• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

Once more Choka looked to Malik Carr, who said, “I know nothing of this.”

“To which ship does the Hutt refer?” Choka demanded of his advisers in Yuuzhan Vong.

“The Crèche, Supreme Commander,” a bare-headed Yuuzhan Vong answered. “The yammosk vessel under the command of Chine-kal.”

Choka muttered angrily. “Can we communicate with the ship?”

“Provided that it is not in superluminal transit, Supreme Commander.”

“Then have Chine-kal’s villip prepared and brought to me at once!”

“Excellency, I could easily arrange to put you in contact with my son,” Borga started to say, when Choka whirled on her.

“You dare insult me by suggesting that I consort with one of your ghoulish machines?”

“But I—”

“Keep silent, you mutated slug! You will speak only when spoken to, or I’ll have that obscene tongue ripped from your head!”

Clearly waiting for just such an opportunity, Borga’s guards raised their blasters and stun batons. In rapid response Choka’s soldiers, crouching into combat stances, brought forth their amphistaffs and coufees. Everyone remained silent and unmoving, as if suddenly removed from the flow of ordinary time, waiting for fate to play its hand. Borga and Leenik exchanged meaningful glances, as did Nom Anor and Malik Carr. Then Borga motioned her forces to stand down.

Nas Choka squinted slyly. “So you do have a spark of intelligence, after all.”

Whatever else he might have said was interrupted by the arrival of a Yuuzhan Vong attendant, cradling an already everted villip in his folded arms. A second attendant carried what was obviously one of Choka’s own dedicated villips.

In the language of the Yuuzhan Vong, Choka addressed the facsimile visage of Chine-kal. “Commander, is it true that you have a Jedi Knight in custody?”

“Yes, Supreme Commander. Our rapidly maturing yammosk has the distinction of having exposed him. I thought I might keep him as a prize for Warmaster Tsavong Lah.”

Choka glowered. “I will determine the best use for this Jedi. What is the present position of your vessel?”

“We are nearing a world called Kalarba, Supreme Commander. In fact, we have been awaiting word from you regarding the attack on—”

“Silence!” Choka’s eyes became angry slits. “You will remain at Kalarba and relinquish the Jedi Knight to bearers I am dispatching to rendezvous with the Crèche. Is that clear?”

“Abundantly clear,” Chine-kal’s villip replied deferentially.

Choka cast a glance at Borga. “For your part in this, you have my word that Nal Hutta will remain yours to command for as long as I live and breathe. Unless, of course, you are fool enough to betray me.”

Borga forced a smile. “Then may perfect health shadow you wherever you tread, Excellency.”

“I warned you,” Pazda was telling Borga shortly after the Yuuzhan Vong had left the court. The gray-bearded Desilijic Hutt brought his hoversled closer to Borga’s levitated pallet. “Any dealings with these heathens will come to a dreadful end.”

From her pallet, Borga watched Crev Bombaasa, Gardulla the Younger, and former Consul General Golga nod in agreement. “I myself sensed as much, though I confess I thought we’d be able to remain neutral for a while longer.”

Pazda loosed a scornful sound. “The Yuuzhan Vong do not suffer safe, middle ground. They will have things their way or not at all. Before long, there will be nothing counterfeit about the obeisance we show them.”

From atop a modest repulsorlift couch, Golga looked from Pazda to Borga. “Short of going to war, what can be done?”

Borga interlocked her fingers in patent disquiet. “What was it Senator Viqi Shesh told you regarding New Republic battle contingencies?”

“She intimated that the senate and the military were convinced that the Yuuzhan Vong would strike next at either Corellia or Bothawui,” Golga said. “However, the message I was to deliver to you was that the New Republic hopes to see Corellia attacked, where they evidently have a surprise in store. Senator Shesh also wanted it known that the information was a gift—to rectify an earlier wrong, as I recall.