Corran smiled. “Let them know we’re friendly, Jacen. Then hang on. We might just get out of this after all.”
Sparky screeched as dozens of tactical fighter contacts sprayed themselves over Jaina’s aft sensor screens. She broke to port in a barrel roll and glanced down at her monitor. The craft looked like nothing she had ever seen before. It had a TIE fighter ball cockpit, with the twin ion engine pod at the back of it. Unlike TIEs, though, this one had four arms emerging from the junction of engine and pod. They jutted out and forward, as if fingers closing on the cockpit, splaying out in an array that was faintly reminiscent of an X-wing’s laser positioning for combat.
A sharp keening pealed through her comm unit, then resolved itself into a human voice. “Get clear, Rogues. They are ours now. Spike Lead out.”
What? Who?! Jaina’s jaw dropped open as the clawlike fighters blasted past her, three sets of four, all grouped in tight formations. They twisted and turned as if the pilots shared a brain, moving with precision that took her breath away. Their weapons blazed out with green splinter shots, then loosed paired bolts that hit the skips with incredible accuracy. Cockpits became volcanoes. Dovin basals boiled and exploded. Skips crumbled as the thirty-six clawcraft that had just appeared in the system raked their way through the dogfight.
The two Star Destroyers that had at the same time appeared shifted the balance of the capital ship battle. One interposed itself between the enemy and the stricken Taanab Sunrise. Its shields had collapsed and a dozen fires burned in holes in the hull. The new Victory-class Star Destroyer, Red Harvest, soaked off incoming fire from the Yuuzhan Vong, while using its weapons to crush one of the enemy corvettes.
The other one, the Chimaera, joined the Ralroost in targeting the Yuuzhan Vong cruiser. The enemy vessel spawned a plague of gravitic anomalies. They managed to absorb the assaults directed at it, but killed all maneuvering capability from the ship. It can hold us off like this until the dovin basals tire, and we have no idea how long that will be.
“Rogue Leader to all Rogues, recall is ordered. Back to the ’Roost. We have achieved our objective and we’re heading home.”
Jaina blinked, then stretched out with the Force. She felt her brother’s presence, safe and whole, on the Ralroost. Now, if we can just get back.
She glanced at her sensor screens and frowned. The skip traces were few and far between, and all heading toward the Yuuzhan Vong cruiser. The clawcraft wove intricate patterns through what had been the battleground, with quartets of them escorting X-wings back to the Bothan ship. One small formation curled down and came around, taking up a position around Jaina and Anni.
“Don’t worry, Rogues, we have you now. We’ll get you home safely.”
The patronizing tone in Spike Leader’s voice made Jaina grit her teeth. “Who are you?”
“We’re simply the best combat pilots in the galaxy.” A momentary spark of static burst through the comm channel. “We are a Chiss House phalanx, on loan to the New Republic by my father, General Baron Soontir Fel.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
What Shedao Shai saw on the surface of Garqi did not please him. Coming down to the planet in a shuttle, he had seen a blackened scar below, but standing amid it magnified its obscenity. Charcoal crunched beneath his feet. The dry scent of burned wood filled his nostrils, and occasionally a hint of charred flesh made it through, as well.
Pleased that the mask he wore hid his shock and disgust, Shedao Shai looked down at the subordinate who lay prostrate before him. He carefully placed his foot on his inferior’s neck. “You say, Runck Das, that Krag Val fought valiantly here before dying. How is it that you did not die with him?”
Runck spit cinders from his mouth. “Commander, Krag Val ordered this one to remain behind, preserving information for you, guarding against a different attack by the resistance. I wanted to be here to guard him, but I had been ordered to remain behind.”
Deign Lian snorted from Shedao Shai’s left. “Obey a foolish order and you merely reveal yourself to be a complete and total fool.”
The Yuuzhan Vong leader’s left hand snapped out. Stiffened fingers slapped against Lian’s throat, punching a coughed gasp from him. The subordinate staggered back a step and began to bring his hands up to his throat. They stopped halfway, curling down into fists, then loosened again and slowly drifted back to his sides. Lian dropped to one knee and bowed his head.
“Your. Pardon. Master.”
Shedao Shai regarded Lian coldly, then returned his gaze to the Yuuzhan Vong beneath his foot. “What happened here? Tell me all.”
Runck’s fingers clawed into the ground. “We can only surmise and only have information from some Chazrach who ran from here.”
“And what you surmise is?”
A gray tongue licked lips free of black specks. “Krag Val, as is proper, announced a challenge to the enemy leader. Silverblade did not answer it. Yellowblade did, then one of the others, not a jeedai, answered. Krag Val cut down the first, then Yellowblade. The third jeedai slew him. Silverblade engaged others and must have slain them. Our slaves broke and ran. The enemy burned this place to the ground, consuming the bodies of their dead and ours.”
Shedao Shai’s right hand convulsed into a fist. He pounded it against his armored thigh, breaking the grip and letting each finger slowly straighten. “And by the time you got here, the conflagration had spread. You could find no way to track them?”
“No, Leader, there was nothing we could do.”
“Wrong, Runck of Domain Das.” Shedao Shai shifted all of his weight onto the subordinate’s neck, then twisted his foot, popping skull from spine. “You could have been faster.”
He glanced quickly at Deign Lian. His subordinate hesitated, then started to lower himself to the ground.
“Don’t be stupid, Deign Lian.” The Yuuzhan Vong leader left Runck’s body twitching out its life and stood over his aide. “What have you learned from letting your prey escape?”
Deign Lian’s eyes studied the blackened ground. “That the infidels are cunning. They laid a trap for us. Had you not insisted—”
Shedao Shai kicked him in the chest, dumping him onto his left flank in a black cloud of dust. “If that is the lesson you learned, you are no smarter than Runck.”
“But, my leader—”
“Think, Lian, truly think.” Shedao slowly spread his gauntleted hands. “You see this ruin around you and you come away with an impression of cunning? Analyze the battle you were involved in. The truth is obvious.”
“I have tried, Commander.”
“Not hard enough, Lian.” Shedao suppressed a shiver spawned by his subordinate’s incompetence. “They arrive and deploy to recover the jeedai. You arrive and deploy to deny them their prize. Your force is superior. Then they bring in reinforcements in two waves? The second wave’s delay gained them no tactical advantage. One of their ships took serious damage because of the delay. Moreover, given where the second wave appeared in the system, there are a limited number of points from which they could have come. Few of them allow for convenient access to the New Republic, but not so this Imperial Remnant.”
The Yuuzhan Vong leader slowly paced a circle around his aide. “More importantly, even the arrival of this force was not enough to defeat you and drive you away from the planet. They took their prize and retreated. My supposition is that the second wave was from the Imperial Remnant, here for their own reasons, and they decided to intervene.”
Lian nodded slowly. “My leader’s wisdom is boundless.”
“If it were that, I would have sent more ships with you. I would have been here myself.”
The aide looked up. “How did you know to send ships with me?”
Shedao Shai paused for a moment. “The earlier appearance of the New Republic ship made no sense. If they wished a scouting run on Garqi, it could have remained at the system fringe while their fighters flew in close, gathered data, and retreated. This was largely their activity pattern at Sernpidal. T
he only reason for them to be here was to deliver the ship that was reported downed. Analysis of the crash site showed us all we would expect.”
“I fail to see—”
“Indeed.” Shedao Shai snorted. “You and those who explored the ruins of the ship. They were so afraid of being tainted that they missed the obvious. Why would we find traces of the crew of a stricken ship when they could get into escape pods?”
“But there were no indications of life pods—”
“Exactly, there were none.” The Yuuzhan Vong leader rubbed his hands together. “Now we know the escape ship was hidden in the downed one, the bio-trace material merely bait. It was an elaborate ruse.”
“But why?”
“Lian, how can you be so stupid?” Shedao Shai opened his arms. “We are standing amid their reason. Go, now, and determine what that reason was. Find out why they destroyed this place. Those who fell here demand it of you. Do not fail them, or me.”
“As you command, Master.”
Shedao Shai turned his back on Lian and waited for the sound of his aide’s footsteps to fade to nothingness before he turned around again to regard his silent, golden shadow. “And what do you make of this destruction, Elegos?”
The Caamasi shrugged with his full body. “This was a garden. It had no military value. They were pursued here, made a stand. Collateral damage.”
The Yuuzhan Vong let a little chuckle roll from his throat. “Do you think me fooled so easily?”
“Do you think I seek to fool you?” Elegos’s dark eyes remained wide open and innocent. “If Deign Lian cannot figure out why this place was burned despite the time he has now spent here, how am I to know with only an hour’s inspection?”
Shedao Shai began to walk deeper into the scorched scar, then waved his right hand to indicate Elegos should accompany him. When the alien caught up, he glanced at him. “How is it you abide their company, Elegos? You are thoughtful and peaceful; they are neither. I see it here. I saw it at your world of Bimmiel. How do you stand being with such dishonorable creatures?”
Elegos frowned. “What dishonor? The New Republic risked much to recover a force sent here. There is much honor in that.”
“Yes, perhaps there is, but it pales in comparison to the other things.” Shedao Shai forced his hands open and spread them. “As you said, this place has no military value, but they destroyed it. Why? And this mission of which you speak. They took dead bodies and used them as refuse to plant on a ship.”
“Even you believe the body is a vessel, Commander Shai; this I have learned from you.”
Shedao Shai turned and stabbed a finger at Elegos. “Yes, but a sacred vessel. One to be honored and cherished. We have ways, rituals, that show respect for all a fallen ancestor means. I have shared with you the results of such rituals. Here—”
The Yuuzhan Vong leader found his hand and finger quivering as rage coursed through him. He thought for a second to hide it, but instead resisted that impulse. “Here bodies were burned where they lay. Limbs were not straightened. Comrades were not placed together. They were treated as if they were rubbish, and not only our bodies. This I could understand, after a fashion, but their own?”
“The treatment of dead Yuuzhan Vong bodies you can ascribe to ignorance.” Elegos squatted near a carbonized skeleton. “Of their own people, perhaps haste. We, too, honor our dead, when possible. With your forces gathering, that clearly was not possible.”
“It could be as you suggest. I have learned much from you, but now I need to learn one more thing.”
Elegos glanced up, the sun flashing white from his golden fur. “I do not think there is more I can tell you, Commander Shai.”
“Oh, there is.” The Yuuzhan Vong pressed his two fists together. “At the mention of a jeedai called Silverblade you started, almost imperceptibly. When I mentioned Bimmiel, you again gave a sign of recognizing something. I shall assume you know this jeedai, Silverblade.”
“I have never denied knowing Jedi.”
“But Silverblade you know very well.”
The Caamasi nodded and slowly stood. “His name is Corran Horn.”
“Ko-run Horn.” Shedao Shai let the words roll around in his mouth. He linked the sound of them to the taste of the jeedai’s blood from Bimmiel. “You didn’t tell me he was the one who killed my kin at Bimmiel.”
“You never asked.”
“If you are willing to be that coy, Elegos, you not only know him, but you care for him. You think to shield your friend from my wrath?”
The Caamasi lifted his chin, exposing his throat. “Perhaps, Commander Shai, it is you I am shielding.”
“You care for him, and fear for him.” Shedao tapped an index finger against his battle mask’s chin. “Your loyalty is laudable, though to such a disreputable character? Impossible to understand. You are wiser than that.”
“Corran is not a stupid or dishonorable man, despite how you read what you see here.” Elegos gathered his hands at the small of his back. “None of the Jedi are stupid, nor are most of the leaders of the New Republic. You put too much weight on their ignorance of your ways, and you are swayed because of how little of them you understand.”
“But, Elegos, you have taught me well. I understand much about them.”
The Caamasi ventured a small smile. “And through my time with you, I have some understanding of your ways. I am even led to believe that some sort of accord could be reached. This war does not have to go on forever.”
“No, I would not want that.” Shedao Shai folded his arms across his chest. “If I were to open a dialogue, I would need an envoy I could trust implicitly. I have nonesuch among my people.”
Elegos’s eyes half shut. “I could be your ambassador.”
“Indeed, an excellent idea.” Shedao Shai nodded slowly, then turned and beckoned Elegos to follow him. “Come along. I will prepare you to deliver a message to these jeedai—a message they cannot possibly fail to understand.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Though there had been peace with the Imperial Remnant for over six years, Corran still felt a sense of dissonance as he watched Admiral Gilad Pellaeon enter the briefing room aboard the Ralroost. Admiral Kre’fey greeted him warmly, shaking his hand. The Imperial admiral acknowledged Master Skywalker with a nod, then turned and smiled at Corran.
“I had a chance to study your initial report from Garqi. Good work.”
Corran blinked, then nodded. “Jacen Solo prepared the report, I just corrected some spelling. I’ll pass your comments on to him.”
“Please do.” Pellaeon took a seat across from Corran at the lozenge-shaped briefing table. That left Admiral Kre’fey at the head, Master Skywalker at the Bothan’s right hand, and Corran on Luke’s right. “We have quite a situation here.”
Kre’fey seated himself. “We do, on several different levels. I cannot thank you enough for having intervened when you did. The intelligence assets you have in the New Republic are clearly very thorough.”
“Not as thorough as you might imagine.” The Imperial officer leaned forward on his elbows, pressing his hands flat against the table’s black top. “We can speak plainly, and will need to before the politicians arrive. I brought my force here after I heard of your abortive raid. My assumption was that either you had inserted assets onto the planet, or that a previous attempt to exfiltrate assets had been rebuffed. It suggested something of value on Garqi that I wanted to know about, so we had been there for two days by the time you arrived.”
“The data we recovered would have been yours immediately, regardless of what my superiors might have said.” Kre’fey scratched with claws at his throat. “And, yes, we must speak plainly because the politicians are going to complicate things incredibly.”
Corran sighed and slumped down in his seat a bit. The task force had leapt to the edge of the Garqi system, rendezvoused with the Imperial force, then had plotted a course directly for Ithor. Admiral Kre’fey issued a call for reinforcements, scientific team
s, and a lot of support that raised alarm on Coruscant. While they did say they were sending what they could, a report also came in that Borsk Fey’lya and a number of the key senators and ministers would be coming to Ithor, as well. Once there, no one had any doubts, they would begin to interfere with what really needed to be a military operation.
“I harbor no illusions, Admiral Kre’fey: the moffs will be as opposed to my helping you defend Ithor as your leaders will be to having Imperial forces operating in the New Republic.” Pellaeon’s eyes narrowed. “They are not going to see this the way we do. The battle for Ithor will determine the course of the war against the Yuuzhan Vong. If we win here, they are blunted and can be driven back. If we lose here, I am not sanguine about the New Republic’s chances for survival—nor those of Imperial Space.”
“We are in dire circumstances, to be certain.” The Bothan’s eyes tightened. “You should know, Admiral, that we have no access to any of the Empire’s old superweapons. Reports of their destruction are true, no matter what rumors to the contrary still circulate.”
Pellaeon smiled. “And we have none, either. It is just as well, because those weapons were difficult to employ in defense.”
“And the Remnant bringing them into the New Republic, for whatever reason, just would not be tolerable.” Kre’fey nodded. “The defense of Ithor will be difficult enough without having superweapons entering the mix.”
“It’s true, this isn’t going to be easy.” Luke brushed a hand over his mouth. “We have a couple of problems here on Ithor. The first is scientific. It is possible to take grafts from bafforr trees of the line that produced the pollen on Garqi; however, the trees take years of growth before they become mature enough to produce pollen. Even if we take samples away and plant groves all over the New Republic, it could take as much as a decade before the plants would be able to produce the pollen we need.”
Corran frowned. “But Ithorians are well known for their skill at cloning and genetic manipulation of botanicals. My grandfather maintains an ongoing correspondence with them concerning the stuff he does. They should be able to synthesize the pollen we need.”