Meanwhile on the planet N'zoth in the Koornacht cluster, Farlax sector
Primos Jobath Knox had not personally traveled to the planet formerly inhabited by the warlike Yevethans. However, another Fia named Thrum had come to N'zoth on his behalf, and when his spaceship landed he was greeted by a Vagaari band playing the national anthem of Galantos - in a graceful manner that had had never reached the ears of a Fia before. The Miskara Rumpsh himself had come to the makeshift landing field to greet the little guest. In the background, construction work could be heard being carried out by excavators supplied by the Galactic Alliance. Further in the background, Tu-Scart and Sgauru – two huge creatures of the Yuuzhan Vong, were doing their work, one acting as a hammer and the other eating the debris to excrete it as fertile topsoil.
A large tent had been erected for those who had traveled from several planets, and when Thrum entered, he saw Leia Organa Solo sitting there, dressed in a white shirt, brown leather vest and functional riding trousers, the bottoms of which were tucked into black boots.
"It is so good you are here too, Princess," Thrum said euphorically. "We weren't exactly a big help to you back then, but now that our Primos Jobath Knox is healthy again and publicly visible, we Fia can develop our full potential to help other peoples like our lovely hosts. And who would have thought that the Yuuzhan Vong..."
Leia smiled and smiled until Thrum finished his welcoming speech. "You and the other Fia welcomed us so hospitably a year and a half ago, and so I felt the need to accompany you on this stage too."
She turned to Miskara Rumpsh. "Have all two hundred excavators arrived?"
"Yes, they have," the Miskara confirmed.
Two Vagaari brought food and drink and the Vagaari told the Fia and the human woman how difficult the efforts of re-colonizing N'zoth were. After a few glasses of honey liquor, the Vagaari began to tell extravagant travel myths, while one of their species accompanied the stories with the sounds of a common plucked instrument. Hence even the chatty Thrum became quiet and listened to the stories of his new galactic neighbors.
"Another turbocaf with Grunto milk from our agricultural ship?" Miskara Rumpsh politely asked his guests.
Thrum nodded. "After two glasses of liquor, that certainly can't do any harm."
A brown cuboid, slightly smaller than Thrum at about one meter twenty, and equipped with several openings and switches, rolled up, spit out black cups and let brown and white liquid flow into the drinking vessels one after the other from narrow pipes.
The guests took the cups from the coffee machine's gripping arms and took a sip.
Thrum licked his thin lips. "It's really good," he praised the invigorating drink. Then he turned to the Miskara. "Have you considered exporting these machines to the galaxy?"
The Miskara twisted his left mouth. "Um, we still have to think about that. Because we Vagaari prefer to keep the really good things to ourselves."
Those present giggled.
Leia's hackles stood up as she sensed a change. It came from outside the tent. During the Yuuzhan Vong War, she had been unable to rely on her Jedi senses since that former enemy was invisible in the Force, and so she was greatly reassured to know that it was now apparently not Yuuzhan Vong. It was only then that Leia realized that her two Noghri guards who accompanied her on this journey were no longer in the tent.
The tarpaulin was punctured by blaster shots and Leia tore her lightsaber from her belt to block the bullets with the blue blade. The Vagaari immediately drew their blasters, while Envoy Thrum cowered fearfully under the dining table.
The blaster sound was augmented by a grinding rattle that came from curved blades cutting through the tent panels from the outside. In stepped thin, athletic men with thorn-like appendages on their arched skulls, and the six fingers of their hands were framed by two inwardly curved thorny claws with which they had just slashed the tent wall. Leia counted four attackers and wondered if that was all of them.
"You treacherous infidels," their leader's harsh voice boomed through the tent. "You think you have destroyed us, but the Yevethan race still exists and now we will satisfy the hunger of our offspring with your blood!"
Leia managed to deflect one of the attackers' blaster bolts back at him. The shot hit the man right between the lips and he fell backwards, gurgling.
Two other attackers then surrounded Leia from the front and behind, so that the princess had to keep one at bay with her blaster and the other with her lightsaber. Suddenly the one Leia was aiming the blaster at yelped, and shortly afterwards a wolf-like animal sat on his chest, its mouth sunk into his throat. Leia regretted being too distracted by the animal's attack just a moment later when she felt a kick. The foot of the remaining attacker, whom she had previously kept at bay with her lightsaber, had collided hard against her right side and also hit her sword hand. Pain shot through her fingers and she felt the lightsaber slip from her hand.
"Well, who's drinking whose blood here now?" the Vagaari-Miskara sneered towards the gutted Yevethan.
He gave the animal a command in the Vagaari language and it abandoned its victim to jump at another Yevethan. He fired his blaster, but the animal didn't even flinch and continued to fly towards him. The one so afflicted extended his other dagger-clawed hand, but one of the Vagaari guards struck that dangerous hand upwards. The Yevethan dropped to the ground so that his claw slashed the belly of the wolf-like creature as it jumped over him, from below, then he saw a brown block coming towards him.
A load of scalding turbocaf landed in his black eyes, causing him unspeakable pain that prevented him from reacting as someone wrested the blaster from his right hand. When the gunless assassin was able to see again, he noticed that the brown square began to change. Knowing full well where the Fia traitor was, the Yevethan rolled prone toward the dining table, reached out with both razor-clawed hands and grabbed the trembling Thrum hard by the shoulders, pulling him into a range where he could murder more easily.
A suspicious noise made his back tremble and he turned his head away from Thrum to look up. The brown cuboid from before had unfolded into a frame that had several mechanical arms. The Yevethan counted four arms, all ending in blasters - and one of them was pointed right at him.
The leader of the assassins had taken advantage of the time that the droid needed for this transformation and had jumped to a point that put Leia right between him and the death machine, then he ducked. So none of the four blasters could hit him without at least injuring the little human woman in between. The Yevethan looked greedily at the lightsaber lying on the ground, its blue blade extinguished, but it was too far away for him to take possession of it without anyone having the chance to come between him and the unique weapon.
Taking advantage of the cover, he leapt toward the human woman, intending to push her forward not only as a debt of protection, but also as a battering ram. Leia put one leg back to strengthen her stance and at the same time quickly pulled up a chair so that its four legs extended towards the attacker. The power Leia used to strengthen her footing on N'zoth's soil was stronger than the Yevethan's jump boost. He ran right between the four legs of the chair and stuck to the underside of the seat in frustration, his thorny hands gripping into nothing on the sides of the stool as a result of the unexpected hard impact on the wood of the furniture - just a few centimeters from Leia's hands that were holding the chair.
And then the leader of the Death Squad spat contemptuously across the chair in Leia's face.
The former head of state overcame her disgust and stayed where she was to keep an eye on the situation.
Thrum's dark eyes looked at the two hands contorted in hate that had released his shoulders to complete it. Two thin, sharp points aimed at his eyes. The organic knives came so close that they began to blur in his vision. "Um, my blood tastes awful!" the Fia whimpered pitifully.
"True that," replied the Yevethan, "but we're happy to make an exception for you Fia and at the moment we can't afford to be picky...!
A staccato blaster fire filled the room, the likes of which Thrum had never heard in such close proximity. And suddenly the organic knives in his field of vision became smaller and sharper before they lay motionless on the ground like the hands from which they grew.
Leia stepped aside and let go of the chair, letting the Assassin leader fall to the ground with it. As he was still falling, he saw the transformed Kaf automaton swivel and lower its blaster a quarter turn to puncture the skull and chest of the last Yevethan of the hit squad.
"You didn't tell us that there were still any of those around," the Miskara said reproachfully to Leia as he leaned over the slain Wolvkil to sadly stroke his limp lips.
The former head of state took a cloth out of her pocket and wiped the Yevethan saliva from her face. "My daughter assured me a year ago that the last Yevethan had committed suicide when she was over N'zoth. Apparently the man truly believed that he was the last of his kind when he spoke to Jaina."
"Of course," the Miskara said bitterly. "It just so happened that Jaina Solo was in the exact same place where the last Yevethan was."
Leia smiled melancholy. "This is exactly the stuff from which heroic stories are spun."
Thrum crawled out from under the table. "And that shows once again that the Yevethans simply cannot be trusted or believed."
"I think I could use a turbocaf now," said Leia.
"Of course," replied the Miskara, gave an order in the Vagaari language and the battle droid folded itself back into the square that had recently served such a delicious potion.
"But with Grunto milk, please," ordered Thrum, finally getting up from the N'zoth floor.
The versatile coffee machine rolled up to Leia since she had ordered first, but Leia waved it off into Thrum's direction. "Please give it to him. I'll be right back."
Leia Organa Solo stretched out her hand to call back her lightsaber, then she stepped in front of the tent and circled around it to find her two dead Noghri guards outside, who had managed to eliminate eight more Yevethans before their rearguard made it into the tent.
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At the same time on Mon Cala - capital Heureka, office of the head of state Cal Omas
Cal Omas had picked up a newspaper for lunch in the Senate Cantina, the front page of which read in large letters:
Nom Anor no longer rules out running for election as head of state!
And at that moment the Alderaanian regretted having invited Nom Anor to the award ceremony at Yavin IV. Nom Anor's masterful plan to disempower Shimrra and Onimi and give his people a new home was only intended to serve as a stepping stone away from his people, among whom he had never been particularly popular, in order to now once again undermine the power of a head of state - his power.
Doubt mingled with Cal's emotions. So far, Nom Anor had done a good job as a diplomat on Antar IV as well as on Galantos and N'zoth. The Yuuzhan Vong had untied Scipionic knots that had seemed to have been tied tightly and inextricably for centuries. Was Nom Anor to be blamed if he now aimed for higher things? So far, his predictions had proven to be true - and he had always been a good advisor to the current head of state and an entertaining companion.
Another doubt bubbled up in his mind. What if Nom Anor had not ruled out such a candidacy simply because a journalist had asked him a tendentious question? Could the press even be trusted on this matter?
"What do you think about that?," Cal Omas asked Nom Anor bluntly.
The Yuuzhan Vong took a sip of water from the glass that he had picked up from the food counter along with the plate of lunch, then looked at his counterpart at the table. That headline was more than he expected from the reporter Valdys Faa. It sounded too brisk and suggested that the prominent Yuuzhan Vong had already commented on this matter earlier, which was by no means the case. On the other hand, however, it suggested that Nom Anor had already been asked by several people to become their next leader - so the title line had a certain longing for salvation - and he was familiar with salvation, especially with the promise of it.
"You know yourself that as a politician you can't afford to slam a door forever," his good eye flashed with indignation, "especially when absurd accusations like these are being made."
The Coruscant Report subscriber, who preferred the old-fashioned print edition, looked at the consul with concern. "Do you really think that Fyor Rodan was just anonymously leaked this data about bribery in the election campaign two years ago?"
Nom Anor wondered whether Cal Omas might have some suspicions. "Fyor Rodan still has a certain following. Basically he needs someone with good computer skills to tap into the data stores and someone to interview certain people."
Cal Omas' expression became even more worried. "Then that's exactly what he's been working toward all along? Just to run again and succeed me?"
Nom Anor shook his head slowly. "It's one thing to damage someone's reputation, it's another to take advantage of it. I think we should establish certain failings on his part so that it becomes apparent to the common citizen that Fyor Rodan has grossly neglected his duties as a politician, citizen and senator in his efforts to harm you. Nobody is worse received by people than someone who starts hostilities but cannot achieve any tangible success."
Doubt tugged at the corners of Cal Omas' mouth. "So far I have not noticed any such gross neglect."
"Then from now on we will do better than him," Nom Anor replied resolutely. "Maybe Fyor Rodan won't notice the difference right away, but the citizen will, especially if the press reports on it accordingly."
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One week later
Shapers of the Yuuzhan Vong had come with their Dovin Basals on special ships into the orbit of the planet Vortex, where the previous enemies had used the same means to change the tilt of the planet's axis in such a way that the storms that were needed for the operation of the Cathedral of Winds, famous throughout the galaxy, had been stopped almost entirely. The result of this climate calming had been a national catastrophe. Children could no longer fall asleep as well as before. Tourists stayed away and the psychiatrists on Vortex were busy introducing the residents to other forms of relaxation and cultural activity to compensate for the lack of wind chimes. The renewed correction of the planetary axis tilt would now ensure that the Vors, who currently made up the second largest group of refugees on Mon Cala, could soon return to their homeland.
"What we did on Duro, we can do here too," Nom Anor said, smiling confidently at the holocams pointed at him. He looked at the human woman at his side. "And this time we're even officially working together."
"Is that true, Your Highness?" the green Twi'lek reporter asked Leia, but his question didn't sound particularly surprised.
"I have a very special relationship with this planet and I know from my own experience how beautiful the music of the Cathedral of Winds sounds," said the Alderaan woman with a slightly transfigured look. "And I will do everything I can to ensure that it sounds again soon and that the Vors in exile can return to their homeworld."
"You had a pretty dramatic experience on N'zoth a standard week ago," the green man changed the subject. "Are you now afraid that the Yevethans in particular might ambush you again?"
For just a brief moment, the memory of the events overshadowed Leia's even face. "This is a danger that I have been living with for a very long time, and not just from the Yevethans. At this point I would also like to commemorate my two Noghri guards who gave their lives to make the agreement with the Vagaari possible back then on Antar IV and now on N'zoth."
Her expression cleared into a half-smile. "And I'm happy to accept a little bit of Yevethan saliva on my face in order to give a people a new start in a new home. That was at least more bearable than if Nom Anor gave me a charge from his Plaeryn Bol if the mission there had failed, in which he had played a wonderful part through his diplomatic and military preparatory work on Antar IV."
The Twi'lek, the human woman, and the Yuuzhan Vong laughed, the camera zoomed away, and the news moved to a different topic. Viqi Shesh stuffed a load of saltine crackers into her mouth and chewed them eagerly before taking another while her mother looked at her askance.
"You shouldn't eat so much of it in front of the holoscreen or you'll get too fat."
Viqi didn't respond to this admonition, then she got up from the couch in front of the holoscreen and started to go into the next room.
"You're not going to call him again now!" the mother said reproachfully. "It's no use chasing a man like that. You're just making a fool of yourself! I never thought you would humiliate yourself like that in front of this Yuuzhan Vong, Viqi!"
"Who says I'm calling him?" Viqi replied flippantly.
Emlee Shesh finished watching the Holonet news, then went to the former children room to check on her daughter, but Viqi Shesh had already left the parents' villa.
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Another week later
To Cal Omas' chagrin, the motion of censure introduced by Fyor Rodan in the Galactic Alliance Senate was supported by a majority of senators. Nom Anor was the last to announce his candidacy for head of state of the Galactic Alliance, alongside Senator Fyor Rodan, the Gotal Ta'laam Ranth and the Twi'lek Senator Cola Quis. Political observers assumed that some of the candidates were only put forward to take votes away from the embittered Fyor Rodan in order to then give them to their actual favorite - this was also what Fyor Rodan was never tired of claiming.
Nom Anor, however, traveled to other planets during the election campaign in order to finalize agreements there in the interests of refugee repatriation and reparation for the destruction his people did cause. Such he demonstrated well in the election posters that he spread throughout the galaxy as an independent candidate, while his likeness smiled down at the potential voters. Fyor Rodan had to put up with a number of questions from the press as to why he too wouldn't guide refugee flows back to their home worlds and provide active help in the reconstruction of destroyed worlds. His defense of working behind the scenes in the bureaucracy on better laws had little impact on ordinary voters, especially since the laws he was talking about were neither understandable nor particularly well known. After such interviews, the Senator von Commenor was relieved when journalists did not ask him now and then whether he might lead a personal vendetta against Cal Omas and the Jedi.
This chapter is based on the events of the book series "New Jedi Order", Vol. 14 "Destiny's Way" by Walter Jon Williams (2003).