fast reflexes let him survive. He jumped, rolled
over the hood, hit the transparisteel windshield with his shoulder
and bounced off. He landed on the floor and tried to get up again.
The car jerked to a stop in front of Vergere, then swivelled
sideways. The passenger-side door slid open and a welcome voice
called:
"Come on!"
Vergere called to her lightsaber and the weapon flew into
her hand. She clipped it to her belt and jumped into the backseat.
A very frightened human male in a business suit was at the
controls. Oin was on the seat beside him, pressing a blaster to the
side of his head.
"Make it go!" Oin ordered in Basic and snapped his jaws
together. The human squeaked and turned up the accelerator. The
speed pressed Vergere back against her seat. They shot through
the parking garage at top speed, she was only grateful it was nearly
empty, else the terrified driver would have crashed for sure.
Looking out the rear window, she saw a receding red-robed figure
stumbling upright.
"Slow down." Vergere said calmly, reinforcing the
command with the Force. So that the driver decelerated without
thinking as they left the garage. They entered the flow of traffic,
which was being held up by stormtroopers and Walkers searching
the Inner Ring for her.
She turned to Oin. "How did you find me?" Evening was
fast approaching, not that the Inner Ring was ever dark. The
streetlamps and building fairly glowed with luminance. If that
wasn't enough, the bright searchlights atop the Walkers splashed
pools of artificial light wherever they looked.
"Easy, I saw the red robes and followed them into the
under-place. They're good fighters, but easy to spot dressed up
like that." Oin lowered his blaster and their captive breathed a sigh
of relief. "I was too late to warn you, but I saw this man leaving
one of the moving rooms and grabbed him, made him take us to
his vehicle." Vergere knew the rest. Oin had been very lucky it
was a human he encountered: he only spoke two languages, his
own and Basic, which was simply the human language out here.
An alien wouldn't have understood what he'd wanted.
"Hey, um, guys?" The driver spoke up. "Listen I'm sure
you got the wrong guy, I'm just, like, some accountant. I'm not
one of the big fish around here, I was just working late. I'm-? he
looked back at Vergere. "Hey! I saw you on the vidscreen at
work, you're the one who tried to take out the Grand Admiral-" he
turned white. "Not that I have anything against that. Empire's got
no business out here. Hey, I'm with you." His eyes darted from
her to Oin frantically.
"How reassuring." She said dryly. "Calm down," she
patted him on the shoulder, letting calmness flow into him, "your
involvement in this is over. Tell me, is this vehicle insured against
theft?" At his wooded nod she smiled. "Then you have nothing to
worry about. Open the door and get out."
The man wasted no time in sliding out of his seat and
running down the sidewalk. Vergere climbed into the driver's seat
and shut the door. Stormtroopers were walking along the row of
hovercars, looking inside. The trick of not being noticed wouldn't
work with so many on their guard. "Fasten your safety straps."
She said, then had to show her friend what and how to do that.
"This is a bumpy ride." She pulled out of the flow of traffic and
onto the sidewalk, then sped parallel to the road.
Stormtroopers and Walkers wasted no time in opening fire,
but Vergere handled the bulky hovercar like a speeder. With the
acceleration on high, they were soon past the holdup and in normal
traffic. She swerved and shot past slower vehicles, driving almost
double the speed limit and avoiding wrecks by bare inches.
The comm system sputtered to life. "This is ground-traffic
control," a protocol droid said in Basic, the vehicle was registered
to a human, after all, "you are in transgression of twelve major and
minor violations of Miashku vehicular law: speeding, reckless
endangerment-" there was a buzz as the signal was cut off. "Jedi,"
the authoritative tone screamed 'stormtrooper,' "in the name of the
Emperor, stop the vehicle or be terminated!" Vergere's response
was to shove her vibroblade into the comm speaker.
"That's one distraction we don't need."
"I hope you have a plan." Oin's eyes were squeezed shut
and his clawed hands sank and tore into the cushioned seat.
"Don't worry." She kept her eyes on the road. Walkers
appeared and stalked down the road. Searchlight beams sought
them and bolts of blasterfire speared out whenever they were
caught in the beams. A Walker stepped out onto the road in front
of them, and several cars swerved and crashed. With blaster bolts
following them from behind, Vergere drove right into the
approaching Walker. Quick adjustments on the controls and the
blaster bolts sprayed harmlessly around them.
As the passed the Walker, Vergere took her lightsaber,
stuck her arm out the window and switched on the blade. They
passed close, the blade burned through the durasteel, and the
Walker toppled and fell behind them.
"We're almost there." She said as she pulled the lightsaber
back and deactivated it. She had abandoned her earlier plan in
favor of an idea she'd had seconds ago. She preferred to call it the
guidance of the Force. They were driving with their lights off so to
be less conspicuous, but the Imperials already knew their position
and the sensors on a TIE fighter didn't need light.
Bolts of energy strafed the road across them. "And they've
called in the fighters." Vergere said grimly. Low flying craft sped
overhead and rained bolts down on the street. Cars crashed and
pedestrians fled in screaming panic as their capitol was
transformed into a war zone.
Then at last they came to their destination: the edge of the
Inner Ring. Stormtroopers had control of the transports and stairs,
but the hovercar flew past them, heading for the edge of the Ring
itself.
"What are you doing?" Oin screeched.
"Trust me." The stormtroopers opened fire and scorch
marks appeared in the rear of the vehicle, but it didn't matter.
There was a waist high railing around the edge of the Ring, where
citizens could look out across the fertile plains, or occasionally
down at the less attractive Outer Ring. The hovercar plowed
through the barrier and was plunging through midair. Vergere
turned the repulsers to their maximum setting, but knew that
wouldn't cushion the fall. It was merely to help her slow their
decent.
She closed her eyes, not seeing the things around her but
the way the Force flowed between them. With the calm of a
trained Jedi, she willed the energy to gather around the metal shell.
If she could levitate small objects then she could do the same with
the hovercar. Size matters not.
And so they plunged toward the dubious safety of the Outer
Ring.