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“Changed how?”

“It’s irregular.”

“Maybe it’s decomposing,” Corran suggested.

“And not metal,” she added.

“Let me guess. It’s alive.”

“Probably.”

Corran scratched his beard. “The Yuuzhan Vong must be replacing the abiotic drainage systems with biotic ones. That would be typical.”

“Yes.”

“How far back was the boundary? How long have we been in this new part?”

“We just passed it. We’re only a few tens of meters in.”

“Right,” Corran said. “Back up. I want to think about this for a moment.”

Tahiri shrugged. “You’re in charge.”

“Yes, I am. I was wondering if you knew that.”

It didn’t quite sound like he was kidding.

Tahiri reversed direction until they were back in the old tunnel.

“What would they be using in place of the old pipe?” Corran asked. “Were we about to swim up the gut of a giant worm?”

Tahiri considered. “I’m not really sure,” she said. “The shaper damuteks have succession pools in their centers. Waste goes into them to be purified, and they have roots that go down into the planet to draw up water and minerals.”

Corran nodded. “I remember hearing that Anakin crawled down through one of those ‘roots’ so he could hide in subterranean caves long enough to build a new lightsaber.”

“Yes, he did.”

“And you think the Yuuzhan Vong are converting the Western Sea into a huge succession pool?”

“Maybe. Or it might be more like a ship’s maw luur. It’s the same idea—a combination nutrient bank and sewage treatment plant—but the technology is a little different because a ship’s maw luur is a closed system. Here, I’m not sure which they would use—but in a lot of ways, Coruscant was more like a worldship than a normal planet, right? No natural ecosystem?”

“Yes. In fact, the Western Sea served something of the purpose you describe anyway.”

“Sure. So while they’re still deconstructing the place, maybe their interim design is based more on worldship than planet.”

“Makes sense. So if this is a big maw luur, we’re—” His eyes widened. “Get us out, now.”

Tahiri gave the command, and the dovin basals quivered to life. They began moving back toward the entrance.

“New plan,” Corran said. “I’ve no intention of going up a world-sized digestive tract.”

“I hate to say this,” Tahiri said, “but that revelation—”

Something slammed into the ship, hard.

“—may have come a little late.”

“What is it?” Corran said.

“Something big,” Tahiri said. “We’re inside it.”

“Well get us outside it!”

“I’m trying, but it must have ten times our mass.”

Her skin suddenly began burning. “Uh-oh,” she muttered. “It can digest yorik coral, whatever it is.”

“Part of the maw luur?”

“There are symbiotic organisms in a maw luur that help break down larger things. Nothing this big, though.”

“But this is a really big maw luur,” Corran said. “Digesting really big things.”

“True,” Tahiri replied. “Anyway, if you’ve got any suggestions on what to do here—”

“Fire the plasma cannon.”

“In an enclosed space?” Was Corran crazy? “That could be bad.”

“So could being digested.”

“Right.”

She bit back a shriek as plasma ejected into the water and brought it instantly to boiling, scalding and compressing her hull. The pressure and heat mounted, peaked—and then they were tumbling free. When they finally stabilized, the water in the eyelamps had gone dark blackish red, and nasty chunks of pulverized meat floated all around them.

“Well, that was disgusting,” Corran said.

“Yes,” Tahiri informed him. “And this tube is sucking.”

“I agree. So let’s get out of it.”

“No,” she said, trying to remain calm. “I mean it’s sucking us up it—capillary action, probably, like the roots of a succession pool.”

“Surely not too hard to counteract with the dovin basals?”

“Not at all,” Tahiri replied. “If, that is, the dovin basals were working.”

ELEVEN

“The dovin basal is dead?” Corran asked.

“Not dead,” Tahiri said. “But it’s badly damaged. I’m trying to coax something out of it, but it’s sort of in shock right now.” Of course, it could also be dying, but she kept that thought to herself.

“We’re going faster,” she said,