"You are all intruders. Prepare to die."

Grimacing, Bhindi did something to the droid's restraining bolt.

CPD 1-33 jerked as if electrocuted each time. "Each station," Bhindi continued, "is attached to an elaborate network of intake and output ducts. In with the bad air, out with the good. And it's those ducts that are most likely to have failed planetwide with the destruction Coruscant is experiencing. But the thing is, each one of those stations could serve as a resistance center-if I can get to it and get into it."

Face gave her a disbelieving look. "Are they all secret, like this one?"

"Everyone."

"Why?"

"That was the second stage of the operation." Bhindi stared forbiddingly at 1-13. "Think you can give them some history... without death threats?"

"I have made no threats. Only announcements of impending doom." CPD 1-13 straightened. "The second state of this complex, according to the maintenance droids that preceded me here, began with the gradual elimination, through retirement and transfer, of all living personnel who operated this station; they were replaced by droids. Then, once the station had been operated entirely by droids for several years, its reclamation organisms tank was disguised as a devourer tank and the operation center was hidden away, accessible only by a secure turobolift."

"By whom, and for what purpose?" Face asked.

"By order of the Imperial government, and for the purpose of being able to exert control over this planetary environment in times of crisis."

Luke raised an eyebrow over that. "Exert control. You mean, in times of revolution, he'd cut off the air?"

"That is correct. Should the Emperor need to regain control or merely cause billions to die, he could threaten to shut off the Complex and strangle Coruscant in its own wastes."

"Merely cause billions to die." Luke shook his head over that turn of phrase. "This doesn't conflict with your medical programming?"

"Oh, no, sir. Implementation of such an operation would be at the Emperor's sole discretion and by his own hand."

Face managed a mirthless smile. "No matter what, any time I learn something more about Emperor Palpa-tine, I wish I hadn't."

"So what was the third stage?" Luke asked. "Installation of the systems and organisms needed to maintain the Subject," said CPD 1-13 "It was an operation that had no significant relation to our primary purpose, but this location, the substation closest to the Imperial government centers, was convenient."

Luke tried to wave the excess verbiage away. "What was the Subject?"

"A human male. He and a human female came to occupy this complex thirteen years ago. Later, another male joined them for a time. They had proper authorization, and controlled droids that could activate the turbo-Hft control in the tank above. Months after their arrival, the second male left, and the first male was operated on and installed in the suspended-animation unit."

"Human males don't grow to be three meters tall."

"They do if subjected to specific growth hormones and cybernetic stimulation for years starting in childhood or adolescence."

"So who is this human male?"

"Unknown, sir. His identity was never provided to us, nor the nature of its armor modifications." Before Luke could ask, the droid hurried on, "It had hypoallergenk: armor plates installed in its torso, head, elbows, and knees. The portions of its brain pertaining to human memory were largely replaced by computer apparatus. We of the maintenance staff concluded that it was to be a war machine of some sort, but beyond that we knew nothing."

"Do you have any images of this? Either from before, or when it recently emerged?"

1-13 shook its head. "No, sir. We were forbidden by our protocols from recording the Subject in any way. Nor do I know what you mean by 'emerged.' r Curious, Luke glanced at Bhindi. She said, "It appears that their programming on this point was pretty comprehensive. When the Subject came out of his suspended animation tank, their programming kicked in and they couldn't even detect him any longer. He cut them to pieces without them knowing what was happening."

"Wonderful," Luke said. "So our so-called Lord Nyax is a three-meter human male, possibly a Jedi, certainly a Force user, wandering around in a world where it probably doesn't understand anything."

"That seems to be about the size of it," Bhindi said. "Isn't the truth liberating?"

SEVEN.

Lord Nyax felt the distant hunger. Something wanted him.

That was all right. He wanted it, too. Anything that was so anxious for him deserved to he encountered. If it would serve him, he would command it. If it would not serve him, he would cut it into pieces.

Either solution was just fine with him.

Coruscant The hunting party moved through the depths of Cor-uscant's ruins.

Four hard-eyed warriors, the scars, implants, and tattoos on their faces like a starmap of pain, led the procession, and four more brought up the rear.

Behind those in front were two voxyn handlers and the leashed voxyn they theoretically controlled. The massive reptilian beasts, low to the ground and rippling with Muscle, moved their heads back and forth with every few steps, as though they could see through the wreckage around them and view potential victims hiding before them.

Viqi, walking alongside Denua Ku behind them, shuddered. The voxyn were the most ill-tempered and evil things she had ever encountered, Yuuzhan Vong included. At least the Vong could reason, even if their logic was alien. The voxyn had been cloned to sense the Force, to hunt and kill Force-wielders. Many Jedi had fallen to their fangs, their teeth, the corrosive stomach acid they could bring up at a moment's notice.

These voxyn didn't look particularly healthy. In places their dark green scales were fading to a yellow that reminded Viqi of plants withering from lack of sunlight. Though they were alert and had lost none of their intensity, their movements often seemed listless.

Not that Viqi would have dared to venture within reach of their teeth or claws. She suspected that either of them would bite her in two just to hear the clack of their teeth meeting in the middle.

The party neared the end of a lengthy access corridor. Ahead, a hole in the building's exterior wall admitted dim sunlight and a breeze.

Two Yuuzhan Vong warriors, novices from the lack of decoration their faces carried, stood on duty, one to either side of the gap.

Raglath Nur, the leader of the hunting party, addressed them. Viqi didn't bother to listen. She knew they'd address her if they needed her.

She was correct; after less than a minute, Raglath Nur beckoned her forward, to the very lip of the hole; Viqi could lean out and see countless stories of crumbling habitat beneath her, and a simple step forward would send her falling to her death.

"This warrior," Raglath Nur said, indicating the novice warrior on the right side, "saw the walkway fall; he was a great distance away.

First it erupted in flames as though from one of the infidel torpedoes, then it fell. Searching, he found bodies below-burned, some of them in pieces.

Explain."

"If he didn't see a starfighter fire a missile or torpedo, then it was probably a bomb," Viqi said, indifferent to his curiosity. "Something like a torpedo, but carried by a man, put into position, and then persuaded to explode a few seconds later-seconds in which the one who planted it runs to safety."

"And?"

"And what?"

Raglath Nur drew a hand back as if to strike her. Viqi steeled herself against the blow. But Denua Ku positioned his amphistaff between them. "He means, what do you conclude?" Denua Ku said. "You are here for your knowledge of infidels, their tactics."

"Yes, yes." Viqi fumed, but thought about it. "The bomb didn't just blow a hole in the walkway. It took the whole thing down and singed both edges. I conclude that it wasn't an improvised weapon. Either the people who did it had access to military equipment, or they're proficient at building such things. This suggests that they're not ordinary survivors-they're elites of some sort."

"Jeedai?" asked Raglath Nur.

Viqi shook her head. "I don't know if Jedi are among them, but Jedi don't normally use high explosives. So this was something different, or something additional."

"What else?"

"If I were in their situation and had to use an explosive device-something sure to give away my position-I'd move away from here very fast, to elude any Yuuzhan Vong parties that came to investigate. Meaning that if we can figure out the route they took, we could search it thoroughly and see if they dropped anything. If they dropped something, we might obtain more information."

"How will we know the difference between an infidel object left here by the planet-dwellers and one dropped by your 'elites'?"

Viqi shrugged. "I will know," she lied.

The party's searches turned up no objects that Viqi felt had been dropped by their prey. But as they reached the next building over in the direction the trackers felt the infidels had traveled, the voxyn became more alert. They left off the eternal, searching sweeps of their heads; instead, they both stared in one direction, outward and downward, the muscles of their necks tense, while their tails began to lash.

Raglath Nur allowed the voxyn and their handlers to take the lead.

The voxyn led them at a quickened pace; Viqi had to struggle to keep up, and was often prodded by Denua Ku when he felt her progress was not sufficient. But the voxyn did not understand the city's architecture, and it required the Yuuzhan Vong, and sometimes Viqi, to guide them down stairwells, ramps, and even turbolift shafts as they rushed toward their prey.

Deeper and deeper they descended into the ruins, and when they had not run down their prey within half an hour, Raglath Nur demanded, "Is our quarry running? Can they be aware of us?"

Viqi shook her head and took a moment to breathe. She tamped back on her resentment; a merchant-princess and Senator of Kuat should not have to exert herself in this unseemly fashion. "The voxyn detect the Force, correct? Perhaps what they're detecting is very strong-and faraway."

Raglath Nur offered up a noise of vexation, but it was, for a member of the Yuuzhan Vong warrior caste, sufficiently mild that Viqi suspected he had come to the same conclusion-that he had merely hoped Viqi would offer some more satisfying answer.

Another half-hour put them much farther down in the building level.

From the general atmosphere of antiquity and seediness, from the driprot that afflicted the dura-crete walls, from the stench of decay and increased incidence of corrupting bodies, Viqi could tell that they were nearly at bedrock level.

They passed a side-corridor that sloped downward; it was mostly filled with dark liquid and bodies floating atop it. Viqi skidded to a halt and turned back to give it a second look, putting her hand over her nose and mouth as if to reduce the stench. Denua Ku joined her, and other warriors turned back to see what had drawn her curiosity. She pointed at one of the bodies. "Get that one," she said.

Denua Ku and one of the others splashed into the water. The body Viqi had pointed out raised its head. He was a male human, young and frightened. He scrambled around in the shallow water and tried to dive away, but Denua Ku caught him by the ankle and yanked. He dragged the screaming, flailing youth back up to the dry cross-corridor, then hauled him up by the collar of his tunic and held him against the corridor wall.

"How did you know?" Raglath Nur asked. Viqi gave him a superior smile.

"He wasn't bloated tike the rest."

"Question him," Denua Ku ordered.

Viqi sighed, then turned to their prisoner. The young man was obviously terrified but knew better than to struggle now that he was surrounded by Yuuzhan Vong warriors. He had long black hair; dark fluid from the pool they'd hauled him from ran from it, pouring from his garments to puddle on the floor. Viqi reflected that, in better circumstances, he would have been pretty enough to serve her as a toy.

"Where are the Jedi?" she asked.

The young man shook his head. "I don't know about Jedi."

Viqi gave him a chill smile. "These warriors would like to kill you. In fact, killing you fast is one of the nicest things they're considering doing to you. So you'd better find some reason, any reason, to give me so I can persuade them not to. Do you understand?"

The young man nodded. "I know something. I'm going to take something out. Don't kill me." He reached into a pants pocket.

The voxyn roared and surged farther down the corridor, dragging their handlers behind them, drawing the attention of the other Yuuzhan Vong warriors.

The young man held out his hand. Viqi reached for him, and he dropped something into her outstretched palm. "It's the ugly-"

"Our prey is close," Raglath Nur said. "We don't need him."

Viqi turned toward him and crossed her arms, a gesture she hoped would hide the object the prisoner had given her. "I'm not through."

But Denua Ku exerted himself, and Viqi heard the snap of the young man's neck.

Denua Ku dropped the corpse back into the dark pool. "Now he will bloat."

Viqi glared at him.

Raglath Nur set the warriors into motion, following the frantic voxyn. "What did the human want to show you?"

Viqi shrugged. "I might have found out, if Denua Ku hadn't been so quick to exterminate him." She waited until Raglath Nur's attention was on the voxyn before she tucked the object out of sight under the neckline of her robeskin. She got a glimpse of it before it was concealed; it seemed to be a tiny remote, one with a pair of buttons on one side, another button and a screen so small as to be nearly useless on the other.

The ugly what?

The handlers, dragged by the voxyn, were first to pass through the ruined metal doors, which were three times the height of a human and broad enough to permit ten pedestrians walking side-by-side. The lettering above the door read:

ELEGAIC FABRICATIONS.

THE COMFORT YOU DESERVE.

Raglath Nur paused outside the doorway and stared with suspicion at the darkness beyond. He whirled on Viqi. "What is this?"

"A manufacturing plant," she said. "They manufacture furnishings.

Very expensive, very functional furnishings."

"Such as what?"

"Such as chairs that convert into extravagantly comfortable beds, chairs that carry their owners about in the air, furnishings that massage those who sit in them..."

"Massage?" Evidently that didn't translate well through Raglath Nur's tizowyrm. "Inflict pain?"

"Inflict pleasure."

The warrior gave her a revolted look and led his fellows into the darkness. Viqi, alongside Denua Ku, followed.

Though the manufacturing concern had seemed pitch-black from outside, once her eyes began adjusting, Viqi discovered that it was not so. There were light sources everywhere, but dim ones, mostly at floor level-emergency lighting, she decided, probably running low on battery power. In the faint glows from the light sources, she could see looming production-line machinery and immobile fabricator droids, some of them huge.

She wondered if any samples of their stock were still in existence.

But doubtless her Yuuzhan Vong companions would not let her enjoy such a chair, not even for a moment.