Chapter 11

The ship hauling her in looked more like a space slug than a ship. It was long and gray, and Jaina got the distinct impression that she was being swallowed. Muscle-like fibers contracted and loosened, propelling her along its length. She wasn't sure what would await her when it released her, but she wanted to be ready.

Jaina had quickly shed the vac suit, and was now robed only in a thin jumpsuit. She had a knapsack full of explosives on her back, her lightsaber on her belt, and a charric holstered at her right hip. All that was left was her targets.

Suddenly the transport creature made a sound that reminded Jaina of a Hutt belching. The nose of her craft broke abruptly through a reddish membrane and the whole coralskipper was dropped unceremoniously onto what she supposed was the inside of the enemy's ship. It was all made of multihued coral, pulsing gently with life. On the deck she saw numerous Yuuzhan Vong—some scarred more than others—scurrying about, examining her dead ship.

Jaina drew her lightsaber from her belt and ignited it. The violet blade hummed in the amniotic silence. She took a deep breath and plunged it into the roof of the skip. She made a small, fist-sized hole, then withdrew the blade. She pulled a grenade from her pack, jerked the safety off with her teeth, and tossed it outside. She could hear the Vong barking in their strange guttural language, cautious as well as curious about the strange projectile. Jaina anchored herself to the side of the ship, and counted slowly in her head.

It erupted a half-second late, but the blast was tremendous. It tossed the alien snubfighter onto its side, and the fired coral turned black all the way to the inside. Taking advantage of the momentary weakness, Jaina shoved the business end of her lightsaber into what was formerly the ceiling, but was now the wall. She cut a hole big enough to fit through and then leapt out lightsaber sweeping in a protective arc.

For the moment, however, all the Vong that had been in the hangar were dead. Jaina didn't take time to examine them, but went straight to what looked like an exit. It was a thin membranous like opening that irised open when she pressed on it. The corridor on the other side was irregular in shape, with bumpy walls and floors and uneven corners. She went carefully, saber in hand but turned off. Her thumb hovered continuously over the ignition switch. She stretched out with the Force, hoping to be able to detect anything. Nothing.

Wait.

There was a twinge, a consciousness. Some intelligent lifeform. It was huge, in mental capacity at least. As it recognized her she cringed, the force of its mental abilities were so strong, almost crippling. She clamped down the barriers of her awareness, shutting herself off from it. but she knew that was only temporary. Such a monstrosity had to be destroyed. She knew she could never destroy the ship while it was alive.

A barbaric shout sounded. Jaina spun to see a warrior—six and a half feet tall, at least—rushing towards her. It pulled what looked like a snake from its belt, but the serpent straightened almost immediately into a sword-like weapon. The Vong charged Jaina, sweeping the snake at her like a club. Jaina casually raised her lightsaber, intending to cut the thing in half.

And then an extraordinary thing happened.

The snake blocked her blows. The lightsaber didn't cut the skin, not even a little bit. It repelled it completely. Since she had been expecting the lightsaber to pass right through the thing, Jaina wasn't prepare for the force of her opponent's blow. It nearly dislocated her shoulders, and would have had she not released the handle. She fell back out of the way and rolled to her feet. She called the lightsaber back into her hand and brought it up into a high guard. The Vong snarled through tattered lips and charged.

This time Jaina was ready. She ducked under the blow completely, and instead sliced at his midsection.

Nothing.

The violet blade bounced off the armored torso like a shockball on ferrocrete. Stunned, Jaina could think of nothing to do while in such a position except to tackle him. He was stout, and it almost knocked the breath out of her to ground him. What have I gotten myself into? She thought as they rolled head over heals across the coral deck. Finally she released her grip on him and rolled onto her feet. As he stood she planted a beauty of a high-kick right underneath his chin. His head snapped back, but he didn't even so much as stagger. Frustrated, Jaina kicked him again, this time in the groin. That time he doubled over, distorted face contorted with pain. But this gave Jaina time to thing more than anything. He hadn't been armored beneath the plated skirt, so there had to be other weaknesses. That's when she noticed a hint of skin on the back of his neck where his head was bowed. Unflinchingly Jaina severed the head quickly.

Just about then five more similarly clad Vong appeared at the far end of the hall. One pointed at her and shouted, then they all ran full speed towards her, pulling more snake-weapons from their belts.

Jaina sighed wearily. Right before they reached her she thought, I really have to start listening to Jag more.

She jumped, soaring over their heads in a graceful arc. As she went over she extended her sword in a precise cut that went straight down the back of one's neck, severing the spine and coming out the other side of his throat. She jerked it out and as she landed shoved upward forcefully beneath the armored skirt of another, skewing him like a wild animal. She stood quickly, turning to face the other three. The biggest, ugliest one said something, then the other two attacked at the same time, one coming at her from each side. One sliced for her neck, the other at ankles from behind. Jaina bent back to avoid the first blow and leapt off her feet and onto her hands to avoid the other. She somersaulted to an upright position, and shoved the tip of her lightsaber through the eye socket of the one who had swung at her ankles. At the same time she planted a Force-augmented kick into the second Vong's abdomen, shoving him away from her. Just two more, she thought, licking her lips in anticipation.

He recovered quickly, raising his snake-weapon. Jaina brought her lightsaber up in expectancy of the coming attack, but suddenly the snake was in serpentine form again. It hisses and curled, and only Jaina's danger sense caused her to jump out of the way as it spit something foul through the air where she had just been. Now fully aware of this new danger, Jaina determined to be more cautious around the weapons. And then a thought occurred. If it was no longer a sword but a snake was it still impervious to her lightsaber? She swung experimentally. It scraped down the side of the snake, undamaging, until it reached the head. Suddenly a huge chunk of the snake's skull fell to the floor and the rest of the body went limp. The Yuuzhan Vong looked at her incredulously as she thrust her lightsaber through his neck.

She spun quickly, then, to face her final opponent. It was the leader, the one who had stood by and given the others orders. Jaina wondered at this, questioning why he had not attacked himself. But as she observed his cocky glance she realized that he viewed her as no more than practice. He had been letting his subordinates toy with her, probably so that they would gain experience. He drew his snake-sword and beckoned her forward. She sighed, drew her charric from her holster and shot him in the face at point blank range. "Amateurs," she muttered as she stepped across the smoking body and headed for deeper parts of the ship.

Jaina efficiently disposed of each group that attacked her, bet the effort tired her until she began to wonder how she was going to defeat the beast in the belly of the ship. It would have been difficult were she in the best of conditions, but injured and drained as she was it seemed anything but wise. There had to be some other way to kill the ship.

She turned to the latest pile of corpses, charred from the grenade she had thrown into their midsts. Somewhere in there there must be a clue to some sort of self-destruct button. Everything had its weakness, as her Uncle Luke often said. As she rummaged, she found various weapons that they had brandished at her including, flesh-eating bugs and an albuminoid that could stick you to the wall or floor.

The only thing of real interest that she found was a small bug the size of her thumb that hummed and buzzed at varying levels, depending on which direction she moved. Curious, she continued in the direction that made it grow louder until she was at an organic terminal of sorts with a hood much like the one in the coralskipper she had stolen. She supposed that it was an information deck of sorts, full of new bulletins and other info all the Vong needed to be made aware of.

Taking advantage of her position, Jaina pulled the hood quickly over her head. Immediately her mind was overwhelmed with alien words and impressions, but most were base intimations that she could understand. The beast she didn't want to face was called a yammosk, a war-coordinator. She also learned the names of many of their weapons, and after a little prying, how they worked. If I make it out of here alive, I'm going to be an Intel dream.

Most importantly, she learned that the ship had a central brain. If she destroyed this, the ship would die along with everyone inside. This is what she needed to be going after. She quickly found directions to where the brain was kept, then disengaged. This would be tough, but more on a physical level than a mental one. As long as she had the Force to draw energy from, she could take the physical beatings. It was the yammosk's mental barrage that she feared the most.

Jaina impaled the last warrior in her way upon her lightsaber, then let him fall to the ground. She was bleeding from several wounds, most of them minor, but a few that made her wince with every step. She was sure that at least two ribs were broken, and that she had sprained her right ankle. The defense guarding the brain had been tougher than she had expected, and they showed no mercy. It had been all she could do to defeat them, but she had done it. She had cauterized the door-portal closed, keeping all others out, at least temporarily. All that was left now was to actually kill the thing.

It was surprisingly unimpressive, just a squarish gray blob in a membranous container. Jaina didn't care. She just wanted to kill it and get it over with. Not wanting to go through the extra exertion of lightsaber work, she drew her only thermal detonator from her pack She set it on the five minute timer, which would begin when she pulled her thumb off of the switch. But first she needed an escape plan.

She had told Jag that she would find her own way out, but that hardly seemed like an option now. She closed her eyes and let out a slow breath, letting go of all her tensions. She stretched out, searching inside herself form the presence that was imprinted on her soul. When she found it, she extended outward...

Jag was going over the day's reports looking for any anomalies and trying to get his mind off what Jaina must be going through. He had just finished an agonizingly boring one when the world went inexplicably black.

In his mind's eye he saw Jaina, saw her face staring out of the darkness at him. He tried to reach for her, but to no avail. Then her face dissolved into a different image. He saw the enemy ship, but it began to change, to blacken and die before his eyes. Then he saw Jaina trapped inside, disabled along with the Vong as the ship deteriorated.

Then he understood. She was telling him she needed help, needed to be rescued. He didn't know where she would be be or how he could get inside, but he did know that he was going to do everything he could to get her out before that ship expired.