Dark Tide 1: Onslaught (13 page)

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

A quick examination of the ExGal facility proved the efficacy of the Yuuzhan Vong warning at the door. Luke found no signs of life in there, but there was a lot of evidence of the sheer virulence with which the Yuuzhan Vong hated technology. Machinery had been smashed into bits, and enough dark fluid formed footprints or was sprayed over the walls to suggest that the Yuuzhan Vong had been heedless of personal injuries during their orgy of destruction.

That realization, which crystallized itself in his mind as he bent to trace a bloody footprint with a finger, sent a shiver down his spine. His inability to detect the Yuuzhan Vong through the Force had disturbed him, but he'd counted on their invisibility to be the only odd thing about them. Their apparent fanaticism, as evidenced by the willingness to hurt themselves while pursuing their beliefs, took them well outside the ranges for normal behavior as he knew it. Luke did know of species that valued stoicism in the face of pain, but the Yuuzhan Vong seemed to go beyond even that.

He also knew that his impression of their fury had probably grown beyond all reasonable measure because it was devoid of the input he normally found through the Force. In the past, at other sites of such destruction, he had been able to pick up background traces of the anger. It allowed him to gauge the depth of the perpetrator's emotions, reinforcing or discounting the destruction he saw. Corran had once pointed out how the difference between that sort of impression and the physical evidence of violence could indicate if a crime scene had been dressed up to make a simple murder look like a botched robbery.

This was more than dressing up a site, though.
The Jedi Master slowly stood, then glanced over at Jacen. “Find anything useful?”

His nephew held up a headless doll. “This is one of those toys that has circuitry inside it to make it respond to phrases and things. It's harmless, but they smashed it just as bad as any of the computers.”

R2-D2, rooting through a pile of smashed circuit boards, played a nervous twitter softly.

“The Yuuzhan Vong clearly didn't see the toy as harmless.” Luke shook his head. “From their point of view, it might be more of an abomination than any of the other equipment here.”

Jacen's brows arrowed together for a second, then his expression eased and he nodded. “If they think of machines as evil, then this would be something designed to corrupt the very young. Instead, now, it's just a broken toy meant for a child who will never enjoy it.” The doll's crushed body fell from his fingers and landed amid a pile of debris.

Luke stroked a hand over his jaw. “What I don't see here is anything in the way of changes resulting from the environmental holocaust the Yuuzhan Vong triggered. That green plant hasn't made it inside here . . .”

“May not have had enough time.” Jacen toed more broken debris. “There seemed to be an enclave of the diseased, frayed life-forms to the south and west. It would put this facility between them and our ship.”

Luke thought for a moment and suppressed a smile as he did so. The nonchalant way Jacen had referred to the blastboat as “our ship” casually included him in on any scouting mission. Luke would have preferred to leave him behind with R2-D2, but, he realized, he had no way of knowing if the Yuuzhan Vong were close and, therefore, couldn't guarantee Jacen would be any safer at the station than he would be on the mission.

“Okay, but we take a precaution first. We'll check the communications tower and see if it can transmit data. If it can, we'll link it to the ship and use our comlinks to be able to make a running report on what we see. The ship will cache the data. Artoo will transmit everything if we're cut off or we utter some code words.”

Jacen smiled cautiously. “I wouldn't have thought of that precaution.”

“We're here to learn what we can to safeguard the rest of the New Republic.”

His nephew's head came up. “And to see if we can find anything that will help cure Mara, right?”

Luke nodded. “That, too. Our mission is more important than we are. We take no stupid chances, but we don't shrink from duty, understand?”

The young man nodded. “I do, Master Skywalker.”

After arranging the communications relay setup with R2-D2, the two of them changed from their Jedi robes into A/KT combat jumpsuits. The close-fitting, single-piece garment reminded Luke a lot of his pilot jumpsuit, though this one was colored a green dark enough to be almost black. The elbows and knees were well padded, and stiff trauma pads were inserted breast, back, and along the arms and legs to provide added protection. Having heard from Mara just how savagely the Yuuzhan Vong fought, Luke wanted to take no chances.

If they're going to be armored, so are we.
He tugged on some straps, tightening the suit up, then pulled on a helmet and gloves. He also donned his goggles. Lastly he fastened a blaster around his waist and hung his lightsaber from a clip on the suit. “I'm ready.”

Jacen nodded. “I'm good to go.”

Jacen's suit appeared to be identical to Luke's, save for the color. It was a deep dark red, much darker than the color of dried blood. Luke realized that the suit's color would hide any blood that might leak out of Jacen, sending a jolt through him. He allowed calm to flow in to the wake of that thought, though, knowing that he'd be aware through the Force if Jacen were hurt, and taking comfort in the fact that his nephew wasn't stupid.

“We're just out to gather some facts, Jacen. Nothing heroic on this trip.”

“I got it.”

The two of them slipped from the ExGal compound and headed southwest, through a region of low hills. The green ground cover had spread fairly far and wreathed many a tree that had died under the Yuuzhan Vong environmental assault. There were some signs of native plants trying to make a comeback, but what they had decided was alien foliage seemed poised to move in and smother them. Through the Force Luke gained an impression that was perfectly normal and healthy concerning the Yuuzhan Vong plant; yet everywhere was evidence that its spread was anything but benign.

The other plants here aren't prepared to deal with this invader, so it just spreads and spreads, doing what it does naturally.
The implications of that idea tightened his shoulders. The Yuuzhan Vong were certainly analogous to the plant they'd brought to Belkadan. If the New Republic wasn't ready to repulse them, the Yuuzhan Vong would spread throughout the galaxy.
Doing what they do naturally.

What the Yuuzhan Vong did naturally became more clear as Luke's sense of the frayed ones grew. He and Jacen moved through what had once been a forest. The toppled trees had been carpeted with the green vines, creating more than enough shadow to hide the two of them. They crept up a hill, to the crest line, then carefully slipped over and hid behind the bulk of a fallen log.

They looked down into a broad, shallow valley that had a decently sized stream running through it. The green vines grew throughout, though they did leave circular openings of black sand at various points. In the center of these circles were small plinths, all pointing needle-sharp noses toward the sky.

In the center of the valley lay a small cluster of buildings. The green plants grew around the perimeter of them and took on a shrublike quality at the edges. Aside from where bare paths would allow people to move from the shacks to the plinths, the plants would make it tough for passage. Anyone running from the village would undoubtedly get their feet tangled and would go down.

Not that the folks in the village look as if they are capable of doing much running.
Luke slipped a pair of macrobinoculars from a pocket on his left thigh and focused them on the heart of the village. He saw what looked to be a pair of Trandoshans, a Rodian, a half-dozen humans, and a Twi'lek shambling listlessly along. All were barefooted and walking awkwardly, as if their knees had been broken and then only partially repaired.

He looked closer for signs of trauma and saw nothing as obvious as scars, but there were odd calcifications on the legs, exposed areas of the arms, and even the skulls of these creatures. Concentrating, Luke got a sense of them through the Force and could see the life energy flowing in them in a muted fashion; these people were the stressed life-forms he'd sensed before. The energy seemed to eddy around these odd formations, revealing that, at least on some of them, the bony protrusions also extended deeply into their skulls and body cavities.

He passed the macrobinoculars to Jacen. “Tell me what you see.”

Jacen focused and watched. Force energy gathered as he concentrated. “Those things, those growths . . . they work like restraining bolts on a droid?”

“That would be my guess.” Luke's blue eyes narrowed. “And the people—any idea where they came from?”

Jacen looked again. “The clothing is pretty bad, but some of it has pirate insignia on it. Rim raiders that the Yuuzhan Vong ran into and made into slaves?”

“I think so, too.”

His nephew shivered. “The way they feel in the Force is just not right.”

“I know. It feels almost as if they're dying by degrees.”

“What is the sense of killing your labor force?”

Luke shrugged. “If they were able to pick them up so easily on the Rim, perhaps they think the supply is infinite. It might also be that they're adapting their slave control technology to the inhabitants of this galaxy. Maybe they don't mean to kill them, but they need more work on their control devices. I don't know.”

“It's definitely creepy, no matter what is happening.” Jacen stretched out on his belly, lowered the macrobinoculars, and looked at his uncle. “What are they doing here?”

Luke pointed at the plinths. “Anything familiar about them?”

“Not really.”

“Okay, use the Force. Concentrate on the flow of life within the valley.”

Jacen closed his eyes, drew in a deep breath, then let it out slowly. “Everything is moving in, toward the plinths, along the vines.” His jaw hung open for a second, then he looked at his uncle. “These plants are like a big solar collector. They're channeling energy and the nutrients they're sucking up back into the valley, toward the things. That sand is black because of a nectar the plants are flooding into it.”

“That's what I sensed.” Luke pointed a finger at the plinths. “Unless I miss my guess, I'd say those plinths are coralskippers in their infancy. We're looking at a shipyard. They're growing a squadron right down there, and they're using slave labor to help do it.”

The youth studied the valley again, then shook his head. “Growing fighters? How efficient can that be?”

Luke accepted the macrobinoculars back from him and opened a small compartment on the device. He snaked out a small cable and connected it to his comlink, then focused on the plinths. “The ships look fairly well along, and Belkadan has been under Yuuzhan Vong control for less than a month. That output would rival an Incom factory turning out X-wings, and since these ships are living and can heal, the wastage rate is lower than we get with our machines. What's stunning here is the speed with which they're able to grow these ships. This is serious trouble.”

He turned off the macrobinoculars, unhitched them from the comlink, and returned them to his pocket. “We got some good visuals. Come on.”

Jacen looked puzzled. “Shouldn't we wait until dark to free the slaves?”

“We have other things we have to do first.” Luke pointed toward the west. “There are more slaves over there. Either they're growing more coralskippers, or they might be growing other components for the ships. We need to see what is going on.”

Jacen followed him as they worked their way west. They came across one valley that resembled the one they'd just vacated, save that what had been plinths were simply small rocks in the ground. The village was completely overgrown, and Luke caught no evidence of slaves in the area.

One difference he did discover was a dozen-meter-long bit of stone that appeared to be lifeless obsidian. It had the outline of a coralskipper, but where there had been a cockpit opening on the one he'd examined on Dubrillion, this one remained sealed in stone. Luke ran his hand over the fighter, letting his fingers play over the irregularities in its surface.

Jacen frowned. “I don't get it. Why did they leave one behind?”

“Birth defect?” Luke raced a finger along the line of the cockpit canopy. “It grew without a separation here. Could have been a local microbial infection, or just lousy genetics. Perhaps the xenoforming of the planet was intended to sterilize the nurseries, then free up the sort of nutrients that the plants need to feed the ships. Something went wrong with this one, so they dumped it. Still, this indicates they must be growing other components elsewhere, because the propulsion creatures aren't here.”

Jacen squatted in the coralskipper's shadow and parted the alien ground cover's leaves to expose the soil. “Look at this. The dirt isn't black anymore.” He took some up in his left hand and smoothed it against his palm with his thumb. “It's completely sterile.”

Luke dropped to his knee beside Jacen. “I wonder . . .”

“What?”

“An Ithorian once explained to me that there are some crops that exhaust the soil in which they are raised. Perhaps the Yuuzhan Vong have done that here, raising a crop of coralskippers too fast.” He nodded to his nephew. “Take a sample of the soil, and we can have Artoo check it later.”

Once Jacen got the sample, they continued their reconnaissance mission and discovered a small lake with water thickened by the presence of brown algae. On the water, which lapped weakly at the shores, floated plants with three large blue triangular leaves. From the center grew a stalk, and from it hung two round berries, about the size of a human's head. Some plants did have more than just two, and by the far shore, Luke spotted a different species with slightly smaller berries growing in bunches.