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Tahiri’s cheeks pinkened. “Apparently the story of what happened on Yavin Four is a popular one among the Shamed Ones. Or a version of the story, anyway.”

“Really. Can you get the short version from her? And be sure not to correct her if her story conflicts with the facts.”

Looking a bit puzzled, Tahiri asked the question and received a lengthy answer. She translated it for Corran verbatim, in pieces.

“The Jedi have powers that no Yuuzhan Vong has. We know the warriors, the shapers, and the intendants are jealous of these powers. Some even fear them. At first we feared the Jedi, too, for they were infidels and dangerous foes. But on Yavin Four, two Jedi came. They came to redeem Vua Rapuung, once a mighty warrior who was marked with Shame by the shaper Mezhan Kwaad. One of the Jedi had been captured by this same shaper, and another became the comrade of Vua Rapuung. Together, side by side, the Shamed One and the Jedi defeated the shaper and redeemed Vua Rapuung. He died as no other warrior has died, saluting an infidel. The gods not only permitted this, they must have aided it. Now many say that perhaps the high castes do not know the will of the gods as well as they say, or perhaps they are hiding our redemption from us. Perhaps Shamed Ones are not shamed because it was ordained. Perhaps the Shamed Ones are not shamed because the gods hate them. Perhaps instead, our status is imposed on us by the high castes so they will have hands to do the least and most onerous of tasks, so they may live lives of glory and not debase themselves with the mundane. Perhaps the Jedi are our salvation. The legend of Vua Rapuung and the Jedi suggests it, and is often told.”

“Wow,” Corran said, when the recitation was done. “Are you sure you got all of that right?”

“Pretty sure,” Tahiri said. “I might have used a different word here and there, but it still comes out to the same thing.”

“Ask her if she believes this.”

Again, his query was translated and asked.

“She wasn’t sure. Now that she sees our might, she thinks it may be so.”

“Ask her if she is willing to work with us, as Vua Rapuung did.”

More unintelligible chatter; then Tahiri grinned. “She says she will help us, if there is anything someone as humble as she can do.”

“There is something we can try, at least,” Corran said. “It may not work, but it should be better than nothing.”

Anakin returned to the helm, lugging the communication device he had patched together from the beacon and his comlink. He found Corran and Tahiri with a Yuuzhan Vong of the Shamed caste. The Shamed One was talking to a villip. The villip had modeled itself to the massively scarred visage of a warrior.

“What—” he began, but Corran cut him off with a severe look and a finger held to his lip. Anakin took the hint—the villip might pick up his extraneous sound and transmit it, as well. He chewed his lips restlessly. The face on the villip scowled and barked, hissed, and finally, more calmly, seemed to give a series of instructions. Then the villip relaxed into its normal, neutral form.

Corran glanced at Tahiri. “Well?” he demanded.

“I think it went pretty well,” she said.

“What went pretty well?” Anakin asked.

“Our friend here just spun off quite a tale,” Corran told him, nodding at the Yuuzhan Vong. “She told the commander of the fleet that when they came out of hyperspace, something went wrong. She didn’t know what, because she is merely a Shamed One. She was tending the grutchin larvae, located near the primary dovin basal, and felt a weird jolt. When she didn’t receive any orders for a time, she went to see what was needed of her and found the whole crew dead, in fact, hardly recognizable, pasted all over the bulkheads.”

Anakin pursed his lips and then chopped his head forward. “I like it,” he said. “That leaves a couple of possibilities for the commander to think about. Either she’s lying, and there’s been a revolt on board the ship, or she’s telling the truth. If she’s telling the truth, they’ll know that what she described was the result of a complete failure of the