by Greg Keyes
revolves entirely around carrion. Yet they make time to enter these flower
tubes with enough frequency to pollinate them, at no benefit to themselves."
"Perhaps you have not yet discovered the benefit."
"If this were the only example of such behavior, I might agree with you.
However, I find more than half the animals I have examined play roles in this
life-web that are plainly unrelated to their life cycles and physical design.
More in-teresting yet, I have discovered that each species practices some form
of reproduction control. When a particular sort of moss becomes scarce due to
its consumption by a kind of beetle, the beetles begin disposing of their eggs
without fer-tilizing them. In other words, the ecosystem of this planet is
homeostatic-it seeks to remain in absolute balance. It manages to do so even
after enormous extinction events."
"That sounds reasonable."
"For a worldship, yes, because each life-form is engi-neere d to play a
certain role and the system is guided by intelligence-by a rikyam at one
level, and by shapers at the next. Mutations are eliminated, as is undesirable
behavior. But in the natural ecosystems I've studied from data collected in
this galaxy, that's not how things normally work. Each in-dividual organism
fights to maximize the number and surviv-ability of its own offspring.
Mutations come along that have advantages and are perpetuated. Such systems
are in a constant state of flux; they are not-cooperative. The evidence is
that this world was once like that-like a wild planet-but it is no longer."
Harrar pursed his lips. "You're saying that this planet has something
like a dhuryam, some intelligence that links all these organisms together and
prompts them to perform harmoniously."
"I can think of no other explanation."
Yu'shaa, who had remained absolutely silent, suddenly spoke up. "As I
prophesied," he said, "and as the Jeedai said. This is a living planet, one
large organism, more than the sum of its parts. Like a worldship that made
itself. Don't you see what this planet can teach us? Harrar, you were just
decrying the competition that destroys us. It is that blind fight to ascend
that leads us to treat so many of our people as Shamed."
"Can this be?" Harrar asked Nen Yim. He seemed to be ignoring the
Prophet.
"We are seeing it," Nen Yim replied. "However, I can find no clues as to
the mechanism that binds the individual life-forms to one another. There are
no chemical exchanges that might explain it. The flora and fauna here are not
equipped with communications organs like our villip, or anything even remotely
similar."
"It's the Force," Tahiri interrupted. "I can feel the ties, feel a sort
of constant chatter among-well, everything." Nen Yim focused on the young
Jedi. "I have heard that you Jeedai possess telepathy like our villips," she
said. "But the ones I've taken ap-examined showed no signs of specialized
organs, either."
"No, of course not," Tahiri said, her voice suddenly dark. "The Force
binds everything together. Some creatures communicate through it. I can feel
what Corran is think-ing, sometimes. With Anakin it was even stronger, like...
" She trailed off. "Never mind. You'll have to take my word for it."
"And-using this Force-you can impress your will upon others, yes?"
Yu'shaa said.
"Yes, on the weak-minded," Tahiri replied. "But I get no sense that
anything here on Zonama Sekot is being coerced into anything. It's like every
living thing just agrees to do things this way."
"I cannot see this Force, measure it, or test it," Nen Yim said. "I
cannot credit it with the effect you assert."
A stone suddenly rose from the ground, floated toward Nen Yim, and fell
near her feet.
"You may not know what it is," Tahiri said, "you might not be able to see
it or feel it, but you can see the results." Nen Yim conceded that with a
small nod. Then a thought struck her with the force of a baton. "Assuming you
are correct," she said, "yow are connected to this Force-as no Yuuzhan Vong
is. And yet, in part, you are Yuuzhan Vong. What does your Force tell you this
place is? To us?"
"I've been thinking about that a lot," the young woman replied. "I've
never been able to quite put it into words until just now."
"And? "Harrar asked.
Tahiri took a deep breath. "This is where we are from," she replied.
That got even Nom Anor's attention. While the three were absorbed in the
conversation, he'd been exploring Nen Yim's qahsa, and had run across some
very interesting things. He'd made his little speech so as not to break char-
acter, not because he was interested. But now he stared at the young Jedi just
as Harrar and Nen Yim did.
"That's not possible," Nen Yim said.
"You asked me what I felt," the girl said. "That's it. But didn't you say
that only a few thousand years at most separate the life of this planet from
Yuuzhan Vong life?"
"In the case of one plant only," Nen Yim replied. "And several thousand
years ago we were very far from here. Moreover, the Qang qahsa contains
abundant data regarding the homeworld, and this is not it."
"Was the homeworld like this one? Living, like an organism?"
"There are some legends-" Harrar began.
"Whatever the legends may say," Nen Yim pronounced, "the facts are that
the homeworld was an ecosystem of unchecked competition and predation. Would a
creature like the vua'sa have evolved on a world were all of nature was in
cooperation? No. The vua'sa was a vicious predator that at times multiplied so
quickly, it left deserts behind it. This competition among ourselves you speak
of is the legacy of the homeworld."
"But perhaps that was after we lost the grace of the gods," Harrar said.
Nen Yim blinked at him, and Nom Anor saw what he was certain was barely
concealed disgust in the shaper's expression.
"In any event," the shaper said, apparently dismissing Harrar's
suggestion, "this conversation will not bear the fruit that further work will.
We speak of things we do not have the data to support."
"You asked the question," Tahiri said.
"Yes, and now I'm sorry that I did. If you will all please allow me to go
back to my work..."
Nom Anor expected Harrar to snap back, but instead the priest nodded and
looked thoughtful.
What in the world was going on here? Were they actually starting to
believe his prophecy? Was he?
No, because he knew the source, and the source was a lie. Yes, the planet
was a curiosity, but many planets in this galaxy were curiosities. And
everything the others saw here was informed by his creche-tale of a planet of
redemption. That filter was causing them to see things in a very strange
light.
Would they turn against Shimrra? They might. If Harrar did, he might be
able to muster a great deal of support from the priesthood, and with this
shaper...
But no. If Harrar turned against Shimrra, it would be to put not the
Prophet of the Shamed Ones on the polyp throne, but himself. And he was in a
better position to do it than Yu'shaa.
Especially if Yu'shaa never left Zonama Sekot.
And there was also the chance that Harrar already knew Nom Anor's true
identity. He had caught more than one suspicious look from the priest.
"Yu'shaa?" Nen Yim said. "What are you doing?"
"I am sorry, Master," he said. "It is just that today's revelations-I
must ponder them."
"You've been of enough help today," Nen Yim told him.
"In fact, I would rather be alone for a time."
"In that case, I will meditate in the splendor of this world."
He left the clearing and began wandering vaguely uphill. There were other
things to consider. From what he had seen in her qahsa, Nen Yim had come here
in fear of Zonama Sekot, prepared to destroy it if necessary. She had
protocols that might be useful in that, though they were ob-viously untried.
They were in the shorthand and symbolism of the shapers, so she probably
thought he couldn't under-stand them.
What she didn't know was that he had done quite a bit of shaping himself.
As she was no ordinary shaper, he was no ordinary executor. He was certain he
could understand and use the information if he had to. Though why he would
want to destroy the planet, he couldn't say, except that it would please
Shimrra.
That stopped him in his tracks.
It would please Shimrra a lot.
If into that bargain was included the deaths of Corran Horn, who had so
embarrassed the Yuuzhan Vong at Ithor, and Tahiri Veila, who had used her dual
nature to betray them more than once, and a rogue priest and master shaper
even now plotting against not only Shimrra but the very nature of everything
Yuuzhan Vong...
Shimrra might be so pleased he wouldn't have the one who delivered him
these things executed, no matter what he was wanted for. So pleased that such
a one might actually be elevated to a higher station than he had held before
his disgrace.
Musing on that, he continued up the hill. Harrar had mentioned something
strange on the horizon.
He stopped when he reached the summit, staring at the enormous made-
objects climbing into the sky, and was sud-denly shaken to his very core.
Harrar had not spent enough time with the infidels, un-like Nom Anor, who
had flown on their lifeless ships and lived in their lifeless stations. Harrar
would naturally not understand what he was seeing.
But Nom Anor knew hyperdrive field guides when he saw them, even if they
were a thousand times larger than they should be.
But then, they would have to be, to move a planet. Something clicked into
place for Nom Anor. He sat on a stone, listening to the sounds of the strange
world for a moment. He was alone, for the first time since they had crashed.
With a sigh, he released his face from the grotesque masquer that hid it. His
contention that it was difficult to remove had been, of course, a lie.
He reached into the living pouch beneath his arm and re-moved the thing
he had brought with him. He must have known, somehow, in the back of his mind,
that it must al-ways come to this.
He stared at it, turning it over in his hands. It was a dedi-cated
villip, linked to one other, far away. He had not used it in a very long time,
since before the disaster that had led to his exile.
He stroked it to life.
After a moment, the face of an intendant appeared on its surface, one of
his former subordinates.
Even through the medium of the villip, Nom Anor could see the surprise.
"You were assumed dead," the man said.
"I greet you as well, Phaa Anor," he told his creche cousin.
"You might as well be dead," Phaa Anor told him.
"Shimrra has called for your skin. I will have to report this
conversation, of course."
"Of course. I want you to. In fact, I want you to see that your villip
comes before Shimrra himself."
"Before Shimrra?" Phaa sounded incredulous.
"Yes. Send him the message that you have heard from me. Tell him I am on
Zonama Sekot, and that I have found his missing shaper. He will listen to you
then. When you gain an audience, present him with your villip."
"Why should I do this for you?" Phaa asked.
"Consider. I have information so important that I believe I can redeem
myself in the Supreme Overlord's eyes. Not only that, I believe I will be
elevated for my efforts. Do you not think you will benefit as well, he who
brings these tidings?" Phaa Anor seemed to consider that for a moment.
"I will do it," he said at last.
"Do it quickly, and tell no one anything I have said save those whom you
must convince to grant you an audience with Shimrra."
"Yes, yes," Phaa replied. Then the villip returned to its natural state.
He had probably just doomed Phaa Anor, he knew.
Shimrra would have him killed simply for knowing the planet existed and
was in this galaxy.
Sacrifices had to be made, however, for the good of all. And for the good
of Nom Anor.
He sealed the villip back into dormancy and its airtight container,
returned it to its resting place beneath his arm, and went back down the hill.
TWENTY-FOUR
Jaina throttled down and made another run on Man Mothma, dropping to
within a meter of the Star Destroyer's skin. Suddenly she seemed to be
skimming above a vast, white, slightly curving plane. An irregular dark lump
appeared ahead, and she angled toward it. At the last instant she hit her
repulsors and nosed up, washing her exhaust over the grutchin, which released
its hold. Its charred body drifted off to join the other twenty or so she had
flashed.
"This is actually kind of fun," she said. She would have to ask Uncle
Luke if going after womp rats was anything like this.
"Speak for yourself," Twin Two said. "I just banged a stabilizer."
"Just watch yourself. If you plow into the hull, you'll do more damage
than any grutchin."
"Don't make me weepy with your concern for my wel-fare," Two replied.
"Hey, I've got a big heart... Okay, I think we're almost through here."
"Just in time for the real fun," Rar said.
"I see that."
The big ships were closing again, and space was alive with light as they
pummeled each other. And now the rest of the skips were arriving, not coming
in as fast as the advance guard, but twice as hot. Jaina checked the new
orders.
"All right," she said. "Let's vape some skips."
"They really don't want us to get away," Wedge mut-tered. He'd thought
about making a hard push for one of the interdictors so they could clear out,
but the Yuuzhan Vong were keeping them far away and under heavy watch.
That was good, in a way-it gave him near parity in the actual combat.
Even though they had ships behind him, they weren't using them for anything
but to prevent him running that way. Nor did they have enough ships to try an
encirclement. Still, slugging things out nose to nose was an iffy proposi-tion
when numbers were this even. He hadn't come here for a fair fight-the Alliance
couldn't grow new ships like the Yuuzhan Vong could.
But a run for one o
f the interdictors would be suicide at this point.
"Sir," Lieutenant Cel said. "I think I've found one of the Golans."
Wedge raised his eyebrows in surprise. He'd asked her to hunt for any of
the battle stations the Empire had once sta-tioned here-or anything else that
was operational-but he hadn't really expected her to find anything. The
shipyards were virtually gone, food for a growing Yuuzhan Vong fleet, and the
stations had all been around the shipyards.
"Where is it?"
"Way off its orbit, if it's one of the ones we had on the charts. And its
present orbit is eccentric."
Wedge glanced at the display. "That is out there," he said.
"It may have been drifting all this time, or maybe the ship-yards put it
there for some reason. Still, it's odd the Vong missed something that size."
"I don't know, but we missed it on the first pass, too. As you said, sir,
it's way out there."
"Is the power core still active?"
"Yes, sir."
"Then it might still have guns. We'd better check it out-we might need
it."
"Are we taking the fight out there, sir? "
"Not unless I know it's working. Are the Twin Suns done with their clean-
up duty? " he asked.
"Yes, sir. They're on their way to cruiser-designate
"Get me Colonel Solo."
"Yes, sir."
Jaina's comm chirped. Much to her surprise, it was Gen-eral Antilles, on
a closed and heavily coded channel.
"Sir?"
"I've got a task you might find a little more exciting than bug burning,"
Wedge said.
"I'm about to have my hands full, General. What do you need?"
"I need you to find Admiral Kre'fey for me."
"Admiral Kre'fey, General?" What was Wedge talking about?
"Something's wrong with the HoloNet," he explained.
"We were the advance for two more fleets. We can't contact them, so they
haven't shown. I need you to find him, fast, and bring him here. Have him send
someone to find Pellaeon."
"Sir, won't they come when they realize it's the HoloNet and not
something gone wrong here? " Jaina asked.
"They're not supposed to. For all they know - for all I know - the
downing of the HoloNet is cover for an attack on Mon Cal or the Imps, and this
battle group is already starfood. I need you to let him know we're still
kicking."
"General, you want me to leave the battle?" What was her squadron turning