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He was a little groggy as he fell into step with the Shamed One.

“Here,” she said a bit gruffly, holding out something in her hand.

“What?”

“Just watch, infidel.”

A wisp of phosphorescence appeared in her palm and quickly sharpened into a substantial light. As it fleshed out, Anakin could see that it was a lambent crystal, like the ones he had been harvesting the day before.

It grew brighter until it was almost hard to look at, then faded away.

“You control the brightness with your mind,” Anakin guessed.

She nodded. “Yes. We use these as portable light sources. They can also be configured with photosensitive biots to form the controls of various superorganisms, especially of the spacegoing sort.” She closed her hand on the gemlike organism. “Come.”

“It’s still alive, though, right?” Anakin asked, as they continued toward the fields.

“Yes, of course.”

“What does it eat?”

“A lambent’s substance is mostly silicon and metal fixed from the soil. They transpire when gas is available, but most of their sustenance comes from the bioelectrical fields of the life around them.” She stopped, staring at him. “What is that expression on your face?”

Anakin realized suddenly that he was grinning from ear to ear.

“Nothing,” he said. “It’s just amazing, I suppose.”

“As are all gifts of the gods,” Uunu replied. Anakin thought he still heard suspicion in her voice.

They worked for six hours without stopping, but Anakin had his rhythm now. He told Uunu he’d been on a freighter crew, and described Coruscant and Corellia. She was mostly disgusted by this, since it was impossible to talk about such high-tech worlds without multiple mentions of abominations. He changed the subject to lost Ithor and the moon of Endor, which were less touchy subjects.

After six hours of work, they took a short break for water and to suck a pasty pap from something Anakin knew was an organism but preferred to think of as a warm, distended bag.

“It’s difficult to imagine all of those worlds, each as big or bigger than this one,” Uunu said between sips. “I grew up on one of the poorest worldships. There was little room. We lived very close together. Here, there is nothing but space.”

“There are plenty of uninhabited worlds,” Anakin agreed. “The New Republic would have been happy to make room for you.”

Uunu gave him the puzzled expression he had come to expect in their conversations. “Why should Yuuzhan Vong beg for what the gods have ordained we may have? Why should we tolerate abominations in the galaxy Yun-Yuuzhan has decreed shall be the end of our wanderings?”

“How do you know the gods have decreed this, Uunu?” Anakin asked, trying to keep the edge from his voice.

Her lips tightened. “Your mouth will be the death of you, Bail Lars. I have come to understand you are ignorant rather than stupid, but others will not be so forgiving.”

“I just want to understand. From what I can tell, the Yuuzhan Vong spent centuries if not millennia in space. Why now, why our galaxy? How did the gods make their will known?”

A slight frown creased Uunu’s face, but she did not berate him again. “The signs were many,” she said. “The worldships began to die, and there was much unrest. Caste fought caste and domain fought domain. It was a time of testing, and many thought the gods had abandoned us. Then Lord Shimrra had a vision of a new home, of a galaxy corrupted by heresy, of a cleansing. The priests first saw his vision was true, then the shapers, then the warriors. The time of testing gave way to the time of conquest.” She looked up at him. “That is all. It is how it must be. Ask no more about it, for there is nothing else to say. The people of this galaxy will accept the will of the gods, or they will die.”

Anakin nodded. “And the Shamed Ones? You didn’t mention them. How do they fit into this?”

Her gaze wandered away again. “We have our own prophecies. In this new galaxy, Yun-Shuno has promised us redemption.”

“In what form?”

She did not answer but instead looked off at the horizon. “Look how far it