The Unifying Force

by James Luceno

  By then Nom Anor had disappeared into the ruins of a news bureau building. She could hear him stumbling forward, crunching through expanses of transparisteel debris and smashing through wooden doors. There, too, shafts of dismal light dappled the puddled floors, and a stinging odor of rot and decay pervaded the thick air.

  She second-guessed him when he tried to set a trap for her— making it appear that he had gone through a doorway, on the other side of which there was a half-kilometer plunge into pitch darkness. And she outwitted him again by stopping just in time when he used his uncommon strength to dislodge a girder that supported a fractured slab ceiling.

  He remained as steadfast in his desire to escape as she did in her desire to hunt him down. He began to scamper through a warren o rooms in a building where residual power allowed him to seal doorways behind him. But Mara merely kicked through them, and when she couldn't, she found alternate routes, never surrendering momentum.

  Breathing hard and stumbling more often, Nom Anor was begi

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  tire. Mara's acute hearing told her that much—and more. As n'U& kicking down a final door, she heard a hand blaster's safety ft" and entered the room to discover Nom Anor hiding behind trid remains of a Twi'lek, still dressed in security guard garb. l ra vised the Force to call her lightsaber to hand, even as Nom .-as triggering off the first bolts. Her blade deflected one after riof was u-i&& o

  ext until he had emptied the blaster of fuel. He had sense eh not to hurl the depleted weapon at her. Instead, he began to bble backward on the palms of his hands and feet, his gaze riveted her as she advanced, calm but coldly fixed on her prey. A wall brought an abrupt end to his retreat. Growling, he shot to his feet, coufee in hand, and began to slash wildlv at her, the lightsaber notwithstanding.

  She leapt backward, out of reach, then deactivated the blade and encouraged him to charge. Her hands moved in a dexterous blur as she deflected his knife blows and got inside his frantic movements to slap and tap him in the chest or the jaw, never hard enough to stun him, let alone incapacitate him, but driving him backward with each smack. Ducking his increasingly desperate lunges and crosscuts, she swept his feet out from under him with a circling sidekick, then allowed him to come to his feet only long enough for her to cripple his knee with the toe of her right boot. He flung himself at her, but she sidestepped his headlong rush and sent him hurtling into a wall.

  She continued to hurt him, telling herself: This is for Manor Two., where she had fallen victim to the coomb spores he had unleashed; und this is for the trouble you stirred up at Rhommamool.

  Knocking the coufee from his grip, she thrust her stiffened fingers mto his windpipe, then sent him reeling with an uppercut. This is for founding the Peace Brigade; for your part in sending Elan to assassinate we Jedi witfa bo'tous; for your double dealings with the Hutts and Viqi ^hesh; and for sabotaging the refugee settlements on Duro.

  Making the most of her agility, she left deliberate openings in her

  £rense, luring him into striking, only to set up combinations aimed at

  Punishing his bald head; his flat-nosed face; his blue right eye, with its

  npe of feline pupil. This is for the false appeals you made to Leia and

  Han at Bilbringi; for your disdainful appearance before the Sen whatever role you played in the deaths of Chewbacca and Anak' your attempt to deliver Jacen into the hands of Tsavonjj Lah- f0 sabotage at Zonama Sekot. . .

  Her blows were beginning to do damage. Deftly she moved '

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  his flailing arms, using her elbows and the backs of her clenched h to bloody his scarred lips and swell his ears, ever mindful of that d gerous left eye of his, which she was certain he was saving as a I resort. She pivoted on her left foot and kicked him hard with h right, forcing the wind from him. He dropped to his knees, his righ hand pressed to his chest.

  He had trouble getting to his feet, but when he did, she sent him down again with a fist to the face. Dread shone in his real eye. He had spent too long among beings who cherished life, and he had come to cherish it himself. Unlike those fighting to the death in the streets and squares above, Nom Anor wanted desperately to live. Mara could read it in his wretched look; she could smell it coming off of him in waves. He backed away from her until his back was pressed to a wall, then he sank slowly to his knees.

  Mara ignited her lightsaber and held it with the tip low and to her right. One upward swing and she could send his head five meters.

  Nom Anor bent at the waist and pressed his face to the littered floor in a posture of servility.

  "You've defeated me, Mara Jade Skywalker," he said without lifting his head. "I beg for mercy." When she made no immediate reply, he risked raising his face to her, and when he saw that she hadn't moved forward he continued. "What would killing me accomplish now? Yes, it will satisfy you, but will it put an end to the war?

  "For the moment, I'll content myself with satisfaction," she told him.

  He gulped, then found his voice. "I am a dissembler and a killer. have brought woe to you and many others. But were you any I' when you were in service to the Emperor? To Darth Vader. executor, you did what you were trained to do. We all serve a mast Mara Skywalker. But I was given to believe that you now served t Force."

  jyiara stepped forward, his pleas became more frenzied. ^You're a mother now! What if your son were watching you? Is •hit vou would want him to learn—the art of murdering in cold

  Mini's nostril's quivered. "You almost robbed me of any chance

  of having a child."

  -I know that," he said, holding her gaze. "But am I not part of , as your infant is—part of the Force?" He gestured to himself. "I

  am helpless!"

  Mara took another step, raising her lightsaber. "I can help!" he screamed. "I've changed. You saw me leading the Shamed Ones. Just as you do, I want to see the war ended. I would have been an ally of yours already if Vergere and Jacen had agreed to take me off Coruscant in the coralcraft / had built just for that purpose. You see, Mara Skywalker? I say Coruscant. I know this world is yours. It has always been yours, and it will remain so even if we are victorious. One last chance. Let me prove myself to you,"

  She brought the glowing blade of the lightsaber close to his neck, then deactivated it and clipped the handle to her belt.

  The expression on Nom Anor's face was unreadable. Clearly he hadn't expected leniency. He recognized that his words hadn't caused her to stay her hand—they had spilled from his mouth by rote. Something else had influenced her decision; something beyond his comprehension. For a long moment he regarded her in perplexity.

  "A Yuuzhan Vong warrior would have been disgusted by my actions," he said at last. "He would have killed me as easily as if I were a droid. And yet you didn't find my cowardice contemptible. You let me live."

  Mara narrowed her eyes. "I don't believe a word you said, and

  known from the first that you're a coward. You're guilty of too

  lanY crimes to list, but I won't be your executioner. Your ultimate

  dlsPosition is a matter that will be decided by others." She gestured

  r him to stand up. "If you really wanted to put an end to the war,

  y°u shouldn't have interfered at Zonama Sekot."

  I was only trying to spare the planet," Nom Anor said. "Even v Shimrra is out to destroy it. He believes it was given to the Jedi

  by the gods, as a means of testing our worthiness. He claims to h poison capable of killing Zonama Sekot."

  A chill laddered up Mara's spine. "What poison?"

  Nom Anor heaved his shoulders in a shrug of indiffe "Something concocted by the Alliance and deployed on a world ? Caluula."

  Alpha Red, Mara realized in anguish.

  She grabbed Nom Anor by the shoulder and shoved him tow the closest exit from the building. "You're going to show me yol > deserving of the extra time I've given you."

  Echoing the shape of the worldship Citadel, Shimrr
a's coffer his

  bunker in the crown of the fortress—was a huge vaulted space with polished walls and stately columns. From the eastern side of its circular floor a stairway of yorik coral spiraled into an upper level, where some said resided the controls that could launch the summit of the Citadel into space, in much the same way that the Well of the World Brain could be launched, to ensure that the Supreme Overlord and the dhuryam survived, no matter what befell the rest of the Yuuzhan Vong and their multitude of biots.

  The coffer contained a throne, but Shimrra had yet to take it since entering the coffer from the lavish shaft that accessed the bunker—a dovin basal version of a turbolift. The Supreme Overlord was too restless to remain seated, too mesmerized by villip-assembled images of Yuuzhan'tar engulfed in flames; of Shamed Ones running loose in the streets; of Alliance troops locked in battle with warriors; and of fighter craft darting through the smoke-filled sky, stinging the Citadel with packets of energized light.

  Shimrra's slayer bodyguards were with him, as was Onimi, perhaps the only Shamed One on Yuuzhan'tar or any other occupied world still content to curl at the feet of the elite. A shaper doubled as a villip mistress to make certain that the Supreme Overlord didn't miss < moment of the devastation he had called down on the planet.

  "We should be rejoicing," Shimrra was saying as he meander* about, much to the consternation of his limited audience. He 8

  j to Onimi, who was squatting almost possessively close to the throne. "What, no rhymes from you this day? No words of le or mockery? No capering about while Yuuzhan'tar burns?" Solemn-faced, Onimi got to his feet to recite a poem, though his characteristic self-amusement, and with his gaze not on a or any of the others in the bunker, but raised to the high, Irched ceiling or perhaps the sky beyond.

  Who would stay cool while fires roar,

  the gods themselves might well abhor.

  But who would sport when death is near,

  the gods themselves do well to fear.

  Shimrra stood silent for a moment, then began to nod. "Yes, Onimi, you're right to give them fair warning. Is it not just as I planned, just as I imagined? Zonama Sekot will die, its living ships will perish, the Jedi will be stripped of their weapons, and the gods will have been defeated—I will have done away with them. Yuuzhan'tar will recover, and I will rid the universe of all vermin."

  The shaper waited until Shimrra was finished, then stepped forward from her villip-choir. "Dread Lord, High Priest Jakan reports that saboteurs have been seized at the Well of the World Brain. Apparently the priest Harrar is among them."

  "Harrar!" Onimi said, then caught himself and hunkered down. Shimrra glanced at him, then turned back to the shaper. "Too clever even for Nom Anor, that one. It's no wonder he survived. But now on the side of the enemy . . . Enlisted or conscripted, I wonder?" He swung to Onimi again. "Betrayal is rife in our fair kingdom, my ramiliar. The gods breaking faith with their creations. Shamed Ones rising up against those who have for so long suffered them. And now °ur esteemed Harrar, giving up the elite . . ."

  'Assuming that it meets with your blessing, Dread Lord," the Snaper said, "the prisoners will be prepared for sacrifice."

  "With all speed, set to it," Shimrra said. "Join them there. Let us 'e the gods their last ounce of flesh before we dispense with them."

  Muffled explosions punctuated the silence as the shaper e ' The coffer trembled as the enemy's aerial bombardment continu

  Admitted into the bunker, a wounded warrior in vonduun armor saluted and began to stagger toward the throne. He H'H make it halfway before he collapsed onto his knees, black blood died in a wound to his right armpit.

  "Lord," he began weakly. "Enemy warriors have surrounded th Citadel, and even now are attempting to battle their way inside."

  Shimrra approached the warrior to have a closer look at hi wound. "No blaster made that injury."

  "Three Jedi, Lord. At the western gate."

  The slayers stepped forward, but Shimrra waved them back.

  "Let the Jedi come to us." He looked at Onimi. "After all, diversion needn't be the exclusive province of the warmaster."

  W hat had been the Atrium of the Senate was now a cold cavern of living yorik coral. No less digested than the great dome, the imposing post-Imperial interspecies statues that had once graced the arched enclosure resembled sandstone stalagmites or immense candles festooned with flows of melted wax. The curving walls were swirled in blood red, purple, and rust brown, and lighted only by luminescent lichen or the occasional lambent. Yawning black hollows to either side of the vast room were all that remained of the ornate entrances to the Grand Concourse.

  It was in the Atrium that Jedi Knight Ganner Rhysode had died and become a legend among the Yuuzhan Vong warrior caste. Or so Jacen had said. But Jacen had also said that Ganner had brought much of the Atrium down, and that clearly wasn't the case. Leia decided that whoever was in charge of the World Brain had tried to expunge any memories of Ganner's heroic last stand by having the Atrium rebuilt.

  Their hands shackled behind their backs by pincered biots, she,

  ^an, Harrar, Cakhmaim, and Meewalh were being ushered by a cadre

  * warriors toward the five-meter-wide tunnel opposite the Atrium's

  front entry. C-3PO and R2-D2 trailed behind, the protocol droid's

  eg joints squeaking, and the astromech's retractable tread also in need

  417

  of lubrication. High Priest Jakan's acolytes were doing a rush ' purifying the captives by wafting smoke from elaborate censm

  • • • i r- n ^ arid

  anointing everyone with finger-flung drops of a pungent-sm Illiquid. Nearby walked Master Shaper Qelah Kwaad and High Pr Drathul, whom Harrar had explained presided over Vongfor Coruscant.

  Red-orange light pulsed brightly from the far end of the tunn I According to Jacen, the round-topped corridor extended almost half kilometer to what had been the Great Rotunda, and was now the W II of the World Brain.

  "I thought you had your fill of this on Caluula," Leia said to Han who walked at her left hand.

  "Ah, that was only a yammosk," he said, feigning nonchalance "Now we're going to be sacrificed to a World Brain."

  "We really are coming up in the world," Leia said in the same unflappable tone. She paused, then in a more serious voice added: "I don't suppose we can count on Lando and Talon flying to the rescue this time."

  Han compressed his lips, then gave her his best lopsided grin. "Chin up, sweetheart. This isn't over yet."

  No sooner had the words left his mouth than a clamor began to build from somewhere outside the Atrium's missile-torn entry. As the procession came to a halt, Leia could discern the sounds of running feet and dozens of voices raised in conviction. The voices grew louder and more determined, and then the air was filled with the strident whiz of hurled razor bugs and the angry snap of thrashing amphistafTs.

  The cadre of warriors shoved the captives to one side, whirled, and fanned out across the cavern. Amphistaffs unwound from the warriors' forearms, stiffing into poison-spitting batons. Ensconced in their bandoliers, thud and razor bugs vibrated in urgency. All eyes were c the entry when a crowd of scrawny Yuuzhan Vong began to pour into the cavern from the hedge-lined causeway, shouting demands anc brandishing crude weapons.

  Shamed Ones, Leia realized. Heretics!

  Han grinned at her again. "See, what'd I tell you?"

  She wagged her head uncertainly. "You're getting scary in your

  v>

  ° Shamed Ones continued to squeeze into the Atrium, ultimately •nv into a mob fifty strong, but taking no action against the mar-

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  i A warriors. Clearly appalled by the intrusion, Jakan hurried for-

  ch*U^

  d raising his thin arms over his head, as if about to call on the ver of the gods to smite the crowd. Standing alongside Leia,

  Harrar translated the high priest's words.

  "Jakan is demanding to know who or what i
nspired them to pro-

  f ne this most sacred of places. He's ordering them to leave or be

  killed where they stand."

  Individuals began to edge their way to the front of the crowd. A battered Yuuzhan Vong male limped forward, shorter than many of his comrades and wearing a shredded robeskin. The Shamed Ones quieted long enough for their apparent spokesperson to make a brief statement.

  Leia saw Harrar's eyes widen in disbelief.

  "He declares himself to be the Prophet!" The priest glanced at

  Leia. "It's Nom Anor!"

  Leia traded astonished looks with Han, while the Shamed Ones went back to shouting and gesturing with their weapons. Others began to advance to the front, two of whom stood to either side of Nom Anor, as if his lieutenants or disciples, and three others who ignited the blades of their lightsabers.

  Seeing Mara, Tahiri, and Kenth, the atrium warriors immediately tensed and looked to High Prefect Drathul for orders. Leia was at once revived and worried. Several dozen poorly armed heretics, bolstered by three Jedi, against almost one hundred able warriors. R2-D2 toned in disquiet. "I agree completely, Artoo," C-3PO said. "The odds are most

  unfavorable."

  The Shamed Ones recognized this as well, as did the Jedi. And tney, too, began to spread out, if warily. Just as the tension was culminating, sounds of another commotion infiltrated the cavern.

  "Reinforcements!" C-3PO said jubilantly.

  But in place of boisterous cries came a repetitive chant; and in

  place of the determined shuffling of bare feet came the cadence daled troops. A murmur of confusion swept through the h crowd. Expressions of fervor became looks of sudden concer fact that even Mara looked apprehensive was not a good sign

  The Shamed Ones began to move away from the ent through the gap marched one hundred additional warriors with thick amphistaffs and armored in vonduun crab. Leia could by the behavior of the crowd that the new troops were somethin fear. Nom Anor, his lieutenants, and the Jedi held their ground h the rest of the heretics fell farther back, pressing themselves to th Atrium's coarse walls.