And then Yomin Carr was calm once more and in control of his thoughts. He had to weigh the threat against the potential disaster and to help the scales balance. He went and retrieved the small coffer, for the tizowyrm had been in too long and was getting dangerously close to exhaustion. If the creature was left in too long, it would literally vibrate itself to death.
The warrior went out from his room soon after, again in the dark of night, stealthily to the small Spacecaster.
Truly this was the most distasteful part of Yomin Carr's extensive training, this working with machines, abandoning the living tools his own people employed. He reminded himself of the importance to the greater good, stoically accepting his role, as he had during those years of training, and indeed, he did take some pride in the fact that, among the entire force of Praetorite Vong, Yomin Carr was probably the finest technician.
He set up shop openly - too many were about for him to hope to accomplish his tasks without discovery - hanging lights and making no effort to conceal the clanking of metallic tools.
Sure enough, Danni Quee came out to him within the hour, to find him hard at work on the Spacecaster's inertial compensator.
"The gasket on the pressure pump had wriggled out of place," Yomin Carr honestly explained, and indeed, the Yuuzhan Vong warrior was working to the benefit of the shuttle at that time. Had Danni come out here earlier, when Yomin Carr had been disconnecting the final signal initiator on the communications port, she might have figured that something was amiss.
"I'm leaving in three hours," she informed him.
"Just checking the vital systems," Yomin Carr replied. "The hyperdrive is not up to standards, but it will get you there, though it will not be a fast journey. The ion drive is running efficiently."
Danni nodded, for she had just done the same checks.
"What about that compensator?" she asked.
"It was only the gasket," Yomin Carr replied, and he ran a laser sealer along the outside of the ring and pronounced the problem solved.
Danni came over and inspected the work, then nodded her approval. "You're sure you don't want to come along?" she asked. "I've got Bensin Tomri and Cho Badeleg coming, but we'll make room for you."
"Excellent choices," Yomin Carr said. "But, no, putting another in the Spacecaster would jeopardize the success of the mission. You will desire some time at the planet for close study, but you will not have enough supplies to take four out there and back, especially if that hyperdrive is not performing well."
"I smell a Baldavian pocket hare," Danni replied, referring to the skittish creature that was often held up as a symbol of cowardice.
Yomin Carr merely laughed, understanding that she had just kiddingly insulted him, but not getting the reference at all. "Go get your sleep," he instructed, and he turned back to his controls.
Danni put her hand on his shoulder. "I appreciate this," she said.
Yomin Carr nodded and kept his smile in check. If she only understood the irony of that statement!
A short time later, Yomin Carr clicked on the distance communicator and gave a call to the nearby ExGal-4 station. All the signals on his screens offered confirmation that the signal had been sent, but of course, thanks to Yomin Carr's efforts, it had not.
They would go out into space properly muted.
That only half satisfied the cautious Yuuzhan Vong agent, though, for what dangers might occur if Danni and the others happened upon another vehicle on their way to the war coordinator's base? There wasn't much traffic out here, but it was possible, especially since others might have tracked the incoming worldship.
With that in mind, Yomin Carr went straight to his villips when he returned to his room, and lifted the blanket on the connection to Prefect Da'Gara.
When Da'Gara's villip inverted, Yomin Carr recognized the gnullith attached to the prefect's face, their symbiosis so complete that the villip considered it a part of its host and appropriately reflected it in its imaging.
"Let them come to us," Da'Gara answered after Yomin Carr informed him of the mission. "And you did well to quiet them."
"Take heed of the woman called Danni Quee," Yomin Carr explained. "She is formidable."
A smile erupted on the face of the prefect-impersonating villip, one so wide that the edges of the prefect's lips showed around the gnullith. "One to convert?"
Yomin Carr considered that possibility for a long moment. Truly Danni would make a good Yuuzhan Vong warrior, but that very trait likely damned her, for he doubted that her strong will could be so bent against her own people. His expression, reflected perfectly by his villip before Prefect Da'Gara, showed his range of feelings and doubts clearly.
"A worthy sacrifice, then," Da'Gara answered. "She will be killed honorably and at the proper time."
"You honor me by accepting my words, Prefect," Yomin Carr replied, and Da'Gara had indeed done so, considering that this was an issue of sacrifice, as important a rite as could be found among the Yuuzhan Vong. While nearly all reasoning species understood that death was inevitable, the Yuuzhan Vong culture embraced it, nearly to the point of seeing life itself as preparation for death. Everyone would die, they understood, so how one died was the important factor. Normally, they reserved the most dishonorable deaths for their enemies.
"How long will Belkadan survive in its present state?" the prefect asked.
"Not long," Yomin Carr promised. He had taken some readings that morning and had done the calculations. "The gases will reach critical mass within a couple of days. The storms should come on strong soon after."
"You have your ooglith cloaker?" Da'Gara asked. "It would not do to have one who has performed as well as Yomin Carr die uneventfully on a distant world."
"I am prepared, Prefect," Yomin Carr answered, standing straight in light of yet another high compliment. His duties were almost at their end, sadly so, for after the transformation of Belkadan, he was merely to remain on the planet and ride out the greenhouse storms while the conquest was under way. "I only hope that you will find some use for me while I wait."
"It may well be," Da'Gara answered. "Perhaps we will use the data from your station to facilitate the arrival of the next group of worldships. More likely, Executor Nom Anor will hear of your fine work and gather you to help with his espionage."
There came a knock on Yomin Carr's door then, and he quickly covered the villip and replaced it in his closet, then pulled off his shirt and ran to the door, rubbing his eyes all the way to make it look as if he had been sleeping.
Garth Breise stood in the hallway, coils of rope looped about his shoulder. "You ready?" he asked.
"It is still dark," Yomin Carr remarked.
"I'd rather face the dangers of the forest night than the wrath of Danni Quee," Garth Breise replied.
Yomin Carr ran to retrieve his shirt. It was all going so very well.
The early morning air was chill, but not crisp, and thick with a strange sulfuric smell. Garth Breise twitched his nose repeatedly but made no comment, Yomin Carr noted with some relief. He reminded himself that he would be more sensitive to the odor, because he knew what it portended. Likely, Garth Breise hardly noticed it.
"Do you want to see them off first?" Yomin Carr asked, motioning toward the bay, where Danni and the others were preparing to leave.
"I already said my good-byes," Garth replied. "I just want to get this stupid work over with."
"The tower is only a hundred meters high," Yomin Carr remarked.
"Only," the sullen Garth echoed sarcastically. "And cold and windy up at the top."
"We may be fortunate enough to find a redcrested cougar waiting for us at the base," Yomin Carr went on, but Garth Breise wasn't smiling. "It would save us the climb."
That disturbing notion in mind, Garth Breise paused at the outer perimeter control tower and redirected the nearby spotlights to brighten all the area around the base of the tower. Then he took a blaster from the weapons locker, securing it on his belt, and pulled out
another one, offering it to Yomin Carr, who politely declined.
They exited the compound, closing the door behind them, and started for the tower. As they approached, both noticed movement around the base of the tower, almost as if the very ground had come writhing to life.
"What the heck are these?" Garth Breise asked, bending low to inspect the source of the strange movement a swarm of reddish brown beetles.
"Perhaps the cause of our transmitter problems," Yomin Carr offered.
"The cable was chewed by something bigger than beetles."
"But if some of them climbed inside after it was broken ... ," Yomin Carr said, and he left the thought to Garth's imagination. He knew that wasn't the case, of course, or at least, not the only source of the comm trouble, but Garth did not - and if some of the beetles actually had crawled inside, the damage to the cable could be complete.
"I didn't see any out here when I found the break," Garth said.
Yomin Carr looked up, up, up. "Do you still think it worth the climb?" he asked. "Or should you first inspect the length of cable?"
Garth paused a long while before answering, and Yomin Carr thought he had convinced the man to abandon the climb. "Up," Garth said, pulling the coil from his shoulder. "Let's get it over with."
Yomin Carr started to argue, then stopped. It might indeed be better for the mission to dissuade Garth from going up now, but personally, Yomin Carr was growing more agitated, more eager for action, by the minute. He wanted to make this climb.
And so they did, hand over hand, securing each foothold, securing each length of rope, and then climbing on to the next level. It was still dark when they made the top, Garth Breise leading the way.
"There you have it," he announced, grabbing the disconnected junction box. "The wind."
Yomin Carr stepped up beside him. "Perhaps," he agreed.
A thunderous roar from behind signaled that Danni and the other two were on their way, and the pair looked about to see the Spacecaster soaring into the dark sky, her fiery plumes blotting out the stars.
"I'd rather be up here than up there," Garth noted.
"But a threat up here are you," Yomin Carr said.
"What?" Garth asked, turning about, his expression curious.
Yomin Carr stole that look, and stole the man's breath, by stiffening two fingers and stabbing them hard into Garth's windpipe. The man gasped and grabbed at his throat with one hand, and Yomin Carr, with those same two fingers, struck him a blow on the wrist that broke his grasp on the tower.
Garth flailed wildly, trying to catch a hold, but Yomin Carr's hands were always in the way, deflecting him, keeping him at bay. And then, out of nowhere it seemed, the Yuuzhan Vong warrior produced a small, shining blade and thrust it menacingly at Garth's face. That was only to pull the man's arms in, though, for Yomin Carr fast reversed his attack, slashing the sharp blade upward, catching the taut rope right where it looped over one of the tower cross poles.
Garth's arms worked in wild circles as he tried desperately to hold his balance. "Why?" he gasped.
Yomin Carr could have finished the task with a simple push, but he held back, thoroughly enjoying the look of the sheerest horror on the man's face, the frantic and futile efforts.
And then the scream as Garth Breise tumbled over backward, plummeting down the side of the tower, striking one cross pole and launching into a somersaulting fall.
Yomin Carr was glad that Garth had redirected all the floodlights - they gave him a better view of the final descent and the bone-smashing impact. Because you gave me an excuse, the Yuuzhan Vong silently answered desperate Garth's last question.
He had one moment of regret when he considered that Garth might have crushed some of his pet dweebits.
Already far, far away, Danni Quee looked out her rear viewer at the receding Belkadan, and her expression fast changed from wistful to curious. "Bring us about," she instructed Bensin Tomri, who was at the controls.
"The straighter the line to Helska, the better," Bensin replied, obviously unsure of the craft's condition. "I was about to make the jump to hyperspace."
"No, you have to see this," Danni replied.
The third member of the team, a short, dark man with hair the consistency of wool, Cho Badeleg, came up beside her. "Heck of a storm," he remarked, seeing, as Danni had, the roiling clouds on the edge of Belkadan's rim.
Bensin Tomri gasped when he brought the Spacecaster about; then all three stared in horror when they noted the scope of the storm, and the greenish yellow tint of it, something that reminded Danni of the sunsets she had been witnessing of late.
"Call the compound and tell them to secure everything," she instructed.
"The tower's not likely fixed yet," Cho Badeleg reminded her.
Danni pulled out her portable communicator. "Bring us in close," she instructed, and Bensin Tomri agreed, though they all experienced some second thoughts when he skipped off the edge of Belkadan's atmosphere and the Spacecaster shook so violently that it seemed as if it would fall apart.
"Tee-ubo?" Danni called, and she winced at the amount of static on the normally clear communicator. "Can you hear me?"
"Danni?" came a broken reply, and then Tee-ubo said something. The three thought they heard mention of Garth Breise, but they couldn't make it out.
"There's a storm south of you," Danni said slowly and distinctly. "A big one. Did you hear?" She repeated it several times, and Tee-ubo replied as much as she could, though only single words, sometimes only single syllables, came through the increasing static.
"Probably from the storm," Cho Badeleg remarked, and Danni gave up and clicked off the communicator.
Danni let her questioning gaze fall over each of the other two.
"You want to go back," Cho Badeleg reasoned.
"If we go back down there, we probably aren't coming back up anytime soon," Bensin Tomri put in. "Especially if that storm rolls in. We're lucky this thing broke orbit in the first place."
Cho Badeleg spent a long moment staring out at the spectacle of the storm. "It doesn't seem well developed," he noted. "No noticeable swirl, no denned eye."
"You think they'll be all right?" Danni asked.
"Once we get away from this static, we can relay the information with the ship's communicator," Bensin Tomri offered. "You've got to make the decision. Do we go on, or go back?"
Danni thought long and hard on that one. In the end, though, she was a devoted scientist, and certainly it seemed to her as if she and the other two were taking a greater risk than any of those they had left behind. "Tee-ubo said something about Garth," she reasoned. "He's probably got the tower fixed."
"On we go, then," Bensin Tomri said, and he turned the Spacecaster about and started again to make his calculations for the jump to lightspeed.
As they left the planet far behind, Danni went to the ship's communicator and gave a detailed report of the storm in the west, then waited a moment to see if a reply would be forthcoming. When no call came back, she hoped that they had heard her, and that the repairs on the tower simply hadn't been completed to the point where they could respond.
Nom Anor's eyes twinkled with the reflections of the plumes trailing the missiles launched toward the enemy city of Osa-Prime, an extraplanetary attack he'd been planning for weeks. Tamaktis Breetha had opposed the strike, knowing it would lead to open warfare between the planets, but when several high-ranking Rhommamoolian officials had been found murdered, the former mayor had found little support for his arguments.
Nom Anor hoped that the Mediator wouldn't detect the launch in time to get its starfighters away to intercept the missiles, but that, too, had not been left to chance. For hours and hours, the executor and Shok Tinoktin had studied the planetary courses and the positioning of the New Republic ship and had launched the missiles from a point where the initial explosive liftoff and subsequent burn would be most difficult to detect. Once they broke orbit, the missiles would all but shut down, seeming as insignificant
specks, and by the time their rockets fired again, entering Osarian's atmosphere, it would be too late for the Mediator to get at them.
To further the probability of success, Nom Anor had spent hours that morning talking to Commander Ackdool, acting conciliatory and explaining that, now that the meddlesome Leia Solo was gone, he and the commander might strike a deal to bring an end to the conflict. They had even scheduled a meeting on the Mediator between Nom Anor and his delegates and a diplomatic party from Osarian.
Commander Ackdool liked the thought of scoring such an unexpected diplomatic victory, Nom Anor knew. It was said that Ackdool had been given the ship primarily because he was a Mon Calamarian, who, with the retirement of Ackbar, were underrepresented among the fleet. Ackdool had heard the quiet murmurs of discontent concerning his appointment, of course, and that would make him all the more eager. Furthermore, the commander was so secure about the overwhelming power of his ship compared to the meager power of the people on the two planets that he would never suspect the ruse.
Of course, the fallout from this attack would be great and would likely force Nom Anor to flee Rhommamool altogether. But that was fine with him, for his mission here was nearly complete, and if those missiles hit Osa-Prime and brought the war to full conflagration, then he would happily move on. His job now was distraction, to keep the New Republic so concerned with the explosions near to the Core that they didn't get a chance to turn their eyes outward.
The longer Prefect Da'Gara could operate in obscurity, the more entrenched Nom Anor's people would become, and the more worldships they could get into place.
Three hours later, Nom Anor received the outraged call from Commander Ackdool. Missile plumes had been detected in Osarian's atmosphere.
Nom Anor took full responsibility, justifying the attack in response to the assassinations of several officials - officials he had secretly ordered killed. Then he curtly cut Ackdool off.
He and Shok Tinoktin focused on the video screen, tuned to an Osarian broadcast channel. They heard the frantic reporter in Osa-Prime detailing the confusion and panic and then, after a pause, solemnly reporting the sight of the missile trails.
Star Wars The New Jedi Order - Vector Prime - Book 1 Page 10