Dagobah Slip Stream

Part Sixteen

It seemed like forever before she gained consciousness and she had her body under control again. She opened her eyes, but her mind was spinning and she had to close them again.

She could feel walls falling in her mind. Walls she hadn't know where there. They fell quickly, dissipating like a planet in a post-Death Star shock wave. The Force seemed so much broader. Many of the shades of gray in the back of her mind gained indescribable color.

But, and it took her a moment to realize this, they weren't just walls in her mind. They were the walls between her mind and those of the Yuuzahn Vong she had just met. Walls in their minds. Ingrained social, religious prejudice. She, finally, gained enough of her senses to feel Vua Shai lying on top of her, holding her down.

Her head was in Vo Kwaad's lap. He was holding something in her mouth to keep her from biting tongue. She tasted blood and realized she had been biting his hand. She opened her jaw and released his hand.

She turned her head and saw Slee and Uun holding her arms.

"Are you alright?" Vo asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine." She sat up. Vua moved enough to let her complete the action, but didn't get off her. Like he was afraid she would go back into frenzy.

She looked up. They were all wide-eyed; the women's jaws were slack. "What?" She heard herself. She knew what she said, but it didn't sound right. "Am I…"

"You, Jeedai, are speaking our tongue." Said Slee. "How?" She looked at the Master Shaper. Her eyes had a glazed look to them. "How did you know what to do?"

"Before my fellows shamed me, we used to use blood to help our creations grow, in some cases we changed them by making them drink blood." He snorted. "I used to think that was why the 'gods' demanded so much of it." He shrugged, a strangely eloquent motion for a Yuuzahn Vong Shaper.

Cas looked at them. "What are you doing here? No, rather, why?"

"It's complicated." The shaper said. He scratched the back of his neck nervously. But he quickly put a halt to the action. "You see we were all here when your people came and over took our forces. We all fled our settlements to hide in the forests until we could gather back again. Once we had gathered, things were fine but our lead Shaper wasn't satisfied."

"I didn't think on it until I had been pronounced shamed. But my Domain brother is just as treacherous as Mezhan Kwaad, his one time student." Cas knew Mezhan Kwaad. She had been the Shaper from Yavin 4 that had tried to turn New Republic Jedi Tahiri Veila into one of the Yuuzahn Vong.

She had also turned Vua Rapuung into a Shamed one.

"You mean this Shaper-guy poisoned your implants and stuff, turning you all into Shamed Ones?"

He nodded. "Two nights ago I had a dream. I saw a woman sitting on a riverbank with an odd Lightsaber before her. She pardoned me and destroyed those standing against me." He motioned to his small band. "The Four of us stood by your side."

She nodded. "So, what? What do you want me to do?"

"Jeedai heal others correct?"

She nodded.

"Heal us. Take away our shame, Great One, pardon us."

She raised an eyebrow. "I don't like the way you said that." She took a deep breath. "But it is my job to protect the innocent."

An odd light entered Slee's eye. Cas regarded her sharply. "What are you thinking?" The moment she said it, she knew she did not need to ask.

The woman did not speak. She just shook her head.

"Protect the innocent?" Cas heard in her head. "Who does she think she is? Yun-Shuno?"

"What if I am Yun-Shuno, Shamed one?" She asked.

The other woman looked struck by her words, but spoke anyway. "Then it would seem two of our three Goddesses are against us in these matters of War. That the Cloaked Goddess and the Lord of the Unworthy have taken up with our enemies."

The Warrior snorted. "That would be a blow to our Priesthood." Vua Shai said, fixing his gaze squarely on her. "They claim it is our destiny to rule this Galaxy."

Cas glared. "We've been here thousands of years. This galaxy has shaped us to fit. Just like your old one, and then your worldships changed you. It hid you from the Force," Her frown deepened. "No. It changed you in the Force," she shook her head. "In this galaxy, it gave us the Force."

"We've developed a society, a civilization that allows all of us here to co-habitate. We could have included your kind but because of your action we will probably fight to the death." She shrugged.

"You realize if I 'pardon you' you will most likely end up fighting your own people, even indirectly."

"But if you can heal us, pardon us." Uun said crawling forth, like a feline predator, and touching Cas tentatively. "You will be our Yun-Shuno, Our Lord of the Unworthy. We would follow you any where, in anything."

The Priestess gave a reserved smile. "I would aid you in your goddess-scheme." She hesitated, her security slipping for a moment. "It is a scheme of some kind, right?"

Cas thought for a second, her mind reeled. This would expand Jaina's efforts, but did Jaina want them expanded?

Instead of answering the Shamed ones she put walls up around her thoughts and placed a guarded mask on her face. She tilted her head so that half of her face was to them and the other behind her, like she was listening to some voice they could not hear.

She leaned back, laying her head back in Vo's lap, and allowed herself to fall into a light trance. She felt the Vongs' startlement as her mind brushed Kir's.

But she and her Head Guardsmen had always had an extra ordinary bond. It allowed them to check up on each other all the time, sometimes to talk they were in trouble or separated.

They didn't use it often. But She knew it would make their communication seem supernatural; godly, if you will.

For a moment she wondered if the Republic's Jedi knew anything about these connections. But that was for later.

She felt Kir as he became distracted in his work as she touched him.

She felt words come from him and couldn't find the exact words for them, the emotions that followed helped. "Are you alright?" he had asked.

She sent him reassurances and made pictures in his mind of what she wanted. She imagined Wedge sitting in the black captain's chair behind his desk with Tycho beside and a little behind him. Kir was standing before him, explaining something, and the door opened and Kyp, Jaina, and Jag walked in, dressed in flight suits, their hair a little miffed like they had received the summons just as they were exiting their StarFighters.

She felt him nod. He understood what she wanted.

A moment later he was in Wedge's office explaining that Cas was in his head and wanted to tell Wedge something. He turned and Jaina came in with Jag and Kyp flanking her, a little behind. They all sat and waited. Kir concentrated on her a moment and she realized what he wanted.

She pushed herself into him, taking over his motor skills so she could use them to communicate. "General Antilles," She said she was please at his surprise in hearing her voice immerge from Kir's mouth.

"While you were under attack I made contact with a group of four Yuuzahn Vong Shamed Ones. Things have happened I have some how gained the ability to sense them in the Force, and in my head."

He shook his head. "Shouldn't you tell your Master's about this?"

"I will get to that. But for now," She smiled and crossed her…er, Kir's legs. Making a show of her mannerisms so the could not doubt her presence.

"Apparently one of them had a vision. He saw me, as he met me. Supposedly I pardoned…er, healed them. Then went to their camp and destroyed those that had plotted to Shame him and his comrades."

"Among this group are a Warrior Commander, a Master Shaper, a Shamed One, and a Priestess to the Yun-Harla." She heard Jaina gasp as the girl grasped Cas's plan.

Cas continued. "Each of these groups, from what I have found, has its own deity." She said. "We have already set Jaina up as their Yun-Harla the Trickster. They claim that if I can heal them I would be their Yun-Shuno the Pardoner."

"I think if you allow me to continue with the Shaper's vision I can feed the Yuuzahn Vong false information about their gods."

"Spin Kyp as their Slayer God, maybe. Say he's hiding what he is after what he did at Carida. Maybe we could choose other Jedi to take on the roles of other gods and goddesses."

Jaina's eyes gained a conspirator's gleam. "The Vong see this as a holy war. What would happen to their stance if suddenly their 'gods' turned against them?"

Wedge raised his eyebrows. "How does Jag fit into this?"

"Think, Wedge, The Slayer, Yun-Yammka, is their war god. We've been planning an attack a Dathomir. If Kyp is their War God he would lead the attack on the ground, right?"

Wedge nodded.

"But he's, not I am. I can spin something to them about playing by our hosts' strengths. That Kyp's and Jaina's are great Pilots and mine is a great commando. Thusly, Kyp gave me authority to lead the attack on the ground. But I had to prove my self, thus the attack on their camp."

"And Jag, Well…" She thought for a moment and it dawned on her. "Jag would be my chosen servant. The one I chose to take my place in the shield trio. It would explain to them why Jag could fly with 'gods'. That the Twin Suns Squadron has been so successful, because it's blessed."

Wedge looked at all the parties before him. She could feel his want to say 'that's crazy' and dismiss them all. But they weren't crazy, and he knew that. They, like the rest of them, were just responding to the craziness laid before them all.

"Do you think you could pull it off?"

They looked a little unsure. Then Jaina spoke up. "It could work. Let Cas work on that angle. I'll work with Piggy and our Intel specialists so we'll have something to add to Cas's angle when she returns. Cas," She said, turning to address Kir. "Will you be bringing to Vong back here?"

"I don't see why not" She made Kir frown. "…Something to do with how I gained a connection with them shattered the social and religious filters in their minds. They don't seem to have a problem with coming back with me."

"How will you get the intended misinformation back to the Vong?"

She frowned again. "I'll see what I can come up with, with my new conspirators. I'll contact you again when I have something." She gave a smirk. "Probably to get clearance." She returned to her body.

"It's settled." She said to the Vong around her.