|
Dreamless, Vergere slept.
It was the most peaceful rest she'd experienced since her days as a padawan. Perfect contentment; she was as swaddled in warmth and safety, as when she had been a nestling barely big enough to fit in the palm of Thracia's hand. She'd been in constant danger for so many years, shouldered a Jedi's burdens of responsibility for everyone around her: she faced the prospect of death and torture every day during her years of captivity with the Yuuzhan Vong.
Nearly thirty years in the Long Reach of Death, all the while searching desperately for information: weaknesses about the invaders and ways she might escape to stop them, knowing her first attempt would be her last, one way or another. Three more years on the run, alone, with no place to call home and no one to turn to for help, three years dodging pirates and warlords who might kill her for any reason or none at all, following beings who would do a thousand times worse if she was recaptured.
It was nice, to stop struggling and just...drift.
But nothing lasts forever. Soon, images began intruding on the warm, womblike slumber. Reflections and sounds flowed past as she opened herself to the Force. She saw life in all its forms, past, present and future, as the ocean of life carried her on its waves and currents. Too much to comprehend, until everything resolved into a single scene.
She had no eyes in this incarnation: what she perceived as vision were the reflections of people and objects in the Force, interpreted by her mind into a form she could readily comprehend.
A swamp, not very different from the world of the Nesz. A small but cozy home, the edges were rounded and the exterior covered in moss. Vergere was bodiless, not bound by the limits of the physical world, instead she moved through the all- encompassing energy field of the Force where distance and time had no meaning. She focused on the small home and found herself inside the dwelling, crossing the distance and passing through walls at literally the speed of thought.
Everything was built to a small being's scale. A young human male in a black jumpsuit sat on the floor. He had blue eyes and sandy hair, there was something vaguely familiar about him, though judging by his age Vergere couldn't possibly have met him, she would have been taken by the Yuuzhan Vong long before he'd been born. The human was watching someone, a troubled expression on his face. Vergere shifted her vision to the room's other occupant. It took a moment for her to register what she saw, and then she received a shock that rippled through her spirit-being and the energy surrounding it. For a moment she had failed to recognize Master Yoda, it had been so long since she'd seen the diminutive Jedi.
But there was no doubt: she felt his identity through the Force and twin bonfires of joy and despair lit within her. He was alive, and he was dying.
He hobbled past the human, leaning heavily a walking stick. Yoda had used a cane for as long as she could remember, but she'd always had the impression that he could get around just as well without it. Certainly the lively, energetic Jedi Master had never needed such total physical support. Seeing this new frailty unnerved her, it was like watching the sun waver and fade away. It was horrible, half of her wished he could see her, that she could be there in her flesh and speak to him. At the same time the other half wished she could turn back time and stop herself from seeing the great Jedi like this.
Yoda lifted his aged, time-worn head and looked at Vergere, directly into her spirit being. "That face you make," he said, "look I so old to young eyes?" His own eyes, sad and weary but still as sharp with intelligence and deep with wisdom, seemed to peer into her soul, laying bare all her thoughts and emotions.
"No," the young human shook his head and Vergere realized Yoda had spoken to him, not her, "of course not."
"But I do," he coughed, "I do." He turned around slowly, old bones and joints protesting every move. He was so small, and he felt so very tired. "Sick have I become, hmmm, yes, old and weak." His head perked up and his long ears lay back. "When nine hundred years you reach, look as good, you will not. Humph!" He punctuated with the same spirit Vergere remembered from her days at the Temple, and she had to smile.
Yoda crossed the room and climbed slowly to his bed. "Soon will I rest, yes," he grunted with the effort and the human helped pull the coverlet over the Jedi Master. It was an unconscious and oddly endearing gesture, "forever sleep."
Vergere simultaneously noticed two things about the stranger: the first was that his right hand wasn't visible to her the way the rest of him was, she saw him through the Force and the limb must be artificial, the second was his amazing potential in the Force. The youth was powerful enough to rival Master Yoda himself, though that power was yet unrealized.
"Twilight is upon me, and soon, night must fall." Yoda rested his head and his eyelids lowered, not because he had consciously closed them, but because he couldn't muster the strength to hold them open. In her Force-vision, the Master's body began fading into transparency as the will and energy that animated it weakened and lost its hold on this plane of existence. "That is the way of things," he sighed, "the way of the Force."
No, she thought softly, trying to deny the inevitable, I've only just found you again, and I need guidance, you can't die!
"Master Yoda you can't die." The human was saying, and not even he knew whether he was trying to convince Yoda or himself of that.
Yoda chuckled weakly. "Strong am I with the Force, but not that strong." It would happen soon now, like the last drops of water spilling from a worn vessel, and the spirit-Jedi retreated.
Vergere pulled herself away from them, from the old house in the swamp, from the planet, from that part of the galaxy and sought her own sleeping body. She didn't want to stay, couldn't stay, no matter the Force's reason for showing her that time and place, no matter what it wished her to hear.
It didn't matter, a few moments later she still felt Yoda's passage from this universe: for so long the Jedi Master had been a single bright light shining defiantly against the darkness that shrouded the galaxy. Today that light had finally gone out, and the dark side became that much stronger. How many lights remained to counter the dark side and its Sith disciples?
Vergere snapped back into her body and sat bolt-upright, her violet eyes flew open and saw only pitch blackness around her, but before her eyes had completely opened her hand had shot out to where she felt her lightsaber would be, lying beside her on the woven blanket she lay on, and closed around the weapon.
"Vergere," Oin's voice from the darkness, "don't worry, you're among friends!" He said urgently, and the Fosh remembered what had happened in the swamps of this world, as well as the events of that distant swamp planet.
The Jedi shivered. The Force was all-encompassing: as it bound the galaxy together all places became one. The Force did not just bind everywhere, but everywhen, encompassing all that was, is and will be. Somehow, despite that, Vergere knew what she had seen had happened 'now' in the world of mass as well. Master Yoda, oldest of the Jedi, who had apparently survived the longest, was dead.
What did that mean for Vergere? Was she then the last? She needed Thracia's council now, more than ever.
Well, that just wasn't going to happen, so she'd better pull herself together and deal with the moment. "Oin," she spoke softly into the darkness and stretched out her senses through the Force. She sensed three beings beside herself nearby, all were familiar, "Dra, Stent." Her feathers bristled, testing the air. "Are we safe?"
"Yes," Dra's voice, from farther away. "I don't think the Vong will be looking for us here." The chief Nesz sounded odd, wry.
"Good," she sighed. Gingerly, she touched her midsection, where Nom Anor's amphistaff had wounded her, and her eyes widened. She pressed harder, then used the Force to quickly confirm what she felt.
"How long was I out?" She asked urgently. She had recovered completely, without even a scar to show according to her exploring fingers. She should have woken from her trance the minute she was able to function without a serious danger to her life. How could she have slept so long? "What's happened to the Nesz, the Imperials?"
"They're fine," Oin assured her. He was beside the Jedi, his scaled hand on her shoulder seemed to drain away her tension. "It's only been a few hours, five at the most, since the fight."
"That's impossible," she got to her feet, "a healing trance speeds up a body's natural healing process, but it still takes time. For this level of recovery I would've been asleep for days! I-" She paused, taking in the feel of their unseen hiding place in full. The air felt...strange, it didn't flow: there were none of the tiny breezes that she had grown accustomed to. The smell of this place was odd as well, musty and wet. She stepped off the blanket and her feet sank slightly. There was mud between her toes, this wasn't a cave then, not that she knew of any caves in this part of the planet.
"Where are we?" She asked. And come to think of it, where was Stent? She should have seen his glowing eyes in the darkness by now, heard at least one angry demand from the Chiss commander. The Force wasn't warning her of danger, but she didn't wait for a response from either Nesz. Instead, the Jedi activated her weapon and bathed the space around her in violet light.
She leapt back, away from the creature that stood before her and raised the lightsaber to a guard position. It was very large, translucent, and there were many more behind it and around them. She was surrounded!
"Vergere please!" Oin approached cautiously, holding up his hands. "Believe me, there is nothing to fear in this place." Dra nodded in agreement, his single eye glinting. Both Nesz were illuminated by the violet light, which made their scaly hides look almost black. Vergere sensed the truth in Oin's statement and forced herself to calm down, to slow her breathing and heartbeat and find at Jedi's inner serenity, not be ruled by reactions to fear.
The creatures that loomed over her weren't 'creatures' at all, but though she could tell they weren't alive, she couldn't tell what they were!
It was their continuing movement that gave the illusion of life: the clear, shapeless blobs would bulge one second and thin the next, tendrils would reach out, entwine and return to the main body. Vergere was reminded of the Yuuzhan Vongs' blorash jelly, but there was nothing insidious or menacing in these object. They really were quite beautiful, now that she looked at them. The way their surfaces caught and reflected the light from her lightsaber, for instance, and the strange, alien grace of movement that nonetheless seemed familiar, like an ever-evolving dance. It was almost hypnotic.
With an effort, she wrenched her eyes away from the strange whatever-it-was and looked around. The two Nesz watched her, silently, letting her explore for herself.
Vergere looked around. She counted over a dozen of them in all and they didn't even begin to crowd the domed space. The walls and ceiling were a smooth, continuous curve without so much as a nick or scratch that her sharp eyes could see, but a glittering substance was scattered along the ceiling. Curious, she moved toward the nearest wall, her head darting around to look in all directions at once in response to her avian instincts on encountering a strange environment. Using the lightsaber as a glowrod, she neared the wall and studied it with her eyes and the Force.
It was made of... glass? No, it wasn't in any fixed state but fluid, like the odd statues. She looked closer, saw small fish swim past her face, and understood.
Vergere backed away. "We're at the bottom of a lake." She looked at Oin, who nodded in confirmation. Turning her head upward, she recognized the 'glitter' on the ceiling for what it was: stars seen through how-many-meters of water!
"But how do you maintain this...pocket of air?" She looked around for some sort of force-field generator.
"We don't," Dra answered, stepping around a dancing statue, "the Eternals made this place for us, they hold the water back and bring fresh air from above."
"Eternals..." Vergere trailed off. During her time with the Nesz, she had come to understand their culture as best any non- Nesz could. From what she could discern the Eternals weren't exactly gods, nor were they ghosts or spirits of dead individuals, precisely. Vergere didn't know what the Nesz believed happened to them after death. The Nesz didn't worship or pray to the Eternals, nor were they blamed for problems like disease or bad luck in hunting.
The Nesz spoke of the Eternals with respect, but not fear. The average Nesz could, in fact, speak to an Eternal anytime.
That was what the natives believed, anyway. Vergere had never sensed any presence aside from the Nesz on this planet, and so had assumed the small reptilians were speaking metaphorically: either they were seeing signs and portents or experiencing semi- psychic dreams that offered guidance.
Apparently, she needed to reevaluate.
She peered at the water, neither frozen nor held back by any force-field technology like the Gungans used in their underwater cities. It took every Jedi calming technique he knew to keep from panicking at the thought of all that crushing pressure: the Fosh were built for the sky and open spaces.
"It's safe," Oin said, "you can touch it if you like."
The Jedi looked from him to the wall and hesitantly stretched her hand out. Her fingertips sank into the water, with only a few ripples radiating out along the surface. Emboldened, she rolled back her sleeve and plunged her hand and forearm into the wall. The water was cold and clean, she pulled her hand back and raised it in front of her lightsaber. It was dry, not so much as a droplet of water clung to her feathers.
"Incredible." She breathed. Turning away from the wall, she caught sight of another occupant of the underwater dome: Stent. The Imperial lay on a blanket, curled in a fetal position near the wall, breathing regularly. "What's wrong with him?" She asked, taking a step toward the Chiss. "Is he sick?" She touched the corners of her eyes, preparing to coax out some healing tears.
"He sleeps." A new voice, one she heard with her mind, not her ears. Cold, deep and menacing. She spun, eyes searching for source of the sound. "We saw no need for him to participate in this, so we made him sleep. When he awakes, he will remember what we wish him to remember, as will you, depending on how this conversation goes."
There was no one in the dome but her, the Nesz and Stent, she was certain of it, but while the voice spoke she had begun to sense another presence nonetheless. More than one, now that she thought about it, and not in the dome but in the Force itself. As the voice in her head trailed away, she folded her arms, stilled her breathing and made her feathers settle.
"That's reassuring," she tilted her head to one side and casually continued, "and now that I have been sufficiently intimidated, can we start discussing something useful? That is, if I may assume, why you brought me here." She tapped her torso. "Thank you for the swift recovery, by the way." She felt a ripple of anger from one presence, the speaker she judged, but a burst of amusement from several other unseen beings as well.
"Please, forgive our colleague." A new voice sounded in her mind. "We are unused to dealing with aliens and he believed an initial show of strength was in order. Truthfully, he was reluctant to try for outside help at all." She sensed a low, sullen grumble from the first speaker in the background. "Well we told you a Jedi would not be so easily cowed." The Eternal's tone turned remonstrative, and Vergere sensed the last statement was not directed at her. Behind her, Oin and Dra breathed audible sighs of relief.
"Would you care for some light?" The Eternal asked.
"Yes, if you please." Vergere answered politely. No sooner were the words spoken than several small, glowing orbs appeared above them, lighting the dome. Oin looked on, wide- eyed. Vergere merely nodded as she deactivated her lightsaber and clipped it to her belt. She saw through the Force what the Eternal did was simply to speed up the movements of some air molecules: the glow was simply energy given off by the friction, any Jedi could have done the same. The mobile statues and underwater dome were much more impressive.
"Better?"
"Yes, thank you." Vergere looked around, wishing she had some physical being to focus on.
"Well, if that will make you more comfortable..." A shimmering, semitransparent shape appeared before her. It resembled a Nesz, but its features were constantly shifting. One second the being looked young then old, male, then female. It even took on different colorations and racial characteristics from one minute to the next, and with every shift Vergere could see through the scaly skin into the muscle and bone beneath.
Vergere nodded again. "And you would be an Eternal, am I right?" She chuckled. "Very cooperative all of a sudden. So, is this the new strategy? To kill me with kindness?" Dra and Oin looked at her in shock.
Another Eternal appeared, by its presence in the Force Vergere knew it was the first speaker. "You would do well to show respect, Jedi." Its eyes flashed with anger.
"You wouldn't have gone to all this trouble if you didn't need me." She returned coldly. "And seeing as you've been trying to manipulate me from the moment I set foot on this world doesn't exactly inspire excessive trust on my part." She glanced at Oin. "You ordered him to stow away on my freighter, didn't you? Do you know the danger you placed him in?"
"He was a willing volunteer, eager for an adventure and ready to help his people." The first speaker shot back. "And how do you dare judge us? You told the Empire about what the Yuuzhan Vong, knowing what would be set in motion!" The water-statues writhed in reaction to the Eternal's mounting fury, one lashed a solid limb at her, more in reaction than design, and only swift reflexes saved her from broken bones. "Our young ones are nothing to you, a backwards race on an unimportant world, you would sacrifice them to save those 'superior' peoples in a heartbeat!" The beings who were ruled by greed, who hurt and killed their fellows without remorse, hung unspoken.
Vergere felt shame at what the Eternal said. She nodded. "Yes, I admit it." She said gently, sadly. "I saw no other option. I'm sorry, but perhaps if you had revealed yourselves to me sooner we might have thought of something else." The Eternal glared at her and was about to say something more.
"She's right." The second Eternal spoke. The first turned on him and Vergere sensed ripples of sensation and emotion in the Force. If the first Eternal was a physical being, he would be sputtering in anger, unable to form words.
"Be silent!" The second snapped, with more force. "We have tried doing things your way and have met with little success, now let us stop these recriminations." The first one calmed and nodded his head and the second turned to Vergere. "Perhaps we should have revealed ourselves once we got to know you better through our young ones, but much has happened lately that is beyond our experience and we were unsure of what course of action to take."
Vergere mulled that over for a few seconds. "Yes, I understand your point of view. What's your purpose in revealing yourselves to me now?"
"Oin here has insisted that our best chance," the Eternal paused and seemed to glance at the young Nesz standing nearby, "our only chance is to abandon subterfuge and offer an alliance."
Vergere renewed her calming technique. "Our best chance to do what?"
"To do what we've always done," the first Eternal spoke up, "protect our young ones." The drifted closer. "The first alien ship came here more than a thousand years ago. A survey team, sent to investigate this planet, to see if there was any profit to be had in setting up a colony." The being shivered in anger. "We took one look inside the crews' mind and got a taste of what 'civilization' is like, and vowed our young ones would want no part of it. We know whenever an alien sets foot on our world, and we warn our young ones to stay clear of the offworlders while encourage them to leave."
"Encourage?" Vergere asked suspiciously. "How?"
"We cause no harm." The other being said firmly. "Violence of any kind is against our nature. We can, however, influence a sleeping mind." The Jedi nodded at that: everyone in her Order knew you could easily access a mind when it was asleep or in a trancelike state, when the defenses were down and the sleeper open to suggestion. A few bad nightmares, strong feelings of discomfort, that would be enough to drive off a survey team.
"Remote probes and survey droids were more of a problem," the Eternal continued, "so far we have only had two such cases, both more than a century ago. There was little we could do aside from keeping an eye on the intruder and making sure our young ones avoid it until they were recalled." The Eternal seemed to sigh. "Our best defense has always been isolation, this world is difficult to reach and there is no reason for a shipfaring race to come here, these qualities have always served us well."
"Until now," Vergere said grimly, "when it was probably just those qualities that made this planet so attractive to Sang Anor."
"The Yuuzhan Vong are worse than any other invaders, and we cannot touch them, nor their creatures. We're powerless against them."
"What about all this?" She gestured at the air bubble, at the lights and the statues."You have some influence over the physical world." It was a leading statement, and for a moment neither Eternal spoke, obviously reluctant to reveal their powers and limitations. Vergere could sympathize: no matter what the circumstance, a thousand years of mistrusting outsiders wasn't easy to overcome, especially when that mistrust is entirely justified in most cases.
"If she's going to help us," Oin said, "she has to know everything."
"We have no power over solid matter, only fluid mass, liquids and gas. Even then we have our limits. This dome is maintained by a great many of us, exerting all our will. It will give way eventually."
Vergere glanced at the flowing statues, then at the two Nesz. Dra appeared uncomfortable with all this: discussing the precise abilities and motives of his gods couldn't be very pleasant, especially for a being who, until not long ago, was just one of his tribes' hunters. Finally she glanced down at Stent, still unaware of what was going on around him. She approved: if the Eternals were upset now, it would be nothing compared to having the Chiss commander was up and active in their midst.
"You mentioned knowing when and where there are aliens on this world. What about the Imperial pilots? Are they all safe?"
"Yes, they will meet in your predetermined place in a little under an hour."
"Then we have time to make a plan, but first I need more of an explanation. Who and what are you, exactly? What's your connection with the Nesz? Did you create them?"
"No," the first Eternal said immediately, "or, well, yes I suppose you might think that, from a certain point of view..." If anything, the being seemed even more confused after trailing off.
"We didn't create the Nesz," the second said, carefully but with some confidence, "they created us."
Vergere blinked.
"We made you?" Oin said, seemingly incredulous. Vergere narrowed her eyes slightly at his outburst.
"How?" Dra gaped.
The Eternals looked at each other, then at the Nesz and Jedi. "We are the Nesz, they are us. Every Nesz was, and will be, an Eternal. Every Eternal was, and will be, a Nesz."
"Look around you, Jedi. Feel the Force on this world, truly feel it, see how different it is from what you know."
Vergere closed her eyes, deadened her hearing, dampened the sensations received from her skin and feathers. She cut off all her senses and breathed in the life energy of Sevac III with no distractions.
"Yes," she said softly, "the Force is...different...here. There's a strange flavor to it, something I've never-" she opened her eyes. She had seen the Nesz and Eternals, really seen them for the first time. "I understand."
"Then explain it to us!" Dra was practically pleading.
"The Force is different here. It is why we evolved as we have, and it is why we Eternals are bound to this planet." The Eternal braced itself. "When a Nesz dies, that Nesz becomes one of us, an Eternal, but when a Nesz is conceived-"
"One of you is bound to its flesh, becomes its...soul?"
"We have no control over it," the Eternal nodded, "one moment, I am here, disembodied and existing only in the Force, the next I become...nothing. For an eternity darkness surrounds me, I see, feel, nothing. I float, I grow, eventually I sense the wall around me and the other beings beyond, but am too weak to break through. I grow, but to me it is the wall that contracts, pressing all around, suffocating. Then-" it jabbed with its snout, "I break through the shell, a Nesz infant. It has happened a thousand, thousand times. I remember nothing of my previous lives, I live and grow, one life a male, the next a female. Sometimes I live long and become and elder, other times I die young, in an accident of a sickness, but when I die I become, again, as I am now, remembering all my past lives.
"Our memories stretch back to the very beginnings of the Nesz, but they are the memories of the newly-born: vague and clouded. Also, the Nesz weren't even close to sentient then, so neither were we. We were just animal minds drifting through the Force, waiting to live again. Of course, as the Nesz became more intelligent, so did we, until we were able to communicate with each other and our young ones.
"Cooperation was instinctive, competition unheard of. Even when we were nonsentient we knew that to harm another Nesz was to harm yourself."
"You guide and protect us," Oin said. "You have lived a thousand lives of experience."
"But we must allow you the freedom to live their lives." The Eternal put in.
"A symbiotic circle." Vergere marveled. "That's why the Nesz, a sentient species with no natural predators, have never endangered the planet with overbreeding: there are only a certain number of Eternals, so there can never be more than a certain number of Nesz living at once."
"No," Dra shook his head, "wait, wait, if that's true then who am I? Just one link on a chain? I'll be someone I don't know after I die?" His one eye was wide, bulging. "I don't believe it," he shook his head, "nothing I've ever done matters!" He snapped his jaws together and glared fury at the Eternals "Why didn't you ever tell us?"
"Child, please understand," the first Eternal was hesitant, uncomfortable, it sent calming waves through the Force at the distraught Nesz, "it was for just this reason that it was decided not to tell you: we knew you couldn't live your own lives with this knowledge shadowing you. It was decided long ago, you agreed, when you are one of us again you will understand."
"Are we just a vacation to you?" Dra shouted back. "A game you play to pass the time? Live for a few decades, come back with some funny stories?" He sank to his knees and pressed his hands to his face. The first Eternal remained with him while the second drew Vergere and Oin aside to continue the conversation.
"Somehow I don't think this came as much of a surprise to you," she said to Oin. The young Nesz drooped his snout a little.
"We'd taken Oin into our confidence some time ago," the Eternal admitted, "he demanded answers after finding out the Imperials' intent toward our world, and we decided he could aid us best knowing the whole truth."
"You chose well," she said wryly, "he's surprisingly good at keeping secrets. Even I underestimated him a few times." There was no anger in her tone and she rested a hand on his shoulder to let him know she understood: they might be friends, but his first loyalties were to his people. Oin flashed her a grateful look.
"But what are these?" She indicated the water-born statues. "How do they fit into the equation?"
"These are our art." The Eternal answered simply. "When we become Eternals again and suddenly remember all that we have been, it is like being born again. This is how we deal with the shock. What you see is our attempt to express those feelings. The swamps are full of them."
Vergere looked back at the shifting objects and studied them for a moment. She had no great eye for art, but now that the Eternal had explained their purpose to her she could see some of the pattern. Mutable and shapeless, yet at the same time bound in one form. Not quite solid, not quite liquid, everything and nothing all in one.
"Incredible. Are you making them move?"
"No, when we shape them we infuse their substance with the emotions gripping us. They move accordingly forever after."
"Do you know how your... cycle... came about? I can't think of any other race in the galaxy the Force has evolved in this way."
"We'd determined the cause long ago," the Eternal answered, "the bora trees that grow almost everywhere on the planet, they somehow cause the distortion in the Force that allows us to exist in this form and to be reborn as Nesz. They're also responsible for the communal link that binds all of us together. The trees interact with and alter the life-energy naturally produced by every other living thing here." Vergere nodded, then felt her heart skip a beat as she realized something.
"So what would happen," she asked casually, "if Nesz were transplanted from this planet? If they tried to live elsewhere? Could they survive?"
"Yes, but no new Nesz would be born, not without us, and if a Nesz dies away from this planet then the soul can't rejoin us as an Eternal. It will go...wherever other beings go when they die." The Jedi felt cold, numb. It wouldn't matter if the Nesz were evacuated from Sevac III, within a generation they would be extinct.
"You talked about cooperation," Vergere said abruptly, changing the subject, "what are you offering?"
"We will hide the Imperial pilots from the invaders and provide what intelligence we can on their movements, in exchange you will help us drive them off. Are we agreed?"
Vergere's naturally light avian body felt weightless, the numbing lack of sensation seemed to pervade her very soul. There's no hope, she thought, no matter what happens the innocent will be destroyed, and I can't protect them.
"Agreed." She heard herself say.
"She believes." The Eternal spoke in voice only Oin could hear.
"I don't like continuing to deceive her." Oin whispered.
"There is no other option," it said firmly, "If she knew our real plan, she would never go along with it."
***
Wras angled his tsik vai into the wind and soared high above the new seed world. A cognition hood covered his head and linked him to the living ship, made it an extension of his own body. He didn't see through his glowing red eyes, but through the tsik vai's powerful visual sensors at the fore and aft of the ship. He wore vonduun shell armor, his new amphistaff was curled around his waist and his masked helmet was nestled securely under the seat. His hands were folded over his stomach, he controlled the ship with his mind alone.
He flew through the night and searched the swamps for any sign of the infidels, those ignorant fools who were once his comrades. That was another lifetime ago, and Wras had now embraced the one truth. The others, the Imperials and his once- brother Chiss would do the same. They would all come to serve the gods, with their lives or with their deaths. Either way was just as good.
Wras turned the tsik vai as easily as he moved his own body, his new and improved body. It was a fine creature in an atmosphere, but Wras preferred the spacegoing coralskippers. Under the hood, he grinned slightly, remembering the battle over the skies of the seed world, when the Yuuzhan Vong had crushed the infidels who dared profane what the gods and the Overlord had given to Yun Yuuzhan's children. He savored the memory of combat and lusted for a chance to deliver more of his enemies to the gods.
They were proud memories as well: since Wras knew what the Imperial fighters were capable of and how the pilots were likely to react, he had been put in command of a wing of coralskippers sent to engage the TIEs. It would have been a grand victory, if the cowards had not broken off the fight and gone to ground. Now they crawled like maggots, hiding in the dirt instead of facing their enemies in glorious battle.
There was little chance of locating anything in the dark, not when the Imperials had managed to evade all their searcher so far, and that in broad daylight, but there was one service to the gods he could provide, something long overdue.
The tsik vai flew over the treetops. Wras frowned, much of the life on the seed world was disobedient and stubborn: it had not yet learned its place, but it would. The Yuuzhan Vong would shape this world's life to their will, as all life everywhere would and must be shaped.
At last he came to hover over his target: the patch of land where the Imperials had landed their TIE Interceptors and Daggers. The Prefect had been preoccupied so far, but now it was time to clear away this blight on the seed world.
Wras focused his plasma cannons on the machines, on the mockers and senseless destroyers of life, and loosed Yun Yammka's fire on them.
Balls of plasma impacted, and the night was lit by expanding domes of fire. He loosed another volley, and another, spherical cockpits collapsed and solar panels bent under the impact and still Wras continued. He would reduce the machines to dust, until the TIEs were nothing but minerals to enrich the soil. One solar panel, twisted and blackened, spun through the air, trailing flame. The once-Chiss grinned and felt his heart soar closer to the gods with every act of destruction.
***
Vergere calmly stepped to the bank of the swamp and looked around. The stars were out, shining down on the worlds of the galaxy, the unspoiled and the polluted, the living and the dead, indifferent to the powers that battled to control them.
Stent leapt to shore, so eager to get on dry land without the weight of a lake pressing on his head that he briefly abandoned his Chiss dignity. He pulled himself together instantly, though, once he was a few steps away from the water.
"Well," he demanded, "which way do your ghosts say to go?" He hadn't listened as closely to the Eternals' explanations as Vergere had, once they had allowed him to waken. His main concern had been to get nothing between him and the sky but air. Only now could he begin to assimilate the strategic value of having the Eternals on their side. "Where are the rest of my pilots?" He was anxious and trying his best to cover it up. Vergere couldn't blame him: she'd had to use a couple of calming exercises herself while the two of them were being drawn up through the swamp in a bubble of air.
Oin and Dra were waiting for them on the shore. The Nesz had simply swam up to the surface.
Vergere made to shake her feathers and robe, an avian reflex and unnecessary: none of the water had adhered to either of them.
"Not far," she turned to the Nesz, "how do you feel?" She asked Dra.
The hunter raised his head, his single eye was flat and hard. "Like I should have let water into my lungs, but I don't know what I'd become if I did."
"You'll get used to it," Oin assured him, "when they told me-"
"You be quiet!" He spun and snapped his jaws at Oin. The other Nesz jumped back in shock. "You've spied on your own people! You've known all this and kept it secret from all of us!" He looked ready to tear Oin apart with his bare hands. Of course, Dra would feel every wound himself, but in this state he didn't care.
Vergere stepped toward him and sent out calming waves through the Force. "I know how hard all this must be for you, but this isn't the time."
"I've had enough of your interference." Dra hissed "You're worse than Oin. You promise hope, make us help and trust you, but you've done nothing but make things worse!"
Stent stood aside, red eyes narrowed in irritation. He couldn't understand the Nesz language and was uninterested in whatever was eating the one-eyed Nesz, but he had a more pragmatic solution to reasoning with the creature, not when his men needed him. He calmly drew his blaster and set it for STUN.
No. The mental command paralyzed his hand and arm. He looked from his unresponsive arm to the Jedi's violet eyes.
Dra had gone silent, glaring at everything around him. Abruptly he dropped to his knees, then sat down on the grass.
"Well?" Oin ventured. "What are you going to do?" Dra clenched his claws, then relaxed, slumping his shoulders forward.
"What can I do?" He got up and paced a little. "I'm the leader of my people, I have to fight for them," he said with resolution, "I just don't know what I'm fighting for anymore, my people or bodies for the Eternals." He turned around. "All right, lets-Uh!" He jerked forward, single eye bulging and muscles jerking stiff. He bent his long neck down to look at the amphistaff tail that protruded from his chest. A trembling hand reached up to touch the point. A humanoid shape stood behind him.
"No!" Oin voice, raised in horror.
Vergere felt the shock through the Force and spun, violet eyes blazing, even before hearing Oin. Behind Dra, Nom Anor braced his foot on Dra's back and shoved the Nesz off his weapon. He tumbled to the ground, trembling, then stilled.
"Hello again, Jedi." Nom Anor smirked.
Oin howled in rage and bounded forward, teeth and claws bared.
"Oin, no!" Vergere drew and ignited her lightsaber. In the violet light, she saw Nom Anor swing his amphistaff and knock Oin's feet out from under him. He stepped forward and placed his foot on Oin's neck.
"Tell me Jedi," Nom Anor jerked his head back in Dra's direction, "was that the slave I saw before, the one on the Star Destroyer? Is it this one?" He tapped Oin's nose with his amphistaff. "Or did it end its life?" Oin twisted his neck and tried to bite Nom Anor's foot, but the Yuuzhan Vong simply shifted more weight to the foot pressing the Nesz down. "Not that it really matters," he continued, not sparing Oin a glance, "they'll all go to the gods once I'm finished with you."
He looked over Vergere's shoulder and the Jedi felt a wave of shock and fear from Stent. Slowly, she turned her head and saw the Chiss commander was standing more ridged than usual, most likely because of the Yuuzhan Vong who had come up behind him and was holding the razor-edge of an amphistaff under his chin. The alien said something at Stent.
"She says to drop your weapon," Nom Anor translated, "I have to apologize for my friend here, she doesn't speak Basic."
"And what, be your prisoner?" Stent ground out. "I know how you treat captives. I'd sooner be dead." Nom Anor shrugged and said something to the other Yuuzhan Vong, but before she could slash her amphistaff across his throat Vergere swung her lightsaber backwards and overhead. The energy blade knocked the serpent's tail away. Vergere followed through with a kick to the alien's midsection. She tumbled backwards, almost fell, and Stent jumped away from the both of them.
Vergere spun away from the female and launched herself at Nom Anor, her weapon an arc of violet light. The young Yuuzhan Vong leapt back and brought his amphistaff to a guard position, but the force of the blow still made him stagger backward. Oin rolled away the second the pressure was off his neck. He looked at the Jedi in amazement.
Nom Anor instantly realized two things he had missed in the dark. First, the Jedi was amazingly strong, seeing as by all rights she should be half-dead from the wound he'd given her. Secondly, and far more alarming, she was furious.
Vergere's eyes snapped with fire, her feathers bristled, making her robes bulge, and it was all Nom Anor could do to block her lightsaber. The Fosh drove him back, seeming to be everywhere at once. A kick knocked him off his feet, he rolled with the fall and nearly lost his head to a downward arc of the lightsaber. He managed to get his feet under him again, but the violet blade didn't let up for an instant. Nom Anor blocked a portion of her strikes, but a good many got through. Only his armor saved him from going down in the first few seconds of the fight.
No, it'd be a joke to call this a fight. He felt his armor scream in pain as Vergere cut into the shell guarding his right upper arm. Nom Anor pivoted his upper body before the lightsaber could severe his limb. He turned completely around, speared his amphistaff backwards in her general direction and broke into a run. He gnashed his teeth in shame, but what could he do? He was no match for a Jedi, not when she was healthy, and this was the first time he had seen her give herself completely to battle. She was fighting like a Yuuzhan Vong!
Behind him, Vergere jumped forward, nearly three meters off the ground, landed on a bora tree's branch and jumped again. She spun through the air, a blurred ball of dun with a violet edge, and landed in front of Nom Anor, blade aimed at his throat.
Nom Anor stopped but momentum propelled him forward. He arced his back, bent back his head to keep from running into her lightsaber. Vergere advanced, he backed away, swung his amphistaff across his face to try and knock the lightsaber away.
The Jedi parried the blow and pointed her blade back at his neck before he could blink.
"The great Yuuzhan Vong," she seethed. The amphistaff darted forward, curving around her lightsaber to bite her. Vergere caught the snake's neck, just under the head, and pulled it away from Nom Anor. She snapped its neck with a twist of her arm and flung the amphistaff into the grass, then she swung her lightsaber out and down at the invader's knees. Nom Anor fell, landed on his back, and when he looked up the Jedi's blade was still a hair's length from his neck.
She kept walking forward, one slow step after another, and Nom Anor was reduced to scooting backward with his feet and elbows, his wounded armor protesting every move. "Not so great when the infidels fight back, are you?" Her voice was soft, tightly controlled, and all the more dangerous due to the fury lurking just beneath. For the first time in a long time, Nom Anor was terrified, not of dying, but of the storming, chaotic <power that seemed to crackle the air around the Jedi, that raged behind her eyes and that she seemed to exhale with every breath. His shoulders bumped into a tree trunk and suddenly he had no place to crawl to. The Jedi stood over him, saber in hand.
Vergere knew the dark side was close, and she didn't care. Dra was right, she was useless: all she'd ever done was interfere, and for what? Dra had died not three paces from her and she'd done nothing.
All those years of suffering, followed by three years alone with no one to turn to for help, and for what? What good had she really done?
What was she even fighting for? The peoples of the Unknown Regions? They were ruled by greed and fear, they would as soon kill her and pick whatever valuables they could find from her bones as look at her. The peoples of the Empire? They would kill any Jedi on sight for their Sith masters. The Nesz were the only beings who had shown her any charity, who had any worth, and she couldn't even help them. She had offered them up to Thrawn, and he would slaughter them all to save those beings who would kick her in the face for her sacrifices.
She was so tired! Tired of fighting, of running, of trying to live up to the ideals of an order that was long-dead. What did it matter if she let the dark side have her? The Jedi were dead, the Nesz would be gone soon, more than half her life had been spent in the blackest of hells for no purpose, and the weight of her own guilt for innumerable deeds and failings threatened to crush her soul every day. Failing Dra, so soon after losing Master Yoda, had been the final straw.
The dark side beckoned, and it was tempting to embrace what it offered: power without consequences, abandoning all burdens and responsibilities, all guilt. Life would become infinitely simple if she could just forget about fighting for a hopeless cause and focus on killing her enemies.
Yes, and who best to start off with than Nom Anor? He'd hounded her, murdered Dra and taken away her chance to redeem Drash Tevock, a young Force-sensitive man of incredible potential. Well, Tevock was most likely dead by now. Another hope vanished. She'd kill Nom Anor for that, but most of all she'd do it because losing him would hurt Sang Anor, and Vergere wanted to make him suffer.
Vergere looked into Nom Anor's bulging eyes. She held her blade with steady hands, the tip almost brushed the young invader's neck, and she stepped back.
"No," she hissed, "I wont let you win. Not like this." She couldn't sense Nom Anor's confusion, but it was written clearly on his face. He was on his feet instantly, he tried to run but the Jedi backed him into the tree again. "You've taken everything else, but you can't take my soul." It was the hardest thing she'd ever done, but she willed the anger away and sought peace in the Force. "That, I have to give away," the dark energy that had loomed oppressively around her, seeking entry into her mind and heart, slowly dissipated, withdrawing back into the Force, "and you're not worth it." She could swear she felt a trace of disappointment from the power she'd rejected.
Nom Anor looked at something behind Vergere. That was all the warning the Jedi got and more than she needed. She spun and brought up her blade to block the other Yuuzhan Vong's amphistaff. She leapt and spun, aimed a side-kick at the alien's head. The invader went down, and Vergere turned and cut into Nom Anor's armor again as he tried to attack from behind.
He backed away, the other Yuuzhan Vong stood, and Vergere faced them both. Nom Anor was armed only with a coufee and moving stiffly because of his injured armor. He glared at her with helpless rage.
"Two against one," the other Yuuzhan Vong hissed at him in their own language. "We can still take her."
"The odds are a little better than that." Oin came up beside Vergere. He spoke in Basic, but though the alien didn't understand the words she comprehended the spear that sprouted in the marshland before her feet. Reptilian shaped dropped from the trees and rose from the grass, and the two extragalactics were surrounded by a dozen armed and angry Nesz.
"I wish you'd told me we could expect reinforcements." Stent spoke up.
"Don't you like surprises." Oin's gaze never left the two cornered aliens, and there was death in his eyes. Vergere lowered her lightsaber and exhaled slowly.
"You made the right choice."
The voice in her head was familiar, yet changed in some way that made it impossible to identify immediately. She glanced at the Eternal that materialized beside her, the more recent features it had worn were still prominent, even though it now had two eyes. Oin and the other Nesz kept their weapons ready, but held themselves in check in deference to the Eternal. Stent swallowed nervously at seeing the shade appear.
"Dra," she breathed, "I hadn't realized that you would..." she trailed off.
"Yes," the newborn Eternal said, "Dra, that was my name. I've had a thousand names before that one, but for convenience sake you may continue to call me Dra."
"Are you well?"
"I don't know yet, I was so surprised when it happened." A semitransparent hand brushed his chest. "So afraid I would become something different, something I didn't understand. I am still Dra, but I am...more...as well." He seemed to shake himself. "But it's nothing I haven't done before. I should be asking about you." He stepped-floated forward. "You were the one in real peril just now."
Vergere nodded. "I never knew the dark side could strike so quickly, and with no warning."
"No, this has been building in you for a long time, chipping away at you. You did well, though. In the days of the Old Republic, I believe you would need to seek out a Master for guidance right now. Unfortunately, the lack of other Jedi is another of those problems you need to work through."
The Jedi nodded, for the first time she understood that this was a being with millennia of experience in matters of the soul.
"What do we do with them?" Oin suddenly asked the Eternal.
Vergere looked from Oin to Nom Anor, who glared at her warily. The Yuuzhan Vong couldn't sense the Force, so they couldn't see or hear the beings who lived in that energy field. To his senses she was looking at and speaking to thin air.
"Why do you ask me?" Dra responded.
Oin blinked. "You lead the Nesz."
"I did. No longer. That burden falls to you now."
"What? Why?"
The Eternal smiled. "Because you have it within you. You've proven yourself a hundred times by now."
"But how do I know what to do?"
"Listen to the Jedi." Dra advised as he began fading away. "She can guide you." Then he was gone, and it was only thin air they saw.
"Well?" Oin asked after a moment. "What do you think we should with them, Vergere?" The expression on his face proclaimed what he wanted. "Take them captive?" He said reluctantly. "They might tell us about their stronghold."
"No." Vergere turned from Oin's eyes to Nom Anor's, both gazes so full of hate. "We'd get no information from them. We don?t have the time and resources to take captives, and they'd be a constant threat. She met Nom Anor's eyes. "We kill them both." Not for revenge, not for the dark side, but because it was the only option. And to keep him from doing any more evil.
"Bloodthirsty, aren't we?" Stent muttered.
Vergere ignored him and raised her lightsaber. "Tell the Nesz to back away, Oin. I'll handle this. These two wont go down without a fight, and there's no need to lose any more Nesz than you have to."
Nom Anor shoved past the other alien, staggering with his armor's wounds. He might not understand the Nesz language, but he could understand the look in Vergere's eyes easily enough.
"Come on then. You and these slaves will be following me to the gods' banquet soon," he snarled, "Sang Anor will see to it."
Vergere took a step towards them, and comets of plasma impacted the ground beside her and threw drops of liquid flame in all directions in a sunburst of light that turned midnight to noon. More arrows of fire were lancing down, crowning the trees with fire.
Nesz were screaming, scaled bodies ran and dove for cover. Vergere leapt away from the blast, turning her head and throwing up her arm just in time to save her face from anything worse than scotched feathers. Flaming plasma touched the sleeve of her robe, clung and spread. She beat her arm against a bora tree and looked up at the night sky. "How-"
Then she looked at her lightsaber, practically a beacon to a night flier. I'm a fool! She cursed herself as she deactivated the weapon and hooked it to her belt. The charred corpse of a Nesz was smoking at her feet. Will my mistakes always kill my friends? She caught sight of Stent, crouched low to the ground and zig zagging away from the points of impact.
"This way!" Oin shouted. "Everyone! This way! Follow my voice!" Vergere used the Force to get a lock on him and trailed his position, then sent a mental command to Stent, telling him to do the same. As she ran she glanced around quickly, but could see no sign of the two Yuuzhan Vong, and she couldn't use the Force to locate them.
Nom Anor had escaped.
***
Wras laughed out loud at his good fortune. He hadn't imagined he would come across any infidels, yet there it was: a point of violet light almost like a target. The gods truly must favor him. He sent volleys of plasma down at the light source and at the surrounding area.
Hovering high above, he could see the flames spread like a brilliant stain, over the trees and across the grass like a brilliant topographical portrait of light.
It was a great disappointment when the tsisk vai could no longer fire.
His jaw dropped. He tried to will another blast, but it was like an amputee trying to command a missing limb. It took a second to realize he'd exhausted the ship's supply of plasma.
Wras cursed and pounded his fist against his knee. There was nothing left to shoot, and even if there was the fire was confusing the ship's heat sensors. Muttering angrily, he turned the ship back toward the Yuuzhan Vong settlement. He would return with fresh plasma, and more living vessels.
The infidels weren't long for this world.
***
Later, when they could stop to breathe, Oin drew Vergere aside to speak with her. Stent saw them and joined in. They would make no plans without him. Oin glanced at the Chiss and spoke to Vergere in Basic.
"The invader who killed Dra, he was the same one from the Star Destroyer. You two know each other."
"Yes," Vergere nodded, "for some time. His father leads the Yuuzhan Vong in this galaxy."
"He hates you." Oin pointed out.
"He has reason to." Vergere hesitated, but if there was ever a time to tell the full story, this was it. "I killed his mother."
|