Reunion (27 page)

Vorrik looked like his flayed head was about to explode. “It will break when we crush your puny fleet!” he roared. “When we squash you like bugs beneath our feet! Then I will break
you
personally—bone by bone, nerve by nerve, until you are nothing but slime.”

“Am I to take it, then, that negotiating a withdrawal is not an option?”

“Withdrawing is not the Yuuzhan Vong way.”

“That’s odd, because I seem to recall you withdrawing at Borosk.” Pellaeon paused long enough to allow the
commander to think of a response, but not enough time to actually utter it. “And here I was thinking that we were finally managing to breed some sense into your barbaric species. Now I see we still have some way to go.”

The black blood drained from Vorrik’s face, leaving him gray with rage. With a snarl, he struck the oggzil villip transmitting his side of the conversation. There was a blue flash, an organic squelching sound, and then nothing.

Pellaeon turned away from the projector, eminently satisfied. Vorrik would be too enraged to think clearly for some time now. His tactics would be clouded and more ineffective than they would otherwise have been—and that could only be a good thing. Pellaeon had to survive until Vorrik was reminded that his orders almost certainly didn’t include wasting his time on some out-of-the-way worldlet while more pressing battles called for him elsewhere.

Pellaeon’s smile gave way to a look of exhaustion as he finally stood down for the shortest possible rest period he would allow himself. Given that the Imperial and Galactic Alliance forces were in a position that was untenable in the long haul, he hoped that Vorrik’s superiors wouldn’t take too long.

Jacen lifted himself out of a recuperative trance at the same time that Saba beside him stirred. He’d been lending his strength to Danni, who was still out cold, while Saba had been exploring the life fields of the planet in an attempt to ascertain exactly where they were concentrated. The question of whether Sekot existed uniformly through the planet’s biosphere or focused in particular areas was still very much open. If Sekot’s mind
was
focused nearby, there was a chance they could contact it and, through it, talk to the others.

What had roused them from their meditations was the sound of the Magister’s voice resounding through the cave.

“Tell Senshi I wish to speak with him,” she said evenly. Her supine body was still bound and blindfolded, yet she commanded authority.

One of the Ferroans who had been assigned to watch over the prisoners hurried off to find Senshi. The remaining four guards stepped away from Jabitha, as if the Magister might somehow attack them even in her trussed state.

Senshi soon came and crouched down beside the Magister’s body. “You’ve been listening in on us, I see,” he said. There was amusement in his voice.

“You must have known I would,” she replied. “In fact, you probably wanted me to. Otherwise you would have blocked my ears as you had covered my eyes.”

He reached down at this and removed the blindfold. Even from where Jacen was sitting, they could see the dawn’s greenish hue reflected from the woman’s black irises as she blinked in the sudden light.

“Sit her up,” Senshi said, and two Ferroans hoisted her up so she was resting with her back against the rocky wall of the cave.

“I suppose untying me is out of the question.”

Senshi ignored the request. “You brought outsiders here,” he said instead, glancing at the Jedi. “That was a mistake.”

“I do only what is best for our planet.”

He shook his head in disagreement. “You’ve put us all in danger, Jabitha.”

“If I have, then it’s at Sekot’s behest. It recognizes the Jedi; it is curious about their kind.”

“We recognize them, too,” he said. “But that doesn’t automatically make them our friends. You recognize the Far Outsiders. Would you invite them here, too?”

“You know as well as I do that the Far Outsiders would not be not welcome here. They don’t participate in the endless flow of life as Jedi do.”

“That fish swim in the same direction along a stream doesn’t make them the same species,” he argued. “Nor does it mean they’ll get along together.”

“The Jedi have done us no harm, Senshi. I don’t understand why you’ve gone to such lengths to protest actions that have been sanctioned—”

“Please do not continue to suggest that Sekot has willed this,” the elderly Ferroan interrupted sharply. “Sekot is not happy, Jabitha.”

“How could you possibly know this? I am the Magister;
I
am the interface. If anyone can claim to know Sekot’s thoughts, it would be me.”

“If you do, you are not sharing them all with us.” He stood, his outstretched arms attempting to indicate everything around them—in the cave and beyond. “The mind of a living world is vaster in scope and depth than any of us could hope to comprehend. We could live a hundred lifetimes and not grasp more than a fraction of its thoughts on any single matter.”

“It makes its will known to me,” Jabitha said defiantly, “and I pass it on to you. This method has served us well for decades. Why do you question it now? How have I changed to suddenly become untrustworthy?”

“You haven’t changed, Jabitha. The times have. And we must change with them.”

“I agree,” Jacen said, gently easing into the debate. When both Senshi and Jabitha faced him, he continued: “That’s exactly why we’re here. We want Sekot to leave its place of sanctuary, to abandon the security it’s found in Klasse Ephemora system and rejoin the rest of the galaxy—a galaxy that is at war with the Far Outsiders. It is a war we might not win. If you join us, you’ll be risking your lives. But if you
don’t
join us, and we lose without
you, there’ll no longer be anything to stand between you and the Far Outsiders. This is the unpleasant message we bring to both Sekot and your people. If you wish to live in this galaxy, then you must address the issue of the Far Outsiders once and for all. Now.”

“And what’s in it for you?” the rebel Ferroan asked. “Why do you want us so urgently? What does one more world matter in this war of yours?”

“This iz not just another world,” Saba hissed. “There are no worlds az marvelous as Zonama Sekot anywhere in the known galaxy.”

The skepticism emanating from Senshi was so intense it was almost tangible. “And you’ve agreed to this?” he asked Jabitha. “You’ve set us on this path to destruction?”

“I’ve done no such thing!” she snapped back. “I, too, have seen the horrors of war; I, too, know what the Crossings cost us. I want this as little as you do, Senshi—but I will not send these people away or treat them as though they’re criminals simply because they come to us for help! They deserve better than that.”

“Why? Because they’re Jedi?”

“Because they do not mean us harm.”

“Is that your opinion or Sekot’s?”

“Sekot’s.” Here Jabitha faltered, her jaw tightening. “I have counseled caution, just as you do. We cannot accept the word of strangers without question. But at the same time we must not make new enemies. If the Jedi are right about the Far Outsiders, we might need them as much as they need us.”

“And is that Sekot’s thought or yours?”

“That is mine,” she admitted.

Senshi’s expression was scornful. “You are gambling on
your
feelings when all our lives, as well as the life of Sekot itself, are at stake.” He shook his head firmly. “I can’t allow you to do this, Jabitha.”

The Magister’s expression hardened. “And what will you do if I refuse to stand down? Kill me? Kill the Jedi?”

“That iz not an option,” Saba hissed, standing.

Senshi glanced at the Barabel. There was a flicker of nervousness behind his eyes as they danced back to Jabitha. “I talk to you knowing that your eyes and ears are the eyes and ears of Sekot. It will hear me and make its own decision. It will know the
truth.
”

“You have told it nothing it hasn’t already heard, Senshi.”

“You’re wrong,” he said. “I’ve told it that we are prepared to do whatever it takes to protect our peace. It has never heard our defiance before. Soon, though, it will see just how far we are prepared to go.” He turned aside to issue orders to one of his co-conspirators. “We’re moving out in five minutes. Blindfold the Magister. I don’t want her to see where we’re going.”

“What about the Jedi?” Jabitha asked.

Senshi met Jacen’s stare. The nervousness and uncertainty were still there, even though he was desperately trying not to show it in his expression. He knew that there was no way he could keep them if they didn’t want to stay.

“If they wish to come with us, then let them,” he said. “After all, the more witnesses we have, the better. But they can leave if they wish to. Even if they return straight to the settlement, they won’t get back in time to bring help, and we have no need for additional prisoners.”

“Trust me,” Saba said. With hands outstretched and a simple tug of the Force, the two lightsaber pommels flew from the belt of the Ferroan looking after them back into her hands. She handed Jacen his. “We were never your prisonerz.”

The Ferroan guard became agitated by the display of power from the Jedi, but Senshi remained impassive.

“If you try to interfere in any way,” he said, “then we
will fight back. We might not be able to defeat warriors such as yourselves, but we
will
fight back.” He turned to address the Ferroan guards. “Blindfold her—now.”

Senshi turned and moved away, dismissing them. Jacen and Saba exchanged concerned looks, then faced Jabitha. She, too, had worry in her eyes.

“Don’t worry, Magister,” Jacen said. “We’re not about to leave you.”

“No harm will befall you in this one’z care,” Saba added.

Jacen nodded as reassuringly as he could, but doubt was beginning to flower at the back of his mind. Looking down at Danni’s comatose figure, he couldn’t help wonder what he and his friends were getting into.

Jag felt Jaina’s hand move within his. He jerked out of an exhausted half sleep and leaned over her. Her eyelids were half opened, and the fingers of her hand clutched his.

“Jaina? Can you hear me?”

“Jag?” Her voice was ragged.

She started to say something else, but was interrupted by a low moan from the bed next to hers. Jag’s relief was muted by the realization that Tahiri was waking, too. He reached across Jaina to call
Selonia
’s chief medic.

“Vigos, I think you’d better get down here!”

The medic didn’t ask for explanations, or waste time replying. With a click to indicate that he’d heard the message, the line went dead.

“Don’t …” Jaina swallowed. Her lips were dry and cracked.

He handed her a cup of water with a straw feeder and let her drink, all the while uneasily watching the blond girl stirring on the bed beside her. Green irises appeared through fluttering eyelids. Who was waking up? Tahiri or Riina?

Jaina must have seen the apprehension in his stare. “It’s going to be all right,” she croaked. “I think.”

Before he could ask her what she meant by this, Dantos Vigos and a full medical team burst into the room. Tahiri moaned again, and suddenly jackknifed on the bed, limbs flailing. Whatever she was trying to do, her muscles weren’t responding properly. Vigos and his team surrounded her instantly, gently restraining her while taking readings. Two of the medics came to check on Jaina’s vital signs. She assured them that she was fine, but they checked just the same.

Jag believed her. Jaina’s eyes were red and her skin was pale; she looked as though she’d been run through an ice harvester.

“I heard you,” she whispered.

He frowned at this. “What do you mean?”

“In my dream, I heard your voice. I heard what you said.”

Her smile filled him with incredible warmth, and he realized that the sentiments he’d expressed to her earlier were being reciprocated. She didn’t have to say anything; he just knew from that smile that she loved him, too.

“Tahiri?” Vigos spoke close to the girl’s face, gently prizing open her eyes with his fingers to flash a light in to check her pupil reactions. “Can you hear me, Tahiri?”

“My name—” The girl’s dry lips cracked open and emitted a voice like a desert wind. She swallowed and tried again. “What’s my name?”

Jag’s stomach went cold.

“
Ish’ka
!”

He stood and put himself between Jaina and Tahiri—the
thing
in Tahiri’s body! “Call Captain Mayn,” he instructed Vigos. “Tell her—”

A hand gripped his forearm, and he looked down in surprise to find Jaina restraining him.

“Wait,” she said. “Let’s hear her out.”

“If she doesn’t know who she is, then how do we know she’s Tahiri? I’m not giving Riina the chance to get better so she can stab us all in the backs with Tahiri’s lightsaber!”

“I am—” Coughs racked Tahiri’s body as whatever inhabited it struggled to speak. “I am not—”

“I saw them, Jag.” The strength returning to Jaina’s voice held him still despite all the sirens sounding in his mind. “I won’t pretend that I saw or understood everything, but I saw them together, in Tahiri’s mind. Riina was there, fighting her. It was like a dream. They were fighting, then hunting something—me, I think—then it looked like Riina was trying to convince Tahiri to turn on me.” She hesitated slightly. “Perhaps even to kill me. But it didn’t happen. Tahiri found another way. She—”

Jaina hesitated again, as though searching for words.

“Tell me, Jaina,” Jag urged her. “Tell me why I shouldn’t sound the alarm and have her restrained.”

“Not
just
Tahiri,” the girl beside them croaked, her voice slowly firming. “I’m not
just
Riina, either. I’m someone new.” The girl’s eyes bored into his with startling clarity. “I’ve changed, but my face has not.”

“Changed?” Jag heard Vigos’s voice as though from a great distance.

“She’s neither one nor the other,” Jaina said. “But both of them. Tahiri could no more get rid of Riina than the Yuuzhan Vong makers could get rid of her. They had to join together. It was that or go crazy.”

The idea intrigued Jag. How did two completely different minds join? And would Tahiri be anything like she had been before? What if her Yuuzhan Vong half led her astray? A thousand questions rushed his thoughts, none of them, he was sure, easily answered.