And the Fire Spread...
By Bob DeFrank
I'm not getting paid for this, and I don't own Star Wars.
Spoilers: Edge of Victory: Conquest and Rebirth
Unworthy.
That epitaph had hounded Uunu her entire life, ever since
she was a toddler and her first scar had festered. It followed her
like a shadow, encompassing all she was and would ever be in a
single word.
She was a shamed one.
Yet today, as she stood on the jungle moon of Yavin IV
and looked on the smoking craters where once a damutek had
proudly reared up against the skyline, the burden she carried
seemed different somehow. It was the words she had exchanged
with that young human, a slave who called himself Bail Lars, or so
she had thought. She knew now he had only posed as a slave. Bail
Lars, or whatever his real name, was a jeedai.
Uunu had seen him from a distance as he fought his way
through the ranks of warriors with a blade of light and a shamed
one at his side, and before the mouth of a transport ship she had
seen impossible things. Vua Rapuung, the former commander
who had refused to live as a shamed one, who had fought instead
of accepting his fate, had been redeemed.
More, he had died saluting an infidel, the jeedai who had
ended his shame.
For the past weeks, Uunu had taken some secret, spiteful
pleasure at seeing the great and glorious warrior brought low and
made no better than her and her gods-forsaken brethren. Now she
felt a wave fresh shame sweep over her. She should not have
taken pleasure in what she now knew was another's unjust
disgrace. (Perhaps that is why the jeedai did not redeem me as
well.) She thought sadly. In the course of his mission, Bail had
ample opportunity to observe and test Uunu. Apparently he hadn't
found her deserving.
(And no wonder,) her head sank further, (I did try to
betray him.) She remembered helping the warriors set a trap for
Bail Lars, should he reveal himself when she confronted him.
Uunu's effort to curry favor with Yun Shuno now seemed to her
contemptible.
In the time following the aerial bombardment but before
the infidel ships had landed to retrieve them, the formerly broken
captives and slaves had celebrated. Many who had walked
hunched over now stood tall and praised the jeedai who's friends
would soon liberate them. Uunu had heard such talk before among
the slaves, about the great power and virtues of the jeedai and how
they would eventually defeat the Yuuzhan Vong, but she had
always dismissed such gossip as nonsense. The priests and had
decreed what would and would not be, and nothing outside their
divinations could occur.
Except their doctrines had been proven wrong.
Uunu had found herself drawing close to the gathered
slaves and eavesdropping on their conversations. Carefully, of
course: one or two slaves had grown bold on seeing their liberation
imminent and had decided to take what revenge they could on the
surviving Yuuzhan Vong before their fellows' ships landed to
evacuate them. Of course, they knew better than to assail the
surviving warriors, so they turned their anger on the shamed ones.
Seven of the casteless had died at the hands of former slaves after
the bombardment.
Lurking on the fringes of slave crowds, Uunu had heard
more snatches of jeedai tales. She learned of their might and
deeds, and heard confirmation of what Bail had said: these strange
infidels valued all life, even a shamed one.
Now, as she waited with the other survivors for a Yuuzhan
Vong rescue force, she mulled over these new ideas. From the
corner of her eyes, she spied one of the few true caste who still
lived. She turned her head and looked at the young female, a
shaper of adept level. She had discarded her headdress and other
rainments to fit in with the shamed ones when the infidels came,
but her tattoos and enhanced hand proclaimed her station. Uunu
couldn't recall her name, but she had seen her often in the
company of the late Master Mezhan Kwaad.
Leaning against a broken tree, the shaper wore the dazed
expression of one whose world had fallen apart. Uunu thought she
could relate: her own life seemed upside down and inside out.
******************************************************
The warriors had gone mad.
That was what she first thought when the living ships had
landed and Tsavong Lah's personal guard began systematically
slaughtering shamed ones.
Then she understood: the warmaster and the priests wanted
knowledge of the jeedai's deeds to die on this world, so no one
would ever know of Vua Rapuung's redemption. So Uunu realized
as she hid herself in the jungle surrounding the ruined shaper base.
Warriors were even now lining up shamed ones to be butchered,
the ones who ran where either dragged back or killed by a thrown
razorbug.
Uunu couldn't let herself become one of the slain. Death
itself held no fear for her, yet she did not want to die: not now that
the jeedai offered hope for redemption, but more, as she ran from
tree to tree she suddenly knew, with every cell of her being, that
the warmaster was wrong to suppress this supposed heresy. As the
shamed ones died she vowed she would find a way to tell others
the truth of the jeedai.
But how? No shamed one suspected of heresy would be
permitted to leave this world alive?
"Yun Yuuzhan," she prayed softly as she ran, "in your great
wisdom you have seen fit to curse my body, and I accept this, but
as I am one of your faithful I beg you to help me." She gasped.
"Show me a way, please-"
"Well, what have we here?" A smug voice from behind.
Uunu spun to face the speaker and a fist seemed to clench on her
heart. As vile as ever, Vasi leaned against a nearby tree.
(Gods, why, out of all the Yuuzhan Vong on this planet
when the infidels attacked, did you spare (him)?) she thought
with despair as the warrior sauntered toward her.
"Uunu, the oh-so-arrogant shamed one." Vasi smirked.
"Are you trying to run from your fate?" He seized her by the arm
and forced her to walk with him back toward the ships. "Don't you
know, the warmaster has ordered the deaths of every shamed one
who saw or spoke with the jeedai infiltrator, and you, poor,
disgraced Uunu, worked with him for days."
"But you assigned him to me!" Uunu protested as she
struggled to free herself. "I even warned you of him, (and) helped
you try and trap him!" She spoke quickly, desperately, this spiteful
oaf wouldn't tell this to the warriors of course. He would see her
die in disgrace, to punish her. "You vicious, vile-" she caught the
rest of the insults before she could utter them. It suddenly
occurred to her that Yun Yuuzhan might have spared Vasi in
answer to her prayers. She needed a warrior to vouch for her if she
was to have a place on the departing ships, and Vasi was the one
person she might convince to give her that voucher. But what she
would have to do in return...
(Sacrifices,) she thought, (the gods are always demanding
sacrifices.) She swallowed the harsh words and insults, and
instead of striking the warrior with her free hand, she trailed her
fingers along his bare chest.
"Vasi, please," she made her voice as meek and submissive
as she could, it felt like burning spears were stabbing her in the
stomach, but she did, "I do not want to die in disgrace. Shamed I
may be, but I am still Yuuzhan Vong, I still wish to serve the gods
in whatever small way I can." She spoke truthfully: she would
serve the gods by telling her people the truth despite those who
would suppress it and cry heresy. "If you would help me, then I
would be..." she swallowed and forced herself to relax against him,
"grateful."
To her relief, Vasi slowed, then stopped. His grip on her
arm became a caress that moved slowly up to her shoulder. She
looked up at him, saw the lust and triumph in his eyes, and made
herself smile, to look broken and eager to please him.
(Gods,) she begged, (keep me from screaming.)
******************************************************
The next few hours were painful, degrading and best
forgotten, but at least Vasi kept his word and helped her get off
Yavin IV. Uunu was sent to one of the Yuuzhan Vong's reclaimed
planets with a number of other shamed ones, to help with the
labors.
Then the truly difficult part of her mission began.
****************************************************
"-and before all, Vua Rapuung defended the jeedai who had
redeemed him. He fell and died, fighting the other warriors while
the two jeedai made their escape." Uunu concluded.
"Impossible!" One of the young shamed ones gathered
around her hissed. "Jeedai are infidels, their powers are a
blasphemy against the gods!"
"But how could the jeedai have redeemed Vua Rapuung
unless it was by the gods' will?" Another shamed one protested.
"If the jeedai could restore one shamed one, then why not me?
Why not any of us?"
"Be silent!" A female whispered and gripped the speaker's
arm. She looked around the communal sleeping area fearfully.
"What if the overseers heard such talk? We are as the gods have
ordained it. All there is for us is to accept our fate."
"Vua Rapuung did not accept his fate." Uunu spoke,
quietly but firmly. "He refused to believe the gods had abandoned
him. He fought what had been done to him and the gods
vindicated him. Perhaps the priests do not know all they would
have us believe. Perhaps they simply desire more slaves and are
purposely misleading us."
The shamed ones listened uncertainly. But they listened.
******************************************************
And so, like a spreading forest fire, Uunu told and retold
her story. Over the weeks she stowed away on transport ships
bound for other Yuuzhan Vong planets. She hid among other
shamed ones sent to other work teams. It was easy: no one would
notice one more shamed one in a crowd, nor did the overseers
bother keeping records of where individual shamed ones were.
She called herself by different names, toiled at many jobs, but
wherever she went she told the story of the jeedai, and urged other
shamed ones to tell the tale as well.
Uunu did have a plan aside from telling other shamed ones
about Bail Lars: she was slowly working her way toward New
Republic space. If she could somehow get beyond her people's
reach, she intended to seek out a jeedai and swear service to him or
her. She would learn from the jeedai the truths the priests tried to
conceal, then she would return with the secret to redeeming the
shamed ones, and all her brethren would become true caste.
She knew she had to reach the infidel worlds quickly. She
had been clever and lucky so far, but sooner or later she would be
found out. Warriors were already beginning to watch for
suspicious activity among the shamed ones. Time was running
out.
Uunu had less time than she realized.
*******************************************************
She was on the planet Tynna, tantalizingly close to the
Core and the major New Republic worlds, when she saw the
warriors.
They were on either side of the broad pathway down which
the crowds of shamed ones and sleek, glossy Tynnan slaves walked
every morning to tend the massive dovin basals maturing in the
planet's waters. The warriors were looking carefully at every
shamed one who passed by. Noting them. Uunu considered
ducking her head to hide her features, but discarded the idea.
Suspicious behavior would only draw attention. She gave the
appearance of calm as she walked toward the growing ponds.
Nothing of interest here, just another shamed one going dutifully to
work.
A shamed one ahead of her wasn't so level headed. He was
one she had spoken with about the jeedai, and when he saw the
warriors he panicked and ran.
"Run!" He turned and shouted at her, (right) at her, as he
fled. "They've come for us!"
With that, all the heretics in the crowd, more than two
dozen, broke ranks and fled in all directions. Cursing the fool,
Uunu ran as well: after this, every shamed one in the crowd would
be thoroughly investigated, and if it was learned she'd been at
Yavin IV...
(Why now?) She thought furiously. (Now, when I'm so
close?) It wasn't over yet. She could hide, wait until the searchers
grew tired and then stow away on another ship-
Someone stepped into her path and struck a backhand blow
across her face. She spun and fell, sprawling, to the ground.
Uunu scrambled, using her heels and elbows to propel
herself backwards as a shadow fell over her. She looked up and
saw that it was cast by a lean Yuuzhan Vong male who watched
her with unblinking eyes. His black hair was tied back from a
spare, almost cadaverous face covered with elaborate scars. He
had the look and posture of an executor, and those cold eyes told
her that as far as he was concerned she might as well be a pile of
compost-feed he'd stepped in.
"And you would be the famous Uunu." Sarcasm dripped
from his voice.
Behind her, Uunu heard the footfalls of the warriors, their
shouts and snarled threats, and she knew what to do. Reaching
under her tunic, she grasped the coufee strapped to her side and
pulled it free. She had taken the weapon from the fields some
weeks ago, the living blade still immature, dull and not ready to be
set in a hilt, and sharpened the edge as best she could. The coufee
wasn't razor-sharp, as the warriors and assassins preferred their
weapons to be, but it would do.
Uunu brought the weapon out and stabbed, not at the
Yuuzhan Vong closing in on her but at her own throat, intending to
end her own life before they could take her.
She wasn't fast enough. The executor's arm snaked out,
fast as a striking amphistaff, and her caught her wrist before she
could drive the coufee home. He hauled her up to her feet and
twisted her arm until she dropped the blade. Now that she was
closer, Uunu saw that he only had one true eye, the other had been
replaced by a venomous plaeryin bol. His mouth twisted in
distaste at having to touch her and he shoved the shamed one
toward the approaching warriors.
"You nearly let her slip through your fingers." He hissed at
the armored Yuuzhan Vong.
"We know our duties, Nom Anor." Uunu heard one of the
warriors say as she stumbled.
The lead warrior, a female with the mark of Domain Choka
on her forehead, caught Uunu and forced her arms behind her
back, then took a glob of blorash jelly and sealed it around both
her wrists.
"What is the meaning of this?" The raised voice caught
Uunu's attention and she looked past Nom Anor to see none other
than the planetary prefect himself striding through the throng of
frightened slaves. He surveyed them all as he closed the distance
between himself and the executor. "I did not give permission for
you warriors to enter the fields, nor was I notified of any operation
to be conducted on my world!"
Nom Anor ignored the administrator. "Watch her closely,"
he ordered, "she is not to be given the chance to end her own life."
"Are you listening to me?" The prefect bellowed. "Do you
realize you may have set the day's schedule back hours with your
ridiculous antics? I have a quota to meet, and if my record drops
because of this I will see you-"
"I'll tell you what (I) see, Prefect." Nom Anor spun and
locked his gaze with that of the red-faced Yuuzhan Vong. "What I
see is a prefect who has allowed heresy to flourish under his very
nose, and depending on my report you will soon be administrator
of nothing more than a decaying worldship in the Outer Rim!"
The prefect's words died, but mouth hung open for a few
seconds more with no sounds emerging. Then he snapped his jaw
shut as his red face slowly turned pale. "Perhaps," he licked his
lips, "we could discuss this matter." He spoke in a more civil tone.
"I have many responsibilities, Executor, and I would be very
grateful if you could make our superiors see this."
Nom Anor gestured for the warriors to take Uunu away, but
remained with the prefect a few minutes longer. After some
hushed conversation the matter was settled: Nom Anor would
minimize the blame attached to the local governor, but the prefect
would owe him a favor in return. That settled, the executor left to
rejoin the warriors and his prisoner.
*********************************************
After an eternity, Uunu was dragged through the vaulted
chambers of a grand hall and cast to the floor. She blinked, saw
her bruised face in the sheet of mirror-shiny coral that made up the
floor, and tried to stand up. She would not meet death groveling
on her belly!
Rising to her knees, she saw the great warrior himself:
Tsavong Lah.
The warmaster regarded her with flat, all-black eyes and
discarded her a second later. An elderly, black-robed priestess
stood beside him. Her gaze never left Uunu, and fire burned
behind her eyes.
Kneeling was as far as she got, as the warrior behind her
knocked her back down with a sharp kick to her back. She would
have tried to rise again, but the warrior set his foot firmly between
her shoulder blades and pinned her in place.
"Belek tiu, Warmaster." She heard Nom Anor say as he
snapped fists to shoulders in a salute. "I present to you the shamed
one responsible for spreading the jeedai heresy beyond Yavin IV."
"After much waste of time and lives." A subaltern had
accompanied Nom Anor into the warmaster's presence and made a
similar salute. "The executor took weeks to track down the source
of the heresy, and tortured more than a hundred shamed ones to
their deaths before even getting a name."
"The shamed ones refused to surrender any information
regarding the chief heretic, even under the influence of the haar
vhinic. In the end, I had to survey the pattern by which the heresy
had spread through our conquered worlds to determine her
location." Nom Anor shifted his gaze to meet the warrior's.
"I deduced she would try to escape into the New Republic."
"But when you found the correct planet you nearly let her
escape." The subaltern sneered. "You positioned the warriors
where they couldn't help but be noticed and cause a panic."
"Naturally, the shamed ones who tried to flee would be the
heretics." Nom Anor dismissed the subaltern's observation with a
shake of his head. "Tracking her from world to world and finding
which shamed one did not belong would have gone much faster if
accurate records of the shamed ones were kept, along with their
current postings."
"The Yuuzhan Vong have more important matters to see to
than cataloging shamed ones." The warrior replied disdainfully.
"I'm certain." A thin smile crept across Nom Anor's face.
"I can think of a few such matters. I believe it was a warrior, one
Vasi, who assisted her in departing Yavin IV in the first place, in
exchange for certain...favors." He put a world of contempt in that
slightly disgusted tone. "Yes, as I recall it was Vasi who gave me
her name under interrogation," Nom Anor taunted, "he bawled like
an infant before he died."
"Don't hold that deviant up to a warrior's standard!" The
subaltern's face had gone red with fury. He looked ready to spring
at the executor. Nom Anor held his ground and aimed his plaeryin
bol to fire at the other Yuuzhan Vong's eyes. His hand strayed to
the coufee at his side.
"Silence!" Tsavong Lah's roar froze both warrior and
intendant. They turned back to the warmaster and offered apology.
Tsavong Lah glanced at Nom Anor and gave a minute
inclination of his head. "My estimation of you has increased
slightly, Executor, despite your performance on Duro. Find me
Jacen Solo and that estimation will further increase." He shifted
his stance and Uunu's attention was drawn to the warmaster's feet.
Or rather, to his original foot and his new, clawed one: taken from
the body of a vua'sa to replace the one lost to the jeedai.
"You should pray to the gods you never see him again!"
She coughed blood as she spoke. The other Yuuzhan Vong all
turned their attention to her, except for the old priestess, whose
stern eyes had never left Uunu for a second. "The Solo will do
more than disgrace you and take a foot. The day you again
encounter that jeedai will be the day you die!"
The entire room seemed to shudder at Tsavong Lah's roar
of fury. The warmaster surged forward, moving with more speed
than anything so large should be capable of, thanks to his enhanced
muscles and nervous system. The warrior pressing his foot on
Uunu's back sprang away and the shamed one felt stabs of agony
as the warmaster's hooked talons dug into her back. With no
effort, he lifted her until her feet hung almost half a meter above
the floor and her face was on a level with his. Tsavong Lah drew
back his other arm, she saw his massive hand curl into a claw to
literally rip her head off.
The warmaster controlled himself, with visible effort, and
flung her back to the floor instead. "I'll not honor you with death
at my hands, heretic." He hissed, then spun to the priestess. "She
is yours. Do as you will with her, but bring me her head when you
finish. I want it as an example to the other heretics who believe
the jeedai are the path to redemption." He held his bloodied hand
away from his body so not to be corrupted by her. A slave bearing
a large bowl of crystal-clear water hurried forward and reverently
began to wash each soiled talon.
The priestess nodded and made a sharp gesture with one
hand. Two burly young acolytes came forward and took charge of
her.
"And Vaecta," he said to the old priestess, "I want her
screaming when you send her to the gods' final judgement." The
priestess nodded sharply.
"You can kill me, but not the truth!" Uunu shouted as the
dragged her away. "The story of the jeedai will spread like a
raging fire, and like a fire it will burn you and all your lies to
nothing!"
Tsavong Lah ignored her. His attention had turned to Nom
Anor. "Now, Executor," she heard him say as he motioned the
intendant to step forward, "tell me of this new plan of yours."
"The Yag'Dhul campaign." Nom Anor supplied. "An
excellent opportunity to expand our territory and gain a tactical
advantage..." his voice trailed away as she passed through the door.
Uunu fell silent. She felt no fear, only a sense of peace: she
had done all she could, and now all that was left was to embrace
death like a true Yuuzhan Vong. (May the gods watch over you
Bail Lars,) she thought, (wherever you are, whoever you are. You
have redeemed me.) In her heart, no matter what her flesh
proclaimed, Uunu knew she was a true Yuuzhan Vong.
She was worthy.
By Bob DeFrank
I'm not getting paid for this, and I don't own Star Wars.
Spoilers: Edge of Victory: Conquest and Rebirth
Unworthy.
That epitaph had hounded Uunu her entire life, ever since
she was a toddler and her first scar had festered. It followed her
like a shadow, encompassing all she was and would ever be in a
single word.
She was a shamed one.
Yet today, as she stood on the jungle moon of Yavin IV
and looked on the smoking craters where once a damutek had
proudly reared up against the skyline, the burden she carried
seemed different somehow. It was the words she had exchanged
with that young human, a slave who called himself Bail Lars, or so
she had thought. She knew now he had only posed as a slave. Bail
Lars, or whatever his real name, was a jeedai.
Uunu had seen him from a distance as he fought his way
through the ranks of warriors with a blade of light and a shamed
one at his side, and before the mouth of a transport ship she had
seen impossible things. Vua Rapuung, the former commander
who had refused to live as a shamed one, who had fought instead
of accepting his fate, had been redeemed.
More, he had died saluting an infidel, the jeedai who had
ended his shame.
For the past weeks, Uunu had taken some secret, spiteful
pleasure at seeing the great and glorious warrior brought low and
made no better than her and her gods-forsaken brethren. Now she
felt a wave fresh shame sweep over her. She should not have
taken pleasure in what she now knew was another's unjust
disgrace. (Perhaps that is why the jeedai did not redeem me as
well.) She thought sadly. In the course of his mission, Bail had
ample opportunity to observe and test Uunu. Apparently he hadn't
found her deserving.
(And no wonder,) her head sank further, (I did try to
betray him.) She remembered helping the warriors set a trap for
Bail Lars, should he reveal himself when she confronted him.
Uunu's effort to curry favor with Yun Shuno now seemed to her
contemptible.
In the time following the aerial bombardment but before
the infidel ships had landed to retrieve them, the formerly broken
captives and slaves had celebrated. Many who had walked
hunched over now stood tall and praised the jeedai who's friends
would soon liberate them. Uunu had heard such talk before among
the slaves, about the great power and virtues of the jeedai and how
they would eventually defeat the Yuuzhan Vong, but she had
always dismissed such gossip as nonsense. The priests and had
decreed what would and would not be, and nothing outside their
divinations could occur.
Except their doctrines had been proven wrong.
Uunu had found herself drawing close to the gathered
slaves and eavesdropping on their conversations. Carefully, of
course: one or two slaves had grown bold on seeing their liberation
imminent and had decided to take what revenge they could on the
surviving Yuuzhan Vong before their fellows' ships landed to
evacuate them. Of course, they knew better than to assail the
surviving warriors, so they turned their anger on the shamed ones.
Seven of the casteless had died at the hands of former slaves after
the bombardment.
Lurking on the fringes of slave crowds, Uunu had heard
more snatches of jeedai tales. She learned of their might and
deeds, and heard confirmation of what Bail had said: these strange
infidels valued all life, even a shamed one.
Now, as she waited with the other survivors for a Yuuzhan
Vong rescue force, she mulled over these new ideas. From the
corner of her eyes, she spied one of the few true caste who still
lived. She turned her head and looked at the young female, a
shaper of adept level. She had discarded her headdress and other
rainments to fit in with the shamed ones when the infidels came,
but her tattoos and enhanced hand proclaimed her station. Uunu
couldn't recall her name, but she had seen her often in the
company of the late Master Mezhan Kwaad.
Leaning against a broken tree, the shaper wore the dazed
expression of one whose world had fallen apart. Uunu thought she
could relate: her own life seemed upside down and inside out.
******************************************************
The warriors had gone mad.
That was what she first thought when the living ships had
landed and Tsavong Lah's personal guard began systematically
slaughtering shamed ones.
Then she understood: the warmaster and the priests wanted
knowledge of the jeedai's deeds to die on this world, so no one
would ever know of Vua Rapuung's redemption. So Uunu realized
as she hid herself in the jungle surrounding the ruined shaper base.
Warriors were even now lining up shamed ones to be butchered,
the ones who ran where either dragged back or killed by a thrown
razorbug.
Uunu couldn't let herself become one of the slain. Death
itself held no fear for her, yet she did not want to die: not now that
the jeedai offered hope for redemption, but more, as she ran from
tree to tree she suddenly knew, with every cell of her being, that
the warmaster was wrong to suppress this supposed heresy. As the
shamed ones died she vowed she would find a way to tell others
the truth of the jeedai.
But how? No shamed one suspected of heresy would be
permitted to leave this world alive?
"Yun Yuuzhan," she prayed softly as she ran, "in your great
wisdom you have seen fit to curse my body, and I accept this, but
as I am one of your faithful I beg you to help me." She gasped.
"Show me a way, please-"
"Well, what have we here?" A smug voice from behind.
Uunu spun to face the speaker and a fist seemed to clench on her
heart. As vile as ever, Vasi leaned against a nearby tree.
(Gods, why, out of all the Yuuzhan Vong on this planet
when the infidels attacked, did you spare (him)?) she thought
with despair as the warrior sauntered toward her.
"Uunu, the oh-so-arrogant shamed one." Vasi smirked.
"Are you trying to run from your fate?" He seized her by the arm
and forced her to walk with him back toward the ships. "Don't you
know, the warmaster has ordered the deaths of every shamed one
who saw or spoke with the jeedai infiltrator, and you, poor,
disgraced Uunu, worked with him for days."
"But you assigned him to me!" Uunu protested as she
struggled to free herself. "I even warned you of him, (and) helped
you try and trap him!" She spoke quickly, desperately, this spiteful
oaf wouldn't tell this to the warriors of course. He would see her
die in disgrace, to punish her. "You vicious, vile-" she caught the
rest of the insults before she could utter them. It suddenly
occurred to her that Yun Yuuzhan might have spared Vasi in
answer to her prayers. She needed a warrior to vouch for her if she
was to have a place on the departing ships, and Vasi was the one
person she might convince to give her that voucher. But what she
would have to do in return...
(Sacrifices,) she thought, (the gods are always demanding
sacrifices.) She swallowed the harsh words and insults, and
instead of striking the warrior with her free hand, she trailed her
fingers along his bare chest.
"Vasi, please," she made her voice as meek and submissive
as she could, it felt like burning spears were stabbing her in the
stomach, but she did, "I do not want to die in disgrace. Shamed I
may be, but I am still Yuuzhan Vong, I still wish to serve the gods
in whatever small way I can." She spoke truthfully: she would
serve the gods by telling her people the truth despite those who
would suppress it and cry heresy. "If you would help me, then I
would be..." she swallowed and forced herself to relax against him,
"grateful."
To her relief, Vasi slowed, then stopped. His grip on her
arm became a caress that moved slowly up to her shoulder. She
looked up at him, saw the lust and triumph in his eyes, and made
herself smile, to look broken and eager to please him.
(Gods,) she begged, (keep me from screaming.)
******************************************************
The next few hours were painful, degrading and best
forgotten, but at least Vasi kept his word and helped her get off
Yavin IV. Uunu was sent to one of the Yuuzhan Vong's reclaimed
planets with a number of other shamed ones, to help with the
labors.
Then the truly difficult part of her mission began.
****************************************************
"-and before all, Vua Rapuung defended the jeedai who had
redeemed him. He fell and died, fighting the other warriors while
the two jeedai made their escape." Uunu concluded.
"Impossible!" One of the young shamed ones gathered
around her hissed. "Jeedai are infidels, their powers are a
blasphemy against the gods!"
"But how could the jeedai have redeemed Vua Rapuung
unless it was by the gods' will?" Another shamed one protested.
"If the jeedai could restore one shamed one, then why not me?
Why not any of us?"
"Be silent!" A female whispered and gripped the speaker's
arm. She looked around the communal sleeping area fearfully.
"What if the overseers heard such talk? We are as the gods have
ordained it. All there is for us is to accept our fate."
"Vua Rapuung did not accept his fate." Uunu spoke,
quietly but firmly. "He refused to believe the gods had abandoned
him. He fought what had been done to him and the gods
vindicated him. Perhaps the priests do not know all they would
have us believe. Perhaps they simply desire more slaves and are
purposely misleading us."
The shamed ones listened uncertainly. But they listened.
******************************************************
And so, like a spreading forest fire, Uunu told and retold
her story. Over the weeks she stowed away on transport ships
bound for other Yuuzhan Vong planets. She hid among other
shamed ones sent to other work teams. It was easy: no one would
notice one more shamed one in a crowd, nor did the overseers
bother keeping records of where individual shamed ones were.
She called herself by different names, toiled at many jobs, but
wherever she went she told the story of the jeedai, and urged other
shamed ones to tell the tale as well.
Uunu did have a plan aside from telling other shamed ones
about Bail Lars: she was slowly working her way toward New
Republic space. If she could somehow get beyond her people's
reach, she intended to seek out a jeedai and swear service to him or
her. She would learn from the jeedai the truths the priests tried to
conceal, then she would return with the secret to redeeming the
shamed ones, and all her brethren would become true caste.
She knew she had to reach the infidel worlds quickly. She
had been clever and lucky so far, but sooner or later she would be
found out. Warriors were already beginning to watch for
suspicious activity among the shamed ones. Time was running
out.
Uunu had less time than she realized.
*******************************************************
She was on the planet Tynna, tantalizingly close to the
Core and the major New Republic worlds, when she saw the
warriors.
They were on either side of the broad pathway down which
the crowds of shamed ones and sleek, glossy Tynnan slaves walked
every morning to tend the massive dovin basals maturing in the
planet's waters. The warriors were looking carefully at every
shamed one who passed by. Noting them. Uunu considered
ducking her head to hide her features, but discarded the idea.
Suspicious behavior would only draw attention. She gave the
appearance of calm as she walked toward the growing ponds.
Nothing of interest here, just another shamed one going dutifully to
work.
A shamed one ahead of her wasn't so level headed. He was
one she had spoken with about the jeedai, and when he saw the
warriors he panicked and ran.
"Run!" He turned and shouted at her, (right) at her, as he
fled. "They've come for us!"
With that, all the heretics in the crowd, more than two
dozen, broke ranks and fled in all directions. Cursing the fool,
Uunu ran as well: after this, every shamed one in the crowd would
be thoroughly investigated, and if it was learned she'd been at
Yavin IV...
(Why now?) She thought furiously. (Now, when I'm so
close?) It wasn't over yet. She could hide, wait until the searchers
grew tired and then stow away on another ship-
Someone stepped into her path and struck a backhand blow
across her face. She spun and fell, sprawling, to the ground.
Uunu scrambled, using her heels and elbows to propel
herself backwards as a shadow fell over her. She looked up and
saw that it was cast by a lean Yuuzhan Vong male who watched
her with unblinking eyes. His black hair was tied back from a
spare, almost cadaverous face covered with elaborate scars. He
had the look and posture of an executor, and those cold eyes told
her that as far as he was concerned she might as well be a pile of
compost-feed he'd stepped in.
"And you would be the famous Uunu." Sarcasm dripped
from his voice.
Behind her, Uunu heard the footfalls of the warriors, their
shouts and snarled threats, and she knew what to do. Reaching
under her tunic, she grasped the coufee strapped to her side and
pulled it free. She had taken the weapon from the fields some
weeks ago, the living blade still immature, dull and not ready to be
set in a hilt, and sharpened the edge as best she could. The coufee
wasn't razor-sharp, as the warriors and assassins preferred their
weapons to be, but it would do.
Uunu brought the weapon out and stabbed, not at the
Yuuzhan Vong closing in on her but at her own throat, intending to
end her own life before they could take her.
She wasn't fast enough. The executor's arm snaked out,
fast as a striking amphistaff, and her caught her wrist before she
could drive the coufee home. He hauled her up to her feet and
twisted her arm until she dropped the blade. Now that she was
closer, Uunu saw that he only had one true eye, the other had been
replaced by a venomous plaeryin bol. His mouth twisted in
distaste at having to touch her and he shoved the shamed one
toward the approaching warriors.
"You nearly let her slip through your fingers." He hissed at
the armored Yuuzhan Vong.
"We know our duties, Nom Anor." Uunu heard one of the
warriors say as she stumbled.
The lead warrior, a female with the mark of Domain Choka
on her forehead, caught Uunu and forced her arms behind her
back, then took a glob of blorash jelly and sealed it around both
her wrists.
"What is the meaning of this?" The raised voice caught
Uunu's attention and she looked past Nom Anor to see none other
than the planetary prefect himself striding through the throng of
frightened slaves. He surveyed them all as he closed the distance
between himself and the executor. "I did not give permission for
you warriors to enter the fields, nor was I notified of any operation
to be conducted on my world!"
Nom Anor ignored the administrator. "Watch her closely,"
he ordered, "she is not to be given the chance to end her own life."
"Are you listening to me?" The prefect bellowed. "Do you
realize you may have set the day's schedule back hours with your
ridiculous antics? I have a quota to meet, and if my record drops
because of this I will see you-"
"I'll tell you what (I) see, Prefect." Nom Anor spun and
locked his gaze with that of the red-faced Yuuzhan Vong. "What I
see is a prefect who has allowed heresy to flourish under his very
nose, and depending on my report you will soon be administrator
of nothing more than a decaying worldship in the Outer Rim!"
The prefect's words died, but mouth hung open for a few
seconds more with no sounds emerging. Then he snapped his jaw
shut as his red face slowly turned pale. "Perhaps," he licked his
lips, "we could discuss this matter." He spoke in a more civil tone.
"I have many responsibilities, Executor, and I would be very
grateful if you could make our superiors see this."
Nom Anor gestured for the warriors to take Uunu away, but
remained with the prefect a few minutes longer. After some
hushed conversation the matter was settled: Nom Anor would
minimize the blame attached to the local governor, but the prefect
would owe him a favor in return. That settled, the executor left to
rejoin the warriors and his prisoner.
*********************************************
After an eternity, Uunu was dragged through the vaulted
chambers of a grand hall and cast to the floor. She blinked, saw
her bruised face in the sheet of mirror-shiny coral that made up the
floor, and tried to stand up. She would not meet death groveling
on her belly!
Rising to her knees, she saw the great warrior himself:
Tsavong Lah.
The warmaster regarded her with flat, all-black eyes and
discarded her a second later. An elderly, black-robed priestess
stood beside him. Her gaze never left Uunu, and fire burned
behind her eyes.
Kneeling was as far as she got, as the warrior behind her
knocked her back down with a sharp kick to her back. She would
have tried to rise again, but the warrior set his foot firmly between
her shoulder blades and pinned her in place.
"Belek tiu, Warmaster." She heard Nom Anor say as he
snapped fists to shoulders in a salute. "I present to you the shamed
one responsible for spreading the jeedai heresy beyond Yavin IV."
"After much waste of time and lives." A subaltern had
accompanied Nom Anor into the warmaster's presence and made a
similar salute. "The executor took weeks to track down the source
of the heresy, and tortured more than a hundred shamed ones to
their deaths before even getting a name."
"The shamed ones refused to surrender any information
regarding the chief heretic, even under the influence of the haar
vhinic. In the end, I had to survey the pattern by which the heresy
had spread through our conquered worlds to determine her
location." Nom Anor shifted his gaze to meet the warrior's.
"I deduced she would try to escape into the New Republic."
"But when you found the correct planet you nearly let her
escape." The subaltern sneered. "You positioned the warriors
where they couldn't help but be noticed and cause a panic."
"Naturally, the shamed ones who tried to flee would be the
heretics." Nom Anor dismissed the subaltern's observation with a
shake of his head. "Tracking her from world to world and finding
which shamed one did not belong would have gone much faster if
accurate records of the shamed ones were kept, along with their
current postings."
"The Yuuzhan Vong have more important matters to see to
than cataloging shamed ones." The warrior replied disdainfully.
"I'm certain." A thin smile crept across Nom Anor's face.
"I can think of a few such matters. I believe it was a warrior, one
Vasi, who assisted her in departing Yavin IV in the first place, in
exchange for certain...favors." He put a world of contempt in that
slightly disgusted tone. "Yes, as I recall it was Vasi who gave me
her name under interrogation," Nom Anor taunted, "he bawled like
an infant before he died."
"Don't hold that deviant up to a warrior's standard!" The
subaltern's face had gone red with fury. He looked ready to spring
at the executor. Nom Anor held his ground and aimed his plaeryin
bol to fire at the other Yuuzhan Vong's eyes. His hand strayed to
the coufee at his side.
"Silence!" Tsavong Lah's roar froze both warrior and
intendant. They turned back to the warmaster and offered apology.
Tsavong Lah glanced at Nom Anor and gave a minute
inclination of his head. "My estimation of you has increased
slightly, Executor, despite your performance on Duro. Find me
Jacen Solo and that estimation will further increase." He shifted
his stance and Uunu's attention was drawn to the warmaster's feet.
Or rather, to his original foot and his new, clawed one: taken from
the body of a vua'sa to replace the one lost to the jeedai.
"You should pray to the gods you never see him again!"
She coughed blood as she spoke. The other Yuuzhan Vong all
turned their attention to her, except for the old priestess, whose
stern eyes had never left Uunu for a second. "The Solo will do
more than disgrace you and take a foot. The day you again
encounter that jeedai will be the day you die!"
The entire room seemed to shudder at Tsavong Lah's roar
of fury. The warmaster surged forward, moving with more speed
than anything so large should be capable of, thanks to his enhanced
muscles and nervous system. The warrior pressing his foot on
Uunu's back sprang away and the shamed one felt stabs of agony
as the warmaster's hooked talons dug into her back. With no
effort, he lifted her until her feet hung almost half a meter above
the floor and her face was on a level with his. Tsavong Lah drew
back his other arm, she saw his massive hand curl into a claw to
literally rip her head off.
The warmaster controlled himself, with visible effort, and
flung her back to the floor instead. "I'll not honor you with death
at my hands, heretic." He hissed, then spun to the priestess. "She
is yours. Do as you will with her, but bring me her head when you
finish. I want it as an example to the other heretics who believe
the jeedai are the path to redemption." He held his bloodied hand
away from his body so not to be corrupted by her. A slave bearing
a large bowl of crystal-clear water hurried forward and reverently
began to wash each soiled talon.
The priestess nodded and made a sharp gesture with one
hand. Two burly young acolytes came forward and took charge of
her.
"And Vaecta," he said to the old priestess, "I want her
screaming when you send her to the gods' final judgement." The
priestess nodded sharply.
"You can kill me, but not the truth!" Uunu shouted as the
dragged her away. "The story of the jeedai will spread like a
raging fire, and like a fire it will burn you and all your lies to
nothing!"
Tsavong Lah ignored her. His attention had turned to Nom
Anor. "Now, Executor," she heard him say as he motioned the
intendant to step forward, "tell me of this new plan of yours."
"The Yag'Dhul campaign." Nom Anor supplied. "An
excellent opportunity to expand our territory and gain a tactical
advantage..." his voice trailed away as she passed through the door.
Uunu fell silent. She felt no fear, only a sense of peace: she
had done all she could, and now all that was left was to embrace
death like a true Yuuzhan Vong. (May the gods watch over you
Bail Lars,) she thought, (wherever you are, whoever you are. You
have redeemed me.) In her heart, no matter what her flesh
proclaimed, Uunu knew she was a true Yuuzhan Vong.
She was worthy.