The shapers, too, were praiseworthy, as were Jamaane's priests.

Still, the domain was not generally thought to be bellicose. But as the long voyage through the void began to gnaw at everyone, Jamaane members had grown outspoken about their impatience with Quoreal, who was cautious, traditional and had done little to keep Yuuzhan Vong society intact at a time when guidance was needed most.

Even so, no one believed that Domain Jamaane would actually rise up and make a bid to usurp Quoreal's power. In one bold action, Shimrra's warriors moved against Quoreal's, executing them, along with every member of their domains. Then they did the same to Quoreal, and they put to death almost all the priests, advisers, and shapers who had supported Quoreal in his attempt to steer a course away from the newly discovered galaxy. Others knew better than to question Shimrra, and their wisdom allowed them to live. Domains like Shai, which had lost a great warrior during an early confrontation with the inhabitants of the galaxy.

And the Praetorite Vong-though their fealty to Shimrra had been nothing more than a ruse to keep secret Prefect Da'Gara's own invasion plans. Plans that Nom Anor himself had been drawn into, to the point of a.s.sisting the Praetorite in acquiring a yammosk-even if it was a faulty one that would have been condemned to death had Nom Anor not persuaded the shapers in charge of the biot to allow him to have it, in exchange for certain favors.

If Shimrra knew, Nom Anor might even now be among the ossuary's dying, rather than mere witness to the event.

All around him, warriors were using their amphistaffs and batons to prod greater enthusiasm from the spectators, but they roused little more than ritual cheers, because, in the arena below, things weren't going quite as planned. If innocent had been arrested with guilty, there would certainly have been much beseeching of forgiveness from Shimrra.

Instead, the Shamed Ones were going to their deaths-being torn limb from limb, clawed and gutted, gobbled like succulent fruits, tossed about like playthings-cursing Shimrra and the elites, and crying, "Yu'shaa lives! Long live Yu'shaa!"

Jakan, Nas Choka, Qelah Kwaad, and Drathul could only look on in dismay, for the suggestion was that everyone arrested was a heretic-or had at least been somehow persuaded to show disdain for tradition. None of the elite would even dare glance at Shimrra, save for Nom Anor, who, out of the corner of his one real eye, saw that the Supreme Overlord was laughing.

Everyone in the Ralroost's briefing center had fallen silent in response to the hologram Admiral Kre'fey had conjured from a projector.

Shimmering in diaphanous blue light were images of a world engulfed by vines, giant ferns, and trees with enormous fronds, some fan-shaped, some as delicate as feathers.

Spires and pinnacles and flat-topped bluffs rose from the luxuriant vegetation, and in the distance immense mountains heaved, their alloy bones protruding through the verdant cloaks that had been thrown over them, and their faces marred by geometric openings. Water-filled basins abounded, reflecting the light of a bruised sky, and flowing slowly through deep gorges were rivers without twists or bends or oxbow lakes.

Mossy outcroppings jutted from jungle patched in brilliant scarlet that darkened to crimson, or joined with other patches to form expanses of shimmering black or spark-gap blue, all shot through with streaks that shimmered like precious metals. Winged creatures flitted from height to height, hunting just above the canopy, while ma.s.sive beasts lumbered below.

All in all, it was a planetscape too haphazard, too uneven, too immature to be real. And in some sense, it wasn't. "Coruscant," Kre'fey told his audience of several hundred Alliance officers. At the touch of Kre'fey's left forefinger a second holo superimposed itself on the first, showing the Senate, Calocour Heights, Column Commons, the Glitannai Esplanade, and other once-celebrated locations of the former galactic capital.

"You can see that things have changed," the Bothan added.

Seated to one side of the command rostrum, Han and Leia remained as thoughtfully silent as everyone else. With Kre'fey stood most of the officers who had been present at the informal briefing that Han, Leia, and Jaina had attended four days earlier.

"You undermine your own argument for attacking Coruscant," a Hutt said from front row center. His name was Embra, and he was commander of a resistance group known as the Sisar Runners. "Clearly the planet is beyond restoration. From what we have been given to understand, the Yuuzhan Vong even managed to alter the orbit and rotation."

"Why should we waste our dwindling resources on rescuing Coruscant, in any case?" an Agamarian officer said. "What did the New Republic Senate do for us when the Yuuzhan Vong invaded? They hung us out to dry.

They allowed the worlds of the Outer and Mid Rims to fall, while they recalled the fleets to protect the Core."

"Many of the choices made were regrettable," Sovv said, in thickly accented Basic, his black eyes shining. "There are countless examples of gross misjudgment. But those were political concerns, and they shouldn't be reason enough to splinter us now.

"Shimrra wants us to believe that Coruscant can't be rebuilt, and is protected by hidden defenses. But it is not beyond redemption. Yes, the orbit has been altered, and the surface temperature has been raised.

But it is certainly not uninhabitable. Much of the vegetation is surface cover. Underneath, beneath the veneer, much of our technology is intact, or at the very least repairable."

Rogue Squadron leader Gavin Darklighter stood up.

"Sirs, according to reports made by Jacen Solo, Coruscant is protected by hidden defenses. Jedi Solo indicated that an attack would set in motion contingencies that would ultimately render the planet unfit for reoccupation."

"We've taken Jacen Solo's report under advis.e.m.e.nt," Kre'fey said.

"But because of what he experienced during his captivity, we are not inclined to accept his statements as incontrovertible."

Han was quick to put his arm around Leia's shoulders.

"Easy there, manka cat. What'd you expect Kre'fey to say?" Leia turned to him. "You believe Jacen."

"Of course I believe him. But these people aren't as smart as we are."

"That's not what you said at Caluula." Han waved his free hand in dismissal.

"Ah, that was only for show." Sovv was speaking. "Our attack on the Peace Brigade convoy at Selvaris was merely the first step in destabilizing Overlord Shimrra."

"A question, Admiral Kre'fey," said a wing commander Han didn't know by name. "I thought we won the war at Ebaq Nine."

"That's not a question," Kre'fey grumbled, "but I'll address it anyway. The war will not be won until we've retaken Coruscant. Our crusade is not only justified, but essential. Coruscant cries out for vengeance!" He softened his tone to add, "Shimrra's planned attack on Mon Calamari will leave Coruscant lightly defended and vulnerable. Even if we fail to catch Shimrra's home defense fleet napping, it's possible that we can kill Shimrra or make things too unpleasant for him to remain on Coruscant. An attack is the last move he expects us to make."

"Our resistance leaders on Coruscant maintain that the time is ripe," Airen Cracken said. "The Shamed Ones are ready to make their move.

Intelligence now believes that Alliance prisoners were rescued not for sacrifice or hostage taking, but as a means of sending a signal that the heretics are ready to ally with us in the fight. Shimrra is well aware of the fact that he is fighting on two fronts, and his planned attack on Mon Calamari smacks of desperation. He knows that he needs to defeat us before we succeed in ama.s.sing a force sufficient to threaten him, or before the heretics conspire to pitch him from the throne.

"According to the same report Colonel Darklighter made reference to," the general continued, "the seedship that conveyed the World Brain to Coruscant was overwhelmed, and thousands of captives escaped. Many of those former slaves-who have been forced to survive on grayweave and whatever they can forage, steal, or ransack-have found their way to the resistance. With help from us, they can weaken the Yuuzhan Vong from within. An unexpected attack on the world the enemy knows as Yuuzhan'tar will be as demoralizing to the Yuuzhan Vong as the fall of Coruscant was to the New Republic."

The audience stirred, but no one had questions.

"I wish to speak for a moment about the attack on Mon Calamari itself, " Kre'fey said.

Again the Bothan's hand went to the holoprojector controls. The 3-D image showed a pliable-looking, bulbous-headed marine-looking creature, trailing a ma.s.s of tentacles of varying length and thickness.

"A yammosk," Kre'fey said. "The gigantic, genetically engineered creature that serves as a war coordinator for the Yuuzhan Vong. Its telepathic abilities, though limited, enable it to facilitate communications among war vessels, and to project its thoughts and feelings onto others-Yuuzhan Vong, human, and so on.

By virtue of its capacity to meld with coralskippers and other craft, its presence can affect the outcome of any military engagement.

"a.n.a.lysis of recent battle recordings suggests that the Yuuzhan Vong armada will take the form of this monstrosity-with warships, gunship a.n.a.logs, and coralskippers strung out to represent tentacles, and capital ships, tenders, carriers, and actual yammosk vessels comprising the armada's fortified heart." Kre'fey's light pointer indicated the tentacles. "Our strategy will be to sow confusion in these keys areas, by using our fastest ships to strike and fade, gradually opening fire lanes to the center. These attacks will commence the moment the armada emerges from hypers.p.a.ce. As the main body of the armada nears Mon Calamari s.p.a.ce, the ranged weapons of our largest ships will begin to hammer away at the center. Concurrently, courier ships will be dispatched to Contruum, where our fleets will be standing by. We antic.i.p.ate that when the Yuuzhan Vong commander at Mon Calamari learns that Coruscant is under siege, he will attempt to jump some of his battle groups back to the Core, by way of Toong'l and Caluula, trusting the yammosks installed on those worlds to coordinate withdrawal and protect against the possibility of ambush."

"With all due respect, Admiral," a Mon Calamari officer said, "Nas Choka is a far more shrewd warmaster than Tsavong Lah was. He won't be taken in by intelligence disinformation. And at Toong'l and Caluula, he'll be on the watch for interdictors, or mines of the sort we employed successfully at Ebaq Nine."

"Precisely," Kre'fey said. "Which is why we'll employ none of that.

Instead, Alliance infiltration teams will by then have incapacitated the yammosks on both worlds. Deprived of battle coordination, the withdrawing battle groups will be vulnerable to counterattack. The odds are against our inflicting sufficient damage to rout them. But the longer we can keep them from returning to the Core, the greater the chances of our Contruum fleets scoring heavily against Coruscant-and against Shimrra."

Han made a low sound of puzzlement, and Leia turned to him.

"What?" she said.

"Doesn't add up. If Caluula had been defended in the first place, the Vong wouldn't have been able to use it as a staging area now."

Suddenly Han was on his feet. Leia a.s.sumed that he wanted to share his concerns with everyone on the rostrum.

Instead, he said, "I want to be counted in on the Caluula mission."

Admiral Kre'fey swung to him. "Thank you, Captain Solo. Consider it done."

Leia was still staring at him when he sat down. "What?" he said.

"You, is what. Selvaris, then back to Selvaris. Caluula, and now back to Caluula? Besides, you just volunteered for something you said didn't add up."

"Yeah, but I'd sooner volunteer us for the mission than have anyone else risk it."

Leia shook her head in wonder.

"You're trying to get us killed, is that it?"

"Just the opposite." Han grinned. "I can't have you getting bored with me."

"Well, this should be good for at least another twenty-five years."

Han patted her leg, then grew serious. "Here's the real reason: I want us to do it for everyone who died or was captured at Caluula."

EIGHTEEN.

Casual questioning of some of those who had attended the "cleansing rite"-or slaughter, as many were whispering-had left Nom Anor with the impression that he had been the only one to notice Shimrra's laughter.

Now, two days after the heretics had been put to death, the Supreme Overlord's unnerving smile was visible for everyone in the Hall of Confluence to see. Nas Choka knelt before him, the Scepter of Entreaty curled around the arm that normally would have propped the warmaster's domain tsaisi.

"Most Gracious Lord," Nas Choka was saying, "I take it upon myself, in the names of the priests, seers, and others of my domain, to implore that additional thought be given to the holy task you have set before your warriors, to proceed with haste to Mon Calamari, and there lay waste to the ships of our enemy's fleet, so that we might end this struggle at last, and see to the greater duty of bringing the truth to those whose homes we have conquered, lest we be forced to crush them underfoot like so many gricha. I ask this in the name of Yun-Yammka, to whom I am foresworn, and in all respect, since it is you who have Yun-Yammka's ear, and upon you that the burden of existence rests."

Shimrra leaned forward, with his pointed chin resting on the palm of his huge hand, and Onimi left the steps below the throne to sit cross-legged by the warmaster, studying him with his lopsided head tilted to the heavy side, but without giving voice to rhyme or insult.

"Pray, just what is it that your priests and seers have been telling you, Warmaster, since your words are the first I've heard of such matters?" Shimrra asked. "Surely you harbor no doubts that your mighty armada can prevail."

"No, Great Lord, of that I have no doubts. It is instinct that compels me to ask: at what cost to us?"

Shimrra motioned to him.

"Continue, Warmaster, so that all here gathered might get a glimmer of the inner workings of so strategic a thinker."

Nas Choka raised his gaze.

"Great Lord, I do not counsel against striking Mon Calamari. I question only the timing of the a.s.sault."

Shimrra adopted a look of perplexity.

"Of what timing do you speak? Are the stars in this peculiar sky out of alignment? Do the days of the sacred calendar auger for caution?

Are you not in the proper mood to mete out punishment? Speak plainly, Warmaster. I will think only the more of you for it."

Nas Choka snapped his fists to his shoulders in salute.

"Great Lord, I would prefer to concentrate our efforts on securing further those worlds we hold, in the regions our enemy catalogs as Core, Colonies, Inner Rim, and Expansion Region. That much accomplished, we will have created an impenetrable wall against incursion, and from inside that wall we can continue to make forays out into the Mid Rim and other sectors, until we have at last driven the forces of our enemy into a region where they might be subdued by attrition or with one final stroke."

"Is that not what we have already done?" Shimrra asked. "As we speak they are consolidated at Mon Calamari. We have pushed them to the extremes of their own galaxy."

"Some of the enemy, Gracious Lord, but not all. Pockets of strong resistance remain. To subdue the Hutts fully required years, and it may take as many to subjugate the Hapes Consortium, the Chiss empire, the Corporate Sector. In all those places, to name but a few, the enemy is strong. I won't argue that many of their fleets are now united at Mon Calamari. But our campaigns in the Remnant, at Esfandia, and Bilbringi yet again, have cost us dearly. War vessels need to be grown and nurtured-weapons, craft, and coralskippers alike. Our armada is weakest in the very vessels needed to move it. More, we need to be better equipped for surface contests-unless it is our design to poison more worlds than we already have, and risk having the G.o.ds misunderstand our intentions, and p.r.o.nounce us callous toward life."

Nom Anor was impressed, and wished he had the courage to support Nas Choka openly, but he couldn't chance adding his voice to the warmaster's-not without jeopardizing his special relationship with Shimrra. But if the truth could be told, Nom Anor would have confessed that he wanted only to protect the world with which he had been entrusted. Having struggled for so long to attain a rank of authority, he had no desire to see the privileges that came with his station disappear because of some blunder by Shimrra.

The Supreme Overlord himself was too keen a strategist to take issue with all that Nas Choka was saying. But the warmaster was ignorant about the one unknown quant.i.ty that was compelling Shimrra to move quickly-and in seeming defiance of the belief that he was being shortsighted. That one unknown was Zonama Sekot.

"I appreciate your concerns, Warmaster," Shimrra said, "and indeed, if anyone is worthy of the honorific it is you, for your insight is sharp as a honed coufee."

He paused just long enough for Nas Choka to regain his confidence before adding: "But you are in error. I a.s.sure you that Yun-Yuuzhan was greatly pleased by the deaths of so many heretics at the Place of Bones.

Trust to him, to Yun-Yuuzhan, to allay the concerns of the Slayer and the other G.o.ds. You will be rewarded with victory, Warmaster, and praises will be sung to you and your commanders, now and for generations to come."

Nom Anor smiled inwardly. Shimrra was brilliant at playing the game. All his talk of mollifying the G.o.ds was nothing more than a subterfuge-something beyond debate by the priests, since the Supreme Overlord was their only real conduit to the G.o.ds. And it struck Nom Anor that Shimrra was right about what he had said at their most recent meeting: the Yuuzhan Vong had outgrown the G.o.ds. It wasn't that the G.o.ds didn't exist, so much as the Yuuzhan Vong no longer needed them.

All at once, he felt someone's eyes on him. He looked to Shimrra, but Shimrra was still gazing down on Nas Choka. It was Onimi who was watching Nom Anor. In his command grotto, deep in the bowels of the holy mountain that was the worldship Citadel, Nas Choka, his chief tactician, and a warrior-seer studied a display of blaze bugs, moving about in their yorik coral niche. Insects capable of hovering in flight, or glowing or darkening at the behest of a yammosk, the bugs provided a visual representation of Yuuzhan Vong and enemy forces marshaled at Mon Calamari and the relatively neighboring worlds of Toong'l and Caluula. The frenzied motion of the insects mirrored the swirling of Nas Choka's thoughts.

"Shimrra is deranged," the female seer said. "Smiling as if bequeathed more than his usual knowledge of events." Nas Choka looked at his blood-smeared subordinate. "You are safe herein, seer, but were I you, I would exercise caution about what words fly from my mouth. Shimrra has ears throughout the Citadel, and in more places than you can imagine.

And who, seer, would you bid go to staffs with one of the Supreme Overlord's newly enhanced warriors should you be challenged?"

The seer bowed at the waist.

"Your forgiveness, Warmaster."

"There is no swaying Shimrra. What matters now is that we do not fail him."

Nas Choka turned to face his cardinal subalterns.

"None of you need fear expressing your opinions here. But take care elsewhere-both on and distant from Yuuzhan'tar." He returned his attention to the blaze bug display. "The enemy fleet remains, augmented now by ships from star systems far removed from the war."

The tactician, attired in high turban and long cloak, nodded.

"As I feared, they are allying against us. We were wrong to move quickly in the Remnant and in the Koornacht Cl.u.s.ter. We might well have been able to make use of the so-called Imperials and the barbaric Yevetha. We might have at least led them by their noses long enough to consider that there was greater profit in allying with us."

Nas Choka snorted in agreement.

"Had I to do it all over again, I might even have kept the Hutts on our side."

"They have themselves to blame," the tactician said. "Their offer of support was tendered only as a means of positioning themselves safely between us and the enemy. That they underestimated us is reason enough not to extend them any honor."

Nas Choka nodded.

"Their species is arrogant. Sooner or later they would have attempted to betray us, and it would have come down to contest. Nothing would be different now."

"Except perhaps that Nas Choka wouldn't have been escalated to warmaster," the seer said.

"Another instance of escalation by default," Nas Choka said harshly. "Tsavong Lah became too fixed on the Jeedai. He made the war personal. He displayed pride in having a vua'sa grown, merely so that he could slay it and claim one of its legs as his own. His insolence was his undoing. It blinded him to the truth. The Jeedai are a nuisance, but they are hardly the secret weapon we first thought them to be. As their numbers dwindle, so apparently does their ability to call on the Force."