Dramatis Personae
Allana Solo Solusar; Jedi Knight (female human)
Ben Skywalker; Jedi Knight (male human)
Corran Horn; Jedi Grand Master (male human)
Darth Blight; Sith Lord (male Barabel)
Darth Krayt; Sith Lord (male human)
Darth Plagueis; Sith Lord (male dark side manifestation)
Dif Scaur; Galactic Alliance Chief of State and Intelligence Director (male human)
Enzetti Kwaad; squatter (female Yuuzhan Vong)
Han Solo; Captain, Millennium Falcon (male human)
Irisia; Admiral (female Terran)
Leia Organa Solo; Jedi Knight (female human)
Luke Skywalker; Jedi Master (male human)
Macua Huitl; Je'dai (male Nibu)
Nek Bwua'tu; Galactic Alliance (male Bothan)
Tahiri Veila; Jedi Knight (female human)
Thraes Solusar; Jedi Knight (male Chiss)
Shotel Za; Je'dai (male Nibu)
Tsetti Kwaad; squatter (female Yuuzhan Vong)
Yantahar Bwua'tu; Jedi Knight (male Bothan)
Yun Yuuzhan; Aether Master (male Yuuzhan Vong)
Zedekiah Gatterweld/Zeus; Moff and Imperial Head of State (male Terran)
Errant Venture
"Hey there, Ganner," Jagged Fel said softly, his smile overtaking his face. His newly born son's green eyes gazed up at him as he wrapped the baby up in a small blanket. "Welcome to the outside galaxy. I'm your father." He'd fallen in love with the little guy the moment he'd learned Jaina was pregnant again. But actually seeing his son's little face... Words eluded him.
Jag walked over to his wife's side. Jaina's mother, Leia Organa Solo, stood beside the bed, holding her hand. "Here's your hand back, sweetie," she said as she let go.
"Thanks, mom." Jaina brought her attention to her son. "Hi, Ganner," she said as Jag carefully placed their baby into her arms. "I'm your mother." The newborn made a cooing sound.
"Oh, he's precious," Leia said.
"I know," Jaina said. She turned slightly, toward her husband. "You can fetch Mara and my dad, now."
"Alright," Jag agreed. "Be right back, love." He jogged over to the door and slipped out into the hallway before it could finish sliding open. A ten-year-old girl, resembling Jaina, but with dark blond hair and an eighty-six-year-old man with very light gray hair turned toward him expectantly.
"Hi, dad," Mara said. "Is all the gross stuff done?"
Jag smiled. "Yes, honey," he assured his daughter.
Han Solo gave Jag a lopsided grin. "Another grandkid to spoil." He and Mara followed Jag back into the medical ward. Leia was holding Ganner, now.
Mara ran over to her grandmother. "Hi, Ganner," the girl said, her excited voice almost a squeal. "My name's Mara. I'm your sister." She turned toward her mother. "Can I hold him?"
"Of course you can," Jaina said. "Just be careful."
"Okay." Mara smiled at her little brother. "You're so adorable," she told him, as Leia gently placed him in her arms."
Jag and Jaina's son had been named after Ganner Rhysode, who'd been a very close friend of Jaina's. He had died decades ago during the Yuuzhan Vong war, holding off scores of enemy warriors, and had become a legend among many of the Yuuzhan Vong. Jaina had once told Jag that she thought she'd been falling in love with Ganner Rhysode back then.
Jag couldn't help but wonder if his newly born son's life would be cut short. Another Yuuzhan Vong invasion was about to begin, if it hadn't already. He suppressed a sigh; the best thing he could do now was to enjoy whatever time he had left with the people he loved.
...
Luke Skywaker and Irisia returned to the table in the Jade Shadow's galley, each carrying two piping hot mugs of caf. They placed the four mugs on the table, allowing both Gavin Darklighter and Asyr Sei'lar to take one.
"Glad we could all stop running around long enough to get together," Luke said, as he and Irisia sat down next to each other. His Terran girlfriend had insisted that a couple should sit side-by-side rather than across.
"The hazards of being an admiral," Gavin mused.
"Imagine being a Grand Admiral," Irisia said sympathetically. Though the oldest at the table, at seventy-seven, Irisia appeared to be in her late twenties. It was quite fashionable, these days, for young women to dye their hair all sorts of vibrant colors. And with her long hair being naturally purple, Irisia could fit right in. Luke was well aware of the fact that he looked like one of those men who was was dating a much younger woman. His late wife, Mara Jade, would have been very amused.
"We'd love to pay Ganner a visit one of these days," Asyr commented.
"I'm sure we can work something out," Luke said. While he was overjoyed at his grandnephew's birth, it could not dispel that dark cloud of doom that had hung over everything these past several months. Yun Yuuzhan and his minions would be invading this galaxy soon. If Irisia and her fellow Terrans were right, then this evil could not be stopped. Luke hoped she was wrong, but understood his fiance's concerns. These True Yuuzhan Vong had rendered her galaxy uninhabitable; if they could do that, just how horrific were they?
"We'd have to get Ganner away from Mara," Irisia warned. "She seems to want him all to herself, except when it comes to the 'gross stuff'." A collective chuckle ensued.
Irisia picked up her mug but then put it back down. She looked at the small plate at the side of the table. Upon it sat a small purple-black pepper and a fork. She stabbed the vegetable with the utensil and put the whole thing into her mouth. Her lavender-hued face began to turn reddish as she started chewing.
Gavin's and Asyr's eyes went wide. "That's a banshee pepper," the Bothan woman pointed out.
"I've eaten them before," Irisia said, unconcerned. She picked her mug up again and drained the steaming liquid in just two gulps. "It's better when it burns."
"That would send me to the medbay," Gavin said into the awkward silence. "How's Siffia been?" he asked Irisia.
"She's recovering quite well, for the most part. We've been sparring quite a bit; she could almost defend herself against a Jedi Knight. Though her coding skills... I doubt they'll ever be up to where they were before... But that second memory wipe could have left her brain dead. Thank the Force that didn't happen."
"How's Sebastian?" Luke asked.
Gavin sighed. "Bass has his good days and his bad days. The memory will just sneak up on him, and he'll start breathing really fast. Fortunately, it's usually not too hard to pull him out of it. He'll definitely never be able to go back in the field again. But if it wasn't for Moff Gatterweld... Whoever thought I'd be friends with a Moff?"
Luke laughed awkwardly. "I feel a little bad for distrusting him so much."
"He was a... flimsiplast nexu," Irisia said into the brief silence that followed. "We should have a double wedding," she suggested.
"It would be wonderful for morale," Gavin agreed.
Asyr's expression turned curious. "You must have some interesting customs, Irisia."
The extragalactic woman nodded and reached beneath the table. She placed her staff weapon, currently folded up into its compact form, on the table. "Before marrying, the couple spends time with each other's weapons. This attunes each weapon to the other person. The crystal in my weapon was originally purple, but now it has taken on some blue..." Luke lifted his lightsaber above the table, and activated its blade. It was blue and purple.
Asyr smiled. "That's a beautiful custom. Is that in place of a ring?"
"Yes," the purple-haired woman responded, glancing briefly at the ring on Asyr's finger. "In Terran culture weddings are also military ceremonies. Constant wars with the Celestials forced my people to become a warrior race, and we remained that way even after they left for this galaxy. We realized the wisdom in keeping that tradition when the war between the Silentium and Abominor began to threaten the Ancestral galaxy. And then, after the droids were repelled to this galaxy, the True Yuuzhan Vong declared war on us because we still used machines.
"As a result, Terran weddings are about more than just joining two soulmates to each other. They're also about producing the next generation of soldiers."
"Very practical," Gavin said, approvingly. He cast a humorous glance at Asyr. "We should trade sidepieces until the wedding." His fiance rolled her eyes. He then frowned and glared at Irisia. "Did you just slap my ankle with your tail?"
Irisia made a dismissive gesture with her hand. "The stinger's gone. You'll live." She offered him a friendly, dagger-toothed smile.
Asyr gave Luke a humorous frown. "What have we gotten ourselves into?"
Luke was silent a moment. He was intent on not getting slapped by his fiance's tail, cute though that habit of hers may have been. "A relationship with a brilliant admiral." And still, he felt a slender tail playfully slap his ankle. He turned toward Irisia, with a confused expression.
"Flattery will get you nowhere, my love," the Terran woman responded.
"I can't win!" Luke conceded.
...
Tahiri Veila stood on a vast plain of blue-green grass; she could feel it on her bare feet. How had she gotten here? The last thing she remembered was getting into bed. This was a dream, more than a dream, she somehow knew. And the blond woman's right hand felt different, natural rather than mechanical.
A herd of large reptilian animals grazed in the distance, while all sorts of smaller creatures flitted through the air. These winged creatures made wonderful sounds she'd never heard before. A fragrant breeze drifted through the air, carrying the scents of plants and soil.
She turned to see an enormous tree. It had to be at least ten feet in diameter at the trunk and must have towered over three hundred feet. Its bark was a coppery orange in color. Large mushroom-like shelves grew from the bark in a spiral-like formation. Mighty roots wove in and out of the ground, and smaller trees grew out of some of them. Gardens grew between these roots.
Tahiri felt a powerful presence above her. It was a beacon in the Force. Both the light side and the dark side were as one. This was the Unifying Force. She had never truly believed that this pure manifestation of the Force could exist. She looked up to see a gleaming object the size of a large Star Destroyer. She brushed against it through the Force. It was the purest and most compassionate presence she'd ever felt. Beneath that lay a vast intellect. This being was just as curious about her as she was about it. She could sense a calm storm of neural activity coursing through its body.
As the creature descended, it gradually blocked out the sun. It resembled a giant manta ray, with mighty wing-like fins and a bit of an underbelly. It was covered in a vibrant exoskeleton, of blues, greens, and purples, with glowing swirls of lime-green, orange, and pink. It was one of the most beautiful things she'd ever seen. The Force reached out to the creature and cradled it. It came to hover perhaps two hundred feet above the ground, and close to the tree.
Tahiri longed to see this magnificent creature up close. She glanced at the fungus shelves. Stairs. She jumped onto one of the roots, and made her way to one of the stairs. She experimentally pushed down on one; it seemed sturdy enough. She began a reasonably cautious ascent, but soon found herself racing upward. One of the tree's branches looked like it might actually be touching the creature. She continued up the tree, and eventually made it to that branch. The limb stopped just short of the creature. It had a sort of beak. It had no eyes that she could see, yet it could see her, through the Force. She stepped onto the branch and walked over to the creature. She stroked its beak and could feel subtle static electricity. It responded with the sort of song one would hear from a whale. Tahiri had the feeling that it knew her. And it loved her.
Tahiri sensed another presence, also radiating the Unifying Force, approach from behind her. She turned to see a man standing several meters away on the branch. He had long black hair, with a strong brow and sloping forehead. His skin was gray, with a subtle purple tone. He was a Yuuzhan Vong but, unlike the ones that had invaded the galaxy a few decades ago, he was devoid of any ritual mutilations. The man had lips, and his nose was more than a mere hole in his face. He was ancient, yet youthful. His eyes were full of wisdom; they glowed with white fire and had a subtle blue aura.
But then before Tahiri could speak to this man, her spirit left her body. Her mind left the atmosphere and went into space. Monstrous machines warred against each other. Hideous and asymmetrical against smooth and silver-blue. She recognized them as the Abominor and Silentium. Worlds burned and billions died, casualties of the merciless violence. This war began to spread like an infection, destroying more worlds.
The Force was grieved, as was the man. He led a great fleet, of many civilizations, against the machines. The machines banded together and began to prevail.
Tahiri found herself, once again, standing on the tree branch. The man's countenance had fallen. He turned away from her and walked to the base of the limb. He spoke to the tree in urgency and fear. The tree urged him to be patient and to trust that it had a plan. But the man became impatient and angry. Tahiri saw his soul, and that darkness had begun to grow within it.
Dread came upon Tahiri as she realized that something had been awoken. It had sensed the Force's agony, and been drawn to it. Through a rent in the fabric of the Force, this terrible evil whispered to the man. He looked into the tear and was horrified by what he saw. An arm reached out to him, holding some sort of fruit. It was dark like dirt and rotting. It reeked of sulfur. The man studied it a long moment before reluctantly grasping it. He slowly brought his hand to his mouth.
"Don't do it!" Tahiri shouted. "Stop!"
But he ignored her and bit into it. The light in his eyes died, and the darkness within his soul began to consume him. He cried out in despair, as the Force tore itself away from him. His body started convulsing, and he fell off the branch to the ground probably about two hundred feet below. He lay there, writhing and wailing. His flesh dried out and shriveled as he himself began to rot. Tahiri knew that he was dead.
And yet he moved, and after some time he stood up. He looked up at Tahiri; his eyes had turned pitch black, and somehow glowed with darkness. He hated her, but she had done nothing against him and had even warned him not to eat the rotten fruit. He also hated himself.
He walked over to the tree and placed a hand on it. The tree groaned as demonic energy flowed into it. Bark splintered as the tree twisted and bent itself. Leaves fell off as they shriveled and dried out. Oily black ichor oozed out from beneath the bark and dripped down. The fungus shelves become warped and serrated at the edge. Tahiri's eyes burned at the stench of sulfur, and it became all she could smell.
The branches around Tahiri grew fangs and started whipping about. She brought her attention back to the enormous creature, to see that it was already maneuvering away from the zombie tree. But it was too slow, and several of the nearby branches sunk their fangs into it. "Leave it alone!" Tahiri screamed, directing a blast of Force energy at some of the branches. Though she knew it was far too late. She was seeing something that had happened thousands of years ago.
Hot tears ripped down her cheeks like razor blades as this beautiful, innocent creature was defiled. The creature opened its mouth. A gut-churning shriek thundered through the air, rattling Tahiri's bones and piercing her soul. It bucked and shook as though trying to break out of its own exoskeleton. The armor plates began to shrivel, and their vibrant coloring faded to a dull red-brown. Horns and spikes began erupting from the creature's body. Longer horns grew from the edges of its wings. Its body stiffened, and that great maelstrom of neural activity ceased. Tahiri could feel the creature's spirit depart, from what was now a corpse, and disappear into the Force.
The man was, once again, near Tahiri on the tree branch. He must have climbed back up when she hadn't been looking. The man leaped into the creature's mouth. It lifted off into space and found another creature. It bit this second creature, turning it also into a corpse. The two zombies bit yet more of these creatures, spreading this horrific infection.
When there were many of these monstrosities they joined the armies who fought the machines. The machines were defeated and fled the galaxy. And the monsters turned on their allies, having become worse than the enemy they'd been created to fight.
Tahiri's mind was again returned to her body. She was standing back on the ground, the soft turquoise grass having been exchanged for lifeless dirt. The defiled tree stood in the far distance, its limbs flailing in a demented dance.
"Hi, Tahiri," said a familiar voice, one she'd not heard in so long. She turned around, and even then could not believe what she saw. Who she saw. That handsome face, with those piercing blue eyes, and messy blonde hair. He looked just like the sixteen-year-old she'd lost over thirty years ago.
"Anakin?" she asked, her suddenly constricted throat permitting only a squeak.
"You can call me that if you want."
Of course, it wasn't Anakin Solo. "Hello, Sekot," she said. The sentient consciousness of the planet Zonama was speaking to her in the likeness of the love of her life. He nodded. "Can I... hold you?" she asked slowly. This wasn't the young man she'd once thought she'd be marrying, but this was as close as she could get.
"Sure," Anakin said.
Tahiri walked over to him and wrapped her arms around him. He returned the embrace without hesitation. After a long moment, they let go of each other. "Thank you, Sekot."
"You are my friend, and friends help each other," Anakin said, softly. "Do you know where you are?"
This was obviously the Yuuzhan Vong's ancestral galaxy, so she couldn't be on Zonama. "Yuuzhan'tar?" she hazarded.
"Yes. That world is now a wasteland."
"And that man... was Yun Yuuzhan, I'm guessing."
"Yes," Anakin said sadly. "Yun Yuuzhan was once a good man. And so blessed by the Force. He could even unify its two sides. To tap into the Unifying Force, one must completely surrender their will to the Force, and their intentions must be pure.
"Sadly the war between the Silentium and Abominor was growing more and more brutal, and the collateral deaths had reached the trillions. And you saw what happened." Anakin shook his head sadly. "When it became clear that the machines were winning, Yun Yuuzhan came to me and demanded that I act. I told him to be patient and trust in the Force, as he had for most of his life. The Force was guiding me, helping me formulate a plan to end the violence. I was going to deliver a message to the droids.
"But Yun Yuuzhan had already begun to lose faith in the Force. He soon lost the ability to touch the Unifying Force. His anger only grew, pushing the light side away, and plunging himself into the dark side. It didn't stop there; he began dabbling with the power of the Aether. Even then he still could have turned back to the Force. But then he committed an unforgivable sin, pledging his soul to the Aether. With that one act, Yun Yuuzhan had eternally damned his very soul."
"What did it show him?" Tahiri asked.
Anakin shook his head. "I don't know, but... it frightened Yun Yuuzhan enough that he turned his back on the Force. He became dead because the Aether is death. And that's when he began to remake the Leviathans into instruments of destruction..."
"And I saw what happened," Tahiri finished.
Anakin smiled as though he thought she was being cute, but then resumed his frown. "The Aether now had a presence among the Yuuzhan Vong, and they became depraved to the point where the Force had to forsake them. Those crewing the Leviathans became more wicked than the others, and came to exist within the Aether."
"And they're here now, aren't they?"
"Perhaps. At the very least, they're close enough for me to feel them coming."
"Why didn't you mention all this before?" Tahiri asked, curious.
Anakin gazed down at the ground. "Some things are just so horrible that one... chooses to forget."
"You repressed it."
"Yes, but now the memories have been triggered. It was shortly after the Yuuzhan Vong turned on their allies that I left for your galaxy."
"When the Yuuzhan Vong invaded the last time, you offered to destroy them..."
"If I could destroy these, I certainly would. As a servant of the Force, I would be obligated to do so. They serve the Aether, which seeks to destroy the Force. And to rot everything the Force has created. I will try to help you, but I cannot allow Yun Yuuzhan to find me. If I became infected I would have to destroy myself. And I have foreseen another threat to this galaxy that cannot be defeated without me."
"And what would that be?"
"All I know is that it is incredibly powerful in the Aether."
Tahiri found herself lying in her bed. The sheets were damp with sweat. She let out a long sigh and sat up. "Are you okay, Tahiri?" asked an inhumanly deep voice. She glanced over at the source of the voice, visible in the darkness as a pair of red visors, with one above the other. Seff Hellin was crouched beside her bed, like a protective gargoyle. After his consciousness had been forcefully transferred to a mechanical body, Seff needed to be in a near-constant Force meld with her to feel alive and retain his sanity.
"I guess so. Sekot just spoke to me."
"Sekot never talks to someone just to say hi," Seff commented.
"Nope. I need to talk to Luke Skywalker or one of the other Masters."