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nonelikemesinceOn an asteroid that revolved every four hours, one day felt like forever. Getting lectured by Corran on trying to set a better example for all the Jedi kids who looked up to him didn't help with that, because it wasn't like Anakin had asked to be their role model, and he definitely hadn't asked them to think of him as the next Luke (though he'd be lying if he said he didn't enjoy the idea at least a little bit). Worrying about Tahiri made the time stretch out even longer; he hadn't been able to stop wondering about the Yuuzhan Vong battle cry she'd yelled back on Eriadu when she barged into the interrogation chamber to rescue him.
"Anakin, all of the words they put in me are still there. The other stuff faded, or most of it. But their language, I still hear it. Sometimes I think in it," she'd confessed to him, but even though something about the conversation felt a little bit off he believed her when she swore it was only words and he never had to worry about her hurting him. He finally got up the nerve to tell her about his vision of her, the two of them standing with the helmets of their vac suits touching so they could talk without Corran being able to overhear them on the comm, and in the awkward, vulnerable aftermath of that confession it had felt like there was so much more to say and the moment could go on forever.
Which was, of course, when the "asteroid" started to accelerate and they had to slice through the yorik-coral hull of the Yuuzhan Vong ship it actually was if they didn't want to get stranded in hard vacuum.
And, as the ship's course appeared to be laid in for the planet of Yag'Dhul itself -- they were guessing -- they decided they might as well go along for the ride. And hope they didn't get fired upon on sight, given they were in a Yuuzhan Vong ship.
***
Tahiri's understanding of the Yuuzhan Vong language turned out to be useful, since she was the only one who could decipher anything of the ship's orders -- or talk to the ship's crew and passengers, now their prisoners. Interestingly, from what she translated for them, the story of what Anakin and Tahiri had done on Yavin 4 was developing into a bit of a legend, but the important part was the discovery that they were on a scout ship, which meant that they had a chance at stopping whatever the Yuuzhan Vong had in mind. From Yag'Dhul's location at the intersection of two major trade routes, and close to Thyferra, they suspected that at least part of the plan was to control bacta production, which would give the Yuuzhan Vong the ability to hold the health of the entire galaxy hostage. Inexperienced a pilot as she was, she also had the best chance of any of them of using the direct neural interface of the ship's cognition hood to fly it. Corran, meanwhile, dealt with the prisoners while Anakin tried to jury-rig a wrist comm and an emergency beacon to make contact with the planet.
Because the Shamed Ones among the Yuuzhan Vong were, thanks in part to what they saw as Anakin's redemption of Vua Rapuung on Yavin, starting to think of the Jedi as saviors of a sort, it wasn't hard for them to get one of the Shamed Ones aboard the Stalking Moon to help them out by transmitting a cover story to the fleet commander about an unexpected ship failure that had left the entire crew dead.
That wasn't very reassuring once they were able to hail the Yag'Dhul primary bastion and were told by the Givin answering the comm, in Yuuzhan Vong, that they'd been expected. There was no way to get the New Republic fleet there in time, which meant that if there was a chance to keep the planet from occupation, it was entirely up to the three of them.
Bad to worse: as soon as they jumped in-system, the ship was crippled by the twenty starfighters that surrounded them, and boarded.
***
Anakin, Tahiri, and Corran were escorted through the station -- decorated with complicated fractal patterns on all the walls, appropriate for the mathematically-inclined Givin -- to Dodecian Illiet's office.
"The only grievance against you is entering our system and apparently beginning an attack run on our station," Dodecian Illiet told them. "That, however, is a rather severe charge."
Corran pointed out to him that despite appearances and despite being fired upon they hadn't fired back, and went on, "We've come to warn you, Dodecian Illiet, that a Yuuzhan Vong fleet is preparing an invasion of this system. The ship we were piloting was a scout ship we captured. It was designed to come here unnoticed and contact some faction of your own people. This faction has apparently arranged for your defensive grid to collapse shortly, to facilitate the invasion."
"Explain in detail," Illiet said after several moments during which Anakin had the unsettling impression that he was listening to someone else as well as Corran the whole time. They didn't have that much evidence, since they hadn't exactly had a lot of time to gather any, and as it turned out this was the problem with dealing with the Givin: fixated on mathematical precision as they were, there were "too many unknown factors" in the case they presented.
In effect, the Givin didn't seem to believe that Yuuzhan Vong occupation would significantly impact their lives, despite Corran's best attempts to convince them otherwise.
"If you don't fight them, you'll be slaves," Tahiri cut in, abruptly, and at first Anakin thought she'd just lost patience with the entire back-and-forth until he realized her voice was different. She sounded like she had when she'd been under the worst of the Yuuzhan Vong brainwashing, a low and disturbing timbre.
Illiet countered, "There is no reason to suspect that."
Tahiri's response was to laugh, and the sound was still unsettling. "I was a Yuuzhan Vong captive. I've seen what they do. Don't you get it? Right, they may be staging a strike on Thyferra from here. They may have ten reasons for being here. But I can tell you what one of them is."
Well, that seemed to have his attention. Illiet looked at her. "Explain."
"You. Your species." Anakin fought the chill that crept down his spine at the way she sounded. "The Yuuzhan Vong make every tool they use from living things. They believe life was given to them by the gods to shape. You think they aren't interested in ready-made sentient beings who can survive in vacuum? The things they could make with you! They'll blow up this station and blast your ships and cities into ions. Then they'll take you and give you to their shapers. That will be the end of your complicated politics, Dodecian."
She was right, Anakin realized, and he blurted out as much.
"You really think this is true?" Illiet asked after what was almost precisely half a standard minute of silence.
Tahiri answered, "If you let them in without a fight, you've got no chance."
"It is confirmed," the dodecian said, after another pause that seemed like he was listening to an inaudible voice. "The defensive grid has been sabotaged. Fortunately, it can be remedied."
Not that he readily agreed that they would fight, and that was frustrating, but at least they'd been willing to listen.
He at least agreed to enter a request for Corran to contact Coruscant for backup, which . . . well, it was something, but stretched what little patience Anakin had; for her part, Tahiri was somewhat mollified by his promise that the captive Yuuzhan Vong from the Stalking Moon wouldn't be harmed. "Now," Illiet said, "if you will accompany my aide, you will be provided with quarters and repast fit for your species."
"Are we prisoners?" asked Corran, and Anakin could tell what the answer would be before Illiet replied.
"I would prefer you did not think of yourselves as such. You have been allowed to retain your Jedi weapons. But I would also prefer you remain confined to the quarters we assign you. The station is delicate. Were there to be violence of any sort, it could well suffer explosive decompression."
Well, that threat was clear enough, as was the sense that the Givin saw them as excellent bargaining chips. Fantastic.
[OOC: NFI/NFB/OOC-okay, TBC, etc. Almost done with this one, which is still tweaked from Edge of Victory 2: Rebirth by Greg Keyes. Someone remind me to either save these things to GDocs or my flash drive next time, geez.]
"Anakin, all of the words they put in me are still there. The other stuff faded, or most of it. But their language, I still hear it. Sometimes I think in it," she'd confessed to him, but even though something about the conversation felt a little bit off he believed her when she swore it was only words and he never had to worry about her hurting him. He finally got up the nerve to tell her about his vision of her, the two of them standing with the helmets of their vac suits touching so they could talk without Corran being able to overhear them on the comm, and in the awkward, vulnerable aftermath of that confession it had felt like there was so much more to say and the moment could go on forever.
Which was, of course, when the "asteroid" started to accelerate and they had to slice through the yorik-coral hull of the Yuuzhan Vong ship it actually was if they didn't want to get stranded in hard vacuum.
And, as the ship's course appeared to be laid in for the planet of Yag'Dhul itself -- they were guessing -- they decided they might as well go along for the ride. And hope they didn't get fired upon on sight, given they were in a Yuuzhan Vong ship.
***
Tahiri's understanding of the Yuuzhan Vong language turned out to be useful, since she was the only one who could decipher anything of the ship's orders -- or talk to the ship's crew and passengers, now their prisoners. Interestingly, from what she translated for them, the story of what Anakin and Tahiri had done on Yavin 4 was developing into a bit of a legend, but the important part was the discovery that they were on a scout ship, which meant that they had a chance at stopping whatever the Yuuzhan Vong had in mind. From Yag'Dhul's location at the intersection of two major trade routes, and close to Thyferra, they suspected that at least part of the plan was to control bacta production, which would give the Yuuzhan Vong the ability to hold the health of the entire galaxy hostage. Inexperienced a pilot as she was, she also had the best chance of any of them of using the direct neural interface of the ship's cognition hood to fly it. Corran, meanwhile, dealt with the prisoners while Anakin tried to jury-rig a wrist comm and an emergency beacon to make contact with the planet.
Because the Shamed Ones among the Yuuzhan Vong were, thanks in part to what they saw as Anakin's redemption of Vua Rapuung on Yavin, starting to think of the Jedi as saviors of a sort, it wasn't hard for them to get one of the Shamed Ones aboard the Stalking Moon to help them out by transmitting a cover story to the fleet commander about an unexpected ship failure that had left the entire crew dead.
That wasn't very reassuring once they were able to hail the Yag'Dhul primary bastion and were told by the Givin answering the comm, in Yuuzhan Vong, that they'd been expected. There was no way to get the New Republic fleet there in time, which meant that if there was a chance to keep the planet from occupation, it was entirely up to the three of them.
Bad to worse: as soon as they jumped in-system, the ship was crippled by the twenty starfighters that surrounded them, and boarded.
***
Anakin, Tahiri, and Corran were escorted through the station -- decorated with complicated fractal patterns on all the walls, appropriate for the mathematically-inclined Givin -- to Dodecian Illiet's office.
"The only grievance against you is entering our system and apparently beginning an attack run on our station," Dodecian Illiet told them. "That, however, is a rather severe charge."
Corran pointed out to him that despite appearances and despite being fired upon they hadn't fired back, and went on, "We've come to warn you, Dodecian Illiet, that a Yuuzhan Vong fleet is preparing an invasion of this system. The ship we were piloting was a scout ship we captured. It was designed to come here unnoticed and contact some faction of your own people. This faction has apparently arranged for your defensive grid to collapse shortly, to facilitate the invasion."
"Explain in detail," Illiet said after several moments during which Anakin had the unsettling impression that he was listening to someone else as well as Corran the whole time. They didn't have that much evidence, since they hadn't exactly had a lot of time to gather any, and as it turned out this was the problem with dealing with the Givin: fixated on mathematical precision as they were, there were "too many unknown factors" in the case they presented.
In effect, the Givin didn't seem to believe that Yuuzhan Vong occupation would significantly impact their lives, despite Corran's best attempts to convince them otherwise.
"If you don't fight them, you'll be slaves," Tahiri cut in, abruptly, and at first Anakin thought she'd just lost patience with the entire back-and-forth until he realized her voice was different. She sounded like she had when she'd been under the worst of the Yuuzhan Vong brainwashing, a low and disturbing timbre.
Illiet countered, "There is no reason to suspect that."
Tahiri's response was to laugh, and the sound was still unsettling. "I was a Yuuzhan Vong captive. I've seen what they do. Don't you get it? Right, they may be staging a strike on Thyferra from here. They may have ten reasons for being here. But I can tell you what one of them is."
Well, that seemed to have his attention. Illiet looked at her. "Explain."
"You. Your species." Anakin fought the chill that crept down his spine at the way she sounded. "The Yuuzhan Vong make every tool they use from living things. They believe life was given to them by the gods to shape. You think they aren't interested in ready-made sentient beings who can survive in vacuum? The things they could make with you! They'll blow up this station and blast your ships and cities into ions. Then they'll take you and give you to their shapers. That will be the end of your complicated politics, Dodecian."
She was right, Anakin realized, and he blurted out as much.
"You really think this is true?" Illiet asked after what was almost precisely half a standard minute of silence.
Tahiri answered, "If you let them in without a fight, you've got no chance."
"It is confirmed," the dodecian said, after another pause that seemed like he was listening to an inaudible voice. "The defensive grid has been sabotaged. Fortunately, it can be remedied."
Not that he readily agreed that they would fight, and that was frustrating, but at least they'd been willing to listen.
He at least agreed to enter a request for Corran to contact Coruscant for backup, which . . . well, it was something, but stretched what little patience Anakin had; for her part, Tahiri was somewhat mollified by his promise that the captive Yuuzhan Vong from the Stalking Moon wouldn't be harmed. "Now," Illiet said, "if you will accompany my aide, you will be provided with quarters and repast fit for your species."
"Are we prisoners?" asked Corran, and Anakin could tell what the answer would be before Illiet replied.
"I would prefer you did not think of yourselves as such. You have been allowed to retain your Jedi weapons. But I would also prefer you remain confined to the quarters we assign you. The station is delicate. Were there to be violence of any sort, it could well suffer explosive decompression."
Well, that threat was clear enough, as was the sense that the Givin saw them as excellent bargaining chips. Fantastic.
[OOC: NFI/NFB/OOC-okay, TBC, etc. Almost done with this one, which is still tweaked from Edge of Victory 2: Rebirth by Greg Keyes. Someone remind me to either save these things to GDocs or my flash drive next time, geez.]
